"Don't suppose I get tea and biscuits for my donation?" Cap mused, handing over the sample.
"Well, by the looks of things, I'm likely to bet you two haven't really had a good meal in a while. B-5, why don't you go make preparations for dinner. That should give us enough time here, to which we can all look forward to a warm meal."
B-5 performed the floating sphere equivilant of a nod and drifted from the room.
Xan began to listen to the man's story as he placed the vial in an odd looking contraption and began to wheel out various devices and instruments. He nodded occasionally, getting a clearer picture of what was going on. As the Captain tapped the strips in his head, Xan pulled over a stool and sat, reaching for a simple stethescope.
"All this, is a bigger mystery," Cap motioned to himself with a look of distant sadness, "I just hope you can tell me what there is, and if I'm still human"
"Human?" the Doc said, fixing the stethescope in place and placing the larger of the flat ends to Cap's chest. "Breathe in please? ... Now exhale? Thank you." he pulled the instrument from his ears and jotted a few numbers onto a sheet, then turned back to look Cap in the eyes. "Yes, perhaps some part of you is still human. Completely? No. I'm afraid you're beyond that classification at this point... but some part of you... the larger part, I would wager, is still human. If you weren't, well... there would be no you. The military prides themselves on their ability to de-humanize their weapons. Now... is this process reversible? Have you reached the point of no return? Well... that's what these tests should determine." he turned his attention to B-Man. "Beeman, you should probably go check on B-5. He can cook a helluva feast, but without a little help he's pairing nachos with gravy and prime rib with macaroni."
B-Man nodded and stood with a look of faint hunger in his eyes, and stepped from the room.
"Alright," Xan began when he felt B-Man had gone far enough out of earshot. "Beeman and the rest of The Copperheads are not aware of this, and I would prefer it if this information never left this room..."
Cap nodded, raising an eyebrow.
"Right. Anyway... it sounds to me like you are a product of the Genesis Soldier Project. I say 'sounds like', because I'm sure the militery changed a few things after I left. Those strips in your head are proof enough for that. Now, the Genesis Soldier Project, GSP was a result of many different individual projects which were brought together in the military's attempt to create a single squad of soldiers who could effectively take on an entire battalion. Myself, I worked on the CTD project, as well as mobile conditioning and collective reasoning projects. The CTD, we were told, would not be used in the final 'product' as they called it. It looks like we were lied to."
Xan wheeled over a large grey device and extended a long silver cord. "I need you to remove the nail of your index finger on your left hand. That is, of course, I need you to check if it's possible. If so, some of my suspicions may very well be true..."
Cap looked confused for a second, then looked at his left hand. Humoring the doctor, he picked at it with his thumb nail, and much to his surprise, it flipped up like a miniature hatch. "How..."
"Don't worry, you're not a machine. Well, not completely. In case of your hand there, only the tip has been replaced, with a small port attached to your nerve endings for mission debriefings and progress updates. Here. attach this to the small node..." he handed the silver cord to Cap and flipped a few switches. "Also... when I say 'don't worry', I'm doing it more for my sake. For you, well, you also shouldn't worry... but to be honest, if I were in your shoes, I would be. With a memory like yours, I wouldn't have any idea what to expect. So really, if you want to worry, go ahead. It won't do you much good, though, since whatever they've already done has been done."
As soon as the cord was attached, the machine lit up. Various panels came alive giving readouts on everything from heart status to ankle pressure. Xan nodded and took down a few notes.
"As I was saying... The military had us working on countless projects. Most of the time we didn't know exactly what our progress was to be used for, and even more often we had no idea what other projects were being worked on by other teams." Doc disconnected the cable and pushed the machine away, then pulled a large dome shaped device closer, placing the dome directly over Cap's head. "The military called it 'plausible deniability'. I called it horse shit. That's why I left, of course. Close your eyes."
"Huh?"
"Close your eyes. This is going to be bright."
Cap closed his eyes as the doc slipped a pair of black goggles over his eyes and flipped a switch. An intense white light filled the room as Xan began to take down more notes from the connected viewscreen.
"Of course, with the military you don't just turn in your resignation papers and collect your severence. Not after you're in as deep as I was. So, I got ahold of someone on the outside and set up my 'death'. Took out nearly a quarter of the complex in the explosion... You can open your eyes now."
Cap opened his eyes to see Doc had already pushed the machine away, removed the goggles, and was once again writing a few things down.
"Here, bite down on this..." Xan handed Cap a mouthpiece connected to a series of wires and a console.
"This a test of my jaw strength, Doc?"
"No. It's a distraction." he said, tapping a switch on the bed with his foot.
The Captain arched suddenly as a swift jolt hit the base of his spine from athe metal bed he was sitting on. It only lasted a second, but stung like a bitch.
"What the hell was that for?!"
Xan reached behind Cap and felt around his back for a second, then, accompanied by a tearing sound, withdrew a small patch of what looked to be skin with a circuit grafted into it.
"Tracking graft. Almost undetectable. I'm not sure if they had activated it yet, but if they did, we have to hurry this up." he placed the patch into Cap's hand and stood up, heading back over to the cupboards.
_________________ "Sigh... we were all such bright, happy go-lucky, optimistic kids back then... what the fuck happen?" -Michael Poe The artist formerly known as BiShouNenKaMi.
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