Today was a school day. I knew that much. Didn't have a handle on what the time was, though. Having slept longer than usual, it didn't matter. One of the small perks of undergoing an RET secret project, missing four weeks worth of school. No, not four weeks. Spring break would be here in two. I would spend that vacation here in the lab. Cut off from the rest of the world. From family. Friends. Christy.
I remained in bed for what appeared to be an hour, completely awake. Thoughts of what the doctors had in store for me raced through my head. In the weeks leading up to today, they had explained to me the "benefits" of becoming a hybrid. Greater strength, sharper mental clarity, increased instinct. Then there was another thing. Colonization of space, they said, required strong people, mentally and physically. It required instinct and intuition, two things humans had but animals perfected. It required people who wouldn't lose their mind on a possible mission to Alpha Centauri. Perhaps they figured combining man with animal would be the answer. They needed hybrids to make up part of the complement heading to Alpha Centauri.
Wow, I thought, Alpha Centauri. A trip to the Mars colony would take eight weeks. Just getting to the next star is unthinkable. But this would be my ticket to getting to the stars, I said to myself. I loved space. Ever since I was six. My dad had me sitting on his lap outside our house one night. He pointed at what looked like a really big star.
"See that?" he asked.
"That star, daddy?" I said innocently.
"That's no star," he explained, "That's StarHab 4. It's a colony. In space."
Well, in geostationary orbit, actually, but it was close enough. That time of the month, he said, you couldn't see the Lunar Base.
"People live on the moon?" I asked with great interest.
Needless to say, from that moment on I have always wanted to leave Earth and join the hundreds of thousands or so that have been in space. I guess this experiment would be just the ticket.
But this just wouldn't be space. This was Alpha Centauri! No human has ever been past Jupiter, let alone past our own system. Of course, no human has ever had a chance to turn into an animal. Excuse me, an animal-hybrid. It was a strange idea. The idea that after four weeks I'd resemble a cross between a wolf and a human. I'm not too fond of animals, mind you.
Especially wolves. One of my friends from grade school was once attacked by a wolf on a school trip. He and a bunch of other kids had provoked the pack of animals to attack them. When they wheeled him into the hospital, I could barely recognize him. They said he was torn up so badly that, without what the doctors have today, he could've developed something called "rabies." But they stitched him up without a problem. By the end of the day the lasers were clearing up the scars all over his body. But that day on I knew wolves were not our friends.
I finally got out of bed. Before I hit the shower, I looked at myself in the mirror. Same as yesterday. No extra hair, no change in eye color, no snout, nothing. Just plain old me. For now, at least.
The cafeteria was filled with "candidates" of all ages and of all kinds who were going under the same experiment as I was. In four weeks, they would become hybrids. Wolves, tigers, foxes, bears, lions. But for now they looked like me. Human.
Food here in the cafeteria is better than the school kind. A good thing, too, I was very hungry. So I filled my tray and looked for a table with an empty seat.
"Hey, new guy!" someone hollered to me, "Over here!"
I took up the offer and sat down at a table filled with people my age. As long as I wasn't the only high school senior that would have more hair and sharp teeth by the time this was over.
"Hi, I'm Nick," I said to the guy sitting next to me.
"John. Nice to meet you," he said, shaking my hand. "The rest of us have met. Let's see, this here is Billy, Jennifer, James, Rich, Tim and..."
"Dana," the girl on my other side greeted.
"Nice to meet you," I said, taking a bite of breakfast, "All of you."
"So," John asked, "What did they give you?"
I gulped, and said, "Gray wolf. 'Bout you?"
"Fox," he grinned, "I'll be twice as fast by the time we're finished."
"You know, I'll be a gray wolf, too," Jennifer said.
"They gave Rich and Tim the black bear," John said, "James got the lion serum."
"Really?" I said with wide eyes, "I heard they don't give that to many people. How'd you spring that?"
"I know people," James said with a smile.
"Yeah, right," John replied, "His father's an RET scientist, saying nothing that his mother is a member of the Senate."
Wait a minute, I thought. "James Paterson? You're THAT James Paterson?"
He nodded, "In the flesh."
I, on the other hand, shook my head in disbelief, "This place is just full of surprises, isn't it?"
"I'm sure there's more in store."
So I turned to Dana, "And you? What do they have in mind for you?"
"Tiger stripes," she said, "They're turning me into a orange-and-black furred six-foot predator in four weeks."
"Doesn't that sound attractive?" I said with a laugh.
I met people of all sorts today. People as young as I am. People older than I am. Even people younger than I am. I visited the room of a six-month old baby later that afternoon. His parents had died in a car crash just four months ago, leaving him alone and unchecked in his apartment until police found him. He has no relatives. No family. No opportunity. And, sadly, the world would not miss him. I could understand why they injected him with a lion serum.
My number came up and it was time for doctors to run me through some tests. A fitness exam, actually, to determine my abilities as a human before the wolf serum actually took effect. Now, I pull my weight in gym class, but I'm no athlete either. A mile in under ten minutes would get you an A for the quarter.
"Ten minutes," a doctor said, "And thirty-one seconds."
I got off the treadmill near to exhaustion. I sat down looking at the water pitcher at the far corner of the room. I made a very futile attempt to get out of the chair to get a glass.
"So," I said, huffing for air, "Any good?"
"Average," the doctor said, scribbling some notes on his pad, "Better than some, I should say."
"Exactly what will I be able to do after four weeks?"
"I don't know. That's what we're here to find out."
Something I'm afraid of. A doctor who has no idea what an experiment will result in.
"Alright," he said, "Ready for pushups?"
I had a big lunch after the fitness test. But after a few hours I was still hungry. Maybe I did one too many curls, I thought. So I grabbed another tray of food and took it to my room. There, I watched the news on the vid.
"Members of the RET Senate earlier today narrowly passed a bill that would place a tax on oxygen reclamation equipment in the outer colonies in an effort to revitalize funding for future scientific programs. The bill, passed with a vote of 183-179, indirectly caused violent reaction by lobbyists from the Mars and Io colonies, who protested in front of the Senate. Police clashed with the protesters just a few hours ago, resulting in dozens of injuries suffered by both sides. Later tonight we'll have complete coverage of..."
"Hey," John said in the doorway, "Mind if I come in?"
"Not at all," I said, "Come in, I'm just having a snack."
He looked at the food on my tray as he sat down, saying, "Just a snack, huh?"
"I'm awfully hungry today, I don't know why."
"It's the serum," he said.
"Huh?" I said with curiosity.
"The nanorobots. It's kind of feeding off you so they can replicate."
Soon as I heard that, I put my food down. "That's sick," I said.
"They're harmless," he replied, "All for a greater cause, I tell myself."
"So why are you here?" I asked.
"I dunno," he said, picking some food off my tray, "They called me up, talked to me about it. I love animals, that's one thing."
"This much?" he said.
"Yeah! What about you? You sound like you don't have a likening towards them."
"It's not that," I said, "My friend was attacked by one when I was eight."
"Oh. But..."
"I don't hate animals. I love space, though, and this may just be my trip off of Earth."
"Talk about benefits, huh?" he said, grinning once again.
The day came and went, and nothing had happened. It was a slow process, the doctors explained. The real physical changes wouldn't start until a week into the project. So I had no real disappointment. I took a shower again before heading to bed.
"Hey."
I wasn't asleep when I heard a voice. I swore it came from inside my room. But there was no one there. I tiptoed out of bed and peered out of the doorway to check for anyone in the hall. No one.
I was hallucinating. Yeah, that was it.
TO BE CONTINUED.