Chimera Chapter 1
WARNING: If it is illegal for you to be reading these stories or you find them disgusting or immoral, please refrain from reading further. Must be 18+ to read! Any characters, places, or people depicted in this story is entirely in the fantasy and imagination of the writer and in no way reflects his/her personal morals or beliefs when relating to relationships between minors and adults. Any people, places, or actions depicted in this story that reflect real life events or situations is entirely by accident or coincidence.
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Chapter One
Why won't my eyelids open? I try, but every time I force them, my eyes roll back in my head. Blackness again. I'll wait a minute and try again. Why is it such a strain? So bright; everything is white. Blurry dark shapes moving across a blazing white backdrop. Blinking brings things more into focus. I can also hear a steady beat of some song, but what is it? My sluggish mind can't catch up to the rhythm. Finally, the dark blobs start to come into focus as Led Zeppelin's Kashmir blasts in my ears...
"Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace
Like thoughts inside a dream
Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream
My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again
Sure as the dust that floats high in June, when movin' through Kashmir"
The relentless trancelike quality of Kashmir seems to sooth the out of control spinning of my brain. Looking around the room, I can see people dressed in white jackets wearing masks; doctors of some sort? A tube of some kind is hanging down from a bag on a metal stand. I trace its path with my lethargic eyes; it terminates into a bandage on my arm...
"When I'm on, when I'm on my way, yeah
When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah"
My fur's been shaved to the skin all around the area where the bandage is. My arms won't move; am I in some kind of restraints? The music shifts into When the Levee Breaks. So far, the only thing I know is the music playing...
"Cryin' won't help you prayin' won't do you no good
Now cryin' won't help you prayin' won't do you no good
When the levee breaks mama you got to move"
The blurry people haven't noticed I'm awake yet; something tells me that was a good thing. None of them has fur. Is there something wrong with them or am I the freak? Since I'm the one being restrained and apparently sedated, I can only assume I'm the "other" in this situation. How did I come to be here? I struggle to remember...anything...something...some detail about myself. It's all obscured by the brain fog. I almost catch a thought, but once again, it slips away into the soup as Over the Hill and Far Away drones...
"Many is a word that only leaves you guessing
Guessing 'bout a thing you really ought to know, oh, oh, oh, oh
Really ought to know
I really ought to know"
...I really ought to know...Henry...my name is Henry...Henry Miller. Oh shit, the woman sees my eyes are open.
"Doctor, he's waking up!" a woman's voice says. `Doctor' says something I can't make out, and the woman injects something from a syringe into the tube and suddenly everything begins fading to black again.
I'm awake, but there's only darkness and the tiny red pinpoints of light from some kind of equipment near me. No music this time. I know who I am, but everything else is still a mystery. My head itches and I raise my arm to scratch...the restraints are gone. I feel my arm in the darkness. The shaved spot is not there anymore; how long have I been sedated? I sit up but there's a bunch of wires connecting me to the machinery near the bed. As soon as I sit up the lights come on, blinding me. A voice comes from nowhere to say "Stay calm Henry, I'm on my way." I have no idea whose voice it is. I'm trying to `stay calm' until my eyes adjust and I see what is apparently a mirror. The image I have is of a fur-covered creature with wires going to a monitor. I raise my hand to touch the harness; the image mimics my every move perfectly. My ears fold back, pinned to my head and I feel my tail snake between my legs...I just realized I have a tail. What the hell am I?
I'm staring into the mirror in shock, when the door opens and Vasily walks in. How do I know he is Vasily? Like a landslide, a huge chunk of information seems so come crashing into my brain. Vasily is my Russian counterpart in the agency. We are scientists in a global agency we all refer to as GREG – short for the Genetic Research and Engineering Group. Since most countries banned any experimentation with human DNA (and based on what I'm looking at in the mirror, I can now understand why), GREG is very much a shadow organization. The headquarters are on Severnyy Island, 400Km off the coast of mainland Russia. Vasily is my best friend among this group; the only person willing to partner with a Brit, since the others don't feel I am trustworthy.
"Kak dela, my friend?" Vasily asks.
"I think I'm well" I say "other than having been turned into some kind of animal."
Vas laughs heartily "Merely a minor setback" he says in his thick Russian accented English.
"Do you think you could, perhaps, tell me what the hell is going on?" I said, becoming more than slightly miffed.
"How much do you remember from the accident?" he asked. I didn't have access to those memories yet, apparently.
"Nothing" I said.
"You and I were working in the lab on level 8, I walked out to go to the control room and after the door closed, there was an explosion. We still haven't discovered what happened. At any rate, you are a double miracle my friend. We only had minutes due to the extreme damage your body suffered from the blast. We rushed you to level 13..."
"Level 13...the neural research lab..." I said hesitantly.
"Da, we transferred your `consciousness' I guess you could say, into the experimental neural network" Vasily explained.
"That doesn't explain my current circumstance" I said.
"Yes...that...well, the only spare brain we had available is the one in which you now reside. The body you inhabit came from level 30."
"Level 30? I don't think I knew there was a Level 30" I said.
"Top Secret. Previously above your security clearance level. Hybrid research. Your new body is a chimera; a mixture of human and artic wolf DNAs. The hybrid lab is furious, by the way. Your shell is only the second successful prototype they have developed."
I tried to get out of bed so I could look at myself in the mirror, but I was too weak to stand. Vasily came to my aid. He put himself under my left shoulder and lifted me and we moved closer to the mirror. I looked mostly human. I had a snout similar to a canine, but not as pronounced. Piercing blue eyes, big pointy ears. I flicked my tail to the side and pulled the big bushy thing around so I could see it. Letting the tail go, I found that my genitals were more human than canine, and my new penis and testicles are larger than the old set – how kind of the boys in Level 30. Vasily was growing tired of holding me up, so he took me back to the bed.
"Sleep, my friend" tomorrow your physical therapy begins as well as much testing by L30. I'll come back tomorrow" he said. As I lay back in the bed the lights began to dim. I slipped the headphones on to the sound of Gerry Rafferty.
Whatever's written in your heart, that's all that matters
You'll find a way to say it all someday (yeah)
Whatever's written in your heart, that's all that matters
Yeah, night and day, night and day.
Day two of my involuntary new life began much more abruptly. Once the lights started blaring, I only had a minute before a man came in and started hustling me up and into a wheelchair. A quick stop by the loo, and then on to physical therapy. Today was obviously going to be a long day. The man, whose name tag said he was Sergei, strapped me into the machine quickly, started it up and left. He seemed to be very uncomfortable around me. Based on what I'd seen of myself in the mirror, I could commiserate with him. I sat silently as modern technology flexed my legs from their flat position all the way up until they touched my stomach. This went on for what I estimated was about two hours. Afterward, my silent, uncomfortable valet came back and wheeled me to the cafeteria, which was empty but for me and Vasily, who had come down to join me for breakfast. Breakfast was apparently a loose term. While Vasily had a plate with the standard breakfast fare, I was given a tall tumbler with some sort of smoothie concoction.
"Your body has not had solid food. Baby steps, my droog" Vasily said, smiling.
I took a sip of the slurry in the tumbler. At least it was innocuous enough, tasting vaguely of vanilla.
"I'd have preferred chocolate" I mumbled.
"You will find, there are things you can't have any more, chocolate is one of those things" Vasily said "chocolate will make your new body very sick, as will onions, raisins and some other things."
"Oh, joy" I said flatly.
"On the bright side, it should only take a couple of days to get you back on solid food. How does a thick juicy sirloin sound to you?" he asked.
My salivary glands started watering at the thought of it. I finished off the nutritional gloop and minutes later I was whisked off the therapy room again. This time I was allowed to train my upper body without the use of mechanical help. The assistant helped me onto a weight bench and immediately I was barely able to lift 84 Kg, which I thought to be quite good. The physical therapist shook his head in the negative.
"A...creature...of your mass should be able to handle much more" he said somewhat condescendingly.
"What if said creature has been in a coma for..." I realized I didn't really know how long I'd been out.
"Yes, yes. Two years, yes, I know. Still, even when you were unconscious, we were working the muscles..." he started but his voice faded into the background. Two years I'd been in that room. I wonder what the told my family. I wondered if anybody had bothered to tell my boyfriend.
"...so you're just going to have to try harder Mr. Miller" he finished. I have no idea what he said, but he had added weights to the bar, bringing the total to 94 Kg. I pushed the bar as hard as I could but it was no use, not this early in the process at any rate. He took the weight back to 84 Kg. and ordered me to do ten reps. My heart wasn't in it. All I could think about is all my loved ones who had most likely buried me and moved on. I managed to do six reps and told the PT with his shitty attitude, that I needed to rest.
"Fine!" he said, then turned to the table beside him and retrieved a syringe which he unloaded into my arm.
"What the hell was that?!" I exclaimed.
"My own special muscle growth aide" he said "Now, go rest, but Niko will bring you back here in two hours. Understood?"
"Yes, master" I said with the thickest sarcasm I could muster.
To Niko he said "Férte ton píso sti mía óra."
"So, you're Niko?" I asked.
"Den miláo angliká" he replied. I didn't know what language it was but it seemed to refer to English, so I decided it must mean he couldn't speak English. I was rolled into a room equipped with handicap aids, such as railing to help one with weak legs get around. Apparently, I was meant to start carrying my own weight, literally. I reached for Niko's hand. He pulled away; then set the wheel brakes on the wheelchair.
Niko said "Den epitrépetai na sas voithíso edó."
I shrugged and tried "No comprende" then "Non capisco", and finally "Ya ne ponimayu."
"Ah" Niko said, the light bulb going off over his head. "Oni ne pozvolyat mne pomoch' vam zdes'" he said in Russian meaning "they won't allow me to help you here".
"Kto oni'?" I asked, "who are `they'". He shook his head and just pointed at the floor.
"Vy by poprosili Vasiliya priyti ko mne?" (Would you ask Vasily to come to me?) I asked. Niko nodded in the affirmative and quickly walked out the door.
One of my `rest hours' was already up by the time Vasily showed up.
"I'm still a working man, Henry. I can't drop everything to come to you, but I came as soon as I could find a break" he said, seeing I was rather put out.
"When did they plan to tell me how long I'd been languishing here, Vasily?" I asked.
"Blyat! Gregor! Mouth is always running, brain not so much..." Vasily said "I would have told you tonight or maybe tomorrow. Is too much to pile on you. That...Ublyudok...how you say English?"
"Bastard, and yes, I concur that it's a lot to pile on me in one day, however, what did the organization tell my family, Steven?"
"They told them more or less truth, there was an explosion, the body was destroyed. They could not tell anyone that your...being...had been put into another body" Vas said "We cremated your old body and sent the ashes, half to your parents, half to Steven. So they would have...zakrytiye..."
"Closure" I whispered to myself. How would I get my closure? I leaned my head back with tears matting the fur around my eyes.
"Vremya idti" Niko said, walking into the room. Time to go. I had to keep reminding myself of the British way; to keep a stiff upper lip.
Lambodara 9/28/28
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