Chereads / Synthetic Heart / Chapter 1 - Introduction

Synthetic Heart

🇺🇸_waffleman_man_720
  • --
    chs / week
  • --
    NOT RATINGS
  • 23k
    Views
Synopsis

Chapter 1 - Introduction

[Location: Xellene Science Research Centre, somewhere in this world]

"Test subject 0604 Hel, ready for daily examination." One of the many scientists announced through the intercom.

The screen in front of them switched to a dark room which instantly lit up to reveal a normal young woman asleep. She was however, far from normal.

 "Get up, Hel." The head scientist, Blake Wilson, said through the microphone. "You know what time it is."

 There was silence surrounding the two individuals until eventually Hel decided to obey, getting up from her slumber.

"Which door?" Her voice was barely audible.

"The last one on the right." Blake replied, his voice loud and authoritative. "We're just going to check your brain's activity, nothing unpleasant." He explained calmly but Hel didn't care. She quickly stretched her neck before walking up to the door, going inside.

"Switch the cameras." He whispered to the person monitoring the complicated board after turning off the intercom, preventing Hel from hearing anything he said. The screen quickly switched to the room Hel walked into, a smaller cubicle similar to her bedroom. There was no other furniture other than a restraining chair and small table that had some materials for the tests.

'She's being unusually obedient today.' Blake thought slightly unsettled yet glad that things were going smoothly. 'She's usually stubborn about these tests.'

"What's next, Blake." Her voice was heard through the intercom. "I want to go back to sleep."

 She was standing right in front of the door, not bothering to sit on the restraining chair placed right in the center of the room.

"Well, let's start by taking a seat on the chair in front of you." He instructed her through the microphone.

She walked to the chair and sat down as instructed, her face passionless. "Now, do you see the devices that's attached to the laptop?" He asked in which she nodded as a yes. "Great, all you have to do is to wear that device and restrain yourself on the chair."

She did what she was told, her hands moving swiftly around the foreign device despite her indifferent expression.

'As expected from the world's smartest creature.' Blake thought, impressed once again by the scientific creation in front of him. He was an experienced researcher of the unexplained with almost twenty-eight years of experience, and yet nothing had prepared him for when he first laid his eyes on test subject 0604 five years ago.

'Everyone deemed it an impossible feat but now we have evidence that says otherwise.' He thought, recalling how he dumbfounded he first felt in the past. Before his arrival to Xellene, Blake used to work for Recel, a private research institute founded by some of the richest men and women to investigate science's most questioned mysteries. It was also Xellene's greatest rival in the world of research.

It was on a normal afternoon and Blake was on his lunch break at his favorite coffee shop enjoying his usual order of coffee and a bagel. Everything was perfectly fine until he was interrupted by a group of mysterious men in black. 'Talk about a dramatic entrance.', He thought, slightly irritated by the sudden disturbance.

"Are you Mr. Blake Wilson?" One of the men asked him in a professional tone. He was wearing the same black suit as the others except he had multiple tattoos protruding out of his neck and arms.

 "Yes, I am." He replied after slight hesitation. "How may I help you?"

 After his response, the two other men walked up and whispered something to the tattooed man, it seemed quite urgent.

'What's going on?' Blake thought, confused as to why he was suddenly being interviewed.

 "Mr. Wilson." The tattooed man greeted the professor. "I apologize for intruding your private time but I'm afraid you'll have to come with us".

 "Wait a minute." he stopped the tattooed man from talking any further. "I don't think I can accompany you gentlemen anywhere." He stared at them for a moment before continuing. "How do I know you're not going to kidnap me?"

"I thought you were smart Mr. Wilson but apparently I was mistaken." The man returned in an impatient tone. "If we were in fact going to kidnap you, why would we do it in public with multiple witnesses everywhere?"

'The man's got a point.' He thought slightly embarrassed of his thoughtlessness.

 "However, I did predict you were going to be difficult with us, therefore I have a call from the person that gave me orders to retrieve you." He snapped his fingers as soon as he finished his sentence.

The man standing on the left gave him a phone and he spoke in hushed tones before handing it to Blake. "He's ready to talk to you".

Although he was still wary, Blake took the phone from his bulky hands and answered the call. "Hello?".

"Blake! It's me, Frank.", the deep, earthy voice greeted him warmly. "I'm sorry about the scary men, I ran out of secretaries to get you".

'M-Mr. President?' He blurted out in surprise. "What's going on?"

The next ten minutes Blake spent on the phone listening to the President changed his life forever. The President began explaining their most recent discoveries and breakthrough in science. That very phone call cleared the uncertainties that Blake throughout his whole career.

"I'm searching for a team of researchers that I can trust to study the specimen", the President's voice turned dead serious, "This phone call is untracked so no need to worry about potential leaks however I can only tell you more if you follow those men to the laboratory where we are currently keeping it in.". 'Of course, I'm coming!', he thought as his heart raced in excitement, but he managed to keep his cool.

"Very well Mr., President." Blake replied nonchalantly. "If that's all, I'm hanging up now."

"Blake, this has been something you have been trying to crack for years.", The President pressed on. "I believe this will be a once and a lifetime chance for you and I believe that you will accept my offer."

"I understand Mr. President, goodbye." He replied and hung up the call. He gave the phone back to the man and just stood there, flabbergasted at what he's just heard.

"What do you say Mr. Wilson?" The man asked. "Are you in or are you out?"

 'Is that even a question?' He frowned at the mysterious men; his mind was made up a long time ago.

 "Take me there." He said, getting his coffee and coat. "And also, I'm sorry about my behavior earlier." He apologized. "Not a problem, Mr. Wilson", the man replied, "It's my job". That was ten years ago.

'Time flew by so fast.' He thought, observing Hel seated calmly while the laptop did its work. She was the miracle that Blake quit his seven-figure job for, and she was going to be worth much more. Apparently, her father was a famous doctor that worked for the President as a scientist in his secrets laboratories. His wife was pregnant with Hel when she had unfortunately passed away from a unknown illness.

Desperate to save the baby, he created an incubator similar to that of a human womb. Hel was the first ever offspring that survived despite growing out of the mother's body. Unfortunately, the father had died in a car crash shortly after she turned two, leaving the poor girl all by herself. It wasn't until a decade after his death did his colleagues find her in one of his private labs.

Miraculously, she was still alive, with both her body and brain were developing in a steady and healthy manner. We thought she would grow up a normal young girl until a test found sources of bionic mutations in her DNA. Turns out that the father had experimented on her before she was put in the incubator, making her a literal superhuman.

'And because of this, she was currently being tested to become a literal war weapon." He thought, remembering the time she managed to kill a dozen soldiers twice her size merely because she didn't feel safe. When Blake first took charge of Hel, her CT scans showed that her brain was more active the average person. However, it also showed certain parts of her brain responsible for feeling emotions, abnormally idle.

This meant that she would have a more difficult time than others to express or feel emotions. 'Which makes her the perfect war weapon.' He concluded despite being against the use of scientific discoveries as weapons. His main purpose of being here was so he could have a chance to see his dream grow and nurture. 'Even if she can never go out into the world.' The thought made Blake feel pity towards the young girl.

"Are we not done yet, Blake?", Hel asked her face blank of any emotions. "We're done for the day." he spoke through the intercom. "I spoke to the President, and he agreed to let you have the day off the day."

"Thank you." She whispered before getting out of the small room and out to her bedroom. The doors locked automatically, and her bedroom turned pitch black dark once more.

"Celia, get the laptop and send me the results by tomorrow morning." He instructed a young girl in her late twenties. "On it.", she replied enthusiastically before heading out.

"She was quite obedient today." The seated young man commented. "You think she's planning something?" "Oh please." Blake laughed at the paranoid man. "She may be powerful, but this institute was made to withstand test subjects like her."

Blake checked his watch; it was already a quarter till noon and there was still much to be done. "Wrap up here and we can continue with the rest of our work. We still have 0346, 1905 and 2043 to examine before we're done for the day."

The young man obeyed and once he was done stabilizing Hel's chamber, they both headed out of the control room, leaving test subject 0604 alone to slumber.