It's been 48 hours since Max and the crew found the ship's security flawed.
And I'm here without sleep and worried. Could you have told the truth? Would it make any difference to put any judgment on that fool's head? I can't say. I hear footsteps and then the metallic noise of the bridge door opens and I don't even have the heart to face Max.
He was making the same mistakes more than he would have liked. Klaus's ghost haunted me.
- You won't get much here. - Max replied calmly, bringing a bottle of drink.
And it was not a good sign.
"Are we now making exceptions to the protocol so that we can enjoy the rest of the day after work?" I returned dryly.
Max's dark eyes showed a calm that I didn't feel.
-The tracker that humans have ...
I sighed cursing.
-Are you referring to the chip that we put in them when they are vaccinated against BCG when they are still small? - I took a deep breath, without admitting that I had never enjoyed knowing the Blue planet.
Max handed me a mug of brew and looked out into the darkness of the night through the bridge hatch.
-Come on, Zorack. You know as well as I do that this planet is just a huge laboratory with guinea pigs for the hybridization process of alien species threatened with extinction. This sector ...
I cursed in disgust at the thought alone.
-It is not the fact that they cultivate a viable genome for the process in these creatures that gives them the right to decide their life or death. - my anger was slowly emerging.
The scientific project that the Earth represented with the United Planets was no longer a matter of discussion. Some beings had decided to supervise the evolutionary process of humanity. I closed my mouth in a hard line imagining what those people believed to be a country or a city without knowing it. They were in fact huge sectors divided by the physical characteristics of the guinea pigs and limited by large kilometres of energy enclosures that they could not see.
Each country had its own representative group with the Nova Argatha Council where scientists worked on the viability of species hybridization. Some guardians guarded these sectors. And only one law there prevailed. Humans should never have known that the planet was the object of study and scientific research with specimens that presented malleable DNA to the miscegenation process of races.
The project initially proposed had caused a great deal of controversy over the rights of these creatures. But the need to preserve entire races from extinction ...
-Even so...
Max rolled his eyes as he shrugged.
-A huge laboratory with live and healthy guinea pigs for studies separated by planned ecosystems. They are well-fed.
"How hard are you? It's revolting." We are talking about people with intelligence. They are not just animals. This does not give a species the right to come here and choose the specimen that interests them most. These damn sectors are like huge cages where they're stuck and don't even know. We are playing here with lives. It is much worse than selling slaves. We sell lives.
Max showed patience as he sat next to me.
-We don't sell lives, Zorack. The Urodelans would be extinct without this project. The sacrifice of a few guinea pigs in experiments ensured that an entire race was not extinct. I knew that, my friend. Why do you think they brought Angel here? If we mention the sectors that house ethereal creatures and others, the result of a hybridization that was not successful ... Mercy, Zorack. Even they know that there are things they cannot explain.
I laughed with absolute bitterness.
-Rays. The confusion here is already quite great. If these things escape the protective enclosures, these people ...
Max nodded thoughtfully.
-It is going to get much worse to have mixed-race creatures that can be transformed into animals, that suck blood or appearings of revolted ethereal beings. Perhaps the decision of our superiors to capture a K'Aldriants hybrid without the knowledge of the Guardians of the planet was a terrible decision. It was not the best place they could find to hide it.
Everything about me protested that. An edriana reduced to the condition of a guinea pig of experiences did not please me at all. And she knew nothing in her innocence. She probably had been brought to the laboratory when she was too young and afterwards, the mental reprogramming put an end to the last vestiges of a life that existed outside that planet without diseases and natural deaths.
I imagined the growing panic in these unfortunate and monstrous cages with aversion. And humans believed that vampires, werewolves and ghosts were just legends. Sometimes Science didn't know how to explain. Perhaps it was because of the harvesting of the eggs from the females or their storage. There were times when Science created real monsters, aberrations impossible to describe.
Gene harvesting security had been strengthened in every way after suspicions that the K'Aldriant had originated from this miscegenation. Nobody could deny that the affliction that hit them was caused by mutations in the referential matrix because of radiation.
-Come on, Zorack. We are talking about a colony of guinea pigs over 200 thousand years old. It is the planet Earth. During history, some have tried to lead revolts. The entire planet is made up of huge cages of energy fences that they do not see. They are just harvests of genes in a huge laboratory for the hybridization of aliens. The program for the extermination of unhealthy and rebellious guinea pigs has already brought a lot of discussion in the Council of Édrin.
And I protested angrily again.
-It is to use the Divine and ancestral power of those who created us without wisdom and mercy for the less fortunate. What gives us the right to decide whether life can be chosen for sacrifice? The latest surveys have shown that humanity has more male specimens for this reason. The hybridization process is hideous, hardly a female survives the birth of the embryo implanted in her body.
Mar raised a curious eyebrow.
-You really care about that girl! he said and hissed in amazement. - Who would say. I never imagined seeing you again approaching someone after Klaus.
I shivered when I heard the name. Even today, I can't talk about it or his death. I think one of my reasons for being so severe with hybridization studies was N'Tirlay. There, I was also forced to participate in experiments of the same kind where my semen was collected and with all the displeasure I could do nothing. Only I was a slave and knew of my miserable condition. Not even that had been given to humans.
They in their innocence believed that they were alone in such a vast Universe. I could send my orders to hell and arrive before the guardians demanding Angel for me. That thought was too insistent.
I closed my eyes in agony. It was clear that I knew about the clinical studies in guinea pigs that were done in the Earth colony. There was a detail that still kept part of my lucidity when thinking about Angel. After several angry protests, some research guidelines had changed dramatically. There was a minimum age required for studies to begin.
This had spared perhaps the existence of several helpless and small creatures that could not react when connected to tubes of modern equipment. A large rate of these creatures when they managed to survive had diseases linked to DNA that showed the consequence of playing with lives.
-Max, I need to find the girl before she is ...
Max looked me straight in the eye and shook his head.
Did you ever try to talk to her and explain how you feel? He's falling for her.
I took a deep breath and leaned my hands against the panting chair. Had I talked? Angel's words were going to echo in my ears for a long time yet.
Because? Why did you come after me? You just decided to come and kidnap me.
How absurd!
Got me to you. I can't even stand Spike here on the ship, it kept me away from everyone I knew. And after what happened between us ... Please, Zorack ... Do you feel anything for me? I've never met anyone ... I like you.
Damn nonsense. Where did you get all this nonsense? I? In love with you?! Don't make me laugh with such a mess.
I gasped with remorse and corroded myself. At no time had I come to the research colony with this idea. Quite the opposite. I wanted and wanted only revenge. And there in the midst of my hatred and very slowly Angel was tearing down all my defensive walls. If something happened to her ...
Please, honey. Do what you need, but just stay alive. I swear on everything that is most sacred that I will find a way to find you., I thought desolate in my despair.
There, my decision was hopelessly made. Even if it meant exposing myself as a drug dealer and Gargoyle to everyone, I would appeal. My last card up my sleeve would be more decisive.
I would ask the colony's guardians for help and plead that they would only have the mercy that time to intervene in the fate of the guinea pigs that inhabited the colonies.