--- Begin Message ---
- From: CaptJPArcher@xxxxxxx
- To: JudyKaha@xxxxxxx, AnniClan@xxxxxxx, JDAster@xxxxxxx, TrevCloud@xxxxxxx, DrDominie@xxxxxxx, DianeDax@xxxxxxx, JamesDHntr@xxxxxxx, Gettinhappy@xxxxxxx, VAdmLanders@xxxxxxx, CaptJPArcher@xxxxxxx, AlishaConnors@xxxxxxx, PhantomSojourn@xxxxxxx, liz_fleshman@xxxxxxxxxxx, SmileOfTheShadow@xxxxxxx, CmdrTomCulkin@xxxxxxx, PS85ENIGMA@xxxxxxx, admjamesruss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Nardini@xxxxxxx, KaemonWashi@xxxxxxx, MuvPhuzVren@xxxxxxx, DrKeiriClemens@xxxxxxx, Crystal_Heart_Rose@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2005 12:44:55 EST
-STAR TREK- PATRIOT -STAR TREK- Atlantis The Saga of the T'Kil He awoke to the now-familiar sensations of his cell, and the cries of others off in the distance. Immediately, he also burst into tears. He cried because once more, his prayers hadn't been answered. Each night, the last thought he had before sleep claimed him was that he wouldn't see the start of a new day. And each morning, he wept that he had. He rose, feeling the pain throughout his body......a body that no longer felt like it belonged to him. He rubbed his hands together to stimulate the circulation......and watched as the baby finger on his left hand dropped off. He felt no alarm......having already witnessed the same thing on his right hand two weeks earlier. He studied the hands before him. The remaining fingers were thicker, and seemed longer and stronger of design. Already, there was the first signs of a new knuckle developing, as well as the ability to flex them backward with as much flexibility as forward. A few months ago, this would've been horrifying to him. Not anymore. He, like many others captured, was the subject of repeated experimentation. His genetic code had been unlocked, and manipulated in ways he couldn't imagine. Once, he had been Captain Morgan Davidson, Commanding Officer of the USS Al-Batani. It seemed like a dream......a dream of another life......a better life. Morgan had managed to speak with his former CMO, who had also been subjected to similar experiments. He'd informed him that the results of the experiments seemed designed to improve the physical abilities of the species with regards to manual labour. Both men had lost height, taking away strain on the spinal column, had increased length to their arms, with greater musculature and a second elbow. Both elbows were double-jointed. Both had lost the D5 digit on their hands. However, the D5 digit on their feet had increased in size, apparently for better balance. The D1 digit of each foot had also changed......becoming more like that shaped with the Simian cousins of man. It could now act as a fully opposable thumb. There were other changes as well. Both men had developed eyebrow ridges as their skull plates thickened. Their noses had become larger, and their nares more widely spaced for better air intake. Both had also suffered something of a personal loss, as their reproductive apparatus had atrophied away......apparently as their captures didn't feel they needed the breeding option. Morgan's CMO told him that they were the lucky ones. He's seen the Al-Batani's X.O. the other day. He wasn't so lucky. While he still looked physically the same as before......the results of abuse and their months of captivity notwithstanding......his mind was gone. A combination of exploratory surgical procedures, followed by genetic manipulation had turned the once outgoing man into little more than an organic automaton. Morgan didn't feel so lucky. He'd made the connection. They were all prototypes. Their captors were re-designing them to be a trouble-free labour force. The former starship Captain found himself testing his memory all the time to see if his own mental faculties were still intact. And that was why he prayed for death......for a release from this existence. He cried because he could feel it starting. It was something simple that had triggered the discovery. Something simple......yet horrifying nonetheless. He couldn't remember his middle name. From there......other gaps had been found. Where he'd gone to grade school. The name of the pretty girl who'd lived next door to him for the first 15 years of his life. His first instructor at the Academy. His CMO's name. The genetic manipulation was slowly decreasing the size of his brain. And the worst part of it?? The loss was occuring slowly enough that he was aware of the decrease. It is a horrible thing to be fully aware that you were losing your mind. He wept because he was afraid of the morning he would awake, and not remember why he was afraid.
--- End Message ---
