Heritage (Under Revision)

Chapter 57: Elena

Over the course of a week, Dante and I sifted through thousands of hours of documentation and video logs that chronicled the many experiments conducted by the scientists heading the project. We found out during the course of our investigation that the project was divided into three phases: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, after the very old, but still very popular Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

The fact that these phases were detailed extensively was a home run for Dante and I. Dante, of course, had to poke fun at the name choice, jokingly accusing them of plagiarism. It was a good laugh to break up the monotony of the situation. I seem to have forgotten how cheerful Dante is always able to remain in any situation, good or bad. It’s easy to see how he was such a huge missing piece for so many years. Dante truly was the glue that held all of us together.

Inferno was the first phase of the process. This process involved much of the initial videos and documents we saw and read. These pieces explained the various experimentation procedures that were conducted over roughly thirty years until that particular facility was overrun by infected. A clear pattern was delineated from the evidence as to experimentation focus.

In the beginning, the scientists were tasked with basic duties involving exposure tests and culturing. After those were completed, the scientists moved on to more acute tests in order to determine what use, if any, the parasite would have.

In terms of medical improvement, they found nothing. The parasite had no effect on the known diseases at the time. No effect that is, until they began testing on cancerous cells. When the researchers applied the parasitic cells to the abnormal ones of cancer cells, it began to divide at an alarming rate. During one of the videos, Dante and I watched the process and the results were horrifying. In a matter of only a few minutes, the parasitic cells multiplied over the Petri dish and began spreading to the counter it was placed on.

Moments after that, it began to release tiny spores into the air. It became so violent in its replication that the scientists had to flash purge the room, frying the culture entirely.

After this test, they created a more controlled environment and began testing this combination on smaller and smaller of amounts of both cells. They eventually deduced that all it took was a one to one ration in order for the parasitic cells to multiply at such a rapid rate. That’s one cell of the parasitic cells to one cell of the cancerous cells.

The word cancerous, however, was used as a broad term for abnormal cells within the body. This means that unless the host body is absolutely perfect on a cellular level, they would become infected. The scientists studied this effect on multiple other species and found that the results were the same across the board. During our research I wondered why the infection chose to affect both Leon and Ethan differently than most others. Unfortunately, there was no explanation of that within the files. It led me to believe that the difference happened on a genetic level as opposed to a cellular one, which remained untested.

With this information in hand, the scientists moved forward with their testing in to weaponizing the parasitic cells. This set of tests was much less successful than their previous ones due to the aggressive nature of the cells. The scientists primarily attempted to program the cells to target specific cellular sets.

This was rendered completely ineffective as, strangely enough; the parasitic cells would simply revert back to their original purpose. They eventually decided it best to instead focus on the aggressive nature of the virus. The scientists developed a process of synthetically creating a set of abnormal type cells that the parasite would see as the indicated target.

After developing this, the process was then turned over to weapons engineering in order to develop a delivery method. The files after this point then converted to encrypted military files. And while I will admit, they had a clever set of encryption protocols, there were still outdated and no problem for me to crack through. Weapons development had a rather easy time developing a method for delivery.

What’s entailed is placing both sets of cells in separate housing units. It consists of an outer sleeve structure. The synthetic abnormal cells would be placed inside of this capsule in order to coat the target initially. The parasitic cells would be placed in a smaller tube and fitted inside of the sleeve and the whole thing placed inside the delivery device such as a missile.

Both sets of cells would be suspended in a fluid that would disperse into an aerosol-like substance as it makes contact with the air. The resulting effect would be that the abnormal cells would be inhaled into the body and after, the parasitic cells would be as well. The parasitic cells would immediately be able to latch on to the abnormal ones and start replicating without having to find those same types of cells within the body first. The parasitic cells would then grow until they attach to the side walls of the bloodstream and start to infect the body. By that time, the development team felt that the parasitic cells would have found their target within the host itself and have begun to replicate there, thus causing a rapid attack on the body on two fronts, allowing the body no chance at fighting the infection back.

All of this didn’t even include how the parasitic cells would react to the abnormal ones that had been splattered on to the exposed flesh. However, neither teams of people expected the kind of transformation that would be caused by the reaction on living tissue.

They found out during Purgatorio.

Purgatorio was their testing phase for the delivery method as well as testing the parasitic cells on actual livings things as opposed to simple cancer cells. The documents at this point then go into lengthy detail on the process of obtaining living test subjects. The scientists thought it easiest to use orphaned children for their experiments.

In turn, with the government’s help, they created the Children for Science Foundation. It was disguised as a foundation for children who weren’t given the opportunities as other children in life to go to distant worlds and learn all about the sciences.

The promise was that this education would be provided free up until the age of legal consent. Afterwards, if a child decided to stay on the path, they would have to sign documents stating that they would commit a number of years in service of the UEDF in the Science Corps.

They would never get the chance.

A contract was already signed in their blood the moment they said yes.

And most of them, like Katie, didn’t even have the common sense to know the gravity of their situation. It’s sickening just to think about.

As hard as it became for Dante and I to keep digging through everything, we pressed on, adding more soil on the grave. Each child in the program was placed in a controlled, decontaminated room with a heavy-duty door on the entrance.

Within these controlled rooms, scientists would come in; inject each child with a small amount of the parasitic cells and then leave, allowing it to incubate. Every child was recorded on a twenty-four-hour basis. At points I was forced to look away as the bodies of the children twisted and contorted into a creature that was something else.

I think their faces were the worst thing to continue looking at. There was always a moment before the child turned completely, when the last bit of light and humanity was ripped from their body that they would just stare into nothing.

It was in that moment that you could truly see all of the agony, miscomprehension, and betrayal in their eyes. And in a flash their face would morph into a monster’s.

After the change, you would see a bright flash of light followed by the creature lying on the ground, skin charred. Dante and I watched the same thing over and over, until we reached a video called ‘Anomaly’. We were surprised to see that when we opened the video, a picture of Katie popped on to the screen.

She sits in a chair within a white, sterile room. The camera points directly at her, she stares at something off camera. Dante and I look at each other with intrigue in our eyes.

“This must be after they took her from Ethan,” I say factually.

A voice finally begins to speak.

“How are you today Katie?” A woman’s voice says.

Katie smiles wide “I’m doing great,” She says cheerfully.

“That’s great to hear. We just wanted to ask you a few questions, Katie. Is that okay?”

Katie nods her head with a child-like excitement.

“Do you remember that shot we gave you last month?”

“Mmhmm,”

“Have you felt sick since we gave it to you at all? Any tummy aches, achy stuff, things like that?” Katie shakes her head no vigorously.

“Well that’s really good. We wouldn’t want you to feel ill when you’re doing such a good job helping us,”

Something strange happens. Katie stops her fidgeting entirely and looks at the scientist with precision. She slightly tilts her head to the side.

“And why would you want that?” Katie asks her.

“Wh...What do you mean, Katie?” The scientist says fumbling her words.

“Well, you were trying to make me sick, weren’t you? That’s what you did to the other kids, didn’t you?”

“Turn it off...Turn it off!” The scientist yells as the camera shakes and cuts out.

“That’s when she must’ve turned. Which then leads in to this video,” Dante says clicking a few buttons.

He shows me the video he watched and sure enough, the little girl in that video is Katie. The files end there as that particular station was shut down. But, it’s more than enough to damn the UEDF for their actions. I upload the evidence I plan to use on to a separate drive and place it safely in my pocket.

“I’m willing to bet they’re close to field use with all of this. And I’m going to go ahead and guess they intentionally sent that capsule to us on the Zeus. The brass probably saw what happened in that video and wanted to test it in a real environment. It was the perfect target, really. It was pretty much a retirement station for people looking to have it easy and get out clean. And on top of that, they shipped all the screw ups there like me and Ethan,” Dante deduces.

“All things considered, I think you’re right, Dante. I have an appointment set with the Federation council,”

“Oh yeah? When is it?”

“As much as I don’t like it, it’s right around the time of Ethan’s trial. I know he’ll understand if I’m not watching,”

“He’d definitely tell you to blow this thing wide open before watching some boring trial that he happens to be in,” Dante says smiling.

“I just hope—,”

“Don’t hope girly. My brother was one of the best surgeons around way back. I’m sure he’s one of the best liaisons around right now. He’ll get Ethan out of this. And cleanly too,” He says with confidence ringing in his voice.

I place a hand on Dante’s “Thank you for all of this, I mean it. I know you just got your life going again and that there’s a lot you’re still adjusting to. The fact that you lend yourself so selflessly to us is something that can never be repaid,”

Dante’s leans over and places a kiss on my cheek.

“Elena, there’s nothing to thank me for. You guys would do the same thing for me if I was ever put in this kind of situation. Those memories of what happened on that station are a lot fresher in my mind than they are yours. I didn’t get twenty years to forget. I still remember how much we stuck together through everything. And sometimes I prefer it that way, because it reminds me every day of how much I love all of you,”

I give a grateful smile to Dante and remove the drive from the computer.

I hand it back to Dante. “I want you to keep the original, just in case,”

Dante takes it from me and places it in his pocket. He stands up, ready to leave. I stand up beside him and walk him to the door.

He opens it and partially steps out before turning back to me.

“So...I have an idea,” He says spontaneously.

“What’s that?” I asked, intrigued.

“Well...Actually...it’s better if I just keep it to myself. But...you’ll know it’s been acted on if it needs to be. I’ll see you later,” Dante says, turning back out through the door. I give a shrug as he leaves my office and I close the door, starting to prepare some things for my trip to the Federation’s home world.