Brave New World Ch. 05

The discomfort persisted, until finally his mind began to clear to the dim realization that that some of his dreams were real. The ache in his shoulders faded, but the chill and the rough texture pressing uncomfortably into his shoulder blades remained. He tried to move, but he couldn't. Then, as more sensation returned to his limbs and light began to seep through his closed eyelids, he noticed that his arms were stretched out horizontally. His legs were slightly spread, and his feet didn't seem to be touching the floor.

When he opened his eyes they felt gummy. After blinking a few times could make out a room with two bare steel walls, and a third one that curved through a ninety degree arc, as if the room was one quarter of a larger round shaft. The floor was also bare, cold, and featureless. The ceiling seemed to consist of metal plates, pitted with rust and age, held up by equally corroded heavy girders. A pair of glow-tubes bathed the room in a harsh, uncomfortable light. A closed metal door was set in the wall or bulkhead across from him.

A large, rough metal grate was mounted against the curved wall, floor to ceiling, covering the entire quarter circumference of the room. His body was suspended from it, his arms spread out horizontally, his legs slightly apart, as if he had been crucified. Something invisible held him in place against the grate, upright but immobile. He could turn his head, but that was all. Try as he might, he couldn't move a finger, although he saw nothing that looked like ropes, chains or shackles. Whatever held him there seemed to support his body's entire weight. It was as if he was riveted to the grate. He was also completely naked. His protective suit had obviously been removed while he was unconscious. The air was chilly but not icy cold, something for which he was grateful. At least hypothermia wasn't an immediate risk.

Beside him he saw the nude forms of Tami, Jorg and Kyo, all suspended against the grid in the same position as he was. Tami was awake and looked scared. Next to her Jorg just opened his eyes and blinked a few times. Kyo, diagonally across from him along the curvature of the wall, seemed to be unconscious.

"Tami?" His voice sounded raspy. "What..."

"Roy? I... I don't know, Roy... Are you alright?" Tami asked.

He nodded. "I think so. What the hell happened?"

Kyo moaned softly.

"We were shot down," Jorg said. He coughed, the muscles in his arms and upper body rippling as his chest moved. "That first bolt collapsed the propulsor field. If it hadn't been for that, we'd probably be dead." He paused and took a deep breath. "The second one got through and fried the on-board systems, but by then we'd lost enough speed so we just rolled and got knocked around a little." Suspended from the wall-mounted grate as he was, he resembled a classic Greek statue more than anything else, Roy thought, although most classic Greek statues weren't nearly as well endowed as Jorg was.

"What..." Kyo muttered.

"I think it's safe to say we're prisoners of whoever shot us down," Jorg said dryly. He sounded more alert now.

Roy felt his own mind clearing further as well. "Relax, Kyo," he said. "We're fine. Just give yourself a moment to wake up."

"Fine? Are you serious? Fine how?" Tami said. She sounded really frightened.

"Well, fine may be pushing it just a little," Roy admitted. "But things could be worse."

"Indeed," Jorg agreed. "We could be dead or dying. Instead we've been stripped, lined up and restrained. Whoever has captured us clearly wants us alive for the moment." He turned his head to study the grate to which they were bound somehow. "I'm not sure what's holding us in place," he said. "Can any of you move at all?"

"Not me," Tami said. Roy slowly shook his head.

"What is this place?" Kyo asked. She slowly looked around her.

"Well..." Roy said slowly. "Offhand, I'd say it's what we came looking for."

As if to punctuate his words, the steely, clanging sound of a heavy latch or deadbolt came from the door. Rusty hinges creaked as it opened, and a man stepped into the room.

A man wearing a Defense Forces uniform.

"What the..." Roy muttered.

The uniform was one that Roy had seen any number of times in his earlier life, but this one showed age and signs of wear. So did the man himself. His skin was lined, his hair gray. He looked to be a natural in his seventies or so. "Welcome, Lieutenant Beaumont," he said. "Welcome to Research Facility Delta."

The sound of the man's voice clicked in his memory, and Roy gasped.

"Gan?" he said, incredulously.

"Oh, please, Lieutenant Beaumont," the man in front of him said, a biting, acidic contempt in his voice. "Don't tell me you're still falling for that simple ruse. Obviously I am not the feeble scholar who visited you in orbit. As you can see, we are contemporaries." He paused deliberately, apparently trying for dramatic effect. Then he drew himself up, and continued, "I am General Morgan Stanley."

"I hate to tell you, but you're wearing a captain's uniform," Roy pointed out.

Gan nodded. "Yes, unfortunately. Supply lines being what they are these days, I wasn't able to find one that reflected my promotion."

"What promotion?"

"Elementary, Lieutenant. We are the only two members of the Defense Force still alive. I outrank you. So clearly I am now the highest ranking officer on Earth. That makes me a general, wouldn't you say?"

Gan smiled, and the look on his face made Roy shiver. Gone was the kind, absent-minded intellectual that he remembered. Instead before him stood a madman, a man who was clearly, obviously and utterly insane.

"Careful," Tami whispered, very softly. But not softly enough.

"Why, my dear?" Gan asked her. "To hide your secrets from me?" His laugh was a nasty, barking sound that echoed through the room.

"What makes you think we have any?" Jorg asked calmly.

Anger showed through Gan's grim smile. "Well now, let's see. Why don't we start with these," he said, drawing a stunner from his belt. "You came here to do me harm, did you not? These, and personal shielding, not to mention railgun rifles. Offhand I'd say you came prepared for a shoot-out." His smile suddenly disappeared. "So when I discovered what you were up to as I investigated the wreckage of your skimmer, I decided to keep you unconscious with a nice little neural disruptor unit that I just happened to have on hand. No telling what else you might be hiding in your suits, so I removed them and then put you in your place, so to speak. Safely restrained, of course. Prudent, I think. A world leader should be prudent, wouldn't you say?"

"World leader?" Tami asked carefully.

Gan nodded gravely. "Yes. That job seems to have fallen to me." He sighed. "But more about that later. Lieutenant, I'm glad you came. And so nice of you to bring some friends." He cast a long, thoughtful look at Jorg. "Although this one could be trouble. We'll see. However, these lovely ladies are very welcome. Very welcome indeed. I was beginning to grow slightly bored, and the nights can be cold down here."

"You pig," Kyo said.

Gan turned to her and gave her a cold, nasty smile. "Now, now, dear. You're hardly in a position to misbehave. I suggest you be nice to me. If you try hard enough, then who knows, I might be nice to you."

Kyo gave him a look of utter contempt. "You sad, sick little man. I'd rip off your balls and feed them to you, but you obviously don't have any. Your small, shriveled little dick is hardly good enough to piss with. You're mad, stupid and contemptible. The sight and smell of you make me sick."

Tami looked at her with alarm. "Ki..."

Gan raised the stunner at her. His face had turned a dark shade of red, and he trembled. "You will not speak to me that way!" he roared.

Kyo gave him a cold smile, and then made a small, spitting motion with her lips at him. "Or what, little boy? What will you do?"

Gan stepped forward and pushed the stunner into her face. "You will shut up!"

She spit in his eye. "Really? Make me."

"Ki!" Tami shouted.

Gan's finger tightened on the stunner's firing stud.

Then, suddenly, he stepped back. He took a deep breath and calmed himself with visible effort until he regained his composure. He wiped her spit out of his eye, then looked at her.

"Clever," he said, with a kind of grudging admiration. "Very, very clever. And almost successful, too." His smile was cold. "I will not forget this, my dear."

"What..." Tami asked.

"Do you want to tell her, dear? Or shall I?"

"Fuck you," Kyo said.

Gan smiled mirthlessly. "Maybe later." He turned to Tami. "It appears that she worked out I'm using an attractor field to keep you where you belong. If I had shot her, the stun bolt would have shorted out the field, and you would no longer be restrained. As I said, very clever." He turned and looked at Kyo. "I must think of a good way to reward you for that..." he mused.

"Gan..." Roy began.

"General!" Gan barked. "You will address me as General! General Morgan Stanley!!"

Roy sighed. "Fine. General. Whatever. Were you the one trying to kill me?"

Gan nodded. "Yes. Yes, I was. Why?"

"Why? That's exactly what I want to know, you... General. Why? What did I ever do to you?"

Gan smiled sadly. "Lieutenant... " He slowly shook his head. "Your lack of understanding disappoints me. I had expected more of you." He began to pace back and forth slowly. "Don't you remember our discussion? We agreed that mankind has stagnated and gone into terminal decline."

"That's what you said."

"Yes, Lieutenant. I did. What I did not mention at the time is the reason for that decline. The reason is that our species needs to find itself challenged in order to live and grow. Haven't we made our greatest strides in times of conflict? Haven't we risen above ourselves in times of crisis? Haven't we beaten the odds by surviving disease and natural disasters?" A mad zeal had begun to glow in his eyes. "But now... Life has become too easy for us. Life is now defined by comfort and instant gratification! Bah!" He turned, his pacing becoming more agitated. "What mankind needs is hardship! We need pain, we need horror! We need famine, disease, war! This is what we thrive on!" He suddenly grew calm. "And so... I have striven to provide these things, to the best of my ability."

"What are you talking about?" Jorg asked suspiciously.

"I'm talking about pushing mankind forward, you simpleminded fool!" Gan sneered. "The fruits of my labor are already maturing. Have you not noticed the rising levels of alertness, the quiet preparations made by what passes for your sorry leadership these days? Have you not seen how the complacency is slowly vanishing from the rabble that populates the shelters? Soon the apathy will be gone completely as the strife within the shelters will move to its inevitable next level!"

"You're responsible for the riots," Roy said slowly. A terrible suspicion began to dawn on him.

"Yes, Lieutenant. Thank you for finally grasping the obvious. I have... stimulated certain elements within the population. I tried famine and disease, but sadly without the desired results. Strife, however, has given me..."

"What have you done?!" Jorg shouted.

Gan slowly turned. "Why the sudden excitement?" he asked calmly.

Jorg controlled himself with obvious effort. "Disease," he said, his voice choked with barely suppressed rage. "What disease have you spread, you sick bastard?"

Gan sighed, a look of pity on his face. "I didn't expect you would understand," he said. "My vision is far too vast for your small mind to comprehend." He began to pace back and forth again. "So let me simplify it for you. Human survival is a game called natural selection. The strong survive, the weak die. Strong genes is what we require, especially now. So we need famine, disease and war, as I said earlier. These are all perfect opportunities for the human race to eliminate the weak from the gene pool. So far, famine has been a little hard to accomplish. Too many crashed drop ships interrupting the flow of produce would attract undue attention. Hence my recent visit to your orbital habitat. Crop failures are far more easily accomplished at the source, after all. War is an ongoing process, but that part of my efforts will soon bear fruit as the various shelters will turn upon each other. Then there's disease, the most challenging part..."

He paused, gazing in the distance.

"It's a delicate balance, you see," he continued. "Too virulent a plague will kill the strong along with the weak. Just over twenty years ago, during my last stretch out of cold sleep, I ran a few experiments along those lines. Shelter three, if I'm not mistaken. Pity. The experiment was largely a failure. The strains of disease I tested proved far too virulent. Since then I have been more successful. I have developed an elusive pathogen, very hard to detect, which accelerates aging and presents with symptoms usually attributed to radiation and pollution."

"Burt," Kyo said softly.

"Surely you do not expect me to know each individual that takes part in my grand scheme, my dear," Gan said contemptuously. "Soon their numbers will run into the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands."

"You murdered my people. I. Will. Kill. You." Jorg said, slowly and with much emphasis.

"No, you simpleton, you will not. You cannot." Gan looked up, an utterly insane glory shining in his eyes. "Why do you think I'm here, now, in this place and time? I will tell you! Destiny!! When this so-called nuke day occurred, my vision was ignored. Fools! I told them we had to attack first, not simply retaliate after our own destruction had already become inevitable! We could have won! But no! High Command did not have the guts! The cowards did not want any blood on their hands, and so they betrayed their own people!"

He paused, looked down and sighed.

"So," he continued, "while I did have the means on hand to destroy our enemies, I was left powerless. I begged them for the launch codes, but they wouldn't give them to me. There was only one thing left for me to do. When the inevitable happened, I put myself into coldsleep for fifty years. When first I woke, I found ruin. None had survived in this research facility. Not surprising, of course. Scientists can be such unrealistic fools. Space exploration was more important to them than the destruction of those who would kill them. So I took stock of the situation and I went back into cold sleep for another fifty years. Over the next three centuries I put my grand plan into action, spending long periods in cold sleep while it matured. Slowly but surely I have worked to provide humanity with the challenges it needs to become strong again and assume its rightful place in the universe! And I, I will lead them there!!"

"You're insane," Kyo said, matter-of-factly. "What do you think, Tami? You're the professional here."

Tami nodded. "Yes. Full blown sociopathy, megalomania, criminal tendencies, delusions. An extremely dangerous combination."

Gan laughed madly. "What gave me away?"

"Well, let's see now," Roy said dryly. "With less than a million people left, you plan to kill off a large chunk of them. You think war and epidemics are good things. Oh, and there's your plan to rule the world. Did I leave anything out?"

Jorg nodded. "Yes. He thinks that by tomorrow he'll still be alive."

Gan turned to him, his face grim. "I don't think so, I know so. As for you, however... That's another matter."

He took a small unit from his belt and held it up to his mouth. "Deela, dear, be a good girl and bring me that black case we retrieved from our guests' vehicle, will you?"

He smiled coldly as he put the unit back into his belt. "It's time you got to meet my lovely assistant, anyway," he said. "She's been with me for some time. At first she was rather feisty, so I had to... persuade her. She's quite tame now."

The door opened and a woman stepped into the room, carrying Jorg's weaponry case. She was black, naked, and she walked as if she was drugged. Her eyes were heavily lidded, almost closed, and her mouth was open. Her breath came so fast she was almost panting. A sheen of sweat covered her ebony skin, and the large, dark nipples on her heavy breasts looked hard and swollen. The insides of her thighs glistened wetly. Her beautiful figure was marred by her posture, which was tense and hunched. Her eyes were unfocused and she looked like she might be in some sort of trance.

Gan took the case from her and put it down beside him. Then he reached out and touched one of the woman's nipples with his fingertips. She whimpered and took a small step forward. With his other hand, Gan cupped her breast, then squeezed her nipple between thumb and forefinger. She moaned; a long, wailing and utterly disturbing sound.

"Thank you, Deela," Gan said, releasing her. "That will be all. You can go now."

Deela just stood there, not moving.

"I said go, Deela! Go now and maybe I will give you more later."

The woman slumped, then slowly turned around and walked back to the door, staggering slightly.

"What have you done to her?" Tami demanded.

Gan smiled. "Oh, nothing bad, I assure you," he said. "Something very good, in fact. I... recruited her, shall we say, to be my assistant, but in the first place she's here to attend to my more... personal needs. She was reluctant to perform those duties at first, but in the end I did find a way to persuade her." He smiled, and his eyes were chilling. "You see, before I, ah, met her, she had these nanotech modifications installed. As did you, Lieutenant. You weren't this well endowed when we last met, were you? Sad, really. I had hoped you would not fall for the lure of decadence just yet. But even you are not immune."

He stood in thought for a moment, then sighed.

"We'll have to deal with that later, though. Anyway, as it turns out, these nanotech units are not immune to manipulation. I developed a handy little gadget that slightly modifies the modifications, so to speak. Deela is now in a constant state of intense sexual arousal. Unfortunately for her, she is also unable to give herself release. For that she depends entirely on me. Or rather, on my semen." He chuckled. "Her being constantly and highly aroused and me being her only source of release has made her quite dedicated to me."

He opened Jorg's weapons case. "When I saw these, I knew for sure you did not come in peace. Disappointing... But not unexpected."

He took out one of the railgun rifles, detached the stock, checked it, and snapped it back on. Then he lifted the weapon with one hand and aimed it straight at Jorg's head. "Kill me, will you?" he said calmly, and pressed the firing stud.

The *CRACK!* was deafening. Roy's ears rang and he felt a sharp slap in his chest as the shock wave from the hypersonic projectile hit him.

"Well, what do you know?" Gan said. "I missed. Imagine that. I forgot all about the recoil. Silly of me, I suppose. But then who could have guessed that my marksmanship skills would have slipped that badly?" He chuckled, a low, evil sound, as he looked at Jorg's pale face.

"You sadistic monster," Kyo said.

"Now, now, dear," Gan replied with a smirk. "Our friend here obviously has to be taught a lesson. Eventually I'll have to kill him anyway, I suppose, because I doubt he will be able to learn. Still, one has to try. But you..." His smile was chilling. "You should prove more useful. Deela is beginning to show some wear and tear. Soon I will need to replace her." He looked at Tami. "Either one of you should do nicely. Or both. Hm. There's a thought."

Kyo spat at him.

"Tsk, tsk," Gan said, giving her a pitying look. "I don't think you fully understand your situation, hm? Maybe you need a small demonstration."