Baldur’s Gate Heroes #004
Carnival, Part One
Meanwhile, on a made up island located somewhere in the Pacific Ocean:
“You… you won’t get away with this!”
“Ha. You are precious, my dear. Exactly how precious we will find out soon enough. If you are hoping to be rescued, you can forget it! We’re surrounded by fifty of my best men, the only way in is constantly monitored by camera, laser trip wires and numerous dastardly traps, plus we’re in a bunker on the moon. There’s just no-one that brave or stupid.”
“You son of a bitch!”
“Well of course I am, Miss Kitty. But, I am a hound of my word. If your daddy meets my demands you will be released.”
“I will?”
“Of course. My men will show you to the air-lock right away. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some business to attend to… Get me the President of Earth!”
“What do you want Houndslow?”
“Ahhh… Mister President. As you can see, we are holding your daughter hostage. Fail to meet my demands and she will executed on live television in front of the entire world!”
“You son of a…”
“Yes, we know that.”
“Where is she?!”
“Oh, don’t play games Mister President. You can see her tied in steel chains right behind me.”
“What are you talking about? There’s no-one there.”
“What? Damn you incompetent rats! Who was supposed to be watching her?”
“Gee… we’s is all’s real sorry’s boss. But lookies here… there’s a note!”
“What does it say?!”
“It says: ‘Sorry’s I’s hads to leaves in such a hurry’s. Maybe’s next time’s we’s can’s catch ups n’stuff.’”
“Signed!?!”
“Signed, ‘Chiktikka Fastpaws’.”
“NOOOOOO!!!”
“’P.S, Sorry about the grammar.’”
“You watching this?”
“Nah. I gotta get back to the lab,” one of the men wearing lab coats reached forward and switched off the cartoon. That action was immediately followed by a barely audible gasp. The men turned and noticed for the first time a small blonde woman stood in a darkened corner of the room wearing a simple yellow dress. She was undeniably pretty. The pointed ears were a bit odd though.
“Sorry Aerie,” the oldest man said. “Were you watching that?”
“I-I… t-that is,” Aerie flushed and immediately stood up straight, like a soldier caught dozing by a superior officer while on guard duty. “No… no, sir.”
“Good. I have a job for you. I need you to take these files to Quayle in his office.”
“Of course. Faster than Chiktik…” Aerie briefly smiled, but then gulped it back when she noticed the two researchers were staring at her with their arms crossed and one was tapping his toes. “I… I’ll go at once, sirs.” She quickly curtseyed and padded away.
“You know,” one man said to the other. “I sometimes forget just how odd she really is.”
***
“If weren’t for a few minor physical differences, she would be almost indistinguishable from a human being,” Quayle stared through his office window which overlooked the ‘factory floor’, as it were.
The senior researcher wiped away some sweat and used it to clean the lenses on his spectacles. The years of sitting in darkened rooms reading notes, staring at screens and not really doing any exercise to speak of were finally catching up with him. He was round and balding, barely a shadow of the young stud he believed he once was. His memory wasn’t what it was either.
But, he did remember clearly the conditions in the facility when he first came here, after the previous lead researcher had been mauled by one of his own experiments. Even now, down there on the floor, some of the tanks still contained the lifeless remains of previous attempts to recreate the ELF that had fallen into the possession of De’Arnise Industries. Quayle had put a stop to that. The level of genetic engineering used to create Aerie was way beyond anything even he understood. Which, by default, meant no one on Earth understood it. And then you got into the moral and philosophical concerns surrounding the creation of a whole new species from scratch…
“You let it wander freely around the facility?” The old man squinted to see the woman sat behind his desk. At least he assumed it was a woman. Myopia starts setting in pretty early in this occupation. Even when he put his specs back on he couldn’t be completely sure, but the breasts and the miniskirt definitely suggested a female. She’d arrived from the mainland that morning and had a name like Morgan or something. He hadn’t paid much attention, but apparently she was here to report on the research.
“She’d been cooped and forgotten about in that cell so long every part of her had atrophied,” Quayle explained. “Her heart was weak; she was no longer even able to stand. If I hadn’t intervened when I did, well… she’ll have died for sure, and then we won’t have learnt all the things we have since. She’s been quite useful in assisting us.”
“Allowing the ELF time to exercise is one thing, but giving it access to the library and computers?”
“Of course,” Quayle found his attention was once again being drawn back towards his window, although he wasn’t really looking at anything beyond it. “She’s just as curious about us as we are about her.”
He remembered when he’d first examined Aerie. He’d found evidence of numerous injuries that hadn’t been documented by any of his predecessors. He wished he could say he’d been surprised, but with no laws protecting her and no allies outside who might come to her aid, it was no shock at all that some of the workers chose not to restrain their baser instincts with the ELF.
“Tests indicate a high level of intelligence,” Miss Morgan flicked through her notes. Quayle assumed it was ‘Miss’, as he hadn’t noticed any rings. His eyesight wasn’t too good though. “How can we be sure it won’t try to send a message?”
“To whom?” The researcher dismissed the notion. “Besides… the computers she has access to are not networked at all.”
“And who is making sure it isn’t able to access anything else?” Miss Morgan continued voicing her concerns, but Quayle no longer heard her. He was remembering that he’d proposed to someone once. It hadn’t worked out though. He’d been making exciting breakthroughs in cryogenics and ended up being six years late for his own wedding.
It was probably for the best. He was in love, but it was hard to imagine he could have settled down. Still, he regretted not having a family and that he’d left it too late now. He supposed Aerie was all he had. She didn’t just look human… her psyche was very similar as well. The ELF had formed an emotional bond to him as a way to help herself cope.
“Quayle!” Hannah Morgan slammed her hand down on the desk.
“Er, hello, yes?” The senior researcher acted like she’d just walked into the room. As far as he remembered, she had. She was wearing a very short skirt, the type that wouldn’t have been allowed when he was young. If only he’d been born thirty years later.
“You don’t even hear me do you?”
“Yes,” he vaguely recalled that he had been talking to someone a few minutes ago. Or was it hours? What had it been about? “Are you the dietician?”
“Hmph,” Miss Morgan started writing something. “I’m concerned that you’re not all here… I’m going to have to recommend you be examined by a doctor. In the meantime, the life form is free to move around the facility, but I want it watched at all times.”
“Two sugars, please.”
“Right. I’m just going to stop speaking to you now,” she turned her attention to another scientist, not as old as Quayle but just as round and was sweating a lot more. “Kalah… your department has been studying the life forms telekinetic powers?”
“Y-yes,” Kalah stammered and avoided any eye contact. Quayle looked surprised he was here… he hadn’t noticed the door open. “It’s not… t-that is, it…yes…”
“I’m transferring you.”
“What?!” Kalah suddenly looked up, flabbergasted.
“You haven’t gotten us results, so we’re returning you to the mainland. There’s a vacancy in one of our cosmetic departments there, far better suited to someone of your abilities.”
“Co-cosmetic research?” Kalah almost spat angrily.
“Who said anything about research? You’ll be working in one of our stores.”
“B-but,” he bounced across and started tugging desperately on Quayle’s lab coat. “You… you can’t let them do this to me!”
“Oh, it’s you,” Quayle said after adjusting his specs. “I’m sorry Kalah. I recommended you be transferred. You just… you’re not a good scientist. Your methods are questionable, and your theories need to be examined in much more detail before we can think about testing. I’m just afraid that, sooner or later, someone’s going to get hurt.”
“I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the consequences if you breathe a word about this place to anybody,” Hannah started gathering her papers into her suitcase. “I expect you on the helipad in two hours. Good day, gentlemen.”
She walked out, leaving Kalah with a snarl across his face and Quayle wondering where his rubber duck was.
***
“Who’s a rebel without a pause?” Lifeless grey corridors like this one constituted most of Aerie’s physical world, but since there was no one else around she tried to inject a little color by singing, very quietly, the theme to her favorite cartoon. “Why, it’s Chiktikka Fastpaws! Who is not afraid of Jaws? Why it’s…” and so on like that, until the writer had obviously ran out of words that rhyme with paws.
It wasn’t until she rounded the next bend that she ran into a group of five security guards in black uniforms, and upon doing so she fell flat on her face, dropping the file she was carrying and scattering the papers everywhere.
“Watch where you’re going, freak,” their leader, a burly man with a dark moustache, said, even though he had clearly stuck his leg out and deliberately tripped her.
Aerie spun around, anger flashing across her face for an instant. But it only took that instant for her to remember the reality of her situation, which was that she was outnumbered five to one. A lot more than that if you calculated it by body mass. She got up to her knees and started picking up papers.
“I-I’m sorry,” she muttered despondently. Maybe she had walked into him… it had all happened pretty fast. Her memory just wasn’t as clear about it as it had been a second ago.
“What was that?” The man, whose name was Buck and he’d made his entire career out of being a bully, just missed her with his spit. Aerie looked up. Somehow, just her blue eyes seemed to quiver.
“I said I was sorry,” she said only slightly louder.
“That’s not what you said,” he told her. “That’s not what any of you heard her say, is it?” His underlings just shrugged.
Aerie sighed and looked away. If he was going to hit her, she wished he would just get on with doing so. She didn’t understand why he felt this need to fabricate some justification for it. Her actions seemed only to enrage him further, as if her very existence didn’t do that enough.
“You’ll damn well look at me when I’m talking to you!” Buck grabbed her by the jaw and pulled her close so that they were almost eye to eye. It was only then that any of his underlings decided to intervene.
“Leave it Buck. We’re back on duty in five minutes,” an underling said. “Besides, you know the old man won’t like it.” The threat of being reprimanded by Quayle seemed the only thing to give Buck pause. The old man did have some friends high up in the organization. He let Aerie go, allowing her to fall back down on her butt.
“He’s too damn soft on it if you ask me,” he lamented while Aerie stared up at him catching her breath. “Treats it like its damn human, but it’s not. It’s like, a mockery of us.” He shook his head and started to walk away.
Aerie didn’t take her eyes off him as he traversed the corridor. She sat with her hands on her knees struggling with her breath and a single tear just escaping her left eye. She should have done something. She’d wanted to do something, but… there was nothing she could do. Other then pick up the file she was supposed to deliver and continue trying to survive this existence.
As she was doing that, a large crowd of eight or nine researchers came running along the corridor and almost flattened her. Moments later she was on the move again and soon found out what they had all been running for.
It was as she was passing the security gate that led to the holding cells she heard the pitiful screaming and wailing, and her acute senses also picked the occasional thud of flesh against steel.
Some of the earlier experiments had survived, but the poor creatures lived their lives in constant pain. Aerie wished there was something she could do to help them… she was at least partially responsible for their plight. If she’d never come here… but she couldn’t even help herself right now.
***
Kalah returned to his lab and dismissed the staff. He could barely control the rage he felt as they all left, but he couldn’t allow them to suspect anything. He focused his attention on an object.
It was a strange gold dragon-like thing, about three feet long. One of the objects De’Arnise industries had ‘acquired’ along with Aerie. It had some electrical components, but they had never got it to function. It just stood in the glass case, its beak bowed. According to the ELF, it was supposed to have been some kind of probe designed to seek out intelligent life on other planets. So what the hell was it doing here?
The last member of staff shut the door, leaving Kalah alone in the dimly lit laboratory. Quayle must have known he was getting close. That was why the old man wanted him out of the way, so he could claim credit for all the discoveries himself.
“You’ll be sorry old man,” Kalah mused to himself. “I think perhaps it’s time.” He found his desk on the far side of the lab and took a tape recorder from one of the drawers.
“We have believed for some time that the Engineered Life Form, designated Aerie, uses the crystal to focus her mental energy, allowing her to perform incredible telekinetic feats,” Kalah dictated while he started to fiddle with his keys. “Without it, she is completely powerless. What we haven’t been able to understand, is why it only responds to her and no other living creature. After much analysis, my team and I believe we have identified a previously unknown element in the life forms blood that is what the crystal reacts to,” he reached down and unlocked another drawer, this time taking out a syringe.
“What my team doesn’t know is that for the past few days I have been administering doses of the element to myself. It seems the most expedient way to prove if we were correct,” Kalah managed not to wince as he injected the needle straight into his veins. He then dropped the needle away, heading straight to the safe located next to the bronze dragon.
He punched in the code, and a section of the wall slid open. Within was the crystal he had spoken of, blue in color and only about the size of a pea. It was set into a twisted silver tiara.
“Yes!” Kalah grinned. “The crystal glows to my touch. I will now place the crown on myself…” he collapsed as soon as he did so, momentarily stunned by what he felt. He returned unsteadily his feet, continuing the experience. “It’s… incredible. Not what I was expecting. I feel… energy, surging through me. But where is it coming from? I…”
A thought occurred to him. He twisted his neck and looked at the dragon, and then he pointed. A stream of flame erupted from his finger, shattering the glass case.
“Incredible!” Kalah jumped excitedly. “I just had to imagine it and it happened! With power like this I… I could…” he slumped again. “I am experiencing dizziness… it seems at least a fraction of the energy is drawn from my own body. Still… the things I could do… heh, I don’t think they will be transferring me anywhere now. In fact, I think… what… what is this? I…” Kalah’s body suddenly convulsed. “I don’t understand! I feel… I… something is trying to get inside me!”
The mad scientist’s body crumpled to the floor. His blood boiled, his skin began to bubble… seconds later he started radiating a brilliant light, and that was when he started to scream.
***
“Quayle?” Aerie tentatively knocked at the door.
“Hmm?” Quayle was half asleep behind his desk. “Yes Aerie. Do come in my dear.”
“I-I was asked to bring you this,” she handed him the file. The old man glanced at it and put it down on the desk. “Is… is something wrong? You’ve seemed very distracted lately… I mean, more than usual.”
“I’m just getting old,” Quayle smiled, but there was little humor in what he was thinking. He was getting old. Aerie had become like a daughter to him, but he knew he wouldn’t be around much longer to protect her from the likes of Buck and his cronies.
“You don’t seem so old to me,” Aerie smiled sweetly and kissed his forehead. “There’s a lot of mischief you’ve still to cause.”
True, there was all kinds of mischief he could get into now that he could never have got away with before. Like he could slap waitress’s bottoms and use sexual innuendos and people would just laugh and say he was a character. But he was so old those things just no longer appealed to him as much.
“I just wish I could see you happy,” Quayle took her by the hand.
“You… you do make me happy,” she assured him. “I thought… I thought I would never know kindness, until I met you. A-and… you’ve taught me so much.”
“You’re a good girl,” the old man smiled, even though he knew she was lying. He was senile, not stupid. He never taught her anything. She spent hours in the library teaching herself. And she wasn’t happy. She could never be happy in this place. Even though she was treated better now for the most part, there were too many unhappy memories and she longed to see outside with her own eyes and not on a video.
“There are so many beautiful things,” Quayle had a hazy look in his eyes. “Mountains and rivers and… I remember once as the sun set, I watched a ship sail away on a sea of liquid gold. I just wish you could see these things for yourself.”
“That… that would be nice,” Aerie said softly. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine it. But, the truth was, Miss Morgan’s fears were unfounded. Aerie had the intelligence to facilitate an escape, but she had given up any hope of ever leaving this place long ago. Even if she could get out, she would be in an alien world. She would have no idea where to go or how to survive on her own.
It was at that moment Quayle resolved to find a way to get her out. He was sure he could find some old friend who owed him a favor, someone who would at least teach her what she needed to know.
“Aerie, I…” and it was at that moment the whole island shook with a deafening roar. The lights started to flicker, then went completely dead. Aerie clutched the old man tightly in the pitch blackness.
“W-what happened?” She asked, her voice trembling a little.
“I don’t know,” Quayle admitted. “I have to get to the control room.”
“Here,” Aerie took him by the hand and started to guide him. She could still see in the dark, but moment’s later emergency power kicked in anyway.
“What the hell just happened?” They found Miss Hannah Morgan trying to fix her usually well kept reddish brown hair. It was the first time she’d actually laid eyes on Aerie during her visit, and she regarded the ELF a little disdainfully.
“Any speculation at this point would be pure… speculation,” Quayle answered. “We haven’t been expecting any seismic or volcanic activity…” today however, was full of surprises, a section of the wall in front of them blowing away being just the latest.
For a moment no-one could see anything through all of the dust, but they heard footsteps. Loud, heavy footsteps moving purposefully towards them.
“What isss happening to meee…” a voice hissed.
“Kalah?” Quayle had to wipe his spectacles yet again. The creature he saw was wearing Kalah’s clothes, or at least the tattered remnants of them. He’d grown to about eight feet, his skin had turned completely orange, and his canines… well they’d grown too. It wasn’t clear whom he had spoken to. His yellow eyes only opened briefly then shut. He appeared to be in great pain.
“The crystal,” Aerie said. The tiara seemed to have become fused to Kalah’s skull. “You used the crystal… oh no…”
“Kalah, you fool!” Quayle shouted. “This is exactly what I was afraid of.”
“Y-you don’t have the gene.”
“G-gene?” Kalah repeated.
“The gene that masks my presence from… from the creatures that inhabit witch space. T-that’s where the crystal draws its power from,” Aerie explained. “Y-you have to let us help you…” Aerie reached out, but Kalah backed away. “If we don’t remove the crystal, it will take over your entire body.”
“W-why… why didn’t you tell us this before?”
“She did, you idiot!” Quayle kept shouting. “I told you not to try anything until we had a better understanding. But you just wanted the glory of making a discovery yourself didn’t you? Bah, I should have kicked you out months ago.”
“I’m not an idiot!” Kalah roared. “Stop speaking down to me! You… you’re just afraid. Afraid of my power!” The mad scientist roared again, but this time a pulse of energy swept out, blowing the three spectators twenty feet. By some small miracle, no-one seemed to have broken anything after slammed against a wall, although Miss Morgan’s hair was beyond easy repair.
Some of the facility security staff marched by them, took up positions and started to fire on Kalah. Every bullet melted before touching him, and then in response, tongues of flame leapt to each guard, incinerating them instantly.
“I will teach you old man,” Kalah started striding towards the three survivors. “You and Miss Morgan and your pet… you will all be my slaves, forever!”
“Aerie,” Quayle panted. “You have to run. Get Miss Morgan someplace safe.”
“No! I-I can’t leave you,” Aerie insisted. Quayle took a deep breath. He knew he would have to be hard on her in order to save her life.
“Listen, you stupid girl,” he spat. “You were made to obey your masters, right? Well, I’m your master now, and I have given you an order!”
“I…” Aerie turned away sadly. She looked at Hannah, who was curled up into a protective ball and shaking with fear.
“Get!”
She had no choice but to obey. She took hold of Miss Morgan and they started to run, while Quayle stood to face Kalah.
***
Tears streamed down Aerie’s face, but she kept running, just like Quayle had told her to. They ran until they could run no more. She had no idea how far or long exactly… everything was so confusing. She fell against a wall and placed hands on knees as she tried to catch her breath.
“Oh god, oh god,” Hannah curled up again and started to rock back and forth. “We’re all going to die. You,” the woman grabbed Aerie’s arm. “You have to get me out of here! I-I have a son! Please,” she wept.
“I… I-I will try my best,” Aerie answered quietly. She felt unable to make any bold promises however. Especially based on what she now saw.
“What’s wrong?”
They were back by the security gates leading to the holding cells. Across the hall was a small office, and through the window Aerie could see the screen displaying the status of each cell. Some distance away, they heard gunshots accompanied by feral growls, confirming what she saw.
“They’re all free…”
