Journey to Year 1,000,000,000 Ch. 04

"I think of it as torture," said Taylor.

"As would animals of your century that you experimented on."

"So that's what you think of us. As animals."

"Surely that is correct," said Arnack.

"But we think. We reason. We have self-awareness."

Arnack gave a dry laugh. "You think you reason. You reason that you think. In reality, you do not even begin to Xetan."

"What is Xetan?"

"You see? You are so primitive that you do not even know what the concept means," said Arnack. "And now we must begin our studies."

"Is this what you did to the crew of the Aurora? Drive them mad with your experiments?" Taylor asked.

"We did not drive them anywhere, as you put it. The crew of the Aurora cooperated, eventually, and gave us some fascinating results."

"Then where are they?"

"They are quite used up, I'm afraid," said Arnack. "But the data we obtained from our experiments expanded our understanding of historical anthropology by a factor of three."

"If you learned so much, why do you need us?"

"We only had 42 subjects to experiment with! That is an extremely small sample size! And now, thanks to you, we have 64 more! That will more than double our confidence intervals!"

"I'm so happy for you," said Taylor.

"You should be. You are going to aid our anthropological research immensely," said Arnack. "And along the way, you may help me personally as well."

"In what way?" Taylor asked.

"There is an opening to become a second keeper of the circle of Trilesta. Prelnick has said she will open her body to the man who gets the post."

"I'm so excited for you," said Taylor.

"You should be. As second keeper I will be able to advance the cause of behavior science research even further. And if Prelnick gives me permission to procreate, my superior genes will seed the next generation."

"I wouldn't worry about that," said a new voice, which Taylor recognized as Senderock's. "After your ineptitude this morning, Prelnick will never open her legs for you. I was the one who broke the Lowers, not you."

"We will see, Senderock," said Arnack. "And now, Captain Taylor, are you and your valiant crew ready for your first test?"

"No," said Taylor.

"Good. Then let us begin!"

And then... nothing happened. Everyone stared at each other for the longest time, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did.

********

A while later, out of thin air, something appeared on the ground.

A dish, filled with red cubes, appeared in every cell.

"What is this?" Taylor heard crewman Karen Levenson ask from another cell.

"Food, I think," said Taylor. He realized he was hungry. He picked up one of the food cubes. It had the consistency of gelatin. There was no water to go with it, but some of the cube felt more rubbery than others. Taylor guessed that those had more liquid content.

He cautiously put one in his mouth and bit down. Flavorful liquid slipped down his throat. Someone screamed-

It was Suki, in a cell across the way. "Suki, are you all right?" Taylor asked.

"I just felt this terrible pain, in my stomach," said Suki.

"Did you eat some of the food?" Taylor asked anxiously.

"No," said Suki. "Although I am hungry."

Taylor puzzled over this. And then, looking straight at Suki, he took another food cube, and put it in his mouth, and bit down.

Suki screamed again, grabbing her stomach.

"Oh no," said Taylor, spitting it out. "No."

"What is it? What's happening to us?" Suki asked.

"They're testing our restraint," said Taylor. "They want to see if we can stop ourselves from eating, even when we're hungry."

"And if we can't?" Suki asked.

"Then someone else in this room gets painful shocks," said Taylor.

Everyone looked around as they took in the implications. In order to eat, they would have to inflict pain on someone else.

"That's one of the things that separates us from animals," Taylor realized. "Animals will eat anything put in front of them immediately. Civilized people exercise restraint."

"Quite right, Captain Taylor," came Arnack's smug voice.

Taylor looked up, and saw him on the second level of the facility, staring at them with his big bug eyes.

"What are you going to do, starve us until we eat? What kind of test is that?" Taylor yelled.

"We are going to test your levels of restraint."

********

Time passed. There was no natural sunlight, so it was impossible to know if it was day or night. Their wristcoms had been taken from them. There was a hole in each cell to be used for excretions; so far everyone tactfully looked away when someone had to go.

Hunger started to build up in their bodies, and then their minds. It started to gnaw at them, to eat at them, for want of a better word.

Suddenly the red food cubes were looking very, very attractive. Taylor could tell by the looks of desperation on his crew's face that they weren't going to last much longer. So he laid down the line. "You can eat. You can all eat. It's a natural thing, to have to eat," said Taylor. "Don't feel you have to hold out for the rest of us. The only rule is, if you have to eat, warn us first, and eat as rapidly as possible."

Crewman Rudy Garrett was the first to break. "I'm sorry... I can't... I have to eat."

"It's all right," said Taylor. "Just do it as quickly as possible."

Rudy looked around. He didn't know who he would be inflicting pain upon. He picked up a red cube and put it in his mouth, and started chewing.

Jennifer Hale yelled out in pain.

Rudy put another cube in his mouth.

"Don't do one at a time!" Bill Carey roared. "Eat them all, as fast as you can, man!"

Rudy filled his mouth with red cubes. He started chewing the rubbery cubes as rapidly as he could. Jennifer was rolling around in agony. Her screams filled all the neighboring cells.

And then Rudy swallowed, and it was done.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he whispered.

Jennifer, gasping as she lay on the ground, her body covered in sweat, stared at him with a hard look.

"Jennifer, are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she said coldly, as she slowly sat up.

One by one they all gave in to hunger, and one by one they gave pain to one of their cellmates. At the last was Bill Carey and Taylor, both of whom had refused to eat.

"Captain, you have to eat," said Jennifer. "Some of us have already eaten twice."

It was true. A second wave of food cubes had been delivered.

Taylor shook his head. "I'm fine." His "pain partner" was Suki Tanaka. He didn't want to be the one to inflict pain on her.

"Listen to her, Captain," said Bill Carey. "You have to eat."

"You haven't eaten, Bill," said Taylor.

"That's because-"

"Because of what?" said Taylor. "Because you're a real officer, and I'm not?"

"I never said that," said Carey.

"You have looked down on me from the moment I came aboard. You think I'm reckless and irresponsible and have no regard for my crew, is that right?" said Taylor.

Carey didn't answer.

"You would have been happier if I had eaten first. If I had eaten first, that would have fulfilled your expectations of me," said Taylor. "And you, by eating last, would show that you have more leadership potential than any of us. That's what this is all about, isn't it?"

"You're both being stupid!" Jennifer snapped.

"You can't call the Captain stupid!" said Carey.

"I just did," said Jennifer. "What are you going to do, mark me down for report?"

"When we get back to the ship, yes," said Carey.

"Captain, please eat," said Suki. "I want you to." Her eyes were begging him.

Taylor looked at her. He shook his head.

"All right," said Carey. "We will both eat at the same time."

"You eat," said Taylor.

"Both of us, or none," said Carey.

And that was how Taylor and Bill Carey finally agreed to eat some food. Suki Tanaka and Karen Levenson screamed in pain while Taylor and Bill Carey ate as rapidly as possible. And then it was over, and their screams turned to moans, which soon faded entirely.

As Bill spoke to Karen, Taylor called over to Suki. "Suki, are you all right?"

"I'm... recovering, Captain," She said, lying on her stomach.

"I'm so sorry," he said.

Suki was touched by his concern, and his expression. "Don't worry about it, sir."

"Fascinating," came the voice of Arnack. "It was as we thought. The two most senior males are in competition. They are exercising the most restraint."

"To what end?" said Senderock.

"Probably they are competing for the females, to show their worthiness to be inseminators," said Arnack. "Isn't that what you were attempting to do, Captain Taylor?"

"Come into this cell, and I'll show you exactly what I was attempting to do," said Taylor.

"That won't be necessary. A fascinating first effort. I must go and notate my results," said Arnack.

"Wait!" said Taylor. "Where is the rest of my crew? And the scientists?" None of the scientists were in the cells around him. They seem to have been purposefully segregated.

But there was no response coming from Arnack.