Internal Debate

He spends much of the rest of the day thinking over the problem sitting before him. A little after midday, Jessica comes in with a tray of food from the commissary. She leaves it on the side table, firmly grasps his shoulder for a moment, turns and leaves. He smiles curtly when she grasped his shoulder and let her leave without a word.

As the end of the day approaches, he becomes concerned with the General's reaction. Ken could never participate in that project, and he won't. But, he is aware of the General's wrath when things do not go his way.

Promptly at closing time for the day, there is a forceful knock at the door. Raising his head, Ken calls in whomever is at the door. Though, before the door opens, he is reasonably sure of who is there. The door is thrust open with great urgency only to be faced with General Caraway filling the frame.

"What is your answer?" bellows the General.

Ken stands up, faces the General, and answers with a voice that has no ambiguity, "No, sir. I will not participate in your project."

The General becomes angry faster than most can take in a breath. He turns and dashes out the door, moving with purpose. Ken is just about to breath a sign of relief when the General makes a motion with his hand. Following that gesture, four armed guards rush into the room and place handcuffs on Ken's arms and legs. They pick him up, one at each arm and one at each leg, and haul him through the complex.

Many people are still leaving their work and starting to head home as Ken is displayed throughout the corridors. The faces of the others as they pass says everything Ken needed to know about them. Most have horrified looks, wondering what he could have done to deserve this. A great many others are smiling, though Ken is unsure as to why. After several minutes, he is taken past Jessica's lab. She is standing at the door with the strangest look on her face. It is neither joy, nor horror. Her face contained a message. A simple message, saying only that "I will help you."

He had only a few more moments to ponder her face before the General was before him again. His anger, if possible, even stronger than before.

"How dare you defy my wishes! You are alive only because I have let you! I hope you enjoy your new accomodations!" the General yells at Ken.

With that last remark, the door behind the General opened and the guards carried him through. It was not long before Ken could hear sounds in the dark corridor. Another moment later, he heard the creak of a metal door opening. The guards stopped at the open door and threw him into the cell, closing the door behind him.

The Great Project

He sits back in his chair for a moment and tries to collect himself to tell her the story of the morning. He rubs his hands over his face vigorously as if to bring the blood back into his head. Looking at his hands, he takes a deep breath and begins to tell the tale.

"Well, he approached me in my lab and told me to come straight to his office. He wouldn't even let me finish the analysis that I had started. Had I resisted anymore, I think he would have had the guards he brought drag me to his office; so, I followed him and arrived shortly after he did. When I went in, he had the strangest look on his face. Sort of a mix between having something unpleasant on his mind and something pleasurable. Only, I could not know then that the unpleasantness was that he wasn't sure I'd accept what he was offering."

He takes a moment to collect himself again and take another breath before continuing. "Then, Jessi, then he handed me a paper showing me the most grotesque thing I have ever seen. You know that I have always been for Unification; but after seeing this, I don't think I can ever support the Alliance again. It was the most horrible thing to be asked to do."

Jessica Ziyi looks him in the eye almost jumping out of her seat to hear, "What was it?"

He looks deep into her eyes, forgetting again just how he can be lost in them. She has been his friend for many years and occasionally his confidant in times of need, such as this one. He realized now that he was at the moment of truth that it was easier than he thought it would be to tell her.

"The Alliance, and General Caraway, asked me to create a biogenic weapon."

Jessi gasped at hearing this. For doctors, there can be no greater insult than to ask them to do harm unto others.

"They didn't," she said, not completely believing her own words.

"They did."

"What did you say?"

"I told the General no. He then insisted that I think it over. I have until the end of the day to decide. I am afraid that if I don't go along with this, I will be in great peril."

Only now could she see the fear in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He looked at her and began crying softly, "I won't do it, no matter what they do to me."

She comes over to him and holds him for a time. She does not wish to leave his side. But, she must for if she is away from her work for too long, someone will notice, "I have to go. They will miss me soon."

He understands her dilemma and her need to leave, "Go ahead. We can talk later, I hope."

A Friendly Face

He sits in his chair by his desk and puts his head in his hands. After the incident with the General, he is not sure what the future holds for him. There is simply no way he can participate in that project. He sits in his chair, face in his hands, and tries to find a way out of this conundrum. After a while, he falls asleep on the desk, still entraped by the thoughts that plague his mind.

Deep in sleep, he does not notice that someone has entered his office is standing right behind him until she shakes his shoulders a bit. Startled, he almost falls out of his chair before collecting himself. He turns around to find one of the most beautiful women he has ever known standing in front of him. Even though he has seen her many times before, he always seems to need to take a moment to remember exactly what she looks like. The way her auburn hair falls over her shoulders and how her brown eyes can just take hours away from him. He has always found it hard not to smile when she is near. And, without fail, a smile broadens on his face despite all that has happened to him today.

"Good to see you can still smile," she says as she smiles back at him. A smile that can make men melt in an instant.

"I don't know why I am smiling. I really have nothing to smile about anymore."

She looks concerned for a moment before carefully responding to him, "I heard that you had a verbal dustup with the General."

"Yes, the guay toh guay nown has it in his head that I'm going to do this new project of his and I simply cannot do something like that," his anger growing as he thinks more about it.

"Before you go mental on me, tell me what he asked you to do."

"You really don't want to hear this, trust me," he says knowing that she will insist anyway and that he really should tell someone just to get some of the burden off his shoulders.

She knows that he's expecting her to ask about it again. But, she is curious and concerned all at once, "What did he ask?"

He pauses for a moment, considering fighting her on this one. The project is so repulsive to him that he doesn't want to talk about it. Yet, he needs to talk about it to not be the only person on his side of the argument, "Ok, well, where to begin?"




Translations:

guay toh guay nown - conniving or scheming person, literally: "ghost head and ghost brain"

.....Becomes a Not Normal Day

Ken has been working on this drug for the past several months. And, finally, he seems to be getting close to finding the solution he needs to make it work. As he continues his research and analysis of the last test, a large, muscular man walks in from the hall. The way the other scientists react, one can tell that this is an important man. Ken, entranced by his research, doesn't notice the man until he speaks to Ken.

"Dr. Spencer," rumbles the man.

Taken by surprise, Ken almost falls off the stool he is sitting upon as he spins to face the man.

"Gen....Ge.....General Caraway. I'm sorry, I did not hear you come in," Ken stammers out.

The General looks Ken over very carefully before responding, "I noticed. Will you please come to my office?"

"Yes, sir. Just as soon as I finish this analysis."

"No," says the General in a no nonsense sort of manner. "You will report now."

"Yes, I will be there," he says, unsure of why the urgency. Usually, the General would allow Ken to finish an analysis before insisting he be in the office. But, there was something in the General's features that made Ken think that this time is not the time to test his patience.

As the general leaves, Ken gives quick instructions to his lab staff to finish the analysis he had started. He then quickly leaves the lab headed towards the General's office. He finds when he turns the corner at the hall intersection towards the General's office that there are a large number of troops on guard duty near the door. While it is not unusual to see soldiers in the facility, it is quite unusual to find them guarding inside the building.

When he gets to the door, one of the soldiers knocks on the door and announces Ken's presence. The General waves Ken into the room and the guard closes the door. For a few moments, the General is concentrating heavily upon his cortex terminal. He then looks up to Ken and offers him a seat opposite him but out of view of the terminal.

"Dr. Spencer, I have called you in here on a matter of Alliance security. There is a project that must be completed as quickly as possible and I have volunteered you. Given how swiftly you conquered that strain of Talos Flu that the troops on Shadow a few months back, I think you'll do well for this project."

Ken is intrigued. Thus far, the projects have all been for the betterment of the troops and have been excellent challenges for his skills. "What sort of project is this, General?"

The General hands over a piece of paper to Ken. The heading reads "Top Secret". And the sub heading causes Ken to check a second time to be sure he read it correctly. He looks up at the General, "I cannot participate in this project, sir."

At those words, the General suddenly turned red and quite angry. Despite this change in mood, the General's words were measured and spoken clearly, "What was that, Mister?"

"I cannot participate in this project, sir. It goes against my oath as a doctor and humanitarian."

"You did not join the military to be a humanitarian."

"No, sir, I did not. But, I did join the military to help people. And, this....this 'project' helps no one."

The General was becoming quite irate at Ken's blatant refusal to head this project, "Doctor, you will do this project or you will suffer the consequences. I will give you until the end of the day to decide the way you should. Now, Leave!"

Taken aback by the anger in the General's voice, Ken is unsure what he should do. For a moment, he endures the stare of the General before he gets out of the chair and makes his way back into the hall. He saunters slowly back to his office next to his lab where he can think about what has just happened to him.