[ Contents | 5. Captives! | 6. Experimental Subject #12 | 7. Lover and Servant ]

Yamucha's Student

By Dragoness Eclectic

Chapter 6. Experimental Subject #12

Saisei's head hurt, his queasy stomach churned, and the pounding feet walking slowly across the room were far too loud. Ugh, he thought, I should not have drunk so much beer last night.

He started to turn over--and could not. Something was wrong, very wrong. Saisei's eyes flicked open; he gasped as the bright lights stabbed into his aching head. Still, he could see that he wasn't in his room, or Yamucha's apartment; he was flat on his back in a room with a boring tile ceiling and clusters of very bright lights hanging over him. It reminded him of something, but he couldn't remember exactly what.

His ears worked; he could hear someone moving about across the room. He breathed, he could see, he could feel a cool draft against his cheeks--but no matter how much he willed it, Saisei could not move anything below his neck. He couldn't even feel his arms and legs--he was completely paralyzed.

Another kind of paralysis took over what was left--the paralysis of fear. It crept up his throat and seized his tongue; he was afraid to call out, to draw the attention of he knew not what. The fear crept down his chest, and touched his heart, causing it to race wildly; it gripped his lungs, leaving him gasping for breath. Saisei was completely and utterly helpless; he couldn't run, he couldn't fight, he couldn't even look his fate in the eye.

No, wait--he could turn his head; he could do that much. Saisei turned his head toward the noises.

A small man with faded brown hair stood by a computer console, making entries at the keyboard. Saisei could now see that he was laying on a gurney--and the significance of the lights leaped to the forefront of his mind. Those were the lights of an operating room!

"Wh-what happened to me?" Saisei's voice came out in a hoarse whisper as it fought the irrational fear clutching his throat.

The small man turned abruptly to look at Saisei, one eyebrow raised. "Ah, you're awake! Very good, I've been waiting on you." His voice was annoyingly cheerful, and so was the smile on his face. "I need to get some readings on your conscious brainwaves before we move on to the next stage."

"Brainwaves? What's wrong? Why can't I move?" Saisei gasped hoarsely as the fear threatened to smother him.

The small man walked over to the helpless Saisei and looked down at him, still smiling. "Nothing's wrong, that's just a temporary neural block to keep you from thrashing around and hurting yourself."

He reached behind Saisei's head and busied himself with things out of the young man's sight. Saisei felt his hair being parted, and things stuck to his scalp and the nape of his neck. The small man began to whistle as he worked, something Saisei found incredibly annoying--annoying enough to drive out the lurking fears.

"Who are you and what are you doing to me?" Saisei asked a bit sharply.

"I am Dr. Mathieu Soliere, and I am attempting to get a three-dimensional map of your brainwaves, young man. Without that, there's no chance of the control harness working." He resumed his whistling, and Saisei gritted his teeth.

"I don't think I like the sound of that," growled Saisei.

"You would like it much less if the harness worked badly, stimulating the wrong brain centers--pain instead of pleasure, for example." Soliere's voice was still insanely cheerful. "You know," he said as he hooked up wires to some unseen apparatus behind Saisei's head, "you're the first subject I've had in a long time that I could talk to. Monsters are lousy conversationalists."

"I am not your subject!" Saisei snapped.

"Don't be delusional; it's much too early in the process. I'd rather you not become delusional at all, but it's such a common coping mechanism among intelligent creatures that I imagine you'll resort to it eventually. Aha!" Something clicked, and Soliere stepped back into view, beaming. "I'm getting nice clear readings from the pickups. Just keep talking; I need a good baseline."

"I am not your lab rat," Saisei growled. "I do not know what you think you are doing, but I will have no part of it!"

Dr. Soliere stared down at his subject, the first hint of a frown on his face. He sighed. "Of course you are not a lab rat; rats are far too unsophisticated for this experiment. You are, I suppose, a guinea pig--as the weaker of my two human subjects, you are slightly more expendable and thus will be the first to be fitted with a control harness designed for a human."

Fear edged back, but this time it was fear for another. "Who is the other subject?" Please don't let it be--

"The other fighter captured with you--Mistress Lunch called him 'Yamucha'." Dr. Soliere whistled between his teeth, examining the monitor in front of him. "Ah, that's good. Now to localize your pain centers...."

Saisei's heart sank, and he paid little attention to Soliere's activities. Yamucha had been captured, and was at the mercy of this callous little man! His sensei was in trouble because... because... because of him! If Saisei had not been so obsessed with revenge, Yamucha would not have--

Something pricked his scalp, and an unpleasant buzz vibrated through his skull for a moment. Silence followed, then another prick and buzz.

"What now?" Saisei snarled.

"Now, you sleep," answered Soliere. "I can't have you twisting about while I'm implanting the electrodes." A click, and suddenly an immense tiredness fell on Saisei, and he fell away into darkness.

Some indeterminate time later, Saisei awoke flat on his back beneath the lights. This time, his head was held immobile, in some kind of brace, and his teeth were wedged apart by a piece of rubber. Dr. Soliere was beside him, looking alternately at him and at a small device in his hand.

"Ah, good. You responded well to the somni-inducer; unfortunately, I need you conscious for calibration of your pain centers." The doctor smiled gently. "I'm afraid this part won't be pleasant for you, but it is necessary--you are much too uncooperative for me to proceed further without the proper neural restraints."

Dr. Soliere pressed a button on the small console in his hand--

PAIN! Stark agony coursed through Saisei's body--the agony of being burned alive as fire slowly seared the skin and flesh off his bones, the pain of every bone being crushed to splinters and every joint being wrenched apart, the tearing agony of his entrails being ripped out, over and over and over, without end--

As suddenly as it began, it ended. Saisei found himself gasping for breath, his throat raw from screaming, his teeth sunk deeply into the rubber mouth protector. He dimly realized that without it, he would have bitten his tongue off. Sweat ran off him in rivers, and his heart hammered as if to burst.

Dr. Soliere beamed. "Oh, very good! That was an excellent set of readings--I can already see that I need to adjust the microvoltage down somewhat."

Dr. Soliere set down his console and wiped Saisei's wet face with a cool, damp cloth. The doctor smiled proudly. "You did very well, young man; all of my previous human subjects were too weak to survive calibration. Their hearts gave out, you see." He puttered about with his controls, and then said, "You need to rest before we continue calibration. It won't be quite as bad; I need to calibrate the pain receptors for the major motor centers of your body, but I'll use a much lower microvoltage." So saying, he pressed another button, and Saisei fell unconscious once more.

Doctor Soliere woke Saisei to fresh torment. Each round consisted of taking readings from the previous round, adjusting pickups and electrodes, and then a switch was pressed, triggering the electrodes implanted in Saisei's brain, pulsing searing or stabbing or tearing pain in some part of his body.

None of it was as bad as the all-consuming agony of that first time; never again did Saisei become the screaming, mindless thing he'd been. He was coherent enough to beg, pleading with tears streaming down his face for the little doctor to stop; Saisei promised to do anything the callous scientist wanted if only he would stop the pain.

It did not matter. Soliere studiously ignored Saisei's pleas and methodically continued his program. Saisei could only suffer, and learn to fear the bland little man who controlled his pain. He began to flinch in terror every time Soliere's hand reached for the control panel, and Saisei despised himself for it.

No! Remember Right Mindfulness, Saisei thought during one of the intervals between rounds of torment. It is not me, it is him! Should I curse myself because my body bled when those bastards shot me? No! They are the accursed ones! Curse them, and curse this vile doctor!

He honed his hatred for the genial little doctor to whom Saisei was nothing more than a lab animal, to be tormented for the doctor's insane research. As the button was pressed, and pain ripped off his leg and crushed his thighbone to powder, Saisei held on to one idea: he would kill Doctor Soliere before he died, no matter what. It was not Right Thought, nor would doing so be Right Action, but a part of him took great comfort in the thought.

At last Doctor Soliere stopped, beaming. "Very, very good." He patted Saisei gently on the cheek as he removed the mouth protector and brace. "I have all the readings I need for that; tomorrow we start on your pleasure centers. I promise you that will be much more enjoyable." He laughed merrily. Saisei hated him.

Something buzzed, and the doctor looked up. "What now?" He muttered, and ran across the room, out of Saisei's sight. The tortured youth lifted his head; the rest of his body was still paralyzed. Soliere appeared to be talking on the telephone to someone--and he was not enjoying the conversation.

Saisei dropped his head back down. The simplest effort was exhausting; even his neck muscles trembled with the effort, and sweat poured off his face. What sins did I commit in my past life, to be punished so? Whatever they were, I am surely atoning for them now, he thought.

Soliere hastened back to Saisei, frowning. "Things are moving faster than I thought, and the Colonel wants the two of you ready as soon as possible. I'm sorry, but you're not as necessary as subject Yamucha, so we will not be able test your pleasure centers until I am done with him." The little brown-haired man sighed. "Fortunately, wiring up a simple restraint harness to the existing implants is a trivial task--I can't have you running about free to cause trouble, but I don't want to leave you paralyzed. That would be unhealthy, and you need to be in good health for my experiments."

The doctor continued to chatter as he moved back and forth, attaching various small metal objects to Saisei's head, and removing wires and putting consoles away.

"There," he said at last. "Your restraint harness is attached, and I'm about to remove the neural block..." Doctor Soliere flipped a switch--

Saisei gasped as feeling flooded back into the rest of his body, a pins-and-needles prickling as his nerves woke back up. He flexed long-paralyzed muscles, gratified to feel them respond in spite of the receding numbness and tingling. He could feel the restraining straps tieing him to the gurney, and waited for full control to return...

Doctor Soliere smiled at him. "Feeling better, now?"

"Yes," Saisei answered hoarsely as he focussed his ki. Then he lashed out, his ki-focussed strength snapping the stout leather restraints like tissue--

And collapsed, arching his back and screaming, as agony tore through every nerve in his body. As he writhed in pain, each violent move sent fresh spasms of pain stabbing through his muscles, triggering fresh convulsions and more pain until he could only twitch feebly, mewling mindlessly as the agony seemed to shred his flesh into tiny gobbets. As he stopped thrashing, the pain finally subsided, leaving Saisei moaning and quivering on the gurney.

Doctor Soliere clucked reprovingly. "They always have to find it out the hard way. I did tell you the restraint harness was in place." He smiled condescendingly at Saisei. "It is programmed to allow minimal and slow movements, so that you can work your muscles and tend to bodily needs, but if you violate the parameters..." The little man shrugged. "You already know the results. Furthermore, if you were to try to remove the harness... well, let's just say that it would be a bad idea." The doctor shook his head. "And don't forget I have a controller for your harness, should you outwit its simple programming."

Saisei glared at him from where he lay. Finally, he started to pull himself upright--

"No! Lay down and stay there until I tell you otherwise," Soliere said preemptorily. He walked away, back to the telephone and called someone.

Saisei raised himself slightly and looked around. Over there! The breath hissed sharply between his teeth; he'd found Yamucha. His sensei was strapped to another operating gurney, unconscious, wires running from his head and neck to machines nearby. Saisei growled; he recognized those machines!

So he's got Yamucha asleep and paralyzed... all ready for his hellish experiments! I've got to get loose, get this thing off my head, somehow... Saisei slowly raised a hand to his head, trying to feel the thing that clung heavily to his scalp. A warning tingle prickled his fingers and joints as he did so; it intensified as his hand got closer to his head. He put his hand down again. Better not; I'm not ready to deal with the pain-maker yet, Saisei thought.

A short while later a familiar figure, one arm in a sling, pushed open the door and entered.

"Hey, Doc, whaddaya need?" grunted Haze, glancing around the room. The bald man smirked as he saw Saisei and Yamucha.

"Escort subject number twelve, there, to his cell. See that he's maintained in a healthy condition until I'm ready to resume experiments with him." The short brown-haired man waved dismissively at Haze, and turned back to the prone figure of Yamucha.

"Yes, sir!" Haze grinned, and sarcastically snapped a salute at Soliere's back. He sauntered over to Saisei. "Can you walk, pretty boy, or do I have ta push ya on this here gurney?"

"I can walk," Saisei growled, eyes narrowing, "slowly." With exaggerated care, he sat up and levered himself off the gurney to stand on his own feet once more.

Haze looked him up and down, smirking. "Doc gave you a control harness. Ooooh, scary! You're a monster!" He laughed mockingly.

"Haze, stop babbling and get him out of here!" Doctor Soliere interrupted. "The noise is distracting, and I don't need distractions right now!"

Haze pushed Saisei toward the door, indicating that he should go in front. As they left Soliere's laboratory, Saisei could hear the little doctor crooning to Yamucha, "Ah, you're awake! Very good..."

[ Contents | 5. Captives! | 6. Experimental Subject #12 | 7. Lover and Servant ]

Disclaimer: See Credits.

Copyright 2001 by Dragoness Eclectic