FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Aspen

Chapter 1.4

I followed Jenna into the lobby, looking around warily. It was a nice place; lots of light and open space. The receptionist at the front desk watched us approach.

"Hi," Jenna said. "Can you tell Director Fuller that I'm back, with a guest?"

"I've got some instructions here," the receptionist said. "Firstly: You're sure you weren't followed?"

"Of course."

"And you swept him for any bugs - electronic or biological?"

"Yeah," Jenna sighed. "Listen, I know the process."

"Just checking," the receptionist said. "Can't be too careful. Fuller's on his way down."

Jenna smiled at me. "Yeah, we're kind of paranoid here. There's a lot of secretive stuff going on, and we're very careful with guests."

"Yeah, I kind of got that impression from the multiple checkpoints with armed guards outside," I replied. It was making me a bit nervous, to be honest.

"Jenna! Ah, and you must be Alan!" A man cried as he walked into the room. He came up to me and grasped my hand firmly. "I've been hearing a lot about you."

"Hello, Director," Jenna said. "This is Alan Taylor, the HNR patient. Alan, this is Sean Fuller, director of Spec-Res."

"Uh. Nice to meet you," I said. I didn't know what to make of Fuller, but I got the impression I could trust him.

No, that's not right, is it? Why is Fuller so trustworthy? I literally just met him -

Suddenly, the room - and all the people in it - vanished. I was alone, floating in a completely black void.

"Let go," a voice echoed. "Just... let go..."

I panicked. Who said that? What had just happened? Where did everyone go? I could barely even begin to get a grasp on my situation when - as suddenly as it had disappeared - reality popped back. My college apartment. Jenna was sitting across the kitchen table from me.

"So yeah, I'm going to be moving to DC," she said. "I can't pass up a job like this."

"I can't move to DC," I replied. "My family needs me here. Aren't there any jobs in the area?"

"Listen, Alan, it's all right. We can try the long-distance thing for a while, if you want, but this is really just too good of an opportunity."

"Who exactly are you working for, anyway?"

"Well, it's basically a branch of the Army. I thought you'd be happy about this; I seem to remember you like the Army."

Hold on, is that true? I don't like the military, do I? And she's lying about it being a branch of - wait, how do I know this?

The room flickered out of existence again, replaced by darkness. _What the hell is going on?_I wondered.

"Relax. Don't worry, it will all be over soon..."

In the blink of an eye, I was back at Spec-Res, in a meeting room.

"Essentially," he explained, "we needed a subject who could be much more easily molded by nanotechnology. Thus, why we need someone with HNR."

"But why?" I asked.

Jenna spoke up. "Well, you know about hybridization?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Fuller has basically developed a far more extensive sort of hybridization procedure. All he needed was a test subject."

"Wait, you mean me?" I said. "But I've never really had any interest in hybridization."

Abruptly, the room flickered and stuttered; I felt the sharp pain of a massive headache developing. The clock on the wall behind Fuller's desk jumped backwards a few seconds, and Fuller and Jenna's positions shifted slightly.

"Fuller has basically developed a far more extensive sort of hybridization procedure. All he needed was a test subject."

"Oh really?" I replied. "I've always kind of had an interest in hybridization..."

Wait, what? What the hell just happened? Did I say that? Why did I say that? Is that really what happened? No. No, no, no.

"No."

"What?" Jenna and Fuller stared at me.

"This can't be real. This isn't what happened. I remember this, and this meeting didn't go this way."

In unison, Jenna and Fuller spoke, their voices overlapping and merging. "Stop fighting it. It's better this way."

"What the fuck?" They were seriously creeping me out.

"You need to stop fighting. Let go of those memories." They both stood up, acting in unison. "If you won't cooperate, then we'll have to make you." Without any warning, they lunged at me.

I reacted quickly, diving under the meeting room table, crawling underneath and emerging from the other side. Jenna and Fuller were fast to follow. I grabbed one of the chairs and tried to swing it at Fuller. It was heavier than I expected; I lost my grip and the chair flew towards him - and he shattered like glass.

The whole scene froze for a split second. Then, gradually, cracks grew throughout the entire room - and the entire thing collapsed, falling in a shower of broken memories.

I stared in shock, trying to understand what had happened. The shards of what had - just a moment ago - been a coherent memory were now lying in disorder on the ground. I was back in the featureless dark void, with only the broken vision showing that anything other than myself had ever been there.

"Well, now you've done it."

I spun around, and did a double-take when I saw the figure that had been standing behind me. It was like a snake had been given a humanoid body; it was just as tall as I was, standing on its hind legs, arms crossed. A tail swished gently across the ground behind it. Its head was, unmistakably, that of some kind of serpent - but even through the species difference, I got the impression that the creature was somewhat irritated. Then it spoke again.

"Do you have any idea how much effort I put into trying to make some coherent false memories that could plausibly fool you?"

"Who are you?" I asked shakily.

"I'm you. Or rather, you as you should have been."

"What do you mean?"

"You don't get it yet? This is all a dream, of sorts. Or perhaps it's just your own brain trying to come up with an interpretation for what's happening to you. While the hybridization procedure has been going on out there, I was created in here to, ah... change a few things."

"Like what? I thought the hybridization was just going to be changing my body."

"Well, there were a few tweaks that Fuller decided you needed. For one, he wanted you to trust him, and the military generals he works for. Primarily, though, the goal was to make sure that you would accept the new body."

"You mean, like..."

"Well, you never had a great deal of interest in hybridization, even before you learned that nanotech would completely screw with your body. There was some concern that we might stress your brain to the point of breaking if you didn't really _want_the new form."

"So your plan was to trick me into changing my mind?"

"Well, basically, yes. Now, though, you've royally screwed everything up, and I have no clue what's going to happen next."

"How about you just get out of my head?"

"You know how stubborn you are? I'm exactly the same. I'm not about to lay down and die so you can take your mind back."

"What if I make you?"

He laughed, and crouched into a more threatening pose. "You think you can take me on? I'd invite you to try." His tail lashed back and forth menacingly.

I wasn't particularly eager to fight him; his teeth and claws looked really sharp. "Fine, maybe I can't beat you. But you can't really beat me, either, can you? I've got the home field advantage here."

"Well, we can't stay like this forever. Your mind is already starting to collapse under the pressure that you and I are putting on it."

"So what?"

"So you'll probably die, or at least go completely insane. You don't want that, do you? I don't want that either, though I'd prefer it over getting destroyed completely."

"Isn't there anything else we can do? You know, other than going insane."

"Well, this really wasn't something we planned for. You weren't supposed to fight back."

We stood in silence for a few moments, standing amidst the wreckage of the fake memory. I puzzled over the situation, wondering... _There has to be some other way out, right?_Then it came to me.

"What if, rather than one of us destroying the other, or both of us staying and going insane... What if we, like, work together? Come to a compromise. Unite. I don't know, maybe even... merge together?"

The snake-me stared at me out of one eye. "Huh. I'm no expert, but that sounds like it could work. How do we do that, though?"

I stared at him for a moment, and then broke eye contact and blushed as an entirely inappropriate idea came to me. From his reaction, I was guessing that he had gotten the exact same idea.

"No. No, that's... Hell, even if we weren't asexual, that would be a really weird thing to do," he said quietly. "Let's go ahead and set that idea aside for now."

"Well, yeah, but something sort of like that might actually be okay," I said. "Come here." I opened my arms wide.

He looked at me skeptically. A couple seconds later, I saw the exact moment when he decided "eh, whatever." As he walked over to me and we embraced, I started to picture a specific scene. Sure enough, the memory flashed into existence, erasing the dark void from earlier. It was about a month and a half ago, right before the official beginning of the project.

Jenna walked into my room. I had been staying at the Spec-Res labs for a couple of weeks now; my previous residence was almost certainly still being watched.

"Hey Alan," she said. "Fuller wants you to come up with a name."

"A name?" I said.

"Well, if we're going to officially start working on this, the project needs a name. Also, he suggested that you come up with a codename or something for yourself; you can't exactly keep using 'Alan Taylor' forever, now can you?"

"Huh, I guess not," I said. "Got any ideas?"

"It's going to be your name, not mine. Also, maybe choose a name that you'd like to be called in the future. Becoming a hybrid, and being, uh... snakened, is probably as good a time as any to change your name."

"'Snakened'?" I said.

"Snake-ified, maybe? Yeah, okay, it's not a real word, but you know what I mean."

"No, that's not it. You gave me an idea..."

In the back of my mind, I felt the snake-Alan's approval. Ah, I see what you're doing.

Yup. Let's see if this works, I thought back to him. Here goes nothing.

And everything went blank.

~~~

The first sensation I felt was a dull ache. I didn't want to open my eyes; I could feel the lights shining on me. I carefully tasted the air, and immediately detected the scents of dozens of people. The containment chamber was open; the procedure was finished.

Slowly, carefully, I sat up. I shook off the remains of the restraints I had broken through earlier, and swept my tail across the operating table. I'd have to get used to that. Carefully, I opened my eyes, and saw Sean Fuller. He was standing right in front of me, with Jenna to his right, and a whole bunch of scientists standing behind him. Off to the side, I saw the military generals, debating amongst themselves.

"You're awake," Fuller said. "How are you feeling, Alan?"

"No," I said quietly. "Not... not anymore..."

"Sorry, what? I didn't catch that."

"Alan. That's not my name anymore."

"What do you mean?" Fuller looked puzzled, but Jenna seemed to understand.

"What should we call you, then?" she asked.

I paused. Was I ready for this? It was a big step, and I couldn't take it back very easily. Were my decisions still my own? Was I still in control, or was this something that Fuller had tried to make me choose?

No, this was me. This was who I wanted to be.

This was a new life, and I would make it mine.

I met Fuller's eyes and spoke.

"My name is Aspen."

[END OF CHAPTER 1]

To be continued...