The Aspen Experiments

Chapter 12

Chapter 12 - Flight

Our first order of business was ask Professor Hyto about Ava.

John left his body, the copy one, here with me, while he traveled to the future. He lay limp and lifeless in a classroom, while I watched the door to make sure no one came in.  His body shook a little when he left and when he came back, but other than that it looked peaceful. 

After he'd shaken himself back together he sat up, and rubbed his eyes and head. "That was... upsetting."

I gave him time to order his thoughts. I didn't tell him that I'd thrown up in the trash can while he did his aspen-travel thing.  As his body had gone limp I'd felt a wave of cold energy wash over me. Thankfully I'd noted the trashcan when we set up, and I dove for it. I was quite proud of my forethought, and I didn't want to make John feel bad about it.

"Professor Hyto said not to do anything. Again. I'm so tired of hearing that. Why on earth did he send me here if I'm not supposed to do anything?! I'm just supposed to watch Shammas and Ringer experiment on these girls and hope nothing bad happens to them? Just supposed to trust that Professor Hyto will tell me when something changes and I need to act? I don't get it, Dara."

I stood behind him and rubbed his shoulders for a moment. The muscles in his neck were clenched tight, but he started to relax as I rubbed. My dad always told me I was a killer back-rubber.

"It scares me a little," John admitted. "If I knew what to do, I could act. But Professor Hyto has all the information. I'm dependent on him. I hate that." John paused, thinking. "His decisions don't make any sense. I've made excuses for him, but now I'm wondering if I should trust him at all. It's hard to describe how he acted today... he was eager but distracted. He kept asking about Ringer, how he looked, and what I thought of him. It was weird. I'm pretty sure he's lying about something."

"Like what?"

"It's hard to say. Everything I know about this situation I learned from him. He could have twisted the truth in a thousand ways, or completely fabricated things. I'm not sure where to start." He sighed.

"You say you learned everything from him, but that's not true anymore," I reminded him. "You've been 'on the ground' here for over eight months. You've observed Dr. Shammas and Mr. Ringer. You've learned about me and Ava. If you started from scratch, what would you think?"

John thought for a minute. "I'd think, based on the secrecy and lies he's using on his subjects,  that Shammas is clearly a threat to the students at this school. However, he hasn't hurt anyone yet. He doesn't represent enough of a threat for us to attack him. I mean, I wouldn't feel justified clubbing him over the head yet. The most logical thing would be to remove the people in danger and then expose him before he found anyone else."

I couldn't help flinching at the thought of my removal. It would mean my removal from John, possibly forever. But he was right. It didn't make sense to play Russian roulette with a crazy scientist. I'd gotten away with it twice. Ava had been unharmed so far. But there was no guarantee for either of us.

The next order of business was to talk to Ava. John told her his story, but she was very skeptical. Her questions made me feel stupid. I'd accepted his story so easily. I fully believed him now, but why did I at first? '

Because you knew something was wrong with him, stupid. You kept throwing up on him, my inner voice answered. My inner voice tended to be a little insulting, but that made sense. I'd known for sure there was something wrong with John, so I was prepared to find out something crazy.  Ava wasn't prepared. And she wasn't buying it.