Creatures of God

The Last Produced Video

Hello, hello! I'm sure I say this all the time, but this is a favorite chapter of mine. Somewhat short, but with great revelation and a great cliffhanger ending. I think. What do you think? Let me know! Anyway, thanks as always for everything. On with the show!

"It would've been a lot easier, Doc, if you had just shared the files," Elliot said aloud.

He sat at the desk of his former mentor, sorting through the different folders on the department computer. As if guessing the password to the personal register hadn't been difficult enough, now he had to deal with the organizational skills of his former docent. He was reminded of the Professor's previous desk management.

"How in the world did you ever find anything, Doc?"

Secret human capsule experiments were not exactly headlined as such. Instead, most of the work folders were scattered throughout the desktop and internal drive, and labeled in nondescript ways. Elliot tried to imagine a method to the madness, but it wasn't always apparent.

"A-ha! There you are!"

Finally, Elliot located one of the files on the capsule experiments.

The Professor had separated the trials by protocol variables. Elliot re-organized them into chronological order, spanning the last year and a half. Then he located the most recent entry from a week ago and selected its "Discussion" video log.

"Hey, Professor!" Elliot called out, smiling at seeing his mentor animated once again.

Projected in front of the computer screen, a coarse green hologram of Dr. Berman popped up, with the former teacher sitting at the exact same desk where Elliot currently sat.

The doctor observed:

"A second attempt at emergence has now failed. That is two consecutive failures using the protocol that had previously resurrected Alessandro. Without a demonstrable advantage, I cannot endorse further use of this flawed protocol. How it worked for Aless, I don't know, but from a practical and ethical standpoint, I cannot risk the life of another encapsulated subject just to test the current protocol once again."

The professor sighed deeply. He continued:

"Regarding our friend from the past, I have to say, I am deeply worried about Alessandro. He eats poorly. He sleeps erratically. He can be very withdrawn at times and emotional at others. Can this all be attributed to a change in hormones? Strangely, there are also times when Alessandro exhibits periods of calmness and inner solitude followed by activity with extraordinary energy, especially after resting all day. He can be very athletic and agile. I'm not sure exactly what to make of him.

"The good thing is he has now completed an adequate quarantine period, and so I feel fine with advancing his diet and activity electives. It is time to increase his exposure to our world and to other people. Still, I am thinking we should keep a close eye on him. He may be suffering from the effects of a prolonged encapsulation period."

End of report.

Elliot sat back in the office chair.

"A prolonged encapsulation syndrome?" Elliot said to himself. "When did we talk about this? When was that last entry?"

Elliot searched again.

As the computer relocated the last produced video, Elliot's face lit up. Yet another computer entry was found, but this one was not placed in a human capsule folder like the others.

Did Dr. Berman forget to put this one away?

The date of entry for the last video was also far more recent than the other entry -- it was from the day the Professor was murdered.