Half Life

Fleeing Rats

"How is your treatment progressing?" Walker asked, watching the sleeping Halpha through his room cameras. 

"Frustratingly slowly," Spectra admitted. "He has a strong will. Even when he cooperates I can only trigger short bursts of memory."

"And what have you leaned so far?"

"He was very young when the event occured. The oldest memories we've unlocked so far have him at... 5 or 6 when the sterilization began. We have yet to come to the day he escaped, but I feel we're coming close. It's a very narrow target memory. I'll have to get it just right."

Walked folded his arms behind his broad back. 

"I don't like having this survivor in headquarters Spectra," he growled, staring intensely at the sleeping alien. "If he ever manages to bypass the medication-"

"It won't come to that sir," Spectra assured the general. "We're very close to discovering how he survived. A few more days at most."

Walker gave a grim nod of approval.

"Sir... when this is all over... I have to ask. What will happen to the boy? I'm starting to think that his DNA could open up a whole new area of biotechnology. This is evolutionary weaponry like we haven't seen for years. It would be a terrible waste to-"

"I'm not keeping this fugitive around any longer than is necessary," Walker cut her off. "Let the scientists do what they want with whatever tissue samples they've collected. Once we know what he knows, his usefulness will have ended."

"But-"

Walker rounded on his deputy. His eyes burned like cold fire against his pale skin. Spectra shrank away, her protest dying on her lips. 

"Yes sir. Just a few more days then."

...............................................................................................

"Come on Daniel, just a little more!" Spectra urged. 

Danny's scalp ached from the push and pull of her long nails. He couldn't stop a few pained tears from escaping his closed eyes as he winced at the mental and physical pain. 

Another vision was floating before him. Another happy memory of his first family. Mother, father, and a sister who was barely old enough to walk. They were hiking together in a glowing forest. Danny was stumbling to keep up with his father's long stride, while his mother carried his little sister on her shoulders. They reached the summit of their hike, standing together and admiring the view of a valley that burned with color and light. 

A smell floated faintly through the memory. A strange, clean burning smell. 

His parents began talking quietly, pointing over the forest. Small white ships were taking flight from the towns they could see. They were gaining speed and leaving the atmosphere. 

Danny looked up at his parents in the memory. They looked worried. He understood two words from their hushed conversation as they began to head back down the hiking trail. 

Space Corps

Once again, the memory faded shortly after it had begun. Danny leaned back in the chair, small beads of sweat forming on his forehead. They were getting close. He knew the moment, the memory, would come any time now. 

"What was it this time Daniel?" Spectra asked, collapsing into a chair next to his and massaging her temples. 

"A hike with my family," he responded shortly.

"Yes? Anything else?" she prompted.

Danny remembered the vision of ships, vanishing like fleeing rats. The note of worry creeping into his family's voices. The smell or burning fuel drifting through the sky. 

"No. Nothing else."