Experiment 86119

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

I rather feel like I hear screams too often while looking at the vastness of the stars above me. Inhaling the salty air as I stand just close enough to the ocean for the water to roll over my feet, I ignore the subtle hues of different colored lights coming from me. Almost in a trance, I stand perfectly still as I await something I’m not a hundred percent certain of as a memory rises.

************************

“Amarilis, you don’t need to be concerned with anything else. Just, face the stars my love, for they call to you!” Joyce Naveeve calls to her daughter while she stays much further away on the shore, watching in awe as the dancing glow as though a borialis came to engulf her preteen daughter. She turns from staring at her mother, watching her weep with joy and excitement for what she did not know. She had been concerned that she had yet to have a menstrual while all of her friends had, and after that night, she finally started to understand why…

************************

Of course, that was a much longer time ago when her mother was still alive. All she has now to remember the brilliant, if not eccentric, woman is her family and the journals left to her. From that day on, she was placed in a research group with seven other children. That was also when they had all learned that they were half alien beings, secret mostly kept well of course.

“Mari, are you coming or not?” Anwar yells up to her, dangling his keys as he waits for a reply.

“Just a minute, I’m tying my hair up!” She yells back to her twin, honestly bemoaning the fact that her car needed repairs. “I swear, I’ll never take Fifi for granted again!” She huffs as she clicks her seatbelt, glaring at Anwar as he laughs at her expense.

“Look on the plus side, at least they’re fixing the street now. AND, Fifi is getting a full repair and the much needed paint job!” He replies, laughing more as he starts the truck and she swats at him. He easily dodges her half-hearted attempts.

“I can’t wait to have my baby back!” She exclaims, settling into her seat before grinning and giving him a side look. “You’re still taking me tomorrow, right?”

“Duh, I need to stop being your chauffeur.” Anwar playfully rolls his eyes as he replies. A few minutes later, they roll to a stop in front of a building that had become all too familiar to them. “Even after coming here for fourteen years, it’s still a bit unsettling.” He comments as they start to head towards the doors of the strangely angular and smooth building. Their mother’s lab and research facility had doubled as their headquarters for her cultish following. She had left the facility to them when she passed a mere seven years before.

“Well, she’s always said that things would make more sense when they come back.” Amarilis laughs with a shrug as they wind their way through the maze like halls before they enter the room that is a meeting area for the “Eight Elites”, the most promising of the children born from their fathers and various females of the cult called Orion Dynasty. While they still had the large circular table, but they also had plenty of comfortable seating, snacks and things to keep themselves occupied as if they weren’t in their mid twenties.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t our fearless leaders!” Sheen exclaims as soon as he notices them, grinning before biting into a gooey cookie. “Want to join in with our next round?” He waves a controller at them with raised brows.

“Don’t worry, we made sure to finish getting everything ready, as per your instructions.” Jonni tells them easily, offering a shrug before handing them both a drink.

Luke grins at them and greets them a little too cheerfully. “Hey guys, can we discuss my allowance? I know we’ve talked about this, but could I maybe get next week’s a bit early?”

“Seriously?! You need to leave those streamers alone! Just because they’re pretty girls that reply to your chat messages doesn’t mean they need your money.” Malana chastises him, getting annoyed with his habits.

Anastella wraps a blanket around herself with a slight shiver. “If he wants to do it, then just let him. He just can’t expect us to pay for it.”

Lenora looks at them with a raised brow. “So, they’re supposed to be arriving this year, right?” This immediately causes the bickering to settle, all eyes going onto the twins.

“Yeah, all of the details state it’s supposed to be this year, though we’re not quite sure when our ‘Oh so wonderful’ fathers will come.” Amarilis replies with a slight huff.

“Our moms did a decent job preparing us for this, so let’s just hope that they weren’t all just insane and our fathers do show up.” Anwar chimes in before grabbing a controller.

*********************

“We’re a bit late.” Gibbous states in his usual deadpan way as he stares at their course and the calender pointedly.

“We’re not late, just arriving well expected.” Proteus replies with a shrug of his gelatinous shoulders. “Besides, it’s just the kids, they’ll be fine waiting a bit more.”

“Yeah, it’s not like they’re dying, and their mothers would already be dead.” Eridanus snarkily adds as he enters the room, greeting the two advisers.

“Well, if this experiment goes well, they’ll be alive and well and we can make ourselves at home.” Ciro joins in as he too enters the room, leaving one more to follow behind him.

Deimos sighs and plops into his lush seat and glances out of the windows which give an incredible view of space around them. “How much longer until we get there?”

“Welcome princes, it’s a joy to have you finally join us.” Gibbous greets them.

“That would be roughly two to three earthling months, or eighty-six decons for us.” Proteus answers before turning back to the controls.

“This is day one, eight, seven, seven, seven of travel to planet zone five, two, nine, nine, six. The planet named by inhabitant Earth will be reached soon and we shall meet subjects of experiment eight, six, one, one, nine upon arrival. We have received our first communication from them, and they seem to have followed the directions left behind from previous contact. Further notes will be detailed after our arrival and the meeting with the subjects.” Ciro finishes recording a log about their mission, as he does almost weekly of them being awake.

“Yes, and soon we’ll see our precious children. They must be beside themselves with excitement.” Proteus comments, nudging Gibbous as he does. “They’ll only be twenty-seven at the oldest, how darling!”

Gibbous grins back at him. “I wonder how much progress has been made on the little planet. I hope the followers are still there.”