18 Years (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Chapter 3

         I don't know how much time passed in the darkness before my sight came back to me once more. The light wasn't there this time when I opened my eyes, and a few moments passed before I remembered what had happened when I woke up earlier.
         I sighed a bit, this time able to actually see, since my eyesight hadn't been taken again. The displays were the same, showing constant data from my body. The doctor...what was her name again? Woods, wasn't it? I think so. She wasn't there this time. I was alone. The room was the same as before, but now, I saw several people standing in the observation room that circled the top of my enclosure, and off to the right, I saw another bed, something hidden beneath a white sheet. Judging by the silhouette, it could have been a body. Why was something like that in here? Either way, it was longer than I was.
         The people in the observation deck all wore military uniforms, all of them looking like they were near the top of whatever chains of command they were in, silver stars gleaming all over the place. Naval white was there the most, outnumbering the other branches I suspected to be the Air Force and Army.
         They started whispering back and forth to each other, maybe even talking normally, since I couldn't hear anything. The conversations grew as I looked around, watching all of them. Click. The door behind me opened. I couldn't see anything back there. Who was it? Was it the doctor coming to check on me again?
         “Marcus, it's nice to see you again.” The voice started. It was a voice I knew well, despite never having heard it while awake until earlier. Seconds passed before Admiral Adler appeared in my field of view. He had a briefcase in one hand, a folding metal chair in the other. He set down the chair beside my bed, sitting in it before he looked back at me, a bit of a smile on his face.
         “We've got a lot to talk about.” He began, holding the briefcase in his lap, as if afraid someone would steal it. I blinked a few times, confused.
         “I figured as much...what's going on? Why me? Who are you? Who are they? Where is this? What-” Adler held up his hand, stopping me.
         “All in due time.” He said, chuckling a bit. “We don't wanna overload you with knowledge just yet. You've got everything in your mind, just locked away for now. If it all comes back to you at once, bad things could happen, and we don't want that. So, we'll go through it step by step, sound good?”
         I nodded. It wasn't like I really had any other choice besides these 'bad things' he eluded to. “Not like I have a choice...” I muttered, but went with it. “Tell me this, at least: Who are you, really?”
         The Admiral kept that same smile as he explained. “My name is Admiral John Adler, Commandant of the Candran Navy.” He said. I was still wanting to know other things, and now that I knew who he was and how he fit into things, I could estimate what I would get out of him.
         “In my dreams, you looked younger. You said something about an 18 year vacation. I know your name, and you obviously know mine. Why have I been gone on such a long vacation that coincidentally matches my current age?”
         “You've got memories locked away from a past life. You weren't killed and brought back or anything like that, but you didn't exactly have the best childhood either.” He explained. “When you get your memories back and we talk more about it, it'll slowly come to you on your own, better than I can explain it anyway. We'll help you along, but most of it will be your own mind remembering itself.”
         It wasn't much, but it'd do. It felt like he was dancing around the question. “What all happened to me before I went under two weeks ago? What happened at the school?” I asked, referring to the reason I was in here.
         Adler remained silent for a few moments. Taking a glance up at the men in the uniforms, he turned back to me. “You barely survived an assassination attempt, just a few months before the project was set to end. This is the first time it's happened, and most definitely the last. If we had dropped our pods only a few moments later, he would most likely have executed you.”
         “Assassination attempt? Why? Why send an assassin to take me out? Who the hell am I, anyway?” I asked, only getting more and more confused. He was answering my questions, but all that did was send me deeper into the rabbit hole.
         “In your dreams, what did I call you?” He asked, locking eyes with me.
         “General. You called me General.” I answered, my eyes flickering to the men in the observation room. They were just watching us. I doubted that many higher ups would be standing around doing nothing without good reason. I had a feeling that there was more to that thing on the other table.
         “Then your memories have already started to come back on their own.” He said. “How long have they been coming to you?”
         “I've been having the dreams with you in them for about a year now, maybe more, but not much was ever in them, you only ever said anything about this vacation. Your hair hadn't turned too gray yet, and you only had one star in the dreams. I remember being taller at least.” The admiral smiled a bit at the mention of his height. Now, he looked to be about the same height as me. In the dreams, he had always been a good few inches shorter.
         “Then it may be a blessing in disguise that we have to end the project so soon.” He said. Pressing a button on a control pad on the cart he had sat down next to, he spoke into an intercom. “Doctor Woods? It's time.” Adler stood up.
         “We'll continue this after you get out of here.” The Admiral went over to the other bed, pulling the sheet back. Under the sheet was a male human, looking to be in his late 30's, maybe early 40's. His skin was about the same shade as mine, a light tan color on what I could see. He saw the sun, but not much of it. His eyes were closed, so I didn't get a look at them. The same lines I had filled his features, laugh lines, anger lines, concentration lines. All of them mirrored my own. His hair reminded me of the dream Adler's. It was brown, like my own, and it had grayed a bit near the temples.
         “Huh? Who the hell is that?” I asked, having a feeling deep in my gut that I already knew.
         Adler looked up as Doctor Woods entered. “This is you, or at least, your body. We kept it after the initial transfer, figuring you'd want it back, rather than a new one. It's been in stasis since then. You'll be back in it within the hour, hopefully.” He said, giving a small smile as he left the room.
         “Hey, wait!” I yelled after him, but the door shut before I got it all out. A few moments later, the Admiral appeared in the observation room, taking a small microphone and control pad. I saw several displays light up on the glass. Holographic interface? Maybe. They all were blank for the moment, showing grids and lines, scrolling along without change.
         “Begin operation.” Adler said. Doctor Woods had brought a team of surgeons with her, all of them in scrubs and masks. They began to attach electrodes all over my body. I saw the displays on the windows change to match my biological signs, only simplified for the officers, not being medical personnel after all.
         My other body, supposedly, at least, was being hooked up in all the same spots. A second set of information began to scroll across the displays as the lifesigns of the second body showed up. It wasn't dead, of course, but I wondered what they did to keep it functioning and alive without a mind. It was basically a vegetable.
         Woods had moved over to the bank of computers against the wall. “Life signs for Alpha and Beta stable. Alpha continues showing signs in heightened brain activity since we brought it in. Alpha knows its master is near. Operation begin. Begin neural link between Alpha and Beta entities...now.”
         As soon as she said to begin, I felt my brain go numb. I hadn't felt my legs yet, so they weren't doing anything for me there. A few moments passed before I felt the feeling of numbness crawl up my body. I stopped feeling my chest soon after, and I didn't know if I was still breathing on my own or not. Then, my entire body went under, and I began to panic. I felt air passing in and out of my nose and mouth, but not the rise and fall of my chest.
         An alarm began to beep, Woods reacting fast. “Logan, panic is setting in. Commence phase two.”
         Another doctor came over to me quickly, putting their hand to my face. They spoke softly, calmly, barely being heard over the beeping that probably indicated a heart racing faster than usual. “General? I need you to calm down. Your neural links in this body are shutting down. Your heart is still beating, your lungs are still working. Everything is just fine, alright? You just can't feel anything during the transfer. When your nerves have started firing off in the other body, then you'll start to feel again. You'll be fine, alright? We just need you to try and slow your breathing...if that makes any sense, given the circumstances.”
         I only glared at him, despite his calming words. I couldn't feel anything besides my head. Suddenly, my head started to hurt. It went from a sting in the back of my mind to something that felt like I was being slapped, then hit, then it went to full on fire, a burning, searing pain. I felt like a lightning bolt was chasing a rabbit through my nerve endings. All through my body, I felt the burning grow worse as my entire body faded in and out of the numbness, switching from now feeling at all to unbearable pain every other second.. Images began to flash in front of my mind, only for an instant before changing to another image.
         I saw a gun, a tank, a man bleeding out in a pair of hands that may have been mine. I saw a massive space ship with a hole in the bottom, bright light flashing out of it. I saw a planet with a white circle in the center, cracks splitting out from the center of the white flash in a fiery orange spiderweb. Adler's face came next, looking the same as he did in the dreams I had had. I saw a girl. She looked like she was Asian, black hair, tan skin, a concerned look on her face. I saw a mirror with the face of the body next to me on it. Fire consuming a city. I saw a boy writhing about on a table in an operating room, doctors scurrying about. I recognized the boy as myself. Why was I seeing this? There was no sound in any of them, only the sound of the heart monitor beeping madly, and a heartbeat thundering in my ears.
         My body was back. I could feel my legs. I could feel my arms. My chest and the rise and fall of my lungs inside. I could still feel all the pain, however, and when I blinked and opened my eyes again, I had changed places. I only got a second of what the room looked like before more images flashed into place. I saw my mother's face, and my father's. I saw the many important moments I had held dear in my life. An awards ceremony, trophies and plaques on a wall, a medal dangling from a red and black strap, birthdays, past girlfriends, best friends, moments of happiness, anger, depression...all of them were from a point of view other than my own, but I was always the center of them. It was quiet as all of the images flashed. The room returned, sound from the operation coming in as the room did. Doctor Woods was directing other surgeons and technicians, the heart monitor beeping loudly at them. The men in the observation deck looking worried, speculative. Adler remained stony faced.
         Woods was able to speak above the beeping. “His mind is overloading! His memories are overlapping, and they're coming too fast for him to process! Switch to secondary storage for Beta! Direct Beta memories there until we can return him to Alpha!”
         I felt the flow of memories dim a bit, all of the memories from the past 18 years halting, allowing the other images to flow slowly. Sound stopped once more as I was pushed back into the images from my life long past. I saw my old body in the mirror, wearing the same blue jacket and blue pants that some of those officers in the observation room wore. Ribbons and medals, a name tag that read as my own name, and the silver crescent moon insignia on the shoulders of the jacket being what stood out. In the back of the room I was standing in, I saw a king sized bed, white walls, off white carpeting, a large window with thick tan curtains obstructing most of it. Some light managed to skirt around the edges, but not much. A lamp provided most of the light in the room. A figure was laying on the bed, covered up to its head in the olive green comforter that lay across the matress.
         Black hair poked out from under the covers, and a set of green eyes that looked just off from what I had. In the mirror, I saw myself smile, and say something. The body beneath the blankets only smiled, the mouth revealed now. It was the same face, the same concerned face from the flashes a moment ago. Who was this girl?
         The image flashed away again and I was back in the surgical room. I wasn't on the table anymore. I was higher up, doctors looking up fearfully at me, some trying to run. I was against the wall, one shoulder leaning against it now. Doctor Woods stood in front of me, her hands up, trying to stop me. Her voice was heard over the beeping once more. “General! Calm down! You're overloading, and you're losing control! Snap out of it!”
         I couldn't feel anything this time. I only saw myself moving from my own eyes, as if something else was controlling me. I saw arms raise up, barely missing her. The arms were bare, chiseled muscle showing beneath the skin. Were they mine? The Doctor backed away, breaking a set of glass that held something inside. She pulled out what seemed to be a gun of some sort. My body reacted to it, lunging at her. It looked as if I covered the distance in an instant. She was faster, however. Pulling the trigger down, a net launched out, hitting me and filling my vision. The net wrapped around me, steel balls hitting the floor with a loud clang.
         A green looking substance flew from the steel balls, covering the netting. It got to me moments later, making the erratic motions of my body begin to slow down and look more sluggish. Doctor Woods kept staring me down, her finger still on the trigger. Eventually, she relaxed. “Alpha has been subdued.” She said, speaking into a mic on her collar. “All personnel, return to operation room. We'll continue operation under anesthesia this time. We've got five minutes until he goes under. Second team, move Beta to proper storage facility, continue extraction of memories to external hard drive, prepare for delayed acclimation to Alpha after operation success.”
         The five minutes passed quickly, and I got slower as they did, the feeling in my mind slowly easing up. Before everything went black, I managed to move my limbs, looking at a hand that I felt move in front of my face. The hand clenched into a fist, then unclenched. That was the last thing I saw before the darkness consumed me once again.