//------------------------------// // I // Story: What Have I Done // by Aesculapius //------------------------------// What Have I Done Chapter 1 Bernard sighed, and his breath condensed in the freezing air as his car failed to start for the third time. He knew he shouldn't be surprised. His car was a piece of shit. It had always been a piece of shit, ever since he had inherited it from his father-in-law who had a heart attack and died while sleeping with some prostitute. Bernard opened his door and stepped out of the car. As he walked to the front of the car, he kicked at a large tabby cat loudly licking its privates. "Get out of here, you fat-ass," he growled. It hissed, stood up, and strutted away toward his bitch of an owner Ms. Frugelburd's house. "And tell her Bernard said she's a bitch!" he yelled at the retreating tail of the cat. Opening the hood of the car, he stared inside, raking back his salt and pepper hair. "Well, there's your problem," he muttered to himself. He punched the frozen, imploded carburetor and put his lighter under it. Five minutes later, it had expanded enough for the car to start. He slammed the hood shut and tromped back into his car, fingers freezing. Turning the ignition, the engine finally pulled over and he put it carefully into reverse and backed slowly out of the parking lot. The ridiculous notion of getting a damned New Yorker back in the 70s to drive in Northern Minnesota still escaped him to this day, but then again, his father-in-law was a goddamn dumbass. Sliding slowly to the stoplight, Bernard looked at the directions to this Physics laboratory that he would be going to today. 'New Horizons Physics Innovation Facilities' He stared at the name for a moment. "Who instructed the gay man to come up with the name?" he thought. "What a fucking stupid name." Stupid or not, he was getting paid nearly 12,000 dollars to do this experiment or whatever it was, and he needed the money badly. The landlord of his apartment building was a fucking Nazi and Bernard owed 5,468 dollars to him. Driving up to a wooded area, he looked at the directions again. They clearly said to turn left into it. He looked uneasily at the dark forest again before turning onto it. He had never liked forests, and this was no exception. Driving further into the forest, it seemed as though the trees were getting closer and closer to the side of the road, and it felt as though it was rapidly darkening. Bernard gripped the steering wheel tightly and sped up until he saw a red light up ahead, permeating the darkness. Driving closer, he saw an old concrete wall that wouldn't have looked out of place at a prison. He noticed an intercom on a ledge and rolled down his window. Immediately, he heard something move behind him and snapped his eyes into the darkness. Scanning, he saw nothing but two distant spots of light that looked suspiciously like- he snapped his eyes back to the intercom, sweating slightly. Pulling the sagging flesh under his eyes, he tentatively tapped the button of the intercom and it gave resistance. He punched it hard and static blared from its ancient speaker. "Uh, y-yeah. This is Bernard Petrolli; I'm here about the job offer?" The wall in front of him snapped loudly and Bernard quickly looked at it. It pulled back 6 inches and slammed itself onto the other side of the wall. Rolling up his window, Bernard looked at the frankly ominous facility and slowly drove down its driveway. The wall slammed back together behind him and he felt somewhat relieved that it closed the forest out. Trundling down the drive, he stared again at the facility. It gave every impression of a once imposing facility that had gone to waste. Peeling strips of red paint and stained concrete were highlights of its geometric design. Parking next to a brown Pontiac Bonneville, he stepped out and walked to the small door. Walking in, he saw a sad waiting room of three faded yellow armchairs and an abandoned receptionist's desk. On the desk, he saw a hastily scribbled one word note on the counter; "Elevator". He frowned, and looked around at the peeling wallpaper and 18 year old magazines. A faded poster on the wall of a generic smiling Aryan bitch told him that science was the future at New Horizons Physics Innovation Facilities. "Still a fucking stupid name," he thought, and as he did so, his eyes rested on a large circle in the far corner in the back of the room. Walking over there, he noticed a large red button and pressed it. The floor beneath him shook as he immediately regretted it. * * * Bernard descended into the depths of the building as the elevator lurched slightly. It thudded to a halt in a pitch black room. "Hello?" he asked the darkness. The darkness replied in a disturbingly cheery female voice. "Please step into the Identity Confirmation and Sanitization Chamber," the voice said as an airlock door squealed open to reveal a tile room where the only light emanated from a bunker style window on his left. In it, a human silhouette was visible. "Mind telling me what this is all about?" Bernard asked the silhouette, annoyed. A young man replied; "Um, yes, 'Welcome to New Horizons Physics Innovation Facilities, you, who are about to usher in a new era of Scientific Enlightenm-'" "Cut the crap, kid." Bernard said brusquely. "Oh, good." The young man replied, relieved. Bernard had to be at least 30 years older than him. "You can just come in." He pulled a lever on the wall next to him, and the airlock hissed slightly before opening in front of Bernard. Stepping into the hallway, the young man from the window strode briskly over to where Bernard was standing. "This way." He gestured, and extended his hand to Bernard. Bernard shook it. "Bradley Divis. You can just call me 'The Intern', though, because everyone else here does." Bernard thought a short while before he replied. "I'll call you Bradley- I like that name." Divis looked slightly askance at Bernard before he continued. "Down this way, sir." They turned down another, smaller hallway in silence, until they reached a small steel door. Divis pushed the handle and it swung open, revealing a brightly lit massive cavern crowded with scientific equipment, wires, and stalagmites. In the center of the cavern stood two other men and a tall woman inspecting a circular cage that appeared to be the nucleus of the equipment. An older man, older even than Bernard looked over at them and said in a deep gravelly voice: "Finally you get here, Mr. Petrolli. You're 15 minutes late." He posited in air of speaking to a bit of distasteful algae. Bernard scowled deeply, as he had worked with too many men like this scientist before. They had all been arrogant assholes, and he had cultivated both a dislike and distrust of men like him. The rather sharp faced woman glanced at him and spoke quickly. "Over here, please." She brought him to a cheap card table and sat him down in a metal folding chair. The final man dressed in a suit- as opposed to the other's lab coats- slammed a gigantic stack of legal documents on the table, and it shook slightly. The man retrieved a pen from his breast pocket, dropped it atop the papers, and resumed to his previous position near the cage. Bernard politely inquired; "What the hell's this?" The woman sighed and said impatiently; "Legal documents. Do you consent to receiving 12,000 dollars?" Bernard replied; "Well, sure, bu-" before the woman cut in again. "Then sign here" as she flipped all the way to the back. The entirety of the papers seemed to be covered in size 4 Times New Roman font and he hadn't brought along his glasses. He frowned and signed off on the papers. They moved quickly. Bradley picked the table up while the man in the suit scooped up the documents and hurried to the exit. The woman had him stand and ushered him to the cage. She lifted a few metal bars high enough so that he could duck in, and when he was in, the bars fell back into place. "Well, hold on here," Bernard said nervously. "Just how does this thing work?" "Look down," the older man responded bluntly. Bernard looked down and saw a glowing piece of some sort of material. Not personally being a man of science, himself, he had trouble understanding its usefulness. "So?" Bernard asked. The older man said nothing, but Divis stepped in for him. "Ah, it sends an electric current through your body until you're turned into energy. Basically." Bernard thought for a second. "I just gave you all full legal consent for all this, didn't I?" "Yes." The employees replied. "Goddamnit," he groaned. The older man straightened up and announced: "It's ready." Divis scurried over to a console with 3 intimidating levers on it, and pulled the first. The bright lights suddenly all went dark, and a faint electrical hum was heard. The second lever was pulled, and a rumbling beneath them was heard as the electrical hum increased in sound to a buzz. Finally, Divis pulled the final lever, and Bernard's cage and the glowing material lifted high into the air while Bernard saw a hatch opening above his head. In it, blackness darker than anything he had ever seen loomed above him. "What the absolute fuck is that?!" Bernard yelled over the high pitched electrical whirr filling the entire chamber. Divis yelled back in reply; "It's an event horizon, we're going to send you through it, in electron form." Bernard responded calmly and reasonably by yelling at the top of his lungs. The old man yelled to the woman to hit it, and a curious thing happened. The room went silent as Bernard stared in horror at his feet. His shoes were disintegrating into yellow, glowing dust as he watched. Whatever it was that was causing it reached his feet, and his body did not know how to react to the extreme amounts of pain he was feeling. As they disintegrated, they tingled a bit and then went dead as their very molecules were forcibly changed into a new physical form. He stared in horror as what had been his feet began drifting slowly upwards toward the event horizon. The demolecularization sped up, and Bernard only watched aghast as his body turned into pure energy. His brain registered absolute fear, and then nothing. The empty cage lowered and the three scientists gathered around it. "Give me a brief explanation of why we just performed complete insanity, Ms. Civall." The old man sighed as the event horizon above them disappeared into thin air. Ms. Civall replied calmly, "We're 113,124,498 dollars in debt, and the only organization with the money we need is the United States of America government." "And we sent an innocent man through a black hole because that's exactly what they wanted us to do, and we desperately need the money." "Yes. Would you like me to call the Pentagon?" "Fine- Immediately, thank you."