Chapter 4. Death Sentence
It would appear these ponies knew what they were doing when they strapped me down. In testament to the quality of said straps, I was still tied down. Yes, I will admit that finding my legs were now made out of some mysterious, shiny black material was one revelation best taken lying down. Somehow all of my yelling and struggling had not attracted anypony, so I was guessing that the ward (or lab) in which I was being held was soundproof. The stallion who was monitoring this room knew all about it of course. He probably just turned down the volume of the monitor for the duration of my tirade. Now I was just lying still, my breathing being slightly heavier the only indicator of my recent behavior.
"So, are we back in the land of the reasoning, yet?" his voice asked. Apparently he had turned the volume of the monitor back up.
"For what it is worth, yes. I've had my little tantrum. I should be fine until the next horror revelation," I assured him. "Then again, I may just forgo the whole screaming and ranting bit, next time. It isn't as if it achieves anything."
"You are an interesting mare, I will give you that. I'm surprised no dashing stallion has swept you off your hooves, actually," he said. Clearly he had access to all my private details, because that wasn't something I'd told him. That was a not-so-subtle subject change too. Was he trying to flirt with me?
"They couldn't handle me bouncing off walls," I said.
"Hmm? Ah, you are being literal. I see from these notes that you are into freerunning," he observed. Yup, he had my bio.
"It's the best way to get around this city," I said, "and the most fun."
"It would have fit right in with your job as a field agent."
"That is why I was a field agent. The boss was kind enough to pick the jobs with the longest routes, or steepest climbs for me," I said. "Not that I will ever get the chance again," I added glumly. I think I had been the answer to the boss' prayers - a worker who wanted to take the hard jobs.
"You are lucky to be alive at all," the voice said, "If not for the modifiers already partly converting you, the fall would have killed you."
"I'm sure all the things I bounced off on the way down, slowed my rate of descent to the realms of survivability, not that it makes any difference in the long run," I muttered. "You said before, it would have been better if I had died."
"Yes, I did, didn't I?"
"Wonderful. At least you are honest. Would you at least finish telling me about why I am doomed before that doom eventuates?" I asked. "What about the modifiers that have infected me? And what's your name? I'd like to be able to mentally catalog you as something better than the voice."
"Oh, okay. I can do that for you. But tell you my name? No. You can call me 4J2. The modifiers that infected you are the class five Hellspawn strain. Class five modifiers are a lot more dangerous than those of class one. To begin with, they are airborne while looking for a host. Class one need to be injected into the bloodstream to have any effect. Class five modifiers also salvage the materials they need to do a conversion before infecting that host. That was the cause of all of the corrosion you found in the under-levels. Basically, you are now made of a combination of your old flesh and the very materials that used to be the structure of the area through which you fell."
"So I'm made of metals and plastics? Insert tantrum and struggles here," I said, drolly. "So where do these modifiers come from?"
"The class five? We don't know. Over the years, there have been a few cases of them appearing in the under-levels. The last recorded instance was two generations ago, in the sealed off area which you discovered. According to the records, the area was totally decontaminated, the source neutralized, and the area sealed as a precaution."
"And what became of the repair crew from back then?"
"No details have survived. It was hard enough to find out as much as we told you. They may well have turned into Hellspawn. The Hellspawn ponies in the under-levels must have come from somewhere."
"Why are they called Hellspawn? Are they evil or something? The pony you said helped me was obviously a caring pony."
"Somepony must have thought it a fitting description," 4J2 said. "Put yourself in their skin and imagine finding a strange pony shaped creature with a black shell and glowing red eyes while exploring the poorly lit and deserted halls of the under-levels," he suggested.
"Apparently I did meet one, though I must admit I didn't notice any glowing eyes, or a hard black shell for that matter," I said.
"True, but in your state of mind at the time, you didn't even realize you weren't alone, so anything you remember must be suspect," 4J2 reminded me.
"So what about me? What you have been saying doesn't bode well. Am I contagious or something? Do I have glowing red eyes?"
"Contagious? We don't think so, but we cannot be sure. We have detected no modifiers leaving your body while we have been observing you. That does not mean that you won't release a great cloud of them later, though. And no, your eyes still look like the ones you were born with. So far your conversion has been limited to your limbs, the skeletal parts of your torso and your cardiovascular system. It appears to be converting the strongest parts of your body and reinforced the areas between them."
"So my brain is safe then, it not being particularly muscular and all," I said, sounding a little sarcastic.
"The sedatives still work, so that would appear to be the case," 4J2 said.
"So, why am I strapped down in here? Generally speaking, I mean," I asked. "Perhaps I should rephrase that as if you intend to kill me, why am I still alive?"
"That was blunt, so I shall reply in kind. We simply took advantage of the situation to observe and record your transformation as we have no details of such in our records," 4J2 said.
"We need a better recording medium, or at least a decent way of archiving stuff," I muttered. "It seems too much information has been lost over the years."
"We must work with what we have," 4J2 said. "We are in a closed system after all."
"You seem to know a lot more about H'ven in general than what we get taught," I extrapolated from his comment.
"That is the nature of my job," 4J2 said.
"If I can't be let back out into society, why couldn't I get a job here, or something?" I asked.
"We don't trust you. We can't trust you. Being trapped in here, you would probably go stir crazy and try to escape," 4J2 said.
"So let me go down below instead," I suggested. "I promise I won't go back to the surface."
"How would you survive? It isn't like there is any infrastructure down there. Licking the walls for mold and condensation wouldn't be very practical, would it? We would also risk you running for the surface if you became lonely or desperate enough. More importantly, we cannot under any circumstances risk you releasing more class five modifiers. You've seen what a mess they create."
"Bugger," I muttered. "What about my family? What will they be told?"
"Your funeral was over two weeks ago. They were told you died in a fire and that your body was unrecoverable. That in itself is accurate, with the exception that it is yet to occur. After we sterilize both you and the lab with EMP bombardment, your body will be vaporized in the plasma arc furnace we use for disposing of all dangerous matter," 4J2 said. "Oh, and sorry."
"Yet you let Hellspawn wander about down there?" It was no surprise that I sounded narked as I pointed out the apparent inconsistency.
"Not if we can catch them. They are shot on sight, pulsed, then vaporized, just as you will be," 4J2 said.
That was when I lost it and burst into tears. So much for my future. So much for my dreams. This world sucked. I had been given a death sentence for doing my job, for helping ponies, for caring! As I lay there sobbing, I heard somepony enter first the room, then the isolation tent. I could hear the rustling of the plastic isolation suit they wore. I felt some of the lines connected to me move as they fiddled with them then...
... Hadn't I just been crying? My face felt dry, my eyes relaxed.
"Hush, don't move," a voice spoke into my mind. Was I wearing a comms unit now? The voice sounded like 4J2. "Now listen very carefully, and keep pretending to be unconscious. It has been a month since we last spoke. The others are not aware we spoke in depth before. This time I have to keep it brief. Your transformation has been stable for the last three weeks. As such, you are no longer of any interest as a scientific subject. Today is the day you are scheduled for disposal. I will not be here."
Bugger that. Why wake me to tell me I am going to die? It would have been kinder to leave me asleep, yet 4J2 had just implied that I should indeed be asleep and he had woken me anyway. So, why wouldn't he be here? Was he trying to excuse himself of guilt by avoiding the problem? Nonetheless, I had nothing to gain by doing other than what he requested, so I remained silent and immobile, prepared to listen to what else he had to say.
"Not long ago I managed to get myself assigned the task of sterilizing the room and disconnecting you from all of the monitoring equipment in preparation for your disposal. No pony else wanted the task, so it wasn't too hard to get them to let me. I was supposed to give you a fatal dose of sedatives, but instead injected you with stimulants. Even without the fatal dose, you were drugged up enough to sleep right to the end. You were bombarded with electromagnetic pulses prior to my entry. As such any still functional modifiers should be deactivated. I tucked your old comms and mapper unit underneath you while I was disconnecting you. Most of its channels have been disabled, but I kept one active. That is how I can contact you now. Being an engineer, you should understand what I am about to tell you. The under-levels go down to sublevel eighty. That's where the elevators stop, where everything stops, right there on the giant flat floor. Despite many searches, we have never found where the Hellspawn come from, or where you go." There was a beep, indicating the transmission had been ended.
So what was 4J2 telling me? Why waste time telling me how he was communicating with me? Let's look at what he had told me analytically. First was the suggestion that either H'ven wasn't spherical after all, or ponykind simply could not get below a certain point. Not being spherical simply did not make sense, structurally, as so much strength would be sacrificed. I did not know if that stopped H'ven being crushed, or exploding into the great nothing, but it made little difference. That also implied the mythical Hell as it was referred to, actually existed below the known sublevels. So was that to satisfy my curiosity? Was it to be one last question answered before I died?
But what was the meaning of his message? It was a funny way to say goodbye.
As I lay there thinking, the stimulant worked its magic and my thoughts became clearer. What had 4J2 said again?
Maybe he couldn't be specific. Maybe he was testing me by being oblique. Perhaps he had been allowing for my drugged state of mind.
Okay, let's go through this again.
My time was limited.
I wasn't going back to sleep again.
He told me of the known structure of H'ven, aware that I would be able to deduce the probable truth.
4J2 wasn't here. That meant he wasn't in the equation.
I had been thoroughly zapped, so I wasn't contagious.
My comms unit was pretty worthless, but I had my mapper.
There were eighty sublevels in which Hellspawn somehow managed to hide, assuming they didn't have a means of going even lower, where surface ponies had no hope whatsoever of following.
What was that last comment. Central had never found where the Hellspawn came from, or where we went. He had called me a member of the Hellspawn.
Oh! I understood! This was 4J2's gift to me: a farewell present.
My legs would soon be unstrapped and the doors opened, and I would be awake!
4J2 wasn't going to be here, so it meant there would be no more clues and no more help. It also meant it didn't matter who I clobbered.
My comms unit had been disabled, barring a single channel that was linked to a pony that would not be here. In other words, stay quiet. Vanish. Talk to no pony.
Because I had been sterilized, it didn't matter who I came in contact with. That meant I definitely didn't have to worry about inadvertently contaminating other ponies with the class five modifiers. I was not contagious and had been sterilized. He was telling me I was allowed to behave in a selfish way without there being severe consequences for innocent ponies.
I was Hellspawn. (Ugh, I hated that name.) That meant options available to the Hellspawn may be available to me. Other Hellspawn may even assist me.
4J2 had told me to escape, given as much assistance as he could without compromising his own position, and given me a hint as to where I may be safe!
Maybe he felt he owed me a life debt because my actions saved his father. Maybe he was just a kind hearted pony. It didn't matter which. I now had a chance to live.
Thank you, 4J2.
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I love that feel of coming back to the internet after not being able to access it for a while and finding one of your favourite stories has updated
3819363
I love it when someone calls a story of mine one of their favorites
Well, that's a sobering thought
Actually, just a dome generally works pretty well... and that's still pretty much what it would be, with that description, no?
Wait, what? She isn't unstrapped already? That's.... kinda worrying, if you already got what is supposed to be his message urging you to escape?
3821256
That is one of the two possibilities she must consider. Going that she thinks that the outside of H'ven could be vacuum (i.e. nothing) or possibly high pressure, the flat surface of a dome would be a major weakness. She's considering explosion or implosion as two reasons for the design to be spherical. They also know the walls curve inwards below ground level.
The message was to escape when given the opportunity.
My reasons behind this:
-4J2 was covering his ass from as many angles as he could. Arguably once given her final sedative injection, it wouldn't matter, but there are procedures to follow, as in all bureaucratic institutions.
-As the door still required unsealing before she could make a run, having her get up before it was opened would blow any chance she had.
3785280 I thought about a similar world some time ago, but ponies lived on the inward surface of the sphere, there was a sun in the center which generated heat (which was both sun/moon as it rotated), cold was coming from outside the sphere (radius was smaller where mountains were so it was hot in mountain areas), and everything was grey.
Typo?
Shouldn't that be "decent"?
Oh, and yay adventure!
3821859
It would be. Apparently I played the game Descent too much.
3821722
I started my original version of this 17 years ago. Aneki was an anthro pony, a go-between between humans and ponies. In that version, they lived on a small globe that rotated in a larger globe that formed the sky. It was a spaceship, with the engine inside the globe also forming gravity. That story concentrated more on "religious" politics though. The moon ran across the sky on rails! It was also a many times larger than H'ven - big enough to have countries.
This time the world is somewhat different.
This is the original Aneki:
https://www.deviantart.com/otherunicorn/art/Pony-Chronicles-80539539
3821932 The more the worlds, the better. There can be worlds where 3D space is a projection of abstract spaces, worlds with discreet coordinates, worlds where sun is driven by friendship... Worlds where Sun is a pony, where ponies can randomly divide or converge, worlds where there is no ground but clouds, worlds where ponies grow on trees, worlds where nets made of rainbows hang in the sky, or where multiple planets are attached to each other... worlds where objects are intelligent and ponies are not, worlds where each pony lives in three spaces and talks to ponies in each of them simultaneously...
3821992
If we boil it right down, each and every one of us describes a different world, even when we think we are describing the same one simply because our imaginations are unique.
Besides, it would be boring if we all wrote about the same world all the time!
D'aww, Aneki's too cute/pretty/adorkable to die!
I really love this story.
Maybe he placed a tracking device on you to locate the Hellspawn. onward!
3821722
Y'know, that concept is actually used in one of the "Valerian" comic books... World Without Stars:
1.bp.blogspot.com/-7xO5wdNdzuw/UkhN-si8YwI/AAAAAAAAK_E/aaVgpTqMJus/s1600/Valerian+-+World+Without+Stars+pg17.jpg
Well well well...
This biotech gets more and more interesting doesn't it...
Down the rabbit hole we go hehehe....
I smell the tracking device covered in his BS from here.
8497907
Brilliant move honestly. Pretend to be a helper without being very untrustworthy about it by being too nice.