Zeus (Frozen Origin) (3 page)

“This is
Ares,” he said with a look in Brandi’s direction. “He will be coming with us since he is my general and second in the chain of command. If we run into any difficulties, he will be helpful.”

What can I say to that?
“I’m sure he will be.” Sierra replied not willing to argue the point. She was just ready to get on with it. They moved to an elevator but found it had been disabled making her wonder why? What had they left behind down there that they didn’t want anyone to see? They found the stairway but access was locked and blocked. The lock was an easy matter, the blockage a matter of hard work but Zeus called on several of his big, beefy gods to remove the pile of items that had been stacked in the way. It wouldn’t stop a determined team like hers, but it would have stopped the lazy employees who might want to look below out of curiosity.

The second the blockage was removed the air hit her nose alerting her to dec
aying flesh. Her eyes met Zeus’ silently agreeing that they needed to move fast in case anyone still lived. Had this happened long ago the smell would have dissipated. They moved in an orderly, but hurried, fashion finding cages down below. There were signs that those cages had once been inhabited, but not in a long while. The farther away from their entry, the worse the smell got. The sight that greeted them near the end of the row of cages was almost enough to make her, a seasoned soldier who had been through hell and back, throw up. In the first cage there were bodies piled up in various stages of decay. From the large sizes of what clearly were men, she would say these were all gods. It was the next cage that held her attention because they were alive, barely. She pulled down her headpiece calling Doc to come down with any help and whatever equipment she could manage. There were at least a dozen males that looked like survivors of the cruelest POW camp. They were emaciated, covered with scars, fresh burns, scrapes, cuts, and they were filthy.

In one corner of several of the cages was an open pipe that served as a latrine
next to a small hose that had water dripping out of it. There were no remnants of food except the trays that it was served on and those looked like they had been licked clean. Whatever was going on down here was wrong on every level imaginable. The gods down here were being punished to death for what reason she couldn’t imagine. One of them moved to the bars of the cage whispering with a voice that cracked from disuse. It sounded like he called to Zeus but it was hard to be sure. Sierra moved to open the cage when Zeus stepped in front of her to prevent it.

“They don’t know you, they’ve been severely abused
, maybe by women.” Almost as if to prove his point the god that had been trying to speak slammed against the bars trying to reach Doc.

“Okay, I can see you’re right. I want your males to work with Doc and whoever assists her
, to protect them and help move these gods to medical. They need care and she is all we’ve got. If they can be saved, she will manage to do it. They’ve got plenty of help so I want to continue to check out at least this level by the end of the day.” Zeus nodded his head regally, looking at her but he seemed to communicate with Ares as well who took over giving out a minimum of orders but getting everything done. It was impressive to watch how everyone worked like a well oiled machine, getting the males out of the cell and taken upstairs to medical before she and Zeus had made it out of the area.

They moved on with a few gods and those on her team that had no medical training besides first aid since they all had that.
She hoped they wouldn’t find any more cells full of people or any signs that there had been any. Her stomach was still queasy and her heart sick from what they had seen. Everyone else had a half sick look on their faces matching the way she felt. Somehow and someway someone would pay for this, she would see to it.

“It looks like some kind of lab back here.” Brandi said as she pointed to the right. A large lab with small portable cages and all manner of equipment was next to some kind of storage room. There was a room on the other side of the lab that appeared to hold large coffin like containers that on closer inspection appeared to be cryogenic tubes. What the hell were these people doing here and why? At least the tubes were empty, had they been full it would have creeped her out. They continued on
, finding an office behind the lab but they had left little in that room. The computers had been pulled but the wires were still there testifying to their presence in the past. File cabinets sat open, empty of their contents for the large part. The few papers that were left had no information of any kind. Judging by the lack of dust, everything had been moved recently.

She could only conclude that they had expected the raid but not so soon.
It made her wonder what they had removed from here, how much of it was human? There was hope for at least some of the prisoners they had found and released. It was a good thing she had started on exploring the facility instead of waiting for the new team that would be sent to do so. In a week every one of those poor males would have been dead. Origin had probably started at the lowest level working their way up when they were removing the information and the residents. The fact that they had taken the time to assemble all the dead in one spot made her think they intended to remove them when they left but had been caught off guard.

The rest of the floor yielded nothing of importance so she suggested they go to the next level down. Zeus a
greed as she expected he would so they continued down the stairs at the far end of the level. This time the air was slightly stale but no hint of decay or putrid flesh hit her nose. Some of the others went upstairs, maybe to eat or go to the bathroom, Sierra didn’t know or care. If there were no mistreated males, there was no need to have such a large team. The only gods with them now were Zeus and Ares.

“How did they choose your names, do you know?” Sierra asked unsure of how he would feel about the question but really wanting to know.

“They said we were as far above humans as the gods. One of the doctors who created us was a fan of Greek mythology so she picked names from that. Our leaders were named after the higher gods-Zeus, Ares, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo-others were named after the type of work they would do-Eros, Hercules, Hypnos, Asclepius. When they ran out of names they just made them up to sound like the others. They said our father was Cronos and he was part of all of us. I’m not sure what they meant but if we are all sons of Cronos, we are brothers or at least half brothers.”

“It seems hard to believe that you are all half brothers, but I’ve seen many strange things.
There is something otherworldly about all of you, but I just can’t place it.”

They made it to the next floor seeing mostly rooms
similar to dorms, small and boxlike, with little room and a bathroom shared by five or more rooms. Group living was familiar, setting her at ease while she searched for signs of she knew not what. She noticed Ares stuck by Brandi’s side even though she moved away from him continually. Zeus stayed close to her as well but Sierra didn’t bother to waste her energy moving because she saw how stubborn he was, it had nothing to do with enjoying his closeness or his possessive behavior. Once that floor was thoroughly checked out, they returned to the top floor. They would eat and most of them would turn in for the night even though Sierra had no intention of doing so. She had a date with some computer files intending to go through all Brandi had downloaded in the days they were left here. These were they same files that had revealed the subfloors that Origin had added to the original facility. It had been a surprise since no one had known the facility had been expanded. It was something to put in her report when Kyler arrived.

She worked her way through several files finding a few answers but not the ones she needed. According to what she had read, superior human DNA had been procured from various males while females with certain traits had been searched for. Once the eggs were fertilized, the DNA had been manipulated
in utero with a strand identified as Cronos added in. Who was Cronos and why was he considered worthy of being the father of the gods?

She read another file which mentioned an earlier line of genetically engineered males called supermen but Cronos wasn’t added to their DNA. It said their line was no longer being bred but had been disbursed. What did that mean, not terminated, but disbursed? Had they been integrated into the general population or had they been sold as soldiers or workers of some kind
? The more she found out the more questions she had. She glanced at the clock seeing it was after one in the morning. Tomorrow she wanted to finish the exploration of the remaining floors. She had better get some sleep, not like last night where she had dreamed and been restless all night long. It was lights out and nighty night for her.

She could feel the warmth of hands and lips. The same dream again, or so it would seem. Did that mean if she kept her eyes closed it would just continue pleasantly as it was doing now?
She tingled all over which was something new to her. It was like she was drawn, maybe even bound emotionally, to her dream lover. It was just too freaky so she opened her eyes only to see the glowing gold ones and feel the slight pinch of a bite that just scratch her skin before sleep claimed her again.

Damn, this was getting old!
Was it a dream or was it real? She searched her neck frantically for a sign of a bite or even a scratch only to come up empty. She searched the rest of her body for any sign that she had been used or abused but found none. Only an ache that came to her when she thought of her dream, an ache that made her do a little self help in the shower so she could relieve the need she rarely felt and never this strong. It was like she was becoming a teenager again. She thought about Kyler, but she had no desire for him at all. That relationship was down the drain, she just needed to tell him. The only picture that came to her mind as she sought relief was Zeus in all his naked glory. Not that she had seen him fully exposed but those thin shorts the gods wore didn’t hide much. Once the word was out every female soldier, spy, or government worker of any kind would beg to be assigned here. She would leave it to them, getting out of here soon was her plan.

Her alarm went off, she’d forgotten to turn it off when she had woke early. Shit happens and it happens often. Today they would explore all the way to the bottom. Something told her that secrets were hidden way down deep if she could just figure out where they were placed. She had gotten a weird vibe off the gods since she had met them, well once she had stopped creaming her jeans over Zeus. That god was too distracting and distracted soldiers ended up dead.
It was funny how quickly she had gotten use to calling them gods or males, but maybe it was because they looked divine.

Cleaned and dressed, she hurried down the hall hoping not to be the last to arrive today. No matter how long it took, she intended to clear all three levels that were left. She arrived last again except for Buzz who she wasn’t sure intended to show since she hadn’t made it mandatory. Everyone finished eating
so it was time to leave without Buzz. They swung by medical to get an update on the gods recovered from the large cell downstairs. Doc indicated she wanted to speak to her privately so she led her to an office at the end of the lab.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before. Sierra, these men are not fully human. I don’t know for sure what they are but once we got them up here, cleaned them up, and fed them, their rate of healing was phenomenal. Everyone of them has not only survived, but they are now in better health than I am.
” Doc looked at her with a combination of consternation and excitement.

“So what is your theory?”

“Whatever the unknown DNA that was added to theirs is, it has some unbelievable abilities which will take some time to understand once we find out what they all are. You know what this could mean to the human race? Future generations could have extended and improved lives, we might even be able to adapt it for use on fully grown humans. The possibilities are endless once we get a handle on exactly what we have here. Think of the diseases we could cure, an end to birth defects, it would be unbelievable.”

“Just how do you plan to do that?”

“Well we’ll need to take samples, there’ll be some experiments necessary, but it’s all for the good of humanity as a whole.”

“You can do whatever you want to as long as you get volunteers who understand exactly what you plan to do to them and why.”

“But Sierra, they’ll never agree.”

“That’s their choice, their right to accept or reject being lab specimens. I wouldn’t want to do it and I wouldn’t ask it of anyone else. That is policy until someone else changes it. I honestly have to say I hope no one will
. If they do, we’ll not have done these guys any favors freeing them.”

Doc’s excitement dimmed a little as she seemed to think over what Sierra had said. “I guess you’re right. I’ll exclude the information from the reports. I can’t vouch for those that have helped me here, but if anything comes to light it won’t be because of me.”

“It’s the right thing to do, Doc.”

“Yeah, why does the right thing always rain on my parade?”

“You’re a good person, Doc. Sometimes it hurts no matter what you decide.”

Sierra and Doc walked out to the lab where the others waited for them. If she didn’t know better, she would say that
was a look of approval on Zeus’ face but there was no way he could have heard the conversation she and Doc had just had. She shrugged it off while she listened to Doc explain to Zeus how all his men were healing well. Zeus never corrected her about calling them males rather than men which might mean he was beginning to understand setting them apart from the average man might draw unwanted attention to their differences whatever they might prove to be or she was just making too much of such a little thing.