Seeds of the Alien Creatures

* * *

Misfortune has a way of coming without warning. On what seemed to be an ordinary day, the facility was unusually noisy from the morning onwards.

“The higher-ups have cut the budget.”

“By how much?”

“They’re finalising the report now, but… it seems that all projects without concrete results will be terminated.”

It wasn’t hard to tell that something bad was happening – the atmosphere alone was enough to make it clear.

The place I was in was a huge research facility. There were countless experiments going on, and of course the cost of maintaining it was enormous. From the fragmented conversations I overheard, it was obvious that funding had been cut.

“Summarise and report the results of each experiment. Rank them by performance, starting with the lowest, and cut accordingly.”

As the orders were given, the cages that had filled the room began to be moved elsewhere. My cage was no exception. From the atmosphere alone, I could tell that these were the subjects whose experiments had been completed.

‘The experiments are over, so now they’re going to set us free.’ 

I thought naively.

In front of the mountain of cages, the researchers were chatting among themselves.

“Will all the subjects be disposed of?”

“They have to be. Prepare the rocks as usual. There are a lot of subjects to bury this time, so make sure the rocks are big enough.”

Disposed of. Subjects to be buried. Rocks.

The words I heard were ominous. I clung to the bars of the cage, straining to catch every bit of their conversation.

“This is the first time in thirty years that we’ve disposed of such a large number of test subjects. Where should we set the coordinates for moving the rocks?”

“Don’t we still have the records of the previous coordinates we used? Just use them again. Setting new ones is too much trouble.”

What on earth were they talking about? I didn’t have time to think about it as the researchers began to prepare a massive rock. In the centre of the rock was a deep pit into which they began to throw the test subjects, alive. No matter how I looked at it, it was clearly a mass burial.

“What are you doing? Stop this!”

I shouted in anger, but my voice didn’t reach them.

Every creature in their cages was kicking and screaming. Even without intelligence, they seemed to sense their imminent death. Each clung to the bars in sheer terror. I was no different.

I hit the cage bars with my tail, flailing desperately to open the door and escape. But the harder I tried, the more cracks appeared in the shell covering my tail, splitting it apart. I didn’t feel the pain – there was no place for it in the overwhelming fear I felt.

“Stop, stop…! Don’t do this!”

I was filled with despair and fear. No matter how hard I struggled, the machine that lifted the cages moved closer to mine. The researchers operated it with precision and the machine picked up my cage. It wasn’t until the cage was suspended over the pit that the door finally opened.

I clung desperately to avoid falling, but the machine released a powerful gust of wind. Unable to withstand the pressure, I was blown into the pit.

Inside the pit, various test subjects were writhing and thrashing in a chaotic mess. Just yesterday life had been peaceful. But now, in the blink of an eye, that reality had turned to ash.

I have to get out of here!

I kicked my legs with all my might, using my tail to push against the air as hard as I could. The round light at the top of the pit – the only exit – became my desperate focus. Like me, other airborne creatures instinctively flew towards the light.

But each time we reached the exit, the waiting machine unleashed another powerful blast of air. The force sent us plummeting back to the bottom of the pit. No matter how many times I tried, the result was always the same. Each collision with the walls left cracks in my exoskeleton, breaking it apart bit by bit.

“Let me out! Please, let me out!”

I screamed with everything I had. I reached out to the researchers controlling the machine by reading their brainwaves and speaking directly into their minds.

“Team leader, there’s a subject trying to communicate with me. It’s talking to me.”

“Ignore it. It’s just a mutation.”

“A mutation?”

“A side effect of the drugs. Sometimes you get creatures that can talk. It’s not uncommon, so don’t worry about it.”

And that was the end of it. The researchers didn’t listen to a word I said. The intelligence I was so proud of was dismissed as a side effect of the experiments.

‘I’m not an extraordinary creature after all.’ 

My self-esteem, built on the belief that I was special, shrank. It felt like everything about me was being denied. But even so, I couldn’t afford to stay depressed.

‘It doesn’t matter now.’ 

The steady stream of subjects being dumped into the pit stopped abruptly. They had finished disposing of all the creatures they had intended to dump. The pit was now filled with various organisms, leaving no room for movement.

‘This is my last chance.’ 

I kicked my legs desperately and made for the exit. But before I could reach it, a thick steel plate began to slide over the opening.

‘No, just a little faster…!’ 

A little more, a little closer. But it was no use. The light disappeared as the steel plate covered the exit, sealing it completely.

I clawed at the welded edges of the plate, hoping to create even the smallest gap to escape through. I clawed at the surface until the skin on my legs cracked, split and fell off. Tears streamed down my face from the pain.

I looked down. From tiny creatures like me to massive ones over two metres tall, the pit was filled with thousands of test subjects, all writhing and struggling for freedom.

“Why are you killing us? You could just let us go!”

I tried one last time to send my thoughts to the researchers beyond the rock. There was no response. Instead, I concentrated on reading their minds to understand the situation.

“Prepare the teleportation device. Enter the galactic coordinates for where we’re sending the rock.”

I overheard a conversation that filled me with dread.

“It’s such a hassle to send them one by one to another galaxy… Wouldn’t it be easier just to incinerate them? It would probably save money too.”

Someone suggested. Burial or incineration – either way, I wanted neither. Tears of frustration and grief streamed down my face. What had I done to deserve this?

“Cremation would be cheaper, sure. But these creatures are soaked in chemicals. Whether we burn them or bury them, their bodies release pollutants. This used to be a big problem, so the rules have been tightened. Now we’re required to dispose of them by throwing them into space.”

So this rock was going to be thrown into space. That was the harsh reality I learned from their conversation, a reality I wished I didn’t know.

The rock moved. There was a heavy thud, followed by the sound of machinery. It had been loaded into the teleportation device. I heard the mechanical voice start the countdown.

A slight shudder. A strong vibration. A nauseating dizziness that made me want to throw up.

It hit me all at once. Then suddenly everything stopped. The researchers’ voices, the mechanical noises and every other sound – gone.

The rock was sent to another galaxy, just like that. It all happened in the blink of an eye. I could hardly believe the absurdity of it all. Despite my intelligence, I was angry with myself for not foreseeing this.

I had been deceived. The food, the comfortable bedding… none of it had been given out of kindness.

No, it wasn’t quite right to say that I had been deceived. The researchers had never promised to set me free when the experiments were over. It was I who had foolishly assumed that they would. That was the price I paid for living in dreams and ignoring reality.

Why didn’t I ever think of escaping from the facility?

With the intelligence I had, I might have succeeded if I’d tried. The regret hit me hard, but it was already too late. The rock I was trapped in would drift aimlessly through space, and starvation awaited me in the end.

As time passed, the chaotic creatures inside the rock gradually calmed down. But with that came a new, far more pressing problem.

Herbivores and carnivores had been thrown into the same sealed room. It was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened.

The first to die were the creatures that needed oxygen to breathe. As some began to suffocate and perish, the carnivores gathered nearby. Once they had devoured the corpses and were still hungry, the hunt would begin. A grim reality lay ahead.