Luna’s Experiments: Wolf Nose
“These cretins! They wouldn’t realize what true talent is even if it bit them in their lazy asses!”
Our heroine was not in the best mood, for her peers didn’t acknowledge the importance of her last experiment involving a man, cat ears, a little encounter with a train or two, but most importantly: lots of information about how the gift affects plain humans.
“But it won’t be long until they have to give me my own territory for my experiments! Good thing I prepared for the obligatory slowpokes in the higher ranks. This time I will make sure that I get great results, even if this mode of working is far too slow for my taste.”
While she would normally prepare multiple experiments and then let them roam freely until she could view the collected material, this time she decided that she had to take on a more active role in her experiment. Even if that means being bored for quite long phases. At least the future would hold interesting experiments — of a far larger scale than she could perform at this stage in her career of being an applied genetic engineer.
“It even survived longer than any of my test subjects before. It’s outrageous! How are they planning on ever making progress on their self-proclaimed path to a better human like this? Everyone knows you can’t make a perfect human without breaking a few plain ones first.”
Normally experimentalists were encouraged to watch their subjects whenever possible to make sure the transition would run as smoothly as possible. For the duration of the experiment, of course. A single experiment normally went on for a few weeks. Some of Luna’s peers often boasted that their test subjects survived for months at times.
But Luna was different. She wanted more. And to achieve her goals she would make more drastic changes than others would allow in their experiments, leading to a slightly shorter duration of most of her experiments. But apparently she would have to lengthen the duration of her next experiment a bit to please the higher ups.
“Sigh… Okay, now where is that damn remote again?”
Luna prepared her television. She enjoyed watching the experiments like this and thought of it as a certain form of entertainment. This was another thing that struck some of her colleagues as slightly unusual.
“There it is! And the controller is right beside it. At least I don’t have to search that one…”
She plugged in her controller that would allow her to adjust certain small things that were in the control of MakingTheFuture Inc., such as shutting certain doors or halting a few public and private transportation systems. The joys of technology were near endless.
“So, now which one is the live program?”
Zapping through the channels that show different recordings of her past experiments, as well as the current experiments from some of her colleagues, Luna starts thinking about what might happen this time. Her newest experiment shouldn’t be as extreme as the last one, but still a bit extravagant to attract the attention of her higher ups. This one should last a bit longer. For Luna this meant that things would probably be more boring than normal. Especially when thinking about the fact that she would have to monitor her test subject the whole time instead of just letting her assistant collect the material and send it to her so she could review it at a faster pace, while skipping the boring passages.
After a bit of zapping around she finally found what she was searching for — the live recording of her test subject’s bedroom. She was a bit early. The test subject was still sleeping.
“Looks like I still have some time. Let’s see… what do I have to do in the next time…”
She minimized the channel so that a smaller version would inform her of what happened while she was able to work on the rest of the screen. Waiting in realtime for someone to wake up was not the reason why Luna became an engineer after all. On the bigger part of her screen she was switching through the notes she made from her last experiment and the feedback she got.
“Too short…
Not enough information…
Unsuitable for larger scale experiments…
Heck, one even said Too cruel…
Those guys have no idea about what needs to be done in order to enhance the human race.”
Teeth-gnashingly Luna closed the feedback and tried to analyze how she might improve the survivability of her enhanced humans.
The main obstacle on her path to an experiment that was successful in the eyes of her superiors seems to have been the vast amount of new information that came with their new senses. Luna took the view that this was basically always the case if you wanted to try something interesting. The human mind was optimized for the tasks humans were supposed to do. Adding new senses or massively enhancing one sense often led to big problems in processing the newly available information. A lot of plain humans break down in the first minutes, which is why the initial screening for people with an acceptable state of mind is so important. But that’s what the obligatory monthly screenings for the population are for and there is a huge database of suitable candidates for certain levels of adjustments.
Everybody always told her that she would need to find a way to ease her target into its new senses. But nobody ever offered any useful tips about how that was supposed to work. The state-of-the-art technology that was available for experimentalists like Luna offered too many ways to adjust or replace different parts of the plain humans, making it too tempting for Luna. She couldn’t resist aiming for the stars with every experiment.
“…
Maybe…”
While she was in the middle of an idea about how to change the limitations of the current system and her own attitude when it came to experimenting something on the smaller part of the screen demanded her undivided attention — the test subject was awake.
“Oh, oh, it’s starting! Let’s see what will happen first!”
She maximized the channel again, leaning forward with a little spark in her eyes. The first moments were always fascinating and even if she had to watch it in realtime this could potentially be interesting for her. It’s been years since she last watched an experiment live.
The test subject was just waking up, still trying to realize what had happened. The procedure often left them with a sense of confusion, though Luna wasn’t completely sure whether the confusion came from the procedure or from the fact that the human mind would try to be oblivious to what happened until it couldn’t deny the reality anymore. There were some studies going on in this regard, but they often just used a combination of plain humans, sleep deprivation and mind-expanding drugs, which made them too boring for Luna’s taste.
“Interesting. Not much happening in the first moments. Does it realize what happened?”
Fascinated Luna was staring at the screen, her head slightly tilted to the right, unable to move while she was trying to absorb everything she was seeing like she usually does when watching her recorded experiments. The program was showing the room from different camera angles, all of them displayed next to each other. After a few minutes something happened. Something really small, but it had an interesting effect. With a little chuckle Luna was making a few notes about the occurrence.
“The target’s first visible reaction stemmed from him being comfortable alone at home. When it farted the stench was too much for its modified nose and it threw up violently, which led to more stench, leading to more throwing up.”
Looking up to the monitor she noted, with a little smile tucking at the corners of her mouth, that this seemed to be a vicious circle that wouldn’t stop for a while. She started to doubt that this test subject would last longer than the last one. Last time she opted for cats, this time a wolf was the base of the modified part.
A gray wolf is supposed to be roughly fourteen times as receptive as a human when it comes to its sense of smell. Quite a lot judging by the amount of time the test subject already spent throwing up.
After nothing was left in its stomach that the test subject could throw up it was climbing to its feet and started to stagger towards the other rooms in its house, trying to hold its nose closed so that the stench from the bedroom wouldn’t catch up to him.
“Hmm… Normally I would leave it at that, but as this one is supposed to live a bit longer I should probably call someone to clean that mess up or it won’t be able to sleep at all tonight. Sleep deprivation is one of the most common cases of test subject loss after all.”
Switching the channel she wrote a quick email to her assistant to call a cleaning service to the house of her test subject and instruct them to clean up, preferably while he wasn’t there anymore. That is, if it left the house today. Test subjects get one day to adjust to their new senses after the operation before they have to resume their normal lives.
The test subject went into the kitchen to wash its face, as the bathroom was directly next to the bedroom. In the kitchen it washed its face and seemed to realize for the first time what exactly happened in the last days. It took a deep breath to see what would be new…
…and threw up again.
Luna wrote another email to her assistant.
Make them clear the kitchen of all spices they can find, too.
“Hmm, this isn’t going too well. There is nothing it could potentially throw up anymore at this point, but it still doesn’t look like it would stop any time soon…”
She wouldn’t be able to ask for more liberties in her experiments if this continued. Resisting the urge of crying out Boooooring as well as the temptation of just doing something else, she started mumbling to herself.
“Let’s see what I can do for this one…”
She leaned back, frowning a bit, thinking about how she might get more data from her experiment. But after some time the test subject calmed down a bit. Luna’s mood lightened up for a moment as the small shimmer of hope was fighting the darkness of fearing that she would not get enough information this time.
And the test subject took a deep breath again…
“Oh, come on! You’ve got to be kidding me!”
After some minutes the test subject tried to breathe again. This time it wouldn’t throw up, though it was obvious that the smells, which were unknown in this intensity, were still causing the test subject quite some discomfort.
“Okay, now it’s going near the bedroom again to test how far it has acclimated… Aaaaand it’s fighting the urge to throw up. Again.
…
It lost the fight…”
The test subject instead went for the bathroom to clean itself up. Some of the mess had landed on its shirt. After a few minutes in the bath Luna wrote her next E-Mail.
Shampoos for humans are too fragrant. That’s why dogs hate baths.
Most dogs would probably not throw up at all at the smell of human shampoo, but they are used to such a keen smell. For a human this was a completely new experience. And quite the unpleasant one judging by the expression on the test subject’s face. At least one point for her observations, although that one could hardly be called a discovery.
After some time the test subject decided to go out and see whether outside of its house would pose fewer things to make it throw up.
“A house in the middle of the city was less than ideal for this experiment.”
If there was some form of nature nearby the test subject might have gone its first half hour since awakening without throwing up, but as it stands it would have to get used to the surrounding smells, such as dumpsters, fast.
“Okay, let’s see… Weird, its wandering around. Where is it going…?”
The test subject was running around through the city, obviously with a goal in mind, but also with a lot of invisible smelly obstacles on its way. Luna was rapidly pressing buttons on her controller to make the public transportation take a detour around what she assumed the next few streets would be that her test subject would take. Making the private cars take a detour would probably take too long and while cars and their exhaust fumes were already a problem, bigger groups of people seemed to be an even bigger threat to her test subject’s health.
This became apparent when the test subject ran around a corner, into a group of men who were on their way home from the bar down the street. The test subject had been trying to keep its nose closed with its hand, but when it collided with the plain human it couldn’t hold its nose shut anymore. The smell of sweat and alcohol that were coming from the group of men quickly overwhelmed the test subject.
“This is starting to become tiresome…”
At least they left the test subject alone, so that they wouldn’t get any of the vomit on them.
On its way the target took out his smartphone to call someone.
“Hmm, let’s see… The life companion… Where is this one’s life companion according to the system… Ah, got it! Okay, perfect. Home alone and now that the test subject phoned waiting for his arrival… The data suggest it doesn’t have any plans for today. Good, maybe my test subject will live to see another day and give me a few more data points that I can present.”
Luna put some of the cameras from the life companion on the screen, next to those of her test subject running through the streets towards the house. A few minutes later Luna typed an E-Mail to her assistant that told him his new tasks while mumbling to herself.
“…I shouldn’t let my assistant choose test subjects anymore…”
— — — — —
This time it was easier to watch the video because there was not so much to watch, though it was painful nonetheless. The assistant was glad that he wouldn’t have to choose any more test subjects. It was horrible enough to choose this life which he obviously ruined.
Of course he wasn’t the one doing the dirty work, but he was still the one who chose which person would have to suffer from the experiments.
It was a hard life in Dispensatia and if you weren’t willing to work for the crazy genetic engineers there was a chance you would end up as one of their test subjects yourself. Nothing you want, especially when you have seen some of the experiments. Especially this engineer was quite extreme, even for Dispensatia’s standards.
He should make sure not to disappoint the professor with his other tasks. Though he was sure that he would be able to arrange for everything if it didn’t involve choosing humans to experiment on. He knew the first rule, but it was hard to completely distance yourself from what you saw on the screen. The experimentalists were masters at that. Sometimes he thought they weren’t real humans anymore, but only humans were able to be so cruel…
— — — — —
The man was running through the streets, covered in his own vomit, with tears streaming down his cheeks. He was trying to hold his nose close so that he wouldn’t have to endure the pain it caused him.
His screams of agony were nigh incomprehensible. Sometimes there were scraps of words that sounded like he was begging for help or swearing at the people who cursed him to be part of these experiments.
Every few steps he would stagger to the sides because of something that reached his nose despite his efforts and that he wasn’t able to smell until just a few hours ago. The stench of exhaust gases, the garbage behind houses, the drainage system, humans…
He could smell what they ate, what they drank, what they did in the last hours presumably. It was overwhelming. Every time someone passed him he would have thoughts suggesting that someone might be ill or might have done something indecent. The people who hadn’t bathed for a day were the worst — they smelled like rotten corpses to him, polluting the air with a stench so unbearable that his brain stopped working until the intense pain from the smell hit him with all its might. He didn’t even know that smelling something could hurt, but it was a burning sensation as if someone was sticking red hot iron inside his nose and filled his lungs with acid.
There were far too many smells and each one was too extreme for him, so he kept running for the only place where he had always enjoyed every smell — one in particular. He had been sensitive before, but this was a whole new level. Reaching his destination would be his only chance of surviving this horror. He had heard people talking about the poor devils who were chosen by the real devils for their experiments. That was the risk of living in this crazy land with all its comforts after all.
Everyone was going out of his way when they saw him. If it was because of the pain visible on his face, the fact that it was obvious he had been chosen or the vomit on his clothes, he couldn’t say.
It was a good thing that the buses were not anywhere in sight. The humans on the streets were already too much for him. When he accidentally had a run-in with some thugs that had been drinking nearby he thought he would never be able to stand up again, but they left when they realized what they were witnessing.
On his way he managed to grab his smartphone, calling his girlfriend. She already knew that he would be disfigured. Everyone he knew before had been informed that they were supposed to treat him like they did before. It was for the quality of the results. The people who ended up as lab rats were supposed to live — at least for some time — so that they would generate results.
It didn’t feel like he would be able to generate many results though.
He wondered why he was so unlucky that he wouldn’t even survive his first day. Why couldn’t they do something less drastic?
His girlfriend comforted him on the phone while he was running. Tried to tell him that she wouldn’t view him any different than before. It was only a matter of getting used to his new appearance and the enhanced senses. It would take some time, but they would get over it — together.
They would have been married already if not for the procedure that took him away from her two days before the marriage. They would catch up on that later. And then they would talk about their plans for adopting children. She had always been infertile and they had spent days at times talking about being parents. After their honeymoon they would start with the necessary paperwork.
…
When she opened the door though, his face that had before shown relief at being reunited with his loved one in this horrible situation, turned into a grimace of disgust. Hers in turn quickly turned to confusion.
Everything was as it had always been when he visited.
She was even wearing his favourite perfume…
Vomiting heavily again the man turned around in pain and ran away.
He didn’t get very far though — she was living next to a busy street.
— — — — —
I’ll choose the next one…
L. Tick
