Calibration — Research and Development
Prequel to Calibration.
Chapter 1 — Breakthrough/Broken
John waves the bartender over, lifting the empty mug. As it gets filled a girl with long blonde hair and bulbous, fake tits, no older than 19, taps him on the shoulder. He turns to see her holding the top page of his theory paper. She says, “Like, you’re that Haels guy right?”
He snatches the paper from her hand. “Where did you get this?”
“Hey, don’t be so grabby. I do stuff at the grant office. Like, make copies, get coffee, things like that. It was lying on a table in one of the conference rooms. I saw you in there today.”
John looks her up and down: white tube top barely containing her chest, short yellow skirt, thigh high white leather boots before saying, “Yeah, I’m John Haels.”
She twirls her hair, “So like, does your shit work or not?”
He starts in, “We haven’t been authorized to do any human trials yet, but yes I believe it will work.”
Giggling, “So like you need subjects then, right? Cause like I’m REALLY interested in what you’re doing.”
Dismissively, “Sure, right. Did one of the other board members put you up to this?”
“Totally no dude. Look, this is like a total secret and stuff but I really need help.”
“Help, with what?”
She leans in close, “So there’s this history final next week and I heard you talking about improving memory and if I don’t pass they’re going to kick me out of school.”
John taps his chin, “Memory? Yes, but I’m still not authorized for human trials.”
She points a finger at him, “Look, I don’t care about who says what. My daddy has just tons of money and I’d totally pay you. I’m really desperate.”
He pushes her away but she hands him her cell phone saying, “Just put your number and address in here and I’ll come by. It could just be a little quickie.”
Sighing, John puts his details in the phone and she skips out of the bar saying, “Name’s April B T W.”
He stays at the bar for another round, pays the tab and heads home. April is already there, sitting in her white and gold Lexus. She darts over to the front door before he can even get out of his car saying, “Come on, let’s do this.”
John sits her down in the leather office chair, facing the device and takes the seat next to her. She hands him a course book and he flips through the pages, asking, “So uhh, what will the final be on?”
April pops her gum and says, “Like, everything dude.”
John leans back, feeling the weight of the book. He says, “Everything?”
April replies, “Yeah, like, upload the whole thing into my brain man.”
His eyes go wide as he lays the book open on a scanner bed. “Let’s start with one page and see how that goes.”
She pouts, “Lame, whatever, let’s just get started.”
“Just look into that device in front of you and I’ll turn it on.” She opens her eyes wide and the lasers begin punctuating her pupils. John puts the headphones over her ears and hits enter letting the computer repeat the entire page to her. She starts repeating the words and the gum falls out of her mouth rolling onto the floor.
He holds her wrist, feeling her pulse as she goes through 100 full repetitions before turning the device off. She recovers quickly and looks at him asking, “Well?”
John grabs the book and says, “In 1914...”
April struggles, slowly repeating, “Archduke... Archduke...” Frustrated she throws up her hands, “Come on, I can feel something in there.” She smacks his chest, causing him to take hold of her wrists. As his thumb presses into her vein she fully repeats the entire page, word for word, until he lets her wrist go. She squeals, “It worked!”
Concerned, he takes her wrist again causing her to repeat, under her breath, the entire page again in full. He remarks thoughtfully, “It must need a physical trigger to access the memory.”
“Like, whatever dude,” she says as she stares at the device. “Hit me with more I’m going to ace that test and prove daddy wrong.”
John hesitates with the book, “This might be enough for today, I don’t know what might happen.”
She looks at him sternly pulling a small card-wallet from her purse. She whips out a black credit card with gold trim and shoves it in his face. “I will get you ten grand, right now, if you do this. Ten fucking thousand dollars. You make like what a hundred bucks a day doing this?”
He looks over to the grant proposal on the desk and the testing trials timeline taped to his chalkboard. He mutters, “5 years extended trials.”
John scans the next page saying, “Fine, but we do one page at a time.”
They run through 100 repetitions of the second page, John grasping her wrist the entire time. She recovers and waggles her arm in the air. He replies, “I wont be there at the test with you, just hold your wrist with your other hand. April smacks her head saying, “Duh. No wonder you’re the science guy.”
As she puts pressure on her wrist she begins blurting out words from both pages on top of each other. Words combine, strange overlapping sounds come out of her throat and she begins to have a seizure in the chair. John quickly wraps his arms around her to keep her from knocking anything over and slowly wrestles her to the ground. As her body calms he lifts her back into the chair in a panic. “I’ve killed her, I’ve fried her brain. I’m going to get arrested and thrown in jail.”
He notices her eyes half open and turns on the device, pointing her head at the lights. She quickly responds, opening them widely and going slack-jawed.
John sits, thinking. He bites his lip and takes hold of her wrist allowing her to sit in silence. As he shifts in the chair he bumps his shin on the table leg and yells, “Fuck me” as he lets go of her wrist. He turns off the device and watches her.
She looks at him, bewildered, “Did it work? What happened?”
He tries to think of what to say when she smacks her forehead and grasps her wrist. Her cheeks become flush and she repeats, “fuck me” under her breath. John simply stares at her as she pushes her chest out, groping her tits towards him. He leans forward slightly, engrossed by her tongue circling her lips. April pushes his face into her now exposed tits and stands up with him, sitting on the edge of the desk.
She wraps her legs around and pulls him in grinding against his bulging pants. She whispers, “fuck me” into his ear. His cock springs out as he pulls his pants down and she edges forward until he can feel it pressing against her wet folds. She maneouvers him inside and moans sharply into his ear. He thrusts, eliciting a “fuck me” each time his balls slap against the desk.
April calms down as his cum fills her. She clings to him nuzzling against his neck.
John steps back, his cock dripping on the floor. She looks down at the puddle of their juices dripping down the desk and starts crying, “What did you do to me?”
He panics, pleading, “Nothing, nothing, I was just trying to fix it!”
She slaps at him, “Don’t touch me! Get away!”
He grabs her arms, pulling her off the desk. “No, no I can fix this.” April struggles but he pins her to the chair turns on the device. She holds her eyes shut but he manages to pull them open with his thumbs, causing her to go slack. Cum and pussy juice stain the chair, the table and floor as he stares at the blank screen.
John wrestles with himself pacing back and forth. He mutters, “I can fix this. I just need to find the right thing to implant her with.” He sits, tapping his chin and forehead.
“What if I?” he shakes his head.
“I can’t go to jail.”
“I can’t risk this project.”
He types into the keyboard, puts the headphones on her head and grasps her wrist. His finger hovers over the enter key for a few moments before he closes his eyes and hits it.
April repeats, “I don’t remember.”
He stays with her for five hours before he turns it off and carries her to the bathroom. She rouses as he scrubs her body down and asks, “Where am I?”
He looks up, saying, “No where.” Each time a look of distress forms on her face he holds her wrist tightly, causing her to repeat, “I don’t remember.”
Scrubbed down and clothed he drives her and her car to a hospital, parking and leaving her in a neglected corner of the emergency ward. He presses her wrist one last time and leaves, catching a cab home.