Lives Of The Unknown Book 1: The Legend of Andrew Lockeford (10 page)

After having his insides observed with
the special light, Andrew looked forward with his chin pressed onto
his collarbone to see what was happening next. Lee pulled out an
old-fashioned scalpel—she was definitely going to cut something up.
Andrew needed to ask what that was for.

“This is for taking off those two
reproductive organs you have there. Considering you’re not going to
be reproducing anytime on this planet, they would just get in the
way.”

The human was quite nervous at this
point; from the looks of that scalpel, he believed this would not
be so painless.

“Don’t worry, I’m giving you
anesthetic for this.”

Most men would be more focused on all
the emotional consequences after having their parts taken off.
However, Andrew felt fine about the long-term effects. While on
Earth, he decided that once he had two children, he would have
those parts taken off; he believed they should be for reproduction
and nothing more. Little did he know that they had functions for
the body other than reproduction.

The procedure took between five and ten minutes, and
it was, as a matter of fact, painless. . He also had his nipples
taken off in the same way, since they really were useless for any
male. That anesthetic was just astounding—Andrew didn’t notice that
he was bleeding until Lee put artificial skin onto the bleeding
areas. The first thought that crossed his mind at this sight was:
That’s a LOT of blood….
The second one was the fact that he
would always have to sit down on the toilet from now on.

Andrew was given another break once he could sit
up—if he wanted to, of course. However, this break was much quieter
than the one before. The final series of procedures was up next—the
ones involving genetic alterations. Lee told him that,
unfortunately, it was unavoidable to suppress any pain completely
for this one. The anesthetic would likely interfere with the
genetic changes. Regardless, it would be nothing compared to that
lye-in-the-back incident on the Selentor ship.

“Have you seen any Selentors with
darkened muscles that show through their skin?” said
Lee.

“Yeah, a few.”

“That’s a result of genetic progress.
That gene in particular changes your muscle content so that each
and every muscle fiber is much more durable and powerful than
before.”

“Really? How much stronger can I get
with that?”

“Sorry, but you’re not getting that
gene. At least not yet.”

Chapter 11

The level of pain wasn’t
that bad—it was how long it lasted that made Andrew weary
afterwards. Each genetic shot taken in was a similar process: a
needle was inserted in Andrew’s torso, then an electrifying, almost
burning sensation ran throughout his body. During each genetic
change, he clenched his teeth together as he held back a shout,
turning it into a sort of groan. Sometimes he would feel parts of
his body growing or stretching. The entire procedure lasted over an
hour, but it felt like an entire day.

The pain was understandable, however,
once the dramatic changes had finished. Mid-way through, Andrew
wanted to see a reflection of himself to see if anything was
different at all. What he saw gave some compensation for the pain
he endured. He appeared an entire foot taller, and his bones felt
harder than stone. His physique seemed bulkier overall, giving him
a new weight—if he was on Earth—of two hundred and thirty pounds.
Lee had paused the procedure anyway because Andrew needed a food
pill to be rejuvenated, to deal with all the physical
changes.

The remaining genetic modifications,
which involved regeneration and skin durability, seemed less
painful than the ones before. Had he gotten used to it?
Furthermore, he received a genetic change that would allow him to
hear any language as familiar as English, making the translator on
his ear redundant. How the hell does that even work?! The gene that
he wanted most, but didn’t get, was the muscle-efficiency kind. Lee
said that Andrew would have to increase his muscle mass before
getting the gene. If he got the gene now, it would boost his
strength, but he would never become any stronger. Many aliens have
gotten this gene before improving muscle mass because they needed
the strength quickly. The human, however, had all the time he
needed, thus giving him the opportunity to become a better
fighter.

“Well, Andrew, you’re finished. What
do you want to do until Juvir comes back?”

“I need to use the bathroom,” stated
Andrew urgently, his voice now slightly deeper.

Robots usually didn’t have to worry
about eating, drinking, or using the bathroom, but they understood
that organic beings had to. “Sure,” said Lee, “just go into the
room down the hall that way.” Andrew faced right to see the general
direction that she was pointing towards.

He sat up, feeling the extreme
differences in his body. He was taller and heavier, making his
coordination very outdated and pitiful as he stumbled off the
table. He left the room while grabbing onto the walls and saw
several doors on the right side of the hall. Maybe the directions
were good enough for the other aliens, but Andrew was too dumb in
comparison to figure it out right away. His intelligence hadn’t
changed from the genetic tests. His only clue was that one door had
a symbol on it of an ellipse with wavy lines going upwards from it.
Around that were several arrows that curved and followed each
other, forming a circle. Andrew took a guess that this was the way
aliens symbolized waste—perhaps this was the bathroom. Or it could
be a dumpster. Or even something completely different. The only way
to know for sure was to go inside.

Andrew stepped in front of the door
before it slid to the side. He stepped inside and found only an
empty lit-up room with a floating mechanical object waiting there—a
scanner, perhaps. Once the doors closed, the object projected a
red, fan-like light across Andrew’s body. A voice came out from it
when it finished: “Species: Human. Setting up waste relief
system.”

Inside Andrew’s
head, he thought,
My species is already
known to the computers around here? That was
quick.

A cubic part of the floor quickly sprang up as a
wide hole from its top opened up. It seemed suitable enough for
Andrew to sit on it and do his business. He had a hard time trying
to sit down, however—he would take a while getting used to his new
body.

As he sat down to “relieve his waste”,
as the device put it, he noticed that all he had in the front was a
small hole from which urine came out of. Everything around there
had already healed up because of the regeneration gene.

He sat up from the cubic toilet,
curious to find any toilet paper, and saw another floating device
appear in front of him. This one, however, sprayed a quick-drying
substance onto the entire area—front and back—between his belly and
his thighs, as well as his hands. It finished with the words:
“Remaining waste and bacteria extinguished. You may
exit.”

Andrew felt clean
yet dirty at the same time because he didn’t use toilet paper or
wash his hands like he would have done on Earth. However, when he
gave it more thought, that substance
did
make him feel clean, so he
decided it was all right and proceeded walking back to
Lee.

As he entered the operation room, he
noticed that Juvir was in there as well, and the crimson-skinned
alien vice-president stated, “New toilet experience?”

Andrew said with embarrassment, “Yeah,
it was….different.”

“I’ll bet it’s more sanitary than it
is on Earth.”

“I wouldn’t expect too much,
actually.” On Earth, soap typically removes 99.99 percent of the
millions of germs on one’s hands; that still leaves hundreds that
are left there. The substance from earlier, however, reduced the
number of bacteria from millions to single-digits.

“So this is what a
genetically-improved human looks like. You definitely look like you
have massive potential. Although you should put your suit back
on.”

As Andrew put the black suit on again,
he said, “No problem….er, what should I call you other than just
‘Juvir?’ Should I say it with ‘Vice-president,’ or something else,
maybe?”

“No need to be so formal, Andrew.
Think of me, yourself and everyone else here as equals, not
superiors.”

This wasn’t quite so true to Andrew.
Juvir had plenty of experience as a leader, was several times more
intelligent, and he looked like his body wasn’t at all weak. Juvir
was physically, mentally, and even socially more powerful than he
was. Andrew couldn’t help but show his respect somehow. The best
way he could do it for now was to do whatever Juvir wanted him to
do.

“Understood, Juvir. By the way, now
that I think about it, where’s the actual president of the AOIB?
You said he was coming by in a couple of days.”

“He is. I was talking to him over the
communicator about you the entire time that you were having your
tests with Lee.” Lee had left the room by this point—her business
with Andrew was done, and she knew it would be odd to stick around
doing nothing.

“What’s he like? And why do I get the
feeling that he’s never around much?”

“He’s an extremely busy person. He
deals with all the negotiations and speeches with all the other
planets while letting us representatives know what we should focus
on. Luckily, he has a very high threshold, and his species does not
need sleep whatsoever. I can’t quite match up to that. Although, as
Vice-president, I have fewer duties to worry about and that lets me
take you in with full responsibility.”

Andrew nodded his head in mild
admiration. “What’s his name?”

“Xaphlos Worleger Eul-ta Canelpo. It’s
a long and difficult name, I know.”

“God, it really sounds like a
tongue-twister.”

Juvir gave him a look as though he had
said something strange. Was it because “tongue-twister” was just an
humanly expression? Or….

“Um, well….Yhn, I mean….oh, it’s the
same person! Give me a break!”

“Did you know about Yhn from the
Selentors?”

Andrew gave him a couple seconds of
silence before answering. He realized that neither one of them had
mentioned anything about God or Yhn just yet.

“Yeah….they told me that their
enemies, and I would assume they meant you guys—no offense—believed
in an all-powerful thing known as ‘Yhn.’ Us humans on Earth feel
the same way, only we call him ‘God.’”

“So Earthlings do believe in Yhn, just
like so many others do. Do you believe that Yhn exists?”

Andrew had always said that he was an
atheist, but that wasn’t entirely true during the past couple of
years. “Well, I don’t really know for sure, but I just have the
feeling that he deals with our deaths. You know, if you die, then
your soul—your spirit—is released into the afterlife, and God
determines where we go. We stay in a place of pure bliss known as
heaven if we’re good, and if we’re bad, then we go to a place of
pure misery known as hell. There could be something more to that,
but I just don’t think there’s any way of knowing for sure until we
die.”

This time, Juvir stayed silent for a
few moments before responding. “That sounds roughly the same,
although the heaven and hell part sounds rather new to me. The most
popular beliefs say that once we die, our souls may either be
recycled into a parallel universe, are sent into the void between
universes, or stick to a place within the universe while, in an
unknown way, connecting to the void. That void is known as the
‘Impossible Realm,’ where absolutely anything can happen regardless
of reason. Could you say more about the heaven and hell that you
were talking about?”

“Umm….well, heaven is thought to be
above Earth, and hell is known to be below Earth. God and his son
Jesus Christ watch over heaven and the Earth, while Satan controls
the people in hell. God and Jesus look just like humans in white
robes, while Satan looks like a red, upright demon with horns on
his head.” Andrew had paused for a moment, trying to figure out all
that he could say. “This is all according to one major religion, by
the way. There’s plenty of other religions that exist on
Earth.”

Juvir nodded his head. “Go
on.”

“God had created the universe and
everything in it. Humans started out as two children of God, named
Adam and Eve. They gave birth to….I think seven children, and they
mated with each other and so on down the road, thus forming the
human race.”

“Do most humans believe
that?”

“Well, not as much anymore, but plenty
of people still do.”

Juvir rubbed his forehead using his
thumb and the side of his index finger. “There’s plenty of
scientific proof that refutes a lot of that.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m
not saying
I
thought humans started out that way, or even that Jesus was
the Son of God. But if I heard that God created the start of the
universe, and that the universe took care of itself from there,
then I would go along with that.”