Surrogate

SURROGATE

By

Ellison James

Copyright 2012 Ellison James

Smashwords edition

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SURROGATE

Marla Buliea sighed heavily, exhaling nervous
air from her lungs as the double glass doors closed behind her,

"Miss Buliea? Welcome to the Geil
clinic."

"Yes, thank you." Marla forced a reluctant
smile.

"I'm Doctor Mueller," the woman said,
extending a hand. "Joanne Mueller, but please, just call me
Joanne." She shook Marla’s hand gently, pumping it only twice
before placing another hand out to fully envelope hers within the
fold.

The Doctor was a tall slender woman with
blonde hair in a tight ponytail that ended about midway down her
back. Her features, while pleasant, were soft and careless. Her
eyes indicated someone long accustomed to a privileged life. Doctor
Mueller's hands were soft but cold. They felt clinical, lifeless,
and her hand-shaking gesture did nothing to ease her
apprehension.

The newspaper advertisement said the study
was for psychological research and the subject would not be asked
to take pills or shots. Marla hated shots, and pills never sat well
in her stomach. She never understood why people relied on pills for
just about everything. She always had the ability to cure her own
headaches by simply going into a dark room and clearing her mind.
Her friends told her she had a rare talent but curing her own
headaches didn't put money into the bank. The ad listed a
substantial fee for an afternoon's work, and that's why she was
here. They seemed impressed with her in her previous visits, but
they consisted mostly of guessing cards while inside an isolation
booth.

"Let's get you settled in," Joanne said as
she led her down a long hallway, still holding Marla's hand in
hers.

"Just to be sure," Marla asked as they
reached the end of a long corridor. "There are no needles or pills
involved?"

"None at all," Joanne said, giving her a
reassuring smile. "We'll have to hook up some monitoring equipment
to you but they go on with tape and suction cups that can be easily
removed."

"What will I have to do? You said in our
phone interview that this was some kind of remote viewing
experiment. Will I have to try to guess cards being shown in
another room or something?"

No, not at all," Joanne said. "This is more
like a sleep study. All that is required of you is to relax and
clear your mind while lying on a bed in a darkened room. Don't be
surprised if you feel something, that's what the study is all
about."

"You mean, I just have to lie on a bed and
wait to feel something?" Marla said, "Sounds easy enough," proud of
herself for finding a study that was, more or less, easy money.

"There is one other thing," Joanne said.
"You'll have to remove all of your clothing, even your bra and
panties. Any clothing or sheets may interfere with our
experiment."

Marla's earlier apprehension crept back in.
She wasn't sure she was comfortable with lying on a bed in a cold
examination room, naked in complete darkness waiting to 'feel'
something.

"Since I won't need my clothes for awhile,
you think we could have them sent to the cleaners while I'm in
there?" Marla's attempt at levity was cut short when her voice
cracked.

Joanne giggled politely at her attempt and
said, "Just go into that room on the right and make yourself
comfortable. My intern will be there in a few minutes to get you
all hooked up."

"Okay," she said, and started down the
hallway. Marla pushed the door open, looking back to Joanne before
she went inside the room, but she had already disappeared through
another door.

***

Joanne was excited at the prospect of getting
her experiment underway. She hurried into the control room as soon
as Marla opened the door to the test room. Katrina, her intern, was
setting up equipment, loading programs full of calculations and
algorhythms into the computers. She joined in, turning on the
monitors and checking the medical equipment that used to monitor
all the vitals and brain activity of both the receiving subject,
and the subject trying to project tactile feeling to her from the
room next door.

Joanne surveyed the monitors as the two rooms
came into view. Marla appeared in one of the monitors. She walked
around the room, looking at the furniture. The other room was dark.
Katrina had not turned on the light yet, so she pushed a button on
her large console, bringing light to the room. The other room was
set up exactly like the first, with the exception of a large
monitor, used to view the subject in the other room. Only, the
monitor was not there!

"Where's the monitor for test room number
one?" Joanne didn't bother turning to look at Katrina.

"Remember?" She heard Katrina respond. "The
monitor broke. You sent it out for repair."

"Yeah, I remember," Joanne heard the pitch of
her own voice rise as she spoke. "But you were supposed to pick it
up from the repair shop yesterday."

"The repair shop never called me."

Joanne fumed but did her best to hide it from
her intern. Katrina had been acting strange ever since their last
set of tests with Holly, their chosen sender. She'd been
absent-minded about other things too. Maybe she'd just been given
too much of a workload. After all, the kinds of experimentation
they were performing went well beyond anything Katrina was learning
in her college psychology classes.

A voice thundered from the intercom, making
Joanne and Katrina jump in unison. It was the front desk announcing
their other visitor waiting at the front desk. Joanne clapped her
hands together, her anger quickly replaced by excitement.

"You want me to get our guest and escort her
to room number one?" Katrina giggled at her own statement, flashing
a wide smile.

Joanne was embarrassed at her own excitement.
"No, I'll go get her and bring her here," she said, hoping her
forced nonchalance masked her giddiness. "I'd like to show her the
control room and some of the monitoring equipment we'll be
using.

Katrina shook her head in agreement but still
had that big wide smile stretched across her face. Joanne held her
breath as she moved to the door so she wouldn't burst out in
laughter. She made it through the doorway with her composure
intact, but as the door clicked shut, she found herself skipping
down the long corridor to the reception area. She stopped before
going around the corner and took some deep breaths. Composed and
professional again, she walked to the reception desk with her arm
outstretched and a half-smile, but on the inside, she was still
skipping and giggling.

***

Holly shook Doctor Mueller's hand, and then
followed her down the long corridor to the control room. She was
glad to be the one chosen to take part in this experiment and,
having passed all their other tests, was excited to be a part of
stretching the boundaries of remote influence. She spent a lifetime
preparing for something like this. She'd suffered through people
calling her gift 'fringe science' and those studying her gifts
being labeled as parapsychologists. Nonetheless, she continued to
learn and expand her skills because, in her mind, her gift wasn't
just what she did, but who she was.

"You remember Katrina Simms?" The Doctor
said, as they entered the small room.

Katrina turned and smiled.

Holly certainly remembered her. Katrina's
tanned skin and soft features haunted her dreams since they first
met. She was surprised she was even able to complete the battery of
tests the first time she visited the clinic. She pushed past Doctor
Mueller to reach Katrina and give her a friendly girl hug.

"How could I forget such a beauty," Holly
said, winking at Katrina as she spoke.

Holly thought back to the day she first met
Katrina and the Doctor. She spent an entire afternoon performing
tests. They even had her blow out a candle burning in another room.
But, it was that last test that set her mind hopelessly on Katrina.
She was asked to sit in a room by herself. The room was completely
dark except for the light from a large computer monitor. On the
monitor, she watched Katrina sitting in a chair in the next room.
Her task was to attempt to project tactile pressure to Katrina. She
concentrated on Katrina while gently stroking her own arm. It took
a few attempts, but it eventually worked. She watched the monitor
in surprise as Katrina suddenly moved, grasping her arm with her
hand. The experiment was a success but she was most impressed with
Katrina's reaction, not on her arm, but in the place she was really
concentrating her efforts. She saw the slightest hint of a smile
work its way across Katrina's soft pink lips, and even though the
monitor did not give the best view, she saw Katrina's nipples
suddenly press against her tee shirt through her thin bra. That's
when Holly considered the experiment a success. That was the real
aim of her real efforts.

Katrina and Doctor Mueller finished their
work and met in the middle of the long desk. They nodded to each
other, satisfied the equipment was ready.

"Looks like everything’s ready," Doctor
Mueller said. "Would you get our subject, Marla, hooked up for
monitoring, while I go through some last minute details with
Holly?"

Katrina nodded, and squeezed past the
Doctor.

"Holly, let me fill you in on some
last-minute details." Doctor Mueller said as Katrina stopped short
of the door to gather up some electrical wiring from a hook high on
the back wall. She was still watching Katrina as she answered the
Doctor.

"Sure thing," she said. She was anxious to
get the experiment started.

"There's been a small change to the
experiment." The statement finally broke her stare, and she looked
at Doctor Mueller to see her pushing her finger along the smooth
surface of the long stainless steel table. "Due to the intimate
physical, dare I say …sexual nature of our experiment, our sponsors
decided they want the remote influence attempted …without visual
aid."

"You mean, I won't be able to use a video
monitor to establish a connection with the subject?" She crossed
her arms over her chest. "Impossible."

Doctor Mueller stopped rubbing the table and
looked directly at her. She could see the worry in the doctor’s
eyes. In reality, she thought she could possibly make the
connection without a visual, but a devious thought was forming in
her mind. She looked at Katrina, who had stopped short of the door,
her hands buried within a mile of wires and connectors.

"Would it help if we allowed you to see the
subject beforehand?" The Doctor was looking at the table again,
this time tapping her finger on the table in some kind of nervous
rhythm. "Maybe some kind of chance encounter so you can establish a
connection?"

No, that would compromise the experiment,"
Holly said. "I should still be able to establish a connection to
the subject, but I'll need something to help focus tactile feeling
from—I'll need a surrogate."

"You mean another person?" The doctor said,
her mouth melting into a frown. "We can't find someone on such
short notice."

"Then, I may not be able to project to the
subject, not without a visual indicator."

"I can't postpone this experiment. We've
already paid for the time in the clinic.

"I need a surrogate," she retorted, venturing
a quick peek at Katrina, still standing frozen at the door."

"Would anyone work?" Doctor Mueller asked. "I
could find someone in the building, but they'd have to sign
waivers. We'd have to find the funds to pay them."

"Anybody would work." Holly looked directly
to Katrina as she spoke this time. "One of you could even do
it."

She looked back to Doctor Mueller, waiting
for her to make the connection. She watched as the Doctors eyes
flashed inspiration and she snapped her head to the side, staring
at Katrina.

"Katrina could do it," she said. "I mean,
would you be okay with that, Katrina?"

Katrina frowned and a small vertical line
formed between her eyes. "I don't know. I've never ..." Her voice
trailed off, as she appeared to retreat into herself as she thought
about it.

"Look," Holly said, fearing Katrina was about
to say no. "It's purely professional," she lied. "I'll be all
covered in wires and probes, so no need to be embarrassed. Besides,
I just need someone to concentrate my efforts on. I need a point of
focus, or I fear the projection just won't be possible."

Holly held her breath, darting her eyes
between Katrina and the doctor, waiting out the silence as Katrina
considered her proposition. Katrina stared at her, a pleading look
in her eyes, until she could no longer stand it.