Fantasy The People Makers

They entered another chamber where they saw men and women sitting in padded chairs with visors over their faces which gave off echos of rapidly blinking white light. The hum of powerful electrical currents could be heard.

"The flash learning facility," Frog explained.

In the next chamber beyond that they saw newly formed bodies in well lit glass tubes. One of the bodies, a woman, was running in place with a blank expression on his face, her breasts bouncing up and down. Another, a man, was doing pushups. A third, a woman, was sitting on a toilet as a voice told her, "Shit! Piss! Shit! Piss!" as excrement and urine came out of both ends.

Beyond that was a room where bodies, dressed in familiar white jumpsuits, sat at tables and conversed with Federationistas who looked like large penguins who had the same translator crystal around their necks that Frog did.

"I'm a bricklayer by profession," said one man. "I love my work. It gives me satisfaction to build things."

"I'm a newlywed," said a woman. "Me and Burt hope to have kids and start a family."

"Are they going to remember this part of their training when they are released?" Taylor asked.

"No," said Frog. "This is just testing their memory and skills preparation. When they are done all their recent memories will be purged."

"Just as ours were when we were taken," said Taylor. "How exactly were we brought here, Frog?"

Frog did not respond. She led them out of the facility onto a cold, windswept tundra with short green alien grasses. A short walk away was a small town. They could see shops and homes, all empty.

"All very quaint," said Taylor, noticing the brick construction. "But hardly modern technology."

"It is up to the inhabitants to develop their own technology over time," said Frog.

"And what of your facility here? Won't it raise questions?" Taylor asked.

"When the subjects are ready, they will be shifted forward a mere ten years forward in time. By that time this facility will be dismantled and forgotten."

"And then this first generation of humans will make the next generation, and so on," said Taylor. "You've got everything thought out, haven't you?"

"We just need a crop of humanity which can thrive and prosper for at least a thousand years," said Frog. "After the experiment is launched, we jump a thousand years ahead and see if they have thrived on a number of different sociological and cultural indexes."

"And so far they haven't? They've all died?"

"None of them have died," said Frog. "It is just that none of them have succeeded in enriching themselves in creating a modern, mature society capable of joining the Federation someday."

"Aha," said Taylor. "So that's your goal. To create a species capable of joining your Federation."

"Of course," said Frog. "What mature species wouldn't want to?"

Taylor stood in Frog's way. "Come on, Frog. What do you really want humanity for?" He felt the wind whipping in his white hair.

"We want to save humanity," said Frog.

"Save it for what? What does the Federation get out of this? What does the Federation want from humanity?"

Frog paused a long moment. Then she said, "I have said all I am capable of. With this visit you have been afforded an experience none have been given before. It was hoped it might persuade you to see the importance of our work. If you do not choose to participate, your species will not survive. " She paused. "Come. We must return now to the shuttle. There is little time."

"And you believe all this?" Taylor asked.

He was back on the Station, in the Algeria Lounge, at the men's table.

"Believe all what?" said Ardis McDuff.

"Everything! That we're 500 years in the future in a distant galaxy and the Earth is destroyed and these people want to help us-"

"They do want to help us," said Gavin. "That's why we're here."

"It's never occurred to you that they're trying to use us?" Taylor asked.

"In what way?" said Gavin. "They've never asked anything from us."

"Never asked anything from you?" Taylor had to restrain a laugh. "Man, they're breeding you!"

He looked around for reactions, found none.

Except one.

"You're wasting your breath," said a new voice.

Taylor turned to see Haggis O'Leary. "We, we met the first day, didn't we? What was your name?"

"Haggis O'Leary," said Haggis.

Taylor frowned. "That name sounds familiar. There's a Haggis O'Leary who wrote a great holobook called The Winds of Trantor."

"That was me."

"Really? It's an honor to meet you, sir!" said Taylor.

Haggis found himself shaking Taylor's hand. As he did he glared at everyone else who hadn't recognized him for months, glaring at them again as if to say, You idiots.

"You won't have much luck with them, Captain. They're willing participants in the program," said Haggis.

"Wait a minute. Not exactly willing," said Craig.

"Oh? Did you ever protest and I missed it? Did any of you?" said Haggis.

Dickie Weymouth shrugged his shoulders. "I mean... what use would it be? Where could we go?"

"Back to Earth," said Taylor.

"But the Earth was destroyed 500 years ago," said Dickie.

"You see what I mean?" said Haggis.

"I think I do," said Taylor.

"Let's talk somewhere else where there aren't so many sheeple," said Haggis.

"They can go inside your minds and talk to you?"

"Yes," said Haggis. "At least they can to me."

"Can they control you?"

Haggis frowned. "I'm not sure. At least, they never tried to control me. I... I get the feeling they could, if they wanted to."

"Then why don't they?" Taylor asked.

"I'm not sure," said Haggis. "I don't get the feeling they all have physical bodies. Frog once came to me, inside my mind. At least I think it was Frog."

"A telepathic link?"

"I don't think so. It literally felt like Frog was inside of me," said Haggis. "It felt something like her inhabiting my mind."

"So Frog and the other Federationistas...."

"My guess is that they are creatures of energy, energy who need bodies," said Haggis.

"That would explain why there are so many species working for the Federation," said Taylor. "If they are all under mind control, their individual differences would be irrelevant. But if they are going to use humans as hosts, why not just do so? Why do all these hundreds of experiments to produce the perfect socially advanced human race? If they are inside us, they can make us into whatever they want us to be."

"I don't know the answer to that," said Haggis. "But I do know that Frog is different from the others. She's more sympathetic to us."

"Do you know why?"

"No," said Haggis. He paused. "I can tell you this. The Earth is only two or three weeks or so away by space travel."

"Two or three weeks!"

"I escaped once. They brought me back by taking control of my ship remotely."

"How were you able to get into the hanger bay?" Taylor asked.

"I hacked my way into their system a bit," said Haggis.

"A bit?"

"My access only works in limited ways."

"Have you tried to escape again since?"

"No," said Haggis. "They can take remote control of their probe ship even after it has launched. I think they could have taken control of me. How can you defeat aliens who can simply fly into your body and take control of you?"

"An interesting question."

"I studied your career with great interest and admiration," said Haggis. "If only a quarter of the rumors are true, you did some incredible work under amazingly adverse odds in the distant future."

"I had some luck. And some help."

"Well, you'll need both of them here."

"I can't help but notice that none of the newest Test Subjects have partnered yet," said M. "Even after that unprecedented tour you gave them of classified planetside facilities."

"I believe that they are coming around to our way of thinking," said F.

"Four more days," said J.

"What?"

"You have four more days to persuade them to at least start cooperating. Otherwise we terminate this project. Our patience is at an end."​