Chapter 2

Ben was afraid to open his eyes. He had a skull-busting headache, he felt severely nauseated, and he could feel that he did not have on any clothing besides some form of underwear. Generally, all of these facts pointed to a severe hangover. Opening one's eyes after consuming large amounts of alcohol could often bring many surprising, sometimes unpleasant circumstances to one's attention.

His left eye very slowly opened, fluttering closed again at the harsh light that met it. He groaned, attempting to reach up to his head to see if there was physical damage to accompany the agony he was feeling. He was startled to find that he could not raise his hand an inch. Into exactly what sort of situation had he managed to get himself?

He opened his eyes, ignoring the glare of bright fluorescent lighting. He could see a white ceiling through a small pane of metaplastic, solid metal forming the rest of the view around him. He was in something approximately coffin sized, with his wrists and ankles strapped down by leather.

He could only guess that he was in a regeneration tube, having some injury repaired. That pretty much ruled out a hangover. Perhaps it had something to do with that explosion...

He tried to sit up quickly, his head hitting against the metaplastic viewing window. He set his head back down gently, groaning. He could remember ejecting from his fighter, and the sky filling with fire. Beyond that, he had probably been unconscious.

Ben struggled against the restraints. He had never heard of anyone being restrained to be stuck into a regeneration tube; a simple anesthetic gas would have done the trick for anyone who was a little too nervous in confined spaces. He also recalled the fact that the missile that had chased his fighter was of Interstellar Defense League construction. He realized that he probably was not in the hands of people he could call his benefactors.

"Ah. Are you finally conscious?" asked a voice emanating from a tiny speaker below Ben's ear.

"Who wants to know?"

The voice laughed. "I am Doctor Marcus Rommel, captain of the experimental medical research cruiser Lister."

"Dr. Rommel?" Ben asked. "I thought that you and your crew were killed out in the Liodammian border area? It was all over the news for weeks. They couldn't find your ship, and they couldn't raise you on long range radio."

Dr. Rommel laughed again. "How little the government knows. Those faithful to me seized this ship and brought it back into I.D.L. controlled space so that I could conduct a few experiments that the Ruling Council would never have allowed. I must say, a few of those experiments have turned out very well, and are going to end up making me very powerful."

"Great," Ben muttered, "I'm in the clutches of a literal mad scientist. Just perfect."

"Mad!" Rommel screamed. "How dare you, you uneducated fighter jockey! You, who would have no concept of what genius was unless it smacked you in the face, dare to call Dr. Marcus Rommel a mad scientist? I am about to change the course of all human evolution!"

"Forgive me," Ben replied, "it was clearly an understatement. You are also apparently an egomaniac and megalomaniac."

Ben could hear the sneer in Dr. Rommel's voice when he replied. "Maybe you won't doubt me after you have been through my Process."

The top of the regeneration pod slid off with a hydraulic hiss. Ben was prepared to leap forward and attack his captors as soon as his restraints came off, but they never did. The entire pod began moving, titling upwards to a ninety-degree angle with the floor. Ben was staring straight at Dr. Rommel.

Dr. Rommel ran his hand through his hair and smirked confidently. He looked to be about twenty years old, and had the muscular build of someone who had been through years of military training.

Ben looked at him circumspectly. "You don't exactly look like the pictures they were showing on the news. I'd say you're about forty years younger than you should be."

Dr. Rommel's smirk only grew. "Of course. I have been working with genetics and human enhancement since the beginning of my career. In that time, I've figured out a few secrets here and there. I stopped my aging process, even reversing my physical age by a few decades. I also went through the same Process you are about to go through... but I only went for about a one hundred percent enhancement. That means my loyal followers and I are all about twice as strong and fast as your average homo sapiens."