THE SIMULACRUM
Transcript: Recovered dictaphone recording dating from January 3rd, 1959. Voice identified as that of Doctor Lionel Rush. Estimated to be within three days of his death.
Simulacrum. From the Latin simulācrum, meaning likeness or semblance; it is a representation or imitation of a person or thing.
It’s not a simple task, to create a human being through a method other than conception and gestation. It is even less simple to render that creation correctly.
There are so many facets to humanity that can never truly be accounted for. As well as one might know the human body, the minutiae of anatomy down to every nerve ending and blood vessel, one cannot truly know or predict the thoughts or feelings that the flesh encompasses and contains.
This was our first mistake.
During gestation, we considered it a genderless thing.
One of many, though the first to survive long enough to be considered ‘to term’. At some point, unlike with the others before it, we were obliged to give it a sex, and for the sake of ease and with the hope that should it be a success we might harvest its ovum for investigation, we saw to it that it was born female.
We called it Mary.
Not after the Virgin Mary, such a thing would have been obscene. Instead, the name was for Mary Shelley, after it had been amusingly suggested by one of the team. Our very own monster, of sorts. Though our methods were much more scientific and hygienic than Victor Frankenstein.
Mary was whole. Not an amalgam of parts. A seamless simulacrum, we assumed.
We thought it was whole. We couldn’t have known how wrong we were. How it had seemed such a simple thing for it to be Mary and not a Percy or Victor, or even Joseph. We had not accounted for the mind’s connection to the body. Or for the soul’s connection, perhaps, if you believe in such a thing.
If there is, then I am sure my own might be damned.
Recording ends.
Scanned File: Recovered papers from Doctor Rush’s office.
Scanned Image: A large incubation chamber. Inside, suspended in fluid, is an amniotic sac holding a foetus.
File 6—January 2nd, 1952.
We return from our festive break to find that experiment HAS14 has unexpectedly thrived. It is certain that the success is due to the adjustment in the gestation period. It is vital for the H.A.S. Project that the experiment grows at a faster rate than expected in a human foetus. The same will be necessary once gestation is complete, should we make it that far. But it seems with the previous experiments we were too hasty. At a rate of almost exactly double the growth of a human foetus, we seem to have found success, for now. If this continues, then we can expect HAS14 to be fully gestated by the end of April.
A spring baby.
Scanned File: Recovered papers from Doctor Rush’s office.
File 41—October 19th, 1952.
HAS14, or Mary, is now six months old, but based on growth and appearance, is closer to a two-year-old child. The second stage of the growth development exceeded expectations and we’ve filed our reports with General Smythe and Director Miller. We remain cautiously optimistic that HAS14 will continue to thrive in this manner until the third stage. We are less optimistic that the third stage will occur as planned. It seems too fortuitous that on our fourteenth attempt we bring to gestation an experiment that hits each stage perfectly. Rather than slow in growth to roughly that of the average human, we suspect that this is where HAS14 will fail. Resulting in the continued rapid aging until the experiment succumbs to old age and organ failure.
However, in doing so, we will be able to study HAS14 and plan for adjustments that need to be made to succeed with the next experiment, inevitably HAS15.
Transcript: Recovered dictaphone fragment recording dated May 3rd, 1953. Voices identified as that of Doctor Lionel Rush and the child known as Mary or Experiment HAS14.
Rush: Hello Mary, how are you today?
Mary: I don’t feel good.
Rush: Oh? I’m sorry to hear that. Have you discussed this with matron? Is it a stomach upset?
Mary: I just don’t feel good. I don’t feel right. I feel like there’s something wrong inside of me.
Rush: I will discuss with matron and see if there needs to be any adjustment to your medication. In the meantime, I hear you have progressed up another level with your reading and writing.
Mary: Yes, sir.
Rush: Very good. Let’s head into the testing room and we will see where you now place within a standard school system.
Recording ends.
Scanned File: Recovered papers from Doctor Rush’s office.
File 126—May 27th, 1953.
I have followed up with matron regarding HAS14’s assertion of ill health, as well as with Doctor Kennedy who has now run every full medical test that he possibly can. Physically, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it continues to complain of feeling unwell and has now routinely taken to scratching at its skin enough to warrant salves and bandages on more than one occasion.
In an effort to tackle any potential neurosis, matron tried to cheer it up with a new dress. This approach backfired tremendously, with it becoming even more distressed until sedation was required. It now insists on wearing nothing other than the grey jumpsuits originally provided.
These could all be side effects from the circumstances of its birth and so I have asked for close monitoring. Perhaps this is signalling an end to HAS14, some sort of breakdown that none of us foresaw.
It is a puzzle for now, though I would not be surprised to see signs of degradation soon.
Scanned File: Recovered fragmented papers from Doctor Kennedy’s office.
File 14-1095—April 28th, 1955.
Today HAS14 turns three years old and presents as around ten in physical and mental capacity, for the most part.
I have serious concerns about HAS14’s mental wellbeing. There has been more than one sign of serious disturbance and I continue to work closely with matron to make HAS14 as comfortable as possible. I believe we are building a rapport. HAS14 no longer sees me as the mean old doctor with needles and tests, but as a trusted adult with one of the most continuous relationships it has known.
Therefore, in these files, I now find myself referring once more to ‘it’ and ‘HAS14’. Not for the same distance I had at the start of this project, but out of respect for HAS14 itself. It has been very vocal on hating the name Mary; in fact, it is uncomfortable with being addressed in the feminine at all.
Perhaps this dissociation comes from who HAS14 is and how it came to be here. I have tried to discuss this with Dr. Rush, but he has little interest in HAS14 beyond the scientific and remains convinced that HAS14 will not last more than another year.
I don’t agree. But it’s hard to say whether that is my opinion as a physician, or as someone who personally cares for its well-being.
Scanned File: Recovered papers from Doctor Rush’s office.
File 276—August 12th, 1957.
HAS14 continues to be withdrawn and does not seem to be improving. Whilst it has been surly and insular since it first began to complain of this phantom illness, it has never previously been uncooperative. Now, it has had to be coerced into several training sessions with General Smythe’s men, under threat of restrictions.
Up until these apparent ‘teenage years’ began to present themselves, progress with Smythe had been outstanding. As designed, HAS14 immediately took to the Human-Automaton Soldier training. As designed, HAS14 immediately took to the Human-Automaton Soldier training and is now qualified as a skilled field medic and trained in close quarters combat. Smythe is keen to progress onto to more aggressive skills. If stage three doesn’t occur, it will have been a wasted investment, but the director has assured us that it is a risk they are happy to take, on balance.
Kennedy is now certain that HAS14 is approaching oestrus and will soon start a monthly cycle. However, given its rapid growth, it remains to be seen what schedule this will adhere to.
If HAS14 does fail, we can reap its ovum for future investigations and perhaps see if making HAS15 male has any pertinent effect.
Transcript: Recovered dictaphone recording dated November 15th, 1957. Voices identified as that of Doctor Lionel Rush and Doctor George Kennedy.
Kennedy: Did matron update you? About the name?
Rush: Wollstonecraft? Yes. I can’t say I’m pleased. I want to know which blasted idiot has been filling its head with nonsense. I certainly didn’t approve Shelley on its reading materials.
Kennedy: Stone, actually. It wants to be called Stone, after Wollstonecraft.
Rush: Whatever next? Perhaps I’ve been too lenient. I waved off any concern when it insisted on cutting its hair. It seemed practical for its training to have shorter hair. And apparently it keeps asking matron to refer to it as he. I did put a stop to that nonsense, I assume it comes from being around Smythe’s team, all boys together and all that. But now this name thing! I suppose it is fitting, though. A stone, an object. Something that might be picked up and used as a weapon or fashioned into one. I assume that isn’t what you came to discuss though?
Kennedy: No, I wanted to let you know that I’ve completed the egg retrieval. The lab will begin their tests immediately.
Rush: Excellent news. Just consider, George. What if we’re able to create more in this manner? What if the next stage is having them gestate their own young?
Kennedy: Readymade army.
Rush: Don’t take that tone, you knew what you signed on for, and you like how much you are being paid. Were there any problems with the harvesting?
Kennedy: No. It’s pretty much out of its mind with pain, it hasn’t had a break in oestrus for two months. Now that we have harvested, might I suggest that we try to do something about that? Have you read about those progesterone treatments? Might be worth—
Rush: No, I don’t think we should introduce any treatments that we haven’t already given rigorous consideration to. We have no idea how hormone treatments would interact with it. I think we’ll wait it out and see if stage three presents. If not, then the situation will soon resolve itself with menopause and then death.
Kennedy: God help us.
Rush: Does he help those who choose avarice?
Kennedy: Damn you, Rush.
Recording ends.
Scanned File: Recovered papers from Doctor Rush’s office.
File 611—July 30th, 1958.
HAS14’s tests have confirmed it has entered stage three. There had been signs of its metabolism slowing, not least its oestrus cycles had become less regular, which has alleviated some of its distress. Which is better for all of us.
Now, approximately at the equivalent of a twenty-year-old, trained in many military aspects and ready to be deployed, it seems HAS14 is a success.
The deployment won’t happen, of course. If we are able to recreate this experiment, hopefully even improve upon it to have a more mentally stable product, then we are anticipating the production of a range of HAS19s or 20s ready for action.
This means that HAS14 is now surplus to requirements.
I have suggested to the director that we continue to observe its growth so that we can be sure of the stability of stage three. I get the impression he is not keen, and it may come down to costs. He has mentioned several times that he doesn’t believe life expectancy once deployed will be something we need to be concerned with.
My hope is that we can compromise and keep HAS14 for another year or two in order to study further before euthanization. Every day we might learn something that will improve our next experiment.
If agreed, we will however need to move it to the secure facility. I believe it is becoming too confused and aggressive to be treated with anything like humanity. A good point to make to the director I think, this is an issue we will need to address with HAS15.
Transcript: Recovered dictaphone recording dated December 13th, 1958. Voices identified as that of Doctor Lionel Rush and Doctor George Kennedy.
Rush: I’m recording now, please repeat what you just told me. And do try to calm down, be clear for the tape.
Kennedy: Dammit, man. I need your permission to administer more sedation. Stone has–
Rush: I believe you are referring to HAS14.
Kennedy: You piece of—Yes, HAS14! Our permitted level of non-surgical sedation needs to be increased. Right now!
Rush: Are you asking me or telling me?
Kennedy: Rush, what is wrong with you? I have just come in here and told you that St– HAS14 has had an episode. Has smeared menstrual blood all over the walls. Has . . . has clawed at his breasts. Dug into the flesh in chunks. I need to stitch him up, either allow for greater waking sedation or let me book the operating room.
Rush: It, Kennedy. It is an it. It might be considered a she based on anatomy, which you yourself have just attested to, given your reference to what it is doing with its own menstrual blood!
Kennedy: Fine, it. It! Just let me help it. This is the first menstrual cycle it’s had since they let up, it . . . please Rush, for the love of God. Let me sedate it.
Rush: Very well. Sedate it for the duration of its cycle. Stitch it up and—
Kennedy: You know, if you’d just let it be as it wanted to be, we wouldn’t be in this mess. If it says it is male, we should have respected that, worked with it and now instead we have this—
Rush: And once you’ve done that, I want you back here so that we can discuss your future on this project.
Recording ends.
Scanned File: Recovered papers from Doctor Rush’s office.
File unnumbered—date estimated to be between 5th and 6th January 1959. This file was handwritten, but has been typed for clarity.
I am unable to record this on tape as I fear I will be heard.
I am hidden, but I can hear everything.
My creation, my Simulacrum is imperfect. A monster.
Not in ways I could have predicted. The truth is, Kennedy was right. He always got better cooperation when he addressed it as it wished to be: as male, as Stone.
Should it have been male? Was its mind male? Its soul?
All I can hear is screaming now, echoing in my mind. The real screams have already stopped, but they seem to be remembered in the walls.
I found matron dead a day ago. From the carnage in the facility, it looks like she was one of the first. And I’m under no illusion that I will be last. It isn’t that I’ve successfully avoided it. I’ve been the only living person here for at least a day, so there is no doubt I am simply being toyed with.
I wonder if it would have killed Kennedy, were he here. Certainly, it must have held Kennedy in the same regard as matron, and yet she is dead.
I saw it.
Him.
I heard screams of pain and thought it was another survivor. It came from the training room that had been used to teach field medicine. By the time I got there the screaming had stopped. And it wasn’t another survivor.
Instead, Stone sat up on a gurney, panting and covered in blood.
He had removed his own breast tissue, discarded slabs of meat on the floor. The remaining flesh was stitched together with a hand steadier than it had any right to be.
I stood there staring at him until he looked up and grinned at me. And in that moment, I realised the breadth of the mistakes we had made. That I had made.
We created a soldier and then made us its enemy.
I ran then, and have been waiting since. I’ve caught a glimpse of it in the corridors, barefoot, wearing just the grey sweatpants and bandaging around his bare chest. He might look like a regular male patient if not for the blood. Everywhere, caked in his hair, clothes drenched with it and then dried dark and hard.
He doesn’t just wish to kill me; he wishes to terrorise me. And he is succeeding. I should open this door and shout ‘I’m sorry Stone’, but we would both know the words were only to save my own skin. So, I choose instead to keep what little of my dignity remains and say nothing at all.
L.R.
Case Code Name: Simulacrum
File Summary: Case Closed.
Due to security measures, eight days passed between loss of contact and investigation.
All facility staff and General Smythe’s unit were found dead.
The mutilated and burned remains of Doctor Rush were found posed at his desk in his office, his final note set before him.
Subject HAS14—self identified as ‘Stone’—was not discovered amongst the remains. HAS14 is presumed at large.
All scientific files and genetic materials relating to the HAS experiments, including all remaining HAS embryos, were destroyed by fire.
Former employee, Doctor George Kennedy, has not been traced.
All materials relating to this investigation and the HAS experiments have henceforth been classified.
Investigation concluded: 17th October 1961.
[END]