Rise of a Valkyrie

Part 57

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Weslan herded a small group of dog-like creatures into the experimentation room. He could treat them like pets now that he and all Reed's soldiers—he now understood their true background—had been sprayed with pheromones.

He shook out some dried meat chunks into the palm of his hand, and waited patiently as the hideous animals helped themselves, before waiting in vain for a scratch behind the ear.

Weslan despised himself for his cowardice. Everyone he had ever respected, his father, his teachers, the vaunted Helvetic technocrats, had lied to him. They had preached to him about the fundamental goodness of man, and that was a lie. They had told him he would be able to influence the people that mattered, or persuade them with reason, and they had lied about that too.

Allana Rayker had slipped past the guardians of Rackeye's elite, and now she would cut all their throats. The best that any of Weslan's peers could do was flee the planet, if they got a warning.

He thought about Fayel, from time to time, wondering if Rayker would let her live. Or would she murder her just as brutally as she had Stellan, for no other reason than to watch another part of his mind shatter like fragile crystal? It all came down to her whim.

Weslan left the experiment room, sealing the door behind him. Down the corridor, a few of Reed's men were preparing a cage containing a giant, bison-like subject, a bull, for the day's demonstration.

More than anything, Weslan despised the soldiers. Their 'bravery' was nothing but vacuous swagger. Whatever pretense of righteousness led them to justify killing innocents was only the product of pure ignorance, or Rayker's lies. Perhaps, his mind argued, as it sought frantically to find self-justification, they were the real cowards, and he was the brave one. After all, he was at least honest about his helplessness, and his desperation to survive. Wasn't that what all living things wanted?

Weslan decided that he alone could understand the epiphany he had experienced in the weeks since Stellan's death. Humans were evil. They would destroy anything good their species created, out of the fear that, someday, they might complete the edifice of civilization and all be held to account. For all the Helvetic League's noble proclamations about their great society, it was a dream they only loved from a distance. The willingness of their soldiers to work with a monster like Rayker proved that much.

Weslan's hands trembled as he brought up a data pad from his pocket and checked the parameters of the test.

How could a soul like his find anything positive in life, even if he survived his captivity? That could only be the beginning of ignorance and death. Now, he told himself, he would resolve to have no qualms about the work he was forced to complete. What difference did it make in a universe where morality was nothing more than the opiate of the masses?

He joined Captain Reed, who had been waiting patiently for him in the observation room. Once Weslan had verified his cameras were recording, he pushed a switch to initiate a sample delivery.

The cage was pushed into the cavern, and the smaller creatures stopped what they were doing to focus on it. They began to howl and scream, circling the newcomer, obviously searching for an opportunity to attack.

"I've tagged the big one with a target scent, so they see him as their prey," Weslan explained to Reed, his voice hoarse. His reflection in the mirror that morning had been gaunt and haggard, and he felt like he had aged a few years too many.

Reed only nodded.

"You'll note that the prey is much too large for them to take down," Weslan continued calmly, as he pressed another switch.