Free style study with Brusho: “There must be an angel playing with my heart”…

 

Brusho and Watercolour Study: "Spinning between constellations and dreams"...

 

Sunday Sketch: Fly By Night: Dancing in Blue

 

Experiment 2: Sepia and Brusho: "Loving Angels Instead"...

 

Experiment: "So She Dances"... (Study in pencil and Brusho)

 

Playing with Brusho (Brincando com Brusho)

 

Hypnos (Part 1: The Experiment)

There was a certain tension in the air. The studies room of the Polysomnography lab was ready for the new experiment. It was related to stimulation of certain areas of the head, through electric impulses controlled by computers installed in the investigation room. Those impulses simulated the electric discharges in the brain, which were intended to relax certain areas that patients suffering with sleep apnoea could not voluntarily and spontaneously do. 

It was a new procedure, in fact, but not considered risky. It could be a radical change if compared with any previous processes. That would be the first test to be performed and they were apprehensive about the continuity of the tests if anything went wrong. There was another issue that they had to consider as well: the procedure was not supposed to evolve to a home treatment and was not easy to be used out of specialized clinics.

For all that mattered, a new era in the area was starting. Good quality sleep was not being taken seriously anymore, but the consequences of lack of a good resting sleep were aggravated stress in a growing number of patients. Quality of life was not the same anymore and the scientists were worried about the future.

The patient was prepped. He was a graduate with a scholarship that volunteered more because of the money than for his love for science. His snoring, lack of good quality sleep and low energy were affecting his grades and his performance as student.

From where the scientists were, he looked like an astronaut in a capsule, fully wired so to provide the control room all possible information about his brain and cardiac activity during the tests. 

- Now close your eyes and relax. Count from a hundred to one backwards.

- This is stupid and scary.

- Don’t be afraid. Just close your eyes. After all, you volunteered…

- Yeah, right, but it was because of the money only… and I’m not sure I want to be part of this anymore…

The procedure started as a simple regression session. The activity in the room was being recorded by high resolution cameras inside the chamber. The sensors were attached to various points around the head and chest and they would send continuous EEG and ECG information to the computers. The patient’s arms and legs were secured to the sides of the bed by leather straps, in order to guarantee that he was not harmed by involuntary movements.

The scientists took their places in the observing room. Two of them wore high resolution headphones and could hear every single noise, including the rhythm and changes to his breathing.

The volunteer’s eyes became heavy and his breathing slowed down. He soon fell asleep. The REM followed to the satisfaction of the audience on the other side of the glass room. He was dreaming and seemed very calm and relaxed.

Suddenly, his eye movements became more evident and frantic. The sensors showed high energy pulses. The cardiogram seemed to be registering large scale fibrillation.

The man screamed once. Then a second time… and another one. Then he started shaking heavily and shouting.

- There’s something wrong! Abort! Abort! Bring him back! Quick!

The procedure was terminated immediately. The investigation team ran into the room and assisted the volunteer. He looked completely lost and scared. As soon as his arms and legs were freed, he got rid of the wiring and got up, running away from the lab, half naked.

- Bring him back. Hold this man!

- What happened?

- I don’t know, but there must be something very serious and worrying or else he would never run away that way. We must bring him back.

The security guards barely had time to close the door and stop his desperate exit.

The woman who was walking to him down the corridor had her very dark and straight hair tied up on a bun on top of her head. The local rules were clear and strict about having loose hair in the lab areas.

The man stopped and stared at her. Then he shouted.

- Get away from me.

- Calm down, man. What happened? Let’s talk a little.

- No. No. No.

He crossed the glass window and jumped off the open balcony of the fifteenth floor. What he experienced or saw was probably so disturbing and scary, that he preferred to dive down to his death instead of facing the experiment or its consequences.

***

- How are we supposed to know what he saw?

- We will have to go on with the experiment, before someone closes the lab down and prevent us from continuing with the experiences. We must be careful when choosing the next volunteer.

- We need to check the ECG’s. If we are lucky, we can find something in there.

- I don’t think so. We don’t have history records to compare results.

- True. Then we will need to create history.

- Do we really need to? That must be one case only… one in a million maybe?

- We don’t have a million… and maybe we will never have, after this incident. We will need to change the volunteers’ profiles.

- What do you mean?

The young scientist just looked at his peer and his stare answered the question without a single word.

- I got it. And who will be the first to go?

- We both go…

- What?

***

The corridors leading to the lab were empty at that time in the evening. The security guard did not ask anything when the two scientists crossed the hall and passed in front of the reception desk. He was used to seeing them walking in and out of the area, in odd hours, when they came to check and follow up the many varied experiments.

In the outer room, one of the scientists adjusted his sophisticated headphones to his ears and turned on the microphones installed in the inner capsule. Inside it, the other man tried to close his eyes.  

- Is everything ready? Are we going to use the same stimulation we did with the volunteer? What if anything goes wrong?

- Don’t start now with your fears. We need to have a hint of what he saw. That was not a normal reaction.

- I know. Ok. Ok. Let’s go ahead. Quick.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes again and tried to relax. Soon the sleeping drug started to run into his veins, and he fell asleep.

With his eyes fixed to the terminals and the program sequence, the scientist initiated the exact same procedure they used to the other patient.

On the other side of the glass, his friend was going deep into a dream. The REMs could be observed by the cameras directed to his face.

- Well, well… What’s next?

The sensors were acting normally. He was relaxed. The previous volunteer could have had an allergic reaction to the drug used, although there was nothing in his medical records that would support that theory. Maybe the electric impulses, associated to the stress and fatigue… Maybe? Who would ever know now?

He looked at his friend and relaxed a bit too.

- Side effects probably… what a waste!

He heard a beep. The cardiogram line moved up and down quicker. He did not change anything in the program. It was probably a reaction to the dream the patient was having. The man started moving his head from one side to the other.

- Oh, oh… and what now?

 He could not change the program while the procedure was running. The cardiogram seemed jumping up and down now in arrhythmic activity and high pulses. The patient clenched his fist and moved his body in uncontrolled spasms. Then he screamed once… then again and again.

- Oh, fuuck! Not again!

He switched the paraphernalia off, got rid of his headphones and ran into the room, opened the capsule and ripped the terminals off his colleague’s body and head. He injected glucose and caffeine in his veins, without freeing his arms and legs. He called his name a couple of times, shaking his upper torso. The other man reacted, finally, still quite sleepy.

He stared at his friend and said:

- Fuck, man! What was that?

- What did you see? Tell me!

He fixed his stare into his friend’s eyes and said, slowly and in a low voice:

- I know what happened... We are in big trouble… and it’s a very big trouble!

***

The Thirteenth (Epilogue)

A star and two small planets could be seen in the sky, through the Council Room window of the Main Building. A man alone contemplates, seriously and thoughtfully, the immense darkness, decorated with tiny specks of light, shining on the outside and oblivious to his grief.

"This world is doomed by sameness and monotony. We live for too long a time, but our existence is not necessarily filled with any kind of pleasure. There is no real purpose in living long, preserving the species, or even saving the planet. If an accident destroys this civilization, what difference would the universe feel? What difference could the past make? What if the accident were somewhere in the past, even before the great destruction? Would it really make any difference?

Here and now there is nothing that can give us any reason for pride or for longing to live. Our existence is empty. It is all so gray and dull, without any beauty. There are no feelings either good or bad. Why do we need to keep this thing still working? "

***

- I don’t want to be an experiment anymore. I will no longer be serving as a guinea pig for the creation of a sterile vaccine. I do not want to be changed anymore. This is what makes me unique in this crowd of equals.

- But the mutation is going pretty fast. Your back is covered with these black and white furry spots that are already spreading to the rest of your body and your defenses are low. You will not hold out for long.

- It's my choice.

- You do not have this option, by the rules... No clone has... in these circumstances...

- I am David, the Thirteenth... If things had been different, I would have been chosen to be the next Supreme, for being the best and the stronger, or to be an explorer of the Universe. Now I'm just a freak. It is better to let life go its normal course... or curse… and I'll live with it... for as long as it's possible...

- That can be for very little time, now, you know.

- Whatever. The vaccine does not work, anyway.

***

- We live in a planet, which, together with other smaller ones, revolves around a small star, which has limited natural light, but keeps the system functioning in a balanced way. The planet's orbit around itself occurs for a shorter period than on Earth, for obvious reasons. Time, then, has a different concept. As the day has fewer hours, the count of years is therefore different. The control of life in this system of planets belongs to a group of scientists, who constitute an intellectual elite.

- Why do you use the count of years as A.D.?

- Because the founders wanted to pay a homage to Earth, the planet they originally came from.

- And what are the clones created for, anyway?

- Each planet, in this cluster of other smaller planetoids, has its own peculiarity. What makes this one habitable is the unique and unusual feature of having Oxygen, although in much less quantity than on planet Earth. The element, vital to human life, is processed, filtered and used within the protected structures, which we call Stations. This feature is not the only thing we have in common with our distant predecessor from another galaxy. A stream of water-like liquid flowing through underground rivers is collected, reprocessed and transformed into potable water and then made available to the inhabitants in a natural way. But we are facing a new problem: we are quickly running out of this available water-like liquid. Research teams have already been sent in search of alternatives, through the galaxy, but so far, nothing real has been found. These small teams are mostly composed of selected clones, specially trained for this type of operation. An advanced robotic unit accompanies the crew of each spacecraft. At the moment, we have just a few of them out in the searching trips because we cannot create enough clones.

- Cloning is a reality and it is inevitable, being practically the only form of reproduction in our time. The process is interrupted, from the moment we find that the resistance of the body to any type of problem, physical or mental, is practically guaranteed. After the vaccine has been applied, some characteristics are allowed to mature on their own, forming different individuals within the cocoons, such as chrysalides, in the incubators. We do not use human wombs. Not all of these individuals come to the end of the process and survive, because the vaccine is quite aggressive, but it must be so. When they are ready, the strongest are selected and reported to the Supreme, who inspects them, along with the Council, to send them to the Main Building. This planet is inhabited by a single race, which speaks a unique language. The new humans are virtually devoid of hairs, having their skull box enlarged in size and their bodies diminished in proportion. Once well trained, they will be part of the teams selected by the Council to explore the galaxy. The others, of a more regular, but resistant lineage, are sent for the production of Oxygen. Demographic density is kept under strict control. Our resources are limited, so we have to use them effectively.

- This is amazing. And it all started with my research, in a remote past...

The head of the scientists laughed, a little embarrassed. The man seemed not to be fully aware of the importance his research has had so far in developing that race, which represented, in one way or another, the future of mankind. He could not be blamed for being so naïve, however, since more than twenty-five centuries had passed since then and he could have never guessed that would go so far.

- Yes, doctor. All this based on your precious research... in the remote past and on a planet a bit different from this.

***

- Leona! I need you to come to the lab right away. Something very strange has happened.

- What thing?

- You better come and see... I do not know what to say...

When they arrived they realized that the laboratory was empty, except for a Monarch, standing on the wall.

- How did it come here?

Leona laughed.

- I do not know, for sure, but I have an idea of ​​where it might have come from... a certain clone... that traveled to the past and was enchanted by music and a flock of butterflies...

***

- The outbreak is uncontrollable. The clones perish very quickly and the line can no longer produce them to meet the needs, due to the incubation period. The continuation of life is doomed.

- I have an idea. Do we still have the Monarch with us?

- Yes. But what's a butterfly for, now, anyway?

- That's how the study began. Maybe we have a chance... We're going to have to start all over again. We isolated the DNA and made a vaccine in the past. The original one does not even work anymore. We have to start from scratch. There was something, in the meantime, that stopped working and we do not have enough time to try and repair it. We have to start all over again.

- Yes. Let's stop trying to recover the unrecoverable and do everything from the beginning, again.

- OK. But it may take a long time before we get to the point where we were, before the incident.

- Perhaps. At least we'll know what to do from this point on...

***

The Supreme looked at the black and white patches covering his thin, pale body. They seemed covered with a dense layer of very soft hair. He felt a pang of pain in his head. He knew that his defenses were compromised, as a result of the anomaly and for no longer taking the vaccines.

He sighed and looked up at the sky of that desolate and insignificant planet in the midst of the infinite Universe, so little known, despite all the evolutions after the First Chaos and decided that it was time for a radical decision.

"This was not supposed to happen. They are very close to finding a solution. If they suspect of anything, they will turn against me. But I'll never let them know what I did. I have to fix this situation straightaway before it gets too late."

He programmed the main computer, which controlled all the units, for two actions. Destruction was absolutely necessary. He concluded his commands and sat down, relaxed, as he had never done since he had become the Supreme.

"Genocide and suicide. It was a great idea to sabotage the production of the vaccines, since I discovered that the anomaly could be a great opportunity for the extermination of this sterile breed of beings. This will all look like an accident, but who do I have to explain something to, anyway? There will be nothing left! What a great plan!"

He closed his eyes and waited. In a few seconds, the planet imploded and then exploded completely, in a predetermined sequence, taking on a huge cloud of debris, already devoid of any sign of life, traveling at high speed through the space, in all directions.

A solitary capsule wandered adrift not far from where the asteroid existed a few moments before. Inside it, a metal tube carried precious information about a race of humanoids, who lived on a small, arid planet that ceased to exist. The capsule is thrown, along with the debris of the destroyed planet, through the silent, dark emptiness of space, being drawn into a crevice in the midst of the chaos and disappearing completely with a quick flash of light.

***

On a nearly deserted beach, two young men were talking while walking side by side, each one with a beer can in hand. A flash of lightning crossed the darkness, drawing their attention, especially because the sky seemed clean and starry. The sound of something big falling into the sea, right behind where they came from, made them stop and come back.

The strange metal object floated on the ocean water, swaying to the taste of the waves and still steaming.

It was a warm summer night in the Anno Domini of 2018.