Chapter 22: Meddling Stars

Let me tell you a story, since I now have so much time available. I’m not really doing anything in particular right now, just wandering around, looking for the next big job. I guess, ever since I met “him”, my whole existence has been wandering from one job to the next. I guess that’s just the life I chose. Anyway, I’m not doing anything now, and “he” certainly isn’t going anywhere, so I guess I can let you all in on a little secret.

A long time ago, probably when I was just a little one, I was living a pretty happy life on Earth. That’s a lot to say, considering what a dump the planet’s turned into. Anyway, I had a happy start, but it all came to an end when I was taken away from my home and sent to this big, gigantic scientific research facility. I was probably too young to know what was happening, so I just sat there and watched everything.

The people who had taken me from my home were a group of scientists. They were being paid by a secret foundation to perform biological research on “certain living creatures”, and I was but one of the many they researched. I still didn’t know what was going on, even as they carried me from the truck to the labs. They stuffed me inside a cage, and gave me only a little bit to eat, and some bland milk to drink. I didn’t care; I was hungry enough to eat my own cage.

When I think about it now, I probably should have devoured that cage I was in. The howls and screams of the creatures that the scientists were working on were so loud that they even reached my ears. I might have been young and foolish back then, but I wasn’t so stupid as to not know what was going on. I knew that something terrible was going to happen to me, and that I had to get out as soon as possible. I tried making a run for it, but I guess I kept forgetting that I was in a cage.

Days passed, and the people that had captured me barely kept me alive at all. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me, but I knew I wouldn’t like it. From the screaming sounds I heard, it would probably be something very terrible--yet I was helpless to do anything. Day and night, I was kept in that cage, forced to listen to the endless shrieking.

Failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. I kept on hearing this sound, over and over again, coming from the scientist’s mouths, and I had to wonder what it meant. That was the only thing they kept on saying: failure, failure. This was a failure, that was a failure, blah blah blah. What was a failure? Was it good, or bad? Was I a failure? Would I become one? I guess, considering how many “experiments” were left at that point, I didn’t have long to wait.

Speaking of which, one day, the scientists took me out of my cage and carried me into a room. They put me on a table, but I don’t know what happened after that, since they put a mask over my face that made me sleepy. When I woke up, I could hear a beeping sound coming from a machine, and I could see them all gathering around me, staring at me and making observations.

“Thank you, Mr. Edison,” noted one of the men. “Seems we finally found the solution after all those failures.”

“Don’t celebrate yet,” warned another. “We still have to test it out. Wouldn’t want to put it on the market until we know what it can do.”

“Right, right. Well, should we test it now?”

“Better let it rest. Just keep the door locked.”

“Right.” The men slowly walked away and went out the door, leaving me lying there in a confusion. What was going on? Was I not going to be a failure? Why did they want to test me out? What was the market? I had so many questions, I thought my head would pop, but there was nobody around to answer me.

Slowly, I rose up out of my dead state, and shook myself until my senses were back. I hopped down from the table, and slowly began to wander around. Those men that were experimenting on me had forgotten to put me in a cage again, so I was free to do as I pleased. My first plan was to get out of that place and run back home, but I didn’t know how I was going to do it since I couldn’t move the door.

I decided to break the door down, and ran towards it with all my might. Just imagine my surprise when the thing shattered into hundreds of pieces! My momentum continued to carry me on, through the hallways and across strange rooms filled with lab equipment. I even ran past some of the men who had been working on me.

“It’s running away!” they shouted. “Catch it! Stop it! Kill it if you have to--just don’t let it get away!” I didn’t want to die, not in that strange place, so I continued to run and break through things. I was personally shocked to find myself having the power to break through walls, and in no time at all, I had ran so fast and broken through so many barriers that I had put some distance from myself and that terrifying place.

I had escaped from the lab with my life, but with such great abilities added to my own self that I knew I would never lead a normal life again. I couldn’t even return home, so I had to become a wanderer. For several months, I would stow away on spaceships headed for other worlds, and I would explore the galaxy with my fellow passengers. I did well to conceal myself, so I was never noticed. Every time a ship landed on a new world, I would run around and explore, and forage for food. And every time one lifted off, I would get on and wonder where my next destination would be.

I did this for some time, maybe for a whole year, before I arrived at somewhere called the Mars Orbital Platform. This was a very big and complicated place, full of noise and pollution and so many people that I thought I would be trampled! ... And I almost was, several times, as I walked around that big place. There were so many things going on there, and so much noise! I ... I just cried out, for it to be quiet, but nothing happened!

Well, I finally summoned up my courage and weaved my way through the crowds, until I came to a pet shop. Now, I say I went here because the place is important to my story. Somebody came out of that shop, trotting along aimlessly, and muttered something that made me feel very uneasy.

“Rotten criminals ... first they steal those poor defenseless creatures, then they take them off to their labs for an experiment! Why I’m helping them out is beyond me ... Looking for an escaped experiment! Pah!” This figure snorted, and stopped suddenly in his tracks when he saw me. He snorted again and shooed me away.