It was unprecedented, completely stripping a person of their identity, their personality. And on a child no less. “We will be conducting an experimental procedure on the subject Cassiopeia. It is much like electroconvulsive therapy, on a grander scale. We are not treating the subject, we are rendering her susceptible to suggestion. This phase of development will be referred to in reports as tabula rasa. The experiment will begin shortly, delivering a series of high voltage shocks directly to the cerebral cortex.”
She didn’t know what the gear was for; the strange electrodes fixed to her head that she was instructed not to touch. And she didn’t, she thought that if she made the strangers in the white angry they might hurt her. Or hurt her more, as the case was. But it didn’t silence the plaintive whines or stop the panicked looks and constant fidgeting. The straps helped, tightened around her arms, legs, and torso, they kept her still and would prevent her from harming herself while the procedure was underway, their boss would certainly be unhappy if the subject was incapacitated by a lack of attention. If she died or became immobile it would be a result of the ordered experiment, it would come down on someone else’s heads. That was their thinking, but the girl strapped in the observation room was only thinking of getting out, of getting home.
“The induced seizures will cause potentially permanent brain damage.”
She was thrashing, even strapped down her body jerked this way and that pulling against the restraints. There was no sound coming from her gaping mouth, but it gave the appearance of screaming out in pain, maybe screaming for those men to stop hurting her. But with no sound there was no objection to their actions. It stopped suddenly and her body collapsed, vaguely aware of the pool of urine she lay in.
“Targeting the frontal lobe, amygdala, and hippocampus will remove defense mechanisms, sensory perception, and memory. The two former will be reestablished in later phases of the Project. Memory will never be restored.”
Another shock and the world went black, eyes rolled back into her skull as she seized violently. She could hear a vague noise, almost like someone talking. “Your name is Cassiopeia.” No, her name was--
“There is potential that this subject may not respond to the treatment. It is unknown what the chances of survival are in this experiment. We shall see.”
It was all blank. All grey and fuzzy and muted even after the shocks stopped. It was all nothing. The fearful glances gone, the whining silenced. A deadpan gaze looked up but hardly saw, lips barely parted as if she had forgotten her scream partway through. Catatonic but still alive.
Dumped in a room to stare at the wall, whitewashed and blank. The wall the same way.
