The Experiment

The Experiment

By Jordan Setayesh

Roman sat quietly across the table from his supervisor, Dr. Walker, the director of human and social sciences of the Fourth Ward, as he looked over Roman’s latest publication. The paper was the culmination of five precious months of work exploring the impact of physical reprimands on adolescent cognitive development. It was not his first choice of a project, as he was not a naturally violent person; however, according to his career coach assigned to him by The Institute, this topic was his best chance at being promoted to the 5th Ward, where the highest level experiments were undertaken.

“Were the values in table 3 adjusted to account for applied force and surface area at point of contact?” inquired Dr. Walker.

“Of course. I used a multivariate regression to control for every variable recorded by the novel sensors I designed during my lunch breaks,” Roman explained with a sense of desperation.

Dr. Walker leaned to the side of his desk, pulled a small yellow envelope from a drawer, and slid it across the desk to Roman, never breaking eye contact. Roman opened the envelope, finding a blank key card with the insignia of The Institute on the back.

“Be at the 5th Ward for our morning lab meeting at 7:30 a.m. sharp. Don’t be late,” Dr. Walker sternly demanded.

When Roman got home that night for dinner with his parents, there was an aura of skeptical optimism. Once Roman broke the news to his parents, everyone knew what each other were thinking. Roman now had restricted access to the facility where their little Katie, Roman’s younger sister, was being held. Roman had spent most of his adolescence and teenage years studying to be a scientist, but not just any scientist. A scientist of the caliber that could do work at the 5th Ward. Someone who could be trusted to work with the subjects of the experiments with such a high level of security clearance. Now that he had finally done just that, Roman knew that he might lose his own life in the pursuit of freeing his sister. His parents knew that as well. It was the tacitly acknowledged truth that plagued dinner that night. Yet, it was not quite as daunting as the empty seat at the dinner table every night.

Dr. Wilkins, Roman’s new lab supervisor, called him into his office, just as he was about to leave for the day. As Roman entered, Joshua explained that one of the scientists in the child development department had refused, on ethical grounds, to continue with experimentation, and they needed someone to step in. Roman quickly agreed, as Dr. Wilkins promised to have a briefing on his desk the next morning.

When Roman got to his desk the next morning, he started shaking. The realization that it was happening, that he had been placed on Katie’s project, shook him to the core. Within the end of the day, he would lay eyes on his little sister for the first time in his life.

Over the next 6 months, Roman went home every day, taking note of details from his work that would help him hatch his plan to rescue Katie. It was hard to focus, as he had to forget the horrific acts he was committing each day. At first he coped by seeking refuge with his parents. Eventually, however, he could not even bring himself to verbalize the atrocities he was committing. He slowly slipped into moderate opiate usage, barely making it to work most days. Roman found himself clinging to his intellect for dear life, fearful that he would be fired if someone suspected something

It was a warm, cloudy evening in June when Roman finally broke down. He came home to his parents and confessed everything. It had been a year since he was promoted to the 5th Ward, and he still had no plan for bringing Katie home. He cried in his mother’s arms, sobbing as he begged his mom to explain how society came to this. She had kept these details from him based on the presumption that he was too fragile for these details. Not knowing what society used to be like would allow Roman to be thankful for and enjoy what he did have in this life, she thought. Tonight was different. She realized that Roman needed to know.

“I am going to tell you everything you need to know, but you have to promise me you will not let it ruin you,” she solemnly expressed.

Roman looked up at her and nodded, giving her the go ahead to begin her story.

“When I was a teenager, science was a noble endeavor. Our brightest and most curious students came to these institutions known as universities to learn the scientific methods and practice applying its principles at thousands of laboratories across the country. Technology and medicine advanced more rapidly than you could ever imagine. We could send infinite copies of a document anywhere in the world within a matter of seconds, talk to devices that were seemingly as human as us, and we could change the DNA of humans before they were born. At the same time, scientists, engineers, and politicians were scheming behind closed doors, and the public eventually found out. This led to mass protests and violence. The movement against corruption lost control, and it turned into a movement against science. Eventually, the public lost faith in science and medicine, and it turned its back on progress. Society quickly started to decay. People would rather die in the streets than trust physicians. They starved to death rather than eat produce derived from genetically-modified plants. Ultimately, the overwhelming majority of people viewed science as an evil cabal designed to control the population rather than advance society. Everything we built was destroyed through violence or negligence. That brings us to today. There are hundreds of factions that developed from this chaos. Our faction became a reactionary one. Rather than rebuild trust in science, our leaders decided that science must be the number one priority and can never take a backseat to anything, including ethics. They saw what happened when science was abandoned and became convinced that the rigor of science determined a society’s fate. Every child is evaluated by physicians from The Institute. If that child is deemed scientifically useful for one of their projects, then the child instantly becomes property of The Institute, and they are integrated into that experiment. I never even got to say goodbye to Katie. I just woke up, and I was informed that she was taken to The Institute to be cared for. I never got any closure.”

Roman’s mother handed him a golden, heart-shaped locket, explaining that she bought this on Katie’s 2nd birthday with hopes of giving it to her one day.

“Please Roman,” she cried. “I dream every day of giving her this locket. Please bring our baby girl back. I need to see that beautiful smile.”

Roman could not believe his ears. He was stunned. There was not enough brain power left for him to process his mother’s story, so he went to bed and cried until he fell asleep, knowing that he would wake up the next morning, destined to commit more horrific acts.

Two months later, Roman had his plan in place to bring Katie back. It was the day he would execute his plan. His parents had paid a drug runner to smuggle them to a neighboring faction where they had family.

He waited until everyone had left for the day. Over the last 4 months, he had been developing a romantic connection with one of the laboratory technicians, gaining her trust. They were set to meet in the subject containment area that night before going to dinner. As they arrived, he told her that he left some documents in the containment area during an experiment earlier that day, so he asked for her key card. Knowing that only technicians also had access to the freight elevators in the back, he prearranged a cart that he would use to smuggle Katie out of the loading dock into a truck driven by a family friend.

Roman’s plan worked seamlessly. He met his family near an exit point of their faction. His mother ran out of the car with excitement, pulling Katie from his arms. She cried as she held Katie in her arms for the first time ever. Her emotions were too much for her to handle. They were too much for Roman to handle as well. He took the locket from his mother and placed it around Katie’s neck. Just as he was about to hug his mother, Roman felt a piercing pain through his spine as he fell to the ground.

The last thing Roman remembered was trying to hug his mother. Now he was lying on a cold, metal table, constrained by every limb. There was a bright light burning in his eyes. As the light moved away, he saw his mother, father, and Dr. Wilkins standing over him.

“The subject is stable. Normal heart rate and rhythm. Vesicular breath sounds bilaterally,” declared a distant voice in the background. He faintly recognized it as the laboratory technician he had a romantic fling with.

“What is going on?” Roman inquired.

“You are going home,” Dr. Wilkins declared with a matter of fact tone.

“Roman, I need you to focus right now. You have been the subject of a 25-year study on the genetic basis of persistence. Dr. Epstein and Dr. Johnson, who you know as mom and dad, are scientists from the 5th Ward. They were assigned to raise you under controlled parameters in order to assess the influence of your genetics in your development of persistence. Katie is not actually your sister but rather a decoy subject, provided to motivate you to pursue a long-term goal. The experiment is over, and you will be set up with an apartment building along with a job as a data analyst for a pharmaceutical company. I have recorded this conversation so that you know that it actually happened when you wake up in your apartment in 12 hours. Goodbye Roman.”

Roman woke up, confused and groggy, on a small bed with a light blue sheet covering his body up to his neck. A small screen suddenly turned on and replayed Dr. Wilkins’ revelation. Despite being in a state of psychological shock, Roman realized that he would never see his mom, dad, Dr. Wilkins, or Joshua ever again, or anyone from the 5th Ward for that matter. This was his new life. He would never get any closure, just like his mom had described. Was his new life another experiment? Was he free to live as he pleased? Would he be watched from every moment moving forward? Could he trust anybody? The thought of moving through life this way sent Roman into a state of despair. There were no scientific studies about how to deal with an existential crisis.