The Fire Dragons

Zhang Jin adjusted his thick-rimmed spectacles with fat fingers to study the information on the monitor before him. He wiped his brow on the sleeve of his white lab coat as he did so. He glanced up at the man lying unconscious on the table in front of him. The man himself was a political prisoner from the Uyghur people, with whom China had had so many difficulties in recent years. I don't believe it; it worked, he said to himself with a smile.

The graphs on the monitor were all in green. The DNA changes applied to the man's body were all stable. Scans of the man revealed no abnormalities. The man's muscled, toned physique still glistened from sweat; his transition had been far from easy. The steel cuffs on his legs and arms were still in place, but there had been times when Zhang wondered if they would hold.

Zhang turned to the party official standing next to him, a short man in a brown Mao suit. "The experiment seems to have worked. We will begin testing the actual functionality when he has recovered from the transition, but we can already see signs of better muscle tone, regenerative capabilities, muscle fiber types, muscle size, and muscle contraction efficiency."

"When can this safely be applied to our special forces?" The official spoke softly in a monotone voice that would have been utterly unremarkable were it not for the power and authority his rank and authorization entailed.

"This is just the first half of the super soldier research; we also need to integrate neurological functions into the cyber control of battlefield drones and systems. That research is years away from completion. Also, this is the first test subject to survive the treatment. The other 29 did not make it." The bespectacled scientist removed his glasses and wiped the sweat from the bridge to stop them from repeatedly sliding down his nose. He really did not like these party officials; they made him nervous and when he was nervous, he sweated.

"For now, we can treat the two as separate projects. There are benefits to getting what has already been achieved live as soon as possible. We will continue to fund the second phase and look for integration at a later date. But for now, getting a working version of the genetic changes is the priority." The small Communist Party official said.

Zhang shook his head and said, "You do realize that the changes have yet to be tested in real combat-compatible scenarios. It is all very well to be super powerful, but if his bones and ligaments cannot support this extra explosive power, then this will not work. The cybernetic component of the project was crucial in that it combines a neurologically controlled exoskeleton with the man's body, which shifted the extra strains onto his suit, thus avoiding placing that on the body."

"Yes, we know this, but with proper training about how to use the extra power, we believe that a special forces soldier should be able to manage his extra powers without destroying his body."

"Again, such training requires scientific research into the dangers that various movements and action types entail and how they can be best managed." Zhang knew he was fighting a losing battle, as the annoying little man in front of him had already made up his mind. The man was after all just another party functionary, with a cardboard cutout of a personality, a blank sheet on whom the party merely wrote instructions. Zhang wondered if the man before him had ever allowed himself to be human or if had he always been the automaton he was right now.

"But we could begin this testing right away if the treatment can already be applied. The more people we transform, the more experiments we can do in a shorter space of time." The official confirmed Zhang's fears, the urgency in the official's voice came from higher up the hierarchy.

"Well, then I need more people and I need a bigger lab, as this one is clearly not big enough for such an expansion." Zhang looked around at his limited resources.

"The bureaucrat smiled and said, "We have anticipated your request. You will be moved to the new laboratory tomorrow."

Zhang could hardly believe his eyes as he entered the lab. It was hidden amidst the towering peaks and rugged terrain of the Tibetan Himalayas, deep within a remote and concealed valley. Somehow the Communist Party had managed to arrange that it be carved into the heart of a mountain, its entrance cleverly concealed.

The guards here were not ordinary soldiers. Zhang noticed they wore the uniforms of Special Operation Forces Rangers. But they wore an insignia he had not seen before. A red dragon breathing fire with the label, "Fire Dragons."

After entering Zhang was driven down a sloping roadway deep into the mountain. Finally, he arrived at the science complex. It was a series of labs on seven floors that ringed a giant central cavern that appeared inaccessible by any doorway. The cavern contained a garden and a forest lit by the artificial light on the ceiling of the hall. He glanced behind through the glass windows into the laboratories that ringed the cave. These were filled with advanced technology and Chinese art from another era covered the walls. Pictures of Chinese military heroes from the last three millennia stared down on the scientist's activity. They contrasted oddly with the confocal microscopes, ultrasonic nebulizers, 3D printers, and PCR machines. Scientists and genetic engineers in white lab coats were everywhere, busy with their secret projects.

He knew now that the manpower and resources for his supersoldier project were unquestionably available. It was clear that no expense had been spared in the building of this laboratory. Zhang noticed an area below, in the garden, that was just bare concrete and was surrounded by high walls with barbed wire over them. Prisoners, universally male, dressed in bright yellow milled around in the courtyard. He had a momentary pang of conscience, which he quickly shunted aside. He was here to play God and if truth be told, it was a role that he relished.

He knew from the previous tests that the prisoners came mainly from Uighur or other Muslim backgrounds, with the occasional Tibetan separatist, Falun Gong, human rights activist, or outspoken journalist thrown into the mix. Those loyal to the new China would not miss them. His eyes moved from the prison to the large stadium below, where the training would take place.

With his new resources in place, Zhang was able to perfect the technique for transformation in just a few weeks, testing a hundred prisoners a day. In the first days, he had 90% losses, but by the last batch, he had a 95% success rate. Now he could cook up supermen in labs with minimal losses. It was then that he moved to train the prisoners on how to use their new strength. A gradual training regime was developed to increase muscle strength and integrate movements with habits and techniques that allowed the application of force without destroying the body. Biomechanical analyses perfected techniques to prevent injury and proprioception training helped the subjects balance their new powers. Core and stabilization exercises, strength and conditioning workouts, flexibility and mobility training were all studied by innumerable groups of scientists on endless teams of subjects until the injury rate dropped to negligible.

When the man in the Mao suit returned, Zhang was beaming as he shared the good news. The man replied, "It cost a lot less than we anticipated in time and lives. Only three thousand died and two thousand were maimed for life. We shall probably have to put these down, as they are only going to cost the state resources otherwise."

It was the flat tone that brought reality home to Zhang. Five thousand people paid with their lives for my success. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach and the smile disappeared from his face.

The communist official eyed him with a smile flickering around the corners of his mouth. "It was a cost the party was willing to pay and will benefit the people of our great country moving forward, ensuring their security. You have done well. The Western world has not been able to develop a similar program to our own and so this gives our nation an immense advantage over them." He paused, studying Zhang's face. "The superiority of our political system is that it is able to make the hard choices and the sacrifices necessary to get things done and to think about the long term. The cost is a few political malcontents that Americans and Europeans would rather celebrate than destroy. The benefit to us of this program far outweighs their loss."

Zhang forced a smile, but it hid a hollowness that he knew would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Zhang gaped as he watched the video footage of the Fire Dragon Operation against Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean on his laboratory TV. He watched a man swim butterfly across the gap between two ships in no time, leaping out of the water with each stroke and then literally jumping out of the sea to grab the ship's anchor chain, climb and access the ship. The camera then shifted to drone footage of the same soldier on board as he took out pirate after pirate with single punches and ripped metal doors off their hinges to gain access to the interior of the ship.

The operation was a success, but Zhang wondered at the power and potential he had unleashed. The Fire Dragons were an invincible force within their special forces niche. With the cybernetic enhancements he was also developing and the exoskeletons, they would be even more powerful. But how would this power be used? It took the sacrifice of nearly 5,000 people to achieve his dream. These soldiers were now the tools of people who thought it nothing to kill thousands, even millions, to accomplish their ends.

Zhang started to sweat and his body shook with fear. He realized he was having a panic attack. What have I done? He thought to himself. What have I unleashed?

The days passed and his guilt grew. His dreams became nightmares haunted by the faces of those he had sacrificed to perfect his technology. The vast labyrinth of passages in the secret Himalayan base began to feel like a prison, shrinking his vision and pressing in on him.

He took his own treatment in secret, now perfected and after a couple of days, during which he called in sick, he was transformed. Over some weeks, he performed the conditioning exercises that he had systematized for the special operations troops. His podginess evaporated into the toned physique of a soldier, but his eyesight did not improve, so he still wore his glasses. Female members of the lab team started noticing him and giving him smiles, but he ignored them.

He waited until the whole team was inside the mountain before he acted. The cavern was carved, but it had a single weak point at the fulcrum of its roof. A bomb there would bring down the whole complex. The light array over the cavern was hung on a metal frame. He climbed up to it, carrying a customized 152-mm explosive shell from a PLZ-45 self-propelled howitzer that he stole from the armory. The bright lights shone down, blinding those who might look up as he swung from metal bar to metal bar, arms only, carrying the 114-pound shell in a bag on his back, to reach the perfect position. When he reached the sweet spot, he looked down again and saw the man in the Mao suit on the balcony below him. The man looked like he was searching for him as he was standing just outside his office. Maybe this will not end the supersoldier program he thought to himself, he knew his research was all backed up outside the base safe in the hands of other men like this bureaucrat below. But maybe I can save the world from my research for a few more years. He detonated and the cavern collapsed, killing all inside it.


Notes ▼

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The Science Fiction Short Story Contest  (18+) A contest inspired by the serious need for more good sci-fi #2140378 by BlackAdder

PROMPT: Not all work can happen in the light - sometimes, great and terrible things are developed by teams or individuals working in obscurity, or even in hiding. Many such secret labs have worked their way into common knowledge today, or even urban legend. Most people have heard of Area 51, The Manhattan Project, Bletchely Park, Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works," and so on. This month, let's explore the possibilities of secret research - whether it be done by a government agency, a large corporation, or a mad scientist. Who will (quietly) change the course of the world?
W/C: 1946