The Spider Queen

Chapter 134: Project Rhat\'ets

[Personal log of assistant Zachary Walsh]

[Day 1]

I am recording my daily experiences working on the Rhat’ets project located on planet [Data Encrypted].

Perhaps I may never see my loving wife and children again, but my salary will be enough to ensure that they live comfortably for a lifetime.

I know that my two boys are strong enough and will grow up to be fine young men. 

Who knows why I was chosen out of the thousands of scientific researchers that fought desperately for a place. 

I speculate it may have something to do with the thesis paper I wrote on Insectoid biology for my master’s degree.

The spaceship travelling to this research lab had a fairly uneventful journey with myself and three other nervous recruits.

Jonas, Kevin, and Isaiah were tall, muscular men far more suited for combat purposes rather than academics but who was I to judge.

They remained silent for the duration of the trip and I was unable to learn anything about their background.

Upon arrival, I was led away from the three men by an attractive young lady by the name of Doctor Valenna. 

The three men were taken to an area nicknamed the ‘pens.’

No prior information was given about the purpose of the Rhat’ets project, so I curiously asked the young doctor some questions.

She refused to answer any of them and brought me to a small dorm room. 

It was roughly the size of a prison cell, but at least the bed was clean, and the temperature was set to a comfortable level.

I was given a tablet to record my daily life and any important data concerning the project.

The tablet was implanted with three bugging devices and I suspect that the room I was given has also been compromised.

Fortunately, the hacking skills I learnt in college came into good use and I successfully disarmed the devices on the tablet without alerting the higher ups.

What have I gotten myself into?

[Day 2]

Today was a great day!

Whoever must have funded this project must be extremely wealthy because the scientific machinery present in some of the buildings would have cost billions of Enas.

I was apparently the first new recruit in quite some time as the other researchers and lab assistants took very good care of me.

Certain areas were off limit until I passed a trial period but for the most part the staff were very warm and friendly.

The males would give me firm handshakes and wide smiles while the females would wink flirtatiously and hug me briefly.

Someone had even managed to smuggle in a bottle of premium wine and an impromptu party was held at the end of orientation where I was the main star. 

One of my colleagues, a middle-aged man by the name of Doctor James told me that tomorrow was the day he would take me to the heart of the Rhat’ets experiment.

The location was the pens that the three men onboard my transport ship had been led to, so I assumed that they had already started working on their own experiments ahead of me. 

I am excited to finally get to uncover this mystery!

[Day 3]

It’s humans.

They keep humans in the pens.

Well…. what used to be humans.

I write out these lines of text while struggling to get the bile and vomit to stop coming out of my throat when I recall the horrors that I just witnessed.

Row upon row of naked former humans held in cages just like animals while researchers calmly observed and carried out experiments that led to the death of some.

These…. humans…. no, I should call them….

Monsters.

Weird and twisted appendages grew out of their body orifices while their skin was an ashy grey colour. 

Their faces seemed to be constantly stuck in an expression of pain and the only sound they were able to make was a silent scream.

Apparently, the noise was too bothersome, so the guards directly removed the vocal cords of the humans kept within the farm.

This project has violated every single moral, ethnical and legal guidelines set in place by the Earth Federation.

I even managed to spot Jonas, Kevin, and Isaiah among the naked sea of bodies, but they were in no state to hold any sort of rational conversation.

Kevin and Jonas had been sewed together into some unholy abomination that oozed a purplish slime as it crawled across the floor.

Isaiah was laying silently on the ground as I suspected that whatever modification had been done to his body had caused his heart to stop beating.

Doctor James began to talk about the project, but the nauseating smell and sights before my eyes finally caused me to vomit relentlessly.

I was taken back to my dorm room and told to rest for the remainder of the day. 

My reaction was fairly common so it was actually expected that I may need to take a break to process this new revelation.

One question kept echoing through my mind…. 

Why was this place allowed to exist?

Planet [Data Encrypted] is within the territory of the Imperial family and there is no way for a project of this scale to remain hidden.

Unless… it was intentional.

I am scared.

I want nothing more than to meet with the higher ups of Project Rhat’ets and leave but there is no doubt in my mind that I will be killed to maintain this secret.

All I can do now is record as much information as I can and find some way to leak this onto the virtual net.

Researchers are encouraged to maintain daily journal entries but any reference to the location of this base is forbidden.

Despite getting rid of the bug devices, it would be prudent to remain cautious.

I will therefore encrypt the name of the planet in my daily log until I can find the means to send out a message.

My hands are still trembling as I type out this last sentence. I fear that my dreams tonight will be full of the creatures that I have seen. 

[Day 4]

I have finally found out the purpose of project Rhat’ets and the waters run deeper than I initially suspected. 

This violation of human rights was approved by a group of nobles within the Earth Federation who used off the record grey organizations to provide funding.

The goal of these experiments is to combine the genes of an Insectoid with those of a human to create a hybrid.

The hope is to create an individual with the strong physique and regenerative abilities of an Insectoid along with the cultivation talent of a human.

Members of the high-level insectoids races have yet to been captured alive.

Therefore, all the specimen used as the genetic base are the lesser insectoids species such as the Tarkkakans, Oythyoras and Peneelira.

The project has been ongoing for years upon years with little success. 

Rather than creating the ultimate weapon…. only useless, twisted abominations have been produced.

Some less optimistic researchers even theorise that human and Insectoid DNA can never mix and create a viable individual.

I finish this daily log with dark bags beneath my eyes.

[Day 65]

I have been working as a lead researcher for several months now and I have been successfully promoted to the upper management.

The path I took to reach this position…. I am ashamed to record.

Please forgive me.

I have done terrible things. 

My hands are stained with blood and I cannot close my eyes without seeing and hearing the victims who have lost their minds due to my experiments.

I cannot go into detail without feeling the familiar urge to vomit.

I relish the feelings of guilt as they are my last threads of sanity in this wretched place. 

Most lose them far earlier.

Every researcher typically feels uncomfortable with their first experiment, but it gets easier and easier as the numbers increase.

They become indifferent to human life at best and gain pleasure from the cruel torture at worst.

As a man of science this may seem ridiculous, but I truly believe that this place is cursed.

Someone always goes missing every couple of months and none of the cameras can track their whereabouts.

Meanwhile, the humans in the pens have somehow regained the ability to laugh despite their vocal cords being surgically removed.

I hear them every night hysterically giggling and whispering words in a language that no one has been able to decipher. 

No breakthroughs have been made thus far and all experiments have been classified as failures. 

The higher ups are getting impatient but there is truly nothing we can do. 

Pressure is mounting and I could not be happier. 

I pray that we never succeed.

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[Day 745]

She did it.

Doctor Valenna has achieved a viable fusion.

May God help us all.