Altered States Page #6

There was some kind of ape loose

in your isolation tank room.

Do you know anything about that?

This ape almost killed a security guard.

You didn't bring some ape

down to that tank room, did you?

Your watch and stuff are

in your jacket pocket. You all right?

Is he all right?

Tell Mason what you've been telling me.

I want to hear Mason's views on all this.

I think Mason's views will be predictable.

My God. There it is...

...a protohuman. The first and original,

truly human form.

Tiny, perhaps four feet high,

completely furred...

...chimp-like, but erect.

No knuckle-walking. Shorter arms.

He's moving along so gracefully.

There's two, three of them.

Bipedal, tiny...

I'm killing- 'm killing a goat.

I'm killing...

I'm eating hot flesh.

I'm eating the blood of a goat.

Are you okay?

Beautiful. Beautiful.

It sounded like he was having

a bad trip to me.

Some of these tank trips

can get pretty creepy.

What the hell was that?

Did I wake you? t's Emily.

Eddie, I'm in a kind of wild panic.

I need to talk to you.

I don't know how to put this into words,

but I think that what happened to you...

...was not just

a hallucinatory experience.

I've got this gut feeling that something

phenomenological did actually happen.

That there was some kind

of genetic transformation.

I don't know why I think this,

in defiance of all rationality, but l do.

And now that l do, I'm terrified.

I mean really terrified. Petrified.

So am l.

I don't want you doing

this experiment again.

- L have to find out if it actually happened.

- Put the experiment off.

Until we understand more. Minimize risk.

There's no way you can understand

this before the event.

You may cause

irreversible genetic damage.

I don't think we're dealing with genetics.

We're beyond matter, beyond even energy.

What we're back to is the first thought.

I'm trying to tell you l love you.

I know that.

And I'm trying to tell you,

this is an all-bets-are-off sort of thing.

We may be opening a box that may

scrap our whole picture of space-time.

We might have a link to another universe.

For God's sake, Emily, you're a scientist.

You must know how I feel.

Yes, l know how you feel.

It's very late, Eddie.

Would you like to stay here tonight?

I could do with a little love

and a little reassurance right now.

You'll stay, won't you?

If l come out of that tank anthropoid,

I'll be in a primitive state...

...and impossible to relate to,

so sedate me while I'm still in the tank.

Otherwise you'll have to chase me around

and subdue me.

Okay.

I'll tell you one thing,

you come out looking like an ape...

...and I'm going over to Mass Mental

and commit myself.

If it happens,

we'll bring him down with Amytal.

What do you mean "if it happens"?

Everybody keeps saying "if it happens."

Do you think something is gonna happen?

If you do, I'd like to know.

I'm sorry. I'm just nervous as hell.

Listen, so am l.

Anything happen?

I just checked him 10 minutes ago.

Did you order chicken or turkey?

I hope chicken is all right.

I've got nearly 11.

That's more than two hours now.

I think we should stop this.

I'll tell you frankly, I'm frightened.

We could be screwing around

with his genetic structure.

- How do we stop this?

- Can you bring him down?

- He's gonna be sore.

- We should never have let him do it.

Don't know how we let him talk us into this.

We were humoring him, but he's not crazy.

And we know, deep in our hearts...

...that he may be onto something

beyond our comprehension.

Now, because l believe him,

I want this thing stopped.

Oh, Jesus.

Eddie!

No!

Eddie! No, no!

No, no! Eddie!

Oh!

Ah!

Eddie!

His signs are all good.

He'll probably sleep a day or two,

come out stuporous.

He's got a load of drugs in him.

It's not uncommon for a psychedelic

experience to whack you out.

You'd hardly call this

just a psychedelic experience.

His heart is good. His pressure is good.

I'm more worried about you

than l am about him.

I'm all right.

Of all the men in this world,

why do l have to love this one?

I can't get him out of me.

Do you know how many men

I tried to fall in love with this year?

No matter who I'm in bed with,

I have to imagine it's him.

No matter who I'm eating with

or walking with...

...there's always this pain

because it isn't him.

I'm possessed by him.

Oh, it's crazy.

I think that's the way it's supposed to be.

- He doesn't give a damn about me.

- You're the only thing he cares about...

...outside of his work.

- No, Mason.

I was never real to him. Nothing in

the human condition was ever real to him.

He's a truth lover.

Reality to Eddie is only that

which is changeless, immutably constant.

What happened to Eddie tonight,

that was Eddie's idea of love.

That was consummation. Ha, ha.

He finally got it off with God.

He finally embraced the absolute,

was finally ravished by truth...

...and it goddamn near destroyed him.

He never loved me.

You knew him as well as l did.

We were all bits

of transitory matter to him.

All right, now, you're going into shock.

I'm going to get you something.

We reached a point tonight

where physical science just breaks down.

We're in blue skies.

Tonight was history,

and what are we gonna do about it?

I'm gonna do nothing about it.

Tonight scared the hell out of me.

That tank just blew up.

Whatever happened inside that tank

released a hell of a lot of energy.

For God's sake, let's drop this goddamn

thing. I don't want to talk about it.

I can't help it.

You may want to go to sleep right now...

...but the way I feel

I don't expect to go to sleep for a year.

I'm on f***ing fire.

I am in there mopping up the goddamned

tank room and l would like to know why.

Do you believe in

supernatural agencies, Mason?

No, sir, l do not.

Then what we saw tonight

was a physical phenomenon.

An inexplicable physical phenomenon.

If it's phenomenological...

...then it's explicable. I've got to know why.

Let me talk, for chrissake.

I have been in there mopping up

that tank room for three hours.

I've had all I can take.

I can tell you

what I would like to do.

We have got to repeat this

with other subjects.

We need a selective sample.

We will put up a notice

in the student union for volunteers.

- Get five or six subjects.

- This is Arthur talking, right?

Step up the doses of the drug.

- Conscience of science?

Check them against Eddie's values.

- Petitions against genetic engineering.

We could even get a grant, for chrissake!

Big, moral science of the people...

- Bullshit!

...and here you are, willing to use an

untested drug on innocent human beings.

Please stop shouting.

How are you?

Would you like to go back to sleep?

Yes.

Would you mind if Mason

had a quick look at you first?

It's a good idea.

Maybe you ought to have

a quick look at him, Mason.

Oh, l hope it isn't the kids.

Hello?

Everything's fine, Arthur. He's fine.

- Lt's Arthur. Are you fine?

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