Line #7 Literature/ProjectTau


1	[[quoteright:341:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tvtropes_tau_cover_png_6.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:341:Project Tau has escaped...]]
3
4	->''"Humans don't need to look on other humans as a subclass of themselves now, do they? Not when you've created a whole new subclass."''
5	-->-- '''Kalin Taylor/Project Kata'''
6
7	The first book in the "Five Worlds" series by Jude Austin.
8
9	The main character, college freshman Kalin Taylor, accepts a crazy frat-initiation stunt: to break into a top-secret, interstellar scientific company called [=GenTech=]. [[GoneHorriblyWrong It goes about as well as you'd expect.]] Imprisoned with the human clone (aka Project) Tau, Kalin's all set to lose not just his freedom, but his whole identity.
10
11	Unless, of course, he can somehow manage to escape...
12
13	----
14	!! We got a lot to talk about, and all the tropes on the site to do it with...
15
16	* ArmorPiercingResponse: Kata does this to Chatton. Even [[DragonInChief Dennison]] is impressed.
17	--> '''Chatton:''' "'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain'. Exodus, chapter twenty, verse seven."
18	--> '''Kata:''' (looking pointedly at a badly beaten Tau) "'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. Luke, chapter six, verse thirty one."
19	* BlatantLies:
20	** Dennison, when he convinces Kalin that the latter [[spoiler:really is a Project]].
21	** Mason, when he promises Kalin that he'll be released from the lab after two weeks.
22	* BlankSlate: Tau has no memories or life experiences outside of the lab. Justified in that he's a Project and has only been alive for about six months at the start of the book.
23	* BreakThemByTalking: Dennison to Kalin when he forces him to concede that [[spoiler:he's nothing but a Project.]]
24	* ChekhovsSkill: Kalin has some impressive hacking and programming skills. They come in handy when he [[spoiler:hacks into the mainframe and reprograms the lab's automated security system]].
25	* ClonesArePeopleToo: The central theme of the book. Humanity in-universe is a legal status not extended to Projects, who are seen as livestock.
26	* ConditionedToAcceptHorror: Tau. Justified in that he's never known anything else.
27	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:Renfield]]. Oh, so very much. Not only that, Chatton also mentions ''predecessors,'' meaning there were other people who were [[spoiler:eaten alive.]]
28	* DeadpanSnarker: Kata, all throughout the book.
29	* DragonInChief: Dennison is this to Mason. Technically, Mason is in charge of the labs, but he shows no interest in the day-to-day running of the facility, much less the Projects' training, preferring to leave that all up to Dennison.
30	* EasilyForgiven: Averted with Renfield. He forcibly mutates Kata, uses the handlers much like Dennison, refuses to listen to Kata's explanations, abandons him to be beaten, starved and overworked and on top of all that, threatens to have Tau tortured if a barely-conscious Kata doesn't do what he says right now. When he finally tells Kata that he believes him and wants to help, Kata ''doesn't'' take it well.
31	* ElectricTorture: Standard punishment for Tau and Kata. It starts off as mildly painful, then escalates through the book to the point where Kata is electrocuted to the point of unconsciousness more than once.
32	* FirstFriend: Both Tau and Kata are this for each other.
33	* FriendlessBackground: Kalin has one of these, right up until he meets Tau.
34	* FriendlyEnemy: Kata and Chatton's relationship develops into this as the book progresses. Chatton makes an effort to get food to Kata when Dennison's trying to starve him into submission, and Chatton ends up being the only scientist that Kata goes out of his way not to upset.
35	* GoodIsNotNice: Renfield, one of the scientists in ''Literature/ProjectTau'' is often a jerk to his colleagues, and he's fine with ordering corporal punishment on the Projects, but he also goes out of his way to try and protect them from Dennison's more sadistic treatment, and he's the only one to [[spoiler:try and help Kata escape.]]
36	* HumansAreSpecial: Oh, so very much.
37	** The shock and anger displayed by both Chatton and Renfield upon learning of [[spoiler:Kata's real identity]] is solely because they realize [[spoiler:they've been doing what they did to a human, not a clone.]] When Kata says he plans to take Tau with him when he leaves, neither scientist can understand why Kata would risk his life to steal a Project.
38	** Kata's [[spoiler:original status as a human]] leads him to treat Tau with a certain amount of arrogance at the beginning.
39	* IgnoredEpiphany: Chatton. Even after hearing Kata's story, his fury and guilt is centered around the fact that he's been involved in the torture of [[spoiler:a legal human, as opposed to just another clone like Tau,]] and not the act of torture itself.
40	* IJustWantToHaveFriends: Kalin's main reason for trying to join the frat house.
41	* InsistentTerminology: They're not ''human clones''; they're ''Projects''.
42	* ItIsDehumanizing: The Projects are only ever referred to as 'it,' in keeping with their legal status as livestock.
43	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Renfield doesn't show the Projects any more sympathy or compassion than his colleagues, but he does stop Dennison from going too far, and attempts to set things right for Kalin.
44	* LightningBruiser: Kata becomes one of these by the end of the book, thanks to his training and the fact that he's been modified to have claws and super-speed.
45	* OffscreenVillainy: The torture sessions are an established part of Tau - and later Kata's - daily routine, but are never described in the book.
46	* OnlyOneName: Tau, and later Kata.
47	* PayEvilUntoEvil:
48	** Kata, when he [[spoiler:kills Mason]] for taking him prisoner and reducing him to the level of an animal.
49	** Averted with Tau, who does [[spoiler:kill Dennison]] but doesn't take any real pleasure in it.
50	* PrecisionFStrike: Tau does this to Kata toward the end of the book.
51	--> '''Tau:''' I am not your fucking ''tool'', Kata! You can't just ''use'' me!
52	* TheReasonYouSuck:
53	** Kata delivers quite a few of these about the Projects' treatment and the scientists' hypocrisy, usually to Dennison.
54	** Renfield gives one himself to both Dennison and Mason when he finds out [[spoiler:what they did to Kalin.]]
55	** Tau gets one in at Kata towards the end of the book.
56	--> '''Tau:''' "I'm not your fucking tool, Kata! You can't just ''use'' me!"
57	* ASimplePlan: Renfield, with his plan to [[spoiler:help Kata escape.]] Unfortunately, he combines it with a TooDumbToLive moment, and it doesn't work out.
58	* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler:Renfield's]] big TheReasonYouSuck speech to Dennison and Mason may have been satisfying, but telling them outright that he's going to [[spoiler:help Kalin escape and screw the consequences]] really ''wasn't'' the smartest move.
59	* TookALevelInBadass: Kalin goes from being a weak, eager-to-please nerdy freshman, to a clawed killing machine.
60	* TrainingFromHell: Tau and Kata undergo a brutal physical training regime, often being worked to the point of collapse.
61	* WhatHaveIDone: Renfield, when he realizes that Kalin was telling the truth all along, and that he's been participating in the [[spoiler:illegal imprisonment and torture]] of a fellow human being as opposed to just another Project.
62	--> '''Renfield:''' "Oh dear sweet Jesus. Mason, what have you done? What have ''I'' done?"
63	--> '''Mason:''' "Your job, of course."

Context Literature / ProjectTau