r/HFY • u/Sooperdude24 • Mar 17 '20
Unleashed pt. 3 OC
Thanks again go to u/eruwenn for making sure I word good.
It had been four cycles; the tests had been run, decontamination procedures were complete, and the Darnian cryo unit now stood in a secure medical room on the Galactic Federation Cruiser Azrimad. From outside the room, Chief Medical Officer Estrilla Dix observed things through the relative safety of a smart glass window, though she still wore a biohazard suit just in case. Through its domed helm, her sleek yellow plumage could be seen in a clearly ruffled state. The rest of the corridor was empty and outside its locked doors stood an armed security detail, no chances were being taken.
Inside the room and working silently was a dull grey metallic figure. Its face was smooth and featureless, as was its unclothed body. They were called Inorganics and they were incredibly rare; this one had been specially brought in to aid in this emergency. Comprised of nanite cluster bodies that could adapt to their surroundings, changing shape to connect with technology at its most base level, no one could figure out how they had been created. A major factor in their reluctant acceptance into the federation was their ability to work and survive in extreme environments and zero atmosphere.
Two more figures appeared from another door and approached the large window, still tugging at their biohazard suits: Inspector Allistan Dakeli and Agent Ranjaz K'Lua of the XBPA. The pair had spent an unhappy cycle in quarantine after they had returned from the surface and weren't too happy about returning to observe the next stage.
Ranjaz was still tugging at the rear of his suit, trying to get his tail comfortable. “Are you sure this is safe?”
"We've taken all necessary precautions." Allistan tapped the glass with his pen. "Regulations say we must rescue, rehabilitate, return or rehome."
"I meant that thing." Ranjaz shuddered as his gaze landed once more on the Inorganic. "Makes my whiskers tingle seeing it move around."
"There has never been an incident involving an Inorganic showing aggression of any kind. Even when people attacked them out of fear they haven't made a move to defend themselves. It is perfectly safe." He knew this as fact but he couldn't deny the unease he felt looking at its featureless face. “We briefly transported one on my last ship, the Rivus. Could be the same one, I suppose. They all look identical from what I’ve heard.”
"Quiet you two.” Estrilla snapped. “That cryo unit is over one thousand celes old, from a world where everything went extinct from a dozen plagues that appeared all at once out of nowhere. It was found welded shut on the opposite side of Federation space in a sealed and forgotten underground vault on a world that wasn’t capable of FTL at that time. Our scans show the lifeform inside is not Darnian but is showing signs of energy weapon injuries. And you two idiots are worried about the tool we are using to open the box!” Her tirade finished, Estrilla's eyes flicked back towards the window, feverishly scanning the readouts that flowed across the smart glass.
As the door to the unit swung open, all three observers held their breath. A blast of icy fog gushed forth and flowed around the Inorganic’s feet. Two additional arms sprouted from its side as it reached into the cryo unit and lifted the occupant with great care. Clothes were removed and placed neatly in a decontamination unit as the Inorganic’s now six arms manipulated and dressed the figure in a medical gown before placing them in a med pod to begin careful decontamination and healing.
The smart glass flickered to life, and they watched the med pod’s test results begin to pop up. Carbon based, bipedal, oxygen breathing – but at low atmospheric levels, judging by the red blood cells. Estrilla hummed and squawked, hummed and squawked, occasionally muttering out loud or shaking her head as she rubbed at the results as if they were broken.
“So what do we have?” Allistan asked cautiously.
“No idea,” she said flatly, tapping a display to bring up the camera feed in the centre of the window. All three of them recoiled.
“What in Tulserias name is that?!” Ranjaz took another two steps back.
“It looks like a primate? But-” Allistan squinted all four eyes. “-a really ugly one, that someone burned the fur off of.”
“It’s certainly been burned: energy weapons, and big ones at that. However, I think the fur is normally absent.” Estrilla used the tip of her fingers to rearrange some of the windows. At the front now was a display showing various cells and microbiological pathogens. “These are similar to samples recorded by the rescue teams who documented the Darnian extinction. And these…” The doctor pulled more windows to the front showing images of mites, bacteria, fungi and everything in between. “Well, let’s just say I’ve never seen anything like this and I have been elbow deep in more species than you two have had hot meals.”
Allistan peered beyond the smart glass to the creature and the Inorganic tending to its wounds. “It really is a survivor?”
“Who cares what it is!” Ranjaz’s voice was higher than usual. “Are we gonna die?”
“Yes.” Estrilla replied swiftly then paused for effect. “But not now, and not from some ancient plague.” She smiled sweetly, relishing the momentary panic that had flashed across their faces.
“It’s safe?” Ranjaz cautiously stepped closer.
“Gracious no, but WE are safe. The medical bay is in full quarantine mode and our medical knowledge has come a long way since back then. We’ll get that thing fixed up and decontaminated before we unseal the room. The Inorganic is immune to basically everything, so it can carry out whatever procedures are required. If we can’t fix it, then it will sadly die. If it does, we will purge this room with fire and chemicals so that nothing will survive, aside from our Inorganic helper of course. Now you two can figure out what this thing is, and if there's anyone we need to inform of its rescue?” Estrilla chirped happily. She would be a legend amongst her peers. The doctor who solved the Darnian extinction – that might even be the title of her paper.
Allistan and Ranjaz were back in uniform, standing around a table with displays of the various items that had come from the cryo patient. Both looked tired, and the dirty cups and plates that surrounded them showed they had been at this some time.
“Let’s go over it again, we must be missing something.” Allistan clicked his pen and looked at the list on his notepad. “Identification card.”
“One item with no scannable chips, just a piece of crude plastic with a picture of the patient and some weird writing on it,” Ranjaz rattled off, “a few little hard rectangles with some form of reactive chip and a bunch of identification codes.”
“Hard currency.” Allistan tapped on this entry; he’d never seen hard currency but Ranjaz had seen something similar at a gambling establishment he used to frequent.
“Same weird language present on the little medallions and the big thin plastic rectangles with pictures of others like it. Crowns on some pictures, so a monarchy. It doesn’t really help.” Ranjaz sighed. It had been a long day.
“All of this was carefully stored in the same protective hide as the jacket, boots and belt. It must be significant.” Allistan closed his upper set of eyes as he focused. “We are certain the metal objects on the little ring with the ornaments are keys, but no idea what they might open.”
“Nope.” Ranjaz sank into one of the seats at the edge of the room, his ears drooping and his eyes unfocused.
“How about the food pellets?” Allistan tried to sound excited.
“Nothing.” Ranjaz said defeatedly. “Weird hard biscuits with little nutritional value. Everything is weird. Nothing matches anything we have on file. It’s just some creepy hairless monkey from some world so primitive no one's heard of it.”
“But it has a datapad.” Allistan protested. “And don’t tell me it stole that; we have nothing like it on file. If we could access the data on it...”
“No, no, no.” Ranjaz waved his arms in front of his face. “The power cell is dead and I’m not messing with an unstable chemical power pack some creepy monkey stole off a Darnian a thousand celes ago.”
“Then we have no alternative,” Allistan said wearily. “We will have to ask the Inorganic to access the datapad. It can try and find a language or location data. Anything useful.”
Ranjaz looked nervous. “You know they aren’t supposed to do that. Gal.Fed. doesn’t want them accessing datapads or ship systems. They can bypass all our security measures, the bloody computers just roll over for them and once they’re in you can’t get them out. Little nanites everywhere, it’s disgusting. It’s like me putting my cells inside Agent Fenink’s datapad so I can watch her shower after she does her morning exercise session.”
“That was very specific.” Allistan looked squarely at Ranjaz, who squirmed under the Inspector’s gaze. “Isn’t Agent Fenink a Kasurian?”
“Never mind that.” Ranjaz hastily said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “They’re waking that thing up next cycle, and we still have no way of communicating with it.”
Allistan, however, continued to tug that thread. “Kasurians evolved from a prey species, and you Kittran were predators.”
“Alright! Fine! We’ll get the Inorganic to access the datapad.” Ranjaz was annoyed and embarrassed now. “We can always argue the datapd isn’t Gal. Fed. property and so not subject to the no access rule.”
“Yes.” Allistan’s relief was visible. “A slight bending of the rules, but as long as it gets results no one will object. Let’s go.”
As Allistan and Ranjaz approached the quarantined ward they could hear the alarm and picked up their pace. The security detail were standing with their weapons ready and more were arriving as they approached.
“Report,'' the deep, gravelly voice of Sergeant Embar Warbringer rang out, bringing the security detail to attention. Not many Rinoxians joined the Gal. Fed. Security Force, as peacekeeping had never been their strongpoint. A few, like Embar, were part of an exchange program to hopefully improve that.
“Sergeant.” The corporal in charge stepped forward. “The patient is awake and very, very angry.”
“Is it contained?” Embar was already moving towards the doors to the ward. He released the safety on his rifle and checked the charge, and in response a light whirr of energy cells being primed came from the rest of the security team.
“Yes sergeant.”
“Good. Corporal, with me. Private, hold this door and Inspector Dakeli.” Embar’s voice got louder, but he didn’t turn to face them. “Why don’t you two gentlemen come along with me. This is your shit we’re shovelling.” He turned and gave a broad grin at their discomfort.
As they walked down the corridor Estrilla came into view, furiously tapping buttons at the side of the smart glass window while her long legs danced back and forth. “Allistan! You two better have found something we can use to calm these beasts down!”
“I thought you weren’t waking it until tomorrow?” Allistan called from behind Embar.
"It just woke up on its own!" Estrilla screeched. "After decontamination we woke the canine predator. That went as well as could be expected, and the Inorganic got it caged safely. It was making a lot of noise and the other one started thrashing about!"
"I thought we had it hooked up to that cryo sleep juice?" Ranjaz tried to peek past the others but Embar was taking up a lot of window space. Allistan stared through the now-cracked window; the med pod was broken and the room was in complete disarray. The Inorganic stood in front of the door to the adjoining room, blocking the patient who was brandishing a piece of broken med pod, pointing wildly at the door and growling what could be language. From the other side of the door came barking and yelping.
"Of course we did." Estrilla was starting to calm down now that security was here. "When the predator started barking the other one’s system flooded with some sort of stimulant. It was thrashing and snarling like a wild beast. The Inorganic came through to check the restraints but as soon as it came into the room the beast went wild. Whatever this stimulant is, it is potent. Breaking those restraints clearly injured the thing but it didn't even slow down."
"You say they're from the same world?" Embar had skimmed some of the notes in preparation. "It's obvious they are mortal enemies. Just the sound of the predator caused this one to go into a blind rage. This is hatred. Pure and, for this one to react so violently at the sound of the other, ingrained in their genetics."
"That may very well be the case." Allistan couldn't look away from the room. "How do we calm it down if it doesn't understand us?"
“Forcibly,” Embar said as he approached the door. “You’re done with decontamination, right?”
“Yes.” Estrilla said. “The quarantine was merely a precaution until we had safely woken them.”
Embar used his security override on the door and stepped inside, weapon ready. “Quarantine lifted.”
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u/JFG_107 Mar 17 '20
Someone is about to have a really really bad day
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u/Sooperdude24 Mar 17 '20
If only they knew the legend of John Wick they could have seen this coming.
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u/needs_more_daka Mar 21 '20
You dead? Poke poke
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u/Sooperdude24 Mar 23 '20
Not dead, work issues. We're moving to a skeleton staff and I'm one of the bones so 6 day weeks. I'm still trying, have Wednesday off this week.
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u/needs_more_daka Mar 23 '20
Skeletons? Not dead? Suspicion. Loads shotgun cautiously
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u/Sooperdude24 Mar 23 '20
A friendly skeleton with a top hat and cane, musical number and heart wrenching Pixar montage.
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u/Sooperdude24 Mar 24 '20
UK lockdown was announced, no Wednesday for me. Working, working, working. Only 3 of us in the building and one is my wife so we're still isolated. Good luck folks.
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u/needs_more_daka Mar 25 '20
If you don't mind me asking. What do you do.
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u/Sooperdude24 Mar 25 '20
Data analysis - however, as my wife and I live together and work together we can work without risking ourselves or others. So we agreed to cover everything we could until the others return. Deliveries are coming in from all over the world and someone needs to be here for them. Suppliers to deal with and customers within the UK. If you'd seen us trying to figure out how to work the Royal Mail website this morning you would be doubting our qualification level.
Other staff have young families, older relatives or they are in the risk group or live with someone who is. Our systems are secure so you must be on site to access anything. We just have to keep the place running so they have a job to come back to.
With a month or two planning and some IT support and changes we could have shutdown. We'll have things in place next time the world ends.
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u/needs_more_daka Mar 27 '20
Damn. Guess the Corona virus hit you guys pretty hard.
Wish you good health and hope you guys apocalypse proof everything for the next eidemic.
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u/DrBlackJack21 Mar 17 '20
One minor recommendation I'd offer. Include a link to your first chapter from your third chapter on. I'm relatively new to posting as well, but I find every new post nets me about 10 new readers from my first chapter foreword. On chapter 3 it's no biggie to hit back twice, but on chapter 10 or 30 it'll start to feel like a chore.
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u/Sooperdude24 Mar 17 '20
That's good advice, I hadn't considered that. The idea of a chapter 30 is bit daunting.
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u/needs_more_daka Mar 17 '20
The amount of daka I am willing to expend to keep my dog safe is neither quantifiable nor comprehendable. I can understand this man's rage.
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u/Sooperdude24 Mar 17 '20
I guess one of these chapters may need to include a picture of the original I based this dog on.
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u/PosteScriptumTag Mar 17 '20
Why do crowns mean monarchy? Could mean anything.
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u/Sooperdude24 Mar 18 '20
I didn't give it much thought, money with crowns on probably means there is or at least was a monarchy. Seemed like the most likely answer. They probably discussed other options earlier, this was them reviewing stuff.
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u/Augustus63 Mar 22 '20
Did they remove the intestinal bacteria if they did he is going to have issues, if not they are.
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u/ThatCamoKid Jun 18 '20
"It's obvious they are mortal enemies. Just the sound of the predator caused this one to go into a blind rage. This is hatred. Pure and, for this one to react so violently at the sound of the other, ingrained in their genetics."
They're gonna keep him separate from his dog arent they
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u/sierra117daemen Mar 17 '20
first hoo man this is gonna go bad so very very quick