“She was sexy wasn’t she.” Renee laughed as they were passing through the shield and spinning around and dropping the landing gear. They touched down, facing the Flare towards space as the wooden wall began dropping down and sealing the room, effectively minimizing energy drain.
The lid of the Flare lifted and they exited to find the others still suited up. Stone’s voice carried as he asked “Why have the two of you lowered your helms?”
“We were clean. Our suits, aside from a little mud and acidic rain, didn’t retain foreign particles anywhere. Especially after being absorbed. The rest of you need to be sterilized before we go to med bay to get checked out. It’s protocol. Open up the ships’ vents and get ready.” They did as she said and linked to the room’s sensors to release cleansing microbes which searched out alien particles and removed them, especially any deadly viruses, bacteria or other particulates.
The deck went fogy white. It was so thick that anything beyond a meter was nothing, not even a shadow. The engineered microbes were safe to breathe and when combined with foreign matter would nullify whatever characteristics the matter was comprised of. Every single part was covered throughout the room until it was completely saturated. Everyone held still so as to not run into anything till Renee activated the room’s multiple vents and sucked the fog away.
As soon as Renee gave the all clear, helmets and masks lowered and most everyone started scratching their nose immediately. Sparky reared back and unlocked the joint to remove his helmet to scratch is scales too. Oliver walked beside her to stare into the open cargo hold of her shuttle asking “What did you find?”
Jacob Wrench came over to say eagerly “Weapons, little black cubes and see these solid barrels as tall as myself, two look to hold food pellets you make Beasts from, but the other fifty drums hold something else that are finer and make it seem more solid. but we didn’t break the still intact seals to find what was inside.”
Stephanie went on to explain how they had managed to carry three remaining barrels before the attack. There were many more, but before they returned to the shuttle Steven collapsed the tunnel they excavated earlier and hope it wasn’t uncovered.
Steven admitted “Had to be done. If those pellets were still viable and the Keptl found that hoard of food, they could feed their nest for centuries. Collapsing was the safest thing I could think of. There was enough down there to start up two or three more hives on that moon.”
“Smart thinking. I’m surprised the idea was yours.” Sparky taunted.
“Ha ha.” Steven laughed dryly. “Very funny, overgrown lizard.”
Before the two could start another fight Stephanie tucked a few loose blonde strands behind her round ears to say “Enough bickering you two and after Renee checks us out the two of you will help carry all these treasures to my secondary office, clean and dry them.” She turned. “Oliver, you help out too.”
“Alright.” He said as the other two singled out glared at the voluptuous woman with a hand on her hip. “You said weapons?” he just realized.
“Yeah, take a look.” Visor chirped from standing atop one barrel.
Oliver went inside and found the pile on the grate. There were many colors and Stephanie was the most curious as he lifted a pegged mace with an aquamarine sheen throughout its body. “Heavy.” He admitted despite is was still light in the current gravity.
“Well that just killed a theory.” The archeologist grimaced.
“What theory?” He asked, setting the acid rain rinsed weapon down.
“That it would respond to a Solarian’s touch like yours does. It must need to be personally bound. I think to get it absorbing energy also means it needs a host. By the way, they are deadly sharp without that power.”
“You mean they don’t have the barrier over the sharp edges and spikes?” He stepped far away.
“Correct. They’ll cut your leg off and you’d not feel a single thing till you fell to the ground and left your leg behind.” Stephanie gruesomely confirmed.
“Enough chatting. Med bay. Now.” Renee ordered and tapped her ear. “Papa, we’re secure.”
On the bridge Jake Dorgen still sat in his throne to order “Abdul, bring us back into the nearest friendly space.”
“Home in the Sapphire Nebula it is. Three weeks stand between us. Course plotted and…” he laid a furry hand on the round FTL button and pressed down. “here we go!”
Starlight spread out in the darkness transformed to an explosion of rainbow spiraling light. Not even a shudder shook the starship as it slipped into subspace to go to the space where the ship spent most of its time. The beauty of the nebula was home for most.
“Lads,” Jake spoke throughout the entire ship. “we’re free and clear. Rest and go about yer business. We’re heading to the Sapphire Nebula for a little peace and quiet. I’ll keep ye informed later on we’re we’ll be heading next.”
A collective relieved breath seemed to come from the ship as well as the crew.
Captain Dorgen stood and put on his sword and axe to say to those on the bridge “Same goes for ye, Lads. The danger is long behind us now. By now we’re a dozen systems away. If ye need me I’ll be with me daughter to see what spoils were uncovered.”
“Aye aye.” Came the multiple response.
Jake used the elevator system and reached the med bay a few moments before the doors shut to open again, this time carrying twelve individuals.
“Hi, Papa.” Renee greeted first. “Waiting long?”
“Nay. Just set foot not a moment ago.”
“Okay, but you can’t touch us just yet. I’ve yet to officially clear anyone.” Jake nodded and stepped away before his child did it for him without touching.
The group filed in the sanitized white room and did another microbe cleansing together as a secondary precaution. Three beds came out of the wall as three orbs did the same. Deegen, Stone and Steven laid down to be scanned as Renee lifted her bracelet and punctured all three of their necks at the exact same time and none of them felt anything. The long needles were too thin and durable. She placed the samples for analysis and a minute later said “You are all clear, but Deegen, you need to meditate. Your cortisol levels are three times higher than normal. In other words you are exceedingly stressed and meditation will help. If it persists I’ll give you something. We don’t need an overstressed Hunter.”
“Yes, Ms. Dorgen.”
“Void. I changed my last name two days ago. Guess I forgot to tell you.”
“Truly?”
“Aye.” Jake said as he overflowed in the seat Renee dropped for him. “Gave her me blessing. You must not have been paying attention. I announced it ship-wide. I wed them meself.” Jake got a gut feeling something was going on, but was it so subtle he couldn’t think too much on it.
“Next.” Renee said and the three modified animals got up on the vacated beds, followed by Stephanie, Jessica, Jacob, herself, Oliver and Sparky. As she visually looked through the results she said “Everyone is clean, but Olly, you’re now a low Five. Those Salamanders must have gave you that extra increase.”
Oliver closed his eyes, found the familiar mental lever and pulled it harder than where he leaves it to not be telepathically spied upon. The good feeling vibrations increased much more than he attempted in all previous trials. He felt the gathering energies filling the great bottomless black lake and focused every bit of it to the palm of his left hand. He slowly opened his amber eyes and targeted Renee’s still holstered injector on her desk two meters away while sitting on the soft, gel bed. Renee had been teaching him levitation in the past week, but only in zero gravity as it made it much easier to move things. It was a difficult practice, very difficult to master.
The gun began to shake as he concentrated, but through perseverance it lifted up out of its stand. It was extremely wobbly, but he made it levitate closer till it fell in his hand. Sweat had beaded across his forehead and his breathing was labored, but “I did it.” His deep voice had gone soft st
aring at the medics’ standard pistol.
“Not bad, me Lad. Rather rough and shaky, but ye did move it.”
“Under standard gravity no less.” Jessica said smugly.
“Don’t go stroking his ego.” Renee show the least hesitation as she took it from his hand telekinetically and suddenly the injector dissembled midair into hundreds of individual and intricate pieces. And just as fast, she put it all back together perfectly. “This is what a disciplined mind can do with the amount of power you just pulled off.”
“Really?”
“Aye, Laddie. She used nearly the same quantity ye did, maybe a fraction less.”
“How the hell is he getting stronger psionically?” Deegen asked out of sheer curiosity. Hands rested on the throwing rings hung at either hip.
“More Beast essence I consume the stronger I get. It seems Solarians reach their ideal strength through eating Beasts. It was why I was so drawn after the Fire Wyrm and Salamanders.”
“Essence? What is that?”
“What do I always eat first from a Beast?”
“Brains… wait, you mean to tell me that their brains increase your potential?”
“Apparently my former self was the strongest of them all and I held the record for making a star by myself. What is wrong with you? You were there with us.”
Deegen’s eyes flew wide like Jake’s, but for different reasons.
“A real Star?” Jake had to ask.
“Yes, Papa. An artificial intelligence known as Alleia said it was in his records… as well as Ma unknowingly recreating my DNA to match Oliver’s first woman who went by Reten.”
“Before everything goes around in circles… Brother, you better watch what I recorded.” Jessica took out her oval hand crystal.
“While you do that, Oliver, Steven and Sparky have a task to accomplish for me.” Stephanie stood. “I’m going to change into something more comfortable first.”
Jessica looked down at her own skintight suit to say “Good idea.”
“Don’t know about all of you, but I’m hungry.” Jacob said as he rubbed his bald head.
“We’ll hold off then.” Jake said. “Jessica, I’ll meet ye in yer room to go over recordings.”
“Then everyone get out of my area. I’m going to take a shower. Oliver, you and Sparky go get things ready. I’ll pitch in when I’m done.”
Over the next few hours and three exhausting trips, the shuttle was emptied and its contents transferred to Stephanie’s second lab beside the main one. The second was used as it had more storage space. Renee did help out, especially in safely transporting the weapons without touching a thing. Jessica and Jake weren’t seen for a long time after they disappeared in her quarters.
Once the goods were all accounted for Steven was tasked in washing off all the weapons and carefully placing them on wooden stands Stephanie had grown for each individual treasure. The cubes were easier to manage and even easier to stack.
While he did that, Sparky left to go be with Rose as Oliver and Renee were too curious to see what laid within the containers.
“Time to crack them open.” Stephanie giggled as she lowered the clear door to the airtight clean room. Oliver and Renee stood to either side of her as her hands made the console light up. They had to open the containers inside a sealed environment because they couldn’t get clear readings on the contents. The only positive reading was no known explosive materials. The reason they opened them is there could be old and deadly microbes or other deadly contaminants that haven’t seen the universe in tens of thousands of years. Being sealed was the only reason these chest high containers were brought aboard.
Stephanie used two orb scanners as sanitary white robotic arms lowered from the ceiling like tentacles descending. Ten arms in all, each with a different purpose and use for precise and careful extraction of precious objects. She began talking during the recording. “This is Stephanie Menann aboard the starship Dorgenox. Today’s date is the 19th of, 3217 at twenty hundred hours eighteen minutes.” The basic requirements to pinpoint the discovery examination.
“Inside quarantine are fifty two metallic barrels, or containers. All are still completely sealed, intact and initial scans indicate their age to be 79,611 years old. Integrity was maintained due to a sealed environment aboard a derelict ship before being excavated. Material is made of a dense tungsten-carbon steel alloy perfectly blended. The sealant is made of an unknown resin that remains intact, showing barest indication of decay and is hard as aged amber from prehistoric tree resin, but purified to indicate being unnaturally processed.
“Beginning archeological extraction with precision lasers calibrated to the resin frequency to remove the lid beneath the sealant.” One arm moved its languid joints to aim a thin red laser overhead of the first drum and made two precise cuts before going around in a circle. The pieces were coded with a series of numbers as they were lifted individually and placed down. “Now extracting the lid.” A robotic human hand came down and lifted a rounded handle to remove it and set it with the removed resin. “Scans read pure silica sand. Age is similar to the container. Seventeen years younger to be accurate. Grains are uniform meaning they weren’t naturally created nor refined from industrial separation. Depth scan reads the entire contents are silica sand… Moving to second.” The process was repeated with the same amount of care and would be applied to every single piece. “Inside container two is the purest graphite I’ve ever been able to look at. Most likely used for repair of crystal damage or as extra mass for building purposes.” Four more also contained refined graphite. It was impossible to know what was inside as the painted writing had been lost to the ravages of time. “Number eighteen is filled with purified gold. No traces of other elements make up the grains. The metal is pure. No traces of silver or other minerals. Purity alone at market price per weight in trade will equal four point three billion credits… Number twenty two is made of pure carbon in the form of diamond dust. Price at market value, seventeen billion five million credits…” they found food pellets and were tested to be from different Beasts still alive to this day. Further testing would categorize the rest later to find if any Beasts had gone extinct or was currently still undiscovered.
Yet by the forty third Stephanie opened the container to gasp as her gaze read the screen “Contents reveal amino acids, proteins and the basis for gradual DNA mutation. Inside are dormant single celled organisms that will live off photosynthesis… resembles algae, but is more complex. I’ve just confirmed a seeding solution that will be the basis for new life. I’m going to reseal it after extracting a sample for further analysis by a qualified research facility and store it in cryo for future research.” Stephanie turned to find Oliver, Renee, Steven and Visor also grinning and understanding why she was so excited. “We at last have proof. If we can compare it to early life on Earth it’ll prove one of these or more were dumped in our primordial oceans that gave us the chance to evolve. This will be the first definitive proof since the Geo Record’s discovery proved the existence of Solarians being our real ancestors.”
“Give me two CC’s and I’ll run a genetic test profile while you keep working… and be sure to remember the triplicate policy.” Renee excitedly offered. The arm that took the sample came over to them and sealed three test tube vials fully before they came outside the room. Renee took one and went running from the room to get down to her lab. Stephanie locked the remaining two in a biometric vault keyed only to her life.
Proof was verified in twelve different methods which all clearly proved early organisms were dropped by another civilization. It took three days to do them all. It wouldn’t change the views of science nor the idea that had been around for centuries, but the proof would at last clarify the how’s as well as why evolution was possible. A single piece in the DNA showed it absorbed radiation which would carefully allow gradual mutations through genetic exchange between organisms sexually to eventually change creatures and allow them evolve into complex beings in time.
There was a knock on the bedroom door on the fourth morning of FTL and Renee barked “If it isn’t an emergency let me SLEEP!” she snuggled closer and laid her head back on Oliver’s bare chest. She sighed as his arm rubbed her bare back.
“It’s ten in the morning, Sweetheart and I need you to get off your ass and get out here. I’ve got something you need to see.” Jessica’s voice traveled through the intercom since their bedroom door was soundproof. She had the speaker since her room was linked to the med bay.
“Auntie, I pulled a fifty six hour shift. Let. Me. Sleep.” Renee groaned, but knew that tone. It wasn’t a suggestion at all.
“Now, Renee. After you get up, meet me in Jake’s quarters. Bring your boy-toy too.” With that Jessica left sounding chipper.
Oliver sighed and looked down to his grimacing beauty. His touch gently did the trick and had her head draw back so he could look into her mesmerizing eyes in the color shifting room. The wall/window to the outside showed the FTL rainbow, but was dimmed just enough that it didn’t blind them and allowed for a semblance of night. He still couldn’t believe how beautiful she looked cuddled up against him. She was so soft pressed up against his hard flesh, but her softness didn’t disguise her own solid muscles and frame. The way the silky white bed sheet lay over them allowed him a splendid view of her breasts and just a peek of pink areola of her left breast.
“What is that smile for?” she couldn’t help noticing it or how his gaze devoured her in the most delicious way.
“Nothing you don’t already know.”
“Olly, I’m tired, cranky and sore. I’ve snapped my thin amount of patience for far less. Don’t make me dig around your head. Tell me what is so damn funny.”
He couldn’t stop staring. “Not funny. I’m just very content with all that has happened. I at last got your heart and am at peace. When my eyes opened from a bad dream the first thing I saw was my beautiful lover and smelled how happy she was using me as a pillow. You are just so beautiful, especially when your lips are swollen from my kiss.”
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