by Vivian Venus
“Doctor Cast?” my assistant, Gina, said as she poked her head into the changing room. She was already fully suited up.
“Coming,” I said, and I joined her in the airlock.
“Excited?” she asked, and hit the button to seal the room. The airlock was the size of an elevator with glass doors on opposite sides of the room, and as the door.
“More like a nervous wreck,” I admitted. Up until today most research had been performed on only fragments of Veldarian bodies sent in from the front lines, with varying ratings of preservation ranging from “okay” to “barely usable”. The way Veldarians were made up – their natural bodies a strange viscous jelly like substance which could morph and change and take the form of other beings – meant a fast decomposition, near instantaneous after death. They would lose form and collapse, basically into a puddle, unless they were quickly taken into a special preservation chamber. The few complete specimens I’d had a chance to research were collected after the Invasion of Mars, and were in terrible shape.
But today. Today my team had the fortune of examining a perfectly preserved complete specimen that had just arrived from the Ezrok high military command. We had already made such progress in our research with what we had, coming the closest that any researcher – Ezrok or human – had come to cracking the secret of the Veldarian’s greatest ability and weapon: the shape shift. We humans may have been behind our Ezrok overlords in practically every way, making our defeat during the war against them two generations ago inevitable, however something about our human way of thinking allowed us to excel in one field: biological research. The Ezrok could make ships that warped across universe and had developed sufficient technology to heal their soldiers…but after mankind gained access to Ezrok technology we easily surpassed them in our research of our common Veldarian enemy.
And now the next breakthrough was in my hands.
“You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Gina said. “Just do what you always do. You’re Doctor Liliandra Cast, after all.”
“I’m just a scientist, Gina,” I said. “You need to stop thinking of me as some superwoman.”
She laughed. “Well, that’s easy for you to say, Lily. But you’ve already single-handedly come up with the three biggest breakthroughs in Veldarian research. I think you’ve earned the reputation.”
“Not single-handedly,” I reminded her. “You and the rest of the team were there too.”
The airlock beeped and the door hissed open. “Well, let's do this.”
We walked down the hallway, the walls glowing and bathing us in a green light – a thranium radiation bath which would further sterilize our suits. Through a long rectangular viewing window in the hall, several technicians sat checking to make sure we hadn’t carried in any contaminants. They gave us a thumbs up and smiled. One of them mouthed the words “good luck.”
The door at the end the hall slid open to reveal the research room, a large laboratory with rows of research equipment on one side and an operating table setup on the other. Several scientists, all wearing the same suits as I, were sat at the equipment, peering into microscopes waving their fingers in the air as they prodded and touched microscopic organic material using their finely tuned repulsor manipulator gloves. As I walked by, each one of them looked up from what they were doing and nodded in greeting to me.
“Doctor Cast.”
“Good luck today, Doctor.”
I smiled and nodded to them and walked to the operating table where my team stood. Doctors Richard Howardson and Elsa Marquand both turned to me and smiled. “She arrives,” Richard said.
I’d known Richard Howardson since my time as a young researcher just barely hired at EzRan. Richard was already a senior assistant then, my superior. As I found myself quickly rising up as a respected researcher, I also found that Richard’s eye admired me for more than just my abilities as a scientist. He was handsome, a talented scientist and a kind man, but I wasn’t much interested in him in that way. I wasn’t much interested in dating in general, actually. There was no time for relationships, and besides, I hadn’t met anyone who really made me feel like making an effort would be worth while.
When I had explained that to Gina, she told me that I was probably being unrealistic in my expectations. But I just didn’t get it – what was the point of doing anything if there was no passion behind it? When I thought about my work, passion drove me to succeed and to move on. That was the kind of feeling I wanted if I were to dedicate myself to something as consuming as a relationship.
“Good morning, everyone,” Gina said cheerfully. “Doctor Cast, maybe you should say a few words before we get started? This could be a historic day, after all.”
“Sure,” I said, unsure of what to say. I wasn’t the best public speaker, and even though it was my team I tended to feel some anxiety when the spotlight was put on me. Never was able to fully get over that, even despite all the speeches and lectures I’ve given, and it was always harder with a smaller group. “Attention everybody.” The researchers around the room stopped what they were doing and turned around. “Today marks a significant milestone in the effort to understand the Veldarian enemy. Thanks to the efforts of the Ezrok Warriors fighting in the Veldarian system, we’ve been able to finally get ahold of a fully preserved, fully in tact Veldarian which will hopefully bring us a complete understanding of their camouflage mechanics and how to finally bring an end to this war. Lets uh, get started?”
There was a light applause and a few nods, and everyone went back to work. “Well said,” Richard said.
“Thank you.” I woke up the holo-display and inputted my credentials, and then called for the computer to unload the specimen from its containment vessel. Behind the smooth, white wall next to the operating table came the sound of machinery whirring and humming.
“Lily,” Richard said, leaning close to me. “What are you doing tonight after work?”
He was persistent, that was for sure. “I don’t know, Richard. Probably settling down with a glass of wine and whatever new information we discover today. You know there’s no after work for me.”
“Okay. Sure. Well, that’s why I wanted to make a proposition to you.”
“Oh?”
“If we make a big discovery today, then allow me to take you out for a drink somewhere. Say, a bottle of wine at a nice restaurant. To celebrate.”
“Richard…”
“You were already planning on the wine, so why not some company?” He grinned hopefully.
I couldn’t help but smile. I must’ve rejected him a hundred times by now. “Ask me again after, okay?”
“Fantastic,” he said, clapping his hands together. “Fantastic! Did you hear that, Elsa?”
“Don’t start celebrating yet, lover boy,” Elsa said. “You’d better have your A-game on. Specimen is coming out!”
A light panel on the wall blinked red before holding a solid green, and then a door unsealed and slid open. The four of us stood tensely, waiting for the specimen to emerge, and I realized that everyone in the room had stopped what they were doing to look. There was feeling that the entire room was holding its breath.
A buzzer sounded. Slowly the pale grey form of the Veldarian carcass emerged, floating silently through the air towards the table. All eyes were held on it, and my heart was beating so hard I could hear it in the dulled containment of my suit. It was my first time seeing one in tact, in person. It was like a pile of congealed opaque gelatin, like a gigantic amoeba. It was hard to believe that something so far departed from what we were familiar as being self-aware could possess interstellar technology. The thing looked like something you would expect to find haunting the swamp of some planet, not waging war against the most advanced civilization in the universe.
“I’m having this irrational fear that the thing is still alive,” Gina said.
“There really is no visual physical difference,” Elsa pointed out. “When kept from decomposing the thing looks exactly the same dead as it do
es alive...”
“It’s dead,” I said, not so confidently. I mean, I knew it was, but I couldn’t help but feel my flight reflex acting up. These things were the most terrifyingly dangerous creatures in the whole universe. I activated the computer’s bio systems scan, just to reassure everyone.
“Vital signs negative. 2% decomposition, held status. Time until necessary re-storage: six hours, forty-nine minutes.”
“There you go,” said Richard. “Well Doctor? Shall we begin?”
“You heard the computer,” I said. “We have less than seven hours to complete our work for the day, let’s make the most of it.”
We set to it, first taking computer measurements of the body and doing a visual examination and then a electron pulsar scan to get a detailed computer model of its insides before we dissected it. Once that was done, Richard did a phase ray analysis to try and determine if the Veldarians could access other dimensions using their bodies.
“No alter-phase activity detected,” he said. “But that doesn’t rule it out. It could be because it's dead.”
“Agreed,” I said. “Alright, let's begin repulsor dissection. Let’s open this thing up.”
“Yes, Doctor,” Gina said. She went over to the counter and picked up a tray with a small transparesteel cube on it, which inside contained a tiny thranium diamond – an extremely sharp mineral which could only be handled using manipulators. I engaged the neural connection in my gloves and felt my brain take control of my invisible hands and I used them to open the cube and remove the diamond, which glinted faintly in the overhead lights of the operating table.
“Going for an incision,” I said. The atmosphere control fans in my suit whirred quietly, working hard to control the sweat that was gathering on my forehead. I touched the diamond to the side of the carcass. Typically, we would state for the record where exactly we were making the incision, but there was no way to know up from down on this thing… It was all the same gelatinous mass…
The flesh slid open where the diamond sliced it, and I breathed a quiet sigh of relief that the whole thing didn’t just melt or immediately lose constitution. I used the manipulators to hold open the incision, and we all peered in to take a look.
“Fascinating,” Richard said flatly.
“Difficult to say what we’re looking at here,” said Elsa.
“Computer, bring up the pulsar scan please.” The 3D model projected into the air above the carcass. “I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do this, but we’re going to have to do a layer by layer manual cross-referenced analysis.”
The faces of my team were grim. They knew how difficult that would be – we had done it often for the smaller incomplete samples, analyzing each layer of the flesh to see how it interacted with the previous one until we got a complete understanding of that portion of the creature. It took hours for a tiny sample – with a whole body…I was trying not to think about it.
When the lab technician came up to speak to me we must’ve been at it for at least three hours, but even in that amount of time and with the small percentage of body analyzed we had made a startling discovery: Veldarian physiology included a small membrane which, upon computer analysis, revealed to contain DNA code from a variety of different species. It seemed that the creatures actually acquired the DNA of the creatures that it replicated, becoming a physical copy of them rather than just a visual mimic.
“Doctor?” the tech said softly, not wanting to alarm me.
“What is it?”
“Sorry to interrupt, Doctor Cast, but you have a visitor.”
“I wasn’t expecting anyone.”
“I understand, but the visitor has special high level clearance. They’ve been sent by the Ezrok high command.”
I frowned. If the Ezrok sent one of their warriors here personally it had to be important. “Did they say what they want?”
“Only that they need to speak with you immediately.”
Damnit. “Alright. I’ll be out in fifteen minutes.” The technician left and I turned back to my team. “Our research will need to be cut short,” I said, trying not to let the annoyance show through.
“What happened?” Richard asked.
“Apparently the Ezrok high command has sent one of their men here for me. They didn’t say what for, except that it was urgent.”
“Unusual,” Elsa commented.
“Computer, re-store the specimen,” I commanded, and the body slowly floated back into the wall compartment. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Hopefully we’ll be able to pick this up again before the end of the day.”
“Hey,” Richard said, catching me before I turned to leave. “You did make a discovery today, Lily. How about that celebratory drink tonight?”
“Not the time to bring that up, Doctor Howardson,” I said, not in the mood to be pleasant about it. “Sorry.”
He shrugged and turned away, and I strode out of the laboratory, through the decontamination hallway and into the airlock.
* * *
I didn’t even bother fixing my hair or anything like that after taking off my clean suit. Normally when getting an official visitor I would make some effort to be professionally presentable, but I was too annoyed with this unwanted and highly untimely intrusion. This was probably the start of the most important research project we’d ever undertaken, one that required every single moment we had available to us to be used wisely, and the Ezrok chose to send a representative unannounced. They may have been the most advanced warriors in the galaxy but they certainly lacked tact and common sense.
Pulling my hair up into a bun, I slipped into my EzRan uniform – a pencil skirt and high collared jacket with my name emblazoned on the front. I hooked my finger into the back of my pump to pull it on, quickly brushed my skirt off, and then walked briskly to the elevator that would take me down to the reception area.
“Third floor,” I said to the elevator, and the doors hissed shut. This really had better be good. I thought about the Veldarian body sitting in there, just waiting with all its secrets to be unlocked. Then I thought about Richard, and felt guilty about how I had answered him. I wasn’t attracted to him, but he was a good friend and his persistence was admirable. Maybe I ought to take him up on drinks – just a casual outing. I sighed. There was so much work to be done, too much to be thinking about that now. I would talk to him about it later.
The elevator chimed and the doors slid open, and I passed through the security checkpoint and to the reception exit, an antsy looking receptionist quickly falling into step beside me.
“Doctor Cast, thank goodness you’re here. The Ezrok visitor was starting to become demanding.”
“Who is this guy, and what does he want?”
“He still won't say anything other than he has orders to speak directly with you. We got a confirmation from the top. Right this way.”
He opened up the door to a private reception area, and my heart thudded hard as I saw the huge, towering, broad shouldered back of the Ezrok warrior. He was staring out the window that overlooked the city, ships buzzing by and the Martian sun glowing a pale pink as it headed towards the horizon. His long war-braid hung down his back, shockingly white against the black of his military uniform. I always forgot how incredibly large the Ezrok were in real life, like the statues of ancient Earth. I couldn’t help but notice the huge knife that hung at his hip, as big as a broadsword in a human’s hands.
“Um, s-sir,” the nervous receptionist said.
“I’ve had enough waiting around,” the Ezrok said. “Don’t you understand when I say this is an urgent situation?” He turned around, his large, golden eyes angry until they saw me and softened some. The Ezrok had exotic features – humanoid, almost elf-like with pointed ears and vast eyes.
“It better be,” I said. “I hope you know what you’ve interrupted?”
“I have some idea,” he replied. He gave a curt bow. “I am Reylar Ven Erz, warrior under commander Grahf Ven Diel. I’ve come on an urgent mission of galactic s
ecurity.”
“Sounds important,” I said. “What do you need me for?”
I looked at the receptionist. “Allow us to speak alone,” I said, and he nodded and shuffled off.
“Doctor Cast, I believe your life may be in danger.”
THREE
REYLAR
ROARING through the city on my way to EzRan Biotec I had called up all the information I could about the Esrok-Human research combine with agents from high command assisting me via holo-com. I quickly discovered that EzRan was renowned for their research in Veldarian physiology, and had made several discoveries which brought Ezrok victory on an until then uneven battlefield. The head researcher at EzRan was a human female named Liliandra Cast, a brilliant scientist who had made all the most prominent discoveries on her own.
When high command gave me information on their latest research project, I immediately understood what the Veldarian infiltrator was after and why he was targeting EzRan. The Veldarians knew that an in tact body in the hands of someone like Liliandra Cast could mean a huge advantage in our favor. Someone like that would need to be destroyed.
“I believe your life may be in danger,” I said to her. I had been expecting an older human female, but Liliandra was surprisingly young…and incredibly beautiful. She was slender in that way that Veldarian females could never be, the skirt of her uniform revealing her gorgeous legs. She had her dark hair pulled up in a way that indicated practicality and a focus on getting things done rather than worrying about her appearance, and her expression carried a firm, intense expression. A no-nonsense woman. I couldn’t help but be just a little enthralled. If Commander Grahf were here he likely would’ve noticed my wandering eye and put me in my place, but he wasn’t and so I would indulge myself with these thoughts.
But the mission first.