Chapter Text
I dream, of odd places, a place in the stars I'd never seen, I was floating above a surface that reminded me of a sea anemone. I looked around and before me something appeared into view, I was unsure if it was always there or just came about. It looked like a large snail, body purple covered in light colored spots and the shell was a breathtaking pinkish hue.
I reached out to it cautiously, its eye stalks moved languidly when I did and its head dipped lightly towards me.
"Hello?" I whispered lightly
"Hello, Arya" I pulled back at this sudden voice calling through my head, saying my name.
It flinched back when I did, why?
"Arya, yes?" It asked calmly, it seemed so civil but I felt so on guard, how else could I react to something like this? I was dreaming of course, how could I not be, but everything about it felt so real. The floating felt like I was truly experiencing no gravity, I felt a steady pressure coming both in and out of my temples like something was simultaneously trying to get in and out of my head.
I reached up to sooth my temple and before I can touch my own head I'm stopped by something in the way, I looked out but saw nothing-
"We've run out of time, I must return, you must rest." The large creature says to me, I'm confused and a bit taken aback by the suddenness. It was almost like my realization of my headache, and attempt to touch my head had made them realize the, time, or something.
The pressure is gone suddenly, it was so quick I almost didn't catch it, it felt like something had been pulled out through my temples and the pressure and pain was taken with it all at once.
As the pressure retreated the dream started to fade out, it was like I was being pulled up and out of the scene on a pulley system into the rafters and out of my own mind.
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When I'd woken up this morning I was confused, but I didn't have much time to sit and think about my odd dream. I got up as usual took a quick shower and got dressed to leave, I got my tank top and the basic overalls on an grabbed my working gloves off my desk and moved to open the door.
As soon as I pulled the door open there was a small group of people running past, at the commotion a few more doors around me opened. I looked back down the hall where they were still rushing down the hall.
"You know where they're going right, Arya?" I turned my head back to see Jupiter, one of the top guards usually stuck near the labs or the exit ports. It looks like he got left behind in the rush, still jogging after them.
"No, should I?" I called beginning to jog after him.
"I sure hope you should cause 1. they found it in your shop and 2. the rest of us don't know what the hell it is."
"My shop?!" I exclaimed "What kind of alien bull-crap they find in my lab that I don't know about?"
"Don't know hopefully the cell kind or whatever."
"I don't think that means what you think it means." I pull my gloves on while hauling ass up the stairs.
"Probably not," He agrees reaching the main lab pulling out his keycard. "I'm gonna assume you're allowed in here…"
I don't say anything but I think I damn well better be allowed considering I'm the best mechanic on this ship, and I've got 2 damn doctorates. This ship would not only literally fall apart without me, it would be damn near impossible to replace me, and not only because we're in the middle of space mind you.
The doors slide open and we head inside to find the five people chaos we saw in the halls had spread fast to damn near every scientist in the room, the few that weren't running about like headless chickens were pressed against walls so the ones who were wouldn't trample them. Jupiter watched as the door closed behind us and backed up to stand guard, I moved back with him to get a bigger picture of the chaos unfolding.
"Is it the thing, the thing we've been looking for?!"
"We think so, it must have come in on one of the copters or the subs when we brought them back in to unload and maintenance!"
"Does she know yet?" One said as quietly as they could to be heard over the chaos
"She didn't when we found it, word probably spread fast as we rushed it here though, we tried to stay as subtle as possible staying out of the main areas but it's early more people were in their rooms than expected."
I barely held in my laugh at their claim of subtly, I caught a snort from Jupiter as well. The scramble to get whatever it was moved and contained and get supplies continued until she entered from the upper level entrance.
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The she in question was Valda, she funded and campaigned for the trip herself. She pitched the mission as an opportunity for exploration and discovery, she was far more successful than anyone expected her to be but when she started her campaigning the world was starting to go downhill fast.
By the time the ship was actually ready for liftoff there were people coming by plane, boat, and foot to get on this death trap. Humanity was desperate, wars were breaking out all over, people were starving and worldwide diseases were up and coming. Everyone wanted a clean slate, a fresh chance even if that chance was a hunk of metal rivaling the size of Rhode island hurdling through the cosmos with 1,500 people who were just as desperate as you to leave.
Granted some were government deployed to help with the more technical side of things, I was, I had a choice at least. Everyone the government asked had a choice, at least the illusion of one, I'm sure if they got desperate enough, and enough nos they would have gone down the list again and this time they wouldn't be asking. I came willingly, the best mechanical engineer to agree might I add, but that wasn't the only reason they'd wanted me. They needed a good mechanic and engineer of course but another good feature was my biomechanical and microbiology knowledge. The name of the game was to get as many people on the ship to do labor jobs and in doing so to have all the higher up people to have as many trades as they could.
Hence them wanting me, and Jupiter for that matter. I don't know too much about him personally but I do know what's on his official file. He was in the police force before some of the wars started breaking out and he was relocated to military personnel, flew a helicopter a few times, had a decent medical background, though there was no proper schooling after the police training, only knowledge learned from being on the field.
Valda had very clear instructions, the more people we could have for labor the better our chances would be. In her public speeches she occasionally had her sister up there with her, well as up there as you could call her. She was in a coma, apparently she had caught an unknown disease and the safest was for her to survive was in that coma and in some complex pod to make sure no one else caught whatever it was. Many on the ship thought that Valda was just the greatest thing since cutting bread, or whatever it is the Americans say.
However it was well known on the ship through the higher ranks that she wasn't as nice and selfless as she appeared, she was able to keep her cool fairly well but some who had upset her were brought to her personal quarters and never been quite the same since. Many thought them to be brainwashed or drugged into submission. I know I had gotten pretty close to it once, fortunately when I'd gone back there she'd claimed to appreciate my genuine emotions and hotheaded spirit in my field. I'd dodged a huge bullet then, fortunately she believes in strong headed women, and Iḿ as strong headed as they get.
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Now there she was looking down at the nonsense scene in front of her, only a few others in the room noticed her in all the panic across the lab. She waited for a bit before realizing that the chaos was unlikely to subside until she spoke. She raised her hand and started speaking to make herself known.
"I hear we may have found just the thing I've been searching for, I do hope we've gotten it contained in the say," she spares a glance to a screen being held up to her by some assistant that huddle around her at all hours it seemed "22.33364 minutes since removing it from the main shop?"
"Yes ma'am," A woman in a notably decorated lab coat speaks up and motions,"it's right here, the container is optimal for viewing."
"Perfect, get me a quick microscopic view of it and then I'll leave you all to it." Valda says, then turns to tell one of her assistants to seemingly pull something up on a tablet before making her way towards the 'it' they've found.
The scientist who spoke up before motions a younger boy near her to presumably get a microscopic view of the thing. He comes quickly to the container, the container is currently on a rolling cart and the case itself looks like not much more than a large glass tube with some buttons all around the bottom but you can tell it's very high tech.
Valda reaches the holding container and eagerly awaits the microscopic view, as soon as she gets this her assistant holds the tablet up next to it. She sits glancing back and forth for a few moments before turning again to the woman.
"Garner, who is your best microbiologist? I fear I am less equipped than ideal for this comparison."
"Uh- well we only have a few micro biologists on hand, let me see…" The doctor looks around a bit seemingly stalling to tell her there are none present.
"Here's a microbiologist for you, ma'am." I hear next to me as Jupiter puts his hand on my shoulder and gives me a light shove. Before I get the chance to say anything Valda motions for me to come and another scientist is pulling me forward.
I spare a glance back at Jupiter just to glare at him, he doesn't react. I turn back as I'm shoved in front of the tablets.
"Well I didn't know my head mechanic was a microbiologist, tell me do these two things look like the same species?" Valda says grabbing and squeezing my shoulder.
I look closely at the two images, one of them seems to be more of a video or a live feed, it's safe to assume that's the one we have contained. They both seem very similarly built the only main notable difference would be the variation in color though it's still not drastic, one is a more bluish purple while the other reads more light magenta.
"They seem near identical besides their color, this could mean they're different but it's more likely it's just a variation in species or possibly a differing gender or age."
"And you're confident in that?" Valda asks
"I'm much more confident that they are the same organism than not, yes." She beamed at me when I said that, like I had made her whole life worth living. She lifts her head to face the rest of the room;
"We've found it!" An exited albeit confused uproar sounds through the room, "This is what we've been looking for, I want all hands on deck at all hours untill we know everything we possibly can about this…" She pauses to run her hands up and down the glass in silent awe, "Specimen."
Dr. Garner faces Valda, "Of course ma'am we'll put our best hands on it immediately-" Valda raises her hand to silence her.
"I don't want your best hands, I want mine." She turns to me again "Arya will be the head of this endeavor as it seems she is not only the most qualified microbiologist I have, but seemingly the only one present." She turns back to Dr.Garner for that last bit, I almost didn't catch it I was so in shock. Valda went on for a bit longer before my words came back to me.
"Ma'am if I may," She turns to me still having this smile that though I believe to be genuine seemed wrong to be on her face. "I am your head Mechanical engineer for this whole ship, I'm not sure I should leave those-" She holds her hand up again though this time it's towards me, if anyone else on this ship had done that, a few fingers would no longer bend quite right.
"You make a good point, someone find the closest safe planet for us to touch down on. I don't want circling in orbit I want full touchdown as fast as possible. You won't need to be in the engine nearly as much if we're on the ground, yes?"
I and the rest of the room stand in silence for a few beats shocked at her understanding of the situation while simultaneously complete undermining of how hard just finding a safe planet to touch down would be let alone actually touching down. Valda continues to stand there calmly awaiting my answer as though she had asked if I was free for dinner… bad example.
"I- Well technically yes but-" She turns to the room again cutting me off
"Perfect! Garner what is the time estimation for finding that information?"
Dr. Garner looked at me and the room a few times opening and closing her mouth like a fish, completely blindsided by the request. She looked back at a small group of scientists huddled around a screen, they looked up at her and shook their heads confused.
"It, well it's very hard to make any sort of accurate depiction like that because, well especially since we only just made it into this solar system we, we just don't have much direct information about the planets-" Valda cut in;
"How long would it take to acquire that information?"
"Well, usually within two to tree weeks for the basic rundown, gravity, temp, air pressure, etc."
"Mm… not as fast as I'd like but I'm sure it's quite fast for the situation, very well, I want all findings in the mean time stored and once we touchdown, Arya will say, another week be long enough for you to make yourself familiar with the findings?" She says turning to me
"Uh, in theory yes but it varies depending on what is found I could need less time or more." Valda nods in possible faux understanding.
"We'll keep it as a loose measurement for now, I'll make the announcement that we plan to touchdown on a planet close by within say the month."
After that she turns and begins leaving taking everyone including her assistants by surprise, they scramble to follow her and get back in their places surrounding her just close enough to not crowd.
The room stays in silent shock for a few more minutes after she leaves, Dr. Garner starts opening and closing her mouth again trying to find her words. I turn to look at Jupiter the ass who got me this project I didn't want or need on top of all my other responsibilities he's staring back his face is controlled but his face holds something I can't place. Better be fucking guilt.