Original Design

by William Latoria

  Deciding to put his new found brain power to the test, Blackshade looked around the room again. He could feel, more than hear, a low hum coming from all around him. He equated it to being in a conveyance or airplane, only the sensation was much more subdued. There was no scent in the air, and while the area was very well lit, the brightness didn’t hurt his eyes, nor could he detect its source. The area around him was still the simple, featureless bright white blankness, which for some reason, felt familiar; almost like walking into his own living room. It only took him a moment to recall the same bright white, featureless environment he had seen when the Omega ship opened its doors in Roswell. At the same time, he recalled the way everything turned this same shade of white just before he passed out in his billet’s refresher room. It seemed to him that there were only two rational explanations for his current situation. He had either been transported onto the Omega ship, or he had died and this was the afterlife. He highly doubted that he had died, especially feeling as great as he did, so that left only one other logical conclusion; he was on the Omega ship.

  With his location figured out to his satisfaction, Blackshade focused on his physical situation. He realized for the first time, that he was lying on something hard, yet exceedingly comfortable. It was difficult to be certain, but he believed he was lying at an angle because his head was still above his feet. Looking down at his body, he saw he was naked…not only naked but altered! Every blemish, sunspot, freckle, mole, and scar had been removed. His torso, groin, and legs were now a flawless, healthy peach color usually reserved for the newly born or very rich. What disturbed him wasn’t the fact that the Omegas had taken care of the imperfections of his flesh, what disturbed him was the fact that his belly button and nipples were gone. A strange sense of violation and revulsion washed over him, as he realized his body now more resembled a plastic doll’s than a human’s, but he pushed it away. If he allowed his anger to take control of him now, he might not find out why they had brought him here and done this to him. As Candaerica’s Ambassador to the Omegas, it was his duty to ensure the relationship between Omegas and Humans was an amiable one, so he took a moment to calm himself enough to continue trying to understand his current situation.

  Carefully, Blackshade felt around for the table he was laying on, or what he thought of as a table. He couldn’t see anything other than the blank whiteness that surrounded him, and he found the lack of depth in the room made even the slightest movement disorienting. Finding the edge of the table, he grasped the sides of it and pushed himself up. There was no resistance. He had been worried he would find himself restrained in some way and was relieved to discover he was not. Sitting up, he scooted himself down the table until he was at the invisible end of it. Then stretching out with one foot, he felt for something below him. The floor of the room was only a couple feet below him, so Blackshade slid off and took a few cautionary steps with his hands out in front of him. It was a very strange experience to feel blind while being able to see. The floor was hard, smooth, and very much reminded him of metal, but it wasn’t cold or uncomfortable to walk on, which led him to believe it probably wasn’t metal as he understood it. After his fifth step, his hands found an unyielding barrier. He side stepped around, trying to feel for a door or window that would allow him to get past it. It took a few minutes, but by the time he was done side stepping, he determined he was in some sort of container that was roughly twenty feet in diameter. The idea that he was inside of some sort of a jar did nothing for the panic he felt slowly creeping up inside him. In order to better fight it, Blackshade closed his eyes and leaned his head against the invisible wall of his cage. He could not let his emotions gain the upper hand and succumb to panic. Especially since the logical side of his brain was telling him there was more to this than he saw. The Omegas didn’t want to cage him; they didn’t want to harm him or any human. He believed that, and right now, he needed to believe it. This train of logic soothed his fraying nerves, and after a moment, he opened his eyes again to reassess his situation. When he saw there was more to the room than just blank whiteness now, he gasped and fell away from the wall; the wall he could now see.

  In front of him now was a dull grey wall that circled around him. There were numerous tiny white lights blinking all over it, and the upper third of the wall was transparent. Although, the only thing he could see through it was more featureless whiteness. In the middle of the cylinder was the table he had been laying on. It was all black and had no lights on it, but the human silhouette that was shallowly cut out of the slab explained why it had been so comfortable; the table had been crafted to perfectly cradle his body. This wasn’t a cage; this was some sort of machine. Like an old charging station for electronic devices before they were replaced by tissue-ware technology. It explained why he was naked, and it explained why his skin was so healthy now, why he felt so good, and why he felt his mind was suddenly so much sharper than before. The Omegas had given him a tune up. Humans were nothing more than machines to the Omegas after all, so the fact they had the technology to do this made a lot of sense. Again, he was shaken by how quickly he put all of this together, being this quick was going to take some getting used to. Still, even with his mind putting the measly clues he could find together so quickly, it still didn’t explain why he hadn’t been able to see anything at first. Suddenly he recalled Tremendous telling him that as he was exposed to more experiences, his brain would be able to better translate the Omega language. Once again, his tuned up brain made the comparison and led him to believe that what was happening to him visually was the same thing that would occur to him verbally. His brain was trying to translate the information his eyes were sending it. Since he didn’t have the context to understand his current environment, his brain perceived everything as featureless whiteness. Exploring the cylinder gave his mind something to latch onto, in this case, after performing his walk around, he perceived himself as inside a cage with a table in the middle of it. He could see the walls and table of the tune up machine he had found himself in. As he was coming to terms with all of this, an odd sensation came over him. He closed his eyes without thinking, and when he did, a detailed report formed in his mind. It reminded him of a very clear and realistic dream, only he wasn’t dreaming and this couldn’t have been a memory.

  Blackshade decided that the strange, pseudo-memory was some kind of debrief, or after action report. He had seen enough of them over the years that he could recognize one when he saw it, but never had he received one like this. He knew the report was about him, and he knew the source of the report was the tune-up machine he was currently inside. At first, out of fear, he had fought the sensation, and it was difficult to focus on. As he surrendered to the sensation, and allowed his mind to focus on the image, he learned everything the machine had done to him.

  His muscular structure had been densified, repaired, and slightly enhanced; which explained why he felt so strong. According to the report, he was now 47% stronger than before with his musculature framework working at peak efficiency. His lungs had been repaired of all “environmental corrosion” and their capacity had been optimized; which explained why his breathing had improved. It didn’t stop there though, his cardiovascular system, eyes, heart, digestion, and every other system had been cleaned out, repaired, and optimized. Most of the terms and systems referencing his body he recognized, but not all of them. The Cease System, the Override System, and the Direct Transmit Systems were not familiar to him. There were a handful of organs he had never heard of, but most were labeled as “missing” or “shut down”, so he assumed he didn’t need them. The section of the report that really caught his attention was the “Foreign Contaminates” section. According to that segment, he had three types of cancer in his body, one of which had been a highly aggressive strain of pancreatic cancer. All had been purged from his body, and for that he was incredibly grateful. All foreign, non-beneficial bacteria, viruses, contaminates, and deluders had been purged, inside and out, and that section of the repo
rt was summarized as, “CORRECTED”. All of his vitamin, mineral, and something called, ‘core’ requirements were brought to optimal levels and stabilized, bringing his vital signs into the “Optimal” category. It chilled him quite a bit to discover that he had had pancreatic cancer before this machine had cured him of it. It also surprised him to find out that a bacterium he had never heard of had been infesting his brain, which was causing headaches and slowed down his mental capacity as the nerves in his brain were corroded by it. He had never heard of anything like that before, and somehow he knew it was an ailment that humans hadn’t discovered yet. He promised himself he would inform the surgeon general as soon as he got back.

  As he continued to go over the report in his mind, he discovered some of his anomalies had been deemed “Newly Calibrated Norms”. His size, weight, hair, skin density, and genitalia had been considered errors before the machine had been reprogrammed, and Blackshade was grateful that the Omegas had done so. Had the cylinder tried to ‘correct’ any of those ‘errors’ he might have awoken to find he was some sort of weird deformed monster, or worse, had his genitals removed! As he continued to review the report, he came to the part where his belly button and nipples had been removed. The cylinder saw them as ‘scarring anomalies’ that needed to be corrected. Looking down at his doll-like torso, Blackshade decided it wasn’t that bad. His skin had never looked so good, nor had it ever been so healthy, and if all he had to do was sacrifice his nipples and belly button for it, then so be it. Slapping at the spot where his belly button used to be, Blackshade was pleased with how firm and strong his stomach felt. He liked the feel and laughed at his good fortune. The sound of his laughter must have caught someone’s attention, because no sooner had the sound left him than he heard the sounds of movement nearby. Looking toward the sound, he watched Artificer walk into existence. For a moment, the whiteness that surrounded him had a sense of displacement, as Artificer seemed to come out of a narrow gap in the whiteness, then the Omega was standing outside his cylinder and the sensation of displacement was gone. Blackshade shook his head to clear a wave of dizziness that hit him.

  Artificer looked surprised “Fuin’s staff…I did not realize you were functioning again, Blackshade. I apologize for not being here when you awoke.”

  “It’s fine.” Blackshade said, sitting down on the table in the middle of the cylinder. He was suddenly very aware of how naked he was.

  “How do you feel?” Artificer asked with genuine curiosity.

  Blackshade took a moment to take in the huge Omega. It had only been a month since he had been in their presence, but he had forgotten how intimidating it was to be near the towering aliens. He was about to reply when another Omega stepped through the invisible gap in the whiteness. This Omega was significantly thinner than any of the other Omegas Blackshade had met, but was still easily fifteen feet tall. The new Omega had the same, perfectly smooth, jet-black skin, fourteen fingers, fourteen toes, wore no clothing, and had its tail resting over its shoulder. Even though this Omega was significantly less bulky than the other Omegas, it was still rippled with corded muscle that made him feel tiny in comparison. The real difference Blackshade noticed about this Omega that made it stand out, was the unbridled excitement and eagerness the Omega greeted him with.

  “Hello, Ambassador William Bill Herbert Blackshade! It is an absolute pleasure to meet you!” the new Omega said sincerely. “How are you feeling? Do any of your processes indicate an error? Are you fully functioning? Is there anything that would have made your rejuvenation in the Near-Life Encasement Array more efficient?” the Omega asked him attentively. It was carrying what looked like a large flat Frisbee in its hand and seemed to be ready to record his answers with it. It occurred to Blackshade that this Omega was some sort of scientist or researcher and that it was here to learn about him. It also appeared to be very eager to perform this task.

  “I feel terrific, to tell you the truth. Absolutely high-tech as my subordinates might have said” Blackshade answered, far more enthusiastically than he meant to. He found he couldn’t help himself though, he really did feel great, and because of that, he felt uncharacteristically chatty about it. “Do you have more of these Near-Life Encasements? If so, they could do a lot to improve humanity’s quality of life. If we could get one or two, or maybe if you would teach us how to build them, that would be outstanding!” Blackshade continued shamelessly. He felt that maybe he was being too forward with his request, but then he reminded himself that because of the Omegas, almost two hundred million people were dead, and South America was a ruined wasteland. Gifting humanity with this encasement technology would go a long way in putting Human/Omega relations back on track.

  The thinner Omega smiled brightly at his response, and Blackshade was positive it was going to laugh at him. To his surprise, it instead walked up to the cylinder and began tapping at it rapidly. Blackshade wasn’t sure what the Omega was doing, the spot on the cylinder it was tapping at had no buttons or input interface that he could see, but after a moment he heard something above him make a ‘whoosh’ sound and when he looked up he saw the lid of the cylinder open wide. It bothered him that he hadn’t noticed there had been a lid before now, but he chalked it up to being distracted by his newly refurbished body. A set of hand holds that were a little too far spaced for him materialized out of the wall, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out they were to be used as a ladder to climb out with. Blackshade made his way up the crude ladder until he reached the top of the cylinder and then hopped down from the edge of the case. Jumping off gave him the sensation of throwing himself into a bright white void, but he was able to gauge the distance by comparing his height to where the Omega’s feet met with the whiteness. He landed lightly and was amazed at how well his body was functioning. A jump like that should have rattled him at least a little bit, but in this new body he barely felt the impact. He knew he was grinning like an idiot but he was too pleased to care.

  “I don’t know what you did to me in there, but thank you! This is absolutely outstanding!” he said, gushing.

  The thin Omega looked at him quizzically, “You do not know what happened to you?” it asked. “You should have a detailed report in your central memory.”

  Blackshade blushed, “I do. I do.” he said, reassuringly holding up his hands in acquiescence, “What I should have said is that, I don’t know how you did this to me, but I’m very grateful.”

  The Omega smiled again and walked up to Blackshade. Bending down, it began to inspect him closely. Blackshade took a step back as the Omega got a little to close, but the Omega didn’t seem to notice. Blackshade saw lines of what he assumed were words running across the flat glassy disc in its hands, which he supposed was some sort of recording device. As he was looking at the disc, the Omega reached out and began touching him and running its fingers over his body.

  “Outer flesh casing is now of the proper density and elasticity, all imperfections removed. Blackshade unit functioning at optimal levels.” The Omega said softly to its disc as it examined him. The Omega’s fingers were soft, and the touch was pleasant. The Omega seemed to be taking care not to hurt him, even though Blackshade knew it could crush him like an insect if it wanted to. He tolerated the Omega’s inspection right up until its fingers began to probe at his groin. Instinctively, he backed up a step and laid a protective hand in front of his genitals. The Omega seemed surprised by his reaction.

  “The Blackshade unit retreats when its outer reproductive organs are touched.” it said into its disc, “This is strange; all studies to date indicate humans enjoy the sensation they experience when their reproductive organs are touched. This will require further study.” It said, as it reached out and seized Blackshade bodily.

  Fear shot through Blackshade as the alien’s huge hands wrapped around him firmly and began to lift him off the floor. Blackshade tried to break free but even with his new found strength, he was no match for the skinny Omega.

  “Let me go!” he cried in
outrage. It took every ounce of his courage to force the fear out of his voice. Every fiber of his being wanted to cry out in terror at this unexpected treatment, but he reminded himself that he was humanity’s representative to the Omegas, and he had to perform his role professionally so that the Omegas would learn to treat his species with respect. He remembered the promise he had made to himself to make the Omegas understand that humanity wasn’t their play thing, and he meant to keep that promise. The Omega released him, but Blackshade didn’t think it was because it was ashamed of its actions or the duress it had caused him; the bemused look on its face all but confirmed this.

  “Unit does not like to be touched at all, it seems. Interesting...” The Omega said as more lines of illegible script ran across the disc in its hand.

  Blackshade shook his head irritably, this Omega was beginning to annoy him, “It’s not that… uh, what’s your name?” he asked, realizing the Omega hadn’t introduced itself.

  At this, the Omega finally looked ashamed, “Fuin’s robes… I apologize, Blackshade, I did forget to introduce myself.” It said, standing, “I am curious to learn how your cerebral interprets my name. Artificer has told me the term you use to refer to him, as well as how you refer to Tremendous and Minder. I must admit, I am a bit excited to know what term you will use to refer to me.” As it answered, Blackshade began to wonder if this Omega was very young, very sheltered, or if there was something wrong with it. Its twin voices were both very feminine in tone and had a childlike ring to it. The thin Omega seemed almost immature in its innocence, very unlike the Omegas he had already met.