“You had me worried for a while, Bill.” she told him when their lips parted, her eyes still closed, “Please take better care of yourself.” she said, almost like it was a prayer.
Blackshade smiled, “You’re not getting rid of me that easily. It was just a little shock. I’m tougher than that.” he told her puffing out his chest in a display of mock masculinity. She laughed and slapped him on his non-electrocuted shoulder.
“Good! Cause it took me twenty years to finally get you, and I don’t intend to let you go for at least another twenty.” she replied good-naturedly.
He pulled her close for another kiss and then she snuggled up against him in the hospital bed. Once they were situated, he took a deep breath and then reluctantly asked the question that was eating at him, “How are the revived South Americans?”
To his surprise, she seemed to perk up at this question, “Really well!” she told him excitedly, “There were one hundred and twelve million, seventy-two thousand, eight hundred and eighty-four deceased South Americans at the site. After the Omegas hit them with their energy ray or whatever it was, one hundred and twelve million, thirty-eight thousand and six of them were revived. Thirty-four thousand, eight hundred and seventy-eight people were not resurrected, and we assume it’s because of extensive brain injuries that occurred, that led to their deaths. All of those that weren’t resurrected were returned to their families or reburied at their direction. Those that returned to life were checked out by our med drones and then returned to their families or temporary housing locations.” She turned to look at him, the look of awe on her face struck him; Zahera wasn’t one to become awed easily, “Bill, there were people we inspected that had all sorts of health problems before they died. Sickness, disease, genetic defects, cancer, and all sorts of other medical problems. All of them were cured! Diseases, sicknesses, STD’s… all cured! And not only cured, but it was as if they never had the conditions in the first place! The medical community is losing their minds, trying to figure out how any of this is possible, but with this much new data in their hands, the idea that we are machines that were created by the Omegas is starting to get some traction. This resurrection of theirs has really opened people up to the possibility, Bill! Hell, I’m even starting to believe, especially after your recovery!” she said excitedly, the word, ‘Incredible,’ flashing on her forehead.
Blackshade completely understood why she was marveling at the situation. In truth, he was as well, but he had seen enough of the Omega’s technology to know that what he considered impossible, they considered trivial. “I’m really glad to hear that. It’ll be nice to have people accept the Omegas and what they’re offering us.” he said, hopeful, “If enough people accept and support the Omegas, maybe the attack on the encampment will be an isolated incident.”
Zahera’s brow furrowed at his words, “I wouldn’t count on that, Bill.” she said, suddenly mad, “The religious nuts on the internet are publically condemning the resurrection and are calling what happened, blasphemy. Some of them are saying that us defending the camp was murder, and the people that they killed were performing God’s will. Others are saying that to side with the Omegas is to turn your back on God. The worst of them are calling for the revived South Americans to be killed and returned to God because that’s what he wanted. It’s disgusting, and I’m having a real problem with it. Do they really think God wants us to kill each other? For that matter, does God even exist? I mean, aliens just brought millions of people back to life, and in much better condition! If God does exist, then maybe he doesn’t really care what happens to us. I mean, it wasn’t God that brought those people back to life, it was the Omegas! It’s crazy that these people that are supposed to be religious leaders assume to know what a God wants, let alone condemns, to the point that they advocate people murdering each other for it. It sickens me.” she told him, distressed.
Blackshade thought about it for a moment. He had never been a religious man, but deep down, he always assumed that God was out there, but that he had little time or interest in humanity. Not that he could blame him. He completely understood why an omnipotent figure would have turned his back on his creation after it had turned out like this. With the Omegas here now and showing them that it wasn’t a God, but they, who had created their race, he still wasn’t sure his idea of God was inaccurate. It seemed very possible to him that a God-like being could have put the idea of humanity in the Omegas’ heads and thus, through the Omegas, created humanity. It made sense to him that since humanity had transcended all expectations the Omegas had for them, that it was possible a God may have wandered by and decided to play with another race’s trash. He really didn’t know… What he did know was that it didn’t matter. If God was real, then he was a bad God that had done little, to nothing, to help his creation, and he wouldn’t want to meet him, let alone worship such a God. If God wasn’t real, then it mattered even less. Now that the Omegas were here, maybe humanity could have a unified purpose for once in their existence. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a race-wide goal to work toward for a change. He didn’t tell Zahera any of this though, instead he simply said, “Stupid bastards, all of them.” and squeezed her closer. He felt her relax against him, and she seemed about to say something when a swarm of doctors, assistants, and medical drones came flocking into the room. Blackshade stopped them all cold with a stare. He had zero intention of being their guinea pig, and after what Zahera told him about one of them wanting to cut him, he had little trust in their intentions. He stood up slowly, pulled the IV’s out of his arms, and removed the sensor probes that were stuck to his body.
Then he looked at the closest doctor and pointed at him, “Go get my stuff, and bring me my discharge paperwork. I have to return to work.” he demanded, letting all the authority of twenty years in the military pour into his voice. The man blanched for a moment, before pushing his way through the crowd and pulling his clothes out of a cabinet. They had been cleaned and put into a thin plastic bag, which the doctor handed him hurriedly. As Blackshade began to dress, one of the doctors found their courage and stepped forward.
“You cannot leave, Mr. Blackshade” he told him pompously, “We have many tests to perform yet, and we will not discharge you until they are all complete. Please return to your bed, until I authorize you to do otherwise.” he ordered, pointing a demanding finger at his bed.
Blackshade wasn’t deterred in the slightest, “No.” he responded simply, as he continued to put his clothes and armor back on.
The doctor paled at his response and then spluttered, “What do you mean, no? Do you know who I am!? I am the lead physician at this hospital, and I will not allow you to leave until all of my tests have been completed to my satisfaction!” he exclaimed. As he shouted his demands, his voice became higher pitched and slightly hysterical. It began to annoy Blackshade, but the man continued as if he didn’t notice, “Now get those clothes off, return to your bed, and submit to my tests. Studying what the aliens did to you is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I will not let a jar head like you take that from me!” the man practically shrieked.
It wasn’t that the doctor was an arrogant prick, or the fact that he was screaming at him that set Blackshade off. It wasn’t the condescending tone, the demands, or even the fact that the man wanted to use him as a test subject that upset him. In fact, a part of him understood what the doctor wanted and why. He, himself, was curious about what had changed about his body. What got to him, what cut through his military bearing and caused him to lose his temper was the old, outdated slur he had used to refer to him; ‘Jar-head’. The term had been outlawed over a decade ago, when congress enacted the “Clean Speech” laws. To utter one of the banned words was a felony which could result in jail time, depending on the severity of the offense, but the fact that the word was illegal wasn’t what got to him either. The word itself, was a disgusting throwback to elitism, where those who didn’t serve tried to make themselves feel superior to those who did. There were many s
lurs used to refer to members of the military in a less than favorable way, but ‘jar-head’ was the king of those detrimental words and had never been tolerated by members of the military. Reaching out, he grabbed the doctor’s hand and twisted it around his back. The man was wretchedly weak, and the scream of fear and pain that escaped him disgusted Blackshade.
“What did you call me?” he hissed at the doctor. The swarm of people in the room took a collective step back as they felt the tension rise. Yet none of them fled, Blackshade was surprised to see how their curiosity outweighed their cowardice.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!” the doctor whimpered. His demeanor had changed so drastically that for a moment, Blackshade thought he had grabbed the wrong guy.
“Here’s what you’re going to do, so listen hard, do you understand?” he asked the doctor. The man nodded his head vigorously, whimpering the entire time. “Go get my discharge paperwork and authorize it. Immediately. Do you get me?!”
Again, the doctor nodded his head and whimpered pathetically. Blackshade let the man go and watched as he sprinted out of the room. Whether he was going to do what he told him or flee for his life, he had no idea. He didn’t really care; he was leaving, and no one here was going to stop him. He looked at the doctors in the room, some of them were laughing at what had just happened. Clearly the man wasn’t well liked by the staff. Most of them though, were eyeing him warily, and others were jotting down notes about what had just occurred. A couple looked at him in awe, and a few others glared back at him. Blackshade saw no threat from any of them though, and went back to getting dressed. As he finished lacing up a boot, he heard someone clear their throat. He looked up to see an older man with a bald head, a bushy grey moustache, and old fashioned glasses looking at him, Blackshade felt his irritation begin to rise once more.
“Listen doc, I appreciate what you have done for me, I really do, but I am leaving, with or without your consent.” he told the man without prompting.
The man laughed, “Oh, I have no doubt you’re going to leave, Ambassador, and I have no way of physically stopping you.” he began, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world, “But I do have a request before you go. If you would be so kind, would you mind if we did a quick work up on your nervous system and how your body metastasizes proteins and electrolytes. It will only take a few hours, will cause you no pain, and is done with scanning equipment and diagnostics. The worst I will ask of you is to run on a treadmill, while being hooked up to a breathing apparatus.”
Blackshade raised an eyebrow, “Why?”
Blackshade could tell that the man had been expecting the question, “Isn’t it obvious? You’ve been changed by the Omegas! I was told by your life partner there that they brought you to their ship and placed you in some kind of case. There, they removed your nipples and navel cavity, enhanced your body, improved your strength, agility, and stamina, as well as made your skin tougher and your body heal itself faster. From what I understand, you also have no need to eat or drink, nor use the facilities. Your companion also told us that you don’t require sleep, which is absolutely fascinating.” he answered him clinically, “I know you’re a busy man, and that you have important things you must attend to, but if you could just give us a few more hours of your time, you may allow us to discover something that will benefit all of humanity.” he explained to him politely, “Please don’t make me remind you that we did save your life, and that to deny us this opportunity would be very unbecoming of a military officer.”
Blackshade smirked at the man, “Why didn’t you run your tests while I was asleep? You’ve had twelve days according to Zahera.”
The doctor shrugged at him and nodded towards Zahera, “We needed your consent to run some of our tests, and from what I understand, when one of my colleagues attempted to perform a test on you without consent, your companion broke her kneecap.” he answered disinterestedly.
Blackshade looked back at Zahera, who was still sitting on the bed, a sly smile on her face. She shrugged innocently in answer to his silent question.
Blackshade turned to face the doctor again, he saw hope and eagerness in the eyes of those behind him and suddenly felt very selfish for wanting to leave.
“Ok Doc, you’ve convinced me.” he conceded, “I’ll give you what you want, but after that I’m leaving.”
The old man held out his hand, “Excellent, I do appreciate your willingness to work with us. And I promise you we will not give you reason to regret it.” he told him as they shook hands, “And please, call me Doctor Goffski, Dantarus Goffski. The nickname, ‘Doc’ is so droll.”
Blackshade chuckled at the man’s request, “Alright, Dr. Goffski. You have a deal.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Blackshade was glad he had taken the time to go through with Dr. Goffski’s tests. He learned a fair amount about what the Omegas had done to him, and as far as he could tell, it was all really good. First, Dr. Goffski and his assistants took all of his vital signs. His heart rate was around eighty beats per minute, his respiration was between ten and twelve breaths a minute, and his blood pressure was right around normal. In fact, every vital sign they could check came back as text book nominal. Next, they hooked him up to a breathing machine and placed sensor probes all over his body. Then they asked him to jog for a while on a treadmill while they monitored him. They started the treadmill off slow, until he remarked how he could go a lot faster. Dr. Goffski obliged him, and within a few minutes, he was running at a brisk pace. He ran on like that for about ten minutes, easily passing the two-mile marker, before Dr. Goffski turned up the speed to maximum. He told him he wanted to see what it took to get his heart rate up, but Blackshade believed the man was just curious to see what his limits were. That was fine with him though. He was curious as well. After sprinting for almost ten miles, he finally began to feel it, as his heart rate increased and his breathing became labored. Five miles later and he threw in the towel, jumping off the machine and bending over to catch his breath. Dr. Goffski came down from the monitor room to congratulate him on breaking a few world records for endurance and speed, and then informed him that since this test wasn’t monitored by official record keepers, it didn’t count. Even though he had been exhausted, he couldn’t help but laugh.
They ran a few more tests, examining his tolerances for heat and cold, but nothing too strenuous. The tests caused him to become slightly uncomfortable as the temperatures became extreme, but not painful, just as the Doctor had promised. Then they took a lot of blood, hair and skin samples. At Dr. Goffski’s request, he drank a barium shake, which was god awful, and after a ton of x-rays, he was done. Dr. Goffski and his attendants left him and Zahera in his recovery room, while they began analyzing his tests and began compiling the preliminary results.
Zahera informed him that there was a movement gaining some serious traction on the internet, that was trying to put together a rally at the Unification Foundation, urging the government to ban the Omegas from interfering with human life. They had an important sounding name and plenty of religious groups and influential people were getting on board. Apparently, not everyone was happy about how things went down in Roswell, and a loud minority was trying to dictate change for the majority. It was a common song-and-dance that occurred far more often than Blackshade would have liked, but he knew he would have to return to the Foundation soon and help deal with this mess.
During their discussion, Dr. Goffski joined them with his preliminary results. As it turned out, the Doctor didn’t believe that Blackshade was “super-human” or anything of the sort. His tolerances to heat and cold were above average, but not outside the norm of human tolerance. His speed and endurance was very impressive, but his results were very similar to results seen from hyper-fit athletes that specialized in a specific sport or event. His oxygen saturation and pulse were strong for a man of twenty years, let alone forty-one, and his
muscle mass and density were incredible, but not outside the realm of regular human potential. Dr. Goffski theorized that the Omegas didn’t make him super-human, but brought his body to its optimal genetic potential using their technology. The only thing he couldn’t explain, without further study, was Blackshade’s independence from sustenance and sleep after exposure to the Omegas. There was more than a little envy in the doctor’s eyes as he went over his initial findings, but there was disappointment too. Blackshade could tell, mostly by reading what was on his forehead display, that he had hoped Blackshade had become a super-hero of sorts. He felt bad for the man, so he told him why he no longer required food or drink. He told Dr. Goffski about the sub-atomic particles that were rare in their part of the universe, but that the Omega ship creates them in order to sustain them. He told him everything the Omegas had told him about the energy source, which seemed to be exactly what the Doctor was looking for. He asked numerous questions and took an incredible amount of notes before thanking him and rushing out of the room. After that, he and Zahera had left the hospital and returned to Roswell in order to gather up his belongings, and make sure the camp was still operating efficiently in her absence.
It only took a couple days to get everything in Roswell working as efficiently as it had before. The DO had done her best to achieve Zahera’s level of proficiency, but had failed in quite a few areas due to favoritism and the misuse of resources. It took Zahera less than an hour to identify, correct, and remedy the situation, bringing the camp’s efficiency back up to her stringent standards. They indulged in their “Shadow-Kisses” as often as they could, but while Zahera was busy running the camp, Blackshade was busy closely monitoring the situation with the religious groups on the internet. According to what he found, a massive protest was scheduled at the Unification Foundation in a few days, with religious leaders and influential internet bloggers leading the pack. Their demands had changed from wanting the government to ban the Omegas from human interaction to evicting them from the planet. Every time he checked to see if any new information on the situation was available, he was bombarded by a host of new articles that supported the movement. As much as he hated to do it, he knew he had to leave Zahera and head back to the Foundation. They were going to need him there, and with the internet setting its sights on the Unification Foundation, the event in Roswell seemed to be more of an afterthought than anything else.
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