by Joe Crouch
Snapping awake with drool streaking his face, he jumped out of his chair and checked the time, he was late, there was no time to waste showering or changing into fresh clothes, it would all have to wait until he was back on the Mar’Ell. Rushing out from his quarters, he darted through the congested corridors, pushing people aside as he sprinted down the winding stairs towards the lower decks. Bursting through the door to the hangar bay, he was blown away at how different it was aboard the Orpheus, granted she was a battleship rather than a support vessel, but how tightly packed the fighters were still surprised him. The area was teeming with activity, from above it almost seemed as if a colony of ants had infested the entire ship and to their credit, it was almost clean, oil and grease still covered the majority of people’s overalls, but he always suspected they would rub it on themselves, attempting to prove that work had been done. The fighters were held in place on long struts that came down from the ceiling where they were connected to a system of rails that would pick up the ship and take it away to storage. They were lined up side-by-side, sparks flying from every surface as they were worked on, being prepped for any eventual combat scenario, missiles were left on trollies that had no guard detail – There was an air of trust among TEF crew, something that would help in the future. Looking afar, he glimpsed an impatient Ioution stood beside the Arrakis-two, strolling towards what he assumed was Fez, his heart began to race. “Took you long enough, Human,” Fez said, glaring at Sean as he gave a faint smile and climbed into the ship, “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“There’s something we need to discuss,” he said, standing firmly in the entranceway that led to the bridge, “There’s a lot we need to discuss, actually,” he corrected himself, the anger building from within.
“Well, please do ask, don’t keep anything to yourself,” Fez insisted, confused as to what was going to come out of the Humans mouth. Sean opened his mouth to speak but decided to leave the crucial subject until when they were alone. Instead, he closed the shuttle doors and sat in an empty seat.
“What happened to Yumie?” he quizzed, seeing the execution first-hand was a disconcerting experience, especially with little context.
“Well,” Fez sighed, letting out a heavy breath he slumped into a chair adjacent to him, “Do you remember that small bug which burrowed into his neck?”
“Yeah, sure, what about it?”
“They’re called burrowers,” Original he thought, “They can serve two purposes, the first is to infect the host and destroy their internal organs while keeping them alive if possible, as you can imagine this is excruciatingly painful.” He felt a chill run down his spine, scratching his neck at the same time, “The second, they take control of the host's body and mind, they effectively become the host,” the thought was mind boggling to him, he had heard of similar animals back on Earth, but the fact they could control a highly sentient being was frightening.
“So they take control of your mind, access your memories and the such,” he asked, “What’s the downside for them?”
“They can access your memories, but they don’t have full access, some of their actions can seem contrived, even foolish, they don’t have the full range of experience and emotion that their host does, so they cannot emulate it realistically.” He looked on, completely engaged at what the Ioution was saying, “But don’t take that as too much of a weakness, the more time they spend within their host, the better they become at mimicking their actions, the truly worst part is that they have infected somebody on almost every world, they’re virtually impossible to detect.” Chilled to his core, he sat back in his seat, Fez’s words rattled around in his mind as he tried to grasp some form of comprehension from what he had just heard.
“Nearly every world, how do the burrowers arrive? Wouldn’t a Xuron or at least their ships have to drop the critters onto the surface?” he asked, puzzled.
“I think you underestimate the effect the war with the Xuron has had on every planet within our arm of the galaxy, you might have witnessed built-up, clean shuttle ports in a metropolis, but even those worlds carry the scars and memories of battle.” He shook his head, almost every pre-conceived notion he had of the galaxy was eradicated in one fell swoop, the friendly neighbourhood he had hoped to join was a cesspit of betrayal and war, he wondered if humanity was better off alone.
“There are a lot of things and people I have underestimated, Fez,” he said with a certain scorn in his voice, drawing a confused look from the Ioution, “This wasn’t the only thing I needed to ask you about, I found something interesting aboard the ship,” Fez opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the ship's comms system.
“Arrakis-two, this is Orpheus command, you are cleared to leave through exit tube six, when ready call over a technician and he will arrange for your ejection, safe travels,” sliding into the pilot’s seat, he waved for Fez to let the engineers know and close the hatch back up. Moments later a thud came from the roof of the ship as an arm gripped and lifted the vessel up, connecting it to a rail system. Looking out of his cockpit window, he saw the hangar bay drifting away as his ship was fed into a series of tubes, lining him up in his designated ejection point. The ship was held in place with large grav-plates that were positioned under and behind the craft, the tube was pitch black and looked out towards the void, with a countdown on his terminal, energy built up within the plates as they grabbed his vessel and launched it at high speed along the track, flinging the Arrakis-two into space.
“God damn,” he said, letting out a whistle “I’ve never got to experience that before, no wonder the fighter pilots are always pumped up, I could do that all day.”
“It’s an effective system,” Fez admitted, not particularly interested in what he had to say. Bringing the engines online, he started the short trip back to the Mar’Ell, the cabin remained silent as both passengers thought over what each had said previously, the impending chat turned him into a nervous wreck.
It wasn’t long before they were back aboard the Mar’Ell, slipping gracefully into the docking bay and powering down the engines, the ramp lowered allowing them to leave. “Well hey there handsome,” Taris shouted from the gangway above, “Fancy meeting you here, what a coincidence,” he couldn’t help but crack a stifled laugh at the confident Ioution, she was something he needed right now, a good laugh and some back and forth.
“Coincidence, sure,” he smiled, “You just can’t keep away from this body,” he said, running his hands down over his hips.
“Oh, you mean that body,” she laughed, poking a small pocket of fat that had developed around his once toned belly, “Yeah… I can’t get enough of it.”
“It’s winter where I come from right now, I’m just getting ready to hibernate, that’s all.”
“Your species hibernates?” she quizzed with genuine confusion in her voice, laughing, he placed a hand on her shoulder as he walked past and out of the hangar bay, intending to walk aimlessly through the ships barren corridors. The scars of battle were still visible, main components had been patched up for the time being, but they would need to dock for any real structural repairs. Debris still littered the less trodden hallways, the ships wiring was still exposed as panels dangled from the walls only being held on by their thin wires, it was something he wished he could assist with, as much as he felt disconnected from it lately, the Mar’Ell was now his home.
He stopped by the armoury, looking in as work was furiously carried out on the damage he had been a part of, stepping in he picked up a loose weapon from the floor and clicked it back into a creaking rack. The place was a mess, a far cry from the perfect, almost obsessively organised racks of weapons, armour, and everything else that had been laid out before. He worked on helping where he could for a while, but eventually he just got in the way, with his head low he left, deep in his own mind, building up the courage he would need to challenge Fez.
He couldn’t wait any longer and now was the time, picking himself up he stormed towards the bridge, a fur
y in his marching that showed his intent and desire for the justice he felt he deserved. Standing outside the bridge, its doors closed tightly, he froze, how exactly am I going to ask this? he thought, I’m not even sure what I suspect myself, dancing on the spot, building up the courage, he waved the doors open and charged through.
“Fez,” he shouted with a righteous conviction making everyone on the bridge leap out of their seats “It’s time we spoke, follow me.” He marched away from the bridge and turned off into a small briefing room, before long Fez strolled through the open door, a look of confusion on his face.
“What’s this about?” Fez questioned, taking a seat after locking the door, “I can’t say I’m impressed by the outburst.”
“What’s this about?” he said, faking his surprise, “This is about me, or at least what I found.”
“And what exactly did you find?”
“I found me, Fez, locked away in some God damned fridge, how do you even begin to explain that, who am I? What am I?” he barked, pacing the room in anger.
“Oh,” Fez sighed, “That.”
“Yes, that, what the fuck is going on, give me some explanations otherwise I go nuclear.”
“I’m willing to explain if you’re willing to listen and be rational,” Fez replied in a deep, calming voice, “Can you do that?” Huffing, Sean took a seat and rested his arms on the square metallic table.
“Go ahead,” he said, sarcastically motioning for a response.
“Let me start from the beginning. After fending off the Xuron attack on Earth, our ships took up position and began to scour the wreckages of both Human and bug alike, we were mostly looking to examine the technology, but if anything unusual were to come to our attention we would act, and we did.” Sean leant forwards, his seat scraping along the floor as he moved closer. “We detected an immensely faint life sign coming from the wreck of the Arrakis, we were hesitant to even check because it was so weak, but check I did, and your almost lifeless body was found in a suit that was not properly secured.” He thought back to what happened, his memories were foggy and he could only remember pieces of information, but he did remember only clicking down a single air pressure lock.
“So you found me, floating out there in space and barely alive, but that still doesn’t explain my body.”
“It doesn’t and I’m getting to that,” Fez snapped, getting agitated. “We picked you up and brought you aboard, our doctor worked for hours but it was to no avail, you were just too seriously damaged, we could do nothing. It wasn’t until he suggested putting your body into cryostasis and drawing your genetic makeup that the idea came to me…”
“- What idea, Fez…” he said with trepidation.
“The idea to clone you and reprint your memories.” Sean looked on gobsmacked, the Ioution had come out with it so casually he almost couldn’t believe it, it was almost as if this was a completely normal occurrence for him.
“Clone me…” he scoffed, his words trailing off as his mind started to race.
“Yes, it’s quite normal our entire species are clones, when we approach death we go through a ritual known as a ‘Yam-Ki’, the process can only be performed on bodies that are still healthy, a body riddled with infection or other ailments cannot be safely cloned, although it has been done.”
“Wait, so not only am I a clone, everyone on this ship is a clone?” he shot out of his seat, almost rubbing tracks into the floor from his pacing.
“Not everyone, there is still natural birth, I think we have three naturals aboard at the moment, a fairly standard percentage of the crew.” Sean stared on in disbelief again, his brain tried its best to process what was being said, a clone he thought, so I’m dead? His heart began to race as his vision darkened, shuffling over towards a seat he slumped down, gasping for breath.
“Deep breaths, Human, you’re going to pass out.”
“I’m not going to… pass…” Fez grabbed his swaying body, shaking some life into him. “Ok, maybe I was going to pass out,” he croaked, rubbing his eyes, “Can I trade this body in for another one, I think it’s defective.”
“No returns,” Fez deadpanned.
“I’m not letting you off easy for this,” he said, sitting up straight in his seat.
“I don’t expect you to, but it was something that we thought was the best course of action, you were on the brink of death and we had to act quickly, preserving your body and genetic makeup would be relatively easy, but imprinting your memories needed your brain tissue to still be active.” He understood, he was almost grateful for what the Ioutions had done for him, he was almost certainly dead out there and they effectively revived him, but he felt he needed to express some form of anger towards what happened, it would only be rational to. The more he played with the idea the more he came to accept it, it was done, there was nothing he could do now but go on with his life, he wasn’t happy about it but these were the cards he had been dealt and fighting against it would get him nowhere.
“I just can’t bring myself to fully accept it just yet, I’m a clone,” he stated matter-of-factly, “While I think I feel the same as before, how do I know for sure, these could be feelings and emotions that had imprinted and felt natural to clone me and not flesh and blood me.”
“I can empathise; the subject of fake or ghost memories is a taboo subject amongst my own people, believe me when I say you are not alone in these feelings, it is something we have all had to adjust to and live with, all I can assure you is that scientifically, your memories are your own and phantom memories are supposedly a myth.” Fez drew back, deep in thought, “But I’ll tell you, not everyone believes that, including me, there are too many accounts for them to not exist.”
“You’re really selling the whole clone memory thing to me right now, Fez…”
“Do not let me discourage you, I am deeply sorry if this has caused you any pain, but it was something I had to make the call on, and we chose to do this.”
“I can’t say I’m happy but I understand your reasoning and that the choice was in the heat of the moment,” he paused as he relaxed in his seat, “Honestly, I’d rather be alive and breathing, so maybe I should be thanking you, but I think I’ll process it a little more first.” Rising from his seat, Fez nodded.
“Well take as long as you need, for now, I’m going to head back to the bridge, I have duties that need attending to.”
“I’ll join you soon,” he smiled. Sitting back, he attempted to digest what had just happened, it swirled around in his mind, he was unhappy, after all, technically he was dead, but here he sat still breathing and in a position he could never have even imagined. The conversation happened all so quickly, there was still so many questions he could think of, so much research he could do into the whole process, but not only was he a clone, a large portion of the Ioution race were clones, the whole situation just carried on gaining layers upon layers. There would come a time where he would have to say goodbye to his corpse, he knew he didn’t want it tucked away in the darkest corner of the ship, ruling over his conscience, it had happened and now it was time to at least attempt to move on.
Re-joining Fez on the bridge Sean took his seat and absently navigated through his personal terminal, looking through the long and torrid Ioution history, his thoughts were only interrupted by the frantic voices that echoed through the bridge. Looking around, every officer seemed to be in a panic, working tirelessly at their own consoles, wondering what could be happening, Sean strolled towards Fez, “What’s going on?” he asked, breaking Fez’s deep concentration.
“It’s began,” Fez said, despair filling his furrowed brow, “The Xuron have started their invasion of the outer-rim planets…”
Chapter 18
“Tactical, what planets have been exposed to the Xuron threat, I need an update on my display at once,” Fez barked. The bridge had been a hive of activity since the news broke over the comms network, defenceless worlds were falling rapidly as the Xuron blitzed through Ioution protected
space, destroying or capturing whatever they could. The onslaught that everyone feared had begun, a response would be swift, and the Mar’Ell would be involved, but it would take time, plans had to be thought out, agreed upon and put into action, but time was precious to everyone, especially now. Fez worked frantically on his terminal, drawing up different examples of previous encounters which could be used as intelligence, the crew would need to analyse these battles and draw conclusions which they could use. They had only just escaped an encounter with two Xuron warships, flying in blind against many more would be suicide for everyone involved.
“Captain, we have a new transmission from the High Council coming in over the network, should I display it?”
“Yes, put it on the main screen,” Fez replied, straightening out his jacket in anticipation. The display flickered into life, an old rugged Ioution appeared, his hair had visibly thinned through the years and his face was a testament of time, if anyone was due for a new body, he would have to be a prime candidate.
“Feghouli, I wish we were conversing under better circumstances,” the elderly Ioution said, his smooth voice seducing Sean.
“Admiral Hu, I couldn’t agree more, these are troubling times indeed,” Fez said, his posture sharpening in the admiral’s presence.
“Indeed,” Admiral Hu nodded, his face devoid of emotion, “Our intel is partial at best, but from what we have gathered it seems that this is the largest Xuron attack yet, six worlds have already fallen and four more are currently under bombardment.”
“Do you have an estimate of their size?” Fez asked after a short lull in the conversation, “It’s the largest build-up we’ve seen, but how large is that exactly?”
