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CH02: S [D03|2100] In Broad Daylight

Chapter 02: Supplemental [ Day 03 | 2100 hrs. ] In Broad Daylight

[ PWO Heather McMillan | Biolabs | Main Research Hull | Precept-ship Versant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
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She felt a little cold, and that was how she was certain she was buck naked. Her smooth hairless skin felt cold air kissing her like a icy blanket. Her inner light gave her some warmth, but it wasn't enough to ward the cold completely, and they had left her in such a state possibly to try and send her into hibernation. But it wouldn't work. This...emotion, this...urge and desire that drove her so hard, it was going to drive her mad if she couldn't sate it. She wanted to seek out something, a nameless entity, or entities. She knew they were nearby. It was like how she felt around Nicander, only amplified.

“LET ME GO!” She shrieked, “I DEMAND TO BE RELEASED THIS INSTANT!”

She had found her voice, but still lacked mobility. Her light was like a nexus of suns, but she still had some measure of control over them. Nevertheless, she was shining brighter than she normally did, and her eyes was like blazing furnaces of purest white. She struggled and strained her muscles, willing them to move in defiance of whatever they had placed upon her. Her mind and faculties were sharp, but it was useless if she could not move even a millimeter. Yet, on she tried, willing herself to break free, to lift a finger, to turn her head. “Where are you?” said Heather, “Show yourselves!”

Re: Chapter 02: Supplementary | In Broad Daylight [ Day 03 | 2100 hrs. ]

Reply #1 –
[ Schiand | Biolabs | Main Research Hull | Precept-ship Versant ] Attn: @Triage
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This specimen was going to be as unique as it would be challenging to handle, the potential equal to the hazard.

This, Schiand thought as he finished donning the protective research gear on his head, folding down the visor before he tapped his tablet - the door opening to the biolab. The specimen was awake, screaming, and he had to activate the translator in the lab with another tap on his datapad to make out what she said in her crude language. It seemed it was merely the usual litany, but he would have activated the translator anyway since she needed to listen to him as well.

"Greetings Specimen Seven-One-Seven, for your information, you have been selected to satisfy the curiosity of the Vigilant of Sa. You are being held on one of our Precept-class ships, and once we are finished, your memory of this ship will be erased, and you will be released in the same condition as when you were selected," he said calmly, having to squint behind his visor. "Before we begin, I have a couple of standard questions, if you would be so kind to oblige our curiosity. Please, state your birth date - in any calendar you are comfortable with - and if you are aware of any interracial relationships among the Alata that you are directly descending from. We are especially interested in your direct parentage, and where you were born and raised."

It was dubously gratifying to work on this specimen, given the difficulties involved, but in his own opinion, anything was better than working in the Correction program. How do Cirand and the others stand it? he wondered quietly, opening up his notepad in order to submit any answers he might get to the preliminary study.

Re: Chapter 02: Supplementary [ Day 03 | 2100 hrs. ] In Broad Daylight

Reply #2 –
[ PWO Heather McMillan | Biolabs | Main Research Hull | Precept-ship Versant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
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Satisfy the curiosity of the Vigilant of Sa?!? Specimen Seven-One-Seven? They wouldn't even deign to call her by her name or a race?!? The outrage! The unmitigated gall and arrogance! Heather felt a combination of shame, for the negative sensations and desires stirring within her - a desire to do the most despicable thing a Radiant would think and feel utterly horrible for even thinking; shoving something sharp and hard up...you know... - and that other emotion she still had trouble understanding, but she now surmised it was what the gods knew as anger, even rage. But how could a Radiant possibly even feel rage or anger? As she understood it, it was an emotion available only to the gods. But Heather's family line, which was just called into question by this thing, was purely consisting entirely of Radiants.

“...you are a child of the Alata and Gîl Naur both...” said Shä'Nyél.

Heather remembered the Gîl Naur's words in her dream. She even went on to say that Heather was descended directly from her. And weren't the Gîl Naur capable of a wider range of emotions? Including anger and hatred? The Alata and Gîl Naur were basically the same people, more genetically identical than Vulcans and Romulans. In fact the only difference to them was what they called themselves, and the fact that one race could feel anger. So if Heather was descended from Alata and Gîl Naur, that would explain how she could feel this, but...why only now? Even in her state of fury, she had time to analyze and wonder at it. But she was furious, and that, was what made her speak the way she did.

“You will address me by my name, thank you very much,” said Heather in a snapping tone, “I'll oblige your curiosity quite happily, since you're obliging mine. My name is Heather McMillan, I was born on September eleventh, twenty-three fifty-eight. I don't believe I have an actual interracial heritage. I was born and raised on Earth. We did rather spend our days living as much like humans as we could. Now release me from my bonds, let me look at you...creature.”

Her eyes were as white hot furnaces of light, until her irises were invisible. Her body was a cascade of bright and colourful lights danced with sparkling white dots that came and went like twinkling starlight. The ever-shifting rainbow hue of colours and lights danced with a vigorous energy, displaying her eagerness to blaze brighter, though she held back from becoming the brightest she can possibly be by only a fraction. She was also casting vapour from her breath, which made small clouds of flashing lights that added to the lights around her body.

Re: Chapter 02: Supplementary | In Broad Daylight [ Day 03 | 2100 hrs. ]

Reply #3 –
[ Schiand | Biolabs | Main Research Hull | Precept-ship Versant ] Attn: @Triage
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Despite the tone the specimen used, Schiand got some answers, which he took his time to carefully note down on his datapad. As he squinted against the light, he made sure the phrasing was well documented, and rated the answers in a grade of believably. Schiand had already suspected that the surviving Alata were hiding on Earth, and she would make sure to pass on this verification. It was a breakthrough to actually know for certain and not have to return to Earth for another forage. With the development of the Federation, it was not as easy as it used to be 450 years ago, but luckily, most of the Archive was intact in regard to the Humans.

She called him a creature, which made him look at her directly, growing more irritated with the bright light and how it hurt his eyes. He tried to not show his discomfort too much. "I'm sorry, I know this must be very confusing for you," he said and tapped his tablet, entering commands.

"Please allow me to make it less confusing," he said, and with a final tap, he lowered the large endoscopy machine from the ceiling, the foreboding, metallic whirr hopefully getting her attention. "We are the Savi, and our purpose is larger than you. We have seen empires rise and fall, watching and learning, preserving the legacy of the Progenitors. Our cause is more important than you. The Code states that we are to be polite and ensure that there is a minimum of discomfort to each specimen..."

Schiand's face was covered by his visor, but had it not been there, she'd see his face turn almost cruel. "Yet only as long as it's compliant." Another tap, and he activated three artificial arms with camera-lenses at their bulbous tips. Ducts around the lenses began to secrete silicone-based lubricant, dropping down on her bare body. He let her drink in the sight, and then he leaned over her, putting his hand on top of her bare abdomen. "The situation is that you are the specimen undergoing study, and if you are not compliant... I am not adverse to getting the biological information I need in very invasive ways. I have already told you that you will remember nothing about what will happen to you..."

When he spoke next, his tone was lower, hoping that he had her complete attention.

"...but that does not make you exempt from living through it."

He looked towards her abdomen, while the arms continued to dribble translucent gel on her, remaining still in an idle position - waiting for his activation command. He drew his finger along the middle of her abdomen, feeling the lightness of her flesh, making sure she knew he felt it. "I will also have you know, that some of our Archive remains, and it has informed me that you are not a very sturdy specimen, are you? If I have need to be... invasive, then I will have to make sure I calibrate the settings on my machinery, won't I? If I don't... then this study might become very short... inconclusive... and very messy."

Having said this, he turned his visor towards her again. "So would you please be so kind and shine less brightly now?"

Re: Chapter 02: Supplementary [ Day 03 | 2100 hrs. ] In Broad Daylight

Reply #4 –
[ PWO Heather McMillan | Biolabs | Main Research Hull | Precept-ship Versant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
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“The Savi...” said Heather, processing the responses by the irritating alien. She would have been more meek, more humble, and more afraid of the power they held over her. But for her light, her eyes and her ability to speak, she could do nothing else. But what she had left to her was more than sufficient. If only she knew how to do more with her abilities. But many secrets were lost to her or atrophied from lack of use. They were like muscles, and a lack of use could wipe things out completely. But she was not completely stunted, and there was something she could yet do.

Now he was threatening her! Now, normally, this would have caused her to wither away, frightened out of her mind, and she'd be apologizing and begging for a way to appease them, but this...anger...this rage, that burned within her...it made very, very rude, and very uncooperative. She felt a brief moment of fear when those cruel instruments above, the ones hovering over her began to work, and she felt liquids drip onto her form, making her gasp at the sensation, and her light briefly dimmed, and her eyes, for a moment, became visible again, though the irises remained bright white. And she felt his finger touch her. It reminded her of how Trent touched her. She allowed him to. Wanted him to. But she did not give permission to this thing.

And it dared to foul so pleasant a memory of hers with its touch?!?

She looked at him, now that he deigned to bring himself into her view, and her eyes darted about, taking in every detail of his form, heeding every word that came out of him. That brief moment of fear was now gone. Something here was making her so furious, so bold, and so, very, very defiant. She was also observant of what he said, and what he didn't say. His tone, altered though it was through translators, for surely he was using one to speak to her.

“It bothers you, doesn't it?” she caught on to the fact, and now she bit down on it, “my light is bothering you. How absolutely remarkable.”

A cruel smile played on her lips, an expression such as she had never given in her entire life before, as she took grim satisfaction in the knowledge that she held one weapon...well two, if she counted her own scientific knowledge, and what she was learning thanks to her incredibly adaptive nature. “You and your people fancy yourself to be scientists, immoral scientists...oh, I mean...immortal scientists? Okay, you little worm, I'll...cooperate. But I have a little gift for you to satisfy both your curiosity, and more perhaps, mine.”

She dimmed her light even furhter until she was barely a faint glow of iridescent rainbows flowing over her form like its own armour of light, naked though she was, and her smooth hairless skin bared, vulnerable to the Savi for their whims, but she concentrated all her hatred and wore it like its own cloth. “I was wrong, Savi.” said Heather, “I do believe I have a mixed ancestry after all. Do you know about the Gîl Naur? Virtually the same genetically to my people, the Alata, but they could embrace all range of emotions, including those exclusive to the gods. Do you know what I can now feel?”

She dropped her smile, to be replaced with an outright scowl, “Since you won't release me...burn.”

Her lips parted and she exhaled a small cloud of phosphorescent vapour, and it ignited almost immediately when it came into contact with air, and the flash of light was ten times brighter than her previous level of illumination, and she let herself shine freely, as bright as she could, brighter still, like when she was with Sonja Acreth and Dr. Nicander, but even more uninhibited, and she let herself go even brighter, the fire in her soul burning, exploding with the need to be released, and she let it out, throwing the doors wide apart. “LOOK AT ME CREATURE!” she shrieked, “LOOK AT ME AND BURN!!!”

Ever since Sonja had been brought aboard, Heather realized she had felt this growing emotion, but it had never grown so bad as it did now, was it the parasite in her? Was it the Nameless Darkness? What was it that Shä'Nyél called it? Gùl Mor, the Nameless Dark given name. She would ponder on that later, but for now, she was going to defy this stupid thing before her, the consequences be damned.

Re: Chapter 02: Supplementary | In Broad Daylight [ Day 03 | 2100 hrs. ]

Reply #5 –
[ Schiand | Biolabs | Main Research Hull | Precept-ship Versant ] Attn: @Triage

At first, Schiand had thought that he'd managed to intimidate the specimen well enough to render her compliant, settling into a more relaxed stance and looking at his datapad again. He had started the recording when she began to divulge more about her direct parentage, and he made his own commentary with three deft fingertips.

Only the specimen found the courage to defy him.

Too late, he realised her ploy, the bright lettering on his datapad washed out by the lighting from the specimen. He knew, afterwards, that he shouldn't have glanced her way, but it was too late, the brightness cutting through the polarized glass of his vizor. He made a choked sound in the back of his throat, covering his eyes with his hands. His datapad clattered against the deck plating and he stumbled backwards. He swore, seeing naught but the bright light, and began to fumble with his large fingers across the deck. He needed to get the door open! It was no use, his eyes hurt but he called out.

"Nonary warning!" he said, beginning to crawl towards the general direction of the exit, or at least where he thought the exit was. He could hear the doors whooshing open in the nigh distance, and crept ad quickly as he could, his eyes hurting. At some point, he must have lost his headgear. He could hear feet running outside the biolab, the light of the Alata being of a wavelength that passed through their phosphor bulkheads. He could hear students and some Decataria screaming.

As soon as he'd passed the doors, they closed behind him. He fumbled for the bulkhead, trying to get back on his feet. He did not know how much time passed, but he couldn't see anything. There were voices, but he was too horrified to hear them. Eventually, he felt a strong arm under his own, pulling him up. He could hear a clicking noise close to his own face. Scion. Who?

"<The light has ended, she shines no more,>" it said to him. Had the Alata exerted herself? Had the Scion Recycled her? No, she'd have to be in a pod for that.

"<I will make good on my promises!>" he snarled blindly, "<begin all internal examinations at once! Full force setting!>"

"<No, Schiand qi Versant,>" clicked the deep voice of the Scion standing in front of him. Then he realized who the voice belonged to. Why had this specimen gained the Scion's attention? "<She is not a threat at the moment, yet you erred. You did not take the precaution needed. You failed this study, at the cost of your eyes, and the eyes of other Savi. You will not see with your biological eyes again. In fact...>"

Schiand felt it against his throat. A serrated chitin edge. A scion finger. He gasped in shock.

"<...you won't see anything at all.>"

The cut came, and with blind fingers, Schiand clawed at his opened throat. He could feel his thick blood pouring over his numb hands. In his dying moments, he regretted that he'd stirred the commanding officer of the Versant from his nest. That he'd have to transport himself to the biolabs and carry out the sentence himself. It was stated in the Code that the safety and integrity of the Precept ship was paramount, and he'd failed the Scion. The consequence was clear.

In his last seconds, Sciand did not hear Semathal qi Versant where he writhed on the floor, reduced to animal thrashing, but somehow, he got the impression that the Scion stood above him... looking at the unconscious specimen in the biolab.

- FIN
 
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