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CodyLabs — Natives of Evil
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Published: 2018-11-01 17:28:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 3038; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 0
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Shifting Sands: Chapter 3<= Prev | Next =>
“Frankly, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.” A new creature stood in the lab, staring into her tube. A tall, important-looking, proud specimen that fiddled its right tentacle like a nervous tick. “It isn’t even very big.”
“She can get bigger, Captain.” One of the scientists replied. “We’re not quite sure how, but she was in the form of a full-grown scientist when the drones recaptured it…”
“Oh really?” The Captain blinked. “One of you?”
“Me, sir. She took my from.” Dr. Zlfo]n raised his tentacle.
“Huh… So what else can it shapeshift into?” The Captain bent closer to her tube, and looked right into her eyes. “Anything it sees?”
“We’re not sure, sir. She’s been… Uncooperative. The recent breach was the only time we’ve ever directly seen her display the ability, although… Although others of her species displayed remarkable capability during the attack…”
“Hmm… Hey! Hey you! Creature!” The Captain tapped on the glass. “Mimic something! …How about this? Can you mimic this?” He made a face, rolled his eyes outward and stuck out his tongues. He glanced back at the men after an uneventful moment of silence. “…Can it understand me?”
“No sir. The translator circuit isn’t even on.”
“Heh heh…” The Captain chuckled. “So how did it breach containment anyway?”
“The, uh… The late Dr. &R/\BJ lowered security measures in order to show her around the ship. Her container must have been mishandled, and allowed to shatter…”
“Hmph! And what could have possibly possessed that old fool to allow something so hairbrained?”
“We believe he… Struck up a friendship of some type with her, sir. He sent everyone out of the room to make her feel more at ease, so we never got the particulars.”
“Well, that was certainly preventable, now isn’t it?” The Captain scoffed, putting his tentacles on his hips. “I’m running a science vessel here, men. Not a nursery. From now on, I expect no such mistakes. No unmonitored communication with intelligent specimens, no unnccessary transfer of specimens between containers, no undue consideration for specimen desires. And that’s all they are; specimens. Understood?”
“Yes sir.” They all chorused.
“And as for this one…” He turned back to her tube. “Hmm… How well did it mimic Dr. Zlfo]n?”
“As far as we could tell, it was an exact physical match…” Dr. Zlfo]n admitted. “Save for some alternative chemistry, and of course the microscopic details.”
“…You know, we could sell these.” The Captain mused. “Spies, agents, soldiers, circus performers, the like… A lot of people would pay top money for this kind of thing. Pity we only have one… Can we clone it?”
“Unlikely, sir. It constantly shifts its DNA patterns, even in its base form. If we tried to clone a sample, we’d just as likely end up with an incomplete portion of one of its mimicry forms. We believe that microscopic adaptation on the protein level is a foundational function of its—”
“Oh, Lord, spare me.” The Captain motioned the scientist to silence. “So you’re saying we can’t clone it, and it’s too dangerous to contain. It’s of no use to us, then. Jettison it.”
“SIR!” The youngest scientist, Dr. cl;**4, spoke up. “Sir, I don’t know if killing her is the best idea…”
“Oh?” The Captain spun on him. “And what might you suggest?”
“Well…” The young man’s voice faltered. “Well, we could… We could lock her in a passenger dorm to keep her happy; those are airtight, so she couldn’t get out, and… Or… Or we could send her back to her homeworld…”
“Ohhhh, okay. Okay I see.” The Captain scoffed. “You suggest we waste an automated prison droid sending it aaaall the way back across the galaxy… Or we waste space and money by giving it a whole plethora of commodities reserved for paying passengers…”
“Well…” Dr. cl;**4’s eyes fell, and he stuttered. “O-o-or… Or keep her here and keep a better eye on her, I-I-I mean, it just seems like a bad idea to… Kill her… You… I mean, you… Uh… Never mind.”
“I what?” The Captain moved closer to him. “What were you about to say?”
“Nothing sir. Never mind.”
“Were you going to give me a warning of some type?” The Captain prodded. “Remind me of something? Yeah, that’s it, isn’t it. You were going to remind me of a warning. What was it?”
“Nothing. Sir.”
“Come now, son.” The Captain’s voice got low and cold, even slightly threatening, as he put a tentacle around cl;**4’s torso. “Come now. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind. We are men of science, aren’t we? And science isn’t afraid of a few inconvenient or uncomfortable claims, no matter how groundless they may be. Come now, scientist. State your hypothesis.”
“The… The…” cl;**4’s voice was very quiet. “The… The oracle. Sir.”
“The oracle.” The Captain nodded. “The oracle who threatened great harm to my ship and my person… Threatened divine judgement, so to speak. If I continued to ‘treat innocent lifeforms as commodities and property in the manner of soulless beasts’ then something like a… ‘great calamity of unforeseeable consequence and perfect unity with the almighty purposes’ would befall something-or-another… I believe that was something like the wording she used, wasn’t it?”
“I believe so, sir.”
“Yeah, well, anyway. You…” The Captain let his gaze wander across the faces of the assembled science team (none of whom, surprisingly, had laughed or so much as scoffed at the younger man’s worries.) “You...” He repeated. “Are men of science. You have a job to do, tests to run, papers to cite, knowledge to obtain, and time not to waste. The oracle can talk all she likes, and you can listen all you like, but I’m afraid I can’t have you making decisions based on primitive hogwash. Any more than I could use a dowsing rod to steer my ship. Understood?”
“Yes sir.” The science team nodded as one.
“And as for this…” He finally turned his attention back to ███████’s tube. “I suppose you can keep it if you want; that is, if you reason your superstitions are worth the danger. Because hey, it’s not my lab, is it? Oh wait, that’s right: it is. Any damage comes out of all of your pay. You have fun now.”
And with a pompous flair, the Captain turned and strode out of the lab.
The scientists turned back to their work. “The oracle’s made prophecies before.” One of them muttered, after a few minutes of silence.
“Shut up.” Another one mumbled back.
“And she’s always been right… Why do you think we keep her around?”
“Shut up.”
“If she isn’t a prophet of the Creator God, then I don’t know wha—”
“I said shut up!”
“Fine. Geez…”
From the edge of the room, from within her tube, ███████ listened to all these things. She understood every word that was said, and she found it all quite fascinating, and adjusted her plans.
She looked forward to her next escape from the tube.
She looked forward to talking with the ‘oracle’.
She looked forward to killing the Captain.
And it would all happen, just as she planned.
She would survive.
“Hello, subject 148, this is Dr. cl;**4…” The young man with the rebellious heart rubbed sleep from his eyes as he spoke into the translator. “So… You understand me, right?”
A nod.
“Good… Uh… Why did you kill those men?”
She shied away from him.
“How about Dr. &R/\BJ? Why’d you kill him? You two seemed friendly…”
She covered her face with her hands. “I’m sorry…” She responded.
“’Sorry’…? Really? Yeah sure, you’re ‘sorry’. But there’s a lot that ‘sorry’ can’t make right…”
“You saved my life.” She told him.
“Huh?”
“I… I can understand a little of your language.” She admitted. “Just a little… And I heard that your leader wanted to kill me, but you saved me… You… Even after what I did, you stood up for me…”
“Oh…” Dr. cl;**4 frowned at her. “Yeah… I guess I did. Just seemed like the right thing to do I suppose… I mean, you might not have known what you were doing… Or maybe you did… Did you?”
“I knew I was killing them…” She whispered. “I… I thought you were all my enemies.” Her tone and body language were carefully bashful, remorseful. “I saw you invade, I saw you kill my friends… I thought if I killed a few then I could escape, I… I thought you were all liars and murderers…”
Dr. cl;**4 scoffed. “Yeah… Honestly, yeah… We’re… Well, it’s no secret that we’re all about sick of the Captain… A lot of the things we’re doing… I tell you what, you couldn’t have been abducted by a worse ship. But… But that was it? You just thought it was self defense?”
“I thought it was…”
“We’re not all bad. Dr. &R/\BJ wasn’t bad; I’m not bad, I don’t think. Most of us are pretty decent. It’s just… It’s just this work.”
“Back on my world…” ███████ ventured. “I had to go out every morning and milk the 7$#ML4da **… And I never wanted to milk them, and they never wanted to be milked, but it was my job and we needed to eat… I guess it’s the same way for you, isn’t it?”
“Yep… That’s… That’s just how it is.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay… And… We really do want a happy ending here. We don’t want you stuck in this tube forever. Things are going to change, so… Yeah. Just don’t kill any more people, okay?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I won’t.”
“Okay…”
“Also…” She spoke up. “May I speak to the priest you mentioned…?”
“The oracle…? Uh…” cl;**4 blinked. “I don’t see why not…”
These scientists really weren’t all bad.
Not nearly. There were some bad ones, but many more were decent. And their decency would be their downfall, for they would allow her to live, and they would trust her, confide in her, maybe even befriend her.
She would feed their distrust of their captain and of each other.
And she would survive.
“Hello ███████”
███████ arose from her sleep to behold a new creature standing in the room, which she paused to regard for a moment or two.
This one was unique. It didn’t have the mannerisms of a soldier or a scientist or an officer. Indeed, it seemed to share nothing in common with the rough, cold, metallic world around it. Its thin, grey face and fingered hands set it apart from the tentacled others, and its long, plain cloak with its careful stitching and earthy colors seemed almost to have been plucked from an older, humbler chapter of history. And its seven eyes sparkled with a quiet, warm sorrow, as if it had witnessed the end of all that it knew, and did not mourn the loss.
This was an alien among aliens. A creature out of time and place.
The oracle.
“You understand me even without the translator.” The oracle said. “Don’t you.”
███████ blinked.
“Thus we may speak candidly.” The oracle smiled. “They are not listening.”
“…Oracle.” ███████ smiled. “It is truly a pleasure to meet someone of your-“
“Don’t give me that. You see me as nothing but a tool.” The oracle put her hands on her hips. “You seek not my doctrine nor my wisdom or my warnings; I am a crystal ball to you. You wish only to know the future.”
“…I would like to hear any words you have to say.” ███████ answered carefully.
“Of course you would.” She shrugged. “So long as they are preaching doom and damnation upon your enemies, destruction and fire upon this ship… A woman who speaks mysteries is a novelty, but at the end of the day, people only listen to what they want to hear… Although the answer is yes. This ship will crash. It will be brought down, to a place of such gravity that no man will be able to raise it back up.”
“…Why doesn’t the captain believe you?”
The oracle sighed, and spread her robes to show her wrists. They were bound in metal shackles. “I am but a prisoner as well.” She admitted. “A novelty. Just as you interest them by changing forms, I interest them by speaking prophecies they do not believe, from a God they do not worship… They may listen, but it seems they will never truly believe before the end…”
“…When exactly will that be? Time and date?”
“No. It is not an eventuality to prepare for.” The oracle corrected her. “It is a punishment to avoid… The time, in particular, is not for us to know, for it is proper that we should live all our days in humility and repentance, not only our last.”
“…What exactly will be the cause of the ship’s crash?”
“Things well beyond you or I.”
There was a strange silence in the lab for a few moments, while ███████ thought about how utterly useless the prophet’s words were. “So…” She assessed. “You are either unable or unwilling to furnish any specific details… When or how is still a mystery, so what’s the point in even speaking of it? Why did you come to meet me in the first place if you’re so set on being useless?”
“Because I was given a prophecy for you, ███████.”
She tilted her head curiously.
“About your oath.” The prophet said.
She froze, and looked hard into the seven eyes. That oath? She wondered.
“Yes, that oath.” The prophet spoke slowly and carefully. “The oath to kill every last man, woman and child on this ship… That oath.”
That oath had never been said aloud. The oracle had absolutely no way of knowing it. As an understatement, the oracle now had her full attention.
“You MUST forget all about it.” The woman commanded her. “Repent of it. Move past it. Turn from it… It’s… Wrong. Don’t harbor such thoughts. Their deaths should be on you…” Something broke in the prophet’s voice, and ███████ wasn’t sure if it was due to fear or sadness. “This ship will crash and burn.” She continued. “And everybody onboard will die in their own time, in their own way, just as all mortals must… You don’t need to concern yourself with them. You don’t need to bother. They have their reward. All you can do is look to yourself, and to your own heart and soul…”
“…You lecture me?”
“I lecture all who will listen.” The prophet pleaded. “Just as the Captain walks a selfish, violent path, and his dogmatic pride holds him to it, so you walk a path of deceit and murder to uphold your evil oath. You and the Captain are the same! So stubborn, so irreverent, beholden to nobody but yourself, and you will stick to it for no reason but that you conceive you must… And I fear that great and just harm will befall both of you before journey’s end, for neither of you would ever dare admit even the tiniest error in your ways…”
“There IS no error.” ███████ stood and hissed savagely. The prophet stood her ground. “There has never BEEN an error. Don’t insult me by pretending to know me, or by pushing vague, misguided notions of morality on me. This ship and the people aboard have fallen afoul of me, and I will do as I please about it, and who is your ‘god’ to judge me?”
“My ‘God’…” The prophet stated. “Is the foundation and the author of every moral law you scoff at. My God is the creator of totality itself, and he is not mocked by one of its denizens… But he is a just and loving God. He would heal you, in the moment that you turn to him.”
The silence hung in the room for what felt like minutes, while ███████ locked eyes with the oracle. Finally she smiled. “We should do this again sometime.”
“Ha. Well.” The oracle smiled, even laughed just a little. “If you like… But before I go, the prophecy I was given for you…” She hesitated. “Is that you will survive the crash. And if you do not repent before then, a life of lonely pain awaits you.”
“Bye-bye now.”
“…Goodbye.”
God was a fallacy and a deception. The powers that be were nothing more than powers.
And she was a power herself.
She had the power to survive.
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