Shantae and the curse of Weyland Yutani
"And they will survive the procedure?"
The words were not directed at the synthetics, and they knew it and opted to remain silent
"Yes, sir. Previous specimens –"
The younger man cut off the elder man with a growl
"I'm not asking about previous failures! All I want to know is; will these specimens live?"
The elder man was a little startled by his superior's outburst though if he noticed it he made no sign of it. He cleared his throat, wiped himself down and straightened his back
"Yes sir, I apologize – Yes, the specimens will live successfully"
"And we're positive their both male? Not simply an outward appearance"
The younger pale-white man removed his leather glove and held a hand up to the holographic images of the two different ultra sounds showing the early stages of a child developing, one further along than the other
"Yes sir, as per your specifications. All tests thus far have all stated them to be boys. The testes are already under deve-"
Holding up a gloved hand, he signalled for the elder man to stop talking with a horizontal wave
"A simple 'yes' is all I needed to hear. Anything….."
The pale man turned with a thoughtful expression
"…hmmmmm…..unusual? …out of the ordinary?"
The dark man understood what his superior was trying to get at. The unusual origin of the boys growing in the surrogate mothers. The unusual abilities of their original 'mother'
"No sir, surprisingly, their coming along normally, all things considered. Their developing with no notable side effects or unwanted altercations"
The pale man withdrew his hand from the images and examined both sides of his hand intently before putting his glove back on
"Excellent, I will return back to my ship, I have other business to attend to"
The pale man paused mid-stride as he was about to pass the darker skinned man and looked him up and down briefly before examining his hand again
"We're such…..simple creatures…..aren't we doctor? We can travel space, move through the stars and bend them to our will – and more recently we've acquired the unique ability to travel beyond our dimension as you lab boys are so fond of saying. And now we can explore new possibilities –"
He glanced back at the images and finished, almost tiredly
"Starting with these…..'genies' as they call themselves"
Looking down at his mechanical leg, he frowned
"So fragile – we rely on our intellect to allow us to grasp survival with both hands. Travel the stars, bend them to our will; yes. And yet, so weak. We cower behind our technology, as do the other 'non' humans we've encountered. We've been at war with ourselves constantly over such simple things in the grand scheme of things. Too stupid to learn, yet to stubborn to die and yet –"
He looked back at the tube lost in thought, then he simply left without another word, the soft click of his mechanical leg and the whisper of the door closing behind him as he left the room
"Doctor Benjamin Clark?"
One of the synthetics approached the dark skinned man and handed him a data pad
"The information you requested concerning the acquisition of the specimens material"
'genie' as it had called itself, or her, if her outward appearance could be believed. Her appearance was sudden and caused some drama to say the least. Apparently their experimental prototype had torn a hole in more than just their realities space time. It had closed soon after she had come through the crack in reality after the machine was shut down. Essentially stranding herself in an alien world purely out of curiosity.
Inspecting the information the data pad offered, Benjamin tried to imagine what it must have been like: To find yourself in a place that seemed familiar but was utterly alien. Apparently her native world had humans, which caused some arguments and disputes among the people who knew about her. Some said it was another universe, still within the laws of reality and physics, others said it was another of the multiverse, where our laws and causes of reality could possibly be thrown out the window.
Her 'magic' certainly made her popular with Weyland Yutani when they introduced themselves to her. She had done many things which had caused physics experts to scratch their heads in confusion. Regardless of her reasons or intentions of originally coming here, she wanted to return home. Though it was no longer possible with the tear closed.
The company did hesitate to ask if they could run some experiments on her, the company could have been her enemy or her friend – she chose what she hoped would make them the latter. After exerting some of her energy in various machines and devices to be tested and recorded and giving some blood and other various samples (some of which were more personal and required female staff to do the work and explanation)
Eventually, she had come to the company and asked them if they had done anything when the tear had opened and if they could do it again to help her return. The company had lied through its teeth and said they had done nothing. And that what little help they offered her was the best they could. Benjamin felt sorry for her. She was down there on the planet below somewhere in a valley all to herself, and she was unaware that her 'samples' were being used to birth two children for the company to do with it as it pleased.
He did indeed feel sympathy for the poor creature, stranded from home, she was probably still depressed about it all. She couldn't even properly socialize with the rest of the 70 million people on the planet below, being separated from them by company facilities, a series of large electrified fences and a large forest full of violent alien fauna and predators. She was only permitted to live amongst and talk with the family members of the company. While she wasn't alone, it wasn't the same as giving her freedom. Looking at the pad and sorting through the data. He felt….odd
"Well, at least she seems happy"
Benjamin wasn't aware he had spoken aloud until a synthetic responded to him
"Sir?"
"Nothing, nothing. Just talking to myself"
And indeed she did, from the outside, appear happy. The company had a large presence there, not as large as the civilian presence or the rapidly growing colonial marine presence thanks to deep space ships coming and going to the planet with marines either acting as escorts or coming here for a vacation or R&R as they liked to call it. But lots of the company's people had families with them. and she seemed to enjoy showing magic tricks to the children.
The planet Terridine had so far, had an eventful life, at least as far as its human occupiers where concerned; it had taken less time for atmospheric processors to make it habitable thanks to its already existing atmosphere, however toxic it had been, but as soon as humanity could live on it, they did. The planet had been chosen because it itself had some valuable resources to mine as well as the already existing atmosphere to boot. And so the planet had several large processors set up while the humans toiled away to strip the planet bare.
"Well, I'll leave you lot to it"
He handed the data pad back to the synthetic before walking out of the room, stopping at the door and glancing back at the space where the holographic images had occupied moments ago. Was his age of fifty starting to wear at him? He felt a slight pang of guilt and he had no idea why. While what they were doing was a massive violation of human rights, Benjamin learned long ago the company did what it wanted
With a tired sigh he left the room, the door closing behind him with a whisper as he craned his neck and felt a few satisfactory cracks. His thoughts drifted to the boys that would soon be brought into this universe through semi-unnatural means. Maybe he'd ask the genie herself if raising boys in her home dimension was any different to theirs, or, due to the initial complications with the genetics, if boys where meant to have genie blood in their veins at all.
"We have high hopes for you two-"
And then his thoughts drifted to his own home world momentarily and he remembered the screams, the invisible warriors and the black shapes all fighting amidst the death and carnage
"- for your sakes I hope you don't disappoint"