Author's Notes

This is an AU, set far in the future with better technology and to be blunt, a less prosperous earth. It focuses mainly on the research of an ancient civilisation, aka. the age of the Digimon…so should be a fun ride. I got the idea from watching Aliens, but no-one is going into outer space.

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.


Human Nature

AU There are times when humans are the worst monsters of them all. There are some who would do anything for wealth and power. Even resurrect an age that could destroy them all. But not everyone's going to let that happen.

Kouichi K & Junpei S

Genre/s: Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure

Rating: T


Chapter 1

Blue eyes, dark but encasing a mysterious spark like a gem the gem miners sometimes mined (lapis lazuli they were called), narrowed slightly in concentration as the owner entered the new data in the computer. It was a tedious task, but it was saved a lot of time and resources in the long run…as long as it was done correctly. He wasn't quite sure what was done with the information once it was entered into the database, but at the same time, as an archaeological scientist, it wasn't his job to worry about it. He simply analysed what was brought back to him: fossils, soil quantities and reports, both old and new, then incorporated the new-found knowledge into what they originally knew, updating the database on such occasions, and sometimes, less often now, discovering a species not consistent with any on record and thus creating a new profile for it.

Analysing and discovering was the best part of this job. But with every scientific advancement came the onus of revealing that knowledge to the world so it would be somehow utilised. While looking at prehistoric fossils may not appear as useful or, discovering a cure for cancer for example, this ancient and viable civilisation, they were slowly discovering, had survived and prospered at a time that stretched beyond their geological records. And yet the sedimentation was amazing; each bone structure, each protein filament, meticulously designed. One could even surmise that those structures were relatively recent, if billions of years of decay were not evident on the natural waxy tomb that entrapped and preserved them.

Bits of their habitat were also preserved, and the range of environments in which they survived and diverse surpassed even the Bacteria and Achaea. The closest known kingdom they resembled was Animalia, but as the remnants of further new species were discovered and documented, they found little differences taking on a further divergence. Their protein structure was different, and more lasting; heck, if they could find away to synthesise that, they would be one step closer to eternal youth, and even further, immortality.

But again, that wasn't his job, so there was essentially no use dwelling on it. He was a scientist yes, but not of that sort. It was a long, stepwise process, and were, keying in the last of the updates, checking and saving the fine, was his part to play in all that.

He took the scattered remains of a long gone past and piece by piece wrote their story.

The door slid open, then shut, but he didn't see who had entered, having his back to the entrance as he scanned the data logs as a final check.

'You had a problem with something?' a gruff voice asked, as soon as he located the newly updated file.

These technicians, so impatient. He couldn't help but smile slightly at that as he slipped off the high stool. 'Not with the computers,' he said, somewhat amused, grabbing a sanitised pair of gloves and a mask and slipping them into a pocket of his lab coat.

'I wasn't given any details Kimura-san,' the technician stated.

The scientist sighed, then shook his head in mild exasperations. 'Just Kouichi,' he said, a little tiredly, scanning his key-card through the door. 'We've known each other long enough.'

'Time has no relevance here,' the other countered, following. 'And you call me Shibiyama-kun.'

'That's true,' Kimura Kouichi mused, unlocking another door and gesturing the other in. 'But no-one can deny that time passes.'

'Except when I look at you,' the technician rebuked. 'You haven't aged a day since I first arrived and was put under your partial jurisdiction.'

He said it half jokingly, but that did not change the fact that it was true.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

'The problem?' the chocolate-haired technician questioned.

'Oh…yes.' The other shook his head a moment. 'Gomen nasai, I forgot.' He went over to the microscope and slid a prepared test slide in. 'The fine focus knob isn't adjusting,' he said, turning away. 'And there seems to be something wrong with the light.'

The other took his place. 'The light?' he questioned, fiddling with the knobs a bit, before pulling out his screwdriver and tightening or loosening wires, seemingly at random. A few more fiddling, then: 'There. Your focus is all fixed, butt I don't see anything with the light, except the filament's running low.'

'It's not the filament,' the other clarified, crossing his arms in a thoughtful manner. 'It's this blur sort of light, but only when I first put a slide or sample under the lens. Sometimes.'

'Oh?' The technician looked curious. 'Could you show me?'

The young raven haired scientist nodded, taking the slide that was offered to him in his bare hands and replacing it. To be honest, it was hard to tell what age he was. One could assume at first sight that he was merely fifteen, but not only was that a tad young to live at the scientific institute, let alone be trusted to do the work he did, but the fact that he hadn't seemed to have aged a day in the five years that he, Shibayama Junpei, had been working here, protested quite loudly against that assumption.

He turned his attention back to the microscope, noting the flare of light the other had been talking about. 'Hmm…have you replayed the monitor?'

'I couldn't,' Kouichi pointed out. 'Lack of focus.'

'Ah, of course.'

Junpei frowned a little more over the mechanics, before withdrawing and packing up his equipment with a quick polish. 'It's certainly not anything technical.'

Then he sighed, wondering how it would be to be locked in this facility, day in and day out, never seeing the sun. The real sun anyway; the artificial lighting acted as a pantomime thereof with relatively the same function: providing light and sustaining life. It even stimulated vitamin D synthesis on the skin, even through the protective layers that were frequently adorned. But still, at least he got to sometimes go out with the "digging crew" as he called them; they always required a technician on board, and the assortment deployed in the institute rotated through the roster.

'What is it?' The blue eyes regarded him curiously.

'Don't you ever get sick of this place?' he asked, knowing full well he was speaking out of place, but knowing at the same time that the other was right; five years was a long time, and seeing as, since the very beginning, he was a technician bad been assigned to him.

The other looked at the door before answering. 'Sometimes, this place feels like a cage. But it's the only home I've ever known. And I have family here.'

Junpei nodded. He understood how that felt; his own family was far away right now, and the occasional times he saw them, he couldn't help but wish he was with them more often. But he needed to work, there was no two ways about that, and this was an extremely well paying field. Even when it did take people away from their homes for long periods of time, often to isolated places where few humans worked.

It was remarkable what existed beyond current civilisation.

Which reminded him.

'We're returning to Tokyo soon. The scout of this are is almost complete.'

The other nodded. Seeing as his father was one of those who led the expedition, it didn't really matter to him. 'You'll be visiting your family again?'

'Yep.' Junpei showed off his grin, glad for the opportunity to simply 'talk' now that all the business was taken care of, and the digger crew either hadn't arrived yet or didn't have anything to report. 'Feels like I haven't seen them in forever; can never keep track of time in this place.' To be honest, the only reason he knew that five years had passed was because their equipment (the technicians, not the scientists) were updated every five years, and he was still in the process of breaking in the sew set. Despite the fact it was hard to keep track of time when out of contact with most of the world, he knew it couldn't have been too long ago. Watches were pretty useless, what with all the metal that was dug up and tossed around. All equipment they used were resistant to metal interference. They had to be.

The pager in the lab coat pocket going off interrupted any further conversation. Kouichi quickly scanned through the message, before tapping a reply and slipping his gloves and mask on.

'Another sample?' Junpei asked, glad his job didn't demand quite as much work. The other looked exhausted.

The scientist nodded, scanning his key-card at the door to admit the newcomers, a pair he only vaguely recognised. They only stayed long enough to hand him a capsule (larger than what he normally got but not the largest; there had been a baluchitherum like skeleton once) along with the field report, then leave for some well earned rest.

'Call me if there's anything else that needs fixing,' Junpei said, heading for the door himself, before they automatically locked him in again (his key didn't work for the lab room).

'Sure thing,' the other replied, a little distractedly as he was already absorbed with the capsule.

The technician chuckled and left, leaving the scientist to his work.


The second Kouichi looked into the capsule, he had realised there was something different about it. For one, it resembled an egg, like a chicken's egg, only bigger for one thing, and containing some sort of intricate patterns for another.

He had looked at the assumed egg surface quite closely once he managed to work off the dirt, carefully drawing out the array of symbols and shapes he found before back-crossing them with the hieroglyphs already on record. He took the ten minutes required by the computer for th process to grab a quick snack; a nap would have to wait if they were planning on moving out soon. That tended to happen quite frequently; a dull period while the archaeologists were out searching, then long busy hours when the findings fell over each other.

Well, he mused. A least he had gotten a brief break this time.

The scanning complete, he looked at the screen printing their results. The hieroglyphs, someone had discovered (not him; his job was to decipher sediment structures, soil content and physiological associates, though the only chances he'd had of the latter revolved around separating their growing research to the kingdom of "Digital Monsters" as they has been named by the biomorphologist, from other known organisms that inhabited the same earth as they) contained a cross of ancient Egyptian and a more complicated level of computer code that few people outside the scientific institute knew about, much less understood. Interestingly. The only evidence they had been able to find on a once living life-form (the rest were on walls of what looked to be once great structures no descended into rubble with time and age) was the phrase "Digital Monster" which had led to the naming of this kingdom…no, superkingdom, because they had been able to find no evidence of cellular life. It could bring about a new wave of scientific research; life possible without the smallest units of life known to mankind.

This one read differently. It said two things actually, criss-crossing over one another in their endless repetitions. 'Poyomon" – must be a name, he surmised, because it was no word he was aware of, and "baby" which was quite obvious.

He searched the Poyomon through the database anyway, but came up with nothing. He hadn't expected to that early, turning away from the lab monitor to stare at the egg and the sediment soils, both now separated from each other.

The soil always went before the structure, so he mounted a slide, separating the rest out into the clean test-tubes and staining each with a different dye to indicate content.

What he found was a little…odd. Normally, the metallic content was high, but in this particular content, it was virtually non-existent. And that wasn't the only thing. All the essential elements that made up viable protein structures: carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, oxygen, hydrogen etc., appeared to have been leeched from the soils but there were no saprotrophs or detrivores present at all, or any evidence of such. The soil had, essentially, been sucked dry.

He wondered if there was something parasitic in or on the egg. But there wasn't. What he found however under the microscope, piercing through the hard exterior with a nanoscope, was something he had not expected in the slightest.

Protein structures in a constant dynamic, for unlike the decayed structures down to their most stable forms he had always seen.

That thing inside the egg was alive. Alive. And all this time, they had been researching an extinct civilisation.

He knew there was nothing of this on the database. He was sure of it. And yet, staring at the shifting strands (which somewhat resembled DNA except it lacked the four nitrogenous bases, instead containing segments of codes they had linked back as similar to the artificial intelligence computer programmes, though somewhat unreplicable), he couldn't help but get an almost frightening sense of déjà vu. But he couldn't fathom why.

But it wasn't on the records. Every piece of information someone discovered went on to that database. Everything.


Post Author's Notes

In a gross simplification, you could say that protein make viable living bodies. After all, DNA codes for amino acids, which link together to form proteins that basically make up a functional body. Some metals are trace elements, ort of like point centres that help structure and stability, and other elements – seriously, don't need to explain hydrogen and oxygen. Yamaki mentioned in season 3 that digimon bio-emerged into the real world by synthesising protein bodies. Protein is made out of nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and the nitrogenous bases…oh yeah, and sulphur. Then they have other stuff with them sometimes, like copper and ion in haemoglobin for oxygen transport etc. The way organisms synthesise these is a major divider in classification. Lots of bio and chem. In there. Ironic, 'cause I was doing thermodynamics (physics) when I wrote this up.