…And, so I dared to dream…
Ah, yet another attempt to broach head first into something I sometimes actually think I do a decent job at. (I don't own this show or it's shwag.)
#2 What is the anatomy of horror?
The hospital wing of the Nirvana was occupied by three people, although only one of them needed medical attention. Dita lay in the bed; the two deep slashes across her stomach were stitched up and smeared with medi-gel, then bandaged up. Hibiki was asleep in a chair next to her bed, he hadn't left her side since they'd returned, and swore he wouldn't till she regained consciousness, so as long as he stayed out of the way, Duerro simply ignored him. He checked her vitals, and satisfied that she would remain that way, left to attend to his next task. He walked over to the door marked "SEALED ENVIORNMET." As he got within a few feet of the door a switch cover slid automatically out of the way. He punched his code in, and the door irised out of the way. He washed his hands, and pulled a pair of gloves out of a wall receptacle. He walked up to a floor length steel cabinet, and punched another code into a recessed numerical pad. A lock clicked, and he pulled open the door, and grabbed a large satchel out of it. He walked to another door, and dialed it open, and stepped through. There was a full length glass window next to a door marked with the biohazard cross, and a bank of recording equipment. He flicked on the equipment, and then thumbed a switch on the belt pack for his boom mic. He cleared his throat, saw it register on a computer, and then stepped through the final door.
"Doctor Duello Mcfile reporting for autopsy of unknown hostile recovered from station Faded Glory." Duello walked to the table, which adjusted itself to the perfect examine height for Duello, and a tray table scooted up and relived him of the satchel. Tiny hydraulic powered arms flipped up from under the tray and unrolled the satchel, revealing a long roll of shiny tools. As Duello grabbed the zipper on the bright orange haz-mat bag, three arms mounted spot lights popped on and adjusted to provide the best light angle. After the bag was fully unzipped and folded down, an arm with what looked like a black light wand began prowling back and forth over the corpse.
"Exterior of the creature," Duello began to pull measurements and readings with tools closest to him, "is what appears to be a human torso. No legs or arms, or superficial signs of either. Face seems human, lacking any visible signs of nasal cavities, regular set of eyes, with a second set, which appear to be mechanical in nature. Length at 2 feet 71/2 inches from roof of skull to base of spine, weighed at… 130 pounds total mass. Dual cylinders of a yet unidentified metal seemed to be fused to the back." A small beep sounded, and screens against the wall to his left clicked on. They showed silhouettes of different areas of the creature.
"X-ray scans appear to be unable to penetrate the outer layer of the creature, Beginning autopsy." Duello dropped the two tools he had been using into the incineration bin. He reached over and the tray handed him a thermometer and what looked like a blue stick with a small screen on it. He slid the thermometer into the abdomen, and stabbed the chest with the other device.
"The outer shell of the creature is composed of… human skin, with amounts of an unknown element that seems to match the composition of the metal components attached to the back. Internal temperature is listed as…75 degrees." He discarded those tools, and grabbed the scalpel. He split the skin from top of the skull, down the smooth face, down to the base of the spine.
"Outer layer of…skin, is under layered with a thin sheet of metal. Interior contains… a human skeleton, minus aforementioned appendages. This structure is made of bone, all major organs are accounted for…hmmm, this is peculiar, this creature appears to have had its appendix removed surgically." Duello looked thoughtful for a second, then grabbed a thing, stabbed a kidney, and placed it in a receptacle, closed it, and pressed a button. "Piaway, test this sample for me, please." He got an okay, and dialed another channel. "Miss Gascogne, could you send a tech to med bay 3 for assistance, please?"
"No problem." Was all she said, to him. She turned and yelled at someone off camera as the feed dropped. 4 Minutes later a man in a black cloak cycled into the sterile room, hands buried in metal gauntlets.
"What's up, Doc, needed another set of graspers?" He said, eyeing the corpse.
"Yes," he said in his usual tone, "take a look in there, and tell me what you think you see." He gestured to the exam table. The tech raised his eyebrow, but walked over to the table. He looked in without obvious surprise.
"Looks like someone shoved a robot up some guy's ass." He said simply after a moment's hesitation. When the doctor did not reply the tech sighed, and made a full analysis.
"Okay, as you can see, there are some kind of appendages tucked behind the organs of the stomach region. They seem to be mirroring the ones folded over and then into the rib cage." He worked around for a minute, and when he was done, thin metal arms and legs, dominated by multi jointed razor sharp appendages. "Now, as you can see, these are directly attached to the spine, which is completely composed of metal. When we examine the skull, we see that the top of the skull, and most of the face are bone, yet the upper jaw, lower jaw and base of the skull are metallic." He looked smug, as he continued, "So I'd say we've got ourselves a cyborg, and a very advanced one, at that. The whole thing looks brand new, how was it killed?" Duello was entering the info into a terminal. He answered without turning.
"It was shot with a whole clip of metal shredding rounds, with a single side arm round between the secondary eyes."
"Hmm, there isn't a scratch on a single surface. The organic layers must have absorbed all off the trauma, but there isn't a mark on the forehead at all."
"Okay… well, seal that up; we've got to go report to the captain." The tech nodded, and zipped up the bag, and the both left the sterile room, and into the prep room. As Duello stripped his gloves, a small beep sounded and a light blinked on a console. He walked up, typed a few strokes, and waited while data pooled onto the screen. The Tech walked over and gazed at the screen as well.
"Looks like your correct about the creature being a cyborg, DNA match to human."
"Hmm, well, that's something… let's run it against the crew roster of the Glory and see who our violent friend is, scoot over." He elbowed the doctor gently out of the way, and a flurry of keystrokes later, looked surprised and stood back. "Hmm, looks like someone did shove a robot up his ass. Any further discussion was rendered nil as the lights popped off, and intercom started blaring an alarm.
"Warning! Multiple hull attachments! Inbound hostiles matching the description of those found aboard the Faded Glory! All hands report to battle stations, all other available personnel gear up and prepare to repel boarders! Most likely initial breaches estimated on decks C, D, and F, sections 5, 12, and 38, EVA gear required in all adjacent sections!" The doctor turned to exit, and thumbed the lock release to no effect. He then remembered that directly after a ship wide alert, that most digital doors would not open, because incase of a breach, it allowed bulkhead doors to seal and atmosphere to be stabilized. There was a taping noise of metal against glass, and Duello turned.
"Why are you tapping on the window?"
"I'm not…" the tech's reply was chopped of as the wind shattered into thousands of pieces, and a child sized body landed in the center of the room, balanced on eight thin metal legs popping out from it's back. It reared back, so it's spine base was near the floor, and skeletal pair of thin metal poles sprouted from where legs and arms were supposed to be. Large clusters at the end of the poles sprung open into four razor edged "fingers." The creature's movements became jerky as eight flashes strobed the darkness and red as the tech emptied his side arm into the creature. The thing was stunned, but still "standing," until a small click and another eight flares dropped it to the ground, and a flurry of booted stomps to the cranium stopped it's movement. A second later the lights clicked on, and Duello raised his eyebrow at the tech.
"Yep, the Colt 1911 pistol, one of my personal favorites." The doctor continued to stare. "What? That impatient gal isn't the only one who enjoys classic weapons." The doctor was still not satisfied. The tech sighed, "I was a lieutenant in the Taraak Combat engineers."
"Good, then your with me to help with the wounded."
"Oh, ok doc, no problem, what first?" He unslung another weapon from beneath his cloak. "And now, presenting the Heckler and Koch Mp 5. Let's heal us some people." He yanked the charging lever and smiled in anticipation.
