A long comb slid out of the silver collection of tools then slide through hair taking several out with a fine stroke then returned into the sea of silver, shiny metal that had unique shapes standing out to the eye and gears were slowly moving from below the machinery. The bundle of hair was moved into a packet then carefully removed by Frink joined by his colleague Bryan. Frink handed the packet to Bryan with a long, dreadful stare. A bad feeling sank down into the Kanetaran's gut watching Bryan walk off toward the doors. The doors whished open then closed behind the whistling human.
Orders were orders when the law was being followed down to the letter for the right purpose. Then why was Frink getting such bad vibes about it? That it was the wrong thing to do in the first place. Frink had been part of numerous cloning to help archeologists find out mysteries left by the dead and had been part of their adjustment periods to the new era. Never before had the feeling came so strong. Felt like it were the beginning of the end of his assignment. Frink turned in the direction of the pods then the camera moved after Bryan following after his footsteps.
Bryan went into the lab then approached a red head in front of a desk.
"This is Major West's sample, Red," Bryan said, handing the brown packet to the red head and the the black packet. "and this is the unknown intruder."
Red looked at the packets.
"Hm," Red said, observing the packets then looked back up. "You performed a trace analysis on the hair samples the color they had been before."
"It's a automatic feature on these pods," Bryan said.
"Does the captain wish to know the intruders name during the cloning process?" Red asked.
"If Kurlow was interested in his name," Bryan said. "He would have asked for his brain to be cloned not his entire body."
"Just asking," Red said.
Bryan walked away from Red then Red walked toward the center piece of the lab joining a group of scientists surrounding two set up pods that had blue liquid. Red handed the packets to two members of the group then the packets were deposited into the small container on the sides to the pods and closed. Others split off going toward the large computers with glowing buttons and began to set in the commands. A uterus fell into the blue liquid then slowly a figure began to form in each pod. Eyes were carefully watching the speeding up process. The figures grew large and larger before their eyes curled into fetal position. Their facial features changed subtly by the passing hour until the bodies belonged to two new individuals with faces that told their character making them stand out.
The liquid in the pods were sucked out by a powerful vacuum.
"I can't believe it took a week for them to grow," Red said,
"A week," whistled Cazzie the lizard member of the group.
"Why can't it take a average baby a week to be produced on Earth?" Red asked.
"Because you take time," Cazzie said. "Always pays off for you."
"Slow and easy they go," Red said,
Red stared in horror at one of the pods.
"Major West is waking up," Red's eyes widened in horror watching his eyes open as horror spread through the room as everyone froze where they were
"I TOLD YOU TO MAKE HIM A DRONE, Jarcob!" Red screamed.
"Oh no," Jarcob's voice was small from the group.
West's eyes darted from side to side then looked over freezing, alarmed, spotting the side of a familiar face.
"OH SUPERNOVA NO!" Red shouted.
One of the calmer members of the group slid in a vial and put in a code.
"Putting in sedatives," the tall pitch black fur covered geneticist said.
"Put it in, now!" Red demanded.
"It's going in, Red!" was returned.
"Jarcob," Red demanded, facing the group. "You were in charge of Major West's resurrection."
A Natalan, a dwarf with husks and large pointed ears, raised their hand up.
"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I did everything as instructed," Jarcob said.
"Good going, Jarcob," came the mumbles.
Red came over to the other pod then stopped at the panel with a grimace.
"For the wrong space gods condemned person," Red said.
She opened the panel up then slid the keyboard up that consisted of several buttons then pressed one by one. On the screen appeared green, miniature hieroglyphics that her eyes appeared to be scanning one by one with lines that made shapes on the screen. A frown appeared on her face. She pressed another button making another box appear on the screen. Red's face began to turn a heated red with bending fingers and her eyes saw complete destruction in the landscape.
West's eyes slowly closed with the drugs kicking in as he was separated from the stranger while horror was on the face of the person who had manned the stranger's pod.
"We can start over," Jarcob suggested.
"No, no, no, we don't," came another Natalan. "We just have to remake his brain."
"Not like that's a biggy," Red said, sarcastically yet sharply.
"Okay, I will fix it!" Jarcob said. "I can fix it. Fhill and I will reconstruct their brains."
"We don't have enough time to remake a second brain. What do we have is time to go in and perform surgery to make the necessary corrections for the brain that is currently used for Major West," Red paced the lab with her long cream colored fingers going through her hair. "And still have memories that can be used to determine the man's body language. If his muscle memory still has that."
"Do they still have the stranger's corpse?" Fhill asked.
Red turned toward the duo.
"Of course they do, the Saggarius is still on the way to the colonist corpse cyrostasis HQ," Red said. "In between sending archeological teams planet side for a few sites that had been found." Red glared at the dwarf. "Get that hair sample!"
"Course, Red!" the Natalans said at once.
The dwarves blasted past Red in a quick gray blur that turned the scene to white as the camera backed out to reveal a medical pod that had a figure breathing. There was a screen from below the pod with buttons that were glowing and the pod itself making light beeps. Fravis had his arms folded looking over the figure with a frown. He seemed to give reluctant to give the next set of orders. The figure was dressed in a outfit very similar to what was underneath the winter gear to the original corpse: a black two piece outfit that had a colorful shirt underneath the v-neck. Hands laid to his side while resting on his back. His eyes were moving underneath the eyelids, rapidly, brows furrowing showing the discomfort.
"Prepare the stranger for transfer to cell," Fravis said. Two officers dressed in white uniform walked past him. "How is Major West doing?"
Red joined Fravis by the side.
"Smoothly," Red said. "West should be ready to be operational whenever the stranger wakes up."
Fravis watched the pod be opened with a hiss.
"Good," Fravis said, stepping aside with Red.
"Red, do we need to add the ear translator?" one of the pod operators asked.
Red looked toward Fravis who only nodded.
"I got a good feeling that he will need the translator," Red said.
The stranger was lifted up to his feet, snoring, arms were wrapped around the shoulders of two officers. A officer came with a strange device that had the shape of a ear within a purple plastic mold. The device was stamped against the stranger's ear with a hiss then taken off then in a moment afterwards there was unique blue text that went into the ear and around it that seemed at best odd. The stranger was dragged away through the lab. Fravis closed his eyes, lowering his head, regretfully.
"It's a shame the first thing this stranger will be thrown into after this interrogation is no familiar faces," Fravis said.
"He will come around to forgive you," Red said. "They always do when it comes to this."
"What if he doesn't?" Fravis asked, turning toward Red. "Where I come from . . . you don't use the resurrected's supposed friends like that."
"It's the only way to do it without bringing in another person to a world of pain," Red said.
"He wouldn't have been alone," Fravis said, then held his hand up. "If it were my decision. . . I would have let the major have his mind." he lowered his hand linking it behind his back. "I am sure, that the century this man was from, it's even more of a common sense kind of deal."
Fravis walked by Red.
"What century is he from anyway?" Red asked.
Fravis stopped then turned halfway toward Red.
"The 20th century," Fravis then resumed his walk leaving Red stunned placing a hand on to her mouth in horror.