7Seven Secret Space Guppies
It's time to make everything clear, I let you wait for long enough now...
Chapter 9: Discovering the unthinkable
The next day started. Nonny was ready again. He just woke up.
"Good morning, sweaty!" Oona said, standing next to him. Nonny took his glasses and looked up.
"Oh hey Oona." He said.
"You never have slept that long. Even Gil woke up before you, haha!" Oona said.
"Gil." Nonny mumbled.
"What? I didn't hear you." Oona said.
"Oh eh nothing. Where's the rest?"
"We took breakfast already, you were sleeping, and we didn't want to wake you up. From the cafeteria, everyone went in a different direction. I went back here to check on you...
"Hmm okay..."
"You should take breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day!"
"Myth, but okay..."
"If you need me, I'm at the medbay, as usual. See you later!" And Oona left. Nonny did his morning routine and left the quarters.
"Goby, where are you?" He said to his arm-radio.
"Ah, you're finally awake, I'm in the training room with the rest. Come and join us." Goby answered.
"We have to talk," Nonny added, "about Gil, you know." There was a moment of silence.
"Right, I'm coming immediately."
"See you at the cafeteria." Nonny said, and he started running to it.
Minutes later, Goby arrived too.
"Pfouh, that was a whole convincing operation, but I don't think they suspect me of anything." Goby said.
"Let's sit down and talk." Nonny replied, and he pointed at a table in a corner. Goby went to it.
"Now that I'm here, I could take my breakfast too." Nonny thought. He went to the counter and took coffee and a croissant.
"Well Bown appéti, mownsieur Nonny."
"We are the only ones that suspect something with Gil. He out of nowhere eats endives, something he finds disgusting, and Gil is not the most open person to try new things. Then the knife in his foot, impossible that he didn't felt anything. Just a small scream of surprise. After that, in the briefing room, he didn't seem to remember the name of his ship. I saw his confused face when Valen said, 'May Bonaparte be victorious!'. And it's not over, out of a sudden, Zooli goes offline. When we want to scan her, he finds an excuse to leave! And before a mission, and with who did Zooli have to be with? Gil! Who disappears for the whole mission and reappears at the end. I don't think these were coincidences."
"Can I talk now?" Goby asked.
"Go on."
"I've thought about all of it, and every time, Gil's excuses look valid..."
"But I've still one thing to show. Follow me." Nonny drank his coffee and left. Goby followed him.
"Where the Hell did you bring me to?" Goby asked.
"This is the archive room. Here the WPP stores all their mission reports. Let us take..." Nonny was searching. "... The 3rd squadron report of our latest mission!"
"What does it say then?" Goby approached.
"Complete wipe-out, only one survivor..."
"That's Gil!"
"Nope. Gil isn't part of that squadron. The survivor is Sergeant-Major Olsen. Wounded, but alive."
"... So?"
"I want to know what happened. Follow me."
"I've never seen him that energetic." Goby thought.
The duo rushed to the Med bay. "Hey Oona! Is there a certain Olsen here?" Nonny asked.
"Uhm, yeah, the third bed to the right. But wh..."
"Thank you sweetheart!" And Nonny already left. Oona looked at Goby, who lifted his shoulders.
"Sergeant, Olsen?" Nonny asked, approaching the bed. There was a lobster in it with a bandage around his head.
"Ja, I'm Olsen. What do you want?"
"I'm Nonny from the ETS. I'd like to know what happened, the moment the 3rd squadron got destroyed."
"Osh ja, it's a miracle I made it out alive. So, what happened at that moment, hmm. I can vaguely remember. Oh, no wait! I remember!"
"Yes..."
"A couple of OD squadrons attacked us from different directions. We resisted well, but our defence got broken from behind..."
"Uhuh..."
"A, a camouflaged OD spaceship shot us too, and everyone was disoriented. I made it out, miraculously."
"A camouflaged OD spaceship, you said?"
"Ja! A WPP ship shot at us. Or it was a traitor! In any case, it was a bakhold! An ambush..." Nonny started thinking.
"A traitor... Thank you, Sergeant." Nonny left.
"Get well!" Goby added quickly before chasing his friend.
"Gil, a traitor? You're serious, Nonny?" Goby asked.
"No! He got replaced and is still in captivity. They send this impostor with us on our mission in Sinus Iridium."
"What do you propose to do then?" Goby crossed his arms.
"Listen..."
During that same time, Molly, Gil, Deema and Zooli just finished playing a 2v2 basketball match.
"Haha! Losers. A revenge match?" Deema said teasing.
"For another time. But be prepared to get beaten." Gil answered.
"Sure haha. The losers can put everything away. Come, Molly, let's celebrate our victory with some food!"
"We'll join you guys later for lunch!" Gil said, and the 2 disappeared. He took the basket ball and Zooli tried to remove the net. She wrapped it up and headed to the storage room.
"And sho how Zooli watch ouut!" Gil wanted to throw the ball with a sprint, but bumped into Zooli instead. The 2 fell on each other.
"Ouwf, are you okay, Zooli?" Gil said. He wanted to get up from her, but stayed in push-up position above her, staring in her eyes.
"I, I, I... am fine, Gilly. Oh, sorry no, I didn't mean..."
"You have, beautiful eyes..." Zooli's temperature rose.
"Gil..."
"Zooli..." The 2 stared at each other.
"I, I don't think it's reasonable..."
"... I, nobody, will know." Gil had a little smile. "And... I know you want it."
"Gilly..." Zooli smiled, the 2 stood up and headed to the storage room, where they locked the door.
"Ah, finally, you guys are here. I was getting concerned." Molly expressed.
"Don't worry, we're here now." Gil and Zooli sat down.
"Hi guys, sorry that I'm late." Oona said, entering the cafeteria.
"You're not the last one. We're still waiting on Goby and Nonny." Deema replied.
"These 2 are busy with some things. They visited the last survivor of squadron 3. It's a real mystery." Oona added.
"We'll soon hear it! There you have them." Nonny had a little tool in his hand. Goby walked behind him.
"Nonny, what are you up to? What's that thing?" Molly asked. He ignored her and approached Gil.
"Woah, I don't need a picture of myself, thank you." Gil said.
"It's not a camera, but a robo-guppy scanner, from scientist Jiang." Gil looked nervous.
"And why do you scan Gil? Come on, Nonny, sit down and have lunch with us." Molly responded with.
"I have bad news," Nonny snapped in his fingers. Valen and several WPP guards entered the cafeteria, "Gil is not Gil. This is a robot." Everyone was dead-silent and shocked.
"Hahaha! Oh Nonny, you're so funny. Good joke man, good joke." Gil said, trying.
"If you knew me well, you would know I never joke. The OD doesn't know a lot about us."
"Nonny please! No, this is impossible! Not Gilly. That tool is broken, no!" Molly started panicking and getting angry at Nonny. He turned to her with the tool.
"You're not a robot, and if I scan Zooli... Robot! And if I scan myself... not a robot. It's hard to hear, but he is not your Gilly!' Molly was breathing intensively.
"You could have said that in another way..." Goby whispered in Nonny's ear.
"Corporal Gil, ehem, impostor! You're under arrest. Don't try to resist, there are no issues for you." Valen said. Molly started crying. The robot didn't resist, and was brought away.
"No! Gilly! GILLY!" She screamed. Oona and Deema comforted her. Zooli got up and left.
"Where's she going?" Goby asked.
"I don't know..." Nonny replied.
Zooli went to the quarters' bathroom and locked herself in.
"He, wasn't Gil! Gil, doesn't feel anything for me, I got manipulated. As a robot. But... I'm, I'm crying? I'm feeling, sad? As a robot. M Maybe, I'm more than, what I am..."
"Confirm auto-destruction?" Her systems' voice said.
"What you did, was inappropriate. Your sadness can't be seen, nobody will comfort me for what I and that thing did!"
"Confirm auto-destruction?"
"Stay away from Gil, from now on. Less emotional contact, it will harm you more... And now, the rest needs you. You can't give them up..."
"Auto-destruction cancelled." Zooli heard voices from the quarters, and left the bathroom. The rest was present, still comforting Molly.
"Zooli, why did you leave out of a sudden?" Oona asked.
"I, had to recharge my batteries. Then I went to the bathroom."
"They have Gilly! My Gilly! And we don't know where he is." Molly said, sobbing.
"I'm sure we'll find him back..." Oona said, trying to comfort her friend. Nonny was thinking. He snapped his fingers and turned to Zooli.
"Zooli, you have a place to store your thoughts in, right?" Zooli nodded. "That OD robot must have one too, and maybe he knows where Gil is. We just have to search back until the moment Gil got replaced. He might have heard Cesario or someone else saying where Gil was brought to."
"Do what you want, Nonny. Do what you want." Molly said. Nonny ran out of the room. Goby and Zooli followed him.
At the robotics department, Jiang was present.
"Oh hi guys! I'm sorry for your loss, about Gil. I heard about it. Hopefully you'll find him back soon..." She said.
"That's why we're here! We need to extract the thoughts of the robot Gil and see if he knows where the real Gil is. Is that feasible?" Nonny asked.
"It's a clever idea! We can always try. We already put the robot offline to prevent him from escaping. Likewise, we can access his thought storage safely, wait a minute, I'll get the body." After a minute, 2 WPP guards transported the lifeless body of the robot.
"Put it on this table, thank you. Okay, let's begin." Jiang started. The robotic operation began.
"It's located in the back of his head, we must very carefully open it, damaging the thought storage could disrupt the thoughts." First, Jiang removed the hair on the robot. Then, she cautiously used a laser to make an opening in the head.
"I think it's that part." Zooli commented, pointing at a grey box with a blue light on it. Jiang nodded.
"The input must be on the side... Here, good." Jiang connected a cable to it, and then to a monitor, projecting a menu.
"Hmm, that's an old OD security system. They forgot to update it or what, we are lucky. It won't take long... Done. We have full access to the thoughts."
"It happened approximately 3 days ago. Around noon." Nonny explained. Jiang was searching.
"There are so many, how can we find the right ones?" Goby asked.
"I can filter this easily. Only a dozen to search through." Jiang clicked on one. Weird text appeared.
"Of course, we have to decipher it from their special alphabet. I'll copy it to the translator... It says: I'm getting switched with the person I must replace. Close, but not the right thing, let's try the next one... The room is dark, I hope the WPP won't spot me. Not what we want, let's take this one maybe... Gil, the person I replace, is getting brought away to Furnerius. His fate is unknown to me..."
"Furnerius. Where is that?" Nonny asked. Jiang changed the interface of the monitor to a map of the Moon.
"It's a crater to the South-East. You should ask the high-command if there is any evidence of an OD base..."
"We'll do that. Thanks for you valuable help. See you later." Nonny said. The trio left. "We'll tell Valen about our discovery."
"Shall I go tell the rest about our discoveries?" Goby asked.
"You can do that, yeah." And the group split up. Nonny and Zooli continued to the briefing room.
"Nonny, Zooli. Everything alright? We must prioritize the liberation of Gil. I've done the maximum. Squadrons to search on the surface and in space, satellites to scan the Moon's surface, scouts,..."
"Furnerius is where Gil is." Nonny simply said.
"W... How do you know?"
"The robots have a thought storage, and it knew where Gil went. Jiang helped us to find it."
"Improvisation is a really good thing. I'll order the squadrons and scout squads to monitor the location, while you prepare to go to it."
"I ehm, doubt that Molly is operational... She was hit the hardest by the revelation."
"I'll appoint you as temporary leader then."
"B but... I'm not a leader figure?"
"I believe in you. Now, I'll send the orders and in half an hour, there'll be a briefing. Don't be late." Nonny and Zooli left.
"Leader... I?"
"You're fit for the job, you know..."
"I can't motivate, or lead. I'm more on my own..."
"Never seen you so open..." Nonny grinned.
"I'm not the best with emotions hehe, but I can read them from others. And you looked very sad since earlier..." Zooli was silent.
"I have a secret... But promise me not to tell it to anyone..." Nonny raised an eyebrow, but nodded. Zooli then told everything about her and 'Gil'.
"You thought it was Gil..."
"Yes... I had feelings, as it turned out, it was for something of my species..." Nonny was a bit uncomfortable.
"I, I, Yeah, I... Really it's difficult now..."
"And what we did, I thought he felt the same for me, but no..."
"It wasn't the real Gil..."
"True, so now I feel things for someone that I thought felt the same, but it wasn't him..."
"The probabilities..."
"I know it's complicated... Sigh, I just need to let it go, forget it, act normal... Thank's for listening, Nonny." Zooli hugged him. Nonny was a bit more uncomfortable.
What a revelation. Did you see it coming? I hope you enjoyed this one. Let's hope Gil is still standing...