7Seven Secret Space Guppies
Gil's return is a blessing for the ETS and the WPP, but it will bring back old problems too...
Chapter 13: The shadow problems
Near the WPP space HQ, in orbit around the Moon
"Hannibal? Eagle 1 here. Send a medical team to hangar 4. We have a critically wounded person on board." The pilot said.
"Roger that Eagle 1, they will be present. Hannibal, over."
The transport ship landed. Flynn and the ETS got out. A large part of WPP personnel, including Lieutenant Moon, Jiang and Valen, were present. Gil got evacuated in a medical bed and everyone started clapping. Nonny and Oona were dragging Zooli out of the ship now. Jiang was shocked and ran to them.
"What happened, has her core been hit?" She asked.
"Emergency shutdown after getting in contact with a cold fluid. The OD took control of her with a new weapon tool." Nonny explained.
"That's not good! I must update her systems as soon as possible!"
"Help me transport it to the robotics department. Oona, you should go save Gil." Oona nodded and disappeared. Nonny and Jiang vanished too.
Valen approached Goby and Deema. "You did a really nice job by bringing Gil back. Let's all pray that he can be saved. This was by far the most bloody battle." Goby nodded.
"Let's announce our return to Molly, come Goby." Deema proposed, and the 2 left for their quarters.
Molly was sitting in a chair and looking through the window. She jumped out of it when she heard the door open.
"Molly!" The couple said.
"Goby! Deema!" Molly ran to them for a hug. "What happened to your arms?" She pointed at the makeshift bandages around them.
"Risks of our job, haha! But I think you suffered more. Have you seen your eyes?" Deema mentioned.
"Did you, find Gilly?" The 2 were silent. Molly sighed and a tear rolled over her cheek.
"We found him... But he's in a critical state. A medics team is taking care of him." Goby explained.
"Will he, survive?" Molly asked, sobbing.
"I, really, don't know. Gil is strong and..."
"They did some weird experimentation with his right arm. It was filled with tubes and chips..." Deema added.
"I want to see him! I want to see my Gilly!" Molly ran to the door, but was held back by Deema and Goby.
"No Molly please! You will disturb the medics, aoush my arm!" Goby explained. Molly sat on a bed, looking down. The 2 felt unusual.
"You found him, you brought him back... He won't die in an obscure OD base. You guys have done so much already. Thanks..." Molly said. Goby and Deema sat next to her. "Anything else that happened?"
"Cesario used a new tool to take control over Zooli. She, or he in fact, almost tried to kill me. I could activate the emergency shutdown, so Zooli wasn't too damaged. Only her leg..."
"She, turned against you?"
"Her movements and attacks, yes. But we were still able to communicate..."
"Turned against you..." Molly whispered.
"And also..." Goby wanted to add.
"Yes?" The girls said.
"N, nothing important." He thought about sharing Cesario's words, but he let it go.
At the robotics department, Jiang and Nonny were examining Zooli's corpse. Jiang was repairing the leg.
"She was one of the first prototypes, you know. Her systems must be updated to prevent such attacks. It's odd, because we updated her a little while ago." Jiang explained.
"This is not the first anomaly we had with her, the other time she randomly fell to the ground." Nonny replied.
"This, 'weapon tool' that controls her could have been used by the infiltrated robo-guppy. Taking control over the systems, and then shutting them down. But we don't know it, really. What I do know is that we installed more accurate scanners to detect if a person is a robot."
"I'm genuinely concerned about her. Maybe there's something in her that connects to the tool? It seems like only she can fall victim to that new weapon." Jiang smiled.
"You're a good boy, Nonny. You care about all of your teammates. Maybe you as leader would have been good too!"
"Molly is a good commander, and she cares about ev... And I dislike such responsibility. Excuse me, but I gotta go now!" Jiang waved and Nonny left.
"I fear the worst for when Molly will hear about Zooli..." He thought.
Gil was in an operating room with half a dozen of medics present. Oona was there too.
"We're loosing him! Give him more oxygen! And a morphine dose!" One medic said. The heart rate monitor started beeping normally again.
"Look at what they've done to his arm. What were they planning with those wires and metal plates, literally put IN the skin?" One doctor fainted after seeing it.
"Jessica passed out! Quick, bring another doctor!" The head medic said.
"What do we do with the arm?" Oona asked. The head medic was thinking.
"Removing all those things out of it would be threatening his arm in a whole. We could cut it off directly, then. Let's keep it like this until he wakes up, and it got analysed by our weaponry experts." Oona nodded and wanted to leave.
She went through the laboratory, but the floor was slippery and Oona hit a table. She fell. On the table was a jar with blood for experimentation, it fell and broke.
"Eww! It's on my clothes and in my hair! I'm gonna take a shower quickly." Oona walked to the quarters and entered it. Molly, Deema, Goby and Nonny saw her.
"NOO HE DIED!" Molly yelled with all her force, and started crying. Oona was shocked, and looked at her clothes and understood.
"No Molly! He didn't!" Oona approached her and put her hands on Molly's cheeks. "This is just an accident, Gil is unlikely to die now!"
"R, really?" Molly asked, sobbing still. She touched her cheeks and felt blood, but didn't care too much. Oona just nodded. Molly started crying again, out of happiness.
"Look what you did!" Deema said sarcastically.
"Can I see him?" Molly asked.
"Ehm, you can go see him tomorrow in the medbay."
"When will he wake up?" Oona hesitated.
"We don't know. He's in a coma. At any moment really, but several weeks is possible too..." Molly looked down.
"And his arm?" Goby asked.
"What do you mean his arm?" Molly asked back. Both looked at Oona.
"The OD, did some experimenting on his right arm. Metal and wires inserted in it. We still don't know what it is. It looks like protection, but it has to be analysed first. We didn't remove it because that would disable his arm forever..."
"Is it still able to move?"
"PLEASE!" Oona shouted. The rest looked confused. "Sorry, it was a very tense operation, and I don't feel like answering all your questions, most of them will only be answered with time." The rest nodded. Oona left to the bathroom.
Everyone was quiet, until a bit later, Zooli returned.
"Zooli!" Deema and Goby said. They went to her. Nonny smiled a little. Molly was surprised.
"You won't try to kill me now, right?" Goby said, laughingly.
"I sure won't, haha! My systems received an update." Zooli turned to Molly and approached her slowly. "How have you been?" She asked in a friendly way. Molly looked a bit annoyed.
"It was hard, I hope Gil survives..."
"I hope it too." Zooli smiled. "If you ever need anything, just ask." Molly had a little grin.
"It almost killed my teammate, it's dangerous to us, to me, to Gil..." Molly thought. Jealousy was reappearing.
1 week later, Gil was still in the medbay. Molly kept an eye on him, day and night. Milou slept next to him.
"You are still here?" Oona said, entering the medbay. It was morning and Molly woke up from the chair she sat in.
"If he ever wakes up, I want to know it." Molly replied. Oona went to the personnel room and made 2 cups of coffee.
"Anything I need to know?" Oona said, sitting down.
"He just slept, nothing abnormal. Nothing with his arm either, I still have to get used to it..." Oona nodded. "C, can I confess something to you?"
"Is it important?" Molly nodded. "Okay..."
"After what you guys told, I don't trust Zooli any more. She really could threaten us from the back by being hacked or something." Oona gulped.
"I don't know what to say. We like her all, she's part of the Bubble Guppies now."
"But she isn't like us, Oona! Zooli is a machine, created in a lab! I think it's dangerous to think it's a Guppy like us."
"I don't really care what she really is. I like her..."
"Oona! She doesn't have a soul, a spirit! How similar we might look, she will never be like us."
"I, I, it's an ethical debate, I don't like that. You should work it out yourself..." Molly looked down.
"Yeah, you're probably not the best person for that..."
"I think you're just jealous about her and Gil. And you need to find excuses to confirm it..." Molly wanted to say something, but Gil just moved a little.
"We'll continue later. Gilly is waking up, I think!" Molly said, excitingly.
"I'll go avert the doctors!" And Oona left.
"Gil. Gilly?" Molly looked at him. Gil slowly opened one eye. Then the other. He tried to remove the mask from his face.
"No no, keep it on. It's for your own good... Sigh, Gilly!" Molly sat on the bed and sobbed a bit. Gil caressed her arm and looked at his one.
"Molly..." He whispered through the mask. "What, happened?" Molly looked at him and kissed his forehead.
"You're still weak, Gilly. I'll tell you everything when you're better." He nodded slowly. Oona came back with medical personnel. They started analysing him.
"Hmm, his condition isn't in danger any more. Just a lot of rest is required. Soon he'll be better." The head medic said.
"Thank you, doctor." Molly replied.
"I've never seen anything like this. Oh, well." The head medic left. 5 minutes later, Valen entered the room.
"Commander." Molly said, standing up. Valen nodded. He looked at Gil.
"Thank God and our medics, you're alive."
"It's, nothing..." Gil answered. Valen grinned.
"This is how we'll continue. When you're better, the scientists will see what they can do with that arm. Then, we have our objectives to continue, but not before you feel completely ready." Gil slowly raised his arm to salute his commander. Valen did the same back, and left.
"Molly, can we enter?" Deema said, peeking from the entry door. She nodded. The whole squad was present too, except Zooli. Gil looked at them, standing around the bed. He smiled.
"You really suffered the most out of us! But nothing can kill you." Goby said.
"My Gilly is very strong." Molly put her hand on his one.
"Where, where is, Zooli?" He asked. Nobody answered. Molly looked around.
"She'll come visit you, don't worry..." Nonny responded. Gil closed his eyes.
"I think we should let him sleep." Oona added. Everyone, except Molly left. He fell asleep for a couple of hours.
Later that day, Gil woke up and turned his head slowly to Molly who was reading a book.
"Molly..." He said. Molly smiled at him.
"Yes, Gilly? You need something?"
"I, need, that one book, about teen spies, that I read from, time to time. Can you, go find it? I think, it's in the, quarters. Or someone, took it."
"Of course. I'll bring it to you. I'll be right back." Molly left.
On his right, on the nightstand, Molly left her arm radio. Gil took it slowly.
"Right frequency... Zooli? Do you, hear me?"
"G, Gil?"
"I must, see you. To talk. Please..."
"I'll come..." Zooli was on her usual spot in space on the Circle. She ran all the way to the medbay. She found Gil.
"Zooli." He whispered, smiling.
"Gil. It's terrible what happened to you... I'm, I'm, I..." Zooli looked down.
"I, know, what I, the other Gil, did, with you. Cesario, told it, during an, interrogation." Zooli was shocked, but didn't know what to say.
"W, what did he say more, then?"
"That, you, liked it. And, that Molly, would, be jealous." Zooli was uncomfortable.
"Molly has always been jealous towards me. I really... I..."
"I'm, sorry, that you feel this way, for me... But you mu..."
"Don't be sorry. I'm problematic. Why can I feel any way. I'm not like you." Gil looked at his arm.
"We never have been, so similar." Zooli laughed a little.
"You're not responsible for what he did, I just have to, overcome it..."
"It, wasn't supposed to, be like this." The 2 were silent for a moment.
"We still have work to do, the group unity must be spared, I must forget."
"I'm, really sorry... I, can feel, what you feel, how you feel..."
"No, Gil. It's not your fault. Nothing is! It's the OD, all of it is their fault." Gil nodded and raised an arm for a hug. Zooli approached him, but Molly just entered the room.
"W, what are you doing here? Did you wanna, like Gob... Explain." Molly said strictly.
"I, Gil just asked me, to come..." Zooli responded.
"Did you get, that update yet?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?"
"I hope that'll be enough for... Gilly want's to read, and needs rest." Molly looked at Zooli, and she understood. Zooli left without looking. Gil looked sad at her already hurt friend.
"Here you go Gilly." Molly put the book on the nightstand.
"Why, where you, mean?" Gil asked. Molly couldn't believe her ears.
"M, mean? Me? I just asked her to leave. You must rest."
"You, are, still, jealous. Molly, we talked, about it, already..." Molly sighed and turned to her boyfriend.
"Gilly... Zooli, how to say it, almost killed Goby in the latest mission. She got hacked. I was just afraid, that she, that she..."
"Oona, almost killed me, back in the beginning, with the gas..."
"We got vaccinated against the effects, it's useless for them now. But Zooli..."
"You asked her yourself, if she had, an update. I guess it's for, her security systems. So there is no reason to, jealousy."
"The OD can still hack her, in the future, with better tools!"
"They can, develop a new gas too, in the future..." Molly sighed annoyingly.
"Zooli will stay a machine. She was made as smart as us, if we continue, she will be made smarter. Then we're lost! I'm not predicting an apocalypse, but it could happen!"
"She is as complex, as a Guppy, or a lobster, or a fish. She can feel and think. She knows us and likes us. We must treat her, as a normal fellow being. Correctly, with kindness."
"I just asked her to leave! For you to rest!"
"It's sad, to discover that, opinion of you. But we, can't, agree on everything. I indeed, wanna rest... So could you?" Gil turned his head. Molly stood up and left for a walk.
Gil in the medbay, and a tear rolled over his cheek. He regretted talking to Molly like how he just did. Molly on the walk, a tear rolled over her cheek because of the whole uncertain situation. Zooli on her staring spot on the HQ, a tear levitated in space, and spread.
"We must, keep our heads concentrated on the missions..."
Well well well, at least Gil is alive. But it still went downwards on the end. Will the Guppies be able to stay united, on this crucial moment in the war against the OD? We'll see...