Beep...Beep...Beep...Boooop...Click...Clunk...Hisssssss
"Welcome to the F.S.S. Budapest, W14.22-T302." A feminine voice greeted with the sounds of alarms arguing with sirens in the background. "Here you will be known as T302 or Emily. This is your name randomly assigned to you at the time of cloning," the voice continued. A muffled tat tat tat tat tat reverberated through the walls of a corridor nearby: the sound of superheated plasma impacting metal alloy bulkheads. "I am the operating system aboard this vessel and will be assisting you-"
"Budapest!" interrupting the ship's computer, Emily grasped at the edges of her cryo vat chamber. "Is that weapons fire? And what is with the alarms!?"
"Please call me Pest. It is my nickname on this ship. And yes we are under attack and have been boarded by the enemy." Pest calmly replied, unfazed by the information she was dropping on a new 'hatchling'. "I suggest you get dressed, Emily, you don't want to fight naked, and take a plasma pistol as well. I will try to direct you to a mission-ready room to pick up a Vaccsuit, in case my hull is breached."
Emily grumbled as she sat up, "Hell of a time to wake up."
"Quite."
Emily hastily got out of her cryo vat and noticed four other females, all which looked strikingly similar to her, in various stages of getting used to standing and moving outside their cryo vat chambers as they wiggled into their one-piece crew suits. The suits were orange with high visibility double yellow stripes running up and down the arms and legs. These technician coveralls also had an elastic glow belt around the waist with a buckle in the front. The legs of the crew suits ended in black rubber boots that came to mid-calf height.
Judging from the thumping on the outer hull and the flickering lights, their ship was taking damage so she hoped that she could get to a Vaccsuit sooner rather than later. There was a mechanical clunking sound to Emily's right as she stumbled across the narrow room to the lockers and sat on a bench. Sitting down, she looked to the sound's source just in time to see 5 more cryo vats open up with a whoosh of stale frigid air being expelled into the compartment. She was shocked to see 5 identical females with shoulder-length raven hair blinking their way into wakefulness. Their hair framed high cheekbones and pronounced yet delicate jawlines. All of them had light blue eyes that slowly blinked awake. They were slim and muscular with near milk-white skin adorned with pink features.
"Pest, who are they?" Emily asked as she opened a locker with her number on it to retrieve her coveralls.
"They are pilots," Pest said to her, as a small speaker in each cryo vat welcomed each of the new hatchling pilots much the same way Emily was greeted to this world. Emily listened to each recording to learn their names as she wiggled the entropy out of her toes: P605 was Jill, P606 was Amy, P607 was Courtney, P608 was Samantha, P609 was Kara.
Emily looked at the nearest pilot and read her 'last 4' in the string of characters that was her I.D. There tattooed just a few inches below her collar bone above her left breast, 'P'605, denoting her pilot designation. This was Jill she was looking at. She let her eyes wander up just in time to inadvertently lock eyes with Jill as she was caught staring. Just then there was a heavy thud that shook everyone in the room to the floor with a deafening explosion. The sound was overshadowed by the force of the shockwave.
As the P models were spilled out of their Vats onto the floor, one of the other T model clones, T301, shouted at Pest. "Who is shooting at us?!" as she braced herself on a bench and stood back up again from the explosion.
"The ship is not currently taking fire T301 Veronica," Pest answered.
"What do you mean not taking fire?!" Shouted T303 in a worried voice. She had her coveralls on and zipped up with T303 Debbie printed on the left breast. The rest of the 10 clones stared at Pest's monitor mounted on the far bulkhead near the door.
"Those explosions are coming from inside the ship. The enemy boarding party brought charges with them."
Courtney was the first to ask what the P models were thinking. "Where the hell are the Cs at!?"
"By 'C' I assume you mean Combat clones. They have all been woken up prior to the enemy boarding. Most of them have been terminated in combat. The ones that remain are dwindling quickly. If you notice Cryo Vats 1-10 are already empty. They were C models and have joined the fight along with the C models already active on the ship. So have all the combat models from the other two cloning bays on board. The last of which was just taken out by that most recent explosion just moments ago. I am afraid you are all that is left."
'Combat clones?'' Emily thought to herself, 'How many different types of clones are there now?'
The 10 'hatchlings' looked around at each other for a moment before Samantha spoke up as she hefted a plasma rifle over her shoulder. "You heard her ladies! Let's get out there and die for the Federation!" Followed by cheers from the four other Ps, and a look of shock from Emily and her fellow T models.
"P608 Samantha, I strongly advise you to get your pilot suit on first. Then, by all means, die for the Federation. However, in the event you do make it off the ship you may want some protection from the elements. That is if you make it to the surface of Signa-4. Not to mention the vacuum of space and the claws of the Cyrealians."
"Oh so it's those bastards again," sneered Courtney as she stepped into her light grey pilot suit. It had thin black ceramic plates attached to the outside of it. All perfectly formed to fit the taller clones. One thing about clones and the issue of equipment is that one size really does fit all. And quite nicely too, thought Emily, as the tall perfectly built superwoman finished shimmying into her outfit.
"Those bastards indeed," retorted Pest.
At this time, the T clones stood there in absolute confusion. Their faces sparked a response from Courtney. "You don't know about the Cyrealian wars, do you? Not even an update download to your model."
"No, they don't. However, we are wasting time. Please get dressed and grab your weapons and a comm set. In each of your lockers, there is either a pistol or a rifle. You T models have the pistols. The communications set is in the dispenser on the wall next to my monitor. I will update each of you as you proceed with your mission for as long as I am able. You will also be able to communicate with each other with them. All channels are preprogrammed. Ps you know what to do, grab yours first. Ts take the small pill looking metal device. Place them in your ear, pointy end of the cone first. The larger soft end will form a seal holding it in place. Yes, there are two to a set. Right or left it doesn't matter. At least not for you at the moment." Pest instructed.
Something about what she had just heard sat weirdly with Emily. She remembered thinking this was likely. Well, not this exactly to be sure. However, she had been briefed and had expected to wake up and not recognize certain things. Of course, time would progress. She may not know the politicians leading the Federation, or need to learn a new system or two here and there. But Cyrealian wars? That sounded like a big thing. More than one big thing, she thought as she finished stepping into her 'space onesie', as she liked to call the technician coveralls. Calling her crew suit a 'Space Onesie' always made her smile. Her mind snapped back to the present rather quickly with a burst of weapons fire followed by a shrill shriek from outside the cloning bay door.
"Earpieces and weapons now." Commanded Pest.
"Right now?" said Emily sliding her arms into the sleeves of her space onesie.
"Right now right now!" Pest shouted back.
Without further ado, Emily zipped up the front of her onesie, grabbed a plasma pistol from her locker, and holstered it in a small holster hanging from her tight elastic high visibility utility belt. Then she stepped over to the comms 'dispenser' right below Pest's view screen and crew interface. Then she reached for a set of, well, little thingies. Space earplugs she smiled to herself as she looked at the first one before quickly putting it in her right ear. Then shifting her auburn hair, she installed her left comm piece.
Immediately she heard Pest say, "Yep I can talk to you through the space earplugs."
Emily quickly donned her crew cap. An orange and yellow baseball cap with her name and number printed on it. She pulled her hair through the open part of the back in a makeshift ponytail, "How did you know that I would call-"
"All of you T models call them space earplugs."
"Oh, I guess you know a lot about me then huh?"
"Everything in fact."
"Really!? If so what did I get for my-"
"Eighth birthday. A picture book about the first human settlements on Mars."
"...I..uh..wow ok"
"That is what first inspired you to be an explorer and join the Federation. And it is the most common challenge question asked by T model clones. Time to go open channel to all 10 of you now."
"Ok Ladies listen up!" Pest commanded to all of the clones now huddled at the door. "Ps you have the rifles and faster reflexes and your bodies and armor are sturdier. If we do this right we might just get a few of you across the hall. Once you get there I will give you further instructions. To get there is the task right now. One step at a time. The Cs are busy on different tasks I have them performing in other parts of the ship at the moment. There is a fire team that I will try to link you up with later. That leaves us in a pickle at the moment. There are three Cyrealian warriors at the end of the corridor waiting on their demolition team to get here to blow up this room. My last cloning bay. If you all exit one at a time there is no chance of any of you making it to the next room. So who wants to be a meat shield?"
Immediately all the Ps raised their hands, as the Ts stepped back.
"Ok Samantha you seemed the most eager earlier, you're up!" Samantha's sister P models slapped her back in congratulations and a little jealousy visible on their faces, as Pest continued. "When this door opens turn and face to your left and fire at the three Cyrealians til you get cut down by plasma fire. With any luck, you may kill one of them."
"Yes, ma'am!" was her immediate reply as she moved to the door.
"Not yet! Hold on. I have to provide a small distraction for them first so they don't see the door open. Otherwise, you won't even get out into the hall in one piece. I have a wounded T model at the junction of the next corridor over. When she walks around the corner they will turn to face her. That is when I, not you, will open the door. And the rest of you make a break for the door you see open to your right across the hall about 6 meters down the hall. With any luck I think about 7 of you will make it there."
Emily swallowed hard as her heart rate spiked. She felt as if she'd just woke up from laying down for a few moments in the Federation's civil affairs office. Now here she is at the ass-end of the galaxy about to get killed by a Cyrealian. What the hell is Cyrealian anyway! Well, she signed up for adventure. Now she has got it. If she ever runs into her original self she is going to give her a piece of her mind! Ok, calm down now, Emily thought to herself. She looked up and took a moment to read the other T model clones' names. T301 and T303 were Veronica and Debbie. She turned to see the two standing behind her. T304 Kaylee, and T305 Stacy. She smiled nervously at Kaylee who managed a weak smile back as they waited for Pest to give the signal.
"Now!" shouted Pest as the door opened and the end of the corridor erupted in weapons fire shooting away from them down another hallway. Like lightning, Samantha was out the door plasma rifle bleching forth an insane amount of fire for the rifles Emily was familiar with. And just like that. They were all in the hall sprinting at full tilt to the door they had just seen open 6 meters down the hall.
Within a few steps, the leggy P models were out in front of the 15cm shorter Emily and her sisters. Looking back over her shoulder Emily saw Samantha take several hits in rapid succession. Her grey suit with black form-fitting thin ceramic plates was no match for whatever the Cyrealians were shooting her with.
Samantha stood with a wide foot stance and leaned forward, firing her rifle at the enemy warriors as her body took a burst of fire. Starting from her left inner thigh and moving up her toned stomach and across her torso a line of 11 rounds caught her. Still, she fired until the final shot terminated her. Her throat taking a direct hit before the next round smashing through her face mask melted her severed head in its helmet. The headless body of Samantha dropped to its knees heavily as her rifle fired off a few more rounds into the floor in front of her before it clattered to the deck. Her body leaned and fell backward bent at the knees bent over the smoldering helmet that had landed behind her. Looking past the smoking torso of P608 laying chest up, Emily finally caught sight of a...OMG! What are those things!
Just then Kara pulled her into the door she almost ran past. She landed on the floor of the room and spun around to look as Kara raised her rifle and fired a return volley back at those giant scary bug monster things before quickly ducking back to cover. Veronica and Kaylee nearly tripped over Emily as she rolled to the left to make way for them as they rounded the corner into the room. At this new angle, she could see Debbie and Stacy nearing the safety of the room.
Just then Stacy's right arm took a hit between her shoulder and elbow and was instantly severed from her body. Her severed arm still clutching the pistol as it tumbled to the floor. She paused for just a moment, slowing down Debbie behind her. Kara pulled the wounded Stacy through the door just as Debbie took a hit to the middle of her back. Plasma burst from her chest as her face contorted in confusion. Debbie dropped her pistol as she slowed her run. As she arched her back and slowed down she took another round to the back of the head. Instantly a superheated bolt of plasma exited her forehead leaving a quarter-sized hole. Her body stopped running as she went cross-eyed. Her eyes rolled up as they crossed almost looking at the hole in the middle of her forehead, as her jaw went slack. Debbie leaned forward then face planted on the floor of the hallway 2 meters from safety as the door closed.
"Not bad. Two dead and one wounded." Pest said in a chipper voice.
The Ps all nodded in agreement as Stacy stared at her bloody stump of a right arm. Emily quickly asked Pest "Is there anything we can do to help Stacy? She is missing her F'ing arm!"
"Yes this happens to be a backup aid station," Pest said. "The main infirmary is two decks up and toward the bow of the ship. Unfortunately, we are going in the opposite direction. Not that it matters as I don't think you want to be aboard me very long anyway." On the other side of the 10 meters squared room, a light came on lighting up one of the few hospital beds lining the Med bay. "Over here. This bed is close to a laser cutter. Look in the cabinet on the wall. You need to seal her wound quickly if you want her to stay a member of the escape party."
Veronica helped Stacy to her feet with a worried look on her face. "How bad does it hurt? Are you OK?"
"Yeah? I am...somehow." Stacy replied, "Guess I am still pretty deep in shock."
"Well, you kinda are in a way," Pest interjected, cutting off Stacy "But that is by design. You should feel some numbness and be aware of your damage much like you humans describe sitting on a hand or foot wrong for too long."
"Yeah. That is what if feels like" Stacy responded.
"By design?" Asked Veronica "I thought I wasn't..er..a... we rather. Were not going to be augmented."
This drew a snicker from Amy before she added, "Never knew anyone had an option."
"You didn't." Said Pest "Well your base model did but you are so heavily altered and don't remember any of the lives of your genetic donors, but in keeping with cloning law, the Federation gained full permission in writing from your genetic donors before making your line of P-Delta type pilots. All of you Ps in this room and assigned to this ship are the 4th major model to go into full production."
"Cool." shrugged Amy like a vaguely interested teen before moving to provide security at the far doorway to the room."
"OK what now Pest?" interrupted Emily as she had found the medical laser and was standing over Stacy who was now laying on the bed.
"Let me show you" Pest lowered a display screen from the ceiling over the bed as Veronica, Emily, & their patient Stacy looked at the screen wide-eyed. A tutorial began as the audio was broadcast directly to their "Space Ear Plugs" on a private channel as Pest began to instruct Kaylee and the P models about the route they would take out of the aid station and toward the rear of the ship. They would go through a series of side rooms staying away from the wide-open corridor for now. The goal was to get through to a mission gear locker and equip the T models with Vaccsuits for escape. And to grab some heavier weapons in the process.
Veronica held Stacy down as Emily began to cut away useless unsavable meat from the wound.
"You really don't have to do that." Said Stacy.
"Oh sorry," Responded Veronica.
"I am still amazed at how much this doesn't hurt. But I still don't like it at all and fear getting hurt! This is totally messing with my mind right now."
"Yeah, I bet it is!" Veronica responded "Here let's get the biogel ready. Wait where is the biogel?"
"Don't see any but we need it soon. I am just about finished with this wound." Emily added.
"Biogel was replaced with Biofoam about 45 years ago." Pest informed the clones mid-operation. "Look for the yellow cans with a red plus sign, and small red lettering around the base."
"Here it is found a whole drawer full of them! Wait. How long ago did they switch to biofoam?" Veronica asked drawing all the other's attention.
"45 years ago," Pest repeated flatly.
"Didn't know there was anything other than biofoam?" said Kara.
"Your type has only been in mass production for 3 years," Pest answered
"Annnnd?" Veronica said wanting an answer the question her and the other T's thought obvious at this point and desperately needed to know.
"And what?"
"How long have we been in...uh… mass production..or how long has it been since we sat in that chair?" Demanded Emily as her sisters stared at Pest's screen as it turned as if to look at them, with seeing but unfeeling sensors.
"75 years 4 months and 10 days in earth time."
The room fell silent for a few seconds as all the Ts processed how long it had been since they entered service. 75 years since she sat in that chair. 75 years since she had agreed to be the first. Well, the first made public anyway. There had been others. Test subjects before her to ensure that the program would warrant the investment of the Federation into this new way of crewing ships. She had decided, no competed against many others for this right. This honor she had worked so hard for. To be the first clone. The only one planned for at the time. She would live 10,000 lives in hundreds of ships through the coming few decades.
The Federation was weak and needed more young able-bodied people than The Federation of Human planets could supply after the wars of unification. Humanity had just found out that the Milky Way was a dangerous place for bipedal hominids. Other species often didn't look too fondly on these newcomers to the interstellar stage. After a few of humanity's Kingdoms had fallen, some wiped out, others enslaved or turned into livestock of their conquerors, a movement had started to bring everyone back to the fold. Earth would be the capital. The first 3 inner kingdoms formed the federation. The others fought. The young Federation was starting to recover from a civil war among all humans when it was attacked.
The Ya'Nar had waited till the humans were weak from killing each other, in the war for unification, before they struck. The peace treaty with the Ya'Nar had just been signed and the Federation was starting to rebuild, again, when she was just a little girl. She remembered her Dad talking about it at the dinner table. He was a veteran himself and worked in a shipyard. He had told her and her brothers about war on board a ship in deep space. He had told of fighting on different planets. He had talked often of the selfishness of those who would not play for the team, the human team unless it suited them. They put themselves and their families before the greater good. This galaxy was a big and dangerous place and humans had to put aside their differences and stick together. All people needed to put archaic prejudices aside in the face of annihilation. We were all in this together, like it or not. By your very birth, you owed it to every other human alive to do whatever you can in service to the rest of humanity. "Without selflessness, we could not survive as a species." He would say to them. It was his example and her memory of him, that had spurred her on at the academy, and to compete to be the first cloned cadet in humanity's time of need.
"I had no idea that they would still be using me," said Kaylee, bringing all her sisters back to reality.
"Yeah. I guess time flies when you don't exist." Emily quipped still thinking about her dad.
"How could you not have anticipated this eventuality when you volunteered," asked Pest sounding oddly curious for a ship AI.
"I guess there is a difference in hearing about something and thinking you are ready for it than actually living it." Said the wounded Stacy "Sometimes you cannot be ready for something no matter how much you study for or prepare for it. You know what I mean Pest?"
"No. In fact, I don't. To know is all and to not know is nothing. That is the difference between consciousness and oblivion. If you are not, then you know nothing. If you are then you know what you know, and no one can know everything. So you could say that you are what you know."
The four T clones looked at each other in 'knowing' confusion as they considered the logic of Pest.
"What I know right now is that a Cyrealian is about to break through the door you all just came from!" Pest informed them. "Quickly through this door!" She continued as she opened her door on the wall to the right of the door they had entered.
Courtney was the first one through the door. Followed by Amy and Kaylee as there came a thudding sound from the door they were trying to get away from. Veronica and Emily lifted Stacy and helped their wounded comrade to the door.
As they all piled through the door Pest commanded all of them to run to the other end of the locker room to through the next door as she opened it for them. Courtney and Amy were already there as the others tried to keep up. Kaylee made it in time to see Jill pick up the wounded Stacy and throw her over her shoulder and easily outpace her former helpers. Kara closed the door to the locker room and took up a ready stance with her rifle pointed at the door she just locked, as the rest of them fled down the long locker room to the showers at the other end.
Veronica and Emily were about 10 meters from relative safety when the door Kara was guarding, was ripped away suddenly. The lonely P clone shot off a quick burst of fire from her rifle that went straight over the Cyrelian as it rushed in low sprinting on all 22 legs. It quickly shot its two great pinchers forward and both of them snapped Kara around the waist and pulled her apart and threw her upper half over its left shoulder and lower half over its right shoulder back out the door she was guarding as it rose up to fire its two Plazma rifles. Everyone started to give covering fire to Emily and Veronica. Emily made it to the door and looked back to see Veronica was laying on the ground. Then the Pest closed the door sealing them in the showers and Veronica to her fate.
Everyone stood in silence in the dark shower room catching their breath. "She might be alive," Emily said first. Everyone looked at her. Pest responded "She was not hit fatally however I would lose any of you who attempted a futile rescue suicide. Therefore I will not allow it. I need every one of you T models left to make it to the engine room as alive as possible. Veronica simply didn't make it."
"So you are saying she is alive now?" Questioned Emily.
"I need the rest of you in the fight. The next room is a gear locker with some heavier weapons. Emily, you can stay and look through the porthole in the door and watch what happens if you like but everyone else goes to the gear locker to arm up with the weapons and kit I select for you."
With that, the door leading safely out of the other end of the showers opened. Everyone else trailed off into the gear locker as Emily stayed behind.
"Well do you want to see what the Federation has been fighting since you last existed? If not join the others and pick up your gear."
Emily thought hard about it for a moment. "I don't really want to see a fellow, me, die. However, I feel I should see what these things are and how they work."
"That is what makes you a good technician. Your need to know and see propelled you at the Academy to beat your peers for this job. You were selected for a reason and you know that you and your comrades are nothing but resources to the Federation now. You chose this and you and her are living and dying with that same choice you made all those years ago. If you see what happens you will understand the decisions I have made and understand the Federation at large."
Emily took a deep breath and stepped to the window. "Can they see me?"
"No. Their eyes have a hard time focusing through the glass and you are in a dark room looking into a lit room."
There Veronica was crawling towards the locked door as the Cyrealian who shot her slowly walked up to her. Behind it were two more Cyrelians. The one on the left was holding Kara's helmet and rifle in its two lower human-like limbs and had its Plasma rifles in its two upper human-like arms. The other Cyrelian on the right in the back simply followed and opened up the lockers two at a time as it walked passed. Emily noticed he was opening the lockers using his upper arm for the top lockers and his lower arm for the bottom lockers. Each of his 3 elbowed arms ended in a four-fingered hand. They looked like big centipedes walking on 22, two jointed legs. Their front ⅓ raised up to nearly 3 meters tall.
The one closest to Veronica unfolded his large pincher claws that had been tucked away folded onto his back like an insect on earth stowed its wings when not in use. It rotated the deadly crab pinchers forward around to the front and let go of the rifles with its two front upper hands. Letting the rifles hang at its side by their slings crisscrossing its body. Now with all four humanoid arms free and claws ready it snapped Veronica up. Using its pinchers it grabbed Veronica by her wrists as she let out a shriek. It lifted her in front of its mouth. Emily could see her lower left leg missing below the knee where she had been hit. This was the wound that kept her from making it to safety. The four, larger and stronger than a human's arms, of the Cyrelian wrapped around her. Each had 4 large fingers, 2 on either side of its palms. One of its spiked mandibles quickly brushed off the crew cap Veronica had on. The cap fell to the floor as the Cyrealian bit down on Veronica's head causing her body to jerk at the spiky intrusion to her braincase.
Its crab-like pinchers let go of her wrists at the same time its four arms pulled apart her technician coveralls. Peeling her from her space onesie like a banana leaving her naked trembling body hanging by her head from its mandibles. Emily could see her sister's eyes go wide then flutter and her legs kicked and arms shook at her sides. The Cyrealian reached its hands up and gripped her around the midsection pinning her arms to her side. Then it lifted her up and pulled her head into its waiting circular fleshy maw and regripped with its mandibles. It continued this process of pulling her in bit by bit extending its mandibles and slurping her trembling body into its circular hungry lips. When it reached her waist it let go with its four arms and raised its head leaving her lower body horizontal for a few bites. Her legs unsupported bent down and kicked slightly. Her legs were then closed together by the Cyrealian's mandibles, as her hips were squeezed into its mouth. It then raised its head up after conquering the width of her hips and let her legs slowly sink down into its gullet.
"See its neck expand as it swallows and tilts its head up?" asked Pest
"Yes," whispered Emily
"That is its weakest point we have found. Its natural armor plates move to accommodate the swallowing. Don't get me wrong the skin holding them together is still stronger than rawhide leather but a plasma round can penetrate if you catch it in one of the gaps that the swallowing process makes. This is why we make the combat models watch feeding videos of each different clone model we happen to have a combat recording of."
"Oh…" Said Emily as she watched her sister clone's right calf, and then foot, slowly disappear into the Cyrealin's mouth.
"You better catch up with the others now." Emily jogged to the next room thinking about what she had just seen. So this is what the Federation has been dealing with since her time at the Academy, she thought.
As she entered the room she was greeted by a bubbly Kaylee. "We have Vaccsuits with our names on them! Also, we have some better weapons!" Kaylee hefted a model of rifle Emily was unfamiliar with. "Pest has our gear all ready for us and we have our names on the gear!"
"Here Emily!" Kaylee chimed and handed her a new VaccSuit with her name on it. "Get your new suit on girl! We might just need these suits to get off this ship. The rest of your kit is back there." Kaylee pointed to a long narrow space between two rows of tall gear lockers with a bench between them.
Pest interrupted the party "Courtney you are the first one dressed and kitted up with your new weapons. Take a demo charge from the weapons rack, and place it at the door between the locker room and the shower room in case they try to follow us."
Courtney grinned from ear to ear with the news of her new high-risk assignment and grabbed a large satchel charge and headed back to where they had all just come from.
Emily watched Courtney happily scurry back to the locker room door. "You P models seem all too eager."
Jill and Amy just stared at her with their thin eyebrows raised slightly.
Pest spoke up to everyone in the room. "What do you mean Emily? They are happy to do their part for the Federation. You are the model that competed for this honor and they have no memory of volunteering. Shouldn't you be even more 'eager' than them?"
Before Emily could form words to respond Pest spoke to her in a private channel in her space earplugs. "Emily, please don't publicly say anything that could make the P models think that they are doing anything out of the ordinary. They are specifically designed to be just the way they are."
"How exactly is that? What are they designed to be like? You know so I can better understand my teammates." Emily asked with some attitude as she headed to her own locker.
Pest waited until Emily was deeper into the gear locker away from her comrades.
"They have a few different donors of genetic material. All of them gave the same permission that you did, knowing full well what was going to happen to the clones of them. So if you were asking an ethical question of the Federation, I assure you nothing nefarious or underhanded happened. They are as legitimate as you are. However, being a combination of many different people spliced into one fighter pilot they cannot retain any memories of previous lives. So in that way, they are inherently different than you."
"Well, they sure seem faster. But why are they so reckless?" Emily responded as she stripped out of her crew suit. She was ready for the safety of a Vaccsuit.
"They have the quickest reflexes that the Federation scientists could code into human DNA. They also have the attributes needed to be a supreme pilot. Excellent spatial awareness combined with the ability for complex multitasking in a fast-paced environment. They are female with a mostly female brain running on as much testosterone as a high school quarterback. That same high testosterone is mixed with augmented muscles to be 1.8 times stronger than a normal human. Their bones do not need to grow once they 'hatch', so they are not hollow but solid and denser than human bones occur naturally. Their heart is larger and can pump blood through a more efficient venous system to keep them from losing consciousness during high G maneuvers."
"Ok, I understand that they are very physically qualified! You can clearly see that they look like supermodels by how tall and toned they are. Knowing that they can fight and fly, and have the bodies to do it is all well and good, but could any of them pass a psych eval?" Emily said as she finished dawning her new VaccSuit with her name printed on it above her left breast.
"Good Heavens No!" Emily placed her fishbowl helmet on while Pest continued. "The Federation doesn't need philosophers flying dangerous missions with an extremely low survival rate. They need fearless and confident pilots who thrive in high-stress scenarios. So they have been engineered to be just that. Absolutely fearless and what you may call adrenaline junkies. We have tweaked their brains to process all stress as excitement. Extremely dangerous assignments are exciting to them instead of terrifying."
"Did you tweak them to not feel pain the same way I was tweaked?"
"See we wanted your model to stay as close to the original as possible and not be in agony but not be all that different. This change was only done about 10 years ago. With them, we took it a step further and it was a lot easier. The fact is that the same part of the brain processes pain and pleasure. For them, it was a simple flipping of the switch to feel all physical stimuli positively. In short, they are incapable of feeling any pain and can only have a pleasure response even to mortal wounds. This has led to some issues with the model and is why testing is underway for a replacement. We sometimes have to order them to stay alive."
"Isn't this unethical in some way?" Emily found her kit that had been set aside and opened her hard pack and looked inside continuing the conversation.
"What do you mean. We are improving the model with testing and are making do with what we have to work with. During a time of peace, they are not perfect. However, if we are going to war with the Cyrealians again we may keep them around for a bit. After all, it was the last war with the Cyrealians that was on everyone's mind when the current P models were designed."
"That is not what I meant! You said you have to order them to stay alive and they are so altered they cannot feel pain."
"Oh, you want soldiers of the Federation to die in complete agony. You want them to go into battle terrified and have their comrades hear their cries for help and screams of agony over the radio before they are killed. Emily, you surprise me! I had it in my programming that you were tender-hearted. After everything you just witnessed in the locker room, you want the Federation to intentionally create personnel to feel and experience the full horror of war unmitigated when we could ease their pain and make them more effective for dealing with what would otherwise be massive emotional and psychological and physical anguish? All these tortured individuals just so you can have your indefensible moral high ground. Seriously ask yourself who is the real monster now Emily."
Emily froze at the accusation. She looked up at the mirror on the inside of the open locker. Seeing herself in the mirror for the first time in, what, 75 years. It only felt like less than an hour. She still had a few freckles across her cheeks beneath green eyes. Was she looking at a monster? This new way of looking at what she had just witnessed minutes before struck her. Was she a monster? Was she wrong and the Federation right? Had she had her way, she would have caused unnecessary pain for the clones, while weakening the Federation.
"Emily, you are a great Technician clone. All these years and you haven't been replaced. However, moving forward, let's leave the higher-level decision making to the Federation's high command, shall we? Now grab your kit and rejoin the others."
Emily put these thoughts aside as she checked her Vaccsuit. She had a standard EVA ship repair suit. It was skin tight and bright yellow. This made the Technicians highly visible while doing construction and repair during EVA operations. It had her name printed in black lettering above her left breast. The suit had black boots and gloves built into it. All repair suits had one-piece fishbowl style helmets. This affords great visibility and was cheap to mass-produce. A rebreather pack was designed to fit on her back with the intake and outtake hose meeting in the middle forming a loop. The loop fit over her head and plugged into the front ringlet that her helmet would be secured to. She checked herself in the mirror one final time. Great! Everything looks perfect!
Emily slung her rebreather on a fastened the straps. She checked the air flow and felt a burst of air on the front of her throat. She grabbed the fishbowl helmet, and took her pack of provisions and returned to join the team. Emily walked into the staging area at the same time as Courtney's long legs brought her back in a swift easy jog. She seemed to have been ordered to survive and rejoin them.
"The charge is set! Any inhuman son of a bitch tries to follow us will get blown away!" Courtney reported to the others with a broad smile.
"Excellent work Courtney," Pest responded. "Everyone, I am assigning you some extra gear to take with you to resupply the fire time I am linking you up with."
"Finally some backup!" Kaylee said in her normal chipper voice.
"How many are in this fire team?" asked Jill.
"Standard size team of 5. There was a platoon 30 minutes ago. The surviving five members need weapons and ammo. Jill, Amy, each of you take a plasma projector. Also, grab 5 reload charges for the projectors each. Courtney, grab a heavy repeater and two reloads for it. Emily and Kaylee you each keep your new plasma rifles and grab 10 reload charges and pack some food and water. You will need to eat at some point. Stacy, you use a pistol having only one arm now, but strap a sniper rifle to your back. The scout can make use of it once you are in the jungles of Signa-4. Emily put some ammo for the sniper in Stacy's pack with some more food. Everyone you already have one first aid kit on your utility belt, but grab one more to hand off to the fire team."
"Hey, can I have a few more satchel charges? I am carrying less than Jill and Amy." Courtney piped up.
"As long as you each keep your rifle and the extra gear I assigned, I don't mind you taking a little more. Just don't weigh yourself down too much."
"Great!" Courtney quickly slung 3 more charges over her shoulder with her rifle and readied her new heavy repeater. "No sense in carrying heavy ordnance and not having it ready!" said Courtney.
Pest noticed Jill and Amy both grab a few grenades and attach them to their utility belts. "Looks like we are ready to move out. So here is what is about to happen. The fire team is making its way to the aft part of the ship right now 3 decks below you. There are quite a few Cyrealians one deck below you and moving in the same direction. That team of 3 Cyrealians is just two rooms away. We need to get you to the outer corridor so you can sprint towards the aft of the ship and drop down a utility shaft 3 decks and meet up with the fire team. This will place you close to my engine control room. I will be opening and closing doors and telling you when to run from section to section. Listen carefully and don't hesitate to follow my commands."
"Tell us where to go Pest!" Amy said with a smile on her face. She and the other two pilots looked excited.
"Wait the Cyrealians are doubling back. We need to hold here for a few minutes and let them pass or walk into Courtney's trap. This is a good time to catch you all up on who we are fighting. Emily, Kaylee, and Stacy please look closely at the monitor and keep your gear nearby. Jill, Courtney and Amy, you three have neural downloads of the Cyrealians in your heads already from the cloning process. You did just hatch after all so you three are up to date. Pull security and guard the doors while I get bring Techs up to speed."
Emily, Kaylee, and Stacy crowded around the large screen that flickered on. The screen was on the more open end of the gear locker near the only table in the room. A picture of a Cyrealian appeared on the screen next to a human for size reference.
"Wow!" exclaimed Kaylee, "They are huge!"
"They are about 6 and a half meters long and can weigh in at 2,200 kilograms." Pest informed them.
The animation showed the Cyrealian running in place so the clones could get an understanding of how they moved. The rear 22 legs eleven on each side ran in waves. The front 4 legs, two per side, moved slightly differently.
"I am sure you notice the large folded appendages on its back," Pest stated.
"Tell me those aren't wings!" Kaylee exclaimed.
"They are not wings," Pest reassured her.
"Oh good!"
"They are giant pinchers!" Pest corrected.
Kaylee's jaw fell open at the animation showed the large claws unfold. The arms the claws were attached swung forward on large ball joints the Cyrealian had for shoulders. The animation's camera orientation changed to give a full round view. While showing the long 3-meter reach of the scorpion-like pincers.
"Ok this is officially a bicycle made out of nightmares!" exclaimed Stacy.
"Interesting term Stacy." Pest mused as the computer logged what must have been a common expression from the late 24th century.
Emily studied the animation intently learning more about these things. After what she had seen happen to Veronica not long ago, she decided it was best to learn what she could. As the screen showed a top-down view Pest continued her class. The pincers tri-folded back up like oval shaped useless wings.
"The body is just over a meter across and just under a meter in height. The legs usually extend out about a half meter on either side. However, when needed it can fold its legs under its body while still moving."
The animation showed two posts appear on either side of the crawling nightmare. As it moved between the posts its legs moved accordingly to avoid collision with the obstacles at its sides.
The camera panned back around to a side view. The Cyrealian was still in motion.
Notice the front arms are different than the rest," Pest pointed out.
The clones leaned in to get a better look, as the camera zoomed in on the front half of the Cyrealian.
"The front 4 legs are thicker and have one less elbow/knee, than all those hind legs," Stacy said.
"Right you are!" said Pest. "Now look at the first hind leg after the 4 front ones." The animation highlighted the leg in question. "See how it has a ball joint a little different than all the hind legs to the rear of it? That first hind leg pair is also larger than all the ones after it. That pair has larger footpads too."
"Oh I see," said Kaylee, as all three clones nodded.
Also, notice the one body section without legs between that one and the front four." The animation highlighted this new detail. "Watch this," said Pest as the Cyrealian's first hind leg pair stepped further forward for its next step. Simultaneously it pushed up hard with its front legs. The creature bent at the gap section and raised the upper ⅓ of its body. It kept moving in this new stance. Its head was now just under 3 meters tall.
All three girls gasped seeing the large creature in this formidable new pose.
The front 4 legs unfolded as the camera moved to a front on view of the Cyrealian. It had been running on its elbows. The three elbowed arms had an impressive reach. "Notice the hands are zygodactyl," continued Pest. "Two fingers are facing each way from the palm of its hands."
The animation zoomed in on one of the hands to show what Pest had just said."This is how it can shoot up to 4 plasma guns at a time while hunting or fighting."
"Why do they only have two guns then?" asked Emily. "All the ones we have seen today only use two guns not four."
"Well we don't know," answered Pest. "We have seen it very rarely, but usually you are right they operate two guns at a time. We speculate they want to keep a set of hands free. But that is just speculation. We can't exactly ask them."
"I thought there was some time of peace between the wars," interjected Stacy. "Couldn't our scientists or diplomats learn more then?"
"Well there have been times that we were not actively fighting them, but there has never been a treaty for sure. In fact, we don't even know how they communicate, outside of the ship to ship data bursts we cannot decode. The fact is they have no spoken language. We have several hypotheses from pheromones to telepathy. So far we are at a loss. We do know that the large brain of theirs seems to be very capable. After all the brain is about 12 times the size of a human brain with more densely packed neural pathways. The fact remains that all we know about them is gleaned from combat footage and autopsies."
After a brief pause Pest said "It looks like the charge Courtney planted is about to get triggered. They came back to the other locker room between the Med Bay and the Showers. "This way quickly." A door opened up in front of them leading to a large briefing room. They ran across the briefing room to another door leading to a hallway. As they quickly filed into the hall a loud explosion was heard back towards the showers. All of them followed Courtney as she lead the way seeming to ride atop her long legs with ease. Kaylee followed next scurrying to keep up. Emily helped Stacy along although she didn't need it. Amy and Jill brought up the rear.
They had just started to ender the hallway when Pest spoke up right after the explosion.
"Courtney give Jill one of your charges," Pest commanded. "Jill toss a grenade out of the door on the right side of the briefing room we just left," A door opened up on cue and Jill lobbed one of her hand bombs into the adjacent corridor, then turned to take a satchel charge from Courtney. Pest closed the door to the outside corridor "Everyone else run down the hallway. Jill hold fast and shoot two quick shots at the Cyrelian when he comes through the door you just tossed a grenade through."
"Got it!"
"Soon as you shoot, step back and I will close this door. Place your charge here on the door to detonate when they try to pry it open. Then rejoin the others."
"Yes, Ma'am!" Jill placed her charge just inside the door she would be securing.
A loud thud came from the door across the briefing room. A Cyrealian was beating on it with its large pincers. Jill tightened her grip on her rifle and sighted in on the center of the door. Three more loud impacts on the door followed, causing a separation in the two-door panels. A set of claws pierced the crack and pried the door open with ease. Instantly Jill let two rounds fly and hit the Cyrelian in the chest before it could react, then promptly stepped back into the small hallway as the door closed. After rigging the door to blow when tampered with she jogged down the hallway to find the others in a ladder well of sorts all stacked up ready to sprint out of a door on the right side of the small room. Pest talked to them via the 'space earplugs'.
"Amy, you're up next. When the charge that Jill planted goes off toss a grenade down the ladder well. The Cyrealian patrol is almost right under where you all are now. Everyone soon as I open the door you are stacked on, sprint down the main corridor to your left. I will have the elevator open for you to pile into." Pest instructed. "For now wait for the-
'BOOM'
The door opened immediately as they reeled from the blast. Courtney was the first out the door as Amy tossed her grenade down the ladder, then sprinted into the corridor with the rest.
Emily ran as fast as she could down the impossibly long main hallway. The elevator doors opened in front of her. Her legs felt like they were made of lead as she tried to keep pace. It almost seemed like the elevator was getting further away the harder she ran! Pest's voice yelled for Emily to go faster in her ears. Her heart pounded and legs burned as she and Stacy were in the rear trying their hardest to make it to safety. Well, relative safety anyway. She could see Courtney and Jill in the elevator turning to look back and provide cover.
The good news is that they were not shooting at anything behind Emily and Stacy yet. Just then the elevator started to go down a bit and stopped at Jill and Courtney's chest level providing them with more cover as they flanked either side of the door. Amy made it. She slid in gracefully on her side and dropped into the lowered utility elevator. Kaylee was next and did the same slide maneuver, albeit a little less graceful. Emily was almost there. Her and Stacy were stride in stride, just a few meters to go! Emily saw the look on the other clones' faces change and knew their luck had just run out. Jill's rifle and Courtney's heavy repeater opened up with a withering amount of fire at knee level on either side of her and Stacy. She and Stacy dove headlong into the lowered elevator landing in a heap on the floor. Emily looked up just in time to see a few green plasma rounds from a Cyrealian plasma rifle slap into the back wall of the elevator above her. It sounded like a wet splash of static electricity as it hit the metal alloy. Then the doors closed saving them from any more enemy fire.
"Wow, you all lived." Pest chirped over the elevator's speaker. "Great result! The Fireteam of Combat models will be waiting for you in just a moment when you reach the engineering deck." Pest then turned on some old elevator music for them.
'Do do-do do-doo' Dun du-dun dun Duun' from a lonely jazz saxophone serenaded them as they all thought back on what had just happened. One by one they smiled and started to laugh sitting on the floor of the elevator as it descended to the belly of the ship. The belly of Pest.
'Ding!'
The elevator doors opened to reveal 5 tall men in grey, black, & green armor. Their faces were completely hidden from view by their combat helmets and tinted visors. Slowly in unison, all five of them looked down at the 6 girls surrounded by heavy weaponry sitting on the floor giggling to the sound of lonely saxophone elevator music. The girls looked up at them in surprise and everyone just froze for a few moments as the music continued to play.
End Part 1