The Progeny Chapter 4 First Contact
Olivia was in the monitoring lab in the Turret alone going over the latest data received from Probe 4. "This can't be right? This is not possible." She whispers to herself shaking her head. Olivia immediately leaves her station to go run a systems test to make sure the monitoring equipment is functioning properly. Finding no system malfunction, she rushes back to her monitoring station. The power output from Probe 4 is off the chart. If she cannot not fix the feedback problem Probe 4 will blow up and its' capacious data will be lost. Worst yet, it will take at least three cycles to divert another probe to Probe 4's location. Olivia quickly repeats her analysis of the anomaly. Every test confirms a massive energy build up is taking place within Probe 4. "How is this happening? Something must be stimulating the probe's energy resources. Probe 4 was not designed to withstanding this level of energy output. I need to shut it down".
Olivia quickly enters the code to shut down Probe 4. Seconds go by and there's no change in the probe's output. She re-enters the code sequence. The probe's systems remain unresponsive. She taps her finger on her upper lip as she thinks. She shakes her head, throws her hands up and re-enters the shut down code a final time. Still nothing. "This makes no sense." She needs to separate Probe 4 from the senor network or risk losing telemetry from all the probes and destroying the entire astral relocation monitoring system. "Focus Olivia; think! Cut the hard connection to Probe 4 and retask another probe." As she makes her way to the main control panel, she glances back at the monitoring screen, only to see three swirling streaks of light emerging from the middle planet racing toward Probe 4. Olivia immediately rushes back to her station to get an analysis of the phenomenon. "Concentrated bio-electric energy. Highly organized, condensed neurotransmitters, probable life forms. Olivia reaches for her communicator to contact the rest of her team.
Olivia drops her communicator as she watches the phenomenon travel across the telemetry pathway at an astonishing rate of light speed. Olivia rushes to cut the hard connection to the probe before whatever is coming has a chance to disrupt or destroy the relocation monitoring network. The lights in the lab flicker, the monitors turn to static and several explode. As she reaches to cutoff the last connection, the three streaks surge from the panel and hover above her.
Her mind is racing. She can't speak, she can't move. She's paralyzed but alert. She should be petrified, but she's clam, peaceful almost blissful. Without warning, the three entities engulf her body. The invasion of her body is violent but not malevolent. Her skin shimmers, her chair rolls back as her body levitates and hovers just above the control panels. Her senses are overwhelmed. Pain, so much pain. Her head feels like it is about to explode. Voices, she hears voices in her mind.
"We seek to communicate. No harm. No harm. Welcome. Welcome. Your people must prepare. No harm."
"I don't understand", she thinks, still unable to speak.
"Prepare you. We prepare you first." And with that said, the glow from each life force intensifies as their energy output increases. Olivia's body ascends higher above her chair. Her clothes are stripped from her body by unseen forces. The room is silent except for the clink accompanying her commitment bracelet as falls to the floor with her clothing. One by one, each life force enters her naked frame. As her floating supine body takes a stationary position, her eyes roll back into her head. Her body convulses and she blacks out. Olivia continues to hang in midair for few seconds before her body slowly descends coming to rest on the floor. She lay of the floor for the next two hours shaking and convulsing. The lights of lab grow dim out and all monitoring systems shut down.
Then, just as suddenly, as her convulsive reaction started it stops. She opens her eyes and smiles. She stands up. She's different but the same. She's more than before. She knows what she must do in the upcoming cycles. She knows what she must do to save her people.
The entities bow to her. 'Do you accept this role and the gifts given to you?"
"Yes. It has always been my honor to serve the people of Hadar", she says as she bows to the entities.
"Then you are now mahal (the mother). Have you chosen a mate?" She nods reservedly. Fitz's face flashes in her mind. They already knew her choice but they need to force Olivia to exercise her newly acquired powers. The entities bow again as they telepathically search for Fitz to probe his mind. Has Olivia selected wisely?
"Is he your chosen mate?" They ask again. Before she can answer, the entities disappear from sight and Olivia finds herself in a room with Fitz, but she knows she is really not there.
"How is it I can see him as if I am with him? How is it you can see into my mind? Is this real what I am seeing?"
"All in due time", the life forces chimed together. "Is he your chosen mate?"
"Yes. He is my desired bond mate but I have never spoken openly to him of my feelings for him. What is wrong with him? Why is he in so much pain? Where is he? Are you causing his pain? Stop! I beg you to release him", she cries dropping to her knees.
Unmoved by her plea, the entities continue to press her with questions. "What do you see Olivia? What do you feel?"
"I see him in lying on a bed in a sleep chamber surrounded by his family being attended to by a practitioner. I see Mellie, the consortium representative. I sense his pain. I feel drawn to him. It feels as though he senses my presence. I feel as though I am in his mind. I feel his confusion. I feel his fear. I feel our hearts beating in sync. How is this possible? What have you done to us, Olivia fearfully inquires?"
Gerry, with the help of a few friends still remaining, carries Fitz to his childhood sleep chamber. Fitz's breathing is labored, his head racked with pain. Coming in and out of consciousness Fitz breathlessly mumbles, "I don't understand, I can't see, what's happening?"
"Where's the practitioner?" Sabean bellows. "What is taking so long? " Gerry and Sabean looked on helplessly as their only child appears near death.
"Patriarch, the practitioner is here", Mellie says with tears in her eyes. She tries to maintain her composure as she ushers in the practitioner and his apprentice.
"What happened asks the practitioner?"
"We were talking outside on the deck, then he suddenly screamed in pain, grabbed his head and collapsed." Gerry recounted.
"What's the last thing he ingested? Has he been exposed to any unusual environmental elements? Has he been bitten by anything recently?"
"We finished the usual common meal not too long ago, but we all ate the same things. No one else has been affected. "
The practitioner places the scanner on Fitz's brow. "What is this? I have never seen anything like this before."
"What is it? What is the problem? What's wrong?" Sabean, Gerry and Mellie asked one right after the other.
"Every neuron, every synapse, every section of his brain is actively firing. He is thinking, remembering, feeling, experiencing pain, fear, hate, love, thirst hunger, everything all at once. This is impossible. He won't last long if we don't find a way to turn off his higher neurologic functions.
"Practitioner, I think he is trying to communicate. He is reaching out." Mellie moves forward as she believes he is reaching for her. Fitz's arms immediately drop back into the bed and he rolls away from her, his body shaking.
"Olivia, look and pay attention to what is going on, they command. What do you think the practitioner is planning to do?"
It is a strange sensation, Olivia is present in the moment but at the same time she is aware she is stepping outside of the moment into the future. She can hear the practitioner's thoughts. She can see him placing a neurodisruptor on Fitz's forehead. She somehow knows Fitz will die if the device is activated. "No", she screams from the depths of her soul.
"Apprentice, hand me the neurodisruptor. We must interrupt whatever is causing this massive complex seizure."
"Just help him please," Sabean whimpers as she grabs on to Gerry.
"Why are you doing this? You can save him. Why do you not save him?"
"No Olivia, you must save him. Stop them Olivia. The neurologic energy stimulating Fitz's brain is incompatible with the energy generated by the neurodisruptor. You must stop the practitioner."
"Me? How? I'm not really there!" Olivia shouts.
"Think Olivia! Think! Stop them!"
The apprentice takes the neurodisruptor out of the practitioner's bag and hands it to the practitioner who proceeds to place the device on Fitz's forehead just as Olivia had previously seen. "Fitz", she cries out in anguish.
"Help him Olivia, the entities chant."
"Fitz, wake up! She screams in her mind. Immediately Fitz's eyes open. "Fitz don't let him put the device on your head", she continues screaming in her thoughts; but Fitz is too weak, the neurologic stimulation has taken a toll on him. The practitioner stops for a moment when Fitz opens his eyes.
"Doyen Grant can you hear me? Do you understand me? Do you know where you are", the practitioner asks, his voice slightly elevated? All Fitz can do is stare straight ahead. His body still shaking, he's unable to focus on anything else due to sensory overload. A quick scan shows his brain is still being bombarded by neurologic over-stimulation.
"Olivia, destroy the device", the first life force demands!
"What? How?" She feels herself about to come unhinged.
"Just think it Olivia! There's no more time; if you love him save your mate!"
Olivia sees the device in the practitioner's hand, her mind probes deep into the gadget's circuitry. She imagines all the circuitry within the device misfiring. She sees the device overheating, becoming too hot to hold and the practitioner dropping it.
"Practitioner, what is wrong?" Gerry anxiously questions. As the practitioner unexpectedly drops the neurodisruptor.
"The disruptor is malfunctioning. The circuits appear to have overloaded."
"What about my son? Do you have another?" Gerry shouts in desperation.
"No, I've never known this type of device to malfunction. I'll send my apprentice for another or it may be more expedient for you to call another nearby practitioner."
"Olivia, help your mate. Take away the pain, stop the stimulation", the second life force instructs.
"Are you not the source of this assault? Can you not release him from this torment? Why are you doing this to him?"
"Yes, we deposited the energy into his brain but only you have the power to remove it."
"I don't understand. What do I do with this energy?" Olivia cries out on the brink hysteria.
"Search your mind Olivia, you know what to do", they softly say in unison.
Olivia sees her unclaimed beloved in her mind; she sees the energy pummeling his mind. She pictures the energy leaving his body and returning to the life forces. Instantly, Fitz stops convulsing. His fixed gazed disappears as his eyes begin to survey the room. His parents rush to his side.
"Son, how you feel", they ask anxiously.
"Disoriented and tired. What happened? All I remember is talking to father on the deck, and then waking up here."
"Are you in any pain", the practitioner asks?
"No. Was I injured in some way?" Fitz asks frowning.
The apprentice takes another scan of Fitz's brain. "Practitioner, look at this." The two look at each other in amazement.
Mellie speaks up, "is something wrong?" Fitz's parents also turn their attention to the practitioner and his apprentice.
"No, nothing is wrong, replies the practitioner. There's absolutely no residual evidence of the malady; if fact there's evidence of any neuro-disturbance at all."
Olivia smiles as tears of relief stream down her face. "I love you Fitz. Rest now my beloved."
Fitz hears her voice in his head and smiles. He whispers "Olivia", then closes his eyes and falls into a deep sleep.
"Did he just say Olivia', Mellie asks with a stunned look on her face?
No, I think he said over here, the apprentice replies.
A/N: Thank you reading this latest installment. For those reading Oval Office, that will be my next update.