Lombax of the Future written by Geia Akyama
Chapter two-Sheela
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In a large room filled nearly to the ceiling with crates of samples of the planet below and scientific equipment held down with cables woven from the toughest materials known in the galaxy a lone figure drifts aimlessly through the narrow aisles between the rows. Striped orange fur covered her body as it did with all Lombaxes though most probably didn't have cybernetic tails as this one did, and surely none were Splicers either.
Blue eyes were only half open as she mechanically went through the final check list for take off back to the Polaris Galaxy and somehow she'd gotten lost in her thoughts. The dark green armor she wore clung to her every curve and complemented her fur color nicely. Just from looking it was hard to tell that this wasn't a pure Lombax anymore.
Sheela shook herself from the light doze, which in the zero gravity environment she'd adopted while in observation of a class M planet meant she had just sent herself spinning about the large room in the underbelly of her ship. The agile creature twisted and turned in midair to get to a wall, box, or anything for that matter. Not being accustomed to floating freely she only sent herself spinning lazily near the ceiling without actually touching it.
Muttered curses echoed around the large room as the alien forced herself to calm down; maybe she was trying too hard. After all she'd been told many times on her home planet of Praxis II that Lombaxes often had their greatest achievements when they seemed to not actually try very hard at all. Now... what was it she'd been doing before she dozed off? Oh yes. Earth.
The third plant of the solar system she'd chosen to investigate was populated by what had to be an intelligent species. The beings of the world were quite unique too. They showed all the signs of pre-advanced space flight and she'd been lucky enough to watch a manned white and black Delta Wing space craft take off from the surface. The thing climbed higher through the planets thick atmosphere and began shedding parts of its rocket booster. Primitive at best but it seemed all they were capable of at the moment.
One Earth standard day after that monumental event the Lombax woman had to high tail it out of her orbit behind their moon because Fess, her ships computer, had projected it's trajectory directly toward her little hiding place. The adopted alien didn't have to go too far, after all a giant space telescope she'd been fascinated by provided the perfect cover.
That was three Ventiurian standard days ago, or 114 Earth hours. The pink, furless beings had sent a strange looking craft to the surface of the moon, a spiny spider-like thing, and what she witnessed was remarkable. Bulky white suits enshrouded the beings that called themselves Humans and they walked about the surface of their little satellite to check on various instruments placed by other ventures into space. They were already on their way back to their home planet.
Sheela bumped against one of the many crates in the cargo hold and grabbed on. Like most civilized space traveling species in the universe, and even a few of the barbarian races, her ship usually traveled with the artificial gravity generator on. But the primitive satellites circling the blue-green planet might pick up on her ships' unique energy signature.
So to avoid detection and learn as much as she could during her allotted time for this little expedition, Sheela had been forced to suffer through no gravity at all for the better part of seven weeks. And she still hadn't gotten that much better at controlling her motions in the open space of the cargo bay without holding onto something, but she practically flew like a bird through the rest of the Teiaiel.
"Madame Aten? I've decoded that signal from the newest satellite. It's music of this world from a Satellite Radio company that calls itself Sirius. A wide variety in fact. What language would you want to receive the signal in?"
Ah, Fess he worked so well. It was hard to believe that he was all set for the scrap yard because his former owner thrashed his positronic brain. Nothing a little tinkering couldn't fix. Mostly.
"Well I've only mastered English for the most part. So how about that?"
"Very good Madame. Now for the music in question..."
"Oh come on how many kinds of music can there really be on this planet?"
"Very well here's a sample of 'country' music."
A painful melody echoed through the ship like the wailing of Leviathans on the edge of death and Grepthroian folk music combined. The high pitched human singers' notes seared through the Lombaxes sensitive ears and pierced her brains with the ease of a predator tearing into its prey.
The woman held unto a loop of harness that would keep her samples from the planet below from shifting in Hyperspace with one hand and cringed in pain. This stuff was awful! That couldn't possibly be music! At least not any kind of music she cared to hear!
"For the love of bolts turn that off! It's going to ruin my ears!"
The wailing strains cut off in a squawk of static and blessed silence once again filled the ship. The only sounds were the generators keeping the atmosphere in the ship livable and the beleaguered Lombax scientists labored panting.
"I apologize Madame Aten. The Humans call that country music. Its similarities to some modern tortures should have been enough to warn me of any possible ill effects it would have on you."
The Lombax swallowed heavily and willed her blood to stop pumping though her veins so quickly and to control her breathing. Due to unwanted circumstances in her past DNA from a Razerbeast had been grafted onto her own genes.
The result had turned out quite bad for the cretins that had experimented on her. Until certain qualifications were met she would never truly be rid if that particular inner demon either. Without pure Lombax DNA she'd always be part Razerbeast. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the senseless blood rage that went with her rather astounding abilities as a Splicer.
It took a while but those raging impulses slowly receded to the back of her consciousness where they would stay more or less quietly until the next trigger event.
She pushed off the crate and floated through the air to the hatch leading to the rest of the ship she needed to get that foul medication those quacks had prescribed for her. Thankfully she rarely lost control of her bestial side so the need for that disgusting medication didn't arise often.
Through the halls silence reigned in the ship. Sheela could only imagine that it was because Fess had either overloaded his neural pathways by multi tasking again. Or that he simply was preoccupied with filtering out the signals he'd been decoding for her.
"Fess. I need you to take care of the rest of the preflight tasks, I need a break. The twenty four hour days I've been spending on the planet surface have upset my sleeping habits. And I need to take that little pill of mine."
The simulated male voice of her ships computer drifted after her as she palmed her private cabin open. The room was rather small. The cot was built into the wall and a small chest of drawers and a stand alone closet took up most of the space near the porthole she'd just gone through. To the right was another door with a small toiletry facility complete with sink and a sonic shower.
And there, hidden by other cleaning implements was a small brown bottle.
"Yes Madame Aten. The conference with your associates begins in forty-eight of this planet's hours. Would you like a mild sedative to enhance your sleeping pleasure?"
Sheila smiled broadly and gulped the bitter little pill down without water.
"Oh god yes. What do you have to offer?"