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They're mixing with the population
A virus wearing pumps and pearls
Lord help the lonely guys
Hooked by those hungry eyes
Here come Tomorrow's Girls…
Lyrics from the song Tomorrow's Girls by Donald Fagen
Chapter 31
SB 217 - Hyperspace - Gamma Quadrant
"Chief."
Pettus turned to face the intercom in his boat's cramped storage room as Earls' voice sounded through the room's speaker system. He must have still been wired from the action they'd seen on the surface of the emerald gas giant's moon because he'd been checking the settings on the stasis unit for the tenth time since they'd hightailed it from that blasted place. The place where they'd rescued the mysterious woman.
The place where they'd lost Johns.
He punched the button on the nearby wall with the side of his fist and answered. "Pettus here."
"Chief," Pettus could hear a touch of relief in the other man's voice, "I need you to come up here. You really need to take a good look at the most recent scans of our patient."
"How come?"
"They're...well...they're real freaky."
Pettus almost snorted aloud at Earls' declaration. What in the hell about the entire situation they'd experienced on that moon hadn't been 'freaky?'
To start with, there had been the people and the robots that just had happened to take a stroll on a moon in enemy territory. He'd noted several odd things about those machines. First, although they'd appeared to be quite autonomous in comparison to the tele-operated mechanical warriors the Syndicate had used against Fleet Marines during the war, their construction was flimsy as hell. Instead of using neosteel which was in common use throughout known space, these robots had been constructed out of chromium steel, a primitive ass alloy that hadn't been used for nearly a thousand years or so. Also, their strange optical scanners had been puzzling, too. Instead of mimicking a human's stereoscopic vision, these bots had been outfitted with narrow slits where red lights had pulsed from side to side.
Then there had been the strange craft his team had found during the mad scramble to sanitize the site to keep the lizards in the dark about the smash and grab his team had pulled off. When he'd seen that the eerie ship had possessed the same face of the robots on its bow right down to the pulsing eye slit, his sense of dread had increased exponentially. So, before he'd used the boat's plasma cannons to melt the other ship into molten slag to keep it and its data banks out of the lizard's hands, he'd made damn sure that he'd recorded several images of the thing and performed a few deep scans.
"Chief? Are you still there?"
At Earls' prompting, Pettus' train of thought returned to the here and now. "Yes. I'll be right there."
He turned to peer at his prisoner through a small window on the stasis unit hatch. When he'd brought the alien aboard, he'd taken no chances. Using the diamond-hard rotary cutting heads of his k-bar, he'd removed the Sakqua soldier's armored spacesuit right before he'd stuffed the thing into the deep freeze. Maybe that had been the messy way to do the job; the creature had some cuts on its scaly body that oozed bodily fluids of some kind. Even so, it was the fastest way to disarm the creature and place it into stasis before the sedative he'd used to take the thing down had worn off.
Satisfied that the 'package' was secure for the Fleet brass-hat spook Czmbor, he exited the small room and trudged forward toward the boat's Med Bay.
Moments later, he found Earls standing beside the monitor that was connected to the autodoc platform where the woman they'd rescued slept. While the autodoc had performed microsurgery to treat her internal injuries, the machine had placed her under heavy sedation.
Until that moment, the Chief had been so busy dealing with their prisoner, he hadn't really had the opportunity to take a good, long look at their patient. Although a portion of the machine's console obscured some of her torso, he could still see most of her.
And Pettus liked what he saw.
She appeared to be in either her late twenties or early thirties. Her willowy yet healthy-looking frame, with the exception of a large bruise where the shattered robot had struck her, was clad in a skimpy halter top and bikini briefs, the only garments she'd worn under the vacuum suit they'd removed to facilitate her medical treatment. He also noticed that there was almost no makeup on her face. Despite that fact, he thought she was a very attractive woman; indeed, she kind of reminded him of a girl of Korean descent he'd known in high school that he'd had a thing for a long time ago.
With a wry smile, he pushed aside his short yet pleasant trip down memory lane and turned to Earls. "What did you want to show me?"
The other man sighed deeply then said, "The Med Scanner discovered something about her that is way outside the norm for a human. According to it, 3 percent of her body is made up of silicon. When I consulted the AI, it said that the human body should only have trace amounts, nothing beyond .03 percent or so. The AI also said that the amount of silicon in her body is completely incompatible with the function of our bodies."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning...she should be a statue rather than a living, breathing person."
Pettus wanted to feel shocked by Earls' pronouncement but he'd become acclimated to the cornucopia of surprises that had taken place during their mission. "How about the body of her dead companion in the storage compartment. Have you run a scan on him, too?"
They'd brought the dead guy and the remains of one of the robots aboard. Pettus had thought their patient would appreciate the gesture in regards to the male. As for the bot, he figured the lab boys would love to get their hands on it to see what had made it tick.
"Not yet."
Pettus handed him a portable scanner that was synced to the autodoc. "Go and scan him."
Earls nodded once and went aft. In the meantime, Pettus gazed down upon their patient as she slept. As he waited for Earls' return, he noticed that her hair was a light shade of brown rather than the almost indigo black colored hair on the head of the girl in high school that he'd known. She also appeared to be far taller than his old school crush, by at least six inches or so. Her belly was flat and trim; this woman didn't have an ounce of fat on her. Her legs were lithe, muscular and long.
The more he saw of her, the more he began to see her for the beauty she truly was.
Soon, he heard Earls' footsteps and turned to face the approaching man.
"Chief, the dead guy's body is composed of 3 percent silicon, too."
Pettus simply nodded in response. Then something on the autodoc console caught his eye. "Earls," he asked, "what the hell is that in her forearm?"
Earls smirked. "You noticed that, too, eh? Well, I had the autodoc perform an MRI of her entire body and it discovered what appears to be a connection port under the skin in each forearm. If you look closely, you'll see there's no evidence they were surgically implanted. Apparently, they appear to have been a natural part of her. I then had the AI try to find a match for the ports but it couldn't come up with anything in either the Alliance or the Syndicate where those ports would fit. Even stranger than that is the fact that the fiber optic cables don't run to any implants; they're directly connected to her central nervous system."
The Chief grimaced. "Earls, I think you're right. Everything about this lady is freaky. I think we need to talk to a top-level spook because whoever can help us figure this whole thing out is someone way above our pay grades. Until I say so, make damn sure the autodoc keeps her sedated. Also, have the machine maintain the suppressor field to make certain she stays put. I don't want her getting off of that platform until HQ has told me how they want us to handle the situation."
In response, the other man simply grunted when Pettus strode to the cockpit to order Krenar'a to transition the ship out of hyperspace and come to a full stop in the gulf between the stars.
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Ten minutes had passed before Czmbor's image flashed onto his viewscreen.
"Chief," the woman said simply.
At that moment, he noticed the single star on each tab of her collar and his right eyebrow raised slightly toward the ceiling. Clearly, she'd obtained a promotion while his team had been playing hide and seek with the lizards.
"Admiral, we've retrieved the 'package' you wanted," he said. Although no one in the Fleet had believed the lizards could access their Hypercom transmissions, Pettus wanted to maintain operational security as much as possible. Then he added, "However, we've run into a situation that has us a little rattled, ma'am."
"Go on."
"When we attempted to retrieve the package, a party of a dozen robots led by what appeared to be a human male and female entered the target zone. The arrival of this party must have been detected by the opposition because the enemy sent two armed vehicles after the robots. Fortunately for us, this allowed us to capture the package and neutralize both the vehicles and the facility. However, by the time we could engage the opposition, the robots had all been destroyed and the male was killed. The woman was badly injured and we brought her aboard my boat, along with the body of the man and a part of one of the robots. The woman had significant internal bleeding, so our autodoc had to perform surgery on her. She survived the procedure and is currently under sedation. While the machine treated her injuries, I placed the package into stasis then we found the party's vessel and destroyed it as a part of our sanitization of the site."
"That's good. Nice work, Chief."
"Thank you, ma'am, but there's more to this story."
"I'm listening."
"Well…we couldn't identify the vessel. It appeared to be a biomechanical construct. Actually, ma'am, the thing had a face on her bow that matched the faces of the robots that were in the woman's party. I have to say I found that to be pretty freaky."
"Did you capture some images of that ship?"
"Yes, we did, Admiral. We also have detailed scans of it, as well. I'm transmitting them to you now," he said, pressed a button and sent her the packet.
When she received the files, she apparently placed the images up on a corner of her screen. She gasped then said, "Pettus…this ship…I've never seen the like either. I agree, it is damn peculiar."
"If you think that's strange, you'll love this next part, ma'am. We ran a scan on the woman and the body of her companion. Their bodies have far more silicon in them than a normal human being. Most of us have only trace amounts of it; however, for those two, 3 percent of their bodies are made up of the stuff. Now, according to the AI, they should not be able to function at all, yet here they are. Also, we found that she has dataports under her skin in each forearm. These ports are directly attached to her central nervous system."
"Were they surgically implanted?"
"We don't believe so. There is no indication she has ever undergone any surgical procedures. Another funny thing about the ports is the fact they don't match any connector in either the Alliance or the Syndicate."
A grim expression flashed across the Czmbor's face. "Pettus, I'm going to send you the images of two women. I want you to compare these images to the person you have aboard your boat."
"Yes, ma'am," he answered.
Moments later, two photos flashed up onto his screen. The first image was of a blonde woman with a broad chin and an angular face. She was beautiful and reminded him of some fashion models he'd seen in the past.
The next image, though, was clearly a photograph of the woman lying in his Med Bay.
"Ma'am," he said, "the woman who appears to be of Korean descent is the woman who's on my boat."
An odd smirk dawned on Czmbor's face. "Chief, I'm transmitting some language files I want you and your crew to download into your implants. These files will allow you to communicate with your 'guest' when she regains consciousness. I'm also sending you the coordinates for the current location of the Fleet heavy destroyer Witchcraft. After you sign off and get underway, you are to rendezvous with the heavy destroyer and transfer your guest to the custody of Rear Admiral Malcolm Jackson. Under no circumstances are you to bring that woman to the Xanadu system. Of course, upon her transfer to the heavy destroyer, I want you to return to Xanadu at your best speed to deliver your package to me aboard the Alcubierre."
"I understand, Admiral."
Czmbor now smiled wryly at him. "Pettus, I've got to say that you really hit the jackpot on this mission! The woman is one clone among thousands, apparently created by the robots that accompanied her onto the moon. These machines were allegedly created by a human society we've just discovered from another part of the galaxy. Somehow, these machines became sentient and rebelled against their creators. They fought a war that killed millions on both sides, a war that ended in a stalemate. The machines then disappeared for forty years until they returned and used the human form clones to infiltrate the human society and shut down its entire defense network. Afterwards, the machines wiped out nearly every man, woman and child, leaving a few refugees to flee across the stars into our space."
Pettus blinked continuously throughout Czmbor's recitation. He found the whole thing almost impossible to believe. Basically, the Admiral was telling him that the lovely vision who was resting peacefully in his Med Bay was a biological robot, a member of a race of machines that had committed genocide on a massive, unimaginable scale!
If Czmbor was telling him the truth and not pulling his leg, he had to get that woman…no, that thing off of his boat right damn now!
But the Admiral's next words immediately halted that train of thought dead in its tracks.
"Chief, I want you to take care of that woman's medical needs to the best of your ability. You see, we want to attempt a constructive engagement with her people and it would help our cause if we could return her to them after you went to the trouble of rescuing her from the lizards."
Pettus said nothing. He simply stared at the Admiral.
She apparently didn't register how stunned he was and continued speaking. "Now, if she wakes up before you reach Witchcraft, engage her in conversation. Be cordial as much as possible and don't attempt to mislead her. Tell her you're transporting her to meet with some of her people who have contacted the Alliance. Now, she may be frightened of you at first because you're human and believe you are a member of the human society they've been fighting. If you have a non-human crewman on board, that would be helpful."
"My pilot is a Tripean, ma'am."
"Wonderful! When she wakes up, have your pilot there with you. Let her know you've both Alliance citizens and that she's not our enemy. Tell her the Alliance is not affiliated with the human society her people attacked. Oh, that society calls itself the Colonials, by the way. Pettus, tell her that her party on the moon was attacked by a non-human society that is xenophobic to the extreme and saw her party as a threat to that society. However, don't tell her we're at war with the lizards. I don't want her people to get the idea they ought to team up with the lizards to wage war against us."
"Got it, ma'am. By the way, what do her people call themselves?"
"They call themselves Cylons, Chief."
He said the word lowly to himself and felt a shudder travel down the length of his spine. If these machines could build a woman who looked so sweet and innocent while she and others like her wiped out billions of people, they must be evil incarnate.
"Chief, listen up." Czmbor's words drew him back from his troubled thoughts. "Although we want to constructively engage these Cylons, I don't want you to let down your guard around this woman for a single moment. Lock away any sidearms and order your AI to put everyone aboard to sleep if she comes close to overpowering you and your people. Apparently, the silicon matrix in her musculature makes her far stronger than a woman with her build should be. Even so, highly trained operatives like you should be able to take her down in hand to hand combat. For instance, Admiral Jackson managed to outmatch a twin of the blonde woman in the photo I sent you."
"I understand, ma'am. Thank you for the warning."
"You're welcome, Pettus. Well, if there's nothing else, I'll leave you to it."
"I think we're good, Admiral."
"All right then, Chief. God speed and I look forward to seeing both you and the package when you arrive here at Xanadu."
"Thank you, ma'am."
Once the spook's image disappeared from his screen, he sat there quietly. Even now, he still found it difficult to believe the woman in his Med Bay was the monster that Czmbor had just described to him.
A minute later, he rousted himself from his reverie then proceeded to transmit the new coordinates the Admiral had sent him to Krenar'a's console.
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