Relic from the seas

By

Dr Facer

-15-

"Please don't die!"

That was the last thing Alia could say before communications were cut by something in the Orbital Observatory, and she didn't know if he had heard her or not.

Frustrated and hoping the Gaea armor arrived on time, the only thing she could do was to sit in silence, staring at the numbers provided by her screen's terminal, waiting for communication to be reestablished and worrying endlessly for X's fate.

"The armor arrived to the Observatory without incident," Layer announced. "And according to my scans, it seems X is already wearing it."

"I'm sure Captain X will win the battle now that he has it," Pallette added. "Don't worry Alia, he will be fine."

=0=

"I don't care about regulations, Lifesaver," Alia said firmly. "I'm going to see him and you can't stop me!"

"We haven't finished yet, you can't simply…"

"I can and I will!" The senior navigator stated and pushed past the medic, entering the medical bay where X was being treated. "And give me a damage report, I deserve to know how bad he is."

The reploid doctor, who was following Alia as she approached the designated operating room, could only sigh in defeat and did as she requested. "Captain X arrived in stasis. His systems shut him down so that his self-repair function could start fixing some of the damage he received. His inner structure is fortunately undamaged, but most of the wiring connecting his servomotors fried, it's a miracle he was able to walk to the ship, for all we know he shouldn't have been able to move. His standard armor was damaged: his left shoulder and his right knee melted, and his chest was pierced by what we think was a very powerful plasma shot; finally, his optics received damage as well, I think X was half blind by the moment Commander Zero found him… the only reason he managed to resist until he got here was because he was wearing the Gaea Armor."

"The last time he was this damaged was when he fought Sigma in Doppler Town, but back then Doctor Cain managed to repair him," Alia said but corrected quickly. "No. he was in far worse condition after the fifth Maverick Uprising, Sigma almost destroyed him, but… by the time we arrived to rescue him, we found X completely repaired. But we don't know who fixed him or how."

"Same thing that happened with Commander Zero, but he returned completely healed during the Nightmare phenomena incident," Lifesaver recalled. "We don't know who repaired him either."

"Probably the same person who fixed X," Alia said. "And we could really use his help right now!"

"Actually, no, we don't need him," Lifesaver said. "Like I told you, the damage was substantial but it's nothing that we can't fix. Replacing the wiring and the armor pieces that melted and also Captain X's optics, that is something we can easily do. It will take a while, but it's not difficult because we don't have to rebuild anything. We simply couldn't do it if that were the case, as far as we know, there isn't anyone who can rebuild X's inner systems, or Zero's for that matter."

"There is someone," Alia said, finally arriving to the room where X was in. "We simply don't know where he is or how to find him."

"It would be nice to learn from him," Lifesaver accepted. "But like I said, we don't need his assistance for what we're doing. I also suggest that you stop here. Alia, I've let you go as far as you can. Only authorized personnel can go beyond this point."

"I know," she said, a hand on the door as she steeled herself for what she was about to see. "And I don't care."

"Alia, wait…!" Lifesaver tried again but to no avail. She ignored him and pushed the door open, entering the operating room without looking back.

Notes:

Thanks to Adam for beta reading this chapter.