New chapter out, and it's a pretty long one too. but had a lot of fun with the pov. Not sure what else to say since we are still mostly in the introduction part of the story. Expect updates to be a bit erratic, as I have both this story and my Skyrim fic - combined with spotty motivation and writers block it's a bit of a mess. But there is progress at least ^^
So uhm, without further ado.
chapter 2: Waking up.
*Beeb*
…
*Beep*
…
*Beep*
…
She groaned weakly, her head was pounding.
...
*Beep*
…
There was a voice, close but too muffled to make out. She tried opening her eyes, sharp white light stabbing right into her brain… Everything felt… Distant in a way, fuzzy. There was a strange sensation though, one she couldn't quite place. Hrefna rolled onto her side just in time for a bad coughing fit, she fought the urge to vomit and sighed, skin cold and clammy.
Couldn't even find the strength to wipe her mouth, before she found herself drifting off to sleep again.
...
*Beep*
…
*Beeb*
…
Was her alarm ringing already? But it was…what day was it again?
Her mind felt foggy and slow, desperately clinging to the edges of sleep. Was that even her alarm? She thought she remembered having some awful country song to blast her out of bed.
And what was with the pounding headache… She- she needed some water, maybe a painkiller. Her body was so heavy though, even thinking about moving felt like an impossible task. Maybe a small break first. Yes, just a small break, that would be good...
…
*Beep*
...
*Beep*
...
The headache remained.
Deep breath, in and out.
In and out.
In and out.
A pause.
Maybe she needed a bottle of painkillers.
With no small amount of effort she slowly swung out her hand, grasping but finding nothing on the table, or any table at all for that matter. Just empty air, her arm flopped down along the bedside, she couldn't even reach the floor. For some reason that disappointed her…Just how high was this bed? A slight shudder went through her. How could her body be so tired when she just woke up. What the hell happened?
…
No answer came, and her memory was as useful as a chicken in a horse race.
Where did she put that glass of water?
…
She opened her eyes, blinking a few times to clear her vision. The room was dimly lit, yellow lights bathing everything in a nice warm glow. Another deep breath, wincing from the pounding headache that elegantly made itself known again. She put a hand to her head, pinching the bridge of her nose in the weak hope that it would solve all of her problems. It didn't work.
Squinting slightly, her eyes travelled across the small room. She was in a bed, but not her own. Sheets where white, walls were dark metallic grey. She also spotted a couch, two couches in fact. That wasn't standard for a... a, well she didn't even know what this was.
Where the hell am I?
*Beeb*
Her head snapped in the direction hard enough to make her wince from the pain in her neck.
An EKG monitor was slowly beeping away.
*Beeb*
*Beeb*
Every beat caused a small spike on the screen, the little beeping was the only sound in the room aside from her breathing. Hrefna closed her eyes and stayed like that, listening to her own heartbeat; it was oddly comforting in its steady constant rhythm.
She tried thinking, aside from the glaringly obvious, what did she remember?
Something… Something about fighting, definitely military related…maybe. No it was definitely that, a war. She was supposed to fight a war…but against who and on whose side? Ze-o, X-e, x-oom... No that wasn't it.
...
X-COM! Yes, that was it. She was here to fight for X-COM. Hrefna smiled a little, revelling in the little victory over her fuzzy brain. But how and who had she been fighting, hmmm.
It was like chasing sheep, she realized. Stupid panicking sheep that could run on walls. Okay okay focus Hrefna, you are here to fight a war, for X-COM but against who, who are you fighting…?
Aliens! There it was. Aliens had attacked, she had been approached by serious looking people. A council had formed an elite military group. They needed someone to lead them... from some god forsaken station buried underground in the middle of nowhere. Probably to avoid discovery, her brain helpfully supplied. But that hadn't worked, they had been found.
The attack.
The base had been attacked.
But she wasn't dead. No she was in way too much pain for that. Maybe...
She had been captured.
The Aliens had found and destroyed the base. They had caught her...they, they...
She felt her breathing accelerate, clenched her fists and forced her eyes shut.
She took 3 deep breaths, holding on the fourth before slowly breathing out.
She was shaking but did her best to push it aside. She had to focus. On something, anything. She looked around for a clock, or calendar or…anything to tell her how long she'd been out.
Maybe her phone would, wait, where was her phone? Or her clothes for that matter. She thought looking down at herself and for the first time, noticing the cheap hospital gown she was wearing. Pushing aside the feeling of nausea, the 'too close for comfort' feeling of panic and the exploding headache she crawled weakly forward a bit to look over the edge of the bed. Nothing on the right side…maybe the left side of the bed? But before she could continue her half-hearted hunt for clothes, she was interrupted by the sound of a door sliding open.
It was the beard from before. Wait that was real? They had punched into her skull with- No stop. She blinked hard and then kept her eyes focused on him, he seemed familiar but she wasn't about to let her guard down.
He blinked upon seeing her halfway off the bed. "Commander" the bearded man said, a hint of surprise to his voice...
She blinked... and that's when it clicked.
"Central?" she tilted her head in disbelief. Her voice was hoarse and faint and talking felt weird.
And then a second thought came to her and left her mouth before she had time to think.
"Bradford you... You look old?" The words left her slowly. Both a statement and a question. When did he get a beard? Few grey hairs, small wrinkles scattered around his face...crows feet. He Looked like he was in his fifties.
He looked at her for a bit, shaking his head lightly before walking towards her. She just kept staring.
He stopped by the side of her bed, pressing a button on a small data pad. She was still just staring at him silently, no words really came to her other than something didn't add up. Her mind was still a blur with questions and the last remnants of sleep were still clinging to her.
His voice was deep, sort of rough and yet soft in it's own way. "Glad to see you're finally coming out of it. Don't envy the headache you must have though..." He drifted off.
Central, Central Bradford was here, and he was old. She just nodded, the headache was quite horrible yeah.
"Still..." He continued "We can't exactly fault Dr. Tygan-"
The one with the glasses? her mind chipped in.
"-Especially as no one's ever even attempted something like this before."
Hey thoughts returned to when she woke up last. When she was... on the table? Had it been a table? Doesn't matter, focus Hrefna, focus. They had used that... that bloody thing on her. They had pulled something from her head...
She pushed herself back a bit, trying to get into a sitting position. However the first strain of her muscles brought with it, a fresh wave of pain and dizziness.
Central took a quick step forward, holding open hands forward like she was an animal about to panic. "Easy - We're still not entirely sure what they did to you... that chip was buried halfway into your skull."
She froze looking from his hands to him and then back to his hands. She took another breath and blinked before letting herself slump back onto the bed with a sigh.
She tried to speak again but all that came out was a dry raspy mess that made her cough uncontrollably for a few seconds. She tried to sink, her mouth was so dry.
"water-" she managed to croak out, he obliged grabbing a glass from a stand behind the electronics and handing it to her. She gulped it all down, she enjoyed the moment of relief that came with it. She handed the glass back, whispering a small "thank you," as she did.
He gave a half smile in response, "How you feeling?"
She was silent for moment, trying to get a feeling for her body and mind, but it was a blurry mess of pain, a tingling numbness and... And her mind felt like a paradox, patient and nervous, calm and agitated. Like she could spend the rest of her life in this bed but paranoid that someone or something would come, like she had to move, to run or fight, like...like.
He's expecting an answer, she mind broke in. Central was still looking at her, a look of worry, hidden to anyone who didn't know what to look for.
"I have a pulse..." Hrefna started, though from the look he gave she would have to do better.
"I feel like I lost an argument with a muton. But... I've been through worse." She finished honestly, pointing weakly to her chest. Central grimaced, he'd seen the medical records, she knew.
"Not exactly a consolation but-" He started a bit exasperatedly before continuing in a lighter tine "-Suppose it'll have to do." He gave her a long look before turning his head towards a seemingly random display cabinet to her left. "Lost a lot of good soldiers looking for you over the years. Almost gave up hope that you were out there. Acted on the intel as soon as I got word."
Over the years...? And were had she... She didn't remember were she'd been, there was flashes but... she couldn't focus.
He gave her a quick look before moving to the centre of the room. Speaking in a solemn and yet, almost relieved tone as he did.
"Not sure what you remember, but a lot's changed. Did the best I could, but the last 20 years been tough without you." A mall pause.
He was waiting for her to react, but Hrefna wasn't sure wh- 20 years!? Had she been gone for 20 years? How was that even possible, she - it wasn't that long since the alien started the invasion. Couldn't have been more than a few months, no it simply wasn't... it - breathe Hrefna, breathe. Another few deep breaths. This is stupid, but it works so keep doing it.
Right focus, you've been out cold, for 20 years by the sound of it. Your memory is a mess, nothing you can do about that right now. Does at least explain his beard, and the new room.
Everything hurts and your head feels weird, maybe a painkiller, but head feeling weird she pushed back for later.
Okay but, if 20 years has passed, and Central has been leading X-COM... Memories from earlier flashed through her mind. A wall blew up, familiar looking creatures rushed in, fired at the people... a creature, a muton hit her in the face with it's rifle...
She spoke in a low voice, part of her knowing the answer but still dreading the response. "We lost, didn't we? The war I mean."
Any semblance of a smile disappeared, his face ageing 10 years in less than a second "Not yet. I'll spare you the details but the counsel surrendered, that's how the aliens found us. Council gave them our location, nothing we could have done. Aliens dropped everything they had on us."
There was a determination, he's not given up yet.
She looked away, the only thing out of their control. The one group they relied on for resources and troops, was the one who sold them out. They had been difficult to work with at times sure, but it was an alien invasion. Everyone was scared, everyone wanted help and assurance. Even with earth united against a common enemy it had been one hell of a fight... But she hadn't expected the counsel, the ones who had formed X-COM to begin with, to be the one who would break first.
Central gave a small sigh, rubbing his beard slightly.
"You feel like catching up, Shen has the archive up and running on your terminal."
He pointed at a large screen before continuing with a small sigh. "Otherwise I'd go see Dr. Tygan when you're ready. There's some things you should know. He'll be better at explaining them than me."
He looked at her again, probably waiting for a response she thought. Her mind stumbled a bit, before she found the words
"20 years...?"
He gave her an apologetic smile, eyes jumping between her and the floor. "Yeah... It's a bit much to take in at once I expect. You got some clothes in the closet. There's a mug and stuff for hot chocolate in the cupboard over there, should take the edge off." he offered with a smile.
She smiled at the last part. Some hot chocolate would be nice... She looked at the terminal, 20 years of catching up. Part of her wanted to unleash a tsunami of question on Central but... She was exhausted, she needed to think, to process the admittedly few, but massive things she had learned already.
"I'll leave you to it" The voice of central pulled her back into focus, he was standing by the door. "Oh and commander...It's damm good to have you back."
He turned and walked away, door sliding closed behind him, and with that he was gone.
Leaving her behind with her thoughts and an archive to shift through.
The Avenger - Classified Location
Early March 2035 - Noon
So ADVENT was their new enemy.
A puppet state set up by the aliens after the counsel broke. The thought made her grimace, earth had been under alien control for over 20 years. The resistance was in... well calling it 'a bad shape would be an understatement. The avenger - were she was currently, was the main HQ of the resistance, with numerous small camps and disconnected groups scattered around the world. They had a relatively small number of troops compared to last time, training wasn't as good either due to lack of professionals. They relied almost exclusively on supplies delivered by the various resistance groups to keep the base running and their belies full.
Ammunition likewise was limited and made mostly on demand since their supplies were so low. They did have a decent stockpile of bullets, explosives, and all the essential gear but... production would have to be ramped up before they could do anything serious. They had lost most of their old technology and equipment when the base fell. So they were back to conventional firearms and explosives again, still there were some improvements to ballistics and reliability, so wasn't all bad news. Body armour was once again back to ceramic-steel plates and Kevlar. Survivability would be questionable until they got the technology and machinery to produce something better.
In other words she would have to make every shot count and choose engagements carefully. They didn't have several nations backing them up with logistics and manpower. Gorilla warfare was their best bet. Irregular combat with a focus on sabotage, ambush tactics, hit-and-run. In short, avoid head on confrontations. They would need to use stealth, strike fast and retreat before ADVENT could gather forces and retaliate. Equipment would have to be minimal, small - hard hitting combat groups with good mobility. She made a mental note to ask Shen to give the troop transport a look over, they needed all the speed and manoeuvrability they cold get.
And then there were the elephant in the room.
ADVENT, the new face of their alien overlords. Superior troops, both in numbers and capability. Enhanced by genetic engineering and equipped with the best weapons and armour the aliens had to offer. Backed by every government and military on earth that still existed. Their tactics over the last 20 years had been admirable. They were well coordinated and supplied, taking full advantage of their armies and weapons. Striking with overwhelming force, often taking out entire resistance groups before they had time to evac or send out warnings to others. Civilians and soldiers alike either killed or taken- where they still didn't know.
Hrefna learned back in the chair, trying and failing to ignoring the stinging from her chest and still pounding headache. She took another sip from her hot chocolate, closing her eyes she savoured the taste for a moment.
She was relatively in the dark regarding ADVENT, their movements were... Inconsistent. It was clear they wanted the planet, they had spent the better part of 20 years making that point. But the question that held her up was why. What was it about the planet they wanted so badly? Natural resources was out of the question, there was nothing special on earth they couldn't find in abundance on asteroids and other big rocks in space. The aliens were a space faring group, they could've have gotten it all without fighting. Plus to her knowledge the aliens hadn't been doing any major excavations.
An increased workforce, slaves or similar would be downright absurd, they had proven their ability to construct advanced machines time and time again. Using enslaved humans instead would be so hilariously stupid she didn't even know where to start.
But that let her to what was at the moment, her only theory. Humans. They were here for the residents of the planet, maybe some of the other creatures to, but it was clear humans were the main goal. Living humans too, since they could have just released some random virus to wipe out the population. With the impressive talent for genetic engineering they had showed - Hrefna expected a little virus would be a cakewalk for them. But no, they had gone through hell and high water to genetically engineer troops to infiltrate them, fight for decades and now, set up an entire global government on the planet. Yes, humans were the answer, but how and why was for them to figure out later.
And then there was her, Hrefna, the Commander.
Once before and now once again, leader of X-COM.
For some reason she seemed to be stuck in the centre of it all. She had gone over her rescue a few times. Central and a handful of others had, by some miracle managed to pull her from a gene clinic - Survived a small army of ADVENT. Then they managed to escape and bring her back, where they then did an impromptu surgery to get some unknown chip out of her skull. The operation itself had gone over well enough, maybe even a bit too well. It was clear it was no ordinary gene clinic of cause, that was how Central and the others had known it was the right place. They had lost 2 X-COM soldiers during the operation but... it shouldn't have worked.
She knew it was the anniversary of ADVENT, that their forces were spread out to deal with the crowds but... There were pieces to the puzzle she couldn't see, and it frustrated her to no end.
The advent network had practically gone up in flames the moment they broke into the clinic. Every available - No, every armed soldier in the entire city had been called to that one clinic. For some reason, the aliens panicked when she was getting rescued. Something very uncharacteristic of them based on the last 20 years of info she had sipped through.
And they were still actively sending out patrols and scouting groups, both on land, water and in the air. Hrefna knew she was a competent leader, she'd lead X-COM through the last war, giving the aliens one hell of a fight if she had to say so. Even though they had lost in the end.
But for ADVENT to have this reaction to the resistance kidnapping her back? No, the shear amount of resources thrown into this told her there was something more to it. There had to be, why was she even alive for that matter? They had kept her, in some kind of...stasis suit for 20 years. Far as she understood it she'd been more or less frozen in time. Central had grown a beard, ADVENT had taken over the world and the resistance had split into who knows how many pieces. And Hrefna, to the surprise of everyone including herself - Hadn't aged a day.
She awoke to a shattered past and an unsure future. And they - The resistance was counting on her to get things back on track. No pressure at all.
Hrefna closed off the terminal, taking another sip from her mug only to find it was empty. She let out a sigh, that was her fourth cup today and it was only... She looked at the clock, 2 pm. She shook her head, rubbing her eyes. She had to get up, 2 days reading up on ADVENT, the resistance and everything else had left her restless. And she didn't feel like she was getting anywhere. Her sleep had been spotty at best, barely able to find rest. She manged to drift off a few times, but only for 2-3 hours before jerking awake, thinking she had heard something only to find the room empty. Her head still felt weird, no explanation had magically appeared for that yet unfortunately. Her chest still hurt but nothing knew about that.
Headache had...diminished somewhat and her head had cleared up enough for her to do stuff other than staring blankly ahead waiting for the walls to move.
She needed to get up, one more day stuck in this room reading about aliens... Pain or not she would go mad. Sliding off the chair she slowly walked to the closet. She opened a few drawers, looking over what she had available. There were a clean grey uniform with matching pants ready but... She really did not feel in the mood for all the 'presenting professional' stuff. Every part of her body and mind felt like it was barely holding together. She glanced idly at the selection for a moment before spotting something all the way to the right. She smile a bit as she made her decision. An oversized soft orange sweater that went halfway down to her knees. Long sleeves, nice and loose fit with some likewise loose pants. It was definitely more of a 'relaxing Sunday at home' outfit but she couldn't care less at the moment.
She grit her teeth in pain as she pulled the hospital gown off, throwing it aside on the ground. She took a deep breath before putting on the pants, letting out a colourful string of curses as she did. It was an old wound, well not a wound anymore more just a mess of scars. She should have been dead, getting perforated with shrapnel like that, but, no. Dying would've been too easy. So 6 surgeries later and she was back on her feet, well mostly anyway.
There was still severe scarring on the left side of her chest, she was missing part of her left lung - Though they somehow managed to keep the rest of it functional. Reconstructive surgery to fix her ribs and missing tissue... It was a mess. But she was alive, in pain and unable to do any taxing physical work but alive and - she reminded herself. She'd still lead X-COM last time to great success despite having the physical endurance of a couch potato.
She pulled the sweater over her head, putting her arms in and letting it slide down. Hurt less than she expected.
Now dressed she slowly moved to the door, walking was really the best she could do. Anything else and she risked having to take brakes along the way, and what a sight that would be.
She pressed the button central used when he left, making the door slide open. She took a few steps into the hallway before turning left, the doctor Central had mention was closer, same for mission control, but she wanted to visit engineering first.
She slowly made her way down the hallways, passing a number of base personnel on the way. She received a few looks, but no salutes or the likes as she was used to. While her casual dressing probably didn't help she blamed it on being gone for 20 years. None of these people had seen her before, Central she recognised but... If X-COM HQ had been stormed, it was a miracle that even he was alive.
She would probably have to introduce herself later, Central would no doubt have a plan for that. He liked his little ceremonies.
By the time she made it to engineering she was slightly out of breath and her head was steadily complaining about it's... existence. Having to crawl down god only knew how many ladders probably didn't help she thought, poking the console so the door slid open.
The place looked... well it looked like an active, if slightly messy workshop. There was a woman, working on what looking like a drone of some kind. She muttered a bit to herself as she was working, Hrefna slowly approached. She was so deep in her work that the engineer didn't notice Hrefna approaching - that was at least until the drone suddenly levitated and flew straight towards her head.
Hrefna ducked just in time, turning her head quickly to watch the little machine fly off to the other end of the room.
"Commander!" The engineer called out. She recognised the voice, and the face. Voice 2, the face that was too close to make out any features. So that was the engineer. "I'm so sorry, getting our tech to talk to theirs is harder than you think. Lilly Shen chief engineer, at your service" She finished, wrench to her chest and a bob of the head in a weird salute.
"Lilly? Damm you've...grown up" Hrefna spoke in a light hearted tone. Nearly getting smacked by a drone was somehow didn't seem relevant anymore. This was the little girl she remembered?
But the comment made Shen's entire demeanour change, eyes now downcast and sad.
"You were...probably expecting to see my father - In all that's happened I guess Central didn't tell you yet. He's uh... He's gone."
oh...
Hrefna froze, Raymond was dead?
"Dad gave us everything he had to get us this far. He gave everything, this ship, the Avenger-" She said, vaguely gesturing with the wrench to the room "Was his life's work. We would never have made it this far without him" She said sadly, but with a hint of pride as well.
"I know he would have loved to show you around the place himself... He used to talk about you a lot..." She trailed off, looking at Hrefna, or more likely a memory of what once was.
Well, honesty seemed the only decent approach.
"I'm... sorry. My head is still a bit all over the place." She gave a slight pause, searching for the right words. "Your father was a good man, a good friend... And on hell of an engineer, anything they dreamed up in the lab he could build" she finished with an apologetic smile.
Shen blinked a few times, looked away before before responding "Thank you and... It's ok, I can imagine it's a lot to take in..." she trailed off, looking around the engineering bray before turning her focus back to Hrefna.
"It might not look like much but, from here I can fabricate pretty much anything you can come up with. And with a little more help, you'd be amazed with what I can do. You can be sure I'm ready to finish what my dad started" The sadness was all but gone, now outshone by a proud determination Hrefna had seem so many times before. Lilly really was her fathers kid.
Hrefna smiled at the response. "Well for now I think my only request is that you make a list of available projects, going to ask Tygan to do the same. We can go over them tomorrow, figure out what's a priority. Initially I had a bunch of questions but- Well your database answered them all for now. Thanks for that by the way. Been a bit of a mess, trying to catch up everything that's happened but... it helped a lot" Hrefna gave her a small nod of appreciation, Shen didn't seem to have expected it as she stared a bit.
"I uh, no problem. Just glad to help in any way I can"
There was a short silence before Shen spoke up again.
"Well! I better get back to these gremlins, after that I'll make that project list shouldn't take too long. Figure you have quite a bit on your plate."
Hrefna raised an eyebrow, was she being sent off? Still, Shen were right about her plate being full. "You have no idea. Well nice to meet you." She shoved her hands into the pockets of her sweater turning to leave the bay. A small "You too" reached her as she got to the door.
Maybe she should give this Dr. Tygan a visit, see what revelations he had for her. Central had seemed a bit serious when he spoke of him, but on second thought that might just be because they dug some unknown chip out of her brain. Figured that would make most doctors put on a serious face. She smiled a bit to herself as she walked down the hall, mentally adding 'getting unknown chip of alien origin removed from brain' to her long list of injuries. Though, thinking about the effort ADVENT seemed to have put into it, how panicked they had gotten, and still were after she was broken out...
Yeah they probably didn't punch a chip into her brain before throwing her in stasis for 20 years as a souvenir. But she figured there was only one way to find out, if that was actually what Dr. Tygan wanted to talk to her about, but really - What else could it be?
The door slid open with a small hiss and she walked into the... Well it looked more like a reactor room than a lab. At least a reactor was the first thing that popped into her mind as she saw the massive glowing construction, clearly alien in design.
The doctor was standing by the railing, hands behind his back, giving her a quick nod before turning his gaze back on the reactor.
"Impressive isn't it. Capable of generating immense power, yet completely harmless to human life. If only the same could be said for the rest of the aliens' technology, Commander."
And it was impressive, the reactor gave off waves of light and sent a low hum through the laboratory. Each rotation inside the machine casting shadows across the room.
He turned to face her. "Dr. Richard Tygan, Chief Science Officer. I am responsible for the entirety of our research here, as well as the procedure you so recently underwent. Welcome to my lab, such as it is." She gave him a small nod before commenting "Nice to meet you. Central told me you had something for me?"
"Yes-" he moved past her to a monitor on the right. "- I'm not sure what central may have told you, but we found something while removing you from the alien stasis suit."
So it was the chip he wanted to talk about. Maybe he could also help her with... Well let's see what he has to say first.
He gestured to a tube with a connected screen, both showing what she could only imagine to be chip they removed. The thing looked like a weird mix between a USB and a key, with two small needle like protrusions on the top and bottom.
"A device implanted directly into you occipital lobe. Had I access to the equipment available to be during my tenure at ADVENT-" so he was a defector? "- I would already know the precise nature of it's function. However, given time, and with your approval of cause Commander, I assure you I will find out."
Several questions, but first she needed an explanation.
"Occipital lobe?" She questioned, Hrefna wasn't ignorant of the human anatomy but the name didn't ring any bells.
"Apologies. The occipital lobe is the fourth lobe in the brain, responsible for visual perception, including colour, form and motion" He said, almost as if reciting from a Wikipedia.
Right, so seems he didn't know much of the chip yet, which seemed fair enough. That just left 2- No 3 other things. Taking her momentary silence as encouragement he continued talking.
"However, impressive aspects of this facility is, I am but one man Commander. If you were to direct additional personnel and resources to me, I could substantially improve the rate of our research."
Hrefna tilted her head at the comment. "You're the only scientist on board?" She knew the resistance was running on fumes but...
Dr. Tygan nodded, "We have been hard at work over the last few years, but ADVENT has not left us with much. I have a number of assistants, but the lack of qualified personnel does slow down work significantly."
Another thing on the to-do list.
With all the research they would be needing, and they would need a lot. Dr. Tygan alone would be no were near enough. Securing personnel, both for science and engineering was high on the list.
"Right, well I do have a few things now that I'm here. First, pain killers?"
"Of cause, I'm rather impressed by how fast you've recovered. All things considered." He remarked, opening a nearby cabinet and handing her a bottle.
She gave the bottle a quick look over before putting it in her pocket. "Excellent, should help with the headache. Now... I expect you to keep this on a strict 'need to know' basis. I'll be frank and say I'm not too familiar with the... inner workings of the brain and, well whatever that thing is" She spoke, gesturing vaguely to the terminal showing the chip "but. I've felt a bit, weird for lack of a better term, ever since I woke up." It was barely an explanation, and it might be nothing.
Had it been any other day she would have chucked it up to bad sleep or...something. But she had just gotten out of impromptu brain surgery, after being kept in a stasis suit suspended in time for 20 years... All of that while surrounded by aliens with unknown goals, motivations and far more advanced technology than them. If there ever was a time to be cautious, it would be now.
"Weird, in what way?"
"It's a bit difficult to explain, it's like my brain can't quite... figure out what to do? I feel calm and restless at once, have a weird feeling of... almost paranoia, like someone is close and yet when I look there's nothing." She ran a hand over her face. "I feel fine and yet, like something is just different. Out of place, strange but familiar... I don't know how to explain it, it might be noting but, well. With everything that's happened I figured better safe than sorry."
Dr. Tygan considered her for a long moment. When he finally answered it was in a slow and careful tone.
"I'm not sure what to make of it. Had you been any of my normal patients I would... hmmm. No, no it was right of you to mention it. I am unaware of the exact function and possible side effects from the stasis suit you were kept in, not the mention the chip and whatever else the aliens might -" He stopped his sentence, giving her a look almost too quick for her to catch.
Almost.
What else the aliens might have done to you. She mentally finished for him. She had pushed the thought from her mind several times today already, she was in the hands of the aliens for 20 years. Aliens Infamous for their extensive knowledge and use of both genetic and mechanical augmentations.
He was right of cause, but he didn't seem to judge or fear the answer. His face was a neutral mask but his eyes showed an intense awareness and what she hoped was scientific curiosity.
"Do you have a medical record?"
"Officially I died over 20 years ago when I was chosen for the X-COM project doctor. If there was a copy it would be either with the council or the old X-COM HQ..." She trailed off, letting him reach the inevitable conclusion himself. If her record still existed, and that was a big if. It would be with ADVENT. "But I'm not allergic to peanuts if that's what you are worried about. Overall I'm feeling fine, I'm more worried about what it might be rather than what it is right now."
He nodded calmly.
"I understand. If you wish I can run some extra tests, but it could take several days for the results. Depending on what projects take priority, Commander." He finished respectfully.
She nodded, not wishing to get into details about anything at the moment. None of her thoughts let to pleasant places, just thinking about what the aliens might have or could have done... She shook the thoughts from her head. "That would be preferable, but you can run it on the side-line if possible. Other than that I want you to compile a list of available projects, I'll call a meeting tomorrow and then we can take it from there."
He simply nodded "Of cause, take a seat, shouldn't take long."
She sat down on a chair, waiting for him to gather whatever he needed. And let herself drift into her thoughts as he began checking heart rate, taking blood tests and whatever else.
Priority seemed to be that they needed to people to keep the ship running if they wanted to get anywhere. Last time she was leading X-COM the salvage and autopsy alone required full time personnel. Developing weapons, body armour, new equipment not to mention the necessary facilities to use them...
Well Hrefna, that's why you are here. It's a mess, and they need you to pull things together, to juggle all the little parts and make it though on the other side. You made it work last time, so the sooner you start the better.
She let out a yawn
"Have you gotten any sleep?" He asked as he placed the last vacutainer on a slowly rotating plate.
"Minimal" She replied honestly "Between the headache, dizziness and..." a sigh followed by another yawn "Well it's been spotty at best, still need to see Central. After that I'll try to get some more, god only knows I need it."
He gave a nod, before stopping.
"Well, I believe that was all for now. I'll get back to work Commander, feel free to call me if you have any questions. Or if you experience any other symptoms."
And with that the doctor tuned and walked down the hall. She nodded once to herself again, time to see what Central was up to.
Taking one last look at the reactor she turned and left the laboratory. Heading for mission control... Or the bridge, whatever they called it now.
Let me know what you think... if you want to... being silent is also an option.
It does give me a serious motivation boost so consider it bribery to get me writing :P