Super Science
Ch 44: The Alien
"So what can you tell me about our friend Staro?", Egon asked Professor Genus as the two observed several scientists running around the starfish alien and doing things to it, from behind the glass of the observation room.
Genus looked over his Purah Pad and informed him, "Every living creature in this world is carbon-based. This…isn't."
"Anything else?", Egon prompted.
"Sentient, sapient, has its language. The whole nine yards.", He answered back.
"But you can't talk with it?", Egon inquires.
This time it was Izuku who answered as he walked into the observation chamber, "Not even a little. It understands no English, and can't write or read. Not even Chopper can communicate with it, and he can talk to any animal on Earth. Extinct or otherwise."
Egon then asks "Have you tried a translator like the ones for Otto and Cluck?"
Genus nodded and answered, "We are, but it's still a very simple creature in its biology. Hard to translate brain waves when your whole body is a brain."
"Eri seems to like him.", Izuku chippered in, watching the young girl, now clean and in a change of clothes stand and stare memorized by the alien.
Egon sighs sadly and says, "To be fair, she'll like anything she sees so long as it isn't medical or bird related."
Just then Hatsume barges through the doors of the observation room and announces, "Sir. I think we finally cracked the code. It took a lot of modding, but we've hooked up a two-way translator to Staro."
The three scientists enter the room and are greeted with the sight of Staro frantically looking around with his single eye as he was hooked up to several nodes on his body in his own-sized tank. The nodes had wires that went into a machine that had a microphone hooked up externally to it.
Egon and Izuku looked at one another, and Egon offered first. Taking the mic he said, "Hello?"
Staro stopped looking around frantically and stared at Izuku for a long while. After a bit, the machine said back, "Who….who are you?"
Seeing the machine work, Izuku explained, "I am Doctor Izuku Midoryia, and this is Professor Egon Crystallo. You're currently in the Neo Icon Phoenix Research Facility. You're safe. We won't harm you.", Staro looked lost in his words, so Izuku tried, "Do you have a name?"
"What is…name?", Staro asked back.
"It's something that identifies you, but if you don't have one, everyone here has been calling you Staro. Is that alright?", Izuku asked the alien again.
Staro looks around a bit before deciding, "Staro. Yes. I am Staro."
"Where did you come from?", Egon asks the starfish.
"Up.", He said.
"Up?", Both he and Izuku said at the same time.
Staro turned his eye to the ceiling and explained, "Up. In the stars. From my home, but I'm not home. Haven't been for so long.", He said with a voice of longing before staring intensely at them and stating firmly in a seemingly dangerous tone, "I want to go home."
"I'm afraid we can't do that.", Izuku tells him.
"Why.", Staro asks back in a calm demand.
"You live on a planet, yes?", Izuku prompts further.
"Yes. Large, blue, warm…beautiful.", Staro described while looking up.
"We have no idea where your home world is or any way of getting you there. I hate to tell you this, but you're stuck.", Egon breaks the bad news to it.
"Stuck….no.", Staro said back in disbelief.
But Izuku quickly interjected and told him, "But don't worry! Here at NIP, we're making leaps and bounds in all fields of science! So we'll get you home one day. Just not today. You just need to wait."
Staro looks around before replying with gratitude, "Wait. Wait. Yes, I can wait. Thank you."
"Let out you into something more comfortable than this tube.", Egon's offers and he can almost swear the alien looked happy.
Just before wrapping up in the observation room, Robbie exclaimed, "One more thing!", All eyes turned to the man as he proclaimed, "While transporting Staro, I think he had….babies."
Gracefully moving to the side, three robots held up a fish tank with what looked to be a smaller version of Staro freely swimming around.
"Holy crap.", Egon murmured as he bit his fist and Izuku stared in wonder at Eri.
"Not babies.", Staro suddenly said.
Going over to the mic, Izuku asked, "Sorry."
"Not babies. Me.", Staro affirmed vaguely.
All the scientists looked at one another wondering what the alien meant until Genus piped up and inquired, "Isn't that just what babies are? A smaller version of you and your partner."
"What I think he means is that they are metaphysical extensions of his consciousness. Once the copy adheres to a host, they can communicate what Staro thinks and feels, even allowing him to understand a foreign language and control said host like a puppet.", Purah answered for them while bursting into the observation chamber.
All the scientists go from staring at her to one another, then back at her where Izuku asks, "That's all well and good but how did you figure that out?"
She then motions into the hallway where they saw something both amazing and terrifying! Laying on the ground and being attended by other robots, was a robot who had its face plate ripped off and its A.I processor was destroyed and fried! It looks damaged beyond repair, with only short-circuiting and spacing from whatever was left of the motherboard. Next to it was one of the little Staros that appeared to be dead with the face plate stuck to its underside.
"And apparently when removed from the host, it kills them and the copy.", Purah put forth.
"I'm glad it was just a robot.", Izuku sighed while biting his fist in stress.
Suddenly a lightbulb went across Egon's head and he stated with a knowing smile, "And I think they could come in handy."
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