As Tak walked into the room, once more surrounded by her kin, she was unsettled when Nava shouted, “Hey! Clones only! Beat it!”
She turned to see Anisa trying to enter. The captain sighed, clearly weighing her options when Tak spoke up, “There’s no need. Nisa is my friend. You can trust her.” Nava didn’t seem convinced.
Ett walked up to Anisa and whispered in her ear. After measuring Anisa’s response, a somber and compassionate gaze, Ett nodded and she was allowed to enter.
Zwei, attempting to look imposing by sitting with her sword over her shoulder, stated, “This is some sensitive cultural information so we would appreciate your discretion.” The rest of the Count of Thirty looked at her in confusion and suspicion. She sighed, “I was just trying to make a good first impression. I told you, Saber is protecting me.” The seemed unconvinced and the two newcomers watched in bafflement.
Shi, cutting to the core of the matter stated, “I am Shi. Fourth of my sisters. We have met a group that told us things we didn’t expect.
A part of that has lead us to believe that The Original or someone working on her orders is about to make a big move. And apparently we are going to help stop them.”
Ellefu spoke up, seemingly annoyed as she tugged at her hair, “Mistake. They said we would drive her to mistakes.”
Tak began to laugh, unable to contain herself. She eventually caught herself and chuckled, “Sorry about that. Don’t know what came over me. But I will say, your little story is amusing. The Original… she is dead. Long dead. How could she be influencing anything?”
Sita leaned forward, handing Tak a tablet. “The leading theory is triggers buried in the educational section of the cloning process. We don’t know how many there are, but it seems our benefactor was rather sure he knew them all.” As Tak looked them over, her eyes glazed a little. Anisa couldn’t be sure if she was even processing what she was seeing or if she had gone into shock. Sita looked among her sisters and nodded, all of them seeming to get on guard. “We aren’t so sure. So, we intended to keep The Light of Dawn out of enemy hands. At least until we had a better idea on how to stop her from wiping out our entire society.”
Anisa spoke coldly, clearly attempting to be respectful despite minor concern. “You believe that she has a failsafe to wipe out everyone at once?”
Tak spoke absentmindedly, “I would if I were her. You can’t take risks so you would need to be certain you can clean up the whole experiment.” The clones maintained their guard, clearly waiting for something. Tak shook her head a little and said, “That would make you guys an exception. A loose end. Until she can clean you guys up too, she can’t do anything.”
Dodici nodded, “Agents of his will informed us of such. We are suspecting she discovered our existence and sent out the summons to bring us all to one place. Who knows if she intends to kill us entirely or ‘fix’ us? Either way. We seek to maintain the will the lord has given us.” Anisa raised her brow at the comments and Dodici waved her off, hoping she would just ignore her.
Kuntaret growled, “And that’s why, we wanted to discuss this with the Outlier. This ship and its crew have been maneuvered to resolve various issues in the cosmos and this was one of them. So we hoped the Outlier would be able to help us.”
Anisa could fee Sasori stirring underneath. She could feel her pushing to take control. As it grew in intensity, she could feel the primal fear of her other half. A sensation she hadn’t felt in a long time. She tried to push it down, but it wouldn’t be ignored.
What is going on? Why are you doing this? Why now?
Danger! It is here! It is hunting!
What is? What is going on? I need answers!
Before she could process what happened, Sasori had hijacked her body. The Bug woman looked around in feral fury, causing a panic from the rest of the group, except for Tak. Sasori struck with her talons into the top of Tak’s head before Anisa could wrestle control back. Forcing her alter far below the surface. Before she could explain, Hepta, Nava, and Kuntaret had her restrained. Shi injected Anisa’s neck, sedating her and making her world go black.
————
Kuntaret watched carefully as the captain and the Outlier lay in the medical scanners, only the smallest of concerns for their health crossing her mind. Instead, her mind drifted to more pressing questions. Why did the captain change in such a way? Why strike the blow she had? And further, why were neither responding to outside stimuli. She watched Ellefu and Sita tapping away at the interfaces, processing all the information as it came back. Eventually, Sita spoke up, “The blow on our sister seems to have left a toxin behind. Proktota in nature. It’s progress seems to have slowed for now, but there is an interesting detail about it.”
Ellefu, tugging on her hair in thought, spoke softly, “When we compared her current brain scan to our own to compare for damage, the part that the claws severed is the part that Leithan made dormant in our own mind.”
Kuntaret took a look at the panel to confirm what they were saying, somewhat annoyed that she could only make sense of it with their insights. She muttered to herself, “So, the survival instincts of the Proktota knew exactly where to aim to sever the conditioning.” she asked her two clinically trained sisters, “Does it look like those portions are going to heal?”
Ellefu rolled her eyes and explained, “If we treat the toxin, then it will probably restore those sections of the brain to full function, but even with it doing its best we are seeing neurons reconnecting at an oddly high rate. I suspect that it is trying to protect itself, somehow.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Kuntaret was about to give her feedback when the medbay door slid open unexpectedly. She thought they had locked it, but upon seeing the younger sister of the captain again, she realized why. As she watched Katsi approach the captain’s bedside, the young crewmember asked, “Have you guys been able to wake her up yet?” She turned to lock eyes with Kuntaret who could only shake her head no. Katsi sighed before pressing her forehead to her sister’s chest. After a few moments, she went over and checked on the Outlier as well, as if hoping to see some kind of activity. Katsi then said, “Tai, can you give me a status update on Tak?” When there was no response, she seemed confused and checked the device on the Outlier’s left arm. “What? No no no no! Don’t format his memory! He was just a child!” Sita stood and pulled Katsi away from the device, much the panic of the girl. After stammering a few more times about the memory formatting, she eventually settled into an eerie calm.
Kuntaret approached her and spoke, “We will keep looking into this as the Ziegfried makes its approach to the planet. With your permission we would like to use the resources here to investigate the situation further.” Kuntaret was relieved when she got a firm nod from the youngest member of the crew that she had met.
Katsi eventually spoke again, “You guys are welcome to make yourselves at home until we sort this matter out. I’m going back to my workshop to see if I can find anything that might help us out of this situation.” As she walked off, Kuntaret couldn’t help but sense something ominous about her. When she looked to Ellefu and Sita, she was glad to see she wasn’t the only one. Sita continued her work but Ellefu was tugging her hair more vigorously than ever.
------------
There was darkness
Flashes of her time in the tank, her face many times over running to and fro in lab coats of various designs and insignia, all of them busy micromanaging every aspect of who she was and who she was going to become. There was one face that was different. She knew that she remembered it, but in this moment it was naught but a blur. One color among many more. She was lost and adrift in a sea of uncertainty. Of uniformity and complacence. She heard much more than they knew. More than they wanted her to. What was once so clear was now spoken as from underwater. Their ease of communication told her it was little more than idle gossip to them, but to her it was the first words she had chosen to listen to. The first words she chose to give her full attention.
Breathe deep and slow. You will be okay. Follow it to the root and know that even though you are drowning, I have your hand.
The words filled her with timidity. Were they spoken just now by the ones in the coats or was it something more? She couldn’t waste her time on that for now. She tried speaking saying anything, but this would prove to be a mistake. As the air leaving her dislodged the mask that had allowed her to breathe within the tank, the ones in coats rushed to their stations, desperate to keep their experiment safe and stable. She began to hope they would take her from the tank, only for a much thicker fluid to rise from below. As it began to overtake the original fluid, she could feel her body grow heavy and warm, Eventually the thicker fluid would push its way past her loose mask and fill her lungs. As the sedative worked its way through both her skin and her lung tissue, she found herself drifting off back to the darkness of sleep. She would have many flashes and vivid dreams as the fluid eased her back to her rest.
-------------
As Katsi left the medbay, she tried to clear her head. She couldn’t let herself be overwhelmed. The traitor was still someone among the thirty new house guests they had gotten. Still, it would be hard to figure this out on her own. She was just one person. She didn’t want to say it to her new friend in the vents, but she couldn’t even be sure that she wasn’t the traitor. As far as Katsi was concerned, she was alone all over again, hurtling towards an uncertain fate. Taking a deep breath, she tried to remember what Sai had told her during her training. They mattered to her. That meant that she needed to hold the fort until they got better. If that was the case, it was time for her to use her Katsi charm and ingenuity to look into these girls a little closer. She smacked her own cheeks a few times, snapping herself out of her shock. As she did this, one of the Tak’Nasi approached her and gave her a big hug. She was surprised by this, seeing the tears in the poor girl’s eyes. The clone weeped into her shoulder, “I’m so sorry for what happened to your sister and friend.” Katsi patted the woman’s back uncomfortably as she tried to fully process what was happening. Eventually the clone broke the hug and introduced herself with small sobs, “My name is Ekontis. I’m sorry. We are all so worried about your friend. I know what it is like to have your sister in the medbay.”
Realizing her chance here, Katsi turned into the skid, “Yeah. I’m sorry for what happened to Tak as well. My sister may be obnoxious and bossy sometimes, but I still worry about her. I’m sure as a younger sister yourself, you can understand that feeling.” She knew this was a wild shot in the dark, but she hoped it hit its mark. This clone seemed to be a little more emotionally available than Kuntaret and the rest of them. Maybe she could glean something from the conversation.
Ekontis’ look of touched compassion reassured Katsi that her comments had hit their intended mark. The clone stated, “I know what you mean. Zwei, Shi, and Hepta all act like their own little clique but we all know they aren’t as cool as they think they are. Not like Kun and Ett. Would you like to meet Ett? I’m sure she would love you!” Before Katsi could react properly, Ekontis had dragged her by the arm and down the halls, clearly to go meet this Ett. Maybe she would have the answers that Katsi was looking for.