Unipsi, lovely entity
chapter 42c: angel
Idra resumed her documentary that was now focusing on the hospital room. The Esterian man laying in bed was clearly living his last days while his Lean wife and daughter were by his side. The woman was crying and the man with the little force he had left pushed his hand up to touch his wife crying face.
“honey, don’t cry. We both knew it was coming…”
the woman replied between sobs.
“but… it’s been… so fast… we had no time…”
“it’s ok. What matters now is our child. You have to be stronger for her. I’m sorry that I have to push such burden onto you. Can you forgive me?”
The Lean started crying even more but their kid was too young to understand.
“dad, when are we going back home? I don’t like this place very much”
“soon piccola (shorty), can you do your dad a favour and be strong. I know it’s hard…”
“it’s not hard. But mum cries a lot. I don’t want mum to cry”
“neither do I piccola.”
Then the room door opened and the camera focused on Idra that was walking in. Silent and scary. The Lean pushed herself between Idra and her kid.
“this must be my final day. An Idra. I’m sorry I lack the strength for a proper greeting…” the man couched badly but Idra stood in front of his bed. Her left hand moved up and then a series of black threads of goo jumped from the suit. They connected to the machines, the cameras and everything that was electric. A robotic voice spoke via the room speakers.
//subject conditions critical. Organ failure in 22 hours. Probability of death 1. Effective treatment known none. Subject has no future. Subject is valid.//
“I guess I’m dying faster than the medic predicted”
//experimental cure available. Survival rate unknown. Side effects premature death. Required procedure approval//
The man looked at his wife and kid. He knew what to do. He looked back at Idra.
“can I speak with my family for a moment. I would like to say an eventual goodbye to all of them”
//request accepted. Approved farewell time 76 minutes//
Idra backed away from the bed and walked to a corner of the room. The man asked his wife and kid to move closer.
“Clarisa, honey, can you call in our family. This could be our last conversation. You know I have to try right?”
Clarisa was still crying but she nodded. A chance of living is better than certain death.
“you can leave Nina with me. Idras love kids. She will never harm her.”
the woman left the room leaving the man, Idra and the small Nina in the room.
“dad, who is the dark lady?”
“she is an Idra. They help people.”
“is she here to help you?”
“yes, but she doesn’t know if her help will work”
“what if it doesn’t work?”
Idra intrude.
//new trial will be executed. New experiments. New cure. I’ll make it work, for you//
Even in such robotic voice, Idra’s lexical choices toward the kids were more humane. They didn’t wait much before several Esterians got into the room. They were all extremely friendly with the Clarisa and Nina. They were a family after all. They were also all equally surprised to see an Idra. The news of her appearance were already broadcasted and had reached the hospital, but they were all focused on their dying family member. Done with the goodbyes they all left the room leaving the Esterian alone with Idra.
“it wasn’t a lie right? Is there really a possibility to see my kid and wife again?”
//lies are not authorised. Non null probability has been confirmed. Required procedure approval//
“I’m ready. What do…”
Idra walked away and moved to the window. She opened it and few minutes later 2 drones delivered a big white metallic box. Idra pushed it beside the man’s bed and connected the box to a wall electrical socket. The box came to live as 4 mechanical arms rose from it. They didn’t seem to have needles at their ends. Just some rather soft claws. They moved on top of the man and with regular cadence touched his body for few seconds. The man didn’t seem to be reacting to it, he was probably feeling nothing at all. Around an hour later the machine was turned off. The man seemed confused.
“where am I? Hey you? Are you real?” then he lost consciousness.
The video was showing a time-lapse of Idra standing perfectly immobile in front of the man for about 18 hours. The narrator briefly spoke to comment.
“at the time we didn’t know what was happening inside of that room. The cameras feed was obscured, there was no noise but neither there was sign of life. Only 19 hours later the family and a full medical team had the pleasure to meet the man. It was a miracle.”
the speeded video ended and now Idra was allowing Clarisa and Nina to get in. Only them. Clarisa was already thinking the worst especially when she saw her husband on the bed totally immobile and the machines that kept him alive disconnected. She rushed to what she believed was a corpse to be surprised when the man jumped up, alive.
“I’m… I’m alive… I’M ALIVE!”
The first thing he did was kissing his wife and kid. Then looked at Idra.
“did it work? I’m cured?”
//No criticality detected. Subject is alive. Subject is no longer at risk. Experimentation successful. Defined rehabilitation course of action. Subject needs reintegration of metals. Medication required for 2 weeks.//
the white box opened again to give out a glass tube containing a series of pills.
//take 1 pill between each meal. 2 pills per day. Keep going until pills expended.//
It was pure joy. Idra moved toward Nina and petted her head.
//strong. I will be back once pills reservoir expended.//
The story cuts with a big banner stating that 2 weeks had passed. Idra was back. She of course was welcomed with open arms and smiles, but she didn’t care. Idra walked in front of the bed to stare at the man. She moved her left hand again.
//success. Subject fully recovered. Genetic error corrected. Subject is no longer defective. Subject is free to go home. Subject. go. Home//
Idra was staring to walk away when Clarisa pushed her kid slightly to make her walk toward Idra. Nina had a piece of paper in her hand.
“dark lady? Dark lady?”
Idra turned and crouched to look at the kid. She was still taller than the Lean youngling. Then Nina turned her piece of paper to show her a drawing. It was Clarisa, Nina, her dad and Idra. She was totally black with black wings made by dark strings, her goo threads.
“I made this for you. And… and I made you wings, because you are an angel right? You helped dad because dad is a good dad and angels helps good people right?”
//angel. Strong strong angel// replied Idra while her goo took a similar shape to what Nina draw. She took the picture.
//be good. Go to mum. Go to dad. Be good. Be strong. Smile//
Then she walked away. The scene moved back into the narrator studio.
“Angel. A name given by pure chance coming from a beautiful and innocent child predicted the future. Idra 511 was going to become our angel. A figure of hope, someone that cared for those in pain. She was the absolute first Idra to be devoted to medicine instead of war. Her natural call to help others kept her away from the Supreme Council for 4 month. A clear sign that stated where her priorities were. I’m a bit sad. It was our chance to show off but she took us by surprise.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
the screen went dark. Four months later. Esterinan Tech-Union Supreme Council.
“after 34 more successful experiments where she stopped people from certain death, Idra 511 officially presented herself.”
The video moved to the first room they saw. This time not only it was full but it was flocked by press members from various journals. Then the main door opened and silence filled the room. They all stared at the new Idra walking in while the AI introduced her.
“Welcome home Idra. May the Founder guide you.”
No presentation, no formal introduction. As if she knew Idra walked toward the enclosed area that opened for her even before she could get close to the scanner. The main seat name tag changed showing Idra. She sat in it and the room lights turned off. Holographic screens projected the Idra’s symbol.
//who are you?// said Idra’s fake and robotic voice.
The symbol changed into highly corrupted images. It was extremely hard to tell what was happening and at the same time they changed so fast that even the few with a bit of definition were not recorded by the brain. Together with the images there were sounds. Machines rumbling and wheezing, flesh being torn and creatures agonising and crying. Dying roars, Geiger counters blasting radiation warnings then peace. The images became clear. It was a top down view of a screen wide creek. The water flowed peacefully and seemed cold. It’s gentle sound was randomly dominated by the wind blowing with tremendous strength and distant echoes of thunders. It sounded like a echoing cry.
Then the cold water started to mix with a second fluid coming slowly from upstream. Blood started to dye the river in red. The thunders got closer and small droplets started to fall in what now was a blood river. Each drop of rain gave only a brief instant of clearance as blood overcome the clean water in instant.
A sudden stop to the projection and the light turned back on. Idra repeated herself in her robotic monotone voice.
//who are you?//
the Council was silent so the AI tried to reply.
“this is the Supreme Council of…”
//Who. Are. You?.//
the AI replied again but this time it was personal.
“I’m ETU-FAI-GE918819 built by the Founder with the main purpose to preserve the tech-union.”
No reply, so Nixie stood up, bowed and spoke.
“I’m Nixie 112 one of the 3 Remnant. It’s a pleasure to meet a new Remnant of the Founder. I’m the Remnant of diplomacy”
then Likho 52 stood and bowed before speaking.
“I’m Likho 52, Remnant of espionage. At your service”
and lastly Baubas 98.
“I’m Baubas 98, Remnant of War. I’m always ready for orders”
What the fuck? So Remnant and Remnant of the Founder are different. But she just uses both titles as she pleased. To me she also seems like their queen rather than something else with no ranking as she said. She also have a place in the Council. Why did she lie to me. Or am I missing something again?
Scilla was not missing everything. She was in fact spot on about the titles confusion. Idra has been vague and confuse most of the time when speaking about the Remnants. Whatever it was on purpose or not didn’t change the drastic difference between her and the others that were just Remnants. A totally different story was her position as Remnant of the Founder inside the government.
Little by little the whole council had to introduced themselves. Once they finished Idra stood up.
//I’m Idra.//
And with that she just walked away. While leaving the room a crowd of people and journalist pushed themselves as close as possible asking questions that Idra ignored as she did up until then. Once outside she was out in an even bigger crowd. Among the countless voices the recording isolated one single flow of words from a man.
“Angel! Angel Idra! A question please. Did you kept the drawing?”
Idra stopped in the blob of people. She lifted her hand and the goo extended her arm until she reached a hat belonging to the man that asked the question. She grabbed the hat, put in on her head and slightly nodded even if she was the only one that heard the question and most people confused the nod for a natural movement of the moment.
The documentary went on showing more heroic deeds that Idra did. Those actions spaced from troops training to civilians rescues. In particular the documentary took her time showing Idra helping out others and her time spent inside hospitals. By the end of it they were hit with something unexpected. The narrator was telling how important the omni-cure became and how many lives it saved. He also added that just few weeks before finalising the documentary Idra finally extended the omni-cure coverage to their 16th and last planet. That information was shocking. 16 planets was an absurd amount. The Lean civilization extended on 4. the Terran had 4 as well. The other humans factions added 8 more planets and the Xoraxtas had 3 planets. The Esterians alone occupied a space almost as big as all other known civilizations combined. It was just ridiculous. The documentary ended and Scilla spoke immediately.
“was he lying? How the fuck did you manage to have 16 planets? It’s impossible. There is just too much space to keep track and I doubt that you live in an area dense of planetary systems.”
“indeed we don’t live in an extremely dense zone. But out civilization has indeed 16 planets plus mine if you consider it.”
“how? You would need half a month or more just to send data from one side to the other.”
“mmh I would love to tell you how we manage to keep up with such distances but I can’t. To be frank I could argue the same, why do your species have only 4 planets. The solution is like super stupid.”
Idra was kinda right. Conceptually the solution was banal, build such solution not so much for non Esterians. To keep up with increasing distances the Esterians developed a particular way of travelling. Once they understood that to get faster you need more power and to get such power you need to be bigger, they looked for a different solution. Instead of making an engine that bends the space around the ship like in standard jump or curvature drives. They decided to build a contraption that generate a hyper-distorted space bubble and then they inject the ship into it. The engine is used to supply the already made distortion with energy to make it last longer. This way they can reach far greater speeds and jump distances. The main issue was that it worked only in one direction so each system needed to have a commonly called jump cannon. The slow process to built such massive structure was the only limit to Esterian expansionism. That and the low population.
“how many of you are there to keep us with so many planets?” asked Nuria.
“mmh. Not that much. We live on many planets but in the end our population is around 13 billions…”
“WHAT?” a general reply from all the Leans.
“what the fuck? I thought we had a population problem but yours is worst” said Wiola.
The Lean domain contained around 25 billions people. It was somewhat reasonable for 4 planets.
“we are not like you. We suffered a lot from a lack of food and self cleaning. Also we started with little to no people about 400 years ago. We are trying our best to populate our homes.”
“you have a point. But isn’t it stupid so expand so much if you can barely keep up with the people needed?” asked Scilla.
“maybe. I don’t really care. It’s not like that we force people to have kids. We don’t really care, but having planets means a lot of resources, a lot of scientific anomalies and species to study. In general it means more probability to survive in the long terms.”
“seeing that the documentary is over I can ask my questions right?” said Scilla.
“sure”
“How came that all Leans that disappeared in thin air ended up in your territory?”
“I already told you. Love. We don’t discriminate about species but use reproduction compatibility instead. So far however we only let few Leans in. Nothing relevant because as far as I know they are less than 16 so less than 1 per planet. We would probably accept other species as long as they share our ideals. Which are not many, just put science above all and that’s almost it.”
“fair enough. Then why do you like kids so much?”
“because they are the future and we should collectively take care of them. Giving them good memories about me and science will improve our civilization in the long run so I act accordingly. Plus I really like kids. They are just to chubby and fun to play with. Having kids is basically my life goal so of course I like them.”
Scilla blushed and looked away. After all she was her mate so they were going to be also her children.
“did you kept the drawings?” asked Paz.
“of course. I had all of them sealed so they don’t deteriorate.”
Paz smiled. Even if she was partially drugged to resist her urge to run away from Idra she liked how Idra operates and thinks.
“Idra if I may ask, from medical expert to… whatever are you. What would happen if the omni-cure is used on a non Esterian?” asked Wiola.
“good question. I was asked that before as well. Generally you will suffer from omni-assimilation. The cure machines doesn’t recognise your body and assimilate it eating you from inside. It’s not lethal by itself as a working omni-cure can be used to bring you back. But if the cure is not set for your species more of it will kill you faster.”
“wait a minute. You gave Morea some of your miracle cure and it worked. How?” asked Scilla.
“didn’t you get it? Because it was linked to me. I was giving the orders so I didn’t harm your friend. Could have easily killed her”
“that’s crazy” said Nuria.
“yeah I know. It’s so fucking cool.” replied Idra.
“Lastly what is the difference between Remnant and Remnant of the Founder?” asked Scilla.
“our ranks. Remnants are special units built and used for specific tasks. The Remnant of the Founder are only Idras. The rest of the information is classified so it is what it is”
then Nuria took the lead.
“we saw you staring at people for hours, how long can you stay in that suit of yours?”
“probably more than my record of 15…”
“days? Fucking hell that’s a lot? Said Nuria interrupting her.
“what no. 15 years”
they all stopped. 15 years inside a suit. Just the thought was terrifying to Scilla and Nuria that experimented the life inside a power armour.
“why are you all silent? Are you wondering how is it possible? Well the suit is modular so you can expand it as you grow”
“the fuck you were in there while you were a child?” said Paz. Her voice was concerned and her mind filled of horrific images of a kid pushed by force inside a walking cell.
“yeah. I’m 26 how could I have been inside it for 15 years if I didn’t start as a kid.”
their face were filled with horror and deeply concerned. Even Scilla that knew that Idra could stay inside for days was concerned.
“it’s not that bad. If you are wondering I can use the toilet as a normal person. The suit opens. I can also shower by injecting water inside. It’s really funny to go around filled with water”
Idra was talking of her life inside the suit as if it was all jokes and fun, but to Leans’s eyes that was pure torture. Even if you can feel the world outside, the suit it not you and never will be.
Idra seeing their faces was about to try and say more jokes but her suit detected something.
--unknown Lean entity detected--
Idra stood up immediately and picked up her rifle aiming toward the dark fields outside the living room backdoor. Her sensor detected a small Lean walking slowly across the field. Without a second thought she rushed out.