Chapter 22 - Sea of Venus(14) - Little Fish

Aboard Cruiser class Lightning-X ‘Shadow of Zeus’

“Easy there! We need these bodies intact!”

A commando in black fabric armor glanced over at the man who was speaking, “What’re we going to put down?”

His eyebrows raised as he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, “Whew. Just put down that we plucked em outa the belt.”

“Nexus will know.”

He cracked his neck and looked at the abandoned destroyer and smirked, “Since when did they ask for a report?”

The room burst into laughter as the sealed black bag entered the cargo hold of the cruiser.

The two heads were taken off the bodies along with the brains that were in stasis. The metal spheres were thrown into clone vats for regrowth. Sophus was injected into the solution to reform the sentience of the clones such that they didn’t even know they were a clone.

A group of technicians examined the two bodies. Each had a charred hole where their hearts were and were missing heads.

“So?”

One of the technicians looked up, “It’s a tracking virus in the blood.”

“Can you remove it?”

“No.”

The man crossed his arms as he pondered. He looked up, “What’re they transmitting?”

“Location.”

The man wore thin black body armor typically used by female inquisitors during the first inquisition. His chest plate, however, was an extremely thick piece with three layers of plates. On his face was a gas mask with a silver X on it. Wavy grey hair filled his head and seemed to shake as he walked around.

Another commando walked up to the man, “How about we eject em?”

“We can’t. We need to ship the brain.”

One of the technicians raised her hand, “We can do a neural swap.”

The man stared at the technician, “But then you’d have to open up the brain and spill the blood everywhere. Then what?”

“Clean it up.”

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The man groaned, “Infected blood is too dangerous.”

He waved his hand, “Go ahead and do it. Remember to use proper shielding.”

The technicians placed the two brains on an operating table and started using specialized knives to create slices in them.

Each part of the brain was carefully sliced into thin disks in cross sections that wouldn’t pass through any neurons meaning every possible section could get a highly detailed surface scan.

“Why’re we going through so much trouble for just one girl.”

The man looked at the commando who posed the question, “It is the solution for the inquisitions.”

“Solution. Ha!”

He crossed his arms, “That little girl. She could start the resurgence of thought.”

The room quieted. A female commando asked, “Renaissance?”

He nodded, “A new era. And the first crusade of Ouroboros.”

One of the biggest problems with living in the Empire is the restriction of information. Censorship and brainwashing are obvious methods to retain power. However, the empire was forced to use both as a means of survival.

From the start, the technology used in the foundation of the empire was inherently flawed and as time progressed the core technology degraded or evolved. Certain triggers could potentially trigger unintended consequences as evident by the collapse of Phobos. The massive shock of Phobos, however, gave the empire the rather stupid idea of cloning their super warrior and using his clones as destructive bombs causing many more problems and the next inquisition. Finally, the third inquisition removed the free thinking of most artists as the barriers of the triggers had eroded.

Since almost every human in the galaxy had an implant inside them whose genesis was that of Dr. Fritz’s biological inventions, it was easy for the empire to manipulate the basic subconscious of humanity.

If the ability to think is returned, the revivification of the spirit of discovery would be inevitable. Hence, the start of the first crusade. The empire hopes to line the crusade up with the first wave of Xeno conquerors. A fine plan indeed.

The technicians finished transferring all the neural images over to the newly grown brain and were now attempting to erase the memories of the last few hours from all three brains.

“Hey, Guardian ten, What do we do with these bodies?”

The man looked at the two bodies in the middle of the room, “Drain them and put them in a cryo casket.”

The technicians nodded and one stabbed the wrist of one of the bodies. It spurted blood everywhere drenching the technician’s face in infected blood, “Shi-“

*Bang*

Vapor came out of the man’s pistol as his hand shook. He set the pistol down and walked out of the room.

Venus, At Home.

Zero sat on a little rock in the backyard.

The backyard had this small pond and zero poked his head over to water. Inside the pond was a bunch of colorful orange, yellow, and red fish. Zero stared at the fish who stared back at him. Looking at the pond, he couldn’t see it’s bottom and as he reached his hand over the edge, the fish seemed to crowed around his hand.

He reached in and a few of the fish tried eating off the palm of his hand, “They’re so big.”

The fish were quite massive for the size of the pond. Zero wondered if the pond was really a pond. He stuck a stick in the pond and felt around for a few minutes. Eventually the stick went into something. A hole? Pipe?

“What is this hole for?”

A voice behind him spoke, “That’s the path that leads to the sea.”

The boy spun around and saw the large figure of Gaius standing in the doorframe of the backdoor of the house.

“So, did you track the body?”

“Yeah.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s on a ship of the Empire.”

“Damn.”

“So…”

“Let the wraiths raid em.”

“Foreign po-“

“Foreign powers risky blah blah blah shut up. We need the bodies and the girl.”

“Why?”

“To stop him.”

“Him?”

“The real emperor.”