Chapter 8 - Termination of MarsH2-3(8) - Disintegrate
A green light lit up above the door as the docking procedures finished. Gaius woke up the boy and stood up to join the line of marines. They walked out onto another tower and took an elevator down to the hanger floor.
A man with a very thick accent flagged down Gaius, “Sir, you need your medical scan.”
“I’m alrig- “
“Sir, you need your me- “
“I said I’m f- “
“Sir, “
“Okay fine!”
The man led them into a hospital where a vertical tube was open. In front of the tube was a small desk with a woman and two men.
As Gaius and the boy walked over to the scanning station, they overheard the conversation.
“You know what to do if there is empty data on file?”
The woman nodded, “Call you.”
The other man laughed, “If someone has an empty file their either an alien or their old military.”
Gaius and the boy walked over a little bump in the ground which automatically scanned the IDs on their wristbands. Two panels appeared in front of the three people.
Two blank ID files with just names materialized in front of them.
“Well… Shit. So, what are you two? Aliens or Gestapo?”
The other man smacked his head, “Gah shut up! You’re making a fool out of me.”
“Fool out of… you? Manager, that doesn’t make se- ACK! Hrmmm.”
As the man sat there rethinking what the phrase “fool out of me” meant, the supervisor stood up and extended a hand, “Nice to meet you. I’m Doctor Oliver. Feel free to call me Dr. O.”
Gaius shook the doctor’s hand, “Gaius.”
Dr. O spun around and tapped on the machine behind him, “So who’s going first? Big guy or small guy.”
Gaius put up his hand and walked over to the machine. Dr. O swiped through the active records, “Last check was what… 322 years ago. Hmm.”
Gaius shifted his weight as the doctor stroked his goatee. Finally, Dr. O looked up, “It’s a surprise you haven’t suffered any radiation poisoning or had any visible cancer related issues.”
“First generation psychic.”
Dr. O snapped his finger, “Ah! That explains it. Now things… line up a bit better? Still, over 200 is undocumented.”
“The details are classified but I have the nanomachine stasis module installed.”
Dr. O looked up his eyes wide, “That prototype?”
When Gaius nodded Dr. O grinned, “Well step in. Let me have a look.”
The tube closed behind him and two white frames spun around him as they did a scan of his body. When the tube opened, Dr. O frowned, “You have fifty-three tumors in stasis right now. Five of which are in your eyes. Twenty-three of them in your legs. What exactly have you been doing?”
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“I used Blink recently.”
“In your condition? Are you stupid?”
Gaius shrugged, “It didn’t hurt that bad.”
Dr. O swiped a panel over to Gaius showing various green and red dots of varying sizes, “Do you see this? Does this look not that bad to you?”
“I’ve seen worse.”
“That’s not the question. We’re not in a warzone. And you see these red ones? This is totally unacceptable.”
Gaius stared at the doctor, “Enough. When do I get treated?”
Dr. O buried his face in his hands, “Let’s talk about that later. Little guy for now.”
He squatted down and pulled a mint out of his breast pocket and handed it to the boy, “Hey little guy. What’s your name?”
The boy looked into the doctor’s eyes, “I don’t know.”
Dr. O staggered back, “Whoa… is he okay?”
Gaius looked down at the boy and saw an empty black void in his eyes. Gaius rubbed the boy’s head as his eyes returned to their normal brown color, “He’s just a little excited.”
“Ah… well, step in and we’ll take a look.”
The tube spun again and when the boy stepped out the doctor gave Gaius a confused look, “Who is this boy?”
“Classified.”
Dr. O nodded, “Would make sense. The probes can’t penetrate his ether. There’s too much of it.”
“Interesting.”
Dr. O smiled at the boy before turning towards Gaius, “And you, we’re going to the back to remove some of those tumors. You two, take care of the boy for a few minutes. There’re toys on the bottom shelf.”
Gaius and the boy joined Xavier and David on the main section of the control module. Xavier saw them and waved them over, “How’s your health?”
“Ah it’s fine. They found fifty-three or so tumors. Blasted out twenty-seven of the small ones just now.”
“fifty-three… twenty-seven… wait… What?”
“It’s not that many. I’ve had worse. And the particle beam didn’t even hu-”
“I’m not worrying about that. It means you have twenty-eight tumors big enough that removing them would cause significant short-term damage.”
“It’s not that bad. Why’re you so worked up about this?”
Xavier stared at Gaius, “Because it’s worrying?”
Gaius laughed, “It’s not like you’re about to die. Nothing to be done about it so move on. It aint such a big problem.”
Xavier stopped, “How many are still in the brain?”
“Three?”
Xavier turned away and laughed, “As idiotic as ever huh? As if only your life matters!”
“What?”
“I swear I’m going to shoot you so-”
A man in a black robe tapped Xavier’s shoulder, “Pods retrieved. The beam is loaded.”
Gaius had his mouth open to speak but decided to shut himself up. At least for the time being.
“How much time until targeting?”
“The temple has finished the ritual.”
Xavier looked out the wide window of the command module that showed the broken habitat section. Bright flashes appeared around the quarter ring as corvettes and frigates shot down escaping spores.
An officer walked up to Xavier and saluted which Xavier returned, “Sir! Spore suppression will only last for two more minutes!”
“Good work. Report any abnormalities after targeting.”
David squatted down next to the boy, “You curious?”
The boy was staring wide-eyed at everything and everyone that passed him. He nodded.
“Typically, this step is done by the best psychic on the ship. Usually that would be your teacher, but he’s too hurt to do it.”
“What to tumors do?”
David smiled, “You’ll learn about the function of ether in The College on Venus.”
“Function?”
“Usage.”
“Oh!”
Xavier had grabbed a strange T shaped silver sculpture from the priest and with both hands on the bottom pointed it at the habitat. He glanced at the priest, “You sure we’re ready to go?”
“We are just waiting for the channel to open.”
“Will I need a stick?”
The priest nodded and Xavier pulled an aluminum stick out of a pocket out of a pocket in his armor. Slipping his helmet on, he opened the plate on the left side of his head revealing his neck.
Pushing in one side of the aluminum stick caused a small coin sized piece of aluminum to clatter on the floor. A glowing silver color poured out of the opened stick as he plunged it into his neck. Balling his left hand into a fist he squished the aluminum against his neck squeezing out all the contents into his skin.
Xavier’s eyes flashed to a full blue color as the silver sculpture turned blue with a faint line of ether being emitted forward as a kind of aiming laser.
Xavier dropped the crushed aluminum puck as he grabbed the sculpture with both hands. His hands turning white as he gripped it tighter and tighter.
Blood dripped out of his ears and eyes as the line grew darker and opaquer. Finally, the line turned white. The priest raised his hand.
Disintegrate
Xavier collapsed to the ground clutching the sculpture. Throwing his helmet, he coughed out a pool of blood. While a green cloud of ether blew over ruined section three. The once large ring fragmented until there was nothing but individual atoms.
David put Xavier’s right arm over his shoulders and looked at the boy, “Was that interesting?”
The boy smiled wide with jet black eyes, “Not really.”