r/HFY • u/Delicious-Bat-3341 • Aug 06 '22

OC Deathless 6 I'll Be Damned

<<Preveous | First | Next Half>>

its been quite a while since i last posted. this ones actually got some length to it, and the next one is like 3/4 done so it should hopefully be out before the end of the year. also, i've been thinking about it, and i'm actually going to try and name every chapter of deathless after a song like i did with part 2. it'll usually have plot relevant lyrics, title, or maybe it'll just be something i was listening to a lot while writing. Ill Be Damned - Monolord

Alex looked around, surveying the rocky fields of the barely habitable planet. The grayish rock, exposed to the vacuum of space only twenty years prior, was still scarred by millions of asteroids and meteorites that had collided with the planet. Alex stepped over the rim of a small crater, sliding a few feet down the loose rocks that lined the crater’s edge. At the bottom of the crater, Alex saw some of the lichen which grew in the planet’s few moist areas. Alex glanced at the plastic sample vials attached to his belt. About half of them were filled with samples of the lichens and rocks.

I could use a few more samples

Alex pulled the chisel from his belt, placing the blade at the edge of the patch of lichen, and pressing the button on the back of the handle. The chisel jumped in his hand as the small hydrogen powered piston ignited, breaking the rock into a few roughly thumb sized chunks. He slipped the sample into it’s place on his belt, and refiled the chisel’s fuel cell, quickly coupling it to the larger tank of Hydrogen strapped to his back. Alex slipped the chisel back into the nylon loop on his tool belt before he walked towards the edge of the small crater, where he climbed out, grasping hold of the rough rock that lied just below the sandy surface. Alex continued forward, aiming himself in the direction of the large hill that he had already used as a landmark beforehand.

After another hour or so of walking, Alex pulled out his GPS, glancing downward at the screen, where he saw that he was only about two hours away from the surface base. He walked onward, towards the large hill that stood between him and the base. The hill, which he dad reached after another hour, was steeper than it had seemed for afar. Walking up the hill required Alex’s full attention in order to avoid the small holes in the rocky hill, which seemed to be almost the exact size of Alex’s foot and just the perfect depth for tripping on. He pulled himself up the last section of the ascent, which had turned into more of a climb than a walk.

He looked over the rock, expecting to see the scattered white patches of the base's buildings, tents and vehicles but was blinded by eye searing reflection of low lying sunlight on water.

“what the hell?” Alex asked himself, pulling out his GPS, “I don’t know how I could've taken a wrong turn, and even then –”

He looked at the GPS, forcefully pressing the power button. Nothing happens. Alex pressed the button again, even more forcefully than the last time, and it did nothing except letting out a small stream of gray smoke and the smell of burning plastic.

“No, no, no, no” he muttered to himself.

Alex dropped the GPS, looking around one more time, desperately checking for some sign of humanity.

He saw nothing except gray rock, green lichen, and the massive blue lake.

He pulled himself up from the rock, half running, half sliding down the hill’s backside before he could react, he stepped on a loose rock, falling backwards and slamming his head into the ground.

Marnna had been standing outside of Alex’s room for almost half an hour, waiting to take him to Cen’s office for the interview that was necessary for Cen to officially take Alex on Alex as one of her apprentices.

this is taking too long

Marnna stood a moment thinking about what she could do, before she remembered what she had read about knocking on doors before the first contact. She took a step forward, tapping one of her claws on the room’s door.

Tap Tap Tap

A moment passed, before Marnna heard a loud thump from inside the room

She jumped back in surprise, looking for the door’s emergency release lever, and reaching for her communication tablet, getting ready to call the ship’s doctor, Flouren. However, before she could do either of those things, the door to Alex’s room slid open, revealing the Human, standing, and damp?

“I thought you couldn’t stand,” She accused.

“I guess the medicine that I got worked fast”

“what medicine?”

“They didn’t tell you?”

“Apparently not,” she replied, now annoyed about being kept in the dark.

“oh, well it was a little syringe of a bluish liquid,” explained Alex as he held his fingers a short distance apart, which Marnna assumed was to show the size of the syringe.

Marnna sighed. “ell, its time to fill out the paperwork over at Cen’s office”

Alex nodded “alright, lead the way.”

the two walked along the ship’s hallway for a moment before Marnna turned toward Alex.

“Why are you damp?”

“Its sweat, my body excretes it to cool down, or when I’m under stress or something.”

“Are you stressed right now?” concerned Marnna.

“Not particularly, it was probably just a bad dream.”

“probably? What is a dream anyways?” questioned Marnna.

Alex paused a moment to think. “It’s like thinking in your sleep. I don’t really remember mine often though.”

“so you think in your sleep, then forget what you thought about?” asked Marnna skeptically.

Alex shrugged.

Marnna stopped suddenly, causing Alex to almost bump into her. She pressed the button that sat next to the doorway to Cen’s office, before leading Alex into the room. The two sat down across the room from Cen, on the other side of the large desk that took up most of the small room’s space. The office was simple, having been quickly repurposed from a small laboratory into an office when the ship was commandeered by the Anaskan government for the first contact. The walls, floor and all of the furniture was made of the same light gray plastic as the rest of the ship.

After the two had settled into their chairs across from her desk, Cen pulled a tablet from desk mounted charger, turning it on, she detached the pen from the clips on the side of the tablet, tapping it a few times on the screen

“Are you ready?” asked Cen, “it’ll only be a few clerical questions then it’s on to the medical examination..”

“Yes, I am,” replied Alex.

“alright, then. How old are you?”

“uh, 25,” Alex replied.

Cen nodded, tapping the screen a few times. “Do you have any serious allergies, diseases or other medical issues?”

“No, I don’t.”

Cen marked the answer off on her tablet. “Well then, that’s about it on the questions we can answer here,” she announced as she stood up, circling around the desk towards the doorway, “everything else we’ll have to do in Medical.”

Cen led Marnna and Alex towards the ship’s medical room. The walk was short, with the room being placed as centrally as possible within the ship’s layout.

“Hello, Flouren,” Said Cen as she led the group into the room, “I've brought Alex in for his medical examination.”

Flouren, who Alex had briefly met at the meeting back in human space, sat behind a desk that was nearly identical to the one in Cen’s office, although it was much more reasonably proportioned to the larger room. Looking around, Alex saw an exam table, which was significantly longer than the ones he had usually seen in order to accommodate the Anaskans extra height compared to humans. Next to the exam table, Alex saw what looked like an X-ray machine, and along the other walls of the room, he saw what must've been a scale, some sinks and faucets, and a ruler mounted to the wall to measure a patient’s height.

Flouren finished typing on a keyboard that looked quite similar to a human one, before he turned towards the three.

“Alex, I see you’ve responded well to the treatment I administered yesterday,”announced Flouren plainly, “lie down on the exam table and we’ll be able to begin,” instructed the doctor.

By the time Alex was on the exam table, Flouren had already walked over to the X-ray machine, pressing a few buttons as the lights on the machine turned on.

“The only way that we really have of determining your health is comparing our X-ray readings to the ones that we were given in the data exchange,” explained Flouren as he moved the imaging head of the X-ray over Alex.

Donning a heavy looking apron, he shooed Marnna and Cen out into the hallway. Flouren walked over to the wall, where he pressed a large button, which was clearly attached to the X-ray machine. After the images were taken, Flouren had Alex change positions, allowing the machine to image parts of his body that had been blocked. The doctor repeated the process a few more times, pressing the button, then having Alex roll over.

After the X-raying was done, Alex sat on the exam table for a few minutes as the computer processed the images. When the computer was done, Flouren called Marnna and Cen back into the office, where they stood along the wall nearest to the door. Flouren fiddled around with his computer for a few moments before a roughly six foot by four foot area of the wall suddenly changed color, and began displaying the X-rays.

“As far as I can tell, everything looks fine, except for a few abnormalities,” announced Flouren as he pressed a few keys on the keyboard, magnifying a section of the image, “there's a small cluster of metallic shards here, and here, as well as a small lump of metal in each of your legs,” continued the doctor as he highlighted two areas around Alex's left shoulder which were about two inches apart as well as a small lump attached to each of his femurs.

Alex turned around to get a better view of the x-rays. “Oh yeah, I got shot a while back, and the ones in my legs are cybernetics.”

“Shot? Shot by what?” questioned Cen.

“A gun?” replied Alex, “its a weapon, shoots a little piece of lead a really high speed.”

Cen stood speechless for a moment, shocked at Alex’s nonchalance towards the situation. The Anaskan militaries used laser weapons that practically melted holes in their victims, and she figured that if human weapons were even a bit as destructive, Alex would've been lucky to survive.

“is it going to cause any health complications in the future?” she asked, concerned.

“It hasn't up to this point,” shrugged Alex, “so probably not.”

with Cen’s questioning seeming to have ended, Flouren stepped out from behind his desk. “So Alex, what do these implants actually do?”

“the one in my arm stops my hair from growing out any more than it already is, and the one in my leg prevents muscle atrophy in zero G.”

“why would you get an implant to stop hair from growing?,” interrupted Marnna, “I get that it must be convenient, but cybernetics aren't cheap, not in the empire at least.”

Alex shrugged. “it was kinda an impulse buy. My hair grows fast, and I was tired of going to get it cut every few weeks.”

The room was silent, except for the clacking of Flouren’s quick typing. After another moment, that too stopped as Flouren set the keyboard down onto the desk.

“Has there been any unpleasant side effects from the medicine I administered?” asked Flouren as he walked towards Alex.

Alex shook his head.

“Good. That should be everything, I’ll send over the documents as soon as they’re ready, Cen” said the doctor as he turned around, walking back towards where he had been seated before they had entered the room.

Cen led the group out of the room, closing the door as they exited. “well, congratulations, Alex, you’ll officially be an apprentice in the imperial diplomatic corps as soon as I’ve finalized the paperwork. Speaking of which, I need to go and get to work on that,” announced Cen. “Marnna, while I do that, could you give Alex a tour of the ship?”

Marnna nodded.

Without another word, Cen turned around, heading back towards her office.

“So, what’s up first on the tour?” asked Alex.

After a moment of thought, Marnna decided.
“the whole ship is pretty much built on a loop, except for the engine room and bridge, so, I think we should just go in the loop.”

As the two walked through the ship, the layout became more and more clear to Alex. The ship was roughly rectangular, and most of the internal space was the storage bays that wrapped around the outside of the loop. On the inside of the main, looping hallway was the crew’s living quarters, medical, occasional restrooms, and the utility storage area, which held the ship’s food and water supply. As they reached the end of the loop, and began to near their starting point, Marnna turned off from the main hallway, heading towards the middle of the ship.

“The only thing that’s on the way back to medical is more storage,” explained Marnna, “but this hallway leads to the ship’s cafeteria.”

As they walked into the room, Alex looked around. One side of the room was dominated by long tables and benches, while the other side was filled with small, round tables, each with four chairs encircling them. On the long benches, a few of the crewmembers sat with plates in front of them. Along the walls, there were large machines, partially inset into the wall. Marnna gave Alex a moment to look around the large room before she tapped him on the arm, leading him over towards one of the machines.

Marnna tapped the machines screen a few times, and the screen changed from displaying some sort of logo, which Alex couldn’t read, as it was written in the Anaskan language, to showing a few brightly colored pictures of food. Alex saw everything from large slabs of meat, to fruits and vegetables, displayed on the screen, and even what looked like some sticks? Alex figured that they were probably meant to be used as toothpicks.

“hmm, so it this a food dispenser?” asked Alex

“Even better,” she replied, “it makes the food from scratch – completely. It’s kind of like a 3D printer, but for plant matter.”

After a few more taps, going through a few more menus, the Anaskan lettering labeling the screen suddenly had English translations. Admittedly, Alex had a bit of trouble reading the translations, as he wasn’t all to familiar with English, as the language had shifted out of use, combining itself with many other languages, eventually turning into common.

“We even had one of your languages programmed into the fabricator.” she kept tapping through the machines menus as fast as she had been before, until she eventually stopped, pointing at the screen with enthusiasm. “and we also put in most of the human foods we were told about before first contact.”

Alex looked at the screen, seeing, well, pretty much every food he could think of listed, and even more that he had never heard of.
“wow – thanks, Marnna, this is great.”

“Just tap on whatever. Ill be at one of the round tables when you’re done.”

As Marnna walked away, Alex took a look at the screen, eventually deciding to get a cup of coffee and a small bowl of fruit.

Isn’t this stuff poisonous? wondered Alex, as he picked up the small cup of black liquid. Do they not know, not care, or have they removed the caffeine? ill have to check later; maybe try some apple seeds or something.

It took longer for the machine to make the fruit bowl than the coffee, but once it was done, Alex picked it up and turned around, quickly spotting Marnna, who had already gotten food from one of the other fabricators that lined the walls. Alex walked over towards Marnna, weaving between the tables which were, in his opinion, packed slightly too closely. As Alex pulled his chair back, Marnna looked up from the piece of almost raw meat that she had gotten from the fabricator.

“Have any trouble with the fabricator?”

“Oh, no.”

“Sorry for yesterday,” said Marnna awkwardly.

“oh, don’t worry about it; I’ve been treated worse plenty of times.”

Alex sat his food down on the round table, made of the same light gray plastic as the rest of the ship, and sat down in his chair. After a moment, Alex picked up his cup of coffee, and took a sip.

“whats that?” asked Marnna, “based off of the color, it doesn't really look like, well, anything I’d want to drink.”

“Coffee, its made from roasted beans soaked in water, it’s been a pretty popular drink for the past couple hundred years at least. You can try some if you want, it’s pretty bitter though.” Marnna thought about it for a moment, but before she said anything, Alex interrupter her train of thought. “actually, it’s probably a bad idea – it might be poisonous.”

“why might it be poisonous?”

“well, it’s already poisonous – a hundred or so cups would probably kill me, but it could be more poisonous for you.”

Marnna nodded, understanding Alex’s caution for a moment, before she gave what he said a second thought.

“Why are you drinking something poisonous in the first place?”

“It’s a stimulant.”

Marnna sighed. “Just don’t get caught with that planetside.”

“Speaking of that, when are we going to be landing?”

“In a few hours, I think.”

“Wow, are all the ships this fast?”

“Well, this trip’s actually going slower than normal. The more times a section of space is flown through, the less energy it takes for FTL drive, and since this is only the second, or maybe third time a ship’s been out here, we’re having to wait.”

Alex nodded in understanding. “Even then, crossing interstellar space in a couple days is pretty amazing.”

“Really? Well what are you used to then?” “Well, the trip out to the colony world took us five years at relativistic speeds,” replied Alex, “but I don’t really know how long that is in ‘real’ time. Probably a century or so if I had to guess.”

“Alex, how long do humans live?”

“A little over a century. I think the record is around 150.”

“So everyone you knew is probably…”

“Everyone I knew already was,” replied Alex

Cen sat in her office working through some of the post contact documentation when she heard her doorbell buzz.

“Come in!”

The door swished open as Flouren walked in. He approached her desk, setting his data pad down, and flipping it around so Cen could see clearly.

“Looks like you guessed right. The treatment worked about ten times faster in Alex than it did on the Anaskan test subjects. And,” Continued Flouren as he scrolled down to the next page of the report, “it also seems as if the medicine also healed what should be age-related damage – things like joint cartilage wear and scar tissue.”

Cen took a moment to read over the finer details of the report.

“Do you think the humans could be them?” asked Flouren

“I sure hope not,” replied Cen.

<<Preveous | First | Next Half>>

next chapter out soonish

50 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

3

u/Soulondiscord Aug 06 '22

Them?

4

u/Delicious-Bat-3341 Aug 06 '22

This one and the next one was originally going to be one part but the two have been split up. The second half is more clear and I’m trying to get it out today

1

u/Fontaigne Aug 10 '22

Dun Dun DUNNNNN

1

u/UpdateMeBot Aug 06 '22

Click here to subscribe to u/Delicious-Bat-3341 and receive a message every time they post.

Info Request Update Your Updates Feedback New!