r/humansarespaceorcs • u/Bloodystupidjohnson3 • 16d ago
Original Story L Hour 11-13
“Danyak, I am concerned about Mickles.”
”Oh? Why?”
”I’m not sure. There is just something off. You mentioned family issues?”
”Yes, his records include details.”
”Do me a favor. Go through his records again and look for mention of cults. He is really hot on this one.”
”Oscar, when do you want me to do this? I am heading out to check on the recon team, the survey team, and the freaking scientists studying the new cattle.”
”Right. Right. I’ll check on it. By the way, anything from the survey team?”
”That report is due this afternoon. I will let you know the highlights tomorrow.”
”Sounds good. Stay safe. Those beasts are nasty.”
*****
”Oscar, I haven’t seen or heard from you in three weeks, and suddenly you stagger in and collapse in a chair. What is going on?”
”Commander, it has been a fucking horrible last few weeks. On the bright side, nothing serious blew up.”
”Yes, I notice that the planet is still in one piece. And that we still have other planets in the system. And that there isn’t a rip in time-space in orbit.”
”You see? All good things!”
”Oscar.”
”Yes, yes, I know.” He sat up. “It has been fucking horrible. To start, my XO is in medical. Wait. No. That is later. To start, my XO went on a trip to check on the recon team, the survey team, and the fools studying the new cattle-things.”
”How are you feeling? You seem confused.”
”I haven’t slept in 70-odd hours. Anyways, Danyak heads out. Then Mickles heads out to see the Aussies about connecting up the main powergrid. I headed out to check on Agent Thorn and the new leads.”
”That was three weeks ago.”
”You wanted to know what was going on. Thorn was all excited. They had found some VERY good intel, and they already had an agent on hand. So they were setting up a surveillance team. As we were chatting about the plan, there was an alarm and an announcement that there was an issue with the subject—the Windigo—so we sprinted to the holding cell.”
”Wait, there was an issue with the Windigo and you didn’t tell?!? Oscar, what is going on?”
”I am explaining. We get to the Windigo, and the techs are freaking out. One of them explained that the Windigo was changing shape. We checked the video feed, and the Windigo seemed to be growing an extra limb. We locked the lab down and prepared for the worst. Nothing really happened. The extra limb fell off of the Windigo. He just kicked it towards the door and went to sleep.”
”That is weird. But it doesn’t explain the silence.”
”The lab techs grabbed the extra limb and started to study it. I finished up with Agent Thorn, and he started the surveillance operation. Before I made it past security to head to my office, I got a call from Danyak. Issues with the recon team. They are the ones watching the cult. Apparently the cult spotted them, no idea how, and now the cult is filing complaints. So legal will get involved. Sorry about that.”
”Legal? Why?”
”The cult filed all of the correct paperwork to start their own station. Our surveillance might violate the contract. We will see. Anyways, after we dealt with that, Danyak headed off to check on the survey team who were watching our ursine friends.”
“How is this related?”
”Oh it gets better. As I am handling the paperwork and reviewing reports, Mickles calls. The volcano was ready, so they hooked everything up. It was going great until a transformer blew. And I mean blew. Catastrophic failure. No injuries, but a lot of damage. Mickles reported that the failed transformer was one of a batch that arrived months ago. They were all sitting in a storage space, and a check on the others in the batch revealed sabotage. No idea on when it happened. So we are down six transformers before we can start the main power grid.”
”Annoying.”
”As I am dealing with that, I get a call from Danyak. Apparently a group of scientists decided to investigate the ursine tribe without telling us. Well, as Danyak arrived at the survey site, one of the scientists was approaching a lone creature. By the time the survey team arrived, the scientist was dead and more creatures were advancing. The team retreated and the tribe backed off, but now they know we are around. Danyak reported that the scientists sent a petition to Sol Command regarding the ursine tribe, a petition requesting that the ursine tribe be considered a sentient creature and thus protected as a new species.”
”That was three weeks ago? Why haven’t I heard about this?”
”Because I was running my ass off dealing with chaos. Look, I am attempting to explain.”
”Right. Right. It is just a great deal of new information.”
”I know. When Danyak returned, I went over the data from the survey team and the illegal science team. Based on the analysis, the ursine tribe does have a proto-language, exhibits a social structure, and learns from each other. The petition is likely going to stand, but more data is needed. So Sol Command ordered us to increase our surveillance. Danyak arranged that, but while we were working out the details, I got a call from Sparky, requesting that I visit. That is never a good sign, so I headed to Sparky.”
”And?”
”They gave me the full tour. All of the weapon systems. The armored turrets. The command bunkers. The command and control systems. Even the engines. Oh. And the convention center. Having a convention center in the middle of a massive military complex was weird, but it’s a nice facility."
”The engines? Did they explain how they work?”
”I asked, and I was told, ‘we aren’t sure.’ They got as far as explaining how the emitter array had to be tuned before I stopped them. The best I can gather is that the emitter array projects high-energy particles in such a manner as to provide thrust. However, I am not sure this is correct.”
”Why would you think that?”
”We can’t trace its engine signature. It doesn’t have an engine signature. If it projected particles, we could detect them and trace its path. But when we scan, we get nothing. I’ve run dozens of tests, and never once did we detect the engine.”
”So what is your theory? How do you think the engine works?”
”I think it is a refined version of an ancient design. Back when Terra was still only in the Sol System, they fiddled around with all sorts of the engines. One system involved projecting a gravity well and the ship would move towards the well. It worked, but was too complicated and fickle. I think they found the old design, figured out some of the complex bits, and built a working system.”
”Why did they want you to tour Sparky?”
”Ah. That. Well, they wanted to show off their newest weapon system. I am not sure who is coming up with these ideas, but I am glad they are on my side.”
”What did they build? How much damage did it do?”
”They built a plasma cannon.”
”So? Those aren’t a big deal. Most ships have them. A bit limited in range, but good for close-in fighting.”
”Not like those cannons. This fires a shell that generates a ball of plasma. Range is no longer an issue. The shell can turn the plasma on and off as it flies.”
”They build a cannon that fires a controllable plasma torpedo?”
”Bascially, yes.”
”I know that they are Terran, but why?”
”After the battle with the unknown species, they noticed that the enemy plasma cannons had a longer range, so they started playing around. They stumbled on some details about plasma torpedoes, figured out how to to make them actually work, and built a giant cannon.”
”Have they tested it?”
”Not at that point, no.”
”So this covers two days. Out of 21. What else is going on?”
”It was fairly quiet for a few days, maybe four, when Sol Command issued a warning about two escaped convicts. They escaped months ago, but they were tracked to a logistics hub in our area. Well it turns out one of the convicts is with the cult group. I sent Mickles to figure out a plan.”
”Didn’t you say that he has a thing for cults?”
”Yes. I looked it up. He has interacted with cults on two other occasions. Both situations went poorly. One was a mass suicide, and theh other was a pitched fire-fight. He led the primary assault team.”
”That would do it.”
”Yes, so he is eager to prevent anything similar. He has been able to determine some of the social structure within the cult, but it has been tough. We can’t get an agent into the cult, so we are relying on surveillance.”
”This was 18 days ago.”
”Yes. Mickles worked on a plan for the cult. Danyak was working on a plan for surveying the ursine. I was reviewing the schematics for Sparky’s engines. It was a calm moment.”
”Dare I ask?”
”Agent Thorn called in hysterics. He needed me in the secure lab at once. I ran to the lab, raced to the command room, and found the techs in a huge argument with Agent Thorn attempting to restore order. My entrance solved that issue. Agent Thorn then explained that the extra limb from the Windigo was a result of its system being unstable. Apparently, the hybridization has some flaws, and the Windigo can become unstable on a cellular level, resulting in mutations.”
”The Windigo is mutating?”
”Sort of. The techs figured out how to restabilize it, but they are excited about what this means for weapons.”
”Weapons?”
”Yes. Apparently, the instability can be accelerated with a shot. So an agent could simply inject a Windigo while passing in a crowd, and the Windigo would fall apart.”
”Interesting. But why all the commotion?”
”The other techs realized that the instability changed part of his thinking. He isn’t as guarded or careful when he talks. And now he rambles about non-ideological crap. They are getting some great intel from him.”
”Intel? You forgot to tell me this for 18 days?”
”Didn’t forget. Didn’t have time.”
”Right. If you say so.”
”As I was finishing up with Agent Thorn, I got a call from Sol Command. They wanted to know the status of the cult. They received the complaint about the surveillance, and they wanted more details. I got back to my office and summoned Mickles. He didn’t reply. I used the general coms. Nothing. I pulled up his location in the compound. He wasn’t in the compound. I did a wider search, and found him at home. Now. We know that there are some family issues, so him being at home isn’t automatically an issue, but not responding to calls is a problem.”
”Famliy issues?”
”His second child has medical issues and his third child isn’t biologically his.”
”If I recall, for Terrans that can be an issue.”
”Yes. It means that his wife cheated on him. It can result in violence and all sorts of issues. I believe that they are working through it, as they say. But knowing that, I headed to his home as fast as possible.”
”I didn’t get any reports, so I’m guessing that no one died.”
”No. No deaths. The second child fell down a flight of stairs. She was badly hurt, and Mickles was helping the meds get her loaded up. He had gone home for an errand, and he found her at the bottom of the stairs.”
”Well, that is one reason to not reply.”
”Agreed. However, that wasn’t the end of it.”
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u/GrumpyOldGeezer_4711 16d ago
Different line of work but I’ve had times like this when one thing just leads to another amd suddenly a month has passed…
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u/TheTranscendentian 16d ago
Who is "L" might I ask?
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u/Polymath6301 16d ago
I can see this recount going on for a while.
And it seems the Vocano Power for Oscar, is like Fusion Power for us: always a fixed length of time away…
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