Chapter One Thirty-Four Expanding Colonies
Kiru stepped off the shuttle, “So is it really okay to leave Erin with them?”
“Well, yes. Soleans are immune to Bovi and they worship her. They’ll take good care of her,” replied Megumi as she followed her onto the deck.
“Um, no shit. How do you infect a statue? Although I’m not sure immortality is worth that.”
Megumi giggled, “I know she is a crystal fossil now, but that’s only now. She’ll revert to flesh soon enough, although it might take a few months. A blink of the eye for a Solean.”
“I guess you are happy too. Now you know for sure that some of your creators are still alive.”
Megumi smiled, “Quite, and now I have mixed feelings about allowing that landing.”
“Oh? Now you have those?”
“Well until they are fully infected they might be a threat to Erin.”
Kiru sighed, “Of course, that would be your hang-up.”
“Anyway, we have a lot of work to do. Better get started, the sooner we are done, the sooner we can have fun!”
Kiru nodded and followed along, there really was a lot to do. A smile crossed her face as she thought about spending more time with her sisters.
Two Days Later:
“Sensors coming back online, now sir. We have emerged from hyperspace 27.43 thousand kilometers from our target point.”
The captain stood up, “A bit rougher than expected, but I guess it’s a given, considering the turbulence.”
“Agreed, anyway I’ve found the Kirach Expeditions nav beacon. Shall I plot a course?”
“Set course for Kirach, full sublight thrust.” Ordered the captain as she turned to sensors and communications. “Raise the expedition, and let them know we have arrived.”
“I just managed to raise them, and they are sending a revised course. They are telling us to steer clear of the orbital complex at all costs.”
The captain frowned, but turned to the helm. “Adjust our course as directed,” turning back she asked, “Do they elaborate?”
Instead of an answer a ship was put on her screen. The moment it appeared, nestled against the alien docking births, someone gasped.
The captain turned, “You recognize that?”
“It looks like a Guardian, but bigger and sleeker.”
“A guardian?”
“An ancient fleet killer sir, expeditions to most sites controlled by the Ancient races have to take them into account. They are automated warships left behind to defend their old shield worlds and many of their old colonies as well.”
“And this one is bigger? Why do I feel worried?”
“Well, if it was going to attack us, it would have. Based on these readings we are already well within weapons range. I think we do what the expedition says.”
The captain could only agree and the moments that followed stretched on endlessly. She kept waiting, expecting that at any moment the alien ship would fire, but it didn’t. A constant beep from tactical informed her that they were being actively tracked, but no energy build ups or any sign of an attack came. Then finally they reached Kirach and the ship descended into the atmosphere, on course for the beacon.
The captain stepped down the ramp, and was greeted by a familiar face. Although she was a bit surprised that she was dressed so lightly. All she saw was a lab coat and a skirt, but she couldn’t help tugging at her own uniform collar when the heat hit her.
Ruthia smiled, “A bit later than expected, but better late than never. Welcome to Kirach.”
“What’s with the outfit?”
“You’ll consider wearing less too, after you’ve been here a bit. It can get quite sweltering, especially during the day.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” she glanced up at the shimmering shield they passed through, “Does the shield help?”
“Quite a bit, radiation levels beyond the shield require us to wear heavy suits. If you think you are hot now? Well you would be baking by the time you get back from an expedition beyond the shield. That’s why we’ve been focusing on the nearby ruins and the tunnels.”
“Right, I heard you lost fourteen people in those tunnels.”
“They aren’t the most stable, but we’ve been more careful since then. We haven’t managed to lose anyone since, but now that you are here we can really start exploring in earnest again. I can tell you a lot of people aren’t happy that we had to slow our exploration of the tunnels.”
“Yes, but you lost 14 with little to show for it.”
“I wouldn’t say that, come this way. I can show you something we found not long after you left, and if not for that cave-in we might not have found it at all.”
Ruthia led her into the camp on a tour of the place, but as she was looking around something felt off. Yet she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. The camp looked much like she would have expected, aside from the researchers wearing less than she would have thought.
As they walked however, she was starting to regret leaving the ship in her uniform. Maybe she should have found something with more breathable fabric. This heavy cloth was perhaps a bit much in the local heat.
As they passed a large building near the center of the camp she was told, “And this is the Hub. It’s where we go when not busy in the lab, our little fields you may have seen, or down in the tunnels. It’s the place to go for a casual meeting, to socialize, share a drink or meal. That sort of thing. Maybe I’ll see you there later?”
“Perhaps, so what did you find that is worth being here? You were sparse in the details and said you were expanding the camp for a larger team. It’s why we brought so many.”
“Patience, I’ll show you in the lab.
Reaching a lab, she was led inside and to what looked like a medical room. Ruthia smiled as she pulled a jar and a knife off a shelf. “Mind showing me your hand?”
Frowning, she complied already getting an idea and sure enough she got a quick slice across her palm from Ruthia. “So why are you cutting my hand?”
“Watch,” said Ruthia as she applied some of the gel in the jar to the wound. Almost instantly it started closing as the flesh burned a little and turned a little red. Other than the discoloration, after a minute it was like she hadn’t been cut.
She raised an eyebrow, “Okay, that... that’s something. Why does my hand still burn?”
Ruthia sighed, “Despite our best efforts, the gel is still slightly toxic, the rash should heal in a few days, but the burning will stop in the next thirty minutes. After that it will just itch a little.”
“Toxic?”
“The raw version of the gel contains a potent toxin, in weaker concentrations it causes a rash, but larger concentrations lead to cell death, in other words localized necrosis. However the same gel is also full of concentrated bioregeneratives. For obvious reasons, we didn’t transmit the discovery on an open channel.”
The captain would have been mad if they had. “This stuff could...”
“Revolutionize medicine and I know some parties would also be interested in the toxin.”
“Okay, I admit this stuff alone is worth being here, but may I ask? What’s with the super guardian in orbit?”
“We don’t know, it showed up and chased the science team investigating the orbital complex away but it hasn’t bothered us down here. Aside from briefly warning us away from the orbital, it hasn’t even given us a moment’s attention.”
“So an axe over our heads, that we have to worry about,” she sighed, “Great.”
“I’ll send some to your ship for your own people to look at,” replied Ruthia as she headed for the door. The captain hurried along to follow.
“Much appreciated, I’m sure they will practically kill each other for a chance to work with the stuff. Although the toxic part is a bit of a worry.”
“Agreed, but the raw stuff is thankfully not the pure concentrated stuff we got while trying to improve the gel.”
“Yes, where does the gel come from anyway?”
“A bulbous local plant, we’ve been growing it out in the fields so that we can produce a steady supply of gel to study.”
“Hmm, that sounds labor intensive,” she frowned, “Guess that explains some of the farming equipment, but why ask for manual stuff?”
“We don’t want to risk damaging the plants. They are too valuable and they are also why we selected some of the people we did when requesting replacements and expansion. They’ll be right at home in the fields helping us grow these things.”
“I guess some of them will enjoy that. On a different note, what else did you want to show me?”
Ruthia led her down the hall into another room, where she saw a number of alien artifacts laid out on tables. With various tags attached. “When that cave in happened, we hit a treasure trove of ancient artifacts. The collapsing walls revealed new passages that were hidden with time. We are still trying to translate the alien text, but,” she picked up an alien device,” we have figured out what some of these do.
“So what does that one do?”
“It fires a resonant particle beam that can drill through rock in a matter of seconds. Power requirements are also incredibly low, we can power them easily with our own power sources. They proved useful in clearing some of the previous cave-ins”
“Sounds useful, but I presume you have some actual figures?”
“The exact ones are in the analysis report, but the quick summary version is that it consumes about a quarter of the power draw of a standard mining laser and can bore through rock about five times faster. Making it a rather potent piece of technology.”
The captain looked at the artifacts in the room, “And you have a fair number here.”
“We have even more in storage, these are only the ones we have managed to identify.”
“I’ll let the others know. We can get some teams set up to go through them.”
“Agreed,” replied Ruthia
“Now I guess you can show me the accommodations and perhaps those fields?”
Ruthia nodded and the pair went out to go over the other areas. By then the captain wasn’t the only one who had gone out to explore the camp, she ended up meeting a number of crewmen and scientists while surveying the fields.
Kophi stretched as she slipped out of her chair. Today had been going pretty well, but now that she was done with her day, she was going to join her friend Kohli for a nice date. Since Kohli had dumped her boyfriend, she’d been spending a lot of time with her. To the point that they were basically living together. Much of that had been to help Kohli get over the end of the relationship. Thankfully she finally seemed to be getting over the useless male. Her mind blinked at the thought and then she nodded to herself. That was right, males were pretty useless. Maybe Kohli hadn’t been so stupid to dump him, but she shouldn’t have gotten so attached to D’rik.
There wasn’t any point worrying about it though. She thought as she walked towards the apartment they were practically sharing now. Reaching the door to her apartment she walked in, and found Kohli lounging naked on the sofa, her bra discarded, while she played with her swollen breasts. They’d swollen up a good cup over the last couple of days, an effect that Kophi was certainly enjoying. She wished her boobs would swell too, but instead she got her Labia swelling. Still the effect down there was certainly nice and she was oh so sensitive. Kohli saw her, “Hey Kophi! Want to play?”
She licked her lips and then dived between the other girl’s legs. Not bothering with words.