The Veiled World

Chapter 4 The Good, The Bad, The Monstrous

Hours after the Battle over the mid-west stadium on board the CSB#411 Super Carrier “Terminarch” . Most of the crew has finished their duties and have gone into “inactive status”.  It is a time for most people to rest and recover. For the ship it means there is reduced consumption of the on board resources. For the remaining crew that is on active duty they double check reports and finishes filing to the ships systems. The people at the top get an overall from the bottom up without all the extra clutter. And everything is forwarded from the ship into the 3 companies (Colt, Swift, And Brunswick) that made the Super Carrier. This was the only way for the black projects to not overlook something that everyone else could.

The sharp and steady wrappings of hardened military boots grow louder and louder before they come to a halt outside a special lab attached to the Medical Bay. This lab has the Chief Medical Officer pouring over computer readings, charts and statistics. The door makes a special chime and the high backed chair makes a half turn. This Dr. Sirona Conroy tilts her head down to look over the top of her glasses and stairs at the monitor over the door to confirm the figure standing outside it. After she recognizes the captain she places a data pad over a console and hits a few keys to start a data transfer. She quickly turns back around and stands up. She adjusts spikes pinning the ball of hair on the top of her head hoping it looks a little less disheveled. With a few tugs she straightens her loose medical cloths, and fluffs her knee high skirt while saying “Enter”.

“Welcome Captain… Are you here for Bachell’s update? Or would you like to see what we have on Romeo 04 so far.”  She gestures to a reinforced clear wall and opens the shutters to give sight to a pod that lowers from upright to a 45 degree angle. Inside the pod strapped to a bed with a few tubes connected to an emaciated pale figure.

The captain standing tall nods in response to the Doctor. “Both are important, I have to report on both when the time comes. But if there is anything that is more urgent then start with that first.”

“Sure Captain…”

“Please, stop with the sir’s. I honestly get tired of it when I hear it all day from everyone else. Unless we’re on deck then just call me Blake or Dawnbringer.” The captain smiles in a pleading way and adopts a leisurely posture.

“Not a problem Blake.”   (Sirona)

Beep, beep, beep, buzzt.

“Oh, good timing. Here is Bachell’s report. Umm… Should I say Clypeus’s report?” She asks then scratches her head.

“On the reports, logs, and data coms it is always Clypeus. But when your talking to me like this, either way is fine. We just need to make sure personal identity is covered just in case of data leak or if the systems are compromised for whatever reason. The same goes for any of the Mist Touched in the future. Just like our new pet project Romeo…” He gestures at the pale skinny guy on the table. “We’ll get a designation for him later if he pans out.”

“Good to know. Ok then. The short of it the medical equipment has found some anomalies with Bachell. And even though his combat suit took some damage this should not have exposed his flesh to any long term mist exposure. We found a number of micro punctures after a secondary testing was conducted, but absolutely no damage to his epidermis or skin tissue.”

“That’s strange… was there any perforations to his skin suit or damage to the sealers?”

“Not exactly, we found like before micro damage on the skin suit too. However it’s regeneration seems to have sealed normally and so we think if he did get exposed to any additional mist it would be less than a minute in total. However the micro damage should not have allowed any air at all to get through. And it was only with a secondary scan that we found any type of damage.”

As the captain flipped through the report with a little more concern he tried to follow along with what the Dr was describing. “Conclusion for this anomaly?”

With a troubled look and a shake of her head Sirona elaborated further. “None at all… We can’t say for sure why there was any damage nor theorize what causes that. None of the engineers had an explanation either. It says everything in the report. However on my end he does not appear to have sustained any physical injuries at all. BUT…”

“But what?”

With a sigh she continues. “BUT we found some changes. Extremely minor, and unusual but they are there.”

“Could they be a problem if it continues?”

“Who knows? For several hours we’ve checked him repeatedly from the time he’s returned up until 20 minutes ago. What we found is his veins have gone from an average of 2.4mm and 4 mm up to an average of 3.70 up to 5.5 mm. And even with that difference it seems like all the veins are increasing in size evenly. None are being “left behind” sota speak. Even if all of the veins haven’t changed equally yet, then they probably will in time. Also his heart is pumping a little stronger, his epidermis or skin thickness has gone up noticeably. The average say for the forearm is 1.3, but now for him it is 2.1.  His internal heat has risen .4 degrees on average. But even with all this he still says he’s fine and comfortable.”

With a wrinkled brow and a bit of concern the captain eventually stops looking at the frames on the data pad.  He inquires further after some careful thought. “When did this happen? And has anyone else had similar problems?  Could this all have happened from what caused the micro fractures? Or..”

While gesturing to halt Sirona “Blake,  I’m sorry we don’t have anything solid here. It’s all either just data, or speculation. After talking with a few people we tried to provide exactly what we could. No more , no less. But we don’t know if what caused the micro fractures caused the changes. But reviewing the medical data, we can only determine that this is a new change. A change that is so new it would have started some time around, during, or after the mission. The most changes we recorded were within 1 hour of returning to the ship. As far as others, well we have only a few people that were in Bachells team that also had some micro fractures in their suit. And both are Mist Sick. They are in observation if you want to see them. But they will probably recover. They are not exhibiting similar effects. It’s more like short and partial exposure to some mist. I can’t say if they will fare any better the next time they are exposed to mist. In fact seeing this reaction, I would guess mutation or death if they are lucky. In short I could only say it’s more like Bachell has been fortified… or grown by whatever happened.”

“How about a strange combination of our tech?  Explosives?  Or energy weapons discharge?”

She shakes her head again. “No. There is no indication of our material doing such a thing. No evidence of friendly fire regarding these cases. Not even a glancing blow. That’s all I can tell you…”

After an awkward silence and some contemplation Dawnbringer gestures to the unconscious pale body of Romeo.

“How about this one? What can you say about this one? Has it spoken at all or has it been like this the whole time?” Blake Dawnbringer

“Well, I ran every test we could in this time and Romeo is likely able to speak.. well whenever he wakes up.”

“Have you even tried to wake him up?”

“Of course,” she replied while nodding vigorously. But this one is unlike any Mist Touched that I’ve seen before. I even double checked over some records and haven’t found any matches for this type. I honestly can’t even tell you if it is very dangerous, or harmless.”

“That’s not helping Sirona. I need a little more to go on than that..”

She shrugs. “I’m not done with the report because what little I’ve got definitively doesn’t answer any questions.”

“That’s just a Non-answer. Come on explain it step by step if you have to.”

Sirona  takes a slow breath in and slow breath out then starts her explanation. “So like I said we ran EVERY test we could in this time. But this is what’s happened. Nothing definitive.”

Incredulity written all over Blake’s face. “Nothing definitive.” He parrots.

“Exactly, Nothing definitive. For example, his brain scans are abnormal. We could normally assume he’s awake with some of the activity that is going on. However he’s been like that from the time he was put on the stretcher till now. As far as we can tell he hasn’t moved a muscle. So if this is him sleeping we can’t guess at what he’s like when awake. We don’t have a good base line for this type of brain activity. Also we have tested it and he can be healed to a degree… but even with those injuries he seems to return to normal… normal being gaunt. We have pumped in more to help stimulate growth and recovery, but nothing has happened. When he heals it looks like normal. He does have a few scars but we can’t even guess when he got those. We tried drugs to wake him up, and he’s like this.” She gestures hopelessly at the pale body. “We tried drugs to cause sleep, and he remains like this. There is literally no change in brain function.”

“Does he even feel pain?”

“well we think so…”

With lifted brows, and a disbelieving smirk Blake parrots her previous words of “ Nothing Definitive… Right?”

With a nod she replies, “right, your catching on… Sure we see the cut, and he bleeds, and is able to recover with help. We have even seen evidence of neural activity like there has been a sensation felt by his nerves. But he remains like this. I really don’t know what to do at this point. We probably need to wait for him to wake up. Probably…”

“I see why you have not made a final report on the matter. But keep in mind even inconclusive is something, and I need something by the time this ship gets to Colt City. We’re picking up a Mist Touched there and I would like a little more to show for our efforts. I hope we can at least talk to someone sane.”

“Oh, there were a few other anomalies with him too.”

Blake on the verge of leaving pauses at this. “More than this? Or Inconclusive?”

“yes, this one seems to absorb trace amounts of Mist on contact…”

“I’m sensing a but coming at this point.”

“yes, But we don’t record any changes. Or I guess we can say that no changes is the result.” She shrugs. “I just don’t know how I’m going to write this out. It sounds  so… so…”

“You already said it…” Blake Dawnbringer

“What inconclusive?” Sirona

“No,  you said No Changes. It isn’t like things haven’t been affected like that before. And didn’t they say he had food on him?”

“That’s right Blake a lot of things that had that exact thing happen to them. They were frozen in time. It’s just I’ve never seen a living person like that before.”

“well, I guess there is a first for everything.”

“Well if this has happened to him then maybe he could wake up normally. It’s just I didn’t see any evidence to suggest he can’t speak like the mutations. But his skin is vulnerable to direct sun. It burns when faced with full spectrum light for some reason.”

“That’s damned weird…” He shakes the idea of monster movies out of his head. “But anyway get me something to turn in and have it finished before we get to Colt City.  If we need to do extensive tests on him then we will have to do it on one of the major cities. The higher ups are going to have to figure out where. But absolutely DO NOT unsecure him. We will not take the risk of a loose monster on board. Worse case, just drop the bay to the ground. But that’s only if it’s a danger to the ship.

Before Captain Blake Dawnbringer was even out of the Medical wing he ended up kicking something solid with his boot, and shortly thereafter cracking his shin on a rolling chair that escaped out from under another doctor.

Unknown to the Doctor or anyone else there was something afoot. But data pens, data pads, tools falling on the floor were just a sign of disapproval of the unseen.

While Dr Sirona continued her observation she eventually became fatigued and went to sit down again. When she missed the chair again to nearly end up on the floor for the fourth time today, she put the arm rests out and reclined on the chair to get a little shut eye before she makes a terrible mistake on a patient.

At least the computer will sound if there is any change to the patient’s condition. This was her last thought as she drifted off into dream land.

But she wasn’t alone, and without any alarms sounding something was exploring the ship, and the people on board.

Introduced The Captain Blake Dawnbringer

Chief Medical officer Dr. Sirona Conroy

Additional files from archive-

Dr.#corrupted# Subject suffering from anxiety and complaints of being watched even when alone. Cameras show nothing. Likely Mist Instability. Observation recommended. Carefully handle, last one hemeraged from the eyes, ears, and brain.

Dr.#corrupted# Subject suffering from anxiety and complaints of seeing things. Cameras show #corrupted.#  Optometrist tests clean bill of health. .#corrupted#. Observation recom#corrupted# Deceased  #Data corrupted# both eyes out #data corrupted#

Mist Touched file #corrupted# data recovered shows enhanced mental cognitive abilities. Subject showed heightened empathic abilities. Neural data 20% match to Romeo 04. Similar abilities are unlikely. Subject available to compare: Negative already deceased Vie suicide, mentally unstable reclusive.

Mist Touched file: Recent telekinetic or PK user. Neural Data 15% match compared to Romeo 04 brain wave data. Subject likely alive. Location likely outside network. Only data access is Colt, Swift, & Brunswick access points. No known location. No updated comparison available. PK abilities Unlikely.

Mist touched files remaining 8 corrupted: no neural matches. 7 Deceased.

Mist touched files remaining 24 normal: no neural matches. 19 Deceased. 3 MIA (Missing in Action)

   Dr. Sirona Conroy- Patient Romeo 04 “Inconclusive results for most tests; We don’t know how long this male has been subjected to the Mist. For all we can tell he is a male probably in late teens to early 20’s. Malnourished, few scars of unknown age, most chemical tests show low on everything but also are not increasing much before returning to an abnormally low state. Where the nutrients are going is “unknown”. It is believed mist exposure has changed neural pathways to a degree. But we don’t have a solid baseline to determine much about Romeo 4. For all intense and purposes Romeo is a relatively “Unchanged” human. Too much to sift through and there remains lots of corrupted data. No matches based on database searches.  Note: further tests required, too few Enhanced Cognitive Mist Touched. Most are already Deceased for some reason. Note 2 get engineering to check the keyboard as some keys seem to be sticking lately and I can’t tell why.