Anarchy: Revolution

Medical Intervention

The vaulted ceiling of the docking bay was networked with catwalks that intersected to other openings in the rock. The large cavern was home to seven different ships of various styles as the Terran worked on fixing the bearing presses hydraulic system. The freighter sat between a dark blue fighter designed for someone small and a much larger ship with the word Anarchy stamped in molten red along the matte black hull.

Another fighter that was designed to look like a bird in flight was docked a few rows down, the colour shimmering between green and blue as parts littered the floor around it. Two other fighter ships were obviously Concloian with the flat colours that absorbed light rather than reflecting it.

The seventh ship was a deep emerald colour, a two-seater jet-style creation with a picture of a clown and the name Cosmic Joker painted on the side in Terran.

Looking down, Talis saw that the little Weaver was snoring softly against his chest. Her mandibles clicking quietly with each exhale while they followed Katzenfurg the down a series of dimly-lit obsidian halls.

Talis was awestruck by the design of the location. Glancing at the feline, he frowned. “How is it that you all understand each other?”

“Our friend, whose name is Axel, is an Avian with a brilliant mind. He can hack pretty much any system, and he is known for creating micro tech like translation implants and micro bombs that pack the punch of a large kinetic round. He joined two years ago, back when we were just starting out,” Novidia replied, stopping outside a door with medical symbols on it.

Pressing the panel on the side, she pulled up a DNA recorder and turned to the Arian. “Place your hand on the reader so I can add you to the database. Without it, you’re not accessing a damn thing on this station.”

His eyes widening slightly, Talis gingerly placed his dominant hand on the scanner. White and blue light filtered through his nearly transparent hand, highlighting the veins and thin monoammonium phosphate bones. It chimed twice before a mechanical voice spoke.

“New registration detected. Dar, Talis. Species: Arian. Designation: Doctor.” The doors slid open to reveal a modern, well-stocked medical bay with five beds of varying sizes. “Med bay access granted. Welcome, Doctor.”

Amazed by the room, he walked in cautiously, moving to a raised exam table before setting down the child in his arms. At first, Solara refused, practically fusing herself to his hip as he tried to set her on the table.

Smiling softly at her, he said, “I need to put you down to check your wounds. I need to heal you so you can grow properly.”

The fighting stopped when he spoke in the same calm tone he’d been using since finding her. Then Solara pointed to her injured leg, the cracks in her carapace creaking quietly as he set her on the table. “Heal me? I will… walk again?”

He nodded, “Yes, little one. I will heal you so that you can walk again. When did you first molt?”

She gave what he assumed was a scowl. “One time… A long time ago… Can’t… I can’t remember.”

The feline padded over, her armoured body suit whispering against her furry form as she got on the nearby stool. Pulling out a scanning device, she activated it without slowing down. “All of us learned how to use the equipment. This is the one to check for internal injury.”

A blue line of light moved over the Weaver, pulsing red twice as it finished the scan. Talis took the data pad from the wall as it lit up, showing him a diagram of Solara’s body rotating slowly as it highlighted injuries.

“The carapace cracks show the markings of an earlier molting. Bone structure on the inside is slightly more brittle than I’d prefer them to be, which put her roughly three to four cycles old. Six at the most. The leg injury is complex, however, and the fracture zone means I will have to perform surgery to fix it rather than a simple rebreak and reset.”

The Katzenfurg growled low, cursing under her breath as she slid the scanner back into its slot. “Can you actually do it or are you blowing hot air?”

Taken aback by the furry creature growling at him, Talis let out a barking laugh that sounded like music. “Is my expertise not the reason your Captain wanted me to join?”

“Fair,” she said, getting off the stool. “I’ll leave you to it then.”

Watching as she left, Talis sighed. Turning to the wall of medicines, he chose an anesthetic that would be mild, but enough to put the child to sleep for a while. Drawing some, he talked the female Weaver into lying flat on her back, applying the vapour mask as the medicine started working its way through her system.

Within moments, her tiny body relaxed in deep sleep, he pulled out the necessary tools. Triple checking the readouts for the right incision area, he got to work.

Bracing the leg, he marked it with antiseptic and made the first incision as the bay door slid open. Two massive Concloians walked in, one with black hair tied in a simple braid and the other with blue dreads. Hardly sparing them a glance, he returned to the leg, gently moving the extraction tool until the fragments were removed.

Repositioning the appendage, he was surprised when the blue-haired Concloian moved to hand him a fusion blade. “My thanks.”

“We’re here to see if you’re really as good as your file says. So far, you’re perfect for our crew.” The black-haired one said. “I am Captain Bane. This is my brother, Misha. You met Valiant earlier. He’s our clutch brother.”

“I see,” Talis answered, arranging the bone fragments until they fit perfectly into the space he just cleaned. Using the fusion blade, he seared the fragments back onto the main bone until only a spiderweb of cracks remained.

Closing the incision, he sealed it shut before moving to check the rest of her limbs. When that was over and he was satisfied that there were no other breaks, he moved on to the carapace fractures across her upper body and neck. Shining a UV light into them, he spotted the liquid film already coating the space between her old exoskeleton and the new one underneath.

He made a clicking noise with his tongue, shaking his head as he set the light down and turned off the machine keeping Solara asleep. “As I thought. She’s about ready for her third molting, making her approximately six standard cycles old. No other wounds and no nerve damage despite the broken leg being roughly three to four weeks old.”

“Six standard cycles? She’s a child?” Misha asked, his rumbling voice holding hints of shock.

Bane growled. “Good. You’re professional about it. That Weaver is your responsibility alone until we know she’s not a threat.”

“No worries, Captain. I will keep her safe and fed enough that she won’t think about eating your people.” Talis replied, stripping off his gloves and tossing them into the trash receptacle. “Valiant advised me on the way here that there is another patient? I’d like to see them now that Solara’s major injury is resolved.”

Raising a hand, Bane pointed to the containment room on the other side of the room. “Your people live long lives, right?”

“Up to five hundred cycles depending on environment and dietary factors.” Talis replied, pulling on another pair of gloves as he walked over to the sealed room.

Glancing into the window, he gasped involuntarily. Whatever loose items that had been left in the room were floating. He turned to stare at the two reptilians. “What the absolute hell have you dragged me into?”

“We didn’t do that to her. We found her like that on a research station we turned into scrap. She’s known as Subject 44, but she’s baseline Terran with Andromedan DNA splicing.” Misha explained.

‘Azrael.’

“Please tell me I’m not the only one who heard that,” Bane asked as he glanced between Misha and the crystalline doctor.

“You’re not,” Talis whispered, looking back at the window to see the girl staring back at him.

Her eyes blazed for a moment, and he felt a pressure in his head. Somehow understanding that she was trying to read him and his intentions, he relaxed and opened his mind to her.

“Simply amazing! She’s literally reading my thoughts and memories through the containment door. I haven’t seen this since the Battle of Kingfall when the last of the Andromedans were supposedly destroyed two centuries ago.”

‘What was done to me can’t be undone. The DNA splice has set into my very being since it was introduced six cycles ago. You are not them. I see that now.’ The voice paused as she smiled grimly. ‘I will show you my life. My pain.’

Pictures flashed in Talis’s head, making him dizzy as he watched her memories. He saw ships darkening the sky of a Terran outpost. Watched the armed beings rush the people, taking children while others ran in scattered patterns. He saw the ships rise, then land at an auction where she was sold to a research facility on the Outer Rim.

Then he felt the pain of being roughly handled. Being strapped down and pierced with objects and shocked with lightening rods. Everything they did to her up until her escape with Bane was there in clear snapshots she’d stored away in her mind.

As she pulled back, Talis was left panting as he grasped the wall. “By the stars. That was horrific. You’ve no worries, child. I am one of the few good ones.”

‘My name is Azrael, and I remember everything.’