All Or Nothing, An Anunnaki Story

Chapter 3 - A New Home

All Or Nothing, An Anunnaki Story

Chapter 3

A New Home



Apsu woke up early. He looked at the clock and saw it was 4 AM. He wasn’t sure what woke him until he heard Tiamat complaining that something hurt.

“What did you do?” Apsu asked.

“What?” Tiamat asked.

“I heard you say that something hurt.”

Tiamat was rubbing the toes of her right foot. “I kicked my toes against the leg of the bed,” she answered.

Apsu slowly sat up. “How much of the unpacking did you do?” he asked.

“Nearly all of it,” Tiamat answered. “I kept waking up. It always takes me a while to get used to a brand-new bed.”

Apsu stretched, yawned, then got up out of bed. He slid on the slacks he wore yesterday.

“Did you put the towels in the closet?” he asked.

“Yes, I did. But you know what we forgot?” Tiamat asked.

“What?”

“We are out of shower soap. We were planning to get some before we headed to the base, but we forgot.”

Apsu turned to look at her. “I can’t believe we forgot that,” he said.

Tiamat nodded. “We are going to have to find out where the stores are around here,” she declared.

“Well, did you unpack the shampoo yet?” Apsu asked.

“No, I did not. I didn’t unpack the trunk yet.”

“OK, I’ll get it,” he said, walking out to the living room. In their new home, all the rooms were on one floor. They had a living room, kitchen, dining room, one-bedroom, and a bathroom. The bathroom was between the bedroom and the living room and also served as a laundry room. Apsu saw the large trunk was the only thing left to be unpacked. It was a fairly large trunk that had taken up most of the space in the back of the car. Opening the trunk, he saw the shampoo bottle, as well as the other bottled soaps, was taped shut and put into a plastic bag. Apsu smiled. “That’s my girl,” he said to himself.

Apsu unpacked the trunk before he took a shower. The trunk consisted mostly of kitchen items, non-perishables, soaps, and odds and ends they couldn’t bring themselves to leave behind. He took their wedding hologram out of the trunk and turned it on. Four years had passed since that day, but it didn’t feel that long to him. The time had sped by. They were happy. He placed the hologram on a stand beside the sofa, then continued unpacking the trunk.

While unpacking the trunk and putting things in their rightful places, Apsu noticed was sitting on a stand just inside their front door. There was a note attached to the box that read “Replacement universal devices. Wear at all times.” He opened the box. Inside were two devices that resembled a high-end smartwatch.

He took the open box into the bedroom to show the devices to Tiamat. “We got brand-new universal devices,” he said.

Tiamat looked at the universal devices in the box. “I guess our old ones are no good here,” she said, taking one of the updated devices and replacing her old one. Tiamat admired how her stylish high-tech device looked around her wrist.

“I guess not,” Apsu said, putting on his newly acquired device.

Apsu went back to unpacking the trunk. Once he unpacked the trunk, he took a shower using shampoo for shower soap and got dressed for his first day as captain of the Nibiru. Tiamat was waiting at the door, ready to leave, when Apsu entered the living room.

“You seem eager to get started,” Apsu said.

“Chief medical officer,” she said, pointing to herself. “New medical science building.” She made a gesture in the general direction of the building. “I can’t wait to see it.”

“I wonder if Mummu is ready yet,” Apsu said.

As they walked out their front door, they saw Mummu walking on the sidewalk, heading toward them.

“Well, that answers that question,” Tiamat said.

“What question?” Mummu asked.

“If you were ready to leave,” Apsu answered.

It wasn’t long before they saw a taxi coming towards them. They all waved for it to stop. After it stopped, they all got into the back. Apsu told the driver to take them to the Nibiru headquarters. The drive seemed shorter than yesterday’s drive. Possibly because of how tired they were on their way home yesterday.

When the taxi reached the headquarters, it stopped. Apsu placed his wrist under a scanner between the two front seats of the taxi. The scanner read his device and automatically deducted the taxi fee from his monetary account. Once they were all out of the taxi, Tiamat gave Apsu a quick kiss and darted across the street to the medical science building.

Inside the building, she found herself in a rectangular-shaped room. The room was wider from side to side than it was front to back. It was just spacious enough to act as a foyer. They decorated it with artwork and fake plants that looked like small trees.

A 1.5-meter tall white robot standing between two elevators on the opposite side of the foyer, about four meters away from the door she just passed through, greeted Tiamat. The robot resembled a child, except it had a pedestal instead of legs. Its arms moved freely and made gestures as it spoke. “Good morning, Chief Medical Officer Tiamat,” the robot said. “Please report to Med Bay 1 on the first floor.”

Tiamat stopped and contemplated the small robot. “I thought this was a science building,” she said.

“They dedicate this building to both patient care and medical research,” the small robot said.

“Oh, I see,” Tiamat said, as much to herself as to the robot.

She walked over to the elevator and pushed the button. There was only one button with an arrow pointing up. The elevator door opened, and she walked inside. She pushed the button labeled 1. She could feel her excitement building as she waited for the elevator. But she wasn’t expecting what would greet her on Med Bay 1.

She walked through the elevator doors into what looked like a large waiting room with a large circular help desk in the center. The help desk had a sign on it that said: “Register Here”. But there was no one to be seen. There were no patients in the waiting room and no one was at the help desk. She had been expecting to see someone. What is going on? Tiamat thought.

She ambled to the help desk, looking around as she did so. On the left side of the room, she could see the entrance to a hallway. A sign connected to the ceiling at the entrance of the hallway read “Exit to Emergency Intake”. There were doors along the walls, two doors on each wall. Each is labeled according to the different specialties in which the department concentrated.

As she approached the desk, a hologram appeared. It was a hologram of an AI. The holographic AI looked similar to the actual AI she met on the first floor.

“Chief Medical Officer Tiamat,” the hologram began, “please report immediately to Emergency Intake. We have rerouted all patients from Med Bay 1 to Med Bay 3. I repeat, Chief Medical Officer Tiamat, please report immediately to Emergency Intake. We have rerouted all patients from Med Bay 1 to Med Bay 3.”

Without hesitation, Tiamat ran for the hallway labeled “Exit to Emergency Intake”. Nothing like trial by fire, she thought.

Across the street, Apsu and Mummu took the same route they had taken the day before with Admiral Tolk. Upon their entering the control room, someone said, “Captain in the control room.”

“Report,” Apsu said as he and Mummu walked to the center of the room and took their seats.

The person at the communications station swiveled her seat to look at Apsu. “Captain, Ma’adim HQ reports they have boarded all personnel,” the Lieutenant said.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Apsu said. “Prepare to leave orbit.”

In front of Apsu and Mummu, about five meters away, two ensigns sat busily working at a large control panel. Three meters beyond the control panel was a view screen that covered the entire wall. “This is the Nibiru,” one ensign said. “We are about to leave orbit.”

“Acknowledged,” a voice said over the comm. “Safe journey, Nibiru.”

“View screen on. Let’s have a parting look at Ma’adim,” Apsu said.

The view screen lit up and an image of Ma’adim filled the screen. Apsu could see the huge open wound left on the planet’s surface by the “Planet Killer” weapon. Apsu’s jaw dropped, and his eyes widened as he took in the immensity of the damage. This was his first time seeing an image of the damaged surface from orbit. He had watched vids from different news organizations, but they only showed images of the damaged area taken from an aircraft as it flew over. Nothing had prepared him for what he was witnessing.

Apsu cleared his throat, bringing himself under composure. “Set course for Tellus,” he said.

“Setting course for Tellus,” the other Ensign said. “ETA to Tellus 2.5 hours.”

Apsu stood and looked around the room. He spotted what he was hoping to see, a captain’s ready room. “I’ll be in my ready room,” Apsu said, walking to the door of the ready room. The door slid open as Apsu approached.

Mummu switched seats to sit in the captain’s chair while Apsu was in his ready room.

The ready room looked like an ordinary office. It had a medium-sized desk with a holographic computer. There was an office chair behind the desk and two comparably normal chairs in front of it, and contemporary artwork decorated the walls.

Apsu took a seat in the office chair behind the desk. The holographic computer screen appeared immediately. “Computer load messages addressed to Captain Apsu,” Apsu said.

“Loading messages,” a female voice replied.

A shortlist of messages appeared on the holographic screen. One of them was from the Admiral. “Open the message from Admiral Tolk,” Apsu said. The message immediately appeared. It read:

Captain Apsu,

 Within this message, you will find the coordinates of the richest gold deposits on Tellus. Upon arrival, dispatch the following list of personnel to these coordinates. They will set up bases immediately. Each group was given instructions on what to do once they arrived.

Admiral Tolk

 The rest of the message contained the list of personnel and coordinates of each site.

Admiral Tolk

The rest of the message contained the list of personnel and the coordinates of each site.

Apsu leaned back in his chair. What am I supposed to do for two hours? He thought.

He sat up straight. “Computer, pull up a map of this building showing all departments and recreational areas,” Apsu said.

“Pulling up the map,” the computer replied.

Apsu scanned the map of the building. “Just the thing,” Apsu said. “Computer off.”

Apsu stood and walked out of his ready room, the door automatically opening for him to walk through. As he walked past the Captain’s chair, he said, “Lieutenant, you have Conn. Commander Mummu, you’re with me. Contact me when we are in orbit around Tellus.”

“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant answered.

Mummu stood and followed Apsu into the elevator. Apsu pushed a button on the number pad. The elevator doors shut, and they descended.

“Where are we going?” Mummu asked.

“You’ll see,” Apsu answered with a sly grin.

The elevator stopped, and the doors opened. Mummu followed Apsu out of the elevator and down a hallway to a room with a glass door. The glass door had large, black lettering on it that said “Game Room”.

“I can’t believe it,” Mummu marveled.

“What better way to kill two hours,” Apsu said. As they approached, the door slid open. Mummu was following close behind.

They looked around the room. Several games were already being used. Apsu spied a two-player racing game. The game had two seats and two controllers for the steering wheels. Controllers mounted on metal columns connected to the game floor.

“Speed Blaster,” Apsu said.

“Definitely,” Mummu replied with a broad smile.

The hallway Tiamat ran into ended abruptly at an elevator. The doors slid open, Tiamat entered, and the doors closed again. The elevator descended quickly. As soon as the elevator doors reopened, she saw she was at Emergency Intake, a large room crowded with injured people. Some people were sitting in chairs and others were on gurneys. The ones with the most severe injuries were on gurneys. Tiamat could hear people moaning in pain. A few people were screaming. Tiamat looked for a doctor. She saw one talking to a patient and walked up to him.

“What happened?” Tiamat asked.

“Accident at the chemical plant,” the doctor answered.

Tiamat walked over to one of the injured people. “What happened at the plant?” Tiamat asked.

The patient groaned and said, “Chemical spill.”

Tiamat could see burns all over the left side of his body where the chemical had eaten away his clothes.

Tiamat quickly started checking all the injured people, finding the ones with the most severe injuries, and calling orderlies to take them directly to the treatment rooms. They needed to have the burns cleaned as soon as possible to remove the chemical and stop the burns from getting more severe.

Some would have to be transferred to a hospital after having their burns cleaned and dressed. She had been told the nearest hospital was only two kilometers away. After they treated the ones with the most severe burns, they took those patients to the hospital. The entire scene would have looked like chaos to an ordinary observer, but from a medical point of view, it was being conducted in an orderly fashion. Tiamat found she was holding up well under pressure.

Eventually, they worked their way to the last of the injured. She felt she had handled things well. Tiamat treated the last patient. She cleaned and dressed his burns, gave him two shots, one for pain and another to help prevent infection. She also ordered a prescription for pain medication and an antibiotic to be filled at the nearby pharmacy.

Tiamat breathed a sigh of relief. “What a first day,” she said to herself.

Apsu’s large four-wheel-drive truck was following closely behind Mummu’s much smaller sports car. Mummu was swerving his car back and forth, trying to avoid the blasts of shots from Apsu. Apsu heard a beeping sound and his universal device started blinking. He stopped playing the game, raised his wrist close to his mouth, and said, “Apsu here.”

“Captain, we are in orbit around Tellus,” a voice said through his device.

“Acknowledged,” Apsu answered. “Come on Mummu. Time to go.”

They both stood and walked out of the game room. Entering the elevator, Apsu said, “That made the time go faster.”

“MH MM,” Mummu grunted, as he nodded in agreement.

When they walked into the control room, they could see an image of Tellus on the viewscreen. It was a beautiful planet with big blue oceans and lush green landmasses. Patches of white, fluffy clouds circled the planet.

“Time to get to work,” Apsu said, taking in the planet's beauty.