A 'Chill' Discovery

Posted on Sun Dec 17th, 2023 @ 5:09pm by Captain Luka Mahone & Lieutenant Akihito Takeshi

1,394 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: What Lies Ahead, Between, and Behind
Location: Science Labs
Timeline: Pre-Disappearance

The alarmed message Luka received from the science labs did not give him enough time to warn anyone he was leaving the Command Center. Instead, he shot out of his office faster than Davna could stop him, leaving her with the pair of excited dogs as the turbolift door shut behind the Captain.

And while his trip to the labs was a quick teleport away, Luka leapt into the lab as if it had taken a mite too long, half expecting to find the room decorated with the sight of someone's insides all over it.

Instead, there was a big grin out of the sole, red-uniformed human in the room. His hair was a typical 'regulation improper' mess, but aside from that, Akihito Takeshi looked absolutely fine.

The panic on Luka's face settled, transforming into annoyance. "Really. You really had to pull that on me?"

"Pull what?" Alarmed, Aki sprang up from his seat, closing the distance and putting a hand on Luka's shoulder. He motioned for the other to turn around. "I didn't mean to make you all tense."

Luka shook his head, ignoring Aki's continued attempts to comfort him until the pilot decided to twirl Luka around and start kneading at the Captain's shoulders with his hands. "This is highly unprofessional."

Aki shook his head. "We'll worry about professionalism when you're dead and they're writing up crap about you for memoirs or posterity or whatever it is the Brass does." The sigh that came from the Captain did little to stop Aki's shoulder massage. "Oh relax, no one's around. Payton ran off to tell what's his name about our discovery."

"Our?" Luka turned his head to see if he could get a better look at Aki's face, but to little avail. The other was giving nothing away in his usual methods. "Is that what had you nearly panicked over the comm?"

"Panicked? I wasn't panicked, I was excited!" While he had his hands on Luka's shoulders, Aki bounced on the balls of his feet. "We hadn't made big headway in some of the research on the scouting trip we did with the team, so this was some fun stuff. I just thought you'd wanna see it before whats-his-name got a hold of it."

"Jason would have said something," Luka insisted, finally managing to brush Aki away and turn to get a better look at both the man and the fossilized discovery behind him. "Eventually."

Aki snorted. "Eventually. When he got what he needed, science poked and prodded it some more, and managed to not tell you half the information you might have wanted to know."

"It would have been in the Commander's report," Luka pointed out. "Just because she's his daughter doesn't mean she's going to sabotage her ability to make new discoveries. And he wouldn't get in the way of her success. He's a scientist, not an egomaniac."

"Love that optimism, I'm glad you've kept that Cap'n." Aki gave Luka one final pat on the shoulder before turning to gesture at the item on the round table; the intact fossilized form of a humanoid. "We picked this up on that mission," Aki continued, trotting himself back over to call up information on the nearby console. "Didn't know who or what it used to be, but Sofia said it looked real similar to the ones they saw in the caves awhile back."

Falling silent, Luka approached the specimen on the table. No eyes, but sharp claws and teeth. And it looked like it ran around on two legs instead of the four limbs that it had. "... This is what those kids saw?"

Aki rolled his eyes. "Typical doctor, thinking of the children, but yeah. That's what they saw."

"No wonder they were scared. And this was on that other planet?"

"Yep."

"So... whoever or whatever this was had space travel?"

"Ehhh, I don't think this had space travel. And neither does Payton," Aki pointed out. "Sure they've got all the makings of it physically, but the current hypothesis was that this is an invasive species of some sort. We're having a hard time sorting through DNA and all that science-y stuff, but Payton's pretty sure it's bio-engineered. Or altered from something else. Because she can't get a full read on it's DNA. There isn't a base. It's just... spliced, and mangled all over. Whatever DNA is left of it, anyways."

Luka's eyes narrowed as he looked from specimen to console. "You're saying that there is or was another race responsible for creating this?"

"Not me, Payton. Me? I don't wanna meet one of these while they're living and moving. They look dangerous. And I've dealt with zombies already. That's plenty enough nonsense for me for the rest of my career."

"You chose the wrong assignment if you think this is going to be smooth sailing."

"Yeah, nah, your bro told me." Aki twirled in his chair. "Big bubble, dragons. High fantasy. Said his sister was back too - didn't you say she was dead?"

"I did."

The pilot's twirling stopped so he could face Luka. "So yeah, never a dull ass moment on Haumea. But at least this way I'm kinda in charge of something and am so far removed from most of this."

"Unless this springs to life," Luka pointed at the creature. "I'd say I was joking, but with how wild and crazy things have been I wouldn't be too sure."

"Nah, too predictable. Would ruin the B Plot."

"This isn't a horror vid, Aki. I'm serious. Science should have this thing more locked down than it is. Someone could get hurt."

"Do you want me to do that before or after you feed someone else potential poison?"

Luka's gaze shot towards Aki, who seemed perfectly innocent to the Captain's side-eying. "... You heard about that, did you?"

"Someone from the Tongue was talking about it. Said you almost killed their boss."

"I did not - he did that all on his own."

"But who brought him the poison?"

Luka's gaze snapped back to the specimen. Arguing already hashed out points was going to get nowhere. But this? This was going to require a more extensive eye. "I'm waiting for the Lieutenant Commander to return. I want this thing on lock down. Or at least behind a barrier. I don't feel good knowing it's not safe."

"It's dead, Cap."

"I don't care." The cold finality in Luka's voice had Aki pause. "I'm not having another injury due to anyone's carelessness or under-estimation of potential dangers."

"You're gonna look like a paranoid lunatic if you keep makin' calls like that."

"I'd rather explain to the Admiralty why I look like that than have to explain why I suddenly have a pile of dead bodies on my hands. And I want to make sure if Bray does get a hold of this that we have eyes on it. If anything, this should be a joint effort. We all live here, we should all know what's going on."

"Aye aye, Cap'n. Want me to put myself on top of that?"

"Yes. If you have to take part of your hazard team to do it, so be it. I'd rather have this thing secured safely."

Aki stood up, readying a big stretch as he gave Luka a nod. "Donchu worry, Cap'n. Between myself, Payton, and all that Bray tech I think is comin' our way, we'll have this thing on the lockiest of lock downs before you know it."

"And make sure I get a copy of every single one of your reports. And the Lieutenant Commander's too."

"Like you've gotta tell me to do that. I was there the last time we had experimental tech go wrong, remember? I'm not gonna let some who knows what get the best of us because we went poking at it."

Luka's eyes narrowed at the plucky pilot. There was no reason he should have doubted Aki, but the unsettling nature of the finding more questions than answers had the Captain skeptical. He shook his head.

"Just do it. And keep yourself hush for now, at least until we have more answers."

With that, Luka was off again, leaving Aki give a half hearted wave-salute. "Don't worry, Sir. If anything comes of this, you'll be first to know!"

 

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