Chronicles of Sol: The Fall-Chapter 243 - Two Hundred and Two Hostile Weather

January 25th, 008 SDE:

Countryman leaned over the console, the last few hours had been interesting. Thankfully the damage was minimal. A few shuttle and fighter pilots were tossed about by the shockwaves, but otherwise nothing had happened. Aside from them losing an entire day of mining.

Those first shockwaves had been the start of a series of hyperspatial eddies emerging one after another. They'd had to go to ground to avoid the ruptures. Thankfully they'd been inside the debris field where the eddies were much less likely to emerge. Something about the local gravity well perhaps helping retard them. Theories aside, they'd just take advantage of the limited shelter to avoid getting torn apart.

Greyman joined him, "Well we aren't seeing any more. I dare say the worst may have passed."

"For now, but I think we just saw what they meant by more frequent."

Greyman sighed, "I'm just glad we weren't caught out in that. The Deep Storm just became ten times more dangerous."

"Yes, but the implications of this shouldn't be ignored."

"What do you mean?"

"Eddies are supposed to be more frequent during a surfacing. What if they happen like that during one?"

Greyman shuddered, "Please don't suggest... such scary thoughts."

"We need to consider them, however, our survival depends on it. Or need I remind you that we are an endangered species?"

"I'm quite aware of that. Doesn't help that we only have one basket to put our eggs in."

"No, it doesn't. I'd like to build a second Enterprise and a few escorts but I can't. The math doesn't work out, we don't have the materials and we don't have the yard. I'm not sure I want to stay here long enough to get them. I certainly don't want to try and build a shipyard in the deep storm."

Greyman nodded, "Yeah one wrong move and our eggs are scrambled. The trip is rather long as well. It took us half a year to get here."

"Of course it did, the storm is roughly nine hundred lightyears across and we didn't exactly take a straight path to get here. The math checks out, we traveled at 960 times the speed of light, crossing four hundred and fifteen lightyears. Now, if we had a more straight path we could have cut a few lightyears off that, saving us some time. However, it's not an optimal route, it will still take several months to travel from Anchorage to the edge of the Deep Storm."

Greyman nodded, "Right, I think we can cut, what, a hundred lightyears?"

"Less, but close enough. I did the math, with the new route we charted, we should be able to do the trip in a little over four months, that's a round trip of nearly eight. Which might sound okay, unless we are trying to build a capital ship."

Misaki came over, "Yeah the numbers don't look pretty. Twenty million credits of materials and about two years of labor to build another Enterprise. We'll have about two million once we are done here. I don't think we can do it, not in the Storm."

Countryman nodded, "I'm inclined to say the same thing. Anchorage however could be a second basket. For much less effort, it would take a fraction of the material and we've already started. So I'm going to shelve building a second Enterprise until after we've got our material issues resolved. If our escape plan goes well, we can have that done in a few years."

Misaki sighed, "Yeah, but what are we even doing anymore? You heard the doctor."

Countryman sighed, "We may have lost one battle, but if we don't find a new home what will this all be for? What legacy would we leave behind?"

"Good point sir."

He changed the subject, "More immediately, now that the storm is clearing up a bit, we should get back out there and start mining again. We need those materials. More capital ships might not be in the cards, but those materials represent a lot of things we need."

"Sadly that doesn't include more clothing, my closet is looking pretty sad," commented Misaki.

"Well so is mine, we make do."

"I guess we do."

Ruri walked down the corridor, passing a pair of girls before taking a turn down a dimly lit corridor. She wanted to be in the lab at the moment, she had the time after all, Rose was babysitting little Rika. That helped a lot. She smiled at the thought, Rika was growing to be so cute! Maybe it was time for another? She was pretty sure Countryman wouldn't say no and they all knew the species needed more.

Maybe they wouldn't be human, but without a legacy would it really matter if humanity had lived? She thought not, the new species would still be related to mankind, only they would be better. Fewer in number, perhaps, and still on the verge of extinction, something they were going to have to fix. Ruri had every intention to do her part and when Rika was older, she'd encourage her to do hers. It certainly felt rewarding enough.

Some words drew her attention, "Got another in you already? How'd you manage that?"

A female voice giggled, "Oh that's easy, just drop my skirt, do a little dance. Gets my husband hot every time. It was really fun!"

"Well of course that worked for you, you've got great boobs, I'm flatter than a cutting board."

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"I'm sure the doctor can fix that for you, why not ask him for a little enhancement."

"Gawk! That... that's embarrassing!"

"Oh fine, I'll help you and it will only take a moment, a quick infusion of nanites, and then you wait. Two weeks later you'll have some nice boobs."

"But what about chaffing!? I don't own a bra."

"You can buy one."

"They're expensive, I don't want to put twenty credits down on a bra."

"Oh, come on you have to start somewhere, then again. If you were walking around naked, that just might help get his blood pumping."

Ruri frowned, her mind flashing to all those times Countryman would fix her outfit. Something suddenly clicked, her hand drifted to her belly, a warmth blooming there. She knew just how to get started on that next one.

In the meantime, she had something to get done. Reaching the end of the hall, she weaved past a few people and passed through the doors. A receptionist noted her entry, "Ruri, Chief Robins is expecting you."

"Wonderful, is he in his lab?"

"Yup, you know the way?"

"Been there before," she replied as she made her way past the counter and down the hall. Passing several nurses and a few doctors on her way to the stairwell. She went up a couple levels then down the hall to a pair of armored doors. A guard was standing there looking rather bored, an interesting feat given they were in full body armor that came complete with a helmet that concealed their face.

She barely said a word to them before heading inside. Robins was hunched over a table, the room was dark and full of medical equipment, giving it a strangely creepy vibe. You'd almost expect to see people hanging from the ceiling with some poor woman strapped to a table, her organs exposed as part of some mad experiment.

Thankfully for the crew of the Enterprise, Robin wasn't a mad doctor conducting horrific experiments in secret. Although he did have a lab that almost looked the part. "So what did you need me for?"

Robins looked up and smiled, "Glad you could make it, I wanted to give you another check up, last I checked, your body was still actively consuming your spleen."

"Well I feel fine, haven't noticed any ill effects."

"I doubt you would, my other cases show a new organ having taken over the function. Of course, in you we are seeing a lot of changes to the circulatory system."

She moved over to the empty table and hopped onto it. Robins came over as she settled to run the scan. "Well I have not noticed much, some weird bruising around my thighs and butt but it was gone by the time I got a medkit."

Robins nodded, and did another more focused check down there. After a moment he said, "Hmm, do you feel cold?"

"No, warm, why?"

"Your blood temperature is up twenty-nine degrees, but strangely your core temperature remains the same. I also can't find your spleen anymore, or any of your other vestigial organs. Hmm, seems that same organ I found in the captain is growing in you too, but I can't tell its function."

"Huh strange, but what's with the blood temperature?"

"Well look for yourself," he turned the screen, and pointed at something, "I'd say you aren't fully healthy at the moment. See your white blood cell count is also way up, and they are actively attacking this bacteria here. I think the temperature might be related, but if so this is the strangest fever response I've ever seen."

He pulled out a syringe, "I'm going to take a sample."

"So, um, about the bruising, thoughts?"

"Temporary internal bleeding, your veins in that area have restructured themselves. You have more of them, and they are typically thinner. Additionally, you no longer have one femoral artery, you have three."

"Strange."

"Nothing about this is normal. It certainly makes my job more interesting." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"I guess not," replied Ruri as she thought of Rika, "Now Rose was supposed to bring..."

"Your daughter? I saw her an hour ago, she's doing wonderfully. I don't have any major concerns, now she is growing a little slower than a child her age should, but she's far ahead on her mental metrics. I think most of the nutrients are going to her brain, she's a little genius."

Ruri puffed up, "She's my baby, of course she's a genius."

"Motherly pride aside, you might be right about that." He said while turning the scanner arm, "Now then, let's get to the other subject I wanted to talk about."

"Right, so what do you need?"

"A second opinion," he said pointing to something he just put on the monitor.

'I'm not the most versed on genetic science."

"No, but you've got a good head and learn fast. Not to mention I know you've been reading the medical library files lately."

"I... um, felt the need to..."

No need to defend yourself, now tell me what do you see?"

She frowned, "Um where did you get this sample, it doesn't look normal."

"I'll tell you later, now what do you see?"

"It's like the DNA is in a state of flux, that chromosome just flipped and did that one there just vanish?" she frowned, "Those chains look very unusual, I've not seen anything like it in the books."

He sighed, "Sounds like you see much of what I do, the mutations are getting faster and more complex. Yet when they manifest it's almost like some kind of intelligence is at work. I've been unpacking the Wovnar database for any insight I can find. Even their data doesn't shed light on this."

"It doesn't?"

"No, I've looked, but there may be something I missed."

Ruri shrugged, "Not really my field though, but I'll see if I cannot find someone to help."

"Right well, with all this new territory, I've been thinking about my lab setup. Do you think you can get me an AGI-enabled medical computer? I believe we will need the extra help now."

"Really?"

"You were at the meeting, it's not much of an issue now, but I find the gender skew highly concerning. Of course that got overshadowed by the mutation problem, but both of them are highly concerning. Even if the one has been largely beneficial, we can't ignore the risks it presents."

Ruri just nodded, he was right after all. Both were concerning, if for somewhat different reasons.