//------------------------------// // Chapter III // Story: The Nautilus Protocol // by Knight Breeze //------------------------------// Chapter III Jaleth was the model of clinical detachment as she watched the test subjects continue their back breaking work. She and the other Dridune guards had been standing there for hours, just watching as the test subjects broke apart the asteroid fragments with their tools. Every so often, one would find a precious Givlong stone and deposit it into the chutes for processing down below. It was incredibly boring, and most of the guards took bets on who would nod off first. Jaleth wasn't one of them however. Jaleth couldn't possibly fall asleep in the middle of all of this. Right in front of her she was witnessing the creation of the fabled Psystones. While the process to create these stones were still a mystery to her, she had been able to catch a glimpse of their construction here and there throughout the station. The Psystones were the key. A Psystone, once implanted into the skull of a Dridune, allowed the Dridune to harness their dormant psychic powers and become living weapons. It took training to become that though. The Dridune brain, while already somewhat psychic, naturally rejected the idea of using the mind as a weapon. From what Jaleth was able to gather, It was supposedly a self-preservation instinct, hardwired into their brains. It was based on the fact that they could become trapped within another's psyche, and die at the hands of their personal demons. Because of this fact, the Dridune's natural telepathy could only broadcast thoughts. In fact, the Dridune had no spoken language. Instead, they were able to broadcast their thoughts, feelings and desires to others, which were automatically translated by the brain of the receiver. Sure they had ears (ear-holes really), and could eventually learn the languages of the other sapient species of the universe given time. But they had no means to actually speak those other languages, nor did they have the ability to hear thoughts without the aid of Psystones. It took twenty years for a Psywarrior to overcome this instinct. Of those that were able to do this, only 1% of them survived the personal demons of their instructors. Those that did survive, however, took another twenty years to learn the various techniques of Psycombat. On top of all of this time, it was also hideously expensive to train Psywarriors, with the Psystones themselves costing thousands of quads to produce alone, and that didn't even count the fact that Givlong was exceptionally rare. All of these fact had piled themselves in front of the emperor, becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. However, he loved his Psywarriors deeply, as they were the only reason why the Dridune Empire covered such a huge quadrant of space. A single Psywarrior could conquer an entire planet by himself, crushing any resistance and turning the inhabitants into the mindless slaves of the empire. It came to no surprise, then, that the emperor was more than pleased at the proposition his scientists had given him. They had asked the question “what if?” What if the self-preservation instinct training only took a quarter of the time? They were convinced that the secret to all of their problems was locked in the genetic code of the other sapient species of the universe (along with several other much desired traits). They had theorized that it was the destiny of the Dridune to incorporate all of the most desired traits of the different species of the universe into themselves, and become something more. The believed that they could turn their species into a race of gods. That was the purpose of the test subjects. Sure they were cheap labor, but they were also the guinea pigs of the scientists aboard the mining station. They were here to turn the already deadly Dridune into the ultimate life-form. All of these sapient beings, male and female, had been taken from their home worlds and spirited away to this station. Here they were drugged, forced into slave labor, examined, tested, probed, vivisected, and eventually killed and dissected. All for the glory of the great Dridune Empire, and her ageless, nearly godlike Emperor. Jaleth hated it. Every waking moment she prayed to Baznalt to put a stop to this madness, and every night she dreamed about taking apart this hideous, bloated empire brick by brick. It was either that dream, or it was the nightmare where she saw each of these people vivisected in front of her, screaming and pleading for her to do something. They haunted her, but she was unable to do anything yet. Her superiors at Galactic Alliance Headquarters had stressed to her the importance of her maintaining her cover, despite the lose of innocent life. She understood that more lives were at stake, that her mission here was vital to toppling the Dridune Empire, but those thoughts didn't stop the nightmares. Nor did she think that that knowledge would bring any sort of peace to the families that these people had left behind. “Captain Clysoth, I need another test subject for my experiments,” a thought came through the communication device at her hip. Dejectedly, she reached down and pressed the send button. “Which one did you have in mind?” she thought back. A picture of a light purple, horned equine came through the Psytransceiver. “She needs to be in Vivisection Lab Three as soon as possible." Jaleth looked around, quickly locating the strange, yet cute little alien. The creature was busy pulling a cart full of asteroid fragments towards the end of the yard where they were broken apart, completely oblivious to Jaleth's searching gaze. It was odd how closely she resembled the species of ponies that hailed from her home world of Earth, though there were some obvious differences. Her head and eyes were bigger for example, and her forelegs seemed to posses a startling degree of dexterity and flexibility. She was also very brightly colored. Not to mention that she also had a horn growing out of the top of her head. Jaleth wondered to herself how a species that brightly colored could have survived long enough to invent tools. Maybe they're poisonous. Or maybe they're trying to appear poisonous, Jaleth thought to herself. Shaking her head slightly, she tried to force down her growing curiosity. Getting curious would only make what was about to happen even harder, and she couldn't risk exposing herself. At least, not yet. With a determination that she did not feel, Jaleth walked over to the cute purple unicorn-thing and called to it. “Come with me.” The purple equine looked up, then proceeded to unhitch itself from the cart. Did she just...? No, the drugs in her body prevents all independent thought, Jaleth shook her head ruefully at that thought, then took a look at the equine's coller, just to be sure... Yep it was still blinking, so there was no way that she had just seen fear in those large purple eyes. Then why did the unicorn thing seem nervous as she followed? Maybe it was Jaleth's mind playing tricks on her, but it seemed like the unicorn was nervous. ...It was probably just my imagination, she reasoned with herself. Shaking herself from her reverie, she approached the door that lead to the Vivisection labs. She let her breath out in an explosive sigh, then looked down at the young unicorn-thing. The unicorn just continued to stare at the door, waiting for further instruction with a blank look on her face. “I don't know if you can understand what I'm telling you,” she thought at the purple unicorn sadly. “But I'm sorry for this. I wish I could stop what is about to happen, but I can't act. Not yet, at least. Maybe if something changes, I'll be able to stop all of this madness. But until that happens my hands are tied.” The unicorn only looked at her blankly. For a second there, Jaleth could have sworn that she had seen something in its eyes. Sadness? Fear? Understanding? ...She wasn't sure. The look was gone almost as soon as she had spotted it, lost as a look of blank incomprehension quickly overtook the pony's features. Oh well, better get this messy business over with, she thought to herself. She reached over and scanned her stolen key card over the terminal. Buzzing loudly, the door hissed as it slid sideways to reveal Vivisection Lab Three. The laboratory was white and sterile. Bright white light gleamed from the movable lamps overhead, while four computer consoles surrounded an operating table in the center. Above the table, Jaleth could see dozens of mechanical arms suspended from a large apparatus that hung from the ceiling. Each of the gleaming metal arms had some sort of tool attached at the end, some being lasers, others being claws or clamps, while a few held a needle. Most, however, held some kind of blade. At each of the consoles there stood a waiting Dridune scientist, their disgusting tentacled faces twitching in excitement for what was about to happen. Jaleth wasn't sure why they always seemed excited before each of these things, she personally only felt sick about what she knew was going to be a horrific experience. They always insisted that she be present for each one, and it never got any easier. She had mastered several mental techniques to help her cope, but all they did for her was stave off the horror until she could safely scream her terror in the safety of her own bedroom. She looked down at the purple unicorn. “Get on the table.” She ordered the pony. Silently, she screamed at herself to put an end to this. Come on! It would be so easy! Just draw your blaster, take aim at that slimy Qualda guy, and put an energy round through his head! However, she did not heed her mind as the purple unicorn approached the table, and, with some difficulty, got on top of it. For probably the thousandth time since she had been posted on this cesspit called a station, she wished that she hadn't gotten such high marks in her espionage classes back at the academy. She wished again that the doctor responsible for her genetic mutation into a Dridune had messed up, and that she had died in that vat of goo. Once again, she wished that her superior had not died, forcing her to take her place as the undercover agent. But all of her wishes could not change the fact that she was helping the enemy torture and slaughter innocents, no matter how subversive she might be about it. No matter what information she was leaking back to headquarters, she still had the blood of the innocent on her hands. No amount of good that she ever did here would remove that stain. The only thought that allowed her to continue with her current course was the knowledge that with her help, this sick and twisted excuse of a nation would finally be brought to its knees. If she still had lips, she would have smiled at the thought. However, the happy feeling was doomed to die as she watched the innocent, cute, purple, unicorn-thing stand on the table, ready to have her insides removed for all present to see. Jaleth couldn't look away. It was something that she swore that she would never do. She would remember each victim's face each time they went under that horrible machine. It was her own personal way of honoring these innocent lives. By remembering what had happened, she hoped to one day bring justice to the depraved souls that had caused such an evil to exist. It made her hate herself even more, and it made the nightmares increasingly worse, but she could not show cowardice to these poor souls. The lead scientist, Qualda by name, walked up to the purple unicorn and started to mind-speak to the whole room at this point. “Sit,” he told the unicorn in a dismissive tone of thought. Quickly the unicorn followed his instruction and sat on its haunches. “We have a very rare specimen before us today,” Qualda said to his colleagues. “Not only is this a sapient quadruped, but her race also has become the dominant, tool wielding species of her planet. How is this possible you might ask? She doesn't even have opposable thumbs! Her mouth seems to be her only apparent method of manual manipulation, and her garish coloration would make her species an easy mark for predators. However, we have recorded several instances of her species enacting some weird form of clinging effect on the bottom of their hooves, allowing them to pick up objects as easily as any of the other tool wielding species would.” Well that answers that question, Jaleth thought to herself. Yet opens so many others... “However, this is not all,” Qualda continued, completely unaware of Jaleth's inner monologue. “We have also witnessed several instances of telekinesis from this species, as well as several other strange phenomenon that we cannot account for or explain. Since her home world sits well inside Galactic Alliance protected space, our spy ship was only able to collect a few photos and video files, as well as collect our current specimen, before it would attract the attention of a galactic patrol ship. Therefore, the data we have on this species is quite limited. Also security has increased in that quadrant since our ship made its pick-up, making it infeasible to collect any more.” “However, we have this one specimen. If we are able to unlock the potential of her telekinesis and apply it to our own genetic code, I foresee our soldiers easily wiping out the Galactic Alliance within a few short months. In addition, this telekinesis may also be the key to fully unlocking our own psychic potential! However, all this is merely speculation until we examine our specimen more... fully...” At this, all of the scientists started to hiss evilly, a Dridune's rough approximation to a cackle. They were very... eager... to begin the operation, and no prayer that Jaleth said could hope to stop the sadistic actions of the individuals in this room. “Begin preparing the specimen for vivisection!” Qualda thought out loud to the room. Jaleth turned back to the purple unicorn, sorrow filling her eyes. Well, here we go again, she thought hopelessly to herself. “Fenris, Et UNLALDA?!?” the unicorn screamed at the scientist next to her. Jaleth could feel her jaw drop at the sound of the unicorn's distressed voice. It had a young, intelligent, feminine, almost musical quality to it. The voice also revealed that the unicorn was very, very afraid. She's conscious! Jaleth thought to herself in shock. “Captain! The subject is not sedated! Quickly stun her before this gets out of hand!!” Jaleth quickly reached for her pistol. Not to stun the unicorn, but to blast the scientist in front of her. She wasn't even fully aware that that was her intention. It was just a simple fact that, after months spent undercover among the nearly silent Dridune, the sound of someone talking had woken up something inside Jaleth. Something that she had buried deep inside of her a long time ago. However, before Jaleth could actually pull the pistol from its holster, the unicorn closed her eyes and scrunched her face up in a look of extreme concentration as the unicorn's horn started to glow with a pale lavender color. Without any further warning, the unicorn vanished in a bright flash of purple light, leaving behind nothing but her empty orange jumpsuit, and the metal collar she had worn around her neck. The collar seemed to fall in slow motion, finally landing with a loud metallic clang on the operating table.