Crystal Star

by MaxFlames

Crystal Star Ch5: Sweater

{April 3st, 2015, United States of America, 11:20am}

Bradford waited impatiently outside of the Commanders office, with a pile of papers in his hands, and he looked pissed. The Commander checked his clock and hoped he would leave soon. He has been in front of the commander’s office for nearly three hours by this point. He finally gave in and stepped out to get to eat something.

“Commander, Sir, would you care to know about what happened to my office. Cause there is no way you would allow what happened to happen if you knew about it.” Bradford said passive aggressively, as any other form would give him the possibility of a court martial.

“Well Bradford, feel free to evict our new guest if you feel so strongly about it.” The Commander said as he began to walk faster to try to lose him.

“Alright then, I will.” Bradford said, keeping up with the Commander, trying to continue the conversation.

“Oh? Then how do you plan to do that without killing it? It has unique abilities that may not be functional after death, and there was only one spotted at all, so we might never see another.” The Commander said with a stiff smile, as they both got into an elevator. The commander could already tell this was going to be a long day.

“Oh… umm… so is it just going to be stuck in my office till the war is over?”

“No, Vahlen is making something to help with it’s transport.”

“You mean she is designing it, right”

“...”

“She is only designing it, right?”

The elevator stops as a more tired than normal Vahlne runs in with something that looked like a medieval torture device in her arms. “Finally got it working!” She said too enthusiastically to be natural, like she was forcing herself to not scream at it.

“Dear lord in heaven she made it herself” Bradford said under his breath as they both stepped out. When they got to the office hallway, Lawrence was the first to see them, and made the sign of the cross over his chest when he saw the “Collar"

“Wow,” Bens said as he saw the thing, “Starting to think you should have taken your shot Lawrence. Death might be preferable to that thing.”

“That thing might be a creation of evil aliens, and is most likely one as well, but it has my sympathy today” Lawrence said, shivering as he did.

“Ok, we are a secret force to fight aliens and it's more the Geneva suggestion up in here but even I draw the line at this.” Jerry said, with Vahlen begging to mumble in annoyance.

“Vahlen, please don’t tell me you added stuff onto it to use to interrogate it.” Salanda said, the device reminding her of a heretics fork, an old slave collar and a neck torture device, all of which she was shown in a museum just before the war.

“Look, we need a way to get it to cooperate with us moving it, and this will work to do that” Vahlen said with a yawn. Lawrence looked back into the room with the creature, and remembered the test and the apples.

I can’t believe I’m doing this, he thought as he spoke out. “Um, how about we use the thing if it doesn’t cooperate.” He said, as everyone looked at him like he was the alien in the base.

"And how exactly are we supposed to put it on if the alien is being uncooperative? I’m sure the Commander wi-”

“I agree with Lawrence,” The Commander said, glad someone else said something about it, “But, since he was the one to come up with this plan, he has to handle it”

God damn it, Lawrence thought to himself as he realized what he had to do. He grabbed an Arc Thrower and opened up the office door, as everyone saw the creature curled up like a cat, while on a green sweater. Bradford looked more annoyed at this.

“I wonder, why does this creature seem to have small similarities to cats?” Vahlen said as she scribbled something onto a paper and passed it to Shen.

“No idea, but that isn’t important now.” Lawrence said as he picked up a broom handle from a nearby closet, and poked it. It yawned as it looked up at him, as it seemed confused. “Um, what do I do now?” He asked, as everyone shrugged, “Great.” He motioned for it to follow him, and surprisingly it got up and began to follow him, though it looked confused as they walked. The other soldiers stood behind it, and had their hands near their weapons if anything were to happen. Everyone else was behind the soldiers, and keeping a close eye on it.

“Lawrence is a horse whisper confirmed!” Jerry said as he followed close behind.

“If you say that again I’ll sick it on you” Lawerence replied jokingly, as they arrived at the empty room that was being designated Sunset Containment. “... Why is it called that of all things?”

“Until we have a better name for the creature, this room and all of our tests are going under the project id Sunset Glimmer.” The Commander said, causing everyone to look at him funny.

“...Why?”

“That’s what the random name generator came up with.”

Lawrence opened up the room, and the room was mostly barren, though there was a makeshift bed in the corner made from some towels and a pillow, with a blanket next to it.

“Well, this doesn’t look secure” Lawrence said.

“We didn’t have time for many modifications after the destruction of the interrogation chamber, though I assure you it has ways to “handle” the creature if it tries to get out.”

Sehn stepped inside the room and placed down a pile of papers, some crayons, and a bowl of apples.

“Shen,” Vahlen started, as she pinched the bridge of her nose, “are you trying to make this a daycare?”

“It has already shown the ability to write and draw, and I felt it would be best to provide it with the resources to do so. As for the Apples, I feel it better to get it on a schedule for its food, rather than have it asking at random times. So, in that vein, I’m going to bring in a bowl of apples every noon or so.”

The creature steps inside the room, and looks around. It spotted the paper and it’s horn began to glow, as a piece was surrounded by the energy, as well as one of the crayons. It quickly drew a picture of a book, and then carefully drew the word apple onto it. It then levitated the paper to Lawrence.

“It seems to really like apples.” Ben said, as Lawrence looked down at the paper, and passed it to Vahlen, who began to walk away. “Hey, where are you going, Vahlen?”

“I’m going to run some tests on this paper to try to identify how it just did that.” Vahlen said with a yawn.

“Alright then. Now, until we can get a group of dedicated guards, you four will continue to keep watch on our “Guest” in shifts. I would have more security, but given its appearance and it’s capabilities, I need to screen everyone before they are turned into dedicated security for this project. Can’t have anyone running away with it or shooting it under the guise of “Saving Humanity” unnecessarily. ” The Commander said.

Jerry began to argue, “Seriously? What about our training regiments! I need to keep going after that last mis-”

“All of you will receive combat pay for your houses guarding it”

“I call first shift” Jerry said excitedly, which got a light snicker from the Commander.

“Lord give me strength. Look, I will take either missions or guard duty, but not both” Lawrence said, annoyed at the extra load of work he seemed to be assigned too.|

“I think I would be better focusing on guarding this thing, and miss out on missions where I’m able to.” Bens said, seeming to be in a similar boat to Lawrence.

Salanda laughed, “You know, I’m sticking with Jerry this time and doing both. With all that extra money I could buy myself a nice house once the war is over.”

“In that case, Lawrence will be relieved of Guard duties, Bens from normal operations unless we do not have the manpower for them, and Jerry and Salanda will be doing both.” The Commander said, and that was it for that conversation. Lawrence got up and left for the barracks, and the Commander, Bradford, and Shen went back to their work.

nt back to their work.

Author's Note:

Ya, so I'm already nearly out of my chapters, so uploads might slow down in the next few weeks.

Comments

[Joe Toon]

Interesting. The Administration will continue to observe this reality.

[MaxFlames]

11111780
{Seems we got some more attention then planned. Keep an eye on this Administration}

[Ariel Schnee]

Oh for Heaven's sake...

It's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th now.

You are obviously not American, because this is something that's taught in Kindergarten.

[Ariel Schnee]

11:20am

should be

11:20 AM

'AM', and 'PM', are always capitalized letters.

Also, always put a space between the last number and them.

[MaxFlames]

11127186
Ok, in my defense, I was focused on everything else, not the dates. I noticed that after the fact, and will fix then today or tomorrow, since I need to do some major edits to the chapter I was going to post