Tales From The Edge: Emergence by Stephen Gaskell & Tomas L. Martin & Andrew Everett

Author:Stephen Gaskell & Tomas L. Martin & Andrew Everett [Gaskell, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Spiral Arm Studios
Published: 2016-09-29T23:00:00+00:00

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The Hagfish powered towards the cybel gate at a steady one gravity acceleration. Captain Wei’s right arm was bandaged and sealed in a polymer casing, the nerve endings at the amputation site being stimulated and tissue fed to ensure that it would be ready to accept a prosthesis when one could be found. The entire crew, excepting Effron, was gathered around their stolen cargo. Markett had removed one of the canisters from its casing, and Gweid watched in fascination as Markett ran scans on it with a number of instruments.

“Gweid, ready the dolphin please,” Markett asked as he set the canister in a cradle he’d rigged up on a makeshift workbench. Gweid hadn’t done anything particularly useful with the dolphin during the battle, but the crew encouraged him to keep using the device. He was still shaken up, and found the dolphin soothing in a way that Orich, for all his trying, couldn’t match.

Markett finished setting the canister the way he wanted. “Make sure the dolphin is set to scan, then run a shallow scan of the canister please.”

Gweid double-checked the dials on the wand, carefully pointed it at the canister, and pulled the trigger. Mostly the dolphin was silent, but sometimes slid from ultrasonic into the human range of hearing. After a few seconds, an LED flashed, indicating that the scan was finished. Markett showed Gweid how to interpret the readout that the wand projected, not that Gweid understood much of it.

Orich watched over Markett’s shoulder as he continued testing with other instruments, making notes of what he saw. Finally, he turned to the group. “It’s organic, prokaryotic, and kind of sludgy. Other than that, I can’t tell you much for sure.”

“Orich?” Captain Wei asked.

“Seems to be an anaerobic bacteria of some sort. The sonar revealed a more solid substrate, most likely a culture for the bacteria. Doubt that it’s going to last all that long.”

“What’s it do?” Gweid found himself asking.

“We have no way of finding out, and we are not going to try,” Captain Wei stared at the canister. “At Ananzim’s, there are people who can.”

Markett carefully took the canister and packed it in its original container as the rest of the crew walked back to the central access ladder. Gweid was careful to not look Ubue in the face. She’d been short-tempered since the firefight, and her glare was worse than a tongue lashing.

“Orich, what do you think it does?” Gweid asked, pausing to look back at Markett.

“If it’s secret, it’s bad. Could be a weapon, could be worse.”

Gweid looked wide-eyed at Orich. “What’s worse?”

“Something that builds.”

Orich managed to show he was grinning behind his thick beard. “Don’t worry. Ananzim’s is full of tales like that. I’ll tell you a few.”

“Is that where we’re headed next?” Gweid sounded eager.

“Let’s check the CO2 scrubbers,” said Orich, still grinning.

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