A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

"Complete neural system override?"

<Correct.>

"Come on 'lith, not even a Master Telepath can preform such a complete override, not on me. Not in that short of time." Snowaters was scared, scared so badly she'd sent Yuki and the Gray alien Rita off in the Star Diamond. 'To study how Yuki's planet was growing.' Make-work, and she knew the plant-girl was aware of it. Still they'd be gone a week or more, if she was lucky time enough to find some defense. Settling back into her couch the small woman shivered again. "I was 'there' 'lith. I knew who I was, I knew I had important things to do... But it seemed so very far away.... It was like looking through a clouded window. I just couldn't do anything."

<Correct. Analyze what. We have. Learned.>

"Your right, get to work, steady my nerves... Damn, I LIKE her 'lith, she's nice company even if she is a clumsy lover. Still, I can't let her get near the important people in my life. Not until we know how to control that power of hers." Taking a settling breath she touched the air, a huge flat-panel screen phased into being. "Okay. She see's in the infra-red, the DEEP infrared. She can also detect radio waves within a specific, limited kilohertz range. Then there's that second brain of hers... What would a lifeform that small need with a second brain, and such a sensitive nervous system?"

"Yeah, lets." Standing abruptly, Snowaters headed for the Science Stations main holodeck. Behind her the screen vanished back into the holo-particles it came from. "Load in what we know about her senses" she ordered as she half walked, half ran the hundred or so meters. "I'll guess from there." Three minutes later she stood by the opening doors, rushing in as they gave minimum clearance.

She entered darkness, real darkness. The kind you wake up to from a dead sleep. The kind that weighs down on you, crushing you back into bed. She started sweating immediately, both from stress, and heat. "Infrared sun, I expected that" she whispered to herself, scanning the skies. Nothing, just darkness. "Dust cloud, new or old star?" she asked.

<Old. Her evolution. Is Too Advanced. For A New Starfield.>

"That really cuts it down, give me some light, this is eery." A tiny point of light appeared near her, orientating her to the 'landscape.' "Sand?"

She stepped forward, her feet sliding on the slick surface. Playing a balancing act she slid several feet, finally coming to a stop by grabbing a smooth rock. "Nothing really abrasive? No animals yet, no plants. Delicate digestion so we're looking at long and over cultivated plants, succulents maybe..." Low thornless plants suddenly appeared, deep black from what little she could discern in the dim light. "What about buildings? Glass maybe?"

<Metal. Possibly. Living. All samples you found. Indicate an extreme. High level. Of technology.>

"Fine, build a town with that."

Domed buildings drifted into being. "Where did those designs come from?" she asked, looking around at the delicate, almost flying fairy towers surrounding her.

<Database. Small delicate. Races generally. Have such. And artwork. From her Earths. Historical archives.>

"Radio might be a way to 'see' the sun then... But why? The ultra-sensitive skin, to feel their environment... Must be boring living in a place like this."

"Check the archives. See if there is anything we've found near this." She sat down, absently pulling a holo-plant from the ground. "Those brilliant lights their ships are reported to have, it isn't for ultraviolet or normal light, it's for the infrared. Lights that bright are hot, and if you can't see a spectrum, you don't care if it's spilling over. Like I ignore most infrared and some ultraviolet. But I still can't... That patch on her stomach, I wonder."

<What>

"You live in this kind of dull environment, you need some way to... to find and teach your children. Without space technology, and as energy poor as a planet this class would be... a way to transmit information one to one, or one to a group. I notice almost no visible weather change."

"In and out 'lith... That makes sense then, she hasn't regained her power she's FOCUSED it! Damn, two of her kind must have to mate for life, they couldn't exist apart once they'd focused on each other. She's been around me long enough to adapt. And a steady environment means no axial tilt, no extreme seasons."

<Perhaps. No seasons as. You understand. Them. Can you. Adapt your. Protection.>

"Sure, just give me a new brain pattern. That, or reflect it back. Maybe we can design something to absorb her transmissions, only let a little through."

"No data? From you? You mean there isn't enough information? Or... You can't find such a star."

"I'm all ears."

Suddenly the sky brightened, looking up Snowaters found herself staring at a huge gas giant less than a million miles away.

"Well I'll be.... And no moon either, it would have been sucked in as fast as it was created. That things got the mass of what, four, five Jupiter's? But no other stars or planets? Interstellar space, or a dust cloud."

Snowaters looked around at the suddenly illuminated scene. "I can't think of a more boring place to evolve, strange it isn't tidal locked."

<Rotational. Aspects are. Difficult to. Ascertain in. Such systems.>

"They couldn't have invented a space program, and certainly never an interstellar ship. They were found then, but by who?"

<Unknown. Requires backtracking. And investigation. Of her universe. Data too incomplete. For remote search.>

Snowaters grimaced. At over a thousand years old she was easily able to handle a research project such as Kalith suggested. But the Drith we're less than a hundred years away and her children were growing up so fast. "Can we remote it" she asked.

<Negative. Too many. Variables.>

"I'm not abandoning my children for three hundred or more years silicon head. Give me another option."

She blinked, surprised. "Decant a clone and send her out to search... Why didn't I think of that? We haven't done that in, oh seven hundred years or so.” She stood slowly, the scene around her fading away as she gained her footing. Soon she was again walking on plas-steel decking. "Brief Five-Alpha and decant her. I'll meet her in an hour. I need something in my stomach."

Almost an hour later she walked back to the huge stations medical lab, absently palming open a hidden doorway Snowaters walked into a never spoken of chamber. Thousands of 'cloning tubes' lined the walls, old friends, loves, she giggled as she passed the twin Grays. What would Rita think if she knew what she had planned for those two re-engineered women. Finally she stopped next to a large bathtub. Within, still scrubbing chemical residue off, was herself.

"I'll want our children" the second woman said, not even looking up. "'Lith, you better give me a ship like theirs, and Aries & Kela...."

"Get on it then."

<Acknowledged.>

She stopped her scrubbing, looking up, into her own eyes. "We've never done anything like this. Your still Prime understand? I don't mind being 'expendable, but we have to settle it now, and your already involved... Your prime. She stood, grabbing a large towel to dry herself. "Without Kalith it'll be rough, we've grown to depend on it."

"I know. But we have a good choice of crew to play with, and it doesn't matter who's Prime. We're both real.""

"Right" nodded the second Snowaters. "No argument there. Aries and Kela are unbeatable for piloting skills, Eve and Dawn, I'm not sure why but I want them. What about Kena?"

"We've only the two clones right now, she's damn hard to keep viable."

"I'll need her and that mind of hers."

"You'll Want Krystal too, their inseparable."

"Even when they don't know the other exists. Strange symbioses." The second Snowaters nodded in agreement, tossing her towel aside. "Aries, Kela, Eve, Dawn, Kena and Krystal. A good crew, an odd number to keep from having any stalemate. All I could wish for would be Opal. What about that contract pilot... and.... Are we sure we want to toss our non-involvement rule out the window? It makes for a dangerous precedent."

"After a thousand years, after all we've tried."

"And failed, and lost."

"Yes. Opal.... It's time we tried something new. I'm not sure you'll want the pilot, she's a strange mind."

"All right. I agree, I just wanted to make certain we understood. No Grays?"

"Too dangerous, I'll have enough trouble controlling Rita here. Adding two Grays would be screaming for failure until we know how they work, and how to protect ourselves from them. There's just so much we don't know, so much we've guessed at."

"Right. A brown star with a habitable planet, maybe two brown stars. Either in a dust cloud or deep interstellar space as well, at least far enough from any stellar objects to have kept standard vision from being primarily selected. When we pick a problem, it's never an easy one."

"We'd never like the easy ones."

"Your right." Suddenly the second Snowaters reached out, pulling the other hard against her, crushing their lips together for long minutes. Finally breaking away she reached behind the original Snowaters, touching a clasp. Starsilk fell softly to the deck. "Now shut up, there's a lot of work to do in a very few days, and this is something we've needed for a long long time."

~to be continued?~