Futuristic Space: The Forgotten Frontier (IC) Part 1

[WanderingWordsmith]

Walker entered the room looking around. As soon as the chamber of time was unsealed the body laying on a bed next to the pod which resembled a life support pod of an unknown technology. He looked surveyed the area that was hidden away in the data nexus of the ship. Walker walked up to the terminal, he looked at all the data tapes. He picked one out. "Final Experiment." He looked at the terminal for a access port that would load the device. He let it play as he continued to look around his sensors picked up biomatter. He approached the suspension pod looking inside and seeing the body of a young female, blonde wearing only a utility flight suit. "Marvelous..." Was all he could manage to say. Looking back at the door he came from he wondered. "Bentus, what can you tell me about your previous crew?" Walker asked he wasn't expecting answers there were no real obligations but perhaps asking about the previous occupants of the living ship with body in a mysterious pod hidden within a hidden room. Perhaps Bentus would humor his curiosity. Too far out of range to send a radio message to his partner and mechanic. Walker would have to get information from the horse's mouth as humans like to say.

 

[Rcticwolf]

Walker entered the room looking around. As soon as the chamber of time was unsealed the body laying on a bed next to the pod which resembled a life support pod of an unknown technology. He looked surveyed the area that was hidden away in the data nexus of the ship. Walker walked up to the terminal, he looked at all the data tapes. He picked one out. "Final Experiment." He looked at the terminal for a access port that would load the device. He let it play as he continued to look around his sensors picked up biomatter. He approached the suspension pod looking inside and seeing the body of a young female, blonde wearing only a utility flight suit. "Marvelous..." Was all he could manage to say. Looking back at the door he came from he wondered. "Bentus, what can you tell me about your previous crew?" Walker asked he wasn't expecting answers there were no real obligations but perhaps asking about the previous occupants of the living ship with body in a mysterious pod hidden within a hidden room. Perhaps Bentus would humor his curiosity. Too far out of range to send a radio message to his partner and mechanic. Walker would have to get information from the horse's mouth as humans like to say.

“I don’t even know where your at…” she replied

The terminal played the data from the device.

—Recording playback “Day 38 of the unexpected contagion on board the ship… *cough* everything organic has either died *cough* or is dying.”

“Captain you need to rest, I am trying to find a cure” Bentus replied

“Bentus it’s alright, it’s not your fault, it’s mine *cough cough cough* I should have listened to you from the beginning.” The captain responded

“My final experiment is a body of my own making for Bentus, she has exhibited exceptional evolution while being my ships AI for the passed 37 years. *cough cough* but I have felt bad for her being stuck up here all alone while the crew takes trips down to planets. I’ve tried to teach her what it’s like to be human, but she was missing one key element, a body of her own to interact with the crew. *coughing fit*”

“Please, whoever finds this tell Bentus to initiate code 31174 and set her free” the captain begged.

“Bentus? *cough*”

“Yes captain?” She asked

“Are the biomass storage contaminated?” He asked

“No, the seeds and livestock embryos are unaffected by this contagion” she replied

“Good, seal this room, make sure the contagion never gets in, keep the pod in suspension so she never grows until your ready and purge the ship of organic matter…” he ordered

“But Captain I can’t do that, my job is to protect the crew” she protested

“Bentus, initiate contamination protocol 3952, and code 7995” he ordered

“Order confirmed, initiating ship purge, robotic units set to exterminate remaining crew and animals, harvesters destroying crops, sealing Data Nexus antechamber and removing all memory of the following events, good bye captain” Bentus replied

“I shall miss you my girl, I had wanted you to experience how to be human by making you a part of my family, my wife and daughter were excited to meet you. *coughing fit* but I will now never give you that chance, but maybe someone else can…” — the captain stated before he stopped the recording and removed the disk


The suspension pod just sat there unopened, the girl inside seemingly frozen in time.

 

[Gears]

Eddie and the crew waited for whatever Walker was doing, before he paused- the communications array had received something- wasn’t that disassembled according to the Engineers? Eddie took a second and slipped away, grabbing his Zero-Atmos, a helmet that allowed him to work without oxygen before heading into the sealed room. He could ask Walker about Bentus later- right now he had to investigate the coms. Eddie opened his tool kit as he got to work- if he missed the departure that would be fine, they would manage.

 

[Gears]

Eddie sat at the terminal, checking the meter on his life support system- the room didn’t have any atmosphere so he wouldn’t have long- maybe an hour. Eddie finally managed to restore power to the coms system, he could tell it was advanced, whoever had built Bentus had been advanced- enough to reach distress calls from light years away. Eddie couldn’t pinpoint the exact location of the call, but he found a series of files that had been attached to the distress call, along with a message- partially damaged by the long distance, and some kind of issues.

“This is Doctor Drake Richards, I am a scientist for- ERROR- Things- are Fucked. We lost contact with Echo Base and- They have taken over the West and North Colonys. We have sent for -ERROR-. God, what have we done.”

Eddie scanned through any database he had access to for this Doctor Richards, but he couldn’t find anything- the man was a ghost. After a second he searched for Echo Base, but he didn’t have enough information to find anything. Whenever this was sent, a file was attached- the author had added their entire DataDisk, a common possession of major companies and their employees. The majority was encrypted or Redacted, but Eddie could find travel Records to a far off colony, Genesis- No records of it anywhere.

After a second, Eddie could find a gallery of images taken following the arrival, the place looked nice, with standard Colonization structures, Eddie ignored these images until he found footage of something, an image everyone knew about, something that haunted Anti-Dolan Posters- The Obelisk, the thing that had caused The Cosmic Storms and Rifts- and there it was, in a clean lab, Labrats caged before it.

 

[WanderingWordsmith]

There was something to say about the ingenuity of the ship. The civilization that built Bentus was quite advanced, and they still succumbed to the mortality of organic lifeforms. A viral contagion could indeed wipe out an entire planet if given the opportunity. It reminded Walker of his position, being an inorganic lifeform he didn't feel the same problems. The scientist from the video clearly cared deeply for Bentus. Which conflicted Walker in his decision, his logic center presented arguments for both. "Well, looks like we are in quite the position." He said loading another data tape to listen to the next recording. He walked over to the preservation pod and looked over the body. "On one hand I could awaken her and it would probably fine..." He speculated. "Then again she could wake up and murder us all." he shrugged pacing around in the hidden room. He concluded he would keep this new information under the wraps for the time being. Wanting to figure out what Bentus does know.

"Bentus can you tell me anything about your design purpose?" He asked there were some unanswered questions about the entire situation. But at the very least, there may be some insight in Bentus's memory or possibly the logs he discovered. Walker would have to keep the room hidden from the rest of the crew until he could determine that hey could come up with a plan. He didn't want to awaken Bentus until it was safe to allow her to take over the body within the hidden room. This also included their return humans wouldn't pass up a chance to cut it apart and figure out the anatomy through deception and destruction. He was certain everyone he was travelling with wouldn't be interested causing Bentus or the passenger harm, but the people who would were all above their paygrade and not one of them could be trusted. He decided to bring the captain and Eddie into the situation. The rest would have to be told at a later time. "Eddie are you on this radio channel I need a little favor." Walker said over the radio. "Can you get us on a secure line with the captain? There's been a development." Walker said leaving it vague enough to garner interest.

 

[Rcticwolf]

There was something to say about the ingenuity of the ship. The civilization that built Bentus was quite advanced, and they still succumbed to the mortality of organic lifeforms. A viral contagion could indeed wipe out an entire planet if given the opportunity. It reminded Walker of his position, being an inorganic lifeform he didn't feel the same problems. The scientist from the video clearly cared deeply for Bentus. Which conflicted Walker in his decision, his logic center presented arguments for both. "Well, looks like we are in quite the position." He said loading another data tape to listen to the next recording. He walked over to the preservation pod and looked over the body. "On one hand I could awaken her and it would probably fine..." He speculated. "Then again she could wake up and murder us all." he shrugged pacing around in the hidden room. He concluded he would keep this new information under the wraps for the time being. Wanting to figure out what Bentus does know.

"Bentus can you tell me anything about your design purpose?" He asked there were some unanswered questions about the entire situation. But at the very least, there may be some insight in Bentus's memory or possibly the logs he discovered. Walker would have to keep the room hidden from the rest of the crew until he could determine that hey could come up with a plan. He didn't want to awaken Bentus until it was safe to allow her to take over the body within the hidden room. This also included their return humans wouldn't pass up a chance to cut it apart and figure out the anatomy through deception and destruction. He was certain everyone he was travelling with wouldn't be interested causing Bentus or the passenger harm, but the people who would were all above their paygrade and not one of them could be trusted. He decided to bring the captain and Eddie into the situation. The rest would have to be told at a later time. "Eddie are you on this radio channel I need a little favor." Walker said over the radio. "Can you get us on a secure line with the captain? There's been a development." Walker said leaving it vague enough to garner interest.

“I was created as a vestige of my people, to be a trader between the Bentusi and the rest of the sentient space faring civilizations in my galaxy” she replied

 

[Gears]

Eddie shook his head, saving the field and begging to run them through some of his decryption program, affixing a data collection nexus before he began to exit the room, receiving a communication from the advanced radio he carried- he debated reporting his findings after Walker spoke, but he didn’t know anything about what he had come across, for now he would keep it to himself.

“Com received, I will open a channel. Captain, this is Ship Engineer Gears- VIP requesting private channel, isolate if need be.”

The Captain shrugged before stepping into one of the smaller rooms in the hanger, likely a control room for this area, before responding.

“Walker, what have you found- any developments with the ship?”