Defia's Dilemma

Defia was vaguely aware that the others were busy planning their next steps with the spies and the Durathisian rebel agent. It was certainly a good use of their time as far as keeping them away from her work, so she didn’t mind their absence; they were currently quite some time and several weave hops away from the lab, the rebel having been sent orders via Star Command to remain on Sola until a rendezvous could be made with another Earth vessel in roughly a month’s time.

It seemed that the agent had been tasked with helping Sol’s scientists go over the entirety of the information she’d leaked before the resistance needed her back, a very sensible idea in Defia’s opinion. Fabricating a new identity for the woman would take some time even for an efficient rebel cell, and in the interim she could do far more for their cause in one of the new council’s research facilities rather than just laying low in some backwater safehouse.

While the others were busy with that matter (and with Emely’s rapidly approaching birth which had maybe a month and a half left to go), Defia was left to her own devices. Rye had kindly loaned her the use of one of the engineering teams to help construct the clean room the rogue Fractal was currently working in; it’d been repurposed from a biology lab, mostly with electronic countermeasures against any risk of uncontrolled Fractal mass escaping.

The two cannisters sat on the table in front of her. It’d been over a week and scans of the interior showed that the material remained largely stable; the construction was solid and she’d been able to hook the one containing the production mass up to a nutrient tank after an entire afternoon of swearing at incompatible valve seals.

Now, her work was focused on the larger tank she was busily constructing. One advantage to the others not being around was that she didn’t feel constrained by a humanoid form; her body had grown a significant number of additional tendrils and limbs, looking more than a little like one of the more creative human drawings of an eldritch horror as she suspended panels, welded seams and carefully built the rather sizable fishbowl of reinforced glass and metal.

Her design was significantly more advanced than the primitive vats the Durathisians had used, or even the tanks her own kind had kept captives like Aricia in. That shouldn’t be surprising; one group lacked the technology, while the other lacked the creativity to truly design something like this, with multiple potential access points and options for manipulating whatever was contained within.

The only real issue she had with the entire thing was that she was constrained by the materials she had on hand. Ideally, she’d have used a Fractal composite for the main metalwork - but without the control of a cluster, she wasn’t convinced that doing so wouldn’t end up allowing the mass she intended to introduce as the tank’s prisoner to become one with it’s habitat and then spread out into the ship. So, basic metallurgy, with some suitable molecular adjustments here and there.

Stepping back and merging several of her tendrils into arms once more, Defia rested her hands on her hips and surveyed the device. It was about halfway done, which was within acceptable parameters. Her eyes flickered to the container holding the production mass. At this rate, she’d be done before it degraded beyond the usable range, which was good. She really should tell Dustin about what exactly she’d brought on board, but he was so busy and in any case would only worry… No, this required her attention alone for the time being. With a nod of her head, her arms exploded outward once more as she returned to work.

Defia had seemed increasingly off at dinner the previous week, and had gotten noticeably worse during the past couple of days despite claiming she was fine when asked. Dustin had been so busy with orders from Star Command and the back and forth with the Tho’unn spies and the Durathisian rebels in the days after leaving the lab that he’d not had any opportunity to follow up on it - but he’d at last managed to get an hour or so to himself and so was taking the time to go and speak with her in person before the group gathered for their evening meal. That way, if it was something she didn’t want to talk about in front of the others, she’d have a chance to discuss it with him alone and he could make plans to support her from there.

“Sola, locate Defia please” he said, stretching as he walked around the edge of the ready-room table. He was pretty sure where she’d be, but it was worth checking as he tapped the panel to open the door.

The answer came as he stepped into the corridor. “Defia is currently in a region my sensors are having difficulty scanning due to the enhanced anti-Fractal protections she and Rye have installed. Apologies for being imprecise, but you should be able to locate her around biolab nine.”

Dustin frowned. Rye had mentioned something about that, about the rogue Fractal going above and beyond in terms of the security she wanted installed before she tried looking at the Fractal mass they’d recovered from the Durathisian lab, but for it to be interfering with Sola was something else entirely. Without really meaning to, he found that he’d sped up, his footfalls striking the deckplate a little faster than he intended as he headed for the turbolift. It’d be fine, surely…

The door to the lab slid open to reveal another door further in, Dustin’s hair standing on end from the static in the air. The fact that this biolab had an airlock was hardly unique, even a couple of the botanical labs had them as a precaution, but the way in which the Rabyth and Fractal had primed this one with a low level electrical charge was not exactly a standard setup.

Inside, the lab had been completely remodelled. Most of the tables and seats had been removed, the water lines now fed through a series of drip valves to ensure no potential for backflow despite being connected to their own isolated tank in the first place, and the power to the area was arcing between two nodes in a vacuum chamber visible through a sheet of reinforced plate glass on one wall rather than being delivered by a cable. As far as was realistically possible, Defia had sealed this place off from the rest of the ship - and that was before you considered the multiple machines humming in different spots in the room that acted to disrupt electrical signals.

The fact that the rogue Fractal was functioning inside the environment she’d built was just another example of how strong she was; the entire space was hostile to any of her kind who lacked some kind of central sense of self to motivate their constituent parts. When Dustin entered red eyes turned on him and a too-toothy smile appeared on her face before she began speaking rapidly. “Statement. Dusty, you have arrived at a good time. I have just finished releasing the processed Fractal mass into container two. Addendum. Note it’s inert state. I believe this mass lacks a coordinating process, and have several theories…” she began, pointing to one of the two giant fishbowls that filled the remainder of the chamber.

“Defia.” Dustin interrupted her, glancing at the huge constructions and then back at the void-black woman. “Are you alright? You’ve been feeling off ever since we hit that Durathisian lab, and when I checked with the others they said they’ve not seen you much since Rye’s team helped you finish setting up this room.”

The Fractal paused her explanation, before turning and biting her lip. “Dustin, I…” she began, the absence of her usual vocal tics worrying Dustin immensely. “…I am not sure. Yet. There is… There was a time sensitive matter I had to…” again, Defia paused, then shook her head. “Statement. It will be easier if I explain with reference to the applicable material. Come and inspect the tanks.”

Dustin frowned and stepped forward, peering into the gently lit fluid filling the two huge containers. Defia gestured to the one she’d been talking about earlier; it’s contents a neat sphere in the middle of the glow. “Statement. This is an inert collection of Fractal mass. I have only recently released it into this chamber, it collated to the middle thanks to the magnetic field I established and has shown no signs of adaptation, degradation or creation. It is ‘safe’ as far as I can tell.”

Then she turned and gestured to the other tank. In this one, a gentle current swirled from top to bottom, pulsing in time with Dustin’s heart as the fluid moved. He frowned at that; why was the fluid moving in one tank and not the other? They both appeared near-identical in construction as far as he could tell.

“Statement. This tank I completed first, before the production mass decayed beyond salvage. Since then, it has stabilized and I am in the progress of adapting the intake blend to try and stimulate new growth. It is… fascinating, and also a dilemma. It should not exist.” Her words were soft, her hand on the edge of the tank as she stared in at the way the moving fluid caught the light.

“Shouldn’t exist?” Dustin asked, opting to put his arm around her shoulders as she seemed to need comfort.

Defia leaned into him. “Statement. It is not entirely Fractal in origin. The production mass is… partially biological, although from no species we have records of in Sola’s database based on a sample of some of the decayed material. I am hoping a more healthy sample will provide additional information, but at this time it is insufficiently stable to risk extracting further mass for testing.”