Sleeping Beauty

Dustin paced outside the infirmary, his expression tense. It’d been a little over an hour since he’d sent the message down to the planet’s surface, and while Defia assured him that the woman in the tank was stable and that the Fractal technology would keep her alive until his doctor’s return, he still wasn’t happy about the situation.

As he turned to walk back the way he’d come once more, Sammie reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. “Captain… you’re going to wear a hole in the deck plate. Bleu will be back soon - they said they just needed to make suitable excuses to the locals before they fly, then we’ll get our guest out of her sleeping beauty casket and back to her folk below in no time at all.” The pilot frowned for a moment, and then jokingly added. “No waking her up with a kiss though.”

The attempt at humour made Dustin chuckle, and he ceased his pacing, instead leaning against the infirmary wall next to his pilot. “You’re right - about both things, Sammie.” Then a random thought made him grin. “You know, I’ve been wondering - has Rye spoken to you about nicknames? She has this whole thing about women in my life getting nicknames once we’ve slept together, and you and I have - but I’ve never heard her address you as anything other than Sammie?”

His pilot kicked her heel against the wall and nodded. “Yea, I know. The bunny and I had a long chat about that one night over a meal while you were busy - on a date night with Emely if I remember correctly. Well, she basically said that since my actual name is Samantha she’d have shortened it to Sammie anyhow, and then she made a rather crude joke about you, me, her and sandwiches that I won’t repeat and that was that. Makes life easier all round really.”

Dustin sighed and shook his head. “That sounds like Rye alright. So sandwiches huh? I can imagine where she went with that - if the two of you want a joint date night at some point, let Meli know to fit it into the schedule.” As he finished speaking, Sola’s voice came from a nearby speaker. “Attention, Captain. The Chief Science Officer wishes you to know that they have departed the planet, and should be with us shortly. Additionally, she states that we are ready to move into the next phase of the deprogramming plan and as such it is safe for me to move closer. Permission to engage engines?”

Glancing at his pilot who shrugged, Dustin nodded. “Go ahead Sola. Take us in to a standard orbit.” The AI chimed acknowledgment, and a moment later the distant rumble of the engines could be felt through the deck plates as the craft began to steadily move closer to the planet.

Bleu arrived at the infirmary not long after they had begun their transit to a more standard orbit, one hand stuck into a bottle that was slowly filling with a dark liquid as her natural azure colour returned alongside her regular form. “I’m not focused enough to be working on something potentially difficult while I’m also concentrating on keeping pigment stuck in place” she explained as she brushed past Dustin, adding “it’ll all be drained out in another three or four minutes, enough time for Defia to give me the rundown of what to expect and for me to run some preliminary scans on our guest.”

The medic consulted with the rebel Fractal for slightly longer than it took for her to drain the remainder of the dye back into it’s bottle, then ordered a range of people from her team to various stations around the medbay. “By all accounts, this should be a simple revival of a individual in suspension…” she began addressing the assembled junior medics, continuing “…we’ll work according to protocol with the following deviations…”

Dustin’s eyes glazed slightly as Bleu explained the different medical actions she would be taking to ensure the insect woman in the pod was successfully revived with a minimum of trauma, then snapped back in as she added “Captain, Defia - I’d like you both here. When she wakes, she’ll be disoriented - having a male and female close by who aren’t involved in any of the medical work will be helpful for her, and Defia looks like one of her gods. Although, that said, I don’t know how well she will react given she was **** by their ‘vanishing ones’ so I’ll be monitoring everything closely - if I order you out, move rapidly please.”

The Fractal nodded. “Statement. I will attempt to provide her with a foundation to build from matching the output unit Emely had you deliver to the units on the planet below. Addendum. If you require me to leave to manage her trauma, please clearly signal it. I will monitor frequencies in the lower band - analysis indicates these units cannot perceive variance below twenty-eight hertz, I recommend modulated communication in that range.”

Bleu sighed and nodded. “I hate talking that low, makes my hyperdermis feel icky afterwards, but fine. Stand over there please, non-medical personnel need to clear the floor to allow for the procedure to begin.” Her tone was firm, and Dustin moved to one side, beckoning for Defia to follow.

While the Queri woman went over her final pre-checks, Dustin kept an eye on the rogue Fractal. Defia was watching the proceedings with interest - or at least, that was what it looked like. When he queried her on the matter, she merely indicated that she was observing interactions between the crew to augment her ability to integrate, which was equal parts commendable and creepy. “How are you coping with the **** of other Fractals in that compound? I know you have a lot of hostility towards your cluster, but…” He cut off as Defia turned to him, her head tilted to one side and a puzzled look on her face.

“Statement. Unit termination was in accordance with prime unit directives. Units were also engaged in attempted disassembly of this unit. I do not understand the question.” She said, causing Dustin to sigh. “I never know what features of organic life you’re going to display and which you aren’t, Defia. You walk and talk so much like a human sometimes, and then you come out with something that sounds like a robot. No, don’t apologize, overly assigning human characteristics to non-human stuff is ironically a very human thing. It’s a me issue.” He said, waving away her attempt at appeasing his concerns.

“In any case, I’m glad that you’re doing well - as soon as Bleu has finished waking up her patient and we’ve explained a few things we’ll be taking a trip back to the planet. I don’t know if she was **** from the region that the doctor and the others visited, but it seems likely; we’ll take her home at the same time as we deliver a bunch of supplies to get this revolution well and truly started.” Dustin leaned back against the wall and gave a thumbs up to the medical team who appeared to now be waiting on his permission to start.

As Bleu began the delicate process of draining the suspension gel from around her patient, Defia raised a hesitant hand. “Query. What is the purpose in arming the local population in the manner we are planning? With the weapon capabilities of one of the shuttles we could successfully remove the major governmental obstacles and prevent significant loss of life.”

Dustin shook his head sadly. “We could do it easily that way, yes. The issue with it is what comes next; if we impose our technological superiority on them like that, first of all the rebels wouldn’t be organized enough to form a government which would lead to a power vacuum. We could easily end up with a worse tyranny than the one we’re trying to replace. Secondly, there’s the risk it’d just replace the worship of the Fractals with worship of us, which puts us back at square one. And finally - we want to build these people up to be ready for integration into the galactic community in a generation or two at most. If they get there and find out that we came in and plasma-cannoned their religion, there might be repercussions. Emely checked the archives before deciding on this plan - apparently, despite the risk of immediate loss of life it’s statistically the best option to minimize the damage long term. I hate it, but it is what it is.”

The sound of a metallic click at that point drew the attention of both of them back to the medical team. Bleu had activated the release for the Fractal pod which was now folding open like an obsidian flower, black chromed metal plates spiraling outward. Inside, a thin frame held the butterfly-woman up as the last of the gel drained away. “Phase two, please” the medic said, two of her assistants moving into place with a stretcher and carefully strapping the comatose woman to it. With a slight adjustment to the pod controls, the frame holding the woman up slid away and the junior medics slowly lowered their patient to the horizontal.

Bleu’s eyes flickered between patient, hand scanner and medical bay sensor readings. With care, she oversaw the **** woman moved to one of the medical beds, then beckoned for Dustin and Defia to approach as she applied a series of medsprays to their guest’s neck. For a moment, nothing happened; Dustin began to worry that perhaps something had gone wrong or that Defia had misread how long the butterfly woman had been in storage - but then the woman on the bed stirred.

It was a faint movement of her wings at first - then her eyelids fluttered, before she blinked them open so suddenly that it almost made Dustin jump. Gazing up, the woman stared at her surroundings with a mix of fear and wonder. Seeing Dustin she gained a puzzled look - and then she saw Defia and gasped, attempting to rise before Bleu put a hand to her chest to hold her down. “A vanishing one! Forgive my weakness, my lady!” the woman said, her voice creaky with a lack of use that the medbay translator did it’s best to convey.

Defia tilted her head to one side as the butterfly woman spoke, before reply carefully. “Statement. You have been asleep for a long time. It is not weakness to struggle to restart your core processes.” The fractal gestured towards the Queri doctor and added “follow the instructions of unit designate Bleu and you will return to full operations swiftly. We will talk more at that time.” Dustin blinked; he’d not expected the Fractal to lead the communication with their guest, but it seemed to have worked - the butterfly woman nodding eagerly and turning to smile at the medic who was already preparing another spray.