Summer's Rain

[Velitis]

He regarded the scientist for a moment.

"While they appear to have a similar physical structure to us, did anyone consider that they might be completely different on the inside?"  

[Kai Karasurei]

Velitis

He regarded the scientist for a moment.

"While they appear to have a similar physical structure to us, did anyone consider that they might be completely different on the inside?"

"Indeed." Dr. Landford remarked. "Apart from mapping the genetic structure of the beings as best we can with samples we found onboard and on the planet, we have teams analyzing breathing apparatus as well as the ships life support to determine what, exactly, the creatures need to survive. Suffice to say something they required went missing since we have seen no trace of this race since our expedition teams found the society they left behind. I believe the on baord geneticist would be better able to describe what we have found of the composition of the creatures."  

[Chase Westenra]

As Lola fell deeper into sleep she slipped into a dream. She didn't remember her dreams well but this one she doubted would fade anytime soon...

She was wearing full black with from head to foot. She was leading a small band of pirates whose job it was to raid a weapons cache on a small space station. One of the pirates with her was new, a soldier, which is why he had been chosen for such a dangerous assignment. If Lola had been able to choose he'd have stayed behind, he was too jumpy, but she followed orders and orders said that he goes.

It was dark on the station and any sound would echo incessantly setting off the alarms. The darkness was meant to simulate night time which was amusing to Lola on a ship floating in endless darkness. They were almost done with their mission, just one more load left to get and then they would be away as if they had never been there.

Signaling it was safe to go Lola crouched low and walked out of a hatchway and followed a guard with absolute stealth. After following him a few meters she ducked down a long passage way and broke into a flat run to the end of the hall where the last depot was.

She and three others waited while the lock was cracked then they were in, closing the door behind them. After a few tense minutes everything was loaded onto their backs and into bags brought for this purpose. They were just ready to leave when the new guy did the unthinkable. He sneezed. The pirates froze, hoping it didn't sound off an alarm but within seconds a loud blaring siren went off announcing their presence.

Cursing Lola dug a few small explosives from her bag and set one with a remote detonator. With that they ran, pausing only briefly to set more explosives next to vital pipes that supplied oxygen to the station. It seemed like forever but within five minutes they were all aboard their ship and speeding away.

Barely looking back Lola set off the explosives and the rich oxygen air did most of the work for her, igniting the flames into the stations main power supply and destroying a huge section. Bodies flew out into the vacuum before it was sealed off. Behind her Lola heard someone retching but didn't care. She would either be congratulated for getting away with the weapons or punished severely for going off mission.

As it turned out she was not only congratulated but was given a higher rank. She was now a general. The soldier was punished for sneezing, something that one would assume would be over looked but not among this clan. They demanded perfection which included controlling your bodily functions. Lola didn't care much what happened to him, he deserved it. He could have gotten them all killed or worse captured.

Without knowing it Lola smiled a bit in her sleep.

What followed in the weeks after was simply beautiful. The news reported that the pirates had stolen absolutely nothing and that section had been empty of all personnel. Sure it was, as if a small station like that could afford to have whole sections doing nothing. In reality it had been the sleeping quarters for some very important military officers. Lola was not only promoted but had been told the high king himself or herself, no one knew outside of the kings, was extremely pleased.

Lola had decided to celebrate so she went to her favorite bar to get drunk and dance her feet off. That had been her mistake, letting her guard down as the alcohol took its effect on her system. The clan demanded perfection only on the job; off it was an entirely different story.

There was a new face behind the bar but Lola wasn't concerned. Her clan owned the bar and everyone had been thoroughly screened before being allowed to work there. It didn't occur to her she was getting drunk faster then she should have, she just took it as a good thing, but before long she was stumbling and couldn't hold herself up.

She was taken into the back to sleep it off. She was now a general so they couldn't throw her into the street anymore because being a general meant she could kill without facing an inquiry and even drunk she was a dead shot.

When she woke up she was chained hand and foot to a chair in a small room. It was a very old room with cracked tile and the lingering scent of tobacco that would never fade. Along the wall was a one way mirror and behind it stood men and women with hard eyes who would kill Lola if they could. It turns out one of the men that had been sucked into space was a high ranking official.

Finally someone walked into the room carrying a large folder stuffed with reports and photos. Lola barely listened as he prattled on about jail time and the death sentence, they were seriously thinking of that ancient method just for her. She couldn't help but feel touched.

Finally Lola picked her head off her chest and asked the man soberly what his security clearance was. Her question took him back but he answered. Smiling Lola told him she had nothing to say until someone with much high clearance showed up. Many people paraded in but none had the right clearance. Finally 7 hours later they found someone with the right clearance.

"So, Miss Chase, I hope you have been treated well." Lola just glared at the woman. "I hope you have the proper clearance. If you don't then leave." The woman chuckled, "Oh, I have it but I wonder why you care." "I care because if you don't and I tell you what I have to say then I will walk out free and you will go to jail." That wiped the smug smile off the woman's lips. Without a word she took a remote from her pocket and pointed it at the mirror, the mirror went black and an annoying sound hummed through the room signaling that all of the listening and recording devices had been temporarily shut off. Setting it down rather sharply she folded her hands on the table and looked Lola in the eyes. "Explain."

So she did. Lola explained where the woman could find files concerning a black operation which Lola was a part of that had come straight from the government. Without a word the woman flew from the room and didn't return for two hours, when she did was appeared both livid and shocked.

"I don't believe this." "Oh, believe it. You apparently have it in black and white in your hands. I am part of the military in a black ops unit that was sent underground to infiltrate the pirates. I have done nothing but my job." Lola sat back and tried to look as impressive as she could which she did with much success.

Over the next few hours the woman, who finally told Lola her name was Janet, explained that the man who had coughed was also a black agent that the military had put in, not knowing that there was already agents on the inside. The military wanted sabotage; the government wanted slow destruction from the inside. Her job was to infiltrate and rise in the ranks by any means possible to find out who the high king was. Once they had the high kings they could take out the clans.

Lola had been trained with 5 other people. She was informed she was the only one left alive. In fact she was the only one left from the mission at all. Her handler, it turned out, was on the space station. Talk about irony at it's best.

After much deliberation on the military's part they decided to send Lola to work on the Summer's Rain because she was a geneticist and because she had been in their company so long her absence had to be known. It was decided she would also maintain her cover and contact the pirates the second she was on board the Summer's Rain. This got her superiors there thinking, having someone on the inside would be good because they also had people sick with the same virus that the Earth was quarantined with.

In the end everything worked out, supposedly. Lola would report to Janet No-Last-Name and would also keep her military connections quiet but she was warned they would send people to watch her as well. She wouldn't know who, but they were there.

With that sequence done in her mind Lola's dream drifted off in a different direction but still she was left edgy. Lola felt she was slowly running out of time in her life.  

[Myst Dubhghall]

Aine moved a bit, her posture becoming more ridgid at the mention of the ship's geneticist. After awaiting the doctor and colonel to finish, whe tentatively interjected. "I wish you all the best with her Colonel. Order's don't seem to be a strong suit, as her absence here now demonstrates. I had told her to accompany me to the bridge to update Dr. Landford."

Shifting a bit, the woman took on a bit more animation. "But perhaps I can help you. Although the exact genetic make-up of these creatures has not been charted as of yet, much of what you just asked falls into my realm as an astrobiologist. Indeed, that is why I've spent most of my own time focusing on the medical bay trying to decrypt what information I can from there."  

[Kai Karasurei]

(Damn why did I think Lola was military razz lol)
Dr. Landford nodded at Aine. He had not meant to sidestep her research in suggesting the geneticist over her, it had just been the first person who came to mind.

Nor was he surprised that the geneticist had not acknowledged Aine's request to accompany her to the bridge. After all, the R3S had no jurisdiction over the other civilians onboard the ship.

Despite all that was going through his had, Dr. Landford said nothing. The colonel looked like he was planning the next move in a chess game and far be it from Dr. Landford to distract the man. Colonel Vexant had seemed to come onto the ship expecting to be the center of a whirlwind of activity, with reports and people flying at him with all the info her would need to piece it together, like the man with the last missing piece of a great puzzle. Instead he found reality. Research took time...months was nothing, true research could take years. Its why the project had been outsourced to another company rather than tying up military researchers for goodness knows how long.

Dr. Landford just hoped that Colonel Vexant found enough to be satisfied long before the truth of the matter set in.  

[Kurai_Yamino]

Dezire nodded and saw her self off the bridge and began her way back to the med deck. She had found a few correlations in the controls below and on the bridge. She also found what seemed to be a keyboard like structure that fit quite a few of the stations on the rest of the ship. She looked through the files she had picked up and sighed.

"Back to the mill stone..just hope it not around any necks......." she murmured out loud as she walked.  

[Kai Karasurei]

Dr. Landford thumbed through the reports as Aine and the Colonel spoke. As he further became engrossed in the mental health of his staff he moved to the side, nodding a bit to himself whenever he noted something that could be important. He nodded very few times.

In truth, his mind was occupied with their current stagnant situation and his deep desire to come up with something that would aid in humanity's crisis. This ship may yet be their beacon of hope in a time of great darkness and Dr. Landford would not give it up so easily.

Dr. Landford waited for a pause between the two people before him and excused himself. Once out of the ship's control room, Dr. Landford headed down the corridors to the lab where Lola was researching.

The door opened, allowing the good doctor to step in. Peering about for Lola, he spotted her at her lab chair, asleep. Stepping to the other side of the table, Dr. Landford cleared his throat politely to attempt to get Lola's attention.  

[Chase Westenra]

When the doctor had opened the door it had woken Lola up but she decided to wait until he made some noise to move. She opened her eyes when he cleared his throat and crossed her arms across her chest so she wouldn't be tempted to reach for a weapon and give herself away. "Can I help you Dr. Landford?" Lola didn't even bother to look ashamed because she wasn't.  

[Kai Karasurei]

"Actually, I was hoping I could help you." Dr. Landford said with a smile.
"There is a new high-ranking officer onboard. He seems very goal-oriented and is eager to see results. Your name came up in our conversation, so he may head down here at some point. I figured I'd give you a heads up, civilian to civilian." Dr. Landford gave the other scientist a short nod, as if to indicate he had finished his explanation.  

[Chase Westenra]

Lola merely blinked her eyes at Dr. Landford and considered him for a minute. From what she had observed of him during her short stay she could see he had no clue that she was a pirate or even suspected it. He seemed a kind man who was brilliant and a complete moron at the same time.

After a brief pause she swung her feet off the desk and stood up so they were more or less eye to eye. "Thank you for the warning doctor. High ranking military you say? What's his rank, if you don't mind my asking?"

Lola may have hated this hell hole but she wasn't about to make too many enemies, especially when the person in question had the power to make her life a worse nightmare then it currently was.  

[Kai Karasurei]

"He is a Colonel...Colonel Vexant." Dr. Landford replied. Lola was quite correct. Dr. Landford had no clue of her past or what the symbol on her arm meant. He simply saw her as a fellow scientist, even if she was a little rough around the edges.
"He already discovered a new feature on the bridge. Apparently, the ships control room can project a 360 degree view of the surrounding space in place of the whole control room. It was actually quite astounding."
The man hoped to keep the peace between all the factions of the ship. He recognized that R3S was only a part of the research going on here and his position was one of diplomacy as much as it was one of responsibility.
"Between you and I, I think the Colonel will be disappointed with the lack of action he is about to experience. I just hope we have enough advances where the project is concerned to satiate his appetite." As soon as Dr. Landford said the words, he looked as if he remembered something before quickly adding. "Oh, by the way, anything new come up in your research?"  

[Velitis]

He looked over his datapad again, sifting through a few various subfolders while Aine spoke to him. Deep down, he was discouraged by the lack of progress in the time they had been on this ship. He hated anything to do with space, anything that wasn't solid earth beneath his boots. The crew here seemed complacent with what they did. Already he could pick up on a few undercurrents.

And the undercurrents I bring with me, well... I always seem to sow destruction in my wake.

He looked up as Aine finished making her offer. His mind whirled with possibilities. But, after just a handful of moments, he decided that now wasn't the time to press into matters and potentially drive a wedge between any of the crew with himself.

I'll have plenty of time for that later, he thought wryly.

"That won't be necessary at this time," he said, trying to sound as neutral as he could. With the departure of Landford, it seemed almost a herald that he should retreat, let the information of him being on board and largely in command of the situation settle before he started to shake things up. Too much stirred up too fast would be counter productive.

And frankly, the faster he got off the ship with a successful mission, the happier he would be.

"I will be conducting a meeting later today. Likely around the next shift change. Be prepared to attend," he said.  

[Chase Westenra]

Lola let the new data swirl about her brain for a bit. A colonel meant he would know she was a pirate because his rank should presumedly be high enough for that information however her past, mission and other murky details about her may not be within his clearance. Lola had never been told "Janet's" rank just her clearance level.

Something the doctor said floated into the forefront of Lola's thoughts. "360? I bet that was a bit discomforting." That was something she'd have to pass on to the pirates once she found out which button it was which shouldn't be hard because Landford didn't consider anything a military secret or need to know.

"No, nothing new has come up. Their DNA is more complex then ours but not completely different but then our DNA is very close to chimpanzees. The problem is we have about 23,000 genes making up our DNA code and theirs is longer and more complex. Plus, with us I have an idea of what could be for what. If hundreds of blue eyed people of both genders have the same code then I can assume it's for blue eyes but with them I don't have hundreds of examples and I don't have subjects to verify my findings with."

Lola picked up a portable data pad and offered it to Dr. Landford. "On top of charting the aliens I have to chart every human who has been infected and scan their DNA gene by gene to make sure it hasn't been altered by the disease. Yes, the computers do a lot of the work but it all takes time. Not everyone infected had their DNA on record so I don't have to scan all of them but with the wars a lot of them were." Reaching up Lola rubbed a crick in her neck. "I have assistants to help and other researchers but as I said it takes time and time is a precious commodity as of late. Besides, this ship has a ton of scientists whose research is going to prove un-neccessary for finding a cure but will be neccessary in understanding them as a race. For all we know that's what my research could become, un-neccessary." Lola smiled at the doctor in a sarcastic manner. "Any other questions?"  

[Kai Karasurei]

Dr. Landford accepted the datapad, but without a background in the field of genetics, she might as well have handed him a Mayan tablet.
"While it might not prove to give us the direct cure, the more we can unlock about our mysterious benefactors, the closer we get to finding what has become of them. It would be a step in the right direction towards preventing it from happening to us." Dr. Landford said. "Nothing we do here is unnecessary."

Indeed, Dr. Landford recognized the plight humanity was in. After all, they were now aboard a vessel of a race that was, for all they knew, extinct.  

[Chase Westenra]

Lola couldn't help but chuckle at the doctor's choice of words. "Benefactors? What benefits have we reaped from the discovery of the alien planet? We have marshall law on the planet, battles in space and on Earth over technology, medicine, and supplies, militaries firing on ships leaving the planet and a global plague that could kill billions. Oh yes, we should all be "grateful" for everything the alien planet has given us."