An Apple A Day

[The Dark Wizard]

Captain Hesperus

Was everything always so monochrome and boring?

Probably.

It is not often that you got this small respites like this and were able to sit in your private quarters on Orbital Station Gateway as your window overlooked Earth.

Tick Toc Tick Toc

Everyone moved to some sort of strange rythem and beat as if they forgot that at any moment the swarm could come upon this station and the rest of the Earth. Something about it was robotic, maybe you’ve noticed more since you are not quite so many per say. Are you?

Maybe.

Though the Doctors you have asked over the years are not quite sure what you are. Are you still a Human if you are mostly machine? Some Scientists argue not. Though maybe it does not matter as you are briefly brought out of the bore as a notification comes into your comms.

“Yes, Hello. Mr. Nugmo this is Becky and I’m an assistant here at Doctor Elizabeth Wilder’s office and I’m letting you know that the the request your previous specialist put in has been approved by your Military coverage and we’ve managed to put you in for a for a last minute appointment in about 5 hours. The Location is attached.”

The notification has coordinates for somewhere in Chicago. If you rush you could make a shuttle on time.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----​

Jun looked out over the planet below him. From this distance, it appeared tranquil, at peace. In truth, he knew that on the surface humanity lived a tenuous existence. While the Tha'Kar might have a lot of infighting, there were still spurs that tested the defenses of humanity's borders. Europe was dark, day and night. Paris, London, Madrid, Berlin, Brussels, all lost. Nothing remained but rubble. It would be hard to believe that they were all lost in less that a month, despite the UEF's best efforts to repel the Tha'Kar. That swarm flooded across the land like the pyroclastic flow that consumed ancient Pompei. There were reports that tiny human outposts existed, but they had to be either very quiet or ready to move at a moment's notice. The Tha'Kar still hungered for human flesh, even as they ate their own.

His internal datahub flashed up the notification from Doctor Wilder's secretary in the corner of his right eye's vision and, even as he replayed the notification, his datahub was already locating the doctor's office, determining which shuttle he should take, where and when it was departing from Gateway, where it would land and hiring a land vehicle to drive from the spaceport to the doctor's office. All within a second. He turned and crossed over to the wardrobe behind his piano. As he went, he brushed his fingers across the polished lid. The sensory buds in the mechanical finger tips relayed the tactile sensation of the wood beneath the old lacquer, the smoothness of the finish, even the light sensation of the thin layer of dust that had settled. But the buds could not relay the feeling of the instrument's soul. When his body had been his own, not retrieved from a box shipped from a factory in Japan or the US, he had been able to feel the soul of the piano. It was old, older than he was, older than even his parents. It had felt the touch of many other musicians and it had absorbed some of their passion, their love, their anguish, their pain. It had taken everything it's players had given up to it, drawn it together and created it's own soul. And, when someone sat and played the piano, it's soul would sing. And the melody was sweet, deep and meaningful.

Jun withdrew his hand and looked at it. He could see the tiny screws that held his fingers together and the miniature servos that allowed him to mimic fine motor movements. But it was soulless. It was just a machine component. He could take it off, unscrew the hand from the wrist and replace it with a hook or a hammerhead or an axe and they would be identical. All tools, all objects that simply performed a variety of functions. He tried not to dwell on it. He had an appointment to keep. He pulled open the wardrobe to reveal a selection of uniforms, suits and casual clothes. A first meeting with a doctor needs something more than casual wear. A uniform? She knows I'm UEF military. No, that's too formal. He settled on a grey suit with a pale cream pinstripe, matching cream shirt and a deep blue tie. His datahub informed him that, on arrival, Chicago had an 87% chance of rain and strong easterly winds. Typical Chicago weather. He added a full-length overcoat and a waterproof hairpiece to his ensemble then dressed.

He was almost ready to leave when he paused. A quick walk over to a recessed panel on the wall by the door and he tapped a code on the surface with his fingertips. The panel snapped back with a sudden click then slid aside to reveal a selection of pistols. Most of them were designed for orbital use, low-velocity, mass-reactive weapons, but one at the end was heavier. A Mk. 8 Predator. For 99% of station inhabitants, the weapon was not only prohibited, but also cause to be deported back to which ever planet they called home. But Jun Nagumo was one of the 1% that not only had a Mk 8, but had a selection of ammunition that would make him a fugitive even on Earth. He withdrew the Predator and two magazines of it's standard .500 inch ammunition and slipped them into the tailored holsters within the suit's lining. Even buttoned up, the suit was designed to completely conceal the presence of both gun and magazines. With his Special Forces ID to hand, he exited his apartment, ensuring the hermetic seal around the door was fully engaged before moving quickly to the shuttle bay.

Traveling through the bustling city at any time of day was laborious, hundreds of people always seeming to be heading in every direction except the one Jun wanted to go. He took to sidestepping and shouldering his way through the crowds, unheeding of the people he barged aside or their objections to his doing so. His datahub's chronometer ticked down the minutes and seconds before his assigned shuttle was due to depart and Jun had to pick up the pace to make it to the shuttle terminal with enough time to board. Once within the terminal, things became much more settled. People here moved with purpose, entering and exiting the security zone to board shuttles or depart to places in the station. Jun's SpecFor ID got him through security without a patdown and his medical ID got him through the rest without needing a body scan. He boarded the shuttle with ten minutes to spare and settled into his none-too-comfortable seat. While his SpecFor privileges got him some places, it didn't stretch to Business or First Class.

The shuttle journey was uneventful, a standard break from Gateway's docks then a gradual descent to the exosphere before a deorbit burn and steeper descent into the planet's atmosphere. Jun became aware that a pair of UEF high-altitude fighter interceptors shadowed the shuttle for a few hundred kilometers before peeling off and continuing their patrol. According to DefComs, there'd been several sightings of high-altitude adapted Tha'Kar swarms, so it wasn't anything too worrying. Reassuring, in fact. Chicago from four miles up did indeed show billowing black rainclouds which were undoubtedly dumping gallons of water onto the city below. Jun sighed. At least he had the foresight to hire a car rather than fight with people for a cab.

Again the shuffle through security and more hustle and bustle from there to the car hire terminal. The vehicle he'd booked was a simple two-door town car with hover mode. He knew the city councils in Chicago tended to put maintenance of the city streets low in their priorities, so he'd requested a vehicle that would be able to glide over the potholes and craters easily. With the vehicle in his possession, he drove into metropolitan Chicago. And stopped dead. Traffic jams. As far as the eye could see, gridlock. His datahub informed him that the most routes to his destination were slow moving, fender-to-fender jams. At this point in time, he started looking at alternate routes. He requested, and gained, access to the city's traffic camera and police surveillance CCTV systems. With this, he was able to map an alternate route using backstreets, alleyways and less often used roads. This route was quicker, even if it mean his hire car deposit would probably be lost considering the bumps and scrapes it accrued during his drive through the narrowest alleys.

He finally reached his destination, the Chicago Central Hospital. The sprawling complex was acres in area and rose almost eighteen storeys high. Every discipline of medicine was practiced here, from obstetrics to gerontology, bionics to genetics and more. He entered and approached the front desk where two young women in pristine white uniforms sat in a cloud of holographic displays.
"Good morning,", he said, with a slight bow, "my name is Captain Jun Nagumo. I have an appointment with Doctor Elizabeth Wilder."
He showed his medical ID for them to scan. One of the young women smiled brightly at him as she passed a laser over the ID and glanced at the medical data it produced.
"Good morning, Captain Nagumo. I hope the weather didn't get you too wet and cold.", she said, noting the dampness of his coat and hair, "Yes, Doctor Wilder is expecting you. Please follow the orange line."
As she spoke, a glowing orange line on the floor lit up and darted away toward the elevators. Jun set off after it and, once in the elevator, pressed the correct button, which was helpfully outlined in orange. He eventually arrived at an office on the twelfth floor with a digital display set into the wall: 'Dr. E. Wilder.". He turned, pressed his synthentic hair into something resembling neat and knocked.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

( Captain Hesperus , I see your big post and raise you one big post)

Chicago was Chicago because well….it was Chicago. You predicted the weather correctly and had planned accordingly, not that it was not any less of a pain. Chicago was a futuristic city mostly whose business had been booming more then ever since the fall of New York. That was also something else that Chicago was, the reminder that a portion of the east Coast had fallen to one of the thickest congestion of Tha’kar since the initial invasion. They still own most of Europa and North Asia but strategists and analysts that have tried to make sense of all of this, if there were any patterns or logic to the way they moved and attacked, before they stopped and started attacking each other as if Earth was their own personal battleground. They all basically agreed that there was something in New York that they wanted. They also could have just wanted to gain a massive foothold in North America, no one is sure.

Due to the pause however and leveraging the incomprehensible processing power of the The Director on Orbital Station: Gateway and the might of what was left of the UEF, the best course of action determined was to setup barriers and seal everything from the Boarder of Pennsylvania and New Jersey up with immensely powerful barriers, defenses and most importantly force fields, creating a bubble that spanned New York, VT, NH, Mass, Maine, Rhode Island and Conn. The sheer power required to seal off these states from the rest of the world and contain the invasion, which strangely did not come much across the waters or air and stayed in Europe was a monumental order. It was/is one of the primary reasons that construction and acquisition of power and resources for the station wasn’t at peak efficiency.

Any effort to attempt to enter those zones even with the best of our tech has been with utter failure, any attempt to peak in from the sky via satellite is also met with utter failure due to the sheer density of the creatures, its almost like an penetrable mist. All except for a clear image of what used to be The Statue of Liberty, a monument that withheld the test of time, it is clearly damaged but still standing, strange planet like things and roots growing out of it. It was strange that the statue could be viewed, some thought it was a conspiracy, some thought it was the Tha’Kar mocking humanity. Showing humanity what it will do, slowly infect and eat it from within. But those thoughts are quickly dismissed, no one actuallly thinks the Tha’Kar are that intelligent.

So that was another thing that Chicago was, a complete and utter fucking reminder of what happened to New York and that portion of the north east coast because of Chicago becoming the next big hub, it had to. The hospitals moved, businesses moved, everything moved. Was it always able to keep up? No.

Should it be in a better state? Yes definitely, but as always history has shown that if one thing will presist beyond humanity and monsters and all that jazz, it is that Chicago will always be a piece of crap fueled by greed and corruption, more so then most places. The City Council can’t even be bothered to vote on an issue of improving something as basic as roads in this day and age. Though that is not to say that The Windy City didn’t have its ups as well. Anything one could want could usually be found in one of the pleasure or business districts and while it is not a fancy New York hospital, Chicago Central Hospital now had some of the best doctors in their fields around for better or worse trying to make the best of their new setup.

After finally reaching your destination, you were met with a Chaotic sight of ambulances, paramedics, people, cyborgs, the authorities, everything you could think of short of the Tha’kar coming in and out, some screaming that there was not enough room as wounded were brought in from Gunshots and other more mundane problems were brought in. Nurses programing that a man was pretending to be extra ill and sleeping in so he didn’t have to go home from his wife and tell her that the wound he got was from the mistress he was cheating with.

You finally reached the front desk where two young women in pristine white uniforms, sitting in a cloud of holographic displays took your IDs and ushered you to your destination using orange lights on the ground. As you got on the elevator and started to rise, the noise and chaos turned into orderly peace. The Specialists and higher ranking doctors worked on the higher floors, while the lowers were Emergency Rooms and such. A good portion of the 12th floor was dedicated to Dr. Wilder’s practice. As you knocked, Becky buzzed you. A short blonde woman wearing a typical pink blouse, her hair was big and poofy with soft loose curls, almost like a hairstyle from the 1970’s.

Ah “Mr. Nagumo, we were expecting you, I’m glad you made it on time.” she expressed only once picking up from her display as she scanned her IDs and returning them to you. "Please take a seat and the nurse will come to get you.

After about 14 minutes, not quite 15, a nurse came to you collect you and take you into the back where you were hooked up to scanners to take Vitals, of your mechanical components, not that this office was equipped to deal with any issues in that area but it was still procedure, and record keeping. When it got to the part that required the rest of your real body, you were handed a gown to slip on in a private changing room that contained a locker for your cloths and belongings.

After about two and a half hours of the nurses taking your vitals, which was a slow and dreadful process as always due to how delicate and such they had to be with what remained of your organs, and vital checking for you was not just gathering your heart beat and weight, but seeing how far your disease had continued to expand and claim more of your living flesh.

So about another hour of prepping later and you finally found your self on a table waiting as a short woman in a doctor’s coat, piercing green eyes, black hair that was neatly organized in a bun behind her head in a cut professional manner had entered the room. Dismissing the nurses, she looked at you and began to speak with a kind smile.

----- Elizabeth Wilder -----
----- Doctor -----​

“Hello Mr. Nagumo. I’m Doctor Elizabeth Wilder, please call Elizabeth or Liz if it helps you be more comfortable” she said as she glanced over you on the table.

“May I call you Jun, or do you prefer your rank or your formal last name?”

She was 28 according to the bio you pulled up, ahead of her years in her field of biology and body rejection of augmentation, cancer and more importantly Necrosis, the study of cells dying and not functioning as they should. You can see why you were referred to her, since most people thought your body was basically killing it self on purpose.

She looked through the data on her PDA and began speaking again. “I hope I’m able to be of assistance to you in this, I can only imagine how frustrating it has been that no one has been able to give you any concrete answers since you’ve been diagnosed with this issue. I want you to know that I do believe it is possible to find a way to treat this.” she said with another smile as she pressed a button on her PDA and chair came rolling for her as she sat next to you. "Now I hope that it doesn't embarrass you that I'm a female, I checked and noticed all of your previous specialists were male. I know how cool and uptight you military boys like to be"

She placed her hands on your abdomen and gently felt it with her hands, then she looked into your one organic eye with a light. She was a bit out school with this kind of way.

“I want to put you on a new diet of special nutrient gel that I’ve taken the liberty of creating after reviewing your case. The goal of this would be to see if your Cells can properly assimilate the Gel and provide some vital compounds that your body lacks, in the hopes that your body stops trying to destroy it self and begins to accept more treatments and procedures. Worst case, you’ll just hate the flavor. I’ll proscribe you a week’s worth and then I want to see you back here on my table”.

“Do you have any questions?”

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----​

Jun found the relative peace of the doctor's office a welcome respite after the chaos of the hospital's main reception. He sighed deeply, even an Army field hospital in a hot zone is more orderly than this place. But then the military built a different type of person. Military personnel were trained and conditioned to go into places that were nothing but utterly hazardous to their health and well-being, most often they were also required to live and sleep in those areas for weeks and months on end. That tended to breed a certain stoicism that wasn't found in civilians. Yes, soldiers get shot and the cry out, but after the fact they work at remaining peaceful and at rest. Too much activity and crying out leads to a higher heart rate meaning you bleed out sooner. Not that Jun ever had to worry about bleeding out. His blood was secure in a reserve tank in his abdomen, about where his bowel used to be. From there it would be circulated around his organic parts by his heart, aerated by his lungs (or his internal oxygen supply, if necessary) and then back to his liver and remaining kidney for cleaning. He sometimes wondered what his surviving internal organs looked like, locked away inside the core capsule of his abdomen. While he'd not had chance to see the actual organ, he'd heard that his original liver had looked like one belonging to a thirty-year drinker when it was extracted from him and replaced with an artificial one. Not something a teenager wants to hear about their own body really.

He looked up as he heard his name called and followed the nurse through to an examination room which appeared to be part mechanic's workshop. But, with the advent of large-scale bionics, most doctors had to learn at least the basics of bionic maintenance and that meant having an examination room that included a variable-speed powerdriver with a half-dozen adaptor heads. He removed his hairpiece and set it aside to expose the data jacks in the back of his skull. The nurse then plugged in the diagnostic computer directly to his bionic interface. His datahub automatically ran a virus and malware scan of the diagnostic computer before allowing it partitioned access to his vital signs and internal diagnostics. The only part of his brain it would divulge was his alpha and beta brainwave patterns. The scan was relatively quick but inevitably lead to the longer and more laborious task. The nurses would need to crack open his core capsule to take blood sample and biopsies from his organs. He lay, face down, on the couch once he'd stripped and put on the hilariously exposed hospital gown as the nurses set to work on his back, opening up the layers of protective armor and mechanical musculature to get down to his core. He felt a spreading numbness as they had to take his limb motors offline and he realized, for the first time, just how vulnerable he was right now. He was a trained soldier, a custom-built killing machine, but right now he was as helpless as a newborn kitten.

Just as a matter of safety, he locked down his SpecFor access codes and alternate identities and sent a flash message to the dummy company that fielded VORTICE-9's unsecured communications, warning them that if he did not contact them within two hours with a certain password, they were to consider him compromised and treat any future comms from him to be suspicious. This done, he relaxed and let his memories remind him of the first time he played Rachmaninoff's 'Moment Musicaux No.4 in E minor'. It was a classical piece, complex and required incredible dexterity to maintain the pace that the tempo demanded. He smiled as the notes reverberated through his mind.

Spoiler: Jun's thoughts

Before he realized, the nurses were complete, their sample pots filled with a variety of his bodily tissues. They finished resealing his armor and reconnecting his muscles and he carefully rolled over and sat up, running self-diagnostics while simultaneously testing his range of movement and contacting VORTICE-9 again with his password. As he finally swung his legs over the side of the couch, a woman walked in. She was young, dark-haired and pretty. His datahub informed him she was Doctor Elizabeth Wilder, considered something of a wunderkind in the fields of tissue transplant and rejection syndromes, as well as a pioneer in bionic and augmentic research. She introduced herself then began to examine him with her own hands.

"You can call me Jun, if you wish, Doctor.", he replied to her first question.
He then listened to what she had to say and with her second question, responded, "All due respect, Doctor, but the genders of all my past specialists was not an issue. As a serving officer in the modern military, I have served alongside and in close quarters with male and female soldiers. Gender is not, and has never been, an issue for me. But I do have a question. Undoubtedly, you've seen my case. This disease, whatever it is, has outdone some of the biggest names in this field of medicine, Von Dietz, MacIntosh, even Chavripati himself. What makes you think you can succeed at what they've failed thus far?"

 

[The Dark Wizard]

----- Elizabeth Wilder -----
----- Doctor -----​

Elizabeth smiled at the question as she finished inspecting you and with a few clicks of a button, a medical drone came floating in with the box containing your new gel. "All those people, are in it for the fame and money, and while that is not exactly a bad thing, they can't give you the dedicated time I give the few cases I take at a time and I’ve spent my entire life researching body rejection.” she poked something on her PDA and holograms of faces of the prior cases shes helped cure. None of them were as extreme as you but she gave them all the attention and detail they needed, tailoring the care to each one and over time they got better.

“Now, I can’t say it will be easy, we both know it will not. However I can give you the attention and care you need, and I will try my hardest, from a professional point of view, it is possible. So I need you to meet me half way with some optimism and I will give it my all.”

She verified the contents of the box that the medical drone brought over and once again expressed. "Lets start with this" she said as she passed you a container. "I hope the flavor is alright."

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----​

Jun regarded Dr. Wilder with a dubious look. He was surprised to hear a medical professional refer to some of the most eminent names in the field of tissue viability and transplantation as little better than glory-hounds, desperate for recognition. But then, she was gaijin, a Westerner. They were less well known for respectful attitudes toward their elders. He kept his thoughts to himself and simply nodded.

When the box of adjusted nutrient gels were delivered, Jun accepted the tube he was offered. It looked exactly like all the tubes he'd previously had, a simple white plastic tube like a toothpaste tube, with a screw cap lid. He unscrewed the lid and picked off the foil seal that closed off the mouth of the tube. He squeezed it gently and a faint aroma wafted up to his nose. Was that the faintest scent of roses? He squeezed some more and a blob of the clear gel formed at the mouth of the tube. He closed his lips around the tube and sucked some of the gel into his mouth. It tasted sweet, almost too sweet. It was also surprisingly drying, to the point he had to activate the artificial saliva dispensers under his tongue to prevent his mouth drying out. The flavour was something like rose-flavoured Turkish Delight, not unpleasant but somewhat different to the usual mint or fruit flavours the gels usually had. He stopped sucking and carefully replaced the cap.
"It tastes okay, Doctor. I've had much worse.", he replied, offering the tube back, "So what other therapies are you planning? The nutrient gel can't be the entirety of your treatment plan?"

 

[The Dark Wizard]

----- Elizabeth Wilder -----
----- Doctor -----​

"Well hopefully your body reacts well to this new type of nutrition gel, it already has the prep medicine infused with it to effect system on the cellular level, to basically give the nuclius of each cell an order if you will. This will make it so thjat we avoid weeks of down time when we begin your therapies which will each be individually tailored to each of your remaining organs and systems. I read that you used to find that unacceptable, and I don't want to keep a soldier man down for longer then needed."

She explained as she looked over some stats on her PDA. "But again, first lets see how this goes." she said with a smile as she got closer and adjusted her glasses, looking straight at your face. "Oh my, see? You already have some color on your face. Smile more, you'd be a ladykiller" and with that she tapped her PDA and you instantly got a notification for an appointment one week from now.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----​

Jun paused at her compliment and blinked uncertainly. For so long he had disregarded the condition of his facial skin, ignoring it like so many cyborgs do. It was his own skin, his original face. His combat gear took this into consideration with a mask layered with bullet-resistant materials and adaptations to his pores that excreted a gel to resist the effects of short term exposure to space. He turned his head to regard his face in the polished surface of a cabinet nearby. His skin did appear to have more than it's usual pale tone to it, a warmer hue. It was not an unwelcome sight.

For too long, he'd brooded over his waning humanity, as organs deteriorated and eventually failed, as fragments of his body ceased to function, as the implacable machine slowly encroached upon his fragile flesh. But yet, he'd done little to prevent his isolation. He'd rationalized it as being a part of the job, don't get close to people because they might be compromising to his position in VORTICE-9. But the truth of the matter was that he didn't want to be close to people. He'd closed out the outside world, not to protect his career and its secrets, but to protect himself. He'd seen people watching him when his cybernetics had been visible, seen the concern and, yes, fear in their eyes. Fear that humanity was being marginalized by cybernetics and artificial augmentation, fear that the human that had dominated Earth was on the decline toward inevitable extinction. He frowned internally.

His datahub updated the follow up appointment and added it to his schedule, it requested a priority level so it could place it in the schedule appropriately. High, medium or low? He had several events and appointments factored into that day, and the priority rating of the next appointment with Doctor Wilder could potentially bump lower priority appointments off his day entirely. He found himself putting serious thought into the decision. How important was this to him? He decided and initiated the priority rating. High priority. Several other events were bumped off and set for other days, as the travel time and appointment time were factored into his schedule. Done.

Jun rose from his seated position. Doctor Wilder was about his height, if the difference of her heels and he being barefoot were taken into consideration. He was close to her, since she had not moved back from her position when he'd stood up. She was completely at ease with him being so close to her, probably a result of living in an inner city environment where peoples' personal and intimate spaces were far smaller than people from a more suburban or rural environment. He raised an arm and offered a hand.
"Thank you, Doctor Wilder... Elizabeth, for your time and effort. I appreciate it.", he said, stumbling over the switch from her formal to more informal title, "I do hope that you can help me. I will admit that, over time, I've lost a lot of hope for my future. I've read about people with similar conditions to mine and it's not a fun read. I do want to do what I can to, if not stop, then slow this thing as long as possible."

 

[The Dark Wizard]

----- Elizabeth Wilder -----
----- Doctor -----​

She was visibly happy with your response. “I promise to do my very best to help you through this Jun, together we can find something that works for you, I’m sure of it.”

Suddenly her PDA flashed red, you've seen it before with other doctors, it meant there was an emergency with another patient and that their life was in danger. As if on cue Becky came in with one of the nurses. “Docto-”

Elizabeth interrupted her. “Yeah I know Becky, lead the way. Till next time Jun” she expressed and was led out of her office.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----​

Jun opened his mouth to say goodbye, but Doctor Wil- Elizabeth was already gone. All she left was the faint fragrance of her perfume. It smelled French, which meant it was either vintage in perfume terms or wildly expensive. Before he had a moment to compose himself, a nurse lead him back to the room where he'd left his clothes. He dressed slowly, thinking over Elizabeth's words. Could she really slow this process? Could she, like she claimed, stop it entirely? He stopped before he pulled his jacket on, withdrawing his pistol from its concealed holster. He checked the magazine it carried as well as the spare to ensure they'd not been tampered with. They seemed okay, so he returned them to their rightful places and pulled his jacket on. Properly dressed and now carrying the case of nutrient gel, Jun returned to his car. It was then that his datahub picked up a priority communication.

"Captain Nagumo: VORTICE-9 SigInt has received intelligence to suggest a Level Two severity incident is imminently occurring on Orbital Station: Gateway. You are ordered to return to O'Hare airport by any means and board the priority shuttle currently on standby there. Further details shall be forwarded to you as they become available."

Jun paused for a fraction of a second, his bionic eye and datahub both reaching out in different ways to find transportation. His eyes caught sight of a police hover cruiser and he sprinted over to it. The two beat cops in the vehicle were sat watching the world go by and were totally not expecting a combat cyborg at full sprint to hurl himself through the rear passenger window, feet first. Before they had a chance to even shout in surprise, their vehicle's radio crackled into life.
"Squad C16 from PD Command, get your passenger to O'Hare, priority one lights and sirens. He is a UEF VIP on a high security detail. Traffic control will be coordinating your journey, standby for directions."
The driver, commendably, was a veteran of the force and crammed his paper coffee mug into the cup holder with one hand while starting the cruiser and turning into traffic with the other. In seconds the lights were on and the sirens were wailing as the vehicle picked up speed through the normally crowded city streets. But, as indicated, the roads were almost completely clear, every light was switched to their favor so that the driver did not have to let off the power, except on the corners. The younger cop in the front passenger seat kept turning back to eye Jun and his case of nutrient gel nervously.
"That's not gonna explode is it, sir?", he asked nervously, pointing to the case.
"I hope not, officer, it'd be a bit of a sticky situation for all of us if it did.", Jun replied, his datahub tracing the route within O'Hare to get to the priority shuttle.

An hour long journey to the hospital took less than ten minutes back by racing squad car. As the vehicle hit the freight entrance of O'Hare, the gates were open already and staff were directing the squad car to a small commercial shuttle. There were other passengers boarding, but it was smaller and sleeker than the larger passenger shuttles that took a far more leisurely flight into orbit. Travel time would be a matter of an hour or so, not the three it took larger vessels. As the squad car lurched to a halt, the young officer hopped out and pulled the door open for Jun, since his door had no internal handles.
"Good luck, sir.", the driver said as Jun jogged over to the aircraft.
The UEF officer turned and snapped a swift salute off in the squad car's direction before mounting the shuttle steps three at a time. Inside, the shuttle was plush and well-appointed. There were perhaps a dozen other passengers and Jun suddenly felt glad he'd worn a moderately respectable suit rather than casual clothes. Still, he took a seat at the rear of the shuttle, handed his case to one of the flight attendants for stowage and buckled himself in.

It was then that he noticed a man sat in the seat next to him. He was dressed in tight black trousers and a loose white shirt that showed off some of his chest and a strange tribal tattoo on his neck. The tattoo was odd in that it appeared to have some sort of dermal filler under it so that it stood out from the man's skin. His hair was silvery-white, despite his apparent youth, and cut short and spiky. Despite his very casual attire, Jun figured the man was probably supposed to be here. Possibly some displaced European heir or someone from the world of haute couture. Jun had to admit, he was the last person to be up to date on fashion and the people who made it.

The Dark Wizard

 

[The Dark Wizard]

The man you had spotted sitting next to you seemed distracted and distant as if listening to something somewhere else. His face came to attention as hooked you over and at your box. He made a grossed our face and seemed to return to ease once the stewardess took it to store for the flight. Did he not like roses?

He motioned for the woman to come over when she was done and took a few seconds as if carefully considering his words, once he opened his mouth, he politely asked for something to eat in as few words as possible with a think European accent. Some minutes later she would return with the flight’s meal for the day. It wasn't any thing cheap by the imagination, but nothing less to be expected of a fancy VIP class flight.

It was some sort of pasta and bread. He looked like he was going to die as he poked the pasta and tool the bread, slowly taking a nite out of it.

Had not had any meat to eat meat to eat in weeks he thought to him self as he sighed and slowly choked it down like a little kid whose mother told him he had to take a nasty medicine.

Captain Hesperus

Also Plutoni join us. Mathias is on this flight.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----​

Settled into his seat and, of course, not the least bit exhausted from the bout of activity he'd just undergone, he watched the passenger next to him nibble and grimace at the dry ciabatta that had come with the China plate of cavatappi with sun-dried tomatoes and capers. He really wasn't appearing to enjoy the meal, almost choking on the bread.
"Some people find it tastes better with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.", Jun offered helpfully, indicating the small glass jugs containing those same liquids that had been delivered with the meal.
Europeans were a strange people, he decided to himself as he looked around the rest of the passengers. The facial recognition software tied between his right eye and his datahub had positively identified all the other passengers. The man in the seat in front of him, for instance, was Matias Rosalez, third son of the biggest arms manufacturer in Central and South America. ROWE Industries had contracts with the UEF as well as several off-world corporations to secure their facilities and ships. He nodded politely to the young man even as the main doors to the shuttle quietly closed and the vessel prepared to launch.

The Dark Wizard Plutoni

 

[Plutoni]

----- Matias Rosalez -----
----- (Hopeful?) Engineer -----​

He had barely remembered to bring anything at all when he had left the house; he had a moment of clarity long enough to go back to grab a small black bag and stuff it with all the clothes within his reach, blindly grabbing his laptop and a jumble of books open on his desk and his coat and all but running for the door. And Matias may like to think otherwise, but he knows that that's all he's really doing. Running.

The thought still makes him uneasy.

The journey to O'Hare had been clean and swift, and he had boarded without incident. He had noted, with a small flicker of displeasure, the relatively small number of passengers on the plane. Less of a crowd to hide behind. He should have already accounted for this. But no matter.
He went through all the motions, smiling as the flight attendant took his bag, politely declining anything to eat or drink, politely ignoring her critical glance at his ruffled appearance and politely taking his seat. As she left, he immediately let the courteous, lightly smiling expression drop as he sank low into the upholstery, his eyes glazing slightly as tufts of hair fell over his brow. He couldn't bring himself to move, not for a good few moments. He took this opportunity to briefly sort through his unusually blurred memories of the past few hours, immediately regret it, and hastily push everything to the very back of his mind. Not now.

A little grudgingly, he lifted himself upright as the seemingly last few passengers boarded, absentmindedly smoothing down his untucked shirt as he strapped himself in. He gave a cursory glance to each as they took their seats but recognised none. Individually, of course - he recognised the important, wealthy type very well indeed. This calmed his nerves a little. There would be no curious looks, no stilted 'small talk' and no questions--

Movement outside the round, spotless window caught the corner of his eye. A squad car had appeared in the loading bay outside, lights flashing, door open, one officer seeming to watch something approaching the shuttle while the other wearily side-eyed the smashed passenger window. But Matias's attention was suddenly diverted from the situation outside as the something appeared to become a someone; (mostly.) he watched the cyborg walk down to take his seat blankly, immediately and hopelessly curious. But the cyborg then nodded to him. Matias suddenly wanted to die.
He went cold, looking away quickly as he took the seat behind. He hadn't acknowledged anyone else like that. That could only be out of recognition. How? He sat stiffly, staring ahead, feeling strangely shaken over just a nod as the shuttle doors closed. His mind thrummed with possible explanations. Military, almost certainly. Perhaps an associate of the family.
'The family'. With a flash, the mystery cyborg was instantly out of his mind as he realised he had forgotten something - something important his mother had mentioned as he had left, and something he decided he really needed to check.

He hastily undid the buckle on the seat strap, slipping out of his seat and reaching up to the overhead compartment to push lightly on the silver casing, letting it smoothly hiss back to reveal his bag which he grabbed and hurriedly unzipped, digging his hands in to feel for the cool glass of his laptop. How could I just forget? With a small thrill of success, he felt the corner, took hold and pulled it free from the book it had become lodged in, just as the shuttle was jolted from the maintenance arm disengaging. The smooth casing slipped from his fingers - he grabbed for it as it fell, seeing it almost in slow motion, heart skipping, fingers catching it for a second but only really serving to bat it further away and into the man in the seat behind him. His stomach dropped.

Yooo Captain Hesperus & The Dark Wizard , fancy seeing you here

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----​

As the shuttle started to cycle up its engines, it's plush interior subtly vibrating as the powerful thrust drives came online, Jun looked up to see the man in the seat before him, Sr. Rosalez, suddenly rise from his seat and thrust his hands into the overhead bins. He rooted around in what was presumably his bag, then calamity struck. The shuttle shuddered sharply as an inattentive member of the ground crew retracted the maintenance arm too swiftly. Sr. Rosalez lost his footing and his hands went from searching his bag to scrabbling for purchase. In his mad scramble, he lost his grip on a glass-fronted laptop and that selfsame device began to tumble end over end through the air toward Jun.

The cyborg's datahub instantly identified the device as a super-high end piece of equipment. The company made each device individually with near-the-bleeding-edge tech and tended to charge exorbitant prices for their work. Jun estimated that this particular laptop would be the same value of several of his limbs. It would literally cost me an arm and a leg, he mused to himself. Nonetheless, he calculated the laptop's trajectory and neatly arrested its fall before it struck anything and reduced its value to zero dollars.

"Here, Señor. It would probably be wise to buckle your seatbelt again, we'll be launching shortly.", he said, offering the laptop back.

 

[Plutoni]

----- Matias Rosalez -----
----- (Hopeful?) Engineer -----
​

Matias watched, feet and expression frozen in place, as he deftly caught the laptop. He ruthlessly fought down the slight flush he felt rising to his cheeks.

"Here, Señor."

Of course.. He frowned slightly, shadowed eyes staring, searching, analysing, just trying to find some recollection of this man - but he didn't have to take long to realise that there was nothing. He'd never seen him before in his life, and he was starting to regret ever seeing him at all.
He took a small step towards his seat, grabbing the laptop and pulling it out of his hand and instinctively wrapping both his arms around it, never really looking at it, barely feeling the cold surface seeping through his shirt.

"I realised," he began stiffly, only just stopping himself from going down a slightly more aggressive route than would be wise. Military. He mentally shook himself, and began again in a slightly better tone. He tilted his head slightly. "I'm sorry, but have we met before?"

His voice was neutral, precise and completely and utterly unapologetic, his small smile charming but barely surface deep. It was a common enough line - the man could read into the softly suspicious undertones as much as he liked. But Matias could feel the shuttle slowly warming up, the floor beginning to vibrate beneath his feet. He kept his eyes locked upon the cyborg's as he briefly estimated how long before one of the attendants would come and ask him to please, would you kindly take your seat - one had already appeared at the other end of the shuttle. So. Not long at all.

He just needed to know.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----​

The young Latino snatched the laptop into a possessive embrace one might expect of a starving child offered a loaf of bread. There was a hunted expression in his eyes, one Jun had seen in innocent men caught in compromising situations. Steer carefully, he's probably well connected.
"Only from your family's corporate literature, señor. My name is Captain Jun Nagumo and I'm attached to the diplomatic corps on Orbital Station: Gateway. One of my duties is intelligence, so I have to keep abreast of who's who both here and on the station.", he replied, smoothly reeling off his established cover story, "If you should need my assistance, señor, here's my card. My datahub's comm-address is printed on the bottom."
As he spoke, he withdrew a crisp white business card from within his jacket and offered it to Matias.

 

[Plutoni]

----- Matias Rosalez -----
----- (Hopeful?) Engineer -----
​

Matias was aware of himself being assessed, just as he was doing to the man before him; he suddenly realised what he must look like, standing there, laptop clutched to his chest, his hair a mess and his eyes dark from lack of sleep - something just short of a madman, no doubt. Or a paranoid runaway. Either one.

He listened impassively to his introduction. Captain Jun Nagumo - he finally had a name to tie to the face. He carefully filed that away into his memory, but he doubted he would forget quite such a distinctive appearance all too soon. Or such a distinctive meeting. That worked too. But Matias stiffened slightly as Jun mentioned keeping an eye on 'who's on the station'. He immediately cursed himself, knowing full well how much of a traitor body language was. What better way to show him you're not supposed to be here? Stupid, stupid--
He grit his teeth, dismissing the creeping thought that he had been sent to find him almost as soon as it had entered his head. This was getting ridiculous. He was getting ridiculous - he had spent too much time inside his head, over-complicating, over-thinking, letting his paranoia slowly saturate everything he thought and saw. If his parents were that worried - also assuming that they actually could find him that quickly - they probably would've had him dragged him back out the shuttle already. He was fine. He'd covered his tracks.

As a small knot of fear and tension slowly began to unwind in his chest, he considered Jun again. His eyes flicked down to the card briefly, then back up at Jun. Matias smiled coolly at him. He ignored the card.
"I see," he replied evenly. He glanced down the aisle, seeing that one of the attendants had got a little closer. "My mistake. Have a pleasant flight, Captain Nagumo."

His eyes slid from Jun's as he turned, sliding into his seat moments before the flight attendant arrived. He did up the seat buckle, politely taking no notice of the man's sudden loss of purpose. He stopped in the middle of the aisle, floundering slightly as he looked around, suddenly deciding to check that all the overhead compartments were secured properly despite the automatic closing system. He frowned to himself as he looked over at Matias, who decided to choose that moment to suddenly take notice, looking up and smiling innocently at him. The attendant smiled back thinly, quickly doing a final 'check' and hurrying back down the shuttle. Matias turned back to the window, his lips curled up in amusement. Petty.

The shuttle engines had finished their warm-up cycle, and the compartment now thrummed at a constant, low hum as the crew went through all the final checks. Matias looked down to the sleek glass of his laptop on one knee, visibly preoccupied, all earlier amusement gone from his mind. He sighed softly, opening the lid, the pale blue light gently suffusing across the clear glass face. Why was he now so hesitant to know?

Captain Hesperus // The Dark Wizard

 

[The Dark Wizard]

The man looked at the liquid that the cyborg referenced to as Olive Oil and soaked the bread in it, able to down it a bit easier. He was almost an uneducated savage in the way he ate. "Thanks" he let out as he went for the drink next, this existence was a bit painful. How did humans deal with so many issues and needs within just their system. He couldn't control levery single cell individually either. Were humans not in control of the majority of their body in that regard?

I have so much to learn, he weak, yet different and strong. He had flashes of the encounter the previous white king had, he was the first to fall after the Tha'Kar had gained suddenly gained freedom. Before Red and Black managed to eat him in his weakened state, since the White Brood took the majority of the damage as the first brood to land on earth, the king decided to preserve it self by putting a piece of it self with human dna in a new Tha'kar that would hatch. They didn't get the king's genetic code completely and something new was made. A Tha'kar whose subspecies was human.

He looked over the strange man again who had smelled funny earlier, he couldn't completely place his finger on it, but ignoring that, he could tell he was sick. "This is better" he spoke again. "What is your...." he started thinking again. "Name? Yes. Name."

He watched your exchange unfold with the other stranger as he waited for your reply.

Captain Hesperus Plutoni

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----​

Jun turned to the man in the seat beside him, now that his conversation with Sr. Rosalez was terminated. A glance at his plate showed that rather than carefully pouring an amount of olive oil out to dip the bread in, he'd dumped the entire jug of it over the bread and was cramming it into his mouth. Jun had to work hard to not gape in astonishment, though he did blink hard several times to make sure he was seeing what he was seeing. This guy was truly bizarre.
"My name is Captain Jun Nagumo of the UEF Army. I'm currently assigned to the embassy on Orbital Station: Gateway as a diplomatic aide. Are you going there for business, pleasure or is it a stopping off point for other places?"

 

[The Dark Wizard]

He blinked at the question. Something else that felt weird he thought. Blinking was annoying as well, though he found that if he didn't think about all of the things so often, he'd do certain things instinctively, like breathing, blinking and so forth. "All of those, I think." he said in his gruff European accent, its almost like he was struggling for a bit but slowly getting better at talking. "I want to go somewhere safe, do you know a place like that?" he asked optimistically, if you could solve this catastrophe known as dry bread with the other olive liquid, then surely you could help him get somewhere self.

"Take me some where self Captain Jun Nagumo of the UEF Army".

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----​

Again with the strange manner of speaking. Jun looked carefully at the man sat beside him.
"Okay, Orbital Station: Gateway is more or less one of the safest locations orbiting Earth right now.", he replied with an affirmative nod, "Beyond a purely military installation, you couldn't find anywhere safer. What is your name, by the way?"
Jun really wished that he'd had more time interacting with Europeans. They had such odd mannerisms and modes of speech. He settled into his seat as the shuttle reached the end of the taxiway and onto the runway proper.
The interior lights dimmed and the dull rumble of the engines escalated to a distant roar as they clawed at the air, dragging the shuttle along the two mile strip of asphalt and up into the air. Almost immediately, it yawed back and the view of Earth went from the horizontal to the vertical. There was a ping as the internal PA activated.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have successfully taken off. We shall continue to climb at this angle for approximately ten minutes before we level out and begin our staged ascent into orbit. Please remain seated with your seat belts securely fastened until the artificial gravity indicator is lit. At that point you will be free to move around the vessel and drinks and light refreshments will be served. We thank you for choosing United Spaceways for your journey today."
Jun used that time to determine the estimated time of arrival and destination of the shuttle. The flight would be fifty-eight minutes and arrival would be Shuttle Bay 18. He tried to interrogate the station's internal communications network, but he was experiencing a significant level of interference. It was the sort of thing that you'd expect from a poorly-maintained network or one that was actively being DDoSed. Since the former was unlikely, the latter seemed the most probable explanation. Which meant that whatever the urgent situation he'd been so suddenly recalled for, was already underway.

This was a bad thing.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

----- White -----
----- Alien -----​

Name....Name.....Name....Name!

What is my name?

I am the White King of The Tha'Kar. Wait there is no white brood any more. He thought to him self. After thinking about it for a bit, he finally answered. "Please call me White, that seems right. I'm glad that the station is safe, I've been worried for my own life for a while now on Earth". The stewardess came back with a drink this time for everyone and he downed it little by little hoping to not stick out any more and complain as much. "This wasn't as bad as that bread" he muttered to himself. "Hopefully you can show me around Captain Jun Nagumo of the UEF of the UEF Army".

He noticed you seemed slightly stressed. "Is something the matter?"

 

[Captain Hesperus]

----- Jun Nagumo -----
----- UEF Special Forces Captain -----
​

Jun looked at this 'White' again. He had to be something to do with what used to be the European fashion industry. A lot of those types took singular names, brand names before family honor.
"Please,", the SpecOps captain replied, "Call me either 'Jun' or 'Captain Nagumo', the full title is not necessary."
As he became more concerned about the communications difficulty between himself and Gateway, White spoke again.
"Yes, I'm trying to contact the space station we're traveling to and there appears to be issues with the connection. My internal diagnostics indicate that my communication system is working effectively, so I have to assume that Gateway is where the problem lies. And that in itself is something to be worried about."
He politely waved away the flight attendant who offered him a drink from the exorbitantly expensive selection of wines, beers, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages. Even the coffee was so expensive!

Outside the window, the sky darkened as the shuttle continued its ascent and a light mist of condensation clouded the edge of the windows as the external temperature plummeted to below zero. Soon the shuttle would be in orbit and then it would be the short flight to catch up with the station and dock at Shuttle Bay 18. Jun started to feel the overwhelming desire to check his firearm, but for the sake of his fellow passengers' nerves he restrained himself, instead calling up a stored memory of a map of the area of the station around the shuttle bay. He wanted to be sure that once it was docked, he knew exactly where he was and where he was likely to be needed.