Board Thread:The Company/@comment-24930445-20140615054833/@comment-24866242-20140627062016

"Mister Lantis!" The technician was agitated. Something was not right here. The tech was one of Talbot's own men and had worked for the Doctor for a long time. To work for a man like Talbot you had to be hard if you wanted to sleep at the end of the day. Hard men didn't quiver.

"Where is Doctor Talbot?" Lantis demanded.

The tech shakily pointed down the hall towards the cybernetic lab. Lantis proceeded.

None of the other drones were here, of course. They had been placed into bulk storage after they had been recovered from the escape pods. He had watched the video feed from the room after they'd been packed in. Seventy blank and staring bodies waiting for instructions while technicians hooked them up to feeding tubes and waste removal systems so they wouldn't have to clean up their shit and piss in the mean time. All of the drones were in that room except for Darrak. Darrak had been a special problem. Something had set the creature off during the attack. Darrak had been brought here for diagnostic testing.

Lantis reached the cybernetics lab and entered the observation area. Doctor Talbot stood alone in the booth, one hand over his mouth, the other scratching nervously at his elbow. Talbot was another hard man. The subject of Talbot's attention was strapped to a surgical platform which held it upright and facing the glass. Darrak seemed calm, like the other drones. Seemingly the manic event it had experienced aboard the Vextis had passed and the programming had regained its hold. Darrak's cybernetic prosthetics had all been removed and were arrayed on a table against the wall of the surgical theatre. Only the cybernetic connection points remained. Darrak was blind, dumb, and lame. So why did it feel like it was watching him?

"Doctor Talbot." Lantis said.

Talbot jumped. Lantis had not meant to startle the man. His entrance had not been particularly stealthy. "Lantis," Talbot appeared to emerge from whatever thought process had occupied his attention and turned to face Lantis. "I'm glad you're here."

Most people weren't glad to see Lantis.

"Your message said it asked for me?" His incredulity was plain. The creature shouldn't be capable of uttering a word.

Talbot frowned and nodded. "In a manner of speaking." The doctor gestured to a computer terminal in the corner of the room. The graphical interface was offline. A single word of text scrolled down the screen, repeating: Lantis.

Lantis glanced up from the display at the creature in the next room. Eyeless though it was, the creature's head had swiveled to follow them as they moved to the terminal. "This is some sort of prank," Lantis asserted. "Or at the very least a bug of some kind. Have you had computer control down here?"

Talbot shook his head. "It's not a prank. I traced the data stream back to the failsafe override system. It's coming from him."

Lantis stared at the doctor. "How is that possible? That signal is an encrypted control channel meant to shut down his cybernetic components. It's not even directly connected to his brain."

The doctor shrugged. "It's not."

Lantis growled. "This is ridiculous. Come with me." He strode through the door into the surgery and stopped. Darrak's face had followed him into the room and the creature smiled. The metal stump of its right arm tapped rhythmically against the metal of the plank it was strapped to. The mood in the room was eerie and despite himself Lantis felt a chill go up his spine. He glanced back through the door to see that Doctor Talbot hadn't moved.

"Doctor Talbot, I want you to sedate this creature immediately."

Darrak laughed softly, a dry tortured sound from its tongueless mouth.

Finally, Talbot moved. He stepped into the room and moved to a refrigerated cabinet where he retrieved a syringe and a vial of sedative. Darrak's laughter continued, muted, as the doctor prepared the sedative. Its chest continued to shake with laughter as the needle pierced the skin at its neck and the sedative entered its blood stream. The laughter was unabated nearly a minute later, long after the chemicals should have kicked in. Darrak seemed quite aware of them. Its face remained directed at Lantis, its head tilted inquiringly.

Lantis pulled Talbot aside.

"Doctor," he said softly. "If I remember correctly, you did all of the necessary work to connect a voice synthesizer, but Ms. ZyThyrn objected and it was never connected. Will it function now?"

Talbot nodded. "He won't understand how to use it though. It takes months of training."

"Fetch it anyway."

Talbot left the room. Lantis moved to the other side of the lab. Darrak's head swivelled to follow him. All laughter had ceased. He's listening to me, Lantis thought to himself.

When Talbot returned he was carrying a small voice emitter. He approached Darrak and the creature shifted its attention to the Doctor. Talbot carefully connected the emitter to the hard point on the creature's neck and stepped back to pick up a scanner to double check his work.

"Leave us."

The voice was metallic, synthetic, genderless, and it came from Darrak. The Doctor dropped the scanner and the device's screen shattered on impact with the floor. Lantis stepped forward and placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder.

"Doctor, perhaps you should go and have a drink."

The doctor nodded shakily, never thinking to argue that it was nine in the morning ship's time. The cyberneticist wasted no time in fleeing the room. Lantis glanced after him to make sure he wasn't lingering in the observation area and closed the door before turning back.

"Darrak?"

The creature again tilted its head as it seemingly watched him through empty mechanical eye sockets. "No."

Lantis again felt the chill climb his spine. "Who?"

Darrak seemed to consider for a moment before answering. "We are many."

Lantis was not a religious man, but he was very well read, and the biblical implications of that statement did not escape him. "What do you want?"

"Nothing." The answer came without hesitation this time. If Lantis had taken the time then to consider its meaning things might have played out differently.

"Why did you call for me?"

Darrak smiled. "You need us."