Exactly as expected, the commotion drew the attention of everyone onboard Jessipie-90. Right away the group I’d left behind in the subbasement wanted to know what was going on, but with Reim’s help—who finally calmed down enough to be useful, I was able block the captain and the others from getting inside the engineering bay and disrupting Zyno who was rushing to finish his device.

Obviously Gadow was far from okay with being left out of the loop and demanded to know what was going on with the other crew members who’d been with Zyno, but with Reim’s testimony saying I saved her life from something almost impossible to describe, we were able to get Gadow to call everyone to the cafeteria for now.

I sent Bryx and Willa a private message letting them know what happened—not wanting to risk saying anything else out loud around the other crew members just in case anyone else had been assimilated and might’ve had enhanced hearing. I knew stealth was pretty much out the window anyways with what all happened in the room with the drone forms, but I was just praying Gamma-20 still didn’t know what exactly we were planning and would be playing it safe for now, keeping any other drones or assimilated people hidden for now.

Bryx messaged me once everyone else had all gathered up in the cafeteria including the engineers with Durgo and Roote, and I just hoped a long lunch would keep them preoccupied until Zyno was finished.

I spent the time anxiously pacing around the engineering bay while Zyno worked, and after Reim covered the dead bodies in some spare tarps she found, she went over to sit in a chair in the corner with a rather vacant look on her face—mind clearly blanked out from all the trauma.

I was trying to be subtle about it, but I couldn’t help but look at the time every few minutes.

Zyno let out an angry huff, “I’m working as fast as I can, Adam; almost finished.” He insisted.

I nodded along, but didn’t say anything, just spinning the trusty fidget-ring on my index finger as I paced across the room.

Finally, Reim looked over at me, “You…you know what those things are, right? You’ve dealt with them before?” She asked.

I waved her off quickly, “Not now, Reim, we’ll tell you more when we tell the rest of the crew.” I said dismissively.

She crossed her arms and glowered at me, finally regaining some of her salt, “I think I have a right to know after all I’ve endured in here.”

I stopped pacing and turned to her, “Later, I promise, but right now—”

“Will you two shut the hell up? I’m seriously just about finished here.” Zyno snapped.

Reim and I both quieted down, and I resumed my pacing as Reim returned to staring off in the distance.

True to his word, it was only a few minutes later when Zyno abruptly stood up from his work desk, holding his new device in his hands triumphantly.

“There we are, finally finished.” He declared.

I rushed over to him, and Reim was right behind me.

“And you’re sure it’ll work just like what they had on Vyrane?” I pressed.

Zyno smirked, “Who do you think you’re dealing with here?” His smile dropped and he looked over at Reim, “Now, if you could just look at me Reim so I can make sure the device is working.”

Reim suddenly looked nervous, “To make sure I’m not infected?”

I nodded, “Right, but like we said before, you’d know if you were infected—you’d be dead. If you’re really still you, you should be fine.” I assured her—though honestly I had no idea if that was true with these smaller drone forms that seemed to be incubating inside their host bodies, we simply didn’t know enough about them to know anything for sure.

Better to test her just to be safe for our sake more than anything.

Reim let out a shaky breath, “Okay, let’s just get it over with.” She said, then turned to Zyno and shut her eyes tight—as though expecting some painful procedure.

“Uh, Reim, I need to be able to scan your eyes for the test.” He told her.

Reim opened her eyes and smiled awkwardly, “Oh yeah, right.” She said, then looked into Zyno’s scanner.

Zyno’s device was certainly different, with one part of it looking like a flashlight mixed with some ocular scanner that was attached to a custom-fitted tablet. When he activated the scanner, I could see the tablet displaying Reim’s eye all zoomed in, with scanner lines going up and down and then side-to-side. Next it started changing colors to show some thermal readings, then another that appeared to be ultraviolet, and then a few more I couldn’t even guess what they were. The whole test took about 30 seconds, and when it was finished there was an indicator on the screen that declared Reim was clean and clear of any Predazoan cells.

“All clear.” Zyno declared, and Reim let out a sigh of relief—as though worried she’d been taken over and didn’t even know it.

“And you’re sure that can scan everything it needs to find out if someone’s being controlled?” I pressed.

Zyno turned to me and held up the device so he could scan me, “As I’ve said before, there’s nothing in the Empire that can break through pure Predazoan camouflage, but if the person’s been assimilated, that’s something the scanner can detect.” He explained.

I heard the scanner swoosh and sweep a few times, then it finished with a dull beep that sounded more like an error message.

“Huh, look at that.” Zyno said, then showed me the device’s screen.

The test said it detected an anomaly in my DNA but couldn’t determine the source.

I crossed my arms and looked at the device, “What the hell does that mean, is it my genetic modifications?”

Zyno nodded along, “Must be, surprising it says it can’t figure out the source though; those must be some deeply ingrained biological changes.” He shrugged, “No surprise they’re that complicated though, considering where you got them.”

Even though it couldn’t detect my genetic enhancements came from Predazoan biomass, it was still impressive the scanner detected there was something unusual in my DNA—something altered or foreign. That alone made Zyno’s device much more sophisticated compared to what they had on Vyrane.

Reim pointed at the device, looking nervous, “Is that okay Adam didn’t pass the scanner? Should we be concerned?”

Zyno chuckled and shook his head, “No, trust me we’re fine—that’s actually what I was hoping to see, means I really calibrated it correctly.”

“So it’ll be able to detect any alterations in regular DNA, confirm if someone’s been assimilated, but won’t be able to detect Gamma-20 if she’s fully camouflaged posing as a crewmember, right?” I asked.

Zyno nodded, “Right, but we’re going to operate under the idea the main body is over dealing with the crystals or something while she’s using her drones to work on us. We can’t completely eliminate everyone as a suspect, but I think after seeing what happens during the testing, we’ll be in the safest position we can be with our current situation.”

I waved towards the device, “Then should I scan you or something just so we’ve got all our bases covered?”

Zyno fixed me with a flat look, “Really? You want to scan me with the device I created to confirm if someone’s been assimilated, to check if I’ve been assimilated?” He sighed, “Don’t you think if I was actually assimilated I wouldn’t have created the device to detect if someone was assimilated—faked it all or some shit?”

I crossed my arms and narrowed my gaze at him, “Sounds like the reasoning of someone worried about what the scan might show.” I said, and Reim actually laughed at that—even catching herself by surprise.

Zyno rolled his eyes then handed me the device, “Here, that button there, hold it steady and it’ll do it all automatically.”

I scanned Zyno and thankfully saw he was cleared, then handed the scanner back to him, “Good news, you’re still you.” I confirmed, and once again Reim laughed.

Zyno sighed again as he snatched up the device, “Only you could joke around at a time like this.”

I shrugged, “Only way I can survive all this trauma.”

Zyno looked at me for a few silent moments, then just nodded, as though he understood exactly what I meant—the defense mechanism I used to get through all this crazy shit.

“Alright, enough pissing around, ready to return to the others and start scanning them?” He held up the device, “Be ready for shit to go down though, one way or another.”

I nodded, then turned to Reim, “And remember, just in case anyone else has been infected, we need to be careful with what all we reveal, so don’t say anything yet, okay? I promise we’ll explain things once we’re in a safer position.”

Reim nodded once, “I’ve got it Adam, you can trust me too now.” She gestured to the dead bodies covered in her tarps, “Anything we should do with the…victims for now?”

I turned to Zyno, then back to Reim, “No, I want to leave them for now, see what happens.”

Zyno nodded, “You wanna see if they get picked up while we’re all in the cafeteria?”

“Exactly; we can rule out if any other crewmembers are assimilated, and once that’s done rule out if there’s anything else on this side of the ship we need to worry about—more drones, Gamma-20 herself, anything that might get to the bodies while we’re all preoccupied with your test.” I shrugged, “We can’t totally rule out if Gamma-20 is hiding inside a crewmember, but we can see how bold she’ll be with some fresh biomass waiting for her to collect—especially after she’ll probably want to replace what she lost in here.”

“Solid plan.” Zyno said, then gestured for the door, “Lead the way, hero.”

***

Zyno, Reim and I arrived at the cafeteria to see a little bit of a standoff was happening, with my team members on one side trying to calm down an angry Jessipie-90 crew as they pelted them with questions, with Gadow in the middle trying to both keep the peace and lead the inquisition.

I leaned over to Zyno was we walked in, “So much for having a nice lunch.”

He just chuckled, but before he could reply we were noticed by the others, and people started rushing over to us to throw their questions our way.

“What’s the meaning of this?”

“What the hell’s going on?”

“Where’s Cikirna and Unno?”

Before we could be overwhelmed, I jumped up on the nearby table and waved my arms to try and get everyone to stop and listen to me.

“People, please, settle down and we’ll answer everyone’s questions.” I assured them.

They didn’t seem very assured and continued asking us questions, so I looked over at Gadow and gestured I could use his help.

“Everyone, quiet! We obviously have a situation now, so we need to remain calm and orderly while we deal with it.” He insisted, though I could see he was far from pleased with how he was out of the loop.

Once we had silence, I jumped down from the table.

“Okay, thanks everyone. First, we’re dealing with a bit of a situation, and Cikirna and Unno had to be quarantined in the engineering bay.” I lied easily.

“By themselves?”

“Shouldn’t there be more people with them?”

“What the fuck did they do?”

Reim stepped forward, “Please, guys, seriously, just listen. There’s something really weird going on, but Adam and his team are working on a fix, you just need to trust them for now.” She insisted, and I was glad to see her word must’ve held some weight as it calmed the mob down again.

I gestured over towards Zyno, “Zyno here finished his scanner to detect if someone’s been affected by the dark matter radiation when the warp gate collapsed, and if they have, we need to act fast if we’re going to save everyone.” I pointed out my team members, “We’ll start with my crew just to make sure we don’t have to worry about the contagion spreading since we weren’t here when that first gate collapsed.”

The Jessipie-90 crew wasn’t exactly quiet as they started talking amongst themselves about the possible contagion and a quarantine or whatever, but they didn’t interrupt again.

I was sure our team would pass Zyno’s tests, but I thought it would help sell the lie for the whole crew if I had everyone participate.

One by one, Zyno scanned everyone from the mission team, and exactly as I thought, they were all cleared, and when they were, I had them all stand behind me and Zyno.

“Okay, now everyone from the Jessipie-90 crew, I’m going to have you stand in a long line, standing at least six feet apart.” I instructed.

The crew grumbled, but I was glad they complied without much fuss. Once they were properly organized, Zyno and me went down to the far end, starting with Gadow.

I stayed right behind Zyno as he scanned the captain, and I was glad to see he passed, but tried to keep it from showing on my face to hopefully hide the results.

Next in line was Fierra, and she passed. Zemman was next, looking quite distraught ever since we said Cikirna had been quarantined, but he passed no problem. Num was next and he passed, then Lummy and Saba passed.

Then we got to Yevok and the scanner screen warned it detected Predazoan cells. Zyno scanned him once more, and again he failed the test—but we didn’t say anything and moved down the line.

Brunt and Toku passed, Wynana was fine, and then finally Vola was cleared too.

Everyone except Yevok passed Zyno’s scanner.

“Alright, we’re going to have Gadow and Fierra, take a step back, then Yevok and Vola. Everyone else can move forward, we just need to recalibrate the test for glizreks DNA—reptilian biology makes the scanner a little funny.” I said, sounding completely neutral—as though this was an expected outcome.

A few people grumbled this was a waste of time, while the four remaining seemed irritated they were singled out.

“A few steps back please, we need to scan your whole body.” I instructed.

Begrudgingly, they all complied, and now Yevok was far away from anyone else—a safe distance for when the fight breaks out.

But should I just attack him now, without warning? What if we were wrong and Yevok was still alive, just with those drone eggs incubating inside him—or worse, what if we were wrong about the device and the test? What if it was faulty?

I realized then for all the action I’ve been in since joining with the Empire, I still haven’t actually killed a person; so far I’ve only fought against already dead bodies being controlled by a Predazoan, or drone forms that weren’t ever really alive in the first place—like cutting off someone’s finger.

For a few moments I was paralyzed, and I realized I couldn’t kill anyone, not a real person anyways. So far my life had always been about saving lives, starting back on Earth working as a medic. Sure, I might’ve been playing as an action hero lately, but it was against a bunch of lifeless enemies—like NPCs in a video game.

As I’ve said to Eve many times before, I would always keep my humanity and hopefully it would make her more human eventually too, so there was no way I could up and start killing people just because I suspected they’ve been turned.

I needed to know for sure first.

I pulled out the heavy carbine rifle and pointed it at Yevok.

“Gamma-20, I’m with the Predazoan containment force, and we know you’ve assimilated this crewmember. We have advanced weaponry that can destabilize your biomass, so if you don’t surrender I’ll use lethal force against you.” I announced, trying to put as much authority into my voice as I could.

Yevok’s eyes grew wide and he suddenly looked terrified, “What the fuck, is this a joke?”

“Adam, what the hell are you doing?” Gadow demanded.

“I’ll give you until the count of three; surrender or be killed.” I continued.

Some of the Jessipie-90 crew started to yell at me and moved to get involved, but the rest of my team were quick to intercept them.

“One.”

Yevok waved his hands at me, “Seriously, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

I cocked the heavy carbine rifle, “Two!”

Yevok looked around frantically to the rest of his crew, “Guys, it’s me, don’t let him do this!”

“Three!”

Chaos erupted then; Gadow moved to break free from Zyno trying to reign them in, while the rest of the crew behind me was shouting I was insane as my team barely held them back, and then Yevok looked at me, cocked his head to the side, and appeared almost confused by everything that was going on.

Then the front of Yevok’s torso suddenly exploded in a wild flash of black ooze, and three Predazoan drone forms ripped out of him and rocketed straight for me.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep