The Scalpel Program - Part 10

Senior Operator Fryld fell under the cliché portly military General stature, complete with large gray bushy mustache and nearly balding head. His accent and general appearance lead me to believe he must be from one of the planets near Dulphenraaj, making him a relative of the Jrun. If the universe likes to play jokes, this must be one of them.

Chief Coordin-, er, Chief Lynath, on the other hand, was very tall, very thin, and very young. Her skin was a shiny metallic looking silver, her hair a nearly translucent white. She wore a band with a similar appearance to our wrist contraptions around her eyes, leading me to assume she had some form of vision problem.

As this headquarters was to be our new living quarters, Kylan, Zoila and I were all placed into a side room with just enough space for three cots. Zoila was promised a room of her own was one made available, but as for now, Kylan and I had to promise to leave the room whenever she needed to change and the like. And after a certain incident involving a certain feline who pretended to be asleep, we were also awoken and kicked out if she needed to do something before our designated time to get up, which ended up happening far too often.

Kylan gave her permission to stay at our times of changing, which she fervently ignored.

Besides the troublesome living accommodations, the move to this level was actually an improvement. There was the obvious newfound ability to walk around as much as we wanted, at least in the permitted areas during waking hours, and the food was better. Not much was gained from the former, though, seeing as all the rooms we were locked out of was where all the work was done. That and none of the Captains or other workers cared to talk to us. Ishfayn would sometimes update us on how the facility is holding up to the constant battle, which really only led to more stress.

As per usual, I left it up to myself to see what I could gather intelligence-wise from our allotted area. Kylan and Zoila always went off their own separate ways, and as they never felt any need to tell me what they were doing, I figured I’d let them be.

Seeing as the large hologram table was still within our jurisdiction, I often made note to study it. There were no keys to aid me in such an endeavor, so I focused mostly on trying to learn the layout of the facility. It turns out, the bunker we were in was somewhere near the heart of the asteroid. The cell blocks made up about half of the entire place, with the next majority being what looked like the assembly line for the Scalpels.

While looking for what could possibly be the Insane containment area, I was approached on my right by none other than Captain Shyrr.

“How you holdin’ out soldier?”

After our last one-on-one encounter, this was completely unexpected. None the less; I tried not to make her aware of my surprise.

“Fairly well. Just trying to make myself useful while I wait for our attack strategy is all. How is that coming along, anyway?”

“I wish I could tell ya’, they’re not letting me in them briefin’ rooms either.”

Her speech was far from what I was used to hearing from her. There was the slightest hint of frustration from her denial of attendance, yes, but beyond that she seemed almost relaxed. There was only one way to tell, so I turned to her and mirrored her question.

“How’s all this doing for you then?”

She looked over to me and, even more to my amazement, she smiled.

“I’m relieved, actually. Not about all this here battlin’, I’m tense as can be over that. But I know why they won’t let me in and I’m right glad of it.”

“And why is th-“

“Now’s not the time. But now that we’re equals, it ain’t out of the question to come up later.”

“Equals?”

“Seems they consider your lot to be apt enough fighters, so they’re considerin’ givin’ you the same accesses that all the other Captains have. I guess you’ll be able to do somethin' useful soon enough.”

She held her smile the whole time. It got me suspicious.

“Are you sure you’re not trying to, I’m not sure how to put this tactfully… mess with me?”

“I can assure you Vhryn, she is quite right.”

I turned around to see Captain Ishfayn standing behind us, arms crossed and an approving smile on his face. He reached out with his Scalpel and handed me a small white sphere.

“This is your new access pass to the meeting room. It’ll allow you to scan your hand into the biometrics.”

“Do I scan it or something? Does it give me a new tool to use with the biometrics?”

I hated feeling dumb.

“Ah, I guess you didn’t get to try out the final feature of the Scalpel. Do you recall that little note in the welcome video? The one about matter requirements?”

I nodded slowly, thinking back to that life altering day.

“Well, this is what that’s referring to. Watch.”

Captain Ishfayn walked over to a shelf against the wall and took a small metal container from it. Holding it in his right handed Scalpel, he stared at the can for a mere couple of seconds until it disassembled itself and merged into his cybernetic prosthesis. After examining it for a moment, he walked back over to Captain Shyrr and me.

“Now, that was only a small amount of material, so the visible effects won’t be all that noticeable. As you begin absorbing larger objects, the changes will be more drastic. Now you try.”

Holding the spherical object in my Scalpel much as Captain Ishfayn had, I quickly searched through my programs and came across the one I was looking for: Assimilate. Targeting the ball, I activated the program and watched as it came apart into my bionic hand.

“Now look here; you see the difference?”

Captain Ishfayn was pointing to my palm, where the padding before was simple ridges, now was intricate patterns in a similar format to a hand print.

“You can only Assimilate things you can lift up, so walls and the like are out of the question. Also, biological objects somehow manage to stay immune to it. It’s a powerful ability, use it wisely.”

“Whoa, hey, uh, could you show me that again?”

We all turned to see Kylan walking quickly over towards us. He had the expression of a child who had just seen a magic trick, which isn’t all that surprising considering his level of maturity and what just occurred.

“Vat ees all ze talking about?”

From around the other corner came Zoila with a dainty look of curiosity about her.

Captain Ishfayn proceeded to repeat his performance for the two other Surgeons, following up with their permissions to enter the briefing room and coinciding biometric altering spheres.

“Zis ees all zo zudden, I’m not zure vat to zay.”

Captain Shyrr walked over to Zoila.

“Don’t worry yourself there; it ain’t an award or anythin’. We need your help to save everyone from those damned crazies, after all.”

“Nah, this can’t be real. I thought we were your test subjects or somethin’, why the sudden change in everything? Why did you save us up there anyway?”

“It’s just as I told you before, we’re low on able bodied fighters, and we needed a team that could help. You were not just the last surviving squad; you’re the best one we have.”

Captain Ishfayn seemed to be focusing on me during that speech, for whatever reason. Maybe he actually thought I would be the one to pull us out of this mess. At this point in time, I was almost ready to believe anything.

After a moment of somewhat awkward silence, the beep of the clock on the hologram mapping table warned us as to our curfew.

“I suggest you all head off early, tomorrow is your first briefing.”

Captain Ishfayn gave us one last look over before he and Captain Shyrr turned and began walking towards their barracks.

Once they had walked out of view, Kylan started jogging to the cafeteria.

“Where are you off to? We should get our sleep.”

“I’ll be back in a bit, don’t worry ‘bout me, just wanna get a quick snack.”

“Don’t be late Kylan! Ve don’t vant you to get in trouble!”

Zoila tried to holler after him, but he was already out of sight. We turned and began walking to our quarters.

Upon reaching the door, I offered her the room to change first, but she grabbed my hand and pulled me in after her, locking the door behind us.

“Zoila? Don’t you want to change first?”

She walked over to her cot on the far side of the room, and with her back to me, she spoke.

“No Vhryn, eet ees not zat. Eets just, vell, I’m scared ees all. I mean, vat eef ve can’t stop ze Inzane? Vat eef ve don’t make it? Vat eef-“

“Just listen to me Zoila. We’ll make it out, no matter what. I promise you, none of us will get hurt. I’ll make sure of that.”

She turned to face me, there were tears welling up in her eyes and she was visibly shaking.

“Vat… vat ees eet zat makes you zo certain?”

I walked over to her and hugged her.

“Because we’ve got each other, and with friends, you can’t lose.”

She put her arms around me and looked up into my eyes.

“Mr. Vhryn?”

“Yes Zoila?”

“Can you promise me again zat you von’t let anyzing happen to us?”

“Zoila, I promise you that we’ll be safe.”

She held me tight as she brought her lips to meet mine there in the half lit dormitory of the bunker.