Chronometer Error! Bulk Hub Satellite Facility
Mabon Peters helped heave the body onto the slab in the medical bay. His team leader turned to the only medic present and said ‘Here you go doc, this is the body of the sniper we recovered. Be careful, we have checked the body for booby traps, but we haven’t removed the helmet or opened any of his armour. Also, there could easily be a booby trap inside the body.’
With a wry smile on his face, the medic replied, ‘Thanks for those comforting words. Now get out of here, only I need to be at risk, you can watch the procedure via visipresence from the control room next door.’
The three operations team members left the medbay and headed into the control room. Nodding to the medical technician who was running the remote equipment, the team members gathered around the holographic visipresence display. The doctor started to speak.
‘Post-mortem report on unknown humanoid killed by Operations Team 3 on Sirius B-III, temporal date 16th August 3122, Reality Designator Gamma 31. The humanoid is wearing a single piece jumpsuit of indeterminate colour, it appears to be reacting to the surroundings and changing colour to blend in. The humanoid is wearing a helmet of streamlined profile that is exhibiting the same properties as the clothing. Humanoid is 1.85 metres tall and has a clothed weight of 103 kgs. The humanoid is in proportion to a human of equivalent height. I am moving towards what appears to be a head and will attempt to remove the helmet. There appear to be 2 clasps that hold the helmet on to a neck joint. I am attempting to undo the clasps now. The clasps have detached. There was a rush of gas as the helmet unsealed. Scanners show no hazard from the gas down to the nanoscale level. Gas has been identified as a human ideal mix of nitrogen, oxygen and trace gasses. I am removing the helmet.’
As the team watched the doc remove the helmet they all unconsciously leaned towards the holographic display slightly. As the helmet cleared the head, Mabon Peters broke the silence.
‘That looks human.’
The doctors voice cut in. ‘Subject appears human, I will take a tissue sample from inside the cheek and run it through the DNA analyser.’
The team looked on as the doctor prised open the apparent human’s mouth and took a scraping from the cheek. The sample was taken to the analyser attached to the wall and there was an agonising 3 minute wait as a quick analysis was conducted. The doctor looked at the readout and spoke out loud. ‘Analysis complete, sample is human with a 99.9% confidence.’
10 minutes later, Mabon was heading for one of the small briefing rooms. As he walked down the corridor, he was mulling over what had just happened. As soon as the result was announced, the team leader’s private channel had crackled into life and after a brief conversation he had disappeared off leaving instructions for Mabon and the other team member to meet him in Briefing Room 5. Was there another human faction with the same ability to flit realities as them? If so why were they apparently trying to help wipe out the Human Race? He didn’t think he would be getting any answers soon.
As he entered the Briefing Room, he saw that, in addition to his team, Andy had joined them. As he took his seat, Andy stood up and turned to face them all.
‘You’ve done some damned good work bring that body back. We have no idea what the implications of it being human are, but you can be certain that they can’t be good. We’ll have to wait for some more analysis to be conducted; however, in the meantime, I have another mission for you. We need a Precursor ship to replace the one that nearly killed us. You are going to the QY Aurigae system in the year 3113. We think that we have a way to overcome the virus in the Precursor AI core and we really need one of these ships intact.’
At that point the team leader stepped forward, ‘take a full rest period then report back here, we’ll plan the op in conjunction with the crew of the Liberator.’
As Mabon left he thought to himself, ‘I’ll drop in on Amynedd, I wonder if she can make any sense of why the body was human and why Andy wants an intact Precursor warship.’