Chapter 9
When they arrived at the Legion lab they found the exterior viewscreen active and a very grim looking Miley watching them approach.
"Kitten, as soon as we finish this talk I need you to go through decontamination. Full decon."
"That doesn't sound good at all." Kitten replied.
"It's not. I have determined a way to kill this virus."
"That sounds good." Gavin said.
"Not when it means refueling, in fact overfueling the reactor on that derelict and firing it up without safeties, intentionally causing a meltdown and creating an extinction level event."
"What!"
"Whatever that idiot created honestly terrifies me." Said the Doctor. "Every time I try to affect it in any way it begins to spontaneously mutate like nothing I have ever seen. I am actually amazed that it hasn't happened already."
"So we are doomed." Kazumi fatalistically responded.
"Yes and no." The doctor told her.
"We have the technology to create what we call a synaptic map. It is a 100% accurate map of your brain as it is right now. With that tech and something we call a learning chip we can install that map into a clone body during it's development."
Gavin recoiled a bit. This was a whole lot more than he was expecting.
Miley saw his reaction and headed off any mistakes he might make.
"Everyone here from the legion is a result of a similiar process, none of us are in our original bodies anymore, in fact mine and Kitten are currently deceased in a completely different universe."
"What!" Tinker kicked in.
Gavin noticed his brother had grabbed ahold of Kazumi's hand and was holding on tightly.
"Yes," Kitten shared. "The process was done a bit differently in our case but many members of what we call the legion are a result of this."
"So you are saying there is no hope of a cure?" Gavin wanted clarification.
"That's not entirely accurate. I can attempt to convert you into eldrie like myself and Kitten. However, it requires the same transfer of your psyche because other than somehow in this case every time you change the brain it completely rewires the synapses. If we didn't do the mapping we would not be able to transform you, let alone a full transfer to a clone."
"What she isn't saying Vod, is that by trying this she has a very good chance of setting off the same
random mutations she is willing to glass the planet to avoid." Tinker confidently asserted.
She hung her head a bit but made no effort to deny it.
"Yes, it could lead to the exact problem we are trying to fix, either now or sometime later if we somehow miss something."
"So we really have no choice. If we fight for our bodies survival we literally risk everyone in the galaxy." Kazumi clarified. "I, for one, am not worth that risk. Even if you can't do the transfer I will not try it."
Gavin and Tinker looked at each other for a long moment. Thinking back on the long road that had brought them to this moment.
"Neither can we. I guess we need to do this." Gavin finally said.
Kitten had tears running down her face. It's not like she wasn't mostly sure that it would work out fine. She had seen this process many times by now, but for the three to so bravely face "death" was touching.
She walked forward and caught Gavin by his face with her hands on either cheek. She approached slowly and looked deep into his eyes as she gave him one slow gentle kiss.
Tinker tried to hide any regrets he might have had about the nature of he and Kazumi's relationship not being advanced enough for such a gesture but she caught it. She gathered every bit of courage within her and gently did the same.
Tinker just closed his eyes and reveled in the sensation. Every instinct he had was telling him to grab her and never let her go but her courage deserved better.
Once the kisses were over the trio entered the old lab where they found Alpha waiting to implant the devices. The automaton, as she referred to herself, walked them through the process and what they could expect, then asked them to lie down on the provided exam tables.
The implantations went without a hitch and the synaptic mapping and storage went according to plan as well. Once it was done Miley again spoke to them.
"Okay, one final decision to be made and I wanted to give you the choice while Kitten is still going through the decon procedure. What race would you like to be?"
They all sat there slack jawed. That choice had never really occurred to any of them.
"If I get to pick, I will either stay human, well, be human again, or go ahead and become eldrie."
Gavin went first.
"I strongly recommend eldrie myself. This species is a genetically engineered masterwork from an advanced civilization that we recently encountered. They have many advantages over standard human stock or even one of our advanced human clone templates."
Kazumi and Tinker exchanged a glance.
"If my Lady doesn't object I will become whatever she wants me to be." Tinker said calmly.
Kazumi actually managed a brief chuckle. "I have only been alive a short time and have already been two separate species, why not try a third."
"Okay, you will go to sleep now so that the complete mapping can be done. When you wake up you will be in your new bodies."
The trio laid down and closed their eyes. As soon as they did the synaptic map was created and then an odorless colorless gas filled the space. A few seconds later all three stopped breathing.
Alpha left the room and triggered the bio-hazard cleansing flames as the door shut behind her. As she walked through the decon showers before exiting Miley said, "Thank you Alpha. I know that wasn't easy for you. I could have done it but I took an oath."
Alpha met Kitten outside. The woman must have had
a pretty good guess what had gone on inside because she hadn't said a word. At her feet were a pile of items belonging to the three.
"I take it the crew has also been taken care of?" She asked.
"Yes, they made the same choice, and for basically the same reason."
"Then I suppose there is nothing else keeping us here." Kitten sighed.
"I can't wait to get off this planet. Knowing the danger here is making me extremely uncomfortable."
"I agree." Said Miley as she emerged from the portable lab.
They packed up the portable lab and also the personal items from the three who had, if briefly, lived there. Once everything was packed aboard and stowed they lifted off and headed to orbit.
Once in high orbit over the still nameless world they did a full decontamination of themselves, the ship, and the lab. Miley was not understating the danger at all, Kitten realized, when the doctor politely asked them to repeat the process once it was done.
After the second decon they continued to orbit the planet for several days while Miley took periodic readings to ensure none of the virus had made it onboard.
Being there allowed them to watch the sterlization of the planets surface when the ancient ships reactor detonated. The fireball spread quickly across the surface, until the entire sky of the planet was wreathed in fire. Miley said that after a cool down period they would probably send probes just to verify nothing survived.
Once they had waited a week and had not detected a single virus molecule they set course for Nathea and made their way home.
On the way Miley verified the arrangements were in place for the batch of clones they would need for the transfers. The twi'lek had requested to stay that way and the two Fett clones had wanted the combat clone variants. She really didn't understand why, the eldrie were at least as effective but sometimes the men just wanted the size. An eldrie generally ran about 5'10" to somewhere around 6'4" while the average for the combat variants was nearly 7'
She tweaked the settings for the brothers clones to give them bodies towards the upper range. She had spoken to the two men and knew they had been that big before they were transformed. She hoped sizing them similar would help them feel more comfortable. in their new bodies.
Rejection of a clone body or depression and inability to adapt to the new normal were real issues that were faced by some who went through the process.
They had actually lost a prominent virologist that Omni had tried to re-body before he left because the man simply could not accept the new existence at all and had quickly suffered a complete mental breakdown.
Since they almost exclusively worked with volunteers the cases of each were rare but they were slowly building up a body of study and hoped to be able to assist people who had the issues more in the future.
She worked on some ongoing research with Alexis as well, and shared some of what she learned working with the latest clone virus.
The two of them had been trying to work up some way of selectively editing an individuals DNA. They were looking to be able to make some specialized injections to affect specific traits. It would be much less sweeping than some kind of complete body change.
When they arrived back on Nathea Alpha and Miley went directly to the CIS command ship still in orbit. That remained where they kept their cloning cylinders. The synaptic maps were uploaded to the proper cylinder and all they had to do was monitor and wait.