The Black

Siccuro lr’merd watched through Hanger 3’s observation port. As chief of security, he was now observing the recovery of the derelict. Hanger Three was currently devoid of breathable atmosphere as the strange craft floated inside. He was in the process of sending the con orientation corrections when the craft started spraying strange puffs of gas, orienting itself to the deck and extending its landing apparatus… with…. Wheels.. on them instead of landing pads. The little puffs of gas continued. The strangely designed craft slowly maneuvered until it was mere fractions of a GSU above the hanger floor then ceased its movement and just waited.

“Uhh.. captain, I don’t know if we triggered automation, or if the pilot is alive; but the craft appears to have oriented itself… Recommend we restore gravity and atmo.” Releasing the lapel mic as he spoke, he turned back to the ship in question with a shiver. It was “looking” right at him, triggering some ancient instinct begging him to run, to hide. He gripped his sidearm as an old fear, deep in his blood, awakened. This ship was... No, this was the ship of a predator... This realization did not sit well. He prayed to all the gods of the void he was… chunk gravity kicked back on, and the bird of prey sank to its landing apparatus smoothly absorbing the impacted then stood there in its stationary stalk, still piercing his soul…

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Mac woke to the telltale sound of his landing gear touching down inside the hanger, but he could barely move… barely breath.

“Activate emergency voice authorization gamma three one one five niner, lock all access under this encryption. unlock cockpit but freeze control of everything else.” He croaked through the agony. A wracking hack overtook him as the taste of Iron reached his lips. ‘fuck. I guess the Nanites weren’t enough. Time to pray for a miracle’ “Execute auto shutdown, maximum stealth protocol.” With that a shape loomed over him, the pain of him being moved caused him to black out once more.

“By the gods it’s heavy!!” One of the med techs groaned as they dragged the suit entombed figure out of the cockpit. Whatever it was, was roughly their size, but it weighed substantially more. The tech hoped it was all suit. The ships doctor quickly ran a scanner over the suit “ok, good news is “he” breaths near enough to our atmosphere that he will survive. Bad news is, I am reading multiple internal hemorrhage points, and he appears to be an endo-skeletal species as I am reading multiple fractures. He needs the bio bed, NOW! Get the anti-grav and the cutters we don’t have time to be nice about it!!”

A pallet usually reserved for heavy equipment and supplies was quickly pushed over and the being was laid on it and rushed off to medical. Siccuro watched as they whisked the being away. Slowly turning back to the bird of prey it came from.. ‘Heavy, very heavy. But I exceed him in height by almost a unit. Void help us.’

————- ——————————————————————

Lights, pale blue, bright, blindingly so. Mac tried to move but failed. ‘Sleep paralysis? No worse, restraints.’ He tried to open his eyes, but it was too bright. Suddenly he heard voices, a strangely lyrical conversation was apparently finishing. Someone leaned over him shadowing the abusive light. Mac opened his eyes. Bending over him, tapping into the beds control pad was… something... no, someone! Deep auburn hair short cut, maybe, but it didn’t stop at the head, but disappeared under a lab coat of some kind. This one, possibly male, was about 7ft tall, with a thin build, medium shoulders and light orange and silver skin that alternated in an almost tribal pattern. Was it natural? Was it a decoration? Mac had no idea, but he noticed Mac staring, gave a gentle smile and spoke. Nothing he said made sense. “I would offer my hand in greeting, but I seem to be immobilized. Lt Mackenzie.. and you are?” Mac relaxed a little when the man dimmed the lights and gave a curt nod before walking around to work on the bed. controls once more.

“Lou rum man mutoir .. my … bra couit… you can.. Triasti mulligar… you can understand me now, yes” can the man’s voice as he kept adjusting controls at his bedside.

‘Ok… mind fuckin blown’ Mac gave a low whistle “how?” He finally got out.

“The bed, hooked up to… suit.. computer… incomplete translation. Name Icario, in your tongue I am… healer or doctor.. “ Icario spoke, broken translation through the medical bed. “Wait one ‘guilca’ translation almost done” with that Icario showed Mac a linked set of devices that looked like high tech hearing aids, and Mac obliged. Icario inserted them and Mac let out a grunt of surprise as they began to mold to his ear canal, producing perfect comfort.

“Is this good? how copy now?” asked Mac as the translators settled in.

“I’m unsure what you mean about copying Lt Mackenzie, but I can understand you quite well now.” the now much smoother voice came through, no hint of the original language from Icario. “Now please relax. You were heavily damaged during your escapades; and I’m afraid, releasing your restraints would be fatal.”

‘Whelp, this is happening’ Mac let out a chuckle “what happened to me?”

“You have a severed spine in three places, internal bleeding from organs I have never seen before, and an internal skeletal system that I have had to rebreak in multiple places to get them into what I assume is the correct position. Your lungs were punctured by three of your thoracic cage structures. Honestly, if you were anyone else in the void, you would not have lived long enough to make it to my table. Our nanites were able to get your DNA code off of your nanites… if we can even call them that.. before flushing them so we could finish repairing you.“ Icarios’ voice was stern, apparently Terran Nanites were not up to “standard”. “How you managed to do that, I have no idea. Now please relax, you will be fixed up in a quarter cycle and then the captain would li..”

“Is he here!! Is he here!!” A second alien came bounding into the room in time to interrupt Icario. She skidded to a halt next to the doctor and stared.

“Lyrian you know better than to leave your post? Who’s covering for you at con this time!” A mildly scolding tone from Icario couldn’t hide the twitch on the corner of his mouth. The back of Mac’s whirring mind caught this as he struggled to put everything together. This new voice was a melodically higher register, but He was still unable to see anything but the doctor fully. Mac’s eyes widened as Lyrian then bounced over, leaning across the bed he lay on. She leaned in close to get a good look at him. She was Definitely all female. Long SILVER hair flowed over one shoulders with orange and silver tribal skin markings that were almost the reverse of the Doctors. She wore, what Max could only assume was an Exo Suit of some kind, but MUCH more form fitting, at least from what he could tell from beneath her poncho style top covering “You don’t look so scary? Succuro is freaking out over him?!?”

“Lyrian, the con…” Icario asked, more sternly this time.

“Oh papa, it’s three quarter cycle, I’ve been off since about 5 (min) ago!” Lyrian giggled.

She finally stood up from over top of Mac, who was now ACUTELY aware that he is not wearing anything but a sheet.

The medical bed beeped and Icario grunted “Ah, good as new. Lyrian, Care to give our guests some privacy whilst he changes? Mackenzie, we found a bag of clothes inside the living quarters of your vessel, I hope they are sufficient. We also had the Fab print you a void suit from the measurements of the medical bed.. sadly we had to cut away your own suit.. we had not the time to figure out how to operate it.

Mac quickly moved to a sitting position, bunching his sheet up around his waist as he slowly stood, the good doctor had a good eight inches on him and his daughter a good two or three. “I don’t know how it’s done here, but we shake hands in thanks and greeting. Pleasure to meet both of you” He gave a firm handshake to the Doctor, then gave Lyrian a gentler one. “I guess we shouldn’t keep the captain waiting.”

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Icario rubbed his hand as he stepped out of the room, his daughter in tow. This beings’ hands we’re like a warm vice. Icario mulled over the results from the medical bed scans. The bed registered this being's bone density as almost 3 times the galactic standard for an endo-skeletal species, of which were a minority in the greater galactic Unity. The medical bed had also noted some disturbing aspects of his physiology he wanted to ask about in front of the captain. The short mane-less man’s body was densely packed with more muscle than Icario thought possible. He was almost hairless except on his head and apparently face when it wasn’t sliced off with some sort of blade according to the bed. His arms and legs seemed to be of Delmar proportions, and the shocked look when his daughter leaned over him made him suspect much more. This hairless sapient promised to be much more than he appeared, that was for sure. Maybe he had better go have a talk with Siccuro.

The door opened and “Mackenzie” stepped out, wearing what Icario guessed was a military-esque uniform.

“Ah, ready, are we?” He asked.

“Let’s not keep the captain waiting” responded Mackenzie.