Adventures of an Ancient Space Battleship

May finished with her scan, glanced at the closed door before finding a spot on the floor to make herself comfortable. She wasn’t going anywhere until the doctors came back. Riku seemed content to just lie there while the new needles exchanged fluids with her body, and a nearby machine. While the other machine continued to silently support her baby for her. She still didn’t know why, but it seemed they had some time for discussion.

Especially now that she had nothing new to really observe. Not for a while anyway. So she directed her mental connection with Megumi, and inquired, “Did those scans reveal anything interesting about what they are doing.”

Quite a bit actually. I’m not ready to discuss my findings just yet however. I need some time to consider the implications, and I would like to confirm what I am seeing. I’ve already directed a group from another cell to locate an enhanced specimen. Your scan will prove quite useful to them. I’ll let you know if they procure a specimen.”

She sighed, it seemed a conversation wasn’t in the wings just yet. Megumi wasn’t ready yet to share what she had learned. It was alright, but May was glad to hear that her scan was already being put to use to achieve one of Megumi’s goals. It was nice knowing that she was actually useful and fulfilling her purpose like this. Even if for the moment she was currently stuck in a small room, unable to gather more information. At least until the doctors came back, a part of her wished that she could have gone to observe them. Still the scan was useful to Megumi so things were not all bad.

Megumi closed the line with May, as she considered the implications of what she had been able to determine. May’s biometric scanners were rather rudimentary, so she was not able to obtain a complete genetic work up. Something that would have been quite useful, but what she did gain was quite interesting. It seemed the Iniri were quite skilled with biological alterations, and genetic engineering. Subject Riku showed indications of a rather interesting set of enhancements. The early changes in brain structure were clearly designed to enhance her psionic abilities, and while interesting, that was not the only set of changes going on.

The changes going on down below were quite intriguing. She had only been through one treatment so far, but already she could see a few interesting developments. In the case of the baby, it was harder to tell, but for mommy, she could see the first changes. The vagina had changed slightly, and a new proto-appendage was starting to grow. Megumi figured a few more treatments would be required to finish the changes, but they may complete on their own if given time. As for what changes were occurring from the looks of it, they were forcing the Neku subject to develop their organs to more closely match those of an Iniri. Already she could draw a few conclusions from this, but to be sure she wanted a more complete scan from a fully enhanced Neku. Until then, she didn’t want to share her findings. Not until she was absolutely sure about what they were doing.

May stretched and stood up. A couple of hours had passed. Riku had done little since the procedure started, and May had passed the time keeping tabs with Kiru, and Qei. Qei had relayed what she had observed, and apparently in the last couple of hours ran into Zalla. Who had not forgotten their incomplete conversation. Qei ended up agreeing to meet her for lunch. Something she seriously considered blowing off, but May had advised her to attend. Zalla might prove to be a problem if they don’t deal with her, and blowing her off would likely make things worse. As for Kiru, she had gone shopping with Qelu. Qelu had some time to kill before inspection, and she wanted to spend it with Kiru. May suspected there was more to that than met the eye. Not that she planned to say anything. It was honestly kind of cute and rather endearing.

She put those thoughts aside, as the door opened and a pair of Irini entered the room. One of them was the leading doctor, but the other was younger. If she had to guess, the second girl was around Qelu’s age. That Iniri smiled, when her gaze locked on Riku.

“Is this the Neku you were telling me about?”

“She is alright. We are almost finished with her first procedure. I just have to remove a few devices.”

“I see. And you wanted me to meet her, why?”

The first smiled, replying, “You will be her manager and caretaker for a while. Not to mention I plan to have you care for her child once it’s strong enough to be taken from its mother.”

The younger one turned to the first Iniri, a large smile on her face, “You think I am ready!?”

“Yes, it’s about time you looked after a child. Just remember to keep in contact with her mother. When it is old enough, it will be returned to her. Not to mention I will be keeping tabs on its development.”

She nodded, “I won’t let you down. I’ll make sure she grows up to be a good girl.”

May frowned, this interaction seemed interesting. Although perhaps not entirely unexpected. Especially given the attitude that Qelu had apparently expressed. Something about Neku not making good mothers. Just May had not expected them to be taking children from their mothers so young. What was said next however shed some light on why they were doing this.

“You better. Her own mother won’t have time to care for her soon, much less teach her. As such it will fall to you. Now I am going to start removing the equipment, and then you can take her down to extraction.”

The younger girl nodded. “I’ll make sure she gets there.”

May wasn’t sure what they were talking about with the mention of extraction, but the other bit. Well, that implied something. She had to wonder what exactly the first Iniri meant about Riku not having time to care for her own child. May had a few ideas. It may have something to do with the ongoing brainwashing, or perhaps whatever they had planned for her. More likely it was some combination of brainwashing and what they planned for her.

Putting those thoughts aside, she watched as the first Iniri girl started removing the equipment. She started with the pair of needles that had been inserted just before they went on break. The strange needles came out of her flesh easily. A small tool was run over the wound causing the flesh to knit back together quickly. It was a dermal regeneration laser, a common tool. DRLs were often found in first aid kits, and could quickly heal most minor wounds by stimulating the flesh to regenerate at an accelerated rate. 

She moved on to the devices hooked up to Riku’s belly, and carefully disconnected them. It was a delicate process as at the moment the fetus was supported entirely by that machine and not her own mother. The Iniri removed each connection carefully and stood by with the DRL. Using it after each removal to quickly heal away all evidence of what had been done. The last thing she did was shut off the fluid exchange before removing those tubes. Finishing with a quick treatment from the DRL. She then smiled at Riku, “Okay we are done here, for now. I’ll see you again in a couple of days for a follow-up procedure. In the meantime, Yiria here is going to take you down to extraction. It’s nothing to worry about, we simply need access to your memories.”

She nodded, “My memories? Sure you can have access to them.”

She smiled, and then gestured for the younger Iniri, Yiria to guide her. May followed the pair out of the room. They ended up going down several corridors, and a couple flights of stairs to end up in another small room. It had another strange table chair, but the equipment differed.

Another Iniri was waiting, and smiled when Riku and Yiria entered the room. “Sit here, and we can have this done soon enough.”

Riku settled into the chair, while Yiria settled in to wait in a chair set off against the wall. May moved closer, and watched as some equipment was set up around Riku’s head. While different in design, she recognized it, it was a form of neural interface technology. A disk was settled into a slot, and the new Iniri smiled, “Okay, I am going to get started in a moment. You may feel some discomfort and have difficulty accessing your memory while I am doing this. That is normal. Since we have time, I am doing a more involved version of the procedure. One that is less likely to destroy your original memories, although some may be erased in the process anyway. That is okay, since we can simply replace them with copies. Understand?”

Riku replied, “I understand.”

The Iniri smiled, “Great.” Then she turned on the device. Riku’s face distorted instantly for a moment or two, but settled back to a less discomforted look. A monitor activated, and began to fill with data.

The Iniri began tapping away at a console, and it took May only a couple of moments to realize that she was organizing the results as they were generated. Creating an archive and adding notes onto the crystal. May was not surprised to see them doing this, especially after they went to the trouble of disappearing Riku. As the Iniri had indicated they had time to do what they wanted, and she could easily guess why they wanted a full copy of Riku’s memories. It was something that would be quite useful for their brainwashing program. Not to mention since they were known to alter memories, doing this would allow them to go through them at their leisure. That time would allow them to make stronger, more consistent false memories. Along with other advantages.

May watched them work, noting how the archive formed. A reference table was being created along with markers indicating the original memory location in Riku’s brain. It was a remarkably detailed data archive they were forming. Watching them do it was fascinating, and the techniques were somewhat different compared to similar processes used back in the Empire. At least according to the knowledge she was born with. Unlike Megumi she couldn’t tell how sophisticated they were in comparison, but that didn’t make it any less impressive to her. The Iniri using the device seemed to be quite diligent with helping the process along.

It certainly ended up taking awhile. In the corner, with the chair, she noted that Yiria had produced a mobile terminal. It was settled onto her lap, the screen up, and she seemed to be engrossed with whatever was displayed on it. Occasionally she manipulated a control, but not often. May was more occupied with observing the memory archival process, so she didn’t go over to look at what she was doing. She also noted each time Riku’s expression shifted, and occasionally the Iniri woman would ask Riku a question. Riku would then answer it, but to May it seemed the goal of the questions was to get Riku to think about something. Her answers were not relevant.

Eventually, the Iniri stepped back with a smile. She disengaged the device, and as she started removing the equipment attached to Riku’s head, she said, “Alright we are done. How do you feel?”

“Okay, I think, but my head hurts something fierce.”

“That's normal. We just copied every little memory in your head, and some of them were erased in the process. They can be replaced later, but we aren’t going to right now. The headache should pass on its own in a few minutes, and you may experience a little disorientation when you get up. I’d like you to not worry about the missing memories, you won’t need them, not while you are here anyway. We will make sure they are replaced before you leave.”

Riku nodded, “Alright.”

The Iniri pointed her at a monitor, pressed a few keys, and a video began to play. Although it was not just any video, it was taken from Riku’s memory. Riku commented after a moment, “That is so weird. I remember that, but it’s also clearly on the screen.”

The Iniri nodded, “I’m going to play a few more, just pay attention and watch them. I may ask you something, as well, but you won’t need to answer. I just need to gauge how well your memory is working right now.

Riku focused on the screen, as asked. The Iniri would then play different memories from the archive, and would write notes down. May looked over her shoulder at the pad the notes were on. She was noting memory function alright, measuring and recording how well she was remembering something. This must be a normal memory test done after an extraction. She could guess a few reasons for it. 

This part took a bit, but not as long as the archival process. The Iniri’s notes even marked where the lost memories were, and which memories she now had difficulty recalling. Among other little notes. Once she was done with that, she smiled, “Alright Riku, I have what I need. Yiria over there is going to make sure you get where you need to be next, and I’ll see you again after we finish going through your memories.”

Riku nodded, and when prompted slipped out of the chair. Yiria smiled, and pulled her along out of the room. May followed, curious to see where she would be taken next. As she left, she glanced at the clock and noticed it was already past noon. Thanks to her machine heritage, she was fine. Even without that heritage, skipping one meal would be okay, but she figured they would be taking Riku to eat about now. Especially since she was with child, and they seemed to have plans for that child. Not to mention plans for Riku as well.

Sure enough, that was exactly where Riku was taken next. A cafeteria, where Yiria ordered food for both of them. She ordered a fairly large portion for Riku, one that Riku stared at when they reached the table.

“Oh, don’t give it that look. You will need to eat at least that much, you are eating for two, and I believe you didn’t get breakfast.”

“I had a brief meal when I got up this morning before heading to the door to wait for my pick-up.”

“Well then all the more reason to eat, that couldn’t have been enough. Anyway, since we are going to be together for a while, why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself.”

Riku shifted in her seat, and frowned, “I guess, but couldn’t you just go through my memories...”

Yiria giggled, “I could, but I would like to learn a bit about you, from you.”

“Alright, I guess we can talk about my life for a bit. Anything, in particular, you would like to hear about?”