Kleese,
What’s the status on the new girl, Alani? Whenever I ask where she is, people just shrug. But, like, the same shrug every time. There’s no incoming or outgoing messages on her account, but her “Drafts” folder is nearly full. Where is she?
Ghalt
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Why are you asking me? I don’t run a daycare, Trevor. I’m busy managing the fight for the very future of our reality. Remember that?
SCIENCER PRIME Gunnar Kleese
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Oh man. Oh MAN. That is a horrible image. You. In charge of children. I need a minute.
Ghalt
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Okay, but really, this is – nope, still dealing with that. Hold on.
Ghalt
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Just find out where she is.
Ghalt
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Internal sensor scans – which are definitely not powerful enough to reveal that you’re writing these messages in a bathrobe – show her in the 80,000 liter isolation tank on the lower aft deck. What in the Great Event Horizon is she doing in there?
JUDGMENTAL PANOPTICON Gunnar Kleese
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She probably feels more at home in water. She’s got the gills and everything. Maybe it’s like when we found Miko spooning that cabbage in the pantry.
Ghalt
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Trevor,
I took some samples from the tank while Alani was on-mission, and this is going to blow your untrained mind out through your sinus cavity: the water is no longer simply hydrogen and oxygen, but a colloidal suspension of virus-grade nanorobotics!
I cannot identify the nanotech’s manufacturer or original source, but I have confirmed that it is inorganic, and the only explanation for its presence that I haven’t ruled out is that it is coming from Alani herself. There also appears to be a positive correlation between the self-reproductive activity in the nanotech and the bioluminescence observed from her ritualistic dermal abrasions. Tattoos, I think I’ve heard youth call them.
Gunnar Kleese
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Is it a security risk?
Ghalt
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It shouldn’t be. While it bears the framework of a pathogen, the replication process seems to halt well below the saturation level required for rampant transmission, and remains dormant when not in her immediate presence. I theorize that this nanovirus was once unleashed on her homeworld, Akopos; by whom, or to what ends, is beyond my considerable wisdom. Somewhere in their history, its control vector must have been hijacked by the survivors and, over time, integrated into their society. It certainly explains the girl’s power to wield water as both weapon and panacea.
Gunnar Kleese
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Careful, Kleese. You almost sound like a scientist.
Ghalt
