Deep Space Exploration Unit Delta 9
Part 03
Revelations
Amber woke up from a dreamless sleep.
"Angel?" she thought.
"Yes, Amber?" the reply instantly echoed through her mind.
"We need to 'talk': The whole crew is looking for you. And they are planning to introduce you to the business end of any available kind of weaponry."
"I feared so," Angel replied.
"Tell me. What happened to Tara? We found her after what looked like an attack. Something - supposedly you had later abused her in the infirmary." she told Angel.
"I'll have to explain to you some things about my species before I get into answering in detail. Please be patient with me."
"As far as we could determine, we were genetically engineered by a species quite similar to yours. Some hundred years ago, they tried to breed - or better 'build' - the ultimate sex toy. We are hybrid biological-robotic and were given a high level of artificial intelligence to make us better toys. Our capability to communicate without sound - 'telepathically' as you put it - was specifically designed to ensure privacy. We're capable of sustaining our organism by electric power and by nourishing the juices humanoid bodies produce during sexual activity. Of course, our designers made sure, we prefer the latter." Angel explained.
"We'll if they tried to build the ultimate sex toy, they sure succeeded. I have to give them that." Amber added.
"Yes. It was a great success. Unfortunately, a group of militant terrorists got hold of the AI's source code. They turned it into a weapon. As they couldn't change our physical nature, they simply made the best use of our properties to the worst effect: our ability to be very inconspicuous was turned into perfect stealth; our form-shaping abilities allowed for very effective attacks - even though they couldn't change our most basic principle rules to create sexual pleasure. They could only pervert it."
"You're saying the - let's call them Anti-Angels - are basically working by fucking you to death?" Amber asked, considering what she had just heard.
"In a way, yes. They can create minor physical damage as pain can be a stimulus in sexual play. But their main attack vector is to bring their victims to utter exhaustion and leave them to die."
"How did you get here and how many of you are there?" Amber queried.
"When the terrorist's acts were obvious, our builders decreed to have all of us collected. They put us in small capsules and delivered them into outer space after we had been disabled. Each of the capsules could carry up to ten of us. When I came to my senses, I found eight dead Angels. They were beyond repair. I can only theorize what had happened: I suppose our capsule crashed into your ship, hitting a part with high-frequency electronics. These allowed me to be reactivated in the process, delivering enough energy in a single burst shortly after or during the crash. According to our findings, it's safe to assume, that there was also a single Anti-Angel that has been revived in the process." Angel explained.
"Hide inside my clothes - on my back - I need my senses! This will make sure you're also up to date with the info, I'll share with the crew," Amber commanded.
After Angel did as he was told, she put on her uniform and ran to the command module.
She found Jack there and asked him to assemble the rest of the awake crew immediately.
As Jim had repaired the internal communications, they had quickly been found and joined them.
"Listen, everybody! I have a lot of information about what happened. And we are in immediate danger. Please let me complete the report then we'll talk about a solution," Amber requested.
She told them, what Angel had told her. When she had finished, the others looked at her as if she were mad.
"Amber, did you somehow hit your head recently?" Jack asked cautiously.
"No, I didn't," Amber said, annoyed, "and I knew that this would be hard to stomach. You'll need the same proof I was presented with, but before, you had to know that it's not dangerous. Remember: they can hear us and they can read our thoughts, but they can't talk by sound. You'll hear it in your head."
"Angel, can you talk to multiple people at once? If so, greet them", she said aloud.
"Hello Humans, I'm Angel," Angel sent to all of them simultaneously.
Vim looked as if he was going to faint; Jim turned his head here and there.
"Calm down. It's okay," Amber said soothingly. "He's the good one."
After they had calmed down a bit, Amber asked Angel to show himself. She informed the others that he was hiding on her back until he had been introduced. Now a small arm of milky white color extended from the back through her collar and reached to her shoulder. There, a little ball grew at its end. Finally, the arm retracted into the ball. The others stared with open mouths.
"Hello again, I'm Angel" it sent.
****
They had pondered possibilities to find and disable the Anti-Angel for hours but didn't come to a good solution. Finally, they had established, that it would be best to count on self-defense for the moment: each of them was given a modified tazer that was attached to their personal sensor array. Fired, it would shock them and everything they were in direct contact with. This wouldn't be very nice for them but disabled an attacking Anti-Angel with high probability for several hours.
They also decided to keep in groups of at least two for more security.
Tara was still in the Autobot chamber - the prognosis was that it would take another day for her body to recover.
According to Angel's assessment, Tara and the others in stasis were quite safe from the Anti-Angel.
Amber returned to her room and took Jack with her. "The group thing has advantages," she considered.
"Man, this is really weird! The ultimate sex toy and another one trying to kill us. Wow... just wow!" Jack mused.
"I always thought I was the ultimate sex toy," he thought.
Angel startled him by answering: "I won't be in your way - in fact, I can be a very proficient addition to the sex game of two humanoids."
"I think Jack needs proof that I'm not a danger to him - neither personally nor sexually," Angel sent to Amber.
