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Brutus, the Spartans, two AIs and the Pirate Fleet (part 2)
Posted By: Traumatised Marine<rbecalick@hotmail.com>
Date: 13 April 2003, 7:48 AM
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"Doctor Hobson!" Exclaimed Professor Zolkievich, angry and violated, "What is that!?"
Doctor Hobson drew the weapon from the fold of his lab coat where he had been half-heartedly concealing it. He had been half-heartedly concealing it because he had hoped no one would spot it, but if they did, it would not actually look as if he had been actually trying to hide it.
It was an electro-chemical sedation handgun, a peculiar looking little weapon with a large handle and a stubby barrel, from which the magazine of sedation darts and the electric-charge projectile wires were fired. It was designed to stop something instantly and keep it immobile.
"Just a precaution, Professor Zolkievich." Doctor Hobson replied, trying to sound reasonable.
Professor Zolkievich gave an angry grunt.
"Doctor, it is my opinion that you have been watching too many tasteless films. Brutus is not going to come bursting out of the tank and latching himself onto someone's face. This is going to be a difficult procedure, we aren't sure how Brutus is going to cope with disengagement, it may cause trauma. The last thing we need is for you to be aiming that thing at him. Now give it to me!"
Professor Zolievich outstretched his hand, and Doctor Hobson reluctantly handed over the gun. It was really rather funny that such a small, old man, could command such respect from a man nearly twice his size.
"Professor," Said Professor Moulinaux, "I'm picking up activity, increasing neural stimulants by 4%."
Professor Zolievich nodded approval, and watched Brutus in his tank. He was a fine specimen, a fully grown Quadrefeacium, or 'Elite' as his species was commonly known throughout the UNSC.
"Neural activity is coming steadily and adjusting well, no signs of mental stress, shall I increase the percentage increase of the neural stimulant again?" Asked Moulinaux.
"No." Zolkievich commanded, "We've taken this long, we can afford to wait a bit longer and be careful."
Within ten minutes, it was time.
"Draining nutrient fluid." Reported Professor Julian. Everyone watched as the tube began to drain, the pale turquoise liquid bubbled downwards, steadily lapping down Brutus' body, exposing more and more of him to the air that replaced the liquid. The tank was in moments completely drained, Brutus' body slumped against the wall of the tube, now that it was unsupported by the fluid.
"Disengaging aural umbilical chord... now." Announced Professor Julian.
There came a hiss from the tank, and Brutus gave a slight convulse. Though everyone had been prepared for it, it still made them jump.
The aural umbilical chord eased away from the clasp of his jaws, and retracted to the top of the tank.
Brutus' jaws hung open in a limp manner. However every so often how ever they would flex, as if to search for the mouthpiece that they had been clamped onto ever since they developed. The mouthpiece that Brutus had received oxygen and nutrients from his whole, short, fast-grown life, up until this moment.
"Bringing up plate supports." Said Professor Julian.
From the very base of the tube, there appeared a set of acrylex plates that moved out to fit together and form a shallow bowl-like boundary about three feet out, to stop Brutus slumping onto the floor and damaging himself when the tube was retracted.
"Retracting tube." Said Professor Julian shakily, trying to initiate the procedure and watch the tank at the same time.
The tube hissed upwards slowly, the last remains of the nutrient fluid dripped from it's rim.
Without the tube, Brutus collapsed with a dull, wet thud into the safe support of the large shallow bowl around the base of the tank.
Everyone watched with silent anticipation.
"Come on." Urged the Professor, "Breath! Take your first independent breath of air."
Brutus spasmed, then coughed; a grating, mucussy cough. Then he let out a guttural roar that scared the life out of every scientist and reverberated against the walls of the lab. Afterwards, Brutus simply lay quietly slumped in the support basin, every so often taking a long powerful breath, and slowly exhaling.
"What was that!?" Exclaimed Doctor Wardmen, referring to the roar.
"It must have been a means for his species to stimulate their lungs into action, rather like a baby crying." Said Professor Moulinaux.
"Good Lord, the mothers must have some horrible, sleepless nights." Remarked Doctor Lloyd.
Some of the scientists laughed shakily, only to go silent when the saw what Professor Zolkievich was doing.
He advanced right up to Brutus, and looked down on the sprawled creature in the shallow basin support. Brutus moved one if his legs weakly, still breathing slowly and powerfully, but didn't seem aware of him. Professor Zolkievich slowly extended his hands, and grasped the Brutus' head behind his jaws. Brutus responded to this with a responsive, powerful, yet shakey attempt to turn over. The Professor then raised Brutus' head, still holding it and supporting it, so he was looking down into Brutus' white little eyes; like chips of ice. The Professor brought his face closer, until it was a few inches from Brutus' slightly saliva-dripped jaws.
Brutus squinted his eyes, trying to focus on the blurry image before him, until he managed to get a roughly clear image of the Professor. He gave a small growl, and exhaled a warm, moist breath into the Professor's face.
The Professor felt and smelled the warm breath, like vinegar. He took it as an acknowledgment from Brutus.
Professor Zolievich slowly and gently lowered Brutus' head, laying it back onto the support of the bowl, and turned to his fellows.
And to his surprise, he saw that Professor Moulinaux had been aiming the electro-chemical sedation gun with trembling hands at Brutus, all the time that he had been holding his head.
Professor Zolkievich raised his hand reassuringly.
"Come, come, my dear! What? Did you think he was going to bite my face off? We are his creators, his 'parents.' He will be dependant on our teachings and help as he develops mentally, do you really think he was going to be some sort of mindless killing machine?"
Professor Moulinaux lowered the gun, looking thoroughly ashamed of herself and intensely embarrassed, her normally snow-pale cheeks were tinged rosey.
"Now," Said Professor Zolkievich, animated and eager, "Doctor Hobson, Doctor Wardmen. I would like you to get Brutus onto a mobile bed, and put him in the secure room. Adjust the temperature so it matches that of the clone tank fluid, and pipe in Johann Pachelbel's 'Canon in D', followed by a randomised selection chosen by Archimedes from my 'Relaxing Classical' audio file."
The scientists all looked at Professor Zolkievich as if he was joking, but when they saw him stare back coldly they realised he was perfectly serious.
"Now..." Finished the Professor, still looking around at the other scientists challengingly, "I am going to notify ONI, although no doubt they know already, I'm sure there are bugs in here that we've missed. Other than Doctor Hobson and Doctor Wardmen, who must attend to Brutus, you are free to take some free time until I call for you."
Professor Zolkievich turned on the vid-link to ONI, using his alpha priority entry code. There was a brief pause, where in the top left corner of the screen in small white text there flashed the message,
"Encrypting transmission, please wait..."
Then a metallic voice began to across the audio players, no image of it appeared, simply the words it said scrolled along the screen.
"Welcome Professor Zolkievich. Which department shall I direct you to?"
"This is a priority alpha request," Professor Zolkievich said, slightly slowly and more pronounced, so the dumb machine could comprehend, "Direct me to the head of ONI."
A new message flashed in the top corner.
"Processing request, please wait..."
Within moments this message was replaced with the image of the head of ONI, he was anonymous, simply addressed as 'Sir' or the 'Head' by the few who ever got the chance to exchange dialogue with him. The room the Head was in was very dark, the man was little more than a silhouette.
"Ah," Said the Head, "Professor Zolkievich, you bring news of Brutus?"
The Professor nodded.
"Brutus has successfully been extracted from his tank."
The figure of the Head straightened up, clearly with some measure of anticipation.
"Excellent. Is there anything else you will be requiring for the training of Brutus? We need him combat-ready as soon as is feasible."
Professor Zolkievich replied,
"Well then, Sir, I would like to request that we be sent some Covenant specimens. Alive and fighting-fit. If we are to train Brutus properly such training opponents will be invaluable."
The Head paused.
"Professor Zolkievich, I would have said such a request would have been near impossible, were it not for recent events. I'm not sure if you and your team have been made aware of this, but the human-held planet; Sigma Octanus, recently came under a Covenant assault. Unbelievably, even when outnumbered, nearby forces managed to repel these invaders, notably by the efforts of one Jacob Keyes. For reasons I shall not disclose to you," The Head added coldly, "There was a large amount of Covenant ground forces during the assault, it was not simply an orbital bombing but a raid of a description. The infamous Spartans brought about the destruction of the majority of these forces by means we here at ONI are certainly displeased with. However there is still to be some clear-up operations to be carried out. I shall issue the order that a number of Covenant prisoners must be captured during this operation."
The Head paused, then asked,
"Is there anything else?"
Professor Zolkievich shook his head graciously,
"No, we have already received word from NavSpecWep of the URA-MJOLINER and that it will be ready by it's deadline. We have also been notified that the team that will be augmenting the new Spartan IIs will also augment Brutus in the same go. Also, the OSD for Reach has contacted us to tell us that we will be able to have uninhibited flight training space within a set of secured coordinates nearby the planet, for Brutus to train using a Seraph fighter. And the productions are already well under way for the neural matrix transition of a clone of my own brain to provide the basis for Brutus' AI; Arkus. So, for now, we are fine."
The Head nodded, and terminated the vid-link.
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