The Ace of Spades Campaign - Alien Base part 08

Alien Base Sub Level 2 - the Bio-labs
The party left the alien zoo and headed up the T-junction corridor to the door situated at the northern end. It slid open easily to reveal a large room, roughly half the size of the zoo.

The large room was filled with equipment but it was a complete mess. Machinery was flung around with total disregard for property, cabinets pulled opened and contents tossed about. Total confusion reigned. There were two other exits from the room. One was an open passage in the north eastern corner and the other was a metal door identical to the one they had entered through and directly opposite it.

Rebecca, the cat burglar, checked out the passage which led to a rough, new extension to the existing base, indicating that the base was being expanded before it was abandoned. Nothing new was inside the room but four power sleds were parked on the floor. Wonder of wonders, all four were in perfect operating condition.

Evidence of a quick departure abounded. Clearly, this place was ransacked for useful items when the place was abandoned. Nothing seemed to be in order, but everything had one thing in common: it was useless. All had been broken or had parts missing. Whilst there appeared that there was nothing here of any use, Lynda discovered that there was data aplenty. She found dozens of "magazines" (looking more like scrolls read from left to right) and a number of other books stacked on shelves. In addition, she found several more scrolls, this time hand-written, which appeared to be lab notes. With such a discovery, she now had enough data to begin translating the alien language. As a research scientist, this discovery made her very happy. All five crew members of The Ace of Spades wore translation units, so Lynda was able to relay her findings to them all, allowing any of them to communicate with any of the aliens should they happen to meet one.

At the western end of the room, the others made a grisly discovery. A living male human being lay on an operating table. He had been flayed and his organs had been removed, to be placed in plastic carriers suspended above him to provide a living "exploded" view of the human anatomy. That he was still alive was a miracle, although he was unconscious.
"He is suffering from uraemic and chlorine poisoning," Judith announced after running her medical scanner over him, "and he hasn't got long to live. I'm afraid he's beyond medical help now. If I remove any of his plumbing it will cause fatal blood clotting."
"That's our Captain, Richard "Dingo" Denton," Johan exclaimed as he recognised the man.
"I can revive him, if you want," Judith said, "He may have some useful information to pass on."
"Do it," Johan ordered without hesitation.

As soon as Judith revived him, Denton noticed the familiar faces of Johan and Tara.
"Am I glad to see you," he said in a weak, whispery voice. "Listen carefully. I have a report I wish to make."
"Go ahead, sir," Johan urged. "These people are friends. They're here to help."
"We were attacked by an alien ship, which fired some sort of electronic paralysis beam at us. It left our ship without power, totally draining our engines and power supply. We were easy victims for them," he began.
"Who were they?" Storm asked.
"They call themselves the Npurth. They're an insectoid race and a slaver species, that somehow convert intelligent creatures to their side. I'm sure no brainwashing is involved and my science officer believed them to be completely non-psionic. I'm afraid he couldn't tell me anything else about them before he was vivisected."
Denton paused as he remembered the horrible fate of his good friend and colleague, Emerson Garvey.
No one told him that they had his body lying on a sled in the corridor just outside.
"I do know that the Npurth were euphoric over finding us humans," Denton continued. "They had decided to wind down their local project in favour of an all-out invasion of human space."
"What was their local project?" Danica asked.
"They were trying to breed a new intelligent species to enslave on this planet. The natives are called the Thonne but they are very primitive and not technologically advanced at all. They were also working on a race of chlorine breathing molluscs, known as the Pnarm. They are highly advanced but their chlorine breathing is a problem to the Npurth, as they are, like us, oxygen breathers."
"I'm curious," Storm said. " Why did the Npurth abandon this base in such a hurry?"
"I don't know the exact details," Denton replied, "but I understand they were responding to some kind of emergency at home."
"What can you tell us about this base?" Storm asked next. "So far we've explored level one and part of level two."
"There's a big zoo on this level where they keep animals and creatures in stasis," the Captain said as his voice grew notably weaker. "There is a bio-computer in the room adjacent to this one. You can gain access to it through the door in the north eastern corner. There is also a main computer down on level four. It is an information repository, so I guess it will hold the answers you seek. I don't know anything else."
His voice was barely audible. He sighed and closed his eyes one last time.
"He's gone," Judith spoke with sadness as she confirmed his death with her medical scanner.
"Probably for the best," Johan mournfully remarked.
"Absolutely," Judith agreed. "Poor soul. May he rest in piece."
"I didn't know him very well," Tara admitted, "But he didn't deserve to die like this."

Danica led Judith, Johan, Tara, Lynda and Storm into the room Denton had told them to enter to reach the bio-computer. Smiley also accompanied them. Storm stayed behind to stand guard over their power sleds and their cargo of a dead human, a dead Thonne, two dune runner cats in stasis and what they now knew to be a member of the Pnarm race - the large mollusc creature.
The room was filled with horizontal tubes running along the two long walls. Each tube was about a yard in diameter and two yards long. Many of them were filled with an odd bluish mass. Judith was able to identify them as cloning tanks. All of them were in use. All members of the crew of the DSX Timothy were represented, but none of the clones were past the foetus stage. The bluish colour found in more than half of them were from clones of Tara Seven, who was blue-skinned. Judith opened a few tubes at random and noted, "None of this batch of clones will ever make it. They're all dead."
"That's a relief," Tara said. "The thought of those aliens cloning me fills me with revulsion."
"I totally agree," Johan said as he repressed a shudder.

The door to the biocomputer was not locked. Danica pressed a button at one side of it and it slid open. Both she and Rebecca had their Phaser Pistols drawn.

A confused mess of circuitry greeted them. The biocomputer had been raided for parts and was quite helpless. It was apparent that this machine had been cannibalised. However, as Lynda and Tara both pointed out, some of its memory elements were still intact.
"I recommend we remove them and take them back to The Ace of Spades," Lynda suggested. "They can fetch a fortune."
"Oh, really!" Rebecca said, as her eyes lit up. "How much are they worth?"
"At a rough estimate," Lynda paused for a couple of seconds, deliberately making her colleague wait, "I'd say at least one hundred thousand credits each!"
"Get outta here!" Rebecca exclaimed, genuinely surprised. "No way! How many are they?"
"I count four," Tara replied, "Agreed?"
"Agreed," Lynda confirmed. "But be careful how you handle them. They are very fragile."
Lynda and Tara carefully removed the four memory modules, which were globular in shape and about six inches in diameter. They felt soft and squishy and they shone with some sort of luminescence.
They headed back to the bio-lab where Storm was waiting for them.

They returned to the elevator room. From there they had taken the door to the east. Having explored that part of the base fully, they moved to the exit in the west wall, a force field, which was easily deactivated. Inside was a processing room, almost identical to the one they had seen previously. This, too, was wrecked and abandoned in haste. Moving on, they passed through the pink glowing decontamination corridor, which Johan was able to identify. He unscrewed one of the lights from the ceiling to take back for further analysis. Upon leaving this corridor, Lynda warned them that she was picking up strong signs of chlorine gas. They closed their helmet visors and switched on their oxygen tanks.
They entered another bio-lab, which was a virtual mirror image of the one where they found Captain Denton. The two main differences were that this one was filled with chlorine gas and not oxygen and that the specimen on the operating table was a Pnarm. The entire creature had been taken apart and put back together, with spacers and retainers added. The creature had been expanded to three times its normal size, and all organs were visible and could be watched at work, for the Pnarm was still alive. It was a tremendously effective biological display, but it was obvious from the size of its brain that it was intelligent, and equally obvious from the open eyes that tracked them that it was conscious.

"Greetings," the creature said in a raspy voice that the crew's translation units were able to understand. "My name is Chembles. Who are you?"
"We're humans," Storm replied, "and we mean you no harm. How long have you been here?"
"Eight years."
"What do you know of this base?" Danica asked next.
"Your personality is different," Chembles said with surprise. "How odd. There is a zoo not far from here and an oxygen breathers' bio-lab nearby. On the lowest level are the main cloning tanks and computer."
"What do you know of the main computer?" Lynda enquired.
"It requires an access code to activate. I once heard one of the Npurth mention it. It is Qootpol Npuk Sorgnul Pnesh. I... I... I'm so... hungry... and... tired. I..."
His eyes closed and he spoke no more.
"He's dead," Judith announced. "Just like Captain Denton, the strain of talking must have been too much for him."
"I feel sorry for him," Lynda said with genuine sadness, "but he did give us one very useful piece of information."

Some of the crew checked out the adjacent room to the north of the bio-lab. It was another clone tank room but this time all of the tubes were empty.

When they returned to the bio-lab, they found Tara slumped against an overturned bed.
"She just suddenly collapsed," Storm informed them.
"Let me check her," Judith said as she ran a diagnostic scan of Tara with her medical scanner.
"Tara, what's the matter?" she asked. "Are you in any pain?"
"No," she replied weakly. "I'm just tired. I feel exhausted."
"Can you stand up?" Judith asked next.
"No, I don't think so," Tara replied, sounding panicked. "I feel so weak. I just want to lie down and rest."
"I need to get her out of here," Judith said, sounding concerned. "There was a sickbay on the submarine we came in. I'll take her back there."
"Rebecca, you go with her," Storm ordered. "We'll carry on exploring down here."

"Fine," Judith agreed, "but first I have another job I want to do. I want to revive that Pnarm we have on the sled. He must know stuff we don't."
"That's a good idea," Storm confirmed. "Do it, Judith."
They carried the comatose Pnarm into the bio-lab and Judith applied a mild electric shock to him, which brought him out of stasis.
"Oh, hello," he said. "My name is Chembles. Who are you?"
"You're called Chembles?" Judith asked with surprise. "Are all of your race called Chembles?"
"No, only me, as far as I know. Why do you ask?"
"We've just met another of your race who called himself Chembles," Judith replied.
"I assure you, I am the original Chembles. The one and only," he said with confidence, before adding after a brief pause, "Unless that other Pnarm was a clone. Did you ask him about his childhood, or his background?"
"No," Judith admitted. "Sadly we were unable to get much information out of him before he died."
"That's unfortunate," Chembles said sadly. "I would have liked to have met him. Well, no matter. I am who I say I am. All of my memories are intact and you can ask me anything you want."
"That's good," Judith said as she turned back to Tara, "but can we talk while we move on?"

Introductions were made whilst they returned to the elevator room. They acquired one of the circular sleds from the processing room to carry the corpses of Emerson Garvey and the Thonne native. Tara was placed on one of the power sleds, along with a crate containing the items they had found so far. Rebecca knelt down to operate the controls whilst Judith watched over Tara. They said their goodbyes and the party split up.