Hi folks, welcome back to Storytime! It’s installment 11 of Blur, and the foreshadowing of last time is no longer in shadow…
Dylan watched the cameras as Vuuk slept peacefully on the cot. It had been well fed and watered, and was happy to be moved to a more secure cell. In fact it was so concerned about the cobtrol trigger that it had asked for a mao to learn, and all corridors to be ckeared, before sprinting there, so ensure there was as little time as possible for anything to go wrong.
Once settled, it was asked how they could make it more comfortable.
A second mattress had been found, along with some extra pillows and blankets. Then Dylan had watched as the creature carefully used its mouth and paws to create itself a nest. The mattress and some blankets were now a soft bed, the pillows a small wall, and the remaining blankets covered everything but its snout.
But in a single moment, Vuum went from peacefully sleeping to tearing apart the bedding as it spun in a rage, howling, before launching itself at the door.
The door, a foot of reinforced steel, with rebar sunk into the concrete on either side, only able to open on upward tracks, shook, and gained a large dent.
Dyl hit the alarms, grabbed her weapons and visor, and raced down to the cell.
By the time she arrived, skidding to a halt beside a half-dressed, half-awake Wyn, and a dozen other armed operatives, all with Skills of their own, the door was showing dents on the outside.
Vuuk was strong. The door and the concrete held, but for how long? And how much would Vuuk hurt itself before this Command signal stopped—if it did?
Dyl knew from her comms that the techs were trying everything they could to trace the signal, both to jam it, and to trace it back. They knew who was in charge of the sector, but it was likely another had charge of assets like this. The more info they had, the better.
But in the meantime, someone had to keep Vuuk from hurting itself, and from getting out.
Wyn and Dyl exchanged a look, then got to work.
Wyn took charge of the defenses, positioning people in each corridor, with fallback positions, leaving Dyl alone at the front, just outside the door
She deactivated her damper and focused her Skill as high as she could. This was why she was at the front—the only one of them who would get any warning if Vuuk was to get free. Not for the first time in this, she wished it also worked through a camera.
"Alexis, ready with the gas on my mark."
"Ready Dyl," her handler came back, all business.
She knew the gas would take a few moments to work, even with the multiple high-pressure vents; but she trusted Alexis to have it pouring in within a second of her code word, and hoped that would be enough time if her Skill were to show Vuuk escaping. It should at least slow it down, allowing them to subdue it themselves.
Should.
A hard word, but that was the best they ever had these days.
These days, a 'should' was a blessing.
Dyl braced herself for a moment, taking and releasing two deep breaths, "Alright, patch me in, video too."
There was a click as the intercom in the cell activated, and Dyl pulled down her visor to see the scene from the camera embedded in the cell wall.
In the few minutes since she had sounded the alarm, Vuuk had torn the cell to pieces. Literally, for much of it.
The mattresses, the pillows, and the blankets, were shredded all over the room. The walls and the floor bore deep claw marks. The ceiling too, Dyl assumed. The inside of the door was beginning to show weakness, as were the walls either side.
As for Vuuk. It was ramming itself against every available surface, and lashing out with its claws at whatever it could reach, including itself. Blood was smeared everywhere, and pouring off Vuuk in streams.
But Dyl thought she saw sogns of it slowing down. This rampage, plus blood loss, might eventually wear itself out. But letting that happen wasn't an option. Too much risk. Vuuk had known this of course, and fully expected to be killed when this happened. Were it an inside source they'd had to force information from, perhaps Dyl, or any of them, might be more inclined to do so. But Vuuk had cooperated. More than that, it had told them things they hadn't thought to ask, all with the knowledge that once the Command was triggered again, it would probably be killed by the people it was trying to help. More than wanting to bring down those who had tortured and twisted it against its will, it wanted to help the humans, and the others who had already joined them, to take the invaders down.
Dyl wasn't going to let Vuuk hurt anyone, but she also wasn't going to take its life without trying everything sh3 could, and she knew those behind her—human and otherwise—felt the same. Or at least trusted her judgement.
Dylan had only moments to try and get through to Vuuk, before she must subdue it, or kill it, to ensure it posed no risk.
She checked that Wyn had everyone where they wanted, and began.
"Vuuk!"
The intercom threw her voice into the room, bouncing it off every wall.
Vuuk stopped mid stride and tilted its head to one side.
Keying off the echo effect, Dyl brought her voice down, keeping it calm and warm, "Hey there. You remember me right? I'm Dyl. And you're Vuuk."
Vuuk snarled and stalked towards where the intercom sat, at the top of the cell wall, embedded deeply into the concrete.
"There we go. Can you lie down and be calm for me?"
Vuuk growled.
"I know, you've been called back and you can't get there. This isn't you. I know. But I still need you to calm down until we can permanently disconnect you from them. Can you lie down for me?"
Vuuk took a step back, snarled, and lespt forward and up, claws sinking into the concrete as it climbed to reach the intercom speaker.
"Shit," muttered Dyl. "Gas!"
Alexis was as fast as his word, and the gas began to pour in.
Formulated by the R&D team, consisting of people with helpful Skills, they were able to mix on the fly a number of prepared, if experimental, gaseous creations, which were fast acting across as broad a species base as they could manage. Vuuk's physiology, what they'd been able to determine and what it'd told them, allowed them to select the combination most likely to be effective. Dylan just hoped it worked. She knew the team was good, and they knew their stuff, but a totally alien physique could mean all sorts of unknown factors. Vuuk was acting as something of a guinea pig for this new method, but it had clearly expressed a willingness to be such.
Dyl watched, as Vuuk staggered, fell on its side, tried to rise with a snarl, fell back again, and slowly stilled.
After another minute, Dyl was satisfied it was asleep, "Cut the gas and vent it Alexis, thank you. And find someone to pass my thanks and compliments to the science team too. That stuff worked really well."
Wyn arrived back by Dyl's side, hir team still in defensive positions just in case they were needed.
"We going in?"
Dyl nodded, "Yeah. Stay loose, opposite sides of the room. Masks on in case we need to gas again. Alexis, open up."
The door slid up smoothly on its tracks as Wyn nodded and followed Dyl's lead.
While they were an equal partnership, Wyn had quickly learned that Dyl had some innate leadership skills, and training had brought these to the fore. In situations where Wyn's specific skills weren't putting hir in charge, hir was happy to defer to Dyl, who hir knew always listened if hir had any other thoughts. But in a crisis, where someone needed to take the lead, Dyl had proven herself worthy of Wyn's trust. And so, Wyn followed orders, seating hir mask over hir face and quickly skirting to the farthest side of the room from Vuuk, as Dyl, focusing as hard as she could, approached Vuuk, where it had collapsed near the wall with the door.
"Alexis, lock us down," Dylan murmured.
The door slid down again and shut with a dull thud.
Checking Wyn for readiness and receiving a nod, Dyl went to one knee beside Vuuk.
As far as she could tell, the creature was deeply asleep.
She took her knife from its boot scabbard and made a short incision on the creature's flank. Barely a centimetre long, but it was designed to hurt Vuuk just enough to move, were it faking, or not as asleep as it should be.
A small amount of blood trickled out, but Vuuk didn't so much as twitch.
"Alright, looks like we're good here," Dylan replaced the knife and pulled a medkit from her belt to dress the small wound.
"Alright," came back the voice of Izak, Wyn's handler. "We think we've got the trace, and the signal. Once we jam it coming in, we can piggyback out for more info, and if it changes at all we should pick it up and be able to keep blocking, until whatever chip is in there is out, or at the very least disabled."
Dyl and Wyn bidded and murmured their thanks.
The wound dressed, Dyl stood and moved to the opposite side of the cell from Wyn.
For a few minutes they waited in silence. The next thing they expected to happen was the confirmation that the signal was blocked, followed by the appearance of the medical team.
They weren't entirely wrong in that expectation.
Izak confirmed the signal was blocked, and the medical team were indeed on their way.
But barely had Izak managed to communicate this, than Dyl's Skill gave her a few seconds of warning.
"Gas, Alexis! Now!" Dyl commanded.
Wyn's eyes widened as hir readied hirself for whatever Dyl had seen. Hir managed to catch Dyl's eye for a second, as the gas began to pump back into the room.
Dyl, her face suddenly pale as she reached for her gun, only had time for a single word: "Failsafe."
Cuddles got very attached to Vuuk—as I knew she would. So I was expecting a telling off for this—which I got, heheh. My only defense is “You did get warning!” 🤷
Til next time, take care and please remember to share and subscribe.