The Android

JP with Omni, Jaxx, redsword_7, Kudzu, and CS

"Oh shit... Captain, we found another body here. Doesn't look like any mutations or self inflicted wounds."

Jensen started to feel sick "Fuck, this is all bad."

"This is not looking good. OK! let's check her out and see if there is anything we can get from her.", Roberts said, walking over and kneeling next to the body.

Jensen checked her pockets and found an access card very similar to the one he had. When he tried to flip her over, he found the back of her head slick and sticky. Expecting to pull his hand away and find it covered in blood, instead he found a milky-white substance. He immediately recoiled in disgust as he tried to wipe the substance off on the floor. He started dry retching in his helmet but luckily didn't throw up. After a minute he recovered and held up the access card, now with the substance gleaming on it. Jensen gasped for air.

"Oh god what is this stuff? Oh man, oh man." As he said it, Jensen realized how forgetful he was. That’s Android blood. He laughed nervously. "Ha android blood... whew bit panicky I guess."

This was indeed Ava, the Android appointed to the Cronus. She had a head wound behind her right ear and was essentially non-functional.

“...Ava...”, Roku whispered to herself.

Capt. Kenny asked, "MU/TH/UR please confirm if that is AVA the android."

“Scanning... ...without access to the Cronus I cannot confirm with absolute certainty, but there is a very high probability... proceed with the mission directive.”, MUTHUR responded, almost uselessly.

"There is no telling how long ago this happened... Let's continue to try to log into this mainframe. Hopefully that gets us some of the answers we need.", said Jensen.

The crew debated whether it would be a good idea to repair and reactivate the Android...

“I could do it, just to get the head working is going to take at least 10 minutes.”, Ogai said with certainty.

Capt. Kenny sipped his coffee and then replied, "THIS may give us some insight on what happened on the Cronus."

Vera looked away, uncertain of how to respond to the decision. She would, of course, go along with the decision of the rest of the crew, but there was something about this she didn't like.

Watching Ogai cut into the throat of the android was giving Jensen nausea. "Ummm, while you're all doing that I'm going to try my access card on the mainframe. We are due for some luck on this little adventure."

Jensen used the keycard he had found on the android’s body to enter the mainframe chamber. The terminal glowed readily with a message prompting the user to allow synchronization with the USCSS Montero. "Captain, it's asking to sync to the Montero. Can you authorize on your side?"

Capt. Kenny sipped his coffee as he debated on his decision. He really didn’t want to rush things since the whole mission sounded like a bad murder mystery plot line. Sadly his crew was pressed for time and they really did need the info on the computers. He then replied, "Fine MU/TH/UR sync up with the Cronus but take all precautions in case the Cronus was compromised. Tell us right away what happened to the crew and if there is any danger like a bad biological experiment gone wrong."

Jensen held his breath waiting to see what would happen. "I'm sure we will get all our answers and be back on the Montero in no time. Ha."

Capt. Kenny pinched the bridge of his nose as Jensen spoke up. His cocky tone greatly concerned Kenny since Jensen just raised a death flag. He hoped he was over thinking it but his gut was telling him they needed to get away from the Cronus and never speak of it again. He sighed before sipping his coffee again and patiently waited to see what was going to happen.

“Accessing Cronus’ manifest... collating data... collating... stand by...”, MUTHUR responded.

“The USCSS Cronus was engaged in an exploratory mission in the 26 Draconis system where they discovered a small planetoid dubbed LV-1113 tucked away in the planetary debris belt shared by the suns of the trinary star system.

The planetoid was life viable. The crew landed to explore. The science team found flora and fauna on the planetoid along with ancient artifacts from an unknown culture.

There was a mutiny, the science module on the Cronus was ejected and left behind, and the surviving crew escaped the planetoid.

The crew became infected by a disease that killed many, then unknown life forms appeared on the ship.

After being caught in a micrometeorite storm, navigation control failed on the Cronus and her comms array was damaged. The engines went down and life support failed, plunging the ship into a deep cold.

All of the preceding information occurred within two days of leaving LV-1113. The Cronus has since been adrift, barreling along at sublight speeds for decades.”
...
...

By this point, the fog was fading, the ship’s temperature had returned to a safe level and there was a little more light in the corridors.

Roberts turned to everyone, "The question is: What is still alive on this ship? And I have a feeling we will find out soon. Doc, how did you know not to take our helmets off?"

“...um... There was a strange resin... and fuzzy egg shaped fungus near the door to Cryo... I couldn’t identify it. Just... taking precautions...”, Roku replied.

She scribbled in her sketchbook and showed Roberts a depiction of the fungus.

"Egg? Like something-could-hatch-like-egg?", asked Roberts. Then he sighed, "Would fire destroy it?"

“...nnn... ...noooo.", Roku thought. "I wouldn’t expect something to hatch from it, no. It looked like some type of fuzzy gray nodal fungus... possibly with spores through... Fire should destroy it. Molds and spores CAN contain mycotoxins or worse... and I couldn’t identify that resin.”

"Ok Captain, can you tell me what they have in the weapons locker?" Roberts asked.

"And captain, we need an immediate scan for anything moving on this ship, as soon as possible. Also, no need to thank me for getting the mainframe online or anything." Jensen chimed in.

As Roku pulled the Motion Tracker to her visual range, she saw the pings but didn’t hear them, she must have turned off the sound. There were two little green blips of movement confirming the one on the outer hull just above them and another from B Deck by the mess hall.

Capt. Kenny swallowed his coffee and looked at the vid screen. Then he replied, "MU/TH/UR scan for all weapons, biologicals, movements, ship map and usable supplies on the Cronus and relay that info to Roberts and his team. I have a bad feeling there might be some kind of parasite on the Cronus. Take all precautions to deal with the parasites including detox."

Then he sipped his coffee again and replied to Jensen, "Oh and Jensen, congrats on being useful. Of course, since you insisted on going there in a hurry I hope you are prepared to deal with whatever parasite the Cronus brought back with them. Assuming we live through this, I am sure you will get a nice promotion at the Company and brag how you single-handedly saved the day."

___________________________

"...Collating...” came MUTHUR.
...Scanning for weapons...
...Excluding party on A Deck:
A Deck > Cryochambers
1 x .357 Magnum
B Deck > Armory
1 x Weyland Storm Rifle
C Deck > Reactor Control
1 x Incinerator Unit
...scanning for biologicals...
...collating...

Excluding boarding party on A Deck:
A Deck > Cryochambers
Human x 6
Feline x 1
B Deck > Mess Hall corridor
Unknown Life-form x 1
C Deck > C2 Junction
Unknown Life-form x 1
C Deck > Catwalk
Unknown Life-form x 1
Air Scrubber Shaft
Unknown Life-form (number unclear)

___________________________

"Unknown life-forms? I hope she means the fungus I found... Roberts... I'd feel safer if I had one of those weapons.", Roku said nervously.

"OK, guys we need to hit the armory first, then clear all the little eggs in this deck.", said Roberts. He started to walk towards armory 1 then stopped as Jensen spoke.

"Wait, shouldn't we talk to the android first? Maybe it knows what's on the ship and what happened?"

MUTHUR repeated her broken record orders, "- Recover any scientific data / samples from the USCSS Cronus...
...Proceed with the mission directive..."

Suddenly, there was a crescendo of electrical whirring and a flash of sparks as the android’s head spasmed to life.

“Hello, have we arrived?”, said Ava's head, milky blood leaking from her perfect synthetic mouth.

The Android’s voice buzzed and crackled, “ Did I have an accident? I cannot move my limbs.”

"Umm... well, this is super awkward. Usually when I speak to androids they have a body. Can you tell us what happened here? Who destroyed your body?"

Ava the Android blinked and tried to look down. "I don't know. Who-who-who… she twitched. “Are you?"

Capt. Kenny sipped his coffee then spoke up, "MU/TH/UR can you communicate with the Android through our comms? We need to know what happened on the ship."

"...connecting... ...connection to the Ava has been established...", MUTHUR responded sweetly.

“...Memory seems to be corrupted... possible corrosion or deterioration... ...removal and manual diagnostic of memory chip and data transmitter card may be useful... ...Android identified as mWY-WLTR2.0-2109-Ava...”

“Yes? I am Av-av-av… Ava. Welcome aboard the Cron-nn-nus, Cronus? I don’t b-b-believe we’ve had the pleasure, pleeeeaaaasure.”, her head twitched again and her voice glitched over the crew’s comms.