Walking down the bright white halls of Deck 33 was almost unbearable to the eyes in the morning, as beautiful as it looked. The hallway was packed with people, all of who were ready and eager to study new alien artifacts. At least the temperature wasn't too hot or cold like it was in most places I've worked, almost nothing worse than working in sweaty clothes or freezing in said work clothes that are too thin. When I got to the labs, there was a lineup and at the entrance was a guard in blue U.S.S.A. armor. It seems he was scanning everyone's I.Ds as they walked up to the door. I was a little bit late so the lineup was fairly long, as I came to the end of the line. The tall soldier who lumbered over me raised his hand with a scanner in his large hand; while the lineup didn't take long to finish, the wait for this felt agonizingly lengthy in comparison. The scanner made an unpleasant beep as it scanned the I.D on my chest. The guard looked confused and shook the device, then scanned me with it again. BEEP! The sound was louder than the previous beep but less awful sounding. "Sorry about that Ms. Sarris, sometimes it's a bit temperamental, please head inside." The guard said, sounding surprisingly polite. I gave him an awkward smile and then stepped past him into the lab where I would get to see and study things I had never seen before.
Everyone was gathered in a group around a large glass table, looking at the images displayed on the electronic screen that was the tabletop.- "Ah there's everyone, alright let's begin. Metis, bring up the data for today's inventory." - "Yes Dr. Murray." A mature feminine voice spoke from seemingly out of nowhere. A moment later a holographic figure appeared along with dozens of images of various artifacts, the hologram was of an older woman with kind-looking eyes and a digital outline. She looked to be in her early 60s. "Hello, I am U.S.S.A A.I Metis of the Umbra. I'm pleased to meet you all." Everyone was surprised that there was no mention of any lab A.I onboard, of course, no one was a stranger to A.I in this day and age, it was unusual to have a smart A.I am in any archaeological study as opposed to just a basic one. "Let's begin with the first sample, these were collected midway into the ruins of the massive structure on the surface of the planet in several rooms." I noticed on further inspection that the objects looked like children's toys, never had I or anyone as far as I knew, has ever seen Umaran toys. They were bizarre and very large, yet I could tell what most of them were for just by looking at them, other than a few that were almost painful to look at in their abnormality. They looked as though they were not made for our eyes to see or our brains to comprehend, which I'm sure was the case.
-"Alright everyone, we'll be starting off simple with these." Dr. Murray said, pressing a button on the panel. A large white drone on wheels came in and opened up compartments on both sides, air hissing out of it as it revealed the stored artifacts inside. We all carefully took the objects out and placed them in secure research pods so we could study them safely. Lilith and I were given the task of studying one of the stranger artifacts, It was colored bronze and a strange shade of purple, even for something Umaran. It had a boxy-shaped body similar to a Bass mixed with a saxophone, it's hard not to laugh at that, but unfortunately, the last thing I felt like doing was laughing just from being near it. It's 'arms' if you could call them that, bent in odd and nonsensical directions, as if they were escaping from something terrible. Lilith took notes of its physical description while I used the scanner to figure out its composition and purpose, whatever that might be. The analysis came back mostly normal other than a few irregularities, such as the elements it was made from and the faint but mostly harmless radioactive decay coming from it. Metis appeared out from one of the holo-emitters.- "Do you two require any assistance?" She asked politely trying to be helpful.- "No." Lilith said tunelessly.- "Well I would like your help. Can you figure out what the radioactive element within the artifact is?"- "I have the infinite capacity to learn, I will do my best to uncover the source." Lilith just scoffed at that.
-"I think this might be a musical instrument." Lilith had that tone in her voice whenever she came to an epiphany.- "Really? I mean yeah It sort of looks like one, but how would you even play it?" Honestly, I really don't know much of anything about musical instruments, just scientific ones. So why is she so sure that that's what this is? - "Well that's what we're here to figure out, also I know an instrument when I see one. I don't really tell collogues this, but I play a few instruments in my spare time." She almost sounded embarrassed to tell me that. - "Oh really? I had no idea, what do you play?" Lilith was still writing notes down on her tablet, she placed it down and let out a sigh, then looked over towards me.- "Well I mainly play the violin, but I also play a bit of the cello and harp actually. I find it relaxing." Wow, It surprised me to hear that coming from her, normally she never tells anyone anything about herself. She kind of reminds me of Damien in that way, all caged up about her feelings and interests, but even more so than him. They scarily have a lot in common. - "That's impressive Lilith, I wish I was that talented." - "You haven't even heard me play at all, for all you know I could play like rubbish." We both laughed at that. Lilith picked her tablet back up. "So...what sort of hobbies do you have?" I paused awkwardly for a moment.- "I play some video games, but I also use AR to visit a lot of places. Though maybe sometimes I use it a bit too much." A bit of shame came out of my voice when I said that. - "What kind of places do you visit?" - "Planets I've been to and old worksites, this is the first time I've been on a trip to another planet in a few years."
We continued studying the artifact but made little progress, we left that one on the back burner to work on at a later date while we worked on the other one. The other two that we studied were much easier, we found out by comparing them to some translated old records and images that they were just simple appliances. One was used as a heating element that used a fusion reactor as a power source, not even we have ones this small. The other one was a holographic storybook, there was still no visual of what Umarans looked like. That was one thing that always bothered me, even after all these centuries, we still didn't know what they looked like. Not even the most basic description of their appearance, only that they were at least bipedal like humans and very tall based on the size and height of everything we've found.
"Alright lads and lasses, it's 6:30. No need to clock in your hours, they've already been logged by Metis. I'll see you all tomorrow." Dr. Murray announced to everyone in the lab. Oh good, I was starting to get cramps in my legs from all this standing in one place. - "Have a good night everyone, we hope to see you again tomorrow." Metis said as we all began to leave. Even by A.In standards she was very polite, not in the emotionless way most artificial intelligence is, but she had genuine kindness to her like a caring grandmother. Lilith doesn't seem to like her much, or at least she barely acknowledges her presence whenever Metis greets her. I'm so glad my room is so close by; who knew not working for a week then doing a ten-hour day would make me so sore? I hope I'm not getting old before I'm even middle-aged, I'm only 25. I got to the front of my door and waved my hand over it, it clicked but didn't open. "Uh okay, weird." Right as I raised my hand, the door opened suddenly. I shrugged my shoulder and walked inside.
As I put my bag down I thought I heard footsteps behind me, my door hadn't closed behind me, how strange. I held my wrist com up and texted a message to Damien.
(Me) Hey, how was your first day on the job?
(Damien) Honestly, it was pretty dull. Ships too quiet in some parts, other than that? Co-workers are alright, definitely marines that's for sure. How was yours?
(Me) It was spectacular! There were so many things I had the opportunity to study that I had never seen before, especially one really weird one. Lilith thinks it's a musical instrument
(Damien) So there really is something that you haven't seen, what does it look like?
I had to think about how Lilith described the artifact, she used some very technical language and fancy words that I don't even use, like how it violates the Pauli exclusion principle and that everything inside of it is non-Euclidean. So it's kind of like the tardis on the inside but also not at the same time. Nothing but energy and sound can escape it, it almost sounds nightmarish if it wasn't so beautifully bizarre.
(Me) I couldn't begin to describe how it looks other than it has a body like a metal cello but with strange organ pipes coming out of it that go in different directions, like I said it's weird. (Damien) No kidding, personally I think we should just leave their weirder tech alone where they left it, just my opinion is all. So how're you and Lilith handling working together there? (Me) I'd say pretty good, I think she's warming up to me now, even though we've been working together for two years now. I think this will be a good opportunity to get to actually know her, she's always been pretty stubborn. She reminds me of a certain someone who is too. (Damien) Haha, very funny. And I think we should go out to eat somewhere, there's a nice Japanese place onboard, it has been a while since I've had any. What do you think sunshine? (Me) Sounds great. I think we should go together, I really want to see what your place looks like :).
Our first night out on the ship was great... no, amazing! The commercial sector on deck 7 was bigger and more beautiful than I expected, there were so many different bright signs of every color you could imagine. I savored the smell of the food that perfumed the air here, my mouth was practically dripping with how much it was watering. Damien wasn't lying though, he did wear something nice. I was kind of jealous, he looked better than I did. As we were walking down the avenue looking at all the nice stores, he was constantly adjusting his rather form-fitting clothes, were his clothes itchy or too tight? When we finally got seated, I picked up the long plastic menu, it was only the fancy or old-styled restaurants that still used physical menus anymore. Damien ordered something called Tataki, while I ordered the squid miso ramen, honestly, I've never had squid while out in space.
"How're you liking the ramen?" Damien asked me curiously.- "It's a bit salty but I like it, especially the squid, how's yours? Is it even fully cooked?" His food only looked to be cooked on the outside, like it was just seared while the meat is still mostly raw.- "That's good to hear, and yeah It's supposed to just be cooked on the outside, don't worry it's safe to eat, as long as it's made properly." He chuckled after saying that, then he took a bite out of the meat. An hour or so later we finished our surprisingly delicious dinner, then we went back to his place for the night.
I woke up still full and physically tired from last night, hopefully, after some coffee or tea, I'll be fully awake. Damien was already out of bed and getting ready for the day, while I was sitting on a chair at his table that was almost too small for him to sit in comfortably, I found that to be pretty funny. Unfortunately, his quarters weren't as nice as mine were, but that didn't seem to bother him very much. The room was pretty utilitarian with only a few 'luxuries' such as a nice carpet under the table, the same coffee machine that I have, and a gun locker. The flooring was just the usual military blue plating that covered the majority of the umbra's floors. "Have a good one out there, don't open any ancient coffins or anything."- "Yeah, if only. You have a good one too." And with that, he was gone. I should get him to give me a tour of the ship sometime, maybe if I get a day off. Now dressed in my uniform and with more coffee in my mug with my data tablet in tow, I hoped I would make more progress on my second day than I did on my first. I took a few detours to see what this part of the ship was like, perhaps before we land on the planet I'll get to explore the whole Umbra. I took an interesting shortcut through the botanical gardens, there were flowers here I had never seen before, they blossomed in so many beautiful shades of blue and purple, and some were also a sheen black with white pistils. I went in to smell one, as unique and pretty as it looked. The oddly dark flower reeked of death like I smelled the putrid scent of a rotting corpse.
After clearing my nose of the awful stench of what I learned was called the Umbra corpse flower. I'm glad there were other, much better-smelling flowers in the garden to get rid of the smell. I then took the lift up to deck 33. My wrist com began ringing, Lilith was urgently calling me. "Alice where are you?" She asked me, I could hear the panic in her voice.- "What's wrong?" I could hear incoherent shouting in the background, the voice sounded like Dr. Morrison. -"It's Dr. Morrison, he's gone crazy. Get up here now!"