Θ HARBINGER Θ
Alerts and warnings screamed in her ears as another hoarse cry forced itself out of her throat. There was movement and there was agony. Ishtar felt things swelling, her throat itching, even as her damaged exosuit tried to counter the foreign substance. The motion she felt suddenly became smoother, faster. Good. Fast was good. This was an emergency. Something on her HUD chirped at that thought but Ishtar couldn’t focus beyond the burning in her veins.
Light glowed dimly ahead and the ceiling panels passed by overhead. They weren’t moving past damaged defenses or security systems. Which meant they were still inside. The medbay. That had to be their destination. The Forged had understood, thank the Pattern Eternal. Of course it had. Mathematic languages were crystal clear.
It felt like eternity passed and no time at all before she was being pushed through doors. The room flared purple for a moment. Ishtar recognized the sanitization field. Something activated nearby, she felt it on the edge of her awareness. Words. Something was talking to her. A Forged. The medical Forged. The data was corrupted. She couldn’t make out what it was saying. Not even a second later, hard and stable arms slid beneath her knees and shoulders and lifted her from the flat surface she’d been moved to. Something warm pressed against her back after another moment, even as needles bit her skin, piercing through her suit. Cool relief rushed through her bones as darkness returned. Body temperature pressure pushed against her and lights danced over her faceplate, scanning at first before filling in the crack. The reconsctructor moved away from her face, lower down, to the other holes in her suit as the healing bath filled the pod.
Ishtar allowed fatigue to claim her.
*
DS13-5 turned to face the Unshapen bearing the injured Oracle as the pod sealed shut on the table. The sterilization field had rendered foreign contaminants obsolete but these were not the Sovereignty’s Unshapen. That the unusual Forged seemed to follow them was against protocol; the technothurges would surely purge it. Nonetheless, DS13-5 had to follow its own programming and protocol.
It attempted direct connection with the unusual Forged.
Connection failed.
DS13-5 searched for connective frequencies from the Forged and found one. But it did not use the Sovereignty’s mathematical language. It used something built on a foundation of binary. That would have to do.
//Unknown Forged, Medical unit DS13-5 transfering care of patient into Unknown unit’s custody. Emergency power generators are active. Power to the outpost will deplete in less than two cycles. Medical cradle necessitates full power draw for at minimum eight cycles. Priority: Oracle survival. Locate sufficient power source. Protect medical cradle. Patient transfer complete. DS13-5 entering standby.//
The medical Forged returned to its platform, hooking into the outpost’s systems, before shutting down. Its job was done. The Oracle was safely sealed and healing inside the medical cradle.
And a more appropriate Forged was now in charge of ensuring the safety of the cradle.
