The Prototype

[Corvus Dravere]

It was good to have [member="Brynna Dravere"] back home. Great, even.

But it was exhausting.

She had changed, so much, in the intervening years that he felt there was always going to be something new for him to learn about her. She certainly had much to teach him, at the very least. As a young woman, she was far removed from the frail, shy thing that had gone out into the galaxy to further her own education. And she'd come back with the confidence he'd had at her age.

That was probably what made it so exhausting. Probably.

But after almost a week, they'd settled into something of a routine, and she had told him to stop by her laboratory so that he could inspect her newest work. Well, 'creation.' Creation was the exact term she used. That still bothered him, on some level, because that likely meant a clone, a beast, or something worse. She'd warned him of what it would likely be, but warnings and reality had a way of conflicting.

A frown creasing his lips, he paused outside the med-bay turned lab, thankful his helmet was on and could hide his anxiety. "Ryn?" He asks, stepping into the lab, taking in his first look of how she'd changed the med-bay.

 

[Brynna Dravere]

Nicely settled in to her new laboratory and a new routine, she was quite pleased with the research she had been able to do. She had plenty of access to everything she needed on the station, thanks to her connection of course, and she had been hard at work throughout the last week she'd been home. At the moment she was elbow deep inside the body of one of their most frequent attackers, though she did hear him calling out her name.

"Back here." She called out in answer, and when he approached he would find her there at the slab, tools out to the side and her face and coat spattered with dark blood. Looking upwards, she greeted him with a nod, pulling her hands free of the creature and stepping away to take up a towel so that she could start to clean herself up for him.

"I hadn't expected you quite so soon, but I am glad you came. Are you ready to see what I've found so far?"

 

[Corvus Dravere]

He was... perhaps unsurprised to find her elbow deep in intestines. When he'd been teaching her to gut fish, she'd asked what every organ and part was, even if he didn't know what it was. Then she'd started doing the gutting herself, and from then on her morbid fascinations had been impossible to curtail. Sizing her up from behind his helmet, even as she cleaned herself of unmentionable fluids, he nodded carefully. "You had mentioned a breakthrough of... some kind."

He knew of what kind.

"And so I came. I had to field a few questions as to why you were hovering around the ICU but... I trust it was for the best."

 

[Brynna Dravere]

"Yes, a definitely breakthrough, and the ICU can be explained quite easily." Turning, she would lead him through the lab towards a locked door, with a small window in it that looked slightly damaged. On the way she tossed the towel aside, stopping at the door and turning to look back at him.

"The work I've done this week was mostly on the dead, though the rumors are true and they are hardly good Soldiers. Still, there will be use in bringing their dead to life, for use as cannon fodder and to see how they react to seeing their dead upright and lining the front lines." Turning back to the door she unlocked it and pulled it open with a faint grunt of exertion before stepping inside and leaving it open for him to follow. As soon as he entered, he'd be confronted with a large, hulking lizard beast that he was all too familiar with, though it just stood there, staring blankly ahead as she approached it with an appraising eye.

"This has lead me to realize that while I can bring them back, they are slow in most senses of the word. Not intelligent, slow to react, etc. Still, cannon fodder is always needed." Reaching out, she patted the lizard beasts chest gently with a tilt of her head, the beast shifting only faintly while it loomed large and terrifying over her, its wounds from death quite obvious but patched up. "This allowed for better thought on those in the ICU. I know you would not want to harm our people, I would not either, so I would ask for another favor." Turning her back to her beast confidently, she looked back to her father. "I would ask to have these creatures captured alive, as many as possible. With them I can do so much more with such greater speed, truly send an impact into those beasts and teach them the error of their ways and avenge those that have fallen to them."


[member="Corvus Dravere"]

 

[Corvus Dravere]

He frowned, foremost because of her reanimated the dead, and secondly because she wanted more of them alive. That bothered him. You didn't let your enemies live for the sake of experiments. The only good alien was a dead alien. Well, sea dwelling reptile - he wasn't in the business of killing his own daughter. "They are going to be killed." He says simply, "They gave us no choice, and take no prisoners. We aren't going to risk losing more of us for the sake of them living a little longer."

They didn't have the manpower to make her plan a reality. "If you want cannon fodder, though, we can provide plenty of that."

 

[Brynna Dravere]

His response wasn't entirely unexpected, from the faint hesitation that told her he was not quite pleased to the declining of her request. Still, it did not please her, knowing there was so much more work that could be done with that aid. Shaking her head faintly, she motioned up at the beast looming over her, starting to drool somewhat while it was still and staring straight ahead.

"But you don't understand, Father. With these things dead the best that I can do is this. This is all that we will get, and while they will fight, they will not be nearly as useful as they could be." She really couldn't argue with the manpower issue though, frowning as she turned to pace a few steps one way and back. "You are correct though, the man power is an issue that cannot be avoided." She stopped not far from the beast again, staring up at it. Quiet for several long minutes, she finally turned to look up at her father.

"What if I went to find a live subject myself? I would be quite careful, I am more capable of defending myself now and more tuned in to find them, which means I can find one alone." He wasn't going to like that idea and she knew it, but she was quite stubborn much as he was, and insistent upon the fact that her idea was going to help save them all. "No one else need be put out of place or taken from saving this station. In and out, back before you realize it."

[member="Corvus Dravere"]

 

[Corvus Dravere]

He knew she was upset. He couldn't blame her. There hadn't been much in her life that he'd denied her, but times changed, and so did people - especially her, it seemed. Coming to terms with that transformation was still an evolving process for him, but it was easier than he'd anticipated. Perhaps this war had jaded him more than he'd realized, or perhaps the darkness had always existed within him, just waiting to be let out. He doubted it was actual darkness, but the use of the dead as a literal shield of meat could not be construed as 'good' outside the context of keeping oneself alive.

"If you wish to capture one yourself, I will not stop you." He says finally, "But I won't spare anyone. You make take your... beast, if you so wish. As a test, of sorts."

A frown creased his lips, and his brow furrowed sharply. "But be safe. If you die down there...."

 

[Brynna Dravere]

The silence in the room while he thought was profound, so much so that she could almost feel it as surely as she felt the emotions warring within him. The only real sound was the faint shifting and sounds from the looming beast behind her. At the very least, her father didn't seem intent on keeping her locked in a lab like she was still a child. There was freedom in that, and in that freedom was respect. A faint nod of her head and a dip to show respect, she turned to look up at the looming beast.

"Thank you, Father. I am certain that it will not fail me, though we will be more subtle than a full on approach. There are more than a few ways to find what I need, after all. I have studied this thing deeply, and I believe I can feel for them if I must." The mention of caution was expected, as she was still his little girl, Sith or not. Still, she turned to face him, nodding in all seriousness.

"I will be quite safe, Father. I did not die down there as a child, I certainly do not plan to do such a thing to you now. You will see, this could be well worth anything and everything we all need." Reaching out, her hand patted at his armored arm before she turned to stand at his side, looking at the beast again. "If nothing else, these can be used to help train the younger warriors that are up and coming."

[member="Corvus Dravere"]

 

[Corvus Dravere]

"You did not die," he begins firmly, "...because I would not let you." She should have died, but they'd passed over her, either through a combination of her Force manipulations, her small size, or simple lack of notice of the young alien scurrying through their midst. "You will come back to me." That was an order, and his head turned to stare at her from behind his visor as she briefly touched his arm. Looking back to the undead Scalefin, he simply frowned, making a thoughtful noise at the back of his throat.

"They can be used for study. As for combat... their use will be limited."

He turned, going for the door, content to leave her to do whatever it was she felt necessary within the confines of the permissions he'd just given her.