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Fathom's Phantoms Some Assembly Required

Captain Nida Jorn had very few hobbies not associated with the pursuit of information others thought unattainable. Not an officer by trade, her task of commanding the Sigma-Echo station was related to the latter rather than the former. Interestingly enough, so was her guilty pleasure of tending to her small flower garden. Small, of course, was a matter of opinion, as the terrarium very nearly filled half of her spacious office. The garden, in fact, was a collection of Earth plants she had obtained and cultivated over a matter of decades and she prided herself on how useful they had become.

Although DRC Corp didn't fully understand the implications of her work, Captain Nida assured them that the flower garden was of tantamount importance to the Ygdrassil Project. Situated among her collection of flowers, placed exactly 53% of the length of the terrarium from the left side was a small bonsai tree, and it was something that the Voljoi captain cherished most. To see something that should have been so tall, and yet be the shortest plant in her collection-- it spoke to her in the way that other things simply could not match.

The fact that the division heads at DRC Corp humored her choice in the title for the project they likely couldn't appreciate the irony of the name... not like she could, anyway-- then again... few people were able to do anything like she could. The human-controlled corporation maintained its originating species' strangle-hold on the need for immediate gratification and instantaneous results... so much so that the board of directors didn't realize that there were decades upon decades of research that had led up to the Ygdrassil Project's creation.

What she was doing at Sigma Echo required that she stand atop the shoulders of some of the greatest minds in the galaxy, and she saw to it that the corporation helped her in all the ways she could manage. The fact that it only took her nine days to convince her of her importance to Sigma-Echo was that much more of a victory. Finally aboard the station, she would accomplish something great.

But, she realized, that was something the human-led corporation would never fully be able to comprehend or appreciate. She had been placed as the Station Captain, not because her leadership credentials met the minimum requirements, but because she knew the secrets that the board of directors needed so badly. She had convinced them, through some subterfuge but mostly with truth, that there would be no Ygdrassil Project without her and, if that were the case, then Sigma-Echo would only be useful for its advertised purpose... and that meant it was worth far less than it could have been.

There were any number of other prospective captains far more qualified to run a space station... but none of them had the knowledge DRC Corp needed for their special project. Once the Voljoi was in place it was not difficult to influence the board's decisions further and she was able to populate the bridge in a manner far more beneficial to her needs than the board would have done. From there, she was also able to further hand pick employees that would help her with her end goals.

It didn't take much to convince the board that a hands-off Security Commander would be a good thing to push up operational numbers, and that also meant less probing questions regarding the Project. A Director of Personnel obsessed with equality and fair treatment would create enough problems for herself that she wouldn't spend the time bean counting. With her station taking shape, the only unfortunate variable was the Corporate Overseer.

Nida Jorn had never been a big fan of having someone look over her shoulder, and, specifically in the case of the Yggdrasil Project, such an uninformed individual would likely cause problems. Of course, as far as Nida was concerned almost everyone on the station was uninformed, which meant she preferred if the Overseer did more busy work and less meddling. If it came down to it, Nida realized that the board would side with one of their own rather than a Voljoi scientist-turned-station-Commander, so she was forced to walk a fine line between catering to the Human woman's needs and getting the job done. The extra interpersonal communication was frustrating for the Voljoi, as she rarely needed to bother dealing with others.

It wasn't that Nida was an egomaniac or a narcissist-- far from it. She did, in fact, keep a very detailed account of all of her shortcomings... which wasn't particularly difficult because she had so few. The entire problem was the fact that others had so many, thus she came across as stuck-up and conceited... but that was an issue with those around her, not her personally. The Voljoi woman pressed her hand against one of the glass panels of the terrarium, which receded into the floor, providing her access to the plants beyond. She caressed the leaf of a nearby orchid, smiling to herself.

Human mythology was full of colorful myths, and she kept an orchid with her at all times. The ancient Greeks, a particularly creative Human culture named the orchid flower after a mythic individual by the name of Orchis... whose name was strikingly similar to their word for 'testicle'. He had joined a great celebration to a god of excess and debauchery and then attempted to rape the god's priestess-- her followers tore him to pieces. After the boy's father prayed to the gods for his son to be restored, the young man was brought back as a flower instead.

She softly stroked one of the orchid's petals, smiling to herself at the many faults of humanity and the curious ways they celebrated their own shortcomings. Despite the Humans' blindness in many aspects she always found it oddly telling in how their early civilizations had worshiped plants. From the Greeks and the orchid all the way to the Vikings and the "World Tree", known as the Yggdrasil... the very mythological incarnation of knowledge and "oneness" that had given her project its name. Like that mythic tree, the project would tie everything together.

The Yggdrasil Project would, when finished, be her greatest achievement. Before it could be completed, however, Nida Jorn was required to play her cards right. It wasn't a matter of abusing her position or overpowering her subordinates-- they, in fact, were not even in the same card game same as she. No, she was required to dance carefully around the topic of what DRC Corp sought out of the Sigma System and measure her own needs against that. She didn't feel badly about taking advantage of DRC Corp's resources because, she reasoned, they were using her just the same as she was using them-- it wasn't symbiosis... it was mutually beneficial parasitism.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the beeping of her Personal Communication Device. The Voljoi slid her foot along the floor near the seam of her terrarium and the glass panel returned to its up position. Moving quickly to the side of her bed, Nida touched the screen on her PCD, receiving the communication but not bothering to turn on the video. "This is Nida."

She spoke casually... not that she was required to identify herself: the channel on which she received the call was a private one, known to very few people on the station. The response came in her native tongue. "The shuttle crashed on Adolis."

Her contact used the Voljoi name for the planetoid the humans referred to as H-17. It was not abnormal for humans to assume they "discovered" something just because nobody else spoke up to inform then that they weren't the first to be there; the Voljoi people weren't really interested in laying claim to it... not after what had happened three centuries ago.

Nida inquired further. "And?"

"It was here. Just like you said."

The Captain expected nothing less. She took a seat on her bed. "Of course, Dr. Ibrin. I told you it would be."

The doctor's voice remained casual, but she realized that he must have been quite frustrated by the way he carefully enunciated each word. "Half of the survey team was lost."

Captain Nida sighed at the extraneous information. "As was half of the shuttle crew. "Yes... yes... but you have the--"

Dr. Ibrin spoke away from the receiver, most likely in greeting to another member of the survey team, "Oh... It's you."

The Voljoi woman realized that the interruption was not at the most opportune time, and she frowned as the discussion between her contact and another member of the survey team continued. A flicker from the terrarium caught her attention; the plants were far more important than the overeager, sycophantic doctor anyway.

Captain Nida didn't bother listening to the rest of the conversation; her eyes drifted to the five heat lamps she had providing light for her terrarium. As she watched the middle bulb flickered again for a moment as she looked at it, providing her all the information she needed. Captain Nida casually switched off the speaker, knowing far more than anyone else what that meant-- if only it had been the left bulb then Ibrin Nlosk would have lived through the assignment.

She quickly reattached the pin holding her PCD to her uniform and headed out of her office; even though she lost the Doctor she had confidence that the recovered item would ultimately find its way back to her. Glancing back once at the orchid, she received all the confirmation she needed, "Just a few days more."

* * * * * *

Even though Jennifer Thurstenburger had always been "daddy's little princess", it was a well known fact that her father had trouble expressing his feelings; he always did a better job relating to her as an employee rather than as a daughter. Considering she was representing LHI in their parent company's newest space station project, it made perfect sense that they would part with an "emotional" goodbye thus she wasn't particularly surprised by his parting words. "Don't let me down."

Her mother, on the other hand, had always been better about such things. "Take care of yourself, Jenny. We love you. If anything goes wrong, you send a message out to the nearest comm buoy and--"

At that point her father had stopped her mother from making what he considered was 'a scene'. Thereafter her mom simply left it at "Make good choices.".

Of course, despite Jen's mother's obvious and emotional show of concern, the young exec saw all the signs that her father was equally as worried... such as the veritable army of staff he let her take with. She was certainly not about to object considering her good fortune as they were more her employees than they were her father's... Geneticons that had been custom grown as part of the corporation's R&D program and prepared just for her.

The trip from the Inner Worlds to the Fringe was three weeks in total. The first several days were via a private chartered shuttle paid for by her family's company, LHI-- that had been pleasant enough. From there, Jen and her entourage were loaded onto a DRC Corp shuttle... still corporate, though not as nice as her father's. Approximately two weeks into her trip she was then loaded onto a public transport and, even though it was first class, she never did much care for commercial flights. That, and the rest of her team went coach, and she was not pleased with being split up from them... especially when surrounded by so many corporate wage slaves.

Thankfully, once they arrived at Farlight Station (the last real sign of civilization in the far reaches of deep space), she was able to reunite with her team for the three day wait until the DRC Transport came to pick them up. The transport was a private DRC space shuttle designed for shipping goods and workers but hardly met the high standards of an executive shuttle craft. Of course, given the option between traveling with her entourage surrounding her and sitting in first class, she considered the final leg of her journey to be much improved from the commercial flight.

Upon arrival at Sigma-Echo, Jen's first order of business was to check in at the security station and then be escorted to her private quarters. She would have three days before she had to report to the bridge to meet the command crew, but she already felt like it wouldn't be enough time. After the security detail provided her clearance to go to the executive deck it was readily apparent that she would be running into issues; the station command considered her Geneticons 'employees', which meant they were relegated to the lower employee deck.

It took several comm messages back and forth between her and the Station Captain before she convinced the unyielding Voljoi woman that she was not willing to accept rooms for her entourage away from the executive deck. In the end she won out and was assigned three apartments: one for herself and two to house her twenty five Geneticons. While there wasn't as much living space as she would have liked, she evened things out a little by having several of them live with her-- there WERE four rooms, after all.

The very first Geneticon made for her by her father's corporation was Theodocious. Though there was enough space that the Wolf could have an entire room all to himself Jen preferred to have him move the bed from there into her room. They had been together since she was seven and her father had even sent them to college together; he was honestly more like a brother than an employee and she couldn't imagine not having him around. It also meant that the bed-less room could serve as an office of sorts.

Robert and Marco were the two Weasel brothers, and her personal security detail. They moved in as well; her father would have had a conniption if she hadn't kept them close at hand, so they shared the third of her apartment's four bedrooms. Finally, Carol, one of her longest-standing assistants (other than Theo) rounded out the living arrangements by taking the fourth room. The Doe had an eye for color and design, and Jen trusted her implicitly when it came to bringing the otherwise drab apartment to life.

The remaining 21 Geneticons were separated into the other two living quarters. With specific water needs, Deborah and Oswald, a Dolphin and Otter respectively, were each placed in one of the two separate apartments. Jen placed Bernard and Walter to the first apartment since the two Dogs usually worked better as a team, then ordered Quincy and Velma into the second apartment-- the two Sheep siblings usually felt more at ease if they were together.

Evelyn, Francisco, and Priscilla, three sibling Cats were all put in with Deborah while India the Tigress, Uma the Puma (her father still frowned every time he heard that name), and Xavier the Borzoi went into Oswald's apartment. While Leonar and Henry could get along civilly, they were best kept apart; the Lion went into the apartment with Deborah and Henry the Hyena joined Oswald. At that point she was two-thirds done... but the available space in her suites was rapidly dwindling.

From there, it was a matter of squeezing in prospective roommates together to make sure the living arrangements would be comfortable for everyone. Nathaniel and Gertrude (an Elephant and a Mouse) joined the first apartment because they took up the most and least room respectively. Yancy the Pony was sent to the first apartment and Zelda theZzebra to the second since they each had similar space needs. Jeremiah the Bull was always good at keeping order, so Jen put him in with the three Cats, and she then decided to place Kenneth the Bat and Simeon the Monkey to the second apartment to even out the occupancy.

With one day left until she was due up in the bridge, Jen wasted no time calling her 'roommates' into the living room to talk. Once everyone was situated she gathered up the rest of her Geneticons and they joined in as well. The Overseer and her twenty five employees practically filled the room to bursting but it left her feeling surrounded in a good way-- the loyalty of her personal workers was something she knew would never be suspect and it brought no small amount of comfort for her to know that they would be with her... figuratively speaking, unfortunately.

The prior day's communication with the station Captain had ended poorly. Jen's original plan was to have her Geneticons assist with bridge control, communication, maintenance, and errands... but apparently Captain Nida had other ideas in mind. When Jen found out that none of her workers would be granted bridge clearance she tried to negotiate-- Theo was practically her VP so of course he'd have to be there... plus her two security Weasels... then Zelda her secretary and Jeremiah her executive assistant... five would have to be good enough. According to Captain Nida, however, it was not.

Culling her numbers further, the overseer countered with Theo, Robert, and Marco. Surely her most trusted employee and her personal security team would be a reasonable enough request... but apparently the Voljoi disagreed; Captain Nida turned down that request as well, citing that the bridge had its own security detail. Frustrated, Jen swallowed her pride and replied that, for the sake of positive interaction and good will she would set aside the Weasel brothers and would be eagerly awaiting security clearance for Theodocious.

Jen had spelled his name out, provided the Captain with his biometric signature, and was in the middle of elaborating on his genetic composition when she received yet another "Request declined" from the damned Gray. Frustrated, she had to take two circuits around the apartment with Theo offering calming words of encouragement before she went back to the terminal and typed a curt response to the captain explaining that Jen would see her at the bridge the next day and that the discussion would continue.

Captain Nida's text response was simple and to the point: I LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING YOU TOMORROW, OVERSEER-- WITHOUT YOUR GENETICONS.

Things really weren't starting off exactly as Jen had hoped.

* * * * * *

With only four hours left until the entire bridge crew met as a full unit for the very first time, Commander Vanessa 3J was already two hours into her ten hour shift. Although she'd had the opportunity to meet their Corporate Overseer, the Neo-Human Commander realized that a casual greeting and an innocent request for an additional executive elevator pass code was not an official introduction. That 'hello' had gone well enough, and Vanessa hoped that Ms. Thurstenburger was the same pleasant woman in a work capacity that she was in her off-time. It would, she realized, be a nice change of pace.

Vanessa had been assigned to Sigma-Echo as the third member of the bridge team. With only Captain Jorn Head and the Station's non-descript, administratively-minded Operations Officer in attendance longer, she was the veteran member of the command crew. During that time she had seen Sigma-Echo go from a skeletal, antenna-like husk, to an enormous station. Though far from complete, the orbital platform had come a long way, and she was proud to say that she was a part of it... a big part of it.

The majority of the security systems in place at the station were her doing; the smoothly-running checkpoints, the transit authority, the subtle and noninvasive scanners-- she was able to direct her security detail in keeping the peace without disrupting activity, and it was a matter of pride for her. Things didn't always run smoothly, of course, especially considering DRC Corp's interest in using work release criminals to round out their labor pool. Even so, excluding those red, orange, and black uniformed workers there was rarely more than an issue or two each month which required her attention. It was that much more unfortunate when she was struck with one per hour on such an important day.

The Commander had been on duty for barely ten minutes when she received reports that there was an altercation at the 43-H tram terminal: a small group of orange uniformed laborers had started a fight right at the gate entrance. Normally that wouldn't have been such a great concern, except for the fact that it was a Gorumn named Cameron who had called it in... and no other security detail was within range of the disturbance. She dropped everything and took an access shuttle down to the site, highly concerned over what she might find. Her concerns were well-founded, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

As far as Gorumn went, Cameron was much more mild than most. Although the three parties involved with the altercation were unconscious, none of them appeared to have been wounded excessively. Private Cameron sat by passively, as if he were impervious to the battle rage so common among his kind, politely but pointedly requesting that all of the onlookers go about their business. She was surprised to see everything so well under control, but spent the next hour-something revising the shift schedules to make certain that there was another officer on duty at all times with Cameron; she considered the station lucky that the Gorumn had controlled himself... it was possible that a future event might not end so well.

If that had been the highlight of her morning then she could have coped. Unfortunately, scarcely after she had updated the patrol orders, Vanessa received another communication requesting her presence regarding a "322". Having memorized all of the most common call codes, the Commander was, nevertheless, at a loss over the meaning of a "322", and she had to look it up on her tram ride down to mid-level of the station. Her destination was a mid-level medical bay... and the mid-level medical bays were devoted entirely to the most basic of care for the station's numerous incarcerated, work-release employees.

Just as she stepped off of the tram, the search finally came back on her PCD, "Gross ethical misconduct; breech of inter-species law of or pertaining to the widely accepted human's established Hippocratic Oath." she read the legal definition, then quickly did a search for examples of different cases where it applied; she had never been much for legal jargon and preferred to have an applicable example off of which to proceed. The answers that came up appalled her.

The majority of responses to her search for a Code 322 were related to laboratory cross-species fertilization; doctors experimenting on their patients without the patient's knowledge, taking semen from males and eggs from females in an attempt to grow a hybrid in lab conditions or, even worse, injecting the male's semen into an unsuspecting fertile female in an attempt to create a pregnancy. Vanessa realized that such a practice wouldn't be impossible to consider aboard the station, but most of the crew took regular doses of chemical sterilization medication to make sure Sigma-Echo's carefully controlled population would not change.

As it turned out, however, the particular Code 322 of the day had nothing to do with medical fertility experimentation; in fact, the practice which generated the call had much more applicable uses aboard the station. Vanessa was followed by two security guards as she walked down the mid-station corridor; the medical bay was separate from the majority of the science wing because it was where the work-release inmates were treated and the Station Commander didn't want them mingling with the general staff.

The security guards led her to the industrial center's inmate treatment bay; it had quite a large waiting room, she noticed-- most likely because the mid-station med bay was understaffed. A Gen 3 Fox wearing the orange uniform of an inmate working in the maintenance division was sitting on a plastic-lined sofa. Although the Fox seemed otherwise unremarkable, it was impossible to miss the fact that his left arm was significantly larger than his right... and covered in coarse, gray fur rather than smooth red that was prevalent everywhere else.

"Y-you're the Commander!" the Fox jumped up immediately, raising both arms as he did so. The larger, wolf-like arm off-balanced him with its movement, but he caught himself against the wall with it, large paw apparently having little trouble with its reflexive action. He straightened up and held out the gray appendage. "Look what he did to me!"

Vanessa turned to the security guard to her right, a human named Ted Cox. "Who's 'he'?"

Cpl Cox replied immediately. "Victor Cortez. Gen 2 Cat... another work release... red coat. He's one of two doctors assigned to this bay, and the only one familiar with transplant procedure."

The Commander looked back at the Fox. "What happened that you ended up here?"

"My team was working on the GGU on deck three-- The... uh... Gyroscopic Gravitat--"

Vanessa interrupted him, "I know what a GGU is. Go on."

The Fox held up his lupine arm. "And... and my arm got caught in the gears."

The Commander checked her PCD to make sure it was in record mode-- it was. "How did that happen?"

He looked away, lowering his ears. "I... uh... don't want to talk about it."

She bypassed the question. "Alright... and then you wound up here?'

The fox nodded. "Yea-- I mean, yes. Yes, ma'am."

"And you're still alive?"

He raised the wolf arm again. "Yea, but my arm--"

Vanessa finished his sentence for him. "Looks horribly mismatched. So you want us to have him remove it?"

The orange-furred Worker gaped. "I'm a FOX!"

The Commander nodded without any real empathy. "I had noticed. So you want us to have him remove it?"

"I should have a FOX arm!"

Vanessa let out a sigh as she turned off the recorder on her PCD; she hated having her time wasted. "You did. It got crushed in a gear assembly because something happened you don't want to talk about."

The worker pointed toward the service area of the med bay with his wolf paw, "What that Cat is doing is--"

Vanessa interrupted the fox's tirade. "Saving lives apparently, and keeping you functional. You didn't pay for the procedure so there's no money for him to refund. You are on a work release program through DRC Corp so they see to your medical care as they determine necessary."

"But--"

She leveled a critical gaze at the Fox, silencing him. "If you want to lodge a complaint and keep me from the REAL crimes, the most I can do is have him take that arm back and give it to someone who is willing to appreciate having it."

The Fox faltered, ears drooping. "This... this is barbaric..."

Vanessa tapped out a quick search on the worker using her PCD and read the result before looking back up at him. "Assault... rape... and manslaughter... that's quite a list of charges, Virgil. Don't you don't think THOSE are at least a little savage? Or are things only barbaric when they're done to YOU?"

with nothing more to be said, she exited the med bay; the Commander didn't have any more time for the Fox's petty complaints-- she had some REAL issues that required her attention.