Highway to Krell - Bisexual Edition

The Chief's office was located in the central control hub of the Pinwheel, which was connected to the torus by giant spokes from which the station got its nickname, Reid and Dubois would be headed to the nearest entrance in this quarter. He hurried downspin, squeezing between a pack of feline Borealans and drawing their ire, ducking out of claw range as their leader spat an insult.

After what felt like an eternity he arrived at the nearest entrance to the central hub, a long tube that served as a walkway to connect the two sections, lined with transparent windows that looked out into space. The automatic door was guarded by two marines clad in black UNN body armor, their faces obscured by opaque visors. Reid must have already gone through, damn it.

He made for the door, but one of the marines walked forward to block his path, holding out a gloved hand and gesturing for him to stop.

"Excuse me, Sir, do you have prior authorization to enter the hub?"

"Please, it's an emergency, I need to speak to Chief Moralez immediately."

"I'm sorry Sir, I can't let you through without authorization."

Clayton considered trying to rush past them, but the two men were armed, their rifles hanging across their chests.

"It's very important, it concerns station security, I'm a member of Doctor Katherine Reid's science team appointed by Chief Moralez."

At that the marine hesitated, bringing up a wrist-mounted tablet computer embedded in the bulky wristguard of his suit and tapped in some commands. Clayton waited impatiently, practically bouncing on the spot as the marine checked it out.

"Says here a Doctor Reid and company are permitted temporary access to the control hub by order of the security chief, but unless you have her with you, I can't let you enter."

"You mean she hasn't been through yet?"

"Not logged anyone by that name today, Sir."

"Doctor Clayton? What are you doing out here?" Reid's voice from behind, he spun to see her and Dubois walking towards him. "I thought I told you to stay with Doctor Sousa and examine the specimens?"

Clayton breathed a sigh of relief, she hadn't been through yet, he must have passed her on the way down without seeing her. He took a moment to steady himself, trying to calm his racing heart as Reid watched him with a confused expression.

"Doctor Reid, we've discovered something crucial about the Krell, you must not purge the ventilation system! The lizards we've been finding, they're not the spawn of escaped pets, they're Krell!"

Reid looked confused, and her expression darkened.

"I thought we had already ruled that out? What has changed?"

"The specimen we found in the barracks, the one we brought back to the lab, it is undergoing a transformation from male to female. The Krell, at least certain individuals, are changing sex!"

Reid took a moment to consider what she was being told, crossing her arms and staring intently at the floor. Dubois looked even more confused than she did. Clayton continued, gesturing wildly as he spoke.

"It is not without precedent, there are species on Earth that undergo similar changes based on environmental pressures, we theorize that a lack of females has triggered some kind of change in the aliens. When I did an x-ray of the specimen I found no deformities or congenital defects, just a dark mass in the lower abdomen that upon closer inspection, was a uterus."

"And Sousa has confirmed this?" Reid asked, still skeptical.

"Yes, I didn't know what to make of it at first, but Sousa assures me that this is well within the realm of possibility and that there are precedents in nature. He concurs that environmental pressures are causing some of our all-male Krell population to change into females. We cannot flush the vents, we must not, those lizards are baby Krell and there may still be females in the vent system laying eggs. We must round up every lizard and egg, and then isolate all of the females from the remaining males, who knows how the Krell would react if we murdered a hundred of their young?"

"Putain de merde..." Dubois exclaimed under his breath, "if we 'ad flushed the vents, we would 'ave blown their children out into space. Why did you not think of this sooner? You 'ave a team of the best scientists available and still you almost cause a catastrophe such as this?"

"Now now Mister Dubois," Reid said, gesturing for him to calm down. "Doctors Sousa and Clayton have reached the right conclusion in time, no harm is done. These kinds of breakthroughs are exactly the reason I assembled this team to begin with." She turned back to the Clayton, the man still red-faced from his frantic rush to intercept her. "Your theory does indeed explain everything that has been happening so far, if you're absolutely sure, join us and tell Chief Moralez what you know. Together we will come up with a solution that doesn't harm the aliens, their safety will be my utmost priority."

He seemed to visibly deflate, wiping beads of sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his lab coat.

"Thank you Doctor, that is what I had hoped to hear, of course this presents a new problem. We can isolate every individual Krell, perhaps in the brig, and that will stop them breeding for the time being but it isn't a long-term solution."

"We'll think of something," Reid said, walking towards the marines and waving Clayton and Dubois forward. "We need to let the Chief know about this."

Reid flashed her ID badge and the marines moved to either side of the door, each scanning a card in a reader in order to open the way.

"Watch your step please," one of the marines chimed as the trio walked onto one of the long spokes that anchored the hub to the torus. Clayton had never set foot on one before, only authorized personnel were allowed access as there were often one or more fleet Admirals present, and all of the major control systems that governed the station's operation were located here. There was a ninety degree bend in the tubular passage, the floor curving until he had to crane his neck to see up the tunnel, as if he were looking up an elevator shaft. This wasn't what he had expected, but of course if the tunnel were connected directly to the torus then the entrance would be embedded in the painted ceiling with no way to reach it, this way it extended from the side of the donut and curved upwards. It was made up of the same whitewashed metal and plastic present in the rest of the station, though there was a rubbery, treaded lining on the floor here that looked as if it were made for grip.

He wondered what the marine had meant by his comment, and then he felt the gravity change abruptly, his body blaring an alarm that he was falling as his stomach turned. Reid reached out a hand to steady him, and they walked up the curved floor together until they were standing on what a moment ago had been a sheer wall, the change in perspective messing with Clayton's senses.

"The torus spins to generate inertia," she explained, "creating a kind of artificial gravity, as the torus is far too large to use the gravity generator systems common on UNN vessels. Being at the center of the Pinwheel, the control hub has to use an AG field to generate its own gravity. The curve is the point where you leave the inertia of the torus and enter the hub's AG field, it can be jarring the first couple of times."

It was quite a walk, and the two men looked out of the windows at the velvet blackness of space, dotted with pinpoints of cold light from far away stars as Reid led them on. The massive donut-shaped torus extended off into the distance, painfully white as it reflected the glare from the system's sun. You never really felt like you were were in a space station when you were in the torus, the painted ceiling and the planters that coated the place in greenery gave the impression that you were on some city street somewhere, with no windows to space present to spoil the illusion.

Here however Clayton felt exposed and vulnerable, very cognizant of the thin layers of metal and glass that separated him from the almost instant death of open space.

After a long trek they came to the door to the hub, there were no guards on this side, and the doors opened automatically to let them through. The hub was very different from the open spaces and decorative trickery of the torus, all narrow corridors as if they had stepped onto a navy battleship. It was tastefully furnished, it almost looked like a fancy executive office with paintings on the walls and shrouded lamps illuminating the carpeted deck, but it wasn't enough to ward off the sense of oppression and claustrophobia that permeated the space.

"This way," Reid announced, and turned off down one of the corridors. Clayton and Dubois followed her, feeling out of place as an occasional engineer or high ranked officer passed by them. When one of the doors that lined the corridors to either side of them opened, Clayton could spy an office cubicle or a bank of switches and machinery inside.

They arrived at a door to one of the offices, and Reid activated an intercom that was embedded in the wall beside it. It crackled to life, and a gruff voice could be heard on the other end.

"Yes? What is it?"

"Chief Moralez, Sir, it's Doctor Reid. I have news concerning the lizard infestation that I wanted to present to you in person."

"Very well Doctor, please come in."

The door opened, and the group stepped inside. Moralez had a spacious office, the walls and desk were lined with consoles and readouts, no doubt informing him of everything that was happening on the station at any time. As Clayton marveled at the equipment he noticed views of the hangar bays, cargo manifests, a few personnel profiles open on one monitor. He felt as if he were standing inside the Pinwheel's very brain. Moralez rose from his seat and took Reid's hand in his polymer prosthetic, he would have saluted a fellow serviceman but although the scientists were employed by the UNN they were still technically civilians, and it would not have been appropriate.

"Good news I trust?" His voice was almost as gruff as his appearance, once chiseled features now marred by a patchwork of scars, the motors contained within his robotic limbs whirring softly as they moved.

"Well, we've gotten to the bottom of things, we've discovered the source of the infestation and it is...nothing we could have imagined. As for what we can do about it, that remains to be seen. Our resident veterinarian, Doctor Clayton, will fill you in on the details."

Clayton explained their findings to the Chief, whose expression went from surprise, to disbelief, and then finally to concern. He took a moment to absorb what had been said to him, the rubbery grips on the tips of his fingers scratching his stubbly chin as he considered their next course of action.

"I agree that we can't simply imprison our entire Krell population, and there remains many unanswered questions. Why is this happening only now? The Krell have worked alongside humans for twenty years and we've never observed this behavior before. Nor can we flush the vents, I'm pretty sure the wholesale massacre of their offspring won't be taken kindly."

"Right now we have two problems," Reid added. "Removing the existing spawn from the vents, and preventing them from producing more. I'm going to recommend removing as many females from the general Krell population as we are able to identify, and then isolating them in a separate building. Put them in the gym perhaps and close it off, they won't mind that I'm sure, have someone on hand to observe them and make sure no breeding is taking place."

"Sounds good, but that isn't a long-term solution, we need to find out exactly why this is happening and then find some means to prevent it. I also fear that there may be no safe way to remove the juveniles from the ventilation system, they pose a significant biohazard risk and the station's crew complement has a hard limit. If they reproduce too much, then their offspring will consume more oxygen than the station's system's can recycle, which poses a mortal danger to my crew. I will not allow the situation to reach that stage, Miss Reid, I must put the lives of my staff before those of the aliens."

Clayton interrupted, shocked by the Chief's declaration.

"With all due respect Chief Moralez, these aliens are, or will soon become sentient creatures like you or I. Do not let their bestial appearance color your judgment, under no circumstances must we allow them to come to any harm."

"The situation is more dire than you realize," Moralez replied, his tone becoming stern. "The oxygen recyclers that Fort Hamilton uses to provide clean air to the crew have a limited capacity, if more carbon dioxide and other trace gasses are produced than the system is rated to handle, then the air quality all over the station will begin to fall. Push the recyclers too far and we won't have to worry about the welfare of the juvenile Krell, because we'll all have died from asphyxiation along with them. If your team can't find a timely solution then I will be forced to purge the vents, regardless of how any of us feels about the situation, my priority must be the safety of the crew."

"I...I understand," Clayton replied. "The problem Sir, is that we just don't know enough about the Krell, and we can't communicate with them well enough in order to find anything out. If these were animals living on Earth we could do field work and learn more about them from their environment, observation of how they behave in their natural habitat might tell us what we need to know, but we don't have that luxury on a space station. We need more information, and we have no way to obtain it."

"I thought you had a xenolinguist on your team, Doctor Reid?" Moralez asked, turning his attention to her.

"The Krell language is uncommonly complex," she replied. "Through a mixture of advanced translation software and the expertise of Doctor Webber we can interpret basic words and phrases, but I would hardly call it communicating. At this stage I'm not even sure Krell communicate at all in the way that we do. There are many layers of low frequency vocalizations that are below the range of human hearing, then there are the factors of scent and vibration, even body language. On top of all that we're communicating with them on land, when their language seems to be best suited to an aquatic environment."

"So you can't just ask the Krell, I get the picture Doctor. The question is what 'can' you do?"

"Not much at this point," she replied, straightening her glasses nervously. It was hard for her to admit failure, and things were rapidly looking that way. They had discovered the source of the infestation but they had no idea of how to deal with it, at least that didn't involve infanticide. Dubois pitched in to break the silence.

"If you cannot talk to the Krell, 'ow do you give them orders during a battle? I know they are able to fight alongside UNN troops."

"Well, their commanders send them wherever they need to be, and then they're mostly just pointed at the enemy line and set loose. They're almost exclusively used to break stalemates and in breaching or boarding operations, so there isn't much that needs to be communicated to them other than 'go here and kill this'. As for how they get to the station to begin with, they're dropped off by Broker vessels, likely brought directly from the homeworld. Whatever treaties or agreements they have are with the Brokers, and we use them auxiliaries."

"And you don't care to know more?" Dubois asked, his tone skeptical.

"Frankly Mister Dubois, if they're happy to fight with us then we're happy to have them, this is the first time that they've ever caused us any real trouble. Hell, they're a damn sight better behaved than our own troops, my MPs break up more bar fights in a week than I've logged complaints about Krell since I accepted this position."

"So why not go?"

"Go, Mister Dubois?"

"Yes go, to their homeworld. Clayton says we need to see them in their natural environment, we can't get any new information out of them on the station, so logically we must go to their home planet, no? He is a vet, Reid is a scientist, but exploring is my area of expertise."

Moralez considered the proposition for a moment, then turned to Reid.

"Miss Reid, do you agree with Mister Dubois' assessment? If I can arrange passage to the Krell homeworld, do you think you might be able to find the answers you're looking for?"

"I...I don't know," she stammered, somewhat alarmed by Dubois' sudden proposition. "We are sure to learn more there than we can here, but I can't guarantee results. Do we even have the time, how long would a return trip take us?"

Moralez walked over to one of the desks that ringed the room, tapping a query into one of the touch panels at the bank of computers.

"Says here that the Krell homeworld orbits 61 Cygni, a binary system made up of two K-class stars that isn't far from Sol. Shouldn't take you more than a few days on a jump-capable ship."

"And does the Pinwheel have that long?"

Again Moralez paused for thought, his robotic fingers drumming on the table as he weighed the options.

"Every minute we waste talking about it brings us another minute closer to having no choices open to us at all, so I'm making the call. Reid, get your team together, I'm chartering a jump-capable vessel and I'm sending you to the Krell homeworld. We will do what we can here to keep the Krell from breeding, and I'll send engineering teams into the vents above the barracks to capture as many juveniles as they're able. I'll buy you all of the time that I can, but if you don't find some secret to solving this problem soon, then I'll have no choice but to flush the ventilation system. I already talked to the guys over at engineering and they told me that the station has about nine days of clean air left, so that's about how long you have. I won't let it come down to the line."

"I...this is very sudden Sir, my team..."

"Pack lightly Doctor, bring only what you need, and be ready to leave at short notice. I may have to commandeer a cargo ship or a civilian vessel, which will require some paperwork, but I'll send word as soon as I have a ship ready for you."

"Yes Sir. As you wish."

The trio stepped back onto the torus, the inertial gravity gripping them as they walked through the automatic doors, closing behind them with a rush of stale air as the marine guards loitered nearby. Dubois seemed chipper, pleased with himself, he had been roped into this affair against his will and now he seemed to have turned the situation to his advantage. Reid hoped that he was happy.

Though they might very well find answers on the Krell homeworld, Reid was not suited to fieldwork, jump travel made her sick to her stomach and the alien planet would no doubt be fraught with unknown perils. As reluctant as she was to go traipsing around uncharted worlds, she had to admit that she could offer no alternatives, they had exhausted their options with the Krell on the station. Perhaps if she was lucky Webber might have discovered something new that would make the expedition unnecessary, assuming she had turned up by now, but Reid wasn't counting on it.

"We will be the first humans to visit the planet Krell," Dubois mused, a grin on his face. "I take back what I said earlier Reid, I am now more than happy to assist with your investigations."

He was being facetious, Dubois was really starting to get on her nerves, she didn't know if she would be able to stomach being confined to a transport ship with the man for however many days it took them to reach 61 Cygni.

It took them a while to get back to the lab at their more leisurely pace, and Reid was surprised to see that Webber had joined Sousa at a desk, the two of them examining the egg that he had collected as the Krell specimen hovered nearby.