Extraction Issues 18

Chapter 18

Restricted Maritime Zone BZE:4200.04
Cycle 6002.655.11.32

Mean felt like shit. He kept waking up day after day hoping he would feel better, but he never did. He was in a strange ancient building. The building seemed to have been carved out of the stone around him. The first time he woke up he was completely disorientated, he needed to vomit. He got out of what he assumed was a hi-tech hospital bed and collapsed. Everything about him was weak, jelly like and soft. He vomited on the floor.

He must have passed out. Next time he woke up Gil was there. She looked worried, beyond the unstable state that she had first been in when they had put her in charge of the crafts medical bay or temple. She mumbled about him needing to drink otherwise he would have to go on a drip. So he drank what she offered. It was like a strange mix between an energy drink and salt water. He managed to drink it and the after that, calm the urge to vomit with deep breathes. Then he passed out again.

Then he would wake up three or four times a day. It seemed Gil had an alarm and would be there shortly after he awoke. She looked exhausted and stressed to the point of jumpiness. She would feed him what he needed and in some ways he would feel renewed and energetic again. But he always felt drained in the depths of his bones and it was like he wasn’t quite in sync with his mind. It was like there was an echo between where his soul was and the rest of the world.

Next time he woke up there were lizard people and some of Nyutris crew arguing with Gil. They were almost yelling that this wasn’t the expected recovery pattern, they had found his old notes and knew something was off. Eventually in a quiet voice Gil confessed that she thought the previous effort to bring him back hadn’t been enough. He had been in pain being part shark man, but said nothing.

This time she had wanted to bring Mean right back to the point of nearly being a healthy human again. She wanted him to have a chance at a life, maybe one with Nyoma. She didn’t know what was wrong and why he was not recovering. Physically she was stabilising him perfectly.

There was quiet for a bit. They looked at him pale looking and sickly. This was also the first time they had seen him look like a proper human. They hadn’t realised it till now. His torso was the most obvious change, it was almost as if his chest and neck had decompressed. It was hard to describe the other physical aspect though. It was almost as if he looked softer and more fleshy than he had before.

Bit by bit, snippets of his short term memory returned. In a lot of ways remembering the sensation of running and fighting as a hyper-efficient creature, was torment in his current state. A lot of the time they flashed back to being with Nyoma in the cave. He hadn’t seen her recently to know how she was feeling about things.

Almost as often memories of pain and the relentless fighting in the cavern jungle. He wondered if he was still in the jungle. People had become used to him being slightly out of it and hadn’t even told him where he was.

Being alone at the moment probably in as stable a physical shape as possible, he admired the building. Even as one that thought art was irrelevant, he felt a little awe of the place. It was almost like a stunning cathedral carved as wonderfully shaped caves in warm yellowy-orange rock. Then it also had the amazing otherworldly patterns that were found on old technology like the extraction rigs.

Once the initial flashes of memory had subsided he felt some relief. He was still no sure if he should feel guilty or satisfied for the role he had taken in the fighting. So often scenes had flashed to him that felt horrific and distant at the same time. Occasionally he wondered how things would have turned out if he had not been hit by the Tleit energy weapon.

Thankfully the next wave of memories were a lot more bizarre. He had been surprised and pissed that they had asked him to stay in the monster form, to sort out enclosures for the chicken-beasts. Chicken taming was not usually the job you gave to people barely in control of a monster. But he bit the bullet and did the job.

The engineers quickly produced some seriously heavy duty enclosures and giant paddock fencing. Given his mood at the time, he though that they were enjoying their work far too much. Bizarrely they were all calm and friendly around him. He was initially called upon to lead the herding of chickens into the area and then ensure that the beasts all played nicely with each other in their new homes.

After that, as he provided security and brute force strength in the cages that were built into the caves. Then things took another interesting turn. Exploring the now empty villages of the the Tleit followers, they found already domesticated breeds of the beasts. Also they found a lab that seemed more focused on weaponizing the chicken-beasts.

The lab was empty except for one beast so wild that even those of the Tleit hadn’t dared release it. They tranquillised it as much as possible and then let him lead some of the lizards to finish it off. He had only just recovered from the battle. But after sorting that out, he had another three broken ribs to make things difficult.

From then on one of the main points of excitement and discussion for the lizards, was the soft peoples robot crab house. While they had initially thought smashing a bigger hole into the entrance of the jungle was a good idea, they were now happy to agree that tripods were cool.

Several of them had been invited to see the crab fire a laser and blast an arc straight through solid rock. This was a new type of smashing things and they were impressed. Now that they had gotten used to the idea of breeding chicken-beasts they thought it was almost funny. But they humoured the soft people never the less because of there healing ability and impressive involvement in the battle.

After the Tleit lab incident, Mean was glad that it was more the domesticated type that got selected for the cave pens. Thankfully his tasks from then on usually involved catching runaways and fixing strange holes or missed spots in their enclosures. Sometimes it was just plain stupid things, like that someone had used a grate from the big chicken-beast enclosures for a hole without thinking if it would stop the smaller beasts.

Thankfully Sihric and his lovely little partner had come to get him when it was finally time for treatment to undo his genetic overcharge. Sihric’s partner was a surprise. She was small anyway and almost comically so compared to the giant of a lizard warrior. She also seemed a lot younger than Sihric. Mean had also expected her to be a warrior, but she was very human and didn’t have much of a blessing as the lizards would say.

He didn’t have a chance to think more because they arrived quickly at the village and then as far as he could tell the assholes from the craft tranquillised him. If he’d wanted he probably could have thrown a tantrum to scare the life out of people. But he let the darkness close in.

The next time he woke up it was to the feeling of icy electricity. The monster was gone and he was at least part way through the treatment to return to human. With him in the beds isolation field were Sihric with a hand on his shoulder and his little wife holding his hand with her two little ones on the other side. He thought it was a bit silly at first, but as the treatment stretched on seemingly endlessly, he became more and more thankful for their presence.

Being brought back from monster state the first time had been bad enough. It had felt like you had your very soul sucked out of you. He wasn’t sure why, but this time was worse. Every now and again the lizard couple would give words of encouragement. The wife stuck to saying variations of he was doing well.

Sihric got disapproving looks from most around as his encouragement was more blunt. It started along the lines that he hid his pain like a real man. Then it moved onto being impressed that he could handle the length of procedure that it took to make the best warriors. Then he exclaimed about this lasting longer than when they sucked convicted heretics dry of their blessing.

For some reason as soon as he had been freed from the monster he seemed forced to stay awake through the rest of the procedure. It seemed to have dragged on for a day maybe more. Thankfully as soon as this was over, he was free. He collapsed into an exhausted slumber.

From then on he at had regular visitors. To the lizards he was a curiosity beyond what they knew. He had turned into a monster beyond their understanding and physically been brought back to the state of having no blessing.

The temple was shared ground so lizards could see him as long as it was no more than four at a time. A lot that visited thanked him for his help in the battle. Some came and were sceptical that his healing was complete. Others snuck by often at a distance. They were those that had seen Nyoma’s transformation and were looking at him to see if the process was repeatable. They were clothed to hide their deformities.

Sihric dropped by with a cloak. Then when no-one was looking he helped Mean put it on and sneak out of the place. They got out of the temple and Mean could tell he was still in the jungle. As his eyes adjusted he could see the village and chicken farm below. Sihric smiled and told him if he kept his hood up he would be mistaken as a drunk outcast. He did it all in clicks hoping Mean would at least pick up something if not a friendly vibe.

The strange thing was, Mean did understand. He understood the subtlety of every click, clock and tack, all of it. He was just too out of it to try and reply. Compared to being a spectacle at what must have been the villages temple, Mean enjoyed stumbling from that caves through the vegetation.

They got to the chicken-beast farm and Sihric gave him a couple of bottles of booze. He said to see if he could lay low and help if if could.

Mean finally picked up the worry that was hidden in especially the tacks of Sihrics communication. Mean could only guess that his existence was causing problems for lizard world politics. He took the booze, pulled the hood low over his face and wandered over to collapse at an out of the way spot by one of the pens. Sihric looked slightly hopeful as he left.

In some ways the next day was a lot more relaxing for Mean. He drunk when he felt like it and was occasionally given scraps by the workers when they fed the chicken-beasts. In some ways knowing he was in danger helped bring him back to the world a little. There was also the sense that whatever was different about the temple procedure was starting to take affect and settle. His senses seemed to have changed a little and it was becoming easier and easier to listen to the lizards chatter and banter as it flowed around him while they worked.

He sat there and mimicked it quietly. To those around it was quickly dismissed as a drunkard mumbling to himself.

He was amused to here the reports of his disappearance. The lizards had a good laugh about how security couldn’t even hold one vegetable softy in their care. With his disappearance confirmed it seemed that they were now free to talk about another subject. There had indeed been whispers that some of the elite had been considering ending him, as a abomination to the strength that they strived to be stewards of.

The next day he was feeling better and he wandered around and checked on the progress of the chicken-beasts in their new homes. Mostly it was going well. The lizards were all a bit stressed about the whole operation. Other than one water trough that needed a thorough clean, what looked like goofy oversized rats stealing food and one of the older large chicken-beasts just being troublesome things were okay.

By the time the morning was over he was bored though. There was only so much entertainment a person could find out of maintaining the perfect level of drunkenness and mimicking those around him. Maybe a little to drunk, he grabbed one of the shock sticks and some cleaning gear. Then he slipped into the cage.

One of the beasts immediately ran up to him and he cheerfully repeated the chirps back to it as if greeting a boisterous teenager. With it left unsure, he wandered over to clean the offending trough. After doing a quick wander around the rest of the pen he tidied up some food scraps that looked like they had been around too long.

The chicken-beasts found him odd. They could get close to Mean without him panicking and waving the shock stick in terror. One got really close and he jerked and snapped as if he was going to bite the beast. It pulled away in surprises. There were also clocks of laugher from outside the cage someone was watching him.

With that done he used the shock stick to sort out any weeds or plants that would cause vision issues for those working in the farm. Then he strolled out, wishing the beasts a good afternoon.

As he went to put the stick away the lizard that had seen him work sighed. It clicked that he had done an okay job, but he needed to at least put the crystal back in the charge. It demonstrated opening the compartment in the shock stick and putting the crystal it extracted in a weird nearby module.

He did his best to click back the phrase next time. The lizard seemed happy with that and waved him away. Once the initial adrenaline died down he was quite happy with his first crack at the work as a softy. He wandered around exploring the surrounding vegetation and then headed back to the farm in the evening he had a little more to drink then settled into his favourite spot hoping sleep would come more easily.

This time one of the workers gave him a small meal and then he was left to himself for the night. He actually slept okay considering how much he was drinking. There was a couple of expected wakings to empty his bladder, but his dreams were less troubled and bizarre. It was annoying being a sweaty warm-blooded creature again, but at least his days were slow and calm compared to the complete biological instability of before.

In the morning he woke and was given an area of a different cage to clean and some beasts to feed. It hadn’t been maintained as well as the main one so he was kept busy for the morning. He was given some lunch and then left to himself. He went back to his spot for a nap.

A couple of demis later one of the workers asked if he could give them a hand in the fighter-beast cage. Mean gave affirmative clicks as he staggered to his feet. The worker mumbled that he must want the outcast killed off if he’d asked them to get him to help the crew. He was clearly unimpressed by the robbed creature in-front of him.

Regardless he waited for Mean to grab a shock stick, cleaning cart and join the group. This cave was much more of a mess than the others and he strolled after the group. They were clicking nervously to each other and keeping a tight formation. The got to the first feed station and unloaded with several beasts eyeing them up in the distance.

Nearby there was some spoiled food that hadn’t been cleaned up so Mean wandered over to clean it up. The other lizards mumbled about the clueless drunkard and left him to his own foolishness. Means bad luck continued. The old trouble making beast appeared and shrieked at Mean.

Mean greeted it with chirps as if he was still dealing with the more boisterous young beasts. It was clearly unimpressed but cautious of this strange human. It occasionally lunged a Mean while he worked but bizarrely Mean always seemed to get out of the way very casually and have the shock stick positioned so that it carved another mark of discouragement into the heavily scared beast.

As the workers continued they became more and more appreciative of the stranger meandering behind them with his cart. Not only did he make the place seem less dangerous, he would clean up gross messes and trim plants to make there work safer.

The lizards that worked here didn’t have the fullness of blessing that warriors had. Clearly it was not considered work for the elite. But it seemed to Mean, that these were a well meaning crew of half lizards to at least learn some language off for the time being. He did what he could to tidy things up with whatever issues popped up around where the crew worked.

When they had finished the cage and clocked the door behind them happy clocks broke out a micro celebration erupted and Mean was pulled into the cheering shoulder bashing arm locks and weird skipping in a circle dance.

As the focus of work returned Mean followed another crews cleanup cart to a sorting area and put things into piles. When it was explained to the half-lizard he was following that he was the brain-damaged alcoholic ex-fighter Sihric had dumped here, they relaxed and showed him the ropes. He gave clicks to indicate his thanks. Then with his sticks crystal charging, he went back to his spot to collapse.

He had an early evening feed with the other workers this time and at least thought about the rodent problem. He wandered over to supervisor that had talked to him first. He seemed surprised to have the outcast approach him. He greeted Mean cheerfully anyway, clearly happy with the contribution the strange new worker was making.
Mean asked if they could get any of the soft humans projectile weapons to deal with the rodents. The supervisor was surprised again, but figured that it was a sensible observation for a warrior no doubt always looking to adapt to enemies. Even if the only fight was to protect food.

The supervisor though for a bit and then said that it probably wouldn’t happen. As far as he could tell this was a charity project from the soft humans and the lizard-elite were unimpressed with the farm. He joked that the softs knew that there weapons were considered rubbish, so maybe one would loan them one to prove their weapon.

Exhausted by the exchange he wandered toward the village. It was busy and thankfully he spotted a craft security team on the perimeter. To his surprise he could see the craft further up the hill. He wandered over to the team.

He did an awkward wave as he approached. Clearly this was a little strange as they greeted him cautiously and asked his business.

Now realising his complete lack of preparation Mean’s brain struggled. He said raising chicken beasts was his business.

The translator struggled then correctly passed on his message. They asked him to wait a moment, that talked on coms to whoever was running analysis on the craft. In coms they said to hold fire. The computer had already tagged this as a potential new dialogue.

Then another communication came in, it said Jondra had updated them and the newcomer was most likely and outcast. Best guesses were that he would be looking to sell the weapon for more booze, hence the unusual click pattern. Jondra said the speech was worse than a child’s.

They thanked them for the update and decided to find out more about this newcomer they approached Mean and went for his hood. Mean was panicking now but didn’t move.

Then the coms crackled to life again. They asked the security team to hold up. Apparently the computer had approved him for hunting rifle, ammo and light armour.

They stopped in their tracks confused. The checked in again. Had they heard correctly that the computer had approved him weapons and armour. The analysis team replied back apologetically. They confirmed that the computer had been given a budget. When it provided things of value it’s budget was added too.

The suggested gear was also categorised as barter-able. It let them know to hold fire as the computer had essentially paid for an off duty to deliver it now.

Mean relaxed. He was still not sure why he was trying to act incognito. He trusted Sihric enough to continue for the time being though. Sure enough a four-wheeler soon arrived with a delivery for Mean. It passed on the computers thanks for his work with the chicken-beasts.

This left everyone confused as they the four-wheeler left, oblivious to the confusion it had added to.

Security followed protocol and repeated the computers thank-you handing over a heavy bag. In some ways it reminded him of an ice-hockey bag. But it was a long time since he had been in the east or on the ice. He thanked then with more rough clicks the left relieved. He could still here confusion as he headed back to the beast farm.

Wehl 2025

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