Welcome to Gaia! ::

Officer Melody stood at attention with the rest of her team as Lt. Commander Usher and another woman stepped into the medical bay.

“Sir.” Her team saluted Usher, who nodded at them all.

“Officer Melody. This is …Captain Serene Six Delta.” The slight pause in his voice told Melody volumes about how he felt about the small, young woman standing with him. “Give us your report.”

Melody did so, detailing Delta Squad’s arrival in the Medical Podbay, the dead bodies, the shutdown of the awakening program. She described their discovery of the one survivor, and the error messages they found on all of the data screens.

“And this is our survivor.”

She led her commanding officers over to the medical bed where he was lying. The man who was lying there was younger than herself. He was somewhere between twenty-one and twenty-four, she estimated. He had fine, thin features and was well-built for the prime of his life. His hair was stark platinum blonde, plastered to his head and face from sweat and the damp of the pod he’d been ejected from.

There was something strange about his body, but before she could consciously call attention to it, he woke up again. Clear blue eyes darted around the room and Alezandir and Trevor prepared to hold him down again. The survivor’s eyes seemed to lose focus and he slumped back again. However, before anyone could relax, they refocused, and he looked around the room anew. Melody looked to Usher, who nodded at her. So, this was to be her show, it seemed. Good. She appreciated the confidence her commander was giving her in front of the captain.

“Are you all-“

“Have you been stabilized?”

His voice was soft but clipped. Melody looked to Usher, and to the captain. Neither seemed to know what he meant.

“I’m sorry; I don’t understand what you mean. You’ve just been through a traumatic-“

“Forget what I’ve been through, that’s completely secondary to the problem at hand. This is a medical bay, and that-“ He wrenched his wrist free from Alec’s grasp and pointed at a mass of equipment behind them all. “-Is the stabilization equipment for completing the process of Essence transfer to a cloned body. Except, that equipment is not activated, therefore, you must all be unstabilized clones!”

Clones? Melody blinked as she looked to her commanders for some guidance. That couldn’t be…but yet…there was a resonance of truth in his words. Alec and Trevor had let go of the survivor, who now pulled himself off the medical table. He pulled on the table’s sheet, barely saving himself from exposing himself completely to the Captain, and secured it around his abdomen, towel-style. He made his way over to the ‘stabilization’ equipment, talking all the way.

“The memory engrams and neural pathways in the human brain – the complete human package – is referred to as The Essence. The soul or spirit, if you want to be theological about it. The Essence can be recorded and kept in The Source. The Source is a massive database engine that stores all of the Essences that have been downloaded into it. And when the time is right, the Essences are loaded back into biological forms – cloned bodies – and then the Essence stabilized, so that no memories or experiences are lost. If the Essence isn’t stabilized, then memories can be rendered unrecoverable, and eventually, the neural pathways break down to the point that brain death occurs. Oh, of course a new body can be cloned, but the Essence…that cannot be so easily duplicated.”

The survivor paused and began working on the panels of the equipment he’d identified as the ‘Stabilizer.’ It was a chair with a rotating platform that circled the head section of the chair – when they’d entered the room Melody had assumed it was a sort of X-raying device.

“So, ‘Doctor Error’,” Trevor spoke up before the survivor could talk again. “You’re saying that, A, we’re all clones. And that, B, we’re all in dire danger of winding up like those braindead bodies on the floor of the Medical podbay?”

“Doctor? Who doctor? I doctor?” The survivor looked up at Trevor, confused and blinking. Melody was afraid he was going to lose focus again and pass out, as he swayed slightly under Trevor’s questioning. “I-I don’t know if I’m a doctor. I don’t…hm. I don’t know if I have a name. All I know is…is that this is the Stabilizer, and yes, it is absolutely essential that any and all clones who have been awoken report here immediately for stabilization. You may have already noticed an inability to recover memories – without stabilization, it will only get worse.”

The machine hummed to life as all of the screens suddenly ignited, data crawling across them. He looked at everyone in the medical bay, brushing hair out of his face and holding onto the sheet around his midsection.

“Who will be stabilized first? Who is the essential personnel? It should start from the very top of the hierarchy, and as soon as possible.”

The doctor looked from the Captain to the Lt. Commander and back again. He tilted his head, swaying slightly and rolled his eyes back into his head. Suddenly, his head jerked back into position.

“Oh. Well. Hello. Isn’t this interesting.”

He looked down at his sheet-wrapped abdomen, and back up to Serene.

“VERY interesting.”

He half-smiled and…did he just wink at her? As Serene’s mouth opened the Doctor’s eyes lost focus again, and he snapped back to attention.

“So? Who is going to be first to be stabilized? You. You’re the captain? In you go.”

Gently but resolutely, he pushed Serene into the seat and his fingers flew across the datapad. The machine noiselessly circled around her head, faster than its bulk seemed capable of. The Doctor reached over in front of her and tapped a large button. A holographic view of a what appeared to be a brain popped up, floating in the air in front of her.

“This. This is your brain. And this is your neurological activity.” He tapped another button, and the model of the brain lit up with colorful hues. Reds, greens and blues ignited in some areas, with yellows coloring the brain stem.

“Good. Memory decay is at .03%. You probably lost the memory of the color of your mother’s eyes. Oh. You know what would be good right now? Pants. Yes, definitely some pants.”

The Doctor turned to Usher.

“Pants. Would you? Thank you.” He went back to narrating the view. “The yellow is, of course, autonomic functions, breathing, blinking, ‘holding it in when you have to go,’ the like. All nominal. Blue is the logical-thinky bits and Red the creative-artsy parts. You have minor, minor degradation in the Red, that orangey-traily bit there, but all in all, a healthy, fully-integrated brain. Hold a tick.”

The machine whirred and circled her head again, before coming to a complete stop.

“There. Fully stabilized. Memory recovery will NOT, repeat NOT be instantaneous. It’s all there, you see. May need to be triggered. Sounds, sights, smells – oh, especially the smells, they’re excellent memory triggers. Smell as many things as you can. The pants? Are there pants yet?”

Melody saved her commander the trouble and handed the Doctor a pair of white medical scrub pants. He nodded at her as Serene stepped out of the Stabilizer.

“Is that it, then? Just a whir around with that thing and, we’re all…okay?”

“Well…”

“Well?” Melody crossed her arms, echoing Lt. Commander Usher’s stance. Everything paused as the Doctor tried to keep a modicum of modesty slipping the pants on under the sheet. Once they were on, he discarded the sheet off to the side and sat back down, inside the seat of the Stabilizer.

“I’m going to run a Stabilizing cycle on myself right now, and you will see…”

A new hologram of a brain popped up. It was still a brain, but it was different than the one that had appeared when Serene was in the chair. The Doctor pushed a button again, and the same lights popped up.

This time, though, the lights were dim in the frontal regions, and in the middle of the brain, it was almost completely black.

“As I suspected. ‘Doctor Error’ is an appropriate misnomer…the memories. They’re not there.” The Stabilizer gave the ‘whrrr’ to indicate it was, well, stabilizing, and the Doctor sat back in the chair, his eyes closed and letting out a sigh. “I don’t know what went wrong in the podbay, but I. Am not. Complete. I-I know what this is. I know this equipment, I know how to operate it, I have complete IN-DEPTH knowledge of neuropathology. I can’t tell you my name.”

He opened his eyes and looked at the group assembled in front of him.

“You need to wake more medical personnel. I’m not fit to serve.”

“We can’t.” Melody responded. “Not until we determine what caused the error in the podbay. The last thing we need to do is unintentionally kill 500 more people. Captain, I know you didn’t ask for my opinion, but I was in the podbay. I saw what happened in there. If there is a risk of that happening again…it’s a risk too great.”

The Doctor stepped out of the Stabilizer.

“There’s really no time to waste. Next patient, please.”

Another ‘whrrrr,’ another brain check, and another passing grade from the Doctor for Lt. Commander Usher’s mental capacity. As security personnel began to filter into the Medical Center, Melody took her turn in the seat. Behind her, she heard Trevor putting up a fuss under his breath.

“Guy falls out of a pod, half-crazy, starts demanding we all get hooked up to machines…says we’re clones…and we all just do what he says? Maybe we’re the half-crazy ones…” Melody gave him a warning look with her eyes, but didn’t want to verbally rebuke him in front of the commander. He looked away from her gaze sulkily and kept any further thoughts about it to himself.

As the machine whirred around her head, Melody put her own thoughts on everything in order. Cloned bodies, with downloaded…what did he call it? Essences. The soul, he said. Her soul, her personality, the very stuff that made her Melody, moved from one body into a new one…just like putting data on a drive and sticking it into a new computer chassis. Thinking about it too hard made her uncomfortable.

The ‘whrrrrrr,’ finished, and Melody stood up. She didn’t feel any different…then she looked over at Alezandir. He looked unhappy, and she instantly knew why. Alezandir, was a devout Russian Catholic, and he was disturbed by the theological implications of being a clone. Melody sucked in her breath. She REMEMBERED that. From their time together…in training! A memory! A recovered memory. She looked at the Doctor with new appreciation. He was already busy seating Therese.

Lt. Commander Usher was debriefing everyone who was filing into the Center about what they had all learned from the Doctor. The Captain was talking – rather brusquely – to the ship’s AI. Soon, an announcement sounded out over the ship’s PA system.

“Attention, all awakened personnel. Attention, please. This is the New Genesis AI speaking. All personnel are to report to the Medical Center for debriefing and treatment. This is not optional. The Medical Center is on Deck 12-forward. Repeat, Attention, all awakened personnel….”

As the message repeated over all decks, Melody’s team reconvened following their Stabilization.

“I would like to commend all of you on the job you did today,” Melody addressed them, her hands behind her back. She felt the sense that she had done this before, given them a pep talk after a hard assignment. “We were freshly awakened, confused, and we still did our duty, to a T. It wasn’t an ideal situation out there. And we saw great tragedy in the deaths of the medical personnel. But we prevented the problem from spreading and possibly destroying the entire medical staff on this ship. Now, however, comes the difficult part. I’m going to ask Lt. Commander Usher to make the investigation of what happened in Medical Podbay One our responsibility. We will be working with the Engineering Staff and Doctor, uh, Error, over there to find out what the problem was and helping to repair it, so that we can get a full medical crew active as soon as possible. Understood?”

Her team responded as one.

“Understood.”

Lt. Comander Usher strolled over to them, giving them all appraising looks. Melody gave him an appraising look of her own. Did she know Usher from more than just being in security? If so, the memories weren’t coming back as easily as she’d wish.

“I would like two of you to retire to your quarters, and two to remain on guard around the Doctor. He’s the only medical staff we have at the moment, and he seems to be having..spells.” Usher nudged his chin toward the Doctor, who was rubbing his eyes. “Four hours, then the retired officers will relieve the active two. Hopefully, we’ll have all the crew ‘Stabilized’ by then. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.” Melody gave him a salute. “Alezandir, you and I are first shift. Therese, you and Trevor take a break.”

Her team split, and Melody and Alec took places near the Stabilizer, on either side of the Doctor. She had lost sight of the Captain in the growing throng of people who were trailing into the Medical Center. How many total on the ship had been awakened, she wondered? Hundreds? A thousand?

“Excuse me,” Melody was interrupted from her thoughts by the Doctor. “But could I get a shirt?”

“Huh?”

“A shirt. I was kindly given a pair of pants, but it’s actually rather chilly in here, and I would like to request a shirt.”

“Oh. Oh, of course, I’m sorry.” Lord, Melody thought to herself, this was a mess. She resolved to save her worrying and remembering for later. Right now, duty was what mattered. She handed the Doctor a scrub shirt, and he slipped it on. “Here you are, Doctor Error.”

“You shouldn’t call me that.” He replied as the shirt slid over his head and his blonde locks tumbled out of the neckhole.

“I apologize. Trevor Eighteen Theta started calling you ‘Error’ and I just sort of picked it up.”

“Oh, I don’t mean that. I mean ‘Doctor.’ I have no idea if I’m an actual Doctor. You have no idea. And it’s not a title to be thrown around lightly.”

“You were in the Medical Podbay and you know more about any of this equipment than anyone else on board. I’d argue that qualifies you as more Doctor than anyone else.”

Error frowned, but nodded.

“I suppose so.”

”Don’t worry. Tomorrow we’re going to start investigating what happened in the podbay, and I’ve no doubt we’ll get our answers as to your identity during our work. You won’t be an error for long.”

“I suppose n-agh!” Error had turned, facing the reflective surface of the wall opposite the Stabilizer. “Oh, that’s…that’s me. That’s my reflection. That’s my…”

He trailed off as he reached up and touched his face, his ears, his hair. He tilted his head and reached out for the reflection…

“Doctor! The next patient is ready.” He jumped at the sound of Alec’s voice and turned away from the reflection. Shaking his head clear, he returned to the equipment and started the next Stabilization.

Melody and Alezandir watched the progression of people going through the stabilization process. She had been right in her earlier assessment; there were nearly a thousand people awoken, all told. She spoke briefly with some of the Engineers after they were stabilized, and was given a good recommendation on who should join her team for the Medical Podbay One investigation.

Other than a lion's share of Security officers, the people who had been awoken were very diverse; Engineers, Science Officers from several fields, Civilian workers, even a few chefs and entertainers. It was the beginning of an actual community on board New Genesis.

"-heard that there's a shortage of food, that the asteroid belt damaged one of the storage bays." Alec motioned to Melody to listen to a conversation taking place near the front of the line. A tall woman with red hair was talking to a shorter Asian man, who nodded.

"Yes, it's going to take a while to get an actual ecosystem going here on the ship. The rumor is that we're going to stop at a nearby planet and get some supplies."

"Just get supplies? If it's habitable, we should stop there! Why risk our lives any further?" The conversation cut off as the two neared the very front of the line and were briefed on the Stabilization process. Alec looked at Melody grimly. She could tell he agreed with the woman about stopping at the next planet. Bad enough that they had all been shocked today by being told they were clones...now they were stranded out in space and waiting to starve to death.

"I, uh..." Error was standing again, swaying slightly. Melody stood up and grabbed him at the elbow.

"Are you all right? Do you need to take a break?" This could be bad...without him, there would be nobody at all who could run the Stabilizer. Error's head drooped and he slumped in her grip slightly. "Alec, call the command-"

Before Melody could finish, Error's head shot up straight and he looked around him, blinking his eyes like the room was too bright for him.

"You again? Where'd the pretty angel go? No, never mind. Let go of me." Melody let go and Error walked around in a small circle, looking around the room. "Well it's not bad, I suppose. Could be worse. No chains or bars. No padding on the walls. Even-oh. Look at that." He wandered over to the large mirrored wall and tilted his head as he looked at his own reflection, then in the mirror at Melody's reflection.

"Doctor Error, if you need to take a break, maybe you can instruct Alezandir or myself in operating the machine so we can keep the Stabilization going."

He turned to her and tilted his head in the other direction, as if trying to see her from all angles. Then he smiled, a smile that pulled up on one side of his mouth and left the other side completely flat. A crooked smile. He smiled at her and started shaking his head lightly as if she'd just suggested he start dancing on the ceiling or something. As if he was trying not to laugh in her face. Then, just as suddenly as before, he swayed and took a lurching step forward. Melody caught him on the arm again before he could go crashing chin-first to the ground.

"Error? Sir, are you all right?"

"Y-yes, uh, yes, I'm fine. Just-just need a moment." She led him on rubber legs back to his seat and he pulled the hair out of his eyes, running his hand back across his head. "I'm sorry."

"It's all right. Your health is our top priority, just like how the crew's health is yours. Now, what did you mean by chains or bars?"

Error blinked at her.

"What?"

"You said that the room didn't have any chains or bars-"

"Or padding." Alezandir chimed in.

"Yes, or padding, either, right before you got dizzy again. What did you mean by that?"

"Oh, I-I-I...I don't know, actually. I don't know." He seemed genuinely confused by their line of questioning, looking down at his hands. Melody decided to try her assistance tack again.

"Can you instruct me on how to operate this machine? Is that possible? Then Alezandir can take you to some quarters for a bit of rest before you resume work."

"Oh, yes, of course. Now that everything is calibrated, running the machine is quite easy. Unless a truly anomalous brain shows up, in which case I should be called immediately." Error showed Melody the proper sequence for scanning and then stabilization. It was easy, just a few button pokes. And so Melody started her first day as an assistant medical technician.

"Come with me. There are plenty of empty quarters near the Medical Center." Alec motioned for Error to follow him, and the weary man acquiesced. As they made their way past the line of people still waiting to be Stabilized, Error paused. He looked at Ran Four Omega, took in a breath and held up a finger as if he wanted to ask her something. Then he stopped, shook his head and continued following Alezandir out of the Center and to what would become his living quarters.

When she exited the Stabilization Chamber, she felt no different then when she had entered. Then again she supposed that it would be not different to have a soul, or not to. She shrugged and let the doctor go to work.



"Yes, we must not Awaken any more people. I agree with you, that's a very good judgement call. I like my people to go with their gut feelings." She nodded to Melody, "Good job."

She continue to walk around answering the questions she could to the crew that were assembling in a line outside.

"Yes, we will be landing on the planet soon."

"First we must make sure it's is of a stable environment for human kind."

"I'm confident we will find what we are looking for."

"No, I didn't feel a thing, as far as I know, it's a harmless process..."

She made her rounds entering back into the Med-Center. She was in time just to see Doc, Error's sudden change in mannerisms, then quickly shift back to a tiered looking form. Although she was not close enough to hear what was said, as soon as the security team left to take him to his room.

She nodded to Melody and Usher, giving them a quick message.
"Do watch him. Wouldn't you? I feel the stress of being the only Doctor on board may wear him out much faster with little to no crew to help him..."

Then she walks over to Ran Four Omega, the youngest member of their crew, how strange she was as to not be able to fully mature, yet having some of the brain patterns of a grown adult. She must be very afraid.

"Hello Ran," She said smiling softly at the girl. "How did you do, with helping Steven on the green house?" She asked pleasantly.

Steven waited for his turn in the machine along with everyone else. It wasn't long before he heard the "wrr" of the machine himself. He wasn't too surprised when nothing clicked inside his mind. None of the other crew showed much changed when they stepped out. He hoped that the doctor knew what he was talking about and that their memories would eventually return.

He was going to head back to the cargo bay turned greenhouse when he spotted the commander. He waled up to her nervously and gained her attention.

"Uh commander. I wanted to ask you something." He paused, making sure to find the right words. "Are you sure you made the right choice in naming me second in command? I mean thanks for the vote of confidence, but I don't really know I'm the right guy."

Alezandir led Error down the halls of New Genesis, towards the living quarters set aside for the medical staff. Trevor Eighteen Theta was lingering around, seeming in thought. Alec smiled at his Squad member.

"Trevor, you are supposed to be in your quarters resting right now."

Trevor smirked at him, and took up pace with Alec and Error.

"Psssh. Can anyone sleep right now? We're all clones! The Hell, man? The Hell?!" He gave a little snorty laugh. "It bother you, Alec?"

"A little." Alezandir nodded. "I am not sure how I feel about it yet. I do not think it is something I would have agreed to."

"I think it's great, man. It's...liberating." Trevor took in a deep breath and let it out his nose and grinned. "Hey. Doctor Goofball. You done rewiring everyone's brains?"

"About halfway done, needed to rest a spell..." The Doctor trotted a couple of steps to keep up with the security officers. He muttered something about blackouts. Trevor patted Alezandir on the shoulder.

"Hey. You get back to Mel. I'll take care of this."

"Thank you, my friend." Alec gave Trevor a hand on the shoulder, and the doctor a nod. He headed back towards the medical center. Trevor smirked at Error.

"The next few weeks are going to be freakin' inSANE here. You started a hell of a thing telling everyone they were clones." Error blinked.

"It is a fact, whether I informed or not, everyone would have found out eventually."

"Yeah, I suppose so. Still. Next few weeks. Just you watch." Trevor tapped his nose a couple times and then came to a stop. "Here, this is labeled as the Chief Medical Officer's quarters, and by default, for now, that's you. Hey. Ship AI. This is Trevor Eighteen Theta with Security Override. Open the door."

The doors opened with a 'woosh.' and Trevor ushered Error inside.

"All right. To lock the door, just tell the AI what your lock command code is. Sleep tight."

"Thank-" Before he could respond, Trevor spun around on his heel and walked out. Error looked around the room. It was large and well-furnished. No pictures on the walls. No windows. A closet area next to a vanity with a mirror. Empty and devoid of personality or memories. Just like him. He sat on the bed with a heavy sigh. He was facing towards the vanity with the mirror, and he looked up through his hair at the reflection.

It had no meaning for him. It could easily have been someone else, sitting on a different bed, looking at him. He closed his eyes and put his hands on his temples.

Neurobiology. Neuropathology. Brain chemistry. Synaptic functional studies. Every last bit of knowledge about the human brain and it's functions. It was all there. And nothing else.

Letting out a sigh, he fell backwards on the bed, stretching out his arms. How could this have happened? How could he have turned out so incredibly....broken?

His eyes closed, and the walking error fell asleep.