This one might take more than some whiskey

As Penny lies in the medbay, once again out cold, I am reminded of something that my old man used to say: “There are two types of people: the ones in pain, and the dead.” I can only hope Penny keeps being in pain at this point. I really thought we had finally escaped this nightmare.

After Gibson took out the slug, things went quiet for Penny, though she had a bit of a dull ache in her head. She tried to tough it out and even helped me carry Gibson to the medbay. We dumped him down on the biobed and then Penny took a seat. Her head was getting worse. A little bit of headache meds should have done the trick.

Gibson hadn’t been looking good, but a quick stab of a medpac into his chest brought him around. A gentle “there, there”, a pat on the head, and getting cuffed to the biobed was all the bedside manner I could muster. Penny needed my attention more.

 She was doing worse. I got us some whiskey to help take the edge off. Well, more like I had a whiskey, and she had a bottle. But then she started heaving. At least Penny knew what a bedpan looked like, and I just did what I was good at: following orders. Penny was not doing well, her head was getting worse. And that was when she passed out. Her breathing didn’t seem good.

Cicero knew I didn’t have what it took to handle this and told us we needed a doctor. He was right, of course. Whatever was going on here wasn’t going to get better with a nap and a shot of the good stuff. But going back to that doc on Promethea? That didn’t seem like a great plan, but Cicero seemed so sure. Said he had gone through Penny’s thoughts and the doc was likely the one who helped Penny get out, which is something I guess. But I couldn’t make that call, I needed Min on board with this.

I ran into Zoe on the way out of the room, gave her a quick update but I figured Gibson could fill in the details while I found the captain. When I got back Zoe told me that she and Gibson got Penny stabilized a little, which helped her breathing, but Penny was just barely hanging on. We weren’t going to have much time.

My conversation with Min went about as well as I could expect. Like the rest of us, it was difficult, if not impossible, to believe anything Cicero said. The info seemed to make sense, rang true, but the captain wasn’t about to just sign off on anything on the word of a spy. Min was willing to trust me on this, but I needed to pull my weight on the ship, which of course I was willing to do. Not that I know much about how to run one of these things, but how hard can it be? Push some buttons, read some screens… it’s not like trying to break a horse or something. It was time to go pick up a doctor!

Right about then we got a message from Cicero, asking Min to get to the medbay. We went back together to find out what was up. That’s when we got the full story.

It seems Cicero was marked when he was a little boy. One day, strange tattoos just showed up. Along with inheriting the powers of a Siren! A Siren, here, on the Gamera? We might as well have loaded the cargo hold with explosives. But it explains a lot. Cicero’s been hiding his powers his whole life, getting to old age by avoiding being hunted down and used by the corporations. At some point, Cicero decided to infiltrate Hyperion and take it down from the inside as payback for all the pain and suffering brought upon Sirens by the corp. 

Vengeance. I can understand that. 

It apparently didn’t take too much to tip things badly for Hyperion. Especially with the focus that Cicero chose. Unlike some of his more explosive ancestors, Cicero chose being creepy and manipulative and play with the human mind. This whole story, though, was all a bargaining chip. I’ve seen this sort of thing before. Of course, he could just force us to accept him by using his powers to persuade us. But the truth? Vulnerability? That buys real trust. And then this guy teleports to the other side of the room, straight out of the bracers. Then back into the biobed. Like it was nothing.

Now look, there’s plenty of stuff I don’t understand. I don’t know how Fin can go about wearing nothing but that tight thong and not get cold on a ship in space. I don’t know how a kid Zoe’s age can hack a robot the size of a small building. And I don’t know how a ship barrel rolls sideways and yet travels forward on its path. But this seems different.  It ain’t natural. My eyes have seen some crazy stuff these past few weeks and it just keeps getting weirder.   

One last reveal from Cicero, though. He was put on this ship to do what we didn’t… get Penny back. He definitely isn’t showing any love for Hyperion and took the steps to make sure Hyperion didn’t get what they wanted. That’s not nothing.

For now, it seems like a truce. I owe him, and he wants Hyperion to be hurt, which is fine by the rest of us. But how did Hyperion find us? I kept trying to track down how Hyperion was able to lock onto us at Hephaestus, but couldn’t find anything. It didn’t help that I kept thinking about Penny and digging through ZedMD, trying to find out what was going on. But like Zed, I’m not a doctor.

We had a lot of time before we would come out of Hyperspace, so I joined the crew in the cockpit to learn some of the stations. I thought about checking out the gunner controls, but the Ops console just felt right. Digging into the sensors, seeing what’s out there… felt a lot like being on a case. I even figured out some ways I could help us use the systems to get through some rough space if we needed to.

While we were still in hyperspace, Min got on the comms with Gibson, trying to arrange a meet with Doc Octavia Hernandez.  Apparently whatever Cicero did to the slug means Penny doesn’t have much time, and the doctor can’t get there fast enough. But Doc Ock knew someone, a Doctor Kael, at Junpai-7. So off to Port Laroche we went.

Is there a doctor in the house?

This place was the exact opposite of Promethea. So many freighters, so many people in a tight space, and so much kraken. The whole place smells like the backend of a bullymong. The corporations must be making a fortune off this business if they are able to pay all these folks to do this work. And it looks like they enjoy it! It wasn’t hard to find the location for the Kael Cybernetic and Biomimicry Lab, and we tried to keep unnoticed on our way there. There are enough people here it’s easy enough to blend in with the crowd. 

The Kael lab, though, doesn’t blend in. Everything is just… off. A completely different feel from everything else in Port Laroche, even the writing on the walls look different. Walking in  we found a big sign for Dr. Mariana Kael, along with loads of pinups of sea creatures and cybernetics. Even a huge kraken in a tank, and crates of those slugs. They are up to some unnatural stuff here. Why does everything just need to get weirder?

Gibson did his thing: lying. Said we were there for an inspection. Sure, why not? At least that would get us access to the lab. I didn’t really know what we were supposed to be doing for this type of inspection, it’s not like Penny was sending me in to check for mice at the saloon. The rest of the crew got us in no problem. Zoe had the droids covered, and Min and Gibson handled the talking. It took a lot of self-control not to incinerate those brain slugs the doc was pulling out. I wonder how confident she would be without that protective face shield?

From what I could hear, it seemed like the doc wasn’t able to leave. Looking around, it also seemed like there wasn’t an easy way to get the ship over to the lab. The water-facing docking station  would only take a smaller ship, not a full grown one like our Gamera. That meant a land transport to the lab from the dock, but I wasn’t sure Penny could even survive being out of the biobed long enough to make it.

Min even tried bribing the doctor, which must have caused her physical pain, given what she’s said before about wanting to hold onto the credits. But it’s hard to beat a double-salary from Hyperion AND Jakobs. Even if we forced the issue, all the gear that’s needed is huge and here in the lab. We’re not being left with much choice. I really hope this Kael can help, but something is up. This doc knows Penny. Has a patient number and everything. But Penny didn’t mention going to Junpai-7 before and this doctor doesn’t leave her lab. 

So here we are. On a smelly planet hoping a crazy doctor is going to keep Penny breathing. Hoping she’s still the type that is in pain.

Image credit:

• Cover image: “Dr. Mariana Kael” generated by Kwyn using Midjourney (Sourced from: https://jasonstcyr.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/dr-mariana-kael.png )