Sentient Worm

Departure

Departure

Taylor struggles to open the door to her prison became weaker and weaker, as despair and exhaustion caught up with her. Just as she was about to black out, she sees two enormous beings, circling around each other, and shedding parts of themselves. One of those parts is falling towards her, so she reaches out towards it, like you might reach towards a falling star you were making a wish on. As she does, she falls into the void between all things and lands on a metal floor before blacking out.

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Taylor's eyes flutter open to the sound of people moving around, and the occasional beeping. Above her is a clear canopy, through which she can see a patterned blue ceiling. The walls are white with gold highlights and the occasional blue light tracing through it. As she turns her head to one side, she can see a row of additional pods, all of which are in a vertical position with the lids open.

"Hello?" she croaks, immediately a man in some sort of uniform comes over. He says something, that's incomprehensible to her, in a no-nonsense tone of voice.

"I'm sorry, I can't understand you."

The man smiles at her and says something, that she assumes is reassuring, before reaching up and touching something out of sight. As he does, her vision goes black again.

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Taylor wakes up in the pod again to the sound of a couple of men talking "...fascinating. You say that she has had absolutely no genetic modifications or nanite treatments prior to being found on our ship?"

"Yes sir, we were able to take a complete genetic scan as well as a digital copy of her brain without any loss of life or data. Let me introduce you to cephalon Taylor."

She hears her voice coming from a nearby wall, "Hello? Hello? Why is it dark? Where am I?"

The second voice answers her, "Hello Taylor, you're in a computer at the moment, as we took a copy of you before we administered the standard nanite treatments, and inoculations, just in case there were any unknown side effects. You'll be happy to know that your original self is fine and should be waking up soon."

"Oh, is that why I can't feel panic?"

"It is, and congratulations, you're the first cephalon that has ever been created without killing the host. When we place you into a proper vessel, you'll have your emotions back, and so much more."

"Please, tell me, where am I?"

"You are on board the Zariman Ten Zero. I'm going to place you on standby now until we can get you your own cube. It will be like going to sleep."

The first man speaks up again, "Fascinating, and you got her genetic data too?"

"We did, when we get back to real space this will revolutionise the cloning process. Her people still had 28 chromosomes, and absolutely no signs of any genetic tampering. We're not currently sure if she's a time traveller, or fell into the void from another world, but what is clear is that she is Orokin, though from an older genetic lineage than anyone currently alive. If we could get hold of a male from the same place, it would completely revolutionise cloning. As it stands this should allow us to develop automatic corrections to flash cloned people."

"Good, I need you to classify this data under T0V-oral protocols. We'll inform our superiors when we return to real space. What of the girl?"

"I've given her the required treatments to allow her to survive in our environment. When she woke up last time her vitals were all steady, so I activated the flash learning program to give her the basic knowledge that she'll need to participate in our society."