To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch 57 Earth

Earth

Alwen could have spent a lifetime studying Aunviry DNA, as awful as they were up close, deep within they held the potential secrets to immortality and more. Of course she knew the foibles of chasing after every doctors dream, a cure for death. In Terran culture their 'alchemists' had poisoned emperors with mercury in hopes to extend life indefinitely, and in her own culture people had developed acupuncture with the poisonous barbs of sea urchins to try and heal the nervous system. Both Terrans and Torweni understood the dangers in recklessly trying to save lives, and if that same recklessness was used in conjunction with Aunviry DNA then the results could be catastrophic. So when Alwen had realized that both she and Bachir had stayed up for two days straight she knew that they had to put it all away. lock it away in their sample vault and step away to really consider what they were doing.

They had determined with pretty solid evidence that Aunviry DNA had been responsible for a lot of things that ultimately had disastrous results, Vaxis, the birth of the Mammaloids, the life extending drugs that had caused a collapse of the human labor market. This stuff had the potential to do a lot of good for the galaxy, but they already had abundant examples of how bad it was as well. It was like they were splitting the first atom while also having seen the devastation caused by nuclear warfare. Whatever the Aunviry were it was very clear that they were living weapons, engineered to be death and destruction incarnate. The more they studied it the more they found out just how monstrous they really were, and the clearer it became that the only real discoveries they would make was how to cause more death and misery.

The Aunviry were the pinnacle of bioengineering of a hopefully long dead civilization, but they had little hope of reverse engineering any of the advanced bioengineering that went into them, the most they could do is replicate what they were seeing. It was like coming across a bunker full of doomsday weapons, sure they could reverse engineer the weapons and learn the amazing secrets behind what they did, but ultimately all they would learn was how to kill and destroy. Maybe with years and years of study they could find more peaceful and less destructive uses for it, but the immediate results would always be destruction.

And Bachir and Alwen weren't entirely sure if a small lab aboard a pirate ship was the safest place to unluck the deadly secrets of the Aunviry. Despite having to break her vows of peace Alwen was not comfortable in pursuing a path of research that would only result in death, and Bachir felt the same way.

"We must learn from the mistakes of Oppenheimer; we mustn't become the inventors a new a terrible weapon, or unwittingly bring it into the hands of those who would wish to weaponize it. If we wish to pursue this it must be under our own terms and free of potential aggressive influence. I love Astarte, but she is a warrior first and a peacemaker last." He said solemnly.

Alwen thought about the battle on the pirate capital, a conflict Astarte had charged straight into with the only real goal being to destroy her enemies. Alwen knew the pirate well enough to understand that if it came down to a choice between destroying her enemies at all costs or turning the other cheek, Astarte would always choose the violent path. To her, direct threats needed to be destroyed, there were no other alternatives.

And so she and Bachir entered into a secret pact to keep the terrible potential of Aunviry DNA away from Astarte and the other Hellworlders. They would tell her that they were totally lacking the equipment and lab space to further pursue any serious research without needlessly destroying the precious samples. They were the only two medical researchers in the Hellworlders employ who had the right background for research and development, the rest were just doctors and nurses who knew how to patch up a body and diagnose illness. And they were confident that they had cultivated enough trust between them that Astarte would believe them.