Hazel and Klunk (An RnC Subnautica AU)

Chapter 6: Disease Research Facility

~During this chapter of the story, the point of view swaps from Hazel's to Klunk's (Gadget's). Just a word of warning~

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By day thirty-six, Gadget had more or less settled into organic life. He seemed to present a more adventurous side now that he was more able-bodied and adapted to life. Swimming was a learning curve, but he was managing. Although, he only ever went out if I was able to be his second set of eyes. He constantly worried for my health, and wouldn't let me go out if I coughed or sneezed. Nausea didn't help either. He checked my temperature every morning and again in the evening. If I ever felt dizzy or nauseous he would stop exploring immediately and rest until I felt better.

It was a strange experience. He'd never really cared about me before he became a Lombax. Perhaps it had to do with a theory I'd read about back when robots were first created with independent A.I. centuries ago. The theory stated that A.I. could not form humanoid emotions like naturally intelligent creatures like Lombaxes and other Humanoids. I had seen proof of this theory in Clank, Spring, Isabella, and even in Gadget pre-transformation, but they always contradicted the evidence in some way. In Gadget's case, him getting concerned when I faced the Warpers for the first time was the contradictory evidence that toppled the tower.

On day thirty-nine, we completed the Cyclops and I had worked through the fuzziness and brain-fog to create a module to carry both PRAWN Suits and Sally II. It was a lot of work, but I had the idea in mind for a while. Additionally, in the three days between day thirty-six and then, I learned that Gadget had quite the penchant for getting himself stuck in high places. He also learned that I hate thunderstorms. I personally can't really explain it, but my foster parents say it was because of the constant storms on Veldin and Rilgar.

I started noticing small green pustules on my skin, but they didn't really bother me. They looked disgusting, but they didn't itch or anything. Gadget, however, saw this as an ominous sign.

My days could be numbered.

We packed up for the journey down to the Disease Research Facility we read about from the data downloads. The Cyclops, "Maria" as Gadget named her, had plenty of space for all the vehicles and storage for food and materials to build an independent base in the Lost River zone, where we suspected the facility was located. I stood by Gadget's side guiding him, since I was too weak to pilot the Cyclops by myself. I kept one hand on the wheel to assist, to let him know that I was there. We had created thermal protection suits and changed those out for our other suits, since we didn't know what awaited us in the depths.

The Lost River had an extensive fossil record, like the data description, but it had almost no ecological diversity and had an eerie river of brine. The scanners I installed told us that there could be a juvenile Ghost Leviathan nearby, so we would have to be careful with our base placement.

We picked a location near the river in a quiet spot where we likely weren't going to be bothered nor bother anyone. It was very dark in those caves, meaning that some of the creatures were better adapted for the dark than we were—we could learn from them—so it would be helpful to study the fossil record since my bio-science side was already starting to kick in. Nature is what I love, and all of my creations are built with the environments of any and all planets in mind. I might be a mechanic, but I really wanted to go into exploration and field work in environmental science. Gadget seemed to share a similar passion, just from conversing with him. Not with his programmed personality, but with him as an individual.

He left me alone for a moment while he built the foundations on the edge of the river and set up the bioreactor—a technology I loved since it produced clean energy and reused all organic waste. The compost produced by the reactor could be reused to plant crops since it relied on bacteria to produce the methane gas to burn as fuel to power the generator inside. He built multiple multipurpose rooms and set up a bedroom for me, but I noted that he didn't set up a separate room for himself. In another large room, he set up a greenhouse and multiple alien containment structures to contain study subjects. He kept it small, but he used a third multipurpose room to form a storage and fabrication area. He also added extra thermal reactors to power other machines.