Life With Ares

A Dagoran Brain In A Jar?

I was woken up early on my Saturday morning, my day off, where I had planned to sleep in.

"Mars, it's Yamato. Befa finished her project. She wants to show us immediately." He said as he knocked.

"Alright, I'm getting up." I yelled back as I quickly got dressed and joined him in the hall.

"To be honest, I don't think she's slept since she started this thing." He laughed.

"Well, she's one of the best scientists in UPII. I'm not surprised." I shrugged.

"Whatdya think it is?"

"Probably something neither of us understand."

We arrived at the Machina, waiting outside the cockpit with the crew. Sage, DeKalb, Shiara, Od Garda, Yamato, Befa, and myself.

"Please, be aware, that this device may be grotesquein nature, but it's what worked." She had a wide, proud smile on her face as she hit the button next to the door to the cockpit, sliding it open. She war right, ti was definitely grotesque. In the middle of the cockpit was a tank fixated into a computer terminal lit up with lights and tubes that were stimulating the Dagoran brain inside. 

"Ew." I whispered. 

"So... Your grand plan was a Dagoran brain in a jar?" Sage crossed his arms skeptically. 

"Watch it, Lt. Need I remind you that my full title is Col. Doctor?"

"No, Ma'am." Sage rolled his eyes. 

"Then please, allow me to explain: After an autopsy of the Dagoran corpse we took with us, I found nothing that we hadn't seen before, but I remembered that it was something to do with the Monolith that effected their behavior, so I had my drones playback the footage we recorded of the Monolith and sure enough, it started up with brain activity. It was the same kind of activity you'd see in an animal who migrates. I carefully pinpointed the wavelengths of the signal and hooked our friend's brain here up to biocomputers-"

"Short answer, Doc." Yamato said quickly, examining the machine.

"I hooked his brain up to a computer that will tell us when and where a Monolith is acitvated, discovered, or emits a signal." She sighed, disappointed in our lack of understanding and interest.

"Amazing, Doc. Sorry, stuff like that just makes my head hurt." Yamato shrugged and inspected the device.

"Of course, why wouldn't the cyborg, a marvel of modern medicine, hate science? Either way, we can now intercept the signals and be ready for when they're unearthed. Of course, Monoliths unearthed inside Dagoran territory will be pointless to get, but in the case of an incident similar to the Jaraxans, we can be prepared." She nodded, folding her arms behind her back. 

"Great work, Doctor," Yamato nodded, further inspecting it, "Have you given the design to Admiral Keers? We need to get one of these on every UPIN Vessel." 

"That was my first response too, but I also forgot that Lost Night is a secret operation."

"For how much longer?" Yamato crossed his arms, frustrated.  

"Until something happens in UPIAF territory, that's my best guess." The doctor sighed, suddenly the ship rang with alarms and the computer screen attached to the brain jar lit up with notifications, displaying the map of the milky way, a red blip blinked on the screen, fixated on Zirotan.

"I guess that answers if it works." Yamato said grimly.

"Zirotan. Another independent system? Damn." Befa cursed under under breath as she stared at the screen.