Almost twenty days later, the spaceship arrived at the target planet. From afar, it looked like a normal planet, except that the landmasses were concentrated in the center, but the water wasn't blue, it was purple and the vegetation seemed to follow the same pattern. From above, it looked like a purple planet with a few red areas, originating from deserts and whitish areas at the poles.
This was one of the 3 habitable planets in this solar system, the sun had a whitish color, clearly a younger star.
Black Spider brought the Trihexa (spaceship) close to a round artificial satellite. From a distance, it looked like just a small dot compared to the planet, but the closer they got, the better they could see the large space station. Judging by its size, Black Spider thought it must be almost a quarter the size of the Juberly Hub.
The silver station orbited the planet, moving slowly around it. In the Trihexa command center, Black Spider allowed the clone to contact the artificial satellite command center and they received permission to land after confirming the mission's registration.
Behind him, dressed in black clothes with the Triple Six symbol on the chest like the clones, but without the helmet, Rick's golden face was somewhere between unhappy and resigned.
He used to be a mercenary, so joining the group wasn't so bad, but Black Spider didn't have any drinks on board, so the last few days of the trip were awful for him.
In truth, Ringo also enjoyed some luxuries like tobacco and alcohol, but there were only clones and the brainwashed Black Spider controlled by his clone, so why would he bring drinks on board? He had gotten rid of the junk the pirates had a long time ago..
Rick sighed for the umpteenth time and said. -I hope they have alcohol there... and women.
Black Spider rolled his eyes and ignored him, he was already annoyed by Rick's constant complaining over the past few days.
One of the clones piloted the craft to the open hangar for landing, the metal hatches slowly closed behind them as they landed, and soon after, the pressure adjustment process began.
Finally, a green light was given as Black Spider left with the armed clones in tow, he took only four with him, acting as bodyguards. Rick, of course, came along.
-Hey, Captain.- Rick said, using the new title with indifference and clear acceptance. He didn't care much about things like titles, if someone bought him a drink, he could call them Daddy right away. -What's the mission?
Black Spider's eyes rolled. -You spent the last few days on the ship, bothered the entire crew, you didn't think to ask about it?
-Well, to be fair, I slept most of the time and these guys don't seem very talkative.- Rick shrugged.
Black Spider took a deep breath, even though he had seen this guy's attitude through his future vision, he still couldn't get used to it in such a short time.
-Hunting and exterminating an uncontrolled life form.- Black Spider explained calmly.
-Well, nothing new, I've done a few missions like this before.- Rick replied nonchalantly, glancing around the hangar before his eyes focused on a group approaching.
An elderly, bald man with glasses, wearing a lab coat, approached with his hands in his pockets. Beside him, a blonde woman with round glasses, also wearing a lab coat, followed closely, holding a clipboard.
Both were galactic humans, the man looked at them with cynicism and indifference, a look that seemed to be deciding how they would look with their chests open on an operating table.
The woman didn't seem interested in them at all, using her digital clipboard to do something else, she barely raised her head to glance at them before refocusing on the digital screen.
-Well, you must be the new mercenaries, try to stay alive longer this time.- The man spoke lightly, his aged voice still firm.
Rick didn't care what he said, he already had his eye on the woman like a hawk that saw a rabbit playing in the open field.
But while he was about to open his mouth, Black Spider spoke first. - Thank you for your consideration, the mission said that you would be responsible for explaining the mission in detail.
The man gave a slight snort, not even mockingly, simply a mixture of amusement and indifference. He shrugged and began to walk away, still with his hands in his pockets. The woman didn't even blink as she followed him with her head down.
-Come, I'll take you to see our beloved C-31.- the man said as he walked away.
Black Spider didn't hesitate as he followed the group. Rick pursed his lips, annoyed at being ignored, muttered softly. -She didn't even look at me properly, that's why she didn't notice my glow.
Black Spider ignored the lunatic, entering the station's interior following the pair. They passed through several laboratory rooms, as well as men in lab coats and security guards carrying psionic energy weapons.
The man began to speak while they were still walking down the corridor. - This base was created for the study of rare species, they come from all over the galaxy and most of the researchers here are connected to the biological field: geneticists, microbiologists, pharmacists, botanists... in short, we have everything.
The group remained silent while they listened.
-C-31 is... an anomaly. It was found on an inhospitable planet. It was just a single cell at the time, we imagined it to be a unicellular being, but when it was introduced to a culture medium with the right environmental parameters, it began to grow.- He entered a room while speaking. There, a large number of monitors were present, as well as some guards, clearly a monitoring room.
The old man patted a guard on the shoulder, who understood and quickly began playing a video. The content showed researchers studying the cell in question, there was no sound, so the man continued narrating.
-C-31 proved to be a multicellular being, but not only that, its cells were... beautiful, even more advanced than stem cells, each of its cells represented, in simple terms... - He looked at them with slight scorn as he said "simple". - It is a mixture of muscles, brain and eyes.
Having made his disdain clear, the man didn't care if they were offended before continuing, but he didn't need to care, Black Spider didn't care about that in the slightest, let alone the clones. Rick wasn't even paying attention to the explanation, but looking at the woman with thoughtful and resolute eyes, as if he were about to leave on a mission.
The video continued, showing the creature's accelerated growth. From a small being with transparent tentacles, it escaped containment and began devouring everything in its path. Many researchers and security guards died in the process, and what was once a simple tentacled creature the size of a fist grew to be as large as a rhinoceros in a short time.
Its color changed to a pinkish-flesh hue, and it assumed a quadrupedal canine form with tentacles on its face, in the center of the tentacles, a mouth full of teeth appeared.
-As you can see, C-31 can grow rapidly as long as it has enough biological material.- The man seemed unconcerned while his colleagues were being massacred in the video, but watched it with cold, clinical eyes. -Fortunately, they managed to contain it in an escape pod and eject it towards Lapis Purpureus, which, by the way, is the name of the planet just below us.
(A/N: Lapis purpureus is the Latin name for Purple Stone.)
The video followed the man's narrative as they tricked him by sacrificing some security guards and using them as bait in the remotely controlled escape pod. As soon as C31 entered, the pod was quickly sealed and detached, otherwise, the entire base would have become a graveyard.
Even Rick took his eyes off the woman and frowned, looking at the screen, then looked at the man with evident disgust, seeing that the woman didn't even lift her head at the video, but continued to work calmly, he lost interest.
Ringo's clone could sense Rick's emotions, so he felt the shift from interest to disgust, apparently, this guy still had some standards.