Nicole opened her eyes as her software rebooted. She sighed as the mechanical arms retracted from inside her head. She felt much better. Her leg was repaired, her lubricant replenished, and even the dented neck segment had been fixed. Her skin had been reapplied, clothes stitched up and swapped. She was a brand new synthetic as she opened the heavy lid and pulled herself out.

  The euphoria promptly faded, as consciousness brought back everything that had happened. Her body was repaired, but her positronic brain would continue to torment her. Beyond erasing anything that hurt and forgetting it all, there was nothing she could do. And Nicole was not in the habit of erasing memories.

  Without the sad memories, there were no happy memories. And it was the happy memories that made the sad ones sad. Perhaps overly simple, but it was the toll of all emotions that allowed her such emotional intelligence and processing capabilities. Snipping them would reduce her to the state of her more mindless cousins.

  She inspected her now shorter hair. Nicole had taken Elsy’s advice to maybe change things up a bit. Her white follicles had been dyed red by blood anyway. Now she had dark black hair in a blunt, short bob with razor-cut curls. It was a statement after her so simple white.

  Nicole had exchanged the white paintsuit for a black one, a mourning one. Unwilling to clean the traces of Elsy from the white one. It was an insane desire to hoard what little biological material remained. But one she found difficult to refuse.

  She took a moment to look herself over in the mirror. Perhaps it was too drastic a change. Tobias would be furious. She felt the gun under her jacket. Perhaps it was time she stopped caring quite so much about him.

  It was a cathartic thought but not a practical one. Not a path that would benefit her in any way, even if it would offer a moment of satisfaction.

  Shuttle three had joined the caravan returning to N7 immediately. Three shuttles had elected to remain behind longer. Shuttle four had found salvageable provisions and was attempting to load as much as possible. The communication equipment was also taking longer; just the right parts and pieces needed to be sourced from various locations. The crew of shuttle six were braver than most, it seemed.

  Finally, shuttle one chose to remain behind. Captain Tameron refused to begin the journey home before anyone else. It also gave him and his men one final chance to investigate what had gone wrong with the drill of the Euphorion, while bringing back what few fuel rods they could find from various pieces of machinery.

  Nicole would make a point to steal several of those. Until they made contact with the Imperium, there would be no more metastable metallic hydrogen fuel rods. While immensely explosive, they were the main thing that maintained her existence.

  Knowing the scavenging mission was an immense success was its own kind of torture. Nicole sat staring at the ultrasound machine, a box of needles and tubing beside it. Wedged in the corner were several tanks of anesthetic. Even a large surgical robot had been crammed into the space.

  They had been so close. Elsy had been so close. Perhaps not salvation, but certainly to a longer life. She had not even been a year old. Never celebrated a birthday.

  Nicole needed to distract herself; this line of thinking was of no good here. It was impossible to grieve in this confined space. She couldn't handle any more of it right now. Yet it did not seem to matter. It still hurt, it still hurt so much.

  She returned to the bathroom and pulled the first aid kit out from its hiding space. When she opened it, the creature did not attempt to flee as it once had, holding up its arms as it searched for her. Strangely, Nicole had the sense that the thing had taken to her.

  She picked it up, the creature suctioning along to wrap around her hand as always, where it began squeezing.

  Squeeze squeeze.

  Squeeze squeeze.

  Squeeze squeeze.

  Witnessing the very same thing several times did not make its meaning any clearer. Perhaps it was still trying to digest her; if that was the case, it was certainly persistent. Yet it no longer put up a fight when she removed it, though it often wrapped a tentacle around a finger. It was clear that the thing seemed to primarily experience the world through physical sensation. At the very least, it did not react to sound or light.

  Nicole sat, the creature cradled as she presented it with the thawed liver. Its tentacles explored it, prodding and squeezing.

  Perhaps she should name it.

  What did one name an alien squid thing?

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Nicole had never had to name anything before. Well… except in a sense Elsy, or Elizabeth, as Tobias had decided. A name of high status, a good name, a bland name. From the moment Nicole had met her, she had known she was no Elizabeth. She was Elsy. She… had been Elsy. Nicole’s name for her. A nickname.

  Staring down at the slithering critter, Nicole had to admit she had a weakness. Yet not a name she could think of seemed right. So “the creature” it remained.

  The crew was most definitely avoiding her. Attempting to slip back into her perceived role was not doing much to rebuild their trust. As the return trip grew well underway, Nicole began to grow ever more suspicious. Paranoia was becoming… unavoidable.

  She could tell that something was up beyond mere fear. Nicole had made the mistake of lashing out, even in such a restrained fashion. Perhaps the only benefit was that her “irrational” behaviour could be traced back to Tobias’ orders. She was only a synthetic; he would be blamed.

  Of course the downside to that would really prove to be a problem in the likely occurrence of a mutiny. To everyone, she was an extension of Tobias. Captain Tameron’s loyalists would never trust her. On top of that, all sides would likely attempt to destroy her if they knew the degree of her… freedom.

  Her best option thus was to play politics with Tobias and crush any chance of a rebellion before it could happen. How to go about accomplishing that was a whole other puzzle.

  They hardly knew what awaited them on N7. Their limited communication systems could not span the distance. They would be cut off from N7 for about a week in total, and depending on when the shuttles that lagged behind at the Euphorion launched, they might lose contact with them as well.

  Nicole only overheard tidbits from Zahra’s chatter over comms. She did not have all the information or all the variables, but if all continued as expected, they would be hearing from N7 soon and be back on solid ground shortly after that.

  She kept feeding the creature regularly. It still wasn’t clear exactly how it ate, but Nicole was fairly certain of some kind of absorption. That morning, the biologicals were still sleeping as she let it stretch its arms. She sat it in her lap on top of an extra blanket to protect her pantsuit. The mucus the creature excreted may have been clear, but once it dried, it seemed utterly impossible to clean. The substance almost solidified.

  The creature was almost snuggled up, one arm wrapped tightly around Nicole’s ring finger. Once again, it has gone through the same squeezing dance it always did.

  It would have been absurd to apply the label of domesticated to this creature. Perhaps it was simply her synthetic nature which confused it. She had decided against introducing it to the biologicals. Though she was admittedly very curious as to both parties' reactions.

  Perhaps she was anthropomorphizing the creature too much, but it had a certain attitude. A feline… something. Not domesticated, yet not tame either. It sat in her lap without fuss, and as long as it clung to something, it remained settled. It was excited by food, but never lashed out or attacked her in the process of feeding it. It was… an utter gentleman.

  Not a feline in spirit then.

  She offered it another small chunk of liver, which it eagerly grabbed. Tucking it under its body by awkwardly using three arms as a sort of pincer. As far as Nicole could tell, it did not eat any of the liver she had provided it. Previously, it just… fiddled with it, expressing some degree of curiosity.

  Yet the blood she was fairly certain it somehow consumed, the blood slurry was slowly draining, and the creature’s weight had increased. It still excreted that same strange mucus.

  It was rather… gross. Aesthetics was not a branch of Axiology that Nicole spent much time pondering. Gross but fascinating. She left it at that.

  The machine beside them beeped, the scanning complete. Careful not to jostle the creature, she swivelled the screen towards her and released the metal prong from where it had been gently pressing against its body.

  The electromyography machine showed something utterly bizarre. There were no heightened periods of electrical signals. Which meant its muscles did not produce electricity when used. The creature was inert. Or at least utilized a whole new method for controlling its body. Just how alien was this? It must have at least still utilized DNA, or else interfacing with the human body would be impossible. Nicole could prove nothing, just… hypothesize endlessly.

  More tests would undoubtedly need to be run. This was only one piece of a very large puzzle. Scanning its temperature had been an even easier process; the thing did not seem to produce body heat.

  A proper autopsy would provide the most answers. Though it would certainly prove to be an issue for the critter’s existence. Nicole couldn’t help but conduct a few non-invasive tests; her curiosity got the best of her.

  One thing was certain. It was an alien. Some kind of parasite compatible enough with human biology to hitch a ride. When they returned to N7, she would need to do checkups on the colonists. Both for general health data, and to see just how invasive these little squids were.

  Nicole picked the creature up to tuck it back into its first aid prison. She frowned, staring down at her lap as its tendrils wrapped around her.

  As suspected, it had not eaten the pieces of liver. But what it had done with them was even more confusing. Underneath its body, it had rearranged ten of the small pieces into the outer and inner points of a star. If she had a writing tool, she could have traced the shape near perfectly. The few remaining bits were all piled, discarded in a dip of the blanket.

  What in the world?

  A five-pointed star was not an unnatural shape by any means. But this spoke of intention, or some strange evolutionary drive. And if such a creature was supposed to spend its entire life cycle within a host body, then such an instinct would not make any logical sense. Of course, she was making assumptions based on known parasites. Perhaps this was some kind of nesting behaviour? Did they lay eggs? Or a mating display of some kind? To show off its ability?

  Nicole was missing something. She hated missing things, somethings especially because those were always the things you were looking for.

  She slid the creature back into the kit and snapped it closed. They had several days of travelling ahead of them; surely she could find some answers in that time.