LOTUS Part One: A Space Colony RP

A few weeks ago

The America. The Brittania. The Sakura. Three districts on the same ship, each with their own human government.

Knowing humans, you knew it had to be serious if all three governments were meeting.

Aboard the Draxan Colony-ship The Fantasia the holographic images of two men and one woman hovered evenly around a circular projection table. At the head of the table sat a very real Draxan general and beside him a human associate.

It is almost surreal how human sounding Draxan names are once translated. Fantasia Captain Rachnoff's crystalline body towered a good 3 feet over the young human girl beside him, even though he was sitting and she was standing. His fiery orange skin gave off a slight glow as his claws flipped through a holographic data file.

The glow radiated off the skin of the girl. Her name was Anthea Corsiva, and she was the reason this meeting was being called.

The hologram on the left spoke up. "Is the hologram necessary Ms. Corsiva?"

The girl nodded. "I'm sorry Ms. Prime Minister, but my natural appearance tends to unnerve people."

The hologram gestured upwards. "I understand that, but I was referring to your...well..."

Anteha blinked in realization. The cat ears above her pink hair twitched. "Ah. Apologies. This is the trend among young women in Sakura at the moment. I hadn't gotten around to ordering a more formal appearance yet. Please attempt to over look the, ah, frivolities. I propose we get to business."

She nodded at Rachnoff, who engaged a holographic display of space on the table before them. Anthea jumped onto the table demonstratively as the draxan gave a briefing.

"First of all, we sincerely thank all of you for agreeing to harbour the LOTUS subjects inside your colonies. Rest assured, your cooperation is greatly appreciated. But now we have to ask for your cooperation again, albeit, on a much smaller scale."

Anthea gestured around the hologram on the table. "This here is our current trajectory. The nearest Draxan outpost is a month away following this route. Unfortunately, we have to take a slight detour," she gestured to diagrammatically illustrate her point," around this sector of space. This entire bubble here has just become very treacherous and we must avoid entering it. This will result in an extension of an another 42 days, bringing the total time until the next stop to around 73 days."

Rachnoff continued. "It is not a major issue, but we assumed you would all like to know this change of plans. Assuredly you all have questions, which I am very willing to take after this briefing."

The man on the right raised a holographic hand. "Captain, I am assuming this change of plans is due to Anthea here. I also assume then that her previous claim of precognition has been confirmed as accurate?"

"That would be correct Mr. President."

"I find that quite difficult to believe."

Anthea cut in. "Excuse me sir, but the very existence of the LOTUS experiment is hard for everyone to believe. Though, if your doubt in me is causing misgivings, then I suppose this meeting can continue without my presence. Is there anyone against this motion?"

Nobody made any obvious motions. Anthea disappeared from her position on the table and appeared next to Rachnoff as the meeting was put on hold.

"You understand everything right?"

The Captain nodded grimly "We can't afford another mistake like that, but please understand that you had no credibility to your claims before today."

"Perhaps I should have considered the name Cassandra..."

Rachnoff didn't follow. "I'm assuming that's a-"

"Cultural artifact, yes. Now if you excuse me sir, I have matters to attend to. I will get the assistance of the local polices if I need them."

Anthea vanished from sight. Rachnoff didn't like it, but it's not like he could have stopped her.

In the same instant she disappeared, a teleporter to Sakura flashed in the Fantasia's departure hub. In the next instant, Anthea reappeared in an alley in Downtown Sakura, calmly joining a crowd headed to a shopping mall. She needed a new hologram.

Present

Anthea oversaw the Fantasia crew bringing in a LOTUS pod. The cryotube was attended by maximum security as it was escorted to a designated awakening chamber.

The crew gave the comparatively tiny human a few strange looks, but a glare from her immediately returned them to their duties. Here she had no need for holograms. Her body resembled a wooden modelling doll, perfectly smooth and frictionless. She was currently inside a a draxan hazmat suit, the strongest available.

"You're certain that these are necessary Ms. Corsiva?"

"Yes. I haven't been wrong before, have I?"

"No miss...will you be watching the defrosting process?"

"That would be a good idea, wouldn't it?"

Anthea and a few guards sealed themselves in a room, which was plugged into the adapter the Fantasia engineers had made specifically to awaken LOTUSes. Also made for this purpose was a Dream Inducer. Anthea convinced them that not all LOTUSes would awaken peacefully. It would be much easier to give them some context before they were suddenly thrust into this world. And so with the Dream Inducer they would prepare the LOTUS to open their eyes for the first time in centuries (assuming they still had eyes). It creates a dream of a simple timeline of events leading up to the situation humanity is in now. Nuclear war, alien rescue, living on a ship travelling through space. No words in order to account for language differences.

"Now beginning the process. Cranial area will be the first to reengage. Dream Inducer scanning for cognitive activity."

Anthea watched, thankful for the level of caution the LOTUS experiments are being met with. The first LOTUS awakened was her. And the draxans were so lucky it was. The second LOTUS awakened ought not to have been. If only they listened to her.

But they never listen.  Not until it's too late.

---

A few weeks and a few days ago

"You ready for this?"

"What, you scared?"

A pair of draxan scouts prepared to enter the final chamber of the ancient ship. Energized crystal was embedded into their bodies as armour. In the void, Space preserves. The technology here was outdated but it was a draxan vessel nonetheless.

"It's a LOTUS right? Shouldn't we be afraid?"

"The first one was complacent enough. And besides, they're from centuries ago. I'd like to see one scratch my hide. That human girl sure couldn't."

From their scout ship, the third member of the crew buzzed in through their communicators.

"No fooling around you two. Stay alert."

"Alright , let's do this. Hyah!"

The door was forcibly unsealed and they came face to face with a massive slab of technology. Far beyond any regular cryotube, it seemed to have some pretty massive generators attached. One of the scouts began examining it.

"They're field suspenders. You know, like how they used to contain antimatter back in the day. there's much better now, but this one is going strong."

The other scout was less impressed and was trying to boot up some sort of computer terminal. It still had a screen, how cute.

"Hey, I think I turned it on!"

On the screen, a draxan scientist appeared, continuing in the middle of some kind of speech. "-LOTUS project...It's name is Omega...."

Machinery began to whir as soon as power returned to the consoles.

"Hey...I think it's waking up!"

"It might be hostile. Shields up."

A force barrier sprung up as both draxans energized their blasters.

(Ugh... Wha... Too much. What? Don't know. Pain. Pain. Stop. Pain.) the man thinks, as he desperately tries to make sense of the images flooding his mind. ( Why? Pain. Should know. Why? Stop.)Try as he might he cannot form a coherent thought, not surprising considering the hollow cavity were part of his brain once resided. It is then that the nests begin to thaw. (Cold. We are on a ship. Yes I am we. Still to hard. I must feed. There are others here. We must be cautious.) As his nests come alive they work to aid his enfeebled mind. He still isn't close to full strength yet. As the thaw completes he opens his eyes, a mere reflex the swarm already scanned the room. "Where am I?" He groans awaiting a response.

(Something is wrong, her body shading, need to play along.) he thinks to himself. "Please, need food." He utters still shivering.

Some bread on a plate materialized in Anthea's hands, which then propelled itself through the air towards the LOTUS.

"Are you well enough to move on your own yet? The warming process should be almost complete."

---

Elsewhere, below district Britannia

A draxan guard, one of four, played the message from captain Rachnoff again.

"Find the radioactive LOTUS Manhattan and ask for him to be preset at the awakening in Britannia. It will help for it to meet another of its kind."

Seeing the figure up ahead, and seeing the Geiger counter start acting up, the guard called out.

"Are you the one called Manhattan? We were told that you could help us!"

Doing their best not to be intimidated by the LOTUS, the guard continued, using expressions he was told would make sense to a human.

"We're lead lined, it's fine. Look, here's our situation. A LOTUS cryotube was picked up by Britannia and its prematurely awakening. Like, now. We don't know if it's hostile but it's probably lonely. Another LOTUS present would help her a lot, and you're the only other one in the district."

"It is futile. Your existence is nullified."

The golden disk returns to its owner, and the entity known as Omega simply begins to walk forward. The temperature in the room suddenly skyrockets.90...100...120...220...440...

Everything around him begins to melt and decay. Omega casually glides into the air, and with terrifying ease, he catches up to the fleeing draxan, seemingly teleporting right next to him. "Erase."

The draxan screams in agony, as his insides and scales are melted and reduced to nothing. The draxan's rocket pack is promptly annihilated as well as his other equipment, leaving only a pool of liquid on the floor. "I live off of destruction. I feed off it. And I use it as fuel to create even more destruction. To me, you are but maggots, writhing in your own filth. No better than vermin."

Omega effortlessly burns a hole in the ship's side and flies out. He suddenly appears before the Scouting Ship, again seemingly materializing from nowhere, as the ancient ship that once contained him explodes in a hail of fire and debris. He casually raises a single arm above his head.

"Begone, worms."

The golden disk leaves his arm again, effortlessly slicing through the scouting ship, cleanly splitting the ship into two. The ship explodes in another storm of fire and metal. The entity known as Omega merely hovers there for a time, searching for the nearest inhabited planet. Once he finds the object of his search, Omega vanishes, leaving the wreckage of the once proud ship floating aimlessly through space.

"Thank. You." He mutters as he reaches for the bread. (This will help. Must keep up the meek appearance. This would not be the first time "they" lulled me into foolishness.) he thought while gobbling the bread.

"How long. In ice. Why you conceal. You" he utters out in a strained matter. (Lets see how she reacts.) he thinks.