U.S.S.A Alice

Chapter 8 Rotten flower

Walking down the bright white halls of Deck 33 was almost unbearable to the eyes in the morning, as beautiful as it looked. The hallway was packed with people, all of who were ready and eager to study new alien artifacts.  At least the temperature wasn't too hot or cold like it was in most places I've worked, almost nothing worse than working in sweaty clothes or freezing in said work clothes that are too thin. When I got to the labs, there was a lineup and at the entrance was a guard in blue U.S.S.A. armor. It seems he was scanning everyone's I.Ds as they walked up to the door. I was a little bit late so the lineup was fairly long, as I came to the end of the line. The tall soldier who lumbered over me raised his hand with a scanner in his large hand; while the lineup didn't take long to finish, the wait for this felt agonizingly lengthy in comparison. The scanner made an unpleasant beep as it scanned the I.D on my chest. The guard looked confused and shook the device, then scanned me with it again. BEEP! The sound was louder than the previous beep but less awful sounding. "Sorry about that Ms. Sarris, sometimes it's a bit temperamental, please head inside."  The guard said, sounding surprisingly polite. I gave him an awkward smile and then stepped past him into the lab where I would get to see and study things I had never seen before. 

Everyone was gathered in a group around a large glass table, looking at the images displayed on the electronic screen that was the tabletop.- "Ah there's everyone, alright let's begin. Metis, bring up the data for today's inventory." - "Yes Dr. Murray."  A mature feminine voice spoke from seemingly out of nowhere. A moment later a holographic figure appeared along with dozens of images of various artifacts, the hologram was of an older woman with kind-looking eyes and a digital outline. She looked to be in her early 60s. "Hello, I am U.S.S.A  A.I Metis of the Umbra. I'm pleased to meet you all."  Everyone was surprised that there was no mention of any lab A.I onboard, of course, no one was a stranger to A.I in this day and age, it was unusual to have a smart A.I am in any archaeological study as opposed to just a basic one. "Let's begin with the first sample, these were collected midway into the ruins of the massive structure on the surface of the planet in several rooms."  I noticed on further inspection that the objects looked like children's toys, never had I or anyone as far as I knew, has ever seen Umaran toys. They were bizarre and very large, yet I could tell what most of them were for just by looking at them, other than a few that were almost painful to look at in their abnormality. They looked as though they were not made for our eyes to see or our brains to comprehend, which I'm sure was the case.         

-"Alright everyone, we'll be starting off simple with these."  Dr. Murray said, pressing a button on the panel. A large white drone on wheels came in and opened up compartments on both sides, air hissing out of it as it revealed the stored artifacts inside. We all carefully took the objects out and placed them in secure research pods so we could study them safely. Lilith and I were given the task of studying one of the stranger artifacts, It was colored bronze and a strange shade of purple, even for something Umaran. It had a boxy-shaped body similar to a Bass mixed with a saxophone, it's hard not to laugh at that, but unfortunately, the last thing I felt like doing was laughing just from being near it. It's 'arms' if you could call them that, bent in odd and nonsensical directions, as if they were escaping from something terrible. Lilith took notes of its physical description while I used the scanner to figure out its composition and purpose, whatever that might be. The analysis came back mostly normal other than a few irregularities, such as the elements it was made from and the faint but mostly harmless radioactive decay coming from it. Metis appeared out from one of the holo-emitters.- "Do you two require any assistance?"  She asked politely trying to be helpful.- "No."  Lilith said tunelessly.- "Well I would like your help. Can you figure out what the radioactive element within the artifact is?"- "I have the infinite capacity to learn, I will do my best to uncover the source."  Lilith just scoffed at that.