The Aviator Awakening

“It’s about Lrend time you got here, Agent.” Terrokk’s hiss resonated through the air as if the walls themselves were speaking. His dark frame seated at the conference table blended into the dim room, a human outline minuscule against Agent Nerzogk’s bulky leather form beside him. Amara had to remind herself sometimes of who the boy was, hidden behind his altered skin. She resisted the urge to hiss back…or to punch him. Her mechanics lab was located in the Research Department, smack dab at the epicenter of this lockdown. She suspected Terr’s department had orchestrated the excessive security obstructing her route on the way here. Usually, no questions were asked while transiting the base. Especially not when the General’s summon was involved. But, even so, she’d been delayed multiple times.

“Just be happy I made it here at all,” she rebutted. The entrance phased shut behind her, silencing the chaos from the main hub. “The protocols are a nightmare. They nearly didn’t let me out of the Research Department because I’m human.” She attempted a vorgon hiss to add teeth to her frustration. The sound was weak coming from her human vocals, but sharp enough to make Terr flinch.

“We’ve got a situation.” A guttural, commanding voice prompted Amara to straighten her back.

“My apologies, sir.” She scrambled to regain composure.

The General wore an uncharacteristic frown, his golden slit-iris eyes mixed with excitement and concern. The emerald gems marking his rank glinted majestically across his dusty scale-armored scalp. “You’re being recruited into a most unusual project, Agent Amara. Agent Nerzogk will brief you.” The General motioned toward the quiet vorgon next to Terrokk before he stood, his emerald reptilian form towering over the table. His mountainous slick scaled body drew their attention and obedience. “Agent Terrokk, I’m leaving you to supervise the search.” He sighed through razor teeth and rubbed his gem-embedded brow. “Doctor Lsar confirmed the subject’s amnesia, which means our confused operative will be looking for answers. With any luck, he’ll be confused enough to seek us out rather than drag this commotion on.”

“The subject is dangerous, sir. I urge you to stay here and overlook the search from a safe distance.” Terrokk’s tired tone suggested he’d repeated this request more than once.

“He’s one of us, Agent. And he represents a significant potential advantage.” A growl underlined the General’s answer. “I’ll not have the Intelligence Department chasing him like some fugitive.”

“I’m sorry, sir…who?” Amara stuttered. Had she just been promoted? Awesome. But, why? She specialized in tech precisely to avoid dealing with people. At least, professionally.

“Agent Nerzogk will explain.” The growl left his voice and he half-turned to leave before pausing and fixing his reptilian-slit eyes on her. “This case is classified. High priority. We are on the brink of something truly remarkable.”

Amara shifted under the weight of his gaze and fidgeted with her tool belt.

“There were some objections to bringing you on because of your record, Amara,” the General continued, “even though you are without doubt the most skilled person for the job. There will be no exceptions made for indiscretion in this case, understood? You won’t be permitted to push the rules.”

“Yes, sir, but, um.…” Amara didn’t hide her confusion. Just moments earlier, alarms had erupted in her mechanics lab and screwed up the navigation system she’d been working on. And now some mystery promotion was being flung onto her. “What does this have to do with my field?”

“That’s exactly what I would like to find out.” The General gave a final nod before his determined stride carried him from the conference room. Chaotic voices flooded through the open doorway, halted into silence as the General re-entered the main hub outside the conference room.

Terr stood to follow General Larkkon, hesitating before passing by Amara’s shoulder. “I didn’t want you on this case, ‘Mara,” he whispered. “The council is watching this one closely. Even more so now. Be careful.”

Amara didn’t have time to respond. Terr’s slick transformed skin brushed against hers, sending shivers as he swept past her. The entrance closed, and she was alone with Agent Nerzogk, whose jade body leaned over the conference table, preoccupied with analyzing something on his holo.

Amara scanned her quiet colleague and friend until the holo pulled at her curiosity. She sauntered over to peek past his thick leather neck. “So, what’s this all about?” she asked.

Nerzogk answered by replaying the recording on his holo. A human, a naked man, lay in what looked like a research lab. He was restrained until the restraints unlocked—from a glitch? A power outage? She wasn’t sure.

He fell from the bed, and the walls blazed red to indicate a lockdown.

“You do know I’m not a doctor, right? That’s more your arena,” Amara chided.

“Just keep watching.”

Nerzogk forwarded through the recording. The naked man approached the room’s security frame. Amara shifted uncomfortably in place, unsure of what this was supposed to be. She almost turned away, but something unusual recaptured her attention and she leaned in closer. The room’s DNA scanner changed, shifting the security frame from red to green. Was it a glitch? And was the change in the restraints earlier due to a similar glitch? The man in the holo stumbled and fell, disoriented, through the doorway and onto the hallway floor. Laughing.

“What the Lhra….” Amara reached over Nerzogk’s shoulder to replay the recording.

Nerzogk swatted her arm away with the scaly back of his hand. “There’s more.”

An alarm initiated in the recording, the same alarm which had caused her so much grief in her mech lab. The naked man pulled himself up, walked a few paces, drew close to the hallway edges, and placed a hand on the wall. The recording cut off. No—the electricity cut out?