Redemptio Veniet Delectis

The child’s screams were rivaled only by the silence in the observation room.

“So this is it? The last one?” Scarlett asked nervously.

M’Carta grimly scanned through the notes, “Yes she’s the sole survivor. The other teams didn’t even make it past the third week. We aren’t going to let that happen here, not again. Darak I need you to look through the artifacts. We have translators on standby should you find anything useful. We don’t have much time so do it quickly. Darak I need you to leave now. Come on!”.

The anger was unwarranted, but certainly not unjustified. Darak understood the stakes of the project as much as either of them. He quickly left the observation room and went to his desk in the research station next door. The room was filled with human objects; some recovered from earth and others synthesized from analysis. The formula for the milk had been recovered from the top selling brands and the child rejected it. They attempted to deliver it from a bottle and a failing that a prosthetic breast; the child was unmoved. The science behind the formula was irrefutable, yet Darak checked it for the fourth time that day. All the numbers added up, but it mattered little to the child. It had not eaten willingly for a week, and it slept only long enough for its vocal cords to heal. It didn’t make sense.

Scarlett entered the room. She would have gone unnoticed if it were not for the child’s screaming. “Could it be a genetic condition? A disease we transmitted to it?” she asked.

“No we have its genetic history. There’s nothing that would have appeared this early. None of us have had contact with it and the incubation chamber was sterilized before it was sealed. We’ve also sterilized anything that is sent into the room, and its vitals are being monitored. There is nothing that should be wrong with the child. I just don’t know how to solve this. There has to be an angle that we’re missing”.

“Have you checked its belongings?”

Darak went to the back corner of the room and pulled out a small cardboard box. “This was all the mother had when she was brought in. I’ve reviewed the video, but she was barely conscious. Radiation poisoning. Ironically, the child had saved itself by not drinking anything on Earth. A small comfort now though”.

“Could it be replicating that behavior now?”

Darak shook his head. “No. Even on the Earth a child would consume irradiated food before it would starve itself, of that we’re certain. For some reason it is overriding its primal need for sustenance.” He emptied the box unto the table: an identification card for its mother, a black leatherbound bible, a grey elephant stuffed animal, and a heart shaped golden locket.

Scarlett grabbed the identification card and rubbed her fingers around the small picture.

“I wonder if she was considered pretty. I’d like to think that she was. Did you watch the trial?”

Of course he had seen the trial. There wasn’t a member of the preservation committee that hadn’t.

“I’ve heard the judge is really going to consider it, the death penalty. We haven’t had a death penalty carried out for over 3,000 years, but even the jury was unanimous in their recommendation. They called it a necessary justice”.

Darak looked over at the baby monitor and then down at the id card. “I wonder if that’s what she would think of it: justice. A life for a life.

“The general is a cruel creature. He gave the order to bomb Earth knowing full well that it wasn’t capable of shooting down our scouting drone”. Scarlett’s scowl was perceivable from across the room.

“And who was it that gave him that power? Or the bombs capable of the planet’s destruction?”

“Are you seriously implying that he’s blameless? He made the call; he needs to be punished.”

Darak sighed, “I think the only ones that gain comfort from his death are us. And comfort is the last thing I want right now”.

Scarlett walked over and grabbed his hand. The gesture surprised him, and he jerked back, knocking the locket unto the floor. She put her hand on his shoulder “We’ll get the child through this. You’re the best human anatomy scientist on this ship. I believe in you, we all do.”

He bent down and picked up the locket. The impact had opened it and for the first time he glanced at a small picture and a name: Rose. In the picture the smiling mother was holding the child up over a window. It had no interest in it and was smiling back. Darak dropped the locket. “The child, her name is Rose.” He ran across the room and gathered the bottle and some of the synthetic milk. “I figured it out. I have to go see her”.

Scarlett tried to grab him, “You know its impossible. We aren’t supposed to enter the incubation room. The risks are too high. They’ll never allow it. Darak come back here!”.

He pushed his way past her and entered the observation room. Standing by the incubation door were two security guards. “I need to enter, please I figured out what’s wrong with her.”

For a moment neither guard said anything. They looked over Darak and then at each other. The one on the left put his hand on his gun and said, “Not going to happen. Any breach of the chamber could risk contamination and the child could die. I won’t have that on my conscious. Go back to your desk and find something else”

“I’m begging you, this is the only way. I know it is” Darak pleaded with them.

“Maybe we should give him a chance. I know it really helped my son” the other guard said.

“What’s going on over here?” M’Carta demanded and she marched over.

“It’s Rose maam. She needs contact, its why she’s not drinking the milk.”

“Out of the question. This facility was specifically created to protect the child from contact with the outside world. Our kind has done enough damage to humanity, and I won’t allow it to do any more. Go back to your workstation and don’t come back into this room until you find something that could be of use. It is counting on you”.

“Yes, she is.” Darak’s fist struck so quickly he didn’t even have time to process what he was doing. The blow against M’Carta was strong enough to knock her out for about 15 seconds. Just enough time to push his way into the room. Before he could even turn towards the door, he heard the trigger being released. The electricity forced Darak to the ground.

“Stay where you are, or I’ll turn up the…” he went down as the other guard jumped on his back.

“Go and save her from us. Redeem us!”

Darak didn’t waste a second. He climbed over the two as they fought and slithered into the decompression room. The locks clicked slowly behind him, sealing him in. M’Carta recovered from her injury and used her own weapon to incapacitate the guard that had helped him. She put her hand on the door. “Darak, I know you. Please don’t do this,” she begged.

He didn’t turn around to face her. When the final door to the incubation chamber opened, he stepped through. Rose, who had been screaming not just a moment before, was silent. He stepped over the rover designed to bring her bottles and looked down on her crib. Her eyes were a dark color unknown to him. Some mix between brown and green. Even by his own standards, they were beautiful. “Hello Rose, I’m here to protect you.” He slowly reached down his cold green hands.

At first, he touched her with a finger, just hard enough to sense her warmth. She started to smile. Then, before he could react, she grabbed ahold of his fingers and pulled with all her strength. They stretched out as far as she could pull. When she let go they rebounded back into his hand and made a “shlurp”. Rose started giggling uncontrollably. He carefully wrapped his hand around her and slowly pulled her closer to him. She stopped laughing and looked up at him. He looked back as he removed the cap from the bottle with his other hand. He put the bottle to his mouth and mimicked taking a sip from it. He then turned it towards her. She turned her head, looking between him and the bottle. She moved her hand to the bottle and gently pulled it to her mouth. At first, she sipped slowly, but then began drinking faster. Soon the bottle was empty. Before Darak could ask for another it was handed to him by M’Carta who smiled at him approvingly.

Rose went through two and a half bottles of milk that day and she slept for nearly three hours. Although she was the last of her kind, she was never alone again.