Ch4 Out Of The Frying Pan

As I suspected drones communicate primarily through vocalizations. There is a fair amount of body language and pheromones used as well, but the sounds they make take precedence.

 

 

“What the hell happened!?”

 

 

Like that one for instance.

 

 

Indication of anger, shock, request…

Designation of ‘hell’ unknown.

 

 

Some translation was still required, but I was learning a lot. The drone that often stayed late was yelling at the others in the room while the white-furred drone simply stood in silence. Next to it a soldier, who I think is the leader, was relaying a report of the events, and I was matching its words to my memory of the actual event to help translate.

 

 

About an ‘hour’ after the soldiers had killed the yellow-fur, the white-coats had started to filter into the lab. It was currently ‘in the middle of the damn night’ and most of the white-coats looked shocked and lost while they drifted around the room, only becoming productive when the white-fur gave them direction.

 

 

The soldier finished its report and the white-fur, er, Doctor Mason as the soldier called him, addressed the rest of the drones. Some of them it sent away, others to check over devices the yellow-fur had damaged in its mad dash, and itself went to one of the devices with a light display and started working.

 

 

More hours passed, and finally the drones started to grow weary, one by one being sent away by Doctor Mason. The late-worker was still going strong when Doctor Mason tapped it and convinced it to stop. Both of them left.

 

 

The soldiers stayed longer, talking about topics that didn’t seem related to their current task. They talked until a large soldier drone, much larger than the others, entered the room. Speaking with the others briefly, the large soldier huffed and moved to the dead yellow-fur. It kicked the corpse once, then bent to grab a foreleg and pulled it over its shoulder.

 

 

Then it dragged the dead yellow-fur, easily five times as big, back into the test chamber.

 

 

Observable bone/muscle enhancements.

Estimated strength within possible known limits.

 

 

Stealth. Stealth was the only reasonable plan of escape.

 

 

“Alright, janitors can clean up the rest of this mess. Let’s get out of here, this place give me the heebie-jeebies.” spoke one of the small soldiers.

 

 

“Ha, give it a few months. The freak-show grows on you after a while.” said the large soldier.

 

 

They chattered as they left, and I was finally alone again. By my calculation it was four hours before the drones normally came in, and none had come back after being dismissed so far. I needed to get going while I had this opportunity.

 

 

I opened the front of the container and slid out. I still needed to decompress, but my core was reassembled, and I had been preparing the necessary organs while I waited. In a few short ‘minutes’ I resembled one of the drones.

 

 

This was going to be risky. I would need stealth in order to leave this place, but I couldn’t simply go from one hiding place to another. All it would take was one drone seeing me and alerting soldiers to doom me. If I imitated a drone, however, I would hopefully be able to pass by the normal drones without too much scrutiny and actively find an escape route. The main risk was running into the drone I was imitating, but a randomly designed facade wouldn’t do. Drones had excellent identification skills, and each had its own identifier phrase such as Doctor Mason. Probably some kind of security measure.

 

 

I chose the image of one of the drones that stayed later, but got sent away. I didn’t want a drone who left early and had no excuse to be here, but also one that wouldn’t actually still be here.

 

 

Most of my effort was on the face and movements. The drone I chose had brown fur, blue eyes, and dark patches below the eyes. As for mannerisms this one tended to converse rarely and appeared somewhat physically inept, as a disguise it was the perfect option. I made a few final checks and movement exercises to assure myself that my fake coverings looked correct before deciding it was time to leave. I would have loved to stay long enough to eat the yellow-fur, but I doubted I had time, and the disappearance of the large corpse would be noticed rather quickly.

 

 

I approached the doorway and paused. This would be the first time seeing beyond my little world of den chamber, test chamber, drone chamber. Here’s hoping that it wouldn’t get me killed.

 

 

I pressed my limb against the door and pushed, revealing a narrow, long corridor, with other doors that I assumed led to other rooms like the one I came from.

 

 

“Jacobson, you’re still here? Didn’t I send you home hours ago?”

 

 

Damn.

 

 

Coming down the corridor was the white-fur, Doctor Mason. Of course it had to be this one.

 

 

Recorded response 23;

 

 

“I, um, forgot something.” I replied in Jacobson’s timid voice.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

 

 

Stopping next to me the white-fur scanned me from top to bottom. I thought for sure my disguise was compromised until he said:

 

 

“You look like hell Jacobson. Come on, I was just about to get some coffee, I’ll treat you to one.” he said, and casually waved its limb down the corridor in the direction it had been heading.

 

 

Command to follow recognized.

 

 

Some of its sounds I understood, but the limb wave was what allowed me to know what I should do. I began walking to the side and slightly behind Doctor Mason as he led me down the corridor.

 

 

We traveled in silence. I noted that each door was labeled with its own little symbol; B4E, B4D, B4C, and so on. We reached the end and there was a new door, slightly stronger looking than the others. Doctor Mason pulled out a small, flat, rectangular object from a pouch in his coat and pressed it against a device mounted on the wall next to the door. A small light on the device turned green, and I could hear a loud ‘clunk’ as something between the device and the door moved. I was suddenly very glad that Doctor Mason had found me, it seemed there were additional security measures in this place, and Doctor Mason was unknowingly bringing me right through them.

 

 

On the other side of the door was… a small room with another door. Admittedly more impressive than the first, this door was set into a shiny frame and had no visible handle with which to pull or push. Instead there was only another pad with two symbols next to the door, and Doctor Mason pressed the top one before waiting. A few seconds later an odd ‘ding’ noise sounded and the door slid aside to reveal… another tiny room? As strange as this was Doctor Mason entered casually before facing the door and I followed his example. Inside Doctor Mason clicked another symbol on a pad (this one laden with many symbols that were similar to the signs posted by doors) and the door slid closed.