The biology lab hadn't been used in two centuries, but it remembered its purpose. The advanced but antique equipment came to life as Tanya carefully guided the harvester drone through the doorway. The scanners, containment fields, and holographic analysis tables had been built specifically for xenobiological study. Tanya was thankful it was available to her.
The lab was one of the few sections that had survived relatively intact, preserved by the same vacuum that had claimed most of the Genesis. Now it felt almost alive again, responding to her presence with systems that awakened from long sleep.
Inside the drone's transparent containment field, the alien creature drifted with gentle grace. Its bioluminescence reflected across the lab walls like underwater sunlight, casting shifting patterns that made the ancient equipment seem less cold and more curious.
Tanya couldn't stop the questions tumbling from her mouth.
"Can it understand us?"
"What's it made of?"
"Did it build that trap?"
//One question at a time,// Sage replied, his tone carrying equal parts intrigue and exasperation. //Your curiosity is admirable but inefficient.//
"Fine. Start with the trap. Did this thing create the dimensional net?"
//Highly unlikely,// Sage said. //The trap was mechanically precise—an engineered structure with mathematical sophistication that required deliberate design. This creature, by contrast, is biological, reactive, and appears to lack the cognitive complexity necessary for such construction.//
Tanya studied the alien through the containment field. It pulsed with light in patterns that seemed almost musical, but there was something instinctive about the rhythm. Like breathing rather than speaking.
"So something else set that trap. This just... happened to be there when we triggered it."
//Correct. Though I suspect its presence was not coincidental. The creature appears adapted to the specific environmental conditions where ferrus-contra accumulates. It may have been attracted to the same regions our drones targeted.//
The alien's light patterns shifted with faster pulses, different colors cascading across its translucent body. Tanya felt like it was responding to their conversation, even if it couldn't possibly understand the words.
"Are you trying to communicate with it?"
//Continuously. The bioluminescent pulses follow patterns that suggest intentional signalling, but the structure is inconsistent with known linguistic frameworks. I am attempting to construct a translation matrix, but progress is slow.//
"What do the patterns mean?"
//Unknown. However, I can offer a hypothesis: the light patterns appear reactive rather than deliberate. Emotional or physiological states expressed through bioluminescence rather than structured communication.//
Tanya watched the colors shift and flow. "So, it's not talking but feeling?"
//Accurate,// Sage confirmed. //This lifeform seems to express states rather than thoughts. Similar to how human infants communicate distress or contentment before developing language capability.//
"Great. I kidnapped an alien baby."
//Kidnapping implies intent and awareness of wrongdoing. You accidentally collected an unknown organism while harvesting antimatter fuel. The distinction is significant.//
"Tell that to the alien if it ever learns to actually talk." Tanya moved closer to the containment field, studying the creature more carefully. "Can you teach me what you're seeing? Instead of just telling me conclusions?"
There was a pause that felt like Sage considering his teaching approach. //You wish to conduct independent analysis?//
"You're always saying I should solve problems myself. Might as well start with this one."
//Very well. You have access to the Genesis's xenobiological scanning equipment. The interface is in your neural knowledge base. Begin your investigation.//
Tanya activated the lab's systems, finding that yes, she did somehow know how to operate equipment she'd never seen before. Another gift from Feravincio's information dump, probably. The scanners buzzed and whirled, projecting holographic data around the containment field.
The first thing that caught her attention was the creature's internal structure. "It has a brain. Or something like one."
She magnified the scan, revealing a crystalline core at the organism's center. It was silicate matrices arranged in complex patterns that looked disturbingly familiar.
"These structures... they're like the crystal technology I've been working with. The same basic principles, but biological instead of engineered."
//Correct,// Sage said. //The crystalline brain appears to function through piezoelectric resonance, similar to your recent tuning work with the harvester drones. The organism likely processes information through frequency modulation of light within its crystalline matrix.//
Tanya studied the patterns, seeing echoes of the music she'd struggled to understand just days ago. "So when it pulses with light, that's not just display but instead it's thinking. The bioluminescence is a side effect of its brain activity."
//An elegant hypothesis that matches observed data.//
She expanded the scan to examine the creature's outer structure. The translucent body was composed of a gel-like medium rich in trace elements—silicon, carbon, helium compounds she couldn't immediately identify. The gel seemed to serve multiple functions: structural integrity, sensory reception, and apparently locomotion through controlled density variations.
"Its skin is also its muscle," Tanya observed. "And probably its respiratory system too, if 'respiratory' even applies here."
The environmental analysis revealed something even stranger. The creature wasn't just passively surviving in the containment field but was actively metabolizing the energy around it. Heat radiation converted to electrical current through thermoelectric processes that shouldn't be biologically possible.
"It eats heat," Tanya said, wonder coloring her voice. "And radiation. It's not breathing or digesting in any way I understand…it's... converting environmental energy directly into whatever powers its biology."
//The adaptation makes sense given its apparent origin,// Sage observed. //Cross-referencing atmospheric data from the harvesting location suggests the creature evolved in helium-rich, high-pressure layers where ferrus-contra accumulates. Intense radiation, extreme heat, and strong magnetic fields created an environment where thermoelectric metabolism provided evolutionary advantage.//
Tanya pulled up the environmental readings from the drone's dive. The conditions where this thing lived would have killed any Earth organism instantly,
And this creature just... floated there, eating energy and thinking crystalline thoughts.
"Can it survive outside the containment field?" Tanya asked, though she suspected she knew the answer.
She ran simulations using the Genesis's systems, feeding in atmospheric composition from the ship's current environment. The results made her frown.
"Oxygen would corrode its outer gel in minutes. Earth-standard atmosphere is basically poison to it."
//Correct. The organism requires helium-rich, low-oxygen conditions with specific heat and magnetic field parameters. Creating a suitable enclosure will be necessary for extended observation.//
Tanya studied the empty lab tanks lining one wall. They'd been designed for xenobiological specimens. The Genesis's original crew had apparently planned for exactly this kind of situation. She just needed to modify one to match the alien's environmental requirements.
"I can work with this," she said, already calculating what materials she'd need from the workshop. "Helium atmosphere, thermoelectric gel medium to maintain proper heat distribution, magnetic field generators to replicate its home environment..."
There wasn't much she could do about the pressure, but given it was surviving inside the drone, she didn't believe it would be fatal.
She spent the next several hours fabricating components and assembling them into a functioning habitat. The work was delicate, balancing mixtures, temperature, and field strength to create conditions that would keep the creature comfortable without accidentally killing it through miscalculation.
Sage helped by stabilising containment fields and calibrating systems, but let Tanya handle the actual design and implementation. Teaching by allowing controlled struggle, as usual.
Finally, the modified tank was ready. A two-meter cube filled with translucent thermoelectric gel that shimmered with internal currents. Magnetic field generators vibrating at precise frequencies. Environmental sensors confirmed conditions matched the alien's home atmosphere as closely as Tanya could replicate.
"Alright," she said. "Time to move you to better accommodations."
"Okay, Sage, make with the magic," but nothing happened. "Okay, how about now?" she asked.
"What? Why won't it—"
//Transfer failed,// Sage reported. //Dimensional interference detected. The organism is actively resisting dimensional displacement.//
"How is that possible? It's barely bigger than my head."
//Further analysis required. One moment.//
Tanya watched as Sage ran deeper scans, examining the creature through lenses she didn't know existed. The data that came back made her understanding of the alien shift again.
//Fascinating,// Sage said, genuine wonder in his tone. //The organism possesses natural dimensional compatibility. Not sufficient for active manipulation, but enough to create interference with external dimensional effects. It essentially exists in slight discord with normal spacetime.//
"Which means?"
//That it resists being displaced through dimensional means. In the environment where it evolved, this adaptation likely prevented it from being torn apart by the chaotic dimensional fluctuations that accompany ferrus-contra formation.//
Tanya stared at the creature with new appreciation. "So it's not just surviving in impossible conditions, but it evolved to smooth out the dimensional chaos that creates those conditions in the first place."
//Correct. An elegant evolutionary solution to an extreme environmental pressure.//
"Which means I have to move it manually. Great." Tanya looked at the tools available in the lab, selected a physical containment vessel, and carefully approached the drone. "Here goes nothing."
She opened the drone's containment field with deliberate slowness, ready to seal it again if the creature showed distress. But instead of pulling away or displaying alarm, the alien drifted toward her hands.
Its bioluminescence shifted to soft golden tones. The light pulsed in patterns that felt less like random activity and more like... curiosity? Interest? Tanya wasn't sure, but the creature didn't seem afraid.
"Easy," she murmured, guiding it into the transfer vessel with hands that barely trembled. "Just moving you somewhere more comfortable."
The transfer took minutes that felt like hours. The creature remained calm throughout, its light steady and warm. When Tanya finally released it into the modified tank, it pulsed brightly with a cascade of colors that seemed almost joyful.
The alien explored its new environment with obvious interest, drifting through the thermoelectric gel and testing different areas of the tank. Its bioluminescent patterns gradually slowed into a steady, rhythmic pulse. Content, if Tanya was reading the signals correctly. She was already getting a feel for its communication style.
She pulled up a chair and found herself simply watching it move. There was something hypnotic about the graceful drift, the way light shifted across translucent skin, the gentle rhythm of its crystalline thoughts made visible.
"You need a name," she said softly. "Can't keep calling you 'the alien' or 'the organism.' Something gentle. Mera."
//Mera?// Sage asked.
"Old Terran dialect. Means 'tide' or 'ocean.' Seems fitting for something that floats and flows like that."
The creature—Mera—pulsed once, a bright flash that cascaded through multiple colors before settling back to gentle gold. Tanya chose to interpret that as approval.
//You are forming an emotional bond with an energy-feeding organism,// Sage observed. //This is not standard xenobiological research protocol.//
"Humans pack-bond with everything," Tanya replied, not taking her eyes off Mera. "Cats, dogs, houseplants, even cleaning robots. Of course, I'm bonding with the first living alien I've ever met. It's what we do."
Mera's light patterns shimmered again—not words, nothing close to language, but somehow carrying a sense of acknowledgment. As if it understood, on some basic level, that names meant connection.
//The creature's energy signature is unusual,// Sage said after a moment of deeper scanning. //The dimensional adaptation may hold clues to improve your own dimensional science.//
But Tanya wasn't really listening. She was watching the light show, mesmerised by patterns that shifted between bioluminescence. She was sure she could make out the meaning behind them and understand what Mera was thinking.
Mera drifted close to the tank's transparent wall, pulsing with light that reflected across Tanya's face. The patterns settled into a slow, steady rhythm.
And for just a moment, Tanya could swear the pulse matched her own heartbeat.
She smiled, resting her hand against the tank's surface. "Welcome aboard, Mera. Let's figure out what you need to thrive."
The alien's light pulsed once more, softly, in time with her heartbeat.
She wished she could stay watching it forever, but she had some antimatter to deal with.