She Came From Outer Space Chapter 8
Back in hydroponics, in a now forgotten corner she hadn't looked at since Lily's first two days on board, sat a small container with a variety of systems attached to it. She hadn't had a chance to do anything with her project, but now it would serve a far greater purpose than it ever could have before.
Inside was a small sample of lab-grown biological matter. Her. In a way, she mused, it wasn't too unlike Lola. An artificial life form. However Lola was light-years – literally – beyond anything she could have dreamt of. Besides, in every possible way – much unlike Lola – it was human. Genetically, physically, it was a cell for cell replica of human body mass. Her own, in fact. It was a cellular clone of her own body, in particular from just under her armpit. She had decided to use the most sensitive skin possible, as that way it ensured responses. From nerves, to skin, to every detail, the self contained blob of skin and flesh was essentially a clone of a part of Lily's body.
“Okay...” Lily whispered to herself, and began to retrofit a container which was designed to never be opened into accepting a new substance into it while remaining airtight.
Eventually, she decided on using the hypo-port, which would normally have been used to intervene medically without breaking the seal. The experiment wasn't going to last long enough for her to need to perform any medical treatments, though. If anything went wrong then that was the result itself. She would still be able to use the remote tools inside to take readings and perform medical tests.
“Hello little Lola,” Lily said gently, and after triple-checking the integrity of every part of the container, introduced the ampule into the medical hypo port. From inside, she opened the ampule, and sat back to observe.
Above her, a security camera panned down, and focused on the container as well.
Inside, the ampule was open, but none of the red substance had exited yet. Lily thought for a second about extracting it with a tool, but decided to be patient. In the pod, Lola watched eagerly, as a part of her not too far away got its first taste... of freedom.
Lily saw the red substance begin to move up the ampule, as if it was pouring out, only without gravity it had no reason to do so. But it was.
Was Lola controlling it? Could she control it? Or did it act on its own? She hadn't thought to ask...
It reached the end of the ampule, and for a moment, it sat there as if... waiting – no, observing.
The Lily sample was beginning to show changes, and Lily made notes. Hormonal changes, adrenaline, and a couple of other substances were being produced. Was that just from the contact with the air? If so, they might have a problem. Lola might be producing something that could cause a reaction just through inhalation, something intaken through the skin. Then she checked the container... the divider was still in place. There was still an airtight seal between Lola and the Lily sample.
She checked it, then checked it again. It was definitely secure. So why had it changed? There was no physical reason the sample should have reacted at all.
Lily ran a few tests, and as she did so, the Lola sample waited in its half of the container, occasionally moving around the divider, as if looking for an opening...
Lily decided that it must just be a response to the container activating. Maybe some latent medication, used to keep the sample stable, had not yet worn off from the trip up here, and as the systems had come online it had... she shrugged, unable to finish the thought. It didn’t matter. That made more sense than the other explanation that had come to mind, at any rate. Those were the same hormones, the same responses, you would see in someone who was... anxious. Nervous.
Afraid.
She opened the divider, and the Lola sample moved to the other side of the container. Once there, it just waited. Waited, and waited. All the while, Lola checked the readings. The Lily sample was experiencing much higher readings now. Hormones were pumping through it. She checked the systems again, exasperatedly, but she knew the answer. Even when it was airtight, the sample had been like that. This couldn't have been caused by Lola.
Then it struck.
The red substance, in a blink of Lily's eyes, was on the sample. She jumped at how fast it had moved, and had to pull herself back down to the table.
“Scary...” she whispered, and watched intently, making sure every recording device was active.
Lola's red form was, at first, just spreading out to cover the whole sample. It spread further, and further, until it coated the entire sample. Then a gap formed in the middle, as the red substance parted, leaving a circular hole which exposed the sample of Lily’s skin underneath.
Tendrils, small and fine, began to emerge from the rim of the circle, and slowly, delicately, began to trace across the skin underneath.
A small light began to blink, warning that there was a medical issue. The Lily sample was... well, if it had been a full human, Lily would have assumed they were under some kind of duress.
It made sense, the substance wasn't sentient at all. It was just capable of basic human anatomical functions when being fed the right stuff through tubes. This was a natural reaction to contact when the subject was already experiencing heightened hormonal expression.
The tendrils changed, growing firmer, thicker, and began to drag at the skin slightly, each looked to be about the thickness of a pen, with a fine tip.
What was the Lola sample doing? Was this part of its design? To analyse what it touched? She remembered what Lola had said about touch… maybe that was the logical way to learn things. In a galaxy this big, where other things could go awry, touch was a constant. Direct stimulus.
Some part of her felt a pang of anxiety, in sympathy, for the thing in that container. It felt silly, after all it was just an unthinking, unfeeling medical copy of her. Yet if it could feel... well it could feel, but if it had had a brain capable of interpreting those feelings, it would have been a total mess. It reminded Lily a little bit of when Lola had tickled her that time.
Had that been Lola trying to analyse her, subconsciously? Touch? An in-built, instinctual or pre-programmed… desire? Touch things to learn about them. It made a brutal kind of sense.
The Lily sample had grown increasingly distressed in the minute or so she spent contemplating that, and the flashing light turned red. If it had been a human, medically, it would have been in the midst of a full blown panic attack.
Then it clicked in her head. The sample was still human, and it was responding the way she would have. It was being tickled. Lola was tickling it.
Lily giggled at the thought. This mindless substance was, unwittingly, doing something so torturous. Imagine if that had been me, she thought, and it sent a shiver through her – a not entirely dissatisfied one.
*****
Just a short distance away, Lola smiled, her fingers idly twitching in the air as she watched the sample she had given Lily rake across the sensitive skin, transforming subtly here and there.
So sensitive, she thought. So deliciously ticklish. Every touch, every sensation. Lola felt it all. She was in both places, feeling both things.
And she loved it.
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