U.S.S.M.C. Document 4010121-30137 DISP
CLASSIFICATION CODE: ULTRA
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
What’s her status?
Corporal Ginger Stone
I—Colonel, I barely know where to begin with this.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
Will she live?
Corporal Ginger Stone
I can keep anyone alive. Clinically alive. But if you mean able to survive without the aid of machines, it’s too early to tell. Early bloodwork shows no contagion or pathogen--
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
Radiation?
Corporal Ginger Stone
--but she’s been on such massive amounts of stims and Rad-X that her kidneys have shut down completely. Her blood is toxic. I’ve ordered transfusions, and unless she gets a transplant or cloned replacement she’ll have to stay on dialysis.
But that’s not even my immediate concern right now. She’s suffered a number of severe injuries: fractures to her wrist and skull, lacerations to her lower body, a gunshot wound to her abdomen that’s become infected—that one’s been left untreated for so long it’s life-threatening by itself.
Those I might be able to treat. It’s the neurological trauma that scares me. I’m talking real risk of seizure, stroke, and if she survives—which is a big “if”—loss of fine motor control, balance, coordination, long-term memory. And that stuff I’m not qualified for. She’s going to need to see a specialist.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
What about Chief Surgeon Chinlund?
Corporal Ginger Stone
He agrees with me. If she’s to have any chance to pull through we need to induce coma and take her back to Mars for intensive care.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
No, absolutely not. I need her talking so we have some eyewitness account of what happened down there.
Corporal Ginger Stone
Colonel, Sonya Nero was a wreck before she was even posted to Sisyphus 1. Her immune system is shot, and in her current state of fatigue and mental trauma she’s not fit for surgery. The last thing she needs right now is more stimulants. If I wake her up now--
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
I’ll take full responsibility for any consequences, but you have to understand that I wouldn’t order you to do this unless it was absolutely critical.
Corporal Ginger Stone
Yes ma’am.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
What do you think, Captain?
Captain Dkimbe Uomo
I hadn’t heard of the Saras Project until now. I have to admit the thought of an artificial intelligence is unsettling. Have we managed to contact anyone from the Synapse Corporation?
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
All those talks are going on over my head. The project was spearheaded by a Senate committee. Even the Admiral isn’t privy to most of the details, but we know that even in a nightmare scenario that Saras is incapable of harming anyone. It has no control over any aspect of the station, nor could it even try. The A.I. was only ever connected to an isolated surveillance net, the core program housed on a separate mainframe.
Captain Dkimbe Uomo
Yes, but something tells me that Saras is at the core of this. Nero mentioned the odd timing of the Russian attack at the foldpoint as Synapse-1 arrived. It hardly seems Accidental.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
Meaning?
Captain Dkimbe Uomo
They tried to steal Saras once. Maybe they weren’t willing to give up quite so easily. Consider Nero’s state: confused, delusional, paranoid. It could have been anything. Sabotage to the reactor, attack with a chemical agent...
It all depends on whether or not you believe her.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
Pardon?
Captain Dkimbe Uomo
We won’t know for sure until we pull into orbit and send a team down, but consider what we’ve seen so far: those ships were destroyed with an American tactical nuke, and our only witness to what could be the outright slaughter of an entire colony is the leader of the Ixion Mutiny.
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
You have no idea what you’re talking about, Captain, and I’m getting tired of everyone questioning her loyalty when she’s spent three tours destroying herself in service to her country.
Captain Dkimbe Uomo
She’s admitted to the murder of every man, woman, and child on the station, Colonel. What am I supposed to think, that she had a good reason?
Colonel Adrienne DeMarguerite
I’m not sure I want to know what justifies her actions. Come on; we’re going to find out. Pause Transcription.
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***SECURITY TO MEDICAL. SECURITY TO MEDICAL. ALL STATIONS, INTRUDER ALERT.***
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