Project KHEPRI Chapter 1

Le Gasp! A brand new commission story? Check out the amazing source material here! 

Project KHEPRI

Chapter 1: Limp Vegetables and Scrambled Eggs

Dr. Simon grumbled as she jammed her coffee cup into the machine. “Stupid coffee maker…”

She felt gross. Her eyes had bags because she’d got 3 hours of sleep because somebody called her back into the lab over Sleeping Beauty, only for it to turn out the last shift hadn’t attached the monitors correctly. And, of course, she couldn’t push her next shift back.

The coffee machine sputtered once before pouring out an ample serving of caffeinated bean juice—black, like her soul, of course. Simon knocked it back so fast it didn’t even burn her tongue, just her throat, before slapping her cheeks once. “Right. Time to wake up.”

“Rough night, Simon?”

She shot a sharp glare at David Temple, the nurse who’d gotten her called in, before she pasted on a happy smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dave.” She nodded once. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have my normal rounds to get to.”

One of the other staff in the break room gave a poorly disguised laugh. “Your playdate, more like…”

If anything, Molly Simon’s smile only grew wider at that. “You’re just jealous she likes me the best.”

The other man laughed, shrugging his shoulders and turning back to his coffee.

“Ah, about that… Dr. Simon.”

Simon paused, turning back to Dave.

“You’re on… Sleeping Beauty today, actually,” he finished.

“What?” Dr. Simon leaned forward, gritting her teeth as she got into the little punk’s face. He shrunk back, tugging at the collar of his scrubs. “I’m pretty sure I heard you wrong, Dave. You didn’t just tell me that you were moving me to a new project after waking me up at 4 am because you forgot to check the EEG!”

“Ahaha…” He held up his ipad in front of him like a shield. “I—I wouldn’t play a joke on you like that! It’s just… you know, orders.”

Simon huffed, taking a step back as she swiped the tablet from him. “Nazis were just following orders too, you know…” She pouted as she scrolled through the list of daily assignments, ‘S’ was pretty far down the list. “On whose authority, anyway.”

“That would be mine, Dr. Simon.”

“Eeep!” She jolted, juggling the tablet in her hands for a moment before almost slamming it into her face as she snapped off a salute. “C-commander Scott!”

The commander’s lip quirked up into some that could barely be called a smile. “At ease, everyone.” He walked into the break room, another redheaded scientist trailing in his wake.

Simon blinked, before waving. “Oh, Hi, Dot.” She quirked a wry smile. “Looks like you had a good night’s sleep.”

Sif Runarsdottir—Dot, no one called her Runarsdottir except for the commander—gave a shrug, expressive green eyes conveying her apologies that Molly had drawn the short straw and had to get up early. “You win some you lose some.”

“Well, that’s true. I guess…” Simon turned back to Commander Scott just in time to see him shotgun a cup of black coffee himself, before tossing the Styrofoam cup into the trashcan without even looking. “Ah! He’s too powerful!”

“Simon.” Dot jabbed her in the side. “Try to be a bit more professional in front of the commander, at least.”

Dr. Simon gave a chuckle, rubbing the back of her head as Commander Scott turned back to face them.

He cut the figure of a no-nonsense military man. He was tall, with a sharp face and slicked-back black hair. There was a patch of white next to his temple, to go with the matching scar completely surrounding his right eye. The discolored skin looked like he’d scoured the whole patch of flesh surrounding his orbit away.

Dr. Simon wanted nothing more to know that story. Was his eye regrown, an implant? Or had he just been insanely lucky? To this day, she still had no idea.

“So, Commander.” She straightened. “What’s this about me being on Sleeping Beauty today? Dot and I are in the middle of compiling our next batch of observational data.”

“I know, Dr. Simon.” The man gave a slightly warmer smile as he waved his hand. “I’m not going to pull the two of you away from your work. Instead, I’d like to look at this as an opportunity to gather data from a wider range of stimuli.”

Simon blinked. “You mean…?”

“Do you think you can keep Project ADA from trashing the rest of the base?” He met her gaze. “So far, she’s been a model guest, but the brass would like to see how she interacts with more than just her favorite human.”

“Of course, sir!” Simon grinned. “Ada is an angel; I’ll make sure she doesn’t get into anything around the base.” Her gaze flicked to the side. “I’ll even introduce her to you, Dave.”

Dave gulped.

“None of that now.” Scott chuckled. “Just take her with you while you work on Project 17 today.”

“Sir…” Dot adjusted her glasses. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Ada is well behaved, but bringing her to the medical wing might be a bit much.”

Scott waved a hand. “Project 17 is the only one in the medical ward right now, and it isn’t as though she actually needs any of the equipment we have her hooked up to.”

“That’s true…” Dot shrugged.

“Who knows.” Commander Scott gave Simon a smile. “Maybe Dr. Simon’s magic touch will wake her up as well.”

Simon laughed. “H-hey, I thought we’d agreed to stop bringing that up.”

“Please.” Dot rolled her eyes. “I’ll stop bringing it up when you stop thinking touching alien eggs with your bare hands is a good idea.”

Commander Scott gave another chuckle. “I’ll leave you to it then. Runarsdottir, Simon, Gentlemen.”

“Commander!”

He nodded back to the chorused reply, then exited the breakroom. Commander Scott was a busy man, and this was a busy base.

Simon waited until the door clicked shut behind him before doing a little dance. “Ooh, I get to bring Ada with me to work today!”

Dot sighed. “How is that different from every other day?”

“It’s different.” Simon waved her hand. “Now come on! We have to go check on Sleeping Beauty!”

“Look who’s suddenly so chipper.” Still, Dot followed Simon over to their lockers as both women pulled on their lab coats. Usually, Simon forwent hers for more casual clothing, but today was going to be special, after all.

“Let’s go, Let’s go!” She all but dragged Dot from the breakroom, the smaller redhead rolling her eyes yet again.

They made their way quickly through the stark halls of the research installation. The base was a sprawling facility, complete with more relaxed spots like rec areas and even dorms for the staff, but in the research wing, everything was crisp, white, and clean.

This early, the halls were mostly empty. Shifts were either just now getting up, or still waiting for their replacements. Simon’s flats clacked against the linoleum tile as Dot pattered in her wake.

“Was there any new data at all?” Simon tucked a strand of wavy black hair behind her ear. “Beyond Dave being an idiot.”

Dot snorted, before covering her mouth. “No,” she said after a moment. “Nothing. Readings were all unchanged.”

“Ugh.” Simon swung her arms harder for a few steps. “That’s the worst part about all of this. I get to spend the day with Ada on base and we’re taking care of a vegetable.”

“Molly!”

Simon hunched her shoulders. “Sorry, sorry!” She gave a guilty smile. “I know it’s insensitive, but it’s true!”

“Yes, sure.” Dot fixed her with a sharp look. “We all know how much you hated working with the ‘stupid alien egg’. You don’t need to be such a… idiot about it.”

“Well, I was right about Ada, wasn’t I?” Simon laughed lightly as she pressed her hand to the palm reader for Ada’s room.

“Gross negligence does not make you ‘right’.” Dot sniffed. “No matter the outcome.”

“You say that, but…” Simon walked into the room, ignoring the observation booth, and was hit by a white blur that took her off her feet.

Dot sighed.

“Ada!” Simon laughed. She’d landed in one of the beanbag chairs next to the wall. “What did I tell you about saying hello like that?”

Ada continued to nuzzle Simon’s cheek, as if to say ‘it’s cause I missed you so much’.

Dot walked into the room fully, pulling out her tablet and entering the normal observations about Project Ada.

The alien was, at first glance, a small albino human. She—and Ada definitely looked like a she—had long white hair and paper-white skin to go along with her massive, childlike eyes and shining crimson irises. At first glance, it would be easy to mistake Ada for a girl wearing an elaborate costume.

Costume, because even at first glance, it was hard to miss the massive tail protruding from the base of the girl’s spine. The tail was smooth and thickly muscled, responsible for two-thirds of her length and nearly as much of her mass according to their measurements. The way it moved, for example, the tip curling playfully around Simon’s ankle as the two continued to cuddle on the beanbag chair, was far too complex for anything animatronic.

Of course, that was when you’d begin to notice the other oddities about Ada, like the way she stood on her toes, and how the rest of her foot was almost digitigrade, and also that she had a toe positioned like a dog’s dewclaw, or maybe some kind of spur.

And there were the red lines, strangely straight, that covered bits of the pure white skin, like cracks in a stone. Or her eyelashes that looked more like feathers than hair. In essence, the closer one looked, the more alien Ada seemed.

Not that Simon minded. Dot sighed as Ada gave a kiss to her partner, a long, prehensile tongue snaking out of Ada’s mouth to tickle at Simon’s cheeks.

“We have work today, Molly.”

“Oh, right.” Simon gave Ada another kiss; she really was too cavalier with the subject, for all that neither of them seemed to mind. “Let me up, dear?”

Ada blinked once before pulling herself back from Simon by her tail. Dot scribbled down a quick note as the alien held herself up completely by her fifth appendage. “She really does seem to prefer standing on her tail.”

“It’s a very nice tail.” Simon stood, brushing herself off. “Alright, Ada, we’re doing something special today.”

Ada tilted her head, tip of her half-meter long tongue poking out from between her lips cutely.

Simon held back a squeal. “Ahem. You’re coming with me to work today, understand? It means we’re going to explore the rest of the base, but!” She raised a finger. “It means you can’t touch anything without permission.”

Ada tilted her head the other way, wide red eyes blinking.

Dot sighed. “Do you think she understood that?”

Simon shrugged. “Well, she seems to get the gist most of the time, doesn’t she?”

“True. Now, let’s get her dressed.”

Simon nodded. The two women pulled some of the simple clothes they’d had made for Ada. The alien didn’t really have secondary sex characteristics—really, they hadn’t even been able to figure out why Ada had chosen the form of a svelte young woman after she’d ‘hatched’—the clothes just made everyone else more comfortable.

Ada didn’t seem to mind, as long as there was space for her tail, anyway.

“I’m thinking just the slacks and the white button-down today?”

Dot shrugged. “Seems professional.”

Quickly enough, they had Ada dressed, with Simon going over the ‘rules’ for today one last time before they took Ada out of her room.

The girl stepped out onto the linoleum floor gingerly, toes probing the tiles for a second, then settling on them fully.

“This way.” Simon took her hand, leading her gently down the hallways of the research wing. Dot slipped in on her other side. Simon glanced over. “She doesn’t slither, though.”

Dot blinked. “Come again?”

“Her tail.” Simon squeezed Ada’s hand. “Ada likes to ‘stand’ on it, but she walks on her feet.”

“That does seem to be what the data suggests.”

Simon shrugged, going back to cooing over Ada. She pointed at various pieces of equipment and mundane objects, explaining them to Ada. The girl seemed to drink in the explanations, large red eyes following Simon’s finger unerringly.

The medial wing was close enough to Ada’s room. Simon took the time to get Ada into a lab coat; it was a good thing that they didn’t require masks for sleeping beauty anymore, because Ada tended to chew those with the scary sharp teeth she hid in her seemingly tiny mouth. Satisfied with Ada’s new accessory, Simon buzzed them into the room.

There were three beds, but Sleeping Beauty was the only other person in the ward. According to epigenetic markers, the woman was somewhere between 18 and 25, but she had the scars of a war veteran.

Dr. Simon came to a stop next to the bed, hand going to pet Ada’s hair as the alien looked over the new human curiously.

“I think the thing I hate most is how alike we look.”

Dot glanced up from the chart. “I… suppose I can see it.”

“I mean, it’s not like we look like the same person or anything, but wavy black hair, glasses, Caucasian.” Simon shrugged. “Heck, we even have similar cheek bones. It’s like she’s my sister.”

“Or you just fit in a rather broad cross-section of caucasian female phenotypes.”

Simon snorted. “Not all of us can be cute freckled redheads, Dot.”

“So you think I’m cute.” Dot put the woman’s chart back. “Ada will be crushed.”

Simon laughed before pulling on a pair of gloves and beginning the normal examinations. “Lucky we have nurses to take care of bed sores and all of that stuff.”

“It’s a different field.” Dot quickly checked the wires and electrodes attached to the woman. She quickly cleaned and reapplied a few with more gel, then checked the readouts again. “Really, if you didn’t also have a doctorate in medicine, we wouldn’t be here.”

“But then I wouldn’t have been on Ada’s project either!”

Dot sniffed. “Remember how much you complained about that?”

Simon laughed sheepishly. “How’s her EEG?”

Dot glanced over at the machine. “Same as always.”

“Hmm.” Simon sighed. “I guess it’s just kinda sad. Sleeping Beauty was dumped in a bed here months ago, and we still don’t know who she is or how she got here.”

“How she got here is a different division’s job,” Dot said.

Simon laughed. “Yeah, and how much luck have they been having?”

Dot shrugged. “Maybe they’re just not thinking with portals.”

Simon shrugged again, slipping into a chair next to the bed. Ada spooled up her tail, rising up to ‘perch’ next to Simon’s shoulder. The black-haired doctor reached back, interlacing her fingers with Ada’s.

“That’s it for the basics.” Dot stood, setting the pad back down. “Makes sense why the Commander gave us such an easy job while we introduced Ada to the base.”

Simon hummed, looking at her hand. “Maybe.” After a moment, she took her hand back, slowly reaching out towards Sleeping Beauty’s one remaining arm.

Dot caught her wrist. “What are you doing?”

“Just… seeing if my magic hands can do something?” Simon gave a sheepish grin. “Commander Scott suggested it, didn’t he?”

Dot huffed. “Whatever.”

Simon took the woman’s hand, just holding it for a second. “Hey there.” She gave a gentle squeeze. There was no response: the woman kept breathing gently, pulse thrumming against Simon’s fingers. Really, it was almost as if she was just asleep.

“How are youuuuu Ada what are you doing!”

Simon jolted upright as Ada leaned over the bed, held up by her tail. She reached up to tug the girl back, but then Ada craned her body forward and flicked out her tongue to lick at Sleeping Beauty’s lips.

Dot smacked her forehead. “I’ll get the wet wipes and—”

The woman’s eyes snapped open.

Ada jerked back, moving almost faster than Simon could track. She stood as the woman jerked up, head lolling as her eyes landed on Simon and Dot.

“Holy shit,” Simon breathed.

“h-holy… shii—” The woman’s voice came out in a rasp, before her body was wracked with coughs. Simon found herself taking a step back as the woman’s body shuddered, but remained sitting upright, arms hanging limply at her side like a puppet’s.

“Do you… need some water?” she tried.

A moment later the woman stopped coughing. “Wa-ter…”

“Right. Dot, shoot a message to the medical staff.” Simon got up, taking note of how Ada was cowering behind her chair, red eyes fixed on the woman on the bed. “Are you okay?”

Ada flicked a glance at her before returning her gaze to the woman on the bed. Simon cast a glance over her shoulder as she filled a plastic cup with water, but the woman continued to stare forward silently. She walked back over, holding out the cup. “Here.”

The woman’s eyes tracked down to it.

Simon waited a moment. “You… need to use your hands—hand, sorry.”

She reached out, taking the woman’s hand and wrapping it around the cup. Slowly, as if she were teaching a baby, she pushed the drink up to the woman’s lips, helping her tip her head back and drink.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to help the woman swallow.

Instead, the moment the water hit the woman’s lips, she seemed to wake up, eyes blinking rapidly as she gulped down the whole cup in a matter of seconds.

“There you go.” Simon helped the woman lie back down, noting how her actions slowly became less jerky, more natural. “Easy does it. Hey there.” The woman blinked looking up at her, blue eyes slowly coming to life. “Mind telling me who you are?” Simon glanced over her shoulder. “Also, how’s her EEG?”

Dot looked up from the tablet. “Same as always. Zero brain activity.”

“Weird. Well, we can deal with that later.” She looked back to the woman, only to pause. “Are… are you okay?”

But the woman wasn’t looking at her. Instead, her eyes were locked on Dot, on the tablet showing a flat brain activity line, even as the rest of her readings continued as normal.

Her body lived, but her brain was dead. It was the only reason they’d kept Sleeping Beauty here instead of transferring her to a normal hospital.

Then the woman closed her eyes. “No,” she said. “I am not okay.”

A single tear slipped from the corner of her eyes.

“I am… alone.”