Part 5: The Magician's Secret Sauce
"You look solid," Chief Engineer John LaMarr contemplated the silver glob that he had collected from the floor of the shuttle bay as he relaxed in a seat in Engineering. "But somehow you are a liquid."
"And you look like a metal," LaMarr turned the container that now separated him from direct physical contact with the Kaylon substance and looked up at Lieutenant Gordon Malloy approaching, "But somehow you have the ability to instantly become living tissue with nothing more than the presence of living tissue to guide you."
"That's Artificial Intelligence for you my friend," They were surrounded by a holographic recreation of the ship's Bar filled with holographic duplicates of the deceased crew living their off duty lives in the background. Gordon sat down at the table with two glasses of Alcohol placing one of them on the table for LaMarr and lifting the other to his lips for his own consumption. "Just when you think you have it all figured out..."
"Just when you are sure its only ever going to be a killer Robot out to get you," John LaMarr watched as Gordon lifted the container and examined it. "It snaps its fingers and suddenly it's holding a rose."
"Or more likely it snaps off your fingers," John LaMarr took the container of the Kaylon substance back from Gordon Malloy's less than delicate hands and placed it back down on the table. "With the wet end paints the picture of the rose in your blood as you bleed out on the ground screaming."
"From a piece of the puzzle," John LaMarr took a sip of his drink and stared at the man in front of him. A man that had been regrown from the silver glob. It was almost Artificial intelligence-like... No. What if... It was precisely artificial intelligence-like? "It filled in the missing pieces."
"What if that is Kaylon Brain material?" LaMarr contemplated the idea that the substance, confronted with a massive genetic data sample it proceeded to take the DNA algorithm and the partial sample of Malloy's head and create a whole new body. The rose bloomed. "Raw Kaylon brain material?"
"Dude," Gordon Malloy shook his head at the connect-the-dots reveal inherent in John LaMarr's words. "You realize you are suggesting I am an algorithm shaping raw Kaylon brain fluid to my will."
"Holy Shit." John LaMarr leapt back from the thing pretending to be his friend and watched Cthulu-Gordon exhale in disappointment at the sight of a friend now so terrified of the Cosmic Horror he had become in his eyes, the momentary love of looking on the light fantastic dying in John LaMarr as his brain decided that what wasn't sitting in front of him was his friend. "...you're not Gordon Malloy."
"Sit down John." That was definatly not something Gordon Malloy would say. Gordon Malloy was never that assertive. Or as computationally fast that he would have intuited and put into words precisely what John had realized yet not spoken aloud. "Its going to be okay."
"I would rather not." What ever this thing in front of him was, it knew it wasn"t Gordon Malloy. Would it kill him to prevent exposure? John LaMarr took several deep breaths. "And you and I both know this isn't going to be okay."
"You think so?" Cthulu-Gordon rubbed his fingers together. "Watch the Magician snap his fingers."
"Computer." Gordon smiled at John LaMarr. "Transfer in Laura Huggin's hologram."
"Gordon Malloy?" The memory of a woman whose time had long past appeared. Laura looked about the bar and spotted Gordon's friend John LaMarr who was looking at her in surprise. "John LaMarr? Where is this place?"
"Laura," Gordon Malloy smiled at the sight of the woman he loved. "We are on board the Starship Orville."
"I don't understand." Laura Huggins walked to a window and looked out at holographic stars. "Is this some kind of theme bar?"
"Not Really." John LaMarr watched as the thing pretending to be Gordon Malloy picked up the sample of Kaylon Brain fluid and walked toward the confused hologram. "The real Laura recorded her life on her phone and put it in the Time Capsule in Albany in 2015."
"That time capsule was opened in the far future, and using a computer I turned your... her files into a hologram of the original Laura." Gordon waited until she looked at him. "You are a hologram."
"I'm..." Laura thought it ridiculous. Try as she might, she couldn't remember how she got here. "...a hologram."
"It could be worse," John LaMarr interjected a personal criticism. "You could be made of Kaylon Brain juice."
"Ignore John," Gordon Malloy smiled at the moment of human behaviour as he took Laura's hand in his own. "He's not keen on bringing your girlfriend to work day on account of not having a girlfriend."
"And now..." Gordon touched Laura's hand to the Kaylon Brain juice and it absorbed into her holographic form. Gordon looked at John. "...the light fantastic."
"What...?" Laura felt a little odd. "Gordon? What was that?"
"Think of it as a hard-light upgrade." Gordon indicated the exit to the holographic bar filled with ghosts at which Laura headed for the exit. "Now if you would like a tour of the Starship?"
"Gordon this is so weird," Laura, her holographic form now solid, exited the holographic suite with Gordon Malloy holding her hand at which her holographic clothing vanished leaving her naked. "Oh my god!"
"Captain Grayson could you bring a bathrobe to the Holographic Suite?" John LaMarr followed the pair out into the rest of the starship. As insane as this was, the thing pretending to be Gordon Malloy was going to be a problem. "We have a situation."
Note: looks like the Gods of Genocide get pushed back even further.
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