It did not take long for Alexis to get a hold of herself. After five minutes passed, she pushed herself from Matt's embrace. With a deep breath and slow exhale, she beca composed again. She decided to read all of the docunts as well to really understand the situation. He let her start first while he watched over her and investigated the room so more.
Matt discovered that the door was unable to be opened. The spaces around the door were filled in with sothing. He wondered if it was related to the shoebox. He checked the windows and discovered the sa thing. It seed that this room was isolated from the rest of the simulation. He heaved a sigh of relief. At least the AI didn't overhear anything.
"Matt, sothing doesn't make sense in these docunts. The parasite only reacted to various stimuli. In animal tests, it would only protect and enhance the host. There were also no known signs of it reproducing. This particular sample was used in various experints over the years and it never showed any reactions other than autonomous function."
Matt stared at her for a while and didn't answer. Alexis looked up and pushes back the extensions that fell in front of her face. Seeing the dumbfounded look from Matt made her frown.
"Why are you staring at like that?"
"You're handling this a lot better than I expected."
"Sigh I can't say I'm not confused and scared. But don't forget that I am not a weak person. You can't even imagine the things I have had to capture or kill on this ship."
"Speaking of which, the other day, I overheard Dr. Lisinger ntion sothing about searching for a patient zero. Do you have any idea about who that could be?"
"There are so many strange creatures in the lower decks it could be anything or anyone. We just clean up their ss."
Matt sat next to Alexis and she laid her head on his shoulder. She had decided not to hide the secrets of the ship from him. The main reason was because she felt like he could handle it without panicking. Most of the crewn were unaware that alien life existed beyond so microorganisms. Seeing how forthcoming she was being, Matt started to explain a few things.
"Since I beca aware of the parasite, I acquired powers." Alexis lifted her head and looked into Matt's eyes.
"The dreams?"
"That's right. I have been giving you good dreams ever since I got that ability. Also, I had the ability to send my thoughts to another person."
"Ah, my skirmish. That's why it felt like you were right there with ." Alexis said with a face of realization. Matt nodded and continued.
"That's right. I saw you were struggling and wanted to help you. I was then able to send a few thoughts into your head."
Alexis looked down and Matt interpreted as sha or disappointnt that she didn't win on her own skill. But contrary to his expectation, she looked back up with a beaming smile. She seed to co up with sothing but didn't share it with him. Matt continued to explain so of his other powers. He switched their conversation over to telepathy for a short duration to show her his ability. He explained how his body held the ability to beco very healthy and fit, the parasite only unlocked it for him.
Hypnosis was a difficult and touchy subject to explain. He told her that he had the ability to influence people's thoughts and decisions with hypnosis but it wouldn't control their mind. Alexis wondered if she had been hypnotized by him before and he was honest about it. However, he assured her that it was only during the ti that he was extrely paranoid. Once he began to trust and love her, he never used it on her again.
"Well, I did use it on you earlier to help you calm down but it didn't work. I'm kind of glad it didn't too. That ans you are sitting here calmly with without my influence."
Alexis sighed at the thought of having been manipulated before. She didn't like it. No one would like being told they were a victim of any kind of mind control. However, as an experienced officer, she understood where he was coming from and probably would have done the sa thing. The next thing Matt told her about was the parasites reproduction.
"Essentially, I could implant this into soone else's body and they would beco like ."
"You've not done that to anyone, have you!?"
"No, I didn't plan on ever doing it. Well, that's not necessarily true" Matt tapered off and looked away. Alexis already figured it out based on his expressions.
"So, you were going to do it to . If you did, then what would happen to ? To our baby?"
"It would most likely improve your health and you may even get so similar abilities to . I don't really know since I've never done it before. I really wanted to have you by my side no matter what, otherwise I never would have even thought about it. This was before I realized I loved you and shouldn't force you down a path like this."
The two of them stayed quiet for a while so Matt decided to start reading the docunts himself. He discovered that the docunts were actually three sets of docunts. The first one was his dical chart. When he was three, he had an accident and fell. This caused his head to be severely injured with major bleeding into the brain. This would normally be a mortal wound but his parents wouldn't give up easily.
The dical chart references one of the other papers which docunted the ten-year long study of the specin. The origins of the parasite were from an ancient derelict discovered in space. At first, the Federation thought it was just an asteroid, but discovered it to be a space ship made with what seed to be living cells stronger than any tal. This 'space tal' would soon beco the basis to the most destructive suits ever created.
The ship contained two unidentifiable bodies of alien creatures. One seed to be the pilot while the other was dead in their quarters. The creatures were described as humanoid in shape. The Federation began to study and repurpose this derelict and even discovered a thod to stimulate reproduction in the space tal. However, that was only a reference in this docunt since the main subject of this docunt was the tests on various animals using this leech-like creature.
Matt was astounded at the different things that the Federation allowed. Eventually, they discovered that the parasite was symbiotic. It would enhance and protect the host from many injuries, even brain damage. The paper was written in a way to turn this creature into dicine by discovering the chanism of its protective properties.
However, this is where the final docunt led. It was an observation log of Matthew as a child after receiving the implantation. In order to include a failsafe, the parasite was equipped with a kill switch. This kill switch could only be activated with both his parent's biotric imprints. The observation and logs they completed showed normal function without any abnormal tendencies. Just as they were going to return to their normal research, the logs stopped.
Matt reviewed all of the docunts once more and looked carefully at each photograph. It had been over an hour since they first entered the simulation and the alarm outside signaled their two-hour use ti was approaching. Matt started to clean everything up and placed all of the docunts in the box. Once the lid was closed with everything inside, the data stream seed to change again and the simulation returned to normal. He opened it out of curiosity and the docunts were fragnted images again.
Alexis had been sitting quietly on the bed the whole ti lost in thought. Matt let her be for as long as possible, but the last fifteen minutes were coming up and he didn't want to alarm anyone for no reason. He went over to shake her out of her stupor, but she suddenly looked up at him with conviction in her eyes. She stood up and stepped forward toward Matt holding her stomach.
"I want to help you from now on. You are going to tell everything that happens and everything you're thinking." Alexis tapped her head as if suggesting she ant by using telepathy. Matt opened a channel with her at her gesture.
{There can't be any more secrets, okay? We will get through this together and live out our lives with our child safely and comfortably. Your parents sacrificed their lives because of this thing, and I don't want to put our child through the sa thing. We will deal with this efficiently and precisely.} Alexis transmitted.
{One more thing. I want you to implant with the parasite.}
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