Project Prometheus Ch. 79 - Teaser (Patreon)

“They studied the Ulvexi far more deeply than they ever admitted,” she said softly over the private channel. “And not for the reasons the galaxy believes.”

Inari’s fingers stilled above the console. Whatever the Aeldamari, the Primes, as the galaxy insisted on calling them, had been doing here… it was bigger than any of them had expected. The data unfolded in layers, and at first, it was familiar.

Alex recognized the structural logic immediately; the same austere architecture of thought they had encountered beneath the academy. It bore the same cold precision that had lingered like a scar since. File headers cross-referenced locations, specimens, and behavioral outcomes. This outpost hadn’t been ancillary, but a continuation.

“So it all came from here,” Kasumi murmured, standing just behind Alex as the translation lattice rendered the text into readable form. “Everything under the academy… this was the long game.”

Ashaki stood a few steps back from the main consoles, her hands clasped tightly at her waist. Awe and revulsion warred openly across her features. The station itself was breathtaking and beautiful in a way that made her chest ache. But the content spilling across the displays hollowed that wonder into something sick and heavy.

Then the data shifted, and a new video file activated. The projection resolved into a vast containment chamber, bathed in soft, almost reverent light. Xuul’khani subjects stood or knelt within individual restraint fields. They were not writhing or screaming, but they were alive, conscious and watching as the scientists neared them with parasite specimens.

Shazza’s breath caught in her throat as she watched the first parasite be introduced into the Xuul’khani subject slowly. It did not leap or attack, but burrowed into the woman on the screen with horrifying precision.

The footage lingered as the Ulvexi organism anchored itself beneath the Xuul’khani’s skin, threading tendrils into neural pathways with horrifying patience. Minutes passed. Then hours—compressed but unmistakable. The subject’s physiology began to change gradually: pulse slowing, eyes clouding, musculature restructuring itself around an invading intelligence.

“This isn’t fast,” Ashaki whispered, horrified. “It’s… deliberate.”

“Yes,” Qadira said quietly. “The parasite claims. It does not rush.”

The footage cut to later stages over the passing days, then weeks. Chitin formed beneath skin and bone density within each subject shifted. The Xuul’khani’s voice, when they spoke at all, grew distant and unfocused as their sense of self was eroding piece by piece. Shazza’s fingers flexed as a low, restrained growl rumbled in her chest as the next sequence began.

A second parasite was introduced to already infected subjects, but it failed to latch on. The organism recoiled violently, rejected by the host’s already-altered neural lattice. The display annotated the result with clinical detachment:

SECONDARY INFESTATION: IMPOSSIBLEHOST CLAIMED — NEURAL DOMINANCE ESTABLISHED

“Only one parasite can be inside a host at any given time,” Kasumi said as she frowned.

“Once claimed, the host is no longer viable for further infestation,” Qadira told her quietly with a nod. “Too many competing neural signatures destabilize the system. The parasite prevents rivals instinctively.”

The implications settled uneasily as they continued to go through the files that were left behind. Natalya stepped in close to Shazza, as she had noted how wound up and on edge she was just now. An arm slid around her shoulders, and she didn’t speak, just grounded her in the moment, steady and unyielding.

“You’re here and you’re safe. Remember that,” Natalya told her gently. Shazza exhaled through her nose, forcing the rage back down into a tight, controlled coil. Then she took a breath, forcing herself to calm down before speaking again.

“They measured this and them,” she growled. “Like livestock.”

“They measured everything,” Alex said grimly.