An Ape Out Of Place 14 Pt.1
AOOP BONUS STORIES:
- The Spirit Of Hunters Past(Finished)
- New Exterminator On The Block
Memory Transcription Subject : Beau Hunter - Partially Concussed Farsul Rescue : Date : Reclaimed Terran Time : May 13th, 2936
The observation room was a hurricane of lights and noise as medics, exterminators, and ship security officers rushed into and filled the already crowded space. A menagerie of alien critters as well as plenty of cured humans poured in to tend to the injured, the collateral from one angry russian; who was in hindsight most likely a very well trained soldier of some kind; laying havoc to all those around him.
The first three people to enter the room honestly caused me a fair amount of concern, three towering exterminators, two of them were massive hippo looking aliens and the third an elephant gorilla looking one, each of which probably had a hundred pounds on me individually, and stood over the cured humans like monolithic towers of muscle, they strolled in, inspected and then hauled Chekov out of the room on one of those floating stretchers, which gave the rest of the helpers the confidence to enter and take care of everyone.
Two tepid looking medics relieved me of Aiko, maneuvering a hover stretcher over my torso and allowing me to lay the diminutive girl down with minimal effort. After I handed her off I tried to get up again only to be shouted back down again by three separate medical personnel, one including Dr.Bilnen.
“Please remain seated Mr.ancestor we will have a stretcher prepared for you shortly.” One of the greying human medics spoke sternly.
“I think it's just some bruising. I don't think I need to be wheeled off.”
“With all due respect Sir, we will be the judge of that.” One of the porcupine medics spoke. Holding up a way too bright pen light to my eyes.
“Ahhh stop that. Damn future flash lights are bright.” I moaned, holding up a hand to block the light.
“Are you experiencing any head pain ancestor?"
“I got a pretty bad headache yeh, I think I hit my head when I was thrown.”
The medics exchanged a concerned glance before the porcupine medic put on a glove and the human medic ran some kind of glowing box over my body, head to toe.
“I’m going to apply gentle pressure Sir tell me if you feel any sort of discomfort."
“Got it.” I nodded.
“Does it hurt here?”
“Yes”
“Here”
“No
“Here”
“Ah yes yes yes!”
I winced. As the porcupine poked a particularly sensitive spot.
“Yeh I'm detecting multiple fractures here.” The cured human medic spoke with concern as the two hippo aliens sidled up beside me. Looking a lot more intimidating up close. The presence of their sanctioned pd officer arm bands did not escape my notice.
I didn't really get time to process their arrival however as they immediately began to unfold another one of those fancy stretchers, the doctors continuing to chat away as they lined up the hover stretcher next to me.
“We’re going to need to operate, ancestor can you breathe alright?”
“What? Yeh.”
They immediately began to talk over each other with a measured urgency.
“Doctor Bilnen! Does the collar have surgical grade anesthetics in it?”
“Someone needs to pull up his collar code. I need a list of medications he’s been dosed with.”
“Mind his lower ribs he has multiple rib fractures!”
“Wait under?” I said in a panic. As a number of alien paws started to take ahold of me at once. And I felt a pinch somewhere in my arm. “Wait, Wait! Why are you putting me under all… I.. have.. Is….”
-----
I woke up somewhere else. Again.
I didn't know exactly where I was but somewhere in the Hope of the Herd’s medical facilities was probably a good guess.
I looked around from my spot in this new hospital bed. I was in a very sterile looking space identical to the room we had awoken Anna in. The headache was gone and so was any and all soreness anywhere in my body. I looked up, and saw that the room lights didn't hurt to peer at, and looking to my right was… my clothes. Folded up neatly on a side table.
Ahh drugged hauled off to another location and stripped naked. Again.
I looked down to inspect my newest hospital gown, and also noticed a curled up form on my chest, leaning in from my left and breathing shallowly into my new garment, was Aiko.
Her back rose and fell as she slept deeply, looking a fair bit shaken up but otherwise appearing unharmed, except for some kind of medical patch on her snout. Her little hands were curled up into fists, latching tightly onto my hospital gown in her sleep.
I carefully adjusted the pillow I was reclined upon in a bid to make myself comfortable without waking Aiko.
Meanwhile the health monitor at my bed side was going off, making some repetitive alert chime, and no doubt someone would be here to check in on me soon now that I was awake, these future people if nothing else knew their anesthetics.
And sure enough the door to my room clicked open and the uncanny face of a cured human doctor presented itself.
“Ah greetings! Oh….” They noticed Aiko snoozing, and quickly lowered their voice level. “Sorry… Greetings ancestor, is everything alright today? You're not feeling any residual pain are you?”
I whispered back in response. “No doc everything feels like… well like I didn't get my ass handed to me in the first place frankly.”
The doctor smiled, quickly scribbling something down on his little notepad. “Well that's wonderful to hear, and to be clear, no headpain, no dizziness, brainfog, trouble breathing?”
“Nope on all accounts, though now that I’m thinking about it, the nurse doctor or medic or whoever who was talking to me when I was put under said something about a surgery or something?”
“Ah yes that.” The doctor checked something on his pad before putting it away and pulling out a pair of medical scissors, before reaching over to my side and pulling back part of my medical gown to cut at some bandages that I hadn't realized were there.
“The surgical salve should have healed over any surgical scarring by now, we had to cut you open to apply some bone paste to fix up the rib fractures.” He spoke as I felt a warm hand press up against my back. “And it looks like that it is indeed fully healed, here feel it.” The doctor whispered as he guided my hand over the spot where the doctors had just cut into me.
And to their credit the only sign I had even been operated on that was left was a bald spot where they must have shaved me to operate on me.
“Well Damn.” I said a bit too loud. “You future doctors really know your stuff. I cracked a rib falling out of a tree as a kid and it took a month for it to heal up.
“Well medicine sure has come a long way over the years no doubt.” The doctor beamed before his mood fell a touch. “I do, however, hope you don't make a habit of making use of it.”
“No promises.” I spoke quietly. As I felt Aiko begin to stir slightly from the commotion.
“How is she doing?” I whispered this time, gesturing to Aiko. “Should she even be here? As a doctor, I thought you would be worried about her aggravating her injury more, or mine for that matter.”
“Ah her, she sought you out on her own, she was quite shaken up when she awoke from her surgery. I don’t blame her however. Her snout was fractured in two places, and she nearly lost a tooth.”
“Is she going to be……?”
“She'll be alright. The only lasting damage is up here I'm afraid” He said, as he tapped a single finger to the side of his head. I’m just happy to see she is still okay with you and isn't afraid of ancestors, it would be a right shame for a historian like her to develop a phobia.”
”Can that happen that easily to cured humans?”
”I’m afraid so ancestor, I hate to make assumptions, but I'd imagine our time in history is a fair bit less violent than yours was.”
I regarded the girl, and nodded.
”Is there anything you need right now? I can get you some water and have you a food menu shortly”
”Sounds good, and thanks for everything doc.“ He nodded vigorously and left the room.
As the doctor left, Aiko finally began to rouse. It took her a moment to get her bearings, but the moment she did I felt a sudden tug as her arms gripped me tightly as she hugged me close.
“B…Beau! Are you okay!?” She stuttered out, as she placed the flat of her head to my chest, her unobstructed eye darting frantically across the room, as if scanning for threats.
“Y..You were bleeding and the exterminators, they.. They took the ancestor away, but he is only in the other room! They have him sedated b..b..but what if he wakes up Beau! He might try to hurt you again c..can you move Beau!? We need to get you out of here. What happens if he wakes up and gets the remote again he might come for you again and….”
“Aiko! Aiko Settle down, I’m okay, it's okay, I’m sure everything is alright, They called in some pretty big exterminators, I'm sure they're keeping a good eye on Chekhov now. And they know he means business this time, they won't get taken off guard like we did, I’m sure it will be alright Aiko, if we can count on one thing, it's for exterminators to be paranoid. Just take it easy."
Aiko's breathing was frantic now, she was clearly worried and I ran my hand down her back to comfort her as she held on tight. If it was out of protectiveness for me or for some sense of security from my presence I wasn't sure. But I wasn't going to push her away regardless.
“It was all so scary Beau.” She whimpered out. “I’ve never seen anything so violent, even in the ancestor movies, he… he just moved so quick, and he hit you so hard that first time….” Her eyes closed and she shivered as if she was reliving those events in her head. “You stopped moving, your body went limp, I thought you were dead Beau!!”
“There there Aiko, it's alright, it's all over, he just rocked my noggin a bit, it was nothing serious.”
I felt a small hand balled up into a fist strike my chest. “No it's not alright Beau, he hurt you! Badly! He hurt a lot of people Beau, people who were just trying to help him. HE ALMOST KILLED ANNA!!”
I began to stroke the top of her head as she seethed, like I had seen the rest of the cured humans do to each other and I spoke as calmly and soothingly as possible.
“He was just scared Aiko, he woke up in a strange place and we told him a story that he wasn't primed to believe, whatever assumptions he made up in his head were probably much more reasonable in his mind than what was actually going on in reality, he just had the fighting ability to make a stink about it.”
“Shutup.”
She groaned.
“What's wrong?”
“Stop being so reasonable."
“He was just defending himself, he most likely just didn't want to risk being captured or controlled any further than he already had.”
“I know.. b..but, he hurt my friends.” She spoke with a sob, breaking down into tears in earnest.
I could feel her trembling now, her voice was so much more soft and hesitant than usual.
Her little fingers digging into my medical gown reminded me of all the times my daughter had wound up coming to me or her other parents. Scared from something her brothers had shown her that was too scary for her.
I knew she was a grown woman, but the way she carried herself, her small form trembling in my grasp, it stoked within me an aura of fatherly concern. Had this been any normal human I definitely wouldn't have been babying Aiko like I was now, They wouldn’t appreciate being infantilized like this,
But I had seen plenty of examples of how the modern humans interacted with each other, treating her like the sacred kid my brain couldn't help but acknowledge her as, seemed to help her more than humiliate her.
I rocked her gently in place as her breathing slowly slowed and she started to calm down.
It was the least I could do considering how many hours she had spent by my side so far when I was in the dumps.
-------
After some unknown amount of time had passed, I eventually tried to get up to move, after the crying had eventually stopped.
Aiko wouldn't be moved however.
“Aiko, we can't stay in here forever, we need to check up on Anna and Bilnen, they've been through the ringer as well.”
Aiko merely held on tight, refusing to break her grip.
“Can’t… Too scared…. He’s out there.”
I sighed, then stood up, Aiko yelping as I scooped her up and held her aloft awkwardly in one arm. She had to grab around my neck to not fall, but I just about managed the feet as I fought with my other arm to get my zebra poncho wrapped around my waist for modesty purposes.
I threw the rest of my ensemble over my free shoulder to put on later, for when I could hopefully convince Aiko to separate herself from my shoulder.
And while Aiko was no little Christy, and quite heavy. I just about managed to nestle her into a position I could carry her if not comfortably than sustainably.
I made my way out of my hospital room, leaving behind the half eaten meal that had been delivered earlier.
What I emerged to was a quiet yet well populated medical wing. Similar to the one I had seen in captain cutter’s ship, but the ceilings were much higher, probably built with the intention of crewing some of the federation's larger species if I had to guess.
Numerous doctors strode back and forth, manning the counters and popping in and out of various side rooms, no doubt to keep an eye on Chekhov’s various victims.
Many of the younger doctors and nurses steered clear of me as I walked, but the older ones didn't seem to bear me much mind.
Considering this was a warship and with what little I knew about the galaxy's history, it made sense the older ones had seen shit a lot scarier than me.
After a short walk around the medical wing, and with the directions of a tepid receptionist I managed to catch sight of just the man I was looking for.
I caught a glimpse of Dr.Bilnen’s fluffy rump rounding a corner, and upon getting closer I noticed him approaching Anna, who sat on a couch in what appeared to be a small waiting area. She was simply sat there, unmoving and staring wall-eyed into the middle distance, loosely clutching a stuffed animal, which upon closer inspection appeared to be the same one that was thrown into Chekov's cell to calm him down.
Dr.Bilnen had brought something with him and was in the process of trying to show it off to Anna.
“....as you can see Dr.Shoen, this bone paste, when applied directly to a bone fracture can heal a complete break in only a matter of hours!” he spoke enthusiastically, bobbing his tail and ears around, clearly in an effort to cheer her up and shake her out of her apparent lump. “It utilizes specially modified stem cells, which are flash cloned and modified using nano machines to perfectly match the tissue they need to regenerate, Isn’t that great!”
“Yeh… that's.. pretty interesting.” She spoke absently.
“In combination with our surgical healing salve, we can operate on and heal a broken bone in only a matter of hours, not weeks or months as with typical timelines.”
“Uh huh.” She replied plainly.
Dr. Bilnen seemed to give up at this, his ears drooping and posture lowering before finally seeming to take notice of me and Aiko.
His tail gave a quick bob, as our emergence seemed to raise his spirits, and he eagerly made his way over to us.
“Ah I'm so glad to see you both finally awake! I heard that your recoveries have both gone well, yes?”
“Everything's good here doctor,” I spoke with a smile, charmed by the doctors enthusiasm. ”They say Aiko is doing good as well.”
“That's great to hear!” He replied, though he seemed to notice the non response of Aiko quite quickly.
“Oh dear, are you alright Aiko? You seem a bit out of it.”
“I'm okay.”
Was all she could bring herself to say in reply. Causing Dr.Bilnen to whimper in response.
“Ah that won't do, Here Beau, let her down real quick, There is something I need to do.”
I doubted setting Aiko down in this state would work, so I crouched down to Dr.Bilnen's level, and he quickly approached the girl.
“For starters Aiko, you should have had these pads removed over an hour ago, I was wondering where you had wandered off to!” the doctor fussed, as he carefully pulled off the adhesive pads of Aiko's skin, revealing not even the bruises I had spotted on her before I was knocked out.
“There we go, no need to hide that pretty face anymore!” He spoke warmly, before rubbing his nose against the tip of Aiko’s snout.
This garnered a light smile from her.
“Thank you doctor”
She spoke quietly, before glancing around the hospital wing with worry.
“Where's Chekhov?” She almost whispered.
The doctor rubbed her shoulder with one paw before gesturing across the hallway with the other.
“Far room, don't worry, they got two takkans and a mazic sanctioned PD officers keeping an eye on him, and we have security officers managing his collar controls remotely from the security office. You're perfectly safe Aiko, I promise.”
Aiko let off a quiet nod in reply, and I could feel her grip on me loosen somewhat.
With a bit of effort I rose to my feet and plopped down to the right of Anna, and Dr.Bilnen quickly hopped up to sit to her left.
“Hows it going dreamy?” I asked casually. “You seem pretty glum for someone who just saved the day.” I spoke, elbowing her gently in the arm with the limb holding Aiko.
“I…I don't know” She spoke absently. “God I wish this was a dream.”
“Yeh…. I know, same here.”
“Yeh……” was all she felt like saying in reply.
“Still shaken up? From almost getting shot?” I asked carefully, trying to not sound like I was interrogating her.
“I.. I think so, but it's not because I almost died that I feel so off. I think I'm so out of it right now because…. I realized… that…. Well, if I did die back there, I realized… how little……”
She couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence, but I could.
“...How little of a difference it would actually make.”
“Yeh….” She replied solemnly.
“Anna?”
“Beau!”
Dr.Bilnen and Aiko called out reflexively.
“Don’t say that guys!” Aiko cried out. “You do matter! You matter to humanity,. to earth, you matter to us guys, don't talk like that!”
Aiko was quick to grab Anna’s arm and pull hers and mine close together, attempting to scoop us both up in an awkward hug. She didn't garner much resistance from either of us.
Dr.Bilnen spoke up clutching onto Anna’s arm opposite of Aiko. “You still have your friend Mia Anna!, you don't think it would hurt her if you….. If the worst had happened?”
“I know doctor, I know it would hurt her, it's just that…. It's a lot okay. And I see what you have been trying to do, trying to cheer me up by introducing me to modern medical technology. And normally, that would be enough, but with everything that's happened, everything I’ve lost, I just can’t find the enthusiasm within me to get excited anymore, it's hard.”
“I don’t know how much you care about us Beau.” Aiko spoke solemnly. “But we care about you too! And not just as a walking history book, I hate seeing you sad! Please don’t go.”
I gently patted her head.
“I said this before Aiko and I will say it again. I don't plan on going anywhere, even if I may not be the best historical reference, I still want to make sure the memory of those I loved lives on.”
“Oh guys… I’m so sorry, neither of you deserved this.” She spoke.
-------------------------
If Aiko was hesitant to let go before then, she most certainly wasn't about to now. We continued to wait in the medial wings waiting area, not sure what to say, or what to do. That was until a trio of familiarly dressed individuals approached us. Had I not known what their outfits signified I may have mistaken their presence as an overly dressed bridal shower.
Three Reclamation alliance staffers approached us, all done up in their reclamation alliance herd styles. All wearing golden dresses with ribbons of light flowing around them. And now that there were three of them, the light ribbons from their dresses seem to interact in odd ways, as the ribbons danced around and between them in a mesmerizing dance before flowing behind them highlighting their path before fading.
Andrew, the only one of the three I recognized, was leading the pack, as he was quick to speed ahead of the other two in his group upon spotting us.
“Hey guys! It's great to see you all up and about.” He called cheerily out to us as he approached. Though his mood seemed to shift upon taking in the state of our group though he tried to keep up his jubilant persona regardless. “Oh… uh wow you guys look like you’ve had one heck of a day. Is everyone feeling all right? We were hoping to get you guys on the move if you're up for it. I'm sure you have seen enough drab ship corridors to last a while, and Flaghill is a beautiful town and I’m sure you'd appreciate the change of scenery!”
“We’re…. We’re doing alright Andrew, just going through a lot, I don’t know about these guys, but I know I wouldn't mind a change of scenery.” I spoke, being the first to respond. “Who are your friends? I don’t believe we have been introduced.”
“Oh yeh that's a good idea. Well to start off I’m Andrew Smith a representative of the reclamation alliance for the archives operations, just thought I would throw that in, in case Anna didn’t quite remember my name from yesterday."
I looked over to Anna whose face started to turn a bit red no doubt at the memories of her escapades yesterday, where she ‘made friends’ with just about every non human member of the ship that did not run away from her upon making eye contact with them, as Daisy made sure to mellow her out whenever she insisted on trying to ‘make friends’ with the ones that did try to run away.
“And this more importantly for your purposes is the Reclamation alliance research head for the archives data reclamation project, Doctor Mary Ali and her assistant Sam Brown.”
Whilst Dr.Ali’s assistant was wearing an identical dress to Andrew, the only difference in his outfit being a pair of heart shaped glasses that appeared to have some small glowing text streaming uncomfortably looking directly in front of his eyes.
Dr.Ali's herd style outfit actually subtly departed from the two men next to her. Aside from the obvious changes in fit due to her being a woman, her outfit appeared to also include some white ribbon accents and a thin golden circlet, my guess to denounce her rank.
Sam greeted us absent mindedly with a light smile and a wave while the older looking Dr.Ali simply walked right up to Anna, and addressed the woman directly.
“Hello Anna, I’m glad to see some of our bloodlust countermeasures have found some use.” She spoke with a smile, before poking the plush she was holding right in the belly. And to my surprise it actually squeaked.
Fuck! it was a god damned chew toy.
I couldn’t help but let off a reflexive chuckle at the ridiculousness of this ill-conceived solution.
“Have you found the prey surrogate to be satisfactory ancestor? I mean, it seems to have done its job at calming you. I mean you bested a room full of exterminators and two fellow ancestors in combat, I must compliment your ferociousness in combat if nothing else.” the doctor spoke slyly.
This managed to get a smirk from Anna.
“No ha, I wasn’t the one to attack everyone.”
“I know, but you were the one to put an end to his assault. I wish most modern humans could comport themselves with half the composure you demonstrated today in times of crisis.” She spoke warmly.
“It was nothing.” Anna replied.
“Don’t sell yourself short Anna, or should I say Dr.Schoen.” Ali assured her before continuing. “But enough about that, I have not come to speak of narrowly avoided tragedies, but instead to discuss your stay in our fair town of Flaghill, more specifically the particularities of your visit. It was originally my intention to speak with the ancestors as one whole group, alongside our non-human archives rescues, but as it turned out your group needed some special considerations, well no, almost every group needed special considerations but I digress, yours was the most catastrophic however.”
“How did it go with the other humans?” I asked.
“Not good, but not terrible either. We have found out that a room full of aliens and a healthy dosing of emotional suppressants have allowed us to keep our rescues, human or otherwise, from lashing out in panic or fear.”
“No more… reactions like Anna?” I spoke carefully, giving Anna a reassuring pat on the leg after I asked.
The woman sighed. “Only a few.”
“I don't know if that's better or not.” Anna admitted.
“Well regardless of all of that I want to lay out what your stay is going to look like, I was picturing speaking to all three of you ancestors at once, though I can understand if you don’t wish to deal with Chekhov so soon.”
“Why would you even suggest that!” Aiko snapped at the director, whilst tightening her grip on me and Anna. Whilst turning her head to glare at the research head with her side facing eye, despite her body facing away from the woman. “He almost killed her only a few hours ago! It hasn't even been a day.”
“It's okay Aiko!” Anna was quick to interrupt her however. “I’m okay, it's alright, he won't be able to hurt us again like Dr.Bilnen said and I.. wanted to apologize.”
“Apologize for what?!” Aiko asked incredulously.
“I don’t know, I just feel bad for hurting him. He probably just thought he had been kidnapped and we were the ones taking him. Aliens abducting you and sending you thousands of years into the future is a very hard thing to believe, I would know. He didn't ask for any of this.”
“He was about to shoot you!”
“Aiko.” I took hold of Aiko and repositioned her so she was facing me. “Take a breath okay, your stressed, there's no need to shout.”
It took her a moment and her breaths were ragged at first but she eventually settled down. “I… I’m sorry for yelling Anna.”
“It’s okay.” She replied.
At that I stood with a grunt.
“Whelp then, there’s no time like the present, let go see the man of the hour, and give him a proper welcome this time.” I glanced at Aiko who was still in my arms. “You coming, Aiko? You don't have to come if you don't want to.”
I was surprised her answer wasn't an immediate no, as she went wall eyed for a moment as she seemed to turn the decision over in her mind.
“Uhhh.”
“Ten seconds to decide, yes or no? This isn’t a life altering decision.”
She gripped hard around my neck.
“YES!”
She exclaimed. “I don’t want to make a habit of avoiding you guys, I don’t want to be scared of you.” she followed up softly.
“Very well then!” Doctor Ali exclaimed. “Dr.Bilnen could you lead the way?”
“With pleasure!”
------Link to Part 2------
Posted Feb 19, 2026, 6:28 PM UTC