CHAPTER 1.4 – “THE HUMAN(?) GIRL”

-CHAPTER 1.4 – “THE HUMAN(?) GIRL”-

Location: Unknown – Deep Space – Aboard the Koruch

Date: NTC 1446.07.15

The infirmary doors burst open.

Korsica strode inside without hesitation, not even glancing around as she barked, “Yorgo! Give me good news! How much are we making?”

Kerim and Thomas followed close behind her.

On the central terminal bed, the girl lay strapped down by her wrists. Still unconscious. Still bound.

Yusuf stood silently at her side, eyes unreadable.

Yorgo was hunched over the analysis terminal, glasses perched on his nose, eyes locked to the glowing screen. He didn’t even acknowledge their entrance. Two androids stood still near the door, while an organic Mute with an orange beret loomed beside him, blank and motionless.

Korsica waited, foot tapping.

Nothing.

Yorgo kept working, unfazed.

She stormed up to his side, leaning over his shoulder. “Well? You gonna talk or not?”

He sighed, adjusting his glasses with a dry, tired motion. “I just got the samples. Give me a minute.”

Across the room, Kerim stepped up beside Yusuf and gave him a rare smile.

“Your tone earlier impressed me,” he said. “Maybe you’re not a kid anymore.”

Thomas clapped Yusuf on the back, grinning. “He’s definitely not. Kid’s growing up fast. We’re the ones getting old, Kerim. Just admit it.”

Yusuf gave a small smile but said nothing. He didn’t want to show how good it felt to hear that—especially from Kerim.

Meanwhile, Korsica’s voice cut through the air again.

“What’s taking so damn long, Yorgo?! It’s just a mutant compatibility scan! You’re getting slow.”

Yorgo sighed again, deeper this time. “Don’t hover over me. Science doesn’t work faster just because you yell at it.”

Kerim interjected, more helpfully. “Did you check her barcode at least?”

Yorgo paused like the thought had just occurred to him. “Oh, right. That too. Hold on…”

He opened a drawer, retrieved a handheld scanner, and walked over to the girl.

In the Sublime State, every registered being had a "barcode" on their wrist. If you didn’t have one, you weren’t legally exist. You were nothing.

Yorgo scanned her right wrist.

"Beep-beep."

Error tone.

He frowned and tried the left.

"Beep."

Solid tone. A code appeared on the screen.

“Ah, there we go,” Yorgo muttered, handing the scanner to Yusuf. “Here. Check the terminal—see who she is.”

Yusuf accepted it wordlessly, though inside, he felt a flicker of pride. He deepened his voice slightly, out of instinct.

“On it.”

He crossed the room, plugged the scanner into the console, and brought up the search database.

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Kerim and Thomas leaned in to watch.

“Try the 1445 Hexal Biosanctum leak,” Kerim suggested. “That archive has tons of mutant records.”

Yusuf nodded once. “Got it.”

The moment he entered the code, a match appeared.

Kerim and Thomas leaned in even closer.

Korsica looked back and forth between them and Yorgo, then finally exploded.

“Can someone say something already?!”

Kerim squinted. “We’ve got a match. Open it.”

“Yeah,” Thomas added, grinning. “Read it out loud, kid.”

Korsica straightened up. She felt like someone important again—

She always did when people reported to her.

Korsica with a theatrically pose “Let’s hear it.”

Yusuf nodded, his tone steady.

“Name: Merry Cane.”

He paused. His brow furrowed slightly.

“Citizenship code: Four-four-one-three-eight-five...”

Korsica groaned. “Skip that part! What are we supposed to do, memorize her CT code?”

Yusuf flushed but didn’t show it. “You’re right, Captain. Continuing.”

He cleared his throat, and kept reading.

“Age... eighteen. Gender: female. Species...”

He stopped.

He leaned in. Re-read the line. As if it had glitched.

His voice dropped to barely a whisper.

“Species: Human... Mutant. MT-2. Mutation Variant... none.”

The infirmary went still.

It wasn’t confusion in the air.

It was disbelief.

Yusuf whispered it again. “MT-2?.. How...?”

Thomas and Kerim stared at the screen. Then at the girl. Then back.

Korsica took longer. The meaning trickled into her mind slowly—then all at once.

“Wait…” she muttered. “MT-2? Citizenship code?”

Her expression collapsed into fury.

“She has a legal record?! She’s not a deviant form?! Then she’s worthless on the Mute market!”

She spun toward Yusuf and snapped, “So all this was for nothing?! I thought you’d finally be useful like your brother, Yusuf—but you ruined everything on your first real job!”

Thomas raised both hands in a calming gesture. “Easy, Captain. These things happen. It’s how he learns.”

Kerim said nothing. His jaw tightened slightly at her words. He felt a flicker of satisfaction at Yusuf’s mistake. Then guilt for that satisfaction. Then anger at himself for the guilt.

It all passed in a second.

Thomas tried again, half-laughing. “So what now? Can’t sell her, can’t just toss her. Maybe send her to recycling?”

Korsica blinked. “What do you mean? Kill her? What kind of ‘recycling’ are we talking about?”

Thomas just shrugged with a vague smile, like even he wasn’t sure.

Korsica snapped again. “Can she even die? The girl survived a vacuum! She’d probably get back up no matter what we hit her with!”

Yusuf suddenly stepped forward, eyes sharp.

“Exactly! Someone who can survive open space without a suit can’t be MT-2. This record is wrong!”

Korsica snarled, “Doesn’t matter! If the system says MT-2, then she’s MT-2! End of story!”

Her voice fell. Her anger melted into bitter disappointment.

“We can’t sell this girl…”

From behind, Yorgo spoke quietly.

“The boy’s right.”

Everyone turned.

Yorgo’s eyes were still on the DNA screen.

“She’s not MT-2,” he said. “Either the compatibility tests were falsified... or they were never done.”

Kerim finally broke his silence.

“What are you saying, Yorgo?”

The old man swiveled slowly in his chair, scanning the faces around him. His voice had changed—no longer gruff and indifferent, but measured. Heavy.

“As far as I can tell,” he said, “she’s above even MT-5. She doesn’t match any known mutant classification.”

He turned back to the monitor. Wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his sleeve.

“Her cell structure... her DNA sequence...” he continued.

He hesitated for a moment. Then said it.

“To be honest... this isn’t a human. At least not in any way we understand the word. She’s almost like... a different species altogether.”

Silence fell.

No one spoke. No one moved.

Then, slowly, all eyes turned toward the girl.

Still unconscious.

Still quiet.

Still bound to the table.

But in that moment—not one of them believed she was just a girl anymore.