All Or Nothing (Continued)

All Or Nothing, An Anunnaki Story

Chapter 3

  Apsu woke up early. He looked at the clock and saw it was 4 AM. He wasn’t sure what woke him until he heard Tiamat complaining that something hurt.

  “What did you do?” Apsu asked.

  “What?” Tiamat asked.

  “I heard you say something hurt.”

  Tiamat was rubbing the toes of her right foot. “I kicked my toes against the leg of the bed,” she answered.

  Apsu slowly sat up. “How much of the unpacking did you do?” he asked.

  “Nearly all of it,” Tiamat answered. “I kept waking up. It always takes me a while to get used to a new bed.”

  Apsu stretched, yawned, then got up out of bed. He slid on the slacks he wore yesterday.

  “Did you put the towels in the closet?” he asked.

  “Yes, I did. But you know what we forgot?” Tiamat asked.

  “What?”

  “We are out of shower soap. We were going to get some before we went to the base, but we forgot.”

  Apsu turned to look at her. “I can’t believe we forgot that,” he said.

  Tiamat nodded. “We are going to have to find out where the stores are around here,” she declared.

  “Well, did you unpack the shampoo yet?” Apsu asked.

  “No, I did not. I didn’t unpack the trunk yet.”

  “OK, I’ll get it,” he said, walking out to the living room. In their new home, all the rooms were on one floor. They had a living room, kitchen, dining room, one bedroom and a bathroom. The bathroom was between the bedroom and the living room and also served as a laundry room. Apsu saw the large trunk was the only thing left to be unpacked. It was a fairly large trunk that had taken up most of the space in the back of the car. Opening the trunk, he saw the shampoo bottle, as well as the other bottled soaps,  had been taped shut and put into a plastic bag. Apsu smiled. “That’s my girl,” he said to himself.

  Apsu decided to unpack the trunk before he took a shower. The trunk consisted mostly of kitchen items, non-perishables, soaps, and odds and ends they couldn’t bring themselves to leave behind. He took their wedding hologram out of the trunk and turned it on. Four years had passed since that day, but it didn’t feel that long to him. The time had sped by. They were happy. He placed the hologram on a stand beside the sofa, then continued unpacking the trunk.

  While unpacking the trunk and putting things in their rightful places, Apsu noticed a box had been left sitting on a stand just inside their front door. There was a note attached to the box that read “Replacement universal devices. Wear at all times.” He opened the box. Inside were two devices that resembled a high-end smartwatch.

  He took the open box into the bedroom to show the devices to Tiamat. “We got new universal devices,” he said.

  Tiamat looked at the universal devices in the box. “I guess our old ones are no good here,” she said, taking one of the new devices and replacing her old one. Tiamat admired how her new high-tech device looked around her wrist.

  “I guess not,” Apsu said, putting on his new device.

   Apsu went back to unpacking the trunk. Once the trunk was unpacked, he took a shower using shampoo for shower soap and got dressed for his first day as Captain of the Nibiru. Tiamat was waiting at the door ready to go when Apsu entered the living room.

  “You seem anxious to get started,” Apsu said.

  “Chief medical officer,” she said, pointing to herself. “New medical science building.” She made a gesture in the general direction of the building. “I can’t wait to see it.”

  “I wonder if Mummu is ready yet,” Apsu said.

  As they walked out their front door, they saw Mummu walking on the sidewalk, heading toward them.

  “Well, that answers that question,” Tiamat said.

  “What question?” Mummu asked.

  “If you were ready to leave,” Apsu answered.

  It wasn’t long before they saw a taxi coming towards them. They all waved for it to stop. After it stopped, they all got into the back. Apsu told the driver to take them to the Nibiru headquarters. The drive seemed shorter than yesterday’s drive. Possibly because of how tired they were on their way home yesterday.

  After reaching the headquarters, the taxi stopped. Apsu placed his wrist under a scanner between the two front seats of the taxi. The scanner read his device and automatically deducted the taxi fee out of his monetary account. Once they were all out of the taxi, Tiamat gave Apsu a quick kiss and darted across the street to the medical science building.

  Inside the building, she found herself in a rectangular-shaped room. The room was wider side to side than it was front to back. It was just big enough to act as a foyer and was decorated with artwork and fake plants that looked like small trees.

  Tiamat was greeted by a 1.5-meter tall white robot standing between two elevators on the opposite side of the foyer, about four meters away from the door she just passed through. The robot resembled a child, except it had a pedestal instead of legs. Its arms moved freely and made gestures as it spoke. “Good morning, Chief Medical Officer Tiamat,” the robot said. “Please report to Med Bay 1 on the first floor.”

  Tiamat stopped and contemplated the little robot. “I thought this was a science building,” she said.

  “This building is dedicated to both patient care and medical research,” the little robot said.

  “Oh, I see,” Tiamat said, as much to herself as to the robot.

  She walked over to one of the elevators and pushed the button. There was only one button with an arrow pointing up. The elevator door opened and she walked inside. She pushed the button labeled 1. She could feel her excitement building as she waited for the elevator. But, she wasn’t expecting what would greet her on Med Bay 1.

  She walked through the elevator doors into what looked like a large waiting room with a large circular help desk in the center. The help desk had a sign on it that said: “Register Here”. But, there was no one to be seen. There were no patients in the waiting room and no one was at the help desk. She had been expecting to see someone. What is going on, Tiamat thought.

  She walked slowly to the help desk, looking around as she went. On the left side of the room, she could see the entrance to a hallway. A sign was connected to the ceiling at the entrance of the hallway. The sign read “Exit to Emergency Intake”. There were doors along the walls, two doors on each wall. They were labeled according to the different specialties in which the department concentrated. 

  As she approached the desk, a hologram appeared. It was a hologram of an AI. The holographic AI looked similar to the actual AI she met on the first floor.

  “Chief Medical Officer Tiamat,” The hologram began, “please report immediately to Emergency Intake. All patients from Med Bay 1 have been rerouted to Med Bay 3. I repeat, Chief Medical Officer Tiamat, please report immediately to Emergency Intake. All patients from Med Bay 1 have been rerouted to Med Bay 3”

  Without hesitation, Tiamat ran for the hallway labeled “Exit to Emergency Intake”. Nothing like trial by fire, she thought.

  Across the street, Apsu and Mummu took the same route they had taken the day before with Admiral Tolk. Upon their entering the control room, someone said, “Captain in the control room.”

  “Report,” Apsu said as he and Mummu walked to the center of the room and took their seats.

  The person at the communications station swiveled her seat to look at Apsu. “Captain, Ma’adim HQ reports all personnel have been boarded,” the Lieutenant said.

  “Thank you, Lieutenant,” Apsu said. “Prepare to leave orbit.”

  In front of Apsu and Mummu, about five meters away, two Ensigns sat busily working at a large control panel. Three meters beyond the control panel was a view screen that covered the entire wall. “This is the Nibiru,” one of the Ensigns said. “We are about to leave orbit.”

  “Acknowledged,” a voice said over the comm. “Safe journey, Nibiru.”

  “View screen on. Let’s have a parting look at Ma’adim,” Apsu said.

  The view screen lit up and an image of Ma’adim filled the screen. Apsu could see the huge open wound left on the planet's surface by the “Planet Killer” weapon. Apsu’s jaw dropped, and his eyes widened as he saw the immensity of the damage. This was his first time seeing an image of the damaged surface from orbit. He had seen vids from different news organizations, but they only showed images of the damaged area taken from an aircraft as it flew over. Nothing had prepared him for what he was seeing.

  Apsu cleared his throat, bringing himself under composure. “Set course for Tellus,” he said.

  “Setting course for Tellus,” the other Ensign said. “ETA to Tellus 2.5 hours.”

  Apsu stood and looked around the room. He spotted what he was hoping to see, a captain's ready room. “I’ll be in my ready room,” Apsu said, walking to the door of the ready room. The door slid open as Apsu approached.

  Mummu switched seats to sit in the captain's chair while Apsu was in his ready room.

  The ready room looked like an ordinary office. It had a medium-sized desk with a holographic computer. There was an office chair behind the desk and two comparably normal chairs in front of it, and the walls were decorated with artwork.

  Apsu took a seat in the office chair behind the desk. The holographic computer screen appeared immediately. “Computer load messages addressed to Captain Apsu,” Apsu said.

  “Loading messages,” a female voice replied.

  A short list of messages appeared on the holographic screen. One of them was from the Admiral. “Open the message from Admiral Tolk,” Apsu said.  The message immediately appeared. It read:

Captain Apsu,

Within this message, you will find the coordinates of the richest gold deposits on Tellus. Upon arrival, dispatch the following list of personnel to these coordinates. They will set up bases immediately. Each group has its instructions of what they are to do once there.

Admiral Tolk

The rest of the message contained the list of personnel and coordinates of each site.

       Admiral Tolk

  The rest of the message contained the list of personnel and the coordinates of each site. 

  Apsu leaned back in his chair. What am I supposed to do for two hours? He thought.

He sat up straight. “Computer, pull up a map of this building showing all departments and recreational areas,” Apsu said.

  “Pulling up the map,” the computer replied.

  Apsu scanned the map of the building. “Just the thing,” Apsu said. “Computer off.”

  Apsu stood and walked out of his ready room, the door automatically opening for him to walk through. As he walked past the Captain’s chair, he said, “Lieutenant, you have Conn. Commander Mummu, you’re with me. Contact me when we are in orbit around Tellus.”

  “Yes, sir,”  the lieutenant answered.

  Mummu stood and followed Apsu into the elevator. Apsu pushed a button on the number pad. The elevator doors shut and they started to descend.

  “Where are we going?” Mummu asked.

  “You’ll see,” Apsu answered with a sly grin.

  The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Mummu followed Apsu out of the elevator and down a hallway to a room with a glass door. The glass door had large, black lettering on it that said “Game Room”.

  “I can’t believe it,” Mummu marveled.

  “What better way to kill two hours,” Apsu said. As they approached, the door slid open. Mummu was following close behind.

  They looked around the room. Several games were already being used. Apsu spied a two-player racing game. The game had two seats and two controllers for the steering wheels. The controllers were mounted on metal columns attached to the game floor.

  “Speed Blaster,” Apsu said.

  “Definitely,” Mummu replied with a broad smile.

  The hallway Tiamat ran into ended abruptly at an elevator. The doors slid open, Tiamat entered, and the doors closed again. The elevator descended quickly. As soon as the elevator doors reopened, she saw that she was at Emergency Intake, a large room crowded with injured people. Some people were sitting in chairs and others were on gurneys The ones with the most severe injuries were on the gurneys. Tiamat could hear people moaning in pain. A few people were screaming. Tiamat looked for a doctor. She saw one talking to a patient and walked up to him.

  “What happened?” Tiamat asked.

  “Accident at the chemical plant,” the doctor answered.

  Tiamat walked over to one of the injured people. “What happened at the plant?” Tiamat asked.

  The patient groaned and said, “Chemical spill.”

  Tiamat could see burns all over the left side of his body where the chemical had eaten away his clothes.

  Tiamat quickly started checking all the injured people, finding the ones with the most severe injuries, and calling orderlies to take them directly to the treatment rooms. They needed to have the burns cleaned as soon as possible to remove the chemical and stop the burns from getting worse.

  Some would have to be transferred to a hospital after having their burns cleaned and dressed. She had been told the nearest hospital was only two kilometers away. After they treated the ones with the most severe burns, those patients were taken to the hospital. The whole scene would have looked like chaos to an ordinary observer, but from a medical point of view, it was being conducted in an orderly fashion. Tiamat found she was holding up well under pressure. 

  Eventually, they worked their way to the last of the injured. All in all, she felt she had handled things quite well. Tiamat had personally treated the last patient. She cleaned and dressed his burns, gave him two shots, one for pain and another to help prevent infection. She also ordered a prescription for pain medication and an antibiotic to be filled at the nearby pharmacy.

  Tiamat breathed a sigh of relief, “What a first day,” she said to herself.

  Apsu’s large four-wheel-drive truck was following closely behind Mummu’s much smaller sports car. Mummu was swerving his car back and forth, trying to avoid the blasts from the shots Apsu was taking at Mummu’s car.  Apsu heard a beeping sound and his universal device started blinking. He stopped playing the game, raised his wrist close to his mouth, and said, “Apsu here.”

  “Captain, we are in orbit around Tellus,” a voice said through his device.

  “Acknowledged,” Apsu answered. “Come on Mummu. Time to go.”

  They both stood and walked from the game room. Entering the elevator, Apsu said, “That made the time go faster.”

  “MH MM,” Mummu grunted, as he nodded in agreement.

  When they walked into the control room they could see an image of Tellus on the view screen. It was a beautiful planet with big blue oceans and lush green landmasses. Patches of white, fluffy clouds circled the planet.

  “Time to get to work,” Apsu said, taking in the beauty of the planet.

All Or Nothing, An Anunnaki Story

Chapter 4

The docking bay was bustling. The shuttles that brought the crew to the Nibiru were now taking them to Tellus. Their assigned groups and locations determined where on the surface they would end up. Apsu and Mummu had been there since they started the departure. Apsu was personally responsible for every crew member of the Nibiru, even those on Tellus, and he took that responsibility seriously.

Shuttles were taking 30 groups of 100 people to the surface. Apsu already received reports that those on the surface felt heavy and that moving felt sluggish. Not optimal conditions for a mining operation, Apsu thought. He could only hope their bodies would adjust.

"Are you anxious to see the surface up close and personal?" Mummu asked.

"I'm not happy about the heavy, sluggish feeling I'm going to have, but I am looking forward to seeing it," Apsu replied.

"We will adjust after a while," Tiamat said, walking up behind them.

"Is that your medical opinion?" Mummu asked.

"Yes," Tiamat responded. "Apsu is a prime example of why I believe so."

"Me?" Apsu asked.

"Yes," Tiamat answered. "Your constant weight lifting builds up your muscles. People who lift weights regularly will adjust the quickest."

"That's a relief," Apsu said.

"After everyone has departed, are we going down?" Mummu asked.

"We will have to go to each settlement to see how they are doing, of course," Apsu replied.

"I know that," Mummu said."I mean to look around."

"Mummu, if you are that anxious to see what it looks like, go," Apsu said.

"You mean it?" Mummu asked.

"Yes, just be careful," Apsu answered. "We don't know what kind of animal life is down there."

"I'll take a plasma pistol," Mummu said excitedly. Mummu took off for the nearest departing shuttle.

"Like a child in a candy store," Tiamat said.

"Yep," Apsu agreed.

Mummu spied a shuttle with an empty co-pilot seat and boarded it. He opened the weapon locker, took a pistol from it, then seated himself in the co-pilot seat.

The shuttle ride to the surface was uneventful, except that Mummu could feel the gravity pulling on him more and more as they neared the surface. He read he would be 62% heavier on Tellus, but he was determined not to let that dampen his spirits. He was going to explore.

The shuttle landed in a clearing. Mummu hurried outside. He was surprised at how green everything was. Ma'adim's plants didn't have the richness of color these did. He saw birds flying overhead and could hear the sounds they were making. Their sounds were new to him. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue with patchy white clouds.

"It's been a long time since I saw a blue sky," Mummu said to himself.

Mummu decided to explore the forest around the clearing. There wasn't a lot of undergrowth, so he was able to explore at will. There were bushes, shrubs, and flowers with colors he had never seen before.

He was walking along a game trail when he saw a small, furry black and white four-legged creature walking toward him. It had a long, fuzzy, black and white tail, it was a cute little thing, and it didn't even seem afraid of him. Suddenly, it turned around, lifted its fluffy tail, and sprayed a horrid foul-smelling liquid at Mummu.

Mummu left out an incoherent exclamation and ran from the forest and back into the clearing.

"What is that smell?" he heard one of the miners ask. People started lifting their faces and sniffing the air.

"Oh, that's horrible," someone else said.

"It's you!" one of the mining crew exclaimed, pointing at Mummu.

"It was an animal in the forest," Mummu explained. "It sprayed me."

"Could you stand downwind over there somewhere?" the same mining crew member asked, pointing back toward the forest. "In a general away from us direction."

The mining crew were civilians. They didn't have to worry about the proper way to speak to a Commander.

Mummu grumbled and moved away from the mining crew. He had to admit the smell was horrendous. He wondered if he could wash the odor off. He tapped his universal device.

"Map the area," he said to his device.

"Mapping," a female voice said. After about a minute, the device said, "Mapping complete."

"Show map," Mummu said.

A holographic map appeared floating above his arm. There was a river just down the hill from their location. On the map, it didn't look that far away.

"Does anyone have a bar of soap?" Mummu called to the miners. A bar of soap came flying in his direction. Mummu caught it. "Thanks," he said. Armed with the bar of soap and his plasma pistol, he headed for the river.

Apsu followed Tiamat as she walked around the store, picking up the items they needed and putting them in the hover cart he was pushing. When they got to the aisle with the shower soap, Apsu reminded Tiamat they needed to get some.

Tiamat kneeled to look at the different brands of shower soap. "I have never heard of any of these," she said.

"They are probably all made here," Apsu offered.

"You can't go wrong with milk and honey," she said, picking up a bottle and dropping it into the cart as she stood up.

"Anything else, or are we done?" Apsu asked.

Tiamat tossed one more thing into the cart. "Done," she said.

Apsu and Tiamat went to the front of the store to pay for their items. At the front of the store, there were several point of sale systems. Each one had a scanning device to push your cart through and a monitor with a small scanner attached. The monitor told you the total of your items, and the scanner took your payment.

As they were walking out of the store, Apsu's wrist device started blinking and beeping. Apsu raised his wrist close to his mouth and said, "Apsu here."

"Apsu, I ran into a problem. I need a small shuttle sent down for me," Mummu said, sounding embarrassed.

"What happened?" Apsu said, sounding concerned.

"There was this cute furry black and white animal," Mummu began.

Apsu knew by the sound of Mummu's voice whatever happened was more embarrassing than dangerous.

"What did the cute little animal do to you, Mummu?"

"It sprayed me with a foul-smelling liquid that came from its butt, and now the pilot won't let me on the shuttle to go back to the Nibiru," Mummu said, sounding frustrated.

"Mummu, the pilot is military. Pull rank on him."

"He said he'd rather be court marshaled," Mummu said. "I even washed my clothes and took a bath in the river, and the smell is still there. The smell is terrible. I can't blame him."

"OK," Apsu said. "I'll send a shuttle down to get you. Apsu out."

Tiamat looked at Apsu with an amused look on her face. "Apparently, the animals on Tellus are unique," she said with a smile.

"And smelly," Apsu replied, also smiling. "Don't forget smelly."

Apsu was waiting for Mummu in the shuttle bay when he arrived. Apsu's curiosity peaked. He had to know what kind of smell would make a man say he would rather be court marshaled then be in the same shuttle with Mummu. When the shuttle came in, Mummu was alone. That must be some smell, Apsu thought.

As soon as the shuttle door opened, the smell wafted its way over to Apsu.

"Oh, wow," Apsu said, backing up away from Mummu.

Mummu nodded his head. "Yep, it's bad," he said.

"Let's put you through bio-hazard and see if that takes it off of you," Apsu said.

"Yes, anything," Mummu said.

They walked across the shuttle bay, and through two sets of glass doors you had to push a button to open. Apsu stayed a considerable distance from Mummu.

"These rooms are for people we think may have come into contact with dangerous organisms or chemicals. They will run you through a series of decontamination protocols. Just follow the directions. Hopefully, it will take care of it," Apsu said. "Oh, take off your clothes and throw them in the bin."

Mummu nodded. Apsu left the room. Mummu never went through decontamination before. The rooms were smaller than he had imagined, just big enough for four people at a time. He removed his clothes, threw them in the bin, and waited for instructions.

After decontamination, most of the smell was gone. The first room sprayed a decontaminating agent on him, the second room bathed him with ultraviolet light, and in the last room, he had to apply an ointment all over himself. There was a very faint lingering odor left behind, but it was tolerable. Mummu took one of the robes provided in the last room and put it on.

Apsu was still there waiting for him when Mummu left the last room. "Yes, much better," Apsu said.

"I don't think I'm going exploring down there again," Mummu said.

"I don't blame you," Apsu said. "Why don't you head home. If I need you, I'll contact you."

"I appreciate that," Mummu said gratefully.

"There are overalls that the mechanics wear hanging in the maintenance locker. You can grab a pair if you want," Apsu offered.

"Yeah, definitely," Mummu said. "Thanks." Mummu walked over to the area of the shuttle bay reserved for maintaining/repairing all the crafts used on the Nibiru. There was a storage room in the back of the repair area. The maintenance locker was in that room. Mummu took out a pair of overalls, then headed for the nearest restroom to switch out of the robe and into the overalls.

"Note to self," Mummu said to himself. "Not all cute furry animals are harmless." Dressed in the overalls, Mummu left the shuttle bay and went home.

(To Be Continued)

Read Chapters 5 and 6 here:

https://vocal.media/fiction/all-or-nothing-continued-ai2fe005dq