Ripar and the Dystopian Earth

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room.

“Wait, this isn’t...I can’t remember, I think I was with a guy last night.”

Sitting up on the bed, feeling dizzy, and took a deep breath waiting until her head felt better. The sky was grey, it looked like it was going to rain, but the dirt outside was cracked like the desert. Getting up her legs were weak; she almost fell to the ground. Her arms too felt weak. The window was barred from the inside and boarded up from the out, all she could see is a little bit.

“Where the fuck am I?” she thought

Dr. Maria Maddox got her balance and slowly walked to the door which was locked from the outside. Looking around the room there was only a bed. Putting her ear to the door, there wasn't a sound. Then she walked back to the window again and pulled on the bars which hurt her weak arms plus they didn’t budge anyway.

“It was worth a try. I don’t remember anything from last night, what the hell happened?”

The next thought that came to her mind was how dry and sticky her mouth felt and her head was splitting.

"I was definitely drugged but why and by whom? There are several drugs that could have this effect." Maria thought out loud

She sat back on the bed just looking around trying to remember. "

"How long have I been here? A day? A week? Who knows."

Looking down at her hands there was what looked like a puncture mark from an IV. Her nails were clean but had a strange tinge to them.

“I don’t know any drugs that would do this.”

Her skin was pale white like she hasn’t been out in the sun in years and there were strange red dots on them that almost looked like chickenpox but it wasn’t. Lifting up her shirt and same thing, pulled up the sweat pants she was wearing...yup same.

The door suddenly opened and a guy in his mid 40’s walked in. He was attractive, wearing a white lab coat and dark blue pants. He was thin with brown hair that was nicely cut. His face was clean shaven as well and he wore glasses with a black metal frame. The shoes he wore were black Nike high tops.

“I guess you’re confused right about now? the man said

Maria nodded yes staring into his almost black eyes.

“Well, my name is Doctor Steven Rikter and you’ve been frozen for the past 800 years. We found the cryogenic chamber you were in behind a false wall. The date you were put in was 2038. The chamber was in good shape for how old it was, how it stayed active we’re trying to figure out. It looks like there was a crystal-like object that was powering it but it's nothing we’ve seen before. On the computer that was connected to the chamber said you were cryogenically frozen because you had cancer throughout your body. We scanned your body and treated you; the cancer is gone and you’re healthy. We’ll have to work on getting your strength back, but in time you will. Sorry we locked you in here, we couldn’t just have you wandering around, you might get hurt. Some of the floorboards aren’t sturdy.

“How did you find me? This place doesn’t look like a lab.” Maria asked

“Well that you will see in a moment, just sit in the chair and we’ll give you the tour.”

Maria sat in a futuristic looking wheelchair which then followed the Doctor out of the room, down a hall and through what looked like a hidden door like in the books she used to read. The connected room looked like it was a library in a house.

“Typical” she thought to herself. “Before we go where ever you’re going to take me can I see the cryo chamber I was in? I’m guessing it’s down here?”

“Sure.” Dr. Rikter said

The chair followed the doctor, they passed what looked like a brand-new elevator into another room and there it was.

“Does this look familiar to you?” Dr Rikter asked

“No, I don’t remember anything.”

“It’s ok, we can try and get your memories back but for now let's show you our building.

They turned around and walked back to the elevator, when they entered the doctor said “labs.” and up they went. And up they went more, how deep were they?

The elevator stopped and the door opened.

“This is more like it” she thought.

Now she saw a futuristic building which was sterile and plain looking but still nice. They went down a hall with sliding doors like in Star Trek and on the other side looked like labs, but with equipment she had never seen before.

“Why did I wake up down there and not up here and when I looked out the window, I saw the outside.”

“To answer your first question because we wanted you to be somewhere in your time. We thought if you woke up in a lab from 2852, you’d freak out so we put you in that room. To answer your second question what you saw when looking through the window was a hologram of the outside without the storms, again we didn’t want to freak you out.”

Looking around there didn’t seem to be anyone else in the building.

“Where is everyone else?” she questioned

“Well besides some guards and a couple of fellow scientists we’re alone. There are usually more people but before the storm got really bad, we sent them home. Not all the Earth is like this, we put a shield around most countries. We didn’t here because we’re working on trying to reverse the damage done. We really fucked up...sorry for the swearing.

“No, it’s ok, it’s good to know not everything has changed.”

Dr. Rikter smiled and chuckled.

Dr. Maddox thought he had a nice smile, friendly.

We used up all the resources for this planet and most countries didn’t do anything to fight global warming so in time the storms started. We were warned.

“The Targofians” she blurted out

“Yes, you remember them?”

“Kind of, just the name came into my head and some friends I when they visited.”

“Well, their planet ended up the same as ours they warned us. Some even tried to help us but without the whole world pitching in we were doomed. At least that’s what we found on notes and computers we were able to get working.”

“What happened to the Targofians?”

“They got what they needed from us to fix their planet, after trying to help us, most of them went home. There are still a few on Earth still trying to help. When their planet is fixed, they promised to come back do the same for us. I hope by now we learned our lesson. There are actually three here and they say they know you.”

A few moments later Ripar, Dr. Vocar and Captain Roj entered the room.

“Holey shit! You’re still alive and look great! What the fuck guys, come here give me a hug.”

“You remember them?” Doctor Ricter asked

“Yes, I don’t know why I remember some things but not others.”

“It might be the neural link we had with you, it’s pretty strong, this could have been a happy side effect.” Dr Vocar said

The three one at a time gave her a happy hug, then they all hugged together. Dr. Maddox watched and smiled.

“Come here Dr. bring it in, you know you want to Ripar said.”

Dr. Meddon nodded in agreement and joined in.

“Anyways, we woke you up because we knew we could cure and these guys wanted to see an 800 plus human face.”

“We missed you Maria, when we had to put you in stasis it was hard. We couldn’t cure you all we could do is wait and hope something good happened and well it did. The cancer you had was really resilient, it was almost like it was man made to just kill you. Every time we thought we had a cure it would come back stronger than ever. So, we froze you and it took 800 years to find a cure. We probably would have found it faster but we had a war to help fight and sea creatures trying to kill humans who were on their water then another war, and lastly, we had to go back home for a bit.

“For a bit, the info we have you were gone 682 years.” Dr. Maddox laughed

“Yeah, time doesn’t work the way it does for you, when you live as long as we do 682 years is nothing.” Roj said

“Ok, so what can I do to help?” Dr Maddox asked

“You have a lot to catch up on, a lot of new science and technology to learn. Lucky, we have machines now that will teach you everything you need to know in a week or so. Before we can start though we have to get rid of this brain fog you have, you need your old life memories. We’ll help you get those back too, hopefully it’ll only take a few days maybe a couple of weeks max, it depends on your brain and how back the memory block is.”

“Ok, when do we start?”

“We can start in the morning, now you need to take a shower...you stink, get something to eat...well since your stomach probably won’t be able to handle hard food for a while, it’ll have to be given to you intravenously or it’ll probably come out at both ends and we really don’t want that.”

“I haven’t tasted food for 800 years, what's another couple of days, right?” Dr. Maddox said with a little grin, but sad eyes.”

“Ok, now let's bring you to your room. No lock this time I promise. This is not only a lab but we have apartments here too, you’ll get your own, we’ll make it a suite. We’ll set up the IV and a nice bath with special vitamins in it that will clear up your skin and make it nice and glowing. As you see you don’t need glasses anymore, we fixed your eyes. Dr. Rikter doesn’t want the help, hence he still wears glasses.”

“I look good with glasses.” Rikter smile

Maria thought “yes you do.” with a smile on her face.

“Is that a spark between the two of them I see?” Ripar thought to Roj and Vocar

“Yes.” Both said in unisen

“Dr Rikter deserves some happiness. I haven’t seen him smile this much since his wife left him.” Vocar said with a tear in her eye

Dr. Maddox looked at them with goofy smiles on their faces and Vocar crying. “What's up with you guys? You were always weird but now you’re acting extra.”

“It’s nothing, just happy to see you.” Vocar said almost breaking down

“Damn Vocar you’re taking being a woman seriously. Do you get a period too?” Maria said laughing

“No... I faked one a few times though.” Vocar said turning red from embarrassment

“It’s great to see you guys. You haven’t changed your look in 800 years?”

“We have, but we wanted to seem familiar to you.” Ripar responded

“Well, show me your new looks”

Ripar shifted into a tall black man, probably 6’5” in his 50’s with a slightly weathered face. Vocar went the opposite direction and shifted into an Asian female about 4’8”, she looked about 26 with blue hair. Under the long white lab coat she was wearing a skirt with a belly top. She looked to have 34C perky breasts. Roj shifted into a Middle Eastern woman about 33, with black hair, standing at about 5’5” and a dark complexion Maria was jealous of, she missed her tan.”

“Wow guys, you look different, great though. I like your style Vocar really went short this time.” Maria said staring at her then looking at Dr. Ricter thinking about the two of them in bed with her...she had 800 years of horny in her but probably couldn’t get the energy to do anything about it.

“I guess I’m bi.” Maria thought to herself not remembering her, Vocar, Mike and Jody had a thing before being frozen. She could feel something when looking at Vocar but couldn't remember. She couldn’t wait to get her memory back. “I’m fucking weak, wet and sweaty and haven’t even had sex yet.” She thought and sighed

As they went to her apartment she asked “So what else is going on with the world?”

“Well, the Earth has one president.” Vocar said

“That’s interesting”

“Well, he’s a dictator and anyone that disagrees with him he has sent to prison or murdered.”

“Why hasn’t anyone taken care of him?”

“He’s not only got an army of guards but he lives in a bunker 30 stories below the surface. Trust me we’re working on getting to him, we sent in a woman to work for him to try and seduce him but we found out he’s gay so we also sent in a guy to get to him, and we’re almost there.”

“So, you want someone to get close enough to seduce him and then take him out? That’s an oldie but a goodie.”

“He's trying to make himself indispensable. Dave is a master with technology and he already got Ronald Segrams interested in his mind, now he’s working on getting him interested in his body so he can get him alone. Should be any time now.”

“How do you know his type?”

“What we didn’t tell you is our plant is a Targofian and trust me he’s, his type. Here is a picture of him.”

Ripar pushed a button on his arm band and a picture of a model looking brown hair, blue eyed, muscular man popped up.

“Ummm, ok, I think he’s everyone's type.” She felt another tingle between her legs.

“But he’s gay so you don’t have a chance with him.” Ripar said

“Shit” she thought.

“I’m guessing I loved sex.” She whispered to Vocar who just smiled

“Yes, I’d say so.” Vocar said with a wink

“Did we?”

“Yes, many times, with a few people.”

Maria blushed and felt the wetness dripping down her leg. “Fuck, great, now I’m a fountain. I hope I have enough strength to give myself at least one good orgasm. I have to get my strength back; memory is secondary about now.”

They got to her apartment and Vocar said she’d help her with a bath “because Maria must be really weak and needs help.”

Dr. Maria Maddox quickly said “Yes, I'll definitely will.”

The rest of the group took the hint and left. Vocar walked Maria to the bed and got her a drink of water.

“We should probably do the IV first because you’re pretty depleted of vitamins and nutrients. I’ll get a nice warm bath running for you for when you’re done. It should only take about 10 minutes. This is also a nanite based IV which will clean out whatever needs to be cleaned out.”

“Ok, if that’s what the Dr. orders.”

The next morning a sound came from Vocars communicator.

“Yes.” She said sleepily

“I thought you two would want to get an early start. We have the physical therapy almost ready, but enough for us to get started. We just need to get a few more pieces of equipment.”

Vocar looked down at her wrist computer. “Uhh, 7.00am. Ok we’ll be there in a bit.”

About an hour later Vocar rolled Maria in the room. There were mats on the floor, a table in the room and some equipment she had never seen before.

“What are these?” Maria said pointing at the machinery.

“Those are for your brain, to hopefully help you get your memory back.”

“Oh, ok, good. Can you tell me how it works?”

“Well first we’ll put these electrode pads on your head, they communicate wirelessly with the computer and communicate with the nanites. Then we’ll take a scan of your brain to see the areas that may have been damaged so we can tell the nanobots where to go. This scan can see every cell in your brain and the nanos can help bring them back to life.”

“Ok, makes sense and sounds easy enough.”

“Well, it’s time consuming because it takes a while for the nanos to do their job and then longer for your brain to heal. Then we have to work on getting your memory back. The memories are in there, but with the damage from the extended cryo sleep your brain cells...for lack of a better word...got corrupted and just fixing them won’t bring them back. The nanos will have to stimulate the right parts of the brain and also, they’ll be letting out some special meds that I developed myself to help speed up the process. We have to constantly monitor you while we’re doing this to make sure the nanos are hitting the right parts of the brain; hence they can’t work 24/7. We’ll be doing this a little bit every day, stopping to let your brain rest. This will be very tiring.”

“Ok, that doesn’t sound easy. I’m so glad you guys are here. Thinking of doing this by myself scares me, I’ll let you guys probe my brain anytime.”

“By the time this is done you should regain about 96-99% of your memories.”

“Ok, let's get started.”

Vocar took out the shaver.

“Wait! Don’t tell me you have to shave my head?”

“How else are we going to put electrodes on your head? Don’t worry, we can help it grow back quickly, plus look at all those split ends.” Vocar winked

“Ok, you’re lucky I trust you with my life...and my body.” Maria winked back feeling horny again...or is that still?

Her head was shaved, the electrodes were in place and the scan was being done. Everyone looked at the scan.

“This is worse than I thought.” Vocar thought to Ripar and Roj “It’ll still work but it’s going to take longer than we hoped.”

“What do we tell her?” Ripar asked

“The truth. It's not like she won’t get her memories back, it’ll just take longer.”

“Guys, what do you see?” Maria asked

“Well, I won’t sugar coat it. This is your scan.” Vocar showed Maria the tablet.

“The damage looks pretty bad.”

“You’re lucky to have the memories you have. I think if it wasn’t for the link we have, you would have remembered nothing at all. Vocar said

"It looks like here, here, and here are the most damaged areas, let’s start there...Vocar pointing at areas on the scan. Ok, now the nanos will do their job and we can now work on the physical part of the therapy. Let's get you on the table and get your muscles strong again.”

Vocar led Maria to the table and helped her on top of it.

“Ok, now just lay down, face up or down it doesn’t matter.”

Maria lay face up looking at Vocar. They smiled at each other.

“Now you just have to sit there. The body scan will tell the nanos where to go. It’s basically acupuncture with a little electric muscle stimulation. There might be some discomfort at times and if it gets to bad let me know and we can take a rest.”

Maria gave a thumbs up.

Vocar looked at the scan and told the nanos where to go and they started doing their job. After a few hours Maria was woken up.

“No one has ever fallen asleep during this. You never cease to amaze me.” Vocar said giving Maria a kiss on the cheek.

“Ok, I think we’re done for a couple of hours. Your body needs to rest a little in between sessions. Let’s get something to eat, you must be starved.”

“When can I expect to be able to eat solid food?”

“A couple more days. Why you don’t like my IV concoctions?”

“I do but I miss food more. I don’t remember what I like but maybe it’ll be fun figuring it out again?” Maria chuckled

Vocar touched her shoulder and smiled.

The group met in the dining room, food already on the table.

“So, who's the chef?”

“Well, you may not remember Star Trek, but you will. Anyways they had replicators that could replicate many things from matter. Well, we have them too. The food, the dishes, our clothes, sheets and many other things are made by the replicators.”

“Ok, so that sandwich you’re eating is replicated? But I see steam coming from it and it looks delicious.”

“Yup, food doesn’t taste 100% like the original but very close and it’s 100% sustainable. If we would have had these in the 21st century we may have been able to fix global warming.”

Maria said nothing and just pondered that a bit. So many amazing things there are since she woke up and she thought she just scratched the surface.

“Guys, we just got a communications drone from Targof.” Ripar said out of breath from running.

“Ok play it.” Roj said urgently

“Hi you three, we sent out a drone a few days ago and we see you’re in a bit of trouble. We’re setting up mini communication relays, it’ll take a few days and then we’ll be able to talk to each other. Hold tight.” Elder Barnals said

“Ok, finally some good news.”

Three days later. “Ripar, Roj, Vocar, is anyone there? Hello?”

“This is Dr Rikter, they’re not here this minute but I can try and send you to their coms.”

“Nice to meet you Dr Rikter, I’m Elder Barnals. Yes, please send me to their coms, thank you.”

Dr Rikter pushed a few buttons and then said “Guys, we have Elder Barnals on the line. I’ll send them through?”

“Yes, please!” Ripar sounded excited

“Hello, Elder Barnals, this is Ripar, and I have Dr Vocar and Commander Roj right here as well”

“It’s so good to hear your voices, we were so worried.”

“Everything is ok, you saw the problem. We need Tonspar and Corite then we can use our personal shields and strengthen the ones around Earth.”

“Ok, I’ll have it sent to you as quick as I can.”

“Thank you Elder.” Vocar said

Three days later another communication came through.

"Hello, this is Bornac your cargo ship with the supplies you need...and a bit more is above the Earths atmosphere. Do you have a place we can land?"

"BORNAC! The three yelled. There is a hanger on the other side of the building the ship should be able to fit in. We'll meet you there, it'll be nice to see you my friend."

Bornac flew the ship to the hanger, the doors opened and he barely was able to fly in.

"That was close." Bornac said with a little laugh

"It's so good to see you, I like the body you picked." Ripar said

Bornac was a blonde male about 6', blue eyes and thin.

"Thank you, I kind of like it myself."

The gang unloaded the boxes from the ship then looked at the manifest.

"This is great! Oooh you brought us some Octarian brandy, I love you Bornac!" Roj said with a big smile. "How long can you stay?"

"I have a few days to catch up."

"Good. This is Dr. Maria Maddox. We pulled her out a 800 year stasis sleep." Vocar said taking her hand

"Its a pleasure meeting you Dr. Maddox."

"Maria please." She said extending her hand

Bornac shook her hand.

"Lets get something to eat, we can finish unpacking tomorrow."

They went to the dinning room and ate, and Bornac told them everything that's happened on their planet.

"I'm glad to hear everything is starting to look up for Targov. Hopefully some of that luck will rub off in Earth."

After eating they showed Bornac to a room.

The next morning everyone met for breakfast then went to the hanger to unload the rest of the cargo.

"We have a little surprise for you." Bornac said walking to the biggest crate. He pressed a button and the front opened to show what looked like a huge canon. "This is the storm killer. It shoots negative energy into the atmosphere to counteract the lightning and wind storms. It'll take some time and it'll have to be moved to specific parts of the planet, but It'll work."

"That's such good news! I could kiss you!" Vocar said then gave Bornac a big hug and kiss.

"Ok, lets charge the shield and extend it over the building. Then we can work on where to put the storm killer."

A few hours later they had everything set up and they went inside so they could open the shield. Vocar did a countdown.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, open the shield" Ripar opened it and Vocar shot the gun into the air. It didn't seem like anything was happening at first, but then the lightning started to get weaker and the wind was slowing down.

"Ok it's working. Did you retrofit your ship so it can hold the gun on top of it?" Vocar asked Ripar

"Yes, it's done. We're ready when it's ready." Ripar replied

About two hours later the storm was weak enough they could move the gun to the next area. Bornac flew his ship out of the hanger where Ripars ship was flying over them. He turned on the tractor beam to pick up the Storm Killer and put it on Bornacs ship. When this was done Ripar landed and they all entered the ship, Bornac extended the shields around the gun and they took off. In the matter of minutes they were at the next destination where they copied what they did before. Then they did it 15 more times in strategic areas around the Earth. The storms slowly stopped and two days later they were gone. On the news people from all over the world were outside cheering and hugging each other.

"We did it." Ripar said "But we still have a lot more work to be done."