Of all the specimens located in the organism library it was the way the leaf gave off a delicate green glow under this display light that captivated his attention. He listened to the instructor talk about mitochondria, cellulose and chlorophyll but truly it was the green glow that captivated him.

He felt the pull of his kin, four other minds wished to move on. But Xant wanted to stay.

“Do you wish for a closer look?” The instructor asked gently.

Xant nodded his head and felt his ears flop back and forth. The voices of his kin began to fade behind his own excitement, as the instructor unplugged the glass canister from the shelf and handed it to him to hold.

His hands were so small then, barely half the size of his full-grown self. It was the first time he had seen such a beautiful organism. The way it had been perfectly engineered to have the same amount of leaves on each branch how it started off as one base and split into five branches just like he and his siblings were.

That was our first individual thought wasn't it?

Unlike most species in the Galactic Council, Zenthi were produced in batches. The embryo splitting into 3, 4 or even up to 6 individuals from a single zygote, but all of one mind until mature enough to break away and form their own consciousness. Often the earlier a Zenthi is able to break away from the collective the greater they are able to accomplish.

Or get into more trouble than we are able to handle.

I think I've done well, all things considered.

I think curiosity has led us to some severely impaired decision-making.

I don't think ‘impaired’ is an accurate description at all.

Oh? and how would you put it then?

… I think ‘dangerous’ would be more apt.

Dangerous is good. Possibly paired with ‘stupid’ if we wanted to be crude about it.

But still more accurate than impaired.

If you absolutely must insist.

…

…

Do you think she's alright?

I don't know. I've never seen her like that it was all my fault.

You couldn't have known-

But I should have been more careful. It was all too good to be true, I should have been more cautious.

More cautious with her? or ourselves?

Ourselves?... Who are you?

Don't you know? I thought you did?

I know who I am.

No one said you didn't.

But… I'm so confused.

So am I, and I think I know whose fault it is.

This isn't her fault, it's our fault. I was reckless joining with her while she was seizing.

Our fault?

Yes, our-

Xant awoke with a splutter.

His mouth was dry and the lingering taste of medicinal fluids stuck to his teeth.

As he moved his head he felt the mass of wires connected down his back pull at his skin. The recovery pod beeped gently with his rise to consciousness while he was face down on the gel-bed. At a quick glance he noticed they were double the amount of monitors necessary in the room and almost quadruple the needed chemicals being pumped into his body.

“Dr. Xant?!” The ever attentive Pa rushed over to his side, “Doctor, please, stay still.” Her forearms working feverishly to untangle him from the too many wires.

“Assistant Pa?” He croaked wanting to move but all of his joints and muscles were so stiff they jerked and thrashed with even the smallest of movements.

“Dr. Xant don't move, you are currently hooked up to seven monitors observing your condition.”

“My condition?” Xant blinked slowly, remembering the events leading up to his current predicament. “Jasmine? Where is Jasmine?!”

Xant jerked up and he felt the pull of a dozen wires connected directly into his back. Pa squeaked in shock doing her best to unclip the uncooperative patient as he sat up against her orders. Xant searched the room overlooking the machines to find the Human.

Jasmine lay unconscious in the pod beside him looking considerably worse for wear she was curled up to the top of the pod. Wires and monitors poked out from her skull as she lay peacefully still. She was almost exactly as she was when he removed her from her stasis pod those [weeks] ago.

Xant felt the last wire disconnect from himself as Pa walked to his side.

“She hasn't woken up.”

“Pa, what happened?”

The assistant wrung both sets of the hands nervously.

“We are not entirely sure… But it seems that being exposed to the Industrial Frequency triggered something within her own internal systems. Nu has been running and comparing the data and what we've gathered is that her Grace’s brain can operate on an Industrial Frequency. It occasionally enters this mode voluntarily during rest periods, but exposing her to the Frequency while conscious has caused an override. Her brain can't process both at once so it switched over to the Industrial Frequency.”

Xant sat back in silence.

Pa’s antenna drooped.

“We don't know how to reverse it either. We thought about simply disconnecting her to see if her systems return to normal but…”

“But?”

“We don't want to disconnect her for the same reason you don't turn off a ship's computer.”

“Wiping existing data…” Xant nodded.

“Dr. Yusa has been trying to untangle her Grace’s Frequencies but isn't making much progress now that it is just running the Industrial frequency. The only thing we do know for certain is that a program is running, we just don't know what.”

Xant thought back on Jasmine's rest periods. They were long and she always seemed disorientated for the first few moments upon waking. He ran his tongue over his teeth and it tasted like something had crawled into his mouth and decayed.

“How long has she been in this state?”

“Dr. Xant, you and her Grace have been unconscious for 3 [days].”

Xant chuckled then shook his head violently.

Pa jumped back in shock and the pair stared at each other.

“Three days? That, that is… No, that cannot be correct.” He stuttered.

“Dr. Xant, perhaps I should administer some calming chem-”

“No! No,” He leaned closer to stop her, but realised his actions were causing unwanted stress. “That won't be necessary, Pa, I shall adjust soon enough,” The statement seemed to calm her a little. “If we've been incapacitated for so long, where are the dogs? What happened to the Lieutenant?”

“The Lieutenant and the Director have been negotiating for the last couple of days, His Honour authorised the translator implantation and other health mandates be undertaken on the dogs behalf. As for the Lieutenant himself, he has not made an appearance on the station for at least 30 [hours], But he has tried to arrange removal of her Grace from Esaanders care.”

That wasn't good.

Jasmine couldn't be separated from the dogs they were crucial to her well-being and the dogs would never trust anyone if their Namegiver went missing.

“And how are the dogs taking the tests?”

“Less than optimal,” Pa sighed sadly, “They refused to co-operate without seeing her Grace, they are on the network now but they are refusing to talk to anyone and since the Lieutenant gave the geneticists authorisation, they are going ahead with all tests, data gathering, extractions and other experiments.”

“Is that proper protocol?”

“Until the dogs have acquired citizenship, they’re still classified as specimens and His Honour’s collateral.”

“So they are waiting for Council bureaucracy to catch up.” It may be awhile before the application would be accepted then. Every bureaucrat and corporate politician will be wanting to look over their applications before they are accepted. There might even be a civil war within the Council house to be the one to authorise their citizenship. Until then, the dogs and perhaps Jasmine herself, would continue to remain ‘unclassified property’.

“I will go speak to the dogs, I am a Friend they might listen to me.”

Xant tried to slide off the medical pod and onto the floor but Pa was adamant that he stay where he was.

“Dr. Xant, you won't be able to see them you're not even fit to leave this room!”

Xant blinked.

“Of course I am. I am awake and I need to speak with the dogs on Jasmine's behalf-”

Frantic, Pa grabbed a dataslate for him, and hurriedly showed him the scans of his brain. Although it didn't look like any scan he had ever seen. Instead of a single column of nerves tap routed through his greymatter it now split into several branches of nerves fanned out overlapping and reaching into every crevice.

Nothing from the galactic council had nerve patterns like this.

“What is the diagnosis?” He asked not looking up from the screen.

“A medical anomaly” Pa answered.

Xant studied the brain scan further, the ever fanning branches seemed to overlap in a spreading pattern but something was off. He tilted the scan 90 degrees so he could see the layers of nerve tissue, they weren't just splitting branches they were fractal, . Jasmine's blast had been so strong it burned another multitude of nerves into his brain and the regenitive stem cell solutionl interpreted the dead regular cells as new nerves cells. He had enough functioning neurological systems to power the brains of several people and the financial cost to replicate this change in another living being would be phenomenal. He was now almost as unique as Jasmine herself.

“My brain patterns have been transformed to be just as complex as Jasmine's?” Xant’s ears perked up in excitement “This is wonderful news you can use my data to heal those affected by her blasts!”

Pa shook her head.

“No… We can't”

“But the data are right here!”

“CMO Krydon has been looking through all your scans since her Grace's arrival. She hasn't been healing you.”

“But the nerve growth-”

“With every blast she's been burning the ends of your nerves and every time she's damaged you, you've taken depresses to calm them. With every injection, the regenerative portion of the medication has been healing the burnt cells, without the medication you've been taking you'd be as damaged as Duuran, or worse.”

The young assistant looked away.

Xant nodded feigning a calm demeanor. Ironic that the abuse of chems that nearly got him separated from Jasmine would ultimately be the thing that saved him.

“So, had I not self-medicated in overabundance I’d be stiffed…”

“That is correct doctor,”

“And I am currently in possession of twice the standard nerve allocation,”

“Actually, you are in the possession of nearly 200 times the standard nerve allocation.”

Xant took in this new information, and even with all that processing power now installed in his brain, the only thing he could think of was:

“(oh FUCK.)”