"You two can’t be serious! Why would you do that? Erwin, did you drag her– ?"
Erwin wasn’t even listening to Jess, he completely ignored her and cut her off.
"We need you to give us your infection scanner. I know you have one"
"No. Absolutely no! Are you two crazy!? Do you want to end like I was? I can’t do it I’m sorry. It’s not only illegal, it’s madness"
Cassiopeia couldn’t blame Jess. Now she knew how scary the possession was, how terrifying was to lose control of yourself, and how overwhelming the voices screaming for help in her brain were. But still… still she had to do something. She had to help both the town and whoever needed her down in the lab.
"Jess…" Cassiopeia started cautiously "People in my lab is just ignoring the issue, but I can’t. I know it’s scary, but we need to do it, so what happened to you won’t happen to anyone else"
"…"
"I understand what you mean…" Jess sighed "But it’s too dangerous. They wouldn’t close the lab for no reason. You’ll have the military hot on your heels in no time"
"I know, but we are going to do it no matter what" Cassiopeia said. It was not a threat, it was just a fact.
"With or without your help, Jess. The government can’t keep stuff hidden from the citizens, it’s not ethical! They are sweeping it under the rug and we’ll uncover it, and if you choose to be on their side, well… We’ll find other way" Erwin looked way too happy about this and he was for sure not taking it as seriously as he should. But Jess couldn’t be upset, she knew that was just how Erwin was.
"For the Watcher’s sake…"
Jess let out a long, tired sigh and held up her hands with a defeated expression all over her face.
"I don’t want you two to get in even more trouble than you are already about to… So here. Grab it before I regret it" The woman pulled the infection scanner out of her belt and put it on top of the table, pushing it in front of Cassiopeia while looking away, as if she didn’t want to accept herself what she was doing.
"Jess!! Thank you so much!!" Cassiopeia beamed "You don’t even know how much this will help us!!"
"And I don’t want to know. Just… promise me you’ll be careful. The military keeps an eye on everyone these days"
"Promise!"
Getting the infection scanner was just the first step of Erwin’s masterplan. The next step involved meeting with a scientist at the back of an abandoned motel.
Erwin put Cassiopeia in contact with one of the scientists that worked at the crater’s lab - one of the few that weren’t mysteriously missing yet - before it closed, and they agreed to meet during the weekend.
So a motel is a communal resting station? This feels more like the hives we have back home…
"C.P.?"
Cassiopeia was dragged out of her train of thought when the voice of a stranger called her codename - something that Erwin insisted she needed -. When she turned around she found a woman cladded in a lab coat approaching her.
"Yes, hello fellow human scientist, I’m Cassiopeia!"
The woman looked horrified and hushed her.
"You aren’t supposed to tell me your name…! Well, don’t mind it, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear. I’m H.R. I was told by E.P. that you managed to get a infection scanner. Is that right?"
Once Cassiopeia nodded and showed her the device - as she was told to do by Erwin - the woman continued.
"Great! That makes the things easier. E.P. told me you want me to make a spore filter for you, so I need you to go into the lab and scan for spore clusters. You can use the equipment in the lab to analyze them. Once you have the results let me know and we’ll meet again"
It was time for another trip to the crater’s lab, but this time Erwin was there with Cassiopeia, so even if she was slightly anxious she wasn’t as scared as she expected to be.
"Ok, I’ll go in, you stay here and make sure nobody comes looking for us" Cassiopeia decided.
"I stay here? Last time you were so upset at me because I didn’t come with you and now you want me to wait here while you go in there?"
"I know what I said… but it’s better if we do it like this. It’s enough that you came here with me, but it’s not necessary that both of us are exposed to the spores inside"
"I don’t like how that sounds…"
"It has to be like this" Cassiopeia insisted "Have a little faith on me, please? Besides who else can I trust to keep an eye out here for me?"
That seemed to soften Erwin up and his frown relaxed a little.
"Mmmmh… Alright! But if anything happens you call me instantly, ok? Don’t try to do everything by yourself again. We are a team"
Cassiopeia felt a spark of guilt but it got quickly drowned by the warmth Erwin’s words brought to her chest. A warmth that made a smile blossom on her face. Not all humans were bad after all.
"Yes. We are a team"
While Erwin was outside keeping watch Cassiopeia sneaked inside the lab. They made sure to avoid the security cameras this time, she didn’t want Circe snooping around again.
As soon as she turned on the scanner it started beeping like crazy. The levels of spores in that place had gone through the roof, just as she expected, and that’s why she didn’t want Erwin inside. She didn’t want to risk him getting infected too. But at least it made it fairly easy to find clusters lying around the lab.
"Let’s analyze you, little guys"
Following H.R. instructions Cassiopeia looked for the analysis room and she was shocked once she stepped inside.
All of this was here before? How is that I didn’t notice!
This room, unlike the others, looked tidy and clean. They had specimens of those weird flowers that were all around town kept inside big glass containers. She couldn’t help feeling sad for the little guys.
Cassiopeia had guessed that much after she started collecting information the first time she visited the lab, but those flowers were the key to solving the mystery. Those flowers weren’t terrestrial, and they were connected to whatever was deep inside the lab.
She didn’t know how to puzzle everything together yet, but she felt closer than ever. She could almost graze it with her fingers.
"First we need the spore filter. So let’s get down to business!"
That’s better…
Even if she wasn’t feeling as scared as she was before, Cassiopeia was still anxious about her human body. She didn’t want to risk getting it tainted again, so she decided to get back to her real body, which was used to harsher conditions.
And if she had to be honest… she also missed it. It felt liberating. It was easier to focus on her work in this body, which was less overwhelmed by emotions.
And she had a ton of work ahead of her.