Episode Six, Part 2:
Implant

Bas, Chessca and Liam were all sat in the medic tent with the Sovereigns - minus Kodiak, trying to figure out what their priority had to be: the flood, or the implants.

After linking Chessca's irrational behaviour with Diego to the similar situation with Kodiak, Fenn came to the unfortunate discovery that she was another victim to fall trap to Hannah's cruel intentions. It came like a punch in the gut to Sol who already had to live with the fear of Kodiak having an implant; now Chessca had one too, and she could barely hold herself together.

She sat on the medic bed with Chessca's head in her lap as she laid down, running her fingers through her hair to comfort her as Aeryn, Fenn and Liam all talked through their solutions.

"At least this explains what happened when you met up with Riders," Aeryn sighed, trying to focus on the positives of every situation. "Why you collapsed; why you couldn't remember what happened; it's obviously an affect of the implant."

"Riv, have you noticed anything else about her that seems different lately? Any other times she hasn't been herself?" Fenn asked, knowing that she could probably read Chessca better than Chessca could read herself.

"No," Sol sighed, relieved, but also frustrated that there wasn't much to go on. "After she woke up here, she was back to being herself again. From what I can see, it might have been the only time the implant was used on her."

"That's good," Fenn said, "but I gather it's different with Kodiak. He knew about his after all, so that must mean he's been aware of when his implant's been on... I hope."

"I just don't understand why it's different with him," Dreea sighed. "And how he knew about his when Chess didn't have any idea about hers."

"They could be different implants," Aeryn suggested, stepping forward and leaning on the frame of the bed. "Which is why we've been thinking it might be a good idea to try and take a look at them."

"Wait, you mean the one that's in the back of Chess' head?" Sol sat up tensely, holding her friend a little closer to her than before.

Aeryn nodded sympathetically, looking down towards Chessca who seemed nervous but slightly less opposed than Sol, as if the only thing she cared about what getting it out of her head, no matter what the cost.

"We can give her a nerve blocker so she won't feel the incision-"

"Absolutely not!" Sol interrupted Aeryn, unable to hide how offended she was at the suggestion. "No one is laying a hand on Chess."

It was still hard for her to break out of the mindset that she didn't need to protect Chessca from every other person in sight; she was still adjusting to being home and not having to look over her shoulder every other minute to make sure Chessca was still right behind her; still getting used to her not sleeping in a bed tucked around the corner from her own. Even if some of her habits from The City of Targo had already faded like a distant memory, she knew the need to shelter Chessca from the awful, awful things in the world would never go away.

"River, we'll make sure we won't hurt-"

"I know," Sol let out a deep breath, "I know none of you will let anything happen to her," she said. "But for a long time, the one thing I knew was that Chessca was the only person I had, and it was down to me to keep her safe. I couldn't ever let my guard down the whole time I was in The City because everyone was out for her, and I thought it would be that way for the rest of our lives... I know we're home now, but this feeling is too strong to ever go away, so I'm sorry, but I can't let you guys figure this out on her. I almost lost her once, I can't go through that again."

Still lying down on her lap, Chessca reached up for Sol's hand, holding it securely in between both of her own as if to remind her that she was there in her arms, unharmed.

"We understand," Aeryn nodded, completely understanding Sol's decision, only frustrated that they wouldn't get the opportunity to study the implant in the way that they wanted to.

"We'll have to figure out another way to see how it works."

"Unfortunately, the implant is pretty much helpless to us unless it's activated. Meaning that it needs to be inside a host for us to understand how it works," Liam said, informing the group that the only way for them to know how to take it out was to know how it was connected in the first place.

"From what I can figure out, it's attached to the brain stem," Fenn said.

"How can it attach to the brain stem without killing them?" Aeryn asked, concerned at Fenn's declaration.

"Think of it like a brain tumour," Fenn told her. "It's not that fact that it's there that's necessarily the problem, it's the fact that you can't get it out."

"Maybe we should focus on finding out if anyone else has an implant," Sol suggested. "That way, we can try and learn a safe way to remove it from them, but we're not testing anything on Chess or Kodiak."

"That's a good idea in theory," Liam said, "but I don't know how many of these things they have. 20 at the most would be my guess, and you guys have 200 people; that's a lot of testing for what could potentially only be a few more implants. Also, if you're people are already worried about the flood, this could only make matters worse for you guys. But I don't know, I'm not a Sovereign, so don't take my word on it."

"No, you make a good point," Wynn interrupted, joining the conversation. "And Kodiak did say that we weren't supposed to know about them. If we do mandatory searches on all of our people to search for the incision for where the implant went it, then they'll know we know about them, and that can't be good - it not for us, then for Kodiak... Maybe even for Chess, too."

His mention at potentially putting Chessca at risk was enough for Sol to backtrack on her words, resting her chin on the girl's shoulder as she sat up.

"Then what are we going to do about it?" Chessca murmured, beginning to grow worried for her own safety.

"I don't know," Sol breathed out. "But we'll do something. I'll kill Hannah myself if that's what it comes to. Anything to keep you safe."

"Hey, there you are!"

Everyone turned around to the entrance of the medic tent, seeing Atlantis hurry in with Bas close on her tail, both noticeably out of breath like they had been searching the entire camp for them.

"Everything okay?" Sol asked, pulling away from Chessca a little to make room for her sister.

"No," Atlantis let out a deep breath, waiting until Bas caught up to her side before she continued. "You guys have to start moving everyone into the Bunkers. Like, within the next few days..."

"The next few days?" Dreea stood up, unable to believe what she was hearing. "What changed so drastically? I thought we had a good week or two before the water was expected to hit?"

"So did we," Bas sighed, clearly disheartened. "The seismometer has recorded the ground motions over the past 2 days... The earthquakes are more frequent and they're getting larger, as well. If we wait too long, the flood is gonna take us all out before any of us have a chance to get in the bunkers. We need to start moving."

"Okay," Dreea sighed. "Thanks for telling us."

Bas and Atlantis nodded, already leaving the tent to retreat to the Quarters, ready to work on the endless plans they needed to come up with before the could start evacuating the ground.

"We still need to check out Atlantis' bunker," Sol informed them, running her hands through her hair in exhaustion. "We need to figure out many people we can fit down there, if we can get the greenhouse producing food and water-"

"Got it," Dreea interrupted, already seeing that Sol was working herself to the brim. "I'll go down and work on it and make sure it's still secure."

"You should take someone with you," Sol nodded, "in case Riders decide to pay a visit. I'll g-"

"I'll take Chess," Dreea announced, not even waiting until Sol had finished speaking before she had made up her mind.

"Chess? Wouldn't it be-"

"She's smart. Besides, she's good company," Dreea told her, already extending a hand down to help the girl to her feet. "I'm sure it'll be nice for her to have a distraction from all this talk about the implant." 

Six // Part Two
I almost lost her once.

I'm on my first American vacation! Having a blast and getting to hang out with baby goat and drink strawberry milkshakes: it makes for a pretty good holiday.

05/09/20