COM LOG//NEURAL NET ENTRY 11
Portable Edition/ Load name Ian
PASSWORD:***********
PASSWORD Correct
I found it. It took a solid week of searching, but in the end, I made it.
Now what? I did a life support scan, they had emptied the entire oxygen cargo,
including all of the containers of food and other supplies. However, everything
else had been left inboard. Sloppy. Well, I'm going to go in and see if it responds.
I'll have to set this down for a second.
....
...
...
...
...
Ok, the station responds, in fact, the ships logs seem to record that no one has reentered the
station approx. about when I left. Maybe I can use this, even find some defenses I can put on it.
I'm certain that I can round up some money using this spatial on a mission or two.
I am now heading onto the station. It appears empty, almost pristine clean. Not my idea of a non-spooky place to be in, I think that there maybe an AI waiting for me in here. Well thats easy. The rack of hard drives will tend to get congested when too many AI's are present, and since I activated the entire stock of Dummies before I left, well...maybe its dead. I don't know if I should risk it. But there's too much equipment here to do that.
<the onboard video camera records Ian tinkering on a computer in the dock, which at first seems unresponsive, but later appears to be operational.>
Good this station is still alive. And my hypothesis was correct, there was an AI that did splinter into a million pieces. Along with the Dummies. Damn, they might have been useful. Oh well, looks like I'm going to have to outfit this bugger. But I don't have any equipment to do that. Maybe if I put some of the fusion rods in the ship into the station maybe...
<the portable neural net is set down pointing in the wrong direction. A finger moves across the screen and hits the power button.>
Some say that he is allergic to a fungus found only between the toes of Corsairs,
and that he is oblivious to 98% of Liberty Law. All we know is... He's called the Busdriver!
COM LOG//NEURAL NET ENTRY 12
Portable Edition/ Load name Ian
PASSWORD:***********
PASSWORD Correct
Finally, I got the station back online. The only disappointment seems to be that all of the blood and plasma depots have since dried up from lack of the preservers having power. Other than that, all seems well.
Its good to be back and relax, yesterday I got my very first peaceful night of rest. Today I will hunt this station down for any tracking devices. Then I will tell the gravimetric thrusters to move the station as far from here as possible.
<the Neural Net has been disconnected. Internal clock shows Inactivity for approximately 6 hours>
<the device has been unlocked>
I did a shakedown, nope no tracking devices. This is too good. So good in fact that I wonder if that AI was tinkering with anything during my 'absence'.
I doubt it. There is massive fragmentation, I guess I'll have to start cleaning up now. And I'll have to put this on lock down when I'm away, maybe clean it self up a bit.
Now on to important business. I am currently gathering equipment for breaking into the college laboratory to get at those notes. I don't want to say that I'm starting to OCDing over them, but its getting pretty darn close.
But then what? To what purpose do I do this? I have no family, am being hunted down by who knows what faction in Kusari, branded with treason in Bretonia, <and I am most certainly not going to help that fact with my breaking in the college> and the lane hacker station may be hunting me for revenge.
<The camera bounces in his pocket, and brief glimpses of the white ceiling and a strange thrumming sound in the background.>
I found my stuff. I had a case for all of the prototypes that couldn't pan out really well, but we decided to keep in hopes that we could get it to work properly. I pulled up one of my first creations. Its a small flare gun, but instead of a flare, it fires a miniaturized EMP pulse. And canisters.
This will be useful for getting passed security. Then there is the other mirades of ammo that fits in this thing, One detonating firebomb made from H-fuel in the Spatial, a blinding flare, and some other stuff.
<The camera slips out of the pocket and falls to the floor. It hits the ground, waits, then gets picked up again. Ian looks at the camera, then smiles to himself.>
Why am I even talking to this, its not much better than talking to myself, and I'll end up having to burn it anyway.
<He sets down the camera and riffles through his pockets. He leaves, and it automatically shuts down.>
COM LOG//NEURAL NET ENTRY 13
Portable Edition/ Load name Ian
PASSWORD:***********
PASSWORD Correct
Alright, now that I'm all geared up and am in position, I will go over the plan. I shall leave my portable neural net in for review later, to see any thing I missed.
As most burglars do, I will go at night. The protection is heavy in the station I'm trying to break into, but I'm sure that I brought enough nerve gas to keep em busy. Almost weighs as much as I do. Heh, imagine that.
That stupid window washer thought I was the repairman. Well, I was a bit fishy with a large tank of gas the likes of which nobody has ever seen before. I waved hello at him, and he looked at me funny. I ignored him as I moved on.
So its set and ready. It closes relatively soon so I will have to stop worrying. Times like these I wish I had a real pistol, not this syringe compressor.
<The neural cam focuses on the lanky teenager. His hair, a little longer than most, hides his face. He looks at his watch, then at the guard. Right on time, a changing of the guard happens and he makes his move. The camera shows him hitting the canister release into the air supply. A deep purple taints the once clean windows of the facility>
Its really to bad that once you take the antidote for this, you don't ever need it again. Its one of my own special brews. It causes a complete sensory deprivation. If all goes well, and nobody's wearing a gas mask, everyone should be bumping along the hallways without hearing or seeing or even feeling anything.
Now for part B. Me charging in, and finding his office.
<The camera slips into a small patch in his pocket, preventing any video input from showing>
I'm running along...running...geez, I am out of shape here....there it is.....Damn, 4 ring encryption codie. Put in AI.
waiting......open.....reinsert AI in computer...........He's done.....door........another door.......hallway........mad bumbling guards.......hallway.........door......finally, computer.
...hurry up......Done, now to get out................running.......
Crap, security caught up. Time for a little distraction.
<a large whooshing sound enters the mic and the neural net slips out of the pocket, dangling from the wire. The first image seen is a large cloud of a deep brown mix in with the dirty purple.>
There...more potent......hallucinogens....crap.....face mask slipping...eyes burning......must've....out.....there, the ceiling!
<the camera shows a door bang open as Ian enters a black spatial parked conspicuously placed on the helipad section>
Some say that he is allergic to a fungus found only between the toes of Corsairs,
and that he is oblivious to 98% of Liberty Law. All we know is... He's called the Busdriver!
COM LOG//NEURAL NET ENTRY 14
Portable Edition/ Load name Ian
PASSWORD:***********
PASSWORD Correct
Whew...boy did they get mad. I'm watching the news <I have radio on the spatial> They sent the frakkin army after me. Too bad I slipped away. I will really have to owe Marcus big time now.
Lets see what I got. Damn, where'd this dent come from on my neural transmitter?
<Ian sets the device down and wipes down the screen with an alcohol swab. Ian is a tall, yet almost extraordinarily skinny teenager with airy blond hair. Green eyes scrutinize the rest of the device
before setting it down> There thats better. Awe, man my clothes are stained purple. I need a shower, be right back.
<the device is turned off>
<the device is turned on>
The good professor has had lots of experience in this particular field. The fix was indicated by some of his earlier work, he was trying to create a medicine that allowed your body to breathe normally toxic chemicals in the air and actually use them to increase metabolism! Nice idea, too bad there's too many people on Leeds to do this....But the rest of this...its brilliant. Of course he has had his number of experiments. No, correction, just one.
Then 1 there was one success, although other effects are not listed. 1 successful transfusions of species Bretonia Canis.
A New London plains wolf. When the Bretonians made a colony ship, they didn't need all of the space in it like all of the other houses did. They loaded up the colony ship with small animals and birds that they could repopulate a planet with. This ultimately wasn't needed, but it is true now that Bretonia has the best variety of animals that you can hunt. Probably they did it for sport. But other than that, the notes don't hold much more than that. Just a time card.
And I'm not about to go looking for more trouble, my 'benefactors' will eventually find the station, seeing as I can't exactly go prancing around with a portable station through the jump gate. But that seems like its my only choice.
I should probably take my time outfitting this station, defenses are minimal, if not, non-existent. I can build some anima drones loaded with dummies to take care of the many leaks that I'm sure exist. Lemme set my AI on them.
<The camera shows Ian setting down the device and plugs something into the wall. A few seconds of blank examination shows that nothing is happening. Deftly, he pulls out the Cube and examines it. A large crack is shown down the middle, and a shocked expression twitches through his face. He walks back to the seat and sets it down gently onto the table.>
Broken.......My only faithful friend....dead.....broken...one of the only friends I had.
<A flash of anger enters his face>
Its not exactly like these things could be replaces at your local dealer, it requires a series of incredibly hard and ultimately dangerous tests to even see if you are even compatible. But.....the extraction itself was one hundred percent fatal. Nobody ever lived through it.
But its not as if its murder or anything. The core of the mind is not replaceable. No AI is a true AI until it has copied the complete core...If I could simply make a copy, then.....No. Having multiple consciences is an abomination. Speaking of which, I vaguely wonder if I could put it into my spatial. That would be interesting, a sentient ship. But who would volunteer for such a hopeless experiment. I certainly wouldn't. I would have about a 10% chance of survival.
Mindless speculation isn't going to help me any. Its time to go anyways.
I seem to have no respect for other peoples stuff.
COM LOG//NEURAL NET ENTRY 15
Portable Edition/ Load name Ian
PASSWORD:***********
PASSWORD Correct
Finally. It took me several trips back and forth, but I managed to raid the jump gate control center down in Kyushu for a few erm, borrowed codes. I don't understand them, but the anima do.
The anima...........something else that is confusing me. I modified the repair drones so that they can hold the fragments of the AI. I wondered what would have happened.
They modified the reactor from Floor 8 and the automated guns on level four. They resemble ancient miniguns in design, but have an increased power output. The only bonus that these old aging guns have over their energy based brothers is the fact that they will actually make direct contact with the ship, actually pushing and punting it around in space. You see in space, it is ineffective and total waste of fuel to constantly have your fuel on, although during battle this is useful. The kinetic energy from the guns will play havoc on the ships coordination. In this case, the presence of an airless void will be very useful.
Lets see, after using the faint pieces of the remaining psyche on the previous core of the AI to animate the machines, they actually were able to stabilize in their small memory banks, creating their own forms of sentience. This is either very lucky or very disturbing. You see, this is off the far side of my elected study. In all sense, they should have died the instant they hit the bots.
They surprised me. It turns out that the human Auia is regenerative. My disconcerting little children are even preforming their own personalities! Now, while they still have to present an actual detectable thought on their higher functioning part of their 'mind' in order to be classified AI's, the Anima is still present, part human, part simple minded robot.
How is this possible? This is turning into more of a religious question by the second. I need to sit down.
<Ian backs up and walks toward the chair. One of the flying "Anima" drones beat him to it and spun it around, pushing it neatly towards him. Wide-eyed, Ian slowly takes the chair and sits in it.>
I don't understand, its like someone just shook the playing board of my studies around, with things out of place, I.....
gah, my head.
For now, there remains a few things to do. The reactor throughput has been increased to 124% and rising. We are currently testing the thrusters to push this thing through a jump hole. They will notice if I push this big block of metal without a permit through a jump gate, so maybe the Proton Shields will hold up for the journey. Risky, but the only way I have out of this sector.
But first I need a destination. I can tag team jump holes for this station to get through.
Now where do I start?...
<the camera shows Ian staring at a blank sheet of paper. He stares at it lazily, then puts his head on his hand and starts to begin some equation. Eventually he starts doodling something on a piece of paper. The rest of the video shows him eventually nodding off and hitting the desk with his face, snoring quietly. The rest of the Anima left, except for one, who leave, then returns with a blanket. It lays it squarely on his head in an uneven and messy clump, then leaves turning off the light.>
Some say that he is allergic to a fungus found only between the toes of Corsairs,
and that he is oblivious to 98% of Liberty Law. All we know is... He's called the Busdriver!
COM LOG//NEURAL NET ENTRY 16
Portable Edition/ Load name Ian
PASSWORD:***********
PASSWORD Correct
<the camera zeros in on Ian, who is sleeping peaceably. Abruptly the screen flashes red
and a sharp jolt pushes Ian off his chair. Remarkably, he is still sleeping. One of the
Anima enters his room, pauses to find him still sleeping, then floats over to the screen
behind the teen. It plugs into the wall and a targeting reticule appears with several screens reflecting different cameras placed on different monitors placed onto the walls. Several Anima enter the rooms and take up various position. This goes on for several hours, while Ian is still sleeping peaceably. The camera zooms onto the doodle. It is a detailed picture of the flare gun.
After some time, the screens stop flashing red and the Anima leave the room. Abruptly the
Neural Net shows a 1 hour power warning. The timer trickles down to zero and the screen fails.>
COM LOG//NEURAL NET ENTRY 17
Portable Edition/ Load name Ian
PASSWORD:***********
PASSWORD Correct
<The camera flicks back on and shows one of the Anima dutiful plugging it out of the
wall outlet. It backs was from the screen and places it in the same place that it used
to be onto the desk. The Anima's are zooming around the cabin fixing and moving
everything that was displaced during the attack. They finish after a couple of minutes
and zoom out the door, shutting the door a little harder than necessary from their
speed. The sound wakes Ian, and he peels his face off of the desk. After stumbling
around for a couple of minutes, he finds some clothes and heads off to the shower.
One of the Anima enter the room with a sanitizer and begins his task. He eventually
goes over to the desk and began cleaning it. It's optical scanner spies the picture of
the flare gun and it picks it up. It zooms off with if after a few scrutinizing seconds
of analyzing, then returns and finishes it's job. Ian returns with a pair of white
cargos and a black T-shirt. He picks up the device, and snaps it in place.>
Ah here we go. Lets see, plan for today. Take myself as far as possible from the current
location.
2nd. I guess that I have to go back to Bretonia. I'll head there first.
<Ian sets the device on the desk facing the screen. He starts typing, then it
asks for a password. Hes eyes move towards the device, which is pointed at him. His
hand reaches out and turns it to the left, so the camera isn't directed at the screen. Although you can't see his face, you still hear his voice coming from behind the camera.>
Time to head back to the academy. Maybe there is more I can dig up. Still
disappointed though. The notes didn't have enough information to actually repeat the
success. Maybe he was smart enough to hold backups, and thats all I got, and old
backup.
<Ian returns to typing on the screen. Coordinates appear onto the screen. It is
approaching within 2 kilometers of the jump hole>
Well, here goes nothing.
<A giant roaring sound is heard over the sound, reaching levels that hurt your ears,
soon, the sound reaches a frequency too high for it and a light buzzing fills the air.
The air flashes black and white as space distorts, then all goes black.>
Some say that he is allergic to a fungus found only between the toes of Corsairs,
and that he is oblivious to 98% of Liberty Law. All we know is... He's called the Busdriver!
COM LOG//NEURAL NET ENTRY 18
Portable Edition/ Load name Ian
PASSWORD:***********
PASSWORD Correct
We made it. That had a small chance to working, but those codies really did the
trick. Now where are we? Oh yes, New Berlin. I'll take the spatial out round
dock 2. <Dock one is hosting the anima at the moment>
<Ian takes the elevator down to dock 2>
.
.
.
.
<Scroll down>
Here we are. I....? My flare gun is missing. Which reminds me, I need ammo for
any 'visitors' along the way.
<Ian returns down to the elevator without the journal. The camera shows
several of the floating anima float into the open cockpit and place a small
object into the cup holder. 4 of them sneak into the back part of the ship
and turn off. The elevator winds down, Bringing with him another case of
a green gaseous material with him. Grunting with the effort, he brought the
chemical down into the cockpit and locks it in place. He then pulls out a
small blue vial and chokes down the mysterious concoction. Eyes watering,
he goes into the cockpit and picks up the device and snaps it back in place.
The ship powers up and he leaves>
<When the ship gets near the planet, he opens up his laptop computer, and begins to type. After a while of automatic piloting, his screen pulled up a quick alert that was sent from the armed forces onto the planet. He started to read the caption, and his face began to panic. He pulls up and instructs something to one of the onboard anima, but the exact instruction is lost, because audio isn't pulled up on the device. The anima drifts towards the long distance communications panel, and begins to work. The look of panic does not release from the teen's face as he descends to the planet.>
COM LOG//NEURAL NET ENTRY 19
Portable Edition/ Load name Ian
PASSWORD:***********
PASSWORD Correct
I have parked this onto one of the landing garages near a small
mall. Around the corner is the college. If I move up the ship and....
<One of the anima move up to indicate something on a small screen.
Ian panics at the unknown touch and spun around with his gun exposed. Seeing it was only
the anima, he lowered his gun and read the message. Touching something on the screen, he sits down on his chair and foodles around with the radio, the messes with a small nob, and turns it on.
-he people like you are our best supporters for our campaign and we need votes from-
<he changes the channel>
new bird that has now gone extinct has been discovered that a small colony of them still live in the ne-
<the messes with the nob>
local news today, we interrupt this channel to bring you news of a murder down near the campus today. Details are sketchy as the victim was found-
<he changes the channel, and finds a rock station playing some music. He turns it a couple of more times, then turns it off. He sighs and stands up>
Alright. A second time I guess. I'm certain that they would have
placed gas masks as part of safety protocol, or maybe they thought
it won't happen again. I seriously doubt that.
<A troubled look enters the teenager, and his hands close on his face in thought. He sits there for a minute or so, then gets up and picks up the device.>
<the device has been turned off>
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
<the device has been turned on>
<The camera shows a very,very long drop onto the busy metropolis below. A gust of wind blows the camera from his little strap on belt and it moves, pointing at a large air cooler on top of a roof of a building. The ground is a light grey, and the air glows with a light color from the setting sun.>
<the teenager wobbles a little bit, being pushed around in the wind, and starts winding down the ramp and onto the roof>
<He finds the air conditioning unit, and walks behind it, still lugging around the canister. He finds the entryway down a chute in the air conditioning unit and climbs inside.>
<Ian walks down into the chute holding the football sized container. A few
minutes pass and he eventually gets to a conjunction of air conditioners. There he
jams his thumb on the release canister in front of the opening. A moment of silence,
then gas hissed out of the chamber and flew down the opening at high speed.
None of the gas came towards Ian because the air was pushing it down
too fast. Ian starts running>
<Ian bolts into the hall way and down a hallway. He stops and hits the button for the elevator and pulls out a stopwatch. He sets it to about 3:30 minutes and it starts counting down.>
<The lanky teenager walks into the service elevator and hits floor number
24. The elevator clangs shut and travels downward. After a few agonizing
seconds, the elevator opens with a ding. The anima enter the hallway first,
with him following after. He slowly makes his way over to a small brown door.
He is about to knock, when he hears a sound near the end of the hallway. A
sharp sniffing sound, followed by a few muttered words from a low voice.. A dark
figure at the end of the hallway stood up suddenly and started towards Ian's position.
Still half-concealed in the dark,the teenager makes a quiet lunge for the shadows. He sits
still with his heart pounding. The person stepped out of the darkness and
Ian stared quietly.
The person started forward then stopped and blinked in the glare that the lamp on top of the door
shone down on him, granting a complete view. One of the strangest people he had ever seen stood out in the light, a person who looked like a cross breed of a wolf and a human, walked up the hall, not even stopping to pause when he walked by Ian's still corner in the room.
He walked up to the door, and a small beep asking for authorization comes up.
He stares at the panel, then jams his fist onto the scanner, breaking the screen and
opening the door. He walks in and a shout drifts out of the hall way. What is
the meaning of this? I....you!
A loud bang makes Ian twitch and he notices that all when quiet in the room. Anticipation increasing, he turns and looks down the hall way. The guy came alone. He turned his head again and primed his canister shot. He walked towards the doorway and inside, crouching lowly to avoid sight.
There, standing quite plainly in sight, was the elderly professor, the wolf-like person,
and something that made his eyes bug out. A third person stood out quite plainly. Her
appearance made several things immediately stand out. First, the professor had not only
made another experiment, but he managed to duplicate the results twice. A young women
stood out crouched between both the doctor and the assailant, sporting a large fox like tail,
with fur covering her body in much the same manner that the other had. A light growl escaped
her lips, as the stranger approached. He got quite close, and attempted to push her
out of the way. She stood still, and a flicker of annoyance crossed his face. Still attempting
to brush past her, he tried to make a feint at the doctor, only to be foiled with a stunning backhanded
blow from the girl. He stopped, then looked at her like he was just barely saw her. He leaped at her
and landed a vicious kick at her ribs. She went flying, knocking over a table and a bottle of a conspicuous chemical was sent flying. The doctor immediately lunged for it and barely
caught it in time.
What is going on? Thought the teenager, something must have gone wrong here. He sidled
up to the wall, still crouching as what seemed to be a rather one sided battle seemed to be ongoing over in the center of the camera.
The camera refocuses as it shows the battle, with the young man making some serious damage. A quick jaw punch dropped the girl and she dropped to the floor. Attempting to get back up, the wolf picked up the young woman and threw her across the room, landing on a table filled with more glass and more chemicals.
Meanwhile, the doctor was cowering in the corner, while it was all that the young woman could do to hold him at bay. He whirled around the girl and knocked her legs out behind her. She was on the ground as a kick in the air threw her down on the ground. She hopped to her feet, only to be foiled as a blur of grey blew over her head, throwing her up in the air and against the wall. He followed through with a lunge and narrowly missed. She crouched just as he hit the wall below him. Sputtering as pieces of plaster covered his face, yet another blur slammed into the shoulder of the girl, ripping off hair and causing a evil looking laceration. As she tried to whirl around his side, he aimed a savage blow to her stomach, and she doubled over. Not stopping, he continued to slash over and over, turning the fur a bloody matte.
I have to do something, he's going to kill her, then possibly continue onto the doctor, whom he needed alive. But, how? Oh, idea.
The young scientist frantically scrambled inside his cargos, looking for the elusive canister, as a heart-stopping crack resounded in the air. Not knowing who just broke something vital, he finally found the grey canister and lodged it inside of the compartment. He aimed and..CRACK.
A large glass aperture from the laboratory cracked onto Ian's forehead, sending a cry of pain
out of his mouth. He looked for the source, and found the elderly doctor throwing everything he
could find on the table at the teen, screaming at the top of his lungs NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU
DAMN MURDERERS another improvised bomb exploded in a cloud of glass as the teenager
ran towards the old man. He had no idea what to say when he got there, but that didn't seem to
bother the old man, as he lobbed another glass at the teen, still clutching that reddish brown vial to his
chest like it was the bible in the hands of a priest.
He turned and watched the fight while running, with the young man totally trashing the girl up. What appeared to be a broken arm and foot was clearly slowing the girl down. The other seemed to be perfectly fine. Ian stopped and watched the battle from the safe distance, dodging the occasional glass bomb. She threw a desk up and it hit the wolf in the face. He fell onto the floor, and then initiated a 360 spin blowing the desk back at her and neatly landed on his hands and knees. He lunged at her, aided with the help and leverage the crouch gave him, and slammed his paw into side of her torso, throwing her several feet and breaking the rib. Sporting several injuries, and knowing that the battle would be decided rather soon, he refocused his attention on the professor, earning a slash along his forearm.
He finally reaches the professor and was rewarded with a broken vial on top of his head. Knowing that it was ultimately useless, and that he needed to talk to the doctor before security arrived or his life would be forfeit. Hey, professor, please professor, I'm on your si-WHAM another glass hit him on the head. Eyes watering, he grabbed the hand that was going to hit him with yet another glass vial and began to struggle. 2 years of almost solid inactivity rendered the muscles in the teens arm's rather weak, and fighting the old man was rather hard. They stumbled on the broken glass and fell to the ground, glass bits lodged in their backs. A scream of pain echoed out of the pair as they hit the ground. A different type of scream, one of solid fury, erupted out of the girl as she broke off of the fight and ran towards him. To him, he was trying to help the old man, from her point of view, he was fighting with him. He kicked the back of her knees out from behind her and slammed his knee into the back of her head. She landed face first onto the floor, where more glass had been shattered by all of the commotion in the laboratory. He was standing right on top of her, and she took her chance. She pushed hard on her knee, throwing her foot in the air, cleanly catching the wolf in the chin, lifting him several inches. He flew backwards into a crouch and began forward, only to see her charging the teenager, glass shard in her hand.
Surprise emanating from the teen, he pulled out his gun and aimed it at the charging girl. Another slam from a bottle in the back threw him off balance and the gun mis-fired in a lonely, untouched corner, staining what was clean in a large cloud of green gas. He pushed the old man over and spun around.
Immediately, several things caught his attention.
It wasn't like a TV show, where conversions seemed to be in slo-mo in comparison with the rest of the world, it was just like he was able to register facts incredibly fast.
The doctor was standing up, another glass aimed at his face. At the same time, the girl was almost
right on top of him, claws extended. Her opponent was right behind her, claws aimed for a vulnerable neck as she ignored him, lunging for the new attacker. So you couldn't blame him for gassing them all. Panic made Ian hit the trigger at point-blank. A huge haze of sickly green exploded in between them, causing them all to go down coughing. Slowly, the gas made its way into the nervous systems of all of the people into the room, and their eyes drooped, as it even more slowly rendered a quiet sleep for them all. Only 3 of them moved.
The teenager, who had taken the antitoxin, stood up, only to be amazed by a third thing. The girl and the old man staggered to their feet, drowsy, but obviously still functional. The young woman shook her head, stared at the shocked teen, then was on him immediately, claws slashing everywhere, and blood peppering the ground around him.
Stop, stop Katrina, I want to know the nature of this attack.
The girl stopped, but still kept him on the ground, bleeding from many wounds.
Tell me, why have you attempted to kill me with my previous friend here?
The teen stopped gasping, and ceased resisting the iron hard grip on his hands.
I did not <gasp> know that there would be someone coming for you tonight, I was here
to ask you a couple of questions regarding an earlier work of yours.
That, said the old man, is one of the most pathetic attempts of lying that I have ever seen,
and that includes all of the late-homework excuses I've had amongst my students.
Its true! <cough> I came here to ask about a previous work of yours, well rather <cough> a previous work of mine.
The old man stepped away from him, turning on the lights on the lab. He returned only to see a horrible look grip his face.
....Ian? You are still alive?...
Yes, <gasp> but your daughter is preventing that. He winced in pain as she clamped down harder on his arms.
Katrina, please release him. I need to ask more questions
She releases the grip on him and stands back. The old man extends his hand to the teenager, who can only stare at it, as one of his hands immediately grabbed the flare gun and aimed it at the other limp body in the middle of the place. Before either of them could react, another canister flew into the air, making both of them instantly alert. Before she could react again, the canister blew up a few feet away from the wolf-person, engulfing him again.
Sorry about that, it doesn't last long. His eyes focused on the two. In fact, it really didn't last that long on either of you. A pair of guilty eyes stared away from him. Perhaps, but what made you break in a secured station, attempt an attack against me, and ruin my office? Were you trying to kill me?
The teen began in a raspy voice Of course not, His attack was entirely coincidencial.
The old man began to grow a little angry You know how unlikely that sounds.
Even so, its true. We have much to discuss, but right now the other visitor needs to be taken care of.
The pair of them turned away from his view for a second, the old man advanced on the position of the assailant and gazed into his face, which was limp and unmoving. The girl watched his father move towards the body before she could react. She began to follow, only to hear a scurrying sound behind them. The teen had lunged for the flare gun, and tripped and fell a few feet away from gun, arms stretched out pathetically. Abruptly, she was on him again, standing on his injured hand.
Father may trust you, but I don't she began angrily.
A moan of pain followed by a foot on a badly slashed back followed. He ceased movement.
Over in the center of the room, the old man moved the head of the limp person in front of him. A serene look was in his face, but as he watched, the eyes fluttered open, brown eyes meet blue-grey, and he saw his intended prey right in front of him. The old man fell as his feet dropped out in front of him, and his arm was in an iron grip, breaking it. The scream of pain alerted the daughter of the professor, and she ran towards him, slamming through desks to reach him, but it was too late, the young man slammed a fist into the head of the old man, knocking him out effectively. The girl was on top of him, reentering the fight that had ended a while ago. Or, at least would have. Another canister flew in front of her face, blasting another rush of stale air in front of them. When it cleared, she was hunched down coughing, the old man lay crumpled on the floor. The wolf twitched, and Katrina barely had any time left to dodge another can which blew up in his face.
Silence held the cabin, the girl frozen at the sight of the flare gun aimed at her chest. The kind light from the teens eyes had receded, replaced with hard anger. They stared at each other, when the sound of footsteps was heard from the hallway.
She almost called towards them as they surged past the door to the office, which was now closed, but a rasp in the back of the room told her to be quiet, or they would kill the scientist. Shocked, she turned slowly after making sure he was not going to fire another canister, back to the room. She ran and grabbed the neck of the young teen, squeezing just enough to make him talk.
Please, don't..
What do you mean, 'or they'll kill him'
The security, they aren't yours.
What do you mean? Speak!
She raised him off of his feet. His voice was down to a whisper.
The guards, they have the order to kill your father. I hacked it off of the armed forces comms center
What do you mean? Apprehension was gripping her. Why shouldn't I kill you now?
Please don't. I'm trying to help you.
The squeeze became tighter. Oh ya, like I believe that
Please let me explain. She considered it, staring at the gagging person in front of her, then released her grip, dropping him to the floor in a heap.
Don't think I don't have my eye on you, what do you mean?
The teenager panted a little as he pulled his head up to speak to her in a halting, gasping wheeze.
First, turn off the lights in the room, so they can't see us.
Her face twitched angrily at being ordered around by someone she didn't know, but obeyed. The lights faded out of sight
I was trying to meet your father, to ask a question regarding a study I had done about 2 years ago. Your father has had quite a lot of experience. He stared at her feet. Fur and claws for toes stood out.
...as you have obviously seen. I was preparing to enter here, when I decided to hack onto the army's comms center here on New Berlin. I found out that an order for your fathers death had originated from someone up in the higher rankings of security. Apparently, they were concerned about the nature of his experiments, about them killing the populace. While your father had good intentions, all they were concerned about what would happen when his work became real. It is highly unlikely that just anyone will be able to undergo the same procedure that you two have undergone, but somebody wants you all dead.
She stared at him. Then why are you here?
I came to ask for something. Then I would have left. They want me dead as well, so I have gassed the security facility, but He motioned to the office. they have overcome it. I mean to extract your father and his work from this facility, so they don't die in the hands of those who do not understand them.
She frantically looked at the door. How can I trust you? I have no reason to.
The teen looked her in the eyes,dark into light green You will have to give it a shot. I have a ship ready to leave if you are interested.
She stripped him of the flare gun, then ran over to her father. She hoisted him onto her shoulder, and fired once at the other person. The gun clicked empty. Panicking, because he was starting to move.
She ran over to him You can save my father. It was a statement, not a question.
...Yes,..... under one condition.
What is that?
Bring the other attacker.
She looked back at her father's would-be killer, then turned and looked at him again.
Why?
He has been either infested by a nomad or has completely lost his mind. My particular study can help him with either.
She looked at the door. Unheard by his ears, the sounds of doors being broken into filled the halls.
She turned and stared in that particularly accusatory way of hers. What are you, some sort of psychiatrist?
The teenager chuckled, then immediately regretted the pain that followed. A faint drizzle of blood where glass slashed his skin fell down his face, touching it slightly with his hand. He stared at her pretty face. In a way, yes.
She turned, paused, then said ...I do not think that bringing the killer would help anything. Even if you do get him to your ....station, she spat out the word, I don't know if I could trust your word. I'm sorry, but I'm not bringing him.
The teen was torn between 2 decisions, extra study, or saving people. He looks back and forth, then sighed, realize he would have to leave one of the two behind. Alright......we'll leave him.
She looked at his face. If what you say is true, then we need to move.
The teen nodded. There is a gun in my pocket, extra canisters in the other one. I have a collection of anima ready to help at any moment if need be.
Whats a anima?
Never mind, lets jus-
A boom hit the door, startling them both. Soldiers crowded the ruined laboratory, guns drawn.
The young woman stared helplessly as they were surrounded by guards. She sighed a sigh of relief, but a puzzled look came into her face when they also circled her as well. On of them began to whisper. See? Its just like red 3 said, she's probably a killer like he is, regulations be damned.
Katrina watched the soldiers with deep apprehension, dismay on her face.
The teen began to smile.
I think I know the reason why you or your father wasn't affected by this. He gestured at the gun.
The girl stared at him. Had he lost his mind?
My personal philosophy, is to always have an exit strategy. His eyes glistened, and he got to his feet.
One of the soldiers barked at him to get down, but he ignored him.
One word was spoken in response. Catch.
The teenager moved with a speed that caught all of them off-guard. In a flurry of movement, several canisters hit the ground and exploded in an enormous cloud of gas. All of the guards, as one, dropped with out a word, their radios chattering for a report.
I think its time we get out of here, take your father, I'm calling for back up.
She grabbed her father onto her shoulder, while he pressed a button on a small hand held device.
A series of burbling beeps emanated from the device, and a loud clang filled with an odd whirring sound was heard from the other side of the hallway. Lets go. He took a step, then another, then collapsed on his knees. I can't stand he gasped. The damage from the glass in his wounds and injuries from the girl had drained him of all of his strength. That, and running non-stop down the hallways to get to the office.
I can't go on, follow the robots, they will guide you to the ship. I will meet up with you shortly.
She started to complain. What robots? But even as she said it, her question was answered. 3 propeller based robots, sporting rather sinister looking weapons, one of which looked like it was a flamethrower, followed and spread out in a circle around them. Go, I'll follow suite, wait at the ship, I'll be quick.
She stared at him, then ran up out the door, her father and the young man under her shoulder.
The teen looked around. The soldiers were out cold. A thought twisted inside of his mind, and a smile followed.
She ran as fast as she could, with 2 people on her back and only a few vague words of instruction and some robots as her guide. Running past a few startled scientists, she ran into the elevator and jammed the roof top button. A gargle as the elevator speed up, finally dumping its cargo on top. She took a few steps forward, when everything happened at once. Several ships flew up at eye level, and soldiers pounded out of every hidden niche there was on it. All of them, as one raised and pointed their guns at them. A shrill laugh entered the frozen air and one of the soldiers pulled something out of his pocket. She closed her eyes, waiting for the gun shot, when the world exploded in a field of light.
When the three of them have safely left the office, the teenager donned one of the soldier's garb.
Then he had limped over to the security office and told them They are escaping, they are headed up to the rooftop! The other security guard immediately hit the radio and told him. Then he gestured to the guard that he should go to medical. The bleeding soldier shrugged off the apparent pain and hit the elevator, where he converged dozens of soldiers charging up the stairs. They hid behind some of the air conditioners up top until their prize was visible. They sprung the trap and flooded the two targets in light. Now was the time to move, thought the teenager.
Ian was hoping that with his instruction, they would all group up to the rooftop, so he could catch them all off balance. It was a two step plan. He had loaded the flare gun with his 2 billion lumen EMP flare, and the second shot with his most potent canister yet. It was an extreme relaxant that causes all but the most powerful muscles to immediately go limp. Their eyes would also be blinded <they would receive the most damage from the flare, the eye lids wouldn't close when the gas hit them.> The emp pulse would knock out the surrounding ships for a painful crash onto the ground below. He aimed and fired.
The 2 objects flew into the air. One shot higher, and the other dropped a cloud of gas onto the unsuspecting inhabitants. It worked with out a hitch. Even with her eyesight closed, the professors daughter still was blinded by the light that blew through her eyelids. She shielded her eyes, while something grabbed her other hand, leading her towards the ship. The ship whirred to life, and they sped off the planet, leaving a lot of relaxed <albeit, unhappy> people behind them, unseeing what was happening.
When the guards came to, they looked around for any traces of the targets. After finding nothing, they reported back to the security devision to report of their failed excursion. They later searched the doctors office.
The room had been torn apart. Blood was splattered everywhere, books blown apart, the monitors were broken, and shards of glass everywhere. The light no longer worked, and green gas laid low across the floor, finding no way to escape. They searched and searched, attempting to gain leeway onto their positions, but found nothing.
The ship exited orbit. It was moving slowly, and most of the armed forces in the area was busy listening to what has happening planet-side. Nobody was concerned about what the tiny black spatial was directed. It went into a trade lane, and left the local area. A few minutes later, it stopped half-way in the trade lane and began to angle downwards. It flew on and on until it reached a small space station, where it docked. The station rotated and went forward, until a small, almost undetectable rift in space was detected. They touched, and were sucked inside. A few moments later, a gigantic boom imploded as the rift collapsed on its self, sending debris flying towards the center, bouncing dangerously off each other as they began their mad gyrations. The police in the area came to investigate, only to assume that a lone gas tank from some old ship had displaced the field of junk.
Some say that he is allergic to a fungus found only between the toes of Corsairs,
and that he is oblivious to 98% of Liberty Law. All we know is... He's called the Busdriver!
The station slowed down and stopped when it reached its destination. A large expanse of black and a few violet clouds where all that was visible in the Kepler system. The lone trade lane snaked its way through the sector, and the coms station was quiet. The station looked deserted, not surprising, a lot of strange things floated about in Kepler. A trader for the Independent Mining Guild turned and saw a brief glance at the ship passing through a break in the clouds, only to vanish upon closer look.
The lone station blew through the cloud with a tired, almost wheezy glide. New state of the art ion repulse engines were strapped onto the back of the station. However, much of the power needed to run the engines were being used charging the makeshift hyper drive engine. It hadn't worked the last time, and he honestly didn't expect it to work this time either.
Back on the bridge, Ian was sitting in his favorite chair. He pulled up a data pad and opened up the small glass holder and inserted the key for the ignition key. The blue button started to glow and he double checked his readings on the screen. Kusarian script pulled up the screen very fast and his eyes rocketed back and forth reading the characters. He looked up and scooted his chair closer to the controls. He took one last look through the station's bridge windows, then hit the button to close the windows. There wouldn't be anything to see, and there was a chance that a stray particle could blow the glass out. He closed his eyes and hit the blue button. A huge, roaring burst of heat blew out of the air vents, and the station's engines drained to a quarter. The remaining power would be used to keep the station from disintegrating as it attempted to enter hyperspace. There was a more correct term for it, but Ian was already quite tired.
The gush of air suddenly went cold and he peeked his eyes open. The readouts the screen wasn't making any sense. He opened the windows and saw that the station hadn't moved an inch. Sighing in frustration, he moved the power back to the engines and the reserve of energy used to full other non important things. A alarm blared red and he turned back to the dashboard. The release of energy into the 'hyper drive' engine had blown out of a chute that wasn't intended, blowing out a gob of hull around the side. He watched on his camera was filled with a view of thousands of nanites swarming over the hull and filling it with base materials needed to repair the hole in the side of the station. When the hull was finished, the alarm turned off, giving the bridge an eerie quiet empty sound of various beeping and other mechanical sounds.
Ian signed, scratched his nose, then got up off his chair to go get something to eat. They had purchased some Synth Paste, but Ian refused to eat it. Not after hearing stories from that old AFA member that had come aboard the ship, near death to be made into another artificial intelligence by him. After searching his mind and sifting through pieces of his memory to see if he was a good fit, they had turned to him to pronounce if he was a suitable person or not. How sad.....he thought. To go through humiliating poverty, painful backbreaking work at home, made his way through flight school, only to be shot down by a few reckless gaijin that had passed through the area. He didn't know much about the incident, not how he died. But seeing how vivid his emotions were, how painful his family lived....he announced that his mind was unsuitable for integration in an AI. Another type of fire died behind his eyes that day, one that had already burned out behind the farmer's eyes. In truth, he didn't want the man to live a painful and extended life when the afterlife beckoned.
Ian pulled out of his reminiscence and back to the present. He strode downstairs along the dull white walls and headed towards the cafeteria. There was a single machine there, offering various types of paste. Ian ignored it and walked over to the pantry, where he pulled out a box of cereal and dried milk. How odd, he wondered openly. The cereal idea had lasted ever since the coalition, and perhaps even before that.
While he was guessing in his head the approximate age of the cereal, the door opened again and two figures walked out of the edges of his sight. He turned and saw his two visitors enter the room. He had already given them instructions on how to find the cafeteria and other rooms used to house successful patients <which were few> amongst other things. The girl looked around at the empty room before opening conversation. Are all of the rooms here this empty? She frowned and sat down. Normally, most people would gawk at her. She was so outlandishly bizarrely different that most people just stared at her when she talked. The teenager didn't even move his head to talk as he poured his milk, now hydrated, into the bowl, a fact not missed on her. Not really, we don't really get out much. He sat down with the bowl on a Grey table and started munching on his nutrient enriched wheat thing. Not much plant material was brought with the colony ships, but wheat was one of them. Like it had in previous centuries, it sat as a staple for humanity. Not really enjoying the raw stringy thing he was eating, he asked another question in response. How are you two today? The old man finally brought his attention to the teenager. You have a lot to explain.
The teenager smiled and looked up. Yes I do. Where would you like to start?
Before the old man could answer, the teenager started speaking again. You would like to start with some breakfast. There's food in the pantry and in that vending machine. He pointed his spoon at one of the many tables there. He had argued that they could fit more equipment in there if they took part of this huge expansive cafeteria out. As ever, it was quiet and Grey looking, like the rest of the station.
The old man nodded, then walked over to the pantry. He opened the fridge and pulled out various foods, opening the boxes because he couldn't read Kusarian. The girl walked over and helped her father forage for food.
When the old man started opening the packages that were filled with bulk food, Ian stood up and walked over to the dish washer and set it down inside. A thin laser brushed the bowl and disintegrated any food particles on it, then he moved it over back into the dish rack. Using water was wasteful in space and rarely left it completely clean.
He moved towards the door and pulled out another lab coat in a small closet there. He turned around to see them watching his silent departure, so he said, I'll talk to you in a second, right now, I need to move the station as far away from here as possible right now. I'll answer any questions you may have in a while. Go explore, do something creative. Just don't get into anything that you don't need to be getting into. Red and brown colored doors are off limits. I can't even get into the brown colored doors. He finished buttoning up the lab coat and left the room.
The two watched him leave in equal silence. Then they turned to their food. The girl turned her face to the old man and started to speak to him, Do you know him? You mentioned his name yesterday.
The old man sat there for a couple of seconds with his daughter staring at him. He finished his bite then started to speak. Yes, he was a student of mine. Vanished before he could graduate. He was very good in bio-mechanics, an interest we both shared. I had no idea that he followed through with my work so much. He turned back to his food, chewing some rice with noodles. The girl sat awhile in thought, then turned to her own bowl. She looked around the room and saw a small, almost imperceivable bump in the wall, but then her eyes didn't miss much anymore. She motioned towards it and the old man slowly looked around until he saw it too. The camera stared unashamedly at the pair, then started to stare at the vending machine, making large machinelike whirring and clicking, looking like just another stupid camera, but the old man knew better. In the college he worked at, they had cameras that acted like normal stupid cameras that just looked at stuff and showed stuff in a monitor, and even then, nobody had those anymore. It was probably pretending to be a stupid camera. He turned back and spoke to her softly, I want you to be careful, Ian was an ambitious student that was working towards the very thing I accomplished. I don't know why he came here, but I bet its not good news. She nodded, then finished her bowl. They both stood up and walk towards the door. Before walking out, the young woman looked dead on at the camera, only to find it staring at her when it should have scanning other things. The camera jerked back up to its original posting and confirmed her suspicions that someone was watching them. She frowned again, then moved toward the door and stepped through.
Back on the bridge, Ian sat back in his chair and began the long arduous task of figuring out what went wrong. After reading some inconclusive readouts, he discovered that the engine hadn't turned off overnight and had overheated because it hadn't cooled down correctly. Typically, when the bridge computer saw this, it would spray a misted version of liquid nitrogen all over the engine, freezing everything solid. It cooled it down, and then some. Because there was no one left to hit the ok button on the screen on the bridge, it hadn't happened, and had over heated severely. Grumbling internally, he set the bridge to do a few things while he was gone. Then he took his water cup down to get washed.
Striding along the bleak walls, he reached the cafeteria. The dishes were already done. Not really paying attention, he walked towards the dish washer, only to trip on one of the chairs. He made a spectacular fall, and papers flew out of his shirt, the readouts. Mumbling insensibly to himself, he gathered himself and leaned on the ground to go pick up the cup. It wasn't there. Mumbling to himself, he got on his hands and knees and started to look in the ground. Instead of finding the cup, he found a small sea of nanites covering the floor. He got up off of his knees in a heartbeat, and jumped onto the table, only to realize that wasn't a table he was standing on, it was only more nanites in the shape of a table. It dissolved right before him, making him sink into the table and pirouette gracelessly onto floor. Hair and face now covered in nanites, he sputtered and coughed, getting small flakes of them out of his mouth and face. A few more seconds of struggling happened, and he got up angrily to his feet. The nanohive must have prematurely activated. Everything seemed to be going wrong today. He straightened angrily and strode into the door.
Or the fake door that he just walked into. The door dissolved into more nanites when he was right in front of it. Ian closed his eyes and calmed himself for a few seconds, then said quietly Please stop that.
There was a few empty seconds, then the nanites just fell off the walls, revealing the true dimensions of the room and showing the real door, which was several feet away from him. Without a word, he turned and headed out of the room, and the small sea of nanites followed him out into the hallway in a small wave that turned bright blue and looked like a little stream surrounded with little mountains and even a little village that followed him and settled right behind his feet. Ignoring them, he continued to walk into the door. The nanites eventually became bored and flowed into another hall.
The nanohive was perhaps one of Ian's greatest successes amidst a field of defeats. The nanohive was originally going to be the ultimate in espionage. Able to take on any form, imitate any particle of matter, it could condense into a pen, a paper, a table, a brick, or a brick house. Special on board devices allowed them to manipulate a variety of energies to aid them in their mission. They could disguise as cars, trees, houses, or even an entire town filled with houses. They could imitate the metal cord in a wire and allow electricity to pass through it better than any wire ever did. It could turn into a space ship, power itself by attaching to various objects and stealing the charges of the molecules they ran over. However, the nanohive, like so many other if Ian's creations, needed a living host who would allow him/her to be reduced into an AI that simply ran it self by using a wireless network of ridiculous complexity. An 'Auia'. Auia's were variants on the standard AI's, in and out of the fact that they are more like a computer and less like a person. Where as an AI would have to think about the action using the resources it had, an Auia seemed to be a cloud of instinct. It could understand basic emotions better than an AI ever did, but only had the ability to reason a little more than that of a pre-sirius dog.
But like everything here on the station had during his 'escape', it had grown a personality. Perhaps it was the fragments of a dead AI somewhere.
He walked towards the engine room, stopping to get a new cup and filled it with water along the way. Sipping contentedly, he eventually made it to his destination. The engine room was loaded with equipment. A burst of heat greeted him as the large clunky door slide open and moved aside. A dark orange glowing was seen on the far end of the corner of the room, an he stepped through. The door shut behind him and he stood patiently as the cleaning cycle sprayed a fine mist out of little misters on the top of the small enclosed space. A moment longer, then the door opened up to an incredibly large room loaded to the brim with a dazzling orange light. Shielding his eyes, he pulled out a set of goggles from his lab coat and stood on a small elevator. Tapping absentmindedly into the little pad that sat on a small pedestal, it whooshed down with a gust of air.
After a full minute, it reached the bottom and he stepped off the small rectangle pad. There were only several things that were visible in the room besides the ridiculously bright orange light being given off by the engines. A small computer with a pair of 'sights' pulled up and he replaced his glasses with the polarized 'sights'. He read the results, then typed in a few commands. The orange light immediately shut off, and power was cut to the entire station. He reset the switch and flipped a few levers. The cooling engine room suddenly became so cold that the air started to grow crystals up top.
Even though Ian had done this a few thousand times, each time gave him a slight feeling of panic. Ian was never bothered by the cold. With a very slight, long, skinny frame such as his, a typical person would have hated the cold. Ian, however, welcomed it. The temperature of his room was always much colder than everyone else's, and he almost never wore any warming material during the odd planetary visit on colder planets.
What Ian was worried about however, was that the room would soon reach close to below zero. Already he could see the smoke clouds forming above him, still 2 or 3 stories above the door he entered. He flew towards the elevator and jammed the button. It shot up and he rose.
The cold gust of air was only a story away when reached the door and sealed it behind him. He pulled out a timer and quickly hit the button. The seconds slowly ticked away until the window finally fogged up and crystals formed on the other side. He hit the stopwatch.
<The watch reads :47 seconds>
Ian smiles. I was 6 seconds faster than last time, he thought.
After he went through the cleaning process again, he began the long and somewhat boring walk back to the bridge.
Katrina was bored. There was no other word for it. Even though the excitement of the 'trip' was plenty for a while, there was absolutely nothing to do unless you liked to talk to moody robots. This whole place was like dad's office, she thought partially complaining. It was day two and the creeptacular teenage was still nowhere to be found staying in place long enough to ask questions. Not that she really particularly wanted to do that. Dad had warned her away from the kid, and dad was a pretty mellow guy. He wasn't strict with his words, or with his punishments, but followed a belief that learning through experience is the best teacher. Dad was full of them, old axioms that meant to sound wise but probably was just common sense all along.
She reached another door. It was a boring grey door. She walked inside. She took a big long sweep of the room and found nothing more than a little chair in the dead center of the room. She left the room.
On her right, another boring grey door showed up. She walked by it. The door was making very loud sounds that almost sounded like someone screaming, or old chalkboards breaking, or high pitched metal bending. Partially alarmed, the door didn't open when she got close. Slightly unsettled, she moved on. She reached another door. This one was a little red door, and a delicious smell permeated the room. Out of curiosity, she opened the door and walked inside. It was another room, not unlike a few of the other rooms she had seen. A lot of paper, vials, glass stuff, and computers. Nothing in the room gave away the smell. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Her now highly sensitive nose twitched, and guided her towards a little cupboard where the smell was strongest. She opened It up. There was a candy bar. Smiling slightly, she picked it up and opened the wrapper. Inside was not a piece of chocolate, but instead a small mechanical thing with the smell emanating from it. Disappointment showed on her face, and she stuffed the thing in her pocket. She reached the door and started to walk outside, when abruptly the door slammed on her tail. A gasp of pain blew through her lips and she pulled against the stupid door. Not relenting, the door stayed shut. She pulled the edges of the door shut around her tail and heaved. The door creaked, then flew open. A small light went on at a little data pad. It had the word 'Maintenance' outlined. Grumbling to herself, she held her sore tail and thought back on how she got it. Then her mind wandered back to when dad had been so dreadfully depressed because of the Stark Accident
<<
It was 3 weeks after the Kyle Stark incident on the Cambridge Research Station, almost all funding for her fathers enhancement project had gone completely down the drain, without a major breakthrough the project might have had to be abandoned. Then dad would have to go back to being a boring old academy proctor for the college. Kat was walking down the hallway towards her father's lab where he had locked himself up. She rapped hard against the door.
Come on Pops! You cant just sit around sulking all day!
Little more than a small mumble emanated from the door.
Dad! Open the damn door!
The door flew open and Katrina found herself staring into her fathers angry, bloodshot eyes.
Kat! Don't you ever raise your voice at me or I'll..I.... He trailed off. The decrepit old man looked hard in his beautiful daughter's eyes, her long brown hair and large doe-like eyes gave her a childish innocent look. His hardened face soften and he almost collapsed against the door frame, head bowed with his hand rubbing his hair. I'm sorry Kat. I'm just a bit tired...
She gently moved him over to his chair and sat him down.
Dad, this stupid project is too hard on you, give it up. You can work somewhere else, maybe we'll move back to Liberty, too. She began to ask, almost pleading.
No, Kat, I've almost got it, if we can get this project done I may never have to worry about failing again, all I need is a test subject, but after that psycho, Stark, the Government wont give me so much as a rat to toy with, much less a living human. Kat, my girl, I don't think you have any idea just how big this is. He looked away, the tired greyness returned to his eyes.
Kat had an idea at that moment, it was stupid, reckless, and maybe fatal, but it may work.
Just how sure are you that this may work, the experiment I mean Kat asked with a hopeful light in her eye.
Ah, well almost positive, if I cou-
I'll do it! She almost yelled.
You'll do no such thing!! The professor yelled, outraged at the very notion.
Kat let out an exasperated sigh and trots off to her room. Later that night she laid in bed thinking the situation over.
She pulled her mind to the present and instead of finding her father's office, found a little brown door staring at her. Already irritated, she skipped the door. So many of them had slammed on her new-found tail that it was starting to ache.
Now totally bored out of her mind, she decided to go find her father and make sure he didn't do anything stupid. Strolling down the hallway, she opened up to the 'lobby' where there were chairs, windows, tall ceiling, along with other lobby like things. She wandered down some other hallways, before she had to concede to herself that she was lost. She heard a slight buzzing behind her and she whirled around.
At the end of the doorway that she just left, there was a small rotating robot that looks somewhat like a security camera with propellers. It watched her look at it, then lazily floated up the hallway until it reached the lobby. Deciding that now would be a good shot at getting the thing to stop following her, she sat down on one of the chairs angled away from the door.
About 20 seconds later, the whirling got louder and the camera shot out of the hallway, slowing to a stop in the center, bobbing up and down chaotically. It spun around and finally found Katrina, who was sitting in the chair, leg crossed. The camera strafed on her side, then inched closer. She turned away from it, then turned her head back.
It was right in her face, not even 4 inches way, with the lethal looking motor blades incredibly close to her head.
She twitched violently away from the camera and lost her balance on the chair and fell onto the ground. The camera followed her blunder off the chair and continued to stay there watching her while she tried to right her self. She was still gathering her things when Ian strode into the room, holding some smoking hot drink, blowing carefully, into the lobby.
Ian stopped and looked at the bizarre spectacle and stood there with a puzzled look on his face. Katrina blurted out, This camera has been following me around everywhere. Do you have anything to do with this? Ian opened his mouth and closed it. He looked at the camera, then walked over to it and pulled it out of the air. It made a big long beep in protest as he flipped it upside down and read the panel. The tag read maintenance bot.
Its probably just a service camera that got confused. It must have thought you were an intruder of some sort, our cameras and alarms are silent, although, you'll have to forgive them. Ever since I came back here, they seem to have developed personalities of their own. Sorry 'bout that. She got to her feet and Ian opened the back of the device and fiddled with something. It beeped loudly, twice, then stopped its chaotic whirling. Looking up, he decided to ask a different question, since she seemed a little raw. Whats that smell?
Huh? she arched a furry eyebrow. oh, this? She pulled out the candy bar object thing and held it out for him to see. The teenager frowned. Why do you have a COME?
A what?
A COME, Candy Olfactory Emulation Emitter?
Oh, I don't know, I just found it. Why would they need a stupid name for something like that?
The teenager returned to his blank face look. Internally, he started to sweat. If the girl had been looking around in his station, there was no end to what damage that might cause. He internally decided to turn off all of the important things before he continued with the hyperspace calculations.
The young woman looked at his blank face and responded with a question of her own.
Have you seen my father?
The teenager broke his blank look and adopted one of slight concentration. He turned up to look at her and replied, Nope, I thought he was with you.
The woman sighed. Alright. I'll keep looking I guess.
The teenager nodded, then wordlessly turned and started fiddling with the device while walking to another one of the unlabeled hallways. Grumbling to herself in slight frustration without getting anything in return for it, she turned down another hallway and started walking.
The old man wasn't sightseeing today. He was on a mission.
After having found the database with the station's map, he headed straight onto his student's R&D facility. If what the teenager said was true about his kidnapping, then the damage that might ensue could be incredibly dangerous. The kid demonstrated more than just being a little adept in the field.
Taking a very, very, very fast walk around to see where the kid was, he found him up in the bridge, fiddling away with the controls, humming contentedly to himself. He snuck out of the room, flew towards the end of the hall, and slowly made his way around the station until he found what he was looking for, the dark blue colored door on the exact opposite side of the station from the cafeteria.
...All the while, a small camera picked up the trail and began to follow.
He opened the door and found something incredibly different from the other rooms. Gurneys and materials were lain around the room, a massive podium in the center of the room held a small table, on it, straps made of Kevlar v7 were visible, gleaming in the faint light. The room was immaculate, quiet and , except for 3 things. There was a massive vial of something that was being held inside a machine connected to a computer monitor that displayed temperature and stabilization readouts, a giant sterilization device that was periodically making a quick sweep across the room, and something that caught his eye.
It was a giant syringe gun, about the size of half of a on-world tire. A glass canister gleamed as he stared at it with shock. A small air compressor was hooked onto the side. Unlike the manufactured appearance of everything else, this looked like it was constructed handmade. Little burn marks where welders had brushed over the corners showed up easily.
The old man's mind was immediately backed up away from it. But the device just stood there, sitting in the cabinet humbly waiting for its master. The old man stood there for a couple of seconds, before remembering what he was there for.
Apprehensive slightly, he pulled up a chair and dragged it over to the table over towards the business standard reports computer. It sat there for a second, then opened up a holographic image right behind him. He didn't notice it until he looked at the reflection of the screen. He flipped the seat around, grumbling about kids and their new technologies, and how stuff should stay on a screen, before the menu pulled up. It was white and had 5 buttons. Reports, Add new Report, Begin Procedure, Settings, Failed Projects.
He pulled up Failed Projects, another menu pulled down and several pages of choices appeared. He opened one at random.
I thought right again, but the stupid Bretonian suggested we go ahead with it. I hate it when my gut is right. The nanites failed to stay in their operation's parameters and wandered off in the bloodstream, attacking anything vaguely shaped like tumors. Subject's body torn apart. Suggested fix on line 3s.......
The report read on and on. He pulled up another one.
The device failed to cooperate with the body. Retina detachment and insane blood pressure killed the subject before the SToP could be administered. Computer modules stated that this operation would be well within operational limits of the body. Failure to work in tandem with device, suggested fix, Document 2810. -Hikotada
Now spooked, the old man read one more. This one was listed under Ian's name.
Dammit, The synapse dehabilitator essentially destroyed the subjects mind. The subject lost all higher thought functions and collapsed into mental instability. There is no suggested fix. Process remove from current experimentation until another finding has been uncovered.
The old man had read enough. It had confirmed his suspicions and proved even more. He got up and noticed the little camera starting at him in the corner. He waited until he realized that it wasn't moving, it was focused on him. Instantly adrenaline shot up into his body, and his old withered carcass jolted up from the chair and flying towards the door. Out of the corner of his eye, the syringe gun sat there quietly and he instead detoured and slammed his body into the glass. He grabbed the gun, which was very light despite it's appearance, and he walked off. The door slammed shut, and simply dissolved like sand onto paint. Before his eyes, the door he would have walked through simply was a wall.
The old man stood there for a few seconds, then brought up his make shift gun and pointed it in front of him. He listened quietly, assuring to himself that nothing was happening. He began beating himself up mentally. How could I be so stupid? This is just some elaborate plan to kill us. He knew that his daughter had become a jewel of possible knowledge mining from the other countries, that there were others who wanted his project destroyed before it could actually do anything. This wasn't the first time he was attempted to be assassinated. The first time was a horribly planned assassination, they tracked the guy down and hanged him after they found him. The second time was more professional, someone slipped into the air chutes, and tried to take his life by drizzling down poison from the ceiling, or so the security told him. It would have worked too, but a freak chance saved him. He had been sick with a fever, and he had opened the window to cool the room down. The breeze pushed the poison a few inches from his face onto his pillow, and the light rapping sound of the poison falling onto the pillow woke him up.
He blurred back into the hallway holding the syringe gun and ran until he found his daughter. He almost cried in relief as he stuttered to a stop, gasping beside her. A concerned look entered her face and she asked Is everything all right? He stood still as a few rasping gasps entered his mouth and out. A few seconds more of this, then he turned and told her what he discovered. Her eyes flew open and she helped him onto his feet. By this time, the camera had made up his mind over following his preprogrammed route or this new excitement that was brewing. It flew inside, buzzing contently, as it surveyed the room. There was nothing there. Disappointed, it turned down the side hall and looked down. It saw two people near the end, running as fast as they could. Bored, it flew on into their direction.
Ian was walking down the hallway, sipping his cup of water. He eventually wandered down into the bridge and checked up on a few things. He sat down in his brown chair and started to reread his calculations, then stopped and reset the warp sequence again. It was an untried technology, and it still did things with math that Ian didn't like. That was where he was when the door flew open. Cup frozen at his lips, eyes wide open, he saw his old professor holding his syringe gun aimed dead at Ian's face, daughter in tow. The old man blurted out, You've got a few things to explain. I can see that the security guards wanting to kill us was a complete lie now, you better speak up!
Ian internally groaned. This is the part he'd been dreading, he even assigned the nanites to watch the brown door, but apparently they didn't do that. What exactly do you want to know? he edged.
The old man wore a determined look on his face Why did you take us here? Ian simply responded I didn't lie when I said that the security guards were going to kill you. I took you away on my station so that later today or tomorrow I could get this hyperspace rifter to work and could take you where ever you want to stay put until things die down a bit. Satisfied he said the whole thing in one go, he took a sip of his water.
The old man pointed the syringe gun at his face. You better get us off of this station this instant, before I do something I will regret. The teenager looked at him dead in the eyes, then with a slight nonchalance, he waved his hand at it airily. That doesn't work. Not without a key any how. He pulled a little dog tag sized key from his pocket. You don't think I haven't had my fair share of people pull that one on me? Fat chance. The teenager finished off his bottle of water, then tapped a few things into the station next to him. If you really want off, the Spatial is in the hanger, it's easy to send a bot or two to fly it back to the base. Would that be alright? The words were barely out of his mouth before the old man yelled No bots, I don't trust you.
The teen shrugged. Just make sure you return it then somehow, it cost a lot of money. I'll open the hanger bay. Green door, just follow the lines. He tapped another thing in and a LED line lit up along the wall leading to outside the door.
The old man looked at the teen. Then he pointed the gun down. Why did you do it? The teen stopped typing. He slowly stood up. He was quiet for a bit, then said Your ship is downstairs. He turned and grabbed his water cup, then turned into another door opposite of the direction the green lights were. By this time the camera had finally stopped bustling and flew into the room, rotating erratically, until it stopped and stared at the two visitors as if it was all his fault. The old man and the young women stood staring at each other for a while. Warily, they backed up and ran the rest of the way to the hanger.
The camera followed as it watched the intruders enter the hanger. It followed them until it reached it's off route point and another camera took over. Angry at the intrusion, it had changed the LED ring around the camera to bright red to point out that fact to the intruders, but, as usual, they took no heed. They entered the ship and left the station. Still angry, it flew at top speed to Ian's office in the bridge to report it's findings. As soon as it entered the room, it turned and flew to his desk, then turned off, an open invitation for him to look at the security camera. When he didn't' respond, it turned on, scooted a little closer using it's propellers, then turned off again. Sighing, Ian took the camera and turned it off. He set it down onto the floor near his desk and walked over to the camera on the far side of the wall.
He watched the ship leave the hanger morosely. The ship grew smaller and smaller as it flew out of his site. He turned his view to the camera and the 'video' that it had to show him. The camera's screen blurred to life and he watched the footage of the camera following her entrance as she left the room. The camera skipped a few minutes of losing it's target, then found her again. It zoomed across the hallway and it zipped into the room, coming close to her face. The camera edged closer and it flicked her across the cheek, drawing a little blood. Ian stood up, more interested now, the camera still showing the scrolling image. He turned it off and found his prize, a small piece of hair found caught in the rotary blades. He smiled, then pulled out a small piece of clothe that he used to clean small spills from his coat pocket, then cleaned up the small dab of blood that was congealing on the propellers. He may have lost his ship, but he didn't lose everything. He put the clothe in this hand and folded it around the small dot of blood and went down stairs.
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