Remnants of the Earth
SPACE STATIONS => The Libra => Topic started by: Anonymous on March 13, 2008, 08:46:21 am
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Abarri sat on the ground, reading through the book her mother had given to her. It was so interesting! Man, she didn’t know she was this complicated! Now, if she could only learn how to build robots of her own….
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of five men in silver uniforms, with strange looking guns at their sides. The girl leapt to her feet, a look of concerned shock in her eyes. She turned to run towards the house, when one of the men drew his weapon and fired it at her.
She screamed as loud as she could, as her body filled with pain, and she fell to her knees. She tried to get back up, but nothing was responding. Her mind was filling with panic, and she started to scream for help, before she felt a hand cover her mouth and lift her up as if she was merely a rag doll.
No! This couldn’t be happening! She had to get away! But it was happening, and there was nothing she could do. Panicked tears filled her eyes, as she continued to try and scream, even though it was too muffled to do any good.
The man shoved her into a helicopter, and laid an EMP device on her neck. The next thing she knew she was in a strange box, with bars lining the farthest wall. It was not big enough to stand, but it was big enough to sit comfortably.
Of course, Abarri noticed none of this, or the fact that she was now wearing the same sort of uniform as the men who had captured her. She only saw the bars, and the fact that they held her in.
“Help! Mom!� were the words she screamed over and over, as she hurled herself against the bars again and again, for about ten minutes. She finally collapsed into a crying heap, leaning against the bars and hugging her arms to her chest.
“Nobody’s coming to save you,� one of the scientists finally said, a devilish smirk etched on his face. He strode over to the cage, and opened it up, grabbing the girl before she even had a chance to escape.
Abarri exploded with desperate flailing as he pulled her over to an examination table, and proceeded to strap her down. The other scientists gathered around, their eyes just as sadistic as the first scientist’s were.
“Please, let me go!� Abarri said as she struggled against the straps. “I want my Mommy! Please, just let me go home!�
“This is your home,� one of the scientists said, as he pulled a scalpel of a tray and proceeded to cut into Abarri’s artificial skin. The pain receptors caused her to scream in agony, but it was nothing compared to what happened next.
The man attached a device to the nerve endings of the newly exposed area, and pressed a button. The device was to see how her receptors responded to pain, and the only way to do that was to cause it.
She suddenly felt her whole body light up with pain such as she had never experienced before, and she begged the men to stop, to just let her go home. She continued to cry out to her mother, which made the scientists smirk even more.
“You are a robot,� one of them said. “You have no mother. You were built as a sick imitation of true life, and nobody is going to miss you. You are ours now, and you’d better get used to it.�
Finally, after what seemed like hours(because it was hours), the scientists finished their experiment, and dragged the whimpering girl back to her “room�. She backed away as far as she could, her eyes filled with oily tears.
“See you next time,� one of the scientists said with a laugh, before the group turned and left.
Abarri didn’t respond, but continued to cower in the cage.
“Mommy…�
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Dreams can tell us a lot of things, but sometimes all they are cruel nightmares. This is why Lana hated to sleep. But her body had been built to require it, and unfortunately dreams as well.
She looked around her surroundings, and the dream started to slowly fade back into her subconscious, and the present day began to assert itself. She was on a ship that was heading to Space Station Libra. She had never been there before, but she had heard that it was a nice…
Wait! Where was everybody going? It was then that she noticed that the crowd that had been sitting near her were all standing up and heading towards the door, which happened to be open, revealing the docking bay of Libra.
She quickly got up and latched onto the very end of the crowd, as they spilled out onto the station. They all started to fan out in multiple directions, leaving Lana to ponder just what she was going to do. Which way should she go? What exactly should she do here?
She didn’t have much time to think, because a group of station guards were suddenly upon her. Their faces were stoic, and looked more like robots than she ever had.
“You can’t have that here,� one of them said, pointing to the stun wand hanging around her waist. He held out his hand, and seemed to be waiting for her to hand it over to him.
Unfortunately for Lana, she did not do well with people in uniform stomping over to her. It reminded her way too much of the scientists who had ruined her life, and caused her to involuntarily back away from the men.
This, of course, made them believe she was ignoring their commands, and trying to walk away. One of the guards laid a hand on her shoulder, in a simple attempt to keep her from leaving. He was about to tell her again that she couldn’t leave until they had confiscated her weapon, but he never got the chance.
“Let go of me,� Lana screamed, her sudden outburst ringing out across the bay. She tried to pull away, which simply made the guard’s grip intensify. Now she was starting to panic in full force. She started to scream once again, this time even more shrilly than before.
The other guards moved in to try to calm her down, and were unprepared for the stun wand that was now in her right hand. She managed to hit one guard before the weapon was wrenched from her hands.
This made things a lot more serious. She was no longer some woman having a mental episode in the docking bay. She was now a woman who had injured a guard during a mental episode on the docking bay.
The guards swarmed over her, and managed to secure her hands behind her back with a high tech pair of handcuffs. They dragged the screaming woman to the elevators, eager to get her safely into the brig.
Lana’s perception was a bit skewed at the moment. She no longer saw the guards, but instead saw the scientists who had taken away her life once, and were about to do it again. She struggled as hard as she could to get away from the guards, terror seeping from every pour in her body.
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Placing Lana in a cell to calm her down might have been a good idea, except for the fact that she was terribly claustrophobic. She had finally realized what had happened, though. Now she had the worry of what the officials of the station would do to her, along with the terror of being in a small, enclosed space.
She shut her eyes to try to block out the walls that seemed to be closing in on her, but it really didn’t help. If she had a stomach, it would have been queasy at this point in time.
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Utari wore the typical white lab coat. It marked her as a scientist and prevented her from spilling too much on her usual clothes. She was a bit older than some of the others of the lab-- there were many interns, all of them children in her eyes. She struggled at times treating them as co-workers rather than children.
She was not a young woman, nor was she flawless. Her skin had grown softer, her eyes had creases, her scared hands spoke of a lifetime of working with them. She was sweet and motherly, but there was also a deep loneliness that never managed to leave her eyes completely, even when she was happy.
Today, she was supposed to be helping sort the new refugees into their quarters, help them get settled seeing as the other senior scientist of her particular department had pulled rank and flat out refused to deal with that many people. In her opinion, it was for the best. He was not a warm man, and the people that usually came into Lybia had had more than enough trauma without meeting the grumpy old coot.
Now what was that? "Keep moving, come along now, get yourselves signed in for housing. We'll get you a hot meal soon, come along" She urged, her voice amplified to be heard over the den of milling people as well as the shrieking girl. She'd have to see what that was about later. She well knew criminals could be any gender or species, but those screams had sounded more like terror than aggression to her. The guards were not known for their subtlety or their compassion. She'd been studying people and bioengineering for ages. People were everything to her. She relied on them much more than most scientists did. She was willing to be wounded over and over again, never giving up on people, finding the reward more than worth the risk.
Getting the group organized and passing off the actual signing in processes to the interns, she went in search of the head of the guards with every intention of getting to the bottom of things. Certainly if it was a threat, she wasn't going to meddle too much, but if it was a mentally disturbed patient, locking the individual in a dark cell was not going to help much at all.
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“Well, I see our favorite bleeding heart just couldn’t wait to stick her nose in things,� the head guard said, as he saw Utari coming up towards him. He was standing next to Lana’s cell, a look of cold disdain etched on his face.
“Do you know what this psycho did,� he asked, his words spilling out in a waterfall of ranting. “She freaked out when we tried to take her weapon away, and /stunned/ one of my guards! Then she screamed and carried on when we tried to subdue her. It took eight men just to get her down here. In my opinion, she should just rot down here. I have more important things to do than deal with some crazy with vampire eyes.�
He tapped a monitor on the wall, and a picture of the cell became visible, and the room was suddenly illuminated by an overhead light. Lana was still crouched down, her eyes shut to keep out the encroaching confines of her cell. When the light hit her face, Lana opened her eyes, eyes that were burning with absolute terror.
“As you can see, she’s perfectly fine,� he said as he studied the cell. “She isn’t even screaming anymore. So, why don’t you go away, and find someone else to bother? I think I can take care of one violent nutcase…�
He pressed the monitor, and the cell was once again blanketed by darkness. He crossed his arms, and waited for Utari to leave. He knew she probably wouldn’t, and would try to talk to the prisoner, but he could always dream, couldn’t he?
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For a few precious moments, the light made the room a little bit more tolerable. All too soon, it was shut off again, and the room seemed to shrink even further. Lana didn’t know how much longer she would be able to keep as calm as she was. She was inches away from screaming her head off, but she didn’t want to cause anymore of a scene than she already had.
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Utari looked at the guard with bored distaste. It was always the same. He always insisted the terrified refugee was perfectly fine, locked in the dark room without ever investigating the reason behind the attack. "You said she freaked out after your guards tried to take her weapon from her? Did they advance towards her before she panicked? How many were there?" It was a reasonable question. She suspected a larger than normal portion of the girls had been assaulted in some way or another, panicking when advanced on by a group of men was a reasonable response from someone who had been assaulted.
"What's her name? Where's she from? And leave her some light. There's no reason to get her imagination and fear all pumped up. That'll only make another fit of panic all the more likely when you finally do have to open the cell again." Honestly, why didn't these guards have to have a degree in human studies at least, though she would have preferred psychology be required. This was ridiculous. Locking young girls into dark dungeons. She wanted a closer look at this girl besides. There was something all too familiar about her, though she hadn't gotten a good look under the harsh light, grainy camera and curled up posture.
"If this is another of your harebrained, over-reactive busts, I'll have you put on report." She said firmly. She didn't go around threatening just because things weren't done her way. She felt there was an honest problem with the way the guards handled distraught refugees. There was no compassion. Of course she didn't think it was okay to attack and stun guards, but even at her age, having never been attacked by anyone physically, she suspected if she got off a shuttle in a new place and had a battalion of guards come stomping over to her, she might panic too.
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"We're not sure of her name," the guard said, his disdainful starting to show a bit of nervousness. "The ship records only show that she signed her name as Lana, with no last name. And you know that people only do something like that when their trying hid something...." He uncrossed his arms, and looked continued to try to justify his actions.
"Look, all we did was come up to her. We were in a group of six, but that's the number of guards I always have with me when coming up to a potential problem. I asked her to give up her weapon, and she started to leave! Well, I kept her from leaving, and she freaked out! My men tried to help me subdue her, and she had the nerve to stun one! We did what we had to do!"
The guard sighed, and pressed a button on the wall, causing light to flood into cell. "There, you want the criminal to have light, then she'll have light." A self satisfied smirk appeared on his face. "And if you want to see if we've overreacted, then why don't you just go in there and talk to her yourself." He pressed another button, and the door unlocked. "Just don't come crying to me when she attacks you..."
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The light flooded into the room once again, and Lana's panic subsided a little bit. The enclosed space was still pressing down on her, but now it wasn't as bad. She straightened up a bit, and tried to actually look around the room.
The sound of the door unlocking filled her with both panic, and hope. Were they going to let her out, or were the simply going to try and interrogate her or move her to an even smaller cell? She couldn't help but feel that it would be the latter.
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Utari looked at the guard and approached the door. "Hello. My name is Utari" She said through the door. "I'm going to come in, but it'll be just me. I only want to talk." She said quite calmly, her voice warm and motherly as it usually was (other than maybe when she was talking to that blasted head of the guards). She slowly eased the door open so to avoid startling the girl. "Are you okay?" Now up closer to the 'prisoner' she seemed so familiar. "What's your name?" She left her lab coat outside the room. She knew scientists could be scary too with all the rumors of testing going on. She didn't want to be scary, she just wanted to talk.
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Lana mind started reeling at the first sound of the voice she had not heard in twelve years. She shut her eyes again, sure that this was some sort of dream. She would wake up in a few seconds, and the cell would be as dark as ever, and she would be alone once again.
But she did not wake up. She could hear the door open, and someone stepped inside, and the voice became even clearer. The only dreams she ever had that had such realistic senses were her nightmares. And she doubted her mother would be in a nightmare.
She finally found the courage to open her eyes, and look up at her visitor. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw that her mother was truly standing in front of her. She quickly stood up, which was not such a good idea, considering her claustrophobia. She fought down the wave of panic, and continued to stare at the woman before her.
She tried to speak, but she found that her mouth would not actually form any words. She stood there dumbly for a few moments, before she was able to force herself to utter something.
“Mother?�
It was not a grand speech, but it was all that she could say in her current state of shock.
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Tears sprang into Utari's eyes. "Abarri?" She gasped and then practically smothered her in a hug. "are you okay? what happened? I missed you so much! I looked and looked and no one knew anything at all and I couldn't find you." She was going to have that guard's badge. She sobbed softly "I thought I lost you. Are you hurt at all? Hungry?" She always had been the queen of cooking. It was perhaps somewhat of a lost art with so much technology, but it had been passed along in her family for ages and ages. No one was keeping her daughter in the brig. "Why'd you stun that guard?" She asked at a whisper. That was pretty much the only reason her daughter was in the brig at all. "What happened when you got here. Oh we have so much to talk about."
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Lana's shock melted away, as the reality of the situation finally hit home. She returned Utari’s embrace, her eyes filled with oily tears. She had dreamt of this moment for years, but nothing compared to the real event.
“I never thought I’d see you again,� she sobbed. She heard her mother’s questions, and it took her a while to sort them all out. She took a deep breath, and tried to answer as many as she could.
“I was taken by some scientists,� she said, not saying too much, since she really didn’t want the painful memories to encroach on her current joy. “I’m not hurt too bad, just a little bit of damage to my right foot. I don’t feel that hungry, but that may just be shock.�
Lana sighed, and started to answer the final questions. She was not proud of her mental state. Still, explaining herself might make it easier for her mother to get her out of this blasted cell. “A whole group of guards came over to me, and asked for my stun wand. I really don’t like it when I’m surrounded by a group of people with weapons, and so I tried to get away. They swarmed on me, and that’s where I lost it. I panicked, and had a flashback to when those scientists took me…I didn’t mean to stun him. I thought I was protecting myself!�
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"Well, we'll see what I can do about that foot" She commented, hardly letting the girl move she held her so close. "That seems reasonable, certainly not aggressive. At the least I should be able to get you transferred to my care or to the care of one of my trusted colleagues" Who would probably hand over the care to her if she asked, though it would be the colleague's name on the forms and files. "Come on" She said "I want to get you checked out and see if I can get the berth beside mine joined." She squeezed her a little closer and turned to guide her out the door.
"We're coming out" She informed the camera in the room and the guard in the process, expecting an argument as usual. "I'm taking her into my care."
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“You are not taking my prisoner,� the guard said, as he opened the door. He had no clue what was going on, since he never listened to Utari’s feel good rap sessions that she had with the criminals. He had tried once, but he had nearly lost his lunch.
“You may think you’re so high and mighty,� he said, as he blocked the door. “But you can’t just waltz in here and leave with my prisoners. If you’ve come up with another piece of nonsense to get her transferred, you have to fill out the forms, and then bring them back down to me. Until then, she’s not going anywhere.�
Lana stared at the guard, her face flush with panic. “Please, I can’t stay in there. I can’t handle small spaces…�
“Well, you should have thought of that before you stunned one of my guards. Sorry honey, but you’ve got to stay in that itsy little box until miss “Champion of all Nutcases� can convince someone that you can be let out.�
Lana took a step forward, but the guard gripped down on her shoulder. “Did you hear what I said? I could take your little act as an escape attempt, and I don’t like escape attempts…�
“I wasn’t trying to…� Lana’s face was getting more and more frightened.
“Just shut up! Just because you can talk back to Utari, doesn’t mean you can talk back to me. All you criminals are the same…�
He turned to Utari. “You’ll figure that out one day, when one of your nutsos you love so much turns and stabs you in the back.�
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"This 'nutcase' happens to be a young girl you scared when six of your guards closed in on her. You realize she was abducted when she was a young girl...a group of people closed in on her then too. You have your overbearing apes pounce on these refugees without a thought of what they've been through. Put yourself in their place. You come from who knows where, most likely chased out of your home, probably by people not so unlike your guards and then you see some massive group single you out and try to deprive you of your only means of defense. What are you going to do?" She pointed out, much angrier than she usually let herself get when dealing with prisoners. Normally they were just people she saw needing help. They weren't her daughter.
"Come with me if you like, walk me and this poor girl here down the hall. It'll take me less time to fill out the form than it will for me to walk all the way down there. She's not going to stay in this room. She's not dangerous, she's just scared."
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"Fine," the guard said in a cold tone, keeping the shock out of his voice. He had never seen Utari get this animated over a prisoner before. Well, he didn't want to cause a scene, especially not this close to his evaluation.
He grabbed Lana's wrist, and started pulling her down the hall.
"I'll do this one time, Utari," he said, as he walked as quickly as he could. "Why are you so interested in this one crazy, anyways? Is she going to be part of some human behavior study of yours? Did you need to pick out the most worthless and mentally messed up subject you could find?"
Lana did not speak, as she really didn't want to anger the guard any more than she already was. She may have been crazy, but she wasn't a sadistic bastard like he was. And she had come to learn that people like him were very dangerous when provoked.
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"Why not just be glad you don't have to deal with her anymore if she's such an inconvenience to you. And stop dragging her! She can walk if you give her a chance to get her feet under her."
She was going to write a report one of these days, not this time. Investigations were problematic and brought everyone under scrutiny. She didn't need them coming and deciding her daughter was highly interesting and attempting to study her. No. She'd just got her back. She'd content herself with that and save her oust the idiotic head of the guards crusade for a later date.
"Maggie, I need the change of custody form" She said, though Maggie knew the drill. It was always the change of custody form, even when she thought the prisoner was really dangerous, custody tended to be changed from the guard's hands to someone more fit to deal with the problem. Why couldn't anyone reasonable take the job? She cast the guard a glance as she pulled out her pen and began filling it out. It didn't take her long, she had nearly memorized the form.
She handed it back to Maggie, who ran it through the computer to get it authorized. Maggie poked the screen and then picked up an electronic tablet and handed it to her along with a stylus.
Utari sighed and feverishly wrote, hit send, read, wrote and hit send again before looking up at Maggie.
"Change of custody complete." Maggie announced, looking at the guard. "She's no longer your prisoner." She wasn't a prisoner at all anymore if you wanted to be technical. She was more a ward of Utari than anything else.
"Thank you Maggie." Utari said, returning to her daughter's side with every intention of peeling the man's hands off of her if he didn't remove himself from the situation.
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ooc:
I think I will make the guard an actual character…As soon as I can figure out a name to give him.XD
ic:
“This is just perfect,� the guard said, his voice filled with exasperation. “Once again, you’ve managed to get another thug a nice cozy room, rather than letting them have the punishment they deserve. It’s no wonder the brig is so empty!�
He let go of Lana’s wrist and walked away in a huff. ‘This isn’t the end of this,’ he thought to himself. There was something odd about that prisoner. Utari never acted this animated with any of the other derelicts that came through here. Yes, there was definitely something going on, and he wouldn’t rest until he found out.
He would just have to be careful about it. He hated to admit it, but Utari was a lot more intelligent than he was, at least when it came to book smarts. To find out what he wanted to know, he would have to be cunning, one of the areas his brain was definitely not lacking in.
Lana stood next to her mother, wondering what would happen next. She was so used to wandering around, trying to stay invisible from those she had escaped from, that she didn’t really know how to function somewhere such a Libra.
She also didn’t know just what she would say to her mother. She wasn’t that keen on telling what had happened, but she knew that she would have to. Also, lingering deep down in her psyche, was the fear that her mother really didn’t love her, and had been glad that she had been taken. The scientist had told her this over and over again, and she couldn’t help the fact that it had sunk in.
“Thank you,� she said to Utari, once again being cautious in her words.
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"Speaking of thugs in cozy rooms, they give you yours and pay you for being a thug" She muttered, irritated before turning to her daughter "Come on, let's get out of here. He's an ass, but he's the head of the guards, so he thinks he's king or something." She explained after he had stormed off. She gently attempted to take Lana's arm to guide her towards the quarters. "Maggie, if you could check on that reconfiguration, I'd appreciate it. I don't want to step in and have the walls rearrange on me."
Maggie nodded "Will do" She assured.
She walked down a long hall, watching with interest as the walls shifted to allow her room to join to the one next to her's. "Do you have a change of clothes or anything? All systems functioning properly?" She couldn't hide the worry in her eyes and she suspected she'd be hugging her daughter until the cows came home if given the chance. She never wanted to let her go again.
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“I usually just wear these clothes,� Lana said. “I wash them when I get the chance. I really try to have as little luggage as possible. Except for my foot and some old wounds that don’t really cause too many problems, I don’t think there’s anything wrong…� She stopped talking. She really didn’t want to speak about all that had happened.
The truth was, her body had plenty of damage not only from her travels, but also from the experiments that she had been subjected to. She really didn’t want to burden her mother with her problems, and if she saw the extent of the damage, she would invariably start to ask questions.
“I’m fine really,� she said to Utari. “I can still function…�
Lana couldn’t help but be guarded. She had spent so much time being secretive and alone, that she even held her emotions away from her own mother. She tried to excuse this in her own mind by telling herself she didn’t want to upset Utari, but the truth was, she was just scared. She wasn’t just scared of her pain, but she was scared that her mother wouldn’t care.
Ooc:
Man, that was short….
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Utari opened the door. The room was simple, but that was the way of Lybia. There was not a lot of call for personalized or frilly rooms. There were however, pictures of her and her daughter hung all over the room. There hadn't been a lot of pictures taken of them before she'd disappeared, there just hadn't been enough time together for albums and files of pictures.
"I'm so glad you're back...will you stay?" She asked, worried perhaps her daughter would be eager to be rid of her after so many years of independence. "Here, I had a room made up for you if you care to have a bit of time alone, but you are more than welcome to stay here in my rooms if you prefer." She was practically wringing her hands before she flung them around her daughter again, hugging her close. "Can I....can I check you over? I'd feel more at ease if I could" She was worried that after so many years her daughter's systems might have begun to fail. She could of course repair most damage, even if the system failed all together, but there was always that worry about what if she couldn't repair it, or what if her core systems became corrupted and had to be rewritten-- she might continue living, but she might not be the same person.
Her silver hair was finally starting to poke out around her ears, giving her a little bit of a frazzled look.
(no worries. Doesn't look short to me, and I don't mind short replies anyway...and if that was short, then I haven't managed to post anything but short replies to you *guilty*)
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“Of course I’ll stay,� Lana said. She still wasn’t sure if her mother was just being polite, and really didn’t want her there. It was a stupid and illogical thought, but she couldn’t help but think it. She kept these thoughts to herself, just as she kept most thoughts to herself. She was like a nervous little rat, always ready to bolt in case a shoe came down at her.
She looked around the room, and saw the pictures. The fact that she had cared enough to put pictures up should have eased her mind a little, but the fear was too strong for reality to come crashing in.
“Yes, you can check out my systems,� Lana said, finally coming to the moment she had been dreading. Once her mother saw the myriad of problems, especially the extensive nerve damage, she would probably want to know what had happened.
She couldn’t think of anything more to say, and simply stood there like a lump. She was coming closer and closer to having to tell her mother her story, and she felt like a runaway train barreling down towards a steep precipice.
ooc;
Yeah, but your posts are really filled with emotion and detail, even though they are short. My last post seemed a little weak in all that…Then again, I don’t think Lana really had much to say at the moment…
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"Here, have a seat" She requested, pulling out a footstool out for her to sit on. "I'll be back in a moment. I need my kit" She still, for whatever reason, had her kit she'd always used for her daughter. When she opened it, it became apparent it was still completely stocked and the fluids were even fresh. There was no rancid oils, no coagulated lubricants, nothing of that sort. The batteries of her system analizing/diagnosing machine were still charged.
"Are your ports still operational?" She asked, understanding that if they had not been used this entire time, they might need cleaning or repair before she could run her system check electronically.
There was no evidence that anyone else had ever even been in Utari's quarters. There was certainly no other daughter, human or not. There were not even pictures of Utari's family on the walls. She did have a picture of them in her books somewhere, tucked in the leafs of her keepsakes. Most of her other books were electronic, stored in files on her computer somewhere. It seemed the things she'd had with Lana were the only things she'd kept hard copies. of.
((well thank you, I appriciate that))
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“I have been keeping my ports clean,� Lana replied. She hadn’t used them in a while, but she maintained them just in case she came upon a machine that could use them, or a scientist that would know how to use them.
She stared in shock at the kit her mother had brought out. Why in the world did she still have it? Suddenly she got the idea that her mother had developed another robot to replace her. Maybe she had even made many robots, each better and stronger than Lana could ever be. Lana had none of the robotic attributes that one normally found.
Of course, she still didn’t share any of this with her mother. She simply sat there and waited for her to complete her system’s check. Who knows, she might just decide to shut her down completely. Lana pushed this new thought and the fear that came with it away, but she couldn’t help but wonder if that’s exactly what was going to happen.
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Utari ran through her checks. There was no data in the system checker other than Lana's own. It had not even been plugged into anything else. "Well, you're still mostly functioning, though you have some...rather odd damage." Utari was almost afraid to ask. "Would you rather not talk about it?" They hadn't seen each other in so long, it wasn't fair to imediately attempt to pry all of her past out of her on their first day together. She set the hand held monitor aside so she could actually examine the physical being of her daughter herself.
"Do I scare you?" She asked after a moment, her hand lightly running over the lid of the tool kit. SHe'd hoped every day that her daughter would return.
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Lana couldn’t hold her emotions in any longer. Tears started to flow down her face, and she found herself unable to keep from sobbing. She looked up at Utari, a deep sadness and fear in her eyes.
“I don’t want to be afraid, but I can’t help it,� Lana said, staring down at the floor, ashamed of the fact that she was afraid of her own mother. There was no turning back now. She would have to tell her story. No, she wanted to tell her story. She was tired of having it stuck inside her, a secret pain that only she knew of. She needed to get it out, and maybe she would even have to courage to ask her mother the questions that had been burning inside of her for so long.
“I need to tell you what happened. You’ll understand more after you’ve heard…� At least she hoped she’d understand more after she heard. She wasn’t really sure how Utari would respond.
Ooc:
I’ll put her story in the next post…
-
Utari sat on the edge of the chair, ignoring the electonic beeping of the monitor as it ran it's diagnosis, but she knew she had some work ahead of her. "I'm ready to listen whenever you're ready to talk. I'm not mad that you're afraid...I just hope you'll realize you don't need to be afraid of me. I'm still your mom just like I always was and I still love you as much as I always did and no matter what happens, I will still love you" She replied softly.
She wasn't sure what to make of the entire situation, but no matter what happened, she was still glad to have her daughter back in her sight, but she was a little anxious to know what had happened to her daughter, but she thought it was important to know so she could help her. She wanted to help and was willing to give up anything she had to in order to do it.
-
Lana took a deep breath into her robotic lungs and began her story.
“It all started twelve years ago. It was around five o clock in the evening,
and I was out in the front yard, reading a book on robotics. I remember that you gave me the book because I was interested in how I was made, and why I seemed to grow and age like a human. You were gone for day, at some sort of robotics convention.
Well, as I was reading, five strange men came into the yard. I knew something was wrong, because they didn't look like any type of people you would know. Each one of them pulled some sort of strange gun from their waists, and started to walk towards me.
They stunned me and took me onto some sort of helicopter, where I was knocked out with an emp pulse. I woke up in a lab cage, dressed in weird clothing. The same men came in, and dragged me out of the cage, to run
experiments.�
“They attached some sort of device to my nerve endings…I had never felt pain like that before…� Lana paused for a bit, before forcing herself to continue.
“I begged them to stop, but they never did. For five years, they poke and prodded me, with as many experiments as they would find. It was almost as if they enjoyed seeing just how painful they could make things for me…
The only life I knew was one in a cage by then. Happiness and freedom were but a memory. Then one day, a stranger came into the lab, and opened my cage. He gave me my stun wand and told me to use it, just before he rushed from the room, through a door I had never seen before. I finally worked up the courage to leave, and found myself on some strange land I had never seen before.
I had no idea where you were, and so I wander around, giving my name as Lana, in case my real name caused someone to find me and take me back. I somehow found myself on a space ship, and lived by draining peoples electronics.
I drained the electronics of a bounty hunter, and I guess he took pity on me. He tried to teach me how to be a bounty hunter, but I just wasn’t that good at it. I wandered from place to place, and helped people get find their lowlife relatives who owed them money. Most times, I didn’t find them at all.
I finally made my way onto a shuttle to Libra, and all that’s happened after that has already been spoken of…�
Lana sighed and looked up at Utari. She had to ask, or the questions would burn a hole in her soul.
“Mom, do you really love me? I’m just a worthless imitation of life…The scientists used to call me that. They said that there was no way you could ever really love a pile of scrap who couldn’t even defend herself.
I waited for you, but you never came. I used to dream that you had come, and we were together, but I would wake up to the cruel reality that you weren’t there. The scientists told me that you had forgotten about me, and had simply made new and better robots to replace the mistake I was…Is this true? Would it have been better if we had never met again?�
Lana’s words had not bitterness, but were spoken with sincere honesty. Her eyes were now filled with tears, and fear of what her mother would answer.
-
Utari listened intently, her eyes wide with emotion and flaring with anger that those jerks would touch her little girl. She wanted to go beat them to a pulp, make them pay.
She surprised herself as a sob rose up in her chest and burst forth before she could stop it. "I made you with my own two hands, you are my baby, my only baby. I could never replace you, I never even wanted to try." She said, tears streaming down her face. "I looked for you for years. There's a pulse that goes out weekly, looking for news of you. I couldn't physically comb the galaxies for you, so I did it electronically, but...that seemed to fail me until you practically dropped into my lap." She popped out of her seat to fling her arms around Lana again. "Oh my baby. I'm sorry I ever left you alone!" She sobbed. "I'm so glad you're back. I'll have you fixed back in perfect working order again inside the week. You let me know anything you need and I'll make sure you have it." She swiped at her eyes and flung her arms around Lana again "Can you ever forgive me?" There was a lot of guilt behind her daughter's disappearance. If she had not gone to the robotics conference, she never would have had the chance to be abducted.
-
Lana cried with relief as her mother spoke those words. She placed her arms around Utari and even more tears fell from her eyes. These were tears of joy, and tears of sorrow. She cried for all the things she had lost, and all the things she had just regained.
“I’ve dreamt of this moment for so long,� she said. “Through all the pain, and times spent alone, I always dreamed that you were out there, looking for me. I’m so sorry that I ever doubted you. And it wasn’t your fault, it was mine. I wasn’t strong enough to fight them. I should have done something, but I just sat there and let them experiment on me until someone was kind enough to let me go…�
Lana blamed almost everything that had happened on herself. If only she had tried to stop them from taking her, if only she had run faster, then none of this would have ever happened.
-
"You were a little girl. What do little girls know about fighting off a bunch of people coming to take them away?" She pointed out. "Will you stay with me tonight?" She wasn't sure she could stand letting Lana out of her sight so soon. She wouldn't sleep. She'd be popping over to make sure she was there and still fine every couple minutes.
She drew a deep, slow breath, forcing herself to calm down. "I'm sorry, it's just....so much at once. I need you to tell me what you need. Let me know when you're ready to start repairs on your systems. You've been through a lot....I'm sorry if I'm going too fast. I almost feel afraid if I stop talking and holding onto you, you'll disapear." She cupped Lana's face in her hands. "But you're really here!"
-
“I feel the same way about you,� Lana said. “It’s like this is all a dream, and I’m bound to wake up at any moment…� For the first time in quite a while, Lana actually felt truly happy. She was no longer alone, no longer doom to run from place to place, always afraid that she would end up back in the lab.
“I’ll stay here tonight,� she added. In truth, she was also afraid that if she was alone, then this would somehow end up being a really elaborate dream. She wanted to do all she could to remind herself that this was actually real.
“I don’t really need anything. I just want to get used to this station, and all it’s rules. I especially want to learn how to stay away from those guards.� She really didn’t trust the guards of the station, especially after what had happened.
Of course, she had every reason to worry. Mike Holloway was currently planning on watching her and Utari, and using whatever means and tricks he could come up with to find out just who she was.
-
"Okay, just so long as you're sure" Utari breathed, hugging her again for what must have been the millionth time.
"Oh rules? Well, they don't really like weapons here...I mean we are a refugee station, we get all sorts, so keeping weapons to a minimum prevents most serious injuries when fights break out. Um, stay out of restricted areas, they're pretty well labeled and they all need a security pass of some kind." She pondered "Pretty much behave yourself. Don't get into fights if you can avoid it, follow instructions. Currently you're under my care for..how do they phrase it..psychological evaluation I believe. Pretty much, you're not a true threat, you just need a little help--- which was the case when you arrived. You didn't want to hurt anyone...you just didn't want them to hurt you."
There was probably a huge list of rules and codes somewhere that only the most tyrannical station leader would try to put into force, but so far, people went about their daily lives and as long as they weren't hurting anyone or inciting panic or destruction, they were left alone.
"Probably just stick with me. I'm responsible for you anyway, so it makes it easier if everything is together and I don't have to hear that some harebrained accident or fluke is being blamed on my patient-- I think a certain someone is annoyed that I keep him from harassing prisoners, so he takes it out on me by trying to slander the prisoner I endorsed." She shrugged "Just a theory of course. For all I know, it could have been the most logical explanation of how things happened."
She paused "Oh, as far as staying away from them, stay away from places where alarms are going off, they tend to be concentrated at the docking bay-- where you came in. Refugees come through there in groups of hundreds. Lots of opportunity for trouble and were most of their prisoners come from. They don't get to come into the labs much....and we don't do experiments like what happened....so don't be worried if there are people in lab coats. We do a lot of research here and I'm still doing my bioengineering, so I work in the lab as well. The people there are good people, they want to find ways to improve and help others most of them." SHe tilted her head just a little. "What name are you going by now?"
-
“There are labs here?� Lana couldn’t help the terror that started to seep into her voice. The labs on Libra may have been harmless, but that was inconsequential. She wrung her hands nervously, and looked around the room, trying to regain her composure.
“I really don’t do too well around labs or scientists. It would be best if I stayed out of those areas as well…� Which would probably be a good idea, seeing as how she wasn’t quite the most mentally stable person on the station, and another incident like the one with the guards would not look good, especially with Holloway watching her so closely.
“I really don’t do that well with people either,� she added. She spent most of her time avoiding people. Even when she did any bounty hunting jobs, it was all through electronic communications, where she would call in the location of the person to whatever family member was looking for them. She was painfully shy and neurotically paranoid with everyone she met. The way she was acting with Utari was nothing compared to how nuts she normally was.
“As for my name, I’ve been using Lana. I chose it so that those scientists wouldn’t track me down…� She looked up at her mother once again. “If it’s ok with you, I’d like you to call me Abarri. It’s nice to have someone who calls me by my real name…�
She gave a small, embarrassed smile. “There’s one more thing. I have terrible nightmares…If you want to get any sleep at all, you should probably wear some type of earplugs…�
-
Utari nodded "Well, we'll see if we can work on those things a little bit. You recall I'm a scientist and I work in those labs, but I understand how you'd like to avoid them. That's fine. People as well. You can stay in here if you like, and I'll bring your meals" She offered. It was perhaps a detrimental approach, not forcing Abarri to face her fears and instead, coddling her, but she had just gotten her daughter back, she didn't want to lose her again.
"You know if you have nightmares, you're always welcome to wake me up or crawl in with me." She smiled, though it was a little watery. "I missed you so much...and now I have a hard time remembering you're not a little girl anymore....but you'll always be my little girl." She assured. The behavioral scientist part of her wanted desperately to study her and her nightmares, but the mother wanted to soothe them all away.
-
“Thank you,� Lana said to Utrari. Like any person with mental issues, she was perfectly happy to avoid them as long as she could. She would happily stay in the quarters, away from any and all stimulus that caused her grief. That is pretty much how she had been spending her life. She scurried around like a little rat, hiding in corners, occasionally coming out to attempt to find some drunk in a bar.
“I usually don’t wake from my nightmares,� she said. Since she could not see herself asleep, she really didn’t know how bad her nightmare were. They were as close to night terrors as an adult could have, minus the seizure activity in the brain. They were more like a delusional episode that happened to take place when she was asleep.
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Mike Holloway sat at his desk, trying to figure out just what was so special about this one nut. He knew that Utari was interested in the loonies of the world, but this was somehow different. This wasn’t just some normal head case, and he was determined to find out why.
He would forgo his usually tactics of instigating incidents, or fabricating them altogether. This was an even better chance. If Utrari was hiding something about this girl, then he could us it against her. It would be nice to have something to hold over her head for a change.
-
Utari nodded, gently combing her fingers through her daugher's hair. "I'll start repairs whenever you're ready." She wasn't worried about nightmares or being kept awake at night. She was a mother. Her daughter was her first priority, sleep was inconsequential. "Do you intend to stay on Lybia? Or is this just a stop off?" She wanted to know if her daughter intended to leave her or not. She had just gotten her back after all.
"Are you tired?" She asked. Perhaps the nurturing side of her was in overdrive, but it had been deprived of a focus point for years. Abarri was created because she hadn't been able to have children and had no interest in men or having a baby created in a bottle somewhere with some custom mix of DNA. She'd instead been made with her very own hands. No one could ever replace Abarri.
-
“I came to Libra to settle down,� Lana told her mother. “I heard that it was a safe place, and I thought it would be nice to actually stay somewhere without having to worry about being found and taken back.� Lana could have resented her mother’s overdone nurturing, but the truth was, she had been deprived also. She had spent the last twelve years of her life a mentally unstable outcast, with no one around who even cared if she lived or died. Maybe someday she would move on, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon.
“Actually, I am a little tired. I haven’t really slept, save for a small nap on the shuttle…�
Suddenly, the door to Utari’s room opened up, and Mike Holloway walked inside. He was holding a form in his hands.
“I’m sorry to barge in on you,� he said in a silkily cold voice, “but I really need you to sign off on this form…� Of course, he could have gotten any number of other scientists to sign the form, since it was nothing of importance. He was just trying to get to her, and maybe pry some information out of her while he was at it.
He noticed Lana sitting there, and his eyes went wide. This was not what he expected at all. His face grew into a smirk, as his Neanderthal brain tried to process the situation.
“So, this is why you were so interested in this worthless nut,� he said, as he leaned against the doorway. “You’re a dyke, and she’s some sort of high class prostitute! You must have recognized her from some dirty transmission ad. Well, I can’t say I’m shocked…�
He looked over at Lana, his smirk growing even broader. “Hey babe, how much do you charge? I might want a little action of my own…I may not like thugs, but I would never turn down the opportunity to grab such a nice piece of ass.�
ooc:
Man, Mike is really turning out to be a creep…
-
Utari stood and stepped forward. "These are my personal quarters and you have no right to enter them without an invitation and you have less right to comment on me or my personal matters." She looked him straight in the face. "And I was not aware you searched through the transmissions for prostitutes. Certainly gives me a picture of what you do on your free time-- unless that's the reason that riot last month escaped your notice. Now, take yourself, your form and your disgusting subject matter right out the door and do not come here again. I'm off duty as you well know. You can find someone else to sign your form, or you can wait until I'm on duty tomorrow and have me sign it then." She was cold and obviously not intimidated. There was nothing wrong with her having found her daughter.
-
“Fine,� Mike said, the smirk still etched on his face. “I’ll leave you alone for now. But I am going to find out what’s going on, and just what you are hiding. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s something that you probably don’t want the higher ups to know about. Just sleep on that, hon. I’ll see ya tomorrow.�
Mike turned on his heels and left the room. He was going to scour all the transmissions for any sort of info he could find. Even if she wasn’t a prostitute, there must be something he could find. He walked back to his quarters, and dropped the form on the bed, before heading back to his computer terminal.
Lana stood up and walked over to Utari. “What if he finds out what I am? Will I end up in one of the labs here?� She still didn’t trust that the labs on Libra were as nice as her mother thought they were. She had too many bad experiences to think that the scientists wouldn’t be interested in studying a robot with a self aware mind.
Even if the scientists didn’t do anything, she didn’t trust Mike Holloway one bit. He seemed to be the kind of person who would eat his own grandmother if he could get something out of it. Her mother had spoken of “someone� who framed her patients, and she had a very good feeling about to whom she was referring to.
-
Utari raised her eyebrow at Mike as he left. That goofy man needed some help.
She turned to Abarri "No sweetheart. I'm one of the senior members of staff. They're not going to put my daughter in a lab-- besides, we don't do that kind of work here. They might want to talk to you a little, but they won't touch you. I wont' let them." She locked the outer door, though she doubted it would do any good considering guards had far too much power to unlock anything and everything in her opinion.
Coming to sit beside her daughter, she put her arm around her shoulders. "Not all scientists are like those ones who hurt you. Some of them are just curious and want to learn to make things better." She sighed softly and gave her a squeeze.
-
“I hope you’re right,� Lana said softly. She still couldn’t seem to believe that the scientists here were as benevolent as her mother claimed. The only scientist she trusted was Utari.
“I think I should try and get some sleep. Is there a bed or couch or some place I could lay down?� She was really starting to feel the effects of the day. Her body was barely hanging on, and her mind and eyes were already drooping down into the depths of dreamland.
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Mike sat at his computer, and continued to comb through the transmissions. He would not rest until he found something that would tell him what he wanted to know.
“Aha!� Mike had finally hit pay dirt. Staring right in front of him was Utari’s weekly message, inquiring about Lana’s whereabouts. He poured over the transmission, his eyes gleaming with glee.
“Robot,� he muttered to himself, as he read even closer. “She’s a robot? This is getting interesting…� Of course, it never occurred to Mike that Lana might have been Utari’s daughter. No, he thought that everyone was just as devious as him. His first thought was that Utari had built a high tech machine, and did not want to share it with the rest of the scientist onboard.
-
"Of course" Utari said, ushering Abarri to her comfy bed. It was not a particularly large bed since Utari lived alone and space on the shuttle was somewhat limited, but it was as comfortable as science could make it. "You just get some rest. I'll be around if you need me. Help yourself to anything in the fridge if you get hungry." She fussed over the pillows a moment, instinctually needing to tuck her daughter in. After twelve years, the instinct was still as alive as ever. "Oh, do you want your bear?" She had a box of Abarri's favorite stuffed animals and toys under her bed. She'd never been able to give up the hope that she would find her daughter, and so had not been able to bring herself to leave all of her daughters things behind. Infact, she still had a couple of her favorite outfits tucked somewhere, though they would do little good now.
-
Lana did not answer, since she had already fallen asleep. She lay there, her mind blissfully set in the placidness of sleep. It took a few minutes for the nightmares to start. At first she merely twitched and turned a bit, while muttering tense nonsense.
Then the scream came. It was a piercing wail of agony that seemed to fill the whole room. She shot straight up, her body stiff and rigid as she continued to yell in fear. She clambered from the bed and backed herself into a corner of the room, her eyes still shut, and her mind asleep.
“No! Leave me alone! For the love of God, please! Don’t hurt me, I’m begging you! Please, I just want to go home!� Once again, a shrieking cry of fear and pain escape her lips. She held out her arms to fight off unseen attackers, and tears fell from her still closed eyes.
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Mike stood in his quarters, preparing to leave the station behind forever. He was planning on taking a little gift for his conspirators, something that would be a little bit of extra incentive to treat his guards a bit better than the rest of Libra. A self-aware robot seemed like just the thing.
He had also discovered something else that made taking Lana even more appealing. He had been studying Utari’s transmission, and discovered that she referred to the girl as her daughter.
He couldn’t help but grinning. He had hoped to have something to hold over her head before it was time to leave, something that would make her sorry that she was such a pain. What was worse than losing one’s child, especially after she had just been returned?
-
Utari watched from her chair. She didn't want to frighten her by trying to shake her awake since the girl seemed to already be afraid someone was coming at her. "Abarri sweetheart" Utari cooed, trying to soothe her with the voice of her mother and endearing terms and tones she probably would not have heard while under their 'care'. "Abarri, you're having a dream darling, you're safe, no one is going to hurt you" Though she might ought to see what she could do about Mike...at the very least report him for barging into her quarters and locking up yet another patient he'd scared into being a 'threat'.
"Abarri, come back to me, wake up. You're safe" She studied the movements, the sounds, the words of her daughter, trying to see what she was seeing so perhaps she could understand what the nightmares were about and help her to get past them.
-
tari’s words seeped into Lana’s brain, but the images in her mind were still too strong. She pressed herself into the corner, the screams becoming even louder. Her arms suddenly went to her side, and her whole body became as still as a board.
“Make it stop, please just make it stop! Make it…� her voice once again dissolved into screaming wails as her body stayed frozen in place. Whatever she was remembering, it was not something pleasant.
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There wasn’t much time, so Mike would have to work quickly if he wanted to be able to enact his revenge on Utari before he had to leave. Still, he had to be patient and strike at the right time.
He would wait until about 23:00 hours, and then he would enter Utari’s room once again. This time, he wouldn’t be leaving alone. He held a stun gun in his hands, one that would knock the scientist out for at least five hours. By the time she was able to get up, he would be long gone, and then her real suffering would begin.
“This is what you get for messing with me,� he muttered to himself, while watching the clock slowly move forward.
-
"Abarri" She said, coming nearer "You have to wake up, wake up and it'll stop." She encouraged. Her daugher wasn't armed, she knew that much, Mike had seen to that. "Abarri, wake up" She reached out to touch her daugher's arm. She was getting the impression she waasn't going to get any sleep at night, but she was willing to pay that price. She had her daugher back, she'd sleep on lunch breaks from now until the cows came home if that's what it took. She was concerned Abarri's screaming would draw unneeded attention. "Controls, lock down. Authorized personel only" She said to the room. Anyone getting in would now need a key card with clearance levels. "Abarri, shh sweetie, it's okay."
-
“Mom! Where are you? Please, help me! Make it stop!� Lana didn’t seem to realize that her mother was speaking to her or that she was even in the room. She was locked in whatever horror her mind was showing her.
Still, her mother’s words were starting to seep in a little, even if it wasn’t outwardly apparent. It was like rain seeping into a patch of concrete on a cold winter’s day. Slowly but surely, she would be calmed.
Maybe Lana’s subconscious was actually speaking to her mother, asking her why she had let her get taken in the first place. Some thoughts and feelings just never made it to the surface, and could only be spoken of through dreams.
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Mike prepared for his departure, and checked to see if everything was in order. His ride had come a few weeks before, posing as small merchant ship. The man had spent several weeks making phony arrangements to supply Libra with medical supplies. Now all he had to do was get down there before it left.
He might even go and fetch the robot a little early, so he could stand over Utari and gloat. Yes, that way he could see her pain. It would be a nice image to take with him when he left this hellhole once and for all.
-
Since she hadn't been hit thus far, Ubari gathered Abarri into her arms. "I'm right here. I won't let them hurt you anymore, but you have to come back to me. They're gone, you're free. It's okay now" She cooed. "Your mother is here to protect you now. Peace my darling." She started humming softly, remembering the old songs she used to sing and waiting for the words to come back to her memory. She hadn't sung them in many years, but they were still there, waiting to be accessed in her mind.
-
Lana actually started to calm down a bit, Utari’s voice helping to push back the demons in her mind. Her screaming subsided, and her face and body relaxed into the calmness of a dreamless sleep.
Alas, this quaint little scene was not to last. For right at that moment, Mike had decided to strike. He used his security clearance to open the door to Urari’s quarter, and he stepped inside, brandishing his stun gun.
“Oh, isn’t this just a precious sight,� he said, his voice dripping with acidic hatred. He glared down at the mother and child, and fought down the urge to throw up at the sickenly saccharine scene.
“I know who she is now, Utari. I know all about your precious little nutcase of a daughter.� He stepped a bit closer, before aiming the stun gun at the woman. “Please don’t scream or do anything stupid. This gun may be set to stun you, but I’ve made sure that it can permanently disrupt a robots electrical impulses.�
“Wake her up, and please be quick about it. I don’t want to stand here all day.�
-
Utari cursed as he appeared in the doorway. Honestly that man was more trouble than any refugee they had ever had aboard. "Just what exactly do you know about me and my daughter?" She asked pointedly, standing and leaving Abarri as she was. After all, so far she had not managed to wake her daughter up, so there was no reason to think it would suddenly work now. "And why is it any concern of yours?" She put her hand in her pocket and hit the lockdown button used by the scientists for when they needed to make sure something did not escape the ship-- bacteria, experiments, missing chemicals and the like. She was not going to lose her daughter again, especially not to Mike. There was no telling what he might do to her, robot or not.
-
“It is a concern of mine, because I want to make sure your life is miserable,� he said, as he made his way over to Lana. He placed the gun next to her head, the sleeping robot completely unaware of what was going on.
“Now, I am going to leave with her, or she will die right here…� He gave a cruel smirk, as he stared up at Utari.
“Is that what you want, Utari? Do you want your little girl to die? I promise you, it will be a slow, and painful death. If you want her to live, then I suggest you stand aside.�
Mike was really enjoying this. The look on Utari’s face was priceless. If he ended up having to kill Lana, it was no skin off his nose. He would just tell his contact that he had been unable to retrieve his little gift. He only wanted to make Utari suffer before he left.
It was then that Lana started to stir from her sleep. Now that the nightmare had passed, her sleep was not nearly as heavy as it had been. She opened her eyes, only to see Mike standing over her, with a gun to her temple.
She let out a scream, and tried to push her way up, but Mike grabbed her shoulder and forced her back down to the floor.
“Move again, and I will shoot you. Scream again and I will shoot you. Do anything, and I will shoot you.�
Just then, there was a flash of light, and both of them disappeared from the room. It seems that Mike's contact was in a bit of a hurry.
-
ooc:
Since I have to leave very soon, I will edit my post to make Mike and Lana end up teleported by the ship that is picking him up. I will return them both when I get back.
-
Utari screamed and cursed as they vanished. She had barely retrieved her daughter before she was stolen again. What sort of life was this? She hadn't been able to keep her promise. What happened to the teleportation shields on the ship? She ran down the halls "I need to talk to command!" She cried, grabbing her communicator out of her pocket. "We have an emergancy situation. Mike has taken one of my charges hostage and I believe he has left the ship. He said his purpose was to make my life misurable, I don't know what he's going to do to her. She's mainly robotic in biology, but she is cognitive and just as alive as any other humanoid....I'm afraid he might try to dissect her or sell her to who knows who. She's just a scared girl, she may very well be a 'threat' as Mike called her when she has a weapon in her hand and is swarmed by his apes. No, he's mad at me because I signed her out! I didn't let him leave her locked in that dark cell of his. Yes! She's the one I've been looking for for twelve years! I didn't even get to keep her for one night! Can't you do something!?"
Her heart was racing, her bare feet resounded off the hall walls as she ran as fast as her aging legs could carry her up to the command post. Her hair was rapidly falling out of it's usual carefully pulled back style. She finally reached the door and started pounding. Very few code keys indeed would open that door. "We're supposed to be able to protect our refugees, what does that say about us if we just leave her with Mike for him to do whatever he pleases? She was tortured before she got here, she still has damage I didn't have the opportunity to fix yet. She feels pain. She feels everything we do. She's a biomechanical human. No one questions any other sort of humanoid. They just accept it as another species. She is her own species, she lives, she deserves to have a normal life. She shouldn't be dragged all over against her will!" She was pleading, whether the door opened or not, she didn't care, she knew they could hear her through the intercom by the door and through her communicator.
-
It had been a few days since he had left Libra, and Mike was bored. He had left his contact on a small ship of his own. He now had everything he wanted, even the robot girl. He had decided to keep her, as he was already giving quite a bit to the Adelosians. They weren’t that happy that he reneged on his little last minute deal, but he didn’t give them much choice. It was either let him keep her, or forgo the rest of Libra’s defense codes.
He should have been happy, but he had grown tired of the woman. What real use did he have for a robot? He didn’t care what she was made of, and he really didn’t want to get involved with anyone who would buy her, since he really needed to lay low for a while.
He paced the room, trying to think of what to do. Lana was like a toy he no longer cared for, one that he needed to find a way to discard. Maybe
he should just jettison her out into the cosmos, and let the vacuum of space deal with the mess.
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Lana was stuffed in a small, dark room, normally used for storing supplies. It had been hours since she had last seen the light, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. At least that meant that Mike seemed to have forgotten about her.
She had managed to grab hold of a communications device and had been using it nonstop, broadcasting her pleas to anyone who might listen. So far, no one seemed to have picked up her signal, or maybe no one cared. She turned it on again, even though she knew it probably would not work. It was her last link to hope, the last thread of sanity she had.
“Please, can anyone hear me? Help me…I’m begging you…Please, just help me...� Her request for help had devolved into a whiny plea. Most likely, it would continue to go unanswered.
-
Utari had been constantly searching, scanning radio waves, attempting to pick up the electronic pulse of her daughter, match the data, anything. She'd been put on leave as she had been unable to focus on her work and was rather distraught about the entire thing. She couldn't put it aside. She hadn't even had her daughter for an entire day and that jerkface Mike had stolen her. And for what? Because she cared about people and he didn't care about anyone except himself? She had of course reported him to every authority she could contact. His abusive conduct as well as his breaking and entering, assalt and kidnapping.
The scanner crackled and she tuned it to see what she could get. She almost didn't believe it when she heard the transmission. She ran up to the bridge and frantically punched her id into the pannel and started almost hysterically talking through the com to the captain.
The second in command came down to talk to her and take a look at her scanner. Well, whether it was Lana or not, it was someone in trouble. He took the scanner and headed back to the bridge to contact the authorities and have the ship arrested.
-
Mike cursed as his ship was hauled back to Libra by the authorities. Lana wasn’t his biggest concern. He was a traitor, who had sold sensitive secrets to Libra’s enemies. If they were to find that out, he would be dead. Even if they didn’t find out what he had done, he would probably be dead when the fighting started.
Well, there was no point in fretting about all that. He had the more pressing matter of having a hostage on his ship. He couldn’t let them know about that, but if he jettisoned her into space, it would be quite obvious to the three ships that surrounded him. He would have to find a way to hide her.
“Perfect!” His conniving brain had hit a rare spring of intelligence, and a plan started to form in his mind. He took out a small welding torch, and went over to the hatch that led to what had become Lana’s prison. He retrieved a piece of scrap metal from the pile of junk he had let collect in the ship, and welded it over the hatch. Now it looked like a slapdash repair job of a piece of rotted floor, instead of a room that could possibly hiding a young woman.
When the ship finally reached Libra, Mike was waiting at the door, a calm smile on his lips, his whole body exuding an air of cold confidence.
“What seems to be the problem,” he asked as the guards, his guards, entered the ship. “Can’t a guy go on vacation? If you needed me back that badly, you should have just asked…”
-
Utari was marking the transmission and had it pinpointed on a handheld screen. She did not appear, but whispered something to the officials from the other room. The man nodded and entered the room where Mike was.
"Come with me please" He said quite sternly. "We have probably cause to search your ship and questions to be asked" He nodded to the men at his sides who tried to handcuff him.
Utari was waiting impatiently to get on the ship and search it from top to bottom and everything in between. She wanted her daughter back and she had every intention of outfitting her with a tracking device and a self defense lazer and antitheft system. Unauthorized touching would result in an electrical shock. Oh she had all sorts of (slightly far fetched) plans to keep her daughter safe once she had her back in her possession.
-
“This is ridiculous!” Mike glared around as the handcuffs were slapped on his wrists, his mind filled with rage and fear. He couldn’t let them search the ship, not with a hostage hidden under the floor. He may have liked to pretend he was something special, but in all reality, he was merely the head of a group of glorified rent-a-cops. He had no connections to get him out of this, and it would probably be only a matter of time before his other, more serious, crime was discovered.
“Let me go! I refuse to be treated like a criminal! What crime have I committed? What the hell is going on here?!”
“You are under suspicion for kidnapping,” one of the guards said, looking at his former boss with contempt. Every guard had lost any respect they had for him. For some, it was the fact that he had blatantly broken the law, but for most it was that he was stupid enough to get caught.
“Kidnapping?? Why in the hell would I kidnap anyone? You know me…Do you really think I would do something like that?”
That was a mistake on Mike’s part, because the guards knew he probably would do something like that. Hence the anger from most of them about getting caught. They would also be inclined to do the same type of thing, but they would have tried a lot harder to keep from getting arrested.
“Come with us,” one of the soldiers said with a sneer, as he dragged Mike away from his brooding guards. While the guards were angry with him, the soldiers were ecstatic that Mike Holloway had finally been put in his place. They were tired of him strutting around with his group of thugs, acting as if he was something special.
“So Mike, you finally ended up in a pair of handcuffs, eh? I always knew you’d end up where you belong…in a jail cell with all the other no good miscreants.”
“Fuck you,” were Mike’s eloquent words as he was dragged off of the ship. He turned and glanced at Utari as she was waiting to board the ship.
“Utari, I should have known this was your doing. I bet you claimed that I took that robot of yours. Actually, she did come with me for a while on my vacation, all on her own, of course. I have to say, you did a really good job constructing her. She was killer in bed.” He flashed her a wicked smile before the soldiers started to pull him away yet again.
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The device in Lana’s hands was still sending a signal, but she had already given up on imploring anyone to come to her aid. Her insanity had once again robbed her of her voice, and the darkness was starting to creep into her mind, casting images of dark things best left in nightmares.
She heard sounds from above, but in her state of mind she merely assumed that Mike was coming to retrieve her, or that the shadows of her past had come alive and were waiting to devour her.
She didn’t dare make a sound, lest she reveal herself to the monsters that surrounded her. The world was dangerous, a place to be feared. The few moments she had of peace had been taken in a matter of hours, and she had found herself a captive once again.
There was no light at the end of the tunnel for her, at least not in her addled mind. She crouched against the wall, ready to fight against whatever terror awaited her.
-
"Breaking into my room, leaving me unconscious and taking my daughter is your idea of a willing travel companion?" Utari asked in shock. She opened her mouth to insult him, but stopped and simply shook her head "Get him out of here and make sure he doesn't have the key to the cell you put him in, and make double sure you change the code to a completely new one." She glanced back over his shoulder "And you might ought to do a cavity search. Who knows where he might stuff a code breaker" She stepped into the ship, going almost directly to the patched part of the floor. There were several problems with Mike's plan to hide the door. First was the fresh weld. The second, was the transmitter and thirdly, he was simply an idiot and bound to be caught eventually. "Abari?" She called, grabbing a cutter torch "Abari sweetheart, I'm coming. Stay away from the door, I have to cut it away and it might fall in." She warned, hoping she'd be able to hear her. Maybe she'd cut a small hole first so that if the piece did fall on her daughter, it wouldn't do serious damage.
-
Mike sweared up a storm, as he was lead away from the scene. Oh, Utari would pay for this, she would pay dearly. His hatred for her started to grow at that moment, if such a thing was even possible. He wanted to see her dead, to see her suffer even more than she already had. For now, he would have to satisfy himself with memory of the pain he had caused.
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Lana could not make out her mother’s voice through the thick metal that was welded to the ground, but fortunately she was already away from the door. The sound caused her to back even further away, her hands searching for any type of weapon she might use to defend herself. The only thing she could find was a medium sized roll of toilet paper, which was not quite what one would normally think of as a weapon. Still, she clutched it as if it were the world’s most deadliest cudgel.
-
"Abarri?" She said breathlessly as she lowered her head into the hole she had made. It wasn't big enough for her whole body, but it gave her a chance to make sure her daughter was still in there and had enough air and everything. It was however, hard to see in the dark of the hold after the light of the station. "It's okay. I've come to get you out. Mike has been arrested and I'm going to have a word with the captain about him. It'll be fine. Come on now." She was about ready to lock Lana up as well just to make sure she was safe.
-
Lana rushed forward, her face filled with a mix of wild terror and relief. She was like a desperate animal whose cage had finally been let open. She started to climb the walls, trying to get towards the opening, even though it was obviously too small for her to fit through.
No words left her lips; just a panicked breathing that seemed to be on the verge of turning into a scream. She managed to get a grip on the small opening and she found herself attempting to push her whole body through the hole. She ended up slipping and falling back to the floor, and repeated the process over again, like some sort of crazy wind up toy.
Still, she did not speak, and merely made a grunting whine like a puppy that had lost his ball under a chair. She finally got a grip on the opening, and dangled over the opening like a piece of meat in a slaughterhouse freezer.
-
"Abarri, sweetheart, listen to mommy" Utari said, laying on her stomach so she was next to the hole while she motioned for the men to make an opening. "I'm going to get you out, but Mike welded over the door, so we have to make a new door. It'll take a minute, but I'll stay right here with you until we can get you out." She explained, worried what this might have done to Abarri and if she'd be able to help bring her back to her right mind. She heard the metalic crash of a bigger piece of metal falling to the floor beside them. "Abarri, I need to move to the new door. It's right next to us. I'm going to lean down, and I want you to take my hand and then some men who were helping me to find you are going to help pull us both up." She explained before slowly shifting to the bigger opening and reaching for her daughter "Come to me, I'll help you out."
-
The loud sound of the crashing piece of metal caused Lana to leap back in shock, her eyes wide with fright. She barely heard her mother’s words, but the sight of her mother leaning down into the room was enough to make her rush forward and grab the woman’s arms. Her eyes were afire with insane panic, but there was still a small glint of recognition that was directed at Utari.
She gripped Utari’s arms like a vice, as if she was a metal life-preserver and letting go would mean slipping into the black depths of her mind. Now that she was in the light, the full extent of the physical damage that had occurred could be seen. Her face was covered in the black oil that served as her blood, and her clothing was in shreds. There was a gaping hole in one of her shoulders, where the wires and inner mechanisms of her robotic body could be seen.
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Mike sat in his cell, still fuming from his treatment. It seemed as if they had taken Utari’s suggestion of a cavity search seriously. He knew that he was in deep trouble, and that he could only hope that his more serious indiscretions would not be revealed.
The only thing he looked forward to was the fact that Utari might want to talk to him to find out what he had done to her precious daughter. He wanted to see the look on her face when he went into detail of all that had happened. Then there was the added bonus of the fact that Lana wasn’t technically a person, so he may end up getting off with destruction of property. That would really stick in Utari’s gullet.
-
Utari hauled her daughter up with the help of the men around her. She held her close, getting the 'blood' all over her and not caring in the least. "Come on, let's get you home and patched up. Can you stand?" She asked. It was odd to see someone so worried over a mechanical device, one leaking oil and protruding wires no less. "I'll take care of you." She really had no desire to see Mike-- partly because she didn't want to see that smug look on his horrible face and partly because she wanted to kill him and being in the same room might just provide that opportunity and then where would Abarri be with her mother in jail? There was no telling and Utari just didn't want to take that chance. She had a daughter to care for, one who seemed to be mentally damaged at that.
-
Lana didn’t respond to her mother’s words, almost as if she hadn’t really heard them. Now that she no longer trapped, it was as if her mind had gone completely blank. She stood up and stared ahead of her, no hint of any emotion in her robotic eyes. While most people would assume this was because she was a machine and had no emotion, it was more likely that her mind was in a state of shock.
A soldier came into the ship and headed over to Utari. He had an electronic pad in his hands, on which he was writing something with a small black stylus.
“Miss Metharom, Mr. Holloway has agreed to pay for any damages he has caused to your property. We will be releasing him shortly, and you will be happy to know that he no longer has a job as a guard. He will most likely be assigned to some sort of maintenance detail.” The soldier looked at Utari’s apparent concern for the stony faced Lana with contempt. To him, Lana looked like a life-sized toy and nothing more.
-
"Excuse me, she is my daughter, not my property, Mister Holloway did not only take her, even if you do classify her as property, he broke into my house, assalted me, kidnapped my daughter, fled Libra with her, has been making all sorts of illeagal transmissions for who knows how long and you're going to put him on mainanence which gives him free access to most of the station? I cost him his job by exposing him for what he is and you're going to set him free in my residence and place of employment without supervision?" Utari's eyes were blazing "I'm not as easily replaced as you seem to think I am. It will take a good long while to find someone who knows how to do everything that I do around here." She pulled herself up "Why don't you just execute me and get it over with? Then I don't have to worry about when he's going to kill me."
-
“We aren’t morons Miss Metharom,” the solider said curtly. “We are well aware of what he did, and we will be keeping a close eye on him. He has no security clearance any longer, and he will be monitored at ALL times. As for illegal transmissions, we could find no evidence of that, and so our hands are tied in the matter.”
“Look,” he said with a deep sigh. “We are in too much need of help to stick a man in prison for an assault that didn’t cause any permanent damage. As for your “daughter”, Mike will have to pay for any repairs. I doubt that there will be any lasting effect on her ‘mind’. “
Lana continued to stare ahead, her eyes devoid of any sign that she was even aware of what was going on.
-
Utari eyed him "I don't suppose there's a way to have a guard that is not affiliated with Mike, to be posted outside my door?" She well knew she could potentually be in very grave danger having ticked off a man who was more criminal than anything. She was going to be killed and they would still keep him on because 'no permanate or lasting damage had occured' she was just a useless scientist, never mind the entire base was full of scientists. They had to be there for a reason right? A base didn't just collect scientists because the captain thought the labcoats looked cool.
-
“That might be a problem…We’re short staffed as it is, and with all the preparation for war, we really can’t spare anyone…” The soldier rubbed the back of his head in a nervous gesture, a small gleam of guilt appearing in his eyes. He knew that there was a chance that Utari would end up dead, but his hands were pretty much tied.
“Look, I can try and get one of the less gifted soldiers to protect you.” In reality, the “less gifted” soldier he was referring to was a poor young man who had suffered severe brain damage in a training exercise a few years before. While he was still physically sound, his mind was that of a young child. They had found some less taxing jobs for him, such as sorting supplies and sweeping up the mess hall.
The soldier’s eyes lit up, an idea forming in his mind.
“Why don’t you program your “daughter” to protect you? A robot would be much more effective than anybody I could send over. You could even build weaponry right into her systems…”
He knelt down and started to inspect the seemingly catatonic Lana. He was a bit of a roboticist himself, even though he was nowhere near Utari’s expertise. He prodded his fingers into the gaping hole on her shoulder, and felt the wires that were protruding.
“I’ve never see anything like this before. Then again, the only robots I am familiar with are the small toys I occasionally build…” He pulled one of the wires further out so he could get a closer look. “What material is this?”
-
Utari just barely resisted the urge to slap his hand away "First of all, stop poking her. Second of all, she is already programed for what she is. I don't just randomly rip out her wires and put in new ones. This is bio-engineering. She's alive-- tramatized at the moment thanks to a certain bastard no one seems to be able to get rid of, but she's not simply a robot. She has a program that functions as her brain. She learns, she can love, hurt, think, make choices, whatever. She has the full range of emotions, full range of moods, her mind can be damaged just like a persons, and Mike seems to be good at that." However, outfitting Abarri with weapons might not be a bad idea. "See if you can get the okay for Lana here to be weaponized if I can get her functioning properly again." She looked her daughter over and sighed deeply. "She could be gone already." The fact that she wasn't responding normally worried her to no end. "Will you at least hook up one of the lab alarm sensors to my door?" That randomly going off was enough to scare just about anyone. It was as loud and flashy as all get out and if it was programed right, it could zap a person too. "Maybe send one of the security techs my way?" since they couldn't spare a real soldier.