FfffffffffwwwwwwPOW!! [Wide open!]

[Ilaria]

>SMASH<

    Ilaria slowly rebooted herself, a droning warning alarm buzzing in the background.  Her internal gyros and force sensors switched on soon after her audio board, revealing that she was lurched forward in a sitting position.  An eye flickered on suddenly, the other refusing to follow suit due to a detected malfunction in the boot process.  What Ilaria saw with the good eye was the source of that malfunction.  There was a fair amount of a joystick column forced into her lower-right abdomen.

        "Amber, sitrep please?"  Ilaria prodded her 'wound' and, finding nothing catching, pulled herself free.  Luminous blue dripped and rolled from everything involved, her nanites spilling from the rupture without her systems telling them otherwise.  "Amber?  Where's my bloody sitrep?  Sensors ain't down, are they?"

        After a slight crackle over an intercom a lifeless female voice answered, "Apologies, ma'am.  Three of my sensors appeared offline.  They are missing, actually.  I recommend manual examination and replacement of the affected sensors.  They are located on the starboard engine pod, within the actuation system."

        "Anything else then?"

        "Systems appear to be functioning normally.  Internal cabin has sustained no damage.  External hull status unknown; recorded flight data suggests the nose and underside will have sustained--"

        "I got it, sugar."  Ilaria picked herself up and headed for a fresh set of clothes in the back.  "Ship's busted and banged, an' she needs a new coat o' paint."

        "Aye, ma'am."

        "Thanks much, Amber.  Now go do whate'er it is needs doin'."

    As Ilaria found a simple dress and bent over to reach for it, her right eye flickered on again.  The minute she stood up again it shorted out, making her drop the dress on the floor.  "Amber, can I get a cam'ra on 'dis?" she requested, a chirp signaling one of the security cameras was activated.  It filled in the gaps in Ilaria vision where her bad eye wouldn't help, namely revealing the details of the damage her body had sustained.

    From the looks of things there was more than a simple breach of her outer shell.  A small bit of the internal structure was bent and there were sparks in the nano-fluid every now and then.  Something was shorting out, and that was where her auxillery systems were stored.  "Well if that ain't a bitch.  Likely a chip got fussed up."  Looking at the wound and then the thin dress, Ilaria decided to use some of her ruined shirt as a bandage to keep the nanites in check.  She'd need to find a town and people didn't take well to seeing blue leaking out each other.

    The dress slipped on easily enough after the bandaging, where only a trained eye would notice the bulge of it beneath the fabric.  A set of boots would have to do for now, as the android didn't exactly have much to work with at the moment.  She took a look at a readout by the side hatch before tapping it, the door opening to a hot but dry climate.  Too dry in fact, the air carrying with it a fine dust in the wind that would damage Ilaria's artificial lungs.  She needed the nitrogen in the air to function at her fullest however, so a face mask was taken from an emergency air kit beside the door.

    The girl hopped down to the hard packed ground and took a look back at the Amber Wave.  The ship's virtual persona was correct, the outer hull was scraped and dented.  It wasn't anything Ilaria couldn't fix in a day or so, but the giant boulder punched into the nose of the ship needed to be moved first.  The real problem was the engine pod though.  They were retracted thankfully, but the ship must have crashed before one could tuck into the frame.  The hydraulic rams that controlled the starboard engine were bent such that they wouldn't collapse.

        "Looks like I'm hunt'n' fer a hydro an' a new chip."  Ilaria looked about, then into the distance.  "Inna middle o' nowhere.  Welp, east sounds fancy."

    With that, the droid set off for the east according to her internal compass.  Well, supposing the thing wasn't damaged as well.  She had to hit a town eventually, right?

[Ismene]

Despite the fact that they were somewhat painful, despite the fact that the dusty air did absolutely nothing for her lungs, Emmeline went on long walks pretty often. It was always a bit of an ordeal and very slow going, given her circumstances, but she considered them necessary for her sanity. There was only so much time a girl could spend in her room, and she didn't particularly want to be in the kitchen either, if it meant her mother was there.

Em flicked a pebble from the ground with her walking stick, then paused as her eye's followed its trajectory. She leaned on the stick, her free hand shoving some strands of coarse hair out of her eyes and blocking the sun's blinding rays as she looked; there was something there. Or perhaps a mirage, there were lots of those, but this thing seemed solid, somehow, though very distant. She squinted. Whatever it was, it was too far away to tell.

She briefly considered turning back. Mystery silhouettes could be dangerous here, of course. It could be a carnivorous beast, a trafficker, anything really. It was laughable to assume that whatever or whoever it was wasn't dangerous. And it wasn't like Emmeline was particularly capable at defending herself. But dammit if she wasn't bored.

Impulsiveness won over. She edged slowly towards the figure, until she could get some details. She wasn't sure, but she began to suspect that this thing was a someone. Not a human, necessarily, but at least humanoid. Whatever—whoever it was was very tall. And it seemed to be female from her attire, which made Em relax almost imperceptibly.

"Ma'am?" she called out from the distance, her low voice cracking slightly. "Ma'am, can you hear me?"

She continued forward, trying to contain any fear. But fear wasn't the only emotion there. Shoot, if this wasn't exciting. Em was almost transported back into her pirating days. Her eyes glinted.

Finally, she found herself within a good distance. Yes, her assumptions still appeared to hold. "Howdy, ma'am," she said, leaning, a few feet away. "I don't believe I've seen you 'round these parts. I hope you'll forgive me for wantin' to know a bit more about who you are."

[Ilaria]

Well if this wasn't convenient.  Either Ilaria had better emergency navigation skills than she remembered or luck was just plain on her side.  Something or someone was calling to her in the middle of nowhere, which really meant there was shelter nearby.  The droid spun a bit, but had trouble seeing anything with the damned radiation falling through the sky.  Then she perked up and came to a stop.  Wait, they have sunlight on planets, don't they?

    Ilaria flickered her eyes momentarily until she could see the basic features of the girl nearby, settling on a filter that made her eyes blue.  Well, one eye anyway; she gathered some nanites to manually switch the other eye on even though it had no function.

    "Howdy, lass."  Her features lacked expression for a second as she hid half her face, bringing it around to meet the girl's gaze once appearances were in order.  "I ain't much bothered though.  You got yer rights an' all anyway."  Ilaria took a better look at the girl as she took off her facemask for a bit to talk.  What she found though didn't exactly steady her view of the girl.

    "Name's Ilaria, an' I'm new round this bend," the droid said as she snapped out of a slight trance.  She wanted to say something about her discovery, but perhaps it was nothing to her.  Humans did tend to take such matters personally though.  A new subject then.  "What're the odds we cross paths, eh?  I only been walkin' 'bout round an hour."  She looked around a bit, her filters giving her a much better view now that they were calibrated.  "Don't see much more than dust and rocks though.  We pokin' round the edge o' town or you lost too?"

    The answer had to be 'no.'  This girl was sporting a pretty new leg and didn't look like she'd been using it long.  That's where the questions prayed to be asked.  That was a Thanatos model for sure.  But was it a smart model?  Thanatos never did tell users the data streams went two ways in those.  Even worse, was this girl associated with the company?  A scout perhaps?  Likely not, as this chunk of Edanith was partly randomly picked out and partly randomized by Ilaria's lack of piloting experience.  Such a fast response would need to be organized and there was no time for that.  It was all possible, but the third option statistically held true.  She was just a normal girl.  Well, normal enough.

    "I'm in real need o' a tradin' corner 'bout now."  Ilaria forced her eyes off the girl's leg in a most mechanical fashion, trying to swap from her analytical self and give the girl a chance to relate.  Her first native human contact and she didn't want to turn it sour.  "Or at least som'n good 'nuff close ta one anyway."

[Ismene]

There was something a little inhuman, mechanical about the way the being—Ilaria, she had said—moved, especially the way she looked at Em, but Em didn't pay much attention to it. She put it down to the probability that Ilaria was tired, or jetlagged or something. Hell, if Em was lost in the middle of the Etari desert, she wouldn't be that smooth, neither. Still, things didn't quite match up. Ilaria spoke with an authentic, Edani frontier twang, but she was new in the area?

Well, the likelihood seemed to be that Ilaria wasn't dangerous, at least up until one pried too much. So Em wasn't gonna pry too much.

"Emmeline Akhtar," Em offered. "Call me Em, it's less fussy. I can get ya to a tradin' corner, sure. It ain't fancy, but if yer not lookin' for somethin' too obscure it'll do." She followed the stranger's gaze down at her leg and saw that her dress had gotten caught in the metalwork. A little red-faced, she quickly untangled the fabric. "You like it?" she said, trying not to seem too out of sorts. "Damn nuisance."

She motioned for Ilaria to follow her back along the same way she came, this time against the harsh wind. "I was born here. Been 'round these parts for all but two years o' my life. I managed to get this," she rapped on her leg, "in those two years."

[Ilaria]

This Emmeline was an interesting sort, in an extrapolated way.  Little in the way of introductions and she was already willing to help out a virtual stranger.  Well, Ilaria wasn't being truthful in some areas, but she wasn't outright lying either.  Emmeline knew what she needed to know and thankfully decided to lend a hand.  She didn't appear naive; rather conversely she came across as confident, and she obviously had more experience than Ilaria if she'd lost a limb over something.

        "None my business, I know..." the droid forced out prematurely in the spirit of conversation, "but that stings Em, I'd be right well lettin' you take lead at yer own pace."

    Ilaria took careful note of the girl's stride for but long enough to predict the pattern of it.  From the looks of things there wasn't much in the way of official physical therapy out in the frontier.  Perhaps the reason Emmeline was out here in the first place was part of her own regimen?  Or was that due to the haphazardly-landed spacecraft crunching into the ground drawing her out?

        <Amber, any updates?  And could you send me the flight data?  I'd like to know what happened when I was shut down,> Ilaria beamed back the way she came.

    There was no response on the wireless signal.  The sand particles in the air were probably blocking laser and radio signals that far out.  If only she'd have predicted this outcome, Ilaria could have established a microwave antenna.  It was pointless to think about options now.  The best option would be to wait things out.

        "So, these here strong gusters common over these parts?" Ilaria queried her new friend as she replaced her face mask.  The very sight of the thing sparked an addition, "This grit be quite the thorn in my side with jus'a flimsy thing like this but fightin' 'gainst it."  She picked a slow pace and followed the girl, her longer legs otherwise easily speeding Ilaria past Emmeline.  "Though, suppose I get a better bit of gear when we make that there trade post, what it's worth."

    The slower pace meant Ilaria had to smoothly shift her weight back and forth.  That might concern other stealthy androids if they even existed, but Ilaria's gait was normally as true and clean as any organic's aside from the motors making noise in quiet rooms.  No, the issue Ilaria discovered was that the dent in her support frame was less secure than she originally thought.  Every sway of her weight to the right hung and snapped a little.  Something was catching internally and she needed instruments to repair it.  Considering the basic information she'd gathered about Edanith's wild frontier in the past, she doubted a clean room was anywhere outside a set of city walls.

    "There don't happen ta' be that doc that patched you up in town, right Em?"  Ilaria was reaching, but didn't want to outright give herself away.  Calculations still only put the damage a high chance of holding out before returning to the Amber Wave.  But where there were Thanatos prosthetics, there were sure to be Thanatos electronics and chips.  "Honest, I think a place does such good work on a girl sure could help my rustin' heap o' a ship.  S'why I'm walkin' here anyway.  But she'll soar again, one way or another."

[Ismene]

Em flushed a little when Ilaria seemed to think she took offense. "It's nothin'," she mumbled. "Don't worry 'bout it." She didn't want to alienate or anger the stranger, and she hadn't been offended, just caught off guard. Best to be as friendly as possible. A new possibility was entering Em's head uninvited. Who knew where Ilaria came from? But wherever it was, it was probably better than here, and... Em didn't dare follow the train of thought, though. It was wishful thinking born out of swallowed dust, probably.

The two walked for a little before Ilaria spoke again. Em was relieved that it was the stuff of normal conversations. You know, the weather. She had gotten to be pretty skilled at weather talk with her family.

"We git pretty big weather 'round here," Em nodded. "Gusters an' all. Occasionally somethin' cold comes in from the Eir, but most else we're hot an' dry an' windy as hell. We're prepared, though. Our tradin' posts carry anythin' and everythin' a stranger might need to... well, protect 'er face."

When Ilaria mentioned Em's doc, Em was confused for a long moment. Was she looking for a human doctor, because in that case she was out of luck if she wanted Em's. Then she mentioned her ship, which cleared things up a little, though Em thought it was a bit out of place to call an engineer a doctor. She shook her head. "Naw, they did this up in the capital. I don't reckon I ever saw my doc, neither. Unconscious an' all... We got engineers in the frontier, though, if that's what yer lookin' for. Not galaxy-class or nothin', but they ain't bad."

Em could only restrain a moment more, though. "You gotta ship, then? Where've ya been, where're ya headed? I miss that sort o' travelin' with an ache."

[Ilaria]

Nothing galaxy class.  Well, those were the exact last words Ilaria wanted to hear.  The stuff she sported in herself was all purpose-built, and the closest most would get to that level of quality was galaxy class aeronautical electronics.  Still, there was room for expansion in her frame, she supposed.  Bulkier, older gear would work for now if it still performed well enough.  There was nothing to lose in checking the shops at least.

        "So ya love th' free skies too, I reck'n."  Ilaria threaded out scenarios and picked one at random.  "Well I's a bird far yonder where I came.  She's a might hurt'n at the moment though."  She couldn't exactly mention it was a prison transport, so she ran through the registration history of the ship for a moment.  "An ol' sciency boat, she us' ta be.  Now she jus' flies my ass aroun' rock to rock."

    That brought to question what Ilaria even planned to do with herself now that she was free.  She wasn't clear by a long shot, but being able to change appearances and hack pretty much everything but another AI went a long way in putting distance between her and Thanatos agents.  She could realistically do anything she wanted so long as she didn't screw up and signal an alert.  But what was that?  She'd need to find a legitimate way of paying fuel and port costs.  That aside she could technically go on forever.

        Ilaria looked down at the Em for a moment and made up at leas part of her mind.  "Mostly jus' been right 'bout explorin' as o' late.  Meetin' nice folk like yerself."  She glanced at the leg again and then at her wound, the nanites thankfully showing up only in her own vision at the moment.  "Way I fig'r, I got me a ship and certain types could use that.  So I do what needs doin' fer those that can't.  S'long s'I make ends meet, it's not a bad way o' gettin' through life."

    Well, she could have worded that differently since she wasn't really alive, but Ilaria liked the sound of it.  Then again, she could have mentioned she was a weaponized robot from space, but that didn't really fit the mood either.  No, Ilaria liked that idea she just set up.  Sometimes people needed a hand, and some need more of a hand than others.  Em here had only one leg, and though the replacement seems functional she'll have to keep going back for repairs and upgrades that aren't cheap.  Worse yet, that was a Thanatos model.  For all she knew, it was made to spy on magic users in this girl's vicinity.  There was always a secondary purpose to anything that complany sold.

    That was a good point too.  So long as Ilaria was around, no government would lay an oppressive hand on its people.  The logistics of working as a vigilante weren't quite there;  more data needed to be acquired for a solid decision.  But by helping the people in places like this, Ilaria was doing a small part in the fight.  Now, if she put up hacking and smuggling services to avoid unnecessary taxation and control of supplies...  That might be a good idea once things were all patched up on her end.  The droid couldn't help but smile at the thought of becoming a 'good' pirate.

        "So ya us' ta work on a ship?  What'd ya like doin'?  An' how big was that boat?"  Ilaria thought back to her own ship, which really only required a crew of one.  Standard vessels of that type were manned by four as science stations though.  Considering she'd only seen the outside of the Amber Wave for the first time just an hour ago, the droid was genuinely curious what other types of ships came round this planet.

[Ismene]

Em smiled as Ilaria described her ship and her life. It sounded different to Em's experience, certainly; she hadn't lived on a science vessel, and her crew sure hadn't done anything along the lines of doing what needs doing for those who can't, but it was still flying. And, well, being some sort of Robin Hood-do gooder was probably almost as exciting as piracy, in its own morally upright way.

And, well, that she mentioned that "certain types could use that" in reference to her ship caught Em's eye.

"That ain't a bad way of gettin' through life at all," she nodded along.

Em was beginning to really believe there was a chance she could get back to the skies. As soon as she recognized it, she squashed the thought again. Unnecessary, unrealistic ideas. Besides, what about her leg? She would still have to fix that part, but finding a new one on the frontier or examining the current one for bugs were both nigh on impossible.

"I worked on one o' those pirate ships, the bigger kind that gits the government's attention. Lots come into the frontier 'cause our line between legal an' illegal is a touch murky, so I just went up to one and talked to 'em until they let me on. There were, oh, twenty of us, give o' take? I wasn't anythin' vicious, just a cook, though..." At the memory, a new energy found its way into her step. She really did miss it. "O' course, what with my leg an' all, I'm back home. I dream a' goin' back, but who knows what this ol' thing's capable of?"

This was a little more than she was comfortable with divulging, but she was willing to take a few chances. She had deliberately left her final sentence ambiguous. Was it capable of working for her or against her?

She paused for a moment to shade her eyes and squint ahead. "OK, you see where the smoke turns a lil' less red into a lil' more ash? That's 'bout where the town starts."

[Ilaria]

Em was strange for a human.  Most she'd known thought only of ideals and hope, both of which were quickly broken from their minds.  By all means this girl should have been the same, losing a leg and all.  But instead she seemed to embrace it, make it her own.  If anything she had a stronger sense of hope now than before her incident.  Curious.  Were wild humans all this positive?

        "Smoke..."  Ilaria saw something distorting in her vision and assumed that was what Em was talking about.  But red to ash?  It took a second for Ilaria to process all instances of those words, finding ash was also a color.  As a substance though, it meant a cooler temperature of the gasses.  Spotting where the infrared was a bit less intense Ilaria continued, "Right, I see it.  Ya gonna come along fer tha' ride er go back t'what ya was doin'?"

    Ilaria suddenly had a concept formulate in her head.  Emmeline was grounded for her leg and not by her own accord.  She was a nice enough girl and knew the ways of the area well enough.  Did Ilaria really want to let her go back her merry way?  There was a lot Ilaria could learn from a native in a mentoring role, if mother was any example at least.  The details would have to be worked out, but was Emmeline currently Ilaria's most desireable asset?  Desireable enough to have her tag along for an unknown span of time?

        "Honest, I could us'a girl like yerself ta help with tha locals."  Ilaria tenatively made up her mind within milliseconds.  If she was willing, Emmeline could help the droid as long as she liked.  "An' I wud'n mind a new pal any which way.  Yer a fine gal, Em."  It was a sly way of asking, but if Emmeline took the offer perhaps the two of them could help each other.  One handles the deals and details, the other gets some pay and maybe upgrades for her leg if the right parts are in order.  "I think we'd work well together."

    Some 'tests' would be in order most likely, but nothing remotely demanding on the girl.  Ilaria just needed some screening for whether Emmeline was a threat with Thanatos all about her, as well as how she'd react if she found out Ilaria wasn't human.  Also she'd need a job if she decided to stay as far as the ship.  Was Em just there to cook and represent the crew in relations?  Communications operator, maybe?  Perhaps more than that.

    Then there was the question that threaded from the others.  Was Ilaria starting a crew?  She was perfectly capable of flying the Amber Wave by herself, but...  She liked this.  She'd never known friendly company.  She'd never had a drive to help others either.  How could Ilaria help people if she didn't understand them?  She needed the best examples of what she was fighting for on her ship to perform that directive properly.

        Ilaria's eye flickered off then on for a second as she stood still to look in the distance.  With a grin and a turn of the head to hide the bigged eye Ilaria said, "Right, town though.  I'd be might grateful if ya decide ta carry on, hon."  It wasn't a lie, or a stretched truth.  The android honestly did find herself, for once since activation, yearning for friendship.  It was a good feeling.  Though sometimes she wished these human emotions weren't so...  fuzzy.

[Ismene]

"I'm comin' along for the ride," Em said readily. She wasn't doing in anything in particular. If anything, she had been escaping her home, and going along with Ilaria fulfilled that purpose easily. "An' I'd like to work with ya." She could help with the locals, definitely. Or anything else. She was dying to do something in this goddamned future ghost town.

The two made it into the town. The streets were nearly abandoned because of the wind and dust, but rowdy noise escaped from some of the buildings: taverns. As Ilaria and Em walked along the main street, Em said, "I used to think this sort o' thing was loud an' dangerous, but then I visited Libra. It's like comparin' a mouse to a capybara." She stopped walking and looked up. "Well, I reckon this is what ya asked for."

Before them was a building that looked much like the others, except for the sign, which was adorned with a carving of a wrench and the single word "SHOP." Em pushed the door open and held it for Ilaria.