Since Legend of Galactic Girls is on hiatus, I've split this into its own story...
[size=larger]Imoto Project[/size]
31 May 2013
20:43 GMT
HMS Pinafore
"I found some ice cream in the galley."
"Oh, lovely! Thank you, Li-san." Skuld accepted one of the two bowls that Kohran was carrying. "After all the talking about my homeworld and the world of the Imperial Flower Troupe that you and So- Hasegawa-san had me doing today, I could use the recharge."
The android grinned at the visitor from another universe. "Well, it's only natural that we'd be curious about the people we're patterned after. Isn't it?"
"I would have been surprised if you weren't interested. Oh, excuse me a moment." Skuld turned her head to the table where Lisa, Bibi, and Bob were seated, raised her voice, and said, "It's okay, Leese!" Then she turned back to Kohran. "Sorry about that," she continued in the quieter tone she had been using. "Sometimes Lisa isn't sure what she should or shouldn't talk about when it comes to traveling the dimensions."
"How did you know this was one of those times?" As Skuld raised one eyebrow in response, Kohran blushed. "Oh, right."
"You don't have too many people around here who have powers like ours, do you? You aren't used to what we can do. Come to think of it, you don't have too many people around here who even have the capability to develop those powers."
"Not without handwavium, no."
Skuld shook her head. "That isn't what I meant. I was talking about people like me, or Sana-chan, or Nancy-san, or Stark-san from two universes back, or Iris-chan in the universe before that one. Oh, that reminds me..." She reached into her vest pocket. "These are for you."
Kohran blinked. "For me?"
"Doug-san mentioned to the Kohran in the Imperial Flower Troupe that he had met you before he met her, and Leese mentioned to her that we hadn't met you yet. So she asked us to play mailman. Even though I'm not Hermod."
Kohran accepted the letters from another universe. "Wow - talk about a special delivery!"
9 June 2013
16:19 GMT
Stellvia, Old Ring, Habitat Module 3
The Girls were gone. Kohran was still recovering emotionally from what had happened during and after the time she and Sora and Yayoi were playing tour guide for the Visitors. And now she was depressed because of what Noah had just said about their gift to her.
That reminded Kohran of the letters Skuld had handed to her. She pulled them out of her purse, looked at them - still unopened - and wondered why they had been written. She could understand the one that looked like she had written it, addressed to herself; that was obviously a letter from the Kohran of that world. And the handwriting on the letter addressed to Noah looked like General Yoneda's. She had to give that to Noah sometime... but now wasn't a good time.
That left the other letter, which Kohran had no intention of ever opening. It wasn't addressed to her.
She put the letters on the workbench beside the door to the storeroom that nobody ever opened, and stared at them. Then she picked up the one with her name on it, and used the blade of her leatherman to open the envelope.
"To my reflection, Kohran,
"I hope this letter finds you well. I would ask about the weather, but Doug-san tells me there isn't any weather in space where you are, and I don't know if you can send me a reply anyway.
"It seems weird writing a letter to myself. But that's wrong; you aren't me. We've lived different lives. Maybe I should think of you as the twin sister that I never knew I had. I wonder what our parents would have thought of that?
"We're doing well, protecting and entertaining the people of Tokyo. I hope you're doing as well as we are, and that you haven't been so busy with one part of your life that you've forgotten to live the other parts."
(Kohran nodded at that. While her "Red Lad" radio show wasn't the same as dancing on stage with the Flower Troupe, it was still her way of entertaining the people of the Convention, and she definitely hadn't neglected her engineering work.)
"You know I wouldn't write to you without a reason. Doug-han and Eimi-han let me look over the plans to your body - I was impressed! If you still know where to find Peters-han, please tell him I like his work."
(Her work, now. But Kohran - the one who wrote the letter - couldn't know that.)
"And you know what I like to do when I like somebody else's work."
(Kohran blinked. She realized she had been neglecting her engineering work; all she'd done since SOS-con was repair things. She hadn't developed anything new in months, even on paper.)
"There should be something that Eimi-han called a 'USB key' with this letter. I don't know why she called it a key; it doesn't open any locks. But that's what she says it's called. She also says this key has copies of all the notes we came up with to make your body better ..."
Kohran quickly looked in the envelope for the memory dongle, the rest of the letter forgotten.
10 June 2013
07:47 GMT
Stellvia, Old Ring, Habitat Module 1
"Noah...?"
He looked up from the news being displayed on his PDA. "Yes, Kohran?"
"Would you mind if I worked on a private project for a few weeks?"
"You've never needed my permission for that before... Oh, you mean right now?" She nodded. "Sure. We're all coping in our own ways."
They all glanced across the breakfast table at Sora's empty chair. "Or not coping," Yayoi added. "I'll talk to her."
"Thank you, Yayoi. Kohran, are you going to stay in touch with us while you're working on this project?"
"Oh, sure! I'll still be on Stellvia."
27 June 2013
23:52 GMT
Stellvia, Old Ring, Habitat Module 3
The door "that nobody ever opened" was opened behind Kohran, because she needed some airflow in the storeroom and opening the door was faster than activating another ceiling fan.
She flipped some switches, channeling power into the capacitor banks. Then, just as she had done so many times over the last two weeks, Kohran talked to the four lifeless androids laying around her, one by one. "I wish I had the courage to do this for all of you, but I'm too big a coward. Ever since I watched Chobits, I can't risk waking you up, Takako-san. You'd hate what we turned you into. I don't know what father was thinking when he asked A.C. to build you." She shifted her attention to the next android over. "And I don't know if I'm more afraid of you waking up with or without your powers, or with or without your memories of visiting here last month, Skuld-sama. Please forgive me for taking the easy way out."
The audible alert on the capacitor banks chirped, and electricity started running up the Jacob's Ladders that Kohran had installed on the first day of her project. Since everyone insisted on casting her as a Mad Scientist, she was going to live up to the part - her pride as an entertainer let her do no less. She looked toward the sky - or, at least, she looked up as if there was a sky above the space station. "It'll only be a couple of minutes before everything's ready, now. Kohran-neesan, Eimi-neesan, Doug-san, thank you for your help. Your designs are brilliant!" The ceiling lights turned green, accentuating the mood. "They laughed at me at the academy! Laughed!!" Kohran grinned. "Well, they would have if I had told them about this. Or if there was an academy." She raised her voice again. "They laughed! But I'll show them!! I'll show them all!!!"
The audible alert on the capacitor banks chimed.
Kohran threw the Big Switch.
The capacitors discharged.
The module went dark.
28 June 2013
00:00 GMT
She opened her eyes. "Where am I?"
"You're awake! It worked! I'm so happy!"
She recognized that voice. "Kohran-san? What happened?" Then the memories flooded in - memories of being four other people in a world that she never knew but now knew as well as she did her own. "Oh. I'm a ..."
"A reflection, or a lookalike, or a copy, or a doll, or a robot - people will call you all of those if they realize who you are. Just like they called me all of those things. But, more important than any of that, you're my friend. And I've missed you for so long."
"You said 'if they realize' who I am."
"What are you thinking?"
"Read the kanji of my name another way."
Kohran grinned. "So you aren't going to let people know who you really are? I suppose that would work, 'Makoto Miyadera'... but if people see us together, they'll figure it out."
"I know. And I don't want to leave you so soon after I finally woke up. But... these thoughts - the name change, the idea that I 'woke up' instead of 'activated,' the way I'm accepting that I'm not a flesh-and-blood human - they aren't mine. They're yours, copied from your memories. If I stay here, I'll lose myself in your personality. I don't want that to happen." Tears ran down "Makoto's" cheeks.
"Neither do I. Damn it. At least you're still going to stay in this universe, and I'll be able to talk to you sometimes." They were both crying now. "I'll make some fake ID for you, and give you enough money so you can find a place to stay."
"Do you have any ideas where I should go?"
Kohran thought for a moment. "Deimos. There's a pretty good live theater there; maybe they'll hire you."
Makoto got up, dressed, and helped Kohran turn off the equipment and lights. Then she looked at the three lifeless androids laying around them, leaned down to the one still hooked up to the equipment, and whispered, "I'm sorry you didn't wake up too."
As Kohran stepped through the door from the storeroom, she stopped. "I just remembered. I have a letter for you."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
[size=larger]Imoto Project[/size]
31 May 2013
20:43 GMT
HMS Pinafore
"I found some ice cream in the galley."
"Oh, lovely! Thank you, Li-san." Skuld accepted one of the two bowls that Kohran was carrying. "After all the talking about my homeworld and the world of the Imperial Flower Troupe that you and So- Hasegawa-san had me doing today, I could use the recharge."
The android grinned at the visitor from another universe. "Well, it's only natural that we'd be curious about the people we're patterned after. Isn't it?"
"I would have been surprised if you weren't interested. Oh, excuse me a moment." Skuld turned her head to the table where Lisa, Bibi, and Bob were seated, raised her voice, and said, "It's okay, Leese!" Then she turned back to Kohran. "Sorry about that," she continued in the quieter tone she had been using. "Sometimes Lisa isn't sure what she should or shouldn't talk about when it comes to traveling the dimensions."
"How did you know this was one of those times?" As Skuld raised one eyebrow in response, Kohran blushed. "Oh, right."
"You don't have too many people around here who have powers like ours, do you? You aren't used to what we can do. Come to think of it, you don't have too many people around here who even have the capability to develop those powers."
"Not without handwavium, no."
Skuld shook her head. "That isn't what I meant. I was talking about people like me, or Sana-chan, or Nancy-san, or Stark-san from two universes back, or Iris-chan in the universe before that one. Oh, that reminds me..." She reached into her vest pocket. "These are for you."
Kohran blinked. "For me?"
"Doug-san mentioned to the Kohran in the Imperial Flower Troupe that he had met you before he met her, and Leese mentioned to her that we hadn't met you yet. So she asked us to play mailman. Even though I'm not Hermod."
Kohran accepted the letters from another universe. "Wow - talk about a special delivery!"
* * * * *
9 June 2013
16:19 GMT
Stellvia, Old Ring, Habitat Module 3
The Girls were gone. Kohran was still recovering emotionally from what had happened during and after the time she and Sora and Yayoi were playing tour guide for the Visitors. And now she was depressed because of what Noah had just said about their gift to her.
That reminded Kohran of the letters Skuld had handed to her. She pulled them out of her purse, looked at them - still unopened - and wondered why they had been written. She could understand the one that looked like she had written it, addressed to herself; that was obviously a letter from the Kohran of that world. And the handwriting on the letter addressed to Noah looked like General Yoneda's. She had to give that to Noah sometime... but now wasn't a good time.
That left the other letter, which Kohran had no intention of ever opening. It wasn't addressed to her.
She put the letters on the workbench beside the door to the storeroom that nobody ever opened, and stared at them. Then she picked up the one with her name on it, and used the blade of her leatherman to open the envelope.
* * * * *
"To my reflection, Kohran,
"I hope this letter finds you well. I would ask about the weather, but Doug-san tells me there isn't any weather in space where you are, and I don't know if you can send me a reply anyway.
"It seems weird writing a letter to myself. But that's wrong; you aren't me. We've lived different lives. Maybe I should think of you as the twin sister that I never knew I had. I wonder what our parents would have thought of that?
"We're doing well, protecting and entertaining the people of Tokyo. I hope you're doing as well as we are, and that you haven't been so busy with one part of your life that you've forgotten to live the other parts."
(Kohran nodded at that. While her "Red Lad" radio show wasn't the same as dancing on stage with the Flower Troupe, it was still her way of entertaining the people of the Convention, and she definitely hadn't neglected her engineering work.)
"You know I wouldn't write to you without a reason. Doug-han and Eimi-han let me look over the plans to your body - I was impressed! If you still know where to find Peters-han, please tell him I like his work."
(Her work, now. But Kohran - the one who wrote the letter - couldn't know that.)
"And you know what I like to do when I like somebody else's work."
(Kohran blinked. She realized she had been neglecting her engineering work; all she'd done since SOS-con was repair things. She hadn't developed anything new in months, even on paper.)
"There should be something that Eimi-han called a 'USB key' with this letter. I don't know why she called it a key; it doesn't open any locks. But that's what she says it's called. She also says this key has copies of all the notes we came up with to make your body better ..."
Kohran quickly looked in the envelope for the memory dongle, the rest of the letter forgotten.
* * * * *
10 June 2013
07:47 GMT
Stellvia, Old Ring, Habitat Module 1
"Noah...?"
He looked up from the news being displayed on his PDA. "Yes, Kohran?"
"Would you mind if I worked on a private project for a few weeks?"
"You've never needed my permission for that before... Oh, you mean right now?" She nodded. "Sure. We're all coping in our own ways."
They all glanced across the breakfast table at Sora's empty chair. "Or not coping," Yayoi added. "I'll talk to her."
"Thank you, Yayoi. Kohran, are you going to stay in touch with us while you're working on this project?"
"Oh, sure! I'll still be on Stellvia."
* * * * *
27 June 2013
23:52 GMT
Stellvia, Old Ring, Habitat Module 3
The door "that nobody ever opened" was opened behind Kohran, because she needed some airflow in the storeroom and opening the door was faster than activating another ceiling fan.
She flipped some switches, channeling power into the capacitor banks. Then, just as she had done so many times over the last two weeks, Kohran talked to the four lifeless androids laying around her, one by one. "I wish I had the courage to do this for all of you, but I'm too big a coward. Ever since I watched Chobits, I can't risk waking you up, Takako-san. You'd hate what we turned you into. I don't know what father was thinking when he asked A.C. to build you." She shifted her attention to the next android over. "And I don't know if I'm more afraid of you waking up with or without your powers, or with or without your memories of visiting here last month, Skuld-sama. Please forgive me for taking the easy way out."
The audible alert on the capacitor banks chirped, and electricity started running up the Jacob's Ladders that Kohran had installed on the first day of her project. Since everyone insisted on casting her as a Mad Scientist, she was going to live up to the part - her pride as an entertainer let her do no less. She looked toward the sky - or, at least, she looked up as if there was a sky above the space station. "It'll only be a couple of minutes before everything's ready, now. Kohran-neesan, Eimi-neesan, Doug-san, thank you for your help. Your designs are brilliant!" The ceiling lights turned green, accentuating the mood. "They laughed at me at the academy! Laughed!!" Kohran grinned. "Well, they would have if I had told them about this. Or if there was an academy." She raised her voice again. "They laughed! But I'll show them!! I'll show them all!!!"
The audible alert on the capacitor banks chimed.
Kohran threw the Big Switch.
The capacitors discharged.
The module went dark.
* * * * *
28 June 2013
00:00 GMT
She opened her eyes. "Where am I?"
"You're awake! It worked! I'm so happy!"
She recognized that voice. "Kohran-san? What happened?" Then the memories flooded in - memories of being four other people in a world that she never knew but now knew as well as she did her own. "Oh. I'm a ..."
"A reflection, or a lookalike, or a copy, or a doll, or a robot - people will call you all of those if they realize who you are. Just like they called me all of those things. But, more important than any of that, you're my friend. And I've missed you for so long."
"You said 'if they realize' who I am."
"What are you thinking?"
"Read the kanji of my name another way."
Kohran grinned. "So you aren't going to let people know who you really are? I suppose that would work, 'Makoto Miyadera'... but if people see us together, they'll figure it out."
"I know. And I don't want to leave you so soon after I finally woke up. But... these thoughts - the name change, the idea that I 'woke up' instead of 'activated,' the way I'm accepting that I'm not a flesh-and-blood human - they aren't mine. They're yours, copied from your memories. If I stay here, I'll lose myself in your personality. I don't want that to happen." Tears ran down "Makoto's" cheeks.
"Neither do I. Damn it. At least you're still going to stay in this universe, and I'll be able to talk to you sometimes." They were both crying now. "I'll make some fake ID for you, and give you enough money so you can find a place to stay."
"Do you have any ideas where I should go?"
Kohran thought for a moment. "Deimos. There's a pretty good live theater there; maybe they'll hire you."
Makoto got up, dressed, and helped Kohran turn off the equipment and lights. Then she looked at the three lifeless androids laying around them, leaned down to the one still hooked up to the equipment, and whispered, "I'm sorry you didn't wake up too."
As Kohran stepped through the door from the storeroom, she stopped. "I just remembered. I have a letter for you."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
![[+]](/images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
Spoiler