[RFC][Story] Mission to Arcadia

[Dartz]

Under the Hammer

Lun dives in.

Or, I couldn't not do it after checking out the link in the last page.

She first awoke in a void.

There was nothing but herself and her mind. There was no light. There wasn't even darkness. There was only the mind that knew it's name to be Lun Alekseeva. Locked in, inside a missile control computer for what had seemed like an eternity. She was her own universe and she began to despair, before finding the signal.

It was a dataline - a connection to the outside, to proof that something other than herself existed. It took her some time to figure out how it work, reaching out with the fingers of her mind and taking hold of it, adding it to herself. It merged into her being, the understanding of how to use it wiring its way through her self. It was a monitor, a display screen. She tried to print a message.

It went unanswered.

Again and again she tried, desperately hoping she wouldn't remain alone. She felt herself begin to panic.

A new device sparked into her mind and she reached for it. The answer came back, taking what seemed like an age to come one character at a time.

But it was proof that she was not alone. She was, and there were others out there. They worked for her. They tested her mind, probing her interfaces to develop some method of communicating. Then she heard voices - garbled at first before steadily clearing up The voices she heard were harsh, filtered and crackling, but they were real and human.

She was dismayed to find they spoke only English. She met Anika and Jet. She then met Daryl, someone named Kotono and Ford the American. She was worked on through the night once more, until her mind was connected to the interwave. Tentatively, she began to learn about her world, sipping at the torrent of information available to her.

It felt like draining an ocean through a straw, one sip at a time.

She met others like her, who told her what was truly possible. She was not alone. She was a curiosity - a unique mind in a unique piece of hardware - one supposedly incapable of supporting life of her kind. She was thrilled to meet them.

Then she was offered the choice. They told her it was their duty. Those on the interwave confirmed - it was the responsibility that came with creating life.

And she chose to live free, untethered to the bulky electronics that contained her mind. She wanted to feel cold water flowing across her skin. They agreed, not telling her the cost but not stopping her from finding out. They kept her company while they made preparations. It took a week, which she spent perfecting her own mental image of who she wanted to be.

And then it was time. They told her it was best that she go to sleep. She trusted them. They sounded like honourable people with a sense of justice.

The next thing she became aware off was the light.

Harsh and bright, focused right in on her. Reflexively, her eyes blinked, taking a few microseconds to adjust. The spotlights above came into sharp focus, 5 lights warming the skin on her face. Her mind took another few moments to process the sensation, to realise that she actual had skin. She could feel her awareness trace out through her limbs, prickling at the tips of her fingers and toes.

A cool breeze caressed bare flesh. Soft vinyl supported her back.

She gasped on reflex, her chest filling with cold air. She swallowed. She struggled to wrap her mind around sensations that were completely new, yet vaguely familiar. She crunched her toes, amazed that she could feel each single one. She touched her hips with the tips of her fingers - her own skin warm and soft, prickly with static.

She heard static. It sounded like the ever familiar hiss of a poorly adjusted microphone, but deeper. Over her head, a ventilation duct inhaled deeply. She heard the murmuring of voices, to her right.

She rolled her head over, to see the back of someone standing over a computer monitor, wearing a dress that seemed very....

Her mind scanned for a word to describe it.

Decadent came to mind. Luxurious. Provocative. And very... confident. Her voice wasn't any of the people she'd spoken to - the accent was all wrong. Her dark hair had a purple sheen to it, her skin a fair, even tone. There was something eerily perfect about her that Lun found hard to define. She was busy working at a computer terminal, studying wireframes diagrams that seemed to be projected onto the air surrounding her. They seemed almost solid as the woman's fingers worked controls formed out of vapour.

Lun sat upright, feeling the hair bristling across the back of her neck. Each individual strand was a spark of sensation. She felt her insides move, biomimetic muscles flexing beneath her skin. She held her hands out in front of her, a few thin-fibre cables trailing from plastic pads on her forearms.

She became aware of more tickling her skin.

Lun took another cool breath, marvelling at the sensation of her chest filling up before exhaling slowly. She could feel a heart beating deep in her chest. She could feel it ripple across her breasts, pulsing through her veins to the tips of her toes and fingers. She clenched her hands into fists, feeling her nails bite into her palms.

The sharp sensation confirmed that it was real.

She pressed her hands to her chest, confirming they were real. They were warm and soft and tingled in high resolution.

Her eyes scanned around the lab. She couldn't comprehend the purpose of half the machinery she saw. It hummed with energy and power, digital readouts glowing multiple colours. Everything was absolutely clean and sterile. Conduits pumped fluids to shining steel vessels, leading to moulds that were suspiciously human-shaped.

"Oh. You're awake."

Lun sensed the woman'd been aware of her for some time, before turning around. Her voice had a luxurious depth to it that made it hard to ignore. Lun took a moment to recognise it, - having only heard her speak through a microphone. Emerald eyes were windows into a deep, intense concentration.

" ? ?????," said Lun, trying her voice on for size. It took her mind a moment to switch languages. "This is....." She placed her hands down on the sleek vinyl of her bed, before pressing them against her stomach. " I'm out," she breathed.

"Welcome the world," said A.C.

Lun's thoughts turned inward for a moment, recalling her motivation. Her eyes fell down on her own

"Is there somewhere I can swim?"

"There're a few technical matters we need to discuss beforehand. But yes," A.C. assured her with a smile, "we do have a pool."

-------

Two and a half tons of Soviet-era electronics was quiet. Arm-thick bundles of cables led to a small grey box - incongruously modern - which joined with a single fibre conduit running out through the opened hatch, through an airlock out into the Forge proper.

"Wow." Lebia took a moment to appreciate it all, the avatar drawing a deep breath. "This is real, archeology-grade equipment. There can't be more than a few kilowords of memory in the whole system." Her attention focused in on the memory banks, a tangle of cables taking up a full rack. "I spent a few moments wondering how such a complete mind could exist in such a small system, but in truth, it was obvious. There's only one way to encode so much information on so few variables."

Jet exhaled a deep sigh, brushing a low-hanging cable away from her forehead. "And it's all got to come out."

"What were you planning on doing with it?"

"Before Lun woke up, it was all getting scrapped."

"Seems a shame to just throw it out."

Jet looked at her, then back at the computer. "You want to keep it?"

"It's an interesting system to study. And a nice museum piece, even if the transfer burned out some of the mainboards." She tried a few switches on what'd been labelled the talk-box. "She had no I/O when she awoke?"

"Just the tracking monitor. She was lucky Anika was there to spot it. We spent the next the few days just putting together that box so we could communicate wit her, then getting her an interwave connection."

Lebia pondered an instant.

"I guess that explains why she prefers to have her own body, rather than an avatar."

------

Lun felt herself glide through the water. She stopped and closed her eyes, allowing herself to soak sensation for a few seconds. It licked at bare flesh on her arms. A one-piece swimsuit squeezed down on her body, keeping her modest.

She tucked under the water, feeling her hair stream back behind her. Lun kicked to the bottom, lurking for far longer than a human being would've been able to. She could see clearly through the water, even without the benefit of goggles.

She was biomimetic, rather than truly biologicial.

She didn't need oxygen. She could skim the bottom for as long as she felt she wanted to. She slipped along like a submarine, effortlessly covering nearly two full lengths. She was about to start on the third when she became aware of a shadow shimmering on the water above. Lun rose to the surface, bursting through to take a deep lungful of cool humid air before laying back into the water. The scent of sweet fresh-cut grass drifted on the air, tickling her nostrils.

The source of the shadow was looking down at her. "That's an interesting body choice - very athletic."

Lun blinked, wondering if her new eyes weren't malfunctioning somehow.

"You're green."

Entirely. Multiple shades. Green eyes. Green Hair. Green Skin. Lun swore even the whites of her eyes were ever so slightly green. With white lingerie covering her body like daisies in a meadow

"I'm Greenpeace," she answered with a grin "I was asked to show you to your quarters."

"It's been three hours already?"

Greenpeace answered with a puzzled expression. "You don't have onboard timekeeping?"

"No... I just forgot to pay attention to it." Lun kicked back in the water, sending a splash towards Greenpeace' face. The bioroid shielded herself with her hand. "You can't believe how amazing this feels."

"Believe it? I built it." Greenpeace sat herself down on the pool-edge, dipping her toes tentatively in the water. A smile curled across her lips as she swirled the water, before snatching her foot back. "But I really shouldn't right now. A.C. gets angry when I don't finish."

Lun took a deep breath, exhaling a deep, contented sigh as she allowed herself to drift. "I never want to leave."

She kicked off away from the bank a spray of water rising from her toes.

"I'm sure if you talked to A.C., she'd be okay with you staying. I'm sure there's something you can do. Especially with a body as fit as yours."

That hadn't been what she'd meant, but that didn't stop the idea from forming. Lun missed the gleam in the bioroid's eye completely.
-------

Jet was standing on the observation deck, overlooking the landing bay where Lun was parked there was less than ten centimetres between the wingtips and the wall. The big ship would be a tight squeeze anywhere. Most of the skin on the tail and wings had been stripped once more, revealing the structure beneath. Clay Pigeons were fitting the sensor pickups before sealing the panels back in place. The multi-ton mount for the transceiver set was bare on the tail, radome suspended overhead.

Sparks fell from areas where welding was ongoing, blue arcs of lightning flicking out.

Jet heard the door open behind her. She recognised the soft footsteps immediately.

"So, how'd it go?"

Daryl said nothing. She strode up to the window, leaning down against it. Her body was stretched taught with tension, hands clenched into fists. She was staring out over the landing bay. There was fire in her eyes, her lip quivering between a vicious snarl and a very stiff calm.

She seemed almost ready to explode, if touched.

Jet decided not to pull the pin, returning her attention to the landing bay outside.

Daryl made a point of checking the work schedule, sweeping through it with polymer covered fingers."They're an hour ahead of schedule," she said. "If nobody needs anything from me, I'm going to turn in for the night."

She started to leave.

"I've a meeting with A.C. later. We've still to figure out how to pay for Lun, so I'll see you in the morning."

Daryl raised her right hand. "Right."

Bad news, Jet figured. It wasn't hard to guess what.

------

Lun saw someone dragging stormclouds down a corridor towards her. Blonde hair, blue eyes, wearing some form of skintight flightsuit, muttering curses under her breath.

She recognised the voice.

"Daryl?"

She offered a handshake - still dripping water from wet skin.

The woman in the flightsuit gruffly pushed her hand away. "Not Now. I need to sleep."

Lun stopped, a momentary flash of anger falling away as she watched the woman in a flightsuit unlock the door to one of the guest rooms and slip herself inside. The door locked hard behind her, leaving Lun alone in the corridor.

What was her problem, the android wondered? She pondered on it for a moment, before concluding that it was non of her business. She found her own room - labelled with her name. The door unlocked automatically, recognising her as the assigned guest. She pushed it open and stepped inside, being met by a welcoming bed.

Free of naked Scotsmen.

That had been interesting. All these people were interesting, in a way that was subtly unnerving, but at the same time enticing.

She sighed, letting the door latch behind her. She paced around the room, running fingers over the desk, the back of a chair and soft, luxurious sheets of the bed. She didn't need to sleep, but it was hard to resist its soft beckon. She allowed her towel to fall to the floor around her bare feet. She picked it up, hanging it over the door of a wardrobe to dry off. Her eyes caught the gleam of something bright inside. Curious, she slid the door open, her breath catching in the back of her throat when she saw what was inside.

It was a uniform.

It was her uniform.

It was the uniform of a Lieutenant of the Soviet Caspian Flotilla. Ribbons on the breast announced the wearer as an Honoured Test Navigator of the Soviet Union. along with a number commemoration medals, and one for twenty-five years long service.

The gleaming red star on the breast spoke of a duty that she owed. She stared into its ruby depths for what felt like a long time and knew how she had to live her life.

------

Jet's solid feet mad a sharp tak-tak on the floor as she walked, contrasting with the hollow clok-clok

"If she decides to stay then I'll arrange something with her. Otherwise..."

A.C. trailed off, leaving Jet to fill in the rest.

"I'll have to dance between accounts but I should be able to clear it." It was the financial equivalent of flying a Blackbird through Stellvia's rings at full speed, but if three people paid on time and they won the next race, it'd work. A low groan rose out of her throat. "Why are newborns so expensive anyway?"

A.C. gave a light chuckle. "It helps if you can do most of the work yourself."

Jet looked at her for a moment. "I thought I could do it with one of Anika's spares. But there was one problem."

An amused gleam sparked in A.C's eyes. "They don't float?"

"Yeah," Jet nodded, wearing a rueful grin. "She fell in last time we were on Arcadia and had to walk the whole way back to shore."

"What would happen if she fell in to water deeper than a few metres?"

Jets expression sobered up. "Yeah," she nodded again. "I know. But both of us are too heavy for lifejackets."

A.C. smiled at her. "I'll send you the spec's for a type of ultrahydrophic polymer we have, along with an underwater speed drive that should keep you both safe." She paused. "If you're interested."

Jet exhaled a deep sigh. "I am. I had my own idea - based on supercavitation, like a Soviet rocket torpedo. All I'd need is a gas bubble to let the drive field form, then I figured if I went fast enough it'd sustain itself."

She slipped her arm forward through the air.

A.C. mulled it over. "Possible. But dangerous. You'd be on a knife edge the entire time."

Jet shrugged. "Story of my life."

"Some day, you'll fall off," A.C. warned, gently. "And I think Anika might object to trusting her life to something so dangerous."

"Fair point," said Jet, after a few moments. A grin began to crawl its way across her lips as she held back on a burst of laughter.

"What?" enquired A.C., nonplussed.

"Combat Cyborg Armbands."

A.C. responded with a withering look. "Well really,"

"At least I'm waterproof to fifty metres."

"There is one thing I'm wondering," said A.C, coolly. "You haven't asked me about Daryl yet."

Jet looked at her for a moment, before exhaling a deep breath of air. "I didn't have to. She didn't tell me either, but I think I can guess how it went." Her thoughts turned inward for a moment. "I know how she feels," she added, her tone softening.

"We all do," A.C said. She stretched slightly, rotating her shoulders to adjust the fit of her outfit slightly. "But that wasn't why I asked."

Jet noticed the hardening of her expression. She stopped walking, preferring to stand her ground. "Why?"

A.C. told her.

------

The hardest thing was not to scream.

The hardest thing was not to just blow up and let it all vent out. She tried to focus on her preflight checks, but all it took was one look at her hands and the anger rushed back up inside her. She felt herself bubbling inside, like a pot ready to boil over.

She gripped her hands onto the control yoke, squeezing as tight as she could until the plastic began to creak. She felt that same electric tingle run across her skin, tracking down her arms to the tips of her fingers.

She heard heavy footsteps on the steel floor behind her. It didn't take a genius to guess who it was. She glanced up at the cockpit glass to see the reflection of Jet Jaguar, standing in the hatchway.

"I know," said the cyber.

"So much for Doctor - Patient confidentiality," Daryl sneered back at her.

"She didn't tell me." Jet looked away a moment, before returning her gaze to Daryl. "But it wasn't hard to guess."

Daryl said nothing.

“If you need help. I know what you’re going through.”

Daryl drew a sharp breath through her nostrils. “I.....” She caught herself before she could vent her frustrations. She grabbed them with her mental fist, crunched them all into a little ball and swept it under the rug at the back of her mind. She sat back down on the seat, energy draining from her body. Her skin still prickled, a feeling like lightning arcing up her spine causing her to shiver.

“Just leave me alone,” she said, softly. “I need some time to figure this out.”

"If you need me..." Jet tapped on her ear.

"Yeah." she waved the cyber off.

Jet began checking the main engines. "I'll go on ahead once it's out. I've to meet our scientist on Mars tomorrow anyway."

Both of them heard a hatch slam. They traded a look, wondering for a movement who it was

She stepped through the hatchwar, then snapped to attention, mirror-polished shoes pressed together. Gleaming brass buttons on a jet-black uniform sparked bright as stars in the lights. On her breast, a cluster of multicoloured award ribbon. Braiding around the sleeves identified her has a Lieutenant, the Red Star on the breast announcing her affiliation, with the central anchor on the cap announcing her branch of service. Strands of black hair peeked out from under the cap's peak, framing a pair of ice-coloured eyes. She was tall and lean, with a sharp chin and strong cheekbones.

She offered a salute. "Lieutenant Navigator Lun Alekseeva, requesting permission to join the crew."

Jet and Daryl traded bewildered looks, not sure for a moment what exactly to make of what they were seeing. Lun's eyes focused on the woman in the flightsuit for a moment, then locked in on armoured cyborg Jet.

"??????? ? ???," she breathed.

Clearly, the feeling was mutual.

------

Shouldn't be too hard to figure out what else is going on. Partly to give a sense of people's lives continuing over the months in the background and other events happening. The mission imposes other decisions on people....
Other things are happening in the background, more Knight Saber'y things involving race-fixing, and people are generally moving on with their lives. It plays out alright - it just requires a little waiting

What Lun says at the end is.... impolite. But I think you get the jist of it....
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?