TO RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
-or-
LEAD WINGS WERE NEVER MEANT TO FLY
by Skeller
Note: I don't own LXG. Please read this, and review. No flames, but constructive criticism is welcome. This story takes "rage against the machine" to a whole new level. XP
Summary: Hell-bent on the symmetry of all the world, a council of evil men have taken Alan Quartermain's resurrected body and frozen it, keeping it locked high, high above the earth for safe-keeping, and are obsessed with making everyone the same. Bad news for the extremely "unique" league. A woman who is the product of an extremely illegal project is on the run from the English government for her and her brothers' doings. Too bad she's the only one left out of the three.
Please help me choose a title out of these two. Thanks.
:::1:::
How I could I have loved machines so much? I do not understand why I did this, especially why I did this to myself. I can accomplish nothing now because my stupidity…or because I was naiive.
Now I am this sham of a person.
No.
I am not a person anymore.
I have more metal in me than flesh. I am a machine now. I have a human brain, I have human skin, but inside, I am all metal. To improve the body, I thought, was to improve the soul. But now, my body is wrecked. So my soul is trashed into nothing but an alien monstrosity.
And I am not a person, because I transplanted metal limbs into me, limbs that real people don't have normally. The government has made tabs of me as a "possible threat" in the future.
That is why I sat on the train that day, looking anxiously about me. They were going to come and take me back. They had finally learned what those limbs were made of. How dangerous I was to them, but then again, how profitable.
So they were following me to take me somewhere…but to where I did not know. But what I did understand was that it would not be a good place, most likely a prison. What I had done was both illegal and impossible. But they didn't care.
I prayed for the train to start.
Someone sat next to me. I did not look over. I was too afraid it would be a government man.
"Good afternoon, miss," said the person next to me in an accented voice. It was a man, and I turned my head.He was shorter than I, and wore a turban. He had a very long beard, and his accent sounded as though he came from India.
"Good afternoon, yourself."
He smiled, his eyes crinkling up at the edges.
"You wouldn't be…Raedself Adams, would you?" he whispered in a very low voice.
This was it. It didn't matter now, they'd get me anyway.
"…aye." I whispered back.
"Then," he said, a glimmer in his dark eyes, "I must ask you to come with me. You extremely inconspicuous, you know that? And we must hurry, or else I think we may be caught."
All of a sudden, my heart warmed, and I breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
"Come. They are not so behind," he stood up and walked down the aisle. I followed, taking my carpet bag with me. I was desperate; I was assuming this man was talking about the government. He walked off the train, and I followed. He walked quickly for a man of his stature, and I kept up, looking over my shoulder in a very paranoid fashion. He led me through the cold streets on this late November evening. It was beginning to snow.
"Sir," I asked perplexedly, "perhaps I could ask you your name?"
"That," he said, "is information to be revealed when you and I are both safe."
I muttered to myself and glanced at the sky. It was crowded with darkened clouds, shoving and fighting with each other. We were at the docks now, and he stopped at the end. He glanced at his watch.
"We're right on time," he said to himself.
I stiffened and stared back at the streets leading away from us, wondering if I had been duped for the final time. Raesfeld, I thought, maybe this is the end. They'll never let you out now if they getcha.
But I was wrong, as I was wrong about many, many things.
A great whirling noise sounded up, and a huge, silver ship began to appear from the depths of the water. It was massive in size, and it was gorgeous in all other aspects. Long and thin, like Moses' hand as he parted the Red Sea, it was made to cut through turbulent ocean swells.
"This is the Nautilus," said the Indian, "I will explain everything inside."
A door opened and a plank rolled out. He gestured to me, and boarded quickly. I took a deep breath and followed him on. I took my last look at the dark, tumultuous London sky.
The inside was as magnificent as the outside. The plank rolled up behind me, and the ship gave a sudden lurch. I staggered for a moment, and then regained my balance. I realized we must be submerging again.
I ran to catch up with the Indian. He opened a door and walked into a large room. The walls were white and there was a long table in the middle with several chairs incircling it. There were diagrams on the walls, and maps that had things tracing lines on them, tracking something. I was mesmirized temporarily until the man cleared this throat and beckoned me to sit.
"Please, have a seat."
I pulled out the chair and sat, placing my carpet bag next to me. He sat down as well, taking the seat across the table.
"My name is Captain Nemo," said he with a smile on his face.
I flinched. I'd heard of an infamous Indian captain, but I'd never even thought this man could be him. I felt the sudden grinding in my back. I held it in, trying to control the machine.
"It's nice to meet you, sir…" I said, realizing that I'd now forsaken the law if I continued to be with this man…but it didn't matter to me all that much anymore…
"…my name is Raedself Adams."
I flinched again, because the machine was acting up, and I realized (again) that this man already knew my name.
"Welcome aboard the Nautilus, Miss Adams," he said.
"Please, just call me Raedself," I responded automatically.
"What'd you go do to your parents that'd make them want to name ya that?" a voice came from behind me.
I twisted my head around quickly, and saw a boy, younger than I, with ruffled, long blond hair. I laughed.
"You're not the first person to say that, and not the last, either."
My brothers had been "blessed" with equally odd names.
I turned back to the captain.
"Sir, I must ask what I am doing here."
"I have…heard of something very suspicious, Miss Raedself," he said, eyes furrowed.
Suspicious…
"It both alarmed me and impressed me…and it would still if I had proof that it was real."
Alarm…impression…proof…the evidence of the machine that lies inside not the doctor but the patient…
"An agent reported to me about the actions of the government of Britain, as he usually did, and told me some very distressing news."
…distress…
"It involved you, miss. I realize this may be prying into your business, but please take no offense. I only wish to know…"
No, you don't wish to know. No one should know but me, but if this be my choice of either a life with a pirate or a life behind British bars…
"…you are the product, aren't you?"
It was a question, but it didn't sound like it. It sounded as though he was positive I was the product, he just wanted a little clarification.
I nodded.
"Yes, that'd be me, sir."
"So it is true."
"Very."
"Y'know, it would have been extremely annoying if you were really vague," said the blond boy again.
"It is something one does not wish to know, but to find out in time," I said, sounding defensive.
The captain would be the only one to know…to know of the Daedalus-Icarus Project, of the siblings Riothamus, Rypan, and Raedself, and of their terrible, terrible crimes against man for machine.
At least, I hoped.
TO BE CONTINUED.