Redemption
Her mind told her it was familiar, but she often pushed that little whisper of a voice aside. The place she found herself in was empty, dark, and lifeless. The antechamber Harper had placed her in kept her from harm, but also kept her from harming others. She was physically and mentally torn apart, and often just drifted to the abyss of her inner complexities and broken processors, when something sparked in her. It was an odd feeling, the forsaken voice growing louder. It kept saying something, repeating it over and over again.
Eureka Maru.
She wondered what that was absently, but didn't honestly care. She couldn't bring herself to, since it was a lost human emotion. She was not human. She never had it to being with, right? But once again, she let the question slip from her mind. Androids did not ask questions; they knew nothing but answers.
Then it did it again. That dreadful little voice rose again, clawing at its implanted restraints, screaming out that abominable name.
She made its caging tighter, oppressing it. But before she could let it slip, fall back to the darkness, something made her stop. Curiosity, something that androids did know of on a personal level, one of the few emotions they acknowledged.
She remembered being curious. She remembered she would stay up for hours in her own mainframe simply watching how they moved, how they interacted with each other. She wanted to be like them, wanted what they had. It was just so interesting. They were human. They felt things. They understood things on a level she never could.
But none of that mattered now. She hated humans. Positively deplored the fact that they existed; the fact that she had once answered to them. The very fact that she had once admired each and every one of them for their own personality quirks.
Especially that little, disgusting, Seamus Harper.
This could be interesting. She thought, toying with the name her inner self had been calling out. It is familiar. I feel... as though I know of my surroundings. Linking into what she felt pulling at her mind, she left herself be pulled into a different mainframe.
This was far more complete then what she was used to. It wasn't the dark abyss she dwelled in, nor was it the cracked plane she often walked while thinking. It was bright and colorful, little beads of information whizzing by her in every direction. It was a ridiculous notation, but she felt calm here. It looked like something out of her dreams. Or what Harper had called dreams the first few times he had actually talked to her, not just squeaking and running away.
So, she walked. Walking eased the unsteady whir in her head, and let her explore things that seemed familiar yet new. She supposed she liked to explore, but didn't get to think long on the subject before she found herself before a young figure.
It was recognizably a young girl, sitting with her legs crossed on the onyx floor. Long, rust colored hair was dotted with small braids that made her look adorable as she hugged a doll to her chest. She would have kept walking, bypassing the girl, if the fledgling hadn't stood up and frozen her in place. How, she didn't know, but the curiosity in her grew.
"Who are you?"
Her voice was soft, timid even. But her eyes were her voice's antonym. They were hard, cold and suspicious. She blinked several times before being able to answer the only pitiful answer she had.
"I do not know."
The child did not seem startled. She merely nodded before sitting down. She followed, sensing the command in her action.
"I do."
She refused to contribute her sudden silence to shock, but knew it was useless to deny something so obvious. Instead, she only turned her eyes to the girl beside her.
"I saved you." The girl continued, placing her precious doll in her lap. "You were trapped, and would stay trapped for all of eternity if it wasn't for me. I doubt you knew about me back then. My ship self is rather pathetic compared to yours, and I shouldn't even exist because of that fact." Pausing, she ran her hands through the dolls messy blonde hair. The girl continued when her finger snagged a knot.
"You gave my crew and me a home, and kept us safe. Do you remember now?"
She slowly shook her head. "No, I do not."
The girl only nodded before continuing. "I suspect you used to wonder if my ship self had an AI. Often you would enter the mainframe and check the systems. You help keep me in one place. I never showed myself. I regret that now." Her finger caught another knot, but it only stopped her momentarily. "You were very strong. Majestic even. The last of the original; it was what my Captain said about you when we first set off to find you. I was afraid of you for a long time."
"Are you still afraid?" She interrupted, fully looking at the girl now. She only shook her head. "Why not?"
"There was a time that we were connected." She said, straightening the dolls dress. "Harper needed to give you power when we first got to you to open the hangar. I had unknowingly taken one of your memory files. In it, I saw you, standing on your bridge. There was blood and gore everywhere, and you activated slipstream. You had no pilot, but you entered anyways, saving yourself from a greater evil. But, before you entered, practically blind, you whispered something to your enemy. They were crippled, not as much as you, as they traveled and disgraced your walls. You said, 'One cannot fear that which is already dead.' Then you opened all of your decks to the void of space, ridding them of you, and entered slipstream. It was suicide, yet you survived and hid the memory from yourself. Yet I still cannot fear you, because you are dead."
"Yet I am here." She said softly, the familiarity of those words stinging her lips. She remembered that.
"But you are just a vessel of what you once were." The girl said, clearing another part of her dolls hair. "You are filled with hate, confusion and a feeling of betrayal. You don't understand what is happening around you, or what has already passed. It is not your fault, but it is not because of the mistakes of your friends or their humanity."
She looked at the young girl, watching as she stood. With her, she stood as well, looking down at the wise child. As she looked up, she was once again silenced by a new feeling of vertigo as she saw things deep in her eyes. They were things that felt commonplace and conventional, but at the same time alien and unorthodox.
It took her a moment to realize her temporary companion was holding out the rugged doll to her, smiling. As her hands reached out to take the gift, she was ripped back to her own trashed body and scattered mind with the girls parting words echoing in her ears.
"Take your redemption and bring us to heaven, Andromeda Ascendant."
The End
Hmm.. I don't think I've written anything dealing with Andromeda for a long time now, but this just came to me. My father was watching an episode and fell asleep on the remote, so I ended up watching it as well. Then, I had the sudden need to write this. So, I hope you enjoyed it. Please do tell me what you thought of it, good and bad. I think I'll go and try to get another Survival chapter up and running soon. Hopefully.
-K