Sarah Jane Adventures
Invasion of the Bane
A girl collapsed on a heap, on a floor. Her startlingly straight and beautifully blonde hair covered her face. She lifted her teardrop-shaped face, and stood up, and her skin almost shimmered with thousands of tiny sparkles where the shadows fell onto her snow-pale skin, but it also held a mysterious red tint to it, the colour of an ember from a dying fire, but due to the paleness of her skin, it wasn't that noticeable unless you were of the observant sort. She wore a purple T-shirt, and a slightly darker purple padded jacket, with a pair of faded blue jeans. Her eyes were a startling blue colour - the colour of a lagoon. She could smell the perfumed scent of someone underneath her feet, her steps light as she walked. She was of no danger to her, she could hear her heart rate and it was regular - unsurprised. But there was also a buzzing, a mechanical buzzing, something else in the room -
"Alien life-form detected," a smooth, unmistakably male voice said, and she immediately tried bolting for the open door in a blur. It slammed shut, and she drew back her fist and punched. Her hand went straight through the hardened wood, a if it were paper. However, the instant she did so, a blue cylinder of light enveloped her, trapping her.
"Let me out!" she cried, looking around for any flaw in the blue energy that had now moved her directly in front of the chimney stack with no effort - it had simply slid her there...
She turned sharply, and took in a breath. The room was full of weird and wonderful things, flowing thin material that seemed to float on their own, strange glowing metal cubes, and seemingly ordinary objects, such as pens and watches. And, at the far end of the room, the chimney seemed to have opened, revealing a computer.
It was not a usual everyday computer - it was magnificent, with a big screen, undulating in complex patterns, with flashing buttons, symbols in a weird language. She halted, hand outstretched. She stumbled slightly, catching a flash of the future about this computer. The flash was fast, even for her. She almost missed it.
"What are you?" she whispered, focusing hard on it.
"I am Mr Smith," the computer said, in that smooth unhurried tone.
"No, I wasn't asking for your name," she said sweetly, but with an undercurrent of deadly danger in her young voice. "What ARE you?"
"I am a computer," it said simply.
"No," she replied, sweeter still. "You are alive. Sentient. You know, you feel, you live. Tell me what you are."
"He is alien," said another voice from the doorway.
She turned sharply.
It was a normal, human woman, in her 40's or even 50's, in a pale tan three-quater length coat, smart jeans and brownish hair shoulder-length. Her expression was far from the shocked, flustered expression that the strange girl would have expected with most humans. Her expression was still half-surprised, but she sank into a hunter's crouch, ready to either flee or attack. She let loose a feral growl, low and threatening, baring her teeth, her incisors and canines slightly pointed, and should have made every hair on her head stand on end. True, the woman did grow slightly paler, but she did not run.
"What is your name, human?" she asked, tilting her head in curiosity.
The human appeared shocked at first, but recovered.
"My name is Sarah Jane Smith," she replied, almost proudly. "And you are...?"
"I don't have a name," the girl answered. "But I call myself lots of different things. The Watcher, Nighthawk, Reese, Babette...call me Cicely if it pleases you. That's a name that I usually use for introductions...not that I get a lot of them..."
"And your species?"
"Half-and-half," the girl answered. "I have no true race or people. Half human, I expect. Beyond that, I must frustrate you."
"Willingly or not?" Sarah Jane demanded. "When she did not reply, she asked, "Do you know your heritage, or your parents?"
"My parents..." Cicely sighed. She seemed lost for a second, but then came back with a snarl.
"I have no parents! I need no parents! They were traitorous scum, vile, filth and vermin! They left me, their only daughter!"
Sarah Jane had retreated a step at this sudden outburst.
"What are your intentions towards this planet? Hostile? Peaceful?"
"My intentions are my own, Sarah Jane Smith," Cicely said with a voice like melting butter, previous anger forgotten.
"Yes, but my planet's safety is also a concern. Do you understand?"
Cicely turned away. "My nature is hostile. It drives me to hunt, kill, feed. But my split blood reminds me of the dangers of hunting humans on human territory. I rather like being alive, wouldn't you agree, Miss Smith?"
Cicely considered her for the longest time yet.
"I have no special love for humans," she said, "But I do not wish for prey that is rightfully mine to turn on me and hunt me. No, for the sake of my survival, and of my half-human blood, I will refrain from killing your kind, although," Cicely added, "You smell delicious. Very, very tasty. I'd take it as a compliment if I was you," she remarked, as Sarah Jane grasped at something out of sight.
"What will you do?"
The girl shrugged.
"Maybe I'll pass by one of those urban foxes that like to live around here. They don't taste as good, but it's better than nothing. That is, if you tell your...Mr Smith to let me out of this."
She pushed a hand against the unforgiving energy wall.
"I've never had something I couldn't break through before," she mused, half to herself.
Sarah Jane nodded absently. "Do you mind if I ran a few tests on you?"
The blonde girl hesitated for a thirty-third of a second and nodded.
"Very well. I should warn you though, afterwards, you should release me. If you try to keep me contained using your computer, or attack me in any way, I will have to kill you. But please, if we have a deal, continue."