Worlds Apart

Chapter I: The Deal

NC-17 (Though it probably won't start out that way)

Author's Note: This is an EXTREMELY AU story, set 1000 years in the future. If you don't like it, don't read it. This story will have multiple pairings, Cameron/Thirteen, Cameron/Cuddy, Cameron/House, Cuddy/House, Cuddy/Thirteen, and Cuddy/Thirteen/Cameron. I know it's a little bizarre but you'll get used to it, and if you don't, whatever LoL! Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Princess Allison sat at her computer monitor for the twentieth hour of the day. She hadn't slept in a very long time and that was because she was restless. Her father, King Matthew ruled the entire planet of Earth and she was confined to the castle. He jetted off to far off worlds, and as she was allowed to come on a few diplomatic missions, she was far from being able to explore without a handful of body guards behind her. She was betrothed to Prince Robert of Neptune, and she had done little more than to talk to him over her monitor for maybe a total of ten minutes. He was very attractive, and seemed like a nice man, but she didn't know if she wanted to be thrown into marriage with him.

It was getting to be dinner time and she was in traditional clothes, even though no one on Earth would be caught dead in such an ensemble of velvet robes and long flowing silk. Her blond hair, which usually rested on the floor behind her had been placed and pinned elegantly atop her head by one of the helper droids floating around. The only real human or alien contact she had was at diplomacy meetings. It seemed that someone always wanted to blow up Earth, and all the rest of the planets would rally around and help them. No one in the solar system ever wanted to blow Earth up. Imperial Master House on Mars, however, wanted to take over. She had only ever heard him talk on news feeds, and seen his propaganda but it didn't scare her. Everyone knew this Imperial Master House was a nutcase.

Three chimes came over the speakers in the castle and Allison recognized it as the dinner sound. Once a week she was expected to have dinner with her father. He was on his last leg, very sick, any day now she expected to be informed by his right hand man that he had died and she had become queen. She dreaded that day more than anything. She did not want to be queen of anything, especially not Earth. Every waking moment of her childhood was to prepare her to become leader. Her mother had been assassinated when she was very little and that was why her father restricted her to the castle and became all traditional.

"Dinner to be served in the main hall in five minutes." The familiar female voiced computer announced.

"I'm coming, God." Allison said to no one and stood up. She headed out of the room to the transporter which would take her immediately to the dining hall. She was not looking forward to a seven course meal with her dying father.

* * *

"Sir, number..." The woman looked down at her portable screen and then back up to him, "42 wants to see you. She says it's important." This woman was insignificant to him, yeah she was beautiful but he had much more beautiful women in his harem, women that he had never talked to or touched. He had ninety-nine of them, he slept with about twenty. Of course he had a room for each one of them, and a communal space for them to hang out, but more than half of them he had never even met. This included the number 42 who wanted to see him at that moment.

"Alright tell her I'll give her five minutes." He replied and then dismissed the woman with a flick of his wrist. She bowed and then left the room without another word. He tried to remember what she looked like before she came in, when he had purchased her and why. Sometimes he would go on drunken, narcotic induced benders and pick women out of photofiles on a whim. Since he couldn't off of the top of his head remember her, he was guessing she was one of them.

A moment later, 42 came into the room. She was gorgeous, and he realized then that maybe he was missing out on the other 79 women he didn't sleep with. She had dark hair which was pulled completely back (per his request of every girl) and was wearing a flowing white skirt with a corseted black top that accentuated her breasts. "Imperial Master House, I am so incredibly gracious that you have given me this chance to--"

"Stow it." He cut her off, "What's your name?"

"Lisa." She replied softly.

"No no, first name." Master House corrected her. As time had gone on in the universe, it was custom for a woman's first name to be what would have been their last names a thousand years ago. That way someone could instantly tell if they were from a prominent family or not. None of the girls he had in his harem were, but he desperately wanted that to change.

"Cuddy, sir." She said in the same, soft tone of voice. She knew that she was not allowed to raise her voice above a whisper when addressing him, and she only knew this because of the extensive rules that were drilled into her head upon arrival. She had never actually seen or spoken to the man other than in datafiles and news feeds. "I have a request."

"Get on with it." House replied, hoping that this was not yet another girl who wanted to go free. He had no problem releasing the ducklings that wanted to fly but he gave them hell for it, that was for sure.

"I want to move up in rank. Become an assassin." Cuddy said, keeping her eyes on the floor. She didn't actually expect him to say yes, seeing as how he had no idea what skills she actually possessed in the way of being a soldier for hire. This caused House to snort back a laugh.

"Oh really? I suppose in that pretty little head of yours you already are one, well let me tell you something 42, I don't think--"

"If you would just let me show you what I can do I think you'd be impressed." Cuddy cut him off in a daring move. She knew he could put her in front of a firing squad for disobedience but this was something she really wanted and if she didn't speak up now she might never get another audience with him. She had been there for five years already and this was their first meeting. He looked her over. She was attractive and she spoke like she was educated, which didn't surprise him considering that all of the girls there got world class treatment. Education in everything from sharp shooting to alien languages.

"What makes you think I have the time?" House said, not about to give into her that easily.

"I think you'll make the time, and if you don't, your loss." Cuddy said back to him, this time making eye contact. Her whole body was trembling, this was a very bold move for her and she was risking her life being as argumentative as she was, but she just had to try. His eyes were absolutely beautiful, an ice blue that she didn't think she had ever seen. If he had come into her room one night asking for her attention there was no way she would have turned him down, even if the rumors about the scar on his leg were true.

House looked back at her forced eye contact. He admired her boldness, usually when a girl came in with any kind of request, even if it was for a new horse, they weren't nearly as self assured or demanding. He was curious now about her abilities so he was going to take her up on her offer. If she was a total wreck with a blaster then he could dismiss her and never see her again. But what if she was good? What if he was missing out? There was only one way to find out.

"Tomorrow 1300, meet me on the range." House said and then lifted his hand, "You are dismissed." With a smile on her face she offered him a bow and hurried out of the room. She was going to get her chance and there was no way she would disappoint him.

* * *

Allison poked at her third course, which was a steak and mashed topatoes. Even as recently as a hundred years ago someone would have scoffed at the idea of eating a hybrid of a tomato and potato but she had been raised eating all sorts of things, this was not new to her. She did however always wonder why they got to eat steak when cows were in such short supply. The commoners (or regular people, as she preferred to call them) had to deal with eating rabbits or peacocks. In fact, Allison only knew of two bovine farms on the whole planet.

That was about the time when her father decided to launch into one of his horrid coughing fits. The best doctors in the universe still couldn't find a cure for old age, and at 157 her father was old. People had been known to make it past 200 but they were rare and usually men in the far east who lived in tiny villages and chain smoked. "Allison, darling." He addressed her as usual, "I hope you are ready for our trip to Neptune tomorrow."

"Dad, I don't want to meet Prince Robert." Allison replied, "In fact, I don't even want to be a princess."

"We go through this at every dinner I..." He was interrupted by another coughing fit and had to take a sip of water, "I don't care what you want, you have a duty."

"Maybe I don't want that duty." Allison complained, "Find someone else. Can't you just clone me? It would make more sense."

"We've been over this Allison. Her blood wouldn't be pure enough for royalty." Matthew said, sounding overly tired of this conversation. Allison set her fork down and picked up her glass of wine. She drank it all down in three gulps before setting the glass back on the table. Her personal dinner helper, Andrea, came by and poured in more wine before slinking off into the shadows.

"See? I want Andrea's job. I want to be normal!" Allison cried, pointing off towards her servant. She had decided long ago that she hated to be waited on and that was why she didn't have any staff following her around the castle, unlike her father who had ten men to untie each of his shoes. "Please just release me."

"I won't. End of conversation." And with that the king had spoken. Allison growled and got up from the table. This wasn't the first dinner she had stormed away from, but she made up her mind right there that it would be the last. She left the dining hall and made her way to the transporter, fighting with her ridiculous flowing dress as she did. If she went to Neptune in the morning it would be all over. She would become Princess Chase Allison and that was the last thing she wanted.

Once she made it into her bedroom she ordered the door shut and locked it with her royal seal. Even her father couldn't get into the room when she used that code. Immediately she went over to the wall and used her DNA sequence to open up the safe behind the holographic art that concealed it. Inside were some very expensive jewels and precious metals. The time had come where the economy on Earth and just about any planet, dealt with precious metals. Gold coins, silver coins, and platinum coins, or anything that could be traded and melted down as such.

She removed a velvet box which held a large platinum necklace studded with priceless diamonds. She was only supposed to wear this on her wedding and then pass it down to her son's wife (God forbid she had a daughter). With this piece of jewelry she could buy her way off of the planet. If anyone recognized that it was royal she could say that it was stolen. With a smile she placed the box on the bed and went about correcting her appearance.

Her extremely long hair was something she had always been forced to keep. It was a sign of elegance, of high standards. If she was going to pass for an every day street walker she would need to change that. She went into the bathroom and looked in the holographic reflector. This little device gave her a three dimensional image of what she looked like. Grabbing a pair of scissors from the counter top she released her chestnut colored hair and let it fall naturally down to the floor. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, taking hold of the ponytail it was in. It was now or never.

* * *

Changing the rest of her appearance was easy, blonde hair spray, blue eye pigment, a small scar across her right eye, the illusion was complete. She headed into the bedroom and grabbed a pack made out of synthetic materials and started to pack her most casual clothes. At the very bottom was where she stored the jewelry, still in it's velvet box. She would have taken her more reliable leather bag, but people would see through that in a second and she knew that.

She used the materializer in her room to create the trendy style of clothing for the time period and shoved a bunch of those outfits in there too. The last thing she grabbed from her bed was a little stuffed leopard that her mother had apparently given her when she was a baby. She didn't remember receiving the gift but knew that she couldn't sleep without it. "Looks like it'll just be me and you for a while, Larry." She said softly.

It wasn't going to be easy getting out of the castle undetected but she was going to have to try. Her best bet would be to get into a garbage barge and wait for it to be picked up and moved. No one would check for her in there and if she ran a holograph of her likeness storming around her room with the door sealed from the inside, then it would take a while for anyone to know that she was missing.

The idea of climbing into a garbage barge was not very appealing, and she would smell like absolute shit afterward but it was better than being married to a Neptunian pretty prince. "Computer, time." She said softly.

"19:37 and 23 seconds." The computer replied in her cheery voice. Allison nodded, the garbage was always collected at 20:00 hours by the trash droids. There were huge dumpsters worth of it so she could climb into one of those. Now she just had to get to the waste room without running into anyone who could comment on her new appearance.

All she really had to do was get to the transporter, but with the guards that paced the hall at random intervals there was a good chance she would be spotted. She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked to the doors of her room. She used her royal code to open them and stepped out into the hallway. If the fates were on her side, she wouldn't be caught.

* * *

Hadley Remy sat in a seedy bar in a provence that was long ago called America. She was a bounty hunter and wore full body armor, including a mask that covered her face. The rule in this provence were that everything was neutral. Even if you saw the bounty you were after in this bar, this area, this location, you were not allowed to go after it. That didn't mean that there weren't newsfeeds all around telling you who and what was up for how much bounty.

As far as Hadley knew, she was not on any bounty list. She had never committed a crime bad enough to be put on one. She was very careful not to cheat anyone out of anything and she mostly kept to herself. Making friends only meant later you would have enemies. As she sipped her Voltarian ale, she watched the newsfeeds. The alien sitting next to her was on the list for murder and robbery, worth five hundred thousand gold credits. Yet she couldn't touch him. The only thing she could hope to do was follow him off of the planet and hunt him down by other means.

She kept eyeing him suspiciously through her armored mask but luckily it concealed her eyes enough that he wouldn't notice. He was a Prodian, an alien that looked exactly like a giant lizard. His long spiked tale swished on the floor behind him. He seemed to be alone, and very paranoid. Upon entering such a neutral bar your credit account was checked and when it dipped just slightly below the line where you couldn't afford anything else, security promptly removed you. In that way, you couldn't stay in a neutral area forever unless you had some sort of menial job.

Hadley, however, liked her job. She was far from wealthy but she had her own starship and a place to call home on Saturn. She hardly ever went there, seeing as how her job needed her to travel all around the universe, but if she needed to rest her head, she had a place. A moment later, a small alarm started going off. Something that caught Hadley's attention but was unlikely to catch anyone else's. You see, Hadley wasn't quite human herself.

She turned to see a young woman with blond hair trying to enter the bar, holding a back pack of some kind. The guards weren't letting her in because she clearly did not have enough money to buy drinks. She was trying to argue with them in such a way that Hadley knew the girl had money, just not with her. Of course, she could just ignore this whole scene, or she could do something about it.

"GINA! YOU MADE IT!" Hadley chirped, making her way over to the entrance. The girl looked at her like she had just lost her damn mind, but Hadley shot her a look to tell her to play along. "Gentlemen, this is Gina Dawson, of the Selica Dawsons. Just like her not to bring her wallet anywhere."

"Yes, uh, forgot my wallet. See I don't pay for much." The woman dubbed as Gina said confidently.

"She was told to meet me here for a business transaction. Come on Gina." Hadley said and then put her arm around Cameron's shoulder, "Put her name on my tab, alright?"

"As you wish, Hadley." The lizard guard hissed at her. Hadley offered him a smile, she was well known at this tavern. Hadley walked her new friend over to an empty table. Fake Gina looked at her, ever so grateful that she had been able to enter the bar.

"What's your real name?" Hadley asked and then motioned to the human bartender, "And what's your poison?"

"Al--" Cameron was about to use her real name and then thought against it, "Alexandra, Karma. Who are you?"

"Hadley, Remy. Nice to meet you." Hadley said.

"I like martinis...Earth martinis." Cameron said knowing that if she didn't specify she could end up with a drink that contained some sort of blood. The bartender came over to them.

"My usual, and an Earth martini." Hadley ordered. The bartender nodded and walked away, her purple ponytail swishing madly behind her. "That's Leela, she's a good kid. Now lets get down to business."

"How did you know--"

"I'm a people person. I know lots of things. What do you want and what do you have to offer in return?" Hadley asked as their drinks appeared on the table via foodtransport. Cameron was a bit shocked by that, only because things were always brought to her, but she had to pretend like this fast and cold service didn't bother her. She picked up her martini and took a sip.

"I need to get to andromeda, I have very little money but I'm a hard worker and--"

"What's in the bag?" Hadley cut in. Cameron thought this woman was being overly rude, but she had to remember that here she was not a princess and that was exactly what she wanted. She looked over to her bag and then back to Hadley.

"Your reward if you get me to andromeda in a timely fashion." Cameron replied, not wanting to lay her cards all out on the table just yet. Also she knew better than to whip out a necklace that could buy the whole bar and everyone in it. She wanted to go to andromeda because it was one of the only areas of space not governed by earth and she wouldn't be forcefully expedited if she was caught. Hadley nodded and gulped down half of her drink quickly.

"Alright, when did you want to leave?" Hadley didn't usually trust people so quickly but this girl was so green she was practically glowing. She knew there was something amazing in that bag as way of payment, and it was better to go along with the plan than to argue with the girl.

"As soon as possible." Cameron replied.