A Lamp into the Lonely Heart
1:45 AM in outside space
"Alert, alert! Please evacuate the space station in an orderly manner. No pushing." Called the voice on the intercom. People paid no heed to his plea; they shoved and pulled, pushed and yelled loudly. Everyone wanted to get off the station. Children screamed, some even lost. Loads of people crowded to the docks, wanting to get to earth as fast as possible.
Space Station Hayley 167 was self-disrupting. It was an old ship for its time, forty years to be exact. After it launched in to outside space, strange things went on inside the station. People paid no heed to the warnings, however. Life went on as usual. The once- earth inhabitants married each other, had kids even on the station. For the first time, life occurred in outside space. But now it turned fatal.
The now heavily crowded space docks were filled with people. Person by terrified person was loaded on to a space capsule, many gave sad farewells to their loved ones, praying they would see each other again.
But no one noticed the two teenagers at the middle of the dock. One was a tall male, glasses, and dark brown hair. He held the hand of another teenager, a female, with long sandy blond hair, and large green eyes. The male pushed and pushed through the crowd with the girl be hind him, until he hurriedly reached the loading section. There was a loud "BANG!" from somewhere nearby. The two looked up where the sound was heard, with terror in their hearts.
"Drew," said the girl hurriedly. "Drew, come on, hurry! The ship's going to blow up any moment!" Drew turned back to the girl. He looked deeply in to her eyes. He knew there was not enough time to load two people at once. One person had a good chance at making it to earth. The capsule would be able to go faster. 'Everyone else is putting multiple people in to the capsules,' he thought to himself. 'Stupid fools, they'll be killed before the even reach the earth's atmosphere'
"Look," he said to the teenage girl. "There's not enough time for two people. Go on without me, I'll get a capsule later" "No!" She said horrified. It'll blow up at any minute-" There was another "BANG!" and the dock shook violently. The girl fell in to the capsule's cockpit. This gave Drew an opportunity to strap her in before she could protest. "Nooo!" she screamed. He paid no attention to her protests, her pleas or her screaming. She had to get to safety. Drew closed the door to the capsule. He locked it, and peered inside the bluegrass window. The girl was looking on the other side, at him, her face streaming with glittering tears. "Go to Earth, Cara. You'll be safe there. You'll survive." He said slowly. He ran away from the capsule and closed the door in front of him. He gunned the engine button on the keyboard which was on the wall, and watched as the second door be hind Cara's capsule open, and she speed away in to the blackness. Only minutes later the entire station blew apart in to a fury of heat and broken metal. Drew only made it as far as the next capsule's door until he was caught into the intense heat and energy.
5:30, PM, 5 DAYS LATER, PARADIGN CITY
Business was going slow for Roger Smith. Nothing in the 'Fighting the Evil Badguy' category had be done in a week, which meant the Big-O lay dormant beneath the city's feet, waiting until Roger summoned it. The young negotiator had only one meeting today; concerning an old friend of his. Max Middleton was an ex-cop that Roger knew from being on the force. He got into trouble with some thugs a few years before, and to not find himself in a morgue he let them hit him up for money whenever they needed or wanted it. But now that Middleton was getting old on years, and his retirement money growing smaller, he had to find out a way to stop the scalawags from getting him bankrupt.
So why not call on his old buddy the negotiator to help him? Roger wasn't reluctant to take the job.
Roger turned the key into the ignition, and drove out of the large garage. He was heading to the park, in fact the only park in the city (Which was artificial, of course). Max had said, "to settle the arrangements"- or as he had put it- "without interference." Roger questioned what the meant over and over in his head ever since he heard the phone call the day before. But the tone of Max's voice wasn't only unusual, to Roger it was completely unnatural. Something was wrong, he knew it.
He turned into a large parking lot a block near the park, secured his car, and walked the rest of the way.
At a quarter 'til six he met his old friend near the fountains. Greeting him politely, Roger seated Max and himself on to a bench.
"So, what's going on, Max? Why did you want me to meet you here?"
"Look Roger, you're a darn fine negotiator, best one in fact- but, I need to close down the negotiation." he said candidly. Roger choked.
"W-What? Close it down? Why?" Then it hit him. Roger mentally kicked himself. 'Of course, the thugs! They must have got wind of it and are forcing him to close it down.'
"Max, no one's forcing you in to this are they?" he questioned seriously. Max quickly narrowed his eyes unnaturally at me and stood up.
"Of course not! I just need to close this down!"
Well, that was it. Max left the park, and left Roger on the lonely bench. He was annoyed. He hated when clients were bad liars and plainly showed it. What was worse was that many of those clients expected him to buy them all. He angrily got up from the bench and started to his car a block away, roughly kicking small piles of leaves. Roger was getting ready to violently boot a large bunch, when he noticed a shiny glinting object nearby. He came closer to it, and it proved to be a small piece of shiny metal. More seemed to follow, some glints shone in the forest. Confused and curious, Roger decided to go that way, following the tiny scraps. Roger carefully tried to avoid low limbs and protruding roots and rocks, but being human, tripped several times. He climbed deeper and deeper in to the black forest. Every now and then he looked at the ground, checking his trail. The further he went, the more metal he spied. Roger's curiosity grew rapidly, steadily rising still.
Roger found a last set of bushes and tree limbs, and carefully pulled them apart. What he saw next almost made him fall flat on the ground. There, before Roger's eyes, was a large, circular object. It had smashed into a nearby tree trunk, the dents on the object clearly visible over the splintered wood.
"What the!?" Roger spat astounded. It was definitely some kind of transportation device, to Roger that was obvious. But where was it from? More importantly, what was in there? Roger wanted to find out. He searched for a handle; anything to sink his gloved hands in. He began to wipe off dirt from the object with both hands, and in doing so, found the edge of a door. It was only open an inch, yet Roger put his fingers into the small opening and began to pry. The door would not give, however. Roger tried to tug harder, but only to find his fingers slip slightly. He stumbled backwards from the force with an "Oomph!"
Slightly out of breath, Roger decided to go another round. This time he would give more effort. He readjusted his fingers again, and began to pry harder. This time the door gave in, and with another tug from Roger, it began to lift up slowly. Now very out of breath, and sweating slightly, Roger peered in to the capsule.
What he saw next almost made him faint with shock. Beneath the dirt, the broken devices, and electrical parts, lay a young girl about the age of fourteen or fifteen. The bloody cut on her forehead gave the reason to why she was unconscious. Roger was astounded the cut was the only thing she got. 'She needs help' he thought to himself. And with that, he whipped out a communicator.
"Any info on her, Roger?" Said Dan Dastun ten minutes later as he took notes frantically. They were still in the park, yet now the section where Roger had found the girl was completely squared-off by yellow ribbons.
"Nope. Although it seems she's probably from some kind of space station-"
"Now I find that hard to believe. There's no reports, no info at all on a launched space station!" Dan Dastun said. Roger sighed, and started to walk back to the Griffon.
The phone rang at three the next morning. Roger, asleep in his black sheets, was slowly brought back to earth. An arm appeared from the sheets, and groped for the phone.
"H-Hello?" he said still groggy.
"Uh, yes, Mr. Smith, we detected signs that the girl you discovered yesterday has shown signs of waking up and-" The doctor was cut short by the yawn poorly stifled by Roger.
"Sorry, I tried to stop it, I'm awake now."
"Er, yes. Well the girl is now waking up and you told me sir, to call when she did."
"Right. I'll be right there." He replied. 'And maybe-' he thought to himself-'she knows of anything that Paradigm doesn't.'
Roger got dressed quickly and headed for the elevator. He was about to open the elevator gate when a steady voice sounded from behind.
"Where are you going Roger?" Said the android known as Dorothy. Roger spun around, surprised. Shouldn't she be sleeping?
"Dorothy! Why are you here?" he said, not hiding his surprise.
"I live here, have you forgotten, Roger Smith?" she said to what seemed unemotionally.
"I didn't mean it that way, Dorothy. Why are you up at this hour?" he said, annoyed. 'Why are you?' she thought to herself. Dorothy wanted to know where he was going; though she probably already knew why. "It is that girl, is it? That girl you found." Said Dorothy. She said this in her usual steady voice, but there was a hint of jealousy in the tone that Roger did not detect. He sighed, and thought to him-self 'Right on the dot as usual,'
"She woke up just after I phoned you, Mr. Smith." The doctor said when Roger arrived at Paradigm's only hospital. He pushed the door open, to reveal the girl that Roger had found the day before. She was indeed awake, sitting up in the bed, looking lost. She looked towards the two as they came in, in a confused state.
"Who. Are you?" she asked confused. Roger stepped forward and introduced himself.
"My name's Roger Smith, I work as a negotiator here."
"Mr. Smith is the one who found you," informed the doctor to the girl.
"Oh, well," she said softly. "My name's Cara, I used to live in space station, but then you already knew that." Roger gave Cara a kind smile, but then it turned serious.
"About the station, Miss Cara, was anything wrong before it exploded?"
Cara's eyes softened, she looked down clutching the white sheets of her bed.
"I heard of the errors and difficulties that happened after it's launch forty years ago, and there were some break down in various areas of the ship when I was there, but the explosion, it was so fast and sudden, we don't now what caused the problem." she began to bite her lip. She couldn't stop the image floating in her mind, the one of her best friend, Drew. She knew he was dead, she had somehow sensed and knew it, but it still was hard to believe.
Miles away, at that moment Dorothy gazed in to the sunrise, fully taking in its view. The light couldn't hurt her eyes, so she gazed on. The wind blew in her hair, yet she was thinking of one thing.
'Roger Smith, please tell me I'm human, because only humans can fell love.'
What do you think! Yeah, no romance between R&D yet, but that will change with new stories. And what about the girl? Is she gonna get in the way? No, she gonna do the opposite.. Read to find out next! -Bunny
1:45 AM in outside space
"Alert, alert! Please evacuate the space station in an orderly manner. No pushing." Called the voice on the intercom. People paid no heed to his plea; they shoved and pulled, pushed and yelled loudly. Everyone wanted to get off the station. Children screamed, some even lost. Loads of people crowded to the docks, wanting to get to earth as fast as possible.
Space Station Hayley 167 was self-disrupting. It was an old ship for its time, forty years to be exact. After it launched in to outside space, strange things went on inside the station. People paid no heed to the warnings, however. Life went on as usual. The once- earth inhabitants married each other, had kids even on the station. For the first time, life occurred in outside space. But now it turned fatal.
The now heavily crowded space docks were filled with people. Person by terrified person was loaded on to a space capsule, many gave sad farewells to their loved ones, praying they would see each other again.
But no one noticed the two teenagers at the middle of the dock. One was a tall male, glasses, and dark brown hair. He held the hand of another teenager, a female, with long sandy blond hair, and large green eyes. The male pushed and pushed through the crowd with the girl be hind him, until he hurriedly reached the loading section. There was a loud "BANG!" from somewhere nearby. The two looked up where the sound was heard, with terror in their hearts.
"Drew," said the girl hurriedly. "Drew, come on, hurry! The ship's going to blow up any moment!" Drew turned back to the girl. He looked deeply in to her eyes. He knew there was not enough time to load two people at once. One person had a good chance at making it to earth. The capsule would be able to go faster. 'Everyone else is putting multiple people in to the capsules,' he thought to himself. 'Stupid fools, they'll be killed before the even reach the earth's atmosphere'
"Look," he said to the teenage girl. "There's not enough time for two people. Go on without me, I'll get a capsule later" "No!" She said horrified. It'll blow up at any minute-" There was another "BANG!" and the dock shook violently. The girl fell in to the capsule's cockpit. This gave Drew an opportunity to strap her in before she could protest. "Nooo!" she screamed. He paid no attention to her protests, her pleas or her screaming. She had to get to safety. Drew closed the door to the capsule. He locked it, and peered inside the bluegrass window. The girl was looking on the other side, at him, her face streaming with glittering tears. "Go to Earth, Cara. You'll be safe there. You'll survive." He said slowly. He ran away from the capsule and closed the door in front of him. He gunned the engine button on the keyboard which was on the wall, and watched as the second door be hind Cara's capsule open, and she speed away in to the blackness. Only minutes later the entire station blew apart in to a fury of heat and broken metal. Drew only made it as far as the next capsule's door until he was caught into the intense heat and energy.
5:30, PM, 5 DAYS LATER, PARADIGN CITY
Business was going slow for Roger Smith. Nothing in the 'Fighting the Evil Badguy' category had be done in a week, which meant the Big-O lay dormant beneath the city's feet, waiting until Roger summoned it. The young negotiator had only one meeting today; concerning an old friend of his. Max Middleton was an ex-cop that Roger knew from being on the force. He got into trouble with some thugs a few years before, and to not find himself in a morgue he let them hit him up for money whenever they needed or wanted it. But now that Middleton was getting old on years, and his retirement money growing smaller, he had to find out a way to stop the scalawags from getting him bankrupt.
So why not call on his old buddy the negotiator to help him? Roger wasn't reluctant to take the job.
Roger turned the key into the ignition, and drove out of the large garage. He was heading to the park, in fact the only park in the city (Which was artificial, of course). Max had said, "to settle the arrangements"- or as he had put it- "without interference." Roger questioned what the meant over and over in his head ever since he heard the phone call the day before. But the tone of Max's voice wasn't only unusual, to Roger it was completely unnatural. Something was wrong, he knew it.
He turned into a large parking lot a block near the park, secured his car, and walked the rest of the way.
At a quarter 'til six he met his old friend near the fountains. Greeting him politely, Roger seated Max and himself on to a bench.
"So, what's going on, Max? Why did you want me to meet you here?"
"Look Roger, you're a darn fine negotiator, best one in fact- but, I need to close down the negotiation." he said candidly. Roger choked.
"W-What? Close it down? Why?" Then it hit him. Roger mentally kicked himself. 'Of course, the thugs! They must have got wind of it and are forcing him to close it down.'
"Max, no one's forcing you in to this are they?" he questioned seriously. Max quickly narrowed his eyes unnaturally at me and stood up.
"Of course not! I just need to close this down!"
Well, that was it. Max left the park, and left Roger on the lonely bench. He was annoyed. He hated when clients were bad liars and plainly showed it. What was worse was that many of those clients expected him to buy them all. He angrily got up from the bench and started to his car a block away, roughly kicking small piles of leaves. Roger was getting ready to violently boot a large bunch, when he noticed a shiny glinting object nearby. He came closer to it, and it proved to be a small piece of shiny metal. More seemed to follow, some glints shone in the forest. Confused and curious, Roger decided to go that way, following the tiny scraps. Roger carefully tried to avoid low limbs and protruding roots and rocks, but being human, tripped several times. He climbed deeper and deeper in to the black forest. Every now and then he looked at the ground, checking his trail. The further he went, the more metal he spied. Roger's curiosity grew rapidly, steadily rising still.
Roger found a last set of bushes and tree limbs, and carefully pulled them apart. What he saw next almost made him fall flat on the ground. There, before Roger's eyes, was a large, circular object. It had smashed into a nearby tree trunk, the dents on the object clearly visible over the splintered wood.
"What the!?" Roger spat astounded. It was definitely some kind of transportation device, to Roger that was obvious. But where was it from? More importantly, what was in there? Roger wanted to find out. He searched for a handle; anything to sink his gloved hands in. He began to wipe off dirt from the object with both hands, and in doing so, found the edge of a door. It was only open an inch, yet Roger put his fingers into the small opening and began to pry. The door would not give, however. Roger tried to tug harder, but only to find his fingers slip slightly. He stumbled backwards from the force with an "Oomph!"
Slightly out of breath, Roger decided to go another round. This time he would give more effort. He readjusted his fingers again, and began to pry harder. This time the door gave in, and with another tug from Roger, it began to lift up slowly. Now very out of breath, and sweating slightly, Roger peered in to the capsule.
What he saw next almost made him faint with shock. Beneath the dirt, the broken devices, and electrical parts, lay a young girl about the age of fourteen or fifteen. The bloody cut on her forehead gave the reason to why she was unconscious. Roger was astounded the cut was the only thing she got. 'She needs help' he thought to himself. And with that, he whipped out a communicator.
"Any info on her, Roger?" Said Dan Dastun ten minutes later as he took notes frantically. They were still in the park, yet now the section where Roger had found the girl was completely squared-off by yellow ribbons.
"Nope. Although it seems she's probably from some kind of space station-"
"Now I find that hard to believe. There's no reports, no info at all on a launched space station!" Dan Dastun said. Roger sighed, and started to walk back to the Griffon.
The phone rang at three the next morning. Roger, asleep in his black sheets, was slowly brought back to earth. An arm appeared from the sheets, and groped for the phone.
"H-Hello?" he said still groggy.
"Uh, yes, Mr. Smith, we detected signs that the girl you discovered yesterday has shown signs of waking up and-" The doctor was cut short by the yawn poorly stifled by Roger.
"Sorry, I tried to stop it, I'm awake now."
"Er, yes. Well the girl is now waking up and you told me sir, to call when she did."
"Right. I'll be right there." He replied. 'And maybe-' he thought to himself-'she knows of anything that Paradigm doesn't.'
Roger got dressed quickly and headed for the elevator. He was about to open the elevator gate when a steady voice sounded from behind.
"Where are you going Roger?" Said the android known as Dorothy. Roger spun around, surprised. Shouldn't she be sleeping?
"Dorothy! Why are you here?" he said, not hiding his surprise.
"I live here, have you forgotten, Roger Smith?" she said to what seemed unemotionally.
"I didn't mean it that way, Dorothy. Why are you up at this hour?" he said, annoyed. 'Why are you?' she thought to herself. Dorothy wanted to know where he was going; though she probably already knew why. "It is that girl, is it? That girl you found." Said Dorothy. She said this in her usual steady voice, but there was a hint of jealousy in the tone that Roger did not detect. He sighed, and thought to him-self 'Right on the dot as usual,'
"She woke up just after I phoned you, Mr. Smith." The doctor said when Roger arrived at Paradigm's only hospital. He pushed the door open, to reveal the girl that Roger had found the day before. She was indeed awake, sitting up in the bed, looking lost. She looked towards the two as they came in, in a confused state.
"Who. Are you?" she asked confused. Roger stepped forward and introduced himself.
"My name's Roger Smith, I work as a negotiator here."
"Mr. Smith is the one who found you," informed the doctor to the girl.
"Oh, well," she said softly. "My name's Cara, I used to live in space station, but then you already knew that." Roger gave Cara a kind smile, but then it turned serious.
"About the station, Miss Cara, was anything wrong before it exploded?"
Cara's eyes softened, she looked down clutching the white sheets of her bed.
"I heard of the errors and difficulties that happened after it's launch forty years ago, and there were some break down in various areas of the ship when I was there, but the explosion, it was so fast and sudden, we don't now what caused the problem." she began to bite her lip. She couldn't stop the image floating in her mind, the one of her best friend, Drew. She knew he was dead, she had somehow sensed and knew it, but it still was hard to believe.
Miles away, at that moment Dorothy gazed in to the sunrise, fully taking in its view. The light couldn't hurt her eyes, so she gazed on. The wind blew in her hair, yet she was thinking of one thing.
'Roger Smith, please tell me I'm human, because only humans can fell love.'
What do you think! Yeah, no romance between R&D yet, but that will change with new stories. And what about the girl? Is she gonna get in the way? No, she gonna do the opposite.. Read to find out next! -Bunny