Thursday, September 9th, 3086: Mission High School

After homework was collected, Mieu said, "Today, you'll see Miun and I fight... if we have time."

There were a few cheers in the room.

"Remember two days ago that General Pyre said we were going to be living in an apartment? Well..."

April 9th, AW1276, Techna, Palma

Mieu and I sat in the back of the military transport truck. We drove down a street of nearly identical houses - differently colored cubes with convex tops. We stopped in front of a house painted a soft yellow. "We're here, ma'am." The driver said. He passed a key card to Miun. "This house is yours."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Sure as sure can be."

I shrugged. "All right. Come along, Mieu."

We got out, and as soon we were inside the house, Mieu said, "A bit more that Pyre said we'd get."

"Yeah," I replied, dropping my duffle bag on the floor. "Pretty bare in here." The kitchen had the standard refrigerator, stove, and auto-cooker. The rest of the house turned out to be bare, save the combination computer/phone/television set into the living room wall.

"Why do we need four bedrooms?" Mieu said.

"I don't know." I turned on the computer. "We do need to find furnishings for this place."

Mieu nodded. "How much meseta did Pyre give you?"

"Almost enough to buy this place," I said. That was an exaggeration, of course, but the six years of "back pay" Pyre gave me was quite a bit.

There was a knock on the front door. I waited until Mieu was in the alcove near the kitchen entrance before I opened it.

It was a older lady with grey hair carrying a plate of warm cookies. "Hello." She said, looking up at me. "I was on my porch when you drove up." She handed me the cookies. "I just baked these."

"Thank you," I said, smiling. "I'm Miun."

"My name is Arie." She looked around me and into the house. "Are you living here alone?"

I nodded. "Just me and my cyborg Mieu."

"Here on Earth," Miun said, "'Cyborg' means a human that has some sort of mechanical parts. On Palma, 'cyborg' means a robot that has human looking features. Most cyborgs on part only have human looking faces... although, if you feel them, the vast majority feel like warm plastic. Mieu's human looking face, shoulders, and thighs are rare, and even more rare is that her skin felt pretty much like skin."

"Of course, I look and feel perfectly human now," Mieu added.

"Duh." Miun replied, cracking a smile.

"Your cyborg looks a lot like you," Arie remarked.

"My parents surprised me with her," I said.

"So what do you do, Miun? You a student?"

I shook my head. "I'm an officer in the King's Army. I keep His Majesty's cyborgs in tip-top shape."

It was Arie's turn to shake her head. "What's a young pretty girl like you doing in the military?"

"It's my choice."

Arie smiled. "Good for you. Anyway, I need to get ready to go out. Enjoy the cookies."

I sighed as I closed the door.

"It's alright, sis," Mieu said, as if reading my mind, "I know you don't mean it."

"I know, Mieu. I still hate calling you a mere cyborg." I took the wrap off the plate of cookies. "Want a cookie?"

September 9th, 3086, Mission High School

Miun stopped. "I have to go. Mieu can take it from here."

"See you later, Miun." Mieu said. "Ok, the next morning..."

April 10th, AW1276, Miun's and Mieu's house

I was sitting on the floor, cross legged, watching TV with Miun. We had the windows fully opaque - a cyborg that I looked to be should be in their alcove, staring blankly into space - not watching morning TV. Luckily for me, one of the bedrooms had an only window that faced a solid fence, so I had somewhere to go to be myself.

"I wonder when the furniture will arrive," Miun said.

"Soon, I hope. I can almost hear my echo in here.". If I was listening for it, I probably could have heard my echo, but that wasn't the point.

The phone rang. Miun got up to answer it, while I got out of the phone's angle of view.

It was General Pyre. "Good morning," He said. "I hope the house is to your liking."

"It is, sir," Miun replied. "But it's a bit more than we were expecting."

"I forgot we had it, and I thought it would make a nice surprise. Besides, who knows how the extra bedrooms will be useful?"

"Thank you, sir," Miun said.

Pyre's voice lost it's casualness. "Now to business. I've sent someone to pick you both up. You're to report to Commandant Jager."

"Jager, sir?" Miun didn't hide the disappointment in her voice.

"I know he's a few feathers short of a chirper, Miun, but he's a local hero and I can't just remove him."

Miun sighed. "Yes, sir."

Well, he did save two dozen people by personally running into a burning building, I radioed to my sister. That has to count for something.

It has, Miun replied. He's not in a insane asylum, is he?

He's not that crazy. Actually, I think it's kind of funny.

Funny? It'll be funny when he orders us to hunt 'them'.

Pyre was none the wiser to our almost instantaneous conversation. "Your ride will be here shortly," he said. "Good luck, both of you." He hung up.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on our door. Miun opened it, and it was the same driver that drove us here yesterday. "Ma'am, I'm here to take you to Commandant Jager."

"I was alerted to this." Miun replied. "Come along, Mieu."

When we arrived at the base and had parked in front of the base headquarters, the driver turned to Miun and handed her a set of keycards. "That buggy's yours," he said, pointing at the small battery powered car we were parked next to.

I had owned a buggy like that during my life in VR. It was designed to be storable in small spaces, such as the small storage areas in an apartment building. To that end, the buggy only weighed two hundred pounds, and could break down into sections to make carrying easier. However, it's small battery could only hold a couple hours worth of power, and it could barely putt along at forty miles an hour. Miun and I could pick the buggy up and run carrying it at twice of the buggy's top speed.

Miun thanked the driver, and I followed her into the headquarters building.

"Colonel Rydori to see Commandant Jager," Miun said to the secretary.

"He's waiting for you," the secretary responded, "Go on in."

Miun opened the Commandant's office door. "Come in, quickly," Jager hissed from inside, "And close the door!"

There is no lights on in Jager's office, and while Miun and I could see, we knew it was almost pitch black to Jager's eyes. Jager was a short man that always seemed to wear grandiose hats that were a size too large. He was searching for something in his desk. As he did, however, his feather covered hat feel on the floor.

Miun turned on her eyelights to help him. "Turn those down!" He hissed, "We don't want them to be watching!"

"Them, sir?" Miun asked. She always asked that question... at least the couple times I was with her when she talked to Jager.

"Them!" That was always Jager's response. "Ah, here it is." He unfurled a map on his desk. "Yesterday, we've received reports of a raid on a small village," he pointed at an unmarked spot in the Termina foothills, "it seems only a couple men and a cyborg were involved."

"Only a couple men and a cyborg?" Miun echoed. "Even a village sheriff should be able to repulse that."

"This is a 'backwards' village." Jager said.

"Ah." Miun said, nodding.

"Backwards village?" Robert asked.

"It's kind of like the Amish," Mieu answered. "They only use limited technology, and high powered weapons aren't part of that."

"I want you two to go to that village and bring those bandits to justice," Jager said.

"Consider it done, sir."

"Good. One more thing: General Pyre asked me to tell you that picking up a new set of claws at the cyborg shop wouldn't be a bad idea."

"Anything else, sir?" Miun asked.

"No, you're dismissed." We turned to leave. "Be sure to watch out for them!"

Miun and I drove to the cyborg supply shop. I sat in the car, unmoving, with my hands in my lap while staring unblinkingly out the window. The smells from the nearby hamburger stand drifted by my nose. From behind me, I heard a group of teenagers approach. Once they got to my open window, one said, "Watch this." With that, he spat in my face. The group of kids laughed, and ran off down the street.

I just sighed inside. After all, to them, I was just a stupid, emotionless cyborg. Besides, I couldn't exactly get out and teach team a lesson.

Miun returned carrying a long box in each hand. Seeing the spit on my face, she sighed aloud and handed to me her handkerchief. As soon as the windows were rolled back up, she said. "I heard those kids laughing from inside the store." She shook her head. "Anyway, these were the only sets of claws they had," Miun tossed the boxes in the back. "The clerk tried to convince me to bring my cyborgs in to replace their claws with guns."

I laughed. "Are we going to install these when we get out of town?"

Miun shook her head. "I need to pick up something from home, so we'll install them there."

We drove back to the house, and saw that the furniture hadn't been delivered yet. We went inside. Miun went back into her room and came back with her backpack. "Never know when this will come in handy," she said.

Miun and I sat down on the floor, and Miun handed me a box. I opened the dusty box and examined the set of four claws inside. The claws were the best ever made - made of a titanium alloy with a mono-molecular cutting edge. They were far more useful than my old steel claws, and like my current claws, they only would extend from just above my wrist to just beyond my extended fingertips. I was about to begin to install them when Miun said, "Mieu, look."

Miun's box was exactly the same as mine, but the claws were completely different. They were jet black, with a subtle iridescent sheen. That sheen reminded me of the Laconian-17 alloy that made up my armor skeleton... but to my knowledge, the only uses of the nearly indestructible alloy was in Miun and myself.

Down each blade were a set of bright sliver runes - ancient Palman. "I will seal the darkness," I read aloud, although I knew Miun could read them too. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Miun shrugged. She examined the claws closely. "They look like they'll fit."

"You sure you want to install those?"

"Why not? They can't hurt me, you know." That was true. There was no electronic connection between the claws and the cyborg... in this case, Miun.

I nodded and set to work to install my new claws. I rolled up the cloth sheath on my forearm to reveal the white metal underneath. I removed the upper half of my forearm, and then I removed the armor plate under that. Flanking each side of my nanofiber muscles, power relays, and other nano-electronics was my current claws. I popped them out and side them aside and snapped the new ones in. I extended and retracted them a couple times to make sure they worked, and then I put the armor and metal covering back on. After another test extension and retraction, I did my other arm.

Miun was just replacing her armor when I had finished. She rolled her skin back into place, and tested her new claws. "They seem to work just fine," she said. "I wonder where they came from." She stood and placed her hand on the door. "Come on, let's go."

We drove out of Techna and into the light forest that filled the plains west of the Techna River. Our slow buggy had cars passing us left and right on the highway. We were halfway to the turnoff to the village when the low battery light flashed on. "I've got it," I said, rolling up my sleeve. I pulled out the standard power cable from my forearm and plugged into the port on the dashboard. To power a buggy like the one we had, it would require roughly a third of a typical cyborg's power. To my vastly superior power system, the drain was trivial.

The turnoff to the village was just a dirt road. It took us an hour of driving slowly of the rough road until we caught sight of the village ahead. The village was just a collection of wooden buildings surrounding a larger stone structure.

Miun parked the car just outside the cluster of buildings. We walked into the village, and we came across a small girl playing with a doll. Her eyes widened as she saw me.

"Hi," Miun said, bending down, "Do you know where the mayor is?"

She didn't take her eyes off me as she pointed in the general direction on the stone structure.

Miun smiled. "Thank you."

The wooden door of the stone building was unlocked. An older fellow wearing a long blue robe was sitting at a wooden table, deep in paperwork. "Hello?" He looked up and his lined face set with anger when he saw me. "Who're you? And why did you bring that abomination here?"

"I'm Colonel Miun Rydori," Miun handed her ID to the grey haired man, "I'm here about the attack yesterday."

The elder's face softened somewhat. "Oh. It was only two men and..." He paused for a second, "A cyborg that attacked us. They demanded food and meseta... and deuterium from our farming equipment."

I had heard of the 'backwards villages', but I always thought they lived without technology. Miun, in virtual reality, had earned a history degree, so I radioed her: Why do they have fusion powered equipment?

The land probably isn't fertile enough to be farmed easily by hand, she answered, Some sects allow for technology to be used to make living possible.

Aloud, Miun said, "I see. Which way did they go?"

"To the west," The elder said. "Now, please leave and bring those bandits to justice."

"Of course." Miun said. "Come along, Mieu."

We went to the western edge of the village and started to look for tracks. It wasn't look before Miun called out, "Mieu, come to me!" She had found a set of three tracks, on of which looked to be made by a cyborg. We followed them back up into the hills to a cave.

We went inside. The cave took a sharp curve, and we saw light coming from around the corner.

I don't hear anything, Miun radioed.

Me nether.

We rounded the corner and found...

September 9th, 3086: Miun and Mieu's house, San Francisco.

Mieu smiled as she thought back to the faces of the students when she left it at a cliffhanger. She heard the front door to her and Miun's house open. It was her sister.

"How did the meeting go?" Mieu asked.

Miun took off her uniform jacket and threw it on the couch. "The president wanted my opionion on the proposed increase of the military budget during a lunch with the leaders in Congress.:

"The budget that failed miserably? It seems the Rydori name doesn't carry much weight any more."

"Oh, it does," Miun smirked, "I said that we should look to how our fellow League members structure their militaries before we spend more on ours."

"How did the president take it?"

"He got really quiet for a minute, and then said 'That makes sense.'"

"You want to hear how I ended class today?" Mieu grinned.

Friday, September 10th, 3086, Mission High School

The class was full two minutes before the late bell rang. In her centuries of teaching, this was an event that she's only seen on party days. It's nice to see them take learning seriously. She radioed Miun.

They have a teacher that's committed to making them learn. Miun's lips turned upward. Of course, they probably just want to see us beat up something.

Mieu lightly punched her sister on the arm. I'll beat you up! But yeah, it's probably is because we're attacking something.

The tardy bell rang, ending the girl's conversation. "All right," Mieu clapped her hands together and waited for the class to settle. "Go ahead and pass your homework up. As I'm sure you all remember, Miun and I were in a cave searching for bandits. Well, we rounded the corner, and..."

April 10th, AW1276 - In a cave forty miles west-north-west of Techna, Palma

There was a Maren type cyborg standing guard in the chamber that was around the corner. Its steel body showed much abuse with many scuff marks, dents, and a couple of crude patches. It was a standard civilian model, and didn't have any armor except the aftermarket ceramic plate that had been bolted to its chest to protect its vital areas.

"What scrap heap did they pull that from?" I radioed Miun. The Maren was state of the art over fifty years ago, however, the Maren type had a glitch made the Maren extremely slow to adapt to rapidly changing situations. Very few bought it, and it was quickly replaced by a corrected Meren type.

"Probably the one we'll be sending it to," Miun replied.

A head raised. "Yes, Robert?"

"Couldn't the cyborg hear you radio to each other?

"No," Mieu answered. "It would be almost impossible for even one of our sisters to detect our communication, and we have specialized systems to do that. The Maren had no hope at all."

"Please," the Maren said in a dull monotone, "leave now or I will be forced to use force."

Miun took two steps forward and stood nanoflesh face to synthskin face with the Maren.

"Please leave," the Maren repeated.

Miun drew back her fist and drove it towards the cyborg's armored chest. The Maren didn't move. Although it probably noticed that Miun's nanofiber powered punch was coming in much, much faster than it should, it didn't have time to figure out how to react to it.

The punch landed on the center of the cyborg's armor plate. The ceramic armor had been designed to stop small arms, not a fist traveling at almost the speed of sound. The ceramic plate shattered and the four hundred pound cyborg was knocked backward a step.

Miun jumped on the cyborg and wrapped her legs around its waist. She extended her claws from her right wrist and slashed at the Maren's now exposed chest, making two ragged cuts in the thin steel. She took her left hand, and grabbing on to the cuts, ripped the cyborg's chest wide open.

Retracting her claws, my sister reached inside the cyborg's chest and grabbed its brain box, and pushing off with her free hand did a back flip. The cyborg crashed to the ground as Miun landed on her feet.

"I'll have to rate that a 10," I radioed her.

"Quickest way to do take care of it," she said as she put the cyborg's brain box in her backpack, "but thanks."

We heard someone coming up the tunnel that led farther into the cave. We waited, and two men walked groggily into the chamber.

"Who're you?" The blue haired man said.

The other man looked at the cyborg's ruined body. "You're going to pay for that!" He snarled, drawing a gun from his belt and pointing it at Miun.

"I'm Colonel Miun Rydori, and both of you are under arrest!"

"Really, now?" Blue haired pulled a cyborg stunner from his pocket and pointed it at me. "This thing is set to fry - now leave or I leave you cyborg less."

"Cyborgs can be replaced," Miun said. The bandits knew if the killed an army officer, they'd be hunted till the ends of the planet... and beyond if need be.

"I gave you a chance," Blue haired said, and fired the stunner. A white arc shot out from the stunner and danced across my body.

I was no mere cyborg and I was completely immune to the stunner's effects. Still, I had to play along, so I collapsed to the ground. I landed face up so I could still see what was going on.

Nicole raised a hand. "Don't you have any backups for you eyes?"

"I didn't back then, but I do now." Mieu said, "Miun's always had them. When we use them, however, it discolors our skin," She showed the back of her hand to the class, which has a thumbtack sized black spot on it. "See? We can't use them without drawing attention."

Blue haired tossed the stunner aside. "Now, Colonel, I suggest you leave. I wouldn't want to see a pretty girl like you get hurt."

I'm going to back off, Miun radioed me. They'll probably going to follow me, and when they pass you, get them.

Right.

Miun raised her hands and backed off slowly.

"That's right," Blue haired said as the two bandits stepped over me.

I struck. I sprang to my feet, and spreading my arms, tackled both men. They forced me off them and struggled to their feet. Miun rushed forward and with two swift kicks to their chins, knocked them both out.

I rolled the men over and made sure they were still alive. It looked like that Miun had broken both of their jaws, and I pulled a couple broken teeth from their mouths so they wouldn't choke on them. I told Miun of their injures.

"That'll give them something to remember," she said.

I ran my left hand over each of them. Unlike Miun, I was equipped with a bioscanner that, coupled with the paramedic training I had, told me a lot about the men's internal condition. "Both of them has a bad concussion. I should use Res on them."

"Res?" A confused Eric asked, What's that?

"A curative technique," Mieu answered, "Some people call techniques magic, but don't tell a technique user that."

"Using Res would wake them up, right?" Miun asked.

"Yeah."

Miun mulled it over. "Keep an eye on them. If they need Res, then do it."

I wanted to heal them right away, but Miun had far more experience in the field, so I yielded to her judgement.

Miun went deeper into the cave while I looked over the unconscious bandits. "Mieu, come here!" Miun called out. "I found someone!"

I followed the tunnel back into another chamber. Laying on the ground, his hands and feet bound, was a boy that didn't look older than fifteen. His pale skin showed many small burn marks, a sign of the use of a stun gun.

I scanned him. "Except for the stun gun effect, he's fine" I told Miun. "Do you want me to wake him up?"

"Yeah."

I untied him and tossed the rope aside. I activated my technique system and felt a great deal of power shift from a special capacitor to a converter that changed the energy into what technique users called "life energy". The energy then moved to a filter, which shaped the energy into the proper wavelength for the Res technique. The energy ran down my arm and to my hand, and then surrounded the kid with a soft blue glow.

"Wow." Nicole blurted out to the class. "Can all cyborgs do that?"

Mieu shook her head. "No. To the best of my knowledge, only Miun, myself, and two others had that ability. It was one of many things that were unique or almost unique to us."

When the blue glow has dissipated, the boy's burns had disappeared. His eyes opened. "Where am I?"

"You're in a cave 40 miles west of Techna," Miun answered. "I'm Miun, and my cyborg is Mieu."

His eyes looked us over. "I know. I've seen you before." He clapped his hand over his mouth. "Forget I said that."

"He knows us?" I radioed Miun is bewilderment. "How?"

"I'd like to know," she answered back.

"How do you know us?" She asked.

"I can't tell you." He replied.

Miun sighed. He must be a liar.

I don't know, sis, I radioed back. That seemed sincere.

Miun helped the kid to his feet. "Where are you from?"

"Earth." I didn't have a clue what Earth was.

"Earth?" Miun echoed. "The planet Earth?"

Mieu, we need to get this kid to Pyre, fast.

We need to haul those bandits back to the village or to a hospital, I radioed back, Isn't that more important?

No, sis, Miun replied, surprising me, We need to head back as soon as possible.

All right.

"What's your name?" Miun asked.

"Tim."

"We need to take you to our superior. Trust me, you'll be safe."

Tim nodded without hesitation.

The three of us walked back in to the other chamber where the two bandits were still unconscious. Mieu, use Res on them. I'll start back with Tim.

They'll need a hospital if their jaws don't set properly. It was very unlikely, but possible.

Then they'll have to drag themselves there. Miun replied.

Miun dropped me back at our house. After that, she went to Jager's office to report what happened. It turned out General Pyre had come from the capital and was waiting for her. He told her that he'd let her know if Tim's story checked out.