Five follows, one favourite, and a follower of me! Yay! Your support means the world to me! I'm wondering if I should extend the chapters a bit, I've noticed it takes me at least two minutes to go through each chapter: not a good sign. I shouldn't bug you, but do you think you could tell me if I need to extend chapters or not please? Thank you again, sTbm77 xx

Chapter 4

Lucy - or not Lucy – sat on the bed completely still like the life had been sucked out of her – not that she was a living, breathing human or any other form. 'A creator, a manufacturing date, and even worse: my name is D.E.A.D and I know what that stands for.' Her PADD beeped before a message appeared on the screen: her thoughts were typed out. Then another message appeared, but this time it was voice activated. ''Transferring files from SYSTEM to SYSTEM PADD.'' It stated. Now Lucy was more puzzled than before. ''Computer,'' she asked. ''What is the location of the System?'' she continued. ''Located in SYSTEM.'' It replied.

''Is there any visual?''

''Affirmative, would you like to view?''

''Yes please.''

She sighed when she saw a picture of herself onscreen. She felt like the world was slowing coming together yet falling apart in an odd way. It had only been a few hours since everything had happened.

Approximately 9 hours ago she had woken up to people rushing madly around a room like it was doomsday. It really was to be honest. There were a few people in beds around her who were being resuscitated, others were rushed out of the room and taken into another. Some were already dead. She had actually understood immediately. There had probably been an accident where she and the other people had been injured, now they were being treated, and then it was crisis after crisis. An Andorian woman who had been operating on her told her to stand up and she was put in a wheelchair, which she didn't understand. The woman told her that she had been injured, just like she had anticipated and that she was now okay, and the next thing Lucy saw after she blinked was broken glass, falling rubble and a huge hole in the ground where the Andorian had been previously standing. The next moment the entire building had collapsed and Lucy's knee was cut. She looked around her feeling a little traumatised but other than that she was okay. She noticed a part of the city that remained undestroyed and she instinctively ran towards it. She kept tripping and falling, but it didn't take her long to notice that after a few minutes the scars would disappear so she didn't care. She ran across the empty streets until she skidded around a corner and ran into an unlocked and lonely house, falling to the ground and out of breath. She felt sick but she got up and went into a room where she found a laptop which looked like it was from at least 200 years ago. She picked it up and ran out of the house, looked around and started walking back to the remains of the medical centre where there was a signal point, she just knew it. It wasn't the safest place to be at the time, but she had no other choice. She sat down on a piece of debris and switched on the laptop after opening it. She set up a frequency and motion detector, and to her disappointment, no one in 500 square kilometres was alive. She checked for frequencies in the atmosphere and was able to find a federation ship. They had probably received a distress call and were doing exactly as she was. She was able to get hold of them by hacking into their network and this time she wasn't disappointed when a Vulcan appeared on the screen. To her surprise she knew who he was and addressed him in a formal manner, until she saw his questioning facial expression and lied by saying, ''who doesn't know who you are?''. When she sighed she felt a bit of pain and assumed she'd cracked a rib but knew if she had, it would heal. She noticed the Vulcan had seemed worried and thought of assuring him that she was okay. He had asked her for her name, which she did not know and before she could reply something fell and damaged her laptop. Then she was beamed aboard the star ship and a nurse with blonde hair rushed her to a medical bay where a doctor was waiting for her. She recalled everything else before deciding to carry on reading. She muttered a few of the words she passed until she got to the most interesting thing of all. ''Reprogramed. Elimination mode has been de-activated and can only be activated by emotion. Weaponry was removed. Regenerating abilities have been upgraded. Is able to identify all persons acquainted with. Can connect to any server and any computer.'' Lucy read out loud before lying on the bed. She lifted the PADD to her face and started searching through every piece of information she could find. She was just about to scream into her pillow with excitement when she saw something, even more interesting than anything else. ''Telepathic…'' She fell onto the floor while rolling about, got up and started jumping around when she heard a knock on the door. She opened the door to find the same nurse who escorted her to the medical bay at her door. She smiled and said, ''Hello. I just came to check on you. Have you eaten yet?'' Lucy recognised her faintly and shook her head. ''Oh yes, you helped me. Thanks for that.'' The nurse nodded.

''No problem. I'm Nurse Chapel, but you can call me Christine if you'd like.''

''Okay then, hello. I'm…I think I'll have to stick with Lucy.''

''I've heard about what happened. Could be amnesia. Don't worry about it for now, we'll figure it out.''

''That…That wouldn't be necessary.''

''Why not?'' Christine eyed her suspiciously.

It took Lucy a few seconds to decide if this woman could be trusted, not that having everyone know would be an issue, but she thought that things would be better if they were kept secret. If Captain Kirk had to hear of her discovery and included it in his report, scientists of other people may want to study or observe her, and she was not looking forward to that.

''Come inside, please.'' Lucy said trying not to sound nervous. Christine walked in and looked around. ''You've kept your room pretty neat, I see. My roommate's always complaining about the mess on my side.'' She laughed. Lucy smiled and lifted her PADD off the bed. She showed Nurse Chapel all the information and explained everything to her, trying to make it understandable. She seemed to understand, gasping and nodding and smiling after every sentence was said. Soon she was quiet when she thought Lucy may not need her to speak, just for someone to listen. Lucy seemed excited about everything that was happening, while the average child of any species (other than a Vulcan child) may be traumatised, anxious or shocked.

''And that is what happened in the past nine, going on ten hours.'' Lucy concluded. ''And I'd rather that no one other than you and I knew. I figured that a few people could know, like the doctor. I can't tell Spock though, or the captain. I'm afraid that I'll end up as an experiment somewhere.''

Christine sighed. ''You know that they'll end up finding out sooner or later, Lucy – or whatever you choose your name to be.''

''I know. You won't tell them, will you? If you do tell them you know what I'm able to do with the elimina-

''Relax,'' Christine laughed and continued. ''I'll keep my mouth shut. You can trust me. And I have no business of telling Spock. I have nothing to do with him. I don't have anything to do with the captain either.'' She said with a distant look on her face, almost like something had happened between her and Spock. Lucy thought she could look up that file later on, but decided to respect Christine's privacy despite her urge to nose about. They were silent for a few moments before Christine spoke again. '' I know it isn't my choice, but promise me that you won't call yourself D.E.A.D, okay?'' Lucy laughed. ''Of course not. I'll stick with what the captain said. I actually like it, it sounds beautiful and innocent.'' They laughed for a few more moments and mocked the name 'D.E.A.D' for a while before Christine said, ''you know if you want, I can get you new clothes.'' Lucy looked relieved. ''Yes please! My clothing looks terrible.'' She stated with disgust as she touched the fabric of the long patterned skirt before muttering, ''I must've had pretty good taste.''

Christine felt sorry for her really. Lucy didn't know a lot about herself other than what she could do and the people she'd met. The child wouldn't experience regular things, like parent-child relationships or ever get the answers she might want from her creator. She didn't want another silence as she'd have to get back to her shift which McCoy was doing for her and she wasn't looking forward to another sour faced grump – that's what her patients were for. ''Okay, I'll bring you some stuff, and uh, if you can eat anything, I'll be in the cafeteria in two hours, if you want I'll take you there instead.'' Lucy grinned. ''I'll have to see what I need, and it is okay, I'll meet you there if possible. You know, I may have some sort of a GSP or whatever those devices were called…GPS, yeah.'' Christine laughed. ''Okay then. You can just…..send me a mind message or something if you need help.'' She replied on her way out. They said goodbye before Christine left and walked down the hallway.

Half an hour passed and Lucy grew bored of trying to find her eating plans. She tried searching 'battery life' and one result came up on her PADD. ''20% battery life remaining. Your intake of …'' Lucy stopped reading with disbelief. She re-read it to make sure she was okay. ''your intake of liquid hydrogen is low. It is advised that you – she couldn't read anymore before the lights dimmed and all the sounds of the corridor outside disappeared, and she fainted.

Longest chapter! I wonder who will come to Lucy's 'rescue'. What do you think of the liquid hydrogen idea? You'll find it important in the next chapter. Thanks so much to everyone again ;) sTbm77 xx