Hey guys! It's about time I actually put out a chapter. I hope you guys enjoy. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, I don't know when the next one is going to be out, hopefully it won't be the seven centuries that it took to get this one out!
Also, don't flame on my writing! Constructive criticism, yes, outright insults and how much you hate it, blah, blah blah, I am not going to take. If you have a problem, be an adult (or at least somewhat mature) and send me a note in private telling me in a civil way what you may not like about it. For those of you who aren't subscribed to , I get any reviews in my inbox so I can see what you write before I decide on approving it for the public to see. So if you write something nasty, (oh, it's been done) I will delete it with a big ol' grin on my face because, like it or not, I have to power to do so.
ANYWAY, like I said, I hope you like this chapter.
Ayumi's eyes snapped open and found herself standing on the black and sickly green deck of an Engineer ship with its bone-like ridges arching to meet high above her and the stretching film of a substance between each interval over what looked like a malnourished ribcage, threatening to tear through but in the same instance retreat almost unnoticeably within its unseen depths as it glistened and seemed to pulse. She could not place the primal fear she felt and the urge to claw at her skull was twitching in her fingertips as she stood in her paper-cloth and stark white laboratory gown, easily marking her as an extreme contrast against the dark and corporeal vessel.
The lone woman clamped her eyes shut and lowered herself to a crouch and rocked back and forth on her heels as she muttered unintelligibly in a whimper. She felt so alone and vulnerable and telekinesis radiated protectively from her mind as if from its own accord as it formed an invisible fog around her, ready to eviscerate anything that came near her. She felt disoriented and her world began spinning almost sickeningly and almost as if in slow motion, she fell back. Before her back could slam into the writhing and slick carvings in the floor, she opened her eyes and was reoriented with her wrists bound in front of her as she was carried at her elbows down a hallway by a pair of strong arms on either side of her.
Her head felt heavy as she tried to lift it and she felt the familiar grogginess of the sedatives coursing through her system and she struggled to keep her vision focused on the gold colored carpet through her long and shaggy black hair as she was the two armored individuals delivered her. The tips of her bare toes grazed the plush flooring and she dimly felt the rhythmic thudding of their heavy footfalls. Where were they taking her? The escorts stopped at a rounded door at the end of the long hall and one of them pressed a blue button on the side to sound a gentle and artificial chime.
The voice from inside the room answered via the comm nearby, it was male and raspy, "You may enter."
The door automatically irised open to reveal a stately and lavish room with colors of cream and gold decorating alternatively with the bed, desk, walls and bookshelves. The speaker from the comm unit was looking thoughtfully out a windowed balcony and turned to greet them. He was Sir Peter Weyland, CEO and and founder of the Weyland Corporation. The extremely elderly man slowly and carefully hobbled over to meet them, "Ah yes, we finally meet. Subject Thirty-Three, the fruit of all our labors." He said proudly as he stopped and leaned on his cane.
Ayumi managed to lift her head and eye him blearily through her curtain of hair. The CEO gave no indication if he noticed this as he continued, "While I did not directly oversee your 'creation', I have been told that it was very difficult to get your particular genetic code justright and unfortunately there was much trial and error. You and David here are made for the same purpose so in a way, you two are siblings." He explained with a smile.
There was a soft shuffling noise from nearby and a young man stepped forward and into Ayumi's view. He had perfectly coiffed blond hair and a sharply creased gray uniform. He looked over his shoulder and back at her and gave her a smile before looking back at the CEO. Ayumi blinked slowly at him before looking back to Weyland as he continued, "I thought I should personally tell you what you and David are going to do for me." He pointed his cane at the young man, "David will gather pertinent information and keep an eye on our new crew." Weyland tamped his cane and before pointing it at her and then sweeping it back to the blond, "You and hebe shining examples of humanity's biological and technological capabilities, and what we can create. That we are gods."Weyland said grandly.
Ayumi was jolted from her sleep, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. 'Was that a dream or was it a memory?' She thought as she dragged a palm down her face and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She narrowly missed lopping David's head off again with a telekinetic whip. The android didn't seem to notice as he slowly walked to her bedside, "The escorts will be arriving shortly, Ma'am. Do you need help preparing?"
She just stared up at him blankly and silently pulled her now clammy legs to dangle over the side of the high bed before stepping off. David was already dressed, probably from last night but Ayumi had chosen to sleep in her undergarments as she strode over to where her new clothes were, in a basin of some sort, similar to the one in the laboratory. She slowly dressed as she thought about the dream, or was it a dream? She looked over at her companion thoughtfully and wondered if it really happened and how long she has actually known about David, how long had he known about her? Ayumi shook her head and headed toward the door and pressed on the slimy panel to open the door.
She peered out into the hall and could not help thinking about how much contrast there was in the residential structures and the space-faring Juggernauts. The homes seemed almost familiar. She eyed Korvak's door and wondered if he had already left and what his typical day actually consisted of. She reached out with a tendril and felt through the pale organic wall and found no mind in the room within. Ayumi suppressed a sigh and glanced back at David pointedly, a gesture for him to follow her downstairs where they would wait to be taken back to the facility.
"I now know what I am capable of and I do not wish to unleash it!" Ayumi said pleadingly as she wrung her hands at her chest as she looked up at the lead scientist Calenkis as he stood over her, his much taller stature casting her in a shadow.
The tall, pale man wasn't convinced by her words and raised a hairless brow down at her and gave a slight, dismissive wave of his chalky hand, "I assure you, we will take all necessary precautions to avoid any damage to you or us."
The human woman stepped back and couldn't help worrying about the fragmented memories that plagued her mind, She stood in a docking bay and looked up at the captured asteroid and felt a smirk tugging faintly at the corner of her lips as she unclenched her fist and the enormous boulder slid in half with a cloud of dust as it was released from her mental grip.
Ayumi doubled over, the chip in her brain was failing and she was starting to remember. It's not to say that she had no memory of her childhood, just very select parts of it. Whatever process was done to her to mind was done very well because she was never under the impression that she was ever forgetting anything and everything seamlessly flowed together. She also had no idea there was such power locked away in her and while part of her was incredibly eager to further unlock the full potential of her powers while the other part of her was terrified at the inability to control it.
She looked around almost frantically to where David was seated. He was surrounded by the other Engineer scientists as they examined him and spoke in hushed voices. David was answering their inquiries expertly in their language as he replied rapidly in a normal tone, explaining something about his main processing unit and how it reacts to various stimuli.
The small woman whipped up and straightened her back and put up her hands defensively at the slowly advancing scientist, "Calenkis, hold." She said breathlessly, the fear now blossoming from her chest and creeping its way up her throat.
The alien stopped and put his hands on his hips in a very human fashion and radiated what he did not show on his face, impatience with a touch of confusion, "I do not understand your apprehension, do you not want to expand your abilities - or rather unlock the remainder that is trapped within your mind?" From the way he spoke, and what she felt from his consciousness, he honestly didn't understand why she was so afraid, his kind was used to any kind of power and unlocking their full potential, harnessing it as they saw fit. There was another emotion mixed with his irritated perplexity and she couldn't quite place it, something crossed between a kind of greed and eagerness to see what she was fully capable of and how he may be able to use it for his people.
This was moving too fast for her and she could almost see the carnage that would result in their tampering, bodies and ruin, it had happened before, She was nine years old again and was hunched over and had her hands to the back of her head in the center of a laboratory, she slowly lowered her arms and felt the thoughts fading from her attendants as they died around her, their still warm blood dripping from her long raven hair and her white papery lab gown. They were warned about what would happen if they went too far.
Like a coiled and threatened snake, her mind was just beyond snapping out at Calenkis, ready to strike if he got too close. Ayumi took this moment to warn him, "I can promise nothing. While my human handlers did not know the full extent of what they have created and hastily locked it away, you can not make the promise that I will not cause harm." Another thought suddenly clicked and registered in her mind, there was a slowly steeping and slumbering rage that was beginning to stir.
Ayumi recognized the shifting of his jaw as he thought this over before suddenly turned to his left to the direction to where David was seated, "Construct, approach me."
David paused in mid-speech and gave Calenkis and blank look before hesitating and sliding off the table he sat on and walking over and ignoring the small flock of Space Jockeys that watched him leave them. He automatically reverted his facial expression almost too suddenly, to imitate concern, "What seems to be troubling you, Miss?" He asked with a tilt of his head as he put a hand to her shoulder. Ayumi nearly slapped his hand away but instead snatched his hand in hers and pulled him off to the side, his expression eerily not changing in the least as he was towed aside.
"David, how many have I killed? What was the extent of my power?" She hissed and glanced over his shoulder to see Calenkis watching them impatiently as well as the rest of the aliens as they started to gather around him and watch curiously.
The android blinked as his face returned to its blank mask, "The total number of deaths caused directly in relation to you and your mind were sixty-two. How would you like me to gauge the strength of your ability? In weight or the length of your reach?" He said with that almost smile, not quite mocking but neither helpful.
Ayumi just stared at the faux human with wide eyes and a slightly slack jaw. The words refused to form, getting trapped somewhere in her throat. David didn't seem to notice or simply ignored her reaction as he patiently waited for an answer. The slight woman felt her knees threatening to buckle and she nearly pitched forward, only wobbling slightly at the android's very calm and mechanical response. He still didn't seem register her reaction and only watched her unblinkingly.
She wanted to grab her companion by the shirt and shake some sense into him but instead she simply straightened and composed herself and pulled her emotions inward and and her with expression now stoic and her features back where they belonged in a neutral state, "What was the highest record in weight that has been measured for my abilities?" She asked, her voice and demeanor now strangely calm.
The android had the answer nearly as soon as she replied, "One-point-two-three tons without the neural inhibitor chip. Before the inhibitor was installed, they seemed to fear that your strength was growing too fast for them."
"At what rate?"
"The last recorded spike was at three-point-five kilograms over the span of three days."
Calenkis watched and tried to make out what the two smaller beings were saying but as hard as he tried and as long as he studied them, he still found it difficult because of the two-thousand year gap in development and the information that they had may not have been the most accurate. The Ermos Áimneumi female seemed distraught and was consulting with the construct that came with her. It was so strange to see one of these beings after such a long time, they physically did not seem to have changed much but have seemed to have advanced technologically to have been able to create an artificial servant, as primitive as it was.
Calenkis glanced back at his colleagues to see them readying the equipment, the Council was very adamant about getting as much information as possible as the team could and in as little time as possible, the old men were beginning to worry. The scientist suppressed a throaty sigh and remembered from the data that they received from their initial examination of the female that she was not a 'typical' Ermos Áimneumi and that her cortex was mutated from whatever archaic experiments her handlers performed on her.
Calenkis 'neglected' to mention in his report that even his people had yet to develop this abnormality. Not that it rendered them obsolete, not in the least, it was simply an aspect that they did not explore.
His glassy black eyes watched them carefully as the one known as Aioomi turned back to look up at him, her expression difficult to read. Calenkis was never good with expressions, mostly because the majority of his people chose not to actually facially express themselves very much so he was somewhat unfamiliar what look was on her face.
The smaller being pulled her lips behind her teeth nervously (he assumed) and looked up at him as she clutched the hand of her artificial companion and her voice was just above a raspy whisper, as if she was weary, "Since the device is in continual degradation, I will comply and allow you to stelō in another despite the risks that may be involved. You must know this, there may have been a reason as to why the implement is in my ker∂srom to begin with. My handlers seemed to believe that the abnormality in my cortex was rapidly increasing and they chose to constrain it promptly to prevent edunā to themselves."
Calenkis couldn't believe how well she could speak his people's language, although there were bit ad pieces he couldn't make out and it was strange to hear it in her soft voice instead of the grating, gravel-like timbre of his people and therefore, he felt a bit at a disadvantage. He only nodded to her and gestured to the set of equipment behind him with the other Engineers. The morignā looked to her aide and released his hand before slowly making her way to the procedural area.
I'm sorry for the super long wait but I have been taking a break from writing when my inspiration ran a little dry. I recently got an H.R. Giger book and I'm ultra psyched to get to writing! Fair warning though, I am going to be revamping a lot of architect and overall 'appearance' to coincide with Giger and Ridley's designs. So stay tuned!
Also, here are the translations from the words I used in Proto-Indo European in case you wanted to know. I got these from the only translation site that I could find so they may not be the most accurate.
/dictionary-translator/
Translations
Edunā = Pain
Ker∂srom = Brain
Stelō = Put
Ermos = Abandoned
Áimneumi = Copy
Morignā = Woman
One more note! I asked my sister to draw an awesome movie poster-esque picture for my cover for the story!
Don't forget to check out my page for more updates! Just copy and paste to your browser bar: