Chapter 3
Eden 5
After they finished their meal, they stepped out into the backyard and went over to the building that Artemis had seen the previous night. Gaige opened the door and stepped in, hand automatically hitting the light switch to the side of the door.
As the lights came on, Artemis saw that this was where Deathtrap had been born. There were alternate arms, the discarded legs that Gaige had chosen to leave off, and other bits and parts that couldn't be immediately identified. In addition to all of that, there were tools laying around and parts in boxes stacked against one wall.
"Just like I left it." Gaige whispered looking around.
Picking up a finger laying on one of the benches, she held it up with a soft smile and showed it to Artemis "A rejected part of my first hand."
The other girl was silent, looking around and taking it all in. Eventually she spoke up and asked "So, any projects that spring to mind? Anything that we could do out here?"
"Hmm, not off the top of my head, but let's get back inside. Mom should be up soon and I wanna say hi before we head out."
They headed back inside and after a bit of time sitting around the table in silence, heard the sounds of activity from upstairs and shortly after that, Gaige's mother came down.
Walking into the kitchen, she stopped, surprised to see her daughter up and waiting for her.
"Well, this is a first." She said "I don't recall you ever being up before me, unless someone woke you."
"Geez mom, thanks for that. You want an omelet? Deathtrap can whip one up in no time."
"Thanks, that would be...lovely" She said, obviously not used to being waited on by floating death machines. She poured herself a cup of coffee and turned, and looked her daughter up and down before declaring "Gaige! What do you think you're wearing? It leaves practically nothing to the imagination, what will the boys think?"
"What boys?"
"Any that see you, I mean, even your friend can't look at you."
"Leave her out of this. Besides, it's not like I had any other options. Plus, I thought this was bigger, I always remembered it being baggy when I wore it before."
"Yes, well, it kind of fell victim to the new dryer."
"What? So it did shrink. Thank goodness, I was worried there. Why didn't you tell me that sooner? We could've went to the ship and at least grabbed some clothes last night. Sheesh."
"Don't you sheesh me, young lady. Now go and change that at once."
"Into what?"
"Well, if that's the way you're going to be." She paused and took a breath "I can loan you one of my shirts, just to get you back to your ship."
"Ugg, fine. Do you wanna get it for me, or should I just go choose one."
"There should be a nice gray one at the end of my closet, I'd go get it myself, but it seems that my breakfast is done." She said as Deathtrap carefully set down a plate of eggs in front of her, as if he was handling high explosives, and darted back, not wanting to get pulled into the conversation.
Gaige got up and stormed out, stomping up the stairs as she went.
"And don't stomp!" Her mom yelled after her before sighing and turning to the other two "I'm sorry you had to see that. I hate to pry, but does she normally dress like that?"
Deathtrap looked to Artemis, hoping that she could do the talking. She sighed and answered for them "No, honestly the first time she's worn anything like that since I've met her. She usually dresses like she was yesterday."
"Well, that was bad enough. I swear that girl."
She stabbed her omelet a bit harder then was necessary and took a bite before turning to the robot "This is good. I suppose I should be grateful that she's at least eating properly, at least some of the time."
Artemis kept her mouth shut and waited. After a few more bites, Gaige's mom turned to her and said "Speaking of eating well, I want to say again that last nights' meal was delicious, we don't often get such exotic fare around here."
"Ah well, it was frozen, but, I mean, well..."
Putting down her fork, the other woman turned and faced her "You need to have more confidence. Don't be so indecisive, choose what you're going to say, and say it."
"Sorry."
"Don't be sorry, just speak clearly."
"Lay off her mom, she's just a bit shy." Gaige said walking back into the room.
If her earlier look had been strange, Gaige's current look was completely alien. Her hair was still down, and with the addition of the gray dress shirt over her usual shorts and tights, she looked unrecognizable.
"Well I never. I wasn't doing anything to her, I was just trying to get her to communicate better. And you look better, almost respectable."
"Gee thanks."
Her mother didn't retort, only shot her a look before standing up and setting her plate in the washer. "Well, I must be getting to work."
She walked to the front door and stopped. After a moment she sighed and turned around, facing her daughter. "I'm sorry if I seem a bit, well, harsh. I've been worried about you, and, well, now that you're here, I find that I don't know how to really interact with you. In my mind, you're still the little girl that begged for a new toy, or tool every time we went to the store. I know that you've had to grow up fast and in a hard place at that. And I know that you've had to make some tough decisions. Do things that I couldn't dream of, and I don't know how to, well, relate. I want to. Trust me, I just want my little girl back. But I know that you're a different person and that I need to accept that. It's just..."
She was interrupted by Gaige grabbing her in a hug and just holding her. After a few seconds, her mother wrapped her in her arms and they stood there for a bit.
Pulling apart, Gaige's mom straightened her clothes and cleared her throat "Well, I need to get going, have a good day dear."
With that she stepped out the door, only to reopen it a second later. She opened the drawer of the table next to it and pulled something out. Tossing it to Gaige she said "Here, make sure to lock up after yourself if you head out."
Gaige looked down at the key in her hand as the door swung shut. Turning to Artemis, she cocked an eyebrow and asked "What should we do first?"
Hunter's Moon
The first thing they did after they got to the ship was to change clothes.
Gaige walked out of the bedroom, stretching, and found Artemis getting ready to open up an ECHO channel. Sliding up next to her, she pretended to be offended as she asked "What? You weren't gonna wait for me?"
"What?" Came the reply she wanted "No, that's why I was sitting here. I was waiting on you."
"I was kidding. Sorry. Well, let's go."
Artemis turned back and hit send. A few moments later, the other end picked up and the familiar face of a young woman appeared. A.I. ngel's face bloomed into a bright smile upon seeing who was on the other end and she waved at them.
"Hey, did you make it?"
"Yeah, we got in last night, but by the time we got settled, it would've been night where you're at."
"Oh, and how was it."
"Things are good here, how're you doing."
"I am having a good time here. Today Timothy taught me how to shoot."
In the background they could see Timothy smiling proudly, like he had finally gotten one up on them.
"Oh, that's a pity." Artemis said shaking her head sadly "When we get there we're gonna have to try and get you to unlearn all the bad habits that he taught you."
"Hey!" They heard from the background.
"Oh, what did he do wrong?"
Gaige took over, nudging the other girl in the shoulder and said "She's joking. Well, mostly. Everybody had their own style. What she's meaning was that rather than learning Timothy's style of shooting, you should try and learn your own."
"Wait, that's not what I...ow!" Gaige cut off the other girl's comment with a judicious application of force to her foot. Wincing, Artemis corrected herself "I mean, that's exactly what I meant."
"Oh, that is good. I will have to try and work on that."
"Other than that, how've you been holding up?"
"I feel fine, and there is so much to learn here, not to mention all of the things that I find that I can help with. It turns out that a good knowledge of engineering is no substitute for hands-on learning, so I try and do what I can and learn as I go."
"Good for you."
"Well, it's getting late over here." Timothy said, walking forward "So we should probably cut this short."
"Oh." A.I. ngel said sadly "Well, if we must. How long do you think you will be staying there?"
"About a week more. We'll try and ECHO every couple of days to check in, but don't hesitate to call us if something comes up, no matter the time."
"Alright. Well, good night. Or I suppose it would be day there."
After the girls bid their friend good night and hung up, they sat back and looked around.
"Well" Gaige said after a moment "I suppose we need to figure out what we need to take back with us. And by that, I mean, what do I want to take back to show my parents."
"Oh, I was gonna suggest some clothes and toiletries and such."
"I know, that's why I clarified. But what to take?"
Artemis looked over at Deathtrap, who responded with a shrug, so she turned back to the other girl and watched her ponder. After a moment, Gaige slowly got to her feet and started wandering around, looking at things.
"You know, if we do forget to take something, we can always come back for it."
"I know, but I just wanna take the best stuff this time."
"Well, I'm gonna get started on my clothes and stuff, you might want to do the same. Might help you to think of stuff."
"Fine, you're probably right, but I'm gonna take a minute out here to mull a bit more."
Artemis shrugged and headed into the bedroom. Grabbing her large 'adventuring bag', she drug it out, surprised by its weight. Opening it up, she found that, other than taking out her clothes, she hadn't emptied it after their time at the Project Odysseus site. Glancing at the door, she quickly slipped a couple of items out and hid them among her things.
It wasn't like Gaige didn't know about them, but it seemed that in all the commotion afterwards, they had both forgot. Still, that would let Artemis surprise her with them later, though she did feel a bit bad about hiding things from her friend.
Almost exactly as she finished, the door opened and Gaige walked in and happily declared "I got it."
"Got what?" Artemis said, failing to hide her nervousness.
Ignoring the weirdness coming from the other girl Gaige continued "I figured out what we can do over the week. While my parents are at work, I mean. Really, I suppose I should have stated, I've got a favor to ask you, but I just kinda got caught up in the moment."
"Huh?"
Realizing that she hadn't really said anything yet, Gaige continued "I was looking at the crates and stuff in the back, trying to figure out what to take, when I saw some of the projects on the workbench and I remembered the finger I found in my old workshop and thought, 'I wonder if she still has any of that stuff from Jaka?'. And I mean, I am always worried that this spike on my hand will catch on something, especially while I'm sleeping, like the sheets or the blankets, or that I might poke you with it, so I had been thinking of changing it. So, what do you think?"
She looked to the other girl, who had confusion written all over her face "About what?"
"Making me a new arm, of course. Well not a new arm, just new plates for this one."
"Oh, I might be able to, though I don't think I could replicate the electro-dispersion properties of those plates. I suppose I could re-coat the ones that are on there if you wanted, though I couldn't do anything about the spike. Or, wait, I could use that part and coat it to match."
Gaige watched the other girl work through the logistics of the problem, till she came to a conclusion.
"It depends."
Gaige arched an eyebrow and waited for her to continue.
"I didn't really check what you had in your workshop, so I can't make any promises, but I do have the wings that I used to color mine, so if you have the right tools, I could recoat your plates. And with a little work, I think I could make an alternate part for the spike, so that you could switch it out when you wanted. So, the only question that remains is, what do you want it to look like?"
"Hmm, while I do like purple, I don't think I could pull it off as well as you. Any suggestions?"
"Well, I think I could make one that matches your hair, or the usual red you wear. I could also make one in most solid colors, though if you want a pattern on it, I would need to see the equipment that would be available before I made any promises."