All work had stopped in the command when Harva had first walked it. The
buzz immediately died down to a dull hush when the laughing of Mole,
Joshua, Dix and Luke had burst out. Logan, Max and Alec all stood back as
the transgenics accepted her immediately with open arms.
"I don't get it," said Logan as he picked up a cup of coffee that he'd been drinking before the commotion. "I don't like this Max, we don't know who she is and she's just been let inside command like it was nothing." He shook his head and sat down at his computer screen to start typing.
Max watched Alec as he stood at the railings of the upper level that they were standing on. He was watching Harva with a strange look on his face. His brow was furrowed but there was a slight smirk on his face. He sighed and turned around to look at what Logan was not doing on the computer.
Logan's fingers were typing away quickly accessing the video cameras that had been set up inside the command for security. He fixed it on Harva's face and she instinctively turned to face it.
"Well at least her having an instinct for camera's is helping," Logan said shifting slightly in his seat as he froze the frame and started searching for a match on the database they'd stolen from different sources. A small beep occurred shortly after he'd begun the search and they all looked at the screen.
They were now looking at an article from a newspaper taken a year ago. Max scrunched up her face wondering what it meant. And Alec began to read it out aloud.
"Budding new Author Harva Kyna has amazed critics with her stunning new epic "Among flowers," blowing all competition out of the water for best seller of the year. Harva's new view and approach to life has seen her sell 20,000,000 books during the last 4 months putting her at the top of her line of work. She lives in the outskirts of Seattle on a large farm she inherited from mother Owena Kyna where she has written all 5 of her best selling books in only 4 years." The news paper article was complete with a black and white photo of Harva smiling like she was in the frozen frame that Logan had taken. Alec finished reading and scratched his head as Logan looked questioningly at Max for an answer she didn't have.
"Well she's certainly been able to make a good name for herself. But how, I've never heard of her escaping and you'd have thought Manticore would have caught up with her now." Alec said shaking his head. Logan looked from the screen down to where Harva was now sitting quietly, in the corner of command, next to Joshua. Mole, Dix and Luke had left for some reason or another.
"Well I'm going to see if I can dig up something else. You guys can go for now." Logan said dismissively. Alec growled behind Logan softly so that the human wouldn't hear him. But Max did and she shook her head apologetically.
Alec glared before turning and walking away from her down the stairs towards Joshua. Max swore to herself and looked at Logan as he typed away quickly.
"Logan, I was wondering when you were thinking of getting out of terminal city. It's just you'd probably be able to do more for us outside." She said cowardly not wanting to make him angry at her. "I mean you can stay if you want it's just some of the others are getting a bit annoyed at you staying here." Logan stopped typing and turned to look at her.
"Others meaning Alec." Logan said with a scowl on his face. Max looked down and Logan took the chance to get out how he was feeling. "Listen max I don't care what the others think, I'm staying here whether they like it or not. I can do more here than I can anywhere else so here is where I'm going to be. And plus now that I know I haven't lost you to Alec I'm not going to risk losing you again." He took Max's cheek in his gloved hand and smiled as she rubbed against it affectionately.
The smile disappeared when he looked passed her to Mole and Dix who were carrying large boxes filled with big rolls of paper inside. Luke followed closely behind with a big smile on his face. Mole and Dix set the papers down on the big conference table that had been set up and started unrolling the papers one by one, holding them down with little stones so that the edges didn't curl up. Alec, Harva and Joshua were joining them and Alec was smiling from one side of his face to the other as he looked upon the papers.
Max turned to where Logan was looking and was about to comment just as he began running down the stairs.
"What the HELL is going on here?" Logan said looking at the papers that had now completely taken over the large table. Alec kept smiling even as Logan went redder and redder. Max rushed to Logan's side and Harva looked at her feet. Dix and Luke glared at Logan for yelling at them and Mole glared even harder.
"Well as soon as we set up communications here we contacted Harva and asked her to come here. She was kind enough to be able to organize a whole lot of stuff that could see us through the FUCKING human threat we now face." Mole yelled closing in on Logan. Max put her hand up to stop Mole and he did and backed away again to Alec's side. Max smiled and started looking over the blue prints of different buildings and plans.
"Wow this is impressive. Hey is this a route to get out of the city?" she asked pointing to what looked like a map of the city. She ignored Logan's bouts of protest and inched closer to the plans. Harva smiled at Max and started explaining.
"Yeah it is. This here is a building I bought a couple of months back on the outskirts of the city in sector 12." She said pointing to a building that had been colored in green. "And this," she continued, "is a tunnel that could be built in, oh, say, about a month leading out of Terminal City to the building. I've check all the city plans and the building is in a safe location and it's far enough out of the way not to be suspected of harboring Transgenics. Also we can dig the tunnels deep enough that it would be detected by sub-scans of the Sewers and such." Max nodded at the plan and started looking at the other plans, which seemed to be of buildings that could be built throughout the city. "A lot of those buildings," Harva said pointing to the plans Max was now looking at, "can be built partly underground so that it connect to this main tunnel. I figure we're going to be staying here for a while so we might as well make ourselves comfortable. Plus with these buildings it makes defense easier." Max nodded again and seemed impressed with the plans that had been laid out.
"Since you've pretty much figured all this out can you fill us in on the man power and funds an operation like this is going to be needing?" Max asked making her way over to another table to grab note-pad and pen. She still ignored Logan as he fumed at her friendliness towards the newcomer.
"Well I'd say an estimated 500 bodies and well I sort of planned ahead and have most of the materials already on hand with some contacts from out of town. I'd say it'd take about 3 months all together to complete." Joshua patted Harva on the back as she spoke and Logan took this as a last straw.
"What the FUCK makes you think that you can do this HUH? What makes YOU the right person to try to do this? Don't you THINK for one second that these plans are going to be approved. We don't even know who the FUCK you are," he screamed closing in on her, stopping an inch from her face. Mole would have broken Logan's neck right then and there if it weren't for Alec holding him back and Harva's talking.
"Well I think I'd better let you make that decision without me here. Yeah I think that'd be a good idea." She said nodding to herself as she walked up the stairs to the roof. Mole followed after her and a couple of seconds Max motioned for Alec to follow to keep tabs. Alec would have protested but he really didn't want to be anywhere near Logan.
As he walked up the stairs Alec started to hear the conversation that was taking place. He stood in the shadows of the roof and watched as Harva placed her hands on the wall to the edge of the building. Mole was standing near but not too close, playing with his lighter as Harva took deep breaths.
"Listen Harva," Mole said looking over at her. "I hate the human more then you'd care to know. I'm the one person who hates ALL of them a lot more than you do. You just have to learn to ignore him and maybe, one day, he'll finally die," he finished with a smile on his face. Harva turned her head slightly and Alec could see the small smile that formed as she laughed through a sigh. He couldn't help but smile as she did.
"You know Mole I just don't get it," she said turning around so that she leant on the wall. "How can everything be so wrong. They don't know what's going on with any of us and they just expect us to go away. They created us; they screwed with our heads and some how they think they can blame US for being here. I hate humans." She moved to produce a knife. Alec looked at it and felt his pockets. 'Shit' he thought to himself, 'I left my fucking knife on the table inside. How the hell did she get it?'
Alec watched helplessly as she twirled the familiar knife through her fingers. She looked at it and sighed. A tear fell down on it as she sunk down on her knees and suddenly started crying softly.
"Mole they'll never know." She said through sobs. "They'll never know how evil they are." She composed herself suddenly and stopped crying as suddenly as she had started. "I don't like him Mole, I don't like him at all. He's pompous and sneaky and he doesn't deserve her." She laughed to herself. "That smart aleck guy 494 I like though. He's got spunk." Mole laughed and came over to sit next to her by the wall. He put his arm around her and pulled her into a big hug. Mole started gasping for air soon after she started hugging him back.
"Jesus Harva stop touching Joshua would you. You could kill a blue whale with the strength you've built up." He said laughing as she let go.
"Yeah I know Mole." Harva said looking down at the knife again. "She didn't know how to look after him." She shook her head as she continued. "Our new fearless leader and what does she do? Release a innocent like Joshua onto the world, says she'll look after him and then can't even respect him enough to give him the freedom he deserves. Yeah I know she was looking out for him so that he wouldn't get hurt." She said as Mole opened his mouth to interrupt. "But you know, you can't give a guy rights like she did in some aspects and take them away in others. That girl he loved, Annie was it? I know she did what she thought was right, but she doesn't see how much he's hurting now. He's changed so much in such a short time." She laughed again. "But he's still my little Joshua. Hey, do you remember that time he first saw rain? He ran up to it, put his hand out the bars to touch it and got afraid as soon as he felt the wet." Mole nodded at her
"Yeah I remember you told me. You said that he started to yelp because he thought his hand was burning off. It was good that he finally understood the difference between hot and cold. I thought it would be a cold day in hell before he'd understand what you were telling him." Harva nodded while still looking at the knife. Then she looked up straight up at Alec.
"HEY YOU!" she said and he tensed up. "Yeah I'm talking to you. Come and sit with us why don't you? Come on we won't bite. You looked like you were wanting to ask me something." Alec slowly made his way over and sat in front of her and Mole. His hand almost touched her exposed calf as he sat down and she recoiled. Alec looked hurt from the sudden movement away from him.
"Sorry I don't mean any offence by moving away but I'm very sensitive," she said. Alec nodded and listened as her and Mole began regaling each other with stories from their time at manticore. And as they talked Alec's mind was a flood with questions to who Harva was. How did she know Joshua and the others when she was at manticore? How come he'd never met her before. How did she learn all this stuff about Joshua's outside with almost no time to talk to him what so ever? He continued to think even as the hours past by and no doubt the others (being Max and Logan) had sorted out their little conflict and decided to kiss and make up (in a totally not touching way of course).
"I don't get it," said Logan as he picked up a cup of coffee that he'd been drinking before the commotion. "I don't like this Max, we don't know who she is and she's just been let inside command like it was nothing." He shook his head and sat down at his computer screen to start typing.
Max watched Alec as he stood at the railings of the upper level that they were standing on. He was watching Harva with a strange look on his face. His brow was furrowed but there was a slight smirk on his face. He sighed and turned around to look at what Logan was not doing on the computer.
Logan's fingers were typing away quickly accessing the video cameras that had been set up inside the command for security. He fixed it on Harva's face and she instinctively turned to face it.
"Well at least her having an instinct for camera's is helping," Logan said shifting slightly in his seat as he froze the frame and started searching for a match on the database they'd stolen from different sources. A small beep occurred shortly after he'd begun the search and they all looked at the screen.
They were now looking at an article from a newspaper taken a year ago. Max scrunched up her face wondering what it meant. And Alec began to read it out aloud.
"Budding new Author Harva Kyna has amazed critics with her stunning new epic "Among flowers," blowing all competition out of the water for best seller of the year. Harva's new view and approach to life has seen her sell 20,000,000 books during the last 4 months putting her at the top of her line of work. She lives in the outskirts of Seattle on a large farm she inherited from mother Owena Kyna where she has written all 5 of her best selling books in only 4 years." The news paper article was complete with a black and white photo of Harva smiling like she was in the frozen frame that Logan had taken. Alec finished reading and scratched his head as Logan looked questioningly at Max for an answer she didn't have.
"Well she's certainly been able to make a good name for herself. But how, I've never heard of her escaping and you'd have thought Manticore would have caught up with her now." Alec said shaking his head. Logan looked from the screen down to where Harva was now sitting quietly, in the corner of command, next to Joshua. Mole, Dix and Luke had left for some reason or another.
"Well I'm going to see if I can dig up something else. You guys can go for now." Logan said dismissively. Alec growled behind Logan softly so that the human wouldn't hear him. But Max did and she shook her head apologetically.
Alec glared before turning and walking away from her down the stairs towards Joshua. Max swore to herself and looked at Logan as he typed away quickly.
"Logan, I was wondering when you were thinking of getting out of terminal city. It's just you'd probably be able to do more for us outside." She said cowardly not wanting to make him angry at her. "I mean you can stay if you want it's just some of the others are getting a bit annoyed at you staying here." Logan stopped typing and turned to look at her.
"Others meaning Alec." Logan said with a scowl on his face. Max looked down and Logan took the chance to get out how he was feeling. "Listen max I don't care what the others think, I'm staying here whether they like it or not. I can do more here than I can anywhere else so here is where I'm going to be. And plus now that I know I haven't lost you to Alec I'm not going to risk losing you again." He took Max's cheek in his gloved hand and smiled as she rubbed against it affectionately.
The smile disappeared when he looked passed her to Mole and Dix who were carrying large boxes filled with big rolls of paper inside. Luke followed closely behind with a big smile on his face. Mole and Dix set the papers down on the big conference table that had been set up and started unrolling the papers one by one, holding them down with little stones so that the edges didn't curl up. Alec, Harva and Joshua were joining them and Alec was smiling from one side of his face to the other as he looked upon the papers.
Max turned to where Logan was looking and was about to comment just as he began running down the stairs.
"What the HELL is going on here?" Logan said looking at the papers that had now completely taken over the large table. Alec kept smiling even as Logan went redder and redder. Max rushed to Logan's side and Harva looked at her feet. Dix and Luke glared at Logan for yelling at them and Mole glared even harder.
"Well as soon as we set up communications here we contacted Harva and asked her to come here. She was kind enough to be able to organize a whole lot of stuff that could see us through the FUCKING human threat we now face." Mole yelled closing in on Logan. Max put her hand up to stop Mole and he did and backed away again to Alec's side. Max smiled and started looking over the blue prints of different buildings and plans.
"Wow this is impressive. Hey is this a route to get out of the city?" she asked pointing to what looked like a map of the city. She ignored Logan's bouts of protest and inched closer to the plans. Harva smiled at Max and started explaining.
"Yeah it is. This here is a building I bought a couple of months back on the outskirts of the city in sector 12." She said pointing to a building that had been colored in green. "And this," she continued, "is a tunnel that could be built in, oh, say, about a month leading out of Terminal City to the building. I've check all the city plans and the building is in a safe location and it's far enough out of the way not to be suspected of harboring Transgenics. Also we can dig the tunnels deep enough that it would be detected by sub-scans of the Sewers and such." Max nodded at the plan and started looking at the other plans, which seemed to be of buildings that could be built throughout the city. "A lot of those buildings," Harva said pointing to the plans Max was now looking at, "can be built partly underground so that it connect to this main tunnel. I figure we're going to be staying here for a while so we might as well make ourselves comfortable. Plus with these buildings it makes defense easier." Max nodded again and seemed impressed with the plans that had been laid out.
"Since you've pretty much figured all this out can you fill us in on the man power and funds an operation like this is going to be needing?" Max asked making her way over to another table to grab note-pad and pen. She still ignored Logan as he fumed at her friendliness towards the newcomer.
"Well I'd say an estimated 500 bodies and well I sort of planned ahead and have most of the materials already on hand with some contacts from out of town. I'd say it'd take about 3 months all together to complete." Joshua patted Harva on the back as she spoke and Logan took this as a last straw.
"What the FUCK makes you think that you can do this HUH? What makes YOU the right person to try to do this? Don't you THINK for one second that these plans are going to be approved. We don't even know who the FUCK you are," he screamed closing in on her, stopping an inch from her face. Mole would have broken Logan's neck right then and there if it weren't for Alec holding him back and Harva's talking.
"Well I think I'd better let you make that decision without me here. Yeah I think that'd be a good idea." She said nodding to herself as she walked up the stairs to the roof. Mole followed after her and a couple of seconds Max motioned for Alec to follow to keep tabs. Alec would have protested but he really didn't want to be anywhere near Logan.
As he walked up the stairs Alec started to hear the conversation that was taking place. He stood in the shadows of the roof and watched as Harva placed her hands on the wall to the edge of the building. Mole was standing near but not too close, playing with his lighter as Harva took deep breaths.
"Listen Harva," Mole said looking over at her. "I hate the human more then you'd care to know. I'm the one person who hates ALL of them a lot more than you do. You just have to learn to ignore him and maybe, one day, he'll finally die," he finished with a smile on his face. Harva turned her head slightly and Alec could see the small smile that formed as she laughed through a sigh. He couldn't help but smile as she did.
"You know Mole I just don't get it," she said turning around so that she leant on the wall. "How can everything be so wrong. They don't know what's going on with any of us and they just expect us to go away. They created us; they screwed with our heads and some how they think they can blame US for being here. I hate humans." She moved to produce a knife. Alec looked at it and felt his pockets. 'Shit' he thought to himself, 'I left my fucking knife on the table inside. How the hell did she get it?'
Alec watched helplessly as she twirled the familiar knife through her fingers. She looked at it and sighed. A tear fell down on it as she sunk down on her knees and suddenly started crying softly.
"Mole they'll never know." She said through sobs. "They'll never know how evil they are." She composed herself suddenly and stopped crying as suddenly as she had started. "I don't like him Mole, I don't like him at all. He's pompous and sneaky and he doesn't deserve her." She laughed to herself. "That smart aleck guy 494 I like though. He's got spunk." Mole laughed and came over to sit next to her by the wall. He put his arm around her and pulled her into a big hug. Mole started gasping for air soon after she started hugging him back.
"Jesus Harva stop touching Joshua would you. You could kill a blue whale with the strength you've built up." He said laughing as she let go.
"Yeah I know Mole." Harva said looking down at the knife again. "She didn't know how to look after him." She shook her head as she continued. "Our new fearless leader and what does she do? Release a innocent like Joshua onto the world, says she'll look after him and then can't even respect him enough to give him the freedom he deserves. Yeah I know she was looking out for him so that he wouldn't get hurt." She said as Mole opened his mouth to interrupt. "But you know, you can't give a guy rights like she did in some aspects and take them away in others. That girl he loved, Annie was it? I know she did what she thought was right, but she doesn't see how much he's hurting now. He's changed so much in such a short time." She laughed again. "But he's still my little Joshua. Hey, do you remember that time he first saw rain? He ran up to it, put his hand out the bars to touch it and got afraid as soon as he felt the wet." Mole nodded at her
"Yeah I remember you told me. You said that he started to yelp because he thought his hand was burning off. It was good that he finally understood the difference between hot and cold. I thought it would be a cold day in hell before he'd understand what you were telling him." Harva nodded while still looking at the knife. Then she looked up straight up at Alec.
"HEY YOU!" she said and he tensed up. "Yeah I'm talking to you. Come and sit with us why don't you? Come on we won't bite. You looked like you were wanting to ask me something." Alec slowly made his way over and sat in front of her and Mole. His hand almost touched her exposed calf as he sat down and she recoiled. Alec looked hurt from the sudden movement away from him.
"Sorry I don't mean any offence by moving away but I'm very sensitive," she said. Alec nodded and listened as her and Mole began regaling each other with stories from their time at manticore. And as they talked Alec's mind was a flood with questions to who Harva was. How did she know Joshua and the others when she was at manticore? How come he'd never met her before. How did she learn all this stuff about Joshua's outside with almost no time to talk to him what so ever? He continued to think even as the hours past by and no doubt the others (being Max and Logan) had sorted out their little conflict and decided to kiss and make up (in a totally not touching way of course).