I'm back! Hey! Why is everyone running away? Oh well. Here's my new
chapter, and don't worry, you find out a lot about that mysterious little
girl in this chapter, so read on.
Teach me to dream
Chapter four~ Little Lydia
"Damn. What the hell did I drink to have this kind of hangover?" Gene muttered as he struggled to get up. He looked around discovering he wasn't in his bed, he was in a large white room with two people sleeping next to him on the floor, Jim and Mr. Johnson.
"What the-?" he said looking around. Then the memories of what had happened, along with a sharp pain in his temple region, came to him. The lab, Dr. Benson, the machine, Melfina..
Forcing himself up, Gene walked on shaky legs over to Jim.
"Jim?" he asked quietly, shaking Jim slightly. "Jim buddy. Wake up."
Jim's only response was to groan and roll over. This gave Gene some relief because he now knew that no matter what condition he was in, at least Jim was alive.
Gene turned his attention to Mr. Johnson and a scowl crossed his face. He walked over and kicked Mr. Johnson's right leg.
"Hey!" Gene shouted not caring if it hurt the taller man's ears, "hey you lazy bastard! Get up!"
Mr. Johnson jumped slightly and sat straight up, his eyes confused. He slowly observed his surroundings before staring up at Gene.
"Well my friend," Gene said, lowering himself to sit next the confused man. "You've got a lot to explain. And I've got all the time in the world. That is, until my buddy over there wakes up."
***********
"Let them go! Please!" Melfina half yelled, half sobbed.
"I cannot do that." Dr. Benson responded distractedly while messing with some dials under the computer.
"Very good. Very good." Dr. Benson nodded. "You've given up about twenty percent of the memory's you have stored in your data base. Of course most of them are useless. But the ones that are important more than enough make up for the useless ones."
"Let's see." Dr. Benson muttered to himself while Melfina watched on with wide terrified eyes. "Yes. At least seventy six percent needs to be transferred for her to work. Let's see. Seventy-six for poor power, eighty- four percent for normal power and at least ninety-three percent for above average power."
Melfina lowered her head slightly to look at her feet, which were tightly restrained to the chair. It was all her fault. Gene and Jim were in trouble and it was all her fault. A tear made it's way down her flushed cheek.
"Now, now." Dr. Benson said, his voice startling Melfina into looking up. "No need to cry. This doesn't hurt that much now does it? Besides it's for the greater good."
Melfina sniffed.
"Well. You know, I could have put this machine on high, causing it to drain nearly all your data at once. Now that would be painful. But I've decided to be at least a little caring. After all I'm pretty much killing you, I might as well make it painless. After all, it's not your fault you were made the way you were. So I've decided to take you data gradually, a few percent at a time. So see, it's not that bad."
Melfina's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to plead with him to stop but it was to late, she could feel the familiar feeling of exhaustion settling over her.
***********
"I guess you could say this is my fault." Mr. Johnson started sadly.
"Yea? How?" Gene asked sarcastically.
Mr. Johnson frowned but continued. "This all started about a year ago. Do you like the name Lydia?" Gene stared at Mr. Johnson, who only laughed. "Yea. I know. Weird question. But I loved the name Lydia. It was just so beautiful. So I named my daughter Lydia. Lydia's mother ran off when she was little, but that made me love Lydia all the more. Oh, she was such a beautiful little girl. Long blonde hair, soft green eyes, and such a sweet smile. I loved her smile. She was my Lydia, my little Lydia. But, about a year ago, my little baby was killed. Murdered, by heartless bastards! Cold heartless thieves. You see, we were heading home after a vacation. We were at the space station, and I left her in the ship while I went inside. I was only going to be gone for a minute. But..three thieves hijacked my ship and killed my little girl. Oh god. I was so devastated. I just wanted to die."
Gene looked on with confused eyes. "Hey Mr. Johnson, I know that's sad and all. But what does this have to do with what you did to Mel?"
Mr. Johnson continued on, ignoring Gene. "But then I heard about this genius man. This wonderful man who could create amazing androids, so real you couldn't tell. So I went to him. I told him I wanted my daughter back, and I would do anything to have her back. So we started to plan. We were going to build the most convincing bio-android ever; she would be the most advanced over her kind. We tried and tried to download databases that would be wide enough but none worked. But then, when I thought it was all in vain, I hear from someone one heifong about a young outlaw. An outlaw by the name of Gene Starwind, who had a very unusual young woman traveling with him. A young woman who rode in the most unusual chamber on his ship, a young woman who was so naïve and innocent I t was like she wasn't human, a young woman with no last name, or family, or past. A young woman named Melfina. So I asked Dr. Benson to find out all he could about you. And about Melfina. So he did, he found out everything. And he found out about Melfina's advanced database. A database so advanced that Melfina could worry, and fear, and complain, and be surprised. It was almost to good to be true. So I decided to use her."
"You bastard!" Gene interrupted. "You cold heartless bastard! Melfina isn't something you can use and just throw away!"
"Calm down Mr. Starwind. I'm not finished." Mr. Johnson said annoyed. "Anyway. Dr. Benson said he had created a machine that would take any android's database and make a complete copy, then download it into any other android. I asked him if it would hurt or damage the first android in anyway. He said it wouldn't, but apparently he lied."
"Yea." Gene agreed bitterly thinking of Melfina crying out in pain under the influence of the machine. He remembered how he had tried to run toward her, only to be hit by a big, beefy man in blue. Gene snapped out of his own thoughts when he heard Mr. Johnson continue.
"Well. He pretended to be a client for you so you would come to our place. I thought he would just copy Melfina's data and then let you all go on your merry little way. So I could go on my merry little way with Lydia. But he betrayed me. Goddamn it, I wish I knew what he was doing with Lydia."
"And Melfina." Gene added.
"But I don't have any idea. It must be some sick experiment. But with this man I wouldn't know. His to damn smart for his own good." Mr. Johnson muttered, looking at his shoes.
A loud groan made Gene and Mr. Johnson turn their heads; Jim was sitting up, his eyes were still half closed and his hands were shaky.
"Gene?" Jim asked once he saw Gene, "where are we?"
Gene sighed. He scooted over until he reached Jim and began to explain everything.
************
Melfina heaved a shuddering breath. She swallowed and stood up, her weak legs wobbling under her. She looked around and realized she was back in the labyrinth of data. Hugging her arms she looked around, trying to discern anything, it was so very dark.
Suddenly she felt afraid, she needed to move, to leave this place. She began to run, fast and hard. Melfina wasn't too great at many things, but she was very good at running, even in high heels.
The clicking of her shoes against the dark ground echoed around her. She didn't have any idea where to go, where to hide, what to do. She felt sick.
Suddenly light filled the dark hallway she was running down, Melfina gasped and turned around.
"Leave me alone!" she yelled at the orb of light following her.
"No! No!" she cried as the light surrounded her, closing in on her.
Melfina couldn't move. She felt paralyzed by fear. All she felt she could do was scream as the light consumed her once more.
************
Gene lay looking up at the white ceiling.
Jim had been devastated when he'd found out what was happening to Melfina. He apparently had been hit so hard he couldn't even remember going into the lab. Gene felt guilty; he had been the one who had agreed on Melfina accompanying them.
"How could I have been so stupid?" he whispered to the ceiling.
The ceiling offered no advice.
Gene shifted, trying to find a comfortable position on the hard floor.
Mr. Johnson had propped himself up in a corner, and fell asleep. Jim was sitting in the middle of the room staring into space. Gene lifted his head a felt a stab of pain in his temple. It hurt worse then before.
He felt blackness surrounding him. The last thing he saw was Jim looking over at him, before he fell asleep.
"Hey Gene! Long time no see!" a voice called cheerfully.
Gene opened one eye and saw the familiar face of the little girl staring down at him. She giggled when he jumped slightly. She straightened up and backed off, giving Gene room to stand.
Gene looked at her. The little girl was different. He looked down and realized, normally the little girl was gray all over. Wearing a simple gray dress, short sleeved, reaching her knees, and simple gray sandals. But now..up to her knees was..normal. Her shoes were a shiny black, her knees a pale peach. From the knees down she looked normal now.
The little girl cocked her head, staring at Gene. Once she realized what Gene was staring at she giggled.
"Yea! Isn't it neat? I don't have to be gray anymore."
"Why are you gray anyway?" Gene asked.
"I can't tell you." The little girl said, suddenly serious.
"Why not?" Gene whined.
"Because, someone told me not to." The little girl looked down at her now black shoes.
"Please?" Gene pleaded with puppy dog eyes, trying to turn on the charm.
"Alright." The little girl finally gave in. "but you can't tell anyone."
Gene leaned in a little closer so the girl could reach up to whisper in his ear.
"I'm gray because I'm dead."
Whoa. That was a weird chapter to write..muahaha I think I did a good cliffhanger..kinda..sorta. Anyway. I am feeling much Better now thanks to my medicine and your reviews. They make me Feel so very happy! So review please! I'm going to see a movie tomorrow (Just Married, I love Ashton Kutcher!) so I think the next chapter will be out around Monday.
Arigatou! Mandy~Chan
Teach me to dream
Chapter four~ Little Lydia
"Damn. What the hell did I drink to have this kind of hangover?" Gene muttered as he struggled to get up. He looked around discovering he wasn't in his bed, he was in a large white room with two people sleeping next to him on the floor, Jim and Mr. Johnson.
"What the-?" he said looking around. Then the memories of what had happened, along with a sharp pain in his temple region, came to him. The lab, Dr. Benson, the machine, Melfina..
Forcing himself up, Gene walked on shaky legs over to Jim.
"Jim?" he asked quietly, shaking Jim slightly. "Jim buddy. Wake up."
Jim's only response was to groan and roll over. This gave Gene some relief because he now knew that no matter what condition he was in, at least Jim was alive.
Gene turned his attention to Mr. Johnson and a scowl crossed his face. He walked over and kicked Mr. Johnson's right leg.
"Hey!" Gene shouted not caring if it hurt the taller man's ears, "hey you lazy bastard! Get up!"
Mr. Johnson jumped slightly and sat straight up, his eyes confused. He slowly observed his surroundings before staring up at Gene.
"Well my friend," Gene said, lowering himself to sit next the confused man. "You've got a lot to explain. And I've got all the time in the world. That is, until my buddy over there wakes up."
***********
"Let them go! Please!" Melfina half yelled, half sobbed.
"I cannot do that." Dr. Benson responded distractedly while messing with some dials under the computer.
"Very good. Very good." Dr. Benson nodded. "You've given up about twenty percent of the memory's you have stored in your data base. Of course most of them are useless. But the ones that are important more than enough make up for the useless ones."
"Let's see." Dr. Benson muttered to himself while Melfina watched on with wide terrified eyes. "Yes. At least seventy six percent needs to be transferred for her to work. Let's see. Seventy-six for poor power, eighty- four percent for normal power and at least ninety-three percent for above average power."
Melfina lowered her head slightly to look at her feet, which were tightly restrained to the chair. It was all her fault. Gene and Jim were in trouble and it was all her fault. A tear made it's way down her flushed cheek.
"Now, now." Dr. Benson said, his voice startling Melfina into looking up. "No need to cry. This doesn't hurt that much now does it? Besides it's for the greater good."
Melfina sniffed.
"Well. You know, I could have put this machine on high, causing it to drain nearly all your data at once. Now that would be painful. But I've decided to be at least a little caring. After all I'm pretty much killing you, I might as well make it painless. After all, it's not your fault you were made the way you were. So I've decided to take you data gradually, a few percent at a time. So see, it's not that bad."
Melfina's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to plead with him to stop but it was to late, she could feel the familiar feeling of exhaustion settling over her.
***********
"I guess you could say this is my fault." Mr. Johnson started sadly.
"Yea? How?" Gene asked sarcastically.
Mr. Johnson frowned but continued. "This all started about a year ago. Do you like the name Lydia?" Gene stared at Mr. Johnson, who only laughed. "Yea. I know. Weird question. But I loved the name Lydia. It was just so beautiful. So I named my daughter Lydia. Lydia's mother ran off when she was little, but that made me love Lydia all the more. Oh, she was such a beautiful little girl. Long blonde hair, soft green eyes, and such a sweet smile. I loved her smile. She was my Lydia, my little Lydia. But, about a year ago, my little baby was killed. Murdered, by heartless bastards! Cold heartless thieves. You see, we were heading home after a vacation. We were at the space station, and I left her in the ship while I went inside. I was only going to be gone for a minute. But..three thieves hijacked my ship and killed my little girl. Oh god. I was so devastated. I just wanted to die."
Gene looked on with confused eyes. "Hey Mr. Johnson, I know that's sad and all. But what does this have to do with what you did to Mel?"
Mr. Johnson continued on, ignoring Gene. "But then I heard about this genius man. This wonderful man who could create amazing androids, so real you couldn't tell. So I went to him. I told him I wanted my daughter back, and I would do anything to have her back. So we started to plan. We were going to build the most convincing bio-android ever; she would be the most advanced over her kind. We tried and tried to download databases that would be wide enough but none worked. But then, when I thought it was all in vain, I hear from someone one heifong about a young outlaw. An outlaw by the name of Gene Starwind, who had a very unusual young woman traveling with him. A young woman who rode in the most unusual chamber on his ship, a young woman who was so naïve and innocent I t was like she wasn't human, a young woman with no last name, or family, or past. A young woman named Melfina. So I asked Dr. Benson to find out all he could about you. And about Melfina. So he did, he found out everything. And he found out about Melfina's advanced database. A database so advanced that Melfina could worry, and fear, and complain, and be surprised. It was almost to good to be true. So I decided to use her."
"You bastard!" Gene interrupted. "You cold heartless bastard! Melfina isn't something you can use and just throw away!"
"Calm down Mr. Starwind. I'm not finished." Mr. Johnson said annoyed. "Anyway. Dr. Benson said he had created a machine that would take any android's database and make a complete copy, then download it into any other android. I asked him if it would hurt or damage the first android in anyway. He said it wouldn't, but apparently he lied."
"Yea." Gene agreed bitterly thinking of Melfina crying out in pain under the influence of the machine. He remembered how he had tried to run toward her, only to be hit by a big, beefy man in blue. Gene snapped out of his own thoughts when he heard Mr. Johnson continue.
"Well. He pretended to be a client for you so you would come to our place. I thought he would just copy Melfina's data and then let you all go on your merry little way. So I could go on my merry little way with Lydia. But he betrayed me. Goddamn it, I wish I knew what he was doing with Lydia."
"And Melfina." Gene added.
"But I don't have any idea. It must be some sick experiment. But with this man I wouldn't know. His to damn smart for his own good." Mr. Johnson muttered, looking at his shoes.
A loud groan made Gene and Mr. Johnson turn their heads; Jim was sitting up, his eyes were still half closed and his hands were shaky.
"Gene?" Jim asked once he saw Gene, "where are we?"
Gene sighed. He scooted over until he reached Jim and began to explain everything.
************
Melfina heaved a shuddering breath. She swallowed and stood up, her weak legs wobbling under her. She looked around and realized she was back in the labyrinth of data. Hugging her arms she looked around, trying to discern anything, it was so very dark.
Suddenly she felt afraid, she needed to move, to leave this place. She began to run, fast and hard. Melfina wasn't too great at many things, but she was very good at running, even in high heels.
The clicking of her shoes against the dark ground echoed around her. She didn't have any idea where to go, where to hide, what to do. She felt sick.
Suddenly light filled the dark hallway she was running down, Melfina gasped and turned around.
"Leave me alone!" she yelled at the orb of light following her.
"No! No!" she cried as the light surrounded her, closing in on her.
Melfina couldn't move. She felt paralyzed by fear. All she felt she could do was scream as the light consumed her once more.
************
Gene lay looking up at the white ceiling.
Jim had been devastated when he'd found out what was happening to Melfina. He apparently had been hit so hard he couldn't even remember going into the lab. Gene felt guilty; he had been the one who had agreed on Melfina accompanying them.
"How could I have been so stupid?" he whispered to the ceiling.
The ceiling offered no advice.
Gene shifted, trying to find a comfortable position on the hard floor.
Mr. Johnson had propped himself up in a corner, and fell asleep. Jim was sitting in the middle of the room staring into space. Gene lifted his head a felt a stab of pain in his temple. It hurt worse then before.
He felt blackness surrounding him. The last thing he saw was Jim looking over at him, before he fell asleep.
"Hey Gene! Long time no see!" a voice called cheerfully.
Gene opened one eye and saw the familiar face of the little girl staring down at him. She giggled when he jumped slightly. She straightened up and backed off, giving Gene room to stand.
Gene looked at her. The little girl was different. He looked down and realized, normally the little girl was gray all over. Wearing a simple gray dress, short sleeved, reaching her knees, and simple gray sandals. But now..up to her knees was..normal. Her shoes were a shiny black, her knees a pale peach. From the knees down she looked normal now.
The little girl cocked her head, staring at Gene. Once she realized what Gene was staring at she giggled.
"Yea! Isn't it neat? I don't have to be gray anymore."
"Why are you gray anyway?" Gene asked.
"I can't tell you." The little girl said, suddenly serious.
"Why not?" Gene whined.
"Because, someone told me not to." The little girl looked down at her now black shoes.
"Please?" Gene pleaded with puppy dog eyes, trying to turn on the charm.
"Alright." The little girl finally gave in. "but you can't tell anyone."
Gene leaned in a little closer so the girl could reach up to whisper in his ear.
"I'm gray because I'm dead."
Whoa. That was a weird chapter to write..muahaha I think I did a good cliffhanger..kinda..sorta. Anyway. I am feeling much Better now thanks to my medicine and your reviews. They make me Feel so very happy! So review please! I'm going to see a movie tomorrow (Just Married, I love Ashton Kutcher!) so I think the next chapter will be out around Monday.
Arigatou! Mandy~Chan
