Disclaimer: I still don't own anything DA
A/N: I have to claim artistic licence with Biggs and Gem because I really don't know much about them so a lot is made up, I hope you guys don't mind. Also if my technical stuff and physics is wrong, sorry! Thanks for reviewing, it keeps me going. It took me a while to update as I was visiting friends in Cambridge (fun). I'll make it up to you though, promise, lots of Alec goodness to come!!
Absence makes the heart...
How can someone you can't live with be that someone you can't live without? A question that just kept whirling around Max's head all week. It had been 8 days 6 hours and 38 minutes since she'd last had word of him and it was driving her to distraction. She could remember a time when she considered Alec to be the bane of her existence, but that had been a long time ago.
Every day she berated herself for not doing anything. She'd sent a team out to cover up the real purpose of the compound that was burnt to the ground last week (the last thing they needed was to give more fuel to the anti-transgenic campaign.) But they'd found no trace of him. Dix had put in a great many hours into the search, hacking into the police main frame, satellite footage, even hover-drone recordings, but in the end all they were left with were theories and coincidences. What could she do? Send out a search team possibly only to have him return while they were away, or run the risk of sending them into the same trap Alec had fallen into, or for it to turn out to be a wild goose chase because they would be looking for someone who didn't exist anymore. Should she go herself? Possibly getting them both killed? Or lose herself and the belief of her people because she abandoned them? All she could do was keep her ear to the ground and hope against hope that something would turn up, a sign or clue of what had happened to him.
She so desperately wanted to be angry with him, to hate him for what he had done, but she couldn't. He had done like she'd always told him, if you wanna be the hero, you can't be half-assed about it. Her whole body felt numb as her heart ached to see him and that annoyingly gorgeous grin of his. Losing transgenics in the on going battle for acceptance was always painful, but this was Alec, she'd always assumed he'd be there, never had she prepared herself for the possibility that he would be ripped right out of her life as abruptly and unexpectedly as he was thrown in. She needed answers but she was out of ideas on how to get them. She'd contemplated asking Logan, but what could he do that any number of highly trained transgenics hadn't already tried? Could she risk him doing an Eye's Only hack that may serve only to alert White to the whole left by Alec's absence? The absence was keenly felt by all; even Mole missed him although he attributed any feeling of loss for the boy to the depletion in his cigar suppliers.
She thought she was going mad when she started seeing him everywhere; walking up the street below her window, waiting in line in the mess hall, or calling to her from the window of his apartment. He was everywhere and yet nowhere. And during her long, sleepless nights, when she missed him most, he came to her in a form her mind invented.
"I miss you." She whispered to him, but he just stood there, "Why did you leave me?" She continued, resting her head on her arms as she sat at her desk.
"You sent me away," he said, "You wanted me out of your hair, so now you've got your wish..."
"No, no it's not like that." She looked at him with pleading and weary eyes. "It wasn't like that."
Max rubbed her eyes that were beginning to sting from the effort of holding back tears; she wasn't going to cry again, she needed to maintain a strong front for her people. She opened her eyes again to find herself alone again in her empty office. She hugged herself and looked down at the work that she just couldn't concentrate on.
Some way above, watching her unnoticed through the sky-light in her office, Biggs sat bouncing his baby in his arms whilst Gem was in the kitchen of their apartment making some tea.
"If someone told him she'd react like this, do you think he'd believe it?"
"I think he'd want to," Gem replied watching Biggs as he stared distractedly out of the window.
She was first brought round to liking Biggs by his optimism (as optimistic as you can be after growing up in Manticore) and his dislike for heavy atmospheres. She was quite happy when he decided he'd want to make a family of sorts with her and they moved in together. He had been one of the few to return on occasion from the beta base to be with them. She had for a time thought perhaps she had inadvertently guilt-tripped him into giving up his light-hearted, care-free ways, but his happy devotion to their baby rid her of her fear. Back at Manticore their unhappy task of breeding together was just a case of following orders, they were nothing to each other then, and it took quite sometime for her to get over the difficulties that the experience caused. Now they were close, closer than she'd ever let anyone get and she was very glad to have him home.
"Do you think she'll be alright?"
Biggs turned to her and smiled "As soon as he gets back she'll be just fine."
The sun sets on the 12th day but it wasn't the beauty of the slowly fading light that streaked orange and purple across the darkening sky grabbing attention, it was the shouts of a working Trans-human.
"Max?! Max! MAX!!"
"I'm here, I'm here already." Max called as she jogged into HQ "What's up?"
"Come check this out." Luke beckoned her over to him up on the observation platform where they had the surveillance screens and radio monitoring equipment set up. Luke moved his mouth piece out of the way and moved to the left allowing Max access to the screen ahead of him."Watch this." Max leaned forward as it flickered to life. It showed some surveillance footage of the fencing down by Wilber Street. There was the flickering of the street light in the left hand corner as usual, the rusted burnt out car was sitting centrally as usual, and the tattered brick walls had the same unintelligible graffiti as usual.
"What exactly am I looking at here?"
"...There!" Luke exclaimed triumphantly as he pushed pause on the keyboard, and sure enough there by the corner was a light grey-ish smear in clear contrast against the dark brick walls.
"What the hell...?" Max leaned in closer and tilted her head trying to make out what it was.
"That's exactly what Mole said." Luke commented with his usual enthusiastic voice. Max looked back at him not yet seeing why it had been so important to show her this blob.
"What is it? A problem with the camera?"
"Nope. It's a high velocity object which we would usually capture as a perfect still as all our cameras run on real time. That is except when we replace cameras for maintenance or random testing, for which we temporarily use cameras of lower spec. Thus images are captured at longer intervals making fast objects appear as blurs. Today we are in the process of testing and modifying cameras 12, and this one number 50." Max nodded still staring at the smear.
"How fast are we talking here?"
"Pretty damn fast, unlikely within the capabilities of an ordinary, but it's too big to be an animal or a projectile weapon." Luke indicated the size of the blob in comparison to the car to prove his point. Max was liking this less and less as Luke went on.
"What are you saying?"
"Max, we've got an intruder." Max's eyes widened in alarm, did they have another traitor? Divulging secrets to the enemy about entry points and the surveillance system? Mole loaded a shotgun to her left and looked pointedly at her.
"Time for some action." Suddenly the twin doors of HQ crashed open as a lone figure stumbled through them and half collapsed bellow them. The room fell silent. As the figure slowly and painfully got up his identity dawned on them instantly, they knew who it was, his tired and dishevelled appearance and tattered clothing doing nothing to disguise him. Mole's mouth dropped open letting his cigar drop forgotten to the floor, the figurative pin drop.
"I don't believe it."
A/N: Soooo, any good? R&R.
A/N: I have to claim artistic licence with Biggs and Gem because I really don't know much about them so a lot is made up, I hope you guys don't mind. Also if my technical stuff and physics is wrong, sorry! Thanks for reviewing, it keeps me going. It took me a while to update as I was visiting friends in Cambridge (fun). I'll make it up to you though, promise, lots of Alec goodness to come!!
Absence makes the heart...
How can someone you can't live with be that someone you can't live without? A question that just kept whirling around Max's head all week. It had been 8 days 6 hours and 38 minutes since she'd last had word of him and it was driving her to distraction. She could remember a time when she considered Alec to be the bane of her existence, but that had been a long time ago.
Every day she berated herself for not doing anything. She'd sent a team out to cover up the real purpose of the compound that was burnt to the ground last week (the last thing they needed was to give more fuel to the anti-transgenic campaign.) But they'd found no trace of him. Dix had put in a great many hours into the search, hacking into the police main frame, satellite footage, even hover-drone recordings, but in the end all they were left with were theories and coincidences. What could she do? Send out a search team possibly only to have him return while they were away, or run the risk of sending them into the same trap Alec had fallen into, or for it to turn out to be a wild goose chase because they would be looking for someone who didn't exist anymore. Should she go herself? Possibly getting them both killed? Or lose herself and the belief of her people because she abandoned them? All she could do was keep her ear to the ground and hope against hope that something would turn up, a sign or clue of what had happened to him.
She so desperately wanted to be angry with him, to hate him for what he had done, but she couldn't. He had done like she'd always told him, if you wanna be the hero, you can't be half-assed about it. Her whole body felt numb as her heart ached to see him and that annoyingly gorgeous grin of his. Losing transgenics in the on going battle for acceptance was always painful, but this was Alec, she'd always assumed he'd be there, never had she prepared herself for the possibility that he would be ripped right out of her life as abruptly and unexpectedly as he was thrown in. She needed answers but she was out of ideas on how to get them. She'd contemplated asking Logan, but what could he do that any number of highly trained transgenics hadn't already tried? Could she risk him doing an Eye's Only hack that may serve only to alert White to the whole left by Alec's absence? The absence was keenly felt by all; even Mole missed him although he attributed any feeling of loss for the boy to the depletion in his cigar suppliers.
She thought she was going mad when she started seeing him everywhere; walking up the street below her window, waiting in line in the mess hall, or calling to her from the window of his apartment. He was everywhere and yet nowhere. And during her long, sleepless nights, when she missed him most, he came to her in a form her mind invented.
"I miss you." She whispered to him, but he just stood there, "Why did you leave me?" She continued, resting her head on her arms as she sat at her desk.
"You sent me away," he said, "You wanted me out of your hair, so now you've got your wish..."
"No, no it's not like that." She looked at him with pleading and weary eyes. "It wasn't like that."
Max rubbed her eyes that were beginning to sting from the effort of holding back tears; she wasn't going to cry again, she needed to maintain a strong front for her people. She opened her eyes again to find herself alone again in her empty office. She hugged herself and looked down at the work that she just couldn't concentrate on.
Some way above, watching her unnoticed through the sky-light in her office, Biggs sat bouncing his baby in his arms whilst Gem was in the kitchen of their apartment making some tea.
"If someone told him she'd react like this, do you think he'd believe it?"
"I think he'd want to," Gem replied watching Biggs as he stared distractedly out of the window.
She was first brought round to liking Biggs by his optimism (as optimistic as you can be after growing up in Manticore) and his dislike for heavy atmospheres. She was quite happy when he decided he'd want to make a family of sorts with her and they moved in together. He had been one of the few to return on occasion from the beta base to be with them. She had for a time thought perhaps she had inadvertently guilt-tripped him into giving up his light-hearted, care-free ways, but his happy devotion to their baby rid her of her fear. Back at Manticore their unhappy task of breeding together was just a case of following orders, they were nothing to each other then, and it took quite sometime for her to get over the difficulties that the experience caused. Now they were close, closer than she'd ever let anyone get and she was very glad to have him home.
"Do you think she'll be alright?"
Biggs turned to her and smiled "As soon as he gets back she'll be just fine."
The sun sets on the 12th day but it wasn't the beauty of the slowly fading light that streaked orange and purple across the darkening sky grabbing attention, it was the shouts of a working Trans-human.
"Max?! Max! MAX!!"
"I'm here, I'm here already." Max called as she jogged into HQ "What's up?"
"Come check this out." Luke beckoned her over to him up on the observation platform where they had the surveillance screens and radio monitoring equipment set up. Luke moved his mouth piece out of the way and moved to the left allowing Max access to the screen ahead of him."Watch this." Max leaned forward as it flickered to life. It showed some surveillance footage of the fencing down by Wilber Street. There was the flickering of the street light in the left hand corner as usual, the rusted burnt out car was sitting centrally as usual, and the tattered brick walls had the same unintelligible graffiti as usual.
"What exactly am I looking at here?"
"...There!" Luke exclaimed triumphantly as he pushed pause on the keyboard, and sure enough there by the corner was a light grey-ish smear in clear contrast against the dark brick walls.
"What the hell...?" Max leaned in closer and tilted her head trying to make out what it was.
"That's exactly what Mole said." Luke commented with his usual enthusiastic voice. Max looked back at him not yet seeing why it had been so important to show her this blob.
"What is it? A problem with the camera?"
"Nope. It's a high velocity object which we would usually capture as a perfect still as all our cameras run on real time. That is except when we replace cameras for maintenance or random testing, for which we temporarily use cameras of lower spec. Thus images are captured at longer intervals making fast objects appear as blurs. Today we are in the process of testing and modifying cameras 12, and this one number 50." Max nodded still staring at the smear.
"How fast are we talking here?"
"Pretty damn fast, unlikely within the capabilities of an ordinary, but it's too big to be an animal or a projectile weapon." Luke indicated the size of the blob in comparison to the car to prove his point. Max was liking this less and less as Luke went on.
"What are you saying?"
"Max, we've got an intruder." Max's eyes widened in alarm, did they have another traitor? Divulging secrets to the enemy about entry points and the surveillance system? Mole loaded a shotgun to her left and looked pointedly at her.
"Time for some action." Suddenly the twin doors of HQ crashed open as a lone figure stumbled through them and half collapsed bellow them. The room fell silent. As the figure slowly and painfully got up his identity dawned on them instantly, they knew who it was, his tired and dishevelled appearance and tattered clothing doing nothing to disguise him. Mole's mouth dropped open letting his cigar drop forgotten to the floor, the figurative pin drop.
"I don't believe it."
A/N: Soooo, any good? R&R.