Disclaimer: BARRFFF (Oh my what an inelegant expression of my beholdenness of Trigun's prodigious standing.)
Nova
Chapter 15: Where...
Kestrel
We stopped about 50 iles north of Caspian, and set up camp under the ledge of a high set of cliffs.
As Milly was getting out of the back of the truck, I noticed something.
"Milly your arm is bleeding." I said, pointing to her arm, which she was lightly cradling.
"It's not all that bad it just a scratch." Milly managed before yawning.
"Just a scratch!?" Meryl cried, taking Milly's arm and pulling up the sleeve, "Milly that's hardly a scratch,
Milly, that really bleeding badly."
"Here let me see," I said and stood shoulder to shoulder with Meryl, I put my hand over the long wound
that stretched all the way from elbow to wrist, "Yeah, that's pretty bad, Milly, infection is already
setting in."
"It must have happened when that beast knocked away Milly's stun gun," Vash observed from over my
shoulder.
"Don't worry," I said smiling at Milly, "I'll have it fixed in no time."
"Oh, that's right, you have healing powers." Meryl said quietly.
I closed my eyes halfway and ran my hand down her forearm slowly. A soft purple light emanated from my
palm and I felt he tingling sensation of my power doing its job.
My power flowed through Milly's body, searching out stem cells to patch her arm, as it was doing this I
felt something more. A light presence in the vicinity of Milly's stomach.
Milly was pregnant. I wondered if she was aware of it.
Wait a second, there wasn't just one presence there, there were two. She had twins.
I stepped back after I finished healing her arm and smiled at Milly.
"Oh, thank you Miss Kestrel," Milly smiled back.
"It's no problem, um, Milly did you know you were pregnant?"
Her eyes widened a little and she asked in a small voice, "I am?"
I nodded, "With twins. I sense a boy and a girl."
The look of surprise abruptly left her face, and was replaced by a deep sorrow, "Nicolas."
"Wow," Vash said softly, "just... wow."
"Oh, Milly, congratulations." Meryl added brightly.
She smiled sadly, "Oh, thank you, I just wish that Nicolas could be here."
I didn't know who this Nicolas person was, but he was obviously someone important to Milly, and
apparently she knew that he was the father.
I backed up further and settled my self next to the fire that Vash and Knives had started.
I looked up when I felt the stare of someone. It was Knives. I gave him a small smile and looked away, but
I could still feel him watching me.
What was it with that man? Maybe it has something to do with Legato. It was strange to me, the way they
reacted to my name, as if just the word Bluesummers was some sort of curse. What had Legato done to make them react like that?
Vash, Meryl and Milly all seemed to accept me well enough now, but Knives... he was always analyzing me, staring, and studying me. There were so many unanswered questions floating through my mind.
Not to mention the fact that for some reason the beast had attacked Milly, it went against everything
that I had observed about them. Usually they ignore everyone and everything and just head straight for me, but this time was different, and left me curious.
It's because they're helping you, a small voice at the back of my head said, they're involved.
They weren't safe now, and I couldn't use my force shield around those beasts or another of those
explosions would happen. I couldn't do anything. I was virtually powerless against them.
I sighed, shutting my eyes. The most prominent question in my mind was why. Why was I being attacked? I never did anything wrong in my life...
That I know of.
I sighed, reached into my cape for my wallet, and pulled out the photo of myself, my sister and our father.
Had Aria not been walking with me that day the I was first attacked, then the very same thing would have
happened to Lanoth that happened to January.
Aria had used her Telekinetic powers to drive the beasts back. Giving me time to get away. Those beasts
had fought and fought to get to me, almost killing my sister and five others. Marian, the leader of Lanoth,
finally arrived and forced the beasts into a state of unconsciousness by ways of a mental procedure that when induced upon someone could send them into a coma like state, except it was a little more controlled.
Right now they were studying those beasts, and from what they told me, their origin was not of this world, their bio-mechanics were even a little flawed, leading the Lanothian scientists to think that these creatures
were in fact... artificially created.
Vash
We all just sat there around the fire. Dawn was only a couple of hours away, and no one seemed to want to
sleep. I found myself dozing off occasionally, but Knives kept kicking my shin to stop me from snoring.
No one spoke, either. Milly stared off into the desert, fingering a little silver cross cufflink which used to
belong to Wolfwood. Knives was idly sketching on a piece of paper he'd found somewhere. Meryl was
cleaning her derringers and Kestrel was staring distantly into the fire.
Wanting to get the stale air moving I directed a question at Kestrel. She didn't seem to hear me so I
tried again, "Kestrel?"
She looked up, "Yes?"
"I was just wondering if you could tell us a little about your people."
She blinked, then nodded, smiling, "Sure. What do you want to know?"
"What's with the..." I waved a hand in front of my face to indicate the blue hair and gold eyes.
She looked confused for a second then smiled again, realizing what I was asking, "Oh, you mean the hair
and the eyes."
I nodded, the other three looked at Kestrel, unveiled curiosity in their eyes.
"Well you see... We weren't actually born. In the conventional sense, I mean. We were created,"
"Created?" I asked.
"Yes, the blue hair and gold eyes were to make us easily identifiable. They had over 500 of us in
incubation pods at some facility in July."
"Now wait just a minute... when was this? It must have been before is destruction, right?" I asked.
She nodded. "It happened about seventy--seventy-five years ago."
"Anyway, something went wrong with the project. It's still not clear as to why the project was scrapped,
but just out of the blue the people in charge ordered all equipment and research destroyed. They were going
to incinerate the incubation pods that held the first generation of my people, but one of the scientists
there, a woman by the name of Marian Hawkins... she saved us. She brought the incubation pods back to
Lanoth and along with her brothers and sisters, they raised the first generation. We owe her our lives. In
fact she still governs Lanoth, keeping the peace and so on."
"That's amazing that she's still alive."
Kestrel laughed, "Not at all! She's a plant!"
Knives
She's a plant. A plant.
Those words reverberated in my head. I stared at the gold-eyed human, who was glancing between Vash and the other two humans and myself.
She suddenly looked confused, "What? What's the matter?"
"How did she get out of her bulb?" I asked her.
She focused on me and blinked, "Well that's.... You know when you pass by a plant in one of the towns, and there's a few of the bulbs broken open? Well whatever do you think happened to the plants that used to be inside them?"
I looked at Vash, not really knowing how to answer that, he merely shrugged.
"You see after the Fall, they were confused and couldn't support themselves in the chaos the ensued
afterward, so a few of the humans that did know about the real state of the plants went around and gathered
the suddenly free plants after the Fall."
"What do you mean by 'real state?'" Vash asked.
"The majority of the human population was not told what the plants truly were. If they had been told
there was the undisputed chance of a civil war. Most won't stand for even the thought of slavery."
I snorted, "A civil war? Over the plants? You humans are so selfish that you wouldn't have given it a
second thought."
She gave me a half lidded stare, "I'm sorry that you think that way. But it's very true."
"Can we go visit?" asked Vash.
She looked to the side, "I can't. I can't risk it. Not until I can figure out a way to stop these attacks on
myself."
"We don't need her permission." I stated.
She glanced back to me, "No. You don't. But you will never find it with out my help. Besides those beasts
and whoever is sending them is after you all now too.
I frowned at her, but she didn't change her tone.
"We can't risk it."
I would have written some reviewer responses but I'm a little to lazy right now and didn't want to keep you waiting.
But thanks to those who did review, listed below.
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