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Year : 2577, October 31

Classified Location, proceed to Planet Temple.

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Sleeping was no better than waking. With his pillow and blanket, Jonah was lying on the floor aside of his bed, like he had done long ago with long gone friends. Whispering about unraveling the mysteries of the universe, drifting between fantasies of adventure and glory, being total empty headed morons ...

Now, he was resolving a mystery of the universe : the DNA of the biomechanic Internecivus Raptus, if it could be called DNA at all.

He hated every inch of it, for there was nothing glorious about it. Reality wasn't about heroes and villains, it was about civilization, those that benefited its flourishing and the things that were a danger to it. Stories no longer stirred anything in him, he only had the memory of excitement and no more.

He stood up and walked to a nearby cryogenic container. His hand lingered on it, then he reached for the cold bottle and took it with him to a desk. After a few minutes of waiting for the temperature to rise, he took a syringe and injected himself with the fluid. It was his salvation from her mind and heart, at the cost of his emotions.

She already knew, he was sure, but she couldn't make him suffer for what he did, not anymore.

"Doctor Bayard, report to laboratory B-21 immediately."

He slowly looked up at the intercom.

"I will be there soon," he said.

"You'll be here now!"

The voice was tensed, angry, but Jonah experienced nothing. He stored the bottle and changed into his laboratory clothing, not particularly hurried.

Before he left, he halted to stare at a motionless shimmer in a dark aquarium. Still, he felt nothing. If he had, that shimmer wouldn't be here, would it? Then he was on his way.

The trouble could be heard in the middle sterilization cell already. Doctor Sullivan was furious. The man was in charge, so he was allowed to lose his temper and he did it oh so well. As soon as he caught sight of Jonah, he stampeded towards him and glared up into his eyes, mere inches between them.

"You did this!"

A brief rush of nervousness was blissfully killed off by the drug, and Jonah looked down into Sullivan's face. Jonah was a little taller than him, which unfortunately meant he always looked down the man. Hm, why didn't all scientists decide to take the drug? All these outbursts were so pointless.

"What did I do, doctor?"

Sullivan pressed his lips together and grabbed Jonah at the arm, dragging him along. He was slammed against the glass that separated them from an incubation chamber.

Five open eggs, three dead orincubix, two trying to find a way out. The motionless human clones they had been offered were rejected.

"What is this?" Sullivan demanded.

"It seems they are rejecting the hosts," Jonah replied. "I assume you blame me for this?"

"Well, who has been in charge of cloning lately, hm?"

"The previous cloning chief has already warned months ago that the RNA of the clones is decreasing in activity. To the orincubix, they would appear as useless or even dead. Furthermore, the sped of growth process is only increasing the malformations of the clones. Surely I do not have to point out some of them have three arms or multiple mouths?"

"You're saying this is my fault? That's what you're saying, isn't it, you little bastard?"

Jonah shrugged. "I know the procedure. I will be reprimanded, then I will file my report, then you're going to have to admit we need fresh hosts, and for the record, these clones are still from Emerson's career, not mine."

Irritation and overload of stimulation unfortunately were not emotional chemicals, and the drug did not hold those back. Sullivan was his everlasting plague, and the faces around him never offered support. Though, they didn't attack him either, for they were all on the same rock. Nobody here dreamed.

"You just don't care, do you? You and that damn drug! If I had the authority to take it from you I —"

"Would have to explain to Enigma Zero why you were letting personal vendettas get in the way of protocol." Men like him would twist facts to suit their meaning and would let anger speak for their justice. Jonah had experienced this before, and perhaps the best way to stop it was to point out what exactly Sullivan was doing.

"You ... Get out of my face now!" Sullivan barked. Little drops of spit landed on Jonah's face, and he tensely wiped them off. Then he left.

"We'll get you strong people to clone," Sullivan muttered under his breath.

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Time : 2577 December 5

Location : Planet Tartarus, Gytnon city

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Like a mechanical rainforest, the hangar filled with chattering as passengers dripped in. A man in a fancy suit soon arrived to deliver a speech about how honored they were to be taking this trip; few cared since they had come for the free holiday rather than the scientific wonders they were about to behold.

Boarding the ship proceeded smoothly, save for a minor incident where a woman dropped a bag. Her things scattered over the floor and she quickly bent down to gather them up. A late pair of legs trampled past her, nearly knocking her over.

"Hey, do you mind?" she muttered, but lacked the courage to call out loud.

A security guard approached her, urging her to hurry up and reprimanding her for not having given her bag to the appropriate androids. She pulled her half open bag closed and set her arms across it, just in case he meant to pick it up and carry it away. People tended to do that sort of thing to her, she had taken her bag along exactly because she didn't trust others with her stuff.

"Oh, why did I take it with me?" she muttered, ignoring the man. It was her toothbrush. Her antique toothbrush she would never brush her teeth with.

"Miss, we can't halt everything over one lost item."

He was right, logically speaking she couldn't demand they postpone departure. Reluctantly she stood up, still looking around, but she couldn't see it anywhere. The man escorted her inside.

Once there, it took quite a while before the ship actually took off, so long that Sarah eventually walked to a low window that showed the hangar, hoping to perhaps catch sight of her lost possession. Here she saw two more late passengers arrive. Sarah realized they had been expecting them, and she could have had a few more minutes to look for her lost brush. Irritated, she pressed her lips together. The man who had urged her to go inside was nowhere to be seen, but even if he had been around, she probably wouldn't have gathered up the courage to address him on it.

Common practice for Sarah, people always seemed to assume she was a poor little glitch before they'd even spoken to her. She had to be escorted and helped to follow the rules, how she inspired that she had no idea.

The ship took off, and she went to her designated room. The cafeteria was skipped, she disliked them for being so crowded.

The room was small and simple, very modest and hardly like it was build to belong in a luxurious vacation ship. She liked it this way, neither wasting money on frivolous decoration yet having enough pride for a few luxuries like a good music installation and 3-D projection. It was delightfully in the middle of balancing comfort and modesty.

She was about to make herself comfortable and test out to projection set, when someone knocked. Who ever knocked on doors to announce themselves in this day and age?

"Yes?" Sarah called.

"I found your toothbrush," someone whispered on the other end.

Sarah practically jumped to the door.

Her tooth brush entered right away, with a long-fingered hand attached. Sarah promptly took it and blurted out, "Thank you so much!" but when she had a second look, she fell silent.

The pale hand belonged to a very small person whose age seemed impossible to guess. Her white face was half hidden behind a thick sweater and curly brown hair. A ruffled skirt went down to the floor. Contrast to her overall fuzzy look, there was a huge leather backpack strapped onto her. Her form made her suspect a mutant, as the woman had large, dilated pupils. Sarah had her complaints about the way she was treated, but she knew that was nothing compared to the mutants that had been showing up in the last decades, the unfortunate result of too much petridish fiddling.

Perhaps not that beautiful, but the woman had a certain delicacy.

How long she'd been staring she didn't know, but slowly Sarah started to feel like waking up, and remembered her manners.

"Want something to drink? You've gotta forgive me if I serve bad stuff, I haven't tried out the services here yet," Sarah said and she turned away. While she ordered something from the wall, the woman noiselessly came in, making very small steps as she went to the farthest chair.

"So, what's your name?" Sarah said as joined her, only briefly wondering why she hadn't asked what the woman wanted to drink.

"Eleanor Denarii. Please call me Kirindi."

"Hm, an unusual nickname, I bet there's an interesting story behind that."

"I don't know about interesting, I think it a sad story. It's not my story, though," she said, indicated she wasn't going to share just yet.

"Well then, I'm Sarah Driscoll, nice to meet you," Sarah said kindly, restraining herself from asking about the story anyway.

"You can ask me if you want ... I might not answer though."

Sarah frowned, and for a moment dared think she had come across something unusual, beyond the mutant part. "Did I get you the right drink?"

"Off course," Kirindi said with a pleased, childlike expression.

Sarah leaned her cheek on her hand and thought, "~ Are you telepathic? ~"

Her guest widened her smile a little and said, "Yes."

"Huh ..." was all Sarah could say. Since when did miracles of nature just casually walk into one's room and announced "hi, I'm here, let me share this secret with you that could end me up on some dissection table".

"You won't tell, you find it fascinating and I would like someone to talk to. I choose well whom I let in."

Sarah should be freaked out, but instead a very cozy, soothing feeling overcame her. Like being home, and home was a planet with morning sun and freestanding houses and fields. At least, that was what Sarah's ideal looked like. Kirindi was very careful to hide what her own ideal home appeared as. It didn't matter. Present a geek with a freak of nature, and they will ask a hundred questions. Sarah was no different and did not neglect the invitation.

Kirindi replied to any non-personal question, explained how telepathy and empathy worked, summed up incidents that were related, knew her way around interstellar species and was a bit up to date on Auton too. Thinking up convoluted theories was more Sarah's territory, but Kirindi was eager to offer supportive or detracting facts.

Sarah considered herself to have guessed right, that this woman like herself was an outcast of society, but she'd met many of those. The last she had befriended someone was at college, ever since they had gone their own ways, she had been hoping to just walk into someone. She hadn't counted on finding someone in the outer rims, but then again, she hadn't accounted for telepaths either.

She didn't even remember looking out of the window as they left the atmosphere.

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The next day Kirindi had knocked on Sarah's door again, much to Sarah's pleasure, and had invited her to defeat a few people in the game hall. That was not something to Sarah's tastes, but Kirindi had somehow persuaded her.

Strategy games were their target, and as they played on Sarah started to notice she somehow knew the opponent's ideas. Kirindi just smiled at her frowns. Telepathy was more than just reading minds, she once had read, transmitting information was part of it too, if strong enough. There should have been fear or objection to Kirindi messing around like this, but they were strangely absent.

Why not? So telepathy existed, why wouldn't she just accept it and take a little advantage? Cheating alright, no question, but it felt wonderful to come out on top for a change.

She didn't always win, sometimes the opponents were still better no matter what she knew ahead or not, but they just as often won themselves. The opponents meanwhile got a little spooked eventually, and the next day they didn't have anyone more to play with.

There were plenty of other things to do on the ship, though.

Movies did nothing to Kirindi, something Sarah attributed to boredom. For a telepath, movies probably lacked a whole dimension that wasn't so easily suspended from disbelief. But as time went on, Sarah realized it might be a different thing altogether. She didn't understand art, at all. Yet, she could enjoy it because Sarah enjoyed it, by borrowing her emotions in response.

That huge backpack never disappeared. She must be very possessive of her items, another thing Sarah liked. After all, she herself was also quite protective of her memories. Well, not this careful, but still, Kirindi could have a hoarding obsession or something. Any curiosity at the contents of the backpack remained unanswered.

A day before arrival, they had finally decided to eat in the cafeteria, simply to conduct a little test for the sake of self-satisfaction. There was a window table that gave a wonderful view onto a nearby nebula, and every day it would be occupied by the same group of people.

True enough, these people soon came over, a little miffed, and requested they find another table. Surely two people would not need this large table? Kirindi simply looked up with those dark eyes and caught them in, never blinking once.

"No, we're fine here. Why would you need this large table, when you had it all others days already?"

They gave up amazingly quick and moved to another table. Sarah looked after them as they went and so her eyes passed the many other people who had gathered here. At this point, she noticed the first curiosity.

There were so many different people here, anything from refined looking gentlemen to rough mercenary types, all secluded into fitting groups by own choice. Even mutants and geeks were represented in her and Kirindi. Almost as if someone had made a collection of as many varied people as possible while still having enough for a control group, instead of choosing people who would understand anything about what they would see.

Hm, a curious thought. But before she could wonder whether it had been Kirindi's opinion, the woman raised her hand lightly and pointed at a particular table.

There sat a tall, tan man in his thirties and a younger woman who dressed like she knew she was attractive. The men that had approached them earlier tried to join their table, and were obvirously hitting on the young woman. Them they did not try to send away.

But the woman just laughed, told him to get lost and lifted him a leg when he did so.

"Ah, I wish I had the guts for that," Sarah mused.

"Want to have it, really?" Kirindi asked oddly.

Sarah smiled only briefly. "It's not that easy."

They ordered their food, and Sarah once again noticed that Kirindi's diet was bizarre to say the least. She had favorites, but there was no disctint theme on what she liked, sweet, bitter... sometimes it seemed to just be about the shape of the food. This was one of those things Kirindi did not answer about, too.

Their peace didn't remain for long.

"What was that all about?" someone snapped. When Sarah turned, she saw the woman from just before. Long black hair, black outfit like she wanted to star in some cheap action game, and instant dislike on Sarah's behalf.

"I saw you laugh. Did you send that guy to be annoying to me? I saw you stare at him when they came to your table and he turned around like a scared dog."

"Why would she do that? How would she do that?" Sarah said casually and crossed her arms. "You might consider you attract unwanted attention due to the way you dress."

"I was not talking to you!" the woman snapped.

"He thought I wasn't human, so he left," Kirindi softly said.

Sarah didn't think that was enough and added : "You have an attitude problem, miss, making random accusations like that. But it's okay, you're probably just trying to compensate for your low intelligence." She could hardly believe she had the gut to say that. Maybe Kirindi was boosting her confidence somehow?

Now she had the woman's attention, in the form of a furious glare and a few fish-mouted attempts as forming a witty reply.

"Rynth got your tongue?" Just how dumb was this woman?

"You're lame," she just said. But instead of walking away, she got a chair and sat down. "So, you're so smart, eh? Provide me some exposition on what they're investigating on that place we're going to."

"It's explanation, exposition is for fiction. And how can you even be aboard this vessel and not know?"

"Got invited. Could use the free holiday. But knowing those, we're probably going to fight against monsters and evil scientists at some point." She shrugged and ordered a drink from the service wall, while Sarah rolled her eyes. "Doesn't matter, I get a free holiday till then. So what's your names?"

"Eleanor Denarii. She is Sarah Driscoll."

"I am Shadhahvar."

Sarah took out a pocket computer and accessed the passenger list, using a few easy tricks. "Oh really? According to this, your name is Mary Sue Mckenzie."

"Shadhahvar is cooler. So where are we heading?"

"Will you get lost if I tell you?" Sarah asked irritably.

"Sure."

"We are headed to a private research laboratory near planet Temple. It is called Enigma II. They research various alien lifeforms to find cures for illness, and they stand at the roots of what little progress or world still makes. Now you can leave."

"Sounds like a typical evil science place, yeah. Always is when they start talking about benefit of the world. So what are we supposed to do there?"

"We were given another short introduction when we first came into the cafetaria. Have you not paid attention at all?"

"Nah, some guys were making a fuss about my babies."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. Kirindi tilted her head, then said with a little smile : "She means her weapons."

"The station is attempting to increase better public relationships. Up until now, the government had to deny their existence due to the ridiculous controversy. We're going there to discredit the rumors," Sarah slowly said. Off course it was far more complicated, the reason for the sudden need for public recognition was beyond the comprehension of this woman.

"You don't like me, do you?" Shadhahvar asked.

Sarah hardly controlled her laughter. "Oh goodness, please. Off course I do not. You barge to my table accusing my friend of being telepath, without proper reason, and then demand to be educated about things you should already know."

Shadhahvar glared at her, but still didn't take the hint to leave. "Hey, Kiri, do you ever take that backpack off? I never saw you without the freaking thing."

"I need to keep it close by for safety," Kirindi mumbled.

A slight tapping noise was heard; Sarah was kicking her foot against the legs of the table. "Don't bother talking to her, it's none of her business. I know all about keeping my things close. They tend to get stolen and then tossed on lampposts or into toilets. I've been to highschool too."

"Oh, so sad for you," Shadhahvar said in a whiny tone.

"Anyway, Kirindi, back on the human position towards nature. While I certainly don't agree with the idea we should worship it or return to living in caves, I suppose some changes need to be made. So what do you think about the latest terra-forming techniques?"

Kirindi strangely looked at Shadhahvar for a moment, but then took Sarah's silent invitation to ignore her till she left. Shadhahvar tried to pop in a few more questions, but when receiving no replies, she finally left.

"What an arrogant snob," Sarah remarked while disdainfully looking after her.

"You are arrogant too," Kirindi bluntly informed her.

"Excuse me?"

"You always think about people as smart or dumb. You think you are smart and you think she is lesser for being dumb."

"I think she's lesser for being arrogantly dumb."

"No, it's just because you think she's dumb. You act nice to dumb people in a condescending way, only if they respect you first."

"Look, I can't think highly of people like that, okay?"

"But nature's beings can change the way they think, don't they? They can do it themselves. I have seen them do it. Humans and yautja can, if they want to. And then the soul from the past does not exist anymore."

"Oh? You speak if as you can't, then what are you?"

"I am just Kirindi."

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Almost it had seemed Kirindi had made another friend. That would have been made things even more difficult.

She had been told strictly to not mingle with the crowd for safety reasons. The true reason was that she would get attached, which might just get in the way.

Karga'te had warned them for this once, that her mind was hive oriented and she would look for a companion where ever she went. Off course, he had added this to hammer home why he didn't think they really counted as alive, for she didn't — couldn't — do so with androids.

Sarah Driscoll had been chosen for intellect, and this worried him. Any human would get suspicious after seeing another wear a backback for six days straight. This could be averted if she had just stayed out of sight long enough, but no, a toothbrush had ruined it. He couldn't leave her alone for a second!

He could only hope the human would assume Kirindi was a mutant with a malformation to hide.

The food on his plate posed a metaphoric barrier, a notion he quickly deleted. Then he proceeded to feign eating it, while storing it in a fake stomach for a later visit to a garbage burner.

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Jonah leaned against the window that gave view to the hangar, mildly realizing he should be disturbed at his own interest in seeing the future hosts.

Behind him, Schrödinger rapidly typed on his keyboard, producing an endless chain of repetitive irritation.

"When will you be gone?" Jonah asked flatly.

"Just a while. We don't want the welcoming speech messed up, do we?"

"This holiday before death charade is useless. Let's just get it over with and store them."

"Can't. Pilots of the ship requested to stay for a day. Gotta keep up the charade."

"Since when does Sullivan care?" Jonah muttered.

"Since the moment you disagreed with him about it."

Once, Jonah might have frantically started listing reasons why it was pointless, but in this state of mine, he only experienced the tick-tick of the keyboard, which was more of a physical nuisance than an emotional one. That, and the sort of food Schrödinger had in his bag. Onions?

"You plan on eating here?" Jonah asked coolly.

"Off course, you'll shut an eye for me, won't you?" Did that man honestly fail to understand when he wasn't wanted? How could this man possibly make a credible android?

The metallic androids had been reintroduced by Dr. Elcyon of Enigma IV. While mindless robots were dangerous if anyone where to get a hold of them, for a station such as this they were preferred : marines died too easily when the brood got itself free, rare as that was.

The passenger ship arrived, and Jonah, having nothing better to do, kept his eyes on it. Docking, standard procedure, and then many little ants swarmed out of it. They'd be very dead soon.

His view was suddenly interrupted by a holographic projection. Hm. Jonah quickly looked over it, it was the Philidon's passenger list. A few faces were selected and enlarged, while Schrödinger said : "Look at this one, lovely, no?"

"I will not look at this," Jonah said as he sidestepped a few meters and continued watching the ants.

"Why not? Afraid of pity? Don't bother, you sold your soul the day you took a job here."

Jonah shrugged and still looked at the ants. He didn't want to know their names, that was all. Schrödinger still didn't get the hint.

"But you are looking. Utara and me designed those eyes, remember? You can count the hairs on their heads. Come here, proof you're not feeling pity on some purely intellectual level."

The sad part was that Schrödinger, due to his profession, never had tasted the emotive killer drug. While he understood cyberspace and machines, he did not understand neurology. There was little use explaining him he really wasn't feeling anything.

He looked. He saw many meaningless letters.

Then he saw Sarah Driscoll.

There was no actual emotion, but there was the frame of his mind and memories that caught the name. Calmly they processed it, and found it unacceptable that that name was there.

"Schrödinger, did you perhaps receive any special orders concerning the selection of Host Import 042?"

"Yeah ... now you mention it, I had to add someone special to the list. Sillyvan asked for it himself. I just did it."

Jonah cast another glance out of the window and saw a chubby figure with blond hair, his friend from high school, as she left the Philidon. How unorthodox emotions seemed right now, such as the spite that must have inspired Sullivan's payback.

Sarah was what he would call a friend, and even without active emotions, it became apparent to him that he still considered her thus. She would not become a recyclable host. He needed a little word with the general now.

Schrödinger straightened his back with an uncomfortable crack and watched Jonah speed out of the control chamber.

"Utara, what was that all about?"

The AI answered as stoic as she ought to : "Personal human matters."

He sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I'll figure it out myself."

Hacking the date of Jonah's eyes, he found what he had been looking at : one random person, and it was the name he had been asked to add. While staring at the enlarged view on his monitor, Schrödinger became increasingly aware of the pale woman with curly brown hair, standing at Sarah's side. She didn't move, didn't blink, and stared somewhere with eerie, non-blinking eyes. It took him a minute to calculate that with this camera angle, she was staring right at his position.

He should be unsettled, and make note to Utara that there was a potential telepathy amongst the hosts. But somehow, he felt very relaxed and at ease, like he wasn't even on this rotten station.

How long he'd been staring he didn't know, but it felt like he was slowly waking up.

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