"Journey to the Dark Side: A Lore Story, REDUX
Written by: S. Bell
Chapter Eleven: Recovery & Remorse
When Jacqueline opened her eyes, she saw bright lights above her and the faint sounds of people talking around her. She experienced brief periods of black and white, noise and silence. When she finally came to, she realized that she was in sickbay. She felt no pain, but was extremely groggy and guessed that it was from a hypospray. As she glanced around the room, she saw doctors and nurses, some of whom were discussing her injuries which included lacerations, cracked ribs, a bruised lung, a sprained ankle and fractures to her wrists and hip.
"This poor girl's been through hell!" the female doctor exclaimed, "Who could've done this to her?"
One of the other nurses mentioned that Lore had brought Jacqueline to the facility. The doctor and lead nurse glanced at each other with disbelief.
"The android?" the doctor asked in shock.
Meanwhile, Lore was frantically pacing back and forth in his quarters.
"How could I do that? How could I hurt the woman I love so badly?!" he scolded himself through hostile tears, "If she dies, it'll be all my fault and the colonists will have me destroyed — not that I'd want to exist without her. I love her. But if I love her, how could I do that to her? How could I hurt her? She's not like the rest of them! How could I…"
Lore became disgusted with himself as he recalled the events that led him to the point of self-analysis. The rationalization he had borrowed from Jacqueline that night no longer seemed to make sense to him. Everything about it screamed that it was wrong. He became distraught that he had taken Jacqueline's own logic and used it against her in order to fulfill his selfish desire. He wondered why he lost control of his strength and allowed himself to hurt her so badly, no matter how unintentional it was. After reliving the memory of seeing her limp, unconscious body in his arms, he became devastated. Lore sobbed as his positronic brain refused to allow him to forget Jacqueline's desperate cries.
'I'm no better than Alex!' Lore thought.