Private Prague, U.N.P.K
Chapter 12

Linly Nightmares

"What do you think you're doing?" Private Prague grumbled as Lin laid her head on his shoulder, both were illuminated by the TV that kept the dark barracks lit up.

"I'm tired..." Lin yawned, "This movie is boring." she grumbled as she watched some events on the screen.

"As I search through my memory cards, I do not recollect asking you to stay here with me." Prague growled, "Now if you want to leave, do so... In fact, go... You're making me uncomfortable." he tried to move Lin's head.

"Come on, Prague." Lin returned to her position, "I'm cold..." she snuggled up.

"And I'm cold..." Private Prague adjusted his internal temperature, "My coolant has been leaking lately..." he muttered as his skin started to turn crusty and pale.

"Mmm..." Lin grumbled in discomfort as a chilly cold started to affect her head, "What? Why is it so cold!?" she growled and sat up, "Why are you so cold!?"

"Must be the coolant.." Private Prague continued to watch the TV, "This movie has several errors in filming, and few in editing." he saw the movie frame by frame due to his augmented vision.

"You know, your model is only 14 years old." Lin mumbled, "So if you do the math..."

"Get away from me, child!" Private Prague yelled and stood up, causing the lights to come on and Elma to come out of her room.

"What is going on?" Elma groaned as she rubbed her eyes, then looked at the Private, "Private... what's with all the yelling?" she asked.

"I am having extremely trying times with this girl." Private Prague pointed at Lin, "I suggest immediate discipline or I will have to execute a defense protocol." he extended his arms and made his fists ball up.

"What are you doing, Lin?" Elma sighed, "Why are you bothering the Private?"

"She is trying to enter an irregular relationship with me." Private Prague locked on to Lin, "A quick scan of such joining revealed several anomalies. It's odd and gross!" he growled.

"Lin... if Prague tells you to leave him alone, do it." Elma ordered, "It's also odd... why would you get so attached to a robot?" she asked.

"I have no available partner, there's literally no kids here." Lin groaned, "Plus, he is fourte-"

"That is not true, I am a 30 year old Private in the U.N Peacekeeping Forces!" Private Prague yelled, "Leave me alone, girl!" he stepped back.

"Leave him alone, Lin." Elma sternly rebuked the girl, "This has gone far enough... If I keep hearing about these little girl crushes and advances, I will speak to the Outfitter General and make him cut your hours."

"Fine..." Lin sighed, "Come, Tatsu." she called to her sleeping friend, "Let's go to bed." she picked him up and walked off.

"I'm sorry about all this..." Elma mumbled, "She's... just very impressionable... doesn't know any better." she huffed a bit of air.

"I understand." Private Prague nodded, "I looked up her background... I nearly have all the BLADE files uploaded to my system." he informed, "So I know about everyone and everything in NLA... I understand her situation up to a point, over that point I'm totally creeped out!" he grimaced.

"Glad we could reach a conclusion." Elma muttered, "Ah... I should be getting all the sleep I could get..." she looked at her belly, "Especially now."

"Apologies for waking you up." Private Prague told her, "Question, when is the father coming home?"

"You can say his name." Elma chuckled, "No need for formalities now... But he should be home tomorrow." she sighed and started to walk off.

"Alright, I'll see if he needs my help then." Private Prague muttered and walked up to a metal pedestal, where he plugged up to the wall.

"Good night..." Elma mumbled as she turned off the lights and went back to bed.

0000000

"Prague!" a voice screamed, making the android's eyes shoot open and instantly scan its surroundings with alert.

Out ran Lin, trembling and terrified, and locked on to the man, embracing him and crying in his arms.

"I do not understand the situation." Prague looked around and extended his arm, "Is there an emergency!? What is going on!?"

"I... had a nightmare..." Lin cried, "It was horrible!" she bawled and fell on her knees.

"Please be quiet, Elma is trying to rest." Private Prague knelt down in front of her, "But I cannot compute the probability of a subconscious fantasy causing such conscious trauma." he said, "Tell me what is the meaning of this.."

"It was horrible..." Lin muttered, "I... was making all of you test some Skells I made, and when everything seemed right, they all exploded in a ball of flames!" she yelled, "I had to watch the flesh melt off your bones while you all screamed."

"Uh..." Private Prague mumbled, "If I can use previous interpretations of dreams I found out that dreaming close ones in a terrible calamity either means something bad is coming or that you fear greatly for them and thus you actually care." he informed, "But I could take the Freudian approach and interpret the fire as your undying sexual attraction for your dad." he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"This isn't funny!" Lin pouted, "It was horrible! I'm so horrified!" she cried and wiped her tears.

"Apologies." Private Prague sighed and patted her head, "If only I was given a comforting and counseling program... The best I can give you is cheesy jokes from my Private Prague Personality and cold hard facts and information from my android personality." he shook his head, "I can tell you that the very reality of nightmares is just a subconscious illusion with no physical effect on reality. Plus, with your skill the likelihood of such a freakish accident is about... 1.21367 percent, rounded of course."

"That's still a chance." Lin muttered, "Still a chance you all could die like that!" she exclaimed, but then quieted down, "I am just... just troubled is all."

"I'm glad we could reach a consensus, but you should really rest now." Private Prague stood, "Plus, the chances of waking up Elma now are very high, and with her condition she needs her rest."

"I know." Lin stood as well, "I'm sure that will never happen, such as you said- it has no effect here." she smiled softly, "Thank you, Prague." she nodded and walked off, shutting down the lights as she exited.

"Dreams..." Private Prague muttered as he plugged himself back up, "The ability to create vivid imaginative interactions during unconscious periods is something alien to my processor capacity-" he stopped when Lin came back.

"Prague, what if-"

"Do not worry about the future, it is alright." Prague told her, "A better picture we can find." he informed as he closed his eyes.

"Alright." Lin nodded and walked off once more.

0000000

"What are you doing here?" Elma asked when Prague appeared in the Test Hangar, "I thought you were helping Lao out find a damaged probe with your Android capabilities." she said.

"I came to see if Lin was performing at optimum levels." Prague responded rather mechanically.

"You mean if she's alright?" Elma chuckled at the odd use of words, "Sure, she's doing what she loves." she looked at Lin typing into a console, which was wired up to a large gray Skell.

"It is good then... seeing that." Private Prague nodded, "Good, good."

"Are you checking up on her?" Elma asked, "That's kind of sweet, you're like her father or something."

"Really?" Private Prague muttered, then scanned Lin, "I do not see it, we share no noticeable heritable t-"

"It's a figure of speech." Elma interrupted, "That means you watch out for her and protect her- even you two have your quarrels." she said, "I think Lin needs that figure right now to be honest."

"I believe the Paternal Program has not been uploaded in me, but an upda-"

"I liked you more when you acted like a real person." Elma grunted and crossed her arms.

"I am only meant to emulate the human-"

"Enough." Elma shook her head, "It seems you may still need to learn a bit more, or maybe the Private Prague in you has not woken up... seeing this is quite early in the morning." she chuckled.

Private Prague sighed as he looked at Elma, then at Lin, then at the ground in concern...