Day 17, Calculator (Inked end): In which we reach the end of the story.
All the good things belong to MonolithSoft.
Cesar fumed as she struggled with the entry pad to her room. "Gonna replace you with a calculator one of these days," she muttered. It bleeped rejection in return. She growled back and punched in the code again, one careful number at a time.
It wasn't the door that was making her angry. It was the failure of her latest experiment. She'd planned so hard and she had achieved nothing. The subject's medical charts had promised both a background pain level and a weakness to control that would make the binding a simple matter. Instead, some external influence had destroyed the chance. Maybe a protective sigil didn't work if you wrote it on the floor of a room on the 8th story of a high rise. She'd have to try it outside New Los Angeles, maybe on a mission to Noctilum.
She wouldn't try it in Cauldros, that was for sure. She had thought it wise to leave New Los Angeles the second after discarding her broken test subject on the transport plane. Unfortunately the first available mission had been to Cauldros, and now she had intense helmet hair from a weekend spent dashing around lava pools and sheltering from brimstone rain.
She was nervous coming back, but she hadn't heard anything alarming. The guy must have gone home and slept it off. She would have asked her roommates, but they were avoiding her. They'd been doing that a lot recently. She could invite them on a mission to Noctilum and see if the ritual worked better en plein air. She wouldn't mind having a single room until they were replaced.
The door slid open and she almost tripped over a duffel bag lying open at the entrance. A plastic duffel, empty and humming. She caught herself and realized it was an active stasis bag, ready to receive. That's when she noticed the stranger in the room. A dumpy woman in civilian clothes, face round like the moon and just as pale, was sitting on Cesar's roommate's flowered bedspread.
"Hello, Jennifer."
Cesar tried to remember where she'd seen this woman before, but before she could think twice, the red mist rising around the woman blotted out all of Cesar's thoughts.
xcxcxcxcxcxcxcx
"Jennifer? Jennifer! Please, wake up!" A pale woman was kneeling beside her and shaking her by the shoulders. A tanned man, handsome in a lean way, was also looking down at her with a concerned expression.
"What happened?" she asked. Her voice sounded so rough, she wasn't sure she had spoken words.
She must have, because the stranger pulled her into a sitting position and hugged her tightly. "Jennifer, I thought we'd lost you. Don't do that to me!" Was the woman crying? Why? And who was Jennifer?
"Told you she'd be fine," said the guy, drawling the words, slippery and sly. He reached a hand down to her. Only then did the crying stranger release her.
She stood shakily and looked around. A giant robot rolled slowly past, a small creature with a very long nose following behind with a clipboard. She had no idea where she was, which wasn't nearly as disturbing as realizing she had no idea who she was. At least she could guess her name.
Something might have shown on her face. The other woman, her eyes shining beneath her tears, gave her another hug. It was awkward, but Jennifer found it nice to be anchored. "You got hit by a remote clearance device," she explained into Jennifer's shoulder.
"Delayed timer," added the lean man. "They've snuck a few into the city, but we usually catch them."
"I'm sweeping every customer's skell, starting today," vowed the short woman.
"I don't think I understand," Jennifer said.
The woman, short and not particularly impressive, reached over and squeezed Jennifer's hand warmly. "Don't worry, sweetheart. We never forget friends of the station. We'll take good care of you."
At the far corner of wherever they were, a very dark and very scrawny man swore a blistering blue streak at the robot, the alien, and the world in general.
a/n: Why yes Lila can brainjack with the best of them. Wrenches work well as melee weapons.
Next up: ANYTHING ANYTHING ANYTHING THAT ISN'T THIS STORY YIPPEE! Suggestions gratefully accepted.