Jack Pine
Well-Known Member
- RP Date
- YE 40, 5 months ago
- RP Location
- 188604------>location unknown
Howard station/ noon/
A U-1 with a transport module would land in the Howard station's lower hangar. A short woman with long black hair, and crimson eyes of a youthful appearance would descend the now lowered ramp. Nora wore a black tank, with some punk style cargo pants of the same color. Combat boots echoed lightly against deck plates as she headed into the empty station interior.
Beyond the decontamination field and through the vacant hall to the open interior of the station waited a white Big Cat converted to a limousine. Nora would be greeted by chilled air as the doors to the vast, city-like compartment opened. The opening of the door to the passenger compartment of the hover truck would cue her entry to the vehicle where Candon awsites her arrival in tactical cargo pants and a blue FSCorp branded tee shirt.
Nora entered into the vehicle and took a seat, "You must be Candon. Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise," Candon responded, "so Jack sent you here to kill me?" He cocked his brow. "Let's see it."
"I'm.sorry, wha?", she said a little caught off guard by the question, the only place she could possibly hide a weapon covertly was the feint bump to her stomach, "I'm not carrying any weapons." She said nervously.
Candon rolled his eyes. "Every time I have ever met that man or his family they've worn body armor and brought weapons," he leaned toward the young woman, "now he insists I meet you and you come unarmed... really, what's your trick?"
She placed a hand to the bump instinctively, "I have no idea what you're talking about." She was beginning to get a little scared, she didn't like the man's tone. What had Jack sent her into?
"Alright, alright, I'll have to guess," he resigned as he sat back in his seat, appraising her from head down. Shapely for sure but Jack knew he was from Yamatai where beauty comes standard. From her face, though the signs were nearly undetectable, he could tell that this was not a grown woman, but rather a young girl with a woman's body. Candon hadn't even tried to intimidate her and she was afraid, protecting her womb as if... Candon looked closer. Even if she'd shown her belly things such as this could be faked with latex and glue. He knew how to get the truth.
"That's it," he announced with a reserved, and completely fake tone of victory as he lied seemlessly and pointed to the small bulge in her gut, "it's inside you. Every mother knows that decontamination fields are hazardous to a fetus."
Nora, "again sorry, but what? I didn't know that." She said looking super worried now. It was the Priceless look of sincerity Candon needed to see to believe her.
Candon shook his head. "Your baby is fine, the field cannot pass your skin," he reassured her, "I apologize for being overly cautious, I don't get death threats. People just try to kill me, especially lately. Jack really wanted me to meet you. You are the first person to come to me from Jack unarmed. Why?"
"Because my grandfather trusts you?", Nora asked not sure on why the paranoia was needed until he explained.
"He was concerned you would be apprehensive, given who my father is. I came unarmed to alleviate that...hopefully," she added.
"Well, kid, you kind of freaked me out," he admitted, " that being said, I do respect you for doing so, it's a sign of confidence and I like seeing it. I too came unarmed, though the glovebox has a couple of laser pistols for emergencies."
"Grandfather... Jack ages faster than you do," Candon quipped, "how old are you?"
"6 months.", Nora said so simply and casually.
"How far along?" he asked, nodding towards what her hand covered.
"1 month, but developing much faster than expected. But that may have something to do with how psychopomp rapidly aged me. I wasn't grown.", Nora admitted, and looking at the bump, it was noticeably larger than what only a month should have been.
"Hmm, that is disturbing," Candon expressed, getting a wrong idea as to why Jack had arranged their meeting, "I'd like to show you something." He picked up a datapad and after brief typing the vehicle began to drive itself.
"I have a couple of theories, correct me if I'm wrong. If you're aging was induced by PsychoPomp it would have needed to be stopped to prevent you from being old in a year. They want a soldier so I can only assume they'd have also induced your aging process to normalize," he thought out loud, rotating the chair to face hers, "the problem I'm thinking of lies with the child's development. If you've stopped rapidly aging the baby should age at a normal rate. It's not. I'm guessing that either this is genetic or drug induced. do you know which?"
"I haven't done anything, but my boyfriend was heavily enhanced to a similar effect, albeit slower. His cells divide faster. Combine both our genetics, and basically rekickstarts the process, so I would say genetic.", Nora said with a furrowed brow, "I've never even met my mother, and I don't plan to let anyone take my baby from me. Anyone."
"I don't plan to- your parents, who were they?" He asked without missing a beat.
"I don't actually know my mother's identity, but it's assumed she is local, and my father......is Lazarus," she said the last part hesitantly.
"Damn, I'm sorry to say that we still have a bounty on him. I'm sure you know how bad Alex wants him," he said, while wetting his hand with the condensation from a water bottle, "may I feel? I can detect electrical currents."
"Just be very gentle.", she said lifting up the tank just over the bump.
Gradually laying his strong hand over the fair skin of her womb Candon closed his eyes, and focused on only the electricity there. The initial electrical wave of her nerves reporting contact were all he could detect, but to see the fish he knew he'd need the water to settle. Sliding his hand back and forth he felt around for the pulse that did not respond the same way as the young mother... and there it was, a feint pulsing.
His heart skipped a beat as he found the life within, longing to share the same discovery with Masumi one day. "There you are," he whispered as he lingered to analyze the pulse. It was a strong pulse, like a baby neko, a bad thing for a human.
He left her belly damp as he leaned back into his chair. With a small grin he shared his conclusion, "it must be genetic. Your baby has, if I have to guess, more than twice the electrical current it should. That's not good and you'll see for yourself when we arrive. We've been attempting to restore an extinct species in our lab and have run into multiple issues, the first being unrelated to your child. We just can't get their brains to develop a personality and it's a mess I can't understand. The relevant problem is that their bodies are aging either too quickly or not stopping. Do you know how PsychoPomp has dealt with this issue?"
"Something do with nutrient submersion in an artificial womb with drug induced cellular division boosters. I'm not entirely sure though.", Nora said rubbing her stomach fondly.
Candon rubbed his chin as he watched her dote on her unborn infant. It wasn't his problem to help but a certain compelling force to assist this child save her baby, and possibly herself couldn't be shaken. His thoughts would keep returning to Masumi and how hard he would fight if it were her that needed help. Before him sat a girl too young for motherhood. She may as well have been family, he couldn't ignore the situation.
"it sounds a lot like gene therepy," he explained, "I couldn't possibly duplicate their formula on my own and if your body was altered postpartum we have a serious problem. I suspect that your baby might outgrow your body, which could kill both of you. If I can acquire the data from PsychoPomp regarding their procedure I think I can duplicate the operation on your baby without harm. Do you know of any way I can get that data from their company?"
"Oh I could get it. My contract hasn't been bought out yet. I still have clearance. All I have to do is ask to study the process by which I was aged. They let me do it before to understand my enhanced body more.", Nora said so simply as if just checking a book out of a library.
The truck came to a stop and the doors swung open. Taking the lead, Candon stepped out into the icy air of the station and opened the rear hatch of the Big Cat to retrieve two jackets. Slinging his own black leather jacket over his shoulder he handed the other to his tank topped friend.
"Howard Station is extremely cold," he stated the obvious, "there aren't yet enough occupants for it to be financially possible to warm the interior so be careful."
"Thank you."
Candon entered a code into a keypad and the adjacent door to the room slid open to reveal a laboratory stocked with sophisticated medical equipment, the best on and off the market. He walked and talked, "Early in Nepleslian history the Reds hunted a sentient, humanoid species to extinction. They were giant. Researchers estimated that 80% of the species was female with a generally docile demeanor."
"No one likes tall girls anymore." She joked as she followed.
"That's why we shortened them, among a few minor changes to prepare them for coexistence with other humanoids," he answered the joke literally, "to be honest I have ulterior motives. We estimate these creatures to be capable of producing an average of 265 liters of milk per day and the best part is that they're sentient. Bathing, health, housing, medical maintenance is going to be much cheaper importing cows."
Candon stopped to face her. "Sorry, I'm ahead of myself. Milk is like gold here right now. Even in stasis fields most of it either spoils or tastes weird. Anyway-" he resumed his pace towards a row of blacked out glass tubes big enough for a very large human, "so we're having two problems at this time. The first is- and this is totally confidential, so keep it quiet. The first is that we can't get the brain to host a personality, though we can force responses so we know the body works. The second is aging. We can't get the body to stop at where we need it to be."
Swiping his card at the first tubes control panel the black was quickly cleared from view to reveal a body within. The first ever artificial Bubulus Hominum. The body was just over 6 feet and had withered to a very old corpse, which the monitor would reflect by its abscense of vitals.
"This body is less than a year old. It didn't take but a week to be of minimal physical adult age by Nepleslian and Yamataian law."
The second tube revealed similar, though the specimen at least appeared to be a person. No vitals were present.
"This was our first successful attempt to stop the aging process, and even now we have trouble stopping it so we tried a new formula."
The third tube was filled top to bottom with flesh beyond recognition as being humanoid. No vitals.
"We invested into saving this one more than any of the others and it was our first attempt at replicating PsychoPomp aging techniques. It didn't work so well."
The fourth and final tube cleared, this time revealing a member of the species in the childhood state with strong vitals.
"This one is new, we aged her using blood found at the crime scene of Jack Pine's home. It's your father's blood that made this specimen reach this point but," he looked at her gravely, "this one is only three months old... I think that we can stand to help each other here and frankly, you don't have much time before a baby this size is inside of you. Have you ever stolen anything before?"
"Stealing is a low on the list of things I've done for that company. It won't be a problem.", she said after looking over each corpse without so much as a reaction. Death had become a norm for her. She felt sad, at the loss of feeling she had been denied the development of.
"Then this shouldn't be a problem, I'm proposing a data heist. Do you know where they store their information?"
"Sadly no. The modules were all brought to me. I figure I can just ask again then just copy it with something.", Nora replied after thinking.
Candon nodded. "The details of the information they shared with you may not be complete enough for duplication. I need to be sure that the source is honest before we attempt any operation on your baby," Candon mused, looking to the floor as he thought of better alternatives until a new plan emerged," do you know where the facility is that performs the gene manipulation?"
"Uh, duh. I came out of there remember. It's actually only a few systems over from the spora system you guys assaulted. They were sending most finished units to that base before it- you know... blew up.", Nora said in almost childish manner.
"Well then," Candon cracked his knuckles, I suppose there's not a moment to waste. Have you ever heard the legend of the Trojan Horse?" he asked rhetorically, "if we can get my powered armor into their base I can wipe it out from the inside if we get . Can you make that happen?"
"How big of a box can you fit in, while wearing the armor?", Nora asked nonchalantly as if just a normal conversation starter.
"Two by one by one meter crate," he answered, "that's the smallest I can get it without dissasembly. It's armed so I'll leave my big guns at home."
"How heavy?", Nora asked.
Candon shrugged, "Little under two hundred thirty kilos."
"In pounds?", Nora said with a confused look.
Candon looked stunned for a moment, "like, a hair over five hundred, I guess. You don't know the standard measurement system?"
"Psychopomp uses pounds over metric. But anyways that is within tolerable levels easily. Please prepare, and when ready I will take you there.", Nora said with a smile.
[Several hours later]
A starbyrte shuttle touched down on the landing deck of a hangar built into the side of a mountain. The rock covered doors closing to conceal it.
"Hey I didn't order a shipment of toasters. This will have to be taken to requisitions and stockpile.", said a man in a flight deck jumpsuit.
"Hey, I don't do the deliveries, I'm just a passenger. I'll take it there.", Nora quipped.
"How?"
She grabbed the crate almost double her size and with her hands dragged it off the craft with ease. The 5'5 young woman lifted it over her head and began to walk towards a loading area. The man only watching in stunned silence.
Nora set the crate down near other freight that had been brought in. After making sure the coast was clear, popped the container open.
"Alright, the labs are nearby. They are put close to receive materials more efficiently.", Nora would explain as Candon exited the crate with packing peanuts clinging to the fully cloaked armor plates.
"Copy that," he confirmed as he activated his combined distortion drive to provide stealth against sensors, peanuts quietly popping off as he did, "I'll follow."
She brushed him off first, no need to be given away by foam by all things. She lead him through the halls, making sure to give others a wide berth. They entered a lab, the usual doctor sitting at a desk. She looked up, "Oh. BW-N1, you aren't due for a an analysis for another month. Shouldn't you be with Weiss, or on job? If not, maybe staying in the weapon armory barracks would be wise over wandering."
"Lady Weiss Is currently away on assignment. I have had a development in this unit's physical state. I thought it would be wise to have an exam done. And by the way,...sorry.", Nora said monotone till the last sentence, with all the mannerisms of a machine, just as she had been drilled.
An invisible arm grappled the doctor's neck until her body went limp. Candon laid her on the examination table and decloaked. Picking up her datapad he inserted a cable into the data socket. The screen became filled with lines of code as Candon's digital mind began to extract the files he needed, namely all of them.
"That's a freebie," he stated sarcastically, "maybe we should take her too. Do you think they'll notice?"
"Yeah. Hmm, too bad we can't take the room. We do have to take her with us. Maybe have it look like an accident?", Nora said thinking as she tapped her chin.
Candon began rummaging through cabinets taking items as he went.
"What are looking for?" Nora asked.
"A disguise for you," Candon answered as he tossed a bodybag and scrubs onto the examination seat with a lab coat following them.
Nora missed the concept, "wait, what kind of disguise?"
"Well, I was looking for a skimpy nurse uniform, but only found a set of scrubs. I guess we'll dress as medical professionals," he joked sarcastically. In a moment his volumetric projectors replaced his armor suit with a nurse wearing scrubs, "we'll just need something to carry her on."
"Alright, let's hurry and get this over with. Just....turn around for a few or something," Nora said.
"It has panoramic optics," Candon stated as turning around would accomplish nothing, "but don't be so vain, I only want to look at my girlfriend change."
He set to work shoving the unconscious doctor into the bodybag.
Nora quickly changed into the scrubs which were too small even for her lean frame. The buttons around her chest were strained uncomfortably, and the pants were too tight on her hips and rear, but they were limited on time. She shoved her other clothes into an emergency bag, before finding a deployable stretcher for emergencies. Before Candon fully shoved the woman in the bag, Nora took the woman's card, and her hair band. She pocket the card and used the hair band to do her hair up in one large ponytail, "Alright, let's get her on the cart and get out of here."
Candon dropped the faceless bodybag on the cart without much concern for the person within and ripped the biohazard sign off of the box for disposing needles, rubbing it onto the center of the bag to get the traces of glue to stick. With the doctor's datapad already hacked he called up an older transfer order and overwrote new dates and information onto it.
"Alright, let's go"
With calm pacing, Nora led Candon back towards the room where the crate was where he would collapse the Gurney into the box with the bagged doctor still laying on it.
"So. You getting in? Or actually playing passenger?"
"I guess I'm a passenger this time," he answered casually, "I didn't think anyone would take my seat."
"Alright, if I grab the crate, can you secure a shuttle?", Nora asked as she shut the container.
Candon's recent venture into starfighter combat gave him a sense of confidence in the prospect. "I sure can," he confirmed as his hologram changed to a pilot in a PsychoPomp branded flight suit. His suit began a scan of the shuttles in the bay and zeroed in on a fully fueled starbryte cargo shuttle priming its engines.
"That one," he pointed, "it's probably already scheduled to leave too."
"Then you better hurry," She said lifting the crate with ease, to candon's displeasure as he watched her belly push out from under the tight scrub shirt, popping the top and bottom two buttons. She was lucky the buttons up high didn't suffer more casualties.
"We need to talk about your lifestyle and prenatal injuries on the way back," he scolded as he made his way to the shuttle. As he disappeared into the cargo bay a series of sickening crunches came from within as the necks of two pilots were crushed. Taking a seat on the right side of the cockpit he tuned into the radio frequency to prepare for takeoff while his partner heaved the crate inside.
"The frame can handle the stress, withstanding more than I can actually lift. Besides that crate was light, the doc needs a cheeseburger. Poor woman. So what are we doing about the extra cargo?" Nora asked pointing to the two corpses with jelly necks on the floor.
"Somebody needs to be in the cockpit when they find the shuttle... hey, don't you try and change the subject, kid," he called back, "I was born into sniping, I know some anatomy. You have some kinda skeletal and muscular enhancements that make you real tough but you're still a human and your musculature follows the same pattern. Carrying stuff like that requires heavy usage of your abdominal muscles. Your enhanced strength isn't going to protect that baby when they flex, it's going to crush your kid."
As the doors of the shuttle closed Candon removed his helmet, a more recent modification. Twisting around to face into the cargo bay he teased, "looks like self-control is going to be your best friend soon."
"That sounds.......ominous," Nora said, not liking that last part.
"Well, it's not nearly as ominous as you might think," Candon stated as he returned to the controls, "humans are naturally a fragile species, and despite your apparent upgrades you are still a human. Your body was never meant to be as strong as it is. Your augmentations can compensate for each other as much as they like because they were specifically created to turn young children into soldiers, weapons. With such a purpose in mind, do you think that they were ever intended to assist an expectant mother through maternity? From what I've observed in PsychoPomp experiments I doubt it. You're going to need medical care that most humans will never need. Ain't you glad to be so special?"
"Yes, remind me how much I'm a science project. Very smooth Candon, you must be one real operator with the ladies bub," Nora said less than pleased with the reminder.
The shuttle ascended slowly as clearance was granted. The ever common shuttle took hardly any time for Candon to familiarize with. "It's not so bad being different. Are you familiar with the Nekovalkerie? I was one of the very very few that were male and as far as I know I'm the only 'accidental' conception to ever occur. You think you got problems? My heads a bag full of cats. What do humans call it? ADD? Autism? Something in that spectrum. The medic I met called it 'Fragmentation'. Literally, my brain starts to get all frazzled, data gets missorted it's a mess, but it has some perks."
"I don't know if I was an accident, or not, I never got to meet my parents. The only one I know anything about is my father. Everyone paints him as a monster, but if he was with my mother, he couldn't have been all bad right?", Nora asked hoping there was something worth it in even looking for her parents.
"Here, come on up, I need a copilot," Candon waved her up to the cockpit as they neared the point where they'd soon be accelerating to escape velocity. The question was not an easy one and he was uncomfortable wearing armor in the cramped cockpit. "Just hold her at our current incline," he instructed as she took the seat opposite to his, sending control to her side.
Cautiously stepping out through the narrow cockpit wall he entered the cargo bay and stepped over against the wall. With a gentle hiss the suit opened and he climbed out wearing a powered suit, something he now wore under the armor as the life supporting organic liner slowly died from age. A problem he would have to fix at a later date.
He reentered the cockpit and sat down again, removing his powered gloves. "Nice flying, you kept it smooth. Have you flown before?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Its basic programming. All the nice skills they give, but at quite a price," Nora said.
"Loss of childhood, lack of family, it's terrible," Candon agreed, "and with a kid on the way you've got bigger problems. My advice, don't live in the past. You gotta look to the future. You'll find your parents some day, but in the meantime you need to get yourself out of this business for your child's sake. Otherwise you end up like me, with too many enemies to keep track of and all of them willing to hurt your family to get at you. If I were in your shoes I'd quit this life and get a house and just live my life. Have a family. I'd trade lives with you any day."
"If only it were so easy. PP owns me, the only reason I'm not tracked is because the signal might give me away when in the field," she said as she pulled back her hair to reveal the OGU protruding from the back of her neck.
Candon shook his head at the sight. Even his own odd feelings toward slavery were offended by the idea of taking this little girl, stealing her childhood, and forcing her into the life of a killer. "How much? What's your price?"
"250,000KS, but the main issue is lady Weiss. Even if sold, e won't let that go, she will try to retrieve me. She is the one who took me, and she would not take kindly to her prodigé being taken from her. The other thing is, she would have info on my mother.", Nora explained, "Frank has been trying to gather the funds, but I fear for even him if....no when, she comes for me."
Canon nodded, "what if I could get you Yamataian citizenship? As I recall PsychoPomp is a Nepleslian company. Attacking a Yamataian citizen would place them in a very bad position. It might just be worth the extra protection."
"What about Frank though, and what am I going to do there? I've been programmed to be a trained killer, what kind of work could I possibly do? Join the star army?", Nora questioned trying to figure the possible plan for that.
"Your program doesn't define who you are, you are your own person," Candon counseled, "Frank could go with you, and maybe both of you could get work in a private security firm, or maybe you could become a florist, your life is yours to live... I just hope you'll live for something better than killing, or better yet, live for the kid that's pushing through your shirt. Maybe you can save your child from this kind of life too."
Nora looked down at the baby belly as if seeing the developing child within, and she was quiet for a moment, "I'm willing to try, and I hope your right. If you can, I will take it."
Candon smiled, glad to know she'd at least try to escape the fate PsychoPomp had assigned her. In his head he began to formulate a plan to get her citizenship. He'd need to process the request as soon as he could and maybe even bring her to a Department of Immigration office.
"I'll get you the needed paperwork and study material for the testing. I can make a few calls too."
A U-1 with a transport module would land in the Howard station's lower hangar. A short woman with long black hair, and crimson eyes of a youthful appearance would descend the now lowered ramp. Nora wore a black tank, with some punk style cargo pants of the same color. Combat boots echoed lightly against deck plates as she headed into the empty station interior.
Beyond the decontamination field and through the vacant hall to the open interior of the station waited a white Big Cat converted to a limousine. Nora would be greeted by chilled air as the doors to the vast, city-like compartment opened. The opening of the door to the passenger compartment of the hover truck would cue her entry to the vehicle where Candon awsites her arrival in tactical cargo pants and a blue FSCorp branded tee shirt.
Nora entered into the vehicle and took a seat, "You must be Candon. Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise," Candon responded, "so Jack sent you here to kill me?" He cocked his brow. "Let's see it."
"I'm.sorry, wha?", she said a little caught off guard by the question, the only place she could possibly hide a weapon covertly was the feint bump to her stomach, "I'm not carrying any weapons." She said nervously.
Candon rolled his eyes. "Every time I have ever met that man or his family they've worn body armor and brought weapons," he leaned toward the young woman, "now he insists I meet you and you come unarmed... really, what's your trick?"
She placed a hand to the bump instinctively, "I have no idea what you're talking about." She was beginning to get a little scared, she didn't like the man's tone. What had Jack sent her into?
"Alright, alright, I'll have to guess," he resigned as he sat back in his seat, appraising her from head down. Shapely for sure but Jack knew he was from Yamatai where beauty comes standard. From her face, though the signs were nearly undetectable, he could tell that this was not a grown woman, but rather a young girl with a woman's body. Candon hadn't even tried to intimidate her and she was afraid, protecting her womb as if... Candon looked closer. Even if she'd shown her belly things such as this could be faked with latex and glue. He knew how to get the truth.
"That's it," he announced with a reserved, and completely fake tone of victory as he lied seemlessly and pointed to the small bulge in her gut, "it's inside you. Every mother knows that decontamination fields are hazardous to a fetus."
Nora, "again sorry, but what? I didn't know that." She said looking super worried now. It was the Priceless look of sincerity Candon needed to see to believe her.
Candon shook his head. "Your baby is fine, the field cannot pass your skin," he reassured her, "I apologize for being overly cautious, I don't get death threats. People just try to kill me, especially lately. Jack really wanted me to meet you. You are the first person to come to me from Jack unarmed. Why?"
"Because my grandfather trusts you?", Nora asked not sure on why the paranoia was needed until he explained.
"He was concerned you would be apprehensive, given who my father is. I came unarmed to alleviate that...hopefully," she added.
"Well, kid, you kind of freaked me out," he admitted, " that being said, I do respect you for doing so, it's a sign of confidence and I like seeing it. I too came unarmed, though the glovebox has a couple of laser pistols for emergencies."
"Grandfather... Jack ages faster than you do," Candon quipped, "how old are you?"
"6 months.", Nora said so simply and casually.
"How far along?" he asked, nodding towards what her hand covered.
"1 month, but developing much faster than expected. But that may have something to do with how psychopomp rapidly aged me. I wasn't grown.", Nora admitted, and looking at the bump, it was noticeably larger than what only a month should have been.
"Hmm, that is disturbing," Candon expressed, getting a wrong idea as to why Jack had arranged their meeting, "I'd like to show you something." He picked up a datapad and after brief typing the vehicle began to drive itself.
"I have a couple of theories, correct me if I'm wrong. If you're aging was induced by PsychoPomp it would have needed to be stopped to prevent you from being old in a year. They want a soldier so I can only assume they'd have also induced your aging process to normalize," he thought out loud, rotating the chair to face hers, "the problem I'm thinking of lies with the child's development. If you've stopped rapidly aging the baby should age at a normal rate. It's not. I'm guessing that either this is genetic or drug induced. do you know which?"
"I haven't done anything, but my boyfriend was heavily enhanced to a similar effect, albeit slower. His cells divide faster. Combine both our genetics, and basically rekickstarts the process, so I would say genetic.", Nora said with a furrowed brow, "I've never even met my mother, and I don't plan to let anyone take my baby from me. Anyone."
"I don't plan to- your parents, who were they?" He asked without missing a beat.
"I don't actually know my mother's identity, but it's assumed she is local, and my father......is Lazarus," she said the last part hesitantly.
"Damn, I'm sorry to say that we still have a bounty on him. I'm sure you know how bad Alex wants him," he said, while wetting his hand with the condensation from a water bottle, "may I feel? I can detect electrical currents."
"Just be very gentle.", she said lifting up the tank just over the bump.
Gradually laying his strong hand over the fair skin of her womb Candon closed his eyes, and focused on only the electricity there. The initial electrical wave of her nerves reporting contact were all he could detect, but to see the fish he knew he'd need the water to settle. Sliding his hand back and forth he felt around for the pulse that did not respond the same way as the young mother... and there it was, a feint pulsing.
His heart skipped a beat as he found the life within, longing to share the same discovery with Masumi one day. "There you are," he whispered as he lingered to analyze the pulse. It was a strong pulse, like a baby neko, a bad thing for a human.
He left her belly damp as he leaned back into his chair. With a small grin he shared his conclusion, "it must be genetic. Your baby has, if I have to guess, more than twice the electrical current it should. That's not good and you'll see for yourself when we arrive. We've been attempting to restore an extinct species in our lab and have run into multiple issues, the first being unrelated to your child. We just can't get their brains to develop a personality and it's a mess I can't understand. The relevant problem is that their bodies are aging either too quickly or not stopping. Do you know how PsychoPomp has dealt with this issue?"
"Something do with nutrient submersion in an artificial womb with drug induced cellular division boosters. I'm not entirely sure though.", Nora said rubbing her stomach fondly.
Candon rubbed his chin as he watched her dote on her unborn infant. It wasn't his problem to help but a certain compelling force to assist this child save her baby, and possibly herself couldn't be shaken. His thoughts would keep returning to Masumi and how hard he would fight if it were her that needed help. Before him sat a girl too young for motherhood. She may as well have been family, he couldn't ignore the situation.
"it sounds a lot like gene therepy," he explained, "I couldn't possibly duplicate their formula on my own and if your body was altered postpartum we have a serious problem. I suspect that your baby might outgrow your body, which could kill both of you. If I can acquire the data from PsychoPomp regarding their procedure I think I can duplicate the operation on your baby without harm. Do you know of any way I can get that data from their company?"
"Oh I could get it. My contract hasn't been bought out yet. I still have clearance. All I have to do is ask to study the process by which I was aged. They let me do it before to understand my enhanced body more.", Nora said so simply as if just checking a book out of a library.
The truck came to a stop and the doors swung open. Taking the lead, Candon stepped out into the icy air of the station and opened the rear hatch of the Big Cat to retrieve two jackets. Slinging his own black leather jacket over his shoulder he handed the other to his tank topped friend.
"Howard Station is extremely cold," he stated the obvious, "there aren't yet enough occupants for it to be financially possible to warm the interior so be careful."
"Thank you."
Candon entered a code into a keypad and the adjacent door to the room slid open to reveal a laboratory stocked with sophisticated medical equipment, the best on and off the market. He walked and talked, "Early in Nepleslian history the Reds hunted a sentient, humanoid species to extinction. They were giant. Researchers estimated that 80% of the species was female with a generally docile demeanor."
"No one likes tall girls anymore." She joked as she followed.
"That's why we shortened them, among a few minor changes to prepare them for coexistence with other humanoids," he answered the joke literally, "to be honest I have ulterior motives. We estimate these creatures to be capable of producing an average of 265 liters of milk per day and the best part is that they're sentient. Bathing, health, housing, medical maintenance is going to be much cheaper importing cows."
Candon stopped to face her. "Sorry, I'm ahead of myself. Milk is like gold here right now. Even in stasis fields most of it either spoils or tastes weird. Anyway-" he resumed his pace towards a row of blacked out glass tubes big enough for a very large human, "so we're having two problems at this time. The first is- and this is totally confidential, so keep it quiet. The first is that we can't get the brain to host a personality, though we can force responses so we know the body works. The second is aging. We can't get the body to stop at where we need it to be."
Swiping his card at the first tubes control panel the black was quickly cleared from view to reveal a body within. The first ever artificial Bubulus Hominum. The body was just over 6 feet and had withered to a very old corpse, which the monitor would reflect by its abscense of vitals.
"This body is less than a year old. It didn't take but a week to be of minimal physical adult age by Nepleslian and Yamataian law."
The second tube revealed similar, though the specimen at least appeared to be a person. No vitals were present.
"This was our first successful attempt to stop the aging process, and even now we have trouble stopping it so we tried a new formula."
The third tube was filled top to bottom with flesh beyond recognition as being humanoid. No vitals.
"We invested into saving this one more than any of the others and it was our first attempt at replicating PsychoPomp aging techniques. It didn't work so well."
The fourth and final tube cleared, this time revealing a member of the species in the childhood state with strong vitals.
"This one is new, we aged her using blood found at the crime scene of Jack Pine's home. It's your father's blood that made this specimen reach this point but," he looked at her gravely, "this one is only three months old... I think that we can stand to help each other here and frankly, you don't have much time before a baby this size is inside of you. Have you ever stolen anything before?"
"Stealing is a low on the list of things I've done for that company. It won't be a problem.", she said after looking over each corpse without so much as a reaction. Death had become a norm for her. She felt sad, at the loss of feeling she had been denied the development of.
"Then this shouldn't be a problem, I'm proposing a data heist. Do you know where they store their information?"
"Sadly no. The modules were all brought to me. I figure I can just ask again then just copy it with something.", Nora replied after thinking.
Candon nodded. "The details of the information they shared with you may not be complete enough for duplication. I need to be sure that the source is honest before we attempt any operation on your baby," Candon mused, looking to the floor as he thought of better alternatives until a new plan emerged," do you know where the facility is that performs the gene manipulation?"
"Uh, duh. I came out of there remember. It's actually only a few systems over from the spora system you guys assaulted. They were sending most finished units to that base before it- you know... blew up.", Nora said in almost childish manner.
"Well then," Candon cracked his knuckles, I suppose there's not a moment to waste. Have you ever heard the legend of the Trojan Horse?" he asked rhetorically, "if we can get my powered armor into their base I can wipe it out from the inside if we get . Can you make that happen?"
"How big of a box can you fit in, while wearing the armor?", Nora asked nonchalantly as if just a normal conversation starter.
"Two by one by one meter crate," he answered, "that's the smallest I can get it without dissasembly. It's armed so I'll leave my big guns at home."
"How heavy?", Nora asked.
Candon shrugged, "Little under two hundred thirty kilos."
"In pounds?", Nora said with a confused look.
Candon looked stunned for a moment, "like, a hair over five hundred, I guess. You don't know the standard measurement system?"
"Psychopomp uses pounds over metric. But anyways that is within tolerable levels easily. Please prepare, and when ready I will take you there.", Nora said with a smile.
[Several hours later]
A starbyrte shuttle touched down on the landing deck of a hangar built into the side of a mountain. The rock covered doors closing to conceal it.
"Hey I didn't order a shipment of toasters. This will have to be taken to requisitions and stockpile.", said a man in a flight deck jumpsuit.
"Hey, I don't do the deliveries, I'm just a passenger. I'll take it there.", Nora quipped.
"How?"
She grabbed the crate almost double her size and with her hands dragged it off the craft with ease. The 5'5 young woman lifted it over her head and began to walk towards a loading area. The man only watching in stunned silence.
Nora set the crate down near other freight that had been brought in. After making sure the coast was clear, popped the container open.
"Alright, the labs are nearby. They are put close to receive materials more efficiently.", Nora would explain as Candon exited the crate with packing peanuts clinging to the fully cloaked armor plates.
"Copy that," he confirmed as he activated his combined distortion drive to provide stealth against sensors, peanuts quietly popping off as he did, "I'll follow."
She brushed him off first, no need to be given away by foam by all things. She lead him through the halls, making sure to give others a wide berth. They entered a lab, the usual doctor sitting at a desk. She looked up, "Oh. BW-N1, you aren't due for a an analysis for another month. Shouldn't you be with Weiss, or on job? If not, maybe staying in the weapon armory barracks would be wise over wandering."
"Lady Weiss Is currently away on assignment. I have had a development in this unit's physical state. I thought it would be wise to have an exam done. And by the way,...sorry.", Nora said monotone till the last sentence, with all the mannerisms of a machine, just as she had been drilled.
An invisible arm grappled the doctor's neck until her body went limp. Candon laid her on the examination table and decloaked. Picking up her datapad he inserted a cable into the data socket. The screen became filled with lines of code as Candon's digital mind began to extract the files he needed, namely all of them.
"That's a freebie," he stated sarcastically, "maybe we should take her too. Do you think they'll notice?"
"Yeah. Hmm, too bad we can't take the room. We do have to take her with us. Maybe have it look like an accident?", Nora said thinking as she tapped her chin.
Candon began rummaging through cabinets taking items as he went.
"What are looking for?" Nora asked.
"A disguise for you," Candon answered as he tossed a bodybag and scrubs onto the examination seat with a lab coat following them.
Nora missed the concept, "wait, what kind of disguise?"
"Well, I was looking for a skimpy nurse uniform, but only found a set of scrubs. I guess we'll dress as medical professionals," he joked sarcastically. In a moment his volumetric projectors replaced his armor suit with a nurse wearing scrubs, "we'll just need something to carry her on."
"Alright, let's hurry and get this over with. Just....turn around for a few or something," Nora said.
"It has panoramic optics," Candon stated as turning around would accomplish nothing, "but don't be so vain, I only want to look at my girlfriend change."
He set to work shoving the unconscious doctor into the bodybag.
Nora quickly changed into the scrubs which were too small even for her lean frame. The buttons around her chest were strained uncomfortably, and the pants were too tight on her hips and rear, but they were limited on time. She shoved her other clothes into an emergency bag, before finding a deployable stretcher for emergencies. Before Candon fully shoved the woman in the bag, Nora took the woman's card, and her hair band. She pocket the card and used the hair band to do her hair up in one large ponytail, "Alright, let's get her on the cart and get out of here."
Candon dropped the faceless bodybag on the cart without much concern for the person within and ripped the biohazard sign off of the box for disposing needles, rubbing it onto the center of the bag to get the traces of glue to stick. With the doctor's datapad already hacked he called up an older transfer order and overwrote new dates and information onto it.
"Alright, let's go"
With calm pacing, Nora led Candon back towards the room where the crate was where he would collapse the Gurney into the box with the bagged doctor still laying on it.
"So. You getting in? Or actually playing passenger?"
"I guess I'm a passenger this time," he answered casually, "I didn't think anyone would take my seat."
"Alright, if I grab the crate, can you secure a shuttle?", Nora asked as she shut the container.
Candon's recent venture into starfighter combat gave him a sense of confidence in the prospect. "I sure can," he confirmed as his hologram changed to a pilot in a PsychoPomp branded flight suit. His suit began a scan of the shuttles in the bay and zeroed in on a fully fueled starbryte cargo shuttle priming its engines.
"That one," he pointed, "it's probably already scheduled to leave too."
"Then you better hurry," She said lifting the crate with ease, to candon's displeasure as he watched her belly push out from under the tight scrub shirt, popping the top and bottom two buttons. She was lucky the buttons up high didn't suffer more casualties.
"We need to talk about your lifestyle and prenatal injuries on the way back," he scolded as he made his way to the shuttle. As he disappeared into the cargo bay a series of sickening crunches came from within as the necks of two pilots were crushed. Taking a seat on the right side of the cockpit he tuned into the radio frequency to prepare for takeoff while his partner heaved the crate inside.
"The frame can handle the stress, withstanding more than I can actually lift. Besides that crate was light, the doc needs a cheeseburger. Poor woman. So what are we doing about the extra cargo?" Nora asked pointing to the two corpses with jelly necks on the floor.
"Somebody needs to be in the cockpit when they find the shuttle... hey, don't you try and change the subject, kid," he called back, "I was born into sniping, I know some anatomy. You have some kinda skeletal and muscular enhancements that make you real tough but you're still a human and your musculature follows the same pattern. Carrying stuff like that requires heavy usage of your abdominal muscles. Your enhanced strength isn't going to protect that baby when they flex, it's going to crush your kid."
As the doors of the shuttle closed Candon removed his helmet, a more recent modification. Twisting around to face into the cargo bay he teased, "looks like self-control is going to be your best friend soon."
"That sounds.......ominous," Nora said, not liking that last part.
"Well, it's not nearly as ominous as you might think," Candon stated as he returned to the controls, "humans are naturally a fragile species, and despite your apparent upgrades you are still a human. Your body was never meant to be as strong as it is. Your augmentations can compensate for each other as much as they like because they were specifically created to turn young children into soldiers, weapons. With such a purpose in mind, do you think that they were ever intended to assist an expectant mother through maternity? From what I've observed in PsychoPomp experiments I doubt it. You're going to need medical care that most humans will never need. Ain't you glad to be so special?"
"Yes, remind me how much I'm a science project. Very smooth Candon, you must be one real operator with the ladies bub," Nora said less than pleased with the reminder.
The shuttle ascended slowly as clearance was granted. The ever common shuttle took hardly any time for Candon to familiarize with. "It's not so bad being different. Are you familiar with the Nekovalkerie? I was one of the very very few that were male and as far as I know I'm the only 'accidental' conception to ever occur. You think you got problems? My heads a bag full of cats. What do humans call it? ADD? Autism? Something in that spectrum. The medic I met called it 'Fragmentation'. Literally, my brain starts to get all frazzled, data gets missorted it's a mess, but it has some perks."
"I don't know if I was an accident, or not, I never got to meet my parents. The only one I know anything about is my father. Everyone paints him as a monster, but if he was with my mother, he couldn't have been all bad right?", Nora asked hoping there was something worth it in even looking for her parents.
"Here, come on up, I need a copilot," Candon waved her up to the cockpit as they neared the point where they'd soon be accelerating to escape velocity. The question was not an easy one and he was uncomfortable wearing armor in the cramped cockpit. "Just hold her at our current incline," he instructed as she took the seat opposite to his, sending control to her side.
Cautiously stepping out through the narrow cockpit wall he entered the cargo bay and stepped over against the wall. With a gentle hiss the suit opened and he climbed out wearing a powered suit, something he now wore under the armor as the life supporting organic liner slowly died from age. A problem he would have to fix at a later date.
He reentered the cockpit and sat down again, removing his powered gloves. "Nice flying, you kept it smooth. Have you flown before?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Its basic programming. All the nice skills they give, but at quite a price," Nora said.
"Loss of childhood, lack of family, it's terrible," Candon agreed, "and with a kid on the way you've got bigger problems. My advice, don't live in the past. You gotta look to the future. You'll find your parents some day, but in the meantime you need to get yourself out of this business for your child's sake. Otherwise you end up like me, with too many enemies to keep track of and all of them willing to hurt your family to get at you. If I were in your shoes I'd quit this life and get a house and just live my life. Have a family. I'd trade lives with you any day."
"If only it were so easy. PP owns me, the only reason I'm not tracked is because the signal might give me away when in the field," she said as she pulled back her hair to reveal the OGU protruding from the back of her neck.
Candon shook his head at the sight. Even his own odd feelings toward slavery were offended by the idea of taking this little girl, stealing her childhood, and forcing her into the life of a killer. "How much? What's your price?"
"250,000KS, but the main issue is lady Weiss. Even if sold, e won't let that go, she will try to retrieve me. She is the one who took me, and she would not take kindly to her prodigé being taken from her. The other thing is, she would have info on my mother.", Nora explained, "Frank has been trying to gather the funds, but I fear for even him if....no when, she comes for me."
Canon nodded, "what if I could get you Yamataian citizenship? As I recall PsychoPomp is a Nepleslian company. Attacking a Yamataian citizen would place them in a very bad position. It might just be worth the extra protection."
"What about Frank though, and what am I going to do there? I've been programmed to be a trained killer, what kind of work could I possibly do? Join the star army?", Nora questioned trying to figure the possible plan for that.
"Your program doesn't define who you are, you are your own person," Candon counseled, "Frank could go with you, and maybe both of you could get work in a private security firm, or maybe you could become a florist, your life is yours to live... I just hope you'll live for something better than killing, or better yet, live for the kid that's pushing through your shirt. Maybe you can save your child from this kind of life too."
Nora looked down at the baby belly as if seeing the developing child within, and she was quiet for a moment, "I'm willing to try, and I hope your right. If you can, I will take it."
Candon smiled, glad to know she'd at least try to escape the fate PsychoPomp had assigned her. In his head he began to formulate a plan to get her citizenship. He'd need to process the request as soon as he could and maybe even bring her to a Department of Immigration office.
"I'll get you the needed paperwork and study material for the testing. I can make a few calls too."
