Soban
Convention Veteran
YSS Kaiyo II
Medbay
Sacre basked in the light of the heatlamp behind the medic station as she worked on some paperwork. Sacre looked up at William as he came in, "Tired of standing around doors all day?" She asked in her 'serious' humorous tone of voice. She slid out from behind the desk, abandoning her paperwork, happy to see her friend.
William smirked at Sacre, tiredness evident in his eyes. "No not at all, I absolutely love standing around doors all the time. Thinking about making it an official hobby." He replied to the sarcastic medic. His white tee shirt was stained with grease and metal shavings and the nepleslian had managed to wipe some of it across his forehead without noticing.
"Of course, you need something that can keep up with you intellectually, doors are a natural choice. Although personally, I find sun lamps more illuminating." Sacre said playfully, "While you are here, we can do a quick checkup on your implants and then perhaps grab some coffee."
He nodded. "Sounds good. My right arm has been giving me some issues." William replied as he walked to an empty bed and plopped down onto the cushions with a sigh.
Sacre grabbed her scanner and started working on his implants. Getting basic readings and making routine adjustments. "So how are things with your training? Anything intresting happening?" She asked, noticing a odd reading. "Also give your arm a good circle there for me." She instructed.
He shook his head as he got comfortable. "No not really. I haven't learned any cool new samurai moves to impress you with." He teased. At her order, he raised his arm and tried to spin it in a circle. The movements were fine execept on the down swing, where it seemed like the arm was jerking.
Sacre watched the arm and noted the jerky downswing. "That's too bad, I always like a good cool samurai move. I'm still working on the last one you showed me, it's a bit finaky on that last transistion." She said as she worked through the information the arm was giving her. Sacre was an obsessively perfect medic, but she wasn't a cybertech. "Yhea, I might be able to do a temorary fix, but I think your downswing needs to see a cybertech. I don't work with implants other then yours enough to really solve the problem."
He grimaced. "I was afraid of that. I tried playing with it myself to see if I could fix it, but I didn't have any luck..." He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Looks like I need to go back and see Dr. Jamie again." He said shrugging. William hadn't seen his cybernetics expert since he had to make his quick escape from Nepleslia Prime. She was the one who first implanted the nepleslian with his augmentations.
"Nepleslia?" Sacre asked, even though William was her friend she didn't like the DIoN. It made sense given her history. "Weren't they shooting at your last time you were there?"
William shook his head. "No, they didn't shoot at me. A gang of assholes shot at me." He corrected.
"So they shot at you."
"Ah, but you never specified who was shooting at me." He countered
Sacre narrowed her eyes at his argument, but didn't contest it. "Sounds dangerous, you shouldn't go alone."
The young man shrugged. "I'll be okay. Besides who would go with me? Mom needs to stay here with Princess Aiko." He asked.
Sacre took a breath, "I've been.... working out some of my demons recently. A field trip to Nephellsia sounds right up that alley." She said almost under her breath. She shook her head and her whole body before sounding more confident. "I'll go with you, I have some pieces of unfinished buisness there and Sass says I should visit before they build something else." Sacre mused.
William sat up and looked at Sacre intently. "Are you sure? You don't have to go if you don't want to." He said standing up, but not getting in Sacre' personal space.
Sacre took a moment, she knew she didn't have to. However, a part of her felt that she should before she started something new with Gravity. "Yhea, we'll just need one little side trip, shouldn't be any problem at all. Now my troubles will have troubles with me."
William nodded. "Alright, I'll tell Dr. Jamie. She has upped security since the 'incident.' She and some hospital security will met us at the starport." He replied. "I'm gonna go pack. I'll meet you back here in a bit." William lifted an arm and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. It was a light touch, like a fly landing on her arm. As quickly as it was there, his hand was off again and the nepleslian walked away to collect his things.
Sacre flinched away from the touch, nearly automatically coming up with a knife, but stopping herself. "Sorry, I shouldn't react like that." She said, slightly wearyly.
He rasied his hands slowly, no hint of fear on his face. Only concern "It's alright Sacre. I shouldn't have done that. I'll meet you here in a minute." And with that he walked out to grab his things.
---------------
Several hours later
Nepleslian Prime Starport
As the shuttle entered the atmosphere of Nepleslia Prime, William was sound asleep and snoring softly as the shuttle bounced. The ride had been relatively quiet save for customs, however William's status as the Premier's son let him and Sacre pass after his credentials were verified.
Sacre looked out the window down at the world they were approaching rapidly. "It looks so diffrent from up here. I've never seen Nepleslia from space." Sacre commented.
He stirred from his dream and rubbed his eyes. "Same for me last time I came here. I think it is pretty in its own way." He said as he stretched, rubbing sleep from his eyes as the shuttle continued its decent.
The landscape of the planet quickly resolved into a huge city. Sacre picked up her bag of clothes and her medkit and headed towards the exit of the shutle. She had brought her medkit because she was at least nominally keeping an eye on William's arm. She also hoped to get an education in cybernetics while they worked on it. It was a working vacation. "I don't know. I suppose everyone finds their own home pretty."
"That's true." He replied, slinging his duffle over his left arm. As the shuttle landed and taxied to the gate, the flight attendents stood allowed William and Sacre to the back so they could exit quickly. As soon as they were secure William was out and leading the way.
He made sure to look behind him, to make sure Sacre was okay. He really was worried for her well being.
As they walked, he noticed a tall nepleslian woman with jet black hair in a tight pony tail. William waved with his good arm. "Hey Doc!"
Doctor Jamie smiled and walked forward hugging William tightly. "Hey there kiddo. How's my favorite trouble making patient doing?"
William smirked, as good as can be expected. He then turned back to Sacre. "This is Doctor Jamie, my cybernetic expert. Dr. Jamie, this is Sacre."
The doctor smiled warmly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Sacre tried not to be snarky, she was going to be asking Dr. Jamie for training later. "It's good to meet you as well, I know you through your work." She said, using her tail to gesture at their mutual patiant and his Cybernetics. "I'm not a cybertech, but I made some notes if you want to see them. I'm very much intrested in learning more about cybernetics."
Jamie nodded. "Of course. I'd love to see your work." She said, tilting her head to the side. "If we are going to be taking care of the same patient, then I would be happy to teach you."
William watched to two, apprehensive about how Sacre would react. As she spoke, he let out a soft breath that he didn't know he was holding. "Awesome, well let's get going. I am ready to get this arm fixed."
Jamie smiled in agreement. "Yes, let's get going. Follow me." She said turning and leading the pair out towards the entrance.
Sacre looked at William and followed them into the entrance of the Starport. Sacre looked around, trying to seem like a tourist. However, the things she looked at wern't the glitz that a tourist would look at, it was the shadows, doors, and exits. She looked at people, but it wasn't to see what they were wearing that was diffrent from Yamatai. It was to see if they were a threat. She was very aware of the fact she didn't have a mindy with her. She closed her eyes and took a breath, trying to relax.
William looked at Sacre as Jamie led them to the waiting sky car. He wanted to comfort her, but after the episode on the ship he understood that touching was a bad idea. He would just have to be there for her.
Jamie opened the door and let William and Sacre slid in, before she stepped inside. Two security guards sat in the front and began to take them to the hospital. "Don't mind them, we up's security after what happened last time you were here." She said very seriously.
Sacre nodded, the reminder that Neplisia wasn't safe wasn't doing great things for her sense of security. However, she didn't need it. She was in the infantry afterall, you don't do that when you are looking to be safe from the dangers of the universe.
The ride was filled with small talk between William and Jamie about what he had been up to as of late. Sacre would notice that her friend made frequent glance at her during the course of the ride.
During the ride, Sacre listened, but she mostly looked at the cityscape and brooded quietly.
Finally the car touched down at the hospital, and the crew was quickly whisked away into the hospital and several minutes later William and Sacre were in a private hospital room, William laid up in bed with a gown on twiddling his thumbs while he waited for Dr. Jamie to come back in.
He turned to Sacre. "So what do you think about the hospital?" He asked.
Sacre felt better now that they were at the hospital. It wasn't quite the same as being in her own place of power in the Medbay of the Kaiyo. "It's big, mostly clean. I've only seen a couple dozen things that I'd change if I was in charge. Mostly little things. So they might not be incompetent." Which was high praise given Sacre's high standards for her profession.
"Is there anywhere that you want to see other then the hospital? Afterall, we are on your homeworld." Sacre asked, curious.
He shook his head. "Not really, I would visit my dad but he isn't in town at the moment." He replied.
William wasn't even sure what he would go and do while he was here. He felt out of place even here.
"I've been thinking about my father a lot recently. We didn't have a good relationship." Sacre admitted. "Gravity said I was the 'father' for our pets. I mostly remember the fights we had, I wasn't a easily controled child. I did what I wanted, everyone else be damned. He wanted me to join the family trade, blasksmithing, but it did not intrest me. I only became intrested after I needed knives, and smithing was a way to make them."
Sacre did one of her 'tricks' pulling a knife from seemingly nowhere. However, William had seen her do it before. This one was a simple double edged dagger of a nice damascus pattern. The Handle was a white wood with what looked like silver posts. There was a Separa'Shan symbol of medicine, a more generic symbol of medicine in the middle, and then the symbol of the cybernetic medical field on it.
Sacre looked at it for a moment, "Now I wonder how those fights would look to me now that I've fallen on my face a few times." She said sliding the knife back into it's hiding spot.
William smiled softly. "We always look back at things we did when we were young and wish we could change things. But, if you did, would you be the person you are today?" He asked, looking at nothing in particualr.
After a moment, Jamie opened the door. "How are we doing? Ready to get started?"
"Sure, put me under." William said, giving Sacre a friendly wink as Jamie attached sevral wires to his mods.
"Alright, we will see you in a few." Jamie said as she placed William in atype of sleep mode. "Ready to learn Ms. Sacre?" The doctor asked.
"Yes Ma'am." Sacre nodded, donning the mask, she was going to be an observer for the proceedure. It was going to be a learning experiance for her about some of the finer points of cybernetics.
Dr. Jamie's finger opened to show a small tool. She placed it into a slot on William's arm and turned it, causing it to open a panel. She did this several more times, until his arm was completely exposed.
"Ah, see here?" She said pointing to one of the wires. "This little guy here must have been knocked loose somehow. Probably while William was playing around in here." She said, quickly reattaching the wire before moving on.
There were several more little things like that, wires out of place, some damaged componets from all the strain the swordsman put his limbs through.
"William asked for some upgrades while we were in here." She turned to a case and moved it to the bed side. After popping the locks, Sacre would see his swords. "He wants us to put his swords in his forearms. They have been upgraded to be collapaseable so now he can have them spring out." The doctor rolled her eyes slightly. "Such a child."
Sacre popped one of the bone knives out of her forearm. "I'd say jealous." She commented with a smirk, before sliding it back in.
Jamie giggled. "Well, now he will say that his is bigger." She replied as she began to install the new modifications.
"Such a man." Sacre said sarcastically.
Jamie's giggle turned into full blown laughter, as she began to closes up the arm and moved onto the next one.
She did the same thing, pointing out key componets to Sacre as she tweaked certian parts that seemed out of place. She repeated the process with his legs and finally the few parts on his face.
Then came the software. She began running an update, making sure that all the software was communitating properly with the mindware in William's skull. "I'll load a program into your scanner for you to run whenever he comes in for diagnostics. It will clean up whatever junk he has in that head of his and keep his mindware running in prime condition."
"Thanks, I'm sure he'll appreciate it. He needs all the processing power possible to keep up." Sacre said with her serious sounding humor.
Jamie stiffled another giggle. "Fair enough." she said as she finished up running her software. "Just a few tweaks, aaaaand done!" She softly pulled the cords from William's head. "It will take him a few minutes to reboot, but everything looks good. You have any questions for me?" She asked.
Sacre thought for a moment, "Not that I can think of immediately. Although I'll probably want to go over your notes when I'm back on the Kaiyo." She said, she liked the doctor, working on William had been fun and so she trusted the Doctor now that everything was done.
"One of my hobbies is making knives. So I'd like to give you this one." She said, with a flourish, the dagger she had shown William earlier seemed to appear in her hands as she offered it to the doctor.
Dr. Jamie turned to Sacre and tilted her head softly. "Thank you so much Sacre." She said as she took the knife gingerly and inspected it. She rolled it over her hand and inspected the craftsmanship. "This is amazing. Thank you so much, I will treasure this." She said geniunely.
"Your welcome, you helped patch my friend back together again." Sacre responded as William came around.
He was grogy as his system began to reboot. His HUD quickly came into display and showed as diagnostics ran on each of his subsystems one by one. He found that his hardware was fixed and upgraded, plus his software was running much faster.
"There he is. How are you feeling William?" Dr. Jamie asked, turning to him.
"Like you have been rooting around my body. But, everything says it is fixed." He said cracking open his eyes.
"Good to have you back, perhaps now you'll stop slowing us down." Sacre said wryly.
William waved a hand at her dismissively. "I've been faster than you anyway, so I got that going for me." He shot back teasingly.
"I'm a medic, I'm supposed to be in the back. Big strapping young man with zero self preservation instinct like you? That's a diffrent story." Sacre teased in return, clearly happy that nothing had gone wrong with the proceedure.
Dr. Jamie shook her head. "Now now you two, hold off on the verbal sparing until I am finished. William your swords have been installed as you requested. Plus I fixed the issues with your arm. You should better than before."
"Thanks Doc." William replied smiling. "How long till I am good to go?"
"Just a few minutes to run one last patch, then you are free to go." She replied.
Sacre nodded, "Once your up, I've got one errend to run before we head back. Shouldn't take too long."
------------
About an hour later they stood outside the burned hulk of what had once been a large building on the edge of one of the seedier sections of the city. Under the soot, it was easy to tell that it had once been a much more opulant building. "So she really did it." Sacre said, with a bit of awe in her voice.
"I'm going to go inside. I need to see what's left."
After saying his goodbyes, William followed Sacre through the city to the burned out building. He scanned the area while they stood there, but mostly watched Sacre's reaction the seeing it. "That's fine. I'll follow right behind..." He replied softly.
They walked into the atrium, there had clearly been a firefight and the once gleaming marble walls were scored with impacts from dozens of weapons. "How much do you know about the underbelly of Neplesia?" Sacre asked almost absently.
"More than some, but I'm no expert." William admitted as he scan the bullet holes and scorch marks. Some serious had gone down in here. He walked closer, stepping a few inches from Sacre.
"This was my view of Nepleslia, not this part, but this one." She said as she walked to where double doors had been, and now there was just an x of tape that had long been torn down by scavangers. They were what looked like the burned out remnants of what had once been a very nice and large strip club.
However, Sacre remembered it before it had been the burnt out wreck. It had once been glorious, for a certain horrible value of glorious. The furnishings had been of the finest materiels and expensive wines had been served along with illegal drugs. Not the illegal drugs of the poor, but the ones that the rich and powerful indulged in. Ones tailored and designed for them, to produce exactly whatever mindstate that they desired.
"This was once a center of the slave trade on Neplesia. most of the time, this room was where we stripped and preformed for the perverts in the seats. Or gave them special dances as they wished in their seats. I don't know what the laws were regarding what happened here, all I know is that none of us were given any choice in the matter." Sacre was suprised by how well she was holding up, seeing what had once been her place of torment burned was strangly fufilling.
William's jaw was clamped shut. The thought of Sacre being forced to do unspeakble things sickened him down to every fiber of his being. It took all of his mental will power to force the images away and focus on her words.
He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came. No word, no sound. Nothing he could say would give any respite from what she endured. Nothing he said would take her hurt and pain that she endure from his homeland away.
He closed his mouth and just continued to listen as she delt with her past.
Sacre continued her tour as they went into the back rooms. The rooms had been burned, whoever had destroyed this place had been methodical, but not completely thorough. There were hallways that branched off with more rooms. In the first ones, there was just a bench, and then beds further in. "Here is where they brought us for more, 'personal' attention. If there was a vice, you could find it here. Any sort of twisted desire, fufilled, for a price. Those who wanted their actions to remain completely anonomus and hidden from the rest of the universe came here."
Sacre stopped as she almost slid over what looked like a riding crop. She bent down and picked it up, somehow it had escaped unburned. She snapped it over her tail and tossed it into a room where a cabnet had spilled open, leaving various instruments scattered around the room, but too few for the cabnet. "The faces blur together, but the memory of what they did remains in flesh and soul. They were rich and powerful William, perhaps some of them still live, I don't know. I don't know what they did outside of here. But I am a monument to the sins that they did in here."
Sacre paused and looked at William for the first time since entering the building, "Was. Was a monument. I've got to let it go. I was just trapped here for so long." She shook her head and then moved to give William a hug. "Thanks for coming with me."
He forced himself to project an air of calm. Internalizing his feeling of anger and sadness and forcing them deep down as she continued deeper into the buidling. He had to be strong for her.
When she turned to him, she would see that William's face was blank, like it looked when he was in battle, or when he was trying to hold something inside. He managed a slight smile as she moved to hug him.
As she did, William's arms slipped around her and he firmly held her there. His face buried into her. "I'm so sorry Sacre..." He said slowly, forcing each word to come out smoothly.
"It's not your fault. but it is your burden as well." Sacre said, pausing for a moment before explaining what she meant. "William, when this is done, I don't have to come back to Neplesia. However, you are a diffrent story. Your father is some important political figure, you have guarded the princess and so have an insight into her family that few others do. Greater things are yet to come for you. What you have accomplished so far is just the bedrock for your future greatness. I can see those seeds inside of you. Someday, Neplesia will look to you for guidance, and when they do it's your responsibility to make Neplesia great. To know where you must lead them, you must know where they have been. What I'm showing is not the whole story, but it is part of the story." Sacre said passionately. It was what she really believed. She really believed in him and his future greatness.
William understood what his friend was saying. "I understand. I will do my best , no my all to make things better. I promise..." He replied softly, pressing his face against her as they hugged. I swear I will. I will."
"Good." Sacre said simply and let go. "There's one more thing to see." She said and pushed her way into a stairwell that wound down to the floor below. Sacre pushed through the door and turned right, she knew exactly where she was going. The warehouse that was below was huge, the flickering lights seeming to go off into the distance and the whole thing was filled with boxy metal crates. There were bars and a door on the front so that you could see inside them. Every single door hung open. There were signs of a firefight, but a very contained one. Sacre seemed to know exactly where she was going as she turned down a row that looked like all the others. There were a few skeletons in the crates.
Sacre stopped infront of one in particular and held the broken door. "This is where they held the slaves." She said, closing and opening the door. The cage was much too small for three people to fit. Then she stepped inside and flipped over the lowest of the three bunks. There was inscribed using a variety of methoods names. Most of them William could read, but there was one that was in a Separa'Shan script.
"This is where we wrote our names, Jensen, Ghost, Larin, me, everyone I shared a cell with. I started it so that we wouldn't forget what our names were. Having names meant that we weren't just animals that we wouldn't forget each outher." She said, touching Ghost's name almost revrently.
As she ended the hug, William stepped back and recomposed himself as she continued down to the holding cells. He was reverant as the walked through the horrid place. A place that would turn any moral person's stomach instantly.
He stopped outside of Sacre's old cell, not daring to enter. He instead closed his eyes bowed his head breifly, before looking back to Sacre.
Sacre took a picture of the bottom of the bunk and stood back up. "I won't forget them. I promised I wouldn't."
Sacre took a breath and went to the door and pushing it open again. She hopped over the treshhold. Then back in. Then back out. She broke into a wide grin as she left and entered the cell several more times before giving a laugh. "I'm free." She said genuinely happy.
William nodded, and returned her smile. "Yes, and no one will ever hold you down ever again. I swear it." He replied, determination burning in his eyes.
Sacre nodded, "Come on, let's go. I don't think I'll be returning here soon."
Medbay
Sacre basked in the light of the heatlamp behind the medic station as she worked on some paperwork. Sacre looked up at William as he came in, "Tired of standing around doors all day?" She asked in her 'serious' humorous tone of voice. She slid out from behind the desk, abandoning her paperwork, happy to see her friend.
William smirked at Sacre, tiredness evident in his eyes. "No not at all, I absolutely love standing around doors all the time. Thinking about making it an official hobby." He replied to the sarcastic medic. His white tee shirt was stained with grease and metal shavings and the nepleslian had managed to wipe some of it across his forehead without noticing.
"Of course, you need something that can keep up with you intellectually, doors are a natural choice. Although personally, I find sun lamps more illuminating." Sacre said playfully, "While you are here, we can do a quick checkup on your implants and then perhaps grab some coffee."
He nodded. "Sounds good. My right arm has been giving me some issues." William replied as he walked to an empty bed and plopped down onto the cushions with a sigh.
Sacre grabbed her scanner and started working on his implants. Getting basic readings and making routine adjustments. "So how are things with your training? Anything intresting happening?" She asked, noticing a odd reading. "Also give your arm a good circle there for me." She instructed.
He shook his head as he got comfortable. "No not really. I haven't learned any cool new samurai moves to impress you with." He teased. At her order, he raised his arm and tried to spin it in a circle. The movements were fine execept on the down swing, where it seemed like the arm was jerking.
Sacre watched the arm and noted the jerky downswing. "That's too bad, I always like a good cool samurai move. I'm still working on the last one you showed me, it's a bit finaky on that last transistion." She said as she worked through the information the arm was giving her. Sacre was an obsessively perfect medic, but she wasn't a cybertech. "Yhea, I might be able to do a temorary fix, but I think your downswing needs to see a cybertech. I don't work with implants other then yours enough to really solve the problem."
He grimaced. "I was afraid of that. I tried playing with it myself to see if I could fix it, but I didn't have any luck..." He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Looks like I need to go back and see Dr. Jamie again." He said shrugging. William hadn't seen his cybernetics expert since he had to make his quick escape from Nepleslia Prime. She was the one who first implanted the nepleslian with his augmentations.
"Nepleslia?" Sacre asked, even though William was her friend she didn't like the DIoN. It made sense given her history. "Weren't they shooting at your last time you were there?"
William shook his head. "No, they didn't shoot at me. A gang of assholes shot at me." He corrected.
"So they shot at you."
"Ah, but you never specified who was shooting at me." He countered
Sacre narrowed her eyes at his argument, but didn't contest it. "Sounds dangerous, you shouldn't go alone."
The young man shrugged. "I'll be okay. Besides who would go with me? Mom needs to stay here with Princess Aiko." He asked.
Sacre took a breath, "I've been.... working out some of my demons recently. A field trip to Nephellsia sounds right up that alley." She said almost under her breath. She shook her head and her whole body before sounding more confident. "I'll go with you, I have some pieces of unfinished buisness there and Sass says I should visit before they build something else." Sacre mused.
William sat up and looked at Sacre intently. "Are you sure? You don't have to go if you don't want to." He said standing up, but not getting in Sacre' personal space.
Sacre took a moment, she knew she didn't have to. However, a part of her felt that she should before she started something new with Gravity. "Yhea, we'll just need one little side trip, shouldn't be any problem at all. Now my troubles will have troubles with me."
William nodded. "Alright, I'll tell Dr. Jamie. She has upped security since the 'incident.' She and some hospital security will met us at the starport." He replied. "I'm gonna go pack. I'll meet you back here in a bit." William lifted an arm and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. It was a light touch, like a fly landing on her arm. As quickly as it was there, his hand was off again and the nepleslian walked away to collect his things.
Sacre flinched away from the touch, nearly automatically coming up with a knife, but stopping herself. "Sorry, I shouldn't react like that." She said, slightly wearyly.
He rasied his hands slowly, no hint of fear on his face. Only concern "It's alright Sacre. I shouldn't have done that. I'll meet you here in a minute." And with that he walked out to grab his things.
---------------
Several hours later
Nepleslian Prime Starport
As the shuttle entered the atmosphere of Nepleslia Prime, William was sound asleep and snoring softly as the shuttle bounced. The ride had been relatively quiet save for customs, however William's status as the Premier's son let him and Sacre pass after his credentials were verified.
Sacre looked out the window down at the world they were approaching rapidly. "It looks so diffrent from up here. I've never seen Nepleslia from space." Sacre commented.
He stirred from his dream and rubbed his eyes. "Same for me last time I came here. I think it is pretty in its own way." He said as he stretched, rubbing sleep from his eyes as the shuttle continued its decent.
The landscape of the planet quickly resolved into a huge city. Sacre picked up her bag of clothes and her medkit and headed towards the exit of the shutle. She had brought her medkit because she was at least nominally keeping an eye on William's arm. She also hoped to get an education in cybernetics while they worked on it. It was a working vacation. "I don't know. I suppose everyone finds their own home pretty."
"That's true." He replied, slinging his duffle over his left arm. As the shuttle landed and taxied to the gate, the flight attendents stood allowed William and Sacre to the back so they could exit quickly. As soon as they were secure William was out and leading the way.
He made sure to look behind him, to make sure Sacre was okay. He really was worried for her well being.
As they walked, he noticed a tall nepleslian woman with jet black hair in a tight pony tail. William waved with his good arm. "Hey Doc!"
Doctor Jamie smiled and walked forward hugging William tightly. "Hey there kiddo. How's my favorite trouble making patient doing?"
William smirked, as good as can be expected. He then turned back to Sacre. "This is Doctor Jamie, my cybernetic expert. Dr. Jamie, this is Sacre."
The doctor smiled warmly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Sacre tried not to be snarky, she was going to be asking Dr. Jamie for training later. "It's good to meet you as well, I know you through your work." She said, using her tail to gesture at their mutual patiant and his Cybernetics. "I'm not a cybertech, but I made some notes if you want to see them. I'm very much intrested in learning more about cybernetics."
Jamie nodded. "Of course. I'd love to see your work." She said, tilting her head to the side. "If we are going to be taking care of the same patient, then I would be happy to teach you."
William watched to two, apprehensive about how Sacre would react. As she spoke, he let out a soft breath that he didn't know he was holding. "Awesome, well let's get going. I am ready to get this arm fixed."
Jamie smiled in agreement. "Yes, let's get going. Follow me." She said turning and leading the pair out towards the entrance.
Sacre looked at William and followed them into the entrance of the Starport. Sacre looked around, trying to seem like a tourist. However, the things she looked at wern't the glitz that a tourist would look at, it was the shadows, doors, and exits. She looked at people, but it wasn't to see what they were wearing that was diffrent from Yamatai. It was to see if they were a threat. She was very aware of the fact she didn't have a mindy with her. She closed her eyes and took a breath, trying to relax.
William looked at Sacre as Jamie led them to the waiting sky car. He wanted to comfort her, but after the episode on the ship he understood that touching was a bad idea. He would just have to be there for her.
Jamie opened the door and let William and Sacre slid in, before she stepped inside. Two security guards sat in the front and began to take them to the hospital. "Don't mind them, we up's security after what happened last time you were here." She said very seriously.
Sacre nodded, the reminder that Neplisia wasn't safe wasn't doing great things for her sense of security. However, she didn't need it. She was in the infantry afterall, you don't do that when you are looking to be safe from the dangers of the universe.
The ride was filled with small talk between William and Jamie about what he had been up to as of late. Sacre would notice that her friend made frequent glance at her during the course of the ride.
During the ride, Sacre listened, but she mostly looked at the cityscape and brooded quietly.
Finally the car touched down at the hospital, and the crew was quickly whisked away into the hospital and several minutes later William and Sacre were in a private hospital room, William laid up in bed with a gown on twiddling his thumbs while he waited for Dr. Jamie to come back in.
He turned to Sacre. "So what do you think about the hospital?" He asked.
Sacre felt better now that they were at the hospital. It wasn't quite the same as being in her own place of power in the Medbay of the Kaiyo. "It's big, mostly clean. I've only seen a couple dozen things that I'd change if I was in charge. Mostly little things. So they might not be incompetent." Which was high praise given Sacre's high standards for her profession.
"Is there anywhere that you want to see other then the hospital? Afterall, we are on your homeworld." Sacre asked, curious.
He shook his head. "Not really, I would visit my dad but he isn't in town at the moment." He replied.
William wasn't even sure what he would go and do while he was here. He felt out of place even here.
"I've been thinking about my father a lot recently. We didn't have a good relationship." Sacre admitted. "Gravity said I was the 'father' for our pets. I mostly remember the fights we had, I wasn't a easily controled child. I did what I wanted, everyone else be damned. He wanted me to join the family trade, blasksmithing, but it did not intrest me. I only became intrested after I needed knives, and smithing was a way to make them."
Sacre did one of her 'tricks' pulling a knife from seemingly nowhere. However, William had seen her do it before. This one was a simple double edged dagger of a nice damascus pattern. The Handle was a white wood with what looked like silver posts. There was a Separa'Shan symbol of medicine, a more generic symbol of medicine in the middle, and then the symbol of the cybernetic medical field on it.
Sacre looked at it for a moment, "Now I wonder how those fights would look to me now that I've fallen on my face a few times." She said sliding the knife back into it's hiding spot.
William smiled softly. "We always look back at things we did when we were young and wish we could change things. But, if you did, would you be the person you are today?" He asked, looking at nothing in particualr.
After a moment, Jamie opened the door. "How are we doing? Ready to get started?"
"Sure, put me under." William said, giving Sacre a friendly wink as Jamie attached sevral wires to his mods.
"Alright, we will see you in a few." Jamie said as she placed William in atype of sleep mode. "Ready to learn Ms. Sacre?" The doctor asked.
"Yes Ma'am." Sacre nodded, donning the mask, she was going to be an observer for the proceedure. It was going to be a learning experiance for her about some of the finer points of cybernetics.
Dr. Jamie's finger opened to show a small tool. She placed it into a slot on William's arm and turned it, causing it to open a panel. She did this several more times, until his arm was completely exposed.
"Ah, see here?" She said pointing to one of the wires. "This little guy here must have been knocked loose somehow. Probably while William was playing around in here." She said, quickly reattaching the wire before moving on.
There were several more little things like that, wires out of place, some damaged componets from all the strain the swordsman put his limbs through.
"William asked for some upgrades while we were in here." She turned to a case and moved it to the bed side. After popping the locks, Sacre would see his swords. "He wants us to put his swords in his forearms. They have been upgraded to be collapaseable so now he can have them spring out." The doctor rolled her eyes slightly. "Such a child."
Sacre popped one of the bone knives out of her forearm. "I'd say jealous." She commented with a smirk, before sliding it back in.
Jamie giggled. "Well, now he will say that his is bigger." She replied as she began to install the new modifications.
"Such a man." Sacre said sarcastically.
Jamie's giggle turned into full blown laughter, as she began to closes up the arm and moved onto the next one.
She did the same thing, pointing out key componets to Sacre as she tweaked certian parts that seemed out of place. She repeated the process with his legs and finally the few parts on his face.
Then came the software. She began running an update, making sure that all the software was communitating properly with the mindware in William's skull. "I'll load a program into your scanner for you to run whenever he comes in for diagnostics. It will clean up whatever junk he has in that head of his and keep his mindware running in prime condition."
"Thanks, I'm sure he'll appreciate it. He needs all the processing power possible to keep up." Sacre said with her serious sounding humor.
Jamie stiffled another giggle. "Fair enough." she said as she finished up running her software. "Just a few tweaks, aaaaand done!" She softly pulled the cords from William's head. "It will take him a few minutes to reboot, but everything looks good. You have any questions for me?" She asked.
Sacre thought for a moment, "Not that I can think of immediately. Although I'll probably want to go over your notes when I'm back on the Kaiyo." She said, she liked the doctor, working on William had been fun and so she trusted the Doctor now that everything was done.
"One of my hobbies is making knives. So I'd like to give you this one." She said, with a flourish, the dagger she had shown William earlier seemed to appear in her hands as she offered it to the doctor.
Dr. Jamie turned to Sacre and tilted her head softly. "Thank you so much Sacre." She said as she took the knife gingerly and inspected it. She rolled it over her hand and inspected the craftsmanship. "This is amazing. Thank you so much, I will treasure this." She said geniunely.
"Your welcome, you helped patch my friend back together again." Sacre responded as William came around.
He was grogy as his system began to reboot. His HUD quickly came into display and showed as diagnostics ran on each of his subsystems one by one. He found that his hardware was fixed and upgraded, plus his software was running much faster.
"There he is. How are you feeling William?" Dr. Jamie asked, turning to him.
"Like you have been rooting around my body. But, everything says it is fixed." He said cracking open his eyes.
"Good to have you back, perhaps now you'll stop slowing us down." Sacre said wryly.
William waved a hand at her dismissively. "I've been faster than you anyway, so I got that going for me." He shot back teasingly.
"I'm a medic, I'm supposed to be in the back. Big strapping young man with zero self preservation instinct like you? That's a diffrent story." Sacre teased in return, clearly happy that nothing had gone wrong with the proceedure.
Dr. Jamie shook her head. "Now now you two, hold off on the verbal sparing until I am finished. William your swords have been installed as you requested. Plus I fixed the issues with your arm. You should better than before."
"Thanks Doc." William replied smiling. "How long till I am good to go?"
"Just a few minutes to run one last patch, then you are free to go." She replied.
Sacre nodded, "Once your up, I've got one errend to run before we head back. Shouldn't take too long."
------------
About an hour later they stood outside the burned hulk of what had once been a large building on the edge of one of the seedier sections of the city. Under the soot, it was easy to tell that it had once been a much more opulant building. "So she really did it." Sacre said, with a bit of awe in her voice.
"I'm going to go inside. I need to see what's left."
After saying his goodbyes, William followed Sacre through the city to the burned out building. He scanned the area while they stood there, but mostly watched Sacre's reaction the seeing it. "That's fine. I'll follow right behind..." He replied softly.
They walked into the atrium, there had clearly been a firefight and the once gleaming marble walls were scored with impacts from dozens of weapons. "How much do you know about the underbelly of Neplesia?" Sacre asked almost absently.
"More than some, but I'm no expert." William admitted as he scan the bullet holes and scorch marks. Some serious had gone down in here. He walked closer, stepping a few inches from Sacre.
"This was my view of Nepleslia, not this part, but this one." She said as she walked to where double doors had been, and now there was just an x of tape that had long been torn down by scavangers. They were what looked like the burned out remnants of what had once been a very nice and large strip club.
However, Sacre remembered it before it had been the burnt out wreck. It had once been glorious, for a certain horrible value of glorious. The furnishings had been of the finest materiels and expensive wines had been served along with illegal drugs. Not the illegal drugs of the poor, but the ones that the rich and powerful indulged in. Ones tailored and designed for them, to produce exactly whatever mindstate that they desired.
"This was once a center of the slave trade on Neplesia. most of the time, this room was where we stripped and preformed for the perverts in the seats. Or gave them special dances as they wished in their seats. I don't know what the laws were regarding what happened here, all I know is that none of us were given any choice in the matter." Sacre was suprised by how well she was holding up, seeing what had once been her place of torment burned was strangly fufilling.
William's jaw was clamped shut. The thought of Sacre being forced to do unspeakble things sickened him down to every fiber of his being. It took all of his mental will power to force the images away and focus on her words.
He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came. No word, no sound. Nothing he could say would give any respite from what she endured. Nothing he said would take her hurt and pain that she endure from his homeland away.
He closed his mouth and just continued to listen as she delt with her past.
Sacre continued her tour as they went into the back rooms. The rooms had been burned, whoever had destroyed this place had been methodical, but not completely thorough. There were hallways that branched off with more rooms. In the first ones, there was just a bench, and then beds further in. "Here is where they brought us for more, 'personal' attention. If there was a vice, you could find it here. Any sort of twisted desire, fufilled, for a price. Those who wanted their actions to remain completely anonomus and hidden from the rest of the universe came here."
Sacre stopped as she almost slid over what looked like a riding crop. She bent down and picked it up, somehow it had escaped unburned. She snapped it over her tail and tossed it into a room where a cabnet had spilled open, leaving various instruments scattered around the room, but too few for the cabnet. "The faces blur together, but the memory of what they did remains in flesh and soul. They were rich and powerful William, perhaps some of them still live, I don't know. I don't know what they did outside of here. But I am a monument to the sins that they did in here."
Sacre paused and looked at William for the first time since entering the building, "Was. Was a monument. I've got to let it go. I was just trapped here for so long." She shook her head and then moved to give William a hug. "Thanks for coming with me."
He forced himself to project an air of calm. Internalizing his feeling of anger and sadness and forcing them deep down as she continued deeper into the buidling. He had to be strong for her.
When she turned to him, she would see that William's face was blank, like it looked when he was in battle, or when he was trying to hold something inside. He managed a slight smile as she moved to hug him.
As she did, William's arms slipped around her and he firmly held her there. His face buried into her. "I'm so sorry Sacre..." He said slowly, forcing each word to come out smoothly.
"It's not your fault. but it is your burden as well." Sacre said, pausing for a moment before explaining what she meant. "William, when this is done, I don't have to come back to Neplesia. However, you are a diffrent story. Your father is some important political figure, you have guarded the princess and so have an insight into her family that few others do. Greater things are yet to come for you. What you have accomplished so far is just the bedrock for your future greatness. I can see those seeds inside of you. Someday, Neplesia will look to you for guidance, and when they do it's your responsibility to make Neplesia great. To know where you must lead them, you must know where they have been. What I'm showing is not the whole story, but it is part of the story." Sacre said passionately. It was what she really believed. She really believed in him and his future greatness.
William understood what his friend was saying. "I understand. I will do my best , no my all to make things better. I promise..." He replied softly, pressing his face against her as they hugged. I swear I will. I will."
"Good." Sacre said simply and let go. "There's one more thing to see." She said and pushed her way into a stairwell that wound down to the floor below. Sacre pushed through the door and turned right, she knew exactly where she was going. The warehouse that was below was huge, the flickering lights seeming to go off into the distance and the whole thing was filled with boxy metal crates. There were bars and a door on the front so that you could see inside them. Every single door hung open. There were signs of a firefight, but a very contained one. Sacre seemed to know exactly where she was going as she turned down a row that looked like all the others. There were a few skeletons in the crates.
Sacre stopped infront of one in particular and held the broken door. "This is where they held the slaves." She said, closing and opening the door. The cage was much too small for three people to fit. Then she stepped inside and flipped over the lowest of the three bunks. There was inscribed using a variety of methoods names. Most of them William could read, but there was one that was in a Separa'Shan script.
"This is where we wrote our names, Jensen, Ghost, Larin, me, everyone I shared a cell with. I started it so that we wouldn't forget what our names were. Having names meant that we weren't just animals that we wouldn't forget each outher." She said, touching Ghost's name almost revrently.
As she ended the hug, William stepped back and recomposed himself as she continued down to the holding cells. He was reverant as the walked through the horrid place. A place that would turn any moral person's stomach instantly.
He stopped outside of Sacre's old cell, not daring to enter. He instead closed his eyes bowed his head breifly, before looking back to Sacre.
Sacre took a picture of the bottom of the bunk and stood back up. "I won't forget them. I promised I wouldn't."
Sacre took a breath and went to the door and pushing it open again. She hopped over the treshhold. Then back in. Then back out. She broke into a wide grin as she left and entered the cell several more times before giving a laugh. "I'm free." She said genuinely happy.
William nodded, and returned her smile. "Yes, and no one will ever hold you down ever again. I swear it." He replied, determination burning in his eyes.
Sacre nodded, "Come on, let's go. I don't think I'll be returning here soon."
