Lost Breed - Babillon story no. 2

[lior]

Loneliness

He is lying on a crumpled bed in a white, windowless room.
He gets up and looked around him, there is nothing in the room except the bed and a white door to the right. He himself is wearing a silky, green pajama. He doesn't remember his name and he doesn't remember what he is doing here, in this strange, humid room.
There is an annoying buzz emanating from somewhere, like a bee caught in a jar.
Then he hears a noise. The door slowly opens. Someone is entering the room.
His eyes go wide with astonishment.

Into the empty room comes a staggeringly beautiful woman, a white dress covering her ebony skin, while her light brown eyes and cascading black hair contrast it sharply.
Slowly, deliberatly, she comes closer to the bed, tempting, inviting.
For a minute, a thought crosses his mind.
He is certain she is an angel.
His heart is pounding, he is sweating.
She sits on the bed and hold his hand, his head fall back on the pillow, suddenly he feels very tired. She looks at him, and her eyes seem like two endless pits of compassion, he almost starts to cry, and he doesn't know why.
She is so beautiful, and he is so lonely.
He needs her, he needs someone to...
She whispers something he doesn't understand, but he knows what she means.
She is comforting him, telling him he's not alone, that she is there for him, that he doesn't need to make this journey all by himself...
she leans forward, her lips almost touching his now, a thousands heat waves conquer his slim body.
Even if he did remember anything, he would have forgotten it in this magical moment.
Her hands start to caress his tangled, brown hair, which apparently wasn't cut in months.

That humming that wouldn't stop... He wants quiet, total quiet.
He feels her intoxicating sweat, and then she jerks her head up as if in agony, and lower it again to meet his eyes once more.
A lonley tear rolls from her right eye and lands on his pajama.
The humming...
"Kay" she says suddenly in a cracked voice, and her tongue licks the second tear that rolls down.
"Kay, can't you hear that humming?"
He nodds, he's terrified for some reason.
"You have to make it stop, for me."
the humming is deafening now.
"Kay..." she moves her hand gently across his face.
Suddenly the falling tears turn red, staining his pants, while creating a crimson streak across the right side of her perfect face.
"Why are you crying?" he manages to ask, his trembling voice can hardly be heard through the din.
But she doesn't answer, she just looks at him, and closes her eyes. When she opens them again, almost immediatley, they look like two huge flashlights, pulsing in red.
He screams.

Kay opened his eyes.
The plastic canopy above his head lifted with a swoosh.
He struggled to get up, his mind still held by the remains of the grueling dream.
He was lying in narrow pod, a lot of colorfull and strange cables were attached to his naked body. Everything around him was dark, but then a powerful white light came from somewhere, and he knew where he was.
He started to remember. It would take time, but at that moment, at those first waking minutes from what seemed to be a long sleep, he knew three things for certain:
He knew his name.
He knew that this was his spaceship.
And he knew that he was the last human being of his world, except for her...
The woman in his dreams.


[This message has been edited by lior (edited September 10, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by lior (edited September 10, 2001).]

 

[voider]

Kay arose, stumbling out of the pod as the numbing effects of the cryno pod wore off.

Shading his eyes from the two red flashing warning lights.

He screemed out "shut them off" A cluster of lights come to life on a panel then came a soft soothing voice "yes commander" the room was stone quiet again "report" snaped Kay fliping switches with gaining speed.

"550 telmers to destonation .....cause of awaking unknown...no damage to ship......no visable targets.....all systems rea.....

"ENOUGH" slaming his hand hand down breaking off a switch.

Once more quiet filled the room as thoughts raced through his now throbing head He tryed to make sence of it all.

Who would come after him, the last of his kind, better yet who even knew he was alive?

His eyes burned as he recalled the moments looking at his planet from yarns away in space and then no more.

Crumbling into a pile of despare he wept bitterly, knowing full well if not for a freak ship error he would have been toast to.



[This message has been edited by voider (edited September 11, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by voider (edited September 20, 2001).]

 

[NeoXP]

The memories awakened in blinding sprites. Flashes, quick, merciless, inevitable. Pandora’s box at large.
His eyes were hollow. A drunken man wondering what could have been. A soul trenched with guilt. A life carved with torment.
He knew he was followed. He knew They yearned for his power, for he was the last technomage. Yet when he needed to fuel his ship, he never thought that would endager the planet he landed on. After all it was only one day. But the day stretched into a week and the week spanned into a month, and the month lingered into a year.
And when the year ended it was too little too late.
Many lives died in vain.
There were many flagstones that led to the tragedy. He wanted to scapegoat one of them; let something bear the load with him. Was it the engine failure? Or his host’s generosity? Or maybe it was just destiny?
He knew he could keep lying to himself… but it wouldn’t make it easier for him to look at the mirror.
Slowly he stumbled his way to the mainframe. There were still many gaps in his memory; he wanted to make sense of all the chaos in his mind. His soul screamed: MURDER. But like a passenger aboard the Flying Dutchman he was sure that there was land somewhere. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t all his fault.
The mainframe illuminated in a feeble hallow.
Kay’s eyes scrolled down the screen.


[This message has been edited by NeoXP (edited September 12, 2001).]

 

[lior]

He should have been happy learning that.
But he was scared. He wasn't alone anymore.
Someone was with him on the ship.
The thermal sensors blinked on the screen. indicating that some sort of life form was moving in the storage area.
Something has awakened him, some sort of security measure, he was supposed to keep on sleeping for long years, now he was in the middle of nowhere, and he couldn't go back to the cryo pod until he finds what happened, and who or what was in the storage zone.
The "Orora" was a large ship, specified for 200 passengers, what made him feel more alone and upset, and now something lurks two decks below him, something that triggered the auto awakening system.
A wild thought crossed his mind. could it be her? no, she is far away, far behind the stars, that is the place from where he last heard of her, after he left Keret Billings, the planet which turned to atoms behind him.
And if he didn't leave alone, even if he had a stowaway which climbed to his ship before lift off, how could that stowaway stay alive during the trip?
The pod timer indicated that Kay slept for 38 years.

 

[voider]

"Verneen, scan for lifeforms....all bands"

Walking over to a shelf, he pulled down a black robe.Pulling it over his head and throwing up the bulky hood.This aforded him at least a little confort.

"Thermal form detected....tracking image" came the long awaited reply.

He Straighten up the two septonic patches of his order on each sleeve. A solar disk with ray's on a star background,a merit of the hightest order.

He reached for the amulet of Abbra that he kept in his big slouching pocket.Remembering when she had given it to him and how her father Abbra, had wore it before she had.


Pulling it out by the chain he put it on, preparing himself for whatever was lurking in the storrage zone.

Her words filled his ears "use only in an emergency"the words almost sounded real to him now.

The voider's relm was a limitless one, which was before there was matter.Thus it could be involked from the amulet.

It could make things dissapear or reapear to or from that relm.

At least he wasn't going in unarmed.

Turning the locking catches, the door to the storage zone flew open with a hiss,entering he tryed to remember the invoking words......Abbra K...

Sweat raced down his face as he tried to remember the scecond word.



[This message has been edited by voider (edited September 22, 2001).]

 

[An8el]

...Abbra Kelaveed. That was it.
Leaving the latches open, he stepped through and slid along the edge. He heard noises at the far length of the container area. Fingering the amulet, he crouched as he tiptoed, careful to put each part of his feet down silently. When he got closer, he hid himself in the shadows next to a container and peeked.

He saw birds, giant birds, three of them huddled together, flapping and preening each other. He breathed a sigh of relief as he again hid his amulet. He must have taken them on when he was docked on the planet, while loading the raw materials.

The birds became still, finally noticing him. Kay stepped out to show himself. The necks of the birds became longer. As their heads backed up, their eyes bulged.

"Who are you?"
"Stay back!"
"Don't talk to him!"

Kay opened his mouth, finally blinking. He didn't remember sentient races of birds on Keret Billings. Then again he didn't remember much of anything. "I'm who you summoned when you tripped that heat exchanger lema there," Kay pointed up.

The birds all talked at once,"Good, finally, we can go now, Mora?"
"Shaddup."
"Why not? He can't open the door?"
"We don't know that yet."
The smaller bird collapsed its' head into it's long neck, groveling towards Kay. "Can you open for us to fly away now?

 

[Erebus]

Kay dismissed the birds as if they weren't really there, and then slowly closed the latch behind him. A distant voice echoed through the chasms of his brain, devoid of so many memories.

Concentrating, he slowly closed his eyes. He could hear her now; her gentle voice whispering his name. "I hear you..." he said into the silence. "Why are you here? Why now?"

His eyes raced violently behind their lids; his mind awash with her image. "I can almost see you," he sang. "Please, stay with me this time."

Soon, my love...soon, he heard her say. But even as the words left her distant lips, her image began to fade and she was a bird again. The most beautiful bird he'd ever seen, with a plumage so rare and colourful it brought tears to his lonely eyes.

"Why can't I remember?" he shouted, throwing himself to the floor. He buried his head in his hands, sobbing gently as he fought to regain the vision of his love. Something tickled his face then and he slowly lowered his arms. Kay stared at his hands in disbelief, rubbing the salty grief from his eyes.

But the image didn't change; his trembling palms were covered with the softness of newly-formed and brightly coloured feathers, every one of them different, but feathers just the same.


[This message has been edited by erebus (edited September 20, 2001).]

 

[voider]

Kay slide his palms together in a attempt to brush away the colored feathers, only to find to his amazement that they were stuck to his hand.

A closer look provided the shocking reason why.

The feathers were permanently attached to his hand’s. Grabbing a feather, Kay tried to pull it out. After painfully succeeding and producing a small hole, with warm scarlet red liquid trickling out, he decided not to do that again.

“Told you so”
“Did not”
“Did to”

Came the voices of the three bird’s, who had somehow, unknown to Kay, managed not only to escape their cage’s, but also had opened the locked door and now stood eye to eye inches from Kay’s face.


Backing up quickly and fumbling for the amulet he finally produced it and held it at arm’s length.

“No need for that”
“We won’t harm you”
“We come in peace” echoed the three voices.

“Explain “ Kay shouted ,tightening his grip even more on the amulet.

“Sorry about the feather spell, which will soon fade, but you had to be tested.”

“For what…and who are you” Kay screamed, boldly inching closer, still holding the amulet out.”

“I am Mora, of the Keltin race, my employer who wishes to remain secret, has cast a spell on us so we could board this ship disguised as bird’s. The ship’s manifest call’s for three sentient bird’s so here we are.”

“We came to see if the Fitzern’s or the Menthrop race had succeeded in getting Abbra’s amulet. Each side want’s it to be used to move their armies to defeat the other, but it must not fall into either sides hands.”

“Since Fitzern’s don’t bleed and Menthrop’s bleed green blood, we can see they haven’t succeeded yet. We are worried because our employer was supposed to meet us by now, to unlock his spell and turn us back to our original forms. “

Kay looked at his hand which had stopped bleeding and was featherless, then he studied them quietly for awhile.

“Who are you other two “ Kay said looking at the others.

“I’m Jaffera”

“I’m Teress, but I’m just a sentient bird who was headed home. Jaffera and Mora traded places with two of my friends, who blew up on Keret Billings I might add."


Mora interrupted “I can see we are in luck” looking at the patch on Kay’s sleeve.
“Will you change us back?”
“That shouldn’t be to hard for one of your order.”

“Why should I trust you and how do I know you don’t want the amulet for yourself’

“I don’t want it at all” continued Mora “We are just to see that it didn’t fall into their hands, besides you have been chosen to ware it. Weren’t you told what to do with it?”

“Yes of course” said Kay pretending to know while still trying to remember.

“We have more important things to do yet if he is to be successful. We need to be dropped off at this planet.” Jaffera said producing a map from somewhere and pointing with his beak to the place. We can take the shuttle craft in the cargo bay to get there.”


After talking to them for awhile, Kay returned them to their human forms and sent them on their way. After all he still had the amulet. Was he rid of them for good? Kay wondered if they told the truth for he wasn’t sure.

Only Teress stayed on board as he still waited to go home.

The two of them watched as the shuttle departed. Kay fingered the amulet nervously pondering it all. Suddenly a piece of the amulet opened up emitting a annoying buzzing sound. Then it turned to a deafening humming sound, which Kay knew he had heard before.

Was it a alarm, a homeing or tracking device Kay quickly tried to shut it off………..








[This message has been edited by voider (edited September 25, 2001).]

 

[lior]

It was a strange day.
Kay sat at the bridge, the "orora" at auto pilot, looking at the stars through the skylight, 20 feet above his head.
He was sipping some kind of sour but tasty beverage he found in the storage room turbo-fridges, maybe it was poison, but he didn't realy care. it was a tasty poison.
He put the tall blue glass on the armchair and rubbed his temples. alright...
He is kay of the order of shaman tra.
He is (was) a pilot. a cargo ship pilot.
He was a technomage, he flew his ships by a power other than fuel, it was... he couldn't remember, but that was what technomages did back then.He'll check it out later.
He slept in the cryopod for 38 years and was awakened by an alarm. someone was moving in the storage room. they looked like birds but they weren't. they recognized him and his amulet, the pendant of the shaman tra. but it was only a nifty gadget, he thought, it could make simple illusions to entertain the children at the court (what court?).
What was all this talk about spells? were they trying to make him believe he is something he wasn't? to play with his mind? they just got on one of his shuttles and flew away. where? there wasn't anything they coukd go to, was there?, he saw them turn from giant birds to bald, tall, red uniformed men. they looked very familiar. he thought he once heard about a cult of aliens capable of assuming the shape of animals, but he wasn't sure it was a myth or reality The whole encounter with them, which happened minutes after his rude awakening, looked like a bizarre dream. but somehow, it all looked SO FAMILIAR. damn!
He threw the empty glass on the bridge's floor, it smashed into tiny pieces.
Smashing into tiny pieces, like Kerret Billings. Oh, no, he doesn't want to think about that right now, oh no... later.
when the bird-men went away (bird-men? on my space ship?) his jewel started to emit a screeching noise, as if trying to call them. he got it off and put it in a compartment in the dining room. he didn't like that thing, it felt like it was going to fly along with them and throw kay to outer space with it.
He didn't remember much about shaman tra, just that he was one of them. him and his family and his friends (can't remember who they were..)
And she was too. the woman from his dreams.
That thought brought a bitter smile to his face.
The shattered glass glittered on the floor like a thousand stars. like it was the universe and he was sitting right in the middle of it. he was the master of the universe, and he was the destroyer of worlds.

A single feather was clung to his shirt.

Soon he will remember it all, he knew.
And then, the memories will hit him with no mercy.

He grabbed the feather and turned it in his hand, studying it with detached eyes.


[This message has been edited by lior (edited October 30, 2001).]

 

[nicba]

Kay got out of his bed and tended his morning rituals with quiet, effective energy. His mind felt much clearer. Already the events of yesterday seemed even more like a strange dream, only half remembered.

The turbolift brought him from his cabin to the bridge in a short ride, devoid of any sense of motion. Determined to sort out what the hell was going on he sat down by the main controls and started bringing the ship's onboard computers fully to life. Quickly he flickered through a series of startup and access screens, stopping only briefly to wonder why the access codes came so readily to his mind. Everything else in his past was still a blurred, confusing thing. He didn't know for sure what was reality and what were only cryo induced dreams. Not yet. It gave him headache to try to sort it out.

When the computers were finally up and running in full power, Kay leaned back in his chair with a sigh and tried to relax his cramped muscles. So far so good. He got up and started to pace around the bridge. There was still something about the situation that he didn't like. Actually, there were a lot of things about the situation he didn't like, now that he came to think about it. First and foremost he didn't like the fact that he had only a vague idea of what his situation really was!

His bad, sporadic memory bothered him. It could be damage from the cryo sleep. Such accidents were very very seldom, but not completely unheard of. It was a neat explanation. If some kind of emergency medical program had shut his cryo pod off, it could even explain his untimely awakening. And yet... yet somehow Kay doubted that seemingly simple explanation. He shook his head and sighed again. The little data he had simply didn't fit together.

He was a cargo ship pilot. He had already established that yesterday. But what was he doing on "Orora," a large passenger ship with rooms for at least 200 passengers then? Was he a passenger himself? No, that couldn't be it. Then he wouldn't have had the access code for the computers. He rubbed his temples and tried to remember. When he awoke from his long sleep, the computer had said something to him, called him something. Commander? Why? And what about these bird-men? Had they been real or just a product of his over stressed mind?

He sat down in the chair again and began punching buttons and giving verbal commands in a rapid stream. Holo screens flashed to life in the air in front of him and he navigated the menus without hesitation, again slightly amazed at his own mastery of the otherwise unknown machinery. He found what he had been searching for and examined the data in front of him carefully. It was a list of onboard shuttles. They were all parked in the hangar area, except one. The last one was clearly marked as missing. Irritated, but also absurdly a little relieved, he waved the holo screen away. Something had happened yesterday. Someone had taken one of the shuttles. He had not just imagined all of it.

Encouraged by this success he began to issue a new string of orders to the computer. Schematics of the ship, technical specifications, crew files, passenger lists for the last seven trips, navigation logs, everything he could thing of he brought up on large screens in front of him. The bridge came to life in a cascade of coloured text and graphics. It was time to find some answers...

 

[lior]

Longing

A thousand light years away, a young woman sat in a dark room in front of a large cristaline screen. she watched it with great interest, her finger playing with her red hair, spiraling it on and on.
the door opened silently and a tall figure entered the room. the woman turned around in her chair and faced him. she couldn't see his face which were in the dark, but she knew who he was. she could recognize him by his mere presence.
"He is awake, father", she said with sparkling eyes.
"It is too soon", said Abbra.
"He had three stowaways aboard, they must have entered during the trip. they triggered the alarm."
"Stowaways? who would want too... oh".
He sat on the chair beside her, his thick white braided her covering one green feline eye.
"That's right, Father, your cousins have paid him a visit." the woman returned her gaze to the screen, on it she could see Kay sitting at the bridge console while everything around him came alive.
"We must get to him before he remembers everything and it will be too late" said Abbra stroking his left hand with his right one, making small white lines with his 4 inch finger nails.
"When?" said the woman.
"Tell Arigas to prepare everything, we will leave orbit at noon tommorow."
He got up and walked gracefuly towards the exit, then he turned around and watched his adopted daughter sitting, watching at the man on the Orora with longing in her beautiful eyes.
"He doesn't remember you." he told her.
"Your'e wrong, father." she said while her tongue licked a rolling tear.
"He woke up too soon to forget me."


[This message has been edited by lior (edited November 05, 2001).]

 

[voider]

Kay decided to check the cryno pod's for damage,sweeping a holo image into place with
his hand and starting the diagnostic mode.

He watched with keen intrest as each system was checked.Well at least nothing was wrong with the pod.

Kay talked with the computer Verneen, hoping to get some answers. Her program had been altered from flight attendent to somthing a little more complex, by someone who knew what they were doing.

Verneen, what is the destonation of this ship?He didn't have the foggiest idea. "Nartian quadrant commander" came the soothing voice.

That name stirred up a bunch of memories,and not fond ones either.In a flash back Kay was reminded of the dreded Nartian cyborg war's his father fought in and never returned from.Missing in action was the official word.

So great was the battle the whole quadrant is off limits due to space mines,burned and distroyed ship's and the weapons of war,which littered the field.

Then Kay remembered the one memory he was trying hard to supress. He had joined the league to find his father, only to recieve two patches of the hightest order in the process.But never finding his father.

Yes, now the memories came flooding back to him,he had quit the league and had become a cargo pilot after the war,hoping to forget the painful past.

Kay wiped the tears from his eyes as he thought he saw somthing move, he got a funny feeling he wasn't alone.....

 

[nicba]

He swirled around to face the newcomer and stood face to face with the last of the sentient birds. For a moment Kay was frozen in shock. The presence of that creature on board "Orora" had totally slipped his mind.

It began to jabber away immediately, but this time Kay didn't listen to what it had to say. Instead his mind were boiling with questions of his own. He held up a hand to silence it and cut through its squeaking voice. "Teress! Stop! Hold it. Who are you anyway? What are you!? How did you come on board?"

Kay was alert now, more so than when he last spoke with the bird-thing. He felt a twinge of curiosity, but it was quickly overpowered by a stronger sense of irritation, and a bit of fear. He was growing decidedly tired of being dragged about from one illogical and incoherent situation to the next, with only a broken memory to support him. He wanted some facts and he wanted them now!

"So! How did you come aboard?" He repeated, insisting on an answer.

"Jaffera and Mora brought me," the bird replied before opening its beak as to continue its jabbing. Again Kay cut it off.

"When? How long did you stay in that storage zone? How did you survive? You can't have been sitting in those cages were I found you for 38 years!" Kay's voice rose angrily. It didn't make any sense.

The bird seemed to be taken momentarily aback by his outburst and his stream of questions. It paused and for a second everything was completely silent at the bridge. Then it squeaked again. "Jaffera and Mora fed me."

The bird launched into yet another volley of lightening fast speech. Kay starred and tried to follow what it was saying, something about aliens, 'Fitzerns' and 'Menthrops', and 'shapeshifting' and magical amulets and... Kay gave up and dismissed it. It sounded as pure nonsense. He shook his head.

Having given up on its words, Kay instead studied its appearance closely. And then it struck him: The bird had no solid shadow! Amazed he had failed to notice it before, he lunged at it forcefully. He jumped right through it and it dissolved. It was nothing but a hologram. Kay laughed and shook his head again. A hologram!

He let himself fall back into a chair and sat contemplating for a moment, still chuckling quietly to himself. Some time later he began to address the ship computer again, now grim. Someone had apparently gone to a great length to place him in his present state, on board the "Orora" and on a particular course to a particular destination. And it seemed as if someone else was trying to prevent him from getting there, playing games with his mind and doing their best to destroy his remaining sense of sanity. Talk of being captured between a rock and a hard place, Kay thought sourly.

But the bird-hologram could have come from nowhere else but the ships own holo-projectors. Someone must have left some kind of simulation running in "Orora's" computers. Now, if only he could track it down and find some kind of lead as to whom had installed it in the first place...

[This message has been edited by nicba (edited November 14, 2001).]

 

[voider]

Kay punched the key’s on the holo projected image and transferred the controls to the ship’s dinning area as the rumbling in his stomach told him he was far over due to eat something.

While taking the turbo lift to the dinning room he tried to formulate what to ask the computer next. Yet he reasoned he could think clearer on a full stomach.

Now he noticed how much his hand’s trembled. A faint kind of giddiness washed over his entire being. Each step he took seemed to be heavier than the last. His thinking seemed to be fragmented as he tried to keep his mind from wondering and at the matter at hand.

At last he reached the food replicators, No! he screamed, remembering that he wasn’t a passenger and didn’t have a holo scan chip to make the replicator work.

Wait! … He was a technomage. He had read the manual on replicators and knew how they worked. Finding the control hatch plate, Kay ripped it off and thrusted his arm inside feeling around until he found the control module. Then he Twisted the module back and fourth a few times.

Kay screamed as sparks came from the unit and a whisp of smoke shot out. Removing his blackened, singed fingers Kay stuck them in his mouth and sucked them, as he waved with the other hand ,the whisp of smoke, hoping it would not set off the ships fire alarm. At last he would have one good meal, he though, knowing what he had done was a one shot deal.

The replicator menu lit up. Kay looked at the menu screen for a few seconds, as it was printed in 10 different languages, finding his, he made his selection. He couldn’t believe his eyes, they had Charota cake, what a treat!

He hadn’t had that since he was last back on Keret Billings before it blew up… <Remembering>… oh yeah… on the steps of the courtyard… having lunch… When his love and him would cram a piece in each other’s mouth… While watching the children play… Making things disappear for the children with the jewel she had given him.

Kay swallowed the cake hard, as his minds eye recreated the scene. Then sadness befell him ,as she told him she had to leave and go back to the Voider realm. Negotiations had broken down with the Natarians and the courts no longer need her skills. Kay knew his unit would be moving out to fight the Natarians again.

Saying goodbye was very hard, yet the commander in him knew he had spent too much time already… far too much time… Love comes with a price and there is always a sacrifice. He visioned her loveliness, as the memory continued of how the suns rays danced off her beautiful red hair. They embraced and kissed, knowing, they each had to go.

As the scene faded, Kay was brought to the reality of his surroundings as the walls of the dinning area came poping into view…

 

[lior]

All he needs is a good, long rest.
Kay stepped into the recreational room, and seated himself on a large sofa. he laid back and closed his eyes. When he did that, he usually saw her face. He began to wonder if she's real, because everytime he saw her her hair looked different, sometime she was taller and sometime shorter, sometime ebony white and some time tanned, but her essence remained the same. she was always the same person, and he always craved for her.
The Orora's engine drone made him relaxed and lethargic, and slowly he fell asleep.
------------------------------------------
Arigas, a bald, short man, sat at the console of the small space craft, making final adjustments. The door behind him opened silently.
"Well?"
"I'm ready"
"Let us out" said Abbra and exited the room.
He went back to the main hull, his daughter stood at a floor to ceiling window and watched at the stars, her golden curls blazing in their aura.
"He doesn't really know who he is, I think."
He told her while putting his hand on her slender, exposed shoulder.
"He'll remember it all with time, it could take a while." she added.
"You do realize..." Abbra hesitated for a minute. "You realize that all that he knows, all that he ever knew about you is based on false assumptions."
She kept her silence for a minute.
"I never told him what I am. I regret that, but he knows me, nevertheless".
Abbra sighed.
"My dear, Kay is a troubled and confused young man, and he will be for quite a time, are you sure our arrival won't throw him off track?"
"We must do it s..."
"Yes" He interrupted her with an authorative voice, "but to do so now is to reveal our cards prematurly, we should let the Orora do the job for us, at least at the begining."
"father".
She turned around, they stood face to face now, and to his amazement Abbra felt an immediate attraction towards that magnificent creature.
"I know what I have to do. I will always be grateful for what you did for me and for my people, but Kay is my responsibility. I was with him when it all happened, I can't just leave him like that. Kay is awake now, it wasn't planned, the natarians know he's out there, who knows what they'll try, not to mention the Voiderian goverment."
She paused and walked to the other side of the room and poured herself a drink from the hovering tray. She held the glass and turned again to Abbra, who watched her with a false bland expression.
"The natarians and the voiders will want to get to Kay after the Keret Billings affair, they Mustn't. We have to get to him first, I owe it to him. I owe to the people of Keret billings."
She finished her drink and turned to live, Abbra called after her.
"Sara?"
"yes?"
"Try not to get angry my dear, your hair has turned black again".

 

[nicba]

Kay used the next couple of days to go through the memory banks of Verneen, the ship's computer. He examind everything carefully, from top to bottom, layer by layer and subprogram by subprogram. It was slow going and at times he nearly gave up.

But eventually he succeeded in finding the program which had controlled that damned bird hologram. Kay sighed in relief and immediately dedicated another day to analysing the programming of the bird simulation in detail.

The first thing he did was to crack open the subprogram controlling the thing. Then he set about to dissecting each of its controlling algorithms, in hope of finding some hints of the purpose behind it. Secondly he hacked a read-out routine into its artificial memory, so that he could read whatever it had to say on print. Sadly, Kay found that it didn't make much more sense that way. He still couldn't decide if it was just pure nonsense, or if there was actually some kind of obscure warning hidden in its strange message.

The rest of the programming of the bird proved to be much more complex than Kay had anticipated. Whatever he had been before he lost his memory, technomage, soldier in an old war or just a cargo ship captain, he clearly wasn't a computer specialist.

On the third day since he began working with the computer, he had to admit that he was getting nowhere. Reluctantly, he gave up trying. He had still not been able to find a reason behind the birds existence, nor had he found the least trace to whoever had installed and activated it. He shook his head, frustrated at his lack of progress.

He had a strong suspicion that the bird thing was planted by the same creatures who he had met in the ship's storage room and who later had stolen away with one of his shuttles. But he could not prove it in any way.

Kay knew he didn't want the thing walking around on his ship, not for any reason in the world. But still he felt uneasy about just deleting it without first learning more. So he decided on a compromise and suspended the simulation, freezing its current state and storing all the information in a locked file. If necessary, he would be able to retrieve it and study it further at a later point.

He sagged back in his chair and closed his eyes. The long cryo sleep, followed by frantic, confusing activity and then by days of slow, antagonising work by the computer had left him completely drained. He needed rest badly, again. Permitting himself a slight moan, Kay rose from his chair and headed for his cabin...