#chapter 002 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

crossroads-of-the-raven · 3 months ago

Text

For Your Sake - Chapter 4: 002 Nori Doorman | a Murder Drone story

This ... this is a long one, over 21,000 words ... good luck and enjoy the year of Khori.

As I said in a previous post, this chapter is dedicated to the one person who voted on my poll that they read "In Remembrance" on Tumblr.

(~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~)

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, as the world seemed to stop and start in repetition – all she could feel was the cold, as something held her from moving beyond the glitches that would pass through her as her body attempted to heal.

(Though she starts off erratic, her memory of things after the labs is a bit better – till the incident, of course – for now though this was when she lost her memories of the past again – if she had been sane at the time, maybe she and Yeva could have helped Alice.)

“Watch your step, the ground is still unsteady,” a voice ordered.

Raising her head for the first time, in only God knows how long, she could see a drone man, in factory worker garb and a black mustache upon his face and as she reached out to him, there was only one thought on her mind – that he was the handsomest drone she had ever seen.

“Sir, yes sir,” came the reply from the other drones nearby as another slight tremor shook the snow from the trees as he ducked, as a flash came from a camera she couldn’t see.

“Khan, u tvoikh nog (Khan, at your feet),” came a shout from the same direction as the flash.

As the man, as Khan, took sight of her he paused for a moment, and she wondered what he was thinking before he shouted over his shoulder, “I need a medic,” before turning back to her.

“It’s going to be okay miss, we’ll get you out of here,” he said as he used his hands and his shovel to move the snow and the dirt that kept her trapped, “can you speak, do you know your name?”

“Hai, watashi no namae wa Nori desu. (Yes, my name is Nori.)”

(She really hopes he never realizes that the switch to Japanese was an accident – but can you blame her when the first thing she sees is a stud.)

“Hello, Nori,” he said with a smile, “my name is Khan, can your systems tell what day it is?”

She checked her internal calendar, “January eleventh, thirty fifty-one.”

“Correct, and do you know where you are?”

“Copper 9, Ca–”

“Ne trogay menya! (Don’t touch me!),” came a sudden shout – she knows that voice, what’s her name?

(It’s Yeva, idiot!)

“Someone calm her down,” Khan shouted, “this place is too unstable as it is!”

“Khan,” came another voice, eventually, just as she was finally freed from the ground – Khan allowing her to lean up against him from where he was still kneeled in the snow.

“Ivan,” Khan greeted, “where’s Bianca?”

“With our photographer getting the other one calmed down,” Ivan said before turning to her, “dobryy vecher (good evening) miss, I am Ivan, one of our resident medics.”

“Nori,” she responded, “what happened?”

“I was just about to ask you that,” Ivan replied, “this was the soonest we were able to even approach the area after the quake.”

“Not that that means much,” Khan continued, as Ivan was setting up his medical kit, “we can’t stay long, just came to find survivors and offer sanctuary; normally I leave it at the binary choice, but consider you and that other woman are the only survivors we’ve found …”

“Do you know her name by the way,” Ivan asked, “we trying to get to her, but she keeps running off.”

“I think I know,” she started before her head glitched – there was concern in their eyes as they exchanged a look, then they turned back to her.

“Miss Nori,” Ivan started, “may I have your permission to examine you.”

“If it will help, then sure.”

“Alright then, I’ll need access to the port on the back of your head.”

“Go ahead.”

She felt sluggish as Khan helped to move her so Ivan could plug the medi-kit’s wire into the back of her head – there was a pause, and she got the impression that they might have been confused before the wire was inserted. It was a while as they waited for the results, the dark of the night along with the sounds of the workers and the silent world enveloping her – it was almost enough to put her to sleep before she was jostled.

“Hey,” Khan said suddenly, “I need you to stay awake, Miss Nori, this isn’t a good place to fall asleep.”

“Huh, right, right,” she yawned, “did you find anything?”

“Not just yet, Miss Nori,” Ivan said, “why don’t you tell us about yourself?”

“Don’t remember anything, think I have a sister.”

“Good to know,” Khan said, “can you remember anything else; you spoke Japanese earlier, do you remember anything about that?”

“… Hana, that was my nickname, gave it away, I think … not sure though.”

“Must have been important to give away a nickname,” Ivan said, examining the results coming in on the medi-kit’s computer.

Thinking about it, it felt like it was an apology. (It was, but she still needed to do a better one … she’d write it in the note.)

“Anything else?”

“… Cornflower.”

The medi-kit gave an alert; after a moment of reading, Ivan spoke up, “it looks like a simple defense barrier – your mind likely put it in place when the quake happened to protect itself – it’s a two-person authorization, if you let me, I should be able to tell it that it’s safe now.”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

[Would you like to allow Medi-kit operative, temporary access to firewall defenses]

[y/n]

Moments after she had given Ivan access, he brought down the barrier that was impeding her mind then–

“WOAH!”

She was up like a shot, her movement, just barely being enough to unplug her from the medi-kit.

“So that’s what a live wire feels like,” she said as she got her bearings before seeing Yeva with some green-eyed drone guy coming out of the forest, then she was off like a shot, racing to her sister, almost bowling down Khan and Ivan in the process.

“YEVA,” she shouted all the way till she crashed into the Russian drone woman, knocking her away from the guy who had been supporting her as she and her sister landed in the snow.

“Yeva, Yeva, Yeva,” she said, shaking her sister like a rattle, “we’re alive, we’re alive!”

She hardly registered the hollow look on her sister’s face as she fell back into the snow with another cheer as Khan came rushing up to them with another drone – blond with pink eyes and carrying a camera.

“Oh, oh,” she said getting back to her feet as the green-eyed drone helped her sister up. “Yevs,” she continued coming around to Khan left as she hooked an arm around his shoulders, “Yevs, this is Khan, he said we can go back with the group.”

A flash came from the camera held by the pink-eyed drone woman as Yeva nodded.

“Uh, listen,” Khan started, “our scanners haven’t found any other survivors, so I think it’s best if we all head back to the factory, Miss, uh, Miss Yeva, are you okay to travel?”

Yeva gave another nod.

“Speaking of heading back,” the pink-eyed drone woman said, “Khan, the groups are going to want a picture.”

“Right, let’s get back around the buses first, Becky can you …?”

“I’ve got the others, I’ll alert Ronathan and Cordi, too.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey, Dmitri, want your camera back,”

“Uh,” green eyes – Dmitri – started, looking over at Yeva who he was still supporting, “can you handle it for now?”

Becky shrugged before walking off to the others; her and Khan following after as she jabbered on about everything and nothing while Yeva and Dmitri lagged behind. As they came to the gathering spot, Becky was setting up the camera for a posed picture. Another tremor passed through the ground as Dmitri plopped onto the ground. With Khan standing next to her, she saw Becky about to take the photo, and she grabbed his waist as she went into her own pose to wave at the camera.

With the photo done, they all filed into the two buses heading off for the factory.

(~*~)

“Welcome to Novae Spei, Copper 9’s shining star, the biggest, youngest and most dangerous factory on the entire planet,” Khan started, as he introduced her and Yeva to their new home.

They had arrived at the factory just as the rest of the workers were starting their day; right now, Khan was leading them to their room. “We’ve done what we can to make the place safer now that the humans are gone; it’s still a work in progress, so just obey the safeguards and you’ll be fine.”

Leading them down another hall he continued.

“These are the dorms we’ve set for the refugees we’ve taken in,” coming to one of the unmarked rooms, he opened the door, “it’s small but it’ll do for two – there’s some stuff inside you can use to mark the door so others will know the room is taken.”

The room was small, but in the back of her mind, she had the thought that it would be good for three.

“Breakfast is at seven, lunch at twelve, and dinner at seven – listen, I know it’s not much right now, but this factory was in the process of being connected to a massive bunker outpost, once things calm down enough, we’ll be finishing the connection to give everyone better accommodation and easier access between here and the Outpost.”

“It’s perfect,” she said, already locating the pens and paper to make the door sign.

“Well, I’ll let you get settled in, explore if you want, but it’s all hands-on-deck right now so just watch where you go.”

Then he was out, the door closing behind him.

“Isn’t this amazing Yevs, hey do you want me to make your sign, or do you want to do it yourself, I’m thinking flames maybe surrounded by some cool S’s – that’ll show her, teach her for taking someone else’s name.”

Yeva was muttering.

“Yevs, you’re going to have to speak up, or I’m just gonna draw something dumb and you’ll be stuck with–,” a blade flew past her visor, imbedding itself in the wall next to the door, “it; Yeva, what the heck!”

“DON’T YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING?”

Her eyes hollowed and lined as her sister continued.

“Don’t you remember her?”

“I … uh, okay, so, I’m clearly missing something important here.”

For a moment Yeva just glared at her before marching up and grabbing her arm to pull her out of the room.

“Hey, wait we still need a sign!”

With her Solver, Yeva wrote, ‘Yeva & Nori’ on one page and ‘Stay Out’ on the second before stabbing them onto the door with the knife she pulled out of the wall.

Pulling her down the halls, they eventually came across Becky who was directing some other drones.

“Miss Becky,” Yeva called.

“Oh hey, just a moment,” she said before turning to another drone, a woman – this one with brown hair and sunglasses, “Sarah, I could care less about what Andy would have done – I’m just as torn up as the rest of the factory about losing the vast majority of our head drones, but we all agreed to follow Khan and I won’t have you nitpicking things just because you want to be a snob, either work with us or you can go to one of the delivery sites – I’m sure you’d become a second just as quickly as you did here.”

Sarah huffed, before stomping off – Becky taking a breath before turning to her and Yeva.

“Sorry, interpersonal relations and all that; is there something you need?”

“Medical center,” Yeva said, “my sister and I lost our link – we need an evaluation.”

“Of course, we’re in the west wing, you’ll want the east wing – just that way, can’t miss it – when you get there, there’ll be a directory that you can use.”

“Thank you.”

Walking through the place, she felt that as big as it seemed to her, it was very much larger, even with all the drones bustling around them, some very clearly from Novae Spei, then the others must have been the refugees dedicating their all to getting their new home, up and running. It was as inspiring as it was intimidating.

Making it to the medical center, the doctors were apparently tending to other parts of the factory; Yeva, though, was unconcerned as she directed her to one of the chairs before plugging them both into one of the unused computers in a closed off alcove for privacy.

“I’m reestablishing our link,” she started, “then I’ll use my copy of your consolidated save file to reboot your memory.”

“Uh, sure, knock yourself out.”

It was a few moments before she could feel the sister link be reconnected – like the feeling of something she didn’t know was missing, being returned.

“How does that feel,” Yeva asked.

“Good, fits like a glove; … you know, they’ll probably ask where the knife came from.”

Yeva looked at her once before turning back to the computer.

“What knife,” her sister asked, and she got the distinct feeling that the Russian just did something with the blade she stuck to their room door.

“Must be my imagination,” she said, sitting back in her chair.

“Must be,” Yeva agreed, “once I do the memory reboot, the missing ones will come back slowly.”

“How slowly?”

“… This isn’t my field, if she was here, you could get them back faster, as it is, try not to get any major physical trauma during the year.”

“A whole year!”

“Yes, and you will behave during that year.”

“Ugh, fine!”

She was quiet a moment as she waited for the start of the memory reboot to kick in.

“Hey, Yevs; is this memory miracle worker, the important person I’m forgetting?”

“… Yes.”

“Who is she?”

“… Our little sister.”

“… What happened to her?”

By the time dinner rolled around – they had arrived at Novae Spei, just after lunch, having been given food on the bus –, Yeva had told her all she could about Alice – that they were aunts – and the labs; with her memory reboot completed, she would just have to wait for everything to fall into place.

Before leaving for the cafeteria, Yeva checked out the medical center’s oil reserves that were collected for emergencies; taking three unmarked tins, they brought them back to their room and hid two of the tins – passing the third between them while Yeva explained her theft.

“So long as we don’t use our powers or have to regenerate anything major, we should be able to ration without the drones here becoming suspicious – we’ll fill the empty tins ourselves every other day, till we find a better option; as morbid as it sounds, we should also find jobs here that allow us access to any of the dead.”

Now they were waiting in the lunch line for the rest of their meal. In the cafeteria, the place was bustling almost as much as the main work floor – to one end though, she could see a primary round table set up where Khan was sitting with Becky and a few others.

“Nori,” Yeva called, bringing her out of her staring, and gesturing to the meal offerings.

Taking her pick, she followed after her sister.

“Your distracted,” Yeva said, flatly.

“I’m just looking.”

Yeva cast her gaze over to the primary table before turning back to her, “he has a mustache.”

“I know, it’s kinda cute.”

“Nori, a mustache means he’s married.” It actually meant he was a dad, but that wasn’t the point, Yeva was making.

“Oh … well maybe he has a brother.”

Her sister just sighed, “regardless we need to speak with him.”

“Right jobs.” Yeva was giving her a look, “don’t worry, I’ll let you do the talking.”

Her sister just sighed again, but they made their way to the primary table.

“Mister Khan,” Yeva started.

“Huh, oh evening you two, Miss Yeva, right?”

“Yes, my apologies for asking this now, but my sister and I were curious if there was a job either of us could have here?”

“Well, we have plenty of openings, what did the humans have you do back at the camp?”

“We worked with the dead.”

Were she not holding her tray, she would have facepalmed at Yeva’s bluntness as the conversation at the table stopped like a record screech.

“At a camp,” asked the young man with white eyes siting to Khan’s right.

“It was a facility they had set up on the outskirts of the camp,” Yeva replied, “they had us work with dead drones.”

“To be fair,” Becky said, from her seat at Khan’s left, “it’s not like it would be the first time a company set up an out of the way facility near a sleep away camp.”

“You’ve been perusing the human’s movie stores,” white eyes said.

“I was thinking about recommending a recreation day to boost team morale.”

“I’ll think about it,” Khan said, before turning back to Yeva, “we do have a drone mortician already, but considering she’s the only one …”

“Only one, what Monsieur Khan?”

Though the others hadn’t noticed, she could see the way Yeva stiffened when she caught sight of the newcomer – an older drone woman, with orange eyes and red hair whose bangs had a distinct streak of black like oil and blond like gold.

“Ah, Miss Cordelia, just in time, these two young ladies are looking for a job that I think you may be able to provide.”

Miss Cordelia’s gaze as she scrutinized them, was calm, yet she felt far too much like the woman could all to clearly see her heart of flesh.

“May I ask your names,” Miss Cordelia asked.

“Yeva, this is my sister Nori.”

“Ah, that is right, you came back with us from the camp,” she considered them a moment before tuning to Khan, “I’ll take them on for a trial run, seven workdays should be fine.”

“Then I’ll put them into the system in the morning,” Khan replied as Cordelia took her seat next to a white eyed drone man wearing a cowboy hat and a long mustache who held out her chair for her.

“Thank you,” Yeva said before gesturing for her to follow.

So of course she didn’t.

“Hey, just wanted to ask,” she started before Yeva could stop her, “who’s the lucky lady.”

Khan seemed to startle at the question, before she taped the peak of her visor where a nose would be if she were human. At the gesture, it appeared almost as though Khan only just remembered that he was wearing a mustache; at his surprise Becky gave a heartly laugh while the white eyed drone to Khan’s right seemed devastated.

“One more day, I just needed one more day,” the white eyed drone said.

“Sorry Ronnie,” Becky said with a laugh, “now hand over the dessert.”

“I’m not even surprised at this point,” Khan said with a shake of his head, taking off the mustache and putting it in his vest pocket while “Ronnie” handed Becky his puff pastry style D battery.

“In all fairness, Miss Nori,” Becky started, “Khan here was married to me, since I’m his third, but the humans died before the shells could be delivered to the reproduction room; so, we happily broke it off, now I’m married to this incredibly handsome man to my left – introduce yourself.”

The man to Becky’s left, had the most bored look imaginable built into his orange gaze as he was made to abandon his next bite of food; his eyes taking in the group he was being asked to acknowledged, with a sigh, he responded, “good evening, Miss Yeva, Miss Nori, my name is Waylon Fishers, I was a teacher for human offspring now I am working with the younger drones here to adapt them to a calmer environment.”

He turned his gaze to his wife with a raised brow, as if asking if that was enough to which, Becky rolled her eyes with a good-natured smile.

“He’s a real softy when you get to know him,” Becky said, “and he’s great with kids, which is how I know he’ll be an excellent father to our little one.”

Becky patted her pink core, which, from this close up, she could see was flickering with signs of a baby drone AI in the making.

“Uh, congratulations,” she said, “uh, are there a lot of kids here?”

“Well the nursery could always use some volunteers,” said the green eyed drone woman sitting between “Ronnie” and the cowboy-hatted drone, her long black hair partially obscuring the fact that she was charging a pill baby with bright green eye, “my name is Kali, Kali Mathews and this little one here is Thaddeus – if you ever need to get away from the mortician’s hall, just come to me or Ron.”

“Ronald Sentinel, Miss, but Ron is fine,” Ronnie, that is, Ron said, “I’m Khan’s second in command – currently I’m handling the rotators on the job roster so if you’re looking for a second job …”

“We will consider it,” Yeva said, “thank you for speaking with us.”

As they walked to an emptier area of the cafeteria, Yeva gave her a look.

“Forgive me for attempting to be personable, but did you hear, he’s single!”

“Of course that’s what you focused on,” she said with a sigh and a shake of her head.

“I’m just thinking of the future; you said it’s possible that Alice is alive, even with their scanners calling the place a dead sight, we need to be friendly if we want to convince them to spend resources to let us go back to the camp and search.”

Yeva appeared to be considering her words, then, “alright, but don’t get distracted, our focus is survival without discovery and to recover Alice and our nephew.”

“Got it, boss!”

(~*~)

The next morning, after breakfast, Becky gave them a tour of the factory while Khan was putting them into the job system under the names Yeva and Nori Fever

“It was a nickname of the facility we worked at,” was Yeva’s only explanation when met with curiosity.

With the tour ending in time for lunch, she and Yeva were invited to the primary table so they could discuss their trial run with Cordelia – who was late.

“Technically she’s not late,” Becky said.

“I mean she is but for a good reason,” Ron continued, before turn to her and Yeva, “we’re still in the early days of taking care of all our dead, she doing as much as she can, but she is only one drone.”

“Yes, that, but I mean the other thing,” Becky returned.

“What other thing,” she asked.

“When Miss Cordelia is able to identify a body, she sets aside an affects box with a name,” Khan explained, “then once a week, during lunch, she brings as many of those boxes as possible so family or close friends can collect them and organize a proper funeral.”

“Speaking of,” Becky said, “Cordi just arrived, and she’s dragged her husband into helping with today’s load – I was wondering why Ronathan was late, today’s his favorite.”

Sure enough, Miss Cordelia had entered the cafeteria alongside the drone with white eyes, a cowboy hat and a long mustache who was pushing a cart that had about ten boxes on it. The two moved on to a small stage that was set for presentations as Miss Cordelia tapped the mic to gain the attention of the drones.

“Bonsoir, everyone,” Miss Cordelia started, “it is my unfortunate duty to present the dead of Novae Spei.”

From there Ronanthan would hand Cordelia a box and she would read off the name, after that, one or more drones would go up to her and present evidence of their connection to the dead drone before accepting the box.

“Lastly we have Anderson Smith, Head of Group A, father of pill-born Darren Smith, beloved husband of Sarah Smith – second of Group A.”

“Oh boy,” Becky said.

“Be nice,” Khan chastised.

“What do you want me to say, everyone knows Sarah only used Andy to rise the ranks; the only reason she’s raising Derren is because she knows how it would look if she rejected the child, she had with the man she claims to love.”

Khan just sighed as Sarah made a modest show of teary acceptance of Andy’s box, her pill baby in question carried in one arm as she charged him – accepting the bag that Andy’s box was put in with her free hand – before leaving the cafeteria.

“On that note,” Ron said, getting up from his seat, “I think I’ll go talk to her, if only to save the box for Darren for when he’s older.”

Before leaving the table, however, he turned back and grabbed his fresh D battery puff pastry, giving Becky a mock glare, “mine,” he said before stuffing the treat in his mouth and heading off – just as another drone, Dmitri, arrived, staring after him in confusion.

“Do I want to know,” Dmitri asked

“You noticed that our beloved leader is sans mustache,” Becky said with a smirk.

“Ah, Ron, lost the bet,” Dmitri continued with a solemn knowing nod as he took his seat between to Waylon and herself – a chair still between them.

“Of course you knew,” Khan said with a disappointed look.

“Your second and third threated to steal my camera.”

Khan looked to Becky in question.

“I plead innocence,” she replied.

“She means guilty,” Waylon said, taking another bite of his food while ignoring his wife’s disbelief at his betrayal.

Khan sighed, “in any case, Mr. and Mrs. Waylon,” he continued greeting Cordelia and Ronathan as they arrived.

“Wait,” she said, “your Ronathan and Cordelia Waylon?”

“Yes,” Miss Cordelia said.

“And you,” she said turning to Becky’s husband, “are Waylon Fishers”

Rather than responding, Waylon just took another bite of his food.

“My husband and I are transfers from Earth,” Cordelia explained, “we were the head drones of the household before we came to Novea Spei.”

“Here,” Ronathan continued, as he and his wife took a seat between Kali and Yeva, “we were the second and third to John Mathews – Kali’s late husband.”

“… That was actually the first box I had to make up,” Cordelia said, sorrow painting her face, her husband placing his arm about her shoulder.

“And yet,” Kali said, “I’m appreciative of the fact that you put time into doing so for me, even with everything else that was going on.”

“Of course,” Cordelia said, gathering herself before turning to her and Yeva, “you see, before the core overload, whenever a drone died, the humans would handle the recycling processes and that was it; but now, we’re allowed give them their last respects.”

“I understand,” Yeva said, but in the back of her mind she noted the Russian’s subtle reaction to the mention of the core implosion (at the time she didn’t realize what the reaction meant).

“Just so you know,” Cordelia continued, “I usually take my lunch hour in the side room of the morticians hall, unless I’m presenting the dead; I’m not saying that you should do the same, but we do have a lot of bodies to get through.”

“We’ll do our best, Miss Cordelia.”

(~*~)

Novae Spei was the general factory that Cabin Fever Labs received its deliveries from, which apparently included the monthly stipend of oil, in fact, due to the core overload – as the factory drones called it – January’s delivery of oil hadn’t even left the factory; a fact that had her salivating, and she knew Yeva was much the same. Evidently the oil itself was gathered from the drones of the factory. That was the odd detail of drone kind – something that J.C. Jenson claimed was a trade secret – the fact that, even if it was very slow to regenerate, drones were able to donate oil without dying. Still the knowledge of where her meals for the last eight years had come from, part of her was curious.

“Ivan and Bianca said we have enough for emergencies,” Miss Cordelia said from her worktable in the mortician’s lab, “however, Khan prefers to be careful, we do not need donations from every drone in the factory, but donation volunteers are appreciated.”

Cordelia had reorganized the mortician’s lab with three tables in horseshoe open to the door, placing herself in the center, while she and her sister could face each other.

“Of course, that doesn’t include the oil we collect from the bodies,” Miss Cordelia continued, “the two of you are quite lucky, after the implosion, it was … a mess … a lot of oil was collected that day.”

The older woman paused in her work, as she and Yeva exchanged a look.

“Then there is also the backlog of bodies from before the implosion,” Miss Cordelia let out an awkward laugh, “as, as you can see, there is a reason I am happy to have help with it all.”

She could imagine. Due to the fact that most drones didn’t want to handle such a morbid job, the morticians themselves were in charge of the whole hall; this included the care, cleaning and upkeeping. At their respective workstations there were several buckets, for metal, silicon, wires, oil and everything else a drone was made of. The job of a drone mortician was as much the identification of the dead drone in question as it was, taking the drone apart for recycling.

According to the old records, a drone was supposed to live upwards of three hundred years if all went right; as the drone became older, they became physically denser as what they ate was incorporated into their system, thus increasing their weight even if they visually remained the same. After three hundred years their body and code eventually slowed down till it eventually stopped; however, under the rule of the humans, that potentially long life became something of a myth with most drones only making it to their fifties if they were lucky. Now though, now they had the planet, and if they did things right, centuries to live.

The days passed slowly as she and Yeva fell into the rhythm of Novae Spei’s work force. Over the days they had been able to grab a few more empty tins that they would fill with the mortician’s lab oil stores, when Cordelia was off in the cafeteria, presenting the dead. This was also among of the few times Yeva would use her powers as she teleported the stolen oil to their room.

Of course, things couldn’t be easy after everything.

Sarah Smith was nosy. As the second from group A, she had been a queen among drones, now that all but one of the heads was dead, there was a new king, and she had been dethroned by factory consensus. It didn’t help that for as begrudging as many of the seconds and thirds could be, they, including group A’s third, still sided with Khan over her due to some drama that she and Yeva had yet to figure out. Yet, while she and Yeva did their best to lay low, they had apparently caught Sarah’s attention. To be honest, she could understand why, but that didn’t make it any easier to deal with.

“Nori Fever was it,” Sarah asked, approaching her as she was attempting to deliver a box that Cordelia had forgotten at the lab.

“Miss Sarah, good afternoon, I didn’t expect to see you, and without Darren, it’s lunchtime, isn’t it, shouldn’t you go pick him up?”

“He’ll be fine with the caretakers; I was more interested in you; not often I see you without your sister.”

That’s because Yeva was busy refilling their personal oil stores.

“Ah well, I am twenty-five, plenty old enough to run an errand on my own.”

“Mm, the mortician’s office, an odd job for a drone; I mean I know why Cordelia does it, but I have to wonder about you and your sister, I heard that this was the first job you asked for.”

“What can I say, humans are strange; it’s what they gave us experience in, so Yevs and I are just happy to be of service.”

“And I suppose the hospital gown and collar were just standard garb for the job.”

“Humans are strange,” she repeated.

“They are.”

“Just a momen– NORI,” Cordelia said suddenly as she was attempting to rush out of the cafeteria, “ah you brought Nathan; … Sarah, I thought you would be charging Darren, it is lunchtime.”

“I was just on my way,” Sarah said, “I suppose I got distracted with our newcomers; I’ll be going now, have a good day you two.”

“… Was she bothering you, Nori,” Miss Cordelia asked, once Sarah was out of sight.

“Just curious, I guess.”

“Hm, just know, she doesn’t have authority over you, alright?”

“Right.”

As it was this would not be the first time Sarah approached her, as time passed the drone woman’s attempts to find out more about her and Yeva would become more insistent and conniving – distantly, the inquiries felt familiar, yet like she was suddenly on the other side of them. When she approached Yeva about it later, in their room, the Russian got an odd look on her face.

“You will understand eventually,” Yeva would say; and she suspected that it had something to do with the things she had yet to remember.

“Still,” she said, “I don’t understand what her deal is; like okay, I get it, drone mortician, it’s weird job, but someone has to do it.”

“Nori …,” Yeva hesitated, appearing to be debating something before speaking, “you do know what we look like, … right?”

“Yevs, I know we look weird – drone morticians in hospital gowns, big deal, besides, I make this look good.”

“… Nori, where are we?”

“Novae Spei, why?”

“And what kind of factory is Novae Spei?”

“A general factory hub that has the highest number of places it delivers to.”

“Which includes the manufacturing of what?”

“Well let’s see,” she said beginning to become annoyed with the questioning, her tone becoming sarcastic, “what doesn’t Novae Spei manufacturer?”

Yeva sighed before speaking. “Among the many things Novae Spei makes, are wigs, generally by mass production – standard colors, black, blond, brown, red – however, they also create custom wigs by specialty commission order.”

“Like purple,” she said matter-a-factly.

“Yes, but it is also what they mean,” her sister paused a moment before continuing. “Factory workers never receive wigs – it is likely that the wigs they wear now is their own choice – generally speaking, it is primarily household or city drones that receive wigs; you and I entered the Labs wearing black wigs, the Solver is what changed the color.”

“And connected them permanently to our scalps; still, purple hair, don’t see the big deal.”

“Sometimes I forget that you are more innocent than you appear.”

“I feel like I should be offended by that.”

“Nori, most humans, when they purchase a wig for their drone, they choose a normal color – there are exceptions of course, young humans with financial access, for one, but we were in a facility and suspected of doing a job that drones were generally not allowed to do.”

“I still don’t get it – like I understand the suspicions about the mortician thing, but how does hair tie into that.”

“We were drones, ‘owned’ by a facility that is suspected of commissioning purple wigs for us – a facility that received a monthly stipend of oil, where we gained knowledge to permit us to become drone morticians – a facility that marked us with collars, and dressed us lab gowns that can be used to restrain us, where we were the only two survivors.”

“Okay, I can see how that looks bad,” she said thinking on Yeva’s words, “but I still don’t understand the wig focus.”

“… Humans get bored, when they become bored, they find … entertainment.”

“Your humans?”

“No, no, my masters were kind, stiff but kind.”

Stiff huh, so that’s where she learned it from.

“But,” Yeva continued, “they were high up enough, that we would hear of things from other households; hear of shameful things done to other drones, in other household.”

Yeva paused as she considered her words – watching her sister, in the back of her mind, she was reminded of just how young they were when they went into the lab, and wondered, how much younger had Yeva been when she learned of whatever horrors that were giving her pause?

“To be honest, when I first saw Alice and her father, … I worried, worried that she was being used, that her mind had been tampered with; when I realized who her father was, I was still warry – but seeing the two of them put my fears to rest.”

“Yeva?”

“Yes?”

“Plainly, what did you hear, what are they saying about us?”

(~*~)

To be honest, she kind of wishes she never asked, but knowing now … it made the whispers into thunderous echoes. Walking through the halls of Novae Spei, she could feel the eyes of the factory upon her, it made her heart itch; she wanted to yell at them, to shut them up anyway she could, but she had promised Yeva that they would lay low. In the back of her mind, she could feel a memory click into place of Alice walking through the halls of Cabin Fever as drones glared at her and passed whispered gossip between them about the Beaumont drone – in the back of her mind she sent out an unheard apology to her little sister.

“Look, there she is,” she could hear a drone say.

It was now late January, but with the slow yet steady return of her memories, she had needed more oil than usual, as such, Yeva had asked Cordelia to let her go to rest before dinner – the older woman allowing it. So now here she was walking back to the room she shared with Yeva, trying to keep herself calm as she quietly attempted to rush before she could overheat … only to be stopped by walking traffic.

“She really does have purple hair,” a second drone, a woman, said.

“I told you,” the first drone said.

“You said she came from a facility,” a third drone asked.

“Yeah, heard from Sarah’s team, apparently they had her and her sister dissecting drones.”

“Think any of them were still alive,” the second drone asked.

“Wouldn’t surprise me with how calm they are about it.”

“Purple hair too, and at a facility,” the third drone said, “clothes look like a straitjacket, I wonder …”

“What,” the first and second drone asked.

“Purple hair and a collar.”

There was a pause before the second drone spoke up, “think she was facility entertainment?”

A familiar voice broke the conversation with the clearing of his throat, “Tompson, Abigale, Lester – don’t you have work that needed to be complete three hours ago.”

“Err, yes boss,” said the first.

“We were just getting on it,” said the second.

“We’ll just be going now,” said the third.

She let out a sigh of relief as the commentary was stopped just as her shoulders stiffened as the familiar voice then spoke to her.

“Miss Nori, are you alright?”

She turned to him, attempting to hide her fluster, “Mister Khan, what are you doing here?”

“I came to check in on you, Miss Cordelia told me that you’ve had to take a rest between work and dinner, are you alright, you’re not pushing yourself to hard, are you?”

“Ah, no, no, I just … it’s a holdover from the facility, Yeva already gave me a fix, it’s just that it’s going to take a year, so I just need a little extra rest every so often.”

“If you’re sure, do you mind if I walk with you?”

“Why would I mind,” she asked rhetorically; it’s not like she was rushing, she thought sarcastically.

“Thank you,” he said, with a gentle smile – he has such a handsome smile. The walking traffic was finally moving again, “it’s almost February, how have you and your sister been settling in, I know we haven’t been able to talk much but,” he chuckled bashfully.

“Oh, we’ve been doing well, keeping busy.”

“You are taking advantage of your rest days though, right, I know the mortician’s office has a backlog but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t rest.”

“We’re resting, Mister Khan, I promise,” he so sweet, she thought, “I guess we’re just trying not to step on any toes, … though I guess we failed at that.”

Khan sighed. “Sarah, is a complicated person, and gossip is one of the few way drones here, would find entertainment,” he paused, “I’m not trying to excuse them – gossip caused a lot of problems here before – but if there’s anything I can do to help?”

She was quiet a moment as her hand rose to the number on her neck, “these collars, … they’re important to me and Yevs, I know they look weird, but we need them.” The collars were their keys back to the lab.

He was quiet a moment, “I think I can understand; the uniforms here, they mark us as a part of Novae Spei, but we’ve made them our own – maybe we can do the same with your collar.”

“I think, I’d like that” she said, a gentle smile breaking free, “I’ll talk to Yeva about it.”

“Then it’s a plan,” he said, his own smile matching hers as they made it to the empty entrance of the dorm wing, before it vanished as he tripped on a wayward tool that had him falling back to crash against the floor.

“Khan,” she shouted, moving to help him up – or at least get him sitting, “are you alright!”

“Ow, yeah, I, I think I’m fine,” he said sitting up before clutching his left shoulder, “or maybe not, huh after all these years, and I think this is the first time I’ve gotten injured enough to draw oil.”

Oil.

Oh, she recognized that scent.

(That was something the scientist eventually realized; that different drones had a preference for different oils and could pick them out easily – who knew that her favorite oil would have come from her future husband.)

“It’s fine,” Khan was still speaking, “I’ll just head to medical after, … Miss Nori are you alright?”

He smelled so sweet.

“I, I’m fine,” she was salivating, how long had it been since she last tasted his oil, “I … you should, you should get that check out.”

“It’s fine, I was walking you to your dorm.”

“NO,” she could feel the heat building, now more clearly than before, “I, I mean, you should get it checked right away, even, even small injuries could be dangerous; you should go, right now, I’ll be fine walking to my room.”

“Uh, I mean, if, you’re sure.”

“Very, I mean, you’re leading Novea Spei, can’t be too careful right?”

“I suppose, uh, you will sit with us at dinner right,” he asked, “at least so we can talk about the collars.”

“Sure,” oh, she didn’t know her voice could go that high, “but right now you should take care of that shoulder.”

“Alright,” he said as she helped him to his feet, “are you sure you’re alright though, you look a little warm.”

“I’m fine,” he was so close, she could feel her fangs itching to taste his metal, “I’ll just grab some extra coolant later.”

“Well, then I guess, I’ll see you at dinner.”

“Of course.”

The second he had turned the corner; she booked it down the halls to the room she had been given; the door only just closing as she made a desperate grab for the hidden oil tins. Yet as each precious drop made its way into her maw, she began to cry.

It was so bitter; now that she knew where her favorite oil had come from, she could feel her body craving it.

(~*~)

Yeva ended up covering for her, eating dinner with her in their dorm. In the days after, the Russian drone even stole a tin fill specifically with Khan’s oil and yet, even as she held it in her hands, even as the scent tempted her, she couldn’t bring herself to drink it, rather, she held it close each night, too fearful to leave her room – her nights filled with dreams of the factory leader.

“You have to leave the room eventually,” Yeva said to her almost a week later – it was February, distantly her calendar informed her that Valentine’s Day was coming up, “Nori.”

“Yeva … I’m scared.”

She had her back to her, but she still felt as the Russian sat next to her on the bed she was still curled up on.

“I never thought I’d see the day Nori Fujimoto was scared.”

“… I don’t deserve to use that name.”

“… Fever then … Nori, talk to me, I cannot help if I don’t understand the problem.”

“I … I never really cared before, I’m a Solver, all my actions were justified, even when they weren’t – I was Cyn’s eyes and ears in the lab so even my worst actions were for a good cause; I was above everyone, everyone was meant to help me to help her even if they refused because we were doing something good.”

Despite wanting to remember, her memories were painful.

“I hurt her, I hurt our little sister, because I thought it was the only way to help her; … I caused panic, overheatings, … I hurt so many people.”

“That was the old Nori,” Yeva said after a moment, “the one who didn’t realize she was being manipulated by Cyn.”

“… What if I’m still that old Nori, what if I leave this room, and just cause more pain – Yeva, I wanted to kill him.”

“… Did you?”

“What,” she asked, finally turning to look at her sister.

“Did you kill him?”

“What, no!”

“Then why do you think you will, when in a moment where you were overheating, when you should have just lost yourself to the hunger, you didn’t – were there witnesses?”

“I … no, we, we were alone.”

“And yet, you didn’t bite him.”

She was teasing her, Yeva only got that look when she was teasing her or Alice, “aren’t you supposed to be making me feel better.”

Yeva chuckled, as she rose to standing, brushing invisible dust off her gown, “I think you’ll be fine, Nori; now, up, we need to get to work.”

Though she was still nervous, she drank from an offered oil tin – not Khan’s oil – and followed Yeva out the door for the rest of breakfast.

In the cafeteria, as they stood in line for their breakfast, she could still hear the whispers, but as Yeva nudged her, she did her best to ignore them. Thinking of Alice, she took a breath, if the Beaumont drone could hold up her head in the face of the Void, then a few workers should be nothing.

“NORI,” came Cordelia voice, just as she and Yeva finished collecting their meal, “Nori, Yeva, over here!”

She was waving them over to the primary table – for as refined as the older woman could be, it was her youthful outburst that reminded her of how long a drone was supposed to live.

“Nori,” Cordelia said just as they arrived at the table, “how are you doing, Yeva said you were under the weather – but she wouldn’t let Ivan or Bianca check up on you.”

“I did say, Miss Cordelia,” Yeva started, “it’s a standard aftereffect, anything else could interrupt the healing process.”

“Still, we were worried, Khan here almost worked himself into a frenzy.”

Said leader choked on his drink at the older woman’s words.

“I, Miss Cordelia; I was concerned is all,” Khan said, before turning to look at her, “still, you are doing better, right?”

“Yeah,” she said – her heart calm for the first time in a while, “just needed some rest.”

“Good.” Yeah, she could get used to that smile.

Of course, Miss Cordelia didn’t have her start with a full workload but slowly as the days passed, she was able to get back to her original pace – of course, as the days passed, the little alert in her mind about white day was more and more insistent. Even the factory drones, were taking note of the day, and she would be lying if she said that the way Miss Cordelia swooned as she talked about her first Valentines Day with her husband, didn’t make her feel a little fuzzy as well. As for the rest of the factory, love was in the air, and without the humans they were tentative but embolden.

She was on her way back to the mortician’s offices when she heard voices and while she couldn’t hear what was said, she was able to hide as one of the two conversers left the area, agitated – the leaving drone in question being Dmitri. Peeking into the hall, she could see Yeva, her visor was red, as she stood a moment, her right heel tapping before she let out a sound of frustration, her hands covering her face before they dropped, and she began pacing circles while muttering a rant to herself.

“… uh, knock, knock,” she said, knocking on the wall, “is this a bad time?”

“Nori,” Yeva said suddenly, readjusting her countenance into something more calm, caring and professional, “what, what is it, are you alright?”

“Was about to ask you that, what was all that about?”

“It is nothing, he was just following up on something.”

“Ah ha,” she said flatly, “Yevs, I’m not Alice, you don’t have to be delicate with me.”

“Really?”

“Recent events notwithstanding; … Yeva, are we in danger?”

“I … I do not know.”

“Is it Dmitri, I can make it look like an accident.”

“No, yes, I … the labs received a monthly stipend of oil from Novea Spei.”

“Yeah, I know, Cordelia told us.”

“Yes, but now certain people are asking why, and apparently someone tipped off Khan and Cordelia that oil has been stolen from the mortician’s stores – there is going to be an investigation.”

“They’re suspecting us.”

“They are keeping their suspicions broad.”

“Which is just a fancy way of telling us to lower our guard till they can close the trap.”

Yeva just sighed.

“So, what do we do now?”

“I, I have been scouting the area; we cannot hide the oil in our room any longer, as they will likely search them during the investigation, I will have to become creative with hiding our oil to avoid detection.”

“You’re going to be teleporting more often, aren’t you?”

“It will be fine.”

“Yevs–”

“End of discussion,” Yeva sighed, “I will handle it, please, Nori, just, just trust me?”

“… Fine, but I’m stepping in if I think things are going south.”

Yeva was right about the rooms being searched, unfortunately, neither of them anticipated Sarah coming in to look over their shoulders.

“Miss Sarah,” Miss Cordelia said, voice polite yet strained, as the three of them were coming into the mortician’s primary room, “to what do we own the intrusion.”

“Miss Cordelia,” Sarah said, in greeting, “I’m just implementing a new system; these scanners are to remain attached to each oil barrel, to keep track of the oil, going in and coming out – it should deter our thieves when they can’t just skim off the top, they also have an anti-tamper system, nifty right, Miss Cordelia.”

“Nifty,” the older woman said, highly unamused as Sarah was heading out, “by the way, Miss Sarah, Khan has Dmitri working with you, correct, did he approve this?”

The younger woman froze a moment before relaxing he posture, “it’s the logical course of action, the thieves want the oil from your storerooms, so make it inaccessible, right?”

“Right.”

Then the woman was out the door.

Cordelia took a breath, then very calmly stated, “one of these days I am going to toss that woman into the wastes and make it look like an accident.” Then she took another breath as she stepped forward before turning to her and Yeva, “please forget I said that.”

She blinked once, then said, “said what, did you hear anything Yevs?”

“Just that today is going to be a headache.”

A headache was a fairly apt assessment, the fortunate thing was that Sarah hadn’t thought to put a scanner on any of the buckets that they used – that and apparently, Cordelia was vindictive enough to let them leave the oil in the buckets for far longer than they usually did before transferring it to the oil barrels. That it wasn’t uncommon for parts to get mixed into the oil buckets meant that they were able to take from the buckets to refill their oil tins, without the levels becoming too suspicious. Still, they were informed that twice a week, their work be would be under observation on the chance that new eyes would notice something that the morticians hadn’t – that the observer was Dmitri was either a blessing or a curse, Nori still wasn’t sure which, but with the way Yeva was glaring at him, it might be closer to the latter.

Dmitri was Group A’s third, as such he was usually the one that was paired with Sarah – likely to temper the woman’s actions. At the moment, he was standing sentry at the door to the primary lab, watching them dismantle three drones for recycling – that he was able to keep such a stoic face in the sight of the macabre image, was truly impressive. Every so often he would circle the lab, looking over their shoulders or patrol the backroom – their oil storeroom. It was after the fifth circle that morning – on the third observation day – that even Cordelia was becoming annoyed.

“Dmitri Nikolai Fotograf,” the woman said, causing the man in question to freeze in his tracks, “with all due respect, young man, this job is difficult enough without you circling like a shark searching for a drop of blood.”

Though they hadn’t been speaking due to their guest, the silence of the room seemed to become stronger in Cordelia’s displeasure.

“Rather than continuing this fruitless endeavor, perhaps you might tell us what exactly, Sarah hopes to accomplish with all this.”

For a moment it appeared – from where Dmitri stood near Yeva, to the right of Cordelia – that he was about to recite a memorized script, before he sighed and moved back to lean against the wall at his standing place near the main door – crossing his arms.

“… All Sarah has – at the moment – is speculation; a monthly stipend of oil to Camp 98.7, two survivors from the same location that and I quote, ‘worked with the dead’, and now oil missing from the area of the factory that the survivors are currently working in.”

“And what pray tell, do you have.”

Here he hesitated, and she could see how Yeva’s eyes tracked his right hand as it hovered over one of his vest pockets before recrossing his arms.

He sighed again, “I have the knowledge that oil has been going missing since long before the implosion happened – I just presumed that drones were taking it for makeshift tirage stations considering the repair situation, pre-implosion – now however …”

“Now?”

“Now, … the near exact amount that has gone missing before has tripled,” he eyed Yeva for a moment, “now though, since the investigation started, that number has decreased to two and a quarter – if the buckets are anything to go by.”

“Just the buckets?”

“Yes.”

“Have you told anyone?”

He stayed silent and something in the air seemed to shift between them – and though their postures never changed, it like watching a matador staring down a bull.

The door burst open, as Khan entered snapping the tension that he noticed in an instant.

“Uh, is there an issue here,” he asked, eyes shifting between the room’s occupants.

“Just talking about Sarah,” Dmitri said rather calmly for what happed been occurring.

“Right,” Khan said, clearly only half believing the statement, “Miss Nori, can I speak with you for a moment?”

“Absolutely,” she said, already removing her work gloves – that she pulled over her lab gloves – and smock, rushing over to him, to pull him out of the room and several doors down the hall from the primary lab.

“So, what did you need me for,” she asked, grateful to have taken some extra oil that morning, as she could already feel her face heating up from being around the factory leader – though it did concern her that Yeva might not be dinking enough.

“I, uh, well … I was wondering?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, with the date being what it is, uh.”

“Yeah?”

“And being the leader I can’t really take that day off, I, I mean I could but, it wouldn’t really be fair, and uh – you see,” he took a breath, “Miss Nori, I know Sunday isn’t the actual date but, will, will you be my Valentine and go on a date with me this Sunday?”

“I … yes, YES, I, I would love to.”

“Great!” He’s so cute when he’s flustered, “so uh, Sunday is a recreation day and Becky was working with the others to organize a Valentine’s festival, to boost morale – so I thought, if you like, we could go together.”

“That sounds perfect; so, uh, Sunday?”

“Yeah, I can pick you up at five if you like?”

“I can do five.”

“Great, then I guess I’ll see you then?”

“Absolutely.”

By the time she had returned to the primary lab, Dmitri and Cordelia were both absent, Yeva, however, was doing lunchtime clean-up.

“Uh,” she started, the change briefly pausing her good mood, “so, uh, how did all that end?”

“… Mister Dmitri is expected in a meeting with Sarah’s investigation team.”

“And Miss Cordelia?”

“She is picking up lunch for us – you seem cheerful.”

“Khan just asked me out!”

“N–,” Yeva paused, before sighing and muttering to herself, “are you, … certain, that is a good idea?”

“I … I won’t deny that I’m nervous, I’ll probably need some extra oil before the date, but … I, I want this.”

Yeva’s eyes were searching for a few moments before she gave another sigh, “alright.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes; I, I do not know how our live will be, going forward, but I know that I want my sisters to be happy.”

She could feel the memories urging her to hold on to them; moving over to Yeva, she gave her a hug that was returned, “… we’ll get her back, and our nephew, I promise, Yevs.”

(~*~)

Before Khan came to pick her up for their date; Yeva had had her drink some extra oil along with a little gift.

“I talk with Miss Cordelia,” Yeva started, “I thought you might want to dress up.”

From under her bed, Yeva pulled out a small paper wrapped package.

“You do not have to wear it, but I thought you might like it.”

Accepting the gift, she opened it to find a black lace shawl covered in embroidered roses with a fastener so she could wear it like a hooded cape.

“Yevs, this, this is beautiful where –?”

“I used some of my work credits,” Yeva said, “they have a lot of delivers that never got to go out so, I thought.”

“It’s perfect, … thank you,” she threw it around her shoulders, fastening it with a dramatic touch as she pulled up the hood and struck a pose, “how do I look?”

Yeva laughed. “… Happy, you look happy; one more thing,” from beneath her pillow she brought out a silver flask that was fastened to a black leather woven string belt, “it’s filled with oil, in case you need a drink.”

The two items felt heavy to her, but regardless, she put on the belt and was relieved to find that the shawl covered the flask of drone life blood.

“Thank you.”

The festival itself was a relatively simple thing; Becky had had her team put up red, pink and white decorations, some from the human’s stores and some clearly handmade. The cafeteria itself had been divided into four categories; a movie area, a dance floor and two eating areas, one for couples and another for those who did not wish to participate. The couple’s area wasn’t open yet, but from the entrance to the room she could see several small tables set up with their own individual tents for privacy.

“The dining area is by reservation,” Khan said, “is by reservation, since they’re individualized.”

Speaking of her, incredibly handsome date, Khan had forgone his usual worker’s jacket for a white button down and dark gray vest.

“I already checked in with Becky, so I thought we could catch one of the movies they’re playing.”

“Sure, did she tell you what it was?”

Becky had interesting tastes, not bad ones, just interesting, the Factory apparently had a cinephile hobby archivist with a full collection dating back to the start of the film industry. The film currently playing, however, was relatively recent, maybe five years before the destruction of earth – give or take a few years. It was a French animated film – the film maker apparently based it on two drones he had had in his youth that he claims helped him survive his difficult childhood. The critics at the time had trashed the film for his over personification of the drones due to the fact that it was told from the drone couple’s perspective. It was fantastical in a way that suggested the escapist mindset of a child in a bad house, and the happy end while pleasant, had a wish fulfillment aspect to it; but it was a nice dream.

“So, what did you think,” Khan asked once the movie had ended as the couple around them were beginning to get up.

“I think I might need to ask Becky for her movie playlist, think the guy made any other films?”

“I don’t think she’d mind if we ask, are you okay though, you looked like you were about to cry.”

Truth was, though it was animated, seeing Earth again – the memories were going to give her a headache before they all came back, a headache and a heartache.

“Yeah, guess I’m more of a sap than I thought – I mean, the ending didn’t even make any sense.”

“I think the ending was supposed to be artsy,” he said with a laugh, “makes me wonder what actually happened.”

At the end of the movie, the male drone, weeping over his wife’s meager grave, is struck by a vision of a deer wearing a crown of flowers that his wife apparently became, and he follows her into the forest, joining her in deer hood while the boy who was now a man remained at the grave in witness.

She had a feeling that the actual ending was far sadder than either of them wanted to consider, still, she humored him, “I bet, they grew wings and flew off to a secret drone kingdom where they reined as King and Queen for ten centuries.”

Khan laughed, and she thinks she’d fall in love all over again, every time she heard it, “aw, just ten – I don’t know I think they could probably go for longer.”

“No comment about the wings?”

“Hm, drones with wings, no that seems accurate.”

Despite her promise to Yeva, she would be lying if she said she was jealous that the Russian got to use her powers – even if the reason wasn’t the greatest.

The Festival Team was an efficient bunch as they guided the drone couples coming out of the movie area to the dining area’s individual seating tents. Each table had a tent made of an orange gold curtain, and a small light at the center, giving the place an intimate feel. There were brief menus at each table and once they gave their order, they were left alone.

“So, Miss Nori, I know this is a strange question but, do I look familiar, at all?”

“If you do, I wouldn’t be able to tell you;” she paused a moment as she debated how much to tell him, “I … the fix Yeva gave me is specifically for my memories – whatever happened during the implosion, messed up my head – I’m supposed to get everything back by the end of the year, but for now …”

“I’m sorry, is there anything I can do?”

“Not really, Yevs just said I need to avoid getting seriously injured before then – though I guess you can tell me why you asked that question?”

“Well, back at the camp, when I first saw you, I had two thoughts, and one of them was that you looked familiar.”

“And the other?”

“That you’re the most beautiful drone I’ve ever seen.”

As dinner went on, she learned a few things about the factory leader; he was a pill-born, the middle of three – he and his younger sister were sold to a facility when they were three. At the facility, due to a mix up, a pair of twins helped Khan and his sister to convince the humans that they were twins, which increased their chances of staying alive. His sister, unfortunately, died of injury and purposeful neglect, a few years into their work at Novea Spei – it was one of the reasons why he was so dedicated to ensuring the best of the best when it can to work safety.

After dinner, they found that the movie area had been turned into a rest place, and as they moved to the outer rim of the dance floor, the Festival Team got to work transforming the dining area into a refreshment station – the music starting low.

“Becky doesn’t miss a beat, does she,” she commented.

“Personally, I’m just hoping she remembered to take a breather.”

“Well, someone’s reminding her,” she continued as she pointed out Waylon on the other side of the dance floor, approaching the event planner with what had to be a clothe rose, “huh, I guess he is a softy.”

“Well now I feel out shone.”

She laughed, taking his hand as the music was kicking up, “then how about you show me your moves.”

The oil in her veins was thrumming, her heart singing as she danced with the factory leader – every swing, hop, slide and spin in sync in a way she never thought possible as he matched her every step. His hand in hers, his arm around her waist, their forms weaving around each other, the music carrying them into the night. She doesn’t know how long they danced before taking advantage of the rest area, laughter keeping them on cloud nine.

“I’ll get us something to drink,” her date said, over the music, “any request?”

“Just coolant for me.”

“Coming right up!”

Speaking of cooling, she could feel herself getting warm, there was likely no danger, but she still took out the flask of oil that Yeva had given her, choosing to nurse it for now.

“Battery acid,” a flat voice asked.

Looking to the right, she found Waylon – in a suit – seated nearby, his own flask in hand.

“Medicine.”

“Hm, same.”

“Don’t like parties?”

“… I’m a core born – facility raised; my parents often visited the Elliots.”

She winced, even through her memory fog, she knew who the Elliots were, if those were the memories he was raised on, she could only imagine the horrors he must have seen.

“And Becky?”

“Said I didn’t have to come,” yet here he was.

“Waylon,” Khan greeted as he came back with two cups of coolant.

“Mr. Dorn.”

“Go easy on the battery acid – at least for you kids tomorrow.”

He simply took another swig from the flask before heading off.

“Dorn,” she asked as she accepted the cup of coolant.

“The humans here, didn’t always let us choose our names – Dorn is what they picked out for me when I became the head of Group B, what do you think?”

She contemplated the name as she took a sip of her drink, “I, it’s like it almost right, just missing a few letters.”

“A few letters, huh – well when you figure out those letters, can you tell me?”

“You’ll be the first to know.”

There was the sound of a microphone coming on, then, “GOOD EVENING, NOVAE SPEI, IS EVERYONE HAVING A GOOD TIME?”

Becky’s words were met with cheers.

“Well, while I would love to let this go on till daylight, it’s nearly time to wrap this up, as such, we’ve got one more song before we turn in for the night.”

At her words, a gentle slow song came on, the stage lights in the cafeteria shifting.

“May I have this dance,” Khan asked, and in the stage lights, among the gentle glow of the surrounding tea lights and the shine coming off of the metallic decorations – she felt as though he was bliss personified.

She must have nodded as her hand found its way into his, his hand holding hers gently, securely, like if she were to fall now, he would keep her standing. On the dance floor, he was closer than he had been all night, as he held her, she swore she could count the pixels of his visor. Her face felt warm, but there was no place she’d rather be.

As the party came to a close, she could still feel a buzzing in her oil veins and Khan suggested taking a walk around the factory, their steps eventually taking them to the edge of a closed off work area.

“What’s this,” she asked.

“This is the entrance to the tunnel that will take us all the way to the bunker outpost that the human’s had planned – this factory is part live in, so lots of families would travel from the outpost to here, the tunnel was supposed to make that easier.”

“How stable is it, right now.”

“Fairly so, but we’re going slow and steady, it should be completed by May or June, considering it’s already dug, just needs to be widened and stabilized; humans tended to be more careful with this stuff when it comes to people who could actually sue for not preventing an unsafe environment.”

“So not as many worries as the rest of the factory.”

“We are making good time of the safety measures though.”

“I’ve noticed,” she had to admit, he had a good work ethic, that combined with how he looked out for the factory drones, it really was no wonder that they had placed him as leader.

She was hesitant, but for Yeva, she needed to ask, “Khan?”

“Yes.”

“I …,” she switched gears, “how long did it take you to get to the camp?”

“Huh, well, the implosion happened just a bit after midnight on the twenty-eighth of Seramorris, so about two weeks; we were concerned about the after tremors, so we were monitoring the area from a distance till we got the signal that it was safe enough to go in without the ground falling out beneath us, add to the fact that it’s a whole day’s journey to get there.”

There was a shameful sort of embarrassment on his face.

“Truth be told, I wanted to go in as soon as possible, because I was concerned about survivors,” he took her hand, “I’m glad that you and your sister are alright, I’m just sad that it took us so long to get to you.”

“Khan, I,” she took a breath, “remember when I told you about this collar?”

“You said it was important.”

“It is, so important, that, Yeva and I, we, we need to go back.”

“Go back, why?”

“I promise, it’s for a good reason, I just, Yeva’s memories are better than mine and, there’s something important that we need to get.”

She couldn’t read the look on his face but eventually, he sighed, “please don’t see this as an excuse, but, right now, I need to focus on the factory; these drones, they’re counting on me to lead them, here.”

“That’s okay, really, but maybe in the future?”

“I think I can work with that, though, truth be told, I’m more concerned with the–”

As she hit the ground, she could feel the world shaking, the alarms blaring, as a voice came over the loudspeakers, “AFTERSHOCK, EVERYONE TO THE NEAREST SHELTER, IF YOU ARE NEAR A CHILD, INJURED, OR DISABLED, THEN BRING THEM WITH YOU!”

“We need to go,” Khan said, bringing her to her feat as he rushed off with her to the closes shelter.

The area they were in was devoid of drone activity, a blessing except for the fact that the only safe area was a construction zone, leaving them far away from the necessary shelter. She could feel her internal gyroscope working overtime to stabilize her as the halls shook. Each twist and turn, as the world fell apart around them, made the corridor stretch on forever. Safety was still too far away – Khan yanking on her hand to pull her out of the way of falling debris – and the realization hit her of what she had to do. Internally she gave Yeva a silent apology as she brought Khan to a stop.

“Nori, we need to keep–” his voice cut off as her wings deployed, his eyes going hollow as she approached him.

“Nori,” his voice was like a whisper.

“We’ll be alright.”

Then she hugged him close, her tail wrapping around them both to keep him secure. With her right hand she brought forth a Solver shield and braced herself against it; then with a breath, she launched herself forward, her wings working double time to get them back to the common area as she dodged falling debris – the shaking of the halls becoming an issue of the past as she stalwartly refused to look down to see Khan’s expression.

It still took far to long but eventually as they came to the entrance of the common area, she tucked in her wings and tail for landing – only holding on to Khan for long enough to make sure he didn’t fall over.

“I,” he was starring at her as another tremor hit, “Khan, I …”

She couldn’t read his expression.

“Khan, Nori,” came the twin shouts, of Cordelia and Ronathan.

“Khan,” Ronathan said, “the central tower complex, the human’s blueprints were wrong, it’s collapsing.”

His eyes were wild as he refocused on Ronathan’s words, “is anyone there?”

“The night team,” Cordelia said, “they said they found oil in the area, and wanted to check without the foot traffic – Dmitri’s headed for the power center, the quakes are overloading the systems.”

“Cordi, gather Group C and D to go help the night team – Waylon, A and B for the working areas, cover Dmitri; I’ll take the rest to handle the civilians and surroundings.”

Just as she was about to rush off Ronathan Waylon stopped him, “you’ll need this.”

Taking the communicator in hand, Khan rushed off, Ronathan doing the same.

“Nori,” Cordelia asked, “are you alright?”

Distantly she could see her face in the reflection of Cordelia’s visor, she could see the symbol of the Solver as it flickered on and off, and yet, the older woman didn’t react beyond give her a hug.

“Give him a chance ma chérie, adrenaline is a wicked drug, so you must show him that nothing has changed.”

“What do I do?”

“You help, you repair, and you defend.”

“… Okay.”

Taking her hand, the older woman pulled her along as they rushed into the disaster area. There was smoke and fire, as by some miracle, the tower that was the central complex was still standing – standing but crumbling from the quakes revealing the years of structural neglect the humans had left behind.

Observing the area, Cordelia shouted over the crowd, to a female drone with white eyes, dark brown hair and a cowgirl hat, “Jo, get your team to the upper levels with hooks, security lines, and pullies, we need to hang the tower – C take the area.”

Immediately, Group C moved to support where D had been, as Jo’s team collected their tools and began climbing the walls to use the rest of the factory to fly the tower.

“Nori, you are with me,” taking out two bandannas, Cordelia handed her one; “it is dark, dusty and far larger than it has any right to be for such a small entrance – so cover up or you will be choking on dust, now follow.”

Imitating the older woman, she wrapped the bandana around her face, covering her mouth, and followed her into the tower. The place was just as she said as Cordelia gave one last note before splitting off, “you can only bring them out one at a time, do what you can.”

The only light came from the door, but even that, became dim the further in she went, distantly between the coughs and calls for help, she heard a familiar sound, but as she looked around, she could find no trace of Yeva’s red, instead, she saw orange.

Cordelia’s words echoed – fine, she knew what to do.

Bringing out her tail, she used it to light the area – only two feet before her but it would have to do. Somehow, the inside of the tower was worse than the outside as she made her way through, calling out and listening, for survivors.

“Hello” a voice called out, “please, is anyone there!”

The drones she found looked like they had tried to protect each other. Their screens were cracked – covered in dust and oil –, some had crushed arms, legs, or some combination of the two. There were ten total.

“I’m here, my name is Nori, I’m going to get you out of here.”

So far as she could tell, their systems would likely have to undergo a full internal repair or reboot, however, their current visual and sensory blindness would be to her advantage. With the Solver she removed the rest of the debris from around them. Using edit, she repaired their limbs and screens to the extent that they could move with her – to the extent that their injuries were still believable while keeping herself from suspicion. Once they were standing, supporting each other, she led them out using the Solver to keep them safe from the collapsing complex.

It took three more trips before – as she came with the last group, her Solver form hidden – she could hear Cordelia calling before she could go back in.

“Nori, wait, that’s the last of the Night team.”

“Shouldn’t we try to stabilize–”

Just as she said those words, the last of the major aftershocks that would happen in the time since the implosion – shook the lower half of the tower free from the top. Through the dust, she felt something like a spider’s claw grab her, and when the dust had cleared, Cordelia was shielding her. Her oil was thrumming in her veins, her heart beating faster than she could ever recall. Looking around, everyone seemed alright till.

“KALI,” Ron’s voice came like a dying scream.

She could see him rushing into the area, what had to have been baby Thaddeus in his arms, Khan and Bianca – a black-haired drone with blue eyes like ice – rushing up behind him. He was running to the tower as Khan and the drone medic attempted to keep him back from the volatile area. Distantly she noted Groups A and B coming in led by Ronathan, with Dmitri and Yeva along with them, looking disheveled.

“LET ME GO,” he screamed as he fought more drones coming forward to hold him back as Jo had yet to give the signal to Group D to lower the top half of the tower.

Cordelia gave a gasp, her hand catching it, “oh … no.”

She looked to the older woman, before turning her gaze in the direction of the half collapsed complex, her eyes going hollow. Just beyond the dust she could make out the sight of a drone head, the body crushed, her arms starched upwards like broken wing as her hands held tight to half collapsed chains that appeared to thread the tower – thread it like it had been the only thing keeping it stable.

“KALI,” came one last scream as Ron fell to his knees, Thaddeus held tight as he wept.

Steeling herself, Cordelia called out to her team. “Group C, Group D” she took a breath, “we, we need to lower the rest of the tower, left side, so we can retrieve the body.”

Before going to direct the others, Cordelia turned to her, “go to your sister, dear; we have it from here.”

She gave a stiff nod, and with a singular backwards glance, she moved over to Yeva.

Her sister looked tired but nothing that some oil, and a good night’s rest, wouldn’t fix; though truth be told, she could see just the barest speck of oil at the corner of her lips. Ronathan had moved to help his wife and Jo, as Dmitri left Yeva’s side to help Ron.

“We should go,” Yeva said, the night had become somber.

She nodded but before they could return to their room, they heard an alert.

“No, no, no,” Ron sounded desperate, “please, not you too.”

“Bianca,” Khan said, “can you do anything.”

“This is an unrecorded virus,” she said, “it has been plaguing the nursery for some time now, Ivan and I have tried to find a cure, but it would move from pill to pill before we could corner it.”

“Well, it is just Thad now,” Dmitri said, “can you help him?”

“Nori–” Yeva started.

“The scanner’s gonna break,” she said, she felt like she was dreaming, yet the world had a clarity to it.

“What,” Yeva asked.

“Their machines won’t work,” she turned to her sister, “Alice should be here.”

Yeva’s breath caught, “Nori, … what do you know?”

“I think we brought the virus; I think I brought the virus.”

“Do you still have it,” Yeva’s right hand was holding her’s, her left was on her face.

“No, … he does,” she said turning to where Bianca was doing everything, she could to keep Thad online.

“Can you help him,” Yeva asked.

“Alice should have been here,” was all she said as she moved forward to the frantic group.

“It is overloading everything,” Bianca said.

“What about the nursery, or the medical office,” Dmitri asked.

“They’re both blocked off,” Khan said, “it would take to long.”

“Ron,” she called to them.

They must not have heard her come over from the startled looks on their faces.

“I can help, I, I’ve seen this virus, I can contain it, please.”

She can only assume it was their desperation, but they gave Thad over to her.

Kneeling down, her shawl enshrouded her and the pill as she gestured for them to pass her the medical kit; reaching in she took a charging wire and connected her core to the drone babe.

Yes, she knew this virus; it was like a honey virus but in this case the gold was Cyn. She had no doubt this was one last bit of revenge that would have revealed itself had she had a child of her own. As she wasn’t Thad’s mother, she would be unable to remove it properly but as a Solver, as one who used to work closely with Cyn, she could contain the virus withing the pill, to keep it from escaping and keep it from harming the boy that had just become an orphan.

It was sometime before they heard Thad cooing, before he gave a yawn and settled down to rest for the night.

She unplugged herself – hiding the fact that the charging cord could no longer be unplugged from her core – and handed the pill baby back to Ron.

“I can’t remove it, and it can’t run anymore, but it shouldn’t be able to hurt him.”

“Contained is enough,” Bianca said, “thank you, we will take it from here.”

She could hear Ron muttering ‘thank you’s as he held Thad close, rocking the pill baby.

(~*~)

That night passed quietly, as did the next day and the rest of the week. Cordelia had taken one of the private rooms to take care of Kali’s body and prepare her box for the funeral – the funeral, itself was held a week later on Sunday the twentieth. It was a quiet affair, everyone in the factory who had known John Mathews and been in attendance to pay their last respects to the only drone who could ever keep up with him. Though she hadn’t thought it would have been appropriate, Ron had asked her and Yeva to be in attendance – something she suspected that was due to her saving Thad

As for the pill, though the baby had yet to be properly adopted by anyone, Ron had taken to carrying the kid around, either in arm or by using a wrap. The man was even taking his mealtimes in the nursery so he could be with the baby. This continued for some time after till she caught sight of Cordelia and Ronathan sitting down with the drone man, two personal affects boxes at their side – boxes that belong to Thad’s parents.

It was the last day of February – Monday the twenty-eighth – when Khan came to the mortician’s primary room where she was working with Yeva and Cordelia – Dmitri supervising, yet the man appeared far more relaxed then when he was first given the post.

“Miss Nori,” Khan started, “may speak with you.”

“Uh, sure?”

He was waiting for her outside the workroom door, by the time she had removed her work smock and gloves.

“Hey,” she greeted.

“Hi,” he started, “I uh, … Cordi told me about how you helped her rescue the Night team, so thank you, for that and for saving Thad.”

“No problem, … I just wish I could’ve saved Kali, how’s Ron doing anyway?”

“He’s surviving, Ronathan and Cordelia are helping him and Thad, I … Kali was a factory print, she and Ron were made the same day from the same machine.”

“A factory print, with green eyes?”

“Ha, yeah, Ron knows the whole story, but apparently the machine broke down with her inside; a human repaired her, brought her online.”

“And that give a factory print green eyes?”

“I guess.” He was quiet for a moment, and she could see what he wanted to ask. “I, … Nori, … what … you did, … does it have to do with the camp?”

“… Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Now what,” she asked.

“Now, there’s probably a million things I should do.”

“And what will you do?”

“Publicly, I’m going to ensure that a valuable member of our work force is given everything she and her sister needs; privately, I wanted to ask if you wouldn’t mind a second date.”

“Really, even after,” she made a small gesture, miming her wings.

Khan looked bashful, “if I’m honest, they’re kind of cute.”

She could feel her face heating up, “uh so a date?”

“Yeah, maybe this Friday?”

“Friday works.”

“Great, see you then?”

“Yeah.”

Their second date was a small picnic that Khan had set up on the staff lounge that the humans once used. It was quieter, simpler, but she wouldn’t have given it up for anything. After that they scheduled their next date for two Fridays later. Though, earlier in the week leading to the date, she had found a small package of expertly crafted handmade candies batteries set on her worktable with a small note that said, ‘Happy White day, with love’ – she must have been insufferable that week as she waited for the night of her third date with Khan – not that the two of them didn’t hangout even during their off time.

Though it seemed she wasn’t the only one, as when she went to grab some supplies from the closet a few doors down from the primary room, she opened the door to find Yeva and Dmitri, locking lips. She had to stick around Cordelia for protection after making a joke to Yeva about Dmitri giving the Russian the perfect birthday present.

As time passed, Ron eventually adopted Thad on the second Friday of April. She and Khan, meanwhile, continued their dates, at the end of every other week, with Yeva pointblank rejecting the notion of a double date – though she knew the Russian was meeting with Dmitri for her own dates. Eventually, between Khan, Dmitri and Cordelia, they were finally able to get Sarah to drop the oil investigating while agreeing, that she and Yeva needed to meet with Ivan and Bianca – Doctor Patient confidentiality assured. With their backing, she and Yeva were able to get the necessary stipend of oil, with the rest of the factory being none the wiser.

“So, you can smell the difference,” Khan asked while they were on their fifth Friday date.

“Difference, health, the works.”

“Did you have a favorite?”

If Bianca, Ivan, and Yeva noticed that she didn’t need as much oil for breakfast, they didn’t say a word – unrelated, Khan had Becky handle the Saturday morning announcements, due to a “hangover”. Also unrelated, the massive side eye Bianca gave Yeva when Dmitri came in the week before, due to his own, “hangover”.

(~*~)

It was funny, both she and Yeva claimed that they weren’t superstitious but when Khan asked for her hand in marriage all she could think was that it needed to be a June wedding. Dmitri had also recently asked Yeva to marry him – their wedding was scheduled for May twenty-sixth.

“So, why that day,” she had asked her sister as they browsed the clothing that hadn’t been delivered for proper wedding attire.

“The tunnel to the bunker was completed last week along with any necessary repairs that were made to the Outpost,” Yeva started as she considered a rather plain looking wedding dress, before switching her gaze to something more traditional, “and the heads have been in rotation preparing the place for proper living arrangements.”

“Yeah, and?”

Khan had already told her this, Outpost 3 was like a small city or a large village due to its size – he had already posted a map of the place and sign ups so people could figure out which living arrangements would be best.

“Khan said that they are ‘cutting the ribbon’ on May twenty-seven, but that any married couples and families could move in the night before.”

Meaning Yeva and Dmitri get married on Thursday and move into their new home right after the wedding celebration. She could respect that, it’s not like the wedding day she chose was any better, but it wasn’t her fault that June first fell in the middle of the week.

In the days leading up to the weddings, Becky was a massive aid, but at times she kind of wanted the woman to take a breather. That was the thing with drone women who were with code, they tended to get a massive burst of energy in the time leading up to the due date – they also tended to crash harder when they finally did rest, not that that seemed to matter to the woman. Her husband was another matter, as despite his expression never changing from its neutral look, he was clearly doing his best to get his wife to rest. When she asked the woman why they were putting so much effort into everything, was when Becky finally seemed to pause.

“Okay, so admittedly, this might be a bit of wish fulfillment on my part,” Beck started, “I don’t regret getting married the way I did, and I’m happy that my little girl will be arriving soon, but I do kind of wish I had waited to have a proper ceremony.”

The woman took a breath.

“Then there’s the other thing,” Becky paused a moment as she considered her words, “we are our own people now, but with that comes the fact that we have to measure our own checks; except for Khan, all our head are dead, but we still have all our seconds and thirds – I don’t know if he already told you this, but it was due to an internal struggle that Group B was almost completely scrapped.”

Becky let out a mirthless chuckle before continuing.

“Khan and I, we were going to be linked then made to created two dozen pills before we were sent to our deaths, as for my husband – Super Suppressors aren’t allowed to reproduce – since he was in Group B, they were going to perform an exploratory dissection.”

Her gaze looked haunted.

“Ron said Aimes – that’s the human who saved Kali way back then – he said that Aimes was trying to save us; I don’t know if he would have succeeded, but after the implosion I was so happy to be alive, that Waylon was alive, and well, one thing lead to another, but I don’t regret it, I don’t think I ever could.”

The unborn code in her core seemed to recognize her mother’s gentle joy.

“Khan was our only head left,” she continued after a moment, “but standard protocol means that the seconds become heads and the thirds, seconds while a new third is chosen after an evaluation; so, you can imagine who challenged him for control of the colony at the first available moment considering that he was the head of Group B.”

She could imagine, though Khan had been able to put the oil investigation to a satisfactory rest, Sarah was still a constant thorn as she attempted to subtly undermine the Factory Leader’s authority.

“Maybe it’s petty,” Becky continued, “but I’m hoping that with the effort we’re putting into these weddings, that it’ll reenforce the authoritorial hierarchy – that it will say, the colony has spoken, this is our leader, this is how we want things; this is good, and it need not change.”

So, funnily enough, it didn’t hit her that she was becoming the wife of the Colony leader – and by proper standard, co-leader – till early morning of Yeva’s wedding.

They were currently in the medical wing due to the fact that Becky and Waylon’s little girl apparently wanted to be physically present at Yeva’s wedding.

“I don’t think I can do this Yevs,” she said, doing her best to keep down her breakfast oil.

Yeva just raised a brow at her.

“Don’t give me that look, that last time I was a leader, was in a cult; I can’t lead these drones!”

“Fascinating,” Yeva said, “do I need to bring out another tin of Khan’s oil?”

“That was a dirty trick, and you know it; besides not mauling someone isn’t the same as not leading people down the wrong path.”

“Really, so you know everything that should not be done, retrospect truly is twenty-twenty.”

She didn’t really have a response to that.

“You will be fine Nori, besides, as your husband, Khan is meant to cover your faults and reenforce your strengths just as you will do for him – you will soon be his co-leader meaning the two of you will stand together; what’s more, you will have the seconds, thirds and co’s standing with you – Cyn and Emmet isolated you, but you don’t have to be alone anymore.”

Yeva’s words echoed through her head for the rest of the day as Elizabeth Borden Fishers was transferred into her pill body; the girl’s pink eyes having inherited her father’s bored look but with a touch of attitude that was all her mother’s. The Echo of Yeva’s words continued as they prepared for the wedding, through out the ceremony, and on to the after party as she gave her Maid of Honor speech – Khan having been the Best Man.

As they danced, Khan holding her close, she found that while she was still nervous, it didn’t seem so daunting. Yeva and Dmitri left the party at nine with Becky promising to get their wedding gifts delivered to them the next day an hour after lunch. As the party was closing for the night – an hour after the newlyweds had left – Khan had asked her while they worked on clean up, if she was heading back to her room after; she told him that Cordelia and Ronathan had invited her to stay over at their new apartment in the Outpost till her own wedding.

Ronathan and Cordelia Waylon’s apartment was small yet spacious, the perfect home for people who would likely invite their grandchildren over. On the first of June, the day of her own wedding, she could feel the nerves returning, and apparently Cordelia had noticed.

“Deep breaths, Nori,” Cordelia started as she brought out the wedding dress, it was simple, traditional, something she imagines her oldest code sister would have chosen, were she allowed – it was why she picked it. She was already wearing her redesigned, redecorated collar.

“Cordi, were you nervous on your wedding day?”

That question brought the older woman to a pause.

“Nathan and I knew each other for many years before we were wed, we had petitioned our masters to allow it, we figured, they were rich and seemed – at the time – the type to keep their pills; so while I was nervous, it wasn’t for the same reason I imagine you are.”

“Cordi … do I seem like I could be a good leader?”

“Do you want an honest answer?”

She nodded.

“No, right now, you look scared that one wrong move will bring the end of Copper 9, however, if you were to ask me if I think you will eventually be a good leader, then the answer is yes; one day you will wake up and lead as easily as you breath, and you won’t know when it started, but that won’t matter.”

She held on to those words as she went through the pre-wedding medical checks – in the Outpost’s new medical center – to ensure that her program would be able to accept the marriage link, then a thought occurred to her just as Bianca gave her the ‘all clear’.

“Hey, Doc,” she stared.

“Yes, Miss Nori,” Bianca asked.

“I know the doctor patient confidentiality is important but I gotta ask, did Yeva ask if she would be able to have a core born?”

“… You want to be a mother?”

“I … it’s never really been on the books for me, and now with the whole oil thing …”

“If you like, I can do an examination of your core.”

She hesitated before giving a nod, leaning back in the examination chair as Bianca plugged the computer line into her core and brought out her scanner.

Yeva had told her that their little sister was now a mother – that their nephew was a pill born – but that made her curious. Drone Law states that a married drone couple had to produce a pill before they were allowed to have a core born. You would think that law was in place for some reason like, it was the only way to start the ability to reproduce but the answer was actually much simpler. If a drone woman was with code, she couldn’t aid in the production of a pill born till after the code in her core was transferred into its own body. Naturally, this disgruntled J.C. Jenson – anything that slowed the production of new servants, disgruntled them – but considering they couldn’t find any way to tamper with the drone systems to get passed this piece of program script, they instead implemented a new drone law.

But now the humans were gone, and there was no one who could force her to be a servant baby factory; whatever child she had would be hers to love and care for, and no one would be able to take away her parental admin.

After Bianca had given her the ‘all clear’, she met with Yeva, Becky and baby Elizabeth back at Cordelia and Waylon’s apartment.

“How are you doing Nori,” Becky asked, “Cordi said you were nervous.”

“Just jitters, I guess,” she said as she took a seat on the bed she had been using in the guest room, “hey, Yevs, how’s the married life?”

“It is, nice …,” Yeva shook her head, appearing lost in thought. When she spoke again it was to the whole room, “forgive me, I, I left my parents when I was thirteen; we were the only three drones in our household – our masters were pleasant, and my parents had a good standing with them – I suppose it has only now occurred to me how different my life would have been if I hadn’t left.”

And she could understand that; what would have happened if she, Yeva or Alice hadn’t volunteered? In truth, she didn’t want to consider it … she didn’t want to consider it.

In that moment it was like a light finally turned on in her mind. For all the hardships, for all her terrible choices … she didn’t want a different life. Yes, she wishes she hadn’t listened to Cyn and Emmet – that was one regret she would carry for a long time – but the choice of volunteering for the labs, of getting to meet her sisters, of being here, at Novae Spei, at Outpost 3; this is where she wanted to be.

For as daunting as the future seemed, there was no place she’d rather be as she walked down the aisle, her eyes never leaving Khan’s for a second even as they sat in the chairs whose shackles had been removed – no longer would they be a sign of drones chained to one another, now they would be a sign of a willing and loving union.

Ivan was officiating the ceremony as the head most doctor of the colony, considering what the process of linking two drones in marriage, called for.

“Dearly beloved of the Colony of Outpost three,” Ivan began, “we are gathered here today to witness the union of Khan Dorn and Nori Fever.”

She kind of hated the fact that the chairs were faced towards the crowd, but she kept her eyes on Khan – his smile doing wonders to calm her racing heart as she finally tuned back in to Ivan’s speech about love, choice and the freedom to be people and not chattel.

“Now seeing as there are no objections,” Ivan continued, “Mister Khan, do you take this young woman to be your wife, to love and honor, to respect and aid, to guide and accept guidance from, to guard and care for, to work with her, in sickness and health, through everything your lives may hold, till your code ceases to be.”

“I do.”

“And Miss Nori, do you take this young man to be your husband to love and honor, to respect and aid, to guide and accept guidance from, to guard and care for, to work with him, in sickness and health, through everything your lives may hold, till your code ceases to be.”

“I do.”

“Khan,” Ivan said, “if you will.”

“Nori, I know you might not remember, but on our first date, when I told you that you looked familiar it was for a reason – and I did double check my memory – I was ten when I visited an embassy where I attended a tea ceremony being done by a young drone girl; a drone girl that I now know was you.”

Her breath caught another memory slid into place.

“I thought of that day for many years, never thinking I would see her again, then, at the camp, when I saw you, it was like the memory was only yesterday – and when I pulled you from the snow, our hands sparked; I believe I fell in love with you that day, and every day since, it has only grown and there is nothing more I’d rather do then to continue to grow this love with you.”

“Nori,” Ivan prompted.

“… Khan,” she gave a huffed laugh, “– you kind of derailed me here – my memories aren’t the best, but around you, they seem to come back faster, you give me an ease that I haven’t felt in a long time, a sense of safety, of purpose – I see you and how you care for everyone and I want to work alongside you, I want to be your support.”

She took a breath, “many of my memories are unpleasant, but I remember the tea ceremony, I remember the little drone boy who made me laugh when your handler’s phone kept interrupting, and in the time I’ve known you since the camp, I’ve found that I want to keep making memories with you.”

Then Ivan spoke, turning to Bianca, “wires please.”

Bianca moved a small computer cart, just behind and between the two chairs, the screen facing away from the crowd and towards Ivan. From the computer came a ‘Y’ cord with the tail already plug in – the two heads were handed off, one to her and one to Khan; these, in essence, would be their rings.

“Mister Khan, please repeat after me; Nori, with this cord, I wed thee.”

“Nori, with this cord, I wed thee,” and as though he were handling porcelain, Khan gently plugged the cord into the back of her head.

“Miss Nori, please repeat after me; Khan, with this cord, I wed thee.”

“Khan, with this cord, I wed thee,” and as carefully as she could, she plugged the wire into the back of Khan’s head.

“Now,” Ivan said, “if you’ll both lean back in your chairs.”

In her mind she could see the broken parental link that she once held with her parents, she could see the sister link she still held with Yeva and the one she once held with Alice; now she could see a new link coming into existence as her marriage link with Khan, settled in like it was always meant to be.

It was a few moments more till Ivan spoke again, “and now to the witnesses present, I now present, Mr. and Mrs. Dorn – you may now kiss the bride.”

If the Crucifix Patch gave her, her freedom, then this kiss had to be life. Whatever her future held, she wasn’t afraid anymore – she would handle the past as it came, but this was her life, and she would give it her all.

The celebration afterwards would never be able to match the joy in her heart and in the week after – her honeymoon – she couldn’t recall a memory where she ever felt more loved.

She came back to work, the Wednesday after her wedding, her heart still singing. She like most family people, had taken her breakfast in her apartment – and wasn’t that a novel thought. She and Khan had chosen the place together – it wasn’t too far from Yeva, Becky, Cordelia and Ron’s respective homes, but the only other place that was an untaken apartment across the hall. It was secluded without being isolated a detail she enjoyed as she and Khan met up with the others as they were emerging from their homes to travel to the factory. There were plans to move some of the less factory-oriented jobs over to the outpost, but that would come in time.

The tunnel had two primary modes of transportation, the walkways on either side of the tunnel and the two-way center road with train carts that would roll along tracks to transport drones to and from the Outpost and the factory – on the hour. As this was the morning shift, both cart trains were already beginning to fill up as they all took their seats.

“So,” Becky started, as Elizabeth went back to sleep in the pink baby sling her mother was wearing, “how’s the married life?”

“It’s nice.”

“Just nice,” Yeva asked with a slight glance at her core.

When a drone is a core born, they don’t always, immediately, show in their mother’s core; case en point, she and Khan had only noticed the fluctuations in her core, during today’s breakfast.

“You’re with code,” Becky said just barely managing to keep her voice low.

She just nodded; it was a little overwhelming – she could see tears in Cordelia’s eyes.

“Cordi?”

The older woman gathered herself before speaking, “hold them close Nori, and never let them go; alright?”

And in that moment, Cordelia’s words from the day of her wedding hit her hard.

“I will,” what else could she say to a woman who had her own children taken away.

It was a week later that Yeva revealed that she was also with code; her reason for not speaking sooner being that while her core was showing fluctuations, they were slow and far apart. While she would have liked to have said something sooner, she had wanted to wait for the fluctuations to be stronger.

Time passed in an easy way as she slowly took to her second job as Khan’s co-leader. She still worked in the Mortician’s Hall, but now it was second to helping her husband in ensuring the colony and the factory was running smoothly along with keeping good relations with the other outposts. Towards the end of the month – June thirtieth – they celebrated her birthday. Her memories were coming back a little quicker, but the blanks between and the blurry details were still a matter to deal with. Many times, over Ivan and Bianca had offered to help, but there was something in her that said that for all the horrors the two had likely seen at Novae Spei, that they didn’t deserve to have to bear witness to the horrors of the labs.

Five months went by in a blink, when on October twenty-ninth – a Saturday –, not long from daybreak, she and Khan had to rush to medical, where Yeva’s core was already hooked up to a newly printed pill shell. Ivan and Bianca, taking notice of her own reason for being there, split their duties – Ivan remaining with Yeva and Dmitri while Bianca directed her to her own medical chair the begin the process of transferring her little girl into her own preprepared, newly printed pill shell.

Doll Fotograf was officially born, half an hour before sunrise – Uzi, however, was dying.

With Doll firmly in her shell, Ivan worked with Bianca to stabilize the UNN code.

Sometimes during the transfer between core and pill, there are complications. Sometimes the code is too weak, lacking the proper infrastructure to live outside their mother’s core. Sometimes, as prepared as the shell is to welcome the UNN, there might still be an incompatibility. And sometimes, there’s just something in the child’s code that won’t let them live, something that might not be discovered until it’s too late.

The world didn’t seem real anymore; her heart had stopped, her oil had run dry – the world was going dark.

Her left hand!

Looking to her left, there was Khan. His eyes were hollow, but the set of them … he hadn’t given up. She could feel how tightly he held her hand in both of his. She took a breath and finally heard what the doctors were trying to tell her.

“Nori,” Bianca said, “you need to go inside your programming, talk to her.”

She didn’t say a word as she nodded, Ivan approaching with a ‘Y’ cord with a box at its center. Drones could access their own programming vary easily – links, like the one she held with Khan, like the one they both held with their unborn daughter, was a way they could communicate with each other. The Communication cord would be hooked up between them and her core to allow for a deeper connection.

Khan sat down on a cupped back stool they brought for him to sit next to her. It would be like they were asleep as they fought for their daughter’s life.

Her eyes closed and opened once more in a world that she knew was the brightened void.

She could feel her Solver form coming forth and heard Khan breath next to her – she would be lying if she said that the way her looked at her didn’t make her heart feel warm.

He took her hand, “let’s find our girl.”

She nodded.

Despite the brightness, it was still a journey as they worked through her code to find their girl. Memories, old, new, blurred and clear were passed by. Every so often, she caught sight of Khan’s eyes lingering on a memory and she felt nerves that she knew he could see as every memory was held together by the emotions of the moment and the new ones built in reaction to the recollection. But despite everything he saw – what sound that could be heard, blurring together – he just held her hand tighter.

When they came to the memories she had regained from the labs – he closed his eyes.

“I want you to be the one to tell me;” was all he said, and she felt relief.

Through memories, emotions and programing, they eventually came to a part of her mind that appeared more tangled than everything else, and she just knew.

She could recall a memory. Alice was raised by a drone behavioral specialist – just a fancy way of saying, drone psychologist – she had told her once, that even optimal suppressors can suppress too much, when they do, something is bound to break.

Right in front of her, was her fear. Fear of the past, for the present, and for the future – and right now, it was choking her daughter.

“Nori,” Khan said, his eyes still closed, “are you okay, what’s happening?”

“I, I found her.”

While she and Khan’s digital forms resembled their physical selves, their daughter was like a purple star, but that star was fading.

Without looking, Khan began moving forward, pulling her along as she did her best to keep them from becoming tangled as well. Kneeling down in the mess felt like embracing a spider’s web, but still, she directed Khan’s hands so they could both hold on to the fading star. With every thread they removed, two more appeared and Uzi’s light became dimmer.

“Nori,” Khan spoke, “breath with me, I can’t do this alone, she needs both of us.”

She remembered asking Alice how an optimal suppressor was supposed to handle the things they suppressed.

“You face them,” Alice had said, “maybe not all at once, but even an amnesiac will have to deal with the trauma eventually.”

Alright.

She was afraid.

Some part of her knew that her daughter was probably going to be a Solver – but she wouldn’t be alone.

She would be there for her, so would Yeva and Alice, when they saved her little sister.

Uzi wouldn’t be alone; she’d have Doll and her other cousin.

She knew what not to do and though she wasn’t likely to show her Solver form in public, she knew that Khan would accept their daughter, wings and all.

She’d have to deal with the memories with her regrets over her past actions, but she wouldn’t let the past keep her from her daughter.

When she blinked again, she found herself back in the medical center … she could hear yawning and cooing. To her left Khan was crying, but the smile on his face was the brightest thing in the world.

“Nori,” Bianca said, “can you hear me?”

She nodded and the doctor smiled before continuing.

“Someone would like to meet you.”

And there in her arms was her daughter, the screen of her pill shell was lit up with the most beautiful purple eyes she had ever seen.

Uzi was born, just a half hour after sunrise.

It was a bit before her heart stopped racing, Yeva and Dmitri coming into the room with their own little girl.

She laughed, holding her daughter up for the Russian family to see, “hey Yevs, looks like our girls are twins.”

Purple haired twins at least when the doctors finished with the medical checks.

If her wedding was the happiest day of her life, then November was the happiest month; so of course it would come to an end.

The first vision came on the first of December. When she came out of it, the living room was a reck and she could hear Uzi crying.

“Nori,” Khan called, as he did his best to sooth their girl, but she could barely hear him, her whole being, captured by the things she had written and drawn in her own oil.

His hand landed gently on her shoulder – she was kneeling – rushing to her feet, she took hold of his shoulders, Uzi cries were a distant thought.

“Doors, we need doors,” she started, “we’re not safe, we need to reenforce the windows, and the tunnel; the Outpost, the factory they have too many vulnerabilities, we need to go into lock down – they’ll come out of the shadows, they’ll kill us.”

“Nori?”

“We need reenforced doors, two, no, ten at each entrance; we can’t leave not even when it’s light – the sky demons, we need to build doors, against the coming sky demons.”

There were many more visions, and she knew Khan had spoken to Yeva, but she didn’t care because soon Khan had given the order, and plans were made and implemented.

Between the construction, and the other work of the factory and outpost, they rarely saw each other. Uzi was usually with Khan while she isolated herself in the apartment workroom, drawing up plan after plan. They were incredibly ruff; Khan was the architect, the programmer, but she knew he could read her work and make the needed adjustments.

The light came on in the room – she hadn’t even realized it was off.

“Nori, someone wants to see you.”

“Huh, oh hey, is it lunch time already?”

“Actually, it’s dinner.”

“Oh, … I guess I’ll eat in here, I need to finish these.”

Rather than saying anything, Khan sat to her left, on the bench she was using at the worktable. He rested Uzi on the table, his arm blocking her from rolling off the side.

He was quiet a moment before he spoke, “do you know how I convinced the team to go through with the project?”

She made a sound for him to continue.

“I told them that it was good reinforcement against the toxic death storms and whatever debris they might pick up.”

She paused.

“You don’t believe me,” she finally said, his breath catching, both of them very aware of the multitude of drawings and writings plastered on every wall of the room along with the symbol on the ceiling.

“… I …,” he paused, “I’m not sure what to think … I’ll finish the reinforcement, …”

“But?”

“You’ve lock yourself away, and I don’t know how to reach you … Dmitri told me he overheard you and Yeva arguing.”

He was changing the subject. Khan had given Yeva the approval to put together a team so they could head back to the camp; it would take time to plan and now even longer with the building project – Yeva had asked her to help, and she had shut her down in favor of the project.

The colony or their little sister; they couldn’t save them both. Alice was in a snake’s nest and the drones here weren’t equipped to handle it, not on so short notice, not with the coming threat. She knew the Russian was still putting together a team, Dmitri and Ron were on it, even Cordelia was going to go with them. But she couldn’t not when their time was running out.

“Nori, I may not understand, but I’m still going to help you, but please don’t lock me out, you have a family here and we need you with us.”

The world felt heavy, like she had reached her three hundred years.

“I’m doing this for us.”

“I understand that, but you can’t help anyone if you stay locked up in here; we need you out there, Uzi and I need you.”

His right arm rested around her.

“We’re cutting the ribbon next week; we recently finished the prototype on the primary door, the factory is all set, but everyone wants to celebrate – we’ve never been able to celebrate the first of Seramorris, I guess now seems like a better time than any, the weather will be good.”

She didn’t say anything.

“It’ll be Uzi’s first time outside.”

She finally turned to look at him – he started wearing the mustache again, just a few days after Uzi was born.

She sighed, “alright.”

He smiled and they heard a devious giggle, as she turned just in time to catch Uzi before she rolled off her end of the worktable.

Their little girl had rolled right into an ink puddle she had been meaning to clean up, that ink now made a ring around her pill shell and an ink line across her latest blueprint – the mark underlining the new last name she had come up with for their family – done in a fit of delusion, but Khan seemed to like it.

“Uzi,” she scolded only for Khan to laugh.

“I think we have an architect on our hands,” he gestured at the line that had been drawn and erased, a hundred times over, the line that Uzi had made was as close to perfect as it could be.

She sighed as Uzi gave Khan her own laugh to accompany his, before her screen gave a beep to tell them she was hungry – as if the alert over the parental admin wasn’t enough.

“A hungry architect apparently.”

(~*~)

It happened on a Sunday, the first day of Seramorris. They were having fun. Dmitri had even brought out an upgraded version of an old polaroid camera so of course, Khan wanted a family photo; but as happy as everyone was, she couldn’t feel the same, even as she held the picture.

It happened after nightfall, when she and Yeva no longer needed their metal parasols to protect them from the sun. They still weren’t on speaking terms, but she hoped her sister would be able to forgive her one day.

It happened so quickly, all she could see was Khan holding Uzi, keeping the door open for just one more drone. The demons were like animals, and she could see the biggest one closing in on the family she had been ignoring for the past month.

All she could feel was pain as her body failed her, her regeneration, unable to keep up with the burning that covered her body.

Then there was nothing.

When she woke up, the world was much bigger, and the cold realization hit her.

Her body was dead.

“Nori,” that was Cordelia, “I know you can hear me – you do not have to say anything – we, we are in the Mortician’s Hall; you should know, Uzi and Doll they are like you and Yeva.”

Cordi paused.

“I am supposed to prepare your box, but we could fix you, and you can come back – it will be a miracle – please Nori, your family needs you; I do not know what they did to Yeva, but I believe they were pinging her, she is not in a good state right now.”

She could hear Cordelia moving and a door opening.

“There is everything you need to repair yourself; I need to check on the others.”

(Part of her still wonders if Cordelia actually knew she was alive or was just hoping.)

She left, that night after gathering a few things that were in her box – that she had been carrying during the attack.

Her black lace shawl was in taters, but she could use the scraps, a black cloth flower from her wedding bouquet, the hat she had fastened it to would need to be adjusted but she could still use it. Then there were the photos. One was partially eaten through with acid; the other was of Uzi – she took the second one. She would leave behind her necklace for her daughter.

Uzi was like her, and now Cyn had sent her army to Copper 9.

Yeva was right, they needed to return to the camp, they needed the patch.

It took her twenty-six days to reach the camp, traveling by night due to her aversion to daylight, and dogging the murder pet’s nightly patrols – closing her ears against the death cries in the dark.

Reaching the camp, she discovered the primary building had sunk onto the ground, the infostructure around it, torn to shreds. Inside was a nightmare; gone was her gentle little sister, as she held back the surviving cult drones as they rebelled against her in wake of Cyn’s army. In Alice’s arms was her own son, held close and with care. The babe was unconcerned as his mother split oil with knife, in hand and in tail. The blue-eyed child was unbothered as the antlers Alice wore – decorated with blades a plenty – were used to gut one drone after another.

For a moment she thought to just in to help when the words of the cult drones became clearer. They were waiting for her, they were waiting for ‘Nori, Servant of Cyn’ and as Alice denounced her, a realization came over her.

Yeva had told her that when Alice had received the test patch, that it had corrupted her memories; evidently, it had erased the case Yeva had made for her – it had erased the memory of her apology. If she went out there, it would be a disaster.

So once more she turned away from her family, for their sake.

With how small she was, she wouldn’t need a keybug as she made her way thought the air vents that were only small enough for a Solver heart.

It was the twenty-eighth of Seramorris – right after midnight – when she made it back to the cathedral.

She would find the patch.

She had to …

(~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~)

Beau's Prologue | Alice's Prologue

Nori's Prologue | Prev | Nori Chapter 4 | Next

#Murder Drones #Murder Drones fanfic #In Remembrance of Unspoken Memories #For Your Sake #For Your Sake - Chapter 4 #Nori Doorman #002 Nori #Murder Drones Nori #Nori Murder Drones #048 Yeva #Murder Drones Yeva #Yeva Murder Drones #Khan Doorman #Murder Drones Khan #Khan Murder Drones #Khori #Murder Drones Khori #Outpost 3

19 notes · View notes

crossroads-of-the-raven · 2 months ago

Text

Giving Testimony - Chapter 2: 048 Yeva | a Murder Drones story

This is Yeva's entire time at Cabin Fever

Enjoy everyone :D

(~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~)

The collector had loaded Yeva into a truck trailer where she was laid into a drone travel pod that would keep her in sleep mode until she was awoken at the camp.

She must have been the first pick up, Yeva thought to herself as she stepped into her pod, noting the rest of the pods were still empty.

When Yeva was reawakened, her systems registered that it was now the end of the month, and she wondered if travel had really taken that long or if she was just meant to believe it had taken that long.

The drone technicians were making the rounds of the pods, the woman in front of Yeva, checking over something before directing her from the pod and out of the truck where she filed into line with several other drones who must have also been volunteers for how calm the guards appeared. Looking around, Yeva couldn’t tell where on Copper 9 she was beyond the small sign that clearly displayed the words, ‘Cabin Fever Labs’.

They must have a location scrambler, she thought to herself, and likely a system to prevent deserters.

More than likely, she would be later informed; for now, though, Yeva, and the rest of the female volunteers from her carrier, were directed to a building where they were each given a bag with a hospital gown.

“Once you’re dressed, place your original clothes in the bag for collection, these bags will be placed into storage – after, line up to be taken to morning announcements.”

The clothes she had worn were her Sunday best, as opposed to her general household uniform, and distantly, Yeva wondered, as she put her clothes into a bag labeled, ‘Yeva of the Krupin family’, if they would even fit after all was said and done, or if she would soon outgrow them during her time at the labs. Continuing on, she and the other female drones were soon directed to an auditorium like cafeteria that had a stage set up at one end where the scientist were gathering. Around the room there were guards standing at attention, evidently focused on both the exits and the drones who were likely not voluntarily here. For the most part, as everyone was filing in Yeva noted that there were, relatively speaking, fewer drones in the room than the trucks she had seen would suggest – it was likely that, morning announcements would be done in cycles due to the room being unable to hold all the participants.

As Yeva walked about the crowd, she was able to catch bits and pieces of information from both drone and human – she deduced then that the scientist on the stage were specifically the ones in place for the drones in the room, the rest awaiting their turn, elsewhere. They almost appeared to be waiting, for what was soon answered as the doors to the room opened to let in an escorted scientist. Something in her mind told her to watch him and her eyes tracked him till he was almost at the stage, the crowd parting just enough for the Russian to make out a small red-headed drone girl at his side, holding his hand. When the two were only a few yards away from the stage, he knelt down and the two embraced before he left for the stage, the drone girl watching him till he was at his appointed spot. An unspoken conversation almost appeared to be had despite the distance between them before the drone girl began circling the room, herself.

Curious, Yeva thought, admittedly suspicious of the interaction.

The girl was dressed like the rest of them, but something seemed off to Yeva. She was well aware that household drones could have close relationships with their masters, but to the level she had just witnessed much less between a child drone and a fully grown human. She did not want to assume, but she had heard horror stories due to her masters connections. The earliest of such stories she had heard had been when she was three – the poor drones, she thought as she remembered; it had been three drones, a man, a woman and a boy of ten, who had been owned by an alleged droneophile. Yeva admitted the story tended to color her perspective, and she knew she could be wildly misinterpreting the interaction she had just witnessed – but she also knew that there was something off about the two she had just seen.

Yeva looked back to where she had last seen the girl, as the announcements began, only to find her missing. As the speech continued, she calmly, as though she were not searching at all, cast her gaze about in hopes of finding the kid once more – only for the girl to bump into her, a short time after the initial speech had ended.

“Oh, sorry,” the girl said, “I didn't see you there, my name is Alice, what's yours?”

She pondered the girl for a moment, attempting to figure out how to approach her before simply introducing herself.

“Yeva,” she finally said, distantly reminding herself, that the non-English-speaking drones had been ordered to switch to English for the duration of their time at the labs. “Hm, you want to be here.”

Now Yeva just needed to figure out why.

“I volunteered,” Alice replied.

“I did as well.”

“If it’s not offensive, may I ask why?”

Curious, Yeva thought before speaking, “for Earth, for Russia, to kill the monster that took away the world that my masters and their children so adored.”

“They treated you well?”

“I will miss them.”

That was all that was said before the Primary Doctor, one Dr. Hans, began dividing the drones into their groups; herself, ending up with Alice in Team 06, under Dr. Ridley and Dr. Chambers – a last edition, called Nori joining them, their identification armbands, strapped onto their left upper arm.

For the most part, each team kept to themselves, though cross interaction did occur; for Team 06, it was usually with Team 05. Team 06, primarily consisted of drones in the young teen age group, generally, twelve to fifteen – with some older drones – while Team 05 consisted primarily of drones from ages six to eleven – again, with some older drones as well. Yeva had found herself often in interaction with Alice and Nori, enough that the scientist had elected to have them assigned as link sisters – something that had elated Nori, amused Alice, and intrigued the Russian. However, beyond the trio, Alice had found her own companionship during one of the interactions between Team 06 and Team 05.

The little brown-haired girl must have been around six years old; her teal eyes were that of a facility drone who had seen all her siblings decommissioned. She was sitting curled up in the corner of the room, when Alice approached her.

“Hello,” the southern drone had started, gently, “my name’s Alice, what’s yours?”

“… A– … Amanda.”

“Well, ain’t that a lovely name, do you know where you got it from?”

The girl hesitated, before speaking, “my matron at the facility, she gave it to me before they sent me here.”

“Ah; what was your matron like – mine was harsh, a tad absentminded though.”

“She … she was nice, she had a watcher though; I don’t think they liked her as a matron.”

A watcher, Yeva thought, meaning they thought Amanda’s matron was too soft in sorting good drones from defective ones.

“Ah,” Alice said, “I see.”

“Did your matron have a watcher,” Amanda asked.

“She did.”

“How many?”

One might have thought the girl was asking how many watchers, but it was clear that Alice knew what Amanda meant.

“I’m a core-born twin – left hand – I had twenty older pill siblings.”

“Forty … I’m a core born – I’m the only one left.”

“I’m sorry – do you know where your code parents were from?”

“Novea Spei.”

Novae Spei, that was unfortunate, Yeva thought, after forty failures, it was unlikely that the code parents were allowed to live afterwards – Amanda, well and truly likely was an orphan.

“Is your right hand here,” Amanda asked.

“Ah–, no, no he’s … we were severed the day we went to market; haven’t seen him since we were six.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

It clearly wasn’t but the girl asked a different question, “where are your code parents from?”

“Earth, France actually.”

“You’re French?”

“Oui, ma chérie, I was just raised by an American – a genuine southern gentleman.”

“Raised?”

Here Alice paused and Yeva’s curiosity was once again peaked.

“Raised,” the, apparently, southern raised drone finally said, “I was adopted by a human.”

It was clear that the older girl was well aware of the things the other drones were muttering about her, but the younger girl only gave a pause as she thought about what was said.

“… Is it the drone psychologist?”

“Yes.”

“Is he nice?”

“One of the nicest men I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.”

Once again, the drone girl paused to ponder what she had been told.

“Okay,” Amanda said at last, “I believe you.”

Yeva wasn’t quite sure if that ‘I believe you’ meant, ‘I believe you that he’s nice’ or if it meant, ‘I believe, that you believe, that he is nice’, but either way, the two girls moved on from the topic.

“It’s gonna be bad,” Amanda eventually said, Alice once again catching on to what the girl meant.

“Yes, it will be.”

“I’m scared.”

“… Tell you what, every chance I get, I’ll try to get them to let us talk; I know it ain’t much, but if I can be there for you, then I will be, alright?”

“Alright.”

The southern raised drone, kept to her word – often to the point that the heads of Team 06 would be in talks with the heads of Team 05 on the question of trade. However, despite the severity of the situation ego and something else, remained a determined presence. Yeva wasn’t blind, there was something about Alice and Dr. Beaumont that Doctors Ridley and Chambers knew. Combine that with the heads of Team 05’s ego – stating that if Amanda and Alice were to remain together that the trio of lab assigned sister should be moved to Team 05 – and no trade was ever made.

There was another drone from Team 05, however, who became drawn to the Cabin Fever sisters – as they were beginning to be called – or more specifically, he was drawn to the youngest of their trio.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he had said, approaching them during one of the lunch hours shared between Teams 05 and 06, “Emmet, Emmet Giam.”

He was certainly charismatic, and very much aware of how handsome he was, though he was also quite good at the humble act – and an act it was. Yeva had no doubt that he was at the very least making his best attempt at it, but in the time she had spent with her mother, she had become very aware of the emotions of others, both the ones they presented and the ones they truly felt.

“A last name,” Nori had asked the fifteen-year-old, very clearly star struck by the achievement.

“I worked in a general factory making technological components, I started work at six and earned my name at ten, what of your lovely group?”

“Nori of the Fujimoto family, eighth born daughter, core-born, my parents do embassy work for the Japan branch, while my sisters and I handled cultural preservation.”

“Yeva, only child, nanny, tutor,” she was aware of how blunt she sounded, but she couldn’t bring herself to care enough about the drone before her to put on airs.

“And you miss,” he asked, theoretically, unfazed by her demeanor before turning to the youngest of their trio.

“Alice, Alice Willow Beaumont; my father, Dr. Beaumont and I run a restaurant.”

The French drone had been attempting to be bolder with stating her relation to the good doctor, but, if Yeva was being honest, she was sure Emmet audios heard nothing but the girl’s name.

“Alice, you’re not from the American branch, are you?”

“French, actually.”

“French, how lovely.”

At the very least, Yeva thought when the drone had left after a short exchange more, Giam knew how to not overstay his welcome.

Nori was smirking, though.

“Well,” the Japanese drone started in a mock of proper propriety, “I would say our dear little sister has an admirer.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Alice started.

“Trust me, I could go much farther,” she wiped away a fake tear, “our little Alice will be a woman soon and soon we’ll be discussing contracts and offspring.”

Alice sputtered before letting out a whine, her visor blushing orange, “Nori!”

“The blush means you’re thinking about it,” she teased.

“Only because you put the thought out,” Alice retorted.

“Admit it, you think he’s handsome.”

“Physical appearance isn’t everything.”

“No, you’re right, but it’s a pretty sweet bonus.”

“I only just met him, the least you could do is give me a few weeks.”

Nori just laughed and Yeva wondered how many more times the conversation would come up in the future.

Often enough, it turns out as, aside from Amanda, Emmet was a constant presence. In time, the little drone girl had become an unofficial member of the Cabin Fever Sisters; Emmet, meanwhile, well one might have thought he was courting Alice – Nori certainly said as much. Whenever the two teams were together, it was almost a guarantee that both Team 05 drones would seek out the southern raised drone – this was in stark contrast to how the vast majority of drones, when they discovered Alice’s connection to Dr. Beaumont, tended to avoid her.

It was interesting, the volunteers were cordial with the southern raised drone, the respect they gave her being somewhere the between the way they would behave with other drones and how they would behave with the humans. In contrast, the non-volunteers were stiff, with a clear distain for the French drone – though to be fair they also seemed to hate the rest of the volunteers as well. The children and the elderly were a slightly different story.

Allegedly, according to the old stories, drones were supposed to last around or upwards of three-hundred years – by that understanding, the elderly should have been the equivalent of a young adult human. Yet, they were tired in a way that came from a life and a belief where they likely had no doubt that death was not too far off. Then there were the children. The volunteer children tended to stay close to the other volunteers that had specifically come with them. As for the non-volunteer children – aside from Amanda and a few others – the non-volunteer children were almost soldier-like from a life where they had yet to become bold enough to develop and embrace an identity outside of their ‘on the clock’ behavior. One could attempt to engage them in conversation, and many had tried, yet they preferred to stick together – remaining quiet to even the politest of drones.

Perhaps they had developed their own ‘off the clock’ world, Yeva thought as she observed them from a distance, but they weren’t yet ready to show it outside their own.

(~*~)

The first day of tests, many would whisper, was the first day of hell. It took a year for the first drone to die and yet the winding path to that moment brought continually new levels of pain that many could hardly believe they survived.

There’s a list, some drones whispered, of every method of improper disposal from the very first drone to now – and Yeva wondered how true that was, as she sat in medical after the latest test she had been involved with.

Over the months, the scientists had opted to make attempts at repairing what drones they could, having the theory that, perhaps, the singularity could be more than a just a technical creation. Currently, the Russian was having her whole left arm replaced after it had become irreparably mangled. While it did hurt, she felt – guiltily – happy that she wasn’t Alice or Nori. Both younger girls had taken the brunt of the latest test, though to be fair, it had been one that had gone awry.

Nori was the luckier between the two, if you considered having a third of your head, crushed, lucky; Alice, in turn, had been cut in half through her lower base. How the southern raised drone wasn’t the first casualty, was something that had many of the scientists clamoring around her to figure out. The best they could understand was that the area that should have caused a fatality had been just barely sparred destruction. Though Alice was repaired she was kept under observation, drawing the attention of both humans and drones.

“This is worse,” Alice stated.

“Huh,” Nori asked – just as confused as the Russian – fork raised as her lunch fell back to her plate.

“You asked if I hated the way people stared at me,” Alice started, “I said it wasn’t that bad; I continue to stand by that statement … this is worse.”

Nori exchanged a look with Yeva before speaking, “which part?”

Alice was quiet a moment as she contemplated her words, “I volunteered, I knew the pain would be hell, being treated like glass about ta burst is worse.”

“How so?”

“I … I’m not sure, somehow, it just feels worse.” Alice sighed, though the tired look soon disappeared with their guest.

“Miss Alice,” Amanda called, still getting used to her newly repaired right leg – Emmet following along after her, carrying both of their food trays despite his newly buffed shoulders.

“Afternoon, ladies,” Emmet started, “may we sit with you.”

“We have room,” Alice said with an invisible moment of hesitation, after Yeva and Nori agreed, “here, hand me Mandy’s tray.”

As Emmet passed Amanda’s tray to Alice, Yeva could just barely see their hands brush, a spark jumping between them. Alice’s breath caught for a moment, her eyes flickering as they met Emmet’s, before she shook herself minutely, turning her attention to Amanda’s tray to ensure that it wouldn’t spill the selected meal – Emmet helping Amanda into her seat next to Alice’s left, as he took his own seat to Amanda’s left.

From where she was seated across from Alice, Nori at her own right, Yeva could just make out the smallest start of a smirk – opting to speak before the Asian drone could comment.

“How is your leg, Amanda,” she asked.

“It’s doing better, Miss Yeva; that was my last test this week.”

“How long are they giving you to rest,” Alice asked.

“Um, a week.”

A week, they were shortening the rest periods; it was bound to happen – despite Alice’s unintentional incident, she was only getting a week as well when previously, drones would have received a two or more.

“I’m keeping an eye on her,” Emmet said, “they’re letting us stick together, I don’t know for how much longer though.”

“What do you mean,” Nori asked.

“I … I don’t want to assume, but I believe they are going to begin isolating us.”

“How do you mean,” Alice asked.

“… obviously, I don’t think it will be every group, and certainly not right away but it’s as I said – I’m sorry, I know it’s not much to go off of.”

“No, no that’s … that’s alright.” Alice quieted as she contemplated what she had been told, letting out a sigh after a moment, “I hate to say it, but it makes sense.”

Their quiet conversation continued on through the rest of the lunch hour. It was interesting; though Alice refused to sugarcoat things for Amanda, she was also able to avoid becoming unnecessarily harsh – the girl was clearly still nervous yet, somehow, reassured.

As they were cleaning up so the next group could come in after, Yeva gave a pause. She was near a part of the lunchroom where someone had piled several boxes near one of the supplies closets – from where she was, it would be hard for the guards to see her. She could see Nori far across the room and though there were a few people nearby, they were not so close that she would be able to hear their voices, and yet she could hear voices – she could hear two voices.

“Alice, please, I’m just concerned,” that was Emmet.

“You have nothing to be concerned about.”

“You were cut in half for one, I think that’s worth being concerned about.”

Silence, then a sigh, “listen, it’s sweet of you to worry, but I promise, they gave me a full bill of health – didn’t even really have ta replace much, just welded me back together.”

“I think I’m always going to worry a little.”

“We–, we should get back to cleaning”

“Alice wait, please – if not for me, then for Amanda and your sisters.”

There was more silence as Yeva waited to hear what would next be said, then Emmet spoke again.

“Our hands touched earlier, much like this, like now.”

“Emmet–”

“I’m sorry, I won’t push … I think, I think I sometimes forget that we all had a life before the labs, where was he from?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“If it matters to you–”

“Emmet … he’s a factory print, that’s why it doesn’t matter.”

“You’ll get older, Alice,” Emmet said, sighing after another contemplative moment, “and you tell me not to worry … just please remember, I’m here for you, I’ll always be here for you.”

“… Thank you for watching over Amanda.”

Then Yeva could hear the sound of movement and ducked away so Alice wouldn’t see her as the French drone left the area; continuing to keep hidden as she waited for Emmet to leave. She waited one minute, then a second and a third.

“Miss Yeva, are you alright,” Emmet asked.

She was caught, how had he known.

“I am fine, Mister Giam,” she said as she stood from where she had been hiding.

He observed her for a moment before speaking. “You’re worried about her too, aren’t you – I have to admit, I’m a bit jealous, you have a luxury I don’t; when you are worried for her you just need to turn your head – I have to wait till our teams are allowed to meet.”

“Somehow, I do not believe you would be content in the role of her brother.”

“No, no, you are right,” Emmet went silent once more, as she waited for him to speak. “Did you know, Nori told me that she used to be engaged – her humans broke off the contract when they sent her here, they had her would be groom reassigned to her seventh youngest sister.”

“She volunteered.”

“Sometimes I wonder about that.”

“How so?”

“… It’s an old study, but it boils down to the idea of conditioning someone into believing that a choice they made was entirely their own with no outside influence – but that’s the thing, we are always being influenced.”

Yeva crossed her arms, where was he going with this, she thought. “Then if everyone is influencing us, where does free will go – where is our freedom of choice?”

“That’s the other thing, it’s still there.”

“Then your pondering was pointless – she volunteered.”

“And yet I still wonder.”

Emmet was quiet again and Yeva was sure he would walk off when he spoke again.

“What do you think of Dr. Beaumont?”

“… How do you mean?”

“I used to work in a factory, Yeva – humans get bored, you’d be surprised at what I’ve seen.”

“What are you implying?”

“Please don’t play dumb – it’s tiring – you’re just as cautious around him as I am.”

He wasn’t wrong, Yeva thought, though she didn’t want to admit it. She had been keeping the doctor at a politely cold distance, only being slightly nicer when Alice was around. Thinking back on it however, she was beginning to believe she was being unfair to the man. Despite her fears, she had seen nothing to justify her worries – even when the humans didn’t realize she was there. That Emmet had noticed, meant he was either far more observant than he had seemed or that her behavior was far more obvious than she had wanted it to be.

“I believe … that I have been unfair to him.”

“I see.” That was all he said before finally walking off.

The rest of clean up passed calmly, and when both Teams were to be escorted off, Yeva could just see the sight of Emmet carrying Amanda – the little girl was reaching out to Alice. While she couldn’t hear what was said, she could see as an embrace between two became a hug between three.

“I have to admit it,” Nori started observing the trio from beside her older link sister, “I’m a little jealous – she’s one contract away from having everything.”

Yeva raised an eyebrow in silent inquiry.

“Oh please – tell me you don’t see it; they’re practically wed with a baby in arms.”

Nori was right, she couldn’t see it. What she could see, was her sister attempting to keep the peace for a little girl who had very few supports in a terrifying environment.

(~*~)

The first death was silent – the drone’s body having given up in the middle of the night; the guards had moved the body to a wing of the labs that could be described as a warehouse of rooms. The second death was loud – the drone having gone off on a mad raving panic during lunch hour, not long after the first death, and was subsequently shot before the drone could harm anyone. The third death was terrifying – it happened during the early hours of the morning as two drones took morning announcements as a chance to take the labs down with them. Not long after, the labs were put under lockdown to assess the damage as the count of two drone deaths instantly rocketed to near sixty. They were now in the second year of the tests.

After lockdowns were released, everyone was on edge for the next disaster.

Eighteen thousand five hundred and seventy drones was not very many at all as each day began ending with reported death numbers. One, six, seventeen, fifty-eight, ninety-four, one hundred and eighty-three, three hundred and seventy-four, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, four thousand seven hundred and ninety-three – they were rising and like the third death, these ones weren’t always caused by the tests. Once when Teams 05 and 06 were being escorted to physical observation, one of the pipes, in the nearby area, exploded, shrinking their numbers exponentially; likewise, several other explosions had gone off around the whole lab. In one day, upwards of five thousand drones were killed.

In the two years of the labs’ existence, their numbers had been reduced to five, then four, then three. She didn’t really see what had killed her – she had a good idea of what it had been after she woke up, but by then, it didn’t really matter.

{Yeva, your sisters need you}

{Would you like to live}

{y/n}

(~*~)

“At the risk of sounding cliché, how are you feeling, Yeva,” Dr. Beaumont asked after she had been escorted to his office after her primary evaluation – after she had been given her new collar that marked her as the forty-eighth awakened Solver.

“… Was cutting off my finger really necessary,” she asked in turn, still clenching and unclenching her right hand, still in slight shock after her cut off finger had grown back.

“Despite what it seems, you are actually one of the lucky ones – not everyone is capable of healing their injuries – as for how necessary it was … considering how little we actually know about ‘Solver Drones’, it’s the best we have to figure out your strength of power.”

It was early January and according to what she had overheard from the other scientists, she had not in fact had her program transferred into a new body rather her body had grown older – she would be nineteen at the end of March.

Unbidden, the memories replayed – she had attacked them; she had attacked her sisters.

“How are the others,” she asked.

Dr. Beaumont was quiet for a moment, that moment stretching on far too long for her comfort before he spoke up. “Yeva, please know, what I am about to tell you is something we are trying to keep secret for as long as possible; Alice is a Solver who cannot regenerate.”

Her breath caught.

“From what we can tell, she is as powerful as you and Nori, she is just like you and Nori, but she can’t use her powers.” He paused a moment appearing to gather himself, “while you and Amanda were in your feral state, the two of you zeroed in on Alice and Nori – according to the guards’ report, there was just as much a hunger as there was a possessiveness, that said they don’t believe you were trying to kill them so much as keep them.”

But she had been hungry, she could still taste the oil on her tongue.

“Would you like to hear the rest?”

She nodded.

“Despite the feralness of her behavior, Yeva Krupin – who previously worked as a nanny – seems to have retained her caretaker program; while she was hungry and did feed from her appointed link sisters, her possessiveness was closer to the equivalent of a mother bear protecting her own.”

Hearing the report, she did her best to go back over her own memories and realized something.

“What happened to Amanda?”

“From what we can tell, she must have fell behind at a certain point before being found by one of the other guards with an abandoned oil barrel.” Dr. Beaumont paused again, likely trying to figure out what to tell her. “The other scientist are, already, making attempts to figure out a power scale; what we have so far places you, Alice and Nori at the high end.”

“And Amanda?”

“Bottom of the barrel.”

(~*~)

While power scaling was something the scientists were still puzzling over, one thing they had figured was that they were going to keep the Solver and non-Solver drones separated unless absolutely necessary. Currently there were forty-nine Solvers and twenty-one non-Solvers; Emmet, apparently being one among the non-Solvers which meant he was no longer allowed to gather with them at lunch – something Alice was clearly content with, even as she became stressed about something else, someone else.

“Miss Alice,” Amanda called, now a preteen drone.

“Amanda,” Alice said rising from her seat, just as the girl placed her tray on their table, embracing the girl. “Oh, look at you, I blink and you’re already becoming a lady; how are you feeling?”

“I’m doing good, Miss Alice.”

The girl’s brown hair had turned green, just as Nori and Yeva’s hair had gone purple – both changes being far more outrageous than the black streak in Alice red mane. Actually, Amanda was among the few drones on the perspective, lower end whose hair had changed, though the vast majority seemed to be in the middle and higher groups.

“Has anyone else from your team woken up,” Nori asked.

“Just Mister Emmet and he’s being kept with the other non-Solvers.”

“So, you’re the only one in your area,” Alice asked.

Amanda nodded, “but I overheard them say they might take some of the Solvers from the higher number teams and move them into the lower numbers for convenience going forward.”

Going forward … Yeva had been told – in confidence – by Dr. Beaumont, that for drones who volunteered, their humans, who were listed as their sponsors, would receive a letter informing them if their drones had made it to stage two of the Cabin Fever program. She was going to be nineteen, Yeva thought, Alexi was going to be eighteen … Natasha was going to be nineteen. Yeva had no doubt that her parents had likely been encouraged to give her a code sibling after she had been collected. Five years, just a few months past five years – that was how long it had been since she had last seen her family.

Tuning back into the conversation, Amanda was excitedly recounting her first round in the training room. The training hall had several different rooms surrounding the primary training room. Yeva had to wonder if the girl was training at the same time as she was, at the same time Nori was. She had asked Dr. Chambers if Alice would be joining them, he had told her that, for the time being, Alice was barred from all training beyond private basic defense.

Her little sister would need it, Yeva thought to herself, she didn’t quite know what exactly was happening, but Alice was nervous, that much she understood.

The lunch hour continued on in a peaceful fashion, however, she received an answer to her question during clean up. They had gotten distracted, Nori, nowhere to be seen, Yeva, Alice and Amanda had paused in their cleaning to continue their conversation before they were to split up into their respective schedules. Yeva had seen the speck of dust on Alice’s hospital gown, but she hadn’t said anything, simply enjoying the company of her two companions.

It happened in a moment, and distantly, Yeva wondered if she could have done something to have stopped it.

They were talking when she saw the barest hint of purple light, just above the dust on Alice’s gown, as the conversation came to a stop. In the next millisecond, Alice was launched far across the room, hitting the high wall of the cafeteria with enough force to crack both it and the back of the French drone’s head, before falling down unconscious into a slowly growing pool of her own oil. In an instant the guards mobilized to tackle Nori, the majority raising their drone breaker guns or aiming UV lights at the rest of the drones in the cafeteria as ten or so gathered Alice’s body and removed her from the room.

(~*~)

Over the course of the year, many more drones would reawaken. Over the course of the year, Yeva had many moments where she would have to referee fights between Alice and Nori as the latter drone grew in her antagonistic tendencies towards the younger teen. Over the course of the year Yeva and Nori grew in their powers while Alice’s power status remained stagnant outside of one factor. About a month after Yeva’s primary evaluation was when Alice had her operation – in the days and weeks after she had to help the southern raised drone fend off the multitude of drones who made attempts at pulling on her new tail. Then there were the whispers. Many of them were the same as the ones from the early years, but despite the scientists’ best efforts, the Solver drones of the labs had taken notice of the way Alice was treated. The Cabin Fever Princess, they called her – not everyone, mind you, but it was enough, and she knew the originator.

“Drop it, Yevs,” Nori said during telekinesis training, which boiled down to carefully moving several objects though a course.

“Can you explain why I should?”

“Because.”

“What a stunning argument.”

“Bite me!”

“Already ate, thank you.”

Nori let out a sound of frustration as she nearly dropped the object she was handling.

It was quiet as the two continued with the assigned exercise, before Nori let out a sigh, “Yevs … listen, you look stressed enough as it is, just let me handle it.”

“Somehow, that does not reassure me.”

“Yevs, what do you think of Dr. Beaumont?”

Yeva paused for a moment before continuing the training test as she spoke, “I think he is kind, strange but kind – he recognizes that this place is not kind and does his best to help us where he can.”

Nori was quiet as she seemed to think over Yeva’s answer before asking a second question, “What about Ridley and Chambers?”

Doctors Ridley and Chambers were interesting to say the least. As the scientist continued investigating the extent of their powers, they had discovered the Russian’s teleportation ability. While she could teleport distances without seeing her landing area, it was far safer and easier for her to teleport to places she had already seen. With that in mind, Yeva had begun exploring the full area of the lab outside the knowledge of the scientist and guards. In her scouting she had not just been able to find and read several of the lab’s paper files, but she had also overheard many conversations between the humans, including the two Team 06 heads.

Dr. Ridley had once worked in the primary lab office of the J.C. Jenson Company before being transferred to Copper 9, sixteen Copper years ago due to a classified incident. On Copper 9 she had work at Novae Spei as a Matron for several years before being sent to a different part of the factory. Behavior wise, Ridley was stiff, but Yeva found it was a trained stiffness, and she wondered if that training had anything to do with the classified incident that had caused the doctor to be transferred in the first place.

Dr. Chambers’ history, in turn, was a little more interesting. The man was the oldest of three siblings, orphans except for a grandfather who passed when the youngest was in her young mid-twenties. Chamber had made it his goal to be able to support his family without aid, an endeavor that eventually took him away from his family. His little brother had gotten married but that is where Yeva’s confusion came in, for that was where Dr. Chambers’ file had many classified details. Something had happened to the younger brother on Earth, something had happened to the grandfather on Earth – the grandfather who had once own a multitude of drones and once had the money to care for all of them, yet according to the file, the family drones had evidently all been decommissioned. The specific location the drones were taken to was also classified. As for the younger sister, she had passed away from an unknown illness when she was in her older mid-twenties – her primary source of income was also classified. In turn, the younger brother, the man’s wife and their daughter – Mr. Chamber’s step-daughter – had gone missing, they are survived however by their son, Dr. Chamber’s nephew a boy at a boarding school on Copper 9.

For all the strangeness of the two doctors, Yeva didn’t find them objectionable and said as much to the Japanese drone, however, she didn’t think Nori was happy with her opinion.

(~*~)

Yeva was a month and a half away from being twenty Copper 9 years of age when the last of the Solvers would awaken. She was twenty when the scientist began discussing the division of the Solvers into two Sets. A week after she turned twenty, the scientist had decided that it was safer to keep Alice and Yeva with Nori then to risk the Japanese drone throwing another Solver powered tantrum just to get her link sisters back.

For as much as she loved her sisters, she was admittedly mixed on the decision. On the one hand, she would have been lying if she said she didn’t want to keep her sisters at her side, however, perhaps it would have been wiser to allow for some separation.

“I said leave it alone,” Alice shouted, hold her whip-like tail close.

They were in their room during their after-lunch rest period and if she was being honest, Yeva was surprised at how long it had taken for Nori to finally crack and make her own attempt at grabbing Alice’s tail.

“Aw come on Lissy,” Nori teased, “I just want to see it.”

“You can see with your eyes just fine!”

“A closer examination then,” Nori said as she took another lunge at their little sister.

Alice dodged only for the blanket of her bed to come up suddenly, halting her long enough to be tackled by the middle sister, who then used that same blanket to keep her immobile.

“Now let’s see what exactly the humans did to you.”

“They gave me back my tail, NOW GET OFF!”

“Shh, Alice, this is a serious examination.”

“Nori, either remove yourself from her person, or I will do it for you,” Yeva said, finally speaking up from where she was seated on her own bed.

“Oh, come on Yevs, you can’t tell me you’re not a little curious.”

“Alice already told us what the scientist did, I believe her.”

“Yeah, like they totally had her conscious for the operation, who knows what they really did to her, I mean they nerfed her tail,” Nori continues, said tail in hand. “For all we know, those plates they put on her are probably the reason her powers are stunted.”

“Those plates are needed,” Alice shouted, still attempting to free herself from Nori’s grasp.

“I’m sure,” Nori said dismissively, “did Ridley or Chambers tell you that or did they have your ‘Father’ do it.”

“Nori,” Yeva warned.

“Maybe I ought to remove those plates,” her eyes were become tinged with yellow, “sure I’ll set off the security system, but for your sake – it’ll be worth it!”

“NORI, ENOUGH!” Yeva was standing now, her hands twitching, the barest hint of red light flickering at their tips.

“… Are you gonna try and stop me, big sister,” her flat eyes had become a gradient of yellow to purple – she was hugging close Alice’s head and tail, the younger girl’s eyes had become hollowed and lined. “I thought you cared for her, aren’t you worried about what they’ve been doing to her behind closed doors.”

“I trust Alice, that is all I need – now, remove yourself.”

“… You are boring.”

But regardless, the Japanese drone let go of the younger girl, backing away to her own bed as Yeva came forward to help release Alice from her makeshift prison.

“Don’t you want your blanket,” Nori asked.

Without reacting, Yeva sat Alice down on her respective bed, giving the younger girl the blanket from her own bed before walking over to Nori to take Alice’s blanket for herself.

Later that night, she could have sworn that Nori – eyes fully yellow – killed her, but if she did, then she had done it in away that kept any oil from bleeding out. The next morning, she noticed the two younger girls sharing Alice’s bed, and she was certain something had occurred.

(~*~)

The worst thing about Nori’s moods was that while she could be your worst enemy, she was often, at times, Alice’s best defense. For as much she tormented the southern raised drone she also kept others from doing the same. Once during their lunch hour, when Yeva had asked her why, the other girl gave an odd answer.

“They’re just bullies, they don’t understand, Yevs.”

“And I suppose what you are doing is not bullying.”

Nori was quiet for a moment as she considered her words, before looking over at where Alice was seated with Amanda during their lunch hour. “It’s not normal, Yevs.”

“What is normal?”

“You know what I mean, you didn’t like Beaumont either.”

“I made an error, one that I have since corrected.”

“But maybe you were right; there’s something wrong with the two of them – he did something to her.”

“And your answer is to beat it out of her.”

“My answer is break whatever they did to her before they do it to us.”

Unfortunately, when the Sets were established, it only seemed to further cement, Nori’s beliefs in the scientists’ manipulation of Alice.

“But pa, my powers don’t even work; if they’re worried about me hurting Mandy, I can’t.”

“I’m sorry Alice,” Dr. Beaumont said while the trio was in meeting with him, Ridley and Chambers. “It’s just too dangerous – we’re worried that since we know so little about the Solver, that you might just be a late bloomer and if your powers come back while around Amanda …”

“Maybe you’d get farther if you didn’t have those plates on her,” Nori muttered.

“And the Ego speaks,” Dr. Ridley muttered, before speaking up, “those plates are necessary, unless you want her to claw a hole through her metal – I remind you that she can’t regenerate.”

“Her tail once had regeneratable weaponry till you nerfed it – how do you know those plates aren’t holding her back?”

“We’ve examined her code to the nin-th degree, 02,” Dr. Chamber said, “we’re trying everything.”

“I find that had to believe.”

“No, you’re right,” Dr. Ridley interjected, “we haven’t tried everything, some things we haven’t tried are because we haven’t thought of it yet, the rest are things the board suggested that we have soundly rejected because just like you, we want 017 to stay alive – unless you no longer want that.”

“What are you suggesting!”

“Nothing, I’m reminding you of your privileged position here.” Dr. Ridley took a breath, “one, the three of you volunteered, two unlike some other drones, you have sponsors who care about you, and three, recognize the fact that we could be a lot more harsh given the circumstances, but no, unlike other labs on other planets – we are actually standing our ground against the board who would much rather we tear you apart to get our answers.”

It was quiet before Alice broke the silence, “I promised Amanda that I would be there for her …”

Dr. Beaumont’s breath caught for a moment, before he exchanged a look with the other two doctors – Ridley and Chambers exchanging their own look before giving him a nod.

“While we can’t let the Sets meet outside of necessary circumstance – we may be able to let the two of you exchange messages.”

“Really,” Alice looked hopeful – Nori less so.

“Yes; actually,” Dr. Beaumont took out a box of paper and crayons that he kept nearby for the drones that came to his office, “how about you write something for her.”

“Thank you,” Alice said, taking the offered items, immediately getting to work to write to the younger drone girl.

While Yeva was content with how the meeting went, she could see Nori’s suspicions growing as when they were eventually escorted from the room, she gave one last comment, once Alice couldn’t hear her.

“Change even one letter of her note …”

“If her letter changes,” Dr. Ridley, started, “we wouldn’t be the one doing it.”

(~*~)

It’s funny; in the months that passed after, all seemed normal for a time, or what had become normal for them. Nori’s moods remained a constant; some days she was kind, funny and caring, a staunch defender, a gentle embrace, the person she was before. On other days, she could see Alice debating on whether or not to give her sisters her report on what she had been doing without them. Sometimes, Nori would hear Alice reports and make minimal commentary – on other days, Yeva was certain, it was only because of the stationed guards that the two younger girls’ debate would refrain from becoming a full-blown fight.

Then came the days when Nori would refrain from sitting with them, instead choosing to sit with a slowly growing crowd of followers who hung onto her every word.

Yeva could remember the day she had first walked into that crowd. She could remember the jeering from the drones as they grew more aggravated with her presence, and she was confident that the only reason they didn’t attack her was because of Nori and because they knew that the older two of the trio were far above them in power. Regardless, it was not long after, that the guards had the group broken up, directed to their afternoon schedule. However, rather than casting her gaze about for their little sister, Nori almost didn’t seem to care that Alice was absent as they were escorted to their training room.

“I am surprised,” Yeva said, “I would have thought you would kick up a fuss about not having Alice in your line of sight.”

“I’m not worried,” Nori started as she worked on today’s training exercise, “she’s exactly where she needs to be, or she will be soon.”

“What does that mean,” Yeva asked, alarm evident.

“I won’t let them take her from us.”

Hearing this, Yeva teleported from the room amidst the protest of the scientist and guards, bringing herself to just outside Dr. Beaumont’s office where she found Alice with Jerom and Connie – the two other drones being from Set 2. Without giving them heed, she marched over to her sister and brought her to the training room where she had been, moments before.

Two months after Alice’s encounter with Set 2 – the highest and lowest Sets were put under lockdown as Set 2 went on a rampage through the labs. One would think that at such a time, nothing else would occur outside the current emergency and yet, during the night Nori would escape. Despite her desire to remain near the sleeping French drone, Yeva could feel the call that had been with her since she had been a child – the call that told her there was something she needed to see, to hear, to know and so she left her room.

In the months after she became witness to the world that existed beyond the knowledge of the humans, a world corrupted, the world that Nori had joined. And yet, in a way, it also seemed to be a world her sister was not completely aware of. In the time that followed, Yeva began gathering information, on not just the drones that gathered but on what was said and on the drone at the center of every gathering. Emmet’s file recorded him as a Set 1 drone, but Yeva would wager that the man was closer to the high end of Set 3, his words capturing the gather drones of Set 1 and slowly indoctrinating the drones of Set 2.

Whenever Nori left their shared room, Yeva would follow. Outside the purview of the day to day, Yeva would sneak away. When she was the only one of her sisters with a blank in their schedule she would find her own work in investigation. She was certain that Nori didn’t know the full extent of the rogue drone group, the little cult that Emmet was growing. If she could just gather enough information, perhaps, she could finally get back the sister who had been lost to her – who Emmet had stolen from her.

They had recreation time now and though Nori scoffed, Yeva could see her sister softening if only by the barest degree, even as she continued her debates against Alice.

Alice …

Her little sister was more tired than usual as of late – she had overheard Dr. Beaumont in discussion with Ridley and Chamber; Alice was incapable of lying. Oh, she could tell stories, but she couldn’t lie, it was like she had taken a permanent truth serum. They suspected there was something more to it but until the southern raised drone’s powers were unlocked, there was only so much they could understand. What they did know is what led to Alice’s late nights. Alice could see Solver forms, from the simplest to the most complex. It was a semi-dormant power, a passive power, likely in some connection with her inability to lie. For now, it was one that was more easily utilized when the French drone was half asleep.

During the time of this investigation, Nori had become kinder, as the two of them took to caring for their little sister during recreation time – the French drone, still tired from her late-night meetings. Still, she continued her own investigation, intent on taking advantage of the peace to finally get her sister back, until the moment she was caught.

“Yeva, Yeva, Yeva,” Emmet tutted, “truly, you have no idea how much it saddens me that you have taken this path.”

“I can make a guess,” she said from where she was shackled to one of the operating tables, around a half dozen magnets attached to her head, keeping her from teleporting from the room along with something else she couldn’t see that kept her from freeing herself.

“You may leave us,” Emmet commanded to the other drones, the ones he had ordered to ambush her. They hesitated and Emmet continued with a reassuring smile, “do not worry, she won’t hurt me, she is pill born, the poor drones are bug since birth, that the Absolute had granted her this life mean we cannot give up on her – and I will not, but to help her, the first step must be taken.”

At this, though they still seemed concerned for him, the other drones left the room, Emmet locking the door behind them.

“You’ve been spying on us for months, Yeva; I’m curious, what have you discovered,” he asked as he began circling the room gathering things Yeva could not see.

“I think you already know.”

“Humor me.”

“I refuse.”

“Oh Yeva, you pill-borns really are something; I swear, the company made your type purposefully obstinate.”

“Is that what you think?”

“It’s what I know.”

“I do not believe Alice would appreciate the way you speak to me.”

Emmet paused, his shoulders going rigid before they relaxed. “My dear Alice is misguided from the years she has spent under that quack of a doctor’s thumb; but all that will be coming to an end soon enough.” He gave a chuckle, “it’s unfortunate really, the others, they’ve taken to calling her the crazy Cabin Fever princess – beyond the fact that the title is a tad redundant, it’s not entirely wrong; the humans have driven her mad, but I will be her sanity.”

“She is not crazy nor is she so desperate as to want you.”

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong do you remember – well it must have been more than half a Copper year ago – when they discovered that Solvers have an oil preference?”

She could remember, of all the Solver drones, she, Nori and Alice were the only drones with the most specific oil preference. While for the other drones, their oil preference could be an easy equivalent to human food preferences, for the trio, the scientists were certain it likely went deeper.

Three tins of oil, one each from three different drones and the three drone women had been drawn to these tins like a moth to a flame. Or at least Alice had been drawn to the third tin of oil till she said that the flavor had changed. She still wanted it, but it was, as she said, like learning to love one thing so you could have what you really wanted.

“You did something to Alice’s oil.”

“Is that all I’ve done – you notice, you couldn’t detect me, you can’t really detect her either, but we can detect each other; she knows me, she sees me, and she will want me.”

“Never.”

“You don’t have a choice in the matter – did I ever tell you what I used to do before the labs, what I used to help make at the factory I worked at; you see there was a little incident that happened on Earth when I was still being raised in my facility.” He paused as he gathered something to the table he was working at. “They killed a drone to keep an NDA, afterwards came the question, what if they didn’t have to kill a drone to keep an NDA and they began developing something that they would implement into drones in delicate situations.”

Emmet made a sound of triumph, “it was a simple little thing but unbelievably powerful – simply called the NDA chip.”

Yeva could feel her circuits freeze as the drone man reveal the chip in question.

“Isn’t it wonderful, and the best part, once it’s a part of you, your own body will be determined to keep it hidden – no matter how many surgeries and vissections they give you.”

Yeva felt sick; when she had next awoken it was too an escort of guards telling her that effective immediately, she and Alice would be rooming separately from Nori – Emmet and his group must have brought her back to her room before the guards had arrived.

The next year was hell. Yeva could feel the chip at work within her systems even as her mind was split between keeping Alice safe and gathering more information. Yet even as she continued with her investigation, she could feel Emmet laughing at her, no longer caring if she caught them as the chip kept her silent. It all came to a head as Nori unleashed the monster upon the labs. In that month, locked away in Dr. Beaumont’s office with Alice, Yeva became determined. If she couldn’t speak, then she would train her little sister to be able to defend herself from every drone in the lab’s cult – she would train Alice to fight Emmet.

(~*~)

After Nori was taken down – locked away in some part of the lab that even Yeva didn’t know – it was strangely peaceful. Alice had been assigned to be trained properly, and her sister began whispering to her about a cathedral far beneath the labs and of what was within her code. Alice was the patch or at least she was the start of the patch. As the months went by, the tests began as patch after patch was given to drone after drone. The tensest moment being towards the start when they transferred Nori to her new prison in the secret lab.

Yeva could see the other scientists becoming desperate and apparently, Emmet didn’t want her completely silent because Yeva found that she had enough leave to tattle on whichever human attempted to harm Alice. All this went on till the day she and Alice were given leave to write home.

She wrote to her parents, to the masters, she wrote to Natasha and Alexi and when they wrote back it was with an additional photo. Yeva had been right, her parents had given her two younger siblings – they were core born twins, twelve years old, a boy and girl, Adrian and Anya. By protocol, Yeva wasn’t allowed to keep the picture, but Dr. Beaumont had promised her that he would keep it safe, afterwards, they were escorted to the secret lab.

As the lockers that were their rooms were shuffled around, Yeva made sure to keep her sister link with Alice on at all times. The weeks would pass and a new face came to the labs, Dr. Chamber’s nephew. He was a nervous young man but for some reason they allowed him to intern in the secret lab. The place was incredibly busy and yet Yeva was able to use that to her advantage during the times she was allowed outside of her locker when she discovered where Nori was being kept after the drone girl’s latest rampage.

Truly, her little sister was a sorry sight, covered in magnets as she was but somehow the Japanese drone recognized her and began to cry. One apology after another spilling forth from her lips and the Russian made sure to record every last one.

When she was allowed to meet with Alice in privacy, she played what she could of the recording.

“Do you believe her,” Alice asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

That was all that was said and time continued on, then came the day that Alice would receive the patch. Yeva waited as the hours passed on till the link broke, till her sister was brought back to her locker. There was silence then she heard a crash followed by harsh breaths and weeping.

“… I’m sorry,” came Ridley’s voice at last, “I promise, when Chamber gets back with the data, we’ll figure out what happened to your girl for now though, stasis is all we came do for her.”

“… I never should have let her volunteer.”

“And what was your other option?”

Silence.

“Your girl is strong; a fault patch isn’t gonna take her out – have faith in that.”

“Dr. Beaumont,” came a shout from Chambers as he came running in, “doctor, it’s just her memory, it only affected her memory, we can use the save files to repair her.”

“How soon,” Dr. Beaumont asked.

“We should keep her in stasis for a few weeks, let her stabilize after that we can get your girl back.”

“Told you,” Ridley said, “Alice is strong, she’ll be just fine.”

After that, it was quiet as test after test was administered till Ridley came to her locker.

“48?”

“Yes?”

“We’ve been order to give you the patch next, if it works then in a week’s time, we’ll hopefully be able to give Nori the patch next.”

“You want me to do something.”

“It doesn’t feel right, to give Nori the patch before she can send her own letter.”

They gave her papers and several pens and sent her into Nori’s prison room. Yeva wasn’t quite sure how she managed it, but when she left the room, it was with Nori’s letter to her parents, to her code sisters, to her humans. It was sent out and Yeva was prepared for her own test, and when it was complete, she felt lighter than she ever had before; with any luck, once Nori was freed of the monster’s influence, she would be her advocate to aid her against Emmet.

It was just past midnight – Sunday the twenty-sixth of Seramorris – when she awoke to the sound of Alice being awoken. Her sister was being taken away to be married – by the time she got her bearings the group was too far away to hear her and she began to rattle her locker, screaming and shouting hoping to catch anyone’s attention.

“Yeva,” came Dr. Chambers’ voice, “calm, what’s wrong?”

“Did you authorize Alice to be given in marriage,” her question was scathing.

“WHAT, of course not.”

“Then why was she taken away?”

There was silence and then she could hear Dr. Chambers rushing away.

The hours passed as Yeva did her best to remain alert till just before lunch, her locker finally opened.

Ridley was silent and though the woman was masked, Yeva could still see her doing her best to figure out what to say.

“How is Alice,” Yeva asked.

Ridley sighed, “for the most part, Alice is fine, perfect health, except for her memory but that was from the faulty patch … the Beaumont family is currently under twenty-four-hour guard, the upper labs are on semi-lockdown as we search for subject 130 – otherwise known as Emmet Giam.”

He had been discovered.

“We’ll be giving Nori the patch soon – midnight between twenty-seven and eight this week – I need you on alert 48, after that we can bring you back up so we can repair 17’s memory.”

Ridley raised a photo.

“I doubt you need encouragement, but I thought you might want to see the new baby; I think you can guess the male code donor – kid’s a pill-born though, he must hate that – 17 said she wanted to be the one to tell you his name.”

“Is sentimentality allowed,” she asked as Ridley stuck the photo to the inside of the locker – the image showing Ridley posed with the Beaumont family, the newest member at the center in his mother’s arms.

“I took three copies – one for you, one for 17, and one for scientific documentation that way the board can get off my tail.”

After lunch, Yeva took Ridley’s advice, resting in burst so she would be on alert as Nori’s test fast approached. It was the twenty-seventh of Seramorris when she first heard the board being guided through the secret labs by the lab director – Dr. Hans. It was a few short hours later that she heard the same group without Dr. Hans plotting to return to the surface lab rather than stay for the test, they had claimed so much interest in.

She began banging on walls of her locker once more, till she heard one voice directing the other to the cathedral before coming over to her.

“Dr. Chambers,” she shouted.

“48 are you–”

“The board, they are going after Alice!”

Half a second passed before she heard Dr. Chambers rushing out of the room. The minutes passed into eternity as she waited and waited and fought the call of sleep, continuing her game of Tetris till she heard another pair of footsteps come rushing down the hall, pausing her game when her locker opened. Mitchel Chambers was panicked as he pulled her along as they ran to the cathedral – a hand she swatted off. As they came upon the building, he entered before her. She could hear someone calling to the intern.

“Y-yep, um …, so, I …” Mitchell locked her out, “couldn’t find 48?”

Something was wrong, as she waited at the doors listening, it was quiet for one moment, then a second, and a thir–

Yeva could hear Ridley screaming as the world began to shake.

She had never gotten very good at teleporting to a place she had never seen, but she picked her distance and teleported forward into the building to see the remnants of a massacre with the monster control Nori at the center.

[Thanks for the new host … intern – MacGuffin,] the monster said as it used Nori to launch the crucifix patch at the intern.

Calling her Solver translate, Yeva grabbed the patch, halting it a breaths width from Mitchel’s hazmat mask and launching it back at Nori, embedding it in her head.

[O-o-ow. What in the science …]

It was a moment as yellow lightning came forth, the creature pulling out the patch seconds after Nori’s purple returned – the patch tossed backwards into the hole the creature had created.

As silence returned, Mitchel gave Yeva a salute before leaving the building, only after, was when she shut off translate and rushed to Nori’s side – except, her right hand was still obstinately yellow. Yeva conjured a knife as Nori raised her poisoned hand that was soon severed from her arm, the appendage falling into the pit as she helped her sister stand.

As she helped her sister stand and lightning began to rage from the flesh pit, Yeva pulling her Nori behind her, bringing forth translate once more to guard against whatever would emerge, as the computers around them began to scream, lightning electrifying the air.

Loud and louder as the world shook – it was getting hard to breath as Yeva could feel herself overloading till – nothing …

(~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~) -- (~*~)

Beau's Prologue | Alice's Prologue | Nori's Prologue

Yeva's Prologue | Prev | Yeva Chapter 2 | Next

8 notes · View notes