Cassandra Lassion's Story

Saein was relieved that Reggie planned to have the leg fixed soon, which is why she laughed with the captain even though she wasn’t sure what the joke was. Did Regina think their destination probably wasn’t Earth? Then why bother going there at all?

Reggie explained she didn’t mean to offend, and that she was worried about Minn and would like reports about any strange behavior.

“I can’t promise to report everything,” Saein replied, “but when it’s in her best interest, I definitely will.” She smiled back at the captain, while she wondered whether she should say more about how she would use her own judgment at times when there might be a conflict between orders and the trust of a friend, or that she should say Minn wasn’t truly a close friend yet but was most likely to become one. The captain seemed to already have the right idea about both.

Before she could say anything about anything MAK made a lot of noise and informed them Dlew had collapsed. Saein had already guessed there would be dust and water in his joints, so this wasn’t a complete surprise. She quickly grabbed a few things she thought she would need, gave Cassandra and Rokunam a ‘follow me’ nod in the direction of the door (Regina had ignored and probably not even noticed them when they entered) and ran after the captain.

Dedrik had already found Dlew, but apparently had known nothing to do to help the android. Saein dropped to her knees next to him. Her hands already almost touched Dlew to look for problems when she stopped. Touching Dlew would feel even less pleasant than touching any living creature not from Wen. Pretending he was dead or unconscious (which he might well be if the problem turned out to be something else than his joints) could make it tolerable until he moved. Telling herself he was only a machine could possibly work, but she had never tried that. After two seconds of these thoughts, she had the solution. “Okay, pretend it’s armor” she said to herself.

Dlew laid unmoving on the floor of the hall as he listened to footsteps approach. His eyes were locked in place and he couldn’t see who it was, but for now it seemed as though they were of no use. Another set of footsteps came next, followed by the sensation of someone touching him. Dlew still couldn’t move and every second he was fading. Finally he allowed himself to be overtaken by the darkness and shut his eyes, drifting off into what one could call sleep.

Dlew found himself standing in a large factory. He himself was wearing a lab coat, and suddenly a hand was on his shoulder. Glancing back, the person now spoke. “Hey, there you are Vito!” he said, “Are you coming down to the demonstration wing, or are you just going to sit there like a bum and stare at the 700s?”

“Yeah,” Dlew responded simply. “I was on my way down; I just had to finish one last minute check on the fluid levels and life support systems on the pods.”

Suddenly everything shifted with a swirling black cloud, and Dlew found himself staring down at a younger android, a perfect replica of who he was. In fact, it was him, accompanied by some other man. What the hell is going on? He thought to himself as he watched the two moved down a stairwell. “Are we taking the core drop or teleporter?” Young Dlew had asked.

"Well I hate both but I think it would be better to use the core drop. Just so we don't mess up anything." The other replied.

"Yeah, I guess that would be wise but I really don't like being dropped at those speeds,” said young Dlew. “But your right, the teleporters like to mess with the server, so death drop it is!" The young Dlew let out a laugh at the end, obviously intending a joke.

Dlew’s point of view shifted around so he see the man with his younger self, and noticed that he his eyes were a dark yellow hue and his skin bore small scales. Looking to his ID, he found the man to be Alex Ironwood. Dlew watched as Alex and himself proceeded through a set of small doors into a smaller room. Hazmat jumpsuits were lined along a rack in the center of the floor which Alex and young Dlew both put on. The two continued to the other set of doors at the far end of the room, and continued through them now, access being granted via their ID cards.

Past the doors were several seats, and Dlew chuckled happily as he joked, “Well, I will see you at hell!”

"Back at you, the Hell of busy bodies coming up with new android plans and mountains of paper work," said Alex happily in response.

"Remember we are part of that category." Replied young Dlew

Both of them now sat down in their respective chairs and strapped in. Pulling the two buckles across their chests in a V, pulling down a safety harness and connecting tubes that reached around the back of their seats to the sides of their hazmat suits, they were finally ready. After making sure they were completely secure, final checks complete, they both pressed the bottoms on the arm rests of their seats. Metal clamps clasped tightly around their wrists, locking them in place before the doors shut. Dlew was now forced back into his younger body and his finger was pressing down on a button like the one he’d just his previously. There was a click and suddenly the roaring of engines filled the air around him before he was forced back into his seat. The sensation was as if he was on the very tip of spaceship launching through a planet’s atmosphere into space, nothing like simply jumping into hyperspace.

It seemed as if a few hours had passed but finally the entire capsule came to an abrupt stop. The doors hissed open and the cuffs around his wrists opened. The safety belts released and slid up, and quickly Dlew ripped off the tubes and detached himself from the harness.

Stumbling a moment before regaining his footing, Dlew exited through the door and found himself in a room that was more or less identical to the one he’d been in previously. Removing the Hazmat suit, Dlew looked back to Alex who had just arrived. He watched as the man went through the same procedure to get out of his chair, watched him stumble a moment and then finally get into the room where he could remove his suit.

“You look like you threw up in your suit,” Alex said.

"Same to you,” retorted Dlew. “Why did you help design these?” he inquired.

"Because I am a master at bending gravity.” Joked Alex

"Yeah, I beat there are people here who are better and could whoop your ass with gravity projectors."

"Yeah, I guess you’re right, but the only reason your special is,” Alex stopped himself, seeming to remember something. “Oops sorry man, forgot you don't like talking about that."

"Let’s go," said Dlew flatly as he continued to the door. He glanced back only once to say, “You coming?”

"Yeah,” said Alex. “We don't want to get yelled at by the demons for being late."

Saein quickly examined Dlew. Quite a few of his joints seemed to be stuck because of the dust and water that had recently got in to them, but there was something else going on. He appeared to be ‘alive’, but he didn’t look ‘asleep’ in a normal way... There had to be a short-circuit in his brain! Where did the android keep his brain? In his head? In his chest? It wasn’t even obvious how to open those. Of course not, one didn’t want to have ones brain opened all the time by practical jokers. She had seen the captain do it, but... the mechanic hadn’t been completely sane and conscious at that moment. She wished the captain could run faster with that leg of hers. She also wished her species didn’t have a problem with androids and AIs with personalities in general, so she would have been able to fix things herself immediately.

“CAPTAIN! Hurry up!” Saein yelled down the corridor. “Cassandra! And, um, Exburnan guy! Lift the captain if you have to!”

As the others approached, Saein kept trying to figure out how to get to Dlew’s electronics without damaging. It was incredibly frustrating. Her fingers nervously searched the android body for a handle, a screw with obvious purpose, anything. Suddenly her mind shifted to Minn. Was the girl OK? Of course she was! What could possibly happen to her? This was no time to think about her love interest, she had to focus on the job at hand.

Right, focus. They’d probably need to move Dlew. “MAK, send a stretcher!”

“It’s already on its way” the AI replied.

“He’s shorting and I don’t know how to get in!” Saein shouted at the others when they approached. She wondered if Rokunam had enough of an ability to control electricity to remove the need to open Dlew immediately.

Regina

(Sorry, about the delay guys, midterms coming up)

Reggie's leg was completely exposed and she could feel the creaking as she attempted to run. Saein kept yelling for her to hurry up, and Reggie couldn't help feel like she wasn't exactly the kind of captain they had hoped for. Dlew looked like he had completely crumbled apart, and Saein was panicking on how to get him open.

Thanks to her quick thinking, the captain had remembered to grab her kit. Not all of it, but a few things that she would probably need right away. She pushed Saein out of the way, as an automated stretcher zoomed past them. Saein helped the captain pull Dlew onto the soft surface, and Reggie immediately plugged in the black chip and Dlew's entire system shut down.

Unfortunately, his gears were still short circuiting and continued to spin. Reggie pulled a small metal stick from her back pocket, almost like a screw driver, but not. She immediately stuck the piece in between two gears, they clanged to a halt and continued to strain against the stick. It wouldn't hold for long.

"If anything happens," Reggie explained rolling up her loose sleeve. "Take us straight down to the infirmary. Dlew should be fine as long as the circuit box is plugged in, and if I lose my hand the Doc will know what to do."

Saein looked at her appalled, but the captain continued without her approval. She pushed her hand into his back and carefully moved around the metal stick. If she lodged it just an inch, it could cause the gears to get loose and her hand would be eaten up by the spinning metal. She had to get to where Dlew's heart would be if he was human. There was an override switch that would completely shut down his system when activated.

The override box that she had plugged into Dlew's head was supposed to do it automatically, but clearly the switch inside Dlew's chest wasn't working. Reggie easily located the switch, and found that a few pieces had been broken when the android collapsed. "Shit," The captain cursed removing her hand.

Quickly, without any second thoughts, she licked her thumb and index finger and dug her hand back into Dlew's system and pressed her wet fingers to an exposed part of the heart piece. The shock was instantaneous, it traveled up through Reggie's arm, across her shoulders, down her chest and legs, and short circuited her leg. She felt it collapse beneath her, but ignored, placing all her weight on her human leg.

Dlew's systems completely shut down and Reggie sighed removing her hand. "Get him down the infirmary," She said to Cassandra and Rokunam. "He needs all new parts," She explained to Saein. "I don't think I have everything, but try and get anything you can switched out. I trust that you can operate on him, if not I will be down there."

She turned and braced herself against the wall. "MAK, change course. Take us to the nearest android specialist."

"If anything happens," Reggie explained rolling up her loose sleeve. "Take us straight down to the infirmary. Dlew should be fine as long as the circuit box is plugged in, and if I lose my hand the Doc will know what to do."

Saein didn’t like the sight of the captain sticking her hand into Dlew. It wasn’t just the risk she was taking that might cost her another body part, Saein had done such things many times and it made her feel more of a connection with Regina in a way, though she didn’t like when others did it. What she had real problems with were a person putting their hand inside another person, and the very concept of a machine made to resemble a person, a concept which was made overly obvious now.

She wasn’t surprised when Reggie improvised a switch with wet fingers and gave herself a shock. They definitely were two of a kind when it came to their ways of fixing things.

"Get him down the infirmary," Regina said to Cassandra and Rokunam. "He needs all new parts," She explained to Saein. "I don't think I have everything, but try and get anything you can switched out. I trust that you can operate on him, if not I will be down there."

Saein nodded and managed to keep the look of disgust off her face. “Gears are gears, manuals are manuals. I’m sure I’ll manage.” She wasn’t sure if the infirmary was the best place to operate on Dlew, her workbench seemed more suitable, on the other hand with all those sharp gears that might start spinning she really wouldn’t mind being close to the doctor. Before following Dlew on the stretcher, Rokunam and Cassandra to the infirmary, Saein stepped closer to Regina for a moment. “Captain, I like your style.” She smiled, winked and ran off, more excited to be working on a new kind of machine than uncomfortable about what the machine was.

Rokunam started talking about the mission with Cassandra. Saein didn’t pay much attention, she was busy skimming through a manual on her datapad. Soon she would disassemble a large part of Dlew, make a clean-or-replace decision about each part that she would take out, hopefully replace most of what needed replacing, reassemble him, clean the joints of his limbs, and then figure out the best way to test his systems before switching him back on completely. A plan for the fastest way to do it was already coalescing in her mind. With Dlew opened up, she could easily see what had gone wrong. His parts had been worn but still good enough for normal use, but when the dust had locked his joints he had strained too much, which had caused a chain reaction of things breaking.

Narration

MAK easily took control of the ship, already locating the nearest station with an android specialist. The coordinates were quickly inputted and the ship shot off. The sudden change in speed and direction, caused a rare jolt to the ship.

Crew members toppled over, their balance thrown.

"Sorry, for the turbulence." MAK informed through the speaker system. "There has been a change in course."

Alexander

There was a jolt from the ship, that caused Alex to knock a few books to the ground. MAK's voice ran through and the young doctor rolled his eyes. He bent over and picked the books up from the ground and placed them back on his desk.

He was about to flip through the pages, to find the place where he had left off, when the infirmary doors shot open. Alex leaned to the side to peer out of his office and into the sterile room. The intelligence specialist, Cassandra, stood with a large Exburnan. Alex didn't recognize him, probably hadn't gotten to his file yet. Dlew was slouched in between them, his body ragged and limp, although his back panel had been opened.

"What happened?" Alex questioned standing from his desk. He noticed Saein behind him, looking through something on her datapad. "What happened?" He asked again when he received no answer. "Is everything alright?"

Regina

The captain cried out, her body slamming against the wall. The ship vibrated beneath her as MAK directed it closer and closer to salvation. She couldn't walk, her mechanical leg completely useless. The joints and sprigs had fried, the mechanics no longer hooked up to her brain. She was shaking, her her nervous system trying to bounce back from the electric shock.

The detachment of her leg in such a violent way probably wasn't helping either. Reggie braced herself against the wall, as she dragged her way to the elevator. "MAK!" She cried as she pushed into the elevator.

"Captain?"

"Get me to the hangar! Immediately!"

"Right away, captain."

The elevator shot down and down, further and further, until coming to a jolting halt. Reggie gripped a hold of the safety bars, trying to keep herself upright. The doors quickly slid open and a hovering chair was waiting for her.

"I don't need that." Reggie grunted pushing past the chair. It hovered just above the ground, and turned around as the captain walked past it.

"Captain, I strongly suggest you use the chair." MAK stated in his monotone voice.

"I said, I don't need it!" Reggie yelled. "If you want to help me, then find Colin!"

She continued walking, closer and closer to the workbench. Her limbs continued to shake, her nervous system wasn't recovering. She would have to remove the leg, and quickly.

Cassandra nodded at Regina as she politely asked commanded her and Rokunam to bring Dlew down to the infirmary. Saein tagged along, and they all made their way down together. Rokunam tried to talk to her about the mission, but she shook her head. She didn't want to talk about it now, rather focus on the task at hand. She looked over at Saein, who was preoccupied with her datapad. They arrived at the infirmary, and heard the doc ask them a question she didn't know the answer to. What happened.

"I think he collapsed, or something. I really don't know. We got a S.O.S message on our datapads." Cassandra answered, taking a seat in one of those uncomfortable medical chairs. She suddenly found herself very tired. Like, more then she was before. Her muscles relaxed into the scratchy material, and she started to drift off. Almost asleep... Suddenly, the ship changed course, knocking something over. She shot awake, sitting up straight and darting her eyes around the room.

"I um, have to go back to my office." She said, hoping nobody noticed her drifting off, especially the doctor. She wasn't planning on being forced to rest for a bit. She stood, and made her way towards the door.

"Sorry, for the turbulence." MAK explained a sudden shake of the ship. "There has been a change in course." Saein wasn’t quite sure what she thought of the AI dumbing down the mechanics of spaceflight this way. Somewhat amusing, maybe. On the other hand, she was not amused that apparently Eddie wasn’t controlling the ship, which would have led to less shaking. Some people were trying to read while walking!

When they entered the infirmary, Saein at first ignored Alexander, as she was busy reading the android manual. When he asked what had happened, Rokunam answered first. "To my knowledge, it is not well," Rokunam replied, "It seems as if the Dlew Night android has fallen... malfunctioned. It seems as if the Saein does not have the knowledge to repair him, and we are changing course to a planet with the nearest specialized in android mechanics. Though, I believe the Saein knows more than I, so may it be best for her to explain what I have missed?" Cassandra added some more details about the situation and looked rather tired.

“Oh, I do have the knowledge, that’s what manuals are for.” Saein’s voice was friendly, she didn’t take offense. The way Rokunam spoke was odd, Saein was sure he didn’t mean to imply she was stupid or anything like that. “As for what happened... Dlew’s parts were already aging, when he got dirt and water in his joints he needed to use too much force to move and then things started breaking. I’ll clean him and patch him up, but it’s going to take a specialist to replace everything that needs replacing. We don’t have it all.”

While she talked, Saein lifted Dlew onto a bed, first his top half and then his legs. She moved another bed close to it, and standing in between them she systematically disassembled Dlew’s inside parts and neatly placed them on the empty bed in the same layout they had been in inside him. “No idea why I’m doing that here instead of at my station. Captain’s orders.”

Saein mentioned the purpose of each part and of each of her actions, this helped her mentally keep track of what she was doing.

Once all the moving parts were out, Saein could clean the electronics. There was some dirt on the memory modules (in fact there was dirt everywhere, a lot of it from the smoke bomb) and one looked a bit loose, so Saein gave it a little push to make sure it was properly connected. Something else didn’t seem quite right about the contents of the head, but at this moment she didn’t realize that what was in front of her was completely different from what she had seen in the manual. There wasn’t much she could do about this part of the android body, there definitely weren’t spare android brain parts on the ship, so she had not paid much attention to this part of the manual. Shrugging off the feeling that something was odd, she moved on to cleaning the joints of his limbs. “Shouldn’t Bond be the one doing this,” she sighed, “it kinda was his fault... Ah well, now the most ‘fun’ part of the job: find out what can be replaced, and try to find workarounds for the rest. Real shame Dlew didn’t bring a backpack full of spare parts for himself.”

Saein flipped her datapad to the ship inventory and laid it next to all the loose parts on the bed. Although she had worked very fast, a long time had passed. This was the first time she looked up from her work. “Oh hey, you guys still listening to me talking to myself?”

Narration

They showed up on the station in packs, their armor clanging throughout the wide halls. People dove out of the way, not wanting to disturb their march. Kids pointed, asking questions to their parents, but the older ones simply shushed them and hid them behind their legs.

Their guns were clearly obvious, obviously, the marching army was on a mission, and whatever it as they were looking for, it was here.

It didn't take them long to find their destination, the large ship was waiting in the hangar, crew members slowly filing in. The front row dropped down on one knee and without any warning, started shooting.

Regina

Reggie was almost to the Nightwing when she heard it. The clanging armor. It was impossible for them to be stealthy, especially when they marched in groups like that. Spinning her head, she watched them take position a few yards away from her and her ship. She could see her crew filing onto the ship, some were already there, talking in the hangar, but with the doors open like that, they were sitting ducks.

Unaware of the onslaught that was about to reach them.

"Get down!" She cried running from her spot towards the ship. She had just barely made it to the hangar when they opened fire. Bullets zipped through the air, stinging anything they could. Diving down, Reggie immediately covered her head with her hands.

"MAK! Send an alert message to the rest of the crew, immediately! We are under attack, do not near the Nightwing!" She cried, sliding up behind a wall. She pulled her gun out from her holster and held it in front of her face.

"Right away, Captain."

Peeking her head around the corner, she noticed a few of her crew members standing at the edge of the crowd, staring on in terror. She didn't want to leave them, but how were they going to get them here safely.

"Anyone with a weapon, get into cover. We got to clear a path for the rest of the crew!" Reggie called.

Peeking around the corner, she immediately took aim and took out one of the armor clad men. It was a difficult task, but the crew already on the ship managed to clear up some time for more people to climb aboard. Rina, who was helping Dlew get back from the med bay, ran onto the ship with the android in tow.

It was then, that the captain noticed the massive group of military men marching closer to the ship to take the place of the ones that they had just taken out. There were hundreds, more than what they actually needed for one crew on one ship. Staring agape, Reggie could barely move at the sight of the guns pointed at her and her ship. Words were beyond her as she watched her crew get caught in the crossfires.

Colin, Arc, and Cassandra were the last of the stragglers. "Regina!"

Reggie turned to see the doctor standing behind her, covering his head with his arms as bullets whizzed by. "We have to close the doors!"

"But, there's just three more!" She cried back. "I can't leave them!"

"I'm sorry, Regina," Alex said giving her an apologetic look. He leaned over her and pressed his hand against the hangar door button. The doors immediately began closing, much to the captain's horror.

"No!" She cried pushing the doctor away.

"MAK! Override! Do not open those doors for anything. Get us out of here the moment you can!" Alex cried as he braced himself against the wall.

"No!" Regina cried banging her fists on the hangar door as it closed. There was no more room for anyone to squeeze through, not even Arc who was the smallest of the bunch could fit through the space.

Through the viewing window, Regina could see them, watch them die. Colin was the nearest to the door, her best friend banged hard on the doors and screamed for her to open the doors, but there was nothing she could do. She watched a bullet tear through his back and chest, one caught his shoulder and instantly the life vanished from his eyes. She watched him, his bloody form slowly change back to the default form of his people.

Through tear covered eyes, the captain watched them get farther away as MAK steered the ship away from the station.

MAK's alert came through quickly, shortly followed by Reggie calling, "Anyone with a weapon, get into cover. We got to clear a path for the rest of the crew!"
Right.

As bullets started flying, Tom pushed aside his thoughts about why they might be attacking, and got straight to the front of the line of crew members, between them and the attackers. These were just normal bullets, they'd hurt, but he could take it, mostly. Lasers would be a different story altogether.
He raised his arm and popped off one of his wrist rockets at the front line, taking about 5 or 6 of them down, but they were quickly replaced by the soldiers behind them. Running to keep between them and the crew, he let his chestplate take the brunt of the fire, arms spread wide to cover the most area possible, occasionally raising one arm to prevent a shot from a soldier, with his handgun.

Moments later he noticed a soldier with a different coloured helmet, possibly a captain. He raised his gun, took a second's aim, and fired a single shot at Reggie. Time slowed as Tom watched the bullet whizz towards him, and without thinking he threw himself sideways. He reached out his hand, not really sure what he was thinking of, and felt the bullet slam into his palm. His arm was wrenched back with the impact, and he clutched his wrist, staring at his hand. There was a massive dent in his palm, deep enough that the bullet had actually lodged itself inside. The pain was more than he'd ever felt before.
Remembering his duty, though, he sprang to his feet and ran with the rest of the crew to the ship, defending them as best he could. His left shoulder and one of his shins stopped more bullets, and a glance behind showed most of the crew to be fine, apart from Colin who was limping with a leg wound. Then the doors began closing.
Tom panicked then. Running faster, he put his arm round the nearest crew member, Rina, and helped her to keep up speed with the rest of the crew as they sprinted for the doors. He didn't look back.

The next moment, he found himself inside with the doors closed. Reggie was screaming and slamming her fists on the hatch, and as he looked out the window, he saw such a horrific sight that he didn't blame her.
He looked down at his hand. The bullet was still there, and there were dents in his chestplate too. He wandered over to the doctor, staring at his hand the whole time, and showed him.
"Look what I caught!" he said, with a grimace.