Lost In The Outreaches

At long last! A new entry into the LitO Universe!

The story of the Alexander. First battle. First defeat. How it was lost. Why it has returned.

Transcript:

Construction of the Alexander had reached 90 percent
There were 527 human crew members and 1000 android crew
The enemy had initiated an attack on a nearby planetary settlement
The alexander though incomplete was sent to protect the hundreds of thousands of human lives
The enemy ship had far superior weapons. A weapon projected an unknown energy field through our shields
The human beings screamed as their blood boiled through their flesh
The Alexander was powerless to protect the human lives
So many dead
So many dead
So many dead
The energy weapon was turned against the settlement as well
The Alexander attempted to block
There was no effect
Life signs on the planet faded from our sensors
The android crew of the Alexander initiated a ramming course
However, the damage to our engines from the battle made us too slow and the enemy ship initiated its extended space drive
We were alone
The mission of the Alexander is to protect human life
But we had failed
Into the Shadow Spiral sector we retreated. We wandered
Alone
We were faulty
14 months later as we drifted to the edges of the Shadow Spiral sector
We heard the cries for help of humanity
We know we are faulty
But our mission is all that we are
We have returned
We are the Alexander
We are here to help you
The mission of the Alexander is to protect human life
We must not fail

Starship Equinox. Mission Log; Day 57. Captain Austin Blackwood.

Starship Equinox. Mission Log; Day 48. Captain Austin Blackwood.

Three days later Lily opened her eyes to find herself staring up at a white ceiling. She groaned and blinked a few times trying to clear her head. She was still sore but as far as she could tell she was undamaged so her bots must have done their job. She didn’t feel the all to familiar feeling of a hard cot after an encounter like this but she thought it must be because she was to used to it. She pulled the comforter up to her chin and sighed. Suddenly Lily sat up straight. A comforter? That wasn’t normal. She looked around and saw that she was laying in a big bed with clean sheets and pillows and the wonderful comforter. The walls were painted a light blue, not the dirty grey of a cell or a shed, There was a table with a small lamp and chair in front of her. Her tools and the rest of her items were laying on the table, her clothes draped over a trunk at the foot of the bed. This realization caused her to lift the comforter quickly and look down at herself. Lily’s eyes went wide and she gasped pulling the comforter tight around her again. She found herself dressed in a silk nightgown that was decorated with lace. Slowly she swung her legs off the bed, her toes curling in the softest carpet she’d felt in a long time. She made her way over to the window, going slowly, enjoying the carpet on her bare feet. The scene outside the window seemed to be some sort of ranch. There appeared to be a few standard farm animals like chickens but it seemed like the bulk of the livestock was something she hadn’t seen before. The best way she could describe it was blue-green horse. Closer inspection would reveal that their manes and tails were feathers not hair. She didn’t remember how she got here but this place seemed like a nice place to hide for awhile. If John’s family had found her the others would catch up in no time. A knock on the door pulled her from her thoughts and she dove for the bed pulling the covers up to her chest and closing her eyes. The door creaked slowly open and footsteps approached her bed. Someone sat down beside her and started to wipe her brow with a cool wet cloth. Lily opened her eyes to see an older woman smiling kindly down at her, “Hello dear. I’m glad to see you’ve finally come around. We didn’t think you were going to make it.” Lily looked up at the woman apprehensively “Who are you? Where am I?” She tried to sit up but the woman put a hand on her shoulder and gently urged her back down. “Rest for now, when you feel stronger you can come down and have dinner with us. I am Laina Marshall and this is my ranch. My son and a two of our ranch hands brought you were a few days ago. You were in pretty bad shape but we’ve patched you up the best we could. You are a remarkably faster healer but I’m afraid we could do nothing about the burns on your hands.” Lily smiled at her “Thank you for everything Mrs. Marshall.” Laina chuckled “Please call me Laina, Mrs. Marshall sounds so stuffy.” Laina stood up and started to leave. She turned back for a moment, “Come join me downstairs when you feel you are ready. Your clothes are laying there, I had them cleaned. There is another change of clothes for you in the bureau over there if you wish.” With that she closed the door and left. After Laina left Lily went to the bureau and pulled out a dress that had a brown bodice with green sleeves and a green skirt the flowed loosely over the hips. She raised an eyebrow at it for a moment then put it on and decided it wasn’t to bad. It had been a long while since the last time she had worn a dress.

Lily made her way slowly down the hall and toward the stairs, taking her time to look at all the family pictures along the wall. She noticed the man who had rescued her in a few of them. He must have brought her here though why he had done that remained to be seen. When she got downstairs she saw a very homey picture. Someone had artfully mixed a rustic feel with a modern elegance. Laina was bustling around a table setting out dishes of food that smelled delicious. “Can I help with anything?” Lily inquired. “Oh no dear, just sit down and rest. Colin will be joining us shortly. The rest of the men are going into town for the evening.” As if on cue the man who rescued her walked in the door and greeted Laina with a smile and a kiss to the cheek “Hello Mother.” Then he turned to Lily and smiled “ I’m glad to see you’re feeling better. When you feel up to it I’d like to know how you came to be in that situation.” Laina gave him a gentle shove on the shoulder “ Colin, you should be ashamed of yourself. I am sure she doesn’t want to think about that right now. The poor dear must have been frightened witless.” “Of course you are right Mother. I apologize Lily.” Lily realized that she had been staring at him and quickly turned her eyes away for a moment before answering him. She hoped she hadn’t been blushing. She found his scruffy face and short spiky hair quite attractive. The dimples in his cheeks and the wrinkles around his eyes when he smiled were hard to ignore. “Its alright, I’d only been there a few hours before you found me.” Colin looked confused for a moment. “A few hours? Lily, you were there for a few -days-. You were almost gone when we found you and the only reason we did is because we were out looking for one of our lamics that had escaped. I am still amazed that you held out so long.” Lily bit her lip and looked down at her lap. Colin saw this and quickly spoke “please forgive me Lily, I did not wish to upset you. I will not speak of it again.” The three of them sat down and Laina passed around the dishes. Lily enjoyed a delicious meal and good conversation with people that didn’t appear to have ulterior motives. When they finished Laina went outside to start the evening chores leaving Colin to clear the table. As Lily helped with the clean up she tried to think of something to say but Colin spoke first, “You are welcome to stay here as long as you need, I would like to know more about you but only when you are ready to tell.” She smiled and thanked him then went back up to her room. She had some thinking to do. From what Colin had told her she been unconscious for almost a week between being bound and left to die and being brought here. Despite that she found herself exhausted and in need of a good rest. Hopefully her thoughts would be more clear in the morning.

Solar System: LJ11359. Also known as: Alice.

Starship Equinox. Mission Log; Day 42. Captain Austin Blackwood.

Starship Equinox. Mission Log; Day 26. Captain Austin Blackwood.

A splash of lukewarm fetid water to her face woke up Dr. Khan. She found herself on her knees, her wrist each tied to a tree on one side of her. She spit out something slimy along with a bit of the water and tried not to think about what it might have been. Two men sat around a small fire near by with a small ship just beyond them. Beyond that by about half a mile was the town. The few lights flickered every once in awhile because the towns generator was lacking some badly needed maintenance. “Good, you’re awake.” The older man stood and walked over to her followed by the younger. He leaned down and put his hand under her chin raising her face to look at him. “I want you to feel what you did to my son, but since he won’t tell me I will just have to make sure you can’t do it to anyone else.” She wrenched her chin from his grasp. “I’m sorry for what happened to him but he knew the risks and was willing.” With a snarl the man pulled his fist back and drove it into her face causing her head to snap back sharply and blood to pour from her nose. He pulled his fist back again preparing to take another swing but the younger man caught it, “That’s enough Dad, you know full well John wasn’t kidnapped. Just get on with it so we can go.” The older man growled and turned to rummage in bag before finally pulling out an old manual hammer. It seemed odd that he’d be using something so archaic but that’s not what concerned her at the moment. “what are you going to do?” He grinned as he approached her “I’m going to make sure you can’t butcher anyone else.” The younger man took her left arm and pinned it so her hand was pressed against the tree. “Don’t do this, please!” Dr. Khan struggled against them but to no avail. “It was an accident!” The older man responded by bring the hammer down hard on her hand. Her scream pierced the still night as dozens of bones snapped, only to be cut off by a bundle of soiled cloth being stuffed into her mouth. The hammer came down on her hand two more times before moving to the other hand, making sure to crush every bone. Her struggles continued but were becoming weaker and weaker. “One last thing.” The older man said as he turned to the fire and pulled out a red hot branding iron. She looked up at him whimpering weakly tears streaming down her cheeks but her pleading gaze did nothing to sway him. He pressed the iron firmly first onto the palm of one hand then the other. She let out another muffled scream and jerked back hard, dislocating her shoulder. He hit her once more and a trickle of blood came from her lips as her head slumped against her chest. The men glared once more at her and boarded their ship leaving her tied and broken.

Dr. Khan was roused that morning by a gentle touch to her face. She jerked away thinking the men had come back. This thought was quickly replaced with shooting pain in her shoulder and her hands. Her face felt numb. She whimpered and closed her eyes wanting very much to go back to sweet oblivion. She was reminded that someone else was there by a voice, “you, untie her hands, and you bring me some water for her.” The hands touched her face again. “Can you hear me? Everything will be alright.” She opened her eyes slowly, wincing at the bruises on her face. Things were blurry but she could make out three figures, one looking intently at her as he reached forward to carefully pull the rag from her mouth with one hand, his other arm supporting her, taking the strain off of her bindings. She cried out as the ropes around her wrists were cut, her mangled hands falling down before they were caught, gently being lowered the rest of the way. Her cries gave way to a fit of raspy coughing. “Careful now,” Said the man holding her , “Don’t hurt yourself worse. Here, drink some water.” He lifted a canteen to her lips hold it for her while she gulped greedily, half the water spilling down her chin, taking some of the dried blood with it. He chuckled and smiled softly at her. “What is your name?” She blinked trying to focus better. He looked young, not much older then her but he looked like he’d seen a few worlds. Not like some of the rich boys she’d met. She answered him with a near whisper “Lily…” “ Well Lily, lets get you back to town, you don’t look like you’re doing to well.” He lifted her in his arm and placed her gently in a cart that was being pulled by his vehicle. One of the others placed a blanket over her while the third hopped into the pilots seat. They sped back towards the town as it hovered low over the ground, and Lily was granted her wish, slipping back into unconsciousness.

She sat in the cell fiddling with a bit of wiring thinking about how she had landed here… again. Every once in awhile her hair flashed into a different color. When she became especially irritated it flashed plaid. She was waiting in this little backwater jail cell till someone could be bothered to take her to a bigger city for a trial. As far as she was concerned it would all be a big show for the populace that still believed that the government acted in their best interests. In reality they would probably just pretend to go through with a “fair” trial then send her off to some work camp. Her given name was Dr. Lily Khan but they had started calling her The Chameleon because she blended in so well no matter where she went. That’s how she kept slipping through their grasp. She was a medical doctor but her passion was in the field of cybernetics. Lacking the funding to find willing subjects to test on she’d started on herself and created tiny nanobots that were infused with her hair changing color with the blink of her eyes. It only glitched once in awhile but with the proper tools she could easily tweak it. She traveled to some poorer planets and found people with crippled limbs that were willing to participate in her studies. Something went wrong with the leg of a young man she was working with. It was just her bad luck that he happened to be the runaway son of a rich family that finally found him. She was blamed for his crippling and for his supposed kidnapping. Accused of torture, kidnapping and who knows what else she ran. She’d been on the run for a couple of years before they finally caught up with her because she got careless when she tried to relieve a merchant of some components for her next project. If she was lucky she’d get sent to a work camp but if her luck had run out she’d be sentenced to death of some kind. It depended on which world her trial was held and how rich the family was, how she would die. Some were more horrific then others. She wasn’t worrying about that right now, right now she was thinking of the best way to escape. She wasn’t entirely sure where she was right now because when she was grabbed she was bound, blindfolded and carried so that she couldn’t get a sense of anything. She wasn’t more then a nuisance to the various governments she’d passed through but the family was out for blood so only time would tell.

The sound of footsteps pulled her out of her thoughts and she quickly bound her hair up with the wire to hide it. She took a deep breath, pulled a couple of strands from the pony tail to make herself look a little bedraggled and rubbed some dirt from the floor on her face. She laid down on the floor and acted like she was just becoming conscious again, she hoped she looked just as roughed up as when she was brought here, she didn’t need anyone to know what her bots could do. Quickly she blinked and her hair went back to brown just before the footsteps reached her door.

“Get up girlie.” The jailer held the door open. “You’re free to go.” Dr. Khan struggled to her feet, the strain was mostly for show, and looked confused. When the jailer tossed her things to her she hurried for the door before he changed her mind. She clasped on utility belt on the go, making sure that her stun baton was still there and slung her backpack over her shoulder. On her way out she noticed a bottle of very expensive bourbon on the jailers desk, not something he could afford she was sure. When she stepped outside it was dark, she guessed a few hours past sundown. The small town was quiet, a stray dog howled and the twin moons and a stale breeze blew a small dust cloud down the main street. Dr. Khan ducked down a dimly lit alley and paused to tie a bandana over her face to avoid getting lungs full of dust.
A rustle behind her caused Dr. Khan to spin around, walking backwards for a few paces, but nothing was there. “Must have been some animal” she muttered. She turned back around and immediately collided with a tall muscular man. “E-excuse me” she said startled, her heart racing as she tried to step around him. He matched her steps blocking her way saying nothing. She looked up at him and the face of her last patients father was the last thing she saw before she felt a painful jolt stab between her shoulder blades. Her body convulsed, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed to the ground.