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.
