Clon**** Sky

[Saito]

The pale, waning moon shone through panoramic windows of one of the many, decadently vast apartments in Jobe Plaza. Floating city, gate to lands undiscovered, haven for the most daring spirits amongst the heirs of mankind.

Being nothing more than a thin crescent, Luna was still able to trouble the sleep of one of its minds.

Eyes halfway closed, coverlet thrown back, Michelle shivered from the chill air that came from the window and struck her skin. A silent moan, the single tear rolling slowly down her cheek before it was wiped away by the trembling back of her hand; these were clues that could have told an uninvolved observer that it was not the pallid light alone which kept her from rest.

They had been fighting again. He told her to leave his house… for good. His wrath was terrible. His love, though scarcely shown, would have had the power to soothe her every wound.
It was all she had longed for in her childhood.

Michelle McCulloch was born, not bred like it was usual these days. No scientist had designed her; no parent’s wish defined her character. In an extraordinary generous mood her father must have been when he gave way to her mother’s request. They merely chose the most vital of her in-vitro embryos.
Even more attention to her upbringing paid her father afterwards. While her brother was trained to break records in track and field sports, hers was the way of art, poetry and music. Delighted her parents were indeed to find her especially talented in playing musical instruments. He encouraged her, kindled her ambition. She was eager to earn his love.

Never having many friends, Michelle clung to her brother, Jonas. Tall and strong, meek and gentle he was at the same time… so different in appearance and yet so akin on the inside. There was a wordless knowing and understanding between them, every little gesture spoke volumes for them.

It didn’t matter now. He had left Galway, he had left the planet. He had done it when their father found out… what she felt for Jonas. Broken and bereaved of what she needed most, Michelle fled from home when she was 19 years old. Nothing kept her anymore. Also had she heard of the war moving southward. Maybe it is time to take control of my own life, she thought back then. Not much of what happened in the weeks after, she could recall. Stumbling through debris of war, hiding, surviving without money and help.
She reached Rome, nearly starved to death. Omni-tek took care of her. She didn’t have much to deal with the hyper-corporation or its conflicts before, hearing only a brief story from her father’s work every now and then.
Omni-tek also knew how to make her believe in its cause.

Two years after, she had wealth, power and renown. She made an attempt to fix things to what they had been before her father became su****ious. Both of her parents welcomed her, crying tears of joy when one of their lost children eventually came home. She ruined all by innocently asking for news… news of her brother. One angry word followed the other.

Michelle drifted back into a black and dreamless sleep. Events that could not be undone.

[Saito]

41 Celsius in the shade. The knee-high, yellow savannah grass did hardly move in the stuffy air; the whole land seemed to scream for a few drops of water to soothe burnt plants and torn ground.

A little leet was burrowing in the dust to clean its shaggy fur from parasites.
Hardly anyone knew where those strange animals came from but it was for certain that they were not native on Rubi-Ka. This remarkable little fellow adapted itself very well to the harsh conditions, especially in arid terrain. Despite the obvious disadvantage of not having any front members…
It lived underground, delving vast tunnels simply by eating earth and excreting it; transforming it into a smooth carbon compound to support the walls.

There was a rumour that the famous carbonum armour had an astonishing chemical similarity with this sticky, quick hardening paste. It would at least explain the colour…

Suddenly the leet stopped, catching a (at least to its nose) sweetish scent.
Only a few feet away there was another one, female, tilting its head and uttering words that would have sounded rough to human ears:

“R u nubi?”

The leet had merely a rudimentarily developed language centre…

As the little Romeo drew near, a current of light began to surround him. It stood like frozen to the ground. Now the female leet’s silhouette became blurry, shifting into the one of a young woman in black Omni-Pol armour. A smile played around her lips.

Jonas always liked that trick most…

The smile vanished and turned into an expression of sorrow and loss.

"Come…"

she said softly and the leet trotted by her side.

Michelle tried to focus on her mission: “Search and retrieve an instruction disc with sensitive information, located in a clan hideout near Tir”.

The leet would go in and get her the disc unseen. Much smarter (and easier) than going in herself and killing every moving thing…

“I will find him, Michelle… I promise”
Dustin… was the only one who knew, she had told him everything.
Never had she dared to search the Omni-Pol database for Jonas “Lossenyave” McCulloch on her own. Afraid… afraid of the moment of their meeting.
What would he say… what would she…
But it was beginning to affect her work and she had to release her mind from the torment of uncertainty. It was destroying her.

A fierce blast of wind, tousling her ravenly black hair, brought her mind back to the present.
Clenching her eyelids together she gazed at the sky. She felt a change of weather.

Arriving at a high wire-mesh fence she turned around and knelt down to her faithful follower.
The leet seemed to read her will just by looking into her dark eyes and strode off through the fence to an air shaft nearby.

She sat down, leaning against the fence and waited for it to return. Lex’ encouraging expression at their parting made her feel a little better when she recalled it.
It might still turn out right.

[Saito]

As the colour of life’s ending is white, the one of its beginning is black.
The two sides of the coin.
Yin and Yang.
Destiny.
Tao.

The space of conception, the vast sea of growth and awakening is utterly black.
The seed needs no light to find a harbour and anchor itself. For a short while, life decides to dwell in another, protected by skin and flesh; nurtured by a symbiotic intertwining of spirits. No knowledge is more instinctive and yet complete. Never again reaches our weak ability of extraverted feeling this closeness to empathy.

And so it grows. Units become congeries. Congeries receives meaning as order issues from chaos. From this order comes, for the first time, death, as cells cease to exist in controlled apoptosis. Despite the plethora of species, evolution has never changed or even abandoned the basic workings. The archetype of sophisticated life has only one shape.

When it begins to demand space, the colour shifts to red. Folds close to build what will form the home of sentience. The younger spirit lets go of the other. With melancholy and excitement holding the balance, this process creates a gap in each being. It urges us to find the missing part throughout our time, still never to be mended.

Awareness.

First light, extenuated to a red shimmer. First sound, two times a crippled syncopation racing together but never to be in unison.

First thought, yet to be directed into speech.
Grief.
Ah… the bond has not yet been fully separated. Why confrontation with the pain of outside already?
The seed is in fear for itself for the first time. It’s not wanted.
It tries to close its semi-functional lids over its semi-functional eyes but nothing spares it from the horrendous pain that comes, when the small world ends in a cacophony of noise and violence.

There is life which would have liked to persist.
There is life which longs for nothing but to end.

[Saito]

Michelle had been shot in the heart. She tumbled back. Disbelief. The grin of the small-time crook she had noticed too late, the world spinning and causing nausea, a look down to her shattered chest where smoke rose with a smell of brimstone. She fell and breathed her last breath which was nothing more but a silent whimpering.

White. Relief. End.

Then a sudden jerk. Streaks of cold blue and a desperate scream for letting her be this time. Please, this time.

She felt the ground again, lying in front of a reclaim terminal in 20k. Wrapped in wet cloth to protect her newly cloned vessel from the environment (and curious eyes) until she would take her equipment back. She didn’t for a long time. She held her hand on her belly where something was missing. The child she had procured the abortion of. Jonas’ gift to her.

[Saito]

((These events take place before Michelle's capture by Omni-Reform))

[Vicinity] Tussa: frowns
[Vicinity] Tussa: tiptoes
[Vicinity] Tussa: quirks a brow
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: Shining one! Foe of Shere!
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: Go away! This is a sacred place!
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: Hypnagogic?
[Vicinity] Tussa: mouths "foe" ?
[Vicinity] Tussa: smiles and covers her mouth
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: You!
[Vicinity] Tussa: Oh rats
[Vicinity] Tussa: waves to Jadeshimmer
[Vicinity] Tussa: And here I was, listening to your nice little cozy-mozy
with the beast
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: *snarls*
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: What do you want!
[Vicinity] Tussa: Well, there's this issue of investigation
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: looks back over her shoulder at the Hypnagogic, as if to reassure herself
[Vicinity] Tussa: cocks her head at the unredeemed beast
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: I told you there is no reason further investigate
the spill, other than your own part in it.
[Vicinity] Tussa: What...he's your *friend*, General?`
[Vicinity] Tussa: squints
[Vicinity] Tussa: The only part I "own" in it is that we happened to be the
ones that uncovered RURs lies!
[Vicinity] Tussa: And now they're trying to blame it on us, lieing you
straight in your face....your own officers said that any Omni-Tek company
who deliberately went against an official decision would have to be
investigated.
[Vicinity] Tussa: And you don't. Which makes me angry, because my clan's name has been dragged in the mud!
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: *puts a hand on Jade's shoulder*
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: R.U.R. was and is well respected. They always took a
rather neutral stance! Why would they fall into dirty tactics now? No...
this bears the signs of clanner sabotage! Which clan is closer to blame than
the one that starts the accusations?
[Vicinity] Tussa: Why? I'll tell you why...maybe they were afraid they would really be shut down if they were discovered.
[Vicinity] Tussa: Why else would they hide it? They *knew* they went against Omni-Tek laws and they did it deliberately
[Vicinity] Tussa: peers at the Hypnagogic
[Vicinity] Tussa: We accused them rightfully, McCullogh!
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: No more! I have my orders to leave R.U.R. alone
and... *runs silent* I have nothing more to say to you. Your persistence
annoys me.
[Vicinity] Tussa: I see...
[Vicinity] Tussa: Maybe...
[Vicinity] Tussa: ...maybe you just need some convincing
[Vicinity] Tussa: tilts her head
[Vicinity] Tussa: Darlings, will you dispose of that Follower Bhotaar-Wox
Shere for me?
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: *Roars*
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: Stop!
[Vicinity] Tussa: Why?

[Vicinity] Tussa: looks over her shoulder
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: Your killing is senseless! And it fits *oh* so well
my estimation of you and your kind.
[Vicinity] Tussa: These are unredeemed. They are killing this world.
[Vicinity] Tussa: And frankly, General...I couldn't care less what you think
of me. I'm not here to be your friend.
[Vicinity] Tussa: I'm here to make sur eyou do your job!
[Vicinity] Tussa: You say you have orders not to touch RUR...who gave those
orders?
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks at the Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks down at Jadeshimmer
[Vicinity] Tussa: jumps down
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: Touch him and you will suffer
[Vicinity] Tussa: Is that so?
[Vicinity] Tussa: You think I haven't suffered enough?
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: You can't stir any pity in me with your desolate
state. It's not of my making.
[Vicinity] Tussa: takes off her glasses
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: But more and more I wish it was so!
[Vicinity] Tussa: Tell me....if RUR were innocent, why would they want to
silence me?
[Vicinity] Tussa: points to where the missing eye would be
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: You have many enemies how can you put this blame on R.U.R.?!
[Vicinity] Tussa: Maybe because the attacker said it herself?
[Vicinity] Tussa: And because they...were....there!
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: struggles
[Vicinity] Tussa: frowns
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: You lie...
[Vicinity] Tussa: grits her teeth
[Vicinity] Tussa: Maybe about many things...but not this
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: She speaks the truth
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: Hypnagogic!
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks at the Hypnagogic, looking surprised
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: ... why ... none of them would be... capable of...
[Vicinity] Tussa: They hired someone.
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: Yes... a nether servant of the puny Inammorata
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: I... can't believe this
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks at the Hypnagogic, uncertain
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: Why didn't you tell me?
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: It was more
advantageous for you not to know. You are to battle our foes
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: I... trusted you. I served you even...
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks at the woman, increasingly surprised
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: I hate you... Godfray.
[Vicinity] Tussa: Oh the love...
[Vicinity] Tussa: sighs
[Vicinity] Tussa: This is my fault too?
[Vicinity] Tussa: That your pet up there doesn't like how you work and
tricks you and lies to you?
[Vicinity] Tussa: nods towards the Hypnagogic
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: Ever since you stepped into my life you pry and tear on my wounds, and inflict new ones.
[Vicinity] Tussa: Pry and tear...oh yes, you're referring to the man
[Vicinity] Tussa: And the kid.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: 's lips tremble
[Vicinity] Tussa: I understand you don't know much about mindshifting,
McCullogh. Which is understandable. You people never put any trust in it.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: I feel dirty ever since I felt your cold thoughts
like fingers in my soul, tugging and laying open
[Vicinity] Tussa: lowers her eyes, hiding a smirk
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: My collegues started to doubt me and mocked me
because of what you did to me
[Vicinity] Tussa: I only see what's there...Michelle. What's in *your* mind.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: It was not supposed to resurface!
[Vicinity] Tussa: That you can't work to get past it or lay it behind you
isn't my fault.
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks up and squints
[Vicinity] Tussa: puts the glasses back on
[Vicinity] Tussa: And if you can't...then maybe it's time you really forgot
it, isn't it...
[Vicinity] Tussa: So you can *do* your job
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: Calm down your pitiful anger servant! You embarass me
[Vicinity] Tussa: grins up at the Hypnagogic
[Vicinity] Tussa: Maybe you should be the silent one, beast
[Vicinity] Tussa: McCullogh here is working on a problem, can't you see?
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: *scowls at Tussa*
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: closes her eyes at this hurtful betrayal
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks at Jadeshimmer
[Vicinity] Tussa: And you let it treat you like this...
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: nearly whispers
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: He helped me...
[Vicinity] Tussa: shakes her head a little
[Vicinity] Tussa: Used you.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: is deeply troubled, not knowing where to go from
here
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: I could use her... problem well
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks at the beasts
[Vicinity] Tussa: Such noise...can't think...
[Vicinity] Tussa: Now, now, Ceph..
[Vicinity] Tussa: flicks a wrist at the demon
[Vicinity] All team members can loot these remains.
[Vicinity] Tussa: scowls at Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere
[Other Pets] Jadeshimmer's pet, Hypnagogic Xum-Ixi Shere: I have seen your death Tussa!
[Vicinity] Tussa: There's a prophecy for you....
[Vicinity] Tussa: I'm human, beast...of course I'll die
[Vicinity] Tussa: And it just so happens that you will too.
[Vicinity] Tussa: No, Ceph, you will stay there.
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks at Jade
[Vicinity] Tussa: He used you....tricked you...lied to you when you trusted
him. How does that feel, McCullogh...betrayal.
[Vicinity] Tussa: flicks a wrist at the demon
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: fights her tears
[Vicinity] Tussa: He doesn't deserve a follower like you.
[Vicinity] All team members can loot these remains.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: kneels down weakly, ignoring the dying noises of the
Hypnagogic*
[Vicinity] All team members can loot these remains.
[Vicinity] Tussa: Neither of these do
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: It is too late for me to... turn back *wipes her
nose*
[Vicinity] Tussa: cracks her neck, looking at her

To [Jadeshimmer]: *the voice is genderless and like a whisper from within
your head* Micheeeeeeelle...you want to forget...don't you.....put it behind
you...
To [Jadeshimmer]: *the whispers turns melodic* Put Jonas behind you....move
on....

[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: for.. forget
[Vicinity] Tussa: nods
[Vicinity] Tussa: That's right....
[Vicinity] Tussa: takes a breath, holding it for a few seconds
[Vicinity] Tussa: I have a proposition...
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: I am listening
[Vicinity] Tussa: smiles lightly, lowering her head, beads of sweat on her
forehead
[Vicinity] Tussa: I'll help you store the memories away
[Vicinity] Tussa: And you'll wipe any warrant on any Assembly members plus
investigate RUR. For real.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: I do not know if that lies within my
possibilities...
[Vicinity] Tussa: scowls at the unredeemed beasts
[Vicinity] Tussa: Aren't you a general?
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: ... of a sub-division. I need such a thing granted
by Sergeyich
[Vicinity] Tussa: frowns
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: His... orders. The cover up *now it's out*
[Vicinity] Tussa: blinsk
[Vicinity] Tussa: The high chief of Omni-Pol ordered this case silenced?
[Vicinity] Follower Bhotaar-Wox Shere looks around nerviously.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: I don't know if it goes higher up... but his were my
direct orders.
[Vicinity] Tussa: quirks a brow
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: It is too much to ask for you to remain silent about
this. I know. It will cost my my job.
[Vicinity] Tussa: What *can* you do then, McCullogh.
[Vicinity] Tussa: waves a hand dismissively
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: I can relay confidential information to the press
[Vicinity] Tussa: I'm not interested in seeing you out of a job.
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks at her
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: Why not... it would ruin me. And it would break me.
Isn't that what you want'
[Vicinity] Tussa: sighs
[Vicinity] Tussa: They really do brainwash you, don't they...
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: seems confused
[Vicinity] Tussa: I bet you think I've voice recorded this conversation too,
don't you.
[Vicinity] Tussa: Or that I'll use any chance to poke around in your head
[Vicinity] Tussa: motions to Jade's head
[Vicinity] Follower Man-Wox Shere looks around nerviously.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: feels embarassed... she is taking herself too
important
[Vicinity] Tussa: I'm not a monster, McCullogh.
[Vicinity] Tussa: I just look after my people.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: I try to do the same. That's what makes us enemies I
suppose.
[Vicinity] Tussa: And I don't like being blamed for things we didn't do.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: Here our ways separate?
[Vicinity] Tussa: I don't want your corporation on this planet, and I'll
fight until I die to see it off it. That doesn't mean I *hate* you people
individually.
[Vicinity] Tussa: I can help you get past Jonas and the child.
[Vicinity] Tussa: If you keep your thugs off of my people and see that RUR
is investigated.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: casts her Acolyte robe aside, in thoughts
[Vicinity] Tussa: And then we never have to speak again, ever
[Vicinity] Tussa: Or...
[Vicinity] Tussa: shrugs
[Vicinity] Tussa: We could do it the hard way, I suppose.
[Vicinity] Tussa: looks at the woman, a bit apprehensively
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: Rest assured that I don't fear to go, should it be
necessary. I prefer another, though.
[Vicinity] Tussa: I don't assume anything.
[Vicinity] Tussa: I only know I'll fight you if I have to.
[Vicinity] Jadeshimmer: *smiles a bit * About the eye... there's surgery you
know. Join Omni-Tek today and a wide array of treatment will be available to
you.
[Vicinity] Tussa: snorts
[Vicinity] Tussa: mumbles
[Vicinity] Tussa: ~Damn Omni-Tek~

[Saito]

An extremely loud, high-pitched whistle slapped Michelle into consciousness. A very unpleasant consciousness.
Complete absence of light.
Her lungs were immediately shaken by fierce spasms, fighting against something streaming inside that was not air, but a slightly salty, highly oxygen-saturated solution.
The siren was still torturing her eardrums as claustrophobia laid its cold fingers around her heart. Panic unfurled its banners to a madness when her heavy limbs touched nothing but more of the viscous liquid. A scream of the deepest, primeval fear died in her throat because her vocal chords did not function.
So she raved, raved until complete exhaustion. Until ancient mechanisms turned her into a catatonic state she only slowly found out of again.

The siren must have stopped.
No there was not nothing. She forced her attention on these few sensations. Logic beat the trapped beast for a while.
She must have been nude as she felt the soft current of the encompassing liquid through the fine hair on her skin. Something covered her abdomen to intercept faeces. It felt uncomfortable to say the least. It also meant that she was here because of a malign will. And she would stay here for an extended time. Panic rose again but she beat it down after a short struggle.
The irritation of her respiratory system became less but the breathing cycle required more effort than usual. She was surprised that her body accepted it. And that it supplied her with enough oxygen.

She was unable to turn her head freely. Some kind of resistance, a connection to her head prevented it. Strangely, she had no feeling on the back of her scalp. She could not know that part of her skull had been removed to lay her brain open to various flexible tubes. They were able to conduct very specific and sophisticated psychological drugs or electrical stimuli directly to where they were required.

Still her eyes tried to pierce the utter dark around her but to no avail. Apathy took turns with clamour until she became tired and dozed off.
She slept until the siren returned.

~

Deputy-Director Naare stood behind two scientists clad in white and watched several monitors closely, but her eyes always returned to one. It showed the face of a woman whose hair floated around it like the protuberances of a sun. Her eyes were closed.

Naare followed the movement of one of the scientist’s hands as he manipulated the console in front of him. There were several screens indicating various body signals of the woman.
EEG. ECG. Blood composition. He cringed slightly at the setting in of the siren as it was random, even though it was extenuated by a thick layer of metal. 95 decibel for the woman, he thought briefly.

Naare marvelled at the perfect suspended sphere where Michelle McCulloch was trapped in for her re-education. Brain-washing was not as easy anymore with an adult human as with a freshly bred specimen. The methods had to be slightly less… demure to break her. Withdrawal of sensation. Withdrawal of sleep. After five days she would be susceptive for the actual re-education.

~

Michelle opened her eyes slowly to be greeted by the faint light of sunrise. She dug herself a bit deeper into the sheets to savour and hold the remainder of sweet drowsiness.
She fumbled for the alarm clock to turn it off before it went off. She didn’t want to hear the shrill sound of it today.
Five more minutes, then she got up and dressed to have breakfast.
Life was good. She loved her job and the safety she had in Omni-Tek.
Yes, life was good.