Nanowrimo 2011 - Day 02

A bleep from Shawna’s terminal snagged her attention - notification of data that needed timely verification. Her sense of unease was mixed with a giddy anticipation - this could be Li’s results - and the answer to whether her own synthetic nature had been “outed”. Every part of her, it seemed, ached to be known but not under these circumstances. The secret weighed on her. As time had gone by she’d flip flopped between wanting to be known and the foreboding of strangers reactions once they knew her secret. It simply wasnt safe, even here in the Scout Service permissive as it was. She didnt dare reveal a fact that proved her very existence to be a violation of a number of laws. She had nowhere to run, confined with 5 others in a tin can in deep space. No, it had to stay under wraps. Fear of being inadvertently found out though, that worried her most of every day. Anything requiring another crew member to administer medical aid, someone pointing the wrong diagnostic tool her way, or a more subtle mistake of omission. This latest threat - synthetic flesh found - might be her undoing.

The terminal bleeped again.

“OK, OK you little tyrant. What is it?” she demanded as she punched a command sequence in.

Geological samples from the surface of the planet - she punched a button and the computer terminal obligingly flashed it to what it thought was an external laptop, wirelessly. Shawna assimilated the information directly and moved on. More of the genome map, again uploaded to her directly, and lastly a log of the translations being made by Li’s lab computer. Shawna paused for a few moments to absorb all of the data. Still nothing about the synth-flesh but she thought she saw something in the collected memories of the generation ship’s passenger. She corrected herself, in the memories of James. His friends exhibited remarkably android-like behavioral traits when viewed with her trained eyes. Nothing could be accomplished in her lab she she took off at a brisk pace to the one location with answers.