Nanowrimo 2011 - Day 10

[SHAWNA - SUPERNATURAL AID]

The energy expenditure to combat the creature had been worth it, it would have killed both James and Li and that would have locked her on this wet and dismall planet. As it was, the creature had turned James to shreds of his former self. He didnt look like he would make it throuh the night, he needed medical attention and it looked like their group didnt even have a band-aid let alone a full medical unit with transfusion capability. At least Li was saved. Someone in the group needed to be able to access the shuttle that she’d detected since being stranded here. Its energy signal was distinctive and it called to Shawna, a shining beacon of hope that would get her off planet and onto the Generation Ship. Once there she could begin to investigate the enigma that had brought her here in the first place.

[### SYN / 875621 ###]

A low priority subroutine, deep inside her core processor, received the packet and responded automatically:

[### SYN-ACK / 875622 / 172265 ###]

Shawna continued to hold the wriggling young woman by the throat, suspending her just high enough that her feet didnt touch the ground. The woman had been fighting - blaming Shawna for the attack on James - the obvious conclusion but fatally flawed. The creature responsible for the attack had been … a challenge … but it had no experience dealing with someone like Shawna. Her weaknesses weren’t those of regular humans, despite her need to hide among them and appear just like them.

[### ACK / 172266 ###]

The low priority subroutine received the answer, judging that the sequence numers were intact and in order, and flagged the open local-net connection for the next layer of the network stack to process. The connection was handed off a few more times before it came to Shawa’s waking mind, the core of the pressing.

In surprise she dropped the shaven headed woman, who sullenly kicked the vampire corpse a couple ot times.

[### CONNECTION BROKEN ###]

Shawna nodded to herself, localnet connections out here? The mystery was compouded by her own broken condition. It was simply so unexpected. A local-net connection was a product of recent human technological advancement, a secure communication mechanism that ran over skin-to-skin contact. Shawna had made it clear, when she had designed her current body, that it needed this capability but it had been so long since anyone had attempted a connection that she’d down-prioritized that section of her base-code. For it to flag a connection was … unexpected … simply due to the amount of damage she had sustained in the crash. She glanced down at the rough welding job that held her [former spine] abdomen together. Deck plating. She had filled the gap behind the plating with a mostly depleted power supply from the shuttle. One of the terminals in the cargobay had been torn from its housing and she had been able to salvage storage and processing units from it, housed in a jury-rigged external mounting on her [former chest] upper back. All in all, she was a shadow of her former self, the crash almost terminating her processing capability. The ship in orbit was her salvation. The evidence of synth-flesh suggested the ability to repair. The behavior of some of James’s friends suggested others of her kind, and the ability to replenish power. With her store of nanites used up after the welding job, restoring her internal connectivity, she felt fragile, her ability to self-heal reduced to next-to-nothing. She was durable, and strong, for as long as the depleted power supply and welded seams held out.

Li woke with a splitting headache, to the smell of roasting flesh. Not again! She rolled, got up, just in time to throw up again at the base of a nearby tree, beside firewood that had been collected and neatly stacked there. After she had cleaned herself up she looked around the clearing, needing a drink of water, and some answers.

The campfire now doubled as funeral pyre for a headless corpse. The young shaven headed stranger, Kat, was busy pulling provisions together and refilling her backpack. James was …

Li felt herself crumbling. She needed James to retrive concrete proof from the Generation Ship in orbit above the planet. He now lay on his back looking like someone had attempted to fly him alive. The slashes ran deep and he looked like he had lost a lot of blood. Kat had bound the wounds as best she could with their makeshift camping materials. What he needed was a full medical work-up and for that he needed to be back in civilization - back where Li called home - not here in a dank forest, laying on swampy topsoil.

“You’re up!” Kat said, turning to Li.

“Yeah. I need some water.” she said.

Kat dug in her pack and tossed a canteen to Li, “Drink up. Plenty more where that came from.”

Li drank, aware of the brackish flavor but not caring. Water. Life. It took away the taste of death from her mouth and offered hope that life would continue just a little longer. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement. She turned and found herself staring at … she frowned and looked again … the humanoid figure had a familiar height and build. It was dressed all in black save for a diagonal stripe of metal across its abdomen. Li blinked. Deck plating. From the shuttle they had just left. There were other features that looked out of place, humanoid but not actually human, an all-black simulcrum. The blackness was reminiscent of a sensor-net, a thought that brought back a shudder of horror now she had some clue about what they were, but it looked like just a coating especially with the deep scarring and the welded deck plating. The figure stepped into the light of the campfire and Li gasped. She knew those black covered features. She had spent the last four years with them on the Purgatory’s Lament - Shawna.

“No … it cant be!” she said.

The figure shifted its attention, turning to look at Li, “Like it or not, Li Phan, it is me … and we all have common goals. Perhaps we should meet anew, I am Shawna, formerly crew of the Purgatory’s Lament, and right now a castaway in this swamp just as you are.”

Shawna extended a hand, not sure if Li would take the handshake. It was a gesture she hoped would be human enough, and familiar enough, to bring the response she needed. Whatever happened she needed Li. The small woman was the means to an end, to getting back into orbit and onto the Generation Ship. After that Li could go where she wanted, do what she wanted.

Li looked at the extended hand for a moment. Everything screamed at her to turn and walk away. The painful history they had shared, always at odds, especially since the Captain had enacted Protocol Seven, demanded that she reject the offer. Familiarity and the need for human contact, the need for an ally in this unknown environment, spoke louder and she took the hand.

“I dont like you, I dont trust you, but for now it looks like we need each other.” Li said.

“Agreed.” Shawna said, shaking her by the hand, “A common threat, the enemy of my enemy … not entirely a friend, but at least allies while our own goals align.”

James groaned, snapping Li’s attention back to the present. Kat was kneeling beside him tending to his wounds. Or was she? Li watched as she unbound the makeshift bandage and washed some of the dirt and crusted blood away. James cried out again. Kat ran a finger across the open flesh and held it up in the firelight, covered with blood. Li was horrified as she proceeded to fist lick the finger, then suck on it. She closed her eyes once the finger was cleaned of blood, sitting back on her haunches. A faint smile touched her lips.

Li couldnt stand it any longer. Her hand found a large branch, stacked firewood and she took hold. In one smooth move she stepped forward swinging the club, landing a solid blow to the side of Kat’s head. She spun away from James and landed on her back. Knocked out clean. Li dropped the branch and went to check James’s vitals - was he still breathing, pulse at the neck?

Li looked up to see Shawna standing over the prone body of Kat. Let her do what she wills, James was the ticket out and off the planet.