Sigma/Star

Chapter 66: Rourke

Sigma came over to chip in anyways, without being requisitioned, knowing his superior strength could make the task so much faster. "Alpha," he said, glancing over at the android. He hated using that name but she didn't respond to Allyson...yet. "Would you be able to find a suitable place for habitation within the trees here? Close to fresh water if possible, though we can convert salt if we have to. It only has to be enough to accommodate the doctor here." Alpha nodded and took off into the forest to fulfill the orders.

"Thank you Sigma but I can survive on my own," Roth huffed as he tried to carry another large computer component. "As you saw, I did quite well in the mountains for quite some time."

"Living off mushrooms and moss and melting snow? I think we can give you a higher quality of life here."

"But why?" Roth sat on the beach beside some of his machines as Sigma started to take over the heavier lifting. "Look at me, look at what I did to my daughter. My daughter Sigma! Why see me live any longer?"

The cyborg shrugged as he worked. "Who knows? You still have use so long as Alpha is in her current state, and perhaps you will find a key to restoring her memory. Maybe I can see some form of empathy, can see why you would choose that option over the possibility of execution. Because you made that choice she is still, in one form or another, alive isn't she? And so I should be grateful for that."

"But you would have found a way to free her before her day of death no?" Roth dabbed at tears forming in his eyes as he thought about losing his little girl.

"I could only do so with the assistance of those who imprisoned her." Sigma thought back to his fresh memory of that one night in the prison. "It would all be part of a larger scheme, not because I have any sort of free power."

"Like you have now."

Leif looked down at his hand, at the purple armour that bent and curled to make his fingers, of the flexible components for joints, and the portion in his palm that could be opened to reveal one of his deadlier weapons. This was certainly not the kind of hand he or any other human had ever been born with. "Yes...like I have now."

Sigma raised his arm and pointed out towards the ocean. There was a now-familiar charge of heat and electricity that pulsed through his limb, surging down towards his palm. The hole opened up and a quick burst unleashed a flashing laser beam that shot out over the ocean, splitting the top layers of the water and sending out rippling waves either side before fading away in an instant.

The elderly doctor had ducked during this, covering his eyes and cowering from the might the android possessed. "Dear Ishiyama," he swore, crossing himself up and down with religious gestures of faith. "Is that what I created? Is that what we have brought into this world?"

"It is power Roth," Sigma answered. "I have learned you can't be afraid of it. You have to accept what you are given and use it to your advantage. I will use it for her Roth. I will do anything for her."

The pair continued pulling the computers and devices out of the ship, dragging them into the trees in the search for Alpha, who was busy boring a hole into rock to produce a cave for her father to live in. On this lonely little island they would make a new home for themselves, far away from the reach of the Enian Federation or the Artisan Confederate or the taint of the Emperor and the Jahari...

* * * * *

Runa was a very tiny town in the Artisan Confederate, close to the Eastern border with the Enian Federation. Due to its proximity to the rival nation, Runa was host to a myriad of nationalistic policies and festivals, celebrating their loyalty to the Federation and reminding them who was the greater nation, in case any Enians might come near.