Children Of Gaia

Chapter 20

There he stood in the same robotics lab where his very existence had been preserved just weeks earlier. Lloyd loomed over his new body, a surreal occurrence. He felt it almost rivalled an out of body experience, or perhaps a close enough substitute. The construction was flawless in its mimicry of his original form. Lloyd ran his hands along the skin feeling its texture, noting that there were even the most minute details in the tiny hairs that laced it's form, each mole and freckle were where he had left them. The skin was warm to the touch, there was even a simulated pulse, for which he did not yet understand why. Eva was curious about something else and reached out to slide the covering off the genitals only to have Lloyd slap her hand at the last moment.

"Ow!" she snapped. She recoiled her hand instantly, rubbing it with her other to take the sting out. "I just needed to check something," she cried convincingly.

Lloyd scowled then remembered that his artificial hand probably caused more pain than he had intended, "perhaps you could wait until the others leave?" he smiled stating the obvious. Felix cleared his throat to remind her they weren't alone.
Eva snapped back to reality with a flustered face of pure embarrassment.

She forced a grin as far as her cheeks would allow, "oops, sorry."

Lloyd turned to Erranos, "how long will the transfer take?"

"I can have you in there in less than an hour with Emelia's assistance," as Erranos finished his response Emelia knocked her heels together and snapped a salute.

"Alright. Well I'm good to go when you are," advised Lloyd with the utmost of confidence. Erranos nodded and Emelia proceeded to shoo everyone else out of the lab except for Eva.

Felix and Maddison went off to find Gaia. She and Councillor Bligh had been discussing their options. To begin with, those who were taken prisoner by Lloyd from the Crius were to be pardoned. Too much had transpired to try and keep them caged for the rest of their lives. Gaia was confident that she could keep an eye on all of them as they were released to join with the other refugees in some amount of freedom roaming portions of the ship. Felix thought it prudent to advise them that they would be vaporised in an instant if found to be stepping out of line. Even the Tarras were less welcoming at first when the freed peoples encountered them in the corridors.

"So where to now, Councillor?" Gaia asked Bligh as they spoke in her quarters.

"Oh," a disappointed Bligh sighed, "I was hoping you could tell me." They both sat puzzled and deflated.

"Wait, there is still one place where we might be welcome. Though I admit, it would be a long shot," claimed Gaia. Bligh raised her brow and her eyes gained focus. "Earth," smiled Gaia.

Bligh's face quickly shifted to an agitated state as if she had just been personally insulted, "that cesspool? How absurd. I highly doubt we would be welcome in the first place, and secondly, so much of it is nothing but a lifeless, toxic, wasteland. There wouldn't be enough room for us there I'm sure," argued Bligh. Her speech was much larger than usual. She had lost her breath and started to struggle.

"Councillor, please try to remain calm. Your blood pressure," Gaia had leapt to Bligh's aid only to be shooed away.

"That's enough, I'm quite alright, just give me a moment," Bligh asserted, Gaia sat back down slowly, still poised to assist.

"Well pardon my bluntness, Councillor. But do you have a better idea?" Gaia countered trying to be firm without being insolent.

Bligh's face seemed saddened as she had already come to the bitter realisation, "I suppose not then," she sighed. "Let's just hope our ancestors left on better terms than rumoured."