SHUTTLE DOCKING IN T-5 MINUTES. ALL PERSONNEL CLEAR LANDING BAY 2.
Taylor-06 stood at attention as maintenance staff filed into the staging room. The men and women smiled and nodded, greeting her with 'good mornings' and promises to meet up later. It was nothing like her time spent as a steward for Asian Seas Transports. There she was an outcast, shunned by both the construct staff as well as the organic patrons. With AST she was an obsolete construct model, purchased on surplus, and kept for the novelty. Aboard the old deep space micro-station she was welcomed and accepted.
Jason Headley, a human youth affectionately called Runt slid over to Taylor-06. He gestured for her to lean forward, and she complied though her audio sensors could have heard him from across the room if she wished.
"I just heard in the comm that their coming back with wounded," he whispered.
"Did Ivory or Hitman get hurt?"
"I don't think it was Cyrus or Ivory." He lowered his voice even further. "I only caught a piece of the message, but I think it was Mr. Marcus."
Taylor-06 felt a twinge of fear or the construct equivalent.
"Liam? That can't be right. The R.Nano keeps him safe."
"I know what I heard," he said with a shrug. He slid over to one of the maintenance workers to retell the story.
Taylor-06's systems registered a heightened sense of concern. She ran through her data on S.Nano, the nano administered to human soldiers, and the experimental nano flowing through Liam and Scott's blood. She'd assisted in many of the test run on the men to determine the limits of their healing, and combat capabilities. Their resilience was exceptional. Taylor-06 concluded Runt must have been mistaken.
More personnel poured into the staging room. Six members of the infirmary staff. That was everyone except for Dr. Ho who was recovering with her newborn in her personal quarters. Patricia was with them, and her expression was grim. Taylor-06 reassessed her conclusion. Again that jolt of electrical and mechanical fluttering. Fear. The feeling perplexed her. She was no stranger to fear, but she'd never felt the sensation in regards to someone else. In her role as ship surgeon and part-time therapist, Dr. Ho would've said to pursue the feeling.
Patricia moved to the front of the crowd to peer through the glass doors which provided full view of landing bay 2. The micro-station doors were opening, atmospheric shields kept the equipment inside from being snatched by the vacuum of space. Patricia ran her hand along the door as she consulted her datapad. For Patricia, a woman who's cool level-headed thinking kept their station functioning, the display was a reflection of her unease.
Patricia glanced over her shoulder, and caught Taylor-06 staring. She smiled and walked over.
"You don't have to stand at attention whenever we muster. This isn't the military and you aren't a steward anymore. Relax a little."
Taylor-06 blushed, a reddening of her honey colored synthetic skin, and assumed a more comfortable stance. Patricia chuckled.
"That's much better... though now I see why Liam says you stand like a couture model."
"Liam said that?" Taylor-06 asked before she could stop herself. It was a habit she'd developed during her time with Patricia. "Is he okay? Jason Headley said he overheard a conv-"
"No, Liam's fine. It's Scott. They came up against a new weapon which killed his nano."
"Killed it?" Taylor-06 knew of many substances which were toxic to most nano-strains, but nothing weaponized. The FGG had interstellar conventions against their use.
"That's what I've deduced from what Ivory described. I need to see the damage first hand."
"Will Scott be okay?"
Patricia looked away. After taking a few calming breaths she wrote something on her datapad. Hours of studying the felarnian woman allowed Taylor-06 to read Patricia like few could. She wasn't merely uneasy, she was downright scared.
"I don't have enough data to make a strong hypothesis," she went back to the glass doors, "I have to examine him myself."
Taylor-06 was pleased to hear that Liam was fine, so pleased that she felt ashamed. Scott was not a friendly man by anyone's measurements, but he was a part of the team. Liam, Scott, and Patricia had started Eagle X nearly six standard years ago as a group dedicated to eluding and eventually destroying The Pale Garden. Together they'd expanded on their original mandate to include protecting and providing succor to those whose lives had been disrupted by The Garden's actions. Taylor-06 didn't believe she fell into that category, but after The Singapore Incident the trio sought her out and offered her a place among them safe from persecution. She cared for all three of them, but only fear for Liam made her circuits quicken.
Taylor-06 thought of Alan Pulsar_1652, and suddenly felt an uncomfortable mix of emotions. Dr. Ho called it survivor's guilt. Alan Pulsar_1652 was a maintenance clone aboard AST Singapore, and the first organic to see her as something more than a mechanical curiosity. He'd been killed by Pale Garden agents during Singapore's hijacking. Through multiple therapy sessions, Taylor-06 came to realize she and Alan Pulsar_1652 were in the early stages of a mutual romance. He loved her, and she loved him... she hadn't thought of him in nearly two standard months. The realization was unsettling.
SHUTTLE DOCKING IN T-15 SECONDS.
Taylor-06 watched as the team's Strike Shuttle flew in through the open bay doors. The superstructure was crisscrossed with scorch lines, and pockmarked by dozens of bullet holes. Forward thrusters slowed the advance of the vehicle until it hovered nearly stationary over the deck. Maglocks rose out of the ground and yanked the shuttle down with an echoing thud. The landing bay doors closed as the staging room's slid open.
Maintenance surged forward. Welders set to collecting measurements and prepping their tools. At a modernized facility a Core AI would have coordinated massive compounds which could construct space faring vessels in hours. Patricia's operation and crew did extraordinary work with the bare minimum, a testament to her ingenuity, but they struggled to keep the Strike Shuttle mission ready.
A pair of techs with datapads and hoses quietly siphoned energy from the shuttle's power cells. The station was on a restricted energy regiment, conserving and recycling what power they could. The shuttle had been given a full charge for the mission, whatever they brought back would get returned to the micro-station's tanks. The technicians who worked in the powerstation reported directly to Patricia, and kept the lights on despite having to use blackmarket parts and outdated equipment. They were some of the smartest people Taylor-06 had ever met. She could only imagine what they could do with a fully modernized facility.
The cargo bay doors lowered with a hissing release of pressure. Liam and Ivory worked their way down the ramp carrying Scott between them. Next to his seven foot frame the two humans looked like children. As they reached the bottom he pulled away and stood up on his own. He roared and shooed away the infirmary personnel as they tried to coax him onto a gurney.
"I know the way," he growled. "I can walk!"
One of the orderlies was too slow in moving, and received a swat to the ear. He dropped like a rock.
"Scott!"
Everyone from medic to maintenance froze. It was rare that Patricia raised her voice. He glared down at his sister, his blue fur and ginger stripes bristling. She was more than a foot shorter than him with ginger fur and blue stripes, their matching patterns a family trait. She slapped him across the face loud and hard.
"Get. On. That. Stretcher. Now."
"I do-"
"Now."
He snarled, but didn't fight when Liam and Dr. Rodriguez helped him lay face down on a gurney. The fur on his back was gone, revealing his muscled skin a shade lighter than his cobalt hair, flesh and muscle showed through multiple tears. He winced as the doctor ran a wand connected to his datapad along the damage. The simple movement set blood seeping from his wounds. Dr. Rodriguez shook his head and shot Scott with a hypogun. Scott grabbed him by the collar, but his grip slackened and he relaxed. The doctor led the orderlies back through the staging room carrying their docile patient. Patricia hugged Liam, then hurried to follow.
Once they were gone everyone began to whisper to one another in small cliques. Most if not all had seen Liam and Scott in, what Patricia had dubbed, war mode. They'd seen the formidable force Spider and Raven could be. Many relied on their power, it was that power that kept Eagle X safe.
"Why's everyone just standing around?" Liam asked, his voice carrying across the landing bay. "Get back to work."
The gossiping ended abruptly, and everyone did as instructed.
Taylor-06 was off duty and had come down to the loading bays to welcome the team back... it suddenly seemed like a silly reason to be there. She turned to leave and a hand tapped her shoulder.
"Hey, Tee, where are you going?"
She looked into Liam's eyes, and again felt that quickening sensation flowing through her circuits.
"Tee?"
"Yeah. I thought about calling you 06, but it sounds too... I'm not sure." He scratched his head then tugged at his beard, a nervous habit Taylor-06 had observed. "Which do you prefer, Tee or 06?"
"Why not Taylor-06?"
"That is a great question."
His smile wilted around the edges, and Taylor-06 felt at a loss. She had been merely asking for clarity, but she could tell she had shifted the mood of their conversation.
"What happened to Scott?"
His eyes hardened, the smile replaced by a stern line.
"I'm not sure. We were surprised by a pair of high tech series 5s. One had a gun that blew the armor right off of him." He ran a hand down his arm while making a tearing sound. "None of our scans detected construct charging nodes."
"Bad luck?"
"Maybe. Maybe not." Liam turned towards the Strike Shuttle where Ivory's BACK and a number of crates were being wheeled out of the cargo hold. "We got what we came for and then some."
"That's a plus," Taylor-06's reply brought back his smile.
Liam was fond of using the phrase. His smile made her smile.
"I'd almost forgot," he unslung his pack and pulled out a bundle of rags, "I got you something."
He offered her the bundle. Curiosity welled up inside of her, accompanied by an equal amount of excitement. Taylor-06 loved getting gifts, especially when they were unexpected. She peeled back the oily cloth, and Runt burst past her.
"Mr. Marcus, they said you were hurt!"
"Not a chance, Runt. I'm still here good as new." Liam made a muscle with exaggerated effort, and poked his brown bicep with a finger. "What's up, kid. Hoping to get rid of me?"
"No, never! You promised to teach me how to fight so I can help you take out The Garden."
"You've been working on your studies?"
"Math and science, but the history is boring."
"You need the history. If you don't know where you've been, how can you decide where you're going?"
"You say that, but you don't have to sit in Mr. Dinn's classroom while everyone else is out there doing something."
"Let me tell you a little secr-"
"Hey, Taylor-06," Ivory said as she dropped her pack at her feet.
"Welcome back, Ivory. I'm glad you returned intact."
Ivory chuckled.
"I spent most of the time in there," she pointed at her vehicle, "not sure I can do what they do. I need thick armor plate between me and the people trying to kill me."
Ivory was wearing a BACK pilot TECS suit, laden with input and output nodes to connect her to the machine's interface. She was thin with pale skin. She'd shaved her head before the team left on the mission, though she usually liked to keep it short and spiky. Ivory's cybernetic arm hissed as it vented excess heat to cool the more complex recent additions. Ivory often said that the prosthesis made the two sisters. Taylor-06 the obsolete construct designed to look, function, and think like a human being. Ivory the former EC pilot with the cybernetic arm and the military grade augments which allowed her to operate a BACK with 100% synchronicity. Taylor-06 knew the comment was meant to be a joke, but sometimes, when her thoughts drifted down dark logic pathways she yearned for that kind of connection.
Ivory put her organic arm across Taylor-06's shoulder.
"What's in the bundle? He wouldn't tell me."
Taylor-06 looked down at the gift in her hands. Inside were two small boxes. The largest oily, smudged, and misshapen. She removed the bit of wire keeping the box closed, and the makeshift casing fell open.
"Ummm, okay. I didn't really peg Spider as a romantic, but this... this is a hunk of dirty metal."
"It's actually an X-Servo for a model F series 4 construct."
"Why would he give you that?"
"My question is where did he get it?" Taylor-06 looked at the oil and gear fluid staining the servo and the rags. The component came from an in-service construct.
"I saw him poking around a slagged series 4." Ivory chuckled. "Someone has to talk to that man about what women want."
It made Taylor-06 happy that Ivory considered her a woman at all.
"What, you don't like my gifts?" Liam had sent Runt to help with inventory, and joined the two.
"C'mon, Spider. You can't really be trying to earn points with a dirty used servo."
Liam scratched his head, tugged at his beard again.
"I like it," Taylor-06 blurted out. She ignored the fact that her hands were touching the lifeblood of a fellow construct. She appreciated the gesture.
"You do? Why?" Ivory was blunt, it was usually an endearing quality.
"Look. I was thinking about the 2nd quarter party, and the conversation we had," Liam said. "I asked you to dance and you said you weren't built to move like that."
The conversation was one of Taylor-06's fondest new memories. The station had a party every quarter of a standard year to celebrate the birthdays and anniversaries or merely to wind down. She'd sat in the corner of Landing bay 3 content to watch the revelmaking, but Liam found her and insisted that she share a drink with him. One drink became a few. Taylor-06 couldn't get drunk, and Liam's R.Nano only allowed the effect of alcohol for a few minutes. In one of his brief moments of slurred speech he'd kissed her hand and asked her to dance.
"I asked Patricia, and she told me that a series 4 X-servo could be modified by the guys in the metalshop to replace the T-servo in your hip." Liam did a few steps of the popular dance everyone was doing. "Then I can teach you to shimmy."
"I'd like that."
"Correction. Maybe you should be giving lessons." Ivory whistled. "What's in the other box?"
"I found it in a barracks locker, thought you'd like it." Liam smirked and walked away. He shouted instructions to the maintenance crew and the people doing inventory.
Taylor-06 handed Ivory the rags and the X-servo, and examined the smaller box. It was a designer case, matte black with silver piping, slightly marred by machine oil. Taylor-6 pressed the Kard-Jen emblem and the box slid open. Inside was an augmentation chip, no bigger than a human thumbnail, and able to interface with most cyber-implants.
"Is that a Kard-Jen Hi-Res pigment regulator?"
"I'm not sure. What does it do?"
"It allows you to control the color of your nails, lips, hair, and optic implants from a datapad or a smart mirror. Wow, girl looks like it's you who should be giving relationship lessons." Ivory poked the small boxy gingerly. "On the open market this would run you 1500 credits. Looks to me like you've got Spider securely in your net."
Ivory returned the X-servo and patted Taylor-06 on the back with a smile. She shouldered her pack and moved to help with a heavy piece of equipment. Everyone busied themselves clearing the ship and starting the repairs. Taylor-06 watched Liam direct his people.
Aboard the micro-station there was no official leader, just a council who oversaw everything. Eagle X was the brainchild of Liam and the Felinus siblings, but none of them were interested in being in command. Despite that the staff, the crew, even Scott looked to Liam Marcus for guidance. Taylor-06 admired his ability to relate to others, and his healthy sense of humor. As far as organics went, he was perfect...
Taylor-06 closed the small box and rewrapped the servo. She left Landing Bay 2 with a furtive look back. Alan Pulsar_1652 had been perfect too, up until the moment someone broke his neck.