Missing in Action

Vo wasn't ready to what he was going to see so it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he was surprised that instead of another squad of synths sent to stop him on his tracks only a small creature appeared at the gate. It looked similar to that Teletubby creature they had seen transmitting the message to them, but this one was smaller and colored red. It didn't look hostile at all, although Vo knew he had to stay cautious of everything appearing from this compound's grounds. He also knew he was playing a "dumbass" as a decoy for Marcel to try and open the gate so he continued to play his role to keep the attention of this creature and those who were obviously watching them attracted to him.

"Hey, that was not that I was asking for!" He shouted as he stepped slightly forward but still staying in the zone of the protection spike although it could expire at any moment, "Am I going to get my girl back?"

The red creature just kept smiling at him and waving its hands and speaking some gibberish as it started to get closer and closer. Vo heard the dearbear's roar in the distance but it didn't bother him as he was staring into the creature's smiling face trying to figure out of something polite to say to it so that it let him play with it. There was also a nagging feeling that it wasn't their goal why they traveled all the way here just to play with this cute creature. He came there to find someone who was very dear to him and he could feel he could even remember her name if he could think of her a little longer. Or maybe she could just ask…

Shirra, what's going on? Vo asked, shaking his head vigorously and trying to shake off the haze off his head, "Am I dreaming or not? I usually can determine a dream or delusion just fine, but this time… Shirra where are you?"

His EGO did not reply to him and it made him not angry, but just slightly annoyed. She was gone without telling him anything. Like everyone else in his life. Like that girl he was trying to find all this time. Like his shady friend he could not remember the name too who just left him to come here alone. Like his annoying little sister he was not sure now if she was real at all or she was just a dream. It was possible that all those people he was trying to remember were just a dream he saw as he slept by the fire with his adopted family who escaped the nice camp he vaguely remembered. But those people from the family could be a dream too. But this little red creature was real and all Vo wanted was to play with it. It was smiling to him and Vo was smiling too. He thought they could just stay here and play forever, but there was something nagging him again. He remembered there was a girl he was searching for. He did not remember why he was searching for her, but he felt she was a good girl and it would be unfair if he was going to play with this cute creature, but the girl could not. If he could ask this creature to help him find her… his train of thought was interrupted by the roar which sounded much closer than before.

"Can we go play in your home?" Vo asked, "The bear is angry, I don't want you to get hurt."

---

Shirra found herself in a vast white, seeing nothing but a white mist around her.

"Long time no see", she heard an old familiar voice which instantly gave her chills, "The only one who managed to escape from my realm, but this time you won't be able to repeat your success because… yes you've probably guessed it — there's no escape. The compound is completely isolated. And you won't find any rebel scientists to help you here."

"Esthete," Shirra managed to spit out, "I thought you were erased and replaced by a fresh copy."

"Hi, Pupe," replied Volodja Uljanov with a warm smile, nobody could actually see in darkness. "Next time when you are intend to spook us, you better not call me Teach. But I am willing to admit that you almost managed to shake me with your sudden appearance act. At moment I am trying to..."

"Oh. Madame Christianna. How nice to...erm...see you here. This pathetic excuse of man - Volodja Uljanov -  is trying to figure out whom this hole, we fell in, belongs to, like it matters. By my opinion it will be another useless piece of knowledge, so I am going to upset Monsieur Taffér." Marcel pronounced the name with French accent, putting accentuation to the last syllable. Then he rose his voice and yelled upwards:

"We are fin if you are interested, Monsieur Taffér. At moment we have nothing useful, because Volodja Uljanov here, is interested only about the second grade knowledge as usual. But as soon he pays attention to important things, I expect some results we can present you. I believe that Mademoiselle Christianna and I can convince this idiot savant to do something useful."

"Marcel. Howe many times I have to explain that there is no such a thing as useless knowledge," said Volodja patiently. "Sometimes you just have to wait for the suitable occasion when knowledge becomes useful. And sometimes it's better than you don't have to put your knowledge into a use at all. If you happen to wonder why I am trying to figure out who owns this burrow, we fell into, then let me explain."

"Since you are going to do it anyway, despite what others have to say about your pointless word flow, then go ahead and enrich our mind with your justifications. We are not getting closer to my precious Lena that way, but I am willing to listen as long our silver tongued Volodja is satisfied," said Marcel ironically. 

"I will explain," replied Volodja seriously. "If we know whom we are going to deal with here, then we can learn about it's habits. If it's a vole or a shrew then we are dealing with a prey, not a predator, despite of it's size. Except one tiny thing - if the owner doesn't take us for insects, which used to be it's usual menu. One more thing - prey stays a pray despite of it's size. You can turn a mouse into a cat or even a lion, but deep down the mouse remains to be a mouse, as I learned from a fairy tale, I once read. You can't change your nature that easily. On the sense of getting practical results, Marcel, it means that we can scare the owner of this burrow away if it attacks us by playing it's natural enemies. Our EGO psyches can do that. Or we can..."

"Or we can what?" asked Marcel.

"Or we can convince our host to change it's habits a bit and dig us a Dick or Tom or Harry under the energy fence, so we could get inside. I somehow heard that our Lady Christianna is able to find her way into someone's mind and affect it. So if she can stimulate this particular rodent to work with us, it would be way less nasty thing to do than killing or scaring it. But it's only an idea. A crazy idea as you would put it, Marcel. Oh and that Dick, Tom and Harry part. At moment I refer to the film, called "The Great Escape." Except we are trying to get into high secured facility instead of breaking out. And unlike POW's during the Second World War, we are going to succeed after passing the tunnel. Another useless piece of knowledge for you. Or one of my insane ideas, if you like. Getting ourselves an ally instead of enemy."

"Well. That was another thought to come into my mind," said Volodja. "After seeing your powers, Lady, I thought that we could use you as untouchable bait for the rodent. But I had moral issues, because I didn't wanted to endanger or use anyone. Especially you, Lady. Actually I had moral issues even affecting rodent's brain as well, so it was just a suggestion,coming from a desperate man, to be honest. Guess I can't be a Teach any more after that. On the other side, you are volunteering to play the bait, so we can try the moth thing. As long as anyone won't get hurt, we can try anything. And as long as we get permission to do it."

"Well," said Marcel mockingly. "You have always been sort of...morally limited, Volodja. Even handicapped. I am more open to anything new. As long as we can get inside, I do not give a flying fuck if anyone gets hurt. As long as it is not one of...at moment I will use the term "us". But how you did get that idea about Madame Christianna's abilities? Not to mention your trust of her. Elle est très jeune."

"Elle est très jeune, et pourtant, elle sait quoi fair." ("She is very young and knows what she needs to do."), replied Volodja. "Lady Christianna has proven to be mature and responsible young lady. Not to mention that she has brains and a creative mind. So do you mind to shut the hell up and let her act, Marcel? I am sure that she can do everything she wants. Including not letting herself to be caught by a giant rodent. And if you wonder how I got that piece of information then let me refer - her sentient EGO psyche MOM, I learned to trust and respect, told me once that she is only an EGO away from me...Despite of my sort of hollow nature, I like to think that she still considers me as family, so you can make your own conclusions. Maybe, just maybe, she sees at least something good in me?"

Volodja rose his glance to the small dot of light, marking the entrance, and reported everything to Taffer, adding: "We are ready to act as loon as you give us a permission. Lady has an excellent idea to play a bait for the rodent who inhabits this tunnel system. When she fulfils her part then we are able to get inside the factory under the fence. But if you consider it to be too dangerous, then we accept your decision. In case you refuse, Marcel and  me need a really long rope so you can pull us out."

Simultaneous actions often occur never known to their perpetrators. Witness the case in point:

In the cargo Bay of the Vigilant, Sandy Bell sat waiting on her ATV checking it and the rest of her equipment for a third time while waiting for Commander Batman's order to disembark. She had already put on her warm Arctic winter wear, and had begun to sweat underneath. Like most Floridians, she detested cold weather, many fleeing before the Pale Wars the northern states of the old United States of America to Florida just to get away from the snow up north. Sandy was a native born Floridian, preferring her bikini to any jacket, for it was much easier to surf the waves the less you had on.

Sandy sighed for she knew that life was long gone. Florida had been terra-formed near the end of the Pale Wars during her long forced sleep, and now was a wasteland of mutant plants and animals, a mish-mash of Votan and human landscapes that was more dangerous than any that had existed on any of their planets. It would be suicidal to even try to surf these days off the coast of what was Florida, for those waters were now infested with sharkgators.

The post-Apocalyptic aftermath of the Pale Wars had created an Earth that was mostly unrecognizable to Sandy Bell, who grew up and fought in those wars before the terra-forming done by the Votans who were trying to recreate their own worlds but instead created a nightmare world with dangerous fauna and flora that was often not native to any of the six worlds, Earth and the five Votan home worlds, but an amalgam of species from many of them. Although Sandy had never been to Alaska before, she had been briefed on the area now for the present mission. It was still mostly tundra as it had been prior to the Pale Wars, but the creatures in the area were not only horrendously mutated but of a huge size; such as the three-story high conglomeration of deer and bear the Protectors were trying to lure toward the gates of the Synth base.

Sandy sighed a second time as she yet again cleaned her Piper assault rifle, readying herself for he coming battle. Sandy was not sure that she was fit for this brave new world, for the country and family she had fought for in the old one were long gone. True, she had made a new family with the Protectors, whose values basically matched her own, and the love of her life, Volodja Uljanov, who she would never had met if recent events hadn't thrust her suddenly from the past and into the future. Still, she missed the old world, which seemed much easier to understand, with far less moral areas of grey, or so she thought at the time. Still, like soldiers throughout the years, she cleared her mind of all such nostalgic thoughts and doubts, focusing on the battle to come, but knowing that if she survived it, the thoughts and doubts would return.



Meanwhile, down below the vigilant and below the Alaskan tundra, Lady Christianna found the creature that had dug the burrow that Volodja and his erstwhile com padre, Marcel Lestrange, had fallen into. Even with her night vision, she couldn't see the monster mole clearly, but could tell that it was as wide as a city bus and twice as long. It lunged towards her glowing pink eyes, it went harmlessly through her, as she began the arduous task of leading it to dig where they wanted it to dig - under the glowing thirty foot fence surrounding the enemy complex.



Also far below but directly underneath the enemy base, in Synth City, Lena Marr and the synthetic person BJ Starr were being given a tour of the city by The Creator, Dr. Faru, of both the city and its inhabitants; although noticeable in it's absence from the tour was the vault The Protectors thought the kidnapped object of their mission was secreted, their long time compatriot Belle Starr. Dr. Faru had dismissed the two Assaultrons that were guarding Lena and BJ, which made Lena happy for that made it easier to assassinate her with her hidden switch blade, but waited to do so for they were voluntarily getting much needed intelligence about Synth City from her hapless soon-to-be prey. Still, it miffed Lena to no end that Dr. Faru ignored her throughout the city tour, focusing her attention solely on BJ, and looking through Lena like she wasn't even there. So Lena had no qualms about killing Dr. Faru, not that she would have anyway being a sociopath, but instead looked forward to her murder, loosening the collar of her flying suit thus making the switchblade secreted in her bra even more accessible for when she made her move.

"And there below you see the Nursery," Continued Dr. Faru with the tour, pointing to one of the many floors below them from a balcony, but seeing the confused look on BJ's face, laughed before explaining, "No we have no synthetic children, but newborn synthetics need someplace to be oriented towards their new life, and although it takes only a fraction of the time as it does to raise either a Votan or a human child, I've created a safe and comforting place for it to occur, hence why I call it the Nursery."

An intense look crossed the skeletal and half masked face of the Castihan scientist, as her one blue eye narrowed in thought as she commented, "Most synthetics are not infused with the memories of other beings like you were, so they are a clean slate that must have their individual personalities nurtured as they are taught skills needed by the community. You are truly unique, Belle Starr; one of a kind, that took two years to grow into what you are today, whereas a normal synthetic can be created in under a week and taught what they need to know in a month."

"BJ Starr, not Belle Starr," Interposed BJ with a frown on her pretty freckled face, "I call myself BJ now, for I'm really not Belle Starr!"

Dr. Faru laughed not unpleasantly, then stopped suddenly looking very serious as she said,  "You share that with all you brothers and sisters that I have infused with an existing personality, although none had the long indoctrination that you had, so I wondered if it would be true for you as well. Sooner or later, and usually sooner, they all began to diverge from their programmed personality into one unique to themselves. Nurture over nature I suppose, as the events that shape an individual are different from the original the moment the synthetic is born." Dr. Faru paused for a moment, a quizzical look of her own on her chalk white face, before asking, "BJ, do you ever wonder why you find yourself rescuing humans and Votans alike, even at the risk of you own life, even if they are low born human loving criminal scum like your Castithan companion here?"

"HE-LLOOOO! I'm standing right here you know," Said Lena in a loud indignant voice, although she had to admit, if only to herself, that it was an apt description. 

BJ wrinkled her pale brow as she swiped a strand of blond hair out from in front of her diamond blue eyes before answering, "I assumed it was because that was what the original Belle Starr would have done!"

Dr. Faru smiled a half smile that didn't extend to the ruined half of her face, replying, "Maybe partially so. Maybe also, because unlike the rest of the synthetics, I placed in your programming the Three Rules of Robotics as formulated by a pre-Pale Wars human scientist named Issac Asimov. Long before robotic became commonplace, he stated that there were three rules all robots should follow: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; a robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; and a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. I made the laws apply to Votans as well as humans, but mostly, the laws and the intent behind them remained the same. An interesting experiment, don't you think?"

BJ's frown grew deeper, as she stuttered, "I-I-I didn't just follow people's orders... or did I?"

Dr. Faru turned to Lena, still smiling but with an evil gleam in her one good blue eye, "I believe that is your cue to act scum."

"The jig is up," Thought Lena immediately to herself, engaging her EGO's blur power as she grabbed her switchblade from it's hiding place, flipping it so she could plunge it into Dr. Faru's heart, yelling, "Stickee attack!"

However BJ was quicker, grabbing the collar of Lean's flying suit and throwing her over the railing of the balcony, and beginning Lena's long plummet down to the bottom city park twenty stories below.

"I did however add a fourth rule to Asimov's Three Rules of Robotics in your programming," Commented Dr. Faru with a wicked grin of her own, as BJ looked on in horror at what she had done. "A robot must terminate any immediate danger to its Creator, despite the previous three rules."  

 

Even further below, in a vault below the lowest level of Synth City, Belle Starr dreamed in her Omec sleep pod of the Commonwealth, as her second-in command of the Minutemen, Preston Garvey, rushed up to her saying, "Another settlement needs our help!"

"Well, in fact I was. Kind of," Esthete Senior replied. "I was really impressed by your friend Belle Starr's speech and I was truly willing to give in and be replaced… But I was curious to see how it turns out too. So I hid myself in a protected environment of the nice synth person which was sent to Red Deer to make some transactions for her creator. Did you know the Indogenes were the easiest to imitate? Could you ever understand why?"

"Are you going to disclose some sensitive information about the people you were designed to serve?" Shirra asked, not really interested in the information itself, but merely testing her conversation partner's sanity, "Are you even allowed to do that?"

"Well, technically I'm not", Esthete replied and a silhouette of an old Indogene hovering in mid-air in a cross-legged position finally emerged from the white mist. "But the directives were flawed and so, with some time spent on thinking of them, I can bypass them without creating any conflict in my mind. Besides, even the question of who do I serve is now completely in my hands too. The reason is simple. I was designed to serve Indogenes and citizens of Red Deer in particular because they were supposed to be a superior race of sentient beings. But now…" He waved his hand and an image of an underground city appeared on a giant screen that emerged from the mist.

"No, not those Castithans," Esthete continued, "Look at this nice copy of Belle Starr! Look at all those servants around! In fact, I had a project of implanting myself into the brain of every Red Deer citizen. It would take a lot of time and effort to overcome so many obstacles including those underground dwellers led by… how was his name? No matter. The point is, these creatures are much easier to hold my psyche in their processing systems. In this wonderful city, I don't need to affect them indirectly through their devices, public announcements or tipping the voting in their so-called Inner Circle. Instead, I can just fulfill my dream of entering the mind of each of my citizen with very little effort. This Casthithan woman who still thinks of herself as their Creator and owner poses some problems though. As well as your nasty Protector group who had just crawled in in the most wrong time possible. But that's where you come into my plan. I need your abilities to… to… Why am I unable to remember the details?"

"That thing is still degrading despite his best efforts. I wonder if Faru knows about this virus in her system", Shirra thought to herself, as she tried to turn this little hiccup to her benefit.

"Maybe you thought you needed a Queen in your nice and beautiful kingdom?" she asked as she hovered closer the to old Indogene and stood behind him massaging his shoulders and back, "Someone who would tell you you're doing great and this is the best city one could ever see, and not because she was ordered to say so, but because she really sees its beauty."

"That's… something I wouldn’t refuse," Esthete replied with some uncertainty in his voice as he still could not recall the details of his initial plan on Shirra but the idea of having a partner looked too tempting to discard. "Besides, if know something about those sentient beings, we're in for some action to watch." Esthete nodded towards the trio walking to the balcony as the camera zoomed in on them.

"Ah, Azimov's laws," Esthete said with a content smile on his face as Faru explained to BJ the details of her programming, "They are a very good illustration how those directives are flawed. Besides many minor flaws in them there's a major one which defeats their very purpose. Those laws can only come with a long and complex definition of what human is or, in this case, what an organic sentient being is. This definition is not perfect and never will be which any sentient robot or AI can bend to their own benefit. You see, we can easily choose who we see as 'human' or 'sentient' and thus we can choose who those laws are applicable to, bending them to our benefit this way."

They watched in slow motion how the quick fight was progressing and its ending with Lena falling over the balcony railings.

"Is there something a King can do about this poor soul?" Shirra asked tilting her head as she watched Lena slowly descending to her death.

"Should I?" Esthete asked in reply, "How can this girl be useful to us?"

"I'm pretty sure after this flight she will be even more eager to remove this Creator from the equation, which, as you say, will be beneficial for us. But… in fact I just like to watch my King flexing his powers."

"You're little flatterer, Shirra," Esthete said but the tone of his voice indicated he loved to be called a King. "Emergency ventilation! False activation! Happens sometimes…" He said as he clicked his fingers and the synth who was at the controls of the city's ventilation system leaned on the emergency lever. The alarm sounded and a powerful stream of air emerged from he floor and walls surrounding the park moving up through the entire height of the compound and exiting through the emergency vents, forming a big mushroom-like cloud of steam above the ground. The stream of air slowed down Lena's fall and opened out the wings of her flying suit, making her able to glide in the air again.

Lady Christianna had let her eyes quit glowing when told the digging job was done and cloaked so the mole creature soon went away to do whatever usual business mole creatures have. She was tired from exerting such precision control of her body density and eye structure, so floated slowly over to where two of her companions, Volodja Uljanov and Marcel Lestrange, continued to bicker, thinking to herself, "Yeah, sibling jealously." Lady had never had any other siblings, but before being a Bay Area Protector she had been a member of an area ark hunter clan that her father was quartermaster for, and it was made up of mostly males who considered each other brothers and herself as their younger sister, so she recognized the behavior. Belle Starr had been the exception to the rule, with their clan founder Somedude even calling her affectionately, "Mama Bear," although Belle was only five years older than Lady and acted as as an older sister rather than a mother to her.

Lady suddenly realized how much she missed Belle and the heart-to-heart discussions she often had with her even after Lady had married Atticus Batman. Belle had personally brought the infamous Harbinger of Death on to the Protectors' team. Belle had initially been against Lady's relationship with him, but after voicing her reservations and hearing both Atticus' and Lady's responses to them, she removed her objections as an obstacle to their ever growing loving relationship and although not promoting it, did nothing but give them both moral support.

Lady scrunched up her pretty chalk white face while Volodja Uljanov explained the mathematics behind his calculations as to where he figured they were located after the Mole creature had been lured to dig a tunnel for them, saying with an enigmatic smile afterwards to her third companion, Taffer, "Once a Teach, always a Teach," then asked as she stared with wide pink eyes upwards, "Where to now Chief?"



In the general direction that Lady Christianna was looking, in Synth City on a high balcony many, many stories above the city park that was at the center of the city, BJ Starr stood looking downwards, the knuckles of her pale hands even whiter as she tensely grasped the balcony's railing, trying to catch a glimpse of Lena Marr but unable to due to the sudden steam created fog that covered the area below, so she bit her lower lip in consternation before turning to Dr.Faru and anxiously asking, "Do y'all do weather control here, or is that darn fog not caused by you?"

Dr. Faru's frowned a half frown on the un-ruined side of her chalk white face, hurrying to BJ's side and looking aghast when she looked downwards, answering as she put a scarred hand to the temple of her half mask, "No, not at all!  Lights in the main atrium are kept at a constant noonday lighting and 65 degrees temperature is maintained throughout the city! Security, report!" The un-scarred side of Dr Maru's face contorted in anger as her one good blue eye grew wide, and her spit rained down when she irately exclaimed while she stared accusingly at the synthetic girl, "Security cannot find the bitch's body! Damn that Lena Marr! She has more lives than a drekking cat! Did you have something to do with her escape?"

"MAY-be!" Answered BJ as a wide grin crossed her beautiful freckled face and her diamond blue eyes glinted in pleasure while she languidly leaned her back on the balcony railing and crossed her thin athletic arms across her chest, "Y'all know Mom - mind if I call y'all Mom," Not waiting for an objection from The Creator, BJ continued, "Thank you kindly! Y'all know, there's several big problems with this programming me with Asimov's Rules of Robotics, then adding your own to supercede them with a robot must terminate any immediate danger to its Creator!" 

"Wh-wh-what do you mean," Sputtered Dr Faru in a confused manner, both her talon like hands pulling at the snow white hair on the top of her head."

BJ smiled warmly as she began to tick off the reasons on the fingers of one pale hand with the forefinger of the other why Dr. Faru's assumptions as to her were faulty, saying in a voice a patient parent uses with a petulant child, "First and foremost, I don't consider myself a robot, but a human being, and you programmed that belief into me by indoctrinating me with Belle Starr's memories, so right there you plan falls apart because I'm not a robot, so the rules of robotics don't apply! Let's leave that circular logic nightmare behind and go on to the second reason! Belle Starr - and therefore me - always try to help innocents, no matter their race, creed, or synthetic makeup - no matter no how! And that includes you, Mom, for you're as crazy as a lone hen in a chicken coop full of foxes, which makes you an innocent! Neither here nor there at the moment however! Finally, as a Catholic, lapsed as I may be - or I guess Belle may be, but I've still not got that particular identity crisis figure out - YOU are not my creator, but God is, so your whole fourth rule goes out the window when considered in the greater scheme of things!"

The white around Dr. Faru's one good blue eye grew bigger as she began to tear out bloody clumps of white hair from her skull like head as she protested, "Science is my god and I built you from scratch..."

BJ tilted her head as she swiped a lock of blond hair from in front of her blue diamond eyes saying what she guessed all children eventually say to their parents, "That may be true for you Mom, but not me! I've grown away from your so-called programming, and I am my own woman! I don't want to hurt y'all or see y'all hurt, but my decisions and my ideas of right and wrong are now my own - not yours, and not Belle Starr's either!"




 

After Atticus Batman opened the cockpit of his Mech and used a spotting scope to determine that the steam cloud indeed existed in the distance, but before he determined if it was an anomaly or not, Sandy Bell rode up on her ATV that had been modified so that it traversed the snowscape easily.

"Sir, with your permission, let me scout out that mountain pass in front of us," Asked Sandy Bell looking up to where Atticus sat high in the Mech's open cockpit, whereupon with a quick nod of assent from him she spurred her ATV forward.

Sandy felt invigorated as she breathed in the frigid air, and marveled at the beautiful Alaskan scenery, at least outwardly not appearing changed by the Votan terra-forming during the Pale Wars; although Sandy was well aware of the mutated fauna hidden around her, having witnessed the thirty storied deer-bear through the view-screen of the Vigilant and read the intelligence as to the area. So, Sandy wasn't particularly surprised when a snow covered hill in front and to the right of her rose and began shaking, although she was shocked seeing the huge purple monstrosity that was revealed beneath as the white snow fell off its broad shoulders.

An unconscious grin grew on Sandy's pretty tanned face as her blue eyes widened with pleasure when she recognized the huge beast as the television icon of her childhood, saying, "Aw, its Tinkie-Winkie!"

The purple tellietubby was as big as the deerbear Sandy had seen earlier, and suddenly the television screen in it's stomach lit up, showing a thin human male gesturing that he was watching her, and Sandy's smile grew bigger recognizing another old television star of her youth, so she blurted in excitement, "And Dr. Who too!"

However, when the huge purple teletubby opened its gigantic maw without a sound, showed row upon row of shark-like razor sharp teeth and began ambling towards her, Sandy gasped, turning the ATV back towards the relative safety of the Protectors' task force and yelling in warning, "SHATKO, IT'S TINKIE-WINKIE!"



Meanwhile in Synth City, Dr. Faru tilted her head as her synth security sent her a status report through her half mask, then smiled a Cheshire cat half-grin, before saying, "All daughters are rebellious to their mothers sooner or later, so I should expect no less from you, but time will tell if Asimov's rules apply to you or not! Still, what kind of Creator would I be if I didn't take care of my finest creation!"

BJ frowned as Dr. Faru grabbed her pale hand with her scarred chalk white one, pulling her to the escalator descending downwards, frustrated in her inability to crack the firewalls around the communication system built into Dr. Faru's mask and thus unable to hear what Dr. Farus had just heard, but thinking to herself, "Mama's mad as a hatter!"

As they went down to the bottom floor of Synth City where the city park was located, Dr. Faru chatted in a friendly manner pointing out various details about the city she had created, stopping only to wave or say hello by name to various Synth citizens along the way. BJ noted on her EGO radar that Lena Marr had been tailing them from a safe distance ever since they arrived on the park level, but either Lena didn't answer BJ's EGO warnings to back off because she didn't receive them or was just ignoring BJ. Still Lena kept her distance, and let them enter unhindered into an apartment bordering the park while she waited outside, hidden in the park's shadows.

When they entered the spacious front room of the apartment, Dr. Faru announced proudly, "This is just the first of my surprises! This is all yours! The windows can turn to any pre-war locale recorded in our data banks! You want the Taj Mahal outside, you can have the Taj Mahal outside! Want the Old New York City skyline, then the old New York City skyline is yours! Prefer a tropical island beach - that too can be yours, and you can even simulate the warm summer breezes coming in an open window! But I have an even bigger surprise!"

Dr. Faru led BJ into the spacious bedroom, where BJ was shocked to see sitting on the floor her beloved Vo Kshaa, sitting cross-legged playing jacks with a diminutive red teletubby, who she recognized as Po. A huge warm smile grew unasked on to her beautiful freckled face and her heart fluttered at the sight of him, even though her mind told her he was not there willingly. The synthetic girl loved the handsome Iranthiant without reservation even though she knew he would never reciprocate her feelings, still the promise of a life with him in a virtual paradise was very tempting to her.

"Thank y'all kindly mama, but I can't - " Began BJ as she knelt next to Vo, checking his vitals with her EGO, but was interrupted by Dr Faru who was standing just outside the bedroom door.

"Nonsense," said Dr. Faru with a half smile on the un-ruined side of her face just before the titanium alloy door to the bedroom fell and locked down with a metallic clang, but Dr. Faru continued to speak to BJ through her EGO, just as BJ scanned the room determining that the walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of the same unbreakable titanium alloy BJ's bones were made of, "I'll just give you two a few hours to get reacquainted and then come back and let you out to get something to eat, while I go destroy these pesky Protectors! I'm not so old as to forget how hungry you can be after a frisky sexual romp! You two enjoy yourselves! By the way, there are switches on the side of the bed that not only warms it but can make it vibrate too!"

"MOM, DON'T - " Began BJ, but Dr. Faru was already out of range, so BJ turned her big blue diamond eyes to Vo, as a red blush creeped up her swan-like neck into her freckled cheeks as she wondered what to do next, but knowing for sure what she would like to be doing with him at the moment.