Echoes of Mankind IC

[BlueEyedLady]

Loril

Loril gasped as the Commander dropped to his knees in pain and she dropped there beside him, neglecting her station for a moment, knowing that Terra 1 would take command of it.

Her arms went around his shoulders, her face a mask of concern not knowing what to do and then relief as he seemed to recover.

Removing her hands from him, she slid back into her seat just in time to see the console flashing as if Terra 1 were in trouble and quickly her hands moved across the panels that would release the AI program from running any more of the ship than was necessary, her own skills replacing it.

Looking up at the Commander with a look of aprehension, she said,"The system checks out okay, Terra 1 seems to be fine...for now...." The warning in her voice that what was true now could soon turn out differently and very soon being very clear.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Kitka

As things started happening, Kitka reacted both as a woman and a science officer.

As they were approached, her one hand went to her sensor reading, scanning each of them in turn and her hand dropped down, unconsciously, to grab ahold of Walker's arm in a tight squeeze before she realized what she was doing, blushed and released him to study the readings before her.

At the Commander's barked question, she answered,"They are not attacking, Commander. They seem to be...studying us as much as we are studying them. I would say it's a stand off until both parties are aware of what the other wants."

 

[The GrandMage]

Drel Walker

Drel found himself with a pounding headache for reasons he couldn't fathom. He pressed the palms of his hands against his temples with a groan. He didn't bother to reach for his weapon at any time.

"What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on around here?"

He leaned heavilly against the railing, trying to focus his attention, and for the first time in years finding himself lost again. He glanced up, his eyes unfocused as he tried to gather his thoughts, and failed.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Kitka

As Drel folded beside her, Kitka looped the sensor pack over her shoulder and bent down, taking his face in her hands and examining his eyes, seeing the pain there and realizing that something here must have caused it. But why hadn't it affected her?

Turning to their welcoming party, she called out,"Please! If you are the ones who are doing this...please...stop it! You'll kill him!"

A trendil of thought...almost a caress...came into her mind and she shivered at the warmth of it. If this was what Drel was feeling, why was he in such pain.

Your... and the word used for a description here failed to translate but she had an image of male anantomy and realized they were talking about Drel Is unharmed. I assure you, he will still be able to serve you. We have no intention of harming what is yours. We simply know the deceit of such and needed to establish the truth.

Kitka shook her head, not understanding. What the hell were they talking about.

"The deciet of such...of what...." Then her eyes opened wide as an understanding came to her,"Of....males?"

It occured to her that they had declared Drel 'hers' and she had to ask.

"Please, are you a...a matriarticle(sp) society?" That would explain much, including why Drel was 'attacked' and not her.

She could feel the trendils seep further into her mind to sort out her meanings which must be as foreign to them as theirs was to her. After a moment, she felt the searching stop.

It is not as you would think, The One Called Kitka, The voice in her head said, obviously gleaning her name from her mind as well as the other information.

Our history is long and frought with confusion and war. Only now have we established peace. It was those such as these that brought that war to us....The Archons. It is they who would enslave us even now and who we protect ourselves from. It is they who our mind weapons are meant to effect.

There was still some confusion in her mind but she was getting the basics. A female society was fighting a male society and they had developed weapons...whether used mentally or by some other means...against the male mind to cripple it. It was very impressive and, if Drell hadn't been the reciepient of it, she knew he would be facinated with the mechanics.

Looking down at Drell, she said,"I think we've just stepped into a war between the sexes. Lucky us."

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Loril

Loril saw what was happening on the surface, heard through both the audio and an echo of what was being said to Kitka the conversation between the science officer and the inhabitants.

Moving over to the console, she said,"Terra 1, please note how many male members of the crew were affected by the mental attack and how many female memebers. Please report as soon as you have the statistics."

She had no sooner gotten the words out than the warm, soothing mental link in her own mind strengthened.

What is yours will be alright, The One Called Loril. We mean no harm, we simply protect from attack. Those you call males have been released. All with be alright.

When the mental link was closed, Loril looked up at the Commander.

"I tend to agree with Officer Kitka," She said in a low voice,"We've stepped into a battle between males and females. I don't know if this is a very good first to our exploration."

 

[DarkThoughts01]

Terra One
Terra One again replied a bit slowly,sluggishly/.
approximatly 99% of male crew has been affected by the phenomenom.interestingly,0% of the ship's female personnel have been affected.

One of the side panels came to life,data scrolling downsome a bright blue colored,otehrs a bright gold/yellow.tickered letters flashed and scrolled along the bottom,a small rotating legend showing hwat each color meant.the blue was Terra,the green was just data,the gold was an alien Ai,and the gray was dead or old code

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Loril

What Loril saw on the screen worried her, it was as if Terra was not functioning as he should be and the thought that his AI was male, occured to her.

"Terra 1," She said glancing down at the blinking console,"What is your own condition? Run an analysis on your own systems and effect repairs."

This was traditionally Kitka's area of expertise and the Commander still seemed somewhat stunned but Loril knew that if the AI of the ship was not operating fully they could very well be in trouble if the inhabitants turned ugly.

 

[The GrandMage]

Drel Walker

A mind reached out to Drel's own after the initial attck, to calm his fears. The alien mind was forced to pull back quickly at what was found. Drel stared and a random point in space. It kept changing. Kitka, the air between them, something beyond her.

He vaguely heard what she said, and tried to grab ahold of it, to focus. Instead, only a thought escaped through his lips.

"Fucking bitches."

And he was gone again.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Kitka

Kitka's face was creased with worry as she knelt down by Drel, her arms about him.

"Stop it! Stop it!" She cried out to them as she saw the unfocused look in his eyes,"You'll kill him!"

The trendrils of thought sought out her own mind once again.

We are doing nothing to your male, The One Called Kitka. Came the reply.

Kitka ground her teeth. She was tired of telling these beings that Drell didn't belong to her but his safety was of the utmost importance now.

Kneeling down beside him, she put her arms around him and tried to get through whatever it was that was holding him in this dazed and pained state.

"Drell! Drell, it's Kitka! Please, whats wrong? Come back to me, Drell!" Her voice held her own worry and fear within it.

Turning to wherever she thought the voice originated, she said,"I have to get him to the ship and medical attention. I don't know what is happening to him!"

Very well The voice came again into the recesses of her mind. But, you will come to our city for whatever healing the male needs until we can determine exactly what your presence means to us.

With that, the mind of the other withdrew and she could see Drell was shaking or that is what the closeness of her body to his told her.

Whispering to him she said,"Please, Drell, we have to go along with this until we have more information. Just...play along."

 

[The GrandMage]

Drel Walker

Drel looked up at Kitka, rubbing his head. He groaned with pain.

"I don't suppose you've got any aspirin? I've got such a fuckin' headache, what's up with that, it was very loud, and then the blue, it makes a beautiful horizon if you look at it from where the fuck is some aspirin?"

He grabbed the rail, pulling himself up to his feet and he clamped both hands to his head again, pulling himself back into focus with the pain. "Ow. Fuck. What the fuck did they do? I've got a wicked fucking headache. If I ever find out how they did that, I'm gonna fucking do it to them. I mean, shit, do they know how much that hurts?"

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Kitka

Kitka clamped a hand over Drell's mouth as their flyer followed their guides toward...who knew where...hissing in his ear.

"Queit!" She said, her voice still filled with worry but also irritation,"Do you want them to do it again? Their weapons work on the mind of males. It seems they are having a war between the sexes here and we just got caught up in it. If you want your brain completly fried, than keep on talking that way. I am sure they understand the meaning if not the exact words."

Slowly taking her hand from his mouth, she turned to her pack and extracted a hypo and rolled up his sleeve to inject it into his arm.

"This should help the pain," She said. Kitka's role as science officer covered some medical duties as well though there was a doctor in the main ship area."Now, just concentrate on holding onto the rail while our guides lead us to wherever the hell we are going. Seeing as we are outnumbered, we don't have much choice about taking them up on their invitation."

 

[The GrandMage]

Drel Walker

He grunted as she gave him the medicine, flexing his arm after the injection. "Thanks. Well, they should expect some anger. I mean, it's like having a bomb go off in your head. I mean, if this is the type of stuff they do to people when they don't know who they are, I'd hate to see the weapons they use on their enemies. My head would probably explode."

He glanced around, and reached down, strapping his weapon back in before gripping the rail tightly in both hands, waiting for his headache to go away.

"Next time we run across an alien planet with weird energy signatures coming from it, remind me to suggest we just keep going. Because, quite frankly, I don't want to-..."

"A war betweem sexes? How the hell do they reproduce, then? Use the captured as breeding stock? And what could possibly make a race fight a war wher the enemy is the opposite sex? That makes no sense. How would you get all of both sexes on the same, opposing, sides? That makes no sense. Individuals can't pick sides purely by sex."

He rubbed at his head, looking out at this strange world before looking back at Kitka, clearly confused. "Can they?"

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Kitka

Kitka swallowed a laugh at Drell's confusion and bit her lip to hide a smile.

"First of all we are assuming that they reproduce in the same way as we do. Knowing nothing about the species, we can't say that."

She gave a shrug,"And, if they do than your assumption that prisoners are used as breeding stock is a valid theory. It's been known to happen."

"Second, if you don't think that men and women take on sides merely based on sex than you've never been in an all male group or overheard an all female group talking. Yes, you can base taking a side on anything...even your sex."

Nodding toward the approaching spires of what could only be a city in the distance, she added,"I suspect that all our questions are about to be answered, though. It seems we have arrived at our destination."

 

[The GrandMage]

Drel Walker

Drel arched an eyebrow. "What? What I'm saying is that, when looking at gender, it's impossible for,...no group of individuals believes one side of the issue is correct because of their sex. It is nigh impossible for battle lines, a WAR to break out where each side is one gender. The mathamatical probabilities of that are so far fetched the Terra probably couldn't even get high enough."

He sighed. "Sure, two, one of each sex. A small group, maybe. But an entire planet!? And regarding reproduction, your the one that said it was a battle of the sexes. In order for their to be 'sexes,' they have to have the anatomy in order to swap genetic information to create offspring that has genes from all the parents. There could be five sexes, all of which secrete slime for all I care, this is still crazy."

He glanced around. "Besides, if they didn't reproduce the way we do, their weapon wouldn;t be effective againstour males while leaving the females unharmed. How do they do that anyway? Target testosterone? Females have it too, only lower levels. You should have felt something. Damnit, now I want to look at this weapon. It must be interesting the way they target it. But damnit, I don't want to be interested in these creatures! What I want is to get the hell away from their planet and mark it 'Crazyworld' on our maps."

He sighed, looking around. "Could we just LEAVE?"

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Kitka

As Drell was ranting, Kitka tried not to laugh but couldn't hide a smile as she looked down at her instruments whose levels were going off the scale as they approached the sparkling spires of a massive city ahead.

"Oh, sure, we can leave," She said, trying to pretend she was totally engrossed in her instruments. "But I suggest that you tell our hostess' that we think they all belong in a padded cell with armed guards and would rather not partake of their hospitality. Afterall, I'm not the one who is going to get knocked into next week if they don't like our attitude."

 

[The GrandMage]

Drel Walker

He grunted. "Fine. Sure. Point me at 'em. I'll tell them politely that we have business elsewhere, tell them to have a nice day, and be haulin' ass outta here."

He sighed, and slumped down against the railing. "Call me crazy, but I just don't like going to a planet where the inhabitants have males as their enemy. Un-uh. No thank you. You do whatever, tell them to have a nice day. I'm gonna stay here and wait to go back to the ship, and search for another planet."

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Kitka

Kitka flashed a grin at Drell. "Well, if it will make you feel any better I can tell them that you do belong to me and that I wouldn't appreciate anyone damaging my property."

Her laugh at Drell's look was cut short as the hover disk entered the city and she gasped.

The city was indeed beautiful but what outshined the city were the inhabitants.

Everywhere you looked were women and these women looked like something that a sculpture would carve. All their features were finely chiseled and their bodies...perfect.

Most of them had on shimmery scraps of almost nothing that didn't hide much of their womanly features and Kitka felt her own womanly instincts of not being able to measure up to such beauty kick in.

With a grimace she amended her earlier statement. "Then again, you might not want to say good bye at all."

 

[PVodogaz]

Commander Treloar Noviscum

Commander Treloar had gone in a matter of mere minutes from being in full control of the mission, to feeling now as if he was losing grip of the Mission. Not only had the Commander been affected by these strange, alien force, but Terra 1 itself was acting strangely and when it answered, his fears grew a tad bigger.

Terra 1 had met and possibly mixed with this strange alien AI, how much is Terra 1 now affected? I will have to run a diagnostic when the situation gets normal again, he said to himself.

"Terra 1, I acknowledge the new information."

Turning to Loril who was doing a preliminary check on the ship and the computer system from her console he didn't have to wait long for a responce from her. As she looked at him, Treloar could see the same look of apprehension in her eyes and voice as he had and still had.

"The system checks out okay, Terra 1 seems to be fine...for now...."

Commander Noviscum nodded. "Keep monitoring Officer." With a deep breath he turned to the screen and saw the flyer being surrounded by the alien hoverships.

And then when Kitka on the flyer transmitted the situation, Treloar knew then and there, that it would take a miracle to get out of this mess in one piece.

 

[PVodogaz]

Commander Treloar Noviscum

As Commander Treloar and Loril watched the screen as well as Terra 1, the full impact of the situation that they were in, had dawned and hit them.

They had come to a planet, who's inhabitance were in hiding, from a race called the Archons. The beings on the planet had created sophisticated and powerful mind weaponry that only affected the males, not the females. Indeed, Terra 1 has stepped into a war. Treloar watched and listened and the noise and pain had ceased in his head. But he was sure the beings could if they chose to enter his pain and do more damage then before. And Treloar did not want that. Oh no he didn't.

Then Loril spoke agreeing with Kitka, and Treloar nodded. "Yes we did, and its not the first exploration that I wanted...we'll get out of this somehow." He tried to sound confident, hoping Loril had not analysed his voice and found the first tendrils of fear within it.

The flyer was being guided toward the city, with the alien hoverships gliding along on either side smoothly. And he listened to Officer Drel and Kitka talk as they were guided along. It was good for Treloar to hear them both ok. Drel had undergone Treloar's treatment if not worse.

They watched as the city came closer, spires tall and silvery, glittering in the sunlight of a orange sun. Treloar sat in the next console from Loril and watched and listened - and observed. When the flyer entered the city and pictures of the inhabitance showed through did Treloar inhale deeply and startled....they look like human females.....

"By Terra, if these are not human females, paint me black and blue....that leads me to answer, how did they come to this planet?"

His question he hope would be answered.

 

[DarkThoughts01]

Terra One
terra One whirred and seemed to come abck to life again witha jump.
please forgive my sluggish responds Commander,Officer. was forced to expend a large amount of proccesing power on keeping myself from being drawn out and locked into teh alien network.I am succesfully in control again and i now have half the codes to teh entire planets defenses.Awaiting your orders Commander.
Terra spoke with teh calm,assuring voice that had been known from the start of this whole voyage.The ship setteld itself and data streamed normally and sedatly across the data panels,occasionally an odd icon of gold code flashign by along the one screen of data.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Loril

Loril looked from the data scrolling across the screen up to the Commander.

"If I might suggest that you have Terra 1 check itself for any corruption from his...mingling...with the planet's AI, Sir," She began and then her eyes were drawn to the screen and the pictures of the inhabitants there.

Her mouth dropped open and she shook her head. "Human, maybe, but look at them! There doesn't seem to be an imperfection in them. It's...unnatural! It's almost like only the best was taken to inhabit the city. I've never seen such beauty in my life."

Then her eyes caught a movement along one of the streets and she pointed it out.

"Look there, Commander, isn't that a...male?" Indeed there was a figure of a man in nothing but a simple loin cloth, sweat pouring down his body as he worked sorting through bricks of the simmery material that the buildings were made of, his muscles tensed as he struggled with it. Then more male figures appeared like the first, helping thier companion in his work.

Loril gulped and said,"Captives. Made to work. This isn't getting any better...not at all."

 

[The GrandMage]

Drel Walker

Drel glanced around the planet. The architecture, the sophistication, the technology, and the inhabitants. He turned, and raised an eyebrow at Kitka.

"I want nothing more than to get the fuck off of this planet. Though now we might know what started the war: women pissed at genetic manipulation to turn them into some male fantasy."

He snorted. "And as a matter of fact, I would like them to know I'm yours. I'd also like you to tell them about your policy of not messing with your things. Because I'm gonna stay right here. I'm not in the mood to dance around some Siren who might get pissed if I don't act like their slaves are trained to."

He sat down, crossing his arms and looking up at Kitka. "Just try and keep this short, will you? I don't want to stay here any longer than is absolutely possible...Mistress."

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Kitka

The only things that kept Kitka from breaking up into howls of laughter on Drell's pronouncement was the very seriousness of the situation and the fact that one of the inhabitants were approaching them even as they spoke.

The woman was beautiful. Every feature, every curve was in place and she looked like something out of a fantasy drawing. Her long red hair hung down past her waist and her hair, neck, wrists, forearms, body and ankles were adorned in shimmering cloth and ornaments.

Hello Kitka heard in her mind even as the woman did not move her mouth I am Celinia, the leader of this colony. You and yours are welcome here, The One Called Kitka. Her eyes traveled down to where Drell was sitting, arms crossed her face never flickering with emotion. We shall house you and feed you and you may ask us the many questions that we see within your mind. If you like we will even transport the woman from your craft and her male here to accompany you. We wish only for you to be comfortable while you are our guests.

Kitka swallowed. Were they that advanced that they could reach out and pluck Loril and the Commander out of the ship so simply?

Speaking into her com link, she said,"Commander, did you get that?"

 

[The GrandMage]

Drel Walker

Drel stood. Although he did not know it, there was no one watching his mind. It had been decided that his mind was too dangerous for any attempted contact, and shown by the previous attempt.


He tugged lightly on Kitka's uniform, just above her right hip. "Mistress, we shouldn't stay long. We do have to complete our mission of finding what happened to the home world."

He tried acting submissive to Kitka, as if he was merely reminding her of something than trying to enforce the fact he didn't want to stay. He didn't know what this culture was all about, but he didn't want to know.

And he certainly didn't want to spend the night.

 

[PVodogaz]

Commander Treloar Noviscum

As Commander Treloar was watching the screen momentarily thunderstruck by the views and audio from the planet's surface, Terra 1 presently spoke and Treloar pulled himself away from the screen momentarily to listen to the report by the computer.

Please forgive my sluggish responds Commander,Officer. Was forced to expend a large amount of proccesing power on keeping myself from being drawn out and locked into teh alien network. I am succesfully in control again and i now have half the codes to the entire planets defenses.Awaiting your orders Commander.

Treloar's mind whirled with many courses of action with all he had seen and witnessed and the mental attack by the beings from below on the planet made Treloar think safety of his crew first.

Then Loril spoke, as Treloar turned to face her again to listen; "If I might suggest that you have Terra 1 check itself for any corruption from his...mingling...with the planet's AI, Sir."

He nodded and said to the Terra 1, "Terra 1 on my orders you are to do a diagnostic of all your systems, to look for corruption or data infilitration by the alien AI. You will report to Officer Harmony the results......" He was about to continue on when new pictures came in showing that there were indeed males working slave labour as if they were captives, and Loril pointed this out. Indeed Loril, you're right, this is looking grimmer and grimmer as he go along.

With gritted teeth and infront of Loril he ordered Terra 1 with a tint of anger in his voice " Terra 1 continue to search for AI planetary defence codes. Also under my orders of Terran Code 254C, I hearby instruct you when you have all the codes to the alien AI defences to prime our weapons systems....we may need them in the near future."

With that said, he stood up and paced the floor behind Loril looking up at the screen as the pictures flowed through.