by Amwhere » Sat Oct 06, 2007 9:49 am
Thursday, September 9th, 3086: Mission High School
After homework was collected, Mieu said, "Today, you'll see Miun and I fight!"
There were a few cheers in the room.
"Remember two days ago that General Pyre said we were going to be living in an apartment? Well..."
April 9th, AW1276, Techna, Palma
Mieu and I sat in the back of the military transport truck. We drove down a street of nearly identical houses - differently colored cubes with convex tops. We stopped in front of a house painted a soft yellow. "We're here, ma'am." The driver said. He passed a key card to Miun. "This house is yours."
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"Sure as sure can be."
I shrugged. "All right. Come along, Mieu."
We got out, and as soon we were inside the house, Mieu said, "A bit more that Pyre said we'd get."
"Yeah," I replied, dropping my duffle bag on the floor. "Pretty bare in here." The kitchen had the standard refrigerator, stove, and auto-cooker. The rest of the house turned out to be bare, save the combination computer/phone/television set into the living room wall.
"Why do we need four bedrooms?" Mieu said.
"I don't know." I turned on the computer. "We do need to find furnishings for this place."
Mieu nodded. "How much meseta did Pyre give you?"
"Almost enough to buy this place," I said. That was an exaggeration, of course, but the six years of "back pay" Pyre gave me was quite a bit.
There was a knock on the front door. I waited until Mieu was in the alcove near the kitchen entrance before I opened it.
It was a older lady with grey hair carrying a plate of warm cookies. "Hello." She said, looking up at me. "I was on my porch when you drove up." She handed me the cookies. "I just baked these."
"Thank you," I said, smiling. "I'm Miun."
"My name is Arie." She looked around me and into the house. "Are you living here alone?"
I nodded. "Just me and my cyborg Mieu."
"Here on Earth," Miun said, "'Cyborg' means a human that has some sort of mechanical parts. On Palma, 'cyborg' means a robot that has human looking features. Most cyborgs on part only have human looking faces... although, if you feel them, the vast majority feel like warm plastic. Mieu's human looking face, shoulders, and thighs are rare, and even more rare is that her skin felt pretty much like skin."
"Of course, I look and feel perfectly human now," Mieu added.
"Duh." Miun replied, cracking a smile.
"Your cyborg looks a lot like you," Arie remarked.
"My parents surprised me with her," I said.
"So what do you do, Miun? You a student?"
I shook my head. "I'm an officer in the King's Army. I keep His Majesty's cyborgs in tip-top shape."
It was Arie's turn to shake her head. "What's a young pretty girl like you doing in the military?"
"It's my choice."
Arie smiled. "Good for you. Anyway, I need to get ready to go out. Enjoy the cookies."
I sighed as I closed the door.
"It's alright, sis," Mieu said, as if reading my mind, "I know you don't mean it."
"I know, Mieu. I still hate calling you a mere cyborg." I took the wrap off the plate of cookies. "Want a cookie?"
September 9th, 3086, Mission High School[/b
]Mieu reached under her desk and picked up a large plate of cookies. Setting them on her desk, she said, "Come up and take one." Once the class had settled down, Mieu continued. "After a long and boring night..."
[b]April 10th, AW1276, Miun's and Mieu's house
I was sitting on the floor, cross legged, watching TV with Miun. We had the windows fully opaque - a cyborg that I looked to be should be in their alcove, staring blankly into space - not watching morning TV. Luckily for me, one of the bedrooms had an only window that faced a solid fence, so I had somewhere to go to be myself.
"I wonder when the furniture will arrive," Miun said.
"Soon, I hope. I can almost hear my echo in here.". If I was listening for it, I probably could have heard my echo, but that wasn't the point.
The phone rang. Miun got up to answer it, while I got out of the phone's angle of view.
It was General Pyre, and I moved back in the phone's view. "Good morning," He said. "I hope the house is to your liking."
"It is, sir," Miun replied. "But it's a bit more than we were expecting."
"I forgot we had it, and I thought it would make a nice surprise. Besides, who knows how the extra bedrooms will be useful?"
"Thank you, sir," Miun said.
Pyre's voice lost it's casualness. "Now to business. I've sent someone to pick you both up. You're to report to Commandant Jager."
"Jager, sir?" Miun didn't hide the disappointment in her voice.
"I know he's a few feathers short of a chirper, Miun, but he's a local hero and I can't just remove him."
Miun sighed. "Yes, sir."
Well, he did save two dozen people by personally running into a burning building, I radioed to my sister. That has to count for something.
It has, Miun replied. He's not in a insane asylum, is he?
He's not that crazy. Actually, I think it's kind of funny.
Funny? It'll be funny when he orders us to hunt 'them'.
Pyre was none the wiser to our almost instantaneous conversation. "Your ride will be here shortly," he said. "Good luck, both of you." He hung up.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on our door. Miun opened it, and it was the same driver that drove us here yesterday. "Ma'am, I'm here to take you to Commandant Jager."
"I was alerted to this." Miun replied. "Come along, Mieu."
When we arrived at the base and had parked in front of the base headquarters, the driver turned to Miun and handed her a set of keycards. "That buggy's yours," he said, pointing at the small battery powered car we were parked next to.
I had owned a buggy like that during my life in VR. It was designed to be storable in small spaces, such as the small storage areas in an apartment building. To that end, the buggy only weighed two hundred pounds, and could break down into sections to make carrying easier. However, it's small battery could only hold a couple hours worth of power, and it could barely putt along at forty miles an hour. Miun and I could pick the buggy up and run carrying it at twice of the buggy's top speed.
Miun thanked the driver, and I followed her into the headquarters building.
"Colonel Rydori to see Commandant Jager," Miun said to the secretary.
"He's waiting for you," the secretary responded, "Go on in."
Miun opened the Commandant's office door. "Come in, quickly," Jager hissed from inside, "And close the door!"
There is no lights on in Jager's office, and while Miun and I could see, we knew it was almost pitch black to Jager's eyes. Jager was a short man that always seemed to wear grandiose hats that were a size too large. He was searching for something in his desk. As he did, however, his feather covered hat feel on the floor.
Miun turned on her eyelights to help him. "Turn those down!" He hissed, "We don't want them to be watching!"
"Them, sir?" Miun asked. She always asked that question... at least the couple times I was with her when she talked to Jager.
"Them!" That was always Jager's response. "Ah, here it is." He unfurled a map on his desk. "Yesterday, we've received reports of a raid on a small village," he pointed at an unmarked spot in the Termina foothills, "it seems only a couple men and a cyborg were involved."
"Only a couple men and a cyborg?" Miun echoed. "Even a village sheriff should be able to repulse that."
"This is a 'backwards' village." Jager said.
"Ah." Miun said, nodding.
"Backwards village?" Robert asked.
"It's kind of like the Amish," Mieu answered. "They only use limited technology, and high powered weapons aren't part of that."
"I want you two to go to that village and bring those bandits to justice," Jager said.
"Consider it done, sir."
"Good. One more thing: General Pyre asked me to tell you that picking up a new set of claws at the cyborg shop wouldn't be a bad idea."
"Anything else, sir?" Miun asked.
"No, you're dismissed." We turned to leave. "Be sure to watch out for them!"