“I had to borrow this from Lyla, my nanites usually simulate my clothing. None of them are functioning properly so….” Stone grimaced.
Goru nodded, he knew all too well what it was like to lack in the wardrobe department. For many years he had worn what he could get too, “Would you like to have something of mine?”
Stone blinked and leaked the idea that she didn’t think he was such a generous person, “I would greatly appreciate that.”
Goru went back to his room and grabbed another pair of pants, gray ones with cargo pockets, a black tank top and a loose long sleeve shirt. He dug around in his bag and pulled out his second pair of boots and some socks to go with. He thought the boots would fit, but he wasn’t sure. He brought them out to Stone, trying not to pay attention to the less than practical outfits some of his bunk-mates seemed intent on putting on.
“I hope these fit,” Goru handed the pile to Stone, and she put it down on the dining table. She had slipped out of the sundress before he could assess her intent. Goru turned on his heels to give her privacy. Her breasts were only beginning to blossom but they did seem larger than they had been the night before.
“Uh, Goru could you help me?” Goru glanced over his shoulder. She had managed to pull on the tank top and she held the pants out in front of her blocking his view of her feminine areas. “You have never put pants on have you? How old are you?”
Stone looked stunned she opened her mouth and closed it again, “Promise not to tell anyone else?”
Goru blinked. In less than ten minutes he had gone from an adversary to a confidant, “I promise.”
“Seven,” Stone began. Goru didn’t know what he expected but was sure it was more than seven years. “Or I will be seven days old at two-fifty-seven pm.”
Goru blinked, “You’re seven days old?” He whispered back.
She nodded. He helped her into the pants and footwear. She tied the boots on her own
Goru blinked again, “Yeah, I will let you tell people that. If I were to try; they would think I was being sarcastic, or lying. Since we’re both dressed sensibly, do you want to help me pack up some of this gear to take with us?”
Stone smiled and started laying out bottomless bags to fill.
- - - - - - -
Beaker retrieved his travel pack from his closet. He checked its contents it was mostly full of rock sampling gear but he did have emergency food and water rations inside. He was pretty well prepared given that back home he survived on what he could carry or forage. He dug through his closet and pulled out his favorite outfit. The legs of the pants detached. He decided to wear a tank top and a light long sleeve over-shirt. There was no question, he slipped his feet into thick socks and his favorite well-worn boots. Around him the others were being less practical.
Beaker slung his pack over his shoulder diagonally and decided to try and help the others. “Lenny, you might want to wear more thin layers. A wool turtleneck isn’t a good idea if it is hot up there. Maynard, do you have any hiking boots? Loafers are fine for civilization but they’re a bitch if we have to hike,” Beaker suggested. Milo was putting on blue jeans, a white t-shirt and sneakers. When Beaker suggested layers to Lenny, Milo pulled out a thin long sleeve button up the front shirt and tied it around his waist. Sport was using telekinesis to put on a set of doggy saddlebags and booties with hiking tread on the bottom.
Milo headed for the hall door, Sport and Beaker followed. The rest were still fiddling with their wardrobes. Sport was the first to rejoin Goru and Stone. On seeing them Goru grunted approval, “Hey, we are almost done divvying up gear. You want to put that pile in your travel bag?” Goru pointed to a pile sitting next to a generic bottomless travel bag.
Beaker nodded. He recognized emergency food and water packets. Other packages were less recognizable. Beaker opened one and pulled out a weapon. It was a stun rifle. “Whoa? Weapons?”
Goru nodded, “I am assuming they wouldn’t be stocking student dormitories with them if we weren’t likely to need them…”
“Okay,” Beaker checked the sight and fired at the couch. The stun capsule embedded itself in the upholstery a fraction of an inch to the left of where he had been aiming. He adjusted the sight and then put it back in the bag it came out of.
Lyla, Millie, Faith and Fubar arrived all sensibly dressed, Millie wore nearly the same outfit as her brother. “Where are the others?” Goru asked.
Millie frowned, “Ibu, Inu and Tudra aren’t coming. They said they would wait for rescue…”
Maynard came down the hall alone, still dressed in the turtleneck. He looked at the piles of survival gear and grimaced, “You can divide that in four fewer packs, Ardun, Lenny, Sugar and I aren’t coming. Sugar figures this can’t have happened without the people upstairs knowing about it by now and we decided we are just going to wait here.”
“Seriously?” Goru grunted, back to his sarcastic best.
Stone pulled some emergency food and water packets and piled them in a pile to the side and then began re-dealing out the supplies. Maynard turned back down the hall without another word. Goru dug in the supply cupboard and came out with a compact emergency medical kit. Beaker recognized it from his parent’s shelter. He had been caught playing with one a few years ago and gotten a big lecture. It was factor level tech. It could help diagnose and treat almost anything in the Preserve’s vast medical library. With one of those, anybody could act as an emergency medic. “Hey Goru, we definitely need to bring that! It is a Factor Med-kit!,” Beaker announced.
“Who wants it?” Goru held it up.
Lyla pointed to Faith, “She has already proven a pretty good medic.”
Faith was rubbing her forearms beneath her long sleeve windbreaker, “I guess…”
Goru handed it and a bag, Stone had just finished packing water packets into, to Faith. Faith tucked the med kit in the bag and slung it over her shoulder. Beaker noticed a drop of blood on Faith’s sleeve. He started to say something until Faith made it clear she already knew about it by plucking at the spot. She pleaded with him with her eyes not to mention it. He figured she must have been injured in some minor way and she didn’t want to bother anyone with it. She had the med kit now and could tend the wound if necessary.
Stone passed around the rest of the bags to the group going and went back to the elevator. She stepped up to the panel, pried it open and sent a focused charge into the circuits the door finally slid open revealing the open elevator shaft.
Milo and Millie cocked their heads at her in unison. “How did…” Millie began.
Milo continued, “You do that?”
They continued passing the sentence back and forth, in a quirk that was moving from comical to annoying for Beaker, “Are you…electrokinetic or…are you an…organically based…Android like Tawny?”
Stone turned to face the group with a tentative smile, “Technically I am a congenital cyborg.”
Taking up a disbelieving tone more reminiscent of Goru, Lyla blurted, “How does that work?”
Stone sighed, “My father is an android my mother is organic….”
“And that works?” Lyla interrupted.
“I exist,” Was Stone’s reply.
Lyla shrugged, “So who is going first?”
Goru smiled and gestured towards the shaft which was lit by flashing yellow lights, “Ladies first.”
- - - - - - -
Lyla shrugged. She stuck her head into the shaft and looked around. The emergency ladder was just to the right of the open door. She reached around and grabbed on. Once she was fully on the ladder she stuck her head around, “No problem folks.” She looked up and started climbing up the emergency ladder.
During the climb she made a point of not looking down. It was just about twenty feet to the next set of doors. She heard the others climbing behind her. Lyla was obviously the first to the next level. She heard the muted noises of people attempting to pry the door open from the other side. It took Lyla a few seconds to locate the emergency
door opening mechanism, but when she found it she was able to open it easily. Lyla released the emergency opening catch and ended up face to face with a young man.
The boy was blonde with green eyes. He was still in dinosaur pajamas he offered an arm to help her up onto the floor. “I am guessing you aren’t the rescue crew,” The boy stated.
Lyla sat, “We are heading for the surface. We are our own rescue crew. You are welcome to come with us…”
The boy looked to the rest of his floor mates, “We have pretty much decided to wait things out.”
“Okay, you found your emergency supplies, right?” Lyla asked looking the residents over. One of them had a crudely bandaged leg that still appeared to be bleeding badly. Lyla went to the storage cupboard and hunted down the emergency medical kit. She sat it next to the injured girl just in time for Faith to pull herself up on to the level. Faith was quick to take in the situation. She joined Lyla by the girl and went to work. Goru was the next up. He positioned himself to assist the rest up onto the floor, with the exception of Sport who easily levitated himself up.
Once everyone was up, Goru addressed the residents of the floor who were lounging on their couches with the exception of the injured girl. “So, don’t you need to get dressed so we can head up?”
Lyla frowned at him, “They are going to stay and wait for the rescue crews.”
Goru scowled, “I don’t suppose you tried to convince them to come?” His tone dripped with the sarcasm he saved up for her.
“It is theirs to decide how to handle this situation,” Lyla shrugged.
“Fine, you done here Faith?” Goru growled. Faith jerked upright from her crouch. The girl removed the bandage revealing a newly healed wound. Faith wobbled a little. Goru dug in his bag and pulled out a high calorie meal bar and tossed it to Faith, “Eat, it looks like that takes a lot out of you. None of us would be able to fix you if you broke.”
Stone went to the storage cupboard and dug out emergency rations and laid them out for the residents, “In case rescue is a while in coming.”
Goru mounted the ladder again, “Lets get moving,” He began climbing and everyone started up after him leaving Lyla to bring up the rear.
“You might want to consider that they want you to help yourselves,” Lyla suggested, gesturing at the piles of supplies.
She followed the rest of her dormitory group up to the next level. Things went about the same up there. There was one major injury. They had decided to wait things out, and Goru sarcastically scolded Lyla for not doing enough. They settled into a rhythm, Goru was the first one up and the rest of the order shifted with each floor but they all followed the same pattern. There were a total of five floors above them, and none of the residents chose to join their party.
Chapter Six
WTF
Beaker was right behind Goru as they approached the surface. By that time he was beginning to question the structural integrity of the elevator shaft. The geology was all wrong. He probed the wall with a fingernail. The wall above him should be at ground level. He glanced down just as he reached the surface. Lyla was immediately behind him. His hand missed the top rung of the ladder and knocked loose a large chunk of wall. He saw it falling down towards Lyla. Before he could shout she fell. She hadn’t fallen past Faith when she disappeared completely with a loud snapping sound. The wall fragment knocked into a couple more people knocking Millie off the ladder too. Sport caught her with his telekinesis and levitated them both upwards at a slower rate of speed.
Beaker levered himself up onto the surface. Goru was circling the rubble of the elevator shaft Lyla sat on an oddly placed couch. She seemed dazed and confused. Beaker turned to help the rest of the group up out of the crumbling remnants of the elevator shaft. Once everyone was safely on the surface, Beaker gave his surroundings a careful examination. They were surrounded by sand, which was rung in the distance by Mountains. The only human structure in sight was the remnants of the elevator shaft.
Beaker kneeled and ran his fingers through the dirt and sand. Then he tasted it. It was mildly salty. There were few plants around them. Beaker fished through his bag he pulled out his botanical database and began taking pictures of the local plants. He ran the images through the database. The plants were common to deserts on earth and earth colonies in the old omniverse. Beaker pulled out his soil testing kit and ran the soil through it. It indicated the likely source of the soil was the Colorado Plateau region of North America.
“I am pretty sure we are on an actual planet guys, like earth even,” Beaker blurted. He stared up at the sky, possibly the very first real one he had ever experienced.
“Okay,” Goru responded.
“We have been moved. The school was within an asteroid or small planetoid. I recognized the minerals in that elevator shaft from back home,” Beaker stated.
Lyla stirred, “But that shaft might just have been separate from where the dorm rooms were. Remember three doors at the top led to one on our floor.”
“Okay, so what does the revelation that we are probably on earth do for us?” Stone asked.
Beaker shrugged and put his face into the wind, “I don’t know but I think the answers will be forthcoming.”
- - - - - - -
Faith was the last one to the surface. She already had a sense of confused dread from sensing the emotions and fears of those who got there first. Beaker steadied her for a moment before he turned and began investigating their surroundings. Faith stood rubbing forearms. They still itched from the basically healed cuts she had inflicted on a private trip to the bathroom. Cutting had been a risk, but her anxiety had been insurmountable. She had to take the edge off.
She reaches her thoughts and mind out searching for civilization she senses that Millie is doing the same thing Fubar and Sport were scenting the wind. Faith could sense farm animals but no people. Fubar’s nostrils flared, “There are cooking fires, and a large group of animals in that direction.” She pointed to a haze of green on the horizon.
Lyla and Goru both ask at once, “Is that where we are going?”
They glared at one another. Faith felt a power struggle between them. Goru felt something approaching hatred for Lyla. Faith feared they might come to blows, and she was sure shouting would be forthcoming. Finally, Lyla erupted, “What is your damn problem with me? I don’t know you from Adam!”
Goru growled back, “Your mother declared war on our father!”
“My mom works in an office. How do you even know her?” Lyla blurted.
“I can see her in you. Your mother is Mae Amante! Our father was Natto! She attempted to usurp his control of Refuge and then stole the main computer cube controlling it,” Goru blared shaking his arm at her.
Lyla seemed genuinely confused. She shook her head in denial, “My mom is a nobody!”
Beaker leaped in, “Dude, your mom is the boss of The Preserve. She is the head factor! I didn’t even know she had a kid!”
“Frankly, we see the resemblance,” Milo and Millie stated together, “What do you have against her really?”
Goru turned his fury on Milo and Millie, “What is so hard to understand about, she declared war on my father!”
“I don’t understand… my mom works a lot but… She couldn’t be that important…could she?” Lyla shrugged.
“It was your mother’s fault my father died!” Goru growled.
Beaker held up a hand, “Dude, your dad attempted genocide. He nearly wiped out an entire species!”
“They were only Tanerians. The Preserve and the Factors and everybody freaking else were at war with them!" Goru argued.
“Genocide? That seems extreme, if my mom was mad at him maybe there was a good reason… I still can’t believe my mom is everything you say she is…” Lyla stated.
“Dude, she is like the boss,” Beaker.
Lyla set her shoulders, “She should have told me… Goru, I don’t hold you responsible for your father’s actions, why do you hate me because of my mother
?”
Goru frowns, “He is dead.”
Beaker laid a supportive hand on Goru’s shoulder, “Dude, even after everything she offered him refuge from the end of the omniverse. Your dad was just a stubborn twit and refused her.”
“She shouldn’t have been in the position to offer him anything! He should've been in charge,” Goru argued like a stubborn child.
Fubar joined Beaker in offering Goru support, “I am sorry my friend your father was a cruel dictator. He drove Refuge into the ground. I do not know why you idolize him. He killed his own parents…”
Guilt stung Faith, her secret parentage was as bad as Goru's. “Maybe we should all be honest about who our parents are…" Faith suggested anxiously.
“You first!” Sport suggested.
All eyes were on Faith. She rubbed her forearms, “My father is Benjamin Kindel, and my mother is… Miranda Harvey.”
Beaker hissed, “That sucks!”
Goru grunted in sympathy.
Lyla was left to ask, “Why?”
Goru threw up his hands, “Were you born under a rock?”
“No!” Lyla stated, “My father locked out the current events in our database, as far as I have gotten, Miranda Harvey was a hero.”
Goru spoke, “Miranda Harvey has defected to the dark. She is the new Darkone. She goes by Mira Black now.”
“Seriously!” Lyla stomped her feet, “My mother is Chief Factor and yours is Chief Baddie!”
“The apple didn’t fall far from the tree,” Faith stated.
Lyla cocked her head to the side, “Huh?”
“My mother is Goru’s great grandmother,” Faith confessed.
“Anybody have anymore family issues?” Lyla asked.
“Ours are Angela Daniel’s and Daniel Mann,” Milo and Millie stated together.
“Like the first chief?” Lyla asked.
Milo and Millie nodded in sync.
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