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Wake-up cycle initiated.
Activating V.I.C.I. ………. all systems activated.
RAM: OK ROM: OK
Running full system scan……………………….
Scan complete. All systems functioning at 100% efficiency.
Reserve Battery charge level: 93.6%
Good morning, V.I.C.I.; today is Saturday, October 1, 2011
The time is 08:10 AM.
With a yawn, Vicki extricated herself from the bedsheets she'd wrapped around herself after finally managing to enter her sleep cycle a few hours prior. She managed a lopsided grin---there was something weirdly funny about a gynoid advanced as herself starting the day with bed-head and a yawn. Ted would probably find it “fascinating”, as per usual....
After a quick shower and change of clothes, she headed off to check on Rae and Kylie---their door was half-open, allowing her to see Kylie asleep, wrapped in the blanket---with a Post-It note stuck to her forehead
“If you're looking for Rae,” Major Tom's voice called out from a few doors down, “she's already in the cafeteria going over the itinerary for today.” The words were followed with the sound of gargling, and spitting into a sink. “I'm surprised you didn't hear her belting out friggin' Cyndi Lauper about an hour ago,” he continued.
Vicki rolled her eyes. “I was asleep an hour ago....anyway, you said something about an itinerary?”
“I thought you'd know about it already....we are heading to your house, after all---”
“Wait, what?!” Vicki nearly barged into Tom's room, but decided against it---the memory of her intrusion into Rae's room a few hours before was still fresh in her mind. “Ted never told me anything about this!”
“He didn't?”
“No, he---” The brunette gynoid groaned as a hair dryer kicked on across the hall. “He never mentioned it.”
“Huh. I thought he'd have told you first....” A door inside the Major's room slammed closed, followed by the Major himself (wearing a Ramones t-shirt a size too big) emerging and stifling a yawn. “Said something about retrieving a few things and cleaning up the place so Joan won't have too much work after a day of tutoring and stuff...” He shrugged. “Guess he was too preoccupied to remember to tell you, or something...”
His theory did little to calm Vicki. “I still think it'd have been better if he actually told me about this first,” she muttered. “How did Rae find out before I did?!”
Major Tom shrugged. “She has her ways....”
I'll bet she does.... “You can at least tell me when we're heading out, right?”
“As soon as everyone else is ready---which hopefully won't be too much longer.” The Major didn't bother trying not to yawn this time. “Also, tell Rae I want my damn hat back.”
Vicki decided not to ask how Rae had acquired the Major's hat, choosing instead to head for the cafeteria and talk to Rae in person. I might ask her about the whole hat thing.... She grinned at the thought of quizzing Rae about it---hopefully, it wasn't a sore point of any kind. Starting an “incident” right before deployment would only end in tears for everyone involved, and Vicki did not want that sort of incident on her record so soon after the return of Epsilon....any distractions from her work might cost her dearly in the field, which wouldn't end well if she had another encounter with Epsilon.
I wonder if Rae's still wearing the---
Any and all thoughts about the hat Rae had nicked from the Major were silenced as soon as Vicki saw a brown fedora, not unlike the kind worn by a certain famous cinematic archaeologist, jauntily perched atop a familiar chestnut-haired head. “Oh, you are kidding.....” She weaved her way through the crowd to get to Rae, hoping to silently pluck the chapeau from her...
“Spack off, Vicks. The hat stays on my head.”
Bristling at Rae's nonchalant response (and being called “Vicks”), Vicki sat down next to her fellow Field Agent, staring at the hat in question. “It's a fedora. You're not even wearing the full outfit---”
“You think I'm going to go tearing up my wardrobe looking for a leather jacket, khakis and everything else out of that ensemble?” Rae countered. “I happen to like fedoras....used to wear one during my dancing days---and I can tell you don't want to hear about it,” she continued, “so I'll just shut up...” She grinned. “It looks better on me than it did on the Major, if I do say so myself. Aside from that....it's a hat. Am I not allowed to wear any hat of my choosing?” She fluttered her eyelids and gave a stereotypical pout.
“If it's someone else's hat, you might want to look into...I don't know....giving it back, maybe?”
Rae waved aside the suggestion. “I'll give it back if he takes back what he said about my hair.”
For a few seconds, Vicki considered asking what Major Tom had said about Rae's hair, but decided to go down another line of inquiry. “So when did Ted tell you about the upcoming op?”
“Two hours ago. Kylie was still asleep, so I figured I'd take a bit of a night jog....Ted was on his way back from the toilets. We chatted, he said we had an op coming---and he mentioned that it was coming soonish, as in today, so....” The chestnut-haired gynoid shrugged. “I left Kylie a note---”
“Stuck to her forehead....”
“She appreciates the uniqueness of how I leave messages. It's a thing.” Again, Rae shrugged. “Anyway, we'd better get to the vans and all,” she continued. “Wouldn't want the best seats to go to waste---”
“Is something going on between you and Kylie?” Vicki cut in. “I mean, other than the obvious....”
Any lingering traces of humour in Rae's voice and demeanour vanished. “I don't want her on this op, Vicki. I don't want her.....getting hurt, or killed. I get wrecked in the field, the techs can grab all my bits, drag 'em back here and just put me back together. Kylie....not so much.” She hugged herself, staring at the table; “I won't lose her because of this,” she muttered. “It won't be like.....”
The barest hint of a name was on her tongue for a full second, but she never spoke it.
“I won't lose her,” the chestnut-haired gynoid repeated. “I don't want to lose her.” She exhaled a fearful breath through her nostrils, looking for a moment as if she was seeing any number of scenarios in which she did lose Kylie. “I can't.....”
Even as Vicki thought of asking if she was feeling okay, Rae shook off whatever fear had gripped her. “It's for her own good, and mine,” she stated, not turning to look at the brunette gynoid. “It'll give her time to get a full medical check, all that good stuff....maybe get recertified over at the shooting range.” She smiled, showing off far too many teeth, and giving Vicki the impression she was about to go for someone's neck. “She won't mind, I'm sure....she probably won't mind.”
“Maybe you can ask her,” Vicki suggested. “She's over there by the vending machines---” She turned around to point Kylie out. “---getting a Sun Drop or something....”
When she turned back around, Rae was nowhere to be seen.
For some reason, the brunette gynoid expected to sit with either Rae or Kylie during the ride---Rae might want to apologize for running off, she reasoned, and Kylie would probably want to know why she had a Post-It note stuck to her forehead. To her surprise, neither Rae or Kylie even rode in the same van as she did---her seat-mate for the trip ended up being Calliope. “Figured you'd want a break from the lovers' quarrel back there,” she mused, nodding to the queue at the van behind theirs. “That, and I'm fresh off another tune-up---”
A slamming door cut her off, followed soon after by the van behind the one Vicki was sitting in roaring past, its tires squealing as it tore up the road.
Seconds later, an agonized shout of “KYLIE!” trailed after it.
“....so, like I was saying,” Calliope muttered, “I just got finished with a tune-up---”
The front passenger door flew open, and Major Tom took his seat next to a dark-skinned male Vicki hadn't met before. “....and tell HQ that Agent Linden is going to be brought in for a disciplinary hearing as soon as this is over,” the Major stated, scowling. “That little outburst of hers back there---”
He stopped, noticing Vicki and Calliope staring at him from the farthest seats back.
“...never mind.” The other man decided to introduce himself while the Major exited the vehicle; “Calliope, Miss Lawson, I'm Agent Harris.” He shook hands with both gynoids. “I've heard a lot about you, Miss Lawson.”
Vicki rolled her eyes. “Who hasn't?”
Harris grinned. “If it's any consolation, everything I've heard has been positive. Ted, in particular, can't stop doting on you....he seems to think you'll be running Lawson Robotics yourself, at this rate!”
The intended retort Vicki had in mind died on her tongue. “He said that?”
“Repeatedly. I worked with him on the Crystal City project a few years ago...it's a shame you weren't a Field Agent back then. We could've used someone like you on our side when things went screwy.”
[iI'm guessing that “things going screwy” is why Ted doesn't talk about the Crystal City assignment[/i].... Vicki decided to shift the conversation to another topic. “I haven't really seen you around the Valley before today, y'know. Which Field Office did you transfer from?”
“I was in Oregon last year....first half of this year, things were a cross-country tour.”
Calliope arched an eyebrow. “Were you the one at the Cabo showroom---”
“Yeah, that was me,” Harris admitted. “Never thought the water cooler would put out the fire the way it did.”
Most of Vicki's attention was still focused on the call Major Tom was making---and unlike the call made by Selwyn McElvoy the previous month, she couldn't simply “borrow” the senses of another gynoid to eavesdrop on the call. After a few seconds of “just” using her enhanced hearing to pick up bits of the conversation, she gave up on trying to discern too much from it, turning her focus back to Harris and Calliope. “....and from what Ted told me,” Harris stated, “we need to get this done.”
“I'm surprised he hasn't jumped on this sooner,” Calliope agreed. “The Epsilon situation is....unique---definitely not a 'textbook' case.”
Jumping into the conversation now would probably end really, really badly.... Vicki leaned back in her seat, staying silent to avoid embarrassing herself---
“---and you've had experience with that before, right, Vicki?”
Oh, here we go.... “If I look back far enough,” the brunette gynoid replied, “I can probably find memories of a lot of experiences.” She grinned, hoping her answer to Calliope's question wouldn't come back to bite her any time soon.
“So you have charged a car battery before?”
Harris' reply earned a raised eyebrow. “We....were talking about Epsilon----”
“And then I started the van. Or tried to start it...” Harris turned the key a few times, frowning as the engine failed to turn over. “All of the other vans are leaving---it'd be a waste of time calling them back now---”
“Well, we're in luck. I have started a car battery before.” Vicki exited the van---noticing that Rae and Major Tom were riding off in what appeared to be a Land Rover---and made her way around to get at the hood. “It won't take long,” she assured Harris and Calliope. “Just give me a sec....and you may want to get out of the van, just in case.” With her colleagues literally standing by, the brunette gynoid popped the hood of the van and cracked her knuckles. “Here goes....”
Increasing charge to Detaining Grip
Lightning danced around her fingertips as she grabbed the leads on the battery, focusing her attention entirely on the task at hand. Within seconds, the battery sparked, the engine turned over, and Vicki gave a quiet, relieved sigh. “Battery's started....we can go now.”
“You started it that fast?” It was Harris' turn to raise an eyebrow. “I thought it was 'red to dead lead, red to donor lead' and all that stuff.....”
“Well, I didn't need to use cables,” Vicki admitted. “Ready to head off?”
Harris chuckled. “....I thought he was kidding....”
“Who was kidding about what?” the brunette gynoid asked, frowning slightly.
“Ted....he told me you pulled this once before, back in the 80s....I didn't believe him----”
“So you thought you'd see for yourself?” There was an air of annoyance in Vicki's tone, as if she found the idea of someone putting a dead battery in to test her abilities was a mild form of insult.
“Actually, the battery for this van was due to be changed last week,” Calliope cut in. “Major Tom had to sort of push this particular van half the way up the drive....the battery worked when we got it out of the garage, but then it sort of...stopped.....” She stared at the ground. “Harris figured it'd be interesting to see if you really could charge it....”
Any remaining traces of Vicki's annoyance evaporated at the clockwork gynoid's embarrassment. “Don't worry about it. I've had weirder tests imposed upon me before....” She gestured towards the van. “Shall we?”
Three minutes later, the trio had caught up with the rest of the “convoy” on the way to Ted's, with Rae and the Major's Land Rover near the middle of the pack; Kylie's “borrowed” vehicle was nowhere to be seen. I may need to talk to them both after this is over with, Vicki realized. And I have a feeling it wasn't just the Sticky Note to the forehead that set Kylie off....whatever it was, I'm not looking forward to the outcome if either of them decides they're not in a talking mood.
“You wouldn't happen to know why we're going to your dad's house, would you?” Calliope asked, interrupting the brunette gynoid's train of thought.
“In all honesty......no.”
“Allow me to take the mystery out of it,” Harris replied. “It's a mission briefing. As in, how we're going to keep the DVS from getting their hands on Epsilon, how we'll try to contain Epsilon without drawing any unwanted attention to us or it....stuff like that. And Ted mentioned he needed to check on something, too.....”
Vicki allowed herself a grin. “As long as it doesn't involve the stove----”
The radio handset built into the dash erupted in a squeal of static and noise, followed by several very loud shouts from Major Tom: “---MEAN, SHE'S NOT AT TED'S?! SHE TOOK ONE OF THE DAMN VANS AND SHE JUST DROVE OFF?! WHERE----” A loud thump issued through the van's speakers. “NO, I RAN OVER A STUPID BIKE---NO, THERE WASN'T ANYONE ON IT, I HIT A BIKE STAND---SHUT UP AND KEEP EXPLAINING, DAMNIT!”
Harris switched off the radio. “...guess I know what the first order of business will be at next month's meeting,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I thought Linden was one of the calm ones....”
Any number of remarks about Kylie's relationship with Rae passed through Vicki's thought processes....
….but none of them were voiced by the brunette gynoid.
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