Extracted - Part 8

[Sthurmovik]

Over halfway done.

Part 8

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Five of the six teammates huddled together around one of the cafeteria tables making furtive glances across the room towards the dark haired woman in the simple grey jumpsuit that sat eating alone. All but the Captain were dressed in Sanctuary garb, but even this gesture of togetherness was rebuffed by the Center staff who prevented all attempts to speak with the new Newcomer.

"They brought her in about 8 hours ago. I sent the photos out right away, but somebody didn't bother to check their e-mail," said Lars, directing his gaze at Serena.

"I said I was sorry alright? I'm use to communications being more, you know, integrated."

"Are you sure she's one of the Unity that was chasing us?" Lupa asked Fiona.

"I don't know about chasing us, but so far I've overheard the words "arrogant physical" and "decadent bag of meat". I still need two more for a bingo, but only Units speak that way," said Fiona as she learned into the conversation with her 12 foot frame planted firmly on the floor, her eyes a swirl of blue and red.

"Didn't Sisters used to speak that way Serena?" asked Captain Dunn making a quick glance over his shoulder towards the rather hostile looking woman.

"Oh gods no. We'd just roll in and drop biogenic weapons from orbit, not try to lecture planets to death about on how having a physical body eviscerates the proletariat," Serena replied as she took another bite of food that made her fully appreciate the "premium" offerings from places like New Beginnings.

"If she's Unity why doesn't she look like Fluffy here?" Lars asked.

"The Unity prefers assimilation over procreation, or at least doesn't give the latter much of a chance. Intel reports state that anyone not in the Party has their children taken to be reared in state orphanages," Serena answered. "Given how few computing resources most citizens are allocated it's actually one of the few policies I agree with. Raising a child in such a restricted virtual space would permanently stunt their development. Anyway that's why I suspect that our mystery woman was either born naturally then uploaded or born from uploaded parents."

"The question is where did the other five go and moreover what role did our new friend here play in their disappearance?" Lupa pondered.

Fiona shifted around on the floor before leaning in closer. "It is not uncommon for a first or second generation Linker to manifest physical changes after extraction depending on their experiences in the Link. For all we know that Unit may have had latent supernatural ability or had those abilities amplified by the Sanctuary process. I think we can assume that she was covered in the blood of her comrades."

"Ok, so she could either be a victim or a perpetrator, but is this even anything that concerns us? We…" Lars paused, mindful to watch what he said in a public space. "…aren't here to investigate mysteries for the hell of it."

"If the Virt over there killed her comrades then we will need to steer clear of her. If she didn't then…well then there's something big and nasty on the prowl. Probably none of our business, but we'd be wise to find out," suggested Serena.

"What do you propose we do?" asked the Captain. "You know the policies here about bringing up old grudges. "Everybody gets a clean slate in Sanctuary"," he continued, mocking Lomez from the orientation holo.

"Who said anything about the past? I'm going to go over and welcome her to the future," said Serena.

"Staff's not letting anyone near her, probably because of her attitude," noted Lupa, looking over again at the staff hovering around the solitary woman.

"Fluffy, can you create a diversion?" asked Serena.

"Ok, enough already with the Fluffy, I'm sort of getting sick of that name," Fiona shot back. "I didn’t ask for this to happen to me."

"Nothing is stopping you from getting clipped," prodded Lars.

"I'm working on it!" said Fiona with some measure of exasperation. "But yeah, I can create a diversion. Planning on working your magic on that sanctimonious Unity bitch Serena?"

"Why do I feel like I'm sitting at the mean girls' table back on the Hyperion," groaned the Captain, burying his face in his hand."

Serena gave Fiona a wink who smiled in return.

"If you'll excuse me I think I will attempt to bus my tray," said Fiona standing up.

Fiona lumbered carefully across the cafeteria making a point not to upend any tables or spill the food and drink of innocent bystanders. However as she reached the reclamation unit she carelessly hit her head into a support beam then fell down onto the rack of cleaned tableware sending trays, knives, plates and spoons clattering across the floor. The staff immediately moved to assist the flailing alien feline and clean up the mess, abandoning the sullen Unity woman in the process and allowing Serena to slide into the seat across from her.

"Hello there," Serena began in her friendliest possible voice. "I see they managed to get you too."

"I said I wasn't interested in wasting addition air to have a conversa…" growled the Unity before her eyes went wide as they focused on Serena. "You….YOU! You murderer!" she hissed at Serena, her voice slow and measured. "Do you think I wouldn't forget you? You think I didn't see you as you lured us through the portal!? I went out of our way to give you every chance to surrender without harm and you took my generosity and use it to kill my entire crew. Murderer!" she started to yell, flying out of her seat. "MURDERER!"

Even with her hazy organic memory the images from Lars' helmet cam of Sarah's dead body were vividly seared into Serena's mind's eye. The only thing Serena could do to prevent herself from dashing across the table and breaking the shrill Unity woman's neck was to grab onto the edge of the table with all the force her human body could muster while the woman's tirade continued unabated.

"You physicalist cunt! You shoot down my ship then sabotage our only means of escape trapping us in this…prison where…where…" the woman staggered back, looking like she was having trouble swallowing a piece of food before a look of pure terror the likes of which Serena had never seen before washed over her face. The symptoms of terror spread throughout her body causing the woman to fall to the floor where she proceeded to emit a scream of such intensity that everyone else in the room could feel the pain caused by the effort. Serena rose to her feet, but was frozen in place, her eyes locked on the woman's expression as she scooted her body along the floor backwards into another group of chairs. Curling up into a ball the woman proceeded to fight the staff with every ounce of her strength as they reached down to assist her. Serena suddenly found herself quite literally being pulled away from the scene as Lupa grabbed a hold of her outstretched arm.

"Come on, we have to get out of here now!" said Lupa, fighting to be heard over the continuing screams. "What the hell did you say to her!?"

"N-Nothing! She recognized me and I think it blew through a memory block," stammered Serena stumbling towards the door behind the rest of her team as Dr Voss and additional medical staff rushed in from the opposite direction nearly crashing into Bea's wheelchair. Once safely in the hallway the group didn't stop running until they reached an empty common area at which point Serena pulled Lupa up short and fall backwards against a display wall, her heart pounding and her left hand shaking uncontrollably. From there Serena slowly lowered herself into a sitting position, working to get her breathing under control.

"I…I will never forget that expression as long as live," stammered Serena, looking first at Lupa then at the other members of the group. "You can't fake that shit. Something in those tunnels killed her remaining crew and it wasn't her."

Lupa moved closer. "Are you ok Serena?"

"No! No I'm not ok! I just broke somebody by forcing them to relive a horror that I wouldn't wish on my worst…that I wouldn't wish on them."

The team was silent now, Lupa looking to Fiona, Fiona to Lars, Lars to the Captain to then spoke to Serena. "Colonel, you couldn't have known."

"Yeah, well I should have known better," said Serena exhaling into her hands. "I should have known better."

Serena allowed herself to get back under control as far off down the hallway the sound of screaming subsided. After about a minute of silent personal meditation the Colonel held out her arm for someone to help her up.

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Serena sat on the edge of the small dorm style bed dressed only in her armor. Since being extracted the act of sleeping had gone from irritating chore to unpleasant ordeal with the powerful nightmares churned out by her long suffering subconscious unable to be suppressed through various software tricks. After that evening's excitement in the cafeteria Serena had had a point to get properly pissed, but with the supply of purloined whisky running low combined with her biologic body's above average metabolism there would be no way to make it through the night using traditional "self" medications. While unhealthy, Serena's penchant for indulgence had always been limited to her brief stays in human form which drastically limited the potential for long term damage. Now faced with a biologic stay that could perhaps stretch weeks or months the career warrior struggled with a problem that has suddenly become problematic. Staring blankly at the floor Serena was roused from her catatonic state by a knock at the door.

"Um…who is it?"

"It's me, Lupa. Can I come in?"

Serena breathed in and out a few times before slowly getting up and opening the door for the professor who walked in and made herself at home putting away casually discarded clothing items and sitting down in the uncovered chair.

"I guess Some days are harder than others," Lupa began, not knowing what else she could say.

"Seems that lately some day became every day," replied Serena, sitting back down on the bed.

"You know I can't let you continue on like this. I know you have your issues and I know you like to deal with them in your own way and I've respected that, but in our current situation it's just not sustainable," Lupa continued.

"I know…but I also know I can't continue on in any other way. I need to be able to sleep. I need to be able to function in crowds without suffering a panic attack. The one thing I don't need is to let those Sanctuary fucks get their hooks into me. I saw how they fix people Lupa. When I went to the group session I saw how they fix people. It's all mental blocks, neuro-reconstruction and happy pills. Don't get me wrong if I were a conversion camp survivor or a 5000 year old genocidal synth I'm sure I'd embrace it with open arms, but I still like myself Lupa. I'm not ready to kill that which makes me me just because I've had a few bad days."

"Serena, you don't have to choose between substance abuse and an existential crisis. There's another way sitting right in front of you, but you've just never…embraced it," said Lupa as she got up from the chair and began to unzip her Sanctuary issued jumpsuit.

"Oh, no, Lupa," stammered Serena, turning beet red. "I'm really flattered, but I'm just not in the mood for that now."

"Why don't you stop flattering yourself and just relax Serena. You know me better than to think I'd try to banish all your problems with a quick fuck," said Lupa as she let the clothing drop off of her and then gave her long dark gray hair a toss.

Serena pressed her eyes to the floor as her naked friend kneeled onto the bed and scotched around behind her. Still feeling a bit numb, the sensation of Lupa's hands grasping her shoulders and kneading her tension away made Serena's body tingle all over. Lupa's skilled hands soon had Serena to the point where the wolf figured she could ask about some things that had been bothering her.

"Serena, why did you stop teaming up with me after your conversion? The real reason, not the excuses you always had handy."

Serena was silent for a while before answering. "I could no longer separate my personal feelings for you from my command duties. I was constantly worried you'd get hurt and it was affecting my ability to make good decisions so I broke things off to focus on my new jobs."

"What the hell have you been doing with yourself then if you didn't have me to have fun with?"

"Work…I guess I just work or do work things. All my friends are military folks that can look after themselves, folks I won't get too attached to. It doesn't help. Despite my best efforts I still get attached and despite their training they still get hurt."

Lupa was stunned that someone who once explained to her how every time she entered a room she identified potential weapons and formulated an action plan to utilize them could be now capable of such overwhelming care and empathy.

"I'm not surprised you have been running into difficulty lately and I think the cause of your problems is that you're still trying to act like the old Serena instead of the new one. You told me ones that over 99% of your Sisters choose to re-init themselves instead of dealing with a brave new set of emotions and while I give you a huge amount of credit for taking the plunge you're trying to have it both ways and its driving you nuts."

Serena nodded weakly. "I have a job to do. It's all I know."

"You don't have to quit like Lomez is suggesting, you just have to let some people in. Sure you'll risk getting hurt, but you'll gain more than you give up."

Serena felt the pressure on her shoulders begin to change and looked over to see the five pink human fingers fusing into a fuzzy wolf's paw. Twisting her neck around Serena caught Lupa mid-shift, her body covered entirely in grey fur, but with her human shape and face yet to change.

"Hey! No peeking. Come on, eyes front."

Serena turned back around and grunted a bit as the point pressure on her shoulders increased due to the smaller "footprint" of the paws and the quad stance shifting more weight forward. Finally Serena felt a wet nose nuzzle the back of her neck before the large wolf pushed back from her shoulders.

//"All done!" Lupa proclaimed as she stood on the bed with a grinning expression, her tail wagging back and forth.

"What on Earth are you doing this for? If Lomez shows up to put you in a crate I'm not going to stop him," sighed Serena, now resigned to the fact that the staff was now probably aware that Lupa was a shapeshifter.

//"I'm prescribing 50ccs of fur as a sleep aid to be administered nightly, doctor's orders!"

"You're not that kind of doctor."

//"I won't tell if you won't," remarked Lupa as she circled a few times before flopping down. //"Just lie down next to me and treat me like a big old furry wolf plush."

"I'm not sure I feel comfortable objectifying my friends like that…"

Lupa's head twisted back, her teeth bared. //"Just lay down and hug!" Lupa's tone made it clear that it was not a suggestion.

Serena turned off the lights and rolled into bed, cuddling against Lupa a bit hesitantly at first, but then as the feeling of bare skin against soft, warm fur began to create a more positive feeling of intoxication Serena embraced her friend more wholeheartedly wrapping up Lupa in her arms and legs and squeezing forcefully. The unusually sized wolf let out a short grunt, but willingly bore the discomfort as she felt Serenas breathing and heart rate slow.

"Mmmm, you're right, this does feel nice. Thank you Lupa. I don't know what I've been doing without you."

//"Damaging your psyche."

Serena gave her another full strength hug and as Serena's ears became accustomed to the sounds of night time she heard some telltale squeaks and moans leaking through the wall.

"Is that who I think it is?"

//"Yup, the Captain and his wife have been boinking like rabbits ever since they let her out of the med center. I know they have the whole hologram setup in the Giant, but other things aside I think the ability to interact in the flesh has been a real blessing for them."

"That's sweet, but how do you even…"

//"Human shape, wolf ears."

"Ahhhhh."

Lupa felt Serena's actions begin to slow before she was sure that the human had lapsed fully into a proper sleep. The wolf's deadly white teeth flashed in the ambient room light as Lupa closed her yellow eyes and laid her head down on her paws. It would be a tough time getting a good night's sleep with the human's arms and legs wrapped around her, but in the wolf's mind it was all part of being in a pack.

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"So Captain, how did you sleep last night," Serena asked as she poked at a green mass that she assumed was a local version of scrambled eggs.

"Pretty good…once I got around to it," he replied glancing over at Bea who was furiously working on two tablets simultaneously.

"Oh look, the Captain's blushing," declared Fiona, her eyes swirling to a lovely shade of peach.

The Captain shook his head. "If I'm stuck here for the rest of my life I don't know how I'd going to be able to handle this rather skewed male-female ratio."

"I'll bet they've got some great malls here," snickered Lupa.

"I'm sure Lars and the Captain would be thrilled to come along and help us pick out something fashionable that also doesn't make us look fat," said Serena joining in on the laughter before reaching across the table to take Lupa's hand. "Thanks for the "therapy" session last night, that was exactly what I needed. Maybe not a long term fix, but at least I feel better."

"What were your words again? I'm the most perceptive member of the group?"

"Yeah, just don't use your powers to go all alpha wolf on us," said Serena with a wink. "So Captain, how is Bea doing? I mean besides….you know, being mostly human."

"She's doing a lot better. I can tell she's probably as engaged as she's ever been, but there's still so much knocking about in her head that she can't really focus on any single task and her communication is still pretty limited. I'm taking her by the Med Center for another round of tests, but I'll be watching those clowns closely after they "recommended" that Bea's wings be surgically removed just because they aren't functional. I told the little fucks that the wings were part of what made her unique and if there's no reason to remove them they should stay," said the Captain, a bit of anger creeping into his voice. "As long as someone's on hand to help her out when she needs something or needs to move somewhere she can pretty much be left alone. If you need something from her I suggest using a text message. She can respond better using a keypad."

"Well I think your commitment to her has made a real difference," said Lupa laying a hand on Dunn's shoulder.

"Ah, here comes Lars," said Fiona craning her neck to look over everyone.

"There you all are," said Lars walking up. "Doesn't anybody work around here?"

"I don't know," said Serena. "Not sure we have any other grad students that haven't been transmogrified into kooky chimeras."

"Listen I know you're all enjoying your vacation but shit's hitting the fan around here," said Lars. "There is a swarm of security personnel cordoning off the farm area. I couldn't get near it and nobody would tell me anything, but everyone was looking more than a bit worried."

"Did you try the Library?" asked Serena.

"Library?"

"Yeah, it's easily a 10 story building. Should provide a view of the entire area including the farm," answered Serena.

"No, I hadn't considered that," Lars admitted.

"Well why don't we head up there, see what's going on. Captain, do you mind if Fiona looks after Bea? I don't think she'd fit well in the elevator," said Serena.

"Yeah, that sounds fine. You hear that Bea?" said the Captain, trying to get his wife's attention. "I'm going to head over to the Library."

Bea looked up for the briefest of moments before giving a slight nod and turning back to her tablets.

"You know what's interesting," said Serena picking up her tray and tableware. "That's probably a good indication of the actual amount of attention that Bea pays to us when she's plugged into a ship."

"Makes me feels better when I can command all of it," said the Captain with a wink.

"TMI Skipper," Serena shot back knowing that was a looking glass she did not want to go through.

The group walked out of the cafeteria and out onto the campus grounds that were green and lush and bristling with lights and other amenities. It only took a few minutes to walk along the paved pathways that lead to the tall square library building. Unlike the other buildings that were mostly of the glass and metal variety the library stood out for its imposing stonecrete walls and modestly sized windows. The all glass café and rearing rooms taking up the penthouse floor make it look like a completely different building had been built onto the first. Walking inside they found and open lift and dispatched it to the 12th floor. This early in the morning the café was still closed and the reading room nearly deserted and only one or two other persons had thought of using the open roof deck to look down over the security lines. Serena pulled out a pair of binoculars and began to scan it around.

"Hmmm, a lot of the fields are torn up, equipment knocked over. Looks like a high school prank where someone went hog wild doing doughnuts in a 4x4. The fence has multiple lengths ripped away. From the debris pattern it appears that something large walked in, fucked about then left again."

"Large? How do you know that Colonel," asked Captain Dunn.

"Well if I am not mistaken I think I am seeing footprints…dragon sized from the look of it, but the gate's all wrong for it to be an actual dragon. They appear to be heading towards the…oh, oh, well that's why they've got the mech walkers out," Serena reported, handing the binoculars to the Captain and then guiding him onto target.

"Holy shit did that used to be a cow?!" he exclaimed.

"I'm not sure, there's not much left of it. In fact I didn't see a single animal larger than a chicken walking around despite all the barns being bashed to hell," Serena observed.

The team continued to pass the optic unit around, each making note of the splattered blood and bits of hoof and bone in their own way. Finally Lars felt he had seen enough, turning back and finding a small private study room they could use for a quick meeting. One by one the other group members joined him with Serena bringing up the rear.

"So what does this mean for us," asked the Captain.

"Well we might want to be careful about going out alone at night, but as long as security is on top of things I think we should be alright," Lars offered.

"I think they might have a problem," said Serena. "If this thing's just some large carnivore that's doing what carnivores do then yeah, security will handle it, but don't forget that the wheel of extraction outcomes for Linked goes all the way up to just shy of Eldritch Abomination, although I wouldn't be surprised if given enough tries we saw one of those as well."

"We need to tell Lomez. This whole situation might happen again and he needs to know what the risks are in running his little honey pot system," said Lupa.

"Fuck 'em," countered the Captain. "If he wants to dick around with people's lives he should be prepared to suffer the consequences."

"He's not a bad man Tom, he's just trying to protect his people," Lupa protested. "Besides, that's not fair all the other Sanctuary citizens and newcomers."

"Alright," said Serena in a decisive tone of voice, "I'm going to brief him and offer our assistance. I know he's going to refuse, I mean at least the part where I can call in an air strike, but I'll get him thinking about it and if events play out in a certain way he'll have that as an option. Lupa, how have your nature walks with Fiona been going?"

"Um, quite well I think. I'm still making it up as I go along, but we have managed to identify quite a few useful plants and animals and other outdoors skills," replied Lupa.

"Well just be careful out there and make sure you're back well before dark, alright?"

Lupa nodded as Lars looked out the transparent panel adjacent to the study room door.

"Looks like security finally noticed the crowd that was forming out on the deck. Officers are starting to shoo people away."

"Speak of the devil. It looks like Lomez himself has decided to make an appearance to placate the masses," the Captain observed. "Or just use his powers of persuasion to convince everything that there's nothing to see here."

"Let's sit tight and see what happens," said Serena as the now sizable crowd out on the deck began to move towards the lifts.

It didn't take long before there was a knock at the door followed immediately by the door opening and Lomez poking his head into the small room. "Hey everyone, I'm sorry, but due to a minor security situation we have to temporarily close the penthouse level. If you would make your way to the lifts…"

Serena gave everyone a look and the other members of her team silently got up and filed past Lomez toward the lifts, leaving Serena still seated in the room.

"Did you have something you wanted to say to me Ms. Hanford?"

"I'm going to assume that you are now fully aware of the unpredictable effects a quantum extractor has on life forms like Fiona and the Unity soldiers that followed us through your rigged portal. I just wanted to let you know that I've had some experience dealing with these situations before and if you were to find yourself a bit over your head a quick and easy call to my people would quickly rectify the problem."

Lomez smiled in his usual unflappable way, but his words carried with them the note of a person who was beginning to take offense. "Ms. Hanford, once again I am finding myself in the position of having to explain to you the importance of Sanctuary maintaining its absolute self-sufficiency. As soon as we become dependent on outsiders to defend us is the moment that all we have sought to achieve is undone. No matter what may be tactically expedient, calling for help would be tantamount to sending out an all portal bulletin announcing our location and throwing out a welcome mat for whomever shows up. Now this, this level is closed, please make your way to the lift."

Without saying another word Serena got up and walked out of the room to the lifts where the rest of the group was waiting. An empty car soon arrived and they piled inside, remaining silent until the doors had closed.

"You know," said Serena in a rather offhand manner. "I think I just managed to piss off the nicest man on the planet."

"I'm not surprised," sighed Lupa, "you tend to have that effect on people."

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[BD]

for the record: i'm enjoying how things are tuning up. Infodump has been lowered considerably and most of the other annoying stuff too.

[Sthurmovik]

for the record: i'm enjoying how things are tuning up. Infodump has been lowered considerably and most of the other annoying stuff too.

Thanks and I do appreciate the feedback. I hope others are enjoying the story as well. I have another story in the Network/Federation setting that's been in the planning stage for a couple years that will have a bit more classic fembot content, but I'm still working out a few kinks.