Inner Sanctum: Workshops and Tech Labs

Fate? The word couldn't be more appropriate, Na'an decided. Fate was the excuse everybody had for inexplicable, usually awful things.
"LE-03, in case you haven't noticed, fate and I aren't exactly on speaking terms." She cocked her head to the left as she spoke, watching as the droid's attention slid towards the smooth patch where her eye used to be. Did looking at it trigger something in that robotic brain, deep down where no one could see? And if so, was it something like pity, revulsion, disappointment...or satisfaction?

"But fine. You've decided to be cryptic, and barring that lie to me. We'll have to limit question three to a simple yes or no, then, and start with an order." She took a deep, shuddering breath. This was the big one: the question that had been keeping her awake, keeping her wide-eyed and paranoid in the night, since the moment she left the tank. If she was going to fake normality, let alone try to actually be normal, she had to get a straight answer. She had to ask it so that there was no chance of ambiguity.
"LE-03, I demand the truth. Are there any more of you--any more of Aherk's handiwork--left hunting me?"

"I'm not Aherk's handiwork."

It pained her to be associated with KR-04, or any of Aherk Formidonis's other mad creations, even though she had traveled with the KR-04 model for a month. She had erased those memories, and her personality had suffered -- rather, it had adapted -- accordingly. And when she had recovered those lost memories, her personality had, albeit reluctantly, accepted the fact of her history... But it hadn't altered in the slightest. She was alive, just like her creator had intended, and friendships were not destroyed just on the basis of past events coming to light.

"And no. To the best of my knowledge -- which encompasses the works of Aherk Formidonis and Eliana Shan, mind you -- there are no other units hunting you."

It was the truth, and Leigh honestly hoped that Na'an would pick up on that. Her voice had been modulated as such, though there were some underlying processes taking care of that that she was not entirely in control of. After all, she had been designed to be alive, and living beings were not always in control of all their emotions.

She did worry, however, that it would sound too perfect to the damaged woman, and that the truth would be missed for fear of a lie.

"And, just to clarify, I wasn't hunting you."

"Which I assume means you're not now."

Na'an's eyes never left the simulated face. It was strange, how realistically it moved, how smoothly it simulated human emotions it couldn't possibly have. It even looked hurt at her accusation, supplying information that she'd never even thought to ask. Of course it would the product of Elly and Aherk together, somehow. Of course it would be the last. Of course, of course of course. The hot sick feeling in her stomach was rising upwards, into her chest and throat, creeping into the tired empty portions of her brain and finally into her face, throbbing in her eye, puddling in the empty socket. It was like the smell from the robot, the knowing that the threat was gone, the facts that she hadn't even wanted had all permeated her, taking any more energy out of her and feeding it to whatever dark thing lived where the voice in her head sounded.

"In that case, I'm done here," she said simply. "Be sure to brief the Master that you're online again. And thank the lady for her efforts."Then she turned, strangely wobbly, still not letting go of the torch, and headed towards the door. It was getting to be too much. She needed to leave so she could throw up--and then wash the smell off her skin--then sleep instead of going to rehab. Oh gods, she could finally sleep.

Doesn't that sound lovely. The whisper that had faded when she entered the labs was back before she had taken three steps out the door. Just you me and the nightmares.

Yes. Just her and the nightmares. At least she could remember sometimes that they weren't all real.

*After what felt like ages, Eli turned, miraculously found some bin from somewhere and emptied the contents of her stomach├óÔé¼ÔÇØand mouth├óÔé¼ÔÇØinto it. Kriff her if LE didn't replace that cover soon├óÔé¼ÔÇØUrrk!*

"Cover it up!" *she coughed out.* "For gods' sakes, put the damn lid back on the kriffing box!"

*"Reunion" or not, she didn't give a damn. That thing in the box had to go. It still moved and no droid in that bad of disrepair should be able to move. Like watching a skeleton turn his head. Eli shuddered and gagged again, choking on the smell. She spat into the bin to at least get some of the bittersweet taste of bile out of her mouth then raised a rag to her face. During the crazy lady's interrogation, she'd swallowed and coughed and held her own vomit in her mouth. This had gone far enough.

That was when she noticed said crazy chick walking out of the room with her torch. Hell. No.*

"Hey!" *Muffled as she was by the rag, she went ignored. Double hell no. Besides it gave her a valid reason for escaping the room and the stench. She sprinted after the crazy chick, sliding to a stop in front of her.*

"The torch," *she said.* "It stays in the workshops."

*With all the usual grace and delicacy she normally exhibited, Aloua stepped out of the turbolift and into the very self-same corridor that Eliel and Janna now occupied. She was some distance from them, at least ten meters, and found herself behind the young, technically gifted Jedi girl. Eliel stood practically face to face with another woman, a slender, weary looking girl that, judging by the eye patch and various other medical dressings that could be seen here and there, had clearly been through the wars recently. The young Jedi Knight frowned, and considered approaching the two, but thought better of it. Instead, she stayed put, cupping her hands behind her back, patiently waiting for them to finish their conversation. She would catch up to Eliel when she was done, but for now, it seemed like a reasonably private conversation, and unlike Master Man'Sell, she didn't have quite the knack for picking correctly which conversations to interrupt, and which ones to leave well alone.*

"Hmmm?"

Someone had followed her. Na'an turned slowly, regarding the mechanic dully. There was a dull tang in the air that had followed her--a smell of coppery fear and vomit that seemed to bite at her nostrils. She looked down at the girl's empty hand, and then to the torch in her own.
She'd left with it. She hadn't realized. Releasing her grip on the slim tool, she dropped it into the waiting palm and tried to smile.
"Sorry. Thank you." She bowed lightly. "Please enjoy your stay."

This time, bare-handed, she walked past another arriving Jedi and towards the medical barracks. Within minutes she would be curled up in a bunk, eyes closed and dead for the world for a long time.

*Aloua watched the other woman hand something to Eliel, and soldier off down the corridor towards her. Not knowing the other, battered and weathered young woman's identity, she simply gave a polite nod as the stranger passed her, before heading down the corridor towards Eliel. She eyed the torch in the girl's hand.*



*She glanced back over her shoulder at the other woman, who was just rounding the corner and disappearing from view.*

*Eli gripped the torch's handle and watched the crazy patient walk past Aloua. When had she arrived?*

"I dunno," *she said, shrugging.* "Some cra├óÔé¼ÔÇØ chick that helped me find the workshops."

*She started walking back to the door of the workshop, partially deaf to the Knight's second comment and partially choosing to ignore it. The smell stopped her in her tracks along with the nauseous dread sinking like a rock in her stomach.*

"What the kriffing hell is in that mother-kriffing crate? And why is it in the workshop?" *she asked suddenly, staring at the doorway.*

*Aloua's face dropped, as she realised exactly what the young Jedi was alluding to. She sighed, shaking her head.*



*She looked at Eliel. There was the subtlest twitch of the facial muscles around the nose, a minuscule grimace, the only sign that the Jedi Knight was bothered at all by the smell.*



*Her lips squeezed together in a tight smile.*