[story] Saber Chase

[Dartz]

If everything's okay with that, back to the top of the page as we carry on with the main plot.

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The launch bay was empty, cold and silent. Without the Rinna Kazamatsuri to fill it, it seemed to have grown in scale. A hundred tonnes of XGP-15 appeared to be a shuttlecraft. It was one of many of it’s type, and apparently unremarkable.

Jet - Puppet Jet - was staggeringly casual. Well worn blue jeans, combat boots and a dirty ‘Muppets’ t-shirt, stained with dust, grime and engine oil.

For a moment, Maico swore she was hallucinating. “You look normal,” she managed to say.

That same awkwardly embarrassed look she remembered returned. “Well, for an AI, a puppet body represents how they want the world to perceive them. It’s an image of how they see themselves,”

“But of course,”

Maico swore the puppet’s bust was bigger than the real thing. She allowed herself a little private smirk.

“Anyway. Follow me, and I’ll show you our little secret,”

Jet the puppet was bubbling with glee. Animated. Moving. And very much more alive than the cyber in the control room who seemed to forever be stiff. Maico felt a hand nudge her in the back, fingertips taking a moment to investigate the fabric of her blouse.

Just like Sylia, she noted.

“But of course,” she said, with a nervous quiver in her voice.

Maico was ushered towards a hatchway, the black and gold trefoil symbol beside the lock warning of ionising radiation beyond. A mechanical lock, with a key. How quaint. It opened with a snap, followed by a whine of electric motors withdrawing the main locking bolts.

“Don’t worry, It’s a fake,” Jet assured her with a smile that was all to pleased with her own cleverness.

It was still hotter than a sauna inside. A radiation counter on the wall read out a dimensionless 104.25, a green light signifying it was safe. The mere idea of radioactivity sent spiders crawling down her spine.

The passageway seemed to climb for a little, before descending. Maico couldn’t tell if it was cut from rock, or a covered suspended walkway crossing through open space. The mental picture of the machinery that might be lurking behind the wall was intimidating.

They came to another hatch. Another radiation symbol, accompanied by the text:

LETHAL RADIATION LEVELS BEYOND THIS POINT WHEN RED LIGHT IS ON

The red light above the door was on. Maico started when Jet opened it without a second thought. A cold draught sent pins and needles prickling across her skin. Obviously a fake, then.

“Nice way to keep people out,” she remarked.

Jet just kept grinning at her. “Nothing frightens people like neutron radiation. Even infolife hates it,”

Maico stepped inside. Into another launch bay, air perfectly condition to a comfortable cool. Her breath caught in her throat.

“Oh my,”

There it was. The Knight Saber’s spacecraft. A sleek four engined bomber in a sinister stealth-grey. With the wings extended, and flaps dropped it reminded her of a huge black swan coming in to land.

It was bigger than she thought.

“That, is the KnightWing,” said Jet, filling with a strange pride that seemed to add ‘Isn’t it cool?’. “And this, is the Knight Saber’s secret base, The SilkyDoll,”

Maico didn’t say she seemed far too pleased with herself for pulling it off. She swallowed the words, bracing herself against the hatch frame as another wave of dizziness struck. She pushed through it as best she could, a distant crash ringing in her ears.

She glanced around, amazed to see that Jet had heard it too.

“Mackie!” the puppet barked.

The boy dropped from the tail of the spacecraft, landing beside a spilled toolbox. He had the look on his face of a puppy who’d left a mess on the carpet... and just realised he’d been caught. He slunk across the floor with his tail between his legs. Overalls were coated in hydraulic fluid.

Jet went arms akimbo, trying to tower over the teenager. Maico tried her damnedest not to laugh at the scene.

“What are you doing?” Jet asked him. There was just a slight undertone of worry in her voice, mingled with elementary school teacher authority.

“Nothing sis,” the boy mumbled. His eyes immediately went straight down to his feet. Then back up to a point on his sisters chest.

“What are you doing in the KnightWing?”

The boy’s eyes locked on his sister’s chest. Maico couldn’t help but find it just a little bit.... creepy.

“I read a post the showed how to use a flux compression generator to power a railgun, so I wanted to get one out of the motorslaves,”

Jet wore an expression remarkably like a child who’d just been offered a plate of spinach for dinner.... again. A low groan rose out of her throat.

“I told you to stay off that list, didn’t I?”

She rubbed at her temples, imitating a headache. It reminded Maico of her own pains, which rushed back in with a thundering vengeance.

“Yeah sis, but I had to, otherwise I’d never have gotten the fusion boosters properly tuned. They’re running too hot.”

“They’re still below the redline on the fuel cladding.,”

He brought his thumb closer to his finger, peering through the gap between. “Yeah. But they need to be about 20 percent cooler,”

A snap of palm-skin meeting forehead beside her drew a smile from Maico. “Besides, I thought you were doing your Nekomi project?”

“Oh, I have a whole three months to get that done,” The boy swatted it away with an unconcerned wave of his hand.

Jet gave a frustrated groan, her whole body seeming to deflate. “Right, whatever. Just don’t have the Patrol snooping around here again, they’ll find the Silky Doll.”

“No problemo, sis.” he saluted with a cheery cat’s grin. He took one last, loving glance at both women, before bolting back to his work.

Jet heaved a sigh, Maico looking up at her with an expression somewhere between curiosity and bemusement.

“The last time he had access to that mailing list someone.... “ she stopped dead. “It’s a long story.“

Maico put a finger to her lips. “So, Mackie’s a spark then?”

“Yeah,” Jet confirmed, “A real one,”

“Oh. So he’s high beta, or alpha level?”

Jet just shrugged. “Couldn’t be arsed testing him. He’ll either use it as an excuse not to try, or get lazy and won’t push himself.” Jet paused, glancing over her shoulder. “It’s also absolutely impossible to get him to focus on things that don’t grab his interest. And his interest changes like the weather.”

“I take it, about the only constant is his interest in women?” Maico said, feeling her cheeks get a little red. “He was ogling the entire time.” A self-conscious shiver shook her body.

“You’ll get used to it,” the puppet shrugged again. “He’s at a mental age somewhere between fifteen and seventeen, he’ll do that. That’s what that sign is for.”

Jet pointed right at another hatchway. On it was a sticker Maico had seen many times on the Crystal City’s.

NON-FEMALES FORBIDDEN BEYOND THIS POINT WITHOUT INVITATION.

Beneath it, someone had scrawled ‘Senshi definition’. It opened with another key. Inside, was a city penthouse. Maico actually blinked with the shock of being greeted with a shimmering nightime cityscape and a plushly furnished penthouse. It was a complete structural non-sequitur.

Big screen television. Soft, luxurious carpet beneath her feet. Fabric sofas. One hell of a sound system. Jet’s fingers were drawing over a textured wallpaper.

“This is...” she gaped.

“Sylia’s penthouse from the 2032 series, exactly as I remember it,” Jet explained.

The air was fresh and cool, a faint smell of coffee tickling her nostrils. She could look out the two-story windows and for a moment she’d almost feel she was back in Tokyo. It was stunning. It was..... it was insane. It chilled her to the core. Another wave of dizziness caused her to stagger, but she caught herself after only a step or two.

“We needed a place where we could really relax and escape. This is it,”

Maico glanced around, feeling her pulse quicken just a little. There was a ancient desktop computer set and printer away in the corner, in beige plastic. Beside it a coffee machine and another printer. Wait... was that a fax machine?

It was!

“This is...” she murmured, taking tentative steps forward. Her head was being squashed again, a creeping sense nausea crawling up the back of her throat.

“Isn’t it cool?” Jet was grinning at her.

She nodded lamely. If you were into 80’s futurism, maybe. If not, it was a car crash of texture and style. She was lead through a glass door, out into what felt like a cold night. Fans were blowing hard to circulate air and clear steam away from a....

“Is that a...” she began.

“It’s a hot-tub,” Jet informed her. Steam rose into the cold air, being drawn away through hidden vents. It was more than big enough for five people.

It was, Maico concluded, perfect. The heat soaked through her body, soothing a thousand little aches and pains she didn’t even know she’d picked up. She sunk down to her lips, blowing bubbles in the water.

A very naked Jet slipped in opposite her. She clearly wasn’t too shy about showing off the skill of her body’s builder. Maico watched her lean back against the wall of the tub, craning her neck to stare up at the ceiling. Her chest rose and fell as she sighed.

“It can wait for a couple of hours,” Jet said. She bolted upright, then whipped her head from side to side for a second, wet hair slapping against the water.. “Sorry... I meant to say the others would be down in a few minutes. Then we can all talk about things.”

“But of course,”

It wasn’t a bad place to wait.

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Somewhere private to kick back and relax for the Sabers. Somewhere to promote team unity and equality.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?