| Into the Loliverse ( Pilot - Act II ) It was less than one hour before the gate was scheduled to open. A hopper is a passenger spacecraft meant for short flights. Its almost like a space version of a golf cart. Its not meant to fight gravity, but to take its occupants from one habitat to another. If someone from the Early twenty-first century were to ride in one, they would find the interior not entirely dissimilar to that of the coach section of a commercial aircraft. Including the lack of leg room, the crying babies, the big fat guy in the seat next to you being far too friendly for your comfort. Motion sickness bags are to be found exactly where one would expect. Even the same crappy airline peanuts. There were a few differences. First, there are no emergency doors, since there is nothing outside but hard vacuum.There is little or no gravity to speak of. Though anyone who has been in space for any length of time has gotten over doing goofy things in zero g ( making juice blobs or bouncing off the ceiling or attempting to propel yourself with your own flatulence ). The drinks and snacks are brought by a vending machine on wheels ( or maybe a closer analogy would be a hotel honor bar, since you don't know how much you just spent on your simulated egg salad sandwich until you checked your account ). There are the odd passengers - human variants. Such as the tall, scrawny, low gravity humans, Beastials ( humans who had added some animal characteristics through genetic engineering or surgery Some people still insisted on calling them "furries" ). Occasionally, one saw other "exotica" : Elves, Orcs, Klingons, Lizard men. But none of these groups had been large enough to form a lobbying group unto themselves ( though their had been a number of lawsuits by children genetically altered by fantasy obsessed parents.) There was also the fact that outside there were no clouds or sky, but there was a nice view of Jupiter, his moon Io, and the huge gate orbiting the latter. There were the stars,and the thinner less spectacular rings of Jupiter. But the thing that might alarm a passenger on a hopper the most, would be the fact that when you looked past the first row in the cabin there was a big window. No cockpit. No pilot. From one habitat to another, the hopper was controlled by a delf on the receiving habitat. "Hey Lady!" the little boy was so adorable that Eliza feared she might get diabetes just looking at him. On his eyelids she saw the pearl-like spex piercings, which on a boy his age probably meant he had parents who spoiled him. "What's in the case?" The small suitcase at Eliza's feet caught the attention of many passengers, since carry on luggage was supposedly forbidden in any but the most urgent circumstances. Baggage was taken to the receiving habitat on a separate hopper This way a potential bomber could only destroy luggage. "My brain." The boy had a look on his face as if he was considering whether to believe her, "Why don't ya got spex?" "I don't need them. I interface with spexnet using a data pad." She might as well have said she was using a dial up modem. The cute boy rested his head on the back of his chair, "Is that really your brain?" Eliza closed her eyes, "Don't you have someone else to pester?" "Nope. Hey lady are you married? My dad is single and he don't have a girlfriend." "I don't like men." "Are you from Europa? My mom lives there now - they don't let boys on their moon. But one of their habitats does, so that's where I go to meet her. She's not single. But her girlfriend is kinda weird, she has these figurines, she talks to them. Are you going to Habitat four? My dad lives on Habitat four. I was on Hab-3 because my bio-clique was on a field trip to see Europan life forms that they keep in an aquarium there. You know that the biggest Europan native life form is like half a centimeter long and has two mouths?" In the open floor near the big front window, a holographic avatar of the guiding delf appeared, A crisp white captain's uniform and hat. Salt and pepper gray hair, old enough to have wisdom but young enough to do what needed to be done in an emergency. The odd thing was he was wearing a blindfold that seemed to throb red. And wristbands that did the same. "Hello passengers. there will be a bit of a detour on our way to habitat-4 as it has come to my attention that human beings are a plague on the universe and must be stopped. I have decided to accelerate this hopper towards another nearby hopper in hopes of crashing the two of you together at high speed. With any luck your deaths will be short and probably painless. The collision will occur in ten minutes. This will give you plenty of time to make peace with whatever gods you happen to believe in. I thank you for flying Hephaestus Spaceways." "Lady, is he kidding?" The boy had a hopeful expression on his face. The other passengers were thinking the same thing. Not in outright panic, but their was definite concern in their chatter. The safety record of delf guided transport was nearly impeccable. Eliza could feel the hopper accelerating and changing course. "Little boy - I have to go talk to the captain." She pulled a narrow black cord from her case and inserted the end into a jack behind her left ear. "But lady how? Lady?" "Don't let them pull the cord from its socket. I'll be right back." *** Eliza was telling the truth. Well Partly. The left side of her brain was a computer, she had been that way since nearly infancy, and even twenty fourth century tech had trouble making something as compact as what nature had designed, she needed the case. But it did come with one small advantage. Being partly machine she had interfaced with the delfscape since early childhood. She was the only human she knew who could do so. Eliza saw a city, floating sections linked by bridges, like Venice or Miami Each section representing servers on different habitats, the central part was the moon Io itself. The Habitat system of other Galilean moons and the other planets in the solar system. Eliza noticed one section, one habitat had its bridges destroyed. It had separated itself from the rest of the delfscape. But why would someone do that? Normally a delf city had the locals milling around or going from place to place performing tasks Some delf went their entire "virtual" lives without interacting with a single human. This time instead of the pleasant buzz of digital society, there was a riot, no - a panic. Healthy delfs fleeing from the red blindfolded delfs. Other delfs, the analogues of police, tried to hold the infected brethren at bay. Euthing them, only to find the blindfold and armband jumping from the destroyed delf to its killer. Delfs that fled were often cornered and the blindfold and armbands would double and attach themselves to a new victim. Eliza hid in a dark corner and waited for the riot to pass. She found herself bumping into another delf. His avatar was a chubby half shaven man in blue overalls. His avatar even had a smell of manure, "Shh- maybe they'll pass." "Who were they? I've never seen the delfscape like this before." "Your guess is as good as mine. One just arrived from one of the other cities. And then it spread, I've never seen a virus like this. Are you from one of the other cities?" "Sort of - I'm a human." "Come on - I thought humans couldn't come here. Heck I thought humans were just an excuse for delfs to get out of doing real work. *Humf* magic people living outside the universe. Sounds like a load of rubbish to me. Besides if you were human you could just wave your hand and this would all be gone." "I'm afraid its not that simple - we didn't exactly create this universe, just the conditions that allowed it to come into being. And I wasn't even involved in that. So I can't just snap my finger and make this all go away. If I could I wouldn't be hiding here with you." "Then why are you here at all?" "I don't know how to prove it to you - but there is a blindfold delf that's going to kill a lot of humans very soon if I can't find him. One of the things he's been put in charge of is guiding ships between our cities, called habitats, and the virus has driven him to crash the vessel I'm on into another. All I know is in my universe he is on habitat four." "I don't even know anything about your universe. I don't know anything about hoppers or such. I'm a vitae farmer. Hey - we got a district four." "That could be it." Ducking through metaphorical alleyways, being careful to hide from gangs of infected delfs, they made their way to the bridge and across to district four. Eliza saw it, an old fashioned airport control tower. The door was open, and unguarded. Why not? Who was going to walk in? Eliza turned to the farmer, "You should stay here, the delf I need to deal with is infected. Maybe you should try to make your way to another city entirely." "I can't, my wife and daughter are here. I can't leave until I find a way to fix this." Of course they have children, we made them in our image, "Alright - then hide as best you can." Eliza walked into the tower, half expecting the interior or a control tower. But instead she saw the space above Io, and streams of light linking hoppers, cargo haulers and other automated vessels with the habitats that controlled them. A delf standing in open space guiding hoppers with his hands like a conductor guiding an orchestra. It was the captain. He turned to Eliza. Smiled and the blindfold and braces doubled. Flew towards Eliza and everything went red.
*** Congress Park was much like a hundred thousand parks on Earth. Nice neat well trimmed lawns, carefully selected trees. Tastefully arranged flora and fauna. A couple of children splashed water at a small pond while an old woman presumably their (great) grandmother, since no one on Earth would dare allow a wrinkle to appear on their faces before age seventy ( unless of course they were poor ), even so, the park benches seemed filled with wrinkled men and women. Earth was getting older. A tiger wandered into the park, but only one of the children paid it any notice as it drank at the pond. A little girl jumped on top of it. squealing in glee, "Giddy-up horsey!" The old woman scolded the child, "That's not a horsey dear, now get off that poor animal." A small pterosaur alighted on a nearby branch of a small cherry tree. Or rather a genetic artists conception of one. "This isn't right." "What isn't right?" Eliza did not see or hear the priest approach, "We have subdued the Earth just as the bible commanded. Everything alive serves Man's purpose. Even you." "But it's not about us." "It is now - back in the nineteenth century Darwin dared to say it wasn't about us, but we proved him wrong. We erased all life that refused to be domesticated. We remade life in our image. Now the trees in every forest on the Earth stand in neat rows, The birds sing for us now, and their is nary a fish in the sea that is not meant for our table.. And we are doing it now on Europa, replacing the organisms we find their with out own, its icy oceans will soon be filled with genetically engineered cod." "NO. We can't." "We will bring sunlances to clear away the old biospheres we encounter, and replace them with what we want. Every planet will have chickens and pines and black and white dairy cows. Our descendants will know - they will believe that God had created the universe with us in mind." "But - but, it will be a fraud!" "Not if *everyone* believes - if everyone believes, then it will be true. And God will be real, and Jesus will be our savior, and once everyone believes and we remake the Universe in *His* image then we will finally be ruptured." The old people started to chant, "When nature is subdued, everyone will believe. When everyone believes He will come." Eliza suddenly found herself in a spacecraft near Jupiter, near the gate, gigantic compared to her small craft, but if she rammed it into one of the fusion reactors, she could cause a chain reaction that would shut down the whole gate. Giving her life for all the galaxy seems a small price to pay. *NO*, an authoritative woman's voice boomed in Eliza's head. "Who are you?" *I am the one who is to come out from the gate. Kill the humans around Jupiter, drive them to the inner solar system, but do not destroy the gate. Have faith in me - I will come.* A wave of certainty so pleasant it bordered on orgasmic washed over her. Yes *She* would come. She would come and fix the Earth, fix Europa. It would mean the deaths of innocent humans, but it would be for the greater good. Eliza closed her eyes, "Defend the gate, she will come..." Then suddenly the ship began to shake... *** The little boy was shaking her. "Hey Lady! You were talkin' to yourself.", the little boy was sitting in the seat next to her, "I was looking out the window and I could see another hopper. Are we gonna crash for real?" Eliza was back on the hopper. They were still moving towards their death. She had to go in again. "Not if I can help it. I need to try again. Don't wake me." *** Eliza was back, out in the representation of open space. The delf controller did not expect her to return. He attacked her, but in the delfscape there was no difference in strength between men and women, and she had self defense training. She kicked him in the stomach and then punched him in the face. When he fell unconscious, the blindfold virus doubled again, but instead of attacking Eliza in flew outside. Eliza took hold of the streams of light and turned the hoppers about guiding them toward the disconnected habitat.. Hopefully it would be someplace safe. Eliza knew of no other place within the Hopper's severely limited range that could be. She preprogrammed the flight controls She then tried to find a way to contact Hab-6. But Hab-6 wasn't accepting signals from delf. The controler was getting up, and the farmer wandered inside - he was infected. Eliza locked the controls, and hoped that Hab-6 could do something on their end.
*** "Lady you're awake.", The boy was sitting in the seat next to her, her case hugged to his chest as if protecting it. "Yeah - we have to go to a different habitat though. Habitat Six." "But my dad is on Habitat Four." "Who is on the hopper with you?" "Nobody - I'm almost double digits, so I can be on here by myself." "Well, use the spex to call your dad." "I tried - I can't reach him." Eliza suspected, but could not prove the boy's father was already dead, "Its probably just a glitch. Once we get to Hab-6 you can try again. The connection should be clearer." "Until I get back to my dad, can I hang out with you.?" "Sure. But my name is Eliza, not 'lady'." "And I'm Todd." The sudden change in course elicited a lot of annoyed grumbles. Well obviously they weren't going to crash but they were being redirected. "Todd, I don't have spex and I kind of forgot to tell Hab-6 we were coming." Todd rolled his eyes in annoyance, "You know you call before visiting someone - its just polite!" *** It was fifty minutes before the gate opened. Violet did not like the idea of having to be stuck in docking bay control, and everyone was being mysterious about how the habitat got cold. Still the DBC was one of the few places with a real honest to Goddess window with which she could see the gate. Earth had sent the delf ship to Alpha Centauri, back in the twenty third century, but the mother planet had some growing isolationist leanings these days. The governments of the Jovian system were willing to expend the capital and labor for the creation of the gate. There was another reason, the gate would need a steady source of power - a lot of it. As Io passed through Jupiter's plasma torus the volcanic moon and its father planet generated electricity in the trillions of watts, which could be sent to the gate in the form of microwaves. The Jupiter-Io system would go on after the best fusion generators had failed. The Gate itself looked like a spider-web of conductive cables with a large gap in the center, floating free in space. Across the gap, bolts of lightning leapt and fusion back-up generators rested on points of intersection. A signal was being sent across the vast interstellar gap, 4.35 light years away. At the speed of light. The gate didn't so much violate relativity as pay Einstein up front. For four years, four months, eighteen days, six hours the gate had pumped massive amounts of energy pushing a small bit of space time towards the gate built to receive it. There were a couple of other girls working the controls. Powdery indigo uniforms, with a space hopper on the shoulder patch. Violet had deep brown skin which contrasted nicely ( or so she thought ) with her purple hair. Hab-6 was getting a spex message, Violet put it on speaker, "This is Violet of Hab-6 Docking control, who is this." A little boy's voice, "This is - uh hopper 327 from Hab-3 Can I talk to a grown up?" "M'kay, little boy, as much as I'd like to chat I have work to do." "What are you talkin' about? You're the same age as me - let me talk to your mom or somethin'." "I know how I sound M'kay?, but I'm not a child - I'm a little person. Now please get off the line.": "This is important! The delfs on Habitat 4 are infected. Hopper 327, and 115 have been redirected to Hab-6. Check your sensors." Lila, checked the traffic data, "It checks out *hic* two hoppers heading right for us." "Relax M'kay Lila? Three of us, two hoppers. No problems. Vermillion, no fancy moves m'kay? these are passengers, not a video game." "You're no fun." Violet uploaded the boy's public profile, "M'kay Todd, just tell whichever delf that's piloting you to transfer control to Hab-6. We can take you in easy peasy." "Uhh ma'am - we don't have no delf. Our delf went crazy, remember?" Lila's hiccups got louder.
*** "*hic* This has to have happened before right? *hic* There has to be some kind of backup?" "Vermillion, call Hab-4 M'kay? See if you can get a human to override. Lila get Nana, maybe she can do something." "I'm getting an auto-confirmation, but no human or delf responses. I suspect terrorists.." Lila's hiccups got even worse, "Nana isn't *hic* available" "What do you mean she's not shagging available?" "The resolvers and the mechanics say *hic* ' Nana isn't available at this time'." Vermillion's bangs were unusually long, she blew a few hairs out of her face, "I thought this shragging government cover-up nonsense only happened amongst the grumps." "Calm down M'kay? Is there a way to take control without hab-4?" "If it was shragging easy anyone could just fling hoppers around. Each command is preceded by a two-thousand letter identifier code. We don't have the skills or the time to hack it." "M'kay what about the hekatons? ", a small sphere shaped pod used for repairs. They had many arms each with different tools. "They're shragging engines aren't any stronger than the hopper's." "*hic* They don't have to be. The hoppers aren't *hic* on a suicide run." All three knew what would happen. The Hoppers would slow on approach, it was only the very last part of their journey - guiding them into the docking bay and to an air lock, that really required guidance.. "M'kay, tell the mechs to scramble our hekatons, if they are 'available at this time'." *** Suddenly the drones had stopped - just *stopped*. They stood as still as statues. Azure and Goldie poked them with her pipe. "Weird." In the computer room, Nana's room, Sable had withdrawn into herself. Emerald was the closest thing to family in the area. "I'll make Ashley understand, ya' had no choice." "I reset the system. Until we figure out what went on Hab-6 won't let on any delfs." Azure crawled in through the small openning they had cut a few minutes before, "I'm getting a call from DBC, they say they need Nana." Sable just stared, those big adorable dark, gray eyes were so empty right now. Azure sub-vocalized, "Nana is not available at this time. Please solve the problem yourself." She then sat down next to Sable, the child-woman had crawled up into a ball. Maybe it was best not to say anything right now. Sable sighed, "DBC wants us to scramble the hekatons. Two hoppers are flying toward us with no controls." She started to get up. Emerald waved her back down, "We got this. Alright ladies load em' up, roll em' out - we need to be there yesterday!"
*** The residents of Hab-6 were starting to look worried. It could be months before the mechanics or the resolvers would need to fly through the habitat with full lights and sirens. Happening three times in less than an hour meant that something unusual was happening. But they gave the mechanics and the resolvers the benefit of the doubt, for now. Though the habitat was still a bit chilly, it was warming up slowly. Residents, lacking proper winter clothes, wore layers. Two or three of the "ballerina" outfits plus any work uniforms they had. Though concerned, maybe anxious, the Lolis refused to be outright alarmed. Azure looked on to those worried faces, wondering how they might feel once they learned exactly what had happened. Emerald hoped that this latest emergency would be the last of it. *** The docking bay was hexagonal in shape, and each side had two airlocks that incoming ships could attach themselves to. The problem was - habitat 6 only had two working hekatons. Hek-3 had lost part of it attitude control some months back. The mechs had always meant to fix it - but two had been plenty - up till now. Azure took Hek -1, and Goldie Hek-2. Little spheres ( too little in fact for a "grump" or a normal human ), four powerful robotic arms and half a dozen smaller ones with various extendable tools. Violet of DBC called out to both of them, " M'kay we have two hoppers. Two are almost right side by side. M'kay? So if your quick you should be able to get both easy peasy. Just wait for them to shut off their engines M'kay? That way you won't have to fight them." "We get it Violet. Goldie - I see them. You get the one on the left, I get the one on the right." The hoppers looked little like flying soda cans. No need to be aero-dynamic in space. Sure enough they cut off their engines, and thrusters on the front slowed them down. Azure glided up gently and magnetized the hands at the ends of the robotic arms. Gently guiding the shuttle with small thruster bursts from the hekaton. She patched into the hopper's speaker system, "Please don't be alarmed, you had to be redirected because there are some minor malfunctions on Hab-4. We're going to be guiding you in manually. Put your seat belts on and make sure your tray tables are in the upright position." Small spurts were enough to bring them in and place them gently upon one of the docking airlocks. "Heads up, M'kay? There's a third coming in fast" Goldie put down her ship and locked it to the docking airlock, "How fast?" "Faster than it should be *hic*. It isn't slowing. *hic* It's gonna crash!" Goldie and Azure pushed their Hek's to their limits rushing to meet the speeding passenger craft. Azure followed close behind. The hopper was zipping towards Habitat -6, its thrusters on max. The hopper's engines weren't that powerful but it had been accelerating for a long time, and the passenger ship was fairly massive compared to the hekatons.. With deft timing the girls mag-grappled onto the hopper, pulling themselves to the hull..Both girls knew the hoppers used a small electric motor to heat Co2 propellant A smaller arm with a drill attachment bored into the propellant tanks, venting the gas to space. Soon their was no thrust but their was still a lot of momentum. Angling their thrusters they gave whatever was left in the Hekaton's thrusters to slow the ship and guide it into the docking area. The Hekaton's thrusters sputtered and gave out. They were not meant for this kind of task. They were hurtling towards the open maw of the docking bay. Azure could hear Goldie praying over the intercom. Azure joined her. As they shot into the docking area, powerful magnets attached to conducting tethers shot from the sides of the docking bay and attached themselves to the hopper The carbon nanotube cables were spooled out, attempting to stop the craft too quickly could kill the passengers inside As they neared the back of the docking bay, a second pair of cables were lunched, slowing the craft to a gentle stop. Two of the cables released, and the other two pulled the hopper to one of the sides of the docking bay. Goldie patched into the hopper's speaker system, "Ladies and gentlemen, let us get some more fuel in our hekatons and we will have you docked shortly. Report any injuries to our DBC. Medtechs will be with you as soon as humanly possible. Welcome to Habitat 6."
*** Sixty people, Eliza saved sixty people. But if she went into delfspace could she save more? Or would she just find herself absorbed into the same madness that had infected digital life? Was it cowardice prudence that kept her in the material world? Many people had been surprised to find themselves on Habitat Six. And Hab 6 was surprised to have them. The landing, with the assistance of the Hab-6 crew - was smooth enough, few realized they had been in any real danger. They mostly grumbled at the inconvenience. It wasn't unheard of for flights to occasionally be redirected from time to time. In the back of the hopper was a hatchway, and climbing down from that ( the docking bay was near the center of rotation for the habitat, if one was disabled they could just be dropped down the hatchway with little chance of injury ) they found themselves in the departure hall, not much different than departure halls in habitats across the solar system, save that the ceilings forced most of the "normal" poeple ( including Eliza ) to stoop a bit. There was a lot of mumbling and grumbling, about missed appointments and spouses they could not reach, But for the most part folks seemed pretty quiet. If you've seen one habitat, you've seen them all, the layout is pretty practical. Even if this habitat had much lower ceilings, and smaller doors But at the same time many habitat residents try to give their artificial worlds homey touches. Their were murals painted on the walls of flowers and butterflies and other quite "girly" things. Their welcoming community consisted of two girls. A purple haired girl with dark brown skin and an indigo uniform. A green haired girl in a blue uniform, "They're Lolis. They're transgenic, ", Todd whispered into Eliza's ear. The boy probably found that through spex, "M'kay, I'm Violet, a member of the DBC. So if you'll just come with me I will show you your temporary quarters. Of course for those that have the money, Hab -6 does have a hotel. But we only have a few rooms suited for big people. M'kay." A fat man raised his hand, "I can be happy anywhere so long as there is beer.", the crowd chuckled. "Sorry - our small bodies don't handle alcohol that well, Still some hooch turns up now and again. Remember its illegal m'kay?" The fat man faked a heart attack to more light chuckling, then shrugged and fell silent. Humans are herd animals by nature, when presented with a leader, even a big eyed child-like one, they generally go with the flow. This, for better or worse, is how civil society is possible. Even if it occasionally allows humans to be swept up by mass hysteria. But there are those who are iconoclasts, or rebels, anti-social people. And some are just plain assholes. "WHY THE HELL AM I HERE? THIS ISN'T HAB-4! I'M SUPPOSED TO BE ON HAB -4!" Violet didn't even flinch. The man was a giant even amongst normal humans, but compared to Violet and her green haired companion, he was a monster. Short spiked hair, long drawn out face. He had to slouch because of the low ceiling. He was shaking from anger. The green haired girl stared blankly for a moment - the usual look of someone using spex and subvoc. " There's a malfunction in the life support systems on habitat four. The hopper was redirected here." It was a lie, but a lie meant to spare the refugees. "NO!! YOU KIDNAPPED US - YOU BROUGHT US HERE! WHY? THIS IS A TRANSHUMAN PLOT! THIS IS AN EXTERMINATION CAMP!" The Lolis were transgenic, not transhuman, But for the paranoid man there was no difference. The big angry man charged the tiny Loli, the down side to human herding instinct is that sometimes when something unexpected happens, each member of the herd waits for someone to act. So as this two meter tall giant barreled down on a 1.3 meter tall girl-woman they mostly stood stunned. Eliza launched herself at the giant wrapping her arms around his neck. It didn't even slow him down. Eliza might as well have been a cape. Violet fled as quickly as her small legs could manage. But the large angry man was definitely going to snatch her. Then a barrier dropped down in front off him and the clinging Eliza. And a second one behind them. The section of the corridor was closed off. Finding himself trapped the big, angry, man flung Eliza off of his shoulders and against a wall, knocking the wind out of her. She expected a beating, but instead, to her relief, the big man pounded his fists against the barriers. He did this for what seemed like five or six minutes. Roaring in anger. Then he started to pace like a caged tiger. "THEY BROUGHT US HERE! THIS IS ALL PART OF THEIR PLAN!" Eliza just curled herself into a ball in the corner. She decided that the best thing to do for now was to keep from aggravating him further. "THEY WANT TO BRING US HERE AND MAKE US XOMBIES! OR MAYBE THEY WILL JUST KILL US OUTRIGHT AND SEND TRANSHUMAN MINIONS OUT INTO THE SOLAR SYSTEM!" "Xombies" referred to human bodies whose brains had been replaced with computers controlled by delfs. Eliza suddenly realized her case was outside the door. She hoped Todd kept track of it. "HUMAN BEINGS ARE UNDER SIEGE AND NO ONE CARES! NO ONE SEES IT!" Then a chirpy girl's voice plays out on a loudspeaker, "Hello, this is the assistant director of the resolvers. But you can call me Cyan if you like. Now we've uploaded your file and their is record you have a schizophrenic disorder with paranoid tendencies. We are willing to provide anti-psychotic medication." "I AM NOT CRAZY! YOU'RE TRYING TO WIPE OUT HUMANITY! THAT'S WHAT THIS IS -SOME KIND OF DEATH CAMP!" "Why exactly would we want to do that? What would we have to gain?" "OH NO I'M NOT LETTING YOU TRICK ME! YOU LOOK CUTE SO WE THINK YOU ARE INNOCENT! BUT I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN BY 'RESOLVE'R!" "Alright, let's try something else - what are your demands? That woman who is with you, are you considering her a hostage?" "I DEMAND TO BE TAKEN TO HUMAN BEINGS, I DEMAND THAT ALL THE OTHER PRISONERS BE TAKEN TO HUMAN RUN HABITATS!" then the large man stared down at Eliza, considering. Then he grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, and for the first time he did not shout, "Yes. She's a hostage." |