[AgentZero]

Oh no! Page 2! Undo! UNDO!


Seriously though, 10 points for the first person who gets the Alice Name Joke in this installment.


There was a long, appropriately stunned silence, during which three of them stared numbly at the contents of the capsule, while Alice's gaze flitted from one to the next as she waited a reply.
Eventually, she sighed, and, fed up with waiting for a response, said, “It looks like me. Only bald. And naked.”
“Yes,” agreed O'Shea. “She is that.”
“Hey,” Alice said indignantly, giving O'Shea her best glower. “Stop staring at my naughty bits!”
“But they're so nice,” Saraea protested.
“Mmmmm,” Kagan chimed in.
“All right, that's enough!” Alice declared, stamping her foot on the ground. “Everyone find something else to look at, or I swear to the Nine Divine Whores of Kantarl, I will go completely bat**** crazy! Now!”
As one, Kagan, O'Shea and Saraea suddenly found something else to look at.
“That's very interesting upholstery,” murmured O'Shea.
“Indeed,” agreed Saraea. “And the exterior is so finely machined, not a single dent or scratch to be seen.”
“And the... um... err...” Kagan stammered. “Did anyone else notice that the bald one's boobs are bigger?”
“They are not!” Alice protested vehemently.
“Have a look for yourself,” Kagan told her.
Alice peered over the edge of the capsule, but was unable to resist the urge to have a proper look at her face. That moment, naturally, was the one her doppelganger chose to open her eyes. The surprise sent Alice stumbling backwards, which caused her to trip over her own feet and plop to the ground. She sat there for a few moments, with an annoyed expression on her face, until it was replaced by a look of curiosity. Her head tilted to one side and she rose to her feet to approach the capsule slowly. She got as close as she needed to be to see her duplicate's face, and stopped there.
“Yes,” she said after a few moments. “No, they're not. I don't know. Blue. Seventy-three. Of course....”
Kagan gave O'Shea a look as the one-sided exchange continued. O'Shea merely shrugged. “Telepathic exchanged?” Kagan wondered aloud.
“Don't ask me,” O'Shea told him. “I'm about as sensitive as a well-attuned rock.”
“I'm getting something,” Saraea said, frowning deeply. “Don't ask me what, but the naked one is definitely broadcasting some sort of telepathic- Ack!” She stumbled backwards, clutching her temples.
“Eavesdropping is rude,” Alice informed her darkly.
“Son of a...” Saraea muttered.
“So, what do we call this one?” O'Shea wondered.
Kagan walked over to the console Alice had been using and looked at it. “Alice Fiona Komatsu. Huh. How about that? I guess we call the new one Fiona.”
“That is acceptable,” Alice advised them.
“Well, we should probably be getting back to the ship,” said Kagan. “I don't like this place one bit, and the sooner we're gone, the happier I'll be.”
“We're not going to leave her, are we?” Alice asked, suddenly looking very worried.
“Of course not,” said Saraea, pulling off her coat and wrapping it around Fiona. Once they'd gotten the jacked closed up, Saraea and O'Shea helped her out of the capsule and set her on the floor, only to have her collapse into a heap at their feet.
“She can't walk,” Alice said mournfully.
“Not a problem,” O'Shea replied, scooping Fiona into his arms.
The five of them hurried down the causeway and out the door, and with Alice in the lead, made their way quickly through the maze of hallways. They were almost back to the hanger deck by O'Shea's reasoning when the rounded a corner and ran smack into a contingent of battle machines. Instinctively, they spun around to head the other way, only to find their escape blocked by another group of machines that had somehow materialized behind them. The rust coloured machines herded them into a small cluster and raised their weapons. O'Shea looked down at the bundle in his arms only to find Fiona glaring at the machines with unimaginable ferocity. There was the unmistakable sound of a large number of rounds being chambered, and then the battle machines simply melted into a gooey pile on the floor. While Kagan, Alice and Saraea stared at the pile of goo in surprise, O'Shea's gaze was firmly locked on Fiona, whose expression had relaxed into one of abject serenity. She waved her hand slightly, and the two puddles of goo spread up the walls and wrapped around the ceiling, forming an archway of sorts. The metal goo continued to shift and move about as it coalesced into beautifully intricate patterns all around them.
“Ahhh...” Kagan said cautiously. “That's an interesting function. Are the pretty patterns going to kill us with their prettiness of doom now?”
“I don't think the machines did that themselves,” said O'Shea. “I think it was her.” He glanced down at Fiona and gave her a gentle bounce for emphasis.
“Oh,” said Kagan, looking vaguely embarrassed. “Of course it was. Erm, Alice, sweetheart, could you tell her to please not do that to anything on my ship?”
“She can hear you just fine,” Alice said with only a small hint of condescension. “It's only the talking part that she can't do.”
“Oh,” Kagan said again. “Can we just hurry the hell up and get back to my ship where things make sense.” He paused to consider his last comment, then added, “Sort of.”
They made their way uneventfully back to the ship, passing wordlessly through several more rust coloured archways along the way. Once aboard, Kagan hurried up to the bridge and got the ship back into space with considerable haste.