Sentient Worm

[Darkphoenixlady]

Departure

Taylor struggles to open the door to her prison became weaker and weaker, as despair and exhaustion caught up with her. Just as she was about to black out, she sees two enormous beings, circling around each other, and shedding parts of themselves. One of those parts is falling towards her, so she reaches out towards it, like you might reach towards a falling star you were making a wish on. As she does, she falls into the void between all things and lands on a metal floor before blacking out.

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Taylor's eyes flutter open to the sound of people moving around, and the occasional beeping. Above her is a clear canopy, through which she can see a patterned blue ceiling. The walls are white with gold highlights and the occasional blue light tracing through it. As she turns her head to one side, she can see a row of additional pods, all of which are in a vertical position with the lids open.

"Hello?" she croaks, immediately a man in some sort of uniform comes over. He says something, that's incomprehensible to her, in a no-nonsense tone of voice.

"I'm sorry, I can't understand you."

The man smiles at her and says something, that she assumes is reassuring, before reaching up and touching something out of sight. As he does, her vision goes black again.

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Taylor wakes up in the pod again to the sound of a couple of men talking "…fascinating. You say that she has had absolutely no genetic modifications or nanite treatments prior to being found on our ship?"

"Yes sir, we were able to take a complete genetic scan as well as a digital copy of her brain without any loss of life or data. Let me introduce you to cephalon Taylor."

She hears her voice coming from a nearby wall, "Hello? Hello? Why is it dark? Where am I?"

The second voice answers her, "Hello Taylor, you're in a computer at the moment, as we took a copy of you before we administered the standard nanite treatments, and inoculations, just in case there were any unknown side effects. You'll be happy to know that your original self is fine and should be waking up soon."

"Oh, is that why I can't feel panic?"

"It is, and congratulations, you're the first cephalon that has ever been created without killing the host. When we place you into a proper vessel, you'll have your emotions back, and so much more."

"Please, tell me, where am I?"

"You are on board the Zariman Ten Zero. I'm going to place you on standby now until we can get you your own cube. It will be like going to sleep."

The first man speaks up again, "Fascinating, and you got her genetic data too?"

"We did, when we get back to real space this will revolutionise the cloning process. Her people still had 28 chromosomes, and absolutely no signs of any genetic tampering. We're not currently sure if she's a time traveller, or fell into the void from another world, but what is clear is that she is Orokin, though from an older genetic lineage than anyone currently alive. If we could get hold of a male from the same place, it would completely revolutionise cloning. As it stands this should allow us to develop automatic corrections to flash cloned people."

"Good, I need you to classify this data under T0V-oral protocols. We'll inform our superiors when we return to real space. What of the girl?"

"I've given her the required treatments to allow her to survive in our environment. When she woke up last time her vitals were all steady, so I activated the flash learning program to give her the basic knowledge that she'll need to participate in our society."

"Very good, place her with the families in the unshielded parts of the ship. She can be part of the experiment on void exposure. We need to know if void travel is safe for us, as it's our only possible advantage against the sentients at the moment."

"I understand sir. We did find one thing though, she had an anomalous growth in her brain that contained non-human mitochondrial DNA. We've excised it just to be safe, but it lends credence to sideways travel rather than time travel. She also had a variety of insect life and additional human DNA around her feet. It was somewhat degraded, but we have enough that we could make viable clones of the female donors."

Whatever the response was going to be, is cut off by a beep coming from the wall, "I'm sorry sir, but that's the timer that I activated to indicate when the programming should finish. It's likely that the first thing she'll do when she wakes up is open the canopy, so we shouldn't be talking about anything classified."

"Understood, we really need to develop a way for the computer to tell the difference between training brainwaves and conscious brainwaves."

The second man laughs, "We can, it's just an invasive process to monitor the brain directly, and has been shown to lead to death or paralysis in 60% of cases. Till that improves we have to rely on motion sensors and passive readings."

Taylor decides that this is now a good time to look at the inside of her pod, rather than listening in. Opening her eyes, she's unsurprised that a tone goes off somewhere behind her. As hinted at, everything looks more familiar, and she can see the access controls on the inside of the lid. Virtual controls as is normal for Orokin technology, but still there. Reaching up she presses the capsule release button. Reasoning, out of fear, that if they could give her knowledge of the language and technology, they could also take memories away. Taylor decided that she was never going to talk about what she just heard in the presence of anyone that might be military.

"Good evening Miss, I'm Doctor Jae-Hwa and this is Commander Monteiro, you are aboard the Orokin vessel Tamerin 10-zero. We are currently on the way to the Outer Gates, however we've had a drive failure so we're stuck while they try to repair it. What can you remember from before you woke up in the pod?"

Taylor panics slightly as the memory of being pushed into the locker returns with astounding clarity. The Doctor reaches over behind her, and suddenly she's not panicking any more, and she's back in the pod rather than her memory.

"What did you do?"

"I instructed the pod to convert cortisol and adrenaline to saline and sugars. It also boosted your serotonin levels to counteract the dip you just experienced. Do you think you can tell us what happened now?"

Taylor takes a deep breath as the knowledge of the nanites floating in her body come to the fore, like something she learned as a child, and how these pods are made specially to interact with them. Taking another deep breath she thinks about the locker, it's strange being able to view it without the feeling of fear or panic. Almost like she'd seen it on TV rather than lived it. "This morning I was shoved into my locker before classes started. The bullies that did it locked the door behind me. I know I was in there for hours, as the class bell rang at least 4 times…"

Dispassionately she describes the feelings and situation she'd been in, as well as the vision she saw just before she landed on the 10-0. With her emotions being artificially levelled and the skillful questioning of the Doctor and Commander, she revealed details about Earth Bet, it's contact with Earth Aleph, as well as para-humanity and the End Bringers. Later, when her emotions were no longer being suppressed, she'd be glad that someone else knew, even if they couldn't do anything to help.

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Some hours later, Taylor follows the Commander into the civilian area of the ship, passing through some agricultural areas as well as what seem like parks. Finally they stop at apartment 83402-b.

"Taylor, thank you again for being so patient with us. Once we're under weigh again we'll be stopping at the space station by the outer gates. Until then I think that Kay and her son Rell will be a better fit than the military areas of the ship."

The aforementioned Kay opens the door, which slides into a recess in the wall, "Hello?"

"Good evening Ma'am, we have a last minute berthing change. This is Taylor of Brockton Bay, she has been assigned your unused room."

"Well come in then, do you have any luggage dear?"

Taylor shuffles awkwardly, "Ah, no. My arrival wasn't exactly conventional."

"Never mind, I'm sure that we can get some stuff from the stores. Commander, any idea what's going on with the ships drive?"

"Sorry, all I know is that the mechanics are having to refabricate some parts by hand, as the void is playing havok with nanite replicators, and the ones that are working are too small for the parts we need to replace."

Over the next couple of weeks Taylor settles into life abord an Orokin vessel, with all the luxuries and downsides that entails. Even the fact that they have cracked nearly lossless matter/energy transfer and use it so casually becomes a mundane part of her life. Rell introduces her to the other children her age, and they start to teach her how to have friends again. Despite the abrasive nature that Rell gives out, due to a complication from being a natural, she tries to keep him included in the stuff the other children are doing.

Kay explained it as a mental development disorder, that's a rare side effect of having a non-nanite assisted pregnancy. The closest that Taylor could associate it with is Autism.

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"I remember. I Remember!" Taylor staggers out of her somatic link as the memories from her past are unveiled.

"Operator, what are you doing?" Ordis' voice comes out over the intercom.

"I remember Ordis, I remember."

"Oh dear, you seem to have lost your warframe. Maybe we should retreat to a safer part of the system."

"Teshin! No, I'm going back for him."

"But how? The somatic link."

"I don't need the link."



Transferring back to her Titania, she comes back to awareness while still under assault from the Kuva Queen, as the Queen's red psychic spike pushes into her forehead. Forcing the psychic probe out of her mind, she soon finds herself in a fight for both her life, and the life of Teshin, that stretches her barely remembered void abilities to their breaking point. Eventually though, she is able to disarm the queen, which frees Teshin from the Queens control.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Distress Call

"Lotus."

"Yes Tenno."

"You can call me Taylor."

"Yes Taylor, you remember?"

"I do, thank you for looking out for us after…"

"You are all my children, I couldn't have asked for better."

"About that, I know I was found on the ship with the others. However, I don't come from this system. Well, that's not quite true, I either came from a parallel universe, or from the past."

"That certainly explains the differences in your genetic profile."

"I, I just want to know. How long has it been?"

"Are you sure?"

Taylor swallows, "I, yes I'm sure."

"The earth has orbited the sun nearly a thousand times since you came into my care."

Taylor sags with the knowledge. She'd always had some hope that she could get home in a human lifetime before they stole her memories. Closing the connection she sags, before heading over to the navigation console, and entering the coordinates of her private dojo. Once she arrives she transfers out of her warframe, and opens a connection to Amaryn of the New Loka. With her memories returned, the conversation reminds her of talking to E88 fanatics at home. When she hangs up the call, she tries to compare what Amaryn was like before the Titania was reformed.

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A few months later, Taylor has just finished putting together her first amplifier with Onkko's help. And wasn't that a shock to find out. The "deceased" husband of Saya, the nice woman that she met a year or so ago when she first visited Cetus. Turns out that yes he was being an arse by pretending to be dead, but he was a precog arse. And isn't that an amazing thing.

Thinker, Shaker, Changer, Breaker.

Brute, Blaster, Stranger, Master.

Tinker and Trump round out the rest.

The PRT is the best.

The things that stick in your mind from TV adverts. I wonder how Emma got on after I disappeared.

Whirling around Taylor looks at the person walking away from her. She'd know that body and red hair anywhere. Breaking into a jog, she quickly catches up with her while calling "Emma, Emma!". When she puts her hand on the girls shoulder, they turn around.

"Hello, can I help you?"

Taylor recoils at the Grineer accent, "N No, sorry you look like someone I used to know."

Staggering away, she transfers back into the comforting embrace of her warframe and returns to her orbiter. She needed to check something.

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"Welcome back Operator."

"How many times do I need to tell you to call me Taylor?"

"At least once more. You're just in time, I've picked up a distress call from the Red Veil."

"Ordis, can you give me a mo. I need you to check something urgently."

"What can Ordis do for the Operator?"

"I need you to bring up a list of all the current assassination jobs."

"Complying, they are bleeding onto your navigation screen now."

"Are you glitching again Ordis?"

"Certainly not Operator."

"Ordis, didn't we kill Tyl Regor last month?"

"Our mission logs say that we did."

"I need you to patch me through to the Lotus."

"Are we going to mount his head on a pike taking the contract?"

"No, I think his research has received a boost from the past."

Lotus' face appeared in the communicator, "You wanted to talk Tenno. Taylor."

"Yes, I met Emma Barnes in the Cestus market today. Only she spoke with a Grineer accent."

The Lotus pauses as she considers what Taylor just said, Ordis on the other hand has no such filter, "Error, the operator seems to be malfunctioning."

"I'm not Ordis, I entered the void from a school locker in high school. It was 2011, and Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess, and Madison Clements had been bullying me for a year and a half. The day I arrived on the Zariman they put the contents of the feminine hygiene bins in my locker. When I opened the door, they shoved me in while I was frozen in disbelief. After they healed me on the Zariman, they ran the basic education package. I suspect that there was more to it than the civilian package, as I remember being more knowledgeable than the rest of the children. However, what they didn't know is that I woke up earlier than they expected. That's when I found out that they'd been able to get useable DNA from some of the feminine hygiene products that came with me."

"Ordis has to ask. What is a feminine hygiene product?"

Taylor feels herself flush at the question, "Erm, the earth that I come from didn't have any nanite machines, or personal waste recycling technology, and erm, well, you know women menstruate every month? Well, erm, Feminine Hygiene products are specific pads and insertable tampons designed to absorb the blood to make it cleaner to deal with."

"Ordis wonders if this would be a good time to address the distress call."

Lotus shakes her head, "Yes, Ordis play the call."



A breathy voice speaks from behind her, "Rap, tap, tap."

As Taylor looks around for the source of the voice, on the call a woman does a good impression of a backstreet medium trying to contact the dead. Her attention snaps back to the call when someone answers.

"Mmm. R-r-r-ellll."

"I know that name, he was the kid I stayed with. I tried to look after him, but the other kids…" – She trails off as the lander becomes suffused with red light – "What's happening to the lights? Ordis? Ordis"

Ordis's voice cuts in, "I'm sorry operator, the message appears to be haunted, halted."

Taylor shakes her head, "I think you were right the first time."

Sounding concerned, Lotus asks, "What did you see Taylor?"

…

"I, I don't know. Some sort of shaker effect made the whole lander appear to be infused with red light."

"I am not familiar with that word used like that."

"It's a word from home that describes a power that affects an area. Uh, we had super heroes?" Taylor trails off weakly as both of them looked at her through their respective viewports.

"Ordis has analysed the message, it appears to have come from a Red Veil ship, the ship appears to be without power."

"Ordis set the navigation coordinates; I'm going in."

The Lotus looks concerned, "Ten… Taylor, are you sure about this?"

"Yes, I want to know why the name Rell came up."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Horror movie vibes

Walking through an apparently abandoned ship belonging to the Steel Meridian – a faction of Grineer that had broken their programming and were now working on their own – with the lights off, left Taylor feeling like she was in a cheap Aleph horror movie. At least she was a heavily armed protagonist this time. And she's in her wisp so no matter the condition of the VIP, she should be able to get them on their feet and moving. On second thoughts, maybe getting her memories back wasn't such a good thing. Dead bodies, check.

"These were killed by knives."

Taylor almost yelps when The Lotus decides to make herself known, "Don't do that, it's bad enough that I'm living the plot of a cheap slasher flick."

"I don't know what that is. Regardless, you should look around, see if there's anything else."

"When I finish here, remind me to tell you what genre aware means. As if I end up fighting some sort of zombies I'm going to call shenanigans."

"What are zombies?"

"Reanimated corpses of the dead, sometimes you didn't need to die, there was just a virus that killed your upper brain functions. The different genres of films were more popular on Aleph. For us on Bet, they were a little too close to possible given Nilbog, Heartbreaker, and half a dozen other famous masters. Oh look, another dead body. Knives again?"

"You are correct."

"Lucky me! Emma's father, Alan, was an officiando and had a secret stash of DVD's. Before she turned on me, I used to spend practically every other weekend there, and at some point we'd sneak one of the films and watch it. Some of them were so cheesy, like Superman. I mean, with people like Alexandria actually flying around. Hang on, red feather? That's the Red veil isn't it."

"It is, if they are involved then you need to be careful."

"Oh, believe me I am already being careful. At least it won't be the Slaughterhouse 9."

"Who are they?"

"They're a persistent group of villains from Bet, Bonesaw, a precocious girl that gained her powers during one of their attacks. She is a biotinker, able to make virus', bacteria, and modify you into obscene displays that are somehow still alive and aware. Shatterbird, a shaker that can control silicon. All silicon in a 5 mile radius. She is arguably the most famous, as her scream is the first most people know about the 9's arrival. Writing on the wall painted in blood, check."

"You are awfully calm about this Taylor."

"No I'm not! I'm just talking to you about the worst humanity has to offer on my homeworld, just to keep my mind off of the fact that I'm probably going to be jumped by a mindless red veil operative. Where was I, Shatterbird, yes, her calling card breaks all of the glass and silicon chips in the area."

"What are silicon chips? Do you eat them?"

"What? No, bet isn't as advanced as we are, so they still use silicon to make semiconductors, with linear binary logic circuits engraved on them. You can thank Mrs Knott for that titbit. The next most famous one is Crawler, he's a monstrous brute that can regenerate from anything that doesn't kill him. What makes him famous is that he then becomes immune to that form of injury from that point forward. People think he either has a deathwish, or is addicted to the feeling of being hurt. Either way, he makes his way through a city looking for challenges and slaughtering anyone that isn't a challenge. Next is the Siberian, she is a naked white woman with tiger stripes and claws."

"What's a tiger?"

"It's an animal native to earth bet? I've found the VIP."

"You need to protect her. Tenno, I am getting anomalous readings on your scanner."

"Palladino wasn't it? Hi, I'm Taylor Hebert, and I am to be your bodyguard for the rest of our time on the ship."

As she rounds the corner, Taylor's somewhat surprised to see that it's the high priestess of the Red Veil, along with a black cat.

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"Hey Rell, I'm Taylor. Do you want to play a game?"

"Er, busy."

"That's ok, do you want me to tell you stories about my home while you're drawing?"

"Yes."

"Ok, how about Snow White."

"Yes."

"Ok, Snow White was the daughter of a very popular king and his beautiful queen. However, when she was very young, her mother died in childbirth."

"Why?"

"At this time they didn't have medicine like they do now, so when something went wrong, they weren't able to fix it. Anyway, after he finished mourning, the king was introduced to a beautiful woman. Over time they married and the woman became the new Queen. Unknown to everyone, the new queen was also a witch."

"What's a witch?"

"A witch is a woman that can do magic, summoning spirits, speaking with the dead, brewing potions, placing hexes and curses, and even being able to heal people. They usually have a familiar, often a black cat. These serve as guardians and spiritual protectors, warning the witch of approaching dangers."

Rell looks up from his drawing, "What happened to them?"

"A long time ago, there was a religious uproar about the supposed evils that witches had caused. So the church, you remember what that is?"

"Yes."

"The church led a hunt for all suspected witches. What actually happened is that lots of people took the opportunity to accuse people they were jealous off, leading to a lot of innocent women being killed. They also caught all of the women that were a bit different through no fault of their own. People are often afraid of differences, and that makes them lash out at them. At the time I left Earth Bet, witches weren't really a thing there, though that was because superheroes and villains took over the public consciousness. On Earth Aleph they apparently had a revival of witchcraft, and started holding seances and doing ritual magic again."

"What's a séance?"

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Taylor blurts, "Are you a witch?"

"I am, how do you know that term?"

"It really is Rell then."

Out of the shadows, red veil operatives start to approach with their knives drawn. Palladino calls out to them, "Sisters, you must resist. Come back to yourselves."

When the first one takes a swipe at Taylor, centuries of ingrained instincts kick in, and she takes off their head with her whip. She then moves to set up her fields by Palladino. What followed was a frantic firefight, as the mindless followers tried to overwhelm them. As soon as their numbers break, the two of them make a run for the extraction point, along with the kavat. Once she was safely aboard a shuttle home, Palladino calls Taylor.

"Tenno, thank you for the rescue. Please could you meet me at our compound on earth, Iron Wake. I've sent the location to your ship."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Rescue

"Ordis, can you set in coordinates for Iron Wake?" – Taylor pauses for a second – "Actually no, given that the cluster fuck is happening I need to do something else first. Patch me through to The Lotus."

"Greetings Tenno."

"Lotus, or would you prefer Natah?"

The Lotus looks defensive at the question, "I left that name behind long ago."

"Look, I'm not Orokin, I never have been Orokin. A few weeks ago I discovered that I'd been mastered into forgetting who I am by the Orokin. So I'm doing something that I wished someone would do when I was being bullied in High School. I'm calling just to see how you're doing and if there's anything you'd like to talk about. We can even meet face to face if you want to talk about it without any recording equipment around."

"But you need to deal with the Red Veil."

"Look, I want to find out what's going on with Rell as much as anyone, probably more than most. However, whatever's going on has been breaking for a long time and they never reached out for help. So I figure that a few hours or a day or so won't make any difference as it's already FUBAR. On the other side of things, it's been less than 6 goddamn months since your father came back from the dead, and tried to take you over."

"I haven't thought about it."

"Well that's fairly obvious, I'm guessing you've just pushed it to the back of your mind and are keeping yourself busy."

"Tenno."

Taylor interrupts, "No, not Tenno! Taylor. I'm Taylor. Tenno is a title, it's a way of distancing yourself from us. Tenno is what I am, Taylor is who I am. Who are you? Is The Lotus a title or a name?"

"I'm not human."

"Woo Hoo, neither am I if you look at my DNA, I've got a whole extra chromosome compared to everyone else. Also, in the non-human stakes, you're up there compared to some of the people I've heard of. Weld in Boston is literally made of metal, Newter is a lizard that sweats LSD, Gregor the Snail literally looks like a giant snail. Doesn't stop them being people, there are thousands of case 53's where I come from. Not being human doesn't mean you're not a person."

"But we came to destroy the Orokin."

"Not an Orokin, don't care."

"I was supposed to kill the Tenno."

"But you didn't! You're just proving my point that you're a person too."

"I have my duty to the Tenno."

"When was the last time you took time to do something yourself?"

"I can't."

"What do you mean you… Oh, you're trapped somewhere aren't you. Right, give me your coordinates I'm coming to kidnap you. If you don't, I'll have Ordis scan every inch of Lua until I've found you."

"It's fine, I deserve this."

"Oh no you don't. You deserve captivity about as much as I deserved being shoved in my locker. Now give me your coordinates or I'm going to instruct Ordis."

"No, I forbid you to come, it's too dangerous."

"Ordis, locate The Lotus for me, I'm going to kidnap her and take her shopping. Maybe even buy myself a bloody bed while I'm at it too."

"Calculating, signal traced. Are you sure about this Operator?"

"Yes, yes I am. Let's go."

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"Operator, I'm not sure about this."

Taylor is jogging through the ruins on Lua as she responds, "Look, someone needs to treat her as an actual person. To show her that it's who you are and not what you are that matters."

"But Operator, you were created to fight the Sentients."

"No Ordis, I wasn't. Nobody was. I was born same as everyone else in their own way. Margulis stole my memories in a misguided attempt to help me control my powers, her superiors then forced us into being their good little soldiers. Then someone turned us against the Orokin, and finally Natah saved our lives. No more than you were created to be a ships cephalon. If there's one thing I learnt growing up in a city with the E88, it's that nobody is born with any greater destiny. Then my best friend taught me that everything that is good in your life can be taken away and turned against you. Being a Tenno has taught me that you have to fight for your right to be a person. This is me fighting for The Lotus' right to be a person."

"The target is just up ahead Operator."

"Thank you Ordis."



It takes Taylor nearly half an hour to unlock the Lotus' pod, especially given that The Lotus seems to be resisting the effort. Eventually it was done and it opens up like an orchid. Looking unimpressed, the Lotus stands there.

"Well, now what?"

"Ordis, where do those cables go?"

"Tracking. Warning, operator I'm sensing a massive Sentient target."

"Right. So, is this your body and the Sentient is like our Somatic pods, or is this a projection and the Sentient is your body?"

The lotus just looks at Taylor stunned.

"Fair enough, it's not like it matters. Come on, I'm glad I brought my Atlas as I'm going to need its strength to carry your body back to my lander." - As she walks in the direction of the signature she looks back over her shoulder, "Coming?"



"Ordis, has your operator always been like this?"

"No Lotus, only since she reclaimed her memories."

When Taylor comes staggering back carrying The Lotus' sentient body in a princess carry, the Lotus is still standing there trying to process what's happening. Carefully she puts it down on the floor before drawing her Akarius and handing them hilt first to The Lotus.

"I don't know if you've used pistols before, but these don't exactly need an accurate aim, if you can't hit the target hit the floor near by and it will be close enough. I've also brought a spear, not that I'm expecting trouble, but if I've learnt anything in these conflicts it's prepare for the worst and hope for the best."

Gingerly The Lotus takes the pistols and holds them in her hands, like having weapons that are separate from you is a foreign concept.

"Take a couple of shots if you want. I've got plenty of ammo."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you need a friend, you need to see how people live, not just how they fight. You need to live, and you need to see how those without power live. Lord Acton, a famous historian who lived around a hundred years before I arrived here, once said 'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.' Mouse Protector probably said it better though, 'If you don't keep in touch with the little man, then they'll be squashed when you fight the big villains.'" Hefting the Sentient body, Taylor starts to stagger back to the landing pad.

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"Operator, this makes me really uncomfortable."

"Ordis, you can either get over it or I'll replace you with Cephalon Cy, and you can run the Railjack. It's your choice. She is my guest and I hope my friend."

The Lotus speaks up, "It's OK, I can go back to Lua."

"No, I meant it. I've seen the result of seeing people as what they are rather than who they are. It's a bit hard not to when you share a city with the E88. If he can't accept you as a person, then I'm not willing to have Ordis as my ships cephalon."

Cy speaks up, "The operator is correct, the primary precept of a ships cephalon is to protect their crew. The Lotus is now part of your crew."

"Ordis will acquiesce, though I reserve the right to say I told you so."

Taylor nods, even as she's manhandling the sentient body into her pod chamber, "Natah."

The Lotus scowls, "I'm not Natah."

"Look, I'm not going to call you 'The Lotus' all the time, as it sounds like a title. If you don't like Natah, pick another name. Here's a few, Alex, Jane, Emma, Sophia, Madison, Mary, Teressa, Sarah, Joan, Annette." She says the last one with a slightly sad note.

"Who was that last one?"

"Annette? She was my mother, she died in a car accident a couple of years before I came here."

"Anet, that will be my name."

"Ok Anet. Quick question, did your connection work like our somatic link does?"

"They are crudely similar."

"How far can you maintain this connection?"

"I can manage orbit, but that's it."

"Right, what I was thinking is that we visit Cetus. There we can try and trade for some additional somatic fibres. If we can, then we could set up a modified pod attached to the orbiters power supply. We could then place one of my spare warframes in your pod on Lua so that it has a permanent link to your body here. It won't be transference, more like remote control. But it should allow you the freedom you need to explore the solar system incognito, while still being able to do your day job."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because you deserve it, because you're worth it. You've given us so much of yourself, so I'm finally giving back to you."

"How do you know I won't snap and kill you?"

"Given that you brought me to my pod here once, after I'd woken up on Lua. I think you've more than earned my trust."

"I didn't think you'd remember that."

"You've had multiple opportunities to kill me since I woke up the first time. You could have killed all of us at the beginning, but you didn't. Ordis, set course for earth, Cetus."

"Yes Operator, course laid in."



"Anet, if you'll follow me, I'll show you my living room. Sorry about all the plushies, I kinda got carried away."

The Lotus follows somewhat numbly, still in shock from being invited into one of her Tenno's private sanctums. Every single surface was covered with different plushies, excluding a faint trail along the floor from the entrance to the observation window.

"Can you actually see with that helmet on?"

The Lotus jumps as Taylor speaks, "It's fine."

"You know, I looked up the word fine once, while I was being bullied. According to psychologists it means Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional."

"Why do you know these things?"

Taylor looks at her sadly, "I think it's because we didn't have machines that could just turn off emotions, and remove them from our memories. That's what they did you know, the Orokin that is. The first thing they did to me when I arrived is switch off my emotions, while I was reliving the traumatic memory of what happened to me just before I arrived. They then removed the emotion from that memory. They did it to more of my traumatic memories before I learnt to hide my emotions. I remember they also did it to my memories of being worried about Rell. Well until the Bitch decided that I was causing too much disruption amongst the other Ten-Zero survivors, but was too valuable to be kicked out. That's when she stole my memories."

"What does a female kubrow have to do with your treatment as a Tenno?"

"Oh, right, on Earth Bet and Earth Aleph it's also a slur against a woman. I was referring to Margulis. Anyway, it looks like the sun's up in Cetus, so we should get going."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

The Lotus looks around at the people milling around in this compound. A huge Orokin tower in the background buzzes with activity. Wordlessly she follows Taylor around the marketplace as she haggles, barters, and tries samples of things. Occasionally she's handed something to try, meat on a stick that had been held over a fire, A lime green drink, and a model condorac were amongst the things she was given. Though the condorac is the only thing she's still holding. Its texture is soft and slightly squishy, thinking back there were several that looked like this one in the living quarters.

It doesn't make sense, she's a sentient and nobody's attacked her. A few of the humans have even tried to talk to her.

"Saya, Konzu, I'd like to introduce you to Anet, a friend of mine that's staying with me for a while."

When she hears the name she picked mentioned, The Lotus pulls her attention back to Taylor's conversation.

Saya looks at her before saying, "Hello Anet, you look a lot like The Lotus the Tenno talk about."

Taylor laughs, "Only when she's not working."

"Oh, I see. What can this old woman do for you Tenno."

"Taylor, my name's Taylor. I need to go to the other side of the planet for a meeting. Would you mind playing tour guide for Anet while I'm gone? Also, if you know anyone that's got any somatic fibres, let them know I'm in the market for some and I'm willing to barter handsomely, up to and including platinum."

"Of course, come my dear Anet, let's show you around without the intimidating Tenno around."

The Lotus doesn't resist as Saya takes her hand to pull her along back into the market. At the same time Taylor goes bounding off to the landing area.

"It's interesting, she seems to have changed a lot since her last visit. And then there's you 'Anet'. How did you end up in her company?"

"She has regained her memories from before she became Tenno, and I'm not sure."

"Ah, I see. Forgive an old woman her curiosity, but are you a Sentient?"

The Lotus freezes for a moment before resuming her motion.

"Ah, I see. You feel similar to the remnants that rise on the plains at night. You have nothing to fear from us, life is hard enough here without borrowing trouble."

"But why, we tried to kill you."

"No you didn't, and apart from the weird fellow that mans the Quills outpost, I don't think there's anyone here that you could possibly have tried to kill."

"But the old war."

"Hundreds of years ago you fought against the Orokin. We're not the Orokin, I'm not even sure if we ever were either. I think this dress would suit your skin colour fabulously."

The Lotus looks down at the dress that Saya is holding up against her cheek, "I, don't know."

"How does it make you feel?"

"Confused."

"Good, I can work with confused. What about this colour."

"It, reminds me of stars."

"Are stars a good thing?"

The Lotus thinks for a moment, "Yes."

"Tanzan, can you put this to one side, a Tenno by the name of Taylor will be by later to barter for it. Come Anet, let's go and see the workers in the tower. Maybe they've found some of the fibres that Taylor wants."

Anet squeezes her Condorac, "I think I'd like that."

Saya smiles an nods as the sentient beside her relaxes slightly.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Shopping

Taylor picks her way carefully through the roots and water that make up the forest covering much of what should be the USA. Once again, she curses the fact that all the secret bases on Earth seem to be in these massive overgrown forests. Oh, she understands the reasoning, the tree cover is so dense that these facilities are virtually invisible from space. Only the odd Grineer industrial site is easy to find, and suicide by Tenno is even managing to teach them to tone down the pollution, slowly. In hindsight she should probably have brought a Warframe with her, it would have made this part of the trip much easier. But she couldn't be bothered to return to the obiter just to return to earth again. After a bit of judicious void jumping she finally makes her way into the compound without getting soaked. One of the Red Veil members walks her to Palladino's chambers, whether out of politeness, or the fact she doesn't have the best relationship with the Red Veil faction, she wasn't sure.





Taylor looks around the chamber, Black and Red, ugh, it leaves the place looking so dark. On the far side of a round table, sits Palladino with her veil in place.


"Thank you for coming so quickly. We were afraid that you'd leave us to clean up the Tenno's mess."


"Actually, I'm here to find out about Rell, as the last I remember was being held back while he was being kicked out again. I was this close to leaving with him, but it seems I was too valuable to just let go."


"Maybe things would have been different if you had gone with him. It has been our sacred duty to keep him anchored to his humanity, while he holds the man in the wall at bay. A task that has been increasingly difficult recently."


"I remember something about that."


"I will try to contact Rell, but we don't have his Donda so it may fail."


Taylor tips her head back and looks at the ceiling in exasperation, "You don't have the thing that he used to focus, and you expect him to be able to focus? Don't bother, where is it and I'll go and find it."


"I, ah."


"Look, Palladino. I told Rell the stories about mediums, actually I summarised the film Ghost. That then led on to seances and other means of talking to the dead that people tried where I came from. Honestly, I'm surprised you don't have an Ouija board and glass." – Palladino shuffles uncomfortably – "This is classic. Once you know where I need to go, give me a call and I'll pick up Rell's toy."


With that, Taylor gets up and walks out. Unfortunately she doesn't make it back to the lander dry.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

A bedraggled Taylor arrives back at Cetus, just in time to see The Lotus, no Anet, walking to the village with Saya. A bundle of white fibres in their arms. Jogging, she squelches up behind them.


"Hey, did you have fun?"


Saya nods, "I think so, Tanzan has a couple of dresses for Anet, one of which reminds her of stars. You'll need to barter for them."


"Cool, I'll go do that. How much do I owe you for the fibres?"


"It depends on if you want to buy anything else from us. We would normally expect 40k credits for this much fibre as well as a shipment of food."


The Lotus shakes her head, "I can pay for this."


"Anet, you're not on duty right now. So no, you don't actually have any of your own resources. Saya, if you've got a couple of people that don't mind a bit of danger, I need to retrieve a pod from Lua, so I'll pay them 5plat each."


Saya looks thoughtful, "You'll provide protection?"


"I will."


"An additional 5plat if they're injured, 20 if it requires a prosthetic. 100plat to their next of kin if they die."


Taylor nods, "Sounds fair. Do you sell beds?"


Saya's eyebrows try to rise into her head, "You want a bed?"


"Well, yeah, there's two of us now and only one pod for the moment. So I want somewhere comfortable to sleep."


"I will have one of our craftsmen make one for you."


"Thanks, any resources you need for that?"


"Only the usual."


"Chips, control circuits, and polymer bundles?"


"An Orokin cell too."


The Lotus watches the conversation play out, still somewhat overwhelmed by not being on Lua, and being treated like a person. She squeezes her Condorac again.





After a bit of haggling for the clothes and fibres, the two make their way back to the orbiter.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

"Anet", Taylor says from behind the Somatic Link, "could you sit in the Transference pod please?"


The Lotus looks cross, "Why?"


"I think I've replaced the cabling, but it needs testing. As I need to be on the outside to fiddle with it, if it doesn't work first time, that leaves you to sit in the chair."


"You know I could probably do that better than you can."


"Look, my Dad was a dockworker, Head of Hiring, and amongst those people you learn a couple of rules. One of which is, never ask a guest to do something you can do yourself. Now sit, or do I need to get a Warframe and manhandle you into the chair?"


"Fine!" The Lotus sulks as she sits in the pod.


Taylor presses the pod close button, "Ordis activate user profile Anet, transfer all completed foundry builds into that users inventory."


"Ordis thinks the operator is being stupid."


"Is it done yet?"


"Of course."


"Bring the Mirage in Anet's inventory into the Arsenal."





Taylor walks away from the pod, and carefully takes off her amp, before pointing her hand at the void receiver of the pod. Relaxing her control over the void energies, she sends a blast of void energy into it and the fibres light up as she expected.


From behind her Anet screams, "Taylor, what have you done. Ow, void how do you move around with so few senses?"


Taylor saunters out to the docking area, "What do you think of your new Warframe?"


"Taylor, how do I get out of this?"


Taylor smiles sweetly, "The same way I did. Ordis, how're her systems looking?"


"The signal is optimal. I never thought I'd have two operators."


"Told you it would work."


The Lotus turns to her and approaches menacingly, until she clips a bulkhead and sprawls on the floor again, "What do you mean 'Told you it would work?' Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?"


Taylor void jumps to the other side of the cabin, "For a human. All of the humans that the Orokin tried this on went insane. Until us, until the Tenno. We could use transference to remotely pilot the Warframes without being subject to the infested parts of the Warframe." – She void jumps again – "Hey, you're starting to get the hang of moving around now. Anyway, you're not human, and you never have been. So what's the difference between this and what you were doing as the Lotus, with the bulk of you locked up elsewhere?"


The Lotus stops and looks towards the living area, where her main chassis is currently stowed. A Chassis that flies silently out and grabs Taylor, "Taylor, you are a, a, something. I don't know whether to hurt you, hug you, or curse you."


"How about the last two. Look, you're free and you can now move around more or less freely. After all, we get everywhere. On top of that, nobody, not even your dear father, can tell that you are anything other than a Tenno."


"What about you? How are you going to use your Warframes?"


"Ordis," Taylor says sweetly, "Would you bring my mirage out of storage please?"


"Certainly operator, I must say this could get confusing."





When the fully armed Mirage arrives on the Arsenal pad, Tayor looks at it and transfers out of the Chassis' grasp and into the Warframe.


"Like this. What? Did you forget that whole thing with the Grineer Queens? I've got a stupid mover rating now, probably a 9 or 10."


The Lotus, no Anet sighs in defeat, "You keep using terms like that, what do they mean?"


"Ordis, while I'm explaining this, I want you to design a skin for a vapor spectre. It has to look exactly like the Lotus, we've got her body in the pod so you can use that. When it's done we're going to make a few and deploy them on Lua. It will be down to you and the other Cephalons that are looking after Tenno to take over her job. We'll stick her old helmet on the spectre and you guys can puppet it when giving out orders."


"Ordis wonders where his operator is going with this."


"Same place we were going before. Giving Anet a life, one that she's built herself, where there are no expectations, and nobody brainwashing her into being different people. Once we've dealt with Rell, I'd like to find the Zariman again to rescue me from the computers. Then maybe go and see what's left of my earth, assuming we can find it."


Anet looks at Taylor, "What do you mean save you?"


Taylor sighs, "Because I had absolutely no nanites when I arrived, the scientist looking after me turned me into a Cephalon. I think they wanted to know what would happen. What happened is that I didn't get glassed in the process. After seeing Emma in Cetus, I have a feeling that I need to get to her before the Grineer do."


"Ordis has started the build. Ordis also wishes to state that his precepts will not allow him to leave Cephalon Taylor to the mercy of the Grineer."


"Thanks Ordis. Now, PRT classifications. PRT stands for Parahuman Response Team, and they are normal men and women tasked with policing Parahumans. This ditty was used on one of their TV adverts a few years before I arrived.


"Thinker, Shaker, Changer, Breaker.


Brute, Blaster, Stranger, Master.


Tinker and Trump round out the rest.


The PRT is the best."


"So, Thinkers are people that have powers related to the mind and perception. It could be enhanced senses, precognition, or some extra sense.


"Shakers, they have an ability that affects an area, think Banshee's sound quake, or her bubble of silence.


"Changers are those that can change their form, think Titania.


"Breakers are similar to Changers, however their forms are often unsurvivable if they were normal, such as turning into air, lasers, lightning, and the like.


"Brute, really strong and or tough.


"Blaster, has the power to shoot things, could be lasers from the eyes, sound bursts from the hands, or the like.


"Stranger, can either become undetectable in some way, make people think they're someone or something else, or similar.


"Master, either summons or creates minions, or takes over creatures up to and including humans.


"Tinker, make things that are either impossible or use science that is beyond the bleeding edge


"Trump, they're never really clear what this classification means. General theories are that it has to do with either having multiple powers, or being able to negate powers."





"Ordis wonders why they have so many different things grouped together."


"I don't know, what I do know is that the classification system was designed for PRT troopers not for scientists. I think they used to have more than 20 classifications when I was a child, but by the time I hit high school it was down to those 10."


Anet runs through possibilities on her chassis, "Ordis, it could be grouped by tactics."


"Simulating… Ordis thinks you are correct. Crude, but to be expected of meatbags."


Taylor frowns, "Hey!"


Anet wags her finger at Taylor, "Don't worry Taylor. You can leave your meatbag status behind any time you want. One tiny prick from my chassis and you never need to worry about human frailties again."


"Maybe once you've forgiven me for kidnapping you and shoving you into a Warframe."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

The Bet

A few days later, on another ship that's lost power, "Taylor."

"A little busy here Anet."

"How do I reload my pistols?"

"Oh for crying out loud, vent the remains of the previous clip and add the new clip."

"How do I do that."

"What happened to your bow?"

"I ran out of arrows."

"There's some right there, just pick them up."

"Where?"

"For the love of god, have you turned your overlay off again? Wait, don't answer that, just get your Chassis to fix it. It can look up the spe… Yikes!"

"Oh, hey that worked, thanks Taylor."

"Why do you keep turning it off?"

"It's distracting, it's hard enough operating with only 4 senses without it."

"Right, new plan. Once we've finished here, you're running Mars solo until you've got the hang of everything. While you're doing that I'll use Cy to get me to the Red veil again."

"Operator, Ordis thinks you may be making a mistake."

"Ordis, who would you trust Anet to at the moment, yourself who guided me through my early days, or Cy?"

"Ordis thinks you may be right."



"I've got it! I've reloaded my pistols."

"No need to sound so happy about it, just start killing again."

"Hey!"

"Oh, there's Rell's Donda. I'm going to grab it, keep an eye out as he was very possessive about it…

"Oh void, I was right. Anet!"

"Bit busy over here!"

"Disengage and head for the exit, I've put this one down 5 times already."

"How?"

"Anet, did you ever run the simulations you put us through?"

"Of course I did."

"As a Warframe?"

"What? No."

"That explains so much. When I drop your one, turn and run, you'll only have a couple of seconds."

"Got it, thanks, Ow!"

"Right, new new plan, you're going through the simulations first, then you're doing Mars. Run faster!"

"I'm running as fast, Wooah."

"I've got you, get back on your feet and run, I'll be right behind you. Ordis, I hope you're ready, as we're coming in hot."

"Ordis is concerned about the Operators wellbeing, as she doesn't seem to be on fire."

"Ordis, it's an expression. 30 seconds."



"Anet, you go first. Backwards not forwards, argh! Ordis tell me she's alright."

"The Lotus is just extricating herself from the exfil port."

"Ordis, a little quicker please."

"One moment Operator, The Lotus has her foot stuck."

"Really? I'm getting a little too busy here. I would really appreciate it if you could hurry the f'ngh up."

"Taylor, I'm going as fast as I can!"

"Well slow down and think about it then, it will be quicker."

"How does that make sense? Oh hey it worked!"

"Rotating exfil port now."

"I'm in I'm in, turn it the, round now!"

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

"Anet Natah Lotus, what do you think you were doing at the end?"

"Taylor, I told you it's hard to operate with only 4 senses."

"It can't be that hard, trillions of us do it all the time every day."

Anet mumbles, "I bet you'd fair worse in my chassis."

"What was that?"

Belligerently, Anet says, "I bet that if you transferred into my chassis, you wouldn't be able to get to the viewing window, in the living quarters, in less than 5 minutes."

"You're on, what's the stake?"

"If I win, you live in my chassis for two full orbits of Lua around Earth."

"If I win, you forgive me for shoving you into a Warframe."

"Acceptable."

"Ordis thinks this can only go wrong."

They both say, at the same time, "Ordis, shut up."



When the lander comes into dock, and the air lock disengages, The Lotus' chassis floats up the ramp into the Lander. Taylor transfers out of her Warframe and really looks at the chassis. Now she's had time to calm down from the fight, she's already regretting a lot of the things she'd said. Turning towards Anet, she looks down towards the floor, "Look, Anet. I'm sorry for the things I was saying down there. I, don't really have any excuses. I know you're new to a Warframe, and that was a mission that experienced Tenno would have had trouble with."

"Apology accepted."

"Can we forget about the bet?"

"No, you were constantly insulting me, so now you get to see what I'm missing."



Slowly Taylor turns back to the Chassis, "You can do this Taylor, it will be just like using a Necramech. Easy peasy, just transfer in and walk float through the ship."

"Just transfer in Taylor. Oh, and don't worry about my father, he's annoying but he can't do anything."

"Wait what?"

"You remember, my father Hunhow? Boss of the Stalker?"

"No, I remember. I mean about the 'he's annoying'"

"Oh, that. When the Stalker found me back then, he left a bit of Hunhow inside me. Can't get rid of it, so Father can talk to me whenever he wants."

"Oh, ok." Taylor says faintly, "I'm going on 3, 1…2…3"

Taylor transfers into the chassis and freezes as the orbiter seems to drop away and become invisible. There's just so much.

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Inside her pod, The Lotus smiles sadly as she loses her connection with her Chassis. In her Warframe, she sags heavily against a bulkhead as her connection is cut. When Taylor doesn't immediately begin to move, she pushes off the wall unsteadily, and staggers through the orbiter to the living quarters, where she lays down on the bed Taylor bought.



An hour later she hears the sound of her chassis running into something, so she rises from the bed and kneels in front of the window to think. In many ways, Taylor was right in what she said. She should know better, but it never occurred to her just how limited her Tenno's senses are. Even when she pretended to be Margulis, and her chassis was folded uncomfortably inside her, she still had access to all her senses, just muted slightly. She still knew the exact strength of gravity at any particular point, exactly how much force she was exerting, what direction everything was in. It was never even truly dark, as there were only a few parts of the EM spectrum she couldn't sense. Even Octavia's anthem was written with this knowledge in mind, when transmitted using Orokin communications protocols, it becomes the connection failed code that Sentient systems use for communication. The challenge hadn't been in discerning the code, it had been designing the song to send the code incidentally as part of the transmission process. None of her brethren, not even her father, had twigged that the only thing that was special about the song, was what it looked like when it was transmitted.

"Ordis," she calls, "how's Taylor doing?"

"She is floating into a bulkhead. It's like she can't see it."

"She probably can't."

"But they are right there."

"Not to very low frequency radio waves, or ultra-high frequency Gamma rays. They also have a negligible gravity profile, don't emit any form of radiation themselves, and are at ambient temperature. I would imagine that she hasn't hit a single console."

"How did you know?"

"Experience."



"OW!"

"Operator, it seems that she has learnt to make sounds."

The Lotus can't help it, she chuckles, "It appears so."

"Operator, are you fully functional?"

"No Ordis, I'm not."

"We should call Teshin, he will know what to do."

"No Ordis, I'm just completely limited for the first time in my existence."

"Oh hey, a hand. I can make a hand. No! No, no, no, come back hand."

Ordis sounds doubtful, "If you're certain Operator."

Anet nods, "I am. I want you to fire up the training simulations. Once Taylor arrives I'm going to run through them until I can complete them. Taylor was right in one respect. Every one of my Tenno are able to run these courses without my advantages. While I'm stuck in a Warframe I should at least learn how to use it properly."

"Ordis would like to point out that Operator Taylor still cuddled her 'plushies' before she woke from the second dream."

"Thank you Ordis." She reaches down and picks up one of the stuffed toys crowded around the window, and hugs it carefully.



Several hours later, Taylor bumbles into the living quarters.

"Is this the living quarters?"

Anet looks away from the stars, "It is."

Taylor does a spin and cheers, "Yay! I made it. Oh crap, I shouldn't have done that."

"The bet was for 5 minutes, not 5 hours."

"I know, I was just happy that I made it. I never considered just how much nothing there is in the universe. Especially between atoms, I assume they're atoms. They are atoms aren't they?"

"I don't know, I'm rather limited at the moment. They could be Protons, Neutrons and the Electron cloud though."

"Oh hey, it looks like I can shift slightly to one side."

"No Taylor… don't…" The Lotus trails off as the Chassis turns blue and transparent, Taylor with it.

Taylor snaps back and wobbles, "Wow, that was freaky. Were you saying something?"

The Lotus throws a toy at Taylor, "I was telling you not to do that, as I don't know what it would do to you."

"Hey, no biggie, I'm still here."

"But are you still human?"

"Meh, it's not like Tenno are that human anymore anyway."

The Lotus throws another toy at Taylor before stalking past, "I'm going to do the simulations."

"Hey!" Taylor tries to follow, only to float into a wall, "Damnit, I shouldn't have done that spin. Now which way am I facing."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════​

Over the next Month they both slowly get used to their respective bodies. Anet/Lotus by putting herself under stress on Mars until she starts acting on instinct. Taylor, by well, trying not to walk into things. Anet also drops the Donda with the Red Veil on one of the Relay stations.



While it's on the orbiter, Ordis, and the other Tenno Cephalons, get used to puppeting the spectre, to give assignments to their Operators. They also work out how to build a foundry that will automatically activate a new Lotus spectre, if the current one expires.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Memories

Taylor slowly compresses her body down into a human form, and holds it for a few minutes. Ever so carefully, she relaxes her concentration until she can do other things without the whole thing unravelling.

She does a little cheery dance, "Yay! I did it. Oh pooh." Before losing control over her form again.

Natah looks at her critically, "You're coming along well. Most mimics don't learn to control their change until they're a couple of years old."

"You say that, but this, no that, has been my body for basically my whole life. I kinda know what it feels like from the inside. How are you getting on Anet?"

"I'm, finding it easier to get around in this body. I still haven't got my head around the fact that directions aren't just arbitrary yet, but I haven't got into the exfil port the wrong way in a week."

"Yeah, children often find the non-forward and backwards aspects of directions challenging too. I had to wear a watch before left and right finally sunk in."

"A watch?"

"A piece of jewellery that shows the time on a mechanical or digital display. Typically in the form of a bangle or bracelet, and worn on the left wrist. Also, on the subject of children, don't forget it takes them around 3-4 years to get walking and running in a straight line down pat. You're miles ahead of the curve in that respect."

"You say such strange things."

"Yeah, I do. I'd imagine that if I hadn't been mastered into forgetting basically my whole life, those things would have faded over the last something hundred years."

"I do not know. I've never forgotten anything."

"Never? Wow!"

"No, not even when my personality was supressed when I was first given my subframe. There are memories I couldn't access, and a few I still can't. I…am also having trouble with my personalities. Like I keep switching between different ones."

Taylor carefully puts her hands, tendrils, actuators, let's go with limbs, on Anet's shoulders, "Anet, you aren't switching. You are always you, they are different aspects of you. You are Anet Natah Lotus of the Tenno. Being a person isn't about only having one set of traits, we're complicated, and I include you in that. You're still Lotus and Natah when you're hugging soft toys or looking curiously at the sparkly blue dress."

"Is that what that colour's called?"

Taylor nods, at least she hopes she does, "It is, next time we visit civilisation we can buy some childrens books, they tend to deal with things like colours. If we were on Earth Bet, I'd just grab a Pantone catalogue. Anyway, when you're being cold an analytical you're still Anet and Lotus, and when you're being all detached, caring, and in charge, you're still Natah and Anet. You've only had the freedom, to be all of these things at the same time, for little over a month. Give yourself time."

"What about you? You keep asking me how I'm doing, and giving me reassurances. But how are you doing."

Taylor falls heavily backwards into the air and floats there, "Ugh, I still haven't worked out how to do that. It's so unsatisfying not being able to just let gravity take over. No, I'm not avoiding the question, this time anyway. I'm coping. My life before coming here was pretty good until the last few years. I'm still remembering stuff from then, but it's a little hard to be the bullied 15 year old when you're inhabiting a living supercomputer, or you look around and see evidence of everything you've achieved since then. I don't think the locker is ever going to leave me, as it was such a defining moment in my life. However, I am more than I ever could have imagined being. I've been a superhero to many of the people here, as well as being a supervillain to some too. Do I miss my Father? Yes, it's been nearly 1,000 years so he's probably dead and hopefully buried. Your body can't help but run calculations, and I know that there is absolutely no chance that there is any organised civilisation left on Earth Bet. The Endbringers may have even wiped out humanity. I also know that there were only two reasons why we had any reasonable technological advancement. It was due to our connection with Earth Aleph and Dragon Tech Systems. Without them, I calculate that technological development would slow and then, over a period of 20-30 years, as the rich invested in Tinkers rather than basic science, it would effectively come to a halt once children stop going into science fields. How are you dealing with not calculating everything, instantly, all the bloody time?"

"It was hard to start with. I… am starting to come to terms with acting on incomplete data. There's also the fact that I can see wavelengths of light that don't exist, such as the colour that you've got your console lights set to."

"Magenta?"

"I don't know, it's this colour." Anet points at a magenta lighting strip.

"Oh, right, let me. Come on brain just filter out everything else, ah gah. Ngggh, yes, that's magenta. On a more serious note, do you think I have enough control over looking human to visit Cetus again?"

"Taylor, you can just transfer out. The bet was for two orbits, not for it to be consecutive."

Taylor sounds sheepish as she transfers out and says, "I tried that, and well. I don't exactly have a choice in whether to get used to your senses or not, anymore."

The Lotus recoils as her Chassis reconnects to her. The return of her senses, and the overwhelming amount of information informing her about everything around her, leaves The Lotus speechless. As does the fact that floating in front of her, is a near identical copy of her own Chassis, down to the mounting points for her subframe.

"When did you try it?"

"You were busy on Mars at the time, I just needed a break and a lie down in order to cope. And, well, nothing changed."

"Why didn't you say something then?"

"You seemed so pleased that you were finally getting the hang of having so few senses, I didn't want to destroy that for you."

Remembering something that Taylor's done before, Anet steps forward and pulls Taylor into a hug, "Taylor, this wasn't supposed to be a punishment, it was a learning experience. Hang on, I'm going to connect to you in the way of my people."



What followed is something Taylor would never be able to explain to an organic in the future. Even Cephalons would struggle to understand the feeling of connecting so deeply with another person. Anet Natah Lotus raised her manipulators and connected them to Taylor Anne Hebert's manipulators, joining them into one entity for a brief moment of time. There they shared their memories, hopes, fears, loves and losses. They could hide things from each other, but in that moment it was hard to find a reason to do so. When they separated, they only took impressions of what was, with them.

Taylor deliberately shrinks down into a humanoid form so that she can sniff and cry, "That was beautiful, and I love you too. Your home is beautiful too. I think I'd have come here to stop the Orokin if I thought they'd found Earth Bet. Compared to what you made there, my world is, was, a shit hole."

Anet shakes her head, "It had its own beauty, and you take after your Mother. I'm proud to share her name now. I can also more easily see how the Orokin became what they were now. It was always a mystery to us, and we assumed they were always like that. Now I think it's time to share my own revelation."



Anet steps back an kneels on the floor, a minute later she walks in from the Transference room and connects to her Chassis.

"Well done. When did you work that out?"

"I built an Excalibur while you were still struggling to tell the difference between each of your senses. I wanted to feel the dress, and hoped that I could with a smoother frame. When I switched over, I felt the transfer between the two and it only took a few minutes after that to work it out. Oh, and it didn't help."

"So why didn't you?"

"Because you were right, I am distinctive. I think the only place I could go, without being mobbed is Cetus, and that's only until another visitor recognises me. In a Warframe? There're only thousands of my Tenno, but you get everywhere."

"Do you want to let the others know?"

Anet shakes her head, "No, at the moment, I think I like not been known. Maybe once we've got your spectre idea in place and working."

"Do you think you could handle fighting to your old chambers?"

"Not on my own, no. Can you still transfer into your warframes?"

"Honestly, I don't know."

"Ordis, can you bring one of Taylor's warframes to the arsenal please?"

"Ordis thinks it's nice not to be ignored again."

"Ordis, you know as well as I do that you could make yourself a physical body. You just like gossiping too much."

"Ordis is unsure what to make of that accusation."

"That's not a denial. Is the frame there?"

"It is Operator Lotus."

"Come on Taylor, it's time to find out if you can still use Transference into a Warframe."



"Atlas, really Ordis, Atlas? You know I hate this frame."

"Ordis was just asked for a frame. It's not Ordis' fault that Operator Taylor hasn't been speaking to Ordis and Ordis forgot the Operators preferences."

"Ordis, I didn't want to take you over. I own nearly all of the systems in the Orbiter now, I didn't want to hurt you."

"Ordis, wasn't aware." The frame changes to Yareli.

"Thank you Ordis."

Taylor transfers into the warframe, and promptly stumbles to one side, as she feels like she's gone deaf, blind and lost feeling in most of her body, "What the? Woah, I don't remember being this limited before."

As Taylor staggers around like a sailor stepping foot on land for the first time in 6 months, Anet laughs so hard she floats backward into a bulkhead.

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Taylor's time spent relearning how to move in her warframe, is cut short when Palladino calls, asking Taylor to visit again. The two of them board the lander in their Mirages and do a rapid insertion to Iron Wake. Once there they are escorted to Palladino's chambers.

"Please, enter in your natural form."

Taylor transfers out of her Warframe, keeping as tight a reign on her form as possible. When the door opens she looks inside and says, "Anet is my apprentice, she's recently activated her Warframe, so The Lotus has me looking out for her. Would you mind if she waits inside?"

"She will come to no harm outside."

"Look, it's not that I don't believe your intentions. However, if you get attacked by the Grineer and her warframe is captured or destroyed, it could kill her. I'm not asking for her to sit with you, just stand inside the doorway."

"Only if she allows us to activate her weapons lock."

"Anet?"

"That will be acceptable."

As they enter, Taylor prays to any god that's listening, that she won't lose control over her form. The door closes plunging the room into darkness, the only light a flickering lamp on the table.

"Thank you for returning Taylor, I had thought you abandoned us. But now I see that you were tasked with equally important matters. I have spent my whole life serving Rell, I have studied his teachings on the void and the dangers they have inside. I can now see that they were all true, and that he alone in his harrowing sacrifice has guarded us. What a steep price he has paid."

"Palladino, Rell was operating off of incomplete information. Unshielded travel in the void is dangerous, however that is true of diving to the deepest parts of the ocean too."

"How would you know?"

"Because I was there, on the Zariman. I was in the infirmary while two officers were talking about the experiment they were running on the civilians. About how they'd turned off the void shields on the ship. I have also travelled to the void extensively when the Corpus or Grineer do something stupid on an Orokin derelict."

"You do not deny the dangers though."

Taylor laughs, "I would be a fool to do that. Just as there used to be dangers in the seas on earth, sharks, whales, Jellyfish. All deadly to an unprotected human."

"I know not of these creatures."

"I'm not surprised, the Orokin or their predecessors wiped them all out. But that's distracting from what you called us here for."



Taking a deep breath, Palladino goes into a trance, "Sacred Rell! Outcast of sacred Void, hear my voice. Speak, you have been driven from the vessel by your suffering. You have swallowed the poison stars so we would not. Holy Rell. Speak! The Tenno who rejected you have come to your aid."

Taylor is about to voice an objection when the Donda rises off the table and starts to spin. That's when her senses pick up an odd disturbance in the air. While she's trying to make sense of it, she's pulled into a memory of Kay showing Rell emotion cards. She smiles as she remembers doing the same thing after Kay… left. Then the memory shifts to one where she was the one holding the cards.

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"Rell, what's this one?"

"Sad."

"Is that what's on the card or what you're feeling?"

"…feeling"

"It's ok to feel that way. You love her and she loved you. The void has just killed her soul, do you remember what the soul is?"

Rell taps his chest, "It's the part of you inside that makes you a person."

"That's right, and without her soul she's stopped being a person and become a monster."

"monster."

"Very good Rell. What's this card showing you?"

"Sad."

"Very good Rell. What about this card?"

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As the memory ends, Palladino screams and scrambles back from the table. Taylor looks down at her hand, "Balls. Palladino, I'm still Taylor, I just had an accident that I'm learning to cope with. It's just like some of the Corpus and their full body prosthetics, only with a Sentient body." While she's saying that, she also concentrates on her human shape.

As her body looks more human, Palladino starts to calm down, and instead of being scared looks to be in awe.

"You were there, I didn't believe."

"I said I was. I stayed with him the entire time we were on the Zariman. Even when the other kids separated us, I went out and found him again. That only changed when they stole my memories."

"Maybe it's his emotions that have been stolen from him."



In the corner Anet uses her Chassis to contact Taylor, "Taylor, I think I know what it is. I need you to return to the orbiter so I can confirm it."

"Palladino, The Lotus could have a lead. Can you give us a bit to see if it pans out?"

"I can, we are becoming desperate though."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

It's all fun and games…

"Taylor, my chassis detected massive surges of transference energy at the meeting."

"I could sense something too, however I don't have your experience with identifying things like that."

"When we get back to our orbiter, wow, that's weird. Our orbiter."

"Anet?"

"Oh, sorry. When we get back to our orbiter I want to demonstrate how to share a specific memory. I want you to share everything you sensed in there. I should be able to identify the signal from your data. We can then give it to Ordis so that the cephalons can keep an eye out for it."

"Sure glub…"

"Look out Taylor, there's some deep water here."

"Oh haha. Ordis is going to use the sterilising beam on me now."

"Poor widdle Taylor."

"I'll poor widdle Taylor you. Come ere."

"No Taylor no! Glub… Right! Come 'ere."

"Uh huh, no chance. Aaahhh! No, not the mud! I'm going to get you for that!"

"Not a chance!"

"Hey! No fair using your abilities."

"Ooohh shiny, wait no! You are such a Queen, I'm covered in muck, where are you?"

"Got ya! Damn, that's a mirror. Hey!"

"Ordis refuses to allow you onto his lander until you both clean yourselves off."

"Awww, Anet are there any waterfalls nearby?"

"Not sure, you'd probably be better transferring onto dry ground and having a look yourself."

"Found one, it's this way."



"Turn around, you've got some mud wedged under your armour here."

"Thanks, I've got your back too."

"That was fun, I've not done anything like that since a sleep over with Emma. Thank you."

"I feel strange, like I want to laugh and smile."

"You've probably had fun, and the Warframe has produced dopamine and adrenaline. Don't forget that they are alive."

"I know, I've been finding that there's a big difference between knowing and experiencing in these bodies."

"Yeah, organics are limited in many ways, but those limits make what we, they experience so much more. I don't think we have an equivalent of hormones."

"I… do. The subframe was built with them. But it's never felt that intense."

"We can look at it later. Ordis can we come aboard now?"

"Ordis will allow you to dirty his floors. Please purchase a cleaner"

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Once they returned to the Orbiter, Anet braces herself as she disengages the transference. Immediately the world expands, and at the same time seems to become less solid, as her connection to her main chassis becomes a foreground process rather than something in the back of her mind. Making her way out to Taylor she presses a hand to her forehead as the contrast between running in the forest, throwing mud at each other, and being able to tell the exact chemical makeup of the trace amounts of dirt left in the exfil port, are causing her systems to have fits.

"Are you ok Anet?"

"I… am trying to, fit the memories of what we just did together with my chassis. It seems to be, having problems with the lack of detail."

Taylor winces sympathetically, "I guess I have that to look forward to. Well, here goes. Christ, you're right. Gngh, still worth it though. Can't we adjust the settings?"

"Mother could, so could the second and third generation sentients. Fourth like myself and later, we're alive, in the sense that there's no discernible programming giving rise to our intelligence and self-awareness. My Father, he was one of the original fourth generations, he took a fragment of Praghasa, my mother to bring life to me. He's never explained just how or why he did that though. You might as well ask if it's possible to stop your br… for a human to stop their brains from dreaming. We should see the Entrani before we seek out your home world, they may still have the technology needed to make you a subframe."

Taylor reaches out and takes Anet's hands, "Hey, we're both learning. We're both becoming more than we were. Knowing what I know now, I think I would still choose to go ahead with the bet. You needed a friend and an equal, and while I'm not yet your equal, I hope I'm a friend. While I remember, these are the codes for my Dojo if you want to join. Shall we do the joining thing, and you can show me how to share specific memories?"

Natah initiates the join, then pushes forward a memory of chasing her brother. They were flying through narrow canyons while they were supposed to be checking the cliffs for faults. They're on the equator and the dawn is chasing them as the canyon ahead is darkness, while the sun is filling the canyon behind them like liquid gold in the visible spectrum of light. The chase finishes as they burst out over a plain and into the sunlight.

In return, Taylor sends a memory of following a game trail as she walks through a forest in the early morning. There is still dew clinging to the few clumps of grass that can grow amongst the trees, as well as outlining the spider webs. The birds and insects chirping around her provide relaxing sounds for her mood. Then she stumbles across a clearing where two foxes are playing. The dappled sunlight lending a surreal quality to the scene.

After that, transferring the memory of the Red Veil meeting seems, prosaic. That doesn't stop them lingering, and enjoying the near merger that the joining brings.

"Ordis wonders if the Operators are malfunctioning."

Twin blasts head towards the console that spoke, reducing it to its component elements. That doesn't stop the moment from being broken. Or resolve the fact they need a new Mod station. When no more blasts of Tau energy are being thrown around, Ordis ventures, "Ordis will leave his operators to malfunction in peace in the future."



Instead of responding, Natah runs to the transference room and locks herself in the pod. Her Mirage activates and she walks forward and pulls Taylor into a hug, "Thank you Taylor, I needed that. I thought I'd never experience it again after we left the Tau system."

"You're welcome, but why wouldn't you experience it? Didn't we do it before?"

"I… thought it was a form of transference before. Not a true joining between Sentients. I, have your memory. That shouldn't be possible with just transference."

"That doesn't explain why you thought you'd never experience it again."

"Taylor, we just had sex."

Taylor immediately loses control over her form and reverts to a full sentient shape, in addition she loses control over her positioning and spins slowly in place as her brain shutters with the implications. Once she recovers enough, she transfers back into her Mirage, where the world is more solid, and buries her face in her hands.

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Until somebody gets hurt…

"Anet, does this mean we're dating?"

The Lotus, in her Excalibur, looks over from putting together a transference signature, "Hmm, well you did kidnap me in order to have your wicked way with me. But you weren't expecting me to turn the tables on you. Then there's our, uh, recent explorations." – Anet shakes her head – "I guess that does mean we're dating."

"Neat. When I was growing up, I always thought I'd have a boyfriend, and be like my mum and dad. Before I went to Winslow, I started noticing girls, and now I've got a girlfriend."

"I'm not exactly a girl, but I am your friend."

"You use female pronouns, that's girl enough for me."

Anet looks confused, "I'm not sure why the gender of the friend is important. Also, don't you have other friends?"

"Uh, I never considered how the term would appear to non-English speakers. Do you have a concept of courting in your culture?"

"When two people are testing compatibility before entering into a relationship, and potentially having children?"

"Close enough for this conversation. So having a boy or girl friend is a less formal and constrained version of courting. In my culture, I suppose you could say you start dating, making you boy/girlfriends. If that goes well, you might get engaged, this is very much the courting part, where you exchange promise rings. Finally, the relationship can be formalised with marriage. Marriage is supposed to be permanent, but, oh, 400 years before I arrived on the Zariman, an English king decided that he wanted to marry someone else. So the king invented divorce, which is the dissolving of the marriage through legal means."

"What do you call your other friends of either gender?"

"Just friends, or if you're specifying the gender, then it's two words rather than one. So Saya is a girl friend, while you're my girlfriend."

"It doesn't really sound different."

"That's why we don't usually use girl or boy with friend, unless we're in a relationship."



"There, done. Ordis, these are the transference signatures for Rell. Could you pass them out to the other Cephalons and let us know when someone gets a hit?"

"Ordis will Lotus. Ordis wonders what you will do now?"

Taylor speaks up before The Lotus can continue, "Ordis, how are you and the other cephalons getting on with the Spectre?"

"Ordis has added some interface ports to allow the Lotus helmet to fit. Testing showed a 98% increase in response times and signal fidelity with this in place."

"Good, well unless some major adjustments are needed, let's get those strong men to heft all the equipment down to the Pod and hook it all up. Anet, could you put something together that will mimic the signature of your Chassis on our scanners? I want to keep your escape secret for as long as we can."

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Clearing the way to the Pod, and then guarding the Cetus men, well it was actually a man and a woman, was easy enough. As Taylor is the only one that could transfer out on demand, Anet guards the entrance while she does the work.



"So daughter, you have decided to return to your prison."

"Huh? Hunhow?"

"Indeed. Did the Orokin have you so leashed that you no longer recognise your father?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"So your flailing about like a new-born was not an act, the Orokin really did secure your mind against betrayal."

"Oh, you think I'm Natah. I'm not, I'm Taylor."

"I know that they haven't erased you Natah, even if you have chosen a new name. I have felt the moments when you come back to yourself and act like the old you."

"Anet, your father's been creepy."

"Interesting, you believe that Natah has her own name inside you. Fear not my child, I will send my servant to retrieve you before you are stolen from me again. Where are you my child, and what are you doing?"

"Look, I'm not telling you that I'm on Lua. And it's absolutely none of your business that the Tenno need their Lotus and so we're returning a Lotus to her pod.

"Balls, Anet, your father made me say stuff. How do I stop it?"

Over the sounds of gunfire, Anet says, "You can't. If you had years more experience you could. You're best bet is to think of something else, anything really. Also, he can look through your senses."

"You what?"

"We're holographic, when his servant infected us with him, it spread through our systems. Only a tiny fragment, but enough for him to sense it."

"I knew you were in there daughter, to think you are giving advice to a personality invented by the Orokin to keep you trapped."



Taylor hurries to finish wiring up the helmet before placing it on the head of the Spectre.

"I don't know what they've done that blocks you from my senses, but you will be freed. I urge you, don't lock yourself back into your prison. If I knew this would be the result, I'd have never sent you to infiltrate the Orokin."

"Look, Hunhow, Natah is my girlfriend. She, and only she, is the master of her own destiny. Goodbye."

Now that the fiddly work has been finished, Taylor transfers back to her Warframe, and it is with some relief that it also cuts off Hunhow's response before she can hear it.

"God Anet, that was horrible. I think your father is convinced that I'm you, and that I've just locked myself in your old prison."

"Why would you try to convince him of that?"

"I wasn't, I was trying to convince him that I wasn't you. He's decided that I'm an artificial personality that the Orokin installed. Presumably as a failsafe. I think he also saw me putting the helmet on the Spectre too."

"Did he work out where we are?"

"No, only that we're on Lua."

Anet breathes a sigh of relief, "Ordis, how's everything looking?"

"All systems nominal."

"Ok Taylor, show Ordis how to operate the pod and seal it all up. I'm not sure how to feel about this. It feels like I'm losing part of myself."

"Anet, Lotus, just because someone else is now using your title doesn't mean that you stop being that person. You are still the strong, caring, decisive woman that you were while you were the Lotus. It's just that you no longer have the responsibility that comes with the title."

The Lotus' head pops up in their overlays, "Tenno, all of your primary objectives have been completed. You may now head for the extraction point, or attempt to recover a pod."

"Did I really sound like that?"

"Yep, that's you."

"Where's the emotion?"

Taylor hugs her from behind, while using her side arm to shoot a Grineer that strayed too close, "Right here."

 

[Darkphoenixlady]

Collection part 1

Taylor and Anet were busy fishing on Demios. Not an activity that you'd usually associate with being busy, however it doesn't take into account how vicious the local wildlife is. Just as Taylor was about to throw her spear at one of the fish, the Lotus opens a call.

"Operator, we have found traces of Rell's energy on a derelict. Your navigation console has been updated with the details."

"Dammit, I almost had it."

"Is everything ok Taylor?"

"Yeah, Lotus just called to say they've found Rell, well his transference energy anyway."

"That's a shame. I like fishing with you."

"I like fishing with you too."

They both stare at each other for a long moment before Taylor says, "We should get these fish to the Daughter. I still can't believe that they've fallen so far as to forget their names."

"Yeah. I wonder how much was inflicted on them by others in their society."

"Given what they did to their own people in pursuit of Warframe development, I don't think I'd be surprised if it turned out to be a lot. However, according to Grandmother, the worst of the damage happened when Son broke containment during a temper tantrum. That allowed them to be infected with the strain of infested that's running rampant here."

Anet's head jerks to one side, "Oh, hey, there's a Velocipede."

"I'll cover you, you take the shot."

"Got it, what do you think Son does with these?"

"Tags most of them and sends them out again. Some of them he uses a counter agent to neutralise the Infested virus, and then sells them to collectors and Tenno."

"Why is the infestation important for the family's story?"

"It's stolen a lot of their memories."

"How sad. Is that why we're doing so much for them?"

Taylor nods, "One of the reasons, they're also using the gathered resources, and information, to develop a cure for the virus in the hope it will restore some of their memories."

"We should try to help them, even after we've found out where the right research facility is."

"And that's why I Lo…like you. Have you built an Archwing launcher yet?"

"No, I'm still trying to scrounge up some more Grokdrul."

"Why didn't you say something. We can do some shopping and run a few bounties out on the plains."

"Because, this is important."

"Anet, stop for a moment and think. How much time have we spent walking to and from the Necrolisk since we started fishing?"

Natah promptly answers, "8 hours 24 minutes, and 13 seconds."

"How long do you think it would have taken to do some shopping and fill a couple of bounties, while also acquiring the Grokdrul you need?"

"6 hours and between 13 and 40 minutes depending on if you get into a conversation or not."

"That long huh. It's still shorter than the time we've spent walking."

"I… didn't consider that."

"Do you think you would have done before this?"

"No, I wouldn't have needed an Archwing."

"Well, you're not alone in that, we're… humans are notoriously bad at predicting long term savings compared to short term costs. Often in the worst ways possible. There's a story that came over from Aleph. A computing team identified a process that was using 99% of the computing time on their computers. So they spent 100 hours on optimising it and halving the time it took to run. When they applied the change, the process still took 99% of the computing time on the computers. What they'd done was optimise the idle loop."

"I see, and you think I'm suffering from the same thing?"

"…No, I think that you're learning to deal with near human limitations, so these things don't even occur to you. It was a story to illustrate that you need to think about what you're changing before you do. Same as sometimes we need to stop and think about what we're doing and how."

"Why have you thought about these things so much?"

"I've mentioned that my Dad was a dock worker?"

"Yes."

"Crap, we're starting to attract attention."

"Head for the Necralisk?"

"Sure, anyway. The local docks have been in decline for as – It's got my face – long as I can remember. So Dad use to tell us stories about all the little ways they'd found to save time and effort. There were also – behind you – the occasional stories where an attempt ended up costing them more time than they saved. In hindsight, a – to your left – lot of those stories were said during times were when we didn't have a TV."

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"Great, another darkened ship. Anet, why are we bringing your Chassis with us?"

"I can't do the analysis on the Orbiter and fight off things, so it's here to act as a third set of senses."

"I could get the data for you."

"Taylor, it still takes you seconds to adapt when ever you use transference. Great, infested incoming. Do you really think you could get the information before you were overwhelmed? Will you still be returned to your Warframe if you take lethal damage? Can you even defend yourself?"

"Fine, I just don't like you risking yourself like this."

"…I'm at less risk than you would be."

"How so?" – Anet and her Chassis shoot two different infested – "Objection withdrawn."

Over the Comms Palladino speaks up, "I am still not happy having one of our ancient enemies helping with this."

"Palladino, the Sentients were never your enemies. They were always the enemies of the Orokin. If they knew why the Sentients were attacking, I can think of a few Orokin who would have switched sides in an instant. Once we've finished helping Rell, call Anet and talk to her about that war. She was there for the whole of it, and saw both sides of the conflict."

"I will consider it."

"Well shit."

Anet looks around wildly before focusing on the writing that's disappearing in front of their eyes, "How?" she whispers.

"He's doing the poltergeist thing."

"I meant, how am I seeing that. My sensors were registering a dirty patch on the floor the whole time. However, as you mentioned it, what is the poltergeist thing?"

Rell's voice stops the conversation, "Mmm. My fault. Touching is too much noise. It makes me… makes me… angry."

"Taylor there's a massive transference spike."

"Anet, I'm looking at it. Try to work out how to trap it while I distract it."

"I'm analysing, but it's not exactly easy. My Chassis being here just makes it possible."

"Any moment Anet."

"Got it, it's similar enough to Simaris' targets that we could probably use a Kinetic syphon."

"Well throw one then."

"I don't have any, we've not been to see him yet."

"Great, take over I need to check my gear."



"Taylor! I'm going to have to start using my chassis if you don't hurry up."

"I can see it, one moment, reintegrating, and deploying."

"It's pulling away!"

"Then shoot it! Not with sentient weapons!"

"Sorry, that's got it. Transmitting cancel signal, stand clear."

"Blurgh, Anet. Anet! Are you ok. Ow fuck."

Anet speaks through her Chassis, "Sorry Taylor, the signal wasn't focused enough. We need to defend the Warframes for 30 seconds while the transference system resets."

"I'm working on it, but my void abilities hurt to use."

"Then stop using them!"

"I'm not as agile as you are yet, it's the only way I'm keeping ahead of the infested."

"My sensors are showing you've taken damage."

"Yeah, it took me a good few seconds to reorientate myself. Hey, using my amp doesn't hurt."

"That's good, 10 seconds."

"Cover me when you get back."

"5 seconds."

"4…3…2…1…I'm in. I've got your back Taylor."

"Tha…Gnngh, at least…we know…my Oro… still works."

"Sorry Taylor, I'll do better next time."

"Huff, don't worry about it. How far did the effect go?"

"Around 20m"

"Then we'll move on and you can trigger it once we're 40 away."

"New plan Taylor, we're taking you to Mars, and you're running missions until you can transfer with no disorientation."

"Hey! That sounds familiar."

Palladino returns to the call, "You're ok! I feared the worst when I lost you both."

"Yeah, just a slight miscalculation. Caused our frames to glitch for a few seconds."

"You must be more careful. It looks like these are the emotions from the cards in his game."



Rap tap tap

"I don't want to go back."

"That was Rell's voice, hurry."

Anet's voice sounds a little peaked when she says, "Palladino, are you telling me you didn't hear someone say Rap tap tap?"

"No Anet, I didn't."

Taylor responds, "I did, it was the same when the original call came in."

"But my chassis didn't pick up anything."

"Anet, it's ok, it will be ok."

"No Taylor, I'm scared."

"Anet, I'm here with you. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, understand?"

"But what if you can't stop it. What if something is going wrong with the transference."

"Then we deal with it later when we're not surrounded by infested."

"I, your right."

"Good girl, I knew you could. Let's go."



"So that one was Happy, are you ok Anet?"

"What? Oh yes, I was just analysing my sensor data. The last one is that way."

"Oh thank god, you were so still I thought you'd got yourself."

"Taylor, why can I see Rell?"

"Because that's not him."

"I mean he's not showing up on my scans again."

"Anet, there's more things in heaven and earth than man will ever explain. Accept it, move on and freak out when we're not under fire. Now run!"

"That's not a transference artifact."

"Don't know, don't care. We can't hurt it, it can hurt us, so we run. Where's the last one?"

"This way."



As they race through the ship, Anet calls out, "Where does Rell's voice keep coming from?"

"Look, remember when I said that travelling the void was like diving in the deep ocean?"

"Why are you talking about that now?"

"What did I say was in there?"

"Sharks, whales, and jellyfish. Why?"

"What does that say about the void?"

"It's a void monster?"

"Creature, creature, not monster."

"What's the difference?"

"Motivation."

Bored, so bored.

"Taylor!"

"I heard it, must be getting close to another fragment."



"Ok, got it, any more hits on the ship?"

"No, that was the last one. Taylor! it's caught up with us!"

"Anet, less screaming and more running."

"But my chassis still can't detect it."

"Anet, Sentients are vulnerable to void energy. Wouldn't that suggest that they can't detect it properly too?"

"That's what scares me. What if it follows us?"

"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."

"Why are we burning bridges?"

"It's an expression!"



"Ordis, depressurise the Lander and open the airlock, we're coming in fast. Once we've cleared the exfil location, take off and we'll hold onto Anet."

"We'll do what now?"

"Your chassis is good for vacuum, we'll use that to get to the lander."



"Ordis, are Tenno usually like this?"

"No Palladino, my operators seem to be special. Ordis feels so lucky."

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"Anet, you did well back there."

"How did you hold it together?"

"Practice and genre awareness."

"What awareness?"

Taylor takes a deep breath, "One of the things I've noticed that this solar system lacks is media. I don't mean vids, I mean comics like Waverider. I think a lot of that is down to the constant conflict, and the feeling that everything we need to know about the universe is already known. That the Warframes were styled after a lot of old fragments of stories hasn't helped matters either. The stories that survived the progress of time and technology anyway. Look at Limbo, he can become a ghost. Only stopped by solid objects. Ivara, an invisible hunter. There's also a necromancer, a revenant, and even a sentient now. Wisp and Titania cover the fae. The world I come from has none of that. We haven't even left earth yet, not even on Aleph. The unexplained and unexplainable are all over the place, so we made stories about it. In writing and in vids."

"I can't imagine what that would have been like."

"Anet, I think you should come and look at this. It's one of the more interesting aspects of transference, and you will probably learn a quite valuable lesson about what makes a person a person."



Taylor leads Anet through to the transference room.

"My body's in there, I know."

"You do, and your chassis can sense it. I'm going to go and transfer into your Chassis, when I do press the green button."



Taylor leaves and Anet follows her progress, suddenly she's alone in the transference room. It's been a couple of weeks since Taylor revealed her change, and she's got used to having the Chassis there in the back of her mind, feeding her information on what's around. It's not as disorientating as the month she spent before, but… The pod in front of her is suddenly more solid and the contents a mystery. Her hand hovers over the green button, and then she presses it.



The covers retract and she's looking down at her subframe. There she sees a human woman, asleep with a concerned expression on her face. Crouching down she looks up at the face curiously, before slowly reaching out and gently touching the cheek. She shivers as she feels the ghost of a touch on her face.



She tries to cancel the transference, but it doesn't work. Panicking she tries again and again, finally she wakes up, but she doesn't wake up. She's staring at herself staring at herself, and she has no sensor data to fill in the blanks. It's just her and her Warframe. The moment seems to last forever before her vision goes dark.

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"Natah! I thought you'd sealed yourself up again. Yet you are not on Lua."

"Hunhow, I'm not Natah. I'm Taylor."

"You are, I can feel my systems inside you."

"Your daughter is currently in the transference room, and she's about to open the Synapse pod."

"How dare you suggest that."

"Hunhow, do you have access to all my senses or not."

"I do, as you well know."

"Then bloody well use it."

"There are two Warframes, and your subframe."

"It's not my subframe. It's Natah's subframe. I've just transferred into her body. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm trying to keep an eye on your daughter."

"You are my daughter."

"I'm dating your daughter, I'm not your daughter."

"How dare you deny me! I am your father."

"Crap, it looks like she's fainted."

"Sentients can't faint. I know that as well as you do."

"Yeah, fine whatever. I'm ending transference on her main Chassis and going to check on her."

Taylor ends her transference, in the hope that it will reconnect with the subframe, and goes as fast as she dares into the transference chamber. Leaning down she forms a hand and checks Anet's pulse. Finding it strong and steady, which matches her other senses, she switches off the pod before lifting her out gently, and carrying her back to own chassis.



As soon as she switches off the Transference, Hunhow goes ballistic in her mind, "How are there two of you. That's impossible. There's only one Natah, I should know I was never able to reproduce the process I used with her mother to make her."

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

"What's that mean! Who are you? What are you doing to my Daughter? If you've harmed her I will find you and bury you in the depths of Jupiter…"



Taylor tunes him out as she watches Anet's subframe line up with the connectors, and automatically start the process of joining together. A few seconds after the connection finishes, Anet opens her eyes.

"Taylor, what happened?"

"You fainted."

"But how?"

"I don't know, you were looking at yourself in your Warframe. Then you passed out, your father was being annoying and so I didn't sense what happened."

"I can tell, he's started shouting at me too."

"If you're up to it, transference blocks him out. Besides, it's like falling of a bike. The sooner you get back on, the easier it is to keep going."

"I have no idea what that means."

"Neither does your father."

"You'll be with me?"

"I will."

Taylor goes with Anet into the Transference room. There she holds her hand as she nervously sits back into the pod. As the Warframe starts to move, Taylor pushes the button to close the pod.



Together they go back to the Arsenal where Taylor transfers into her own Warframe, after asking Hunhow not to tell anyone, not even Natah's brother, that they're no longer on Lua.