trans_9 | A Gate To...?

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A Gate To...?

Still in the city.

Considering the sheer size of the megalopolis that Stacy was carrying around, Lyta was hardly surprised that even after hours walking up and down its 'streets,' she still got the feeling that she hadn't even begun to scratch the surface with this place. If the large blue--and perfectly symmetric--blue tree had taken her breath away, then what she saw when had turned this last corner had left her just as awestruck in its beauty. A massive gate, cast in gold filigree, with the shapes and forms of what appeared to be angels carved into its surface--each flawless, as if it'd been etched into the giant doorway by a skilled craftsman. It was beautiful, yet at the same time mind boggling. The contrast of the 'ugliness' of Stacy's interior with some of the gorgeous structures she carried inside of her left Lyta with more and more questions the longer she explored. And rarely with any answers.

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Their faces weren't visible, and they only seemed vaguely humanoid in form.

"Run the simulation again."

"But, sir, it appears we may just have to kill her, or force the process and send her back brain-altered like the Fenton boy--"

"She stays. She was the captain. Run it until she breaks. The others forgot. She will as well."

"I won't forget," she snapped. "And when I get free, I'm going to kill you, do you hear me?! I'm going to kill you for what you did to my crew!"

He tilted his fedora-ed head.

"The memory of the gate is to blame. He's not finished with her yet."

Cybil screamed, her nose starting to bleed, and her eyes started to glow red, and it was then that it likely became apparent to Lyta, that Cybil wasn't alone. There was another consciousness in her body with her.

"He'll come for them, one by one, until the dams break and the flood scours the barren earth."

It was a threat.

Lyta's body tensed as one after another a series of thoughts and memories flooded into her mind. It was like that one touch had unleashed a deluge of pain and terror accompanied with a multitude of strange voices.

It was chaotic and random, jumping from one memory, one voice, to the next. But it was when she became aware of the other presence that Lyta's brow drew together in anger, her eyes becoming black pools as her Vorlon enhanced abilities kicked in.

Who are you?, she demanded, tightening her grip on Cybil's shoulder as she pressed the connection deeper.

"I said, 'Who are you?'" she repeated aloud, her voice filled with fury. She dug deeper, pushing her way through Cybil's mind in an effort to find the presence. The presence that didn't belong, that had no business being in Cybil's mind.

"Tell me or I will fry every synapse in her body until I find you."

She was getting worse, and Lyta didn't look far off now by whatever was attacking them. Nathan wasn't even going to protest against the threat since it could be a danger to all of them if it was stopped.

He then took to the air, but this time to find something to ram against the gate. A stone, something, and then fly it straight to it.

Cybil opened her mouth and somehow, someone else's voice came out, a man's, erudite and genteel.

"I've heard that before," Lyta snarled, tightening her grip on Cybil even further as she pushed against the presence.

"Get out of her head..." she demanded. "Now!"

Keep going, they're on the defense. Nathan was encouraging her in his thoughts even as he found a large piece of broken mortar.

He then flew straight at the gate, and bashed against it. And then again.

A figure cloaked in black shot out of Cybil, only half-visible, as if made of of smoke.

"You fool! You have no idea what you've done!" it said, staring down at Lyta with smoldering, red eyes, that were visible from the depths of its hood, before it disappeared completely into thin air.

So close, yet so far away, and he had to hope desperately he hadn't been picked up by the sensors, he didn't even have time to concern himself with the idiot trying to bash open the gate, he had to hope she knew enough now, and that the program would hold them at bay...

"An exercise in futility," ?? said to Nathan. "Based on an erroneous assumption."

"S-stop," Cybil gasped from the floor.

Severing the connection once...whatever it was...had dissipated into thin air, Lyta felt her legs give out from under her and slipped to the floor in a sitting position next to Cybil.

Taking her hand from the other woman's shoulder, Lyta looked up at the display screen with a questioning expression.

"What was that?" she asked, then dropped her gaze to Cybil, hoping one of them had an answer.

"Yeah, and I'm supposed to trust some automated machine right now?"

Nathan bashed the gate a few more times, and only stopped when his hand was looking abraded and bloody.

He finally landed on the ground, dropping the rock.

"Was hoping one of you could tell us, how is she?"

Cybil just lay on the "ground" of the city, gasping for a moment, trying to catch her breath.

"There are monsters, on the other side of the gate," she panted. "Angels. With bright eyes. They'll kill us all if they're let out. I don't know how I know, but I know. We can't open the gate--and we shouldn't try."

Lyta stole a quick glance of the door. She wasn't lying.

Finally looking back at the collapsed and gasping form of the captain, Lyta's face softened in an attempt to be reassuring. "We won't," she promised.

"But you need to get some rest. We need to get you to MedLab or a doctor or somebody..."

"I'd say we should cordoned it off, but that might encourage one of the teens for looking closer. Gotta be a hospital or infirmary around."

Nathan glanced at the gate one more time, and then said to Lyta, "With your abilities, you said it has to be line of sight, but think you can do something to help discourage any of the kids from coming this way?" After all, Matt was able to get a room of press to listen and focus on Nathan, at least that's what the former politician's counting on.

Edited 2008-08-30 19:05 (UTC)

Lyta's brow furrowed. Could she? Yes. But it wouldn't be easy.

She nodded and looked up at him. "Yes. I could implant an Asimov block in everyone's heads," she said then, realizing that given that non-telepaths in her universe were usually weren't familiar with what an Asimov was, it wasn't likely these people were either.

"It's a command, like a safety net," she explained. "You put a block in someone's head that keeps them from doing a certain thing--to try to kill you, for instance--and they can't do it, no matter how much they may want to."

She looked back down at Cybil, already feeling guilty for pressing so hard. "But I'd have to do everyone individually and it's time consuming. It could take day for me to get through all these people."

Just then she remembered Pat and Toxin. "...and there's no guarantee it'd work on everyone anyway."

"I know some people back home that could have used it. Good idea, whatever it takes, do it. It'll limit who we'd need to watch still."

Nathan was definitely a morally grey person still.

"No," Cybil croaked, sitting up and wiping the blood from her face. Her nose had become just a trickle.

"You're not messing with anyone's thoughts," she said. "After we find some sort of Medlab, we're having a meeting. Everyone on the ship. The two abducted AIs said there were blind spots in You-Know-Who's sensors around the ship. The bug armor kid might be able to find them. We'll find one and have the meeting there, and I'll explain what just happened and what I know to everyone the best as I can, and we'll see if anyone else has figured out anything about Stacy."

Lyta nodded. She liked option B. Not only did invading people's minds and erected telepathic blocks without their consent go against everything she believed in, but it was such a difficult and exhausting process that would leave her drained for much of the time.

"Do you remember enough of it?" she asked with a concerned look. "You've got blocks all over the place..."

"Fine as long as we got some way to keep people the hell away from here."

Nathan added, "Probably enough, and you could help with those blocks."

"I remember...something. It just doesn't make any goddamn sense," she said to Lyta.

In response to Nathan, she said, "Could she? Possibly. Without killing me? Unlikely. I've still got a blood pressure head ache. I'm lucky I didn't just have a stroke. Now somebody help me up." She held out a hand. She could walk, but she'd need to lean against one of them.

"She's right," Lyta confirmed as she climbed up, then took Cybil's hand to help her back up, as well.

"Even if I took them down one-by-one, I'd have to figure out how they were put in and then figure out a way to take them down safely," she explained. "If I just go bull-dozing mental blocks, I could kill her.

"Hell, if I'd had to push much harder to get that thing out of her head, I could have put her in a coma."

"Fine, then we'll keep looking for other options."

Nathan then went over to Cybil's other side, and got his arm underneath hers to support her.

After she'd gotten her feet under and gotten somewhat steadier while leaning on Nathan for support, she asked, "Stacy, do you have some kind of infirmary."

Stacy's voice was faint here in the city. Perhaps one of the places where the sensors were weak.

||Please return to the transport tubes and you will be taken down to the Medical Wing.||

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