By David C. Daoust
The grim faces of the armored soldiers, gave Clover pause. He was pretty sure he was in the right place- despite the fact he did not see the woman he sought. Instead he only witnessed the two guards before him, barking at his sudden appearance as he passed through the lab wall. The barrels of their guns and the small girl caught in the middle, held him at bay…. He dare not move. He was sure the weapon fire would not pass his shields, but he dare not risk the young girl.
The lab was wide and stark white, devices ran throughout. In the center, stood a strange pillar of light that started at a raised circular base and beamed straight up to the ceiling. The girl stood as still as he. As the guards barked around them. Upon closer inspection the young boy found a being unlike any he had ever witnessed before.
Clover could tell that it had noticed him as well—it rose from its place in the stark white lab, placed its hands on its hips- and began to murmur at him strangely. Honestly, it wasn’t that much more incomprehensible than the rough guttural noises the humans were shouting at him since his arrival, yet he could not imagine ever understanding such a murmur.
Clover could not believe his own eyes- he flipped through separate menus on the display before him.
It was a being of pure light– or so his sensors reported. It moved like any other giant, its eyes though, were wide and inhuman. Clover found himself doubting his own beliefs; the very beliefs that told him that these giants were no different than his brothers and sisters- he was there to protect.
The strange being gestured to the pillar of light in the center of the room.
Clover could not comprehend what it was trying to tell him. He could not know that the very woman he sought, stood within that pillar, currently blind and def to the world around, viewing a hologram of the surrounding city-station.
What was this strange new world of light he had stumbled upon? Was this technology or some strange magic. The world- in that moment, seemed so strange to him.
Clover did a double take on his display, as his sensors reported that the small girl was also, of a strange composition. It had to be the strangest droid he had ever witnessed. It showed a skeletal framework of unbreakable metal, with a strange node of some unknown material plugged in its core… the whole thing covered in a synthetic skin- that too, was beyond the durability of any material he’d ever witnessed.
This new information told him that she would also, survive any weapon fire.
The being of light, seemed to have very little care for what the soldiers were yelling, or even that he, may present some form of threat. It turned on its heel, headed straight up into the pillar of light, and vanished from sight.
Clover could only imagine what he was witnessing.
Suddenly the pillar seemed to lose luminosity. Within, he found her- standing there, next to the strange being. Both were somewhat hazy within the pillar, surrounded by virtual instruments and holographic display windows.
The woman’s gaze fell to him, she looked as surprised as he was.
Clover knew the guards were no threat to him… and the girl, he feared causing harm to, was not actually a girl, and more importantly, in no danger.
Clover was there for one reason, and he had no time to waste. He punched the lock—air gushed from around the dome that sealed him within his Scion, it twisted up an inch and lifted away. The reluctant hero followed quickly, shedding his armor as he flew free.
The pillar of light flickered and disappeared as the woman climbed off the raised base that projected it.
She gestured to the guards that they could lower their weapons. They did so, though still watched him, skeptically. The small girl, that was no girl at all, seemed to move from in front of the guards, to in front of the woman that now approached. It was clear the strange machine wasn’t as ‘caught in the middle’ as Clover first surmised, but more, using her unbreakable body as some form of shield between him- and whoever he was facing.
Clover showed the small girl his empty hands and feet.
“Well, hello there,” the woman said, as easily as any Ward, “Nice to see you again, …?”
“Clover,” he inserted his name where she clearly trailed off, questioningly… “And you?”
“You can call me Dakota,” she answered simply.
Clover smiled, somewhat relieved at her reaction to him, but mostly relieved that she could do far more than simply understand his language, this time.
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