By David C. Daoust
6of7
It was Elma’s third movie, in which her character was sucked out of an air-lock, that Margo first experienced space in all its glory. The man that played their father, who looked on in horror as this tragedy befell his little girl at the end of the movie, went on to win award after award for the part he played. While much acclaim went to Elma for her supporting role, for Margo the Stuntbot the experience is what truly changed her life. She was sucked out so far and so fast into space, that she was unable to right herself, to figure out what was usually up and what might be down or maybe just the lack of visual cues to fill in the information. It was in that jaunt through nothingness that something awoke in her, that ‘spark’ that told her program to ‘go’ got a little voice.
She never really knew what took them so long, she spent the better part of a day drifting in the great abyss of nothingness. Finally, a small ship flew in and scooped her up. She imagined they just weren’t in a hurry. It wasn’t like she needed air to breath. The vacuum of space couldn’t hurt her any more than it could a spaceship. Her skeleton was built of much of the same materials as a standard spaceship. She wasn’t sure what her skin was made of. Even though it matched human skin visually, it was much tougher than a humans; it caught bullets, shrapnel, and truly some spectacular displays of damage. She knew they made body armor out of it.
Margo could not remember dreaming before the ‘space flight’ happened, though ever after, her dreams were clear as day. Considering she came from a virtual world. A world of strict rules and defined properties, a dream could break down everything she structured herself on. An experience that left her a craving for possibilities she had never considered pre-space flight.
This ability though, to exist in space, was the basis of her plan. Not that she wished to live in that vast abyss. Just that she could escape fully without worrying about life support, artificial gravity, or anything a human might.
She knew enough about the Onion, through her various roles as an actress/stunt-bot, that the place people went to be free, truly free, to be who they were meant to be, was the Belt; Away from the core, away from the standing governments. The governments may have a grip on the Belt, but no real voice. People went and farmed the moons themselves, built villages and towns. They had their own laws out there, even if the taxes still got sucked back to the Core.
She knew the Belt was the place for her.
