A boy and iGirl

Posted on Sun Feb 21, 2016 @ 1:04am by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson

2,316 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Fall
Location: Holodeck 2/Penny's Quarters
Timeline: Day after "The Lonely"

Cass was hurrying along the corridor, her dress fluttering in the breeze. As she came around the corner, she almost bumped into Thomas. "Hello again," she said, smiling.

Though Thomas had gone straight to Penny's quarters, he'd been surprised that he hadn't found her there. Bumping into the Counselor, he nodded in greeting. "Counselor," he greeted the senior officer. "You don't, by chance, know where Penny is, do you?"

"Well, actually I was on my way to see her now. She said she had one of her 'rhythmic contests' going on, and thought us girls would have fun with it. Come join me. You can watch from the sidelines."

"Oh boy," he muttered, with a weak smile showing. He seriously considered turning down the invitation. After all, there had been an audience when he'd seen Penny sans... skin, and the last thing he'd wanted to do in that moment was confront the issue. But how would this look if he declined? Would she see it as his attempt to demand her full attention? Somehow, he thought that would not be well received. So, he simply nodded and followed her to the holodeck.

As they entered the holodeck, there was no roar of a crowd, nor a stadium like last time. Instead they were out in the sunlight on a vast plain.

The African Savannah stretched out to the horizon in every direction. Penny was standing with a wooden shield almost as tall as she was, a long metal knife and some rather modest loincloths and animal skins. Nicole was dressed in more contemporary casual clothing, as was Cassandra as she and Thomas approached.

The other two women were already facing a tall, imposing male, dressed in ancient Roman garb. Cassandra spun around, her lilac dress turning into a lilac toga.

As an unseen voice called out the players as Cass took position, taking another third of the semi circle on the girls' side.

Thomas deliberately chose to keep his distance. He knew first-hand how animated Penny would be, and if she was flanked by her close friends, he could only imagine what a spectacle this would be. In fact, it was his own piqued interest that kept him on the sidelines. He only hoped the trio would not disappoint.

As the voice shouted, "Begin!" Penny hoisted her stone hammer and held it menacingly, shouting.

"Iwisa, meet Caesar; he's a commander
Who thinks he can dance with Conan of the Savanna,
But when I go hand-to-hand with you, I go hammer!"

Nicole leaped out and hoisted her sword. "Knock off his dome, wrap it up in his own banner! And send it back to Rome with a message from the Zulu!"

Penny thrust her hammer out. "If you battle Shaka, this what happen to you!"

Cass folded her arms. "If you cross that Equator, you'll head straight into a massacre."

Nicole smirked. "And get fucked by more than just Cleopatra in Africa!"

Julius Caesar stood before them, arms folded, not backing down from the three women circling around him. He snorted a laugh and began pacing past them, staring at Penny. "You talk a lot of shit for a girl still in a diaper."

He glanced at Cass and raised an eyebrow. "I heard you had poison spit. Where was it in this cypher?" Then swung around to look at Nicole. "Cause all I hear is threats from a brute with no discipline--"

He stomped his foot and a small army of soldiers appeared behind him, each group led by generals, some of whom looked rather familiar to the trio squared off with him. "--And I'm ruling over you like a boot full of my citizens!" He pointed at Penny quickly.

"And you should take your cow skin shield and hide under it!
You're fucking with the most triumphant third of the Triumvirate!
I'm first of the empire and last of the republicans,
And hunting you, accompanied by legions of my countrymen!
So don't go rattling your sticks at me!" he said, grabbing Penny's spear.
"If I wanted to shake spears, I'd waggle my biography!"

Cass sprang forward and grabbed Penny's spear from his hand and tossing it back to Penny. "Right, I've heard of your play. Tell me, how does it end? Oh yes! You get stabbed many times by your friends!"

Penny caught the spear and twirled it quickly as Caesar brought his weapon up. "So whatcha gonna do with your Roman swords?"

Nicole swung her sword and blocked the Emperor's shot. "When the lines of your legions get gored by the horns of the Zulu!"

"Warriors!" Penny crowed.

"Trained on thorns!" Cass shouted.

"To dismember any emperor's pasty white hordes!" Penny taunted.

"I got the strength of a lion--" Nicole said.

"--and the speed of a cheetah!" Penny finished.

Cass folded her arms and smiled. "And everyone knows you're just a chicken, Caesar!"

Caesar laughed again and cupped Cass' chin, leaning close to her. "Oooh, can I be a hyena? 'Cause I'm going to laugh!" He pushed her back and grabbed Nicole's sword and yanked it out of her hand. "I'll pave roads with the bones of your goat-herding ass!"

He threw the sword to one of his generals, then looked at Penny.

"First, my front lines will drop back and spank you in the chest,
Then I'll decimate your horns; you can't outflank the best!"

He stepped back and spread his arms "Let your reserves come at me. My ballista's cocked and ready!
When I take aim, I always keep my whole crew steady!"

He walked up and grabbed Cass, pulling her close. "Because there's no use in murdering you and your heathen. You can grow my wheat for me after you're beaten."

Penny was about to retort, but by that point she'd circled around far enough to see Thomas standing off to the side.

Cass saw her expression and looked up. "Computer, freeze program." The music stopped and the figures in the background behind Caesar froze. She cleared her throat gently. "Penny, I think I need to have a word with the Emperor. Why don't you go and get changed."

Penny looked to Cass and Caesar, then back again and nodded, understanding. "My love to the kids," she said, Caesar bowing in response.

Cass looked at Nicole pointedly and cleared her throat again.

"Do you need a lozenge?" Nicole said, leaning towards Cass, then let out a small yelp as she felt Cass' foot connect with her shin. "Right, I think I'll stay here as well. I suddenly need to discuss something with Cass." She glared at Cass then at Caesar who chuckled behind her.

She stepped back with Cass next to Caesar, effectively leaving Penny and Thomas standing near each other by the arch, the hint clear.

Penny looked at them, then at Thomas, not quite meeting his eyes. "Guess I should change," she said, walking out through the exit. She stopped in the doorway and looked back. "Coming?"

Thomas couldn't help but look down at his own attire. Unlike the three officers, he was still in his standard duty uniform. Maybe he was the one who was overdressed. "Yeah," he said, turning to follow her. As they stepped out into the corridor, it was a few moments before Tom realized that he'd done something gentlemanly as his grey and black uniform jacket had been quickly draped over her shoulders.

"Uh..." he stammered, thinking about what his unconscious mind had done. "I... I guess you don't get cold, do you?"

She blushed a bit. "Not in the same way," she said. She didn't say anything else until they'd reached her quarters. She immediately handed him back his uniform top and removed her costume, standing in front of him in her underwear. Given he'd seen more, she didn't feel particularly concerned, and was secretly pleased to see his eyes roaming. She slipped on a pair of shorts and a tshirt, and turned to face him.

"I didn't know how to say it," she said. "I wanted to say something, I just...when things progressed, and I started feeling...well I didn't know what I was feeling, that was the problem. I had analyzed an emotional reaction and I didn't know how to quantify it. It grew, and it took over and it completely shut me down because I just couldn't get a handle on it, but now I have and it's...scary."

Her blue eyes were moist and she bit her lip, suddenly nervous. "I love you," she said quickly, as if afraid of the words. "I was made to evaluate humanity. I had one mission: find a good man. And I did...and I love you."

They had remained at that point several paces apart. Tom had stood in the doorway to her bedroom, holding the crumpled top with one hand at his side as he listened to her words. Very few thoughts floated in his head as she spoke as he did his best to focus on what she had to say. Up until this moment, he'd considered several outcomes. One was vent his frustration and let her have it. Another was to call it quits because she wasn't who he thought she was.

He did neither of those. Tom didn't notice how well his uniform top was absorbed into the mess when it hit the pile on the floor, nor did he pay attention to what he stepped on. In the blink of an eye, he was standing right in front of her, with one hand cradling her head and the other reaching around her back as he delivered perhaps his most passionate and caring kiss yet. "I love you too, Penny," he confessed when he pulled back, using a thumb to wipe away a tear from one of her moist eyes.

Penny kissed him back, tears rolling out of her eyes. As he wiped one away, she took his hand and kissed it. "How do you bear it?" she said. "It's....terrifying. When you saw me, and you walked out...I was so scared. I was afraid I'd never speak to you again, never see you smile never hear you laugh, never feel you hold me..." She cried again and grabbed him, holding him tight.

"Hey," he said, in his softest, most comforting voice. "When I was growing up, I watched my parents fight all of the time, especially when my mother caught my dad in another of his lies. It didn't matter if they were alone, or in front of a hundred people. I swore I wouldn't do that to anyone I loved."

Tom kissed the top of her head as he held onto her. "I never meant to hurt you by walking out. If it was just you and me in that lab, I would have stayed."

Penny nodded. "And I never meant to betray your trust. I didn't...well sort of didn't lie. I just...didn't know how to tell you the whole truth."

"I can't blame you. I can't imagine what it would be like to walk around with everyone knowing you're..." Tom paused, not quite sure what to classify her. "What... are you exactly?"

Penny laughed and nodded. She took his hand and pulled him to her bed, pushing him to sit and curling up next to him. "I'm an android. Penelope series, unit number 121. Everything I've told you about my parents, my being found on the shores of Oahu, was all true. Even I didn't know what I was until a couple years ago." She put a hand on his cheek and kept looking over his face. She'd already filed every detail about it into memory, but continued finding new details she'd never noticed before. "I'll tell you anything you want to know," she said. "I promise I won't lie to you anymore."

Thomas relished her touch. He smiled as he looked into her blue eyes. Though he now knew they were robotic, he could still see sincerity in them. "I take it the Counselor and Doctor know the truth. Obviously Commander Torres. Is there... anyone else?"

"The Captain," she said. "Cass made me tell her. And yes, Cass and Nicole knew. They were with me when we all found out. They had to tell Commander Torres when I...well when I shut down." She cleared her throat. "Evidently 'love' wasn't something my makers anticipated. I didn't know how to identify it and it almost crashed my systems."

Tom couldn't help but chuckle. "So, finding a good man didn't have anything to do with love?" He quickly stopped his jovial reaction, thinking it might offend.

She looked away, blushing a bit. "That's different," she said quietly. "They wanted...they wanted to know if you all had grown, if humanity still needed to be....cared for. If humans were still aggressive, barbaric, adversarial primitives...they were prepared to resume their previous plans. But they needed to assess humanity first, and they knew your very existence was deadly, so they sent me out to evaluate you."

He couldn't help but think what these makers thought of the Klingons, Romulans... hell, even the Borg. Tom also suddenly thought of the poor film choice from that other night. "So then," he asked, a smirk on his face. "What is your evaluation of me?"

"Kind, honest, thoughtful," she said. "You make me laugh, and you are the most genuine person I've met. Everything I want to know about you, I get from looking at you."

"And you," Tom told her, "are the loveliest, sweetest, most sincere woman I've ever met." He leaned in and gave her a kiss.

Penny kissed him deeply and tackled him to her bed, kissing him all over. "I love you," she said.

JP

Penelope Naroot
CFCO

Thomas Barnes
BFOTY

Nicole Anderson
CMO

Cassandra Sanders
Ship's Counselor

Julius Caesar
Guest Star

 

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