Night Come Down

Chapter 11 "Sisters in arms"

R'tas stood in front of a large contraption that held a holographic, Vitruvian projection of a Lorinthian skeleton, lighting up a new stick before a scientist came over and quickly smacked it out of his hands, stomping it out.

Scientist; "What'd I say about smoking in the lab‽"

R'tas; "Sorry, doc... Force of habit."

Scientist; "Where are you even getting these... See-gars from?"

The scientist goes over to a desk and picks up a small cylinder with a cleanly cut shard of bone, marrow and all, taking it over to the machine and installing it in a slot on the side close to the ground.

R'tas; "Smuggled in from Yurth. Who's bringing them in, I'm sworn to secrecy."

Scientist; "You mean feeding your addiction?"

R'tas huffed and flashed a frown at the scientist before looking back at the hologram.

R'tas; "Just start the fabrication."

Scientist; "Alright... For the second time this Jaage*."

The scientist grumbles as he walks to a standing monitor and interacts with the display, pressing a series of buttons before the hologram rotates vertically, putting the faux Lorinthian on its' back. The hologram fades and a pair of armatures lower from opened panels above. Plates on the floor also open up, revealing containers of various bones. The armatures grab and place the bones where the hologram would dictate, forming a complete Lorinthian skeleton suspended in an energy field.

Once assembled, the armatures sprout needles that began laying out a viscous gray gel on the bones, which swiftly grew into ligaments, tendons, muscle, organs and fat. Once that was finished, a pair of poles raised on either side of the body at the feet, projecting a wall of yellow light between them and began slowly moving upwards. Skin and scales began to rapidly grow over the exposed muscle in the wake of the light wall, the face matching the portrait of Kal'ia perfectly.

A set of cuffs raised from below to grip her ankles and wrists, an extra support encompassing her back as she was moved to a near vertical position. A spike raised and injected itself into her head. Simultaneously, a pair of pads flanked her on either side; one over her heart, and one on her side. They both flashed in unison, causing the body to jolt. This happened a few more times before the body began to breathe on its' own.

The armatures needles retracted and extended rapidly, moving down to her ankles and slowly sewing together a scale-tight, black suit over her body. R'tas had secretly burned through his first cigar by now, and turned to the scientist at the computer.

R'tas; "When'll she be good enough to speak?"

Scientist; "Uh, not for another hour or so."

R'tas; "Just enough time to give a pep talk."

He extinguishes what's left of his cigar against the palm of his hand and tossed it into the corner, walking for the door. He could just barely hear the scientist groan in anger as the door closed behind him, making him smirk. He walked through a hallway of emerald metal, pulling out and lighting another cigar once he came upon a door labeled "Barracks" in the Lorinthian tongue.

He opened the door by holding up the back of his left hand to a scanner, revealing two Female Lorinthians inside; one of them had a breastplate with the tag "Kolar, Numoc", the spitting image of Kal'ia, including the violet eyes, barely seen as she looked down at her helmet. The other was sitting on a bench with her weapon field stripped, and her tag read "Vadam, Vatch", while her eyes were a dark jade green, looking nothing like the old Empress. Upon seeing R'tas enter, they both immediately went to stand at attention, Vatch knocking her weapon and its' innards on the floor. R'tas chuckles a little and takes a puff of his cigar.

R'tas; "At ease. I just want to make sure you two are updated on the situation."

Numoc; "I'm well aware. You're making another one of me. Why, though? Do we really need another clone of Kal'ia?"

R'tas; "See, that's exactly why. She's not gonna know she's a clone. As far as she knows, when the uploading or whatever is done, she'll think she's recovering from a battle. She'll have memories of a family, getting drafted, all that and a bag of grubs."

Vatch; "Is that a good idea? What happens if she does find out?"

R'tas; "She won't, I'll make sure of that. She'll look up to Kal'ia, like everyone else, but not believe they're the same person."

Numoc; "Better be right. There's no way I'm letting her and I be so similar."

R'tas takes a puff from his cigar and nods gently.

R'tas; "Just keep getting ready for the mission. We leave as soon as your new sister, Kai'don Juran, is ready."

He walks for the door, taking another long puff as he exited. He walked back to the cloning chamber just in time for the needle to retract from Kais' head, and she slowly began to stir. R'tas extinguished his cigar at the threshold before coming to Kais' side, kneeling down. Kai coughs a little before gingerly waving her hand in front of her face, slowly opening and blinking her amethyst eyes.

Kai; "Gosh... What's that smell?"

R'tas; "Tobacco. You get used to it."

Kai; "Not sure I will... What happened? Is everyone ok?"

R'tas; "We made it out, soldier. You did great."

He glanced to the scientist, who made a gesture; pointing to his head, then pointing to Kai.

R'tas; "How's your head? Ya hit it pretty hard on the way out."

Kai; "Ugh... Like someone drove a needle into the back of my skull."

R'tas; "Interesting choice of words... But, I'm glad you made it out alive."

Kai; "When... When's the next mission?"

R'tas raises an eyebrow in genuine surprise before glancing to the scientist in the back. He shrugs his shoulders, just as surprised.

R'tas; "You... Don't wanna rest for a little bit?"

Kai; "I'm ready to get back out there, Dev'awl. Every moment I'm not out there is a moment I'm not protecting Lorinthia."

R'tas smiles and pats her shoulder.

R'tas; "I'd ask if you're just saying what I wanna hear, but I know better. To the barracks with you, soldier."

*Jaage translates to year in Lorinthian. One Lorinthian year is 10 Earth years