Prologue: 2073
The woman put her hands on her back in discomfort. Standing this long wasn't comfortable for her but she knew she had to make sure all of the parts were loaded correctly or all of their plans would go to ruin, pregnancy or no pregnancy. She hadn't wanted another baby, after all this was her forth, and this time her pregnancy was getting in the way of a very important stage of the plan.
Indeed now a soldier picked up a piece incorrectly and she was forced to walk over and tell him off. A piece of blond hair fell across her face and she pushed it away.
Then everything exploded and she was thrown to ground into darkness, only able to think how stupid she had been.
When she woke, she was in great pain. An old woman was leaning over her.
"Master," she croaked.
"You are awake," commented the old woman.
The woman looked down at herself. She was dressed as if she had just been in surgery and she saw that various pieces of pseudoflesh had been inserted into her limbs. But what made her heart stop was her belly. There was nothing there.
"Where is my child?" She asked the old woman. "And my husband?"
"They did not survive," the old woman replied. "And in your agony you destroyed the others as well."
The woman reached out terrified with her mind to the minds of those she knew so well but sensed a void so horrible she recoiled immediately and curled herself into a ball, feeling nothing of her own pain.
"No," she screamed and burst into tears. "I shouldn't have been there, it was too dangerous. Why did I ever join you?"
"You will never be able to go back now. Look at you, you are a monster," the old woman said.
Her disciple was not listening. "What have I done? Why was I so selfish? How could I have let myself put any plan before my children? How could they have done this to me? Did they care nothing for my child?" She screamed, clenching her fists in her agony.
The old woman walked from the room before her apprentice's anger could turn against her, a calculating smile on her face.
She walked into another room and examined a tiny incubator hooked up to a life support system. The tiny figure inside it was sitting next to a pile of smoking pseudoflesh and seemed perfectly healthy.
"Curious," she said, "So it is true." Emotion has this much power. And that power is mine. She smiled. Her plans had been fulfilled and she had not even had to lift a finger.
