What Was Lost

Xelena did forget about that. Technically, while she did have most if all her memories recalled in clear detail much like someone with photographic memory, she couldn't recall everything at once. If you had enough memories, even if you did remember them, you might not recall them instantly. In Xelena's case, given her brain was essentially a super computer, she would have to look deeper into her memories to recall certain things.

"True. And mom? Motoko finds your clothes distracting. I'm used to it but it might be a good idea to throw on a shirt. You can use one of mine for now without leaving the room, we're about the same size." We'll, Maya was taller then her. Xelena was about 5'10 and Maya was 6'1. She was, however, heavier then Maya weight wise, but that was largely due to what she was. Nalga technology was an incredible thing, and had managed to reduce weight despite the advance armor and things installed in her. It still was a bit heavier for her size, but nothing too over the top.

At these words, Maya simply chuckled to herself, nodding. "Of course. I apologize, Motoko." She started to get up, and Motoko acted quickly. Xelena, suddenly, would see her arm moving on it's own, quickly taking Maya's hand, getting her attention. Immediately after, Xelena would notice she had full control of her arm again.

"I'm sorry for doing that Xelena, but when I said her clothes were distracting... that wasn't a bad thing. You have to remember, it's been a good while, so the view is welcome."

Xelena was taken back by someone taking control of her arm, but she didn't really get time to panick when her control was given back to her. ..Okay. Just please don't do that again unless its an emergency.

"Sorry mom..Motoko said it wasn't the bad kind of distracting. We just had a failure of communication moment You don't have to change, you're fine as is." Xelena said, leaving out the part about Motoko briefly taking control of her arm, she didn't want Maya to get the wrong idea. "We need to find something for her to be able to communicate with others while she's..like this." There were a few things that came to mind, some would need to be hashed out in the lab.

She wasn't by any means an inventor like some of the other Nalga, however, the theoretical knowledge and such was there. If she applied herself and had the resources here, Xelena was reasonably confident she do decent.

Maya nodded, sitting back down, while Motoko sighed. "I'm sorry, Xelena. In my line of work, I often had to quickly dive into another person's conciousness and take control. I promise though, I won't do it again unless it's an emergency."

"So, I take it Motoko likes how I look. Well, that's flattering, at any rate. I have quite a few other things on my mind, however. And yes, Xelena, we do need to find a way for her to communicate, instead of you needing to relay everything."

It's fine. Just for next time. We all make mistakes, I made the one earlier when you first met Cecil with that computer.

"I think I have something in mind, I just need some time with Cecil to put it together later." Xelena, while not needing to eat like a complete organic being, still liked to, mostly just for taste. There was also a physiological component to it. She knew logically she didn't need to eat or drink, but it didn't stop her from eating and drinking on a normal basis. Plus, it did restore a bit of lost energy that could have been recharged via sleeping.

Xelena grabbed one of the morning foods, an muffin(another craze from earth when it was first introduced) taking a bit out of it. "So what have you been up to while you were away?" Politics were something Xelena had no interest in, but there were other things that went on with her mother. She always so busy. If it was up to her, she'd get an extended vacation. Maya needed one.

Maya sighed softly. "Aside from the politics, not too much, I'm afraid. The only thing of note, isn't happy. Apparently, one of our political allies, has a son who he's grooming to lead after him. And this son, when I walked in, assumed I was a servant. Upon introducing myself, he said I must be joking, and told me to bring the 'actual President' in." She paused briefly, and sighed. "I assured him of who I was, and he told me to stop lying and show due respect. His father actually attempted to shut him up and explain, but the fool actually interrupted him. So not only was he disrespecting me, but he was undermining his father in front of political allies." Another pause. She knew how Xelena would react to the next part.

"I interrupted him in his little tirade, and he responded by slapping me for 'talking back to my betters.' It... was not a good start to the meeting."

Xelena's mouth opened to speak, then closed. It took her a moment to process what happened, forcing herself to calm down. "..How can someone that dumb be in put in an meeting with important people? You hurt him? Or did one of the bodyguards do it?" It was likely one of the other, if he had actually physically attacked someone like Maya. That was hardly the smartest decision. Even the people who weren't as benevolent as they appeared at least had the sense to act the part. Seemed they couldn't even do that part, which was part of any half decent politician's skill set.

Maya shrugged. "I broke his arm and then slapped him with it. Broke his nose and fingers. The guards hauled him off after that. I told the father he could go get him after the meeting, but he told me to let him sit in a cell for awhile, think about what his bad decisions lead to. Smart decision."

"Broke his arm and slapped him with it... I approve."

It seemed Motoko had no problems with how Maya had handled it.

Neither did Xelena.

The Alpha nodded to that. "As long as it got taken care of. Still can't believe someone would be that stupid and rash. Even if they didn't think you were the president, if you were there, you had to be someone connected. And if they striked someone, even if they were just part of the background, that would have gotten them into trouble."

'But that would make too much sense.'

Probably so.

Xelena knew she was forgetting something, and she had been distracted by recent things and the current conversation. "Oh..I almost forgot. Hang on." She got up from her spot and into her dresser, pulling a strange small blue cube. It was one of the things that replaced normal data storage, or projected past things like a normal video did. Except with a hologram and more clear. "Niege and her friends told me to give this to you in person. I got it before Motoko came into my head, I'm not really sure what it is though."

Maya sat up a bit straighter, and nodded. "I see. Please, play it, we'll see what it is. If Neige took the time to get it here, and specify it was to be given to me in person, it must be quite important."

Not having any reason not to, Xelena put the cube on the floor, tapping a few buttons on the side and standing back allowing it to play. A hologram appeared not that much long after, revealing Niege on some planet along with their friends in the background, but you really couldn't see them.

"Is this thing working?" A male voice muttered in the background.

"It would if you hadn't busted it."

"I didn't bust it, I-

Niege seemed irritated, turning around to the unseen people. "Ya'll be quite, I'm tryin' to talk Maya an the important folks." It seemed that did it, and the voices were more quite. Niege turned back around. "Sorry, those two bicker more then two earth hens. Anyway, there's somethin' you should see."

There was a clicking noise, and soon the planet Zanith appeared. It looked normal, but there was something off. There seemed to be shapes that weren't natural, more like structures from the outside looking in. "Not sure what these thin' are, but they aren't natural. We tried to see what was going on with those folks, but comminications are jammed. Somethin' is funny, and it ain't just what's going on down there."

The image of the planet ended. "Just might want to check, made sure Xelena got a hold of this, bein' an nice gal and your daughter. Should have this downloaded too. I gotta get going, I'll talk to ya'll later, okay?"

And without another word, the image itself ended completely.

Maya frowned slightly. "That is strange... I'll need to send a team to check it out, assuming anyone is free..." She'd immediately started thinking things over, going into serious thought over this. It was part of why she was good at her job, but wasn't constantly stressed; she was able switch between relaxed and serious with ease, a skill she'd developed early on.

Xelena put the cube away once it was done, she had already downloaded the data earlier when she got at as a just in case. She turned to Maya. "I could go and be part of a investigation team. I think Retina has some people available along with King Helex. They would be glad to help if you can't find anyone else around." Retina was the current leader of the Eldarian's, while Helex was the king of Kian race. Among them were some of Alus closes friends and allies.

Maya seemed hesitant. "I don't know... we don't know what this is, and it could be dangerous. I know you can handle yourself just fine, but..." She was understandably worried. Xelena was her daughter in every way but by blood, and she hated putting her in any sort of risk.

Xelena could have stayed out of it, but it wasn't really in her nature. At the same time she had her mother to think about. "If I go there, I promise I'll stay out of any heavy fighting if I can avoid it. It's just a scouting mission though, we'll just see what's going on and report back."

Maya paused, then sighed, nodding. "Alright. Just be careful. I trust your judgement, so..." She shook her head, and smiled. "So long as you come back to me in one piece, I'm fine."

Xelena smiled and gave her mother a hug. "I promise mom. I'll come back safe."

* *

A team was assembled in relatively short order once Maya called and made arrangements in a few days. Retina had sent a small deployment, along with some of Helex's warriors. There was also a few people from Alus, but the only person she recognized was Jacob, his experience and track record was probably the main reason he had been picked after volunteering. Dexus was one of the names of the Kian warriors, though he was in his human looking form at the moment.

They had taken one of Eldarian Cruisers for the ride, it was big enough to accommodate everyone present while not being overly large. It was roughly a big bigger then a house for five people, though due to is spacing and internal structure it could carry a bit more then the norm. Besides some small talk between the various people present now and then, nothing of interest happened on the trip.

Landing finally, there was a 'hiss' sound as the doors opened, Jacob turned to the others present. "Okay. This is a simple scouting mission, keep close and alert, we're not sure what's been going on the ground. Keep your com on at all times. Dexus, Xelena, you're with me. We need to figure out what's going on and why com is down." The two went to his side, the former didn't seem to talk that much at all, or make much noise either. They were almost like a living phantom. "Frajiya, I'll leave the rest to your judgement."

The male Eldarian nodded their head. 'Understood. I'll split up evenly, leave a few to ship in case there's company, and a few others with you. The rest will go with me south side."

Jacob made a quick head count, counting himself along with Xelena, Dexus and the others that had joined, that made seven. Three Eldarian's and one Alusarian. "Let's get a move on then." They put on their helmet, it clicking into place as it was a natural part of the armor.

As the group continued down from their mountain area, Xelena was keeping track of things, if anything out of the ordinary picked up. Or if Motoko picked up anything. Before they had come here, she had here, she made a small device to allow the Major to speak to others vocally; in the shape of something similar to a watch. It was just a modified communications device she altered, but made in such way Motoko could talk through it when needed. She had informed people who needed to know already so there wasn't any surprises.

The first thing they saw was a ruined village, it was on fire and burning but there seemed to be no people inside of it at all. Her scanners picked up nothing so far.

Jacob frowned, but it was impossible to see with the helmet on. "Keep sharp, not sure what caused this, and don't want to find out."

Motoko could only 'see' whatever Xelena could see, but could monitor things a bit more effectively, only because of her training and experiences. As such, she noticed something rather early on, letting her voice pass through the device Xelena had put together for her. "Hold up! Multiple cloaked figures up ahead. I don't know if they are hostile, but be on alert. Anyone with infrared or the like, use it."

Jacob held up a hand and stopped after that, the silent command and Major's warning was taken to heart as all of them turned on different versions of alternate sight. The Eldarian's had an optic piece over their eye, similar to a scouter. However, no sooner did this start did the place come alive, purple plasma blast headed towards their group, the first few shots hitting Jacob's shield and draining it as he quickly dove out the way seeking cover of the broken buildings, the others following suit.

"Cover! Watch your flanks!" One of the men shouted, pulling out an Eldarian Pulse rifle firing spheres of death at the space pirates. They were unable to dodge, and instead the bio organic did its job, for a fraction of a second before it collapsed onto itself, few of the pirates turning into a fine green paste.

Xelena made sure to stay out of the fire fight of the others, friendly fire was common in close quarters like this. Seeing about four gathered on her west side, she charged towards them before they could focus, vanishing from normal human eye sight altogether. The first felt its chest collapsed an energy-empowered punch; sending it and another nearby pirate airborne and through one of the half destroyed buildings.

Surprised, the other pirates tried to defend themselves but were too slow, an energy whip coming out and lashing around its gaunlet arm. It's body was soon jerked like a rag doll; going towards the other fellow pirate. At the last moment, it tried to move, but again it was too slow, the energy whip wrapped around the other crushing it and the other into the ground. To make sure both targets were down, Xelena had laced the whip with electricity for extra 'kick'.

A thud sound was heard behind Xelena. Turning around was a space pirate that had been impaled through by a strange energy sword, Dexus behind them. Her scanners showed it was made of physic energy. They dropped the body after that, letting it hit the ground.

"Are you all right?"

Xelena nodded. "I'm fine." She found to her surprise, the fight was already over. That was quick; too quick. She knew real fights only lasted for a short time but still, it didn't sit right with her. Maybe it was just a small scouting group.

Jacob waited a few more moments, not hearing anything, then shouted. "Status!"

"Clear sir!"

"I'm fucked up, but I'm up."

Giving a sigh in his helmet, Jacob continued. "Everyone, fall in on me." The others, along with Xelena and Dexus joined in. "Okay. It's obvious our space pirate friends are in on this. If I know anything about the damned bugs is there's almost always a lot of those bastards. That fight probably is going to attract some attention when their buddies don't report back. So here's how its going to work."

"Xelena, Dexus, I want you to keep a low profile and sneak around. Stealth. I'm asking you two because in Xelena's case, she's stronger then anyone here, and Dexus, stealth is his call to fame. Make sure you both have a cloaking device. The rest will see what we can see, but Don't lead them back to the ship, be paranoid if you have to. It's cloaked but if something happens to it, we're sol, especially with com down. It's worth as much as water in Zor is. Questions?"

Nobody seemed to have any, so he nodded. "Move then, we need to hurry up and get out of here. Avoid the labs if you can, they always have those. The bugs like to make experiments, but look for civilians. There's no bodies so they might have taken them in for something."

Dexus watched the group began to disperse, before handing Xelena a small chip. "This is for your M.P.M.D(Multi Purpose miniature device) I don't need it, but it'll aid you in your stealth. May the Grand Design be with you Xelena of the Nalga."

Before Xelena could say anything, he was just gone, tapping something on his wrist and seeming to vanish. The last comment didn't really surprise her too much, the Kian's seem to have a lot of respect for the Nalga; though during their time the Kian's weren't that advance to even reach their own moon, much less space travel.

Shaking her head, she focused. It was time to see what she could do. She inserted the chip inside, altering it a bit before the cloak too effect. Slowly she began to walk, north this time where the pirates had seem to come from

Stealth...I can't even remember the last time I did this.

Motoko kept an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, putting her extensive knowledge and experience to use. As such, she once again picked up a cloaking field. However, this one was far different from before. "Xelena, there's something off to the left. It's cloaked, and I don't know what it is, but it's massive. I think it might be a building, but I can't be sure. Proceed cautiously."

Will do. I'll be careful.

Xelena knew that often times bases and the like had security to detect cloaking devices and the like. If she knew what she was looking for, she could see about hacking something and disablging a few things. That did give her an idea. If it came down to it, she also had Motoko to help along with that. However, she was going have to be more cautious about it, considering the last time she almost accidentally uploaded her when meeting Cecil.

She continued her trek, switching her spectrum vision to pick up cloaked objects. If something was around, she'd be able to see it.

What Xelena, and Motoko through Xelena's eyes, would see, was a large, destroyed facility. Rather recently destroyed. There were space pirate corpses strewn about, as well as strange, freakish creatures. Small drones were moing about, cleaning up the mess piling bodies to be burned by other droids. Upon looking at the strange dead creatures, Motoko frowned. "Xelena... do you recognize those things? They seem familiar, but I know I've never seen them before, so it must be a memory of yours that I saw a flash of."

Xelena certainly knew what they were, or thought she did. She didn't even respond verbally to what Motoko had said; her body tensed up, fist clinching tightly as she recognized what the beings before her were. Her normal blue eyes began switching to a glowing blood red as something almost close to adrenaline went through her body. For a moment she didn't see just the space pirates, she saw the Old Ones littered with corpses of innocent people, an distant memory she was reliving.

When she scanned them though, the computer part of her brain actually did conclude these things weren't what she thought they were.

Xelena calmed down. ...Sorry. Just..I'm not sure what came over me. Those things..I'm not sure. They look like Old Ones.. She forced herself to calm more. There was a battle here of some kind obviously, at least the lab is gone but I doubt that's it. Too many enemies which I don't know the limits of to bother fighting but at least I have an idea what's around here.

Motoko nodded, not that Xelena could see it. "Mind filling me in? And those drones cleaning up the bodies, any idea why? It seems like a cover up to me, but I can't say for sure."

At the same time, a beautiful young woman with blond hair and wearing armor was patrolling the area, when, cresting a hill, she spotted Xelena. She backed up, cursing softly to herself. She'd been ordered to kill anyone who came near here. "...Whoever you are, I'm sorry..."

...Basically, it just reminded me of something during the war, I guess I had a dramatic flash back. And no clue. My guess is someone is doing something but doesn't want to be discovered, so they're trying to hide evidence. Doesn't make sense to attack a lab outright like this though. Wouldn't that attract too much attention?

Xelena stiffened a bit, feeling a faintly familiar energy. It couldn't be what she thought it was, it just couldn't be..but she had to see. With that in mind she began looking around, wondering if her mind were playing tricks on her.