Cold Phoenix

The mugger grinned, grabbing the girl and dragging her into an alley, producing a vibro-shiv seemingly from nowhere and brandishing it menacingly.

"Now, if you just be quiet, the only thing you'll lose is money, instead of money and a limb, girl." There isn’t much point in fleeing or resisting- a vibro-shiv can slice through flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter. Yelling for help, however.

She inhaled deeply and what erupted from her mouth was a loud scream of "HELLLLLLLLLPPPPP!!"

The mugger muttered something and shoved Dana aside, grabbing her purse and running away. However, Dana had been heard. The droning whine of a plasma turbine engine filled the air as a LEO Officer descended from the skies above like an angry falcon, leaping from their PITSAT to the ground and giving chase in metal boots. "GET BACK HERE!!

In seconds the officer- female, from her voice- had caught the mugger. A spin-kick had him on the ground and three swift punches had him immobilized. Stun-cuffed and dazed, she tossed him onto the back of the PITSAT- the vehicle looking like a short, fat turbojet engine from an airplane wing with a windscreen, handlebars, and a seat. The officer- tall, pale and smiling disarmingly, walked over. "You okay miss?"

She smiled back softly, "Yes Officer, I am fine I guess but still a little shaken up. Thank you for catching him so swiftly," she said with the sweetest hint of an accent.

She smiled and held out a card. "Here. Can you come by the local LEO station tomorrow, so I can get a statement from you?"

"Sure Officer-, excuse me, what is your name Ma'am?" she said, trying to peer at her name badge

She grinned, pointing at the card. "I'm a LEO Freelancer, Sarah Whitmore. See you tomorrow." She hopped onto the PITSAT and the plasma turbine roared to life, blue flame pouring out the rear of the small vehicle as the officer took to the sky, presumably to drop off the criminal.

Dana went home, her mind full of thoughts about the encounter. Interesting.

The next day she went to the LEO station. The entire place was done up in blue and gray, and everyone and everything seemed intimidating. The receptionist gave Dana a cold stare, and everyone seemed to be ignoring her.

"Go sit over there on the bench. We'll be with you in a few minutes."

She walked around, completely ignoring the rude receptionist. She looked at the traditional wall of wanted criminals and leaved through some pamphlets on the long counter. Eyeing a doorway that said "Officer Whitmore" in a black and white plaque above she went to go knock on the door when the receptionist looked up and yelled at her to get away from there. She moped back to the seating area but still didn’t sit down, choosing rather to stare out of the Plexiglas window

The Glass doors slammed open and Sarah strode in. Dressed in a simple white shirt and unbuttoned black vest, as well as ice camouflage pants, she looked as good as ever. Steel metal boots clad her feet, black fingerless gloves on her hands and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses with slightly blue lenses perched on her nose. She completely ignored the receptionist and strode over to Dana. "Hey! Hi! You doing okay?"

"Yeah I'm doing okay but it is quite 'cold' in here, if you know what I mean," Dana said, glaring at the receptionist. "So did you put that punk behind bars?" she asked, truly intrigued

She nodded. "Yep! C'mon I got to take you to the recording room so we can get your statement. Bleah. Bureaucracy sucks." Now that Dana had time to actually see the officer, she realized, Sarah was quite attractive. Muscular, but not too excessive, what was visible was toned, sculpted, and beautiful.

She also had a stunning, spectacular, HUGE pair of breasts. They were a bit bigger than basketballs, and they moved quite a bit, so they weren't fake. Almost big enough to be seen from behind even. And she was going to be in a room ALONE with that body! Whoa!

She grinned and trotted behind the older woman, her own supple figure bobbing behind the bustier woman's

Within a few minutes, Sarah had gotten a recorded statement from Dana and sent the girl on her way with a LEO pass card- a simple piece of paper that would keep Dana's employers from firing her due to LEO needs. She went to work- a bank teller at a local bank, nothing big, an average job with an average wage. The entire day, however, she thought about her OTHER job- she was a surrogate and two days ago she'd been fertilized and implanted with the fertilized egg she was to carry to term.

She gently rubbed the lower part of her belly in between customers, knowing that the baby... hopefully babies... would find a nice home. It was her first surrogacy but she had wanted it for so long. As soon as she had come of age and gotten a clean bill of health, she signed up for the program and was implanted with a couple fertilized eggs shortly afterwards. She was told that she would probably only have one grow to maturity but she knew deep in her heart that they would find a warm place to rest and begin their time together. She stroked her tummy, subconsciously hoping that would coax them to settle in her safe womb

Months go by. Dana's pregnancy progresses, and soon it's discovered she's pregnant with twins! Delighted with this she takes to wearing the best show-off outfits she can get away with.

"Look at her, parading that gut around."

"You think we can use her?"

"She's the only pregnant one I've seen in months, I say we take her." The three hidden watchers left, waiting for Dana to get off work and start to walk the three-block trip to her apartment.

She smiled and bobbed as she walked, in complete euphoria, loving the stares she got from strangers and the women who just loved to touch her fertile belly. She got to her apartment door and looked though her purse for her keys.

"GET HER!" In half a second she'd been grabbed by at least two men and one of them slammed something heavy into the back of her head, knocking her out

She was suspended naked, in a tube of liquid, with tubes and wires hooked up to her body. Pregnant with twins, she was due any day now, and she was scared. There'd been talk of gang activity in Jerhattan, but that could be anywhere- the city covered most of the east coast. She peered through the green-gray liquid and spotted people moving around outside the tube, along with hodgepodge computers and equipment. Then she spotted one guy with a jacket on; red sleeves, white body, and with a stylized DNA double helix made into a G.

Genestealers. A gang devoted to genetic manipulation- they tended to do one of three things- cause damage, rob people who came to look at the damage...

... and abduct pregnant women to use them for their own ends. Crap.

***

"Hey, Any officers out there in the Financial District in Jerhattan? We got reports of gang activity as well as muggings."

"Whitmore here. Any addresses?”

"Just a few- one's an apartment building just outside the financial district, another by the warehouse section on the other end."

"Huh. I'll go check it out. ISAT Unit out and Investigating."

"Just to scratch the pretty paint on that toy of yours, Whitmore."

"I'll scratch it all I like, Radio! You know damn well I bought this thing with my own damnable cash! If I dent it, it comes out of my pocket. Go bother some other Freelancer."

*** 'Hmm....The warehouse section seems the best place to go- There's a whole shitload of abandoned buildings a Gang could use and convert into a hideout and no one would know. Fecking bureaucracy.' The ISAT remained circling overhead, and Sarah detached the PITSAT and did a low run over the abandoned sections, the HUD in her glasses giving her readouts on activity.

'Empty, Empty, Empty, a few live wires, empty, two bodies, probably homeless bums, empty, empty... AHA! JACKPOT!'

"Radio, this is Freelancer Whitmore. I'm in the Warehouse district. One of the old abandoned warehouses in Gamma Block is just loaded with activity. Three generators multiple heat readings, computer activity- I'll bet that this is the gang center for this area. I'm going to go in and scope the place out. If I don’t report back in five, make sure the patrol units know this is a danger zone."

"Yeah, sure, Freelancer. Go play your hotshot games."

"Ah, shut it Radio. Just make sure people know there’s a cop in the damn area."

She hopped off the PITSAT, the vehicle going on autopilot back to the ISAT. The bigger, missile styled vehicle would find someplace nearby and wait for other commands, the base AI in it controlling it for the time being.

She landed lightly on the roof, Phased/Plasma pistol drawn, and the heavier weaponry, Her Hammer and meteor-gun, strapped to her waist and back, respectively. She tiptoed through the halls of the warehouse, and then blinked in surprise when she looked around a corner.

Thirty Genestealer gang members, a plethora of hodgepodge equipment, and a very pregnant woman- awake-in a stasis tube. Fuck.

She took a deep breath, and pulled the meteor-gun off her back, sliding her arm into the opening set for it and feeling the familiar tingle of electricity through her body. She dove around the corner and fired three massive balls of plasma, and then a small phased plasma bolt. Two of the three shots atomized the various gang members. The third blew up the computers. The final shot, the one from her pistol, hit the bottom of the tank, blowing a hole for the fluid to drain. She ran across the room and smashed the glass with barrel, reaching in to remove the wires and tubes from the pregnant woman. She tossed the girl some clothing and then punched a command code into her comm.-bracelet. "Come on, there'll be more in here in seconds. Get yourself decent so I can get you out of here. Hey... have we met?"

She nodded and got dressed VERY quickly, basically just tossing on a shirt and carrying the rest as she ran for cover behind Officer Whitmore. She held onto her precious stomach and whimpered softly as she feared for her life and the little lives inside her. She didn’t know if they Genestealers had done anything to her while she was sleeping; compromised her pregnancy, toyed with the children inside or what but she was scared. So scared that she began to shake

She took the woman's arm, and ran towards the nearest doorway. The Hud on her glasses was already showing a real-time view of the blueprints, superimposed over the reality. She frowned: a blocked way. She bent her knees, bracing herself and charging up the meteor-gun. "Lady, stand back!" She fired a comet-like blast of blue-green plasma at the wall, the electric fire carving a hole through the wall, exposing them to the foul air outside. :"Come here, quick!"

She obeyed quickly, practically jumping into the pale woman's arms, bracing herself for the worst

She carefully lifted the pregnant woman in her arms- were she calmer, Dana would have noted that this was impossible or near impossible for a normal person- her pregnancy made her body too bulky and heavy to be carried easily or effectively, yet this tall pale woman managed both. She closed her eyes as they fell.

Sarah looked down, and saw the girl's eyes closed and the ground coming up fast. The jets in her boots kicked in, slowing them down. The ISAT and PITSAT had been recalled to HQ- apparently a 'real' officer had needed it, and as such took precedence.

A car, done up in tinted chrome, aluminum and glass (all three tinted) came to a halt in front of them. A car historian would note that the body was from an early 1980's-era car company, now defunct. The innards had been completely redone with modern technology- minicomputer, plasma turbine engine, pressure seats with web restraints, and a number of semi-illegal aftermarket modifications.

The HUD on Sarah's glasses had a small box in the lower left corner for her AI's avatar, when the AI was 'awake' and active, driving the car for her was one such activity.

"Hey bolts, nice to see you!"

"Shut up, tin head." Sarah mumbled into the throat mike she had, and the AI got somber.

"Yeesh, you look peeved. What happened?"

"My air support got taken. Has Mercy finished the one we're making?"

"Nope- she's waiting for you to get home."

"Tell her to make the place civilian-safe now, and make sure anything suspect is under lock and key in the storage room. I have to take this girl to the hospital- the Genestealers may have gotten to her already."

"Get a move on the ones in the building next to you are roaring around like pissed off hornets."

"Get the Interceptor to the closest hospital, upload directions there into the car's minicomputer, and then leave me the hell alone, Mol./ I'm in a rotten mood."

"So I gathered. AI offline."

Sarah pulled open the passenger side door, gull wing-style door, rather than the traditional slide access of modern cars or the foldouts of past eras- and helped the pregnant girl get into the seat. "Get in and sit down." She pulled the racing-styled web restraints over the girl's body and shut the door, running around to the driver's side and slid behind the controls. Odd, most cars didn’t have pressure plate controls; especially not pressure plates as odd as the ones on this car- steering yokes were preferred, since they were less touchy.

A veritable horde of motorcycle riding Genstealers came pouring out of the warehouse and headed for the car, which leapt away from the curb as the turbines, electrical whine went up in pitch. With close to fifty motorcycles following them, Sarah kept the pedal to the metal and took some very close corners, flipping the car up on it's side so the hover plates on the underside could meet walls and ramp off them to avoid losing speed. "You okay?"

She whimpered and grabbed onto the door and the center console, bracing herself as a contraction wracked her body. She breathed in and out quickly, and her face contorted with pain.

"Never better" she said, trying to put on a smile and ease the pale woman's fears.

She calmed down and panted softly and then another one came, this time longer and more painful. She hadn’t broken her water but was going into active labor.

She had no experience with pregnant women- hell, this was the first one she'd seen or met at all, and she wasn't sure if this was a reaction to something the Genestealers did, fear, or something else. The map pointed to the highway and she went up the onramp and 150 miles an hour, the inertial dampeners in the car starting to strain a little to keep the passengers within the car from getting moved around. The motorcyclists all followed, ten or so careening off the ramp and wrecking or thrown from their bikes, out of the pursuit. Peachy.

The car was fast, but these were modern bikes, with energy boosters, which would be more than enough to help them catch up to the car on the highway. Off to the right was the Sumer district, an older area full of older buildings that were abandoned but too close to civilization to inhabited illegally. Sarah knew it like the back of her hand.

"HANG ON!" She yelled, and the car veered right. She punched two of the many unlabeled buttons on the dash and the car 'hopped' into the air as the hover pads pulsed and a glide sail snapped open over the roof of the car, allowing it to come to a mostly-safe landing on the road below a moment later, the speedometer reading 230 miles an hour and still climbing. Everything was blurring now, and the HUG on the windshield, projecting a holographic display of the road and buildings around them in wire frame was just about the only way to keep from getting smashed into a wall. Up stairwells, across sloped roofs, and generally up onto places where ground traffic was not supposed to go, they went. Many of the motorcyclists crashed during the pursuit. There were thirty left when the car landed, wheels down and shocks bottoming out, in the emergency ambulance zone at the nearby hospital like a stealth fighter with an inferiority complex. Sarah got out and helped the badly shaken woman out and onto a gurney, flashed her police badge and hopped onto the motorcycle waiting a few meters away. The car drove off sedately and Sara fired a few plasma pistol rounds at the oncoming motorcyclists to get their attention. "HEY! You want me? Come and get me!"

She was wheeled into the emergency room and then after a quick examination was lead to the maternity ward with nurses and doctors that were more equipped to handle labor and delivery. She was settled in a bed where nurses began fussing over her. When Dana finally got her senses back she began crying.

"Where is Sarah? Where is she? I need her!"

"Who is Sarah child? No one came in with you, not that we were told about," one of the nurses said as she applied a cool rag to her head.

"The woman who saved me! Where is she?" she said, eyes full of tears.

She wanted to call out some more but then another contraction hit and she grabbed hold of the side rails of the bed and whimpered as her knuckles went white from her grip. As it subsided she began panting and used this time to rest instead of calling out for Sarah who was nowhere to be found.

At the next contraction her water broke and the pain became a bit worse. The nurse asked her if she needed an epidural and she shook her head. When the contraction subsided she collapsed and rested, breathing deeply, whimpering every now and then. As she stroked her tummy she prayed Sarah would come through those doors and come hold her hand. But she was alone right now

She'd gone back to the highway, pursued by thirty bikers. Her eyes glowed with power, barely contained and rage she barely controlled. The phase-inversion turbine engine in the bike put out massive amounts of horsepower, and only the fact that the hammerhead had kinetic grips on the smart wheels kept this raw power from stripping the rubber from the tires completely. She had the engine as close to idle as possible- she had no intentions of outrunning the gangsters this time.

As the first one pulled alongside her, her hand whipped back, connecting with his face hard enough to shatter his nose and crack all the bones in his face. The electrical jolt she gave him on top of the damage kept him from doing anything but watching in abject horror as his bike slammed into a light post at 200mph, because his body refused to move when ordered. One down.

The next one stayed out of arm's reach, having seen what had happened to the first comer. Sarah grabbed the cheap composite rod that was strapped to the side of her bike and lashed out, slamming the gang member off the bike and sending his vehicle into a tumble that started a cascade among the grouped riders behind her. Twelve down.

Another stayed a bit farther away, drawing a pistol. She pointed the rod and pressed the button. The spring-loaded telescoping section shot out and the rod caught in the front spokes of the gang member's bike, and he too tumbled, and took three more with him. Fifteen down, halfway there.

The doctor came in and propped her feet in a pair or gynecological stirrups and began his exam. She tensed up and breathed in small pants.

Despite over 1000 years of advancement in technology, the birthing situation was the same. The drugs were better for women in pain and the care for premature babies was excellent, but it was still a messy, embarrassing experience.

She squirmed and whimpered and then another contraction started.

"You are only dilated a few centimeters but these babies want out. If things don’t improve, I am going to have to give you some drugs to send you further into labor, Miss"

She nodded slowly and grabbed on tightly to the metal side rails, panting and moaning through clenched teeth as her labor pains started anew

She slowed down, and the pack converged on her, like a pride of lions on a crippled gazelle. She was finished.