The New Holland Incident

She was once again set down, laying back on her tendrils. The front of her jumpsuit was opened up, to which she vaguely remembered protesting to. The robot man was directly over her, singular big, black eye staring at her. It retreated for a moment, only coming back into view a short time later with a pain in the center of her chest. The next few seconds was one of the most odd sensations that Vas had ever experienced. It started slowly, a building of pressure in her chest that spread throughout her entire body in moments. Once it reached her head her mind exploded into action. Gone was the dizziness and the sleepiness. In its place, energy. Energy like she had never felt. She bolted off the floor, standing straight up. The pain in her leg a distant trickle in a swarm of sensory input. She tried to take the thing off her face. Deterred only once her hands were restrained and body spun around.

The Marine, Edan, she recognized him now. He was holding her, speaking to her, stopping her from taking off the thing on her face. It took a moment but her brain eventually processed what her translator was feeding to her. It felt slow, everything felt slow. Or maybe she was just fast. So fast in fact that Edan's inquiry into whether or not she was okay seemed to be coming at a glacial pace.

"WHAT HAPPENED!? WHAT'S GOING ON!? I DON'T FEEL RIGHT!" Vas blurted out, ignoring the Medic's question. After an eternity he answered.

"The ship's been hit. It's venting atmosphere." Edan's slow, robotic voice told her. "I gave you epinephrine. We need you awake, the blast doors have..."

"WHAT'S EPINEPHRINE?" She interrupted him. Her eyes focusing intently on the slight reflection of the light in his helmet's visor.

"It's an artificial adrenaline. I wasn't sure what effect..."

"WHAT? ADREEN-LINE? WHAT'S THAT?" Vas interrupted again, ignorant of the volume of her voice.

This was something different, something crazy. She'd never heard of adrenaline before, probably some magic Human medicine. It didn't matter, it was an amazing drug. Vas had never felt this good in her life. Everything was amplified a million times. Her thoughts raced from one place to another. She could feel every individual fiber in her jumpsuit, every molecule of oxygen she breathed. It was a euphoria like she had never experienced. The gunshot wound on her leg? A bug bite hardly worthy of her attention. Her collapsed ear tube? Cut it off, she didn't need it anymore. She could hear the vibration of atoms through her eyes. The infinite cosmic dance of the universe was hers to experience, all she had to do was reach out and grab it. Edan held her tighter and pulled her close. Her eyes trailed the specks of light as they moved across his visor.

"Vas," He began, "I need you to concentrate. The ship's been damaged. We're cut off from our evacuation shuttle. We need you to help us find another way to get to it."

The ship's damaged and now they were trapped? That didn't seem good, Vas thought to herself. It wasn't time for her to go to the garden yet, she had to experience the cosmic dance. God would understand. She relaxed and Edan let go of her. Vas reached for her terminal but found it missing. Her bag was gone along with her rifle. It didn't matter though. She knew where she was. And they weren't trapped! The shuttlebay was just down the corridor!

"Vas, what did you just say? You're not talking clearly." Edan said, once again grabbing her arms and restraining her.

"SHUTTLEBAY!" The Lohi calmly and clearly stated. "IT'S JUST DOWN THE CORRIDOR! I WAS GOING THERE WITH RENT!"

"Can you get us there?" The Edan machine asked, gripping her a little tighter.

"YES! BUT YOUR SHUTTLE ISN'T THERE!" Vas said with a laugh. For a big super robot Marine, he wasn't being very smart. Also she could now taste sound. The Edan voice sound tasted like pure glacial water, right from the ice. Refreshing.

"Vas, please concentrate. Is there a shuttle there we can use to escape?" He asked, the soothing words cooling the back of her throat.

"OF COURSE! I WAS GOING TO FLY RENT TO YOU!" Vas looked around, she counted three other people but none of them were her good friend Mister Rent, General Secretary for the Itica Embassy on Kai. Maybe one of the others would know. "WHERE IS RENT? HE NEEDS TO FLY!"

"Rent is already back on our ship. We just need to go there to meet him. Can you help us?"

Rent had already left without her? Well, she needed to get to him then. She had so many questions to ask him. She needed to tell him about all the lights in his name.

"OH GOOD! I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO SEE HIM AGAIN! I NEED TO ASK HIM WHY HE DOESN'T HAVE A PENIS!" Vas stated clearly to the machine man in front of her. "IT'S JUST DOWN HERE!"

Vas began walking down the corridor, mind focused on a single goal, attempting to not step on all the little triangles that were growing out of the floor. The ship was a lovely shade of green this evening. She didn't much care for the music though, a little too high pitched and mechanical for her tastes. The light bugs seemed to agree with her. They would come though the wall in a sparkle of song and leave just as soon as they arrived. She could feel the currents of wind they left behind as she passed. Before much longer she had arrived at the shuttlebay. It's big doors welcomed her as she asked about it's day. She frowned as it responded with a gray tone.

"THE SHUTTLEBAY IS NOT FEELING WELL!" Vas explained to her friends, pointing to the big door's small blinking eye.

"Vas, what's wrong with it?" The Edan asked her. Leader Southers and Mister Lynn were standing close behind him, big black eyes looking in two different directions.

"IT SAYS IT CAN'T BREATH!" Vas relayed the door's remorseful story to them.

"The shuttlebay is depressurized?" The question sound was a little spicy now. Like the powdered herb she sometimes to put on her morning food.

"YES! IT NEEDS PRESSUREIZING!" Vas exclaimed as the door agreed with the robot medics words.

"How do we re-pressurize it?"

Vas danced over the controls, following the greens and blues as the door sang her a song. It told a story about how the big nothing had taken all its air and wouldn't give it back. It even opened itself up and everything! It hurt itself opening though and now couldn't close. The shuttlebay apologized fervently that it couldn't let her in. She assured it that was okay and apologized herself, for she needed to go past so that she could fly to Rent. Vas remembered from a time before, back when the Tall In-Charge Lady had first taken her aboard. Accident safety she had called it. Vas chuckled to herself. Accident safety, what a ridiculous concept. Safety is not an accident, it's the opposite of that. But she digressed. Commander Tall Lady had showed her that the... the... outside suits (she had called them something different, but that was what they were, suits to go outside with) could open all the doors from outside to inside in an accident. So that was what she needed, thankfully they weren't too far away. Vas started to turn to walk to the place where the outside suits were and was stopped by the big black marine men.

"Vas, where are you going?" Medic Edan asked her, standing directly in front of the silver archway that protected the outside suits. "How do we re-pressurize the shuttlebay?" It asked again.

Vas smiled. "WE CAN'T! THAT'S WHY I NEED AN OUTSIDE SUIT MISTER! IT HAS THE KEY!"

"Outside suit? You mean a pressure suit?" Edan inquired.

"YES, THAT'S WHAT I SAID! AN OUTSIDE SUIT!" Vas chuckled. These robots could be so foolish sometimes. She walked close to him and patted his liquid black chest, attempting to comfort the poor man. She started to explain again, slowly. "THE OUTSIDE SUIT IS THE LORD OF THE DOOR! I NEED IT SO I CAN FLY TO RENT!"

"Bloody hell Vas! You're talking in circles, we don't have time for this!" The big, faceless eye of Edan exclaimed.

Vas grabbed his wrist and gave it a pull. She needed to show him the outside suit so he could understand. They could walk through the great nothing and fly away when she had the Master of Doors. The Edan didn't move. She tugged harder. "COME!" She insisted, pointing to the silver archway. "THERE IS THE HOUSE OF THE SUITS. I WILL SHOW YOU!"

With that she dragged the large medic to the door, opening it with an artful flick of her wrist. This door chimed happily to greet her. Inviting her in with an array of lights. Vas found the first house of the outside suits and touched it with her palm. It quickly vanished into the up and revealed a golden red suit. Vas teared up, it was perfect. Gorgeous and pristine, just waiting to envelop her in it's warm embrace. She grabbed one of the arms and pulled it forward. The cloth was smooth like liquid, sending waves crashing through her tendrils. She showed it to the big man, pointing to the lights and images that rippled in a small square.

"LORD OF THE DOOR! THE KEY! IT WILL LET ME OUTSIDE WITHOUT LOSING MYSELF TO THE BIG NOTHING! ACCIDENT SAFETY!" She informed him.

"It's an emergency airlock override attached to the pressure suit?" Edan said with a fiery flavor, taking a closer, big one eyed look at her offered arm. "And you can open the shuttlebay with this?"

"YES! THAT IS WHAT I JUST SAID SILLY!" Vas stated as he finally understood what she had been telling him for hours. His machine really needed a new memory. Vas pulled the rest of the suit out of its house and laid it out on the floor. "I JUST NEED TO BE INSIDE!"

The suit opened up without resistance. It was obviously eager to embrace. Vas took a look at herself. Her clothes were filthy. Pieces were missing and there were splotches of red and black everywhere. This wouldn't do, she thought. What if someone saw her like this? It was a good thing the outside suit was all she needed to wear. Her old clothes came undone easily. The only thing she hadn't taken off was the face mask that the robots insisted she wear. She would have to take it off eventually though, hopefully they wouldn't protest again. She picked up the remnants of her garments and quickly walked over and deposited them in the old clothes box. The cool air of the ship was much more relaxing than she had realized. The winds wicked around her exposed body drying and caressing her as they did. It was almost a shame she needed to put the outside suit on. Oh well, there was always another time.

Vas slipped inside the front of the suit, following her normal routine of how to dress up for the day. Feet then legs then bottom, pull up. Fingers then arms then middle. Carefully around the tendrils, rest on her back then over her shoulders. The outside suit was heavier, but that was okay. It did have all the special pieces so the great nothing couldn't steal from her. She carefully took off the face mask and placed it down. The machine marines didn't object this time. Good. Now to just close up her front and start. This was where Vas ran into a problem. The front sticks wouldn't stick! Her fingers were too big to make them stay! She frowned and turned to the Edan, who had his backside facing her. What an odd man.

"HELP!" She requested. The Edan turned to look at her. "HELP!" She requested more insistently this time.

He/it walked over to her, as a machine-man normally would. Or was it a man-machine? The question assaulted her. No, he couldn't be a man-machine. A man-machine wouldn't be so dark all the time. Regardless, the Edan was now where it should be.

"What's wrong?" He asked, singular big head eye piercing straight through her.

"STICKS WON'T STICK!" She informed him, shaking her chest back and forth so the Edan could see. "OUTSIDE SUIT IS BIG FOR FINGERS!"

The machine-man dropped to her level after a moment of processing. He took a long, serious look at the sticks. "Is it a magnetic pressure seal?" The medic robot voice inquired.

"YES! THE STICKS NEED TO STICK TO THE STICKS TO KEEP THE INSIDES FROM GOING OUT!" Vas exasperated. How did he not know how the stick worked?! She thought. Although, she began to ponder, maybe the marine outside suits used clicks instead of sticks. That would explain why he didn't know about it. Regardless, in the time she had debated it, the Edan man had stuck the sticks and the suit was sealed. The only thing left now was the head.

Turning like a whirlwind, Vas walked over and politely asked the outside suits house to bestow upon her the final piece. Acknowledged her request with a barely audible whisper, the house of the suit relinquished its head unto her. She retrieved it, giving the suit's house a respectful bow of her hand after she had done so. The suits house remained stoic as she prepared to place the head over top her own.

"Vas, wait!" The Edan called out to her. She turned to face her obsidian guardian, suit head still held above her own. He held within his enormous digits a small crescent shaped object with a thin line protruding from it. He stepped over to her and held it up. "Vas," His robot voice sung to her, "I don't know if this is going to work since you don't have an ear." She didn't have a hear? She could hear just fine. What a silly man. "This is a radio headset. I'm going to try to attach it under your bandage so you can talk to us when you have the helmet on. Is that alright?"

Ah, so it was a talking device for listening. It was an odd request since the suit head could talk and listen on its own, but if that was what the Edan requested...

"YES." She politely confirmed.

The dexterous mechanical fingers of the machine man Marine swiftly equipped her with his talking device. She could feel it bump on the side of her head, but it wasn't unpleasant so she accepted it. She finished attaching the head and willed the suit alive when it sealed. With the final piece in place the outside could no longer get in to steal from her. She breathed a sigh of relief and relished in her new air. The suit embraced her in a warm hug, no longer could she feel the wind currents of the ship caress her, but that was alright.

"Vas can you hear me?" She looked around, trying to see where the noise had come from. It was almost like an itch in her mind. A low vibration that wove its way to her translator and then into her thoughts. It didn't have the same flavor as before, but she could tell that it was someone familiar. Vas saw the Edan, it waved at her and tapped it's head. Oh! The talking device, of course!

"YES!" She dutifully informed him.

"Ow... bloody... I'm going to have to turn you down." The Edan's itch came again.

She giggled. Turn her down? Turn her down for what? Had she propositioned him? She didn't think she had. Besides, now was not the time anyways. She would have to respectfully decline.

"SORRY, YOU'RE NOT MY KIND OF INTIMATE PARTNER." There, nice and easy.

"What? Never mind that. We have to go." The robot man urged her on. "Leftenant, we're coming out."

"YES, WE HAVE TO FLY TO RENT!" Vas confirmed.

She followed the black machine out of the house of the suits and back to the shuttlebay door. She greeted it again and it greeted her back. This time however she showed it that she had the key. It thanked her for retrieving the key and made sure to warn her that the nothing was still beyond it. Vas told it she knew and asked it to open anyways.

"Miss Hiteal, please let us know when it's ready to..." The itch, Leader Southers this time she recognized, cut off mid speak as the door began to open. "Shit! Seal suits!" It commanded.

Vas could feel as the great nothing began to rush through the ship. It beckoned her forward, attempting to lift her from the floor as it did. It wasn't the great nothing that achieved that feat however as she was grabbed off her feet and held in the iron grip of one of the giant Marines. The winds seemed to go on for hours. An intrinsic light show of colors and shapes danced by her, a taste of the cosmic dance in all its glory. She teared up. It was beautiful. Complex and elegant. She closed her eyes, drinking it in. Opening them again only to find it dissipating before her. She was sad, but glad. This part of the dance might be ending, but now she was free to fly and tell Rent all about it! Vas squirmed in the grip of the Marine until it let her go.

"COME!" She said, flowing towards the door. "IT'S TIME TO FLY!"

She crossed the threshold and let out an excited giggle. The shuttle that would take her and her friends to Rent sat stoically in the center of her vision. She rushed to greet it, running a gloved finger over the closest its two angular wings. The bright blues and deep grays of its hull perfectly accented the rest of its pointed design. She could fly onto planets with this miraculous machine if she so wanted to, with wings and flaps that would stretch out from their hiding spots to ride currents of air. However that was not where she was going. Out in the great nothing, there were no winds to slow her down.

She tapped the color displaying rectangle on her arm and asked for the shuttle to open for her. With wordless acceptance it did, unleashing a small torrent that the nothing greedily ate up. Vas looked back. Her three guardians were there, singular eyes looking at her. They had been saying things through the itch in her head, but she had paid them no attention. Something about Ee Tee Ayys and incoming ships? It didn't matter, they would be leaving soon anyways. She hoisted herself into the shuttle then turned and stuck her head out.

"IN!" She commanded to the three black figures before retracting herself and gliding to her seat.

The vibrations in the floor signaled the three guardians eventual arrival into the shuttle with her. She internalized a sigh at them, late as always. That was alright though, it had given her plenty of time to ask the shuttle to turn on and check itself. Just as it was informing her that it had no major complaints, the Lohi pilot felt something tapping on her. Turning to figure out why she was being poked, she came face to chest with one of her robots. Not soon after the familiar sound of Edan filled her head.

"Vas, we really need to leave." It stated, quite obviously she thought. "How do we fly this?"

Vas brushed him off and pushed him away. "YOU SIT, I FLY." She told him, pointing to the back sitting area.

"Vas, please try to be serious." The Edan in her head said. "Is there autopilot or anything we can use?"

The woman laughed. Autopilot? Why would they need autopilot when she was right here.

"YOU SIT. I FLY." She said again. Maybe it didn't hear her the first time. These guardians of hers didn't seem to be very good at listening. She decided that she would have to talk about having them fixed when she got to the ship to see Rent.

"You're not in a stable mind right now, Vas." The Edan said again, more stern this time. "I know you think you can, but you can't. Please, how do we fly this?"

She was getting annoyed now. Why did this machine think she couldn't fly? It was her job... no her life. No, not even her life. It was her DESTINEY to fly. So she told it again.

"I CAN! YOU SIT, I FLY!" She demanded now.

"Miss Hiteal, please." It was leader Southers now speaking in her head. "You need to listen to Corporal Lavigne..."

"NO! SIT!" She calmly shouted. If they weren't going to listen to her and sit, she would just have to make them sit. The shuttle had already told her that it was okay to go and that its engines were ready, so without another word she gripped the thruster control and shot them out past the open bay doors into the great nothing beyond.

She could feel through the shuttle's floor as the Marines fell to the ground. In her defense she had told them to sit. They were big and bulky anyways, they would be alright. A few surprised and unpleasant words filtered in through the itch, but the pilot ignored them. She was more focused on the shuttles surroundings anyways. The radar sensors were showing her a very crowded space around them. Six large ships and a few small shuttles. She immediately recognized one as being where they had just come from, so she put that one out of her mind and focused on the other five. Three of them came up as Breten Hvas, one of which was drifting well away, while the remaining two seemed to be closing in on a large unknown ship between her location and theirs.