Alice What's The Matter: Stepping in to another reality
21 Mar 2023Willow Thorn
WARNING: Adult themed unnecessary violence ahead.
All the Alice What's The Matter posts are in two parts. The first part, (An exploration log) is tame Elite in-game universe reading. The second part is an in-universe RP story that should be considered mature content.
Thank you for reading
Bio-Scans collected 164
Distance from Guardian site 16.835 ly
Power Plant Integrity 100%
So I was talking about the giant round thing in the black last time right? Ok, I've been out here for so long and I haven't seen one thing worth talking about because you will have seen it in so many other explorers logs. Like, I haven't even see any of those giant lifeforms that float around the vacuum in clusters, so when I saw a cluster of lights in the distance, and it had a USS on my contacts panel, you can bet I was going to investigate. Yeah, so to remind you, this is what I saw.
Like, the USS was pretty high up on the contacts panel, so it wasn't that far away from the star and like, it looks real big already, but I had to go see. Some how, it didn't seem to change size much as I was cruising towards it. I had every sensor I could muster employed in probing it, but nothing more was addend to refine its USS designation. My hands were clammy on the controls as I watched the speed and distance indicators crawl towards to the Safe To Drop sweet spot. With the familiar boom, I dropped the Wisp into the USS and saw this!
I circled it for a while checking it out. The white lights around the ring and on its pylons were blindingly bright, even with my canopy compensating for the glair. It looked man made, like human made you know? Not Guardian or Thargoid, and it is so big I guess a Mega-ship could fit through the aperture. After orbiting the bemouthic construction a few times, I decided to fly closer. The star-shaming lights went out and were replaced with a soft blue glow from within the structure outlining its moving parts that ponderously came to life.
Before I managed to pull the Wisp into revers, a silvery swirl appear in the centre of the gate and grew, or rather approached as if it was coming from a great distance at incredible speed. It hurtled towards me and I couldn't help but throw my arms up expecting a mighty explosion to destroy my ship and end my life, but when I found the courage to look again, I was looking in to an undulating silvery mirror. There was my ship, reflected back, but the star of the galaxy I could see beyond the reflection were not ours. With no breath to call on, I pushed the throttle forward and.. .. I can't keep this up.
Ok so this is a load of bull. I saw a well known cluster of stars that looks pretty rotund from my point of view, and came up with a hyper-gate idea. Like, I did a search for Space Gates and picked an image that looked the part, then span a story to entertain my self you know? Its like, I've been out here for so long without someone that can respond when we talk, that I had to do something, or I may loose my grip on reality.
Yeah so, while I was browsing for star gate images, I happened to get a retune from a near by server. Well, near by in galactic terms you know? Not that many jumps away, petty much along my trail I found the carrier Circus Maximus. Like ok, I guess I'm up for a chariot race and maybe a gladiator fight or two, so I recalculated my jumps and sent a long range communication to find out if would be ok to land.
Like wow is all I can say you know? Ok, maybe you don't. Like I said, I've been out here for weeks having one sided conversations, so to get a response form some one felt amazing. I'm pretty sure I gushed at the girl that answered my call, but it was like she gets it, and chilled me out after listening to all the stumbled, stuttering crap I spouted at her. So after I sorted my shit out and calmed down, I dropped out of supercruise and went to check out my cargo bay and quarters.
Like, I got nothing to hide as long as you know the back story, but if you just like, walk in you'd be like "Hay, what's going on here?" So I checked the Morgue Freezers were definitely empty, checked the bones I was carving were put away, and I pushed the copy of Descartes escape pod back into the escape hatch. So I don't think security on board a deep space carrier are going to care what a commander was carrying, and I don't think they would want to search my ship any way. But I'll bet they are gonna want to make sure they don't let mad people wonder around doing what mad people do. I mean, come on; its not like they can call for back-up nearly 20k ly away from the bubble.
I was the only person there that wasn't crew, so like, I got plenty of attention and yeah, a lot of that was from armed security. Like, being the focus of strangers messes with my head you know? But like, I was also real happy to be off my ship and walking around a big vessel again. Its not till I stepped into the hanger did I realise how much I missed having a ceiling I couldn't reach out and touch. Like, I can stretch my legs on any planet, but being a platform child, gravity makes me uncomfortable, and a sky is real scary. Its like, if I jump too high, I'll fall up and won't stop even after I reach space. So yeah, I actually enjoyed the attention and spent quite a bit of time in the bar getting to know the staff and crew.
So, I'm a very competent engineer, but there is only some much you can do when you haven't got a dry dock, and you can't completely shut down your ship. Gladly, I handed the Wisp to the dock mechanics while I chilled in the viewing lounge. What I wasn't ready for was the bill. Ok yeah, its a long way to bring parts that can't be synthesised, and like, Its not as if I had a choice of where to get the work done, but what the fuck! I didn't have many credits left from the stack Descartes gave me, and these cock suckers wanted pretty much everything I had left in my account. So while I was arguing with the dock master, he reminded me that they have a cartographers onboard, and I could cash in my bio survey data too.
Still a little pissed, I checked out what my data trades were worth. Yeah, I'm good for credits. I paid the man and thanked him for making the Wisp pretty much as good as new, but asked him to leave the paint job. I need some visual representation of my journey. I also gave him and the work crew a generous tip for my bitchy attitude after I was given the estimate. I didn't cash in my data yet, but when I get back, I'm gonna be.. . Well, I may have to do some work for the Empire or Federation, because I'll be buying what ever tools and ships I want.
On my way down to the bar one day, I happened to notice the escape pods racked up, ready to launce. I'd passed them every day I'd been here, but some how I managed to cut them out of existence. Seeing them there, and thinking of some one being alone in that coffin-like box far far away, with an almost non-existent chance of rescue made me think of Descartes and how lucky we were to meet, and what I was going to do once I got to the rim.
Late last month.
Willows ship, somewhere between the Bubble and Guardian space
Willow sat straight in her seat as if she had a rod in her back. She was humming a tune she didn't recognise, but felt it was something that fitted with the way she felt at this moment. She noticed her fingers dancing over the controls with a light confidence that didn't belong to her. La Cosa Terminal dock was a good few max-range jumps behind her now, and the Dinah was in an unoccupied system.
"This will be as good a place as any to get to work" said Willow
It didn't feel like her voice and it definitely wasn't her accent. She sounded like the rich imperial woman with the silver mamba. Still, Willow shut down the drives, and got up with purpose and continued humming the unknown tune as she glided towards the cargo bay and her little work room.
Muffled shouting and banging became apparent as Willow approached the work room. The noise was coming form the little bank of morgue freezers. One of the guests had woken up. Still humming, Willow saw her finger tap the freezers controls until it was set as low as it could go. Willow never would never do that. Crystallisation in the flesh would do damage to a corps that was hard to cover with make-up.
"Don't worry sir" Called Alice "you are sure to suffocate before you freeze to death" she remarked as she swept around the room to the medical cabinet.
Going back to the morgue freezers, Willow opened the one containing Emmeline. The German woman, though unconscious looked strong and intimidating making Willow back away. Emmeline didn't bother Alice at all. She didn't even cause Alice to stop humming her tune while she injected the sedative into Emmeline neck, change the capsule, and inject her again.
Willow had prepared for this for weeks. The slab she used to take care the deceased had been modified to take a gurney and house hook and loop straps. Many of them. It looked like the sort of table Doctor Frankenstein could approve of. With very little effort and just enough care not to be cruel, Alice transferred Emmeline from the freezer, and onto the slab where she was securely strapped down. Alice pulled down a monitoring device that the dead didn't need and stuck its sensors to Emmeline's' naked body.
"Goodness me" Remarked Alice looking down at Willows clothes "I can't very well tackle the task in hand dressed like this. I have unnecessary surgery to perform"
Willow had made a dress while she was back at home with her mom and dad. She had entered the pattern in to her synthesizer, so all Alice had to do was chose the colour and wait for it to be constructed. While the magical machine did its work, Alice took a shower and sterilized her hands and the knife she would be using. Emmeline maybe a merciless animal that would toy with the people she targeted before killing them, but both Willow and Alice wanted Emmeline to be healthy so she would apricate the fate Willow had imagined for her.
Emmeline opened her eyes. The last thing she remembered was getting hit with an electric shock that must have knocked her out. A shadow Emmeline couldn't quite focus on was humming a pleasant tune and she tried to lift her head to get a better look at the person standing over her. She couldn't move her head at all, and nor would her arms and legs free them selves from the icy surface that was making her body feel painfully numb. Finally, Emmeline's eyes focused on the girl standing over her.
"Thorn" she tried to say, but her lips were stuck together and hurt a lot when she tried to separate them and her throat felt wrong as the air moved past it.
"Oh, hello there Emmeline. No no, don't try to speak" Said Alice putting her bloody hand over Emmeline's mouth.
"I have sown your lips together, not in a horror movie way you understand? I used hidden stiches the mortician uses so the departed don't look slack jawed when lain to rest, but it will be very pain full if you rip them out. Besides, I'm almost done cutting you larynges"
Emmeline started pulling hard against the straps pining her to the table, but it didn't help at all. She was well a truly at the mercy of a girl she had shot, beaten and imprisoned.
"Well really! I expected better from you Emmeline. I mean you are an expert in matters like this are you not? I assure you, you are quit secure. These may simply be cargo strops with hook and loop fastening, but if one employs a buckle, they are, in my opinion, just as secure as steel cuffs. Wouldn't you agree?"
Emmeline wasn't having it. Willow was definitely damaged goods; she didn't even sound like the nervous little scavenger she had captured aboard Descartes Corvette. If she didn't manage to get free, there was no limit to what Willow may do in revenge.
Alice took in a deep breath and then dramatically exhaled while rolling her big green eyes.
"You know, I imagined it was going to be the surgery that would be difficult, but now one has a new appreciation for the skill of the oft overlooked anaesthetist" Putting the knife down, Alice adjusted the amount to anaesthetic that would make it into Emmeline's blood.
The big German woman felt her strength dwindle as she fort against her bindings and forced her eyes to stay open. For the first time in years, Emmeline felt the fear she had enjoyed inflicting on others. Alice picked up the entirely unsuitable knife she had been using, and held it up inspecting the blade.
"Hush now Emmeline, I need to take way you compacity for verbal protestations, and I don't was to accidently slit your throat in the process"
Emmeline looked into Willows eyes as she lost the battel with consciousness. The glassy orbs looking back at her had only the slightest hit of humanity left with in, but they blazed with an inhuman baleful fire fitting for the darkest angel of vengeance.
Now Emmeline was delta with, Alice had some time to kill while her patient recovered. Emmeline was a strong woman, but the long term life support pod Willow wanted her putting in, required repertory and feeding tubes pushing down its occupants neck, and Alice didn't want to risk doing that until Emmeline had healed a little. What Alice really wanted to try was bone carving. The work Willow had made for the exam where macabrely beautiful, and Alice wondered what she could create, but Willow had used all the bones she had prepared.
"Well well what is a girl to do with all the time in the world" said Alice looking around the work room. Her eyes rested on the morgue freezers.
"I should imagine you gentlemen are less than lordable" said Alice talking to the suffocated, frozen, and shot men that had accompanied Emmeline "You shan't be needing all your bones" She said taking her big hardened-glass knife off the cold slab.
