Cassie said her quick goodbye to Lucien and watched him head off, before she, remembering that she had left Jacob in the dining hall, quickly made her way there and upon walking in was....relatively surprised. There, sitting at the table, was Jacob, but he was sitting in Pony's lap, leaned against her and listening intently to some story out of a book about a camel. Jacob before had seemed very displeased about the presence of Pony, but right now that didn't seem to matter. he was enjoying his story time and that was all the little boy seemed to really care about for the time being. Carefully Cassie approached the two and smiled when her nephew saw she was back, "Cassie! Ms. Pony has a book of stories! They're really neat! You should listen to it with us!"

Cassie smiled and was about to answer when Jodie walked into the dining hall and over tot he small group, "Actually Jacob, Uncle has given us orders to show Cassie around the caves. She never did have an official tour. Pony can join us if she wishes." The woman, while often shied away from Pony considering her husband didn't like the girl, had nothing personal against her either. She smiled sweetly at Cassie and made a gesture, "Come on. Uncle said he wanted us to finish the tour before they get back. It'd just be easier that way."

Cassie nodded and followed the woman about. Thee were many places to see but it seemed to go by very quickly. One place that puzzled her and they had to stop for moment was in a cavern where there was a calmer river. It was lit up by just one or two lanterns and there was a dividing sheet.

"This is the bathing cavern. Boys go to the left, women on the right. I was told you had a run in with the more intense part of our river. That river actually runs through three or four caverns here, but this is the only one that is calm enough for us the be in. We get our drinking water from a well just at the surface. If you'd like, you can bathe tonight after dinner."

Cassie nodded and they continued on with the rest of the tour. Then when the tour was over, they went for lunch. After that, it was a lot of waiting. She really wished for Toni and Lucien to hurry. But still, dinner came and they weren't back. As Cassie bathed after dinner, she heard the mention of the people returning and git out and dressed as fast as she could, going quickly done the halls to where the people who returned were, still damp with her hair dripping water still, but too worried about making sure Lucien and Toni were okay to care. She quickly came to where the entrance was, looking about the survivors for the two men.

The team was away by a little after noon, when the sun was just past its highest point and the air was hot and arid. The sand strewn winds sucked the moisture from their very breaths as they trudged towards the hidden encampment where the vehicles were kept; the assortment of all terrain cars and motorcycles and quads were the Colony's only modes of long range transportation, but due to their size they had to be garaged at a different location. Great pains had been taken to made the vehicles as inconspicuous as possible: shielded engines, radar reflective paint, dull colorings, whatever worked. They all were older models, too, with little or no dependence upon computer chips or excessive electrical systems that would enable robots to over-ride or detect them. A typical mission involved the team hiking out to "The Pit" (as their mechanics lovingly called it), driving out in their various vehicles and then dropping off any finds back at the caves before returning the transports and hiking back again.

The trip out to the target location was taken in silence. It was traditional. The party members rarely spoke or bantered as they made their way, their thoughts too heavily set on what failure or success would mean for their families and friends. Other than orders and warnings, no one usually spoke at all. Should they find salvage and food, then they would celebrate with raucous laughter and bawdy singing on their return but not until then.

Lucien was no exception to the custom; he sat in the back of the extensively modified van and bounced with the terrain as he brooded over his hopeful return to Cassie and how best to deal with Pony's terms. Cassie had declared her love for him, but there had been no discussion yet as to how they might proceed from that starting point. Pony was willing to let him go guilt free... if he fathered a child on her, which was something that Lucien could not see Cassie agreeing to no matter how scrambled her memory might be. Yet he could not deny that he owed her! Pony had kept him alive and if not sane than at least closer to sanity than he otherwise would have been! When everyone else had turned their back on him, it had been Pony who succored him, comforted him and then loved him. It was a debt of friendship he could not in good conscience ignore, but her solution was unreasonable. It was born of the logic of a simple woman who did not, could not, comprehend what it was she was asking of him. All the ride out, Lucien pondered how best to handle this latest upset in his life.

The target site was a small town located off a branch of what must have been a major highway. It was for the most part unremarkable, only it had served a very specific function: truck stop. Massive vehicles had hauled cargo through there, their drivers stopping to rest, eat and sleep before continuing on their journey. The Colonists were after not just whatever stores and shops the town might have had, but the assorted products and (hopefully) canned and dried food products that should be piled in those trucks' trailers. There were a good twenty or so of the huge vehicles. Even though it was understood that only a quarter of what they might contain would be useful, that among of salvage raised their hopes as they approached. Upon arrival, the team spread out and began to scour the area while two of them clambered up on top of buildings to keep watch for any robot or bandit activity. Other humans could still be just as dangerous as their mechanical foes.

Lucien grabbed his backpack as he clambered out of the van's rear doors and looked about, the bright evening sun near blinding him. Life in the darkness of the caves made seeing upon the surface world difficult, at least by day, and his eyes watered. A careful sip from his canteen, and he then began casting his eyes about for the highest location he could see within the town. It was easy to find actually. A good mile from the truck's rest stop, he could spy a massive tower made of a skeletal steel framework. Lucien remembered seeing more of them in his childhood, great structures that allowed people to communicate with one another using portable phones and to exchange incredible amounts of information via computers. It made him wonder - what would future generations, ones who would never know of such devices, think of these strange towers that piled high into the sky without any apparent explanation?

He shook himself from the pointless musings with a frown. Welding his crowbar, he joined his fellows in prying open the long rusted locks and bolts that protected the treasures. When the last door was wrenched open, Lucien fixed his eye again upon the tower and began to hike towards it with Uncle's invention in his pack.

The ride tot he truck stop was pretty long, but Toni knew it would be worth it if what Hassle said was true about there being multiple trucks there with possible goods they could use within the Colony. Anything would help. He himself rode one of the motorcycles out there. He didn't like riding with the other men. It got his focus off. This way though, he could keep a clear head and do things right. Once they were at the truck stop and parked and hopped off of his bike and helped to pry open some of the rusted truck doors and had started helping to drag the crates out when he saw Lucien heading off in some random directly. He paused for a moment, considering what he should do. It would be easy just to let the younger man go, as whatever it was, it was probably part of his mission Uncle had given him. But on the other hand, he had very specific orders to be sure and bring Lucien's body back if he died on this mission. If he was alone out there, there was going to be a very unlikely chance he would be able to locate the body quick enough in the middle of an attack. If an attack happened that was.

Coming to his conclusion, he cursed to himself and ordered the other men to keep working on loading the supplies into the trucks and vans while he mounted his motorcycle, taking off int he direction Lucien had gone, easy finding him with in minutes and sped his motorcycle up, rounding it so that it skidded int he way of Lucien. Still on the bike, Toni looked at him, the hard look still on his back, but with a small amount of tolerance mixed in, "If you think you're going out there alone, you are serious mistaken, kid. I've got orders from Uncle and keeping those orders means keeping in eye on you." He slipped his helmet back onto his head, "You heading to that tower right? Get on. You'll take too long walking." He said point to the back of his motorcycle, obviously not taking no for an answer.

Once the younger man was settled on, he sped off, making it to the tower in record time. Dismounting his bike, he took off his helmet and gestured to the tower, "Well, hurry up. We don't have all day."

It was hard to resist the urge to punch Toni in the back of the head, regardless of the protection his helmet offered or of the fact that doing so could cause them to crash. In the end, Lucien held of not for either of these reasons but out of hope that if he performed well, Uncle might help him settle things with Cassie. It was a dim hope, and he really didn't know what sort of aid the old scientist could provide. Uncle, however, had pulled out an amazing number of rabbits out of his magicians hat in the past.

There was no comment to make at Toni's urgings. This was Lucien's job, and he was going to do it the way he thought best. He also did not want to dwell on the amount of time it was going to take to climb the tower, other than that the longer he took the more it would annoy Toni. Still... even though they were far enough from the desert to escape its dryness, the heat hadn't lessened so much that he had any desire to stay outside longer than he had to. The caves might be cool, but at least there was moisture! Lucien made sure the shotgun and pry bar were secured across his back as he made his way to the access ladder to start the long climb upwards. The winds buffeted him the higher he went. A steel cage arrangement was encircling the ladder's length for safety, true, but a fall against it would still cause any number of bruises or breaks even if it did stop him from plummeting too far. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to climb as high as he dared. Even though the structure was made of steel, he could feel it teeter in the higher gusts of wind that swirled about the higher elevations.

When at last he got up as far as might go, he paused to catch his breath. He could see the landscape all about them from there, and here and there Lucien could make out pockets of vegetation that had survived around the town. There was no way to call it could have been called beautiful. There was still too much desolation and ruin left of what once had been the human's great civilization for that label, but he had to admit it was breath-taking. So many years had been spent in the caves that he never knew what the world might look like from on high. The change of perspective was a new experience for Lucien. From the tower's tip, he could see the truck stop's parking lot and tiny figure moving about. Down below, the small figure of Toni sat perched upon his bike, arms crossed and impatient. And towards the opposite direction-

"Fuck," he whispered to himself. Quick as he could, he dug Uncle's device from his pack, hastily dropping several other items in the process. They didn't matter right now, though. The paper protecting the adhesive was ripped off and the electronic package slammed against a nearby access panel of some sort. Lucien turned and waved excited to Toni, pointing off in the direction he had been looking. "Toni!" he tried to call down, "Extermination teams! Hover skiff! Hover skiff!"

It was only because of his altitude that he had spot the two craft, lightweight hovercraft that zipped along faster than most human vehicles. Lucien knew each of those craft would carry at least five Androids, all bent on extermination or capture of the humans. He also knew that they were coming from behind a rise in the landscape. Neither Toni nor the scouts on sentry would see them in time. "Dammit, Toni! Androids!" And he tried again to point in the direction of the oncoming attackers. Unsure of Cassie's brother understood or not, he turned back to the device and, removing the blocks, flicked both toggles before letting himself drop down the ladder chute with hands and boots pressed hard along the outside to try and control his decent.

The explosion that followed hastened that decent. If Lucien had paused or taken the steps down as carefully as he had ascended them, he would have been caught in the core of the blast and been killed instantly. Instead, the expanding pressure forced him downwards faster. His young body was jolted against the safety cage several time on the way down. Pain blossomed in his elbow, ribs and head as the uncontrolled descent turned into an outright fall. The landing was the worst. The cracked concrete seemed to rush up to him and then slam his body hard, and Lucien was quite sure he heard a few ribs snapping. Overhead, thick plumes of smoke rose high into the air for all to see, Androids and humans alike.

Lucien was unaware of any of it. He knew pain and he knew danger, and he had to warn the others as quickly as possible. Gasping in agony, he began to try to crawl in the direction of Toni. His warnings were hoarse whispers for all that he tried to shout through the deafness that hummed in his ears. Lucien, stunned and bleeding, could only keep uttering the words, " 's a trap... Toni... Get out of here... It's a trap..."

Toni flipped the face shield of his helmet up and crossed his arms as he sat on his bike, looking up and watching as Lucien ascended the steps of the tower. He was indeed being impatient, but not for the reasons Lucien probably thought. Toni was always impatient during missions, though most of the time did his best not to show it. He tended to want these things to go as fast as they could so all get back to the caves and to their friends and families as fast as they could. But now, with this news from Uncle about the robots wanting to take not only live humans, but dead ones, that made things even worse. The mission to get the dead bodies back, should anything happen, posed even more of a danger because the robots would surely try hard to keep them from doing so. He could only hope nothing would happen for this raid.

But once again he was wrong. Lucien began waving and pointing and at first, Toni was confused about what the man was doing. But when he followed the man's gesture cursed and shouted, "Idiot! Get down here now! Hurry up!" But his shouts fell on deaf ears with him all the way up there. Toni couldn't leave Lucien here. He would never make it to the base on time. That and if Lucien died he had to retrieve the body. Meaning he was stuck. Reaching into his pack, he grabbed a walkie talkie. It was a very old one that the robots couldn't intercept and hear with their modern forms of communication. He pulled the antenna up, speaking into it quickly, "Code red! We got the droids after us. Drop it and leave with what we have! Don't worry about us! I have my bike! Get and go!"

He could only trust the other men to listen. At sound of the explosion he looked up quickly, eyes wide as Lucien fell down the steps very painfully. This time Lucien moved quickly over to where Lucien was and cursed again. He was a bloody mess and obviously couldn't move on his own other then a pathetic crawl. "Can't leave you here. We have to get out of here. Now." He bent down and lifted the man over his shoulder before running back over to his bike, setting Lucien in front of him to keep him from falling off as they road off, quickly meeting up with the other few vans and jeeps that road away quickly. The androids were still overhead and another explosion sounded. It close behind the group. Not even ten seconds later, another hit. The van a few vehicles down exploded into flames, almost knocking Toni's bike off balance, but he managed to steady himself. Now people had their guns and were shooting up at the hovercrafts. It wasn't long though because obviously the androids seemed more interested in the burning van left behind. Toni knew what they were after, but was fairly sure in that scorched mess, they would find no usable bodies.

He sped up his motorcycle and the group rode in a random direct for a little while until they were sure the androids were not following them. Once they were sure of that, they drove back tot he caves.

...

Once arriving, Toni sighed and hefted the wounded Lucien over his shoulder, walking into the caves where people gathered to see what the gains, as well as the causalities of the mission were. There were gasps and such when people saw Lucien draped over Toni's shoulder, obviously thinking the worse of the body mess he was in. And that especially included Cassie, who ran up after spying them, in her still baggy clothes and hair still dripping wet from likely getting out of the batheing river. She seemed too scared to try and even touch Lucien, tears streaming down her face, "I-is he...."

"Wounded. I'm taking him to Jodie in the infirmary." Toni said simply, and made his way quickly to the infirmary, where Jodie was with two other low case patients, one sick with a slight fever and the other with a cut from one of the kitchen knifes they had in the dining hall. But when Jodie saw the condition Lucien was in, immediately told Toni to put him on one of the cots and went to work. First was to clean all the blood so she could get to the wounds. He was battered pretty badly, but Jodie said nothing, trying to not upset the obviously distraught and worried Castille sitting close next to Lucien, holding his hand tightly. Jodie worked for over two hours, patching and stitching things up until she had done all she could do. By then, the other two patients had been taken care of, and Toni left to help unload all the supplies, while Jodie went to check on Jacob, who she had surprising left with Pony again. The little boy had taken a sudden liking to going with the girl.

Left alone with Lucien, Cassie was torn up on the inside to see him so battered. It wasn't as bad now that all the blood was washed off, but it was still bad. She cried softly as she sat there next to the cot, her hands hold his own hand. The only time she would even move from that position was to change the bandages he had if blood seeped through. She was carefully changing the bandages on his arm when she heard what she thought to be a sound come from him. She quickly moved to look at him, worry in her eyes and tears falling from her face as she gently placed her hands on his cheeks, "Lucien?....oh god Lucien.....please wake up....."

Uncle was there as the team returned to the Colony. What was left of them, at any rate. His face remained stonily clam as the families of those that survived greeted them with cries of relief, while the kin of those who were missing issued cries of their own. When his eyes lit on Toni carrying the prone and bloody figure of Lucien, he scowled; the young man was being carried towards the infirmary, which meant he still lived. As he turned to follow, he caught sight of Hassle standing among the crowd. It had been upon Hassle's information and reassurances that the raid was planned and approved, and the loss of four productive members of The Colony (and potentially Lucien as well) had to be answered for. He jabbed a finger in the suave young man's direction. "You. My lab. Now. Wait there for me."

Without even waiting to see if he was obeyed, Uncle followed after Toni and the others towards the makeshift infirmary. He watched from the entrance as Jodie frantically did what she could for the bleeding man, just aware as she was that they really did not have the medical supplies or training to calmly deal with such trauma. The possibility was that Lucien would live was not too remote, but it would be so easy to miss something that could cost him his life under their care. Uncle sighed. Jodie was young, and the loss of a patient could seriously affect her morale and confidence. Other options were going to have to be pursued.

As Toni started to leave, Uncle put a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Once the supplies are inventoried and stored, come to the lab. I want a full debriefing." He then grimaced. "Then we can ask Hassle what the hell happened to his 'piece of cake' mission."

***

Uncle left Hassle to squirm and wait in silence until Toni showed up. The de facto leader sat heavily behind the main table and drummed his fingers upon its surface, his eyes boring holes into the two young men in front of him. He wanted Hassle to squirm some more.

Just as he was about to start in on the men, he spied a slim shadow hanging by the entrance to his lab: Pony. The girl looked devastated and had obviously been crying - her eyes were puffy and red. Callous as he could be, Uncle did not have the heart to bring attention to her or send her away. Whatever miss-mash this happy little crew was making of their relationships with one another, he could not deny that she had a right to hear what had happened to the man she both loved and called friend. He ignored her for now, focusing his attention on the young men before him, Hassle most of all. "What happened out there? This was supposed to be an easy, high yield run. Instead, we lost Tall Bob, Gail, Mike and Jack. We also lost one of our only two modified vans, and the haul is nowhere near what we need or hoped for. Oh, yes, and oddly enough the man both of you were at odds with is a bloody sack of meat in our infirmary, using up even more supplies. So I would really like to know what went wrong, gentlemen."

***

Floating in a black haze, Lucien thought he heard someone calling his name. It was like swimming through a fog of confusion where nothing could possibility make sense, and yet that confusions as keeping a screaming agony away. He could feel the pain just at the edges of his consciousness, threatening to spill over raw and red into his mind. Distantly came the realization that he was drugged. That was the only thing that made sense. He thought he should feel bad about that, painkillers being preciously scarce in the Colony. He hated to think they were wasting them on him.

There it was, someone calling his name again. Crying. Well that wasn't right either.

Pony. Would cry for him. He would have cried for her, albeit for different reasons. But it didn't sound like Pony, he decided, because Pony's voice was much higher and had an air headed quality to her words. It sounded like Cassie's. But Cassie was dead, taken by the robots-

No, that wasn't right either, he remembered. Cassie had returned, had said she still loved him. Which was good because he still loved her, but it was bad because... because... it made everything he thought for the past several months a lie. But it was good, because she was back and she still loved him. Or had he covered that already? Lucien couldn't recall. Opening his eyes seemed incredibly difficult, as well. Instead, he raised an aching arm that was swathed in bandages to fumble loosely around for whoever it was that was crying.

"Cassie?"

Hassle was very uncomfortable in the lab. He knew he was in trouble. This spot had been a place he had picked out and thought would be an easy pick. Apparently though it hadn't been easy at all.

When Uncle asked what had happened out there, Hassle was the first to speak, "It was supposed to be an easy run. We had almost everything set in the vans when Ton informed us about the Termination teams. How was I supposed to know they would find us?"

Toni sighed, shaking his head, "We should have known from the start. It was just too easy. I took Lucien to the tower on my motorcycle and when he was doing his part of the mission he spotted the Androids above. They almost damn well killed him. Blew up part of the tower. If he had been any longer he would have been killed instead of wounded. I had to carry him back to the bike."

"Ss much s I would have not missed him if he was killed, I didn't plan that." Hassle commented, looking from Toni to Uncle, "We shut the vans and rode off. We had all the supplies we needed but those bastards blew one of our vans to bits."

"It was in flames. No one survived. I doubt there would be anything left of them." Toni stated without giving hints to Hassle about his mission with the bodies, "And Uncle, for the record, as much as I hate Lucien, for Cassie sake I wasn't about to let him die. That wouldn't be something I had planned."
...
When Cassie heard Lucien say her name she breathed a soft sigh of relief, her hands still placed delicately on his cheeks as she leaned down in her joy of hearing his voice and kissed his lips softly and sweetly, her lips still brushing softly against his as she spoke to him, "Yes, it's me....Lucien...you're going to be okay...you can't leave me....you just can't. Promise me you'll be fine..."

When his arm began fumbling for her she gently took his hand in her, feeling her tears fall from her face. If he was this badly wounded, she knew he had been at a close call with death. The thought of almost looking him broke her heart. She didn't know what she would do if he had died. Her possible reaction scared her. She was still so newly brought to this new mindset of hers. She was afraid looking him might revert her back into her Android self and make her hurt people. She was afraid of herself.

Brushing his blonde hair from his face she kissed his forehead, "I love you....so much."

Uncle snorted from where he sat. "I didn't say either of you planned to kill off Lucien. The motive to do so didn't even exist until about 24 hours ago. There is such a thing as a 'crime of opportunity', however. Ever since Cassie returned to us, tempers have been flaring and emotions have been high. Let's face it, gentlemen. Removing Lucien would solve a number of problems and that might have occurred to one, or both, of you while you were out there. While I will not actually accuse anyone of doing anything at this time and there be no sufficient proof or witnesses anyway, please bear in mind that I will be watching." At that point he noticed Pony melting away back down the corridor and out of earshot.

"Oh, course," he then gave a broad smile as he kicked his legs back up on the table, hands behind his head, "This may all be a moot point anyway. His woulds rather severe, and he may well not survive his injuries. God knows he would serve this community better as a martyr than has as anything else of late."

"Toni, you are to be commended on your actions. Together with Lucien, you managed to salvage something out of this complete and utter fiasco while accomplishing your secondary goal. You and your wife can have an extra ration of whatever alcohol you choose from the stores as your reward." Still kicked back in his chair, he then focused on Hassle. "You, on the other hand, have cost us lives and materials with your screw up. If Lucien had not been on that tower and seen the Androids approaching, and if Toni had not acted with such alacrity, the cost would have been much worse. Worse than you might even know, Hassle. You are assigned garage duty for eight days in two days' time. You will help guard and maintain the remaining vehicles during that time and... reflect upon what you might do better next time." The punishment was a harsh one. The Pit was not as deep as The Colony and so was much, much hotter. It wasn't even a cave, but an ancient quarry covered by sand tarps, netting and camouflage. Worse, The Pit did not have its own source of water. Normally no one stayed out at the Pit longer than four days at a time. To be assigned there for two rotations with no break was strict.

Uncle dismissed the young men firmly when he was done debriefing them of even the smallest details of their mission. He sat there for so some time staring after them, musing on various courses of action to take from there to keep the Colony from falling apart. As he pondered, the hum behind him became a little louder.

"Doctor," Liana intoned, "I am displeased. The course of action you propose-"

"Not now, Liana," he murmured, "Not now."

***

"Love you, too," he mumbled through the drugs and the pain. Lucien had a vague sensation of holding something in his bandaged hand. Was it Cassie's? He continued to ramble on to her, unaware of anything or anyone else around them. "They were waiting for us, Cassie. Like they knew we were coming. It was a trap. I only just got the sensor in place when... when..."

There was something wrong, he realized, something about the explosion that had nearly cost him his life, but Lucien couldn't focus on what it might be. He climbed up the tower... he paused to look around... he saw the Androids and tried to warn Toni... and then... something.... He tried to follow that train of thought but was quickly lost on a tangent. Cassie was there and he had to talk to her.

"Pony," he started in alarm as his eyes popped open. He was still in enough shock that he saw nothing, but the pupils were wild and dilated. "When you and I get married, she wants a baby... She wants my baby, Cassie... What am I going to do? What... Don't want to, Cassie... Want to have kids with you... But I owe her... she kept me alive..." In weak delirium, he gave a bitter laugh, "She kept me alive... for you... Did you know that? She knew you sacrificed yourself for me.... and she didn't want that to go to waste... so even when.... when everyone else turned their backs on me... Pony kept me alive.... Don't know what to do..."

The drugs coursing through his system had made his tongue loose and his thoughts wander, but those thoughts came full circle. "The sensor.... Uncle had me place a sensor... I stitched it on... I switched it on... and it exploded. Cassie? The sensor exploded... The wasn't any cannon or gunfire yet, it... Uncle's sensor exploded when I switched it on..."

Cassie held his hand gently in hers not even thinking much of his babbling at first. She just let him go on, gently stroking the back of his hand with her thumb, only to have her eyes widen at his statement about Pony. Pony wanted....had really asked....was she crazy?! She had to be to ask such a thing! It was a stupid and selfish request! She knew Lucien didn't want that. She knew Cassie wouldn't want that! And she sure as hell wasn't about to allow that to happen. Yes she did owe Pony. She knew that. Pony had kept her Lucien alive for her. But to ask such a thing in return was something she couldn't agree with, "Lucien, we'll think of something else. Some other way to repay here. It's not right for her to--"

Though she didn't even get to finish before he was rambling on again. His mind was mixed up and these drugs had seemed to make him more prone to talking. Her eyes widened in shock and then after rage ran through her, clearly shown in her eyes at the news. Uncle had made him place a sensor. And it exploded. It could have killed him! She slowly let go of his hand, her body tense, teeth clenched, "Lucien. I'll be back. I have something to take care of. She practically growled in anger. She was a woman on a mission now and if she didn't get the right answers she wanted, things were going to go bad.

She stalked through the halls and though people who saw her knew she was not supposed to out and about on her own, said nothing to her for the pure rage on her face scared them all too much to do anything about it. She found Uncle just where she thought he would be. She stalked into the labs and right up to him, grasping the front of her shirt and lifting him up by it so his feet were a few inches from the ground, her voice a snarl, "Sensor Uncle? You had Lucien place a sensor and had it EXPLODE!? You could have killed him! You better give me a damn good reason why I shouldn't break your neck right now." She said through clenched teeth, her blue eyes boring into his.

Uncle should have ben shaking in fear at the show of violence that Cassie was both displaying and promising upon his body. Any reasonably sane human would not only have been sweating and gasping, but also quite possibly urinating themselves. Not Uncle. In fact, he seemed rather amused by the ordeal has he hung there, dangling from her gripping hands. "Interesting how you automatically assume that I had anything to do with Lucien's little accident, Castille." Despite his obvious physical discomfort of being lifted up by his shirt, he calmly stuck his hands in the pockets of his worn and filthy lab coat as though he was about to take a casual stroll around the tunnels. "The device I had him place was a sensor, yes. Should it have exploded in the fashion Toni described? No. Since it should not have done what it so obviously did, I can only put forth that either the robots had something to do with it or there was some other factor on top of that tower to cause the explosion. Those options are far more preferable to the notion that someone else in the mission had something to do with it, someone who stood to either gain a great deal by his death or had a score to settle with him. Not that you or I can really think of who else on that mission might fall into that category. I can not only show you the schematics I drew up while creating it, I can show it's 'little brother', a more portable version that is easy to hide."

He took a hand out of his pocket long enough to gesture to the table where indeed, a small mass of wires and bits sat half assembled. "The purpose of the device was to help find additional ways to unlock your memory, Cassie. A laudable goal, if I do say so myself. You can review the blueprints yourself if you'd like."

Sticking his hand back into his pocket, he shrugged. Or at least, he shrugged as best as he was able to while being hoisted in the air by a cyborg. "Or you may continue to threaten me while snarling and spitting in so impressive a manner, which if seen by anyone else who happens to wander in will due little to help your cause of convincing the other Colonists that you are no threat to them. You could even kill me here and now and walk away. Of course... if you did that... you'd never find out I propose to save your beloved Lucien's life."

<<Double Post>>

When Uncle spoke about the device, she looked suspiciously over at the collection of wires and such that made up the device's prototype, then looked back at him, her eyes still hard on him. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. This threatening him was not getting her anywhere and surely would not make her look very good if someone saw her threatening him in such a way. She glared at the man and slowly lowered the old man to the ground, walking over to the table, looking over the prototype, flipping its switches and such to test it. No explosions. Next she walked around the table over to where the blue prints layed and unrolled them, looking them over as she spoke, "So.....someone sabotaged the mission......we just don't know whether it was the robots....or one of our own." She couldn't see the robots having anything to do with it. Yes, they had been there, but they had no way of knowing about the machine, nor had they had their hands on it before hand to cause it to do that. But, then again, who in the colony could have done this? And more importantly, how could they get evidence to prove said person did it. It would take a lot to prove something like that.

She looked up now after seeing the blue prints were infact all correct and have no explosives in them. Walking over to him, she seemed relatively calmer, but still tense at the fact someone had indefinitely tried to kill Lucien, "What do you propose? What do you know that could save him?" She asked quietly, willing to do anything to help save Lucien. She knew as well as anyone with his wounds he could still.....she didn't even want to think it. But she knew it was there and she wanted to help him get better, so if Uncle had an idea, she wanted to hear it.

"A great deal actually," he coughed, adjusted the collar of his coat in an attempt to regain some dignity. "While not a medical doctor, my doctorates were in medical engineerings and robotics, the one field becoming more and more related to the other before the war. I am one of the few, if not only, professionals still alive in the world who might be able to help."

"The first option is to more or less stabilize him and then put him into what used to be referred to as 'suspended animation.' His body would recover on its own, slowly, albeit far faster than our current conditions would allow for. The benefit of this is that it would be painless for him and he would be able to avoid a great deal of therapy to regain control of his body. There would be some muscle control loss, but it would be only temporary. The downside is the effects: he would be in stasis for a year, completely helpless if unaware... and there is the potential for memory loss. What makes your situations different is that you would know he is alive, whereas he did not know about you."

Easing back into his chair once more, he steepled his hands in front him and continued. "The second option is surgery. Just by looking at him, I would be fairly surprised if he did not have major organ damage of some kind. I retain enough of my skills that I could open him up and see what might be fixed. He would be conscious sooner... if he survives. Let us face it, this is not the most sterile environment in the world and the chances for infection are high. We also do not have access to many of the tools and equipment I had in younger days. The main problem, the real problem," Uncle warned solemnly, "is anesthetic. We have none. True, I might be able to synthesis some form of ether, but that process is dangerously explosive and not meant for long term use. At best, we could get Lucien highly drunk and pray the shock doesn't kill him."

"The last option..." Uncle paused as though trying to think of the best way to phrase it. Shaking his head he went on finally, "You will not like the last option. I am not sure I like the last option. It's a repeat of something we tried before and it didn't work how we had hoped. I say 'we' because you and I were the ones to come up with the idea and to proceed with the experiment. Its results were... mixed."

He focus a serious eye on Cassie, looking at her directly as though to convey his meaning not just by words but by glance as well. "We let him get captured by Androids. They repair him, replace what is broken with better alternatives and rehabilitate him. We let him get converted and we then try to recover him."

Cassie stood there, listening intently to the first two options. Out of those two, clearly the first option was the one preferred. The second option was clearly too dangerous. Too many risks posed themselves such as infection, and dying during the surgery. She couldn't have him die on her. She would be devastated. Seeing him so hurt was already almost too much for her to bare, to know he could possibly die was something that she couldn't stand. No, the second option he gave her was not a possible option she could go with. But still, option number one, while safe and painless for Lucian.....it risked him having permanent memory loss. How much of his memory would be lost? Some? All? Would he even remember her? How as she supposed to get her memories back if he lost his? They would become strangers to each other. She gave a frustrated sigh, raking her hand through her hair.

Then, Uncle spoke a third option, one that gave her some new information. This information made her eyes widen and she looked at him. So....it hadn't been a freak accident that the robots got a hold of her. It had been planned. And not only Uncles plan, but her plan as well. She had planned to get captured so she could become like this. She had agreed to this. And now oh how she regretted that decision. And at the same time, didn't. She had done it to help the colony, and in way, it seemed to be a success. She wasn't like the other androids. She was a cyborg now. She wasn't trying to kill the humans. If it wasn't for losing her memories, the experiment wold be a complete success.

To hear Uncle propose they do the same things to Lucien...well, Castille didn't know what to think. To have him captured by the androids. To have him changed. She didn't even remember the transition process, but she knew it was painful. In her taking captured humans to the conversion facility when she had been part of the termination team she remembered hearing the horrifying and pained screams of the humans being changed. It pained her to even think about Lucien going through that.

The only options they had were the first and third option and she couldn't think of which one she would rather him go through. Closing her eyes tightly in frustration, she stood there a moment before she looked back to Uncle, "I......I can't decide that Uncle.....I......I'm going to ask Lucien. Let him decide. If I had the chance to choose what happened to me, he should have the same chance." She stated and without another word to the old man, turned, walking out.

She headed back to the infirmary, where she found Lucien asleep again. She knew he was still on the pain medication, and to ask him she would have to wait until the drugs weren't affecting his mind. She sat next to where he lay solemnly, for hours. Toni had once or twice come and tried to convince her to leave and go eat or get some fresh air, but she refused and he would leave again.

Finally, when she heard him start to stir again, she waited silently for him to open his eyes and she could already feel her tears welling up in her eyes at the thought of having to soon have him make a decision that would surely affect the relationship between the two of them. Carefully, she took his hand and spoke quietly, "Lucien?....I need to ask you something.....its very important....."

Uncle shrugged as Cassie left. He wanted to suggest that Pony should have a say as well considering all she had done for Lucien, but after the Cyborg's little tantrum he didn't consider it a good idea. Reaching over to the incomplete sensor, he grabbed a tiny screw driver and set to work upon it. Who knows? he thought, It might actually be useful.

***

Groaning, Lucien tried to roll over to his side to be more comfortable. He always felt more comfortable lying on his side, the hard floor of the caves often leaving his spine in knots despite all the nesting blankets and pillows. Only he couldn't move. It wasn't as though he was strapped down or anything, it was just that his body refused to move for some reason. Then he realized why: his body knew that if he moved, the pain would come back worse than it was now. The came the sick realization as to why he waking up, the horrid knowledge that the pain was already there. It was a tsumani of agony that surged up and plowed through the breakwater that the drugs had provided, and Lucien was completely open and exposed before that wave. Seconds after Cassie took his hand, Lucien's body seized up with his back arced high beneath him and gave out a pitiful sound that was half moan and half strangled scream.

"Cassie!" he gasped as his eyes popped open. "Oh. Fuck. Cassie. God, it hurts! Pony was here... Pony... she was crying... Cassie." Eyes filled with haunting pain, he stared right into Cassie's eyes. His lips trembled as he begged for her. "Cassie. Take care of Pony. T-take... take care of each other... You'll do that right? Y-you'll take care of each other after I... after I..."

Lucien closed his eyes against the tears that were starting to form. "Oh fuck," he whispered faintly, "I'm not gonna make it, am I, Cassie? Th-that's why everyone's crying. God, Cassie. Just... kill me, Cassie. Please? I can't... I can't take this... S'not fair. I j-just get you back... in time to get beaten up and blown up... in time t-to die..." Through the red hot iron searing in every part of his body, a bark of laughter burst through. "Spent months t-trying to kill myself without you. Now you're back w-when I most want to live, and... and... Shit... Fuck... Shit-fuck."

Cassie's eyes widened in fear for Lucien when he suddenly began yelling out in pain and she shook her head quickly, tears escaping her eyes, "Don't say things like that Lucien! Y...you're going to be fine. You're going to make in through this...." She couldn't stand to see him in such pain as he was in. She leaned down, kissing his lips and his cheek and anything else she could find in attempt to comfort him before she spoke, "Uncle....he.....he's given us two options Lucien......neither of them are good.....but....if we want you to live....then.....then its our only chances....." She took a deep breath before continuing, "He...he had wanted me to choose, but....I felt it would be best for you to choose your own fate....just like I choose mine." She stopped herself before getting into that, though it had already been said. He would know she had chosen to become like this. She continued speaking before he had a chance to respond. She didn't want him to respond. It would hurt too much for him to react to that news because she knew the reaction wouldn't be good.

"The first option Uncle proposed is suspended animation. It....it will get rid of the pain. You virtually be asleep throughout the whole healing process and could avoid many physical therapies. But....the sleep will last a year. If anything were to happen, if we were to be attacked say, you would be completely helpless and defenseless in that state. There could also be some temporary muscle loss. And....when you awoke, there could very well be permanent memory loss. It's likely it wouldn't remember anyone. Including myself."

She took a deep breath and continued, "The....the second option is.....much more complicated. Uncle suggested doing the same thing he and I did. Letting the robots find you and capture you. They wouldn't kill you. You are strong and have skills they would find useful. They would convert you into an Android, replacing any parts of you that are damaged. It would save your life and....and my hopes is that possibly what happened with myself....could happen with you. That maybe your human self would be retrained and retrievable after the conversion. I...can't tell you exactly what goes on through out the process. I just delivered the human to the center and left. The only ones who know what goes on behind those doors are the robots themselves. No androids are aloud within the conversion rooms....I guess afraid we would stop them knowing the same thing had once happened to us. But what I do know is....that the process is very possibly painful....and while the chips int he androids brains block memories, the memories are retrievable through certain actions. But, there still remains the threat that....that you may well loose every part of your humanity. You may not end up like me....if that were the case....you would be placed on a termination team....and you would be a full android, not a cyborg like myself."

She leaned down, running her hands through his hair and placing her forehead on his in comfort, "Whatever you choose Lucien, I will support you fully. And will always love you no matter what. You have to know that." She whispered, kissing him softly.

"Not much of a... of choice either way," he gasped out. "God..." Lucien closed his eyes to try and concentrate, his mind desperately attempting to fight the pain while also wresting with which fate would be worse.

Suspended animation promised a recovery of his body, but not his mind. Worse, he knew enough from listening to Uncle and Toni that the proposed method of prolonged recovery was not the sure thing it once may have been; in fully stocked and stable hospitals with the proper equipment and trained full time staff, there would be little cause for concern. But in a cavern with a temperamental power supply, lack of personnel to keep an eye on him... His chances were about fifty percent of making it out alive albeit with some memory loss. The other thirty percent promised death, albeit a painless once while he slumbered unawares. And the remaining twenty-ish? His body might be fully healed, but he would lose far more than memories; he could recall Toni arguing theory adamantly with Uncle, because there was a solid chance that patients might come out in a completely vegetative state...

Letting himself be captured? Lucien would have shivered if he could have through the pain. He would become the very nightmare they had all come to fear, and there was the distinct possibility he would be lost to humanity for all time. Worse, he would hunt them. No emotions, no mercy... no love for Cassie. He could have a perfectly healthy body, better even, at the cost of his soul. Still, no matter what Uncle and the other said about Androids, Lucien was sure he would be screaming in insanity, locked within his own mind behind the robot's control. The real question was, did he trust her? Did he trust in her enough that she would be able to recover him and not leave him to live a soulless life?

The tears didn't stop. "Southwest culvert." It was all he could choke out at first. Then, "At the... processing center... southwest culvert. Leads into the compound. Tried to convince Toni and Uncle towards the end... they said it was too dangerous."

His eyes popped open again to stare deeply into Cassie's, pleading with her. "You can get in through there. I know it. They stopped me from trying, Cassie. But you'll come for me, right? Come... come through the culvert, okay? And... Cassie... if you can't... if you can't bring me back... if you can't break their hold on me... I need to you to... to do it. Yeah? You know?"

Lucien fell to silence, the pain now warring with fear and anxiety at the upcoming capture and the unknown that would follow. "Cassie? It's not fair, Cassie." He was almost petulant as he whispered, "We were supposed to be married, Cassie..."