The Admiral Returns (Charlotte)

[Cross Ikon]

Somewhere in the Unknown Regions​

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[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H37aEEzPfuo[/media]​

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Here I was, stuck in the middle of nowhere. All these ships at my command, and nothing to do with them. My brother stood beside me, talking into the computer. Why was he even doing that?

He knew we were stuck. He knew most of our people were dead. We were stuck here, out of contact with everything for more than 800 years. I had finally managed to send out a massive distress signal through the whole slaved fleet. It'd get to somebody, right?

And now, there was a ship on the scanner! We were saved!


[member='Charlotte Homura']

 

[Charlotte Homura]

[member="Cross Ikon"]

The ship was an ancient freighter piloted by an unnamed HRD droid, containing simply 3 women and a crate full of their collective possessions. While it was old, the ship still worked at least... an admirable trait about Solan Charr was he knew his stuff about ships. The three women were oddly enough either blonde or an off white in terms of hair color, though that was the only feature they seemed to have in common.

 

[Cross Ikon]

[member="Charlotte Homura"]

And the ship on the scanner..... Was an old junker. It looked almost as old as the Battle Dragon I was in. I opened a short-range emergency channel.

"Attention old as hell freighter. This is the Hapan Outbound Battle Dragon Virgin Duchess. We're requesting any assistance you can give us. We've been stranded here for a long time. We just need somebody to knock our main systems back online. Seriously, we're totally stuck."

 

[Charlotte Homura]

[member="Cross Ikon"]

The unnamed HRD simply changed the intended coordinates to where the Virgin Duchess was, driving ever silently.

"Uh... weren't we supposed to go home now?" Charlotte asked the droid

"We're helping someone right now, because whether you like it or not, they need it as bad as we did." the droid spoke finally to Charlotte

 

[Cross Ikon]

[member="Charlotte Homura"]

Thank God. The freighter was turning towards us. We might actually have a chance of saving the fleet.

Looking around the bridge, I was just making sure that all the other systems were working. The ship was surprisingly well-preserved. Of course, in space, ships could last for millennia. Even the weapons were still working.

"Incoming freighter, you can dock as soon as you're close enough. Just let the tractor beams lock and carry you in."

 

[Charlotte Homura]

[member="Cross Ikon"]

"Affirmative." The (currently) unnamed HRD said in a monotone voice.

Charlotte was sitting on top of the one crate while Prea and Melissa slept next to it

 

[Cross Ikon]

The docking officer executed the maneuver perfectly. I was kinda surprised he was still in such good practice. After 800 years of sleep, I needed a coffee and a beer. Not in that order... And not in that limited of an amount.

I took a turbolift down to the docking bay. There was a... I don't even know. Some kind of totally expressionless human. There was also a girl with a flower over one of her eyes, a blonde lady with a large um.... chest who was looking around hungrily, and another woman in a purple dress inlaid with gold.

"Hello. I am Admiral Cross Ikon. It would be my genuine pleasure to host such beautiful women here, if we were actually able to move. Actually, if our engines and computers were active, the whole fleet is slaved to the Duchess. I could jump us out almost immediately. Would any of you be able to fix us up? We'll take you to whatever planet you want, afterwards."

[member="Charlotte Homura"]

 

[Charlotte Homura]

[member="Cross Ikon"]

"Affirmative." The unnamed HRD said then the group of 3 women walked into the ship, and the HRD walked behind them, making sure they were safe

 

[Cross Ikon]

[member="Charlotte Homura"]

I squinted at the expressionless person. Her joints were... sparking?!

Was she a droid? Who were these people?

Well, whatever. As long as they didn't kill anybody and got us out of here, I'd be happy.

I strode to catch up with the flower-eyed girl. If I looked at her, she was quite pretty... And probably older than she looked.

"Madam, is your um.. escort a droid? Would she be able to bring us back online?"

 

[Charlotte Homura]

[member="Cross Ikon"]

"Yes, our escort is a droid, and yes, she'd be able to bring you guys back online... I kinda still wonder what motivated her to help you however." Charlotte said as the HRD walked up to a console of the Virgin Duchess and started typing on it.

 

[Cross Ikon]

[member="Charlotte Homura"]

"Well, I'm thankful for her reasons, whatever they are. We'd probably have died if we were stuck here for another year. Fething Royal Navy only gave us a little over a year of provisions. They sent us to beat out the Republic Outbound Flight program, but we were hit by a massive epidemic. Killed nearly half a million people."

 

[Charlotte Homura]

[member="Cross Ikon"]

Charlotte was shocked at this "Why would they do such a thing?"

 

[Cross Ikon]

[member="Charlotte Homura"]

"I... Experimented too much. I changed the DNA of clones to make them suited for individual tasks. I made female clones who could get through situations simply by batting their eyes. I made clones that could sing, or dance. Or produced higher amounts of antibodies, so they could save their comrades by transfusion. But the one that truly drew the line... Is when I saved a Force-sensitive clone that was scheduled for destruction. She was disfigured, and I changed her. I can show you... She's still here in stasis... But she's completely comatose. I cannot revive her. It hurts that I caused her disfigured her through my own error, but then I tried to repair her... And she sleeps like death. She is my child. My only family left, except for my brother. So, you see why I must save my people. I got them stuck here."

 

[Charlotte Homura]

[member="Cross Ikon"]

Charlotte gasped a bit, having been almost completely oblivious to the darkness in man's hearts due to being only in the galaxy for 4 accelerated years.

Prea was speechless as well as Melissa... This man was horrible in their eyes, but he would be a good ally at the same time, since he does feel compassion for his experimented subjects.

 

[Cross Ikon]

[member="Charlotte Homura"]

"I see your horror at my declaration. The same horror that permeated my soul when my greatest creation came to life. She was the daughter my wife and I had never had. But when I saw what I had done to keep her alive, my heart screamed in horror. She was beautiful and terrible as a supernova. But I couldn't bear to see somebody die whom I could so easily save. The whole change only took an hour. And then I was banished for saving her. I would've been executed, but the bastards needed me to command this fleet. And with me, they sent anybody who'd ever seen my dear daughter. More than half a million people. And more than half of those people died. It is my fault. By saving the creature who became my daughter, I killed hundreds of thousands. So, if only to save her, and the last of these people, I needed to send off that distress signal."

 

[Charlotte Homura]

[member="Cross Ikon"]

Charlotte frowned as the HRD was typing away attempting to get the ship online. Clearly the love this man had for this clone was enough to prompt the experiment he did in the first place

 

[Cross Ikon]

[member="Charlotte Homura"]

I was getting a little nervous, now. The slightly crazed-looking blonde woman behind the girl with the flower was looking at me like I was the devil himself. She looked like she wanted to kill me.

I pointed at her, and looked at the girl with the flower again.

"You look at me as if I am evil. But I was attracted by her imperfection. Despite the transformation I had to perform on her to allow her to survive, she was the most human of all my creations. She was truly a child at play. She was no longer a clone, but a natural, living girl. You seem to have been on the receiving end of that kind of experiment. But not on the receiving end of the affection your creator should have shown you. You all have been abandoned. Your distrust of me shows that."

I sat down, suddenly feeling tears come to my eyes.

"But maybe, your creator's way was right. After all, you three survived where my dear child couldn't. Maybe if I had sent her away, off into the galaxy, she would be awake and walking right now. Truly living. But I kept her out of hubris. I thought I could care for her better than she could. I thought she would be unable to acclimate with the odd appearance that she took in order to survive. Was I wrong?"

 

[Charlotte Homura]

[member="Cross Ikon"]

The three women shrugged and Charlotte simply spoke with a frown "Maybe, maybe not, but we will probably never know, sadly."

 

[Cross Ikon]

[member="Charlotte Homura"]

I steeled myself again, and looked up.

"You know what? Maybe I should show her to you. My child. She's in stasis in the same area as my dead family. Come on, we'll go see her. Maybe she'll even wake up, this time."

I stepped back to the lift and gestured to my brother, and whispered in his ear.

"Make sure the droid fixes us up. They'll be telling us what planet to jump to afterwards."

"Okay, Cross. Make sure you don't break down again. You know what seeing her does to you."

"Don't worry. I'm not alone this time."

We got into the lift, and I pressed the button for the stasis area. It was really just ad hoc and in our largest room, but whatever.

 

[Charlotte Homura]

[member="Cross Ikon"]

Charlotte, Prea, and Melissa followed Cross as the HRD did 'her' magic.