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HoloDeck 2 - Before the Begining
I said I'd do this, didn't I? Before we get started: I translated the norn talk into English for simplicity, for what its worth. Also, I know it seems like it, but Katherine did not create the HoloDeck in a matter of hours. Pretend, for me at least, that this is stretched out over a couple of days. Now, onward, and tally-ho!
Remember the old days of Creatures? No, not those old days, the other old days. Back when Creatures 2 was but a whisper, and Terra Nornia wasn't even in the planning stages. Some people might argue that these were the good old days - Norns seemed to show remote intelligence, Grendels were kinda cute, and Ettins were bug ugly, but at least they didn't die every two seconds (See, I did something right). Yes, an innocent newbie can't begin to imagine what these days were like. But they're jolly well going to have to fake it if they want to read this story, because *that's* when this takes place. Come with me now.
Closer.
That's right.
Whoa! Don't hit the monitor, there...
Back, deep in Albia's history...
To the first Albia in C1...
It was a pretty day in Albia, as usual. Ivy, a fox norn except for the body (which was a banana type), was in the garden, pulling carrots from the patch. She didn't have the slightest intention of eating one, but pulling them was immensely fun.
She was having a rather fun time pulling carrots, when she felt herself being kissed. Turning around, she saw Ian, a norn with a horse norn and body, and banana arms and legs. She didn't have a whole lot of time to think about seeing Ian, though. He immediately kisspoped her, then went off about his merry way.
I know what you're thinking, and yes, this'll be over soon. But other then that, you're also calling penalties for me describing rape. This is what Old Albia was like, get used to it. Random kisspopings went up and were everywhere. Norns never knew about love. I know, some old fanfics say norns could fall in love, but it really wasn't true. Most Norns, essentially, were dumb. I mean, with an 80 word vocabulary, what were you expecting?
Actually, there's a few exceptions. Ivy was one of the experimental ones. But after her, a whole new generation of norns like her were about to spawn. That's what this story is about. Okay, so it's really just a cheap shot at a sequel. Can't I pretend to be a little poetic?
Anyway, follow me again to about 20 Earth minutes later. Ivy was in the incubator area, when she felt a wave of pain wash over her. She squatted, and with a grunt, laid an egg. Then came a nap, which all norns whom just gave birth take. It's in their genes. As she woke up, she saw the Hand take the little egg to the incubator, and hatch it. Thirty Earth seconds passed, and a baby girl hopped out of the incubator. She had mommy's banana body, and daddy's arms and legs, and, through an odd mutation, a banana head.
She was also rather dead.
Ivy looked over the little girl. Then she bowed her head and wept.
*Outside Albia, at the computer*
"Well, another one bites the dust. Pity, this one was kind of cute. Never had an all banana before, would've liked to have this'n for breeding purposes."
This was Katherine speaking. Katherine was a young girl, whom was blessed (or cursed as the case may be) with dark hair and eyes. She was rather plain looking, nothing horribly outstanding.
"Yeah, I gotta agree there. Wonder what happened to 'er?"
This voice belonged to a rather small robot named Blip. He wasn't anything horribly special either. He had no arms or legs, and generally hovered close by. If you looked closely at his black screen, you could even see that his green looking eyes were, in all reality, Christmas lights. The rest of him was a sort of faded lemon. Blip was one of Katherine's many creations, but just about the only one that actually worked. He was also the most loyal -- always at her side if he had anything to say about it.
"Well, we can just fire up the old CE32 here, run the Norn Autopsy feature.." Katherine clicked around on the computer as she rattled this off. These two fine programs were another common thing of the old C1 days. "See here? Only one lobe. Shame, really."
"You know," Blip slowly began, "maybe we can try and fix her. I mean, it wouldn't be much, we have her moniker right here, and we can just poke around in a normal norn's lobes.."
"I bet we could, Blip. I really bet we could." Katherine closed out the program and got into the old Genetics Kit. Whistling as she looked through the genes, she stopped a bit. "Lookie here -- she doesn't have any of those genes Ivy had. Oh well, what say we fix that, too?"
"We could. We really could," replied Blip. "Maybe even improve something or so."
*Back inside Albia*
Ivy's sadness was interrupted by the Hand, who had an egg in it. It flew over her, and carefully placed the egg in the incubator for, well, incubation. When the egg hatched, you could plainly see the contents: a baby girl banana norn, just like before. "em flub?" she asked, looking around.
Ivy thought for a moment. What? The Hand must've felt her sadness, and sent her another child. The Hand! All praise! She took the baby in her arms, and hugged the baby girl.
*Outside Albia, at the computer*
"Great, what do we name it?" Katherine asked.
"Jennifer?" suggested Blip.
"Yeah, like I can spell that. Jenny sounds sort of childish.. oh, I know!"
*Back inside Albia*
"Jenna coo dat" the baby insisted.
Jenna? That's the name the Hand had chosen for her child? It was a very pretty name. Besides, what choice did she have in the matter? She kind of had to accept it.
*Fourty Minutes into Jenna's Life*
"Hand ... Hand ... Hand ... Hand ... Hand ..." every child nearby repeated the words over and over. Then the teacher pressed the books.
"Who can tell us what the Hand is?" the teacher asked.
A small norn named Jan stood up. "The Hand is the ultimate ruler of Albia, and the protector of all norns. You should always try and listen to the Hand."
"Except for when?" quizzed the teacher.
"Except for when the Hand tells us to push food," Jan answered. "That way, we can annoy it."
"Right. Now, everyone, when do we eat?"
"When the Hand's not around," the entire class answered, except for one norn in the back. She was very dark, with blond hair. In other words, she was a horse norn.
"Jill!" The teacher shouted, and the norn in the back snapped to attention. "Can you tell me who ruled Albia before the Hand?"
Jill thought for a minute. "The Foot?" The whole class roared with laughter.
"Can someone else help Jill, here? Jenna! You, tell us who ruled Albia prior to the hand."
Jenna stood up. "The Shee?"
"Good. And why did they leave?"
"Because the Grendels drove them away."
That may not be true, but the norns didn't know any better, give 'em a break.
"Right, right. Anyway, it's getting late, so class dismissed."
The young and eager Norns ran onto the teleporter and out of class. In the garden, little groups congregated everywhere. Jenna had caught up with Jan, and the two were picking lemons. Jenna felt a tap on the shoulder.
"You little punk." Yeah, it sounded a whole lot like Jill. It was pretty safe to bet that she was good and mad.
"Do you need help?" Jenna sneered back.
"Look here, you little Grendel, remember what I said about showing me up in class like that?"
"But Jill," Jenna muffled a snicker, "it's so easy!"
"Shut up!" Jill smacked Jenna hard. Jenna was slung to the ground. She slowly picked herself up, and prepared to knock Jill directly into the next fanfic. Jill drew a hand back, ready to do the same.
"No!" Jack, a noble purple mountain norn, hopped in-between them, and shielded Jenna.
"Jill, go away, now, okay? Jen didn't do anything."
"My, aren't you the valiant little soldier. Protecting your little friend here. You're all the biggest navens I've ever seen. I shouldn't even waste my time with this mutant." Jill nastily stared at Jenna after she finished this sentence.
"Mutant?" Jenna gulped.
"Geez, dense. Think about it, you're the first norn on Albia to have those awful floppy ears. You're a big, ugly mutant! And that's -- "Jill took this opportunity to pause for effect " -- all you'll ever be. You and the import and ... Uhm ... Jan."
"Hey!" Jack protested, "You stop that right now! It's ... er ... not nice."
"Ho ho! It's not nice!" Jill held her paws in the air. "Shee forbid it be not nice!"
"You certainly didn't know about the Shee before," Jan reminded. Jill gave her a thwack on the head, and walked off.
"Oooh... she makes me so absolutely MAD..." Jack hissed. "Jen? Jan? You two OK?"
"Hey, I'm cool."
There was a pause.
"Jen? Jen, you there?"
Jenna glared at Jill, or more appropriately, where Jill had walked off. "Boy, would I like to get her back."
The group of norns slowly smiled as an idea came to them.
*That night*
"It was great, mom!"
Ivy sighed as her little girl started to tell her about what she had just done.
"See, see, see, Jill was lookin' at herself in the underground river, an' we snuck up behind her with all these bouncing carrots, and let loose, and boy, you shoulda heard her scream when she hit the water!"
"Dove," Ivy started as she took Jenna's paws, "didn't you just stoop to Jill's level?"
"Do what?"
"She was mean to you, and you were mean right back. Would the hand of done that?"
Jenna slowly realized what her mom was talking about. "No, mom."
"What would the hand of done?"
"Be nice."
"That's right, dove. Now, I want you to think about that in bed tonight."
"Yes, mom."
*One hour and nineteen minutes into the mix*
"So, Jill comes up to me, and smacks me! Again!"
"Geez, what's it with her and picking on you?"
Jan, Jenna and Jack were talking in the garden.
"I don't know. She just does. And I try to be nice, but that never works..."
"Maybe it's because you're smarter?" Jan suggested.
"Me?" Jenna started. "No, that can't be it."
Just then, Jill came up to them. She looked different. Taller? Yeah, that just about covered it. Taller and bigger. "Hey - look what happened," she bragged.
The trio sort of started backing away. "You - you -- " Jan stuttered, but couldn't quite speak.
"I'm an adult, you little kids! Ha ha! Isn't it interesting how I'm the first one all grown up?"
"Go off."
"Make me."
Jan stood up, and began to rear back with a smack. Jill, however, beat her to it, and totally knocked her over.
"Respect your elders, twit." Jan then walked off.
Jack stared for a moment. "If growing up does that to me, I'm not doing it."
"We only have about a minute left to be kids, remember? I'm going off and having fun, feel free to do what you like." Jack got up, and walked off.
Jenna watched for a moment. "That Jack ... he's pretty ... nice."
"Yeah, I think that's why we let him hang out with us," reminded Jan.
"No!" Jenna giggled, "Not like that. I don't know how to put it! He makes me feel ... all warm inside."
"You're losing me, Jenna," Jan replied.
"Like nothing can go wrong!"
"Umm ... nope, still confused."
"You've never felt like this?"
"Wait, wait, wait, I might have this figured out. Is there some sort of sex drive increase involved here?"
Jenna blushed a little.
"Ha! It has to do with kisspoping! You want to kisspop with ..."
"No! It's more then that."
"What is it, then?"
"Beats the cheese outta me."
Of course, Jenna didn't know what she was describing, because she'd never heard the name. And poor Jan didn't have a clue about it, because she couldn't feel the right emotions. Poor Jenna, she was trying to describe the emotion of love to someone who'd never be able to feel it. Trust me on this, it's brick hard.
After a while, Jenna just kind of gave up and went into the kitchen. She picked up the coffee pot, and started to drink. As she did, she felt a sudden jump. Everything looked smaller ... good Shee, she had grown up! Running outside, she noticed a grown up Jan and a grown up Jack waiting for her.
*Back on Earth*
"Blip! Blip, come look at what Dad's school's throwing out!" Katherine lugged some old parts into her basement. "See? See? It's one of those old IBM computers!"
"Wow!" Blip looked over the parts excitedly. "So, what do we do with them?"
Katherine scurried to a nearby file cabinet, and pulled out a folder full of blueprints.
"Luckily, I'm prepared. Lessie ... another robot?"
"No!" Blip quickly insisted, then realized how he said it. "I mean, if you don't mind, I'd kinda rather..."
"Don't worry about it, I like you just fine." Katherine and Blip stared at each other for a moment. "Anyway ... hey, here's a nice blender attachment. Ooh, here's a perpetual motion blueprint that I never finished." Katherine shuffled through the papers messily. "Whoa, don't have the parts for that. What on Earth was I on when I drew that?"
"Tylenol, remember? Mixed with caffeine, that stuff is lethal."
"Oh, well, thanks for the reminder. Anyway - hey, what's this?" Katherine picked up a small blueprint that she had dropped. "The HoloDeck ... for creatures? Well, this is, uh, weird. Geez, this wouldn't work in a million years."
"I think you had had some Advil when you drew that..."
"With sugar, right. That blender attachment might be cool..." Katherine shuffled through the papers again. "Hnnn, hey, a vacuum cleaner nozzle."
Blip peeked over her shoulder. "What's the HoloDeck?"
"Oh, just some piece of crap I whipped up." Katherine dug the blue print out again.
"See? It was made to bring norns to Earth. Pfft, like that'll happen. Anyway, it would be impossible to program, and I'd take guesses and say it wouldn't even last a year."
"I think we can do it."
"Say what?"
"I think its possible! I know its hard, but I could maybe program it, and we have the parts..." Blip begged.
"Blip, this would be the most insane thing we'd ever done."
"Come on! What are they going to do, throw you in an asylum?"
"Point taken." Katherine reluctantly scanned the plans, then the parts. "Well, I suppose we can try."
*That night, on Albia*
Jenna and Jack sat on the edge of the treehouses, looking down on the garden, legs swinging over the edge. It was night in Albia, if you could say Albia had a night. Cloud butterflies danced around the carrots as a single yellow bird lazily flapped around in the sky.
Jenna gave a sideways glance at Jack and then down at the garden again. What the Shee was it about him that was so .. special? There was something about Jack she liked ... but it didn't feel like just 'liking' him. She shook her head. This felt like a question even the great Hand himself couldn't answer.
"Say, Jen?" Jack broke Jenna's concentration. Like she minded or anything.
"Yes?"
"Isn't the night time great?" he asked.
Jenna was quiet for a moment, formulating an answer. "It's nice, I suppose -- much cooler outside and such. But it would be nice if there was something to make night more special. Something like ... like lights in the sky!" Jenna stood up and motioned upwards. "Little lights. But there'd be a lot of them. Like ... dots or something."
Jack stood up too, and motioned with her. "And they'd be in designs. The Shee could arrange them in different patterns every night!"
There was a quiet moment as the excitement wore down. Jack and Jenna stared into each other's eyes.
"We might be grown up," sighed Jack, "but we dream like little kids."
"So?" giggled Jenna. "It's fun to have ideas as big as the sky. And to have someone to share them with."
Another stare down between Jack and Jenna ensued. Finally, Jack leaned a little closer. Jenna took Jack's hand, and they felt themselves get closer and closer until ...
... Jenna fell flat on her face.
Where was Jack? Jenna picked herself up, and looked around. Jack had just totally disappeared. He couldn't have ran away, Jenna would have been able to hear footsteps or something.
Jenna knew what happened. The hand exported Jack.
*On Earth*
Katherine sighed as she looked over the game. She knew as well as you and I do what Jenna and Jack were about to do. Being the hand, and calling all the shots, she decided exportation was her best bet. She didn't want Jenna to go around breeding, yet. She had plans for Jenna.
Katherine stopped her work and turned to go back into the gara -- the lab, I mean. Just as she reached for the doorknob, there was a knock at the storm door.
Mentally swearing, Katherine turned around to face the door, where Susan was standing. Susan was one of Katherine's friends, with blond, curly hair, hazelish green eyes, and round, thin framed glasses. Katherine enjoyed Susan's company normally, but she had work that needed to be done. There was a little yellow robot and an old computer waiting for her in the lab.
Oh well. Katherine opened the door out of sheer politeness. "Susan!" She faked an excited greeting. "What are you doing here?"
"Am I bothering anything?"
"Um." Okay, figured Katherine, maybe we can drop some hints. "I was getting ready for some lab work..."
"Ooo! Can I see?" Susan started for the door to Katherine's Lab, but Katherine threw herself on the door.
"No! There's ... parts! Electronic circuit chip micro computer processor data thingamajiggers all over the place! It's a mess. You'd probably kill yourself if you even tried to walk in there. Whoo! I mean, it's awful. There's cleaner streets in New York City."
Just then, there was a bump from the other side of the lab door. "Katherine!" called Blip. "Katherine, come on! We haven't even started!"
"Blip ..." Katherine growled.
"You haven't even taken the outer casing off!"
"Blip, you're not helping my situation, here."
"Oh, come on. It's still clean in here! And we haven't caused an explosion yet!"
"Blip!"
"I bet we can ..."
"Hey, Blip?" Susan sweetly called to the closed lab door. "Can I help too?"
You could hear Blip gulp a bit. All of a sudden, something clicked. "Help?" he protested. "My golly, no! There's, um, parts. All over. Really messy. I mean, I've never seen so many hydro nuclear reaction center binary light flammable carbon based ..."
*MUCH Later on Albia - 6 hours into Jenna's life*
"No! NO! Back, you drunken freaks of nature!"
As the boat docked, Jenna smacked away two boozed up men. She had been down at the cellars, and now regretted every minute she spent down there, ever.
"Oh, come on, baby!" one of the hootchers cooed (best he could). "You know you like it!"
"Like what?" said Jenna. "I've never kisspoped before."
The drunk norns stared in total disbelief. "Never?"
"Never."
Our two advertisements for Budwiser Beer paused for a minute as this set in. Then they nearly wet themselves laughing. Jenna rolled her eyes as she pushed the lift to go up, up to the temple. As the lift dinged, Jenna stepped out and onto the hard, cold floor.
The temple was a place she didn't usually visit, but its yellow-ey, aged walls invited her to stay for a little while. What was that the Hand told her about the Albian Goddesses? There was Lis, the Sheeian Goddess, and Emy, the Grendel Goddess. That was on the darker side of the pantheon, and they had Ally as their priestess. Then on the light side, there was Slink, Goddess of Norns [Author's note: I know, it's been changed to Wafuru. But when this is taking place, it was Slink. Deal.], and ... oh, that other nut who made the Ettins. That young one. Anyway, she knew Pandora was their priestess.
Jenna looked up, to the sky. Well, technically the ceiling, but play along. Could Slink really hear her?
It was worth a shot.
"Slink?" she quietly whispered. "Slink -- I don't know if you're real or not, and I don't know if you can hear me. But if you can, or, heck, if any of the others like Lis or Pandora can hear me, just sort of answer my ... my prayer. I - I'm lonely, Slink. I've lost contact with Jan, and Jack didn't ever come back since he disappeared that night. And Mom ... I don't know about her, either. Can you just sort of give me a sign that they're safe? That would be the best gift --"
Jenna heard a scream coming from the docks.
She decided that was as good a time as any to cut her prayer short. She turned around, and not giving it a second thought, dashed toward the docks, nearly slipping in the mud outside the temple. Jenna fell into the lift and hit the 'up' button as hard as she could. That lift couldn't possibly go fast enough for her. When it reached its final destination, she tumbled out and raced to peer over the dock. Beneath the waves, she could see the submarine, lying motionless on the ocean floor.
It had sunk! The sub had sunken, and which ever poor norn was caught in there was a goner, and there was nothing she could do.
Jenna sadly watched the norn. She was old, and wrinkly, and looked vaguely familiar...
... Jenna turned white when she figured out who it was.
That was Ivy, her own mother.
If Jenna knew any of the swear words that you and I knew, she would have recited them all right there. Her mom! She hadn't seen her in maybe forever and a day, and now, her she was, in front of her, ready to croak. Why wasn't she more specific when she said "give me a sign that they're save"? Oh, in a couple of seconds, Ivy was going to be *very* safe.
As Ivy's final moan filled Albia, Jenna bowed her head. She sat there, for a few minutes, feeling sad and such. Then she felt a warm paw on her shoulder.
"Who was it?"
Jenna whizzed around to find a familiar old face. She stood up very quickly and took a few steps back. "You!"
"Me?"
"You! What are you doing here?!"
The norn before her was dark skinned, with blonde hair. Recognize her? Jenna did. 'Twas Jill.
"I heard the scream and wanted to come ..."
Jenna scowled. "Why on Albia would you give a tear one way or the other?"
"I wanted to help."
"... You?!"
"Yeah," shrugged Jill. "I figured I could maybe stop something bad from happening."
"... You?!"
"Will you quit saying that?"
A flabbergasted look came over Jenna's face. "That's just such a turn around from the Jill I used to know ..."
"It's been five hours. Norns change."
Jenna just stared again. "I guess so." She gave a look out to the sea. "That was my mom, you know."
" ... oh. Gee, I'm real sorry ..."
"Please," Jenna begged, "let's just talk about something else." There was something about Jill she didn't trust yet. "So, uh, have you seen Jack at all?"
"Not at all," nodded Jill. "But I do know what happened to Jan. Dead; starved to death."
Okay, so Slink answered her prayer. But why wasn't she more careful when she worded it?
*On Earth*
Katherine sat, hunched over an open cased machine, Blip hovering by her shoulder. You and I are very familiar with the machine, and I don't mean Blip. This lovely hunk of silicon was later known as the HoloDeck.
"Sonofa.." Katherine muttered, but never finished her sentence (to the benefit of our younger readers). "This is getting monotonous.
"I'm fresh out of ideas," Blip offered (ha!).
Just then, Katherine's Dad poked his head into the garag -- shoot! The lab.
"How's it goin', Katherine?" he asked.
"I'm getting sparks, and I don't know why," Katherine hissed toward the HoloDeck. "See, when I try to connect these two wires ... " she reached in, took hold, connected, and proudly displayed the sparks that shot up from the 'Deck.
Katherine's Dad stepped over the assorted wires and such, and took a look at the contraption. "What if you did this?" Following his daughter's example, he reached in, took hold of two different wires, and connected.
Later on, Katherine, Blip and her Dad all agreed that, A) it was a good thing they had just recently checked the fire extinguisher, and B) they'd better not tell mom.
*A day or so later, on Earth*
Katherine had just scrambled on her clothes, and, quite frankly, hadn't paid much attention to color. She almost hurt to look at. This didn't matter as much, though, because she threw on her white lab coat and all was mended. Carefully, she peered out her window. Left, right, forward -- great! Not a person in sight. No one would bother her as she went downstairs to conduct the ultimate experiment.
*Two hours later, on Albia*
The sun danced merrily in the garden. Actually, that would burn all the norns there, so maybe not. Whether the sun was jigging in the garden or not, Jenna could still feel the effects of it, seeing how it warmed her face.
Yes, it was a great day to be alive. Jenna pulled a carrot up, announced to the world her plans to push it, and did so. As she enjoyed the carrot, the hand floated by.
"Push mover," it prodded.
Push mover, ey? Jenna looked around the garden. There, right smack dab in the middle, was a new mover. It looked like some of the other movers, only black. Why hadn't she noticed it before? D'uh, she was a norn. I mean, come on.
Anyway, Jenna decided she had nothing better to do. She hiked toward the mover, ready to push.
And that's the end of that.
My comments: don't worry, I'm not going to pull another HoloDeck 45 on you. Just a couple of my notes, credits, and you're free to go.
I think the latter parts of this turned out well. I may add more to the beginning. While I was writing this, I sort of wished that I had secretly written this while I was actually writing most of HoloDeck. Think about it: wouldn't it be cool if I was able to show events that *really* shaped her life, or have her tell a story in the first one, then have it pop up here? I thought so, too.
Sharp eyed readers will get a sense of deja vu when they read the last two scenes of this story. Also, Susan and Katherine's Dad were really not planned to make an appearance; they were very last minute. Consider yourselves lucky.
And now, credits:
Thanks to Mom, Dad, and Uncle Charlie. You know why.
Creatures is Copyrighted 1997 by Cyberlife LTD. The holo deck, from StarTrek, is not mine.
The HoloDeck that Katherine creates *is* mine (in a sense, anyway), and it's Copyright 1998, too. The characters? Mine, 1998, you know that jazz.
No disrespect is meant to Advil and Tylenol.
A special tip of the hat to booze, for being a plot point once more.
Special thanks to Pinstar, who served as my test audience once.
Thanks to Spell Check, who once more jerked m'butt out of the fire.
And, of course, biiig thanks to the cast: Ivy, Ian, Katherine, Blip, Jan, Jill, Jack, Susan, the boozed up norns, the Albian teacher, Katherine's Dad, and, most important, Jenna.
One last giant thank you to my fans. Shee bless you all.