Gildedbutterfly1
So this is a story based on a 6 month long role play session a friend and I had ages ago. She has written a story base don the same role play with a very different plot. This is kind of meant to be a sister story to hers almost since this story follows a completely different character.
Feel free to comment and let me know what you think. I'll be putting five more chapters up slowly and they are all completed in my mind so, I'll not be making any changes to them. This is just up here for pleasure.
I will not apologize for the length because this is what a novel is and should be. Each new post is an individual chapter. The novel is not yet complete and chapters 1-6 are the only chapters that I will be putting up here.
They said that giving birth in a zero-g environment was nearly painless, ‘nearly’ being the optimal word. Artemis hardly felt anything except pressure as a seven pound baby girl forced her way into the world. Her parents weren’t married at the time, but Archie Montague had proposed to Artemis and promised they would be married as soon as they were planet side again.
Their daughter, Diana, was a handful from the beginning. She was a perplexing child who barely cried, only whimpering as she sought out the comfort of her mothers’ breast. Only after the two months of their orbit around the industrial planet of Castillo did Diana show any signs of normal baby behavior. She was entranced by the twinkling lights that surrounded her in the small ship. She also started to cry once the ship passed through the atmosphere and landed.
Artemis was just getting used to life as a married woman when she and Diana, not even a year old, lost Archie to an accident at work. It didn’t leave them much worse off. Artemis had to face it. As a small minority species in the large universe, Humans never had a good life.
Diana was a bright girl, a quick learner and nearly perfect at everything she tried. She rarely took notice of her meticulous habits, and considered her perfectly organized, mistake free notes to be an extension of her intelligence. Her Mother did note that no ten year old should have a room as neat as hers was. She did hoard wires and old toys, but there was an order to everything.
At ten years old, Diana had proven herself to be a handful already. She had taken a liking to things that blinked, beeped, moved, and had lots of buttons. After the world of electronics peaked her interest, the cyber world had sucked her in, and her bright mind had proven a force to be reckoned with once she was introduced to the concept of computer hacking.
xxxxxxxxxx
“s**t, Nova,” a boy exclaimed. Half of his body seemed to be made of living metal, its grayish color shifting relentlessly like a puddle of oil as he moved, spoke, and breathed. He was dark skinned, and his hair would have been dark and coarse if a metal plate hadn’t been covering his scalp. “You’s only ten. It just blows my mind, you know, what you can do with that thing.”
Nova only smiled. Her nickname had been given to her by the neighborhood kids years ago, thanks to her infamous temper tantrums. She glanced up once, and then looked back down at the small display screen. She had made this little computer herself. It was reminiscent of the old fashioned models, with a flip top cover, LCD screen, and a keyboard without the symbols. She didn’t need them anyway.
“Dartain, it blows my own mind. Now, back off, or I’ll rewire you so bad they won’t be able to fix you for months.” The cyborg backed off, laughing as he was shoved by another youngster hovering behind Nova. She flourished her hands slightly as she punched in the last bit of coding before she sat back to admire the work on her screen. “There, that should do it. Let me see the cards now…” She held out her hand for the small slivers for plastic that were being dug out of pockets and, in Dartain’s case, storage spaces.
“Nova, if you get caught, you could get in to trouble. Messing with credits like this is really bad.” Dartain sounded a little bit worried, but so far, all of Novas hacks and recoding stunts had gone unnoticed.
“Hey, I told you not to worry. I haven’t been caught yet. Besides, what would they do to a ten year old if they ever found out? Throw me in jail with the big boys?” She smirked as she worked through the credit chips her friends had handed her, loading enough on them to buy at least a month’s supply of sweets.
Nova was still smiling brightly as they exited their favorite sweets store, their pockets full and their mouths sticky. Her bright blue eyes were glistening with mischief, proud that no one was suspicious of them. She walked ahead of the group, strutting and tossing her black hair like nobody’s business. “I told you it would all work out,” she called back over her shoulder as the group returned to sit on the stoop of their apartment building.
xxxxxxxxxxx
Eight years had gone by, and much had changed. Nova was no longer scoffed at when it came to the hacking business, and many young kids had come to her for credit additions to their chips or alterations to school grades. It was all child’s play, that stuff. The heavier work she was doing at night would land her serious jail time if she was caught, even though she was only eighteen.
Her room was still the same, annoyingly organized. Everything had its place and the toolbox that was underneath her bed was labeled carefully in loopy handwriting. Her old computer sat on her desk, a cable linking it to her home terminal. A holo-display flickered in front of her, bathing the black haired girl in bluish light. Somewhere in the background, rising above the soft humming that filled the room, her clock announced the time - 2:30. Her fingers stopped in mid air, and slowly, her head turned to look at the display above her door way. It really was that late, or early, apparently. The rest of the apartment was quiet, and if she listened carefully, she could hear her mother turning in her sleep in the room next door.
She cast a quick glance at the crucifix that hung over her bed, gave an apologetic shrug, and continued typing. Being one of the few humans meant preserving the old traditions of Earth, including religion. She and her mother were considered Catholic, and while they could not attend Mass (the concept of it that was presented in their old Bible seemed so strange to her), Nova practiced her beliefs on her own with as much passion as she had for hacking.
Nova looked back at the display. The computer had asked for one final command before she entered the city main frame. She read it once and the code the preceded it, just skimming over the text, assuming that it was a general warning. She entered four letters, and a series of ten numbers afterwards, and hit enter. The display went blank except for a blinking hourglass in the center, and then it flickered and died. Her brows drew together and she hit enter a few more times. Nothing happened. Then, she turned to violence, smacking the terminal and hoping that something was just loose inside. Usually a terminal blackout like this meant something bad. Her work was being monitored, and through she was careful not to leave any traces behind while she worked, she was afraid.
She unhooked her old computer, pulling out the disk that was inside of it, and erased any files that were stored on the hard drive. The next thing - and this nearly killed her - was to remove the hard drive itself. Nova rolled across the room to a small alcove and tossed it into the microwave and turned it on. She watched a small flame take to the bit of silicone and metal and then finally die out once the buzzer went off. She heard another creak from the room next door and she quickly disposed to the now ruined piece of hardware by throwing it out of the window. Nova finally went to bed with an uneasy feeling boiling in the pit of her stomach.
xxxxxxxxxxx
“Little piece of human pond scum!” Nova hunched forward as a blow landed on her stomach. She coughed and watched her blood mingling with saliva as it fell to the asphalt.
“Where is that disk! I needed it today!” The same rough voice sounded over her. Nova looked up, her eyes flashing with anger and her face contorted with pain.
“I told you, I had to flash the hard drive quick. I couldn’t make a copy!”
“That’s a pack of s**t. You just don’t want to give it to me!” Three sets of hands with long fingers reached towards her, groping at her slender body. All she felt was rough fingers going over her exposed stomach and back and she gave a dry heave.
“Get your ******** hands off of me. I can break every bone in your bodies. I don’t have it!”
“Too late for that. Just search her…” The leader of the street gang ordered his thuggish minions to search every part of her, and Nova felt so violated. She shook with rage, insulted by the hands wandering over her like this. They ran down her legs, feeling for any hint of a data disk in the pockets of her cargo pants. She tapped a foot threateningly. She always wore steel toed boots that rose to about mid calf and were laced up tightly. Her cargo pants hung low on her hips and fit snugly over her buttocks. There was a large c***k of bare skin between the pants and a white cropped shirt that covered the small swell of her breasts. Her hands were covered by leather gloves. Their fingers had been cut off and the lighter brown of the palms suggested years of wear and tear.
“I don’t have it, you bags of slop.” She jumped now, swinging a leg around and landing a blow on the nearest thug’s pelvis, throwing him off balance and startling the others. Nova was small, but the girl was tough. She still hung with the old gang, and they had fought many street battles with her. She learned to fight from them. I’ll make Dartain proud, she thought with an impish grin as she landed more kicks on the legs of her attackers, who were now throwing punches at her. She dodged a lot of them, but some of the blows landed on her stomach, and a few caught her face. Thankfully, she didn’t feel any bones cracking, though she knew she would have to explain her black eyes and bloody lip to her mother.
She screamed in frustration, kicking out wildly, and felt her left foot connect with a body. There was a grunt and the heavy sound of flesh hitting the ground. Nova turned to look and saw the gang leader laying on the ground with his hands over his crotch, tears streaming down his ugly face.
She took her chance while the others bent to help their fallen leader. She ran, brushing back her short hair, which now felt sticky and warm. She did not stop until she reached the safety of her stoop. Dartain was sitting there with Iggy and Lois.
“Hey, Nova!” one of them shouted at her as she passed through the door without saying a word. “Nova! What happened? You’re covered in-” she didn’t hear their last word. The door closed behind her and she stomped up the stairs to her apartment. She pressed her hand to the identification pad, smearing it with a dark purplish substance that had not come from her own body, and entered. She hurried past the bathroom and went straight for the kitchen where she found her mother hovering over the sink cleaning some meat for dinner. Upon hearing the heavy footsteps of her daughter, Artemis turned to take in the sight.
“Oh, Diana, not again!” she moaned, rinsing her hands quickly and rushing over to lift Nova’s chin upwards. Her left cheekbone was swelling up and her bottom lip was swollen and bleeding from a small cut that was just off center. “Diana, I told you to stay out of those fights. Your friends were there too! Weren’t they?” Nova shook her head.
“No mother. They were sitting on the stoop when I got here. They had nothing to do with this fight.” She frowned and reached up to touch her hair, looking at her hand as she pulled it away. So, some of their blood got in it, she thought with disgust. It was purple and gross and it needed to go, but for now, she reached into the cabinet just beside the sink and took out a medical compress. She smacked it on the counter and then took it with her to her room where she could lay in peace as the cold soothed the soreness enveloping the left side of her face. She barely heard the pounding on the door and the urgent, official sounding voices that floated down the short hallway.
“Last night, I’m very sure of it. We need to take her now.”
“But you can’t. She isn’t a criminal!” It was her mother’s panicked voice that caught her attention. Nova sat up in her bed, dizziness overtaking her for a second before she stood up and left the compress sitting on her nightstand. She peered cautiously out of her room.
“She left a trail, it pointed right to this address. Not to mention the signature she left.” She heard the soft rustle of papers and her mother sobbing. The next thing she knew, they were coming down the hall and she shut the door quickly. The image of their tall, lanky frames and large, wide set eyes wouldn’t leave her. She had just crouched down to crawl under her bed when the door flew open. She shrieked and fell back against her bed. The mattress shifted and something crashed to the floor. Above the sound of blood pounding in her ears, she heard the cheery voice of her clock display announce the time, and then they grabbed her, one on either side. Despite their thinness, their grip was strong. The third read off her rights and announced the terms of her arrest.
“You have been charged with infiltrating the city’s internal network, threatening the life and wellbeing of the citizens. You will be held at the station until the day of your trial. A council appointed defender will be with you at that time.”
Nova was speechless and she barely struggled as they dragged her out of the apartment. Her mother was sobbing behind her, her hands clutching at the slippery fabric of their uniforms. “No! My baby! She’s innocent. She couldn’t have! “
But mother, I can, and I did, Nova thought sadly. I have abilities beyond your understanding. I can’t be stopped; I won’t let this stop me.
Feel free to comment and let me know what you think. I'll be putting five more chapters up slowly and they are all completed in my mind so, I'll not be making any changes to them. This is just up here for pleasure.
I will not apologize for the length because this is what a novel is and should be. Each new post is an individual chapter. The novel is not yet complete and chapters 1-6 are the only chapters that I will be putting up here.
They said that giving birth in a zero-g environment was nearly painless, ‘nearly’ being the optimal word. Artemis hardly felt anything except pressure as a seven pound baby girl forced her way into the world. Her parents weren’t married at the time, but Archie Montague had proposed to Artemis and promised they would be married as soon as they were planet side again.
Their daughter, Diana, was a handful from the beginning. She was a perplexing child who barely cried, only whimpering as she sought out the comfort of her mothers’ breast. Only after the two months of their orbit around the industrial planet of Castillo did Diana show any signs of normal baby behavior. She was entranced by the twinkling lights that surrounded her in the small ship. She also started to cry once the ship passed through the atmosphere and landed.
Artemis was just getting used to life as a married woman when she and Diana, not even a year old, lost Archie to an accident at work. It didn’t leave them much worse off. Artemis had to face it. As a small minority species in the large universe, Humans never had a good life.
Diana was a bright girl, a quick learner and nearly perfect at everything she tried. She rarely took notice of her meticulous habits, and considered her perfectly organized, mistake free notes to be an extension of her intelligence. Her Mother did note that no ten year old should have a room as neat as hers was. She did hoard wires and old toys, but there was an order to everything.
At ten years old, Diana had proven herself to be a handful already. She had taken a liking to things that blinked, beeped, moved, and had lots of buttons. After the world of electronics peaked her interest, the cyber world had sucked her in, and her bright mind had proven a force to be reckoned with once she was introduced to the concept of computer hacking.
xxxxxxxxxx
“s**t, Nova,” a boy exclaimed. Half of his body seemed to be made of living metal, its grayish color shifting relentlessly like a puddle of oil as he moved, spoke, and breathed. He was dark skinned, and his hair would have been dark and coarse if a metal plate hadn’t been covering his scalp. “You’s only ten. It just blows my mind, you know, what you can do with that thing.”
Nova only smiled. Her nickname had been given to her by the neighborhood kids years ago, thanks to her infamous temper tantrums. She glanced up once, and then looked back down at the small display screen. She had made this little computer herself. It was reminiscent of the old fashioned models, with a flip top cover, LCD screen, and a keyboard without the symbols. She didn’t need them anyway.
“Dartain, it blows my own mind. Now, back off, or I’ll rewire you so bad they won’t be able to fix you for months.” The cyborg backed off, laughing as he was shoved by another youngster hovering behind Nova. She flourished her hands slightly as she punched in the last bit of coding before she sat back to admire the work on her screen. “There, that should do it. Let me see the cards now…” She held out her hand for the small slivers for plastic that were being dug out of pockets and, in Dartain’s case, storage spaces.
“Nova, if you get caught, you could get in to trouble. Messing with credits like this is really bad.” Dartain sounded a little bit worried, but so far, all of Novas hacks and recoding stunts had gone unnoticed.
“Hey, I told you not to worry. I haven’t been caught yet. Besides, what would they do to a ten year old if they ever found out? Throw me in jail with the big boys?” She smirked as she worked through the credit chips her friends had handed her, loading enough on them to buy at least a month’s supply of sweets.
Nova was still smiling brightly as they exited their favorite sweets store, their pockets full and their mouths sticky. Her bright blue eyes were glistening with mischief, proud that no one was suspicious of them. She walked ahead of the group, strutting and tossing her black hair like nobody’s business. “I told you it would all work out,” she called back over her shoulder as the group returned to sit on the stoop of their apartment building.
xxxxxxxxxxx
Eight years had gone by, and much had changed. Nova was no longer scoffed at when it came to the hacking business, and many young kids had come to her for credit additions to their chips or alterations to school grades. It was all child’s play, that stuff. The heavier work she was doing at night would land her serious jail time if she was caught, even though she was only eighteen.
Her room was still the same, annoyingly organized. Everything had its place and the toolbox that was underneath her bed was labeled carefully in loopy handwriting. Her old computer sat on her desk, a cable linking it to her home terminal. A holo-display flickered in front of her, bathing the black haired girl in bluish light. Somewhere in the background, rising above the soft humming that filled the room, her clock announced the time - 2:30. Her fingers stopped in mid air, and slowly, her head turned to look at the display above her door way. It really was that late, or early, apparently. The rest of the apartment was quiet, and if she listened carefully, she could hear her mother turning in her sleep in the room next door.
She cast a quick glance at the crucifix that hung over her bed, gave an apologetic shrug, and continued typing. Being one of the few humans meant preserving the old traditions of Earth, including religion. She and her mother were considered Catholic, and while they could not attend Mass (the concept of it that was presented in their old Bible seemed so strange to her), Nova practiced her beliefs on her own with as much passion as she had for hacking.
Nova looked back at the display. The computer had asked for one final command before she entered the city main frame. She read it once and the code the preceded it, just skimming over the text, assuming that it was a general warning. She entered four letters, and a series of ten numbers afterwards, and hit enter. The display went blank except for a blinking hourglass in the center, and then it flickered and died. Her brows drew together and she hit enter a few more times. Nothing happened. Then, she turned to violence, smacking the terminal and hoping that something was just loose inside. Usually a terminal blackout like this meant something bad. Her work was being monitored, and through she was careful not to leave any traces behind while she worked, she was afraid.
She unhooked her old computer, pulling out the disk that was inside of it, and erased any files that were stored on the hard drive. The next thing - and this nearly killed her - was to remove the hard drive itself. Nova rolled across the room to a small alcove and tossed it into the microwave and turned it on. She watched a small flame take to the bit of silicone and metal and then finally die out once the buzzer went off. She heard another creak from the room next door and she quickly disposed to the now ruined piece of hardware by throwing it out of the window. Nova finally went to bed with an uneasy feeling boiling in the pit of her stomach.
xxxxxxxxxxx
“Little piece of human pond scum!” Nova hunched forward as a blow landed on her stomach. She coughed and watched her blood mingling with saliva as it fell to the asphalt.
“Where is that disk! I needed it today!” The same rough voice sounded over her. Nova looked up, her eyes flashing with anger and her face contorted with pain.
“I told you, I had to flash the hard drive quick. I couldn’t make a copy!”
“That’s a pack of s**t. You just don’t want to give it to me!” Three sets of hands with long fingers reached towards her, groping at her slender body. All she felt was rough fingers going over her exposed stomach and back and she gave a dry heave.
“Get your ******** hands off of me. I can break every bone in your bodies. I don’t have it!”
“Too late for that. Just search her…” The leader of the street gang ordered his thuggish minions to search every part of her, and Nova felt so violated. She shook with rage, insulted by the hands wandering over her like this. They ran down her legs, feeling for any hint of a data disk in the pockets of her cargo pants. She tapped a foot threateningly. She always wore steel toed boots that rose to about mid calf and were laced up tightly. Her cargo pants hung low on her hips and fit snugly over her buttocks. There was a large c***k of bare skin between the pants and a white cropped shirt that covered the small swell of her breasts. Her hands were covered by leather gloves. Their fingers had been cut off and the lighter brown of the palms suggested years of wear and tear.
“I don’t have it, you bags of slop.” She jumped now, swinging a leg around and landing a blow on the nearest thug’s pelvis, throwing him off balance and startling the others. Nova was small, but the girl was tough. She still hung with the old gang, and they had fought many street battles with her. She learned to fight from them. I’ll make Dartain proud, she thought with an impish grin as she landed more kicks on the legs of her attackers, who were now throwing punches at her. She dodged a lot of them, but some of the blows landed on her stomach, and a few caught her face. Thankfully, she didn’t feel any bones cracking, though she knew she would have to explain her black eyes and bloody lip to her mother.
She screamed in frustration, kicking out wildly, and felt her left foot connect with a body. There was a grunt and the heavy sound of flesh hitting the ground. Nova turned to look and saw the gang leader laying on the ground with his hands over his crotch, tears streaming down his ugly face.
She took her chance while the others bent to help their fallen leader. She ran, brushing back her short hair, which now felt sticky and warm. She did not stop until she reached the safety of her stoop. Dartain was sitting there with Iggy and Lois.
“Hey, Nova!” one of them shouted at her as she passed through the door without saying a word. “Nova! What happened? You’re covered in-” she didn’t hear their last word. The door closed behind her and she stomped up the stairs to her apartment. She pressed her hand to the identification pad, smearing it with a dark purplish substance that had not come from her own body, and entered. She hurried past the bathroom and went straight for the kitchen where she found her mother hovering over the sink cleaning some meat for dinner. Upon hearing the heavy footsteps of her daughter, Artemis turned to take in the sight.
“Oh, Diana, not again!” she moaned, rinsing her hands quickly and rushing over to lift Nova’s chin upwards. Her left cheekbone was swelling up and her bottom lip was swollen and bleeding from a small cut that was just off center. “Diana, I told you to stay out of those fights. Your friends were there too! Weren’t they?” Nova shook her head.
“No mother. They were sitting on the stoop when I got here. They had nothing to do with this fight.” She frowned and reached up to touch her hair, looking at her hand as she pulled it away. So, some of their blood got in it, she thought with disgust. It was purple and gross and it needed to go, but for now, she reached into the cabinet just beside the sink and took out a medical compress. She smacked it on the counter and then took it with her to her room where she could lay in peace as the cold soothed the soreness enveloping the left side of her face. She barely heard the pounding on the door and the urgent, official sounding voices that floated down the short hallway.
“Last night, I’m very sure of it. We need to take her now.”
“But you can’t. She isn’t a criminal!” It was her mother’s panicked voice that caught her attention. Nova sat up in her bed, dizziness overtaking her for a second before she stood up and left the compress sitting on her nightstand. She peered cautiously out of her room.
“She left a trail, it pointed right to this address. Not to mention the signature she left.” She heard the soft rustle of papers and her mother sobbing. The next thing she knew, they were coming down the hall and she shut the door quickly. The image of their tall, lanky frames and large, wide set eyes wouldn’t leave her. She had just crouched down to crawl under her bed when the door flew open. She shrieked and fell back against her bed. The mattress shifted and something crashed to the floor. Above the sound of blood pounding in her ears, she heard the cheery voice of her clock display announce the time, and then they grabbed her, one on either side. Despite their thinness, their grip was strong. The third read off her rights and announced the terms of her arrest.
“You have been charged with infiltrating the city’s internal network, threatening the life and wellbeing of the citizens. You will be held at the station until the day of your trial. A council appointed defender will be with you at that time.”
Nova was speechless and she barely struggled as they dragged her out of the apartment. Her mother was sobbing behind her, her hands clutching at the slippery fabric of their uniforms. “No! My baby! She’s innocent. She couldn’t have! “
But mother, I can, and I did, Nova thought sadly. I have abilities beyond your understanding. I can’t be stopped; I won’t let this stop me.
