The Hunt Begins

Who is this Atrix girl anyway?


Atrix is a Nau'Zui. That would be her definition if you were to search for her in a database. Every member of the Cho'otoo is given a ranking, but her ranking is one that has not been given for centuries. And while many claim that the ceremony that proclaims rank is nothing more than old voodoo that could not possibly hold any grasp of reality, no one would claim that Atrix is undeserving of her rank. Her rank tells us that she is the very essence of the Cho. That her abilities are so precise that even though she is small in stature, she cannot be beaten in a fair fight. 

Though she is a rebel Nau'Zui. She had been unruly during her training in childhood, much of which could be attributed to her disorder. But even when she avoided training exercises and seemed distant throughout schooling, she preformed at levels that had never been witnessed by a living teacher. She often disregarded her training, and fought with techniques that were unheard-of. "Logic." She claimed. She fought through logic. When she came of age and it was time to attend the Zoskta, or alignment ceremony. She was quick to break ritual. The ceremony was held on the water, the students meditated while intricately carved wooden beacons floated in the sea. Each beacon represented a path in life, and when they felt as though they had found their path through meditation they would swim to the beacon. But Atrix did not hesitate. While the sacred vows were being spoken she rose to her feet and dove into the water. Before anyone could react, before she had even surfaced, the beacon that had called her suddenly erupted into many colorful flames. The chemicals inside that were only supposed to light into one color had mixed. Some claim it could easily be an accident. But the beacons were so painstakingly made that the true believers of the Cho said that it must be fate. Atrix came to the water's surface next to the special beacon. 

Her training began the next day, though the training in the fighting style seemed hardly necessary. Atrix was unbeatable in a spar. She soon took on two opponents at once, then three, then four. She mastered every weapon, and surpassed the need to fight in any one style at a time. She blended and mixed the styles in ways that were once seen as taboo, or foolish. But the results did not lie. Her only weakness was the unstableness of her mind. The Cho school of thought is much more than a martial art, it is a lifestyle and a religion. This is why she was introduced to Prila. Because of Prila's own condition she had focused her teaching on meditation. While Prila was still a formidable fighter, she could only be useful to Atrix as a guide. 

Atrix had grown up an orphan, she had few friends and never once knew a lover. But Prila managed to break through her defensive shell. Atrix's condition slowly became less severe as Prila taught her to ease her mind, fight back against the thoughts of which she had no control. Prila became more than her best friend. She became her foundation. Her condition left her unable to trust anyone, but she could trust Prila. She could speak her mind and feel normal. 

The cycles passed and soon Atrix was ready to graduate from her schooling. An event so large in the Cho culture that a festival was held for an entire week. And though their beloved Nau'Zui rarely appeared before the public eye all had fallen in love with her. She was a symbol that had been long awaited. The graduation ceremony came, where a symbolic wooden hair piece would be removed from her head that kept her white hair partially in a long pony tail for all of these cycles by her teacher, Prila. But Prila was nowhere to be found. And Atrix disappeared. 

~ ~ ~ ~ 


"God. Fucking. Dammit." Sangela grumbled as she leaned down and hoisted another metal crate off the hard packed, un-vegitated ground. 

"Easy girl." The frustratingly calm and completely in breath voice of Johnny called through the radio. 

"Why don't you come down here and carry fifty fucking boxes back to the ship. You know you would think we'd have a robot or something to do this." She said, out of breath. The boxes she was carrying were once the cargo of a very small transport ship, one that never left the planets surface. Instead it would travel from town to town on this newly terraformed planet carrying random supplies. However an engine malfunctioned and the ship went down, spilling part of its cargo into the desert landscape. 

"Hey, if it were a human shipment I would be doing the lifting." 

"No, I would simply just gather up your stupid human, fun sized boxes into one hand and do the job in a few seconds."

"Hey remember that drink I offered to buy you?"

Sangela rolled her eyes, "If we even make it to the bar. You know we shouldn't even be on this dumb rock." 

"Yeah well apparently the old dude doesn't know the difference between a local distress signal and-"

"No I mean. We shouldn't even be the one answering this call. Our route was supposed to take us in a completely different direction. We are supposed to be in the Teral solar system where I was supposed to be finally getting to see the world where my species came from." She grunted as she dropped the last crate onto the ships landing ramp, "But no. Guess who decides to swap routes with us at the very last minute." 

"Mega bitch and dildo boy." 

Sangela laughed, Johnny had the uncanny ability to dismantle her anger, "Yes. Them. Why the hell would they even do that? Aren't they supposed to be flying in a somewhat central route anyway so if any of the new ships need aid they are within distance? Or does their magic ship give them the right to go anywhere they want…what was the name of that ship again?"

"The Richata…" Johnny replied, "Could you imagine a more narcissistic name for a ship?"

"I know, right?" Sangela said as she rode the landing ramp back into the ship, "Okay I'm on with the cargo, go ahead and take us back to the old bastards pad." The old bastard they were referring too was the owner of one of the local transport companies. Instead of hitting the local distress beacon when his ship suffered a minor crash, he signaled the main beacon which would contact anyone within the solar system. Johnny and Sangela were simply the first to respond. She sat down on one of the cargo crates with a sigh. Her first tour was not nearly as exciting as she hoped it would be. The training was exciting. She and Johnny got to compete, and their talents made her feel distinguished. But now that they had graduated they had fallen into the countless ranks of obscurity. 

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Several days passed on the Richata as they made their way towards Teralavast. It is one of the closest hybrid worlds to Teralist, and the last location Atrix knew Prila had been.  They stuck to the route that they had been given, not wanting to draw attention to themselves by going far off course and making too many unscheduled jumps. It was uncertain what La'ala could tell them, but there was a good chance she would be able to at least tell them where Prila was heading next. They made La'ala aware of their arrival, but did not divulge any information. The ship was still an Alliance vessel and could potentially be tapped, if the Alliance was indeed behind Prila's sudden disappearance. 

Issac stood in the shuttle that was heading towards the engine room. He had noticed that during recent testing Richata was redirecting energy to different areas of the engines while also having trouble maintaining absolutely perfect numbers across the board as she had been before his new training exercises. Before asking the computer for an explanation he wanted to go check on the equipment in person to make sure nothing was out of place. 

"What testing are we doing now, Issac?" Richata asked as the shuttle came to a halt. 

"Just routine equipment examination." Issac said, stepping out into the Engine room. It was the one room where the human entrance was on the ground level, a small personal transport vehicle awaited him by the door that would allow him to move around the massive engines. He was not expecting to see a large figure sitting in the center of the room between the engines. It was Atrix. She was sitting cross legged on the floor, her hands folded in her lap and her eyes closed. He had hardly seen her since she had moved into the ship, though he was often hidden within the walls of his bedroom working. 

"My diagnostics show that everything is where it should be." The computers voice suddenly sounded throughout the entire room. 

"Richata, use the cart's intercom please." Issac said, not wanting to disturb Atrix in whatever it was she was doing. But it appeared to be too late as Atrix's eyes suddenly fluttered open. 

Atrix's gaze soon fell on Issac who was climbing into the small human vehicle by the wall, "Oh…sorry." She said quietly. She cleared her throat, "Should I…Am i not allowed in here?"

Issac shook his head, "No-" He said, but realized his voice was likely too small to reach her from where he was. So he found the intercom button on the carts dashboard, "No, you're fine." He said, wincing as he heard his own voice echo throughout the room. 

Atrix took a deep breath, her grasp of English was not perfect but she imagined that "fine" meant that she was allowed in here. Though she was a little worried that he had said "no" at first. "Sorry." She apologized again. 

Issac put the cart in gear and tentatively moved towards her, "Taking a look around the ship?"

"No." Atrix replied.

"Oh…well, why are you in here? Not that it's a problem." 

Atrix felt nervous as the small human moved closer towards her. She had not interacted with Issac before, nor many humans other than Richard. "I was…practicing." 

"For?" 

"Um. I do not know the human words." She said, trying hard to keep her voice above a whisper. It was starting to frustrate her that she had to try so hard to communicate but she did her best to avoid showing signs of displeasure, "We call it O'oosa. It is focusing the mind and body." 

"Oh." Issac said, "I think our word is meditation. I think." Issac said with a soft laugh. 

Atrix smiled but could not keep it for long, "Yes." She said. 

"Kinda funny you picked this room for it. I mean it's the one room that isn't quiet." Issac said, taking note of the constant sounds buzzing and roaring from the engines. 

"I'll go now." Atrix said, rising to her feet. Without explanation she rushed for the door and disappeared. 

"Oh." Issac said, wondering if he had done something wrong or if that was just how she acted normally. He could only shrug his shoulders and resume his task at hand. 

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Atrix closed herself back into her room, doing her best to settle the uncomfortableness that had started to form in her chest. The engineer was the one hurdle that remained on the ship. She was comfortable around Kikata and Richard, and even the idea that she was so far away from home was not so daunting. But the engineer troubled her. She knew nothing about him, yet was quite certain he must have learned much about her. The others probably warned him of her, and her condition. Everyone seemed to think she was unaware of this little fact. Everyone pretended the condition didn't exist, yet they would still treat her differently. She wished the engineer spoke her own language, so she might be able to decipher his mannerisms and his tone of voice more easily. She briefly hated him. Accusing him of many terrible thoughts towards her. But as her training insisted she pushed those thoughts away. 

There was a knock at her door.

"Yeah?" She asked.

The door opened and Kikata stepped inside, "Hey." She said casually.

Atrix nodded and watched as Kiakta entered the room, "How far off are we?" 

Kikata shrugged, "If nothing comes up, we'll be there tonight." 

"Ships tonight? Or planets night?"

"Luckily for us, both. How are you adjusting?" 

Atrix shrugged, "I have trouble sleeping." 

Kikata nodded, "Yeah. I had the same issue. It will take a while but you'll eventually get used to constantly changing your sleep patterns. I personally can get fully rested much faster then when I first joined the Force, and I can fall asleep pretty much instantly." 

Atrix nodded. "What is the engineers name again?" 

"Issac." Kikata smiled, "Have you introduced yourself yet?"

"Accidentally." Atrix said with a sigh.

"You can't avoid someone on the ship forever, Atrix." 

"I know. But he caught me in the engine room meditating and I don't think I was supposed to be there and I think I annoyed him."

"Atrix. You are perfectly welcome in any room on the ship. You and Issac both spend too much time cooped up in your own rooms." 

"Well he actually has a job…"

"More the reason why you have no excuse. You should sit in the community area rather than in here. It's good to have a little more air around you."

Atrix frowned, "Fine. But under one condition." 

"Yes?"

"Don't make me go to the clubs with La'ala." 

"Don't you like her?" 

"I do. But not the clubs. I'm already on edge, Kiakta. Don't make me go." 

"I can't make you do anything." Kikata said with a sigh, "If you want to stay here, fine. I think you should go though." 

Atrix shook her head, "Not yet." 

~ ~ ~ ~ 

"That new crew member confuses me." Richata said.

"Mmm." Issac said as he opened the panel that revealed some of the engines cooling coils. 

"Her speech patterns do not follow the same patterns as others I have interacted with. And her body language is almost nonexistent or are contradictory to her language." 

"Well she has a social condition, Richata, she has trouble communicating." 

"Malfunctioning?" 

"Humans are not so simple, Richata. But I suppose in a way, yes, her social skills are malfunctioning." 

"She is not human, though." 

Issac rolled his eyes, "You know what I mean." 

"I do."

"Good."

"Why does she not fix her malfunction?" 

Issac closed the panel, satisfied that nothing was out of place. "Like I said, she is not so simple. We can't rewire her brain to make it function as we would expect a brain too. But just because it is not normal doesn't make it bad. Her lack of social skills are counter balanced by other talents." 

"Like a specialized computer."

"Right." 

"But she has all the same parts as a properly functioning being."

"Well, sure."

"So why can't it be fixed?" 

Issac sighed, "I could ask you the same thing, Richata." 

Richata hesitated, "What do you mean?" 

"During testing. You have slipped in your other functions." 

"Well…I needed to redistribute power…but I was not able to do so perfectly because I was…"

"Distracted?"

"You will not stop testing will you?" 

"Of course not." 

The computer seemed greatly relieved. "You are not disapproving of my inability to achieve perfection, are you?"

"No. I was merely curious." 

If Richata could sigh she would have, "Good. I was afraid you would stop testing if you knew my numbers in other areas were dropping."

"Dropping only by mere fractions." Issac said with as shrug. "If anything this proves that the tests are doing something. Exactly what I am not sure." 

"I like the tests." Richata said, Issac could almost sense the ships smile. Every day now she seemed a little more human.