Kodoku no Angel

(The Angel of Loneliness)

By Charles Drake

Dream 1, Prologue of the Epilogue

Alita opened her eyes.

"Ido..." she murmured groggily, "I had a bad dream...." Yawning, she stretched, cracking her knuckles as she did so. Light shown in her bedroom window, warming her body through the light fabric of her nighty.

"I-" Alita paused, blinking the last remnants of sleep from her eyes. "Oh hell..."

Alita slowly brought her hands down to her face, taking a good hard look at them. Flesh. Her hands were flesh. Ido was centuries dead, his memories erased four decades before his nanite infested body finally gave out. Shumira, Yugo, Figure 4, Kaos, and everyone else she had known had also returned to dust. She was alone, completely alone. And, the nightmare was just beginning.

With a sigh, Alita hopped off the edge of the bed and made her way into the bathroom. There, taped to the mirror was a note to herself about her lunchin appointment with Mr. Yachavich. Like she was going to forget that little date. She'd only been dreading it for weeks... since their first meeting.

Alita picked up her toothbrush and turned the tap to the "Dental Care" setting. A pale green liquid began to pour from the spigot, soaking her toothbrush with a number of bacteria fighting agents. Alita quickly scrubbed the nightly film from her teeth, then gargled a mouthful of the disgustingly minty solution to get anything that her toothbrush had missed. After all, it wouldn't do to meet your creator with morning breath, would it?

That taken care of, Alita headed back to her bedroom to find something to wear. I need something dark... she thought, plucking a pair of black denim jeans from her dresser. A black T-shirt and black leather jacket followed, along with a pair of black biker gloves she'd picked up the day before. People in mourning are supposed to wear black, right? Satisfied with her wardrobal selection, Alita pulled off her nighty and stepped back into the bathroom.

"Shower," she stated aloud, "Warmth level 5. Begin." The cubical at the bathroom's apex whirred to life, the water adjusting itself to her specified temperature. After a moment, it pinged and the door slid open. "Poor thing," Alita said as she stepped into the shower. It bleeped happily at her, then turned on the stream of warm water.

Alita allowed herself a satisfied sigh as warmth cascaded across her body. Since her resurrection in this Tokyo place, her two vices had been warm showers and shopping. Both allowed her to forget, if only for a moment, that she was a fake. When she was here, her new life could just be a silly dream. She could forget that everyone she knew and loved was dead, that she was the property of the mysterious Mr. Yachavich. Alita could even forget that her real self was also long dead, and that the person she saw in the mirror was a clone of the true Alita. A fake.

"At least they didn't call me A1 this time," she murmured into the spray, "Or Yoko."

"Ah, you're awake I see."

"Alita, please calm down. We're not going to hurt you. Here, let me explain what happened to you.. and who you are."

"Engage dry mode," Alita ordered. The shower complied, replacing the flow of water with one of warm air. Alita shook her hair, then pulled a towel from the towel-slot and began dabbing away the larger droplets. As she stepped from the shower, the gusts turned off. The shower bleeped again, then turned itself off. Picking up her brush, Alita walked back to her bedroom and sat down on the bed.

"Why did you do this to me? What gives you the right to clone me?!?"

"Intelligence division..." Alita murmured, pulling her pants on. "Why would they assign a clone to the intelligence division? It doesn't make sense." With an exasperated sigh, Alita finished dressing. Then, her new keyboard slung over her shoulder like a sword, she headed off for her lunch date.

***

"Io."

"Io?"

"Io."

"Io..."

"While they all say 'Io'..." Yachavich began in a british accented falceto.

"Why are you sending me to a Galilean Moon?" Alita asked, rubbing her forehead. "I mean, being drafted into the bloody intelligence division was bad enough, but why are you sending me to a volcanic dust-ball with a rag-tag Terra-former colony on it? I mean, there's nothing there worth keeping tabs on!"

"I see you've learned the tripple 'A' version of the solar system, Alita," Yachavich said, smiling. It was an exceedingly greasy smile, like a used-spine dealer would have. Whenever Yachavich flashed that smile at her, Alita's first instinct was to break his face. For the nth time, she resisted the burning desire.

"Mandu Guk," Alita said, turning to the waitress that had wandered up to their table, "And a diet Coke."

"Um, just some Salmon roles for me," Yachavich ordered, "and coffee."

"Your order will be out in a few minutes," the waitress stated, heading off. Alita wondered if she was human, a clone like her, or some kind of android. In this city, it was almost impossible to tell.

"Anyway," Yachavich continued, "Io has a rather interesting archeological treasure on it. It seems something was left there by an ancient alien race-"

"If you start talking about 1 by 4 by 9 black monoliths," Alita said smugly, "I'm gonna have to hurt you."

"More like the Shadows of Zha-ha Dum, actually," Yachavich replied, stroking his chin. "That was one of the key reasons for the Terra-forming; to support the scientific expedition. A few centuries ago, they built a dome over the sight. The air-tanks feed directly into that dome, the city of Dis."

"Dante's Inferno now," Alita sited, "Someone's been reading the classics, it seems."

"Yes," Yachavich returned. "In any case, they've got their own government now, separate from Tera-Corp, which owns the Terra-former city to the east of Dis. That means, they don't have to report to earth about their findings."

"I think I'm starting to see why intelligence is involved here," Alita noted. Yachavich nodded, the bangs of his hair slipping down to obscure one eye.

"We keep a few agents scattered through their ranks," Yachavich said, "and a few more in Hell, what the natives call the Terra-former city."

"Not Styx?" Alita offered, "Awww... so much for literary references."

"According to our last information, the Dis team uncovered something new... something powerful." Yachavich paused, waiting for her response.

"A Shadow Vessle?" Alita prompted, the smirk not leaving her face.

"Not far from," Yachavich returned, attempting to smile. He failed. Alita's own grin faltered, disturbed by the tone of his voice. "A biological weapon of some sort. My sources couldn't get much more than that."

"What's so special about germ warfare?" Alita asked, wondering what had the snake's skin crawling.

"Not germs, Alita," Yachavich said slowly, "The remains of a living battle cruiser, possibly with enough left to create another. This vague and somewhat unconfirmed information is what my informants in Dis got out after Scientific Minister Taskrel quarantined Dis... and before he caught my spies."

"A living ship..." Alita mused, recalling the living weapons of Yoko's era. Small Berzerker class cyborgs did plenty of damage in that war. The possibilities of a complete war cruiser with the same kind of power was frightening.

Suddenly, something registered to Alita. "Wait a minute," she began, looking up at Yachavich, "why does the head of the genetic reclamation division have a spy network on Io?"

"Because I have a vested interest there, and a few favors with select individuals in the intelligence division," Yachavich replied. "A vested interest that you and I share."

"You and me have a common interest?" Alita scoffed, "What, pray tell?"

"Nikira Stinglay," Mr. Yachavich replied.

Alita's hand shot forward, grabbed Yachavich's shirt, and pulled him halfway across the table; elapsed time, one second. For another second, Alita gazed nose to nose at Yachavich.

"Talk, boy," Alita hissed.

"Um... your friend, and my grandmother.. Nikira Stinglay... is a resident of Io," Yachavich managed. There was a pause, then Alita's left hand reached out and grabbed Yachavich's right. Grasping his index finger, she dug her thumb nail into Yachavich's knuckle and twisted. With a disgusting pop, the finger came away in her hand.

"You're a cyborg," Alita stated, releasing Yachavich's shirt. He sat back, glancing at his damaged hand just long enough to avoid getting blood on his suit, then returned his gaze to Alita.

"Yes," he began slowly, dabbing a napkin against the stump to collect what little blood escaped before the capillaries pinched themselves shut, "I'm only a generation removed from your friend. My first name is Marver. You knew my grandfather, Tamrin, rather well."

Alita's mouth opened. In that state, it paused for a moment as her brain became distracted by more pressing matters. After about a second, Alita's brain noticed the state of her mouth, but still found itself distracted. So, in a minor attempt to help the situation, Alita's brain prompted her mouth to twitch slightly, so to better scare away any flies that might try to land there.

"Moving on," Marver Yachavich continued while Alita twitched, "I want you to find my grandmother. After Earth climbed back from the gutter she moved out there to find new challenges, so she may be in one of her revolutionary moods again. Try to keep her out of trouble, if possible. More importantly, however, you need to find out what is going on in Dis. Once you get some solid information, report back."

"You're Tamrin's grandson," Alita stated, finally regaining control of her motor functions, "You're Tamrin and Nikira's grandson."

"Yes, I thought we had already covered all that," Marver said, somewhat exasperated. "Oh yes, you need to know about outfitting. You'll be provided with a full complement of weapons suited to your combat techniques, along with a few special body modifications. You've also been assigned a partner to act as guide and to cover you in combat."

"You know, now that I look, I can almost make out Tamrin's nose on you," Alita observed. "God, I suddenly feel old."

"Agent Alita Ido," Yachavich growled, "Have you heard a single thing I've told you in the last two minutes?" Meanwhile, the waitress was returning with their order. Marver went to pick up his chopsticks, and suddenly remembered his lack of a right finger.

"Not a word," Alita replied, also spotting the waitress. "But I'm sure you can fill me in." Alita paused, tossing Yachavich's finger back to him. He caught it left-handed, then pressed it to the stump. The digit re-adhered itself after a second. Alita smirked a moment, then picked up her own chopsticks. "Just wait till after we eat, okay?"

***

"You have got to be kidding me," Alita grumbled, gazing coldly at the commercial space cruiser that hovered outside the spaceport's view window. "I mean, that thing out there doesn't even look space worthy!"

"We're supposed to be traveling incognito, Alita-san," the tall blond man at her right stated softly. Alita shot a dark glare at her new partner, then turned back to the viewing port.

"A ship should be long and graceful, like a predator," she murmured, once again fixing her gaze on the semi-cubical transport. The ion thrusters that jutted from each of the ship's four sides did little to make the thing any more aesthetically pleasing. Nor did the semi-bubble tacked up front as the ship's bridge. "This thing looks... congealed."

"Douglas Adams," Konvar Rabiki, her partner, sited, "from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

"Site another literary reference in my presence," Alita grumbled, "and I may have to hurt you." Konvar arched an amused eyebrow, then turned towards the boarding gate. With a groan of frustration, Alita followed.

"Tickets please," the annoyingly kawaii robotic ticket-taker chirped happily. Alita and Konvar handed over their stubs and quickly made their way into the ship. A few minutes and slightly cramped passages later, they arrived at their cabin.

"At least that cheap shit-head sprang for first-class seats, eh?" Alita prompted as she keyed the door.

"Konnichi wa!" the occupant yelled, waving to them. Konvar and Alita exchanged a wary glance, then Alita rechecked the ticket. It matched the room. "Oh," the brunette girl in their cabin went on, "didn't you hear? They over booked this flight. That's why I got bumped to first-class. Cool, huh!"

"When we get back to earth, I want to personally throttle Yachavich," Alita murmured.

"I'll hold him down for you," Konvar replied.

"Oh, I should introduce myself," the chirpy teen continued, "I'm Naomi Carter!"

"Um, I'm Alita," she said, slowly making her way into the room, "and this is Konvar. We're on our way to Io."

"Pleased to meet ya!" Naomi bubbled.

"Come on, partner," Alita said, tugging Konvar's arm, "let's take a load off." Konvar nodded, apparently deciding that if she could live with this little change of plans, then so could he. In one motion, Konvar pulled off his oversized back-pack and flipped it up into the overhead compartment, where it landed with a resounding thud. Alita, meanwhile, opted to place her own pack under her seat.

"So, are you two friends?" Naomi inquired.

"Something like that," Alita stated, attempting to be non-committal.

"Oh, I see!" Naomi chirped, "You two make a really cute couple!"

Seeing the calm composure of Konvar's face shatter was almost enough to make Alita lose it. But, by some feat of willpower, she managed to merely nod and smile.

"PLEASE SIT DOWN AND FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS FOR LIFTOFF." the intercom droned suddenly, "THANK YOU."

"Here we go!" Naomi said excitedly as she checked her seatbelt straps.

"Here we go indeed..." Alita murmured, leaning against Konvar's side as the ship's engines kicked in.