Andromeda

She opened her eyes when Coco removed the blindfold. Andromeda was standing in front of a group of what she assumed to be the other cyborgs, although their mechanical parts were much more clunky and obvious than hers. A glance at what they were holding sent her into defensive mode: from the smallest almost-toddler to the oldest adult, each cyborg was bearing a gun.

"Relax, Annie," Coco grinned. "They're not pointing 'em at you."

Andromeda surveyed each recruit and determined that, indeed, they seemed pretty passive. "Do I live with these people now?" she sighed.

"She's quick," one of the boys commented. He was leaning on a sofa, and he got up quietly when he saw her staring at him. "Yeah, you live with 'these people' now. You're one of the Rebels now. Coco saved you, didn't he?"

"I guess," Andromeda murmured.

"No guessing. He did. And this is how you repay him. Otherwise they can tout you off to the government labs if that's what you'd rather do." That was the girl next to the boy who had first spoken.

Andromeda raised an eyebrow, staring unflinchingly into the girl's eyes. "Never said I didn't want to be here."

"Guys, stop being so mean to her," another girl, this one with black hair in a pixie cut, reprimanded, smiling. She pranced over and stuck an artificial arm out to Andromeda. "I'm Janine. You're...Annie?"

Andromeda shook the hand being offered. "Just Anne."

"Okay, well they're Ophelia and Jack. Jack's kind of our captain here," Janine said, glancing back at Jack.

"Sergeant," Andromeda muttered.

Jack tipped his head, smiling subtly. "She knows."

Andromeda looked around for Coco, but he'd long since left her, and now she felt exposed and uncomfortable in this new setting by herself. With calculated movements, she walked over to the sofa and plopped down beside Ophelia.

"You get your gun tomorrow," Jack said, looking over at her through his sandy blonde hair. "Your weapon, anyway. Some of us have--Janine, show her."

Janine raised her cyborg arm and curled her fingers into a fist forcefully; a grenade launcher slid into place, resting above her hand and forearm. She wiggled two fingers at a peculiar angle, and they split from the palm of the hand to reveal the barrel of a gun, just barely smaller than the finger that had just been there. "It's a raygun," Janine told Andromeda. "Doesn't look like much, but it'll kill you in a shot." Janine blinked and everything went back to its original configuration.

"Modifications," Jack grinned. "That's why the government hates us, I guess. We're easily turned into weapons of mass destruction."

Andromeda swallowed. "I'll stick to a gun, thanks."

Jack chuckled. "Don't say that until you see the armory."

***

All the cyborgs eventually introduced themselves to Andromeda. Of course, she remembered all of them, but she purposely messed up on Ophelia's name a few times just to irritate the blonde-haired girl. Ophelia and Jack seemed to be brother and sister, considering their resemblance and the fact that they seemed permanently attached to each other.

Everyone slept in the same room, in rickety old cots that were fast falling apart. As Janine led her to the sleeping quarters, she grinned at Andromeda apologetically: "Not exactly luxurious, I'm afraid."

"It's fine," Andromeda replied. "Where do I sleep?"

"Well, we only had ten beds...plus you, that's fifteen people. A few of them share beds--I mean, you could sleep with me, if you like. Otherwise, it's the floor."

Andromeda blinked. "The floor is fine." She didn't want Janine to hear the nonstop whirring of her vents or glimpse the tiny joints of the cold panels making up her skin, or wonder why Andromeda lay so still in her sleep. Even if the rest were cyborgs, she doubted any of them would find her odd android tendencies natural.

Besides, Andromeda had things to do. When she thought everyone was asleep, the rising and falling of their breathing rhythmic and deep, she silently stepped up from the floor and made to go outside.

"Wait up, Anne," came a voice. Andromeda whipped around and pinpointed Jack, staring at her from his cot. "You're still awake?" he asked.

Andromeda simply looked at him wordlessly. "You're right, that was a stupid question," Jack admitted. "The real question is, why are you still awake?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"Neither can I. Let's take a walk."

At Andromeda's apparent lack of refusal, Jack got up from the mattress, and Ophelia shifted in her sleep beside him.

"She's your sister?" Andromeda inquired once they both were outside the room, looking down the corridor.

"Ophelia? She and I were the earliest cyborg recruits. She's like a sister to me." Jack half-smiled. "The fact that we're both blonde is a coincidence."

They fell into step in the tile-floored hallway, the dust-covered windows filtering in moonlight that lay in swaths across the ground. Andromeda tilted her head up, looking at the stars. They shone from the same constellations that filled the sky a century later. A twinge of sadness made Andromeda look away from the window, desperate for something to distract her.

"Tell me about the war," she said.

It was an abrupt request, to say the least. Jack glanced at her with a strange expression on his face, but then he looked forward again and began to speak.

"You know...well, everyone knows how it started, right? Russia took control of Ukraine's weapons, and then they took control of the Ukranian government. And we sided with them because of some treaty. France, Japan, and Great Britain are now allied against us and Russia. With good reason, too; our government is beyond corrupt, and the rest of the world was suffering because of it. We didn't ally with anyone except Russia, we refused to trade with anyone, we attacked them in acts of terrorism...and there are a ton of crimes that the government technically didn't commit, but mark my words, they paid for it in full knowledge of what would happen."

Jack sighed, rubbed his fingers over his eyes. "Sorry. I'm ranting again."

"It's okay," Andromeda said softly; "you can say anything."

"Okay." Jack inhaled and exhaled slowly. "Well. The Rebel Alliance was soon formed. At first, it was basically a cluster of little rebel groups that had formed over the course of the war. But soon...we united.

"Cyborgs had always felt left out. Discriminated against. But there were technically no laws discriminating against them, so the government didn't lift a finger trying to help them. And so, in anger, more and more of them joined the Rebel Alliance, and their skills were put to good use. Modifications, as I said. That made the government even more scared of them. Mechanical implants were outlawed before long, so any cyborgs you see here were either created before 2114, or they were illegally operated on.

"The President was absolutely paranoid over cyborgs. She...I don't know what she did to her soldiers, but now they go crazy whenever they see cyborgs. Almost rabid, you know? Like wild animals. Even regular people have been fed so much propaganda that they're terrified of even the mention of a cyborg. They'll slaughter them on sight."

Andromeda looked over at him and glimpsed his watering eyes. She looked down at her feet again. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. You're a cyborg too; you know what it's like." Jack flipped his hair--not flamboyantly, rather to get his bangs out of his eyes.

"Yeah, I do," Andromeda whispered hoarsely. But she didn't; she couldn't even imagine what cyborgs went through in this day and age. She was tempted to ask, "so how did it end?" but then she remembered that they were still in 2117, in the middle of the war. Again, she cursed her incomplete understanding of history; although she knew the U.S. would eventually be restored to the sense of justice that was prevalent a century later, Andromeda had no idea whether the Rebel Alliance came out alive.

Suddenly, she thought of Polaris, and her stomach did a flip. What had happened to Polaris? She would have been at Wei's house at the time of the explosion...

Andromeda gasped out loud when she remembered what Polaris had gleefully told her: Wei invited me to his aunt's house, his cousin's coming home from the war--

Rabid. Like a wild animal. Slaughter them on sight.

"Anne--Anne, are you okay?" Jack had his hand on her shoulder. He was leaning over to look into her face with a concerned, almost scared, expression.

Logically, she should stay. Logically, rationally, considering all the factors of the situation, as a cold, sensible android, she should definitely not turn tail and run as if her life depended on it, all I have to do is find Polaris, but that's exactly what she did, her system kicking into overdrive, overriding all common sense.

Andromeda sprinted as fast as she could toward where she remembered the helicopter to be. She didn't know how to fly a helicopter, but she'd flown a spaceship; how hard could this be? All I have to do is find Polaris. Polaris, Polaris, Polaris--like the North Star itself, guiding her, the chant of her name in Andromeda's head was enough to keep her going.

All I have to do is find Polaris.