Forte in Minor

         The night was clear and the edges of the sky glowed faintly green fading into purple and finally into the familiar color of endless space.  The Misfidate Requiem crew had just made an emergency landing and now Colt, Ferry, and Forte were traversing the half-crowded streets of the small Obvairian outpost trying to find some essential parts to keeping their space-craft in the air.  As it turned out the Obvairians were a small, but tall people with two pairs of long skinny arms that were usually in the process of holding, displaying, and or selling their wares.  Forte thought they looked a lot like Armadillos, but Ferry failed to make the connection between the little armored animals and these tall alien folk. 

         Colt found them simply annoying because every vender seemed to call for their attention and Ferry just couldn't resist looking at anything that she found amusing, and amusing things simply don't make space-crafts return to space!  He spent most of time dragging Ferry away from the shop fronts while Forte followed along quietly enjoying everything she saw.  The buildings there were rarely higher than a two story and their roofs were dotted with frequent embellishments that made it seem as if tiny houses had been placed on them.  The air was full of strange, but not unpleasant, smells and occasionally she would spot a pair of train tracks running overhead.  The buildings were adorned with many intricately made lanterns hanging from the awnings, casting an awesome light that seemed to have no color, but instead stole it's color from the surfaces it reflected from. 

         Forte was looking up at the building tops when she saw something out of the ordinary.  It was a weird sort of something, like a odd shaped cloud, except it didn't seem to be there at all.  She thought it had a face as it felt like it was peering at her, but it was hard to tell.  Whatever space it occupied shifted like a storm of static.  It caused the faint buzzing of noise that she usually had when around machines that gave off certain waves, but unlike all the other times she had that feeling, this time she could hear it.  Forte was trying to decide if she should ignore it, when she notice that the rest of her party was ahead of her now and she scampered away to catch up to them.  As she walked an eerie feeling kept tugging at the back of her mind, if that's what other people felt when something seemed to be trying to access their being, however whenever she looked for the source of her irritation she would see a faint form of static hovering innocently in the distance.  Although Colt was occupied with keeping track of Ferry and still finding what they came for, he happened to noticed how Forte was constantly looking behind her back.  He gave up on Ferry for the moment, who was looking at something shiny, and walked over to Forte.  She was looking behind her intently with a distrait expression.  "Hey, something wrong?"  Forte continued to stare on at the sky scarcely hearing him.  "Forte?"  "Oh... what?  It's nothing.  I'm just tired, I think."  Forte didn‘t want Colt worrying about her, whatever it was that was following her she was sure she could handler herself.  Colt was a wonderful person, as he was the first person to take her outside, but that had been a long time ago and he had his own problems without having to deal with hers.  She decided to solve the encounter herself by separating from the party.  "I'm going to go back to the ship to rest."  She announced while rushing into the crowd at a controlled run.  "Hey!  Forte!" Colt called out, but she ignored him and continued running.

         It took awhile to make her way from the outpost and out into the cool dark outskirts.  She didn't rush to leave the outpost when she left Colt and Ferry, she knew that Colt trusted her and that he needed to find the parts more than he needed to find out what she was doing.  He might ask her about it later, if he remembered.  She walked past other ships, they weren't the only one's there afterall, but they had parked their ship far away from the others, if not only for their safety in avoiding a crash.  The Misfidate stood alone in the dark shadow of a large rock formation, the small lights on it‘s belly the only clue to it‘s existence.  The planets largest moon shined brightly casting a strong light on the barren land that lay before her.  Forte walked along with the only the sound of her footsteps to keep her company.  Despite her body of circuitry, she felt the cool ground beneath her feet.  She had been designed to be as a living creature save for her sense of identity.  It had be crushed long ago with another's.  She was nearing the ship when she felt the same sensation that she had encountered at the outpost pulling at her mind again.  She stopped dead in her tracks and turned quickly to catch whatever it was following her and promptly fell to the ground in surprise.  The whatever had been right behind her not even a foot away.  She stared at it unable to move and she felt that it was staring right back.  It did have a face as she suspected, but it faded in and out of it's questionable form as did other fleeting pieces of it‘s body.  It seemed strangely similar to a robot, but was hard to tell as whatever form it used to have seemed to be forgotten and what she was seeing was like trying to remember a forgotten dream.  She had never seen anything like it.  Then she heard it speak it's voice resounding in her head, a voice of surprise,  "You can see me?"  Forte remained in a stunned silence.  "You can can't you?  Please help me."  She finally managed to find her voice and squeaked, "What?"

         "Help me.. Please."  Forte had no idea what it was asking for, in fact she was terrified by this ghostly form that stalked her.  Suddenly all her motor skills came back to her and in one miraculously motion she jumped from the ground, turned, and sprinted towards the ship.  She yelled out a command word that automatically opened the ships boarding door.  She then ran up the steps using her hands when she nearly fell.  As she bolted inside she pressed with a panicked flail a large blue button with "CLOSE" painted on it and the door slowly obliged.  She continued running until she had jumped down a set of stairs and locked herself in the ship's computer room.  She collapsed on the floor to catch her breathe, which felt remarkable stupid because she knew in reality that she didn't have any lungs.  She lay there for awhile wondering if the thing had followed her inside, but the room was all silence except for the sound of her breathing.  She waited and waited, but that sounded was the occasionally creaking of the ship.  She finally couldn't stand it any longer and pressed the necessary buttons to link up.

         Forte proceeded to climb into the bright red barber style chair which was obviously for someone adult sized and was exceptionally large for someone of Forte's size.  But it was very comfortable and the computers around it were strategically placed where she would be able to reach them without stretching.  When she had settled she pressed a button and leaned forward.  The fact that she was an android, something built to act like a living being, gave her the useful option of directly linking to the ships computer.  She had designed the computers herself and it was doubtful that anyone else even knew how to turn them on, much less operate them.  The data transfer wires were unique and very expensive from what she had heard from Terra.  They were crafted to transfer the massive amounts of data her independent mind could produce and still have room to spare, but their more interesting feature was their ability to move independently through the air with only a wayward thought once they were activated.  Three to each side, six in all, they flowed from their storage in the ceiling and flowed down to her back.  They passed thorough her holographic skin and plugged into the appropriate ports in her back.  She closed her eyes and prepared her mind for the change in perspective that usually caught her off guard.  Data was so different from reality.  She typed the initial command with a memorized hand and her frame slumped in the chair as her mind was taken away into the recesses of firsthand sensations. 

         The  sensation itself was a lot like the way she felt when she was dreaming, the way things simply made sense and the dulled state of the mind, but it was also different.  It had a strange feeling of homeliness and serenity that she had never felt while in the waking world.  But it may have been only the added advantages in taking in input directly.  For example, bypassing hearing music with your ears and instead feeling it play out it's incredible strength in your head, where you could fall in without absent mindedly turning the music from your attention.  When it was thrown directly into your head, it was your attention.  This was Forte's favorite trick and what she was doing at the moment.  It was an immediate effect of filling your world until there was only the vibe from the music and nothing else. 

         Still as the songs passed it felt that something strange was trying to push it's way into her sanctuary.  She couldn't really concentrate on it as the sounds of music washed over her, but that didn't mean that it stopped pulling at the edges of her world.  In fact, it felt like the edges of the world were becoming smaller and smaller until she was very aware of another presence.  Unknowingly it started to meld into the system and crackles and static were added to the music.  She suddenly panicked, with a strange uncalled knowledge that this presence was the same that had pursued her earlier, but she was unable to pull out of the system, barred by some unknown wall, unable to wake from the nightmare. 

         Then an unexpected change happened and a faint buzzing filled her ears, but it was neither music nor static.  It was a peaceful sort of noise, or more like the absence of noise.  When she opened her eyes she was in a world of light that encompassed everything.  Floating on nothing, wide-eyed staring into a stranger's eyes.  She was aware that she could see all the other features of this strangers face, but they somehow seemed unimportant to look at.  She looked deep and long until she could see everything in those pale turquoise eyes.  They blinked and in the single moment a whole presence had darted into her head.  She was dimly aware of leaving the peaceful place and having a terrible pressure in her head. 

         She finally realized she was looking at computer room ceiling while silently screaming and squirming although she couldn't tell if she was actually in any pain.  Her hands were clamped to her head while her body was curling tightly into a ball.  All of her distress eventually had her laying sideways in the chair dealing with uncontrollable spasms. 

         Eventually she found her voice and her screams echoed against the walls, but found no way out of the room as Forte had requested that it be silent and sound-proof.  Time no longer existed, nor day or night, just the intense and uncomfortable pressure crammed into her head.  Then in a sudden and expected release the force that contorted her body lessened.  Her body relaxed and with the sudden removal of the pressure her mind fell into nothingness.

         She had passed out and when she woke, she found herself curled on the floor.  Her form must have changed because her dragon-style pants felt very loose and baggy around her hips.  She felt exhausted all over and was trying to find the series of events that lead her to be on the floor when a strange voice sounded in her head.  "Opps."

         "Opps?"  Forte thought back.  The voice continued in a friendly apologetic manner,  "I did not intend to cause you harm."

         "I think I'll be all right..." she said confused, "What happened?"
"I entered your system to copy some necessary programming that I am missing, however it seems that some files cannot be taken from the system, so I got umm stuck."

"You're what?"

"Stuck in your system."

"What are you?"

"Lost."

"..."

"Your name is Melody, isn't it?"


"No, that's not who I am."

"What do they call you then?"

"Forte Piano."