They put it in the vacant Workroom B and installed a security pass scanner and heavy magnetic lock on the door. They, the techs sent by the Ministry of Science & Technology, gave her a thick set of discs to study and stern instructions to let nobody outside the faclity to know what was going on here.

They then abruptly left and Merisa went to see the tank.

It had 3 doors and 7 compartments for biocytec development and neurowiring. Bioskin was in a sealed stasis contanier and in locked down secrecy in Theren's area.

Merisa was afraid of this. She did not like any type of biotechnology where artificial life was concerned.

The bone mix was already made and its ingredients were a secret kept from even Merisa, which made her even more upset.

She feared that they would find out about her plan to make an Arci-te biological replicant from this.

It was highly illegal to make any type of android in the likeness of the people that ruled the Commonwealth. She was doing it in protest for building this abomination.

She even named the soon to be female Okera, which meant, in Cristalian, demoness.

With the materials delivered, she had to create the plans for 88XX, she refused to give it a number and hated the fact that it was in the 8800 Series. It shared no kinship with the others.

She summoned to a meeting; Theren, Orela, Oelia, Oresa, Oresen, Chiela Boid (her new apprentice), and had to wait on a few others not on Tirakel at the moment.

She explained that they had pre-made materials and explicit construction guides. She also professed her fellings about it, which didn't quite inspired confidence in this project.

Each got thier assignments: Theren got the skinwork. Chiela and Orela got the bonework. Merisa would do all the bio-cytec herself. The project would take only a week, compared to the 2 to 4 months it took to build any of the 8800 Series Replicants.

Everything about it disturbed Merisa so much, she developed a stomach ulcer. She hated every minute of it. Nothing good could come of this, she thought.

*********************************************************

After the meeting, Merisa pulled both Oresa and Oelia aside.

Both were constructed more heartily than thier kin because like the first two 8800 replicants, they too were made for security work.

"I want you two to stay around all the time. Keep your eyes on the construct at all tmes. Frankly, I will admit that I am scared of it. Boid didn't program this one, some government lab did so no telling what it will be like when it comes online," said Merisa.

Oresa scoffed. "There is nothing to be afraid of, Merisa. We will protect you all."

Oelia nodded in agreement. "Yes."

Merisa smiled as she shook her head. "Just be careful. This thing is both stronger and more tough than you or any of your kin."

"We will," Oresa said and both left the room.

Merisa frowned in worry. It wasn't right to be afraid of something one built but it still bothered her immensely.

***********************************************************

Theren came into the main work area angrily. "Chiela, where is Merisa?"

Chiela, who was studying bone plans, looked at her. "She stepped out for some medicine, why? Is something wrong?"

Theren shook her head. "I cannot work with that bioskin, it's not behaving like it should."

She frowned. "Behaving? It's just a skin, isn't it?"

Theren scoffed. "Well, yes, but this skin seems to have a mind of its own before the nanotech controllers have even been installed. It's bizarre." She shook her head. "I don't want to even touch the damned thing."

Chiela shrugged. "I don't know anything about skinwork. I'm still learning as I go."

Theren, who was only 2 years older than her, smiled. "I can teach you someday. It's normally a congenial work." She looked at the bone plans. "How are you doing with this design?"

"It's hard because the government is keeping the bone mix a secret. Merisa said to make a long bone, like an arm or leg bone, and subject it to testing."

She nodded. "And?"

Chiela opened a compartment in the table, revealing a shiny glossy dark grey, almost black analog to a femur bone. She had to expend a little effort in lifting it, it was so heavy. "I ran every test in the book and even drove the groundcar over it 3 times. Not even a scratch."

She gave it to Theren, who was shocked at its weight and density. "This is not too heavy for a replicant?"

"Not a replicant, a bio-replicant. The whole skeleton will be made of this."

"What in the worlds are we building, Chiela?"

"I don't think that even Merisa knows," she replied.

***********************************************************

Merisa returned and told Chiela to begin the bone making. She then went to the development chamber and its cytec drawers and was apalled to find that the cytec for this monstrosity was already made and processed, it needed only to be intsalled.

This worried her. It wasn't like this when the chamber was delivered and nobody had been in here since. What was this thing? She cleared her mind of this worry.

She was too old to be scared of technology. She went to help make the bones.

Chiela was already done by the time she got there. Merisa found her shaking her head in disbelief. "Chiela? What is it?"

She pointed to the neatly arranged bones on the assembly table, now an ominously glossy back skeleton. "I came to mold them and found each in the molds, already set and finished. I just put them together to check for precision. It's exact." She was obviously much troubled.

Merisa went to it and looked at it with a scanner and her own tranied eye. She could find no sign that anyone measured or handled the bones.

The only handprints and glove prints on them were Chiela's. The thought of self-construction suddenly gave her unpleasant goose flesh and chilled her very being. She turned to the younger female. "Let's wire it right now. The sooner we are done, the sooner we can get rid of it."

Chiela shook her head. "I don't like this, Merisa."

"I don't either. Let's just do this quickly," she said and went to get the biowiring, which had not constructed itself thankfully. The wiring went uncharacteristically fast, laying in groves in the bones no other replicant had.

Anchor points were thick and fiberous, attaching to well shielded points on key vertebra and snaking through the center of the body mass. It was as if the wiring was not designed for later service like all of Merisa's androids were.

When they were done, Merisa brought out the bio-cytec moldings and panels and quickly assembled them out of sheer anxiety.

The inner membrane went on like any other but was like an inner skin, capable of serving as the body's main skin. A normal membrane could in theory but designed not to in practise.

Theren brought the skin in, handling it as if it was a dangerous alien organism. It was wrapped in a stasis blanket and within a stasis box. Overkill for protection but she was still worried.

"I would put the skin on but I do not think it will let me," she said as she put the box down.

Merisa and Chiela both stepped back as she opened the box and withdrew the skin.

She lay it on the mostly completed body and it instantly began to mold itself around it, becoming a lifelike outer skin.

Merisa nodded in grim satisfaction as it looked very Arci-te with its chalk white color with blue accents. She mused on the mysterious power system. It didn't have a conventional one. It could be, in theory, in the bio-cytec itself. She did not want to investigate it further.

The head was largely made by Merisa but its AI Core and its structure of protection were alreadly installed as she worked on it, giving it very real feeling and looking eyes provided with it.

It was odd because of all the assembly, this took longest, when it usually was a matter of hours.

The finished body was of an average sized Arci-te female replicant so real seeming, no hint of artificialality was present.

Merisa had Orela dress it and take it to the facility's safest room, the hazmat containment room, a bare concrete and metal affair.

***********************************************************

Okera, no. 88XX, awoke much like a real person would, stirring and slowly coming to, getting up and stretching.

Orela watched from behind the hazmat room's door as she looked around and then right at the door.

Okera messaged: Why do you have me confined?

Orela replied: It is on order of Merisa.

Okera smiled maliciously. You should have not listened to her, Orela. You will pay for confining me.

Before Orela could react, Okera came to the heavy door and performed a graceful spin-kick that broke the door in half and it shattered.

She siezed Orela and flung her hard into a stone wall, letting her fall and stomping down on her neck, severing her head with incredible force.

Orela's body shuddered and stilled. She was able to send an emergency message before she she went off line: Help, attacked by Okera, damaged. People in danger. Help...

Okera scoffed as Orela's AI Core went into protection shut down mode. She stepped over the damaged replicant and walked down the main corridor.

***********************************************************

Merisa was hustled by Oresa out of the facility and into the groundcar outside.

"You must drive to Rinrin and call the ones that commissioned Okera," she told her.

Merisa frowned. "But Theren and Chiela, my Orela, they are in danger."

Oresa shook her head. "Oelia and I will protect them. Go. Hurry. I will call for you if we need help."

Merisa engaged the motors and sped away, down the dirt road to the main roadway to Rinrin.

Oresa checked her plasmic cannon and went inside.

***********************************************************

Theren crept to the hazmat area where she found Orela's body and head. She gasped in horror. "Oh, sweet goodness. Orela?," she asked, picking up her head.

Chiela hurried up with a tool kit. "Help me, Theren, put her head back on her body as I check the wiring and bones."

Theren noticed that the neck area was not badly damaged. Orela's emergency protection system protecting sensitive connections with nanosecond swiftness.

Chiela skillfully repaired torn cytec and two wires before reattaching the head. The nanotech corite skin reforming as if it had never been damaged.

Orela shuddered and her power flow was restored and her AI Core came back online. She sat up., looking at them. "What are you doing here? She will kill the both of you easily. You must flee."

Theren helped her up. "Let's go, emergency exit 3, right down the hall."

"Right. Chiela, let me have your tool kit. Run, both of you," Orela said.

Chiela gave her the heavy tool kit and they all ran to the exit, which led to the ship landing area.

***********************************************************

Oelia confronted Okera it the facility's atrium. Stop where you are and cooperate until your owners arrive.

Okera laughed at her. You plan to make me, you mindless doll?

Oelia nodded. I will make you, heathen

Okera rushed at Oelia, who was faster, spinning around and pushing the bioreplicant into a table with incredible force that shattered it.

Oelia called for assistance as Okera got up, dusting herself off. Oresa, I need your help, immediately.

"Call for help, mindless doll. She will find you in pieces and won't be able to do a single thing for you," Okera cheerfully said.

Oelia, who was foolishly not armed, prepared to defend herself.

A message came to her: Oelia, this is Oresen. Leave the area at once. The biological replicant is a hoax. It was created to kill Merisa by the Ketaterra government posing as the Ministry of Science & Technology. It contains Tiage technology from the J2 Galaxy. You cannot best it. Leave now.

Oelia couldn't believe it. She smiled at Okera. "Okay, demon. This is one doll you won't be playing with." She touched the Oti-transporter she stole from a government facility before her madness episode and vanished in a shower of photoluminescent particles.

Okera laughed. "Run, mindless doll! I wil catch you sooner or later!"

***********************************************************

Oresa was watching through a window when Oresen contacted her:

Oresa, this bioreplicant is a hoax created by the Ketaterra government to kill Merisa for resons unkown. It is constructed with Tiage Trade Federation technology from the J2 Galaxy. Nothing you have can destroy it.

Oresa was intrigued by this. She replied: Are you sure, Oresen?

Oresen became cross. Do not be foolish, Oresa. I am awaiting word from the Sci-Tech Ministry on how to deal with it.

Oresa, angel doll. Okera was right outside the window.

Oresa cocked her plasmic cannon. Stay where you are and I won't have to hurt you.

Okera laughed at her. You rely on your gun too much, angel doll. Come, show me how skilled you are.

Oresen urgently messaged: Oresa! Don't be fooled into fighting with her! She is stronger than you!

Oresa shut that channel off. She smiled. Okay. But I warned you. She put down her gun and went outside.

*********************************************************

Oresen was agitated. She was in the pilot's seat of the B-class ship, flying the others safely to Rinrin. "She is going to fight the bioreplicant," she told Orela.

"That fool, she will be killed," she replied from the copilot's seat.

"Is there nothing we can do to help her?"

Orela shook her head. "Not that I know of."

"Damn. I hope she is careful."

***********************************************************

Merisa frowned severely. This was the lowest, most despicable thing she had ever seen any government do.

She was in the Commonwealth government building in Rinrin, awaiting word form the Ministry of Science and Technology.

It wasn't long in coming.

Minister Rehena, himself, contacted her. "Ms. Cerena, we profusely apologize for this act of outrageousness. We have explored this techology and can find no weakness to exploit. We wish for your consent to let the ACDF destroy your facility."

Merisa was outraged. "What?! Destroy my facility just to get one individual?! There must be another way."

Rehena shook his head. "You do not have the weapons to take this thing down. It is impervious to physical damage."

Merisa suddenly thought about foolishly brave Oresa. She fumbled with her comband, calling her internal comm system.

***********************************************************

Oresa tried to reset her broken left arm. Okera had snapped it like a twig. She had fallen into the storm drain that ran under the atrium, half submerged in water.

Okera was above, somehow regenerating the massive cleft Oresa had put between her neck and left shoulder. She sat like a slumped over gel doll during this.

Besides her arm, Oresa had significant damage to the left side of her ribs and the cytec inner memberane there. It was nothing serious but did inhibit movement.

Merisa's voice suddenly spoke through her comm system. "Oresa? Are you all right?"

Oresa could not get up. Her left hip was cracked from a powerful blow that cracked most of her pelvic bone. She wouldn't dare risk its collapse. I have sustained moderate damage. I hit Okera so hard, it would have killed any normal android

"Can you leave? The thing is impervious to physical damage."

Oresa chuckled, bemused. I wondered why it was regenerating. She then fell silent as a warning from her body monitoring system told her that she was definately unable to walk to stand. Merisa, my left leg and pelvis are both badly damaged, I am no longer ambulatory.

Merisa was obviously preturbed. "You foolish girl. I can't come and help you. The government wants to destroy the facility, even."

Oresa knew that Okera would kill her when she recovered. It's my fault, Merisa. Forgive me.

Merisa sighed. "There must be a way to help you and destroy that thing. I will find it. Hold on, dear. Please." The channel ended.

Oresa frowned. What a way to end such a wonderful life. She shifted in the water and a whole host of warnings went off.

Up above, Okera continued regenerating.

***********************************************************

Merisa wondered if Cellen could help her. She had access to a wild variety of ACDF weaponry and had the best hacking skills Merisa had ever known of.

Cellen appeared on the small office's wallscreen wearing a sweat soaked tank top shirt and had her hair tied back. She blushed. "Sorry, Merisa, I was working on the ops center's cooling system. What's up?"

Merisa told her about Okera.

Cellen frowned at this. "I've heard of these things. They were used as soldiers and enforcers for the Tiage. The Ib and the Kateri both had exotic weapons for dealing with them. I can get you some but it'll take time."

"We may not have time. My Oresa tangled with it and now says she is non-ambulatory and moderately damaged. My locator says she is in the facility's main storm drain. She did damage it critically but it seems to be regenerating," Merisa said.

Cellen frowned even more. "Err...look, Merisa. I can't send any help but I can get you the weapons....huh? One of your replicants has an Oti device! Excellent!"

Merisa was confused. "What's an Oti device?"

Cellen smiled. "It's a matter transporter that uses a subdimension of hyperspace. It's instantaneous and safe. Get it and I will send what you need to you."

Merisa had no idea of what she was talking about but withheld that fact. "Who has it?"

She checked an unseen computer. "Ah, um, Oelia does."

Merisa summoned Oelia, who was in the cafeteria downstairs.

She came in moments later. "Yes?"

Cellen said, "Hey, Oelia. You have an Oti device, don't ya?"

Oelia protectively clutched her chest pocket. "I do but it's mine."

"That's all right. We just need it to send you some weapons that will kill that Okera thing."

Oelia grinned suddenly. She pulled the small round device from her pocket. It was glittery grey and had glowing panels seeimingly in the rock/metal material it was made of. "I am glad to help."

"Good. I am sending you an Ib pulse web gun. Get it to Oresa. I will contact her and tell her how to use it."

"All right." Oelia put it on a table and a weird looking gun materialized on it.

Merisa was amazed. "This will kill that thing?"

Cellen nodded. "Yup. Best hurry, demon girl's coming to."

***********************************************************

Oresa had been pulled out of the storm drain by Okera after she came to and got up.

She sat slumped aganist a wall as Okera went in search of a device to dismember Oresa messily.

Suddenly, to her shock, a strange looking gun apeared in her hands. On the back end was a flexible web which was attached to a short rectanglar piece that was attacted to an obvious barrel.

An unfamliar female voice spoke through her secret comm channel, startling her. Nobody knew that channel's code. "Oresa? I am Comander Cellen Cerwia. I am an ACDF ops officer. What you are holding is an Ib pulse web gun. It is a powerful EM and plasmic weapon that will literally blow holes in the Okera thing. Use your best judgment on how to kill it."

Oresa looked at it with a new found fascination. How does it work?

"Wrap the web around your hand and wrist. A trigger mechanism wil mold itself around your fingers automatically. Go on, it's pretty easy. Does all the work itself."

Oresa did as best she could with one hand. Her left hand was not working due to severed control lines. The gun molded itself to her hand suddenly, startling her. She aimed it at a rock on the grass and pressed the�trigger.

A dark blue pulse of energy slammed into it and obliterated it in a shower of particles.

She smiled. She had found the replacement for her plasmic cannon. Thank you, Cellen

"No problem, kid. Keep it. Call me when you get better. I can teach you some things only Otanda knows." The secret channel closed.

Oresa was happy now despite a new warning about the fragility of her pelvic bone. Only the cytec in her hips, backside and pubic region was holding it together.

***********************************************************

Merisa hurried back to the facility with the others. She quickly laid out all her repair tools and got out Oresa's body plan.

She then went to the atrium foyer, where Oresa's plasmic cannon sat on a table.

Oresa herself was outside looking rather bad. Her brown hair was matted and dirty, her skin covered in dirt and the jumper she wore torn and stained with cytec on her left side.

She held the strange gun close to her, as if hiding it.

Merisa wanted to go to her but it was too dangerous with Okera afoot.

The bioreplicant returned with a circular bladed kinetic saw.

Merisa watched in wonder what happened next.

***********************************************************

Oresa's left air circualator, a cooling system disguised as a lung, suddenly failed, sending heat pain all over the left side of her chest. She cringed at this unfamiliar, unwanted feeling as Okera returned with a circular kinetic saw.

She laughed mockingly. "What's the matter, angel doll? Inferior body failing you? I can fix that." She activated the saw, which made a reverbating whine as she revved its motor.

"Hey, Okera," Oresa said.

Okera smiled. "Yes, angel doll?"

Osera aimed the web gun at her chest. "Say bye bye." She fired, the dark blue energy pulse striking Okera hard enough to sever her left shoulder and arm.

Okera screamed in suprised rage and lifted the saw but Oresa fired again. The pulse struck her in the midsection, foldling her like a ruptured gel doll. She was bowled over, landing hard on her backside.

Great reddish-blue gouts of bio-cytec spilled out of her, melted into a gelatinous mess.

Okera struggled to get up but her spine had been shattered.

Oresa couldn't get up to go kill her. She sent a message: Oelia? Oresen? Orela? I need help.

Merisa came out of the foyer. "Oresa? Are you okay?" She came to her and nelt, checking under her jumper.

Oresa shook her head. "I cannot move, Merisa." She detatched the web gun and gave it to her. "Kill for me. Please."

Merisa solemnly nodded. She put it on and went to Okera's head, firing into it with no hesitation.

Okera's body shuddered severely and stilled.

Merisa came back to Oresa.

Orela ran out with an antigrav board and stabilizers for her pelvic region.

"Easy, now," Merisa said, carefuly setting the stabilizers.

Orela carefully helped move her onto the board and took them inside.

Merisa called an industral refuse company to clean up and reove Okera's artificial carcass, but not before taking many samples of all her materials for research and possible replication.

***********************************************************

It took a full week to repair Oresa. She was told not to do anything so foolish again.

She went to see Cellen the next day, not saying why.

Merisa gave Theren a couple of weeks off and bought her a round trip ticket to Cristalia so she could go home for a time.

Chiela had volunteered to watch over the facility as Merisa took her own 2 weeks off, going to the infamous resort of Caryda.

Orela stayed in the facility, Oelia was busy working on repairs to the atrium foliage.

Never again was the Cerena Artificial Life Co. asked to build anything without full disclosure.

� 3 March 04 Gregory Thompson