"Don't go." Nezero whispered, surprising herself. She didn't know why she didn't want Seignes to leave, if she had any sense she would just let the girl walk back to the Doctor and he could find someone else to watch her. However, there was some kind of ... platonic attraction... to the oddity this girl possessed. Nezero was brought up with strict rules and ways of doing things, but this girl was not. Nezero found herself walking after Seignes.

"I didn't mean to offend you, and I don't want to leave." She told her. We are ally's, and alliances don't just dissolve like that." She said, walking a few steps behind.

Good going Nezero, way to be rude to your friend. So maybe she's a crazy plant cyborg thing with lazer eyeballs or tentacles and god knows what else, she has done nothing but be nice to you and you should be ashamed of yourself! Nezero shouted in her own brain. Maybe she was even a tad jealous of Seignes. To have some kind of special powers? Sometimes Nezero would fantasize about having abilities, finally being recognized and climbing out of her brothers shadow. Alas, she wasn't that lucky.

Nezero's words made the girl slow down. Again she proved to be different to the others, Seignes had certainly not been wrong about that after all. Those who had made her leave weren't exactly known to call her back, but Nezero was different. The younger girl raised her hands to use the material of the gloves to soak up some stray tears before they escaped too far down her face. They always left streaks on her face that she didn't like. She turned then, putting on a brave face and smiling then,
"O-okay." She brushed her eyes quickly again, looking at Nezero and standing closer to her, hands placed behind her hips, "Is there anywhere else we can go?" She asked, wanting to put the small incident behind them.

The change of heart on Nezero's part made Seignes feel better, acceptance was one of the things she'd aspired to ever since being allowed among the other children. Seignes tilted her head again,
"Can you do magic Nezero? Doctor says there's classes for people with magical abilities too. But I only ever got to use mine in the doctors HoloTraining programs." She grinned softly, but then turned to continue walking, though kept her pace slow to see where Nezero wanted to go.

Seignes couldn't help but feel a rising joy that Nezero didn't want her gone, even though she didn't mind being with the Doctor, she didn't always understand the thing she said or was doing, even what the other people would say, she was still only a girl with what knowledge and understanding she could glean from the doctor and the others, or formt he training programs, but fake, holographic people weren't the same, they felt empty.. Soulless? Like a person was there but everything that made them a person was gone, even if they acted normal enough.

((Sorry for the late reply, I haven't posted in any of my rps for a few days))

Nezero breathed a sigh of relief that Seignes was willing to still talk to her. "Um.... not that I can recall. Do you have anywhere special you go?" Nezero asked. Nezero had lied a bit to Seignes before. She had USED to come to the plant room a lot, but lately she found herself focusing more and more on her school and less on frivolous activities like visiting the plants. Sometimes she wished that her future lied with the plant room, maybe studying a new species or teaching other students about them, but realistically she knew her parents would never go for that.

Nezero followed behind Seignes, still pondering the plant room. It looked so much more filled than the last time she had saw it, and it looked like they had made it bigger somehow to fit more in. Nezero sighed heavily, still lost in her thoughts. Her parents were already disappointed in her lack of military skills, so now they were pushing her to be a tech. Techs Nezero scoffed. She had the brains, and she had the skills, but she really didn't have the motivation.

"Huh, what?" Nezero asked finally coming out of her reverie. "Magic? No... no I can't do any magic at all. Unless you count my ability to hold in my emotions so I don't embarrass my brother?" She said sarcastically, then backtracked a little, not knowing if Seignes would know what sarcasm was. "I was kidding, that's not a real ability." She added, putting her hands behind her head as she walked behind.

Predictably, when Nezero was being sarcastic, Seignes simply looked at her oddly, not quite sure she understood. Something about Nezero struck her as a little bitter.. The girl stopped suddenly, her face dropping as she realized something completely random. Bitter...
"Like coffee!" She announced abruptly, almost as if expecting Nezero understood exactly what she was thinking before the white haired girl got closer to Nezero suddenly, grasping her arm and grinning, "But there's sweetness in there too!" She added, completely oblivious to her own strangeness as she then pulled Nezero along, not roughly, but as if guiding her in a more hurried manner.

"I have a great idea! You showed me your favorite place, I'll show you mine!" She giggled, her grip wasn't tight, but it wasn't exactly weak either, she certainly wasn't as frail as a patient should be. But then that just meant the problem with her was something different. She happily walked along the halls, passing by the cafeteria again, completely ignorant to the stares of the other children. She had one friend, she was happy, probably the happiest she'd ever felt as far as her memory recalled.

It didn't take her long to redirect them down another passage and another, then one more until finally they entered a cargo den. It was a large room with reserves in it, nothing dangerous, and anything dangerous was on lockdown anyway so students could not get to them. What she liked about the room was something entirely different though. She ran over to a panel in the room, closing the doors behind them and flicking a few switches before the gravity plating of the room gave out. Without it, she began floating into the air, giggling as she went. After a few feet she planted her feet against the wall and kicked off lightly, soaring through the cargo room slowly, her hair spreading out like a silver veil as she rolled back before looking at Nezero,
"Isn't it neat?? It feels so relaxing! Come on, Nezero! Its completely safe!"

Nezero was pulled along, blushing slightly at the stares they were getting. She didn't mind being seen with Seignes, in fact, it actually was the oddity of the girl that kept herself from being swarmed by her brothers admirers. She smiled inwardly at that thought, not realizing how beneficial talking to Seignes actually was.

After the gravity shut off, Nezero was mortified. She was NOT a fan of heights, which might explain her aversion to flying, but didn't totally explain why she was on a space ship, hating heights as she did. Her usual cool exterior was shaking, as she tried to grab onto something to ground herself, and she started to feel queasy.

"Oh... oh..." She said, covering her mouth. She would NOT throw up in front of someone. She took a deep breath and tried to relax, not looking at the ground. "I apologize, Seignes. I am not a fan of having my feet off the ground." She said, closing her eyes. She always hated to admit her weaknesses, it made her feel helpless, and this was no different.

Seignes tilted her head as she would when struck with a moment of confusion. But then reasoned that perhaps it was a difference again. Something else the two didn't share personally, but she shifted her body, a mild glow of light flashing around her before she floated through the air toward Nezero, a faint trail of light, a ghostlike after-image of the girl as she came to a halt in front of Nezero. She once again took one of the older girls hands, then the other. Seignes simply smiled then as the two of them seemed to lower again, though the soft glow of white light had begun enveloping the two of them, almost as if it connected them.

Their feet touched the ground, though Seignes looked up at her with that relaxed friendly manner she had,
"You can feel the ground under your feet now, right?" She asked, though it was an obvious answer, they were firmly planted against the ground, "I know the feeling too, but I've always liked being in the air more, I feel so free, it feels so.. Like.. Like being with the Doctor. That nice hug feeling I get. But then sometimes I miss the feeling of the floor under my heels even when I'm floating. But then I remember that feeling as much as I can, I can feel the tingle of the ground on my feet almost as if I as standing on it again, then I can be at home in the air or on the ground." She explained all those feelings quite happily, though part of doing so was to burrow past Nezero's concerns and distract her, keep her focus on Seignes as long as possible while she lifted herself and Nezero into the air with the odd light surrounding them, a stronger glow beneath their feet than anywhere else, almost as if they were standing upon a halo of white light.

Seignes giggled then,
"You're safe with me, I will catch you if you ever fall, okay? Like you tell me, we're allies, right?" She smiled softly, "I wont ever let you fall, I promise." She softly slipped her hands from Nezero's, but the odd glow of light around them remained, seeming to spread out across the cargo hold, an aura of calm emanating around her, almost verging on pure serenity. And for but a short moment her eyes seemed to change, fading from their regular grey to a soft sky blue, though it wasn't long before they seemed to fade back again.

Nezero felt more peaceful at Seignes' touch, and her shaking subsided. She would love to say she was surprised, but somehow deep down, she knew that there was way more to Seignes than appeared. She slowly calmed down, and after a moments more hesitation opened her eyes. Nezero didn't hold in her gasp of surprise this time, she looked down at the floor that was below them, and the cask of light they seemed to be standing in. Strangely, she felt okay. Usually she would probably be hyperventilating by now, but she found her breath normal and her heartbeat slowing down.

"Wow Seignes, how are you doing this?" She asked, bobbing up and down a bit in the air flow. She watched Seignes with awe, marveling how totally different she was from Nezero herself, but how fascinating. She even allowed her hands to play with the air and light. "You're right, it is a bit like a hug." Nezero agreed, giving a little nod. She smiled over at her friend, "Thanks... I trust that you would." She conceded, giving into the moment.

Seignes smiled quite happily watching Nezero before hugging her arms around herself a moment,
"It's a little of my magic. I learned to play with it thanks to the doctor. He brought me here because I said I wanted to fly like the birds in the HoloPrograms, now he lets me come here any time I want." Seignes giggled a little once more, "When I learned to use my magic I could use it to lift myself a little, but in here I can use it to move where I want. You just move like you're swimming." She chuckled then angling herself backward so she could move through the air softly until she was touching one of the containers, but then kicked off it gently in a broad arch through the air to one on the opposite side.

Although she'd separated from Nezero the platform of light remained, or rather it seemed to shrink to a more sizeable disk for Nezero only.
Seignes came to a halt as she heard a low rumbling. The entire academy was increasing its speed through space as the large engines flared brighter. Seemed they were moving for another location more quickly now. Although it could easily have meant one other thing, something that got Seignes a little nervous. She put on a brave face but flew back to Nezero, helping her back down to the ground before she made her way to the control panel again, after messing with the switches the gravity plating reactivated, bringing normal activity once again.

The lights that Seignes produced head faded away, they weren't really necessary any more. Seignes didn't seem to move from the switches though, as if she were staring off into space, lost in thought.
Perhaps it was nothing.

"Thats actually... really cool." Nezero said, a bit of her age slipping through with her quite immature statement. Safely back on the ground, Nezero actually was a little disappointed. She had endured heights without going completely insane, and although inwardly she thought of it as a huge deal, outwardly she showed no sign. As she was back on the ground, she took the time to bend her legs and twist, getting used to having weight again. "That was fun, I wouldn't mind doing that again sometime." Nezero smiled. She had smiled way more today than she had ever in one day, and her mouth was hurting because of the lack of use of muscles.

As the Academy started to speed up, Nezero raised a brow and walked, somewhat still wobbly, over to Seignes. "I wonder what that's all about..." She asked her friend, not noticing the reverie Seignes seemed to be in.

Seignes could feel her own heart beating rather solidly in her chest as a subtle, rising fear made itself present. A fear that was confirmed as the soft three-bell tone of the announcer readying another quick speech or alert, the mans voice came in clearly through the speaker in the cargo room, no noise to interrupt it.
"We will be entering Hyperspace shortly," he started, "All students please close outside communication until we leave hyperspace, all military personnel take your posts. Thank you, that is all,"

Another rumble, more like a jolt throughout the ship as a Hyperspace Vortex formed infront of the vessel. To anyone else this was anormal occurence that no-one needed to worry about. Entering Hyperspace itself was perhaps a little jarring at first but after a while people got used to it.
Seignes on the other hand, reacted differently.
The girl seemed to be shaking, but immediately ran in amongst the cargo containers and crawled into a space between two smaller ones where she placed her back against the wall and covered her head, pulling her legs up close to herself as she shook.
She hated hyperspace.. It frightened her every time. So much so that she was whimpering almost inaudibly. If not for them being in a quiet cargo hold, no-one could have heard it.

Nezero reached down and disabled her outside communication. She knew that about this time her brother would be bustling around, keeping some order before taking his station. As the ship entered hyperspace, Nezero yawned broadly. Just another normal day. She looked around for Seignes and found her crouched between some cargo boxes.

"Hey, don't fret, it's just hyperspace, we do this all the time!" Nezero said, trying to comfort her. She heard her whimpering and frowned, holding out her hand. "Really, it's fine! Haven't you been in hyperspace before? I admit it's an odd time of day for it, but really, you have to have experienced this before." Nezero stated, trying to coax Seignes out from the nook she had boxed herself in.

The jump to hyperspace itself summoned a yelp as though the poor girl had been slapped across the face or stuck with a fine needle. Her hands, once planted simply on her head as a protecting measure seemed to retract, fingers digging into her own head in a claw-like fashion, the way some-one's hand did on an empty surface when suffering pain. With lips parted and teeth bared it wasn't difficult to see she was gritting them tightly, all the while whimpering like an abused child.
Soft streams of tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked up at Nezero weakly, quivering still, the offered hand, she wanted so much to take it, but instead let out a small guttural sob,
"Pain..." She whispered, her voice almost cracking, "Voices.. So many pained voices.. Every time we jump.. I hear them.. In my head... But they're everywhere.. Out there.. Crying.. And the darkness!" Her eyes widened a little, "The monsters in the dark.. I can feel them!" She closed her eyes tight, lowering her head, and seeming to curl up even further, but she looked up at Nezero one more time.

It took her a couple of seconds but she began to crawl forward, taking Nezero's arm and getting in closer to hold on to her, burying her face in the elder girls shoulder and crying,
"I don't want to hear them.. I don't want to feel them.. But they're always there..!" Seignes bawled weakly, holding onto her new friend, "Why do we always go through it..? Why cant anyone else hear it..?" She questioned, grip weakening slightly as she looked up at Nezero, eyes still tear-filled, "It's always like this.. Why..? Why must it be like this..?" She begged the other girl, but lowered her head,
"Take me to Doctor Grantham.. Please.."

Nezero was shocked, and frankly had not had much experience when it came to comforting others. She held the girl and patted her back, somewhat awkwardly. "It'll be okay, lets go find him." She said, trying to lead her out of the room. She felt sorry for Seignes, obviously she was in a lot of pain, and Nezero wished she could help. She stroked the girls hair as she escorted her. "Calm down, it's alright, I got you." Nezero said, feeling a bit less awkward.

She lead Seignes down the hallways, holding her in her right arm, in case the girl got faint or something. If she thought they got weird stares before, it obviously was nothing compared to now. Nezero started to get an attitude with the onlookers, not caring how rude she sounded. "Got a staring problem?" She asked a girl with whom she had quite a few classes with. The girl looked taken aback and could not respond.

Seignes paid no heed to the others they passed, holding onto Nezero with one arm, the other holding her head as she tried to choke back tears. To anyone with sense it probably looked like she'd just been hurt and Nezero was taking her for help. It wasn't an uncommon sight among children, but no-one probably ever thought of helping Seignes before, or rather ever thought she'd need help what with being the strange individual she was, which again made their particular situation rather unique.

Even as they walked she could feel the dark crawling around the ship, watching it from afar, the the tortured sound of angered or lost souls.. Hyperspace.. She didnt know why she felt this way everytime they passed through it. She she just wished she didn't have to. Seignes was barely normal enough as it is without being so heavily affected by something everyone else considered normal. But the Doctor could help, he always did.

As they reached the Medlabs of the vessel there was one doctor, not Grantham, at the door, staring the two of them before muttering to himself as he made his way inside, it was almost indistinct but the words would have been clear to anyone who listened,
"What was he thinking letting her out..?"
Once inside, Doctor Grantham could be seen hurriedly making his way to the girls,
"Oh dear, again?" He stated almost grimly, lowering a little to check Seignes before helping her away from Nezero to a nearby bed, "Thank you Miss Wor'shy." He spoke over his shoulder with a smile before looking down to Seignes, the whimpering girl still clutching her head, at least until the Doctor placed an injector to her neck and emptied an oddly colored fluid into her. After a few seconds Seignes was sound asleep.

Doctor Grantham turned around and put the injector aside, head turning to Nezero again,
"So.. I imagine you have a lot of questions, Miss Wor'shy." He smiled again, motioning towards one of the offices, "If you please?"

Nezero looked on with worry, she had never seen someone so distraught over something so normal. As they entered the office, she shot a glare at the other doctor before following Dr. Grantham to his office. "Actually, yes I do doctor. Let me start by saying an all encompassing... What?" Nezero said, sliding into his office and taking a seat off to the side. "Is she going to be okay?" Nezero asked, crossing her legs and laying her hands in her lap, with a concerned look on her face. "I mean... she's not terminal is she?"

"There's a lot to explain, Miss Wor'shy, some things I'm not sure you're entirely ready for, but lets start with what you may already have seen or figured out of your own volition. Seignes isn't one to with-hold certain things about herself, no matter how many times I advise against it.." The doctor started, closing the door behind him and taking a seat at his desk calmly, looking over at the other girl, there was a harder look on his face,
"First of all. This may come as no surprise. But Seignes is not human." He smirked slightly, "Before you follow that up with what I can only describe as a resounded 'well duh' moment, we also aren't entirely sure what species she actually is, that's down to very confusing mixture of theory and myth. We do know that her species pre-dates human evolution on earth, however and that she produces a natural, magic-based aura that can make many basic feral species and plant-life absolutely non-hostile and that she can extend the range to affect humans. On several occasions she has even calmed the anger or frustration of the researchers here."

He got up for a moment, walking over to a food replication stand, after tapping in a few keys a pot of coffee and a cup materialized, the doctor poured some for himself, throwing in a couple of sugars then returned to his desk and drank a little,
"Now.. To your later questions, yes, she'll be fine, and no, she's not exactly terminal.. But at the same time it's a problem we've been working on ever since she was first born." He stopped a moment to rub the bridge of his nose, "Making sure she stays healthy has been a long, tiresome process, we treat her, she lasts a while then her body begins to break down, then we have to fix her and try a variation on the process to find one that actually sustains her longer.." He let out a slightly exhausted sigh, breathing in deeply and letting the air escape slowly before continuing,
"You'd think we should just outright give up on her, except that keeping her alive and understanding exactly what she is may be the key to many future problems we may need to solve.. She's almost completely genetically neutral, and while she's almost always at risk of dying herself; there's anomalies in her system that fight off viruses we could never possibly imagine fending off ourselves.. Except that these anomalies last only as long as she does before we have to repair her body, adjusting them on a molecular level never does any good, they're practically tied to her existence if that's even possible. That's barely the beginning of how important Seignes is to our research."


He looked over at Nezero again, sighing,
"Now as for the episodes she gets during hyperspace.. That's another story in itself, one I dont want to tell, not because I'm not allowed, but because there's things about the universe you'd rather not know. So that's entirely up to you, if you really want to know.."

Nezero listened to the doctor, her mouth slightly agape with her shock and also, interest. Yeah, it had been pretty obvious that Seignes wasn't human, but that didn't make Nezero like her any less. She thought of the doctors statement. Did she really want to know? No. No she did not. She expected that if whatever it was made Seignes act this way, she wanted to know nothing of it. However, despite her somewhat logical way of thinking, she found herself slowly nodding her head in affirmation. "Yes, doctor. I want to know so that I can better understand and help her." She knew this was a decision that would probably change her life.

But when she thought right down to it, didn't she want her life to change? She was tired of the same old routine everyday. The hassle of keeping up appearances and making her parents happy. Maybe she wanted a little... knowledge and danger in her life now. Nezero was subtly aware that she was puffing her chest out, like she did when she was being asked a mission, or being praised. She wanted... no NEEDED this knowledge in her life.

She gripped the arm rests of her chair tightly, her knuckles turning white.

"Its nothing you can help. And frankly not even something I can help beyond putting her to sleep." The doctor replied with a calm smile, "But it does make me feel that little bit more secure about her company, knowing that you would want to help her all the same. I don't view her just as good research material, to the research teams he's practically family, at least those who take time to get to know her." He shook his head a little, there were, of course, those who viewed Siegnes differently, but so long as they couldn't keep her completely fixed then she wouldn't be useful to them.

The doctor sighed a moment, drinking a little more of the coffee while he tried to think how to explain it to Nezero, it was something that often chilled even him tot he bone, but she looked determined,
"You've no doubt heard the stories, people who wonder just what else is in hyperspace beyond it being a fast means of travel from point A to point B." He tapped a pen upon a piece of paper on his desk, then drew a faint line and tapped again, two distinct dots with a path between them, but then he placed a questioned mark beneath it, "This mystery has baffled many good scientists and explorers who, in spite of preparations and planning, went into the hyperspace void, and were never heard from again." A frown came over his face but he just sighed quietly shaking his head,
"Sometimes they wouldn't stray too far from the hyperspace beacons, the ones we use to track where we are before exiting into normal space. But they'd still go far enough that communications would black out. Then they'd drift, or disappear before the scanners of those monitoring them. Sometimes they'd drift back, their hulls battered and damaged. Crews missing, sometimes floating alongside the ship, either spaced, or dying outside in survival suits under circumstances we could only imagine were most brutal."

A darker look came over his face as he looked in the direction of Seignes,
"And sometimes.. They find survivors.. But whether they really did survive or not, we couldn't be sure.. They would be mad.. Blind with rage, psychotic, traumatized and afraid of everything that moved, or practically empty husks. Living bodies with nothing left inside.. No mind, no memory, just the kind of blank gaze you'd get from a doll." His face turned, the gaze still something that would alarm most, no insincerity behind it,
"There's something evil in hyperspace, Miss Wor'shy. Something very.. Very dark.. And Seignes can feel it, every time. We don't belong here, but its all we've got."

He took a sip from his coffee once again and breathed heavily before shaking his head once more,
"But, this is still only an academy. Nezero, don't let others know about these things, to others she can simply be a girl with a few issues. She isn't incompetent, a little naive and easily confused perhaps, but she'll surprise them all one day. That isn't to say she doesn't need help though, which is why we come back to you. I'm trusting you to look after her. Morally I'm too far in the gray, I cant fully teach her all the rights and wrongs without contradicting what I do, same with many of the others here."

Nezero might have been a smart girl, but to say she completely understood would be a lie. She frowned at the doctors casual statement of 'putting her to sleep' as if she was some rabid animal that had to be put down for her own safety. It was at that moment she decided she didn't particularly like the doctor that much anymore, even if he was helping Seignes. Nezero frowned outwardly.

Alas, she had heard basically zero stories about hyperspace. People didn't generally talk to her about such scientific things, unless it was her teachers or family and suspiciously, they both rather avoided the subject. As the doctor talked, Nezero started to put puzzle pieces together.

"Is it... some undiscovered alien life form?" She asked, raising a brow. She was a little shaken, imagining people with blank gazes and personalities like that of dolls. However at the 'morally gray' statement, she had to agree. She wasn't perfect, and she didn't think herself so, but the hypocrisy in adults and even other girls her age would indeed have shifted Seignes into a less desirable track. Especially how the doctor talked so unemotionally about putting Seignes to sleep.

Seignes might be different, but she was here for a reason. As was Nezero, her brother, or anyone else in the universe. They all had a purpose.

Dr Grantham could see that look on her face, the disapproval that the girl was showing was more than evident, but he knew what he had to do and he would do it so long as that meant keeping Siegnes stable and sane. He brushed off a personal annoyance and simply smiled,
"Undiscovered life form..? Hmm.. Well to be honest; I don't know for sure. Perhaps its just some kind of radiation we cant detect or fight against that only lies deeper in hyperspace. Perhaps in their own madness they destroyed their own vessels. We can only speculate, but Siegnes' reaction, at least in my eyes, confirms there's more to it than that. We aren't affected so long as we stay on the beacons, yet even on these safe paths she can feel it. So if it was some kind of mind-altering radiation then we'd already be going insane." The man shook his head calmly, rubbing his temples before he stood up to look out across to where Siegnes was once again,
"I never had time to have family of my own Nezero, Siegnes is like a daughter to me, don't think for a moment I don't hate what I have to do, the only thing that matters to me is her safety, even if it means removing her from my presence to make sure she doesn't catch onto the darker aspects of what happens around her. She's like an Angel, pure and untainted."

He sighed, checking his watch for a moment, then looked into the lab, the others were busy with their various studies. One was working on complex binary structures, the other examining various materials closely, the materials didn't look Human origin, nor Tikarian, but Grantham would obviously not speak of them as he cleared his throat, looking to Nezero,
"Would you like to see how Siegnes began?" The doctor asked, looking aside to the girl, "If you want to know as much as you can then perhaps you could be of help when we visit our next planet for study."