The Lunar Queen [ON HOLD]

Additions

Chap 6

Kai POV five days after original newscast

The Newsweb Report stared up at me, daring me to scream or stomp around the room and smash everything in my sight.

An Earthen press conference roared around me. A tiny bleep came from the upper left of my set of screens. I was just an inch from pressing deny like I had to every other request that came through, until the cheery animated voice chirped "Request from Captain Carswell Thorne, first tier thermaterge of Her Majesty Selene."

All conversation stopped. My finger pressed 'accept' without even thinking. A very frazzled-looking Thorne came into view. Despite his sleep deprived state, he still held a very handsome air about him. The rest of the crew was around him slumped in chairs outside a white door.

"Hello Captain. We've been calling for the past five days. What's going on?" President Vargas asked urgently.

Thorne jabbed his thumb backwards to the door. "That's her operating room. We're here to catch her when she runs for it." Cress threw him a dirty look.

"You've got to be kidding!" She squealed "You know Selene's been waiting years for this. Although it wasn't exactly good timing, I think she'll be delighted."

"Yes, yes." Thorne mumbled in a 'we've been through this' tone. "Anyway, back to you." Thorne pointed his finger at the screen but didn't have a chance to continue. The man whose face is always concealed walked out of the room.

"Ah hello Earth." The man said 'Earth' with an odd tone. "Thorne, she requests to see you.. alone. She made that quite clear." That same knot formed in the pit of my stomach. Those two were always together. Rumors were spreading through the Commonwealth about the two. People were even writing these silly little stories called fanfactions? Ficfactions? Fanfictions? Something like that. I was starting to wonder myself, but wasn't Cress with Thorne? Thorne immediately got up and walked in the room.

The doctor took his place in the chair and rubbed his hands. "Her Majesty will be quite alright. We actually had her walking only a minute ago. I believe she will be discussing her meeting with Levana to Thorne."

"How do you know so much?" Prime Minister Bromstad asked.

"Selene appointed me her personal advisor. It's my job to know everything." The man said.

"Could we have the honor of knowing your name, sir?" I ask politely, even though I fear the answer.

"In due time young Emperor. I choose to keep my identity secure for reasons I'd prefer not to go into at the moment." We all nodded. "Her majesty will exit the room now. Just as you see me, her true face will be concealed, but expressions will be visible. I'm sure you're curious how this is done, but we will be sure to explain soon. As a matter of fact, there is lots of technological discussion to be done."

The doctor opened the door and Cinder stepped out. Her eyes were shut and her hand rested on Thorne's arm for guidance. The camera view widened and showed part of the waiting room. A tiny wire protruded from the lower part of her hand and was connected to a box held in a nurse's hand.

"Selene, you may open your eyes." The doctor instructed. Cinder's eyes flickered open and snapped shut almost immediately.

"Hurtss." She slurred. "Wire 926-hKs246 is loose." Her hand instinctively found it's way up to the bottom of her skull.

"No, no, don't do it yourself. I'll fix it for you." The nurse said rather frantically. "Your net screen is designed a little differently now. You probably don't know your way around as well as you used to."

Camilla looked slightly uncomfortable as they popped open Cinder's door and adjusted a few things.

Cinder tested her eyes again. She overlooked the conference and looked down at her hands. Another person dressed in a dark grey uniform walked forward with a bowl of water. "We would like to test your new system. Please rest your cyborg hand in the water."

A very stiff looking hand automatically went to the water. A muffled scream erupted from her mouth. "I-i... It's C.." She tried to form words in a very flustered state.

"What is it?" Thorne asked.

"It's cold." She replied as if it were rather obvious. She looked at his blank expression and gave him an 'are you stupid?' look. "I can feel it smart one."
"Does that mean you gave me nerve endings?"

"No. Like I was telling Earth," Cinder looked at the camera, just acknowledging we were watching "We used some of our latest lunar technology. That hand right there is 85 percent human, whereas it used to be 100 percent cyborg. Our staff has created a machine that induces cell growth. In simpler terms, we sped up the process of growth and literally grew you a hand, similar to the way a baby grows in the womb of it's mother."

"Soo.. What is the other 15 percent?" Cinder asked as if all this were a completely normal day-to-day conversation. I guess being cyborg, you hear some pretty odd things all the time.

"It's the pieces used to add the screw driver, knife, gun, extra wires, flashlight, and a few other things I thought would be nice. Your hand can do everything for you except make you a latte. Now, if you want one that makes food.."

Cinder's hands waved out in front if her "No, no, no wait. I'm not that desperate for food." Thorne rolled his eyes in the background. "How do I get to the cyborg parts?"

"It's simple, really. We separated the end of your fingers and other areas of the hand so they can open on your command. It's completely painless and quite ingenious if I do say so myself. Oh, and of course all of your veins stop at the openings, so no blood."

Cinder sat down and played with the fingers. Her eyes were downcast, so I assumed she was reading some kind of manual on her new hand. An evil smirk crawled across her concealed face and she opened her middle finger. Cinder secretly pointed her finger gun over her shoulder where Thorne stood behind her. Thorne quietly cried out in surprise when he found his whole front soaking wet.
He leaned down so his face was right against hers and mumbled in her ear something I could barely make out even when I concentrated the mic on them.
"Cinder.." He said threateningly. That was the first time he'd called her by that name.
"You're talking to the Earthen, why?" Cinder asked. I don't like the way she uses Earthen.
He ignored her, "That wasn't funny."
"Oh, I thought it was." She smirked and turned back to the doctor where he was still enthusiastically explaining some of their discoveries. Thorne walked out a side door.

I changed the mic back to normal as the lecture came to an end.

"Thank you doctor." Cinder said with a smile. She turned her attention back to the camera. "I'd love to continue our discussion, but I need to prepare to speak with Levena." She glanced at Wolf and he spoke a few words into a device on his wrist. Three more Lunar Operatives filed in the room.

"Be prepared to receive a call from me soon." Selene instructed.

"Be careful." Camilla wished.

"I will." Cinder lifted a veil over her head and the screen died.
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