Sentient Worm

Distress Call

Distress Call

"Lotus."

"Yes Tenno."

"You can call me Taylor."

"Yes Taylor, you remember?"

"I do, thank you for looking out for us after..."

"You are all my children, I couldn't have asked for better."

"About that, I know I was found on the ship with the others. However, I don't come from this system. Well, that's not quite true, I either came from a parallel universe, or from the past."

"That certainly explains the differences in your genetic profile."

"I, I just want to know. How long has it been?"

"Are you sure?"

Taylor swallows, "I, yes I'm sure."

"The earth has orbited the sun nearly a thousand times since you came into my care."

Taylor sags with the knowledge. She'd always had some hope that she could get home in a human lifetime before they stole her memories. Closing the connection she sags, before heading over to the navigation console, and entering the coordinates of her private dojo. Once she arrives she transfers out of her warframe, and opens a connection to Amaryn of the New Loka. With her memories returned, the conversation reminds her of talking to E88 fanatics at home. When she hangs up the call, she tries to compare what Amaryn was like before the Titania was reformed.

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A few months later, Taylor has just finished putting together her first amplifier with Onkko's help. And wasn't that a shock to find out. The "deceased" husband of Saya, the nice woman that she met a year or so ago when she first visited Cetus. Turns out that yes he was being an arse by pretending to be dead, but he was a precog arse. And isn't that an amazing thing.

Thinker, Shaker, Changer, Breaker.

Brute, Blaster, Stranger, Master.

Tinker and Trump round out the rest.

The PRT is the best.

The things that stick in your mind from TV adverts. I wonder how Emma got on after I disappeared.

Whirling around Taylor looks at the person walking away from her. She'd know that body and red hair anywhere. Breaking into a jog, she quickly catches up with her while calling "Emma, Emma!". When she puts her hand on the girls shoulder, they turn around.

"Hello, can I help you?"

Taylor recoils at the Grineer accent, "N No, sorry you look like someone I used to know."

Staggering away, she transfers back into the comforting embrace of her warframe and returns to her orbiter. She needed to check something.

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"Welcome back Operator."

"How many times do I need to tell you to call me Taylor?"

"At least once more. You're just in time, I've picked up a distress call from the Red Veil."

"Ordis, can you give me a mo. I need you to check something urgently."

"What can Ordis do for the Operator?"

"I need you to bring up a list of all the current assassination jobs."

"Complying, they are bleeding onto your navigation screen now."

"Are you glitching again Ordis?"

"Certainly not Operator."

"Ordis, didn't we kill Tyl Regor last month?"

"Our mission logs say that we did."

"I need you to patch me through to the Lotus."

"Are we going to mount his head on a pike taking the contract?"

"No, I think his research has received a boost from the past."

Lotus' face appeared in the communicator, "You wanted to talk Tenno. Taylor."

"Yes, I met Emma Barnes in the Cestus market today. Only she spoke with a Grineer accent."

The Lotus pauses as she considers what Taylor just said, Ordis on the other hand has no such filter, "Error, the operator seems to be malfunctioning."

"I'm not Ordis, I entered the void from a school locker in high school. It was 2011, and Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess, and Madison Clements had been bullying me for a year and a half. The day I arrived on the Zariman they put the contents of the feminine hygiene bins in my locker. When I opened the door, they shoved me in while I was frozen in disbelief. After they healed me on the Zariman, they ran the basic education package. I suspect that there was more to it than the civilian package, as I remember being more knowledgeable than the rest of the children. However, what they didn't know is that I woke up earlier than they expected. That's when I found out that they'd been able to get useable DNA from some of the feminine hygiene products that came with me."

"Ordis has to ask. What is a feminine hygiene product?"

Taylor feels herself flush at the question, "Erm, the earth that I come from didn't have any nanite machines, or personal waste recycling technology, and erm, well, you know women menstruate every month? Well, erm, Feminine Hygiene products are specific pads and insertable tampons designed to absorb the blood to make it cleaner to deal with."

"Ordis wonders if this would be a good time to address the distress call."

Lotus shakes her head, "Yes, Ordis play the call."

A breathy voice speaks from behind her, "Rap, tap, tap."

As Taylor looks around for the source of the voice, on the call a woman does a good impression of a backstreet medium trying to contact the dead. Her attention snaps back to the call when someone answers.

"Mmm. R-r-r-ellll."

"I know that name, he was the kid I stayed with. I tried to look after him, but the other kids..." – She trails off as the lander becomes suffused with red light – "What's happening to the lights? Ordis? Ordis"

Ordis's voice cuts in, "I'm sorry operator, the message appears to be haunted, halted."

Taylor shakes her head, "I think you were right the first time."

Sounding concerned, Lotus asks, "What did you see Taylor?"

...

"I, I don't know. Some sort of shaker effect made the whole lander appear to be infused with red light."

"I am not familiar with that word used like that."

"It's a word from home that describes a power that affects an area. Uh, we had super heroes?" Taylor trails off weakly as both of them looked at her through their respective viewports.

"Ordis has analysed the message, it appears to have come from a Red Veil ship, the ship appears to be without power."

"Ordis set the navigation coordinates; I'm going in."

The Lotus looks concerned, "Ten... Taylor, are you sure about this?"

"Yes, I want to know why the name Rell came up."