Sentient Worm

Rescue

Rescue

"Ordis, can you set in coordinates for Iron Wake?" – Taylor pauses for a second – "Actually no, given that the cluster fuck is happening I need to do something else first. Patch me through to The Lotus."

"Greetings Tenno."

"Lotus, or would you prefer Natah?"

The Lotus looks defensive at the question, "I left that name behind long ago."

"Look, I'm not Orokin, I never have been Orokin. A few weeks ago I discovered that I'd been mastered into forgetting who I am by the Orokin. So I'm doing something that I wished someone would do when I was being bullied in High School. I'm calling just to see how you're doing and if there's anything you'd like to talk about. We can even meet face to face if you want to talk about it without any recording equipment around."

"But you need to deal with the Red Veil."

"Look, I want to find out what's going on with Rell as much as anyone, probably more than most. However, whatever's going on has been breaking for a long time and they never reached out for help. So I figure that a few hours or a day or so won't make any difference as it's already FUBAR. On the other side of things, it's been less than 6 goddamn months since your father came back from the dead, and tried to take you over."

"I haven't thought about it."

"Well that's fairly obvious, I'm guessing you've just pushed it to the back of your mind and are keeping yourself busy."

"Tenno."

Taylor interrupts, "No, not Tenno! Taylor. I'm Taylor. Tenno is a title, it's a way of distancing yourself from us. Tenno is what I am, Taylor is who I am. Who are you? Is The Lotus a title or a name?"

"I'm not human."

"Woo Hoo, neither am I if you look at my DNA, I've got a whole extra chromosome compared to everyone else. Also, in the non-human stakes, you're up there compared to some of the people I've heard of. Weld in Boston is literally made of metal, Newter is a lizard that sweats LSD, Gregor the Snail literally looks like a giant snail. Doesn't stop them being people, there are thousands of case 53's where I come from. Not being human doesn't mean you're not a person."

"But we came to destroy the Orokin."

"Not an Orokin, don't care."

"I was supposed to kill the Tenno."

"But you didn't! You're just proving my point that you're a person too."

"I have my duty to the Tenno."

"When was the last time you took time to do something yourself?"

"I can't."

"What do you mean you... Oh, you're trapped somewhere aren't you. Right, give me your coordinates I'm coming to kidnap you. If you don't, I'll have Ordis scan every inch of Lua until I've found you."

"It's fine, I deserve this."

"Oh no you don't. You deserve captivity about as much as I deserved being shoved in my locker. Now give me your coordinates or I'm going to instruct Ordis."

"No, I forbid you to come, it's too dangerous."

"Ordis, locate The Lotus for me, I'm going to kidnap her and take her shopping. Maybe even buy myself a bloody bed while I'm at it too."

"Calculating, signal traced. Are you sure about this Operator?"

"Yes, yes I am. Let's go."

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