Family Bonds

Chapter 5: The Past Meets the Future.

"Be careful little one, the iron will burn you"  a soft accented voice whispered just behind her as Klara worked. "I know dadda.. I'm being careful!" She said just as quietly as she started once again soldering two pieces together. Her and her father were in his workshop building her first ever prototype. A chicken like turret that would follow her around, alert and shoot at anyone she programmed, or if proceeded as bad. They were just working on the body, her father doing the harder wiring as she built the body of the turret. It was almost complete, and Klara was excited to see if it worked.

"Alright little Nora, is the body done?" She nodded quickly and watched as her dad carefully put the wiring in and connected it where it needed, before she soldered the last peice shut. "Try to recall it" the soft voice said and she grabbed her kidding bracelet and gloves. Slipping it on she took a deep breath and touched a few buttons. As expected the bot folded in on itself and went holographic, going right into the bracket were a little icon appeared. She jumped up and cheered, hearing laughter behind her.

Klara woke up to the memory and her cheers still ringing in her ears. She mumbled softly and pushed herself up, sighing when no pain flared up. Looking around the dark room she found herself in the medbay, the lights off as Sage went to bed. Turning to the side she expected any one of her friends, but froze when she spotted Cypher right beside her. While not uncommon, it was rare that he was here when she awoke, often only coming in when she was still asleep, from what her friends and Sage tell her.

She watched the man usually sitting straight against the chair, leaned on the bed still asleep, his hat tucked on his lap, and brown hair flopped over his face, the information broker not wearing his mask. That had Klara freeze in surprise, as he always had his mask on whenever the engineer saw him. Curious Klara carefully leaned over and moved alittle of his hair out of his face, and took a much sharper gasp, freezing when the man started to move. Cypher looked so much like the man in her dreams, though much older than the face in the dreams it was undeniable that it was him. the one she would call dad, helped her build so many prototypes of her bots she uses now.

"Nora... I'm so sorry..." cypher mumbled softly only shuffling to get more comfortable before he stopped moving again. The name had Kiara's head spinning again. Nora? That was the name of his lost child, cypher told her one night after she had caught him drinking away. She had softly chiasted him about it, sending a sharp glare as the morracan reached for the bottle again. "Please.. it's her birthday.. I need to forget." Klara has paused, head tilted as she looked down at the slumped figure. "Forget whose birthday?" Caught, Cypher  deflated with a sigh, finally accepting the bottoms of water Klara gave him. After a sip, he finally clarified, "My daughter, Nora, her birthday is today.." Klara eyes widened, understanding the tried hurt voice. She had lost her parents when she was quite young, but she remembered many things. "Tell me about her?" She had said quietly, slowly sitting down next to the Information broker as he sighed.

"She was smart, kind, and always loved building.. kinda like you little engineer.." cypher said with a soft chuckle, earning a smile from Killjoy. "She loved to sneak into my office and play with the many parts and tools I had in there, much to the dismay of her mother." Klara laughed at that openly. "Oh I bet your wife hated that ha." Cypher had started laughing as well and nodded. "Yes, she kept telling me to put them away before Nora could hurt herself, but she would find the tools or parts no matter how good I hid them.." they had spent the night just talking, or rather Cypher telling stories and Klara listening carefully, knowing it's helping someone she looks up to.

But now, standing face to face, she can tell. She can tell why she always felt safe with him around, why he could understand her tech rambles, and more specifically why she was always drawn back to his files. "Cypher is my dad.." she whispered to herself, though flinched when he started moving again, soft groans as he slowly woke up.

"Shit..."