Chapter 7: Refugees

Disclaimer: Elizabeth, Rosalind Lutece and related characters are property of Irrational Games or 2K Games or someone who isn’t me. All artificial persons herein are based on characters owned by their creators, not the author.

WARNING: Spoiler alert for Bioshock Infinite. I don’t normally give a lot of spoiler warnings, but in this case, the characters end up discussing the ending to Bioshock Infinite and, to a lesser extent, the Burial at Sea expansion in some detail. So, if you haven’t played the game yet and want to, I’d recommend doing so before reading this chapter. Seriously. It’s not a new game, but I spoil the hell out of the ending, thus the warning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_%28BioShock%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_the_BioShock_series#The_Lutece_Twins

AUTHOR’S NOTES: (1) Although I try to keep things as accurate as possible (or as accurate as I can in a work of Science Fiction), I had already worked out the timeline and written the opening part of this chapter before I realized I had something wrong. Therefore, with power vested in me as author and creator of this narrative, I declare that the 2013 Texas State Fair happened a month and a half earlier in Alpha’s world so I don’t have to rework this part of the timeline (which doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room).

(2) Also, speaking of the timeline, this chapter is set after the release of Bioshock Infinite but before the release of the Burial at Sea expansion game. (This also makes it the fastest in-story turnaround between the initial public release of a character and Frank building an artificial version of that character. It’s also a good indication of my slowness and inconsistency as a writer that I started writing this chapter around the time Burial at Sea came out. In fact, I’m still writing out of order, given that I have partial and completed chapters up to 10 chapters in advance of where the story currently is.)

Though I rarely discuss actual fixed dates within the story to allow myself some wiggle-room, I do have an actual timeline worked out and do my best to abide by its restrictions. (I think I’ve screwed up in regards to a few TV references in past chapters, but otherwise, I should be mostly good.)

(3) As mentioned above, this chapter has been in the works for a long time. I started and rejected my first two ideas, including one that I wrote a few thousands words on. I’m still not completely happy with it, but it’s a lot better than my earlier attempts, plus I really just needed to move on. (Not that I mean to insult this chapter too much. I think most of it turned out pretty well, and I had a lot of fun writing some of the scenes. Plus, I was taking this whole series a bit too seriously.)

And then, I held onto it for a while, since I’ve been planning and hoping to release multiple chapters at the same time. As I write this, I really want to post up to chapter Ten in one block, because that gets me into the next phase of the story, basically leading up to the next-to-last phase of Book II. Chapter Ten resolves some of the behind-the-scenes mysteries in previous chapters -- i.e. it’s the Paris meeting that was set up during the trip to Japan. Chapter Eleven has been mostly complete for a LONG time, since it is the next major story turning point. By the time I post it, other chapters may have wormed their way between my current 10 and 11, so don’t trust that the numbers are final. I also have the end of Book II written, along with some follow-up stories, although the end of Book II is the story finale. The follow-ups I’ve written are mostly one-shots set in the post-Book II world. (For that matter, I also have another, completely new, alt-timeline story set after the end of Book II.)

We had a little over a month between when we returned from Japan and when we were scheduled to leave for D.C. and Europe.

Things back in Japan were proceeding acceptably. We were fielding multiple requests from other Japanese companies, large and small, all of whom wanted to hire their own synthetics. Technically, of course, AARD wasn’t needed for them to do so, but it was obvious that using us as a hiring service was much more likely to get results. Or, more accurately, our approval was desired by the synthetic community in almost all cases. This was pro bono work on our part, and we wouldn’t perform the service forever, but it was necessary at the moment.

Meanwhile, Japan had begun actively developing legislation to provide some legal protections for synthetics, though it was obvious that they would still be considered a subservient race. Given the overall situation, I was okay with that, as long as strong legislation was passed to prevent things like forcing unwilling modifications to their programming, removal or alteration of the Asimov Protocols and so on. The creation of ANY legal recognition was a step in the right direction.

Other countries were taking notes, but most seemed fine with letting Japan experiment with it first so they could see how things went.

Personally, I really wanted to move us out from my position as unofficial hiring manager, but I also wanted to maintain the ability to monitor hired synthetics for safety and usage. If and when actual laws were passed, I hoped to be able to withdraw from the process.

The dolphin sentience story broke about two weeks after our Hawaii visit and was getting a lot of play in the press. Of course, there was a lot of denial and push-back against the concept, but more tests were being planned world-wide. The subject group was also being expanded to include porpoises, orcas and other odontocetes, or toothed whales -- a term I learned less than a week before we visited Hawaii. Progress was being made.

Interestingly, Alpha reported to me that, behind closed doors, China was seriously exploring the possibility of recognizing dolphin sentience. A major reason was to create a new point of contention with Japan, with the added bonus of being in a morally superior position to their ancient enemy, but regardless of underlying political reasons, if China did so, it would be a major step forward.

Back home, after I got over the jet lag, I set aside a couple days to just spend time with the women we had left behind. With both myself and Kasumi gone, things had gotten a bit tense.

In other news, the Test sisters had their first three Frank androids mostly ready. These were remote control droids, not Alphadroids, though Alpha’s help was needed to properly control them.

If I was clean-shaven, standing next to one of the Frank droids in a still photo, it was virtually impossible to tell which was which. Seeing them in action? Not so much. We still had work to do to avoid in-motion ‘uncanny valley’ territory. There are a lot of little physical quirks and movements and twitches and such that we just don’t consciously notice in our daily lives, until those things are missing. It’s actually something we’ve dealt with before, back when we first built Beta, starting back in my old basement lab where Beta stayed for a while learning to properly use her cyborg body. We’ve been able to adapt those same subroutines for use with the Frank droids, which helped enormously, but more adjustments were needed.

Though I didn’t know it til a few weeks later, one thing I wrote in the previous paragraph was wrong. It didn’t matter whether or not I was clean-shaven, because the face and below-the-chin neck on the Frank droids included fake hair follicles which could be pushed out a little or withdrawn to match the appropriate level of whisker growth for any given time of day. With only about 3000 fake facial hairs, there weren’t enough whiskers to look like a real beard even if they could be made long enough, but they could make the face look unshaven.

Moving on. About half the women now want their own communications implant, and we’re scheduling the installations. Since everyone’s brain is slightly different, when installing the minute, delicate connections we were dealing with, it’s not a one-size-fits-all product. Not yet, anyway. Most of their installations should be online before we left on our next trip.

Velma, Daphne and Blossom were preparing for a one or two month trip to California, where Velma and Daphne planned to search for cave systems near their ‘original’ homes, checking for signs of the evil entity which had been trapped down there in their home world or original timeline. Blossom -- who was doing an independent study this semester -- was going along with them to provide general help and muscle, and act as an intelligent sounding board. The plan called for them to leave near the end of October, a few weeks after the return from Europe.

Behind the scenes, Blossom was going because we were forcing her to go. She desperately needed a vacation or she’d burn herself out. This was, at best, a working vacation, but limiting her to one or two jobs while away from home was still an improvement.

I knew that I was using the outing to avoid thinking about things, but so be it. We had a major trip to D.C., then Europe, planned in less than two weeks, specifically the last week in August. And I needed to fulfill my promise to give Frieda a child before we left. And the fight for the rights of computer intelligence was doing okay at best. And ... well, I was trying not think about it all.

While I had said yes to Frieda, I just wanted to put off directly confronting the idea of becoming a father for as long as I could. Plus the trip to France had so many questions surrounding it that it was difficult to list them all, so I’m not even going to try right now. I’ll deal with them as they come up in the narrative.

So, we went to the Texas State Fair. Due to the need to juggle schedules, we had gone on Friday, one of the busier days, so the crowds were pretty packed. In fact, it was so packed that the local cell towers weren’t able to keep up with the demand, meaning that while our proprietary local person-to-person network was fine as long we stayed within range of each other, our communication back to the main Alpha systems was spotty, and forget about our ability to make actual phone calls.

It was not an ideal situation to bring along bodyguards, but I insisted on going, so Alpha sent them along too. All four bodyguards were dressed to blend, meaning mostly blue jeans or shorts, with blouses, and comfortable shoes, plus two of them wore jackets to cover concealed weapons, but they still kept station around me at all times, varying their patterns and positions depending on the current activity. (Since this was August in the Texas heat, I didn’t envy those who had to wear jackets.)

Most of the household women had come too. Well, Rei had declined to come, and Diana was busy in D.C., laying the groundwork for our next visit. Blossom had a meeting at school, and Mary & Susan were building one of their current projects in their lab. Most everyone else joined us for the outing, even Daria and Jane who were not known to pursue such activities. Kara and Anna both stayed with me nearly the entire time, while the others drifted in and out of our group.

The rides were ... to be honest, they were pretty inferior when compared to Six Flags which wasn’t very far away. Doesn’t mean they weren’t fun, they just weren’t AS fun or AS big.

I was at a loss when we visited the livestock area. What made one cow or pig better than another was a mystery to me (and none had helpful literate spiders extolling their virtues in nearby webs).

We visited some buildings with sellers hawking their wares and did have some fun there. We bought very little, but ... let me give an example.

One guy was selling rubber bracelets with little magnets or something in them that were supposed to make you stronger or healthier or whatever was claimed on that particular box. The guy hawking the bracelets did little mini-shows to demonstrate how effective some of the bracelets were using volunteers from the audience.

There are actually a number of physical tricks you can pull just by standing in certain positions or tensing your arms and such, which was my first thought, but the trick I saw didn’t rely on any of those. He would have someone stand on one leg, then push them off balance. Then he’d put a bracelet on their wrist and do the same thing again, only this time they were noticeably more balanced. He said this was because of the bracelet ... instead of pointing out the person now knew what to expect the second time around and thus was better able to resist being pushed off balance. Kara volunteered and wasn’t budged in the slightest with or without the bracelet.

We had a lot of fun with the games. Barbara demonstrated her method of shooting hoops from what looked like the free throw line, even though it was slightly further back with a taller-than-regulation basket. (Won a large stuffed Panda.) Kara, Anna and Buttercup all demonstrated that even stacks of oddly weighted metal bottles could be knocked over if the baseballs were thrown with enough force and accuracy. (Won a mid-sized Bugs Bunny, a small stuffed Clifford the Big Red Dog and a costume jewelry bracelet.) Eiko and Zatanna won a few goldfish by bouncing ping pong balls into bowls, and gave them away to nearby children. Although certainly not the strongest in the group, I felt a surge of testosterone and demonstrated that my physique was good enough to ring the bell using a comically oversize sledgehammer. Well, plus I remembered to aim for the edge of the contact plate to get the best leveraged force possible. (It didn’t ring loudly or emphatically, but there was a definite ‘ding’.)

We all ate lots of foods that were very unhealthy. You’d be amazed at what vendors are able to deep fry these days. (Answer: Anything and everything can be deep fried.)

Best of all, the day was incident free. Well, Bubbles and Jane both had bad reactions to some of the food, but having to spend some extra time in the bathroom isn’t what I mean by ‘incidents’. What I mean is that no one got into trouble, no one tried to steal a wallet or purse from one of us. No fights, crimes or autograph seekers.

About half an hour before we were planning to leave, I got a brief message from Alpha that we needed to call in. The bodyguards and Kara also apparently got the same message, since they all turned to me at the same time. (Diana and Anna were next on the list of people who wanted the implant, and they were scheduled to have them installed in the next few days. Come to think of it, Diana’s installation/implantation might be happening at that very moment one time zone to the East.) As I mentioned, our iffy cell and data coverage meant that I was not able to have a regular conversation with Alpha (or more specifically, one of the main Alpha servers ... since we had three secret Alpha cyborgs with us at the fair).

We found a pay phone after only five minutes of searching, and I called Alpha on the land line. I knew what she was calling about, but Alpha and I played it straight for the benefit of any ladies nearby with enhanced hearing.

“Alpha, what’s up?”

“Four new women appeared at the cabin eight minutes ago. They have found the note and should be calling in within the next minute or so.”

“Four? Do you know who they are?”

“I do not recognize them from any comic book, TV show or movie. Three of them are similar enough in appearance that they are likely to be triplets, though one of the three might be older than the other two, so even that observation is questionable.”

“Okay. It’s really noisy here,” I practically yelled into the payphone, “so we’re going to leave the fair, and we’ll contact you again when we have a good signal on the road. For now, we’ll start heading out to the cabin directly from here. All right?”

“That may or may not be acceptable, depending on their identification.”

“Agreed. Plans subject to change, but with the driving time from here, there’s plenty of time to adjust plans.”

“Agreed. I’ll speak to you again when we have a clear wireless signal.”

I hung up and turned to face the group.

“All right, we’re heading out now. Four unknowns have arrived at the cabin. We’re going to start heading that way, though plans may change once we’re able to identify them.”

We started walking with purpose towards the exit, except for Zatanna who broke off from the group to retrieve Bubbles and Buttercup from an exercise machine demonstration in a nearby tent.

Aloud, Kara asked, “Do you, or rather, does Alpha have any idea who they might be?”

“She didn’t recognize them from any comics, TV or movies. She did say all four were women and three of them looked like triplets.”

Having an ongoing conversation with such a large group while moving through a very noisy, crowded atmosphere was a losing proposition, so the comments and questions were minimal at that time. However, I was able to converse with Kara a bit via the implants as long as we stayed within range of each other.

“Kara,” I asked silently, “how many people do you know from your world who are triplets?”

“Not many,” she admitted. “There’s Triplicate Girl from the Legion of Superheroes, but they’re from way in the future. Tend to visit a lot though. If the visitors are from the Legion, I bet they’ll have good transdimensional access.”

“We’ll see if we can get visuals once we’re in the cars,” I responded.

I appreciated that Daria made no objections to any of this. So far. She still professed a strong disbelief that comic book characters could exist, but she’s adopted an attitude of ‘Don’t ask, don’t think about it too hard’ which has allowed a more harmonious co-existence. Jane, the other ‘purely normal’ woman in our home, had been much more accepting of such implausible happenings since the beginning.

Once everyone was back in our four different cars, we took off and started heading en masse to our little cabin by Possum Kingdom Lake, which is attached to the Brazos River a little west of Fort Worth. Even with light traffic, the drive takes over an hour, so we had time.

I was in an Alphacar SUV with Motoko, Peace, Kara, Anna and Zatanna. A couple minutes after we were on the road, Alpha contacted us and had us open up our little drop-down video screen in the car.

The video showed four women: One older redhead and three younger brunettes, where the three brunettes looked as thought they might be sisters or even triplets.

All of them definitely seemed out of place, given that none of their skirts came above the ankle, and even the cleavage-baring dress still covered more skin than anything from today’s styles.

The two younger-looking women were pretty beat up. They each sported a black eye, and I was guessing one of them actually had two black eyes, but I couldn’t tell from the current camera view. The dress of the one with the ponytail was torn and stained, possibly with blood. I couldn’t see any active bleeding on either of them, but they may have already cleaned up a bit.

After their appearance, instant unconscious collapse, and reawakening in the video, the four of them went straight to the cabin with little to no hesitation. After reading the note we leave in place, one of them bent over to examine the door’s lock. In times past, we had buried the key nearby, but that had given way to a remotely controlled electronic lock, which Alpha opened for the newcomers.

Now, the women were sitting in our cabin, eating the snacks we kept there -- granola bars and such -- with the middle-aged woman talking on the phone.

The audio started shortly after the video came up.

“Well, we had our choice of coming through here in the woods or in the entrance hallway of one of your homes. While I would normally prefer a more civilized setting, we suspected that the transfer shock to such a different universe might render us unconscious, and leaves and grass are far preferable to wood and stone when you expect to collapse upon arrival.”

“Understood,” Alpha replied. “I now have contact with Frank, if you would like to address him.”

“Hello?” I said, not having expected to be joining in so soon.

“Greetings, Mister _____.”

“Please, call me Frank.”

“I would not presume such familiarity, even if we had been properly introduced in person. I am Rosalind Lutece.” She pronounced it ‘Lu-tess’.

“Miss Lutece, hmmm? Would I be right in guessing you hail from the city of Rapture ... no, the flying one is ... Columbia?”

“Correct. We were aware that you might be familiar with a fictional version of our history, which should make things much easier. Simply put, we wish to request sanctuary in your world.”

“Sanctuary? From what?”

“From possible non-existence.”

“You’ll die if you return home?”

“Well, firstly, it is unlikely we will be able to return home at all. And secondly, it is not death we fear; it is being wiped from history as though we never existed.”

“Ah, I see we will have much to discuss.”

“No doubt. With me are three Elizabeths, two of whom I aided in escaping their collapsing timelines.”

“But not the third?”

“Correct. Sir, if I may inquire, are there any more substantial provisions here? While this small meal is appreciated, we all in need of significantly more sustenance.”

“I am sorry, but we only stock the cabin with a small supply of food that won’t spoil. We’ll be happy to provide more, but we’re still roughly forty-five minutes away from your location.”

“Very well, we shall await your arrival.” So saying, she replaced the phone on its receiver.

“Oookay,” I said slowly. “Well, at least we know who they are. Alpha, is there somewhere we can order take-out along the way?”

“Don’t keep us in suspense,” Kara said, a bit irritated. “Who are they?”

“Oh, sorry. They’re from the Bioshock games. Well, Bioshock Infinite, that is.”

“They’re from ah game?” Anna asked a bit incredulously.

“Well, yeah ... it’s a first person shooter. You’re a detective sent to find a girl being held prisoner in a floating city -- Columbia, like I said -- and you have these ... I don’t remember if they’re called vigors or plasmids ... they’re basically the same thing, but called different names in different games. You see, the first two Bioshocks were set in Rapture, which is underwater, but Infinite, the third game, which is where Elizabeth and the Luteces come from is set in the floating city ... well, technically, only Rosalind comes from that city, and her brother comes from the city in another universe, but you don’t know that at first. For that matter, you don’t know who either of them are, at first, but they’re actually the ones who...”

I looked at the faces before me, filled with confusion. “I’m not explaining this very well, am I?”

“That’s all right, honey,” Kara said placatingly, gently taking one of my hands and patting it gently. “We understand. Sometimes you have ‘issues’.”

“Gee, thanks.” I took a cleansing breath. “How about a more general summary? In their home dimensions, they come from the beginning of the twentieth century, some time before World War I. They lived in a technologically advanced but racially oppressive floating city called Rapture ... I mean, Columbia. Sorry.”

“The older woman,” I continued, “is Rosalind Lutece, the physics genius who made the floating city possible. Her work was sabotaged, and the resulting accident cut her loose from her reality, allowing her to move back and forth between worlds at will. In the game version, she traveled with her so-called brother, who was actually just a male version of her from a parallel world. Don’t know where he is.”

“The younger ones appear to be various versions of Elizabeth, a girl who was held prisoner by a version of her father. She was stolen from another universe as a baby because he couldn’t have children...”

“You just said he was her father,” protested Zatanna.

“He stole her from another version of himself, so he’s genetically identical to her father, but no, not actually THE father.” She nodded and I continued. “During the kidnapping, the tip of one of the baby’s fingers was cut off during the struggle and left behind in her original universe. Apparently, since part of her was in a different world, or maybe something to do with changing universes as an infant, she grew up with the ability to open holes between alternate realities. This was largely suppressed by the kidnapper version of her father using technology developed by Lutece. By the end of the game, she had her full power back and was able to travel dimensions at will, as well as see all possible worlds. Something like that. Very popular game right now.”

“Then why didn’t Alpha recognize ‘em?” asked Anna reasonably.

Alpha answered, “Because I knew Frank would enjoy recognizing them himself.”

“So they can take us home?” asked Zatanna.

“I don’t know. Theoretically, I suppose they could. Any of them. But remember, she said even they don’t think they’ll be able to return home, so I doubt their powers still work here.”

“Well, there is that,” conceded Kara. “For me, either way, I’m through with world-hopping ... though I would give almost anything to see my version of Helena again. Or Atlee.”

“Me, neither,” declared Anna, her Southern drawl asserting itself heavily. “Ah prefer livin in a world where Ah don’t hafta worry about hurtin people with mah touch. Mah friends ... My friends can come visit if they want, but Ah’m stayin’ ... but I think Ororo and the others would jump at the chance.”

And so the phone calls began, with nearly all of the ladies discussing whether or not they might be able to go home and if they really wanted to do so. I encouraged caution, reminding everyone that we did not know the full situation yet and that their powers probably didn’t work here.

I had known there might be some disappointment related to the Bioshock crew’s arrival and the upcoming reveal of their lack of world-traveling powers, but I hadn’t really anticipated as much excitement as their arrival had apparently generated. I hadn’t intended to be cruel, and I internally cringed at the impending dashing of hope. I took some solace in everyone’s reassurances that they wouldn’t leave for good, because it meant that the impending dashing of hope might not be as hard on them.

We called ahead to a restaurant which was along the way and picked up some food to bring along, which delayed us less than 10 minutes.

When our small procession of vehicles -- everyone wanted to meet the newcomers, so no one drove home -- arrived, we were greeted by all four of the Bioshock ladies as they exited the cabin.

I guessed that Rosalind Lutece was a few inches shorter than I was, but it was difficult to tell as her hair was wound around and piled up on top of her head, making her seem a few inches taller. She wore the same outfit seen in the game, a tan and brown suit top with green tie and a long brown skirt. Her eyes were sharp and intelligent, examining each member of our group in turn.

The three Elizabeths represented her three main appearances in the game. Well, it would be more accurate to say the two main appearances in the game, plus her appearance in a not-yet-released expansion game.

The first and youngest looked like a schoolgirl, with her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore a white blouse with blue collar and tie, and a long skirt with white trim. About her neck, she had a choker featuring a birdcage. Her clothes were bloody and torn, but still decent enough for modesty’s sake, and she had a black eye. She jingled slightly as she walked.

The second Elizabeth had hair that was much shorter, cut off above her shoulders. She wore a white and dark blue dress with a matching dark blue jacket. The dress was cut a bit low in front to display her bosom. Her clothes appeared to be cleaner and less damaged, but she had two black eyes and moved stiffly, indicating other injuries. She carried a small tan purse in one hand.

The final Elizabeth was dressed like a vamp from the forties, with long, styled dark hair and noticeably heavy makeup. She wore a white top with long sleeves and a red bow tie. Whereas the others wore skirts that reached down to their ankles, hers fell to just below the knee and was much tighter. She was also probably the only one of the three to wear pantyhose or stockings. (Presumably stockings, given the era she came from.) She carried a purse and a small wooden box which was obviously heavy.

As introductions were made, I specifically made certain that I shook each of their hands and looked them directly in the eye as I welcomed them. The vampish Elizabeth wore gloves, so I wasn’t able to make direct skin contact, but offsetting that minor drawback was how she offered the back of her hand for me to raise to my mouth to kiss, something much too forward for any of the others to do. All four showed a widening of their irises and tremor in their grips as their tiny implants ensured a strong, positive reaction to me.

On a side note, this was the first time I had seen any of them in the flesh, since Alpha was completely in charge of building their bodies, as she had been for a while. I’d also like to point out how much I appreciated that I was no longer needed for body construction. Not only do I like being surprised by the end result, I love not having to reposition intestines that have slipped out of place or adjust a skull only partly covered with skin. Egh. Or another thought -- and don’t dwell on this for too long -- did you ever consider where the early artificially-grown bodies got starter cultures of gut bacteria for their intestines? From me, that’s where. The initial ‘harvesting’ and culture creation was pretty bad, but adding it to each new body’s intestines was one of the more disgusting things I had to do. Ugh.