OpAr: Lies
By Alison Sky


"So, tell me about Terra, Agent Sky.  I've heard rumors that it is a 
beautiful world."

It was a small doctor's office, but comfortable.  The two people in the 
room sat in the seats that were designed for them: the doctor in the chair, 
and the patient on the couch.  But while the room was comfortable, the 
atmosphere between the doctor and patient was not so.

"I don't want to talk about Terra," Alison Sky-Danziger Fel replied in a 
strange monotone voice.  The words, straightforward in their meaning, were 
laced with an undercurrent of emotions ranging from anger and pain to 
sorrow.

"We'll have to talk about it eventually," the doctor pointed out.

"No, we won't."

"You came here to heal from your problems, Agent.  Holding them back won't 
help you on this."

"Oh, and I suppose talking about it, ripping these memories from my soul, 
chopping them into workable bits, dissecting them and reconstructing them 
into painful learning experiances, and then placing the sharp pieces back 
to repair my mind is any better?" She countered.

The doctor didn't reply to this, but instead just jotted down notes on his 
datapad.  Dark eyes shifted over to watch him, and a smirk came to the 
Agent's lips.  "You don't like hearing the truth, do ya doc?"

"Just as much as you don't like speaking it," the doctor replied.

"When have I ever lied to you?" Crawler asked, sitting up and staring at 
the doctor.

"To me, never."  The doctor stood up and placed his datapad in his back 
pocket.  "To yourself, though... when have you ever told the truth?"

With that, the doctor left Crawler to her thoughts.

~

That night, Crawler lay awake on her bed, her eyes looking at the 
holoscreens in her room that were supposed to simulate windows.  She had 
gotten the night "sky" to be overlooking the unknown regions, and one star 
in particular held her eye.

"Ali?  Where is my Ali?" the voice of her father floated through her mind.

"Papa!" the voice of a five year old Alison cried back in delight.

The room changed in her mind's eye, the bedroom morphing into a moonlit 
field of clay, covered with spiney trees and large rock formations.  
Soontir Fel stood in the center of them, looking around to figure out which 
echo was his daughter's true voice.

The five year old version of Alison laughed and jumped down from one of the 
rock formations.  "Here I am, Papa!" she called, running to him with a 
bright smile on her face.

Fel turned and smiled.  He held his arms open wide and Alison ran straight 
into them.  He lifted her into the air and twirled her around a bit.  
"There's my little night crawler.  What are you doing out here, Ali?  Your 
mother is worried sick!"

"I wanted to watch you fly!" Ali pointed to the sky.  "The ships look so 
pretty against the stars."

Soontir put his eldest child down.  "I thought we had talked about this, 
Ali."

"But Papa..."

"Do not 'papa' me, daughter.  You will not be a fighter pilot."

"But I want to fly the big ships, just like you!"  Her eyes held a 
dangerous sparkle to them, the innocence of a child not knowing that what 
they wanted most was too dangerous.

"You will NOT be a pilot!" Fel reprimanded.  "You are going to get an 
education and become a doctor or a scientist... anything but a soldier."

"But Papa!"

"I will NOT have my children getting sucked into this never-ending war, and 
that's final.  Do you understand, Alison?"  Fel glared down at his 
daughter, his jaw locked and his face making it known he was not to be 
crossed.

Alison lowered her head and sighed.  "Yes..."

"Yes what?"

A small tear dropped from her face into the clay ground.  "Yes, sir."

"Good."  Fel turned and started to walk home.  Alison fell into step behind 
him, staring at the ground as she went.  As they walked along the clay 
ground, the moonlight brightened to light the ground under them.

Alison stopped as she noticed that her foot had stepped into the center of 
one of her father's footprints.  Her foot was so tiny compared to the 
footprint of her father.  <i>I don't care what papa says,</i> she told 
herself.  <i>I'm going to be a great fighter pilot just like Papa someday.  
Then he'll really be proud of me.</i>

~

Back in her room at Perdition, Crawler was now curled up in her bed, her 
face half-buried in her pillow.  "I'm sorry, Papa... I should have 
listened... I should have listened...," she cried softly, her face wet with 
tears.

~

In the observation monitor room, Crawler's doctor stood taking notes.  A 
few other doctors stood around, watching the monitors of their various 
patients.  Two of them stood nearby, and as they saw him jotting down 
notes, they walked over.

"Looks like you finally got through to her," one doctor, a female, spoke.

"I hope so," Crawler's doctor replied.  "But I don't think that the worst 
is over yet."

"You mean it can get worse?" the other doctor, a male, stated.  "Between 
our three headcases, we'll be lucky to have this place in one piece when 
they're done."

Crawler's doctor snorted.  "So does that mean the group slumber party is 
off then, Randel?"

The three doctors laughed, then went back to their observations.

***