Alone...

It had been about a week, or two weeks, or was it a month? Since Calvine left to explore the stars in his Yellowstone Runabout. Honestly, Cedrick couldn't really remember what happened, what was said, or anything. All she really remembered, was Calvine getting on the runabout and it taking off into the sky, and disappearing.

After that, the company, Paragon Corp, was her's. She was the only remaining stock holder left, which meant she had final say over what happened there.

Never in her life did She, of all people, think she would be in charge, and owner, of a company. Her first act as chairwoman was to step up production of their space program. The USS Odyssey was close to being half way finished. Since it was a Galaxy-Class starship, it had Many bells and whistles and Cedrick wanted to add a few more, just incase.

She also asked her science division to look into reverse engineering some of the medical instruments from the 24th century to see if they could build them now.

She was diving into some of Ness' more... buried, files to see if there was something she could work on to keep her mind off of losing another friend so soon after losing her first love (though she was certain Ness was still out there), and she found something that would keep busy for a little bit.

The equipment she would need wouldn't be a problem either, not with the replicators that Zero had left them. All she would need was a blood sample and she figured her would probably be a good idea, since she couldn't ask anyone else.

After Cedrick gets a small vial of blood, she puts it into a complicated machine and adds the fluid that Ness' notes say to use and now... she waits to see if it worked or not. She needed to keep the lights in the room dark. She also wanted to make a suit of armor like Ness and Calvine have for herself.

She gets back to her apartment, completely worn out. She's given herself so many projects, on top of running a company, that she wouldn't have time to feel and when she finally gets off work, she would be too tired to care about anything.

She was even too tired to close her curtains so the young man across the street wouldn't peep on her as she undressed. She couldn't even summon an Imp to do that for her, she was so tired.

She manages to get her blouse and skirt off before collapsing on her bed to sleep. She didn't have good dreams. It was everyone she cared for leaving her. She was trying to push her way through a heavily crowded street while both Ness and Calvine were steadily getting further and further from her, all the time she was calling to them, trying to get their attention, and trying to get to them, but they ignored and kept shrinking in the distance...

Cedrick opens her eyes and sits up. She felt weird and she touches her cheeks, they were wet *I must have drooled in my sleep...* she thinks passively as she gets up, closes her curtains, before stripping her leggings and underwear off and then steps into the shower.

She let the water, which was pretty hot, flow over her body, waking her up. She already had her coffee brewing. She would get something to eat along the way to workn though, she always Could take the day off... *No. I need to be at work. I have experiments to look after.. * she thinks as she dries off.

She puts a little make-up on, she has natural beauty so she didn't need much. Then she gets dressed in her usual white dress shirt, black business jacket, stockings, black skirt and matching heels. She was ready.

She had a Lot of things to do for the day and some she was looking forward to, and some (most actually) she really wasn't looking forward to. Luckily she didn't need to go to Board meetings, being the Only stock holder. Hopefully it would stay that way. Still, she held out hope that her friends would come back to her. She was so very lonely now.

Cedrick gets to her office and sits, checking her e-mails. She had a few meeting later today, but nothing Too busy. This gave her plenty of time to check on her experiments. One of them was the living goo and the other was the super bugs. She wondered howbthey would turn out.

After a quick check on the USS Odyssey, she heads to her personal lab. She would also need to head to her propulsion lab as well to check on the progress of the slipstream device.

Once she got down in her lab, she checks on both subjects and was disappointed to see that both had failed. Which means she got something wrong, so she would reset and try again.

After she gets things set up and started once more, she heads out and checks on the slipstream device as well as the transwarp array. It was too soon to tell if they would work or not, but with the info Zero left her, she was confident it would be a success.

Lunch time comes rolling around and she heads out to the parking lot to have lunch with KITT. The autobot was concerned for her "Hello, Cedrick. It's good to see you again." he says, still in his vehicle mode.

Cedrick nods as she climbs on in with her lunch "Same here. It has been a little a while, has not it?" she asks.

"Indeed it has. How are you holding upn being the CEO of a major up and coming technology company?" KITT asks.

Cedrick shrugs as she takes a bite of her Reuben sandwich, one of her favorite sandwiches "About as well as expected, considering." she mumbles the last part.

"Remember, if you need to talk, you are not alone." KITT points out "I will always be here for you." he assures her.

Cedrick's eyes were shadowed by her bangs "Pardon me if I do not take heart in your words, for I have heard them before." she says in a low tone.

"Yes. I believe I understand." KITT says "I can see it will take a little time to gain your trust on this mattern but I will keep at it." he say.

Cedrick finishes her meal, packs everything away and starts out "Do as you like, KITT. I am not holding you back." she says as she heads back to her office.

Another long day was over and Cedrick comes back to her apartment. It wasn't a big one, but it wasn't small either. It was just perfect for her. Though, she supposed she Could move to a newer one, you know, now that she was stupidly rich. But she wouldn't.

She closes the curtains once more. She knew the little creep was looking, but he was gonna be disappointed tonight. She wasn't as tired this time around.

She takes off her jacket, skirt, and shirt and sits on her bed in her underwear, looking over a data padd. She had it linked up with her lab and could adjust things on the fly, if she needed to. This is why she believed that both her experiments failed last time. Now, she would be able to monitor them in real-time.

She gets up, finishes undressing and jumps into the shower. After a long, hot shower, she gets out, dry's off and gets into her night clothes... *The same ones I wore when me and Calvine... got closer...* she thinks, looking at herself in a mirror.

After changing, she throw's that set of clothes out and wears a oversized pull over shirt, and heads to the kitchen for some dinner.

She looks into the fridge and sees that's not as full as she would have liked *I guess I had better do some shopping tomorrow...* she thinks as she closes the the fridge *I guess I will be ordering some take out... again...* she heads over to the phone.

An hour and a half later, she was reading some more of Ness' hidden notes. A lot of it was Very fascinating stuff. How to make super soldiers, gamma monsters, shrink or enlarge anything. She could see a lot of practical applications for many of these.

There Was, however, one file that she couldn't get access to, no matter how much she tried. Which only fueled her curiosity even more *Maybe X or Zero can crack this encryption...* she thinks as she finishes up her meal and heads to bed. Another long day tomorrow as well.

Once more, Cedrick goes through her daily routine of getting up, getting ready for work and heading to the office. She had checked on her experiment's through out the night and they were coming along quite nicely, though, the spiders weren't doing As well as she would have liked, still, she was toying with a new idea, but not Really knowing how it was going to turn out. Still...

That would all have to wait. There was some CEO stuff she needed to take care of before she could play 'Mad Scientist' in her lab, which she code named 'Section 31'. It seemed appropriate.

After sitting through the company lawyers going on about how the 'alleged victims' that she had caused were putting together a class action lawsuit against her for damages. This was all boring to her and she really didn't care. She already paid her debt for them and both she and they had come back to life, so she didn't understand the problem.

After the boring stuff was finished, she heads to the ship yard to check on the status of the Odyssey. Construction was going smoothly. She assigned more crews of NS-5s to work on it. She wanted this ship ready to set out by the end of the month and if she poured all her resources into it, so be it.

She would also need to look for a crew, the problem was, she didn't know what to look for in a crew. Calvine would have known, having attended Starfleet Academy and served on a ship for a little bit... but that was no longer an option.

She finished her rounds, which usually took half the day, and it was now lunch time. She decided to eat in her office and left instructions to Not be disturbed.

As she slowly ate her lunch, she looked over various reports about different things. Like KITT reporting that there's been an uptick in Cybertronians coming to Earth, for whatever reason, but he suspected it had to do with the Trojan Invasion... makes sense, she supposed. Only two worlds had fought off the Trojan, Earth and Cybertron.

She also got a notification from the Hunters that they would like to stop on over for an informal inspection of the company to see if there was anything dangerous going on. She decided to refuse to let them in. They had no authority to make demands of her or her company.

Finally, she was finished with all the boring stuff and could get back to Section 31. She takes off her jacket and puts on a lab coat and heads into her 'secret lab' to check on her works. The newly forming symbiote was doing quite well, it was slowly starting to take on a 'life of it's own'... the spider, however... wasn't handling the radiation very well...

Cedrick checks the levels, she supposed she had something wrong. She would need to check Ness' research again. She was quite certain that there was something wrong here, as the spider was Suppose to be well... maybe...

she heads to her office to do some more research into the radioactive spider and if her hunch turned out to be on the money, she would need to move quickly to test it's venom... she supposed she could always milk the venom from the spider, though, that wouldn't be a very desirable job...

As it turned out, Cedrick was right. She needed to act fast after she infused the spider with the radiation, because it would die soon after and she decided to get the venom from the spider and have an NS-5 do the milking.

The results were just what she needed. It turns out that the venom carries some of the radioactivity with it, but it soon becomes inert, unless it's injected into a living body.

It was there that she sees that the venom infects the host cells and changes them, becoming stable along the way. She also discovered that the host takes on traits of the spider. What those were, she couldn't say, but this warranted more study.

She would have to see how this would affect the symbiote, since it, too, was alive. She would need a piece of it and since it was still in it's early phases of creation, she should act fast.

After she had extracted a small sample of the symbiote and injects it with freshly milked spider venom, she watches in amazement as both the symbiote and the venom bond to each other with surprising efficiency. Though, she now Did wonder if the symbiote took on the properties of the spider, like her samples would suggest.

She felt it was best to keep this sample separate from the main organism, just incase it had adverse effects, she didn't want to lose the entire specimen.

She decided to call it a night and head on out. She was, once more, tired, but also she wanted to see the results of her experiments tomorrow. She was surprised at how fast the symbiote had grown in the span of two days and would need to keep an eye on this new one as well.

She gets back to her apartment, after some quick shopping, that was, and kicks off her pumps, takes off her jacket and unbuttons her shirt. She was about to close the curtains again, but pauses, was it Really so bad that Someone found her attractive?

She decides to leave them open for now, as she takes her skirt off. The kid next door would have a good eye full tonight, but at least he could appreciate a beautiful woman.

She puts her food away and makes herself a little something to eat, she would need to hit the gym tomorrow. She had been putting it off, trying to take her mind off of, other things...

A quick shower and she's in her night shirt and ready for bed, she just hoped she didn't have any more bad dreams like before. Being alone was bad enough, but constantly being reminded that you were alone was even worse.

The next morning, Cedrick gets ready for a day at the gym. Though she didn't Need to work out too often, she did anyway. She liked the break from repetition. The only problem was, while at the gym, foreign guys liked to make passes at her and she was Not interested in them.

After a good long workout, she showers and gets changed into her office clothes and heads out. After the usual, boring, stuff, she finally has time to check on her samples.

The main symbiote was doing quite well. So she decided to start it's education by having a monitor and academic programs playing for it. She knew all too well that if she left it, it could turn feral and savage. She, obviously, didn't want that.

The spider symbiote, which she was calling S-2, didn't seem to be doing all that well and she figured it had to do with the radioactive spider venom. She didn't want to create an antidote, but more, a stabilizing agent.

It wouldn't be easy to do such a thing, after all, Cedrick's training wasn't in biologics. Still, with Ness' notes, she would be able to do so and once injected, it would be anywhere from twenty-four, to forty-eight hours to see if it worked or not. She hoped it did. She put a lot of work into these specimens.

She also had a thought, maybe a living host would help the maturation cycle better. She would have to see about getting some test animals up here and see how well they would work as hosts. Though, she would need to make sure they wouldn't be bonded for more then two days, because according to Ness' notes, after two days, the bond is permanent.

After another day, Cedrick got an NS-5 to help her make the stabilizing agent for S-2 and had it inject the creature, that way it wouldn't try to bond with her. Still, she was more than a bit curious about how it would be like.

She checks on S-1 and it was doing quite well. It seemed healthy and active and was growing as quite an extraordinary rate. She would need to do some tests to see how far along it's cognitive mind has come, or even if it Had one.

But for now, she would let both subjects in the care of the NS-5 while she returned home for another lonely night by herself. She gets home and goes through her usual routine, but this time she closed her curtains... maybe she could make something that would shade the glass when she came home...

She had noticed that the little perv across the street was starting to invite friends over for his little peepshow and Cedrick was having none of that. So for now, her beauty would go unnoticed and unappreciated by all, even herself.

A quick shower later, and she was back to her files and reports. Her ship was coming along fine. It would be done within the month, even with all the bells, whistles, and new additions. This was going to be exciting in it's own way. She would need to pick out a crew... she wasn't looking forward to that.

There were all the other stuff like payroll and legal jargon. She had people trained to handle this crap, so she wondered why she still had to look it over. She tosses it aside and hunkers down for the night.

Sometime in the middle of the night, she gets an alarm telling her that something was wrong. She jumps up and checks her padd. It was Section 31! She strips off her night clothes and throws on something and fire flashes on over there!

The NS-5 she assigned to watch over the place was offline, it looked like it had been slammed into the wall with a tremendous amount of force.

She checks on her experiments. S-1 was fine, but S-2 was gone! Cedrick checks the security videos and it seemed like the stabilizing agent they used on S-2 did the trick, but it seemed to make it aggressive as well. This was exactly what Cedrick Didn't want happening.

She knew it was already gone, as there were a million places a puddle of goo could escape from. Luckily both her specimens were tagged with radio isotopes that would let her track them anywhere, so long as it wasn't too far underground...

She checks her tracking system and... nothing. The thing was probably far in the sewers, which meant she would have to go out and find it herself, with the help of some NS-5's. She needed to find this thing... there was no telling what it can do, or whom it would infect!

Since she, herself, couldn't go into the sewers to look for her wayward symbiote, she sent the NS-5's out to find it and report back if they contained it, but she had a feeling it was gone. Still, no reason to keep beating herself up over this.

Instead, she would focus on the remaining symbiote and making it domesticated. In fact, she would see about testing it's intelligence. It should have some by now...

She lets up some flash cards and a simple 'yes/no' system so the symbiote could communicate with her. But, it just seemed to be a slowly moving, dark red blob. It was unresponsive to any outside stimuli. This was disappointing to Cedrick.

She sighs, clocks out and heads home, keeping up to date with what was happening with the symbiote hunt. She gets home, closes the curtains, undressed and sits on her bed in her underwear, looking over video of the remain symbiote, S-1... she did that... it was Alive... she created life!

She knew she couldn't have any children of her own and though she knew she wouldn't make a good mother, she at least wanted that option... but now, she created life. She had her child... granted it wasn't like a woman would Normally make a kid, but it still had her DNA in it and it was alive... She felt a little bit of pride in what she had accomplished.

She strips down and takes a shower, not bothering to get dressed before she heads to bed. Because why? There was no one in her apartment that she needed to cover up for and with the curtains closed, no one would see that she was naked or even care, so why not?

It wasn't so much that she was alone, she had been alone for a majority of her life, it's just that, no one seemed to care about her enough to stay with her and that realization is what hurt the most... *Emotions... there should be a law against them...* she thinks bitterly. Things were so much easier when she didn't Have emotions...

Cedrick wakes up, it was still dark out, and she looks at her clock... it was about two in the morning... she would have to see someone about helping her get more sleep. Though, truth be told, she hadn't been able to get a good night's sleep since Ness left.

She gets up, takes a quick shower, gets dressed, and thinks about what she's gonna do for the rest of the day. She only Really needed to sleep every other day if she wanted, so she Could spend that time at her lab, get more research done.

She gets a little something to eat and heads out to the office. There was Much work to be done and she wanted to see about cracking that encryption Ness has in his files. She Needed to see what he was hiding.

Once she got to her office, she makes a note to everyone that she was not to be disturbed and that her lunch was to be delivered. She puts her lab coat on and head to Section 31 to check on her remaining symbiote.

She looks it over, checks it's vitals and it was very healthy. She lightly taps the glass to see if it would respond, but it just sat there, doing nothing. She was a little disappointed.

"I do not know if you can understand me. But I feel I should introduce myself..." she says in a low tone, just incase someone could hear her "My name is Cedrick... I am your mother." she says "And I will do my best to take care of you."

She goes back to her duties in her lab. After some work, she managed to get the radioactive spiders radiation stable. It posed No threat to anyone other than spiders, so she wasn't too worried about that.

Her super soldier serum, on the other hand, wasn't turning out Too well. She was missing Just that right something. She felt that Ness' notes on it were incomplete, so she abandoned the idea and she wasn't Even going to try for a stable gamma radiation field.

That left a Few items left on her note... she pauses as she hears a tapping, as if something gently rapping, rapping on a glass wall... she looks around, then focuses on the symbiote chamber, only to see S-1 tapping lightly on the glass.

For some reason, this filled Cedrick with a sense of joy she couldn't really describe. She also had a sense of accomplishment when seeing that creature that She created, actually showing signs of movement!

She walks over to it as it continued to tap on the glass, as if trying to get her attention, as it stopped as she got closer. It was slowly moving around it's chamber "Well hello there." she says "Did you want to talk?" she asks.

She decided to do something that could be possibly unwise and put up a level 3 forcefield, then she opened the chamber and held out her hand. The symbiote slowly inches it's way over to her, and climbs on to her hand, wrapping around her fingers and arm. It was an odd feeling, like water, but not wet.

"Moth...er…" Cedrick hears in her head as the symbiote climbs up her arm and slides down her shirt. It felt warm, which seemed to warm her up somehow "That's right. I am your mother. Hello my child." she says in what she thinks is a soothing voice.

The symbiote seemed to cover her chest and her sides. She could feel it struggling to communicate "Take your time. There is no hurry for us to get to know each other." she says and this seemed to calm the symbiote down a bit.

She could feel it slowly start to inch it's way across her sides and start towards her back, as if just being in contact with her was helping to speed up it's maturation "Mother...' that seemed to be the only word it knew at the moment, but still, it was alive and well and it didn't Seem aggressive at all, which was a Huge relief  to Cedrick, because she didn't want to need to put it on ice, if it were.

It had only been a few hours, but Cedrick could already feel the symbiote growing in maturity and intelligence "Mother... why I... like this..?" S-1 was already asking questions about it's origins.

"It is because I used my blood to create you. I was unable to give you a physical body... however, I might be able to do something about that." she says as she looks over models of robots. Some were very basic. Little more than an exoskeleton.

"Mother... make me... body..?" it asks, it sounded like it was hopeful to be able to look like it's mother.

Cedrick nods "Yes. Though, it will not be a living one, but it will be one that you and you alone will be able to control." she says. She has the NS-5's start production on her new robot body. It shouldn't even take a day. Five hours at the most.

Cedrick decided to take a nap while she waited and lays down on a cot "I will be sleeping for a little while. Do not worry, I will not leave you alone." she assures.

While she wouldn't be able to have a child of her own, she had done a little reading on the subject, and reassurance was a good way to calm a child down, so they wouldn't panic.

**Cedrick was sitting on a chair in the middle of a field. The sun was shinning and the birds were singing. She opens her eyes and sees a Young Child standing there.

Cedrick slowly stands. This young girl looked so much like Sydney "Greeting, child. Are you lost?" she asks, not really knowing why this kid was in her dream.

The child rushes towards Cedrick, arms open and hugs her "Mother!" she says, sounding absolutely delighted!**

Cedrick suddenly wakes up, opening her eyes like she was never really asleep, and sits up. She looks around, almost as if expecting to see that little girl. She was alone, like always...

"Not... alone, mother... never alone... not any more..." S-1 says in her mind as it hugs her, much like how the little girl did in her dream.

It had been about a week since that dream and as it turned out, the girl in her dream was her new daughter. She had learned a great deal and through the limited contact that Cedrick allowed, to help her grow and mature, she had gained so much in that time. She was aging at an incredible rate.

But there was a problem, she could only comminicate when linked with Cedrick. So she made them a special android body with an orihalcon core where the symbiote could control the android. Once it was finished, and S-1 was inside, she desided to come up with a name for herself Masato Darkside.

Cedrick had to admit, it sounded cute and she even felt her heart flutter *I will have to have that checked out...* she thinks, absent mindedly.

Masato spins around, her skirt fluttering around her legs "Mother, how do I look?" she asks, all smiles.

Cedrick couldn't help feel like she should smile as well "You look very cute." she says "How does your new body fit?" she asks.

Masato looks herself over "I love it! It fits perfectly." she says as she gives Cedrick a hug "Thank you, mother." she says.

While this may be a step in the right direction, Cedrick still had plenty of tests to run. So, while Masato was doing her studies in Cedrick's office, Cedrick was down in Section 31, doing more experiments. Mainly studying the genetic makeup of the symbiotes. As it turned out, they had adaptive camouflage abilities, allowing them to change to any color, texture, shape, or size. Plus they could match their heat signature to either that of their surroundings, or their host, if they have one. They could Literally turn into clothes the host could wear.

This was interesting, but in a bad way. Because that made finding the escaped symbiote even harder to locate, maybe even impossible. Still, she wouldn't give up. It was her fault that the creature had gotten out and it was uo to her to find the damn thing before it could hurt anyone, or worse, find a host and infect them with it's aggression and madness.

Cedrick figured it was about time for her sisters to meet Masato. Sure she was just a blob of redish goo, but she was developing into a being of her own and Cedrick was the one responsible for bringing her to life.

Did that make Cedrick her goddess or mother? Because Technically, Cedrick hadn't given birth to Masato, but rather, the symbiote was created in a lab from blood samples that Cedrick provided, so wouldn't that make Masato a type of Clone?

Cedrick wasn't really sure one way or the other, which was why she had sent out a call to her sisters, asking if they could come down and meet the symbiote.

Anita was the first to respond, she would be down later that day to see what was up, as Cedrick hadn't told them Exactly what she wanted to meet for, only that she wanted them to meet someone.

She goes back up to her office, Masato was still working on her studies "Masato, there are some people I would like you to meet later." she says.

The android looks up "Really, mother? Who are they?" she asks.

Cedrick thinks for a moment. How does one say this? "They are my sisters. One will be over later today." she says.

Masato thinks for a bit "Does that mean she's my aunt? Because if she's your sister and you're my mother, that must make her my aunt, right?" she asks.

Cedrick could see the results of her studying right there and nods slowly "Yes... but keep in mind that they may not see you as their niece. But do not be alarmed by that. They are only here to meet you." she points out.

Masato frowns "Why wouldn't they see me as their niece? I'm your daughter, right? So they should see me as their niece." she says, sounding a bit confused.

Cedrick thinks on how best to answer this question "It is, because I did not give birth to you like a normal mother would her daughter, but rather, I grew you in a lab annd while it is true that I had used samples of my own DNA, they might see you as a lab experiment or a type of clone... rather than my daughter..." she explains, rather laimly.

Masato shakes her head "Children who are adopted aren't born to the mothers who adopt them and they are still their kids. It's simply the same way with you and I." she says simply.

Cedrick nods, after thinking it over "Yes. You are correct. We do not have to have anything in common to be mother and daughter. Thank you for reminding me of that."

It was later that day and Cedrick was sitting at her doctor's office, in her underwear, waiting for the doctor to get back the results of her tests. The doctor comes back "Well, Miss Darkside, your tests came back negative. You're in fine physical shape." he says. He Did enjoy it when she came by, because she has a smoking Hot body.

Cedrick nods as she gets up "Thank you, doctor. I felt... odd, for a moment when my daughter was showing off her new dress." she says, bending the truth Just a bit "I felt my heart... palpitate, in that moment and was concerned that there was something wrong with me." she explains.

The doctor chuckles "There's nothing wrong with you. Your heart just fluttered from seeing something cute." he says with a smile "I assure you, you're in perfect health." he says.

Cedrick nods slowly, before getting dressed and heading out. She told Masato that she would be back in the morning and to not leave her office until she got back.

When she gets back to the office in the morning, Anita was waiting there. She was alone, so Cedrick assumed she came by herself "Anita. It is agreeable to see you again." she says as she escorts her in.

"Cedrick. It's good to see you as well." she says "You wanna tell me why you called me here?" she asks as she follows her sister.

Cedrick nods as she gets on the elevator "I have someone I would like you to meet." she says as they ride up to her office. When they get to the doors, Cedrick pauses "Keep an open mind." she says as she heads on in.

Inside, Masato was sitting at her small desk, studying. She looks up "Mother! Welcome back!" she says as she jumps up and rushes over with a hug.

Cedrick looks over to Anita, who has a disbelieving look on her face "Anita, I would like you to meet my daughter. Masato Darkside."

Anita knew that, like herself, Cedrick couldn't Have kids, so the logical answer was that she adopted one. However, this kid before her didn't look like a normal child. In fact, she didn't seem like anything. Much like how an android or robot would be.

"Cedrick, what is..." she started, but stopped her question, not wanting to upset this, child.

Cedrick knew what her sister was going to ask "Masato, would you kindly exit your body and show Anita your real form?" she asks.

Masato nods "Yes mother." shebsays as she unbuttons her shirt, unclipping her bra and her check hisses, before opening up to reveal a dark red and black puddle of ooze.

"This is Masato's true form. She is a symbiote that I created and has thus gained her own will, personalityn and intelligence." she explains "And since I had created her using my own DNA, I had taken to calling her my daughter."

This, slightly disturbed Anita a bit. Cedrick was acting like she was some kind of goddess, tampering with things she probably shouldn't and trying to create life... or, Anita could be looking too much into this. She would have to talk to Manny about it. In the mean time "Um, Masato. It's good to meet you." she says, a bit uneasy.

Cedrick shakes her head "Masato can not speak unless she is in her suit or attached to you." she explains as the android's chest closes and Masato dresses herself.

"Auntie, it's good to finally meet you. Mother onlybjust told me about you and her other sister..." the young woman says, looking around "Though, it saddens me to see that she has not shown up." she says in a downer tone.

Cedrick places a hand on Masato's back, rubbing it lightly "It is alright. My sisters have their own lives and can not come here at the drop of a hat. Give it time, you shall meet Amanda." she assures her daughter.

Anita motions for Cedrick to come over to her and away from the android "cedrick... are you sure this is a wise thing to do?" she asks in a low tone "you're basically playing god here, trying to create life, you know that right?" she points out.

Cedrick shakes her head "this is no different than if i created artificial intelligence and it took to calling me mother as well..." she fires back "like you, i am on the brink of having my own family. people who really care about me so that i will not be alone anymore... if you can not be happy for me about that, than at least respect it enough to not try and destroy what i am building..." she says as she moves back to Masato.

"Daughter, I believe your auntie has her own work she needs to get to that we might be taking her away from." she says "Wait here while I escort her along her way." she says as she heads to the door, waiting for Anita to follow.

Cedrick was a little disappointed by Anita's reaction, but she had expected it. Still, it was disappointing. She had hoped her sister would be more open minded than that.

Still, she didn't dwell too much on it. There was Science to be done! Speaking of which, she was ahead of schedule on the construction on the USS Odyssey and all the smaller ships that will be accompanying it. All that was left, was her part of the construction. Calibrating the warp core of all the ships. That'll take about a week, or so.

Masato was getting restless, however. She wanted to go out and explore the world, this gave Cedrick something of a slight idea. The Odyssey would need a crew soon and she had No idea whom she was going to pick to be the senior staff, let alone the captain. Most of the crew would be NS-5's, so that wouldn't be a problem.

She sighs as she figures she should get started on looking over whom she would pick on this, soon to be, historic event. She Still had to deal with the fallout of the Trojan invasion, countries blaming Calvine, and his subsequent disappearance from the inquiries. He would likely be in trouble when he gets back... Cedrick wasn't giving up hope that she would see her only two friends again...

However, for the moment, she needed to put them from her mind and actually spend some time with Masato, before she goes full crazy girl on her. With that being said, she asked KITT if he wouldn't mind waiting for them. She was going to go for a drive with her daughter.

Masato was thrilled to bits to go on their little drive with KITT. She was very interested in why a car could talk. All of her research said otherwise and by research, that meant watching TV. They for something to eat, watched a movie and did as little shopping. Cedrick got Masato some more clothes.

They were on their way back when Cedrick had a thought "Masato, are you happy with how things currently are?" she asks "What I mean is, do you wish for more?"

The symbiote thinks for a bit "Yes. I'm quite content, mother. However, there are a few things I would like to change, if reasonably plausible..." she says "I would like to be a real person, not just a symbiote... I know this isn't within your power to do, but it's still something I would very much like. Also, I would like to attend school. I believe that would be good for me."
she points out.

Cedrick had an idea about the second one of those and she was correct, interaction with others Would be a good thing. It would keep her daughter from becoming like her, socially awkward. She nods slightly "I shall see what I can do..." she says *About both of those...* she thinks.

Once they get back to Paragon Corp and into the hangar, Cedrick and Masato get out and the demi devil moves her daughter back as KITT suddenly Transforms! This surprises Masato a bit "What the? How is KITT able to do that?" she asks.

Cedrick was amused by her wonder at KITT's 'New' ability "KITT has always been able to do that. He just usually prefers to remain in his vehicle form when indoors." she explains.

After Masato spent some time going over KITT's 'new' form, the symbiote joins her mother inside and tries on a few outfits. All of them looked cute on her daughter.

Cedrick was going over some antimatter reading when she suddenly gets a message. It was from X! This is what she was waiting for. Hopefully he would be able to help her crack that crazy encryption that Ness had set up on his data padd.

"Hello, X. It's good to hear from you. How has things been going for you, post invasion?" she types.

"Things have been decent. Thank you for the image inducer. It's helped plenty. So, about this encryption algorithm you sent me... I have to say, walking on the Sun would be easier than cracking this." he replies.

Cedrick frowns slightly "So, you can't help crack the code?" she asks.

There was a pause on the other end. She assumed that X was thinking about how to reply. A very Human thing to do "Now let's not jump to any conclusions... I only just tried more than a dozen ways to try and crack the code, I still have hundreds of ways to give it a try. I'll keep in touch and let you know if I manage break this code. Ness wasn't messing around when he set this up. Are you sure it's a good idea to open these files?" he asks.

Now it was Cedrick's turn to think "Probably not. If Ness encrypted them, it's probably for a good reason. But all the same, I feel it's worth the risk. If nothing else, just to see what's in them." she replies.

Another pause "Than I'll redouble my efforts. I'll let you know if anything changes or at the end of each week. You take care." he says, before logging out of the chat.

Cedrick sighs as she closes her laptop. It's been a long day and she was tired. She gets up "I am going to get ready to head home for the night." she says to Masato.

Who looks over to her mother "May I come with you? It gets lonely here at the lab by myself." she points out.

Cedrick looks around *I suppose it Does get a little lonely here at night...* she thinks, before noting "Alright. But behave yourself and lights out at ten for you." she says.

Cedrick's apartment was like it always was. Masato was excited to be somewhere different and even though it was smaller than the lab, it was different. She goes over to the window and looks out over the city "Oh wow!" she says in awe 'Mother... there's a person looking into your room with something strange covering their eyes." she says.

Cedrick nods slowly "It is the young man from across the street. Those are binoculars. They enhance the range a Human can see..." she explains "He only wishes to see me in various states of undress." she says.

Masato blinks, confused "Why would he wish to see you undressed?" she asks.

Cedrick shrugs a bit "Because he thinks I am attractive and possibly wishes to use his mental image of me as masturbation material." she mumbles.

This answer seemed to confuses Masato even more "Um... What's attractive and masturbation mean?" she asks.

Cedrick felt a headache starting to form. She only had her daughter read educational materials and nothing about basic things like vanity or self pleasure *No reason to stop now, I suppose...* she thinks as she takes a padd out and brings up the subjects that Masato was curious about "Read these articles. If you have any questions, feel free to ask." she says as she closes the curtains.

Cedrick spent the next hour taking a shower, making dinner, and catching up on her work. Tomorrow she would need to spend the whole day working on the warp cores of the new ships. There were quite a lot of them. One Galaxy-Class starship, five Type-2 Shuttle Craft, two Danube-class Runabouts, and one Delta Flyer. The Odyssey and the Flyer are the only ones she'll have to work on, as the NS-5's could handle the rest.

She sighs as she sets down her padd. It was gonna be a long day, but after it was over, she would do some test flights on all the ships... well, the NS-5's would do the test flights, she was too valuable to risk if anything happened. Still, she would monitor the ships closely to see if anything happened. She nods to herself, yes. Things were going well on the ship yard front.

"Mother..." Masato pipes up, which get's Cedrick's attention "Mother, after reading what you said to read, am I attractive?" she asks.

Cedrick looks over at the android "Of course you are. The body I made was made from the mental image you sent to me. This is what you wanted to look like." she points out.

Masato shakes her head "No. I mean the Real me. The red and black blob of goo that's inside this synthetic body." she says.

Cedrick nods "Of course. Who you are, is not what you look like on the outside, but rather, how you are on the inside. Your personality and how you behave." she explains "And you behave like a sweet young woman, which makes you truly beautiful."

Masato seemed to like this answer as she gives Cedrick a hug "Thank you, mother. I think you're beautiful as well." she says as she snuggles against her "I have another question, what it self pleasure and how does one do it?" she asks.

Well, that sweet moment just got Very awkward, Very fast. Cedrick clears her throat "It is, uh, when someone stimulates their, um, genitals to gain pleasure from it... much like how they would have intercourse with someone, but with just themselves..." she explains, kinda lamely.

Masato blinks "But mother, I don't have any sex organs, so I can't experience self pleasure or intercourse... how do they feel?" she asks.

There was no real way for Cedrick to explain how pleasure feels anymore than she could explain how pain feel. There Was one way for Masato to experience how pleasure feels, but Cedrick didn't think she wanted to go there "That is a subject for when you are older." she mumbles, feeling herself get embarrassed by this entire conversation.

Morning comes rolling around and Cedrick wakes up to see a puddle of dark red and black goo resting on her stomach "Masato. It is time to wake up. Mother has got to get ready for work." she says as she tickles the puddle, which squirms a bit before making it's way back to the charging android shell.

Once she was all tucked away, Masato unplugs herself "What shall I be doing today, mother?" she asks.

Cedrick looks over her schedule "The usual battery of tests, followed by your usual day of studies. I have some important work to do today and can not spend much of, if any, time with you today." she says as she jumps in the shower.

After she gets out, she sees Masato looking over the city from the window "That young Human was looking in our direction again." she says "I waved, he closed his window sheets."

Cedrick found that a little entertaining "I am ready. Let us be off. KITT is waiting." she says as she grabs her stuff and starts off, Masato right behind her.

"Mother, aren't you going to get something to eat?" the symbiote asks "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, after all." she points out.

It was cute that her daughter was concerned about her wellbeing "I shall get something to eat at the office." she assure the young 'woman' as they climb into KITT, who was waiting patiently.

"The office, please, KITT." she says as the car takes off on it's own. Cedrick was looking over her work day. The Odyssey is what would need most of her attention today. She estimated that it would take all of today and most of tomorrow to calibrate the warp core of All of the ships. Then it would be testing time.

Once at the office, Cedrick starts her usual tests on Masato... which would take a little bit for them to be complete. The computers still needed to analyze her DNA and scan for any anomalies or negative readings.

Meanwhile Cedrick went and got herself something to eat and started the android on her daily studies while she got her safety gear on and headed down to the shipyard to start her work. Soon Earth will be the ones visiting different worlds.

After a very busy day of looking at screens, Cedrick finally got the Odyssey's warp core aligned and stable. She was pleased with herself. With X and Zero's notes, this would go much faster then when she was doing this on her own. At least Something good came of the Trojan invasion.

The Odyssey, for all intents and purposes, was ready for launch. At least, a few test flights. She was thinking Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto for the test flights.

She would need to start looking at people for the crew and while most of it would be NS-5's, she would need an Actual flesh and blood senior staff and a captain who could make good choices. She Had a few choices, right off the bat, but she was a bit iffy approaching her first choice for captain, as she had No military experience, had a life of her own, and, most importantly, didn't want anything to do with Cedrick.

However, Cedrick couldn't think of anyone she trusted, who was on Earth, that she could call, who could make cerebral choices as well as emotional ones, plus keep her head in any situations that would arise.

She would put choosing a crew on the back burner for now, as she still needed to test the warp drive of the Odyssey. For all she knew, it could breach, destroying the whole ship. Though, she Hoped that wasn't the case. But, the powers of Chaos (aka her Mother) had been a Bit too quiet as of late, so she was going to have all engineering crews keeping a Very close eye on the warp core.

As the moment, she had motherly duties to attend to. What those entailed, she had no real idea. Luckily, she managed to skip all the early years of motherhood, like changing the kid, feeding, no sleep... still, the notion of breastfeeding did appeal to her slightly, pity she no longer had someone to get intimate with.

She shakes her head as she refocuses on her work. Dwelling on the past would do no one any good. Especially since she had this critical test flight coming up. Though, she Did wonder what Calvine and Ness would think of the ship she had built. She had a feeling that Ness would be impressed with the Odyssey.

Later today, it would take it's first flight from space dock to Mars and back. It should only take less then five minuets, even at warp one. In the mean time, she could spend some time with Masato, who was probably wondering where she was.

She gets back to Section 31 and Masato was still reading her studies when she looks up "Mother. Welcome back. It's past dinner time and you hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast." she says as she gets up and heads over to Cedrick "If you continue like this, you'll get sick." she reaches up and places a hand on Cedrick's forehead.

Cedrick Did wonder why people did this. It wouldn't work for certain people like a Farian or herself, as their body temperatures weren't Human standard "I am fine. I do not catch colds and I can go at least a few days longer than a Human can without eating." she says, as she had done plenty of times when she was homeless.

Though, her daughter Was right. She was a bit hungry "Let us go and get something to eat and then head home. I have a big day tomorrow." she says as she tales her lab coat off and the two head on out. Cedricl decided to at least send her a message, asking if they could talk, but After the test flights were finished.

The day was Finally here. The test flight of the USS Odyssey! Though she wouldn't openly admit it, Cedrick ws a bit nervous. There was millions of things that could go wrong. Se instructed the NS-5's to keep a Very close eye on things. This was their only ship and a warp core breach would undo months of hard work.

"Remember, you are Only going to Mars and back for now." she tells the temporary Captain over the com "We just want to see if everything is working right and if it is, we want to see for how long." she says.

She left Masato at Section 31 while she delt with this important matter. The Odyssey was all set and ready with the other ships being worked on as the same time. After all the tests flights were done, all the smaller crafts would be loaded on, a crew picked and trained, and off they go. It would likely be another six months to a year before the Odyssey sets out for it's maiden voyage. Plenty of time to make a second ship.

Cedrick gives the Captain the go-ahead. She had them engage the cloak so as not to alert the sensor network that Calvine put in place before he left on his solo journey.

The count down until the warp drive was engaged and Cedrick could almost Feel the chaotic energies springing to life and she tried her best to will them away. "5...4...3...2...1... engaging warp drive now." says the emotionaless voice of the NS-5.

Cedrick could see the Odyssey on monitors as he moves out, a flash from the warp nacelles and the ship almost warps as he moves forward at speeds faster than light and disappears in a flash of light, signifying that it broke the warp barrior and it was gone.

"We have successfully reached out destination of Mars." the NS-5 says less then a minuet later "Running a level one diagnostic on all systems. Please stand by." it says.

Cedrick knew a level one diagnostic on all the systems would take hours, so she would leave them and have them report back when they're finished and ready to return home.

So in the mean time, Cedrick would go check on some things. The progress of the smaller ships and Masato. Maybe grab a bite to eat later. She needed to talk to schools and see which one was best for her daughter. Maybe a private all girl's school? She Needed to talk to someone, but everyone she knows it off world or doesn't want anything to do with her... not that she blames them.

Cedrick wanders up to Section 31 to see what her daughter was doing. She was reading and has been since Cedrick left her "Do you wish to get something to eat?" she asks.

Masato looks up "Hello mother. Yes, I would very much like to get something to eat." she says as she shuts off the padd "How was your test flight?" she asks.

Cedrick shrugs "It made it to Mars and the crew is checking all the systems over before they come back." she says "Hopefully there are no setbacks."

Masato nods slowly "I noticed that you made another docking station in the shipyard. Are you planning on making another ship?" she asks.

Cedrick nods as the two of them head out to the mess hall "Yes. But it will not be as sophisticated as the Odyssey, as I will be starting from scratch with this new ship." she says. She was thinking of basing it on the NX-01. That was certainly a ship that she could build with the technology available to her.

"After this test, I have to get ready for another hearing about the Trojan attack and since Calvine is no longer on Earth, that makes me the sole stock holder of Paragon Corp and I am whom the governments of the world will be looking to place blame on." she says as the two of them get some trays and sit down.

Masato blinks, confused "But mother, you had nothing to do with the Trojan invasion, aside from helping to stop it, right?" she asks.

Cedrick nods slowly, picking at her food "Indeed and the UN knows this. They think that it was our space program that invited the invasion. That the Trojan saw us as a potential threat, which was why they attacked." she explains.

Masato was still confused "But mother, the Trojan Did see Humanity as a threat and it had nothing to do with your current space program." she says.

Cedrick nods "Do not worry. I have some of the best lawyer's on Earth, in case things go sideways." she says. Cedeick clearly wasn't worried about the hearing and had a feeling that things would go her way in them.

After lunch, Cedrick heads to the smaller shipyards, which were planet side, and checks on the shuttles. She was pleased with what she sees. Everything was right on schedule.

She returns to the control room to see if there were any updates. The diagnostics were complete and all systems were in the green! This pleased Cedrick "Return to space dock and prep for the second test flight." she says. Finally things were going good for once.

Cedrick sent the Odyssey on it's final test flight. They went to Jupiter next, which at warp one took almost an hour. Now she sent them to Pluto which would take almost five hours at warp one. So this gave Cedrick plenty of time to do other things.

One of those, was enroll Masato in middle school. It was a private school, so there would be no problems. It was also an all girl's school as well. She knew her daughter would be interested in boy's and May try to possess one of the more weak willed one's. A chance Cedrick wasn't willing to take.

Cedrick would also need to upgrade Masato's body to look 100% Human. That meant adding her girl bits as well, for when they changed into their gym clothes.

Robotics really wasn't her things, however, and she needed the NS-5's to take care of Masato's upgrade. In the mean time, she would let the symbiote crawl over herself until they were done. Fortunately the girl parts didn't need to do anything other than look real, so it would only be an hour or two.

Cedrick heads to the school to talk with the principle. She already had X doctor and forge the right papers that made S-1 the Symbiote, legally into Masato Darkside, so there wouldn't be any problems on that part.

No, the problem would come if the principle wanted to meet Masato before they admitted her into the school. Cedrick would need a decent excuse *Maybe I will say she is at home studying...* she thinks.

*But mother, I'm with you right now. Not at the lab studying.* the Symbiote says to Cedrick, in her mind.

"I know, Masato. But for now, we shall say that you are at home studying." she says out loud, getting odd looks from people "This is just to get you into school."

*But mother, lying is bad. You made me read a whole chapter in my studies about that.* the Symbiote points out.

Cedrick nods "Yes. Lying Is bad. But if it's a harmless, white lie, then it is alright." she says. She noticed people staring, and she taps her ear, whicj was covered by her hair, to indicate that she was on the phone, usong hands-free and after that, no one paid attention to her.

*Very well, mother. You know best, after all. If it's a harmless, white lie, I'll stop making a fuss.* Masato says.

Cedrick shakes her head "It is fine. In fact, if you see me do something you know to be wrong, I want you to point it out to me." she says "I can not grow as a person, if I do not know my own flaws."

The interview with Masato's school had gone well. Well enough, actually. Cedrick believed the principle was intimidated by her. She was considered tall, by Japanese standards, standing over some men by two inches.

Still, that was one thing down. Now for the next few items on her list. She wanted to pick a Captain for the Odyssey and her choice of Captain, will determine her choice in senior staff.

Her first choice was Monica, but now, she was thinking that might not be the case. She would have chosen Calvine, if he were still here, because of his experience as Starfleet. He would have been a perfect Captain. But since he wasn't here, she needed another choice.

She decided to go through the list of people she knew. Some of them were Great choices, like Alden Glay, Calvine Mort, and Ness Burger... but only one of them was on Earth at the moment.

Besides, she had done a great disservice towards Alden and his orphanage. She would get in contact with the older man and see about patching things up. To start, she would make a large donation towards his orphanage. She owed him that much, at the very least.

She looks up the number for Alden's place and dials. To her surprise, a young sounding woman answered. After a brief conversation, Cedrick hangs up. She looked disturbed... it seems that Alden had passed away a few years ago.

This was a little hard for Cedrick to accept at the moment. She one, he didn't Seem that old to her, but then, it Had been over five years since she had seen him. She also wouldn't have a channce to make amends to him for all the grief she caused.

This wasn't going to stand. She Knew there were ways to bring people back to life. Hell, she, herself, had been dead once before as well! When she died, she recalled being someplace... "Lost." she says.

"Yes, my dear?" the old man asks as he hobbles into the office, like he was just Waiting in the shadows for Cedrick to call to him.

She turns to the old cryptic man "I need help with something, and I feel that it is the kind of help that only you can provide." she says.

The older man hobbles around the office "And what help might that be, my dear?" he asks.

Cedrick thinks for a second on how to explain this situation "I have a ship that needs a Captain. I wanted it to be Alden Glay, but he had passed away, unbenounced to myself..." she starts to explain "I had also done him a great disservice that I had never had the chance to make amends for... I would like that chance now." she finishes.

Lost was silent for a bit "And you would like me to, what? Bring his soul to you so you can explain this situation to him?" he asks "As far as I know, he has been reunited with his beloved wife after all this time apart, what can you possibly offer him over that?" he asks.

Cedrick thinks for moment "I can bring them Both back to life and make them young again. They can then continue to do what they had done originally; help people." she points out "Only now, they will be helping the entire world. Bringing Earth and her people closer to alien life. Giving the Human's peace of mind that not all of them are evil and maybe making Earth apart of something bigger." she says.

Lost nods "You are thinking of your Federation, aren't you?" he asks "Very well. I shall find him and explain everything you have told me, though it may take some time." he says "Finding one soul in a vast ocean of them, is no easy task." he points out.

Cedrick nods her thanks "I understand. Thank you, for whatever help you can give me." she says.

Lost nods "What you're setting out to do is very ambitious. Changing the course of a planet and her people is a very hard thing to do by yourself." he points out "However, it's not like you have much choice in this matter, huh?" he asks, then turns and starts to hobble off, back into the shadows where he came from.

Cedrick was looking over some printouts for Paragon Corp and thanks to their willingness share their medical knowledge with the world, hospitals are better equipped to handle crisis situations like alien invasions and with the sales of the NS-5's being at an all time high, thanks to the Trojan invasion, they weren't hurting for money.

In fact, Cedrick herself had been contacted by some big businesses looking to invest in Paragon stocks. Of course Cedricl turned them down, after all, this wasn't just Her company. It was her's, Calvine's, and Ness'. They were the ones who put it all together and while Ness wouldn't accept any shares of it, Cedrick would make sure people knew it was he who helped build Paragon into what it was today.

She usually left the bean counting to the accountants, but with the bi-annual report coming up, she would need to know what was going on in her company. She wanted things to be running like a well oiled machine when both Calvine and Ness came back.

She felt her brain starting to hurt with all these numbers, so she would call it a day and look over Masato's test results. She frowns slightly, not really liking what she was seeing. Masato's cell count was down from her last test.

"Mother. We need to talk." she says in an even tone.

"Yes, my darling girl?" Regina asks, laying on the couch Cedrick keeps in her office "What can mother do for you?"

Regina wasn't Cedrick's favorite person in the universe, but, she needed help with something. "I require your help with some that I consider important." she starts.

Regina smiles "This is exciting news, my dear. You have Never asked me for Anything before." she says, sounding delighted "What can mother do for you?" she asks.

Cedrick didn't like how happy Regina was about all of this. Cedrick slides a data padd over to her mother. It has a picture of Masato on it "This is my daughter, Masato. She has expressed a desire to have a normal body and since you had made mine, both times, I was wondering if you could make her a normal body and put her consciousness into it." she explains.

Regina was looking over the pictures. They showed Masato in her robotic body and in her natural form "Interesting..." she says, all playfulness in her voice was gone "So, you've taken to playing goddess now...?" she asks as she looks up to Cedrick.

Cedrick shakes her head "No. This is - " she starts, but was cut off by Regina holding up a hand to silence her.

"Out of both of your sisters, you are the Only one to show this kind of initiative. Making your own underlings? You have done your mother proud." she says, noding with a smile "Alright, I shall make this new body for my new granddaughter, under the condition that you Not back out of taking over for me, should I retire or something happen to be. At least consider it." she requests "I shall contact you wheb she's ready." she says as she disappears in a swirl of fire, and was gone.

Cedrick decided it would be time to head on home, since Masato would be heading directly home after school. So she clocks out and heads on back to her apartment. Tomorrow she would need to go over some more readings on the Odyssey and the shuttles and Runabouts it had onboard.

She gets back to her place, sighs as she closes the door and kicks off her shoes. So much has happened in the past few weeks that she hasn't had time to catch her breath and she could feel it starting to weigh down on her the last few days and she knew that if she Didn't stop, or at least slow down, she was gonna crash.

But she didn't think she couldn't stop, or even slow down, now. There was still So much to do and She was the Only one who could get it done.

She takes her shirt and skirt off, not even caring if that little perv was creeping on her. She felt like she needed to get something to eat, but it could wait. Plus, she didn't feel like cooking tonight, or even calling for take out... it just seemed to much like a hassle right now.

She lays on her bed *I may be coming down with a fever... I will have to visit the medical wing tomorrow...* she thinks as she starts to drift off to sleep.