A mon grand regret les garçons naissent dans des choux et les filles dans des roses

21-22 février 2011

A mon grand regret les garçons naissent dans des choux et les filles dans des roses

 

Je le/la regardais encore qui se tenait droite comme une asperge. Je ne savais plus si je devais dire elle ou il. Finalement en regardant de plus près pendant qu’elle sortait son miroir pour retoucher ses lèvres, je me dis qu’utiliser le féminin serait de rigueur. La transformation avait été si bien réussie qu’on avait de la peine à croire qu’elle avait été un garçon autrefois. Le guitariste qui avait animé la soirée Andalouse caressait de touches finales une guitare avec un plectre qui semblait fait en corne. Il salua dans un anglais approximatif ponctué de quelques « yeah baby » et le temps de nos applaudissements, son visage rayonna comme étoilé par cette gloire fugace. Visiblement plus rien n’importait désormais des interruptions du gérant durant le spectacle pour annoncer telle ou telle voiture qui bouchait le chemin de sortie aux clients quittant tôt le restaurant. Le vieillard s’était accommodé de ces interférences dans son show parce qu’il savait qu’au bout il allait boire jusqu’à se griser au calice de ce triomphe passager et que notre salve d’applaudissements serait comme l’hostie qui viendrait sceller sa communion avec nous. De le regarder ainsi s’extasier de si peu et de vivre un tel bonheur dans cette bulle limitée de vie était roboratif pour mon esprit toujours à la quête de réponses et je me disais qu’il suffisait vraiment de peu de chose pour être heureux.

Nous nous levâmes après un repas qui aurait pu mettre dans le coma le plus gros mangeur du monde et je marchai en la suivant. Sous les quelques lampes qui s’empressaient d’étoiler le passage sombre qui nous menait vers la sortie du restaurant, l’illusion était parfaite.

Je me souvins de tous ces courriels que nous nous étions échangés avant de nous rencontrer grâce à ce voyage qu’elle avait entrepris jusqu’ici et de la dépendance affective qui émanait de ses écrits. C’est au fil de la lecture de ses écrits tantôt très provocateurs et assurés tantôt manquant totalement d’assurance et surtout bourré de fautes d’orthographe que l’image d’un autre elle s’imposait en filigrane en ma tête. Au fur et à mesure des contradictions dans son discours et de ses élucubrations de mythomane, je me suis rendu compte que c’était un être qui vivait visiblement un tourment quotidien duquel elle voulait s’échapper en s’improvisant preux chevalier pour la cause d’autrui. . Elle était tantôt membre d’une version moderne des chevaliers de la table rotonde enrôlée dans une quête d’un nouveau Graal de vie, tantôt la détentrice d’un pouvoir occulte qu’elle hésitait à révéler aux non-initiés ou encore prête à s’embarquer pour une carrière de trappeur dans le Grand Nord, voire au Canada. En fait tout mensonge fabriqué pour se distinguer du lot, faire croire qu’elle appartenait à une élite autrement plus importante que sa propre personne semblait lui convenir.

Dehors, le vieux guitariste qui était sorti par l’entrée des artistes, soit à dire la porte exigu arrière des cuisines du restaurant, enfourchait une moto et je notai un détail amusant avant qu’il ne mit son casque : il avait mis un vieux bonnet de laine sur la tête qui lui couvrait les oreilles pour se préserver du froid sans doute. Je me tournai vers mon amie que j’avais précédée sans trop y faire attention perdue dans mes pensées et repensai à nos échanges.

Elle ne prenait désormais même plus la peine de ne pas se contredire ou d’accorder quelque véracité et un suivi aux promesses faites dans ses écrits précédents. A peine une excuse totalement ridicule et qui tenait tellement peu la route qu’on eût dit un grand éclopé de première. Il est vrai que je suis plutôt impassible par un exercice de tout temps de patience et prête à croire la personne si elle se fait une place dans mon cœur. Il est aussi vrai que je suis un peu trop prompte à laisser les gens prendre une place dans mon cœur s’ils me touchent de manière significative. Elle m’avait touchée avec ses mots, le récit de ses mésaventures et je n’avais jamais réalisé que tout ceci cachait en fait une autre histoire qu’elle aurait voulu raconter mais qu’elle n’arrivait pas à exprimer de peur de ma réaction. Du coup, elle inventait mille autres mensonges pour échapper à son quotidien. Le pire c’est que le tissage entre ses mensonges et la réalité était tellement bien fait avec les quelques preuves de certains faits extraordinaires mais vrais qu’elle avançait qu’il était difficile de distinguer le bon grain de l’ivraie et la plupart des personnes autour d’elle n’avait donc d’autre choix que de prendre pour acquis tout ce qu’elle disait.

Cela dit, certains de ses mensonges avaient attisé ma curiosité et en amatrice sans relâche des procédés de détectives ainsi que mue par le souffle d’un sixième sens, je m’étais mise à étudier ses photos. C’est ainsi que je me suis aperçue qu’elle avait une pomme d’Adam qui semblait s’être évanouie dans le temps, grâce sans doute aux traitements hormonaux. Je n’avais pas de photos plus anciennes, par exemple de l’adolescence – âge ingrat où il est difficile de travestir sa nature – et il n’était donc pas possible de vérifier ma théorie de manière non équivoque mais une bonne âme crut bon de me prévenir de son ambivalence. Bien que mon témoin indésirable semblât axer ce choix de conversion sur la luxure, je n’en étais pas convaincue. De son enfance où elle avait été traitée de baltringue et d’une naissance en chou alors qu’elle s’attendait de naître en rose, elle avait dû garder un déchirement qui avait justifié ce choix. En fait quand j’y repensais, peu m’importait qu’elle fut homme ou femme comme peu m’importerait dans deux ans que mon linceul soit mer ou terre. Elle avait été un temps mon amie et rien ne pouvait changer ceci. Il me restait cependant le regret, celui poignant et amer, de ne pas pouvoir désormais me fier même à ses élans les plus sincères et de vivre donc cette amitié faite de distance. Cela me faisait d’autant plus mal que je pouvais m’imaginer qu’elle penserait que c’était dû à son secret mais en mon for intérieur je savais que c’était mieux ainsi. Comme on fait son lit on se couche, comme disait le proverbe populaire et elle portait sa part de responsabilité dans cet éloignement. Sa venue de si loin ne changeait pas grand-chose à cet état de fait. Je la regardais belle, resplendissante pleine d’effusion amicale et ressentis encore ce pincement de regret. Ne pouvais-je lui pardonner sa supercherie ? Pourquoi fallait-il que je sois aussi intransigeante avec les relations humaines? Il faudrait que je change me dis-je mais c’était trop tôt encore et je rangeai mon cœur dans son tiroir des désillusions. Demain est un autre jour me dis-je tout bas. Nous verrons.

Me hanter

21 février 2011 (décalcoMaxi)

Me hanter

Ton sein est modèle aimé

Nuée sème en époux tué ressassé

Sans début l’âge à venir

De par la femme dérangeant l’an terne

Tel soir où belle sema vol désordre germe en l’air

◊ 

Pourquoi pas roses offrir ?

Pour qui osa garrot bleue veine y est

Moi sonné sondes doux pur traîne

J’oublie Me dardera-t-elle germain ?

Ou toi or seras émérite rectifié

◊ 

Pour elle que j’aime boire frise

Mort de moi sonates au vent murmure-t-elle

Émoi râles abhorre âme erre sans maillons

Etale heures lances de lui osons traces

D’âme triste d’enfant au fond de toi me noyer

◊ 

Masque lui gela sang peint

L’animer, sceller ma tendre qui saigne pulsant de rustres

De la tribu dessein, sort d’alchimie scier

Sur phare blême sang rouille

Mort s’en pare les fléaux s’écoulent l’enduisent deuils

Ah aimée ! Restons les amants scintillants sous tes arbres aux florilèges

Les mondes mesquins voraces de polars noirs piègent mes terrains

Jet m’étends sème vie que leurs noires besognes arrêtent

Terre blouser si tard serre, nous empêtre

◊ 

L’ancien carnet ne s’ouvre ennuis volages d’essence

Etre l’Indus sur ta plaine ronde à mue grise ma pensée

 ◊

Mon sang gammes oublie aime jets dramatiques

Qu’unis minent adversités

Ta honte née des listes

Voici moulant serti pour s’offrir

Ton ire en heurt renfrogna apparence

Puis il est clair que tu ne me vois plus

Utile de ton oubli m’occire des lambeaux

 ◊

A new millenium

19 February 2011

A new millennium

 

Alas I would not run my naked wild

Creatures of habit they will me mild

With looks upon me so derogatory

Make me shuffle confined territory

◊ 

Of worldly ties they build my grave

And cause me bowing to be a slave

Medusa stood with her stoning eye

Hoping fear would make me live lie

◊ 

Yet stoning threats were of no avail

As hope filled rich my destiny’s sail

So bind your bow ye rightly archer

To lay me in that yonder sepulchre

◊ 

As arrow pierced fierce my Sternum

I woke up into a refulgent Millennium

Within a golden age freed of deceit

I practice walking on my shaking feet

Eclipses de vie

18 février 2011

Eclipses de vie

 

Le jour naît puis se meurt, le sort sera créé

Eclipse de vieille fleur, sommeil gagne la sève

Si un cœur se défait l’oubli emporte le rêve

Le jour se meurt puis naît, la vie sera sauvée

♦ 

En tourment vrille gardée empêche venue d’aurore

Mais une fleur disloquée sait refleurir pétale

Le vieux volcan éteint retrouve lave abyssale

D’une étincelle repeint il reprend en main sort

 ♦

La destinée a seuil d’infini à franchir

Accommodant de l’œil, de l’autre rive tout voir

La vie en eau jaillit, un renouveau d’espoir

Vaste bleu au cœur apprit à l’infini saisir

♦ 

Des profondeurs de l’océan, la vie sort bondissant

D’un cœur sec mais aimant, le sang soigne jaillissant

Des premiers spores de vie, renaît donc l’infini

Du retour des envies, tristesse en l’un finit

♦ 

L’aurore boréale naît en scintillements étale

Souffles d’un ange bleuté sur un lac fait de glace

D’un cratère jeune créé par poussée en surface

De lave vive remontée la terre revient fœtale

♦ 

Entre ciel, terre et mer la vie reprend ses droits

Le doux côtoie l’amer la vie joie et chagrin

L’orphelin en souffrance saura en temps serein

Faire fi des différences, de l’amour sa seule loi

 ♦

Le jour naît puis se meurt, le sort se renouvelle

Eclipse se fait sur pleur, le jour ainsi se lève

Dans un cœur trépassé, la vie accorde trêve

Le jour se meurt puis naît, la vie redevient belle

♦ 

Lecture du poème sur youtube   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiYy8Xe2IaQ

D’aube de bleu

16 février 2011

D’aube de bleu

 

L’aube naissant invoque un jour de douceur

La mer s’étire telle une soie infinie

Que la paix revienne enfin en ton cœur

Que passe la touche de la mélancolie

◊ 

La mer s’étire telle une soie infinie

Sous la caresse d’un ciel bleu langoureux

Que passe la touche de la mélancolie

Que joie de vivre habille un temps tes yeux

◊ 

Sous la caresse d’un ciel bleu langoureux

La mer veille une bleue sirène assoupie

Que joie de vivre habille un temps tes yeux

Que la douleur de cœur soit assourdie

◊ 

La mer veille une bleue sirène assoupie

Le soleil chauffe son nu de dos cambré

Que la douleur de cœur soit assourdie

Pour que le mal ne soit pas dénombré

◊ 

Le soleil chauffe son nu de dos cambré

La lune argente l’éclat de sa nageoire

Pour que le mal ne soit pas dénombré

Il faut de l’enfance trouver pataugeoire

◊ 

La lune argente l’éclat de sa nageoire

Les dieux de sa présence veulent s’imprégner

Il faut de l’enfance trouver pataugeoire

Pour que le roi de cœur puisse enfin régner

◊ 

Les dieux de sa présence veulent s’imprégner

Le vent soulève sa chevelure éparse

Pour que le roi de cœur puisse enfin régner

Il faut du bouffon laisser voir la farce

◊ 

Le vent soulève sa chevelure éparse

Une toison dort sur sa nuque en cadeau

Il faut du bouffon laisser voir la farce

Cœur de méduse invente en soi radeau

◊ 

Une toison dort sur sa nuque en cadeau

Nul sort n’égale de beauté sa mémoire

Cœur de méduse invente en soi radeau

A un vaillant de pleurs s’octroie la gloire

◊ 

Nul sort n’égale de beauté sa mémoire

Neptune de son bleu augmente la pâleur

A un vaillant de pleurs s’octroie la gloire

L’aube naissant invoque un jour de douceur

Lecture sur youtube :   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MDO83uPHCw

Ode elle m’étreint

16 février 2011

Ode elle m’étreint

Le cercle œil m’est enfer

Je vis blessure sous un toit

Brume t’acharne elle

Des veines me met égide

Déraison temps mort rame

Meut blé insecte évente

Mets-moi un vécu

Elle, mot d’essence

Scande-t-elle d’airain

A ce présent ment sens

Aube en elle me déride

Arme tu as qu’hommes selles

Partent étincelles

Qu’aimera debout

Ecorce désirs lents

Jeu vaut bleus des immondes

Pourris ôtent espoir

Jeu te saoule, le boire

Te rend plus vie en corps

Mérite tes mares eaux

M’aident ange m’enterre

Bis repetita placent

15 février 2011

Bis repetita placent

◊ 

Trois coups pour t’annoncer, frappe-les sur mon cœur

Rideaux se lèveraient, sur cette pièce d’ailleurs

Retentis embrumé, pour vestige de bonheur

On fauche bien le blé, fera peler sûr mon cœur

◊ 

Un coup pour oublier, tristes sires de malheur

Marche lente en tes vergers, renouvelle les fleurs

Senteurs de citronniers, purifieront odeurs

Des hommes eus dans le nez, tristes cires de mâles heurts

◊ 

Un coup pour espérer, espoir annonciateur

Coup d’œil à travers fées, de magie chandeleur

Un monde de rêve parfait, de bel amour splendeur

Un univers surfait, est-ce poire ânon scie hâte heure ?

◊ 

Un coup pour rappeler, hélas de beaux parleurs

De mémoire fêlée, souvenirs usurpateurs

Savoir anticiper, les élans ravageurs

Trois coups en béante plaie, elle lasse de bots parle leurre

Dust

14 February 2011

Dust

As the hot winds blew

Jasmine flowers to the ground

Dust settled anew

Time’s sand left its particles

Within my life’s chronicles

Kayla’s loneliness

Kayla’s loneliness

 14 February 2011

Kayla felt the transformation operating in Naques and felt the same pain she had gone through herself in those moments when she wondered if it was worthwhile to lead further the resistance. She remembered her foster sister, Tanita who had become a droid and whom she had had to kill to preserve the revolt. In those days the fight was so poorly organized and Advantors did not yet know the technique to make Carmelion and her sister had not been trained for that. The Anodox had been successful in transforming her and nothing had survived of her humangrity. How things would have been different if her sister had not been caught!  All of this happened because of that accursed Turkheim. To think that her sister had believed him and had allowed him to convince her that he was really in love with her! After the inevitable Anodox Kayla had had no choice but to kill her when she came back to the camp. It was not just that she had ambushed Kayla, but mostly it was because she had betrayed the whole cause of the Adventors by leading Turkheim’s troops to the heart of the resistance. How many of her other sisters, victims of the Anodox, had been sacrificed that day. She felt her throat tighten as she thought that she would had to do the same with Naques had no part of her soul remained in her. She gently placed a finger on Naques’ tears and the cold of the metal surprised her. It was both fascinating and revolting to think that part of a soul of an Adventor was trapped in this perfect machine so perfect that held only what was a resemblance of Naques.

“Naques” she said softly. “Don’t cry. I believe you and know you do not want to hurt us. You just have to understand them. Many of them have lost sisters, and even milk sisters when we were attacked by droids ”

“I know,” replied Naques wiping away the tears with the back of her hand. “It’s just so hard to accept. Only yesterday I was one of you and now I see that all of them are afraid of me. All I did was serve the cause and … “sobs choked her and she could not continue her sentence. The beads of metal fell with a sharp noise and rolled in all directions before flattening out into a shining pond. Naques was now furiously wiping her cheeks, angry to see that the scattering of the metallic beads had caused such an uproar in the ranks of the Adventors who looked at her as if she were a monster.

“I am not afraid of you,” starts Kayla before stopping dead in her tracks. While wiping energetically her cheeks, Naques had spread the metal balls and some of them, having taken the appearance and visibly the texture of scrap metal, had grazed Naques’ cheeks and revealed an iridescent other cheek that gleamed under her diaphanous skin. The view of that cheek was, like for her tears, both fascinating and revolting.

“What’s wrong with you? What are you looking at? Yelled Naques turning to face Kayla. She looked possessed and her eyes had taken on the metallic sheen of the unshed tears. She saw her own image in Kayla’s eyes and the vision of her face peeled off but so smooth underneath froze her on the spot. “I am monstrous” she whispered. So that’s what she had become. A machine! A perfect killing machine. She looked away and felt the anger rising in her like the tide of oil she had so often seen on the beach of the two moons.

“Go to Narqow!” She hissed between her teeth and her voice came out like screeching metal. “All of you, go to Narqow! I hope he whisks you away, you and the Turkheimites. I do not need you, I do not need anyone! She turned towards Kayla and this latter felt all her hatred and all her suffering but could not console her. She had been unable to embrace any of her Adventor sisters after Tanita’s death. “And you first” continued Naques. “You’re just a selfish Adventor! If you had stayed to help her, Tanita would not be dead today. She was kind and gentle and knew how to comfort us. With Tanita leading us we would have had a chance against the Turkheimites. Perhaps we would have even had a chance to live in peace with them. I wish so much that it had been you to undergo the Anodox and not her. She only wanted peace, but you were jealous of her and let her die.”

“Naques! ” said Kayla. “You know that’s not true.” She held out her hand to Naques who shook it off with a jerk of her hand

One of the Adventors could not help letting out a nervous laugh. It was such a grotesque sight to see Naques cry like that with her human cheek torn and the other cheek so perfect, smooth and metallic underneath. The worst was seeing the metallic marbles fall from her eyes rolling in all directions and to hear her voice that was so strange. Naques, furious, raised her head and glared at the Adventor but this did not deter the Adventor. In fact it had the opposite effect of what she wanted and the Adventor resumed shrilly her nervous laugh. Naques looked at her with renewed hatred before fleeing, breaking through the ranks of the Adventors as she ran.

“Naques! ” yelled Kayla. “Come back please!” but Naques was already very far and did not even cast a glance behind. Kayla felt like an orphan. Naques and her had once been so close but everything had changed now. Nothing would ever be like before she thought. But this was no time for self-pity, there were more serious matters and she would need all her energy to face them. She felt more than she heard the murmur of the Adventors’ thoughts. Some obviously wondered if she had really needed to leave Tanita in the hands of Turkheim or if she had done that to get rid of her. Everyone knew Kayla’s fiery character and many had watched with a certain reserve the competitive spirit that seemed to animate the two milk sisters. Yet to be milk sisters was such a rare thing that they should have looked upon each other as a precious gift. Very few Adventors were still capable of undergoing the process and the number of those who could complete the process and at the same time give the milk was even lower.

“I had no choice,” said Kayla in the minds of those Adventors that she felt hostile towards her. “I had no choice! ‘”She repeated aloud. “If I had stayed with Tanita, we would have both been caught and we would be dead by now. There would have been nobody left to lead the revolt because we were the only two chosen ones, the last of the clan of Keelites. She felt one after another the minds accepting her explanations and calming down but one or two were still resisting.

“You’re just a bunch of ungrateful Adventors! ” cried Shawna interposing herself between Kayla and the row of Adventures. “Without Kayla you’d all be dead or slaves to the Turkheimites until they would have had enough of you.”

Kayla raised a hand to stop her and while reassuring her mentally, she made her understand that this was not the time to weaken the ranks of the Adventors with other fights. “You can go home,” she said in a neutral voice. “That’s all for today. There will be no other meeting and I do not think the Turkheimites will attack today. They probably think we do not know about the Anodox and that Naques will betray us by leading them up to this new shelter.”

“She certainly will do that now even if she did not want to before” rang a voice in the crowd.

“Who said that? ” yelped Kayla

“I did” answered a nasal voice and she recognized the young Adventor who had doubted Naques good faith in the beginning

“Naques will never betray us” said Kayla in a calm voice. The effect of her voice as well as the waves she was transmitting overcame the last resistance and the ranks of the Adventors dispersed in the Casates.

“Are you sure you’re okay? “Shawna asked with a worried look. She knew how much it had cost Kayla to kill her own milk sister.

“I’m fine Shawna, thank you! ” said Kayla in a soft voice. “You can join your Casate. Sleep well. We will see each other tomorrow.”

Shawna nodded and within seconds Kayla found herself alone in the deserted square in the middle of the Casates. She felt an overwhelming sadness and her heart was caught in a vice-like grip. She felt her heart beating in her knotted throat and recognized the familiar feeling of nausea that rose to her lips. She felt so alone after Tanita’s death of and only Naques had been there to cheer her and play a thousand games with her. All others feared Kayla more than they loved her and Naques was the only one who was not afraid to stand up to her and treat her like a normal Adventor. What would the Adventors do if they found out she had started the process like before instead fabricating it like all the others were doing now. Nobody was using the old process considered too unreliable and none of the Adventors wanted to take the risk of the Xbiosite not succeeding. They all knew that the Xbiosite was only reliable if they used the fabricating process and not when performing the process the way it was done in the past.

What folly! she thought. How was she going to be able to justify her choice? How to cope with Shawna’s look? To undergo the process and what’s more by using one of the captive Turkheimites and not a relic of the ancestors. Kayla knew that if she wr wrong, nobody in the ranks of the Adventors would forgive her audacity. Not even Shawna. She raised her hand to her mouth to stifle the sobs that rose in her throat. A wave of weariness washed over her as well and she thought of Naques who had felt the same sadness only a few moments before although for different reasons. She felt so alone and needed so much to be able to confide in someone. She would have liked so much for Tanita to be there to hug and comfort her. Tanita had always been able to comfort everyone she thought and her eyes welled with tears again. She felt completely alone in the world and the tears flowed unrestrained down her cheeks.

Read here the first part: Naques’ tears

Naques’ tears

14 February 2011

She slipped quietly out of the room now plunged into a deep and dark slumber. She had not the faintest idea of what she had become. She remembered only the slimy roughness of the tentacles that had gripped her and the electrolytes that raced like shining lights behind her eyelids. When the Ostrother was finally diffused in her veins, she heard a dull voice say in a metallic inflection “Anodox level 10 reached. The human broth was extracted and the droid only retains the human resemblance of before. ”

When the survivors came to deliver her from her misery, she felt no transport of delight, just like a click somewhere in the depths of her frozen body like a muffled thud coming from her soul. Did droids have souls? She felt herself carefully thinking about her agitated resistance during the questioning but felt nothing and saw no traces of what she expected to see on her body covered, only a few minutes ago, by tubular protrusions inserted deep into her flesh. She thought back to the mad race followed by her arrest and the long hours spent in the Shabbyshank with the other Adventors awaiting trial. She had not breathed out any name but had heard many others talk on the Judgment field. All of them, one after the other, delivered loudly and clearly the names of the seniors to safeguard their innocence.

She had watched them crumble with a mixture of pity and disgust thinking of when the seeds would reach her and would be planted in her. There was no possible escape as they penetrated through the nostrils, ears, eyes and even through the pores. It was hard to resist the sowing of the seeds of truth, but she was well trained by her battalion and would not give in. Drop by drop, she had distilled out of her extremities the Carmelion that resulted from the mixture of her blood and the seed, but this resistance proved fatal. Nobody had ever resisted the field trial and the result of her struggle, unbeknownst to her, had been collected in a cup. Turkheim had plunged a finger into the drink and had tasted the dense liquid of her insubordination. He felt the beat of a sudden bolt of thunder. The intense substrate of revolt had scourged through him like a thousand bolts of lightning and he felt its raw power. She had not only survived the treatment but had even turned into an intoxicating mixture of rebellion that could be fatal for him. He could not allow that to be known and he decided that his only chance to control this Adventor was the Anodox operation. It was usually reserved for Adventors convicted of high treason but he decided that the court did not need to know the details. He would state in his report that she could not use her innocence because her name was among those who created the rebellion and she was therefore guilty of high treason. In front of the Court of the Outdated, she tried in vain to invoke her innocence but the council of Luels was formal and the sentence without escape: transformation by Anodox.

“Liar, you ugly liar,” she yelled to Turkheim who looked at her tauntingly. These were the last words she uttered as Adventor before the lid closed on her and the tubes crept into her flesh.

She pulled herself together and returned to the present. The survivors were fast but she found herself overtaking them absolutely not weakened by her long inertia. Kayla looked at her with narrowed eyes. She had never run so fast before and should have normally been further slowed down by her ordeal. Kayla would have to subject her to the humangrity test if she wanted to be able to count on her in the revolution. Naques who did not feel Kayla’s mood change continued to run in the open. Outside EtherLite servers diffused a cold light and stroboscopic lasers alternated between musical pauses. A young group of Turkheimites were dancing a mad Paradedance between the stroboscopic flashes and the musical notes. Nobody paid any attention to them and they continued their mad dash to the shuttle waiting for them outside the space station.

Once inside, the shuttle took off without further delay and Kayla gave a mute command to seize Naques who indifferently allowed herself to be seized. Then followed a questioning but not identical to one she had been subjected to with the Turkheimites. Kayla crept into her mind to question her and did not need to sow the truth seeds that would have not served anyway as Naques was immune to their effect. Naques reassured her that she did not need to lie, this was her clan and she answered all Kayla’s questions, including when she asked her about the Anodox. Kayla looked at her in amazement because she did not expect a droid to be on their side. She gently took her arm and exclaimed, “They have greatly improved their technique. You’re really well machined and have kept all your human resemblance. Naques, the name that you were given for the silkiness of your skin, you still deserve it although your interior is metallic. It is funny how your voice has not changed and has taken no metallic inflection”. The other Adventors began to fidget at these words spoken aloud instead of in Naques’ mind. One of them came yelling that they needed to get rid of Naques as soon as possible otherwise they would all be in danger. Followed a rapid dialogue between her and Kayla and she returned to the ranks of her peers, purple but without uttering any further threats.

Kayla turned to other Adventors and said in a loud voice “I take custody of Naques and declare having gone through her mind. She has not embraced the cause of the Turkheimites and remains Adventor in her soul. She has undergone the Anodox but her soul remained intact.”

-“The droids have no soul!” yelled a voice in the crowd and protests resumed.

Naques felt again that curious click and thought about her own interrogations a few minutes before she was freed. How to convince them? She looked at them, her sisters turned strangers and felt that snap again and a strange feeling at the level of her eyes. The Adventors were watching her with an expression between pity and revulsion. Raising her hand to her eyes, she felt the metallic marbles fall on her fingers. She was weeping tears of metal. The droids did therefore have a soul, she thought remembering the countless droids she had had to destroy, her sisters transformed by their Anodox. A feeling of great weariness overwhelmed her. The revolt, the Adventors, Kayla, nothing seemed to matter anymore.

Read here the second part: Kayla’s loneliness