Elfin B'Elanna Torres

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 7377

The golden haired elfin lady turned and looked at the coppery maned elfin man, who give a half smile and shrug.

"Ladies first?" Seeker smiled, causing Torres' elfin heart to beat a little faster in delight.

Torres, very much a product of the 24th century, found this small display of chivalry on Seeker's part delightful. She smiles a dazzling smile and nods affirmative.

She turns to the other elves and beings to speak.

"Okay.....I have to warn you two that what I'm about to tell you about myself will sound insane....but it's the truth," Torres beings.

"After all that has happened today to us that would take some doing," Fred quipped. Astra nodded in agreement.

"Well the day is just begun....but anyway here it is," Torres says. "I wasn't born an elf. Rather, I was....er....made as something else before this." She gestures with her hands at her curvious, beautiful body.

"Oh, did that mad mage get you also?" Astra said, feeling a sudden kinship with this other female elf.

"No, that didn't happen," Torres said, looking at a loss to say this without sounding like she was crazy.

She sighed, for she couldn't think of anyway to do it diplomatically.

Dream Prop or no, she was still more of an Engineer and much less of a diplomat. In other words, she would have to do this by her usual.....no frills approach.

"I was created in an alchemical bath by a vile mage by the name of Tesla," Torres says abruptly. "I was a creation that he termed as a Dream Prop, which is what I'm told is some type of magical golem. I gained sentience, and for a while I thought I was....something other than what I was......"

"TESLA OF ATLANTIS?!" both elves squeak in shock (yes squeek).

Eyes look into the deep purple orbs that this elfin lass has, and see that this is not a joke (and what a poor joke it'd be if it was)! As for being a golem, both Astra and Fred were familiar with the stories of how certain settlements of those of the Jewish faith had created vagueally humanoid creations to serve and protect them from those who'd harm them (and considering the hatred that some - who both Allaria and Aqualaria found to be just a step above pond scum - such creations were a good idea.

The woman that stood before them hardly looked like something related to the animated pieces of clay. She hardly acted like something supposed originated from such as those....either. A golem was powerful. It was strong. It wasn't much in the way of....personality, however.

Then again, there had been other rumors of a sentient golems...supposedly found and befriended by Queen Alicia of Ethiopia, were true, also. It was rumored that the golems were so life like in appearance that one could not tell from looking alone. Behavior, of course, was a different matter....since they weren't human. However, they were hardly the magical automation like their Jewish counterparts.

But if the other golems were....active long enough.....then what? Fred thinks to himself....and had a feeling that something special might occure.

Something like a thing becoming a person in it's own right?

Looking into the pure pools of color that were B'Elanna's eyes put to rest any doubts about the validly of her claim.

"Okkkayyy," Fred says finally, a little spooked. "You're a golem that came to life....sort to speak. I take it from the way this story seems to be going that you were going to turn on that evil bastard? And more to the point....."

"How in God did Tesla survive all these years?!" Astra put in....aghast at all this. "He killed himself when he destroyed his nation in his rage."

"First, let me tell you what I know....through the magical virtue of having been created by him," Torres says softly. "All creations by him have a working knowledge of the life of him. It's something of a mental conceit on his part....as well as a signature of his workmanship. So, through that, I know that he had faked his death, and moved himself to the a private resort he'd made for himself called Nod. Now, Nod had a few shortcomings in that while he could produce some items with although....it didn't have the right......whatever.....to be usable in as far as keeping him alive and magically going. But the dark mage was familiar with the fell practice of necromancy and....he changed himself into a vampire....that is after he killed all the other versions of himself."

Two pairs of eyes blink at that, not certain if they had heard that correctly. Other versions of himself?! That made no sense!

At least not yet, that is...

"God have mercy," Fred whispered hoarsely. Brave though he was....Tesla was WAY out of his league!

"Thus he was able to extend his life indefinitely....but in the process of becoming a vampire....he had locked himself to the land of Nod so he could never leave it," Torres sighed. "Vampires needing the dirt of the homeland where they were converted and all that. But, though bound, he could use the nature of Nod to his advantage, and he soon went back to old habits of Empire and conquest. He tortured the dreams of those he wanted to use as puppets for conquest and......he did it quiet well for a LONG time. Soon, his greed turned his eyes back to the world that had spawned him.....the place we'll just call Terra Prime for the sake of argument."

"Why should this world be Prime?" Astra asked with a touch of pique. "Why not call my Tera Prime?"

Fred looked like he wanted to ask the same thing.

"First, because this is their world and it's a courtesy gesture if nothing else," Torres said, slightly annoyed. "Also, for another thing...."

Torres told of what Seeker had told her of what had happened to the Terra that he had been on. Doing that...and getting the other elves to believe was a bit of a heroic effort, but she managed (painful as it was.....and she was half amazed a herself for not losing her patience).

Then again, she felt sorry for them when the idea of weapons of mass destruction translated to....as far a body counts go. They looked rather green around the gill.

"So the Enemy is on par with the Atlantians on that front," Fred said quietly.

"As well as the Military," Astra threw in. "But from what B'Elanna has said...and from what my intuition is telling me.....the Military is by far better in their morals than the Enemy and the Atlantians....who strike me as being rather....evil."

Seeker mentally sighed in relief. On the last world, it had been an uphill battle to get the locals to trust the Military (or the Golems as the locals called the Military....for the Cybernetic Avatar that the Military used to make their presence felt down on that world). I would have been much easier for the humans of the Military meet the natives in the literal flesh....to allay fears. But that had courted death with the mysterious Phage.

"As it was," B'Elanna continued. "Tesla could not reach out in the usual way. Something about it being against the Rules. Don't ask....I can't tell you anything about what that's about because I don't know anything more than what I've told you. However, he had hatched a plan to circumnavigate around the limitations set upon him.

"He couldn't well reach Terra Prime via his normal method but he could and did attempt to do it via accessing realms with little to no magic within," Torres said.

"How...could a civilization of any worth survive without a bit of magic?" Astra wondered aloud.

"Probably....through the use of science," Fred speculated with a distant, thoughtful look. "It's not as effective as magic is in healing and other things....but it's by far more affordable to the masses....and I always had a feeling that we haven't even begun to see it's full potential..."

Fred and Astra started to argue about the merits of science when Torres interrupted.

"That's exactly how Tesla planned on doing it," Torres said, almost smiling when she sees Astra blink in surprise...and then nod. "Tesla might not understand science as he understood magic....but he could control those who had science...so it made little to no difference! "I was fashioned after on of the crew members of a science powered ship called the Voyager, a ship capable of travel between the stars.....if you can accept that. Anyway, I was to help, along with my brother and sister Dream Props, torture the dreams of one human called Kathryn Janeway, the ship's captain. Only, something went wrong in the planning, and our....er....play got canceled. We were all called in to get reprocessed into component parts for reuse on another....better plan of attack. But....."

"But something happened and you gained you own mind?" Astra guessed, and smiled a little when the golden haired elf nodded affirmative.

"I came to myself...wondering where everyone else was," Torress continued. "See, though I had gained free will and all that....I was under the illusion that I actually was the person I was fashioned to resemble.....but that didn't last long after Seeker rescued me from a lackey Telsa had sent to eliminate the annoying Dream Prop that had dared to defy his will..."

She smiled and hugged the coppery maned male elf, who looked a bit....disconcerted still at the adore Torres seemed to have for him. He then smiled a half dreamy smile and gave her a quick peck on the check. The two smiled at each other for a few seconds and then Torres made a valiant effort to bring herself back to the task at hand.

"Seeker saved my life, and told me of himself and the Military he was part of. At first I didn't....fully appreciate the noble being he was but I soon was mor than enlightened when he risked his own existence in an attempt to freee me again from Tesla...who'd managed to magically locate me and whisk me into his clutches.

"And I owe him so much for what he tried to do and what he did to keep me sane when I found out the truth about my artificial origins." She finished, bowing her head slightly while closing her eyes....silently crying in joy at what Seeker had done and tried to do for her.

Torres then coughed and blushed at that display.

  1. "And now my turn." Seeker says after comforting Torres.

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