The Measure slid into the room and looked at Tall White Lady anxiously, and asked,"Are you all right? I came down as soon as I heard! What's wrong? Hey...you look like your PREVIOUS appearance! What happened?" TWL shrugged. "It's being looked into. My head hurts,but otherwise alright. How did your visit go with the Haen?" Measure's voice dried up suddenly becoming aware of Commander Rose looking at her. Measure choked out,"Worse than expected. Rose. I didn't notice you there." "Perhaps a trait of my machine-life heritage? Do you wish me to leave? I had to brief TWL of what's been going on, and do some detection scans on her. The cloned Altha-Krommium necklace does have a hyper-frame in it, but she does not." Rose looked at Measure and asked,"Are you responsible for this transformation originally?" Measure looked at TWL and nodded. "She DOES look like one of the race of Abel, doesn't she? My mother showed me a picture of 'an ancient and long lost race of powerful telepaths'. When I attuned to MY artifact necklace, I wanted TWL to be as powerful as possible since that crazy woman, Izkibell was causing trouble. I wasn't completely aware of the Probability Transformation the Four Sisters trigger when they attune. I hope I didn't do something completely crazy..." Measure choked up and looked away. TWL looked dismayed and asked,"What's wrong? Are you crying?" Measure nodded. TWL patted the bed next to her and said,"Come here and sit down. Tell us about it." Measure slid over and sat down. TWL put an arm around her shoulder and patted her tail. Measure said quietly,"My mother is a spineless, cold woman who has LOUSY taste in men. My sister, Syyree, is CRAZY. She went mad after losing her friend,Larka. Worst of all...my father is a MURDERER! Apparently HE has a problem with his anger,too! My god! I could lose my temper and kill someone with a thought! I'm already part of a freaking weapon system! NOW I find out that I really DO have a hair trigger!" Rose said,"If you fear yourself and wild emotional responses, I can take care of that by sticking in some inhibitors that will limit your lethal force except in combat, and NOT triggerable by anger over a certain amount." measure looked up in surprise. "You CAN? Well...of course you can! You do have that veto thing...But I didn't know you could reprogram the Nunera system!" Rose smiled."Not as such, but I can insert some limits on triggers and some powers and lethal force applications. As such--no worries on accidentally killing someone because you're pissed off and have a random thought. You have to work on killing someone, except in combat!" She dropped her smile and said,"I feel for you. I really do. HOWEVER something you need to realize--you are NOT the only one bearing a burden here." Measure looked curiously at Rose. Rose said,"My father died in front of me, on the other side of a blast door when dome 312 in the undersea city of Pelagra imploded. I was no older that Sunshine when it happened. They told me he didn't suffer. I didn't care at the time. I SUFFERED. Almost everyone on the Nautilus has suffered or had some trauma, or lost someone. Measure you need NOT suffer in silence." TWL asked suddenly,"How do porcupines mate?" Measure laughed and said,"What a random thing to say! What? That sounds like Toxic!" TWl said,"Very carefully! No, it was not random! Toxic is smarter than most think. Measure, you are like a porcupine! Shy and reclusive and have fearsome defenses that make others fear you. You don't need them. You act like a teen-ager, so full of angst. What are you? Coming up on forty?" Measure said,"Yeah. I'm almost an adult by Naga terms. I have almost reached one tenth of one percent of my life-span." Rose said,"You live FORTY THOUSAND YEARS? I'm younger than Measure by almost five years!" Measure blinked. "That's not fair!" Rose stood up. "Life isn't either. Handle it!" --TO BE CONTINUED!--