Round Robin, Sophie From Shinola Part 5

Last week I signed up to be part of a round robin writing experiment that comes together across many blogs and was thought of by Nathan over at Polybloggimous. The premise of the experiment is pretty straightforward: one person starts the story, writing approx. 100-500 words and the next person puts part two on his or her blog, changing one main element of the story, linking then to the previous and following posts and so on. The clearer, full instructions, can be found here, along with part one (scroll down). Then there are the following parts:

Part the Second
Part the Third
Part the Fourth

Sophie's second body was a latticework icosahedron stubbed with momentum and death, incapable of both atmospheric and interstellar travel, but ideal for turning and whirling and whipping around the first invasion fleet, cutting it to pieces in twelve-point-five minutes. If fake-Sophie wasn't crazy when she saw Sophie's first two bodies, oh, she was crazy after the Battle Of Chenolla Oort, where the precognitive interdictors of SpaceForce ambushed the Kollithi fleet. Crazy and weak and screaming from within the brain in the shell.

Part 5

From far below, Blink could tell that Sophie was in distress. Through their link, Blink could feel her fear and confusion, even the fear of the imposter. The imposter smelled the same as Sophie, and this confused Blink. The imposter’s thoughts were different from Sophie’s but there were similarities, and this confused Blink more. Another spike of fear and this time pain from Sophie and not-Sophie. For a second time, Blink blinked. The Mother was up there with Sophie yet she did not do anything to stop the fear and pain. He had to get to Sophie. If the Mother was not going to stop whatever was hurting Sophie, Blink would have to.

The small brown creature was still stuck in the hole in the corner of the dumpster. Blinked nudged it again, trying to push it through the hole, but it only squeaked louder. The small brown creature was a filthy thing. Normally Blink didn’t eat filthy things. Not when Blink received good food from Sophie and the Mother, good thinks like shrimp crackers. But Blink could wait no longer and he flicked out his tongue and snapped up the small brown creature. There was one little squeak before the crunch and then it was still. The filthy thing wasn’t all bad, and the taste triggered some exciting hereditary memories from when his ancestors roamed the fields of Chenolla VI.

Blink expanded the link with the Mother, and her mind was full of strange words like psychiatric evaluation, defense mechanism, and split personality, all of which were associated with images of Sophie. The Mother was also very sad. It made Blink sad. Then came words like looney bin and mental. The Mother thought that Sophie had no chance of getting into the SpaceForce Training Academy with such disorders. Blink didn’t understand the words, only the feelings.

With the thing out of his way, Blink began the process of loosening his joints to fit through the hole. It was a slow process and many times Blink picked up more fear from Sophie and not-Sophie. This made Blink want to rush, but he took his time so as not to get hurt on the sharp metal around the hole in the dumpster.

Finally, Blink was free and he pulled his many limbs back into position. The building that stood before him was tall and smooth, and Sophie was near the top. That would not stop Blink, because Blink, with his many limbs, was such a good climber. All he knew was that Sophie needed him, and so he went.

Part the Sixth