Astra looked a bit afraid to be taken 'inside' a building. It felt a bit too much like going inside the caverns of an asteroid. The very notion was fraught with peril, and the fear that you might get stuck in there forever. She liked being in big open spaces.. such as... space. This place was not even her new home, it was what Anneza called a 'police' station.
The word didn't really work well to her, and Anneza had to describe it in terms of their own language- which apparently nobody else spoke. It was surprising how difficult that was. Essentially, police were a 'force' that corrected mistakes. The innocent space-child had little to no concept of human civilisation except from books, or even the idea of a 'mistake' existing in the universe. Mistakes didn't really happen in their language, as everything always went in circles and were always 'transitional'. Unforeseen events could make Astra feel fear of course, but that too was all just part of the orbit of their emotions.
the police sergeant looked at Anneza with a faint smile as she floated to his office. "Oh dear, here comes trouble..." He thought quietly. Still at least it was the kind of trouble that was easy on the eyes, over shadowed by who it was behind them. What was it going to be this time? However his expression turned to surprise when he saw the little girl floating behind her. "Who's this?"
Anneza looked and gestured to the girl. "Astra... Lo-st." She signed it in the human language as well she could too.
The police got a sign language interpretor, and between them were able to piece together that Anneza had found this young girl in the depths of space. They needed to find out who her parents were. It was a standard procedure by now, when they got a new transformed person. They leased with many people across the world, given that she really could have come from anywhere.
"Well, lets take a blood sample from her. Who knows, it might provide a few clues," Said the Sargent. It was admittedly, a very small chance. Still even among transformed people, there was always the chance that they could find a DNA match.
Astra looked squeamish as her blood was taken out. It was red, and looked human enough. It was thanks to Anneza that she didn't cry though.
The sample was processed very quickly. Eventually the police got a call from the lab, and the Sargent looked surprised. "Anneza?" he called.
The space girl looked up. Astra had by now fallen asleep in her arms, and she floated to him "Sa?" she asked.
"We have a genetic match on record," he said with some quiet surprise.
The sign language interpretor quickly signed for Anneza all that the Sargent said, making her eyes widen in surprise then turning into a quizzical expression. 'Who'?"
"She's a match to you Anneza. Genetically, she is your daughter. Though... we're not sure who the father is."
Anneza blinked. "sanaao!" Impossible. There was no way what the police was saying could be true. The space girl never had children... not even from before she had changed. Astra could not possibly be her own blood! There had to be some kind of mistake.
A scientist came into the interview room. It was Miss Sakamoto. She brushed down her lab-coat, with an air of proud superiority. "We've double checked everything." she said in a slight japanese accent. "She really is Anneza's daughter. We're just... not sure how. We've got a Sider scanner to rule out 'time-travel'... at least by continuum rips- its definitely not that. She's not a clone either... The theory is that at the moment, this could be a consequence of the way Anneza's species procreates- or possibly the father." she looked curiously to the space-girl. "Anneza, how did you encounter her exactly?"
Anneza described how the child was bathed in light.. all the space woman did was touch that light.
Sakamoto nodded. "It's possible her species passes on genetic information in some other way. Space would not be a suitable medium for... the usual acts of procreation. This could actually be a fascinating study" she said in thought. She gave Anneza a look that made the space-girl shiver. She knew what it looked like... the idea of being a 'specimen' for study.
Anneza frowned as their explanation was translated into sign language. She rather forcefully signed back how she has the 'normal' method, given she has to endure a monthly visit. It took the sergeant to calm her down and to point out that they don't want to wake Astra up.
Eventually the seargent came to a conclusion. "Anneza? I know this is strange... but what would you like to do? We can put her in care, or... it might be more appropriate for you to take care of her. We lack the resources to chase after her, if she decides to fly away" said the sergeant. "I could 'make' a few phone calls to make her your daughter, until we find out her true identity."
Anneza looked blankly again, until it was translated... so... what should she do?
Hawkens blinked as Cecelia gave a high priority transmission. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"I just received a genetic fingerprint request being broadcast on the internet... I'm encrypting it now and removing it from all drives."
"Why?"
"The female chromosome is a perfect match to Anneza... however, the overall genetic fingerprint is very similar, to Magic girl Negative Four... now known as Melanie."
Hawkins nearly spat out his coffee. "...what?"
"She is related to Melanie. Almost certainly the same father."
"... are we dealing with another potentially negative number?"
"I've looked at the data," said Cecilia calmly. "I am sure that is not the case. Melanie took on the characteristics of Muriel... I think I can hypothesise, that something similar must have happened to this new one. Her name is Astra..."
Hawkins sighed. "Well... we'll keep an eye on her too. I'll let Muriel know of this. I guess Melanie has a 'cousin'.. or something."
