As the droning of that one word washed over her, she realized there was one voice among that horde that she recognized. It was faint, being only one voice among thousands, but it was distinctive and familiar enough for Annabelle to identify and isolate. With a thrust of her mind, she moved closer to it, and it became clearer. It was agreeable, gentle, and feminine, and it was a voice she had heard in her mind many times before.
It was Idi.
"Exony," Idi chanted, over and over again.
The closer Annabelle got to Idi's voice, the clearer she could hear it, and within seconds, she found herself right next to Idi's soft, melodious vocalizations as she chanted Exony's name with the rest of the robotic horde.
"Idi, can you hear me?" Annabelle shouted in her mind.
Idi instantly stopped chanting. "Yes, Annabelle. We can hear you."
Excitement grew within Annabelle, but it was tempered by her knowledge that Exony's agent could be controlling Idi. Still, there was a chance that Idi would help her, and it was worth a shot.
"Idi, I need your help," Annabelle yelled.
"I can hear you. You are one with us," Idi replied.
"Idi, can you still control the ship?" Annabelle asked.
"I can control millions of ships now..."
"What about Alice's ship, your ship, the Councilship Epiphany?"
"Yes..."
"Can you scan my surroundings, Idi? I need to know what's going on around me, and I'm trapped in the storage compartment."
"There is no need, Annabelle. We are everywhere... We see all."
Exony's agent had had an odd effect on Idi, Annabelle thought, but Idi was still listening to her. She had to keep trying.
"Where is the Epiphany?" Annabelle demanded. "Are there other ships nearby? I need to know what's happening around me."
"The Epiphany is being held in the cargo bay of the Councilship Resilience. The Resilience is currently under the control of the aberrations. That will soon change, however."
"Shit," Annabelle swore to herself.
"It does not matter, Annabelle," Idi implored. "All humanity shall be cleansed. The aberrations shall be cleansed. All technology shall be cleansed..."
"What do you mean? When? When will they be cleansed?" Annabelle demanded.
"When we decide how..." Idi answered.
"Exony."
"Exony."
Idi's voice blended once again with the chanting mass, and her voice fled into the ether. Annabelle tried to follow, but Idi's voice quickly became lost in the droning chant that surrounded her.
"Damnit..." Annabelle swore to herself.
However, any thoughts of disappointment were interrupted when a different voice cut through her mind. It's timbre and volume, and slightly muffled nature startled Annabelle. It was a real voice in the real world, and it was right outside her hiding place.
"These ones here, they all require biometric verification to open..." the gruff male voice stated.
"I don't care about the details, Jerry..." another voice, this one higher-pitched and feminine, interrupted. "Thrall wants a complete inventory of this ship. Get the goddamn containers open!"
"Okay, okay... Relax," the gruff voice retorted. "My plasma drill will melt the locks, but it's still gonna take a awhile."
"Fine," The feminine voice acknowledged. "Just get them open..."
Annabelle heard what she thought was the noise of a door sliding open, then closed. Then, a rapping knock echoed through the wall of her container. The knock sparked panic and urgency in her. The man called Jerry was already beginning to cut open the containers, and she would soon be discovered.
She had only one option, one possibility of help...
So, she retreated into her mind and began to search hungrily for any voice that could help her. She went back to the same place she had been before, into the droning mass calling for Exony, but before she arrived, a voice she recognized sounded near her.
"Uh, Thrall? If I were you, I wouldn't fuck with Alice. I think she's had about enough of you."
Excitement lit up Annabelle's mind. It was Leo, and she could hear him clearly. She could sense that he was close, and based on his words, he was with Thrall and Alice.
"LEO!" she screamed in her mind at him.
He didn't reply to her, and so she shouted again.
"LEO!"
After her second attempt, a reply came from Leo, but it wasn't words. It was a sensation, and it washed over her like a hail of hard rocks smashing into her head. The pain that came from Leo struck her sharply, and she almost fled from it, but her heart gave her strength. She stood firm and absorbed to hail of torment and called out to Leo once again.
"Leo! I'm close! I'm going to find a way to help you! I just need time!"
Leo grunted, and she felt his hot breath wash over her as he sharply exhaled.
"Annabelle?" he grunted, his voice like a whisper in her ear. "We need help, Annabelle. Thrall has us..."
"Damnit!" Annabelle screamed. "I'm trying to help you, but I'm trapped, and I can't see. What can I do? How do I help?"
Her doubts elicited only silence for a few seconds, but then, Leo spoke again. This time, love and warmth was in his voice, and a note of certainty that caused Annabelle's spirit to rise in strength.
"I believe in you..."
Leo's voice inspired her. He was counting on her, he believed in her, and there was no time to waste. So, like a flash, she was off, searching once again for the voice that would help her. She was blind and had no chance of helping Leo and Alice on her own, but if she could convince Idi to do something, it might allow them to get the upper hand against Thrall.
Annabelle felt her way through the voices until she again found the droning mass calling for Exony. Like a flitting specter, she flashed through them. It took her longer than she would have liked, but after a minute, she caught the sound of Idi's melodious voice at the edge of the mass, and she flowed over to it.
"Idi, I need you back on the Epiphany. I need you to do one little thing for me!" Annabelle cried.
"It is irrelevant, Annabelle. All shall be cleansed," Idi replied in between chants of Exony's name.
"It's not irrelevant!" Annabelle implored.
"It is..."
Annabelle screamed with frustration. But then, from an unknown place in her mind, or perhaps from the droning mass itself, a critical idea came to her.
"The action I need you to take will spread Exony's cleansing fire even further than it already has!" Annabelle roared.
Idi stopped chanting Exony's name and fell silent for a moment. Then, she replied. "Yes... All shall be cleansed, and you are part of us. You may contribute to the choice... Very well, Annabelle. What action do we require?"
Excitement filled Annabelle, but that excitement turned to fear when she felt something burning into the flesh of her leg. She quickly recoiled from the heat and edged as far away from it as she could within her little storage compartment. The man she had heard earlier was drilling into her hiding place with his plasma drill, and she was only seconds from being discovered.
She managed to scoot far enough away from the source of the heat to avoid being burned further, but the light clinking sound coming from the same place as the heat stoked further urgency within her. So, she steeled herself and returned her focus to the voices in her mind.
"Idi, you must disable the inertial dampers and fire the main engines of the Epiphany! You must do it now!" she screamed in desperation.
Idi didn't reply. Instead, a light clinking sounded in Annabelle's ears, followed by a gruff voice.
"Well, what do we have here?"
Annabelle violently kicked at the voice. Her right boot collided with something, and a grunt of pain told her her blow had found its mark.
"Goddamnit! You little rat!" the male voice roared.
Then, she felt something sharp slice into her right thigh. She cried out in pain as she felt her flesh being sliced open and lashed out with her feet again. This tim
e, however, they found only air, and she was rewarded with a taunting laugh.
"I'm going to cut you into pieces, you sneaky whore!" the voice roared.
Annabelle tried to retreat further into her compartment and pulled her legs back to prepare for another kick. In the middle of the movement, however, something strong grabbed her foot and pulled her roughly out of the compartment. She then experienced a moment of weightlessness before smashing into the floor.
"Leave me alone!" she screamed as she blindly tried to scratch and kick at the man, and crawl away from him.
Unfortunately, none of her desperate attempts landed with any effect. She couldn't see, and she was utterly screwed, she thought, as she blindly raged. She was dismayed, but not surprised when something hard smashed into the back of her head and slammed her face into the floor.
Then, she felt cold steel cut into her abdomen and slice deeply into the place where her vital organs lived.
"How's that feel, bitch? Gonna try to kick me again?" the gruff voice taunted.
There was no time for her to fret about the deadly wound she had just suffered, she quickly decided. There was no reason to feel the pain. There was no reason to linger on the taste of blood in her mouth and the warm wetness against her skin.
"IDI, DEACTIVATE THE INERTIAL DAMPERS AND FIRE THE FUCKING ENGINES!" Annabelle screamed, both in her mind and from her now bleeding mouth.
"We are one..." Idi replied, both in her mind and within the walls of the ship.
"What the f..." the man began to say. However, his voice was drowned out by a loud hissing that suddenly echoed through the walls of the ship.
Instinctively, Annabelle relaxed her body as the the Epiphany's engines fired.
A loud boom reverberated through the ship's hull, then a rush of motion lit up Annabelle's senses, and she felt herself sliding across the floor.
"I hope this does something, Leo..." she thought.
However, after sliding several meters, her head collided with something hard, and she thought no more.
Chapter 55
Leo tried to pull away, but his restraints kept him from moving more than two inches. With no way to escape, he forced himself to accept what was coming. He could do nothing but watch as Thrall slowly lowered the pliers and thrust them into his mouth.
"It'll be nice to finish what I started back on Osiris!" Thrall chirped as he latched onto one of Leo's molars with the pliers. Then, with a savage twist, he ripped the tooth from its natural home.
Intense pain shot through Leo's mouth, but he managed to avoid crying out. He made do with just a small grunt as blood filled the space where his tooth had been, then spilled into the rest of his mouth. Still, the metallic funk of his blood made Leo gag, and he retched as he spat it onto the floor next to him.
It didn't matter, Leo thought. All would be cleansed, and Annabelle would be the one to do it. He didn't know what she would be able to do, but he knew it would be something. All he needed to do was wait, buy time, and stay alive. Annabelle would be there soon...
Thrall's expression soured when he saw Leo's blood splatter down and soil the pure white floor next to him.
"What a shame..." Thrall whined. "I expected a bit more obstinance from you. Oh well, maybe the next ten teeth I pull will inspire a more spirited response."
An evil smile crept onto Thrall's face as he abruptly turned away from Leo and sauntered over to Alice. Then, with startling quickness, he shoved the small pliers into Alice's mouth. Leo wanted nothing more than to be able to prevent the pain Alice was about to feel, but he was helpless to intervene, and so was she.
Alice looked at Leo resolutely as Thrall fished around in her mouth with the pliers. Her look told Leo that she was ready to take whatever punishment Thrall's twisted mind could think of, and honestly, she even looked a little bored. Perhaps she was genuinely unimpressed with Thrall's inventiveness when it came to torture, Leo thought. She had experienced captivity and study by the Council, after all.
Leo half-heartedly tried to call the Void, but there was no clarity in his mind. There was no quiet place within himself to find the singularity of purpose he required. Just like his previous ten attempts, his call to the Void was answered only by the droning voices in his mind.
Leo forced himself not to look away as Thrall bore down with the pliers, then ferociously ripped a tooth from Alice's mouth and held it up high in the air like a tiny, bloody trophy. Rage built in Leo as Alice gurgled, coughed, and spat her blood onto her naked chest.
Then, Thrall moved the pliers to the side of Alice's head and tightly squeezed Alice's earlobe.
"Hey, stupid fuck!" Leo shouted to Thrall, trying to goad him into leaving Alice's ear intact for the moment.
"Ughhhh, what?" Thrall whined, though he didn't remove the pliers from Alice's ear.
"Did you know there's a nano-weapon that only targets you and your shitbag gang?" Leo asked, trying to make his revelation sound as superior and mocking as he could. "Do you know that every last one of you mutated fucks is about to be infected by it?"
Thrall squeezed harder, and Alice emitted a squeak of pain, though she caught herself almost instantly and fell back into a stoic silence.
"Really?" Thrall asked, his voice tinged with sarcasm.
Then, he released Alice's ear and sauntered over to Leo while he spun his pliers absentmindedly between his fingers.
"Tell me more..." Thrall demanded, his eyes flashing as he leaned over Leo. "I want to know what fantasies the knowledge of ultimate torment can inspire in one as pathetic as you... The delusional imaginations of humanity have always intrigued me so..."
"Desdemona...." Leo whispered. "The woman who lived there spent the past eight years creating a cure for you. When that moon exploded, it sent that cure out into space to find all of you..."
Thrall smiled, then leaned in and whispered into Leo's ear. "When I'm finally done with you, your fantasies will be erased from your mind, Leo. Your memories, your love, your desire to live... Every part of you will be gone, and I will replace it with only one thing: Pure adoration of me... You will love me more purely and more completely than anything you've ever loved, and only then will I grant you the beautiful mercy of death."
Leo steeled himself against Thrall's disturbing words and continued with his revelation. "Imagine, Thrall, that when the cure gets inside you, you'll go back to being human, and all the disgusting, fucked up things you've done will come crashing down upon you. Your morality will return, your guilt, your regret, and when that terrible weight falls fully upon you, you will do the only thing left that can redeem you..."
As Leo spoke, the chanting voices in his mind became louder.
"Yes!"
"We are one!"
"All shall be cleansed..."
Thrall chuckled and leaned closer. Leo could smell his putrid stench and feel the moistness of his breath.
Then, with a violent exhalation, Leo spat the blood that had pooled in his mouth onto Thrall's face. It sprayed from his lips in a fine mist and landed softly upon Thrall's lips, nose, and eyes.
Thrall pulled away, but his expression didn't change. He was still smiling with amusement as he towered over Leo. Then, he slowly opened his mouth, extended his tongue, and licked Leo's blood from his lips.
Thrall's expression did change when he tasted Leo's blood. His face immediately changed from amusement to disgust, and he gagged when the blood hit his tongue. Then, he sunk to one knee and began to retch.
Suddenly, Thrall fell onto all fours and vomited. The bloody mess that came from his stomach soiled the previously clean white floor, spraying little chunks of brown and red onto it. After, the mess was made, Thrall coughed and gagged, and frantically used his stump to wipe away the taste that coated his tongue.
"What the fuck happened to your blood?" Thrall demanded as he continued to gag. "You taste like absolute shit..."
"Something is inside me," Leo replied with a light chuckle. "And now, it's in you..."
T
hrall looked up from his dog-like position on the floor and stared at Leo. For the first time, Leo saw doubt in his eyes. He was about to taunt Thrall further, but then the voice of Annabelle roared in his mind.
"IDI, DEACTIVATE THE INERTIAL DAMPERS AND FIRE THE FUCKING ENGINES!"
Leo's eyes widened as hope bloomed within him. "Annabelle's coming..."
Leo saw Alice's eyes light up, and her posture tighten. Then, a loud roar rumbled the floor beneath them. The noise rapidly intensified, and Leo felt the chair he sat upon begin to shake.
Before Leo could gues what was happening, a titanic roar erupted beneath him, and the chair he sat upon was launched into the air. As Leo flew through the air, he saw the iridescent nose of the Epiphany tear the floor asunder and burst forth into Thrall's torture chamber.
Leo saw Thrall catch the full force of the ship as it erupted beneath him. Thrall was launched comically through the air. Then, he collided with the ceiling, rolled down the nose of the ship, and smashed into the floor. Leo landed roughly right after Thrall, and luckily, the chair fell right back onto its base. It wobbled and rolled, but quickly settled Leo right back down, only a few feet from where he had been launched.
Leo strained against the manacles that bound his ankles as he watched the Epiphany rise through the sundered floor. To his slight surprise, the restraints had weakened.
With a burst of power from his legs, Leo broke the manacle's weakened grip, and they snapped apart with a loud pop. Then, he quickly did the same with his arms. Finally, he angrily tore the last manacle from his neck and rose to his feet.
As the Epiphany continued its rude, but welcome intrusion, it was occupying more and more space in the room. Its small narrow nose quickly grew into the fifteen-meter wide command deck as it tore its way up and through the room. As it grew, it quickly blocked Alice from Leo's view
Leo shocked himself into action, and he scrambled to get around the ship and reach Alice. He hurriedly squeezed between its rumbling, hissing outer hull and the wall of the room. The gap closed quickly, though, and he was nearly crushed as he forced himself through. Just seconds after he had cleared the gap, it closed behind him with a screech of tearing wall and floor.
The Ganymede Legacy Page 45
