Ghost in the Machine (Corwint Central Agent Files)

by C. E. Kilgore

  Flashes of those memories crossed her vision as she searched for a simple answer to a complicated question. Hundreds of whispering voices retold the stories of the battlefields of Orell to her mind. She felt the sudden sting of tears as the ghosts from the past flooded into her with a torrent of emotion so strong that she felt her knees losing the strength to support her.

  “Why?!” Brom grew angry again at her silence and he reached out to grab her shoulders. The moment his hand touched her bare shoulder, a violent pulse of energy coursed up his arm and flowed into his mind. A searing white light blinded him as the hangar disappeared from his view.

  Then he smelt the stench of blood. The acrid choking smoke of smoldering fires. The deafening silence of standing in an empty street filled with corpses. Orellian corpses. Children. So many dead children.

  “I cannot do this anymore!”

  Brom heard the yelling of a woman and turned to it, but it was not his body that turned, nor his eyes that looked at the blood covered, silver haired woman. He looked down and saw that his own hands were covered in blood, but they were not his hands. They were a woman’s hands. He realized he was in the memory of someone else.

  “We do not have a choice, Ura.” Brom heard himself speak with the woman’s voice.

  “There is always a choice, Arel!” Ura was trembling. “They are just children!”

  “The Tarsen destroyed this school, not us.”

  “Do not pretend that matters! Who cleared the fields of the soldiers meant to protect this village? Who walked through them as those young men turned on one another and tore each other to pieces?”

  “We did.” Arel’s head sank down as she could not deny their part in this.

  “Unit 7891!” A new voice entered the scene as a Tarsen hoverlift turned onto the street. A uniformed Tarsen Overseer was standing in the back of the lift as he surveyed the two Vesparians. “Why are you and your sister not at your assigned quadrant?”

  “I am done being your blood slave, Tarsen.” Ura clenched her fists at her sides.

  “Ura, no!” Arel hissed.

  “Done?” That seemed to amuse the Overseer. “Are you certain of that choice, my pet?”

  “Quite.”

  The Overseer sighed heavily. “Very well.” He hit a button on the lift and a holoprojection filled the width of the street with a view-screen. He tapped the side of his earpiece and spoke to someone on the other end. “Bring forward the wards of units 7891 and 7892. ... No, all of them.”

  “No, please!” Arel stepped between the Overseer’s lift and Ura. Brom could feel the strength of her fear as he looked through her eyes at the pitiless man in uniform.

  “I am afraid you leave me no choice. You see, as much as we need the new breeding stock, what we need more are pets that do not question the collars of their masters.”

  Arel’s eyes turned to the view-screen as seven female children of varying ages were lined up against a white wall. They all had silver hair and hollow looking silver eyes.

  The Tarsen looked over the children and continued speaking into his earpiece. “Are you sure that’s all of them?... I can’t damn well tell them apart either. ... We should start adding hair color variations to the next stock. ... Oh I agree. We really should do something about those damn eyes of theirs.”

  He paused and then laughed at something from the other end of com unit. “I know! You really can’t fuck them unless they are blindfolded!”

  “Please, stop this.” Arel had fallen to her knees in the bloody mud and was begging the overseer.

  The Overseer ignored her. “Have all Overseers pulled up the feed? ... Ah, good. I want every single one of their pets to see this too.” The Overseer turned his eyes back to Arel and Ura.

  “You both knew the cost of disobedience, and yet you still defied me. It has become clear that we Tarsen have given our pets too much slack on the leash lately.”

  The Overseer pulled out a small black communication remote and tapped a button. Ura and Arel both screamed as the head of one child exploded. Her headless corpse slid down the wall, leaving a blood trail and pieces of her skull spattered on the faces of the other children. Too sedated to understand, the other children remained still and staring blankly forward.

  “Monster!” Arel lashed out with her aura pointlessly as the feedback from the Overseer’s neural implant fired back in on her with a jolt of pain.

  “Wrong answer.” The Overseer sighed again and hit in a different code. Two more children were left as headless bodies sliding down the white wall behind them.

  “That leaves four. Would you like to reconsider your actions while you're still ahead?” He paused and held his hand up to his communicator earpiece. “What? ... Oh! Oh yes!” He laughed. “A head. Amusing.”

  The feeling of Arel’s helplessness crushed in on her as she looked at her bloodstained hands. What could she do? What could any of them do? Her lips formed the words that had been beat into her when she had been one of those children standing against a white blood stained wall.

  “I beg the forgiveness of our Tarsen masters, who have shown us such mercy. May we always remember your kindness and be humbled.”

  “That’s better! Was that so hard?” The Overseer gave her a joyless smile. He turned his attention to Ura. “And what about you, Unit 7891?”

  Arel turned her eyes to her sister and pleaded with her to see reason and spare the lives of their remaining daughters. The look in Ura’s eyes was the unmistakably haunted stare of someone whose mind had been pushed beyond the point of reason.

  “I cannot do this anymore.” Ura took the small curved knife from her belt, the one physical weapon they were allowed by their masters, and drew it across her own throat.

  Arel’s loud echoing scream filled Brom’s ears as the hangar rushed back in around him. Already on his hands and knees gasping for breath, he immediately threw up the contents of his stomach. He heard another voice, but the pounding in his ears made it hard to understand. His stomach retched again as his lungs fought for air.

  “Get the fuck away from him!” Tara rushed in and pushed Orynn away from Brom’s collapsed figure as he continued to vomit. She had just started to trust the Vesparian, and now she felt betrayed by the trust she had given. “What did you do to him?!”

  Orynn felt a wave of nausea as she stumbled backwards with the force of Tara’s push. Her head hit hard against the wall behind her and her knees gave out. Her body slid down the wall like the hundreds of headless children she held in her memory. She felt the shadow of Tara fall over her, but she didn’t have the strength to lift up her eyes.

  “T, don’t.” Brom’s lungs burned and his stomach still heaved.

  “Like fuck!” Tara’s temper was at its height. “Give me one Goddamned reason not to kick her ass!”

  “My fault.” Was all Brom could get out. He felt like he had been hit by a ten ton vrukabeast, and he couldn’t get Arel’s scream out of his ears. After a few more deep breaths, he managed to get to his feet. He made a few unsteady steps towards Orynn as Tara rushed to support him.

  Tara wrapped his large arm around her shoulders. “What do you mean ‘your fault’? What the fuck happened?”

  “One... sec.” Brom leaned over and put his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath again. He glanced over to Orynn and saw the same lost look he had seen in the eyes of Ura. Leaning heavily against the wall, he slid down on one knee next to her. He reached out to her, but hesitated with a fear to touch her again. “You okay?”

  Orynn rolled her head to the side and looked at him. His concern surprised her, but her face lacked the energy to show it. “I need... a moment.”

  Tara stepped back from them as Brom nodded and sat down across from Orynn. Even with their silence, the looks they shared with one another told her that something significant had occurred. Her lip curled as the smell of the vomit started to fill the room, so she left them in their silence to go clean it up. After she was finished, she walked back over to the
m, relieved to see that Brom was breathing normally again.

  He looked up at Tara and patted the spot on the floor next to him. “Have a seat, T.” His eyes turned back to Orynn, now full of compassionate understanding instead of spiteful anger. “I want to tell you a story.”

  14 Black Tea

  Ethan couldn’t force his legs to keep still. For a Mecha, it was a strange sensation to feel so out of control of your own body. It should have been a simple matter of locating the background process that was causing his legs to tap and disabling the subroutine, but like everything lately, he couldn’t seem to locate anything running that could be shut off. There was a nervous tension building in his core and he knew it had everything to do with Orynn.

  The events of the day were cycling through his drive, while at the same time he was busy contemplating the possible scenarios that might play out once they reach Chronos One. To make matters worse, the rest of the crew had gone to sleep hours ago, leaving him alone with his thoughts. Normally that would be preferred, but for once he wished Hank would walk in with one of his stupid grins. It would at least take his mind off of her.

  Deciding he could no longer stand fidgeting in his chair, Ethan stood and left his room in the hopes that a walk around the corridor would calm his system down. The bridge lighting was dimmed in Zera’s night mode and she was still on autopilot. They had cleared the first check-point station in Chronos territory and had another six hours before hitting Chronos One. He paused by the com station to see if anything needed his attention, despite having checked communications from his own station less than five minutes before, and was disappointed to find nothing to occupy his mind.

  His fingers started tapping idly against the edge of the console and he glanced down at them with a sigh. This deep sense of apprehension was a new feeling for him, and it was really starting to get annoying. Clenching his fist and then flexing his fingers, he forced them to stop their motion. Thinking of something to focus his mind on, he headed off the bridge and down the corridor towards the cargo hold. He was curious to see what Brom had constructed to hold the limiks in place and it gave his legs a reason to keep moving.

  He felt his chest reflexively tighten and his steps slowed as he passed by Orynn’s room. C-6. His eyes lingered on the door as his mind wondered if she was sleeping on the other side in her natural gravity. He could picture her back arched upwards with her legs and arms dangling gracefully at her sides and that small sweet smile across her lips. The exposed skin of her stomach. The light as it caressed the lines of her breasts and disappeared between her parted thighs.

  His system shuddered. Blinking out of his thoughts, he realized he had placed the palm of his hand against her door. Taking a large step back, he tried to rationally analyze what was going on as his arousal flared again. I’m losing my mind, and I’m acting like a Breather.

  Logic, Ethan. It must be some form of control or something she is doing intentionally. You’ve never had these issues before meeting her, so obviously she is the root cause of them. It must be… something…

  His thoughts trailed off as his nose picked up the faint aroma of a sweetly tart fragrance in the air. With a curious raise of his left eyebrow, he followed the scent as it led him to the doorway of the small galley kitchen. Seated at the small table with her back to the door was Orynn with her hands cupped around a steaming mug. She should be asleep.

  His curiosity debated with his judgment on if he should make a run for it or risk talking to her in his currently misaligned state. His curiosity and his judgment argued for several long moments before losing out to his longing to see her smile. Stepping quietly into the kitchen, he moved to the other side of the table and turned to her. The smile he had hoped to see wasn’t there.

  Her eyes were a puffy red as they stared down at the black liquid in the mug, her lips weighted down by a subtle frown. So deep in her own thoughts, she didn’t take notice as Ethan cautiously sat down across from her. With a touch of his fingers against the back of her hand, she startled slightly and finally looked up at him.

  “Are you alright?”

  Orynn pushed aside her thoughts and forced her frown to exchange places with a small smile. “Hello, Ethan. Yes, sorry, I can sometimes get lost in my thoughts.”

  He could tell the smile was forced and that dug his concern deeper. “Couldn’t sleep?”

  “Not for a lack of trying.” She tried to laugh, but it died in her throat. “I thought the tea may help.”

  Ethan leaned forward over the table and looked at the tart smelling liquid. “What kind of tea is that?”

  “Berian black leaf tea.” Her eyes refocused on the black transparent tea. “It only grows in the harshest winter months on Berian Two. I lived there for several years and grew attached to its tart flavor. I tend to carry some with me, as it is usually effective at calming my nerves when needed.”

  “Is it working?”

  “Not this time.” Orynn let out a slow sigh. “It is my last bag too, so I may just need to accept the fact that sleep will be lost tonight.”

  Ethan frowned. “I guess today was a bit stressful?”

  She finally let out a quiet laugh, but it was not out of happiness. “You would think that someone my age would be able to better deal with anxiety.”

  He wondered what could be on her mind to cause her to lose sleep. “Would you like to talk about it?”

  She looked away from her tea and up into his eyes, and the temptation to say yes grew loud in her heart. What could she say, though? Should she explain her conversation with Tara and the incident with Brom? How could she tell Ethan that holding his hand and being connected to him had put her spirit off balance? Could she build up the courage to reach out and touch his hand now, like she desperately wanted to? It was so close, but so out of reach. “Thank you, but it is nothing, really.”

  Even with her dismissal, he had seen the debate in her eyes. She wanted to talk to him. He thought perhaps that their moments of connection and that kiss that almost was had put an unwanted barrier between them. It troubled him greatly, and he wanted nothing more than to break it down and simply see her smile again. “I understand. Would you prefer to be alone with your thoughts?”

  “No.” The word escaped her mouth so quickly that she wasn’t even sure at first that she had actually said it. A slight heat came to her face in embarrassment as she couldn’t deny how much she craved his company. The attachment she was building for his presence was becoming dangerously strong and it caught her off guard. Much like the aura he shouldn’t have. The aura that was now full of a concern for her well-being. The aura she now found so comforting to have near.

  Her quick answer made him smile as her gaze dropped back down to her tea. She wanted him to stay and talk with her, and that filled him with content happiness . “Well, we were able to clear the first checkpoint with no problem. Oh, and Merik sent a message that he might be joining us on Chronos One.”

  ‘Oh?” Orynn glanced up and smiled thoughtfully.

  Ethan wasn’t quite sure what to make of the smile that came to her lips when he mentioned Merik, but he felt the stir of jealousy. “Apparently the T’jaros we encountered weren’t just a random raiding party. Someone’s set out a bounty for us.”

  “Wonderful.” Orynn sighed, sure that it was her fault.

  “It’s really not that uncommon for us.” Ethan smirked. “Hank’s a nice guy, but there always seems to be someone who wants to blow up his ship. Sometimes it’s the Xen’dari, or the Merae, and sometimes it’s just an angry husband of some girl Hank picked up at a bar.”

  Orynn let out a quiet laugh. “I guess with that smile of his, that could be a common problem.”

  “He’s really not like that. Mostly it’s just a show, kind of like the way you put on a different face…” He stopped as he watched the smile on her lips falter. Real smooth, Ethan. “I’m sorry, that was rude.”

  “No, Ethan.” Her glance fell back to her tea once again before letting out a long
breath. “It was honest.” She took a slow sip of her tea in the silence that followed then set her mug back down, her finger lightly training the rim. “As I think on it, I realize how strange it is for me to be like this with you.”

  His eyes were focused on the movement of her finger circling the ceramic rim of the mug. It was such a simple, graceful gesture, but each pass chipped away at the control he was trying to keep on his desires. “Like what, with me?”

  The small smile returned. “Sitting here, having a conversation over tea, and doing so with no false appearance between us. It is rare for the people I speak with to even know my real name. Yet, here we are.”

  Now his attention was settled intently on the curve of her smiling lips. “I’m glad.”

  Orynn lifted her gaze to his smile and the blue sapphires of his eyes. The heat rose to her cheeks again at the way he was looking at her, but this time she didn’t glance away. She knew that she was walking a dangerously thin line between her heart and her head, and the emotions she felt shouldn’t have been allowed to grow. Once again, her heart won. “I am too.”

  As subtle as it was, his eyes picked up the blush that came to her cheeks. He was afraid to read too much into it, as most of her actions continued to remain elusive in their meaning. That fear wasn’t strong enough to keep his hand from reaching out and taking one of her hands away from the mug. The palm of her hand was warm from the heat of the tea and he could immediately feel the connective energies arcing through their joined hands like static electricity.

  His unexpected touch brought a calmness to her spirit as the connection formed openly between them. She was drawn to the pulsing rhythm of his energy core, and its gentle hum filled her mind with a soft blue light. All of her anxiety fell away as she let herself meld within each pulse, sinking further and further into a dangerous connection of energy, emotion and trust. Connecting with him soothed her mind the same way the engine of the Zera had earlier, but the affects were amplified to a level that caused her breathing to slow almost to the point of stopping completely.