by Cary Caffrey
The gun dropped from Suko's hand. Suko's hands fell to her shoulders and then down her back. But this time it wasn't to restrain her or threaten her. This time it was for love.
"Sigrid?"
Sigrid nodded. Crying, she pulled Suko to her, holding to her so tightly she would have crushed a normal human. "Of course it's me. Suko, who did you think I was?"
"Sigrid?" She said it again.
"Yes. It's me. I'm here, my love. And I'm never leaving you again."
"I-I can't believe it. Sigrid, I…If this is some sort of trick—"
"It's not. I promise you."
Without warning—the recoilless long forgotten—Suko planted a kiss so hard on her it knocked her back onto the damp forest floor with Suko on top of her.
"It really is you, isn't it? You're back."
"I am. My God, Suko. What on Earth is going on? Why did you strike me like that? You know I would never hurt you. I could never—"
Suko shook her head. Tears fell from her eyes in large drops to land on her face, and Sigrid felt her body tense against her. "How can you even ask that—after everything? Sigrid…you know."
But of course, Sigrid didn't.
Or did she? Somewhere deep down, perhaps in the part of her that remained locked away, the answers were there, weren't they? Perhaps she did know. Her missing six years—that was the key.
Sigrid knew what they were saying about her—the magistrate, Nuria, even Jaffer. Her crimes against the Federation were many. Yet in all this time it never occurred to her that she might have done something to hurt any of her friends, and it never, ever occurred to her that she would hurt Suko.
But that dream…
She'd tried to dismiss it as a nightmare. Now, she wasn't so sure. Suko would never try to kill her—not unless she had a very good reason. And the idea that she, Sigrid, might have done something so horrible as to drive Suko to do such a thing—it made her sick to her stomach. She was beyond anger. Beyond rage. She didn't want to murder Jones. In that moment, Sigrid wanted to kill herself.
"Suko… Whatever I've done, whatever you think I've done, you have to believe me, I don't remember—anything!"
Suko wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "What do you mean? How can you not remember?"
Sigrid sat up, kneeling beside her. "I don't. I don't remember a thing. Nothing before five days ago. All I know is we were on Bellatrix, and then I was here! I don't remember anything else. I woke up in some sort of research facility. I escaped. That was five days ago."
"Five days? Sigrid, it's been six years!"
"I know that now. But, Suko, I can't remember. It's like there's something—"
Sigrid heard the snap of a twig behind them. Without warning, she pushed Suko aside, rolling to the side and grasping the recoilless from where it lay on the ground. She got three rounds off before Suko piled on top of her, wrestling the weapon from her hands.
"Stop! Sigrid, don't. She's with me!"
The machine girl stood calmly, not ten meters from them. Each one of Sigrid's shots had been perfect—perfect kill shots aimed directly between her eyes—yet not one of the metal slugs had come within a nanometer of hitting her. Like Sigrid, the girl was that fast. Very fast. Sigrid stared up at her in terror—she might have even screamed, she wasn't sure as she wrestled against Suko's arms that pinned her down.
"Suko! No, she'll kill us all!"
The machine girl held a sidearm in her own hand. Sigrid waited for the inevitable killing blast. But the girl merely thrust the weapon back into the holster at her hip.
"You two are making far too much noise. It's a wonder you haven't brought the entire CTF down on us all."
Staring up in disbelief, Sigrid let Suko take the pistol from her hand.
"That thing," Sigrid said. "She's…she's with you?"
"This thing has a name," the machine girl said. "Or have you forgotten that too?"
"You, you're—"
"Victoria," Victoria said. She held out a hand and hefted Sigrid to her feet. "Pleased to meet you. Again."
Suko slipped her own recoilless back into her holster. Rising, she came to stand next to them. "Victoria's been with me ever since Bellatrix. She's the one you—"
"I remember," Sigrid said, cutting her off. "She almost killed me."
"Twice," Victoria said. "Not that anyone's counting."
Stepping forward, Sigrid circled her. While she was Victoria, this wasn't the same woman she'd encountered on Bellatrix. There were changes.
On Bellatrix, it was easy to forget that Victoria had ever been a human girl at all. In his quest to duplicate Hitomi's work, Harry Jones had been merciless. Ruthless even. With girls like Victoria, what couldn't be enhanced or improved was cut away and discarded. Victoria's limbs—in fact, most of her skeletal structure, even her organs—had been either hacked off or gouged out to be replaced by artificial constructs.
But to look at her now…
Standing before Sigrid wasn't some machine. This was a woman; one who looked almost entirely human, at least superficially. The metal and plastic coverings of her arms and legs were gone. In their place appeared very human-looking flesh. But the work was incomplete. While one of her arms appeared perfectly toned, extending from a strong yet feminine shoulder, the other looked completely robotic. It was as if the work transforming her had been suddenly interrupted.
Yet it was in her eyes where Victoria's transformation from machine to woman was its most profound. Gone were the artificial lenses. In their place Sigrid saw two green irises, round and perfectly natural to look at, if quite beautiful to behold.
"Your Dr. Garrett," Victoria said, "she's quite brilliant."
"She can talk?" Sigrid said, still in shock. Victoria hadn't spoken a word on Bellatrix, letting her fists and her blades do all her talking.
"I can," Victoria said, sounding perfectly annoyed, and growing more so. She crossed her arms as she glared back at Sigrid.
"Is she a program?" Sigrid asked.
Suko, unable to help herself, snickered. "Sigrid! It's her. It's Victoria. Don't you remember?"
"I do. But—but she was gone! I mean, I didn't think there was anything to salvage."
"Almost nothing," Victoria said. "I have your Dr. Garrett to thank for that as well. And you, Ms. Novak. You saved my life."
"Call me Sigrid," Sigrid said absently. "It's incredible."
"She is incredible," Victoria said. "And, thank you. I am."
"What about her programming?" Sigrid asked. "Can you trust her? The Independents did program her to kill us, you know."
"You can trust her," Suko said. "Victoria's had plenty of opportunity to kill me. And I'm sure I've given her plenty of reasons to, too."
"From time to time," Victoria said.
Sigrid felt Suko's hand wrap around hers and she turned to face her.
"I could never have found you," Suko said. "Not without her help. You can trust her, Sigrid. She's a friend."
"Yes," Sigrid said. "I was meaning to ask you—how on Earth did you ever find me out here?"
"Find you?" Suko said, and her eyes threatened to tear again. "Sigrid, I never stopped looking for you."
While Suko did an admirable job holding back her tears, Sigrid fared less well, and she wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand.
Victoria pushed off the tree she was leaning against. "It's no secret the CTF have been hunting you. Mostly, we've just been following them. Vega IV, Procyon, Cor Caroli, and now here. You've led them on quite the chase."
"So I keep hearing," Sigrid said. "But how exactly did you find me? You couldn't have known I'd be here, now."
"Four days ago we spotted a large force of CTF marines moving down from the north," Victoria said. "We thought they were pursuing the Independents."
"That's when we intercepted a transmission," Suko said. "Codename: Night Witch. It wasn't difficult to figure out they were talking about you."
"It must have come from the Merchantmen," Sigrid said. "T
hey told me they alerted the CTF. They were hoping to cash in on my bounty—"
But Suko was shaking her head. "No, Sigrid. The CTF already knew. They knew you were here even before the Merchantmen."
Sigrid could tell that there was more. Something Suko wasn't telling her. "What? What is it? What aren't you telling me?"
Suko inched toward her and her grip on her hand tightened, and not in a way that made Sigrid more comfortable.
"Sigrid, there's-there's something you need to know. And you're not going to like it."
"I already don't like it. Suko, you're starting to frighten me again."
"Then we are both of us frightened, my darling."
"Suko, what are you—"
Victoria held up her hand, and Sigrid's stomach churned as she heard the all-too-familiar snick. The gleaming six-centimeter-long data-probe sprang from the tip of Victoria's index finger, snapping out like a switchblade knife. Sigrid had seen this before. Not just seen it, she'd had the unpleasant experience of having Victoria pierce her with that metal spike.
"No!" Sigrid stepped back, stumbling and nearly falling, but Suko grabbed hold of her shoulders, holding her in place. "Suko, what are you—?"
"Hold her steady," Victoria said. "This will only hurt for a second."
Terrified, Sigrid struggled against Suko's grip, but it was useless. Suko was taller and stronger than her, and she held her fast. "Suko, stop! Please, don't let her do this!"
"It's all right, my love. Trust me."
"She's right," Victoria said. "This is for your own good. The less you struggle, the better."
"No, please! Suko, what are you—?"
Suko pulled Sigrid's hair back and forced her neck to the side to reveal the thin access port hidden behind her ear. Sigrid saw the flash of the silver spike as Victoria slid the probe deep inside. The sensation brought on a familiar wave of nausea. Sigrid's eyes rolled back. Her body shuddered and her knees gave out.
With Victoria's help, Suko eased her to the ground, where she cradled her head in her lap. Gently she brushed her hair back from her face. "I'm so sorry, my love, but this is the way it has to be. We think something's in your head, and we're going to stay right here until we rip it out."
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Data Error
"Hold her," Victoria said. She was kneeling on Sigrid's chest with the data-probe thrust firmly into her PCM access port.
For Sigrid, the sensation was beyond unpleasant. It wasn't pain; this was something wholly different. It was like having her innards scoped and scraped, but from the inside, except in this instance it was her brain that was being jackhammered and gouged to its core.
She wanted nothing more than to hurl Victoria from her, but any attempt at movement simply resulted in her muscles spasming and jerking violently. Her motor functions were useless; Victoria had seen to that. Somehow, she'd circumvented her command overrides and taken her motor functions offline. When Sigrid kicked out with her heels, writhing against the waves of nausea, this was purely reflex.
"You're hurting her," Suko said.
"I promise you," Victoria said, straining from the effort, "that is not my intention."
Sigrid heard herself panting, moaning; though it was like hearing herself from somewhere far distant, seeing herself through thick plated glass. Foam and spittle dripped from her mouth to run down her cheeks, where Suko wiped it away. But Victoria's efforts were relentless, brutal even, and she kept the probe firmly in place as she delved deeper into Sigrid's mind.
"Hurry," Suko said. "We don't have much time."
It was then that Sigrid felt the first traces of the worm program burrowing into her. Her knees bucked, jerking furiously, as if her body was working on its own to reject the invasion.
"Suko…" Sigrid moaned.
"It's all right. Don't fight it. It will be over soon. I promise."
"You're in good hands." Victoria's brows were knitted in earnest as she probed ever deeper. "This is the same program Dr. Garrett used to rescue me. Don't worry. Whatever the Independents did to you, we'll find it."
"We'll find it and we'll kill it," Suko said.
Sigrid's pulse was rising rapidly and her breathing was becoming more labored. Her surroundings were beginning to fade around her, a gradual creeping of red that moved from her periphery to cloud her entire vision.
"We're losing her," Suko said.
"I know! Quiet. I know what I'm doing."
"How? You've never done this before!"
"And neither have you! You want to give it a shot?"
Suko shook her head. "Dr. Garrett never said it would be like this. It wasn't like this when she did it to you. Or Christi. Or Lei-Fei!"
Holding Sigrid was becoming more difficult. Victoria had to kneel on both her arms. "She's…she's quite strong. If she would just stop…resisting…"
Suko clasped Sigrid's hand between hers, holding it tight. "Please hang on, Sigrid. We're almost there."
"That's just it," Victoria said. "We're not. It's not working. It shouldn't be like this. Blast it! I know what I'm looking for. The control program should be here! I don't understand. It's like…"
"What?" Suko said. "What do you see?"
"There's…" Victoria shook her head again. She looked completely at a loss. "Suko, there's nothing here!"
"What do you mean nothing? There has to be something. Blast it, Victoria, we know they're controlling her!"
"I mean it, Suko. There's nothing. There is no control program! No viruses. No insurgencies. No implants! There's nothing here!"
"But…but that's impossible. There has to be! Search again!"
"I can't! Not without doing permanent damage."
"Victoria—"
"I mean it, Suko! I'll only hurt her. And it won't change a damn thing. Whatever they did to her, it's not like what they did to me. This…Suko, this is something different."
Sigrid felt the tendrils of the worm program retreat into the darkness. Her spasming subsided as her coiled muscles slowly unwrapped themselves. Breathing was still difficult, but at least her vision was returning. Two of Suko floated above her, gradually merging into one.
"But there is something," Victoria said. She was still kneeling over Sigrid, and the probe was still attached. Sigrid could feel it, as if it were wriggling around inside her, scraping at the inside of her skull. Victoria twisted the spike, working it in deeper. "Hello. What do we have here?"
"What?" Suko said. "What is it?"
"I'm…I'm not sure."
"Victoria!"
"Yes, there is something—and it's bloody well hidden, too. I almost missed it. But it's not a control program. This is—it's incredible. Suko, she wasn't lying! I-I think I just found what's blocking her memories. But I've never seen anything like it. My God… What the hell did they do to her?"
"Victoria, please be careful."
"Here. Wait a minute. Hang on. I think I can access it. I just need to—"
"Wait!" Sigrid shouted. She tried to raise her hand in warning. "Don't! You'll just—"
The shock wave coursed from the probe all the way up Victoria's arm, exploding in a violent eruption of charged particles that sent her hurtling backwards through the air.
Sigrid heard the crack of the electric discharge; it sounded like a pistol shot going off next to her ear. It left her stunned, vibrating and with her ears ringing.
Victoria lay moaning on the ground several meters from her. Smoke rose from the tip of her finger where the data-probe had been sheared off. The access port in Sigrid's neck hadn't fared much better. The opening was melted and fused shut, with the probe still stuck deep inside her head.
Numb and still vibrating, Sigrid lay on the ground. Through the ringing and humming in her ears, she heard Suko shouting her name over and over.
Gingerly, Sigrid opened one eye and then the other. There were now four of Suko floating above her. She was holding her by her shoulders and shaking her in a panic, desperately trying to wake her up. For Sig
rid, the jarring rattling was only making things worse.
"Ow," Sigrid said.
"Sigrid! Oh my God! Are you all right?"
"Her?" Victoria said. She was struggling to sit up. The tip of her singed finger was now burning with an open flame. She shook it several times to snuff it out. "What about me?"
Suko ignored the question. She had Sigrid's face in her hands, and she was kissing her over and over. "I thought I lost you. Sigrid, I thought I killed you."
"I think you almost did." Sigrid struggled to lean on her elbows. "I tried to warn you. My memories—I don't know how they did it, but they left barriers, traps."
Victoria rose on unsteady feet, teetering back and forth. "Yeah, I think I just found one."
"Please," Sigrid said, "let's not try that again."
"No," Suko said; she was still kissing her over and over. "Never. I promise. I won't let her touch you again."
"Never?" Victoria said. "You do remember this was your bright idea."
Cautiously, perhaps fearing more shocks, Sigrid reached back behind her ear with a finger. The access port was indeed fused, and the surrounding flesh was scorched and angry. "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly were you expecting to find?"
"We assumed they were using a control program," Victoria said. "Like they did with me and the others. It appears we were wrong."
"It doesn't matter," Suko said. She helped Sigrid to sit up, holding her half in her lap and cradling her with her head resting against her breast. Her protective embrace was the only thing keeping Sigrid from sinking back down to the damp earth. "None of that matters, Sigrid. I've found you and you're back. That's all I ever cared about. It's over."
"After what just happened," Sigrid said, "I'm not so sure. Suko, there's something you need to know."
"Sigrid, it doesn't matter. Rest now. We're getting you out of here. Whatever they've done to you, Dr. Garrett will figure it out. She'll—"
"No, Suko, you don't understand." Somehow, Sigrid found the strength to pull herself from Suko's arms and she turned to face her. "Ever since I escaped from that place—I keep having these dreams, nightmares. And then there are times… Suko, I swear I can hear voices."
