Trapped: Chaos Core Book 1

by Lalonde, Randolph

  “All right,” Commander Rahca said, wiping her eye and smearing her cheap orange makeup. “Activate the binders in her suit and throw her into her friend’s cell.”

  “Wait, you took Sun?” she asked, shocked. “She didn’t do anything!”

  “She assaulted three of my soldiers, landed two of them in the brig using nothing but her hands and feet. A few other crewmembers joined in and tried to keep us from taking you, I don’t know where they got their weapons, but they made a big mess trying to save you. They’re lucky they had nothing but stunners, otherwise the charges would be much worse.”

  “Let them go! They were just trying to protect me, they didn’t even know I was a doll!”

  “It’s my turn to say, ‘fuck you,’ you little bitch. I bet they’re going to put a circlet on your little sculpted head and program all that defiance out of you.” She marched from the room, leaving Aspen with the technician. A pair of guards in dark green armour entered the room a moment later.

  “Okay, I have to say this, it’s my job, so please don’t spit on me or anything,” the technician said. “Anyway, you’re in a binder suit, which will allow you to move normally as long as the little computer woven into it doesn’t figure you’re doing something to try to escape, to hurt yourself or others. If you do try to do any of that, or to disobey any of these nice guards’ orders, it’ll go stiff then put you into a seated, or prone position depending on what it catches you doing. Got that? Good, now don’t waste your energy fighting, just follow these guys.”

  “Don’t hurt yourself reviewing my scans,” Aspen said, looking at the life sized nude images of her on the wall.

  “Nice attitude,” the tech said, turning away. “Take her to Dodin’s cell.”

  “Put them in together?” the guard on the left asked.

  “Commander’s orders.”

  Aspen slipped off the table, the cheap material was already starting to make her itch right between the shoulders. Her attempt at standing still when a soldier took her arm failed when the suit actually forced her leg forward in step with his. “Oh yeah, and you’re going to notice that you have to move with us while we have you slaved to our armour,” the soldier said.

  “So they can put you on your knees whenever they want too,” Aspen said with a smirk. She’d heard that the under suits soldiers in the UCA wore could stiffen and hold them if they tried to escape the service. “Nice navy, slave-soldier.”

  He grabbed her chin in his hand roughly, lowering his opaque helmet to eye level. “Dolls don’t talk back. Shut up and move.”

  This was what it was like to be someone’s property, something Aspen remembered all-too-well. A year and a half away from captivity wasn’t enough to erase the memories she’d collected during her childhood and adolescent years. Her urge was to resist, but binder suits didn’t exactly allow for that, so she nodded as best as she could and followed the soldiers, feeling tiny sandwiched between them. The male one, who she would call Lolly, was at least two point two metres. The female one, who she would call Pop, was two metres tall, give or take a centimetre.

  The walk there was boring. Not so much as a porthole along the way, and no bored prisoners or other typical brig sights or smells were visible down the white and green hallways they walked. All Aspen could guess was that they were on a ship, judging from the faint whine she could hear from a gravitational compensator buried somewhere beneath her feet.

  They opened a blank white door and shoved her inside, nearly tipping her in face-first, then the metal door slid shut behind her. “I’m sorry,” she said to Sun, who was in a yellow binder suit, sitting on the bed to the left. There was another small cot to the right and a flip-down toilet.

  “I can’t believe you’re a doll,” she said. “I’m sorry, free clone? What do we call your people now?”

  Aspen knew that dismissive rude mood, there was disappointment and anger beneath it, and she couldn’t blame the Lieutenant she’d served faithfully for a year. “You can call me Aspen,” she said, dropping onto the opposite bunk and putting her head in her hands. “I should have told you weeks ago.”

  “Why didn’t you? Were you just waiting for me to see someone who looks exactly like you?”

  “Would you tell anyone you were genetically customized as a product, grown in a facility until you were the equivalent of an eight-year-old, then sold to a Countess so she could put you in cute little dresses while you served her and her guests? Besides, Aspens were a limited run, seven of us for seventy-seven million apiece. They didn’t limit our mental capacities, that was a big selling point.”

  “Holy shit, no wonder,” Sun said. “I overheard that you were important, but one of the limited editions? I’m sorry, Aspen.”

  The reality of what was happening started to settle on Aspen’s shoulders, all the talk of value and ownership was enough to bring all the memories back. She was starting to shake and well up, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to cry, her ducts were customized so that wasn’t possible. Flashes of her life before rushed back – a mixture of boredom, fear, and endless servitude. There was a little happiness, but the companion who was responsible fore those memories was gone. “I’m so sorry you got sucked into this, you should have just left me.”

  Sun crossed the room and knelt in front of her, laying an arm across her shoulders. “Hey, I know you wouldn’t have left me. You’ve been my second for almost a year, and I’ve never felt like anyone had my back more than you.”

  “You’re going to prison, or to a work camp, maybe even hers, since the UCA can’t afford to keep more than one prison open. They’ll probably sell you to the Countess.”

  “Why are you so afraid of her?”

  “There are only three things you have to know about the Countess,” Aspen said, raising her face from its nest in her hands and looking into Sun’s green eyes. “First, she’s crazy. You don’t know what she’ll be in the mood for from one moment to the next. Second, she does not understand sympathy or mercy. The pain she causes other people isn’t real to her. Third, and this is why she can boss the UCA around, she’s so wealthy that she can afford to lose three of her moons, move house across the sector, and buy governments without losing a minute’s sleep. I’ve seen one of her vaults, and there was so much molecularly stamped platinum in there that the thing was cracking the granite base it was on.”

  “How?”

  “Her family, her slave network and who knows how many heavy metal extraction outposts. She even has manual labour farms where they grow coffee, vanilla, cinnamon, all those extra-expensive food things that boutiques sell as the genuine article.”

  “What, does she own Omni Natural Foods or something?” Sun asked.

  “That’s one of the big ones,” Aspen said. “I escaped when the household droids turned on us. My companion was killed, I thought she was dead too, so I took the opportunity and just ran. If she’s alive, and I get within her walls, I’ll never be free again, so forget me. Forget me forever and try to escape. I only have two years left anyway, but you made one of ‘em better than I could have imagined. I liked serving under you, even though our Captain was a pain in the ass.”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure he sold you out,” Sun said, sitting on the floor at Aspen’s feet. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Something he’d do for a quick payday too.”

  “I’m going to slit his throat when I get free,” Aspen said, certain that it could never happen. No one ever escaped from the Countess twice.

  “Only if I don’t shove him out an airlock first. Wait, back up, what do you mean, ‘you only have two years left?’”

  “Yeah, that’s the problem with my model. We only last so long before we get really sick all of a sudden and die. I’ve kept my eyes open for a gene therapy, done research, but we haven’t run into anything that looks like a solution, it’s pretty tamper-proof. They let us be as smart and as healthy as any human, but for a limited time only.”

  “There has to be someone, or some lab somewh
ere that could do something?” Sun asked.

  Aspen caressed her friend’s face, cupping a cheek in her hand. “Thank you so much for being good to me for a year, you know how much that means now, right? When you don’t have much time, what you do counts. We might have been thieving and smuggling, but I had so much fun doing it beside you. I’ve got about two years left, and the only place that might have a solution is the place where I was made. Problem is, New Skin’s facility is deep in crazy robot territory, I’ll be surprised if there’s a human alive in the Geist system.”

  “Geist? It had to be Geist?” Sun said, staring up at her for a long moment. “No, there’s a solution, something. We get out of this, we meet where we found all those old ships and then we fix you, okay? That’s what’s going to happen.”

  Aspen knew what she was talking about. When they were robbing a station that turned into a death trap after the artificial intelligence turned on the occupants they found a whole room filled with ancient ships in bottles. Sun delivered the best one to Captain White, and the last time Aspen saw it, it was under the small table in the Captain’s quarters collecting dust. “With all the old ships, yeah, I’ll meet you there.”

  The door shifted to the side suddenly and Aspen was dragged out then shoved down the hall to the next door. Commander Rocha stepped into the doorway after she was dumped into an even smaller room. “The place with all the ships? What are you talking about? Where are you planning to meet?”

  “Olega, the Starfire Shipyards have a museum there,” Aspen said. “Guess that plan’s done for.” It was two sectors in the opposite direction from Kwalli Station.

  “Neither of you are getting away, this is the UCA, you stupid little thing,” the Commander said, shaking her head. “Idiot. Keep her here until we arrive. Put her out, no need for her to be conscious.”

  “Good God, I need to murder you,” Aspen said, meaning every syllable.

  Commander Rehea paused a moment, staring at her prisoner in shock. “I don’t think God hears dolls, now do they?” the door closed as soon as she finished her taunt.

  Aspen tried to lunge forward but the suit stopped her. She felt a sharp pinch on her arm then the room began to fade. With a crooked grin, Aspen turned herself so her head was perfectly in line with the edge of the flip down toilet, which was stuck in the open position. “Wonder if the suit can stop this?” she asked before losing consciousness, leaning forward.

  03

  The powerful aroma of lilacs struck Aspen’s senses as she woke. It was the last thing she wanted to smell, it meant that the Countess was near. Opening her eyes and sitting up, she realized that she was aboard a simple small transport with three rows of plush, reclining seats. It was the Fleet Feather, a ship that was gilded on the inside and outside, with a pattern of fine interlocking branches drawn across the interior in platinum leaf. Wood trimming was everywhere, and the intelligent seating was upholstered with organically produced cloth. The outside of the ship always reminded Aspen of a broad-breasted bird that was about to take flight, if a bird could be red and purple. As one of the former keepers of the Countess’ accounts, she knew the vessel was worth more than most luxury estates, and the upkeep was even more expensive.

  This was the main transport vehicle for the Countess’ least important guests. It doubled as an escort craft, with a few extra guns, and she’d seen most of the inside, but always travelled with the Countess herself on her craft. The cockpit was a mystery. She knew it was up the stairs in the main forward hallway, after the crew quarters and the small galley, but the hatch was always locked up there.

  That damned binding suit was holding her in place, so she was sitting perfectly upright in the middle of the seating area. There was no sign of her crewmates, only two guards who wore the gilded armour that marked them as servants of the Countess’s house. The white plate would be more intimidating if it wasn’t adorned with gold and bronze filigree, making them look dainty.

  The ship touched down with a brief chorus of creaks and the cockpit door opened. “Right, ramp’s down, unload quick now,” bellowed the pilot from above before he slammed the hatch again.

  The guards approached and Aspen’s suit relaxed its hold on her. The search for any opportunity to escape began then. “On your feet, if you please. We do not want to clean up another mess, so don’t injure yourself again.”

  “Oh, the suit didn’t stop me from falling?” Aspen asked, a little amused. “Cracked my head open?”

  “The UCA treated you, but we had to clean the blood off your suit. There was a lot. Please move carefully.”

  Aspen knew that the guards were usually nice to her as long as she didn’t break the rules. Sometimes they’d even let her bend them as a child, though she was sure she’d have to re-earn their trust after being away for over a year. She followed them out of the secondary hold and let them guide her down the narrow corridor, watching for unlocked hatches, open crawlspaces or a control panel that she could quickly mess with to shake them, but didn’t find anything on her way to the ramp leading off the ship. The smell of fresh lilacs blasted her in the face as she set foot on a cobblestone courtyard. Its paths were lined with the purple flowering trees.

  The Countess’s new palace was even more grand than the last one. Marble and ancient brick walkways arched from the ground paths leading through a massive garden to a broad elevated marble platform. Spraying fountains with cherubs and stone beasts chasing barely dressed maidens adorned the massive central platform along with benches, several tables and bars attended by beautiful servants. A long polished stone concourse led from there to the main building, a tall structure with pillars across the front. Black vines climbed the façade behind them and the main doors were adorned with white and yellow gold. There was nothing subtle about her old master.

  “Aspen?” asked a familiar voice. Aspen’s mood brightened as Larken ran from the grass to her left and embraced her. His long blonde hair was soft and silky, he reeked of lilacs. The oil that had been brushed into his hair was worse than the trees. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and held her at arm’s length. “You look good,” he said, surprised. “The Countess said you joined a band of pirates, that you were no better than a street rat. I was worried.”

  “I was free, Larken,” she said. “I would have taken you with me, I thought you were dead.”

  “I was protecting the Countess, who is fine now, by the way. She had to spend a week visiting the flesh crafters, then there was recovery, but she’s brave, and pulled through.”

  “I don’t care about her, I’m just glad to see you. I ran because I thought you were dead. When I didn’t get caught using my real name, I was sure the Countess was dead too. I don’t think there was a day when I didn’t wish you were free with me,” Aspen said. The last part was true until only a few months before. She couldn’t remember when exactly she started thinking about her future without him, but she did, and life started to get better. Seeing him alive brought a rush of love, regret, and relief. She almost didn’t notice that he nearly flinched every time she mentioned freedom, or running away. He was her favourite person, they were made together, to be a genetic match as a couple for their entire short lives. Why she loved him didn’t matter, whether it started when they were created in a lab or was brought on by a mystical force, the feeling that she had to be with him was stronger than any sensation she’d ever felt. If she didn’t think he was dead, she would have never left.

  Aspen tried to embrace him but she was stopped short by the suit. He wrapped his arms around her and she squeezed him as much as she was allowed to once they were cheek to cheek. “I was torn apart,” she whispered against his ear. He shushed her and said; “it’s all right, you’re where you belong now.”

  Aspen was chilled by the thought of what may come, and inwardly cursed herself for not realizing that the thought that she didn’t want to be brought back hadn’t even occurred to Larken. She stepped back, steeling herself.

  Larken regarded her wordlessly for
a moment then as his expression betrayed his disappointment. “You’ve changed so much,” he said quietly. “The Countess won’t be happy, but I’m glad you’re back. I missed you so much, Aspen. I’m sure she did too, you’ll just have to earn her trust, it’s going to take some time, but we owe her that much, right?”

  It made Aspen furious to see Larken so obedient, he was much worse than before, but she hid it, and nodded her response.

  He took her hand, the long sleeve of his loose silk robe complicating the gesture for a moment, and smiled at her. “Good, let’s see if she’s ready for you to attend to her. She’s so anxious to see you again that she told me to wait for you and present you just as you are, so you’ll have to bathe and change after.”

  “Here we go,” she said, eying the perimeter of the massive garden as he whirled towards the platform ahead. His black, gold and white decorated robe billowed in the breeze, and he took a moment to adjust it a little. The thing was open down the middle of his chest, coming to a close at his waist. Tight black leggings and sandals completed his simple outfit, exactly the kind of thing a doll would wear.

  A glow in the distance to her left and right indicated that there was some kind of energy shield surrounding the garden. There were also no designated spaces for sliders or any other ground vehicles, meaning that they were probably blocked or far from any civilized outpost. If the only way in was by ship, she would have to find out where the new hangar was and steal one. If the shield surrounded the entire complex, she’d have even more work to do.

  “Do you know where my friends were taken?” she asked as she walked hand-in-hand with Larken.

  “Those people?” he asked. “The vineyard always needs people, so probably there. Why? Do you think any of them would be suitable to serve at court?”

  “One, she’s dark haired, named Sun,” Aspen replied. She hadn’t even thought of suggesting that someone who was captured with her could be transferred to the slave pool for court. It was a long shot at best, and presenting the idea would have to happen at the right time. “Let’s wait to mention it though, I’d rather have all the attention on me while we’re celebrating my return.”