She looked up at Mahran and a weight descended on her chest, as though hanging from her throat. He would never again be the same person. Her loyal subject had crossed a line from which he could never return and her thoughts slowed painfully as she examined that concept.
She had never truly known him, and she had never truly controlled him.
Floreina refocused and began working the mini-torch from the back of her pants as she watched the doctors already working to apply connections to Seleina’s body. And from just below the stretcher, still lying in the large puddle of nutrient gel, was Allihence, lying nearly motionless other than the occasional contorted twitch.
But a tiny artificial flash from her scanning algorithms directed her toward Allihence’s lips, and their subtle movement, opening up her lip reading software.
Hey Floreina, mouthed the captain. Nice day for treason? The rest of Allihence’s body remained nearly motionless. The movement of her lips was subtle enough that Floreina could not make it out consciously, and the interpretation application, though rapid and accurate in its responses, could only read it by recording and enhancing.
I don’t consider it treason, Floreina mouthed silently, turning her head subtly to show the captain. What you were doing to those slaves is a disgrace to all Amarria.
Don’t give me that, replied the captain. Nobody believes that was your real motivation.
Floreina’s monitoring applications continued scanning, tracking every person’s line of sight to watch for the best time to mouth her reply. You enjoyed killing them… you made a game out of the death and torture…
So what? came the captain’s reply.
We’re supposed to be helping them…
Allihence closed her eyes and took a quick breath, as though suppressing a sudden chuckle.
So this is just about enjoying their suffering… about controlling them for our own benefit and amusement… just like every abolitionist stereotype…Floreina carefully started up the torch as she communicated, slowly testing it. And all those overclocking ‘tests’… they were simply for your own enjoyment, weren’t they?
Allihence took a deep, yet nearly undetectable breath. And they paused for several moments as Karmine’s eyes lingered on Allihence.
Do you ever wonder about the subtle, subconscious emotions that we never know are there, but nevertheless affect our choices every day? asked the captain.
Floreina shifted the torch carefully to heat the connections on the plastic bindings behind her back, wincing from the pain, but unable to strain her wrists any further from the center. She stopped and tested the resistance. This was going to take some time if she didn’t want to seriously burn herself.
Allihence continued, Happy those who seize your children…She glanced up at the quote etched into the bulkhead above. Violence is necessary, Floreina… so the Lord gave us the ability to enjoy it… and every one of us enjoys it… every, single one of us… we feed on it… like blood to a vampire. It’s why we have violent games and stories, it’s why our religions are full of it… but it goes beyond that… behind the scenes… deep in our subconscious it motivates us, including the Lord God who created us… to do violence, to cause others to suffer… but we hide it from our conflicting compassion so we can feel that intensity… that feeling of being truly alive… we invent masks of reasoning that we tell to our children… we call it justice with our criminals and our personal vendettas… we call it patriotism with our nations… we call it discipline with our slaves and even our children… but deep down it’s our God-given desire to feel that drama that comes from suffering…
Allihence winked boldly. The reason we do violence is because we want to… because it feels right…The captain paused and cocked her head just a couple centimeters. So don’t look at me like I’m a monster simply because I’m able to admit the reasons behind my actions.
Floreina did not reply, suddenly entranced with her words, the images suddenly coming to mind of every human life that had ended here today… because of her actions…
But what difference did it make… she took such pleasure in her efficient use of the tachyon beams… ending lives every day on the job, and celebrating each one like points on a scoreboard… recognizing them as little more… satisfied with their simplistic label of ‘terrorist’… Was Allihence so different?
Floreina’s systems continued scanning the ten other live bodies within the two rooms, moving her eyes and head obediently per the implant’s requests. Behind her back, she carefully moved the torch at the proper times to slowly break down the center coupling of the cuffs.
I see what you’re doing, the captain mouthed, her pupils darting about, most likely scanning in much the same fashion as Floreina. As much as I hate you for what you’ve done to me, I’d like to propose an alliance… temporarily.
Floreina raised an eyebrow to invite her to continue.
I’ll keep my mouth shut about your torch… continued the captain. You keep your mouth shut about the fact that I’m able to speak… and we both promise… a promise under God, as one Amarrian to another… that… with the possible exception of the doctors… we kill each other last.
Floreina nodded with just her eyes. Agreed.
Floreina looked at the ground, grit her teeth, and pressed her back tightly against the wall as the cuffs heated and strained her pain suppression and the pitiful coolant systems of the nanites within her flesh.
After a short time, Floreina mouthed, I’m sorry about this, captain… but I followed the word of God… and even now, with everything that’s gone wrong… I still believe I did the right thing.
Allihence waited a long moment before replying. We have such a tendency to believe that if it feels good and satisfies us emotionally then it must be the right thing to do… She paused. You’re always going to attack the most evil person conveniently available… just as long as there’s a fight to be had and blood to be spilled…
Their communication ceased as Floreina noticed the possibility of Marteen watching from the corner of his eye as he examined the doctor’s preliminary readouts from Seleina’s connections.
Floreina looked at the ground again, her tactical scanning able to rest slightly now that she did not need to disguise a complex conversation. Allocating processing cycles to her other systems, she began playing back some of the other conversations that had occurred in the room during her discourse with the captain.
She heard Mahran’s voice.
“…I want to stick it in her face and make her taste it,” he whispered, nearly a minute earlier, to the soldier named Dithmire, as though Floreina would not be able to hear.
“I appreciate your enthusiasm,” replied Dithmire “But we don’t want you slipping and blowing her head off… we still need to force access to her mind for reference, so we need her alive.”
“I’ll be careful,” Mahran whispered, confident and sadistic. “I just want her to feel what it’s like… what I’ve felt all this time… when all this started she put a gun to my face… and laughed about it… about the power she had over my life… and how she would buy herself a new slave…”
And Floreina jumped forward thirty seconds to the current moment to hear Mahran still whispering his argument toward the sympathetic Dithmire. She looked up to see the other soldier, Karmine, listening nearby.
“I know how to use a sidearm… even a Minmatar one…” said Mahran as Floreina watched from the corner of her eye.
And suddenly Mahran’s hand went out to clasp the pistol strapped to the soldier’s side. Dithmire brought his hand down quickly to block Mahran, his right still clutching his automatic rifle.
“I want her to feel what it’s like…” he repeated as he wrenched the weapon from the reluctant soldier and turned to glare menacingly at Floreina.
Dithmire, Karmine and Marteen all turned to watch nervously as Mahran took the weapon and rose from his seat to approach Floreina.
“Oh, Master…” he sneered as he glared down on her in drama
tic rage… as though putting on a show… a public demonstration of an old love turned to pure hatred.
“Please, don’t,” Floreina said, shaking her head sadly toward her Mahran. “…not this again… you betray me then come back to spit on me…”
He pointed the weapon toward her face, then slowly knelt before her, bringing the barrel of the projectile pistol closer and closer to her nose. “Do you remember when we lay on your bed… My Master… and you turned over to rub against me and shove your pistol in my face in some kind of fearful and twisted sexual manipulation… and you laughed about blowing my head off just because you’re an Amarrian and I’m a Minmatar… laughed about getting my brother to clean up the mess… those are the things that stick with you… Master… the kinds of things you hold on your heart for years… and can define your relationship with another person… even if that other person is completely oblivious to the effects… oblivious to how much it hurt you…” Mahran turned only momentarily to wipe a tear from his eye, his facial features switching rapidly from deep sadness and loss back to intense fury.
The gun pressed into her face, the barrel feeling like ice on her nose and cheek. She closed her eyes and cringed away from it, more from disgust and aggravation than fear…
…because fear, at this point, was pointless. Once you have nothing left to lose, your basic animal emotions can become simple, distant memories.
“I’m sorry, Mahran…” Floreina replied. “This is a strange and confusing universe… and we often look back and don’t understand why we did things or why we believe something… in hindsight it seems so ludicrous and when it’s happening it seems so rational… I’m sorry Buddy… I never meant to hurt you…”
“I just want you to know what it feels like…” Mahran said through gritted teeth and a curled lip. “This is what it feels like, every moment of every day with the explosives in my heart… this is what it feels like… feel it, Master!”
“I feel it!” she shouted back. “We all deal with the risk of death every day, Mahran… and I feel it… you can pull the trigger and end me… I know that, and I feel it, Buddy.” And as she shouted her response into the face of her trembling and infuriated slave, her hands were still hard at work behind her, burning and wrenching the wrist bindings. Her face contorted as her flesh seared, but the emotion was masked by her own shouts and the weapon shoved conveniently in her face.
Mahran moved his right hand to hold her in place by the neck, although his fingers did not clamp down to choke her and almost felt gentle. He stared into her eyes for a long moment, holding the weapon, and behind her back, she felt the cuffs starting to give.
Now was her chance… as soon as the cuffs gave she could bring her hands out and snatch the pistol, simultaneously kicking Mahran in the groin and taking him out before he knew what was happening… then deal with the rest of the group… even though both soldier’s, at that point, probably would have already gunned her down.
But either way, it was her best chance…
She strained the cuffs and they slowly began to bend and give under the heat and stress.
But Mahran pulled back suddenly, removing the weapon and standing, taking a deep breath and calming himself, a cool air of confidence enveloping him suddenly. Mahran turned starkly and moved back toward the secondary command seat.
Floreina looked toward the capsule and her visual scans picked up Allihence’s lips moving again from the bottom of her vision. Looks like he takes after his master… a traitorous Amarrian deserves a traitorous slave…
Floreina looked at Mahran, taking a seat in the command chair.
“I’d like your help, Mahran,” Garmein requested, “in double checking the procedures I’ve set up.”
“Right,” Mahran replied.
“You okay, Man?” asked the technician.
“Yeah,” he said flatly. “Good.”
And Floreina knew she should be focusing on the combat calculations and data feeding into her mind, but instead, for several long moments, she stared at her slave as he connected his mental interface – the interface she had bought for him – to one of the most important and advanced mental sockets on the ship. Time and space seemed to distort around him, as though his treachery had shocked the Lord Himself, and reality was now breaking down. And Floreina suppressed a violent jumping sensation passing between her heart and stomach which seemed to grow more and more intense the longer she stared at him… but despite the pain, she had to force herself to pull away.
But even as her natural mind wandered distracted, her implant processes were still hard at work watching every movement in the two rooms, giving readouts of everyone’s line of sight, predicted focus level, and weapon access, searching for the perfect time to make her move.
She held the torch tight in her right hand, still tucked behind her back. The cuffs still surrounded each wrist, but were no longer linked together. She moved herself carefully, the burning still contributing noticeably to her distraction. A dampness moved down her hands, hopefully sweat as opposed to blood, but Floreina could not tell.
It would take the better part of an hour for the doctors to connect all the adaptors to Seleina’s body, so Floreina would have some time to wait and scan for an opening, assuming no one noticed her melted restraints.
She waited, watching the time tick down on the clock in the corner of her vision.
But she didn’t have to wait more than a few minutes.
“Sir,” Garmein started suddenly, looking up from the command seat, the network interface still connected to the back of his head. “I see a problem. Looks like we’ve got a hacker.”
“I thought you’d covered all bases!” Marteen said, raising his voice as he pivoted to look at the technician.
“I thought we had too… this shouldn’t be happening…”
“What are they accessing?”
Garmein shook his head and sighed in frustration. “I don’t know… it seems like all they’re accessing is basic utility systems within the pod chambers… I can’t see anything beyond that…”
Marteen took an angry step toward the technician. “Get them out of there, Garmein! What’re you doing there?”
“I don’t even understand how they got in…” he paused and looked up. “I think it’s the captain… Allihence… I think she’s breaking through somehow with her remote mental connection… she’s the only one who would have the codes – but someone had to have let her in…”
“She’s unconscious!” Marteen replied. But his face drooped as he seemed to hear himself say the words. He pivoted again to face the main pod chamber and stare down at the captain still lying motionless on the floor.
“Maybe she’s faking,” Garmein said.
Reality seemed to pause and shift as Floreina felt her visual enhancements automatically switching modes. Several milliseconds later the visuals touched her retina, and she felt the darkness envelope her.
Almost immediately her vision began compensating for the darkness, filtering and enhancing the input from her natural eyes before routing it back to her mind, outlining objects in an ugly, unnatural, yet clearly understandable highlighting.
And her combat applications – as though she needed to be told – insistently informed her that this was the time to move.
“That would be her,” Garmein said calmly, as though unmoved by the sudden change of situation.
Floreina’s hands went out to her sides and she twisted to roll over and force herself to her feet. Dithmire, the second soldier, stood a few paces away, under the large bay door, focused on the scene in the pod chamber.
She felt her legs straightening, pushing through invisible sand as though in a dream, the nanites burning and pushing throughout her muscles. Her body bent at the waist, she drove forward and her shoulder connected with Dithmire’s back. They hit the wall on the opposite side of the massive hatchway, Dithmire catching himself before cracking his head. Immediately Floreina snatched for his rifle with her left hand as she brought
her right hand up to put the torch to his head.
But the soldier did not seem surprised at being attacked from behind, and reacted quickly. Without a hand to hold the soldier in place, he spun easily to face her.
Her fingers surrounded the barrel of his rifle as he grasped her right wrist to hold the torch at bay. They struggled blindly for a moment, Floreina stepping back, only to press forward, driving the Minmatar into the wall. They pulled at the weapon, Floreina judging the situation by nothing more than vague visions in the darkness and estimated object outlines.
Dithmire pushed the gun abruptly forward, kicking at Floreina’s feet in the same moment.
And Floreina danced, for just a split second, hopping around Dithmire’s attacks as she felt his shoes slipping angrily around her shins.
But the weapon slipped from her hands.
She looked up, the artificial outlines focusing on the rifle in her enemy’s hand, noticing her eyes already beginning to adjust to the darkness. She reached for the weapon with her left hand and he attempted to turn it to point at her, but found the barrel too long. He tossed it aside to avoid Floreina’s frantic grasp.
She grunted in frustration, demanding new tactics, but found the ideas confused in the darkness. She watched herself as if from a distance as her left arm began flailing against Dithmire, cracking his head twice before he moved his arm to block.
Floreina moved frantically, back and forth, up and down, slapping and clawing, just trying to keep the soldier occupied long enough to allow her background tactical scans to get a readout on the rest of the room and come up with another plan.
Everyone seemed to be shouting, with a particular focus in the area in front of the pod itself, where the three doctors, Seleina and Allihence had been just a moment before. Even her peripheral scans could not determine how many were still in the same locations. The auditory applications had no time to actually play back examples, but indicated there were other violent encounters occurring within the room…
As Floreina executed her frantic attack, she kept as close as possible to her opponent, knowing that not only a gunshot, but a simple, well placed punch to the cranium could easily incapacitate her.
Against A Rock Page 27
