by L A Warren
"I wouldn't need to ask, opés. Why don't you seem to understand that?"
"I understand it explicitly. And that's my point. You've taken my free will, and yet are surprised when I don't embrace that." She shook her head.
"Your choices are limited, opés. As are mine. You understand what's at stake. I can't afford to have you going off doing whatever you want. I have the entirety of the human race to save."
"You can't stop me from working with Mr. Tusel."
"I can and I will."
A sigh of frustration escaped her lips. “Mr. Tusel understands the linking project. Gregor, he understands it, on a level the Tenders don't grasp. Mr. Tusel challenges me, questions me, and forces me to defend my decisions. That’s stimulating and we're making progress. We're collaborating and working together. I'm not working out of fear. Please, don't take that from me.”
“Mr. Tusel is not for you.”
"I never said he was, and that's not what's going on at all."
She bit her upper lip, frustrated by Gregor's jealousy. And surprised by it. Although, she shouldn't be. She belonged to him. The bond between them grew every day, and if that weren't enough, she was listed amongst his personal inventory. He owned every bit of her.
“Gregor, if you told me to stop working with Mr. Tusel, I would have no choice but to stop. I know who owns me. But, even if you asked me not to work with him, I would still refuse. I'd refuse because it’s the wrong thing to do. You need our collaboration because it's working. We're making progress, and you don't have time to interfere with that."
"You feel that strongly about it?"
"You know I'm telling the truth. My mistake was in forgetting my place. It just felt so normal. Like I said, Carek reminds me of my college professor. I welcomed the interaction, because it allowed me to escape the reality of my situation. I need that mental break to do what you need me to do. Does that make sense?”
His lips pressed into a thin line. Silence hung between them, full of unspoken words.
She pressed her forehead against his. “See, this is what I'm talking about. I don't know what will happen next. Will I be punished for telling the truth? Or will you reward me for my honesty? You make me crazy and that only feeds my fear."
"You shouldn't fear me."
"Then tell me what you want! I'll do whatever it takes to please you, but I can't read your mind."
Tender Training was designed to instill a compulsive desire to please. She felt the stirrings in her gut, even if she had found a way to defeat Tender Training with the birth of her sisters.
Gregor’s eyes lifted. He stared into her eyes and she dared not look away from the intensity swirling in those silvery depths. For the first time, his gaze held no cruelty. Resignation filled them instead.
"Come, opés, I have something I wish you to see. Something I need an opinion on."
To her surprise, he dragged her off the Fifth Deck to Command and Control. There, he guided her into a conference room full of senior bridge officers. She glanced around at the tan and gray jumpsuits and the astonishing numbers of silver stars decorating the collars of the fifteen men present. They stood when Gregor entered.
He strode to the end of a long table and pulled out the chair. He placed Elise in the chair and the men retook their seats. Gregor stood behind her and did not introduce her to the men. Although, the emperor's WOR needed no introduction.
"Commander Eldern, bring up those images for the Lady Malita."
Commander Eldern tapped instructions into a recessed gel-pad in front of him. The far wall dissolved and a starfield appeared. The view zoomed and Elise recognized a Vendel Colony fleet. Twenty massive ships, arrayed in a loose formation, hung in a rich asteroid belt.
Commander Eldern fiddled with the displays. A singular black moonlet, enormous in size, suddenly blinked into being on top of the fleet. Oblong, irregular in shape, with multiple bulbous projections protruding from an uneven surface, it filled the view. There was no real reference to its size, except it had a sense of being massive and self-aware.
Something which kicked her heart into overtime.
A red light shot out from a circular hole at the tip of the thing's nose. It scanned the ships directly in front of it. As the beam passed over the orbital mining rigs, the outer metal hulls vaporized. Gases spewed into space and the ships imploded.
The lumpy moonlet, a creature which reminded her of a potato, for that’s what it looked like, rotated slowly along its axis picking off ship after ship with that lethal red beam.
The final image showed the creature's nose? Mouth? Whatever it was aimed directly at whoever had recorded this image. The thing lined itself up. A red beam of energy surged forth. The screen went dark.
Nervous coughs punctuated the silence of the room. The shuffling of feet, and the readjustment of the men in their seats, added to the uneasy quiet. The man next to her gagged.
"First impressions, opés," Gregor commanded.
Elise jumped at the snap in Gregor’s voice. First impressions of what? Horror, devastation, death, destruction? What did he want?
"Give me your first impression." Gregor's voice deepened into a guttural growl.
"I don't know what it is. It seemed curious. Excited. Ravenous."
Commander Eldern asked, "Why do you call that ship an it?"
Why? She didn't know. However, now that she thought about it, she was certain that thing was an it, not a they, or a them, or a ship at all. It was a conscious, self-aware, entity.
"I don't know."
"I demand an answer, opés," Gregor pressed.
“Can you replay the video?” she asked.
"Not until you answer the question." Gregor continued to badger her for a response.
She stood and turned to confront Gregor. "I don't know." She stared at him and put her hands on her hips. "How can I explain what I don't know? It feels alive to me."
"Why do you think you feel this way?"
"It's a gut feeling." She shrugged her shoulders. "How do I explain a gut feeling?"
"You said it was curious. Why?"
She shrugged again. "I don't know, maybe because of the way it surveyed the C-fleet."
A voice from the end of the table laughed. "It destroyed the entire fleet. Survey implies it assessed and acted upon a choice."
"But it did. Didn't you see how it ignored the processing plants?"
"It did not."
"Replay it again. It skipped right over the rocks, other moons, and the processing plants. Why attack the fleet? There were hundreds of asteroids in that system, and yet it only turned its eye to the Vendel ships. It must have found something interesting in the ships and not in the asteroids. If you were wandering around in a field and saw a bunch of ants crawling in the dirt, would you stop to look at the rocks or would you look at the ants?" She waved her hand in the air as she tried to explain something she didn't understand herself. "I don't know why, but it seemed curious."
"Thank you, opés, you may leave," Gregor's voice commanded her attention.
"Leave?"
He responded with a jerk of his chin. Her dismissal was clear. "High Tender Marcus waits for you in the am-net Tank. Try not to keep him waiting. Your contingent of WOR will be present. I expect positive results by the end of the day."
Elise’s jaw nearly unhinged.
Gregor's eyes flicked toward the door.
She needed no further encouragement to leave.
Chapter Two
Gambit, Day 277
The High Tender met Elise outside the am-net. He gave a curt nod, saw to it she was dressed properly in her immersion suit, then delivered her to Carek's node deep within the purple sea. He left without a word. The rest of her day involved purple glowing soup and the company of her friends. Carek hovered in the background, watching the women work.
Paula hung back from the rest, lost in her own world.
Elise floated over. "Are you all right? I hope we aren't making you feel unwelcome."
<
br /> Paula stared at the first node subspace connections. She had been sitting quietly all day, making changes to this small part of the construct.
"I’m jealous of you, and then again, very glad not to be you."
Elise paused, uncertain of how to respond.
"You've been allowed off the Fifth Deck and have been all over the ship. It's not fair. We've been trapped since we arrived, while you've gotten out and have seen the people."
Elise paused and then said, "You think I've been given special favors?"
"Yes." She sighed and shook her head. "I mean no, but sometimes I'm jealous of the freedom you've had. It's wrong, and I know this. I know what you've been through. The Emperor is the worst of them all, worse than even mine."
Paula stared off into the soup. "You and I share High Tender Marcus. They don't know what he's done to us. Tender Training was hard for all the girls, but for you and me? We suffered under a sadist’s hands. I know what it was like for you. What you endured. They only think they do.”
Elise's stomach cramped with the remembered pain. Tender Training had destroyed her, and fractured her mind. She was now only one of five distinct personalities. Crazy? She didn't feel crazy, but neither did she share the presence of her silent sisters. That secret was one she held very close to her heart.
Paula’s breathing hitched. “How did you survive? I only had four days of Tender Training, you've had so much more."
Elise didn't answer. There was no response. She carried five different people in her head as a result of Tender Training. Her little brigade. Her sisters in war. The only thing that kept her sane and gave her strength to face each day was the presence of her sisters. How could she explain what happened to her mind and not sound insane?
Paula, in an unfortunate turn of events, had been the reason all of the Fifth Rank WOR had received that last bout of Tender Training. They'd received only a few days, whereas Elise had suffered multiple sessions a day for a cycle of ten days.
She placed a hand on Paula's shoulder. “It was easy to forget what they did to us. When Gregor touches me or kisses me, I’m very confused. You shouldn’t be ashamed of how you feel."
"You feel it too? I thought I was sick. I hate my master, but crave his touch. It's a yearning deep inside of me that I can't control. How can that be? How can I want him when I hate him? Are we freaks, or is it something they did to us?"
"I've had that reaction to Gregor from the very beginning. It's an effect of the bond, but it's far more complicated than that. Have you ever heard of the prisoner paradox?"
"Yes. It's when the prisoner begins to identify with the guards. The victim will sabotage their rescue trying to defend the kidnappers. They find empathy with their tormentors."
“Exactly! When I'm here, I hate Gregor. When I'm with him, I can’t get enough of him. Saying it out loud makes me sound crazy.”
Paula placed her hand on Elise's. "I would have done anything for my master. Because of me everyone suffered. I don’t understand why you don’t hate me for what it cost you. High Tender Marcus is a brutal man. I can’t begin to comprehend what he did to you, but I know what he did to me.” She paused.
“No one blames you for revealing the code.”
Paula sniffed and said nothing. Her attention focused back on the diagram and she shifted the conversation mid-stream. "They've made a mistake with the Binding Rite." Paula's finger poked the diagram. "See here?” She reached out and nudged a three-dimensional spiraled mass of twisted lines to spinning. "If they try linking any of their bound WOR, it'll kill them."
"Yes." Elise had been over this portion several times. The outcome was always the same.
“The link will bridge the fifth and sixth dimensions. The problem is in handling that much force. The backlash will kill any woman who can't channel her force vectors around this construct."
The construct Paula pointed to was the link formed by Binding.
"I've mentioned my concerns. Gregor wants to enhance the combined power of WOR to destroy this creature."
"What creature?" Paula twirled her little spiral of glowing lines, pushing vectors around with her finger.
"Gregor brought me to Command and Control and made me watch the S'Lorek destroy another Colony Fleet. That's what they call the enemy. He then asked what I thought. Really vague. I told him the first thing that came to mind. It was curious."
"Really?" Alice joined in the conversation. She had come up behind Elise and Paula while they were talking.
Elise twisted around to greet her friend. "Yes. He had that look in his eyes. I think it was another weird test of his."
"I wish we all could see this thing. Maybe we could figure out how to get rid of it, or kill it." Alice gestured vaguely in the air. "You know . . . first know your enemy. We're building something we barely understand to fight an enemy they refuse to show us. It doesn't make any sense."
Aomi floated into view, tugging Carek by his hand. "Sorry, late to the conversation, but we couldn't help but overhear. Why do we have to kill it?" Aomi pulled on the fabric of the immersion suit. They were all linked through the suits and could hear any conversation. "What if we could talk to it? Negotiate with it?"
Chandra bobbed over and crossed her legs into lotus position. "It kills, Aomi." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “If it wanted to talk, it would’ve tried.”
Alice pulled her lower lip between her teeth. She scratched at her head. "You know, she may have a point. I used to belong to this alien simulation group. Our project was to create a creature that evolved in deep space. There were tons of weird entries. People got creative, but sentient planets and moonlets were some of the main entries."
"You believe it's sentient?" Carek's question settled over them all.
"I do." Elise shivered with unease.
Alice continued, "If we could think to make it a contest back on Earth, why couldn't it really be out there?"
Paula turned to Carek. "Mr. Tusel, is there any way we can take a look at this thing?"
He pursed his lips. "I don’t know.”
“Please," Elise begged. He rarely denied her requests.
"I'll need to see if I can get permission to show it to you."
Elise eyed him and arched her brow. "Can you just show it to them and skip asking permission? Blame it on me. We can ask for forgiveness later if we get in trouble."
Carek glanced at each of the women. "You're supposed to be working. So far, you haven't managed to link two of you together. I don't think side projects are such a good idea."
Chandra turned.
Elise wasn't sure how she managed it, as she made no obvious movement and maintained her lotus pose.
"Mr. Tusel, please?" She flashed him a smile. "How long could it possibly take to view a little clip of this creature? We'll keep working. Promise!"
He folded under their silent pressure. "I'll try, but you have to promise to keep working."
Paula tugged on Elise's arm. Elise glanced down and Paula put a finger to her lips for silence. She jerked her eyes toward Carek and Elise understood. They were linked and he could hear. Paula traced a finger down the center of her rotating spiral. It began to spin. She pulled four of the vector forces and crossed them into a new dimensional space. Elise gasped at the result.
One by one, so as not to draw Carek's suspicions, Paula motioned the women over. Silence settled and they exchanged glances of wonder.
Malice purred.
Alex popped her head out of the dark and yelled, Eureka! She disappeared again, but Elise could feel her silent sister working. It made her head itch.
"Hey, you’re supposed to be working, not staring," Carek scolded.
Paula erased the last change she had made, while Alice and Chandra hid all evidence of it from Carek.
He cocked his head to the side. "What's up?"
Elise said, "I think we can try a few scenarios after lunch." Later, they had so much more to try.
"I got access to the feed.” Carek be
amed with delight.
Carek had them close their eyes and he played the feed of the Colony Fleet's devastation. The four women then entered into discussion about whether it was a creature or little green men. Each of them had a sense it was a single creature, but Aomi took the little green men side and began to make her case, just to argue.
Elise left the girls to their discussion. She floated a short distance away and called up an image of the Wheel WOR-skills. The five-spoked wheel rotated slowly and she examined some of her underlying assumptions.
A few minutes later, Carek tapped her shoulder. "They're really getting into it. Aomi can be quite persuasive. Chandra is giving her a run for her money, though. She’s a firecracker."
"Chandra or Aomi?”
“Chandra.”
“You should really use our proper names, Mr. Tusel," she said.
Carek flinched. "As you wish, Lady Malita." His brows drew down and she could see anger brewing in his green eyes. “May I ask why?”
"Gregor heard me call you Carek when we were getting out of the tank. I spent time with High Tender Marcus in Tender Training. This morning, Gregor came close to forbidding me from working with you. He's possessive, and when he heard me use your name it set him off. He needs this linking project to work. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here right now. It's too easy to be friends, and we need to remember what we really are. You need to remember what I am."
"This from the Emperor's slave who's flying in the jump-jet semi-finals tomorrow. Are you insane?"
"It's in disguise. No one is going to ask me to remove my veil.”
"You're playing with fire. If Emperor Malita ever finds out . . .”
She squeezed his arm. "That isn't going to happen."
Carek changed the subject. "Why do you keep bringing up the Wheel skills?" He waved at the rotating mass.
She stared at the figures and sighed. "I'm almost finished correcting them."