by Scott Baron
“B-bu-but…” Daisy stammered. “But you’re de—”
She didn’t get to finish her sentence as the weapon discharged its payload and slammed her to the ground, unconscious.
Chapter Thirty-One
Like a modern-day Sisyphus fighting uphill against the boulder of unconsciousness, Daisy slowly climbed the steep slope back to the waking world.
Unable to move, she noted. Where the hell am I?
It took a moment before her senses sharpened and registered the bumpy ride making the restraints dig into her wrists. Only then did she realize she was strapped into an uncomfortable seat in a small jump ship.
It was a light-duty vessel, only designed to carry three, and was seriously overloaded as it bumped and bucked its way skyward. The extra weight, even of a smaller human like Daisy, left the craft straining its engines as it fought the pull of Earth’s atmosphere.
She tried to scratch an itch on her nose, but found herself unable. Her wrists were bound tight, held fast by slender yet strong restraints.
Figures, she lamented, frustrated by the inability to scratch the increasingly annoying itch. The rest of her body felt a bit off as well. The stun burst had really done a number on her, rendering her head fuzzy, and leaving a strange metallic taste in her mouth. She gingerly turned her head toward the cockpit area. Given the tiny size of the vessel, it didn’t require much movement at all.
Reggie was at the controls, guiding the ship up through the exosphere, while Vince sat beside him in the copilot’s seat. He was wearing a fresh jump suit and didn’t look any worse for wear, but Daisy could tell by the way he was seated slightly cockeyed as the bumping ship rattled against his back that he was still favoring his other arm.
They re-attached that thing quick. I wonder why they decided to keep the meat one. Impressive in any case. Finn’s fingers were a small procedure, but an entire arm? I had no idea the Váli’s medical pod had those capabilities.
“Hey, check it out. Someone is throwing some serious stink-eye your way, Daze,” Sarah commented.
Daisy turned her head the other direction and caught an icy blast from Tamara’s bloodshot eyes. The skin on her nose and ears was black with frostbite damage, along with a patch on her cheek and eyebrow. She looked like she’d been through hell but somehow managed to drag herself out the other side, albeit substantially the worse for wear.
Lovely.
“Seriously. Girl needs a facial something fierce,” Sarah joked.
Daisy closed her own tired peepers and rested her head against the bulkhead.
Nice of you to join me. I wondered for a minute if that stun blast might have wiped you out of my head.
“No such luck, though I do have this really strange taste in my mouth.”
You don’t have a mouth, remember?
“That’s why it’s a strange taste. Not toast, though, so don’t worry about having a stroke or anything.”
Daisy opened her eyes again and surveyed the ship. It had seen better days, and seemed to be of a vastly different make and model than anything she’d worked on up to that point.
Wait a minute. Where did they get this thing? This isn’t our hopper. What the hell? This wasn’t on the Váli, we would have known about it.
The ship’s vibrations stopped abruptly as they punched free of the atmosphere, the engines powering off as the tiny craft slid into a compressed air thruster-guided drift through the debris field circling Earth. Reggie reached out and flicked a series of switches on the command console, and all but the most critical systems were shut down, leaving them floating in the dark, with almost no power signature emitting from the ship.
“Looks like they’re worried about being scanned,” Sarah noted.
Yeah, Daisy silently agreed. The question is, are they worried about the rogue cyborgs, or those freaking huge, four-armed aliens? My money would normally be on the aliens, but after meeting that wack-job AI, Habby, I’m not one hundred percent sure.
Either way, Daisy figured if they were running a counter-detection protocol, they’d be drifting for at least an hour. Long enough to be reasonably certain they hadn’t been scanned, and also conveniently long enough for her to catch a much-needed, non-stun rifle-induced nap.
She opened her eyes for one more look around. Tamara hadn’t taken her angry eyes off her. Daisy cracked a tiny smile and gave Tamara a little wink, summoning up the energy for one last bit of snark before drifting off.
“It’s been a long day. Y’all wake me when we’re back on the ship.”
Surprisingly, Daisy had managed to sleep quite soundly for the duration of the flight. It was some of the best rest she’d had in days. Like a criminal finally locked in jail, no longer on the run, and finally able to let go of all the stress and worry leading up to their capture, she had no trouble nodding off. Her sleep was short but restful, that is until the bump of the ship’s airlock roused her.
Daisy rolled her shoulders and yawned. She would have rubbed the sleep from her eyes, but her hands were still restrained.
Hang on, this doesn’t feel right. Did the Váli lose gravity control? Totally not my fault if it did. Nope, can’t pin that one on me. I didn’t touch those systems. At least I don’t think I did.
The airlock began to cycle open, and an antiseptic burst of air puffed into the craft, followed by a far stronger breeze that smelled strongly of harsh chemicals. Moments later an electrostatic charge and UV pulse hit the vessel.
“Okay, stage one sterilization complete,” Reggie said, unbuckling from his pilot’s seat. Vince and Tamara did the same, rising to gather their captive and escort her from the ship. Daisy found it hard to look at Tamara, but even harder to hold Vince’s gaze as they filed out the doors.
The airlock sealed behind them, leaving the group in a small decontamination chamber. For two straight minutes, bursts of disinfectant aerosols washed over them, followed by scans, then another series of chemical baths, until at long last, the red light over the far door turned green.
“Come on, Daisy. Let’s get you to your cell,” Reggie said.
“Cell?” she said, confused. The Váli didn’t have any cells.
“Welcome to Dark Side,” Vince added as they stepped through the door.
Captain Harkaway stood there, ready to greet his team, his face cold and emotionless, as he waited for his prodigal crewmember. Barry stood beside him, as did another too-symmetrical man. This one felt even more unnervingly off than Barry did.
Shit, another cyborg.
The captain said nothing, merely sizing her up with an unsettling gaze. He glanced at his team, all three of whom looked a bit beat up from their battle on Earth.
“Go eat, then get yourselves some rack time. You earned it.”
Vince and the others headed down a corridor, leaving Daisy with the captain and the pair of cyborgs.
Captain Harkaway stared at her several seconds longer, then abruptly turned and began walking. Barry, gently yet firmly took her by the arm and followed, leading her deeper into the facility. The corridors, she noted, were surprisingly spacious for a military base. Perhaps there was more to Dark Side than they’d originally let on.
The captain opened a hatch and stepped through, Daisy and her escorts close behind.
A not-so-welcoming welcome party stood in the next chamber awaiting her arrival. A distinctly sturdy-looking duo fell in behind them as they walked. Other new faces stood quietly in the passageway, gawking at the new arrival.
All this security for little old me?
The pair on her tail, a man and woman with bulging muscles—where they hadn’t been replaced by shiny metal, that is—were obviously military of some sort. Jutting out of the cuffs of her long sleeves, she could see that the dark-skinned woman’s hands and forearms were both replacements. Daisy wondered just how far up her arms the repairs went.
Scanning the other faces as she was ushered past, she locked eyes with a lean Asian man. He was fit, no doubt, but lacked the military build of
those who ready themselves for fighting as opposed to training for mere exercise.
“Looks like one of the brainy science guys,” Sarah noted.
How do you know?
“Come on, Daze, we’re techies. We know our own.”
At the end of the staring group, it was the kindly older woman, her smooth brown skin’s agelessness betrayed only by her thick silver-gray hair, that threw Daisy for a loop. She was neither military, nor science, nor techie-looking in her casual attire. She simply didn’t seem to belong there, yet she also seemed the most at home of them all.
“What’s up with that one?” Sarah pondered.
Don’t know. But I have a feeling I’ll find out soon enough.
They all watched Daisy silently as she was marched past. A perp walk of sorts for the young woman who overcame an entire crew, disabled a supercomputer-powered ship, made Earthfall in a hostile city, fought off cyborgs and aliens alike, and somehow survived it all.
They continued on, passing a series of thick windows, through which Daisy caught her first glimpse of the destroyed moon base up close. Impact scars dotted the landscape, revealing that nearly all the structures on the exposed surface had sustained severe to fatal damage.
The thick moon rock visible jutting out above the windowsill hinted at the reason for this particular section’s survival. Judging by the outcropping above, parts of the base were most likely hidden under the surface of the moon itself, rather than settled on top of it.
Roughly one hundred meters away, tucked out of sight, she saw the familiar shape of the Váli safely docked under a massive stone overhang.
“I see you managed to get her nav system working again,” she quipped. “Nice for you.”
“Sarcasm noted,” Captain Harkaway growled, “and not appreciated. You have no idea what you’ve done.”
“And I’m sure you’re going to tell me what a bad girl I’ve been, right?”
A muscle tensed in his jaw, but he said nothing further, He simply stopped in front of a thick door. Shielding the keypad with his body, he entered a lengthy code, then opened it, revealing a Spartan, but clean cell. With a nod to Barry, she was ushered inside.
The cyborg silently removed her restraints and stepped out through the door, calm and pleasant, as always.
He doesn’t seem any worse for wear after that pulse grenade, she noted, though she really didn’t know how he was doing underneath the newly-grown flesh that covered the impact site.
“That’s it, then? Don’t I get a last meal request?”
Captain Harkaway hesitated.
“Daisy,” he began, “you’re not going to be executed. Far from it.”
“So prison, then. Or are you going to try to convince me to join your little cyborg revolution?”
Harkaway froze, the muscle in his jaw twitching ever-so slightly, then abruptly let loose a robust laugh that even brought a hint of tears to his eyes. After a good twenty seconds, he managed to get his laughter under control.
“Oh lord, that’s what you think is going on?” he said through his rolling chuckles. “Ahhh, thanks for that. I really needed a good laugh.”
“What the hell?”
The captain regained his composure somewhat, looking at her with far kinder eyes.
“Don’t worry, Daisy. We’ll fill you in on everything soon enough. For now, let’s get you some chow. You look like hell. Eat and rest up. There will be a debrief tomorrow, then we’ll figure out what to do with you.”
As the heavy door swung shut, Daisy could hear him laughing to himself as it sealed.
“Cyborg revolution! Priceless!” was the last thing she heard before all outside sound was cut off by the thick metal.
“Um, Daisy… what the hell was that all about?”
Daisy flopped down on the freshly-made bed.
“Beats me, Sarah,” she replied with a confused look. “Seriously, beats the hell out of me.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
An hour that felt like an eternity had passed before the heavy door’s lock cycled and opened a crack.
“Daisy? I’ve got some food for you.” It was Vince. Daisy winced ever so slightly at his voice. “Okay,” he said, hesitant. “I’m coming in.”
The door opened farther. Two of the stocky military types stood on either side of her ex, or not-so-ex, or whatever he was, as he paused in the open door for a long moment, giving her an uncomfortably loving look. He had a tray in his hands, and judging by the smell, Finn had been the one responsible for her first real food in days.
“Um, hi,” he finally said, entering the cell.
The door swung shut behind him, but didn’t latch. The bang as it closed made him flinch ever so slightly, drawing Daisy’s eyes to the fresh pink scar circling his shoulder.
“You think he wore that tank top specifically to make you uncomfortable?” Sarah asked.
Nah, not his style, Daisy silently replied.
The machines had done quick and thorough work on him, she noted. While he would always have a slight scar, the flesh around it where the limb had been so rudely severed from his torso was nearly entirely intact. It had been expertly re-grown and repaired by the ship’s medical pod. A system apparently far more advanced than Daisy had been aware of.
“So, um, Finn knew you’d be hungry and wanted to go all-out, but I thought it might be best to start with something easy on the stomach. I have no idea what you’ve been eating these last several days, but I can’t imagine it was terribly satisfying.”
“You’d be surprised. Wild rabbit with a side of extremely expired mystery food pouches is the breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions.”
Vince gave a low chuckle, the sound of the familiar rumble soothing her nerves in spite of herself. Nevertheless, Daisy found it hard to look at him.
“You do still care,” Sarah teased.
Shut up.
Vince put the tray on her table, then took a few steps back.
“Look, we have a lot to talk about. I can’t even imagine all that’s running through your head right about now, but I know you’re exhausted. It can wait, and really, we should have that conversation after you’ve heard what the captain has to say.”
Daisy forced herself to look at him, not allowing her unease to show.
“Thank you, Vince,” she managed.
Why does he keep looking at me like that? Be mad, dammit!
Vince seemed determined to be nothing of the sort. For a second it seemed he might step closer, giving in to the urge to hold her close and comfort her, but instead, his longing gaze lingered just a moment longer, then, with a reluctant little smile, he pushed the door open and left her to dine alone. The food wouldn’t be the only thing she would have to digest that night.
The following morning, Daisy woke early, stretching her aching body, then settling into what had become a daily routine of meditation as she tried to further unlock the seemingly endless curiosities hidden in her mind.
The door cracked open.
“Hi, Vince. Look, I wanted to thank you for—”
An angry woman with a metal arm strode in.
Shit. Tamara.
She fixed her gaze on Daisy as she placed the tray of fresh fruit and some hot coffee on the table. If looks could kill, Daisy might very well have been well on her way across the river Styx, but fortunately, that was one martial skill Tamara was lacking.
The patches of blackened skin were gone, replaced by fresh pink flesh where the frostbitten parts had been excised and regrown. A full two-thirds of her left ear was new, as were both cheeks, and part of her forehead just above the eyebrows. The tip of her nose had suffered as well, but seemed to have managed to survive the freezing temperatures of space.
“Thanks,” Daisy managed to say as the shock wore off.
Tamara remained silent.
“So, um, what’s going on here? The captain wouldn’t tell me anything.”
The angry botanist said nothing as she gathered up the empty metal tray fro
m Daisy’s dinner the night before, then turned for the door.
“Tamara, at least clue me in a little. Come on, you shot me with a stun rifle.”
“You blew me out a goddamn airlock!” she spat back, venom in her voice as her newly pink cheeks flushed an angry red.
“Because you and Gus were trying to shoot me!” Daisy shot back. “It was self-defense!”
“It was a fucking stun rifle, Daisy, not a real gun.”
“Gee, thanks, that makes it feel so much better.”
The two women glowered at each other.
“So how did you survive, then?” Daisy finally asked. “I know the ship didn’t turn around.”
Tamara flashed an angry look, the metal tray in her cybernetic hand crumpling as she fought to keep her anger in check. A long moment passed before her fingers relaxed, then she tapped on the shoulder of her metal arm.
“You’re such a fucking dumbass, Daisy. I was a soldier before I was a botanist. This is a modified combat arm designed for both atmospheric as well as space function. The shoulder houses an emergency egress oxygen shell. It can provide up to an hour of breathable air—if you can get it around yourself before you explode or freeze to death first. I was just lucky I was drifting the same direction as the ship, otherwise they’d never have been able to pick me up in time. Gus barely made it to me in the jumper as it was.”
“Former military?” Daisy mused. “Your charming demeanor makes much more sense, now.”
“Stow it. I almost died out there, just because you wouldn’t listen and went off on some panicked freak-out.”
“If you had told me from the beginning, none of this would ever have happened.”
“Told you what, exactly?”
Daisy hesitated.
“Um, whatever it is you all have been keeping so secret from me. Obviously, there’s some massive conspiracy the entire crew was in on.”
“Not Sarah,” she replied. “She was just like you.”