by M. D. Cooper
“Let me tell you something, Martimus,” she spat his name, her lips centimeters from his face as he wheezed frantically, his left arm clawing at her shoulder. “There is no shame in what I am. There is nothing wrong with the human body, clothed, naked, otherwise. Showing it off, enhancing it, that is a choice anyone may make with their own flesh.
“But it is their body, their flesh. Your eyes may take it in—take me in—and I do not begrudge that; I know I am desirable. But do not make the mistake of thinking that your eyes seeing me, lusting after me, coveting what I am, somehow makes any part of myself yours for the taking.”
“You objectify yourself, you stupid wench,” Martimus gasped, and Jessica pressed harder, cutting off his airway entirely.
“You do realize the fallacy in that statement, don’t you?” she asked. “It is not possible for me to objectify myself. Do I look like a chair, a piece of furniture? I am not an object, and it is not possible for you to possess me. The only thing—the only thing—that can happen between either of us is an open and willing sharing of self.”
Jessica pulled her arm back and Martimus drew in a long, ragged gasp.
“But you don’t share self,” Jessica said as she released him and stepped back. “You only know how to take. You’re broken inside, and you’re trying to get others to fill your emptiness. But what you’re craving can only come after you’re whole.”
Martimus’s gaze lowered, and Jessica hoped for a moment that she had gotten through to him. That perhaps he now knew what he had just tried to do was wrong, and that he should feel shame over it.
But when he raised his eyes, and they unblinkingly met hers, Jessica could see her words had not reached him.
A second later, a knife was in his hand and a wicked grin spread across his face.
“I’m going to gut you, bitch,” he rasped. “No one treats me like you just did.”
Jessica shook her head. “Look, I know excessive force was the wrong tool to use if you are to truly be dissuaded from this course of action, but I need you to understand that you cannot have me. My goal was to place in your mind the fear that what I just did to you may happen again—perhaps it can save some other poor girl form your sweaty indignities.”
“Your words won’t save anyone, least of all yourself,” Martimus said. “And you’re wrong. Before this is done, I will objectify and own you.”
Martimus’s hand darted forward, a solid strike, delivered without over extending his shoulder. But Jessica wasn’t where the knife blade was aimed.
She danced to the side and delivered a kick to his ribs, and then spun away as he slashed at her.
He was good with his blade, but his fighting style was the same sort Antaris had employed. Sure, powerful strikes, no finesse, and little feinting.
Still, it took her almost thirty seconds to disarm him. And once she did, a knee to his solar plexus followed by a hard blow to the side of his head, was all it took to put Martimus on the ground, gasping for air once more.
Jessica kicked him hard, flipping him onto his back. She planted her boot on his neck, digging her heel into his carotid artery.
“I’m going to do you a favor, Martimus,” she said calmly. “Though it is more for me, than for you. I’m going to let you leave with your life, and your body still functioning properly. You are here to do a job, and it is in my best interests if you are able to do so.”
Jessica bent down and placed a knee on his neck, holding her hand in front of his face. She pulled off her glove and wiggled her fingers, triggering an energy surge and, making them glow brightly.
Martimus’s eyes were wide as a silver tendril began to grow from her index finger.
“This is rather advanced nanotech,” she said. “A bit more upscale than most folks have here in Serenity. It can do a lot of things. It can make you strong, weak, it can kill. What’s more, your luddite’s body doesn’t have a lick of defenses against it.”
As Jessica spoke, she lowered her finger toward Martimus’s forehead. His eyes crossed as they followed it and he twitched violently when her finger met his skin.
“You can feel it, can’t you? The nano boring holes through your cranium…. It itches, doesn’t it?” Jessica asked, allowing a cold smile to cross her face. “I realize that this is hypocritical of me. To tell you not to mess with my body as I inject nano into yours, but I don’t have time to see you properly rehabilitated into some semblance of a decent human being.
“Instead, because you have decided to behave like an animal, I shall collar you like one.
“You see, I suspect something is wrong with your limbic brain…that’s the part that controls your base emotions. This little batch of nano is going to go in and seat themselves in your amygdala. There, they shall follow their programming and see if they can help you learn a bit about right and wrong, to help improve your social interactions with others. However, if you ever try to sexually assault a woman—or a man, for that matter—again, they’ll just kill you. And that will be that.”
As she spoke, Martimus’s eyes grew so wide that Jessica wondered if he was going to have some sort of panic attack.
She lowered her face to his. “Just to be clear, I don’t really expect them to fix you, you seem like a lost cause to me. But you never know. They might just pull it off. However, given the fact that you tried to rape me within a day of knowing me, I bet you’ll be dead inside of a week.”
Jessica rose, dusted herself off, and began to walk away. Then she turned and looked back at Martimus. “Oh, and if you mention anything that happened back here, be it truth or lie, you’ll also die. If anyone asks what we did, just shake your head and remain silent. Understood?”
Martimus nodded frantically.
“Bet you wish you’d left well enough alone,” Jessica added, before she walked back around the building.
In her mind, Iris was silent, but Jessica could all but feel the words she knew Iris was thinking.
Iris didn’t reply immediately, but after a few seconds which seemed to stretch for hours, she replied,
Jessica knew what it was.
Jessica walked in silence along the edge of the forest lining the estate for several minutes before she let out a long sigh.
* * * * *
An hour later, after taking a rather circuitous route to reach the underground shuttle bay, Jessica crouched at its edge. Along the way she had stopped in her quarters to change her outfit and shoes.
Now, dressed from head to toe in matte black, the thick fabric hiding the glow of her skin—thankfully diminished this late into the day—she peered down at the unmarked shuttle on the far side of the shaft from her.
Jessica gauged the distance and t
he drop, then walked back to the edge of the trees, and took a deep breath.
Her heart was still racing from the confrontation with Martimus. She kept replaying the scene over and over again in her mind, wondering what she could have done differently, what she could have said to attain a better outcome.
She knew there was both nothing, and a thousand things she could have done. But none of that mattered now. Now, she had to calm her breathing, still her heart, and clear her mind.
Deep breaths, Jessica. Let it wash out of you. Your heart is a river of purity, that man’s filth and the memories it brought back…they cannot change you. You are in control of who you are. Now concentrate. You have work to do.
She stood silently for a moment, and then took off at full speed feeling the exhilarating rush as she sailed across the pit, falling toward the rack the unmarked shuttle rested on.
A dull thud reverberated through the shaft as Jessica landed on the nose of the shuttle, the sticky pads on her hands and feet aiding in her grip as she carefully climbed atop the craft and then slid down the side onto the catwalk.
While Iris examined the results of the spectrographic analysis of the shuttle, Jessica walked around to the far side, where the cargo conveyers connected to the shuttles.
Nothing looked out of place, until she walked past one of the safety skids alongside an a-grav unit. A small piece of blue plas was stuck to the skid. Jessica picked it out and rubbed it between her fingers. It had the same texture as the label on Addie’s crate.
“Freeze!”
Jessica raised her hands and turned slowly to see Terry standing behind her with a ballistic handgun aimed at Jessica’s head.
“Who are you? What are you doing?” Terry yelled.
Jessica could see Terry was scared, yet resolute, and she raised her hands slowly into the air. “Terry, please don’t shoot. It’s me, Jessica.”
Terry cocked her head and the gun dipped, now pointed at Jessica’s chest. “Jessica?”
“Is it OK if I pull the hood off?” Jessica asked.
“Umm…yeah,” came Terry’s hesitant reply.
Jessica slowly pulled her hood off and Terry visibly relaxed, lowering the gun entirely.
“Jessica! I thought I told you that you can’t come down here!”
Jessica shrugged. “Well, I needed to check this ship out, but I didn’t want to get you in trouble, so…here I am”
Terry holstered her weapon. “I have to admit, I was curious about this ship too after you left. I learned something pretty interesting. It’s not from Serenity at all!”
“I know,” Jessica nodded. “It’s last port of call was Kidron.”
“Jessica! How did you know?”
Jessica approached Terry, a kind smile on her lips. “Terry, there’s something really trustworthy about you. Can you keep a secret?”
UNVEILING
STELLAR DATE: 10.27.8938 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: House Charlemis Shuttle, Gallas, Serenity Primus
REGION: Serenity Ordus, Orion Freedom Alliance, Perseus Arm
Cheeky stretched as she rose from Pharis’s bed in the back of the shuttle. The trip from Mesophis to Gallas had been short, and the shuttle would touch down on the pad outside of House Charlemis’ sprawling estate in just five minutes.
She wished she could remain beside Pharis a bit longer. The prior night had been a whirlwind, beginning with the briefest of token appearances at the Dance before disappearing into the depths of House Nebacken’s tall fortress.
As they had traipsed through private rooms, laughing at their impertinence, Piya had slipped evidence into various systems linking ‘Kerstin’ to House Nebacken. When the time came to play Nebacken against Charlemis, Jessica would present that evidence when attempting to break apart the house’s alliance.
Piya had said at one point.
Although she enjoyed the games she was playing with Pharis, it was on the whole, rather exhausting. At the very least she was glad she wasn’t in Addie’s shoes, or corsets. That would have been a fate worse than death.
The AHAP, for her part, was performing very well. Cheeky was unnerved by how well the Addie could imitate Jessica. Seeing Jessica—the real Jessica—once more, was something Cheeky looked forward to greatly.
She dressed silently while staring down at Pharis’s sleeping form. She was a nice young woman, not really deserving of what they were putting her in the middle of, but the ultimate goal was to try and stop an outside group from… well…something bad.
In the shuttle’s main cabin, Pharis’s various sycophants were stretched out on chairs and couches, catching what rest they could before the second-to-last night of celebrations began.
Few of the men and women in Pharis’s entourage liked Cheeky, not because she had done anything to slight anyone in particular, but because she had inserted herself so well into Pharis’s affections.
One or two peered at her as she passed, but none spoke or stirred more than an eye in her direction.
She wanted to tell them all would revert back to normal soon, though that wasn’t entirely true. While Cheeky—or Kerstin as they knew her—would soon be gone, events would soon unfold on the moons of Serenity that would disrupt ‘normal’ for some time.
“In a rush?” Vicky, the shuttle’s attendant, asked as Cheeky approached the forward door.
“Pharis asked me to get a few things ready for her, but not to disturb her. We had a busy night and she needs her rest.”
Vicky gave a soft laugh. “Yes, I would assume so. Especially given our need to shift our departure time twice while we waited for you two. While you were doing whatever it is you do….”
Cheeky grinned seductively. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Uhuh!” Vicky nodded emphatically. “I really would! Here’s my token,” she passed her contact information across the Link to Cheeky. “Any time you want to show me any of what you showed Pharis, I’d be more than happy to join you.”
“Vicky, you’re a sweet woman. Should the chance ever arise, I’ll do just that.”
As Cheeky finished speaking, the shuttle touched down onto the pad and Vicky leaned across Cheeky, brushing her arm against her. “Pardon, just need to open this.”
Cheeky laughed, “Of course you do, Vicky.”
A minute later she was out of the shuttle and in the bright mid-morning light. A dense forest began at the edge of the pad to her left and right, and ahead lay the Charlemis estate.
She Linked into the general net and searched for the private channel she and Jessica used.
Vicky handed Cheeky her luggage, and Cheeky thanked her with a peck on the cheek. “Be seeing you.”
“Oh stars, I hope so.”
* * * * *
Three hours later, Jessica stood with Cheeky in Anastasia’s quarters, with Antaris and Kristina also in attendance. The siblings appeared tired, or unhappy. Or perhaps both. Anastasia was her usual implacable self.
Over the last three days Jessica had plumbed the depths in which the twisted, tangled web of lies and deceit that the Houses of Serenity operated. Jessica had uncovered so many schemes, that it was almost impossible to discern which nefarious plot was instigated by which house.
But all of that was secondary to what she assumed would be an assassination, one which was about to be attempted within the next few minutes—provided she played her cards right.
“I’m pleased that you have met with such excellent success insinuating yourselves into the inner circles of the Nebacken and Charlemis scions,” Anastasia said from where she stood near one of the room’s floor-to-ceiling windows.
She was dressed very similarly to the first night they had met her, except this time her black dress had long sleeves and a high neck.
“It wasn’t that hard,” Cheeky said. “They’re young, they’re bored. Give them something even marginally exotic, and they’re enthralled.”
“We have more than enough to turn Justina against Lena,” Jessica added. “Nebacken will become despised amongst the Houses of Serenity.”
Kristina coughed. “Well, more despised, I should imagine.”
“Will it be enough to shatter their alliances?” Anastasia asked.
Jessica nodded. “We have evidence proving Lena of Nebacken planted Cherrie here to subvert Pharis and ultimately convince her to murder her mother. We also have evidence to show that Lena was secretly forging alliances with House Teros with the intent of undermining exports from Gallas. And that’s just the beginning. Suffice it to say by the end of the night, there will be no alignment between Charlemis and Nebacken. Except…”