“Have you figured out how?” Hana asked.
Isa lifted a hand to her head, closing her eyes.
“No…not exactly…” she said. She cringed. “My apologies for my appearance today…” She took a deep breath and steadied herself. “I have a team working on it,” she said. “And I want all of you to join that team.”
“How close are you to figuring it out?” Anders pressed.
Isa turned to Chronus.
“How has the work been coming?”
The other Elites turned to him, surprised that he had already been working on dismantling Venus.
“Maki did most of the work,” he said. “I think, if we all put our heads together, we can finish it.” He looked at Isa. “But…I haven’t found a way to keep your heart beating…”
The Bronze Elites whirled around to look at Isa, confused and worried by the statement. Only Isa and Remus knew that Isa’s life was tethered to Venus in a lethal, one-way bind. If Isa died, Venus would keep operating. If Venus died, she would kill the Golden Elite.
“I have a brilliant doctor working on it,” Isa said with a wobbly smile. “If you can figure out how to wire the Aren System to the main areas of the planet where we will need to reprogram everything, and you figure out how to destroy her codes, he’ll find a way to keep me alive.”
Her eyes caught Tia’s surprised and confused ones. She smiled shakily.
“Welcome to the Syndicate, Tia,” Isa said with a broken chuckle. “It might not be around much longer, but this is it.”
Tia looked at the older Elite and a smile broke over her face. She shook her head.
“I heard all the stories about you,” Tia said. “You’re a legend at the Academy. The Elites talk about the way you rebelled, how you didn’t take the abuse, how all of you started asking questions and realizing that things needed to change.” Her smile widened. “Chronus asked me if I would stand by you if Venus were no longer around when he interviewed me to replace Maki. I told him that, if anyone could do it, you could, and I would be honored to assist you however possible.”
Isa looked at Chronus, surprised that the Bronze Elite, even after the trauma of having Maki murdered for sedition and treason, would know to find a replacement that was ready to revolutionize the Altereye System.
“I am honored to hear that,” Isa said. She took another deep breath, her eyes closing as her body began swaying. Remus stepped up to her and put his arm around her once more. She leaned against him, relieved that she did not have to keep her head up on her own. “Chronus, if you could handle the details…”
“Of course.”
“I don’t want to worry any of you,” Isa started, “but Venus has been attacking me for the last—” she threw a glance at the clock, “—four hours. I’m afraid that I will be unable to operate an NCB chair while like this. I need you to fill in for me as best as possible.”
“Honestly, if you tried to climb into an NCB chair right now,” Anders chuckled, “I would lock you in the Pipes to be sure you could not access a chair.”
Isa laughed with the others, her eyes remaining closed, exhausted.
“I don’t think I can be in an NCB chair for a while anyway,” she admitted. “It would be too easy for Venus to access me.”
“I’ll find a way to rig your chair outside of her mainframe,” Remus assured, rubbing her arm.
“What about Kailynn?” Chronus asked. Isa opened her eyes briefly before shaking her head.
“She’s in hiding,” Isa said. “That is all I’m going to say. I’m not the only one Venus can access.”
A loud crack sounded above them and the lights flickered as sparks rained over them. They looked up quickly, hearing the groaning of the control room. Isa flinched, her hand gripping at her uniform at her chest as she curled forward. Remus wrapped both arms around her to keep her upright.
The monitors and screens around the control room changed from their normal monitoring systems to show the image of Venus’ head, her cloak covering everything but her nose and hard-set mouth that never moved. The image flickered angrily, trying to find a way to operate correctly around the virus ravaging her system. Some screens went black for several seconds before Venus regained control of them.
A piercing whine surrounded them and caused them to cover their ears, gritting their teeth in pain.
Isa screamed in pain, her body convulsing and falling limply out of Remus’ arms.
“You will yield! You will submit! You will obey!” Venus’ automated voice recited, barely audible with the high-pitch screech in the room.
Isa screamed once more, her back bowing off the floor as she grabbed at her chest.
A few monitors began flashing with the warning code that there was something wrong with the Golden Elite. The emitter chip in her body sent out several calls for help, including to the Syndicate.
The Elites surrounded Isa, trying to keep her still, though it was impossible. They watched in horror, waiting for the EMU team to arrive, though Isa passed out before they made it into the control room.
When Isa came to, there were three sets of worried eyes on her. It took her several moments to recognize the faces of Paul, Dr. Busen, and Remus. Even when she did, she could not focus on their features with the blinding pain behind her eyes.
One of the machines beeped and Isa groaned as the sound bounced around her skull. The sound of her own voice was also too loud, and the vibration of her voice in her throat felt like thousands of needles piercing her muscles.
Garbled voices sounded around her.
“Look at that activity,” Paul said, motioning to the screen that was showing her brain activity in real time. “She has signals misfiring all over the place.”
“Her blood pressure is rising,” Dr. Busen said. “With that activity, this spike…” He quickly went to the bedside table and grabbed a prepared syringe. “Isa, I’m going to give you something for the pain. Try to stay conscious.”
Isa was acutely aware of someone’s hand taking hers, and even though it hurt to close her fingers around his, she did so. She tried to focus on her breathing, though each movement was agony.
It seemed to last forever.
The talking continued around her.
“This is only the second day,” Remus said, his hand holding hers. “And she’s already this bad.”
“Stress has lowered a lot of her immune functions,” Dr. Busen noted. “And, it would appear, Venus is making the pain even more excruciating than necessary. But we know that, when Isa underwent the pain-resistance degeneration test, she not only passed, she exceeded expectations. She has a higher pain tolerance than the average Elite.” He nodded to Isa. “Venus is going to have to deal some severe damage to keep this up.”
“It’s going to kill her.”
“It’s not just these kinds of attacks we have to be concerned about,” Paul said, shaking his head. “She is suffering reconstruction deterioration, isn’t she? Her system is poisoned.”
“I can’t operate on her if Venus is going to be doing this. It’s too dangerous.”
“I know,” Paul said. “But if she keeps this up, Isa is going to get worse very quickly. And if there is too much deterioration of the skull…” He sighed heavily. “No one, Elite or human, has ever had a skull reconstruction and survived before, so there’s no data. I can only hypothesize.”
“You don’t have to,” Remus said, “I can imagine.”
“There has to be a way to jam the signals coming from Venus,” Paul said, looking at Dr. Busen. “Can you think of anything?”
“I’ve never seen the processing system she holds,” Dr. Busen said, shaking his head and running a hand through his hair, frustrated. “And I can’t very well look at it. It’s in her chest cavity.”
“She gave you the information she had,” Remus said.
“I would like to remind you that I am a doctor, not a programmer. There is a lot of information I don’t understand, and I sure as hell don’t understand how they
managed to match all this with biometrics as they did.” Dr. Busen groaned. “I would have to talk to a doctor that performed the transfer, but there are no names mentioned.”
“There wouldn’t be,” Remus said darkly, shaking his head. “They’re killed before they leave the operating room.”
Dr. Busen and Dr. Arre both blinked incredulously at Remus, shocked. The Silver Elite glanced back at Isa.
“Venus guides them through the procedure,” he continued. “And then she has them killed before they leave the room, along with the previous Golden Elite. That’s how she protects the information.”
“Then how do you know about it?” Dr. Busen asked.
“Isa told me,” Remus murmured. “She saw Gattriel killed, and she saw the bodies of the surgeons when she woke. She couldn’t handle that alone.”
“Did you know about this?” Dr. Busen asked, turning to Paul.
“If I did, don’t you think I would have told you?” Paul said. He sighed heavily and looked over the monitor on Isa’s brain. “That processing unit is toxic, the deterioration is releasing toxins, and she’s regressing to defensive behaviors she exhibited when Colonel Amori was around—not eating, not sleeping…”
Dr. Busen groaned, once again running his hands through his hair, closing his eyes and trying to think.
“You don’t want to medicate her with pain management medication?” Dr. Busen asked, turning to Paul.
“We’re going to need to increase the dosage every week,” Paul told him. “Her brain adapts too damn quick. That’s a big part of the problem. Soon we’ll be destroying her liver if we prescribe pain medication regularly to manage this kind of agony.”
“There has to be something you two can do,” Remus said, worried. “I’ll do whatever I can. She can’t function when in this pain, and we are at war. We can’t afford to have her out of commission like this.”
Both doctors went silent for a very long time. Isa slowly felt the pain easing. After thirty minutes of silence from both pensive doctors, she was able to open her eyes and look around the room. Breathing came a little easier, as well. Paul was staring at one of the monitors, his hand over his mouth as he thought. Dr. Busen was pacing at the far end of the room, his head down and his hand raised slightly in the air, moving as he thought through different solutions.
The two doctors did not notice that Isa had woken.
“Michael,” Paul said, not tearing his eyes from the screen he was staring at. The other doctor turned, startled. Paul motioned Dr. Busen over. “Do you notice how all the systems are stressed, but when you did the stress test on her heart, it showed no anomalies?”
Isa glanced at Remus and rolled her eyes with a playful smile at the doctors’ discussion. Remus smiled as well, reaching forward and gently placing a hand on her cheek, silently communicating with her, still holding her hand.
The doctors were locked in a heated discussion, pointing to different monitors and test results as Isa and Remus remained silent, listening half-heartedly. Isa closed her eyes, resting as often as she could. She still felt twinges of pain, which caused the doctors to both point and talk about what showed up on the screen. Isa did not understand most of what they were discussing. Even though she had read all of their academic papers, she was in too much pain and too tired to try and follow a language she barely knew.
Suddenly, Dr. Busen’s expression lit up and he turned to Paul, saying something that had both Elites looking at one another in intense confusion. Paul asked a clarifying question and Dr. Busen answered. Paul’s face also lit up and they both started walking to the door, discussing the technical aspects of the treatment.
Isa chuckled, shaking her head.
“Do they seem a little too excited about the challenge?” she tried to tease.
“They don’t want to see you in pain,” Remus said, squeezing her hand. “Dr. Busen was frantic trying to find a way to help you.”
They both fell silent again for a very long time. Isa fell asleep once more and Remus leaned forward, resting his head on his arm on the bed next to Isa, keeping her hand in his.
A nurse walking into the room stirred both of them.
“My sincerest apologies, Elite Isa, Elite Remus,” he said, bowing his head slightly. “Dr. Busen said that he will perform your surgery in about an hour and he would like you prepped.” The nurse walked forward slowly. “He…he’s not putting this surgery in our computers. Something about Venus’ mainframe being locked down?”
“It’s locked down for safety,” Remus said, quickly making up a plausible lie. “We received threats from Gihron. We took precaution.”
“I understand,” Isa added. “It’s alright. The information will be added later to her mainframe.”
The nurse seemed more at ease after hearing the explanation. He approached the Elite and began hooking the Elite up to even more monitors, though it was difficult for him to place them all correctly when there were already so many machines attached to the Elite. Isa did not bother to ask what surgery Dr. Busen wanted to perform. She trusted him entirely.
“You also have someone that wants to see you,” the nurse said.
“Who?”
“A woman. She said she’s a close friend of yours and the Syndicate sent her over,” the nurse elaborated. “Someone named Vanessa Henrick. Does the name sound familiar?”
“Yes,” Isa said. “I’ll see her. Can you show her up before the surgery?”
“Isa, can you handle that?” Remus asked, worried.
“I don’t know what state I will be in when I wake up,” Isa said. “But judging from past experience, I will be nearly incoherent. It won’t take long.”
“You can see her later.”
“Remus,” Isa said, looking at him seriously, “I need to speak with her. It concerns this treatment.”
Remus blinked at Isa and then sighed heavily, nodding, understanding what the Golden Elite meant.
“Alright, but a short visit.”
The nurse nodded, lifting his wrist to his mouth.
“Waiting room, send Henricks up to fourth floor security window.”
Remus looked at Isa seriously.
“Don’t you think it’s weird that she just showed up now?”
“I do,” Isa agreed with a nod. “But I’ve been asking around, gathering all information I can on where she’s been all these years, and I’ve noticed that there is a very good trend wherever she appears. She helped guide Kreon through the social upheaval nine years ago, she’s been jumping around the smaller planets, negotiating stronger trade routes with the larger planets on their behalf, she’s clearly working to strengthen the Alliance.” She sighed heavily. “And she promised that she would help us, should we ever need it.”
“And you’re going to trust her word on that?”
“Don’t you remember what she was like as a teacher?” Isa asked.
“We were children,” Remus reminded her. “We were ambitious and more than a little stupid. You know this. Venus had her exiled.”
“I lifted her exile status. She was always different from every other teacher we had at the Academy, and Venus was quick to fire her and throw her into exile when we started making some serious headway. Clearly, she understands more than she’s letting on.”
“And that doesn’t concern you?”
“Of course it does,” Isa said. “But we should listen to what she has to say. With Gihron attacking and the threat of the rest of the Ninth Circle weighing on us, we need to take a few risks.”
Remus sighed heavily, lowering his eyes and shaking his head.
“I’m not sure I have the same faith in her that you clearly do,” Remus murmured. “The timing is just too coincidental.” He pursed his lips and looked at her seriously. “But, you know that I will stand by any decision you make.”
The two Elites were silent for several minutes. The nurse left when he was called by the security office and the two members of the Syndicate waited for Vanessa Henricks to be guided to the
room.
When the woman walked in, she looked as she always had—beautiful with the most powerful eyes anyone had ever seen.
“I was worried when the Syndicate said you were in the hospital,” Vanessa said, walking forward as the nurse left the room.
Remus backed away from Isa, allowing Vanessa to come forward and sit next to the Golden Elite. He leaned against the wall, watching warily. Vanessa sat next to Isa and looked over her.
“Are you alright?”
“Not really,” the Elite chuckled. “But I’m still breathing.”
“That’s a good start,” Vanessa said with a smile. She turned to the Silver Elite. “Hello, Remus. How are you?”
“I’m well, thank you,” he said stiffly. He nodded to Isa. “It has been a trying day.”
“I can imagine,” Vanessa said. She looked back at Isa and took a deep breath, looking over the Golden Elite once more. “How did this happen?”
“Oh, the same way it always does,” Isa chuckled. “I was not being as smart as I should be.”
Vanessa smiled at the joke. “It does sound familiar,” she teased. “Where is your doctor?”
“Prepping for surgery.”
“What kind of surgery?”
“I actually don’t know,” Isa chuckled brokenly, cringing at a sharp flare of pain.
“That’s a leap of faith, don’t you think?” the older woman laughed.
“I trust him immensely,” Isa assured. She took a deep breath and shifted in the bed, smiling at her former teacher. “I wasn’t aware that you were on-planet.”
“I arrived this morning,” Vanessa explained. “I came because I have some news for you.”
“What kind of news?”
“After some…heated negotiation,” she started, “I managed to get Ulam to withdraw their support to the Gihron Army. This will drop the Gihoric defenses severely.”
Isa’s eyes shot wide.
“How did you manage that?”
“It was not easy,” Vanessa admitted. “I had to play a card I was trying to avoid.”
“What do you mean?”
“I showed them a transmitted discussion between Jakra and Gihron showing that Gihron intended to make Ulam pay all reparations if Gihron lost the war, and that they would be taxed severely if Gihron won.”
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