The Significant

by Kyra Anderson

  Possible breach of security. No information is safe.

  Isa met with the Colonel that night for dinner and gave him the information on Dyran. He took it quietly and then ate the simple dinner that Rayal had cooked before asking to be excused for the night. Isa told herself that she would call a physician for her caretaker the next morning, worried about his declining health.

  Colonel Amori did not speak to her over dinner, and when he finished eating—Isa had not touched her food—he took the drive with the information on Dyran and left without a word.

  There was something terrifying about the behavior.

  For two days, Isa heard nothing from Colonel Amori. Rather than ease her mind, it frightened her more.

  She left work on day, exhausted and shaking. She knew that she was weak from not sleeping or eating, but her stomach was constantly twisting inside her and her mind refused to be silent at night to allow her rest. She tried not to notice how pale her face had become, or how dark the circles around her eyes were, or the way her body would fire painful signals randomly in muscle spasms strong enough to knock the breath out of her, but she could feel her body falling apart slowly.

  The most she could do was to try and hide it from the Syndicate. She was worried that, if they found out, Colonel Amori, who was watching her constantly, would press the button on his remote and activate the microbionic cells. She knew the threat was not idle—Rayal was getting worse by the day, and she knew it was from the microbionic cells.

  She closed her eyes as she sat in the car, feeling the gentle hum of the vehicle as it sped along the highway to its programmed destination.

  Isa heard a noise behind her and whirled around in time to see the Colonel’s face before a cloth pressed tightly over her nose and mouth and the world fell into black.

  When her eyes opened, she spent several minutes staring at the dark grey, metal wall, trying to recall what happened. Her confusion was only enhanced by the drugs still running through her system.

  She had to prepare herself to turn over, her body twinging in pain from lying on the cold stone floor. Her eyes scanned the ceiling where the dull lights nearly blinded her tired eyes. With a careful breath, she turned once more and scrutinized the walls. There were no windows on the walls. It appeared to be a solitary confinement cell, with a metal door one yellowed window.

  In the window of the door was the face of Colonel Amori, twisted in a sick smile.

  The screeching of the door opening almost made Isa’s head explode in pain. She cringed away, trying to lift her hands to her head, but the sharp tug of restraints on her wrists, waist, neck, and ankles made her realize she was confined like a prisoner in maximum security confinement. She stared at the thick, twisted cables between the cuffs on disbelief.

  “As I expected,” Colonel Amori chuckled. “You are awake several hours before a normal human. The bio-engineering in Elites is quite remarkable. It’s too bad you’re all so mindless and stupid. You would be incredibly interesting to study.”

  “The Syndicate will notice if I’m gone.”

  “Eventually, yes,” Colonel Amori agreed, crouching in front of her. Isa, in her peripheral vision, saw that he had left the door open. She needed only to get her feet under her, stun Colonel Amori briefly, and then lock him in the room. From there, she knew she could find out where she was and get help. However, she did not dare look at the door, not wanting to tip off the Gihoric leader.

  “But they won’t notice that you’re missing for another three hours, when you don’t show up for work. Unfortunately, poor Rayal has become so much worse, he didn’t notice that you weren’t home last night,” he said. “And it’s such a shame that those blood samples went missing.” He wagged a disapproving finger at her with a smile. “Your people clearly aren’t as happy as you claim,” he stated. “It was so easy to bribe a nurse to misplace the blood samples.”

  “You fucking bastard,” Isa growled.

  “Name calling is hardly going to help.”

  “You realize that you’ve kidnapped the leader of Tiao and the Crescent Alliance,” Isa snapped. “You are now committing acts of terrorism. You will be killed and your planet will be either destroyed or conquered.”

  “It’s adorable how powerful you think you are,” Colonel Amori chided. He stood, walking around her. “You even thought that your little message to Venus would help? Granted, it was brilliant of you to put it in that strange encryption code. I must work on translating that, but I knew it was a warning. It was too short to be anything else. But I guess I didn’t give you much time to send something more detailed, since I’m always watching you.”

  Isa listened to the Colonel’s boots as they slowly walked around her, stopping at her back. She kept her eyes forward, on the open door, preparing to fight and escape.

  “I was looking into the Elite Academy,” Colonel Amori said. “I was trying to figure out why you are so different from the others.”

  “Even the doctors can’t understand it, so I doubt you can.”

  “I’ve read their reports,” he said. “And even with all the trauma you’ve been through, you seem not to exhibit any traits of mental problems. You saw a classmate killed, your lover was tortured for days, you were beaten probably every other day the entire time you were in school, but still, you march along as though you are so powerful.”

  Isa remained silent, rallying her strength.

  “You spent the first seventeen years of your life being beaten and ordered around by humans, and you then turn around and think that you can rule them? Does that make sense?”

  Still, the Golden Elite was quiet.

  Suddenly, Colonel Amori lifted his foot and violently kicked Isa in the back. She let out a surprised cry and her body was forced forward, rolling twice until it came to rest near the door. As she tried to force her lungs to work once more, she pulled her legs under her and tried to get out of the cell.

  Colonel Amori’s fingers wrapped in her hair and his other hand shoved the door shut as he yanked her backward.

  She managed to stumble within her restraints but remain standing. She twisted her body, swinging her restrained hands together to connect with Colonel Amori’s face. He quickly regained his balance and grabbed Isa’s shoulders, violently kneeing her in the stomach.

  She collapsed to the ground, groaning and gasping in pain.

  Colonel Amori smiled, licking the blood from his lips.

  “I want to remind you of exactly what you are,” he said. He kicked her in the stomach as she started to straighten and she let out a cry of pain, falling to her side. “This is how powerful you are. You are meant to obey, and to always obey. Humans, teachers, Venus, it doesn’t matter, you are the lowest of the low.” He kicked her once more. “And now, you obey me.”

  Isa tried to remain still as the Colonel kicked her. She figured eventually he would get bored and stop. She tried to formulate a plan for what to do when he did stop the beating.

  “Don’t worry,” he chuckled, yanking her up by her hair and smiling sickly. “I’m following the rules of the Academy.”

  He shoved her back down to the ground and kneeled on her stomach and chest.

  “Never hit the face or neck, right?” he asked. “Only the places that are covered by the uniform. That way, you can keep up appearances.”

  Isa struggled to breathe under his weight, her head going light.

  Colonel Amori stood only to kick her three more times and then left the cell, not allowing her time to recover before the door screeched shut and the clank of the lock caused even more pain to settle into Isa’s chest.

  Without windows, there was no concept of time. When the pain in her body became tolerable, Isa stood and clumsily shuffled around the room, looking at every wall, every corner, the hinges on the metal door, and glancing out the window to the empty hallway beyond. The ceiling was solid apart from the lights, and Isa had no way to reach them.

  She was trapped.

  She pressed her face agains
t the wall, rubbing her cheek back and forth across the surface in an attempt to activate her phone and call for help. When she managed to hear the automatic voice ask who she wanted to call, she said the Syndicate. The automatic voice came back, saying that her location and identity could not be verified, and therefore the call could not connect.

  Isa barked at the phone to operate on emergency mode, but as it began connecting to emergency operators, the sound warped and eventually turned into a high, painful whine. Isa tried to get away from the noise, but with the implanted earpiece, the sound penetrated into her brain.

  She finally conceded to sit in a corner, turning over every possibility of escape.

  The Golden Elite did not have much time to think, however. Colonel Amori returned, this time with a tablet and the black handle with the green button.

  “You must be feeling alright, trying to put out an emergency call like that,” he said with a smile. He closed the door behind him and walked forward, crouching in front of Isa and holding up the tablet. “You seem to need a little more convincing, which is why I brought you here. You will obey me. I have big plans for Tiao, so I would rather not destroy everything in the process of conquering it. The faster you cooperate, the less lives will be lost.”

  He tapped the top of the tablet twice and it flickered to life, showing a live video feed from Remus’ office at the Syndicate.

  “What are you doing?” Isa hissed.

  “Showing you that I am not joking about controlling Remus and the others.” His other hand lifted the device and he smiled, placing his finger over the trigger. “Just for added assurance that this footage has not been altered or recorded previously, I’m going to have you tell me when to push the button.”

  “You think that I’ll cooperate if you kill them?”

  “No, your Elites will survive.” He turned his hand to show her how the trigger worked. “If I push this up, it activates the cells. If it’s down, however, they return to hibernation.”

  “I won’t do it.”

  “I didn’t give you the option to refuse.”

  “You said Rayal was worse, I believe you. If you press that button, you might kill him.”

  Colonel Amori chuckled. “You’re more worried about the caretaker than your lover?”

  “I don’t need to be convinced,” Isa said. “You’ve kidnapped me and beaten me. You have made it abundantly clear that your threats are not idle.”

  Colonel Amori narrowed his eyes, smiling dangerously.

  “All the same—”

  He clicked the switch and Isa started forward.

  “No, don’t!” she cried. “I told you I believed you!”

  “Let’s solidify that.”

  Isa’s eyes turned back to the monitor and she saw Remus leave his office, the camera switching, locked onto his signature, to him running down the hallway, up the staircase and to her office. Chronus was already there, angrily shoving the door open.

  Remus ran into Isa’s office and to the NCB chair. He pushed on the machine, his altered strength causing it to snap off the base. Isa watched in horror as three other Bronze Elites stormed into her office, overturning her desk and looking for her. Their faces were frantic and confused, but their actions terrified Isa.

  “Stop,” she said. When Colonel Amori did not flip the switch down, she turned away from the screen. “I said stop!” she barked. “I understand! I’m listening to you!”

  He laughed and flicked the switch.

  “Finally, some progress,” he said. He kept the tablet facing her and she watched as, one by one, the Elites slowed and stopped, breathing hard, turning to one another in confusion.

  Before Colonel Amori turned off the tablet, Isa glanced at the clock, seeing that she had already been gone for almost an entire day.

  “Now,” Colonel Amori started, grabbing the cord between Isa’s restraints and hauling her to her feet, “I need to test your obedience.”

  He yanked her into the dark, short hallway she had seen out the window. She glanced around briefly to spot an exit, but when she could not, she focused entirely on the trigger in Colonel Amori’s other hand. She wondered if she could get it and destroy it before he could use it against her once more.

  Pushing the door open with his shoulder, Colonel Amori brought her into a room that appeared to be a recreation room of some sort when the facility was in use. There were old tables and chairs and a broken vending machine in one corner. Sitting on one table, in stark contrast to the older furnishings, was a new computer, hooked up to several external drives and two supplemental monitors that were black.

  On the computer, Isa could see Venus’ mainframe and schematics flashing across the screen with several meters of slowly-ascending numbers.

  “How did you access her mainframe?” Isa asked sharply, planting her feet and pulling against his tugging. He let out a bark of laughter, yanking sharply to force her forward.

  “That’s paltry at this point, I should think,” he said. “I told you, I’ve been able to watch you for some time, all from Venus’ mainframe.” He turned to her when they were in front of the computer. “And it’s all thanks to you.” He smiled, gently pulling on the cable between her restraints to bring her two steps closer. “I was going to thank you for the information on Dyran, but you must think I’m a moron. I would think, after everything, you would realize you cannot hide anything from me. I know all about Saera.” He nodded to the screen of the computer, so Isa turned her eyes trying, to figure out what she was looking at and how it related to Saera.

  “This is your test,” he started. “This is a Charge Burst. It’s been charging for a while now, just to be safe, but it’s currently aimed at the main power generator for Saera. If it hits that generator, it will cause a chain reaction through the rest of the facility and it will destroy the entire city, and all of its inhabitants, as well as decimating your terraform facilities. I’m not sure if anything will grow after something so devastating happens underground and rips apart everything on the surface.” He chuckled darkly at Isa’s controlled expression, even though her eyes were showing her horror. She watched the numbers increase on the Charge Burst, trying to recall everything she knew about the weapon. It was an old form of warfare, attacking from under the ground. As with microbionics, the Charge Bursts were outlawed in the Alliance with the regulation of military forces.

  “Obviously, this provides nearly sixty percent of Tiao’s food,” Colonel Amori continued. “And I doubt you’ll be able to get anyone to eat the native crops to Tiao, since they have no nutritional value to humans. So, if it is destroyed, you’re going to be feeding your people chemical rations.” He lifted the handle with the green button with his other hand, smiling. “You already know what this does. You have to choose between them. Either kill your caretaker and make your Syndicate of idiots so homicidal, the only thing that will stop them is a bullet to the brain, or destroy the main generator of Saera and annihilate your planet’s food source.”

  “What is the point of making me do this?” Isa growled, glaring at Colonel Amori. “If you destroy the food source of the planet, then Tiao is weakened and not nearly as valuable of a conquest.”

  “However, if you destroy the Syndicate, it will be that much easier for my brother to take over, once I shut down Venus.” Colonel Amori smiled. “Quite the conundrum, isn’t it?”

  “And if I choose neither option?”

  “You want to leave it in my hands?” Colonel Amori asked. “You and I are far from Anon. I would just destroy the capital and stay with you here while my brother presumed me dead and attacked Tiao. I would force you to watch as your entire planet was conquered and your people slaughtered.” His smile widened. “You make the decision, you have three options—destroy your Syndicate, destroy Saera, or destroy Anon.”

  Isa looked between the screen and Colonel Amori, noting where his hand was on the handle and on the cable restraining her.

  In a brief moment, she lunged forward and her head connect
ed with his, stunning him while she tried to reach for the handle. He let out a startled cry of pain and rolled away from her, tugging on the cable and causing her to lose her balance and fall to the ground. His foot connected with her ribs.

  “You bitch!” he groaned, holding his bleeding nose. “Have you learned nothing?! Do you want me to destroy all three for you?!”

  He kicked her once more. She tried to breathe, but her body was already bruised and beaten from his previous attacks and the pain seared through her.

  Colonel Amori pulled out a gun from his jacket and pointed it at her as she tried to catch her breath.

  “You have ten seconds to make your decision before I destroy all three.”

  Isa let out a shaky breath, trying to get to her feet, struggling against the pain. Colonel Amori angrily yanked her upright, holding her steady and pushing the barrel of the gun into her chest sharply.

  “Make your choice,” he snarled.

  He released Isa and backed away one step, keeping the gun pointed at her with one hand raised and his finger on the green trigger.

  She stared at him for two long seconds before turning to look at the computer screen, her mind racing, weighing all the options. She fought with the urge to turn around and attack him once again. She was too weak and hurt already to risk not dominating the fight and allowing the Colonel to destroy both cities and her Syndicate.

  If the Syndicate were to be controlled to the point of having to be killed to be stopped, leaving only Isa alive, it would leave her without support and would raise suspicions among the Alliance, which would, in turn, cause others to doubt the strength of Tiao. That would limit the amount of aid Isa could get in retaliating against Gihron. However, if Anon was destroyed, millions of lives would be lost, along with the symbol that was the capital of Tiao. The most lives would be lost if she did nothing.

  If she were to allow the Charge Burst to destroy Saera, then about one-hundred thousand lives would be lost, and millions of credits that went into developing the greenhouses that developed food. While it would make real food more expensive, there were rations to fall back on, and Dyran was on its way to becoming the next site for terraformed greenhouses.