by Reiter
“I should not be surprised that a recorded message created by Z would include information about me… but I must admit his sense of thoroughness is astounding. To that end, I should make you aware of your condition,” Tuitonn added.
“My what?”
“The only ones who know that there is an Imperial spy on board this ship are you, me, and Z,” the floating orb advised. “Given where we are and what we’re about, perhaps this is not the best time to come forward with the truth.”
“And what ‘when’ are we waiting for?” Culshee asked.
“When Z can answer that question,” Tuitonn replied as light started to emanate from his form. “As you can see, this is not the hangar.”
Culshee looked around for a moment and then turned back toward Tuitonn. “It looks like some sort of lab.”
“Precisely, and behind me you will find the woman who attacked you in your room, drugged you, and had you shipped off to the Bowels of Black Gate.” Culshee leaned to look around Tuitonn and jumped slightly at the sight of seeing herself trapped in a stasis field.
“Spirits of my fathers!” she whispered, walking around Tuitonn. She approached the stasis field and looked at the unit maintaining the energy flow. She did not understand the language of emission specifications, but the readings of the body were clear to her; the subject was in an absolutely perfect hibernating state. She was not even aging. “This is some nice work,” she said, looking at the device creating the field. “They didn’t preserve cadavers this well back in Med School!”
“A compliment you can forward to the First Mate upon his return,” Tuitonn replied. “My concerns… first, how this was achieved. I do not detect anything majikul about her form, and it certainly was not a discipline of ThoughtWill. Secondly, how is it that she has so little memory for me to read?!”
“I won’t be able to answer those questions while she’s in stasis,” Culshee said as she started to roll up her sleeves. The lights in the lab came on and Culshee nodded as she looked around. “Nice! I think I will have everything I need right here.”
“If not, I can have a drone fetch it for you.”
“Appreciate it, Tuitonn. Now, let’s see about getting her out of stasis.”
“Speaking of bodily conditions…” A beam of white light shot from Tuitonn in a cone shape and cascaded over Culshee’s body. She gasped as first, but then sighed as all of her muscles were massaged and then invigorated.
“Careful, this is only our first date,” Culshee sighed as she started stretching. “… but that definitely hit the spot… all the spots.” She shook her head as she reached down and touched her toes. “I tell you, that pod was uber-designed. There was more damage done to my body when they kidnapped me than from lying in that delivery rocket for days. If that’s the kind of technology I’ve got around me, Dwon’s favorite granddaughter might need to step up her game just to keep up!”
“Do not allow yourself to be too greatly pressed,” Tuitonn directed as he floated over to the prisoner. “That is not how the Captain or Z would want you to feel. It may feel that they are rather demanding, but they are not.” A light application of telekinesis and the generator was deactivated. Tuitonn took hold of the collapsing body, laying it down on the examination table.
“They would have every right to be!” Culshee commented as she walked over to the stand Tuitonn had prepared with a wider range of tools than she was used to using. She took hold of the ionizer first and showered herself with the radiation. Dead skin and harmful bacteria were targeted and obliterated. “The framing of the walls of the room may look second rate, but they approach a very old style of ship building… when they made things to last! I have to look twice at these tools to make sure I’m getting it right. I’m used to them being much bigger and attached to some gigantic power unit. The damn ionizer could fit in my pocket!” Still looking around, Culshee reached to the tool tray and picked up the gloves.
“Yes, it is true,” Tuitonn replied. “Z is something of a find when it comes to technology. But adding pressure to yourself will only diminish your potential for performance.”
“I guess that’s one way of looking at it,” Culshee said before squatting down. The haymaker of a punch passed harmlessly over her head and Culshee stood up, throwing her bodyweight into an uppercut that struck the sternum perfectly. There were fighting instructors in Felantri’s memory who hit softer, and she doubled over as she fell off the table. “Of course, another way…” Culshee said as she dropped to one knee, driving a knife-hand thrust into the lower back of the debilitated woman. “… when you feel pressured to perform, assuming that you want to do well, that is…” The nerve strike locked the woman’s body long enough for Culshee to take hold of the woman’s head, lift it slightly, and drive the imposter’s face into the floor. “… sometimes, that nervousness can be used to increase your focus, you know?
“And now that I know we can tell ourselves apart…” Culshee muttered as she rolled the woman over on her back. She quickly applied a choke hold her grandfather had taught her and had been reviewed in her recent Basic Training. She did not know how to admit that she preferred Z’s approach to the hold and, as the woman fell unconscious, that he improved the effectiveness of the technique. “… we can get started.”
“How very clever,” Tuitonn admitted. “The blank mind was the empty thoughts she has been trained to project. I shall have to create an effective countermeasure to this. That said, you are more gifted than I expected.”
Culshee and Tuitonn lifted the woman and returned her to the table. Tuitonn activated the restraints and Culshee changed out her gloves. “It’s not a wise thing to get into a fight with a medical professional. I’ve always known where to hit a body… and thanks to my grandfather, and now Z, I really know how to make that hit happen.” Culshee looked at her hands; she had long ago dedicated them to healing and improving the status of life.
The moves had come so easily to her, but then again, she was not a stranger to fighting styles. Seeing her grandfather fight and her mother compete, Culshee had been driven into the medical profession.
She had sworn off the so-called natural skills she possessed. Her parents had been livid, but grandfather was the king of that household. Dwon Stormraven could have put his foot down; gray hair and all, he still possessed the skills and the striking power to take on every adult in the house and win. He had simply looked at his first born child and asked her, “So, what you’re saying is that you should not have been allowed to marry outside of our people, or have half-breed children?” That had been the end of the argumentation, and he had made Culshee make one promise: never forget the tribe, their way, or the spirits.
Quenching her thirst for knowledge, she never forgot what he had done, and her major had to make room for homeopathic medicine and occult studies. Through all the classes and papers, the more tangible facts she had learned, the more those facts could not explain the things she had learned spending vacations with her grandfather in the mountains, away from the mech and tech. She had tried so hard to debunk the spirits, and it had wound up making her stronger with them.
Culshee had seen Black Gate in a vision, but she had not been able to decipher what the spirits were trying to tell her. Looking around the room, this secret lab aboard an undetectable pirate ship, Culshee had put it together. There was no way to get one message to cover all of the things that had happened to her… and she had just really come aboard.
“Yeah, sometimes a good push really helps you do what you need to do!” Culshee said, picking up a probe. “And that little frenzy fight tells me something we might not want to see.” She inserted the probe into the skin at the side of the woman’s torso and only stopped when she reached the ribs. She activated the reading sensors and looked at the monitor. “I knew it,” she sighed. “We could be in major trouble here!”
“What is it?!”
“A steady rhythmic electromagnetic signature,” Culshee advised. “The human body generates a signat
ure, but it fluctuates. Only machines put out steady ones.”
“But I had her scanned for internal circuitry,” Tuitonn stated. “It came back negative.”
“And it will again,” Culshee quickly countered. “We’ve got ourselves a liborg.”
“A what?”
“Well, a cyborg is one who has body parts removed and replaced with machinery, the tech you mentioned before. A liborg is basically the same thing, except that all of the machinery is biological in nature. Each working part is formulated and grown from the subject’s DNA. Absolutely zero chance the body will reject the implant, or in this case implants. That’s the only way someone coming out of stasis could swing the way she did. It also explains how she’s able to control her thoughts in a manner to fool you.” Felantri’s body shuddered as she tried to reach for Culshee’s neck. “And apparently the restraints around here are as hi-tech as everything else.” The Med-Tech looked up at the reading screens and pointed at them. “You see that there… how nothing in her readout has changed, but she’s conscious and moving? She’s duping the probe. And if she has some sort of onboard communication device–”
“She does, and that signal is not getting beyond this room,” Tuitonn informed, sounding somewhat relieved to receive that report.
“See what I mean about that little push?” Culshee asked, petting the orb as she walked by. “If her freaking ribs are implants, there is a good chance her entire skeletal system is a super-machine. That might be another reason why you can’t read anything. All of her thoughts and memories could be broken down to computer code. I won’t know until I scan the skull–” Felantri tried again to free herself, groaning as she pushed her body to its limits. Her shoulder popped out of socket and she gasped in pain, choosing then to lie very still. “… and it’s apparent she does not want that to happen. Can you do a partial stasis field? It’s been pretty much made clear that Z’s table can hold her, but I don’t want her hurting herself like that again.”
White light shot down from Tuitonn covering Felantri’s body from just under the nose to the woman’s feet, leaving the soles bare but covering the toenails. “It’s not a stasis field, but my limit of telekinesis is just under five tons, and it is the least draining of my disciplines.”
Culshee sighed, picking up another probe. “Well, beggars can’t be choosy,” she said sarcastically and she smiled when she heard Tuitonn chuckle.
“Won’t she just fool that probe too?”
Culshee nodded as she inserted the probe into the woman’s scalp. “Ah yes, but here’s the rub. I’m going to program them to alternate frequencies randomly with the added bonus of making sure they never broadcast the same signal. We’re about to give her onboard system the workout of its life!! Because, even if she’s able to initially fool them both, this is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Having biologically-based tech means you have to contend with the weaknesses of the biology. I wonder when she last ate.” Culshee looked down on the bruised face of the impostor. Already the bruising was fading, and that made Culshee happy. She wouldn’t strike the woman again, but her body having to tend to more than one job at a time was going to be helpful. “And I wanted to assume this room was like soundproof.”
“It is,” Tuitonn replied.
“Then why cover her mouth?”
“She has a penchant for using chemically-loaded pods in her teeth,” he explained. “It was one of those gas breaths that she used to subdue you. The field I have created actually goes into her mouth, as I do not know what sorts of combinations she’s capable of.”
“We have a quick fix for that,” Culshee said as she took out another probe. She inserted it into the jaw, after Tuitonn made a very small hole in his field, and added it to the tandem that was already running.
“You do have three more probes there,” Tuitonn said.
“Yeah, I know,” Culshee said as her eyes squinted. “But I’m not sure of all her capabilities. If she can absorb the radiation and trigger a power feed, that could be problematic. I’d hate for her to backlash you on our first date.”
“That would indeed be problematic,” Tuitonn said as he flared bright for a moment and the computer console responded. The probe signals stopped for a few seconds before they started again. “I’ve asked the computer to encrypt the transmissions channels the probes are using and contain their findings in a virtual database. Once we are sure of the readings we are getting, we can send the probe feeds to the actual computer.
“And you are right, Culshee… about that push… I think I might actually begin to like technology!”
** b *** t *** o *** r **
(Rims Time: XII-4203.22)
Ephaliun coughed as his body convulsed. He screamed out in pain as he felt a hand pushing against his chest, keeping him from getting up. “Rest easy now,” Rahneece said softly. “You went right when right was wrong… way wrong!”
“Oh shit, that hurt!” Ephaliun shouted. “Is it supposed to hurt that much?!”
“You got squished between robot armour and a bulkhead,” Rahneece explained. “… you’re supposed to be dead!”
“And I’d like to think that means it doesn’t hurt as much,” Ephaliun shot back, moving her hand away from his chest. “How long was I in?”
“Fifteen minutes longer than me,” Rahneece answered. “I barely managed to crest the ten-hour mark.”
“How’d you buy it?”
“Backlash,” she sighed. “I was going up against a Chevalier, and was about to lay that bastard low with a serious last shot. He hit me with a pebble in the eye.”
“And the backlash killed you?”
“No, but I was just rolling on the ground, drooling and pissing myself while as he got up, dusted himself off, drew his blaster, took slow aim, and kicked me out of my simulation. I caught the last bit of your run. That was some good work!”
“Glad I didn’t have to deal with pebble-tossing Chevaliers,” Ephaliun returned. “What was your count?”
“One hundred and fifty-six.”
“What in the hell?!” Ephaliun barked as Ulios’ simulator signaled it was powering down.
“Get down!” Rahneece cried, diving toward Ephaliun who wrapped his arms around her body and hooked the edge of the cot with his foot. As their bodies rolled over the side, the cot was pulled over to serve as some measure of protection. There was a bright light and the two braced for the worst. The light faded and they slowly separated from one another to crawl to the cot and peek over the side.
At the base of Ulios’ simulator was Dungias, with Alpha touched to the ground where the construction of the gravity force-field had started. Inside the field was a sphere of purple light, pushing against the sides of the field.
“Rahneece, have you recovered?” Dungias asked, an unusual sound of straining in his voice.
“If you can share the load!” she said, quickly standing up.
“Can and will,” Dungias said, hurling the contained energy toward the young woman.
“Now, Jordan,” Rahneece commanded and her body flashed when the field struck her, flowing into her chest. She took a step back and screamed, her eyes flashing with purple light.
“Give me what you cannot contain,” Dungias commanded, stepping toward her and bracing himself. A beam of white light shot from her chest into Dungias’ hand and it was sustained for thirty seconds. Both Rahneece and Dungias were on their knees when the light faded.
“Okay, that was impressive,” Ephaliun remarked as he moved to carry Rahneece over to a cot.
“Slow,” she warned. “Please go slow!”
“You got it, lady!” After setting her down, the young man quickly turned to see if he could assist Dungias, but the large man was busy carrying Ulios to a cot. “Is he alright?”
“Actually, he is euphoric,” Dungias explained. “The simulator scenario caused his abilities to evolve. This was not to have happened for another ten years.”
“Cradle robber,” Ephaliun ribbed before looking up. “Sa
tithe, could you give me a reading on Rahneece, please?”
“Of course,” the computer replied. “Unfortunately, she is not euphoric.”
“I could’ve told you that,” Rahneece sniped.
“She is fatigued, but no worse for wear. Please stand clear of her cot and I will give her something to help her sleep.”
“No, I wanna be here when Teela wakes up,” the young woman argued. Ephaliun stepped back from her side and shook his head.
“We’ll be sure to record it for you,” he countered. Rahneece mumbled something incoherent before she fell unconscious. “Teacher, do you ever get worried that what you’re really baking up here is a batch of mad fanatics?”
“I believe there is an Old Earth saying that best suits my perspective of that possibility,” Dungias started. “The chip does not fly far from the block! After all, Ephaliun, what else could a fanatic create?”
“Now see, that’s where I used to have a problem,” the young man shared.
“Used to?”
“Call it seeing too much through your eyes,” Ephaliun reflected. “But after listening to your story… seeing everything through your eyes…”
“Thank you, Alpha,” Dungias thought, realizing what had been added to the simulations.
“… I gotta say, I get it. Your homeworld, your people, you being born shay-spawn… the Grenbi, the BroSohnti, the Tohgrunn, the Athun, the Gattakari… hey, speaking of races, I couldn’t help but think that the Tohgrunn and the Nalyik look awfully similar.”
“That is for good reason. It is the name for the same race of being, just from different sides of a dimensional breach. There is no telling what humans are called in another dimension.”
Ephaliun stood there for a moment, contemplating what he had just been told. “Damn, just thinking about it makes me tired! But still, after all that, how do you not put your all into it? I mean, since you didn’t decide to just end everyone who crossed you. It’s a good thing the decision fell to you. I’m not sure I would’ve answered the same way you did. Teacher and First Mate aside, I know why Rahneece has a problem with you following JoJo. You’re more than what we’re used to.”