by Greg Ramsay
As for Doctor Barton, I’m inclined to reject him personally. However, I believe he is too valuable an intellectual asset. The abilities he developed for himself and his wife intrigue me in terms of their military application. I argue he should be allowed to work, under supervision, to enhance the rest of us. Though he should be denied any combative capacity, the uproar his presence by itself causes, is too great. Should people see him on patrol in that intimidating armour it will call our loyalty as well as leadership into question.” She concluded her testimony with a cold look to James.
“Thank you, Admiral, Captain,” Prime Minister Woodrow said. The Admiral marched off, her soldiers, as well as the protestors followed behind silently, for fear of consequence. “With the Admiral’s considerate testimony noted we will now vote. All in favour of Emilia Barton becoming a resident in light of her unique circumstances raise your hands.” Slowly, somewhat begrudgingly, six of the ten remaining delegates raised their hands, including Prime Minister Woodrow. “Emilia Barton is approved for asylum as a permanent resident. She is to be detained in general population, per Admiral Yuuki’s recommendation, and kept under watch for mental state per colony policy. Now we vote for Doctor James Barton.”
Only five hands raised, openly citing his scientific influence as the cause. Inwardly James was dismayed, his fate now rested with a jury, all whom had reason to despise him. “Doctor Barton, my vote in favour of Emilia was swayed by public opinion. You, however, do not have that advantage,” the Italian delegate stated. James’ heart dropped. “All votes tallied for and against conclude that you shall be denied asylum on this vessel and detained in isolation until you can be returned to Earth. There you will live out your days fighting the monsters you made,” the Afghani delegate stated with a hint of satisfaction showing through his political veneer.
There’s no modifying this reality to save me, James thought to himself mournfully as he submitted himself to restraints. All those involved knew he could break free if wanted, but he followed along submissively like a lifelong prisoner to another cell farther away from Lia.
Meanwhile Lia’s distress became gradually more apparent. She heard the shots ring out. She could even sense the release of James’ armour. Her mind seemed to resonate with his pain. The hours that it seemed she waited, felt like an eternity of confusion. Lia scorned herself for worrying, judged herself for being too emotional, and questioned herself for being too calm, all while rotating between being utterly fearful for their fates or indifferent to her own. Her time in solitude had been divided between emotional turmoil or memory lane trips she wished she could abandon. Having to wonder what would become of herself, let alone James, drove her mad internally. It took all her will just to remain calm externally. She knew something horrible was happening, but couldn’t act without spawning a localized international incident. Worse still, she sensed him being led away days later, but no one had the courtesy to let them speak, even if it meant saying goodbye. Fuck them all, Lia thought scornfully, inwardly wishing she’d stayed on Earth. She could understand why they’d reject him, but why not her as well? Instead she was left alone with no information, only her imagination.
James meanwhile was quietly led back to the docking bay where their one-way pod still waited. Admiral Yuuki stood by the airlock looking stern. “Thank you for helping Lia,” James said kindly.
“By all accounts she is a good soldier, a valuable asset. We need more with her capabilities,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“And for supporting my case despite your personal feelings,” James said calmly, aware she didn’t do it to be nice.
“My reasoning is the same, though a wife shouldn’t be left alone, not after all she’s been through, stress like this could hinder her effectiveness.”
James nodded, choosing to see her words as masking a kinder motivation. He was led into the pod before it sealed behind him. Lia was released from her isolation cell, cuffed, and en-route to general population detainment. Whether out of cruelty or simply engineering constraints, her captors led her right by the docking bay James had just exited.
“It is policy that the worst criminals are given retrofitted pods as return vessels. Generally, they can’t withstand re-entry, but with your power you might. Take heart, despite all you’ve done you still have more than the false hope criminals are given before they perish,” Admiral Yuuki said to James via his onboard comms before hitting the eject button unceremoniously.
Lia heard the burst of decompression through the sealed airlock door signifying he was gone. Wordlessly she was led down multiple alley-like corridors in the depths of the ship until she arrived in a heavily fortified cavern lined with cages. Lia let them uncuff her before entering her new home peacefully, as James would’ve wished. Brief observation showed certain cells were curtained off as if to hide the occupants from the horrors of the world. Pretty ladies with friendly voices talked in calming tones to some, while completely ignoring the advances of others.
Lia became concerned when she saw guards forcefully shooing civilians away from the windows of the cellblock as if she and her fellow prisoners were a cancer best left unacknowledged. If ever she was referred to, it was by the number 25 stencilled in her cell. Lia could overhear people of official capacity muttering about her like she was a test subject, a numbered lamb about to be weighed for slaughter. She spent days caged like a pet bird, wandering around her new home trying to shake the profound loneliness in her gut that wouldn’t let her eat. Taking her current situation into account, she felt thoroughly dehumanized.
Beside her a disheveled man in military dress worked out religiously, stopping only to eat. She’d tried countless times to chat with him, but he looked through her vacantly every time. Various psychiatrists tried to get through to him, but none could until today. A muscular African American woman in military dress brusquely entered his cell, addressing him simply as Sergeant. Upon seeing her the man burst into joyous ravings of his time with her in the field, expounding how much he missed fighting the little Chinese bitches. They bantered for a while, but Lia could tell the woman wasn’t who she said she was; her delivery was far too stiff. She didn’t even walk like a commanding officer. She glanced at Lia with a conniving smile.
“Chadwick...Sergeant, look to your left, it’s Janey!” she said, then winked at Lia.
The man simply known as Sergeant looked her over thoroughly, his face bursting with joy. “Darling, you came home!” he exclaimed. Lia was openly shocked, struggling not to be angry with the woman while trying to repress thoughts of her daughter.
“I’m nobody’s darling,” she said coldly.
Ignoring her response, the man told her a long tale about how she’d been hit by a car just after he got leave. He indicated his pillow, telling her it was the dinner he’d had waiting for her. When Lia still didn’t respond, he momentarily froze. Crying, he switched to ranting about the government lying bastards that tried to tell him she was dead. After a while, her arguments might as well never have been said because his rambling became increasingly passionate and erratic. Suddenly his expression turned to a look of betrayal.
“You... You’re not Janey,” he said slowly.
“Correct,” Lia said confused.
“LYING BITCH!” he screamed, before devolving into distant sadness. To her surprise, he started talking to the wall about how much he wanted burgers.
“Sergeant!” the commanding looking woman said. He froze once more, looking her over. After a while, something spontaneously clicked.
“Zendeya!” he said, his face contorting visibly. “Dear sister, you stole the Captain’s clothes!” He looked distracted a moment. “Rajnesh’s ghost still haunts me. Forgive my weakness...” he said desperately.
“Chadwick, we’ve been over this; I am not a ghost, nor am I your commanding officer, I already forgave you... please come back to me!” Zendeya said sadly.
Chadwick shook slightly as he cried, begging her forgiveness as if he was deaf to her words. Whe
n he finally repeated his forgiveness forcefully enough, Chadwick seemed to shut down. After a while he reset, once more calling Zendeya Captain as if the whole conversation never happened. Lia sat idly watching, familiar with his condition, so not needing an explanation. The strong woman left him locked up abruptly, clearly stressed. She stood in front of Lia uncertain.
Clearing her throat, she finally spoke. “Mrs. Barton, my name is Zendeya Uwambe, acting President of Africa. I apologize for using you for my brother’s sake like that.” Lia simply nodded in forgiveness. “He suffers from psychosis and memory loss which fully manifested after our cousin Rajnesh died saving us in the evacuation,” she continued regretfully.
“It’s no trouble President Uwambe, my whole life has been military in to some extent. I’ve seen this kind of thing before,” Lia said calmly. President Uwambe looked guilty.
“I was present at the trial of your husband. I voted against him. I hope you will understand,” she said sincerely before walking away, no longer in a forced march.
“I do,” Lia said calmly. Uwambe halted a minute before continuing wordlessly.
Once more Lia toyed with the idea of letting her kynari out just to scare the bitch, but thought the better of it. It’s because of people like her I’m alone... she thought to herself. Though I respect their position, she concluded calmly. Regardless, there’s nothing left, I’m alone, she thought mournfully, reliving all the times she played with Janey as a baby, just as she did Tory. When her memories turned to James, it was a mixed reaction. The fault was mostly on him in reality, intents aside. Regardless, all she could do was sit beside a man lost in his mind. Lia wished he didn’t remind her of her father’s suicide due to PTSD, or call her by her dead daughter’s name occasionally. What she wanted never mattered anyway.
“Should’ve been a painter after all,” Lia remarked to herself, remembering one of her mama’s hypocritical anti-military lectures shortly after his death. She knew her mama just wanted her safe, but she couldn’t pick up a brush like her dad taught her anymore. All she knew was the world of Freedom. “Even the vets said all war is government sanctioned murder; no one comes back saved. Go in immature come out broken, pretending to be wise,” Lia muttered to her new friend, drawing surprising sad laughter from him. She looked at her hand, just another component of a trained weapon.
“Fight, fight, fight, die inside, lose your mind!” Chadwick said in an eerie sing-song voice.
You’re too damn stubborn, Emilia! They say no, and you’re more driven to go, she thought to herself feeling disappointed, distracted by footfalls echoing down the corridor. A young man in casual dress escorted by an armed guard let himself into her cell.
“Hello Emilia, my name is Dr. Elon James, I’m a psychiatrist. How do you feel? Do you understand where you are and why you’re here?” he asked with practiced gentleness.
“Call me Lia, I feel fine, we’re on Utopia Prime, a vessel reliant on my husband’s work, and I’m here as a result of freak evolution also resulting from his work,” she said.
“Okay Lia... Is that how you see it? From what I was told you’re here so we can ensure you aren’t a danger to yourself and others. Your... abilities are just a factor to be considered later.” he said reassuringly. Lia didn’t buy it.
“Hey space man, let Janey go, she’s a nice bitch!” Chadwick demanded seriously from his cot.
Suppressing laughter, Lia smiled his way, then returned to her stare down with the doctor. Dr. James looked surprised as if he’d never heard Chadwick speak, then cleared his throat. “Your service record is exemplary; there are a few notes on a growing disillusion with the military system, but nothing that stands against your character. Following Admiral Yuuki floating your husband James, does that change your perspective any?” Dr. James asked.
“No,” Lia said.
“So you have no ill intent against anyone aboard, correct?”
“Yes. I understand their viewpoint, given I too hold my situation against him,” Lia said firmly.
“And you are in command of that situation, correct?”
“Yes,” Lia stated, allowing her armour to cover just her hand, before retracting it for his benefit.
Thankfully Chadwick didn’t see; he was busy debating something with a face he imagined in the wall. Momentarily, Dr. James looked surprised, yet seemed to pity her.
“Does that hurt? When it comes out?” he asked.
“Always, it’s basically a controllable skin. Think of it this way: my human body is just an exposed layer it has to tear through to form over,” she said.
“So, it’s like your skin’s been removed from your body and has to rapidly re-grow everywhere?” he asked trying to hide his horror.
“I guess,” she said, realizing her analogy wasn’t helping anything. She didn’t have time to explain even half of her abilities let alone the scientific understanding to correct him. They floated the only person with any answers, she thought to herself sarcastically. “Basically it’s a near-indestructible full-body armour that obeys me. Which is very useful against the monsters that share its appearance. In short, the sooner you clear me, the sooner I can easily end your shifted problem,” she said bluntly.
“You mean the giant black mutants, or the limbed things?” he asked.
Ignoring his second point she said, “The former.”
“Understood. Well I’m not certain I can make a judgement on my own so I’m going to refer you to a colleague. Please be patient, he’ll be by shortly,” Dr. James said kindly, before stiffly exiting with his escort in tow.
Chapter 6 – Horrors Worse than Judgement
More hours than she can fathom passed with Lia sitting distraught, no longer humoured by Chadwick’s periodic outbursts. With no way of knowing if she could survive a fate like James’, her survival instincts screamed, keeping her painfully on edge. Somewhere in the distance she could hear a large crashing sound followed by shouting and the all-too-familiar pop of rounds leaving guns. Something about it told her it wasn’t a training exercise, like she allowed herself to think before. This time she could smell them. Shifted.
In a sense, she felt too empty to care, destined to be jettisoned like trash –– weapon too unstable to use, utterly alone in her unique circumstances. You’re not alone, Mama! Tory’s voice said cheerfully in her mind. Lia smiled through her sudden outburst of tears, focusing hard on the voice. You’re never alone! Tory said, her child-like voice fading away. Lia laughed to herself, still crying. Like all the uptight military psych guys warned, she was finally losing it.
Without her beckoning or consent, her armour suddenly seeped over her, destroying her jumpsuit. Lia didn’t care; she just wanted to remember Tory. To her shock, tendrils shot from her feet, snaking across the cell floor all the way to the corridor beyond. Her willpower surged through them instinctively. Before Lia’s eyes, countless tendrils burst from the distant ones forming a fluid-like statue of Tory. In a matter of seconds her daughter stood there with a small smile; no indication of her origins remained. She even looked to be clothed in her favourite summer dress. Lia stood fast, rushing over to what she believed to be her child with no regard for what she’d seen just moments before.
“Victoria, how?” she asked joyfully, reaching out to touch her. To her amazement even her skin felt real. Tory looked at her sternly like a disappointed parent, just like her mother used to.
“When life gets hard what do you always have to do?” Tory asked pointedly.
“The right thing,” Lia said proudly; her baby did listen after all. Tory smiled her big beautiful smile in response.
“So, go do it!” she demanded happily as her hand turned into a blade just like when she was an alpha and completely severed the lock to her cell. Lia jogged up to embrace her just as her face drained of color. As quick as she was there, Tory’s body dried into an abyssal black then the tendrils that made her retracted into Lia’s armour. The last thing Lia saw before the dust faded to nothing was feint red lightnin
g desperately arcing through the space before fizzling out. Suddenly Lia’s resolve burned into her eyes; it seemed her daughter wasn’t gone after all, and she was right; Lia had work to do.
Beside her Chadwick screamed in horror, pointing to where Tory once stood with a shaking hand before pointing at Lia with a horrified, yet confused look on his face. “Janey, no... nice bitch! You’re a Black Bastard?!” he asked incredulously.
“Yes?” Lia said confused.
“You can make friends?!” he asked.
“Apparently,” Lia said gently, aware of what he meant, but not sure how that just happened herself.
“If I can see her and you sayin she was there, does that mean that girl was real or are they just gonna shove needles in me some more like they do when I talk to Rajnesh?” he asked like a worried kid.
“No more needles. Listen, the Black Bastards are the new Chinese coming to hurt the Captain. You wanna help me fight em, Sergeant?” Lia asked like she was giving an inspiring speech. Lia made the armour in her hand form a cavalry blade like he would’ve seen during deployment. She focused all her willpower into charging it so it would retain shape before ripping open his cell bare-handed and giving it to him. “Guns aren’t gonna do much, in and out, quick guerrilla strikes, keep mobile. Got it?” Lia asked.
“Yes ma’am!” he said looking fully composed suddenly, no longer phased by her appearance.
His new stature heartened her. She gave the gesture to charge then sped ahead at blinding speed, eager to minimize the threat before he even arrived. Lia put her hand to her side as she charged. The kynari emerged from her armour as though it was floating up from the depths of an abyss on black vines. Focusing as she ran, she quickly transformed it into her katana just as she came upon the first shifted. Ignoring the bloody human corpse, she deftly dispatched her foe without stopping. Civilians watched from windowed doors as a black blur cut the monsters to pieces in one swing of something with a red streak, then disappeared. Lia wasn’t aware how fast she could really go. To her own amazement, she was quickly face to face with something even she couldn’t explain.