by Tal Turing
The timer decremented, the 15 minutes had expired. Petyr struggled against the restraints with all his might even as bits of glass and debris started to flay his skin and clothes.
"Bitches! I'll kill you!" He slammed hard against the restraint, dislocating his shoulder in the effort. The arm clamps did not open.
We have already flown away. As will you...
Petyr had not seen it, but located on the hangar door, holding tight to a strut with suctioned feet, was an insect-like device. Its body had assumed some of the coloring of the door making it unlikely the doctor would have noticed it even if he knew where to look.
Its large head had been trained on the man, but as that final sentence was transmitted, amplified using the metal of the door itself, the creature sprung into the air and was swept outward, into the storm, where it rode the dangerous winds in an attempt to rise to higher, less turbulent air.
The pain from his dislocated arm was almost overwhelming but every time his body was pelted by paper clips or rocks or pieces of glass he couldn't resist the impulse to pull away and try to escape, but that only racked his body with more searing pain.
He tried to lift his legs to shield his torso and head, a somewhat effective strategy, but he could still feel objects hitting the backs of his thighs and the strength of his abdomen was not sufficient to allow him to hold that position for long. When would the damn restraints open?
His eyes rose to the ceiling, his vision blurred by tears of pain and sheer frustration, when he saw the roof detach and a split second later the hangar exploded outward. He gasped, his mind unbelieving.
Pieces of metal acted as shrapnel which shredded everything in the laboratory including the body of the Doctor. Minutes later, as his body was dismembered by Maltiempo, the chair restraints opened and his severed arms fell free. In the air, blowing past his lifeless head, was a tarot card depicting the destruction of a great tree by the Storm.
Escaping the Storm
"I'm driving." Lynda said with grim determination as she kicked off the AI navigation and steered the vehicle towards and into a large drainage ditch, one which was already filling with water but whose sides offered protection against the wind to a vehicle not built for resisting weather. They gained speed now, moving toward the farms at the boundary of what once was New Humantis dome.
“I am sending images to the screen, so you can see what I see. It looks like the Doctor is impatient," Cyn remarked, "I wonder if he's figured out that we lied about the timer setting."
"I feel awful," Lynda said with disgust as she stole glimpses at the screen before turning her attention back to the road, the ditch. “Okay, so I believe you...about how you see things. Now why don't we forget that awful man and concentrate on getting out of here?”
“You seem lonely, Doctor,” Cyn spoke loudly and clearly.
"He can hear you?" Lynda looked over.
"I'm opening the door, Lynda,” Cyn whispered, “it's not even half open and I can see the entire building shake.”
Lynda wanted to look but had to be careful to keep her attention on the vehicle's progress within the trench.
“I'm a little surprised at you, Miss Cynnamon. You don't seem the vindictive type, though I hardly fault you in this case.”
“It's actually not the Doctor I care about, it's that whole, awful, building; that strange equipment and everything they were doing there. I don't want anyone to continue it.”
“Agreed,” Lynda nodded as she spotted the pumping station. Now the ditch was almost half full of water, slowing the vehicle.
“The building is gone, Lynda.”
Lynda just shrugged as she drove.
The trench had become shallower now and thus the vehicle was exposed more and more to the elements. In the direction from which they had come, the air was dark with swirling dust and debris, especially black over the ground where the old hangar had stood.
They pulled up to a brick building and scrambled for it. The tall crops surrounding it whipped each other madly under the influence of the storm.
"The trenches funnel water to points along the ring of farms where that water is circulated around the ring. This is one of the buildings where the pumps are housed," Lynda explained after she closed the door behind them, only partially muffling the growing roar.
"Can we wait out the storm here?” Cyn asked calmly.
"Wait out the storm?" Lynda laughed. "Such a corper. No, we won't wait for anything. We go straight into the tunnels. There are lockers over there so put on some boots; my forecast is for plenty of mud and that is if we are lucky.”
“Do I really need boots? Shouldn't we just go?” Cyn frowned.
“We absolutely do need them, I thought you were a village girl?”
“I am,” Cyn answered quickly as she scrambled to follow Lynda's lead. “But I grew up near the rim of the valley. No tunnels.”
“Let me take you on a tour then.”
The Tunnel
The two women navigated through the dark, damp and windy tunnels. At first they walked single file, by light from Lynda's flashlight, but eventually the tunnel joined with others, growing in size so they did not have to stoop and could walk together, each one on the opposite side of a stream of water which ran between and ahead of them.
“Tell me, what do you do in this valley, your occupation?” Cyn asked.
“I don't think so, Miss Cynnamon,” Lynda replied. “I'll be asking the questions and we have a nice long hike so there will be plenty of time for you to answer.”
“Is that so?” Cyn laughed, genuinely happy. “Well, if you answer this one question it might help me be more open about yours.”
“You are clearly a village girl, as most assets are,” Lynda began, undaunted. “I feel I should know you or have seen you at least, but I haven't. So where did you come from?”
“I was born in New Berlyn, in a small, remote, rim village called Imais. But I have been in Techview for the last ten years. I only returned this month.”
“Techview?!” Lynda exclaimed. “Then is it possible that you know a lady named Gwenyth?”
Now it was Cynnamon's turn to be surprised.
“I do but I didn't think you...”
“And you met her in an old stone building, describe her.”
“Now I am sure I know who you are,” Cyn smiled.
“Perhaps, but who are you? Describe the Gwen that you know and where you met her.”
“My, I never dreamed you could be so bossy, Lynda or do people call you Lyn? I heard Marlee call you that but it just didn't register at the time.”
“I asked my question,” Lynda barked.
“You did, and I apologize for being flip, I'm still a bit giddy from all the excitement. Sister Gwenyth is tall with yellow-blonde straight hair and eyes that somehow match. She wears plain, simple, sometimes over-sized gowns over slippers. I have only spoken with her once and I was so nervous, and very few people make me nervous. But she was kind and understanding and asked me only a single favor. She asked me to keep my ears open about what had happened to you.”
“And you came here and just found me? That seems far-fetched.” Lynda prodded.
“The First Sister...my First Sister had learned that I had grown up in New Berlyn, she hoped that I might hear something, learn something that they had not. She told me that sometimes one must act even without any expectation of success.”
“I have only spoken with her a handful of times...but that does sound like her,” admitted Lynda.
“She couldn't have known I would be sent here by corporate and, to be honest, I was so overwhelmed with my own problems, I wasn't at all looking for you. But I knew that something was happening here, something bad and I needed to find out what...”
They walked, the sounds of streaming water filled their ears.
“It is really you then? You are First Sister here?”
“I still have questions before I start to answer yours,” Lynda interjected with a feigned sense of
importance. She stopped and crossed over to the other side of the tunnel, her hands brushing away Cyn's long black hair until she could find the scar in back of her head, below the ear. “I am aware that all corpers, including assets have sensory implants. And as I puzzled over how, how you were able to see me and speak with me from your cell and how you were able to see so much of the outside, it was then that I remembered this thing. So is this how you were able to do it?” Lynda's eyes became less demanding. “You receive sights and sounds from that...that creature?”
Cyn nodded slowly.
The asset revealed a strange insect in her hand. She showed it to Lynda before flipping it with her finger and it flew away.
“Yes, most domers have sensory implants which allow them to interact with a computer-generated virtual world. But it brings information to us, to within our point-of-view. I have never seen anything like this unit. Even as we speak it is one hundred yards down the tunnel and there is a branch, I am sending it down the left side where it has entered a large room...”
“Okay, please, bring it back. You say it is not typical corper AI, then where did it come from?”
“I don't know, I found it when I arrived. Honestly, I didn't have the luxury of questioning its origins though perhaps I should do so now.”
“Can you turn it off?”
“Sure. Anyhow, it sends the messages to my implants, it was hard for me to handle at first, it made me sick, that is why I had so much trouble even walking when you first met me. That and the fact that both drones were searching the entire building, once that was done they became easier to handle. See? No magic, you would be able to see the same thing if you had implants in...”
“Please don't speak of it. I would never allow those things in my head. Ever,” Lynda seethed.
“You don't have to be so hateful about it, Sister. I can't help what I am, I was only thirteen when I had my first surgery.”
“I'm sorry,” Lynda relented. “You have no idea how many times I have heard assets tell me about their surgeries, their purchases, their debts. I overreacted, I'm sorry.” She wrapped her arms around Cynnamon. “I really am. You saved my life. Thank you.”
“You saved mine as well, Sister.”
Lynda nodded and crossed back to the other side of the tunnel.
“How did you...why did you become part of Transom?”
“As I told you, I was born and raised in Imais. I was eight years old when I lost my mother, I moved around a bit but ended up in a dome orphanage, run by the Sanctuary of the Seven Sisters. In order to bring in funds, they ran a scavenger shop on the side and like many of the children, I worked there.
I began with the usual chores but eventually I learned everything I could: accounting, administration. To be honest, it wasn't that I had a natural talent for such things, but I was just so sure that if I learned all that I could, if I became indispensable to the Sisters, that they would let me stay forever.
So much for my strategy because they did send me away. One day the First Sister spoke with me in private and told me about the Corporate Sponsorship program and that I was well suited...”
“Yes,” Lynda interjected. “That would have been Sister Agatha, correct?”
“Yes, you know?”
“My predecessor. Under her, we placed dozens of our young in that program, to become corporate assets. The results were mixed at best and when I took over, I terminated the program. If I am being honest, I will confess that ending that practice was something I intended even before I accepted the position.”
“Well, she hand-picked Transom Industries for me. I spent the next years in corporate training, trying to catch up to the other students, to learn their science, their techniques. And then one day, they informed me that I would be sent to Techview. Another ten years there and now they brought me back.”
“Why?”
“I don't know why I was asked to return. I wasn't even sure they knew. From the moment I arrived, nothing has worked, no one has told me anything and it was almost as if they were trying to drive me crazy.”
“Why did they take you to that place, the Doctor's lab? What did you do?”
Cyn sighed.
“It's a long story, Lynda. And I'm not sure I even understand it all.”
“Would you try?”
Cynnamon stopped and looked at Lynda helplessly.
“I could try...I really just knew that whatever I was involved in, it was something bad. How I got into this mess is still a mystery. When I was in training, you have to understand, it can be very hard on an asset, we train with other assets but with officers as well and so it's not only the material that can be daunting.
To continue, I met a boy, an officer-in-training and we began hanging out, socially and romantically. You would need to understand all the dynamics but that was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was a bad thing because I became very unpopular as a result. I was a girl reaching beyond my station. It's not that anyone had anything against assets sleeping with non-assets, they just didn't like the idea that it was anything more that that.
The good news...is that I had a corper boyfriend, and people had to treat me better and the guys couldn't grab me or say what they wanted and it was so much easier to study and I needed that to catch up, there was so much to learn. So, was it a convenient relationship? Sure. Did I like him? Would I have been happy to keep him? Yes. Yes. But that's not what happened, we drifted apart.
So now fast-forward ten years and I return to New Berlyn for some reason that no one will tell me and the old boyfriend wants to see me and he is very flirtatious and warm. But I also know that his company may be engaged in espionage against my mine. So I had to suspect his sudden interest in me after so many years; and when I find he is so insistent as to practically hunt me down, well then I knew this went far beyond a desire to reconnect.
In the end he somehow accessed my room and abducted me...and sent me here...I mean to Lab 8. But I am not sure why...maybe to use that 'Ally' product which the Doctor spoke about. I just don't know.”
“If he wanted time with you, to re-awaken old feelings then I would have thought he would spend time with you. Do you still care for him?”
“No...not in that way. I wouldn't want to hurt him though and I didn't think he would ever..”
Cyn's voice broke off and Lynda looked over at her.
“Oh...did he...”
A tear streamed down Cynnamon's face.
“I'm being silly,” Cyn spoke hastily as she wiped away the tear. “Yes, he hurt me, he attacked me but it's not that. I don't care about it, it happens, we both know that. It just hurts that after all these years...that he could think so little of me. But he did and he sent me to that laboratory where the gods only know what they would have done to me. Lynda, that is all I know.”
“Okay,” Lynda began. “Now I'll tell you my story and it has some similarities.
As you may know, the role of First Sister comes with a high commitment, that I would always serve the sanctuary, that I would always be available for it and for the people it served, that I would live there.
I don't want you to think that I regretted my decision, I swear I never did, I don't. But I met someone, the first man that I felt shared my passion, understood my ideals and for the first time in a long time I found I had a priority which rivaled the sisters and clients of the Sanctuary.”
Lynda stopped speaking and turned to the other. Her face dark and troubled.
“When one helps others, the less fortunate if you will forgive my inappropriate use of that word. It can be hard to think correctly...I had to always fight the feeling that somehow I had better instincts, a better intuition than my girls. Even when I met you, if I am being honest, I couldn't help but think the same way, that because I didn't choose the same path, that somehow I knew better. And I'm sorry. But you'll see that I have been punished for my pride and the lab where you found me was my penance, my sentence.
So, yes, I met a man, someone I thought w
as special and who I thought felt the same way about me. I was wrong about both.
Despite my standard precautions, I became pregnant and when I tried to end it, I was brought here. The Doctor glibly informed me that I was the subject of one of his experiments, a fertility drug, something taken by my 'boyfriend' without my knowledge. But he also told me that he had the power to compel me to want to be with Darren again, not just to want it, he claimed I would beg for it. I can't say I really believed he had this power, even now, but I was certain that he was sure and...and that is why I had that noose around my neck when you discovered me. Some First Sister, huh?”
“I would have done the same thing,” Cyn spoke softly with a trace of fierceness in her voice.”
“You don't find it ironic that a First Sister would take her own life...I'm supposed to counsel young women away from suicidal thoughts...”
“You weren't giving up, you were escaping that Doctor's obscene experiments. You refused to be part of their horrors. I admire you.
Listen, Lynda, I took a good look at all of the prisoners before I chose to ask for your help. You were the only one with a plan, testing the noose that would support your own body, experimenting with knots and judging distances. I knew you would be the best partner I might get and everything you have done has been further proof that I was right.”
“I've never killed a person, before today. I know we didn't have any choice with Sams, but the Doctor...that will be tougher to live down.”
There was silence as they walked.
“Lynda, First Sister, can I tell you something?” Cyn's voice filled the dark tunnel.
“Of course.”
“I don't want you to think I am saying this to make you feel better about him. I'm going to tell you the truth and you can judge me as you will, but this is between us.”
“Definitely, it stays between us. I know he was an awful person, I just would have felt better if I had known that he was killer as well...”
“It doesn't matter. You couldn't have saved him no matter what he was or was not. I would have killed him in a second and left his lair in fire. But Maltiempo was already at his door and so we....I gave him to it instead. You gave him that chance, that time and now that it is over I am glad it ended that way. So leave the Doctor with me. But what about you? What about this boyfriend? The one who sent you here?”