Craved

by Elin Wyn

  Nothing I couldn't handle.

  Tianna had suggested I ignore the obvious front entrance and use the side door. Not bad instincts for an engineer.

  Other than the guards and the rattle and whir of some sort of machinery, the building was quiet. I wondered how many people actually lived in it.

  Step by careful step I crept up the stairs to the floor Tianna's blueprints had marked off as residential.

  “How do you know which one is her room?” I had asked.

  “Because it doesn't matter how secure you think a facility is,” Tianna had flicked the screen. “They always need somebody to fix the plumbing. Not a room in that building I haven't been. Well, maybe one, but it’s not Val’s.”

  She tapped a large section in an opposite wing from Valrea’s.

  “Never been in there.”

  Whatever was there, I'd deal with it later. Now I was only interested in one room.

  I held up Tianna's tablet to the palm lock to the side of the door.

  So far, her information had been good, but now we’d see if the codes worked.

  With a click and hiss, the door slid open. No matter what I'd been expecting, this wasn't it.

  Empty. Cold. A screen in one corner with a single desk facing it. A small pile of pillows pushed against the wall.

  And then out from the shadows stepped a Hunter.

  I braced for attack, but it didn't move, didn't acknowledge my presence in the room. Maybe it was dormant, like the ones that we had found back on the Star.

  Great. That had turned out so well.

  I circled as far as the small room would let me, a hand settled on my knife. One good thing about fighting them for so long, we’d found the best spot for killing the bastards. Had plenty of practice at it.

  “Please.”

  I froze. That was new.

  “Please listen.”

  The soft voice still had the electronic overlays of a Hunter, but the softness, the almost human quality shocked me.

  I examined the figure closely. Covered in black entirely, so dark it seemed to absorb the watery light, it stood, feet centered on the floor, arms at its sides, black-gloved hands at its side. A small bundle, a thin stack of something clenched in one fist.

  But the build was lighter, not as bulky as the Hunters I’d fought in the past. Whatever it held, it didn’t look like a weapon. The opaque black dome covered the head and shoulders, but a section of the gleaming material went down the spine.

  That was new, as well.

  It could be sending an alarm, using that built-in communications antenna all the Hunters had to summon more, to bring soldiers to the room.

  But Valrea never mentioned a Hunter, a guard, anything like that only...

  “Are you the Companion?”

  “Yes. Please listen.”

  I wasn't planning on relaxing anytime soon, but this thing had given Valrea a book of nonsense stories. Taught her to read.

  Gave her drugs. My eyes narrowed

  “She's sick. She needs her pills.”

  The Companion bowed slightly, walked to the wall behind it and paused.

  “I have not been given the signal to open it, I'm afraid.”

  Definitely not a Hunter. Some other kind of android? An earlier model?

  The Companion jabbed its fingers into the wall near where a hair-thin line betrayed a concealed panel.

  With a quick twist and wrench, it tore the door off, retrieving a small opaque bottle and brought it back.

  I reached for it, but she didn't give it to me.

  “She is safe?”

  “Other than what you've done to her? Yeah, she’s safe.”

  The Companion didn't hand me the bottle, but from its other hand offered a pile of document films.

  I glanced at them. Page after page of scribbled notes, all in the same hand.

  “This doesn't help me, or her,” I ground out. “I need those pills.”

  Teaching Companion or not, if it didn't comply I’d rip it apart, the same I had with any number of its brethren.

  But slowly it released the tablets.

  “Please tell her, there are many things she does not understand yet.”

  I backed out of the room. The Companion didn't follow, didn’t move again.

  Void take it, if I ever imagined I’d be talking with one of these things. “I'll let her know.”

  I tucked the pills and the mysterious papers away and disappeared back into the night.

  My mission had been successful, but had it been in time?

  Valrea

  The flames burned all around me. This time I wasn't going to make it out.

  All I could do was curl and hide, wait for the inferno to either pass or consume me.

  “I’ve got you, honey. Open up, take this.” A gentle touch, something pushed between my lips. “The blanket is soaked through, come here.”

  The fire came and burned me away.

  I woke cradled in Geir’s arms, his back against the wall of the cave.

  I looked around and quickly closed my eyes.

  “What's wrong?”

  “The light, it hurts my eyes. It does sometimes.”

  He pushed my hair from my forehead and I leaned into his chest, every muscle as limp and weak as water.

  “The fever’s down at least. Let's give it some more time.”

  I blinked, trying to pull my memories out of the pit. “How did you get the pills? Did Tianna know where to find them?”

  “Not exactly.” He kept stroking my hair, tempting me to relax back into sleep.

  “The Companion gave them to me.”

  “What?” I wiggled around until I could see his face.

  “The Companion is not my friend. The Companion addicted me to them, punished me. Why would it help you?”

  “I don't know,” he tapped the side of his pants. “But it gave me the entire bottle. You don’t need to go back.”

  “I don't understand. The notes always said not to trust the Companion. The Companion couldn't save me. That the Companion couldn't be trusted.”

  “Speaking of notes.” Geir reached for a stack of papers and I tore them from his hands, unbelieving. “The Companion also gave me those.”

  “But that would mean...” I trailed off mind spinning.

  “I hid these. In the one place the cameras didn’t see into my room. I was so careful. How could she know where they were?”

  “I don't know.”

  I glanced up at him and he shook his head. “I didn't read them, just brought them back to you.”

  My fingers tightened around the papers. Every line was so personal, so many secrets. And not exactly my own to share.

  But maybe it didn't matter anymore.

  A wave of exhaustion passed over me. I could decide about it later.

  “But that means you got the codes from Tianna. You've completed your mission.” My chest ached, a hollow so deep I could fall into it. “You can go.”

  “One thing left.” His arms tightened around me. “I promised you I would destroy that lab. Then we can go. Together.”

  Despite my impatience now that I finally had access to the lab, he insisted we wait for the next night.

  The day was spent dozing until I could keep down food, trust my legs to carry me again.

  “What are you going to do after we destroy the tissue samples?” He asked as I stretched, working the last knots out of my spasm-kinked muscles

  The question stopped me cold.

  “I don't know, I've never thought that far. There's never been an after.”

  “Come back with me.”

  I grinned. “That's what, the forty-seventh time you’ve asked?”

  “I think I'm only up to forty-five.”

  “Maybe,” I admitted. The faint possibility bloomed in my mind. After.

  “Progress. I'll take it. I told you I’m stubborn.”

  Finally, it was time.

  My hand gripped the tablet as we wound through the mainten
ance tubes and then turned into the section that had always been forbidden to me before this.

  I glanced at the bold yellow sign marking the change in territory.

  ‘Clearance only.’ I held up the tablet and hoped.

  With a soft chime, access was granted.

  “I guess that's us.”

  I followed Geir who checked before and behind, his long blade out as we entered into the unknown.

  I don't know why I had expected the tubes to be any different here. The same hisses, pops, and rattles were all around us. But I imagined I could smell something different, bitter.

  Wrong.

  Only a short way down, another access point challenged us.

  I held the tablet up again.

  It seemed to take longer, now that we were closer to my goal every second stretched until I’d almost given up.

  But finally, with the same soft chime, the door slid open.

  And all the lights flashed on as we stepped into a waiting circle of the cadre, their weapons pointed at us.

  “The Companion,” I swore under my breath. “She betrayed us after all.”

  “If that's what you'd like to believe, go right ahead.” Stanton stepped out from behind a row of work consoles, his gray suit looking as pristine as ever.

  “So kind of you to come back, Valrea. And bringing with you one of the failed experiments. Toss that little device this way, will you?”

  It hit the console he stood beside with a little more force than I’d intended. “I'm not back. And we're not going anywhere with you.”

  Stanton sighed. “Time after time I've told your poor father that I don't think you're a very intelligent young woman.” He shrugged. “But as we all know, he keeps trying.”

  Bile churned in my gut and Geir growled next to me. “What do you want?” he demanded, rolling to the balls of his feet, ready to fight.

  I tried to push him away. “Go back, they don't want you.”

  His lip twisted into a snarl and he adjusted his grip on the hilt of his knife.

  “He and his kind are just beasts, Valrea. There's no use appealing to reason, even when outnumbered. The only way to make them understand is force.” Stanton gestured to the leader of the cadre. “Shoot her if he moves.”

  “No,” I cried. “Geir, get out!”

  But the knife clattered to the floor.

  “See? They don't train well, we tried that. Maybe we just didn't have the proper incentives.”

  They’d won. They always won.

  “What are you going to do with us?”

  “With him, I don't know. A little bonus, maybe incentive for our other guest.”

  Four cadre members completed the circle around me, separating me from Geir.

  “But the General would like to see you. Come along. We shouldn’t keep your father waiting.”

  As we followed Stanton through the halls of the laboratory Geir’s eyes burned through me.

  “Your father is General Melchior.” His voice was soft, wary.

  “That's what they say. I can't imagine it.”

  It was true, I couldn't. The general, my father, was nothing like the fathers I saw in other families, read about in my stories.

  There was no information about who my mother was or had been. No interaction between us except reports from the Companion, command performances so that he could see me grovel, the occasional rants or lectures.

  Apparently, this would be one of those.

  Geir was silent.

  “I didn't want you to know,” I admitted. “Didn't want you to think I was tainted by what he's done.”

  Still, he said nothing as we marched towards the hall.

  This last secret had finally turned him away from me.

  Geir

  I'd suspected she would be involved.

  Dammit.

  Not just involved, but somehow my sweet, broken Valrea was the daughter of the monster I planned to kill.

  I wasn't worried she was tainted. I was worried she would hate me for what I was going to do.

  Outside, a few people scurried between their tasks, quickly looking away as our merry band passed by.

  I watched their faces, watching their expressions.

  Scared. Resigned. Some were gleeful, and I marked them as the fanatics, the faithful that Valrea and Tianna had mentioned. The ones who still believed in the plan.

  Crossing the open square to the hall, we didn't enter by the small side door, but rather up a flight of stairs and through a grand columned entrance.

  Smooth black masks covered the faces of the guards. But still, they were human. Not a Hunter among them.

  Interesting.

  I looked around. This was still information that could be useful. Even if I hadn't planned to be caught to get it.

  In contrast to the utilitarian lab and the plain block buildings of the rest of the compound, the entry to the hall was opulently decorated, every carved surface gleamed in the low light.

  At the far end a grand pair of doors, twice my height, swung open.

  Valrea wrapped her arms around herself, shivering as they herded us inside. I wanted to put my arm around her, but the guys with the weapons made it clear they wanted us separated.

  She was tough, she'd make it. Later I'd add it to their bill.

  The stench hit me first.

  Rotted flesh, hastily covered with chemicals, astringents. But nothing masked the smell of death.

  I edged closer to Valrea, my hand reaching for the hilt of my knife before I remembered it was gone.

  “Approach,” Stanton commanded.

  He stood on the first step of a broad dais at the end of the room, next to a complicated device, tubes and wires twisting every direction, lights flashing.

  On the other side, the Companion stood, just as still as I’d last seen it.

  Valrea snarled, and her defiance sent a thrill of pride through me.

  “I had high hopes for you, girl.”

  The high reedy voice didn't come from the Companion or Stanton.

  Shocked, I stared closer at the device and shoved down my horror.

  A gaunt face, little more than paper-thin skin stretched over a skull, peered balefully at us from the device.

  Sterile ceramics covered half the shaved head before encircling his throat, branching and wrapping across his chest. Tubes plunged into arms, pumping milky fluids, while wires led to electrodes on muscles.

  General Melchior was a walking corpse. If he was still walking at all. “Stare all you want, boy. They always do. But destiny will not be denied.”

  Stanton’s nose jerked a fraction, but he bowed to the general. “Of course not, your Imperial Highness.”

  “Wait till we've won,” the general croaked. But a small twitch of the lips showed me he'd been pleased by the compliment, even if Stanton's disgust seemed poorly concealed.

  “Girl, want to explain what happened this time?”

  Valrea stayed silent.

  The Companion’s hand rose a fraction towards her but then froze.

  “Keep your secrets, if you want. You survived longer than most of your sisters. Most.”

  He stared at it. “One day when we re-take the stars, I will have my loyal daughter at my side.”

  Valrea shook her head. “Never. No matter how often you try. You can't have loyalty without love. And you don't even know what that is.”

  The general hawked and spat an abortive laugh. “I can't have loyalty? Girl, what do you think built this place other than the loyalty and dreams of the men and women who believed in the plan. They are loyal!”

  “They are afraid!” she shouted. “Afraid of you, afraid of their shadows, these are not the men and women that came with you.”

  “They are children of the plan. The same as you are.” The old man raised his shaking finger. “Stanton, bring me the new one.

  Stanton gave him another oily bow and left the room, gesturing for one of the guards to accompany him.

  “Be useful boy
, tell us where the rest of your kind are, and I might let you live a little longer.”

  I flashed my teeth in a wild grin. “I wouldn't worry about it, old man. You'll see them soon enough.”

  “I don't know why I bothered with you,” the general ranted. “She promised new, efficient soldiers. New techniques and advances that would heal this wrecked body, get me up and in the field again, leading my troops to victory!”

  Spittle flew as the old man roared, lights flashed in time with the frantic beeping of the device that I suspected was all that kept the general alive.

  But I didn’t care, as his words sunk in.

  She promised.

  She.

  Doc.

  We all knew she'd been mixed up with some unsavory business. It shouldn't have been a surprise. But since Connor had found the remains of her body in a malfunctioning stasis pod back on the Daedalus, there wasn't much use getting angry with her now.

  “Like your lackey said,” I lashed back. “We don't take orders well. Isn’t that what you needed the Hunters for?”

  He seethed, glaring through rheumy, hateful eyes. “No matter. Hunters were tools to be discarded once they served their purpose.” His toothless mouth twisted into a grin. “You have to admit, they did it well.”

  “Until we killed them all and sent their base ship into the sun. But yeah,” I shrugged, “until then they were pretty good.”

  For a moment I fantasized about leaping across the guards and throttling the old man with his own tubes.

  But Valrea would never survive the counter-attack.

  Information. That's what I'd come here for. And that's what I would get out of him, even if he didn't realize it.

  “Here she is, my Lord.” Stanton returned, but walking slowly, bent at an odd angle. And any plan of resistance stopped cold as I saw that he had to stoop to hold the small hand of the little girl trailing behind.

  Dark brown hair, but I could see the red highlights that would come when she was older. Eyes too big, too wary for that tiny chubby face.

  At Valrea’s sharp intake of breath, I knew she saw it, too.

  “Come here, little one,” demanded the general.

  The little girl dropped Stanton's hand, refusing to approach near.

  “Don't want to.” She stared at the ground, fat lower lip quivering.