“Can I ask you something, Master Floreina, with an assurance you won’t get mad?”
She cocked her head. “What’s that?”
“Do you ever take time to wonder what might be going through my mind?” He paused momentarily. “To imagine what it feels like to have an explosive attached to your heart? To know that you can blow it at any time… that I have to go around a station knowing that the gap between my life and death is as short as a security agent asking to see identification?”
She laughed. “You’re exaggerating—“ She transferred the teddy bear to her left arm to give better access to her weapon, and continued watching the man on the porch.
She noticed the man check something under his coat, and rise to his feet.
“Perhaps, but just stop and imagine it from my perspective.”
She put a hand to the side of his head. “Look, Buddy, I’m sorry it has to be like this… New Eden is a harsh world, and all you can do is claw your way to the top by any means necessary, or die trying.”
Kielobe began moving cautiously toward them, a hand kept steady under his coat.
Floreina waited only a couple moments before taking a hand to her side. Slowly lifting her dress, she showed the man the sidearm strapped to her thigh. She rested the fabric atop the holster and placed a hand on the weapon.
He took several more steps, each one slower than the previous. He sped up again, turning slightly, as though this had been his chosen path all along and walked past them down the street.
Floreina pulled away from her slave, took his arm in hers and started walking again. “Come on, Buddy,” she said. “What do you say we hit the dance club?”
______ ______ ______
Karleen’s hand’s moved quickly to cover her mouth as she peered at the holoreel. “Oh, my—“ she started. “That’s disgusting… why are you showing me this? These aren’t our slaves, right?”
“This occurred on board our ship,” Floreina told her.
Karleen flipped off the holoreel. “I don’t want to see any more… why did you show me this, Floreina?”
“This is what our captain does with her spare time… did you have any idea this kind of thing was going on?”
She shook her head. “How often does this happen?”
“They vary the schedule. It comes out to about once every two months on board this ship, but it seems as though they play recordings of other similar challenges in other arenas before the live event, so this is a widely organized thing.”
“So how many are they actually killing in these competitions?” asked Karleen, her chin resting in her hands on her desk.
“There’s about a dozen actual slave deaths per year… I have no idea about the other locations.”
Karleen’s eyes brightened slightly. “Oh… well that’s less than we lose through accidents and damage control… that’s barely more than we lose through old age… and these are slaves that severely misbehaved? Like escape attempts?”
“Well, yes…” Floreina started, “but it’s the principle of the thing… this kind of thing serves no purpose for our people… in fact, it’s a disgrace to Amarria; it implies that our whole system, our whole way of life, is just based on hatred and enjoyment of suffering…”
Karleen nodded.
“This doesn’t support God; He could never want something like this—it doesn’t support the rightful dominance of the Amarrian people; instead, it makes us look like savage monsters.”
Karleen shrugged. “I’m with you… but why exactly are you showing this to me? You knew how I would feel… it’s not like we can do anything about it.”
“What if we could?” Floreina asked.
Karleen cocked her head. “Excuse me? Are you implying going to CONCORD or something? Just what do you have in mind?”
“I didn’t have anything specifically in mind,” she lied, realizing she needed to back off from her position. “I thought if we could talk to her first… perhaps get her to see—“
“Our captain is stuck in her ways, Commander,” Karleen reminded her. “Allihence’s feelings rule us, not the other way around…” She paused to scowl questioningly at Floreina. “Tell me… how did you find out about these gladiator challenges? Can you even be certain these aren’t fraudulent?”
“I hacked into some of the deeper systems on the ship,” Floreina confessed.
Karleen took a deep breath, and held it for a long moment, leaning back to stare at the Commander. “I really hope you’re joking…”
Floreina shrugged. “I just had to see… it always seemed that something was strange with our captain.”
“You broke into her core computer systems? Are you out of your mind, Floreina? And now you’re coming to tell me this… you were already on thin ice with Allihence… do you think your turret management skills are just going to carry you forever? There’s only so much our captain will put up with.”
“How can you not be horrified by this—“ Floreina motioned toward the holoreel.
“That’s beside the point,” Karleen countered. “Sure it’s horrifying,” she shrugged. “But they’re not our slaves. They’re hers; her property… I don’t see what it is you think we could ever do about it… meanwhile you’re just putting yourself at risk of being… silenced.”
Floreina sighed, realizing attempting to recruit Karleen was a mistake. “Yeah, you’re probably right… I should probably just drop it.”
“Who else have you shown this to?”
“No one,” Floreina replied. “You’re the first person I’ve told.”
“Well, I’d be careful about showing this around,” Karleen warned. “This is obviously meant to be on the down low, and Allihence is going to do what’s necessary to keep it that way.”
“So I trust you won’t tell anyone…”
“No,” Karleen replied with a sigh. “We’ll just keep this to ourselves.”
______ ______ ______
The field of trees came slowly into view over the edge of the cliff as Floreina stepped the last few paces to the top of the mountain. She stopped on the rounded rock surface to gaze out at hundreds of kilometers of hills, forests, farmland, highways, and beyond, in the distance, the city of Sandisa rising majestically from the sea.
Viotro set his pack down and stood beside her. “This is it… this is my new home.” He motioned toward the city in the distance and the expanses of the terraformed world.
Floreina didn’t respond, instead simply gazed out on the world, breathing heavily of the thin air after their long hike.
“You could have this too.” He put an arm across her shoulder and she leaned against him, careful not to lose balance.
For a long, quiet time they gazed on God’s creation. Though humans had brought the plants and the oxygen to this planet, God had created the world, the seeds of the plants, the ice that melted into oceans, and the paths of the humans that brought them here. The Lord created all the potential and the raw, unshaped magic of the universe… and then created humans and gave them the knowledge and the tools to sculpt it into a work of art.
She felt a tear building in her eye, but it held without dropping. And she smiled.
“It’s just a glorious and amazing universe,” she commented quietly.
And this time, Viotro did not respond, but simply continued gazing with a content smile.
Floreina pulled away carefully. She stepped forward and made her sacred signs. “Thank you for this, Lord,” she said, nearly inaudibly.
She maneuvered carefully to the edge of the cliff, her environmental software returning an estimate of one hundred and twelve meters to the jagged rocks below. She saw a vision of herself falling and crashing… and wondered what her body would sound like slamming against the rocks, and if when she landed, would her eyes be closed or open…
Positioning herself directly between Viotro and the edge, she imagined him suddenly pushing her, for what reasons it didn’t matter. He would step forward and shove her… and her tac
tical software would never have a chance to load. Silently she gave him permission, putting her life in his hands. Feeling Viotro just behind her, she peered over the edge, reveling in the vulnerability and trust. She took a deep, satisfied breath, and gazed at the forest below.
After a moment she heard Viotro moving. “Shall we pray?” he asked.
“Yes,” Floreina replied. “In just a few moments…” She pulled her eyes away from the great expanses that were so rare in her ship-bound lifestyle and began looking around the rocky hilltop, and the winding pathway into the forest below. For a moment she looked up at Viotro.
“You could come and live here too.” He shrugged questioningly. “We could go hiking, skiing and sailing on weekends… and you could be free from all the suicide missions, abolitionist deals, and people trying to kill you… live a beautiful, care-free life in the embrace of God and nature…”
She laughed and looked at the ground. “You ask me that every time I see you…”
“’Cause I see that little spark in your eye,” he replied, “…every time… like you’re a different person for a split second… and you can picture it, and you realize how much you would love it… and then you snap out of it and you go back to your ship and your computer interface and your laser cannons.”
“Yeah…” She nodded.
“But this time, I fear you’re not coming back.”
From his pack, Viotro pulled a bottle of wine and a copy of The Scriptures. He sat down, cross-legged, atop the highest section of rock.
“Yeah…” she said.
He poured wine into a plastic cup and handed it to her. She took a sip and sat beside him.
They sat back to back, leaned against each other for support, and lost themselves for twenty minutes. Floreina shut off the connection to her eyes and ears and to most of her implant functionality, and relaxed her mind, taking the time to feel her own consciousness.
And she thought about her upcoming tasks, and the risks, and the possibilities… and felt The Lord’s presence surrounding her… He inhabited the plan and her life, guiding it, through the situational and technological happenings in the physical realm to the calculations and tactics of her mental programs, to her own emotions and determination to make it happen. It was all the work of God.
She breathed carefully and deeply, and simply felt His love and approval, and an overcoming confidence and joy of success… and a deep faith that her plans and effort would come to fruition.
Success was inevitable.
And she sipped her wine blindly as the time went on.
She snapped back to the real world after Viotro tapped repeatedly on her shoulder. Her visual and auditory connections clicked back on, and the outside, physical reality faded into focus.
They grinned at each other.
“Lunch?” Viotro asked, pulling out their crackers and sliced meat, cheese and eggplant.
They ate quietly and happily for several minutes until Viotro asked, “Why exactly are doing this?”
“She killed my father,” Floreina replied, finding herself suddenly looking at the ground.
“Is that what this is about? Revenge? Because last time we talked about it, it was because of the treatment of the slaves… and the time before that you were talking about the money in your captain’s wallet.” He took a long drink from his water bottle before sipping his cup of wine. “Or are you just desperate to become a capsuleer?”
She nodded slowly.
Viotro looked back questioningly. “You never really told me about your expulsion from the capsule training.”
Floreina turned away and stared outward.
“Did they ever give you a solid reason for the dismissal?”
Floreina took a deep breath and paused. “They said I had… a certain psychological profile,” she started shakily. “They called me manic-depressive… and said that I had the potential for sociopathic behavior…”
She refused to look back at Viotro. “I can understand the ‘manic’ label… but depressed? Even when Dad died… I cried for days… but I never felt depressed. I never felt as though life wasn’t worth living…”
She breathed carefully and stared out for another quiet moment. “…and to them, anyone who puts our Lord and creator before people is a sociopath… we all know the Jovians control the capsuleer empire and the whole training process… and they have an anti-Amarrian agenda. It’s clear bigotry…”
“…and they let Allihence in,” Viotro added. “So that shows the reliability of their sociopath detector.”
She turned back to her lunch, cracking an unexpected smile.
“But all that’s beside the point…” said Viotro. “…even if you succeed at this, I fear you will lose something of yourself…”
She nodded slowly. “But I’ll gain so much more…” She swallowed her bite of cracker. “…a consciousness deeper and more complex than anything outside a pod. The power you have over this body… this body that has a warp core, a row of turrets, and a crew of thinking, feeling humans who become a part of your consciousness… there’s nothing that compares to that.”
Viotro cocked his head in a shrug of reluctant agreement.
“This is all beautiful and wonderful,” she said, motioning at the view, “and it brings a tear to my eye… but what’s really of value in this universe is in here.” She tapped her head. “And our Lord gave us these minds and souls, and gave us prayer and meditation and logic to explore them… and gave us technology to enhance ourselves… to unlock the potential and the magic that He gave us. We must go forward, and expand ourselves, physically and mentally, for His glory…” She shook her head in awe and appreciation. “I’ve felt closer to God, more human and more alive since this new implant than I ever have before…”
Viotro shrugged. “Well, if you’re dead and determined, I won’t try to talk you out of it… we can just sit back and enjoy the view… but you should know that I’m mentally preparing for your death.”
“Yes,” she replied, “that would seem prudent.”
______ ______ ______
The pulsing came from deep inside, pushing Floreina from the depths of sleep, applications greeting her with frantic data. But before she processed the first byte, she knew what was happening. Floreina rose from the bed and pushed aside the sweat-soaked sheets.
Before she placed her feet on the floor the battle stations alarm began blaring, a piercing and unfamiliar screech designed to cut the soul of a dead man.
It took less than a minute for Floreina to pull on her uniform, leaving the shirt un-tucked; and another few seconds to tie her hair out of the way. She stole a look in the mirror and turned a moment later, grabbing her pistol in one hand and her boots and socks in the other. She darted from her quarters, turned a corner and sprinted to the end of the corridor. Entering the lift at the end of the hall, she gave a split second greeting to the ensign sharing the car, and dropped her boots and socks unceremoniously to the floor as she ordered the lift to take her to the command level.
The ensign saluted before leaving to his level. She watched him sprint off down the hall as she pulled on her second sock. As the door closed an explosive jolt rocked her to the side. The gravity failed and she was weightless for a split second before tumbling to the elevator floor.
The abolitionists were here… in force.
“Shields at fifty-eight percent,” came the report over the loudspeakers.
Floreina groaned as she rolled over and pulled on her boots. The lift stopped at her exit a moment later and she jumped to race down another identical corridor, her bootlaces flapping wildly against the floor.
She entered the turret command center. “What do we got?” she asked.
Lieutenant Adran rose from the command seat. “Two blackbirds, a Kitsune, Kerese, two Hyenas, a Celestis, and we’ve even got an Arbitrator and a Sentinel… a real melting pot. We seem to be withstanding the damage, but they’ve got us locked down tight… they’ve all got full electronic warfare setup
s; we’re sensor dampened, target jammed—” he shook his head, sweat flinging from his hair. “the Sentinel’s draining our power, and the Arbitrator has us tracking disrupted—as though that makes any difference since we’re target jammed anyway. Those Hyena’s stopped us dead… we’re not moving anywhere… and I’m glad you’re here commander.”
Floreina clenched a fist for added realism, and took a deep breath to clear her head and focus on the tasks instead of the sabotage that was on the surface of her mind. She needed to be careful with her thoughts. All she needed to do was get in, check the situation, pass Mahran the current access codes, and get out.
She sat in the command seat and plugged in.
Immediately she was surrounded by the hot rage of the captain as she frantically searched the ship, screaming orders at slaves and officers alike. Floreina began lacing up her boots as her mind sank deeper into the technical synapses of the battleship.
She scanned the field beyond their Abaddon, counting the vessels, just as the lieutenant had described, and just as the abolitionists had agreed: four standard electronic warfare cruisers, and five advanced ewar frigates. Very little damage potential, though enough to eventually take down the mighty Abaddon, and more than enough weapons and communications disruption to incapacitate their warship.
And in the space surrounding the ships, a swarm of drones, mostly Hornet EC-300 target jamming drones, along with a spattering of other models. Allihence’s drones were putting up a good fight, blasting frantic laser fire on a couple unfortunate enemy drones, but were taking more damage than they were giving. Floreina watched as another of her captain’s combat drones exploded in a brief release of bright energy, and the enemy moved on to the next.
The abolitionists were upholding their end of the bargain, and would soon have the ship locked down.
Floreina attempted a takeover of the targeting controls, feeling the numbers crumble and deteriorate into mathematical chaos, just as they had for the targeting commander. So rarely had Floreina experienced a successful enemy target jam, as Allihence was careful to avoid fights she couldn’t dominate, and the sensation felt so strange… the ships surrounded the vessel, ready and waiting to be fired on, and yet, somehow, she just couldn’t feel their presence.
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