by Clara Woods
“Back, it’s a trap,” Lenah yelled, whirling around. She bolted back the way they had come, but an identical grid of laser beams was blocking their way. Lenah turned to the UPL man again. “You will explain. Are you taking us as prisoners?” She reached out with her senses to touch his mind. Why hadn’t she done so before? This was no place for high moral ground; this was a place to make use of any advantage you could.
Now she had to convince him to shut down the lasers. Or, if it wasn’t him accessing the control, to relay the order to do so. But she couldn’t see anything. Usually, if she concentrated on it, minds started to become visible to her as a cloudy aura wrapped around a person. There was nothing there. Only the laser beams.
Lenah spun, scanning her group and looking for the familiar minds of Persia or Cassius. She felt nothing. What the stars had just happened to her mind magic?
“That’s not in my power to share,” the man answered Lenah’s earlier question. “Please excuse me, I’m only following instructions: to keep you and your group contained under high security.” He nodded as if that was an apology. “I wasn’t lying about your meeting with the ambassador. When he’s ready, he’ll come to speak to you.” With that, he turned and walked away, quickly vanishing behind a hatch that lead out of the corridor.
“Shit!” Lenah couldn’t keep back her frustration—about UPL, for being such crooks when they were going to have to save humanity, or about herself, for having walked so easily into the trap.
“Shit,” Persia echoed her. “Now what?”
Lenah stepped carefully up to the laser barrier with the intention of inspecting it further, when the section of the floor they were standing on suddenly moved downward like an elevator cart.
The light from the corridor above quickly diminished until they were cast in darkness. The white square above them became smaller the further down they went.
“What’s happening?” Doctor Lund yelled into Lenah’s ear, clutching on to her arm for balance. She took a wide stance, afraid that a sudden movement would send her spinning into the laser bars. No one answered, and the only sound was Doctor Lund’s mutterings of “not again, no please, not again”. Lenah imagined what he was referring to. He must be reliving his recent experience as a prisoner on the Star Rambler.
They went further down for several more minutes. Finally, the movement stopped, and a bright light hummed on around them. It reflected intensely—blindingly—off four white walls. A low mechanical sound caught her attention from above, and she saw a white panel closing over the open ceiling. A moment later, the laser grids went out, leaving them in what could only be called a prison cell. No door, no windows.
“Just great. Who would have thought UPL are even worse than their fame? They didn’t even take her,” Cassius muttered, finally putting down Corinna whom he’d been carrying all this time.
“She’s going to be so mad when she wakes up. Did anyone bring more of those sleep medications?” Uz said, looking at Doctor Lund with wide open eyes.
He shook his head.
“If she’s like me, then at least she won’t be able to use her abilities,” Lenah answered, feeling her shoulders slump. She got out her pistol and aimed it at the wall. Not that she expected it to do anything. After all, why would they be allowed to keep their weapons? But maybe this Ambassador Dreistein would show up quicker if she started vandalizing their spotless white space station.
What Lenah didn’t expect, was for the laser to bounce back and almost burn her. She only managed to dodge sideways at the last moment. “Shit!” she repeated.
“Smart cells,” Cassius commented from behind.
“Smart cells? You’ve been in these before? Why didn’t you say something?”
He grimaced. “It didn’t seem important until you started shooting the walls.”
Lenah let go of a tense breath, surprised about herself. She usually had a better handle on her impulses. Being without her powers made her twitchy. She distracted herself by wondering what Cassius could have done to get himself into a smart cell. She knew, of course, that he was a criminal and the son of a smuggler, and a few days ago, the fact that he knew all about the insides of a prison cell would have been obvious to her. But she thought of him as Cassius now; the cyborg on her crew and a good person despite a troubled past. A tickle stirred deep in her stomach as his eyes met hers, and Lenah looked away quickly. “How do we get out of here?” she asked.
“We don’t. Right now, there’s nothing we can do but wait.” Cassius looked at her sharply. “What did you mean before; you’re unable to use your abilities?”
Lenah nodded, sinking to the floor. All energy had left her. “I can’t see any of your minds nor could I touch the one of the UPL man.”
“That’s really weird, isn’t it?” Persia asked, and Lenah nodded.
“Either a strange reaction with something around here or not a coincidence at all,” Uz mused, looking about as if the answer was written on the white walls.
“How could it not be a coincidence? Mind magic is secret, right? Even Lenah didn’t know what it was called until two weeks ago,” Persia said.
Lenah didn’t answer. She wasn’t so sure about that. If Corinna had known about it, then it was entirely possible that UPL did as well. Maybe being unable to use her powers wasn’t so strange after all. Lenah couldn’t influence her father, for instance. And if there were two mind mages, there were likely more. What she didn’t understand yet was the reasons to keep it a secret.
3 Corinna
“Corinna’s waking up.” Cassius’s voice roused Lenah from her uncomfortable sleep on the floor. She had tried not to doze off, but, apparently, sleep had found her. They had been in the cell for over twelve hours, and, according to her wristpiece, it was now the morning of the next day.
As fast as she could, Lenah scrambled up and instinctively pulled up her mental shields. Over the past couple of weeks, the group had learned that Corinna would try to attack as fast as possible after waking from her drug-induced sleep. This time, when Lenah attempted to lift the mental wall in front of her and Cassius, nothing happened.
“My abilities still don’t work,” she told Cassius grimly.
At her words, he silently shoved her to the side to take the position next to Corinna. “Should I?” He waved his hand over Corinna’s neck to indicate if he should touch a nerve there, keeping the woman unconscious.
Lenah was tempted but also curious. Was something wrong with her own abilities or was it just here, on UPL station?
“Wait to see what she does. I want to know if she’s able to use her abilities or not,” she whispered, so low she could barely hear herself.
Cassius, picking it up perfectly thanks to his hearing implants, rubbed his temple. “Seems risky. What if she influences me?”
He had a point. If Corinna’s mind magic still worked and she willed Cassius to attack them all, they wouldn’t stand a chance against his cyborg strength.
“Then move back,” Lenah whispered. “Knock me out if I start doing something stupid.”
Cassius’s lips lifted to form a smile, and he started to speak, but Corinna’s eyes fluttered, and he moved backward instead.
Good. Lenah wasn’t sure she wanted to hear his opinion about her doing something stupid. She already felt like it had been foolish to come here.
Lenah looked down at the woman on the floor. Corinna Cheung had been her idol for many years; a woman who led a vastly successful company and didn’t feel too fancy to fly a spaceship despite her high position. But that had been before Lenah discovered how Corinna had tried to single-handedly claim knowledge of the Cava Dara threat and hide the involvement of her company, declaring to be able to handle it all by herself. Too fucking heroic.
Dark-brown eyes looked up at Lenah, but the expected attack didn’t follow. Instead, Corinna blinked several times, then furled her brows together for one moment before the expressionless mask returned.
“How’s your ability doing?” Lenah
asked her.
Corinna glowered back.
For a woman with a messy bun on her head and clothes stained from two weeks of constant wear, she sure managed to look intimidating.
“What did you do to me? I no longer feel drugged.” That was all Lenah wanted to hear. Making Corinna think she was the only one who had issues with her mind magic was good. After all, they were trapped with her in the same cell for stars knew how much longer. Let Corinna think Lenah could still access her magic.
“Where are we?” Corinna started to sit up, and Lenah didn’t hold her back.
“UPL station.”
“Ah,” Corinna nodded, as if that explained everything.
She wouldn’t know something about mind magic not working here, would she?
“Doesn’t look like they were fond of seeing you. Why are we in a smart cell?”
Of course, the businesswoman famously called The Queen in the smuggler world would know all about smart cells.
“This is their lobby. We’re waiting to meet the ambassador.”
Corinna shot Lenah an exasperated look. “Please don’t tell me you gave these people the stone?”
“Sure thing, I won’t tell you.” Lenah smirked as Corinna glared at her.
“I didn’t take you to be so immature, Lenah Callo.”
Corinna actually managed to make Lenah feel childish about the comment. But she decided that those jokes belonged to the Lenah she had become: the free-spirited pilot of a ship, no longer bound to the empty life of corporate formalities.
Before she could think of a good answer, their cell suddenly jolted, and they were moving sideways and then up. By the time the cell halted inside another white, empty room, everyone was standing. Once more, they were trapped inside a square of laser beams functioning as very effective bars. Persia had pulled her weapon, and Cassius looked around, so tense that all his muscles were straining and visible.
“Miss Cheung and Miss Callo, please step forward onto the blue line. Everyone else, stay behind,” the cheerful but metallic voice of an A.I. system said through an invisible speaker. Who put a happy voice into a prison cell speaker? Totally beside the situation. Moments later, a blue line appeared at one end of the cell.
“They want to separate us,” Cassius growled from behind Lenah.
“Can we do anything about it?” Lenah whispered back. “Why are Corinna and I being singled out?” She specifically meant why wasn’t Persia, the one who had actually stolen the stone, being called out but didn’t want to be so direct.
“Let’s see,” Cassius said and took a resolute step forward, pulling Lenah by the arm until they were both standing on the blue line. Corinna was still half sitting, half lying on the floor.
“Only Lenah Callo and Corinna Cheung on the blue line,” came the A.I.’s voice again. “Everyone else step back, or we will engage less friendly methods.”
“Less friendly methods? It’s not like you’ve been very welcoming so far. We haven’t even gotten a single sip of water or access to a sanitary facility,” Lenah replied.
“I apologize. You will get access to both soon. That is the case for all of you, if you follow the instructions.”
“The hell I will,” Cassius said. “We all go, or no one does.” He motioned for Persia, Uz, and Doctor Lund to step forward.
“Cassius, I don’t think this is a good id—” Lenah managed while the voice from the speaker said:
“Negative.”
Then, without further warning, they were all pushed backward by some kind of stunner beam. Only, it was invisible and very targeted. They landed a couple of meters back, on the floor. Cassius was the only one who instantly leaped up, but it was only to get targeted by yet another beam and get knocked back down. This time, he struggled to get up, but didn’t try to jump forward again. Instead, he growled toward the ceiling where the voice was coming from, then looked at Lenah, giving her a look that she interpreted as an apology.
Lenah nodded and smiled. She’d have to go alone. Maybe once she was out, she could escape and help free them. Or pressure someone into telling her why they had been arrested. It seemed a foul move by UPL first to offer to pay one million credits for the stone, then arrest the party bringing it.
Lenah bent down to help Corinna up, who glowered at her but accepted the assistance. Once standing, Corinna bobbled on shaky legs and continued to lean heavily on Lenah, who pulled her over toward the blue line.
“Thank you.” The A.I.’s voice was as cheerful as ever.
Lenah stumbled forward as laser lines suddenly blinked to life, separating her and Corinna from the others. They were left standing in a small space of barely an arm’s length in between the walls of lasers. The fear of tripping and falling was hard to suppress. Lenah grabbed better hold of Corinna. It wouldn’t do that they had made all the effort to get her to UPL only for Lenah to drop her into a laser.
After a long and silent minute, footsteps sounded in the distance. They grew louder, and, finally, a tall figure walked around the corner. It wasn’t the same man that had trapped them, but he looked almost identical: white robe, similar features. It reminded Lenah of the information broker in Port Dumas. So much so that she wondered if these men too were using some weak warp magic to conceal their real features. The man stopped a few meters away, and the wall separating them vanished.
“Follow me.”
Then he turned around and left Lenah to deal with Corinna’s weight alone.
Deciding to postpone confrontation for the time being, Lenah tried to catch up to him as she dragged Corinna, but he always stayed a couple of meters in front of her.
After a few minutes of walking and sweating—Corinna was by no means able to support herself—they reached a wall with four white doors. Lenah concluded that she hated the color. Everything here was made of it, and it was blinding and confusing. Likely it was done on purpose. Even before they had been taken captive, she would have had a hard time finding the way back to the ship. Now, with the absence of any windows and the monotony of the corridors, she was completely lost. Lenah suspected that they might be in the lower part of the sphere with the cell movement having felt mostly downward, but it wasn’t more than just a gut feeling. How did this man even find his way around?
“In here, please, Miss Cheung. You, in there, Miss Callo.” The man spoke for the first time in minutes, pointing to two of the doors. Lenah noticed how he used please with Corinna but not with her.
“I really don’t see the point of this,” Corinna wheezed. The walk had visibly exhausted her, and Lenah agreed with her point.
“Me neither. I came here to make a transaction and deliver a criminal. Being locked in a cell with the criminal was not the treatment I was expecting.”
Corinna scowled at Lenah but didn’t say anything to her. Instead, she turned to the man, who was still standing two meters away.
“I wish to speak with High Ambassador Pantha. And, please, get this person off me.”
“You will speak to an Ambassador, Miss Cheung. But, unfortunately, the High Ambassador is not currently on the station. If you will step into your designated room, please.”
Lenah didn’t like how the man was so friendly with Corinna. Or was she imagining that he was a lot nicer to her?
So be it, she finally decided and let go of Corinna to step toward the room. She didn’t turn at the sound of Corinna going down to the floor. Let her deal with her own problems; after all, she’d asked for Lenah to let her go. Maybe Lenah was petty, but it gave her some strength, and she figured she’d soon need all the strength she could muster.
4 Favorites
They made Lenah wait. She had been in the interrogation room—there was no other way to call a room with a table split in half by another wall of laser grids—for a full hour, though it felt more like three. Before that, two robed men had come in and searched her, then left with the stone. Pleas for a bathroom break and some water had gone unanswered.
She hadn’t used the past hour
for any good. Lenah had paced, tapped her foot, and barely kept herself from hitting her palm into the table in front of her. She hadn’t done it, thinking of the cameras that were most likely filming her every motion.
Despite knowing that she needed to be at her very best for the conversation—interrogation—that was coming, she hadn’t managed to keep her cool. The worst part of her power was being without it. Was such a lack of control how normal people felt all the time? How did they prepare?
If they’d let Lenah, she’d be open and bring up all the facts as soon as possible. Everyone listened to facts. That’s what Lenah sent out when using her powers. Images of how proud the investors were when they made triple gains for putting CGCs into Starwide Research’s mage farm. Wrapped around her mind magic were always facts. Today, she had come to UPL with strong facts. Video proof. She touched her wristpiece that carried the recording of the ancient computer on Masis III.
Lenah had also brought the stone to them. Any reasonable person would see the need to react to this threat. They would send out corporate armies under UPL command. They would have the mage farm shut down. Why was it taking so long?
Finally, when Lenah was about to pass out from thirst and boredom, another white-robed man with the same features as the others before him appeared in the room.
“Come this way.” Reluctantly, Lenah stood up. Now, with a strategy forming in her head, she wanted to start the interrogation. But if UPL wanted to torture her without actually doing anything, they sure were doing a pretty decent job.
The man led her to a large sanitary unit down the corridor and locked the door. There, Lenah was allowed a few minutes to freshen up. She sighed, drying her hands against the wall dryer and already feeling better. Why hadn’t they allowed this before? She gasped and realized it most likely wasn’t a coincidence. They had been subtly making her suffer at first to now make her feel grateful. She pressed her lips together and nodded to herself. She could play this game too.
A few minutes later, when Lenah was back in the interrogation room, a man dressed in something other than a white robe walked in. This must be an ambassador. Lenah sat silent and upright in her chair and took the time to size him up as he shuffled in with his sweeping robes. After seeing so much white, he made quite an impression with his colorful attire; patterns, stylized animals, and plants intertwined on the piece of elegant cloth, each different motif separated by tiny silver borders.