Jera's Guardian had just settled in one of the Atka hangars. She finished her report and prepared to visit her guest in the cargo hold. Her hand wandered off towards a compartment to the left, from which she took out a small injector filled with translucent, violet liquid. She pressed it into a vein on her forearm and hissed as the needle pierced her skin and injected the drug inside. AlderFluid started flowing through her bloodstream, spreading the satisfying chill throughout her body. Her pupils became small, her breath slow and controlled.
Her heart rate lowered. See this?... It started beating a distinct, four-beat rhythm. See this?... Three rising. See this?... One falling. ...That's right.
The woman rose from the pilot seat and walked to the cargo hold. She glanced over the escape pod. A small piece of scrap metal, usually mounted on light fighters. Life support was calculated on no more than a couple of hours. And this one seemed to be breached. She hoped it was the result of the tractor beam getting it into her hold - a dead Outcast wasn't worth much more than a bounty here.
The pod couldn't be opened from the outside. She took out her monoknife and started looking for a breach.
A monoknife or, as it would be known technically, a monofilament knife had been patented by a small company called Dreaming & Sons in the first century A.S., when the nanoweave had originally been discovered by Ageira. In principle, it was the ultimate archetype of a cutting tool - a strand of nanoweave fiber that's exactly one atom wide and high could slice through carboncrete like butter. The knife looked like it was composed just of the handle, with a small bead seemingly floating at the end. Upon pressing a button in the handle, an electric current would flow through the nanoweave to the bead, firming up the nanoweave. At that point anything between the bead and the handle would be split in a very neat fashion.
Monoknives had their downsides though. Because of their construction they were only good for slicing - its tip was only made of dull, metal bead which rendered any attempts at stabbing fruitless. That's why she had to first locate an opening.
See this?... There it was, just on the top of the pod. She dropped the bead inside and firmed up the blade.
See this?... The blade cut through the top part of the pod. Her friend would be located somewhere lower.
See this?... She cut open the pod, leading the blade all the way to the bottom. She heard oxygen pipes splitting and releasing their content. The pod still had oxygen, that's good.
...That's right. She finished the cut and the pod snapped open, revealing an unconscious man inside.
Had she not taken AlderFluid before, she might have even considered him handsome up to a point. But as it stood, she was only focused on what she had to do. She glanced over his body, looking for injuries. Apart from some blood around his face, an inevitable result of high g-force, he seemed healthy. No fractured ribs, no broken bones. That was good, she wasn't up for carrying him.
Jera pushed the pod and the man fell down on the cargo hold floor. He was still unconscious. She kicked him in the abdomen and spoke curtly. "Rise and shine."
As she landed a kick in his abdomen, Antonio regain his consciousness and barely heard what she said. He felt a strong pain in his stomach which was a result of the kick. The floor had a small circle of blood which was Antonio's, he glanced around in order to figure out where he is, but his sight was still blurred. There was no use of getting up as the only logical thing that could happen was another kick, but this time in his head. Antonio saw the blood that was beneath him, wiped his lips with his right hand and gazed at the blood that was on his hand. "Beautiful" he said sarcastically while slowly moving his head at his right.
At that time his sight was no longer blurred, but still had hard time seeing. Expecting another kick, Antonio tightened his right arm muscle and slowly turned his head right as he knew that someone was there. On his right side there was a young brow haired girl smiling at Antonio. He gave her a sharp look into her eyes and smiled at her. "What did I do to piss you off, hm?"
He wasn't expecting a nice answer, instead he expected another kick. The girl tightened her right thigh muscle as she was preparing for a kick. Antonio quickly reacted, stopped her kick and grabbed her foot with both hands. "Typical female, one wrong more move girl and your ankle is broken. It would be a shame for a girl with such legs to use a wheelchair". As he finished his sentence, the guard that was behind Antonio punched him and knocked him out. Again he was lying on the floor unconscious with his face in the bloody circle.
The girl ordered her guards to lift him and so they did. The girl sighted and lifted Antonio's chin with her finger. She had a purple tissue in her pocket which she used to clean his right side of the face which was covered in blood. As soon as she finished wiping his face, the girl slapped him. One slap wasn't enough for him to wake up so she sweep with her and slapped him again. This time she was successful in waking him up.
Antonio looked at her with his eyes barely opened. "I am so glad that I didn't break your ankle". He then then lowered his his head, gazed at her legs and nodded. "If you destroyed my ship, why sparing me? If you wanted to have a date you could've just straight up asked, I'll gladly buy a dinner". Antonio coughed and smiled.
Jera looked down at the Outcast. "One more word and I'll cut out your tongue." She drew her monoknife again and moved it around so that the bead at the end spun fast circles in front of Antonio's eyes. She leaned in closer, looked him in the eye and spoke quietly, dropping the perfectly fake Bretonian accent for the sake of her natural, Cretean one. "It went through your escape pod like butter, it's gonna have no problem with a cabron like you."
As if nothing happened, she stood up straight. "Search him, cuff him, but make sure he can walk, I'm not going to touch an Outcast. Remove any tracking devices or bugs he might have," she spoke to the guards and herself moved to the side. Her PAD vibrated a moment before, indicating a message. She popped the holoscreen open and noticed a message from Nagrebetskiy. It was short, just a simple "call me". She directed the sound from the PAD to her earpiece.
"Yes, professor?"
"..."
"Yes, we have him in the hangars, still. He's been... causing problems."
"..."
"No, we don't need help. Why?"
"..."
"Understood, professor."
She looked back at the Outcast. His hands were already incapacitated in thumbcuffs and his legs bound in such a way that he could walk or even climb stairs, but he wouldn't be able to run away. As Jera finished the conversation, he was looking at her curiously as one of the guards was running a small detector down his jacket.
"Clean, ma'am," the guard concluded his job by planting a small jammer to Antonio's clothes. Not all trackers sent out messages constantly, in fact most of them didn't, and giving the Outcast a safe dose of EMP wasn't a good idea if they wanted to keep him alive. A jammer was a safer, but less permanent solution.
Jera nodded. "Give me your taser." As the guard complied, she sent him away with a quick head move. "Dismissed."
She pointed at one of the hangar exits. "Move. And don't try anything stupid. I'm right behind you."
Antonio slowly started walking towards the exit with her behind him. Knowing that the chances of him escaping are minor, he wasn't even trying to run. Instead, he was walking with his chin up like nothing is going on. When they were around five meters from the hangar exit, Antonio looked behind him, he looked at her legs while walking slowly. As he tried to look at her face, she stretched her left hand in which she was holding the taser and pointed at his head. Antonio didn't stop walking, he just looked at her face without lifting the head, smiled at her and turned around his head. They were just a few centimeters away from the doors.
The girl typed something on her PAD and after a few seconds the doors have opened. "What now? I guess we're not going to make out here, or are we?" Antonio looked at her wondering.
The effects of AlderFluid have started wearing out. The comfortable chill in her blood went away, her breath stabilised and her heartbeat started beating normally again. She ignored Antonio's words and gave him a suggestive tap on the back with the taser. They entered a short, dark corridor with three doors on the right and one on the left. She led the Outcast to the middle door on the right and waved her bracelet in front of the reader. The door opened revealing a tiny cell.
About five by three metres in size, it was completely empty. It smelled of newly laid carboncrete, evidently it hadn't been used much. There were no beds or chairs and the only furniture inside was a weak lamp. Additionally, there were two small grates in the floor and in the ceiling - the one in the floor led to the waste disposal pipes, the one in the ceiling to the ventilation system.
Jera released the Outcast's thumbcuffs and pushed him in, leaving the nanoweave rope that bound his legs for him to deal with. She sighed as the door closed. Not her worry anymore.
She directed her steps to the left door, again opening it with a wave of her bracelet. Another corridor, this time well-lit and almost fully transparent. On the left, a large transplas window looking out on the Nemuro Dust Field. On the right, another three doors. A young man with a Wisp logo on his light-violet lab coat ran out the first and went inside the second, not noticing the woman. She walked to the third door which opened without the need for authorisation.
"Nick," she greeted the older professor and bowed sligthly. "The Outcast is in the second cell."
"Thank you," Nagrebetskiy nodded from behind his desk. He stood up. "Anything special about his state?"
She shook her head and paused for a second. "If you don't mind me asking... Why did you want him here?"
The professor turned away. "Final stage of Vergil research... We needed a subject."
Jera raised her eyebrow. "I thought that was going to be me."
He turned back to the Corsair. "This first version is not secure yet. We have to, er, make it secure. And this process is going to be... fairly unpleasant."
"Are you going to be watching?" she asked.
"I have to. My job," he smiled sadly. "Not that I want to. Some of us... well, we still have some human instincts."
Jera shook her head. "Outcasts are not people."
Nagrebetskiy waved his hand dismissively. "Pointless discussion. You should go now. Get some sleep. You can come here tomorrow morning, we'll be starting then."
She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it without speaking a word. She turned around to the exit. "See you, then."
Nagrebetskiy sighed and sat back behind his desk. He watched the feed from a camera hidden in the Outcast's cell lamp. After a moment he spoke to his console AI assistant. "Call Violet Burbank to my office. And send the following instructions to the security..."
Violet threw an irritated glance at the self-important flashing light blinking at her from the commlink. "If it's urgent, they'll leave a message" she muttered to herself.
As if wading through the piles of paperwork required for the new lab construction wasn't bad enough, people just couldn't seem to leave her to get on with it. Whoever it was didn't leave a message, in fact they just persisted in trying to establish a connection.
She threw her pen down on the desk and glared at it, an expression of utter contempt on her face, as it rolled slowly towards the far edge and clattered unceremoniously onto the plas-steel floor. One disgruntled sigh and a deep breath later she jammed her finger onto the "accept" button of the commlink.
"Yes?", outwardly calm.
"Dr Burbank, Professor Nagrebetskiy wants to see you in his office." The dull monotone of the AI didn't do much to improve Violet's mood, but on the other hand, Nagrebetskiy? She knew of the Professor, and had seen him about, but his research was classified way above her clearance level. Irritation could not help but give way to a slightly excited curiosity.
"Of course, please inform the professor I will be right there. Thank you."
She was already out of her chair as her finger hit the "end transmission" button and, ignoring the mess on her desk and pen lying on the floor, strode out of her office into the brightly lit corridor. Violet walked through the automatic doors into a stationary elevator. "Level eight", responding immediately to this command the elevator began sliding smoothly towards the requested destination.
"I wonder what he wants with me?" Violet thought, slightly apprehensively, as the barely detectable acceleration of the elevator kicked-in...
The professor looked over his glasses at the character who had just showed up in the door of his office. Standing up, he took off his spectacles and smiled politely. "Greetings... Miss Burbank, is that correct?" he shook her hand. "I don't believe we've had the opportunity to meet before."
He went back to his console. "Now, the reason I've asked you to come here is, er, slightly unorthodox. However, we require involvement of a biochemist and nobody in my team has quite the qualifications as you."
Nagrebetskiy put up an image, a structural formula of a chemical compound. "NPLK, one of the strongest nerve agents discovered back on Earth, when they had been used by militaries. Currently, impractical for battlefield applications, as I hope you know why. I need you to synthesize some, about ten cubic centimeters."Not enough to kill a man, but enough to be very close, he added in his mind.
He scratched his head. "Now, my labs here are unfit for that kind of a job, so you would have to use your own. Please keep in mind that this information is blue level clearance only, so it is imperative that nobody downstairs learns of what we're doing here. I will fill you in on the details of this project in due course. Agreed?"
An almost oppressive silence filled the room as Violet stood staring at the Professor for what seemed like an eternity, her mind the site of a frantic battlefield between doubt and curiosity. This isn't what she had signed on with Wisp for, of course she didn't expect to be able to avoid this type of work forever, but this was much sooner than she had expected.
The deliberate purpose behind construction of Atka beyond the borders of the Houses was, of course, not lost on the young scientist. Unrestricted and unregulated research... a dream unrealisable within the smothering legislative bounds of Liberty and the other great nations of Sirius.
Turning down this assignment would be a sure way to get herself safely placed on a list of "uncooperative" staff, those unlikely to have any real chance of advancement within the corporation.
The preceding moment, perceived through the mind of Dr Burbank as the passage of ages, would be seen by Professor Nagrebetskiy as only the slightest of hesitations, and probably not an unexpected one at that. "That, Professor, should be a relatively straight forward task. Assuming we have all the necessary reagents on the station, the sample can be in your labs within 48 hours" she said, the touch of a smile her lips, a distinct lack of it in her eyes. "And of course I won't inform my team what I'm working on."
"The new xenomicrobiology lab is not yet cleared for general operations, but the equipment I need for the synthesis is very basic. I should be able to work in perfect privacy there, although I would ask that you give me clearance for a much larger consignment of supplies than needed. It wouldn't take much more than a quick database search for someone to find out what I'm doing if I order just the raw ingredients for the NPLK production."
She took a brief pause for thought.
"I'll have a section of the new xenomicrobiology lab cleared of personnel, the equipment I need for this task has been signed off for use already." Violet took one step backwards and began to turn, at the same time pulling her portable communicator from its sheath at her waist. She stopped and looked back over her shoulder at the professor, "If you can log my clearance for chemical procurement now, I will order the materials I need immediately. I assume that was all for now Professor?"
Nagrebetskiy was slightly reluctant. He felt bad for not revealing the reasons for his request to Burbank, but procedures were procedures. Besides, he would want as little people to know about this part of Vergil as possible. He had previously thought of asking the biochemist to attend the experiment, but now it seemed like a bad idea.
As few people as possible.
He tapped something into his console and the light on a small card reader - exactly the same as the ones in the doors - went on. "Your card, please?" The reader beeped after Violet brought her card closer. Clearance level upgraded - blue-1.
Nagrebetskiy stood up and nodded, smiling politely. "Unless you have anything to add, that's all. Thank you."
As he got pushed by the girl behind him, Antonio found himself in a strange room. He tried to open the door, but failed as the doors could only be opened by a special card which only the personnel that worked there had. Not sure what to expect, Antonio sat in the corner at the right of the door. At the opposite side of the wall there was a mirror, but it was hard to notice as the lamp that was in the center of the room was small and couldn't enlighten the room fully. It could be worse, at least there's a lamp here Antonio said quietly. He took a few deep breaths and started doing push-ups. ... 29, 30, 31, 32.... As he was doing push-ups, Antonio heard something from the outside, it seemed like someone was approaching the room that he was in. He stopped breathing in order to hear better, but he wasn't able to recognize anything that was happening outside of his room. It was unclear to him what they want from him and why they haven't killed him when they had a chance to do so. The only thing that he knew at that moment is that he was going to fight until his last breath.
Let's see what you're up to he said to himself while moving to the door. He leaned his back against the wall and waited for them to come.