Cages
11 Dec 2023Ryuko Ntsikana
Part Twenty-Six
Cages
_____________________________
After completing the meal that had been prepared for him, Jason followed Zooey off the Diamondback Explorer, to a waiting ground vehicle, that had driven out to meet them. Jason recognized the driver of the vehicle. He was part of a different crew that operated out of the base. He tried to remember his name but failed. Not that it would have made any difference. He did not look at or acknowledge either of them. His eyes remained fixed on something distant and unseen.
They were driven past the other landing pads, where various crews were working arranging the cargo into organized placements or working at repairing and readying the ships that had landed, two days before. Jason concentrated on not looking at Zooey sitting next to him, who was whispering something unintelligible, under her breath.
The damages done to the base were being repaired, though there were no slaves present, only crews and android assistants. Those he recognized who was in previous subservient roles, were working alongside those, who only days before, would have whipped or shocked them for standing near what they perceived as their betters. Now they were equals, all with the same look in their eyes that their driver had.
He couldn’t begin to guess what she had done to them. There were drugs that were used to keep slaves obedient. They would work until their bodies would physically give out, then they would be recuperated for the nightmare to begin again, until such time that their bodies decided it could take no more, and the slave would expire, or their brains would seize, producing a mindless body from which the organs and parts could be harvested, for black market sale.
Jason recognized a similarity between those working around the base, and those who were so drugged, with the exception that all looked to be not abused and well cared for. The answer to this disparity appeared minutes later as they neared the command center. Nearby was a base canteen and an attached bar. The latter had been demolished, with no signs of repairs to it. The former had a well-ordered line, with no cursing, boisterous gestures, or impatient crewmen. All were standing as if in military rank, with eyes forward and mouths closed.
The vehicle stopped. “We are here,” the driver said, finally speaking without turning his head. His voice had a natural gruff tone of one who had breathed reprocessed air for too long. Aside from that, there was no hint of emotion behind it; neither annoyed nor submissive. Jason stepped out of the vehicle behind Zooey, following as she walked up to the command center.
As an underling on a pirate crew, Jason had only glimpsed inside once before. His place wasn’t with the larger hierarchy. His place was with the ship, the cargo, slaves, or doing some menial task around the facility. Now all doors opened for him and there were no curses or challenges to his entering, or roaming where he willed. What she wanted and why remained elusive. The he was salvageable spiel she provided was not a reason, or at least not one he could wrap his head around.
Zooey paused, recalling a memory from long ago. This looked much like another pirate facility. A flash of another memory intruded of a planetary resort, with bodies laid around. The image of a suited cyborg and the glow of her cybernetic eye behind the darkened face shield of her helmet. Her face was cold and calculating. She had to stop something perverse, and the facility itself was turned to rubble, but it was all in vain.
She felt trapped. A cage within a cage. The interior of a dredger ship encased inside a cage, surrounded by the walls of a solitary hangar, itself encased in another cage. The reflection of a man’s face who she recognized as a Federal investigator. He was so far away, but he was not alone. Another was with him, inside of him. That cybernetic eye went through her memory as the child giggled.
All the lights inside Xochitl’s office changed to a steady green. Zarathustra, the ship’s head of security had joined Rex, Yatziri, and Avery. Xochitl leaned back in her chair, looking at Monty’s face on her monitor. He was having troubling dreams, but the entity was correcting the chemical balance this had caused. Itself was troubled by these visions, attempting to make sense of them.
“We have calculated the probability that a copy or essence of you remains in Zooey,” Avery stated as Monty and the symbiote both paused to consider what Avery had stated.
“On what evidence,” Monty replied.
“The theory was mine,” Xochitl chimed in. “Have you had waking visions or dreams of the other, regardless of how minor, or context?”
“Yes,” Monty replied. “There was no way to communicate this until you established contact with us. We had to wait.”
“When did they begin?”
“Less than two days relative time. What are your suspicions?”
“A small area inside the ship’s medical facility has been prepared. I need a sample of the synthetic genome you create,” Xochitl replied as she looked at Rex. He knew what the look meant, after the past display he had made, about being left out of the information loop, during the construction efforts.
That incident had happened more than a week ago. That Xochitl had planned for this, so far back, caused Rex to wonder what else she knew, suspected, or theorized. Her gaze remained on him while he thought about his. Looking back up at her, he saw that she was still looking at him before turning her eyes back to the display with Monty on it.
It was her ship and she was the leader of the clan aboard it, but he was its captain. Rex had been hired before the carrier’s sale by its manufacturer, Brewster Corporation. As with himself and the crew provided, each could choose not to work for the purchaser, but each had signed their contracts to serve with her.
Most owners were simple enough, but as with everything there were exceptions to the rule. With the alien war with the Thargoids in full swing, there was the chance that a crew could end up in that conflict. While Xochitl was accomplished in fighting against them, she had not engaged in that pursuit, since her purchase. The alien she ended up fighting against was something far more sinister. An alien of mankind’s own design, which itself became sentient, learning how to incorporate itself into biological hosts.
The lights changed back as the conversation ended, with Rex finding himself uncharacteristically lost in his own thoughts. A smirk appeared on Xochitl’s face, as she once again looked at him.