Into the Light
17 May 2022Aurora Bael
(OOC: This log is contnuation of the previous entry: "Conspiracy Thrives in Darkness". If you haven't read that one, I highly recommend it. This entry is part of an Ongoing Collab with Tyy'sun Eson and Lily Flemmon. Their characters and words are used with permission.")
While he recuperates in the med bay, Tyy'sun Eson's data pad buzzes with an incoming video message, prerecorded, from "Aurora Bael". Subject : "I'm the one who tried to kill you today. And I'm sorry." It's not a long message, just a few short minutes, with a short text preceding it:
I know how hurtful it can be to be victimized by someone. Don't feel obligated to watch this. Save it until you're ready or delete it out of hand. All the apologies I can give can't erase what happened today. But I am deeply sorry. -Rory
File: watch_me.hvid
Open?: (Y/N)
On the screen is the same woman who attacked him, absolutely, but notably different. Her face is relaxed. Her eyes are not glowing red. She isn't foaming at the mouth and screaming. Her wrists are bandaged and it's clear she's being held somewhere. She's really trying to look at the camera — to look Tyy in the eye — but she's having some trouble doing it as she speaks.
"Hello Director Eson... My name is Commander Aurora Bael. I'm a Security Consultant for Chiltom Terminal Ag Co-op... or I was. I don't think I'll be serving in that capacity for a while. I'm also a career intelligence and security contractor. Recently I made a decision to advance that career and...unfortunately, you're bearing the brunt of the consequences of that decision.
"I don't actually know who you are. Or anything about the Azura Initiative. I don't know exactly who got me after you or how yet, or I'd tell you, gladly. But I do know that whatever happened, this attack is my responsibility. Whether I had momentary control of myself or not, I made decisions in my life that lead to you getting grievously injured. And for that I am truly sorry.
"I want to be clear, I'm not asking for your forgiveness or your leniency. I'm not even contacting you on my own behalf. I'm contacting you to be crystal clear that CTAC had nothing to do with my actions today. In fact they worked very hard to try and stop me.
"I want you to know that because after learning about what you're trying to do out in the core... It's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. And I think that you and CTAC would both benefit from a continued diplomatic relationship.
"I imagine you're pretty angry right now... So please, be angry at me. Be angry at what I did. The rest of CTAC had nothing to do with it. They're good people. Great people, even. And if... If anyone here deserves a negative opinion from you or the Azura Initiative, then that's on me. That's my weight to bear. Not theirs. Please... Don't punish them for my mistakes.
Aurora pauses, scratching the back of her neck and looking downward again before lifting her eyes back up to the camera.
"That's it. That's all I'm asking of you.
They're gonna go try and figure out what's wrong with me to keep this from happening to anyone else... Again I'm deeply sorry for what happened today. I wish you a speedy recovery and a long, prosperous life. Take care of yourself. And thanks for listening."
The screen goes dark...
----
Rory puts down the pad and rubs her eyes, holding out the data pad for someone to take back from her. God damn, everything still hurt. Like she had just run a marathon or spent the last 48 hours on a Slush bender. She looks up at the two Omnipol pigs keeping her under guard until Lily gets back to take her... Someplace. Core labs, she guesses.
"You guys having fun?"
The pigs don't say anything. One of them who thinks he's tough just crosses his arms and smirks. She could kill the both of them if she wanted. She knows it. The smart one with a hand still on the butt of his gun knows it, too. She doesn't want to, though. This is more than enough trouble already.
Adjusting the ankle shackle attaching her to the frame of the enormous medical bay bed, she lays back, folding her hands behind her head, and closes her eyes in quiet contemplation.
The door opens and Lily enters, stopping at the sight of not one, but two Omnipol officers. The pair of them look absolutely ridiculous, and she finds it impossible to hide her disappointment. "You know, I'm curious... Do you two think you're being useful right now? No disrespect, a paycheck is a paycheck, and it's not like you're hurting anyone in the slightest. Just, you know, a credit for your thoughts?"
"Of course we are. She's a dangerous —"
"No. No, I don't," the second interjects.
"...Dude, what the fuck?"
"Not my fault you didn't read the briefing, Ted," he says, and beats dust right out the door, waiting for neither dismissal nor protest.
"What? Why?! What'd I miss?" Ted calls after his partner. "GARRETT, WHAT DID I MISS?" he Hollers down the hall as he makes for the doorway for the small medical holding cell. At the threshold he stops and turns back to commander Flemmon. "You sure you're alright, Commander?"
"Ted, I reckon she's the safest person on this station right now," Rory says with a smirk, hands still behind her head, looking completely unconcerned.
Lily can't help but snort out a laugh. "I mean, yeah. No one has pressed any charges yet, and I don't imagine they will. But if you want that credit for your thoughts the offer is still open she responds with a smirk."
"Okay, my thoughts?" Ted the pig asks. "My thoughts are you're playing real cavalier with an attempted murderer. If it were up to me, she'd be behind a forcefield in the brig right now. But if you're so sure..."
Rory makes a kissy face at the Omnipol officer and winks, which is just enough to chase him around the doorjamb after his partner. Lily rolls her eyes and crosses her arms at the Merc on the hospitql bed. "I'd ask if that was necessary, but it's a stupid question and I'm sure I'd get a stupid answer."
"Oh no, it was absolutely unnecessary," Rory says with a smirk. She quickspoofs the RFID lock on her ankle shackle and let's if fall to the floor. Her demeanor falls again as she sits back up, rubbing her face. "How is he? Director Eson, I mean."
"Tyy'sun is... well, last I heard, unconscious. They operated for a severed ACL and it looks like he won't make a full recovery of that ACL, but otherwise he should turn out okay." She looks down at Rory's feet, all too aware that this is probably not very comforting.
"About what I expected..." Rory says. She was hoping she'd get another chance to talk to him or his...companion? Someone with Azura, just to clear the air, show that she was here to admit what she did and shoulder the blame. Mal... She really wanted to talk to Mal. Thank God Lily was here. At least she could get one apology right. "I'm sorry Lily... I'm so... So sorry."
Lily walks over and sits down gingerly next to her. "I think you did amazing. When was the last time you came out of an activation and you saw the target still alive, let alone that close to you?" Lily scoots back a bit on the table and pulls her knees one at a time to her chest, and then does something she doesn't do often, and that Rory has certainly never seen her do- she undoes her ponytail and lets her hair down.
"I don't even know how to answer that question..." Rory sighs, leaning over to the side and putting her head on her friend's shoulder, closing her eyes and scooting a little closer. "I think that's what bothers me most... I have no idea how many times this has happened... I think only three or four, but... I don't know." Running her fingers through her own hair, she closes her eyes. "Your hair looks cute like that..."
"Oh, thanks, I... I guess I wanted the tension off my head. Maybe I should wear it down more often..." Lily's voice softens and trails off, and she rests her forehead on her knees and leans into Rory slightly. She inhales sharply, but only a bit before catching herself and taking a long, deep breath.
"So what's the plan? Tweedle Shit and Tweedle Fuck ain't gonna leave us alone forever..." She puts an arm around Lily's back and rests her head on her shoulder. It's nice to be with someone who isn't angry or scared of her.
Lily picks her head up off her knees, but keeps her arms wrapped around her legs. "Well, I was thinking we get to the core tech lab and see what Mirage can figure out about your eyes... Problem is, I dumped the Dryad suit into a black hole and I haven't told them about that."
Rory sputters out a laugh and falls backward onto the bed, hands on her head and kicking her legs at the sheer insanity of this moment. Finally she throws her arms and legs out wide and falls limp, arm across her chest as her head rocks way back, up-side down off the bed. "FUCK... It just never ends, does it? A week off and then BAM! Whole new goddamn tragedy."
"I mean, it's not really a tragedy. I threw it in on purpose."
"Hardcore bitches do not ball up on hospital beds in the absence of tragedy!" Rory insists, thrusting a finger straight into the air at an overhead light fixture. "Right!" She suddenly exclaims and slaps her hands down on the bed, springing to her feet. From seemingly nowhere, she produces a pair of handcuffs and fastens them on herself behind her back. "Let's go. You've got a dangerous criminal to escort."
Lily laughs and takes Rory by the arm for dramatic effect. "You know, you have a fascinating way of motivating me. Also I'm not going to ask why you have a pair of handcuffs in your pocket."
Rory sputters a laugh and shrugs as they walk out. "Ah, I just like flexing on cops. Ted is going to be so pissed when he notices they're gone!" She tosses the keys up over her shoulder into Lily's waiting hands.
"You really could get out any time you wanted, couldn't you?" Lily asks, staring at the keys in disbelief.
"Yeah, but it feels wrong to try and get out of this one. Especially in front of people that matter." As they walk, she reaches her wrist bandages with her thumbs and studies humility at the university of her right boot. "They must have grilled me for hours about what happened and how I managed to get over there without being seen on their cameras. I want to help. I really do. I just don't know how to do it." Glancing around at street level she sees the eyes. Eyes everywhere looking at her. Judging her. Fearing her. And they were right to. Absolutely and without a doubt they were correct in that fear. Aurora Bael was dangerous. If it hadn't been for those tree-bots, Eson would be dead and CTAC would never stop being a target. Ever. "Can we hurry please? I'm feeling kinda exposed."
“Yeah, let’s pick up the pace a bit. People here haven’t looked like this since… Nevermind, I don’t really want to think about that right now. Just try to show them that you’re more than an assassin. Because you really are so much more.”
"Yeah, I'm also a pretty good thief," she snorts. But rather than grovel or cry or turn inward she decides to hold her head up with dignity and grace. There's her building... Where she probably won't get to sleep tonight, but hopefully soon. The garden that so deeply impressed her when she first came here looking for Lily. Now double so since she knows what's living within it. There's a grocery and a few good street food stands. There's a news screen... With her face on it.
Lily notices the news screen, and scrunches her face up at the headline: 'Assassin Among Us: Garden Guardian Program Thwarts Would-be Killer". She sighs and shakes her head, keeping her lips tight. "I wish we could tell them the truth. It'd help everyone here sleep better at night. Makes me wonder if FFAM is holding up okay, I bet they have a lot to deal with, and the next few days aren't gonna be any easier for them."
A small child stops in front of them, about twenty meters off. She looks quzically at the pair of them walking, glancing between the blue haired prisoner and the news reel. Someone on the scene had caught images of her thrashing and screaming and diving for a knife just out of reach. The little girl is confused, having a hard time matching the person walking before her with the raging demon on the screen. Before they get too closed she scampers away, calling after a friend or a sibling.
"See that? These people need to see that you're a person like them. That what they see on the news is... not you, and not even a full person. The kid that looked at you... realized exactly that. The kids and adults here know that when you come across someone who is angry or upset, ranging from a friend having a bad day to a violent, foaming rage, there are two things you can do. You can avoid the person, or you can help the person. Most places, people will consider a third choice, and that's to hurt the person. Sometimes that is considered here, but only when it's done to help people. CTAC believes in second chances, but even if we didn't... let's be honest, you didn't even get a first chance."
Rory doesn't say anything... She wanted to. She wanted to say she warned everyone about this. About info sec and about her broken head. About how dangerous she could be and how ruthless, even when in complete control. But she did say... "I've been running from this for a long time... Maybe not exactly this, but... Who i became... James always told me I was a natural. It was one of the things I hated hearing from him the most."
"Just because it affects you doesn't mean it defines you."
"You sound like Belian. Helped get me out of Diaguandri before the hammer came down from Sirius and squashed me. Come to think of it he said that thing about hot drinks and honey spice, too," Rory said.
"Belian? Heh... Where do you think he got it from?" Lily says with a smirk. She notices they're about 50 meters from the labs, and something dawns on her. "On another note, I'm sure you're not impressed with infosec here, with pretty much the whole station being unsecured. But there are certain places that are secure here, mostly labs and offices. But by a very, very large margin, the core tech labs are the most secure facility in the station. Secure enough that I should probably ask... if the uplink systems in your cybernetics that allow you to be activated were suddenly taken offline and isolated, what might that look like for you? Do you know?"
Rory qshrugs. "I go blind and my arm goes numb. Maybe I have a little trouble breathing, but I've lost power on that lung before. It's uncomfortable, but it's not hazardous. My organics can still work it, it's just really heavy."
"Okay, good, so nothing horrible, and it's not like I'll have to catch you." They enter the lift, and Lily enters a code on a panel inside once the door closes behind them. She pulls out her comms pad and makes a call, bringing the small device up to the side of her head. "Hey Mirage, Rory and I are here in the lift, mind letting us down? ...Thanks, see you soon."
As they step into the lift, Rory suddenly feels her guts tighten, like she's standing on a high ledge and looking out over an abyss. "M-Mirage is your... Your security expert?" she stammers out.
As the lift starts moving, Lily pockets her comms pad and looks over at Rory. "Mirage is the head engineer of the core tech labs. They/them pronouns for layer upon layer of secrets. If you're like me, and are a layer or two deeper than most, it prefers it/its. It has a very good fashion sense, in any gender presentation, and consistently, uh... Look, it's always hot. And also... kind of a hardass at times, but very kind and caring. I think you'll love it."
Rory whinces at the "it" pronoun. She knows it's not about her. She knows people deserve to be called what they want to be called. All the same, with her anxiety this high...
"Do you think Mirage will mind if I refer to them — it — with something else? One/ones maybe? I have a really complicated relationship with that word being applied to human beings..."
"My god, what have you done to her you sick bastard?!"
"What do you care if it lives or dies, Harlan? You gave it to me! And I've certainly paid you enough to buy another one!"
"Wait! Wait! Wait... Wait..." She pastes her eyes shut as the memory rolls through, searching desperately for a place to ground this feeling.
"Any pronoun is fi— Oh no." Lily picks up the com pad again, unlocking Rory's cuffs and squeezing her hand tight. "Mirage! I take it the counter surveillance systems are active? ... Yeah, I'm in the lift now. ... I don't know, it's effecting Rory in some unexpected ways. ... Okay, thanks, see you in a bit." Lily pockets the pad again and suddenly finds she's taking most of Rory's weight as she doubles over. "Hang on, Rory, we're almost there."
"Do you wanna be freeeee?"
BABABAM.
"Sorry sis. I've heard that song before. You wouldn't like how it ends."
She reaches into a bag and tosses a brick of cash and a ship RFID tag to the scared little slave girl.
"Take the other girls, hire a pilot, and get the fuck off world as fast as you can."
She sits at the edge of the stage, crosses her legs, lights up a cigarette, and waits. When the Imperial Police arive, she doesn't even draw. Just finishes her smoke. "Okay... Let's go to prison. I'm ready."
"Uhhh!" Rory gasps out, leaning against the wall of the lift. "Haaaa. Wow, dejá vu!"
"What if it doesn't work?"
"It's going to work. The carrier wave is immaculate. So subtle she won't even notice it's happening. God, I love neurology."
"She's waking up."
"Yes, she has to be awake for this part. What's your name, Miss?"
Rory strains slightly to speak. She can't help but tell them exactly what they ask for. "Aurora Angelica Morris. Or it was. I changed it to Bael. I wanted to disappear."
"This is stupid. Are you sure she won't come back?"
"It's not perfect, but if we take away the Montgomery family name and her own, I'm sure the trauma will do whatever the compulsion won't." The tech flips a few switches and touches Rory's cheek. "It's okay dear. You're doing so well... It'll be over soon."
"Lily, something is happening to me..."
“It’s the countersurveillance systems of the lab. Whatever is happening right now is undoing whatever was done to you to make you a sleeper agent. The most important thing is I’m right here with you, and I’m going to stay with you through this. Okay?”
Rory leans hard into the wall, pulse squeezing her hand as the images flood in.
Bob Harkness is frowning as Rory wipes blood off of her knife.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Oh no, it was absolutely unnecessary. Felt goooood though." She kicks the lifeless body of the headmistress at her feet and spits on her.
"You know, if you keep spending all this time on revenge, we're never getting paid."
"If you wanna get paid, just hand me the plasma torch. There's a safe behind that bookshelf," she laughs, feeling the pin prick of another hit of Yeti, that sweet, sweet blend of Slush and Rager, in the back of her neck.
"I'm saying this is unhealthy." He whinces at the prick in his neck and turns for the door. "This company deserves better."
"Yeah, and I'm saying this bitch deserves worse!"
"Rory, talk to me," Lily pleads. "Just a few words."
"I'm... Remembering. Mmmph! Fuck, I turned myself in after I killed Conrad. Bob followed me on a vengeance bender for a year. I know my owner's fucking name... It's... It's all coming in so fast. I think... I think they programmed me to forget, so I wouldn't come back so they could—"
"Moira, come with me. Harlan is dead, who knows where Rebekka is. These men, they're not here for us! We can go! We can finally do something for us. " Rory takes Moira by the face and kisses her full on the mouth but Moira pushes her away.
"Aurora, I know you've been angry a long time but... This is not good. These are not good people. I'm glad they've done for us what they have but look at them! They're barbaric!"
"No, Moira, the Empire is a lie. The rest of the galaxy is not like this, I've been talking to Mr. Conrad all afternoon. You have to be strong to survive out there!"
Moira sighs and hangs her head. She takes Rory's hand and kisses it, then reaches to trace down the scar on Rory's poor crazed face.
"It's not my freedom, Aurora... it's yours. You go. Come back for me when ou've got it all out of your system. You'll know how to find me."
"Fuck me I left my girlfriend behind. Lily, please, get me in there fast, I need to lie down..."
Not even waiting for the doors to open, Lily pulled her out of the lift and into the lab. A klaxon was sounding with red lights flashing as the intrusion alert sounded across the core labs. "Mirage, anyone! Get her a bed, she needs to lie down!"
Rory staggers forward, one hand on her head and another out in front of her so she doesn't knock anything over. "Mmmph! Lily it's not... I'm not okay right now!"
Conrad is standing by the front window on the bridge of the FC Uniform Charlie Kilo smoking a cigarette. Rory is still laying on the blanket they had strewn across the floor, looking at him.
"It's all there, Rory. All of it. Only think keeping it from us are a fel lousy walls and some deskjobs who don't know what they're missing."
"It's a bit more complicated than that, James. And most of those people do have lives."
He smirks and tosses her the lighter so she can have a smoke of her own. "Says a goddamn natural born killer. Look at you. What is it, 3 months you've been out?"
"One hundred and fifteen days," she says smiling and lights up.
"Right... I was thinking we should go back into Federal space. I got some friends who have been asking about their naval doctrine. I want you to do something for me."
"What?"
"... I want you to break into one of their barracks."
"That doesn't make sense! Why would that one..." Rory bumps into a table and knocks some things over, causing a small scattered mess. A lab technician unfolds a rolling stretcher as Lily makes eye contact, staying close to Rory and guiding her over toward the stretcher.
“Hey. You don’t need to process it all right this second. What you need right now is to cope with it, and I’m right here to help. Okay?”
"Yeah... Yeah okay... What was your name again? Are you Mirage?" Rory's face is contorting rather wildly as stuff is flooding in. Emotions and images and conversations...
"Who trained you?" the Imperial tech asked.
"No one."
"I thought she could only tell you the truth?" the officer in the back growled.
"She can...she is! At least she thinks she is. Maybe we're not asking the right questions. Aurora: where did you learn to defeat security systems?"
"I... I sort of picked it up as I went along. I guess I started on the fleet carrier? Someone was after us but the carrier was locked out and... And I bypassed it. Then there was a Federal Navy Barracks..."
"You mean to tell me that this girl taught herself how to outwit L4 security systems by trial and error?"
"She certainly thinks so."
"How are we supposed to erase that?"
"Maybe if I can target some specific formative memories, and some of the more advanced incursions... But then again, we are looking at a rather large opportunity here."
"Can someone get me a data pad? I want to... I gotta write this shit down, I don't want to lose it again!"
The tech hands Rory a datapad all set up for taking notes and Rory immediately starts scribbling them down as Lily helps and guides her onto the stretcher. “I’ll get her to Mirage, back by the security console. You bring a cerebral scanner! Stand-alone or isolated!” Lily shouts to the tech.
Rory's hands are flying almost too fast to see as the rest of her body calms. Her face is quivering with rage as the stream of consciousness pours from her fingertips. "Please, don't stop on my account. I've got this." Through gritted teeth she keeps on entering these flashes, laced with more and more profanity as she goes. "This is fucked, Lily. This is so fucked. I don't care if i never see again. You swear to me you'll scoop these bastards out with a melon-baller if you have to!"
Lily rolls Rory back to a secure room, where a short woman with a long, silky silver-tone mohawk is intently monitoring several large displays, rapidly looking at all of them and entering commands on a keyboard. That “woman” is Mirage, or at least their chosen appearance at the moment. Lily looks around the room, finding a display showing Rory’s vitals and rolling her over to it. “I hope it doesn’t come to a melon baller, but I promise we’re gonna get through this. Mirage, how close are you to locking in an autonomous blocking algorithm?”
"Aurora, where is your next target? What are your plans?"
"I have none. I quit."
"She what?! We just spent 2 billion credits on this hair-brained project of yours to scoop the brains out of this fledgeling and she wants to QUIT?"
"I swear to God, Bavis, if you don't stop shouting you can get in the chair next." The technician, scientist, whatever she is, types in several more lines of code. "There. Now she'll be compelled back in after a short while. It will feel exactly like her own choice. Are you happy now?"
"I'll be happier when the effort bears fruit, Doctor. IF it bears fruit."
"Aurora I'm going to suggest something and I want to see what you think. Alright?"
"Sure..."
"Have you ever considered becoming a Commander?"
"That was near the top of my list if I could ever get out of prison," she answered, still so dazed and distant.
"Well...what if you didn't go to prison?"
Mirage screws up its face at the monitor, typing furiously. “About another minute. Give it take. I can’t triangulate the host it’s trying to ping, but it’s definitely not a QEC link. Protocol is loosely Imperial, but I can’t say for sure… The aggressiveness of this uplink is ridiculous, and I only ever see that in the Alliance or Federation, and Federal links like this usually don’t adapt so mother-fucking well to- any- attempt- to- block- HA! Got it! And... it’s holding!”
Sudden. Instant. Clarity. Rory puts the pad down and sits bolt upright. She looks at her hands, her arms. Her legs. She feels the dull gnawing at the back of her skull where her head hit the wall of the tram. "Wow... Wow wow wow..."
"What is it? Are you okay?" Lily asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine just... just give me a moment," Rory says holding up a finger. It suddenly occurs to her that she remembers all of it. Every detail of the past 24 hours stands out in bright relief against the backdrop of the distant past, still rapidly coming into focus. "Oh my god... You ever um... You ever stand on a native Earth-like at about .75 to 1.5 g after being on a station for months? And it's like 'oh yeah, that's what fresh air is. That's what gravity really feels like'? It feels like that. But... Inside."
“The chip fighting to control your brain, the one doing the uplink… it had its hardware clock exposed, in a way," Mirage said in the voice of a consummate clinical professional. "The heart of your silicon parasite now beats once per second, while it used to beat about 20 trillion times per second, or something like that.”
"The uh...the people who installed it said something about a carrier wave?" Rory says, starting to puzzle her experience out. "Brainwaves! That's gotta be it. They didn't need a cortical implant because it transmits a brainwave!"
“More or less, yeah. The reason it had so much influence is because it could pick up your existing brainwaves and sort of steer them… in any way they wanted.”
“The security here in this lab automatically performed a MIM attack when it identified the unauthorized device, which the processor started fighting, which made it unable to completely control your brain anymore, which I’m sure was… painful. And I’m sorry.”
Rory's eyes light on fire and her face turns to stone. Her tone is calm and cold and even. "I understand. It's not your fault. Thank you very much for your help. I would like to replace them immediately, please. Anything you have lying around is fine."
“Well, only thing fully functional at the moment is a Galnet implant, fitted to clear the lab’s security. We can operate to get that in, and it’ll be a decent holdover until I finish… the eyes I wish I gave myself.” Mirage appears to have normal organic eyes, and those eyes are showing remorse at the moment before flicking over to a display behind Rory, and then to one of the large displays she was at earlier. “wha- the processor is dead, why’s the amygdala…”
"Because hell hath no fury, Mx. Mirage. No fury at all like this one," Rory said quietly, allowing her body to relax again back onto the stretcher. She closes her eyes, pressing her palmheels into her forehead as the tension and fire slowly cools. "Whoever did this is already dead. They just haven't gotten the memo yet."
And she knew, right then and there, that there would be no one better to deliver it than Aurora Angelical Bael.
(To Be Continued...)