Nobody's Coming Back for You (Part 2)
25 Jun 2022Aurora Bael
(OOC: this is the second half of a collab between myself and CMDR Rixses, also of TSCG. His words and character are used with permission)----
"So I ask you," Rixses said, looking across the room severely as Rory took in the wreckage, mouth covered with both hands in wide-eyed dumbstruck horror. "Are you willing to pay the price?"
Over the course of a few seconds, her affect shifts. On one hand, it is contemptuous, but not at him. No that's reserved for looking back at what happened to the Abhuire. For him there is only softness. Gentleness. She stands and slowly crosses toward him. Very slowly. "I understand your warning. It's a good warning. Being mindful of the collateral damage digging into something like this can cause is a sound piece of advice." She looks back at the image of floating debris, acutely aware of the frozen corpses hanging in orbit with it. Then, deciding it's worth the risk, Rory reaches out one hand and puts it on his shoulder. "But you didn't do this! Some other bastard did. Out of fear or power lust or hell, maybe even something completely unrelated, they did that. God's sake, man... Don't take on the guilt of thirty-eight hundred dead on behalf of the fellow what pulled the trigger."
Looking back at the image again she runs her hands back over her head and breathes in, really letting the scope of the tragedy sink into her. Visions of Chilton Terminal belching spherical orange flames flash through her mind. She breathes out long and slow and really thinks hard about it. It turns her stomach, chills her blood.
"...you know when Felicity fixed up my ship for this mission, she said 'You're not the first to run afowl of the Dark Wheel' or something like that. At the time I was thinking they were a myth or she was being hyperbolic... Now I'm not sure...
"If it's a matter of accepting the consequences of my actions? Yes. I'll bear those to the grave a thousand times. Have I taken steps to protect my people from what I'm digging at? Yes. And I'm prepared to go forward. The way I see it? We're all in more danger if I stop. Because if I don't cut the head off of this snake, it's not if we get bit. It's when."
"No. No no no, you've missed the point. It is my burden to bear. And it will be yours." Rixses returns to the controls and shuts off the projection. "People like this are not just collateral. They are the point." His voice picks up force and he starts pacing. Gesturing as he talks. "Just because I don't know everyone of them by name or by association does not make them any less important." With no warning, he grabs Rory by both shoulders, shaking her out of stupor and forcing her attention into this very moment. "Everyone is involved. Whatever it is that you are facing, whatever 'group' puts its name on it. Everyone is involved. You can't just see those you identify and mark them protected. You reach out at something like this, into the black abyss of the unknown, and what you pull out might just be the world eater. EVERYONE IS INVOLVED!" He finishes with a shout.
"Jesus... What happened to you?" Aurora asks. It is not an accusation. Not even close.
Releasing her and turning away again, Rixses continues. "You're right though..." His voice, more mellow now. Almost calm again. "You can't just ignore something like this. It must be delt with. Someone must fix the things that are wrong. But you must remember that everything has a price. And it will always be much more than you ever anticipated..."
Rory is quiet for a moment. When he grabbed hold of her shoulders and started yelling? Yes, there was a part of her that was ready to fight or flee or maybe even apologize and get back to work. But she balls and opens her fist a few times remembering the knife in her boot and manages to keep her breath steady and her eyes dry. But this man is clearly disturbed. Deeply disturbed. Like he touched something terrible and it broke something inside him. The cost is becoming clearer to her. What he means is becoming clearer and for a moment it feels almost too heavy to bear.
...And then she remembers that dream. Moira, eyes black, thick pitch tar pouring from her mouth, and she knows that if this moves ahead... There's no telling who or what will be consumed by it. If everyone is involved, then everyone is vulnerable. That can't be left alone.
"...I'll pay it. It sucks, but I'll pay it. Hell, maybe even help pay down yours, too. I might not have the keys to the kingdom, but I'm pretty good at making sure things 'never happened'. Frankly, you look like you could use some help with all those bricks you're carrying..."
"Bricks huh?" He chuckles.
Rixses seems to have collected himself. Almost back to normal. If it wasn't for the evident terror that anyone with half an empathy could feel coming off of him over the past few minutes, you'd think nothing at all was wrong. "Well mine's a brick wall for another day. I'll pull up the archive and see what's what with this 'brick' of yours. And hopefully that whole damned wall doesn't come down on us for it...
"Just that... Sometimes when you face your demons, it's the demons that win." Rix pulls up his wrist terminal and initiates a call with someone. Suddenly becoming more rigid and formal as he does so. You can only hear his side of the conversation but it seems direct and efficient. "Admiral it's me. I need access to the archives." ... "Yes. It's about my guest. Something has been brought to my attention that I believe should be dealt with." ... "No. I don't think its the Shadows. But it could be Empire and it's the reason my guest was tagged as a threat. If it is, then steps should be taken."
Rory's ears prick at the mention of 'Shadows.' Visions of Yog Sototh hugging the Abhuire to splinters spring to mind comically. But for a moment just watching him turn full pro on the com is enough to assuage her concerns. Aurora can't help but admire that soldier's calm he has about him. Through Hell or not, he's a man on top of his shit. Much to be said for keeping your nose in your work when the world is falling apart.
... "Of course. Thank you and I will, Sir." Turning back to her once again and ending the call, Rixses picks up where he left off. "Okay. Let's go to the archive chamber. I can lockout everything and disable the monitoring from there. No one will see what I access without me wanting them to. I've had enough of unexpected problems recently..."
"Oh they just let you turn it off! So no need for my wire cutters, then?" she jokes, quick finishing her glass of bourbon with a satisfied 'ahh'. Rory smirks, pulling her jacket back on and zipping it halfway up her chest. The brand might be hidden, but one can still see the circle from the base of her neck tattoo right around a laser scar at the top of her sternum.
Chuckling, he says "Not quite. But rank, time, and honorable friends has its perks." Rixses motions for Rory to follow and opens the door. She stops to grab her helmet and for one last look out over the biodome where the cadets or NCOs or whatever have moved on to running laps through the verdant field. Yeah... She could get used to this. And for some reason, that thought is just a little less scary now.
Stepping out into the corridor, he dismisses the two guards saying that he'll take care of the escort. After a quick check with security, they relent, and about-face out of the way. Rixses moves briskly through the ship with the ease of experience. Before long, she notices that she's back in the familiar feel of minimal artificial gravity. Things here are less luxurious and more efficiency focused. Impeccable quality as before, but now directed towards ruthless efficiency. Now in the bowels of the ship, the hum of the engines audible. Rixses enters a room unlike any she has seen. A small control console sits in front of a large hollow spherical area. He approaches the console and pauses for a moment to put a finger to his lips, calling for quiet. Then he busies himself with an access under the console for a few minutes before bouncing up with a smile. Extending his arms as in show, he says "Welcome to the Imperial Archive Remote Interface. Monitoring has been disabled and we're free to talk."
Rory stood near the door with mouth agape, her head spinning around at what is obviously a concave holoprojection suite bigger than any she has ever seen in person. It's all that she can do to collect herself long enough to note Rixses's quick duck under the panel. She smiles at him knowingly, leaning against the inside of the doorframe as it seals shut behind her, helmet still under her arm. Then of course, back to the projector and what is surely a few million exaflops of power hiding in neatly cable-managed rows behind it. She whistles at the magnitude of it, letting her helmet hang-hover on a lanyard at her belt.
"Damn. I'd ask what model it is but this is... Clearly two generations ahead of the newest I've seen. Interesting that the architecture is still so similar. I half expected to feel completely lost." Into her pocket with one hand, she pulls out the shard and trots up to the console, holding it out for him to take. "From what I understand, there are two potential sources. I'd like to run both if we can. And... Thank you. For everything. You might be saving my life right now."
Rixses reaches down and grasps her hands for a moment, meeting her eyes with genuine concern. "I think... you understand what it really means to work to make the galaxy a better place. Politics and everything aside. As long as that is the goal, I think you'll find friends in unexpected places." He slips the shard from her hands and turns back to the console.
Rory bites the inside of her lower lip to hold back an intense wave of emotion and nods. It's... So nice to actually be seen for a change. She has before but hearing it come from an Imperial officer just...hits different. The back of her left thumb catches one stubborn tear that managed to escape her eyes, and stops it rolling down her cheek.
"Dr. Burbarry programed this," so I'm positive all I would need to do is plug it in and it'll do all of the work. But... Given some of the recent events and the security of the Empire, I'm sure you'll understand if I run it through me and filter anything... inappropriate."
"So you um..." Aurora stammers "You have an HMI system too? I've never tried to put any serious data through mine. You don't find it hurts?"
"More than anything I use it for high speed access. Ship telemetry and the like. So much faster than anything manual. But no, if it's a quality unit and configured correctly you can run a few teraflops without even noticing. After that you need a feedback buffer to keep scaling up. But I've known a few specialists that have managed rigs to get into the exaflop range." Rixses grimaces a little. "They... Aren't normal after that."
Aurora shrugs. "Must be nice. Mine's mostly good for making computers do things they shouldn't and giving me a phantom 6th finger on my left hand."
Rixses shifts over and pulls the interface cord out of the console and plugs it in to a port near the nape of his neck. A moment later the archive wakes up and the room is filled with light. A white spheroid projection appears in the middle of the of the massive space. It shifts with millions of tiny cube representations of data clusters and you can visually see some graphical rendering of what must be data running through between them. She sits back and watches as Rix accesses the data; now she is well and truly lost. This is the kind of thing she likes looking at system consoles for, not playing around with holographic data cores. The color suddenly changes from white to blue.
"Connection active. Access approved." Rixses says and then slots the shard into his neck. He spasms for just a moment when the shard is fully inserted. "Wow. That's some efficient coding. I have access to everything the shard was setup to look for. There are a few projects that seem unrelated I'm going to filter out. Looks like you were a part of a 'Project Wayfinder.' Headed by Dr. Eliza Marie Dalton."
The spheroid transmutes into a rendering of a data display showcasing the project file. Rory can see schematics, test results, project proposals, maps, and a list of affiliates. She suddenly takes much greater interest, scanning the text hyperfast as she does. Loyalty, security, cognitive functional impairment, antimnemonic conditioning, everything was here.
"This is what you were looking for. Some sort of brainwave augmentation system. Like a tech based behavioral conditioning or something. Some of this is way over my head. Looks like the initial proposal was as a method of psychotherapy without resorting to drug based methods. About nine months in the military took notice and development seems to have accelerated." Rixses turns to look at her. "Yarrite system. Kobayashi Munitions Encampment. Go ahead. The display is physically interact-able. You can look through it."
When the readout for the project comes up, As Rixses gives the okay, her hands raise up and start leafing through the project files, all heavily redacted as to the specifics of what each subject is testing, until she finds one in particular:
MORRIS/BAEL, AURORA
Her hand hovers over it for a moment before she opens the file and there's her mugshot, a heavily redacted rap sheet, and some vague statements mirroring the kind of tampering she remembers. Lots of dated entries up to about a month ago including private log files, cartography, commercial data, station schematics... Plenty of it is redacted, but having lived it she knows exactly what lies behind those black bars. "Jesus, what'd they do, download my whole ass life?" Then suddenly about two months ago there are dozens of entries just reading 'CONTACT FAILED' over and over and over again until finally one last entry.
SIGNAL LOST. SYSTEM COMPROMISED. SUBJECT TERMINATED.
"Well 'at's a bit hyperbolic, innit?" She pushes the readout away and pulls up the installation map, turning it over and around in her hands, marking POI's for reference as her visual co-processor starts recording the information for later. "Okay... Southeast entry for alarm access... Laboratory... There! Northwest, labeled storage, look at all the damn plumbing running to it... No way in hell that's just a pantry. That's a lab, dead sure. Looks like some of the subjects are held on site... Armed Garrison of 25..." She puffs air out of her lips, flapping them against one another. "Not bad odds, but not great... Damn. Now who's the Commodore..."
"If you want..." Rixses starts as the image shifts and another datafile comes up beside the project. The standard personnel file for Commodore Bavis Pike. Also redacted. "Look there." He points to a section of the file about open investigations and pending legal action. "It looks as though the good Commodore has been causing some problems lately... I'm using the admirals access. I could uncover the redactions... Or most of them. Some seem to be equivalent level."
Her interest piqued at the portrait of the dour man who looks exactly as he sounded in her memory, she smirks and nods. "Ha. Sure. Let's see what they're after him for."
As she reads, most of the redaction suddenly strips away leaving a mostly intact document. The affiliates and military applications sections are still partially redacted. Only a small portion of the Commodores file clears up. "Well... that helps. The shard has copies now. I can let you look for a few more minutes and then we should be going."
Rory glances over the Commodore's file and sees an open investigation for embezzlement and miscarriage of duty, neither of which have been cleared for details. "That fucking figures," she grumbles, and turns back to the stack of patient files when suddenly Rory stumbles upon her.
TEMPLETON, MOIRA'
Another mugshot, this one for some light smuggling. Just a few tons of Tobacco in an illegal port. Ought to be a slap on the wrist, but her contact with 'MORRIS/BAEL, AURORA' had her flagged as a potential liability.
"They... Oh God."
TRAUMA MITIGATION. MEMORY ERASURE. MOVEMENT RESTRICTION.
"Oh no... No no no no no... What the hell are they erasing?!"
She scans deeper. Moira had been arrested just after Rory had bumped into her. She had elected to join the program rather than serve her sentence, and... Everything... The whole of her captivity in the Montgomery house was gone. The whole of her life as a slave was gone. Broad strokes, all of it. Events weren't mentioned, just blackout date ranges. The Moira that Rory knew was already gone. To get her back, she'd have to give Moira back all the pain of forced servitude as well. All or nothing. Without another word about it, she closes the file and physically pushes the data screen into the background of the display.
"I have what I need," Rory says flatly, and immediately turns for the door, placing a hand on the frame and hanging her head. She's trying... So hard... To keep it inside. It is probably quite obvious if one were looking at her.
The room darkens as the archive spins down. Rixses approaches and gently places a hand on her shoulder. "There is always a price Rory..." he says softly. "We need to get back to the hab ring. You are welcome to stay for a few days if you would like. I can arrange quarters." Reaching past her, he hits the door panel and the door slides open. Before stepping out Rixses places the shard in her hand, gives her a brief look in the eyes, and then moves out. In that brief moment, Rixses saw her. And she saw him. And the sudden kinship between them — the mountain of understanding passing through his eyes — hits warm and surreal.
"It's not my freedom, Aurora... It's yours."
She gasps out exactly one sob before buttoning her lip, striking the wall (relatively gently, but still loudly) and stepping out of the archive room, hot on Rixses heels. Always a price. Always too high. Luckily it wasn't the mortality contract of a hundred thousand people. It was the memory of one. Just one. But it was one she would have glassed a planet for. After a moment's walking in silence and moving up along side her host — one she might dare to call a friend at this point — she finally answers.
"At least one night, I think. I don't imagine I'll want to be sober enough to fly until tomorrow at earliest... Besides, we're squaddies, ain't we? If we can't cry in each other's whiskey, whose can we cry in? ... Even still. Thank you. I can't imagine maintaining 'workplace safety' after finding that out on my own."
As the two walk back to the habitat ring, Rixses makes calls for her arrangements and gets approval to reduce her threat level. "I've cleared you as a VIP. You'll still have an escort, but they'll mostly stay out of the way and only have a spark with them. You can go anywhere in the habitat ring and your docking bay."
Arriving back at the main corridor to the hab ring, Rixses stops and turns to face her. "You're free to stay for a few days. There are a few places to get a drink but I recommend Murphy's Corner. It started as an impromptu drinking spot before service bars were allowed on board. Ha-ha! There isn't an actual corner in the place! It's part of an old maintenance duct."
Rory nods as she unzips and pulls off her jacket. Trying to be low profile for the rest of the night and she drank herself numb and picked out her next bull was a fool's bet anyway. "A bar full of nothing but sailors? Excellent. Any chance there's a piano? I want to drink a couple dozen sailors under the table and play ragtime music over their unconscious bodies."
A servicemen arrives and salutes Rixses. "This is Servicemen Delvain. He'll be your escort. He can take you anywhere you'd like to go. I want to go check a few things so I can stop worrying. Just let me know if you need anything. And I'll be at Murphy's tonight. Best spot in town." He finishes with a wink.
Aurora smirks in a satisfied way, turns to Delvain, and looks him over. "You're what, 18?"
"Nineteen, ma'am."
"Jesus Christ. Can you even follow me into a bar?"
"Yes ma'am. By virtue of Imperial Navy service, persons under the age of 21 are—"
"Yeah yeah yeah, I remember now, thank you. Please take me to my hangar and then back to my issued quarters. I'm about to light that barroom up and I don't want to smell like a cockpit when I do..." Rory turns back to Rixses, that kind of distant cold ache in her eyes that she's been seeing in his since she arrived. "I'll catch you at Murphy's," she says with a sigh. "I get the feeling I'm not the only one fixing to close the place tonight."
And they did drink. Boy howdy, did they drink...