Downfall, Part 6
12 Jun 2017User4296
UnknownJune 3302
It was nearly impossible to tell how much time between when the injection was given and when the pain finally ended - or rather, became a sort of dull throb that seemed to surge throughout my entire being. It was also impossible to tell how much time had passed between that and when the door to the room had finally opened, and someone entered.
At some point during the ordeal, my chair had toppled over, and I found myself laying on my side, one arm trapped under me as I stared at the darkened wall. My reeling mind had barely registered their presence, but whoever it was moved over to me and stuck another needle into my neck, doubtless drawing another blood sample, which they took over to the lone computer that sat in the room.
"Where are you right now?" A voice asked. In my haze, I didn't recognize it - at least not at first.
"Sol," I replied. "Spent some time there back over the holidays."
"Humanity's birthplace," the voice replied. "How quaint." Through the haze, a spark of recollection formed: the voice was Maxwell's. The computer beeped, and I heard the rustling of his clothing as he bent to look at the screen.
"Interesting," he said. "Most interesting. The compounds we introduced weren't able to meld with your genetic structure, and so your body simply broke them down on its own." He paused. "The process must have been excruciating."
The door opened again, and a second person entered the room. A few moments later, I felt a pair of hands grip my shoulders and pull me - and the chair - back upright. Pain shot down my arm as the blood rushed back into the formerly-trapped limb and this was replaced by a tingling sensation as the nerves came back to life.
The second time the door opened, it had brought a small group of two people instead of just one. I saw that these were a pair of guards - one of which had just pulled me back upright, while the other took up a position in front of me.
"While this... experiment didn't have the effects we had hoped, we did learn few things. For example, the amount of pain you endured? There are governments and militaries across the galaxy who would pay for this kind of knowledge," Maxwell said next.
"Isn't the saying 'do no harm?'" I asked.
"We're scientists, not doctors," Maxwell replied with a shrug. "In either case, we have seen something... most curious - something we think you should see. Bring him," he said next.
The guard holding the chair unfastened the bindings which held me to it, and I brought my hands around in front of me. A moment later, the guard in front of me slapped a pair of shackles around my wrists, then pulled me to my feet. They took up positions on either side of me, and the four of us left the room.
***
The trip down the hallway was the first moment I had realized we were on a ship. There also weren't many people moving around in the hallways, which seemed a bit strange, if this was indeed Apex Unlimited's flagship. The trip also served a purpose though - as we moved down the hallway, I got a chance to walk off the ordeal in the interrogation room. By the time we reached the bridge the haze had mostly dissipated, leaving a soreness in its wake. What mattered was that I was alert again, at least.
The door to the bridge opened, and we filed into the room. The shape of the bow of the ship that extended beyond the bridge windows identified it as an Anaconda. I had never been aboard one of these before, despite having fought alongside or against them over the course of my two careers.
Two of the stations on the fore half of the bridge were manned, and our arrival had essentially tripled the population of the room. Maxwell strode forward. "Bring it up," he ordered.
A screen blinked into existence on the window just above the pilot. In the center of the screen, a small ship was speeding through space. A second later, the ship grew larger as the view magnified: an Imperial Courier.
"We noticed this ship following us shortly after we left the Yarrite system. When we scanned it, we discovered something most curious about it, John," Maxwell said, turning away from the screen to face me. "It appears to be registered to you." He paused dramatically, and our eyes locked. "Would you know anything about that?"
Talia.
“So that’s where it went. I had reported it stolen weeks ago,” I shot back.
Maxwell nodded at one of the guards, who drove a fist into my side, and I doubled over with a groan. The door behind us slid open, then, but it wasn't until Maxwell looked at the newcomer that I also turned my head to see who had arrived. Takamura strode onto the bridge, clad in a flight suit.
"Scan him," Maxwell ordered. The two guards roughly took hold of me, and one of them waved what appeared to be a PDA across my body. When it passed over my ear, it beeped.
"Son of a bitch," the guard said. "He's transmitting something."
Maxwell surged forward and took hold of my head, wrenching it to one side. We struggled for a moment as he forcibly pulled the small, black earbud - the one I had used to communicate with Talia at the gala - out of my ear and threw it to the deck. It rolled over near the Asian, who stepped on it, crushing it beneath his boot.
"Clever. Getting yourself captured to bring others to us," Maxwell took one final look at me, then nodded at Takamura, "His allies. Kill them."
Takamura flashed a grin at me. "With pleasure," he said, before turning and leaving the bridge.
Everyone's attention was drawn back up to the Imperial Courier as it streaked ever closer to the Anaconda.