"What about her?" the doctor asked with an evil grin on his face, reminiscent of a child molester's on a kindergarten playground at recess.
"You can have her," Ahmi said as she turned and walked out of the sickbay. Scotty looked back at her and turned his head as he followed his fearless leader like a lapdog.
"You know, my sister was a security guard on this ship until this morning. I believe you killed her. I think I should get something to ease the pain of my loss."
Kira ignored him. Tears and blood oozed down her neck into her hair. The doctor stepped between her legs and leaned over her. His breath smelled of coffee. He leaned in closer and began to fondle Kira's body clinically. He lowered his face to hers and glared into her eyes but she turned away from him as best she could.
"I am so going to fucking kill you," she whispered.
"Oh, I don't think so. I plan to leave you right here for a long time. Right up until this ship explodes. Believe me. I plan to make you suffer until the last possible minute. My little sister would have wanted it that way." He held an injector in front of her battered face that was filled with a pink fluid.
"What is that?"
"This, my dear, is pain. Pure, liquid, pain. Enjoy it." He stuck the needle into her neck and drained the pink stuff into her.
The injection started burning from the instant the needle touched her skin. At first Kira felt a tingling and burning spreading out through her face and then down her body. Her hearing heightened, and she could hear her own heartbeat begin to race as if it would beat out of her chest. Kira tried to shallow and control her breathing, but the burning grew and grew to the point were her body felt like it was being burned from the inside out. She screamed in pain.
"I am so going to fucking kill you!" Kira did her best to put her mind somewhere else but the pain was too great to ignore.
"You can't just destroy Luna City, Elle!"
"Scotty, I can and I will. That is the only way to be sure that the election goes our way." Ahmi paced back and forth in her cabin. "Now, that's enough of this."
"Elle, millions could die from an event like that. It was different when there were millions being saved on Mars, and we always expected that the U.S. would save them, but this is just murder. It's mass murder on the largest scale known to man. For what, just to sway an election!"
"A means to a better end," Ahmi replied.
"Damnit, Elle—" Scotty was interrupted by the door buzzer.
"Yes?" Elle snapped the door open to face the ship's captain.
"More info on the attack at the facility, General."
"Yes?"
"It appears as if we have overwhelmed them. The supercarrier has taken several direct hits from the mass driver on the moon. The space and ground forces are outnumbered more than three-to-one and are attritting." The captain stood still in the doorway awaiting Ahmi's response.
"Good, Maximillian. And the other mass driver?"
"They are too close to it for any useful firing solutions. The crew has been moved to the moon facility for more efficient use of their abilities."
"The defenses of the base are working as planned. Good." Elle tugged at her ski mask, adjusting her ponytail in the back. "We will drop out of QMT and start the immediate recharge of the projector. The hauler and other battle cruisers will protect us until we teleport again. Once the cruiser is in the Earth-Moon sphere of influence, we will evacuate the ship completely. Got it?"
"Understood ma'am." The captain saluted, and the door closed behind him.
"How long were you going to keep this from me, Elle?" Scotty asked.
"Right up until the last minute. I knew you would get all defiant about it."
"You know I have family there! Why didn't you warn me about it?"
"Would you have swayed one way or the other?"
"I, uh . . ."
"No, you wouldn't have. I know you too well. Now stop it, Scotty. I've got a battle plan to think about." Elle waved him to the door. Scotty shook his head and reluctantly dropped the topic, leaving the general to her work.
Allison? Allison?
Don't worry, I'm still here.
You got really quiet on me.
I didn't want to transmit just in case they knew how to detect it. Looks like our decoy implant worked. How do you feel?
Yes it did, and I feel rough as hell.
The CIA had discovered decades earlier that the Separatists often removed the AIC implants of captured agents and either hacked them or destroyed them. And in many cases, they killed their biological counterparts in the process. Allison was a member of the Top Secret AIC family that had been developed to grow as microfilaments along the human nervous system, rather than to be implanted as a small device in the brain. Allison's components were dispersed and intermingled throughout Kira's body and would likely only be removable if Kira were dead. The implant was just a copy AIC that had been put there years ago to act as a decoy. Most CIA operatives had similar AICs. The AICs had to volunteer and so did the operatives, as it pretty much made them symbiotic and intertwined for the life of the human.
Any luck getting us out of here?
The troop carrier we rigged this morning hasn't been repaired yet! Allison said excitedly into Kira's mind. That was a glimmer of hope. The lifter that they had commandeered in the hangar bay to fly them up to the mecha that they had ended up stealing for the getaway was still in line to be repaired. The Seppy repair crews had just rolled it aside for later maintenance. And it still had the hacks in place that Kira and Allison had previously applied. And it was still keyed into the ship's networks.
Can you access it? Kira had put her mind so far out into space that she could barely keep her sanity. The internal burning sensation had finally lessened to a tolerable level, but that had been followed with a strange and frightening euphoria that had lasted for several minutes. The doctor had left her to her chemical trip as far as she could tell and was no longer in the room with her. The bastard hadn't even bothered to cover her up.
I've got control of it now.
Can it bust us out? Kira tried blinking her eyes and shaking her head hoping to keep the pain managed. The remnant of the immunoboost that she had taken hours ago was probably keeping the pain from overwhelming her, but the chemical had pretty much overcome what was left of it. Her head pounded like a repulsor hammer with each beat of her heart.
It couldn't get through the deck plating. But it's a start and a way out if we can get to it.
If we can get to it. Right. How do we do that?
You have to get untied.
I have no idea about that yet.
The door hissed open and Kira braced herself for more torture. It was the doctor again. This time Scotty followed in behind him. The two were arguing about something, but Kira couldn't make out exactly what at first.
"The general sent me back down here to ask more questions. Is she conscious?"
"I can always wake her up if not," the doctor replied.
"Leave us, now." Scotty glared at the doctor. Kira wasn't sure, but she was guessing that Scotty must be a high-ranking member of Ahmi's inner circle, if she had one.
"If you need me, I'll be in my office," the man said, and the door closed behind him. Scotty turned his attention to Kira.
"Here, this will help," he told Kira as she felt a sting in her neck.
A flood of warmth and well-being coursed through her body. A feeling that Kira had felt way too many times that followed stims and immunoboost injections. But that was a good thing. She never wanted to feel the way she had a few minutes ago ever again. She needed the added strength and for some of the pain to go away. Almost immediately, the throbbing in her face subsided. There must have been painkillers in the injection as well.