point? She hadn’t committed a crime, far from it, the permits and legal documents were thoroughly checked with a fine comb as the old saying went.
Time ebbed ever onward, the more time passed, the more dust particles were being counted over and over. Shadows soon shrouded the dust, making them all but invisible. Marching down the catwalk were bulky humanoid figures, each subtly swayed from side to side as they thundered in two columns along the two metre wide walkway. Recognised by the internal database due to their blocky shapes and the bevelled edges were the mark 7 exoskeleton combat armour, also known as MATECAs for short. Separator cutting pistols were holstered but ready to draw if she became hostile. She knew they were medium range cutting lasers, designed to sever limbs or ignite enemies in flames.
Sallyn watched as the first MATECA soldier twitched his hand while it was near the holstered pistol. Either it was nervous or it was testing her, she certainly didn’t like where this was going.
“You’re coming with us Augment! Otherwise you’ll give me some satisfaction with my work.” “Commander?” “I don’t care about their kind, they gave up any human rights when they became things. Hell it doesn’t even have a mouth, just that triangular thing on it to allow it to breathe.” The commander’s head glued its gaze towards Sallyn after speaking to its subordinate until it turned away, marching down the corridor made by the handful of troops whom escorted the sort of technophobe.
Computations and statistics providing situational escape routes all pointed to one conclusion, escape would terminate her existence. After the final inspection of the holding room, Sallyn succumbed and said “Take me to your debriefing room.” Chatter over the transmission networks was immediately flooding the sensors as she walked beyond the smooth slabs of the connection depriving holding cell. As the MATECAs turned around and thundered along the crisscrossed steel coated nanofibre bridge, one lingered to gesture with its head. The message given by the being in the scrap was ‘follow me’ to which Sallyn obeyed. Doors slid open at the end of the catwalk to reveal a narrow corridor dimly lit by fading LED cables.
It seemed to be a mere extension of the holding room’s walkway, which was before more tunnels branched off to bore their way through the body of the starship. Sallyn found the column of soldiers in their exoskeletons had to double over in order to navigate the capillaries and arteries. Onboard operating systems started to interact with her augmentations to provide a layout of the deck she was on, including the red track dictating where she is supposed to go. In comparison to Volg’s ship, this one is far easier to work around as it used artificial gravity plates for floor boards instead of reliant upon centrifugal forces.
Minutes of walking later, the escorts led Sallyn to the access lift. The leader was obviously finding it difficult to hide its hatred for her as the body language became more and more aggressive with subtle clenches of its fists along with the lowering of its head ready to ram its helmet into her. Heavenly blue tinted lights emanated from an upper deck, their inviting appeal led to Sallyn ignoring the rage filled body language of the lead soldier. Ascending the divinely ladder to the command decks, she found the hum of machines and engines relaxing, reaching the top she was met by a helping hand.
“Forgive my ranking security officer, he hasn’t forgiven the events of the Pollux revolt. Even I have a few parts of my past rooted with some hatred over that period of time. Apologies for the rambling, Captain Dallus and you are?” “Amber Sallyn, subordinate Archaeologist to Professor Volg Kidd. We have full licences and documents to visit this site, procure samples in addition to any reasonable hypothesis that can explain the phenomena occurring on this planet.”
One of the semi sentient drones, assisting with piloting the vessel, delivered a glass tablet to Captain Dallus’ hands. Fingers swiped the tablet vigorously through pages and pages of bureaucratic authorisations to finally arrive at a signature. Initially the screen lit up green for several seconds until a red light illuminated the features of Dallus’ face. “I’m sorry, you are now officially under my jurisdiction and I am confiscating both your research and Professor Kidd’s vessel.”
“By who’s authority?”
“It has been revoked by the Consortium counsel of galactic investigation.”
“Show me!” She barked. He huffed with a contempt ridden expression while handing the tablet to her. Snatching it from his hands with a scowl, the augment then analysed the data for herself and she was in dismay at a sudden rebuke.
Delving deeper into the attached reasoning, Amber soon saw words that forced her to return the tablet to the captain. Even through her glowing soulless synthetic eyes, he saw something human stir.
“You do realise that you and Volg will be brought in for questioning?” “Yes, I am well aware of the circumstances. But I’ll have you know that I will not be considered some war criminal for an event where I was too young to accept the faulty implants.”
“I have read the file, but this is for your own protection.” “And why’s that?” she snapped. “Loo…” “Well stop thinking and just tell me.”
“Some of the Augments had a relapse. One of them you know personally will need to be checked in case their inhibitors have degraded.”
“He’s going to be wiped again?”
“Possibly, I hope you can help him reassemble himself.”
“You’re asking me to help a victim of memory Inhibition for a second time?”
“I know it…”
“You have no IDEA! I WAS A CHILD LAST TIME! You’ve never had to help someone with induced amnesia. Do you know how many hours I worked to care for him before he was a functional member of society?”
“Err…”
“Most of his brilliance was down to me effectively putting the person back together again. We Augments are not machines, we are people too. We are still fully biological life forms with emotions and instinctual drives. The only difference is that the replacement parts allow my brain and body to respond to new stimuli. The only cyborg part on my body has to be this hand, even that is muscle fibre supporting these vertebrae like joints for my hand’s feelers.” Amber raised the hand as dancing tendrils almost hypnotised the gaze of Captain Dallus. Studying his glare, Amber noticed a strange look of arousal drawn across his face.
“Look, Dr. Sallyn, I am under orders to detain you until the Auditors arrive. As much as I’d like to inspect you...r augments…” “Captain Dallus, Can I please be returned to Volg and to my work?” “I see no reason why this should stop the discoveries you have already made here. If I detect any foul play in the meantime, you and your ship will be…” “Terminated, I understand.” Amber then stormed out and followed a highlighted route to her vessel.
The flight back was easy going and daunting in the shadow of the cruiser. Amber’s nerves were on edge, what if Volg was relapsing? Is he going to run? More thoughts like these were soon stamped out of her mind as the organic machines obeyed their programming to inhibit instinctual responses, while sorting through vast quantities of data.
Crates of artefacts were buckled down with graphene fibre cables, preventing the cargo from floating in the shuttle’s hold. A cyclopean drone let its ominous green glowing eye dance around the hold from within its socket. That emerald eyed drone was the only active one, bar the autopilot, it was another of Volg’s outdated machines he kept for austerity and nostalgia’s sake. Like Amber, these machines were orphans given a home on a dilapidated orphanage, working for a being whose former life was completely erased and rewritten.
As the tell tale shudder from the landing clamps juddered the vessel, the cyclopean slave glared at the door momentarily as though it was spooked and it went back to labouring. Unfastening the cargo crate was a more complex task for the drone than the multi tasking of heavy lifting while compensating for the low gravity. Centrifugal gravity was tolerable but, nowhere near as welcoming as G1 panels providing an optimum level of artificial gravity. She removed the triangular Atmospheric converter from her mouth and placed it back in
the hold as she could sustain herself in this ship’s atmosphere.
Leaving the shuttle, Amber was greeted by that stale smell of warmed circuits and lubricants, while drones were busy scurrying around the open plan rotunda for a cargo hold. Bright lights shone from the tubular roof, nearly blinding for human eyes, Amber however had augmented eyes. She never fully understood the necessity for such a large rotunda on a ship like this. Even on the original technical drawings, these large compartments were never fully explained. Incoming data streams and exchanges occurred with the vessel’s mainframe AI allowed Amber to pass on the message to Volg.
Hours of information was transferred within a microsecond to Volg and throughout the ship. Volg’s attitude was certainly not one of agreement to the consortium’s decision. Receiving only a brief message was the tell tale signature that Volg had taken a foul mood, Amber somewhat feared his rage as he had a tendency to become physically violent. This round was not an exception. Tapping into the security network, Amber saw Volg throwing punches into walls and floors of his room. It was one of the hardest things for her to watch as she knew elements of his rage sourced from a lack of his past. Often she wondered what it would be like to suddenly wake up an older