The screen blinks out and Pious is pressing buttons in a small panel along my collarbone.OVERRIDEblinks in bright neon red. Bells and whistles clang through my faceplate and it vibrates so violently, my skull screams out in pain. Inside, my muscles tremble with desire.
“No, nononono!” I hear my voice shrieking. My fingertips turn cold and the icy feeling creeps quickly up my arms and crawls across my chest, numbing everything in its wake. Things slow. Sounds are diluted with an underwater effect. Mind-numbing pain. Searing of skin, bubbling of throat, my screams echo inside my skull. Please let me remember who I am, what I need to do. I need to keep control of my thoughts.
My toes curl. Pins and needles climb up my legs. The metal fights to seep deeper into my skin, but it can’t.
“Do you see what it is he wanted from you, parasite? Do you understand why stopping him was vital to our world?”
I need to pretend I’m under his command. That’s the only way. I need to trick him. “Yes, General Pious,” I reply, standing and moving my left foot out a few inches from the right, resting my weight on the balls of my feet and clasping my hands behind my back.I grew up a soldier’s daughter, I can do this.Pious thinks if I’m wearing the faceplate I’ve been holding, he’s controlling my emotions, my thoughts, my actions.
Thank God Jex pulled out that little thingy to override the control circuits when we first met. Now I get to see if any of my high school drama classes do anything for me. My guidance counselor promised me they would. I agreed just to get out of phys ed.
In my head, I’m Princess Leia fighting the rebellion.
In reality, I can barely see out of the viewfinder and walk into a wall.
Twice.
Pious starts stalking down the hallway and I’m stumbling behind him trying to keep up.
“Do you have any notion what females on this vessel would do to my people? It was the cause of the breakdown of society on your Earth. Disease. Bacteria. All it takes is one flu-like virus. Up here my men are safe in a controlled environment. Healthy. The women need to be kept away, frozen. Used only for their eggs.”
“Yes, General Pious. I understand.” You disgusting piece of shit, misogynistic slimeball.
He stops short. “Although, I must admit as long as Rune is somewhere in this ship, he is a great threat to our controlled environment. Maybe keeping you close to me is a more suitable way to achieve his capture.” Pious whirls around and stands facing me. “Do you believe he will come to try and rescue you?”
“Yes,” I say, because it’s the only thing I can say to keep me out of those cryo-containers. If I stay out, there’s a better chance I could save Claire and those women. If I’m frozen, I’m not saving anyone.
“You could be bait, I believe,” he mumbles.
“Yes, General Pious,” I agree. If my sister is in the cryo-preservation lab, I don’t know, but he’s ordered me to follow him so like a good little solider, I do.
It breaks my heart as we stomp our way through the tin corridors. If she’s there, I have abandoned her, haven’t I?
I clench my fists into steel balls, I can’t think like that. I can’t save her unless Pious is out of the room. I have to be smart about this, not an emotional wreck, just like Rune taught me before we stormed their camp back on Earth. It’s like a game of chess and I have to think about my moves five steps in advance.
Maybe chess club would have been a better choice than drama in high school.
“Female?” he asks, abruptly stopping and spinning to face me. “Last you saw Rune, was he alone?”
“Yes, sir,” I lie.
He does nothing but loom over me. Shit, does he know I’m lying? Can he tell? Rune had four people with him, and four rounds to zero, so I’m estimating, not lying. My armor gives nothing away and Pious’s metallic mouth slowly spreads into a grin. “Good, female. That’s very good, indeed.”
