Chapter 14
Lost In The Mist © 2015 Sinclair Diavante
Chapter 14.
Ssrash glanced at all eleven of his team members, green slitted pupils staring at him widely. Ready. He pointed at each one, then himself. Follow him. This op had been rehearsed dozens of times. Break into Mist's ship, extract Element A, a Rhenthar named Keman. They had watched Mist depart a few minutes ago, and immediately began hacking his ship's security system.
Ssrash leaped forward, all of the weapons on his chest, arms, and legs making hardly any noise. Hard surfaces were padded with insulation. Rotary quick disconnect mounts and quick-grip attachment points covered his ceramastic body armor. His wetware showed biometric feedback from all his squad, he selected jujitsu wan do for his neural net, his muscles sang as they flooded with all the right substances.
Halfway to Mist's ship, his electronic countermeasure specialist broadcast a progress indicator that rapidly shifted from red, to yellow, to green, indicating the outermost security of Mist's ship had been compromised successfully; it was now blind to their approach. The cameras deployed in strategic locations on its hull saw only repeated footage of the starship landing area.
Crawling behind the last member of his team, and struggling to keep up, was a mass of tissue and tentacles, rolling along. It was a Chtolb, hired for its special abilities. While ugly, it would allow Element A to slip his bonds in just a couple of minutes.
His CMT rushed past and threw his back against Mist's ship, near the main airlock, and applied a direct entrance module to the external locks. Nanofibers extended from its surface and wiggled into the optical fibers on the other side of the metal. Ssrash stared as his team silently and took position around the door. Some were occupied with observing the other, neighboring ships. None were close, but a cruiser-sized ship was reported to be working with Mist. No ship matching that size was local or in orbit.
The team operated in silence, squirting data to each other's wetware as they operated like the fine machine all Terellian Special Operations forces were capable of. If you could afford them, they could attain your objectives, always.
The CMT held up his black paw and retracted all his claws, curling it into a fist. The sign that the system had been breached. The door slid open, and his arm flickered with heat waves, before falling to the ground amidst the acrid stench of burning flesh. His eyes opened wide as he stared at the cauterized stump, ending in the middle of his forearm.
Similar body parts and pieces of armor separated like shattering ice sculptures. All the neighboring parked ships were using ship-to-ship x-ray lasers to cut the ops team to pieces. With invisible beams, the sources couldn't be seen, but the remaining team stood no chance to even make such computations. They rushed inside the ship for the only protection they could get.
Twelve ships in the vicinity took part in the slaughter. The owners and people guarding them stared up in surprise at the various laser carbine and cannon, unsure what they were even seeing, as the hardware exited its respective mounting bays and swung into action, pointing at a small ship with a bunch of felinoids surrounding it. The capacitor discharges made it clear this was no prank, people were actually being carved up.
The rest of their ship functions remained in local control. No one wanted to stick around after such activities, so ships began taking off, launching into space for fear that the rest of their systems would become compromised.
"What the..." Mist stared at the feline bodies as he approached his ship, cocking his head sideways, was he imagining this? The black on black corpses wearing armor were difficult to recognize, at first. The charred remains had been easy to scent, he had caught a whiff while walking back from the subway. It only got stronger from there.
He pulled his Sunjet free from its holster and set it to narrow beam, activated his combat neural net programming. Endorphins flooded his system and his concentration sharpened, the world slowed significantly from his vantage.
He had just finished interrogating Phyx, he hadn't talked to anyone, and never will again. That left only one possible link. Someone, somehow, owned Keman's collar. It was a Mark 6. Obviously, they wanted him back, it all added up.
Shit.
They could use hyperwave with its virtual reality integrator feature. Everything Keman saw, the owner of his collar could see. And hear, and taste, and smell. From across the galaxy.
He wouldn't be able to transmit his presence often, due to power constraints. The internal power supply of a Mark VI wasn't enough to do that continuously, on its own. However, it would be often enough. Mist tried to think back to any time Keman had seemed distracted, staring at something that wasn't there.
The time when he first tried to activate the collar, Keman was staring at something.
Someone.
It was time to leave here, yes indeed, Mist thought. He plucked the black module stuck to the docking ring of his aft airlock, tossing it onto the ground next to a corpse missing its head. He accessed his ship's internal defenses, there were many, but he was surprised to find them already active.
"Keman!" I blinked my eyes open, someone was shaking my shoulder. When I tried staring at him, I saw only a fuzzy black shape, and he kept repeating my name.
"Keman! Wake up." My eyes shut just as he turned away and looked up at the ceiling. "Get in past the prime, lock down the sentry in this room. All right, good. Keman..." He shook my shoulder again, peeling my eyes open and shining a bright light in them. I squinted and twisted my muzzle away, fuck that was bright. Delicate, expert paws inspected the tube leading into my mouth.
"It's locked, can you get in past the third firewall? It's still jamming my 'ware." I heard other, distant voices, but couldn't make any sense. I drifted off.
Something violently shook me back awake. "Hey! Look, we're getting you out of here, but we have to collapse the lumen in your stomach. There's only one way we can reach it, so hike your tail and grin and bear it. This is going to hurt. Do you understand?"
I squinted at whoever it was. Hike my tail? What?
"It's live, take it out!" I jerked as weapons fire tore through the hallway beyond my door. Sharp, loud concussions rattled at a blinding rate of fire, echoing off the metal walls, amplified in the close confines. I held my ears flat, but they were ringing loudly.
"Bring the Chtolb through, it's clear. What the fuck, sarge? How can this thing be adapting, it's a standard GE Twenty-Fifty." More voices, distant. Everything was happening too fast for me to track, I wanted to shut my eyes and go back to sleep, the drugs welcomed me with a soft embrace.
Something pulled my tail up and pushed into my ass, it was cold and slimy. My eyes opened wide, the bright light next to someone's head shined into them. "Hold still, Keman. Think happy thoughts, all right?"
I turned and saw a mass of tentacles behind me, surrounding a ball of cabbage. It looked familiar, but I shut my eyes as it drove deeper into me. I felt a turning, twisting sensation deep in my body. It was feeding a ribbed arm covered in suckers, up into me, and it wasn't soft, the inside must have had some sort of bone structure, cartilage maybe. I kept feeling lumps squeeze into my hole, each bigger than the last.
I grunted and strained to open my mouth to cry out, it was tearing me open.
"Can we get some fucking lights on in here?" The soldier standing in front of me, I saw a long black tail thrashing around behind him. Feline, I could smell him. I shut my eyes tight as another bulge worked deeper into my ass. The Chtolb squeaked and clicked.
"Look, I can't tell what you're saying. Just keep going deeper until you reach it. Pop that thing!"
A distant voice: "It's not dead, it's repairing!" Another loud burst of concussions, several high pitched electronic discharges. The hallway beyond my door lit up with violent flashes of multi-colored light.
"Take it off, take it off!" Screaming. "Where's it coming from?"
I grunted and my world went insane with pain, it was like someone was trying to push their fully engorged knot into me. I whimpered and whined, something slick wrapped around both of my thighs, and it pushed even harder. The bulge went past, and cold pressure went deeper into me. I felt a sharp stab in my stomach, the metal around my jaws loosened. More squeaking, popping. Now the Chtolb was pulling out of me.
"Is it out? Is it out?" The soldier reached down and fiddled with the metal band around my jaws. My eyes went wide when I saw a white flame shoot from a small device in his paw, just inches from my nose. I stared at metal turning white hot, the heat slowly travelling towards the area touching me. Oh, shit. Then it was free, he flung it onto the ground, where it began sizzling into the rubber.
The soldier pried my jaws apart and grabbed the tube, pulling the whole thing out of me. A bitter trail of chemicals fell across my tongue and I heaved, my stomach was chasing out the intruder.
"He's ready! Let's go!"
I most certainly was not ready. The Chtolb was still buried in my ass. The pain of such had brought on plenty of endorphins to counter the drugs. "Ahh! Ahhh... Fuck, get it out of me!" My first words in a long time.
The soldier reached down and helped pull the Chtolb's tentacle out of me, but it only popped and squeaked loudly. The pain was incredible, it was stuck. I could feel it snaking around inside me, with panicked, sharp movements. The pain spiked sharply, then the whole thing ripped out of me while I gasped.
Strong arms picked me up, I told my legs to help lift me but I was still coming to my senses. I stumbled over the Chtolb. "Let's go, let's go! Element A is in the clear!" More shouting, weapons fire. He grabbed me tight and pulled me away from the doorway, slamming me against the wall next to it.
"That's ship to ship!" I heard through the hallway. "Marco is down, repeat! Marco is down, where the fuck is Reems? Medic!"
The soldier near me growled into my ear. "Look, when I tell you to run, you run for your fucking life. Ok?" I nodded quickly. "Run!"
I ran through the doorway, surprised my legs could carry me. I stumbled over black, charred bodies. It was too much to take in, but I was trying. Sparking, malfunctioning weapons hung from the ceiling. One rotated, tracking us as we passed, clicking repeatedly, but failing to fire. I saw another soldier up ahead, dragging someone screaming, "My leg, my leg!'
When he disappeared around the corner at the end of the hall, a piercing whistle and a bright light flashed, red mist sprayed up against it and dribbled down to the floor.
"Shit! Wait here." The soldier behind me ran ahead, crouched, holding a big carbine ready. He peeked around the corner and the top of his head exploded. The beam that did the damage continued past, setting floor on fire. It burned for a moment, then someone stepped around the corner and stomped out the flames.
It was Mist.
He looked pissed.
I sunk to the floor while he walked up to me, pausing to stare at one of his malfunctioning sentry guns hanging from the ceiling in disarray, frowning.
"No, no... I didn't... it wasn't me..." I didn't know what else to say, I lay on my back and showed him my throat while he stared at me.
He looked past me, apparently the Chtolb had just crawled from my room. Mist raised his Sunjet and took aim. The air ripped as a narrow beam of particles sliced it in half. It smelled like cooked vegetables. The after-image of the beam was bright in my vision, I wasn't able to blink fast enough.
Mist shook his head in anger. "There's some things we need to discuss." He walked past me and grabbed both halves of the Chtolb, dragging them down towards the main airlock. I crawled back to my bed and waited for the severe punishments I knew were coming.
Lighting returned to normal in my room, and I saw the yellow tube with its wrinkled up deflated lumen at the tip, I swallowed. He'd be putting another one of those in me. I whimpered quietly to myself. I didn't ask for any of this, I didn't do anything to deserve this. Fucking life, fucking unfair.
A cleaner 'bot entered my room and began cleaning the remains of the Chtolb from the floor. It was small, and it seemed to chatter angrily at me while it performed its task.
About fifteen minutes later, the ship's engine systems whined into life and Mist walked back into my room. I was still sitting on my haunches, next to the bed. I hung my head and stared at the floor.
"Wasn't you, eh? You're fucking lying to me. I just saw the video of you scratching Phaylact, Trinity, South Side, starship landing zone. Care to change your story? I should fucking skin you alive." He pointed at me.
"That collar is owned. I m not sure how, but whoever owns you obviously wants you back. So I'm going to make this simple." I hadn't missed the fact that he still had the Sunjet in his paw. He raised the end of it to point at my head, and spoke loudly to the room.
"With you owning that collar, he's just as useful to me as a corpse. Except as a corpse, he'd use fewer resources. I've won, release the collar now or I empty his skull of its contents, and throw his fucking body out the airlock. You've got thirty seconds, less if my hand gets tired."
I didn't quite understand what he was doing, until Sinclair appeared right next to me, crouching to whisper into my ears.
"I'm so sorry, I've failed you, Keman." He was crying. "But I will never give up trying to fix this situation. Obey him without any guilt, be good, be yourself. Stay healthy. I love you, Keman." If his words shocked me, seeing his tears obliterated my mind. He vanished and the collar fell free from my neck, onto the floor. I stared at it and sobbed, hiding my eyes behind my paws.
"Put it back on." I fell quiet, and stared up at Mist through my tears, staring into his bright green eyes. Mine grew wider when I saw him still pointing the Sunjet at me. "I've already dragged enough bodies from my ship, one more won't bother me at all.
"Put. It. On."
I wanted to refuse, to let him release me from this curse. I actually hated Sinclair, I hated what he said, I hated the kernel of hope he'd planted into my mind. I marveled at its power, that even the tiniest shred was enough to make me endure anything.
That told me all I needed to know. I would endure anything, to get back to him.
I reached down and picked up the collar, calmly bringing it around my neck. The ends jumped the last couple of inches, slamming together. It tightened down, chimed twice. I stared at Mist's feet. Obey what he says, Keman.
"Finally. About fucking time." He lowered the Sunjet and slid it into its holster under his left arm. "Knowing everything you know, I'm shocked that you obeyed. Why did you?"
"You told me to." I drove my tongue into the empty sockets at the front of my muzzle, unsure what to think or do. I was withdrawing, feeling irritable, confused, angry, and sad. The list just went on and on, and the humor of the size of it spoke of encroaching insanity. I didn't care, but I did care. I had no hope, but I had hope. I fell silent in my mind. There was no point to further analysis.
"That's another lie. Maybe... you have some hope that your last owner will rescue you?"
"Yeah." My lips quivered, I fought back my emotions.
Mist shook his head. "I've never seen that kind of loyalty. Your 'site is only a few years old. You weren't born into slavery; you're too capable of living on your own. I've already made you feel good in ways you've never felt before. What's the difference between him and me?"
I shook my head, eyes growing wet again.
"Who." The single word scared the hell out of me. I could resist, but it would be a candle to the wind. Tell him now, or later, after he's torn my mind and body to shreds. A mind and body that Sinclair was in love with. Obey what he said. Choices beyond the scope of my capabilities. You can't say no to your creator.
But Mist was not my creator. And some day, Sin would have me back. On that day, I will feel pride when I tell him I did not give up his information without a fight.
"No." I smiled. I wanted to think I was all badass, but the smile was fake, my scent was pure fear. I was terrified of what he could and would do to me.
"No?" He growled deeply, the sudden harsh sound echoing off the walls. "Don't you realize how much I hate that word? Did you see what I did to Phyx? There's a dozen fucking ways I can get the answer from you.
"Tell me what I want to know and I'll pretend I didn't hear your stupid insolence."
"No." As soon as I said it, pain lanced down my spine like liquid fire had been injected into each and every nerve. Just as quickly, it was gone. The floor came up and slapped my jaws together, I tasted blood from biting my tongue.
"Wait. No. I'm not going to use the collar. It won't be pain, and it won't be direct mind control." He laughed. "You're going to tell me what I want to know, completely free, on your own accord.
"That's what I want.
"Mark my words, Keman. Remember them well. From now on, the goal is to win your loyalty. You're going to do everything I ask, because you want to.
"And while I could make it easy, I could make you want to. But I won't. Not directly, it will always be your choice. I want the loyalty you have for your last owner. I want it bad. Your potential is so far beyond an expensive dick warmer."
Mist walked out, I stared at the empty doorway. The cleaning 'bot finished its task and left. I wondered what new torture this was. I wondered what came next. My head was throbbing.
He returned with a new yellow tube in his paw. He picked up the ruined bridle, disconnected everything from the braided hose coming from the wall, and threaded the new tube onto the hose until it clicked.
"This is going back in. I think you know how to do it. The days of me making things easy on you are over. Maybe once you show some loyalty, that can change. It's your choice. Your withdrawal will kill you in another hour or two. I have a mess that needs cleaning." He walked out and the door slid shut.
I got up and put my head on the bed, staring at the new yellow tube, sniffing at it. I did crave what it would give me, there was no doubt about that. My heart was laboring, my nose and paw pads had broken out in sweat. I felt uncomfortable in my fur, and a headache was building behind my eyes.
I climbed up onto the bed and inspected the tip of the yellow tube, it had some sort of integral valve in it. I couldn't suck the chemicals through it. At least I knew it wasn't truly permanent, now. Unless this one was different. Did it look thicker than the last one?
I made a pact, in my mind. I'd do anything he asked, except tell him about my past. That... I would try to take to my grave. I wasn't sure how, but I felt that if I told Mist about Sin, it would ruin my chances of a future with him.
I bent the tip of the tube until it cracked. It immediately started inflating into the shape of a ball. I pushed it into my mouth and swallowed it. I gagged once, and down it went. I grabbed the black hose and stuffed it into my sheath, twisting it to lock in place. I lay back and waited, closing my eyes.
The withdrawal faded, as did the rest of the room.