Requiem (11 page)

'That doesn't
mean you're allowed to look at me when I'm half naked!' she yelled
back.

'So? I do that
to everyone too!'

Another voice
came from the hallway. 'What happened to your face, Cherin?'

'Oh, hi,
Athene, I didn't see you there. This is nothing. I just fell and
hit my head on the corner of the console over there, then the old
coffee cup, you know the one that came out of the dispenser when it
was being cleaned? Well it kind of fell on me. Nothing to worry
about. I'll just go clean myself up.'

'Right. You're
also bleeding. Try to keep your blood within the designated areas
next time. That is, after all, what the infirmary is for.'

'I'll try my
best.'

'And what
exactly are you doing with that needle?'

'Oh, nothing.
Just cleaning things out.'

'You were
running tests on the girl weren't you?'

'Well... yes.
Just following protocol ma'am.'

'Why are you
following protocol from fifty years ago?'

'I'm glad you
asked, ma'am. You see, fifty years ago was a much simpler time. A
time when doctors were not just respected but
feared
. A time
when doctors could stab-'

'Alright,
Cherin. Remind me never to ask that question again. Just go put
that needle away.'

'Right. Sorry
ma'am,' said the Doctor. His footprints trailed off back down the
hallway. Athene entered the room. After looking down at the spill
on the floor her eyes immediately found Seline's. She stared at her
for a moment and then spoke to Mercer as if she wasn't in the
room.

'Where's
Therin? Why hasn't she begun questioning the girl?'

'I don't know.
Go ask her,' answered Mercer.

'Do you ever
have anything useful to say, Mercer?'

'When you
require useful information then I'll give it you,' he paused for a
moment, 'ma'am.'

Athene ignored
his response, turned to Seline and told her to follow her. Seline
looked at Mercer who was still casually resting his feet upon the
table.

'That throwing
arm of yours might come in handy with Therin,' he said.

Seline
pretended not to hear the comment as she followed Athene through
the door, unconsciously rubbing her arm. She had a bad feeling
about this 'Therin' person and to distract herself tried to think
about what the chain of command aboard the ship might be. She
wondered what Sear's standing was amongst the crew. She remembered
Athene begrudgingly following Sear's orders when they had first met
on Earth although Athene seemed, in different degrees, to be above
the Doctor and Mercer whom she'd just met. Whatever the command
structure was, it didn't seem very formal.

After
descending in the elevator they arrived at a plain looking door in
yet another hallway. The door opened and Athene gestured for Seline
to enter.

'Wait in here.
Therin will be with you shortly to ask you some questions.'

'I thought I
was going to be debriefed at some point,' said Seline.

'After we
obtain some details from you then you'll be debriefed.'

Seline was
barely inside the room before the door sealed shut behind her. The
room was poorly lit. A single, uncomfortable looking chair had been
placed in the centre. Along the back wall was what looked like a
workbench and a few large crates piled in the corner next to it. It
was cold and smelled of metal filings.

Seline couldn't
stop herself from fidgeting. She forced herself to sit down on one
of the crates stacked in the corner. Her drink was still too hot so
she placed it on the empty space next to her. She ran her fingers
over her thighs, following the stitching of the suit. She crossed
her arms then uncrossed them again and grabbed hold of the edge of
the crate. She drummed her fingers across its surface. She looked
at the time displayed in her optics, immediately forgot what she'd
read and so had to look again. 18:45. She looked aimlessly around
the room, sighed, and continued to wait. She felt enough time had
passed so looked at the time again. 18:51.

God damn you
Belameir.

19: 08. She
walked around the room with her coffee in hand, feeling the grated
pattern of the floor panels beneath her feet. After several laps of
the room, she heard the sound of muffled voices coming through the
door from the hallway. She placed her ear to the door to listen.
Her translator managed to make sense of the dialect. The first
voice sounded like Sear's but she wasn't sure about the second.

'… And what the
fuck do you think you were doing? I only agreed to come back
because
you
agreed not to use lethal ammunition.'

'Don't question
my methods when you were the one who diverted us on that worthless
rescue mission in the first place. It's none of our business what
they want with her. You put everyone at risk and now we're going to
have to deal with NeoCorp for as long as you want to entertain your
little obsession. And exactly how long will that be, Sear?'

'Look, if
NeoCorp wanted her this bad then she must have something of value.
Either she knows something or she has something with her. I'll talk
to her and see if I can find out.'

'Therin is the
only one who's going to be talking to her; but don't pretend like
that's the reason you had us stay back to find her. All that time
on Earth has made you soft.' Seline could hear the heavy thuds of
footsteps leaving the hallway and the second voice trailing off as
it spoke. 'Tell Therin to get a move on. The sooner we find out
what intel the girl has the sooner we can get this over with and
dump her at the next port.'

After a moment
Seline could hear more words being spoken but they were too soft
for her to make out. She remained still and quiet next to the door
before it suddenly slid open. Therin was standing directly in front
of her. Seline looked down and noticed her drink was pouring down
the front of her own suit. She righted her cup and tried to brush
away the dark brown stain now running down her stomach.

Therin looked
over Seline, giving away nothing in her expression. 'Sorry to keep
you waiting,' she said. She pointed back into the room. 'Take a
seat.'

As Seline
turned to return to her seat she touched her cheeks and hoped the
coldness of her fingers would draw some of the redness away but her
fingers were warm and damp from trying to rub away the coffee
stain. She rubbed her face with her sleeve and decided to sit
herself on the bench not in silent protest but so she could turn
her body slightly to the side and attempt to hide the stain.

Therin's steps
were light. Good for sneaking up on people in doorways thought
Seline. Seline watched Therin without speaking. She was much more
slender than the others. Taught skin tinted a blueish green
stretched itself over limbs that looked as if they'd been stretched
out only slightly but enough to grant her movements a certain touch
of elegance. Thin lips and a flat almost non existent nose sat
beneath familiar blackened eyes that, on Therin, actually held a
striking sense of beauty.

Therin looked
at the stains on Seline's suit then back down to the display panel
on her own arm.

'Are you coping
with the gravity?' she asked.

'The gravity's
fine.' Seline crossed her arms. 'Where's Sear?'

'He's being
debriefed. Now, as long as you're interested in getting straight to
the point; tell me, how much do you know?' It almost sounded like
two voices were speaking at the same time – as if her mouth were
speaking in echoes.

'About what?'
Seline asked.

'About Sear.
About NeoCorp. About why you're on this ship.'

Seline thought
for a long time, assigning one of the questions to the jumbled
images in her head. She took a deep breath.

Don't
hesitate. Don't hesitate. Don't hesitate.

'Uh-'

Damnit!

'What does
NeoCorp want with you?' asked Therin.

'I can't... I
mean I don't know. I was just walking to the bar to meet with Sear
and they fired at me with these darts. I started running then got
pulled into an alleyway. That's when you guys found me.'

'You mean to
tell me you have absolutely no idea what they want with you?'

Seline thought
of the blackbox Abigail had given her.

'No.' It was a
pointless lie. Seline closed her eyes and tried to focus. Some self
control returned. The Yurrick had taken her bag. They'd find the
blackbox in there if they hadn't already.

'What were you
doing before they attacked?' Therin asked.

'Like I said. I
was walk-'

'Before
that.'

Seline coughed.
'I was meeting with a friend.'

'Who?'

'A woman. Why
am I being interrogated?'

'What
woman?'

'I want to know
why I'm being interrogated.'

'You're a risk,
a liability. Consider this your cost-benefit analysis. Now answer
the question.'

'Her name was
Abigail.'

'She gave you
the blackbox didn't she?'

Seline
nodded.

'What's on
it?'

'I don't
know.'

'That's not the
answer I was looking for. These questions are determining your
usefulness, Seline, and all these “I don't knows” aren't working in
your favour.'

'It's memory
encrypted. I can't unlock something with a memory I don't
have.'

'That's a
little too convenient, don't you think? Especially since the
message on your blackbox asserts that you
do
have the
memory.'

'Nobody said
the truth can't be convenient.'

'Even if that
is the case you won't be with us long if you don't know how to
access that information. That blackbox is the only reason you're
still on this ship and not being beaten half to death by NeoCorp.
Now. What did Sear tell you?'

'About
what?'

'About himself.
Why he was in Sinn.'

'He didn't say
anything.'

'He said
nothing?'

'He just said
that he was on Earth as part of a research team from your
government.'

'And that's all
he told you?'

Seline nodded.
'Who are you people?'

'That will
depend.'

'On what?'

'On whether you
cost more than you're worth.'

'You see, there
is no choice. Not for me... not for you.' His eyes shifted to the
boy sobbing in the corner of the room with his hands raised behind
his head. 'And not for your son.'

On her knees,
she was crying, like the boy. He looked back at her down the barrel
of the pistol. Tears ran down her cheeks, leaving streaks of clean
skin through the layer of soot and dirt that coated her face. He
couldn't understand what she was saying through her convulsing
sobs. White residue had collected on her lips, quivering in thin
strands whenever she opened her mouth to speak her pitiful,
half-formed words. Hearing them talk always made it more difficult.
It was better that he couldn't understand.

'I didn't make
it this way. I'm only doing what's right,' he said.

She nodded,
desperately, to satisfy his cryptic demands.

'You do believe
me don't you?'

She nodded
again, tears and sweat flinging to the ground from the bottom of
her chin.

'This... this
is the best I can do for you. The best that anyone can do.' He
began to speak the words he had spent the last few years reciting
to himself. He enunciated slowly, calming himself as he spoke.

'It is this
wasteland... in its bleakness, its incurable addictions, its
insufferable blindness, its arrogance and nonsensical ramblings,
where my purpose resides.' His hand hurt from gripping the handle
too tightly. Sweat was itching between his fingers. 'A purpose not
my own. It belongs to the world –
our
world.'

For a moment
she could feel nothing but the cold steel of the gun, resting on
her forehead. The meaning of his words were lost to her, but in his
tone, she could feel the immanency of death, waiting at the end of
that long, dark tunnel. To her shame and disgust, she no longer
cared about the boy cowering in the corner of the room or that she
had once loved that same boy's father. She only hoped that there
would be no pain.

He continued
the monologue he had prepared.

'I will drag
the entire Earth with me, upon my back, kicking and screaming like
it has always done. I will place it beneath the gavel and smash it
to dust. I will run it through and let entropy have its way until
this cold, worthless excuse for life has dissipated and been lost
and smothered by the colourless ink of the collapsing vacuum.
Absolution Is all we can ever hope for. And I grant it to you.'

He cocked the
pistol but hesitated. Outside his own head, the words he'd prepared
didn't sound as believable. No one ever believed him anyway, he
thought. He knew how they all saw him. They feared him like they
would fear a common criminal. A psychopath or a rapist who only
seeks to satisfy the base urges of his nature. Such behaviour was
what he swore to protect against. It was the very reason for every
act he committed. Yet there was an overwhelming sense of
frustration in not being able to admit that their confusion of his
purpose mirrored his own.

'I do not take
this lightly, I'm sure you know that,' he said to the woman.

'Please...' she
begged.

'You
must
know that!'

'Ple-'

'Say it!'

'Pl-'

'You stupid
bitch! Say it! Say you believe me!'

She stared at
him blankly, her lips shivering, body shaking with her sobbing.

'Why are you
crying? I am doing what is right! I am benevolent!'

Still no
response. Only a vacant stare and quiet sobs.