by Amelia L. Rodgers © 2005: a UFO story (makes references to events in Where Pain Never Goes and other stories of mine) (contains adult language and situations)
for Nans and Roxanne and
For the gentle Commander who heals and warms my soul
In Memory of Ed Bishop 1932-2005
"You're staring at me, Alec. Watch the road."
"I know how to drive, Ed. I have for a long time."
"Then do it."
"Ed-"
"Alec, let it go."
"You were unconscious for several minutes."
"I passed out. I'd missed a couple of meals. That's all it was." Alec watched the road ahead of him, saw the scenery whiz by, highlighted by an English sunrise. He'd been called out of a sound sleep on a weekend off by Keith Ford, as near to hysterics as Keith ever got. The Commander had been found slumped over his desk, unconscious, and had thrown Control into a tizzy. It was like a building discovering it suddenly stood without a foundation. It simply could not continue to stand. Alec figured he hadn't breathed once all the way to Shado HQ, not until he'd stampeded into medical centre, finding a grim Ed Straker in bed. Then seeing that his friend was still alive, he was able to breathe a sigh in relief. Not that this scene hadn't been played and replayed over the years he'd known the Commander. It never got any easier .The commander scowled, and it may have had something to do with the fact that Dr. John Miller had less than a pleasant bedside manner. Or maybe it had to do with the Medusa like tubes seemingly inserted into every patch of flesh Ed had on his body. Miller actually looked thrilled with his patient, like a bull that had been given the keys to the china shop. Or maybe a kid who wouldn't let go of a prized lollipop.
"How is he, doctor?"
"I'm ready to get out of here and go home, that's how I am, and I have been for an hour." Straker barked. Miller ignored him, he seemed immune to the Commander's wrath.
"I've prescribed some medication, and he's been given fluids. I'm waiting for the results of some tests, but then, yes, indeedy, the Commander may go home. Rest would be excellent under the circumstances. I did warn you, Sir, about the consequences of trying to get by on inferior nutritional-"
"Take the tubes out, Doctor, or, believe me, I will."
"Commander Straker-" Miller said in a sugar laden tone.
"Have you forgotten who your superior officer is?" Ed's voice in Alec's ears was more like molten lead.
"Actually, Ed, when the commander in chief of Shado is incapable of-" Alec began, clearly enjoying Ed's helplessness in dealing with Miller. Alec too liked Miller on the same level as he might like having his fingernails pulled out with pliers. But now and then he loved it when someone popped Ed's bubble.
"Alec."
Okay, fun over, thought Alec, Ed sounded in that one word on the verge of getting down on both pristine knees and begging him to get him out of there, famous cool exterior of the Ice King Shado leader be damned. "Get the Commander ready to go, Miller. That's an order." Alec put real menace into his voice. The doctor made a sour face and started taking out Ed's tubes and wires, and whatever the hell else he'd stuck on him. Alec half expected Ed to deflate like a balloon when it was over, but Straker merely dressed back into his uniform, throwing the skimpy little paper gown he'd been forced into wearing on the floor in disgust. Alec grinned, he'd been treated briefly to the sight of a half naked Straker in briefs, and he considered taking snaps and selling them to several starlets he knew. On the income of one alone, he could have bought Uluru more well known as Ayers Rock.
Alec thought about it, as he drove Ed back to Silk Wood Manor. He wondered if he should call Ed's wife, Claire Spencer Straker, but he decided against it. She was in San Francisco attending a Doctors Without Borders meeting, but her return flight on Ed's private jet was due to land at Gatwick in a few hours.
"Why don't you settle back, try and catch a few z's, it'll still be a while until we get to Tetbury."
"Alec, just drive, will you?" Ed's fingers skimmed the surface of his face, which still bore faint scars and his sharp blue eyes narrowed. Then he seemed self conscious of what he was doing, and he let his hand drop into his lap. He stared out the car window, but Alec had the feeling he was looking at something other than the weekend traffic.
Alec took a deep breath. He told himself that Straker could hardly escape the confines of the bronze Shado car, since it was locked, but he knew the Commander's determination.
That determination might be what the haunted look on Ed's face was all about. That determination, to convince the world he was fine, when in fact he might be pierced with arrows like some modern day St. Sebastian. Alec opened his mouth, then he shut it. What was he supposed to say? Ed, there was semen found on the mattress of the bed you were chained to for almost a month, and DNA testing showed that some of it belonged to you? Yes, all the king's horses and all the king's men in the psychiatry department of Shado determined that you had healed from the trauma of the kidnaping enough to continue with your job. Everybody believed it except for Claire. And me. Only I don't know how to ask you about it. And that's the real reason that Claire disappeared on you, because you won't open up to her about whatever happened.
"Alec."
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing. When is Claire due to land?"
"In about four hours. Crane's already on his way out to the airport to pick her up. Frances and Angel are still taking care of Ann. All this baby-sitting seems to have been just the right thing to cheer Angel up, he's still upset over losing his job."
"Good, good."
"I bet you'll be glad to have her back in the medical centre. She's a lot prettier than Miller."
"Believe me, Id like to administer the amnesia drug to Miller myself in the form of a 9 mm slug in the back of his head after all the tests he performed on tlineme this month." Straker grumbled. Alec chuckled, and for the first time, Straker caught his eyes, and offered his rare little crescent of a smile. Then he stretched a little and settled back in the seat.
"Ed, you should still try and-"
"Alec, there's-"
"Yeah?"
"Nothing."
"I know you better than that, Straker."
"Yeah, I suppose you do. We've been together a long time."
"You once told me you thought it might be too long."
"Did I? I was young then."
"And foolish?"
"Something like that, yes." Ed's voice dropped, sounding weary.
"Ed, what happened?"
"Hmm?"
"During the kidnaping. I read the report."
"Alec, that subject is closed."
Straker rubbed the bridge of his nose, and furrowed his forehead. He rubbed his temple, and Alec guessed one of his friend's frequent headaches was starting.
"Yeah, as far as the case goes. Sure. And all the doctors said you're fine."
"So why bring it up?" Straker said uneasily.
Alec gratefully left the molasses of the traffic and turned onto a country road.
"You know why."
"You know already, Alec. Don't you?"
"I can guess, and that in itself scares the hell out of me. But I can tell you what I do know. You haven't told us everything, and it's eating at you."
Straker was quiet, too quiet.
"You're familiar, of course, with the phenomenon called Stockholm syndrome?"Alec had suspected it, he told himself. But hearing it, said like that, sent his gut crashing into the bottom of the car. He tried to think of something to say. He found he couldn't.
"I've been dream - Jesus. . .What?" Alec heard the pain in Ed's voice. The commander went white, pushed at his right temple with the heel of his hand.
"Christ, headache. This happen - this happened before I passed out. Headache, bad one."
Alec grabbed the phone, and started punching in the number to Shado HQ. Straker put the phone back on its cradle and Alec stared at him.
"What are you doing?"
"Calling for a medical chopper. We're going to get to the bottom of this."
"Alec, I'm-"
"Bullshit, Ed."
"I have aspirin in the glove box, I'll be fine."
"Like just before you passed out, huh?"
"Alec, I'm - wait."
"What?"
"Listen. I heard something. "
"What?"
Then both men froze, as a sound they wished they weren't familiar with grew louder.
"UFO!" Straker snapped. "How the hell did it get through our-" then he gave a sharp cry, holding on to his head, teeth clenched.
Alec brought the car to a stop in a thicket of trees and grabbed the phone again. "I'm calling for medical help-"
"Alec, damn you, forget me, get through to HQ with the coordinates of that UFO from the transponder. DO IT! And get us back on the road, we're sitting ducks out here-" It was the last word Straker uttered, another cry escaped his lips and he bent over, as if trying to get away from the agony he was clearly feeling. Alec cursed his absolute loyalty to Ed, and obeyed, but also ordered Mayland to send a medical chopper at once , as he continued speeding away from the UFO. A fiery blast from the monstrous spacecraft nearly slit the bronze Shado car in two, but he eluded it, hands clutching the wheel. He had no idea how much time had gone by, but he blessed Carlin as Sky One swooped across the sky, and blew the UFO to pieces smaller than the liver spots on Miller's bald head.
His relief faded when Straker screamed. He had heard Ed Straker groan in pain, and raise his voice in anger, and in frustration. But never had he ever heard his best friend scream like that. Truly scream. Straker grabbed Alec's jacket, blue eyes the size of dinner plates, terrified and Alec fought to keep the car on the road. Then there was an sizzling sound, and Alec hit the brakes and Straker fell across him like water over rocks, unconscious. Then he was gone.
Gone.
Vanished.
Alec pounded the steering wheel angrily, tears filling his eyes, fear chilling his heart.
And tens of thousands of miles away, aboard the Straker foundation jet, Claire gave a little gasp.
"Edward. Edward," she said, and fainted.
* * *
Commander Ed Straker was vaguely aware that he was being lifted, but the forms in his field of vision were no more than colored blurs, reminding him of his office mural. They placed him into a mist, and he didn't understand why he was not troubled at being with strangers. He had no idea where he was. Then he saw a flash of red, and panic overcame him. He thrashed, but he could not free himself. Totally emerged in the wet mist, he finally recalled being taken. Taken from his Shado car. Alec had been with him. Aliens, oh God, aliens. He fought, but his limbs didn't obey him.
"For God's sake, restrain him! We don't want the vital organs injured before the transfer process, you fool. These ancient objects will need to be removed."
"Shall I increase the drugs before we place him into the main tank?"
"Absolutely. He has a strong will. Look at that. Brain activity increasing already. Sedate our prize, and we'll commence with the surg-"
Straker did not hear much of anything else, but he prepared himself for death. Perry once had said the encounters with the Between had made him immortal, but nothing could prevent his death now. You didn't survive being cut open like some ripe fruit to get at the pulp. No doubt these alien medics had somehow picked up his language, perhaps from his brain, before they began to remove his organs. Strangely, he felt no fear, only sadness, sadness at leaving his wife, child, friends. He tried to turn his head. He managed to do it just before he passed out in time to look into an odd pair of eyes watching him. Long enough to know they weren't human. Not human at all.
* * *
"I keep telling you. Carlin bagged that UFO before Straker disappeared. It couldn't have had anything to do with the aliens."
"The point is moot now. Without any contact from Straker, he is officially considered dead. You have seniority, you're to continue in command for now." General Burnheart said, as an exasperated Alec watched her on the screen.
"I've ordered a team out to continue looking for him, on land and in air-"
"No, Freeman, I won't allow the use of funds to keep doing what is essentially a wild goose chase. The aliens took him. Classic abduction, the stuff those troublesome conspiracy types spout off about. We write Straker off as a loss. Regrettable, but we face facts in this business. Do I make myself understood?"
"I'll get back to you, Admiral, we have a sighting." Alec reached out and shut down Ed's desk telescreen. Ford studied him silently. "Go ahead, Ford. Tell me how big an idiot I am. I've been verbally wrestling with that bitch for more than two weeks now. One more lie couldn't hurt."
"Colonel, can I speak off the record?"
"Hell, Keith, I'm not Straker, come to think of it, that's been my biggest problem. Go for it." Alec rose, helped himself to a drink, not the first one that day.
"Sooner or later she's going to find out, and maybe begin proceedings to have you removed as Commander, citing some obscure rule. If we are going to find Straker, we have to come up with something that keeps her off your back."
"We don't have anything, Keith. We don't have a thing. Not one damn thing." Alec sat back in Ed's chair, feeling like a infant robbed of his mother's lap. He slammed the tumbler down, sloshing fluid over Ed's desk.
"Alec, I-"
"Yeah. I know. I miss him too. I miss him so much. I got shot down on more than one occasion when I was a combat pilot for the RAF, Keith. Had shrapnel and lead removed from me the size of Ed's courage. It didn't hurt anywhere close to how his absence hurts me now. Each day I have to go in and talk to Claire, and tell her, no way is she a widow. I just don't have any hope to give her. She tells me she knows he's alive, and she stays positive for her daughter. Then she breaks down, and sobs. I hold her, Keith. But I have nothing to give her, or Ed's grieving father." Alec drank down what remained of the whiskey in the glass. He stared into the glass, then looked up at Ford. "Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Mir's been on my back about hitting the sauce, too. Keith, get me Millicent Nicols. Then I want the senior staff members to meet me in this office in half an hour."
"Yes sir."
Alec swerved in his seat, set down the glass, and picked up Ed's paperweight, cradling it as if it was Straker himself, looking at it as if it was the metaphysical ball of revelations, and would hold answers for him. Instead he just saw an inverted reflection of himself. That was accurate enough. His world had indeed been turned upside down, and it had nothing to do with Australia.
* * *
Commander Ed Straker was awakened by the sound of a bird singing, and he turned on his side, opening his eyes slightly. The comforter placed over him was silken to the touch. That didn't make sense, he shared a suede one with Claire. He sat up, and looked around. He was reminded of the illusionary celluloid room in 2001, and he steeled himself against whatever was going to come. He touched his chest. He was dressed in white silk pajamas. He gave a grunt of surprise when he saw the woman that appeared next to him, holding a tray of food.
"Where the hell am I? Where did you come from?"
"Good morning, Straker. I come from Vectronics Robotics Incorporated. I am in service to Madame Cooper, but I have been assigned to you. Do you require breakfast? The coffee has been made to your usual specifications. I have been programmed to meet what-"
"My God. I saw you, I saw your eyes before I passed out. You're a machine?"
Her eyes, silver and opaque, were the only thing that indicated she wasn't a creature of flesh and blood.
"I am more advanced than a machine, Straker. I am a class Z android. I am called Ava. Advanced Vectronics Android. Do my scanners disturb you? I am correcting."
He watched as her eyes glowed then appeared to be normal brown eyes.
"My exterior is capable of changing, shall I activate the menu for you?"
"The aliens have the technology for robots now?"
"You reference aliens. Earth has a pact with several alien races. To which do you refer? Accessing. Understood. SHADO. Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Org-"
"Where am I? Why have I been taken prisoner?"
"You are on the New Earth Colony, situated on Mars. Specifically, you are in Madame Cooper's estate."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I have not been programmed for deceit. Class Y7 androids are so equipped for-"
"Mars was in the early stages of exploration-"
"Straker, your situation is thus. You were an object of interest for my employer, Madame Jacqueline Cooper. One of her hobbies is ancient history. She was searching for a suitable human mate after her termination of her series of Adam androids, which were manufactured by the same company that built and programmed me. They were not satisfactory to her after her husband President Harold Cooper's assassination, so she sought someone from a different time period-"
"You're insane. I've been thrown a lot of curve balls from the aliens, from time freezing machines to mindbending moon rocks, to duplicates of key personnel in an underwater base, but this takes the cake."
"Accessing. Understood. Slang. Quite common back in 2005. Shall I continue?"
"Don't let me stop you, believe me, this story is amusing." Straker slipped on a pair of slippers that had been set out for him and began to walk around the spacious room, done in different woods and paneled with cream silk, with furniture from different eras. He picked up a mosaic box on a desk, examined the coloured discs in it. A check of the knobless door revealed what he had expected, that he'd been locked inside. High on the wall was a silent video monitor, no doubt following their every move and sound. He carefully examined his arms and spotted an odd scar on his forearm, and figured that he'd been drugged. Something about it puzzled him, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Madame Cooper located the bio on you, had you tracked on the GIS900 tracker, and then sent one of her staff to give you the implant essential for your transfer. We did not foresee your medical difficulties, but they were explained by your medical records. Evidently you have certain allergies which made the process painful."
"You infiltrated my organization?" he snarled, coming toward her.
"It was a necessary step, Straker. It will not interfere with the security of your-"
"I want to know what's really going on here!" he yelled, grabbing her shoulders with both his hands. She regarded him with no more emotion than one would view a fly crawling on a window. Then she set down the tray, flung him, albeit gently, on the bed. The strength which she'd demonstrated by this alarmed him, and must have shown on his face.
"Do not be alarmed. I will not harm you. It is adamant that you are not harmed physically in any manner. The scar of the shunt necessary to administer the biogrowths and implant will heal. Madame Cooper requires that you remain perfect."
"Now listen to me," Straker snapped, standing up, and smoothing down his pajama top. "I have no intention of doing anything you or anyone else say. You tell your Madame Cooper that. Or is it her watching us at the other side of that monitor? Studying me like some white rat in a maze? You tell her this rat has a ferocious bite."
"Threatening her is not conductive to your future relationship, Straker. Do you require breakfast to be reheated? My scanners tell me that the temperature of the-"
Straker cursed.
"Accessing. Straker, for your own peace of mind you should start accepting the situation. You cannot go back."
"I'll find a way out of here."
"Straker, do you not understand? Questionable with your academic history . You were taken from the year 2005, Straker. This is the year 2056. Your organization was terminated, when the aliens you fought were defeated. You were ultimately successful in your purposes. However your personnel for the most part are long dead. Your friends and family all are buried."
"No. I won't accept this little con job. I'm not even sure you're a machine."
"I am an android."
"You're nothing but a glorified tin box with a computer chip. For all I know, I'm under the influence of some-" Straker froze. He had been pacing, and for the first time had seen himself in the vanity mirror. He pulled off his pajama top and looked at his chest. "What did they do to me?"
"Injected you with biogrowths after the corrective surgery. Your body bore several antiquated medical apparatus. The surgical team were repulsed by the use of such corrective measures in your era. Medicine has evolved considerably, Straker. You are in perfect physical health again. I will see that your breakfast is heated, and that the clothes Madame Cooper chose for you are brought in. You will meet her over lunch time. Until then, you are free to roam the premises. Do not attempt to escape. I shall return."
He did not even watch her go through the door, which just moments ago had been locked. He just stared at his reflection in the mirror. He looked no more than forty. His hair was longer , combed in the style he'd adopted as a Colonel. His body bore no scarring at all, except for the one he'd discovered. Even the scar on his lip, which he'd gotten as a raw airman in the Air Force, was gone. Gone. What had she said? That everyone was dead. Claire. Anne. Alec. Dead. Gone.
It just couldn't be. He felt so hollow. He went and sat on the edge of the perfectly made bed, and stared into space. He'd felt this shock before. He allowed himself to remember.
* * *
"You're going to kill me." Ed Straker said wearily.
"Why do you keep saying that, Ed? I told you, as soon as we get the ransom, we're going to let you go. Here, I brought you some food. Milk and a peanut butter sandwich."
"I'm not hungry. And don't call me Ed."
"You haven't eaten. You'll get sick."
Straker had been lying prone on a less than pristine bed, staring up at the cement ceiling, watching the progress of a spider that had spun a web, hoping to catch a fly. He knew he had been their captive for days, for he scratched the number of days into the bedpost he was chained to by his good wrist. Now he was the fly, and the spider was getting closer. Straker rolled painfully over, and sat up, as close to her as the chain allowed him to. Next to his bed was a bucket for a toilet. She winced.
"What's the matter? Forget what manure smells like? Unlikely, I'd think, since you and your friends are full of it."
"No. You can't speak to me like that!"
Straker simply glowered at her.
"I told you. You may have me here in chains. Your friends out there may have worked me over, but by God, you aren't going to call me Ed. That's reserved for my friends, who are looking for me now. And when they find me dead, there will be no place in heaven or in hell that you and your goons can run to. So you remember that, Miss."
"Why do you have to be like this, Straker. Do you know why I wanted you? It was your face, and your body. You turn me on."
Straker remained silent.
"I'm sorry they hit you. All those horrible bruises."
"Don't give me that, that won't stop you from counting the money you think you'll be sharing with them."
"Why do you have to be like this? I've been decent to you." she exclaimed.
"Don't make yourself out to be goody-two shoes. You'll kill me when you tire of me. You killed my security man. God knows who else you killed."
"No! I just used the gas on him. Hit him. He had a gun. He's okay. I saw him on telly. With your friend that was there. Freeman something. There's a reward for any information leading to your recovery."
Thank God, Straker thought. He showed nothing of it on his face. It was the first bit of information he'd gotten since awakening after being hit, and then awakening after being beaten.
"I don't believe you."
"Look, I like you, okay? I really didn't want to do all this. Not really. All I ever wanted was to be an artist. But I couldn't sell anything. Do you know what it's like to create something and have it rejected?"
"Forgive me if I fail to have any empathy for a kidnapper that will soon be an accessory to murder and maybe a murderer herself."
"I told you! I won't kill you. You're too pretty. They won't kill you. I won't let them."
"I know they are talking about it. They're jealous of the attention you give me. You're a fool if you don't realize it. You're a fool if you don't know what's going on." Straker put urgency into his voice.
"You're trying to trick me."
"You spend more time looking in on me than you do with them. Why do you think they beat me so badly? They'd kill me, except that way they wouldn't get a pound. And they figure you're attracted to me, and that you'll screw everything up. I'm surprised they still allow you to empty the bucket, and bring me food. In time, they'll realise that my father and wife and friends will not pay you a penny. And then when that sinks in, they'll kill me. Then they'll kill you."
"Your friends and family wouldn't let that happen!"
"They know I won't negotiate with a kidnapper. I wouldn't want ransom paid for me. They wouldn't go against my wishes, no matter what they may feel for me." he said flatly.
"Not even your wife?" she said in astonishment.
Straker ignored the longing that arose in him at the thought of Claire. It hurt much worse than the pain from his injuries.
"Edward, if you're not going to confide in me, then I need some time away to think. Just remember I love you."
He forced the memory of her departing kiss out of his mind.
"Especially not her." he said firmly.
"I can't stand the thought of you being hurt any more."
"If you mean that, then allow me to go. You can say I overpowered you and escaped when you got too close."
"I CAN'T, don't you understand?"
"Then watch me die." Straker replied. He laid back down, and watched the spider again.
* * *
Days faded into more days. He wondered why he once had ever believed in hope.
"Ed, let me touch you. Let me touch you like you love me."
"You're wasting your time."
"Don't you find me sexy? Look at me." She tore off the sweater that bared her midriff, to reveal her small breasts, rigid in her bony chest.
"Put your clothes back on."
She came close to him and he jumped back. She snarled at him.
"You worthless fucker." she said. "You think you're better than me because you have money."
"Listen to me carefully. I don't find you attractive in any way, shape or form. I find you pathetic. Threatening me, having me beaten, and continuing with this wasted attempt at seducing me is ridiculous. I love Claire, and my little girl. They love me. They don't find it necessary to chain me to a dirty bed to prove it."
"You can't say those things to me!"
Straker ignored her, turned away and tried to slow his heartbeat down. He knew what was coming. He tried to brace himself for another beating. The only advantage he had was he knew it would be brutal, but fast. The minute he passed out, she would lose interest in him. But nothing happened. Straker turned toward her. She was gone, and he relaxed somewhat. Then she came in again carrying ropes, with the youths. He expected to be beaten.
"Tie him down with the ropes, and take off his clothes." she said, breathing hard.
"Going to play reindeer games, Ali? His wife won't like that. Damaged goods."
"Shut the fuck up and do as I say."
The youths walked toward Straker purposefully, laughing. Straker fought them, but chained and with his broken leg in the cast, and weakened from little water and the little food he'd agreed to eat, they managed their task with ease despite how hard he struggled. Ali ordered them out, and approached Straker. He lay spread eagled, bare, controlling his breathing, trying not to show his fear. He shut his eyes and clenched his teeth together. When she approached and started to fondle his genitals, he opened his eyes and looked at her with such concentrated fury that she actually moved back a fraction. Then he collected saliva in his mouth and spit fully in her face. First she looked at him, shocked, unable to believe he'd done it, then she screamed, and struck him in his genitals. He gasped, grunted a cry of agony, but swallowed it down, determined not to give her anything else to get off on. Invictus, he told himself. I am the captain of my soul, I am the master of my fate, hold on, you can hold on. She's nothing. Nothing.
She was moving away again, looking for something. She fished around on the tray of food, picked up the plastic fork, then saw the glass. Straker jumped at the sound of the glass smashing. He stared at her when she searched through the pieces for something acceptable. Then she came toward him, smiling, with a shard of glass in her hand.
A large jagged shard from the shattered milk glass.
Straker closed his eyes slowly.
* * *
Straker shuddered, and sat on the edge of the bed in his current situation, feeling lost, trapped in a future time, letting his head drop into his hands. She had mutilated him, and he didn't remember the pain, but it had been her, not the youth. Her. What had he told Alec? He couldn't remember. Alec, for the love of God, help me, please. Claire, help. Please hear me. I don't know what's going on. What can I do?
Ed's mind drifted away again.
* * *
The man was screaming. He'd been screaming for hours, days, weeks. Straker could barely hear the priest praying. Sometimes there was rapping, and he tried to make out what it meant. He could hear Tank whimpering in the next cell when there finally was silence. He moved closer to the damp wall, not caring that the gooks would punish him if they heard him. "Father, can you hear me?"
"You're the newcomer, son? You sounded American."
"Name's Edward Straker. Boston. United States. There must be something we can do for him, father."
"My name is Stanley, son. Folks back home call me Angel because of my angelic singing. Quentin says it's the only thing angelic about me. What faith are you, son?" the voice chuckled.
"Anglican, I suppose. I confess I don't place much faith in God right now, father."
"Reverend, but titles don't mean much out here. I'm senior officer in the camp for right now. I saw you briefly, son. When the gooks were exercising us. I led us in the song, got beaten for it. Gooks never did have any taste in music. Heard your voice. God given. You remind me of a Q-tip."
Straker had to chuckle, and the emotion seemed so odd to him. It had been a long time since he felt lighthearted.
"Why, Sir?"
"Honestly, son, none of this Sir. Angel. Why? Well, let me see. Hard to remember anything in this Godforsaken camp. Oh listen to me. Forgive me thy Lord, for Your Presence is everywhere. What did you ask me?"
One of the guards shouted something in his native tongue and Straker froze for a moment. He decided he hated this new thing called being scared to death.
"Q-Tip. You call me Q-Tip?" Straker asked, grateful to hear a sane voice. Andy had been so scared, he hardly said anything after they'd been captured. So much for oak leaves on my shoulders someday, Straker thought.
"Drummer, that's my mate Quentin, Quentin Cross, thinks you're a plant, but I told my cobber, stop being dumber than a dead dingo. I've seen that man's eyes and heard his wonderful voice. It isn't a voice that tells lies. You had that skinny body and that shock of whitish hair. Looked like cotton on a stick. Q-Tip."
Straker chuckled.
"My mother would appreciate that, she always tried to fatten me up."
Straker heard a man screaming, and felt helpless. "Is there anything we can do for him, Angel? They're trying to break him, aren't they, the sons of bitches. Forgive my language, father. There must be something we can do for him."
"Q-tip, he's my mate. They broke him a long time ago. He sees things. God help him, because we can't."
"There must be something we can do for him." Straker said stubbornly.
"ED. SHEE-ITT. Will you shut up? Do you want some of that?" Andy, whom he'd called Tank, his first friend back when they'd gone through basic together, sounded as terrified as usual.
"Tank, it's going to be our turn sooner or later. Just remember the code of conduct. Fall back on your training. There was a poem I learned a while back. One of my favorites. Shall I recite it for us? Maybe he'll hear it. Maybe it'll help..."
"You're an idiot, Ed, you always bought that patriotic shee-it."
"Please do, Q-Tip." Angel said. Ed began reciting 'Invictus'.
There was a rifle blast.
Straker found that his cheek was wet. He was rather startled, because he hadn't cried since he was a child.
Then they grabbed him.
* * *
Straker jumped. Looked around. He was not in the POW camp anymore. Andy had betrayed him. He had never asked the name of the man who had been shot when his usefulness was over. He had not thought about the torture he'd endured as a young man for quite some time. Straker found himself missing Angel.
"Straker."
"Go away." Straker said to the android. He figured at some point he had fallen asleep and dreamed.
"You did not awaken. I have been waiting."
"What did you do with my clothes?"
"This outfit has been picked out for you by-"
Straker took a look at the silk underwear, silk T shirt, white loose shirt, and black jeans, socks, and boots, and laughed sharply.
"Inform Madame Video Monitor that I'm not her personal Barbie doll. Now get me my own clothes."
"She will be displeased."
"My heart bleeds for her."
"Accessing. Understood. Sarcasm."
"Hurry the hell up, Robot."
"I have been asked to look after your needs. I will see to it."
He watched the android walk out. Straker looked up at the monitor, glaring at it.
* * *
In another room, full of monitors and equipment, a horribly scarred elderly woman in an exquisitely tailored pink boucle suit looked at the video image of Commander Ed Straker seated on her bed on the main screen triumphantly.
"You'll learn soon enough." she said. "They all do, and then they give me what I want, and then ..."
She laughed.
Straker continued to dream...
* * *
"Ed? Oh, Ed."
"Just..go..away."
"Oh shit, I cut your face, your face. Oh fuck. You pissed me off. I came in, to say I was sorry."
"I told you...you wanted me..dead.."
"Oh shit, all the blood. Oh I don't want you hurt anymore. I brought you something."
"Just...go..."
"But I'll let you go. I have the key."
"You don't..understand....I'm bleeding..."
"Oh shit shit shit, your face. I used to look at your face while you slept."
"Please...if you...if you..have any..let..me go.."
"I can't, don't you understand, I can't...look, I brought you the key. I will let you go if you love me proper, okay? Just once, you're so beautiful."
"Just let me...feel the air...just one time..please..I don't..remember...what it...feels like..."
"Ed please, just look at the key."
"Oh God..help me..don't let me die..."
"Don't say that!"
"I'm dying....alone...Claire..Anne..princess...Alec..."
"Stop it! Stop it."
Straker slowly pushed himself up with the chain. He was covered with blood, it seemed to be everywhere. His face was crisscrossed with slashes.
"Don't let.. me bleed to.. death..please..." he whispered, and fell sideways onto the bed, falling on the chain, gasping.
"You aren't bleeding to death. I didn't cut you that bad. I couldn't bring myself in here a while to see. I just had to punish you."
"Help me. They're.. burying.. me. Help me!"
"You aren't making any sense, Ed. You're scaring me. Look at me, please. Look at me. Please. I need you to look at me. You're so beautiful. I want you to have sex with me, like you want it. Just once. Then I'll give you the key. I don't care about a ransom."
"Key...yes.."
"Tell me I'm beautiful. I need someone like you to tell me I'm beautiful."
"I can't see anything...oh God..oh God...I can't breathe, I need some air.."
"I have the key, Ed. To your chain. I can bring you outside. I can make you free."
"No...they'd hurt you..Alicia.."
"You said my name. You said my name. Once I read about Stockholm syndrome. The captive identifies with his captors. I wished for it to happen with you. I'll set you free, Ed."
"I'm gone..."
"Ed, don't say that. Ed?"
He did not respond. Then his body stiffened, he gave a long gasp, and he went still again.
Straker gasped, and sat up, pulling the silk coverlet around him. Ava looked at him expectantly.
"You were dreaming again."
"It's all warped together, my memories of the camp, my memories of what that young girl did to me. Is this part of the aliens' attempt to break me?"
"Straker, will you believe if I show you this installation, and the rest of Madame Cooper's estate?"
"You'll show me only what you want me to see."
"You are free to go where you want to go, you may like the gardens."
"Good. I want to go back where I belong."
"I have no control over that wish."
"Why am I talking to a tin box, and expecting it to know what being a captive means? I see you have my old clothes. Get out, and have that monitor lens covered."
The monitor lens flared and then went dead. Straker looked surprised. "You can turn off Big Brother?"
"Accessing. A novel describing a situation which you now may identify with. You believe yourself to be Winston?"
"Winston in the end loved Big Brother. I allowed myself to identify with Alicia in the hope of getting the key. That won't happen again."
"I do not understand."
"That's the beginning of true understanding. Now go. Just for the record, I sincerely doubt that's the only monitor in here. I'm a prisoner. I'm not a fool."
Ava studied him for a moment, then retreated.
* * *
Alec spoke on the phone for a while to the department heads, and then he replaced the receiver on its cradle, shuddered without knowing why. One of Ed's pens fell off his desk, and rolled on the floor as Millicent Nichols came through the door.
"Good afternoon Alec. Anything on Ed?"
Alec stood up and retrieved the pen as the door shut behind her.
"Sit down."
"Alec, I-"
"SIT THE HELL DOWN."
"Damn it Alec, he fooled all of us." she complained, dropping into the chair across from Ed's desk, the corner seat Alec often occupied.
"That's right. I was trying to convince myself he was okay, although Claire and I sensed something was the matter. But we tried to comfort ourselves because you signed the fucking report on his health. Now I don't blame the rest of that anal retentive psychiatric division you head, Millie. I blame YOU. You were his friend. You were the one that tricked him into signing the order for his own medical leave. He used to chuckle about it to me privately, saying he sure didn't think it was funny at the time. He complained that you shoved the journal writing down his throat, and then he began to look forward to it, sneaking downstairs while Claire was asleep, and having that cake he likes so much, and doing an entry in his journal. He began to trust you, Millie. Look at what happened. Stockholm syndrome. His mind was so badly affected by captivity that he let that bitch sexually abuse him."
"What-what-"
"Grissom kept his suspicions out of the report. He didn't like doing it. You know how by the book he is. He did it because I begged him to. He found semen in that bed Straker was chained to."
"I read the report. I know. I assumed Ed's semen being in there was simply from nocturnal emissions, a common occurrence in males."
"Ed's semen was also found in Alicia's mouth and vagina, that information was originally in the post mortem Grissom assisted in performing on her."
"Alec, if I had seen that-"
"Okay, I'll give you that one, I asked Grissom to leave that fact out. But you must have known something was wrong. How many times has Straker been a victim of kidnaping? How many times has the acute delayed stress syndrome you confirmed he was suffering from, along with intermittent attacks of claustrophobia made his life hell? We were talking about at that dinner, remember? That woman was listening as she served that mess to us. He was her obsession, her toy. She wanted Straker, and she put together the perfect way to break him. Isolate him, have him beaten, make him dependent on her, make him her sexual plaything, take away all his pride, and promise him that she'd let him go. At some point, Straker broke down, and killed her. He couldn't cope with being a victim again. He prides himself on his self-control, and she took all of it away from him." Alec paced around the office.
"Alec, do you remember what he said when we found him? The key. No key. Something like that."
"What does it matter now? Claire's got more ESP than I do, we both know that, but I feel like wherever Straker is, he's in terrible danger. Claire always says he tries to be marble, but even marble can crack. We all let him down. If I had any real clue about what had happened," Alec banged his fist on the desktop, "I never would have let him out of my sight!" he exclaimed and sat back in Ed's chair.
Millicent looked down at the floor.
"Alec, I intend to resign. I already have a recommendation for you, so there won't be any-"
"Oh bugger that. It won't bring Ed back."
Millicent looked down at the floor again.
"Alec, I can't live with this. I liked Straker. I admit, I was even attracted to him. I don't know many women that wouldn't be, but I never let that interfere with my work with him. He was a challenge professionally, and it was great fun to get him mad at me. His buttons were easier to push then he liked to admit. I never bought all that great white chief of the frozen tundra crap. He had too much warmth in him."
"Has, not had. You could heat London from it."
"I got him started on the journal entries, and he at first resented it, and then he attacked it like it was a UFO, with that perfectionism in him. He never did anything half baked, he gave his - shit. Do you have a tissue?"
"You're crying." Alec said in amazement.
"No shit, Sherlock, yes, I cry. I've been crying since the day I thought the aliens - all right, I admit it. I think they have him, Alec."
"Bullshit! You think that, and you won't have to resign, I'll put a slug in your head. Oh, dammit, now, we'll find Ed. Somehow." Alec got up, and Millie stood and held on to him, still crying.
"I think he's really gone. Everyone's putting up this great front, but they all know, especially Evan, he's trying to be brave, Alec, but Ed's loss is affecting his health."
"To have been reunited with your son, and then to think aliens cut out his organs, yes, I know how he feels, but he's wrong, Millie. I know it. This isn't any ordinary man we're talking about. This is Commander Ed Straker, if there's a way to get back to us, he'll find it. Now I need you to be professional and come up with ways to get that new head of the Commission off my back. She has all the compassion of a black widow spider. I've asked for a meeting of the section heads, and I need your expertise."
Millicent was about to reply, when the door opened, and Mir came through, followed by some others, plus Ford. She had been promoted to the security division of Shado, and she took in the sight of her husband in the arms of the chief of the psychiatric dept of medical centre, and looked like she wanted to practice her kung fu on both of them. However she didn't say anything. Millicent sighed, and took her place at the conference table. Alec cleared his throat as people took seats, and he touched Ed's paperweight for courage.
"I think you know why-" Alec began to say, but then a young man hurried into the room with several folders under his arm.
"Sorry, Sir, was late finishing my presentation. Where should I sit? Did I miss much? Don't worry, I'll catch up, I pick up things very quickly."
"What was your name again? " Alec tried hard not to smile. The new recruit was one of Ed's choices, Straker had encountered him at a weekend briefing at the Pentagon, and reportedly had pinched him temporarily from some military criminal investigation unit or something. Alec had been surprised, because Straker didn't tolerate people who worshiped at his feet, the way the fellow seemed to, but he guessed Straker had overlooked the more obvious faults because of his expertise. Or another rumor had it Ed just wanted to piss off some ex-marine he'd come across, who had been less than courteous to him, and had been the youth's boss. Claire never had been able to pin the real reason down, or so she said, but her grin indicated it might be a little of both. At any rate, the man resembled a small dog that wanted to please. Alec couldn't remember off hand what his field was.
"Timothy," he replied helpfully, "Most people call me Tim." and in his eagerness dropped most of the folders. Behind him, seated at the conference table, Peter Carlin chuckled, and Alec shot him a look.
"You really think there's something to laugh about with Straker gone?" he demanded.
"I'm sorry, Colonel." Carlin said, and shook his head.
"Tim Callister," Tim said, and bent, gathered up the folders, and sat in the chair Alec often chose. Alec didn't bother to wave him over to the conference table. As he expected, none of the departments had much to offer.
"We need a new place to look." Miriam Freeman said sourly.
"Maam, if I could disagree with that-"
"Look, you're new, so if you don't have anything to tell us but just want to run off your mouth-" Mir complained.
"That's out of line, Freeman." Alec told his wife. "Callister, I'm not used to you being on board. What did you have for us?" Alec asked.
"You all have been searching for any trace of Commander Straker. You've limited it to only seeing with your eyes. I was searching with my ears. "
"Go on." Alec said.
"Keith, would you play the sound for me?" Tim asked Ford. Ford nodded and activated Ed's screen, and a sizzling sound was heard, together with a graphic on a grid.
"How did you get that?"
"My experience was in criminal evidence, so I had access to the crime scene. I went over the Commander's car after he went missing, and the computer system built into it had recorded everything that went on, and digitalized it for analysis if it was needed. That was part of the updating of the Commander's car. Anyway, I got that. I won't bore you with the exact megahertz and other minute data, I'll just tell you that Keith and I attempted to identify it, and then we tried to duplicate it. We got nowhere, but then I had an idea," he said brightly.
"For heaven's sake, Callister, get to the point." Alec pleaded.
"Of course Sir! Well, we used a highly sensitive long range microphone at the crime scene to see if the sound was still in the area. It wasn't. Then we came back to HQ and went over all the sounds here to see if we could isolate anything remotely like it. And guess what?"
"Damn it, tell me!"
"We didn't find anything like it."
"You tell me all that just to tell me you failed?" Alec looked like he might stomp the young operative into the floor.
"Oh no Sir! I wouldn't do that! I know how valuable your time is! I know how-"
"Get to the bloody point!"
"We found IT." Tim said proudly.
"IT? Where?" Alec said in amazement.
"Medical centre, Sir. We're breaking down the sounds from the centre now."
"Come on, Callister, I want to know exactly where that sound is coming from," Alec said in excitement.
* * *
Dr. John Miller looked confused when the team of Shado personnel entered his domain. The confusion turned to horror when Alec Freeman placed a gun against the side of Miller's head. Another doctor, a senior operative named Nelson, looked on in amazement.
"We traced the same sound we heard on the digitized tape in Straker's car at the exact time of disappearance to you. Where is Straker? What did you do to him?" Alec growled.
"Please! You don't know what she's like! If she ever found out, Straker was a perfect specimen, I was just following orders-"
"Have him restrained on that bed. I'm about to give him a taste of what he did to Straker," Alec said.
The doctor gulped, then stared at the terrified Miller, who suddenly made a run for it. It was actually Timothy Callister who hit him over the head with a nearby cannister, knocking him unconscious.
"I've always wanted to do that," he announced happily. Alec and the other doctor dragged Miller to the bed, and started strapping him down.
"John's a traitor?" the other doctor asked Millie. The two of them were friends.
"It looks like it, Harry."
Nelson tore the paper capsule containing a large gauge needle.
"Then this will be my pleasure. I was rotting after two tours of duty on a Naval sub, Straker suggested I switch jobs. I owe him one."
"You got some stuff to make him talk?" Alec asked.
"I got some stuff that would make even Harpo Marx talk." The doctor filled the hypo, shot a stream of the yellow fluid into the air until the dosage was exact, and then without bothering with a alcohol swab, plunged it into Miller's neck just as he was coming around. Miller moaned and after a while his eyes rolled back in his head.
The door opened. It was Claire Straker, looking ragged after her flight.
"They told me in HQ reception where you were and what happened. I want a piece of this bastard, Alec."
Alec nodded fiercely.
"So do I. Believe me, so do I."
* * *
Weeks passed into months. Straker picked at the meal he'd been given for that day's dinner. The steak was scrumptious, the salad fresh, even the coffee tasted decent. He simply couldn't take his mind away from the captivity he found himself in. He ignored Ava's attempts to start a conversation, even though he found the android's company comforting. He was at a loss at what to do. No, that wasn't truthful. He knew what to do. He knew how to get home. It was just finally bringing himself to do it that was distasteful. On an impulse, he managed to finish his entire meal. He'd need the calories for strength. He dabbed at his lips with a napkin, and then feigning weariness, he announced he was going to retire to bed early. Ava allowed him his privacy. It may have been strange, he thought, but he'd miss her. She was more human than the human that ran his high-tech prison.
So, that night, he wandered into Jacqueline Cooper's bedroom and shared her midnight snack and more with her, giving a performance worthy of the actors he hired. What doesn't kill us is supposed to make us stronger, and yet rather than complete what he was about to do, giving himself over to the aliens seemed the easier thing to do, he reasoned.
He did what needed to be done, so that he could see and make love to Claire again, be held by her, and hold his daughter, see his father Evan, and be with Alec, and do what fate had chosen him for.
When she was asleep, he allowed himself a moment to think about how easy it was. His body had wanted what his mind hadn't. Really looking at it was sipping acid from an elegant glass. It looked good, but what it contained could kill you. This was no time to think about guilt, or personal revulsion at the casual sex. This was what he'd waited for. It was easy to take the key to her personal subway which he'd learned from a insider, a gardener, led to the machine that had brought him there. With a little luck it would take him back. The key within his grasp, Straker gently broke the chain around her neck, and lifted it, watching her carefully for signs of a reaction, but she snored away. He rose, naked, and padded barefoot to where he'd scattered his clothes. He dressed quickly and took some time to search the premises. Her vanity revealed manicure scissors, and he pocketed them, searching further for his Glock. Surprisingly he found it, still loaded, at the bottom of her closet, with his holster. This was all going far too easily, or she was so assured that he'd never escape that she cared little about securing it. Now feeling fully dressed, he partially unscrewed the screws to the air vent above him, standing on her vanity chair, lifted the cover up, let it hang and hoisted himself up into the shaft. Inside, he pulled back the cover, cursed when one screw fell, but closed it as well as he could. For a full five minutes he had to quiet his breathing and silence the fear screaming out at him. He'd been so sure the Subsmash incident had put to bed his claustrophobia, but incidents since then had reminded him that wasn't so, he thought ruefully. He allowed himself a tight smile, then he started crawling along the shaft.
He was making good progress when he heard sounds behind him. He crawled slower, then froze, grabbed his pistol and turned, for good or ill.
It was the elderly Chinese gardener, Li Khee, he sometimes spoke to when allowed to wander outside the gilded cage, who had revealed much to him. Friend? Or was he his enemy?
"Straker-" the man said in broken English. There always was a sadness to him, Straker thought, but remained firm.
"Don't think I'll hesitate to shoot. One way or another, I'll get out of here. Even if it turns out it's me I shoot. So what's it to be? Did you befriend me only to lie and stab me in the back?"
"Besides the android, you are the only person I consider a friend. But this is a dead end, Straker. Nobody gets out of here alive. Years ago, Cooper brought me here, only a couple of decades before you, a young groom, with a new bride, and a new job in America, with a little English, and a lot of dreams. I was the best at what I did, and she was bored, and used the machine to bring me here. Look at me Straker. That was seventy-nine years ago. She never bothered to restore me, as she did you, her new toy, a plaything, no more."
"I'm sorry." Straker said sadly, and meant it. "Why did you follow me?"
"You cannot go beyond a certain point. They put an object in your body, in your forearm. If you go beyond a certain point, it will trigger an alarm. If you try to continue, the instrument inside you will release a poison, and you will die horribly. I am sorry. May Buddha deal with her, and make terrible her karma."
"You know this to be true?" Straker said, shaken, remembering the scar on his arm.
"I have seen them bring back her toys, and heard her boast of what she has done. She allowed you to go, Straker. It was spoken of. She got what she wanted from you, the sex. You mean nothing to her now. She will hunt for another victim soon."
"I'm not giving up, Li," Straker said in desperation.
"Will you do something for me then?"
"What is it?"
"Take my life, for you cannot take me with you. By now my wife is dead and has gone to our ancestors. Send me there with her. I could have gone, but I saw how those who try to escape die. I am a coward, with no honor, but I do not want to suffer. You are a marksmen, it is said."
"Li-" Straker managed to say, but Li shook his head.
"It is a simple task. I can not bear the loneliness. In death, I will be reunited with my wife. Please."
"I hope with all my heart you are right."
Straker fired one bullet. The man crumpled. Straker squeezed his eyes shut, then he turned and kept going. At one point he stopped, thinking. He actually laughed. Then he took the manicure scissors out of an inside pocket.
* * *
Ava hid herself outside the door of Jacqueline Cooper's office, listening without comprehension at what she said. She sounded very drunk. Ava then quickly went to the bedroom where there was evidence that Straker had indeed given his sex to the human. With her superior senses, she knew instantly two stray silver hairs upon the pillow held the DNA of the human.
"Why?" she heard herself say aloud. That was illogical in itself. Her feelings for him were not programmed. She did not understand it. She did not understand tears. Yet they formed in what were mechanical eyes. Then recognition dawned. Cooper was done with him. She looked around, all her sensors functioning, and she melded with the security units of the complex. She saw Straker as a fading heat image in the air shaft, only yards away from the alarm point. She had been instructed by Cooper to never reveal to Stra-no. Edward. Edward was his name. To never reveal to him that in time, escape would mean he died horribly. You did not disobey. You did not go past programming. Something had happened to cause this. Perhaps she was malfunctioning. Now was not the time to check. With extraordinary speed, she climbed into the air shaft and crawled swiftly, far quicker than a human could have managed, to reach Straker. Straker was crawling slowly , too slowly, without his jacket on. A body was near him. Li, the gardener, shot, but why?
"Edward?" she said.
"Ava. Get away. I made a mistake. I-damn."
"What have you done?"
It was then that she saw the blood. Masses of it dampening his turtleneck. The discarded manicure scissors. He had cut into his own arm, to attempt the removal of the lethal tracer. There was no way he could have known it would activate a small cutting edge as soon as he came within its complex sensor technology. It must have ripped through a nearby artery.
"Li. He asked me to let him die. It looks like..I won't be far behind him...artery..bleeding out..."
"Edward!"
She caught him as he slumped over, out cold, pale and rapidly dying.
* * *
When he awoke, it was like coming out of a long sleep. Straker vaguely wondered if he'd be punished for killing Li. He couldn't quite see anything. Then he heard a voice, and he wondered if it was heavenly. He hadn't exactly lived his life in a way guaranteed to get him to heaven. He'd been too busy. Maybe that was wrong. Maybe that was..
"Edward." Ava said, and then was astonished to find that he was sobbing, his shoulders shaking.
"No..not back here, no." he finally gasped.
"I have never seen anyone cry." she said solemnly and pushed his damp hair away from his face. He slapped her hand away.
"You lied to me. You had to know what she did to me, how she lured me, what would happen. What did happen? Did she let me live, dip me in that tank like some Godforsaken sea creature, because she couldn't get another poor son of a bitch to torment fast enough?"
"You would have died. I.."
"You WHAT?" he shouted. He found that he was still sopping wet from apparently being in the same tank he'd first been immersed in after they'd stolen him. He sat up, forcing himself to focus. The room looked a little like Control back at Shado, and that brought fresh pain no tank could erase.
"I had no time. I took you to the tank, started the process, saved your life. I removed the tracer. "
"Why? So that she can order it put inside me again? Why go against your-" he gasped as she held him close for a moment.
"I have fallen in love with you. During the process which saved your life, while the drugs in the tank restored you, I searched my programming. I am a beta stage android. The first to think independently of its programming. The closest to human. My creation was ordered by President Cooper, I do not know why. It does not matter."
"Ava, you have to help me get home."
"That is why you are here. That is the machine. Go, Straker. I made an estimation of the time in which you were taken. Go. You have only to enter the final code into the machine. Alpha then C. "
"Come with me, you don't belong here." he rose to his feet, and stumbled with her into the machine, impatient for his strength to return. He watched her activate the machine, and it rumbled into full power, but she stepped away, and he reached for her.
"In your world I would only be a machine like this one. A glorified computer chip. Goodbye, Edward Stra-"
She was beginning to move further back- and then the sound of a blast made him cringe. He didn't fully understand or know that he'd thrown up his hands to shield himself, or that he'd closed his eyes. A trickle of blood ran down his face from a chard of her body that had been embedded into his temple from the blast. When he opened them, he stood unsteadily, gasped.
Ava lie in pieces, one larger piece still having wisps of smoke rising from it. One disembodied mechanical eye rolled away from near his feet.
"Did you think I was stupid? Did you think I was going to allow my husband to let that thing murder me? I knew he created it to replace me."
"I didn't think people as devoid of a soul as you are had the capacity to think anything." Straker said to Jacqueline Cooper.
"That tank never restored me! Can you guess why? I'll tell you why. My husband, the all powerful President Harold Cooper made sure of that. He hoped to get rid of me. To stage an accident. But I staged an assassination first. I was the one who planned it, but the bastards screwed it all up, and he died, but I was injured."
"Karma. As Li would say. How many other lives have you ruined? Ten? Twenty? A hundred?"
"Oh the almighty pure Straker. Well you weren't so pure in my bed, were you?" she laughed.
"You know what's a real shame, Jacqueline? That that time we had sex turned out to be so damned lousy and boring. What a disappointment for my last experience. No wonder your husband wanted you dead."
Straker spit in her direction. I want it over, he thought.
It enraged her as he figured it would. She raised the blaster weapon she'd used to destroy Ava.
"Darling, you don't win this one." a voice said, and shot the blaster out of her hand, and kicked it aside.
"NOOOOO," she cried, holding her bleeding hand. "You're-"
"Dead, precious? Not quite. The bastards you referred to got me into the tank but told you I was dead. They hoped to implicate you, and insure my power, but you had them killed, didn't you, dear? I was so badly hurt that the healing took time. I'm back at last now, back to destroy this machine that never should have been invented. Back to put you in hell, and put right what happened to you, Straker. I regret that Ava was a pawn in this all. Hurry. The machine is overheating. Hurry, Straker." The president picked up the blaster.
"Thank you, Sir." Straker punched in the codes, and his last sight was Jacqueline hurling herself toward him in an attempt to escape but she vanished in a whirl of blood and bone when her husband fired. Straker passed out as the world and the machine disappeared around him.
The end
Story will be continued.
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