She completed another long day of fake work. Almost, but since Freya wasn’t here, she’d taken the opportunity to leave a bit early and start sketching the new image she wanted to paint. O’Paka hated the life she lived, though if it helped the Resistance as much as Freya said she did, it was worth it in the end. Didn’t make the days of working in a boring, uncreative office go any faster.
She packed up her few items that went with her everywhere in a small over-the-shoulder bag and closed their office door. The lengthy walk out of the base consisted of the usual nods and waves to fellow soldiers that didn’t have a clue what a fighting stance was.
Hiking the bag higher up on her shoulder, she passed the last set of offices before heading for the door. Picking up her pace, she got in line for the exit and was out of the building in a few minutes. The last person for public transit was slipping inside, so she sprinted for the door. She burst through seconds before the door slid shut. Aside from the boringness of her day, she was lucky. No one stopped her asking dumb questions, and she’d grabbed the last spot on the transit, so she didn’t have to wait half an hour for the next one.
Settling into the black fabric seat, she held her bag close and thought about the palate of colors she wanted to use. The image was an abstract view of the skyline during dusk hours, when the sky rapidly went from light blue to a void of blackness.
A kilometer from her condo, she got off the transit and stopped at a little cafe she enjoyed. Walking up to the counter, she reached her hand out over the scanner and used the small chip in her hand to pay for the pastry and drink from her monthly food rations. Taking her goods to a table near the window, she sat. Picking a piece off the large brownie, she smiled as the flavor burst in her mouth. Deep down, she knew the brownie was made the same way as everything else, with a nutritional paste as the base, but the added components made the experience worth it.
Sipping on the drink, she woman-watched until the small plate was empty. A quick trip to the reclamation unit to return the plate for a small bonus of points, then she picked up her drink and took it with her. A casual stroll down the sidewalk like this always got her inspired for a bit of painting.
After a few minutes of watching trees and transports, she arrived at the door of her condo. Placing her hand on the bioscanner, she waited for it to register her identity. The display lit up blue and the door slid open and she stepped inside. She barely registered the taser coming at her before pain shot through her body and she dropped.
Something smacked her face, bringing her back from the depths of her dream. Blinking her eyes, they focused on a woman kneeling face to face with her. Shoulder length silky black hair framed the woman’s face with hazel eyes. Her facial features and warm beige skin reminded O’Paka of someone, but she couldn’t quite place it.
“Good, you’re awake.”
“Who are you?” O’Paka glanced around the room. “Where am I?”
“I’ll ask the questions, but so you know. I’m Genevieve.” The woman said with a stoic face, her gaze intent on O’Paka. The name sounded so familiar, but when she decided she couldn’t recall, the memory crashed into her. Freya talking about the video of her mother. It was the reason she’d defected to the Resistance in the first place.
“You’re dead.”
“Guess not.” Genevieve stood and crossed her arms. “I bet you want to know why you’re here. It’s a fantastic question, and I’ll give you an answer. My daughter is nothing if not efficient, and it’s becoming an inconvenience. If she’d just do what she was supposed to, this wouldn’t have happened.”
O’Paka’s mind was reeling. “What is Freya supposed to do?”
“Her job was to keep the Resistance busy, not do any real damage to ARI or the government, but the kid is just too smart for her own good.”
“She’s a traitor?” Her brain was struggling with the new information that it wouldn’t process what Genevieve was saying.
“Don’t be stupid, she’s not that good. But I do have a few extra things going on her brain that she doesn’t know about. She’s the best computer virus and clueless mole in the history of ARI.”
Genevieve pulled a chair up to O’Paka and sat so the back of it was between her thighs. Resting her arms on the top, she narrowed her eyes on O’Paka. “That’s where you come in. As bait, you have a really important role, so don’t mess this up for me.”
Gu’Lani Resistance Colony: Freya
Hands grabbed her from behind as she reached for the bioscanner at the main entrance to Gu’Lani Colony. The urge to strike out and fight overwhelmed her, but she knew it was Bash behind her.
“We have to warn them!”
“Not yet. We need to talk to Nova before we do anything because we don’t know for sure.” He nuzzled her neck, but she was too mad to deal with his flirting. She smacked at him in a playful and yet warning way. Freya glared at him as he turned her around and pressed his forehead against hers. “Look, Nova’s not on my list for Resistance member of the year, but she is one of the few top players left right now. The last thing we should do is piss her off more than I already do.”
She hated it when he argued with logic. “Fine, I’ll do it your way.” The door slid open, and she glared at Bash again. “Don’t trust me?”
“Of course I do, but we shouldn’t tempt fate.” He grinned as he waited for her to lead the way.
With a roll of her eyes at him, she passed and reached out to Nova. Emergency meeting, now.
Freya heard Nova’s startled mental voice. You’re back, everything okay?
You know where to meet me. She cut off the connection and stalked toward the control room they always met at for these meetings.
About halfway down the long spiral staircase, she heard Bash’s steps disappear. One thing they never agreed on was bringing all the men in on these discussions. Nova would make sure Cay was there, but she didn’t agree with Freya on the rest of them. Bash would fight for Alastor and Tris’Tyn’s rights.
Freya arrived before anyone else. Since she had a moment, she rearranged the seating in the room. Walking over to the full wall display, she pulled up a map where the mission went down. Then she displayed the video feed of Brigadier General Sorasta’s sudden death. After that, she set up a few other things that ERIC had retrieved from the handheld.
The door slid open, and Bash walked through, followed by Alastor and Tris’Tyn. Surprise fluttered through her when Tris’Tyn approached her and gave her an awkward hug. This whole family thing was a little weird, and she wasn’t sure what to do. Bash caught her attention and waved his hands, indicating that she should hug him back. Taking a deep breath, she wrapped her arms around him and patted his shoulder.
Alastor shot her a strange look as the door opened again. Nova and Cay entered, taking a moment to evaluate the room. She knew Nova wasn’t happy, and right now she didn’t give a flying fuck.
“Not to be the bearer of bad news, but the Sovereign might be organizing an attack against this colony as we speak. Something strange happened at the meeting spot with Sorasta. When she realized we took out her backup, she panicked. Not in the way we expected, though. She said that we couldn’t take down the government.” Freya paused as she thought about how to phrase this. “It sounded as if something bad might happen if the government were to destabilize.”
“Of course something bad would happen, they wouldn’t be in power anymore.” Nova scoffed. “The last thing they want to do is lose control of everything they’ve built. You should understand that better than anyone here, Freya.”
Her vision tunneled at those words. Every single person in this room was intimate with the feeling of being powerless and not in control of what was happening to them. From the experiments she suffered through to the breeding programs forced on the men, none of them missed the importance of what was going on. She would be lucky if she didn’t royally screw this up. “Back up and sit down. This isn’t a discussion or open to a vote. Something we’re not aware of is going on with the Sovereign right now and we need to be prepared.”
She tapped a finger on the image of Sorasta standing in front of Bash, cloaked as Tris’Tyn. The video played, and she saw herself jumping between them. The look of bewilderment that crossed Bash’s and her face was reflected on Nova’s as the video continued. Freya watched Sorasta’s hands clutched her throat as her body convulsed in a coughing fit. Blood ran out of her mouth as she dropped to the ground, panic broadcasted on her face. The moment it was obvious she was dead, Freya paused the video. Crossing her arms, she slipped into Nova’s mind and listened to the chaos of her thoughts.
“It’s obvious from the video you didn’t kill her, but who did?”
“Our theory right now is the Sovereign had some kind of a kill switch in her body. She was about to tell us something and didn’t want her to, so they killed her.” Bash’s deep, bold voice strengthened her.
“Because of the track chip in my brain, we think the Sovereign might attack Gu’Lani Colony. She’s known about it for a while now, but hasn’t made any moves to raid it. If we got too close to something, that may not be worth the risk for her anymore.” Freya added her theory.
Bash’s entire body went rigid. His eyes shot to the wall display and a new window popped up on it. The camera feed from the garage entrance of the colony popped up. Freya cursed as Nova noticed the images of the display moving on their own. Whatever was happening must be important for Bash to give himself away. Nova started to speak, but another woman’s voice cut her off.
“Freya or Bash, one of you has to hear the message I have.” A loud booming sound echoed through the room as Ell’e pounded on the door near the microphone.
“Who is that?” Everyone ignored Nova’s question.
“Is this a one-way or two-way feed?” Freya directed the question to Bash, but ERIC’s eerily perfect face appeared on the wall screen next to Ell’e.
“Five seconds to set it up, standby.” Eric’s face didn’t move, but then she supposed that it shouldn’t because he was a computer. If she was already starting to humanize him she wondered if Bash was.
“Who is that, what is going on?” Nova’s face turned red as Cay tried to calm her down.
“Complete.”
“Ell’e, what’s going on?” Freya ignored Nova, time was of the essence.
“When I got in range of a network amplifier, I received a message for you. Once I play it, I’m getting the hell out. I have no more business with you.” Ell’e held up her device to the camera so they could see.
Everything around Freya disappeared as her vision narrowed on the vid feed. Genevieve was standing next to a terrified O’Paka.
“Hello daughter dearest. As you can see, I’m not really dead. Normally I like to work behind the scenes, but you’ve gone too far this time. You weren’t supposed to find anything substantial, but you discovered something that no one else can know.” She slipped a collar around O’Paka’s neck. “Bash, you should recognize this little toy.”
He let out a string of curses as his hand touched his neck. Loose objects around the room started to vibrate as fury washed through Freya. That was a slave collar, just like the one that she’d had to rip off of Bash.
“Ahhh, I wish I could see your face as you remember it, but you all are holed up in a Resistance colony. So let’s make a deal. Since I’m sure you’re going to evacuate all your precious freedom fighters, Freya will stay at the colony until Crimson arrives to collect her. If she does exactly as she’s told, I won’t keep O’Paka as my personal slave.”
A large sob wracked O’Paka’s body as tears streamed down her face. Various objects slid off of surfaces and crashed onto the floor. Freya felt a hum inside of her body as she wanted to rip her mother apart.
“What the hell, I’m in a good mood today. If you behave, I won’t even send O’Paka to Rectification Treatment. All of that depends on you, better hurry though, don’t have much time to evacuate everyone.”
Gu’Lani Resistance Colony: Bash
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
Freya’s calm voice sent ice running through his veins. If he had a chance to go back and do it again, he wouldn’t have locked her in the control room against her will. After Genevieve’s video message ended, he’d seen a new level of rage in Freya.
“You know it was for your own good, and for the safety of the other Resistance members.”
“You had no right.” The slow enunciation made him want to run and hide.
For a woman who’d recently gained a full range of emotions, she was tamping them down pretty well. Bash was a little surprised that she hadn’t accidentally killed him or destroyed something yet. “She’s using you, you get that right?”
“I don’t care if she said it to my face, just because I’ve made the mistake of taking away your control in a situation before doesn’t mean that you get to do it to me to make us even.” Bash opened his mouth to respond, but she shoved her finger in his face and cut him off. “It wasn’t that long ago that we stood in this very room and vowed to do our best. Not to be the best leader, or best fighter, but with each other. When my brother tied your hand to mine, we agreed to not decide for the other, and you just violated that.”
Freya spun away from him, wrapping her arms around herself. Silence between them dragged on for an eternity while he waited to see what she would do next. Every atom inside of him wanted to say something to make this better, but he knew it would only make it worse. They had a tendency to talk over each other to make their own side heard, but that always hurt the other one. He’d done enough damage today, so if he had to stand here for two hours to wait for his turn to talk, he would.
“I know why you did it, and I can’t even deny that I wouldn’t have done something incredibly stupid.” Freya shook her head and looked him in the eye. “Since I can’t help with the evacuation, I’ll stay out of the way. Go help Nova and the others and I’ll be in our room thinking.”
She tapped her lips with her forefinger for a moment before she turned on her heel and left the room. Bash cursed himself until he ran out of words to describe how angry he was. It was amazing how someone could make the worst decision possible in less than a second. Hanging his head in shame, he trudged out of the room to find Nova.
All he had to do was follow the chaos. She was standing on top of a few crates, addressing several of the sector leaders. Because of the size of the colony, there were designated women responsible for their sector and floor. Three women in charge of this location were standing next to her watching things unfold. Cay stood on the ground just her left.
“We have no timeframe for the attack which means we have a lot of stuff to do and not nearly enough time to do it. In order of importance, our chief priority is removing any projects or supplies categorized as level Five. After we take care of those items, all personnel with a security clearance are required to leave. Because of recent attacks, there are only a handful of colonies left to retreat to. We have to split up for the safety of others; nobody will know where anyone else is going.”
Murmurs broke out in the group of women. Several looked like they wanted to say something but remained quiet. One woman spoke up. “If we keep giving up colonies like this, we will never win.”
“Would you rather die fighting?” Nova crossed her arms.
“If it gave us the advantage over ARI, yes.”
“Then stay here and die, but know that it was in vain. This is a direct attack from the Sovereign. Even if we weren’t reeling from the last raid, this wouldn’t be a battle we could win.”
“Do we have another spy among us?”
“No, just an old one that keeps hitting us when we’re down. This is not up for discussion. If this colony is not half evacuated in 45 minutes, then I’ll leave you here.” To emphasize her statement, Nova jumped off the crates and started passing out the random reassignments written on torn up pieces of paper.
Bash caught her attention. “I’m staying here with Freya.”
“No, you’re not. You’re one of the most vital resources the Resistance has.”
He cut her off before she could continue. “I think you misunderstood me, I wasn’t giving you a suggestion. I will stay with Freya and that’s the end of that.” Not giving her a chance to argue, he added. “Besides, there is so much I can do after you all leave. After enough of the information is removed, I could set up a virus that could infect anyone’s electronics that comes into the colony. On top of that, I have an idea for several traps we could lie to take out as many of them as possible.”
“Anything to do with that blue face on the wall screen?” Her purple eyes narrowed on him suspiciously. He forgot all about ERIC’s appearance earlier.
“I don’t have time to get into that right now, but yes everything to do with that.”
Nova shot a glance at Cay, then turned her attention back to Bash. “You know I could order them to take you against your will.”
“Between my cybernetic limbs and other things you don’t know about I highly doubt it. Besides, you don’t have time to waste on me, you have your own man to deal with.”
“I knew you would be a pain in my ass from the moment I met you.”
Bash curled his hands into fists as he held his tongue. He didn’t know how Cay put up with her, but then again she probably didn’t play these games with him. Unlike Cay and Alastor, Bash had the potential to be fertile, which put him in a unique place. Not wanting to deal with her anymore, he decided he would move forward with the plan.
ERIC, I designed a virus last year for an attack, could we repurpose that? On the other hand, Em’Ra embedded a virus so dangerous I couldn’t remove it. I had to neutralize it instead. Bash headed to the vault where he’d stored the hard drive after the attack.
Based on your memory, once you have it plugged back into the network I should be able to modify it for your purpose. After analyzing the structure and design of the colony, I have some suggestions on where the physical trap should be. Most of it I could handle remotely, I’d just need a little prep beforehand.
Not wanting to risk being unprepared when Crimson showed up, he raced to retrieve the hard drive he’d brought with him and plugged it in. Once ERIC was in, Bash made the physical changes for the booby-traps.
Twenty minutes later, he was racing to their room. He wanted to give her an update, but he also needed to know how she was doing. Guilt threaded through him of what he’d done earlier, but he only had a fraction of a second to make a decision. Stepping inside the room, he paused, watching Freya as she worked through a set of pushups.
“Are you going to stand there and watch, or come over here and make it up to me?” Freya dropped to her knees and started pulling off her clothes. “I’m stepping into the hygiene unit to clean up while you give me an update about what’s going on. Then we can have angry makeup sex.”
She dropped her clothes into a sonic cleaner drawer, then stepped through a small door. Bash stood there with his mouth agape, staring at the doorway she disappeared through. Did she just say angry make up sex?
“Stop fantasizing and talk.”
Her word snapped him out of it, and he gave his head a shake. Plopping onto the couch, he raised his voice because if he was in there with her right now there wouldn’t be much talking. “Basically Nova gave out relocation orders to random assignments without making any of it digital. No one knows where anyone else is going but themselves. Aside from classifying what was vital and non-vital for research and supplies, that’s about it.” He wouldn’t tell her about the virus or the traps because he didn’t know if they were listening in with her chip right now. She knew he couldn’t tell her everything. Closing his eyes, he pinched his nose as he tried to push the stress levels down. “Morale is getting low.”
“We can’t have that, can we?” Still naked from her shower, she slid onto his lap, her breasts pressed against his chest as his cock went hard. Looked like she was serious about the angry make up sex.