3-18-2
Activity in the SS base was escalating from the preparations for evacuation. Fassbinder noted with approval the efficiency of his men as they took up everything that could be removed. Engineers started the process of preparing demolition, should annihilating the alien city from orbit prove impossible. Others catalogued the stores of everything from weapons to the powerful combat stims that the SS, given its deficiencies in numbers, was issuing to all combat personnel, preparing everything for transport to an evacuation ship.
From his office, Fassbinder monitored all of this from screens. As he did, he considered whether to escalate his prisoner's torment or not. The way she was interfering with the Aurora Chair was vexing, but the data was still valuable. That argued against any further use of the nanobots or the shocks in the tank.
But yet… he wanted to feel her suffer. His hate for Julia Andreys, for what she represented, for what she accomplished, demanded she suffer. The dark energies within him stirred at the thought, urging him to it. Order them to turn the dial. Commence the shocks. MAKE HER SCREAM.
"Petty sadism does not suit a man of your power, Fassbinder," said the Twelve. Cosmetic alterations aside, she was a clone of one of the accursed Aurora officers, Lucy Lucero. Whenever Fassbinder looked at her, he couldn't help but remember that Lucero had once batted him aside with barely an effort, back on New Brittany. He looked forward to the day he got a rematch with her.
"You waste time," the Six added. "The evacuation plans…"
"...are proceeding," Fassbinder finished for her, feeling a little irritated. He felt a deep suspicion that the Cylons wanted Julia Andreys' death for some unknown reason. He fully intended to give it to them, but only when he chose to do so. "But my plan to destroy the Aurora requires that she remain alive." Fassbinder checked his reports for a moment before continuing. "Dale will sense her death. That would spoil everything. But so long as she is alive, he will feel it, and he will tell the others so. When she is in pain, they will know, so they will be desperate to end it." Fassbinder grinned ferociously. "And I will use that desperation to my advantage."
The Cylons said nothing in response. Fassbinder turned his attentions to his work while his hand reached for his comm. "Fassbinder to tank room. Return the prisoner to her cell," he instructed the guards. "We will try the Chair again soon."
Miko watched in quiet horror when Julia was returned to the cell. She collapsed bonelessly to the hard floor the moment the guards released her, neither bothering to give her a final blow from the stun sticks this time. They turned the forcefield back on and departed. On the other side of it, Julia was on her stomach, unmoving.
"Julia. Are you…" Miko stopped herself from finishing the question "Are you okay?" It was clear she wasn't. She was simply too weak to move.
A deep despair threatened to fill Miko, a despair at never seeing her mother again, nor the Beifong cousins, or her grand uncle… none of those whom she loved. She would be trapped here, alone save for a woman who, at any time, might succumb to the abuse their captives delighted in inflicting on her. And when Julia finally died, she would be truly alone…
Or maybe not, she considered. She recalled some of what Master Gyatsun taught her about the Avatar's spiritual abilities. It took effort, too, and her situation helped with that. The truth was that Miko often felt impatient at the stodgy old Airbender, preferring to train with Yeshe.
But she wasn't such a poor student that she garnered nothing from those lessons. The spiritual side of who she was, that was important too.
Miko sat on the floor of her cell and began the long, slow work of quieting her mind.
The General Iroh had the kind of austere functionality Lucy expected given both their technological level and the behavior of the crew. Her quarters, apparently those for VIPs, were only half the size of those she had on the Aurora, and were quite spartan. The walls were painted in deep reds and golds, presumably to make the living quarters aesthetically appealing, but the bed was little more than a cot and the shower barely a walk-in closet.
After some time using the computer hookup and her omnitool to research the ship and these people, Lucy decided to give the communications system another check. After her trip through the vessel, she found Komin already inspecting the guts of what had been their primary comm transceiver. "What's the verdict?"
"Chief Lee was right," he said. "Even if we could construct a new set, the damage in here is too extensive. They'll have to rebuild the comm system in the docks."
Lucy glanced over it and nodded in agreement. "No secondaries?"
"The designers judged them to be unnecessary, I suppose. Or impossible."
"Or, more likely, a lower priority to other systems. A tradeoff that's biting you in the rear now." Lucy had a thought. "What if we used the Aurora to send a message to your people?"
"I'm not sure your communications are compatible," he replied. "Ours relies on the existence of the Spirit World, and from what you've said, it's unique to our universe."
"Yeah, about that… Different layers of reality are known to us, things like the various bands of hyperspace, but this 'Spirit World' you're talking about…"
"It's linked to our world at a fundamental level," Komin said. "It's played an important role in our development of technology ever since Avatar Korra left the portals open. Observation of the Spirit World is what led Korra's granddaughter Yasuko Sato to the discoveries that proved the possibility of the space-warp drive."
Lucy blinked. "You mean you… you can actually enter this plane? You have openings to it on your homeworld?"
"Three, yes. To enter physically, anyway. There are other ways into it. It's why Yeshe is our best hope of getting a message back to the Republic and the Fire Nation without forcing us to go back ourselves."
"Your cousin?" Curious, Lucy asked, "Is this your way of saying she can enter your Spirit World mentally?"
"She can project her spirit in." Seeing Lucy's increased curiosity, he added, "Follow me."
They went back into the section of the ship with private quarters. In a set of quarters much like her own assigned room, Yeshe Beifong was seated on a map in what seemed a universal meditative posture, legs folded under her and hands on knees.
Lucy felt a kind of rippling in the Flow of Life, not unlike that of the ship's power core. Yeshe's being seemed… diverted, not entirely present anymore. Her body was almost in a sort of stasis, her breathing quiet and shallow, but not labored.
The part that really gained her attention was that the feeling she had from Yeshe was not unlike the general feeling of the Flow of Life in this universe. As if it were also diverted in some way.
"I'm worried for her," Komin admitted.
"Oh?" Lucy turned her head and faced him. The look on his face was drawn and pensive. "Why? Because you're so far from your homeworld?"
He nodded. "It's known that the connection to the Spirit World gets weaker this far out. Our communications systems aren't as effected, but attempting to enter the Spirit World this way is said to be harder. Much harder. There's no guarantee she will be able to keep herself there long enough to find another of the Airbenders, or anyone else, to tell them about what we've found."
"This is dangerous, then?"
"I'm not sure. This isn't something I'm familiar with," he admitted. "Yeshe is convinced she can manage it."
"Then we should have faith in her that she will," said Lucy. "Even if it's not easy."
"You're right, it's just… I've known Yeshe since I was little. I don't want to lose her too." Komin took in a breath before turning for the door. "I'm going to get some rest. You?"
"I think I will too," she said. "I'll see you later."
"Yes."
With that, they parted ways.
The lights in Robert's quarters were set just above the dim level. He was in the living area adjacent to the bedroom, seated on the floor on the mat he'd carried with him from Gersal after finishing the training to control his now-enhanced talents. He breathed in and out slowly, focusing himself in meditation.
The link he shared with Julia was stronger than before. He could sense she was resting. Fassbinder was presumably busy with other matters. That he was sparing her made Robert feel gratified, but worried. Given his whole-hearted embrace of darkness, all of Fassbinder's nastiest traits were stronger now, including sadism and hatred. If he wasn't trying to make Julia suffer now, it implied a reason.
One such reason was that he might be too busy overseeing an evacuation, which meant they were running out of time to get to Julia and Miko.
The thought of her being gone came roaring back, and the reaction was fear. Solid, unrelenting fear. He couldn't imagine a world without her in it, he didn't even want to try, and having to live in it… the mere idea was maddening. A source of maddening anger.
It had more than one source, more than one target. He was angry at the enemy, certainly, for what they'd done to his adopted home, for what they were doing to Julia, for all of the suffering and terror they'd inflicted.
He was also angry at himself. They were here because of him. Because of his mistakes. He'd helped start the war before the Alliance was ready for it, for one, when he let his fears dominate his decisions at 33LA. Two years on, and that mistake haunted him, all the more since those very mistakes brought about the nightmare he'd foreseen. The attack on New Liberty, Julia taken as a prisoner, Beth nearly dying…
That made him think of New Liberty. If he had come for Julia first… then she wouldn't be suffering. He made the choice to not go to her rescue, to walk into Fassbinder's trap instead. A trap he only escaped because of telepath allies that came to his rescue. Allies that would have rescued Beth anyway while he was rescuing Julia.
I didn't know, he thought to himself, but the greater part of him rejected that defense. How could he have not known? With all of this power, his talents, how couldn't he see how it would go? How was it that he didn't know to save Julia instead?
After all, hadn't he lost enough already? His grandparents, his parents, his sister… why should he have to lose her too?
Robert felt power in this anger. A deep power, cold and hot at the same time. He instinctively drew back from it, as one might pull a hand back from an open flame. But even as he did, a part of him felt a visceral rush at the thought of it. That deep, dark part that lies in any living, thinking being's heart, the one that is drawn to power like a moth to flame, drawn to strength, to the means to impose one's will upon a universe that seemed to just not care…
A treacherous voice echoed in his being. And if it's what you need to save her? Fassbinder is more powerful now, and he has allies.
At the periphery of his senses, Robert heard his door chime. He ignored it for the moment, dwelling on the problems before him. The chime repeated. When he gave no answer, it went off again… and again…. and again…
"Fine! Come in!" he snapped irritably.
The door slid open. Meridina stepped in, wearing her uniform. The fourth gold strip on her collar was another reminder of Julia's absence. Her very being radiated concern. "I sense it in you," she said. "Your feelings of anger are calling up the darkness within."
"As you've said before, we all have it," he replied. "I'm not giving into it."
"Not right now. But the next time you face Fassbinder?" Meridina took a seat at his small table and apprised him with a worried look. "You are angry and frustrated by him. It is becoming hatred."
Robert's eyes opened and he looked at her, a hard light to his green eyes she'd never seen before. "We had him on Gamma Piratus," Robert said. "He should have died there. But we were sloppy. We let him get away. And then on New Brittany, when he escaped Lucy, and then in Germania… And every time he gets away from us, Meridina, he causes more suffering, and he grows more powerful."
"I am aware."
"We should have made sure," Robert said. "We should have made sure he was dead on Gamma Piratus. Or any of those other places."
"We did all we could," Meridina reminded him. "You know full well that part of being a swevyra'se is knowing that distinction. We do what we can. We do not try. But neither do we regret those things that we cannot do."
"But because we didn't get him, look at what he's done!" Robert's fists clenched. "Look at what he did to New Liberty! What he did to Beth! He was a moment away from killing her! If Colin and the others hadn't…" He lowered his head, replaying the scene in the Government House foyer again. "I felt her ready to die. Beth stopped herself from weeping. She wanted to die with dignity, to not give him the satisfaction of her crying or begging to live, even though she was desperate to live. What he did to her is going to stick with her forever, Meridina. Because we weren't good enough, I wasn't good enough. And now he's got Julia, and he's hurting her, because I didn't see it coming, because I didn't do what I needed to in order to protect them both!"
Something in his words struck the aching wound in Meridina's heart, echoing with her own. You weren't good enough to forsee the Brotherhood attack. You weren't good enough to save Ledosh from Goras. Irritation with that thinking filled her. "You are being arrogant," Meridina chided. "Presumptuous. You alone cannot do everything, Robert, and your insistence on this matter is egotistical and vain. You are allowing your expanded power to lead you astray. To 'go to your head', the others would say."
Robert's face, his being, betrayed his surprise at her harshness.
"There are things you cannot do. That we cannot do. If we do not accept this, then we create frustration for ourselves. Frustration and anger, and anger is on the path to darkness. Much as you displayed when you attacked the Aristo on Toutaine Station, an act of darkness that I once thought you incapable of."
Robert remembered that dark feeling when he was on Toutaine, listening to the Aristo who called himself Haron mocking him about Julia, about everything. He'd nearly broken the man himself, but stopped before he could go that far. But only just that far; he'd crossed a line, and he knew it.
That she was right only made him feel worse. It wasn't helped by what he also felt. In his feelings and sentiments, Meridina saw her own mirrored. She was feeling frustrated by what happened on Gersal. Frustrated… and guilty.
Something about that gnawed at him. Here she was, dispensing advice to him that she herself wasn't heeding. She insisted he accept what happened and move on, but she wasn't doing the same for herself. "Maybe you should take your own advice," Robert said, not quite nastily, but coldly.
Meridina's expression blanched.
"You blame yourself for Gersal," he continued. "I can feel it in you. You think you should have been faster. Stronger. More prescient. Then maybe Ledosh would be alive, more of your people would have survived. Maybe even you would have prevented the loss of the Great Temple."
The response was Meridina closing her eyes. His words hit home.
Robert swallowed. A bitter part of him wanted to point out the hypocrisy again. To hammer home that she had no right to demand he do something she would not. He only barely kept that bitter feeling down. "It's more than that, though, isn't it? There's a part of you that wonders if this might not have happened if you hadn't made the choices you did. That you and Ledosh, by promoting the Alliance, investigating our place in the Prophecy of the Dawn, by all of that, you made this attack possible. Maybe inevitable. That if you'd listened to Karesl and Goras from the getgo, none of this would have happened."
Meridina's eyes met his. She didn't need to say it.
"I think you're wrong about that. And I think you know that." Robert nodded at her. "And maybe you're right about me. But you're not the one feeling her pain, Meridina. He's torturing Julia and I feel it. And the reason Julia's a prisoner is my choice. I chose to go for Beth instead, and if I hadn't have… if I hadn't have, odds are Beth would've lived anyway, that Colin and Max and Governor Kuhln would have saved her, and I could have helped Julia get away. My choices are why Julia is a prisoner now. Why she's not home. Why she's suffering. You're asking me to ignore my part in that outcome, and I can't. Please don't ask me to. Not now."
Meridina said nothing more. With pain in her own heart, pain at how true Robert's words about her feelings, she stood up and left without a further word.
Robert watched her go before returning to his meditation. Whatever else, he had to be ready if Julia started hurting again.
Julia stirred slowly, fitfully, from her place on the floor of her bare cell, bare save for the bucket that was meant to be her toilet as another act of degradation. While the green fluid she was being repeatedly dumped into was healing her body, she still ached everywhere, especially in her head.
The sound of conversation prompted Julia to turn her head toward Miko's cell. Her fellow captive was seated on the floor in a legs-crossed meditative posture. Across from her was a human figure, a man seated similarly to Miko. An aura of blue light surrounded him, giving him a spectral look. The man's face had a soft expression; he looked to be early middle-aged, with a pointed beard of light gray color, to match the fringe of similar color at the temples that streaked through darker, close-cut hair. He was wearing a suit of dark green fringed with an earthy brown color. His eyes were heterochromatic: one amber, one green. Physically he looked to be in the peak of health even with middle-age, with broad shoulders, although his expression gave the sense of a "gentle giant" sort of person.
Julia had just enough time to take in the features of the figure before he seemed to dissipate into a fog, vanishing completely in the span of a couple seconds. Miko drew in a sigh and lowered her head.
The thought moved through Julia's mind to ask what she'd just seen, but before she could speak, the familiar thumping of boots to the floor heralded the arrival of the SS guards. Julia drew in a quick breath and steeled herself for the resumption of her ordeal.
With the hours to their arrival dwindling down, Meridina took what she imagined would be her last quiet meal period left to her. It was necessary to rebalance herself given her discussion with Robert and the emotions it drew up, her fears for him and her feelings over what happened on Gersal.
Hargert, with his customary diligence, seemed prepared for her with a meal suited to lifting her spirits. The liyume, a Gersallian dish comparable to what Humans called "dumplings", had a rich flavor to it that was authentically Gersallian (Hargert's previous experiments in mixing Earth-native spices or ingredients had been of mixed success, and in this case were undesired). Altogether it worked as a comfort food, and Meridina greatly enjoyed it.
But it did not, by itself, lift her spirits. As much as she tried to ignore it, Meridina was working with a broken heart. The horror of that day on Gersal, with the Cylon attack and the fall of the Temple aided by the treachery of the long-hidden Brotherhood, it kept coming back to her. Indeed, even the welcoming dish seemed to sour in her mouth as she contemplated everything that happened.
The sour look on her face was noted by the new arrival at her table. "Do ye mind, lass?" Meridina lifted her head to notice Commander Scott, a mug of coffee in one hand and a plate of food in the other. When she quietly gestured toward a chair he took it, setting his meal down. "Well now, ye dinnae seem t' be enjoyin' yer meal," he said to her. "Still thinkin' of home?"
"The meal is fine. I am simply distracted." She took another bite of it, as if to ward off any further inquiry.
"Nobody blames ye for thinkin' of home," he assured her.
Meridina nodded in reply. But she said nothing. Se could think of nothing to say, nothing that wouldn't admit of the feelings inside of her.
There was no hiding them from the veteran engineer beside her. "Ye're tryin' t' be strong for th' crew's sake. Aye, I get that," Scotty said gently. "But ye cannae ignore what's on yer mind forever, Meridina. Ye have t' face it."
Behind the gentle persistence in the old man's voice, Meridina sensed his warm spirit, and his desire to help her. Not just out of general concern for the younger officers and crew, but from his understanding of the pressures they were under, and of the terrible things she'd endured.
He was right, of course. Meridina couldn't avoid facing her feelings. Not forever, not even for much longer. She had to face her fears, her guilt, if she was to lead them effectively.
The irony made her want to laugh bitterly. She'd never imagined being in this position, having to command the Aurora herself. Being the Captain. Even when she accepted Julia's request and decided to become First Officer, she'd never imagined it coming about, as logical as it was. Now she felt regret for accepting the promotion and new post. This wasn't what she'd wanted with her life, after all. She was, or at least had been, a swevyra'se, a Knight of Life, sworn to the Code of Swenya. Her place was in the thick of danger, using her talents to aid, not sitting in a chair commanding the fates of two thousand people.
Although that didn't really matter in the long run, did it? Regardless of what she wanted, this was where she was, and whatever her choices, Gersal had burned. The Temple was gone, millions were dead, the Order was reeling. Nearly broken, maybe.
What would this do to her people? For the Gersal she knew? Change was inevitable, but would it be for good or ill?
With all of that weight in her heart, it was no surprise that tears formed in her eyes. They began the journey down her face to her chin in seconds, followed by more tears, an even greater flow of them.
"We have lost so much," she admitted to Mister Scott. "The Cylons destroyed the Temples with atomic weapons. They did everything they could to annihilate the legacy of Swenya from our world. Three thousand years of history that inspired my people to be what they have become, and the Cylons annihilated it in less than a day. They knocked down the Yahana Towers in Jantarihal. The fires they caused burned half of Iltahad's parks. And the death they brought. They… they killed millions in Trubin alone. Ten million of my people are dead. Ten million." She shook her head, fighting back a sniffle. "Light help us, we have never taken a shock like this. Not since… the Brotherhood. Which they are led by!"
"Aye, it's a great loss, an' a terrible shock," Scott agreed. "It's more than that, though, isn't?"
She nodded. "I am haunted by the thought that I brought this about. That if I had not pursued the path I did, Goras would not have fallen. The Order would not have lost its heart. It would not have fallen into the malaise that left it vulnerable. We would have seen this attack coming." She wiped at the tears on her face. "Ten million of my people, Mister Scott, and I may have contributed with my choices. How can I continue this with such a weight on my swevyra?"
The elder Scotsman listened patiently to her. When Meridina's question came his way, he replied softly. "Ye have t' remember that ye didn't make th' choices that caused all this. Goras is th' one who couldn't accept th' way things were goin'. He decided he'd rather murder ye. And nothin' ye did would've stopped th' Cylons' attack. They were comin' for ye at some point. That's clear t' us all, lass." He reached a hand over and laid it on her lower arm, a gesture of reassurance. "Meridina, my heart weeps for what ye've lost. I dinnae know anyone who wouldn't be wonderin' what ye're wonderin'. But ye cannae forget all th' good ye've done with th' crew. The lives ye've saved, an' everythin' good that's come of that. That Cylon lass ye brought aboard, for starters. Ye showed her mercy when it would've been easy t' kill her, an' she helped save th' people o' New Caprica. Ye taught Lucy how t' use these skills o' yers, an' Robert as well, an' look at what they've done."
Meridina's blue eyes met his, tears flowing freely from them. "They have done so much," she agreed.
"Aye. Ye've accomplished a lot since ye came t' th' Aurora, Meridina. It's no wonder Captain Andreys asked ye t' be the First Officer."
"We both know I was not her first choice," Meridina said. "Jarod and Nicholas turned her down."
"Dinnae change th' fact she asked ye," he pointed out. "An' I think she was right."
"But I… now I must be the Captain," Meridina said gently. "And I am not sure this is what I am meant to be. The role comes naturally to Julia in a way I do not share. The others are concerned with Julia's replacement and that I am not being offered the command, but when I consider myself, I must admit I do not wish it. I would only accept it for the sake of the others."
A twinkle formed in Scotty's eye. "Aye, I know what ye mean."
"You have commanded before, have you not?" she asked.
"Well, lass, back in th' day, I was third-in-command on th' Enterprise," he said. "When Captain Kirk an' Mister Spock had t' be elsewhere, I was left in command. An' I admit, I was never happy at th' chance, never at all. I only cared t' be an engineer."
That fit with the sentiments Meridina had long noticed in the older man. Scott's engineering spaces were his pride and joy. "But you commanded when necessary. Much as I am now."
"Aye." The twinkle in his eye remained. "Did I ever tell ye about th' time I took th' Kobayashi Maru test?"
Meridina thought of the name. It sounded like it came from the Human language of the Japanese nation, but she was not familiar with the significance. "I do not believe so. I am uncertain of what this test is?"
"It's a simulation that Starfleet used t' run command candidates through, a test o' character ye might say," he explained. "Well, I'd been put in Command School, an' th' test came up. As ye can imagine, I was nae t' happy t' be in there in th' first place…"
While Commander Scott's story did not directly pertain to her situation, Meridina found her spirits much lifted by the time her conversation with the engineer was over. Her heart still ached at everything happening, but she knew that for the moment she must cast aside uncertainty and be the captain the crew needed. Julia needed them all, and Meridina would do her best to make sure the ship and crew would come through.
After her meal she returned to the bridge. Locarno, Tra'dur, and Cat were all on duty, with Lieutenant Luneri standing in for Angel to allow her a meal period. At the science station Cat was busy examining readings. "This local space is just… really interesting. Some of these readings remind me of the Fracture, but I'm not seeing anything else that matches. Stars are, roughly, where they're supposed to be, there's no spatial warping effect, and no reports of illness from anyone with psionic or metaphysical perception."
"No sign of a DT field yet?" Jarod asked.
"No. But…" She checked something. "The target system is now on long-range sensors."
"And still no DT field."
"Then wherever this is, it is not a former base of the Darglan," Meridina noted. "Or at least, not one they made after acquiring the dimensional-transcendence field technology. Perhaps it is another repurposed base like the one we found in N2C5."
"Going by sensors, there are signs of power signatures in the system, consistent with starships." Cat examined her readings even more closely. "And I am detecting a warp trail near here, the subspace wake is consistent with the anti-matter pulse reactors the Reich uses."
"So we know the coordinates are good," Jarod noted. "The question is, what's waiting for us there?"
"An excellent question. Do you have a proposal to find out, Commander?" Meridina asked.
"Long range probes could scout the system for us," said Jarod. "Even if they're destroyed, the data we get before they're lost could be invaluable."
"Could the Koenig not go on ahead of us and quietly reconnoiter the system?" Tra'dur suggested. "They have a greater chance of going undetected."
Meridina waited for Jarod's reaction to the suggestion. It was a nod. "That would also work," he agreed. "If they stay under cloak and are careful about transmissions."
"Agreed," she said, before keying the tac comm. "Koenig, we have the enemy system on sensors. I would like the system scouted."
"Sounds good to me," said Zack. "We're accelerating now."
The Koenig's warp engines intensified the field around the ship. The ship accelerated until she moved beyond the Aurora and General Iroh.
The drilling agony of the Aurora Chair assailed Julia's mind yet again. She writhed against the restraints of the chair, feeling as if her mind was coming apart under its relentless, mechanical assault. Fassbinder hovered over her like a bird of prey, eager, and frustrated at the prey for not succumbing.
With her brain feeling it was on fire, Julia delved into memories that promised any sort of respite. The pain she was in caused a memory association to form. Her thoughts turned to after Robert's grandmother died. They were just eight years old. That cooling summer day so long ago came back to her; the rolling fields of wheat of the Dale farm, the solemn quiet of the family home… her parents came over to give their condolences for the Dale family's loss.
On the porch, eight year old Julie found eight year old Robby, sitting on the stairway with tears flowing down his face. "Oma's gone," he wept. "Oma's gone."'
Memories of Oma - Anna Dale, Robert's German-born grandmother - were of a warm elderly woman who cooked delicious food and delighted in teaching "meine kleiner" her native language. Those memories reverted back to the porch, where she'd responded by embracing her dear friend and playmate closely, crying with him, not so much for grief over Anna's death as it was sympathy for his grief.
As they embraced, the pain in her brain decreased again. Indeed, it felt like it had never been there. She was just here, a child again, with her poor suffering friend. Her poor Robby, hurt so much from losing his beloved grandmother. She clung all the tighter to him, as if she could banish the deep pain she felt within him.
The image of this on the Chair's viewer brought a derisive, frustrated snort froom Fassbinder. He eyed the technician, who shrugged. "I'm sorry, Herr Brigadeführer. The technology is at maximum."
Fassbinder snarled at that. He looked to Julia for a moment before pulling the headpiece away from her forehead, shutting down the machine automatically. In a rapid motion his arm came up. His fist smashed into her cheek with enough force that it broke one of her teeth. "You will yield!" His face drew close, his eyes glaring hatred at her.
The blow jolted Julia back to reality. She looked into Fassbinder's eyes and contempt appeared on her features. She rolled her tongue inside of her mouth until she felt the broken pieces of her damaged tooth. She collected them, and the attendant blood, and in a moment of impulsive defiance spat them into Fassbinder's eye.
Fassbinder recoiled backward. Only momentary instinct kept the chips of enamel from impacting on his eye directly, his eyelid absorbing the projectiles instead. Red blood covered the right side of his face. His expression twisted into a look of deep rage. His hand went for the controls on his gauntlet.
The nanobots on Julia's skin activated, flooding her nerves with pain stimuli. She cried out from the sheer agony of the experience.
"I have a confession," he said, even as she writhed in the chair, barely hearing him through the intensity of her pain. "Your interrogation is, to me, meaningless. The Führer ordered it and I will obey, of course, but I am not foolish enough to think we can gain immediate benefit. Your command codes have been shut off, your access to Alliance databases rescinded. The Aurora Chair may yet pull some useful intelligence from your mind, but with each passing day the worth of that knowledge decreases. Whatever your exalted status in the history of the Alliance, you are still ultimately just a starship captain. Your leaders do not share everything with you."
Julia said nothing beyond letting out another strangled cry. A tightness in her chest kept the cry from reaching the volume of the last, the pain so intense the muscles in her body were contracting instinctively, trying to escape what could not be escaped. Beyond the pain, she felt a growing sense of despair, a sense that her life was going to end like this. That after everything she'd done, everything she'd accomplished, her fate was to be tortured to death by Fassbinder.
"Ah." The SS man chuckled. "Well, I see you have an idea of it. You realize what your fate is to be, do you Kapitan?" He leaned in closer, her blood still around his eye. "I savor your suffering like a fine wine, yes. After your crimes against my people, how could I not? So allow me to confirm your fears, Julia Andreys. My sole intent is to torture you. To make you feel pain, over and over and over, without end, without mercy. I want you to suffer. I want you and all of your friends to suffer for what you have done." His voice became a bitter snarl, laced with deep rage, and his unnatural yellow eyes glistened with malevolence. "Because of you and Robert Dale and the others, your Alliance destroyed my Reich. You burned our cities! You tore down our glories! You uplifted untermenschen and aliens at the expense of the Aryan race! You humiliated us! And I will have my revenge for that. I will make you suffer as no other human being has ever suffered, Kapitan. Your anguish will be my greatest pleasure. And when the time comes and you are utterly broken - and you will be - and you are a madwoman who can only beg and mewl for mercy… I will continue to torture you anyway. Until your suffering no longer entertains me. Then I will give you to my men to do with as they please, and when it is all over, your broken corpse will be left for your precious Alliance to discover, so that they might all know how deeply they have failed you." He turned to the guards. "Take her to the kohltou tank. And I want the current on. Make her suffer."
"Jawohl, mein Brigadeführer."
Almost as an afterthought Fassbinder turned off the nanobots, merely for the purpose of making her guards' job of transporting her easier. As Julia was dragged off, a Scharführer entered and saluted. "Heil Kranefuss!"
Fassbinder returned the salute. "What is it, Scharführer?"
"Brigadeführer, long range sensors are detecting two of the three vessels that the Dogger Bank reported from its battle. Sturmbannführer Diekmann believes the third vessel, an attacker, is cloaked."
"The Koenig, undoubtedly," Fassbinder said. A thoughtful smile crossed his face. "Scharführer, inform Oberführer Krebsbach to commence the Phase 1 evacuation procedures, and make sure he knows that there is no urgency. He can take his time."
"Jawohl!"
Fassbinder watched the soldier leave and allowed himself a small smile. Everything was proceeding exactly as he desired. Revenge and destiny were at hand.
From his office, Fassbinder monitored all of this from screens. As he did, he considered whether to escalate his prisoner's torment or not. The way she was interfering with the Aurora Chair was vexing, but the data was still valuable. That argued against any further use of the nanobots or the shocks in the tank.
But yet… he wanted to feel her suffer. His hate for Julia Andreys, for what she represented, for what she accomplished, demanded she suffer. The dark energies within him stirred at the thought, urging him to it. Order them to turn the dial. Commence the shocks. MAKE HER SCREAM.
"Petty sadism does not suit a man of your power, Fassbinder," said the Twelve. Cosmetic alterations aside, she was a clone of one of the accursed Aurora officers, Lucy Lucero. Whenever Fassbinder looked at her, he couldn't help but remember that Lucero had once batted him aside with barely an effort, back on New Brittany. He looked forward to the day he got a rematch with her.
"You waste time," the Six added. "The evacuation plans…"
"...are proceeding," Fassbinder finished for her, feeling a little irritated. He felt a deep suspicion that the Cylons wanted Julia Andreys' death for some unknown reason. He fully intended to give it to them, but only when he chose to do so. "But my plan to destroy the Aurora requires that she remain alive." Fassbinder checked his reports for a moment before continuing. "Dale will sense her death. That would spoil everything. But so long as she is alive, he will feel it, and he will tell the others so. When she is in pain, they will know, so they will be desperate to end it." Fassbinder grinned ferociously. "And I will use that desperation to my advantage."
The Cylons said nothing in response. Fassbinder turned his attentions to his work while his hand reached for his comm. "Fassbinder to tank room. Return the prisoner to her cell," he instructed the guards. "We will try the Chair again soon."
Miko watched in quiet horror when Julia was returned to the cell. She collapsed bonelessly to the hard floor the moment the guards released her, neither bothering to give her a final blow from the stun sticks this time. They turned the forcefield back on and departed. On the other side of it, Julia was on her stomach, unmoving.
"Julia. Are you…" Miko stopped herself from finishing the question "Are you okay?" It was clear she wasn't. She was simply too weak to move.
A deep despair threatened to fill Miko, a despair at never seeing her mother again, nor the Beifong cousins, or her grand uncle… none of those whom she loved. She would be trapped here, alone save for a woman who, at any time, might succumb to the abuse their captives delighted in inflicting on her. And when Julia finally died, she would be truly alone…
Or maybe not, she considered. She recalled some of what Master Gyatsun taught her about the Avatar's spiritual abilities. It took effort, too, and her situation helped with that. The truth was that Miko often felt impatient at the stodgy old Airbender, preferring to train with Yeshe.
But she wasn't such a poor student that she garnered nothing from those lessons. The spiritual side of who she was, that was important too.
Miko sat on the floor of her cell and began the long, slow work of quieting her mind.
The General Iroh had the kind of austere functionality Lucy expected given both their technological level and the behavior of the crew. Her quarters, apparently those for VIPs, were only half the size of those she had on the Aurora, and were quite spartan. The walls were painted in deep reds and golds, presumably to make the living quarters aesthetically appealing, but the bed was little more than a cot and the shower barely a walk-in closet.
After some time using the computer hookup and her omnitool to research the ship and these people, Lucy decided to give the communications system another check. After her trip through the vessel, she found Komin already inspecting the guts of what had been their primary comm transceiver. "What's the verdict?"
"Chief Lee was right," he said. "Even if we could construct a new set, the damage in here is too extensive. They'll have to rebuild the comm system in the docks."
Lucy glanced over it and nodded in agreement. "No secondaries?"
"The designers judged them to be unnecessary, I suppose. Or impossible."
"Or, more likely, a lower priority to other systems. A tradeoff that's biting you in the rear now." Lucy had a thought. "What if we used the Aurora to send a message to your people?"
"I'm not sure your communications are compatible," he replied. "Ours relies on the existence of the Spirit World, and from what you've said, it's unique to our universe."
"Yeah, about that… Different layers of reality are known to us, things like the various bands of hyperspace, but this 'Spirit World' you're talking about…"
"It's linked to our world at a fundamental level," Komin said. "It's played an important role in our development of technology ever since Avatar Korra left the portals open. Observation of the Spirit World is what led Korra's granddaughter Yasuko Sato to the discoveries that proved the possibility of the space-warp drive."
Lucy blinked. "You mean you… you can actually enter this plane? You have openings to it on your homeworld?"
"Three, yes. To enter physically, anyway. There are other ways into it. It's why Yeshe is our best hope of getting a message back to the Republic and the Fire Nation without forcing us to go back ourselves."
"Your cousin?" Curious, Lucy asked, "Is this your way of saying she can enter your Spirit World mentally?"
"She can project her spirit in." Seeing Lucy's increased curiosity, he added, "Follow me."
They went back into the section of the ship with private quarters. In a set of quarters much like her own assigned room, Yeshe Beifong was seated on a map in what seemed a universal meditative posture, legs folded under her and hands on knees.
Lucy felt a kind of rippling in the Flow of Life, not unlike that of the ship's power core. Yeshe's being seemed… diverted, not entirely present anymore. Her body was almost in a sort of stasis, her breathing quiet and shallow, but not labored.
The part that really gained her attention was that the feeling she had from Yeshe was not unlike the general feeling of the Flow of Life in this universe. As if it were also diverted in some way.
"I'm worried for her," Komin admitted.
"Oh?" Lucy turned her head and faced him. The look on his face was drawn and pensive. "Why? Because you're so far from your homeworld?"
He nodded. "It's known that the connection to the Spirit World gets weaker this far out. Our communications systems aren't as effected, but attempting to enter the Spirit World this way is said to be harder. Much harder. There's no guarantee she will be able to keep herself there long enough to find another of the Airbenders, or anyone else, to tell them about what we've found."
"This is dangerous, then?"
"I'm not sure. This isn't something I'm familiar with," he admitted. "Yeshe is convinced she can manage it."
"Then we should have faith in her that she will," said Lucy. "Even if it's not easy."
"You're right, it's just… I've known Yeshe since I was little. I don't want to lose her too." Komin took in a breath before turning for the door. "I'm going to get some rest. You?"
"I think I will too," she said. "I'll see you later."
"Yes."
With that, they parted ways.
The lights in Robert's quarters were set just above the dim level. He was in the living area adjacent to the bedroom, seated on the floor on the mat he'd carried with him from Gersal after finishing the training to control his now-enhanced talents. He breathed in and out slowly, focusing himself in meditation.
The link he shared with Julia was stronger than before. He could sense she was resting. Fassbinder was presumably busy with other matters. That he was sparing her made Robert feel gratified, but worried. Given his whole-hearted embrace of darkness, all of Fassbinder's nastiest traits were stronger now, including sadism and hatred. If he wasn't trying to make Julia suffer now, it implied a reason.
One such reason was that he might be too busy overseeing an evacuation, which meant they were running out of time to get to Julia and Miko.
The thought of her being gone came roaring back, and the reaction was fear. Solid, unrelenting fear. He couldn't imagine a world without her in it, he didn't even want to try, and having to live in it… the mere idea was maddening. A source of maddening anger.
It had more than one source, more than one target. He was angry at the enemy, certainly, for what they'd done to his adopted home, for what they were doing to Julia, for all of the suffering and terror they'd inflicted.
He was also angry at himself. They were here because of him. Because of his mistakes. He'd helped start the war before the Alliance was ready for it, for one, when he let his fears dominate his decisions at 33LA. Two years on, and that mistake haunted him, all the more since those very mistakes brought about the nightmare he'd foreseen. The attack on New Liberty, Julia taken as a prisoner, Beth nearly dying…
That made him think of New Liberty. If he had come for Julia first… then she wouldn't be suffering. He made the choice to not go to her rescue, to walk into Fassbinder's trap instead. A trap he only escaped because of telepath allies that came to his rescue. Allies that would have rescued Beth anyway while he was rescuing Julia.
I didn't know, he thought to himself, but the greater part of him rejected that defense. How could he have not known? With all of this power, his talents, how couldn't he see how it would go? How was it that he didn't know to save Julia instead?
After all, hadn't he lost enough already? His grandparents, his parents, his sister… why should he have to lose her too?
Robert felt power in this anger. A deep power, cold and hot at the same time. He instinctively drew back from it, as one might pull a hand back from an open flame. But even as he did, a part of him felt a visceral rush at the thought of it. That deep, dark part that lies in any living, thinking being's heart, the one that is drawn to power like a moth to flame, drawn to strength, to the means to impose one's will upon a universe that seemed to just not care…
A treacherous voice echoed in his being. And if it's what you need to save her? Fassbinder is more powerful now, and he has allies.
At the periphery of his senses, Robert heard his door chime. He ignored it for the moment, dwelling on the problems before him. The chime repeated. When he gave no answer, it went off again… and again…. and again…
"Fine! Come in!" he snapped irritably.
The door slid open. Meridina stepped in, wearing her uniform. The fourth gold strip on her collar was another reminder of Julia's absence. Her very being radiated concern. "I sense it in you," she said. "Your feelings of anger are calling up the darkness within."
"As you've said before, we all have it," he replied. "I'm not giving into it."
"Not right now. But the next time you face Fassbinder?" Meridina took a seat at his small table and apprised him with a worried look. "You are angry and frustrated by him. It is becoming hatred."
Robert's eyes opened and he looked at her, a hard light to his green eyes she'd never seen before. "We had him on Gamma Piratus," Robert said. "He should have died there. But we were sloppy. We let him get away. And then on New Brittany, when he escaped Lucy, and then in Germania… And every time he gets away from us, Meridina, he causes more suffering, and he grows more powerful."
"I am aware."
"We should have made sure," Robert said. "We should have made sure he was dead on Gamma Piratus. Or any of those other places."
"We did all we could," Meridina reminded him. "You know full well that part of being a swevyra'se is knowing that distinction. We do what we can. We do not try. But neither do we regret those things that we cannot do."
"But because we didn't get him, look at what he's done!" Robert's fists clenched. "Look at what he did to New Liberty! What he did to Beth! He was a moment away from killing her! If Colin and the others hadn't…" He lowered his head, replaying the scene in the Government House foyer again. "I felt her ready to die. Beth stopped herself from weeping. She wanted to die with dignity, to not give him the satisfaction of her crying or begging to live, even though she was desperate to live. What he did to her is going to stick with her forever, Meridina. Because we weren't good enough, I wasn't good enough. And now he's got Julia, and he's hurting her, because I didn't see it coming, because I didn't do what I needed to in order to protect them both!"
Something in his words struck the aching wound in Meridina's heart, echoing with her own. You weren't good enough to forsee the Brotherhood attack. You weren't good enough to save Ledosh from Goras. Irritation with that thinking filled her. "You are being arrogant," Meridina chided. "Presumptuous. You alone cannot do everything, Robert, and your insistence on this matter is egotistical and vain. You are allowing your expanded power to lead you astray. To 'go to your head', the others would say."
Robert's face, his being, betrayed his surprise at her harshness.
"There are things you cannot do. That we cannot do. If we do not accept this, then we create frustration for ourselves. Frustration and anger, and anger is on the path to darkness. Much as you displayed when you attacked the Aristo on Toutaine Station, an act of darkness that I once thought you incapable of."
Robert remembered that dark feeling when he was on Toutaine, listening to the Aristo who called himself Haron mocking him about Julia, about everything. He'd nearly broken the man himself, but stopped before he could go that far. But only just that far; he'd crossed a line, and he knew it.
That she was right only made him feel worse. It wasn't helped by what he also felt. In his feelings and sentiments, Meridina saw her own mirrored. She was feeling frustrated by what happened on Gersal. Frustrated… and guilty.
Something about that gnawed at him. Here she was, dispensing advice to him that she herself wasn't heeding. She insisted he accept what happened and move on, but she wasn't doing the same for herself. "Maybe you should take your own advice," Robert said, not quite nastily, but coldly.
Meridina's expression blanched.
"You blame yourself for Gersal," he continued. "I can feel it in you. You think you should have been faster. Stronger. More prescient. Then maybe Ledosh would be alive, more of your people would have survived. Maybe even you would have prevented the loss of the Great Temple."
The response was Meridina closing her eyes. His words hit home.
Robert swallowed. A bitter part of him wanted to point out the hypocrisy again. To hammer home that she had no right to demand he do something she would not. He only barely kept that bitter feeling down. "It's more than that, though, isn't it? There's a part of you that wonders if this might not have happened if you hadn't made the choices you did. That you and Ledosh, by promoting the Alliance, investigating our place in the Prophecy of the Dawn, by all of that, you made this attack possible. Maybe inevitable. That if you'd listened to Karesl and Goras from the getgo, none of this would have happened."
Meridina's eyes met his. She didn't need to say it.
"I think you're wrong about that. And I think you know that." Robert nodded at her. "And maybe you're right about me. But you're not the one feeling her pain, Meridina. He's torturing Julia and I feel it. And the reason Julia's a prisoner is my choice. I chose to go for Beth instead, and if I hadn't have… if I hadn't have, odds are Beth would've lived anyway, that Colin and Max and Governor Kuhln would have saved her, and I could have helped Julia get away. My choices are why Julia is a prisoner now. Why she's not home. Why she's suffering. You're asking me to ignore my part in that outcome, and I can't. Please don't ask me to. Not now."
Meridina said nothing more. With pain in her own heart, pain at how true Robert's words about her feelings, she stood up and left without a further word.
Robert watched her go before returning to his meditation. Whatever else, he had to be ready if Julia started hurting again.
Julia stirred slowly, fitfully, from her place on the floor of her bare cell, bare save for the bucket that was meant to be her toilet as another act of degradation. While the green fluid she was being repeatedly dumped into was healing her body, she still ached everywhere, especially in her head.
The sound of conversation prompted Julia to turn her head toward Miko's cell. Her fellow captive was seated on the floor in a legs-crossed meditative posture. Across from her was a human figure, a man seated similarly to Miko. An aura of blue light surrounded him, giving him a spectral look. The man's face had a soft expression; he looked to be early middle-aged, with a pointed beard of light gray color, to match the fringe of similar color at the temples that streaked through darker, close-cut hair. He was wearing a suit of dark green fringed with an earthy brown color. His eyes were heterochromatic: one amber, one green. Physically he looked to be in the peak of health even with middle-age, with broad shoulders, although his expression gave the sense of a "gentle giant" sort of person.
Julia had just enough time to take in the features of the figure before he seemed to dissipate into a fog, vanishing completely in the span of a couple seconds. Miko drew in a sigh and lowered her head.
The thought moved through Julia's mind to ask what she'd just seen, but before she could speak, the familiar thumping of boots to the floor heralded the arrival of the SS guards. Julia drew in a quick breath and steeled herself for the resumption of her ordeal.
With the hours to their arrival dwindling down, Meridina took what she imagined would be her last quiet meal period left to her. It was necessary to rebalance herself given her discussion with Robert and the emotions it drew up, her fears for him and her feelings over what happened on Gersal.
Hargert, with his customary diligence, seemed prepared for her with a meal suited to lifting her spirits. The liyume, a Gersallian dish comparable to what Humans called "dumplings", had a rich flavor to it that was authentically Gersallian (Hargert's previous experiments in mixing Earth-native spices or ingredients had been of mixed success, and in this case were undesired). Altogether it worked as a comfort food, and Meridina greatly enjoyed it.
But it did not, by itself, lift her spirits. As much as she tried to ignore it, Meridina was working with a broken heart. The horror of that day on Gersal, with the Cylon attack and the fall of the Temple aided by the treachery of the long-hidden Brotherhood, it kept coming back to her. Indeed, even the welcoming dish seemed to sour in her mouth as she contemplated everything that happened.
The sour look on her face was noted by the new arrival at her table. "Do ye mind, lass?" Meridina lifted her head to notice Commander Scott, a mug of coffee in one hand and a plate of food in the other. When she quietly gestured toward a chair he took it, setting his meal down. "Well now, ye dinnae seem t' be enjoyin' yer meal," he said to her. "Still thinkin' of home?"
"The meal is fine. I am simply distracted." She took another bite of it, as if to ward off any further inquiry.
"Nobody blames ye for thinkin' of home," he assured her.
Meridina nodded in reply. But she said nothing. Se could think of nothing to say, nothing that wouldn't admit of the feelings inside of her.
There was no hiding them from the veteran engineer beside her. "Ye're tryin' t' be strong for th' crew's sake. Aye, I get that," Scotty said gently. "But ye cannae ignore what's on yer mind forever, Meridina. Ye have t' face it."
Behind the gentle persistence in the old man's voice, Meridina sensed his warm spirit, and his desire to help her. Not just out of general concern for the younger officers and crew, but from his understanding of the pressures they were under, and of the terrible things she'd endured.
He was right, of course. Meridina couldn't avoid facing her feelings. Not forever, not even for much longer. She had to face her fears, her guilt, if she was to lead them effectively.
The irony made her want to laugh bitterly. She'd never imagined being in this position, having to command the Aurora herself. Being the Captain. Even when she accepted Julia's request and decided to become First Officer, she'd never imagined it coming about, as logical as it was. Now she felt regret for accepting the promotion and new post. This wasn't what she'd wanted with her life, after all. She was, or at least had been, a swevyra'se, a Knight of Life, sworn to the Code of Swenya. Her place was in the thick of danger, using her talents to aid, not sitting in a chair commanding the fates of two thousand people.
Although that didn't really matter in the long run, did it? Regardless of what she wanted, this was where she was, and whatever her choices, Gersal had burned. The Temple was gone, millions were dead, the Order was reeling. Nearly broken, maybe.
What would this do to her people? For the Gersal she knew? Change was inevitable, but would it be for good or ill?
With all of that weight in her heart, it was no surprise that tears formed in her eyes. They began the journey down her face to her chin in seconds, followed by more tears, an even greater flow of them.
"We have lost so much," she admitted to Mister Scott. "The Cylons destroyed the Temples with atomic weapons. They did everything they could to annihilate the legacy of Swenya from our world. Three thousand years of history that inspired my people to be what they have become, and the Cylons annihilated it in less than a day. They knocked down the Yahana Towers in Jantarihal. The fires they caused burned half of Iltahad's parks. And the death they brought. They… they killed millions in Trubin alone. Ten million of my people are dead. Ten million." She shook her head, fighting back a sniffle. "Light help us, we have never taken a shock like this. Not since… the Brotherhood. Which they are led by!"
"Aye, it's a great loss, an' a terrible shock," Scott agreed. "It's more than that, though, isn't?"
She nodded. "I am haunted by the thought that I brought this about. That if I had not pursued the path I did, Goras would not have fallen. The Order would not have lost its heart. It would not have fallen into the malaise that left it vulnerable. We would have seen this attack coming." She wiped at the tears on her face. "Ten million of my people, Mister Scott, and I may have contributed with my choices. How can I continue this with such a weight on my swevyra?"
The elder Scotsman listened patiently to her. When Meridina's question came his way, he replied softly. "Ye have t' remember that ye didn't make th' choices that caused all this. Goras is th' one who couldn't accept th' way things were goin'. He decided he'd rather murder ye. And nothin' ye did would've stopped th' Cylons' attack. They were comin' for ye at some point. That's clear t' us all, lass." He reached a hand over and laid it on her lower arm, a gesture of reassurance. "Meridina, my heart weeps for what ye've lost. I dinnae know anyone who wouldn't be wonderin' what ye're wonderin'. But ye cannae forget all th' good ye've done with th' crew. The lives ye've saved, an' everythin' good that's come of that. That Cylon lass ye brought aboard, for starters. Ye showed her mercy when it would've been easy t' kill her, an' she helped save th' people o' New Caprica. Ye taught Lucy how t' use these skills o' yers, an' Robert as well, an' look at what they've done."
Meridina's blue eyes met his, tears flowing freely from them. "They have done so much," she agreed.
"Aye. Ye've accomplished a lot since ye came t' th' Aurora, Meridina. It's no wonder Captain Andreys asked ye t' be the First Officer."
"We both know I was not her first choice," Meridina said. "Jarod and Nicholas turned her down."
"Dinnae change th' fact she asked ye," he pointed out. "An' I think she was right."
"But I… now I must be the Captain," Meridina said gently. "And I am not sure this is what I am meant to be. The role comes naturally to Julia in a way I do not share. The others are concerned with Julia's replacement and that I am not being offered the command, but when I consider myself, I must admit I do not wish it. I would only accept it for the sake of the others."
A twinkle formed in Scotty's eye. "Aye, I know what ye mean."
"You have commanded before, have you not?" she asked.
"Well, lass, back in th' day, I was third-in-command on th' Enterprise," he said. "When Captain Kirk an' Mister Spock had t' be elsewhere, I was left in command. An' I admit, I was never happy at th' chance, never at all. I only cared t' be an engineer."
That fit with the sentiments Meridina had long noticed in the older man. Scott's engineering spaces were his pride and joy. "But you commanded when necessary. Much as I am now."
"Aye." The twinkle in his eye remained. "Did I ever tell ye about th' time I took th' Kobayashi Maru test?"
Meridina thought of the name. It sounded like it came from the Human language of the Japanese nation, but she was not familiar with the significance. "I do not believe so. I am uncertain of what this test is?"
"It's a simulation that Starfleet used t' run command candidates through, a test o' character ye might say," he explained. "Well, I'd been put in Command School, an' th' test came up. As ye can imagine, I was nae t' happy t' be in there in th' first place…"
While Commander Scott's story did not directly pertain to her situation, Meridina found her spirits much lifted by the time her conversation with the engineer was over. Her heart still ached at everything happening, but she knew that for the moment she must cast aside uncertainty and be the captain the crew needed. Julia needed them all, and Meridina would do her best to make sure the ship and crew would come through.
After her meal she returned to the bridge. Locarno, Tra'dur, and Cat were all on duty, with Lieutenant Luneri standing in for Angel to allow her a meal period. At the science station Cat was busy examining readings. "This local space is just… really interesting. Some of these readings remind me of the Fracture, but I'm not seeing anything else that matches. Stars are, roughly, where they're supposed to be, there's no spatial warping effect, and no reports of illness from anyone with psionic or metaphysical perception."
"No sign of a DT field yet?" Jarod asked.
"No. But…" She checked something. "The target system is now on long-range sensors."
"And still no DT field."
"Then wherever this is, it is not a former base of the Darglan," Meridina noted. "Or at least, not one they made after acquiring the dimensional-transcendence field technology. Perhaps it is another repurposed base like the one we found in N2C5."
"Going by sensors, there are signs of power signatures in the system, consistent with starships." Cat examined her readings even more closely. "And I am detecting a warp trail near here, the subspace wake is consistent with the anti-matter pulse reactors the Reich uses."
"So we know the coordinates are good," Jarod noted. "The question is, what's waiting for us there?"
"An excellent question. Do you have a proposal to find out, Commander?" Meridina asked.
"Long range probes could scout the system for us," said Jarod. "Even if they're destroyed, the data we get before they're lost could be invaluable."
"Could the Koenig not go on ahead of us and quietly reconnoiter the system?" Tra'dur suggested. "They have a greater chance of going undetected."
Meridina waited for Jarod's reaction to the suggestion. It was a nod. "That would also work," he agreed. "If they stay under cloak and are careful about transmissions."
"Agreed," she said, before keying the tac comm. "Koenig, we have the enemy system on sensors. I would like the system scouted."
"Sounds good to me," said Zack. "We're accelerating now."
The Koenig's warp engines intensified the field around the ship. The ship accelerated until she moved beyond the Aurora and General Iroh.
The drilling agony of the Aurora Chair assailed Julia's mind yet again. She writhed against the restraints of the chair, feeling as if her mind was coming apart under its relentless, mechanical assault. Fassbinder hovered over her like a bird of prey, eager, and frustrated at the prey for not succumbing.
With her brain feeling it was on fire, Julia delved into memories that promised any sort of respite. The pain she was in caused a memory association to form. Her thoughts turned to after Robert's grandmother died. They were just eight years old. That cooling summer day so long ago came back to her; the rolling fields of wheat of the Dale farm, the solemn quiet of the family home… her parents came over to give their condolences for the Dale family's loss.
On the porch, eight year old Julie found eight year old Robby, sitting on the stairway with tears flowing down his face. "Oma's gone," he wept. "Oma's gone."'
Memories of Oma - Anna Dale, Robert's German-born grandmother - were of a warm elderly woman who cooked delicious food and delighted in teaching "meine kleiner" her native language. Those memories reverted back to the porch, where she'd responded by embracing her dear friend and playmate closely, crying with him, not so much for grief over Anna's death as it was sympathy for his grief.
As they embraced, the pain in her brain decreased again. Indeed, it felt like it had never been there. She was just here, a child again, with her poor suffering friend. Her poor Robby, hurt so much from losing his beloved grandmother. She clung all the tighter to him, as if she could banish the deep pain she felt within him.
The image of this on the Chair's viewer brought a derisive, frustrated snort froom Fassbinder. He eyed the technician, who shrugged. "I'm sorry, Herr Brigadeführer. The technology is at maximum."
Fassbinder snarled at that. He looked to Julia for a moment before pulling the headpiece away from her forehead, shutting down the machine automatically. In a rapid motion his arm came up. His fist smashed into her cheek with enough force that it broke one of her teeth. "You will yield!" His face drew close, his eyes glaring hatred at her.
The blow jolted Julia back to reality. She looked into Fassbinder's eyes and contempt appeared on her features. She rolled her tongue inside of her mouth until she felt the broken pieces of her damaged tooth. She collected them, and the attendant blood, and in a moment of impulsive defiance spat them into Fassbinder's eye.
Fassbinder recoiled backward. Only momentary instinct kept the chips of enamel from impacting on his eye directly, his eyelid absorbing the projectiles instead. Red blood covered the right side of his face. His expression twisted into a look of deep rage. His hand went for the controls on his gauntlet.
The nanobots on Julia's skin activated, flooding her nerves with pain stimuli. She cried out from the sheer agony of the experience.
"I have a confession," he said, even as she writhed in the chair, barely hearing him through the intensity of her pain. "Your interrogation is, to me, meaningless. The Führer ordered it and I will obey, of course, but I am not foolish enough to think we can gain immediate benefit. Your command codes have been shut off, your access to Alliance databases rescinded. The Aurora Chair may yet pull some useful intelligence from your mind, but with each passing day the worth of that knowledge decreases. Whatever your exalted status in the history of the Alliance, you are still ultimately just a starship captain. Your leaders do not share everything with you."
Julia said nothing beyond letting out another strangled cry. A tightness in her chest kept the cry from reaching the volume of the last, the pain so intense the muscles in her body were contracting instinctively, trying to escape what could not be escaped. Beyond the pain, she felt a growing sense of despair, a sense that her life was going to end like this. That after everything she'd done, everything she'd accomplished, her fate was to be tortured to death by Fassbinder.
"Ah." The SS man chuckled. "Well, I see you have an idea of it. You realize what your fate is to be, do you Kapitan?" He leaned in closer, her blood still around his eye. "I savor your suffering like a fine wine, yes. After your crimes against my people, how could I not? So allow me to confirm your fears, Julia Andreys. My sole intent is to torture you. To make you feel pain, over and over and over, without end, without mercy. I want you to suffer. I want you and all of your friends to suffer for what you have done." His voice became a bitter snarl, laced with deep rage, and his unnatural yellow eyes glistened with malevolence. "Because of you and Robert Dale and the others, your Alliance destroyed my Reich. You burned our cities! You tore down our glories! You uplifted untermenschen and aliens at the expense of the Aryan race! You humiliated us! And I will have my revenge for that. I will make you suffer as no other human being has ever suffered, Kapitan. Your anguish will be my greatest pleasure. And when the time comes and you are utterly broken - and you will be - and you are a madwoman who can only beg and mewl for mercy… I will continue to torture you anyway. Until your suffering no longer entertains me. Then I will give you to my men to do with as they please, and when it is all over, your broken corpse will be left for your precious Alliance to discover, so that they might all know how deeply they have failed you." He turned to the guards. "Take her to the kohltou tank. And I want the current on. Make her suffer."
"Jawohl, mein Brigadeführer."
Almost as an afterthought Fassbinder turned off the nanobots, merely for the purpose of making her guards' job of transporting her easier. As Julia was dragged off, a Scharführer entered and saluted. "Heil Kranefuss!"
Fassbinder returned the salute. "What is it, Scharführer?"
"Brigadeführer, long range sensors are detecting two of the three vessels that the Dogger Bank reported from its battle. Sturmbannführer Diekmann believes the third vessel, an attacker, is cloaked."
"The Koenig, undoubtedly," Fassbinder said. A thoughtful smile crossed his face. "Scharführer, inform Oberführer Krebsbach to commence the Phase 1 evacuation procedures, and make sure he knows that there is no urgency. He can take his time."
"Jawohl!"
Fassbinder watched the soldier leave and allowed himself a small smile. Everything was proceeding exactly as he desired. Revenge and destiny were at hand.
