The soldiers returned to my cell, and if I felt restless before, I was beyond anxious and frustrated now
I was annoyed Zyno and Willa were let go so easily, but I really shouldn’t have been surprised—maybe should even be a little happy they ca away from it all unscathed. But they weren’t connected to the Predazoan asset like , bound and enslaved by the Empire, so they probably followed along with their protocols and their training, and since what the Lord Generals were really after was getting away from Eve so they could control her, once they got their story on what all I did while on Jessipie-90, they probably had no more use for them and decided to just get them back to work aboard The Radiance.
I hoped they hadn’t sold out during their debriefings, but at this point I had so few actual allies I could totally rely on, I felt like it was better to just remain guarded all the while—yeah, even against Zyno.
What was really outrageous was how they handled the Jessipie-90 crew—innocent civilians caught up in their war, their lives now destroyed. Seriously, the Empire created the Predazoans, and yet when they crossed paths with people the Lord Generals were more concerned with keeping their dirty secret rather than protecting the lives of their citizens.
I wondered if there would be any way to reclaim their mories, like if they were totally wiped in their brains, or maybe there was so cut synapse that could be reconnected, or maybe the mories were digitized and held in so computer system sowhere so they could be rewatched or even redownloaded into their brains.
Part of was curious for the Jessipie-90 crew, but the other part was also worried in case the Lord Generals ever tried to wipe my mory of Eve if I’d be able to get those mories back.
Of course, now it wasn’t just a mory wipe I needed to be concerned with, instead I needed to worry over getting imprisoned and fucking dissected for my genetic enhancents.
I was wired and tired at the sa ti—fried and wiped, but keyed up with so energy I wanted to turn into violence against the Lord Generals.
But there was nothing for to do trapped in that little prison room—nothing I could do at all, totally helpless and useless sa as ever.
Despite all my power, despite basically having superpowers now, I was still that sa useless guy on Earth, trained as a dic following along with protocols, powerless to work beyond my scope, forced to work within a system of rules and control—forced to work on criminals and murderers, all part of the job and nothing I could do about it.
And now it was the sa, but on an intergalactic scale, with hundreds and thousands of lives destroyed on a whim.
There was nothing I could do, so I just flopped back onto the bed and tried to fall asleep, sitting there for hours while my thoughts drifted around aimlessly, thinking about the few people I could actually consider true friends; if there were any still alive today who considered a friend, I was sure they were few and far between—mostly back on Earth now, old buddies I hadn’t seen since I beca withdrawn due to my ntal breakdown, unless the Earth governnt besmirched my na too before I disappeared, severing those bonds so I couldn’t even return ho.
No, I would always have a ho; at least my grandparents would always be in my corner.
And then there was Eve; no matter what kind of insane, otherworldly nonsense was going on to turn her into a void conduit statue, I knew she loved and would always be faithful and loyal—that we would always be a team working and fighting together.
My frustrations finally drained away as my thoughts remained focused on Eve, thinking about the good tis we shared; the ti on Earth when she was just a cute little thing, then on Entana when our relationship was first developing, then in the Holistia Nebula where we got to experience true paradise together.
We would have our paradise again eventually, even if it took a while—years, decades, even centuries. I said a long ti ago to Eve I would stand by her and suffer any kind of torture and slavery, so long as we were together.
Well, here it was ti to put my money where my mouth was; my friends were taken from , I was imprisoned, and I was forced to risk my life for the sake of the Lord Generals’ mission.
As horrible as it seed, it was all worth it, so long as I had my Evie, and I was finally able to drift off to sleep, with my mories of Eve comforting .
***
Sa as always in that prison cell on a spaceship, I had no idea what ti it was when the guards woke to bring another tray of food, and weirdly enough sothing felt strange in my body when I got up.
“Hey, are we traveling through void space?” I asked the guards.
The young guard in the pair, rn, nodded along, “Yeah, went through a warp gate a few hours ago now.”
I quirked up an eyebrow, “Any idea where we’re heading?” I asked.
rn looked like he was about to answer, but the older guard grabbed him by the arm, “That’s enough rn, let’s get on with it.” He insisted, and the two left withholding their answer.
Despite everything I was dealing with, I didn’t really think it was a reason to be worried. Realistically, The Judicator wouldn’t want to stay out in deep space all the ti where they picked us up, so honestly I was surprised they hadn’t warped anywhere earlier. They probably just needed to settle up what they were going to do with the Jessipie-90 crew along with Zyno and Willa before they decided to move.
Then a weird thought hit ; that ant it was just and Eve alone on The Judicator without a single ally around—no friends, no living quarters, not even a ho away from ho sense like on The Radiance.
I did wonder where we were going, but I was more concerned with my present situation.
I finished my al and decided to watch so movies, sad I didn’t have any Earth dia available for comfort, but sotis it was fun watching weird alien entertainnt that half the ti made no sense to a human, while the other half was honestly surprisingly relatable.
I watched a couple movies, had another al delivered, then had another nap before I was woken up again several hours later to be summoned by the Lord Generals.
Sa as before, the angry red alien lieutenant and his convoy delivered before the Lord Generals in their grand auditorium with their dozen assistants on the bench beside them.
Kei-Torruk in the center of the bench activated a hologram to display before , showing my Imperial citizen profile, my military record, and the charges against .
“After careful deliberation, we’ve reached a verdict on the charges brought against you.” He announced, sounding like he was grandstanding for the sake of ceremony.
I just rolled my eyes, hoping they wouldn’t see it behind the barrier of my cell; charges they brought against , and now they made a verdict on whether those charges were legitimate.
I couldn’t help it, but I did feel nervous over everything. It all seed like a big joke and just so system of control and punishnt, all for the sake of getting after Eve—getting around so they could get to Eve.
Still, even if it was a dog-and-pony show, I was powerless to do anything in the event they really did want to imprison forever.
“We’ve decided to drop most of the charges against you, believing you acted to the best of your abilities and without a predisposition towards sabotage.” Fextrenn confird, and I actually sighed in relief, but she held up a hand to stop before I could say anything, “However, while we believe you can’t be fully at fault for the destruction of the Derrion System and the loss of precious Imperial cargo, we’ve confird with your history of insubordination, recklessness, failure to follow through with protocols, and overall lack of training, we believe you’ve taken these bad situations and make them worse every ti.”
I felt my blood run cold as that was probably the worst however I could’ve heard, and my breath caught in my throat to hear how they would punish for it.
“You are convicted on the charges of negligence, reckless endangernt, and grade-2 military insubordination.” Kei-Torruk declared, his red scope monocle zooming in on , “You will be required to repay 0.0001% of the lost revenue from the Derrion System contract, forced to undergo imdiate redial training, and sentenced to 30 years imprisonnt in a level-3 detention center followed by 10 years military probation.”
I had no words in response—no sarcastic quip at the ready, no inappropriate joke to lighten the mood; I was beyond stunned—all thought robbed from my mind as I heard a dull buzzing in my ears as though what I heard couldn’t be real.
Belmond looked down at his screen, “For the record, the amount you’ll be required to repay is 8.2 billion credits, garnished through wages over a period of up to 120 years.” He added mildly.
That was it, I was beyond livid then, and I punched the cell barrier as hard as I could.
“What the fu—”
My cell darkened imdiately, and the noise outside was all muffled, and I could just barely see the Lord Generals as though looking through a tinted window.
“Agent Adam, before you say sothing you’ll regret, let us explain a few things first.” Fextrenn said, and it was then I realized they put my cell in the dark/silent-mode like they had with Eve before.
Fextrenn gestured to the room around us, “Rember, this is a military tribunal, which ans everything we do is all in-house—that includes handling sentencing and punishnts.”
I stopped raging against my cell as I listened to her muffled words.
“We’re going to give you one last chance to prove you can still work as the Predazoan handler, and if you succeed while following along with every protocol without deviation, we’re willing to waive your imprisonnt as ti served through the mission.” Fextrenn confird.
The dark-mode to my cell lifted so it was back to normal and they could all see once again. I crossed my arms and glowered at the Lord Generals, wondering how they were going to hold this over my head as a new form of control—probably threaten with imprisonnt unless I could get Eve to follow along with their orders without .
Of course, then they would have no reason to keep around; it was a win-win for them either way.
“What’s the plan?” I asked flatly.
Belmond activated another hologram to display a planet, “We’ve tracked the location of a Predazoan to a world outside the boundaries of the Empire, Congoren. It’s rather primitive, pre-contact of course, the planet’s inhabitants, the gojens, don’t even have a centralized governnt, let alone any major technological advancents.” He explained.
I drumd my fingers against my bicep, “What about not interfering with pre-enlightened worlds? Isn’t this like a breach of interplanetary law or sothing?”
Fextrenn nodded once, “Normally, yes, however thanks to the arrival of the Predazoan, their civilization is already being changed and influenced in ways that alter their natural evolutionary course and need to be corrected.” She confird.
“The gojen operate on clan and tribal law centralized through culture rather than governntal control, however, due to the recent appearance of a god-like figure, their people are traveling from all across the planet on a pilgrimage to see this new living deity, and they’ve begun constructing their first centralized capital city—all around a large religious temple housing the deity.” Belmond added.
Despite everything, my eyebrows shot up when I realized what they were saying, “So, rather than acting with stealth, the Predazoan has made her presence known and beca a god to these people.” I cocked my head to the side as a thought occurred, “Wait, if she isn’t being stealthy or using camouflage, why are you just now bringing this to our attention? Wouldn’t you have been able to discover the Predazoan ages ago?”
Kei-Torruk shook his head slowly, “We’ve known about Gamma-11’s arrival on Congoren for almost two years now, but since it was a primitive planet beyond the outskirts of Imperial territory, it was considered low-priority—no real risk at being discovered. However, we’ve decided now would be the perfect ti for you and Alpha-03 to head planet-side to work on containing the enemy Predazoan, following along with established rules of engagent and mission protocols, proving you can actually handle your position and all its responsibilities.” He said.
Fextrenn nodded along, “Rember what we said about undergoing redial training? This would be the start of that, and if you’re successful in this mission, we can talk about your years of imprisonnt being relegated to ti served on the mission instead.” She added.
I couldn’t help but laugh at that, “You’re going to treat an actual mission as redial training? Lives on the line, but it’s all for so test?”
Kei-Torruk glowered at , “Either that, or we send you to prison for 30 years.”
Well, they certainly had bent over a barrel. On one hand, even if it was a primitive planet that wouldn’t give us much trouble from the locals, and Gamma-11 wasn’t camouflaged so we’d be able to find her easily, we were still hunting down a dangerous fucking Predazoan.
On the other hand, I wasn’t about to just roll over and go to so Imperial military prison without a fight.
I held my hands out in a presenting manner, “I assu this won’t be so normal mission since it’s going to count as my redial training.” I surmised.
Fextrenn nodded again, “Correct. While you’re still the Predazoan asset handler, you’re not to make any operational decisions until they’re confird by your commanding officer.” She gestured to the one person in the audience, and the angry red alien ca to stand beside my containnt unit, “Lieutenant Dryden will be in charge of the planetary team as well as your own handler—handler to the Predazoan handler.” She confird.
Huh, so he actually had a na all this ti.
Dryden bowed to the Lord Generals, “You honor with the responsibility.”
I rolled my eyes then; great, a total kiss ass was going to be my handler, I was sure that would be great and he wouldn’t be totally biased and trying to fail in the training every chance he got.
It was also beyond obvious what they were doing, giving the handler a handler. It just ant if the Lord Generals could order the Predazoan asset around through a chain of handlers, they would eventually try and remove the redundancy when they could—get rid of and simply have the top handler control Eve.
Of course I knew it would never actually work, but I could see what they were planning a mile away.
I let out a long, weary sigh, “Great, aweso, so let just recap this shit.” I held my hands up to help illustrate my point, “Despite having destroyed four enemy Predazoans, I’ve been charged with several cris, forced to undergo redial training in the form of this Congoren mission, and if we’re successful and I complete your training by following along with Dryden acting as my handler, then you’ll wave 30 years of imprisonnt from my sentence as ti served, that about right?”
Belmond nodded once, “Correct.”
I waved around vaguely, “And what about the 8.2 billion credits? You’re just going to take it out of my pay for the next 120 years? What about if I want to quit or retire from this mission, will I have to pay the debt off so other way?”
At that, Kei-Torruk actually laughed, sounding like a horrible, digitized rumble, “Before you subjected yourself to those genetic enhancents, it might’ve been possible for you to quit and return to Earth. But now you’re considered a military asset.” He glowered at darkly, and even though he had that giant face mask covering his mouth, I was sure he was grinning underneath, “You belong to the Empire now.”
I crossed my arms and returned his sinister glare, “So that’s it then, you’ll deny my freedom until death, that it?”
Fextrenn shook her head slowly, “You made that decision Adam; perhaps you shouldn’t have acted so rashly—like we keep telling you while you work on your missions.”
Like they really gave a shit about at all; they wanted dead and out of the way so they could control Eve on their own. Trouble was their threat-assessnt computers kept telling them I was the only way they could control Eve, so they had to try all these creative workarounds.
A bomb in my neck, threaten with imprisonnt, give my own handler, force to pay 8.2 billion credits in damages, I wondered how many more shackles they’d bind with until Eve finally got us free.
I let out a deep sigh as I leaned against the back barrier of the cell and slid down to sit on the floor, “Whatever. That about wrap this shit up then?”
“Not quite.” Kei-Torruk grumbled, then activated another hologram, showing a picture of Eve in her containnt cell.
In the hologram, Eve was still as a statue, and that leathery princess dress changed to look like a strange binding cocoon, covering every inch of her body in tight, black, biomass netting, only leaving her face exposed. From what I could see, she looked like she was sleeping, a serene look on her face, eyes closed, neutral expression on those pouty black lips of hers. I wasn’t sure if the hologram was a live feed or a picture, either way she was totally motionless.
“Alpha-03 has completely shut down, refusing to engage with us no matter what we do or say. She seems to be in so kind of strange stasis, and while our scans indicate her bodily functions are all normal, we’ve confird a drastic increase in the dark matter radiation coming from her body—the void energy.” Kei-Torruk explained.
So they had no idea what the hell was going on either—didn’t know she was so kind of void conduit now or whatever. Interesting their scanners could pick up she was filled with a lot more energy. I had to admit I was curious what all that ant—wondered what they thought of it too.
I just shrugged, “Honestly, she’s been like that since she returned from void space. I’m not sure if it was caused by so energy interaction, maybe it’s so ntal thing. Either way, you won’t be getting any answers from —I could use so myself.” I admitted, though what little I knew I was going to keep from them anyways.
The Lord Generals all exchanged a look, and I wondered if they believed at all.
“Agent Adam, I should think it’s obvious, but as the Predazoan handler, if you can’t get Alpha-03 to follow your and Dryden’s commands on Congoren, that would cause you to fail in your redial training.” Fextrenn said seriously.
I waved towards the hologram, “And what would you have do? I know Eve listens to better than anyone else, but even I have to admit she’s an enigma beyond my understanding. For all we know this is so Predazoan evolutionary process—a natural progression of her drive to perfection. I don’t think there’s anything I could say or do to interrupt it.”
Kei-Torruk shook his head, “Once again, you are the Predazoan handler; if you can’t handle the Predazoan asset—your one and only job, that would an you have no place in this mission.” He confird.
Shit, I really had no idea what Eve was doing now, but considering I was working on a limiting tiline for however long we had to complete the Congoren mission, I didn’t think now was a good ti to just wait around for Eve to do…whatever she was doing.
Instead of looking worried, I tried to wave it off and show myself confident, “Don’t worry, as her handler, I’ll have Eve up and ready to work in no ti at all.” I gestured to the cell, “Since I’ve been cleared of those charges or whatever, am I free to go? I’d like to go see her now.”
Belmond pressed a button to deactivate the shielding around my cell, and I stepped out quickly to stretch out before they changed their minds.
“Dryden will show you to your temporary quarters, and then he can establish a schedule for you to prepare for your upcoming mission with the rest of the team.” Belmond confird, then held up a hand, “However, we won’t be releasing Eve into your custody now. Instead, we’re going to keep her contained until your team drops planet-side, and only when Dryden confirms Alpha-03 is being cooperative and compliant will he release her from containnt.”
I stopped in my stretching and looked up at the Lord Generals, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding ! You expect all this shit from her, yet you don’t even have the decency to treat her like a—”
“Proceed with caution, Agent Adam, for that kind of attitude and those harsh words thrown at your commanding officers sounds a lot like insubordination, and we’d have no problem rescinding our kind offer to have you go through redial training rather than spend 30 years in military prison.” Kei-Torruk said darkly.
Once again I felt trapped—trapped and horribly alone. I didn’t have a single ally on this vessel, and I couldn’t even see my Eve. Even with as weird as she was being now, just being in her presence would be enough to calm my spirit after everything I’ve been through.
Hell, I still don’t think I recovered from my ti in the Derrion System and being stranded out in deep space, and yet they just kept on pushing .
“We’ll be traveling through void space for the next four days until we arrive at Congoren; take that ti to prepare for the mission and read up on the operational procedures and protocols so you can pass the training.” Fextrenn confird, then turned to Dryden and nodded once, “Dismissed, lieutenant.”
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