Project Starfighter (17 page)

“I will require authorisation from
the CEO for that action,” the drone began.

“When was the last time she was
given a sedative?”

“Around three hours ago,” the
drone responded.

“Good, she should still be under.”
He repeated the order to drain the tube.

“I will require authorisation
from—” the drone once again started to inform him.

“Override. Authentication name,
Kline Kethlan; authentication password India Alfa Mike Hotel Uniform
Mike Alfa November.”

The drone moved over to him, lights
on its front flashing. A beam passed over Kethlan’s body.
“Granted,” the drone answered, moving back to Lexx’s liquid
chamber. “Please be advised that the subject may suffer significant
disorientation once the drain is complete. She may not be able to
walk or talk properly for an hour, and may vomit or even pass out.”

Kethlan nodded. “Once you have
completed the drain and Lexx is released, you are to wait outside,
and not return until I summon you. Understand?”

“Sorry, Commander, but as part of
my—”

Kethlan once again issued the
override command.

“Yes, Commander,” the drone
answered, and commenced the draining procedure. The feeds and cables
that had been attached to Lexx’s head and various parts of her body
were released, retracting into the top of the container. The fluid
itself slowly began to drain from the tube, emptying away out of the
bottom, Lexx starting to sink down within it as her liquid support
went away. Finally, the mask attached to her mouth and nose withdrew
and the woman began coughing.

“Open the container and leave,”
Kethlan told the drone.

Alone, Kethlan moved to the woman’s
side and covered her with the towel he had brought with him. It was a
while before Lexx was able to sit up straight, twice vomiting. He sat
her down on the floor, crouched in front of her, and used the towel
to wipe much of the goop off her before finally wrapping her in a
towelling robe to keep her warm. He was patient, waiting for the
coughing to stop, and for her to become more aware of her
surroundings. Eventually, she raised her eyes to him. They flashed
the instant she took him in.

“You!” Lexx said, baring her
teeth. “Kline Kethlan. You
bastard
!” She made to lash out,
but only tipped over. Kethlan caught her as she did so, to prevent
her from striking her head on the floor.

“Easy, Ms Lexx,” he said, “you
will still be nauseous and have trouble focusing for the next hour or
so. Which is good for me,” he added, with a smirk.

“What have you got planned for me
this time?” Lexx said, breathing hard and still coughing, though
with defiance in her voice. “Am I going to be taking part in some
intra-system space race? Maybe go off exploring some uncharted world
to find a bunch of mystical stone tablets? Or am I being sold as a
sex slave to an old man, all for the sake of finding out where my
sister is? Come on, let’s have it, let’s get it over with, so I
can get a gun or whatever and put myself out of this misery.”

“You might not want to do that
here,” Kethlan said. “This isn’t a simulation; this is the real
world.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“Want me to prove it to you? Look
behind yourself. That is the chamber we have been keeping you in
since you got here. You were suspended in liquid, a breathing mask
over your face, nutrients feeding into your body, information being
fed into your mind. That is why your body has shrunk – you have
suffered muscle wastage since being here. The state of your legs and
arms will be the most noticeable to you.”

Lexx looked at her body, seeing it
just as Kethlan had described. She didn’t appear all that
convinced, however. “And how do I know that this isn’t also a
simulation?” she asked. “A simulation within a simulation. How
deep does the rabbit hole go?”

“You may have been aware of
another presence in your mind while you were under,” Kethlan said.
“Someone always there next to you, listening to your thoughts. The
feeling that you were never quite alone, that feeling of closeness.
Is that gone, now?”

“Yes,” Lexx said, after a time.
“Yes, it has.” She reached out and touched him, running her hands
over the skin on his hands and then the fabric of his uniform.
Kethlan allowed her to do so, sensing that she was wanting to test
this reality for herself. He could wait. Not for much longer, though.

“Where are the other two?” Lexx
asked. “Lance Skillman and Erik Overlook? I want to see them.”

“You can’t,” Kethlan said.

“Because?”

“Because they’re not here right
now. And nor will they ever be.”

Lexx nodded, looking about herself
for a time, to the room and all the equipment within. “So, what is
this all about?” she said. “Why did you kidnap me? What’s with
the desire to get hold of my sister? What do you want from me? I’m
nothing but a xenobiologist.” She then paused, as if the penny had
suddenly dropped. “Have you established first contact? Are you
training me for a mission?”

Kethlan found himself laughing at
the absurdity of the suggestion. “No, nothing like that. You’re
special, Lexx. You possess a quality that makes you unique, and it’s
something that the Corporation is very interested in.”

“And that gives you the right to
kidnap me? To send bounty hunters out to pull me away from my
research, kill my co-workers, blindfold me, and threaten me with rape
and torture if I don’t comply?”

“They killed your co-workers?”
Kethlan asked.

“Yes.”

“A little extreme.”

“And you’re not even sorry,”
Lexx said, scowling at him.

No, he wasn’t. He didn’t
actually care. At a point in the past, when he had been weaker, he
might have been. Not now.

“Tell me about yourself,”
Kethlan said.

“Ha, no,” Lexx said. She was
still shivering a little.

“I only want to know a few
things.”

“Why don’t you go first, since
you’re so keen on sharing.”

Kethlan straightened, considered it
for a time. “Very well,” he said. “My name, as you know, is
Kline Kethlan. I am the commander of the Wade-Ellen Asset Protection
Corporation, otherwise known as WEAPCO.”

“How long have you been with the
Corporation?” Lexx asked. She didn’t look directly at him as she
spoke, her gaze lowered. Even so, her brow remained knitted.

“Around nine years,” Kethlan
said.

“And you were born on Earth?”

“No, I wasn’t actually born in
Sol at all. I was born in Spirit.”

That provoked a small reaction from
Lexx, one of clear surprise. It receded quickly, and the woman
remained silent, waiting for him to go on.

“I joined the Corporation’s
naval services, and worked as a subject in their AI training
program.”

“So they had you hooked up to one
of these contraptions for a while then, eh?” Lexx asked.

“For a short time, yes.”

“Why? Why did you join?”

“For my own reasons,” Kethlan
said.

“Any brothers or sisters? Any
family at all? Mother, father, sons, daughters? Dog?”

Kethlan almost smiled. “No. No
family.”

Lexx nodded, remained silent.

“What is your relationship with
your sister like?” Kethlan finally asked.

“Why is it so important that you
need to know?” Ursula snapped, looking up at him. Her eyes were as
bright and fierce as ever, a deep scowl on her face. If looks could
kill, this one certainly would have.

“Do you get on with one another?”

Lexx said nothing.

“The bonds between siblings are
usually a lot stronger between identical twins than they are with
others, don’t you think? Something to do with them being the same
age, perhaps? Or maybe it goes all the way back to the womb, when the
original egg split and—”

“Where is my sister?” Lexx
interrupted. “What have you done with her? Are you going to stuff
her into one of those tubes, too? Because if you touch one hair on
her head, I will kill you with my bare hands.”

“We haven’t done anything with
her,” Kethlan said. “We’re currently looking for her. Once we
find her, she will be brought here, and I will let you know
everything.”

Lexx stared hard at him for a time.
Kethlan wondered what the woman was thinking. Had she figured it out?
He doubted it. But then, she was clearly far more powerful than
William Benedict had ever been. That was worrying. He would return
her to the chamber shortly. Stun her, too, if need be.

“And after that?” Lexx said,
“After you have had your little talk with us, or we’ve helped you
with your research or whatever it is, we can go? Because in all
honesty, I can’t think what I have done to warrant your interest,
other than my ability to fiddle a video game.”

Kethlan made to answer but heard the
door behind him slide open. The drone he had banished from the room
was there. “I told you stay out!” he barked at the machine.
“Leave, now! That’s an order!”

“Commander, I have received an
urgent communication from the CEO,” the drone said. “He wishes to
inform you that the first phase of Mission 3412 is about to
commence.”

Kethlan swore. Already? That
operation was not scheduled to take place for another few weeks. Why
had it been brought forward? Had a security leak occurred, or had the
mercenaries gotten wind of the operation?

“You should also be made aware
that the mercenary groups stationed in the Alpaca Group have attacked
the Corporation’s base of operations on Ceradse, and have taken
down the Spire in Tira. Erik Overlook is recommending that we
immediately dispatch a Star Killer-class frigate to the Spirit
system, to counter the mercenaries’ anticipated use of ...”

Kethlan waited for the drone to
complete its sentence, but it said no more. It was ... stuck. His
heart leapt into his throat at that moment, and he turned back to
Lexx. The woman’s face was a mixture of amusement and
concentration.

“Interesting,” she said.

Realising that the sedative had worn
off, Kethlan focused to break the link. Nothing happened, the barrier
was far too powerful already. Hell! He made immediately to strike the
woman.

“Don’t. I will kill you.”

It wasn’t Lexx that had spoken,
but the drone, and Kethlan didn’t have to look around to know that
the thing would have already deployed the minimal weaponry that it
was equipped with, and was training it on him.

The WEAPCO commander raised his
hands slowly. “We don’t need to do this,” he said to Lexx. “I
never meant you any harm. I wouldn’t have brought you clothes if I
meant to hurt you.”

“Don’t talk,” Lexx said,
drawing the tie of the towelling robe around her and standing. “I’m
in control here. Now listen closely, as this is how things are going
to work: you’re going to lead me out of here. You’re going to
take me to a ship, and then I’m going to return to Eyananth and
find my sister. You’re not going to come after me, and neither is
anyone else from the Corporation. Am I making myself clear,
Commander?”

The young woman had certainly grown
more assertive and sure of herself since she had been brought in.
Kethlan recalled her being a great deal meeker than this. The months
in the simulations, undergoing various scenarios as they tried to
break those mental barriers that she had erected to safeguard her
sister’s whereabouts had had the side effect of turning her into
something of a warrior, it seemed.

Kethlan became aware of the drone
approaching his side, its electrocution stick deployed and sparking.
It was quite prepared to use it, should the need arise. “Very
well,” the commander said, standing. “But I hope you know that
you won’t be getting out of here as easily as you think.”

“Just walk,” Lexx said,
gesturing to him. “Lower your hands and act normal. Otherwise, I’ll
tell the drone to kill you.”

Kethlan didn’t argue and headed
for the door, opening it and starting down the length of corridor,
the drone floating along behind him. He looked at a security camera
as he approached, mouthing ‘help’ to it. That would trigger a
silent alarm, alerting the bots and drones that worked the facility
that an escape was in progress and that he was in danger. At the end
of the stretch of corridor was a locked door. Lexx ordered Kethlan to
open it.

“I can’t,” he said. “This
one can only be opened by an authorised facility worker.”

“Fine,” Lexx said.

The door slid open. Kethlan looked
at the drone behind him, seeing the lights on the front winking
briefly before shutting back off.

“Impressive, Lexx,” he said.

“Take me to a docking port. If you
take me the wrong way, I’ll kill you. I mean it.”

“How will you know?” Kethlan
asked.

“Woman’s intuition.”

He stepped through the open doorway
into a small control room of sorts, populated by three drones. He
prepared to move, to get himself quickly out of the line of fire when
the drones realised their companion was under the command of Lexx.

They did nothing.

“What are you standing there for?”
Lexx asked Kethlan. “Keep going.”

He hadn’t expected that. Lexx was
in command of all three of the drones already. Had she seized control
of them on entering the room, or had she done so beforehand? There
were more checkpoints to pass through before they reached the
starship docking bay, but it didn’t appear as though any of them
were going to test the woman at all.

“What will you do with me once you
get to a ship?” Kethlan asked Lexx as the two continued walking.

“I haven’t decided yet,” Lexx
said. “Maybe I’ll have the drones put you in one of the tubes for
a few years. Come,” she commanded the three drones that floated in
the control room. She issued the order aloud, clearly for Kethlan’s
benefit. There was no need for her to vocalise her commands to the
drones.