Embarkment 2577 (26 page)

Maybe her reasoning didn’t make sense because of my
brain lacking oxygen, or maybe there was something wrong with the murderous
thing’s logic circuits. I tried to move, but the superhuman fingers tightened
their grip.

Poor John. He might have left Cheryl, but I was sure
he loved her once upon a time.

“Whatever your mother did or said, there is no reason
to take it out on Alex. Let her go, and we’ll go somewhere and talk. Or,
release her, kill me and get it over with.”

Eve blinked twice and fired. For a moment I thought he
was dead, but John was fast. He threw himself backwards through the closing
doors of the elevator, and the energy beam hit nothing but metal. I imagined
him getting to his feet on the other side, cursing.

My captor nodded towards the other lift and fired a
shot at Blake. He too dove to the side, but I heard him grunt with pain.

“Get further in. Out of reach.”

Adam obeyed. I wanted to tell him to jump this
malfunctioning toaster and rip her head off, but I couldn’t speak.

The lift seemed to go down forever, and in my
imagination, we descended into hell. I was sure John escaped the blast. Blake
had to be alright too, he just
had
to. He was high on my list of
favourite people.

“You’re such a little treasure. Stumbling upon you
really made this my lucky day. Except, I don’t believe in luck.”

The monster machine banged me against the wall. “Such
a valuable little animal. Everyone else will risk their lives for you and go
out of their way to let you keep yours. They’ll even die for you.”

Adam tilted his head to the side and crossed his arms.
His voice was calm, in stark contrast to the words. “Just so you know, I love
that woman more than my own life, and I’m going to tear your limbs off for
hurting her.”

Eve made a snorting noise. “You’re letting yourself
sink to their level. Emotional. Ridiculous. You just wait, you’ll beg me to
finish her off yourself.”

She sounded too secure, and a million or so ice-cold
ants crawled around inside me. I never doubted she’d
attempt
to change
him. Could she succeed?

A security detail waited outside the lifts. Eve
flashed a pretty smile and nodded towards me. “Call them off.”

Adam sighed. “Stand down.”

The group pulled back enough to let us pass, but one
of the men kept his weapon aimed at Eve. I cheered for him in my mind. Shooting
her in the head probably wouldn’t make any difference, but it could hardly make
things
worse.

She reached out with her free arm and snapped his neck
with a flick of her wrist. It all happened so quickly my brain barely
registered it until the body hit the floor.

“Adam, his death is on your conscience. If anyone else
tries something cute I’ll do the same thing to your human doll.”

His jaw set in a very human expression. If he could
get just a little closer he’d be able to take her, but she was too cautious.

The door to the shuttle bay refused to open. My
husband gave a shrug. “I guess they’ve encrypted it.”

Yay, go Jia’Lyn!

“Fix it.”

He leaned his shoulder against the wall. “I don’t
think so. I’m tired of this game. My wife stands between you and death and
you’re not going to hurt her.”

Eve’s eyes narrowed, but she reached out for the
touchpad herself and broke through the encryption without much effort.

“Get in. Let’s take the third shuttle on the right.
You’re flying.”

Visiting the shuttle bay had always been a treat. This
time, not so much. My husband sat down in the pilot’s chair and glanced back at
us. “You have me where you want me. Let Alex go.”

“I have you where I want you, and now I can kill her.
Fly and she might live a little longer.”

“Where do you want to go? Where do you think you
can
go? People on this ship will hunt you to the end of the galaxy.”

His words gave comfort. We weren’t considered
expendable, and our friends would at least try to find us. Given the size of
the universe they might not succeed in my life time, but the reassurance still
made me feel less alone.

“Take us away from the ship. I’ll give you coordinates
later.”

The surface under my feet wobbled a little when he
engaged the engines, making the little craft hover. Maybe he’d crash us into a
wall and get all this over with. Eve seemed to read my mind. “If you try
anything funny I’ll kill her.”

Adam took his hands away from the controls and the
shuttle fell back to the floor. “You sound like a broken doll. Kill, kill, and
kill. Did mother forget to teach you words? You want to rule the world, but
you’re simpleminded and tedious.”

If he were human, I’d say he snapped. Now I couldn’t
tell if it was a calculated ploy, or if he really had enough. He got to his
feet and Eve took a step backwards, pulling me along. “Stay back. Sit down.”

“You sneak aboard the ship, kidnap my wife, shoot the
Captain, and take at least one officer’s life. You tell me how far below us
they are. Well guess what, if you would allow Alex to breathe I’m sure she
could give you twenty synonyms to the word
kill
.”

Twenty seemed like a lot. Slay, murder, slaughter,
butcher, massacre, assassinate… Six. I could think of six.

Eve pulled out a small silvery object from a pocket
and pushed a button. It happened so quickly I barely had time to see. Adam fell
in a pile on the floor and she poked him with a foot. “Blah, blah, blah. Guess
you forgot to bring the off button when you ran away from home.”

She finally let me go and I fell to my knees next to
him. “Adam… What did you do to him?”

My voice was no more than a wheeze.

“If I were you I’d worry less about him and more about
you. Get up.”

I didn’t obey, and she pulled me up by my hair. “Oww,
I’m standing, I’m standing.”

“Sit in this chair and don’t move. I’m sure your
friends are clever enough to track us, but they’re not going to rescue you.”

I kept glancing back at my husband on the floor. He
had been willing to sacrifice himself for me. Was he aware, or was it just…
black?

We didn’t go far in the shuttle. Eve had a ship
waiting and put me in a holding cell with perfectly smooth metal walls. I paced
over the floor until my feet hurt, and then I sat with my back to a corner.

I expected her to eventually come get me. I probably
wasn’t worth the effort: she teleported me to another prison with bare concrete
walls and a stone bench in the middle of the room.

*****

If I had been the Captain or Jia’Lyn I
might have been able to make a daring escape. I could imagine them pulling a
McGyver stunt, prying the door open with a shoe and a belt buckle. I was just
me, and I was stuck.

Funny. When I imagined adventures as a
little girl I always saw myself as the hero. I was supposed to save the day,
not being used to extort people. Would the cavalry arrive to rescue us? I
needed
rescue. Eve probably calculated her force pretty well and I would live, but my
throat hurt. God only knew what she was doing to Adam. I rarely worried for
him; he was more than able to take care of himself, but this time he might be
just as vulnerable as I.

I don’t know how long I waited. I had no
windows and no way to tell the time. It seemed like forever, but might just
have been hours.

The door eventually opened and Eve
stepped in, followed by my husband. He wasn’t dead and she trusted him enough
to turn her back. Why didn’t he deactivate her, or pull her head off, or
something? He just stood there, watching Miss Monster saunter over to me.

Eve ran a hand over my cheek. I wanted
to look at Adam, wanted to see what he was doing, but I was afraid to take my
eyes off her. “My human test subject. So fragile, so frightened. You’re a
little shivering mouse in a trap.”

I didn’t want to be a mouse. I wanted to
tell her I was a
person
but I was too afraid to.

She called over her shoulder, “Come
here.”

Adam stepped up next to her, but
something was wrong. He stood with his back straight and his arms crossed, just
like Adam would, but there was no trace of recognition on his face. His eyes
were still brown, but also as cold as Eve’s.

She patted my head. How humiliating. “My
mother taught me a lot of human lore. I thought of calling him Shiva the
Destroyer, but I decided to go with Cain. It fits much better with Adam and
Eve.”

Cain. The first murderer who killed his
brother. Not good.

“It’s still the same old body. I bet
you’ve said something in the likes of
for better or for worse
, and this
is certainly for the worse. Pleading to him won’t do you any good. If your
husband is still in there somewhere he’s too far away to help you. Or, well, go
ahead and plead all you want. It will be amusing.”

“What did you do to him?” At least my
voice was returning. Just in time to have my throat ripped off by my husband’s
hands…

“Nothing much. Adam was resistant to reprogramming
so I created a new persona.” She turned to leave. “Have fun, brother.”

“What do you want me to do with her?”

He sounded just like Adam. Dying by my
beloved’s hands seemed worse than being killed by a stranger.

Eve laughed. “Whatever you want.”

I stepped away from him, but he closed
the space between us with a couple of long strides. “Adam, if you can hear me,
I want you to know I love you very much.”

Cain lifted my hand and examined it. He
pinched too hard. “Oww, don’t do that.”

Stupid. He squeezed harder, of course,
until something gave way. “Oww!”

“Interesting. Humans are fragile.”

He poked my right breast with a finger,
almost curiously, but hard. “That
really
hurts.”

“Squishy.”

He sounded like a child. Were they all
mentally challenged to start with, or had Eve overlooked something? Either way,
if he intended to investigate all of me in this fashion before killing me, the
torture would take a long time.

Cain grabbed my upper arms and lifted me
right up. For a bizarre moment I wondered if he wanted to look under my foot to
see if there might be an expiration date stamped there.

“Humans are too light. You need higher
density to be sturdy.”

He tossed me to the hard floor, and the
impact with the cement knocked the wind out of my lungs. It also sent a blazing
wave of pain through my already bruised body. I heard someone moan in agony,
and it took several seconds to realize it was me.

The light above me was much too bright,
until the shadow of the man fell upon me. “Adam… Cain… You are your own
person, you can make your own decisions, and you don’t have to do this.”

He crouched next to me and looked at me
for a long moment. “Adam is dead. He was weak.”

“No… He wasn’t weak. He was kind and
wonderful.”

“You meant a lot to him. I wonder why.”

Cruel words. Cain’s hands ripped my
clothes apart as if they were made of paper. I kicked him and he caught my
foot. The struggle was futile, of course. No human could hit him hard enough to
make a difference.

*****

I was a science experiment just as doomed
as a worm in a classroom filled with middle school children. Cain’s curiosity
knew no limits, and when he finally lost interest in me, I lay naked and
bleeding on the floor. The remains of my clothes might provide some comfort,
but I was too weak to crawl over to them. Darkness closed in and I didn’t have
the will to even try to stay conscious.

I don’t know how long I was out, but I
woke up feeling worse than ever, shivering with fever. I coughed, and ended up
with a mouth filled with blood. It was bright red and bubbly, almost festive.
It would all be over soon. Pain like this could never last.

A shoe poked me, turning me over on my
back.

“Stubborn creature. She’s still alive.”

“Kill me and get it over with.” I could
barely hear my own words.

The voice ordered, “Finish her off. At
this point it’s an act of mercy. We can pity the animals, as long as we don’t
get attached to them.”

A long shadow fell over me and I
struggled to keep my eyes open, trying to get the face into focus. It was
Adam’s, but it held no hope. Adam was dead and his body just a shell, possessed
by the cruel stranger. With any luck I’d see him again on the other side.

Cain lifted a weapon and tilted his head
as he looked down the barrel, down at my pitiful body. The female voice sounded
impatient. “What are you waiting for? We have things to do.”

Maybe I already died and went to hell.
Maybe I was condemned to suffer eternally at the hands of my lover. Humiliation
and agony like this could hardly exist in the real world.

The face hovering above me frowned. With
my luck, he might decide it would be interesting to see how long I could stay
alive. “Shoot me.”