CHAPTER 16
CUCKOO EGG
The guards could not distract themselves by closing their eyes to watch streaming news, so they had made do using an old holographic television set that transmitted the news by projecting a flickering image in front of them. It was in that way that provincial jailers supervised prisoners: sitting and watching streaming, in the cooler under an umbrella, in the middle of labor camps.
That gimmick of theirs somehow allowed me to eavesdrop on some news from the outside world, having an AIQ implanted in my neck to block my symbiote AI and obviously my access to Starlink.
"And with that makes five nuclear power plants attacked by the army of terrorists whose identities are still being ascertained. Grand Master's spokeswoman Sandra Patterson said there is no reason to fear, that the attacks are limited to power plants and that civil defense agencies have everything under control. Despite the Grand Master's optimistic predictions, there are about two thousand casualties among our soldiers today when terrorists raided a nuclear power plant near Lisbon, taking massive amounts of Helium-3 and leaving half of Portugal in the dark for several hours. There is much fear and discontent among the population, and several demonstrations against the federal government are anticipated. The Defense Counselor attacks the Federal Senate, claiming that at Ain Soph Aur they were not in favor of the 2267 ten-year defense budget cut and such statements are expected to only increase the possibility of a dissolution of the chamber."
"Thank you, Ray. Let us now turn to politics. It seems that a delegation of some leaders of the Domains Beyond the Belt freedom movement landed in Kindu today for unspecified negotiations with the Grand Master himself at the Ain Soph Aur. We are connecting with our correspondent at the capital...".
"This shit bad. Really bad, can’t you believe this shit? The Domains will take profit of it, you'll see", commented one of the two cops.
"What are you complaining about? We work for Humanity anyway. The economic crisis doesn't affect us," retorted the other.
"My son will hopefully graduate from high school next year. If the colonies break away do you have any idea what a mess here on Terra? And I'm tired of feeding him, if he can’t find a job somewhere he won't even be able to find work in the Domains".
"Well, if at the end of his quiescence he should be left hanging around, with no colonies to send him to, at least he would stay at home, right?”.
“Home? Jerking off and smoking weed with my credits? Man, I don’t like that shit!”.
“Hey, go tell our new hoe that they've come for him...".
The guard turned off the small portable olovision and stood lazily observing the blue sky. A small black dot was approaching and gradually becoming more and more like a hovercraft.
"Mh, weird. That's not a transport, that's just a car".
"A car? I didn't see any other clearances for today", the other replied as he got up from his folding chair and went to pick up his rifle from the ground.
There are advantages to doing repetitive and boring work. The brain, not being stimulated at all, atrophies and so you lose over time the will and ability to think. That's how I felt in those days. I would hoe, pick, hoe and sometimes pick even more on the ground to crumble the larger stones. The heat, the sun, the thirst. I could think of almost nothing, and at night I often collapsed without dreaming of anything. The only one I was anxious about was Deena.
I missed her and struggled not to imagine what she was suffering inside DGS. I had lost count of how many days were left until the end of that tormenting as much as useless work but I knew I was now at the end of my rope.
So, when I saw an aircar land near the guards immediately I knew they were there for me. But certainly not for the reason I thought.
I played dumb and continued working, until one of the military men dismounted from the car came to me. "Are you Cadet Daith Cillian Lester of the Seattle Military Academy?", one of them asked. I observed his gray and black tactical clothing. He had no patches typical of FMP regiments so he could only be a Secret Service SpecOps.
"Cadet", I repeated distressed. "Yeah, of course. I guess I have to get used to the idea of being demoted by now. You're here to transfer me, aren't you? I'll go get my bag".
"Negative cadet. You just come with us. You have 24 hours of probation", he explained.
"Supervised by whom?", asked I confused.
"From us", the man replied coldly.
"I didn't make such demands... and you sir… you reek of Services to me".
"Follow me. It's an order".
“From fucking who?”.
“Someone who don’t like to wait for a convict brat like you”.
"Ok, funny guy. Yes, sir", I replied suspiciously and puzzled. "Can I at least wash my face?".
"Follow me now", and he motioned me to head toward the guards. I obeyed without fuss by throwing my hoe on the ground. Walking slowly under the sun, observed by the other envious workers, I approached the guards, who programmed the collar I wore around my neck and entrusted the remote control to one of the soldiers. Now they also had a leash. If I made false moves, the AIQ would paralyze my nerve centers, preventing me from moving.
They handcuffed me and put me on the aircar, which took off slowly soon after.
"Where are we going?", I asked annoyed by the silence. I got no answer.
"You have no right to ask questions", the man at my side replied dryly.
"Always so nice you Services people", I provoked him without getting any reaction. It was useless to push on. We flew over fields, towns and finally, after a very tedious hour of travel spent in silence and drowsiness, an endless exclusion zone of burned-out forests and abandoned towns arriving at a military base that I later learned was near Waco, in the middle of what was left of Texas.
I was then definitely surprised when I was boarded on a shuttle. The departure was abrupt, as always on that kind of craft, and after a two-hour flight, also interminable (with no windows and in constant darkness) we landed. I began to feel quite nervous, since I did not know what was going to happen to me.
The weather once outside was definitely different. It was cool and humid, and I suffered a bit from the cold since I was dressing rather lightly. People around me were wearing winter uniforms while I was in summer gear; I had even ripped the sleeves off the orange jumpsuit I was wearing so I wouldn't die of heat. I was dirty, dusty, smelling of sweat as well as dressed like a prisoner, bound with a pair of handcuffs and wearing a metal collar around my neck. Quite a sight, right babe?
Everyone who passed me stared at me in disgust, but I made an effort to maintain what little dignity I had left, keeping my gaze up and walking at a leisurely pace, always kept in view by the SpecOps. After walking a few meters into the airstrip, I noticed that the personnel at that base often spoke French. My mental confusion grew out of all proportion. Where on Terra was I and why? Without my SAI to translate, it was hard to find out.
We entered the facility. I had seen hundreds of similar ones, just another base while there must have been very few guys like me in there, because whenever a surveillance soldier noticed us, he would suspiciously ask for our IDs and offer to escort us to our final destination. Eventually as many as six armed soldiers ended up escorting us and I almost ended up getting a kick out of being treated as public enemy number one.
We finally arrived at our destination: just another door in just another hallway. One of the guards escorting us opened the doorway with a key card and slammed me in, closing the door behind me. I was left alone.
It was a small, rectangular, bare room, except for a long aluminum table with two chairs at opposite ends. I was exhausted and without asking anyone, I went to sit on one of them, choosing the one that faced the door. At that moment I noticed a mirror to my left. It was neither a bathroom nor a dressing room. They probably wanted to interrogate me, and immediately I was reminded of the horror of the room Charon used, feeling anxiety. I began to wonder what more they could want from me. Staring at the emptiness around me, about ten very long minutes passed in this way. Suddenly, a sound of approaching footsteps awakened me and I resumed staring at the door. I heard a lock click and snapped as well, standing up.
Through the door came an imposing, muscular man with marked, determined features, brown hair less short than the last time I had seen him and dull, pained eyes. An unkempt beard grew on his face.
"Forgive me for not greeting you properly, but my hands are tied at the moment", I said.
"Did you rediscover your comic streak in prison, cadet?", he asked in irritation.
"I think I did during the long journey that brought me here, Colonel Teyssier".
"Sit down Lester", he ordered. He had a distinctly different tone from the last time I had heard him speak. I obeyed. The colonel grabbed the chair at the other end of the table and placed it next to where I was sitting, then sat down in turn, next to me.
"Why are you here?", he asked.
"If you don't know, sir".
"In your opinion?".
"The room, the way they brought me... let's see... I'm here illegally and you're about to subject me to a brutal and irregular interrogation".
"Imaginative, but negative cadet. You are out of the way. We'll have to get to know each other better in the future"
"Maybe under better circumstances, I wanna hope".
"You, some time ago, confided in me that you are a friend of my daughter. Is this true?", he asked, staring into my eyes.
It was hard to sustain that look but I could not answer such a question by looking somewhere else. "Yes sir. I loved your daughter. I consider myself indebted to Christelle".
"Good. So tell me, if I invited you to her funeral, would you come?", he proposed this time in a kind voice.
"Her... funeral? It's been weeks since his death!", I pointed out.
"I know. Her body has been held for some... analysis. The work on Christelle's remains is done and now we can give her burial", he explained.
"It has to do with the studies they were doing at...", I looked around, remembering the secrecy surrounding that story. "Well, you got it".
"What do you know about that?", asked Teyssier scrutinizing me closely.
"Just that!", I rushed to point out. "Christelle didn't blurt me out. She told me they weren't about the events we were involved in anyway, so I didn't ask any more questions".
"Wise of you, cadet. So? What do you want to do?".
"I want to accept it! It would be a tremendous honor. I owe her my life after all... but... did you bring me all the way here to let me attend her funeral, sir?".
"Yes".
"Why? You must have moved heaven and earth to get probation. A sentence issued by the deans is not easy to change".
"It wasn't. I had to ask favors. My lasts, probably. Do you know why I did it?".
"Not really".
"Christelle is not my natural daughter. Maybe my skin was already an hint for you since I’m not a fairy elf like she was. I adopted her when she was given to me together with her mother. I had to take her away from home when she was only 10 years old. Do you know what that means? That she spent a good eight years dragged from one base to another, doing tests, analyses, always under supervision. Far from her peers, she was growing up among soldiers. Because of me, she never had many friends, and the ones she had died at Hobson's Rock. I don't want that… that at her funeral there are only a few strangers. She was an extraordinary girl, and I...".
"That's enough sir", I interrupted him, noticing his yielding to tears. "It will be an honor for me. I thank you".
"You are a good boy. What they did to you was unfair", he said, laying a hand on my shoulder in a fatherly way. I promise you that I will fight for your release as soon as possible".
"I thank you colonel, but don't put your career on the line for me, it's not worth it. The charges against me are indeed well-founded. As a soldier I have obligations and failing to fulfill them has its consequences. I did not expect imprisonment but... it could have been worse".
"Ah. My career... I no longer have a family. What do I care about career?", he replied. I could tell he was a broken man. "Now listen carefully. This will be your room. You will be watched by that mirror, always. In a little while you will be led to the showers, get cleaned up then come back here where you will dress in the clothes we will provide. Then you will come to the ceremony and then at the end of the function, you will be taken back to where you were imprisoned to serve the rest of your sentence. I think there were three days left. The time you’ll spend here will be added, so you’ll come out a day later than the scheduled date. I'm sorry but they were adamant about that".
"More day, less day, what difference does it make?", I answered lying. I watched him step resignedly out of the room. I hate feeling pity for people, especially when I like them. Colonel Teyssier was really a great man.
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*
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Everything was done as the colonel had foretold me. They escorted me to the showers, where I could finally regain my semblance of a human being, had me return still damp dressed only in a robe to the interrogation room, and had me dressed in about two minutes. It was not easy to meet this last time limit, because to dress for the function I had to wear an elegant gala uniform. It was not the one from my academy but that was fine. They did not allow me to wear the sword however. Too bad, it was very theatrical as an accessory. I was escorted to the colonel's aircraft, still handcuffed but without the annoying electroshock collar.
"It's definitely stylish dressed like that, cadet", Teyssier greeted me.
"They didn't leave me the sword sir".
"Too bad, it's a rather theatrical accessory, don't you find? Definitely impactful", he replied, showing me his hanging from his belt. He was also dressed in a gala uniform and had shaved his beard cleanly. He looked almost like another man.
"Yes, sir. Are we going to travel together?".
"Sure. We and your inseparable escort".
We climbed into the aircar and traveled about ninety kilometers until we reached a small mountain village. It was cold and the sky was gradually becoming cloudy.
"I've read your charges several times Lester", he said. "Lot of crazy stuff. A lot of infractions but I didn't read anything serious enough to warrant two of the Services keeping an eye on you".
"Don't get too hung up on investigating, colonel", I reassured him. "They are not here because of what I did".
"Why are they here then?", he asked puzzled.
"For what I could do," I replied. I still had the skills of a Lester, and the deans knew that a hothead like me might well think of breaking out to fight a suicidal personal battle against Charon.
"Are you a dangerous guy, Lester?", he asked, watching me carefully.
"Only when I get angry", I replied. "And I am very, very angry colonel". The two SpecOps looked at each other for a moment, alarmed, and Teyssier sought their gaze for a split second that did not go unnoticed. "Calm down," I reassured them. "I don't intend to do anything. I've learned my lesson. Almost".
The man took very seriously the anxiety with which the two operators had looked at each other and stared and brooded. "I understand there is a certain connection between you and that Charon".
"That's right", I admitted. "Unfortunately".
"Humanity is in danger. Not only are lives being snuffed out every day by him but our society itself creaks under the pressure he is subjecting us to. Humanity has not had to fight against outside forces for centuries now; our soldiers are trained in garrison and control rather than old-fashioned warfare. Lack of experience and the personnel cuts of recent years have made it easy for him. To him and now to those traitors from the Domains".
"Sir, what's the news from the front?", I asked. "By any chance, has there been any word on the other person Charon was looking for?".
"Was she also a friend of Christelle's?".
"I would say definitely. I think Deena saw her as a big sister. Considering that she is an orphan, I think she was a very, very important person to her. She would have liked her, commander".
"Hm", nodded the man. "I promise you that I will try to find out about it. My job involves cooperating shoulder to shoulder with the Services. Here we go. This is Couvin. The town where Christelle grew up", he announced, changing the subject.
"It's a pretty town", I remarked at first glance. Christelle had grown up in a very small town, from above a gray blur surrounded by green fields and lowland groves.
"For many it's a city", he replied, hinting at a smile.
Having parked the aircar, we entered Couvin graveyard. Despite the village's ancient origins, that sacred place had been built recently. It was not one of the typical European cemeteries, where stone took center stage. It was green that dominated the view, and the graves were rather basic, and often a simple headstone was the only sad witness to someone's burial place. We arrived at our destination: a hole, a headstone, chairs arranged in seven rows in front, a lectern in front of them. The thing that moved me most was the sight of the coffin. Small, white, simple. My heart pounded as my eyes reddened. I could hardly contain my emotion.
The colonel sat in the front row, mute. I was forced into the second row, surrounded by my escort. I could not take my eyes off the coffin.
The usual thoughts began to surface. “The fault is mine. The fault is mine alone”.
It was not my head that whispered. The colonel, head in his hands, repeated that phrase whispering to himself over and over again. "The fault is mine, only mine".
I did not dare disturb him or reassure him. I didn't have the strength. I resumed staring at the coffin. Minutes passed and people began to take their places among the various rows. Relatives and family friends dressed in mourning, who took turns going to comfort the poor colonel. A cold north wind arose. I felt out of place.
I took my eyes off the white coffin and for a few very long moments I feared I was dreaming. I saw Christelle, dressed in black, go to sit in the front row beside the colonel. I suddenly moved to get a better look and the escort jumped to her feet lightning fast. Everyone turned to look at me shocked, including that woman. She noticed me staring at her and returned the gaze.
"This is Garnet", the colonel clarified, "my… wife".
After a few moments I realized the situation and deigned to respond. The escort sat back down. "I am Cadet Lester ma'am. Allow me to offer my condolences. Forgive me if I was surprised. The resemblance to your daughter is striking".
The woman did not answer me but turned her back on me and sat down, ignoring me. I could not bring myself to be offended. After a few minutes, the colonel got up and went to the lectern and after a few seconds, began to speak. There was hardly anyone at that ceremony. The guests themselves looked like extras. The man had not written any speech; it was only his heart that we were about to hear.
"To the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe", he began. "I would like to thank everyone who has come today to share with me and my wife the pain we are feeling. We are here to pay our last respects to an extraordinary girl, the likes of which we see very few. Christelle was a sweet girl, selfless, good to everyone. Christelle was all we had and unfortunately, she left us. All I'm saying is that I would have liked things to be different… I would have liked to see her in a white dress, with children, with a nice job. But a madman… a criminal madman decided she had to die and took her away from us".
Christelle's mother stood up and with a blank stare approached her husband. They stared into each other's eyes, for a few moments. Then she struck him, with such hatred and violence that she managed to make him wobble. It was a powerful slap that ripped through the solemn peace of the holy field with its snap.
"That's enough now. I'm sick of this charade. You're just an fool", the woman said coldly. Then, followed by another woman as blond as she was, she left to disappear behind the cemetery's boundary wall. Frost descended among those present. However, Teyssier continued anyway, impassive.
"If you want to give a final farewell, then the coffin will be lowered into the grave, "he announced absently. He turned his back on his audience and walked away almost staggering. I asked one of the soldiers for some privacy at least during the last salute, and it was granted. One by one those present approached the coffin, some to lay a flower and others to whisper something. I was the last in the procession. I knelt down and laid, grieving, my head on the wood.
"I swear to you Christelle. I swear to you here, on your grave. Your killer will go to hell very soon. By my fucking hand. He will pay with his life for what he did to you and your family. I swear it", I whispered.
I stood up and staring for the last time at the white coffin let the tears flow freely. After a while I began to feel better. A soldier respectfully approached and called out to me. "Cadet, it's time to go".
"Yeah", I replied. "I will come back to see you Christelle. And I will tell you about the end of Charon. I will come back", I whispered before following the escort. The gravediggers behind me began turning pulleys and lowering the coffin into the grave.
I said my last goodbye to Christelle in my heart as I walked along the way back. The colonel had preceded me and now stood a hundred yards behind us, his wife beside him with her arms folded.
They were talking, he motionless and she blatantly furious. A black aircar appeared in the sky and landed right next to the couple.
From the aircar dismounted three individuals almost in perfect synchrony. "What the fuck am I seeing?", I thought aloud as I stopped to look at that curious scene. All three were dressed in a smart white suit and a tie that from a distance I thought was gold. All three of them were very blond and fit. One of them wore his golden hair particularly long loose behind his shoulders. It was he I think who spoke to Teyssier and gave him what definitely seemed to be an order.
The colonel lowered his head, drew his ceremonial sword from its scabbard and with a sharp blow broke it across his knee. Then he threw the two halves to the ground and sadly went into the car together with those people.
The aircar took off into the dreary sky and disappeared into the clouds. I never saw Colonel Teyssier again.
*
After a few days, with the transfer paperwork taken care of, I finally left that rural hell to go down a few circles further down.
We took off and after about two hours arrived at a small town with a small spaceport. I was not loaded onto a shuttle that time. There was no rush. I was boarded on an armored hovercraft along with other detainees in their cheerful orange outfits. We were tied with a chain in groups of five and then strapped back to the seats once on board. There were some scary faces among those people.
We took off after a short while and I spent what was certainly the worst trip of my life. About seven or maybe eight hours passed, tied up doing nothing among terrible people. I was scared, partly because I was certainly the youngest of the crew.
You know babe, I finally began to think that the deans had gone a tad overboard with the punishment.
When they opened the doors of the hovercraft and for the first time I breathed the air of that place, I got a shock. An icy grip made of air frozen to the point of being almost unbreathable squeezed me completely and violently. We were on a small rise, in the distance a small town could be seen and beyond it, the sea. Submerging everything was a vast expanse of pristine white snow. I did not admire the unusual view for long.
Threatening us with weapons, the prison guards advised us to move, and proceeding in single file we approached the prison. It was scary just to look at it, that place. A huge gray building, surrounded by icy concrete walls a dozen meters high, with turrets armed with searchlights and machine guns every fifty meters and barbed wire on top. Past the walls I could get a better view of the building. It was a huge concrete monoblock with narrow windows fitted with dark bars, even those on the facade. The main entrance was an armored metal door that rested like a drawbridge on the ground. We entered guarded on sight and absolutely forbidden to speak.
We were all herded into a large room waiting for the door to close again. In my heart I said goodbye to the sun, giving it a rendezvous after six months.
"Listen to me scum! We will now call you by your first and last names. The military will move to the right and the civilians to the left", shouted one of the guards with a PDA in his hand. They took off the chains that held us together and began with that strange roll call. My turn came. In the end there were only three of us destined for the military prison. Guards escorted us to the checkrooms, where they dressed us in heavier suits, then stuck stickers on our backs. There was a bar code engraved on it and a number underneath. Then they put a rather thick and heavy metal bracelet on our wrists and replaced our AIQ with a smaller, more comfortable one.
"Right or left?" the guard asked amused.
I answered "right" without thinking much about it, and he put the bracelet on my left wrist, laughing as if he were playing the funniest game in the world.
"This is a nice gadget and I'll explain how it works. If you try to sabotage it, it activates, if you damage it, it activates, and if you bypass the outer perimeter of the prison unauthorized it activates", another guard explained. "This bracelet is designed to tighten around the wrist. It tightens tightens… tightens until your hand... well I certainly don't wish you to find out".
"But that's barbaric," I muttered in disbelief.
"Did you say something kid?", the guard asked.
"Nothing".
"Good", nodded the man menacingly.
We arrived at the final part of the welcoming ceremony. We were assigned one guard each who would escort us to our cell. We took an elevator and went up a few floors. The door opened and I saw a long, barely lit corridor. On either side of it were the two rows of cells. They were open and allowed no privacy to the occupants. Bars separated them from the corridor and a thin, thickly grimy wall divided them from each other. Inside, bunk beds and a toilet arranged in much the same way in each cell. Someone had moved the beds in front of the toilet to try to get some privacy.
The inmates began to stare at me. "Hey cute ass come here!", "Fresh meat guys! Look who's here!", "Look at that pretty little girl!", were the cleanest exclamations I want to remember.
They did not know how much they were risking. I tried not to mind them but although I was confident, there were many of them and only me. And they were all military, so some of them were no doubt trained to kill. I had to be careful.
"This is your cell", the guard hinted. He opened the electronic lock with his PDA and the door opened automatically. I entered and the guard closed it again. "Good. Have fun".
They had given me a blanket, a toothbrush made into a thimble to prevent it from becoming an improper weapon, and a bar of soap. How cute. I laid them on one of the bunk beds, only to notice that the upper one was occupied by a guy. I took steps backwards. He stood up and came down with a bounce.
He took to staring at me for a few moments, then deigned to speak to me. "Fresh meat huh? Aren't you cute kid, how old are you?".
"Don't try that, man. I just got here and I don't want to get my hands dirty right away", I warned him. I was afraid. He wasn't particularly imposing or athletic but his intentions, those worried me.
"You know we have a tradition here. New ones like you have to do a favor for their older cellmate", he began to say. He took to unbuttoning his pants. "After this little formality, no one will give you any trouble".
"Ok then As you wish", I replied with a sigh.
The inmates in the neighboring cells were definitely displaced. I looked out the cell window trying to see a glimpse of the sky but clouds covered everywhere I could look. I heard the guards approaching at a brisk pace and stopping in front of my cell.
"Fucking gods, what a mess! You owe me thirty credits".
"It doesn't count, I didn't know he was a cadet!".
"You could have read his file before you bet, you jerk!".
"Bah, come on let's take him away. You do the cleaning, kid!".
They dragged the guy's body out of my cell leaving a trail of blood along the way. Out of his pants he had pulled two things, one of which was a homemade knife. Now I had the knife, hidden under the mattress. The other thing he had pulled out had just gone down the steel toilet in the corner. I lay down on the bunk bed where the man had been before, and after covering my face with my hands, I burst into a silent weeping.
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