FREEFALL: A LT FREYA NOVEL - CHAPTER 8 - Поболело и прошло

Chapter 8

Поболело и прошло

It was a dreamless sleep. Freya’s cyberbrain took over primary brain function. Crisis Mode. There was no conscious or subconscious to be aware of. Only carefully calculated breaths. Platelet production. Exact heartbeats. Pure life support run wholly by the implant in her skull. Four silent weeks of nonexistance during which she was nowhere and no one.

Until finally, all at once, the system rebooted. The world blinked into existence in perfect clarity. Internal clocks immediately calculated the downtime and displayed it on a crips HUD. Current location was extrapolated as well as the active targeting system coming online to identify everyone in the hospital room as she returned.

There at the foot of her bed, unaware of her recovery, Kiira, Amelia and Dr. Sol discussed her condition. Audio had not come online but she could read their expressions, their heart rates, and they were in conflict. Kiira gestured weakly to Freya, who lay waiting for motor functions and speech to finish the boot sequence. Amelia shook her head, regret written on her face. She refused to look Kiira in the eye as she spoke and instead motioned to Dr. Sol whose eyes were cast to the ground.

Freya’s HUD displayed that her speech functions were back online, but she waited. Instead she tried to open the comms channel to communicate with Kiira. The entire subroutine Fox had written was gone. Even the physical changes he’d made to her port settings seemed to have been reset to factory.

“Hey… Ensign,” she croaked as all eyes fell on her and the group fell silent.

Within a moment there was a storm of animated motions, shouting, wide eyed crying and most importantly she felt Kiira envelop her in an embrace.

Freya felt the soft touch of their long delayed kiss as her motor functions returned and she swallowed Kiira in her arms. They poured every unspoken feeling into a kiss that said everything. A singularity of relief, passion, anticipation and most importantly: The promise of a future. Together.

Audio processing came back online before they finished, but Freya ignored everything but the taste of Kiira’s tongue, the heat of her muzzle and the muted whimpers of the one she loved most. No sooner had their first kiss ended than the second had begun. And the third. And fourth. It was everything both of them wanted and deserved. A long and perfect moment.

In the ancient Tangi myths lovers had been one creature, split apart by jealous gods, cursed to wander the planet in search of each other. In Freya’s case they had been split in three. Freya had been separated and born with all the gifts of womanhood. Fox had been cast away with all the gifts of manhood. And Kiira remained as a perfect anchor for both of them. The ancient Tangi vulps believed true love to be Rare. So rare that when it was found they held festivals to celebrate it. Days of dancing and banquets. The poets would write stories of the lovers and how they found completion. Musicians would sing the poems. And the kings and queens would visit the lovers and bow to them, acknowledging the only authority greater than themselves.

When they finally broke away from each other Freya held Kiira’s face in her paws and sobbed, “The queens would kneel for you, Kiira. The kings would bow. And I would serve if you would have me.”

There were no Vulps in the hospital to understand. But even Amelia could sense a shift in the gravity. The words were recited. Reverant. And had their own pull.

Kiira’s paw shook as she took Freya’s and kissed it. Her muzzle opened but no sound came out at first. She tried again as the tears began to glisten in her eyes. And finally on the third attempt she croaked out, “Yes, Freya. I will…”

“A decade ago on Tangi a young boy spent all day working the field. He would lay down in bed, doing his homework by moonlight,” Kiira whispered, “He read the old myths. Back when we had kings, queens, poems and art. Before the UTF. He’d read those words. And it ached. It ached because he wanted nothing more than to hear them spoken to him. But … those words were for women. Not men. Men said them. Women accepted them. And he knew. He knew by how much he hurt right then. That he wasn’t a boy.”

She sniffed and wiped the tears from her cheek, “I never thought I’d hear them said to me. Ever. I.. Gosh, I don’t know. I love you, Freya. I love you.”

Kiira crawled right into the bed and was blanketed by Freya’s arms.

After a polite moment Amelia took up at Freya’s side, “What… what just happened?”

Kiira beamed from Freya’s arms, “The closest human translation? It’s like… It’s like Freya just proposed.”

Freya looked up for Amelia’s reaction only to see the Human’s face fall into sorrow. A shot of fear cut through her. She remembered the argument moment’s before.

“...Amelia, what’s going on?”

Kiira stiffened in her arms before sitting up in bed. Both of them looked down at Freya after sharing a pained glance.

“First thing’s first,” Amelia said, “You’ve been out for a month, Freya. Some things have happened but… first we need to make sure you’re functioning. Then we can debrief.”

Freya cut in, “I have internal diagnostics. You reset my cyberbrain to factory settings while it was in Crisis Mode. You replaced my right leg with a field unit. Which means no vanity sleeve, everyone’s going to see it. And my left hand- another field unit. I don’t need a doctor. I’m fine.”

Kiira cast Amelia a serious glance.

“... what. What else is there?” Freya asked in response.

Kiira answered, “There were issues with the reset of your cyberbrain. A malicious and foreign code in the root. They couldn’t erase it. They needed a clean disk image.”

“Did they use yours?”

Amelia sighed, “No. Kiira’s cyberbrain is also compromised… whatever made her disable the defense grid is still there. Which is why…”

Kiira huffed.

“Well. We’ll get to that later.”

Freya sat up in bed and reached for her access port with her new prosthetic paw. She was relieved to learn it had proper haptic feedback.

“So wait. I don’t understand. There aren’t any other Vulps with augmentations on Roth besides me and Kiira… how did you get a clean disk image.”

Kiira drew her knees to her chest, “It was the only way to keep you alive, Freya. Amelia showed me where he was.”

After reaching into her pocket Kiira placed a small circular component into Freya’s new paw and closed the fingers around it.

“I know he’d want this, Freya. I’m sorry but it was the only way.”

Freya looked down at a familiar looking object. She had a similar one between her brain stem and spine. It was Captain Morrison’s root drive. Taken from his grave.

Freya cradled it gently and held it to her chest, against the small wooden charm he had given her on their last day together. She tried not to dwell on it, instead reaching out to hold Kiira’s paw. She took a breath and put her feelings aside.

“That must have been difficult, Kiira. Thank you for doing that for me.”

She leaned in to kiss Kiira on the muzzle and squeezed her paw, “It’s okay, my love. He wouldn’t have cared. You know that.”

Kiira breathed a sigh of relief and leaned her head into Freya’s shoulder as they both cradled the root drive.

Amelia gave them a moment before continuing, “The foreign code. We couldn’t remove it. But we could quarantine it. We gave it it’s own partition and installed a new disk image around it. That’s what you’re running now. The thing in you. It was different from what we found in Kiira’s code… we’re concerned. Do you know anything about it, Freya?”

“Sharak. The AI which runs the City. Which ran the gate that got us on the ship. Ancient, ancient tech. Self aware. She… she blended her code with mine. You said you couldn’t delete her? She’s still there?”

“...yes. Quarantined. But you had a second AI running alongside your own code. That’s alarming.”

“How do you think I knew about the gate? Could see the ghost soldiers before they appeared? How do you think I nailed over a hundred headshots from a moving levcart?”

“So you’re saying this Sharak program took over? And you let it?”

“It’s… no. Not quite. But also yes. It’s complicated.”

Amelia nodded and cast a glance at Kiira.

“Amelia, how did we live?”

She just shook her head, “The best I can figure is this Sharak thing used the Gate to get us off the ship. After impact. Before the fire. I don’t remember any of it. I don’t question it. We lived. Others died. It’s not important right now.”

Kiira shifted uncomfortably and clung to Freya tightly.

Freya sighed and squeezed Kiira’s paw, “What aren’t you two telling me?”

Amelia looked at Kiira and nodded.

“We won the battle. The majority of the sincere UTF loyalists were on that ship you crashed. All dead now. Those who remained in the shipyard were easily overrun. The remaining vulps? Fascism doesn’t breed loyalty. They hate us humans, but they’re not willing to die for the Front. About five thousand of them were left on Roth. With so many prisoners now we needed a solution. What do we do with them?”

Amelia cut in, “Well. It’s not the ideal solution but there is a bit of irony in it. We decided to house them in one of the old human ghettos. Only secure place big enough for that many bodies.”

Freya winced, “You put them in… camps?”

Kiira explained, “It’s a functional city, Freya. Shops. Electricity. Apartments. We provide adequate food, water, and resources for them to live comfortably but…”

Amelia cut in again, “But they won’t share with each other. It seems the Vulps are more concerned with having more than each other than surviving this situation in relative comfort. It’s become… not a nice place. Within the first week gangs formed. Violence became common. We still feed them and patrol the city. But we decided to let them dig their own graves. It’s a warzone.”

Freya hissed, “If they can’t oppress you, they’ll oppress each other. It’s all they fucking know. I don’t feel sorry for them. Fuck loyalists.”

Amelia reached out and took Freya’s paw softly, “About that, Freya. We were able to quarantine the malicious code in you. Sharak or whatever. But we weren’t able to in Kiira.”

Freya whispered, “Different method… they reprogramed her root. Mine was… something else. Give me some time with it. I’m sure I can-”

Kiira cut in, “Freya. They’re sending me to be with the rest of the UTF loyalists in internment. The only reason I’m not there now is Amelia allowed me to be here until you woke up. Now that you’re back…”

Freya’s eyes snapped between the two, “What? No. That’s not right, Amelia, Kiira is not a loyalist. She fucking got us on that ship. She protected you at the shipyard. She’s done as much for the resistance as I have… more if you think about it. You can’t send her there.”

Amelia refused eye contact, “This wasn’t my call, Freya. The council runs the government. I run the war. I know, Freya. They say we can’t take the risk. What if there’s more code? What if she continues to undermine us? The majority opinion is that the people of Roth can’t gamble their safety on…”

Freya spit, “On a Vulp’s life?”

Amelia looked up, meeting Freya’s gaze finally, “Frankly? Yes. I’m sorry. I know it’s wrong. I know it’s not fair. And I know it’s cruel.”

“I’ll take responsibility for her… we can keep her locked in my quarters when she’s not-”

Kiira touched Freya’s shoulder, “Freya, she’s right. This matters too much to risk it all on my comfort. Fox died for this. You very nearly did, too. I decided I’m going. That’s my part.”

Freya grabbed her, “Kiira, no. You’re not… I’m sorry, babe, but you’re not built for that type of place. They are going to rip you apart… You can’t go.”

Kiira slipped from Freya’s grasp, “Freya. My mind’s made up. I’m going and… I’m going now. I promised if they let me stay until you woke up I would go willingly. Maybe it’s the farm girl in me but my word is my word.”

Freya reached out, kissing her, trying to draw her in close. But Kiira slid away and into the care of two guards who had entered the hospital room.

Freya heard a sob build on Kiira’s throat. But the young lapine choked it back and set her eyes firmly on Freya’s. She held back the tears, for Freya’s sake.

Before the guards led her away Kiira looked back, “When this is over… we’ll get married. Okay? Just... ” But the guards pulled her away, leaving the sentence hanging and unfinished.

Immediately Freya set to removing her IV and shedding her hospital gown.

“I’m going with her. Wait. I’m going with her-”

Amelia grabbed her arm firmly, “Freya. You don’t want to do that.”

“Fuck you, Amelia. You don’t-”

The authority of the General returned to Amelia’s voice as she squeezed Freya’s arm hard, “Every fucking Vulp in that city knows you’re the one who betrayed them. You know they have a bounty out for you? A rumor started that you were in the city and immediately the leadership began offering a month's worth of rations to anyone who brought you to them. Dead or alive.”

“I don’t fucking care! I’m going with Kiira.”

“Listen, Freya. As far as they know Kiira is a loyalist. Just like them. They think she hates you. That’s the story I spread to protect her, at least.”

Amelia took both of Freya’s arms softly now and lowered her voice, “Freya. Miss Storm. If they see you… you’re dead. If they see you with her? She’s dead with you. The best thing you can do for Kiira and us right now is stay here and help us plan for the coming UTF assault. They’re going to try and retake this moon and we need you to help us survive that. We need you to show us how to use that gate.”

With nothing left to do Freya collapsed back into the bed and cried. Amelia sat with her and let the tears come. Freya hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye before Kiira was taken away from her, again. Briefly, Amelia wondered if this is how some Vulps had felt. Watching others carry out cruel orders, and allowing it to happen for the greater good.

Amelia had ordered men to die. She had seen many die from carrying out her orders. The rest of the team who had taken the destroyer were now buried as heroes not far from the hospital. But she had never ordered someone to suffer. Never seperated a family. And so she watched Freya’s pain. Penance for allowing it to happen. A reminder that actions had consequences. A lesson in her own humanity.

By the time Freya’s tears ran dry Amelia was needed elsewhere. War planning could not wait for the broken heart of a single Vulp.

She kissed the top of Freya’s head and whispered an apology which garnered no reply. With that she was gone. And Freya sat alone in her hospital bed trying to make sense of it. The suns faded over the horizons and she still had not succeeded. Night fell and her room was clouded in darkness and silence.

As the moon’s light spilled in through the window Freya heard the door open and caught a familiar scent.

“Darude.”

“There’s no surprising you, eh?”

“If you’re looking for a f-”

“I’m here as a friend, Freya. I thought you could use one right now.”

Freya drew her knees up to her chest and gripped the charm Captain Morrison had given her.

“I know you’re a Vulp. But… far as I’m concerned you’re one of us.”

“Thanks,” She whispered.

“And that means… Well, I’d like to share something with you. If you’ll agree.”

Freya looked up weakly as Darude nodded toward the charm she clutched.

“You just won a major battle. It’s customary to open your Drambar with a friend. I know a lot of humans still don’t trust you. But I do. I thought I’d offer to share the moment with you.”

Freya looked up confused, “Drambar?”

“Hmf,” Darude laughed, “You been wearing that all these weeks and you didn’t even know what it was?”

Freya looked down to her necklace, “Captain Morrison gave it to me before he died. All he said was that it was a human custom. One he’d asked for permission to share with me.”

Darude sat at the side of the bed and placed his hand on her knee, “Yes. He asked Amelia. She said she trusted anyone Fox loved that much.”

“So what is a Drambar?”

Darude reached into his shirt and pulled out a necklace with an identical wooden charm.

“It’s an old custom. Traditionally when you set off to war you put a little something inside the charm. Something that represents what you’re fighting for. A reminder. When you win there’s a custom where we all share our reason for fighting together. After you crashed the ship a lot of us shared our Drambars together. I thought you deserved to share it with someone, too. So I waited until you were awake.”

Freya brought the small wooden square up to the moonlight and inspected it closely, “Opened? I didn’t even know… I mean Fox gave this to me. I didn’t put anything in it.”

“Maybe it was his reason for fighting? If you’d like we can share ours together, Freya.”

“How does it open?” Freya asked, transfixed on the charm.

Darude brought his own Drambar between them.

“Like this, Freya…”

With a small bit of pressure on the wood the perfect cube twisted in two, revealing a small cavity. Inside Freya saw the glint of a small round object.

Carefully Darude pinched it between his fingers and held it up to the light.

“This is a pearl from a necklace that belonged to my mother. She died of dehydration in the mines. My father had given this to her when they were young. Before the UTF came. I am fighting for my family. That someday I might have one of my own.”

Freya let a moment of silence pass before cradling his hand as he held the pearl.

“Forgive me if I use this wrong but I believe the saying is may your mother rest in peace.”

Darude nodded, “Thank you.”

They shared the stillness of the evening together until Freya turned her attention to her own Drambar.

Holding the small wooden charm up to the moonlight she applied light pressure with her prosthetic paw and, just as Darude’s had, the wood opened to reveal a small chamber within. A small object emptied into her palm, which she rolled back and forth in the light.

“I don’t know what this is… A small silver circle?”

“That’s a ring, Freya. A specific type actually.”

“A ring?” She asked, pinching it between the fingers of her prosthetic paw and holding it up to her ring finger.

“That’s a wedding band, Freya. Traditionally humans exchange them when they are married.”

In the light of the moon she saw etching on the interior of the ring. She spun the ring slowly, recording what seemed to be a series of dots and scratches. Her HUD displayed a 300% zoom of the ring’s interior, revealing a series of 1’s and 0’s. Binary.

She ran the pattern through translation and as the HUD displayed the words she closed the ring in her paw and sunk deep within herself.

QUEENS WOULD KNEEL. KINGS WOULD BOW. AND I WOULD SERVE.

Darude reached out for Freya’s shoulder to catch her attention, but she sat still and defeated.

“I’m getting out of here, Darude. I’m going to the camp where they took Kiira. I’m not losing this again.”

“Freya, that’s a bad idea. It’s not safe for you-”

“I’ll survive. I need to watch over Kiira. I’m not… well. My mind’s made up.”

Tears streaked silently down her fur and she made no effort to stop them.

“Can you get me my clothes…”

Darude hestiated for a moment, struggling to understand. But he realized he had no right to Freya’s feelings right now. He was her friend. Before anything else he was her friend. Silently he nodded and rose to pull Freya’s belongings from a small locker at the foot of the bed.

Without a word she slid out of her hospital gown, naked in the moonlight before him as she wept quietly. Only three garments had been brought to her room. Slowly she sank into the black jeans and tank top, sliding her new replacement prosthetics through the fabric until she was covered. Finally she considered the too-large UTF jacket which indicated a captain’s rank. It was still stained with his blood.

She folded it into her arms and looked to Darude.

“I’ll need a gun… knife if you got one.”

Darude nodded solemly and unclasped his belt, handing it over to Freya with gun, knife and field kit still attatched.

When she was ready Freya leaned in and kissed Darude softly on the cheek.

“I won’t see you again, Darude. I wanted to let you know...that you-”

Darude slid a hand over her cheek, “I know, Freya. Just go.”

She gave him one last fond look before padding silently through the darkened room and out of the emergency exit.

Darude looked down at his hand which still cradled his mother’s pearl.

Under the cover of night Freya bounded through the forest. Beneath the dense canopy the path was black as pitch. But she didn’t dare light the way. The humans would be looking for her to bring her back, and prevent her from getting beyond the city’s walls. She knew once she got to the streets she could disappear. Her entire youth had been spent lost in the Urban expanse of Tangi’s central city. If she wanted she could vanish within those walls.

Fifty yards ahead Freya spotted a small clearing, a break in the canopy through which some dim moonlight fell. When she finally stepped into the light Freya took a short rest and laid Captain Morrison’s jacket on the ground before her. With Darude’s knife she cut into the fabric, slicing with precision and intent. When she had finally finished she retrieved Darude’s field kit and pulled out the silk thread and needle meant for stitching wounds. By the time the last stitch was sewn, and she cut the last thread of silk- dawn was only an hour away.

“Better hurry,” she whispered to herself, pulling a newly fashioned hood and cowl over her face.

In the remaining minutes of darkness she came to the edge of the forest and saw the still lit city before her. There would be no darkness in the city, of course. As she raised her eyes she saw the human guards in the towers scanning the silent streets. But not all of them. Several had their eyes cast to the perimeter. No doubt watching for her.

She waited. Minutes passed without a thought. Just vigilance as she crouched at the edge of the forest and kept herself alert for an opportunity to cross the wall.

A convoy approached the main gate. Freya recognized the crates of UTF rations on the back of the lev-carts. Enough to feed a small army for a week. A supply drop. From her vantage point and with HUD zoom she had an excellent view. Several former UTF officers walked into the barren streets of the city to meet the supply drop. She recognized some of the faces. They had been high ranking officers. The desperation for authority had not evaporated with the realities of their rank. The former officers argued and debated over which faction would get which supplies. The scene put the guards on edge and all eyes turned to the supply exchange.

While Freya’s new prosthetics were anything but aesthetic, she found them more than adequate for the job. With a single push of her hydraulic leg she bound to the top of the wall where her steel paw clung like a vice to the steel. With one more swift push she landed 20 feet below, the hydraulics dispersing the force of impact.

She would be bruised but otherwise was safely inside the city.

As the sun crested over the horizon and cast the shadows of night back to the deep corners of the city Freya saw small groups of prisoners spill into the streets. Checking that her hood and cowl were still firmly in place she limped her way into the growing crowds. And within seconds she had vanished into the city.

In an alley behind a small shop Freya stopped and leaned against a wall. She pulled her hood down and a light breeze swept through her hair and she sighed warmly for the small comfort. Throngs of prisoners passed left and right. But in the alley she found a moment’s reprieve from the crowds.

She looked down to her Drambar, sliding it open again to reveal the silver ring.

This time she slid it easily onto her ring finger. A perfect fit.

It felt right on her paw. Like it had always belonged there.

“I’ll find her, Captain. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of our girl,” she whispered, pulling her hood back up and drifting back into the crowds in search of Kiira.

END.