A Song in Ebony Ch. 04

"You know it's not because of that," said Geoff. For a brief moment, he seemed to get a little backbone as his image finally looked directly at her. "After you left yesterday, I wanted to make sure you got home all right. And my position gives me certain...privileges. I was able to access the security cameras outside your apartment. But you never showed up. I checked your lab, and you weren't there either. It made me worried, so I set the facility's cameras to do a search for your image and notify me if it found you. And guess what? You showed up walking out of your lab early this morning. You went to your apartment and then came back as if you'd been home all night. But where did you really go, Violet?"

The redhead almost punched the screen. She knew Geoff fancied her, but never thought that the cowardly shit would have gone so far as to stalk her. Instead of striking out, she sat back down and crossed her arms. "I'm not talking to you. If I'm under arrest, you get me my phone call, asshole."

Geoff's face was suddenly replaced with that of an older man with short gray hair and deep lines on his face and forehead. "Dr. Helstrom, you are not under arrest. As Mr. Palmer said, this is a quarantine situation. We believe that you have undergone significant exposure to a dangerous alien technology."

"And who are you?"

"My name isn't important, ma'am. What is important is that we all keep a level head about this. There's no need to get excited."

Violet said nothing.

The craggy man shrugged. "Regardless of what you say or don't say, we are isolating you. So you may as well cooperate."

Violet felt her stomach drop. This didn't seem like a bluff; they really meant it. For now, her best bet was to keep quiet.

"You still have nothing to say? Doctor Helstrom, we are certain that you have been in mental contact with the entity known as 'Izzy'. We also pretty certain that you were taken to its home spacetime and then returned. Please try to look at it from our point of view. You could be brainwashed or worse. How do I even know I'm talking to the original Violet Helstrom right now? You could be a very convincing duplicate. Given what we know about this entity's capabilities, it's entirely possible."

Okay, if she couldn't play innocent then maybe she could make them see reason. "I'm Violet Helstrom. You can ask me any detail of my life and I'll answer it. And damn it, Izzy's not a threat. I admit that I was suspicious at first, but not anymore."

"And how did you determine that?"

"By talking with her."

"Just talking? Was your interaction solely through the stone?"

She drummed her fingers on the fake wood of the table. The camera footage was pretty damning; she couldn't really bluff that part of it. "No. You were correct, I did visit Izzy in person."

"I see. And during that visit, did you have any physical interaction with the entity?"

Violet figured that it was not a wise move to admit to having sex with Izzy's avatar. "No."

The craggy man gave her a closer look. "None at all?"

She spread her hands on the tabletop. "Please, just listen to me. You are all missing the bigger picture here. She wants to help us. Izzy has knowledge that we can't even begin to imagine." Violet looked up pleadingly at the man. "I've got a pretty high security clearance, okay? I know how badly things are going against the Vish'tari. Izzy is an invaluable asset. We need her."

"Some help comes with too high of a price. We have no idea of this entity's true motives..."

"She loves us." Violet almost couldn't believe that she'd spoken the words until they were out of her mouth.

"Pardon?"

"I've...shit, I may as well admit it. I've touched her mind, or at least a little portion of it. Before Larry met her, she'd been alone for longer than human civilization has existed. And before the Naltar, she'd been alone for damn near a million years. Can you imagine what that kind of solitude would do to your mind?"

The craggy man didn't answer. Violet stared down at the table as she continued. "I'm just finally understanding the scope of it. She couldn't go insane; her programming wouldn't permit it. Izzy just had to endure. Until the Naltar found her. And then they went away, and she was left alone again until we came along. She really just wants company."

The craggy man arched an eyebrow. "Ah, 'company'. We have Dr. Braydon's report, so we know just what kind of 'company' this entity prefers. Are you sure you weren't physically exposed to Izzy? Was there any sexual interaction at all?"

Violet felt her jaw clench. "Damn it, I said no."

He gave a sardonic smile. "I've seen the video of you coming out of your lab early this morning. You had a very...satisfied look on your face that makes me think otherwise."

She suddenly heard Geoff begin yelling from offscreen. "I can't believe you fucked that thing! Why wasn't I good enough for you, you arrogant bitch? I told you not to look into that gem, but did you listen to me? Oh no, you're just so much smarter than everyone else-"

The craggy man gave a death glare off to his side and Geoff's tirade suddenly shut off. He turned back to look at Violet with a much milder expression. "I apologize for Mr. Palmer's remarks. It's unfortunate that this whole affair had to be exposed due to such...unseemly behavior on his part." He gave another nasty glare offscreen, then continued. "Regardless, we need to get you into isolation."

She crossed her arms. "No. I'm not moving. You can't just ship me off like I'm some kind of leper. I have a right to a phone call."

His face became sterner. "As of this moment, you have just as many rights as we see fit to grant you. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Which do you want?"

Violet felt the most amazing and unexpected rage boil up inside her. She had examined countless artifacts and had exposed herself to innumerable dangers, all in the service of the Confederation. And now they weren't even giving her the chance to call anyone, because it was less messy for them.

In the midst of her rising anger, she heard Izzy.

[Kiddo? Is that you?]

Somehow her anger was acting as an amplifier, allowing her to make contact through whatever shielding was between her and Izzy. Violet decided to go all out. She let that initial anger grow. It was a lot easier than she expected.

[Izzy, I'm in a spot! The bastards found out! Can you track me?]

[Almost. Whatever you're doing, keep it up. I should be able to locate you in a bit.]

Violet uncrossed her arms and stood up. She envisoned herself throttling Geoff's stupid neck, then pictured kicking this wrinkled bastard in the balls and laughing. She clenched her fists as her anger kept building. This fury was not just from her current predicament. It was from all of the cutting remarks when others thought she couldn't hear, from all of the times she had tried to reach out to other people and been rebuffed, from all of the times when she felt alone in a crowd.

She bared her teeth as she looked at the man's image. "We'll do this the hard way, I think. It's your move, fuckface."

The door to the conference room slid open, and several human figures surged in wearing orange-colored and full-body environmental suits.

The first one through the door got Violet's chair smacked right across his face mask. Unfortunately, the chair were made of lightweight plastic and metal, so the blow didn't really do much other than stagger him slightly.

Violet snarled and swung the chair again, this time connecting more solidly. Her target fell back with a muffled cry as another grabbed the chair out of her hands. Then they swarmed in on her, but not before one of them got a kick to the kneecap that made him double over and yell in pain. She kept hitting out as one of them finally got his arm around her neck. Violet slammed her elbow back into his torso. He grunted in pain, but the sleeper hold on her neck didn't falter. Her vision started to grow dark as her blows got more feeble.

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Violet came to on a cot set in the middle of a transparent cell. She coughed weakly and felt a twinge in her neck as she swung her feet off of the cot and looked around. Clear walls of unbreakable cerametal surrounded her on all sides, with the exception of an airlock set into one wall. The whole space was about four meters wide. There was also a toilet in one corner...with no privacy curtain, of course. She regarded the toilet and shook her head. It was a good thing she had 'gone' at her apartment that morning.

She still had her clothes on, which surprised her. They must have wanted to get her isolated as quickly as possible. The room beyond her cell was bit bigger, with enough space for a few chairs and a large metal wardrobe.

The door into the outer room opened, and the craggy man she had seen before walked in carrying a folder. He was trailed by some young punk with long blonde hair who barely looked old enough to shave. The younger man also looked like he spent a great deal of time in front of the mirror getting his blonde locks to fall 'just so'. Violet gave them both her best 'I'ma eat your liver' look as they took the seats outside her cell. Her only hope was to keep that anger roiling in her brain so that she could make contact again with Izzy.

The craggy man looked up at her as they took their seats. "Dr. Helstrom, I'm sorry about the rough treatment. But you gave us no choice."

"You started it, fuckface," she spat. "I will only tell you once. You will let me out of here now or I will bring a shitstorm down on your head that you can't imagine. I don't care what you say, I'm a Confederation citizen and I have my rights. GIve me my fucking phone call."

He looked down and opened the folder. "Have you been in contact with Larson Braydon?"

Violet crossed her arms and said nothing. He flipped over a page.

The man continued. "Have you been in contact with Doctor Braydon's sister, Karen?"

She still said nothing. He flipped over another page.

"Do you know if either of those individuals I mentioned have been in contact with a certain Professor Jaxalla Nelantra tel Malpa? Or have you been in contact with the professor yourself?"

Violet walked over and dragged the cot to the transparent wall closest to her interrogators. Then she sat and stared at them silently. In spite of her anger, she couldn't feel any connection to Izzy. Her anger faltered as she began to panic a little.

"You have nothing to say?" he asked.

Violet mimed the action of picking up a phone and holding it to her ear, but otherwise kept silent. The younger man smiled slightly.

The craggy man sighed. "Ma'am, we are simply trying to determine if there is a threat to public safety. And we are also trying to prevent a panic. There are a lot of questions being asked after that regrettable incident at Trinity College." He leaned forward. "We'd like to believe the fluffy-bunny story that you and Doctor Braydon tell us regarding Izzy's motivations. But we have to make plans based on what she could do, not on what she might do. If she does turn out to be an enemy then we have to be prepared."

Violet decided one last time to try to make these idiots see reason. "If she's an enemy, then we're toast."

"So you say. But she does have some limitations. She's not a god."

"She never claimed to be one. But if she put her mind towards our destruction, we would be gone in short order. It's pointless to waste time wondering about any ulterior motivation on her part. There are other, more immediate things that should worry you."

"You mean the Vish'tari."

"Yes, that's one thing. But we also need to find out about the Naltar."

The interrogator looked puzzled. "What?"

"From what little we know about them, the Naltar were powerful enough to smack the Vish'tari into bits without breaking a sweat. But Izzy told me that they just...went away. She didn't have any alarm or warning from them either. Something took them out, and fast. Really fast. If that doesn't scare you, it should."

"Ah." The craggy man made a few notes in his folder. "Well, we'll take that under advisement. Thank you for telling us."

Violet sagged. He was clearly writing off everything she told him. "Come on, you have to trust me on that part, at least. This is too important to just ignore."

The craggy man closed his folder. "I'm sure you think so. Do you have anything else you wish to tell me?"

Violet gritted her teeth. "Not until I get my phone call."

The interrogator indicated his colleague. "This is Doctor Gilbert. He's going to be doing a physical examination of you." He stood. "Let me know when you're done," he said to Gilbert and stalked out of the room.

Gilbert stood and put on a large and very fake-looking smile. "Hi, Violet, My name's Gary. Now, what I'd like to do is-"

"Doctor Helstrom."

"Sorry?"

"You have me sealed inside of a cage against my will. Therefore you don't get to use my first name, Gary."

He shrugged and walked over to the wardrobe, then pulled out a environmental protection suit. He began donning it while prattling on. "Okay, Dr. Helstrom, we'll need to get a couple of blood samples, plus some skin scrapings. I also need to do a complete physical examination of you. And I'm sorry, but I do mean complete. I assure you that am a licensed medical doctor. This will be totally professional." There was a slight glee in his voice that did not sound professional.

Violet stood. "Dr. Gilbert, if you value the current state of your balls then you will keep your damn hands off of me. I promise I will make you walk funny for a week."

Gilbert shrugged the protective suit over his shoulders and then turned towards her. The suit's hood dangled down his back. His bland young face looked composed, but there was a bit of a leer in his features. "Doctor, do you not realize that you're in an isolation cell? We can pipe in knockout gas at the touch of a button. Now, that's not our first choice. The dosage of the gas is inexact, and you might be out for a lot longer than you'd like. Plus it gives you a splitting headache when you wake up." He moved to a control panel near the airlock and gave her a nasty grin. "Now, are you going to behave, Violet, or do I have to knock you out and undress you anyway?"

Violet suddenly knew that he was going to take his time and all but violate her. If she resisted, then he might go even farther while she was unconscious. And there was nothing she could do about it. The rage burned bright again in her, and as her anger reached its peak she heard Izzy's voice.

[Kiddo!]

Relief washed through her. [Izzy! Can you hear me?]

[Yep. Tell him to check his phone.]

"Check your phone," said Violet.

"What?"

"Do it, if you know what's good for you." As she finished speaking, there was the soft chime from Gilbert's breast pocket.

He regarded her with suspicion as he fished his phone out. Gilbert's forehead wrinkled in confusion as he read the incoming text. "Look behind you? What the hell?" He turned to look behind him.

Violet suddenly felt a large presence behind her. Two huge and midnight-black arms surrounded her in a firm hug. She just had time to give a little squeak of surprise before her world spun...

...and now she was outside of her transparent cage, standing next to Gilbert as he turned back around. He must have caught some kind of flicker of movement to his side, because he snapped his head around to look at them. His eyes bulged in panic as he looked behind Violet.

Violet looked up behind her as well and saw Izzy's current avatar. This was not the pop idol that Violet had fucked, or Larry's petite vixen, or even Jaxalla's velvet-black xryakx. This was a giant ebony homunculus with muscles on top of muscles, taller even than a kleothic. Izzy's current form gave the impression that she could break a human in two just with her pinky fingers.

"Hiya," said Izzy, and smiled. There was no humor in that rictus. Her green teeth were filed down into sharp points. "I'm Izzy, of course. Maybe you could tell me why you had my honey-boo locked up in there." She jerked a thumb the size of a knockwurst at Violet's former cell.

To his credit, Gilbert didn't immediately shit his pants. "I, um, that is...you're Izzy?"

"Oh no, the dipshit saw through my cunning disguise. I'm actually a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman."

"I...err..."

"Now then, Dr. Dipshit, I just heard you threatening to knock out Violet and forcibly examine her. It sounded like you were thinking about getting in a little extra feel or two while you were at it. Tell me, is that standard Confederation medical procedure?"

"Well it's, I mean..." Gilbert trailed off. Finally he squeaked out "...no?"

A giant black palm the size of a dinner plate clamped on top of Gilbert's head, then drew him closer to that fanged and humorless smile. "Go get your boss, the wrinkly dude, Mr. Fuckface. Bring him here. Now. And then maybe I won't eat you." Izzy released Gilbert's head, and the man scrambled past them and out the door, banging his shoulder on the edge of the door frame as he did so. The hood of his suit bounced against his back as he sprinted away. The door slid closed.

Violet stepped away from Izzy and and turned towards her. She had gone from 'almost violated' to 'saved' so fast that her emotions were still all over the place. Right now she mostly felt relief. "So now I'm your honey-boo?" she asked sarcastically, but she could feel a giant grin on her face.

Izzy gave a warm and answering smile and drew herself up, her head almost grazing the ceiling. "Of course! If you play your cards right, kiddo, you could even graduate to becoming another of my boy-toys."

"I'm a girl, Izzy. You should definitely know that." Violet flicked her eyes down to Izzy's crotch, but this particular incarnation had no apparent genitalia.

"I do indeed," replied the giant. An arm bulging with muscle reached out and placed a huge warm hand on one of Violet's shoulders. "Are you doing okay?" Izzy asked in a softer tone.

Violet shrugged and patted Izzy's hand. "I'll survive. You're not really going to eat that jerk Gilbert, right?"

Izzy chuckled. "You know I wouldn't. But he doesn't have to know that."

The door slid back open and the craggy man dashed in. Several guards were right behind him with handguns at the ready. The craggy man was brought up short by the sight of Izzy filling most of the available space. "Um, hello. You're Izzy, I presume."

Izzy turned and regarded the newcomers with narrowed eyes. "Hello, Paul Anderson," she said. She wasn't smiling anymore. "But I know that's not your real name...is it, Charles?"

The man's face went pale, and for a moment Violet thought he might simply collapse from a lack of blood. He turned to the guards. "Get out."

"Sir?"

"OUT! I'll call if there's a problem."

The guard in front gave the craggy man an incredulous look. Having a giant alien construct in the room seemed to be the very definition of 'a problem'. But the guard just shrugged and led the rest out of the room, As the door slid shut on them the craggy man turned back. He ran one trembling hand over his short gray hair. "How...how do you know that name? That database is quantum encrypted."

"That's nice."

The craggy man blinked. "Now look here..."

"Let's cut to the chase, Charlie," interrupted Izzy. "I've been trying to play ball with you guys. I didn't want to demonstrate the kind of things I can do. The last thing I need is another cult springing up to 'worship' me." Izzy's sausage-like fingers made quotes in the air. "But if you keep being stupid, then I'll have to get more overt. For example, I now have a video of Dr. Feelgood, I mean Gilbert, threatening a citizen of the Confederation with forced medical examination."