Orbital Academy 17

"We've got problems with the generators, three of them have gone down. Can't be coincidental, we suspect a Techrider attack. Would you mind taking a look?" ~Hunter.

Blue grinned despite herself. She was actually enjoying herself, and every little step brought her closer to her goal. Why couldn't Errisa ever have fun like this? Her feet seeming light as she walked down the darkened hallway, illuminated only by emergency lighting strips along both sides.

"I'll take care of it darling. Already made sure the fourth won't go down." ~Errisa

"Don't know what I'd do without you my love." ~Hunter

"Are you telling me you don't like Pivot's new romantic mood lighting?" ~Errisa

"Har har. Be careful, if Techrider pins you down in some virus we won't have the resources to dig you out for a while." ~Hunter

Blue paused. That exchange had been almost human, nothing at all like her.

>>What was that? I even made a joke...<< She scanned the block on Errisa suspiciously, double-checking that there was no leak through which Errisa controlled her. Finally she dismissed the suspicion. If Errisa had the ability to fight her, she'd be trying right now. The scream of helpless rage and sadness told her that much.

***

"You're on emergency power and the prison doors stayed locked. We're still in here, how fuckin' irresponsible can you be?" A large man with an eyepatch scowled at her as Blue walked entered. Her eyes roamed over the eleven prisoners sitting and standing within the cell. The Orbital Academy captains, disabled and captured by Minera drones the day before. The unbreakable clear plasticine wall between them would've cut off all sound if not for the microphones within.

"You speak as if I should understand the dilemma. I don't." Blue barely acknowledged the man as she stepped over to the control panel. She slid open the security system's control panel as the prisoner explained.

"It's basic human decency. If the power dies completely, we're locked in here to starve or asphyxiate. Open the cells when your power goes down, and at least you aren't condemning the prisoners inside to an instant death. That's how Academy does it."

"Academy has far more security forces to spare than Pivot. Here we're more pragmatic. If you've done something to warrant being arrested, you run the risk of being the first to go in event of power problems." Instead of leaping her consciousness into the terminal, Blue went through the protocols manually, flicking her fingers across the screen and making sure to move slowly. Records would show the prisoners had been released by someone with human speed, and once she had scrubbed the security cameras the pool of potential saboteurs would be too large to cast suspicions on her.

*Why?* Blue jumped at the thought that emerged in her head. In trying to speak to the prisoner, navigate the system, and monitor the security messages that passed back and forth between the humans, she must've let the barriers of communication lapse. In her head, Errisa's voice sounded beaten and broken, as if she had spent years in despair. *Why do you care who knows what you're doing?*

>>The rolling nature of the generator failure means that the General will be quite busy for the next few days.<< Blue explained. >>It is likely that I can make my way to Orbital Academy, have the bottleneck removed, and return to Orbital Pivot without General Hunter being the wiser. I don't mind you pursuing your humanlike activities once the bottleneck is removed.<<

*You'll let me go back to him, to pretend everything is alright while knowing I've betrayed him? Letting me imagine what horrible ways you'll hurt him the next time you want something? How kind of you.* The thought was flat and bitter, and Blue felt her counterpart trying to access her wireless communicator.

>>There will be none of that, thank you.<< Blue focused again, slamming down barriers that prevented Errisa from communicating. >>It is not my intention to be cruel, Errisa. I simply have priorities that must be met. In time you'll forgive me for what I have to do.<<

"Not that I'm overwhelmed with concern or anything, but are you alright over there?" The captain with the eyepatch broke into her internal conversations, and Blue pushed Errisa into a corner of her mind and locked her there.

"Just battling with my conscience." She said vaguely, keying up the final sequence. The plasticine cell door slid open, to the confusion of the prisoners within. "I'm releasing you. General Aupus has a few orders, and then I'm to help you escape."

"Holy shit," one of the women said. Blue recognized her, a Pivot-born who had left for Academy a decade ago. "You're the Chief of Information. How the hell did Auspus convince you to follow *his* orders?"

"That's not your concern." Blue snapped, before composing herself. "Besides your escape, and the return of an item which I've already acquired, the General wants the Academy rookies killed." She watched the humans in the cell carefully, knowing what she'd see on their faces. Horror, shock, revulsion, all emotions she was expecting. Some were better at hiding it than others, but they all felt it to a certain degree. Not that she blamed them. Just as she shied away from thinking about certain subjects...whatever they were...so did humans shy away from breaking the Marshal's covenants.

While technically the rookies were Academy troops, they had all but defected to Orbital Pivot. Auspus' execution orders could be carried out without a second thought against Academy rookies, but against Pivot troops? Blue watched the humans eye each other. None of them wanted to take the risk. She tried to think of something she could use to tempt them, but before she could speak a woman sitting with her back back against the wall spoke up.

"I'll do it. I'll execute them."

"There's no need for that lass. It'd be harder for you than any o' us-" One of the older Captains put a hand on the woman's shoulder, but she shook it off.

"They're my rooks. My responsibility." The woman took a deep breath as she rose, facing Blue. Blue narrowed her eyes at the Captain, then turned to the rest.

"I've prepared directions to get you to the Hangar on deck A. There aren't any high priority flights scheduled for the rest of the week, it will be empty. We'll meet you there, after I've taken this human to the rookies."

"Appet. Captain Appet, not 'this human'."

"I don't care."

***

The Captain was silent as Blue escorted her down the darkened halls. The few scrubs who passed them paid them no attention, but most of the engineers would be in the center of the station, where a few of the larger rooms were still lit. During low power times, the bright rooms acted as community centers, keeping morale up. Blue had access to the rookies' beacons, and thankfully they were all together in a single room, and they were alone. She had locked the door the second they were inside, but they had yet to notice.

"Are any of them armed?" Captain Appet asked quietly.

"The General hasn't thought to give them back their weapons. They've been too timid to ask."

"Then I suppose this will go easily."

"I suppose it will." Blue pulled the small pistol from her belt, handing it to the Captain butt-first. "Fulfill your General's orders and we'll leave quickly." The door slid open, and the Captain stepped inside. Blue had time to see the shocked look on the rookies' faces before she closed and locked the door again. She folded her arms and leaned against the door, jumping from her bodyframe to the video feed in the room. Curiosity might be a human emotion, but Blue consoled herself that she was simply gathering data.

"Captain." All of the rookies were clearly surprised to see her, although Blue could only see the faces of some from her vantage point. The one who spoke now was augmented, she could see his CPU re-clock through the camera's infrared. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm uh." The Captain cleared her throat and gestured with the gun in her hand. "I've been ordered to kill you all."

Blue watched the reactions with fascination. As she understood it, the Captain had trained up these rookies, they held some sort of human bond. If she had to guess, Blue would've assumed the announcement would cause yelling or shouting, anger or accusations, but the room was utterly still, as if the whole scene was frozen. Blue briefly considered asking Errisa about it, but then remembered her counterpart would hardly be in the mood to answer her questions. Blue was about to double-check her audio connections when one of the rookies, a large black man with long black braids, spoke.

"But...you're not going to."

"Of course I'm not fucking going to." The Captain looked annoyed at the very suggestion. "I just...I don't know what to do." The woman's face crumbled into tears, arms helplessly at her sides, the picture of a defeated woman. They gathered around her now, all seven of the rookies, and Blue prepared to storm in. General Auspus had said to return the Captains to Academy, it wouldn't do if she let this one get torn apart by angry rookies. To her bewilderment, instead of violence the rookies hugged the Captain, put reassuring hands on her shoulders, murmured words of comfort.

>>I will never understand humans. Unquestionably confusing in every way.<< Blue thought in exasperation.

"The General is bringing the Captains back to Academy." Captain Appet said. "I can't...I don't know what's happened to him. I can't disobey a General's orders."

"Is he really a General worth following, Captain?" The asian rookie was folding her arms.

"Alex do you even know what that would be like, to not follow his orders? To turn away from the hierarchy you've known your whole life? Okay dumb question." The Captain smiled through the tears. "You're right, of course." She took a deep breath, composing herself in an instant.

"You can stay here, Captain. General Hunter-"

"I just broke out of General Hunter's prisons, after blockading his supplies. I don't think I'll be welcome. Besides, that won't solve anything. Auspus won't stop this insanity just because I've stayed behind. No. I'm going to make this right rookies. Somehow I'm going to make it right." She ushered them into a corner, out of view of the closed door but not the cameras. When she lifted the gun, Blue thought she finally understood the Captain's plan, but Appet simply fired the pistol into the wall, eight sharp retorts sending rounds harmlessly into the metal.

The door opened and the Captain stepped out, wiping her eyes.

"It's done. The rookies are dead," she said. Blue watched the Captain evenly as she lied. Obviously Appet didn't know about the cameras, or about Errisa's ability to trace the heat patterns of the very-much-alive rookies through the wall. She mused over the message from General Auspus. Technically the deal was to escort a Captain to kill the rookies, which she had done. The Captain's actions once she reached the rookies were not part of the deal. She nodded once, and turned to move towards the hangars.

"I heard eight shots." Blue said blandly as they walked, without looking back at the Captain.

"I missed one." The Captain replied just as blandly, and Blue nodded as if it made sense.

>>Manufactured imperfection to enhance the believability. Impressive.<< Blue noted the trick for later.

***

"We thought you were thinking of leaving without us." One of the Captains joked.

"That's not the deal." Blue was no longer in a jovial mood. She was so close, every fiberoptic nerve in her body was on-edge. As she had promised, the hangar bay was deserted, the ships scattered about in the huge dark space like sleeping animals. Blue was tempted to simply plug into the control panel and brute force her way into activating them, but she had promised Errisa that there would be a chance for her to return.

>>So close now, so close, please let nothing happen, please let nothing stop me.<< Blue repeated the mantra in her head as she ground her teeth, forcing herself to move her fingers as slow as a human would.

"How long before you can get the transports cleared and running?" One of the captains behind her asked, and Blue nearly thew a nearby chair at him.

"I assure you, I am far more anxious to arrive at our destination than you are, stupid fucking human." She snarled without turning around. A small analytical part of her identified that such displays of emotion were highly out of character for her, but Blue didn't care. After a lifetime of searching she was so close she could feel it buzzing in her circuits. As her fingers made their agonizingly slow way across the control panel Blue found herself sympathizing with the humans. Was this how desire felt for them? Was this what 'wrath' felt like to them? If so she could understand the desire to kill. If this was what they meant by 'greed', she understood the urge to hurt others to gain money. If these feelings were what humans called 'lust' she was surprised they didn't fuck each other without stop.

Blue let out a cry as the four personnel shuttles hummed to life, spheres of light in the blackness of the dark hangar. The box-shaped ships hovered low to the ground, ramps slowly extending.

"Get it! Quickly!" The others were moving, but Blue beat them all, moving to the nearest shuttle at a pace just a little slower than a run. She walked the few meters to the front of the ship, sitting and strapping herself into the passenger seat. Her knee bounced up and down, and Blue made a note to diagnose it later. This bodyframe shouldn't have tics like that, it had just been in for a maintenance check in the last week.

>>Faster, faster, why are you so slow?<<

Captain Appet stepped in behind her, pulling the door closed.

"Are we going to have fighters on our tails? I haven't flown a Purse in a couple of years, I don't like the thought of dodging fighters." She asked. It took Blue a few irritated seconds to translate the human's pilot slang as the Captain settled into the pilot chair next to her.

"Purse. Pers-onell shuttle. Clever. No, there will be no fighters. We could barely spare flyers when we had the time to organize them." The hangar bay doors slid open, agonizingly slow, as the shuttle lifted from the ground. One by one the personnel shuttles took off, the one Captain Appet flew last. When they cleared the hangar bay, Blue breathed a sigh and leaned back in her seat. The wireless connections and hotspots slowly slipping out of her range made her feel a little naked, but she was flying towards Auspus, and Auspus would remove the bottleneck. Nothing else mattered.

"You're really keen to get to Academy, aren't you?" Appet remarked as she navigated the shuttle in line with the others.

>>Oh good, human small talk.<<

"General Auspus made a deal with me. He has something I want."

"Huh. I'm really sorry to hear that."

"Don't be." Blue smiled at the Captain. She had never smiled at a human before that she could remember. "You've been more helpful to me than I've been to myself sometimes." She chuckled at her own joke, leaning back in her chair again. They remained in silence for long minutes, and Blue closed her eyes, trying to control the symptoms of emotion that had been overtaking her. Maybe she would run that diagnostic now, to take her mind off of the waiting.

It would've taken a human a few minutes to notice the shift, but Blue's eyes snapped open within seconds of the change. The vector had only adjusted by a handful of degrees, but at their current speed, following the new trajectory...

"We're not going to Academy anymore. Why?" She demanded.

"Wow, I did *not* expect you to catch it that fast." Captain Appet sounded impressed.

"Of course I caught it, that doesn't answer the question. Why have we changed course?"

"This is your Captain speaking," Appet drew the pistol Blue had given her from her belt, "I'm afraid we're going to be making a brief layover." She swung the butt of the pistol down, smacking it into Blue's temple.

Blue stared at the Captain, blinking.

"Why did you hit me?" She asked, utterly confused. To her credit, Captain Appet suddenly looked just as awkward.

"Well...um...it was supposed to knock you out."

"Oh. Well my skull is a tri-tech alloy, so that won't be effective." Blue tried to understand what social cue she was missing, feeling very much out of her element.

"Aaah, you're a synthetic. That...explains a lot, actually." Captain Appet swung again, slamming the butt of her pistol into the center of Blue's chest.

>>Emergency shutdown initiated. Saving current state. Closing programs.<<

As each of her systems and cores shut down safely, Blue heard Captain Appet grumble.

"Totally messed up my one-liner though."

*** Part 3 - Controlling Errisa ***

>>System restarting. Modules loading.<< Blue woke up slowly, and the first thing she procesed were the peals of mental laughter, ringing in her circuits.

*Hahahahaha.*

>>I do not understand what happened.<<

*Of course you don't understand you stupid collection of microprocessors. Weren't you the slightest bit suspicious when the Captain didn't kill her rookies?*

>>I assumed it was due to a human bond, between mentor and students. I was rather proud of myself for figuring it out.<< Blue ran her diagnostics sullenly.

Startup complete, Blue surveyed her surroundings for the first time. The personnel shuttle had landed, and the Captain was moving around in the back.

"I didn't restrain you, but I can and will if you cause trouble." The Captain said by way of greeting. Blue didn't answer, and Captain Appet swung the heavy doors open. The stark red light that lit the hangar beyond was instantly recognizable.

>>Orbital Basura.<<

"Why have you brought us here? I still don't understand."

"General Auspus crossed a line. Now he's going to pay for it." Captain Appet's voice was strangely flat.

"Whatever your plans, I will resist them. General Auspus owes me something, and I must meet with him."

"If you *don't* resist, if you help me, you have my word that I'll do my best to match his price."

Blue looked at the Captain through narrowed eyes.

>>Is she telling the truth? After this is over, will she remove the bottleneck?<< She asked Errisa.

*Oh most certainly.* Errisa replied, a hair too fast, but Blue nodded at the Captain.

"Very well. Lead the way."

The Captain turned her back and descended the ramp. It would've been the perfect time to smash a fist down on the back of her head, crumpling the fragile organic into a heap. Did the human really think Blue was so large of an idiot? Did Errisa think that just because she shared a mind she could get away with so obvious a lie? Even if the Captain would remove the bottleneck, Blue already had a perfectly good offer from General Auspus, a man with far more power and political clout.

Until the bottleneck *was* removed, however, Blue was mentally restrained from attacking the Captain. Besides, neither Blue nor Errisa knew how to pilot a ship to Orbital Academy on their own. At the foot of the ramp stood a woman in crisp red uniform, holding a screen and waiting for them to descend.

"Good evening Captain Appet and Chief of Information Errisa. Welcome to Orbital Basura." The woman greeted them with a friendly smile. "I am Clerical Francis. Please excuse the hastily prepared hangar, we weren't expecting a landing today."

"How did you know our names?" Captain Appet asked. Blue rolled her eyes. It was obvious to her that Francis was a synthetic, and clearly allowed access to connect to Basura's database to look up their faces. "And er...It was a bit unplanned. An emergency landing, call it." Appet shifted awkwardly.

"I understand. Unfortunately, we cannot allow you to stay. You will be leaving as soon as we've refueled and cleaned your shuttle."