WSIM 24B Chapter 21
I opened my eyes on a Halygon ship, in a stasis pod. I'd heard the soft ping which indicated that I was ready to be released from my sleep coffin.
I was quite familiar with the view by now. There was a heavy, tinted glass plate directly above my face. The rest of the pod's cover was solid, covered by digital readouts of my vital functions, monitors, timers and such. I thought that I saw movement through the face plate, but I couldn't tell for sure.
There was a second ping, followed by a series of short beeps, as someone activated the release. I wasn't looking forward to seeing the gloating face - or faces - of Captain Teck's crew. The pod lid lifted... and I blinked - twice.
- "Pilgrim." she said, softly.
- "
Nika
?"
- "You're safe. We're both safe."
***
Colonel Renfro was there, too, with a squad of armed ISEC agents and Halygon techs. They'd taken Captain Teck from his pod, cuffed and blindfolded him. Then they took him away.
- "Welcome back, son." he said to me.
- "Where... where are we?"
- "On Attica - the planet you left from. Thanks to Nika, here. I'll let her explain it to you, while I have a few words with Teck. You just rest easy, and let the medtechs run a few tests. I'll see you back at the base."
- "Yes, Sir." And with that, he was off.
I looked up, to see Nika smiling back at me.
"I thought you were dead." I said.
- "I thought I was, too. But then... wait - let the medtechs work. I'll tell you everything as soon as they're done."
- "We're really safe."
- "Yes, we are." Nika laid her hand on my shoulder, and squeezed it gently.
Then she stepped back to let the techs do their thing. I don't know what they were testing for that the stasis pod wouldn't reveal, but it was best to just lie back and enjoy the moment.
I'd thought that I was about to be humiliated, tortured, and finally killed. I'd expected Tasha, or Will, or Faraz, to open my pod, with Anna and Teck smirking in the background. For months I'd been trying not to dwell on it, or to imagine what they might do to me - but I have plenty of imagination.
The techs stuck sensors on my forehead, on my chest, in my mouth and in my ears. Fortunately, they couldn't reach my ass while I was in the pod.
Fortunato. Lucky. I had to start thinking in standard English again, rather than Italian or Spanish. I was still alive - and 22 years old again. At least, my body was; in my head, I was 47. And a widower. The former Duke of Valentinois, and Duke of Romagna - though it wasn't going to matter at all to anyone but me.
- "Implant stopped working." said one techie. "Long time ago, from the look of it."
- "Which one?"
- "Standard contraceptive and STD preventive."
- "Oh," I said. "That stopped working fifteen years ago."
The two techs were wearing masks and goggles, but I could see their eyes. They looked at me, then at each other, and back at me again.
"It's okay." I said. "I'm still a little groggy." Who knows what kind of security clearance they had.
They continued with their tests, while I thought of Nika. She looked... well, fabulous. Even better than I remembered.
- "Were you seriously ill, recently?"
Fourteen years ago, I suppose. How long was that, outside the Sim? Could they tell that I'd had malaria? I'd have to tell Renfro, and he could decide whether to share that information or not, or whether anything needed to be done about it.
They poked and prodded me, and frowned at their readings, for fifteen or twenty minutes. I bore it all patiently - that is, I tried to ignore them while I wondered how we'd come to this. I was still alive, and so was Nika. I probably wasn't going to die in the next few days.
- "Let's get you into a chair." said Nika. She and the medtechs helped me out of the pod. My twenty-two year old body had been lying on its back for the past twenty-five years - or forty-some days, in
this
here and now. The
real
world - however strange that sounded to me.
I was passed over to two ISEC agents, both male, who helped me out of the Halygon, and down the ramp. There was a groundcar parked at the end of the dock, and they loaded me into the back seat. Nika climbed in beside me.
She smiled at me, but gave me the hand signal for silence. It didn't matter that the ISEC agents would know it; it just meant that we weren't going to say anything important in front of them. For the length of our drive, I kept my mouth shut. The driver glanced at me frequently in the rear-view mirror. I found that I didn't like the expression on his face - or that of his colleague.
The view out the window was vaguely familiar. But I was far more interested in the sights beside me. Long, straight brown hair, beautiful brown eyes, fine nose, tempting lips... my partner was an alluring woman, just as she was quick-thinking, resourceful, and multi-talented. I tried not to stare too much, so as not to embarrass her.
Fifteen minutes later, we pulled up outside what looked to be a warehouse. More agents were on guard. IDs were scanned, and the car was given clearance. We drove around to the back of the building, where more guards waited. IDs were scanned a second time, and a skill-testing question was correctly answered.
I was transferred to the chair again, and wheeled into the building. Inside, it was more like a barracks, or fortified command post, than a warehouse. We rode an elevator down two floors, and I was taken into a sterile room with a single bed and a chair. I didn't miss the large picture window on one wall. It had to be a two-way mirror; what kind of view could there be, underground? They obviously wanted the occupant of this room to know, for sure, that they were being observed.
- "Nika?" I said.
- "I'll explain as much as I can, Pilgrim." she said.
That was only semi-reassuring. She hadn't said that she would explain
everything
.
The agents helped me into bed, and cuffed me to the siderail. Then they left. Obviously I hadn't misread the expressions on their faces. I wasn't returning from a successful mission; I was a suspect until proven otherwise.
"I'm sorry." said Nika. "Let me tell you what happened, and it will help you understand."
- "Okay."
Nika sat on the chair, but she pulled it up close to the bed. Then she flashed me another hand signal: someone was listening to us.
- "
Listening? Or recording?
" I only mouthed the words, and turned my head so that only Nika could see me properly.
She signalled again. Number two.
- "The last time I saw you," she said, "we were having sex up against a barn. I wanted to smell of sex so that they would think we were lovers. Then we both went inside the house that Teck had brought us to - the day after they ambushed that party on the road."
- "Yes. It was Cesare Borgia."
- "WHAT?"
- "It was a historical simulation, Nika. The day we 'landed' was the coronation of Rodrigo Borgia as Pope Alexander VI. August 11
th
, 1492."
- "Holy shit!"
- "Yep. But go on with your story. Mine is... a bit longer."
- "Okay. Wow... well, the next morning... they killed me. Where were you?"
It wasn't an entirely innocent question. Did Nika not trust me, after all we'd been through together? I can only assume that a person's perspective changes when they get murdered.
- "Captain Teck told me to go help Will and Faraz with the horses. There was something... off, about the way he said it. If you remember that barn, you may also remember that there were gaps between the planks. I peeked in. Will and Faraz weren't doing anything with the horses. They were waiting - for me."
- "Really?"
- "I went back to the house, but heard Captain Teck coming out with Tasha and Anna. I knew then that something bad was going on. They headed for the barn. I snuck into the house. And I found you."
