Vanished (4 page)

With a sharp stab of fear, she asked the question she dread
ed the answer to. “What did you just give me?”

Both men stayed silent. The glow of the fire sent shadows dancing across
Dax’s face, and she caught the glance of the lighter one. Kred stayed on his feet, studying her with gray eyes that threatened something deep in her soul.

The discomfort that this was all too easy hit her. The techs had something in mind, something darker than she had even considered.
She rolled her tongue around her mouth, trying to identify the sharp, bitter taste.

Tears gathered in her eyes
. A gentle tingle roared through her body, followed by a comforting warmth. She sank into comfortable placation, her mind screaming as she plopped on the log next to Dax. The tremble of her fingers alarmed her, and she dragged them along the rough bark next to her, trying to force away the clouds gathering in her mind.

“Why would you…” The rest of the words didn’
t seem important and she relaxed, the ground meeting her back with a gentle thump. Stars glittered overhead before Kred’s face obscured the heavens.

The slip of a knife up her belly, tugging her suit away from her skin, didn’t inject panic into her blood. She knew it should, but the fuzzy edges of things didn’t bring pain. His face blurred, though his position changed. The sensation
of falling didn’t elicit a jolt. No, but her body jerked anyway, some outside force acting on her. Her hand wrapped around her pistol, drawing the weapon inch by inch.

Air dragged at her, thick, water-like, it slowed her motion. The pistol caught on something and every ounce of strength she had didn’t seem quite enough to pull the trigger. The thing slammed in her hand, and Kred’s face filled with shock. He fell away from her, revealing the stars once more.

As her arm shook, she lifted the weapon again, this time leveling it with Dax, who shook his head so sluggishly, she wondered if he had somehow been slowed down. His hands drifted up toward his face right as the gun jammed back in her palm.

Dax fell and the world snapped to
a searing white.

Papria sat up, her suit intact, clean, but her mind screamed. A tech helped her to her feet, his hands pressing into her ribs. Another grabbed her arm, pressing a scanner into her wrist. Nonexistent pain still echoed in her confused mind.

“Are you aware?” The first tech’s hands fell from her body to shine a light in her eyes.

She flinched as the light blazed through her eye into her head. “Yes.
” The word sounded strange as it rasped over her lips. Cold numbness lingered, sinking into her soul without regard.

“What was your final question and answer on the written test?” The man eyed her, as if doubting her word.

“The question was: A crew member walks across a dilapidated building and the roof crumbles under his feet. He falls an unknown distance. His EVA suit declares he is alive, though you only have moments to reach him. What do you do?”

The tech nodded, waiting in silence for her to continue.

“I answered: Correct protocol states that heights be navigated with lock lines. Falling in an EVA suit would jerk the cable, possibly tearing a hole in the fabric. An instant retraction of the cable and a quick patch of his suit would be in order. He should then be quarantined and sent to the ship.” She rolled her shoulders, trying to ease the numbness from her limbs and the sense of fury tingling through her.

The tech nodded again, a mini scanner blinking in his hand. He keyed something in on his
datapad and left the room. The council – those in charge of setting up the trials and overseeing the techs that created challenges – filed in. Their white garb disembodied them, leaving them as floating faces with no detectable limbs or bodies.

Despite the crisp
, frost-white room, she couldn’t help the darkness filling her thoughts. When the twelve stood before her, they held a collective silence that increased her trepidation by miles. Despite the confusion pressing in on her, her mind tried to comprehend what had transpired. Unable to place the events, she instead assigned blame. Each of the men before her was guilty.

The door slammed shut, and she jumped, terror coursing through her. She backed away, before tamping down the fear and replacing it with a lifted chin and defiance. Though shock still numbed her body, she narrowed her eyes at the council.
Each face focused on some point behind her, all refusing to actually look at her. The snub angered her further. Were they treating her without respect because she was a woman, or because they’d seen her trials?

The silence dragged on. S
he wondered if they were all at a loss as well, wishing she could see into their minds, hear their thoughts. Finally, one of the men spoke up.

“Papria, you have
finished the trial.” He paused. She wondered why they were here. Why converge on her like this?

Another man spoke. “How would you describe your experience?”

The bittersweet taste of blood and bile filled her mouth, and she swallowed. “Oh, it was quite wonderful. Thank you for
allowing
me to experience a forced mating.” Hatred seared over her flesh before receding. Zoltan’s words resounded in her mind.
“Never fight angry, you’ll lose.”
She wouldn’t fight angry. She’d assassinate from afar, peering through a scope as was her way. A plan began to form, whispering in her thoughts.

The man didn’t blink
, his expression frozen in perpetual distaste. “The trials are not real. Here you are, without a scratch. You failed the trial, and are hereby requested never to return to the grounds.”

The fury
amplified. She stepped forward, fists balling at her sides. “I finished the trial. What do you mean
I failed
?”

“You murdered two of your team.” The man stared through her, as if she wasn’t even worth his full attention.

“Three, actually.” Her murmur earned her sharp gasps, and she glared at the men in disgust.

The man angled his chin, still refusing to look at her. “The first was a mercy killing, the intent pure. The other two were less pure.
Nothing gave you the right to be their judge, jury and executioner. That isn’t how things are done here.”

“My
intent
was to protect myself.” Her fists ached, clenched so tightly she wondered if her fingers might break. “The techs had my team turn on me, drug me and
rape
me! Should I have let them do so with a smile? Or did you expect me to kill myself? I had no options!” The words sank in. “I had no options.”

The man didn’t respond and realization arced through her. The depths of their depravity shocked her to the core. How was it even possible? 

“I couldn’t have won. You rigged the trial.” The hollow words slammed into her gut with the force of a sucker punch and stars exploded through her field of vision. The door opened, and the men filed out. Their refusal to acknowledge her accusations left her struggling to catch her next breath in a mixture of hatred and fury.

In their wake, Papria staggered, her body sagging. She folded, her stomach wrenching. A pain low in her core ached, a faint shadow of agony she didn’t understand. Pressing the heel of her hand into the slight indent just under her navel, she cursed the alien twinge.

The door opened and she lifted her gaze to the strange woman. Tears shone in the stranger’s eyes and an apology broke into the air between them.

Her hands fluttered with her words.
“I’m so sorry! I made sure it wouldn’t hurt. I wish there’d been some other way-“

“You did this?” A jolt of shock followed by anger stabbed through Papria and she straightened, ignoring the grabbing pain in her midsection.
It all made sense. A man couldn’t have hurt her, no, but a woman… there was no genetic barrier to keep a woman from hurting her.

“I had to. They swore that they’d… kill my son if I didn’t trick you, corner you, make you break.” The tears slipped down the woman’s cheeks, and her words dropped to a near whisper, the tone begging for forgiveness. “I don’t want my daughter to grow up in a world where she’ll always be less than her brother.”

“So you sacrifice one?” Fresh anger nipped through her, but some small part of her knew she’d have done the same. Of course, the thought didn’t ease the suffering.

“To start a revolution? Yes. I’m sorry, I’m sorry it was you, but the world will change, our people will rise up.
” She straightened, her dark tech garb stretching taut. In that moment, the woman reminded Papria of her father, and the woman ached more.

“
Men protect us, what do you think will happen now? The whole world
needs
to protect you now.” The woman’s beseeching voice didn’t snag Papria’s thoughts like the words did.

A revolution. But at what cost?

“Get away from me.”

The woman
nodded and hurried to the door. An odd thought popped into Papria’s mind. “Wait… the whole world? How?”

Features twisted in terror shone back at Papria.
“Uh…”

Papria crossed her arms, her eyes narrowing to dangerous slits. The urg
e to dismantle this woman in a most disturbing manner rose up in her, but she stifled it. “Out with it.”

The woman’s glance skittered to the floor, then tagged the walls, before focusing on the ceiling above, as if in silent prayer.
Trembling hands flattened to her belly, while she spoke.

“They televised your trial. I told them it would make an example of you, but the idea was to make sure the world knew, to spark the hatred of our people, to begin a change.”

Papria stalked forward a step, rage boiling in her chest.

The woman cowered back, her terror so thick it tainted the air between them. “Please, I’m sorry. I swear, if there were any other way…”

Cold crashed over her, before pinpricks of fire danced over her skin. They’d raped her by proxy and let the world watch. Tears sprang into her eyes, and she faltered. The wall caught her shoulder, keeping her on her feet. Horror settled in, and her arms darted across her chest, hands gripping her shoulders.

She shook her head. “No… they couldn’t. They wouldn’t have. There are laws, rules, privacy.”

The door opened again. Papria’s blurring eyes shifted to the stranger, a fiery redhead with great green eyes and an attractive, feline-esque face. She approached with a brisk pace and stopped before Papria. The new face, full of concern, shifted to the look of one hiding something.

“I’m Farali. You’ve been placed in my care. We will proceed to the facility immediately.” The woman turned, as if expecting Papria to follow without question.

Papria hesitated, frozen with fury. “Let me get this straight. Not only did this tech have me raped, but it was televised to make an example, and I’m also to be taken to the facility like a criminal?” The desire to strike this woman welled up, but she pressed it back. Losing her temper while her mind was consumed by anger and hate would lead to something she couldn’t undo. Given enough reason, the council might decide that euthanizing her was a better choice.

The woman paused, not even bothering to turn around. “You
executed two members of your team. Even though it was a simulation, your intent was clear.”

Papria’s hands began to shake, her body trembling with rage. Sweat tickled down her spine and belly, dampening her suit. Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she waited a moment before answering. 

“What about the intention of the tech who had my team attack me?” The words hung in the room, and she noticed the tech studying her shoes. Farali, her back still to the Papria, spoke after a moment.

“It was a simulation. No damage was done to your body.”

Papria’s voice was little more than a whisper. “Scars don’t have to be visible to be present.”

“You’re being silly. Now let’s go or I will drag you out in restraints.” Farali turned, her expression threatening.

Papria trembled harder. The world began a slow spin, swirling until she wondered if she would spew the contents of her stomach all over the white room. Blinded by shock and fury, she followed Farali, her movements wooden.
What else was there? If she fought, she’d be sedated. Blind terror accompanied the thought of sedation, along with the memory of his knife slipping up her belly, of the material parting…

Her breaths quickened.
They couldn’t sedate her. Panic begged to break free, but cold, murderous rage took over. She followed, imagining how many ways she could dispatch Farali before sinking into a deep ocean of helplessness.

They took an elevator, then followed the maze of white halls to the facility.
Eyes trailed her, narrowed and cold. She sensed an odd electric twinge in the air, some charge she hadn’t felt before. Most emotions were damped by control, but a select few judged her openly.

They didn’t care about the horrors that had been done to her.
All they saw were the lives she took. They couldn’t see what had been stolen from her. How terrible it had been. How dirty she felt, how betrayed she felt. She hated them. Hated every single person that stared her down, silently judging
her
as the criminal.