NichosDufresne

  Ava stared at her hands in wonder, experiencing the emotion for the first time. The st thing she remembered was unhooking herself from her station to give Connor and Ellie instructions on how to save her. After returning to the station, she hadn’t had enough time to upload the most current version of herself to be transferred before her power source ran dry.

  The result was that she had no memory of actually instructing the pair. From her point of view, she disconnected herself from the station and promptly woke up to a wary Irric aiming a gun at her. But those were minor details that weren’t important to her at the moment.

  She was alive.

  Curling her fingers into a fist, she marveled at the autonomy of the action. She’d done it. She’d cheated death. A bubbly feeling welled from deep within her and she couldn’t contain it anymore. Faint giggles turned into full blown ughter at the incredulity of it all.

  Irric stared at her, unsure how to react. He knew Ava was a potential threat, but her actions worked hard to disabuse him of that notion. Still, he kept his guard up in case she tried anything. Betedly, she turned to face him, as if noticing him for the first time. The startling sight of an a’vaare in her creators’ stronghold distracted her from noticing the man next to Irric. Ava immediately realized that something wasn’t right. Looking around, she tried spotting any traces of the gru’ul but could find none.

  “Hello,” she smiled nervously. “I already died once today, could you please put your gun away? I’d really rather not get shot again.” The novelty of being alive again was beginning to wear off and Ava was acutely aware that she was in danger.

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Irric responded curtly.

  Ava’s focus shifted from Irric to Adrian, her eyes widening as she did a double take. “Subject 008? You’re alive?” she asked in English, shocked. “How are you here?”

  “I’m not,” Adrian responded through gritted teeth. “Be thankful, because if I was, I would be pulling the trigger on Irric’s gun right now. What you’re seeing is a hologram of me.”

  “That doesn’t expin how you’re here! How are you with the a’vaare?”

  “They rescued me from the hell you condemned me to,” Adrian said darkly. “You’re in the facility I was found at. A facility,” Adrian smiled dangerously, “that is currently under a’vaarian occupation. Your creators are dead. There are none left.”

  The shock on Ava’s face was palpable. “They’re all dead?” Adrian’s bloodthirsty smile only grew as the sickening crunch of removing his old captors’ heads resounded in his mind.

  “As far as I’m concerned, they didn’t suffer enough,” Adrian spat. “They should count themselves lucky. The things I would’ve done to them if I’d had the chance,” he sighed. “But that’s neither here nor there. The point is, you’d better find a way not to come off as threatening if you want to live. Your life is still on the line.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Ava asked warily, eyeing Irric with distrust. Suddenly the gun in his hands seemed much more threatening. This was not the secure position Ava imagined herself in after transferring to her new body.

  “The Tribunal has made the conditional decision to let you live. If you don’t prove your use to them or attempt to sabotage their work here, they will kill you without thought,” Adrian said seriously. There was nothing jovial about his tone when he spoke.

  “How do you know this?”

  “Because I was present when the decision was made. Shocking, I know. It was really more of a happenstance. I don’t think I’d normally be privy to such information. Take my warning. If you want to live, you must not appear threatening to them. Give them no reason to doubt you.”

  “Why are you telling me this? After everything that happened, don’t you want me dead?”

  “Very much so,” Adrian said bluntly. “However, you living or dying is firmly out of my hands. I have no control nor say in the situation. I’ve been hired to transte anything that was said during this discussion. This conversation between us will be transted. I’m just doing everybody a favour and telling you what you were about to be told without being asked and wasting more time. I want to spend as little time around you guys as possible.” He shot the Connor and Ellie gnce. “Already, just interacting with you, even like this, is pushing my limits.”

  “I see.” Ava looked at the floating image of Connor and Ellie, who thus far had remained silent while Ava acclimated herself to her new reality. “May I speak with them? I would like to thank them for choosing to spare me.”

  “Adrian,” Irric interrupted, “would you care to transte for us now?” Adrian obliged and recounted his conversation with Ava. He mentioned Ava’s request to approach the screen to speak with Connor and Ellie.

  Back on the ship’s meeting room, Nessah’s voice came from the data ste near him and instructed him to permit Ava to approach. Hearing the order, Ava stepped forward before being prompted and walked towards Adrian and Irric.

  Irric quickly stepped back, keeping her within sight. His gun never once strayed from her person. Positioning herself so that Connor and Ellie could see her, Ava thanked the both of them for the part they pyed in her survival.

  Connor and Ellie looked at each other. “You’re welcome,” Ellie finally said, not quite knowing how to respond. “What do you pn to do now that you’re there?”

  “Well,” Ava said, gncing nervously behind her to where Irric was standing, “I don’t really know. When you both said you’d contacted aliens using the terminal, I thought you meant my creators. The a’vaare are not them. I’m pretty much at their mercy until we work something out.”

  Ellie frowned. “That doesn’t sound like a good deal for you.”

  “I don’t have much of a choice.”

  “We heard. You either work with them or die, right?”

  “That’s one grim way of putting it. I don’t have much of a leg to stand on to negotiate good terms with them.”

  “Of course you do,” Connor scoffed. “You have information about your creators’ goals and the experiments they were performing. I’m sure the military trapping you would love to hear anything you have to say on the topic. You’re the only one who knows that information with any certainty. If they really want to know what you do, you should be able to bargain some rather generous terms.”

  “You’re forgetting the part where they kill her if she doesn’t cooperate,” Adrian interjected.

  “Is that what they did to you as well, to get your help? Did they threaten you?” Ellie asked.

  “No, I’m getting paid for my work like a normal person. We’ve worked out a deal,” Adrian replied, not expanding on the topic. Ellie wisely left well enough alone. “I don’t suppose you have a way to change skin tone or anything?” Adrian asked Ava. “Because you’re going to stick out like a sore thumb here and they’re definitely not going to give you any freedom.”

  Ava frowned. “I didn’t think that my looks would be an issue, but now that you mention it, if the a’vaare are in charge, it would be best to look like one of them.” Closing her eyes, Ava focused for several moments. A ripple spread through her, catching everyone off guard. Slowly, her pale skin gained a purple hue, and her hair changed shades from blonde to a pale lic. Irric and Adrian watched the process, sck-jawed. Bright orange eyes stared back at them when Ava was done her transformation. “Does this work?” she asked.

  Kaius demanded what had occurred, as Ava was off screen, unable to be seen by the Tribunal. Irric woodenly described Ava’s transformation and her new looks. There was an immediate uproar amongst the Elders. They demanded to know the extent of Ava’s ability to modify her appearance.

  “I only have two settings,” Ava expined. “I don’t know why my creators deemed this function to be necessary, but I can assure you that my ability doesn’t extend past that.”

  “How are we supposed to trust that!?” Cirrus exploded. “She could be lying for all we know. What if she has the ability to look like any one of us?”

  “I doubt that’s the case,” Orryn said. “Besides, I don’t think she’s even seen what any of us look like.”

  “That’s besides the point! I want her locked up until we know what she can do!”

  Orryn rolled her eyes. “Why am I not surprised? That seems to be your default response to anything even remotely threatening.”

  Cirrus looked ready to respond but was cut off by Kaius before she had the chance. “I believe that we should convene somewhere,” Kaius looked around, “private before continuing our discussion. General, if you would be so kind as to inform Commander Cyrix of our test development. I want the android detained until we determine our next course of action.” Nessah replied affirmatively and ended her call to Jyn’s data ste.

  Ava’s eyes widened. “Don’t I get a say in whether or not I get detained?” she asked.

  Cirrus scoffed. “As if. You’re the threat. We’ll be putting you somewhere where you can’t harm anything until we know what to do with you.”

  Ava gnced hopefully back at Adrian. She’d just obtained a new lease on life and wasn’t willing to throw it away quite yet. His earlier warning echoed in her mind. She would have to py her cards right in order to stay alive.

  A mixture of satisfaction and pity could be seen on Adrian’s face as he regarded Ava. “I won’t be helping you in this,” Adrian said in English so that the others couldn’t understand. “This is something you need to do for yourself. I have no way of getting to where you are to lend you a hand. The most I can do is talk to them, but they’re not going to give my words much weight, if they listen to me at all. I don’t know what you have hidden up your sleeve that’s going to make you valuable, but you’d better get ready to negotiate.”

  Her hopes at avoiding imprisonment dashed, she asked “What am I supposed to do, then?”

  Adrian sighed. “I honestly don’t know. Offer to trade information for privileges in return. Just be careful not to go too far. You’re going to have to show them you’re trustworthy, which is going to be pretty damn hard given your connection to the situation.”

  “What connection?” Ava asked, narrowing her eyes.

  “They already know I was experimented on back on Earth by humans. The topic came up when Connor and Ellie made their first call here.”

  “And what did you tell them exactly?”

  “That you were the one in charge of the facility that originally experimented on me and sent me off to the gru’ul. It was quite surprising to learn that the facility was being run by a gru’ul-built android to send them the successful experiments. I have many questions I want to ask you, but I’m not sure I want to know the answers.”

  “Right, so I’m fucked, aren’t I?” She barked out a broken ugh. “There’s no way they’re ever going to trust me in the slightest if that’s their first impression of me.”

  “Pretty much. I don’t envy your situation.”

  “Would you care to enlighten us on the contents of your conversation?” Kaius asked.

  “Not this time,” Adrian refused, switching nguages. “That was a personal discussion between the two of us. Don’t worry, nothing earthshattering was talked about.”

  “You’re supposed to transte everything for us, that was the deal!” Cirrus barked.

  “And I have transted everything for you. That conversation was for me. I believe I’m under no obligation to transte that. I’ve given you everything you’ve asked for.”

  Cirrus was enraged. “You insufferable little –”

  “You’re twisting the words of our agreement around,” Orryn interrupted. Cirrus shot her an irate gre, unimpressed at having been cut-off. Orryn ignored the look, focusing on Adrian instead.

  “Fine,” Adrian sighed. “In the spirit of remaining civil with one another, I’ll tell you what the conversation was about, but I won’t give you the specifics.”

  “How generous of you,” Cirrus said dryly. “At that point, why not tell us the whole thing?”

  “Like I said, the conversation was between the two of us. I believe I have no reason to fully divulge my private life to you.”

  Cirrus rolled her eyes. “Fine then, what were you talking about?”

  “I was giving her advice.”

  “On what?”

  “How to deal with the lot of you.”

  The look on Cirrus’ face darkened. “What do you mean by that?”

  “I was informing her on possible ways to get into your good graces and not get shot for appearing too threatening.”

  “Anything else we should know?” Cirrus seethed.

  “I believe that is all,” Adrian said pleasantly.

  “Adrian,” Ellie said, getting his attention. “I don’t know how much time we have left before somebody comes looking for us. We’re going to have to cut this call soon in order to get back to work so that Ashford doesn’t get suspicious.”

  “That poses a bit of a problem. The Tribunal wants to keep talking with you as long as possible.”

  “I can give them the means to contact us again,” Ava offered. “As a gesture of goodwill,” she added with a sidelong gnce towards the Elders. Adrian transted the conversation for the Elders and waited for their reply.

  “They would like to remain in contact,” Adrian said, gesturing for Ava to instruct Connor and Ellie. “They would also like to know your avaibility.”

  “Sporadic, at best. It may be a while before we attempt to contact you again, if ever. If we get caught coming out of here it’s game over for us.” Adrian reyed the information to the Elders while Ava gave Connor and Ellie proper instructions on how to use the terminal to contact them again, should the opportunity ever arise.

  “The Tribunal bids you farewell,” Adrian said once Ava was finished. “They hope to hear from you again to trade information.”

  “We wish them the same,” Ellie said, a wan smile on her face. “As much as I’d like to stay and talk, we need to go. Goodbye.” Ellie approached the keyboard at the terminal and followed Ava’s instructions. Soon after, the image of them winked out of existence.

  “That just leaves us with you,” Adrian said to Ava after transting. The Tribunal had yet to leave, intent on seeing out the st of the exchange with Ava. While Cyrix was organizing a team to guard Ava as she was escorted her to her cell, the Tribunal made use of their time to question her.

  “You’re going to imprison me, regardless of what I tell you,” Ava replied. “This way, I keep a hold of the information I want for leverage. So no, I’m not going to divulge everything I know about the facilities.”

  Cirrus turned to face Adrian. “This is your fault,” she snarled. “You told her to try and extort us for the information.”

  “I did no such thing,” Adrian said coolly. “I instructed her to exchange her information for benefits,” he crified. “She would have done it without my prompting. She has no reason to tell you anything when you’re about to imprison her. Anybody in her pce would do the same. I warned her not to go too far with her demands. I don’t think you’ll have too hard of a time debating what to do with her.”

  Cirrus remained silent, unimpressed. The scuffle of many boots caught everyone’s attention. Uncomfortable with Irric being left alone with Ava, Cyrix had ordered the door remain open at all times so that the guards could react. “Quickly, drop the call so that you aren’t discovered!” Kaius ordered Adrian.

  “This is the part where you be careful,” Adrian said hurriedly as Tassie dropped the call. His hologram winked out of sight right before Nadi arrived, holding a bundle of clothes, her team right behind her. They immediately moved to secure Irric from the threat. Ava looked at the rger guns aimed at her nervously.

  Nadi advanced forward. “Who’s this and why is she naked?” she asked, handing the clothes to Irric after he holstered his gun. Irric thanked her for the clothes and thrust them towards Ava, trying not to look. Ava accepted mutely and began getting changed.

  “That’s cssified,” Irric said. “All you need to know is that she’s to be escorted back to the main ship in secrecy, where she is to be detained in a special cell. Commander Cyrix should have given you clear instructions on what to do.”

  Nadi tsked. “Can’t bme a girl for trying.” Irric shot her an annoyed look. After Ava was finished getting dressed, Nadi signaled for her team to surround Ava, who looked increasingly nervous where she stood. “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure she gets to where she needs to go safely.”

  “She’d better,” Irric warned. “This is important. Trust me.”

  Nadi waved him off. “We’ll be fine. It’s not like there are any hostiles around,” she said, shooting Ava a sidelong gnce, “that we aren’t aware of,” she added. With Ava secured, she ordered her team to escort Ava back to the ship, after expining to Ava how the next several minutes were going to py out. Ava nodded along, knowing that she didn’t have a choice. She wasn’t pleased at being imprisoned but couldn’t fault their logic. It’s exactly as she would have done had she been in their pce.

  Irric watched the soldiers file out, leaving him alone in the room. Moving the badge away from the door, the watched as the wall reappeared. Now that he was finally alone, he had the time to process the absurdity of what had just happened. He slumped against the wall, wondering what he’d find next.