"It’s not something I like to talk about. But then I guess we’re not technically talking are we?"

Later that evening . . .

Shi watches through a two-way mirror as three teams of her scientists fight to strap a struggling Rayn down and sedate her. The team leader comes to Shi.

"We’re nearly ready."

[inset]

Later that night . . .

Kindra dances down the crystal halls of Council headquarters dripping with jewelry and gems over her fine, soft gown. The rest was all deposited safely, hidden to all but her. More than she’d ever need. She waves open Tyran’s door. The look on his puffy face wipes out her smile. He’s been crying, and drinking heavily.

"Go away!"

"But we--"

"My father died today, and I was betrayed! Do you think I want to share this night’s bed with another traitor? Do you think I ever did?"

The door closes. Kindra is left alone.

Later that morning . . .

Kindra is dressed to leave. She finds Shi meditating at a desk and approaches.

"I’m leaving."

Without opening her eyes, "What about Tyran?"

"We decided… I’ve made other plans."

"I see."

"But I assume you’ll still honor our arrangement."

"Of course. A person’s word is everything."

Kindra looks away, face burning. Shi grins.

"Oh sorry. Yes. You have your money, silver, and a Council seat for life. It’s all yours. Take it with you. After you’ve had some time to reflect."

"What?"

Guards seize her.

"He never promised you freedom to enjoy it all as well did he?"

"You breckt!"

"When you make a deal to sell your soul dear, be careful the fine print."

Shi goes up to her, close, and whispers.

"She deserved better from you!"

Shi motions. The guards drag Kindra away screaming.

Months later . . .

Rayn’s breath exhales visibly in the frigid lab. Her eyelashes are frozen. Her lips, blue. Another test. Barely conscious she calls for him.

"Rozar? Roz?"

A figure hovers near her.

"Your friend the Peacekeeper? Dead. Sorry." She jabs another needle in Rayn’s side. In the doorway, another figure stands in pale robes… sucking her hair.

"You?" Rayn whispers then passes out.

Months later . . .

Rayn awakens to find herself not strapped down as usual, but upright, suspended, and trapped in a sphere of metal rods with tips pressing into her skin. Acupressure, no pain, but no movement either. Another test.

The rest of the room is zero gravity. Shi floats by, reviewing some results. She doesn't know Rayn was awake.

"Why?"

Shi, startled, looks from Rayn to the door not sure if she wants to have this conversation. Then with a sigh and shrug moves closer.

"The tests? We’re going to introduce a revolutionary element into our DNA. We have to know everything we can about both it and its effects on the body even in its most elementary state."

Shi starts to leave. But Rayn stops her with--

"I knew. That day I saw the bodies. That something was wrong. One too few. Three. Mother, father, nanny. None for me, my room was obliterated, so none expected. But none for the cousin who stayed with us, who pulled me free when I got stuck chasing lizards. The one who’s brother took her away in his Council heli-lift that day as she sucked her hair. You!"

"All right. I don’t remember exactly what happened but I do know your mother got us both out before they came. Put me in the hall. Snuck you away apparently. But did a good job hiding it. They found your blood, DNA, and nothing else left of the room. Dead, certainty."

"Why were you in our home?"

"Spying."

Rayn arches an eyebrow at her frankness.

"The excuse: I was sent there while my mother was dying. The reality: ocular and auditory implants, a regular walking recorder. Father never missed a trick."

"Why?"

"To watch Mala, and you. He wanted immortality, your mother was one of the one’s working on it, the best one. I don’t know if she knew that was the true goal of her research though."

"Why immortality? Why did he want it so badly?"

"Not wanted, needed. And you don’t need to worry about that right now."

"And the love letters?"

"You saw. Only from him to her, either never sent or all returned. None back. I think he fell in love with her in the process of manipulating her. Probably used your childhood illness, may even have inflicted it for all I know, to trick her into doing human testing she would never have agreed to. He fell in love with her despite the fact they were both married. I don’t know if he ever told her or… but I do know she loved and stayed with her husband."

"She found out what was happening to me, what your father had tricked her into doing. And before you could all come and take her, her research, and me…"

"They sacrificed themselves to save you."

"I knew it." I knew I wasn’t a guinea pig to them, not to them! "An attack scapegoated on the Lows, that just happened to start a war."

"The war would have happened anyway."

"How could your family do these things to people?"

"Out of responsibility. For the greater good."

"How could you even use that word! No ends could justify all the pain you’ve caused!"

"They'll have to." Shi turns to leave. "The pain’s already there."

"You, your family, and everything it stands for- I’ll see the end of them all!"

"If I were you, I’d have to believe that too."

Shi leaves. Behind her another team comes in with the laser-drill, another scan of the old head-chip and all the pain that comes with it. Rayn promises herself she wouldn’t scream, wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

Six months from the first test . . .

Tyran arrives in Shi’s office from the bed of his new beloved concubine Wu, hung over as usual now and groggy.

Shi, "Finally."

"Do you even need me?"

"It’s a briefing. I make the plans, you implement them, Commander, remember?"

She pulls the test results up on the holo-projector. Images and data shoot up from the circle between them.

"Apparently, the artificially-introduced genes lead to the production of chemicals. They work like a super-immunity system against antioxidants, radiation, anything that causes cell damage or degeneration. Eliminates the kill switch too. But it doesn’t stop a laserbolt or an accident. No indestructibility. Chip appears to regulate the chemicals and I think something else, memory. That’s why the complex integration with the neo-cortex and the huge storage capacity. To hold additional countless memories without losing the person’s original personality."

"Neat. Pity it doesn’t work on clones like myself. But of course that’s how father arranged it. So in case it didn’t work, drove everyone mad, his mind, mine, young, strong, would always be there. Always."

That night . . .

Shi watches from a monitor as Rayn wakes up.

Rayn finds herself alone and in a black Council uniform not the standard white surgical gown. They’re going to move me. She’s tried to escape a dozen times. She sees a scalpel teetering off a tray near her. She bounces the gurney, knocking it off into her hands. She cuts the restraints and rises. Or tries. Her muscles are atrophied, everything hurts, dozens of surgeries, procedures. She tries to stand and collapses before finally, slowly pulling herself up and on.

She stumbles into the hall. It’s empty. She limps down to the end. A noise. She darts in an open chamber. Onar’s room again, this time covered in sheets and dust. She goes to the drawer that had held her mother’s journal. She had missed something. There, hidden in a crease, the missing pages! She puts them down her shirt and heads to the door.

Shi, watching, is pleased at her gift. Now she would herd Rayn towards the shuttle in which she would think she was escaping but which would be on auto-pilot to a small abandoned asteroid base. Solitary but safe. No more tests, no one else would know.

But then Rayn disappears from the monitors.

Shi jumps up and sounds the alert.

Rayn, after months of watching, knew exactly where the hidden cameras were along with everything else. While pulling herself up she palmed a sonic drill, chemical coolant, and vial of her own blood. She had dripped the blood all along her path, then doused herself with the coolant before overloading the drill. No DNA scanner or body heat dectector could find her and the motion sensors were sonically disrupted. The monitors, she knew how to avoid.

Before anyone can locate her she climbs through the familiar vents to central control. Dropping into the heart of the computer mainframe she seals the doors, hacks in, and starts to delete the test results. Shi appears on the monitor.

"Nice try."

Shi has blocked off all the results into one area with a hundred firewalls. Guards are on their way. Rayn keeps hacking while Shi keeps blocking. Rayn pounds the console.

"Why do you want this so badly? You know we aren’t ready for it!"

"We have to be! It’s this or oblivion!"

"What do you mean?"

Shi won’t answer. So Rayn nods to where more guards would’ve been.

"Why all the secrecy?"

"We need to control who gets this first and how."

"Why? Only the rich? The important?"

Shi doesn’t answer.  Rayn grins.

"No, if everyone can’t have it no one does!"

While distracting Shi, Rayn has overloaded the thrusters. In a few seconds…

"No!" She screams. In desperation Shi transmits the results out to save them just in case, then narrowly averts the overload.

Shi grimaces. "That’s what you wanted all along wasn’t it."

Rayn had pre-frayed the transmission signals. The data went everywhere.

"No I wanted to kill us all. That was just Plan B."

Tyran bursts in.

"Take her!"

With her last burst of energy, Rayn kicks Tyran in his laser-shot knee. He crumples. Guards grab her.

Shi on the monitor, "Don’t. We may still need her."

Tyran, "What?! Put her someplace safe, comfortable?"

Shi, face blotched with anger, let’s it get the best of her.

"Not necessarily." No more gifts. The monitor goes off.

Tyran turns on Rayn.

"Take her to Howarth, the demon moon. At least there she won’t be lonely."

Next Week - Episode 14: Until the Day She Dies