Posted by Civilian Casela Synthi-er (Colonial Intelligence Agent) in Whose Gonna Sign For This Package?
Casela awoke suddenly, it was cold, like ice and a smell….it made her gag and her stomach rebel. It was hints of cedar and isopropyl alcohol….aftershave….liqueur…And a hint of….something metallic….blood. She tried to roll to expel the bile and vomit fighting it’s way out before she choked on it, only to find she couldn’t move. Knox? Knox was operating on her again? No this didn’t smell like sickbay….slowly her mind cleared, the cold, it wasn’t just cool to prevent infection, it was icy, cold to the point of burning. The smell…that distinctive scent mixed with the smell of old blood in the room. Her eyes snapped open in realization of where she was and who was in the room with her.

The laugh came next, deep and resonating, but the telltale sound of a rattle snake’s rattle within it. It set the nerves off, not like nails on a chalkboard, but that deep primal pulsating that triggers the body’s fight or flight response. But she could neither fight nor fly. She was lethargic, her limbs heavy, and she knew there would be restraints as well. His visage appeared above her face, mere inches away but it might as well have been miles for all the ability she had to fight back. She felt his hand, fingers simply trailing across skin and tracing the scars on her abdomen. “You still bear my marks, Precious. I told you you would always belong to me. So let’s remind you, hmmm? The good doctor can’t be with us. That wasn’t very nice of you to leave the way you did. There was very little of him left. I know he would have loved to be here right now.”

Mad Man. He wasn’t dead, Section had lied. She’d always suspected over the years, but she’d known for sure when she’d found out about his particular bounty. How did he get her off Leviathan? How did she get here? She struggled to recall the memory. She’d been drugged, she could feel the effects even now. She’d never made it back to Leviathan. Her distress call had gone unanswered. She’d made it to her shuttle, but she’d been followed, her shuttle caught, and then…some kind of explosion..

“No, no my dear,” came that snake like rattle again, “You don’t get to go away into that pretty little head of yours, you are going to stay here with me. You owe me a great deal. I spent a fortune to bring you back here.” He held a blade in front of her face. Razor sharp and thin, it would never be strong enough to go deep…it was meant to cause pain. The blade looked dry to her, no poisons then, just pain. More pain. “Let us see if you remember, hmmm? How long will it take you to sing for me, Precious?” Casela clenched her teeth breathing short insufficient breaths in and out through her nose. She’d be damned if she screamed for him.

And so the days went, one bleeding into another, until time meant nothing. At some point he got tired of that game and she found herself in a large circular room, dirt floor, high walls, no windows, the air stale and putrid. They were expected to fight for their survival. It was primal and disgusting, but unlike other places there was no audience, it was meant as punishment, not entertainment. When she’d taken enough of a beating, she’d been taken back to the sterile ‘medical’ room thinking the pain would help weaken her. “You will tell me what I want to know.”

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Casela woke up, laying on her back. She couldn’t move, even more so than normal, it felt hard to breathe. The restraints were gone, replaced by…she wasn’t sure, she couldn’t move her head, she couldn’t even flex her arms or legs the slight amount she’d won, and there was an incredibly heavy weight pressing down on her. It was like she was encased in some kind of tube. She couldn’t see really well. Everything was this sickly green color and she was inside whatever it was looking out. They may have found a new way to restrict, to restrain her, but she would fight her way out. But she had a primal adverse reaction to even simple restraints, even for necessary medical procedures, opting to choose to hold still rather than allow the doctors to use force fields and simple safety straps to keep her still, if it was necessary. She’d attacked Fey for making such a mistake, Knox and his staff had learned the hard way. Suddenly she was lifted up and tilted upright, they were moving her and she tried to resist to fight, but the injuries and restraints were too severe, and everything went dark and she passed out.

Operative Valkyrie

The first thing to register was the smell. Metallic… chemical… sharp… like strong disinfectant. There was light on, shining through her closed eyelids. Then there was the sound. A low hum in the background. As she opened her eyes and tried to move, an unfamiliar voice said “Easy… easy… slow movements. You don’t want to rip anything.” She was in a room, but how big was impossible to tell. The only light was right above her, the rest of the room in shadows so black they seemed endless. “You were damn near dead, lady. Take it easy. In fact, if that one hadn’t have got you here when they did, you would be dead.”

Then there was movement in the shadows and then a single sickly green line of horizontal light… a visor in a helmet.

“Hello, Cas.” said an wholly synthetic but very familiar voice. “You are a very hard woman to track down. I am impressed.”

Old Friends?