Chapter 21 Dana
“Thank you, Igor. If you remember anything else, just give me a shout.” I stuck my hand out, and Igor took it, giving it a firm but somewhat awkward shake. “And I’m glad your headaches are feeling better.”
“Me too,” he said. “Thank you for teaching me about Faraday pouches. I’m gonna make a new hat.” He patted the tin foil helmet on his head. “Improved! With copper foil!”
I’d never thought I’d get the chance to have a conversation with an altered Exotech super soldier and most definitely not a full, sit-down interview.
Igor became a ward of the colony when his unknown mother gave him up as a baby. The colony had sold him off to Exotech when he remained unadopted by the time he hit puberty. They turned him into a cyborg super soldier. The process was inhumane and grueling, but it was the only life he’d ever known.
Up until very recently, he hadn’t had any memories of his younger years. The drugs they’d given him had shortened his memory, only letting him remember enough to do his job as Dr. Kingsley’s personal guard, something he had been since he could remember. But little snippets were coming back now that he was free from Exotech influence.
And while he wanted to make sure that his story would never be lost again, he’d been wary of me at first, which was totally understandable. It was amazing he could even live a normal life after what he’d been through, but the settlers here seemed to really care about him, treating him like one of their own. It must help to have such a strong support system.
He agreed to the interview after I showed him my homemade Faraday pouch and explained the research I’d done on how to block unwanted signals. He worried that Exotech would hack into his brain again and make him do things he didn’t want, like murdering all his new friends.
His fear wasn’t unwarranted. While the engineers here had managed to remove and replace most of the receivers in his head and body, they were unable to remove one, which was deemed too dangerous to touch since it was so close to his brain stem. If I were him, I’d be worried about being controlled too.
As a result, Igor often wore an unwieldy tinfoil hat around his head whenever he wasn’t using his extra hardware to control and communicate with Fido and Kong, the two robohounds they’d converted to protect the community.
After my run-in with the biomechs with Gnnar, I’d been a little skeptical about being anywhere near them, but Fido and Kong didn’t quite act like the ones that had attacked me. For one, they listened to commands, like sit and roll over, and they had little mannerisms that made them more lifelike. Things like scratching their haunches, tilting their head to the side, or lolling their tongues out in the cutest most derpy way ever.
They were food-motivated too. And while I’d known the robohounds still needed sustenance, both the biological as well as the electronic kind, it was something else altogether to see one of these creatures beg for a treat. And yes, I was calling them creatures because, in my head, they were more beast than machine.
Unlike with Igor, these robohounds have had every single transmitter linked to Exotech removed. Annabel, the head engineer, assured me that they were safe.
After our talk about passive signal technology—Igor suffered from headaches, and overusing a counter signal made them worse—he asked if I would help him write his biography, and I agreed. It would take a long time, since he was still remembering little tidbits here and there, but that was fine. I was here for the long haul.
I split my time between the stronghold and Ellaston, much like Penelope did. It felt good to be part of building a thriving new colony, and I surprised myself with how fast I adapted to my new life.
As Igor ran off to find material for his new hat, I got up and stretched, deciding that today was a chocolate mint mocha kind of day.
The rut was over, at least for Gnnar and me, though some of the other Kadrixans were only just starting theirs. We’d stayed up in our nest for four more glorious days and nights after I’d agreed to be his mate, but now that our mini honeymoon was over, he had work to do. Krxare and Vostak had given him extra work for disappearing off to Nova Vita without alerting anyone and getting caught.
Gnnar made it pretty clear, though, that he didn’t regret a single moment and would happily do all the extra work as long as he got to hold me when he returned.
I realized something was off the moment I stepped outside. Wanting to know what all the tight-lipped whispering was about, I flagged Macey down, who was wrangling her two school-aged boys.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
It wasn’t her but one of her sons who answered. “They caught someone from Nova Vita.”
“Yeah,” the other boy said, butting in. “They’re gonna terrogate him!”
Macey rubbed her temples. “I’m not touching that one with a ten-foot pole. But yes. They found him on the outskirts.”
“Dana!” I turned to see Sami waving at me.
I hurried over. “What’s up?”
“Guy claims to know you. Says his name’s Amir. Figured we could get your opinion before Mark dumped him in the dark forests tied up for the ruka beasts. He’s a little less diplomatic when it comes to these things than Chris is.”
And Chris, I’d found out, was away visiting a native Vokiren tribe.
Interesting. I didn’t know anyone named Amir. Could it be Omnia Pictures sending someone else to get the scoop?
Sami led me to a small building at the end of the main street that was still under construction. “It’s going to be the sheriff’s office when it’s done.”
“The sheriff’s office? Like back on old Earth?”
“Yup. We thought it was fitting since this is like the Wild West, but Vokira style.”
“There she is,” Mark said, noticing me as Sami and I walked in. He looked like he had a few more gray hairs. “Know this guy?”
And there, strapped to a chair, was the guard from the shuttle, the one that had warned us about the self-destruct sequence. He looked like he’d been to hell and back, and there was a large bruise starting up just under his black eye. He was still in his uniform pants and a shirt, but they looked like they’d seen better days.
“I do, actually. He’s the one who warned Gnnar and me about the self-destruct sequence on the shuttles.”
The man looked up at the sound of my voice. “Hey. You made it.”
“We found him sneaking around the outskirts.”
“I wasn’t sneaking. I was trying to get your attention.” He turned to me. “Listen, you have to get everyone out of the village. Now.”
“And why the fuck should we believe you?”
“I told you before. They’re going to bomb the place.”
I exchanged a look with Mark. We’d released a recording of me telling my side of the story, or at least a very curated version of it.
I explained how I’d interviewed the Kadrixan prisoner on behalf of Omnia Pictures, only to find my device and account locked by the colony that very evening. I was kidnapped by men in uniform before the night was through. They were transferring me as a prisoner, without trial, to an Exotech facility when a fellow prisoner, the very Kadrixan warrior I’d interviewed the day before, overpowered the drug they were giving him and escaped, bringing me along.
“They said the camera in the cell stopped working when I was in there,” I’d said in the video. “But I don’t know how things like that even work. Someone messed up and tried to blame me for it. And no, I haven’t been kidnapped by a Kadrixan for the rut. I’m currently living at Ellaston where the settlers have welcomed me with open arms.”
There had been no official response from the colony yet.
“How do you know they’re going to bomb us?” I asked.
“After you two flew off, I called in the incident and requested for a pickup. While I waited, I had nothing to do, so I messed around with my radio.”
“You mean a homemade radio?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
Those were illegal. Colonists were only allowed devices set to public broadcasting channels. Just last year, they arrested two teenagers who made radios for fun so they could talk to each other privately.
“So where is this radio?” Mark asked. “We found nothing on you.”
“I ditched it with my phone and my ID chip.”
I glanced down at his arm, and sure enough, it was bandaged.
“I heard them talking about nuking the settlement.”
“Who? Nova Vita? Exotech?” Sami demanded.
Amir shook his head. “I don’t know. It wasn’t on a known colony channel. But I heard what I heard. You have to get everyone somewhere—” He suddenly started shaking violently.
“Fuck. It’s happening again.” Sami jammed something into the man’s mouth.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “What’s happening to him?”
“Don’t know. It happened twice already.” Mark blew out a breath and paced the room, mumbling to himself. “What do you think? Should we believe him?”
I suddenly remembered something I’d heard once. “I don’t think he’s lying. I think he’s going through withdrawal. I’ve heard rumors of Nova Vita dosing high flight-risk soldiers to prevent them from defecting.”
“Fuck!” Mark kicked a chair. “Any idea what they use?”
I shook my head.
A loud siren suddenly had me covering my ears.
“Fuck!” Mark swore again before stomping out of the room.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Sami looked grim. “It’s too late.”
We were under attack.