Page 6

Garnet

T he aliens had some kind of brain downloading technology. They called it a data imprint. It basically shot information straight into her brain and then, bam, she could suddenly read and write in a totally new language.

It was a bit more complex than that. The sudden surge of electricity and information dumped directly into her head made her pass out. It did the same to Goldie. They’d also only have the imprint for three days, and in that time, they had some homework to do to make sure they retained at least the daily working knowledge of that imprint.

For now, however, Garnet and Goldie had the alien language Standard directly installed into their heads so they could finally speak properly with the captain of this ship. And try to figure out why the yellow guy had suddenly freaked out.

“A Vletch Ring?” She repeated, sitting side by side with Goldie on the fancy alien bed. The spinning rings were back in their dock at the head of the bed, and there wasn’t anywhere else to sit in this box filled room. It looked more like storage than the medbay that Alred claimed it was.

Tanin grunted in acknowledgement before speaking. It was the first time she could actually understand him. His words and tone were just as calm as the rest of him, despite the anxiety practically vibrating through Alred’s light body. “That’s what’s around your neck.”

“Okay.” She cut a glance to Goldie’s collar and back. “It’s got a name. What’s it do?”

“It’s complicated,” Tanin told her, coming close. Not so much that he was into her personal space, but just on the edge of her hackles being raised.

They’d been truthful thus far, but she still didn’t trust him.

“ Allow me. ” Alred walked over. “ Vletch Rings are extremely illegal devices. They are a collar specially fitted around your skin, designed to fuse with your spinal cord in order to take control of your mind and body and force you to do whatever the collar’s master demands. ”

“It’s a-…” Shock cut her off and she tried to grab it. But then stopped herself because did he just say it was fused with her spine! “This is a mind control collar!?”

“Mind and body,” Tanin said. “If it was turned on, you’d be completely at the mercy of whoever commands the collar. You wouldn’t be able to fight back. The part of your brain that controls thoughts and free will would be completely shut down by the machine. You’d be little more than a vaguely conscious puppet.”

“What the- Get it off !”

“ Calm yourself, ” Alred reassured her quickly. “ Neither collar is active. Moreover, the range on such collars is incredibly low. The remote would need to be, bare minimum, within the same room as you in order to turn them on. Even if they weren’t, the one who put those collars on you is many, many light years from here. He could press the remote all he wanted, it won’t turn on the collars. You’re safe. And I think I can remove them. ”

“You think or you know!?”

It was amazing how completely done a faceless entity could look. “ Ugh, you too. I don’t know anything. I have no experience with a Vletch Ring. It took me forever even just to recognize what code was in them. I think I can work in conjunction with the collar’s programming to disarm and detach them without causing any harm to you. ”

“Can’t you just break them!?”

“ I could try. But I don’t want to risk it. I don’t know what I’m doing yet. There’s a chance it could cause spinal injury and since we don’t have human scans in our mediring, we wouldn’t be able to fix it if I did. ”

Garnet growled, wanting so badly to pull on this ring, but now terrified to even turn her head in case she moved too fast and tweaked her own spinal cord or something. “Well, what about the keeper guys? Would they have our scans? Would they be able to help?”

“Garnet.” Tanin stepped through Alred, breaking up his light temporarily. “We cannot allow the peacekeepers to know that those rings even exist, much less that they were on my ship. It is an automatic death sentence to be caught with those. I can’t even guarantee you two would be spared and you’re the ones wearing them. These rings are dangerous . The amount of damage someone has managed to do because they had those rings is unfathomable. The authorities do not play about those rings, and they do not care how you got one.”

Garnet frowned. “That’s… I mean…”

“Let us remove them, destroy them, and then forget you ever even heard of them. Alred, that goes for you too. Once they’re off, delete the memories you have of the code.”

“ Yes, captain. ”

“Even just remembering the code is illegal?” Garnet asked, her belly twisting with unease.

“Knowing any part of how to design or create these is another death sentence.” Tanin’s expression was serious. His eyes burned as he stared at her, trying to make her understand. “There are active attempts from authorities to remove mentions of them from histories at all. Let Alred take them off of you. Then forget you ever saw them.”

Garnet was frowning. There was too much going on right now. It was getting to be overwhelming. They couldn’t have been awake longer than a few hours, and it was just hit after hit after hit of crazy things coming their way. She needed some time to process this shit storm, but it just kept coming, one after the other.

Goldie’s hand covered hers between them. Garnet turned, frowning. Goldie gave her a tired smile.

“It’s okay.”

Garnet laughed once, but there wasn’t any humor in the sound. “Is it? Because this does not feel like it’s okay.”

“I think we can trust them.”

“ You can, ” Alred assured them quickly. “ I promise, we intend you no harm. And this should be the last of the surprises for the night. ”

“I ordered Rok to prepare the guest room for the two of you,” Tanin said. “When we’re done here, you two can go there and rest.”

Rest sounded really good right then. Garnet knew they had just been woken up, but she didn’t think they had been sleeping. At least, not in the way she needed right now. Whatever happened to them, it wasn’t restful at all. Then running, being terrified by a bunch of monsters – that she was quickly coming to realize were just aliens minding their own business – and now the fact that she had a mind control collar around the neck fused into her spine…

Too much for one day. Too much for a week, really.

But she had Goldie there, still holding her hand. Her sister was her strength. Even if she looked like she was just barely holding on too.

“Okay,” Garnet nodded, her eyes lowered. “Get the collars off us, please.”

Garnet went first. If this was a first-time practice run for Alred, she’d rather she be the guinea pig. Goldie tried to argue, but Garnet insisted. She finally threatened to push her sister off the bed to get her to give in and let Garnet go first.

Alred blinked out of existence as she laid back. The rings moved down, three of them, covering her body with a gently pulsing, cream colored light.

Tanin came around then, once again holding the wire in his hand. Her eyes darted down to it briefly before she tilted her head back, letting him attach it. Watching him. Not quite with as much suspicion as before. If he wanted to hurt her, he’d had plenty of opportunities to do so. And he wouldn’t be trying to take her collar off if he was the one who put it there.

She supposed that this could all be some kind of huge, weird, elaborate lie. But the more convoluted the ‘lie’ became, the less sense it made for it to be a lie.

And there was something about the way he looked at her. Calm and direct. Even when he’d hit her with the bombshell about the collar, he’d been stoic. Stable. Reliable. The kind of guy who didn’t let himself be overwhelmed by a crazy situation.

There was strength in that steady, crimson gaze.

He attached the wire to the collar. And as he pulled back, she could swear he very deliberately stroked his longest finger over her shoulder.

Or maybe it had been an accidental brush. Maybe she was reading too much into it.

But she didn’t think she’d mind if that’s what happened. She didn’t know if she liked it. Her brain was too fried for that. But she didn’t mind either.

“ I’m starting now, ” Alred declared, his voice coming from all around them. “ Garnet, do be sure to tell me if you start to feel strange or any pain at all .”

“Oh, I won’t be quiet about it,” she promised. Garnet wasn’t the type to keep her pains to herself, especially not in important moments like this.

Goldie was standing by her bedside. Hands wringing together nervously. Garnet sent her a smile that was far more confident than she actually felt.

Tanin moved to what she assumed was the control panel off to the side. He stared at a hologram recreation of herself in the air. She could read the alien language now, but she had no idea what the information displayed was actually saying.

The seconds stretched out uncomfortably as she waited. She clenched and unclenched her fingers as she tried to relax. Maybe being tense would make it worse.

Nothing was happening.

She shared a couple of looks with Goldie. Her sister gave her an uneasy smile, shifting her weight from foot to foot. She had kicked off her one remaining shoe. It was sitting over by one of the boxes. She hadn’t gotten the other one back from where she had kicked it at that guy. Which, if he really hadn’t meant to hurt them, they’d owe him an apology for.

“You okay?” Goldie asked after a couple minutes had passed.

“Think so,” Garnet mumbled. “Erm, Tanin?”

“Yes?” He responded immediately, catching her eyes over her 3D recreation.

“What’s, er, what’s that guy doing?”

“Alred? He’s inside the collar now. Trying to detach it from inside. There will be a way to do it the right way through the code, so hopefully he can activate it himself.”

“Right. So, Alred is a computer… person?” It was a stupid sounding question, but he didn’t even blink at her phrasing.

“Essentially. He’s the ship’s AI, but he is also his own person. His kind is accustomed to jumping from one form to another. So long as whatever he’s in is connected back to the ship, he can go between them at will.”

“Oh…” Garnet didn’t think she understood completely, but she didn’t want to press too hard right now either. Figuring that out could go on the list of other things she would try to do after she had a chance to get her head on straight.

Something clicked against her throat and Garnet froze.

Was it off? Was it tighter? Was it still attached to her spine?

“ Captain ,” Alred’s voice was back again. “ A little assistance, if you don’t mind. ”

“What do you need, Alred?” Tanin asked.

“ An application of pressure. I’ve unlocked it, but it won’t pop open on its own. ”

Tanin came back around to her side. Garnet followed him with her eyes, now afraid to move her neck. She didn’t feel any different, but she wasn’t risking it.

“ You’re alright, Garnet. The wires are detached from your spine. They’re just under the skin now. Now, captain, one hand to each side, ” Alred instructed. “ Pull straight out. ”

Tanin leaned over her. His fingers definitely grazed her this time as he did as instructed. He took hold of each side of the collar. Looking her right in the eye. She stared back at him. His shoulders tensed and she felt something tugging at the back of her neck.

She gasped, but before she could say anything, something cracked. Snapped. Tanin’s arms jerked to the sides and the air was cold against the newly exposed skin of her neck.

Garnet froze. Waiting for something. But there was no flash of pain. She didn’t lose feeling or strength in her fingers or toes.

Tanin stood straight, holding his hands up. The collar was in two pieces, one in each hand. The front end was open neatly, like that’s where it had been latched closed, but it was the back half of the pieces that caught her attention.

There was a panel, thicker than the rest of the collar, right where it would have pressed against her spine. The perimeter of the panel was smooth, thick but otherwise blended into the rest. But the inside looked like the devil’s toothbrush. A forest of unnervingly long needles, most of which had little lines of light in them. Electronics. There was some blood on it. Not as much as she would have thought, considering the size of those needles.

But, disturbingly, she felt no pain.

“ Sealing the holes, ” Alred said, the ring around her head moving just a little bit faster.

“Are there holes in my spine right now?” Garnet asked, her voice extremely stable. Probably because she was afraid of shaking at all lest she mess herself up permanently.

“It’s barely bleeding,” Goldie said quickly, her head angled to the side.

“ The needles are coated in a toxin, ” Alred said from above. “ Numbs the pain, prevents bleeding, and deactivates the immune system so the body can’t fight off the needle wires. And no, there are no holes in your spine right now. I ejected them before I had Tanin pull it apart. Very simple once you know what to do. It won’t take long at all for Goldie. There’s just the skin and fascial holes remaining. ”

“Am I okay?” Garnet asked, looking back to Tanin. Needing some kind of reassurance.

“You’re fine,” he obliged evenly.

“ The damage is purely soft tissue, ” Alred said. “ Very easy fix. I can just set the automatic wound healing function on the mediring to run. ”

“My spine hasn’t been poked through a bunch of times?”

“ No, ” Alred said, chuckling. “ The collar can’t damage your nervous system. That would ruin the point since it relies on it being intact to move your body. ”

Somehow, that wasn’t very reassuring. But Tanin’s gaze was as he set aside the collar pieces. He kept his eyes on her, not even questioning why she was staring back at him, until Alred declared-

“ All done. You can get up now. Next patient. ”

Though he said it jovially, Garnet was very cautious about sitting up straight. Tanin and Goldie both stood to either side of her, watching her carefully. But she didn’t feel weak or dizzy or pain or anything as she tossed her legs over the side. She reached up to touch the back of her neck. There was definitely a new patch of skin clear of hair, and some bumps that felt like scars she knew she didn’t have before…

But she was intact and whole and, when she stood up, she didn’t have any issues balancing.

Goldie’s collar was removed much faster. Not only was she more confident about laying down and Tanin knew to wait for Alred to tell him to remove the collar, but Alred himself was faster with whatever he was doing to deactivate them. Like he said, it only took a few seconds now that he knew what program to run in the collar to get it to detach itself.

This time, when Tanin ripped the pieces of the collar away, Garnet got to watch as just a couple, slow drops of blood dripped onto the bed before Alred sealed the wounds on the back of her sister’s neck. The sight made her stomach turn. She wasn’t the biggest fan of blood. But she ignored it as she stayed close to her sister to support her.

“ I’m afraid I don’t know how to make the mediring heal without scarring. I’m sorry, ” Alred said, popping back into existence. “ But I did my best to minimize it. ”

Garnet shook her head, giving him a grateful smile. “I’m not worried about some bumps on my neck. Thank you for getting them off.”

“Yes, thank you,” Goldie added, both of them smiling at the two males.

Alred chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. “ I don’t need such gratitude, but I will take it. Thank you dearly. ”

“Alred,” Tanin spoke to him, gathering the ring pieces. “Guide them to their room. I’ll bring these to Vytln to destroy. You two…”

Garnet straightened, facing him curiously. Enjoying the scarlet of his gaze.

“Make yourselves comfortable,” he said. “I’ll bring you some food later.”

“Thank you,” Goldie chirped brightly.

“Yes,” Garnet agreed, smiling at him. “Thank you.”

He inclined his head towards them before turning, walking quickly from the room. The broken fragments of the collar in his hands.

“ Shall we ?” Alred said genially, gesturing them towards the door.