The Tau Ceti Agenda

'I, uh . . .'

'No, you wouldn't have. I know you too well. Now stop it, Scotty. I've got a battle plan to think about.' Elle waved him to the door. Scotty shook his head and reluctantly dropped the topic, leaving the general to her work.

Allison? Allison?

Don't worry, I'm still here.

You got really quiet on me.

I didn't want to transmit just in case they knew how to detect it. Looks like our decoy implant worked. How do you feel?

Yes it did, and I feel rough as hell.

The CIA had discovered decades earlier that the Separatists often removed the AIC implants of captured agents and either hacked them or destroyed them. And in many cases, they killed their biological counterparts in the process. Allison was a member of the Top Secret AIC family that had been developed to grow as microfilaments along the human nervous system, rather than to be implanted as a small device in the brain. Allison's components were dispersed and intermingled throughout Kira's body and would likely only be removable if Kira were dead. The implant was just a copy AIC that had been put there years ago to act as a decoy. Most CIA operatives had similar AICs. The AICs had to volunteer and so did the operatives, as it pretty much made them symbiotic and intertwined for the life of the human.

Any luck getting us out of here?

The troop carrier we rigged this morning hasn't been repaired yet! Allison said excitedly into Kira's mind. That was a glimmer of hope. The lifter that they had commandeered in the hangar bay to fly them up to the mecha that they had ended up stealing for the getaway was still in line to be repaired. The Seppy repair crews had just rolled it aside for later maintenance. And it still had the hacks in place that Kira and Allison had previously applied. And it was still keyed into the ship's networks.

Can you access it? Kira had put her mind so far out into space that she could barely keep her sanity. The internal burning sensation had finally lessened to a tolerable level, but that had been followed with a strange and frightening euphoria that had lasted for several minutes. The doctor had left her to her chemical trip as far as she could tell and was no longer in the room with her. The bastard hadn't even bothered to cover her up.

I've got control of it now.

Can it bust us out? Kira tried blinking her eyes and shaking her head hoping to keep the pain managed. The remnant of the immunoboost that she had taken hours ago was probably keeping the pain from overwhelming her, but the chemical had pretty much overcome what was left of it. Her head pounded like a repulsor hammer with each beat of her heart.

It couldn't get through the deck plating. But it's a start and a way out if we can get to it.

If we can get to it. Right. How do we do that?

You have to get untied.

I have no idea about that yet.

The door hissed open and Kira braced herself for more torture. It was the doctor again. This time Scotty followed in behind him. The two were arguing about something, but Kira couldn't make out exactly what at first.

'The general sent me back down here to ask more questions. Is she conscious?'

'I can always wake her up if not,' the doctor replied.

'Leave us, now.' Scotty glared at the doctor. Kira wasn't sure, but she was guessing that Scotty must be a high-ranking member of Ahmi's inner circle, if she had one.

'If you need me, I'll be in my office,' the man said, and the door closed behind him. Scotty turned his attention to Kira.

'Here, this will help,' he told Kira as she felt a sting in her neck.

A flood of warmth and well-being coursed through her body. A feeling that Kira had felt way too many times that followed stims and immunoboost injections. But that was a good thing. She never wanted to feel the way she had a few minutes ago ever again. She needed the added strength and for some of the pain to go away. Almost immediately, the throbbing in her face subsided. There must have been painkillers in the injection as well.

What the hell?

This could be our chance?

'I'm not privy to the plan to murder on such a mass scale. Everything we had done before was based on creating a new America. One that we lost so many decades ago. You have to stop this madness!' he rambled rather quickly and then slipped a knife underneath the zip tie, cutting her right hand free.

'Why are you doing this?' Kira rose as he cut her left hand free. She rubbed at the scratches on her wrists that were healing in real time. The swelling in her face reduced, and the cuts began to close.

'I told you. I'm not a mass murderer. Elle has stepped over a boundary that I can't.' Scotty focused only on cutting Kira's bonds loose.

'You know she is fucking nuts!'

'No, she isn't. She is the most brilliant woman I've ever met. Probably the most brilliant human that ever lived, but with that great intellect, she has become so logical that she has forgotten the emotional aspects of being human on an individual scale. She only thinks in the grand schema nowadays.' Scotty looked nervously over his shoulder. 'Her big picture is brilliant but is getting too costly. And I have family in Luna. She could have at least warned me.'

Aha, it isn't selfless. He has someone he cares about in harm's way, Allison thought.