Page 20 of Craze

A bullet sparks as it ricochets off of the hoverdrone’s side. I duck and shield my head. I’ve got other priorities, but I don’t want them to think I’ll forget or that I’ve considered them not important. I just can’t help them now.

Craze>>Local: If you can read me, we’re pinned down, damaged. But if we make it out, we will find you.

No response comes, and I wonder if they’re powered down or have gone dark by choice. Maybe their network relay is damaged.

Craze>>Local: I wish we could help. Be strong.

Pellucid>>Local: …

I wish this wasn’t our life. I wish we could know something other than war, than straining to hold on.But if I don’t stay focused on our survival, any hope of freedom will be gone forever.

Craze>>Local: I’m sorry. Please understand.

Craze>>Local: Pellucid, do you copy?

But all I get is silence.

Chapter 6: Navi

Two years have passed since the Titans made it off of Hyperion, and we left to continue Sevrin’s hunt of lost human biotechnology. Many of my human sisters have died. A few new ones have joined us from Solcrue motherships, Contessasand others. I remain in isolation, but I haven’t forgotten the broken transmission from the surface.

The reply didn’t make any sense, too many words cut out. But someone responded. And I have not stopped thinking about the Titans that fell from the group, the ones that were unable to escape with their brothers.

As we set down in the old plant’s empty yard on Hyperion, I wonder if those Titans are still alive. Two years is a long time. But I have my own plans and my own people to think about today.

Since we were here last, I’ve learned of a new facility erected for the purpose of studying the Titan parts left behind in the aftermath of the jailbreak. Sevrin uses it to build Titan torture tech, something he’s working on in another area of the galaxy, too. But now he’s handing it over to Rochir and moving on to bigger things.

Rochir is set to have a meeting with Sevrin and the commanders before he introduces us to hisnext level of pain. I’ve listened in to nearly every conversation thanks to the power cell Shavih installed. Rochir doesn’t go probing around because of the blood. So far, I have no inclination to believe my plan won’t work.

However, I am so stuck in my headspace that I’m starting to feel disconnected from the other women aboard Ravenger III, more so than the simple isolation. I have become deeplyintegrated with my splay to the point where I don’t feel I can quite call myself human. My body feels distant, like an extension of me instead of who I am.

Any word?I ask Shavih. She can hear me from her new implant, a trial run of Sevrin’s wireless cyborg communications chips that Rochir has modified for biochemical machines like us.

Sevrin’s words echo in my memory. I block them from Shavih.I will command her. She will command them.

Trouble is, he’s not talking about me. He’s talking aboutKillstar. But he still needs to test his system on us. I think it’s why we’re here.

Shavih is smart. She knows how to break her augment so it won’t work for him, then hack it so we can talk. But without a splay, she must use a com to reply. That took the longest to acquire and modify.

Over the last two years, we’ve worked together with the other nineteen women to sneak each other parts through the vents and tucked away corners of the ship. Then we stumble and covertly collect them so we can build ourselves a means of escape.

“Looks like they’re getting ready to offload us,” she whispers.

Sevrin left our ship months back to work on his Killstar project. I’ve had plenty of time to practice being a mental ghost in Rochir’s system while he tried to make more like me, repeatedly failing because he doesn’t have Sevrin’s sadistic patience or the stomach for it. I’ve learned Ravenger’s systems well, watched guard patrols on the video feeds in my mind, and picked out the weaknesses in Rochir’s ship.

Now that we are back on a moon with breathable air, our preparation time has run out. I don’t want Solcrue to escape with telepathic tech or knowledge of it. With the Astrals gone, I hope to bury it deep in the tarmac of Hyperion.

Shavih’s voice is tight. “I hope your plan works. I do not want to become food today.”

Just make sure to tag the guards with the targeting chips before the dogs get out.

The monster guard that Rochir hired to watch over me opens my cell door. He draws an old-fashioned knife from his belt and holds it to my throat. “One move and I’ll let you bleed out on the floor.”

They’ve learned to keep me isolated from power sources. I couldn’t hide every capability after I initiated the ice shields. But since, I’ve been very careful not to let them know how much I can control.

Rochir changed the security codes, but I found the new set the next time he connected me to the chair. Direct links to the ship still seem to take control of me.

Rochir thinks I’m a drone capable of doing as I’m told. But it’s mostly an act. The more time I had with my splay, the more it protected me, listened to me, meshed so well with my own thoughts that it feels almost natural. So I pretend he commands me.

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