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, Contessas and 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 his next 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 deeply integrated 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 about Killstar . 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.

The splay filters damaging commands. Only the threat of my friends getting eaten by Sevrin's dogs or beaten by the guards can keep me from misbehaving when I want.

The guard covers me in a long hooded cloak that covers my eyes. It's something Rochir started doing after I kneed him in the nuts.

He wanted me kept in the dark during transfers .

Rochir integrated me with part of the ship's research systems after Sevrin left because he is crazy but also right. I can translate encoded messages with my splay's help. I just don't want to. I won't willingly help the enemy track down my kind, so I block out any critical pieces I can. Rochir says this new lab will fix me.

I stumble and bump into my guard, covertly dropping a tracking chip into his jacket pocket. It took Shavih months to steal the parts, unnoticed, and to make the tracking chips while Rochir tried out new upgrades on her arms.

During Sevrin's last visit, he took Shavih's upgraded arms, Jeela's legs, and the spinal enhancement from a woman named Tasha. He said they were for Project Killstar. Then he gave them all heavy basic model augmentations again.

I kept my eyes and my splay. But seeing them in pain, enduring so much just to return to where they started was what broke me down.

Today, I destroy Ravenger III and take as many guards out as I can. Rochir's got plenty of pain coming, too.

Ahead of me, Shavih and the other women are escorted into the main corridor, leading past rooms I've only seen in the starship's schematics. I'm excited and terrified to see the world outside, but I'm more nervous about my plan. I've spent nearly four years stuck on Ravenger III and rehashed my action plan a thousand times. By the wild expressions and jittery behavior of the other women, they feel equal anxiety of the moments to come.

They're counting on me.

We're counting on Sevrin's mutant, cybernetic dogs to home in on the chips based on data I pulled from their experiments that explains why they respond to Sevrin. But we're also counting on the masses of creatures to insight chaos on the ship.

Rochir grunts repeatedly in lust through an open door to one of his augment labs. As my guard urges me past the doorway, I hear a thump followed by Jeela's yelp.

"Just because I like Solcrue tongues on my balls more than humans' does not mean you get to taste my venom, whore."

I grit my teeth and glance at her under the brim of my hood as we pass.

Jeela's lying on her side, tears streaking her face. But in the space between Rochir's scrawny, naked, green ass and his dropped pants, I see her give me a covert— human —thumbs up with a wink.

Rochir's crotch is tagged. Ready when you are, Shavih.

As the guards cluster us up in a loading area near the rear ramp, she clutches the hand of the woman behind her, who does the same with the next.

My heart beats faster as anticipation grips me. Nineteen women steal glances at me.

We will be free, or we will die trying.

Shavih gives me a subtle nod.

As the ramp opens, I close my eyes and pull up Ravenger III's systems.

Pellucid Command: Unlock.

Ravenger III: Cell?

Pellucid Command: All.

Latches switch from green to red down the halls. Doors pop open. My guard turns back, muttering to himself in shock. Growls and snarls echo through the ship from every level.

Camera feeds play in my mind like they are my own thoughts. I do not need to look to know where the augmented garrohs and neoelk charge out and attack the guards. Sevrin's dogs, the welvirs, have a telltale slurping snarl when they rip into flesh. I savor the cries of the Solcrue guards who finally get a taste of their own torture.

My sisters sprint down the ramp.

Rochir's shouts pair with gunfire behind me.

My guard leaves to assist him. In his frantic rush, I bump into him and steal his gun.

But before my dirty and haggard friends can set foot on the precious ground, two squads of Hyperion guards fire up at us from the landing pad outside.

Shavih leads the women back up the ramp. Our friends stumble as they strain to reverse their course. "Navi!"

My pulse pounds in my ears. Three women take hits. I lift the stolen weapon and fire at the soldiers with radiant rifles.

Pellucid Command: Ramp— external sealscreen, engage.

Green light spreads between us and the ground crew, stopping the advancement of their gunfire.

I throw my hood back and run to where the other women stand on the ramp. "Come on, we have to take Rochir's LightBlade!"

"Can you fly it?" Shavih asks in doubt.

"In theory, but it's better than nothing!"

The women who remain collect our fallen sisters and follow me up the ramp. But as we round the corner and aim for the corridor that leads to Rochir's ship, the dogs find us. Four slink up the hallway, like rabid wolves with augmented limbs, eyes, and longer teeth.

The animals charge toward us. I tense and fire back as fast as I can.

"Fucking Welvirs!" My guard shouts from the end of the hall. The creatures turn and run toward him.

Rochir cries out from a room close to the guard. Gun blasts flash as Rochir storms out, taking the animals down. When he sees me he lifts his gun in our direction. "Navi!"

I fire at him without waiting. I know he's been eager for this chance.

Two more women grunt and crumple to the floor. A shot grazes my side, scorching my skin.

Shavih shields her head behind a metal arm. "Everyone back!"

I stand between Rochir and the women who thought I would protect them because I can see and do and command things they can't.

But this all feels like a terrible mistake.

Minutes pass filled with howls in agony and gunfire that succumb to growls and tearing. I look for another way out as the squads blaze the shield with a rage of yellow bullets, trying to break through. There isn't another path.

Rochir limps toward us. He's sweaty and dirty, shredded and half dead. I urge the women back onto the ramp as he leans back against the wall and lifts his gun. A bloodied blade falls from his hand.

Pellucid Command: Internal ramp sealscreen, engage!

He fires. The bullet absorbs into the rippling green shield and disburses. Rochir laughs and slides to sit on the floor. "Nowhere to go, Naughty Navi. I know what you've done."

My heart won't slow down. Adrenaline's making it hard to think. I am hot and cold and terrified because I can't see a way out of our situation.

Rochir clicks his tongue. "Every single cell in your body is going to hurt when I get my hands on that splay and rip it from your skull."

He slams a fist against the wall, fury warping his face. "You unleashed the welvirs. They killed the fucking pilots, Navi!"

I might die soon, but I'm glad to have thrown a wrench into his plans. Pulling up the cockpit feed, I see the slumped pilots, what's left of them, as well as the clawed up dash. Dead guards fill the passages along with Sevrin's pet projects.

"Oops," I mutter. But I can't say I regret letting them out. The welvirs got revenge for their torture, even if we didn't.

Shavih huddles the others together on the ramp and speaks quietly. "No matter what, today we die free."

I can't access self-destruct with my clearance, but I can still try to destroy everything I can with the right explosion. If we got pinned down, the we agreed to make it a mission of sacrifice for the Titans.

Pellucid Command: Increase Life support supply to labs, Oxygen only.

Graphs open in my vision, tracking the status of the labs life support systems.

Pellucid Command: Initiate Splay Merge .

The video of the lab I have lived in for years shows the lights on the chair blinking on until the nodes in the head support crackle.

My hands are still wrapped and still tender from the burns Rochir recently gave me after I was too firm on his twig. So I left him one little surprise.

Pellucid Command: Initiate Lab C Torch.

The flame kicks on, and the countdown begins in my vision. My splay estimates eight minutes, twenty-seven seconds to detonation.

Rochir breathes heavily and rests the gun in his lap, unaware of his impending doom. "Warden Tav, they're all yours."

I look to the lowered end of the ramp where a scarred Solcrue stalks up to us. Needing a clearer visual to scan him in the system, I make my way to the front of the group.

"You must be Naughty Navi," he hisses.

Targeting brackets frame his scaly face in my vision and pull up records in Ravenger III's database. "Warden Tav. You were assigned to guard this facility during the jailbreak."

His nose wrinkles in disgust.

"A dead decommissioner convinced you to let her in." I find a picture of a woman who doesn't quite look completely Solcrue. Their timid interactions remind me oddly of my parents. "A pretty one. Got your priorities mixed up?"

I don't know why I'm harassing him except to stall as I search the ship's computer for another escape route and rack my brain for alternatives. Even with our fate sealed on this ship, I don't want my friends to die.

Warden Tav calls forward a soldier with tracework in his hands.

"Yes, sir?"

"She's locked us out. Hack this shield. I need to kill her." Tav motions to a panel on the hull of the ship. Then he looks at me and lowers his voice. "When I get through, I am going to take you apart piece by piece. Rochir never had the stomach for human blood, but I haven't had a hot bath in ages."

My spine shivers under the steely green gleam of his eyes.

I step back and scan the ramp but don't see anything of use. There isn't a weapon in sight. I try ejection commands, but cargo drops aren't available when the dock feet are down.

Sparks shoot up from the floor. Something shorts out. Life support systems kick on in the ramp zone, stirring up wind.

An electric pulse rips down the ramp. All of my sisters drop to their knees. My head feels unbelievably heavy.

Shavih rasps in pain. Her bulky metal arms drip with blood where they attach to her human body. All of the women have been dragged to the floor by their metal parts.

Except me.

Ravenger III: Gravity field increased 50%.

"Navi?" Shavih coughs up blood.

There's no one piloting the ship.

"I didn't do it!" I shout.

"This is why Sevrin's own augmentations will get him killed." Rochir drops his flashing wristband to the floor. "Never make it permanent."

"Almost through, sir," the tech reports to Warden Tav.

Panic frays my senses. Programs run erratically in my mind. I don't know what to do. I don't have the access codes to switch on the ship's guns, change the gravity, or initiate self-destruct mode. I can only access things with the same security clearance as the lab where I was connected.

Shield statuses blink red in my vision.

Integrity Unstable, 34%

Pop, pop, pop.

The sound comes from a distant corner of the building.

A soldier shouts over the radio clipped to Warden Tav's uniform.

A word circles through my friends that makes me turn and look.

Warden Tav swears, paces a circle, lifts his rifle, and fires an angry storm of pulses at me. "You must've called them! How do they even know you are here?"

Shield integrity drops. My heart beats faster as the blasts eat into the dwindling sealscreen. I don't know who's going to kill me first, Tav, Rochir, or my own actions.

I'm the only one still standing because I can, but also because I don't want them to take me out when I'm on my knees. I've played my hand. All I can do now is simply stand in the way, gun trained on Warden Tav, and hope I'm faster than him.