Gunmetal Dark
By Angelina Vansen

RATING: NC-17 (but not really in this part)
CODES: Uber J/7
SUMMARY: Having escaped from the clutches of Colonel Filer, Dr. Kaine Sigg (Janeway) and MIA #223939 (Seven of Nine) must now decide what to do next. If you haven't already done so, please start from the beginning.


PART II: A BETTER VERSION OF ME

12.

The world was a smudge on her consciousness. Dull light flickered on her face, shadow after shadow. It was repetitive, comforting, regular as breathing.

There was nothing else. No up, no down, no left or right. Kaine could not feel her body, and nothing had shape or form. She was nothing. She closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, the sun had risen, bright and hot. She saw desert through the acrylic shield in the front of the truck, dunes shimmering in the morning heat.

The truck was Tenkatech military, and the Softsuit, Mia, drove. Kaine lay in the back; she'd been wrapped in a plastic sheet to keep her warm. Her head felt thick and useless, her tongue dead steak in her mouth. Everything hurt.

Instinctively, her Augbrain reached for the truck's control system to request location data. Her query was met with a burst of green static.

Between the frying and the Tidi stick, there wasn't much left that was functional.

She tried to stand up, and every muscle protested painfully. Her hands clung to an equipment rack; her legs trembled.

Mia whipped her head towards the movement. Her expression softened when she saw that Kaine was standing.

"You are conscious," she said.

Kaine nodded. "Where are we?" she croaked.

"I have taken us into the desert," Mia told her.

"Yes, I noticed. We should go to my base," Kaine admonished. "They have to know ..."

Mia shook her head. "I will not go to a military base."

"But my lab ..."

"No. You will think of an alternative."

"There aren't any alternatives. Not if you want me to remove that Softsuit. I'll need a lab. Tools."

"You will think of an alternative."

Kaine tottered into the cab and flopped down in the vacant seat. She did not have the energy to squabble.

Mia drove in silence, focussed on the vista ahead. Her eyes twitched unnaturally in her head, left to right, as the Softsuit used her optic nerves as information filters. During the prototype stage, Kaine herself had perfected that interface. Seeing it in action, however, was quite disconcerting.

Seeing Mia in a Softsuit was disconcerting by itself. No wonder they were so feared; she looked much more imposing than any of Kaine's prototypes.

Honn and Kidder's modifications made the Softsuit look huge and bullish. Muscular almost, with its hulking bodyplates and angular shoulders. Kaine imagined hordes of them, swarming on a battlefield. Terrifying.

She shivered violently and wrapped the plastic sheet tighter around her shoulders, huddling into the chair. Exhausted, hungry, aching all over, she found it difficult to think clearly.

Mia had a point; maybe going back to the base would be foolish. For one thing, she doubted she'd have lab access without her Augbrain.

There might be questions over Timon's disappearance, as well. Certainly a lengthy debriefing process. Alvaro might believe she'd been involved, that she had seduced Timon and lured him to the motel to be kidnapped. Timon was the soldier, the celebrated General. He was the one with the combat and survival skills. It would look suspicious that only Kaine had escaped Colonel Filer.

Mia was right. They needed an alternative.

"We should go to Ry," Kaine mused aloud. "It's a town in the South, the other side of the desert. There's a house ... it's not military. We could go there, I think we'd be safe."

"Ry," Mia repeated. Her eyes glazed slightly, the Softsuit planning a route to the town.

"The house is listed under Zaworska," Kaine said quietly.

"Confirmed," Mia said, speaking aloud what the Softsuit was telling her. "Residence located."

Kamila Zaworska. Timon's wife. It was her house, registered in her name, but Timon had often used it as his getaway when he was on leave.

He had liked it because no one could reach him there. No one knew about it.

Kaine had joined him there many times, and always the workaholic, she had never been able to leave her projects behind. She had amassed a reasonable collection of tools there, even a portable CleanField. It wouldn't be ideal, but it offered a chance.

"You will remove the suit there?" Mia enquired.

Kaine swallowed. "I'll try."

"That will be acceptable," Mia acknowledged. She turned her flickering eyes forward again to watch the blank desert. Her face relaxed, and for the first time, Kaine noticed the woman beneath the Softsuit.

Mia was probably in her late twenties or early thirties. She was tall, with large, serious eyes that were very pale. Her full lips pouted over a determined jaw, and strands of blonde hair stuck out from the brain interface plate. She did not look like a Citizen, but maybe she was from the Northern Landribs. They tended to have paler eyes and hair.

Sleep threatened Kaine; the regular rumbling of the engine and the warmth of the sunlight through the acrylic shield soothed her.

She watched Mia, her still, serious face. The flickering of her pale eyes, the sun on her pale cheek. The twitch of her fingers. The inky gunmetal of the Softsuit glowing bronze in the morning sun.

Beautiful, she thought. Freedom was beautiful.

Sleep took her.

When she awoke, she was lying on something hard, and everything was quiet. No engine noises, no movement. She opened her eyes and stared at a blank white ceiling.

She panicked; she was back in the lab! Colonel Filer! She sat up with a jerk.

Panting, she took in her surroundings. She was on a dining table. To her left was a cooking range, a wash device, food preparation services. A rack of wine glasses. She recognised it all; this was Timon's kitchen, Timon's house. She had eaten here many times, at this very table.

To her right stood Mia, utterly motionless, the Softsuit in recharge mode. Her head rested on her chest, and her eyes were closed. The lock on the back door bleeped rhythmically; it had been hacked.

When had they arrived in Ry? Kaine had no idea and no recollection of being moved from the truck to the house.

She wriggled off the table. She felt a little stronger, but her head spun sickeningly. This was all too much. Familiar surroundings but an altogether unfamiliar situation.

Thoughts wouldn't organise themselves; her normally rational brain felt muddled and confused. Her body, too, felt disgusting, dirty and near naked. She stank of the filthy water of the Sluice and the hot plastic she had slept beneath. She needed a shower and clothes. Some nice, sharp, boldly-coloured Tenkatech clothes.

Yes. A shower. That would be good. She could think straight, start focussing on her - their - predicament if she felt clean.

Her bare feet tiptoed across the fashionable corrugated stone floor, and she left the kitchen to go upstairs.

In the hallway, the memories came even stronger. Being carried upstairs by Timon, both of them more than a little drunk, laughing and kissing. Joining him in the bedroom when she had been working late and climbing into bed beside him. His familiar smell, the familiar strength of his body against hers.

It was difficult to imagine that she would never feel these things again.

The bedroom was a daunting prospect; far too many memories in there. Best save that one till she felt stronger. Kaine went into the bathroom instead, started the shower running and stripped naked.

She dumped the underwear she had been wearing into the disposal unit. She needed it destroyed; the smell of that rancid Sluice water would drive her mad.

It was all over her, too, rusty and stagnant. Saturating her hair, clinging to her skin; the last cold grasp of Colonel Filer.

She stepped into the shower and turned it up hot and hard. The water pounded down her body, almost hot enough to scald. Kaine reached for the soap and scrubbed until her skin was red.

By the time she stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel, the white, dirty corpse that Mia had pulled from the Sluice had gone. Her skin was pink and clean and she smelled fresh.

Some things would take a little longer to erase, however. Drying herself, she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror by the sink and was shocked by the long, blue-black stripe of bruise that crossed her left cheekbone.

She got close to her reflection and touched the bruise gingerly. Clearly it was the result of Colonel Filer's last, angry blow with the Tidi stick. No wonder that had hurt so much.

Kaine explored her scalp tentatively with her fingertips and found the two swellings where she had been rifle-butted by the Colonel's soldiers. They were hot and painful, but didn't seem to be bleeding. She sighed at her reflection and combed her wet hair.

Wrapped in her towel and feeling much stronger, she took a deep breath and headed for the bedroom. She had been here a little over a month ago; she and Timon had taken a break together before her fleshmeeting with Honn and Kidder, and she hoped she had left some clothes behind.

She pushed open the door, expecting to be assaulted by memories, but she wasn't.

The room felt different; neat and perfect. Bed made, blinds raised, full of daylight. It looked nothing like the room where she had spent some of the most passionate moments of her life. It even smelled different.

She slid open the wardrobe and discovered the reason.

Inside, alongside Timon's civvies, were women's clothes, but they weren't hers. A black suit. A striped shirt. A blue jumper. A smart winter jacket.

Her heart started to pound. Who had been here? Did Timon have another woman? She pulled out a neatly pressed pair of trousers that were much longer in the leg than Kaine, and the answer came to her.

These were his wife's clothes. She must have been here while Kaine was at Quintin Base. Tall, slender with elfin features and stylish blonde hair, Kamila Zaworska would certainly fit into these clothes.

Now that Kaine looked, other things were different, too. There were paper stills in frames on the bedside table. She went to them, picked them up.

One showed Timon and Kamila smiling over drinks in a bar somewhere. Another showed their wedding; Timon in full dress uniform and Kamila in classic white, posed and formal and pretty.

These had never been on display when Kaine had been here before. She had never seen a sign of Kamila in this house.

Her hands shook as she put the stills back on the bedside table. The stab of pain she felt surprised her. The sense of betrayal.

It was crazy; he was a married man, and there had never been any talk of him leaving his wife for Kaine. They had been having an affair, plain and simple. What did she expect?

But there it was. Jealousy. It stabbed through her gut and rose, bitter, in her mouth. The thought of him sharing this house with someone else ... this bed ....

Perhaps it was Timon's single-mindedness, his charm and devotion that had been so persuasive. Every look, every gesture suggested deep feelings. He had been very good at making her feel she was the centre of his universe.

It had been that way since the moment they had met, when she and her team had been posted to Sonn Io Oriel. Timon had hosted a reception for them, an actual flesh and blood party with drinks and a buffet.

She had thought it good of him. Most base commanders were military men through and through and had no time for lab rats.

He had singled her out at the party, spoken to her about her work in that deep, soft voice of his. His dark eyes focussed only on her, seemingly fascinated by what she was saying. Absorbed by her. That little crease of his brow, the set of his serious mouth. She could picture it now.

They had talked about trivialities, network lag times and t-sync versatility units, but she had felt the attraction instantly: a physical force that pulled at them both, prickled her skin, quickened her breathing.

It had excited and flattered her. She had been stuck in a lab for three years developing the Softsuit and he was an attractive man and a decorated hero.

He had pursued her, and by the end of that first week, she had slept with him. Twice.

It had been liberating. Timon was exciting, physically attractive, good in bed and an intelligent man. She had thought herself lucky. She had enjoyed their affair terrifically.

His wife had been an abstraction to Kaine, something she knew about but could not really imagine. The thought of Timon being with someone else, talking to her the way he did Kaine, making love to her the way he did Kaine, had never seemed real.

Of course, they were lies she had told herself, justifications. Timon had just been good at compartmentalising; that was what made him such a great soldier. Here, now, sitting in the holiday home he had bought for his wife, in his wife's name, looking at a wedding still, Kaine was under no illusions about what her place in his life had been.

Something approached, tickled her ports. She spun to face the door, and there was Mia, looking faintly absurd wearing the Softsuit in the domestic surroundings.

Her face was dark.

"Why did you leave?" she asked Kaine.

"I ... I didn't. I just wanted to shower. While you were recharging."

"You should have informed me."

"I'm sorry, I ..."

"I was concerned."

"That I'd gone?"

"Yes."

"I'm not going to go. I said I'd help you, I won't go."

"You will help me," Mia echoed. "Now?"

Kaine sighed. She could do with a meal and maybe a little more sleep, but she supposed she ought to show that she was willing to help. She should at least find her tools.

"Yes, now," she reassured her companion. "I just need to put some clothes on."

Mia nodded her assent, but did not leave the room to give Kaine any privacy. It was as if the young woman did not want to let Kaine out of her sight.

Kaine gathered some clothes, Kamila's clothes, selecting ones she thought would best fit her. She propped the wardrobe door open and dried herself behind it before putting them on. She needed to roll the sleeves up and fold the trouser legs a couple of times so that she didn't look absurd.

"What do you think?" she asked Mia when she emerged.

Mia wrinkled her brow, not understanding the question.

"Never mind. Come on."

Kaine led the silent Mia back downstairs and into the kitchen once more. There, she bundled up the plastic sheet and shoved it into the waste unit. She wanted to make space to work. But she also wanted that sheet and the dark thoughts it represented destroyed.

"Right," she forced a smile. "I need to find my tools."

No doubt Timon had hidden them during Kamila's visit.

"They are outside," Mia said from behind her.

"What?"

"Your tools. They bear a digital signature with your name?"

"Yes?"

"Then they are outside, in the building where I parked the vehicle."

"Perfect!" Kaine exclaimed. She clapped the Softsuit's shoulder excitedly. At least someone's Augbrain was working.

She threw open the back door and charged into the garage. Mia followed dutifully.

"Where?" Kaine breathed. She fumbled for the manual light controls.

The lights went on before her finger got there; Mia turned them on with the Softsuit.

"There," the young woman responded. "They are in a container behind that device." She pointed at the emergency water tank.

"Great!" Kaine enthused. She dashed over and crawled into the dark space.

Immediately, she knew she had made a mistake. She heard water in the pipes, dripping into the tank. The wet mineral smell of it, the claustrophobic sound of her own breath, the sight of her pale hand reaching desperately ahead of her ... suddenly she was back in the terror of the Sluice. Her heart flipped in her chest, and she struck out blindly for a purchase on the wall beside her.

She yanked herself out of the crawlspace, falling onto her backside in her eagerness to escape. She sat there, breathing heavily, her heart pounding wildly.

"I can't ..." she gasped. She covered her mouth with her hand and looked up at Mia, helpless. She couldn't believe it; she had always prided herself on her cool head and now a small space ... the sound of water ... it had been enough to turn her into a gibbering wreck.

Mia looked confused.

"Could you ... could you get it for me?" Kaine asked her.

"Of course," Mia replied, but she still looked puzzled.

Nonetheless, she ducked behind the tank, the Softsuit scraping metal on metal in a dreadful squeal.

Kaine stood up and tried to compose herself. Her hands shook.

Mia emerged with the box and handed it to her. Timon had sealed and labelled it

KAINE

Mia looked at her expectantly as she pulled the lid off. Kaine was pleasantly surprised; she hadn't realised she had amassed such a collection of tools here.

Another advantage of being absorbed by her job, she supposed. Often Timon had admonished her for working into the early hours at the kitchen table, tweaking settings on a theoretical Augbrain set-up that had come to her in her sleep.

For the first time, she began to think she might be able to pull this off. She smiled at Mia.

"You are ready?" Mia asked.

Kaine nodded.

CONTINUE THE STORY IN CHAPTER 13 ...


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