Gunmetal Dark
By Angelina Vansen

RATING: NC-17 overall, this part would be less.
CODES: Uber J/7
SUMMARY: After escaping from Colonel Filer, Dr. Kaine Sigg (Janeway) and MIA #223939 (Seven of Nine) must turn their attentions to the removal of the Softsuit. If you haven't done so, please begin at the beginning.

14.


"I hope it's strong enough."

Kaine Sigg's voice was light, but her teeth bit anxiously at her lower lip.

She patted the plastic surface of the kitchen table, indicating that Mia should climb onto it.

It was the closest thing to a lab bench in the house; long, flat, and approximately the correct height. There would even be room for the Doctor's tools once Mia lay down. The light was good in the kitchen, too: large windows and powerful electric cells in the ceiling.

Kaine Sigg turned away and activated a device she had set up on the chopping surface. It identified itself to the suit:

TENKATECH PORTABLE CLEANFIELD v9.01
FIELD USE LICENSE: \\Nannda4416SONNIOORIEL

The device hummed quietly. Mia felt its emissions tickle her exposed skin, sterilising her.

She slid onto the table and lay flat, her legs apart and arms spread by her sides. She had to squirm to find a comfortable position for her head. Too many ports. Too many wires.

"What will you do?" Mia asked.

Kaine Sigg searched through her box of tools.

"Log in, to start with," she replied simply. "See what will take my passwords and what won't."

"You will remove the suit?"

"I'll try."

Mia reached out and grabbed the other woman's wrist. Kaine Sigg flinched; the tool she had been holding fell from her fingers and clattered back into the box.

"You will remove it," Mia demanded.

A flicker of something, possibly anger, crossed Kaine Sigg's features. She pulled her arm free of Mia's grasp.

"I said I'll try." Her voice was cold. A voice that did not like threats. A voice that had endured enough of them in recent days.

Mia felt sorry; she had intended only to press upon the Doctor that removing the suit was vital. She had not wished to imply that a failure to do so would result in harm.

Perhaps it was her nerves that had compelled her to speak in this manner. Strange to feel so vulnerable when she was fully armed in a suit designed for combat, but she did. She disliked being prostrate in this manner, Kaine Sigg standing above her, regarding her with a clinical eye.

Perhaps the memory of carrying the Doctor's battered, unconscious body from the vehicle, wrapped in that bloody plastic sheet still loomed large. Kaine Sigg had looked terrible, arms and legs thin and breakable. Lying asleep on this very table, the Doctor had looked dreadfully, hideously human.

Mia did not want Kaine Sigg to see her that way, as someone weak and pitiable. Better to show strength and aggression.

Kaine Sigg had fallen silent, concentrating only on her tools. She laid them out on the table in neat rows, activating and preparing them. A Control Pipe. Nanotaps. Snapscrews. A Slimcom. The suit identified them all from their locators and provided information.

The Doctor unravelled several lengths of tapewire and fitted them with port adaptors. They bleeped and glowed softly from within.

Next, she probed the back of her own neck and swept her hair to one side. Picking up a white plastic bar that was studded with ports, she attached it to her Mainstem. Thirty centimetres long, it protruded from either side of her head.

TENKATECH JACKHUB 7
V5.02

it told the suit, thus enabling the attachment of multiple connectors to a single port. She looked almost regal; it looked like a crown.

Her deft fingers fitted the tapewires into the Jackhub's ports. They trailed like thick, translucent hairs over her shoulders and down past her waist.

"I hate having to hardwire," she muttered.

Mia nodded, though she did not really understand.

"Turn over?" the Doctor requested.

Mia rolled awkwardly onto her front; the jagged angles of the suit did not allow a graceful motion. She tried to watch, but could see little more than the suit's shoulder plate.

She saw Kaine Sigg's hand seek a tool, a pale ghost in her peripheral vision. She felt pressure at the small of her back and heard the brief sound of scraping metal.

Kaine Sigg let out a small grunt of satisfaction. "That's got it," she muttered.

MIRROR:
PORT CHIITA OPEN

The suit reported. It ran a diagnostic of Mia's guns, just in case this invasion was a threat.

Mia lifted up on one elbow to watch what she could. Kaine Sigg held another tool, her brow creased. More sounds. Plastic and wire on metal. Something sliding home. Then:

MIRROR:
PORT CHIITA ACCESSED FROM PORTS D, M, O

"There," said Kaine Sigg. The tapewires that trailed from the Doctor's Jackhub were now connected to the back of the suit. The base of Mia's spine.

"You can turn over again now," Kaine Sigg said.

Mia rolled onto her back; the tapewires stretched, rubbery, to accommodate the motion.

Kaine Sigg licked her lips. Her face looked calm.

"Ready?" she asked.

Suddenly, Mia wasn't sure. She opened her mouth, but Kaine Sigg had not waited for an answer.

Mia took a breath, and Kaine Sigg breathed with her.

A short breath, a nervous breath. The women's eyes locked; they exchanged emotions like data and then parted.

There was something inside. In the suit.

Yes. Kaine Sigg.

Kaine Sigg but not Kaine Sigg. Just a ghost of her, a digital echo, creeping tentatively. She felt ... white.

CAUTION:
BETA BRAIN DETECTED IN MIRROR PORT CHIITA
PASSWORD?

PASSWORD?

VIRUS PRIMED:
WARNERTOX SHOCK v77bluedeath!

A virus needle raced through the suit to the interloper.

"Hmmm," said Kaine Sigg's physical body. "Warnertox. I'm flattered."

"Do you have the password?" Mia asked anxiously. She was powerless to stop the needle.

"I have Warnertox's password," muttered the Doctor.

PASSWORD ACCEPTED

said the suit.

WARNERTOX DISABLED.

Kaine Sigg smiled. "Warnertox is one of mine."

Her echo pushed in further. The suit acknowledged and recognised her.

USER: ksigg
ONLINE IN MAINTENANCE MODE
CLEARANCE LEVEL TIMA

Mia felt her, branched and spread, pushing her lines of enquiry all the way into the core of the Mirror.

"Ah," she said, above Mia. Her eyes were closed. "Yes."

"What?" asked Mia.

"I'm there," Kaine Sigg breathed. Her voice was light. Excited.

"Where?" demanded Mia.

Kaine Sigg did not reply. Messages from the suit scrolled in front of Mia's eyes

MIRROR MAINTENANCE: ACCESS CODE g-99gTLIPA
BACKDOOR OPEN
USER: ksigg
PASSWORD: ACCEPTED

"You are inside the Mirror," Mia said, a quiver of nerves in her voice.

"Yes."

"What ... what will you do?"

"I'm going to try to shut it down."

"Will it hurt?"

The Doctor shook her head. Wrinkled her brow further. "It's part of the Softsuit," she said.

PACKET 89 - BYPASSED
PACKET 55 - ACCESS GRANTED USER: ksigg
PACKET 332 - ACCESS GRANTED USER: ksigg
WALL 44-FIVAN - DOWN

The Mirror's internal gates, dropping. The digital Kaine Sigg, the one inside, crawled deeper into the system. Mia felt her, white and cool, sliding through the pathways of the suit.

So close she could taste her, rich on the back of her tongue. So intimate she could almost hear her thoughts. Echoes of them.

Deeper. Deeper. Kaine Sigg's white data was loud. Commanding. A priority to the suit. Systems shunted their programs to one side to obey the Doctor's commands.

Mia closed her eyes and concentrated on the messages she was getting. It was happening.

WALL 53-MIGHE - DOWN
ZONEALARM 29A - DEACTIVATED
PACKET 72 - BYPASSED
PACKET 41 - ACCESS GRANTED USR ksigg
PACKET 50 - ACCESS GRANTED USR ksigg
WALL 02-SITNI - DOWN

The messages got faster. More of them. Kaine Sigg felt hot and pale in Mia's stomach, her presence throbbed through the systems of the suit like blood.

The suit and Kaine Sigg fell into perfect rhythm. Signals moved as she breathed, programs regulated themselves to coincide with her heartbeat. The synergy of suit and creator. She moved her hand and Mia's fingers flickered by her side.

What was Mia and what was Kaine Sigg? What was the suit?

WALL 43-HINNA - DOWN
WALL 21-JAASE - DOWN
WARNING - LEFT CRATE ACCESSED BY USER: ksigg
CELL DEATH IMMINENT - BBAK5543

Mia felt dizzy. She felt sick. Systems began to shut down, imploding in whirls of white errors and sparking metal.

Implants ceased to function. They screamed errors and then went blank, not reporting to the suit.

FATAL ERROR: LA-pl7130
FATAL ERROR: RL-shILOv
FATAL ERROR: JA-n0t4uh

The implants were dead metal, embedded in her flesh. Studding her arms and legs and spine. Not a part of her, not a part of anything. The suit queried them repeatedly and got no response.

FATAL ERROR: KE-mae33
FATAL ERROR: MI-n3cut
FATAL ERROR: ME-lnd4t

White energy bubbled through the suit. Kaine Sigg's energy. Her voice, her passwords. Mia's ports crackled, her limbs fat and electric. Her eyes were overwhelmed. Too much information, too many statistics.

FATAL ERROR: Full system G-wi77b
EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN: system A-terr
FATAL ERROR:
EMERGENCY REROUTE: POWER STACK BITAAH

The poor suit. The suit felt pain and confusion. Parts of it screamed with errors. Others gave themselves lovingly to Kaine Sigg's commands.

The suit loved Kaine Sigg, the suit hated Kaine Sigg. Mia's ports demanded attention, filled her vision with white messages, spooling, scrolling.

Mia opened her eyes, tried to focus on the physical. The things she could see with her own eyes. Her own mind. Kaine Sigg's face above her, eyes closed to help her concentrate. The furrow between the Doctor's brows. The line of her mouth.

SYSTEM FAILURE: SYSTEM LA
WARNING: NO WEAPON CONTROL IN SYSTEM LA
WARNING: NO SOFTSUIT MOTOR CONTROL IN SYSTEM LA
WARNING: BETA BRAIN MAINTENANCE ACCESS OFFLINE IN LA

SYSTEM FAILURE: SYSTEM RA
WARNING: NO WEAPON CONTROL IN SYSTEM RA
WARNING: NO SOFTSUIT MOTOR CONTROL IN SYSTEM RA
WARNING: BETA BRAIN MAINTENANCE ACCESS OFFLINE IN RA

The sensations overwhelmed Mia. Too many signals from the suit, too many messages. They blurred her vision until they were nothing but static. Just white. The suit pulled her away from the world, and everything inside was disorder.

Disorder.

Passwords streamed through the tapewires in a rush of incomprehensible noise. Natural sounds, the sounds of the world. They sounded like oceans, like wind through treetops. Whistles and clicks and resonating thunder.

The sensation consumed Mia, ate her alive. She tried to speak, but all that came out of her mouth was a password: a cough, a growl. A hiss. Her voice was like metal and her tongue was a port.

She unravelled. Spread thin. Exploded. She was in a thousand pieces on the kitchen table, each piece chatting. Screaming. White threads spread between them.

Her head floated above her body, disconnected. Thoughts ran through it, visions of another life. Her mouth chattered spastically, tongue bitten bloody.

One arm felt as though it were several metres across the room, and filled with stabbing knives. Its fingers clenched, relaxed. Formed a claw of pain.

Kaine. Kaine Sigg. She was there as well. She hushed the voices like a mother, her passwords a gentle lullaby.

Slowly, the suit hushed. The blackness behind Mia's eyelids was just black. Just

DRIVE B?

and then again a moment later.

DRIVE B?

Mia opened her eyes. There was her body.

Yes. Her body. Oh look.

Her own chest, breasts pink, slick with silicon barrier. The chestplate of the suit lay open, split in half by one of Kaine Sigg's tools. The tapewires inside it had been unclipped.

Not a part of her.

She lifted an arm and it was just an arm. Sallow skin where it had not seen daylight. Implants disconnected. No guns. No armour. No dark metal. No suit. Just

DRIVE B?

before her eyes; white letters, fading into grey.

Her hand made a fist and held the air. Her eyes closed. The blackness took her right away.

She was gone.

Just gone.

---

Her first memory was rain. Before that, only bits, chopped to fit into her head, with sharp endings and abrupt emotions.

The first soft thing she remembered was the rain. Breathing the air and finding it salty, and Kaine's hand. It took hers as they stood in the garden, her bare feet on wet grass.

"Here you are," said Kaine. She squeezed her hand. "What are you doing out here?"

She blinked a couple of times; there were raindrops on her eyelashes.

Her hand was cold. It felt dead and ashy, filled with powder. She looked at it, not really knowing. Kaine watched her too. She remembered only bits. Kaine's name. Her appearance.

"Do you remember who you are?" Kaine asked softly. She seemed hopeful, but she also seemed strange. As if she didn't want the right answer.

"No," she replied. She really didn't know at all.

Kaine looked down. "You're Mia."

"Mia," she repeated. The name felt wrong; it didn't quite fit. But there it was.

"How do you feel?" asked Kaine.

She didn't know. She didn't really feel anything. Everything about her was small. Cold. She wore something, a soft fabric robe that covered her nakedness to her knees and elbows, but was already soaked with rain.

She looked at Kaine.

"You are bleeding," she told her.

Kaine brought her hand to her face, dabbed her fingertips in the blood dripping from her nose. Looked at it.

"I over-extended my Augbrain back there," she smiled. "Nothing to worry about."

Kaine held out her hand and let the rain wash the blood from her fingers. "Why don't I give you something to help you sleep a little more?"

They went into the house, hands clasped together. Directly inside was a table, instruments laid on it. Tools. Pieces of metal, too. Dark metal in humanoid pieces. Arms. Legs. Chest. Boots.

Kaine let go of Mia's hand, left it floating in mid-air, waiting for her return.

Kaine opened a cupboard and searched the contents.

The metal pieces on the table were the Softsuit. Of course they were. Mia recognised the Softsuit.

Kaine returned with something in her hand, a plastic bottle with a thin nozzle.

"Tip your head back," she instructed.

Mia obeyed. Kaine inserted the nozzle into Mia's nostril and activated it. A fine mist sprayed upward. Mia inhaled. Coughed. It had the scent of flowers; pleasantly soothing.

"Come lie down. It'll start to work in a minute."

Taking Mia's hand again, Kaine led her from the room. They climbed the stairs together and went into the bedroom.

"Lie down," Kaine said again.

Mia's head felt very heavy. Her eyes did not want to stay open, and her limbs buzzed with the effects of the drug.

Mia lay on top of the cool bedcovers, arms by her sides. Her body felt light. Peaceful. Nothing inside her head at all. There were only the sounds of her own, slow breathing, of Kaine's footsteps on the carpet, the movement of her digestive system in her belly.

"Sleep," Kaine whispered. She stood above Mia now, and her nose was still bleeding. "It'll help you heal. I'll wake you in the morning."

Mia nodded, and closed her eyes.


PROCEED TO CHAPTER 15


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