Mind Games Read online

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  PISTOL

  N x1

  A throbbing red indicator glowed, indicating how big a shotcannon was: same size as a wrench. I frowned. “Lucas, how do I use cyber mods?” I rasped.

  “Oh, just...go to your sheet and-”

  I wanted to say ‘ahh’ but didn’t. My throat still hurt too much. But I saw, immediately, what was required: Each of my statistics had a glowing arrow and a number above it.

  BODY

  MIND

  SOUL

  Strength : 3

  (+1) [4]

  Endurance : 3

  (+1) [4]

  Perception : 2

  +1 [3]

  Smarts : 2

  +1 [3]

  Charisma : 5

  +1 [N/A]

  Psi : 0

  +1 [N/A]

  MARINE

  NAVY

  CADRE OMEGA

  Kinetic : 1

  +1 [1]

  Energy : 1

  +1 [1]

  Hack : 2

  +2 [2]

  Repair : 0

  +1 [1]

  Seduction : 1

  +1 [1]

  Persuasion : 1

  +1 [1]

  Melee : 1

  +1 [1]

  Heavy : 1

  +1 [1]

  Modify : 1

  +1 [1]

  Maintain : 1

  +1 [1]

  Telepathy : 0

  +1 [N/A]

  PreCog : 0

  +1 [N/A]

  First Aid : 1

  +1 [1]

  Research : 0

  +1 [1]

  PsychoK : 0

  +1 [N/A]

  ParaPsy : 0

  +1 [N/A]

  So, I figured Omega and psi related shit was locked out of my reach. Possibly because I wasn’t a fucking psychic . But I didn’t have enough for-

  “Modules?” I rasped.

  “Right, lassie, uh, routing them to you through the pneumatic system.” Lucas sounded nervous. “Are you gonna-’

  A rattle and a clank sounded down the corridor, near the entrance I had taken from the ladder well. I picked the modules up and found that I had been sent two - I didn’t bother asking Lucas to explain the vagaries of the cyber-mod system. I bet it was based on how hard the enemies were. Of course.But what did matter was that I was able to enhance my strength. I felt a shiver run through my body and felt my muscles tighten, then relax. When I closed my eyes to check my inventory...

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  N x1

  I grinned to myself. It seemed the strength augmentations weren’t on a linear scale. But if that was the case, then did it mean...was I supermodel hot? I shrugged slightly to myself, then picked up the shotcannon, slotting it into the vertical rows. Then, with an experiment, I found I could rotate it as well, so that the load looked like thus.

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  SHOTCANNON

  With that sorted, I paused, then glanced down at myself. The nanites had strapped the pistol to my side, my wrench to my back, and nestled my shotcannon right above the small of my back. I was able to draw each - though the pistol was out of ammo. Still. I had come out of that fight better off than I expected.

  Considering how I had expected to die partway through…

  I shook my head.

  “So, lassie, are you...going...” Lucas trailed off. I started to trudge down the corridor, heading for the engineering bay - though right now, I was thinking considerably more about the medical station that was located nearby. I didn’t like the feel of having a tiny sliver of my health left, not one bit.

  “Lassie, you can’t just leave that Tesc there! Kill her!” Lucas said, his voice growing almost shrill with alarm.

  “Watch me,” I said, my voice husky. I coughed and saw some blood had come up with it. I winced.

  This station may have gone to hell.

  I sure as fuck wasn’t. Before the Tesc had gotten her, Maria Festios has been a normal human woman. She had lived. She had laughed. She had pissed people off. Maybe she had even been a massive cunt to everyone she met. Maybe she had been a saint. I didn’t know.

  The fact I didn’t know, the fact that she was a human woman , that meant I was couldn’t execute her in cold blood. Maybe the Tesc corruption could never be undone. Maybe she was damned to her new, mutated state forever. But I wasn’t going to give up on her now.

  And so, with the time ticking down every time I blinked, I continued down the corridor.

  Shotcannon in hand.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Once I got out of the steam rooms – the dark, red corridors and the humid heat nothing that I was about to miss - I found that Engineering was constructed remarkably similarly to Cryonics. I was aware of curving corridors to either side of the main corridor that led into the center. That meant, if my rig’s map of the station was right, it was another ring based around a central + shaped crossing. But unlike Cryonics, Engineering was big . The main corridor I was on was easily twice as wide as the main corridor in Cryonics, and it led into other rooms, each one labeled with stenciled lettering. It seemed I was going through part storage right now.

  "So, Lucas," I whispered, trying to not aggravate my throat. "Can you hear me?"

  No answer.

  Nerves began to burn. My stomach tightened. I gulped and winced.

  “Lucas?” I rasped.

  Nothing.

  “Lucas!” I said, louder and clenched my teeth against the sudden upswelling of pain that surged in response. There was a clattering sound and a microphone’s rustle - as if it was being picked up in a hurry.

  "Sorry," Lucas said - and I had never been happier to hear his lilting brogue. "Trying to crack into the data files on the corps- er, uh, the cryo-stored persons." He chuckled nervously. I pursed my lips.

  "Any luck?"

  "Well, CyroCrypt 0451 was listed for one Beatrice Montenegro," Lucas said. "A trillionaire heiress waiting for her shot at the family fortune. The listing here says you were to be on ice until your older brother kakked it. If you are Beatrice."

  I frowned.

  It seemed like a somewhat trivial reason to put oneself into cryogenic storage and slumber away the decades. Letting the world tick by underneath you, allowing everyone you knew to get older and older. I tried to remember the kind of life someone named Beatrice Montenegro would live. I tried to picture it – and faint images seemed to haze around my mind. A sunny beach. A large, beautiful ship that cut through the waves of an emerald-blue ocean like a knife. A beautiful woman walking towards me, wearing a string bikini and suntan lotion. Her breasts bounced and swayed and I found my mouth growing moist at the thought. But the image blurred before she undid the top and lowered herself on me.

  But...

  I couldn't think of a name. Hell, I couldn't even think of a planet . Was that Earth?

  "How many planets do people live on?" I asked, my curiosity driving me harder than the pain. I continued to trudge forward, checking the signs to make sure I was on the right course.

  "Excuse me, lassie?" Lucas asked.

  I paused at another junction – making a note. Another difference between Engineering and Cryonics: There were two "rings" that circled between the main corridors. I looked down the left corridor and saw the doors were more widely spaced, and they weren't just slapped up with the same storage room labels as I had seen elsewhere. I frowned. This was actually where people got work done, if the first label I saw was true: WepTec Lab 39.

  But right past it, right there , was a small red cross situated above a white box. I hurried towards it, excitement hammering in my throat. The white box unfolded like a flower as I came near by, and two articulated arms emerged from it, unfoldi
ng and sweeping around to bring red lights sweeping over my body.

  “Ah, you found the medi-station!” Lucas said. “Now, hold still and let the nice robot do what needs doing.”

  “Open mouth, please,” a cool voice spoke from the box - it was strange to hear a physical voice, rather than the perfect intonation of Lucas’ voice from inside of my head. I opened my mouth. The center of the medical station whirred and irised open and a silvery, segmented tentacle reached forth. My brow furrowed - and then my eyes widened as the tentacle started to slide past my lips. My tongue depressed as it pushed its way into my mouth. A tingle rushed along my spine and my nipples began to grow puffy. Hard. Eager. I gripped onto the sides of the station, finding that it was just far enough from the wall that I could lean on it. The tentacle slid down my throat - then began to slowly whirr. It slid forward, backwards, forward, backwards. A soft gluk gluk gluk sound escaped my lips as it started to…

  Throat fuck me…

  I should have been offended. Infuriated. Baffled. Instead, the pent up horniness that had filled me since the first moment I had stumbled from my cryo-capsule burned brighter. My thighs spread instinctively, my nanite clad feet skidding along the floor. Then the tentacle pulsed . Something hot and wet and thick coated the inside of my mouth, pooled in my belly. My eyes rolled back into my head as pleasure exploded between my thighs: My cunt, clenching, spurting. I trembled - and then the tentacle slid back. Thick, blue fluid splashed from the tip, spraying into my face, dripping off my chin, splashing against my breasts.

  “Please, rub the medigel into your skin,” the emotionless robot voice said. Panting, mewling, I started to do just that - rubbing my palms against my face, licking the medigel from my fingertips. My health bar almost buzzed as it shot from 27/100 to 100/100. I panted, softly.

  “Feeling better?” Lucas asked.

  “Don’t…” I whispered. “Don’t fucking say anything.”

  “Mum’s the word, lassie,” Lucas said.

  I shook my head. “Okay...back on subject. How many planets do people live on? Cause, see, I don't remember anything-” I paused. “No. I remember fragments. Pieces. But one of them isn’t how many planets people live on. Is my memory of Earth or...or..." A name floated to my mind. "Mars?"

  "Three," Lucas said. "Four, if ya count Luna, and the Loonies sure want us too."

  I nodded. "Mars. Earth. Luna. Venus."

  "Dusties, Shorties, Loonies and Gas Bags," Lucas said, dryly.

  I snorted, quietly. "So, Mars doesn't have beaches?"

  Lucas' snort spoke volumes. So that memory had to be on Earth. Or a remarkably large resort on Luna – but this was all pointless. Virgil Station was the only place I should be worrying about, and the only thing I should be thinking about in Virgil Station was the damn station-keeping jets. But my mind kept skittering back to the image of that boat, to the idea of Beatrice Montenegro. Was that me? What was a trillion dollars even worth now a days? My finger went to the collar of my throat and...

  "Wait," I whispered. Thinking of money made me think of things . Thinking of things made me want to compulsively check my gear. I pulled my shotcannon out of my back holster, cocked back the pump. Still a red glow. I pulled my pistol and checked the ammo in the ammo indicator at the bottom of my vision. Still seven bullets. My brow furrowed.

  "Lucas," I said. "How many times did I shoot that Tesc in the steam rooms?"

  " Pretty..."

  The voice echoed from the corridor behind me.

  "Not enough," Lucas hissed. "We have an hour to get that station-keeping jet on. Get your bloody arse moving."

  I nodded. "Which store room was the part in again?" I asked.

  "08."

  I started to jog down the corridor.

  ***

  Storeroom 08 – placed neatly between two MatTec Labs (whatever that meant, I had no idea) - didn't open. I tried the keypad, but my fingers couldn't get to pry it open. I pulled out my wrench - but hesitated.

  "Lucas," I said. "If I smash the keypad open, then we get more of those fucking drones, don't we?"

  "Yup," he said. "Listen, I'm checking who had authorization to that door. Dr. Thanton does - and he worked in MatTec. Not in these labs, but in lab 98. That's on the other side of the ring from where you're standing."

  I did some quick mental math. The clock was still ticking. But dying would mean I'd never get the fucking station-keeping jets online again. And so, I stepped back from the keypad and started jogging again. My nano-clad feet padded softly on the floor and I started to breathe lightly - not needing to gasp or pant. It seemed that Beatrice was in good shape, at least. Hell. Three Stamina. Did that mean 2 was the average? I smirked at that thought - seemed silly that the ‘middle’ of the curve wouldn’t be the average.

  Running past lab after lab, I counted the numbers as I rushed by, ticking up until I reached the 90s. Then I slowed, my feet thumping on the ground as I stepped slower and slower, finally coming to MatTec 98. The door was shut, but when I tried it, it hissed open with a loud clunk . I leaned around the corner and peeked within.

  The inside of MatTech 98 looked as if the people within had simply left during a busy work day. There were several machines clearly designed to hold and test chunks of metal - I could tell, because several chunks of metal were suspended in metallic claws that themselves were surrounded by pale blue panes of glass that looked designed to contain and withstand a lot of energy. The chunks of metal all looked similar - gray and flat. But as I walked into the room and my view shifted, strange, rainbow-like patterns started to appear and vanish as my perspective slipped around. I bobbed my head left and right, then up and down. The patterns never repeated - the melange of red, blue, purple, yellow and other hues was endlessly different. It was nearly hypnotic.

  I tore my eyes from the metal panes and looked at the rest of the lab. There were several desks that were studded with control consoles. There were lots of toggles and touch pads, a curious combination of what felt like cutting edge and ancient technology. I noticed that the toggles were all labeled not by stenciled lettering but rather by pieces of white tape that had been scribbled on by someone's black pen.

  R. Modulator 98.

  L. Field.

  Induction.

  "What the hell did this lab do?" I asked, frowning as I stepped past the desk and looked deeper into the room. Here, I saw another one of those corpses. It looked like another woman - her clothes shredded, her body splayed out over a chair, her hips thrust into the air. She had started to turn stiff, but there was no sign of rot. White Tesc seed dripped from her pussy. I walked slowly around and saw that her mouth was wide open, and a tentacle was still thrust into her throat. It was similar to how I had...almost...

  I shuddered.

  "Dunno," Lucas said, quietly.

  "You don't know ?" I asked.

  "Listen, lady," Lucas said as I knelt down, checking the tattered remains of the woman's clothes. I found a keycard in a scrap of a pocket. I tugged it out and saw the woman's face on it. It wasn't just a keycard, it was an ID card. I looked at her face, then at the twisted mask of pleasure that it had become in death. I shuddered and stood as Lucas continued to speak. "My only job on this bloody station was to keep the chicken soup dispensers operating properly. I don't know a single thing about any of the research other than bloody rumors."

  "Like what?" I asked, stepping towards the door. I heard a faint sloughing noise behind me - something slick and faintly erotic, like a member sliding from a well fucked pussy. I spun around and saw that the dead woman had gone limp - slumping onto her chair with a boneless finality. The back of the chair had pushed her gaping mouth shut. Her throat no longer bulged.

  I pulled my shotcannon from my inventory and cocked it once. I put it to my shoulder. There was only one place where...the... thing could have hidden: Behind the desk the woman had been splayed at. I stepped forward, giving the desk a wide berth. I heard a faint rattling noise. My belly filled with ice and my heart thudd
ed in my ears. My whole body seemed attuned to the world around me. Then Lucas spoke and caused me to jerk with surprise.

  "Well, like the fact that I hear they were dragging Tesc into-"

  The tentacle dropped onto my head from the ceiling. It carried itself down on a filament of wire spooling from the tongue-like tip (or maybe it was the fucker's ass) while the rest of the mass wrapped around my neck and squeezed . I grabbed it and gritted my teeth as it started to strangle me. I couldn't get the shotcannon against it without risking blowing my own head off. I surged backwards, falling against the main control console. My palm slapped down and several toggles flipped . The metal in the testing chambers started to rotate as searing white light shot from the wall - lasers or something. I hefted the shotcannon one handed and shot out one of the chunks of glass. The spread of shotcannon pellets blew out the glass with a spray and a crackling sound - and then the metal gave way and the laser beam seared across the room.

  My vision was starting to turn black around the edges. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw that my health-bar was...not dropping. Instead, it was filling with a bright orange bar, creeping from the left to the right. The tentacle squeezed tighter and then yanked against me and I saw that the filament in the ceiling was spooling back into its fucking ass. I swung myself forward and brought the tentacle against the laser. The air filled with the hideous smell of burning plastic mixed with the acrid scent of crisped flesh and scorched hair. I yanked myself the other way and fell on my back as the tentacle hit the ground in two halves.

  I gasped in - and the orange bar shrank down along my health-bar.

  I realized how it worked: The tentacle in my throat had cut my throat up as it squirmed around, hence doing direct damage. But this had just been standard strangulation. Bad, but once it was over...

  Then the headache hit. My temples pounded like drums and I whined. “Ow.”

  "You okay, lassie?" Lucas asked, sounding concerned.