Cyber Witch

Chapter 11 - Karma Really is a Bitch

[Zach]

"I told you to run away, Avia," I muttered to her aboard the Vega Venture. "Why didn't you?"

Avia did not answer, nor did I expect her to while sleeping under the effect of a sedative. She laid on a narrow cot within a makeshift plas-steel cage resembling an old-fashioned jail cell, about three meters square. A metal mesh net draped over the cage created a Faraday enclosure to prevent her from making wireless connections to any network, which seemed redundant at the moment. The only other furnishing beside the cot was a plastic bucket, presumably for toilet functions. I occupied a similar cage, but without the mesh net. The two cages took up most of the drab-gray cargo bay space.

They won't be getting a good customer rating from me.

A faint low-frequency hum meant the Vega Venture's star-drive propelled us across interstellar space to our fate. Omni-Corp wants the data in Avia's head, and once they get it, the best outcome for her would be confinement in Aberrant jail, as she called it, and deactivation of her cybernetics — a fate Avia considered worse than death.

Watching her chest subtly rise and fall, I yearned to reach out and touch her, to brush the stray dark hair from a beautiful face, to provide some comfort. But the separation between us was too far.

Why didn't she escape earlier when she could? Gideon surely wouldn't have killed me, since I was Darius' nephew. We could have joined up again, sometime, somewhere. But I knew why, revealed with her final mouthed words as the sedative took effect, that she loved me.

Never had silent words created simultaneous bliss and terror within me. But as I sat here, gazing at Avia, I realized I had fallen in love with her, too. And that changed everything.

The grinding of hinges pulled me from my thoughts, and I stood. Gideon Leif and a young white-uniformed woman with a med-kit entered through a rounded hatch. The woman slid a ration meal-bar and water bottle into my cage without looking at me. Then, she opened Avia's cage with an old-fashioned key inserted into a mechanical lock, which made sense, since Avia could hack a standard bio-metric electronic lock. She kneeled and checked Avia with a portable medical scanner. Nodding to Gideon, she wordlessly relocked the cage and disappeared out of the hatch.

"I trust you are well, Zachery?" Gideon muttered, standing stiffly and clasping hands behind his back.

"I've been better," I deadpanned. "When will Avia wake up?"

"The initial sedative dose will wear off in approximately twelve hours, but we intend to keep her partially sedated for the entire journey. For everyone's safety, of course. She will be well taken care of."

"Where are you taking us?" I asked, gripping the gray bars.

"To your uncle."

"Then what?"

"That is up to your uncle."

I rolled my eyes. "You are a wealth of information, Gideon."

"It is all you need to know, Zachery. Comply, and you will be treated well. Resist, and there will be consequences for both you and Avia."

Dipping my head, I asked, "Why, Gideon? Why did you sell your soul to the corporation?"

Gideon huffed. "I doubt a spoiled rich Elite like you would understand duty and loyalty."

"And I doubt a soulless suck-up like you would understand compassion and honor."

Gideon's mouth turned up slightly, and a single chuckle came out. "Have a pleasant journey, Zachery." Turning, he marched out of the cargo bay, closing the hatch behind with a clunk."