2175 C.E.

XII: The Awakening

The doctors came almost immediately and told us that now she was awake, there wasn't much more physically wrong with her. They did offer her water and food, and they were nice enough to offer some of their limited supply of ice cream, which the head doctor told us was one of his favorite cure-alls, though I'm not sure how true that is. Olivia was still very agitated though and kept asking where the black thing was. She had a hard time believing us when we told her that it was dead and Cynthia had killed it. She kept getting more and more agitated the more we tried to explain what had happened to her, to it, and to us. She also refused to eat or drink anything we offered her. She asked who I was a lot, and was so suspicious that I felt obliged to step out after not too long.

Turns out, Rorith was right. I don't know if he did anything when he came not long ago, but one way or another, it seems as if he was telling the truth. I wonder how much he knew and how much he was just guessing. I grew up believing in God, of course. My parents certainly did. But we were never religious in any way, at least not the way this Rorith was. I've certainly never heard of anyone being a real mystic. And, to be perfectly honest, Rorith didn't look like he was doing anything out of the ordinary. And yet, here's Olivia, awake, just as he said. I mean, she's clearly not fully healed; neither was I when I'd just woke up. But she is awake, and right now, that's one of the best pieces of news we've had for a while.

Cynthia came and found me later. I hadn't gone too far, fortunately, and she sat down beside me on a couch near Olivia's room. She told me that Olivia had started to become so agitated that the doctors had been obliged to give her a fairly strong sedative. She's concerned there might be some fairly deep psychological damage. I told her that it would be best to wait and see; it's fairly early yet to tell anything. She just woke up, after all. And she probably will have to deal with some major shit as a result of her captivity.

"But if she's anywhere near as tough as you, I think she'll be all right in the end," I added as sort of an afterthought. She sort of smiled in a tired way. It reminded me of when we were in the interrogation room in Montana.

Then she asked me something I thought was strange. "Why was it us, do you think? You, Olivia, Adrian, Brent and me? Why was it us? Shouldn't it have been one of these leaders here, or one of the Troys who do this sort of thing? Why did our families have to be destroyed?"

I thought about it. It really should have been Alexandra and Damien's family that had to face this; they fight and spy for a living. They would have been ready to deal with this. I finally said, "I'm not sure. Maybe it'll be better that we dealt with it in the long run."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I don't really know," I said. "Maybe we still have something to do that the Troys and the leaders can't do themselves. Or maybe this will all go to shit and the five of us are just more expendable than the Troys and the leaders. I don't know."

We were both quiet for a little while after that. Then Cynthia sighed and told me, "well, if we're just here to die instead of some Troys, I just want to thank you for being the only person I've ever actually known."

Then I laughed a little. "Well, thanks for getting to know me for real," I said. She laughed back. It felt good; I don't think either of us have laughed at all in weeks; not since July, at least.

Official Statement: Terran Internal Justice Commission

08/29/2175

People of Earth and the Terran Hegemony. Let it be known that the court has found Nobuyuki Ito, formerly Admiral of the Terran Star Fleet 6th Task Force, guilty of mutiny and treason against the Terran Hegemony for his insubordinate actions against the Terran Hegemony while in command of his flagship the TSS Alexander Nevsky. He has shown neither remorse nor a desire for reconciliation for this crime. Therefore, he has been sentenced to service at Ambience Neural Processing facilities. He will serve as a cognitive system redundancy for a sentence of forty years, at such time he will be released into the custody of the Hegemony prison system. His neural capacity will be put to good use in this capacity as he is integrated into the Ambience Tactical Mainframe. The Hegemony thanks all for their patience.

Official Transcript: Phone Call: From Damien Troy: To Congolese Emergency Dispatch #1734: 08/30/2175

OPERATOR: You've reached emergency dispatch. How may I assist you?

TROY: I've got about a half dozen Calamity tanks following my ass. Anything you can do about them?

OPERATOR: I'm sorry, did you say tanks?

TROY: That's right. I made a mistake and tipped off a Hegemony patrol and now they've sent six tanks to flush us out.

OPERATOR: That's a lot of tanks, sir.

TROY: No shit. Listen, I need you to contact General Mbaku and tell him that the chicken came first. Do you understand me? The chicken came first. He will understand what I mean. Tell him I'm from Ghana if he doesn't believe you.

OPERATOR: Um...All right sir, I will do my best.

TROY: You're going to have to do better, people are dying around here! [explosion] Shit, I'm going to have to go. Don't let me down ma'am.

OPERATOR: All right sir.

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