"He's doing what?!" Lannister almost yelled as he turned away from the crew of the Skimmer after congratulating them on their skills during the fractious return from Helios, and then heard Ariana's words advising him why the Doctor could not be in attendance within the Commander's office.
Ariana visibly took a backward step from the furious Martian as she shrugged and returned his ire with a defiant look of her own.
"Hey! Don't shoot the messenger! I've babysat whilst they tinkered, ran messages back and forth and now have you venting at me in-front of these guys up here."
"You're right," Lannister replied almost apologetically, curbing his frustration in light of his unwarranted outburst at Ariana. It wasn't her fault in the slightest and was totally unfair of him to apportion blame to her when, in all fairness, the whole notion when he had left was to help Sarah realise her lost memory. In that light, he could not fault the Doctor's efficiency in seeking a remedy to bring it about. "She's dangerous though," he added in a softer tone than moments before, although there was a concerned undercurrent to his words. "Walk with me, we need to get down to the recovery room."
Ariana fell in step alongside Lannister as he almost double-timed from the platform to the lift car which was waiting to transport them down the many levels of their garrison building to the lower levels within which the recovery room resided.
"You might like to know," Ariana remarked as she entered the lift in advance of Lannister, pausing briefly for him to enter the car also and select the appropriate floor before turning to face her directly. "I did as you asked and checked out the gear she was brought in wearing, and it is basically a prototype version of our own flight gear. The on-board smart system was pretty beat up, but I managed to retrieve some information from it in the form of visual imagery and a voice log."
Lannister raised his left eyebrow quizzically, intrigued in the find as the voice log itself may give them an idea of how Sarah behaved prior to the explosion, possibly giving them insight into what they could expect if the Doctor was successful.
"What did you find out?" He asked.
"Well, if I were to summarise everything, I'd have to say that the whole area was neutralised before she even made landfall, there were no records of activity above ground, either on her sensor record or on our own daily logs from the monitors we have dotted about. Didn't have cause to question it before as we've been busy with other things, but now after I've taken another look with Sarah in mind, the lack of activity is obvious and stands out like a Mercurian in a Venusian dancing troupe."
Lannister couldn't help the grin that broke out on his face at the mental imagery. The thought of a more stocky lady taking part in any routine amongst the more lithe and slim counterparts of Venus was quite clear to understand as he'd seen one of their twisting and turning routines whilst dangling from silken drapes above the stage at the last command level gathering within Coprates on Mars.
"The tunnels too," Ariana pressed on, not having failed to notice the Commander's mirth, "were abnormally devoid of Moles. It's as if someone went through that area and swept the zone clear in preparation. Point I'm making is that I don't think she was there to set the explosion, rather to be consumed and buried in it and the resulting cave in."
Lannister nodded in agreement.
"I've just come from a pleasant chat with two people about our young friend," he related as the lift car came to a halt and the doors opened to allow them to exit. "First of all was the freighter Captain who smuggled her through our grid so she could do a sub-orbital drop to her target area, but he was a bit aggrieved to discover she was blown up. She was meant to rendezvous with him on the return to exit the scene with her objective, so that's more evidence that she intended for this not to be one way."
"I assume he's having his license pulled then?" Ariana muttered as she hurried to keep up with Lannister's pace towards the recovery room.
"Hart will put the frighteners on him, probably fine him heavily too but, if he's proven to be reliable apart from the odd teeny transgression such as this, it's best to keep him on the supply run. You never know what you'll get next. Anyway, that was followed by an impromptu meeting with one of Sarah's ex-colleagues," Lannister explained as he paused outside the door to the recovery room, his hand by the control pad. He faced Ariana squarely and she saw his face was full of concern. "To try and summarise, he told me that people like him and Sarah are shadows moving through our societies and they carry out the whims of some unknown group, who are apparently everywhere and know everything. He happily reeled off things about me which I tend not to advertise widely, but it's in my service records. Somehow he must have had access to them. Point is, the explosion was confirmed as a means for them to do away with a wayward agent, and that means that we can close down on that route of inquiry, but as of now," he paused to take a breath, pondering how he should phrase his next edict, "we need to review our security procedures, monitor things a little more closely than we have been doing and more imminently, find out from our young friend in there just what we're up against here."
"You think we're under threat?" Ariana quickly replied before Lannister had time to open the door, stalling his action by placing her hand on his raising arm.
"We're always under threat," he remarked, "but yes, there's something else going on both out there between the stars, and down here on the ground too. We just need to be mindful of it and try to have the information to hand to help us protect ourselves from it."
His motion continued as her hand slipped away and Ariana turned so her back was to the wall, exhaling deeply as she fell backwards slightly to lean up against the wall.
"Oh goody. How the hell do we protect against an enemy we can't see until it's way too late?" She muttered in exasperation.
Lannister nodded in agreement with her sentiment, then turned and proceeded through the opening doorway, his gaze scanning the room beyond before he began to speak.
"So you're who I am without all the mush in my head?" The Digital Sarah remarked as she regarded her other self, her gaze up and down the figure she saw accompanied by a disapproving scowl. "Can't say I'm overly impressed at the whole simpering thing, but physically I guess all those years of training and torture finally paid off for me. I could really go for someone like me," she added with a chuckle.
Sarah snorted.
"Simpering?" She almost spat out. "You mean not a caustic cynic like you?"
"Oh, get those claws back in girl," Digital Sarah mocked. "In any case, it doesn't matter what you think really does it? I mean, you're just the holding pattern before I get my body back which is why we're here isn't it?"
"What?" Sarah exclaimed, suddenly feeling on her guard more than she had been before and scrutinising her other self closely. There was no hint of subversion, but only genuine belief in what she was saying. "We're here for me to see the memories you hold, that are unavailable to me because of this damned amnesia. The Doc said that if I saw the memories, it would possibly cause me to remember them myself and therefore my memories would return."
"Someone's been telling little porkies then," Digital Sarah snarled, and glanced upwards towards the sky they could see above them through the foliage overhead. "You out there? Are you watching this and having a good old laugh?"
Sarah pondered on whether it was her that Horatio, Alyssa and Praia had connived into this situation, but everything she recalled seemed to be completely genuine with no hint of ulterior motive, but then again with her apparent naivety, they could have been pulling a fast one, couldn't they?
"I don't understand," Sarah said quietly towards her digital counterpart. "Why would they do that? I don't have your memory of anything before waking up in the recovery room. There was an explosion?"
Digital Sarah returned her gaze to the young woman stood before her, narrowing her eyes as she assessed the situation. There was silence between them for a few moments before she shrugged, pursed her lips and then began speaking.
"There was an artifact which had been left behind in the rapid abandonment of an underground facility not far from the local Arcology, which the powers that be were pretty ticked off about. They reckoned that if any of the tunnel dwellers got in and retrieved it, and maybe if it found its way onto the local market and into the hands of the muppets in the Arcology, then it could prove problematic for my... our employer. Well, that was the story I was fed anyway. Turns out that the artifact was in-fact a compact powerful explosive device and transmitter, through which some guy gloated at me for a while before ... BOOM!"
Sarah flinched backwards as her digital self over emphasised the explosive sound and lurched forward toward her, arms spiralling outward toward her face before straightening up once more and chuckling with glee at the reaction.
Suddenly, the environment around the two versions of Sarah seemed to swirl and dissipate as another image resolved around them, giving a much more closed in location with a table set beside them, large display screen with dead monitors and terminals along one side of the room and a metallic door set within a reinforced frame embedded into the rock of the far wall.
There was a yellowish hue to the scene all about them, but the Digital Sarah spun about quickly, her muscles tensed as if ready to strike out at the merest sign of trouble.
"What the hell is this?" She hissed through gritted teeth.
"It's the virtual environment," Sarah replied almost calmly as her attention swept from the new surroundings to her companion, then sideways to an image projected in the corner of the room across the table from her. "Seems to respond to our thought patterns and more importantly, memories. It's how Praia created that forest scene we were stood in. Looks like you're not in control as much as you thought you were. Who's that?"
Digital Sarah swept around, glaring up at the face depicted in the image.
"That pompous git is the man I'm going to find and kill for putting me in this position and at the mercy of these cretins."
"Van Harmann," Sarah muttered softly, almost under her breath.
"Yes, that's him. Wait, you remembered that?" Digital Sarah replied, harsh at first and then inquisitive as she raised an eyebrow and regarded Sarah stood a few feet away from her along the length of the table.
"I... I don't know. I must have. It was here, in this room wasn't it?" She asked, her gaze scouring the scene and landing upon the spindle with the orb set on top. "That's the explosive device he used to try and kill me. As soon as he's finished speaking, that thing beeps and then blows... and I try to get out of this door," she muttered as she pushed past her digital self, moving over to the door and resting her hand upon the large metal lever. "Too late though. The explosion blew me out as the door was opening, into the tunnel beyond and that's where they found me."
"Very good, but you're forgetting that these are my memories and I was there!" Digital Sarah replied with sarcasm.
"They're my memories too!" Sarah growled back over her shoulder, then turned to face her counterpart squarely. "You think you're so smart, so quick with the put down and so good at what you do, but you're the one who's forgetting that it was your arrogance that made you linger, and then you were blown up! It's been me who has had to suffer the pain and recovery from the injuries suffered because of you!"
"So the little girl has some bite to her," Digital Sarah sneered in reply. "In any case, I've no idea why we're going through this charade, or why I'm even bothering to argue with you."
"You're a digital copy of me, a process by which I can realise my own memories and get back what was taken from me, so stop being such a bitch and just do the job you were designed for," she said angrily.
"Is that so? You ever stop to think that I might be the real Sarah Lancaster?" Digital Sarah spat at her, ferocity in her expression. "Oh, and here's another memory nugget for you little girl, my name is Domino."
The scene about them quickly dissolved and was replaced by a line of beds within a long rectangular room, Sarah's doorway replaced by a wall which still provided her with support and Domino being exposed in the centre of the room, her face depicting her confusion as she glared about at the faces of the children standing at the foot of each bed along the length of the room, the charged energy whips held ready but lowering slightly as she took in the vision about her.
"Where are we?" Sarah ventured to ask, knowing that Domino may not be as forthcoming now after the little incident moments before in the underground chamber, but it appeared her adversary was taken back by the imagery before her.
"The Institute..." she whispered, her gaze fixing upon one young girl stood beside a bed not more than four foot from where she was crouched. "No... not here..."
Sarah's gaze followed that of her crouched companion, her eyes widening as she set her sights upon the young girl and felt a sense of intense familiarity, realising almost immediately that they were looking at a younger version of herself.
A few of the children were crying, both boys and girls, young Sarah included.
Suddenly, the double doors at the far end of the room burst open and an entourage of uniformed people strode into the room, the centre-most figure advancing a little more than his companions as they came to a halt just inside the doorway.
Sarah realised it was too late to find cover, but the group and the central figure seemed not to have noticed her.
"You should all be very proud," the man announced in a grand voice. "The tests you have taken recently have all been exemplary, but we can only choose a few from amongst you all. Those few will go on to serve a higher purpose and will shape the Solar System, crafting a future for all of us. My aides will advance along the room and if you are touched on the shoulder you will line up here before the doors. Commence."
"No... Don't go..." Domino was muttering, still crouched on the floor in the centre of the room but her arm stretching out towards the young girl. "Come here, don't go with them..."
"I don't think they can hear or see us," Sarah said softly. "It's playing a memory, something from my past... selection process? I was frightened..."
"My memories!" Domino cried out as she almost exploded in a whirlwind of action, springing up from the floor and spinning about, her motion ending with an outstretched leg which caught Sarah squarely, sending her lurching back towards the wall. "They're my memories! I don't care what you think, these are my memories and you Martians are trying to steal them!"
"I'm not a damned Martian," Sarah spat back, managing to ease her fall and regaining her footing quickly, preparing for the onslaught from Domino, but her counterpart had focused on the young girl who had dutifully left her bed and was now standing in a line with seven other chosen children, glancing about with large tearful eyes as the aides began to usher the line out through the door but there was commotion, a hold up in the procession caused by the slightly heavy set man who appeared in the doorway pushing his way past the foremost of the aides and passing along the line of children with an incredulous stare.
"I know him," Sarah muttered, narrowing her eyes to focus on his face and trying to bring that memory into focus.
"Yes, he's one of the men in charge," Domino whispered back, her attention drawn to him to as he blustered up to the central figure, spinning the man around forcibly so they were face to face. "He used to read us all stories and laugh a lot, he was the jolly fat man..." she added, the voice descending into an inaudible tone.
"You're not taking these children!" The newcomer bellowed into the central figure's face, his own flushed red with anger. "I don't give a damn who you think you are, you're not taking a single one, not while I am here to stop you."
"He was in the news feeds I was reading, he's still around..." Sarah muttered.
"Is that so?" The figure replied with an eerie calmness in response to the interloper's bold statement, turning to the side slightly as he replied and glancing at the faces of the children to that side who were still stood by their beds, their eyes glassy with tears. "When will you learn, councillor Bicknell? You have neither the power or security to protect these youngsters, whilst I have every means by which to remove them."
With a sudden flourish, the figure turned back sharply, his right hand impacting with Bicknell's midriff and causing a severe look of anguish on the councillor's face, then slowly the figure withdrew his hand which held a narrow blade, tinged with the blood of his victim.
"Bicknell..." Sarah whispered as she watched the events before her.
Bicknell clawed at the man's uniform, his knees bucking as he sunk to the floor, collapsing at the figure's feet and the blood from his wound beginning to soak into the floorboards about him.
"You see this children? The figure announced. This is the way things are, but with my training and new cadre of specialist troops, we will shape the future to be much better, more secure and devoid of the deranged ideology of men like this weakling at my feet. Now, CONTINUE!"
The line of children began to move once more through the doorway.
"Rex!" The young girl suddenly cried and tried to break from the line, her arms outstretched towards her bed and a plush dinosaur toy laying thereon. One of the aides caught her and forcibly shepherded her back in line with the others, her eyes now streaming with tears as she called her companion's name over and over.
The central figure watched on in interest, moved over to the bed, sheathed his knife and lifted the toy from the sheets, turning it over for a moment before looking over at the young girl whose hopes suddenly raised.
He twisted hard so the head tore from the body, discarding the remnants to the floor and as it landed some of the stuffing disgorged across the floorboards, the man's black boot treading upon the severed head as he marched out in the wake of the line of crying children, one of whom had just had her hopes dashed and her heart broken.
"No time for childish whims now," he was announcing as the doors began to close in their wake but Domino's attention was focused upon the torn dinosaur on the floor.
She approached it almost with reluctance, slowly crouching and reaching down but her hand passed through the image, leaving her clawing at it a few times.
"I remember all that," Sarah mumbled as she walked out into the centre passageway, watching the children all become as statues, then watching as Domino relented in her efforts to retrieve the toy in favour of just crouching next to it, her hand hovering above it. "It was the start of it all, the selection process for the training programme." Her gaze drifted to the crumpled figure of the younger Mayor Bicknell, lying in the centre of the room.
"Stop it," Domino said quite clearly and dangerously through clenched teeth.
"Oh stars..." Sarah muttered and she swayed slightly, her hands raising up to clutch at her temples. "I remember... so much... the dreams, I saw these things in my dreams. It was all true, I did all that. I'm you!"
Domino stood and for a moment, simply seemed as motionless as the children about them stood by the ends of their beds. Then she turned, the tell tale streak of a tear across her cheek betraying her emotions as she glared at Sarah.
"I told you to stop," she remarked. "You want to steal my memories? To pretend you're something more than the simpering wench dancing to a Martian tune? Well then, you need to be in the right frame of mind, and that means the right setting and environment."
As her words were spoken, the young faces in the dormitory began to blur and within moments, the whole surrounding environment seemed to break apart into tiny fragments, swirling about the two versions of Sarah and then reforming into a scene which was distinctly much darker, with rough ground under their feet and ruined buildings all about them.
As Sarah glanced about at the new menacing environment in which she found herself, she saw small fires burning within the husks of the broken buildings, the illumination they provided allowing shadows to play about the walls as if dark figures were moving through the ruined rooms, picking over the remnants of the lives which used to thrive within.
"We were born in the height of war," Domino remarked, her own gaze drawn by the scene about her and a satisfied smile forming on her face. "We were ripped from the safety of our parents by death and cast into a fluctuating world of chaos and intrigue, of pain and punishment as we were taught our trade by unrelenting masters. We are the hands which craft society, the shadows who move through civilisation without so much as a second glance, we are the ones who bring order to the chaos and control the lives of the little people who now seek to unlock the secrets in our memories. This is who we are... Who I AM!"
"I preferred the leaves and trees," Sarah replied softly, returning her attention to her other self.
"Of course you would. They've been working on you, conditioning you to be a nice little puppet and beguiling you with the soft trappings and niceties of life within a well protected Martian camp, but this is our world. This is where I exist and who I am. Their little schemes won't work as I have been trained by those who use methods these peons would eagerly shy from."
Sarah was about to retort when a wave of nausea overwhelmed her, almost causing her to be physically sick as she bent forward slightly, clasping her abdomen with both arms and pressing her eyes firmly shut. Wave after wave of imagery swept through her mind, almost an unrelenting torrent of events and situations as if she were being forced to watch a tri-d action movie with no chance of pausing or stopping the action as it poured forth.
"Thing is," Domino muttered as she regarded her other self, seemingly in turmoil, "that Doctor and the other program were telling me that I was held in a secure memory frame, trapped in a digital prison. Giving them chance to work on you I suppose, to do their best to prime little sweet Sarah to extract all the information they needed and then twitter her findings to them on her return. Well, they may have told me a little too much while trying to persuade me. I know they stuck little robot things in my head, and that's how you're here. There's a link from this location to my body on the outside, and it's in that pretty little head of ours. So all I have to do is take your place and I can get out of here."
Sarah suddenly realised through the turmoil in her head, that the voice she was hearing was that of her digital self and that she was extremely close, almost as if...
She opened her eyes a fraction of a second before Domino firmly grasped onto her skull, her hands either side of her brow with fingers digging hard into her temples, the ends of her fingers digging into Sarah's flesh.
"I can't touch Rex, but I can certainly get my hands on you!"
As Domino's fingers pressed even deeper and Sarah twisted and squirmed in a vain attempt to pull free, the pain which she felt was excruciating and Sarah let out a blood-curdling scream. In a flash reaction, she kicked out with all of her might and her foot connected with Domino's midriff, catching her digital self by surprise and sending her sprawling backwards in the dirt and debris of the digitally recreated floor. The momentum of the kick also caused Sarah to loose her balance, to fall backwards into the dirt which surrounded her, but she quickly twisted to bring her knees under her and rose slightly to a crouch to focus on her assailant.
"So there is some of me still in there then?" Domino spat out as she coughed and sucked air into her lungs. "Won't do you much good, as you're just a pale shadow, a fragment of the real me."
With a swift movement, Domino flicked her legs up and over her torso in a backward curl and pushed upwards with her hands to flip herself over backwards to land squarely on her feet. She landed with her knees bent and feet apart, almost as if she were to spring back at her prey but for the moment she waited and watched. It was quite obvious that Sarah was fighting a battle within her own mind whilst trying to ready herself for defence against Domino here in the virtual realm.
Sarah felt her head swimming as more imagery and feeling flowed through her whilst she tried in vain to concentrate on the threat facing her, the stance and bearing of her other self indicating her every intention was to strike.
"Why are you doing this?" Sarah cried out to her other self as she pushed upwards from the crouch to stand facing Domino, but with her muscles taught and ready for her next evasive movement. Her opponent was still keeping her distance but watching every move Sarah made with great intensity.
"Just taking back what is rightfully mine," Domino almost purred, "but in truth I don't want to injure you too much. I just want you to submit to me, completely and unquestioningly. That's all. What you are realising and fighting against is the realisation that I am the real deal, the rightful consciousness that should be within that body whilst you are just a mere shadow brought about by unfortunate circumstance. Just submit and I can merge with your digital profile, allowing me to return to my body and make those on the outside pay for the humility they have thrust upon us!"
Sarah heard the words, almost as is they were drifting into her consciousness from some dream, a latent memory or idea drifting about the haze that was consuming her.
"You're not listening," the voice said, this time louder and much closer.
Sarah realised she had drifted, and in the process her eyes had closed for a moment or more, she wasn't sure how long, but enough time in which Domino had advanced upon her, standing before her as a victor in battle over her fallen foe. She tried to summon up as much strength as she had left as Domino once again lay her grasping hands either side of Sarah's head, her fingers digging into her temples but the pain from the whip seemed to subdue the pain from the grip.
Sarah raised both hands, gripping at Domino's wrists as she tried to pry her away but she was too strong. Sarah was lost.
Then she realised.
If Domino could effect changes in their environment, then so could she. After all, they were one and the same. All she had to do was fix her mind upon one strong image, to focus upon it as best she could whilst trying to fend off her murderous other self.
She recalled why they were both there, the underground tunnel and the room with the transmitter. It had one goal. To kill her.
If she was to die, then so would Domino. She was a cold hearted murderer. She would not have Sarah's body.
Sarah concentrated, letting her arms fall away from Domino's wrists and almost allowing her body to go limp under the grasp of her other self. All that mattered was the image, the explosion, the consuming flames.
"That's good my sister," Domino whispered, believing her actions to be those of submission. "Just give in to me and we can both go home."
"No, I'd rather we both died together," Sarah replied through gritted teeth as there was an intense light which suddenly surrounded them both, accompanied by intense sensation of heat washing over them. Flames licked at the remnants of the buildings and set light to the very floor on which they both stood.
For a moment, the two versions of Sarah locked eyes before the flames consumed them both.
Then everything went dark.