Chapter 40- Taliesin
I hunched over, face landing on the cement. I stared at the crevices, the small dips, and the chipped of pieces of rubble, until I was pulled up by the back of my shirt collar. "I think that he's ready to talk now, Dr. Prose."
My head lulled to the side and as I walked, a blurred figure approach me. Unlike the wardens, his white lab coat was the only source of the color to be found on his uniform. I shook my head to the side, leaning heavily on the warden's tight grip.
"N-no," I answered. "H-he's wrong. I definitely ne-need another round."
I felt the warden raise me, and I slumped inside my shirt, feet grazing the floor, ready to go at it again, but the doctor waved his hand dismissively.
"Leave him," He stated. "You may wait outside. If you are needed I will signal."
"D-do not go yet," I slurred, mouth weighing heavily. "We were ju-just beginning to have some fun." Despite my invitation, the white-clad soldier left. I stared up at Dr. Prose, hand patting the ground in a slow rhythm. "Hi," I stated simply.
The doctor nodded in return. "The incompetence of my soldiers has lead to several problems with course-altering effects of our war effort."
"You lost something?" I guessed lazily.
"Yes. I believe you know where to find it."
"What makes you say that?" I propped myself up against the far wall and wiped the corner of my mouth with the back of my wrist.
"You, unfortunately, were the last person in the room, and I have only just now been told that you were found in the middle of an escape."
I only shrugged.
"You were told that the more you resisted, Taliesin, the more that you rebelled against my authority, the more you tried to escape," he said and paused, looking about my small cell. "The more pain and torment you would have to endure."
"Which is why, instead of lulling myself into a peaceful sleep by now, you sent in your luminous thugs to bruise me." I chuckled dryly, but I felt my eyes remain frozen over.
"Where is it?" The doctor leaned down, inches from my face. "I know you have it."
"Where is what?" I grinned.
"The radio!" Dr. Prose kicked the stones of the wall, his foot making a dent in the brittle bricks. "Where is that radio?"
"What radio?" I asked, feigning innocence.
Doctor Prose growled. "The one on the console! Right before you left, right after I went to check on the mainframe—" He trailed off and pinched his brow. "I do not have time for this."
"You could always come back later," I suggested recklessly. "I seem to have an abundance of free time on my hands these days. No need to even call early."
Dr. Prose raised his hand back forcefully, but seeing that I looked him dead in the eye, despite my own being swollen partially closed, he clenched his fists. His grip was so tight the fist shook. "Shut up." He commanded. I shrugged again, silent.
"I will have the wardens tear through this cell until they find it. And when they do, you will have several questions to answer," He paced over towards the door, and I turned my head slowly to trace his path. "I can promise," he vowed, "You will not like my methods of extraction."
I nodded, "Understood. Do not let the wardens find a radio."
He growled, but realizing that he did not have enough time on his hands to reprimand me once more, he exited my cage shouting to the guards outside.
Not long after, new wardens filtered through my door. I stood up precariously, supporting myself on the wall. "For an empty eight-by-eight cell, I can assure you there is only one of several places I could hide something like a radio, gentlemen."
I pointed to the far corner, where a small, steel lavatory was located. "In there, which would be stupid," I shifted my finger to the side, "Under my mattress, which would be far too cliché," I curled my finger so it was facing towards me. "Or on my body. You are welcome to check."
They scurried about, flipping over the thin mattress, slicing it open, even shaking the lavatory to make sure it had not come off of it's well placed hinges. "It is not here," One of them said.
"And it would have clattered out onto the floor while we were beating him senseless if he had it on him," Another offered.
"He does not have it with him, clearly. We are wasting our time searching," The first reiterated. The others nodded, and I waved gently at them as they exited my cell.
"Come back again some time!" I called down the hallway after them. Once their footsteps faded away into silence I let it stretch over my prison, extending itself so that even the flickering fluorescent lights and the rumble of the furnace below me would not be able to cut its way through the silence.
Even for minutes after they had left, I stood still. Finally, releasing a breath, I rushed over to the sidewall, brick and mortar crumbling in chunks to the ground. Just to the side of where Dr. Prose kicked out, I pulled out a brick sliding stone against stone until it's full weight fell onto my wrists.
"If he had been a few inches to the left," I released a heavy sigh. "I would have been facing those infamous extraction methods." I reached in, pulling out the radio, and replacing the worn brick.
Clicking the transceiver into position, I waited with bated breath. "Ground to garrison?" I whispered. "Ground to garrison, this is Taliesin Graile." Static echoed lowly and rebounded against the walls as I waited for a response.
"Taliesin? Son?" A baritone finally called out. "This is the commander, Laius Graile."
"Father?" I questioned, furrowing my brow. "I had expected Alice."
"She has gifted the radio over to the resistance. Besides, she is busy enacting the sieve."
"The sieve?" I echoed.
"Yes. Do you not remember? Before all this chaos ensued she was to be bonded to that Leanian Lorne."
"Yes. I remember..." I trailed off, my heart clenching. I breathed deeply and continued, "Regardless of what she is doing right now, I have news."
"News? You mean information?"
"Yes. The machines?" I hesitated, looking to see if anyone had entered into the cellblock unnoticed. The corridor lay empty. "Alice and I figured out that they were controlled by the same master mainframe, and that is located in the research facility."
"Yes, yes. And? Alice already relayed that information to us."
"And," I paused, "I have found a way to destroy the mainframe, without having to know its exact location."
"You have?" The commander began muttering quietly, and I assumed that he was speaking to another commander. "How?" he asked, finally.
"I blow the whole thing up," I say blandly.
"The whole thing? But I thought that you just said that you do not know the mainframe's exact location."
"No," I stated strongly. "Not the mainframe. The research facility. I hijack a capsule, aim for the facility and open fire until there is nothing but rubble and ruins left." Pausing, I added an afterthought. "Just like what they did to us."
"You blow up the whole thing," He reiterated. "Are you sure you can access the capsules? Do they even have enough weapons onboard to take it all down?"
"I can reach the capsules. I have done it once or twice before in situations similar to this. And as for the fire power, the capsules themselves are not nearly equipped, but the armory is along the way and it stores all of the explosives and weapons reserved for the human war effort."
The commander breathed out heavily. "Are you sure?"
"I have never been more sure of anything in my entire life," I offered solemnly. "I am ready to leave this planet, and leave it in a pile of smoldering ash."
"When?"
"As soon as I can. Within the day, maybe within the hour," I told him hurriedly. "Will you be watching?"
"Of course. We will gather our people to watch the surveillance cameras on our drones. We will send out a welcoming team of our own, to escort you back once you finish the job. You will return a hero."
I nodded, although he could not see me. "Again," My father added. "Be sure to make contact, if anything goes south."
I nodded again, leaning my head against the wall, and clicked the receiver. Hesitating, and raised the radio closer to my mouth. "Over and out," I finally said, switching the radio off. Standing up, I tossed the radio onto the paper-thin mattress that had been my only solace these past few days.
"I can not wait to watch you burn," I told it sternly. Glancing down the corridor once more, I slipped out pin I had hidden in my matted hair. It spoke volumes that the pin itself had not fallen out during all of the chaos.
"You would think that they would have more than one," I muttered. Twirling the pin around I jostled the latches. Keeping the pressure steady, I pushed the pin in slowly until it made contact, lifted it upwards, until the mechanism clicked into place.
The cell door swung open silently, and I stood back until it was fully open. Crossing the threshold, I tried to recall the directions Alice had given to me earlier on how to get to the hangar and the armory.
Reaching a flight of spiral stairs, I hurried down until I reached a familiar hallway. I read the labeled signs along the wall, muttering to myself. "Closet, Storage, Examination room..." I picked up my pace. "Armory," I paused, jostling the door knob, surprise gripping my throat as the door swung open easily. Inside, a warden was cleaning a rifle.
I paused, hand still on the door. The warden looked up, pinching his brow. "Hey, aren't you the-"
I struck, slamming my fist against his skull, and upturned a tray of bullets, pounding his temple over and over until he lay still. Panting, I looked around, and closed the door. "In retrospect, I most likely did not need the tray," I nodded to myself, swapping the warden's uniform for my own.
I surveyed the room, taking in all of the explosives. "A ship," I stated. "I need a ship, and I will come back for you later." I exited the armory, placing the warden's helmet over my head and striding further down the hallway to the hangar.
Inside, other wardens were bustling about in carts and guarding stockpiles of rifles. But I saw no capsules lined up. I backed up a step, and re-read the words above the entrance. "Hangar Bay? Am I missing something?"
"What is wrong with you?"
I turned, looking at another warden, and froze. "I-I..."
"Dr. Prose and the rest of the research team had ordered the remaining capsules into the space between Crious and Oriehn to form another attack. We can't land on that moon, but we have no problem shooting at it, am I right?" He slapped a hand across my shoulder and I flinched.
"R-right. When is the attack, again?" I asked sheepishly.
"You must have fallen asleep at the briefing or something, kid," He offered, looking over the busy hangar. "Some time today," He pointed at another capsule, flying just over the facility. "Probably when this one joins the ranks."
"So soon?"
He finally turned to scrutinize my face. "Why? You have a problem with finally ending the war? Of finally winning against those blue bloods?"
"No!" I shouted. "No, I don't. I— I just have to do inventory before the capsules return is all. I better go," I shrugged away, pivoting on my heel and walked back the way I came.
My heart sank and my breathing picked up. "What am I supposed to do now? What do I do now?" I paced quickly back to the armory, closing the door and locking it behind me. The warden from early was barely visible beneath the table I had dragged him under.
I grazed my hands along the packages of explosives and detonators along the shelves. "What do I do now?" I whispered to myself. "The armory is at the center of the facility..." I trailed off. I began piling the explosives on the floor, arranging them in a pyramid like pile.
"We still have the explosives, just not the ships. You can still detonate the bombs and destroy the mainframe before the capsules reach Crious," My hands shook as I paced more. "Ultimately, if I set off the bombs before the capsules get there, they are rendered useless. It just means that I have to run faster."
When they were all in place, and I was satisfied I had enough to destroy the entire research facility, I clasped the remote detonator between my two hands. "It means that you have to run a lot faster," I muttered.
Tensing my shoulders, I began running out the door, pressing the button and then throwing the remote inside the room. I knew that my best chance of survival lay in getting out of the building, so I took off towards the hangar again, sprinting to the exit meant for the capsules. Shouts followed my trail and I picked up speed.
"What is he doing?"
"Why is he running?"
"What is going on?" I ignored them all, closing the gap between me and the open passage, pumping my legs faster and faster.
"Hey, you! Stop!" In my head I wondered how much time I had left, and I urged my pace to quicken. "Stop!" They shouted. Footsteps closed behind me. "Stop!"
I had less than twenty feet to the exit, twenty feet until freedom. I ran, veering just out of the grasp of the awaiting warden. "Somebody, stop him!"
Less than ten feet now, and I grinned, as hope raised in my chest. Until I felt a body barrel into me, tackling me to the ground. "What's going on, boy? Why are you running!" The warden ripped off his helmet and spat in my face. I struggled against him.
"Let go!" I pounded his chest, but he absorbed each blow. Frantic, I beat him with a my might. How much time did we have left now? "Let go off me! You don't understand! Let go!"
"Don't understand what?" The warden pressed my further into the ground. "What did you do?"
Suddenly I lay still, my energy sapped. I chuckled dryly, hands hitting the floor. "What did I do?" I banged my head against the floor, images of my people watching this happen floating behind my tightly squeezed eyes. Finally, I met his gaze evenly.
"I killed us all."