Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 39: The Prisoner

Looking fresh and lively, Tom walked at a fast pace in the new prison. He juggled a short black, while observing two men, who were having an emotional conversation in the distance.  

Tom was fascinated by the great work Claire had done to restructure the place. For now, only the first floor of the building was functioning, Tom asked her to change the second floor as well, in case additional space was needed in the future. Other floors of the five story building would stay intact for now. Tom had idea of installing reconditioning devices here, after the threat of the Outsider was dealt with.

 A single week had passed and nothing happened. Tom had spent his time digging for the Outsider’s pawns to understand the plans the enemy had and to put some sticks in his wheels. He learned that the Outsider had established a small network of brainwashed loyalists. He presented himself as “The Voice” to the naïve fools. During the week he managed to put a dozen of citizens behind bars, suspected of siding with the enemy. He was still searching for more, especially for those, Claire told him about after returning from the hospital.

From pieces of information provided by the captives, Tom put a vivid picture of the Outsider’s plan. There was a massive attack impeding on the city, a large diversion that is. Since there was nothing the Outsider could do inside the city to stop the ship, he would use his resources to provide him with time. Time needed to breach the city’s perimeter. If the Outsider managed to get out, he would have multitude of possibilities to do harm – he could damage the lifelines of the city, get into weapon warehouses and reprogram a bunch of military combat drones, blow a hole in a hull, steal a weaponized space craft and begin blowing the ship from either the inside or outside, the list went on and on. The key in protecting the ship was not to get involved into the skirmishes at the city, but to capture or destroy the Outsider’s main vessel.

A sophisticated security system was installed in the new prison. The windows of prisoners’ rooms and the garden surrounding the building were protected by multiple force fields. Each of them had individual energy source and their controls were disconnected from the public network. They were immune to the physical damage and could reflect energy blasts of all known handheld weapons. Electric paralyzers were installed in all doorways to secure the exits from the prison cells. DNA verification consoles were put by the entrances. There were prison cells being established in the basement with additional security precautions for criminals that were to be considered ‘dangerous’ in the future. The Orphanage had become an impenetrable fortress.

 When Tom got closer to the guards, he overheard their conversation. He truly hoped that the officers were tackling complex subjects.

“You’re so funny. Kami is a fat pig. I would pick Choya from ‘The Reel’. She’s at least 10 times hotter and more awesome.”

“You, joking? My grandma is hotter than Choya and she’s 87.”

“Says a 40 year old bachelor.”

“It’s irrelevant.”

“What?”

“Your argument. My grandma is still hotter than Choya. You love for clowns and cripples saddens me.”

“Say something more, amuse me, make me—“ The younger of the two stopped talking.

“Sir,” the older officer straightened his back and saluted Tom. His colleague did the same afterwards.

“At ease.“ Tom passed them and stopped. Facing one of the cells, he said, “Let me in.”

The younger officer stood still while the other opened the door and stepped to the side.

Tom entered a small cell. A man with a large scar on the right side of his face sat on a bed. The captive was in his sixties, grotesque red marks on his skin indicated the lack of self-care and approaching death. The painful disease he had could have been easily fixed, but for unknown reasons the man chose to live with it, and now it had become irreversible, it consumed him little by little.

Tom caught him after checking the evidence from the house the four thugs, of which, he learned from Claire. After looking through communication logs inside the house, he found straightforward conversations between the thugs and the captive. The main topics were about ‘thingies’ and ‘the plot’. Tom learned that ‘thingies’ was a code name for detonators and the ‘plot ‘was literal, but the man knew little about it.

The prisoner turned away from Tom. Elbows on knees, chin on palms, he began mumbling.

“You come to Zara again, but Zara has nothing to tell you. Zara does not talk to the scum.”

“Oh Zara, today I come to talk with someone else.“ Tom continued juggling the stick. Its diameter was no more than one and length close to twenty centimeters. Four thin needles sticking out of a circular end formed a square.

 “What? Only Zara is in this room.”

“Ask the Voice to talk through your lips.”

The man turned to Tom and spoke up, “The Voice doesn’t talk with the unworthy!”

“Zara, you are not even trying and I do not have the time,” Tom sighed and lunged towards the prisoner, locked his hands behind his back and put him forcefully to the ground. “Stop moving, it will hurt if I miss.”

“Zara has his rights!” The prisoner shouted.

Tom replied coldly, “I strip you of your rights.” He held the old man’s arms with one hand and pointed the device at Zara’s neck by the spine with another. Tom checked the position of the tool and pushed it gently into Zara’s skin. The prisoner seemed to feel no pain. After Tom drove the gadget deep enough he pushed a button on its side and plugged it out, leaving a small disk attached to the neck.

Zara jerked a few times and lost his consciousness. Tom stood up, taking a couple of steps back. Zara awoke, put his hand forward crouched a short distance to the closest wall, turned around and leaned his back against it.

“You called me?” The prisoner stared at Tom.

“I did.”

“You know I could just leave now.”

Tom replied, “Doesn’t matter.”

Zara smiled. “Oh,  just a test isn’t it?” He then, gently touched the plate with a finger.

“You know we could just end it in truce.”

“What truce?” The Outsider laughed menacingly from Zara’s lips. “Do you even listen to what you’re saying?”

“I can give my word that your planet and your people will be safe from harm once we get there.”

The Outsider snapped back, “Your words mean nothing. Your words carry no weight, how can you make a promise that you can’t keep?” The Outsider shook his head. “How typical human.”

Tom said assuringly, “I keep my promises.”

“Ok, Tom. I will take a minute to explain my point of view. Imagine that to your spaceship comes a billion of staving alien soldiers, only weapons in their hands. They knock on the door, saying, ‘Let us in, pretty please, we will be nice”. Do you let them in or do you blow up the door together with their bridge, just to be safe?”

“I would let them in if their ship was on fire.”

“You just think that you are on fire, Tom.” The Outsider looked into Tom’s eyes.

“I will stop you, you know.” Tom stared back.

“You will try and fail.” After saying these words the Outsider left and Zara fell to sleep.

Tom left the cell and walked towards the exit. The gadget worked, he thought, Wonder what the entity is going to say to me when I stick it to his main vessel.