Chapter 13: Toy Soldiers…
'Lets just try to get the information the easiest way possible. If she completely refuses, I will be able to get the information from her once she is re-linked to the main frame."
Cass heard those words when she first woke up, so even her vague answers would be of no use, if they reconnected her to C.B.A.U. Her mind was cloudy, but she knew, she had to ensure they couldn't get access to the information stored in her brain. Getting to a computer that would enable her to work with her neural net would be a little harder.
Without warning Cassandra was on her feet and had General Andrews by the throat, before he could even blink she threw him against the wall, not hard enough to kill him but hard enough to knock him unconscious. Stepping over to Lisa, she smiled politely at the 'good doctor'. Towering over Murvane, Cass mumbled something under her breath, and then struck out with a sharp blow to the base of her neck knocking the doctor to the ground. Cassandra was almost at the door when she realized what she had mumbled had been in the Yautja tongue, for a split second she panicked, but then realized what she had to do, the door was locked but that only slowed her for a moment. Not caring about her nakedness, Cass went from room to room. She saw an unconscious Fury and a dead face hugger lying on the floor, Cass paused;
"God… What have they done?" She shook her head and continued on.
Finally she found what she sought, a large computer terminal. Rummaging around behind it Cass disconnected a data cable and stuck it in the port located in her arm. Oddly she felt no pain when connecting, but she did get a bloody nose. She had to use the computer's monitor and system as a map to her own internal workings. Running a search she isolated all of the memories dealing with the secret lab, the Yautja test subjects, language, and her encounters with Syn every fragment of memory. Placed in an innocuous file inside her own mind. Thinking for a moment, hoping, praying that Syn would find her, she turned her left arm and used her finger nail, and in Yautja script she wrote "Recycle Bin" a set of English words, letters in an alien language. Her erstwhile benefactor might or might not know what it meant but perhaps part of her would.
She opened a note pad on the computer in front of her, and wrote herself a note. Cass renamed the file "Sin", and then went into her own audio/vocal command codes.
She simply set them to mute. The simpler, and easier she kept it. The harder it would be for them to find.
With a deep breath she hit the delete button. The prompt came up, "Do you wish to delete this file?"
She clicked the Yes button, and then sat there; her mind went blank as the memories were stripped from her…
Syn'kra-va'al had to battle his conscience as he fled the compound, he knew their chances of tracking and finding him or his shuttle wouldn't be very high, but he didn't want Cassandra harmed. He had done exactly what he was instructed not to do, he should be in orbit and the base should be in ruins by now, but he wouldn't leave without her, no matter what… Something about her was important.
A strange language punctured the steep rocky wilderness; it was calm and quiet, yet very somber;
"The trees sing the songs of the ancients… They come and go as free as the wind… Their spirits alive and strong upon the wings of war…"
Syn sang an old Yautja war tune as he walked, it was often sang while warriors drank to celebrate something, or just to celebrate drinking, the Yautja male had to think happy thoughts otherwise he would end up doing something he would regret. He laughed in mid-chorus as he thought about the time he and Cass has spent together, then thought about what she would say if she could see him laughing and chuckled some more and continued singing as he began to climb a rocky face. He could have walked around, but climbing up was much quicker as he had found out while he was scouting the area before entering the base.
Nearing the top of the embankment, Syn stopped singing again to exclaim out loud;
"Of course! Daan'sha!!"
Syn laughed at his forgetfulness and continued to sign, as he made his way the long distance towards his shuttle. Remembering the correct words to a very old song, he sang for the next few minutes until he reached his cloaked shuttle, as he approached it remained cloaked and several short range plasma cannon shots spun toward him as the security system scanned him. He entered the closest hatch and headed to the nearest computer bank, which was at the small medical station, and made for the main console. He tapped a few symbols on a heads up display, it seemed he had missed several attempts at Bre'ta'ak trying to contact him, and two human scans had been blocked his the security system. He checked the messages Bre had left for him, the first two were not of importance, it was the last one that caught Syn's attention, he listened as his now sleep deprived, haggard looking elder talked fast;
"Something is wrong here Thei-de Ka'antyra, the council is not including me in its important summits. They are up to something I can sense it, I would rather tell you this in person Syn, but Ty'ryl-ayn has been paying a lot of attention toward Ja'k, your son. I have tried to find out what is going on, but every time I get close something always seems to intrude…"
Syn narrowed his eyes and removed his mask, something was indeed wrong, he tried and failed several times to contact Bre, he stood still as he thought. Collecting his mask, he made for the main console in the control room at the front of the vessel, his mind swam as he ran. What could have gone wrong? Surely the council wouldn't have had anything to do with it, they were all for the mission and for the Dark Blade Clan to be re-established. Syn fell more violently than was needed into the comfortable navigator chair, according to the long range communication system, he was being blocked from Bre'ta'ak's local area network, and even his personal secure frequency. Syn cursed under his breath and began using his claws to tap a few of the many sensor pads on the control panel in front of him, he broadened the long range scanning system of one system channel to encompass the entire planet, then using the shuttles voice command he began instructing it.
Several minutes passed before Syn'kra-va'al was rewarded with any results, only a few channels in the area of Bre's residence were active and they were all secure Council lines. Syn paused for a moment and growled, frustrated with himself, he should have made contact when he had the chance. What if something has happened and Bre'ta'ak is in trouble, and not too mention Ju'lyn-zal, he left her without letting her know how he felt, he inhaled slowly;
"If something happens to them…" He cut the sentence short as he clenched his fists "…because I have not fulfilled my mission…"
He growled deep in his throat, a loud bloodcurdling otherworldly growl, he instructed the command console to broaden all channels and search to find any trace of his beloved Elder.
So many thoughts passed trough his mind as he watched a holographic display for a few moments before he stalked off intently toward the medium sized exercise chamber, with every breath he drew, he snarled with anger. He had done it again all right, except this time he had possibly doomed the only one person he truly cared about. Everything was drawing a blank as he walked into the ship's small kehrite, and set up the chamber for his fitness regimen, before he knew it, Syn was standing in a projected real time combat simulation circle, a perk only for the highest ranking Elder shuttles;
"Bre, trained me you did, to be better than you… To do this I must initially be as good AS you…"
Thei-de Ka'antyra, stretched and tried not too think about his current circumstance as he removed his armor, for this simulation he would not need impact protection, the only damage one suffers using this method is artificial pain, induced by the control system via a direct neural interface every time the exceptionally life like projection makes direct combat contact with the user. Syn exhaled trying to calm himself as the image of Bre'ta'ak materialized in front of him, a strange blue aura surrounded the generated model of the Elder, indicating a neutral status. He mumbled the command which loosely translated meant 'I am ready', the virtual warrior's aura changed to a deep red color and it sprang back into its right leg and scissor kicked Syn around the head before he could even raise his guard and sent him spinning to the ground.
With swimming vision and a throbbing head, Syn got back to his feet and the aura changed back to blue then to red again. Bre'ta'ak' must have been in his peak when Syn was at his worst, because the younger male never remembered his elder being able to move so quickly before. Blocking several attempts of contact, the real Yautja in the circle began to move on the offensive, on the odd occasion he would land several blows then be sent skidding along the floor once more. Syn'kra-va'al knew he shouldn't do it, but he let the best of his anger get to him and just like Bre used to say, it made him more powerful, but all his technique went out the window.
Several hours later, a battered Syn'kra-va'al stood on shaky legs, trying to learn a difficult six blow kick combination, every time he had tried it so far the fake Bre'ta'ak would block every kick. Even though it was a waste of time, as the projection could not hear him, Syn talked to it anyway, as if it was his Elder in the flesh;
"You HAVE been training behind my back, have you not? It matters not, I can take you old one!"
For the first time during the session, Syn got the upper hand as he feinted left then struck out with his right leg, sweeping the legs out from under the projected opponent, causing it to fall to the ground. As it got back to its feet and changed back to 'red' Syn was ready and jumped to avoid a vicious jab aimed at his head, while air-born the Yautja male managed to right himself and upon landing swung his right leg around before the projection could block and his heel made contact with the side of its head, slamming it into the deck.
Syn watched groggily as Bre'ta'ak's projected image faded from its position on the floor, the training regimen was over. Syn almost managed a smile, it was a hard work out, and he couldn't remember the last time he had experienced so much pain, he breathed deep, extended breaths to try and ease the pain in his ribs, whist at the same time mumbling through clenched teeth;
"Stay down, bitch…"
Syn'kra-va'al tilted his head a little to one side with a strange look on his face as he realized what he had just said, not to mention in Ooman tongue. Even if he had to kill Cass to regain Bre'ta'ak, he wouldn't forget the time he spent with her, she was as focused and determined as he was, and he loved the food.
On the way to grab a cold flask of water an alarm rang out from the cockpit, Syn got water first before responding to the findings of the long range scan. As he neared the main console a red warning flashed the location of the only signal he could send to, it was an old code, one not used in years, but it had Bre'ta'ak's identification sequence encoded. Syn'kra-va'al didn't hesitate to connect with the host signal, and was rewarded only with static audio then the connection collapsed completely. The second attempt was more satisfying with eighty percent audio clarity and a low forty percent visual clarity, the patchy image of Ju'lyn-zal appeared from one of the console projection lenses. The audio came across clean at the start then tapered away to nothing;
"Are you there… kra-va'al... You must help… council… liquefied… Blade Clan…"
"I cannot hear you well Ju'lyn-zal."
"…Now! …Bre'ta'ak tried… intervene… others"
"I knew they would use me, why would they keep the Dark Blade Clan inert after all this talk of reinstatement…?
"…know… things are bad… they… removed… premises… took… belongings…"
"Wait, where is Master Bre'ta'ak?"
"…not…your… betrayed…"
"Where is he Ju'lyn-zal!?"
"Sorry… tried… help… too late. Betrayed… battle… dead…"
Why was she there? Looking around, scared for a moment, not noticing the she was naked. Cass looked at the computer terminal in front of her. On the screen was a note, it was addressed to her;
Cass,
I am writing this because I had to do something to erase my memory so that they don't find out certain information. If you don't remember, General Andrews and Dr. Lisa Murvane caused the death of James Miller. He found me, after their changes and even out on the fringes of the known space, he found me. You cannot trust them, and to make it harder, I have disabled the speech center of my mind. Yes it is fixable but it is tied with the erased memories. You must remember that the reason why, is the individual who helped me, that individual is special, and although his name might be a sin, he is not.
Delete this note, NOW!
Cass stood for a moment before deleting the message, and turning on her right heel began to inspect her surroundings. Not knowing exactly what she should do, but something in her gut said to get out of there. She started to look into rooms as she passed them, walking with a cat like stealth, that betrayed her genetic and body modifications. She stopped at the room that held Fury, or what was left of him. With an almost childlike curiosity, she touched his bare chest, her fingers running across his many scars, and they trailed off as she picked up the discarded remains of the face hugger's shell.
Holding the slimy husk, she looked at it from all angles, hearing the faint sounds of what would most likely be an entire platoon of marines. Cass stood and waited, she was still holding the limp shell of the creature now buried in the chest of the man she had hated and now oddly she knew he had died, but there was a blankness, a grey area of how he had died.
Walking out into the hallway and into the range of the two dozen plus pulse rifles aimed at her. Cassandra stood looking at them impassively, a part of her, knew she could kill at least half before the bullets would hit her in enough vital areas to kill her. It frightened her to think of killing, she knew she had killed xenomorphs, and she had been hurt, in the hive. The other personality, gone, partially due to her, and to the now dead Dr. Min Gelia. There was something else, but again that grey wall.
The sea of marines parted with General Andrews coming through the gap, Dr. Murvane followed with a pained expression on her face. A marine in the back who had not been able to ogle Cass and her nakedness, let out a time honored cat call whistle, when he saw her. With an aim that would make a baseball pitcher jealous, through the crowd, past rifles being slung and unslung, depending on their location. The dead face hugger, landed on a second target, and if it had an embryo in it. It would have found a new host. Shrieks of panic and fear came from the back, and then laughing amongst the soldiers and shouts as the cat calling marine ripped the husk from his face.
"So Ms. Tripp, what have you been doing with yourself, since taking your leave of us?"
Cass said nothing, she simply shook her head.
Andrews was puzzled. She seemed almost childlike, as if whatever gave her the barbed tongue and wit was gone. As if she didn't remember what had just happened to her, and what she had done.
Damn! She must have erased her memories some how! Lisa Murvane came up next to him.
"Cass, what did you do?"
Cass could only shake her head. She held her hand up to her throat and opened her mouth. No sound came out.
General Andrews was shaking his head, furious with himself, with her, and with the situation. He motioned to a pair of marines, and then to several more to escort the naked Amazon to where ever Dr. Murvane wanted this wasted experiment to go.
Surrounded by an armed escort, Cassandra simply walked with them. Almost enjoying the sidelong looks they gave her. The appraising looks of her naked body, and the hint of fear she smelled in most of them.
Their pheromones told a story to her, one of fear, lust and something she couldn't quite define. It was like an expensive heady perfume. She could get caught up in it and loose herself to it if she let herself.
Lisa led the way, thinking quickly on how she should and could deal with the current situation. At this point and time there was nothing that could really hold her.. except one place…walking quickly she signaled to Jordan, her assistant to come up to her.
Cass heard snatches of their conversation.
Something about a rider, a tank and helmet. It only took her a moment to realize what their intentions were. But what could she do? Run? Get killed? Surely something should or could happen. Sighing with such aplomb, she saw the faces of those escorting her change from fear to disgust. Not at her, but at the situation as they too figured out what was about to happen.
Jordan awaited the group, holding out a mask that was attached to hoses that reached for the ceiling. Next to him was a tube, thick plexan, and a step ladder. Lisa Murvane held up her hand to signal that they were to hold position.
"Cass, I want you to put that mask on and climb into the tube please."
Shrugging, realizing that what was left of her stupid, screwed up, worthless life was gone. Whatever hope she had that… the grey wall again. There was that small amount of hope. Some one who was a sinner, or was named for a sin would help her. That tiny glimmer of light in the darkness that was her mind and soul. It gave her the strength to smile, to climb up and get into the tube, strap the breathing mask to her face and land with such grace. More than one marine turned away, not wanting to look. Jordan, asked her to raise her arm and strapped a band to her, finding the veins under the skin of her arm.
She put her other hand against the plexan, and she slid, seating herself at the bottom, waiting for what ever they had planned for her.
Liquid started to pour in, and soon the drugs they were pumping into her, caused her to black out. The last marine stared as her body started to float in the tank, her hand finally slipping from the side, as if a final wave goodbye. He turned and walked away.
The acidic rider was introduced into her bloodstream and the helmet was readied to be installed. Lisa was hit with a new challenge when dealing with how to install the helmet to Cass's existing computer that was housed between the halves of her brain.
She found two access points, and neither one was nice, but it was efficient. And beauty was always in the eye of the beholder. And she found she could add a heads-up display to go over Cass's eyes like a wrap around shield or set of shaded lenses.
As the black mass grew and took on its shape, Jordan programmed the lid and the clamps holding Cass's head in place to raise her up so that the bio helmet could be introduced to her. Holding the semi organic living thing in a container, He dumped it into the fluid near her head. It clung to her, molding itself to her skull and creating a shape that would almost create a second skull. It extruded extensions of itself and following its programming, it found the soft spot right above the eye, in the hole that held the ocular orbs. Another pair went in through the lower back edge of the skull where the spine and the brain stem connect. Using a special imager, Lisa was able to direct where the inner connections needed to be made in order to use the computer that Wulcan had created and linking it to her bio helmet, this creating a path between the two and with in moments. Cass Tripp would again be at the mercy of the C.B.A.U.
It went with out a hitch, and as the x-gene tech was removed from the liquid in the tube, and laid out on a gurney. Murvane ran searches through the link, trying different word groupings, images, fragments of information gleaned from the alien hunters. All to know avail. Every search came up with no information. A clean slate, a grey wall of emptiness.
Screaming in frustration, Lisa threw the stylus away from her, and pounded the desk top.
She walked over to the inert form and noticed the scratches on Cass's arm, something triggered a memory. Bringing up the information found on the wrist computer of a predator hunter. She saw the same type of glyphs. When had those scratches been put there? How had she missed them? What did they mean? And who had put them there?
CGX2 sat at the edge of the gurney, a simple paper gown was draped over her shoulders and tied around her waist. The data jack on her arm had a plug that went to the computer console. Lisa Murvane sat at the desk running tests, and telling a small harem of lab assistants what she wanted done. From the time she woke up, till now, Murvane had been trying to find any information on the predators. And checking her link and other programs that needed to be downloaded into her new combination of bio helmet computer chip interface. The lithe x-gene tech had said nothing before the implant, and now was a silent or more so than even her xenomorphs.
"Alright, lets get her up and ready for some physical tests."
She positioned herself in front of Cass, the x-gene tech sat there, staring at her. Her eyes looking around, she did not have the visor attached yet. Small movements of her head as she assimilated the information and following her programming, she was already watching, patrolling, now ever ready to fight and protect.
"CGX2," Lisa addressed the former gene tech.
The yellow flecked eyes locked onto her. She nodded and then stood up the thin paper gown crackled as she did so.
"I want you to follow these technicians. They will get you your uniform and other gear. When you are done. I want you to report back here to me. Do you understand?"
CGX2 nodded and then turned to one of the lab assistants, who looked expectantly at Lisa.
"I want you to take her down to the quarter master and have a set of undergarments, athletic gear and off duty clothing issued to her. I will talk to General Andrews about her armor."
He nodded and beckoned the x-gene tech to follow. As they left Lisa sat down and punched in the code so she could speak to Andrews. His face appeared on her computer screen, he could tell she didn't look happy.
"So, do you have an update on Cass?"
"Yes sir I do, but I don't think you are going to like it."
"There are a lot of things about that bitch I don't like. But what specific things now?"
"She erased any and all memories of the predator she was with. Although we can now use her to track the alien if it is still on the planet. And…"
"And what Dr. Murvane? Just spit it out woman!"
"She used the computer to some how disable her own voice."
Lisa saw him turn red, a vein protruded out on his forehead.
"WHAT!! How did that bitch manage to do that?"
"From what I can tell, she tied it to the erasure of the memories. If there were some way to recover those, then we could bring back her ability to speak. And general…there is more."
"Oh for fucks sake! What?!"
"I found some scratches on her arm, they are the glyphs that make up the alien language. But I don't know what they say. The team that worked on that project never figured out the language aspect of it. Only the numbers."
"For crying out loud, are you saying the alien marked her some how?"
"General I don't know. She could have done it, it could have done it. I don't know when, but perhaps since she can't speak, I can get her to write or use the computer to tell us what she did."
"So where is she now?"
"I had her taken to get some gear, I am running some physical tests this afternoon."
"I want to see her."
"That is fine General, you can stop on by."
"No, I want her sent to my office either before or after the tests you run. Alone."
He had a look in his eye, Lisa had seen that look before, perhaps not from him, but others like him. It disgusted her, but with a sigh, she nodded and disconnected.
As the small escort walked passed various groups of people, a cafeteria, and a set of barracks. The looks and stares they got made the lab technicians a bit uncomfortable. The looks ranged from disgust to wonton lust when they saw the x-gene tech walk by.
Jerry Riceman one of the lead technicians got a stupid idea, as was his usual forte.
"Man I am hungry, let's stop to get something to eat."
The other two shrugged their shoulders and didn't care one way or the other. He turned to CGX2 and said.
"I want you to sit at this table, wait here while we get something to eat."
One of the others mumbled something and Jerry looked at him.
"Dude, I am sure the doctor is providing her with some special x-tech diet. All them xeno's with helmets eat. We don't want to mess up her system with something like lemon cake and fish. So she can just sit here and look all purdy till we get back."
He ran his hand down her barely covered thigh.
"Right babe?"
She nodded but did nothing to stop his hand. She had not been programmed to deal with the rights and wrongs of interpersonal dealings with normal humans.
A marine walked up and sat down across from her, his name was Charlie Brekker. He had fought alongside her when she was a gene tech. He looked into her eyes and saw the black looking tentacles that came down from the helmet and into two reddish holes right above her eyes.
"Does that hurt?"
She nodded no.
"Can you talk?"
Again she nodded no.
"Can you write?"
A hesitation, as if she had to think about it. Then a nod yes.
He pulled out a small pad of paper and a pencil, he did maintenance on the drop ships so was constantly writing down things he saw that needed to be added to the maintenance schedule. Charlie handed it to her.
With an elegant hand, she wrote the greetings 'Hello'.
To ease things along, her responses will appear as if she were talking
"So what did they do to you Cass?"
"I no longer have the designation of Cass, I am now called CGX2."
"Huh, that is weird. But okay, so what do you remember of your time before getting your helmet?"
"I have a complete memory but have gaps. I apparently deleted certain files, this seems to have angered the doctor and the general."
"Well lots of things anger the general. So what is going on with Fury? I haven't seen him since you two fought on the hanger deck. I gotta tell you though, I saw that alien who came in. Man he was huge, he took on and then took out 3 praetorian x-techs."
"I have no information on the alien. Fury has been… um…recycled? I think is a good way to put it."
Charlie's face fell and he became ashen colored.
"You mean he is an X-tech now?"
"I would assume so, I saw the face hugger attached to him before the bio helmet implantation. Although from the way they have talked he will be different from the normal x-tech types as well."
Charlie wanted to ask another question, but the lab technicians came back . He grabbed his pencil and pad from her, and walked off.
Jerry looked at him as he sat down and asked CGX2, "What did he want?"
She shrugged and waited for them to eat.
Soon after going to supply, and the x-gene tech outfitted in a set of shorts, a t-shirt and new athletic shoes that squeaked when she walked. The group made their way back to Dr. Murvane's lab. They passed by a set of holding cells, three x-techs were curled up with in them, sleeping or sitting. The last held a large praetorian who looked at them as they walked by, this one was different that the others. Nothing much different with its bio helmet, but off to one side, slightly indented into its chitin. A red colored orb stared at them, as if they were being watched by a demonic Cyclops.
Sometime after the group returned to the labs, they then went to one of the base gyms. With various scans going on, and the x-gene tech attached through various electrodes and other monitoring devices, they ran her through a gamut of tests. A visual came to mind of one slightly bored tech, that of an old vid, one of a woman who had various parts of her body replaced with "bionic" implants. Although he was sure the hardware attached to and inside the x-gene tech was worth quite a bit more than six million dollars.
General Andrews came down to see how the testing went, he watched her doing various things and fighting with boxing gloves, punji sticks, go through a live fire test both on the gun range and through a obstacle course.
While she was showering he approached Dr. Murvane. He patted her on the shoulder and then said.
"Doc, I would like her sent to my office when she is done here. I want to talk to her."
"Fine sir, I will have an escort waiting to bring her there."
"No, no. That won't be necessary. I am sure she can find it herself."
Lisa was about to say something else, when he turned away and she overheard him saying to himself.
"Damn bitch will finally get her comeuppance!."
She shook her head, that man was driven by his immediate need for gratification, or simple immediate need for other emotional follow through.
As CGX2 came out, she stumbled a little. Her muscles felt a little weak, she felt a little light headed, and there was a pain in her stomach. She queried the C.B.A.U. as to why she had these conditions, but it simply stated she should see the doctor.
Well the doctor was right there, and perhaps she would have an answer to as to why she had these physical problems.
She walked up to Lisa and waited to get her attention. The doctor ignored her for a few moments, and the x-gene tech finally tapped her on the shoulder and pointedly looked down at her stomach and held her hand over it.
Lisa was not really paying attention to her, and said in a dismissive voice.
"You are to report to see the general immediately."
Given an order, CXG2 saluted, and turned away. She knew her way to the general's office. She stumbled a bit leaving the gym, one technician noticed but was then called to look at a data stream.
She walked by a cafeteria and the smells that usually made people wince a little set her to drooling. She again queried the central computer but because her programming didn't specify eating or other forms of nutrient intake, she didn't know how to ask whether she should eat or drink. Or what the symptoms were of simply being hungry. There were assumptions made and by removing most of her autonomy they had removed the simplest of directives she would normally follow. Such as eating or drinking when she was hungry or tired. With Fury, he was required to go to his "quarters" and while there, a standing order was that he be given an IV bag, and wired into his cerebral cortex was the simple need to eat, and to interact with those around him as the need arose.
CGX2 staggered down the hall, she had been given a glucose bag while in the tube, but had not eaten a full meal since she had brought the huge platter of food to the general's office. The biological changes made to her, had taken a lot of her reserves, and then the implantation of the bio helmet and now the testing had wiped out whatever energy she had left.
She walked into the front office where the general's aide-de-camp sat. He had been made aware that the general had wanted to see her. He informed the general that the helmet x-gene tech was there to see him.
She was let in and she stood inside the door way, the door closed behind her. The general was sitting on his couch across the room, he motioned for her to come over. She gave a salute and then walked over to stand near him.
"Sit down Cass."
She didn't move.
"I said sit down!"
At that she sat down, as she did so, she lightly touched his hand and pointed to the series of letters and number that were on her helmet, CGX2.
Sighing and shaking his head, he remembered his conversation with Murvane that perhaps she could write, even if she couldn't talk.
He got up and rummaged around his desk and came back with a note pad and a pen, he handed it to her.
"Why didn't you sit when I first told you to!"
She wrote, 'I no longer have that designation, sir.'
He rolled his eyes, not really wanting to have a conversation with her.
He stood up and walked over to her, "Do you understand you are to follow a superior commander's orders at all times?"
She wrote, 'Yes, sir.'
"Then I want you to remove all of your clothing. NOW!"
She sat the pen and paper down and started with her shoes and socks, she pulled off the shorts and under ware together and then proceeded to pull off her t-shirt, pulling off the sports bra that was underneath. She placed them off to one side and sat there bare naked on his couch. Waiting for what ever orders came.
Andrews first grew excited when she pulled off the shorts, but her manner was so business like and now she sat there, silently. Quietly mocking him in her own way. If he told her to get on all fours on the floor, she would. But that isn't what he wanted. He had wanted to dominate her, and make her pay for all crap she had done over the last few days. But faced with a blank eyed, slack jawed automaton he couldn't rise to the occasion. Now furious with himself and her, he slapped her but she did not resist him. He then walked over to his desk, his small island of sanity to himself.
"Get dressed soldier. I want you to report to Dr. Murvane that I had a conversation with you, and that is all. Tomorrow you and FGX1 will start patrolling outside the base. I want you to find that alien hunter. You have the capability to do so. I will have her show you the tapes and audio from the hanger bay, so you can see what you are hunting. You were pretty damn cozy with that bastard. So now you will find the son of a bitch and bring it back here alive."
CGX2 stood and got dressed, swaying a little as she did so. As she exited his office, she turned to give him a salute, did a text book about face and then fell flat on her face.
His aide cried out, and ran over to her. Andrews sighed and called up Lisa's lab.
"Your new creation just fell over after leaving my office. Can you come and clean it up please."
He then closed the door to his office and hooked up to a video network with Asian porn on it.