Born on the Fourth Day of Bloom
AN: Warning for some pretty dark stuff in this chapter. Also apologies for the inevitable typos, I'm working without a beta at the moment. And yes, it has been far too long since I last updated this.
Cole spent the next two days in the castle infirmary, having his leg tended to. Katia had seemingly deliberately aimed for the soft flesh and the bullet had missed anything vital. The care was professional but coldly inhuman, and he was kept handcuffed to the bed, feeling more like a pet that needed veterinary care than a human being. The fact that they bothered at all surprised him at first, but when they pushed Baird into the room at 9am on the dot on both days he began to understand why he was being taken care of. They managed to exchange about a sentence before Baird was dragged away again.
On the third day, after the usual 9am "proof of life" visit with Baird, they apparently decided that he was sufficiently recovered that he could be put to work. He limped and needed a stick to walk, but it was better than lying around in bed. He'd bet his remaining good leg that Baird was already working on a plan to get them out of here, so all he had to do was survive and look for any way to assist him.
The guards walked Cole out of the castle courtyard and down a well-worn path to a rocky outcropping. He and his keepers rounded the rocks to see the entrance to a mine, shorn up by ancient looking wooden beams, each one dark with weathering and age. Rusted mine cart rails curved into the entrance, like long snakes entering a predators gaping maw. The place smelt of damp earth, mildew, pine trees and death. It was an odd combination and not one that Cole wanted to spend any time around. Alas he wasn't being given a choice and was propelled ahead into the mine.
It took his eyes a few moments to adjust to the shadows and darkness inside, and then he saw the people. It made him cringe to look at them and reassess the level of his own problems, all in one quick thought. They were unbearably thin, dirty and dressed in clothes that were falling apart. The rags couldn't do much to keep them warm or protected from the rough rocks. However, the most noticeable feature of all the people around him was the way that they cowered and tried to make themselves look as inconspicuous as possible, slinking closer to the rocks. They were all scared out of their wits by the simple presence of the guards.
"Sit," said one of the guards, pushing Cole towards a rock. Cole gave him a look, but had no choice but to crumple onto the rock. It wasn't a dignified movement, but his leg was hurting after the walk. He wasn't going to be doing any long hikes any time soon and he definitely wasn't going to be running for a while.
One of the guards went over to what looked like a pile of rags and began dragging it towards the mine entrance. As he pulled, it an arm flopped out of the pile and Cole was horrified to discover that it was a person – unmoving, not breathing. No one else seemed shocked by the way the guard casually dragged the body away, but Cole was. It was unbelievable that human life was so cheap here, after everything that he and his friends had fought for. Humanity shouldn't be doing this to itself. It had already lost too much to the Locust and the Lambent.
They gave Cole a pick and told him to chip away at the rock, in his injured state it was all he was really good for but he'd be moved on to the mining face once he was more mobile. His first instinct was to turn around and bury the pick in the guard's head, but they had guns and he wouldn't get ten feet before they cut him down. If he'd only had himself to think about then he might have considered a desperate charge, but if he died now then there'd be no one to get Baird out. He wondered how many of the prisoners had thought similar thoughts to the ones that he was having now.
And it soon became clear what happened if you didn't work. The guards had batons and weren't afraid to use them on anyone that looked like they were slacking off. Men and women both got the same treatment. The guards made sure that the mine kept producing its daily quota of ores. At about mid-day they started to allow groups of workers to stop to drink water and eat a meagre portion of food. Cole wasn't able to readily identify what it was he was given, but he was aware of his situation and knew that this was the only food he'd be getting. Everyone around him was clearly starving and he would be too eventually. All he could do was keep his strength up for as long as possible.
One of the women was detailed off to bring the water round to the other prisoners. She carried a heavy bucket and used a cup to scoop out the ration of water. Cole watched her for a few seconds, feeling that there was something about her that was familiar. There was something in the way she moved. Then he caught the red of her hair. It was straggly and dirty, but that hadn't dulled the underlying colour. She wore what might have once been a green t-shirt and grey trousers.
She reached his position and offered him the cup, not paying much attention to him, just going through the motions. Cole put a hand on her arm, needing her to look up so that he could be sure.
"Sofia?"
She frowned and raised her eyes to meet Cole's. He could see the shock written across her face as she recognised him.
"Cole," she whispered. She glanced back furtively towards the guards, whose collective attention was elsewhere at the moment. She knelt in front of the rock he sat on so that she could keep an eye on their position but also speak to him.
"What are you doing here? I mean how…?" Her voice was dry and didn't sound exactly like the Sofia that he'd served with back at Halvo Bay.
"Long story, baby, long story. They've got Baird too. Put him to work in their engineering lab," Cole whispered. "They grabbed you at Halvo Bay?"
Sofia nodded. "And brought me here. Paduk tried to stop them, but he never had a chance."
"Yeah, we bumped into him a few months back. He wasn't too happy to see us. He took COG tags off the guy he killed."
"Some of the guards are ex-COG. They gave us all a choice. Either we became one of them," she nodded towards the guards, "or we got put to work. I still don't think I made the wrong choice."
"Not really my thing either, beating on helpless prisoners," said Cole. "Look, Baird's probably already thinking about ways to get us out of here..."
Sofia raised an eyebrow. "Good luck with that. We had a pilot in here that broke a bunch of people out of here. They dragged half of them back and killed the rest. There's no way out. I've been here a long time and I've tried to see a way, but it just isn't possible. There's too many of them and they're too well armed."
The guards were beginning to move in their direction. Sofia got to her feet again.
"Hey, wait," said Cole, stopping her before she could leave.
"Tonight," said Sofia. "We'll all be locked in down here and there won't be any guards. We can talk then."
Cole nodded, finished his water and passed the cup back to Sofia. "Tonight."
She moved away before the guards could notice their interaction, and Cole felt the loss of her presence. Two COG soldiers might have a chance where one would have failed, and he'd just found a friend that he thought he'd lost. Something good had finally happened.
In another time and place Baird would have been ecstatically happy to have such a well-equipped facility to work in. It wasn't anything like his workshop back on Azura, where he dealt in cannibalised parts and hack jobs by re-using whatever he could. Here they had machines that had been locked away in a bunker and hadn't been taken out of their original factory packing. They were pristine and they worked when he turned them on. They even had spare parts, in crates that were labelled and catalogued very precisely in neat Ostrian script. Everything was clean and tidy, and he didn't have to look for anything he wanted.
When he'd first been pushed into the lab, wounds fresh from his torture and angry at being shoved around, they'd cuffed him to a bench. Then a woman, who he guessed was a medic or a doctor, had been ushered in to deal with cleaning the cuts on his body and applying bandages. He'd been given back his epilepsy meds and the woman had questioned him on the dosage he was taking and how often. Then she'd told him to let the medical lab know when he needed more.
The casual manner in which she'd said it floored him slightly, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He needed his epilepsy medication to function and get out of this place. If they were capable of providing more then he'd take it gratefully. He was also surprised when she asked him if his leg was bothering him and if he needed a brace or cane to make himself more comfortable. He shook his head at that. His leg was bothering him, but he'd rather be more mobile and a brace would just slow him down.
The doctor left and the rest of the lab staff introduced themselves. A guy called Professor Bruno Jaeger was in charge, and he had been a neuroscientist and surgeon before Katia had put him to work. He hadn't been prepared to take part in the medical experimentation that went on down the hall so they'd set him to lab work. He was at least ten years older than Baird, with greying hair and a bristly salt and pepper moustache and beard. He strangely reminded Baird a little of Professor Elliot, but Professor Jaeger spoke very little Tyran and Baird spoke even less Ostrian.
The other scientists seemed cowed and afraid, almost embarrassed to talk to him. Some of them spoke Tyran, but their ability in the language was pretty variable and scientific discussion clearly wasn't going to be on the cards. They mostly had specialisms in chemistry and biology, some of them were medical doctors, and Baird could have used a few of them to have helped him set up the pharmaceuticals lab back on Azura. But he'd also been assigned a couple of assistants who had some knowledge of engineering and mechanics. They were going to be monitoring his work and it was made clear that they would be reporting back on his progress.
At the end of the day he was shown to room which was going to be his new quarters. It was sparsely decorated with only one wooden chair and a bedside table, but actually had a bed with a real mattress and blankets. It was in the main castle, but on the second floor, so had slit shaped windows, which even though they had glass in them, were too narrow for him to consider escaping through. It felt like luxury after the prison cell in the castle dungeon, but he was still under guard every second of the day. Katia wasn't taking any chances.
He did his best to ignore the screaming from the medical labs which he passed on the way to see Cole in the infirmary the next morning. He caught a glimpse through the door of a blood soaked floor and decided that was all he needed to know about what went on in there. Katia had mentioned that she let medical experiments take place and that she would hand Baird over to them if she thought he wasn't doing as he was told. He had the proof that she hadn't been bluffing right there. At least Cole was being given medical attention and was safe for the moment.
He spent two days just tinkering with machines that they brought him, mostly inconsequential stuff, like computers that had died or a portable generator that needed fixing. Then they had him look at some of the broken lab equipment. They even took him out to examine some ancient fixed gun emplacements that sat on the turrets, but they were so rusted and old that he doubted he'd have much hope of getting them working. He hadn't minded any of that, and it was easy stuff so it gave him time to think of the start of plans to escape.
However everything changed on the third day when a scientist that he'd never seen before came into the labs. He walked around like he was in a dream state. The others called him by his first name, Carl, which he responded to and he seemed capable enough of attending to his own needs. His behaviour was bizarre though. He did whatever was asked of him, however he seemed to have a reasonable intellect and was able to solve quite complex problems on his own. If he finished a job then he would just stand around until someone gave him another one.
Baird's curiosity got the better of him and he asked one of his assistants, a smarmy bastard called Nieheim, who he was.
"What's his story?"
"Carl?" asked Nieheim. "He's one of Katia's pets. He didn't do as he was told so she sent him to the labs and he came back like that. Now he just does what everyone tells him to."
Baird did his best to suppress a shudder. "She took his freewill?"
"Yeah," said Neiheim. "I suppose so. You'd better watch out. You might be the next one she decides to do that to."
Baird had already worked that one out. The need to find a way out of this was even more desperate now. He did not want to end up like Carl. They guy was a zombie, walking around and following orders. He didn't seem to show any emotions, he was just an empty husk of a man.
Baird had spent the last two days taking a sort of mental inventory of everything that was in the lab and all the other things that he had at his disposal. He was going to need to plan very carefully if he didn't want to get caught, but he probably had everything he needed. It was definitely time he started putting stuff together. He needed to find out where Cole had been taken since they'd discharged him from their Infirmary, but that shouldn't be too hard.
Katia entered the lab about half an hour later and gave him even more reason to get moving. She was dressed in her uniform and everyone saluted her as she passed, even some of the scientists.
"I hope you don't expect me to do that," said Baird, as she approached.
Katia gave him one of her dangerous, serpentine smiles. "I don't need you to salute me to know that you're under my control. Admittedly not entirely willingly, but we can't always get what we want. I'm glad to see that you've met Carl."
"Oh yeah, he's the life and soul of this place. Great guy," replied Baird, sarcastically.
Katia reach a hand out and touched Baird's cheek. "Don't make me do that to you."
He was conscious of the guards that Katia had behind her. He would have slapped her hand away, but he couldn't be sure that one of her minions wouldn't shoot him for the transgression. Her touch made his skin crawl, now that he knew exactly what she was capable of, but he didn't move. He had to survive this. He had to survive so that he could deal with this witch and her army of psychopathic nutcases, and make certain that none of them got as far as Azura and her technological marvels.
Unfortunately Katia clearly knew something about what was on Azura.
"I want the Hammer of Dawn," said Katia, her hand dropping back to her side.
"No," said Baird. The room suddenly went still.
Katia slapped Baird hard across the face.
"If I say that I want something then you ask me when. I don't take "no" as an answer."
Baird's skin stung from the blow. "Even if I had the codes, I couldn't give you the Hammer of Dawn. Half the satellites are gone or broken. Even the COG daren't use it in case it hits something important accidentally. It can't be aimed anymore. You're barking up the wrong tree, Katia."
Katia took a step closer to Baird. "Find a way, or I'll see if the medical labs need a new test subject."
Baird shook his head. "Threatening me won't make dead satellites work. We'd need to launch a manned space mission to repair them, or launch another satellite, several in fact. We don't have that kind of technology anymore."
"You're lying, and if you keep lying then some very bad things will be happening to you and your friend. Currently I've told the guards to go easy on Cole, but that doesn't have to continue. Very occasionally I let my soldiers have some fun. I release one of our workers into the woods and they have to try to hunt them down. Cole would be a fantastic hunt, but with that bad leg of his, well he can't run so fast now can he."
Baird opened his mouth and started to say "you fucking bitch…" but one of the guards hit him on the back with the butt of his rifle. Baird fell to his knees.
"You've got three days to bring me something," said Katia, and stalked out of the lab before Baird could pull himself to his feet again.
Yes, he definitely needed to get that plan going. He was rapidly running out of time.
Cole managed to shuffle himself enough that when the guards threw blankets at their prisoners, and told everyone it was time to sleep, he was close to Sofia. The prisoners were chained up at night, attached by manacles to a long chain that went through iron rings that were attached to the mine's rock walls. There weren't enough blankets to go round, and Cole very much got the impression that it wasn't at all unusual for prisoners to die in the cold of the night. He and Sofia huddled together and whispered softly.
"I'm sorry that you're here," said Sofia.
"Yeah, me too," replied Cole.
"So, give me the story," said Sofia.
Cole went through the fight on the boat and how they'd ended up being taken prisoner by the Ostrians. He explained how Keller had betrayed them and how it was all just a setup to get Baird.
"I know that he's good with machines, but it seems overkill just to get a mechanic," said Sofia.
Cole shrugged and stretched out his aching leg. "Katia wants him for something, and I don't think it's just so that he can fix their trucks."
"Katia?" asked Sofia.
"She's the one they call Commander Ivo and in charge of this bunch of psychos. Apparently she and Baird dated back in college," said Cole.
Sofia's eyes widened slightly. "That's… Actually I don't know what that is."
"I'm going to go with creepy," said Cole.
Sofia raised an eyebrow but nodded. "Does it help us or make things worse?"
"Probably makes things worse. She tortured him, so I don't think she's got any feelings left for him now," said Cole. "In fact, maybe she hates him all the more because he went off and became a Gear. Look, we need to be ready to move, Baird's going to have a plan and we're going to have to be prepared to take our cues when we get them. We might not get another chance."
"What if he doesn't come up with something?"
"Then we pick our moment and we go on our own. We'll just have to hope that the blond genius is ready when we come his way."
Sofia nodded. "Okay, I've been keeping an eye on the guards and what their patrol patterns are. I reckon the two of us together could get a couple of guns and deal with the others before anyone notices what we're doing. Then it's just a matter of freeing the other prisoners, but without guns we won't get anywhere."
Sofia had been paying attention and she gave him a thorough account of the movements of the guard. Cole didn't expect any less from her. She'd always been smart and a good soldier. She had been one of the few remaining members of the Onyx Guard, and they chose their recruits carefully.
Cole began to feel a little more hopeful that this might work, however being hopeful wasn't going to be enough. They were going to need luck and skill, and even then they could all wind up like Daniel Carmine's band of forlorn escapees. Cole and Sofia had been Gears for long time though, and had given themselves up to the idea that death was part of their lives years ago. Cole still would have been happier if he'd had his best friend with him, but at least he wasn't alone in this now.
She asked him about Paduk and how his small band of survivors was doing. He gave her as much information as he could, but he wasn't sure what Paduk had planned once the Locust and Lambent were dealt with. All he could really tell her was that he'd been alive when he'd last seen him and apparently so had a good proportion of the rest of the group. Sofia was at least glad to hear that and she allowed herself a smile. Cole thought it might have been the first that he'd seen on her face since he'd found her.
After a decent session of planning, the two Gears huddled together for warmth and slept. Tomorrow was another day of trying to survive a nightmare, and all they could do for now was hang on until the right moment presented itself.
It took Baird a couple of days to carefully amass all the supplies that he needed without anyone knowing about it. Things were actually going pretty well. Every morning he was taken to the ramparts of the castle, and then Cole would be brought out so that he could see him. Baird noted the limp, but other than that his friend seemed to be doing as well as could be expected. They were never given long enough to even acknowledge the presence of the other, but they knew that the other was still alive and that was enough for now.
At least Baird's seizures seemed to be under control now that he was back on his medication. He was thankful for small mercies, but it did highlight just how shitty their situation was that this was the brightest point in it. Baird concentrated instead on building something that would get him out of this mess. They'd let him go back to the gun emplacements on the wall and he'd squirreled away enough explosive material that he could make something of it. Then he'd very cautiously started to work out how best to make use of what he had. He was watched constantly, but luckily even his assistants didn't really understand what he was doing.
The problem was that Katia was going to want a report on his Hammer of Dawn progress and he had nothing. He'd put together a list of all the working satellites and some statistics on how inaccurate the Hammer now was, but that definitely wasn't going to satisfy her.
Katia came storming into the lab and over to his workspace with her usual haughty air. She looked at Baird and held out her hand without a word.
Baird sat on a high stool at the lab bench. He wasn't going to stand if he could help it. His leg was still causing him pain some days and resting it seemed to help. He gathered the papers that he'd been working on and handed them to her. She took one look at them and threw them back in his face.
"You think that's enough?" she shouted at him. "I want the Hammer of Dawn and you will give it to me."
Baird maintained his calm expression.
"I told you, the satellites are broken. I can't make it work. Even if I had the communication and firing station, which I don't, there aren't enough satellites left to get any kind of accuracy."
"You clearly don't understand that when I give you an order, I expect it to be obeyed. I think you need a lesson in obedience."
Katia summoned the guards that always accompanied her. Keller was with them today. Probably he was there to watch because Katia had known that Baird wouldn't deliver. He couldn't, after all. If he gave Katia the Hammer of Dawn then she'd be the most powerful person on the planet and he was only partially correct about the Hammer being beyond repair. It could be done, but it was weeks of work not days, and aiming would still be somewhat hit and miss, literally.
Katia called out across the lab. "Carl, come here."
The quiet man came immediately, leaving the work that he was in the middle of.
"Yes, Commander Ivo," he said.
"Carl, this is Baird. He hasn't done what he's told. You know how bad that is, don't you?"
Carl nodded. "Yes, Commander Ivo."
She handed Carl her gun and took a step back. "Take the gun, and then we'll show Baird how well you obey orders. He needs to learn."
"Yes, Commander Ivo." Carl took the gun and waited for further instructions.
"Hey, wait a minute here," said Baird. "I just need more time. Give me a few more days and I'll have something for you."
"Carl, put the gun to your head," said Katia.
"Yes, Commander Ivo," said Carl.
"Take the safety off," said Katia.
"No, stop it," said Baird, and moved forward to find himself held back by Katia's guards. "You've proven your point."
"I don't think I have," said Katia. "Carl, pull the trigger."
The gun shot rang out around the lab. Blood splattered across the surfaces and Baird's skin and clothes. Carl dropped to the ground in silence. Baird couldn't move. He'd seen enough death and blood to last him a life time. He'd seen squad mates and comrades in arms killed on the battlefield in their hundreds, he'd even seen men commit suicide, but it had never been like this. It had never been directly his fault.
"Remove this rubbish," said Katia to the guards.
"You're a psychopath," said Baird, the words said with seething venom.
"I'm a commander," said Katia. "And I get what I want. You'd do well to remember that."
"You just killed a man in cold blood to get a broken weapons system," said Baird with barely controlled anger.
"Then make sure his death is worth something. Give me the Hammer of Dawn. You have two days," said Katia.
The guards dragged Carl out of the room leaving a disturbing trail of blood behind them. Baird turned back to his desk and rested his head in his hands. He could feel the blood drying stickily on his face. On auto-pilot he moved to one of the lab sinks and turned on the tap, letting the water wash away the blood on his hands and then splashing water on his face. He felt slow and as if everything that had happened was happening to someone else. He wanted this all to stop and for it all to be over.
It was time to step up his plan. He didn't have the luxury of time to do this properly. He had to get out of here before Katia decided to kill someone else, or turn him into an impotent zombie like Carl. He moved back to his workspace and threw himself into some new calculations for the Hammer of Dawn. This had to work. It was all he had left.
Marcus discharged himself from the medical centre AMA, which stood for "against medical advice". He also discharged himself AAO or "against Anya's orders". One of those was proving to be causing him a lot more trouble than the other. Hayman had nothing on an angry Anya who felt that Marcus was being totally idiotic and had apparently lost any kind of self-preservation instinct that he'd ever had. Six days had passed since the boat attack and he wasn't lying around any longer. He still felt like crap, but the painkillers were doing their job and so were the antibiotics. He was covered in bandages but that wasn't going to stop him leading the mission to take down the Ostri.
Sam found him in the armoury. On Azura, they'd made use of brick tunnels under the main buildings for ammo storage. There was plenty of room and the areas were dry and free of fire risks.
"Is this a private party or can anyone join in?" Sam asked. She looked equally battered herself and had her own bandages covering the worst of the damage.
Marcus grunted an acknowledgement as he located the frag grenades.
"You're not cleared for duty yet," said Marcus, well aware of how hypocritical that was, but choosing to ignore his own flaunting of the same lack of clearance.
"Screw you," said Sam, predictably. "You know that I'm not letting you go without me. Those fuckers have either got my boyfriend or they're the ones that killed him."
Rather unexpectedly at that moment they were joined by Alex Brand, who sauntered under the dark archway of brick.
"Did someone say that there's a princess that needs saving?" asked the red head. "I'd be happy to lend my gun to that cause if it means that I get to blow the head off that traitor Keller."
"Really?" asked Sam, a little incredulously. "You two seemed to be getting on so well when you were making up charges to get Baird executed."
Alex gave Sam a cold look. "Fine, Byrne, crow all you want, but he took me for a ride. He took my grief over my squad and poisoned me with it. He kept telling me that I couldn't trust any of you and I wanted to believe him because Baird was such an asshole. I was wrong. Happy now?"
Sam was half-way towards Alex with her fists ready and a "you bitch!" on her lips, but Marcus stepped between them. Sam contented herself with giving Alex a look of death, because the solid hand of Marcus Fenix was firmly pushing on her chest plate armour.
"That's not an apology," spat Sam. "You put him in a cell and accused him of being a spy. You let your men beat him!"
"I know what I did," said Alex. "But I said that I was wrong. What more do you want?"
Sam let out a frustrated grunt of anger and turned away to collect her own ordnance. She turned back for a second to add, "an apology would be a start, and maybe not calling my boyfriend an asshole. You can't blame it all on Keller."
"I know," said Alex, "but he was feeding us all lies, or at least making sure that we put the worst possible spin on stuff. He was constantly reminding us that Baird was the only one with expertise to bring that chopper down. I didn't think much about it at the time, but he asked to join my squad when we left Anvil Gate. I had to persuade all the others to come, but he actually asked. You're right though, I owe Baird an apology. So we'd best go and find him so that I give it to his ugly face in person."
"When you're quite done," said Marcus, with more than a little sarcasm in his tone. "Some of us have got a mission to prepare for. Since apparently I'm stuck with both of you, you can report to the dock in one hour. Try not to kill each other before then."
Marcus grabbed the rest of his supplies and exited the armoury before the two women could start a new round of arguing.