Chapter 45
...
"I see...hmm...nothing useful so far..." Jane's voice commented after Sam finished her report.
The specialist had become more confused and wary of her counterpart the more the redhead had spoke. She attempted to obfuscate a few details while facing an unpleasant opportunity but continued telling to give the impression of full information about the still running decryption. Everything she asked so far had pointed out she doesn't know anything about the newly revealed data since the specialist and EDI made a new translation matrix. And this insight was more than just fatal.
The real Jane never would of asked for it...
The real Jane would of bothered her for leaving the ship against all orders..
This person next to her she couldn't see ...smelled like her, she even has her voice and may even have the vigor but it was not Commander Jane Shepard, that only leaving a clone as a possiblity.
...Keep cool Sammy... play along..
She had to keep up with the game, fearing they could do worse with her than just asking for information if she confessed she knew it was a bluff, so she stayed calm when asking. "Anything else, Commander?" but she couldn't hide her uncertainty, too little experience and not enough toughness.
Sadly the game was already up when the blindfold was removed and she spotted the faces of Maya Brooks, Clone-Jennifer and an amused Clone-Jane to her left side.
"Let's talk about the kiss..." Clone-Jennifer directly smirked and showed her tongue. Sam cursed herself for telling that intimidate detail about her last conversation with the commander in starboard.
...How embarrassing!...
"Hello Samantha Traynor..." the redhead greeted her with a playful smile which only made her feel more awkward.
The only one who obviously wasn't pleased at the performance was Brooks. She shot a dirty look towards the specialist, complaining. "I told you it's just time-wasting... All of this wasn't necessary..." she rose from her sitting position and addressed both sisters before leaving the cell. "Getting the omni-tool and a scan would have been enough. I don't understand why you want the little slut to be here..."
...My omni-tool?...Why would they want my tool?...
...Scanning?
Before the spontaneous trip Sam hadn't changed her standard usual tool to the upgraded one given to her by Liara. But it doesn't matter at all, there was nothing special on either in her opinion. Mostly used for ordinary military service, recherché in extra-net, standard hacking software and only a few decryption related stuff without the matrix of course, was saved on the advanced tool.
...So what do they want?
"Hey... she may be useful..." Clone-Jane shot after a leaving Brooks.
Her clone twin waited until the door locked then spoke to her sister. "She's always killing the fun hah ...isn't she?" then she crawled to Sam's position promising. "Last time we didn't have the space or option for us to get to know eachother better..."she filthy grinned at Sam. "But this time..it's different believe me..." and winked twice.
…
EDI
The annoyed employee was still complaining and cursing as he tried to reboot the systems in the small lab room. He let out a "...bullshit...damn... hope the boss is not coming along now..." and murmured a few words which were not understandable.
In the meantime Normandy's smart AI had used the chance to infiltrate the unshielded system to gain access and to lodge herself in one of the insignificant subprograms. The window was small and lasted only a few milliseconds, but it was enough time for EDI to cause a short electric performance loss and to place a little virus masked as a routine service program. The tactic was to force a reboot enabled the distribution and reproduction of her trojan while the employee was busy with trying to find out about her simple made virus for shutdown also masked as an automatically released defense routine to prevent hacking from her systems.
When the programmer finally sat down again and started to run diagnostics, EDI was already in a few subprograms and spread her data to connect to the whole unknown ship. According to the information gained by running the service software, she could get information first about locations and the vessel.
-Command line:...collecting data..
...SRC Alberich
…Cruiser class
...Crew: 32
...Location:...Cluster: Gemini Sigma...Orbit Huningto
...ERROR...
...ACCES_DENIED...
To remain unnoticed the AI stopped further investigation, the data rate had to be minimal and slow to continue inconspicuous, more activity could cause attention, so EDI restricted the flow to an ordinary service level and contemporary created a back door for receiving the collected information to an outsourced storage part of one of the operating systems in the small lab with a direct link to.
-Command line:...initiating low rate scan...
...Scanning_FOR_WCIPD_ADAPTER...
The now confirmed programmer went to the examination desk with her disconnected head part promising confidently "So you think you can stop me with a simple barrier or virus from digging into your head...dear...Not on my watch!" he patted EDI's face slowly with sardonic grin. "You're out of my league...baby..."
-Command line:...Investigation on human sophomoric required...
….schedule for Interview with Joker and several crew members after returning to the Normandy..
...saving-
Then he went back to his seat to continue until a comm sounded. "Marcus...we recorded a data fluctuation combined with a electric hitch in your sector. What's going on down there?" the voice asked.
The arrogant man answered with a lie "I was just shorting this alliance computer to speed up the process. Forgot to segregate from basic systems...sorry..." he went on.
"Ah ….Don't make mistakes... If the boss finds out she'll be angry. Observe the safety regulations..." the other voice responded serious.
"Got it..." he mumbled.
...
Sammy was surrounded by her new "friends", one clone on the left the other on her right sitting against the wall and they both seemed to check her out while they continued to blabber.
"You're just a specialist right?" C-Jennifer remarked and scanned Sam's upper body with interesting eyes.
Since the fake game was revealed both clones had neared and sat directly next to her for intimidation and to build up some pressure. As Sam didn't know the sense of this maneuver and started to feel more uncomfortable the longer the show went on, she sunk down completely to protect herself. Sadly she was still bound, her hands behind her back which forced her to bear the actions of the hated copies of her lovers.
"Yeah and you're not trained well..." C-Jane added when examining the current physical condition of the Sam with a experienced eye.
"But...hmmm... you're cute..." C-Jennifer pointed to the specialist's exposed creamy skin then she approximated unwontedly close lowering her head to get a better view.
...Oh Goddess...don't start sniffing me please...
"So innocent..." C-Jane told with leering eyes before she asked "Have you ever killed somebody?" but Sam had decided not to respond to the questions or react to provocations. She kept her pissed face and remained quiet. The absent answer made the redhead conclude. "She's shy and innocent...Maybe that's the reason..."
...Fuck you...
But when theu both laid their hands on her shoulders and squeezed her upper arms she snarled at the clones "Don't touch me! Who do you think you are..." which fortunately made them stop but they laughed at her face and the black haired one said "Oh look it can speak..." then smiled and explained. "Dear...we are the real Shepards... the ones the galaxy needs... and we'll do what has to be done for humanity..."
"Yeah, you should be nice to us..." the redhead shot afterwards and blinked in the specialist's face. "You do like that, right? You go for the badass way..."
...Never...dream on...
"No you're not. You're crazy cerberus puppets...bastards..." was the specialist's snotty response to the threat.
"Oh oh... why being so rude sweetie? " C-Jane interrupted snot-nosed. "No need to get ugly...We could spend a long long time together..." and moved nearer again to underline her promise. She stroked the specialist's cheek softly, too softly with a wide grin. A well known gesture Sam remembered immediately from someone else. The way of speaking, the smell as well, even the motions were almost identically but this time she ignored the memory and stayed strong.
...No...not this time...
"Whatever your plan is it will fail...They'll come and rescue me..." Sam sputtered while shifting her muscles to struggle and show some resistance. She couldn't let this senseless game go on. They seemed to be nuts, full of beliefs the pro-human organization had told them as brainwash or whatever. Sadly some of their actions reminded her of her real two "nursing chases" from the Normandy, there had to be something strange in the Shepard's genes if they showed similar moves and utterances but she was definitely not in the mood to be groped by some crazy clones.
"Do you really think they'll waste their time with a search for a petty specialist?" the other clone took her attention.
But Sam's confidence grew stronger and she took the time to think a moment before answering.
...Come on Sam...be smart...
"If I am so petty... then why did you kidnap me?" she asked seriously.
And the clones were taken by surprise, they didn't have a proper answer. Instead of that they fixed her with unsure eyes.
...Ha...Touchee...Got you!
Before anything else could happen the opening sound of the cell-door announced a visitor and revealed the man who had introduced himself as Cody, carrying a tablet. When he recognized the threesome on the opposite wall who didn't seem to expect his appearance he stopped in motion.
"I have a food ration for our prisoner...Ma'am." the biotic submissive explained to the redhead as he looked into the questioning faces.
"Yeah...fine Cody. Set it down somewhere..." C-Jane boredly ordered and pointed next to the door. The interruption was welcomed by the specialist but apparently not by the clones. Good thing it ended the farce for the moment and in addition serving some food perhaps would make them finally remove Sam's undesirable handcuffs.
Cody did as told. "Sure Ma'am. Anything else you need?" then reversed again to face the redhead with shinning warm eyes waiting for more orders but her sister dryly waved him off. "No...leave us alone...dismissed...bye...bye."
The biotic remained for moment and shot a questioning look to the other clone before he turned again and left the cell, commented with a shake of the head by the black haired clone.
...Oh please no...a fan...
The affection for C-Jane was too obvious, Sam noted immediately. Even on this cerberus vessel the bad copies seemed to have a fan-base, that was crazy. It made her think of the loopy Conrad Verner they met on Mindoir. If Jennifer had told him to jump into the nuclear reactor for the sake of a mission, no doubt he would have done it. And this Cody was the same way, his eyes betrayed himself.
...That can't be true...
The silence lasted until the door locked then Sam took the floor making it clear. "You are not the Shepards!".
"Yes we are!" C-Jennifer shot back, she was bitchy which caused a smile to form on Sam's face.
"Who told you that? Brooks?" The specialist was amused, maybe this could become interesting if they were fragile concerning the question of their origin.
"We are the real Jane and Jennifer Shepard! We'll do what is necessary for humanity." the redhead said dryly and repeated the rehearsed declaration.
...Oh you just think so...let me enlighten you...
"You are cerberus clones, you were made in a lab on Khandar point, I saw the tanks and read the research reports myself. You're just a cheap copy of the originals." Sam answered then the door opened again and Brooks showed up. "That's enough for now! Leave her alone! We have important things to do..." she ordered firmly.
The command was followed by a groan and Sam sensed a few fingers on her wrists then heard two low clicks at her back when the handcuffs finally opened and revealed her tortured hands.
...Finally...Thanks
The redhead must have opened them before getting up, but she didn't give her a look only her sister turned once and whispered towards Sam. "We're better than them!" before she left the cell.
Notes: Thx for quick correction ScarletBones :)
And thanks a lot to madexinxheaven for kicking my ass to finally finish the unpleasant chapter ;)
