Defining the Boundaries
Laes was lying on the cool hard floor with his arms folded behind his head. He was imagining blueprints for laser canons and space vehicles and other such things as he stared up at the ceiling.
More of the mysterious food stuff had appeared a little while ago, and he decided to see what would happen if he left it sitting in the corner of the room since he'd been scolded for shoving it into the barrier.
He was starting to get very hungry though. His stomach growled occasionally, especially when he began thinking about all of the food he'd ever eaten. He was doing his best to ignore the hollowness in his stomach though, because if he accidentally ate whatever they kept giving him he'd probably throw up.
He was trying not to throw up right now since he'd just pictured Vortian parts floating around in the mystery "food" stuff.
Gagging, he rolled onto his side, clutching his mid-section.
"It sounds like you're choking yourself," Masala's voice echoed in the small empty space devoid of anything. Her tone didn't really fluctuate that much unless she was speaking about her son. "Can you do me a favour and refrain from trying to kill yourself until after our speaking session is over?"
Thank goodness her words interrupted his gross and frightening thoughts... even though her words were only a little less disturbing than his thoughts were.
"Oh uh... I'm not... um... doing that..." he said.
This was the second time since she'd returned to her cell that they'd been allowed to speak to each other. The last time they spoke she said she'd been locked away for over half of her life already... and he'd also found out that Invaders could live well into their five hundreds.
That number was based on their home planet's rotations though, so who knows what that was in Vort-rotations.
Masala refused to tell him how old she was, but he figured she still had a lot of life left in her judging by how fast and strong she was... or maybe he was just slow and weak?
"I've already accepted I'm trapped in here, most likely forever," Laes commented as he propped himself up.
For some reason he liked looking at the wall separating them when they were talking even though it didn't really matter where he looked.
"But I have a few friends out there looking for me... and my parents too."
It would really be terrible if they never found out what happened to him... hopefully the Invaders would at least let them know he was being imprisoned for breaking probably over a dozen of their laws probably.
"You don't understand..." Masala sighed. "If you remain here, their memories of you will be erased... None of them will remember your existence; it will be as though you never existed at all."
Is that really what happened...?
Laes hurriedly sat up, feeling panicked.
Was it really possible for everyone to forget about him? Veena, Bann, even his own parents? Lard Nar too... though maybe it would be better for him to forget... at least his former cellmate wouldn't feel so much guilt then.
"Did... did Sevai forget you?" he asked with a tremor in his voice.
He was going to cry later when he was no longer speaking to Masala.
Also he just realized this was a pretty insensitive thing to ask her.
"There was no reason for him to forget me," Masala responded; her voice fading a little. She let out another sigh. "My son never knew me to begin with, so there was nothing for him to remember in the first place."
"I'm sorry..." he apologized as he sank back down to the floor.
"Are you from a lower standing among your people?"
Laes had to think about her question for a moment. Even then, he only managed to response with a confused, "ah?" It took him a little longer to realize she was talking about his rank.
"I'm uh... average I think?"
Generally speaking, Vortians with the more complicated jobs were considered higher ranked... but those who taught others those jobs were ranked even higher.
Engineering wasn't the most complicated job, but it wasn't basic mechanic work either.
"Then there's no need for you to apologize to me when there is no reason for you to do so," Masala concluded.
"Oh um..." this was a cultural difference between Vortians and Invaders wasn't it?
"I was offering condolences for your lost relationship... and I was also being super insensitive bringing it up in the first place so..." he tried to explain himself even though his thoughts weren't exactly making it to his mouth properly.
"I see..." Masala was quiet for a short while. Then she continued, "so your people are compassionate then."
"I guess...?" Laes questioned, sounding as unsure as he felt. "I mean... we've done a lot of morally questionable things in the scientific and engineering field... and we did help the Irkens a lot with their military research stuff, so we're not always very compassionate."
His people probably indirectly hurt dozens of races when they were allied with the Irkens. He wasn't very proud of that... sometimes there were broadcasts of successful Irken conquests showing Irken soldiers arrogantly displaying the Vortian technology they used... branded with the Empire's symbol of course, but still... everyone in the galaxy could recognize Vortian made technology when they saw it.
It was easy to forget these images whenever they weren't on the screen... and he was pretty sure Vort's governing officials did their best to tune out those broadcasts...
Maybe his people had gotten a little too comfortable.
When the Irkens conquered their planet, it had been a stark and very violent wake up call. This was what they had been helping the Irkens do to other races... some might even say they got what they deserved: like some kind of poetic justice.
"We're kind of selfish actually..." he decided.
"At least you are able to recognize your selfishness," Masala told him. "Intelligence and knowledge are good things to have, but they can also come with a cost."
It felt like a low electrical pulse just entered his body. He scrambled into a sitting position and looked up at the Invader who appeared in the middle of the room.
This Invader was wearing different clothes... or was he just not wearing a long silver jacket?
What the Invader had on instead was a pair of heavy looking goggles and long silver gloves. There was also a sharp implement in one of its hands.
"Um... hi...?" Laes tried as he slowly inched himself backwards. "Look uh... I know we don't really agree about the whole forced slavery thing... but..."
A stronger pulse of electricity coursed through him and he collapsed face-first into the hard shiny surface, completely unable to move. That shock-wave or whatever it was had come from the barrier hadn't it...? But it also felt like it had come from the floor.
Then he felt a sharp pricking sensation in the back of his neck. His vision blurred a bit. His whole body felt relaxed though.
He wasn't scared at all for some reason.
What should he be doing? It didn't matter. Nothing really mattered.
"Come," the Invader demanded before turning on its heel and exiting through the barrier.
Laes slowly rose to his feet and followed after the Invader without giving it another thought. It was like he wasn't in control of his body... or his brain. He was simply obeying.
"Tallest!"
Ugh. That voice.
Red's antennae fell back as he turned to regard the Vortian rebel who was quickly approaching him. His eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms.
This Vort creature had been a pain in his antennae during the Empire's fight with the worms, and he was still pretty annoyed about it.
"What do you want Vortian?" He questioned, doing nothing to hide the annoyance in his tone.
"Sevai was able to translate the message the Invaders left behind."
"Yeah... and?" Red prompted.
Hopefully this conversation wouldn't last too much longer. He was interested in gaining more information about the Invaders, but he also had several units waiting to hear from him. He couldn't waste his time dealing with other people's problems when he had so many of his own to deal with.
There was one group in particular he needed to hear from as soon as possible... or was that two groups?
Maybe he should start writing stuff down... had he even contacted the Hobos since he left...?
The Jackers and the Hobos... they were still allying with him right? Hopefully they were.
"Laes is inside their prison network," the Vortian stated.
"Yeah... and?"
Unless the location of the prison was known, that was pretty useless information.
"Sevai told me that once someone is brought there, they never leave," the rebel pressed.
"Yeah... so?"
The Vortian squared his shoulders and met his gaze.
"He's only in there because he helped you right?" The rebel was frowning. "You could at least offer to help him..."
"Hold on," Red held up a hand in order to stop the Vortian from speaking.
"First of all, I never asked Laes to rescue me. He did that on his own." He lowered his hand. "Secondly, you should know by now that Irkens don't help people just because they've helped us. That's not how we operate. And third, Laes got his own stupid self thrown in there because he somehow failed to teleport properly." He shrugged. "That's his fault. Not mine. So why would I risk my life to save his?"
He turned away and continued walking towards his ship.
"I have better things to do than chase after a stupid Vortian who somehow got himself stuck inside the Invaders' prison."
He stopped when he reached the front of his ship. Then he glanced back at the rebel.
"I'm not sure if you've noticed or not, but my people are kind of in the middle of a war right now. I don't have time to go rescue the people who are too weak or too stupid to keep up with things. Understand?"
Shlit... Why was he thinking about the Invader again...? He was actually worrying about whether the guy was going to die or not... hopefully this didn't mean his PAK's programming had been altered.
His PAK had been attached to the guy though... he rubbed his forehead while suppressing a sigh. If Invader DNA really did somehow reprogram Irken PAKs, then his would have definitely been reprogrammed after something like that.
"Do you think your people will be able to fix Sevai?" he decided to ask.
"Sorry... you're right..." the rebel spoke, and he lowered his eyes. "It's natural you'd be more concerned about your people right now..."
"Are you even listening?" Red asked as he placed a hand on his hip and scowled at the Vortian. "I've already moved on from that. Now answer my question."
"I don't know..." the rebel admitted. "They've sent for chem specialists from the nearest lab... it sounds like they plan to extract some of the venom in his system to synthesize an antidote, but I didn't overhear what the prognosis would be if that ends up working."
"What's the current prognosis?"
"Death."
Red rubbed his chin. It seemed his PAK's repairs had only been temporary after all.
He'd done all he could for Sevai. Now the Invader's survival would depend on his own strength and the Vortians' ingenuity.
It would probably depend mostly on the Vortian's ingenuity actually, since Sevai was incredibly weak.
Staying wouldn't make any difference... he wasn't even sure why he wanted to.
Shlit... he really was becoming defective wasn't he?
He could worry about that later. Right now his people were waiting for him.
Besides, his PAK might go back to normal if he placed some distance between himself and Sevai.
"I'm sure you guys will figure it out," he decided before boarding his ship.
Since a group of Invaders had been on Vort not very long ago, it wouldn't be smart for him to stay here or use any long ranged communications. He would need to get further away from the planet before he started making calls.
Once he was seated in the pilot's chair, he activated the Spittle Runner's power core and sped away from the planet.
Shortly after he lost visuals on Vort, he received an incoming transmission.
"We've captured one of the Invaders' ships sir," Bandeval spoke, and he saluted the way a normal Irken soldier would.
There were several formerly captured soldiers standing behind him.
"How did you manage that?" he asked, raising an antennae.
"After you and Laes left, I remained behind in order to hack into their ship's network and stop the anti-virus program. Then I used their own technology to undo the reprogramming process.
These soldiers are mostly fine. They're here with me now... however, the others had incomplete or completely absent personality files... they also were operating under a complicated program. I managed to decipher it and erase some of the Invader's data, but I'm not quite sure they'll be salvageable at this stage."
"Send those ones to Vort," Red told him. "They have some kind of Irken experiment thing going on right now from the sounds of it. If anyone can fix them, it'll be the Vortians."
"Ok. I will."
"Were you able to capture any Invaders?"
"Just two. The rest escaped due to their hologram technology."
"There's no point in keeping those two since we don't have any place to keep prisoners," Red mused, rubbing his chin in thought.
"Should I kill them?" Bandeval questioned.
"No," he waved the Irken virus' words away dismissively. "I want to see just how much the Invaders are willing to pay for them." He leaned forward a little. "If it isn't enough, you can kill them as slowly and horribly as you want."
They had one of the Invaders' ships and two hostages in their possession. Hopefully the Invaders valued their people more than he valued his... if they didn't he could still use their vessel as a bargaining tool at least.
"Is Laes with you?" Bandeval asked as he looked past the Tallest and all around the screen for some sign of the Vortian. "Where is he right now?"
"He's in the Invader's prison network apparently," Red answered the Irken virus without giving it much thought.
There were too many other things he needed to deal with right now. He needed to stay focused. It'd also be nice if Bann could stay focused, but lying to the Irken virus about Laes would probably turn him hostile later.
He couldn't afford to lose Bann's cooperation.
"I'll have a few others join your unit on your way to Irk. Go there after you teleport the defective Irkens to Vort. Someone will take over for you, and then you'll have permission to rescue the Vortian. Understood?"
"Sorry Tallest, but I'm going to have to disobey your orders," Bandeval told him, smirking a bit. "I'll be taking the hostages and trading them for Laes. I hope you don't mind."
"I kind of figured," Red responded, returning Bandeval's smirk with his own. "You know I'm not going to hunt you down to stop you, so just try not to botch it up."
The call ended, and Red leaned back in his seat. He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.
So much for using Bann to try and reclaim Irk...
It wouldn't be long before the Invaders reacted to having one of their ships stolen. He wasn't too sure how they would respond, but he was hoping they wouldn't be facing an entire armada over it.
The Invaders he'd come in contact with weren't soldiers. They seemed to be mostly scientists and explorers maybe? They also used holograms rather than actual people when fighting, and they'd been very quick to abandon one of their ships.
It seemed like they were trying to prevent as much death on their end as possible, even at the cost of their technology. This was why he was taking a gamble and betting on them not sending out a fleet of highly trained soldiers with ultra-advanced ships to wipe his people out.
He probably shouldn't be taking this risk, but the Invaders hadn't left him much choice.
Irk had been taken. Their smeets had been taken. Purple was dead. Most of his soldiers had been killed or tampered with.
There wasn't much else for him to lose, so he didn't mind taking a risk here or there.
The thought of being killed by a super advanced army wouldn't shake him, or most of the other Irkens, since dying in battle was considered a huge honour and a very noble way to go.
More transmissions began rolling in.
Survivors from the planet Jackers had been located. Their home planet had been destroyed despite their best efforts to keep it alive, so the survivors were willing to fight along side him and his people.
They just needed to discuss exactly how they were going to do that...
Some notes: Red feels absolutely no obligation to help Laes at all. He's too busy tracking down his former allies and scheduling war meetings. Plus he doesn't care.
Meanwhile Bann was off being productive. He's pretty good at capturing ships. He also cares a lot that Laes was captured.