VI. The Tale of Two Women - 2
"Tie her to the post."
It had been going on for several days by now. Guards hauled Diana out of her dark cell, pulled a hood over her head, chained her manacled hands tightly behind her back, and brought her to Dr. Maru's lab. The sinister doctor continued to do experiments on the defenseless princess in the hope of discovering the secret to her powers. She had been exposed to gasses, gunshots, strikes of different levels of impact and electric shocks, although Maru took care to cut the action short when it became threatening to the young woman's life. Chemical analysis of her skin, muscles, bones, blood and hair had delivered remarkable results, to the extend as to be hardly believable, but Isabel Maru was a scientist: she knew her experiments were sound, and she accepted the obtained results. The doctor grew slightly impatient, however, because, apart from Diana's amazing healing powers, she had not yet found anything immediatedly useful to the war effort.
The soldiers dragged the young amazon onto a stage in the centre of the lab on which a sturdy post was erected. Massive cables ran from under the base floor to turbines alined in a circle around it. They forced her to her knees, shackled her feet to its base and chained her manacled wrists to a ring above her head.
Diana was exhausted. There were limits to even her capacity to endure. It was more the psychic than the physical torture that gnawed on her — the dark dungeon, the absence of sunlight and nature, the uncertainty of what had happened to her family and friends, out there and in Themyscira. The haunting question of whether she had done the right thing, and — painful flashes before her mind's eye seemed to rip her heart apart for every thought of — of him, Steve Trevor, the mortal man who made her feel and experience love, real, deep, warm, exciting love, eternal love, love for one man and for mankind, flawed as they probably were, — and capable of the ultimate sacrifice.
She screamed. The ghastly sound filled the space with pain and desparation. Diana's body jolted; the chains on her arms clanked against the post. After a while the convulsions subsided. The amazon's head bent slowly forward. Tangled curls of long, dark hair covered her face. A thick silence descended on the room.
Minutes passed. Isabelle Maru waited until the emotional tension diminished. A feeling of unease in her work with her present research subject had become increasingly worrisome. Isabel pulled herself together and grabbed the clamps that she had prepared for her next experiment.
Diana felt hands putting clamps all over her body, to her armour as well as to her bare flesh.
"We're going to do some more work on electricity today," she heard Dr. Maru say matter-of-factly. For some reason, Isabel Maru found it necessary to explain to her victim everything she did to her. It helped her to conceal her own embarrassment, more to herself than to anybody else. Don't be ridiculous, she told herself, you've done way worse in the name of science than this.
"I also would like to understand more of this," Her finger tapped against Diana's left bracelet. "I saw what you did to the Wargod, and I believe electricity is the key. And since you claim to be a daughter of Zeus — he's the god of thunder and lightning, right?"
Diana watched up slowly and into Dr. Maru's face. She didn't speak. She hadn't spoken for days. Again, the deep, inexpressible pain struck a chord in the doctor's barren soul. She opened her mouth to say something comforting to the wrecked being at her feet, but got interrupted by the violent slam of the laboratory's doors against the castle's stone wall.
A tall, grayhaired officer with a sharp, emotionless faced walked in briskly.
"Progress, doctor?"
Colonel Gerbhardt, the prosecutor during Diana's trial, was assigned by the Chief of Staff as the liaison between the Oberste Heeresleitung and Maru's laboratory. They didn't like each other. Gerbhardt distrusted Ludendorff's "witch", and Maru despised his mysoginy and lack of intellectual sophistication.
"Definitedly, but not yet enough. I understand by now better what she is, and especially what she is not, but that does not mean I have a way to make these insights practically useful, at least not for now."
The colonel pouted.
"Well then, what is she?"
"She's organic, and mortal, but definitedly not human. Her musclefibres generate an extraordinary strength. Her blood has an anomalous protein content and its plasmacells have amazing anti-inflammatory healing powers — I can extract a medicine from them that will save thousands of soldiers' lives, which in any case gives us a strategic advantage over our enemies. Also, her body has the consistency of a twenty-five year old, but biochemical analysis reveals that her biological age is in the order of centuries, at least 800 years... "
The expression on the colonel's face was a mixture of disgust, awe and fascination.
"Well, let me tell you this: the armistice will be signed within three days. The peace will not last forever, by no means, and Germany cannot run the risk to let its enemies get hold of such an — asset. If you don't come up with something useful before that time, your orders are clear: destroy her. Am I clear, Doctor?"
"Very clear, colonel. I'll do the necesssary even though it would be a pity to lose such a fascinating research subject — "
"That "fascinating subject" is an abomination! She murdered general Ludendorff and is directly responsible for the fact that Germany has no other option left then to end the war, unless you come up with some miracle, soon — do not forget that, Doctor!"
He walked resolutely towards the doors, then halted, and turned to face the scientist again.
"Whatever happens to the armistice, the admiralty has decided to send a fleet to the Amazon island, following the course that the cruiser Swaben has plotted when returning from there. We'll get them and their secrets anyhow, and then wipe their kind of the face of the Earth, and put an end to this — this freak of nature!"
And he stamped out of the laboratory. She watched his back disappear while the doors fell in their lock behind him.
The sound of a faint voice reached her ear.
"Themyscira — mother... "
It was barely audible.
For a long while Isabel stood motionless in the middle of the large room. So the war was lost; the armistice would be signed in any case. That meant her whole effort became meaningless. She was a loyal servant to the Empire, but what if it ceased to exist? She knew she couldn't get a miracle done within three days — the only thing she would accomplish was the destruction of this — magnificent young woman, an "abomination" to that despicable colonel, and of her people together with her. A world where women could pursue learning in freedom would be irrevocably lost forever. She slowly shook her head.
Isabel Maru turned and looked down on her prisoner — once again she felt her heart torn by violently conflicting emotions. She wispered, more to herself than to anyone else,
"To be honest, I don't want to kill you. I owe you a life — mine, and I intend to pay off my debt."