ABOARD THE HUMAN TRANSPORT; X-OP
STANDARD HMS TIME: 13:57
DATE: 14/06/2020
LOCATION: HOLDING CELL
POLICE -ICE
Her name is Polly.
My name is Ice.
And people insist on calling us Police.
I find it neither hilarious, nor amusing, I don't even find it
'cute' I hate the name; I hate both Polly and Police. And sometimes Ice as
well. Reasons as to why I might hate Ice will be found out later on, but for
now, I will let you in this little secret; I hate Polly. Although I never have
expressed this publicly, Polly knew only too well my own dislikes.
Do you have a younger sibling? Or an older one you hate? Let's say you
did, and you were of the same gender, and when walking together people insist
that you look alike. Have you felt the rage that comes after this? The
repulsion? 'But I'm nothing like her!' or it may be him. But the
disgust is there, and you know well enough to keep it from both your parents and
the public. And you answer ever so politely that you have nothing in common with
your sibling.
It's misery when you have a twin you hate; it's torture if you are
Siamese twins.
It's beyond torture when one of you is favored.
Every time you pick a phone up people call you by her name.
Every time you come out to play people think you are her.
Every time you call your parents they think they are talking to her.
And when they know that it is not they repel slightly. My father tells me
I put off bad vibes.
People have told me worse things.
We have been adjoined at birth, later separated, a few hours later
actually, my friends do not know this, they think we weren't adjoined at
birth, some things we keep secret, though, Polly really does believe that we
weren't adjoined at birth, but I knew the truth. My parents had a choice.
Doctors told them only one could live, only one has a better chance to
survive the operation. But as I said, there was a choice.
My parents chose her.
When I found out a few years later it was like someone had physically
torn my heart out and placed it on a display.
No one really knows that I had found out about my parents choice.
No one.
But now whenever I speak to my parents or think about them, I fell a wave
of sadness roll over me.
I have concluded that my parent's favoritism has been the result of my
surviving the operation. So the doctors were wrong, I have lived I have not
died. Was that possibly my fault?
No, of course not.
Polly. Ice. Two different but identical human females.
People call us Police.
Police is strong and weak, she is caring and hardhearted, she is a hero
and a coward, she is an optimist and pessimist, a leader and a follower. Man and
beast.
At first I thought I knew which part of Police was me, war experience
proved me wrong.
I looked at her from across the bunks. There were four in our cell. I
took one of the twin beds she took the other. I was on the upper bunk of my bed,
she was on the lower bunk of her bed, Ashley lay sleeping above Polly, on the
upper bunk. My lower bunk was empty.
Of course Ashley would prefer to share a bed with Polly, no one would
want anything to do with me, not directly anyway.
But Polly would share with me; her pity had rendered me to become the
intolerant person I was.
Did Polly know my parents had chosen her over me? I didn't know, but
her pity would intensify if she did, she couldn't hide a thing away from me if
her life depended on it.
I could, however, hide a lot from her.
I am the darker side of Police. And whether I like it or not I have found
out that Polly was part of Police just as much as Police was part of Ice. Police
would never survive with a part but with both.
A day would come when a sacrifice had to be made, and I wonder, I truly
wonder which side will the coin fall on? The darker side? Or the other? I
didn't know.
Maybe the coin when flipped will rest on its rim. Never falling to a
side. For now the coin was in such a position, preserved in my own quarter
covered by a glass jar.
By my quarters I mean Police. It gets confusing I know.
I…I mean I as in Police; don't know much about the coin, it only has
two sides and a rim, one side represents good, the other evil. The rim a
representation of balance; the pivot in the seesaw.
People had told me that I am evil, this came from my enemies. My most
hated was Visser One. Recently, it is this representation of good and evil that
bothered me, Esplin had taught me that there was no such thing as black and
white.
Yet I had not proved that the shades of gray were existent in Polly, or
me, but they did exist in Police, the debate for me was; if Police were of parts
me and my twin, and we have been described accurately as black and white, more
truthfully lured into believing this, who would benefit if a part was destroyed?
Can a human live with being just white, or just black?
As I said, the argument never settled, the coin balanced at it's rim.
Seesaw horizontal.
I was wide awake, still thinking about how much trouble I was in, only
pretending to be asleep, maybe Polly knew that I was wake, maybe not.
A Masi had stood guard over our cell, something was up, they
haven't placed a Masi over us since we came here, and one was appointed
a few hours ago, maybe one of the others in my team had escaped. But I did not
know for sure.
I was thinking about an escape route. I came up with zilch.
The seconds ticked by becoming minutes and minutes turned into endless
hours. After all this time I had been lying down silently in my bed, Ashley and
Polly were wide-awake however.
Polly sat upright in her bed and Ashley had come down from the upper bunk
and sat down across from Polly in the lower bunk of my bed, facing each other
they talked.
"What do you think is up?" Ashley asked anxiously.
"I don't know Ash."
"Do you think Solo is okay?"
"I really hope so."
"What should we do?"
"Nothing, what can we do?" With this Polly looked up at my still
form, I did not budge, Polly could not tell if my eyelids were really open or
closed, so she assumed I was asleep.
"Is she okay?" Ashley said. She shifted slightly, I felt her do so,
but I did not know her current position. Drat. Did she have to move? I have a
habit of keeping track of where people stand when I could not see them.
Something Polly never thinks about.
Not that Ashley is the enemy, it's a habit I have. Polly said,
"Her?"-she rarely calls me by my name- "Oh, she's alright. Resting
probably."
Good choice of words Polly. Resting does not indicate that someone is
really sleeping.
"Uhuh, I'm still worried about Solo."
"He'll take care of himself in his usual way, Ash, we know he would,
I just want M.D back, okay? No offence but he's a bit more useful in a
situation like this."
"No offense taken. If Solo were to be with us he'd have just sat down
and stared gloomily out from behind the bars, he's not like M.D or even
Cricket, Solo is Solo, and what I know is that he isn't quick on taking his
decisions, those that mean getting up and doing something that may involve
hurting people." Ashley giggled, "He's such an angel, my Solo."
I rolled my eyes ever so slightly, not caring if Polly noticed my eyelids
flickering slightly.
"What about Cricket?" Polly asked, "He wouldn't have sat here and
joined us in our gossiping would he? No of course not, not Cricket, he's a get
it done type. The boy would have probably spent the hours we have spent either
by trading insults with watchdog over there or wrecked the cell." The Masi
flinched ever so slightly at being referred as watchdog.
"No offence sir." Ashley piped up.
The Masi turned away.
"What did I say?" I heard Ashley mummer. "I said I was sorry."
"For god sake Ashley." I snapped suddenly, "Who cares?"
"Polly!"
"Nah. That was me," I kicked the bunk.
"Oh, Ice." She didn't sound so devastated, now that she knew it was
me that had spoken. "I thought you were asleep."
"Resting."
"Eavesdropping." Polly called out,
I said nothing more, I don't usually answer to Polly, there is no need,
she knows only too well my answer would have been along the lines of;
'that's not the way I see it.'
"Any new plans?" Ashley called out.
"No." Polly said. She had done this before, answered for me. I
didn't know if Polly realized how little I communicated with people. The more
she does this the more I turn antisocial and solitary. It had started to become
an annoyance, but I never voiced it out.
I have a tendency to swallow down pain and neglect against me, I do not
react easily to people's words nor do I show people where I stand in an
argument. Polly is only too happy to answer questions directed for me, but she
answers them for herself.
"We're back to square one." Ashley mumbled.
"What are you talking about?" I snapped, "We haven't left square
one to come back to it."
Ashley muttered a "Sorry." And fell silent. My bad mood was catching
on to people.
"Cheer up people." Polly said "We may not have found a way out yet
but we're not dead yet or anything."
Speak for yourself, Polly, I thought angrily, we're not dead yet? What
is she trying to do? Jinx us?
"I just hope the others found a way out." Ashley murmured.
I scowled at the ceiling, what is it with them? Do they truly want to
wait for someone to get us out? Can't they put their brains into use?
I had a plan.
Unfortunately it only goes as far as getting us out of the holding cell.
I laid back down and tried to continue our plan.
Our?
Our plan? Where did that come from?
Our plan, Police. Did Polly know the other part?
She probably did know what to do after we escaped the cell, I decided to
put my plan into action, what else was there to do? Even if we don't break out
of the ship itself,; at least I would find out what was going on. Hack into
their computers and check out where the others were, at least that would be
helpful.
I hoped off the bunk and ran up to the bars, I said, "Hey there,
we're hungry, you guys haven't been giving us anything to eat, were is the
humanity in that?'
The Masi looked a bit shocked that I'd ask him for anything, but
he got up slowly and walked away to get us something.
"Miss glamour head, give me your mirror."
"What?" Polly asked sounding annoyed. She flicked a hand through her
blond hair.
I raced over to her and grabbed it from her pocket; I knew she always had
one around with her. "Help me you two okay?"
I grabbed the bars and heaved myself up, towards the lock, the bar
arrangement changed from vertical to horizontal so I couldn't slide my arms
down. Ashley braced against me and Polly watched as I checked the corridors
using the mirror; all's clear.
"Give me my pick lock set, get the third one on the right out and hand
it to me." I Ordered Polly, a second later it was in my hand, using the mirror
to see the lock and the pick lock itself, I maneuvered and opened the lock, I
pushed myself upwards more and allowed more of my arm to stretch out and down to
grab the handle, I shoved it out.
"Come on, come on." Polly murmured.
I jumped off and Ashley backed away. I opened the door ad said,
"Avowal."
"You're a certified genius." Ashley gushed.
"Nope, she's just a con." Polly grinned at me. I did not bother to
return the grin, just stared blankly into my green eyes. Her green eyes.
"Let's go already." I said in a rush, "Before someone sees us
okay?"
We tumbled out and hid in the quietest room we could find. I walked
towards a computer and after I secured a channel I dialed up to Beehive.
A human face looked at me, with the usual SWAT accessories on,
"Yeah?"
This had to be made short I knew it, "Unit 45- we're M.D's lot."
He snapped forward, "Eh, got that, he called in before."
"He's loose?"
"Yah," He replied, "Even though your mission is of low priority he
called to check in anyway. You aren't really needed to join up with him."
Translate that as; you people are on the verge of making a big difference
and your commander is already leading the way.
"Sure, you know I worry about him, so who's with him? Any of the
others?"
"Take that as a no, but he has an acquaintance. A new one."
So, M.D got himself an ally?
"Then what are our orders?"
"You are to high-tail it home as soon as possible."
Message; get the hell out of where you are and reach the Beehive.
"Affirmative, sir." I replied, I cut off the communication.
"What?" Ashley asked. "I don't get it."
"We're going home."
"What about the others? He only said M.D is out, Solo? Cricket?"
"We'll find out about them later."
"Oh, sure." Ashley said. She gave me a look. It cracked my nerves.
"You think I'm lying?" I snapped, "Let's get the hell out of
here, and let's do it fast."
Polly nodded. Ashley followed reluctantly.
