Memory download: Meeting on the Massive

I enter the bridge, head held high, wearing my best uniform and trying to ignore the stares of the technicians. So they've never seen anything like me. There isn't anything like me. Stare all you want; this is your only chance. Tell everyone how freaky the Tallests' guest of honor was today. They never singled you out for recognition!

Red turns and sees me as I approach their dais. "Night! Come on up here," he says with a smile. I bow slightly before accepting his invitation.

"What is your command, my Tallest?" I ask, looking up at them.

"Incoming transmission!" calls one of the techs. "From Earth!" he adds.

Red and Purple both roll their eyes. "Onscreen," Purple sighs.

I look over at the main screen. It's Zim, with his weird defective robot bouncing around the room behind him.

"Greetings, my Tallest," he says, but then he stops. "What's that?" he asks, pointing at me.

"She is one of our best biochemical weapons engineers," Red says, with a slight edge on his voice. "Her name is Night, and she is an Elite Master. You will address her with respect."

Quite an interesting way to learn about my new rank. Not quite what I expected. But at least Zim looks appropriately shocked.

"I'm sorry, I meant no disrespect," he says. Silence. I realize the Tallest are waiting for me to answer him.

"An easy mistake," I say lightly. "Forget it."

"So . . . why did you call, Zim?" says Purple.

"I wanted to . . . uh, to . . . inform you that everything is going exactly as it should!" Zim said. I stifle a laugh. He forgot. He called the Tallest and then forgot why! I have never seen anything so defective in my life. No wonder they sent him off to such a remote planet.

"That's nice, Zim," Red says sarcastically. "We're busy. Call us some other time."

"Yeah," Purple adds. "Actually, don't! They could intercept your transmission!"

"I hadn't thought of that!" Zim says dramatically. "I will call you again when the plan is successful!" The screen flashes to static, and the Tallest both nearly collapse with laughter. I wait politely until they calm down.

"Hey! Get us a couple sodas up here!" Purple yells to one of the techs. Red elbows him, reminding him that I'm still here.

"Um, you heard what we said to Zim about you?" Red says.

"You referred to me as an Elite Master, even though that was not my rank," I reply.

"It is now," Purple says, handing Red a soda.

"We're moving you off V47," Red says, shifting the bottle of soda between his hands. "We need your talents somewhere else."

"Where, Tallest?" I ask. Purple is gulping down his soda a couple feet away, and I find it highly annoying. It disrupts the intensity of the moment.

"Fortress D," Red says. "Our current methods of interrogation and torture are not enough to get the information we need from many of the non-Irkens being held there. We need someone who can give them a nightmare world from which there is no escape but confession. Can you do that?"

Can I do that? Does he really need to ask?

I smile. "Trust me, Tallest. I know nightmares better than you can imagine."

"The threat is real when the red, it filters through." - Chevelle

Entry: WHY DID I KEEP THAT PICTURE! Idiot! Why am I even writing this? Will that make it go away? Will it make me forget again? I'll have to delete this later. I don't want to remember. He's gone. He left for a better job, just like I'm doing. He said goodbye to no one, just like me. Except I'm not leaving a lifelong friend who has no one else to turn to. I will not do that to anyone. I will not cause that pain. It's bad enough he did it -- defective bastard! I hope he was a defective. I hope he got discovered. I hope he got sent to V47 instead of just getting deactivated. Damn it, Rife! I HATE you!

Please come back. I miss you so much.

You're so weak, Night. Such a pathetic little bug. Stop caring. Just stop caring. You know it'll be easier that way. You are darkness. You are about to become violence incarnate. Think of it. The Tallest trust you to do this, to break the unbreakable, to terrorize the fearless, to kill everything too weak to withstand your fury. Don't be weak. You'll only destroy yourself.

"God bless the man, soulless and free. What would it take for me to be?" -AP2

Entry: Not much time to write, and no privacy yet. I've been in/on Fortress D for four days. The place is almost all underground, with the exception of the entrance and the higher officials' quarters. Mine will have a glass ceiling in the relaxation room when they finish construction. Meanwhile, I share a room and a lab with Syre, a female I'll be supervising. She's taller than me and not too thrilled about me being in charge. I'll have to make sure she understands why Red gave me this commission. I will not let an inferior treat me like I'm nothing.

Everything is extremely heavily guarded here; understandable, since it houses mainly traitors and rebels. The bioscans that were a formality on V47 are required here to enter one's own room or get to . . . well, almost anything. I had to get a special verification chip implanted because my DNA has been so altered by all the mutations that the scanners read my biosignature as "unknown species", and they're programmed to only accept Irken signatures. They called the Tallest and got their personal permission to make that exception. Actually, they got Red's permission. Purple was eating candy, and he kinda nodded when Red said it was important for me to have full access to the fortress.

Someone's here to see me.