Author's Notes: Thanks for sticking around guys. I feel like I need to update more frequently to make up for the lack of updating I didn't do these past few months, so I'll keep doing that until I get distracted again.
What Makes an Irken?
He was trying not to think too much. If he paused long enough to reflect over everything he'd learned recently he might start to feel something.
He was growing used to this numb feeling he had...
The Resisty was probably completely gone... he knew leaving his comrades behind to follow his own selfish ambitions would likely result in him never seeing them again, but he'd done it anyway.
Ixane was probably dead... he knew he should feel sad, but his mind wouldn't let him feel anything.
It was better to work. Keeping busy was the only thing holding him together right now.
Piecing together an Irken's PAK was the easy part. He'd already gotten most of the broken materials melded back together.
The internal structures of the machine, although complicated with all of the different devices Irkens were able to store in it, was also not that difficult to figure out, especially when using an intact PAK as a model.
Laes had helped him with some of the work, but now that there was more delicate smaller pieces to fit back in, the other Vortian decided to assist Veena with modifying one of the computers to make it compatible with an Irken PAK. This would require making a large cable; one that could successfully connect a PAK to the computer to transfer data and run the different programs infused into the PAK system...
He was working on the PAK for his own knowledge... there was no way it could ever be salvaged enough for it to operate again... but he figured it would be good for him to know how to fix a PAK just in case they came across one that was a little less shattered.
When he started the Resisty he never thought he'd end up working along side Irkens again.
He'd been grieving... and angry... how could the Irkens mercilessly slaughter his family and imprison his coworkers?
After all of those years of loyally serving the Empire, their homes were destroyed and they were locked up and forced to work with guards hovering over them, ready to punish them for any and every mistake.
There hadn't been much time to rest either which was probably why a few Vortians died of exhaustion during the first few months after the invasion...
Things changed a little afterwards, but then those special doors were put in place that would blow up any Vortian who tried to leave. It was almost like the Irkens were challenging them to escape, so some of them did.
He and about a dozen others managed to escape by concealing themselves deep inside garbage bins.
They'd done the calculations. The dense garbage would conceal their DNA...
What happened to the other Vortians after their escape plan succeeded, he wasn't sure... a few decided to stay on Foodcourtia. A few more left for one of Vort's formally allied planets.
The others though... they never said where they were going.
No matter what they decided to do, all of them were probably dead now.
The worms had likely devoured them all.
"Ok, we're ready to test it Darden," Laes spoke to the former soldier who seemed to be on standby.
"Good," Darden said as he pin-pointed Filik's location.
Before the navigator could flee, Darden caught him by the antennae.
The former soldier walked over to where Veena and Laes were, holding up his catch.
"Here's your test subject."
"Why me!?" Filik protested angrily. "If you want to help these Vortians go ahead, but leave me out of it!"
"It's getting noisy over there."
Lard Nar glanced up from his work when he heard this familiar voice.
It was Ryter... or "Pain" as the prisoners were used to calling him.
Unlike Laes, he'd been awake through the entire torture ordeal.
Ryter had been the one to remove his fingers... so being near the Irken was not something he enjoyed.
The guard who'd torn out his eye was dead at least.
Negi was sitting on the Irken's shoulders... the Vort-child was staring at him with big curious eyes.
The child probably wouldn't understand the Invasion or the hostility the Irkens had shown them.
Who knows how many times Negi had been zapped or beaten by the guards... yet there he was, sitting contently on Ryter's shoulders without any sign of fear or discomfort.
"Can I help you with something?" Lard Nar asked.
He was defaulting to professional mode since he was too tired to find the strength to be outwardly hostile.
Many races would find this concept of politely getting along with anyone strange or backwards, but it was easier for Vortians to act this way.
"I'm just showing Negi what you're up to since he was asking about it," Ryter replied, and he crouched down so he was eye-level with Lard Nar.
Negi seemed very interested in the mostly fixed PAK on the ground. He pointed at it and patted Ryter's PAK.
"Yes, it's the same," Ryter told him, managing a small smile.
"How long have you known each other?" Lard Nar questioned as he picked up a small pair of tweezers he would be using to attach the smaller pieces back together.
He was using a very powerful non-degrading glue rather than soddering since he worried he might accidentally melt the smallest parts.
"I've known Negi since shortly after the prison was first constructed," Ryter answered.
When the former guard offered no further information, Lard Nar prompted him, "how did you end up taking care of him?"
"Negi wouldn't eat anything the guards brought him," Ryter responded, glancing at the small Vortian who'd grabbed one of his antennae.
This seemed to cause the former guard some discomfort as he stopped talking for a moment and flinched. He didn't stop Negi from holding it though.
"It was bad enough the other guards decided to force feed him, but he didn't get enough to sustain himself. The warden told us if Negi didn't improve he'd be vaporized so..." He sighed. "I wanted to prove myself anyway, and it seemed like a good enough opportunity. I began bringing him food, but he still wouldn't accept it."
He chuckled and carefully shook his head so his antenna wouldn't get pulled too much."I tried yelling at him, threatening him; I even zapped him a few times. Nothing was working, so finally I gave up and sat there with him without saying anything."
He reached behind him and maneuvered Negi into his arms though the young Vortian refused to let go of his antenna.
"I just pushed the food tray over to him, and he pushed it back. We did this for quite a while until they needed me on patrol again. I could never spend more than a half of an hour with him... the next time he started pushing the tray to me almost right away. I told him that this time I wanted him to eat some of it, and he gave me this look that said 'if you want me to eat it you're going to eat it first.'"
He poked the Vort child in the forehead.
"I'd never met such a cheeky Vortling..."
Negi laughed.
"Yes, it was very funny," he squinted down at the young Vortian. "He got me to eat it first, every day, for about a week before he finally decided to eat it on his own."
The Vort child patted his face lightly with his free hand.
"Thanks, but comforting me isn't necessary."
"It seems you understand Negi pretty well," Lard Nar commented.
He turned the light he was using back on. It was a small battery operated light he strapped to his forehead with some wire. That way both of his hands would be free. If he had all of his fingers he'd be faster... but at least he still had both of his hands...
Ryter had also cut off Laes' hand.
"Maybe..." Ryter sounded unsure.
The former guard placed Negi on the ground, and the young Vortian finally let go of his antenna.
"He talks to me, but he won't talk to anyone else... judging from what I've seen with other Vortians, this isn't normal behavior."
"He wasn't allowed to speak to other Vortians for a while, so he probably just needs some time to adjust..." Lard Nar concluded without giving it too much thought.
There were probably an assortment of emotional and attachment issues going on for the young Vortian, but he wasn't in the right mindset to figure out what they were.
Ryter wouldn't understand any of that anyway...
"I'll seriously self-destruct if you keep pestering me!" Filik insisted.
As soon as he heard that, Ryter's expression darkened. His antennae flicked back and he clenched his teeth before striding over to the navigator who'd broken free from Darden and had his finger on his self-destruct button.
The guard snagged Filik by the shoulder as he reached to grab the Irken's wrist. He pulled the navigator's hand away from the button and pinned him to the ground, kneeling on him so he couldn't move.
"If you're going to keep spouting nonsense I'll!"
Ryter stopped.
His crimson eyes shifted to Negi who was watching him nervously now. The small Vortian was clasping his hands in front of him and shrinking away.
"I'll take it away from you," Ryter said in a much calmer voice.
"Wait! I didn't mean it I... I just really don't want to help!" Filik insisted, and he began squirming to get away.
"I'll knock him out," Darden offered.
"Ok, um... maybe forcing someone to do something against their will isn't the best idea maybe?" Laes spoke, and he managed to take a few steps away from his floating chair. "If Filik doesn't want to help he doesn't have to. We'll just have to skip the testing and move onto the real thing..."
"It would be better to test it first..." Darden said. Then he added, "If they have information, then it should be extracted correctly."
"Filik is the shortest Irken, so he should just do it..." Pain stated, shoving the navigator's face into the floor.
"Well um... since your society collapsed... does the height thing really matter right now?" Laes tried again.
"It would be better to test it on someone willing," Lard Nar decided to back up the other Vortian. "They'll likely gain better results that way."
"Test it on me then," Pain offered, and he slowly let Filik up.
The navigator sprang to his feet and ran a good distance away before stopping and turning to face them.
"I swear you guys are all crazy!" He exclaimed.
"You're the one embarrassing yourself," Lyra told him, shaking her head.
The pilot was standing beside Darden.
Lard Nar decided to tune them out at that point. There was no reason to continue watching them.
It looked like Negi was joining him anyway. The Vort-child was too young to have been taught very much, but he seemed interested in the process of fixing the Irken's PAK.
He pulled the light he had strapped to his forehead and held it out to Negi.
"Hold this," he said, and the Vortling carefully took it from his hands. "You'll need to hold it close or I won't be able to see what I'm doing," he explained to the child who nodded eagerly as he crouched down beside Lard Nar and scooted in closer.
–
"So... the test will be to see if we can access your memory files... so your privacy will definitely be violated," Laes explained to Pain... Ryter.
His name was Ryter. He needed to remember that.
Pain wasn't as tense as he was when he'd been about to beat Filik and his expression was definitely lighter now.
He glanced over at Negi and sighed.
"Yeah. That's fine with me."
"You're sure?" Laes asked.
He was starting to feel uncomfortable about the process now since he might accidentally see something he didn't want to see... like the torture.
Would it be rude of him to let Veena take over from here...? He looked at her, and their eyes met briefly before he quickly turned away.
"It can't be any worse than an existence evaluation," Ryter remarked, shrugging.
Oh right. Irkens were put on trial to determine whether or not they should remain activated.
He'd heard about it a few times before.
Apparently it happened to all of them eventually.
"But um..." Laes was trying to think of an excuse not to do it.
"We have his consent," Veena said. "We shouldn't waste this opportunity."
"Yeah... You're right..." Laes agreed, forcing a smile. "Let's do it then."
Even though he said that, he couldn't imagine actually sticking around to watch. He didn't want his hand getting chopped off to suddenly appear on the monitor.
After hooking Pain's PAK to the computer with the cable however, he remained standing there like an idiot.
Was he really curious enough to inflict even more mental trauma on himself...?
Of course he was...
At least if it got too graphic he would faint. Thank whoever created the universe for that.
Not surprisingly it took another few hours to properly sync Pain's PAK with the computer. There were tons of error messages and "non-compatible formatting" pop-ups.
Once they'd cleared those and reformatted some of the data they were able to get the screen up that should, in theory anyway, show the memories stored in the attached PAK.
Pain seemed to be taking the delays pretty well too. He hadn't moved very much, and he hadn't complained at all.
"Yes! Running water is ours! Ha ha ha!"
And his dad was leading some kind of celebration near the middle of the room... did they get the water working? Even if they did, how much water was left in the underground aquifers?
It should probably only be used for drinking... and now his father was dumping a bucket of water over someone's head.
Where was mom? She was the only one who could reign his father in when he got like that.
"Laes... if you're not going to pay attention then let me take over..." Veena told him flatly, and she gestured at the monitor which had started flashing blue and black.
"But I didn't..." how was it like that? He hadn't touched any buttons or anything.
"It looks like Irken PAKs have an automatic defense system... his programming must have recognized the recovery program from the computer and is taking steps to sabotage it..."
"Um... yeah ok. Then go ahead..." Laes said as he slid off of the normal chair he was currently sitting on.
Veena had been standing next to him this whole time, offering advice and input.
This was her area of expertise, not his.
"Alright," Veena agreed, taking his spot.
She'd been standing pretty close to him... they'd nearly been shoulder to shoulder. Normally this kind of close proximity to a female would have turned him into an overly self-conscious fool who couldn't speak much, but he'd been too distracted by their current project to notice until just now.
"This might take a few minutes."
While he waited for her to finish he decided to see how Lard Nar was doing.
On his way there he bumped into another Vortian.
They were smaller, and he glanced at their number. 12001?
Their horns were small white and bent a little backwards and their skin was a light blue color.
"Oops, sorry," she apologized, although Laes was pretty sure he'd been the one to walk into her.
He wasn't exactly the best at walking a straight line right now. His legs and back were beginning to hurt again, but if he took too many pain meds then he wouldn't be able to walk at all.
"That's ok..." he said, and he carefully stepped around her this time.
His attention returned to Lard Nar who was showing Negi one of the Irken's PAK leg attachments.
He heard someone following, so he stopped and turned to see the girl walking behind him for some reason.
He waited, expecting her to continue by him, but she stopped too.
"Do you need something...?" he asked.
She looked kind of young. Maybe she was looking for her parents? Hopefully her parents were still alive... if not then this was going to get very awkward and sad very quickly.
"I'm just watching what you're doing with those," she pointed at Pain's PAK.
"Oh... we're just trying to figure some stuff out so..."
The girl smiled. "You're working a lot. Everyone is. Even the Irkens are helping."
"Yeah," Laes agreed.
After everything the Irkens had done to Vort and his people it was a pretty nice change.
"Mother said Irkens wouldn't help anyone. She said they're too selfish and destructive."
"Yeah, they are, but they can be helpful sometimes too, " Laes responded, managing a smile.
"I'm Laes," he decided to introduce himself.
She didn't look nervous but still, an introduction wouldn't hurt.
"What's your name?"
"I'm called..." she hesitated for a moment. "Chakri."
He'd never heard that name before. Maybe it was a foreign name? It wasn't too uncommon for Vortians to name their children after off world things or places.
"That's an interesting name," he commented.
Her light blue cheeks flushed pink.
"Is it weird?" she asked, fidgeting.
"Um... well it sounds foreign, but that's not a bad thing," Laes replied, glancing at Lard Nar again. "Anyway, I can help you find your parents if you're looking for them."
"That's ok. I know where mother is," Chakri responded.
She suddenly grabbed his bad arm and stared at his stump.
"Oh wow. Your hand is gone! What happened?"
Laes jerked his arm out of her hold and nearly fell over when a flash of pain shot up his spine. He let out a whimper as his legs managed to catch himself.
That really hurt...
If he fell down he probably wouldn't be able to pick himself back up for a long time.
That would've caused some problems... and a lot of awkwardness.
He sucked in a breath before grinding his teeth.
The pain would let up soon. Very soon.
He probably needed some more pain meds...
"Is your back hurting you too?" Chakri questioned; her eyes wide in surprise or concern maybe? "That's not good. You should get those fixed."
"I uh..." his breathing was almost back to normal.
He swallowed. His throat was dry. He should probably drink something soon too.
"It can't be fixed... I mean... maybe before the invasion it could have... but we don't really have a lot of options right now since whatever the Irkens didn't destroy the worms did..."
"Really?" she tilted her head curiously. "You don't have any medicine?"
"I have some..."
This child kind of reminded him of Juelee and his younger sister and his niece... maybe that's why his heart was starting to feel heavy.
"Ok, so, when you run out what will you do?" she asked.
He would panic or faint probably but he didn't really want to say that.
"I'll um... think of something," Laes told her with a smile. "Anyway, are you sure you don't need help finding your mom?"
"No, I want to watch you guys right now. She said that's ok, but I need to take pictures too."
"Ah... ok... why?"
"Because what you're doing looks interesting, and she wants me to show her," she replied, pointing at Lard Nar who was still painstakingly trying to piece together the smashed bits of the second Irken's PAK.
Negi was sitting close by watching him work.
The young Vortian's shoulders were drooping and he looked like he was about to nod off.
"If you do it like that it's going to take forever you know," Chakri told him.
"Yeah... probably... but with most of our technology being broken..."
"I've got it working," Veena announced.
Pain was looking over her shoulder now at the screen. It sounded like something was playing.
"Um, Lard Nar, do you want to watch?" Laes asked before he could remind himself that Lard Nar had experienced the torture without being able to escape by fainting.
He doubted his former cellmate would want to watch what happened again if it happened to play that part which it probably would.
"No thanks," he responded without any kind of emotion in his voice.
The former leader of the Resisty kept his head lowered so it was difficult to make out his expression.
"Ok... that's fair," Laes turned around and started back towards the monitor.
Chakri was still following him he realized, so he paused in mid-step and nearly lost his balance again because of the pain. Wincing, he looked at the Vort child who was smiling happily.
"Um uh... Chakri... this isn't something for children... you should really go back to your mom," he told her; trying not to sound too harsh. "She's probably worried about you ok?"
"Well..." the Vortling tapped her chin. "Yeah, ok," she suddenly agreed before scampering off.
"Laes, I need you to bring the intact PAK here," Veena said.
"Y-Yes, coming," Laes stammered as he hurried over to the tied up and seemingly unconscious Irken.
Lyra had reattached his PAK so he wouldn't die... hopefully whatever they were searching for could be found in under ten minutes.
He wrenched the device off of the soldier, and this time he did end up falling on his butt. He had to use the PAK to push himself off the floor, and his injured spine protested when he attempted to lift it.
Then Darden who'd been watching from a short distance away approached him and took the PAK from his arms.
"If you need help, ask," the ex-soldier insisted.
"Sorry," Laes automatically apologized.
Darden carried the heavy metal device over to Veena who took it and set it down on the desk without straining herself at all.
When he heard the screams he couldn't make himself look at the screen... but it didn't last very long.
He heard a sigh coming from the monitor, so he risked looking.
Pain was standing outside an electric barrier. His gaze fell but he quickly looked up again. The former guard was wiping some blood from his gloves. Then he tucked the bloody cloth away and parted the force-field.
Pain sat down beside Negi, making sure to keep some distance. He looked down at his hands, there was still some blood between his gloved fingers, and sighed again.
"Sometimes I wonder if..." his voice petered out as he hung his head.
When he looked up again Negi was scooting closer.
"Following orders never used to be this difficult..."he admitted.
The Vortling grabbed his glove.
"Negi... I need to keep this on."
The young Vortian tugged on it until it started coming off.
"I'm serious..." he yanked his hand away. "It's mine. You can't take it."
Negi scowled and pointed at his gloved hand. "It's not you."
"This is me," Pain insisted; his voice lowering as he continued to speak. "I'm a guard... I follow orders... if the Tallest told me to hurt you I would..." he paused and shut his eyes. "I would... dlarn it... I wouldn't want to, but I would do it... this isn't just a job for me. This is my life. This is who I am. Understand?"
His eyes snapped open.
"Negi! Stop trying to take my glove off!" he insisted in a loud and harsh tone.
"It's not you!" Negi yelled back as he managed to pull the glove off.
He flung it away and started to cry.
"Oh Flurking dlarn it..." Pain grumbled.
He reached for Negi with his bare hand and he placed it over the Vortian's much smaller hand.
"You don't even know what I have to do everyday... there's no reason for you to cry."
Negi sniffled as he peered up at Pain with tears streaking his face.
"You don't cry.." he whimpered. "I cry... you don't..."
Both Veena and Laes turned to look at Pain.
The Irken met each of their gazes before shrugging his shoulders.
"Negi is a lot more stubborn than I am," he admitted.
Pain wasn't embarrassed by his words or actions. He didn't seem to care whether or not they saw him expressing what Irkens would consider weakness towards his enemy.
His Tallest and his Empire would have considered him defective... he probably would have been demoted at the very least.
"It works," Veena stated, deciding not to ask any questions about what they'd seen. "It's time to try it on this one," she tapped the PAK sitting on the desk.
Once Pain was unhooked from the cable, she attached it to the detached pak. At first the video showed just static.
Then the screen flickered.
There was nothing but darkness... then came a blinding white light.
"What... what is this...?" the Irken spoke; his voice sounding hoarse.
There were other voices, but they were speaking a different language.
"What are you... what are you doing...?"
The figures were a translucent blue-green colour. They were hovering over him.
"What are you!? Why are you doing this!?" the Irken screamed.
There were tearing sounds.
"Stop!"
Then the video screen returned to static.
Laes' clutched his chest. Breathing had suddenly become difficult for him.
The Irken appeared to be unable to move... just like in the video he watched when the Vortians were...
And now he felt sick.
"There are no other memories..." Veena said.
She must have hit replay or something because the same scene started playing out again.
Pain was studying the images carefully. He rubbed his chin.
"Well, it sounds like they forced their way into his PAK, so he was definitely reprogrammed against his will."
"How can you be so calm about this?" Laes asked, looking up at the former guard who glanced down at him.
"This something we've been expecting for a long time..." Pain responded.
He wasn't tense and his antennae remained sitting in a relaxed neutral position.
"Now that it's happening... our worst fears have been confirmed... how am I supposed to react?"
There was no point in panicking... nothing would get done if they panicked about it. That's what Pain was saying probably.
"There is nothing in his personality drives either..." Veena spoke.
She seemed intent on continuing the search despite her doubts.
"There's no memories... no personality... all I can find is a long complex command code... it's encrypted so well it will take me days or maybe weeks to figure this out..."
"Should we figure it out...?" Laes asked.
What if hacking it caused the Irken to self-destruct or something?
That would be pretty bad.
"It's how they're moving... they react based off of this code I'm sure, but I can't decipher the actual code its self... and I can't rewrite it at all in this format... also there is a chance whoever coded this may have included some kind of fail safe that could wipe all of the data or even start a hidden program if compromised..."
"So... can we help him...?" that's all he really wanted to know right now since all of this information was beginning to give him a headache.
"Maybe...? He won't ever be the same, but I might be able to reboot the learning and experiential operatives. The problem lies with the foreign program its self... I'm not sure what's in it, so it may counteract anything I try to do."
Laes rubbed his temples. "That sounds like a pretty big problem."