This chapter was guest-written by the story's betareader; His Majesty the Emperor RKB
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Groom Lake Facility, half a kilometer beneath the surface of the Earth, Confederacy of Earth Nations
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Althus Vebb fell to the floor in a disheveled heap.
The chill of the room's cool air hit her piping hot, chitinous skin like an electro-shock prod. Her webbed hands and legs shook violently as she writhed on the cold granite while her muscles spasmed from the pain, her skin still burning from the grip of the carbonite she had been encased in.
These facts, however, were but an afterthought to her as she breathed deeply and rapidly, hacking at the carbon fumes that had made its way into her lungs. Her throat burned just as her scaly skin did, and her first thought upon awaking from her imposed sedation was to wonder where the tentacles had gone.
The Bor had played with her mind for weeks. The dark knight had passed its pet, she had called it Bor Folter, from one member of the Convor crew to the next; subjecting them to the most grueling of tortures as the mystery Knight drained them of all the knowledge they had of the 2nd Galactic Empire. Every torture imaginable, and many that Althus could never have imagined in her wildest dreams, had been employed to loosen her tongue.
For the thousandth time she cursed Teemasvalli for being stupid enough to board the mystery ship where they had been ambushed by Stormtroopers loyal the dark knight. It had been the height of foolishness for the Convor's captain to simply assume the strange Star Destroyers were abandoned.
The knight and her subordinates had not been the only ones to gain information from the interrogations and attentions of Bor Folter. The occasional slip up and overheard piece of casual conversation had slowly painted a picture for Althus of just who her captors were.
They had been, as Melion Card and Ania Antilles had initially theorized, members of the 1st Galactic Empire. Or at least, what was left of it.
Somehow, against all odds and against the conventional wisdom which she and every citizen of the 2nd Galactic Empire took as a self-evident truth, the 1st Empire had fallen into civil war following the departure of the four sector fleets which had comprised Tarkin's Fist. And astonishingly, Palpatine and his regime had been deposed by a rag tag alliance of rebels. A New Republic had risen from the Empire's ashes, only for one of the Imperial remnants to self-radicalize in the face of their idol's defeat.
This remnant, the First Order, had risen from anonymity to challenge the New Republic and its heroes, and had been in the process of taking back the galaxy from the rebels when the knight and her fleet had been dragged to the Milky Way.
But this information was not so important to Althus as the pain which the knight, Vala Ren, had inflicted upon her and her crew. Ren had Bor Folter tear Althus's mind apart with what could only have been Dark Side mind powers, alternatively making Althus feel as though her skull was being drilled into and her brains scooped out. After a time, Althus realized that she was no longer being tormented for information, but simply because Vala Ren needed something to amuse herself.
Eventually the dark knight had tired of her new playthings and moved on to other matters. The ghoul had only released them when the First Order had arrived at a tiny Earth colony somewhere in the Sagittarius Arm. Used up and wrung out like wet wash cloths, the Convor's crew had been forced into carbon freezing and hung out to dry.
Now released from the carbonite, Althus kept her eyes tightly closed as she twitched and shuddered on the floor, trying desperately to prepare herself for what might come next. Now two new thoughts came to the young Mon Cal; how long had they been frozen and what fresh hell was in store for her?
She did not have to wait long. What could have only been a steel toed boot connected with the small of her back in a sharp kick. Althus's eyes opened wide as the fresh bout of pain overwhelmed her senses. What little self-control she had deserted her and she let out a ragged yelp as she tried to move away from her attacker. Then, as the pain receded she let out another gasp as she realized something else.
She had forced her eyes to open, and yet she could not see a thing.
She looked around wildly. Even in the dark she should have been able to see the lights from the control panel of the carbonite block she had been encased in.
She saw nothing. She was blind. Metallic echoes rang from distant hallways as the smell of sterile antiseptics filled the room. Was she in a hospital? No, she realized suddenly, she was in a laboratory. A new wave of fear hit her as a voice, gruff and angry, was heard over her heavy breathing.
"Fucking hell, Doc, look at this thing flopping about on my floor. You sure we shouldn't have put this crawdad in a pot of boiling water or something?"
"Control yourself, Colonel." Came a second, more subdued voice. "It's no good to me dead. I was assured by our ally that this particular species was capable of living and breathing on land, the same as you and I. Is this true?"
"I can't see." Althus said, ignoring the question directed at her as her head swiveled from one side to the other in the desperate hope of trying to find the source of the voices. Another kick, this time to her scaled stomach, knocked the wind out of her lungs.
"Quit your bitching, ET." The first voice commanded. "It doesn't seem to be gasping or choking, despite its gills, Doctor. My guess is the First Order was telling the truth about its respiratory functions."
Althus's heart jumped. So she was still at the mercy of the First Order? Or perhaps some faction of minions they used to do their bidding? She needed to find a way to escape as soon as possible and warn the Empire.
"Ahh, look at these brain wave scans, quite fascinating. It appears that the carbon freezing hasn't completely damaged the mental faculties." The second voice said. Althus felt a cold shiver work its way down her carapace. The second voice was detached and clinical. There was no warmth or agitation in its tone. She had no way of knowing or anticipating what he might do.
"We were warned that the optical handicap would be a temporary condition, yet I was so worried that the enhanced interrogation techniques of our new allies, combined with flash freezing, would cause irreparable physical and mental damage." The second voice continued. "Do show some more restraint Colonel, I need these specimens intact."
The first voice, the Colonel, sounded annoyed. "As you wish, Doctor. But I'd rather be out there kicking Imperial ass than down here looking after this ugly lobster."
"Now, now, Colonel Bishop," the second voice, the Doctor, chided. "Why be one of nameless millions fighting and dying in the current offensive when you can be witness to the greatest scientific achievement of your lifetime?"
A gloved hand clasped Althus by the chin and moved her head left and right. She could tell she was being examined and scrutinized.
"Creatures like these are key to my research. Research that will forever alter the destiny of true humanity." The Doctor said.
She should have stayed silent, but her blindness and unfamiliarity with what was going on overrode her common sense.
"Please." Althus begged, her voice trembling. "I can't..."
"Can't see." The Doctor interrupted. "Yes, we've been over this. The First Order told us that it is a common effect of hibernation sickness. Your eyesight will return in due time."
The Colonel chuckled. "She'll probably wish she was blind when she finally sees just how in deep she is."
"I thought they taught patience and restraint in the Army." The Doctor interjected coldly. The Colonel seemed to take the rebuke for what it was, as he failed to respond to the Doctor. The Colonel was an easy read, despite Althus's blindness. He reveled in the power of the bully, a tiny man screaming futilely at the immensity of the Galaxy.
The Doctor, however, was much harder to figure out. The gloved hand that had a grip on her chin pulled her forward slightly, and this time the Doctor addressed her directly.
"Tell me, my dear. They never bothered to inform us. What is your name?"
"Al-Althus Vebb." Althus said, her voice shaking despite her efforts to strengthen her own resolve.
"Althus Vebb." The Doctor repeated softly, as though he were testing it.
"I do so apologize for my associate's crude behavior, but I'm afraid he learned his manners during the siege of Las Vegas." The Doctor said in a tone utterly devoid of remorse or sympathy. There was, in fact, an undercurrent of insincerity that made Althus shiver and try to pull away from him. It was obvious that he was lying through his teeth.
"Much has happened since your former captors froze you in carbonite." The Doctor continued. Althus tried desperately to regain control of her breathing as she fought the urge to panic. Had she been sold into slavery or donated to a research lab? "Supreme Leader Ren had thought she was through with you, and had originally planned to simply toss you out the nearest airlock. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed."
"Where am I? Who are you?" Althus asked.
"Oh, where are my manners?" The Doctor exclaimed, the insincerity in his tone taking on a mocking edge. "I am Dr. Incite, my belligerent friend over there is Colonel Nathan Bishop, and you my dear Althus, are in the custody of the Confederacy of Earth Nations' Ministry of Improvement."
Althus felt her chest tighten. She was a prisoner of the alien-loathing, Empire-hating, Confederacy. Mothers all along the Bloodstripe Run told stories of how misbehaving younglings were snatched up by Confederate spies, never to be seen again. The True Victory Legion, when it wasn't ranting about the treachery of the clones, intoned ominously that the Earth needed to be subjected to a complete Base Delta Zero to ensure that all species in the galaxy would be spared their madness. Though millions sneered and joked about the Earth and its laughable technology, there had always been an underpinning of worry and bafflement about the Earthers and just what it might be that they were up to.
It seemed Althus was about to find out.
The room fell silent for a moment as Althus tried to cope with her current fate.
"My crew?" She asked.
"They've been thawed out and placed in holding cells." Dr. Incite said. "They will be needed for the work ahead."
"I'd keep the chatter to a minimum, Doc." Colonel Bishop interrupted. "The ET doesn't need to know anything. Aliens are already a sneaky bunch of yellow-bellies, lording it over the rest of us from outer space. Striking us from orbit when we couldn't touch them. Tables have turned now though. Just like the President promised they would."
"I am in command here, Bishop, not you." Incite said, annoyed. "And I can convince our new friend just as easily about the futility of resistance as you can with a well-placed punch to the gut."
Althus's mind raced as she tried to think of a way out of the situation she was in. Incite sounded like the more cold blooded of the two Earthers, but he also sounded more rational and restrained. Maybe, hopefully, he could be reasoned with.
"Please, I've given the First Order all that I know." She reasoned. "I'm of no use to you. Please release me and my crew. I swear by the stars that we'll never breathe a word about what's happened here."
"I'm afraid we can't do that." Dr. Incite responded.
"But the Empire must know that we've gone missing." Althus insisted. "Surely someone at the ISB will investigate our disappearance. If the Empire finds out that you're holding us prisoner it will..."
"Start a war?" Bishop interrupted. "Man do I have some bad news for you sweetheart. War's already started. The true human race is going to wipe out all of you alien fucks."
Althus fell silent. They couldn't have started a new war. How long had she been in hibernation? The Terrans were mad!
"Yes, our new friends in the First Order have been most helpful in upgrading and expanding our military forces." Dr. Incite said. "The shipyards at Nal Kuat are burning. The Martian Defense Squadron is destroyed. Mars itself is under siege, and our forces are already engaging the nearest Imperial colonies along the Empire's main hyper-route."
Althus pulled herself up into a sitting position, clutching her legs with her webbed hands.
"If what you say is true, then you might as well kill me." She announced. She was tired of pain. She was tired of fear. She didn't want to die, but if this was all existence had to offer her, then she would prefer to return to the oblivion which the carbonite had given her a taste of.
"Kill you?" Incite asked, confused. "Why should I ever kill you?
"I've given the First Order all that I know..." Althus began.
"Yes, yes, you've mentioned that already." Dr. Incite interrupted. "But you don't seem to understand your predicament. We're not interested in what you know. Frankly put your knowledge is over a year out of date. We know more about the current state of the 2nd Galactic Empire than you do."
"How long..." Althus started to ask, fearing how much time had passed. But Colonel Bishop spoke over her.
"About thirteen months frozen in carbonite. About two being interrogated by that Supreme Leader the First Order has."
"It's not what you know that interests us." Dr. Incite said. Althus felt the Doctor's gloved fingers delicately tracing the outline of her gills. Althus's stomach churned with revulsion at the unwanted touch.
"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you." Althus said, spurred on by a moment of apathy induced bravery. "Males aren't really my thing."
She expected to be hit for saying that. But Dr. Incite laughed. It was a hideous, full bellied laugh, devoid of any real mirth.
"And I'm not interested in a bulgy eyed fish-woman." Incite retorted. "But I am interested...in your mind."
Dr. Incite withdrew his hand from Althus's face and neck. She heard him get back up to his feet.
"I'm interested in many things, Althus Vebb. But for now, I'm interested in your brain, and arresting the march of history."
"What?" Althus asked. Was this the iron-fisted madness the Terrans were supposed to all suffer from rearing its ugly head? The Doctor had stopped making sense.
"While your little Empire went on its merry way after the last war, we struggled to put our benighted world back to order." Incite said as he began to slowly but loudly circle Althus like a Krakana circling a wounded Whaladon. "You'd be amazed what the Empire forgot about. During our recovery operations, we managed to secure a few bodies of clone soldiers who led the drive to capture slaves for the Empire's industries across our world's Pacific Ocean. We learned much about genetic manipulation from our autopsies of the clones. But we also discovered something else."
The Doctor paused for a moment, allowing the tension in the room to gather.
"We nearly missed it." Incite continued, his voice soft and reverent. "It never showed up on our scans, but as we were taking apart their brains for study, we discovered the tumors."
"I don't understand." Althus admitted.
"Neither did I, at first." Incite said. "But as the years went by our spies in New Mandalore began to relay such interesting stories to us. Tell me, what do you know of Order 66?"
Althus was taken aback by the question, it seemed like such a dramatic change of topic. "It was some sort of anti-Jedi contingency." Althus said haltingly. "If Chancellor Palpatine decided that a Jedi was acting against the Old Republic, then they would be executed for treason. It stopped the Jedi Uprising cold supposedly."
"Indeed." Said Incite. "And yet, if you were to talk to the clones, any clone, over in New Zealand, they'd say they never would have anticipated being given the Order. Most clones, not all, but most, admired their Jedi Generals. Many even considered them friends. And yet, when the Order was given, most clones never hesitated to gun those same Jedi down. Could you kill someone in cold blood, Althus Vebb? Someone you cared for?"
Althus's thoughts drifted back to Ania Antilles, and the blaster bolt that had ended her life. She thought of the terror she had felt at a life being snuffed out so easily.
"I...I don't think so." Althus admitted.
"Of course you couldn't." Incite confirmed. "At least, not without a few seconds or even a few minutes wasted in indecision. But when the person you need to kill is an empath trained to sense emotions, you can't afford to feel anger or fear or a desire to see that person dead without being detected."
"But I was born." Althus insisted. "The Clones were bred in a lab. They were conditioned to follow orders and suppress their feelings."
"Indoctrination can always be fought if not constantly reapplied." Incite countered. "Our agents in New Zealand confirm that many Jedi encouraged their soldiers to break from the collectivist mentality they had been raised to believe in and embrace a more individualist approach. Many of them were breaking free of their indoctrination. And yet most clones never hesitated to pull the trigger on those same Jedi when the time came. They went from liking and even caring about their friends to being convinced that they were traitors, and killed those same traitors without a second thought or an ounce of remorse. Why?"
"The tumors...weren't tumors." Althus realized.
"No, they weren't." Incite confirmed. "They are some type of organic control chip. Despite their new found individuality those same chips compelled the clones to execute Order 66, regardless of their personal changes in character or their experiences. And in those chips lies our destiny."
"You...want to create a new clone army?" Althus asked.
Dr. Incite laughed again, and Althus again trembled at the lack of mirth in his voice.
"A clone army? How...small. How very small. Our Legionnaires are the epitome of identically-minded soldiers already. Freedom, diversity of purpose and individuality are all things that have held us back and led us to defeat in the last war. Here at the Ministry of Improvement we try to develop a larger picture of what might be."
"There are two types of people in this world." Colonel Bishop interjected. "People who shut up and do as they're told, and those who don't. And we're going to get them to shut up in a big way."
"And regrettably there is a great deal of overlap between those groups." Incite added. "Some people will go their whole lives following orders, only to one day decide that it is no longer worth it. Others will spend their lives in recalcitrant rebellion to authority, only to submit. And unfortunately there is no way of telling who is who and which is which. Resistance to the established order of things is inevitable. I want to remove that inevitability."
Althus felt a growing horror well within her as she realized what the Doctor was suggesting. "You want to lobotomize people?! Turn them into mindless organic droids?!"
"Nothing so severe." Incite intoned. "We don't intend to give everyone an inhibitor chip. Just those who prove themselves unreliable, or those from a demographic caste whose loyalties are suspect."
"We have a lot of potentially mutinous freaks in the 3rd and 4th classes who could benefit from some discipline. It'd save the Confederate military a lot of wear and tear if we didn't have to waste so much time guarding them and putting down their revolts." Bishop said. "I could see where a couple chips like that would be useful."
"Imagine a galaxy in which all the beings therein were united and passive." Incite continued. "With every individual citizen operating in lockstep, completely safe with a singular vision, a singular will leading them and directing their freedoms. Wars will cease. Crime will cease. Everyone will be safe."
"Safe from what?" Althus asked. What could scare men like Bishop and Incite so badly that they'd resort to such extremes?
"Safe from you." Bishop said bluntly. "Safe from your kind."
"Dank Ferrik, you must be joking." Althus exclaimed. She was a simple spacer, blind and weak from a year's worth of encasement in carbonite. She was no threat to anyone, let alone her present company.
"Do I sound like I'm joking bitch?" Bishop asked, his normally bellicose tone softening as she felt a cold piece of metal pressed hard into her right temple. She knew it was the muzzle of a gun.
"CNN is always going on and on about how evil you aliens are. It's all they ever talk about." Bishop whispered as he pressed the muzzle of his sidearm deeper into her temple, digging into her skin.
"Colonel..." Incite warned.
Bishop ignored the Doctor. "I knew you were evil. Ever since you alien fucks killed my buddies in Vegas, I knew. I still got a memento or two from that battle. Maybe one of your friends gave it to me."
"I was only a youngling, hardly a hatchling..." Althus began.
"It's amazing how you do that." Bishop marveled softly. She heard a click from the pistol. Her breath stuck in her throat.
"Colonel Bishop, I told you..." Incite spoke up again, but the Colonel ignored him.
"It's amazing how you can make yourself appear so weak and pathetic." Bishop said. "I knew plenty of nerds in my day who would have eaten this shit up. Bought into this lie. You're a wonderful actor, I'll give you that. You make yourselves out to be the victims. That's how you got them to fall for it."
"I don't understand." Althus said. Bishop seemed to be speaking in riddles.
The pressure to her temple vanished briefly. But before Althus could breathe a sigh of relief she felt the handle of the pistol plunge into her right cheek. A stomach churning wet smack resounded through the room as something in Althus's mouth broke. Althus clutched at her cheek as she fell to the floor. She could taste blood and feel it pooling from her mouth onto the floor as she fought to repress the scream of pain welling in her throat.
"Bull-fucking-shit you don't understand." Bishop roared. She could feel him standing over her. He stamped a steel toed boot right in front of her face. She tried to scramble back away from him, fearing that he's stomp her head in.
"Somehow, someway, human beings made their way into your neck of the woods. You couldn't conquer them. Couldn't wipe them out. So you wormed your way into their good graces. Made yourselves useful to them. Got them to give up who they were and join your society. Empires, Republics, Alliances, it didn't matter. Anywhere there were humans there were alien carpetbaggers getting rich and fat. Bit by bit over thousands of years aliens like you chipped away at what makes mankind what it is, twisting it in your image." Bishop ranted. Althus imagined the Colonel was probably red in the face from the exertion of yelling.
The words continued to tumble from the Colonel's mouth, his tone tinged with a growing sense of disgust. "You grafted yourselves to the humans where you were from. Leached off of them and their accomplishments like tapeworms. Some of you even mated with them."
"We were all one people once." Concluded Bishop, and this time Althus was amazed that the Colonel actually sounded rather sad. "We were the human race. We should have stood together. But then the aliens like you got their hooks into some of them, and thousands of years later we all met up, right here in this Solar System, and they didn't even recognize us as being part of the same species. We were more alien to that asshole Yos and his piece of shit daughter than the aliens he freed from slavery. Fucking idiots."
"You know Doc," Bishop said, evidently addressing Doctor Incite. "I spent a bit of time chatting with one of those First Order fellas. Bunch of lifeless stiffs, you ask me. But they were chatting about this Palpatine fella, and what an inspiration he was, and I couldn't help but think, listening to them, that they were on to something. The history of their galaxy is the history of the alien leaching off of humans, using them as puppets and tools while they lived the good life. This Palpatine guy might have been a fake human like all the rest of the Imperials, but at least he was smart enough to put his own kind first, and put filth like this in their place. Goddamn shame the Yos's decided to liberate these monsters and enslave their own cousins. Shows just how fucked up they are."
"You place far too much value on sentiment, Colonel." Incite chided. "If the claims of the Imperials are true, then true humanity and false humanity have been separated for tens of thousands of years. They do indeed see us as a separate species. And, considering some of the...unnatural...things I have seen, I am inclined to agree. Where we differ is in our conclusion as to which branch of the human family is the inferior."
Althus couldn't help it. She laughed. It was a hoarse, brittle chuckle. It was disbelieving. Bitter. Almost hysterical. But still, it was unmistakably laughter. "Sentiment? The Colonel's about to beat me to death and you call him sentimental?" It was just too absurd. They, for all their grand designs and ambitions, were absurd.
She continued to laugh. Dr. Incite didn't say a word, but Althus heard the scrape of his footsteps as he again approached her. Before she could say anything she felt the same gloved fingers from earlier delicately wrap themselves around her neck. The Doctor pressed two thumbs against her throat, not enough to close off her gills entirely, but enough to make her breathing more difficult. Althus stopped laughing. Her pulse quickened, and she tried to pull away from him, but Incite grabbed the back of her head and held her in place.
"Isn't it remarkable, the delicate nature of life?" Incite asked softly. "You can feel that fragility, right here, in this moment. You know I could end your life at any moment. It would be so easy to strangle you, or to snap your neck, and in the long run no one would notice you were gone."
Incite released her, but Althus could still feel the man's warm, minty breath brushing against her cheek. He was still much too close for comfort.
The Doctor clearly enjoyed having a captive audience, for he continued to prattle on. "It is so easy to kill. But any barbarian can slaughter their enemies. Your Empire proved that well enough 20 years ago. Colonel Bishop, are we not the superior species?"
"Fucking A we are." Bishop answered.
"If we are indeed superior, then we must prove our superiority. Our enemies tried to destroy us once. But we will go one step beyond. We won't need to destroy them. We will...enlighten them."
"You sick sleemos." Althus spat. "Bad enough that you'd use those chips on your own beings, but to think that you'd try to enslave the entire Empire..."
"As your Empire attempted to enslave us?" Incite interrupted. "Spare me your moral indignation. You'll find it wasted on me. Rest assured, my fishy friend, our methods will not be so brutal as the Empire's. When Phasma's dominions have been conquered and divided between ourselves and the First Order; when the new inhibitor chips are designed and implemented, there will be no tension between the species in the Confederate sphere of influence. The people living on the worlds we conquer will not long endure the truncheon or the shackle. In time there will be no need for barbwire or the iron fist of military rule. There will be no need even for rifles or whips. With the chips, our most vicious enemies will be rendered as obedient as any household dog."
"We're not going to be your kriffing pets! I'd rather die than have some chip strip me of who I am." Althus said grimly.
"The Colonel might take you up on that if you aren't careful. Believe me, my dear, there are many here on Earth like Bishop who would be happy to hurry you and your kind on to an early grave." Incite retorted. "As the invasion was being planned, many policymakers advocated for the outright extermination of all those loyal to the Empress."
"It's the least the assholes deserve." Bishop interjected snidely.
"Thankfully, such...blunt, methods were shelved." The Doctor continued, this time with a faint tone of annoyance. "After all, genocide is such a tricky business. We want to use the worlds of the Bloodstripe Run for ourselves, not destroy them. So orbital bombardment is right out. Which means, if we wanted to exterminate you, we'd have to do it up close and personal, which is rather distressing work for even the most hardened of soldiers. Not to mention it would likely drive a wedge between ourselves and the First Order. For all their hatred of the Empire they seem to see the average Imperial citizen as a dim, wayward child that needs to be taken in hand and brought back to the fold."
"And there's no way in hell we'd ship 'em off to the First Order either. I don't trust 'em not to put those same aliens in armor and use 'em against us some day." Bishop interrupted again. Althus could feel the temperature in the room falling as Bishop repeatedly interrupted the Doctor's monologue.
"Quite right." Incite admitted tersely. "Which leaves the inhibitor chips as the only real solution to our problem. If recent history has taught me anything, it's that the mass murder inflicted upon the Earth has turned us into implacable enemies of the Empire. Should we return the favor, and should some Imperials escape our wrath, then they will be as hardened against us as we are against them. Should we fail to kill them all, then the survivors might escape, build up their numbers, and redouble their efforts to destroy us. We are caught in a vicious cycle, not unlike the fabled conflict between the Jedi and the Sith that the Guardians of the Whills are so obsessed with. Though I doubt they could tell a Jedi from a Sith if an example of each was brought before them. Our cycle could well escalate to a point where the Confederacy and the Empire could destroy one another. Implanting the surviving Imperials in our area of occupation with the inhibitor chips is the only feasible way of breaking this cycle and ensuring a lasting peace on our terms."
"You're insane." Althus said. "It would never work." She would have continued, but she was interrupted by a sharp blow to the back of her head. Althus fell back to the floor and clasped her wounded head.
"It is a work in progress." Dr. Incite admitted. "Unfortunately, from what little we have managed to decipher, the inhibitor chips in the clones were tailor-made to operate with their genetically modified code in particular. Adapting the chips to work on a variety of beings with different genetic structures and different brain chemistries will take time. That is where you and your crew come in. Among others."
"And where do your friends in the First Order fit into this grand design?" Althus asked.
"They have given us the technology we need to crush our enemies." Incite said. "Most of the politicians and the military brass think that they can divide the galaxy in two once this war is over, with the Confederacy on one side and the First Order on the other."
"You don't know the First Order." Althus spat. "They'll use you and drop you as soon as you've stopped being useful."
"They may try." Dr. Incite said. "They have deceived many of my people. But not all. An alien is an alien, after all, regardless of how human they might appear. The Confederacy started by President Harris is inevitable. For now though we need them. We shall let this alliance run its course, and prepare for what might come thereafter."
"So you think you can destroy them so easily?" Althus asked, incredulous. She had seen the First Order up close and personal. She knew there was no depth to which they would not stoop to remain alive.
"Aliens have had a habit of underestimating the true humanity. Why should the First Order be any different?" Dr. Incite asked. Althus concluded that Incite was either completely delusional, or the most evil person she had ever met. And she had endured Vala Ren.
"Why tell me all this?" Althus asked.
"Because once we were caught under your people's heel, at your mercy. Because it feels right, now that the tables have turned, to revel in your suffering as you reveled in ours. Your kind scorned us, mocked us. But who's laughing now, hmm? You cannot hope to escape." Incite answered. "You are in one of the most secure facilities in the Confederacy. And you, my dear, will play a part in my plans. So resign yourself to this fate, for you are small and alone in this world. For now though, I think we are through."
Althus felt a pair of rough hands close over her arm and shoulder like a vice and lift her to her shaking and unsteady feet.
"Let's get a move on, you space-Nazi fishstick." Colonel Bishop growled. "The doc is going to want you in tip top condition when he starts his experiments." As she was dragged away from the Doctor, Althus's head swam with what she had been told. They traveled down a maze of corridors, and all the while she felt a fire burn in her chest. She had been willing to die initially to be free of this pain. But Incite had been right about one thing. There were those who submitted and those who resisted. She decided then and there, despite what she had been through, that this would not be the end of her. She would endure and survive; if not for her own sake, then to spite her captors.
"Althus! Hey, Althus!" A familiar voice called out.
Althus jerked her head up. She knew that voice.
"Srev?" She called out to her crewmate. Her call turned to a cry of pain as an electric current ran through her side.
"The Doc may have been happy to gloat and let you talk. But I don't want to hear a peep from any of you freaks." Colonel Bishop snarled as he dragged Althus away from where Srev's cell was probably located.
Althus heard a door slide open and was shoved into a small cell. As the door closed Althus heard Bishop say something.
"Oh, by the way, welcome to Area 51."
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Up Next- We have them on the run