The RevisitingExtraordinary Rendition Center
Mulva Moonlet
4031 ICE
Ked sat mutely in the inspection cubicle, arms folded limply over the black document case in his lap. He stared down at the black obsidian-like floor. It seemed to envelop him. Decadent. Hedronian soulstone - transport costs alone were above 20 million credits, by now. Lives were most definitely lost mining in the turbulent conditions of that not-so-recently discovered planetoid. Your life for this floor. We can - and will - walk on you. We do it every day.
He heard heels clicking down one of the long corridors, off to his left. He didn’t take his eyes off the reflections in that black, soul-sucking floor.
He knew this kind of place: the sense of authority - the brooding, over-arching dominance of man by money. Just like the HR Holdings Complex on Titan. The towering crystalline entrance pillars reduce anyone of stature into a mere blemish of shadow on the black floors. That was intentional. If you're diminished in presentation, you stand no chance of gaining leverage with one of the most powerful corporations in the known omniverse. Even less when you were a mute cripple, confined to a hoverchair.
The small yellow sign above the secure corridor flashed on. BEWARE. Why hadn’t he noticed that last time? The slide doors swooshed open revealing a dark elevator platform. Ked cleared his throat querously. At least he could still do that. He felt a quick flush of perspiration all over his body. Could
they be doing that? The sign pulsed again. Ked's lip quivered as he whooshed beyond the threshold with an uneasy wobble, his chair functioning poorly.
Breathe. At least he could still breathe. The air didn’t calm him as it should. It tasted of thwarted promise.
Once inside the dimly lit space, the door behind him slammed shut, with a resounding “thwang” which echoed off the distant corridors. The platform fell away below his hoverchair and he plummeted along with it.
Then lights were shining in his eyes - which clicked off as the far end door swung open. Didn’t it slide away last time? Ked hovered toward the end and peered into the cavernous office space. The office was a large semi-circular room with no exterior windows. The harsh green light from Mulva's surface streamed in through light tunnels in the atrium. Freightliners could be heard carbing their engines far overhead - their massive forms preparing to jump though the Void.
Ked trundled out of the corridor sheepishly, realizing that he had been frozen for a moment too long. Again. His gaze moved around the room finding the centerpiece of the office. A large slab of borewood replete with red moldings of synthium. He should have known. Another symbol of decadence. Behind the desk sat a motionless figure, face cast in light from a padpod laying on the desk. He knew that face. Could it be? Had
he come all the way here, just to cashier one officer? Ked wondered what they were
really making on the World Aflame. He bumbled forward, feeling his apprehension rise, multiplying his need to get out of there.
Run. If only he could get up and run.
"Ked Ambrit." The voice was older and meaner. Ked tried to look away. A scoutliner arced across the horizon on a display off to his left, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away to look at it. Caught in a timeless stare, Ked tried in vain to rip his gaze away from the man. His heart was banging against his ribs, trying to leap from his chest and run away, to leave the rest of his lame and useless body there.
Speak. Breathe. He tried to lick his lips, to swallow, to answer. He felt mute.
"Ye- yessir." His voice was tiny. “Yes, sir.” He tried to bite his own tongue, to stop it from wagging, to make himself salivate, to give his nerves something to bite down onto. But still his throat was dry and acrid. The man behind the desk outstretched a darker, even more skeletal hand than Ked remembered, tossing the padpod device across the sleek surface of the desk. The pod swung around before Ked. There was video playing on its screen. A loop, playing over and over. The destruction of the Fractal Zion Colony.
"As you know, Haos Redro has recently suffered some 'setbacks' in the Brindus system." His voice no longer carried that affected accent the executive used to use, the result of being surrounded by obscene waste his entire, extended, evil life. He still spoke the zaibatsu marketing bullshit, that much was true, but now he just sounded mean, bitter and tired.
Ked said nothing, to avoid looking like a complete asshole.
"These 'setbacks' , if examined, have the ability to make Haos Redro one of the most hated entities in the omniverse." He paused.
Ked knew better than to answer.
"Indeed, Mr. Ambrit, if it were not for some even more recent... 'concerns'." Again that word with that intentional inflection of importance. It wasn't a small problem, this was a 'concern'. Again with the Haos Redro corporate doubletalk. "You're quite aware of the situation, as this act was done at your hand."
Ked wisely remained silent.
"We lost the entire facility at Rhubarb Ridge, decimating our coil-and-rail mating R&D."
Ked knew he better keep his mouth shut.
“Your action has had several results, Mr. Ambrit. The Omniversal Court was unable to find any evidence that HR Holdings contributed in any way to omniversal picodestruction. The levitric-apergic facility at Plowshare was saved, ensuring Tumbo’s dominance in Lux-Beam weaponry for the foreseeable future. And while you may have ruined our chance of being first to market with an updated mass-driver prototype, at least you kept the omniversalists from finding anything. Of course your actions did not slow down the Alien advance one whit. We have, however, found a most useful subject for our Clonal Forces program. A very promising subject indeed. You kept the Company’s interest at heart, Ambrit. You’re our kind of guy. I just wish we had more like you around here. Oh wait - we do." He signaled to a team of guards and orderlies, who appeared with a stretcher and restraints.
"Take him away!”
Ked sat awestruck. Humans had been cloned before, but it had only been to perpetuate their line. Military cloning: this was new and extraordinary.
"Get this asset over to Research." The executive spoke to his drone. "Get me the latest figures on the Ablator/Devivificator Program. I think Nux is padding his budget again."
"Right away, sir." The guards and the drone responded to authority. The feeling of dread sank into his bones now. Ked would keep his job.
"One more thing, Ked." The old man was grinning. It was horrible to see what made a man like this happy, or the way it twisted his ancient face.
"You will be on the next ship back to Brindus Four, as soon as you've been reassembled as the prototype for our Clonal Forces."
The feeling of dread would never leave him again.
found drone-pengraved on optilisk chitin-hide covering the stock of a concussive blunderbuss, believed to be owned by the Bettlegurz clade, and unearthed, of all places, near their ancient estates, on North North Grand Islet, FZBIIIb
