The Beast

The Beast - Part 33

"I have good and bad news." Tibi's voice pulled Gabriel into consciousness, he had to think for a second before remembering what had happened.

"Is the bad news that I'll kill you for drugging me?" Who just drugs a patient before talking first?

"So you want the good news first. You are officially bomb free."

"And the bad news?" Gabriel wasn't even expecting anything at all.

"That's where it gets complicated. How much do you know about the procedure I just performed on you?"

"Nothing, you know that, just tell me already." Gabriel was still pissed at the way Tibi went about putting him down.

"Modern medicine is divided into two parts. Conventional Medicine, that's how Ania ordered me to put the bomb inside you and Ancient Medicine, this part uses an ancient artifact to the best of our abilities, that's how I removed the bomb. The artifact is nanobots that build bodies back together, so the obvious question is; why use conventional medicine, right?"

"Get to the point." Gabriel sat up, looking for his shirt.

"Because nobody understands the bots. You pour them inside somebody, they do their thing and leave afterwards. We know that all bots think and communicate with each other. We know that they self-replicate sometimes, that's why they're on every ship nowadays. They make modifying posible. You can't torture someone with the bots, sooner or later they always figure out what's medical and what isn't, that's basically it"

"Why are you telling me this?" Gabriel knew she was building up to something big but couldn't figure out what exactly.

"Because I need you to know that I am not responsible for what happened as Taro cheaped out on everything that's not bullet hole stuffing related."

"Tell me."

Tibi whispered the next words: "The bots didn't leave."

"What do you mean they didn't leave?" He wasn't yet sure whether to be angry, sad or something else entirely.

"I cut you open, removed the bomb and poured in the bots. They put you together but they didn't leave."

"What now? Will I die?"

"I don't know, nobody does but the nanos usually don't kill."

"So there's nothing you can do?"

"Not with the equipment on board"

Gabriel got covered in a layer of numbness. He woke up not a month ago surrounded by aliens and he got used to seeing walking cats, owls, lizards and bugs.Then he learned about being in the middle of a galactic war and he got used to that. Then he was forced to end countless lives and he got used to that too. Now he learned that millions if not billions of tiny robots were hiding inside of him. He couldn't have done anything but keep going so he did and that's what he would do now.

"Thanks, for the operation Tibi." She answered something but he didn't care to listen. This wave of numbness was a danger. Asking Taro to kill Ania was a big mistake he only made because he couldn't think straight but not today. This time he knew better than to go to Chip or do something even more ridiculous. Zu was a safe option, she always was.

He came into his room to find Zuski gone and the bathroom door open. The numbness refused him emotions. He went to check the bathroom, inside was Zu. She was hunched over a game of terret opposite of her was Kanu, tied to the chair he left her in.

"Can you not play games with the prisoner?"

Zu's head did a full 180 degree turn towards him before responding: "But she's good at it."

"I'm not, Zuski just suck's", Kanu added.

Gabriel was appalled: "Don't humanize, we might have to torture her later."

"Humanize?"

He grabbed Zu gently by the neck and pulled her out of the bathroom all while trying not to drag her against furniture, closing the bathroom door with his leg as they passed it.

Gabriel, unsure about how soundproof the bathroom was, angrily whispered: "What are you doin?"

"Nobody ever plays in silence. Her full name is Kanu Kerim, born on Sallatabor and joined the Purists as a package deal with her dad. He died but I don't know why because you barged in too early."

Gabriel was perplexed: "How?"

"I am trying to help, okay? Sitting in a room all day waiting for you to return is hard, please let me try my best with her."

"Yea, all good I'll simply wait out here but promise me you'll call for help if anything goes south."

Zu thanked him and went into the bathroom again. He tried to patiently wait but got bored, then took a nap but woke up to Kanu laughing a few hours later. Doubt about Zu's loyalty crossed his mind but he shut that down quickly. She was the only one he could trust and her showing initiative was certainly better than an awkward talk about the ' head petting incident'. He did his best to fight off the boredom but discipline was never his strength, interrogating someone tied up couldn't be that dangerous anyways. A quick check inside the bathroom confirmed that thought.

He concluded, a lesson from Tibi would be riskless and close enough that he could most likely hear screams if he left both doors open, so he went back.

"Did something happen?" Tibi sounded concerned.

"Apart from me sharing my body with robots no. I'm simply bored, let me ask one thing. What made you think drugging me from out of nowhere was a good idea? I was your patient."

"That's where you're wrong. I'm a scientist not a doctor, we had a deal that I could study you in exchange for my services. You choose not to show up so I conducted a test, giving you a heads up wouldn't have made any impact on the operation if that's where you're going with this." He wasn't, Gabriel just wanted to get some questions answered and kill time while Zu played good cop.

"I hope the results were worth it. Speaking of deals, Zu doesn't feel good about the whole you being alive thingy. Can you imagine why that's the case?"

"I was a soldier under a cruel superior. You know Aina wouldn't have hesitated to execute me for disobeying her." She had a solid argument but that didn't undo the war crime.

"Put yourself in her position. You have to admit that her demands aren't unreasonable." He wasn't a cruel man, just a guy in a dilemma.

"What specifically are her demands?" Tibi's objectivity in the face of harm had a flare to it, which he couldn't quite pinpoint.

"I am supposed to make you regret it."

"What if I already regret it?"

"I would've killed you the second the bomb was out if I thought you didn't regret it. Zu wants blood for the way she suffered."

"Does that statement reflect your opinion too?"

"I am conflicted."

"Gabriel, You spent 23 days under Ania's command. I served her for 41 months. Judging prisoners is nothing compared to the things she made me do. I hate every day that woman wakes up in the morning. You know, I tried saying no once. Why only once you might ask because Ania abandoned me at a docking station for 100 days as an example of how life would be if I was left alone with my debt right then and there. You can Imagine what I had to do to survive. I had a simple choice when evaluating prey for you: either they all die or one has a chance of survival. Zuski would be floating through dead space if I didn't choose her."

He didn't know what he had expected but this certainly wasn't it. "Wow...I didn't know."

"We were all just tools for Aina, but not anymore. Go and check on Chip, I'll talk to Zu and if she still demands my blood afterwards then I'm fine with whatever you deem fit as a punishment."