Breaking Point

Chapter 15: Control Yourself

Zaid pulled at his restraints.  No good.  There wasn't any room to pull.  He was clamped just above his elbows and just above his knees in addition to his natural hand and both of his feet.  With his armor removed the clamps pinched his skin through the undergarment fabric.  He expected purple blisters around each shackle.  "Nap was fine," he said with a bit of a grunt.  "Gotta say, you really know how to treat a man."

"And you have no idea how to treat a person," said his captor.  Her accent included a moving intonation with each syllable.  "You think you can come in here, take over my city and expect me to be okay with it?  You are stupid."

Zaid chuckled.

"You think this is funny?  What is so funny?"

He laughed a bit more.  "I'm sorry, it's just so funny, the way you say 'stupid.'  It's just, like, 'STOOOpid'" his pronunciation mocking hers.

She slapped him across his face.  "Maybe I have you speak my language.  I make fun of you for the way you say things."

"Alright, that's enough, you're letting me out of this right . . ." Zaid stopped mid-sentence.  He had been trying to transform his arm to ion blaster form and it wasn't working.  His arm wasn't responding at all. ". . . what the hell?"

"You think that because you are big, you have control over things," she said.  "But you have no power here.  I am in control over everything."  As she spoke she turned her back toward him and moved her hair aside, revealing a device that seemed to be implanted in her spine just below her neck.  "I felt you when you come in through the door.  I watched you through security feed when you look in shops.  I knew when you plug in, your program try to take over.  Instead, I take over you."

The silvery hand on Zaid's arm began to move on its own.  Its fingers merged and became two elongated tentacles.  His skin crawled as they reached for his face, vocalizing disgust as they penetrated his nostrils.

"Your simple forms.  You had no control to begin with and you think you can control the city?"

Zaid gagged and choked as the tentacles reached into his sinuses.  It felt like his brain was getting scraped.  His whole body convulsed and he made guttural noises as he felt it reach to his throat.

"You said I could not hurt you.  You still want to say I cannot hurt you?"

There were a lot of half-cough, half-gags from Zaid's mouth as he recovered when his hand-tentacles receded.

"Like a program written by a child.  It work just fine when computer is dumb but when computer is operated by Jixie your program stop working."

Between breaths, a red-faced Zaid asked "Jixie?  What's that?"  Must.  Not.  Get.  Mad.

"I forget, you are from outside.  We do not have people from outside.  Ban-jixie-ren.  Means half machine person.  We called ourself Jixie for short."

Hold it in.  "Jixie?  That's your name?"

"No.  Jixie is just a job.  Your name is Z-four-one-D?  No, it's just serial number, not a name."

"Alan," Zaid replied.  "My name is Alan, but usually I go by Zaid."  He paused as he was still huffing a bit.  "It makes sense because the 4 looks like an A and the 1 looks like an I."  Another pause.  "Looks like it would be pronounced Zaid in English.  What about your name?  You just want me to call you Jixie?"

She still looked upset but she paused.  "Xuying.  My name is Xuying."  Her expression changed.  She giggled a bit.  "You have a name but you choose to be called a serial number?  Now who's stupid?"  The giggle turned into a laugh.

Good.  She's laughing.  Maybe I can talk her into letting me go.  "Xuying.  Got it.  Look, I'm sorry about the takeover thing.  I didn't know about what would happen if I plugged in.  Honestly, as you could probably tell, I don't know very much about machines at all, not even the ones attached to my body.  I didn't know any of this was possible."

Xuying thought for a moment.  She looked at Zaid and the robotic arms holding him turned his body right side up.  "Okay, Serial Number, you tell me everything you know about the code in your arm socket.  Who put the code there?"

Zaid was relieved as the blood drained from his head and back into his limbs.  "I'm not sure which part was taking over.  Part of it just happens every time I plug into a computer.  The only thing I know about it is it makes the text on the computer English and I think logs in to a profile?  I'm not sure.  But the part about controlling the factories to build antenna parts came from someone in the Command Sector."

She spat.  "Command Sector.  They would keep asking for more sound wave guns.  We started saying no because there was always the fighting with Research Sector and maybe they would start to fight us too.  Always the fighting.  I wonder if they sent us the scorpion because we did not give them the guns."

"You really think that?" Zaid asked.

"No, but sometimes I try to be funny when..."  She paused and her expression changed.

Don't lose her.  "I got sprayed by one of them once," Zaid filled in, trying to be empathetic.  "I only know what happens in the beginning.  The hallucination.  I saw. . ." You can't talk about this part.  You can't think about this part.

Xuying stared intently at Zaid's face as his eyes blinked and shifted.

You have to talk about it if you're going to connect with her.  "I saw someone who was really close to me.  She died not too long ago."  His voice started breaking up.  "It was all my fault... and... the hallucination of her kept telling me it wasn't."  He took a deep breath.  "I don't know what happens after the first hallucinations.  Someone from the Command Sector rescued me by giving me an injection.  I think it's an anti-psychotic."

Her eyebrows raised.  "There is a cure?  Do you have it?"

"Yeah, I have one.  Let me down?"

She deliberated a moment, clearly excited but conflicted.  "Make one wrong move and that hand of yours is going back in your nose, and even down your throat."

The shackles released in sequence to put Zaid back on his feet.