Book of Hours

The Tenth Hour

The sound of soles against cement echoed off the walls as armed men escorted me to the medical wing of the Citadel. The stare of cold menesicmg eye fixed on me as my instinct told me to fight and flee. I quietly attempted an escape yet, I knew it would be a effort which would leave me imprisoned or worst, homeless.

I knew something was wrong, and I believed it was a motion which couldn't be undone by me or my faith in the goodness in my people.   We stopped at the entrance and they awaited orders from there comms.  Slowly the doors opened and I was greeted by the sight of Vega and her medical staff.

Her eyes narrowed and with out saying a word the medical staff lead me to a chair fit with some type of halo of wires and lights.

"Kress," said Vega, as if I was her child, and I've just done something ghastly.

"Yes Councilwoman?" I said childishly mocking her tone.

"Are you in any kind of pain or is there something you wish to share?" She met my gaze and I knew she knew something yet, I lied to her face.  And it was joyous.

"I don't know what your talking about" I could help but sound sarcastic yet, she wasn't in the mood for unruliness.

She ordered the doctors to restrain me and I was probed by needle and fitted with the halo of wires. I could feel myself become docile as my words slurred and my mind became like mush.

She approached me again, and her face met mine, and I felt the heat of her words burn out from her lips.

"I'll ask you again," snapping her head she waited for me to speak again.

Yet I said nothing.

She looked to the medical staff and they looked bewildered. They couldn't believe my response, as if I was programmed to say something entirely different. I stayed quiet and watched as they searched for answers in the machines built for inquiry and yet, it also said nothing. No answer to why I am like this or to why I've been compromised. 

"What's happening?" Vega screeched, "How is this possible?" she could help but over exude her anxieties.

"We don't know," said the Head Doctor searching his data for some reason for my defiance.

"Sedate her," Vega barked, and soon I was once again engulfed by darkness.

I awoke moments later, and I over heard them speak on my behalf as if my opinion was filth and their words were law. 

"Its impossible," spoke the Head Psychiatric, scouring her notes, she worried the Councilwoman would punish her for the inconvenience.
Yet, Vega shook in fear, and the level of seriousness in the room made all the smartest minds tremble with anticipation.

"Bring me the boy," she demanded.

Looking back to me, still believing I am still under a drug induced coma. I listened to her worrisome pleas that I haven't been defected my some unseen force.  Begging me to return to my brainwashed self by pleading to the air and wish for a moment which would never come.

Soon, my brother walked in, and I could feel him robotically speak, and it was nauseating.

"Yes Councilwoman?," his voice was rash, like he was being fed what to say and how to say it. 

Her eye red from misfortunes, she turned his way with some hope he could fix me and my brokenness.

"Who's your leader?" she watched as he said with out hesitation.

"You are," and dropped his hand to his side like some toy soldier.

"Who is the most important person in this room?" She teased knowing his answer.

"You are,"

His words pierced my heart like thousands of shards of glass and all at once I knew I couldn't trust anyone, not even my own brother.

She turned to the medical team, and requested to have his mind examined for abnormalities as well. He did just as he was told, and I fought the urge to cry for the person I walk beside my whole life.  It was like watching the death of my family all over again, and it hurt like a motherfucker. Never have I ever felt so alone, and never did I feel such grief for a person still full of life.

"The drugs should have her under for a few more hours but we can't waste anymore time then we already have," said the Chief of Sciences, fully aware of the situation and it's importance to the human race. 

Vega remained speechless, and watched as the only salvation sat drug induced and useless to her and her cause.  She knew if I wasn't going to pilot the Guardian then it would have to be my brother and it was risky even for her. 

"What are we going to do?" Asked her Council, she remained quiet for a moment and then spoke to her representatives.

"Arm the ship, activate the android, and bring the masses to the pavillion," she said matter of fact, and with out skipping a beat she made a decision for the rest of humanity.

"Destroy the specimen, and remove it from the Citadel it has brought nothing but misfortune and I believe it to be the source of all this" looking back at me, I could see tears but was she sad that I am no longer hers to control or are they for the person lost to a different shadow of evil she can't began to understand.