Origins of an Icer

Chapter 15

Iron Maiden's brig

Akifa was beyond enraged, his hands and arms aching from how much he punched and tried to pull the door off, raking his nails and destroying the room he sat in now. The furniture had been upturned and tossed, the walls once covered in wallpaper shredded and ripped apart, some of the wall dented with fist craters while he sat in the middle of the crushed and destroyed furniture, similar to a twisted throne he owned in the middle of his solitude. The captain had the new medics practically re-wiring his brain to only obey her, hearing only her voice and commands while trying to figure out how his powers had awoken during the fiasco.

While it looked like he sat quietly in the middle of the destroyed room, simmering with rage, he really was just meditating. As the hours had slowed down, he started training his mind, attempting to somehow lengthen how far he could broadcast his thoughts, hoping that Wren would answer. Course, according to the bloody ticks on the wall, it had been at least twelve days since then. In his mind, logic and cold reason told him his Icer had died, long past oxygen and deep within the void, but somehow his heart refused to acknowledge it and kept giving him some false hope that the ancient creature was still alive. It gave him a headache, and only fueled his frustration towards the captain, and at this moment, himself really.

I need to practice at controlling this new sense of power. My senses are heightened, my telepathy is getting better, but I need to know what all I can do. Maybe it'll help... He took a slow deep breath, squaring his shoulders with his eyes closed when something rudely knocked on the metal door, disrupting every bit of calm he had when he chucked the broken chair at the door.

"WHAT NOW?!!" he yelled, wincing at how coarse his voice sounded.

"A... Anubis? It's Oracle, and Cam is here too! We came to see you... the captain told us you were going to go renegade and start a mutiny, she's claiming some weird...things," Kimi stammered, opening the door as he saw his two friends coming into his destroyed cell, both wide eyed and filled with trepidation at just how much he had lost it over the first few days. Oracle was tearing up, looking all over the room while Camulus walked over, sitting next to Akifa and leaning against what was a desk bolted to the wall.

"So... you're not crazy."

"How the hell do you know that? You're in a room with a 12-day not showered, pissed individual who's been trying to kill the time..." Akifa answered bitterly, burying his head in his arms with his knees pulled to his chest. Cam clapped a hand on his back, startling him lightly as he pressed a fist to his shoulder.

"Listen here, you are one of the best pilots we have, pure and simple. So when we heard the Aaru was going to be inspected and possibly sent to the scrap heap, we knew something was up. Oracle managed to intercept an e-mail you sent her of a recording that you had done with Wren, finding the trash rom. She went so far as to actually go through and research who all had died from the bones you found. We put together a list and tracked down witnesses who might've noticed if anyone of their family or friends was missing over their time here, and apparently, the captain pays a personal visit and threatens them enough to shut them all up. The Lamaic sisters and the old Doc got together and shut down their shops, moving out of the ship quickly when they heard you and Wren popped "MIA" on the news feeds," Cam explained, showing Akifa the news articles popping up about him and Wren trying to "start a mutiny", and "taking the ship for themselves".

"What a bunch of bull..."

"That's what we thought too." Oracle knelt across from Akifa as she offered a soft smile, showing her own GLASS as Akifa gasped, leaning forward.

"Is that..."

"The Nevermore, the boogeyman of ships and cursed vessel of all time just started making a move against the Iron Maiden, sending out a call to take in any who wanted asylum from the "gilded cage". It's where everyone so far as gone, offered full pardons and sanctity from the captain... she's been pissed, and lately, firing down any and all ships that try to leave. Cam's family managed to get out on the last vessel, but the others weren't so lucky," Kimi added, showing the vid feed of the ship firing down passenger vessels, filled with innocents and even crew that had been loyal for years on end.

"She's fucking lost it..."

"Yeah, everyone is too scared to bail though. We were hoping if we got you out, we might be able to get out, have a chance?" she asked, looking at Akifa who took a soft breath, shaking his head.

"I can't risk it. She knows I'm an avatar of my home-world, I house the powers of our deity: Set. He was the god of chaos, deserts, pretty much the bad guy of our entire pantheon. I can't even turn gold anymore... just bright red or a dark burgundy. I'm not the same I was, Oracle..." he admitted, holding out his hands in surrender as Kimi held his hands, tearing up as she sniffled.

"Wren...?"

"He was ejected through the airlock after two sentry robots tortured him, breaking his tail, and electrocuting his ass until he could barely keep it together. His last thought was "Don't trust her..." That's all I heard." Akifa felt guilty for lying about that, but he liked to think Wren tried to send him a last thought. He knew the alien had figured out the footage was fake, knowing the time stamps were messed up, and the time kept looping in seconds. He glanced at Camulus, glancing towards the door out of paranoid habit.

"How's the power? Anything weird with the ship lately?" he asked, furrowing his brow as Kimi looked confused but Camulus nodded.

"I was an engineer, and as long as I worked, the ship stayed almost pure, no flaws at all. Lately, in different sections, the power's been working odd. Bad smells are coming up through vents or pipes while the lights have been flickering on and off. People down in the hangar claim they're hearing some strange voice from deep inside the vents. Hell, Oracle showed the video to a couple of tinkering moles and they have been exploring the vents now, trying to map out more of the ship, overriding the one in the elevators and manuals on the crafts. A lot have been reporting more and more deaths, most looking hacked or torn apart by something, but none have found that engine room you found with Wren," he added, showing an updated version of the map, more detailed and written out with notes alongside the locations. Akifa chuckled breathlessly, humming as he sat back.

"All because you heard I got in trouble?"

"Well, it's because you and Wren opened everyone's eyes and ears to the situations. We started gathering together and trying to figure out about the ship, and no one is liking what they're finding. Hell, half the chefs have abandoned ship within the first couple days, sickened by the fact that a lot of their food bases they're using is someone's waste or trash. It's a lot quieter on the ship now..." Camulus chuckled, glancing up as the door slid open, a sentry bot flashing its light as Oracle and Camulus stood up, heading out the room together as Oracle's GLASS flashed once more, sending a signal to Akifa's. He furrowed his brow, taking out the mobile as he noticed she had created his own connection to her Dark-Net, an unknown untapped fountain of networks all touched and hacked into flawlessly by her, with a single picture that made him ache. He never noticed she had taken a picture of Akifa standing in front of Wren's tank at the museum, his expression as if he was seeing a treasure for the first time, dropping his guard completely as Wren had slept without knowing he had company around him.

His heart ached at the sight, more knowing after all the careful recovery, therapy treatments, and more that had regressed after the bots had tortured and beaten Wren within an inch of his life before ejecting him out into space. Akifa sighed, keeping the picture on before curling up on his side, hearing the door close as he slowly gave in to fatigue. He thought he had already started dreaming when a soft echo of a whisper seemed to brush against his conscious: I'm coming for you, Akifa. Hang in there for me, my mate, I will always love you.