Cassandra: A maximum security natter

Who: Cassandra and Katrina
Where: A prison cell
When: Just before the exercise break
Heavy footsteps stamped to a halt outside the cell and moments later, the force
field crackled out of existence revealing a floating, black, spherical robot
flanked on either side by Mimes, dressed identically in heavy black and white
striped body armour, their faces concealed by stark white rebreather masks.
The robot, studded with spiky protrusions, and with two massive sensor arrays
mounted above a speaker grille in crude parody of a human face, floated forward
with a hum
"Prisoner 529701" it commanded in ringing tones "You will come with us"
Cass looked over the edge of the bunk at Katrina
"Would 529701 be you or me?"
Katrina shrugged and stood up
"Guards!" the orb droned, floating backwards
One of the Mimes wielding a mimed nightstick or cudgel of some sort, moved
forward towards Katrina, raising the weapon
"Hey. Hey..." Katrina managed; holding her hands up in supplication before the
Mime silently smacked the weapon downwards, felling her with a blow to the head
"Smeg!" Cass screeched, twisting around on the top bunk to aim an ineffective
kick at the Mimes head as he bought his weapon down again with a vicious crack
that Cass suspected, but hoped didn't indicate a couple of broken ribs for
Katrina
The Mime turned silently towards Cass and wordlessly stepped over Katrina, to
grab one of her ankles and drag her kicking and screaming down from the bunk to
pin her face down on the floor, twisting one of her arms painfully up behind her
back while one of his compatriots snapped something around her neck
"Bastards!" Cass spat, twisting on the floor, trying to punch or kick at the
Mime who held her pinned
The control collar she had just had snapped around her neck, activated with a
high pitched warning beep fractions of a second before it delivered a massive
electrical charge that saw Cass writhing on the floor in agony
The pain mercifully passed after a moment, leaving Cass shaking on the floor,
moaning softly in unison with Katrina, her breath coming in ragged staccato
gasps
The black robot moved in, hovering closer
"Prisoner 529701" it repeated "You will come with us"
Cass narrowed her eyes, preparing to tell robot to smeg off, but was just
rewarded by a pre-emptive shock from the collar
She managed a scream this time, before her jaw locked, and she lost all control
of her movements again
Patiently, the robot hung in the air while the muscle spasms passed, and Cass'
breathing returned to its previous ragged gasps
"Smeg" she panted "That's ...shocking"
"Prisoner 5297..." the robot started
"Yeah, yeah" Cass gasped "I know! I know! I'm coming with you..."
She hauled herself weakly up onto her feet and staggered out of the cell,
followed by the robot, and the force field whispering up behind them
"Restraints" the droid grated, prompting one of the big mimes to step forward
and snap a pair of handcuffs around her wrists, before bodily turning Cass
around and pushing her forwards to march her down between the cells out of the
area
Not being blindfolded, Cass had the opportunity to take a bit of the complex in
during her escorted sojourn. The place was, she realised, modelled on the old
Panopticon design, with dozens of cell wings radiating out from an anonymous,
heavily armed and armoured central observation axis which stood an unassailable
fifty meters from the circumference walkways ringing the various levels of the
prison, towering some hundred or so meters upwards in the centre of a massive
man made cavern towards the planet's surface.
Escorted through numerous heavy security gates, Cass finally arrived at the
levels circumference walkway, where the robot floated out into the void and
summoned a force field walkway, which phased into existence, one panel at a
time, forming a bridge over to the central tower
<snip>
A big booming voice flooded the entire complex. "The galactic prison manual
states that at least one hour a week must be given to recreation. Please make
your way to the recreational facility of your choice. A map of the choices
should be just outside your cells."
</snip>
Cass looked hopefully up at the robot
"Not you! Proceed." the droid grated, and Cass was poked forward by one of the
Mimes onto the vertiginous, ghostly walkway, and escorted over into the control
tower
"Bah. Figures." Cass muttered to herself; no chance of her ever getting a break
like that, and besides, whoever had heard of a secret prison that actually
obeyed dictates and treaties?
From there, she was marched through more security gates and finally manhandled
into a prisoner transport lift which began its descent, taking her down into the
deep bowels of the prison
When the lift doors finally buzzed open, Cass saw that they had descended far
enough that they were no longer within the Panopticon complex itself, and were
now deep underground in a tunnel system of some sort. The air was strangely hot,
and dankly claustrophobic
"Move" the robot chimed, and Cass was pushed roughly out of the lift to be
marched, sweating, through the tunnels
The droid halted abruptly at the sound of a low hiss, and a sudden movement
behind the group
"Halt Lizard Man!" it snapped "Escape is impossible. Surrender!"
Cass craned her neck, to look behind her, catching sight of a bipedal lizard
creature standing at perhaps a meter and a half tall, which was hyperventilating
in fear, uncertain as to whether to flee or not
The black orb hummed over towards the creature, which finally panicked and
darted towards a darkened passageway off the main concourse in a vain attempt at
escape
In the end it didn't make it more than a few tens of centimetres before the
robot fired some sort of weapon at it, making it glow brightly for an instant,
before completely vanishing, leaving only a faint wisp of smoke
"Disintegrators!" Cass was impressed "Cool!"
"Prisoner. Move."
Finally, Cass was escorted into a bone white, harshly lit, prison cell where a
woman, corseted and in long flowing skirts awaited them, dressed entirely in
black. She stood as Cass entered, her escort remaining outside
"Cassandra" she smiled "I have been neglecting my duties as a host. I do hope my
guards haven't ...inconvenienced you?"
"Cassandra" Cass inclined her head at her other-dimensional doppelganger "Other
than being imprisoned against my will, and electrocuted twice, there was no
...inconvenience, as you term it"
"Ah, good. If they had inconvenienced you, I was going to offer you their
tongues!"
Cass raised an eyebrow at this
"Believe me" she retorted "If they had inconvenienced me, you... Oh, smeg it!
Enough of the banter. What the hell do you want?"
The other-dimensional Cassandra sat down on the bunk with a sigh and a rustle of
her skirts
"Ok" she said softly "Here's how it is: Believe it or not, we're the good guys;
and in spite of the unspeakable horror of the Mimes and the countless war crimes
we're guilty of, Seymour, myself and others like us are doing our damndest to
try and make sure that the light of humanity is not forever extinguished in this
galaxy"
"The Hymenoptera all but won this smegging war a year ago" she continued "with
a frankly stunning memetic attack that left most of the remaining human populace
clamouring to undergo gene manipulation and become trans-species hybrids, not
even realising that the Hymenoptera were real enemy!"
"Interesting" Cass mused "I suppose you don't take the view that hybridisation
would be an amazing opportunity to settle a galactic conflict that would
otherwise see countless billions killed?"
"Would that it were" Cassandra replied tiredly "My research points towards the
hybridisation process entirely destroying the human genome in perhaps seven to
eight generations, possibly quicker; the hybrids in two to three hundred years
won't be hybrids at all, they'll quite simply be Hymenoptera"
"Ingenious" Cass murmured "And how come the Earth scientists haven't spotted
this themselves?"
"Earth Hive hasn't had the stomach to perform as many ah... live tests as I
have" Cassandra smiled coldly
"Huh" Cass grunted noncommittally "You've not really made a great impression as
the alleged `good guys' by imprisoning us, you know..."
"True enough" the other woman conceded "But we have to be sure there are no
hybrid spies amongst you. FeBuggure made it through to your universe, so the
chances are that he has infected any number of your crew with a hybridisation
virus; it should take about five or six days before we know for sure, then we'll
release anyone that doesn't start sprouting extra legs."
Cassandra smiled
"You seem to have most of the angles covered" Cass conceded "Enlighten me
though: How is it that Earth was even vulnerable to Hymenoptera memetics in the
first place?"
"Good question" Cassandra murmured with a sigh "We technically started it when
we sequestered the populace of Muhlifain IX with the Mime virus to protect the
surrounding sector from imminent attacks from Hymenoptera Hive Ships; it was a
scorched earth policy: not pretty but bloody effective. The critters didn't know
how to handle the Mimes; normal human flesh bags they understand, but Mimes
wielding imaginary, but lethal weapons were just too far beyond their
understanding; they terrified them, so they reacted in the only way they know
how: Mobilise everything to destroy the Human threat"
"Smeg" Cass breathed, starting to appreciate the bigger picture
"Yeah" Cassandra agreed with an unhappy grimace "Things sort of got out of hand
form there. We had to rapidly sequester another dozen systems with the Mime
virus to meet the Hymenoptera threat, and then Earth central panicked about the
Mimes as much as the Hymenoptera in spite of our assurances that we were on
their side. After that, soft words were spoken in the right ears by vile
traitors, and Humanity threw their lot in with the Hymenoptera leaving us, the
last real Humans struggling to survive"
Cassandra stopped and blew out a breath
"So there's my soliloquy. Right now, we're refitting your Blue Dwarf for battle.
The next stage of the campaign will see the destruction of the Earth Hive, and
we need as much help as we can get, which is why I'm here: A mind like yours
would be a great boon"
"And why exactly am I down here?" Cass asked
"You're too bloody dangerous" Cassandra laughed "You'd have been out through
those force fields before long, and would have sabotaged the base before the day
was out, so I wanted you well away from the others on the off chance you started
giving them ideas"
"Huh. Thanks for your confidence in me..."
Cassandra stood
"I need to leave. There's time remaining yet, so think things over if you must,
and I'll return later to answer any further questions that you may have. Perhaps
then you might consider joining us?"
"Sure..." Cass muttered noncommittally
Cassandra bade her goodbye, and swept from the cell, leaving one of the large
Mimes to enter the room after she had departed.
Wordlessly he removed Cass' handcuffs, and meeting her gaze for only an instant,
clasped her hands in his, slipping something in between her fingers, before he
departed, pulling the cell door closed behind him
Once she was alone, Cass held whatever it was that she had been given up to the
light; there was nothing there, but at the same time, there was something - she
could feel it!
All she had to do was figure out what the hell it was...
<tbc/>
<ooc>Whether any of the story that evil / good(?) Cassandra came out with was
true is entirely debatable, so run with it if you like :)</ooc>