Volume 6: Gamma-11, Chapter 6.25

Eve was clearly on a mission now, and I was just following after her trying to keep up.

We were running back towards our camp, and all around the settlement I could see the gojens were packing up to flee—so much for not interfering with their world. Any gojens we passed screamed and tried to hide, as though they thought we were a threat to them.

Well, to their credit, Eve killed more than a few of them.

None of the gojens tried to interfere or intercept us now, and we gave them plenty of space as we hurried on back towards our camp.

“Eve, seriously, will you

please

just give me a little more information on what we’re doing?” I insisted.

Eve just laughed, “Not now darling, things are already in motion and it’s all quite time sensitive; we’ve got a small window ahead of us, so we’ll need to take it quickly.” She confirmed.

I sighed, more than a little frustrated over everything that was going on, “Okay, whatever, but can you at least clarify what you said about miscalculating something before?”

Eve looked over at me, and it looked like her eyes flashed with annoyance, “Well, I assume you noticed I wasn’t in my right mind this past cycle?”

I nodded along, “You can say that again.”

Eve sighed, clearly frustrated, “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

I quirked up an eyebrow, “What, you being all weirdly primitive wasn’t part of this plan?” I asked, and I realized then Eve wasn’t annoyed or frustrated with me, she was upset with herself and this miscalculation.

Eve shook her head, “Not at all, and we’re lucky we didn’t miss our window because of it.” She smiled then, “Actually, not lucky, you freed me and got us right back on track; thank you darling.”

I hooked a thumb back towards the destroyed temple, “And you needed to consume Gamma-11’s biomass core to get your mind right again?”

Eve nodded, “Correct. Funny as it might seem, she actually played no part in our plan, and I would’ve been fine to leave her and her primitive people alone, but our needs were greater than hers.”

I didn’t know if I should be glad Eve had at one point considered leaving another Predazoan alone, or if I should be horrified she made the switch so easily and consumed her sister all to get her plan back on track.

“Okay, so really, what the hell was going on with your mind and what miscalculations caused it?” I pressed.

Eve shook her head quickly, “Later Adam, seriously, I promise I’ll answer all your questions when we have the time. For now, we need to move and get back to

The Judicator

.”

My eyes grew wide, “

The Judicator

?”

Before I could ask another dozen questions Eve was surely to ignore, we made it back to our camp, and I could see it was in the process of being broken down. Everyone I could see had already abandoned their disguises, and the soldiers were all armed with the limited weaponry we’d brought with us—a few plasma pistols and some proton blades, nothing else.

“Commander, they’re back—it’s Adam and Eve!” Winnin called out.

In a second, a half dozen plasma pistols were pointed our way, and another second they were all ripped away by Eve’s manifested tentacles, then she dropped the guns right in front of me.

“Oh shit!” Giamma shouted.

Crisson moved to stand before his soldiers, a determined look on his face for a hardened soldier who’d looked death in the face multiple times before and was looking at it once again without blinking.

“What do you want?” He asked evenly.

Eve crossed her arms and stood upright, a smug, victorious smile on her face, “Give us the ignition-key for the dropship.” She said, voice cool and smooth as always.

The dropship, so Eve really did want to leave the planet—or take me off planet since I knew she could travel through the vacuum of space by herself, but with the inhibitor field she wouldn’t be able to take me with her, and least not without a ship.

Crisson shook his head slowly, “You know we can’t do that.”

Eve’s smile grew, “Then I’ll take it off your—”

I stepped in front of her, “Eve.” I said with an edge in my voice, staring her down.

Eve met my gaze evenly, looking annoyed same as always when I got in the way of her indiscriminate killing, but she sighed and let me have my way.

“Very well.” Eve waved a hand forward, “Try your diplomacy.”

I nodded, then turned to Crisson, “You know you can’t stop us, no reason to die here.”

Crisson nodded too, “Not afraid to die boy.”

I sighed and shook my head, “Great, and you have no qualms about killing all your men—the lives you’re responsibly for?”

Kinn took a step forward from behind Crisson, “Adam, don’t do this, we can work something out—”

“The only offer here is to give us the ignition-key to the dropship or we’ll kill you and take it anyway.” Eve interrupted, then shrugged, “I’m fine either way, the choice is yours.”

I looked at Kinn, then back to Crisson, “None of you have any idea what we’ve had to deal with while the Lord Generals keep us contained for this fucking mission.” I ripped off the translator collar and pointed to the small silver disc on my neck—the failsafe bomb, “They’ve implanted fucking bombs in me and Eve, forced to follow along with their orders. Now with the comms down we finally have a chance to escape, and we’re going to take it—to live our lives free for the first time since the Empire snatched us up from Earth.” I lowered my hand, then looked at the old soldier with the most sincere expression I could muster, “Please step aside; I don’t want to kill you—I value

all

life, whether it’s a human, a gojen, an Imperial or even a Predazoan, but I won’t suffer one more day in bondage like this.” I insisted, “Please,

please

let us go.”

I could see Crisson working it out then, his convictions and duty to his orders, but also to his men and the fact they had no chance to defeat us, and even a small flash of sympathy when I showed him the bomb—though it was covered quickly.

After several silent seconds, Crisson finally let out a long, weary sigh. He turned towards Giamma, “Giamma, give them the ignition-key.”

Giamma cocked her head to the side, “Sir?”

Crisson nodded once, “That’s an order soldier, I’ll answer to high-command for this.”

Giamma nodded, then produced the ignition-key from her pocket; it looked more like a keycard, mostly silver with a small black handle on top.

She looked nervous as she made her way towards me with her hand out—

“What the fuck is going on here?” I heard Dryden roar, storming into the camp followed by the two agents. His eyes grew wide when he saw Giamma about to pass off the ignition-key to me. He held up a shaky hand towards me, “Agents, arrest them this—”

Dryden never finished what he was going to say, instead he collapsed as a pile of dead meat in the sand, ripped in half by a manifested tentacle faster than anyone could react.

The tentacle slowly reeled back until it disappeared into Eve’s back, and she glared at all the stunned soldiers and agents around us.

“Now that interruption is resolved, I believe the pilot was about to relinquish her ignition-key to my beloved Adam?” Eve inquired, her voice sounding light and surprisingly innocent.

The agents dropped their guns in the sand without even being asked, and Giamma moved forward with a shaky hand to present me with the ignition-key.

She was so nervous she dropped it in the sand, “Fuck…” She muttered under her breath, and I could see the hardened soldier was beyond terrified.

I knelt down with her, “It’s okay, I’ve got it.”

Giamma recoiled from me, but she tried to hide it. She nodded along when I grabbed the ignition-key, then made a hasty retreat behind the rest of the soldiers.

I tossed the ignition-key towards Eve, and she caught it up easily, a big smile on her face all the while.

“See, that wasn’t so difficult, was it?” She asked, again in that girly, innocent voice of hers.

Crisson shook his head slowly, “You know they won’t stop hunting for you; doesn’t matter if you escape this planet here while our comms are down, you’ve still got those failsafes in you—nowhere in the Empire you can escape they won’t eventually find you.” He said sincerely.

Of course, the man was right; even if we managed to use this window of confusion to run from the Empire, it wouldn’t free us from our bombs—wouldn’t get Eve out of her inhibitor field.

I had to wonder if this was the only desperate chance we could take to get away from the Empire, and then maybe we’d have to work on the bombs and stuff later.

I sighed and shook my head, “It’s a chance we’ll have to take.”

I wasn’t sure where we were going, so I decided to grab a plasma pistol and took Endynna’s proton blade before returning back to Eve.

“Alright, now to the ship?” I asked.

Eve nodded along, “Yes, but as I’ve said time is sensitive now, so we’ve got to move fast.”

I waved her off, “I can run through the sands no—”

Before I could finish bragging, Eve wrapped me up in a few manifested tentacles, summoned her six wings, then leapt into the sky and started flying us back towards the dropship—leaving all the Imperials without another word.

Eve was okay using her tentacles to touch me, but she was still keeping her distance, so I was dangling below her by over a dozen feet as we soared across the sands.

I was sure Eve would be able to hear me if I spoke, but I doubted I could hear her, so I decided to pull out our old trick so I could further bug her with questions.

~Alright Eve, while we have a moment, mind answering a few of my questions?~

I asked through the vibrating inner-ear bone.

Always more talented than me, Eve was able to convey her laughter through the vibrations.

~I told you I would explain everything later, once we’re clear and free—I promise that’s a better way to handle all your questions, rather than just piecemeal your answers together~

She insisted.

I had to admit she was probably right since my questions were near endless at this point and I’d hate to have to interrupt in case I got into a good spot.

Instead I decided to let it drop with a weary sigh.

~Please don’t be upset with me Adam, I promise I’ll clear everything up soon~

She added.

I shook my head,

~Not upset, just frustrated~

~I know, but I’ll take care of all those frustrations as well; soon we’ll be free and we can indulge in each other endlessly once again, no more distance, no more frustration and longing, just us—the start of our forever~

She confirmed.

After everything we suffered through, it honestly sounded too good to be true, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Eve was in a weirdly brain-damaged state that put her in an unrealistically optimistic mood.

But as Eve said back in the containment cell, I just needed to trust her.

With as fast as Eve flew, it only took a few moments until we touched down in Gokotta Valley once again. She released me from her tentacles quickly and retracted them into her body, then promptly took a few steps away from me to keep the distance between us.

The dropship was still cloaked, but a button on the ignition-key deactivated it, and we made our way over towards the open bay doors.

“By the way, you’re not upset I killed Dryden, are you? I know you were trying to keep the peace, but I couldn’t stand that insufferable man and how he disrespected you.” Eve asked at the dropship doorway.

I turned to face her, forcing the smile from forming on my face; I tried to maintain the position all life was sacred, but I wasn’t perfect, and I couldn’t help when certain deaths caused me no small amount of satisfaction.

“As magnanimous as I am, I’ll forgive you just this one time.” I said grandly.

Eve trilled a cute little giggle, “Smartass.” She said, then blew me a kiss and stepped inside the ship.

It was crazy how normal Eve was being now—like Gamma-11’s core totally revitalized her, but I didn’t know how long it would last. I wondered if Eve was trying to rush this plan and get us free before she reverted to the primitive form once more, or maybe once we were free she’d be clear from the weird devolution.

Whatever was going on, I was just glad to have the old Eve back, and finally that feeling of dreadful loneliness was slowly melting away—although I still craved her touch more than anything in my entire life.

Eve stopped in the middle of the dropship and held her hand up to halt me, “Hmmmm, watch those thoughts of yours, my darling boy.”

I rolled my eyes, “Great, the mind-reading is back.”

Eve righted herself and nodded along, “It is, for now, so please,

please

keep those thoughts of craving my touch to yourself.”

I sighed and dropped it, and once again tried to busy my mind with endless random thoughts to try and keep Eve out.

Eve nodded again, “That’s better.” She said, then continued into the cockpit.

Eve strapped herself into the pilot seat, and I sat down next to her in the copilot chair.

“I assume you know what you’re doing?” I asked her.

Eve gave me a flat look and continued the launching sequence without even looking at the console—eyes locked with mine as the dropship rumbled to life and lifted off the ground.

I held my hands up in surrender, “Alright, point proven.”

Eve giggled again, then turned her attention to the view-screen as she flew us off Congoren and entered its orbit.

Eve swept around the planet, and from the view up front I could really see how fast the little ship was—total bullshit magic technology. We righted ourselves and continued forward through space, and at first I thought we were just taking the shuttle out to escape from the Empire, but then Eve changed direction, flying us towards a massive space station out in the distance.

No surprise it was

The Judicator

, but I was more than surprised Eve was flying right towards it.

“Eve, are you sure we should be—”

“Adam.” Eve turned to face me, “Do you trust me?”

Honestly after all this nonsense I probably shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help on an instinctual level I believed Eve was in control of our destinies, and I felt a weird kind of comfort in that fact.

I let out a long, weary sigh, “You know I do.”

Eve smiled then, “And I love you and I promise we’re on our way to freedom.”

I let it all go and settled back into the seat, watching as we drew closer to

The Judicator

.

I couldn’t help but feel nervous the closer we got, wondering if inceptor fighters were about to be released and chase after us.

Actually, it looked like there were some interceptors around

The Judicator

, dozens of them—no, hundreds even.

I gripped the edge of my seat as I braced for impact, but I quickly realized none of the interceptors were heading our way—none of them noticed us at all.

As crazy as it sounded, from what I could tell, the interceptors surrounding

The Judicator

were attacking the massive Imperial command station.

I looked back and forth between Eve and the viewscreen, “Eve, what the fuck, is that—are they…” I shook my head quickly, then pointed to the screen, “Is someone

attacking

The Judicator

?”

Eve’s smile was vicious—victorious, and there was a fire in her brilliant yellow eyes I hadn’t seen in a long, long time.

Eve turned to me, fangs lengthened against her perfect, pouty black lips, “All according to plan.”