Volume 6: Gamma-11, Chapter 6.27

We traveled on the lift into the core of

The Judicator

, and when we exited the futuristic cylindrical tube, Eve ducked us around a corner to avoid another line of power armor soldiers.

There was a lot more activity up here in the core, soldiers mobilizing for the battle outside. I didn’t think everyone running around was a pilot, so I had to wonder if there was something like a boarding party on one of the sides—or preparing for one at least.

I knew Eve would be able to kill any of these random soldiers we were avoiding, but forgetting the limited timeframe we were working under, I was curious how much energy Eve had to spare for what she was planning, like if she’d get worn out if we did start attacking everyone we passed.

Worst case scenario I might have to step in and fight with her, but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of attacking regular people, especially since I doubted we could get through without using lethal force; the idea of taking a life was still incredibly unpleasant to me, and it was a hard line I’d established to retain my humanity.

For both our sakes, I would do everything in my power to prevent stepping over that line if I could help it.

Instead, we continued sneaking around, and I had to admit I found it rather funny the all-powerful Outsider god was employing stealth tactics considering how often she boasted about her strength.

I heard a grumbling growl coming from Eve in front of me, “You want to maybe put a hold on your hilarious commentary for now, darling?”

I actually laughed at that, “Sorry sweet-thing; you know how hard it is to put a lid on my mouth, so naturally it’s a hundred times harder to stifle my inner-monolog.”

Eve continued her cute grumbling, “Yes, but you’re making me want to change tactics and act foolishly to prove the point.”

I quirked up an eyebrow, “You’d risk losing the window to our freedom all to satisfy your pride?” I asked.

Eve let out quick, sharp sigh, “No, but the temptation’s there, so please be mindful at least.” She confirmed.

I rolled my eyes but let it drop—hilarious my girlfriend was telling me to be mindful of my

thoughts

, but I guess that was just something you had to deal with when dating an extradimensional psychic void-being.

Eve smiled at me, “And don’t you forget it.”

Thanks to Eve’s extra-sense, sneaking around was actually rather easy. We made sure to avoid the busier hallways, and when Eve sensed someone was coming our way she would push us into a nearby empty room—though it wasn’t always empty.

We ducked into a maintenance room once and saw a technician working on a custodial-bot, and Eve was just about ready to cut him down, but I held her arm back quickly.

~Look, he’s not even paying attention to us~

I insisted through vibrations.

The man was totally focused on his work—even had a headset on that was part headphones, part visor screen over his eyes so he could watch something while working.

Eve pulled her hand away from my grasp quickly, but she complied and left the man alone.

Another few empty rooms later, we ended up in another that was occupied, but unfortunately this time we couldn’t avoid a confrontation.

It was two agents sitting in a room, working on some computer console, and obviously they recognized Eve right away.

One went for his gun, the other his communicator, but they were both dead before either could even stand.

Eve retracted her tentacles slowly, then shivered once when they disappeared into her flesh, then braced herself against the table, closing her eyes for a few moments.

“Eve, seriously, are you going to be okay?” I asked, wondering if even just shapeshifting was a lot for her now.

Eve held a hand up to stop my concerns, “Darling, I’ll be fine, I just need to hold on for a little while longer.”

I ground my teeth together, beyond frustrated Eve was suffering, but having no idea what was actually going on.

“Will you please just talk to me, tell me what’s happening and if there’s anything I can do—” I started.

Eve held up a hand to stop me, “Adam, seriously, it’s fine, we just need to keep pushing.” She insisted.

I shook my head, “I don’t want you to push yourself past the breaking point.”

Eve stood up straight, then flashed me a bright smile, but it honestly looked pretty fake—forced even, “I’ll explain

everything

soon, for now just understand I need to focus to keep my mind and body together.”

“So is it the void conduit thing—what you were talking about back—”

Eve waved me off quickly, “Yes yes, now

please

let’s just hurry on and finish this.”

Eve started moving us faster through

The Judicator

now, almost like she was getting desperate to get it all over with. It seemed like she was getting reckless with the empty rooms we ducked into now, no longer checking to see if they were empty or not. We passed by a few people who didn’t care about us, but ended up in some break room with a half dozen soldiers talking about being glad they weren’t on duty with the mess going on outside.

Same as always, none had been able to react before Eve killed them all with a flurry of manifested tentacles. It was wild how weak these people were before her, and I turned away from the slaughter this time, unable to face it. A shiver of fear ran down my spine when the last one’s scream was cut off before it could properly form, sounding like a wounded animal more than a person.

A felt something touch my face and looked up to see Eve pull me to look at her with a single black tentacle.

“Adam, be strong for me, we’re almost done.” She assured me.

I nodded along, “Sure, let’s go.” I said, following along behind her without another word.

We might be done soon, might even get free, but would we ever have peace? As Crisson said back on Congoren, the Empire would never stop hunting for us, and it wasn’t like only villains would be coming after us; soldiers, marines, people who only wanted to fight for the sake of innocent Imperial citizens, was it okay to put our freedom above all their lives? Already Eve had killed a dozen people on

The Judicator

—a couple dozen innocent gojens got caught up in the mess too. How many more deaths would follow behind us all for the sake of freedom—how many lives to maintain it?

I kept my mind busy then, trying to keep Eve out; I didn’t know what all she was dealing with, but I didn’t want to distract her with my doubts now.

I just had to hope once this nightmare was over, Eve would explain everything to me, and those explanations would somehow justify all these deaths.

I wanted to live freely with my Evie, but I still needed to be able to live with myself.

We twisted through several more hallways, and for a while everything was totally clear, and finally Eve got us to one of the central navigation stations.

Eve moved me to stand behind her, “There’s a few people inside, I’ll need to kill them, but also…” She shook her head slowly, “I’m going to have to hurt one to get their system access codes for the station.”

Torture—again, but I guess at least this time it was more justified than what happened with Almana.

I nodded once, “Do what you have to do.”

Eve gave me a small, apologetic smile, and I wondered if she really was sorry she had to hurt someone to get the information—or just sorry I had to witness it.

Eve opened the door swiftly and rushed inside the navigation room. As I followed along after her, two of the technicians were already dead before I even closed the door behind me.

The navigation room was a plain round room with chrome walls and black flooring, with computer consoles taking over half the wall space, with a large round table with a dome holo-map displaying

The Judicator

and the interceptor ships around it.

There were six navigation techs left, and they all screamed and leapt from their chairs. One pulled a gun and fired blindly, missing his mark by a mile. Eve slashed his head clean off before he could ready a second shot. She rushed forward in a blur and stabbed two more with her hands held in tight points with her claws extended—right through the heart for both of them. One ran for the door as though he was going to slip right by me, but Eve shot a tentacle out that went right through the back of his head. Eve started slowing down then, grabbing the second-to-last technician with her tentacles and ripping him in half as though he was made of wet paper, leaving just one small, purple-cat alien female cowering in the corner.

Eve walked over to the girl and knelt down before her.

“I need your system access codes.” She said in a weirdly calming voice.

The purple alien woman was holding her head and rocking back and forth in the corner, crying and hiccupping pitifully.

She shook her head rapidly, “I d-don’t—I c-c-can’t—” She started.

But Eve had no time to wait around for the woman to reorganize her thoughts; two tentacles slithered forward and wrapped up around the woman’s neck and then stopped on her temples, then seemed to slowly spread into her skin—filling the tiny veins and capillaries and turning them black.

The woman opened her mouth to scream, but her eyes blanked out and no sound came out as her scream was hauntingly silent.

I could see Eve wiggling around the little feelers on her tentacles, digging under the woman’s skin. After a few moments of silent torture, Eve pulled her tentacles back out from the woman’s head, but before she could fully collapse, Eve snapped the woman’s neck in one swift motion with her tentacles.

“Did you…

pluck

the information out from the woman’s brain directly or something?” I asked, a little nauseous after the display.

Eve looked like she was fighting a smile, “No darling, mental information doesn’t really work like that. I just had to hurt her until the codes were clear in her mind for me to easily read.” She said, moving over to the central computer console.

I quirked up an eyebrow, “You couldn’t read her mind without torturing her?” I asked.

Eve shook her head slowly as she input the codes so she could access the station’s navigation system, “You forget the Empire is doing everything they can to contain us; pretty much everyone on

The Judicator

with security clearance has undergone some level of mental training to prevent their minds from being passively read.” She turned back to me, “We never revealed I couldn’t read minds when they locked me within the inhibitor field, remember?”

I nodded along, “Right right.”

Eve turned her attention back to the computer console, and I saw her flying through screens faster than a 90s action-movie hacker. The hologram on the center table shifted as well, showing more detailed schematics of

The Judicator

, then several highlighted points began blinking around until just three were left down in the corner in the central sphere of the station.

Eve chuckled to herself, “Ha, no surprise the cowards went to one of the bunker command centers right away.”

“What, they’re locked down in a panic room or something?” I asked.

Eve waved vaguely towards the hologram, “Basically, rather than remain in a centralized command center which would work best for coordinating their forces, they choose one of the secure locations instead.”

I nodded at the hologram, “Will it be a problem?” I asked, wondering if her limited power or our limited time would be an issue with breaking into the bunker.

Eve flashed me a wicked smile, “Of course not darling, in fact it might be better we catch them off-guard like this when they feel most secure.”

Despite the insane, wildly tense and dangerous situation we were in—despite being surrounded by the vivisected dead bodies of simple technicians all around us, I couldn’t help but smile at Eve and her insane optimism.

I trusted Eve could see this through and get us free, but that didn’t mean I’d felt any hope yet. And yet in that moment, working through

The Judicator

with a clear path forward now, I finally dared to dream we could be free from our Imperial bonds after all.

The start of our forever was right around the corner, with just a few more deaths between us and freedom.