Mercury - Part 17

Part 17 – Mercury
SECURITY CAMERA 22, BIO-TECH, 01/02/2025, 4:36 PM
(A six-year-old wolf recom stands on top of an ocelot recom of the same age, and has just finished yelling. Two other six-year-old recoms, a white mouse and an arctic fox, also stand in the field of vision and appear to be wearing headsets.)
JUPITER:  (shouts, in surprise) "What?"
MARS: "Who are you talking to on there? Is it Saturn?" (Steps off of the ocelot recom and approaches Jupiter, taking the headset, disconnecting it and crushing it.) "If you know what's good for you, Jupiter, you'll tell me where Mercury went to. I'm not authorized to kill you, but I will hurt you so much more than any test or experiment ever has."
J: "I'll either lie or tell the truth, Mars."
MA: (picks up and slams Jupiter against the wall with a loud crashing) "For all your smarts, you're an idiot." (drives Jupiter into the floor)
J: "Seven, notify..." (slips out of consciousness)
MA: "Venus, please don't make me hurt you. I don't want to, you know I don't, but tell me where Mercury went."
VENUS: "I'm scared. I don't want to be here anymore..."
MA: "Venus, tell me..."
V: "Mars, you don't have to stay here, you can come with us and-"
MA: (voice raising to a shout) "No, you're all idiots for believing Mercury! We belong here, not out there! Tell me where it went!"
V: (shouting in response) "You're scaring me! Stop it, stop it!"
MA: "Tell me, damn it!" (raises hand as if to strike)
(A silenced gunshot fires, and Mars stops. A six-year old snow leopard recom walks into the camera's field of vision. Mars slumps to its knees, clutching its chest. Venus backs away, sits down, and starts to cry)
MERCURY: (carrying a gun, slowly approaches the wolf recom and speaks softly) "Mars? You're going to be alright. We're going to take you with us, and you won't have to be brainwashed, and it's going to be a happy ending. You and Venus can even be in- HYYYRK!"
MA: (grabs Mercury by the throat and starts pulling the gun away) "I hate you. I have always hated you. And I knew you would be the one to screw this up."
NEPTUNE: (slowly rises, unnoticed)
MA: (almost pulls the gun away, but Mercury makes a wild motion and knocks the gun back) "Ugh. Fine, I'll just snap your windpipe."
N: (picks up the gun fires a shot clean through Mars's shoulder) "Don't hurt her. She doesn't deserve to be hurt anymore... None of us do."
MA: (drops Mercury and turns around, bewildered. Barely seems to register the wound) "You are so screwed." (takes a step towards Neptune but stops)
ME: (pulls out a knife and drives it into the back of Mars' skull. Mars stops moving and falls forwards. Mercury speaks, voice trembling) "Goodbye, we have to leave you here."
N: "Mercury, I'm so sorry... We have to..." (They both stop making sounds, their ears swivelling towards the same area. Saturn's voice can be heard faintly, approaching)
***
I passed through the door with my modified taser set to a very high setting, watching on the monitor to make sure that I came in at a good time. While Samara was doing very well keeping from doing any harm or being harmed, I knew it was only a matter of time before Erikson landed a hit. Well, until I pressed the taser into his back and sent a shock into his body, disabling him long enough to get him on the ground.
"What the hell was-?" And the human stopped speaking mid-sentence as he looked up at me, "Saturn?"
"Uh, what?" Okay, so maybe I shouldn't lend too much credibility to what Erikson was saying about Samara. While I didn't have any image or description of Saturn in the few Sol Series documents that I managed to scrounge up, I was pretty sure that the physical similarity between myself and her ended at species type. "No, I'm not Saturn, sorry buddy."
He eyed my taser for a moment and then nodded, "Okay, I believe you."
Samara raised a brow at him and said, "Seriously? That's all it takes from him to believe him, and you don't listen to a word I say?"
Erikson slowly rose to his feet, watching my taser as if evaluating it. "To be fair, Saturn didn't have a history of pathological lying."
I cut off the banter and said to the human, "Okay, well, here's the scoop: We need the files, you know where they are. I don't know what you're doing here, or what business you have even being alive, but I do know human anatomy well enough to put you in a world of pain without leaving a single mark."
There was a silence as he continued to stare at me and then shook his head, "Fine. What can an old man like me do to such an impressive duo." His mouth quirked up slightly, and Samara shook her head.
"Don't trust him. Let's just fill him with drugs until he squawks like a pig," suggested Samara, before check over some things she had strapped to her body. We had discussed the list of items we would be bringing into the facility, and I knew that some of the chemicals we have would definitely operate as 'truth serums'.
"Pigs don't squawk. You're thinking of birds," said Erikson flatly.
Samara finished assembling a syringe and stated, "By the time I'm through with you, you won't be able to even tell the difference."
I looked at Samara warily for a moment and Erikson voiced my thoughts: "There will be chemical residue in my blood for anything that would be useful for interrogation. You might not be caught, but Designer Genes will be aware of some kind of espionage having happened. I'm assuming you're not just here for Sol Series files. We'll detect whatever it is you left here and destroy it."
Sam's fingers twitched slightly, transmitting to me, "Bluffing." Samara gave Erikson a strange kind of grin that seemed to betray anger, "Well, since we're going to be caught anyways, we may as well just leave you a permanent drooling mess, unable to even button up your own clothes. For a little while, this particular chemical will work to get you to tell the truth, but as the course of interrogation continues, you will wind up losing access to a considerable amount of brain matter. You sure as hell won't be able to chew solid food, much less report who you met here today."
The human's eyes went wide for a moment before he narrowed them at Sam, as if trying to calculate something. "You wouldn't do that," he said, almost under his breath.
Samara raised her brow and finished prepping the syringe, "Wouldn't I?"
***
SECURITY CAMERA 22, BIO-TECH, 01/02/2025, 4:43 PM
(Two six-year old recoms stand in the field of vision, talking to each other, one is an ocelot recom, the other a snow leopard recom. On the floor, one six-year old wolf recom lies bleeding and not breathing, and a six-year old mouse recom is lying slumped against the wall. A six-year old arctic fox recom is crouching and sobbing.)
NEPTUNE: "Mercury, I'm so sorry... We have to..." (They both stop making sounds, their ears swivelling towards the same area. Saturn's voice can be heard faintly, approaching)
MERCURY: "Shit."
VENUS:  (looks up, says hopelessly) "Mr. Erikson is coming..."
N: (tensing up) "We can't run. We all have to escape together..."
M: (nods and leans over Jupiter for a moment, rummaging through its things) "Yeah... all of us..."
N: "What are you-"
ERIKSON: (enters the camera's field of vision, carrying a six-year old cheetah recom and a six-year old rabbit recom) "Mars? He's one of your own. You're even more wicked than I originally thought."
M: (stands up) "He was going to kill me... He was going to hurt Neptune."
E: (holds Uranus out in front of him) "First, drop your firearm, Neptune and kick it towards me."
URANUS: "No, no, no! Run! Don't worry about me!"
N: "No, nobody will be a sacrifice."
E: "The gun, Neptune."
N: "No."
E: (speaks something quietly into Uranus' ear, and Uranus starts to kick and squirm, reacting strongly to whatever is being said)
N: (frowns, drops the gun, kicks it in Mr. Erikson's general direction, but not hard enough for it to make it to him).
M: "Orders!"
SATURN: (shouts in rapid speech) "Zero eighteen one twelve three! Twenty six four sixteen! Five eight zero!" (twists around and latches onto Mr. Erikson's arms, biting and scratching wildly)
E: (shocked) "Auuugh!"
V: (looks up, confused)
N: (runs forwards a little ways and then drops into a crouch close to Erikson, leaning its head down and hands raising up)
M: (runs a little ways, hops onto Neptune, and then leaps off as Neptune rises, vaulting up onto Mr. Erikson's shoulders. Mercury pulls out a syringe and jabs it into Mr. Erikson's neck) "You're not going to remember a thing. Goodnight." (Mercury hops down and Mr. Erikson falls forward. Saturn tumbles off of his arm and Uranus is dropped on the floor)
***
Erikson stared long and hard at Samara, and shook his head, "No, you wouldn't. If you wanted to destroy me, you would have back then. I don't think you have any more to hate me for now than you did then."
Samara took a few careful steps towards the human, "But this is business. This is different. You have information and I need it from you. There's two ways of doing this. You forget everything you've ever learned and become a vegetable or..." Samara hesitated, her eyes shifting for a moment towards me, "Or you tell me and only forget today."
A pause carried in the air, and I figured it was time to add something: "Just stick him."
Sam nodded and took another step towards Erikson and he put up his hand, "No! I'll get the files for you." He walked to one of the cabinets in the room, while Samara and I followed close behind him, and opened it up. There were several archive boxes there, and he indicated one of them. "I keep the originals in here."
I gave him a look and said, "You mean to tell me that you only have the originals? No computer copies?" I looked over to Sam and tilted my head slightly, prompting her to take a couple more steps towards Erikson.
Defeated, he added, "At the bottom of the box, there's a data stick with all the scans. You can check through it."
Samara handed me the syringe and pulled out one of her PDAs. She opened the box and found the data stick, copying it all onto the PDA before turning on the camera function of the device and flipping through all of the pages of the box as quickly as possible while still maintaining readability of all the pages. Near the bottom of the box, Samara stopped and pulled out what looked like a worn, leather bound journal. She did the same scanning routine on the pages, but seemed to stop for a few moments just to examine the book itself.
She stroked the cover lightly and opened it up, seeming to read the text inside for a few moments. Erikson smiled slightly, "That's its journal, Mercury. I'm sure it would want you to have it."
Samara looked up, and for just a moment, I could see a sad look in her eyes. But this faded quickly, and she carefully replaced the journal in the box. "His journal." Samara stood up, took the syringe from my hand and jabbed it into Erikson's neck. "Goodnight."
***
Once everything was replaced, the rest of the mission went smoothly. Samara had found a sleeping area for Erikson. Intuitively, he would have to have a place to stay inside the facility, and probably near his place of work, just because of the trouble it might cause if he were seen by certain recoms. Many recoms weren't very big fans of humans, even today, because of the history between our species. She assured me that the chemical residues of the amnesia inducing drug would be gone by the time anyone thought to check, if anyone thought to check. For all intents and purposes, it was as if we hadn't even been there that day, and it would seem to everyone that Erikson just ran a fever that day. Even on the way out, I altered the security feeds so that we would not be spotted.
Admittedly, the most thrilling part about any one of these missions is walking out casually, as if nothing ever happened. Samara and I left at different times, so not to raise any suspicions, and there was no time in the job that my heart was pounding quite as hard as when I left the facility and waited for her to join up with me again at Nova's establishment. I had changed back into my street clothes by the time Samara walked in.
"Long time no see," she said, smiling slightly. Seeing her was a big relief, but I knew that I would only be fully relieved once we brought all this info back to Errol Olne.
"Quick, get changed and let's blow this joint."
"Plenty enough blowing going on here, I suspect," said Samara, raising a brow at that, "Get our stuff, and I'll meet you back on the ship, okay? I have lots of information to clean."
I chuckled softly and nodded, "Yeah, alright. I'll be seeing you later, Tammy."
"Please," she said, wrapping her arms around me, "when we're alone together, feel free to call me Samara."