Dr. Abernathy threw up her hands in frustration again as the infuriatingly smug cyborg in front of her gave yet another counter explanation as to his actions.
“I’m just saying, I had the opportunity to test the system, aren't you happy that we found my breaking limit? I mean, what if I need to jump to save myself in the future, now I know how high is too high.” Abel explained, immobile on his charging platform.
Dr. Abernathy shook her large, furred head and huffed “No, I am not happy. You destroyed valuable equipment for a stupid reason. And yes I am glad you are okay, but I can’t just slap a new pair of legs on you whenever I feel like it. They need to be precisely calibrated and attuned to your individual nervous system.”
Abel looked a little taken aback “But, that's the point of cybernetics right, that they are replaceable?”
“Replaceable yes, but you are more than simple cybernetics. Your limbs are more like mechanical reproductions of your preexisting limbs. More like mechanical bionics than true cybernetics, truly one of a kind. And so, much more difficult to replace.” She said with a sad headshake.
At the corner of the room another voice interrupted “So, you can fix him though right doctor?”
She turned and saw the slim nerivith man sitting at one of her workstations. It was Abel’s new partner, what was his name? Bittu, she mused idly. He was partially responsible for this disaster. “And you, you should have stopped him from doing something so moronic. Don’t think you are getting out of here without a lecture either.”
Bittu ducked his head and raised a submissive hand before attempting to hide behind her consoles again.
She sighed heavily and turned back to Abel. His legs had been entirely removed and his movements once more inhibited so he wouldn't injure himself further. “I have been doing some testing after this incident with new models. I think I might have found a way to strengthen your leg joints to withstand that kind of pressure.” she held up a hand before he could speak. “Note, I am not authorizing more of your moronic behavior, but I will try to prevent such catastrophic failure of your hardware if such an event were to occur again.”
Abel smiled at her widely. “Why thank you Dr. Abby, I sure do appreciate it.”
She shook her head and looked back at the pink skinned man trying to disappear into the corner of the room. Gesturing towards Officer Xeem she said “You, come over here.”
Bittu stood jerkilly, the pink nerivith’s sinuous tail twitching in consternation. Nevertheless the man did approach and stop a couple meters from where she was working on Abel.
“Yes doctor?” he asked her. His face looked like that of a chastised child in her eyes.
She made a point of saying nothing for another few seconds and smiled inwardly as the man’s long tufted tail betrayed his nerves. Finally she spoke “Abel is a very valuable and expensive asset to this station and indeed this whole city. I want you to assure me you will treat them with the utmost respect.” the man nodded and she added “That also means keeping an eye on him as he is prone to do very illogical things in the name of proving a point.”
Bittu smiled slightly and looked up at her much taller form “Yes ma’am. I have started to notice that.”
Abel spoke up next “Hey, I’m right here next to you guys you know? I can take care of myself.” the cybernetic human said a little petulantly.
She shook her great furred head. “No, you can’t. You have proven that on multiple occasions. That’s the reason we had to stick you with a partner in the first place. If you can't take care of yourself we may have to reassign your partners to someone more suited to keeping you in one piece.” she threatened. Part of her hurt to say such harsh things to the otherwise sweet man, but it needed to be said and she had never been accused of holding back the truth before.
Abel looked a bit taken aback by the comment. “I won't be... But you can’t do that. I have a job to do, I am a part of the system. You can’t just pull me out of it whenever it suits you.”
She stopped him with an upraised hand, her datapad held low to her side as she tried to reassure him “Not me Abel. The ones I work for, you know that I'm just as much a pawn here as you are.” she glanced at the nerivith man still standing a little ways away. “Like we all are.”
Bittu raised a hand and asked “Wait, I’m not a part of this.”
Abel frowned, his head immobile and unable to move. “No, she’s right Bittu. You are a part of this now whether you like it or not. It’s too late, Tegu must have known. Why you Bittu? Why out of everyone in the precinct did you get chosen?” she heard him ask the man.
It was a good point, the two of them seemed to work together well yes, but not enough so to justify special treatment. She found herself staring at Bittu in curiosity.
He looked like he had just been asked what kind of death he would prefer, his face a mix of doubt and confusion. “I.. don’t know? I was a senior officer not on special assignment and in need of a partner.”
Abel said “Well, it doesn't matter. We are partner’s, and I won't abandon my duty Abby.” he said, his casual use of her name sparking a little tingle of delight in her mind. She suppressed it.
Tinkering with the machine, she finished up on his repairs and then nodded ever so slightly, “Ok, these repairs will hold for general operations, but please, no jumping out of buildings or such nonsense. Once we get my new designs installed you will be better able to fulfill your strange heroic fantasies, but until then take it easy ok Abel?”
Abel smiled at her as she unlocked his body. He stepped down from the recharge station and flexed his legs. He nearly stumbled and she had to catch him to prevent him falling on his face.
“Whoa! These new legs are a little different than the other ones.” He leaned on her lower torso for support and her mind went a little wild with imagined ideas, which she once more quickly suppressed. By the Five what was happening to her. She was acting as if there was any chance of a relationship between them.
Shaking her head slightly to clear it she helped Abel to his feet and used her datapad to check for calibration issues. To her dismay there didn’t seem to be any, she cocked her head and frowned. Her ears twitched as she tried to understand what had caused him to stumble then.
Abel stood and pretended to dust himself off and said ‘Well, uh, I think it's working now. I seem to be doing fine now, must have just been temporary paralysis.”
She frowned again, strange. Bittu piped up “Oh that’s good. We can get back to work now.”
Abel smiled and grabbed his helmet before turning to her and saluting “I thank you again fair lady. I’ll try not to break these ones.”
She found herself smiling, his demeanor always making her feel a little better about the whole situation. At least he didn’t seem to be suffering. She gave him a wave as they exited the door, a little sad that she hadn’t thought of anything witty to say. Nevermind all that, she had a lot of work to get done if she was going to provide the man with improved legs.
**********
Abel was suffering. Internally his mind was shattered by the phantom pain and the lack of true sensation. The terrible effects of the deadly condition known as the hollow trying to break his mind. He looked at the lanky alien walking next to him and latched onto his duty to him. Bittu needed him, he couldn't succumb to the pain when there were people on this world that still needed his help. Help that only he could provide.
Bittu glanced at him and frowned “Hey are you okay Abel? Those new legs of yours sure are neat. I wonder if I could get something similar done.” the man joked.
Abel blurted out “No!” He stopped in his tracks as he uttered the word, Bittu treaded a few more steps before stopping and turning to look at him.
“Hmm? What’s the big deal, I was just messing around Abel. Are you sure you are okay?” the nerivith man said a bit anxiously, his arms raised in a questioning manner.
Abel nodded stiffly and said “I am well enough to get back to work Bittu, I am.” He added as the other man looked ready to disagree.
Bittu shrugged and continued walking, Abel falling in by the smaller man’s side. “Well Mr. Look at me I'm so tough, we are not heading back out on patrol. Now before you ask why, it’s because we have a friend waiting for us in interrogation. Usually I like to get to them quick, hit the iron while it’s hot you know?” The man said rhetorically.
Abel said “But I'm guessing you were waiting for me to get put back together. I apologize again for the inconvenience.” he said a little dejectedly.
Bittu slapped him on the shoulder and then winced as his alloy armour must have hurt the man’s hand. “I, no. It’s perfectly fine buddy. We are just letting the fucker stew a bit, by the time we get there he will be sweating bullets. Nothing good ever comes from a long pre-interrogation wait. It usually means we have a lot of shit on you.”
Abel nodded “I guess that makes sense. What do we have on them?”
Bittu dodged a blood splattered Havoc trooper and shook his fist at the power armoured figure who didn’t even seem to notice. “Fuckin prick… Lords I hate those guys. They think they are so superior. Bah, anyways, your question… Right! Well, to be completely honest not very much. We know his name and checked it against his gene profile. His list of known associates is shorter than my love life.” he said with a chuckle.
Abel cocked his head and asked “So, we don't have anything on him but assault and the attempted murder of a police officer?”
Bittu sighed and said “Well, technically we don’t even have that. You knocked him out before he ever fired off a shot, so all we have is a single case of breaking and entering and assault and battery charges. Not enough to burn him, barely even enough to hold him for interrogation.” the man grumbled.
They turned a corner and were suddenly in a different part of the station. The walls were armour plated and lined with heavy metal doors. Cameras were present along every flat stretch of wall and several armed officers patrolled the hall, looking a little bored.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
It was one of the interrogation blocks of the Hollow Pass precinct. Abel looked through several of the doors as they passed but saw nothing. The doors were airlocked to minimize chances of prisoner escape and the rooms were adjoining so the prisoners were totally isolated from the outside. That combined with one-way glazmite mirrors and it was futile to try and guess as to their occupants.
Bittu led them past another dozen rooms before stopping at one labeled as interrogation room twenty four, block sixteen. Following the nerivith man inside they entered into a small side chamber that had two doors. One said interrogation and the other was labeled observation.
Bittu motioned for him to take the observation booth and he did so, opening the door and entering the small dark room. Inside were a few chairs and table as well as an entire wall of recording equipment. Abel didn't bother with the equipment, he was as good a recorder as the machines were, maybe better as he could understand inflection and test to see if they were lying via their biometrics.
He sat at one of the folding metal chairs and it creaked ominously. Ignoring the chair’s dire warning he directed his attention to the one way glazmite mirror. Inside a small white room with his hands cuffed to the table was Thaee. The diminutive swanith man looked a little worse for wear. His chin was stained light green with dried blood and his feathers were in need of a preening session, dirty and rumpled as they were.
The man looked up sharply as Bittu walked in, the door closing with a heavy thud behind him. Thaee made a low warbling sound of discomfort as Bittu stood directly across from him. Bittu had been carrying a folder of mostly blank papers that he dropped flat onto the surface of the table with a loud slap causing the shackled avian man to jump.
Bittu then pulled out his chair and sat, taking time to adjust his uniform and hair as if he had all the time in the world. All the while Thaee was getting more and more nervous, his golden eyes flicking to the folder over and over, likely wondering what information it contained.
Now to be fair Bittu had managed to dig up some information on the man while Abel had been getting his repairs done. It wasn't much but if Bittu played the cards right he might just be able to leverage the rest out of the man without him even realizing he was giving them new information.
Bittu sat up straight and then started to stare at the nervous criminal, Thaee getting more and more jittery as the seconds passed by. Finally Bittu reached for the folder and dragged it to him.
Thaee burst out suddenly “I didn’t do anything man, you have no right to hold me here!”
Bittu raised a single eyebrow and said nothing, instead just opening the folder in such a manner that the other man couldn't see its contents. He flipped through a few of the random pages as if he was looking over some complex dossier on the man.
Thaee again said “You have nothing against me, you can’t hold me like this. I want a lawyer.”
Bittu nodded and said “Alright then, we will get you a lawyer. But as you were apprehended at an active crime scene and we have all the evidence we need to put you away it won't do you any good. All it’s going to do is drain your bank account and leave you destitute in prison.” he said with a certain amount of grim confidence.
Thaee looked around and said “Hey, you didn’t read me my rights! What kind of place are you running here?”
Bittu checked his chest and said “Oh shit, what do you know, my bodycam seems to have malfunctioned. And so has our recording equipment? Oh bummer, well, that's just a terrible thing now isn't it… Friend.” the nerivith said menacingly.
The swanith scrunched inwards, trying to make themselves look small and pitiful. It didn't work.
Instead Bittu asked “So, are you listening? Because this is how it is going to be. I tell you a name and you confirm the information I have or it's going to get bad for you. You lie to me and I might have to bring in my associate.” Bittu said, jerking his head towards the two way glazmite Abel was sitting behind.
It was at that exact moment that the chair Abel had chosen decided to give up the ghost and collapsed, dumping him straight on his armoured ass. The thud must have made it into the interrogation room as the swanith man jerked in terror and exclaimed.
“That thing is here? Is it watching?” Thaee tried to pull away but was held fast by their handcuffs.
Bittu frowned slightly but continued on saying “So I will do you this favor. You were read your rights when you were brought into the precinct, I am not required to read them to you again as I was your arresting officer. Between the two of us, I don’t give a fuck about you. I could cut you loose onto the street with a probation if you do the right thing here. And that is to tell me what I want to confirm.” Bittu said, manipulating the man's fears to pry the information they sought out of him.
Thaee nodded and said “But if I talk then I am going to have a target on my back.”
“And what if you were to be thrown in prison with the rumor that you spilled your guts to us huh? How long do you think you would last in that situation? At least I'm giving you even odds of a comfortable existence.” Bittu said with a shrug. “Enough chit-chat. Tell me about Mr. Zaplin. What was the point of the hit?”
Abel had stood and moved closer to the window to get a better view, the remains of his previous seat scattered about behind him.
Thaee paused and then spoke slowly. “I don’t know him. But that wasn't important for the job. I was hired.. to do a job and that's all. We were just supposed to shake the man and get the money. But…” he trailed off.
Bittu picked up, closing the folder and saying “But, he couldn't pay. And so you and the boys roughed him up as a warning. But it looks like your friend Craig was a little too rough. Yeah, I saw the claw marks on the man's face. Pretty brutal by the looks of it.”
The small feathered alien winced, clearly not liking the memory either. “I wasn't responsible for any of that. I was not part of the.. of the roughing.”
Bittu tsked and asked “Do you have any proof of your noninvolvement? He is pressing charges, and they are currently all directed at you. Two counts of first degree assault with a deadly weapon, breaking and entering, a battery charge. Harsh to be sure, a minimum of six years in the vault. An upstanding citizen like yourself, adding the kidnapping and harm to a minor charges on top of that? Oh man, looking more like thirty to life.”
Bittu smiled as the man spouted “It wasn't me though, that was all Craig and Hobbes! They are the sadistic ones that like to hurt people, I’m only there to manage contacts!” the man cried out, his voice filled with terror at the thought of life in maximum security lockup.
Abel smirked, Bittu had the man exactly where he wanted him. He was nearly ready to break.
His partner stood and paced in front of the mirror for a minute before putting his hand to his ear as if he were listening to someone speak. Casting a slight glance at the mirror he said “Well, It looks like you haven't convinced them. You are going to have to be more specific.”
“Specific about what?” The man asked in dread.
Bittu sat back down slowly and opened the dummy folder once again. “Well, to start, why not tell me the whole truth about why you were at the apartment? You were there to rough up Mr. Zaplin sure, but what about his daughter?”
Thaee looked around the room and shook his head “That was entirely Hobbes’ idea, I had nothing to do with that!”
Bittu nodded and said “Yes I know. It was your own opinion that the girl should have been iced. Is that correct?”
The swanith warbled in shock, their beak hanging open and their inner pharyngeal jaws opening and closing soundlessly as they tried to come up with a response. Instead Bittu spoke up, looking at the folder and flipping a few pages before he said “It seems that your exact words were, and I quote. ‘Why did we have to keep this little shit alive again?’ Am I correct in assuming that you meant to cause the infant great bodily harm or even death?”
The prisoner spluttered, the sound strangely muted as their vocal cords struggled with the sound. “I would, never have. No, I wouldn't have done it!” the man cried out. “I was just tired of doing all of his dirty work.”
“Oorin Jr’s dirty work I assume?” Bittu said, causing the small avian man to freeze. “I thought so, that confirms our interior contact’s data.” he lied.
Thaee looked utterly defeated, his head slumped and his expression feathers limp. He grumbled something under his breath that Abel couldn't hear, but Bittu seemed to hear fine as he replied “Yes you likely are. So the way I see it you have only two options. You tell us everything you know and I get you an informant's pardon. Or I dump you in the vault with a target on your back. Which sounds like your best odds? And I warn you, I will not make this offer again.” Bittu leaned back in his chair as he finished talking, his hands folded neatly on the table and the folder closed under them.
Thaee seemed to struggle with immense inner turmoil before he relented. “Alright, I will loose the nids, you gotta protect me though. Oorin is crazy, he has contacts in this department…” Bittu jerked slightly in surprise but the man didn't seem to notice or care as he kept right on talking “..and they feed him a constant stream of alerts. You two weren't supposed to be there, that's the only reason you caught us. The closest officers we knew about wouldn't have made it to the building in time to stop us. Just my dumb luck.” the man chirped in despair.
Bittu cocked his head and said “These police contacts, I assume you have no information on them?”
Thaee sat up straight and said angrily “I said I would tell you everything I knew. I may be a criminal but I'm not a liar.”
Bittu put up his hands apologetically and said “My apologies. I wasn't meaning to impinge your honesty. But I needed to ask. Please continue.”
Thaee’s short white expression feathers fluttered in consternation but he spoke steadily “Well, it started with Oorin contacting Hobbes and asking for us to do some of his dirty work. I wasnt for it, we had always stuck to a few rules before that. No murder, no hurting innocents, but Hobbes wanted more money. And he didn't exactly care how he got it. Craig wasn't for or against it at first, but as the jobs got more violent he started to develop a taste for the violence. That's not what we used to stand for, but who am I to make the decisions. I'm just little Thaee, small and weak, not worthy of giving the great Hobbes advice.” The man spat, fluttering his wings. His graspers were still cuffed and so he sighed.
“But what about Oorin, if we can connect this to him…” Bittu began but Thaee stopped him.
“You know, I have no reason to protect a brutish dancer like you.” The swanith’s casual use of the slur made Bittu bristle slightly, the man's tufted tail lashing in suppressed anger. “But I can tell that you aren’t a dirty cop on Oorin’s payroll. You seem to want to protect people, and I do respect that for what it's worth.” Abel heard the man say quietly.
Abel was tempted to enter the room but he trusted his partner’s judgment. Bittu would call for him if he was needed, as of the moment it seemed that he was doing just fine on his own however.
Thaee added “It has something to do with new shipments of something, that's what I picked up on. But I never figured out what Oorin was so bent on moving.”
Bittu stood and began to pace again, the movement seeming to clear his thoughts. “Why would Oorin go through so much trouble to protect the docks though?” he wondered aloud.
Abel thought about it. Oorin was in charge of transportation, that meant he was likely not the end of the supply chain. He must be moving illegal products and getting it from somewhere else. That was the only thing that made sense to him.
Bittu looked at the man and said “Hold on a minute. I’ll be right back.”
Thaee lifted their shackled wings and said “Where could I possibly go?”
Bittu didn't answer, instead he left the room and after a moment Abel saw him enter into the observation room. Bittu stopped and looked around “Had a disagreement with the furniture huh?”
Abel glanced at the remains of the poor chair he had crushed and answered “Yeah, I should have expected that outcome. I decided that standing isn't so hard with mechanical limbs.”
Bittu walked over to the small plasteel table and leaned on it, his face unreadable. As he opened his mouth to speak Abel’s internal comm’s buzzed and he held up a hand. “Getting a communication.” he frowned as he saw the content of the message. “I’m getting a general warning that Thaee is no longer in our jurisdiction. That can’t be right though.”
Bittu looked around and stood, his hand flying to his sidearm as his stress levels soared. “What! What do you mean?”
Abel frowned again “We have been ordered to cease all interrogations activities and relinquish control of the prisoner to… What the fuck?”
“To who? What are the orders?” Bittu asked seriously.
Abel looked at him and said shakily “We are to hand the prisoner over to Zeirworks security personnel, but, those are the same people who made me.” Abel said in distress.
Bittu looked at him with a similar expression of shock. “That’s not good, something is definitely wrong here…” the man said as Abel nodded, looking at their unfortunate prisoner through the one way glazmite mirror.
They stood there, pinned by the knowledge they had gleaned and the trepidation of going against a force so powerful. Abel knew in his slowly beating heart that they were doing the right thing, he couldn't say why. But he had a gut feeling he couldn't ignore.