If death felt like anything, Sarah was feeling it. She was in complete darkness. She had thought the space between stars, and between galaxies was dark. It was nothing compared to this. Further than not being able to see, she also couldn’t hear a sound, not even when she was screaming. She tried putting her hands together and feeling her own body, and again she came up empty. Not one of her senses was working. All that she had to comfort her were her own thoughts, and the memory of the last thing she experienced.
The last thing she recalled happening was staring down a very long, very dark hallway, almost as dark as her location now, but she did remember her colleagues and escorts, good lot of work they did. She remembered hearing a sound from down the hallway, and everyone turned to watch it, and as soon as it came into the hallway, Sarah was dead. All she could do now was reflect on her life. As her mind jumped from event to event, the details were gradually changing and becoming more vivid. The memories blended with her imagination to become something wholly new and often unintelligible, but Sarah’s analytical mind continued to dissect and understand what was going on.
She couldn’t be dead. She could still think, and she was clearly dreaming, or something like it. Her brain was still functioning. When a person becomes a corpse, neurons stop firing and brain matter decays. She next considered whether she had fallen into a coma or had a stroke, but everything she had ever read was that rational thinking doesn’t work in a coma. Of course, it wasn’t her area of expertise, so she put the coma theory in the ‘maybe’ pile. As for a stroke, again, rational thinking is affected, but the patient is still generally conscious and has access to all their senses, so that’s a no.
When Sarah considered what else could affect all of her senses, it dawned on her almost immediately. Her interface was inserted into her brainstem, and on top of the ability to read the sensory information flowing to and from her brain, the interface was also able to interrupt it. Sarah thought it was a story from over a decade ago, when the cerebral interface was still new. She had read online horror stories that were adapted into mediocre films. Frankly, she had even known that it was technically possible when she opted to get her interface. She had even heard tell of world governments and industries hacking interfaces and doing crazy shit to people against interplanetary conventional laws, but Sarah just brushed them off as the ramblings of psychopaths and schizophrenics.
She could do nothing about it now. For a while, her mind circled the fear that she may never get out of this prison. She wondered whether she would be there until brain death. If her body were lost in the alien structure, her suit would run out of internal oxygen within a day. From what she had heard, oxygen deprivation wasn’t such a terrible way to go. Generally painless, gradual loss of rational thought until nothing. Of course, if it was someone who did this to her, they could be keeping her body alive, doing whatever they wanted with it, and she would never know. Through a proper nutrient feed, she could be kept alive for years, or decades even, until an untreatable disease finally took her.
Sarah didn’t know how long it had even been since she entered this state. There was no way to accurately know. With so many scenarios, memories, and fears swimming around in her head, she felt as if she had been there for days, or weeks. Her grip on reality was lost the moment she entered this place, but after a while, she felt like she was losing her mind as well. At first, she had some level of control over her own thoughts and the images that she was seeing, but as time moved inevitably forward, she was starting to see memories that she didn’t care to live through again, but Hugo wasn’t there to distract her. There was no way to stop what she was seeing, and her own internalized fear had made the experience even worse.
She started thinking about the possibility that she could have been taken by the creatures she had discovered, somehow still alive deep within the structure, and her fears about these creatures quickly transitioned to the memory of the last time she had come face to face with an alien creature.
Sarah was looking at an insect structure carved into the trunk of a large alien tree. The structure was complex, and while it was somehow exactly as she remembered it, it was also too complex for her brain to recreate, so the structure was constantly changing. As she was trying to focus on it, she heard the sound of something in the brush rushing toward her. When she turned to look, she saw her husband running at her with an expression of pure terror on his face.
“Sarah! Get back to base camp! Run!” He shouted. His voice rang in Sarah’s head and pierced her body like daggers. She was stunned, staying in her spot until Hugo reached her and forced her to her feet. “Run!” He said again, and Sarah followed his order. She ran through the thick brush as fast as she could. As she did, she could hear, and feel, something large quickly approaching from behind. Then, there was an extremely loud and low chirp that seemed to hit her with the force of a brick, knocking her to the ground as she entered the clearing near the base camp.
She tumbled over and looked back to try to see what was chasing them. She saw Hugo just behind her, reaching out to grab her hand, but then a large, purple tendril shot out from the brush, wrapping around Hugo’s waist, and yanking him back into the grip of a massive blue creature that largely resembled a gorilla from Old Earth, but with six limbs, scaly skin, tentacled digits at the end of its arms, and a split mandible with sharp, articulated feeders like moving teeth. When Hugo was retracted into its grip, he let out one last cry.
“Sarah!” Hugo shouted just before the creature grabbed his right arm and effortlessly tore it from its socket. Hugo’s scream instantly became a gurgle, the sound of which was almost drowned out by the tearing and cracking of his flesh and bone. It was just how she remembered it, but it wasn’t at the same time. She wasn’t sure she actually watched as the creature devoured her husband piece by piece, but she was watching it now. She couldn’t turn away. Not even when the creature finished its first meal and began to approach her, though she got the feeling that it was no longer hungry and was now interested in her for something else.
It was twisting, transforming, and growing before her eyes as it changed from a memory into a nightmare that she couldn’t escape from. The horrific experience produced by her own mind inspired even further suffering in a feedback loop, leading her to believe that maybe she was dead, and was now residing in the hell that she had believed existed so many years ago. The ever-changing creature did things to her that would have easily killed her if she were in her mortal body, but she continued on, and prayed to a God that she hadn’t believed in since she was a little girl, and much like back then, she just prayed that her agony would end.
After what seemed like an eternity of the worst torture Sarah’s mind could imagine, her surroundings changed in an instant. She was now strapped into a chair with an IV attached to her arm, and a bright light shining in her face, obscuring everything that lay in the darkness beyond it. Sarah let out the loudest scream that she possibly could and fought hard against the straps. She could feel the sting in her throat, and the painful pressure of the straps holding her in place. She had thought the pain she was feeling previously was real, but somehow, this pain was even more present and specific. It took several seconds of desperate screaming and crying for her to realize that she was alive again, in her actual, physical body. Still, she struggled against her restraints.
She could tell there were other people in the room with her. Other humans. She felt a hint of relief that she was no longer in the grips of some monstrous creature, but as her mind gradually came back to reality, she was also starting to understand what had happened to her. When she stopped screaming, she took a moment to catch her breath.
“Who are you?!” Sarah shouted with a hoarse voice. She continued frantically, not giving her captors an opportunity to speak. “Why am I here? What ha-” She was cut off, suddenly unable to speak, and her body was frozen in place. It felt again like she had been forced into the void, however, she was still able to see and hear what was going on around her. One of the figures from beyond the light began to speak.
“Doctor Sarah Donner, Engineering PhD from Apollon University, Confirm your identity.” The woman said. Sarah regained control of her body and her voice, letting out a relieved sigh, but stayed silent for a moment in defiance. She was now starting to get angry.
“I won’t answer a single question until you tell me who you are and why I’m being held.” Sarah demanded. There was a brief period of deliberation inaudible to her. A different person stood up in the darkness.
“You are currently inside a holding location for the Apollon Security Commission. Dr. Donner is under suspicion of espionage in violation of the Interstellar Transport Commission peacetime regulations.”
“What?!” Sarah proclaimed, unable to keep herself from laughing in disbelief. “I’ve never spied on anyone! I barely know the names of people I’ve worked with for years!”
Her small audience accepted the response as verification of her identity, and again deliberated silently. A series of windows began appearing in Sarah’s vision; the images and profile of a woman.
“How well do you know Violet and Misty Hodges?” A woman asked.
“I know of Violet. She was one of the chairs for my dissertation committee. I think we spoke a few times, but that was years ago.”
“Approximately 8 hours ago, Violet Hodges was murdered in her own home here on Apollon.” As the woman spoke, video of Violet was shown, the gash in her neck nearly deep enough to cut her head off completely. Sarah reeled at the footage. “Furthermore, her wife, Misty Hodges, was found dead, murdered in a similar matter, then her body disposed of on Hephaestus.” Another video was shown, arguably worse than the first, of a half dissolved corpse poured out of a hazardous waste barrel. Even through the barely recognizable mess of human remains, it was clear that the throat had a deep cut drawn through it. The images made Sarah gag, only barely able to resist vomiting.
“What... Why are you doing this? I haven’t been on Apollon in years, let alone 8 hours ago! I’ve never even been to Hephaestus!”
“Footage was captured of the suspected murderer leaving the premises when the Emergency Medical Team arrived.”
Another video was presented as the woman spoke, this time, an aerial view of Violet’s estate. The camera focused on the entrance as a woman darted out and towards the forest. For a moment, the woman turns to look at the camera, and the video freezes and focuses even more directly. The woman in the footage is the spitting image of Sarah, albeit with a shorter, tighter hairstyle, and a more well-toned body. Sarah wasn’t sure what she was looking at.
“DNA was also found at the scene.” The woman continued, but Sarah was no longer listening, only trying to make sense of what she was seeing. At first, she thought about whether she was being framed or it was just some unlikely coincidence, but it all became clear to her in an instant. She hung and shook her head in disappointment.
“That’s... not me. It’s...-“
“When was the last time you had contact with Sophie Donner?”
The question rang in Sarah’s head. Her mind first went to the last time they had seen each other, when they had pizza at their favorite childhood restaurant, before they went their separate ways. That was ten years ago. They kept in contact digitally for a few years, exchanging the odd video or text message, but over time, their contact gradually dwindled, until she received an official message from the Athenon Military Academy informing of her sister’s death in a training accident.
Sarah attended her twin sister’s funeral, along with Hugo and a few of Sophie’s commanding officers who appeared to be there out of compulsion rather than any sort of respect for the dead. There was no casket as apparently, she and the other casualties were ‘vaporized in an arc-flash’, whatever the hell that meant. It was an extremely painful experience at the time, but one of the ways that Hugo made it better was seeding the idea that she was still alive, just undercover, like she always wanted to be. Sarah thought it was always just an excuse to help her cope, but now she felt like an idiot. Sarah tried to bring a hand up to wipe the tears from her eyes but was still being held by a strap. Her audience decided she was no longer a threat and decided to release the straps. Sarah pulled her arms free and buried her face in her palms. The security commission gave her a few moments so she could regain her composure. After she wiped away her tears and cleared her throat, she sat back up in her chair. The commission asked again.
“When was the last time you had contact with your sister?” The woman said. Sarah sighed and thought for a moment more.
“I’m not quite sure... it was probably 7 or 8 years ago, before she died.” Sarah shook her head. “I mean, before I thought she died... Though, I’ve received strange messages from unknown contacts since then. If you don’t already have access to my history of private data, I’ll give it to you, and you can decide for yourself if the messages were from her or not.”
“Have you been in recent contact with any other current or former residents of Athenon?”
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“No. Not to my knowledge. Even if I had, I don’t have any sort of security clearance, and thus, no top-secret information I could share. I’m a scientist, not a spy.”
“Actually...” A man spoke up, rising to his feet and approaching Sarah, though still staying just within the shadows enough that Sarah could not see his face. “Everything about your recent expedition has been classified. You are not to speak about it to anyone outside of this room.”
“What?!” Sarah’s jaw dropped. “Why?!”
“At this time, we believe that your findings on the expedition may pose a threat to public and state security.”
“’State’ security?” Sarah scoffed. “I thought we left all that border bullshit back on Earth, and how can you make that determination about my findings if I don’t even know what we found?” The commission silently considered what she was saying. The man motioned as if he was going to continue, but Sarah cut him off. “And you want me to keep that stuff a secret, but not the massive human rights violation you committed against me?”
“-Uh that was...” The man speaking dropped his professional demeanor for a moment as he stammered. “t-that was a measure taken by the independent security company that was hired by your expedition organizers. Apollon had no involvement in that.”
“If that were true, I would have been released from that hell hole as soon as I was in your custody!”
“Once we have determined that you are not involved in espionage, you will be given the opportunity to investigate which party is at fault and press charges accordingly.”
“And just how long is that going to take?”
“We can assure you that time is of the essence on this matter. It will go much more quickly if you cooperate with our investigation.” A hush fell over the commission as Sarah deliberated this time.
Since she had been brought back to consciousness, the fear of her situation was completely gone, replaced in its entirety by anger. She didn’t want to work with the Security Commission out of spite, an attitude that her sister once would have commended her for, but Sarah grasped the gravity of the situation. It didn’t make what was done to her acceptable by any means, but it made the situation understandable. As much as she wanted to stand in the way of the Apollon Security Commission, she wanted to know exactly what happened even more.
“What do you want to know?” Sarah asked, following a frustrated sigh.
“Tell us what you know about your sister.” A different woman on the commission said. A number of videos began to play in Sarah’s vision, most of them showing Sophie living and working on Apollon for much of the last several years. The woman was often seen wearing dark clothing, a lasting trademark of Sophie’s style, but the green apron she sometimes wore seemed to fit her as well. Sarah also knew Sophie to enjoy a resting bitch face when they were teens, which made it a pleasant surprise to see that in most of the videos she wore a warm smile and seemed genuinely happy.
“Alright... Mind you, all I really know about her is likely outdated by 7-10 years.” Sarah said. The commission did not ask her to clarify, only waited for her to continue. “She was a generally quiet person- we both were- when we were teenagers. She had a sort of goth mindset, very moody and dark, and with a general disdain for humanity. She liked horror movies, slashers, and generally violent stuff...” As she spoke, Sarah realized that she wasn’t painting a particularly defensive picture of her sister. “I mean, she wasn’t... Isn’t a psychopath.
“She held animosity for people that deserved it, rapists, pedophiles, those that prey on the innocent, etcetera, but I refuse to believe that she would ever do it on blind orders. If she did actually murder that woman, then the woman must have done something incredibly cruel.” Sarah didn’t have anything more to say.
“At this time, it is our understanding that Violet Hodges was having an adulterous affair with Sophie Donner, and that their relationship was a method for Sophie to facilitate espionage by order of Military Intelligence on Athenon.”
“Spying, sure. She was a pretty big fan of spy thrillers, but if you’re trying to imply she was an assassin, I didn’t think MI ever really did that kind of thing. Not on peaceful planets, at least.”
“That is our thinking exactly. Up until the event on Apophis, we had long suspected that MI was spying on several population and manufacturing hubs in the galaxy, but with the express purpose of monitoring and regulating OTech development. However, over the past few weeks, it appears that assassinations have been carried out on several of those same hubs, and in each case, the body of evidence points directly to Athenon, though they insist that they are not involved. The evidence is so strong, in fact, that we suspect that Athenon may not be lying, or at least partly telling the truth.”
“So, you’re saying that you think someone is trying to frame Military Intelligence?” Sarah asked. The commission’s silence was her answer. “It sounds like something the Apophis Faction would cook up, but I imagine you’ve already-”
“Frankly, we just don’t have the information necessary to form any hypothesis.”
“Well, you have way more information about this than I do, but you seem to know all about my sister.” Sarah said, gesturing at the digital displays in her vision, even though only she was able to see them in that arrangement. “Why don’t you just go grab her?”
“After her encounter with our emergency transport, we lost her in the woods, and we believe she has already been taken off-world, likely back to Athenon.”
“So...?”
“The exact location of Athenon is still a secret, and we have no jurisdiction for an operation like that.”
“I’m not a politician, but I assume the ITC would make an exception for that.”
“You may not be a politician, but you are a scientist, so I’m sure you understand that, unlike the OTech Transports, bureaucracy doesn’t move faster than the speed of light, and on this matter, time is of-”
“Time is of the essence, yes, you said that already.” Sarah’s increasingly catty responses betrayed her disdain for the situation. She couldn’t see it, but the Security Commission was also none-too-happy. “I don’t understand why I’m still here. You’ve had plenty of time to verify that I’m not a spy, and that I’m not in contact with Sophie.”
“Dr. Donner. As you are not a government employee, we do not have the authority to give you orders, so consider this an official request from the Apollon Security Commission. Would you consider getting in contact with Sophie Donner and convincing her to come to us? Only she knows exactly what happened to Violet Hodges. If she did not, in fact, kill Ms. Hodges, we need to know who did.” The Commission’s request left Sarah speechless for a few moments.
“You... want me... to bring in an interstellar spy that’s the primary suspect in a high-profile assassination?”
“We want you to be reunited with your long-lost twin sister.” Said one of the women on the commission. Sarah knew it was a load of manipulative bullshit, but it was working.
“What happens if I say no?”
“If you refuse, you will be released to return to your research. However, you understand that you will be monitored closely, and due to the classified nature of your expedition, you will not be able to continue in your former capacity.”
“Are you kidding? Do you have any idea of the significance of our discoveries on that expedition? Do you even-” Sarah was cut off by the commission this time.
“If you are able to make contact and put forth a reasonable effort, whether or not she comes in, we will grant you the classification necessary to continue your work on the expedition.” The speaker took their seat behind their table, and the commission waited for Sarah’s response.
“Can you give me a bit of time to consider your request?” Sarah asked. She could hear the subtle sighs and groans of the commission. “Yeah, time is of the essence, okay. But you could at least pretend to give me some fucking privacy.”
“You will have it.” As one of the women spoke, the commission rose from their seats and began approaching the exit to the chamber. “Once you have been escorted back to holding, full access to your interface and network will be returned to you, however monitored, and you will be free to leave.”
When the door shut behind them, the lights in the room came up. Sarah stood up and started to approach the same door the commission used, but she was grabbed on the shoulder by a guard that she hadn’t realized was behind her, causing her to startle.
“Please, this way ma’am.” The guard said, quickly releasing Sarah’s shoulder and waiving her towards another door to the side.
Sarah’s mind was racing. She was very angry at the turn of events, and terrified that she could again be locked away in her own mind if she didn’t comply. She felt overwhelming joy at the news and image of her sister still alive, and absolute horror at the situation she had gotten herself in. Sarah always thought it would have been the other way around, that she would have been the one that needed saving. Sarah followed her escorts, walking on autopilot as she processed everything that had just happened to her. Before she knew it, Sarah was presented a door that automatically unlocked as she approached. One of the guards opened the door for her and waived her inside.
The holding room was much nicer than what she had originally pictured. It was akin to a moderately high class hotel suite with a picturesque view from one of the higher levels in Apollon City Tower, though Sarah suspected that she was actually underground, the windows being simple projections, much like those she often saw back home on the station. The guards closed the door behind her, leaving her alone in the room. She walked over to the window to stare at the surprisingly relaxing view of the city and natural landscape below. She took a deep, relaxing breath. With all that had happened, she felt as if she was still missing something, but she wasn’t sure what. That’s when a flicker in the reflection of the window caught her attention and she saw Hugo standing in the room behind her.
“Hello, sweetheart!” He said calmly. Sarah spun around, and with tears welling in her eyes, she sprinted toward him. He opened his arms to catch her, but having no physical presence, he simply grabbed her and held her as they both fell to the floor. Sarah hit the ground with a thud, nearly dislocating one of her shoulders, but she didn’t care. “Whoa, careful there!” Hugo said. Sarah grabbed his face and pulled it in for a deep, lasting kiss. When they eventually pulled apart, Sarah gasped, having neglected to breathe. “I think we saw a bed in the next room, why don’t you go lie down so we can meet properly?”
Sarah silently nodded, still unable to speak over the lump in her throat. Once she rose to her feet, she followed Hugo through the suite. Hugo moved around Sarah in an almost dance-like fashion, the purpose was to have her digital eyes photogrammetrically scan all of the surroundings so that Hugo could recreate it for the next part. When he guided her to the bed, she fell into it and tried to get comfortable, however difficult it was for her at that moment.
“Are you ready?” Hugo asked. Sarah nodded and closed her eyes, then felt Hugo tug on her hand and pull her up out of the bed in cyberspace. She let the momentum carry her into his arms as he caught her properly this time. She pressed her ear to his chest and held him tight, and he reciprocated.
“I missed you so much...” Sarah said, her words turning to sobs as she cried into him.
“It’s only been 6 hours since I last saw you.”
“It felt like an eternity.” Sarah gripped his torso as hard as she possibly could. “So much has happened.”
“It seems as if your interface hasn’t been recording in that time, so I’m afraid I don’t have any information on what you’ve been through.” Hugo guided Sarah back to the bed. Still holding her in his arms, they sat down on the edge of the mattress.
“We were on the expedition, in that long corridor, when... everything went black.” Sarah shuddered as she leaned into Hugo’s side. “It was terrible, almost like I was sleeping, but I couldn’t wake up. I thought I was dead, and I couldn’t stop thinking... seeing... terrible things.”
“It’s okay, darling, it’s over now.”
“I’m... not sure that it is.” Sarah closed her eyes, but gripped Hugo firmly to make sure he was still there. Hugo was confused.
“What do you mean? Do you believe you’re still dreaming?”
“Not necessarily.” The thought again made Sarah shiver. “I’m afraid they might keep doing it if I don’t comply.”
“You’re talking about the Apollon Security Commission? Hijacking a person’s interface to deny a person access to their own body and senses, that’s a pretty high crime.”
“They insisted it wasn’t them, that it was the security company that was hired for the expedition.”
“That was Mithril Forge Security, based out of Ares. Would you like me to contact an attorney?”
“Yes, please do, but I am not ready to pursue that just yet. There are more pressing matters.”
“The reason why you were removed from the expedition, I imagine?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t already figured it out. It’s probably been all over the news.” Sarah said. Hugo paused for a moment.
“The assassination here on Apollon? I find it hard to believe that you had anything to do with it.”
“Well, did you see images of the suspected assassin?”
“Yes, a young woman with prosthetic arms, said to be sent by Athenon.” Hugo said. Sarah looked up at him with an incredulous look.
“She doesn’t look familiar...?”
“I’m afraid not, I’ve never had contact with her.”
“That’s my sister, the one I told you about like, yesterday.”
“That’s Sophie?”
“Yeah! How could you not recognize that?”
“Her name and identity have not yet been officially released.”
“But... she’s my identical twin.”
“You may have been identical following your conception, but there has been 28 years of changes between the two of you, changes that most facial recognition software easily picks up on.” Hugo explained. Sarah was dumbstruck, and Hugo, recognizing her confusion, brought her back on topic. “So, the ASC mistook you for your sister?”
“Well... no, actually. They want me to contact her. They want me to convince her to come back to Apollon for questioning.”
“That is... quite the request.”
“How in the hell do they expect me to do that? I didn’t even know she was alive until like 10 minutes ago, now she’s an interplanetary fugitive in the middle of a conflict that could lead to war!” As Sarah spoke, she became more agitated and louder. “I mean, she’s the one that wanted to be a fucking Bond-style super spy, all I wanted to do was see some cool alien buildings!”
“Did you get to see any cool alien buildings?”
“Yeah... I did... You were there, wha-” As Sophie spoke, she realized what had happened. “Aah, they blocked or erased your memory of the expedition.” She shook her head and rested her face in her hands. “The whole things been classified, and they won’t give me clearance until I do this for them.”
“I understand that you want this, but I do want to point out that you still have options. You are not under arrest or being detained. You can return home to Hecatoncheires, and if the expedition makes findings of alien structures as you claim, I believe it will be public knowledge soon enough, and you are still the foremost expert in the field.”
“You make a fair point, Hugo.” Sarah said, reaching up to give him a kiss. “But it’s not just the expedition. If I don’t do it, how long will it be before somebody mistakes me for her, with her face plastered all over everything? Plus, it’s my sister! She’s alive, and now I’m being given an opportunity to speak with her, maybe even in person. But... what if she did do it?” Sarah’s mind was starting to run away with scenarios. Hugo let her continue uninterrupted. “What if they’ve just turned my sister into a cold-blooded killing machine? What if... Do you think she could try to kill me?
“I’m afraid I don’t have enough information to make a determination like that.” Hugo said. “I think you should consider procuring a weapon if you think that may be the case.”
“I hate to say it... but that’s not a bad idea. Could you send a request to the ASC?”
“Sure thing. It sounds like you’ve made your decision.”
“I think I have...” Sarah drifted off into silence.
“So... how are you going to do it?” Hugo asked. Sarah didn’t respond, as she had pulled up Sophie’s contact information, and was just staring at her number. Hugo respected her silence, gently wrapping his arms around her and holding her hands. Sarah considered sending an extended video or voice message, or writing out a wall of text. She wondered how formal she should be, and even started writing out a script, which was inevitably deleted and restarted several times before she ultimately landed on the message prompt. Finally, she decided on something.
>S1: Hey.