I was left alone all night. No one checked on me, brought me food, or as far as I could tell, cared I was still alive. The urine spread all over had dried and made everything sticky. On the plus side, the smell dissipated and I didn't have to keep using Presence to push it away from my nose.
I looked into the next room and the mousy woman had stayed on the floor, right where the administrator had dragged her, and she was still asleep. When I looked around her room, it had a small bed, a rack of jumpsuits, a small shower, and two towels. One large one that hung on a rack by the shower and one small one about the size of a hand towel.
So that's where it went. I thought. I could have sworn the administrator took it.
I shrugged and looked down the hallway to the administrator's private residence and she was still in bed. I was tempted to keep looking around for everyone else that worked there, then decided it wasn't important and turned my attention to the three avian women. They were still tucked into the corners of the cells where I had left them and a tray of food was on the floor just inside the cell doors.
I probably should have told them that no food was necessary for any of us. I thought, then I sat there and waited.
There was apparently no set schedule for things for the administrator, because she didn't get up for another two hours. When she did, she sat up and stretched her arms over her head, climbed out of bed, and went to her closet. She stripped off her bed clothes and took her time picking out the best pair of underwear.
She eventually decided on a frilly pair that hugged her hips and she slipped them on. She let out a sigh of comfort and grabbed a pair of pants and a shirt, both grey in color, and dressed. She went to the bathroom and quickly used the Presence in her hand and styled her hair in a complicated twirl and twist pattern as she moved her hand over her head. No comb or brush needed.
I have to remember that technique. I thought.
The administrator decided she was done and left her residence. She walked over to her office and paused just outside the door as she hesitated for a moment, then she pushed the intercom button.
“I need two custodians with strong stomachs for clean-up duty in my office for both the floor and the prisoner. You get an extra paid day off this week because it stinks in there.”
Even with that knowledge, she didn't have to wait long for two volunteers to show up with two buckets full of soapy water.
“Thank you.” She said and waved at the office. “I'll be eating breakfast, so let me know when you're done.”
“Yes, administrator.” The two older women said and watched her walk away, then the two of them opened her office and came inside. They walked right over to the chair and one of them took one of their buckets and dumped it on my lap. I was relieved that it was only slightly warm water and it splashed down over my legs and onto the floor. Both women knelt on their hands and knees and started to scrub the floor.
I get the feeling they've done this before. I thought as they worked efficiently.
They dipped large hand brushes into the buckets and scrubbed the floor together. It didn't take them long and they had the dried puddles scrubbed off of the floor. One of them grabbed a cloth and didn't look at me as she scrubbed my legs and then my privates as well as she could without being able to lift my legs. It didn't even register in her mind that she was polishing my knob and I was tempted to show her that she was when the other woman spoke.
“I need to get the mop to get the floor dried up.”
“I've got it.” I said and used Presence to pick up all of the suds and water from the floor and put them into the half empty bucket.
The two women looked at the floor that was now dry and then at me.
I glanced down at myself and then at the woman that had washed it. “You're lucky it's not working normally.”
Her eyes dropped to look at it and then she looked back at me. “It wouldn't matter if it was.”
“You'd be surprised.” I said.
“No, I wouldn't.” She said, completely serious. “I've been here for thirty years, young man. I've seen and cleaned up some horrible things. There's nothing you can show me that will impress me.”
“If my arms weren't restrained...” I started to say and she took out an electronic key and opened the wrist shackles.
“Go ahead and try to impress me.” She said in a bored tone of voice. “Come on, hurry up. She'll be done of her breakfast soon.”
I looked at the woman next to her.
“She's just as bored as I am with all of this stuff.” She said. “So hurry up and kill us, if you can.”
“Kill you?” I asked with a smile and picked both of them up with Presence. “How would that impress you?”
“P-put us down!” The second woman exclaimed.
“Not until I'm done.” I said and made a fist with my hand as a visual clue, then created Presence Hands to grab their clothes in several places. “You want me to impress you with just my hands? You got it.” I opened my hand and tore their clothes off.
Both women screamed for a moment, then I used those Presence Hands to grab their breasts and massaged them.
“N-n-no... s-stop... stop...” She said in a weak plea as her mind wanted me to do even more. She wanted me to ravish her, just so it broke up the sheer boredom of her existence. Her fifty plus years of age had been as if she was a drone and no one paid her any attention.
The second woman was absolutely terrified that her dead husband would be rolling over in his grave if he knew that she was being treated like a common street whore. No one but him had ever touched her sexually and her eyes teared up, because it felt good and bad at the same time.
I eased her down to the floor and absorbed the Presence Hands that massaged her breasts, then I held a hand up to her as an apology. “I'm sorry. She said you were like her.”
She looked at me through her tears and wiped at her face. “You are a bad man.”
“I am.” I said and she looked surprised. “I'm quick to react, I'm judgmental, and I'm ruthless.” I said. “If things don't go my way, sometimes I'll let it slide and ignore it, or I'll change things to make my way happen. I don't like it when people abuse their positions of power and I do my best to stop it... even though I've been guilty of it myself.”
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She wasn't sure what to say to that.
“I've done a lot of bad things over my lifetime and I don't make any excuses for my behavior. I knew what I was doing was wrong and I did it anyway. That's why I was sent here, actually. The Order didn't want me anywhere near a normal population for a long time.”
“You're up to sixty-five years so far.” The administrator said as she came into the room with The Order member that didn't like me much, and he used his Presence to cut mine off from holding the woman up. She dropped to the floor with a thud and she cried out in pain, so I absorbed the Presence Hands on her.
“Geez, that wasn't necessary.” I said to him and looked at the cleaner. “Sorry about that. He cut off my Presence and made you fall.”
“Take her to the medical room and give her something for the pain and a few med-gel patches.” The administrator said to The Order member and he sighed and picked the poor woman up. She was limping and he had to brace her to take her weight, which meant he had to put his arms around her bare and flabby belly to hold her steady. He did not enjoy the experience and neither did she.
“Get her some clothes, too.” The administrator said and looked at the second cleaner. “You'll both have two extra days off this week.”
“Thank you.” The second one said. She gave me a look that said she hoped I enjoyed what was going to happen to me next, then she followed The Order member and the other cleaner out of the office. They had left their buckets and brushes behind and the administrator picked them up and moved them off to the side of the room.
“I see you managed to get your hands free.” The administrator said and looked at me.
“She unlocked them, actually.” I said and put my wrists back into them and used a bit of Presence and closed them.
She gave me a shocked expression for a second, then huffed. “You're making fun of me.”
“It's pretty easy.” I said. “I could kill everyone here in a few seconds and you're here wasting time while you try to get me to tell you things you won't be allowed to do anyway.”
“I'll be the judge of what I can and can't do.” She said and looked down at my crotch, then she sighed, because she knew she didn't want to go through that again. “You did that on purpose, didn't you?” She asked. “You showed me that I'm in danger of that happening again if I try using my techniques on you.”
I didn't respond, because she would know it if I lied. I also didn't tell her that my bladder was pretty much empty.
“Well, then. What should I do with you now?” She asked with a smile as The Order member that didn't like me came back into the room.
“I don't agree with this.” The Order member said.
“It doesn't matter what you agree with. Just do it.” She ordered and he sighed again.
“I hate you and everything you've done.” He said to me. “However, I don't like you being treated this way. There are better ways to coerce you.”
“I don't think subtlety is in her retinue of abilities.” I said.
He nodded as he took out his Light sword and activated it.
“Yeah, that's not going to work on me.” I said.
“I won't permanently maim you.” He said. “Once we get a new medical technician sent out here, they can remove the damage and help you regrow the skin and muscle tissue you're going to lose.”
“Wow, you're more of an asshole than I am.” I said.
“I'm sorry about this.” He said and took aim at my shoulder, then lunged forward... and the Light sword bounced off of my personal shield. I had set it to a foot away from my skin, so he easily saw its slight yellow glow. “What the... what is it?” He asked, surprised.
“It's a personal shield, dumb-ass.” I said with a smile. “Good luck breaking through it.”
He frowned at me and took a fighting stance, then unleashed several lethal strikes at my vital organs and at my head, and every single strike was deflected. When he stopped, he was a little tired and stood there with a look of astonishment on his face.
It matched the administrator's.
“Now what?” I asked. “Are you going to shoot me with laser pistols? Assault cannons? What?”
They both stood there and didn't know what to say for a few moments, then the administrator smiled.
“Bring me the avian woman he's bedding.” The administrator said to The Order member. “I'm sure that once he sees...”
“No.” I said. “You can try and do whatever you want to me, since I chose to come here and I'll deal with the consequences. Harming others in a futile attempt to make me talk is not only stupid, it would only make me angry and I still won't talk.”
“Do it.” She said to The Order member and he didn't move. “I said go and get her.” She looked at him and then she waved her hand in front of his face. He didn't react and she looked at me.
“He's paralyzed.” I said with a smile. “You might want to close his eyes so they don't dry out.”
She tried to push on him and he didn't move at all. “How did you do that?” She asked, because she wanted that technique very badly.
“You'd be better off asking yourself what happens when you die.” I asked.
She laughed. “You can't kill me. This place will go into immediate lock down and no one can leave whatever area they are in. All the security doors will close, all power will shut off, and no one can get anything to work.”
“Is that a safety feature that the administrator of the facility has or is it you personally?” I asked.
“Yes.” She said smugly.
“What if someone changed the password?” I asked with a smile.
“There's no possible way for anyone to get to my personal terminal.” She said and her password passed through her mind. “The system wouldn't recognize a new administrator unless I officially transfer the position to them.”
As she talked about how difficult it had been for her to get to her current position, I generated a couple of Presence Hands in her personal residence to open the secret wall panel. Her console popped out of the wall and I quickly typed in her password and it gave me access to everything in the system. The best part was the fully detailed map, resource allocation, personnel listings, and prisoners with their crimes and length of sentences. I memorized the map, since that was a very handy thing to have.
Just for fun, I entered my own name as the co-administrator, hidden of course, then used Presence to recreate the words she had spoken about transferring the position. I saved my work, then closed everything up and absorbed the Presence Hands, then let my concentration go back to where my body was.
“...and you'll never understand the weight of this kind of responsibility.” The administrator said.
“Yeah, yeah. You still haven't closed his eyes.” I said and nodded to The Order member.
She shrugged. “I have another. I'll send him for the woman and...”
The buzz of a Light sword cut her words off... and her hand.
“AHHHHHH!” She yelled and gripped the stump as her lifeless hand fell to the floor. The Light sword had cauterized the wound immediately and she glared at The Order member. “What are you doing, you fool?!?”
He didn't say anything and took a fighting stance.
“No! I order you to stop!” The administrator nearly yelled, then she jumped for her desk and hit the intercom button. “GUARDS!” She yelled and rolled over the desk to hide. A few moments later, four guards rushed into the room and stopped in surprise at the scene in front of them.
“He cut off my hand!” She said loudly. “Arrest him!”
The guards looked at The Order member in a fighting stance and they knew they would die if they attacked. The Light sword turned off and The Order member lost the stance and stood up straight. The guards wasted no time in securing him in shackles and took his weapon and emptied his robes of anything inside the hidden pockets.
“Why do you have a restraint key and the key for the storage room on the ground floor?” A guard asked as he looked through the small pile of personal items.
“I think we can all assume we know why.” The administrator said as she stood up. “Someone has been abusing their privileges.”
The Order member didn't say anything in his defense.
“Take him to a holding cell until we can investigate this fully.” The administrator said and she bent down to pick up her hand. Tears came to her eyes and she hugged the dead flesh to her chest. “Make sure he is... fully searched.”
“Yes, ma'am.” One of the guards said and saluted, then led The Order member out of her office.
“Ma'am, you should go to the medical room and have the assistant look at that for you.” One of the other guards said.
“Yes, her skills are... limited, but... at least she can tell me what to expect... and if it can... be reattached.” She said between her sobs as her tears kept flowing.
The guard came over to her and put an arm behind her back, then they slowly walked out of the office and the other two guards went with them.
I sat there and watched them go to the medical room where they had tried to implant me with a suicide device, then I looked at the solitary confinement cells. I used Presence to secure the doors and disconnected the electronic signal receivers, then I sighed.
My relaxing vacation from my hectic life isn't turning out like I thought it would. I thought and waited for someone to come back for me.