Almost immediately, several guards came to the office and drew their weapons on me, then a minute later, the other Order member came in through the door with the rest of the guards, including the sole female guard. They all were astonished that I sat behind the desk in a fresh jumpsuit and none of them wondered where the interrogation chair went.
“What do you think you're doing?” The Order member asked me and readied his hand over his weapon.
“I've taken over.” I said. “I'm in the system as the co-administrator and she even transferred power to me.”
The Order member and the guards were surprised when I played the recording.
“To be honest, I didn't ask for this and I didn't really want it. I just wanted to do my time and make myself comfortable.”
The Order member stared at me because the Presence didn't waver.
“Of course, now that I am in charge, there's something you need to know.” I said. “You won't be allowed to continue your abuse of the prisoners. That stops now.”
“We didn't sign up to be commanded by a prisoner.” One of the guards said.
“No, you signed up to work for the administrator and did everything she ordered, no matter how morally wrong or depraved it was. You all did everything she said and none of you questioned her methods or even if she was fit to be in charge of this facility.”
“She was the boss and none of us wanted to sit in her chair.” One of the guards said and glanced at the spot it used to be. “We've all seen what she could do to someone with her powers if they didn't do what she wanted.”
I nodded. “You won't have to worry about that anymore.” I said and picked up a tiny metal ball. “Here's her chair.” I put it back on the desk. “I'm going to be busy going over everything here to see what can be fixed...”
“You were sentenced to a week of isolation.” One of the guards said. He really liked the administrator and saw her methods as justified and believed you needed a firm had to deal with hardened criminals.
“I believe she lifted that when she brought me here and tortured me for four hours, then she kept me here for two days without food or sleep.” I said and a few of them were surprised by this. “Not only that, none of you came to check on me to see if I was dead or not.”
“She said to leave you alone.” The same guard said.
“I'm having a hard time believing that not one of you thought about making up some excuse to come and see her to check if she had killed me.” I chuckled. “Here I thought the cleaning ladies were cynical.”
Only the female guard seemed embarrassed.
“I was also here for two days while the medical assistant did her best for the administrator, and a few of you knew I was here by myself and restrained, not to mention naked.” I looked at the four guards that had come at her call, one of which liked her a lot. “Yeah, you four.” I said. “You can't use the same excuse as the others about not knowing she wasn't here.”
“We still couldn't come in here without her permission.” The guard who liked her said.
“Yeah, okay. You don't care about my well being, and that's fine.” I said. “Once again, honestly I don't care about that.” I turned to look at the side door. “Noma, can you come out here?”
“Is it time already?” Noma asked excitedly as she whipped open the door and quickly ran over to the desk. I turned the chair just in time as she launched herself into the air and I used Presence to catch her.
“Ahhhhh.” Noma almost moaned as she opened her mouth and sucked it in as she gently landed in my lap and the Presence I used disappeared into her Presence center.
“She was here alone just as long as I was, and once again, none of you came to check up on her or even brought her food.” I said and all of the guards looked uncomfortable. “Ah, I see. A couple of you were supposed to and didn't, because the administrator wasn't here to order you and you were relieved.”
Two of the guards felt guilty about not doing it without orders.
“Did you just assume that someone else was going to take care of it?” I asked and their minds responded with yes.
No one said anything, though. Admitting guilt or wrongdoing was never a good career move.
“If I'd known there was this much animosity among you, I would have been doing a lot more the last few weeks than I actually did.” I laughed. “I was being so careful about keeping everything hidden and doing it all behind everyone's backs, that I didn't realize I could have done everything openly and you wouldn't have done anything to me, because it wouldn't have affected you.”
“Now hold on just a minute.” One of the guards said. “We would have reported anything we saw.”
“Yes, and then you would have done nothing to follow it up, not without orders.” I said. “But, that's okay. I'm the administrator now and you'll be reporting to me.”
“Like hell I will.” The guard said. “I don't recognize your authority in the least.”
“I wouldn't piss him off if I was you.” Noma said. “He's not a nice man when he's angry.”
I smiled and gave her cheek a kiss. “Should I give them a little demonstration and give you a treat as well?”
“Oh, please!” Noma said. “You'll let me take what you do?”
“Did you use the bathroom?”
Noma nodded several times.
“Then yes, you can absorb this.” I said and filled the room with Presence and pushed down on The Order member and the guards. They fell to the floor and didn't even bother struggling as they tried to keep air in their lungs.
Noma giggled like a school girl as she hopped off of my lap, then she started to hop around the room with her mouth open and sucked in the Presence I was using. The guards and The Order member did not miss the fact that she wasn't affected by it at all.
“No, I'm not excluding her from the technique. She's immune to Presence use.” I said. “It's an ability so rare that I've never seen or heard of it before. That's also why The Order sent her here to die.”
“That... can't be... true.” The Order member said.
“It's in her file.” I said and held up a datapad. “I swear, I couldn't make some of these ridiculous conditions of her imprisonment if I tried.” I chuckled and scrolled through the list. “The best one was that they wanted her segregated from the normal population because they didn't want her having children.”
The Order member looked up at me as the pressure reduced while Noma sucked in more Presence.
“You're not supposed to feed her too much.” He said and looked at Noma.
“Yes, I know.” I said and saw Noma's hops falter slightly. “I figured that out for myself.” I was there instantly and caught her in my arms before she fell. “Hey, I told you not to rush.”
Noma grinned up at me. “It tastes too good.” She said and closed her eyes as she curled up into a ball.
I chuckled and carried her over to the desk and sat down with her on my lap. “I'll break you out of this coma habit one of these days.” I said and absorbed the rest of the Presence in the room.
The guards and The Order member let out sighs of relief and a few guards sat up. They couldn't stand yet and stayed on the floor to recover.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Like I said, I'm not going to ask you for devotion or to swear loyalty to me. That's not what this is about.” I said. “All I need for you to do is keep doing your jobs. If you do, just like with the administrator, we'll probably never see each other. You'll still get paid, you'll still have days off and paid vacations up on the surface. Nothing much is going to change.”
“What are you going to change?” The Order member asked.
“Nothing much. Only where prisoners get showers, the inspections, the inefficient shift rotations, and how the mine operates.”
“Not much he says.” One of the guards scoffed.
“Hey, don't worry. It means less work for you and more free time during the day.”
“You're going to mess up the delicate balance the administrator has between the people and the resources available.” The Order member said.
“You could assume that.” I said. “You'd be wrong, though. I won't make any sweeping changes and expect everyone to adjust immediately. That's just unrealistic. The increasing of resources, or in essence changing where some of them are, will happen first.” I explained. “Namely, the poor quality of the food in the dispensary that the prisoners have to eat.”
“It has all the essential nutrients they need.” The Order member said. “That's why they only need one meal a day.”
I nodded. “I'm not complaining about the frequency, I'm complaining about the taste. It's been removed.”
A couple of the guards let out a chuckle.
“I'm actually surprised you didn't just mulch everything together and make a paste that we could just squeeze into out mouths without having to chew it.” I said and shook my head. “No, we'll need to change a few of the growing techniques and maybe even expand it a little and introduce some of the same things from the garden that's used for your meals.”
“If you start giving them tastier food, the prisoners will start questioning other things.” The guard that liked the old administrator said. “You'll cause the same disruption that you're trying to avoid.”
I chuckled. “It'll take months before enough of the plants and vegetables are transplanted to start making any difference in the food the prisoners eat, so don't worry about a riot breaking out over it.” I said. “The first thing I'd like to do is get a bank of showers installed and stop the time wasted by only having one person at a time shower.”
“We do that precisely to waste time.” One of the guards said. “They gather together and talk for the entire time they're walking and waiting. It actually forces them to interact.”
“You're also inviting grudges to come to the surface, especially if some of the prisoners normally avoid each other. They will still have individual booths and won't be in danger, and they won't be forced into a line at gunpoint to take a shower.”
“We have to be ready in case anything happens.” Another guard said.
I chuckled again. “You can still stay at the ready, it's just not going to be for as long or as dangerous.”
“Well... I guess... it wouldn't hurt to try it, at least.”
“That's the spirit. It's just a test. If it doesn't work, we'll go right back to doing it the old way. However, if it does work, everyone will be a little bit happier.”
“Why do you think that?” The Order member asked.
“I want the showers built beside the living area.” I said.
“Are you nuts?” One of the guards said. “That's like a mile of pipes! There's not enough pressure in the lines to push the water all the way down there!”
“That's okay. I have the plans for a gravity fed water system that also recycles into the water treatment facilities. It won't be wasted and it'll be reused just as much as the rest of the water is.” I said. “It'll be hot as well, once a good heating system is adapted for the large water container.”
“You are definitely crazy.” The guard who spoke about the pipes said. “It'll take weeks to dig out...”
“I dug a ten foot high and twenty foot wide circular room out of the dirt and rock in about an hour.” I said and they all looked at me like I was insane. “I used six digging machines at a time.”
“If... if you did that... and then... wait, can you only do circular rooms?” The guard asked.
“I can do corners. Why?”
“If you do the gravity fed hot water, instead of taking living space away, you could just dig right into the side of the main shaft and make the stalls, put the gravity fed pool or whatever above it, then there would be almost no need for pipes, except for dispersing the water and recycling it.”
“You're thinking about how to make it work and not thinking about how it can't.” I said with a smile. “Guess who just volunteered to help me to design it?”
The man sighed. “I'm not even on duty today.”
I chuckled. “I didn't say right now, did I?” I asked. “Look, this place isn't going to change very much. That's not what I'm trying for. I'm going to streamline it and make it better. Since it's not against the rules for the administrator to try different things to increase production, I'll be doing my half-assed best to make this place run smoother.”
The female guard chuckled and then glared at me. “You're still supposed to be in isolation.”
“I've been in it for five days, so I'm going to commute the remaining two days into time served because of the torture. I'm also going to do that for the avian women, since they've been nothing but model prisoners while in solitary.”
She opened her mouth to protest, then sighed. “They still have the extra time on their sentences?”
“I doubled it, actually. Ten more years each.”
She took in a sharp breath, then she closed her eyes. “It... it still won't bring him back... but, I think... yes, he would like that.”
I nodded and showed my wrist. “I'll be taking a wrist communicator with me while I work in the mines, so if you need anything let me know.”
“Wait, what?” She said with shock on her face.
“I'm still a prisoner, so I need to work in the mine to get my quota up.” I said and stood up with Noma in my arms. “Just because I assumed the administrator's duties, doesn't negate me from serving my own time.” I walked over to her room and opened the door with Presence, then put her into bed. I came back out and took the datapad and several electronic keys from the desk drawer.
“You're insane.” The guard that liked the administrator said. “Completely bonkers.”
“No, if I was, I would have crushed your skull for thinking you can wake the administrator up to fix this mess. She'll die if you open that stasis pod before the medical technician arrives. You can ask the medical assistant how close to death she is if she doesn't get that hand reattached or surgery to fix her circulatory system.” I said and walked over to the door of the office. “I suggest going back to your posts and continue your work. This place isn't going to guard itself, you know.”
The guards and The Order member were a little dumbfounded as they watched me walk out the door. I resisted the urge to jump at them and yell 'just kidding!' to scare them. Barely.
I didn't rush as I walked through the place and as far as everyone else was concerned, it was just business as normal. Except for two of them. I went to the medical room to visit the one The Order member had hurt by making me drop her. The medical assistant just stared at me with her mouth open, because I was there when the old medical technician had spontaneously became mulch.
“You!” She said and looked at me.
“Yeah.” I said and waved at her and walked over to the bed the cleaning woman was on.
“You took over.” The woman said.
“Yeah.” I said. “It's okay, though. You're still getting your two days off this week.”
She frowned at me and I looked at her knee and her elbow that had medical gel packs on them.
“I really am sorry we were interrupted.” I said and reached for her hand.
She jerked away and glared at me.
“You wanted something to break up the monotony, didn't you?” I asked and she held the glare for only another moment, then she sighed and took my hand voluntarily. “I can still use my hands to tease you if you want.”
“No.” She said. “The moment's passed. You lost your chance to have me.”
“Ooo. That hurt.” I said and eased my Presence into her and let her feel it.
“What are you doing?”
“Fixing those pesky bumps and bruises.” I said and took a minute and used Presence Heal on her.
Her mouth dropped open in shock and she couldn't believe that all of her aches and pains had disappeared.
“I'm sorry I missed my chance.” I said and touched her tiny Presence center with a little bit of Presence and she shivered. I let her hand go and walked by the medical assistant and she wouldn't look at me. I walked back across the facility to where the other cleaning woman was. She was in her room and she sat on a small couch. I knocked and she blinked her eyes and looked at her door as if she hadn't heard that sound before. I smiled and pushed the little button for the buzzer and she came over and opened the door.
“YOU!” She yelled and raised her hand to strike me.
“Please wait.” I said and dropped to a knee. “I can't undo treating you like that; but, I can apologize again and I can offer you this to make up for my mistake.” I said and held out a small electronic key.
She recognized it immediately and grabbed it instead of hitting me. “W-w-when?”
“You have two extra days off this week, so why don't you go on up to the surface and enjoy the administrator's private villa.” I said. “I changed your schedule a little as well and next week's day off is now at the start of the week.”
She caught her breath. “F-four days. I've got four days off.”
“You can go alone or you can take the other one with you. It's your choice.” I said and knew she would go alone, because she didn't particularly like the other woman.
“And the guards?” She asked and put the key away.
“They are on duty rosters all over the facility and none of them are assigned to the villa.” I said.
She gave me a look that said I was a particularly disgusting bug she would like to squash. “I won't forgive you for what you did.”
“I know.” I said and stood up. “I'm glad that I was somewhat of a gentleman and started with your breasts.”
She took in a sharp breath and looked like she was going to hit me again.
“By the way, when your days off are over, I scheduled you to clean the villa for three days.” I said to her utter shock. “It's such a huge job, so you need the time.”
She stared at me as I walked away and she couldn't believe that I would do that for her. I almost laughed at her thoughts and walked across the administration section and went to the holding cells. I had some quick repairs to do to them and three avian women to wake up and explain that they had served their time already.
*
The cleaning woman crossed her room and went over to her mini-console and brought up her schedule. Sure enough, there it was with the next four days off and then a three day block of cleaning the villa.
If he did this for only grabbing my breasts... She started to think, then she shook her head. No, I don't want to know what he would have done if he had grabbed me anywhere else. It's not worth it.
She looked at the villa's picture and it looked like something from a fancy resort. She reached up and cupped her breasts that had seen much better days and she tried to convince herself that getting to stay in the villa for a week wasn't worth being groped.
It took her a while.