“Step forward.” The impassive female Mustelid ordered.
Amiga did so, all while trying to figure out just what type of Mustelid this female Zenith officer was. She was Badger-like, but not colored or striped in a pattern than she had seen before. The Canid super soldier behind her shoved her further forward, breaking her out of her musings.
“Name of the prisoner?” The cold female asked.
Amiga did not have time to answer, the Canid answered for her. He seemed to know a lot about her.
“Amiga.”
“Escort prisoner to the end of the hall. Next?”
The Canid, who still had an iron grip on Amiga’s inner arm yanked roughly and shoved her in the indicated direction while the female Zenith officer processed the next prisoner in line. The line was long and filled with rough looking characters, many of whom, with their hard-nosed stares, scarred faces and cold dead eyes looked as though they might be better off far from civilized society.
The prison ship was cold and clinical, everything about it was barebone and hard, nothing about it was designed for comfort or aesthetics. The floor grates she walked on were cold and hard on her bare feet, her boots had been taken along with her clothing as soon as the small transport shuttle had docked with the massive prison ship and she now wore a simple orange jumpsuit, much like the condemned debt workers wore.
Amiga was next led to a gigantic magnetic vault door and standing on either side of this were armed Zenith robots, the likes of which she had never seen before. They appeared to be like the MV1 model that she had scrapped so many of, but tougher and bulkier. The door slid open after they passed underneath a scanner which searched for any hidden foreign objects. A green light flicked on, and the door opened.
Through this doorway she was led to the cells, which lined the massive prison barge’s walls on either side, all the way up continuing further than she could see from her vantage point. The size and scope of this ship was truly staggering. Catcalls and howling began right away when the beautiful redheaded prisoner was led down the block. All of the nearest prisoner that she could see on the lower floors were little more than caged animals, and began throwing themselves wildly against the transparent doors to their tiny cells when they saw her. One began licking the glass and performing other lewd acts that she turned from quickly.
The female Foxen was led deep into the belly of this great prison barge, through two more checkpoints and she realized that they were leading her to a special area that could accommodate Titans like her. This area was much smaller than the main cell block that she had passed through to get here, but even more imposing. It reminded her of a great gothic castle from a fairy tale…only she knew there would be no handsome prince to save her from this terrible fate.
Her captor was not allowed access past this point. He left her with no kind word of encouragement or even a harsh word of derision. When the two large CMI robots took over her transport, the Canid simply turned and left as though it was just another job to him, which maybe was for all she knew. It still felt cold and impersonal.
Some form of technology as she was led into this special cell block still hampered and sapped her strength, though she could not determine what it was exactly. The guard robots escorted her down the dim hallway and stopped before a tiny cold-looking cell. It was every bit as transparent as the common cells, giving no heed to her privacy in any way, but thick pillar-like bars crossed in front of the plasti-glass doors for added protection.
These bars moved aside on a rail and the plasti-glass door slid up mechanically. She was shoved inside without a word from her robot captors. The transparent door slid back down and locked into place, followed by the thick bars. The robot guards then left, and she found herself alone.
The cell was tiny and cramped, she could not outstretch her arms much past her elbows and it was only a few steps deep. There was a cold clinical light overhead that buzzed incessantly, a hard stainless-steel toilet in the rear, and a hard metal bench that looked to serve as a bed. No mattress, no comfort. The floor was metal grating, the walls were drab stainless steel much like the toilet and the bed. There were no windows or anything else to look at or occupy her mind within the cramped enclosure. She began to feel claustrophobic immediately, the last time she had been in such tight quarters was…the procedure.
Amiga sat down on the hard slab that passed for her bed, leaned her back against the wall and pulled her legs into her chest and hugged them tightly. She had not felt cold since the procedure, but there in that cell she began to feel the chill for the first time in years. Amiga hugged herself even tighter, trying to conserve her body heat but began shivering despite herself. As the minutes turned into mind numbing hours, it was all she could do to keep herself from crying.
An unfriendly growl came from the cell across from her, and for the first time she realized that it may house another Titan. She had no idea how long she had sat motionless in this awful place, but the entire time she had not seen movement and had simply assumed it was empty. Though the growl sounded surly and uninviting, a tiny glimmer of hope swelled within her. There was nothing else to look at nor keep her mind occupied within this cell, a Titan across from her, even a deranged psychopath such as the ones that she had passed on her way into this inner chamber would be something to occupy her mind.
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“Hello? Is someone there?” She turned herself to face the plasti-glass front of her cell.
The cell across from her was dark, much darker than hers and it was hard to see inside, especially with the clinical light overhead in her own cell, which seemed to do more to blind her past a certain point than illuminate her cell.
The growl sounded again, this time more intense, more pressing, but no actual intelligent Titan response. Amiga’s shoulders slumped as that tiny little glimmer of light, a small redeeming consolation of having someone to talk with began to dissipate. Whoever was in the cell across from her must have been deranged, perhaps from some unfathomable period of time in this isolation. Still, deranged or no, if he was not mute…
“Hello? Is something over there? Can you hear me? Can you understand me?”
“I fuckin’ understand, you frag-minded dizzy dame. Now shut the fuck up.” The bellowing gruff voice rose up roughly from where the bed should be in that cell.
“I…I’m sorry I was just hoping to…” Amiga was crushed by the response and answered meekly.
“Hope in one hand and shit in the other. See which fills up faster.” The rough voice returned before falling silent.
“You know what?” Amiga suddenly filled with indignant anger.
She had done nothing to deserve this Titan’s wrath and his response was infuriating. He should be thankful to have a level-headed, nonpsychotic Titan to speak with to pass the time in this horrid, nightmarish place. The fact that she was young and beautiful with a shapely, athletic body should add ten times the value of her company. She had felt violated and angry when the prisoners watched her come through the block lustfully, and performing lewd gestures to her, and somehow, she found being ignored perhaps even worse!
“You horrible little Titan! You should be thankful to have someone such as myself for a neighbor in this…this damnable hole! You can just go fuck yourself!”
Suddenly a chuckle came from the cell next to hers, but she could not see the Titan within from her vantage.
“What the hell do you find so funny?” Amiga asked indignantly.
“You know who that is across from you lass? That there’s the most dangerous Titan in the whole galaxy. A real stone-cold killer he is…and you just told him to fuck ‘isself.” The Titan next to her began to laugh a flemmy, sickly laugh before ending in a coughing spasm. Between coughs he continued. “The meanest, orneriest cuss this side of Geon an’ this lass tell’s ‘im to fuck ‘isself!”
A growl erupted from across from her and her eyes widened when she saw a huge mass of Titanity shift and move within the cell. The Titan was sitting up.
“Shut up you cat-brained Molly. Do you really want to test my ability to break out of this fraggin’ cage and swing you by the tail before the guards can stop me?” The rough voice sounded angry, but Amiga realized that it was directed at the sickly sounding Titan in the cell next to her.
But there was something suddenly oddly familiar about the cranky, gravelly voice. It was distinctive, not only in its antagonistic charm and crassness, but the deep rough tone as well. She searched her memories for any time she even might have crossed paths with a Titan with such a fearsome reputation as the Titan next to her intimated.
“I didn’t mean to offend you…” Amiga began, hoping beyond hope that if she was forced to endure the torture of living in this cramped cell, she might have someone to talk to at least. “I just…”
“You just…I know, and I don’t care. It don’t do no good to try to make friends around here. There ain’t no escape and that’s a fact.” The shadowy mass of Titan shifted again in the cell, moving towards the door. “Still, we ain’t never had no dame in here before. Move closer and lemme get a look at you, toots.”
Amiga slid towards the glass and realized the other Titan was doing the same. She first saw an outline of his figure, which was large and muscular. She then saw a Canid Wolfen face lean forward into her view. Immediately her attention was drawn to the cybernetic eyepatch covering one of his eyes but did not completely cover the long scar that crossed longways down his face above and below the pinprick ominous red light from the high-tech eyepatch.
Distracted by the cyber-eyepatch, it took Amiga a moment to realize that she recognized the gruff Wolfen face across from her. She had known the face before the gnarly scar and eyepatch but…
“Domingo?”
Even though the gruff voice and surly nature fit the Titan she had once known, as did the powerful muscular frame and intimidating Canid maw, she still could not be one hundred percent sure of this. His response though left her with little doubt.
“Shitfire, out of all the blasted cells and all the cat-blasted prison barges in the universe, I gotta get stuck in with the one starblasted cell directly across from a dadgum female I stood up or wronged in some way. Well, get in line, tomato, it’s a long one. The alpha dog pleases the females and leaves ‘em cryin’…”
“Domingo! It is you!” Amiga was overcome by emotion. Despite her bleak surroundings, she had finally found the alpha dog after three years of searching. “You didn’t wrong me at all, and I’m not a jilted lover you goon!”
Domingo’s one good eye widened in confusion. The tough-talking loudmouth’s maw contorted as his brain no doubt was sending signals to speak, but the brain could not come up with a response appropriate to the non-antagonistic reply.
“…Say what now?” Was what finally dumbly came out of the Wolfen’s mouth before registering the teasing insult. “Wait a minute, goon? Who are you calling a goon you dumb broad…?”
“I say you did not wrong me, Domingo. It’s me! Amiga! We were both in Harvest Blue Station together. In the Federated Territory of Tejax.”
“What…?” Domingo plunged deep into his memories, no doubt blocked out forcefully much as hers had been and finally came up with a faint recognition. “Wait, yeah…I forget names easy but I never forget a redhead. Or an ass like that.”
“Amiga! Amiga you dirty asshole!”
Domingo did something that caused the other prisoners nearby to gawk in amazement. He chuckled at the female, and her insult went unanswered.
“Right, Amiga. I remember now.”
“You saved my life. You got me out of that hellhole.”
Domingo had a fierce reputation to keep up with, and did not dwell on her compliments and doting words.
“Sure. So, I’d ask how’ve ya been kid…but I can see.”
A smile crept across the Foxen’s face despite herself. Despite the bleak prospects, atmosphere, and situation, she had finally found the Titan she had been looking for. She only wished it had been under more favorable conditions.