CHAPTER THREE — BABY STEPS
Viviana, along with 6-0 and his team, walked down the headquarter underground eleventh floor towards Harina’s office. Though her sonar vision has returned, Viviana couldn’t help but feel a little powerless.
What happened last night with Harina and the conversation they had made her feel how truly weak she is. Everything she has now is given by Harina—the clothes she had, the bed she sleeps on, the sonar vision she sees with, even her very life—all is controlled by Harina.
When she arrived outside of Harina’s office, she held her arm momentarily, pondering the choice she had made leading up to this point. 6-0 noticed Viviana’s silence, he wanted to ask her but Viviana collected herself and knocked on the door.
“Harina,” Viviana called out.
From inside her office, Harina said back. “Come in…”
Viviana stood still, just outside Harina’s office door, the weight of everything pressing down on her. Her pulse quickened, and her fingers clenched into fists at her sides. She took a breath, but the air felt thick, suffocating even beneath the cool, sterile lighting of the hallway. She glanced toward 6-0, his impassive eyes watching her every movement from the two tiny eye holes on his mask.
For a moment, she thought of turning back. The thought of what Harina might say, of what she might expect of her now—it made Viviana’s stomach turn. Viviana turned around at 6-0 and he cocked his head attentively.
“I—I don’t think I can do this, Six,” Viviana murmured, her voice barely above a whisper as her eyes lowered away from the door.
“Are you ill, ma’am?” he asked in concern, noticing her shaky hands hovering right in front of the door’s electronic lock.
“It’s not that I’m ill. It’s just—” She hesitated, trying to find a way to voice her mind. “I—I just think that she might not like my rejection.”
‘Is this… is this fear I’m feeling?’
6-0 walk one step closer to Viviana and look her directly in her eyes. Though her eyes are still as pale as a corpse, her expression told him everything about her.
“Ma’am,” he said cautiously. “What are you feeling right now? You seem to be overthinking something.”
Viviana tried to piece her words together but they still won’t come out or form as one clear sentence.
She pulled her hair back in one slow sweep and turned around at him. “Listen, Six. I… I need to ask you a favour.” Her voice almost cracked but she kept her composure until the words flew out of her mouth
6-0 nodded his head and straightened himself. “Of course, my lady. What can I do for you?”
She cleared her throat in worry and swallowed, her throat dry. “What if… what if I don’t like what she says in there?” Her voice cracked, and she looked up at 6-0, eyes wide, searching. “What if—” She hesitated, then continued, voice quieter. “I don’t like what I become?”
The silence between them grew, 6-0’s eyes gleaming with a cold glow. Viviana could almost hear her own heartbeat in the stillness. Her chest tightened, and suddenly, she blurted, “Then I want you to kill me. That applies to all eight of you—please?”
Both 6-0 and his men gasped in surprise and horror. “Ma’am?”
Viviana let out an audible sigh. “I’m not like you guys.” Her face turned sad with shame. “I live my life by complying to rules—” Her jaw clenched. “I… I’m not cut out for this—I should’ve just die back then—not accepting her offer—”
‘This is all your fault, me! This wouldn’t happen if you just let those bloody chemicals kill you—’
6-0 turned to each of his men. All of them shook their heads, refusing her favour. He lowered his head in thoughts, pondering in silence for a moment before turning his head to Viviana.
“I… I don’t think I—we could.”
“Why?” She asked bitterly, biting her lips. “Shouldn’t you elite guards have the courage to commit a simple homicide? What’s one more kill going to affect your resume?”
As hurtful as her words sounded, 6-0 and his men kept their composure perfectly.
“Seriously, why won’t you take someone useless like me?” She provoked them further in contempt. “I’m your easiest kill yet.”
6-0 respond in a calm and collected manner, “Ma’am, please—let go of this thought of yours. It’s not good for you in the long run.”
“I don’t want to keep doing sinful things for the long run, Six!” She sneered through her gritted teeth. “Don’t you get it—I don’t want to become someone as bad as her! I hate that uncertain future—”
6-0 raised both hands, trying to calm her. “With all due respect, ma’am—I can’t.”
“Just do it, will you?” Viviana finally cracked as she broke down in tears.
6-0 pulls out a handkerchief out from one of his vest pockets and hands it to her. Viviana moved her trembling hands and took the handkerchief out of his hand, blowing her nose into it.
But she kept on insisting on him, saying, “I don’t want to continue down this dark path she had for me. When the day comes, I want you to shoot me in the head. You understood?”
“My lady—”
“Just say yes or no, Six!” She clenched her fist tighter.
6-0 was visibly startled at her but quickly nodded his head reluctantly and stepped back.
“I will—but only if I’m sure that you are.”
“That’s—” She wiped her tears and nodded in acceptance to his terms. “That’s good enough for me.”
Finally after pulling herself together, she pressed her palm against the door’s biometric scanner. The door whizzed and slid open to both sides, gliding smoothly on its rail.
‘Here goes nothing.’
Viviana entered the office and the first thing her sonar vision picked up was Harina, sitting behind her desk with her feet up and Esther, on the corner of the room dipping and pulling a bag of tea into a cup of hot, steaming water.
Harina looked at her with a blank, stoic face. Viviana lowered her head further before Harina pulled her feet down and gestured at a seat across her.
“Sit down, V,” Harina said in a serious, low voice. “Let’s talk—”
Viviana sat on the fancy leather seat and put her cane down on her lap. Esther walked over to Harina’s desk and put two cups of tea down then stood in front of the door.
Viviana gulped in nervousness. “Harina, listen. I just want to say—”
Harina quickly stopped Viviana with a raise of her finger. “Don’t—I do not want to remember last night. It is really… uncomfortable for me.”
Viviana lowered her head, unable to muster the courage to talk to her directly. “I’m sorry, I’m just really… overwhelmed with all the criminal things. I was hoping I could change your perspective on the whole succeeding thing.”
Harina scoffed and looked at Viviana with her eyebrow raised. “I’m afraid you can’t… What’s done is done, V. You can’t turn back time.”
She picked up a small throwing knife from the pen holder on her desk and fiddled around her fingers silently, keeping her eyes to Viviana.
“You will fully assimilate. You will succeed me.” Her confident tone worried Viviana further and further, knowing that she will soon lose what remains of her personality and morality.
She tossed the knife up. It landed on the edge of her desk with a clank before Harina flicked the blade back into the pen holder.
“Let me tell you something, V,” Harina continued, leaning her back against her seat. “I know that you think of me as some kind of all-powerful bloodthirsty warlord—which of course I am—but I can still feel pain.”
She tapped her fingers on the armrest of her seat and sighed. “I have high hopes for you, V. I thought that after so long I have finally acquired myself a successor—one that is worthy to learn from me directly and will one day replace me. I thought I could rely on you, V—thought I could trust you. I guess it’s true that words cut deeper than actual swords—because what you said last night is probably the most hurtful thing that I have ever heard, aside from my old man’s usual ramblings.”
Viviana gripped her knees with both hands tightly. She knows that she might have worsened her relationship with Harina—the person who saved her kept her alive and well until today.
“But as harsh, sadistic as I may be… I’m willing to let the matter go and pretend it never happened.”
Viviana perked up slightly from her seat. But her face quickly turned warry. What makes Harina different from most criminals she reads from history articles and news broadcasts is that Harina seems to have another reason to justify her immoral actions—like the time she obliterated her workplace.
“Why do I feel like you’re thinking of something else to sideline things?” Viviana said in complete doubt.
Harina smirked and pulled a small dagger from one of her desk drawers. “Before I begin, I want you to know something. The favour you ask your protective detail to do… will never work—not as long as I’m still around.”
Viviana widened her eyes in silence. Sweat starts to drip from her forehead down her cheeks.
‘How—How did she know?’
“How did I know, you asked?” Harina said out loud which surprised Viviana even more.
‘Wait—the soul tethering!’
Harina chuckled at Viviana’s stumped and nervous expression. “Yes, V, you are very correct!”
Her smirk puts Viviana in a more and more uncomfortable position than she already is. It seems that every time Harina talks, Viviana feels her way out is getting slimmer and slimmer.
Harina grabbed Viviana’s left hand and pulled it to her, laying it on the desk. Viviana jumped in surprise and terror as Harina twirls the dagger menacingly.
The blade grows closer and closer to her skin. Viviana exerted all her strength into her feet, trying to push herself away from Harina but no matter how hard she kicked the desk, Harina didn’t seem to budge nor move at all.
Viviana screamed fearfully as Harina held the dagger right above her exposed elbow. “Harina! What are you doing?! Please! Stop!”
Harina flashes a devious grin before pressing the razor sharp tip against Viviana’s elbow. Viviana lets out an agonising scream as Harina drags the dagger very slowly across her arm until she stops at her upper tricep as the dagger get stuck at her shoulder joint.
The incision made her arm look like a blooming flower. Blood begins to flow out from the open wound and pool around the desk. Viviana cried from the excruciating pain. Her heart raced rapidly as she began to hyperventilate. She could feel her consciousness fading from the pain but finding herself unable to pass out due to her adrenaline keeping her awake.
She looked up at Harina slowly with tears rolling down her cheeks. “Why—Why did you do—”
“Because I can? Because I like to drive my point home?” Harina lifted Viviana’s face up and poked her forehead playfully.
“Maybe it’s because I feel like you don’t appreciate me enough, V. I don’t know, let’s do a little recap, shall we? I saved you from a perpetual life of poverty, I heal your four terminal diseases, I give you a new set of eyes, I give you two prosthetic arms and legs, each of costing me eighty five billion credits, I fed you good food and actual meals instead of MREs, I put clothes over your body, I give you a second chance in life and the response I get is oh, I don’t want to be a criminal like you. Oh, I like being lawful and saint-like and high and mighty—wake the fuck up, V. Your disillusion is starting to annoy me.”
She pulled the dagger from Viviana’s arm and watched her falling to the floor and rolling around. Her face contorts with all kinds of pain.
Rather than finding her wound to stretch wider, Viviana was surprised to find her arm healing in less than two seconds. The long incision closed on its own and the pain she felt reducing dramatically.
“What—What the hell? How?”
“Extreme regeneration, stultus,” Harina sneered. “No matter how badly or fatally injured you are, the contract will keep you alive. You get your head blown off by a stray tank shell and you’d walk again in ten seconds.”
Harina sipped from her cup and closed her eyes, savouring the sweetness of the sugar along with the delicious taste from the leaves.
Harina finished her cup of tea and handed the empty cup to Esther. Viviana picked her cup and sipped hers slowly.
“I’m not even gonna sugar coat it, V. I have taken many lives with these hands of mine, and I will not stop for the love of me—Not now, not tomorrow, not ever. I will not stop until the heavens, and my father, are nothing but ashes.”
Viviana rolled on the floor in pain, gritting her teeth. “Then where do I play in this crazy world of yours?”
“There will be a time when I will no longer be leading this organisation. There will be a time where everyone else tied to this organisation or me dies. I want to make sure our legacy, will and fight continues after our demise. Yes, I'm a killer, murderer, monster, freak, menace but the one thing my old man didn't raise me to be is a liar.”
“Why not? You would be complete if you can also lie,” sneer Viviana.
“I don't know why but to make up a lie is not something I can do… then again, it's probably the only trait I share with my mother. When I said I saw something… monstrous inside you, I’m not fucking with you. Call it fate, call it premonition, I know you would never escape that possibility. Try as hard as you can be to a saint, evil is what you will do best.”
…
“But remembering what happened last night, I want to discipline you, V—through first hand experience,” Harina added.
“What do you mean?”
“You are not leading this organisation with that mindset of yours. I don’t want no one with your kind of morality to do our things. So you will be joining us on a little field trip I’ve been planning for a while.”
“Where?”
“You’ll see… eh, metaphorically. Eat your breakfast—we’re going out in an hour. When you’re done, meet me on the underground third floor, north wing hangar, bay three. Pack some snacks, we might be back by dark.”
“Where are we going?”
“Turner Estri.”
Harina turned her computer on and typed into her holographic keyboard.
“I’m gonna teach you a few basic criminal enterprise management skills. Off you go…”
After finishing her first meal of the day, Viviana goes to the spaceship hangar on the third floor, 6-0 and his team follows behind her.
“Six, do you happen to know anything about Turner Estri?” she asked, turning to 6-0.
“The space market hub?” he said. “I heard a couple of things about it. Are we going there?”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Harina said she wants me to learn some management skills on the field.” She bit her lower lip in annoyance. “Somehow I know she meant something else entirely.”
6-0 shrugged his shoulders and giggled at her remark.
“I don’t think so, ma’am. Lady Harina is many things but a liar. She always says things as they were and doesn't even bother to bend the facts. Maybe she just wants to learn things on the fly.”
“Knowing the brutality last night, I severely doubt this would be a leisurely trip. So… what can you tell me about that place?”
“Hmm… I know that it’s a coin well—”
“What the hail is a coin well?”
“It’s basically a doers, keepers kind of place where criminals can take one-time contract jobs or even partake in various illegal activities. Most coin well locations mainly consisted of recruiters, vendors, a bunch of service providers and occasionally, a crime syndicate on the top floor holding the ring together.”
“Dear god, sounds like a job fair for nefarious people.”
“Eh, kind of. I would call it an employment hunting ground but others just referred to it as a black market. It always depends on who said it…”
When they came out of the corner, they bumped into Lyudmila with her successor, Olga, and a team dressed just like 6-0 and his team.
She noticeably perked her ears when she ran into Viviana, stopping immediately on her tracks. Both 6-0, his team and the other team stopped as well straightened their postures.
“Well well well, if it isn’t the power doubter,” Lyudmila said, flashing a smug grin. “I was wondering when do I get the chance to talk to you…”
“I’m sorry, do I know you,” Viviana said in a completely deadpan expression.
6-0 cleared his throat and lean into her ears.
“That’s Lady Lyudmila, ma’am,” he whispered to her. “She’s one of the fifteen Umbras, remember?”
Her eyes traced around before her mind remembering the breakfast conversation.
“Oh, right! You’re the day drinker lady, right?” She turned to Lyudmila and let out a whistle. “How can I help you, miss drunkard?”
“My master is not a drunkard!” Olga shouted angrily.
“I can smell the alcohol off of her. If she's not a drunkard, then I don't know what she is.”
“You bit—” Olga sneered but Lyudmila quickly pulled her shoulder back.
“Patience, Olga,” Lyudmila said, shaking her head. “You will have your time.
“Sorry.” Olga said and backed away.
“Yeah, Olga. Run along,” Viviana muttered sarcastically. “Thanaks, madam vodka, I feel safer already.”
Lyudmila spontaneously grabbed Viviana by her neck and lifted her against the corridor wall. 6-0 and the other elite guards stepped back in startle.
Viviana tried to push Lyudmila away but her grip was too strong for her hands to break as she suffocated from her choke.
“Мне не нравится твое отношение, ты малявк.”
“Say what?”
"Снова разговаривай со мной таким тоном, и я сниму с тебя кожу живьем тупым карманным ножом…" Lyudmila added, her face scowling as she held the glass bottle in her hand by the neck.
“What…”
“Hands off the kid, Katyusha… she’s mine.”
From the other end of the corridor, Harina and Esther stepped out. Lyudmila turned her head slowly at her, their eyes meeting with a cold gaze.
Lyudmila lets go of her hand and watches Viviana drop to the floor on her hips. Viviana’s face turned to agony as she winced in pain.
“We were just talking,” said Lyudmila, recoiling back at the sight of Harina.
“Were you, though?” Harina said. “Let me have a little talk with you then—”
Harina walked over to Lyudmila slowly before swiftly pulling her fist back and punching her in the belly. The speed of her punch was so fast that Viviana, even with her sonar vision, couldn’t see her hands moving at all.
Her hand went through Lyudmila and out through the back. Viviana could hear the sound of multiple bones shattering and a crunching sound before Lyudmila started to gasp for air.
“Boss—” Lyudmila said but Harina quickly cut her off.
“Didn't I say anything you did to her, I'll make your lives worse in yesterday's breakfast?” Harina said and flicked Lyudmila's forehead. “На самом деле, позвольте мне сказать вам это по-русски, чтобы вы поняли.”
Harina brought her face right in front of Lyudmila with a menacing cold glare.
"Снова прикоснись к ней, и ты будешь спать с рыбами этой ночью, Людмила." Harina slowly pushes her hand through her until she stops at her elbow. "Сука, ты думаешь, что я блефую? Давай, попробуй, ублюдок."
“Harina…”
She pulled her hand swiftly, pulling part of her spine out deliberately and violently tossing Lyudmila off against the wall. She turned towards her PPD and successor.
“Get her to a sick bay and have the docs patch her upper half.”
As Lyudmila’s PPDs and successor picked her up and carried her towards the nearest medical quarter, Esther helped Viviana up and checked her for injuries.
“If you have anything broken, just say the word,” Harina said with a steely gaze. “I’ll chop her legs off and replace hers with a pirate’s stick.”
“No, that won’t be necessary,” Viviana said as she brushed herself. “If I’m going to be a leader, I have to toughen myself up a bit more.”
Harina perked up from her out-of-character confidence in surprise. She was hoping to lecture Viviana more but after hearing that, it won’t be necessary.
“Wise words,” Harina said, nodding her head in approval. “If you keep this up, I might write your name on my will.”
“Haha—Funny.”
The three, followed by 6-0 and his team, head to the hangar. The second Viviana stepped her foot past the end of the corridor, her sonar vision went overdrive.
The sound of thousands of spacecraft of all sizes and shapes whizzed and whooshed around her, filling her ears with loud noise from their engines.
She had never seen so many space vehicles in one place at the same time. From small unmanned drones, to slightly bigger patrol crafts, to bigger ships like corvettes, frigates, destroyers, cruisers of various sizes, battleships and battlecarriers—all were stationed in one excessively vast hangar.
“Oh my god,” she said in astonishment. Her jaw completely dropped from the sight of the sheer amount.
“See these beautiful sons of bitches? All of them are for you to control,” Harina said, stretching her arms out and spinning around. “No matter how many or what size you need, all you need is to drop a finger and our men will make it happen for you.”
“This is actually ridiculous,” Viviana whispered to herself, her face lighting up. “Just how rich am I really?”
“It’d be better for you to stop pondering,” Harina responded. “I stopped counting after our first quintillion.”
Viviana looked up and looked around as the loudspeaker in the hangar began an announcement.
‘Attention to all crews, Lady Harina’s ship, QFS-01 Terminator is docking. Bay three level seventeen. All crews prepare for boarding procedure. We repeat, Lady Harina’s ship, the QFS-01 codename Terminator will dock in bay three level seventeen. All crews of that ship prepare for boarding. Thank you…’
Moments later, a massive ship begins to back into the bay and slowly positions itself by the bay. Viviana looked up at the ship in amazement.
The ship was decked out with all sorts of weaponries from all types and sizes. Railguns, plasma, lasers, rocket launchers, missile pods, torpedo bays, bomb dispensers—no space was left unarmed and unarmoured with thick plating.
The swept superstructure is what really sold the superior look. Viviana collected herself and turned to Harina.
“Is this our ship?” she asked in astonishment.
“Oh, no. This is my ship, you’ll have your own when you’re fit to lead,” Harina replied smugly. “The 01 designation is mine—I am the founder and leader after all. QFS ships are specifically for the Umbras.”
“Wait—” Viviana pondered momentarily. “There’s more than one? Hold on… there’s fifteen of this?!”
“You should’ve seen your face,” Harina laughed. “Come on, you’ll love it inside.”
Harina, Esther and Viviana climbed onboard the ship and stepped into the ship’s lower deck. The interior is surprisingly humble for a ship belonging to Harina, it’s very minimalistic with no non functional decoration and a plain light black paint. The ship feels more militaristic than luxurious.
“I know what you’re going to say,” Harina muttered. “Har, why is there no decoration in here?” she said, imitating how Viviana spoke.
“I don’t speak like that!” Viviana said in embarrassment. “I’m not even contralto.”
“Are you sure? Because you kinda sound like Cher, y’know,” Harina responded, stifling her laugh.
“Who?!”
“I seriously need to lend you my mixtapes—Fuck it, we’re not here for games. Follow me.”
They took the elevator up towards the upper level in the superstructure. When the door opened, Viviana could see the corridor leading to two different places. To the right she could see dozens of busy ship officers in what appears to be the bridge while to the left she could only see a single metallic door with an electronic lock beside it.
Viviana followed Harina and Esther walked towards the end with the single door. Harina leaned in and showed her eyes at the retinal scanner and the door slid open. Although the room looks simplistic and minimalistic, it gives off the feeling of luxurious vibe from the inside.
After the door closed, Harina took a seat on one of the sofas placed inside while Esther went straight to the kitchen area and started boiling water. Viviana took a seat on the sofa across Harina and started looking around her surroundings.
“This is… cosy,” Viviana remarked. “Is this our own private room?
“Technically the entire level is,” Harina replied, tossing candies up into the air and eating them. “But answering your question, no—this room is mine. Yours is the one on the lower level.”
“I have my own room?”
“Well you’re bloody sure not sleeping here,” Harina scoffed. “I’m a big girl. I have my needs for… personal space.”
“I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that,” Viviana muttered, recoiling at the thought. “Before I go, can you at least tell me something?”
“What?”
“What are we going to do on this… field trip you’re taking me?” Viviana asked curiously but showing wariness. “What are we going to do at this Turner Estri shithole you talk about? You said something about teaching me some management skills but you didn’t specify the details.”
“Simply put, we’re going to collect a debt,” Harina replied. “We have two really obnoxious wankers evading our calls. I was going there myself but I thought you could see and experience the whole thing yourself.”
“Since when did we start giving out loans? I thought we live with survival of the fittest mentality?”
“We are. It’s not just an act of kindness for other less powerful, less capable syndicates, we’re basically ensnaring them for our future purposes.”
“I don’t follow…”
“Okay. The simplest way to put it is trapping them in an inescapable debt. Basically just saying yes to whatever amount they need and hand them the bill with our terms and conditions, including the interest. And yes, before you ask, yes the interest we set has been systematically calculated to best benefit us.”
“How exactly?”
“Slavery, duhh,” Harina replied casually without batting an eye. “One needs to be able to pay back whoever they borrow something from and if one cannot recuperate, they need to be able to sacrifice their own free time to repay their debt in servitude.”
“You sound like a really evil banker.”
“Read Machiavelli, V,” Harina responded in annoyance. “You'll see what I mean. I'm a fair leader. I give people a chance to prove themselves before I even ask—it’s just that their stupidity always get the best of them.”
“So how much do these guys owe us?”
“The first bloke owed us four million credits, the second owed twenty trillion credits.”
“I don’t get it—I thought we’re rolling in whatever unit comes after a decillion. Why do we need to collect pocket changes? Wouldn’t their debt be abysmal compared to our total assets?”
“You’d be right. But it’s not about the value, V. It’s about the principle. If you owe something out of someone, you better pay back or have a damn good reason to not repay. Personally I don’t care how much they’re trying to take, I just like seeing their idiocy cloud their judgement.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Hear me out. The first guy takes four millions to secure his capital and start his business,” Harina begins. “His first mistake was thinking four millions will get him anywhere in the illegal side of business. Even a small narcotics syndicate would need at least fifty millions to even have a chance at making any kind of profits. His second mistake was thinking he can pay us back in three years. I doubt I need to tell you just how stupid it is to generate enough money to pay your five and a half million credits debt, interest included, in only three years.”
“Okay, so what’s the second guy’s mistake?”
“He only asked twenty trillions… to start his heist business. Let me explain to you just how dumb he is,” Harina continued. “He thought a squadron of mech suits worth twenty billion each and a single cruiser were enough to hijack a fleet of GPF merchant traders—which obviously they don't but it's not like they want to listen to my advice anyway. Twenty billions in a suit will only get you a standard issue gauss rifle and two four-rocket shoulder launchers. That is nowhere enough to even graze their paint job, he made it worse by taking a year time payment. I've seen crocs with higher brain function.”
“And you deal with those kinds of idiots daily?”
“If I have trashed paper for each of them, I'd be a bloody landfill. It's good in a way, though—One, we get to enslave dumb borrowers for our cause without doing much advertising or psyops. Two, we keep the streets clean from these disappointing bellends. The dark underworld of criminals is not for the weak and/or stupid—if you're both, you're not a comedian, you're the entire comedy venue.”
“I suppose that’s one way to look at it positively.”
Esther finally comes out of the kitchen area back to the table and puts two cups of light brown tea and a large glass of milk on the table. She then leaned into Harina…
“My liege, all the crew and officers have boarded,” she whispered. “Reports have come from all sections of the ship. All drones, munitions and supplies have been loaded—present and accounted for.”
“Good,” Harina said, sipping her tea.
“I thought you said we're only going to collect debts,” Viviana said. “Why bring weapons as well?”
“In case our debt collection turned into a standoff.”
“Has that happened a lot?”
“You'd be surprised. This ship can tank whatever whoever throws at us, of course, but I'm not keen on them escaping. You know how it is. Either they pay us, work for us or highway to hell.”
“You said that various galactic law enforcement are hunting you even if you're going out for a cookie, right? What's the chance of us getting ambushed?”
“Like… I'd say around ninety something percent? I don't know. I got jumped so often that I stopped caring. Yet even after all those ambushes, not one managed to render one escort ship immobilised. Fucking dumbasses…”
“If you're so untouchable, then why worry about getting arrested by GPF or anyone from Regnum Dei?”
“I never worried, I just found their attempt annoying. Fail once, okay I get it, twice, like come on, thrice, really? But millions of times? That's just insulting! I don't like wasting my precious time dealing with idiots like them. Even watching gay porn is still way less tortuous than this.”
“Seriously, eww!”
“I'm just making a point,” Harina quipped before snapping her fingers twice at Esther. “Essy, can you show Viviana her room a level down? I want to sleep—alone—without disturbance.”
“Of course, my liege,” Esther replied, bowing her head before stepping out of the room with Viviana.
After they step out of the elevator and into the level right below the uppermost where Harina’s room was, Esther guides her towards a room at the end of the corridor.
The door has a dark metallic red paint with three eye shaped insignia painted on it. Viviana placed her hand on the biometric scanner and the door slide open, revealing a mostly simplistic interior just like Harina’s, but with a white contrast to Harina’s black.
“This will be your private quarter,” Esther said, gesturing inside of the room. “The biometric lock outside can only be opened using your fingerprints or retina, so worry not about intruders. 6-0 and his men will be stationed in the room next to yours as usual.”
She then guides Viviana into the bedroom.
“This is your bed—240 by 170 cm king size. The bed sheet, pillow sheets and blanket are made from silk, imported from our very own garment manufacturing facility.”
“This is actually ridiculous!” Viviana said in astonishment. “But don’t you think this is a little over the top? I mean let’s be serious here, this is just for me.”
“No, considering your rank within the organisation—I’d say this is fitting for someone of your class.”
“Class? Really? That’s what we’re going with?”
“It might not be obvious to you but I’m obligated to refer to you as a lady now. That’s how important you are right now. Everyone on this ship and everyone not on this ship is willing to lay down their lives for you. Getting complimented by Lady Harina is one of the biggest honour anyone can ever achieve but getting selected to be her successor is a thing unheard of.”
Esther, noticing Viviana stressing out, slowly put the stack of clothes into the bedside wardrobe and closes the door.
“When the news broke out that she had found someone worthy of her time, wisdom and knowledge, people freaked out. They know based on Lady Harina’s pickiness, they expect that person to be on par if not better than her, given that she is educated and mentored enough. They expect you to lead them to a level never seen before, past uncharted territories and set a new standard.”
“I know, but I still feel… inferior to her,” Viviana said, her face saddening. “I don’t know how she’s capable of wielding so much power with ease and grace. She’s natural, I don’t feel like I am.”
“A word of advice which I’m only going to say once. You should try believing in yourself first before coming to a conclusion—If she saw you standing on a burning world with her dead body near you in her vision, then you’re destined to be something much more powerful than she is.”
Esther bites her lips and sits next to Viviana on the side of the bed.
“Listen, if she’s really dead in the future, then I’m probably going to die much sooner than she is,” she continued. “When I first heard about her vision about you, I freaked out, I hyperventilated—but I know that fate is a bitch. It is inevitable in nature, as it should be. The fact that the two of us are dead and you’re not speaks something about you—future you, that is.”
“Her mission—taking down heavens—did she really mean it?”
“Think of it like this. Not every pantheon in the universe is good, some are bad, some are beyond fucked. Mortals like us shouldn’t put our faith on any of them because their minds are perpetually clouded with their immense power. They don’t care what happens to their creations, they just want to be revered and worshipped—that’s a toxic relationship. Bad actions can be justified so long as the intentions were pure and good—so try to think like her. Kill one god… and maybe a thousand mortals can be saved.”
Esther stood up and walked to the exit, stopping for a moment to look back at Viviana.
“The trip is going to take us two hours in FTL, catch yourself a rest—I’ll wake you up when we get there.”
After Esther left her room, Viviana continued to ponder deeply. She could see the lines in her vision better and better.
‘Have my vision returned?’
She took off the bandage wrapped around her head and opened her eyes. Although she’s able to see things a little bit, the blur was still way too much for her to actually interpret the images she sees.
‘I guess not—guess I’d stick to this sonar vision a little longer.’
Then the small loudspeaker placed throughout the interior of the ship blarred again.
‘Attention, this is Captain Grunder speaking—Lady Harina have given us the green light. We will depart in three minutes. I repeat, three minutes. Thank you.’
‘We’re leaving—’ Viviana breathed in and out slowly, bracing herself for her futur. ‘This is it, me—We’re evil now.’
From the deepest part of her mind, something chuckled sinisterly.
‘This is… our time…’