The Light Blue Jumper Page 20

  “Madam!” She suddenly launched herself at me. As I landed on the floor, I saw a thin plume of smoke curling upwards from the heart of the machine.

  83. The Worried Major

  I had tried to warn the General that auto settings were off limits on the machine since the TM 1000 had malfunctioned three years ago and there had been a galaxywide recall of the units. The IPF technical and legal team had jointly decided though that it was far more cost-effective to keep the current model and simply make all staff sign an exclusion of liability clause, along with a health warning, which was mass emailed to all the IPF employees and officers. I had the distinct impression that the General had missed reading that email.

  The machine seemed irreparably damaged; I wasn’t sure whether the General had suffered a similar fate. Madam, on the other hand, appeared to be just fine.

  The General suddenly jumped up and knocked Madam over. Maybe she was all right after all. She was saying something in a very agitated manner to Madam, though; I strained my ears to hear. “You came back for me! I knew you would! Where is Salaar? Is he all right? Take me to him, please!”

  Something was very wrong. What had the machine done? Had it turned her into someone else? But it only extracted thoughts and memories, it didn’t implant anything. I should know, I had been spearheading the research team to accomplish that very purpose and so far it was all a dead end. We could only suppress memories, not create them.

  Soon I would have to give a detailed report to IPF Headquarters and get further instructions, I thought, dreading the prospect.

  84. Lieutenant Salaar

  We had finally established contact with The Good Doctor, who was on an outbound hospital ship with Lethal and Dinaara. We would pick them up at the rendezvous point and fly back to our ship. He had informed us sorrowfully of Madam’s capture, while emphasizing that had she not shot him in the foot, he would have been able to give chase to the security detail that handcuffed her and took her to the General.

  We had to get past Zaaron security, then the General’s private guard and the General herself, in order to rescue Madam. There had to be a way through. Maybe it was time to make more use of Zaaro’s abilities.

  “Zaaro, I want you to focus with all your might on Madam and the General. Close your eyes and picture Madam in danger, in the General’s command quarters.”

  Zaaro obediently closed his eyes but nothing happened. I was aiming for him to transport us and the shuttle, into the General’s command quarters.

  “Maybe you could try saying Madam’s name a few times, like a chant,” I suggested, which resulted in nothing.

  I didn’t want to resort to the usual fare, but I guess there was no other way, so I aimed and threw a helmet at Zaaro. “Owwww!” he squealed, opening his eyes accusingly.

  “Sorry, I was just trying to help,” I explained as Zaaro rubbed his shoulder gingerly and continued with the chanting. This time with his eyes open, shooting a watchful glance my way every now and then.

  After an hour of incessant chanting, I resigned myself to the fact that we would just have to rescue Madam the old-fashioned way, since Zaaro still didn’t have any conscious control over his powers. I punched in the coordinates for the General’s command quarters and signalled to Zaaro that he could stop chanting. He was determined to carry on though, so I flew towards the General’s command quarters with a headache and the whole shuttle reverberating with Zaaro’s chanting.

  We flew past the security checkpoint without incident. Something was definitely amiss. It was highly likely we were flying into a trap. But we had no choice, this was the only route to get to Madam. When we were at the landing bay and there was still no ambush, I began to seriously consider that the General was, in all likelihood, dead. Madam had prevailed.

  “Zaaro, please stop chanting,” I begged him. “We need to discuss the latest development.” He looked right through me and carried on, in some kind of self-induced hypnosis.

  I opened the shuttle door and ran smack into Madam, who seemed to be running from something.

  “Oh, thank goodness you’re here, Salaar. I’m having the most difficult time escaping the General,” Madam said. “Something very strange has happened.”

  She was about to continue, when the General burst into the shuttle, saw me, and froze. She remained glued to the doorway and stared at me for a minute before her eyes filled with tears and, stifling a sob, she moved towards me, arms outstretched. Zaaro stopped chanting.

  “What is going on?” I asked Madam, while I drew my gun. “Stay where you are and keep your hands above your head,” I warned the General as she kept saying, “I don’t understand,” again and again.

  “It’s fairly simple. You are in rebel custody now, General,” I said as I pulled her into the shuttle and handcuffed her to a seat. Strangely, she didn’t try to resist.

  “Madam, congratulations on capturing the General, but what is going on?” I asked again.

  “I’m not entirely sure, I think the General’s brain is scrambled,” Madam said.

  “That’s no surprise. No sane person could do the things she has done. Should we head straight to our base with her so she can be tried and punished for her crimes?”

  “Why are you calling me General?” the General asked. “Don’t you know who I am?”

  “Can I gag her?” I asked Madam. I had skipped my medication in the excitement of the last few days and I didn’t have the patience for whatever silly game she was playing. Madam put a restraining hand on my shoulder.

  “Salaar, why won’t you answer me?” the General asked, directly addressing me. I could feel the darkness surge inside me as I looked at her. She was responsible for the loss of my sister’s life; she didn’t deserve a trial. I shook off Madam’s hand and cocked my gun at the General, aiming for her head.

  “Salaar, it’s me, Anya,” she said. At the sound of my sister’s name falling from her killer’s mouth the madness I was holding at bay surged forward, overwhelming my defences. My anger was just. I had every right. “How dare you take her name?” I shouted as I fired a shot just as Madam barrelled into me and knocked me over, deflecting the bullet. She clawed the gun out of my grasp before I could shoot again. “I am going to kill her, there is nothing you can do to stop me!” I yelled. Zaaro joined Madam on my chest. They kept me pinned down.

  “Did you just try and shoot me? Have you lost your mind?” the General said as I tried to dislodge Madam and Zaaro. “Do you blame me for the ambush? Is that it? I didn’t know it was a trap, you know I would never endanger our troops. I tried to call out a warning but it was too late, the whole place was up in flames. That’s all I can remember,” she trailed off.

  The familiar tone she was taking made me want to rip her head off. How could she possibly think she could suddenly pass for my dead sister? “You are not my sister; you look nothing like her, YOU ARE THE GENERAL!”

  “I’m a General? Really? Is Madam all right with that? Oh, wait a minute!” she paused, “You thought I was dead!” She whacked her forehead. “The rank was a posthumous award.” She looked at Madam beseechingly, “Does that mean you’re going to take it back now that I’m not dead? Because I do think it has a nice ring to it. And what do you mean I don’t look like myself?”

  “You can keep the title, dear girl,” Madam said sweetly. “Just give us a minute. We were exposed to the TM 1000 on auto settings,” she told Zaaro and me.

  “Why are you lying to protect her? Those things were recalled from absolutely everywhere,” I said, still struggling.

  “Well, the IPF apparently took a calculated risk with the lives of its employees and decided to keep them around.”

  “On auto, the machine simply picks the brightest, most complex mind in the room and drains it. I’ve done some work on the latest upgrades. They’re still at the prototype stage though,” Zaaro said.

  “Well, not quite,” Madam said, bristling, “that was clearly just an irresponsible rumour, it is all really a matter of physic
al proximity, as in this case, the General was far too close to the machine.”

  “That doesn’t explain why she thinks she’s Anya though,” I said through clenched teeth. “Get off me. I’m fine now.”

  They waited another few minutes before budging. “Are you sure she’s not the General?” Zaaro confirmed with Madam before he got up. “I would like to introduce myself formally,” he said, approaching the prisoner and bowing. “I am Zaaro III, of the House Nian.”

  “I am Anya, Commander of the rebel forces. Now it appears that I’m a General,” she said with a grin. “Have the Zaaronians joined the Movement?”

  “Well it’s just me at the moment, I’m afraid, but we have accomplished some pretty difficult things since I joined,” Zaaro said modestly.

  “What have I missed?” she asked in excitement.

  “We just took over Weapons Control on Zaaron,” he told her proudly.

  “So quickly? I’m out for a few days and the rebels takeover the world! I can’t believe I missed it!” Looking at Zaaro’s kind face, she paused and asked quietly, “How long has it been? I can take it. Please tell me.”

  “Five years,” Madam answered.

  She was stunned. “You’re joking right? That’s a lifetime in hospital. I must have been injured pretty badly,” she said looking down at herself.

  “You weren’t in hospital. You were leading an army,” Zaaro told her.

  “That would explain us having taken over Weapons Control. But wait, wasn’t I supposed to be dead?” she asked in confusion.

  “Yes, you make a fair point; many, in fact. You were leading the other army,” Zaaro informed her.

  “Oh.” Her eyes widened.

  Zaaro continued, “You are the leader of the IPF forces, their General.”

  “I can’t be. I don’t remember any of it.”

  “You don’t remember any of it because you had an accident with a faulty memory extraction machine that you were sending back to its manufacturers. It got switched on accidentally while you were too close,” Madam pitched in kindly.

  “Yes, I believe it extracted your memories as the General and released your suppressed memory bank as Anya,” Zaaro said.

  I felt I had to point a pertinent fact out again, since everyone else seemed to have practically accepted that the General, missing a few memories, had in fact morphed into Anya. “She doesn’t look anything like Anya.”

  “Am I horribly burnt? Get me a mirror!”

  Zaaro handed her a mirror. “See? You’re not all that ugly for an outer rim species. True beauty is on the inside anyway, that is what counts. Don’t get intimidated by Madam, or me for that matter. It’s hardly something we can help. Look towards Salaar and understand how much better off you are. Lethal will be here soon as well, then you can really feel good about yourself,” he said encouragingly.

  The General remained frozen in horror while Zaaro timidly patted her shoulder, and then she screamed, a low keening sound that started from somewhere deep inside her throat and escalated into an anguished shriek that made Zaaro jump clean out of the shuttle. I made a note to show the General a mirror the next time I needed him to jump.

  85. Zaaro Nian

  Thank goodness the awful noise had stopped. I opened my eyes to see The Good Doctor smiling at me.

  “Here to rescue us already? Wonderful. Let me just collect my belongings. Lethal and Dinaara, rescue party is here,” he whispered into his comms. “Is Salaar with you?” he asked me.

  “No. I came alone,” I said.

  “The less people the better. We don’t want to make a scene. Where is the shuttle?” he questioned.

  “It’s at the General’s command quarters actually, but we’re going to go to the Second Light,” I told him.

  “Well you’re the rescuer, how do we get there? I know what I would have done, but I don’t want to steal your thunder.” The Good Doctor smiled.

  “I jumped here, Doctor,” I told him.

  “Oh, you’re going to jump back with us! Brilliant plan. I couldn’t have planned it better myself.”

  Lethal and Dinaara crept in as I was graciously accepting the Doctor’s accolades.

  “Security patrol coming this way,” Lethal whispered, “let’s hurry!”

  Dinaara blew me a kiss and I blushed a deeper shade of blue.

  “Grab my hands everyone, we’re going to jump back to the ship,” I signalled for everyone to clasp hands and make a circle. “Now Dinaara, I want you to scream,” I said, while focusing on the Second Light. She widened her eyes in surprise and inhaled deeply. She screamed at my nod but nothing happened. Even the security didn’t hear her. As screams go, it was very lacklustre; more of a whimper, really.

  “Try again, but louder this time,” I coached her.

  “Aaaaah!”

  “That was a shout. We need a scream. A blood-curdling one; as if you’ve seen a tetra-headed space minx who is about to eat your brains,” I said, trying to be as helpful and precise as possible.

  “Aaaaeeeeeyyyyyy!” This time the security heard her. We heard boot steps in the hallway outside. I tried to move closer to The Good Doctor to hide, but suddenly the air was rent with an ear-splitting shriek and we found ourselves at the control room of our ship.

  “Dinaara, you got it right that last time!” I congratulated her.

  “It wasn’t me,” Dinaara said, looking over at The Good Doctor.

  “You stepped on my injured foot!” he said indignantly, while limping towards a seat.

  Madam walked in from the landing bay “Glad to see you’re all in one piece. Good Doctor, your foot seems to have healed well,” she said, smiling at him. We were so worried when Zaaro disappeared. I checked for all of you at the rendezvous point, hoping you had made it there. But when there was no sign of anyone there, we rushed to the ship so that we could continue the search.”

  He said, “Yes,” and mumbled something incoherent afterwards, lapsing into complete silence when Madam raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Now if you could all proceed to the emergency meeting room, we have a lot to discuss,” Madam said.

  “It must be something terribly important,” The Good Doctor whispered to me. “Otherwise, we never meet in the emergency meeting room.”

  “I didn’t know we had an emergency meeting room,” Lethal said.

  Madam ducked into a storage closet.

  We followed her in.

  “I hereby designate this,” she motioned expansively around her and ended up whacking the wall, “the emergency meeting room and this, the emergency meeting number,” she paused for effect, “0002, may now commence.”

  “Where is Salaar?” I asked, “And when was emergency meeting number 0001 called? Was I not invited?”

  “He is the topic of this meeting; the General and he, to be precise. And you were the topic of the last one,” Madam informed me. “First, let me bring all of you up to speed. I was captured by the General after a certain injured member of our team ratted me out. I won’t name names at this juncture,” she said, narrowing her eyes at The Good Doctor, “but I helped him to escape in any case, and then the General attempted to suck out my memories using the TM 1000.” Madam paused and looked pointedly at each of us in turn, making sure the abject horror of it sank in.

  Dinaara hissed and raised an eyebrow. “I knew someone once who was exposed to that vile machine,” she said. “He never spoke to me again. Completely forgot who I was,” she said sadly.

  “Madam seems completely fine,” The Good Doctor interjected, slightly disappointed, “Hasn’t forgotten a thing.”

  Madam cleared her throat, “The machine malfunctioned and turned on the General.”

  “Madam, may I explain,” I cut in. “On auto it simply chooses the strongest, most complex mind in the room and attacks it.” Everyone “Aaaahed” in understanding.

  “Well, yes that’s just one of the theories,” Madam said defensively. “That obviously didn’t happen in this case, it was more a problem of
physical proximity.”

  “What has the machine done to the General?” The Good Doctor asked with genuine interest.

  “It seems to have scrambled her brain so that she now thinks she is entirely someone else,” Madam told him.

  “Who does she think she is? No…wait, wait, let me guess,” The Good Doctor cut in, “She thinks she’s me, doesn’t she? It’s been known for people to take on the persona of their nemesis when exposed to torture matics in the past.”

  Madam responded with a snort, “She thinks she is Anya.” She patted Lethal’s shoulder kindly.

  “Of all the ridiculous things! Allow me to have a word with her, I’ll knock that thought right out of her head,” Lethal grew agitated.

  “Does Salaar know?” Dinaara asked quietly.

  “Yes, I’m afraid he does,” I told her. “May I say something?” I asked everyone.

  “Yes, of course, Zaaro.”

  “I have studied the torture matics in some detail as we were planning an upgrade at the weapons lab, and I am quite certain the General’s entire existence has been wiped out by the machine. Ordinarily it would leave nothing behind, but in this case it may have released suppressed memories, which have risen to the surface. Those memories belong to Anya. We do not know yet why the General is carrying them and who she truly is, but right now for all she knows, she is Anya.”

  “Madam, is there any chance at all that Anya could have survived the inferno?” Lethal asked hopefully.

  “I doubt it very much,” Madam said sadly.

  “There is something else,” I said reluctantly, “They may have extracted her memories before she passed and stored them in the very same machine which malfunctioned, but only the General would have known that for sure.”

  “You tortured a dying girl? What is wrong with you people?” Lethal grabbed Colonel Bob by the scruff of his neck. Somehow, he had quietly made his way back to the ship and joined the meeting.