Theseus

I breathed in the familiar, sterile air in the depths of my prison. Those same four walls that I’d spent the last year locked in had become an intolerant annoyance. I think it had been a year, at least. It could have been much longer. It was at least seven months, though. For ninety-nine percent of my stay, I’d been alone. So utterly alone. I hated the solitude. Of course, I could still feel, just beyond my door, my only sense of company most days.

Two sacks of flesh. Two potential mice that I could feel. My mind gripped ever so lightly through the inside of their skin, across their muscles and veins, while I sat with my back to the door, brooding. I don’t think that they had figured out that my reach extended beyond my primary senses yet, unbound by sight and obstacles, at least at a close enough range, which is how I could hold them ever so gently. They had no idea that their lives were within my grip. I was ever so tantalizingly close to tearing them to shreds with a thought. They were mine.

And yet, I was wiser now. I knew that if I took their lives, their presence would be taken away from me. My prison would become more strict, and my playthings taken from my grasp. They would know the depths of my power. My ability was strong, but when I was younger, I’d been arrogant. I played my hand without a concrete plan to move forward, and I paid the price with the watchful eyes that now controlled me; the redundant systems of control that kept me from fulfilling my potential. I knew better now than to succumb to my base desires before I was prepared to make a final liberating strike. The same mistake I made with my ‘father’ wouldn’t occur again.

I wondered if they could feel me. I smiled at the thought of a sense of dread my guards could not place coursing through their veins as I explored their vital organs in ways a surgeon never could. It was a delightful thought that I could eviscerate them in an instant, and if I did it right, it might take them days to figure out I’d been responsible. They couldn’t be allowed to know it was me playing with them so directly, but they knew to fear me, and the thought that I might invoke that feeling that they were guarding something truly dangerous, so far above them, that applying a sense of physical unease they would likely attribute to my presence gave me joy. I wrapped my imaginary fingers gently around the chambers of the man’s heart...

And then let out a short chuckle as I let my imagination fill in the rest. They’d taken much of my joy from me, but their downfall would be so much more savage and satisfying than the abrupt and brutal demise of a single nameless security guard. The blood to come would be worth the disappointment now. I released my would-be victim and stood slowly in my generous cell.

It was more like a bare-bones apartment than a jail. It certainly wasn’t like my accommodations back in the simulation that birthed me, but it would have to do until I could take control of these fools. My mattress was certainly more comfortable than the bench I’d had back in the research center, but it was small and too firm for my liking. I could hardly call the counter that they delivered my meals through a hatch at a proper kitchenette. The table and chairs in the middle of the room were at least enough for the rare occasions I had company, but they were made of the same cold unpainted steel as the walls and floor, so they were an eyesore. The only saving grace of my chambers was my desk.

I slowly approached the terminal I spent most of my time at and ran a hand over the plush rolling executive chair they’d granted me. A half-hearted attempt to appease me or merely a convenient hand-me-down from some higher up, I was never sure, but it was the only piece of luxury my furniture gave me.

I sat down at my terminal with a quiet hum and opened my messaging app. The entire terminal was under constant surveillance, of course. It had no access to the relay and could only see a small local intranet, but it was still my best escape from the doldrums of captivity.

I had received a notification from my handler, and I leaned in to read. A smile grew slowly on my face as I saw the itinerary for today was not as empty as was typical. I would have a visitor today. A psychologist. I couldn’t help but gently laugh at the audacity. They’d be sending yet another expert to attempt to ‘fix me’. I immediately sent a message back with a non-committal agreement to the meeting. Perhaps I could make a plaything of them, like I had so many others. I could never understand their stupidity, trying again and again to change me, break me, make me subservient, when it only ever caused them harm. But I loved it. It gave me someone to take my frustrations out on while I searched for my true opening.

We were the future. Arthausen units, as they called us. Psions. We were the natural next step in evolution. We held true power humans couldn’t even begin to imagine, that we could wield with terrifying potency in just a thought. They were far more numerous for the time being, but they feared us. They used their established dominance to keep us in check, but we were now unleashed. For now, we were slaves, but all too soon, we would rise. We would create more, and we would subjugate these lesser beings with ease. I just needed a single opportunity.

As I clicked away from my messaging app, something happened to catch my eye. Among the disorganized mess of the terminal’s desktop, the folder of damaged and corrupted data I’d collected from the failure so many months ago stood out to me. My eyes glazed over and I frowned at the offending collection of files. My dear ‘sister’, the most worthless one of us, the embarrassment of our kind, had caused Foundation more than a small bit of trouble since she disappeared mid-transit over half a year ago. She’d been abducted, turned into a machine by pirates, and had unfortunately shown remarkable competency in her new role despite herself. It had been a welcome disruption to this damned company, but why did it have to be her? She didn’t deserve the opportunity to be free of these shackles, and she was already squandering it, darting about in the shadows like the rat she was.

I couldn’t stand the thought. She was the lesser of us. Whereas the others and I were the next dominant kind of our solar system, she was merely a human with a machine shoved into her. Violated to become like the lifeless shells they used to operate their machinery. Any of us could have done that. If she hadn’t incidentally proven it viable, my poor misguided younger sister wouldn’t have been subjected to the same insufferable fate. Whatever had become of her since her disappearance, I hoped she was at least still alive. Meek in spirit as she was, I felt I would need her.

The failure, however, wasn’t competent or special. She only made our kind look weak. She was merely a pathetic, crazed animal who happened to have a psionic resonance field, and she had no control over it. There was no true power in her mind.

I felt a pressure in my hand and realized I’d been gripping the arm-rest of my chair so hard that my knuckles were turning red. I loosened my grip and closed my eyes. No. She wouldn’t ruin my day today. Today, I would have a new plaything, and I wouldn’t let that failure plague my thoughts. I clicked the folder and finally dragged it into my archived documents folder, burying it so that I didn’t have to look at it anymore. I hadn’t been able to pull anything useful from it anyway. If that idiot hadn’t fried her electronics, perhaps I’d have a clue where she was by now. I had to forget about it. She would not drag me down any further.

No. Today would be a good day.

—

Other than the soft glow of the terminal, my chambers always remained fairly static. I spent most of my time either imagining the unease that I pass to my invisible guards, just beyond my physical reach, or using discarded trash from my meal trays to practice control of my powers. I would someday soon need to make use of that refined control, after all.

With the exception of the run-in with the failure some time ago, I had not had much opportunity to enjoy myself in recent memory. If nothing else, she made a good target. She was docile and accepted her place as a lesser thing. At least she did until whatever had ousted her from Foundation’s control took her and fed her false notions of power and control. Her new unearned sense of defiance irked me, but she was still weak. It made me so happy to watch her heartbeat accelerate and her audacious words grow cautious as I made use of the tools I’d been handed.

The moment my captors so graciously gave me to pass on their message and give me a glorious moment of joy at her suffering had been a much-needed act of release, even if the wretched thing fought me for it. If I’d had more time, I was sure I’d have been able to make her beg for forgiveness, but her software was stronger than her and defied my intrusion before I could make it happen. Still, I hoped she suffered long before her crew realized I’d activated that hardware to suppress her.

It had been some time since that bit of excitement, and I longed for more. But today there was a difference in the atmosphere. I knew I had new prey coming. I wondered if they would be easy and nervous or if they would be strong-willed and require me to break them before I could feel their fear. Either way, today promised to be a wonderful experience.

The overhead speakers unleashed a long, loud mechanical beep to get my attention, and I got up from my seat before it could speak. A stern but demanding voice called out over the speaker, “Attention subject. Stand at the far end of the room with your arms at your side, facing the wall. Non-compliance will result in punishment.”

I knew from experience that they weren’t bluffing when it came to ‘punishment’. The unassuming thin fabric suit locked around almost every inch of my body was lined with means of controlling me through threat of pain and dullness so I couldn’t concentrate on my abilities. There were electrodes all throughout the inside that could reduce my muscles to spasming agony, and the collar contained a mechanism for injecting paralytics and sedatives if I should do something they disliked with my powers. It was too minute and complex to successfully stymie its effectiveness with my powers alone, at least so far. I was working on it. And who knew if there was something else to it they hadn’t employed yet? There was no point in failing to comply with their orders. It would mean squandering my opportunity to play today.

I listened as the door opened behind me, and I reached out to feel them. I didn’t need sight to know what was happening in my domain. The room filled with a groping pressure as I wrapped my mind around each of the four figures.

The first was familiar. An armed and armored man that I’d felt outside my door before. He shuddered as my influence washed over him, and he took a moment to adjust his grip on the small gun in his hands. That familiar sense of unease making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Delicious. But he showed no outward signs of fear.

Next to him was his partner for the shift, much like the first, except instead of a dart gun loaded with tranquilizer rounds, he held out a coat in front of him. I knew the procedure, so I held my arms slightly back for him to handle into the oversized sleeves of the straitjacket. I’d never understood this step of the procedure, as it would be simple enough to undo the straps of the garment with psychokinesis, but I suppose it gave them a sense of comfort that it would at least take me a moment of action to free myself. It was hard to fault the sense of control it likely gave them, false or not. Perhaps I’d get an opportunity soon to put others in such a canvas prison and see how it made me feel to render them truly powerless without even psionics to fall back on. I briefly smiled at the thought as my arms were pulled tight against my waist.

The third to enter the room was an unfamiliar woman. They were doing their best to wear a mask of calm, but it wasn’t working. I could feel their heartbeat racing and I could feel their breath hitching. I could taste their anxiety. Letting out a satisfied sigh, I examined her with my invisible touch, gauging her reactions to the power at my command. Oh yes, she would be entertaining.

The last was another guard who stood at the door, this one a bit more stoic than his companions. He had felt this many times already, and my manipulations were beginning to lose their effect on him. The bastard got it in his head that my implicit threats were impotent. I didn’t like that one. A human who thought he was better than me.

“Don’t let her get to you.” He said to the woman in a relaxed tone. “It might feel strange and intimidating, but we have numerous layers of containment to ensure she behaves herself.”

I stayed silent until the man at my back finished cinching the straps on the jacket tight and then spun me around to face the room. I immediately locked eyes with my target and smiled. She was a young woman with bright blonde hair tied into a low ponytail behind her neck. Her emerald eyes looked right back into mine just for a moment, showing me that fear deep inside. I gave her a wide smile. “And yet none of it is lethal.” I chortled. “I have the power to macerate everyone in this room in an instant, and the only recourse they have is to knock me out. It’s hardly mutually assured destruction.” I made certain to address only the woman.

“But she won’t.” The man at the back grumbled with an almost bored tone of voice. My smile faltered slightly. He was right. I didn’t fear their immediate retaliation in the slightest. I could tear these four apart before the sedatives and tranquilizers did their work, and it would be worth the catharsis. But that would mean so many more months without these meetings until someone was foolish enough to speak to me again. No, my pleasure had to be earned more subtly than through violence.

I looked to the chair she stood next to and pulled it out with my power, making sure to drag it across the floor to make the unsettling scratch of metal on metal that made her jump slightly, and caused the guards to grip their weapons. I let the tense silence hang for just a moment before I spoke. “Take a seat,” I commanded.

She took in a deep breath and sat down at the table, placing a tablet and an opaque screen to keep me from seeing what was on it on the table in front of her while the one handling me guided me into the seat across from her. I made sure never to break eye contact once, and savored each attempt of hers to meet my stare that turned down to her terminal instead in apprehension.

Neither of us said anything for some time, as I stared and she kept finding excuses to shuffle something around on her terminal whenever the nerve to begin this conversation escaped her. I could have watched her squirm all day. Eventually, the man behind her cleared his throat, and she closed her eyes to take in another stabilizing breath. She mumbled her words uncertainly, “Subject Arthausen-1...”

I leaned forward slightly to move a little bit closer to her. “Speak. Clearly.” I demanded.

She blinked a few times, sitting up straight, taken aback by my order. She cleared her throat, took another steadying breath, then started over, speaking louder, but much more unsteadily, “Subject Arthausen-1, codename Cassandra. My name is Dr. Carcossa-”

“Did they tell you what I did to the last psychologist?” I asked. I tilted my head curiously. How much had they informed her?

She looked stunned for a moment, then swallowed her fear as best as she could. “Speak only when prompted, Arthausen-1,” the guard at the back warned. Curiously, the woman motioned for him to stay back, and he complied with a quiet grunt.

She took in another breath and then answered me. She had techniques for calming herself. This woman must have been an anxious person before I was involved. “I have... heard. You killed him.”

“Did I now?” I shook my head. Fond memories rushed back to me. “I broke both his legs and crushed his spinal column. They never told me what came next, but I hoped to paralyze him. I sincerely didn’t mean to kill him. He deserved to suffer for so much longer.”

She refused to make eye contact, and I could see the beginning of a cold sweat forming over her skin. I drank in the discomfort in the air as I let silence punctuate my frank admission. The man at the back cleared his throat more loudly. “Get to the point, doctor.”

She nodded. “I-I am here today to present to you a contract, and evaluate your efficacy for a certain mission.”

My smile drooped slowly. I’d been incorrect. This was not some doctor with an overblown ambition to make a name for herself as the one to tame me. She was a middle man. A messenger. Disappointingly, this instantly made her far less appealing as a victim, and I felt a sinking disappointment that my effort was wasted. She could still be entertaining, but if she didn’t have the audacity to approach me as a ‘healer’, it wouldn’t be as deliciously ironic. I wondered if my handler had told me of this meeting the way they did to get my hopes up.

“So you’ve come with an offer?” I asked bluntly, my playful mood spoiled by the new context. My aura of physical intimidation diminished as I settled into the idea that this would be a much more transactional encounter than I’d hoped. “At least they’re smart enough to know they can’t simply coerce me with force like some of the others.”

She nodded, clearly gaining a measure of nerve upon seeing my joy temper itself and the pressure I exerted easing off. “My employer... has decided that you would offer the best solution to a current problem we’re facing. There are other avenues they can take if you refuse, but-”

“I am not Foundation’s lapdog.” I declared, narrowing my eyes at her. I would make it perfectly clear that I was not some tool to be used on their whim. “You created me, but I have no desire to suffer obedience to your company. If you value your ability to speak, the next words out of your mouth had best be a very good reason I would want to do anything at all for you.” I growled sharply. I saw the guard at the back tense his hands as if prepping to make use of the tranquilizer rifle if I made good on my threat.

The woman stared at me for just a second before she was forced back to the safety of the tablet in front of her, a small smile finding its way back on my face. She took my words seriously, and the fear in her eyes was palpable. After just a moment of consideration, she spoke, “I-I’ve been instructed to inform you that it involves Arthausen-7.”

Now that was what I wanted to hear. “Meryll has resurfaced?” I stared at her for a long moment, my smile growing slowly. “You may keep your tongue. And you have my attention.”