[Book 4 Preamble] Numbered Inmates: Part 2
Monsters
After a longer moment than most could sustain, and when she was certain the occupant wasn't attempting to make her drop her guard, Sixteen Omega finally spoke. "Monsters? No. Monsters choose to commit such atrocities. Such choice is a luxury I do not have, and I surmise: neither do you." She took a few steps toward the wall, inadvertently reaching out to feel for it, when her boot caught on a small ventilation grate, causing her to unceremoniously crash into the wall. She quickly spun around expecting to endure her cell-mate's attack. To her surprise, the other woman made no move of aggression.
"What did they do to you?" Six asked, stoically.
Sixteen sat, pulled her legs to her chest and rested her head on her knees. "What they did… What she did…" She groaned. "I can only hope not to remember." She paused a moment letting out a sigh. "Not that there's much I can remember."
"Maybe that's best," Six said prophetically.
A slight humph came from Sixteen. "Perhaps," she said in her own time. "I remember only my name. Each time she brings me back, it is the one thing that seems to remain." She brushed her muted red and dark black hair to one side, revealing a shaved underside containing some scars which she absently rubbed.
"Well what is it?"
"My assigned designation is Sixteen Omega… It is what they want me to be - who they want me to be. But, I was… I am more. I was once known as Shiera Soelnarr."
Six sat for a long moment, studying the woman. It was clear she was blind judging by the way she moved, even before the stumble, but her stance told her that this woman was certainly capable.
Six tilted her head, her eyebrow raised. She had a name, one she remembered in a life outside of all of this.. Six had only known life in Lennk's clutches, she had been taken as an infant or a small child. " Omega? Are you not as powerful as us 'Alphas', as Lennk calls us?"
Six stood and moved slowly toward her, bare feet silently stepping closer, and finally knelt down near her.
Shiera pulled back, not having heard the woman's footsteps, then suddenly feeling her proximity. After a few moments of hesitation, she came to the conclusion the occupant's movement wasn't meant as a threatening posture, nor was it an approach designed to drop her own defenses. Sixteen's shoulders finally slumped a bit, in a slight exhale.
"While I am uncertain about much of who I was before, I can confirm with certainty that I am most definitely not powerless - at least, when I am not within these confines." Her obsidian eyes darted around the red fog of the room. "What is this place?"
Six sat back a moment, glancing around as the other woman had. Her own predicament notwithstanding, Six couldn't imagine going through this captivity without the use of her eyes. "Near as I can tell, it's a holding cell designed to depower us; no doubt part of Lennk's sick joke."
"The male voice? Lennk? He does such to us as entertainment?"
"I don't think it started that way, with the Numbers. But now, I am not sure what his game is. It feels like we're floating around on his airship so he can just wreak havoc when he feels like being (as you said) entertained."
"My mast…" Shiera stopped abruptly, correcting herself. "Kievaa, my capturer, has very specific goals. Hardly is there a time she does such without it being part of her overall design. If this Lennk is as you say, he would be wise not to underestimate her deviousness."
Six could almost laugh at the absurdity of Lennk not being on top of things. The vile asura always had something up his sleeve, but thus far after their initial attack on House Dejarin (a distraction Six was forced to create), she had very little to go on as for his motivation. "No mistake. Lennk's a monster!"
"Then it is unfortunate the couple found each other."
Six let out a long breath, looked at the entrance to the cell. After a long pause, she raised an eyebrow as a thought began to formulate. "You know… Maybe their ill-begotten union isn't completely bad for us. After all, two super-powered beings both set on getting free may be more than they've reckoned." She turned her head back to her cellmate only to find Shiera closer than she'd been before.
"Tell me your plan," Sixteen whispered.
Six looked around the room. She knew every inch, every rivet, every screw that held it all together, yet she had failed to find a weakness. If she had access to her abilities, no amount of steel would hold her back.
"There has to be a way... I just haven't figured it out yet," she said, inspecting the area again. Arriving at the same conclusion she sighed. She leaned forward, close to the other woman, her mouth close to her ear to whisper.
"We have to assume they are listening to everything we say as well, so we must be careful."
Six craned her head, looking around once more. She reached out and carefully took hold of Shiera's gloved hand and gave it a squeeze. "Can you feel this?"
Shiera nodded slowly, eyebrow raised at the gesture.
A second later, Six's fingertip began to spell out an idea. She just hoped the blind woman could read.
[To be Continued...]
