Home :: Fanfiction :: Index :: Shaquarava Awards
I watch Sandoval's form retreat from view and struggle with the tears threatening to fall. Big girls don't cry, my mother used to chide me whenever I ran to her in tears. Then she'd hug me and make it seem alright.
I want to cry, to rail at Sandoval. How could he do this to me? Why not grant me the relative mercy of a quick execution? Instead he had me whisked away from those I care about, implanted with a CVI and apparently altered on the most fundamental of levels.
A sudden chilling though crosses my mind. When Tate and Vosser revealed that my own eyes are now their cameras and my ears their microphones, I almost lost it. My first reaction was denial, my second righteous indignation and the third horrified revelation. I've always been a private person and now that the shock has had time to wear off some, I can visualize all the little sights and sounds that will not be mine alone to experience.
It also means they would know if I cried and I won't give them the satisfaction.
My shuttle enters inter-dimensional space with a jolt and I squirm in my seat, but the restraints hold firm. No matter, I have the entire trip to Sandoval-knows-where to figure out how to get loose.
I try to tilt my head enough to catch a last glimpse of Earth, it is always so beautiful when viewed from above. Even the knowledge that I must share this image too with my tormentors does not diminish its splendor.
Everything is growing fuzzy. There must be some kind of sedative in the air mix to keep me from getting out, overriding Sandoval's programming and turning the shuttle back to Earth. Sandoval would know I'd be willing to take my chances on Earth.
I've never been a n especially religious person, I scoffed at my parents beliefs when I was a teenager and doubted them even further than I thought possible when Andy took his own life. Still, Dad always said there are no atheists on the battleground and in my case the cliche rang true. In combat during the S.I. War, I prayed for the first time in years.
As I do now.
'Now I lay me down to sleep...' The words from the prayer I used to say before climbing into bed echo in my mind even as I slip into a drugged sleep.