Days of Wasp and Spider II: Final Solution
by Luna-tic Scientist
Preread by: KMCA
Edited by: ssokolow
=== Chapter 01: Prologue ===
Sector Chief Orgon swept down the hospital corridor at the centre of a travelling zone of Security staff. To either side walked one of the Pit's close-quarters specialists, compact People with the attitude of coiled springs and eyes that never rested. A respectful three paces behind walked a servitor, rubber shod hooves silent on the fused stone floor. The creature was also a highly skilled security operative, and only had one job -- defend her Master against any threat that might penetrate the rest of the cordon, or extract him as fast as possible. Like the pair of combat specialists, the dappled grey mare was in full armour and festooned with equipment -- although, in her case, it was life-saving rather than life-taking.
Out in front of the little group were pairs of armoured gryphons, coursing through the hospital and blocking off corridors and rooms in advance of the Sector Chief's party. Raised voices could often be heard from the other sides of those temporary roadblocks, but no one was going to try too hard to get past three hundred kilos of gryphon, especially when the creature in question wore the decals of the 'Screaming Talons' Ripper group.
No one impeded the Sector Chief.
There was an open door ahead, with an angry looking doctor standing in the entrance. The male, a pale furred individual with tiger-stripe markings on his cheeks, was pointedly ignoring the hulking gryphoness who had one set of metal inlaid talons wrapped around his arm. The doctor's eyes narrowed as he saw the little procession coming down the corridor.
"What is the meaning of this- this disruption!" he said, trying to pull his arm away from the gryphoness' vice-like grip. "This one has patients he needs to attend to and doesn't have time for this circus."
"Thank you for your time, Doctor Hemanth. This one is Sector Chief Orgon of Hive Security." Orgon's reply was calm and measured, something that only served to anger the doctor further.
"This one doesn't care who you are! Either arrest Hemanth or let him go. He has more important things to do than play a part in this theatre." The doctor gave his arm another tug, stumbling when the gryphoness suddenly released him at a signal from Orgon. He glared at the trooper, who stared imperturbably back.
"That will be all, trooper," Orgon said with a nod. The gryphoness snapped her beak in salute, then stepped back to let the People have access to the room. The Sector Chief gestured to the door and smiled. "Doctor, shall we?"
Hemanth clenched his paws, then stalked into the room, followed by Orgon and the dapple grey servitor. The room was packed with machines, some wholly electronic, others hybrids packed with arrays of varicoloured crystals. At the centre of this clutter of instrumentation was a high sided bed, which was occupied by a shrunken and distorted figure, barely recognisable as female. There were odd lumps under the patient's skin, arms and legs twisted like it was an angry child's doll. A cluster of tubes ran down her throat, through jaws wedged open with metal clamps.
At a glance from Orgon, the pony lit her horn and swept a plane of white light through the figure. "Hey! No magic in here, these instruments--" Already alarms were sounding and warning lights strobed on several consoles. The patient twitched on the bed and Hemanth stepped forward, only to be intercepted by one of Orgon's bodyguards. "Servitor, this one orders you to stop!"
"Do not worry, Doctor, I will not allow your patient to die," the mare said, all her attention focused on the bed. Her magic shut off and she turned to Orgon, bowing her head. "Master, Agent Salrath has only been given basic stabilisation treatment. She has fifteen separate temporary circulatory bypass modifications and requires artificial support for kidney and liver function. Bone splinters have been removed from her abdominal cavity, but the broken bones have not been repaired. It will require a significant amount of work to bring her back to operational performance."
Doctor Hemanth threw up his paws. "What does the pony expect? This one's patient was only delivered yesterday and--" he yelled, stopping when he realised that the pony wasn't listening and hadn’t responded with the customary fearful cringe, then rounded on Orgon. "This one knew the patient was one of yours as soon as the servitors flew in through the priority vehicle bay and straight into the triage centre. This one has been stabilised and is awaiting treatment by our trauma specialists. Come back in another megasecond and Security can talk to this... Salrath."
Orgon smiled, a rare genuine smile for one in his line of work. "This one values your candour, Doctor, but that is not an acceptable timeframe. Can the servitor wake the Agent up?"
"Absolutely not, this--"
"Yes, Master. The Agent is being kept unconscious by a series of neural blocks; I will have to remove them all before she can speak. There will be some discomfort if she is to remain lucid." The mare spoke loudly, cutting off the Doctor's words and leaving him open-mouthed in shock. Her horn lit and a glow settled over Salrath's body. She looked at Orgon, who nodded, then closed her eyes.
The figure on the bed twitched slightly but otherwise didn't move. Her eyes snapped open and she screamed, the cry made thin and ragged by the tube down her throat. More flickers from the pony's horn and she relaxed slightly, then her eyes went wide as the tube was withdrawn and the clamps removed from her teeth. She coughed, a dry hacking that made it sound like her throat was full of sand.
"Alive," she croaked, lips curling slightly in a pained grin, then her eyes flicked to the Sector Chief. "Are the servitors dead?"
"This one believes so, but proof will have to wait until the Institute has been excavated. It is possible they are trapped within the beam chamber; detailed scans are not easy through the shielded walls."
"Salrath doesn't trust--" she said, breaking off with a little gasp of pain as the mare's magic made fragments of bone move under her skin.
"No, Orgon would suppose that she would not. This will be checked, if only because the World Court demands it. Unfortunately, the extent of the damage makes it a difficult task, or so the engineers have told this one, so the Auditors have not pressed the issue." The Sector Chief gave a shark-like grin, then nodded in response to Salrath's slight smile in return. "Salrath is to be commended for her actions; she has exposed a grave threat to the Hive... which means that the Agent now has the traditional reward for a job well done. This one feels that there is a task quite suited to Salrath's particular... talents." Orgon turned to the Doctor. "Hemanth is thanked, but his services are no longer required. Security will take responsibility for this patient."
The Doctor looked at Orgon like he was something that should have been passed through an incinerator. "Fine," he said, throwing up his paws and marching angrily out of the room. "Take the Agent and all your filthy animals and get out of this one's hospital."
The Agent pricked up her ears in interest and Orgon smiled inside. Salrath had her gryphon, and this one has Salrath, he thought.
Over the next kilosecond the pair talked through the Security Chief's idea, while the servitor gradually pulled the jigsaw of Salrath's shattered bones back together.
===
The morning after Fusion's recovery was a source of much needed calm. That, and a deep and unshakable feeling of guilt. It took a constant effort of will not to fly to the Sector Security Hub right now and pull Random out of whatever hell the Masters were inflicting on her. Instead, Fusion took low, careful flights around the area, becoming bolder as it became obvious that there was no sign of any Master activity within the range of her eye or her magic.
The wilderness was pristine. Old growth pines covered the sharp-edged hills and ridges, deceptively small for their age. The mare sectioned one to count its rings -- a small one, no more than a few hooves across -- and found they were too small to see without magical aid. A hundred years, at least; the trees living through a short growing season that was very nearly over, if the cold snap in the air was to be believed. "That's something," she said to the forest from a rare clear patch on the top of a ridge line, "too cold to grow anything useful, and the Masters never did have much of a call for wood."
I'm going to have to find something else to call them, she thought, even the language they gave us is riddled with things that reinforce their dominion.
Mind busy, she took a dainty step over a rock, bending her head to nibble from the tips of a stunted pine growing from a crack in one side. They were dark green and tough, but there were some tender buds at the core of the spiky cluster. Her teeth made short work of the small mouthful and Fusion made a face at the astringent taste. Not actually unpleasant, quite refreshing in a way... Her stomach grumbled; a reminder that she'd missed most of yesterday's meals. She looked out at the forest speculatively. Not sure I'd like to fill up on the stuff. That aftertaste was bound to be a defensive chemical.
Fusion took a deep breath, wincing at the sharp jab of pain from her half-healed ribs. --a metal bar, its tip trailing through her fur before the Master brought it down with enough force to crack bone-- The mare flinched anew, the memory stark and fresh. She'd been very careful on the short flights; there was only a generalized ache from her side, nothing more than what you'd expect from bruised muscles, but the stabbing sensation was an unpleasant reminder that she was far from fit. No aerobatics for a while, she thought wistfully, then glided off the ridge and down to their little camp.
Something terrible had happened; Gravity looked as if she had fallen asleep, but was sprawled out on her side like a dead pony. Lilac was staring at her, a look of intense concentration on his face, tongue between his teeth and a flicker of blue light about his horn. Fusion's eyes widened and a flash of horror ran through her like an electric shock. He's using magic--
Later there would be time for regret and self-recrimination, that she'd been so stupid as to trust this youngster who'd had next to no interaction with other ponies for the vast bulk of his short life, but at this moment... Her own power bloomed exponentially, hornlight filling the darkness under the trees as arcane claws sped through the shadow world, ready to shred and tear, more magic building a barrier of force between the stallion and her sister. Energy sufficient to pull the hill apart, focused on a single young pony.
The panic died as Gravity lifted her head, watching Fusion as she slipped between the trunks and landed on the slope. "Sorry, should have warned you," she said, sleepily. "Lilac has been practicing thaumic medicine on me. For the basic stuff he's very good; given training he'll make an excellent medic."
Lilac smiled, finally turning to look at Fusion. His eyes widened and his ears drooped, a faint whinny escaping his lips as he caught a glimpse of the fast fading dregs of Fusion's magic. "Sorry, I didn't mean--"
"No, Lilac, I'm the one who's sorry. You just caught me by surprise, that's all." Fusion stepped closer to examine her sister's side; there was a scar under the fur, but the flesh looked whole, like several months had passed rather than just a few kiloseconds. On the ground next to the ponies was a small pile of sharp-edged metal and stone fragments, all covered with a film of blood. Trust, Fusion thought, there must be trust between us. "That looks like an excellent job, Lilac."
The fear vanished from his face and he smiled up at her tentatively. "Would you like me to do the same for you? I saw what that Master..." He trailed off, swallowing.
Fusion folded her legs and lay next to her sister. Trust, she thought. "Yes, Lilac. I'd like that very much."