To Well And Back (The Deep Dark Well) (15 page)

“Get that thing back to
the landing field,” he told a corporal who was in charge of that detail.  “Make
sure it gets on a shuttle up to the flagship.”

Dumas turned away and
looked at the dead who were being piled up in the clearing for eventual
extraction.  He had paid a heavy price for the woman and her equipment.  He
hoped it was worth it, and that the glory would come back to him.

*     *     *

Watcher woke in a daze,
the fogginess of a concussion in his awareness as he attempted to focus on the
here and now. 
I should keep the damned helmet on my head when in a combat
situation
, he thought, trying to focus through blurry eyes on the
situation.  He looked down at the matrix battery box that was lying on the
floor, his hand reaching up to rub the knot on his crown. 
Definitely need
to keep that helmet on my head.

He noted that his three
remaining vehicles were now twenty kilometers from the place they had been when
the near explosion had almost flipped his tank and sent the box into his head,
and his head into the hard inner hull of the vehicle. 
Maybe we should put
some padding in here as well
, he thought, feeling his mind start to clear. 
He knew whatever damage had been done would be quickly repaired by his nanites. 
But maybe making sure such damage would not be done in the future would also be
a good idea.

So they are still back
there bombing the jungle
, he thought, watching on his sat pickup as the aircraft
circled over the area dropping their explosives.  As he watched one squadron of
aircraft circled out while another moved in to keep up the bombing. 
Scaring
the hell out of some wildlife
, he thought, a smile on his face.  The smile
fled when he saw some transport airships come into the picture and hover over the
bombed out jungle.  Armored men dropped from the transports and fell slowly to
the ground. 
Now they’re searching for me
, he thought, getting his small
command moving again. 
Well, they can look all they want, maybe even get
some scraps from the other tanks, but I will be elsewhere
.

His head was feeling
much better as he moved through the jungle, determined to stay on the floor for
the next couple of hours despite the time it took.  He wouldn’t do Pandora any
good dying in an attack.  He also thought of what other aid he might be able to
get here on the planet, and sent a signal back through the pyramid to the
Donut.
 
Soon he would go back up into the high canopy, and hopefully make much better
time, if he could avoid attention.

*     *     *

Pandora woke to a
splitting headache and confusion.  Her last memory was of the rifle butt coming
down on her, and she knew that it had struck her in the head.  Fortunately her
bionanites had done yeoman’s work in repairing the damage.  She kept her eyes
closed, not wanting to give away that she was conscious to the people carrying
her on the swaying gurney.  She checked her systems and was surprised to find
that some things weren’t working.  Her internal implants were still functional,
with the exception of her com link and her internal processing module.  But
most surprising was the lack of response from her mechanical nanites.  They
were all off line, to a one.

They must have hosed me
down with EMP
,
she thought.  That was the only explanation.  Her bionanite systems were still
intact, which was a plus, but the little guys, controlled by her glandular
system, were really not of much use for anything other than repairing cellular
damage and enhancing her immune and filtration systems. 
Except they can
take apart mechanical nanites and rebuild them.
  With a thought she
triggered the hormones that would give the bios their instructions.  It
wouldn’t be long before she had functional mechanonanites again in her system,
which could build more, until she had what she needed.

“She’s awake,” said one
of the men around her as they put her gurney down.  “I saw her eyes twitch.”

“Open your eyes,
bitch,” said one of the men, nudging her in the side.  “I said, open your
eyes,” repeated the same man, kicking her in earnest, and drawing an
involuntary grunt from the woman.

Pandora opened her eyes
to look at five or six men, all glaring down at her as they removed their
armor.  They were in the darkened space of what had to be one of the surviving
buildings on the Suryan landing field. 
I really don’t like the look of
this¸
she thought of what appeared to be an ensuing gang rape.  The men
continued to strip to their undergarments, then open up their pants, pulling
their penises into view.

The woman knew that she
didn’t have to worry about STDs or pregnancy, thanks to her bionanite system. 
That didn’t mean she was looking forward to this, or that she would just let it
happen.  She pulled hard against the plastic restraints that held her hands in
front of her. 
At least they have to take the damned things off my ankles
,
she thought, hoping that she was correct in that respect.

“We’re really going to
enjoy this you bitch,” said the man who looked like the senior of the group. 
“Maybe you’ll enjoy it too.”

Fat chance
, thought Pandora,
watching as the man moved to her ankles with a knife in hand and a wicked smile
on his face.

“We shouldn’t be doing
this, Sergeant,” said one of the younger troopers.  “I mean, the Major said he
wanted her delivered intact.  And they got to be waiting for us at the landing
field.”

“Shut up, youngster,”
said the Sergeant, slicing through the ankle restraints while looking at Pandi
with a leer.  “If you don’t want any of this prime female, get your ass outside
and keep watch with Stephanis.”

The man stood up, his
erection sticking out of the opening of his pants.  He started to bend over,
his hands reaching for Pandi’s pants, his intentions clear.

Watcher had insisted
that Pandora accept biological augmentation if she were to go traipsing around
the Supersytem, and eventually beyond.  Her life span had been quintupled as a
result of those modifications, which was the best of the long term benefits. 
But her biological efficiency had been more than doubled as well.  She was
faster and stronger than before the aug work.  Her body processed food much
more efficiently, and manufactured ATP through a greater number of more
efficient mitochondria.  Her bones were harder, much more resistant to
breaking.  In her own time she would have been considered an athletic freak, if
not a superwoman.  And Watcher had insisted that she learn how to use that body
to cause maximum mayhem to anyone who threatened her.

The Sergeant grabbed
the top of her bodysuit pants, worked them free of the top, and pulled, sliding
them over her thighs, revealing her legs and panties.  He continued sliding
them down and over her feet, then threw the pants to the side.  “Wonder what’s
under here,” he said, reaching for her panties.

If you don’t know
what’s under there you’re a moron
, thought Pandi, her eyes locked on his
erection.  They were only locked there because that would be her first target.

Pandora brought both of
her rear limbs back in a blur, cocking both legs, then shooting the left foot
into the groin of the Sergeant.  He woofed out his air and crumpled over, and
her right leg pushed her heel into his face.  The man fell backwards, hands
still reaching for his groin despite his lack of consciousness.  While the
Sergeant fell over onto his back Pandi brought both legs up and kicked herself
to an upright position, her eyes searching and prioritizing targets as she
landed on her feet, staying in a crouch. 

To her senses the
people around her were moving in slow motion, like drunks in a bar fight.  The
closest one to her became the first target, and she leaned over and sent a side
kick into that man’s stomach, followed by a snap kick to his groin. 
He
won’t be thinking about taking any pussy for a while
, she thought as the
man fell to the ground, grabbing his groin.  She spun into a roundhouse kick
that caught the next man in the jaw, then swung her linked hands into the face
of a fourth, knocking him from his feet and into the wall.

I better watch it
, she thought, throwing
a spin kicked that missed her target and made her land on her feet unbalanced. 
She continued the motion, using momentum to regain balance as her rear leg came
around in a spinning hook kick to catch a man in the side.  She sent a snap
kick to his groin, her favorite target at the moment, then turned and snapped a
kick into the knee of a charging man.  The man screamed, and she sent a side
kick into his face, then stomach, then back to his knee as she jumped in the
air to bring her whole body weight onto the thigh above the joint.  She felt
and heard a satisfying crack followed by a scream that told her the knee joint
was destroyed.

Pandi jumped over the
falling form of her last victim, pulling outward with her hands and trying to
break the bonds.  The plastic stretched just a bit and then clamped back down,
and she knew she wouldn’t be breaking that handcuff anytime soon.

“Get her,” yelled one
of the men still on his feet.

“Get her?” called back
another man in a panicked voice.  “How we gonna stop her from getting us?”

A shot cracked by
Pandora’s ear, and she spun around, anticipating a round that would take her
down.  Instead she saw two men wrestling over a mag pistol.  “We’re supposed to
bring her in alive,” yelled the man who wasn’t holding the pistol in his hands.

“The hell with that,”
yelled the other man.  “We fuck around and she’s going to kill us all.”

Pandi looked toward the
door, turning and starting to sprint toward it, hands reaching out to grab the
handle.  She didn’t know what waited on the other side, an empty space between
buildings, or a drill square full of men.  She only knew she didn’t want to be
here, and her only hope was to get out of this room and run like hell.

Shit
, she thought, as the
vibrations of a sonic stunner played over her.  Her muscles relaxed to the
point where they would not hold her weight, and her body slid to the ground. 
Her vision blurred and consciousness left, her last thought that she would wake
in a place a whole lot worse than this.

Chapter
Fourteen

Do your duty in all things.  You cannot do
more, you should never wish to do less.

Robert E. Lee

Pandora woke up with
pain shooting through every part of her body. 
Not woke up
, she
thought. 
Come to. 
She could feel the drugs in her system, and was sure
they had shot her up with things meant to sedate her and break her resistance
to questioning. 
Good luck with that last
, she thought, a thin smile
crossing her face.  She had been conditioned to resist any such efforts
depending on drugs or mind probes.

She concentrated
through the drugs to her pain, assessing her injuries.  Her face hurt all the
way to the back of her skull, and she had a vague recollection of a rifle butt
coming toward her, again.  The sore ribs must have been from getting kicked
multiple times, and the sharp pain that came with each breath would of course
be caused by one or more broken bones in her rib cage.  And the pain between
her legs could only come from a forcible rape.  She felt her stomach flip over
at that thought, of men using her against her will, taking out their anger and
hate on her. 
At least I won’t get pregnant from any fanatic SOB’s semen
,
she thought, almost exulting in the thought of her bionanites attacking and
killing the little things the men had put in her body. 
And when I find you
I’m going to kill you
, was her next thought.  She repeated a calming mantra
in her head, ignoring the pain of her hurts and getting to a place that she
needed to be, a place where she could think and plan.

The woman spent the
next couple of minutes taking stock of her situation.  She was lying on a
table, her naked back pressed against cold metal.  Her ankles and wrists were
pinioned in tight manacles that were attached to the table.  There didn’t
appear to be any way to escape this situation, but Watcher had taught her that
most cages had a way out, if one thought and searched.  Next she assessed her
internal systems through her implant.  There was no permanent damage to her
body.  The neurons in her brain were knitting well, and the last effects of the
concussions would be gone in an hour or so.  The bionanites were also hard at
work on her ribs, and thankfully nothing had been displaced to the point where
reknitting the bones would cause any kind of temporary deformity that might
affect her ability to move.

And she had
mechanonanites back in her system, rebuilt by the bionanites.  Some were at
work repairing her central implants, which would be back to full functionality
within the hour.  Others were working hard to rehabilitate all the nanites that
had been knocked flat by the EMP that had been played over her body on the planet. 
With a thought she sent a command from the working parts of her implants to
those nanites to manufacture new brothers, then to perform a covert mission. 
That’s
as much as I can do
, she thought, saying the calming mantra again in her
mind. 
Have to see if the little guys can actually do what I want them to
do. 
She mentally smiled at that thought, remembering how when she had
first come aboard the
Donut
the thought of nanoscale robots crawling
around in her brain and body horrified her.  Now she didn’t know how she would
get by without the little guys.

“So this is the woman
who has given us so much trouble,” said a voice that sounded familiar, if only
from vids she had watched.

“And she’s awake,” said
another, rougher voice.  “Aren’t you, you bitch?  You can’t fool us, so you
might as well open your eyes.”

Pandora really didn’t
want to open her eyes.  She knew she possessed courage beyond that of most
people.  Hell, you had to be brave to go into space in her time, where so many
things could kill.  She knew she was facing torture here, whether from actual
physical damage or from nerve induction.  Pain was not something she looked
forward to. 
But it’s not going to just go away because I keep my eyes shut
. 
So she opened them to look on an older man in a black uniform, starbursts on
his collar, glaring down at her with a frown on his face.  Standing next to him
was a leering dwarf of a man in black robes, the closed fist symbol of the
Church of Humanity on his breast.

“Miklas Gerasi, I
assume,” said Pandi in her best soft drawl.

“You know me?” asked
the man, curiosity in his voice.

“Only from vids of your
conversations with Watcher,” said the woman, letting a smile creep over her
face.  “He expressed a much greater interest in meeting with you one day.  I am
sure his interest will be even greater once he learns what you’ve done with
me.”

“I am thinking that he
might give us what he wants in return for his whore,” said the Admiral, a
slight cruel smile on his lips.

“Then you don’t know
the man very well,” said Pandi, knowing that she spoke the truth.  “He is more
the avenging type than the negotiator.”  And Watcher would do anything he could
do to get her back, except selling out his station.

And the cruel smile
left the man’s lips, to be replaced by another frown.  He turned to the dwarf
and nodded.  The dwarf whispered into a link and the door behind him opened, to
admit more robed men pushing a cart with all kinds of evil looking devices on
it.

*     *     *

Miklas Gerasi looked
down at the naked form of the woman on the table and could understand why some
of his Marines had lusted after her. 
She’s beautiful
, he thought,
even
banged and bruised up as she is
.  He felt a twinge of guilt thinking
lustful thoughts about this unclean woman, while his wife and children waited
for him back in the home system.  But he was after all a man, and so expected
to respond to his God given feelings.  If the priests of the Inquisition didn’t
have to make too much of a mess here he might still be tempted to force himself
upon her. 
But only if she is still restrained
, he thought.  No use
letting her have a shot at taking his life, something, from what he had heard,
she was all too capable of.

He thought back to the
report he had received about what she had done to those men tasked with getting
her to the landing field.  Three were seriously injured.  The five who weren’t
were undergoing the tender ministrations of other inquisitors, something the
other three would also enjoy when they got of sick bay.

“If he will not
negotiate for you, maybe you will,” he told the woman, still angry at the
mention of the Abomination who controlled the station that should be his
people’s by right of heritage.  The old Empire was a human organization, even
if they did kowtow to the aliens on too many occasions.  And his was the
mightiest of the rising human kingdoms in this part of the Galaxy.

“And just what do you
want out of me,” said the woman in that lilting tone that fascinated Gerasi.

The woman out of time
, he thought, his eyes
roaming her form. 
Back from when before we left the home system, and people
still fought people.  Primitives all,
thought the Admiral, not even
recognizing that his Nation was fighting another human power at this time.  But
she had learned the secrets of the station from the Abomination, and now saw
his people as the primitives.  And sided with the kingdom they were at war
with.  “We want the secrets of the station,” he said, looking into her eyes. 
“We want to know what the code is to get on the station, past its defenses. 
And we want access to the computer that controls the station, so we can get the
tech we deserve.”

“You fuckers don’t know
what the hell you’re talking about,” said the woman, a sneer on her lips even
as her eyes showed her fear.  “You don’t deserve nothing on that station, and
Watcher sure isn’t going to give it to you.”

“We want that code, and
you will give it to us,” said the Admiral, certainty in his voice.  “We can
keep you alive as long as needed, while you feel pain like never before.”

“Wanna bet,” said the
woman, her eyes still wide, but her lips curving into a smile.

“Do whatever needs to
be done,” said the Admiral, looking over at the dwarfish Priest.  “But get us
the information that we need.”

“Yes, my Lord,” said
the man, a cruel smile on his face.  The man nodded and the other priests
wheeled the instruments over.

Gerasi glared at the
woman for a moment, then turned and walked from the room.  Much as he wanted to
see the bitch punished, he still did not have the stomach to watch an actual
interrogation.  Once was enough, as far as he was concerned.

*     *     *

Pandora watched the
Admiral leave the chamber, then all of her attention was fixed on the robed men
gathered around the table, looking down at her with cold, predatory eyes.  She
glanced over at the instruments and felt an involuntary shudder run down her
body.  She had told the truth when she challenged the Admiral on what kind of
torture she had endured.  The pain induction field that
Vengeance
had
subjected her to on the
Donut
was the most excruciating agony
imaginable.  But these men would be subjecting her to an extended session of
torture, and she really didn’t know how long she could hold out under such.

“This will not be
pleasant,” said the dwarf, a broad smile on his face.  “For you, that is.  For
us it will be most enjoyable.”

Pandi shuddered again,
and she knew these men could smell the fear on her.  She closed her eyes and
said a calming mantra, at the same time sending an order through her implants,
hoping that maybe the nanites could close down some of her pain pathways.  In
theory she knew that they could.  In practice?  She just didn’t know.

“None of that,” said
the dwarf, touching her left breast with something cold and hard.  The cold
turned instantly to super-cold, burning the tender flesh of the breast.

Pandi opened her eyes
and bit back a scream, looking at the burn on her flesh.  The Inquisitor kept
the object in place for a moment, letting the severe cold burn deeper.

“You’re a strong one,”
said the dwarf, removing the torture device.  “It does not matter.  Nothing
matters in the end.  You will tell us what we want.”

“And what the hell do
you want?” asked Pandi through clenched teeth.

“Your codes for the
Donut
,”
said the man, looking at the cold burn with a satisfied smirk.

“There ain’t no damned
codes,” said Pandi, spitting out each word as she tried to keep the scream from
coming.  The pain was abating a bit, and she was sure her nanites were doing
yeoman’s work damping the nerves.  “We have to transmit a signal through our
implants that lets it recognize an authorized user.  But nothing as simple as
codes.”

“Then that is what we
want,” said the dwarf, picking up an air syringe from his cart.  “If it can
tell our computer what to transmit, then that is what we want.”

The dwarf put the
syringe against Pandora’s neck and injected the contents into her carotid
artery.  “Just a mixture of nanites and drugs to help you, uh, cooperate with
the process.”

Pandora grimaced as she
felt the contents of the syringe pushed into her artery. 
You’re not going
to get what you expect
, she thought, wondering how she should make her face
appear to fool them into thinking the concoction they had injected was
working.  They obviously thought all of her nanite defenses were gone,
destroyed by the men on the planet who had run the EMP over her.

The woman linked into
her implant, stopping herself from sighing in relief as she saw that it was now
fully functional.  With a command she set the nanites in her brain to a plan
that would keep her mind her own.

Bionanites were not
really nanoscale organisms.  They were slightly larger, in the realm of
viruses, which still made them pretty damned small.  They now targeted the
intruder nanites, like bears attacking dogs, ingesting them and ripping them
apart.  The larger organelles also attacked the molecules of the drugs. 
Meanwhile the implant did an analysis on the invader nanites, and duplicated
their function with Pandora’s symbiotic robots.  Soon her own nanites were
interfacing with the computers of the Inquisitors, feeding information into the
system, while at the same time hacking in and gaining access to that computer
network.

“Now we can get on with
the next phase of the questioning,” said the dwarfish man, picking up another
instrument, turning a dial, then placing it on Pandora’s chest between her
breasts.

The pain as the
electricity entered her system was unbearable.  Pandora arched her back as her
muscles spasmed involuntarily, her teeth bit down, taking off the tip of her
tongue, and her bladder released warm liquid that ran beneath her legs and
buttocks.  The man removed the electrode, looked into her face for a moment,
then pushed it back into contact with her skin.  Pandi screamed, a high
piercing sound.  The dwarfish man removed the electrode once again and looked
into her face.

Pandi tried to glare
back, while pulling in breath through a snot filled nose, tears running from
her eyes.  Her mind cringed as she thought about going through hours of this. 
One of the other Inquisitors was looking at a comp screen, and he looked over
at the chief torturer and shook his head.