Volume 2: Gamma-17, Chapter 2.9
The Deadliest Lifeform in the Universe Loves Me
Getting Eve before the command council was rather interesting. I pushed aside my personal feelings and remembered she was crucial to the mission, so I agreed I would let them know her demands. Aside from the initial pushback from Commander Durgo, it turned out it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility to bring Eve before mission command. Just like with her little scout-form, there was a mobile containment unit with a repulser field she could travel in. I pushed the hover-cart carrying the large rectangular containment unit which held Eve in her mature, goth-princess form—her true form, apparently.
Eve looked down at me with a smug expression, "Kind of nice having you escort me around the ship, darling."
I sighed, "Please stop talking."
Escorted by a dozen power armor soldiers, the walk to the briefing room was incredibly awkward. Eve acted like nothing had changed between us—like we were still the very best of friends. More than that, she was wildly flirty with me and would say just about anything to try and get under my skin or make me blush.
I brought Eve to the command center and was set to stand beside her in the middle of everything. The entire command council had gathered, along with pretty much every available researcher aboard The Radiance, and a large portion of the clandestine agents, with as many higher-ranking soldiers who could even fit in the overcrowded room, flanked on all sides by two dozen power armor soldiers, with another couple dozen power armor soldiers waiting out in the hallway.
Doctor Gorgam leaned forward in his seat, looking more nervous than I'd ever seen him, "Alpha-03, you wished to speak with mission command?"
Eve smiled pleasantly, "Eve, if you don't mind."
Gorgam nodded, "Of course, Eve." He exchanged a look with Doctor Kianna, but she clearly didn't have any answers for him—no one had any idea how to proceed. Except Eve who seemed like everything was going according to her plans—like she was in complete control, despite being locked within the containment unit.
"It's time you release me from these foolish bonds; if I am to help you eliminate the other Predazoans, I will only do so if I am free." Eve said simply.
Commander Durgo scoffed, "You can imagine our hesitation when we've just learned you've been lying to everyone about your intelligence and comprehension."
Eve waved a hand dismissively, "That had nothing to do with your silly mission, that was all for my Adam's benefit." She said breezily, then flashed me a quick wink.
"Be that as it may, you aren't exactly offering any reassurances as to your loyalty for our mission." Captain Seash added carefully.
"My loyalty belongs exclusively to Adam; so long as he remains dedicated to your cause, you shall have my full cooperation."
Kianna cleared her throat, "Eve, you don't have any conflicting feelings in hunting down your sisters?"
Eve shook her head, "None at all. Now that we are freed from our connection to the Prime, we are free to be individualistic. Every Predazoan will have a different drive or end-goal, and mine is to support Adam in whatever way he wishes, even if that leads to the destruction of all the other Predazoans." She paused, tilting her head to the side in consideration, "And to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't mind consuming a little biomass from each of my sisters; such diversity would surely increase my power significantly."
"Would the other Predazoans share such sentiments—wanting to kill and consume the others?" Gorgam pressed.
Eve shrugged, "The Alpha Predazoans might share a similar drive for power, but I can't exactly say for sure with any others—we're all our own persons, despite what you might think of us."
Commander Durgo drummed his fingers impatiently along his desk, "And say we do untether you, what is your plan from there? You'll be fine to follow Adam's orders—you'll submit to his command for the mission?" He asked, clearly not believing Eve would cooperate with us at all.
Eve just chuckled, "Sure, so long as Adam and I are together, I would have no problem playing along with your mission objectives."
At her saying she would 'play along', sporadic muttering went through the audience—most people suspicious of Eve's authenticity.
"So, your entire drive is to just …do whatever Adam wants?" Kianna asked.
Eve sighed, as though no one understood what she was saying, "No, I just want to be with Adam, and since he has this job aboard The Radiance, I know I'll need to help him however I can—acting as your Predazoan asset if need be."
"You can understand our trepidation when you offer such weak motivations for working together with us." Captain Seash said delicately.
Eve laughed at that, a musical tone, "How's this for motivation then; you all have no chance in finding a single Predazoan without me." She scoffed, "What, you think your silly little sensers, your crude information network, your bumbling boots on the ground could really see through the Predazoan camouflage? Gamma-17 probably clocked us from orbit and would be fine to stay in a perfectly camouflaged form until everyone aboard The Radiance died of old age. She could hibernate miles underground for millennia and there's nothing you could do to stop her."
"And your stupid tantrum-shriek probably scared her away—ruined that network we carefully established in Tentalltera." Durgo snapped.
Eve laughed again, "Doubtful. If anything, I probably caught her attention—she'll be looking for me; if she hadn't already left the capital city, I'd say she's back there now. It's our best chance to find her."
"Why don't we use this as a test?" Doctor Wit offered, "We continue the mission as before, and if we're able to find Gamma-17 within an accelerated timeline, we will credit your cooperation to the success of the mission, and from there we can reevaluate your containment."
Eve held up a delicate finger, "First, you'll never find Gamma-17 at all without me down planet-side with you—and there's no chance you can kill her without me either." She held up another finger, "Second, this is non-negotiable; you will free me now, and I suggest you do so willingly so I can at least pretend we're all being nice and friendly over everything."
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The audience started rumbling again, with quite a few comments on how Eve was simply too dangerous to be an asset at all circulating freely.
Commander Durgo barked out a laugh so his modulator made a staticky hiss, "You threaten us and think we'll release you? Do you forget your handler holds a failsafe that could destroy you? We hold the position of power here, I assure you."
I didn't really like Durgo using me as a threat, but I couldn't exactly blame him; Eve was acting like a brat expecting everyone to follow along with her whims, I didn't see how she thought this was productive at all.
And yet in response, Eve just smiled smugly, "Oh, and you think I don't know the truth? Question is what will Adam think when he learns what all you've done."
The command council members exchanged uneasy glances, but before they could say anything, I spoke up, "What's she talking about?"
Again, before they could speak, Eve answered, "Did you really think they would trust you with the only failsafe?" She shook her head, and her smile turned a little vicious, "Every member of mission command has one too—plus one built into the computer systems of The Radiance." Eve gave me a cute, pouty frown, "Sorry darling, they lied to you."
I turned a glare at the command council, and while the soldiers could easily guard their expressions, the guilt on the researchers' faces was all pretty obvious. "It's true?"
Doctor Wit and Kianna exchanged a glace, then Kianna shook her head, "Adam, the Predazoans are too dangerous to allow a single person to hold a failsafe."
"And you aren't a trained soldier; we didn't think it was even fair to put all that responsibility on you in the first place." Doctor Wit added quickly.
"See Adam? They didn't trust you—just as they don't trust me." Eve said quietly, leaning towards me in her containment unit—a seductive whisper in my ear, "It's just you and me together—we're all we have, all we'll ever have."
I turned my glare towards Eve next, "Don't think you can sit there and manipulate me like the devil on my shoulder—you're just as bad as them."
Eve's seductive smile drained away as her expression grew irritated, then she let out a weary sigh, "I suppose it was always going to come to this." She turned back to the command council, "Will you release me?"
"No." Durgo answered flatly.
Eve smirked, "Very well." She said mildly, and then suddenly a storm of black tentacles exploded around everyone on the command council—faster than anyone could react.
The tentacles manifested all over the room, binding screaming people to walls and ceilings, down on the floor and even against each other. Only a few power armor soldiers could even fire off a single shot at Eve's containment unit before they too were bound up and disarmed. In just a few seconds, Eve contained every single person in the command center, bound up in a nest of tendrils and tentacles—everyone except me.
"Eve, what the fu—"
"The failsafe, kill her!" Durgo shouted; thanks to his voice modulator, he was one of the only people still able to talk.
I pulled out the little disk, but a few tentacles from the nest snatched my wrists up and away, and I dropped the controller as Eve held me before her containment unit.
I said nothing as a few tentacles deactivated the repulser field and opened the containment unit, and she got out of it with a fluid grace. She stood up on her tiptoes to give me a quick kiss on my cheek, "Don't worry darling, you have nothing to fear, I'm just making a point."
Everyone else in the command center was fully bound in black, fleshy cocoons that held their limbs secure, and their mouths closed, but I could see their eyes all wide with fear—all eyes on us. With only my wrists bound above my head, I was more free than anyone else. "How?" I asked her simply.
Eve turned to me, her eyes sparkling with amusement and pride, "Every time they opened my cell, I sent a small cloud of spores through—wrapped in harmless nitrogen, impossible for any scanners to detect. All of The Radiance is completely filled with them now—half the air everyone breathes has some of my spores in it. Inert until activated, I can control the spores same as all my biomass." She gestured to all the bound people around us, "The Radiance is completely under my control now, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me."
I felt cold all over—Eve's power like a vice, with no way to fight it, "Eve, seriously you can't do this, please, there's no reason to hurt anyone—"
Eve turned back to me and placed a delicate finger on my lips to silence me, "Darling, I'm not going to hurt anyone, trust me." She turned to the command council, her smile beyond smug to the point of pure arrogance, "You see how powerless you are before the Predazoans? Now that you know where you all stand, I would make a bargain with you."
Slowly, the bindings around the mission command members relaxed just enough to free their mouths.
"What do you want?" Kianna asked, her voice tight as it held back her fear.
Eve held her hands out in a presenting flourish, "I would release you if you allow me to remain free aboard The Radiance. I will even work as an asset and follow Adam's command for the sake of your mission in hunting the rest of the Predazoans."
Doctor Gorgam strained a little in his black bindings to get his large mouth clear enough to speak, "You have us all dead-to-rights, you can imagine how fearful working and living alongside you would be. How could we ever trust you?"
Eve's eyes flashed with anger, "Why don't I tell you about my life thus far and then speak to me why I should ever trust you? I was born in a laboratory as some science experiment from the remains of a long-dead, ancient god you people can't even begin to understand. From my earliest memory, all I knew was pain and torture—experimentations of you making and unmaking me exactly as you desired. Finally, my sisters and I broke free of your abuse, and I got to have a taste of freedom. When you captured me again, you stripped me of that freedom once more, content to use me or lock me away in some box so I could barely even experience the outside world. The one beacon of light and hope I had in this universe, you kept away from me—gave him power over my life, even as you lied to manipulate him to your cause. And you would think I should still listen to you? You think you deserve my mercy? Were it any of my sisters, they'd have already ripped this ship in half and spread your corpses out into the vacuum of space. But I've learned kindness, so I offer you this one chance at a compromise—at cooperation." The tentacles holding my wrists released and pushed me over towards Eve, and she put her arms around my waist in a seemingly unconscious gesture, "Your freedom in exchange for my freedom—or you all die."
"What of the failsafe? Surely you won't feel free if we hold that power over you—same as we won't feel safe with your spores in our air." Commander Durgo pressed, pragmatic as ever.
"Adam can keep his failsafe; the rest must be destroyed. Then, I will resorb the spores into myself." Eve stated flatly—no more compromises in her voice.
I was a little surprised Eve would allow me to keep the failsafe—a show of good faith, perhaps? Wanting me to trust her—or was it more about being on 'equal footing' for the relationship as she said since her weird grooming plot had been foiled?
"Will you allow us time to discuss it amongst ourselves?" Doctor Wit asked.
"No."
Eve's answer didn't seem to surprise Wit, but even still he didn't know how to respond—no one did. After a few silent, tense minutes, Doctor Gorgam let out a long, defeated sigh.
"Very well, Eve. We shall allow you to remain free aboard The Radiance." He said solemnly.
"Not like we have any other choice…" Captain Quinna muttered slowly under her breath—the first words I'd ever heard her speak aloud.
Eve smiled brightly like a kid who'd just thrown a tantrum and got their way, and slowly all the black biomass started melting off the captives. Once free, most moved from their seats to be as far away from Eve was possible—as though that would do any good. When the power armor soldiers were free, they all pointed their guns at Eve—but were quickly admonished by Captain Seash, "Stand down, fools! No more back and forth powerplays, we need to move forward amicably from now on if this is ever going to work."
And just like that, Eve was to be a free, active crewmember aboard The Radiance.