Where Death Awaits (9.1)

RIVI WAS LED BACK TO THE CELL WHERE she sat on one of the empty benches and bowed her head and shoulders. Dan stopped pacing and came to sit beside her.

"What did this One want?" Dan asked.

"They don't want anything but to break us, or use us to secure our planet's surrender," Rivi croaked. "Apparently, the children and I were supposed to have united the galaxy, in the future, against the Aruk, who wish to divide everyone so they can rule over the entire galaxy."

"How could they know that? The future hasn't happened yet."

"Some of the Aunantet are futurity histographers. They can see and even travel to the future."

"So, because they've seen the future, they think you and the other children will be in their way, and they want to do away with you all now?" Dan asked.

"No, they want us broken—spineless—to give in to them," Rivi said, shrugging and letting her head droop, as fresh tears fell into her lap. "They destroyed one of the children's ships when the children fought back. My friends—"

Dan's eyebrows creased in despair knowing that, according to Rivi, many of the children were younger than her.

"Rivi, listen. They had to make a choice: either fight back and risk being killed, or give up. Your parents wouldn't have wanted you all to come this far, survive this long, learn so much, and then just give up," Dan said.

"My parents!" Rivi replied, eyes ablaze and a look of disgust on her face. "My mother gave me away. She said she had other things to do besides raise me."

"She told you this?" Dan asked quietly.

"She didn't know who I was, exactly, but she did say that to the visitor who came to her cell on Mars."

"So that's who you went to visit," Dan replied quietly, then brightened. "Maybe she didn't mean it. Maybe that's just what she made herself think after you were taken. We've got to keep up hope. There's got to be some way out of here."

Rivi sighed sadly. She'd never shown anyone everything that had happened in her past. No one knew what she knew—the many tortures she'd seen and endured, what happened when someone tried to escape—but Dan seemed so sure they could escape. If they tried to leave ...

Too many memories started to flood in and overwhelm Rivi: memories of her mother turning away, memories of the Aruk, horrible memories. Rivi covered her face as tears ran down her cheeks.

"Rivi," Dan asked quietly, "even if we do end up staying here, wouldn't you feel better if you came to peace with your memories? Maybe it would make you stronger in standing up to the Aruk."

Rivi dried her tears with the back of her hand. She stared blankly at the white wall across from her. Perhaps it was time to let someone help her face her past.

"Dan," Rivi asked quietly, "will you help me?"

"Sure," Dan replied. "What are friends for?"

Rivi looked at him and nodded. She picked up his right hand and held it to her forehead. Dan closed his eyes and let the images run through his mind. He watched the same horrible nightmare Rivi endured every other night, which was nothing more than her memories replaying while she slept. Rivi dropped her hand from his, leaving his hand on her forehead, and let all her memories from her past flood through both her and Dan.

Dan stiffened as he watched Rivi's vivid memories of her mother telling the Aruk to take her. He watched as the little Rivi struggled and cried to go back to her mother, who didn't even look back. He shivered as he watched the tortures Rivi and the other children endured. Then he was shown a memory where Rivi and another child were trying to escape. They ran down various halls only to be found by an Aruk, who struck out and killed the other child right in front of Rivi. Dan cringed as he watched how Rivi was tortured as punishment for trying to escape.

His spirits lifted when Rivi showed him how the Aunantet rescued and raised them. She also showed him the conversation she had on Mars with her mother. He continued to hold his eyes closed, as the connection was broken, and he dropped his hand. Dan slowly opened his eyes to look at Rivi, who was staring at her knees.

Dan laid his hand on her shoulder, and Rivi looked up at him. Sadness, concern, and understanding streaked his features. Rivi smiled slightly and nodded in return. The cell door was thrown wide open, and it banged into the wall. Rivi and Dan turned to look at the guards standing there.

"PS3- ..." The first guard started.

"She's had enough today!" Dan exclaimed, rising to his feet defensively as he stepped in front of Rivi. "Can't you just leave her alone?"

"You're coming with us as well," the guard said with a sneer.

Two more guards came in and pushed Rivi and Dan side-by-side down the hall into another room. Two vertical, metallic slabs stood in the middle of the room. On the metal slabs were straps for the arms, legs, and waist. Rivi and Dan were each strapped down. As soon as Rivi and Dan were strapped down, a stream of constantly varying voltages of electricity was sent through the straps so neither could manipulate the atoms in the straps and escape. The Aruk were covering all of their bases, taking no chances.

Rivi tilted her head back as the electricity coursed through her body, trying to fight the current and break her bonds.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Twelve said, smiling as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. "You see, today, One decided that the best way to break you would be to kill your friend here," he said, as he waved one of his three arms toward Dan. "You struggle, and we'll only kill him faster."

Rivi's forehead creased as she stopped struggling.

"No! You wouldn't kill him ..." Rivi replied, not so certain.

"We are," Twelve replied as he signaled with his third hand and the voltage on Dan's slab was raised.

Daniel went rigid and his eyes opened wide. Scared for Dan's life, fear and terror gripped Rivi.

"No, please," Rivi begged.

Twelve motioned again and Dan's voltage was raised just within human limits. Dan moaned through his bared teeth. Rivi turned her head away and then finally, she could take it no longer. She reached out with her mind, accessing her comp amalgamator's senses. Pain riddled her body, as she tried to find some way past the painful, pulsing noise of the containment system so she could access the Aruk's systems and shut down Dan's torture.

Dan turned his head painfully to look at Rivi, who was grimacing against the excruciating pain in her mind. Getting into the Aruk's system was turning out to be more than she could handle so she tried accessing her own computer for help instead. One of the Aruk guards picked up activity from Rivi's computer through his own comp amalgamator senses. He signaled to Twelve.

"You won't break through the containment systems and our computers in time to save him Rivi!" Twelve taunted.

He signaled the guard who turned off the containment system long enough for Rivi to make contact with her computer. "And we know about your little computer. Did you really think you could hide it from us? I had our comp amalgamators leave you a little something."

Rivi gasped as a computer virus flooded her mind through the link with her palmtop and began replicating and spreading like mechanical spiders inside her mind.

"That should keep you tied up," The comp amalgamator sneered.

Rivi's body began to ache as the virus spread and began attacking her nervous system. Fighting the virus required all of her strength and energy. She realized too late that it was all a trap, and she would never be able to escape her computer.

Dan, wincing through his own pain, watched as Rivi started to twitch and shake uncontrollably.

Daniel had finally reached his tipping point.

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