Fighting Back (10.3)

Rivi walked calmly down the hall in front of the guard who held her by her right shoulder. As they stepped into the room that seemed to be their destination, Rivi looked around in boredom.

"There's no supervisor here," Rivi said, and received surprised looks from the guards. "I've noticed, in all the time I've spent with you, that nothing ever starts until one of you comes in wearing two black stripes on your left cheek."

The guards shuffled nervously. Rivi wondered if they thought she was going to try to escape. She knew she now had the upper hand, psychologically. She decided she would keep that advantage too.

They will soon learn that this nut won't be broken so easily, Rivi thought to herself, smiling inwardly.

"Now, because the medical table seems to be placed so it is the center of attention in this room, I'm guessing that I'm supposed to sit there," Rivi said condescendingly.

Rivi walked to the center of the room and sat on the top of the smooth, black-topped table. She waited quietly for the supervisor to arrive while the guards all watched her with curiosity. A few minutes later, Twelve walked into the room, now wearing a set of stripes on his cheek.

"Twelve?" Rivi asked.

"No, I've been promoted. My name is now Nine to you." He made a motion toward one of the Aruk in the room, who walked up to Rivi and closed one of his hands around her wrist.

By the markings around his head, Rivi could tell the Aruk who had come up to her was a healer. She mentally put up blocks at certain critical areas to keep the healer from doing anything she couldn't reverse. She knew that her resistance, though she couldn't resist much, caused the healer pain.

"I suspect that you want this healer to see how I fared with the viruses. I'm sorry to have to tell you that I defeated them all," Rivi said without even opening her eyes.

"She does have one left though, stored in the comp amalgamation section of her brain," the healer told Nine.

"That singular virus has been stored there in case I ever run up against that particular virus again. I've rewritten it to work as an antivirus. It is imprinted with my signature, so I wouldn't even think of trying to make it revert to its original programming. It'll only respond to me," Rivi replied.

Nine narrowed his eyes, sniffed haughtily, and snapped his fingers at one of the Aruk guards across the room. The guard brought over a metal bowl-like object with long wires coming out of its top. The guard plugged the wires into the appropriate holes around the top front edge of the long table Rivi sat on. Three other guards started to come over as well, but Rivi had already figured out what they were going to do.

"You're not going to try to run electrical currents through my head in an effort to harm my mind, are you?" Rivi asked demurely.

"Yes, PS3-36-9G11, do you have a problem with this?" Nine replied with a sneer.

"No, not really, but it would be a waste of your time. Don't you think that, by now, I've learned to defend myself from electrical pulses, seeing that it would interfere with my comp amalgamation?" Rivi asked, crossing her arms.

This wasn't entirely true. She had almost completed the mental buffers that would keep her from getting the electrical overload that was caused by electrical pulses. Rivi still wasn't sure how many of her memories were still hidden from her because of the pain of the electrical mind tortures they put her through when she was little. After the last time she was with the Aruk a year ago, she was glad they didn't get a chance to do anymore of those types of tortures. She decided then that it might be wise to go and take the training that would teach her how to create the defensive mental buffers when she got back home.

She wasn't finished yet, but when she was, that particular type of torture wouldn't harm her anymore. Even though they didn't know she wasn't finished forming her defensive buffers, she could see that the thought that she wouldn't be harmed by this form of torture had unsettled Nine. It was almost as if she could see the wheels working under his purple-skinned head. Rivi supposed that he was trying to find some way to hold onto his reputation.

What works, works. Rivi thought.

"Put her in solitary," Nine commanded.

Two guards crossed the room coming toward Rivi. Rivi hopped off the table and walked ahead of the guards to the room she knew was across the hall. She knew she was unnerving them, but that was what she planned to do. It would make it a bit easier for her and her friends to leave later if she got the Aruk to be a bit hesitant around her.

They opened the door to the dark room, and Rivi sat on the floor in the corner. The guards shut the door and left Rivi there with her thoughts. She didn't think much, though. She had decided that her time would be much better spent catching up on her sleep. Knowing that it wouldn't be long before the nightmare inducing noises and crashes were turned on like before, Rivi took a moment to stealthily shut that program off before she stretched out on the cold floor to take a nap.

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According to her computer, Rivi had been inside the dark room for three hours when she finally woke up. She saw that a small beam of light was coming from the door. She sat up to see who had opened the door. It looked as if whoever had opened the door slightly was thinking about coming in. They must have thought better of it, though, because they shut the door again. Rivi shook her head in wonder and moved toward the back of the room. She leaned her head against the wall for a half-hour more before the door opened again.

This time, the guard threw the door wide open and came in to escort her out. The guard marched her down the hallways and back to the cell where Ankh and Orlon sat, looking tired.

"Are you all right, Rivi?" Ankh asked as the guard shut the door behind her.

"Yes, I'm fine. The Aruk are going to need new ways of torture if they want to break me," Rivi replied in a cheerful tone.

"I'm not sure I understand," Orlon said with a distant expression.

He was pacing the room nervously again.

"I've spent so much time with them, Orlon, that I've basically memorized everything they have already tried to do. A few of their tortures I have even been able to develop defenses for," Rivi replied.

"I was wondering why you spent so much of your spare time this past year locked away in your room," Ankh replied.

"Yeah. I just wanted to keep ahead of them in case I had to come up against the Aruk again," Rivi replied with a shrug and shook her head. "They will probably just find new ways to try to torture me."

"At least you can make it harder for them," Ankh suggested as he watched Orlon, a worried look on his face.

Rivi smiled slightly.

"Yes, but in reality, none of it matters. No matter what the Aruk try, and no matter how prepared I am, my life is still in the hands of the one and only almighty Creator."

Ankh patted her shoulder in agreement.

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Rivi woke early the next morning, according to her computer. She was thinking about where Daniel might be. She had thought he would have sent her some type of message through her computer if he were all right. But, then again, if he was in a tight situation, he probably wouldn't because he knew the message could be traced.

Rivi opened her eyes to find that Ankh and Orlon weren't in the cell with her.

The Aruk have probably taken them away again, Rivi thought.

No sooner had she finished the thought when a guard came rushing into the cell and grabbed her arm, dragging her out of the cell.

"I do have two feet, you know. I can walk!" Rivi exclaimed as the guard thrust her in front of him and marched her down the hall.

The guard led her to a circular room where a dozen Aruk women, dressed in flowing multicolored robes, were sitting in chairs, in a semicircle. The guard led her to a beanbag chair in front of the semicircle.

"I'm sorry for all the confusion, dear. We didn't want you harmed before we had a chance to meet you. However, orders seemed to have gotten mixed up," the woman in the middle said imperiously. "But seeing as things have progressed the way that they have, we do have a few questions we want to ask before the guards continue with their orders."

"Right," Rivi said, not believing it for a second.

"You've spent quite a bit of time with these men. Would you say that their treatment of you has been too rough?" the woman to the left of center asked.

What are they playing at? Rivi wondered to herself.

"I've survived, haven't I?" Rivi said, closing her eyes and shrugging as if she were tired.

"Do you think that taking you away from your mommy at such a young age has wounded you psychologically?" a woman on the right end asked.

Rivi opened her eyes and looked at the woman.

"I never would've learned what I know now if they hadn't taken me. So you can just go back and inform your husbands and sons that, in trying to alter the future, they may have only helped it along," Rivi answered.

"My dear, you look as if you are frustrated with the life you lead. Perhaps it is not all that good for you," the center woman said.

Rivi smiled, leaning back in the beanbag chair.

"No, it is simply the Aruk who are not good for me. It is the Aruk I'm frustrated with, not my life."

"You came here of your own free will, didn't you? Why would you do that if we frustrate you so much?"

Rivi sat up, smiling mischievously.

"You'd just love it if I told you that, wouldn't you?" Rivi replied as she tossed her head and rolled her eyes. "But I have free will, which means only I can decide what to tell you. You Aruk don't like when things are free, do you?"

"Certainly you are strong enough to leave here at any time. What keeps you?" a woman third from the right-hand center asked, deliberately avoiding Rivi's question.

Rivi stood slowly. She formed the beanbag chair into a rubber ball and bounced it at the floor hard. She watched it bounce around the room unhindered.

"Perhaps I wish to see if you can break me," Rivi replied, smiling sweetly at the women. "Go send your report to whoever you need to. You will learn nothing else by talking with me."

Rivi walked out of the room, past the guard, and down the hall to her cell, with the guard running to catch up. She stepped into the cell and closed the door before the guard caught up.

"Look who's walking around like she owns the place," Ankh said as Rivi turned around.

"Just until they get some new ideas," Rivi replied, shaking her head.

"Maybe they have, and you're playing right into them," Orlon replied.

He was sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth as he stared at the wall blankly.

"Something to think about," Rivi replied as her smile faded, understanding that Orlon, even as mentally unstable as he was now, could indeed be right.

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