GRAND MASTER (Revised on 12/30/23)

Lockspur and Carolyn crouched in the darkness. After escaping the chaos of the earlier battle, they got turned around only to end up right back where they began in the heart of the battle scene. Shortly after the narrow escape Lockspur's glasses failed, leaving him in the helpless in the darkness as Carolyn dragged him along.. Mercifully, the glasses reset, enough to give him a jittery green static that showed basic shapes. 

Every time the glasses malfunctioned after that, Lockspur devolved into a state of near panic. And now he was leading the way through the twisting tunnels as Carolyn walked behind him, making certain nothing came up behind them. It was only a matter of time before the solid state battery built into the frame failed and the tiny screens went out for good.

"Were going to be fine." Carolyn said, walking up behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder. She felt his whole body tense in the darkness and knew he was on the verge of losing it. "There was a lot going on back at the ship. It's not your fault."

"That's a piss-poor excuse for putting us in danger." he said, jerking his shoulder away. He wanted this shit-show mission to be over. Everything had gone sideways and now here he was back in the dark surrounded by a million hungry reasons to cut and run. He drew in a deep ragged breath and exhaled a hoarse cough.

"We're going to get out, Carlos." Carolyn assured him, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself, than him.

Sure we are, he thought. 

"We are, god dammit."

You know, the whole mind reading thing is getting a little annoying, he thought, pointing to his temple.

"Sorry," she apologized, walking past him into the center of the cavern they had been tossed from earlier. "I have a hard time shutting out thoughts when I'm stressed."

She stopped a few feet away from a raptor carcass and leaned out over it, trying to inspect it without getting too close. It stank of spilled bowel. Lockspur's eyes burst wide as visions of bloody screams filled his mind. He blared in his head, why are you doing that? It could still be alive.

"It's dead." Carolyn said, "I'm not getting anything from it. And just to be clear, if you want me to stay out of your head, stop screaming at me in yours."

He shrugged and thought, that'll teach you not to snoop around in people's minds. She threw him a heated gesture that made him grin and then returned to her task, mumbling an obscenity he didn't quite catch. Scared shitless or not, he liked her. She reminded him of Dahl. She had guts and would never give up.

Lockspur followed Carolyn around the cavern watching her methodically check the bodies, one by one, and realized something was missing. Something that should have been obvious right from the point when they first met. Carolyn wasn't wearing any night vision gear. In fact, he had never seen her wear any. She could see in the dark.

He stepped in close, so she would hear him without his voice carrying through the tunnels. "Hey," he whispered. "How are you doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Seeing." he said, looking around the rocky cavern, making sure none of the other carcasses weren't actually live raptors lying in wait. Carolyn might be able to tell if they were playing dead, but he couldn't. And he hadn't brought a weapon with any real stopping power. Just a 9mm sidearm. Carolyn said they weapons and after watching her domesticate several raptors with just a thought, he agreed. But now, standing there in the dark, he had to admit the choice of not to bring a large caliber weapon was unwise. He hadn't considered they might get separated or that they might hurt her. "Are you an aug or are you a replicant?"

"Don't." she snapped over her shoulder, and he stepped back in surprise. He had meant nothing by the question, and her sudden anger threw him off guard. "Never say that again. People's lives have been destroyed because of labels like those."

"Wait." he stuttered, baffled by her sudden change of demeanor. "I didn't mean anything by it. I wasn't accusing you of anything, I just wanted to know if you have a shine."

"Then ask if I have a shine." Carolyn said, reeling on him. She squinted daggers in the green darkness, and raged in a voice far too loud for his liking. "Do I look like I have a shine?" She gestured into her eyes, waiting for an answer. When none came, she moved to the next raptor, muttering something unflattering about people like him.

Lockspur reluctantly followed her through the darkness, trying not to think the wrong thing. He knew she was listening. But as he watched her, images of the hectic events of the past few hours replayed in his mind. Images he knew she could see. He realized he hadn't given her the ability to move through the jagged labyrinth any more thought than if they were outside in the daylight. He tallied up everything he knew about her and came up with not. As if you can know anything about someone after only a few hours. But then there's the whole mind reading bit. That's strange.

Carolyn stood up and shot him a dirty look. "And there it is. Because I'm different from you, I'm strange." 

"No." he replied, looking at her as if she had startled him. "Augment is just an OCP term used to track former patrons who may want to buy future tech. It doesn't mean anything."

"Maybe it doesn't mean anything now. But it will someday. Someday sooner than you think. And it certainly means something where I'm from. They look down on augments. We're imprisoned." During an uncomfortable silence that followed, he spent most of the time trying to figure out where that place might be, and wishing he could read her mind.

"I can assure you, you wouldn't want to read my mind." Carolyn said, turning back to Lockspur with a warning grimace. "You wouldn't like reading minds. It's brought me more harm than good." she said. "When people find out you are a telepath, they instantly think you'll learn all their dirty little secrets." she continued. "As if I care. No one should see the kinds of horrors people keep in their heads. Especially, me."

He wanted to ask her to explain, but knew she wouldn't. "I just wanted to know if these cheap pieces of shit stop working. Can you get us out alive?"

"You won't die here, Carlos. On that, you can trust me. It's not your time."

"And you know that, how?" he asked, unsure if he should believe her or not.

"Because this maybe the first time you met me. But it's not the first time I met you."

 "Oh really," Lockspur said doubtfully. "And when was the first time you met me?" When he saw a strange apprehension pass over he face, he added, "And don't leave anything out."

She turned away from him, leaned down, pretending to check one of the carcasses and said, "18 months from now, in a cancer treatment center on Sol Lucia."

He froze in disbelief. Touched his stomach and said, "But I'm healed. She said..."

"She was wrong. It came back. When I saw you, you were in hospice care."

"She lied to me. It was all a lie. Bitch. I lied to my friends and... and I shit my pants not once, but twice, god dammit. For nothing." He lifted his shirt and gestured to his left side and added, "And for what it's worth, I'm an augment, too." 

"What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"The scar," he said matter-of-factly. He touched the skin on his side, feeling around for the thick band of scar tissue that wrapped from belly button to spine and realized it was gone. Even his abdominal injury was gone. He looked shocked. "It was right here. I have a number of mechanical organs. A faulty drive core on the last freighter I crewed let go and the shrapnel nearly tore me in half. Mega Corp paid to have a new liver and both kidneys replaced."

Carolyn stared at Lockspur for a moment, held out a hand and said, "It's gone., Carlos."

"It's gone," he agreed.

"No. You don't understand. When I saw you in the hospital on Sol Lucia, the scar was still there." Carolyn said, tracing the skin along the area the scar should be. "I don't think she lied. I think she actually healed you."

Lockspur reached out and hugged Carolyn. She felt hot tears trickling down her neck. She didn't resist. He let her go, rubbed his tears away with the back of his hand and said, "Sorry."

"Let me re-introduce myself. I'm Carolyn Fry and I'm improved too. Not that anyone can tell. No one uses the old chemical shines in my time." She waved her hand around and frowned. "Or any other kind of mechanical mods. External OCP mods aren't worth a shit if everyone wants you dead because you look different. Waylan Yutani, mods are the way to go They grow genetic implants designed from repurposed replicant biotech."

"And your eyes?" he said, gesturing at her face. "How do they work?"

"These are the newest implants available. They're stealth implants. You'd never catch anyone where I'm from letting those first gen butchers glue lenses on the outside of their corneas anymore. In what galaxy did that ever make sense?"

"There aren't any tech mods out there I don't know about." Lockspur asked himself. "And I've never heard of the kind of mods you're talking about."

Lockspur earned a lot of extra credits buying the latest OCP mods available for mercenaries and military forces alike. He had even come into possession of a few unregulated military prototypes smuggled out of Waylan Yutani. In fact, one of them was currently grafted into Moss's tracker. He'd sourced most of his highly illegal mods through several black market contacts. But in all his years of trafficking in mods, he'd never heard of any biotech implants in service. Although he supposed there could be a few prototypes available somewhere. He wondered, how can I get Carolyn to help me locate a few biotech mods and how much they might be worth?

"Not a chance," she said to no one in particular. "And this time, I'm not sorry?"

He grumbled under his breath and thought how it seemed odd that she could have next gen biotech implants when there had been no first gen biotech released into the market yet. How did that make sense? Unless…

"I suggest…" she exclaimed, tearing him out of his own thoughts. "You stop wasting time thinking about where or when my implants come from and stay focused on helping us get out of here in one piece." She gestured to her own face and added, "And for the record, these were created using my DNA."

"Yeah," he said. "Just tell me who offers those services, so I can go shoot them before they put me out of business for good." When she turned to him, mouth agape, he added, "And what about not letting the butcher's touch your eyes? Ocular implants seem pretty invasive."

"Not really. The whole procedure only took a few minutes." she replied, turning to him with a weak grin.

"Oh," he said, rolling his eyes. "I suppose they even validated your parking?"

"I wasn't really driving back then," she said in an earnest tone. "These are light years ahead of those old chemical shines. They allow the eye's normal pupillary responses to control the amount of ambient light reaching the implants. No focused beam lenses means no long-term buildup of scar tissue on the back of the eye, and, best of all, no chance of blindness and no one is the wiser."

"Back then," he said, more to himself. "How long have you had them?"

"I was seven when they implanted these. I remember the day well. That was the day my life changed forever."

"What kind of shithead does that to a child?"

"My grandfather made these for me."

"Seriously." he blurted in disgust.

She nodded and said, "When I was… born. I had certain birth defects, and one of them was that I was blind. The implants didn't just make it so I can see in the dark. They repaired the damage to my eyes, they made it so I can see."

"And now it's official." he replied, with an ashamed exhale. "I am an asshole."

"You're not an asshole." she replied, smiling kindly. "There's no way you could have guessed that I was given these mods out of kindness. And you're right. I was terrified the day I received these."

Lockspur leaned forward, trying to see the implants in her eyes. But the grainy green images produced by his glasses prevented any chance of that. "I can't be certain. But I swear it looks like there's no scarring on the corneas. How'd he get them in?"

"A few numbing drops in the corner of each eye and two quick micro-syringe injections later, and it was all over. Then, as time passed, the microscopic devices self-attached and grew to full size over the course of the next few months. It was pretty painless. Except for the wicked headaches that lasted a couple of weeks afterwards. Something to do with an excess pressure buildup in the inner eye as the implants did their thing."

"They grew in place," he said to himself. "I heard that biotech implants were being developed to prevent rejection, but not that they were…" He didn't quite know the right word to describe what he was thinking.

"Each cell in the implants is encoded to my DNA. Grandfather says that I have the eyes God would have given me, if God had wanted me to see in the dark."

"There's no tech like that out there. At least, none that I know of."

"No, there isn't. " she agreed, stepping around the raptor and walking towards another raptor laying a few yards away. When she got there, she turned and added, "But there will be someday."

Lockspur shook his head in disbelief and followed her to the next fallen raptor. Was she saying she was from the future? "Hey, listen," he said, catching up to her. "I get the need to restrict mission critical intel. But there's a lot you're not telling me. Maybe you were told not to say anything. Maybe you think I won't believe you if you do. Any way you put it, I have never enjoyed being on the outside looking in. Lack of Intel has a way of diminishing survival rates. So, I think it's time you shared a little. Because if you think that I'm going to keep running around down here putting my ass on the line for reasons I don't understand, you're wrong."

"Fine," she said. "Then trust this, if I told you a fraction of what I know, you wouldn't just think I was nuts. You'd tell yourself you knew I was nuts. So no, I'm not sharing any mission sensitive intel and if that's a problem. I'm sorry. But that's the way it has to be in this here and now."

"Is there any other here and now, than this one?"

"As for you being here to help me." she continued, "I can assure you, you're here to help your teammates. And I'm here to help you do that." When it looked like he was about to become a screaming tea kettle, she added, "If it makes you feel better, I'll tell you what I can, when I can and that in the future you'll know everything happening and why it had to happen this way. Until then, you'll just have to wait for things to unfold like everyone else."

"I can't leave my friends down here." he said in a tone that sounded more like a warning than they had reached an understanding. "But you should know something, too. When this shit is over. I don't ever want to see any of you again. I'm done with this crazy shit."

"Fair enough."

As he stood there glaring at her, he wondered if she was actually from the future, or just messing with his head. He really had no way of knowing. "Mind on the task at hand, Carlos. None of us are safe down here."

At the far end of the cavern, where the fighting had been the worst, the coppery scent of blue raptor blood and spilled guts filled the air. Carolyn felt lightheaded, but choked back her revulsion, pushing forward as Lockspur followed a few paces behind her. The victorious raptors had gone, leaving the bloating corpses of their dead behind for them to step over. The raptor they had come with was nowhere to be found. Not that their newest friend was a raptor anymore.

Lockspur slipped in a pile of slimy entrails, righted himself clumsily, and then looked to see if Carolyn had seen him almost fall on his ass. "Admit it," he said out of the blue. He always babbled when he was nervous and he had been nervous for a long time. "First gen shines look cool though."

"Sure," she replied in a drawn out tone of exasperation. "Because that's a good reason to go blind."

"No… not really, but they're still cool."

Carolyn shook her head and walked towards the tunnel they came down hours earlier, thinking how all men were like little boys pretending to be grownups. She crouched down, inspecting the floor for signs of which way the raptors may have taken their prisoner. Even though a thick layer of congealed blue blood and severed body parts littered the floor, Carolyn knew the raptor was still alive and that had little to do with the fact her body was nowhere to be found.

"I saw the security footage from Hunter Gratzner." Lockspur said, trailing behind her like a puppy on an invisible leash. "Riddick has a first gen shine."

"Here's something I know I'm not supposed to tell you. He doesn't have a shine. He was born that way."

"I saw the footage and heard the stories. Everybody has."

She turned to Lockspur, before he could go on, and said, "Sure, the story about 20 cool menthols is bullshit. Something did happen to him in the bowels of Butcher Bay. But he's never admitted what that was."

"I suppose you know what happened, don't you?" he asked, following her past the tunnel they'd entered through on the way down.

"I know this much. Whatever happened in those tunnels didn't have anything to do with a nearly impossible medical procedure performed by clinically insane veterinarian." She looked at him over her shoulder and said. "Now, come on. The Queen needs our help."

"The Queen," he said, almost bumping into her as she stopped at the mouth of a tunnel opening. "When did she become a -"

"Quiet," she blurted in a whisper She looked like a statue straining to hear voices in the distance.

Lockspur drew his sidearm, certain she had heard something down the nearest tunnel. "Did you ever consider she may be dead?" he whispered, stepping back before Carolyn noticed he almost ran her over.

She shook her head as if drawing herself out of a daydream. "She's not dead. Not even he's crazy enough to do that."

"Who are we talking about now?"

Carolyn didn't answer him. She just stared into the tunnel opening as if trying to see something in the distance. "I think it's safe to say that if the raptors didn't kill her, they took her somewhere. And If that's the case, I think it also stands to reason, I'm not the only telepath controlling the raptors down here."

For the first time since they entered the darkness, Lockspur considered Carolyn might not get them out alive. He drew his sidearm, pointing it down the tunnel. "Good. Good.. More great news. There's another telepath tagging along for the ride."

"That's not all," Carolyn replied, turning to Lockspur with a genuine look of panic. "I could only alter a few raptors at a time. Anymore than that and I lost control. "

"At least, you kept us alive."

"I did." she replied, shaking her head. " But I had to work in limited numbers because their minds were too primitive for me to control in mass. Whoever is controlling these raptors didn't have that problem." She sighed gruffly and added, "As much as it pains me to admit, whoever this ghost is, their abilities are off the charts compared to mine."

"Uncontrollable hordes of raptors, a master telepath and we have no way to protect ourselves." Lockspur said, turning around and walking towards the tunnel leading up and out. "I fucking hate this place."

"Where are you going?" Carolyn called out.

"Home," he snapped, and threw up his hands in exasperation. "Unless you can tell me what the hell is actually going on here." He stood there staring into the tunnel, waiting for her to explain what was happening. When she didn't, he snapped, "Fine. Save the queen yourself. As for me, Im out of here."

"Wait, dammit." she called out behind him as he stalked off without her. "I can't do this without you." She heard him stop, turn around and start walking back. His hands were high in the air and, after a few shambling steps, he tossed his weapon onto the ground. "What are you doing?" she asked, staring at his trance-like state. He didn't answer. He just stood there looking as if someone had paused a video feed mid-frame.

A dozen raptors ran into the cavern, encircling the helpless duo before Carolyn could do anything more than look shocked, and then terrified. She tried to connect with them, but failed.

"Oh… I wouldn't worry about that." a voice said, drifting out of the tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern. "They are with me, now. As for your friend here, he is fixating on the moment he learned his family died. I can assure you, it's quite pitiful to witness. I may just have to leave him this way. It seems a suitable punishment for getting in my way."

"None of this was his fault." Carolyn said, reeled around with a dark glare. "You didn't have to do that."

"No. But you have both caused me a great deal of trouble. And I can hardly punish you, can I?"

"Don't act like you care."

"Oh, but I do." a medium build, young man with buzz cut blond hair walked into the cavern. He strolled over to the hissing raptor, and stroked its head. It shuttered submissively beneath his caress. He turned to Carolyn and said, "My, my… Is that any way to greet your grandfather? After all our time apart, I would have thought you would be happier to see me?"

"You are not my grandfather." she spat at him.

The young man walked to Carolyn, brushed the hair out of her eyes and smiled. "You forget who you speak with, my beautiful, perfect granddaughter. I can see inside your mind's eye, better than you." He gestured to the raptor nearest him and it scurried out of the cavern. "Better than any alive… I know your heart's greatest desire."

"To kick you in the nuts." Carolyn said, glaring at the young man.

He chuckled at her with an air of pride. "To be like me."

"Like him."

"Ah yes. Him. Me. Us; But for a few different choices, one and the same person. After all, was it not I who gave you back the sight fate so cruelly robbed you of? Was it not me who gave you all your gifts?"

"You mean a few million different choices. Now let him go." Carolyn seethed, stepping towards him with balled fists. A second raptor moved to her grandfather's side and snarled. Carolyn jumped back in shock.

"Come now, there's no need for such hostility. We're all family here." he said, raising a gloved hand and snapping his fingers. Lockspur's eyes opened wide, and he stared around in utter disbelief. The last thing he remembered was walking towards the exit, and now he was standing in the middle of a group of raptors.

"There," Carolyn's grandfather said, walking past him without a care in the world. Lockspur made to draw his sidearm, but found the holster empty. He looked at his hand, wondering when he'd lost the handgun. "Come now, Carlos. You and Carolyn seem so easy to rouse. Could it be the darkness does not suit your delicate sensibilities?" Before Lockspur could tell him where to go, he held up a hand and said, "No matter. I think you'll find no one hates the darkness more than Carolyn." He turned to Carolyn with a frown and said, "Pity she has never thanked me for the sight I so selflessly returned to her."

"He gave it to me." she spat in a tone of loathing. "Not you."

"My doppelgänger may have given you the injections, but it was I alone who created the technology that allows you to see, and I alone who created the technology that allows us to be here now."

Lockspur let out a shocked, hoarse sound and said, "This is your granddaughter?" He turned to Carolyn with an expression that asked why she had made him out to be a saint. "This is the guy who fixed your eyes? He's a dick."

"Yes, and no." she said, wavering her hand in a maybe-sorta gesture. "We have a unique family dynamic." She turned back to her grandfather and said, "Where's the queen?"

"She is close by. There is no need to worry. " Carolyn's grandfather replied. "The obelisk's energy was drawing her to the inner sanctum. I regret I had to sever that connection, but it was for the best. Our lady is too important to risk in the battle to come."

He turned and gestured for something to come out of the tunnel, and a group of five raptors emerged, with the queen riding on the largest one. Two of the raptors joined the circle of raptors surrounding them while the other three strode up to Carolyn's grandfather. The queen sat straight up on the middle raptor's back, looking every bit the part of a noble queen. But only slightly more humanoid than earlier.

The Queen looked down at them and said, "Come, now. It is time to go."

Carolyn looked at her grandfather, mouth agape in disbelief, and stammered, "But… I thought you were going to…"

"You have always thought so highly of me, haven't you? Well… I suppose I deserve some of your ire." he said and let out a half-hearted laugh. "But no. Never a hair on your head, my granddaughter. No matter what the consequences." Then he took her by the hand, led her to a raptor and helped her up on its back. "You can get on your own." he said, turning to Lockspur. He looked at a raptor, and it went over and retrieved his sidearm. The raptor carried it over to Lockspur, slid it back in its holster and fastened the clip. "You won't need that. I have cleared the way for your ascent. You may return to his ship and leave this place."

"But why?" she asked in utter disbelief. "When you have everything to gain and nothing to lose?"

"Do I?" he asked himself, looking up at Carolyn. "Our Lady is the first mother, daughter of the Holy Creator and bringer of life. She is not a pawn to be shoved around a chessboard. She is a living God."

Carolyn stared down at him, the look of shock on her face slowly morphing into an expression of amused realization. Then, to Lockspur's surprise, she laughed at him and said, "Shit, you almost had me there for a minute."

"Was that too much?" he said and shrugged. "I can never tell."

"Bullshit, you can read my mind. You knew I was going to see right through that."

"I'd hoped so," he replied, stepping away from the raptor. "But I had to make sure."

"Sure of what?"

"That you're not so easily swayed by fickle human emotion." he replied, looking at Lockspur with a dark frown. "Like some people I have met."

"This is about you ensuring the continuity of the timeline. You just want to make sure she gets home, so you can fulfill your holy destiny."

"That too." he said with a smile. "Before you go, let me offer you a friendly warning. While it is obvious which one of me you want to emulate. It should also be obvious that my darker tendencies are in you, too." When she protested, he just went on. "Deny that all you want, but do so at your own peril. I did not begin my journey as the man who stands before you now. There is great darkness within you, my granddaughter. And for that faint, I am most ashamed. But know this: while my path to evil is paved in selfish choices, your path remains a distant mystery. Do try to make better choices than I."

"If you know regret, then go back and change the things you've done." she said in an empathetic tone.

"After a thousand millennia on this path, it would be easier to rearrange the heavens in the night sky than right my history. Besides, if you've learned nothing of me, then learn this. I am not the villain of this story; I am the hero. You and your traitorous friends are the villains. My only sin is that I love too much to end this war, here and now."

"It's time," the queen said, gesturing towards the tunnel.

"Do not come down here again, Carolyn." he said. "If you do. I cannot guarantee your safety."

"As you say, we all make choices."

"Well, then. Make the right one. Take her home."