Beyond the Rim

They came for me again. Back to the room with the pole. This time, Navarre told me if I would tell her everything, she would stop this.

I considered it. Fear shuddered through me; I did not want to go through any more torture.

But I stayed silent. If only because to do so would show them they did not own me.

The bot lifted me back on the pole, and the force field snapped me onto it. Kohl came toward me with a knife. Navarre asked, “Did Dagan use a dreamcatcher on you?”

The knife sliced into my chest. Kohl curved it as if lovingly carving a sculpture. Pain burned through my flayed skin. Through the haze of agony, I saw him reach for a bottle in the bot’s hand. He poured liquid across my chest and—

Fire slashed through me.

Screaming. I couldn’t stop. The scream ripped apart my mind—

It slowly subsided. Sweat dripped down my face.

“Did Dagan use a dreamcatcher?”

“Yes,” I said.

“What memories did he guide you through?”

“I—don’t remember….”

“What memories?”

“The time when I first came to the planet.”

“What planet?”

“Zodiak Prime….”

The room faded. My heart broke with longing for darkness, for release.

A slap stung across my cheek.

“Stay with me,” said Navarre. “What else?”

But by this time I was too far gone and I slipped into a welcoming pool of unconsciousness.

When I woke up, shame hit me. I had given in. Hardly realizing it, I’d betrayed myself. Betrayed Dagan. There was no use thinking I would not continue to do so until I was completely broken.

I pressed my face into the pillow, pulled the covers up over my head, shutting out the light.

Later, back in the room, the force field pressed me into the floor. Kohl dropped small darts into me, colors spreading out over my skin as soon as they impacted, some of the dye seeping beneath my skin and creating a burning inferno. I’d found out by now that he was making an artistic holo with me as the subject that he’d edit later. He was Navarre’s interrogator, but he often turned the edited torture footage into exclusive films or mass-marketed games.

Navarre kept asking about my interrogation under Dagan. She seemed particularly interested that he’d wanted to know about Zodiak Prime and zodium.

Kohl was about to drop another dart when she planted a boot on my chest. “I think it’s time to get this over with. You have enough material for your holo, don’t you?”

“Well,” said Kohl. “I was thinking of another —”

“We need to know everything he knows. Take off the force field.”

“But—”

“Take it off!”

The pressure slid off of me. Relief. But pinpoints of pain raged over my skin. I was a parody of a patchwork ragdoll, colors splotched over me, mixing with blood.

She crouched down beside me and grabbed my hair, lifting my head. “Boy, why do you keep resisting? We have you in our power. You will never be more than a slave; you are here to do my will. It’s best not to resist. Give in. You might even find you can enjoy yourself, after this is over.” She tightened her grip on my hair, and I cried out.

Perhaps she is right, just like the Educator said, I thought. I am fit only for a slave. I will live and die as one. I might as well avoid as much pain as possible.

I closed my eyes, preparing to speak, tell her everything.

Against the blackness of my eyelids, as if emerging from a dream, a butterfly appeared, its brilliant wings painted with a thousand facets of color. Something strange filled me that I hadn’t felt in what seemed like an eternity.

Hope.

I gathered all the strength that I didn’t know I had and opened my eyes. “I don’t have to tell you anything. I am not your slave, or anyone’s. It doesn’t matter what you do to me.”

She let go of my hair. My head slammed onto the floor. Then she rose and kicked me in the ribs like a petulant child.

“Bot one-eighteen, give me the truthteller. Kohl, leave us.”

Kohl left, and she pressed a truthteller to my forehead. Immediately I felt the drugs pouring into me, and I knew that, if anything, drugs were irresistible, unless you’d built up a tolerance to them.

I felt like I were floating, euphoria taking hold of me, wearing down any resistance. It wouldn’t be my fault if I answered, but I would resist as long as I could.

“What did Dagan ask you?”

“I can’t say.”

I wanted to tell her so badly. Why wasn’t I supposed to? I grasped in vain for a reason—

“Where is Dagan’s house?”

“By the sea….”

But no, I had determined not to tell the truth…

“Who is Dagan working for?”

“No.”

The truthteller vibrated, sending waves of shuddering sickness through me. Is that what it does at its highest level? Give you bad feelings if you say the wrong thing?

“Who is Dagan working for?”

I had to say something; it was pulling apart my mind.

“He’s working for—for—” I had no idea.

She grasped my hair again. “For who?”

I said the first thing that came to my mind. “Zodiak! He’s working for Zodiak.”

She stood up straight, a stunned look on her face. For a moment she didn’t move. Then her eyes darted toward the door, and she spoke into her com. “Yes. I’ll be there right away.” She looked down at me. “Clean him up, take him back to his room,” she told the bot, before striding out the door.

The bot methodically sponged me off and then took me to the bedroom, laid me on the bed, and sprayed FoamGro all over me. Then it left and I lay there on my side, waiting for the pain to subside.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve failed before, I thought. As long as you determine to resist, determine to stay yourself no matter what they do to you, they can’t win. No matter how strong they are, you can be stronger.

As the pain melted away with the foam, I drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up, a familiar face was peering down at me.

Stace.

“Hi,” she said. “Been having a good time?”

Consciousness slammed into me and I yanked the sheet up over my hips.

She laughed. “I’ve seen naked men before. What’s this?” She reached toward my chest. I flinched away. “Devlin, what did they do to you?”

I pulled the sheet all the way up, covering the half-healed scars.

“What are those from?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine! They’ve been hurting you, haven’t they? Was it punishment? I can’t imagine you’d do something that bad. Navarre is awful, though.”

I sat up. “It was—interrogation.”

“But what for?”

“It’s a long story.”

She bounced up on the bed beside me. “Kassia abandoned me, so I’ve got some time to kill.”

“Well, Navarre auctioned me off at a banquet. This guy who leased me freed me. Navarre wants to know why.”

“Is that all? Why don’t you tell her?”

“I don’t want to betray him. That’s why I don’t want to talk about it. I might give something away.”

She tipped her head. “Who is this guy you’re so loyal to?”

“His name’s Dagan. I don’t know much about him. He let me talk to my sister. He told me where Rock was.” I leaned back on the bed, exhausted.

She lay down beside me, tucking her head against my shoulder. Then, gently, she pushed the sheet back, and traced the edge of a knife-cut. “How long have they been doing this?”

“I don’t know. I kind of lost track of time.”

“Well, it’s Thursday the twenty-fourth of May. We dropped you off on the seventeenth.”

“There’s three days missing….”

“Three days! My poor Devlin.” She kissed my shoulder. “I’d understand if you gave in.”

“I did, some. But I didn’t give them everything.”

“Good.” She brushed the hair back from my forehead. “Is there anything I can do?”

I thought for a moment. “Well, you can get me out of here.”

She laughed, then she looked serious. “I’ll see what I can do.”

She stayed with me a little while longer, then she disappeared for several hours. When she came back, it was dark.

She had a glass in her hand. She handed it to me as I sat up; it was cold and frothy. “What is this?” It tasted like peaches and strawberries.

“It’s gonna help you get better. Especially because it’s got zodium in it.”

“Zodium? How’d you get that?”

“Navarre has a sample of Trial One from Daddy. That’s probably all she’ll get now.” She explained that Navarre and Zodiak had had a falling out. “Something to do with a spy called Dagan. For some reason, Navarre thought he was spying on her for my father. Know anything about that?”

“I told her he was working for your father.”

“Is it true?”

“I can’t say.”

“Oh, yeah, eyes are everywhere. Well, because I’m a Zodiak, I’m no longer welcome here, effective tonight. I’m going to have to pack up and leave. But don’t worry. I’m not leaving without you.”

“Are you going back to your father?”

“Unless you have a better idea.”

“I can’t go back there.”

“Yes, well…can I come with you then?”

I nodded. “But we have to get out of here first.” I wondered if escape was possible this time, or if it was just another futile dream.