| Generated by Google Flow text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 3.1 |
Sable Keen opens Audrey’s eyes. She looks over at the chair next to her and
sees Audrey opening Sable’s eyes. It was a success, they’ve managed to
switch bodies. Now when Waldemar is standing there in his royal pose, it
will be Audrey who is painting his portrait. Sable is slated to stay safe
and sound somewhere else, the target being the Captain’s Stateroom, playing
the part of the dutiful housewife. It’s not to keep her safe, though. She
just doesn’t know how to draw. There are some skills that she can’t pick up
from others. She doesn’t understand how it works, and doesn’t have anyone to
talk to about it. But this is good. This sort of thing makes life more
exciting. If there’s one thing she hates more than anything, it’s boredom.
She lives for the drama.
Silveon reaches over and takes Sable by the hand. “Slowly. Slowly now,” he
encourages softly as he’s helping her get onto Audrey’s feet.
“You know I’m Sable, right, not your girlfriend? I only look like her right
now.”
Silveon looks over at Audrey, who Lataran is helping stand. “We’re not
together. You do realize that, right? It’s important you know that we’re not
a couple in any way shape or form. We work together because we have the same
goals, and know what the stakes are.”
Of course Sable knew that, she’s just gauging their reactions. She always
felt the chemistry between the two of them. They’re the same age, and
they’ve been through a lot. In a perfect world, they would be together. But
she knows enough about what that world looks like to know that Sable is not
in it. She would not have been born if they hadn’t come back in time to stop
the evil man, Waldemar Kristiansen. That name. It’s like his mother
wanted him to grow up to become a villain. The way Sable sees it,
Calla brought this on herself; her own death, and everything that has
happened since. “I’m just messing with you,” she replies, having spent too
much time in her head to respond any other way. This ends the follow-up
conversation. “I can do it on my own.” She effortlessly steps over to the
mirror and tests out her new look. Audrey has been practicing Sable’s
mannerism so she can impersonate her. Sable has not been doing the same. At
least that’s what she wants them to think. She has her own agenda.
“You are not to do anything as Audrey,” Lataran warns her. “If Waldemar
comes to you, you will do as Audrey would do, and say what she would say,
but you are not to interfere with their lives. You’re not there to make
changes to their relationship, or try to get him to make certain
administrative decisions for the ship, its crew, or passengers...”
“I know, mom. He doesn’t listen to Aud any better than he listens to me.
It’s not about me becoming her, it’s about her becoming me. Stop going over
it.”
“Okay, okay,” Lataran says in that voice she uses when she remembers that
Sable is a big girl now. She was the hardest to convince to help Sable join
the fight. She loves Sable too much, which is understandable, but that makes
her less pliable. The further removed she is from someone, the easier it is
for Sable to control them. Unless they have psychic powers, like Waldemar.
That’s the biggest reason why Sable pushed for this assignment, because he’s
a challenge. He really doesn’t listen to her. Unlike any rando in the hall
whose sandwich she wants, he doesn’t have to comply.
Audrey checks Sable’s watch. “Okay. We cut it close, so I have to run.” They
only had a short window to complete the body swapping procedure, but
Waldemar is expecting to begin the sitting soon. She steps over and gives
Sable a hug. She doesn’t struggle at all. That’s how Sable walks. Without
hugging anyone else, she disappears.
“That was weird, don’t you think?” Sable asks Silveon and her mother. “We
built in a little time for her to practice in my body. But she’s such a
natural.”
“She’s transferred her consciousness before,” Silveon reasons. “It gets
easier each time you do it.”
“I bet it does.” She turns around and looks back in the mirror, frowning at
the boring clothes that Audrey picked out, probably because she knew Sable
would end up in them. “Bye.” She jumps to the stateroom, where she has
already stashed her backup watch. She switches them so everyone with the
ability to track her location thinks that she’s still here when she’s not.
They don’t have authorization to teleport directly inside to check on her,
and would have no good reason to give the secret service for ringing the
doorbell. She finds something sexier in the closet, then heads out with it.
The three agents guarding the door nod at her respectfully. “First Lady of
the Vessel,” they each recite. Yeah, Waldemar is really leaning into
the idea that he’s not a captain, but a president. He sees it as a stepping
stone towards becoming a king, and then an emperor. He feels the need to
ease the people into accepting more and more of his power over them. He’s
correct. If the team weren’t here to stop him, it would work.
She’s been studying the agents, and lucked out today. A few of them have
expressed a deeper loyalty to Audrey than to Waldemar himself. They can’t
say it out loud, but she sees it in their eyes. This particular guy is in
love with her, and would do anything she says. She insisted on going about
her business without constant protection, but she can request it anytime she
wants. Sable looks the right one in the eyes, doing her best to give him the
sense that, in another life, they could be together instead. “I would like
an escort today. Only one.” Wait, she needs a cherry on top. “Only you.”
“Very good, Madam.” He’s trying to keep it together. He professionally
begins to walk with her down the corridor while the others remain at their
post.
“Laventry,” she begins to say once they’re out of earshot of the others.
“You know my name, Madam?” he interrupts. “I mean, I’m sorry, that was
rude.”
“It’s okay, Lav.”
His face melts at the sound of the nickname. Perfect.
“Yes, I know your name. Lav, there are secrets on this ship, you know that?”
“I do, Madam.”
“Please. Call me Audrey,” Sable insists. Okay, she can see that that’s too
much. He’s still been trained to bow before her and show great deference.
“Or not. It’s fine.”
“Thank you, Madam First Lady of the Vessel.”
She laughs. “The secrets. There are places on this ship that not everyone
has access to. I need you to take me to one of those places, and I need it
to stay between us. Now, I understand that you have sworn and oath to
preserve the captain’s chair, but there are things that not even my Waldemar
needs to know.”
“Ma’am, I’m not sure I feel comfortable doing anyth—”
She interrupts him now to say, “you recall my child.”
She thought he was frowning before, but now he really is. “Yes,
ma’am.”
“There is a place here where time tech is stored, are you aware of this
place?”
“I am, Madam First Lady. It’s the old Temporal Engineering lab.” Waldemar
did away with the position of temporal engineer. He doesn’t seem to care
about it one way or another on principle, except when it comes to his
pursuit of immortality. He shut it down, however, because it threatens his
hold over Extremus. It leaves the possibility open for someone to go back in
time to stop him from ascending. It didn’t seem to occur to him that it’s
already happened.
She stops walking, and tugs at his upper arm. “There is something in there
that can let me see my child.” Here it comes, the tears. She didn’t even
have to drop a tearitant into her eyes, which is good, because he would have
noticed that. “It’s not...real, but I can see what she would have looked
like had she grown up. I just want to see, Lav. I want to know what I
missed.”
“Yes, ma’am, I can understand that, ma’am.”
“Will you help me? Will you get me into that room, and tell no one else
about it? Can I trust you, Lav?”
He stares at her and breathes deeply through his nose. She can hear the
desire echoing off the walls of his full heart. “Yes, I will help
you...Audrey.”
She smiles and places a hand upon his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispers.
He gently takes hold of her hand, palm to back. He pulls it away, and
puppets her to wipe the tears from her own cheek.
She smiles wider, and turns away shyly. “Sorry.”
Now he touches her chin, directly with his finger, turning it back towards
him. “You can show your true feelings around me. I’m very emotionally
intelligent.” The members of the secret police are absolute morons. It’s a
wonder they manage to put their own shoes on them in the morning. Some of
them probably have help. But the secret service agents? They truly are
smart. That’s why she had to pick him carefully. She could not have grabbed
any one at random. Anyone else would see right through her manipulation.
Anyone would reject her control. It’s only working on him because of his
connection to Audrey. If Sable had tried to do this as herself, she would
have failed miserably, and it could have gotten her found out. “Let’s go.”
They continue through the ship until reaching the sealed off temporal
engineering sector. At the door, he looks at her and chuckles. Then he lifts
his hand, and smashes the side of his fist against the security panel,
breaking it open.
“Oh. Strong.”
Yeah, he liked hearing that. Centuries of gender equality progress, and men
are still driven to impress women with their skills and prowess. They’re all
peacocks. He chuckles again as he starts to mess with the wires and
miniature power crystals.
This is it. Sable is finally going to get what she needs. She can do a lot
with what she has now, but she wants more. She has to have more, and she’s
willing to go to great lengths to get it. It was not Waldemar’s idea for her
to paint his portrait, or even for her to do it. He definitely thinks it
was, which is exactly how it should be. Without being able to control
another psychic’s mind, she had to use old fashioned conning techniques, and
her feminine wiles. Again, het men are all the same. Does she feel bad about
treating people like game pieces? No, because she’s not hurting them.
Silveon and Audrey weren’t making any progress without her. They’ve been
doing this almost literally their entire lives, and were floundering. They
never would have let her help if she just let them make their own choices.
People are stupid, prideful, and in these cases, protective. So it took a
little coaxing. It’s true, that’s what Waldemar would do in the same
position, and she has had to accept their similarities. She is more like him
than she is willing to let her family and friends know. To be sure, she
wants to stop him from destroying the ship, but he’s not crazy. He has some
good ideas. It’s more that the ends don’t justify the means. She has better
means. It’s her responsibility to use them, starting with this room.
Laventry cracks it. The door swings open, but it’s nothing but darkness.
It’s a totally empty void.
She reaches out. As her hand passes over the threshold, it starts to
de-resolve, breaking apart into a million pieces. She pulls it back out,
watching her hand gradually reassemble itself.
Laventry is just standing there, still proud of himself.
“Did you see that? Did you see what happened?”
“Seems normal to me,” he replies.
“Stick your hand in there,” she orders.
He does as he’s told. He too watches his hand fall apart, then come back
together once she pulls at his arm, and brings him fully back into the
rendered environment.
“That doesn’t seem weird to you?”
“No. Should it?”
“God...dammit!” She turns around and lets out an incredibly loud scream as
she’s beginning to walk away.
He hops up to her and clutches her shoulder. “Tell me what’s wrong. I can
help. I told you, I have high emotional intelligence.”
She turns back, scowls at him, and screams again. “Argh! Fuck you!” She
pushes the NPC by the chest with both hands, right through the world
boundary, killing him instantly. She starts to walk again, foaming at the
mouth, utterly incensed at her so-called team. How dare they trick her? It’s
a violation. What, did they not trust her? Did they know she would do
something like this? Do they know she has powers? If they even know a little
bit, that could be a massive problem for her. She screams again. She
screams, and she screams, and for a moment after that, she yells, but then
she goes back to screaming. She’s out of breath and exhausted, but not
actually at all. She can’t feel anything. None of this is real, not even
her. She hasn’t been walking for the last several minutes. She’s been
sitting in a chair, painting Waldemar’s portrait. Audrey has been in the
driver’s seat, and never gave up her own body. Why? Why do it like this?
Ugh, she’s not gonna find any answers here. And she’s not going to get out
of it by screaming.
She closes her eyes and begins to control her breath. The first step to
breaking out of a mind prison is understanding the true orientation of your
real body. This is virtual reality 101. Everyone learns that in school so
they never become too immersed in the games. Normally, that would be pretty
easy. She should be lying down at a 45-degree angle, her arms at her sides,
or resting on her chest. But Audrey is making that more complicated, so
Sable has to find it. She sits down on a cargo crate. She closes her eyes,
and starts by guessing. Audrey is probably sitting like this, with her knees
tight together, but her feet wide apart, so she can lean over to see her
subject past the canvas. Which hand is dominant? She tries both, pantomining
holding a brush. It’s up, it’s down a little, it’s up higher. She keeps
moving with these microadjustments, lowering her fake heart rate, and
keeping herself calm, breathing like a woman in labor.
The brush materializes in her hand. The real environment resolves, and she’s
back. She’s in the art studio, sitting behind the easel. The painting has
barely been started, and it may never be finished. The plan has changed. She
stands and looks at Waldemar. He’s dressed ridiculously, and posed on a
holographic mountain, like he’s nearly at the summit. “I’m not finishing
this until you divorce your wife.”
He turns his head slightly to look at her, but maintains his pose. He
doesn’t seem the least bit surprised, or annoyed at her. “Consider it done.”
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