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Dreychan and Yunil were standing in the visiting room, waiting for the
latter’s sister, Lubiti to be escorted in. They will be separated and
protected from her by a nigh impenetrable window, but they were both still
pretty nervous. They really shouldn’t be. Even if they were in the same room
together, she was likely not physically dangerous. She and her buddies had
concocted a plan to get Dreychan to die in what was meant to look like an
accident. They had no reason to believe now that she would suddenly jump up
and attack him if given the chance. Still, it was incredibly awkward.
Dreychan as of yet did not know if the woman next to him even
was Lubiti’s sister. That was mainly why they were here, but also to
ask her why she did it, besides the obvious reason that they all thought he
was a mole.
“You know we’re holding hands, right?”
“Oh, sorry.” Dreychan tried to pull away.
Yunil grabbed tighter. “No, I prefer it. I think Lubiti should see us like
this. Even if it’s not real, we’re better off with her thinking it is.”
“Okay.” He didn’t mind it.
The door on the other side of the glass slid open. Lubiti walked in, looking
up at the ceiling and walls. She looked calm, probably remorseless for her
actions, and maybe thinking of a way to escape. She didn’t have the skills
for that, though. She wasn’t the one who survived one of the hardest games
in 2.5Dome. Her eyes finally settled on the two of them, standing there like
they were going steady. Her neutral face fell into a frown. She walked
farther into the room, and angrily placed two palms upon the glass. “What
are you doing here?” she asked, focusing on Yunil.
“I—” Yunil began.
“Bup-bup-bup,” Dreychan interrupted to warn her. He needed to speak first so
he could get an uncorrupted answer from Lubiti. He looked back over to
Lubiti after Yunil nodded respectfully and quietly. “Why does this woman
look like you?”
“Uh, because she’s my twin sister, dumbass.” Lubiti responded. “You’ve never
heard of twins before?”
“Are you sure?” he pressed.
“Am I sure?” Lubiti echoed. “Yeah, I’m sure. You think I’m the idiot
here?”
“Don’t talk to him like that!” Yunil shouted at her.
Lubiti scowled back. With a quieter voice, she asked, “so, what? Are you two
together now, or something?”
“So what if we are?” Yunil questioned.
“I don’t care,” Lubiti replied self-assuredly. “It’s not my problem anymore.
As far as I go, The Oaksent can come wipe you all out now. I’ll be here,
looking like an enemy of Castlebourne. I’m sure he’ll welcome me back into
the fold.”
“What the hell?” Dreychan asked. “You tried to kill me—”
“No,” Lubiti interrupted. “I didn’t try to kill you. I put you in a position
where you may or may not have been in danger. What you did with your
circumstances was your own business.”
Dreychan laughed. “If that’s your legal defense, I’d say it needs work. My
point is the irony, that you should intentionally
put me in a position where I could die for allegedly working for the
Oaksent, and now because it backfired on you, you’re ready to start working
with him instead? If you were in my position today, would you send
you to 2.5Dome for revenge? Should I place you in the same danger that you
made me face? I mean, you only thought that I was a traitor. You’re
openly admitting that you are. How is that not worse?”
“I’m just trying to survive. My values have not changed. I place my fealty
with anyone who can keep me alive. I once thought that was the Oaksent, then
I thought it was Castlebourne. Now it’s possible that I was right before. I
don’t want to have been right, but you have left me with few
options.”
“No one is trying to kill you here,” Yunil reasoned. “That’s why we were
right to seek refuge with the Vellani Ambassador, because our god would
absolutely have killed us for any insubordination. The people here are
different, and if you don’t understand that by now, why didn’t you ask to be
taken to New Welrios instead, or Outcast Island?” New Welrios was an
independent planet back in the Goldilocks Corridor. It was well within Exin
Empire space, but it was protected by an extremely powerful engineer, and a
population of isolationist rebels. A portion of them were the first to try
to escape the empire’s grasp before they were located, and quite nearly
destroyed. They ended up on Ex-324, where they eventually persuaded the
locals to declare their independence as well. And Outcast Island?
Well...they didn’t talk about Outcast Island. But it wasn’t really an
island, at least not according to the dictionary definition.
Lubiti scoffed. “Did you come here for a decent reason, or just to shove
your relationship in my face, because I really don’t give a shit. I never
liked you, Dreychan. I was just assigned to get close to you.”
“This has nothing to do with that,” Dreychan answered. He will never tell
her about the twin test. Lubiti would probably just turn it around and claim
that no, Yunil actually wasn’t her twin sister, but an impostor. “I
just wanna know if my origins are the only reason you thought I ratted us
out to the Empire, or if it was something else I did.”
Lubiti looked up and to the side, feigning thoughtfulness. “Well, you were a
loner; very quiet.” She made eye contact. “You were only on the Council
because you had to be. You never participated.”
“That—” Dreychan started to argue loudly.
It was Yunil’s turn to interrupt. She did so to say what he was about to,
but in a more articulate way. “He wasn’t a loner! He wasn’t quiet! You made
him that way! You ostracized him from the very beginning. You didn’t even
give him a chance. You just assumed that he would betray you, so you stifled
his voice, and you turned up your stupid little noses. You created this
monster in your head who didn’t exist, but the more you talked about it—the
longer you believed it—the bigger that bogeyman grew, until you were so
afraid, you lashed out at a perfectly innocent man who was just trying to
protect his people.” She lifted their adjoined hands, and shook their fists
at Lubiti. “Why are we together now? Because after all you put him through,
he hasn’t frowned or become angry even once. He has been calm and
determined. Did they let you watch his statement to the press?”
“It was a little late, I couldn’t help but notice,” Lubiti pointed out.
“Did you watch it!” Yunil repeated.
“Yes! They let us have access to the news and media!” Lubiti fired back.
“Did you notice that he didn’t even fucking blame you? He said he understood
that you were just trying to do what you thought was best for Ex-Exins, and
all Castlebourners. He spoke of you with a level of respect and compassion
that you could never reciprocate, and sure as shit don’t deserve! So you
will stand trial, and throughout the proceedings, you will show remorse,
because what you people did wasn’t just attempted murder. It was
conspiratorial. It was coordinated and cold. Remind you of anyone?” She took
a beat. “And now you have the audacity to suggest that you might run back
into the arms of that genuine monster, like what we endured throughout most
of our lives was fine as long as while he was oppressing us, he promised to
keep us alive? You make me sick. I should have left you a long time ago. I
have no sister. Rot in hell.”
With that, the scene completely changed. Dreychan and Yunil found themselves
suddenly back in Council Chambers. They turned around to find Azad there
with them, sitting comfortably in one of the audience seats. Did he only
exist within these six walls? “What just happened?” Dreychan asked.
“We were monitoring your interaction with the prisoner. Number one, things
were escalating quickly. While you were perfectly safe on the other side of
the partition, it’s best not to let either side grow too angry. We like a
calm, happy planet. That doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to feel what you
feel, but we believe that it would have been unhealthy for you both to stay
there much longer. We don’t think that any positive progress would have been
made.” He stood up, and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Also, your speech
was quite impactful and thought-provoking. I made the choice to pull you out
at that particular moment because I didn’t want Miss Froenoe to have the
chance to rebut. Would you agree?”
“Yeah, that was a good time to do it if you were gonna do it,” Yunil
decided.
Azad nodded, satisfied with his choices. “Well, I better return to my usual
duties. Call me if you need anything. Enjoy the chair.” The chair? He
remained for two more seconds in case they needed to protest, and then he
disappeared too.
Yunil took a deep breath, and faced Dreychan. “Well, that was a weird
conversation. I mean with my sister, not with—”
Another interruption. Dreychan lunged forward and tackled her. He held her
in a warm embrace, as tightly as he could without crushing her bones. She
hugged him back, and then pulled away a little. They stared into each
other’s eyes before she kissed him deeply on the lips. They made out for a
minute or two, or maybe it was for a few years. Once they finally let go,
neither one of them knew what to say, but thankfully, there was something
there which allowed them to change the subject. “Was that here this
morning?”
Yunil turned to look. “I would have noticed, but I know what it is.”
“What is it?”
“A brainscanner,” she replied as they were walking towards it. She ran her
hand along the armrest. “Specifically, it’s a baseline imager, which means
not only can it read someone’s neural patterns, but save them in the central
database. This is how you control access to government areas and
information.” She started fiddling with the touchscreen. “It looks like this
is the main system, so all the workers who weren’t fired for
conspiracy to commit murder are still on here. All you need to do is decide
who—” She stopped. “I’m sorry. I don’t have the right to look at this.” She
physically stepped back. “This is for your eyes only. You’re in charge.”
He placed a loving hand underneath her chin. “I want you with me on this. I
trust you now. You just earned that. No one has ever said anything remotely
as nice about me as what you said in that prison. No one has ever defended
me like that.”
“Well, they should have,” Yunil said.
They kissed again. When they separated, they both looked down at the
apparatus. It was mostly a comfortable-looking padded chair with a footrest,
and an adjustable helmet, which was presumably what would read a person’s
brainwaves. The screen was to the side of the helmet, and could be operated
from an upright chair that sat perpendicular to the subject’s seat. Dreychan
sat in this one, and started looking through the menu. “There are two
notifications here already.” He tapped on the bell icon. “Dreychan Glarieda has been tasked with accepting an invitation for higher
access privileges.” He looked up at Yunil. “Why wouldn’t I already have that? I can use the
executive senior trains.”
“That might have been temporary while they questioned the detainees. This is
probably official and permanent,” Yunil seemed to guess. “Tap to learn
more.”
Dreychan looked back at the screen. “Let’s look at the other
notification...Dreychan Glarieda is tasked with initializing and processing new user
Yunil Tereth.
Hmm. It looks like they already know that you should be involved.” He tapped
on Learn more this time. “There’s a lot to fill out here. I have to
decide on your job title and your responsibilities, and grant you access to
all these places. Your basic info is already here, so that’s nice.”
“I probably shouldn’t be here for this,” Yunil decided. “I don’t want to
sway your decisions one way or another.”
Dreychan brushed her worries away. “I’m gonna give you everything, I’ll tell
you as much right now.”
“Including access to your private office?”
“I have a private office?” he asked. “Where do you see that? I don’t see
that.”
“I just know you have one if you’re gonna be, uhh...Council Leader, or
whatever job title you give yourself. That’s why you needed to find out more
about the other notification. You have work to do for both of us.”
“Hm,” Dreychan began. “That’s a good point. What should our titles
be?”
“We can worry about that later,” Yunil said. “I wanna see you in this
chair.”
“I’m in the chair.”
“The other one,” she clarified, tugging him up by his underarms.
“The one at the dentist’s office looks like this.”
She aggressively threw him down in the subject’s chair, and straddled his
lap. “Then open up for Dr. Tereth.” She started making out with him, this
time for longer than before. Unable to control themselves, they ended up
having sex too, which was highly inappropriate for the setting. Fortunately,
while the chair was obviously never intended for sexual activity, it did
have a self-cleaning function, which made sense, because it needed to be
sterilized between uses.
Later on, Yunil was lying on her back on one the audience benches. Dreychan
was looking through the chair interface again. It had everything here: every
meeting recording, every bill they passed; everything. He could access it
all. It would be a great resource to get up to speed with all the stuff he
didn’t know about because he hadn’t been on any smaller committees, and who
knew how many times they all met in secret without him to discuss their
plans to kill him?
“I think I’ve figured it out,” Yunil said, still lying down.
“What’s that?”
“What do you think of Superintendent?” Now she sat up. “And I could
be your deputy.”
“I love it. I’ll type it in right away.”
