Fear and Loathing

[Fairchild]

The effects of AlderFluid have started wearing out. The comfortable chill in her blood went away, her breath stabilised and her heartbeat started beating normally again. She ignored Antonio's words and gave him a suggestive tap on the back with the taser. They entered a short, dark corridor with three doors on the right and one on the left. She led the Outcast to the middle door on the right and waved her bracelet in front of the reader. The door opened revealing a tiny cell.

About five by three metres in size, it was completely empty. It smelled of newly laid carboncrete, evidently it hadn't been used much. There were no beds or chairs and the only furniture inside was a weak lamp. Additionally, there were two small grates in the floor and in the ceiling - the one in the floor led to the waste disposal pipes, the one in the ceiling to the ventilation system.

Jera released the Outcast's thumbcuffs and pushed him in, leaving the nanoweave rope that bound his legs for him to deal with. She sighed as the door closed. Not her worry anymore.

She directed her steps to the left door, again opening it with a wave of her bracelet. Another corridor, this time well-lit and almost fully transparent. On the left, a large transplas window looking out on the Nemuro Dust Field. On the right, another three doors. A young man with a Wisp logo on his light-violet lab coat ran out the first and went inside the second, not noticing the woman. She walked to the third door which opened without the need for authorisation.

"Nick," she greeted the older professor and bowed sligthly. "The Outcast is in the second cell."

"Thank you," Nagrebetskiy nodded from behind his desk. He stood up. "Anything special about his state?"

She shook her head and paused for a second. "If you don't mind me asking... Why did you want him here?"

The professor turned away. "Final stage of Vergil research... We needed a subject."

Jera raised her eyebrow. "I thought that was going to be me."

He turned back to the Corsair. "This first version is not secure yet. We have to, er, make it secure. And this process is going to be... fairly unpleasant."

"Are you going to be watching?" she asked.

"I have to. My job," he smiled sadly. "Not that I want to. Some of us... well, we still have some human instincts."

Jera shook her head. "Outcasts are not people."

Nagrebetskiy waved his hand dismissively. "Pointless discussion. You should go now. Get some sleep. You can come here tomorrow morning, we'll be starting then."

She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it without speaking a word. She turned around to the exit. "See you, then."

Nagrebetskiy sighed and sat back behind his desk. He watched the feed from a camera hidden in the Outcast's cell lamp. After a moment he spoke to his console AI assistant. "Call Violet Burbank to my office. And send the following instructions to the security..."