Chapter 105 - Ruler of the Domain (Patreon)

And here's the second chapter for today. More coming this week; thanks for the support.

Quick note: in earlier chapters, I mentioned that a full year had passed; I changed that to 3 weeks for continuity reasons and because of where the story's headed. Sorry for the mix-up!

The Operator’s boots dragged as she walked, each step heavy with effort. Napoleon sat on her shoulder, his metal frame pressing against her neck, with his optical sensors turned off. The little guy was checked out, and honestly, she felt the same. Her legs felt drained and exhausted.

Lessa stepped around a huge piece of cracked concrete on the stairs, paused briefly to catch her breath, then looked back. “You know, Operator, traveling to that new world felt like a dream. We felt important there, and the people there made us comfortable, which was great. But thinking I had lost this world and the people I cared about kept me from enjoying it.”

Dan nodded slowly. He grabbed the handrail and pulled himself up to the next step. “Yeah. It felt weird to enjoy it. Like we didn’t deserve it. But seeing those people in the pods down there… knowing they actually made it… It changes things. It’s a massive relief to know we aren’t alone anymore.”

“Yeah,” the Operator said. Her throat was dry. “I’m glad they’re breathing, but right now my brain is barely functioning.”

She rubbed the back of her neck, her fingers coming away greasy with sweat. “I abused that word N’vaa gave me. I just spammed it over and over to clear out the lab; I don’t know how I’m walking. I don’t know if you understand me, but I feel like I’m drunk without actually being drunk, you know? And I could lie down on one of the pieces of broken wall in this place, and I know I would sleep so peacefully.”

“You’re not the only one,” Lessa said, yawning. “I could drop right here on these stairs and sleep for a whole day. It would have been great if you had had that skill the first time we were here.”

Everyone forced a smile despite their fatigue as they continued climbing. Bloodstains smeared the walls and stairs. A reinforced blast door was ripped from its hinges, warped by the impact of bodies thrown against it. Further up, chunks of concrete hung loose from the ceiling, torn free as the powerful force dragged heavier debris through the structure to create an exit from the dome.

How the fuck does a single spoken word carry enough force to rip living things through solid concrete just to hurl them into space? 

“So,” Dan said, breaking the quiet hum of the facility’s emergency lights. “Everyone up top saw what you just did. This whole place is yours now. What’s the plan?”

“I don’t have a clue, honestly,” the Operator said, stepping over a puddle of dark fluid. “I only cleared one section of this place. There are huge areas down there I haven’t even looked at yet.”

She glanced at the ruined blast door and the blood smears on the concrete. “Those things were suffering in there. Trapped in their own heads, aware of what they were doing, with no control. Throwing them out to die… at least it put an end to it and gave them some peace. And if this place is mine now, if those people outside are going to keep living here, the least I can do is scrub the place clean for them.”

She kicked a piece of debris out of her way, and it clattered loudly in the stairwell. “Beyond that? I don’t really have a big goal right now. At least I know I can recover my memory eventually. But as for this place… first, we have to talk to the people outside. Figure out what’s going to happen to the staff who survived.”

Lessa raised an eyebrow and looked back over her shoulder. "You gonna launch anyone else into space?"

“I think they got the message,” the Operator said. “Besides, the ones tied up outside… they seemed different. It looks like they haven’t completely lost their humanity. We can work with them.”

They finally reached the top of the escalators and stepped onto the staging floor. The ground here was cracked, covered in dust and debris from the monsters breaking out.

“Listen,” the Operator said, keeping her eyes on the path ahead. “Once we get out of here and settle somewhere safe, I’ll prep that bone formula for you two. We’ll get you both stronger, like me.”

Neither of them answered. The operator glanced at them, expecting a positive or excited reaction about sharing her abilities. Instead, they just looked at her and smiled warmly, as if to say thank you. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, she looked away and cleared her throat.

“Hey,” she said, glancing sideways at both of them. “I’m really glad I met you guys. Thanks for sticking with me through all this bullshit. It’s nice to know I actually have people I can trust in this mess.”

Dan snorted, shaking his head. “Hey, you shouldn’t tell us that now that we’re close to the exit. The survivors outside are going to stop being afraid of you.”

Lessa smirked. “Yeah, keep up the scary-boss routine. It works for you. People listen.”

The Operator smiled as they stepped out of the facility. The crimson sky hung above them, and a few yards away, the survivors waited. All eyes locked onto her; nobody made a sound.

They stopped a few paces from the crowd. Dan and Lessa fell silent and fell in behind her, letting her take the lead. Napoleon shifted on her shoulder. He crawled down her arm, dropped to the dirt, and hopped onto a nearby concrete slab. His optical sensors snapped back to life, blazing red as he stared at the surviving staff and picked up the Operator’s hostility.

She looked over the crowd. Many of them looked defeated. Dust coated their clothes and faces, likely from sweat and anxiety over everything they had experienced in the past few hours.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” The Operator said, her voice cold. “I think every one of you is a piece of shit. You knew exactly what the Winged were doing to the people down there. You participated. You pushed the buttons and ran the experiments. The only reason you grew a conscience is that your entire world blew apart.”

She paused, letting the insult hang in the heavy air. No one met her gaze. They stood there, shoulders slumped, some staring at the ground.

A man near the back shifted his weight and took a half-step forward. “You don’t understand. The Winged… you have no idea how powerful they were. We couldn’t refuse them. If we said no…”

The Operator didn’t even look at him. She kept speaking right over his trembling voice. “I think I’ve made it pretty obvious who holds the leash around here now. If I see another riot, if anyone tries to pull rank, or if a single person in those pods gets hurt… you are all going to take the exact same flight your buddies and those monsters just took. Straight up into the sky.

“Nobody is coming to rescue you,” she continued, letting the reality sink in. “The Winged are dead. And if, by some miracle, one of them is still breathing, they have no way to reach this place. This is it.”

She scanned the crowd, then pointed. “Jor, step up.”

Jor hesitated for a fraction of a second before pushing his way to the front. He stood a few feet away, hands clasped in front of him. “You’re in charge of this place. You handle maintenance and establish basic order. Whether you want to accept it or not, this place is your home now.”

Jor nodded rapidly. "Understood."

She added, “I might be away for a few weeks, possibly months or even longer. However, I will return. You can count on it.”

The Operator pointed up toward the Leviathans swimming through the red space. "When you look at those things out there... do any of you hear music? Does it mess with your head?"

Jor frowned, glancing up at the sky, then back at her. “No, it’s just the fear that those things will consume everything, including us.”

Good. That means whatever twisted broadcast those creatures constantly pump out is not reaching my territory. Maybe this is actually a safe zone for them.

A localized cognitive protection field likely extends across your entire domain, Operator. They are shielded by your authority.

Jor cleared his throat, drawing her attention back. “We understand the arrangement. And… thank you. Really. Cleaning out the floors the way you did… It’s going to make securing the other levels much easier for us.”

“No, I’ll do that when I come back. I’ll start clearing out the rest of the Bioresearch Facility,” the Operator said, ignoring the gratitude. “I don’t have the energy or time to deal with the lower sections right now. In the meantime, lock down the remaining access points. I scrubbed the first three floors below control and went down to B-13 to check on the stasis pods.”

Jor’s face drained of color. He stepped back, raising his hands. “O-Operator, please… I’m sorry. We were terrified.”

She frowned, narrowing her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

Trembling, Jor pointed a finger toward the far edge of the staging area. The Operator followed his gaze. Two massive steel doors lay embedded in the ground, wide open. Exhausted and drained, she hadn’t noticed them when she left the facility.

“We unlocked the surface freight doors a few days ago,” Jor stammered, wiping his forehead. “It’s the secondary entrance to B-13, the one we used to unload the bodies brought in from outside. We thought we needed a way to reach the pods without going through the main lab… I’m so sorry.”

The Operator gazed at the open blast doors. She might have simply walked down the surface ramp directly into the pod room. She closed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose, and fought the urge to break something.

“It doesn’t matter,” she muttered. “I had to remove some of the monsters from the facility for you anyway. My brain is too fried to care right now.”

Jor stepped back, keeping his head down and his eyes fixed on the ground.

The Operator looked back at the other survivors. “Does anyone have any other questions?”

Silence.

“Good,” she said. “You people know how everything works in this facility better than I do. Use that knowledge. I expect this place to be standing and fully functional when I return.”

She didn’t wait for another apology or a promise. The Operator turned her back and approached Dan and Lessa. It was finally time to leave this place behind and get some rest. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. I need to lie down before I die.”

Neither of them moved. Dan stared at her. Lessa kept her hands clamped to her stomach, refusing to meet her gaze. “Operator, we’re not going with you.”

She stopped. A short, nervous laugh escaped her. “Very funny. Let’s go. You all are as tired as I am, and I want to try the food from that butler.”

“We’re serious,” Lessa said. She finally looked up and wiped a wet streak from her cheek. “We talked about it while you were kicking out the creatures. These people… They’re scum; we know that. But they’re what’s left of our people. What’s left of this planet is our home. If there’s any chance we can help rebuild something here, we have to stay.”

The air seemed to thin, and she struggled to breathe. The math hit her. Six hours. They had been on the Evolution Zone planet for six hours, while three entire weeks had passed out here. The time dilation. Mordran’s severed head was the only thing keeping the two realities somewhat anchored.

“No,” she said, stepping forward and grabbing Dan’s arm. “No, you don’t understand. Do you know how time works? If I leave and sleep for eight hours, a whole month passes for you. If I get stuck dealing with a problem for a week… you’ll age years. You’ll die while I’m just sitting in a room!”

“Then you don’t stay away for that long,” Dan said, placing his hand over hers.

“No!” The Operator pulled him closer, her voice rising in sheer panic. She broke down right in front of them, abandoning the terrifying boss persona she had just built. “I don’t know who I am! I don’t have a past, I don’t have anyone else! It’s just you two and Cat! Please, don’t do this. Don’t leave me there alone.”

Lessa stepped in and wrapped her arms around the Operator, hugging her tightly. The Operator gripped them both, trembling and crying openly against Lessa’s shoulder.

“You aren’t alone,” Lessa whispered, crying with her. “You have Cat. And you are going to get your memories back. You belong to that bigger world now, but this one is ours. We have to try to save it.”

“You just have to come back,” Dan said, gripping her shoulder. “Drop by every four hours. Keep the clock synced. We’ll help Jor run this place and keep these people in line. We’ll be right here, waiting for you every time you open that door.”

The Operator squeezed her eyes shut. She held them shut for a long time, listening to the wind and the distant hum of the dome. The terrifying reality of the time difference wasn’t going away, but they had made their choice.

Slowly, she pulled back, wiped her face, and took a deep breath. The crippling fear remained, but as she turned her head to look at the survivors, it sharpened into something entirely different. Violent, uncompromising protection. She marched toward the crowd. The survivors flinched, shrinking back as she approached.

“Listen to me!” she screamed. “Dan and Lessa are staying! They speak with my voice! They carry my authority! If anyone questions them, steps out of line, or even touches a single fucking hair on their heads… I won’t just throw you into space. You don’t want to know what I will do to this entire dome.”

The silence was absolute. No one breathed.

She stared them down for five long seconds, making sure the threat was clear. Then she turned her back on them and walked to Dan and Lessa. “Come say goodbye to Catherine before I leave.”