Aiesu was in her own quarters when she heard the announcement, steaming a cup of coffee - a silvery pipe diving into the tan liquid. She added a second round of cream and sugar before frothing again. It was moments like this Aiesu was glad she brought her own coffee machine - granted, it made her small quarters cramped.
She paused for a moment before she began making another, slotting the coffee cup into a cheap slatted tray, the other soon to join it.
As she waited for the other to steam, she glanced about her room, feeling like some giant of Yamataian silver flick fame - trumping and stomping with her tiny steps through the cityscape of her own chambers - the many tall boxes buildings of some sort - her foot dodging tools and cabling about her feet.
She winced, catching her finger on the steamer - flailing her finger and suckling at the burn before capping the other paper-cup with a similar plastic roof as the first.
She was soon sailing, lulling through the decks with slow steps. There should have been a tustle of various sloshy wet muscles in her belly and other various messy biological components. But she ignored it. Taking her time, Aiesu Kalopsia would be rushed by noone.
Aiesu waited before the door, deciding to make Hakahn wait as she thought about what was likely to happen. Satisfied, she carefully rapped her knuckle on the door.
The door, a wooden recession in the wall slid open. Aiesu would be greeted by a dimly lit room. It was unadorned with trinkets and was oddly clean, clearly unlived in.
Aiesu thought about this for a moment. It was as thought the current occupant was expecting to be evicted any day now. Her attention was drawn to the sole source of light which came from the deck from a battery of lamps illuminating the ghostly traces of volumetric screens outlining the Fyunnen male at his desk - a burning white with traces of red on one side of his features - and a blue on the other from the displays, highlighting his grizzled features. From the look on his face, Aiesu concluded job satisfaction was not a priority in a position such as his.
"Coffee?"
The Fyunnen waved a hand dismissively to the question and motioned for her to come closer. There wasn't a chair in front of the desk, but there was a wireframe chair on one side.
Listening carefully, Aiesu could make out a soft clicking sound - a delicate popping - before she spotted twisting vinyl behind Hakahn's desk. And then music?
* * *
Listen while reading: ♫ Beethoven - Symphony No. 7, Allegretto
* * *
It was slow. Pompus. Arrogant. But remorseful. Severe.
Inching closer with careful steps in her converse, Aiesu would settle down in the wireframe, unsure what to make of the chair's position. She pulled the chair up and took a cup from the card clasp, settling it down, followed by the other with a quiet clop against the obsidian glass of the desk. She slid one forward with her pale fingers as a peace-offering to the CO to take if he chose before she reclined - cradling her own in her hands.
She took a slow sip, savoring its warmth. Starships were always too cold for Aiesu's tastes.
"I'm sure you and I both saw things that probably shouldn't have had to be shared." He opened first and foremost, eerily businesslike about the subject.
She knew this to be his opening but didn't give him the benefit of a platform to stand on, choosing to remain quiet. It was a hard move, one intended to express and preserve her distance and her indifference. She mulled over Hakahn's psychological profile in her head once again.
She was more experienced in these manners than he so her stern disposition was to be expected. Hakahn would be forced to explain himself to her - and work for it which would force Hakahn to put his cards on the table while she kept her own to herself - giving her much needed leverage against someone of his... Disposition.
Or rather, that was the plan. She chewed at the inside of her cheek before her lips met the burn on her finger.
"And I understand there's more to your mission than meets the eye, and I'm sure my XO had some of it figured out." Hakahn's expression remained bored and disinterested in the ARIA before him.
"Where are you going with this?" Aiesu stated. He was playing her at her own game. Her own tone was neutral but not hostile, plesant as she eyed the coffee she'd brought - and then him, while taking a sip of her own. She didn't like the way the room told her so little about him - or rather, it did but nothing of what she wanted to know - nothing that would give her an opening. This was a man who knew the game.
"Ergo, what bothers me is the Lazarus Corporation's-"
"Concortium" she jumped in, correcting him, moments later in the back of her head noting she'd likely been baited by him.
"Yes. As I was saying. What bothers me is Consortium's interest in a Cargo Vessel. I believe my subordinate has the keys to this answer but he is currently..." Hakahn searched for a word, leaning in somewhat and an eye rolling in his skull.
"Below an acceptable functional threshold. He could tell you any story he wanted to" she said, leaning closer now, her chair closer, elbows against the deck as she cradled the coffee beneath in her spidery white fingertips - trying to appear comfortable. "And you'd be none the wiser, with no filtration of fact from delusion."
Aiesu's lips curled into a smile which at a first glance was simply polite - though the particular angle and the look in her eyes was predatory. "What a shame."
"Eloquently said." Hakahn concluded. "With which,
you can't glean more."
Baiting her again. Her ego didn't like this. "Actually..." she began, leaning back in her seat now - feeling the faux-leather crumple and the metal squeek in homage to the cheapness of the vessel. "You do know my credentials. If you did want something, I could probably get it out of him."
Idly, Aiesu's gaze rested on a silver metal pen on Hakahn's desk. In her mind's eye, she saw at least twenty ways of incapacitating him - none of which she could act on unless she got to it first - and if she was fast enough. Neither were credentials she excelled in - but the thought in and of itself was reassuring.
"Or even you. Not that I'm offering."
"He is indeed a weak point in the machine in spite of his fits of brilliance, and you have had it correctly identified. Should I pin a medal to that chest of yours?" He sighed, looking her over.
"I'm afraid bumbling hands wouldn't discover anything beneath. I'm barren." she almost laughed - sore about the point. Carefully, she planted the idea and watched to see his response.
Hakahn remained silent for a moment, then reached across the table for the coffee, but he kept it beside him instead of drinking it.
Aiesu noted his need to collect what he thought was his, she saw as... Not a sign of vulnerability but unease, as if he were hiding something, guarding his thoughts around the euphemism. She simply smiled knowingly.
"Not to your liking?" It was a loaded question.
Hakahn shook his head, eyes still focussed on her, however.
"Pity. You're not one for words, are you, Mr. Hakahn?" she took another sip from her coffee.
"If you're trying to play upon my... Frustrations with the caste system, I'm afraid I've already come to grips with it."
She noted his emphasis on a particular word.
"So you understand what bullshit it is" He nodded in earnest reply. A rare moment of honesty came and went, so it seemed. The first words between them that shouldn't have been loaded and they were about the caste system. Or rather, they weren't.
"Where are you going with all this?"
"Could you be frank with me for a moment?"
For some reason the words felt familiar.
"What is Lazarus' angle on all this?
"I'm afraid I can't -"
"And whereabouts does the Mok'Ro fit into it? Is there a piece of cargo, perhaps linked to the interests of MOTHER?"
Hakahn had been looking, but he didn't necessarily see.
Aiesu stared for a moment. The use of the word MOTHER in such a context triggered something - a flicker behind her eyes as she was made aware of someone riding shotgun in her perceptions. She wasn't alone with him in the room - someone hiding between her ears, far away.
With that, her smile evaporated. "Hm?"
Hakahn blinked. That wasn't the response he was expecting. His lack of knowledge on the keybond. The inner workings of an ARIA were Keib's specialities - not his. For the first time in a while, there was a detail that escaped him. It was excruciating. There was something he simply could not finger himself.
Keib knew more about the woman than she did, potentially - and she was a security vulnerability too - and now, perhaps a threat. A two way street of unchecked information. Subconsciously, his right hand compressed until the knuckles cracked.
In this moment, Aiesu's gaze rose skyward at the mirrored surfaces in the corner points of each room, bevelled in a triangle connecting each surface. These were in every room on the ship - and even her own -- though she'd gone to the trouble of spraying paint to blacken their view and gum up the audio pickups of each in her room.
This ofcourse had made Aiesu something of an unknown to Hakahn - and therefor it seemed a threat, when really all she wanted was privacy. The penny then dropped as she ran her tongue through her cheek, feeling the caffene linger when the milk hadn't. It was bitter. Thinking about it, such listening devices, while common on the raptor, were not usually in such excessive numbers.
The penny dropped.
She then eyed the door in its reflection, placing her coffee on the desk as she stood upright. She had to get out.
now.
"This conversation is over, Mr. Hakahn," Aiesu stated out loud as she stood to her feet. She was already thinking of ways to ensure this knowledge wouldn't further spread beyond Hakahn - who now was a liability to her own mission and even her future operations. He would never work again after this mission, she promised herself - and on repeat offence, she'd arrange an
accident especially for him.
She took a step back, turning toward the door. "Excuse me."
Hakahn's expression twisted and contorted. His right arm shot across the desk. He grabbed the delicate flesh and bone wrist of the ARIA and pulling her forward, grabbing her by the hair and pinning her head to the desk - bending her over it. Her cheek met the glass with a thud.
"
It isn't. You aren't nearly as valuable as my XO shills you to be. You are just a copy of someone sent here because your creator hasn't got the collateral or conviction to follow a deal through all by themselves. Whoever made you is a coward."
The desk was unexpectedly cold. Instinctively, Aiesu shifted. Most humanoid beings would stop thrashing - biologically programmed to go limp under the sensation like a mother taking her kittens by the scruff of her neck. But she kept moving. It was only when she felt the stitches that he really had her down, along with what little strength she didn't posess.
Hakahn was many times her weight and many more times her strength. He could throw her around like a ragdoll if he wanted to. She didn't say anything, trying to remain calm and objective. An angry fyunnen could snap her in two like a twig, even just a male, if she said the wrong thing. She could already feel her wrists bruising behind her back.
"I... Could kill you, of course... Space you... Just report you as missing and whoever sent you would send another without debate. It would be very convenient for me, do you understand? Your...
Creator... I presume, is the one you are based on? She..." he almost laughed
"She wouldn't shed tears for you. She didn't for the past... forty six iterations." He leaned in, nausiatingly close. His voice was husky, oily and growled. And there was something else. A man's scent.
"That's an awfully
big number, isn't it?"
She could feel something against her body, realizing now why he'd emphasized
that word.
"And she isn't about to start shedding tears just for you."
Aiesu tried to laugh, wincing in pain - laying what counterattack she could. "She can hear all of this, you know... You're... Hagh... Not the only one with eyes and ears... Mister Hakahn."
Her arms finally getting leverage as she did everything she could - finally lifting her chin off the cold glass of the desk. She could feel a vibration in her shoulder, her muscles working against his. "Nngh."
"But what can she do with what she hears and sees?" Hakahn said, his words smooth like smoke and utterly calm. He wasn't even trying.
He'd made a good point. Noone in the Consortium could reveal their real identity or they'd be dead hours later. She could feel her ears ringing now as her teeth clenched - serrated edges clicking briefly as they locked into place. A bead of sweat trickled off her forehead as she kept pushing against him.
"Hkkghh..."
"You are... a puppet without strings. A bird without wings. Given autonomy only to squander." He then grabbed the coffee she'd offered him earlier. "This is my domain, little rabbit. It is what little I have."
He then popped the lid off with his thumb of the hot coffee and looked at her head, spotting patches of redness. "And it is
mine."
There was silence between them.
"Say..."
He started to tilt the coffee cup slowly as his other hand pried her hair away to reveal the scarred flesh.
"They say cute ears are supposed to turn heads - a sign of Lorath beauty and prestige... You've never displayed yours... I wonder why that could be?" Hakahn almost purred, slowly shifting her milky white hair aside - eyes scanning along her neck as he parted the curtains of her mane.
The basis of her ears were there, trimmed in darkened ridges and shapes. What should have expanded up into tall thick lapine ears, redness as if they'd been cut quite cruelly when she was a child. Faint pits in the cut revealed the flesh had likely been malignant, working to try and eat her alive - a sign of a botched aspectation. They were visibly stapled against her head with three thick bars of metal like piercings against her metallic skull. He could make out the faintest licks of silver of her synthetic skull now about the back as he peeled her ear back. He slid his finger down the gap between her ear and her skull.
"I bet it gets itchy here, doesn't it?", he scratched along the back of her ear. She winced audiably. Slowly, Hakahn's finger sank deeper and then with leverage against her skull, swayed.
With a quiet hiss and a wince from her, he ripped each individual staple as if unzipping a jacket with much the same ease - an audiable pop of flesh as his finger sank lower and lower.
Silently, he noted whoever had dealt with her ears hadn't cared too much about the quality of the job - though from the lack of tissue and the visible nerves, a good job couldn't actually be done with them.
"Aren't you just adorable?" Hakahn stated - his tone deadpan now.
Already, Aiesu was panicking - pale milky blood seeping down her neck, paler than the fabric of her shirt. She panted now, hearing the scalding hot coffee rumbling in near silence over the cliff of the coffee cup, spilling over her malformed ear.
Though the ship was busy, her voice could be heard down the corridor - a growled high pitched sound marred in whimper, as if branding someone.
"...I wonder..." Hakahn began again, smoothly as always. "...if she felt that?" His rumbly voice tickled through the ARIA's skull as she heard those words like thick tar rolling into her mind.
* * *
Elsewhere...
* * *
"S..S....Sss... Ssshh..anhg..." a delicate voice rathered and guttered up at Hakahn as the pouring ceased - unable to even begin her words now as she trembled as if close to freezing to death - in shock oozing like wires through the tendons and arteries in her body, piercing through her knuckles and fingertips.
The physical switches associated with any sort of surgical work couldn't be triggered by the construct when her neural centers thought the real Aiesu was riding shotgun - whether she was really still there or not, thanks to buggy software - and now Aiesu truly knew she was alone. She couldn't make words anymore.
"You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" Hakahn smiled. "I'll continue treating you as you deserve... Though... That'd confer some sort of value to you. You're not a tool, you're a spectator at best and a security liability at worst." he sighed - still utterly calm - eyes dead as his fingertips rode beneath her shirt along her pale back - and then about her hips, sinking beneath her bicycle shorts - his fingertips icy cold. She could feel his fat fingers between her thighs against flat smooth skin.
"You don't even have this, you know. Even children get anatomically correct toys," he huffed in a flavor of disappointment Aiesu attributed as oddly paternal - as he began to ease her bicycle shorts down about her ankles.
She turned her head, wincing as he pulled her hair back - only to let her look this time - through the reflection infront of her, behind his desk. She could make out his body over and against her. His hips were cold against her backside - with a nausiating warmth between them.
Aiesu could feel it, crushed up against her backside - a deep burning froil of bile in her belly now as she wretched, staring back up at him to get a proper look at Hakahn.
His figure blocked out the light - white dancing around his edges in the dark room - only able to make out that silloette in the darkness before she felt the bottom of Hakahn's palm thrash against her skull, forcing face back down against the desk after seeing her watching him through that reflection. As much of a voyeur himself, he didn't want to be seen.
"If Keib... Or anyone gets word of this" his breath rolled through her eardrums like sticky oil, deafening through her scalded eardrums - ringing furiously "We both know what will happen to him."
...
"And if you try anything?" he said - not caring to repeat himself once again - especially rhetorically. She didn't deserve an explination, but either way, she knew.
His fingers explored over her pale backside, disappearing into the shadow created by his body.
"Well... Seems you at least defecate" he said, a soft squeak from the throat of the figure beneath as Hakahn muttered, no joy in his voice as he did this - and yet there was that fatherly warmth in his eyes.
"At least this gives me
something to work with,
doll"
