"I don't get it. We have your freinds and eventually one will start talking and we will find out what we want to know? Why hold on?" Tal looked up through swollen eyes as Gib pulled a cigarette out from the steel box on the table and lit it. Gib touched his wrist panel releasing the manacles that had held Tals wrists to the chair and slid the box over the table to him making a take one gesture. Tal was no threat at this point. His collar bone was broken, his left fingers had their nails removed, he had two broken ribs, and his groin was screaming from being punched over and over. Gibs releasing of his hands let Tal know he knew he was helpless. He's forced to share that bond of acceptance like all captives who unwillingly get brought to intimacy with those holding them. Small mercies, small gifts, flowers and chocolates replaced by the age old line of "You know you make me do this to you". The small mercies become the gifts, and even this far down the evolutionary line human adaptability with the instinct to displace never fail to show a dark side.
He looked at the guards who were standing over by the door whispering to themselves, arms folded almost like three men standing together whispering in a church hallway. Tal took a cigarette and Gib leaned over lighting it then leaned back sighing with the same impatience a parent shows a child who's lied about doing their homework. 'You know I sort of get it with you guys. It's outrage for wasted time. I mean we made it all the way out here only after discovering that we weren't the first. Centuries spent keeping all of us going at each other while the primes looted and rebuilt over what they found. Did you know the big fights, and I mean the ones with real juice used to be over religion?' Tal says nothing. He knows the tempo of this conversation is going to go past a speed he can hold but knows he has to keep him talking. Just one more second to one more second. 'Yes. Then we evolved to race, class, and brought the whole family together for evening slaughter before finding out about here and turning our guns on the primes."
It had been that. The entire planet fractured from governmental to civil but two private companies brought to fruition what was only joked about. They had made it to Mars and found people. People living in ruins building on the advancements they had found. People from earth. They'd tight beamed a hour long broadcast back before being slaughtered that bounced from satellite to satellite, home to home. A two hundred year old secret let out. The motive was the planet was dying not just because of man. Myths of cataclysms brought to stark reality as assurances that it will happen again. This time the planet wouldn't be habitable and if life survived it was going to take thousands of years to rebuild. They had a date just far enough away to maybe fight. Humanity realized as a whole that those who governed were going to leave them to tantrum like children fighting over toys and games of imagination.
'Yep. But the religious ones were the best. Guys like you and me were doing this long before the primes game was figured out. Your sort were called freedom fighters, jihadist, nationalist, extremist, loads of titles. My sort? In the end we just got called intelligence officers. Same as today. Whatever happened to branding or changing with the times? It used to be that a fanatic could be inspired because of that void or insecurity, that need to believe and belong. And branding worked you know? Today? I'm still an intelligence officer and you're "humanity".' He did the finger quotes feigning ironic disgust with humor. 'I think your intelligent.' Tal said through a croaky voice in a sarcastically condescending note. Gib laughed. 'You're quality. These morons back here' he said thumbing at the guards behind him 'single dimension. It's the pay and the fact that not to much is complicated outside of the technicality of their job. They get to stay up here with primes as long as they do it. So will their kids. You? Well your a lot like me really.' The cigarette is running out and with it the orbs of potential float back into Tals mind like late comers to a party asking if they missed anything. 'I was hoping we could avoid cliche statements here.' Tal croaked.
'No genuinely. So ok it's cliche, but to go after the primes up here? I don't blame you. I can understand the dedication because I feel the same disgust all the time. There's a type of autism born from their breed of godlike power and untouchability. I can see how reflecting on it and the lie that's been sinking in for two hundred years still stinging like a slap in the face every second. If I could integrate that insult in the same way you're letting hope in that we'll talk for a little longer... I'd probably wipe them out myself.' Tal looked at him both holding eye contact 'Then why don't you?' Gib chuckled. 'Because I get bored with most things. I'm bored with this job at the moment but it has reliability so I stay. I understand both sides of the argument here between you guys and the primes, I just don't like losing arguments. B really I think it's because above all I'm curious. It keeps me wanting to wake up and go through another day. So though I'm bored with this job there is still plenty to be curious about up here.' He picked up his cup of coffee and sipped staring at Tal.
Tal was listening almost as if by reflex for the damage or the vulnerability in Gib voice. He heard none. This is why the relationship between interrogator and captive was so mythically portrayed in centuries past. It was an example of two separate struggles occurring in concert. One epitomizing power, the other weakness, and it captured the human mind in reality and portrayal. To many synchronicity's of instinctive lusts to not excite those reading, watching, or doing. The only loser was the one who was captive. 'We both know why your holding out. It's the durability of habits. Habits make stones blush in their persistence. But we both know how this goes. I've read your file. You're not religious, you have done things that mean you don't have principles and if you do you've hidden it well. But principles and beliefs only share a bed. Their not the same.' Gib leaned forward and looked at Tal with a soft and incredibly caring expression. 'Tal you're still a man. Please don't make me take that away from you. Please. Tell me what I want to know.'
The plea, the kindness, the almost old friends feel of Gib talking, the pain, the desperation, all if it slammed into Tal at once and he looked away a tear rolling down his face. Gib left just long enough of a pause before sighing as if he understood the unspoken no from Tal. He turned and walked out nodding at the guards as he exited. As soon as the door closed a gun shot was heard followed by another before the door flew open and two helmeted people burst in crouched low weapons raised. There was no chance for the guards to reach their side arms before the rounds struck toppling the two by the door and the one who was standing near Tal. It was over in seconds.
'Shit Tal. You're fucked. You gonna to be able to walk?' It was Lee. Tal was expecting all of this to be a joke or a theatric, a new form of torture to inspire hope and snatch it away again until he heard her voice. 'Yes.' His hands were still unfastened and he tried to stand but the blood had pooled in his legs causing them to be almost numb. He sat again and stretched them out. Lee brought her helmet visor up to look at Tals injuries before shouting 'Bru door!' The other gunmen went and knelt watching the hallway. Tal tried to stand again this time being successful as Lee grabbed a side arm out of one of the dead guards holsters handing it to Tal. 'So how are we doing then?' Tal said feeling his injuries in blinding pain but managing to stay on his feet.
'We have taken the main armory at Mons with barely a shot fired but four hundred of us are cornered in the residency. Me and Bru came to get you guys and only encountered a little resistance. This was the first time we had to fire since getting in. Zell is down at bay four working on overriding the shuttles with around twenty of us.' Tal took all this in. 'What about the others?' Lee shook her head looking at him 'You're the first one alive we've found. We're only halfway through though. We've gotta get up top to take down the tight beam relay to the primes compounds this side of the dome. It will knock their automated defenses out long enough for us to get in.'
Tal ran the map of where he was at through his head. He had worked as a technician in all the compounds in the dome for two years and knew every corridor and panel in the building. 'There's a half completed shuttle bay on the north end of this wing. The roof isn't finished yet and I think I can get on top. You two see if you can find the others and I'll take care of the relay.' 'Tal you sure you can even walk?' He nodded. 'I'll be fine, it's not that far and the climb is an easy jump.' Lee nodded and spun around making for the door. Tal followed them out and saw the body of Gib laying in pinkish red oxygen rich blood on the white floor. He stepped over it as Lee and Bru sped past him turning right down another hall leaving him limping forward alone.
He made his way through the maze of hallways prepared to shoot at every corner but no one was there. As he made it to the bay door he peaked in through the glass window at the top. It was empty. He went in and climbed the generator making his way to where he would agonizingly leap and pull himself up. He kept saying the plan in his mind like a prayer. 'Seize the primes, kill the security, disable the Mons planetary defenses, tight beam earth, tell them the defenses are down, tell them to start sending people up.' He knew people would fight and kill each other to escape, he knew earth would become a disunited battle ground again, but there was time to deal with that. He crouched down on top of the generator to catch his breath looking up at the opening in the roof and he whispered to himself 'There's still time.'