Icarus Awakens

Day 20:

Counting helped. The conditions they were held in weren't as barbaric as they could have been. Capture in her line of work could just as easily mean death, or spending the rest of your life in a dark hole until you starved. Instead they were fed regularly, allowed time to move, and the guards didn't mind noise so long as it didn't annoy them. But they were still prisoners with no idea of when or if they would be released.

Eagle had been prepared for it, mentally. There had been seminars on what to do when captured, then more when she had made leader of one of the company's mercenary forces. In certain circumstances she was expected to avoid capture at all costs, and this had been one of them. They'd managed to take her and a fair portion of the Menagerie alive. Not all of them. Counting helped.

Neither had she given up. The situation was grim, but there were outs. Escape was possible, their captors were superhuman but they weren't gods. With coordination they could take at least some of the unarmed, and Eagle had reason to believe that there were fewer here with that fearsome strength than appearances would suggest. The majority of their forces had likely been involved in taking the ship, and they had numbered less than a hundred. Her people had the training to break out if given the opportunity.

The gold was the problem. Even if the Menagerie itself hadn't been sabotaged or drained of fuel, their employers were expecting over a billion US dollars of gold to be recovered. After going dark for so long, missing the check ins they had, it was doubtful they'd receive anything other than a bullet for returning empty handed. They could still make for a non-extradition country and scrape some kind of life in squalor, but part of Eagle would rather take the bullet. Some of her crew might survive if she took responsibility.

There was a third option. An insane, suicidal offer from the enemy. Eagle struggled to believe it was genuine, but nothing the man who could speak in her head had told her held any contradiction. Well, there was plenty that ran against known science, but it had all been internally consistent. If these were lies meant to serve some form of psyop, they were good ones. The offer wasn't all sunshine and roses either. It felt real, a terrible risk in exchange for possibly the best outcome.

Stockholm syndrome had to be part of the reason she wasn't just tuning out the voice. You could be aware of humanity's psychological failings and still be vulnerable to them. It was hope. Hope and that damned smile she could hear in every word. Not jeering, but promising. It'd gotten so bad that Eagle found herself beginning to grow impatient. Lograve was late for their chat today. Had something happened?

Day 22:

Something had happened. The crew was collectively working on trying to decode the foreigner's language and had pieced it together from overheard conversations and what she'd extracted from Lograve. Three of the so-called 'Blessed' had vanished, alongside one of the Earth natives. One of the two her people had taken hostage, as a matter of fact. By the sound of it her people had better morale remaining than their guards, but there was an unfortunate religious fanaticism to them that would prevent any chance of turning one. Besides, these were people supposedly of another world. What kind of life could a birdman expect when every government in the world would claw at each other to get their hands on them?

Regardless, this wasn't a good development. Instability in their captors would only promote rash action. They'd also overheard concerns of food shortages with no end in sight. Eagle only needed one guess as to who would go first if stores ran low. Maybe she could negotiate to win freedom by promising a solution, but with the only sympathetic person on the other side gone she didn't like her chances.

In the late afternoon, a new prisoner arrived. That anyone had been put here was unusual on its own as the building had been made specifically to contain the crew of the Rigel, who had supposedly been released unharmed. Any of the foreigners who were deemed worthy of incarceration wouldn't be thrown into the same space as they were. No one was foolish enough to believe giving them a potential hostage would end well. No, this was someone else from Earth. One Eagle didn't recognize, despite him being placed alone in a newly made cell next to hers.

He didn't seem as afraid or disturbed as a civilian might be given the circumstances, but Eagle also didn't see marks of a soldier on him. Any in her crew could take him down in an even fight. Yet he sat calmly in his cell once the door was slammed and fixed shut. He didn't look at her or anyone at all, instead taking a seated position and bowing his head like a monk. Eagle watched him carefully for a time, but whoever this was was being careful to reveal as little about himself as possible.

Eventually curiosity won over discipline. "English?" she whispered, though the guards were far enough that light conversation wouldn't reach them for the next few minutes.

"I speak it." His voice had a faint American accent, though to her ears it sounded like one you acquired after living there for some time rather than an in born trait. East coast too, maybe one of the southern states, but it was hard to tell. He said nothing else.

It made Eagle wary of him. In all likelihood this was a plant. The larger warehouse their prison was built within had space elsewhere. Her captors had made it a point to isolate her from as many as possible at most times, yet this man warranted an adjacent cell? Still, she needed information. In her position inaction was the only surefire way to lose. No help was coming, not after they'd figured out how the Menagerie had found the island.

"Why are you here?" she asked, focusing on what she could see of him to catch any hint of a lie.

His eyes opened, and Eagle was unprepared for the depth she found within them. It was like an abyss, only that was passive emptiness. Each pupil was a singularity showing such age and memory it was as if they had witnessed the birth of the universe. She found herself helplessly drawn in, reminded of old vampire folklore, but knew that wasn't what she saw before her. This man was older than the myth whose roots stretched back further than Christianity, for all his skin was unwrinkled and his smile young.

Then they shifted to something approaching normality, Eagle allowed only a glimpse at what leaked beneath the surface. Her body took a step back in defiance of her mind, frightened more by this simple man wearing jeans than the dark-skinned warrior they'd needed artillery to bring down. "It's where fate has taken me," he replied, innocent save for the moment of exposure that had come before.

Day 23:

"You should eat. Being cooped up here can't have been good for your fitness. Don't want to lose all your strength, do you?" His question made Eagle jump from where she had been staring down at her meager breakfast. They were the first words either had spoken since last night. He had returned to his meditations, while Eagle's mind had been captured by the window to madness she had perceived.

Lograve had spoken of magic, and she had seen enhanced warriors dodge gunfire, but neither could compare to what she had stared into. Something that should have never existed sat less than five meters away from her, thoughtfully scraping burned crust off his bread. It was like watching one of Lovecraft's children stop at a gas station, though only she could see him for what he truly was.

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"What are you?" She asked the question like she would have if the first to charge the Menagerie had survived everything, then stood over her offering surrender or death. If he denied it, or played dumb, then Eagle would've been forced to consider if she really had started to crack in captivity. The mind could be so creative, even when it broke.

She flinched when he looked at her again, but the timeless horror was not within his gaze this time. "A man. Used to be more, but here I am in flesh alone."

Breathe. In. Out. Trust your eyes, trust your ears, Eagle instructed herself, feeling her mind righting after it had been knocked off its axis yesterday. The killing edge returned. "What are you?" This time she asked as if holding a flamethrower to the first creature to crawl out of a downed alien spacecraft.

"Gave you a scare, did I?" He smiled self-consciously and then sipped from his thin soup. "Apologies, but that was the introduction circumstances warranted. Not sure how much time we have."

Eagle watched a little incredulously as the man abandoned his spoon and took the bowl in both hands. "Until what?"

He tilted the bowl forward and paused from draining it. "'til you need to decide." He then resumed eating as if that explained everything, looking pointedly at Eagle's meal. She refused to touch it, and he rolled his eyes and put the bowl back down. "Karma."

"Karma?" Eagle's earlier comparison of the man to a monk returned to her, though that still didn't explain everything. Neither did this man look as if he'd come from the mountaintop of some Eastern sect.

"It's interesting. For all that makes this world special, you struck on at least one of the fundaments." His voice changed slightly, the accent beginning to fade, as if someone else were talking. Someone well-practiced in pretending to be who sat before her. "Tell me, what do you think we owe each other, woman of Fortune?"

"I'm not here to debate philosophy."

"Then why are you here?" He blinked twice, the ageless gaze flickering to life and just as quickly dying. "I see your path. You do not just live by your sword, you embody it. The worth you see in yourself is judged by how deep a wound you can leave on behalf of your master. Neither do you care for the hand that holds you, so long as it is the most golden."

It turned out she was going to debate philosophy whether she liked it or not. It was that or sit in silence as she had last night. "That's a high road to take for someone who wants my services. Or was Lograve not trying to convince me to have my people fight on his behalf?"

"Is the worth of an action found in the deed itself, its intent, or its outcome?" Something heavy weighed down the man's shoulders. "Naturally, it depends on who asks. Yet Karma judges regardless of the answers we find ourselves."

"Are you going to start making sense?" Eagle asked, starting to get annoyed. "I skipped college to avoid this wishy washy crap. I kill people for money, end of story. Sure, that makes me a bad person but I'm good at it. I still live by rules, and if it wasn't my finger on the trigger it'd be someone else's. I don't know who or what the hell you are, but I know who I am. You're not going to get into my head."

"Huh. I thought someone as intelligent as you would appreciate this kind of approach. My mistake. I've made several, lately." His posture relaxed, and the first persona took over. "The name's Chris. I'm here to see if you believe in redemption."

Day 26:

"Ok, ok, say I believe any of this," Eagle said as the guard's movements bought them more time to speak. "My people are still going to think I've cracked or flipped."

"When the time comes there won't be room for doubt, believe me," Chris assured. "I've seen them open the portal and they have the means to do it again. My best guess is they'll do it again in a day or two, but I could be wrong."

"How can you know all of this?" Eagle pressed. Chris had told her more about exactly what he wanted her for but had been evasive on other topics.

It took Chris a few minutes to decide how he wanted to answer before he spoke again. "I won't speak on the rules of this world, it's not my place to. Existence as a whole, though, is like a wheel. You may know it by the name Samsara, that concept gets close enough. Karma is involved but it doesn't have a hold on the process."

"I told you to cut the philosophical bullcrap," Eagle replied in a warning tone.

"I'm answering your question." Chris threw up a hand, his 'local' persona becoming exasperated. "Souls can pass on after death to new worlds and new lives. Much is left behind, but Karmic ties remain. It's gone on so long that there's a web those talented or powerful enough can read, and use. Hold on, if I explain this the right way you'll have someone punch me again." He scratched his head and nodded, satisfied at whatever he'd cooked up. "Say crossing over is like calling someone on the phone. Normally the call goes through without a problem. But if you have that person's number and the right other preparations, you can intercept that call and use the connection for your own ends."

Eagle didn't like where he was going with this. She still gestured for him to continue and he obliged after taking a sip of water. "When someone's close to death, their soul is exposed to the Astral. This is like making a call, metaphorically. They're sending a signal out to the multiverse at large ahead of moving on. If you have a strong enough Karmic Link to them, or something bound to their soul, you can intercept that call. One thing you can do at that point is something called 'False Reincarnation'. It's an advanced trick of magic that lets you offer your soul as a support for the dying one. If they accept then they're protected from death for a time, but the cost is that a copy of you comes along for the ride."

"You."

"Yep." He shrugged. "Before you get all worried that's the idea here. The part of me that beamed across space can't even do that again, least not here."

"The part of you," Eagle replied numbly. "You expect me to believe whoever this guy was is ok with being body snatched?"

"I was dying," Chris shot back, emphasizing the first word. "Unlike someone else I won't mention the offer as made with the intent to form a partnership, not a tool. They didn't just save my life, they're giving me a chance to save this world. Because it is under threat, and by helping me you help it too."

Eagle looked up and held the back of her head with both hands, thinking things over. It all sounded insane, but presented with some logic behind it. Internally consistent, just like Lograve's tales of his home world had been. Frankly if she could get indisputable proof of what Chris claimed she could take him instead of the gold back to her superiors and earn forgiveness. He was smart enough to only give her words, though.

"So there's another version of you over there, then. And wherever the original is. How are you communicating?"

"Can't say. Not like it matters since we've mostly been on our own for a few years now. Playing it safe. We're not the only fish in this pond, and not the biggest either. Our advantage is that we've been acting behind the curtain." He grew quiet as a pair of guards passed by. Eagle had gotten the impression that someone had ok'd his presence here, but that this too was a secret. Chris couldn't have missed the leverage he was giving her with all of this information, but it was only leverage over him. The man who was already in prison. "Look, it's this simple. You're on course for a dead end. Take my hand and not only will you have a fresh start, you'll have the chance to be more than you ever would here. You, personally, have it in you. Can't speak on the rest of your men, but I can say that much."

"You're telling me I could become fast enough to dodge bullets?" Eagle asked, unable to fully keep the interest out of her voice as she tested Chris.

His smile told her that he got the reference. "Get strong enough and you won't have to."

Day 37:

"I'm winning more of them over," Eagle reported after the sun had set, the chill of mid-winter poorly held back by the thin blanket. "Obviously I'm not telling them everything. Only that we have a shot at freedom if we do one job for you. But it doesn't matter if I get all of them on board if you can't prove it to them."

"I… should be able to," Chris responded uncertainly. His beard had started to grow while unmaintained in captivity, none of the guards trusting him with anything to cut it. She still wondered what he'd done to be put here in the first place, there had to be a reason he was here or else he would've been freed after she tentatively agreed, but that was one of the only things he refused to answer. "This is taking longer than it should. Something unexpected must have happened."

"So what happens to us if that portal doesn't open back up?" Eagle asked dangerously. For all Chris contained an ancient intelligence he was still human, and the threat the question implied rattled him. There were limited times they were allowed out of the cells in small groups and he had no true allies here. Only Eagle's tenuous grip on her people. Her gaze grew hard as Chris couldn't come up with an answer.