Satin and Cybernetics

Satin gloves shimmered as she slid them up her arms; the final touch to her regency ensemble. After all, that was the era citizens of Port 9 lived in. Clara had been to other ports in the world, exterminating the threat that had been calling themselves the Truth Speakers. They had been disrupting the peace that had been created by the ports by claiming to know what lies outside the walls of the ports. As she rode in the carriage, she slid her glove off of her right arm and tapped on the inside of wrist, opening a small compartment that was installed in the robotic hand. She quietly spoke, “on my way to Penworth’s ball . I will verify the information I received and report back.”

Good luck. The words scrolled across her line of vision.

She closed the compartment and examined her flawless synthetic skin. Clara checked her fingers and made sure she had plenty of bullets in her hand that was also a gun.

By the time she arrived at the ball, Clara was fashionably late. A deep blue empire waist dress with lace trimming, and pearl beads throughout, draped over Clara’s defined curves.

She searched and found her target. A man that a contact informed her about.

She walked through the crowd of eloquently dressed individuals. The amount of perfume and cologne being worn was overwhelming- very opposite of the medieval theme of Port 12 that she left over a month ago. Those citizens prided themselves in their authenticity.

“Mr. Ryker,” Clara caught his attention. “I was told you were the man to dance with. I’m Penelope.” She gave a fake name.

Ryker presented her with a deep bow. “Miss Penelope, it is a pleasure to be in the presence of such radiant beauty.”

Clara’s own cheeks began to redden. “The pleasure is all mine.” She replied as she presented her hand. He stared deeply at her as he kissed her gloved, cybernetic hand. “Shall we?” She gestured to the dance floor.

As they danced, she noticed that Ryker as well, stumbled a bit. There was a step he missed here and there. He wasn’t from here. Everyone else on the dancefloor moved to the music flawlessly. Once the song ended, Ryker guided her away towards a table that had a tower of champagne glasses.

“Have you enjoyed Port 9 so far, Penelope?” Ryker handed her a flute.

Clara nodded. “It’s been so wonderful. I inherited my father’s fortune and have been all alone in a giant house. I got my hands on some of those old Austen novels and fell in love. And here I am!” She took a sip. “Are you from around here?”

Ryker laughed, “afraid so, milady. I was born and raised here.” Liar.

He offered his hand and she took it. Ryker led her through a door into a small study. Ryker went over to the right of the room, where a table held a small bar. “Care for a glass of fine aged whiskey, Clara?”

Then there was a shock in her system and it all went black.

***

Clara forced her eyes open. She wanted to keep them shut though. The electricity still ran through her and magnified her senses. She had never been so careless.

By the lack of windows and walls of concrete, she could see that she was most likely in a basement or cellar. Ryker stood staring at her, silent. She was chained to a chair.

“Who are you?” She asked calmly. She mentally accessed her messaging files and sent a distress signal out.

“Don’t bother with that.” Ryker finally spoke.

Clara shot him a confused look.

Silence.

She still refused to let him think he had the upper hand. “I take it I’m not the first cyborg you’ve apprehended? I’m guessing these walls are lined with lead. Which jams mentally transmitted signals. Clever.” She cursed herself again. “I know you’re not from here. So what purpose do you have in Port 9?”

Ryker sighed. “No, I’m not from here. But I’ve been here for a while. Building the alliance to overthrow the government. You know how it goes- telling people what’s beyond the walls and all.”

What was beyond the walls of each sector was classified information. The world had rebelled several centuries back. Had taken back what thousands upon thousands of years of humans had taken from it. After so many died, the sectors were built with the highest walls and security. The only way to travel to each sector was through air crafts.

“How do you know what’s beyond those walls?”

“You’ve seen it.”

“What are you saying?”

Then he said a name. It was a simple name. Yet it rang through her being all the same. “Katherine.” How did she know that name? Quickly, she did a mental search through her mind. She knew that name and yet the memories weren’t there.

Ryker saw her confusion and frustration that she had no recollection of who Katherine was. “You lived in Port 5.” The industrial port. Clara had never been there.

“No. I grew up in Port 1. I was in a hovership accident. It malfunctioned. I was the sole survivor. I had already worked as secretary to the governor of Port 1.”

Ryker shook his head. “No. You were the governor of Port 5. Not even the governor was allowed to know what was going on outside the walls. But you were determined to find out. You hacked into the system’s files and were able to find an old file. It was dated hundreds of years ago. Before the ports were built. It told why the ports were built…” He then pulled something out of his pocket. It was a golden heart shaped locket hung on a chain.

She knew that locket.

“I made this for her. Years ago.” Ryker fiddled with the thumb size trinket. He placed his thumb firmly on the center of the heart. With a small click it opened up. The inside projected a hologram. “It was something I made that she could record any important information for meetings. The last recording was six years ago. We both came to Port 5 for a routine checkup. You convinced…” He paused. “You took her out of the wall.”

Clara couldn’t meet his eyes.

And yet she still asked, “What happened?”

Ryker cleared his throat. He didn’t say anything except for, “replay recent recordings.”

The hologram shifted and showed a woman. That was her. She could see her own face looking back at her. Katherine. She was Katherine.

“Come on!” Katherine called to an unseen Clara, who was wearing the locket. They were walking through what looked like a jungle. Trees were tall and vines spread out everywhere. “The file said the creatures came from the sky. Can you believe that? Aliens!” She exclaimed. “Apparently they couldn’t fight the creatures so they made the first port!”

“Aren’t they still a threat? We’ve only got a Grade 2 blaster.” Clara said, trembling.

“We won’t be here long enough to find out. For the past week I’ve stood on the top of the wall with binoculars and I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary jungle. We’ll go in far enough to take a peek and then go back.”

“You promise we’ll go back soon? Even if we don’t find anything?” Clara pleaded.

Katherine nodded. But before she could say anything something ran past her.

“What was that?” Clara gasped.

As they both turned around a giant creature stood before them. It was something from a nightmare. Skin stretched over bone. It stood on haunches like an animal. It had two sets of long arms with large talons protruding from its claws. Its face was covered with rows and rows of teeth. Small black beady eyes stared them down. Then… it roared.

Clara didn’t need to see the rest of the recording to know what happened. As the creature roared again images and voices flooded through Clara’s mind. The creature attacked the real Clara. It gutted her like a fish.

The creature had jumped into the air out of view and Clara grasped at the locket around her neck as she died. Without thinking twice Katherine ripped the locket from the young woman’s throat and ran. Behind her she could hear more monsters drop back to the ground and let out another roar.

She grabbed her blaster and pointed it behind her as she ran and fired. She switched her blaster to its second mode- emergency blaze. She pointed it up and fired. Then she felt teeth sinking into her arm. Before she could scream it crunched and ripped her arm off.

She remembered it felt like an eternity before the hovership came and officers fired at the creatures. The creatures had been tearing Katherine apart. Only her left arm survived, still clutching the locket tightly as if it was her only lifeline. But she never saw it again. Until tonight.

The room was quiet. The recording had stopped playing and she was able to get out of reliving her memory. Katherine looked up at Ryker. “I’m sorry,” she finally said.

Ryker shouted back, “my wife is dead because of you! And you had the balls to take her name?”

She remembered she volunteered for the procedure. She wanted another chance at life. She wanted Clara to have another chance at life. So she let Katherine die outside the wall and became Clara. She became Clara in every way she could.

As she looked at Ryker with his seething eyes of rage and hurt and confusion she knew she couldn’t tell him the truth. The truth won’t bring back the real Clara. “What do you want from me?” She asked calmly. Ryker breathed heavily as he stared at her down. Without speaking he unlocked the chains. She followed him, she didn’t fight.

It turned out that they weren’t in a basement. It was one room of many in a long hallway. They came to the lift. Katherine recognized the layout of the structure they were in. It was Port 9’s wall.

When the lift reached the top floor Ryker led her out a set of doors onto the open top of the wall. The wind howled in the night sky.

She sent out another emergency signal.

“You should have been the one to die that day!” He shouted at her. He was right. “She died at the hands of those things. Her body was never retrieved. I was told it was devoured.”

There was one thing she was sure of. She was not going back outside the wall. And her job was to make sure no one would ever venture outside the walls of their ports. And as God as her witness she was going to do whatever it took to be sure of that.

He failed in checking her for weapons. Her gloves were still on as she brought her arms up and pointed her right finger at him. The bullet tore through the silk fabric and shot straight into Ryker’s chest. His eyes widened as took a step back and fell off the edge, still holding that locket.

Katherine peered down off the edge. “I’m sorry. But I have to keep people like me from going out there. Clara’s legacy will live on.”

Katherine sat in silence as the hovercraft came. She stepped on to it as it landed. One of her superiors was aboard. “What happened? Was the mission compromised?”

She didn’t look at him as she replied, “No. The information was right. I took him out.”

“Anything else to report?”

She shook her head. “No. But I’m requesting a memory swipe of my time here.”

“Again? Fine.” He grunted and pulled out a small device meant to plug in to the small port on the nape of Katherine’s neck. She turned and let him open a small hatch and insert the device. “There, happy?”

“Never better.” Clara replied.