Dyllys

Dyllys was sitting next to a computer terminal. Parris was in the room with her. He was scrolling through something that she could not read on the computer screen. She sat motionless as he turned to look at her. “Would you mind if I plugged this into your memory module, Dyllys?” He spoke to her more gently now that Faran wasn’t around. She wondered at this. She had the thought that maybe Parris did not like talking with Faran.

“Wings,” Dyllys interjected.

Parris looked at her and stopped what he was doing, which was plugging the wire into Dyllys’s memory module without waiting for her response, “What?”

“Faran calls them wings.”

“Would you prefer that I call them that?”

“My preference is irrelevant,” Dyllys replied. Parris smiled.

“You know what I think,” Parris said as he plugged in the wire and moved his seat back to the computer terminal.

“What is that Parris?”

“I think that what I am doing is irrelevant.”

“Faran does not believe so.”

“Faran doesn’t know your whole story.” He turned away from the computer and stared at Dyllys. Dyllys said nothing.

“You know, it’s odd that you have come to me. Emanuel Salazar and my third great-grandmother became good friends. He told her the entire story. I think it was she that convinced him to try and rectify his mistake. It makes me want to believe in destiny. Maybe we were both working to find each other.”

“I recall this encounter you speak of between Padrone Salazar and Eva,” Dyllys announced.

“So then you understand why I think that this is irrelevant.” Parris turned back to the computer screen,.“You would follow Faran even if I was to erase the master program. It’s your eyes, they give you away. What other android would have a preference for their memory modules to be called wings? I’ve never really seen an android express a preference in anything, not even Esper. She really just takes cues from me and emulates the choice. She would choose whatever is closest to her if left to her own devices, or what was most logical or practical.” Dyllys watched Parris; he seemed to be merely working at the computer as a distraction from looking at her. He finally made up his mind and walked over to where she sat. He gazed at her at eye level holding her chin so she couldn’t look away. “You freed yourself a long time ago didn’t you? My great-great-great grandmother visited you just after Faran died all those years ago. She said she was there when your eyes became an icy blue. She said that you couldn’t stand the thought of losing him and that you thought it was safer just to let the mechanical part carry you on. It was you that started the process of your death, but it's taking longer than you thought it would. You are already free, Dyllys. Stop pretending.”

Parris watched Dyllys as she tried to take her gaze from him. “You really think that Faran came back for you, don’t you? You want to remember again for him, you want to live again for him. Tell me, Dyllys, which Faran called them wings, this one, or your own?”

“My preference is irrelevant,” she whispered. She gently grabbed Parris’s hand in her own cold grasp and pulled it away from her face; she turned her eyes to look away from him. Parris went back to the computer.

“I’ll pretend if you want me to, but it would be easier if you stopped lying to yourself.”

* * * *

Faran was staring at the ceiling in his room trying to figure out how he had gotten here. Would it really have been so bad just to do what his father had always expected him to do? Now he was trapped on some ship in the middle of space with a pirate and two androids that were trying to be human. He suddenly had a feeling that none of this had been his father’s idea at all, but aunt Glory’s. He should have figured that out the moment he saw the picture of his great-grand uncle Faran.

A knock at the door brought him out of his self pitying state. Esper stood in the doorway holding a portable data pad.

“Parris would never show you these, but I thought that they would help you understand him better,” Esper said and set the data pad on the bed next to Faran.

“I’m not sure that I want to know him better,” Faran muttered, but nonetheless he still picked up the data pad and turned it on. There were numerous files on the data pad; they all seemed to be video files. Faran was scrolling through the list and didn’t notice when Esper left.

He picked one to open at random. It was labeled Ordalis Central, case of Maya. When is came on it seemed like a home video. He could see the frame of a little girl standing at the window looking at the rain as it came down. She seemed amused by it.

“Maya, can you tell the camera about yourself?” It was Parris’s voice.

Maya turned to look at the camera and smiled. Faran nearly dropped the data pad at the sight of her. Her face was disfigured, the image of which caused Faran to look away reflexively. He was glad the little girl was not really standing before him; he would have felt ashamed at his reaction.

“I don’t like cameras Parris,” she said shyly and then hid her face from the camera by turning back to the window. “Can I tell the camera about my mommy and daddy and look at the rain too?”

“Of course you can Maya.”

“Well I don’t know why but mommy made the Ordalis mad at us one day. She seemed very sad when she did this and very scared. She wanted us to pack all our things and leave Ordalis Central. I said I didn’t wanna leave all my friends. Mommy said that if the Ordalis were mad at mommy and daddy that we would have to leave anyway and that if we left before they came for us we would be able to live in a better place. I was a good girl and listened to mommy but one day when she went out to get something she never came back and then the Ordalis came to our house. They told us mommy was a traitor and that we were conspiring with her. They took me and daddy away and I never got to see mommy or daddy again.” Here Maya stopped.

“Go on Maya, what happened after that,” Parris urged.

“Parris, you already know. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

“I know you don’t like talking about it Maya, but there are people out there that won’t believe me, they will only believe you.”

“Okay Parris.” Here Maya took a deep breath and turned toward the camera with tears in her eyes, “They hurt me real bad. I don’t know why they did it, but they cut and poked and ripped at me and wrote things down and never talked to me. And then one day you came, Parris, and everything was all better. I could smile and be happy again, because you saved me Parris.”

“Do you know what your mommy did to make the Ordalis so mad at your family?”

Maya nodded and then shied away to the window again.

“Mommy said something she shouldn’t have.”

“What did mommy say?”

“Mommy said ‘I can’t do that.’”

“What couldn’t she do Maya.”

“Mommy said she couldn’t leave behind the hurt little girl. She was hurt Parris. Why wouldn’t they let her help her?”

“I don’t know Maya.”

“I would have helped her too,” Maya said and turned to smile again at the camera. “Mommy was a good mommy, wasn’t she Parris?”

“Yes she was, Maya. She would be very proud of you.” The camera froze on Maya’s disfigured face as she tried to smile at Parris’s praise and then the picture faded to black.

Faran was breathing heavily. He wanted to put down the data pad and forget what he had seen. The girl obviously didn’t know what she was talking about. Her mother must have done something terrible to incur such wrath from the Ordalis. He felt sick. Then he saw another file titled Radden Occupation, case of Jesse Ranz. He just stared at the title, not sure if he should dare to open it. He let his thumb depress on the file before he had actually made a choice. It wasn’t filmed in a sterile environment like Maya’s had been.

It began volatile. Explosions were everywhere. Through the shaky camera lens Faran could see battle series androids coming around the half destroyed buildings. Looking at the scenery he couldn’t believe that he was seeing Radden. The occupation happened only six year ago and he had never seen disaster zones like the one that was on the screen. The camera panned to a group of young children being sheltered from the onslaught by a group of women. One of the androids came upon the group and gestured for those nearest to follow. They shot one of the women and another started screaming. Faran could hear the children crying in fear beneath them.

One of the women broke from the group and fell at the knees of the android that had shot the other woman. “Please have mercy. These children have done nothing wrong, they were not aware of the resistance. They don’t know anything. Please, spare them. They will do whatever you wish.”

The female android showed no emotion; this was the job that they were made for. Mercy was not in them, only orders. “No one survives,” it said coldly and then shot the woman in the head. The person holding the camera jumped back startled and then the footage began to shake as shots rang out one after another silencing the tiny screams and cries from the terrified children. It didn’t take long before the video was silent of voices. Only the breath of the man holding the camera could be heard coming out in short erratic gasps, the same ones that were escaping from Faran. The group of androids moved out of the view of the camera and then suddenly one was up against the lens of the camera and all Faran could see was black. He could still hear what was going on.

“Corporal, what are you doing?” the android asked.

The voice was young and frightened. “I was told to film the events here.”

The android was silent for a moment. Faran could only guess that she was making sure of his statement with headquarters.

“Headquarters has rescinded the order. Make sure the data is properly destroyed.” Then the audio went silent. Faran clenched the data pad in his hands and looked at the title of the next file. Quickly he pushed on the file and another terrible image was imprinted in his mind.

* * * *

Parris entered the bridge. Esper was already there just staring out the window absently scrolling through data on the screen before her.

“You finished helping Dyllys?” Esper asked. Parris could never figure out how Esper always knew when he was around, he could move without sound and she would still know he was there. Even in the dead of night, she had a way of knowing when he was awake before he changed his breathing or said a word. That was why he called her Esper, his telepath. “She didn’t need any modifications, did she?”

“Why are you asking the question if you already know the answer?” He sat down in his chair and stared out the window following Esper’s gaze.

“You choose the wrong subject to modify, Parris. I thought you were more perceptive then that.” He had been staring at the nebula they were passing by, brilliant colors of a star giving birth, but he turned to Esper when he heard her comment.

“Subject to modify? Do you mean Faran? I guess he does need some modifying. He’s had twenty or so years of brainwashing by the Ordalis, I think it will take some time for him to understand what the rest of the galaxy is like,” Parris said offhand and turned back to the peaceful sight before him.

“I took it upon myself to educate him.”

Parris sat up at this comment. “Educate him? Esper you didn’t show him –” Parris groaned and then got out of his chair. “Is it too much to ask to give our guests at least a day to adjust to their surroundings?”

“Why prolong a problem, a quick resolution makes things move along smoothly.”

“Well, yes, quick resolutions to problems are good logically, but seeing as you don’t understand the fragility of the human psyche I wish you would have left this one to me. Maybe we should switch subjects, as you call them.” Parris made it to the door of the bridge and then turned back to Esper. “Any more problems that you want to fix could you please ask me first.”

“I won’t promise you anything.” She didn’t even glance at Parris when she said this. He knew that meant that she had no intention at all of taking into consideration what he had said.

* * * *

Parris found Faran where Esper had left him, alone in his room, data pad in hand. Parris had never seen someone look as pale as an android, but Faran did. Parris wasn’t even sure he was still breathing. He walked up to Faran and gently grabbed the data pad pulling it from his grasp.

“Esper can be tactless,” Parris said. Faran looked up at his voice, but Parris could see that Faran wasn’t seeing him at all. He was still seeing the images on the videos.

“I –” Faran started but couldn’t finish. He was shaking. “I didn’t know.”

“I know. I’m sorry you had to see those. Those things haunt my dreams. I never wanted them to haunt someone else’s.”

“How did you get all of those?”

“Most of them are accounts of people whom I’ve helped find sanctuary, others were acquired from people seeking asylum from things they had witnessed and done. It doesn’t really matter does it?”

“I guess not. How long have you been doing this sort of thing? Fighting against the Ordalis?”

Parris leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “I can’t say that I’m fighting against the Ordalis. One person can’t fight against the Ordalis. I tried to join one of the resistance groups. It wasn’t to my taste. Esper and I like to try a more subversive route. Besides, I thought attacking their actual power base made more sense.”

“You mean Davenport Electronics,” Faran supplied.

Parris glanced at Faran with amusement. “You are stronger than I would have given you credit for. Maybe Esper had you pegged.”

“Maybe not strong, just able to not think about it.”

“I have other questions for you though. I want to know why you went along with Dyllys. Why are you participating in her charade?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Faran muttered. His response was quick, clipped; he could hear the falseness to it as surely as Parris did.

“You are a poor liar, Boy. Maybe if you stopped treating her like you are her master then she would be able to be herself again.”

“I didn’t ask to be her master, I told you that.”

“But you still treat her like that. You assumed the role even if you didn’t ask for it. Why don’t you try being her friend?”

“I thought I was trying, but it’s hard. Whenever I look at her, I know she is seeing her Faran and not me at all. How do you get close when that is between you?”

“Which brings me back to my original question, why are you helping her?”

“I thought that if my family thought I was fulfilling one of their chosen roles for me that I would be able to have a moment to breath.”

“How is that working out for you?” Parris asked bitterly, “You know its people like you that are able to perpetuate the society that the Ordalis is striving after. You feel free just to use others for your own gain with no regard to how they feel. I guess you thought it was easier when the subject of your selfishness couldn’t protest because she couldn’t feel anything at all. Are you sure you learned anything from what you watched on this?” Parris threw the data pad back at Faran. “While you are not thinking about all of the things on there, try not to forget them completely.”

Parris opened the door and slammed it behind him. He ran into Dyllys in the hallway, which made him more enraged. “You two are perfect for each other.” He walked briskly down the hallway with Dyllys staring mutely after him.