The Ones We Forgot: Chapter Four
An attempt to discover the truth behind them being here sees Frank undergo rend while Melina constructs an interconnected lie to keep it from being revealed.
Previously on The Fall Years: The Ones We Forgot: Not long after arriving on Mars, the Black Knight team run into a problem when one of their Mortans is exposed by the bioscanner. Faced with interrogation from the Chief of Security to determine if they too are guilty, it falls upon Melina to embrace her Mortan side and construct a pseudomind capable of fooling the Chief’s Bleeder, a man capable of rending memory through mere touch.
The first thing they taught us was how to lie—not just by speaking but by contorting our deepest thoughts into something unrecognisable, something that would confound those who pierced our minds. Now, I was about to find out if that training really had been worth it.
It began with an intense throbbing pain in his forehead. It threw him forward, and he almost headbutted the table. Even as he felt the first few trickles of blood, he gritted his teeth. He had prepared for this. He just had to resist the one that sought to penetrate his memory. The room became distant as a nauseousness overcame him. He leaned back, his head lolled up to gaze upon the blind, glassy eyes of the one who had used rend. They remained expressionless as his head rolled back forward, and mentally, he was back when he first landed in Lazarus.
The Portunus Front was a large, expansive dome that covered a massive portion of the moon’s surface. He’d had a good view of it too, before landing. The transport shuttle began its slow descent into the hangar area. Once it landed and the overhead doors sealed. They were able to disembark. He followed his fellow new arrivals as this new strange coolness washed over him. The artificial white lights led him down some silver corridors until they reached the customs area. A sudden jab in the back caught his attention, and he looked back to see a familiar, friendly face. She smiled at him, long black hair draped over her shoulder, and her green eyes showed playfulness. The Russian, Melina Petrova, but that doesn’t make sense -
‘Stop leaking. It’s taking a lot of focus for me to pull this off.’
‘Leaking?’
‘Bleeders, they call them. People implanted with aether tech. It gives them psychic powers. Rend is one of them. You’re familiar with it. Works like the trace. The wreath is how he watches us. Trying to find anything that could implicate us regarding Andrey.’
‘He really doesn’t trust us, does he? I can hardly blame him. I would probably do the same. The wreath though, that’s a first. Never seen it used like this before.’
‘And rend? First time, too?’
‘Yeah, but what about the others? Andrey is dead. He can’t help them.’
‘I can multitask. The Mortans, as you know, are a hivemind. Think of it in those terms. Except I’m creating a more localised version.’
‘A pseudomind?’
“Get a move on! We don’t have all day,” said the security guard nearby.
That was as much his memory as it was likely Melina flexing her strange power. It dawned on him then that she was projecting her mind into each of them, creating a collective lie to obfuscate the truth. He could only imagine the toll this would be taking on her. The line soon shortened, and he was obliged to hand over his ID card and Luna pass. The person at the desk ran them through a scanner, and it did not take long for it to come back all clear.
The next thing he passed through was the biometric scanner, a short corridor that checked for contraband and also ran a health check by pinging the Lazarus bio-mod he had installed back on Earth before leaving the doomed planet behind. He didn’t like it, but it was the only way anyone escaped the Long War. It had begun with an assassination back in 1914 of some Austrian archduke, and since then the thing had transformed into something else. These complications had brought him here. A way out from the nightmare below. A chance to begin anew.
He entered the scanner and stopped in the middle, allowing it to do its thing. Once the green light pinged, he was free to leave, and he watched as Melina followed suit. The green light followed for her, and the two left the customs area. The baggage collection was full of newcomers from all walks of life. Originally, only a select few had the privilege of moving up to the Luna city of Lazarus, but as a demand for a workforce ramped up, the city’s creator of the same name sought to cast a wider net. After a few minutes passed, Frank had his luggage, and Melina had hers not long after. She had remained quiet, smiling at him whenever he glanced her way. He rolled with it and progressed finally into the welcome area of the Lazarus, Luna City where he soon met the others. I don’t remember meeting the others like this, but it feels real. And if it could fool me? Hopefully, Cain takes the bait.
Adam’s knuckles had turned white from pressing his hands against the back of the chair. The blind Bleeder he had brought in to perform a trace somehow drew nothing conclusive.
“Nothing of suspicion. All fairly standard. Some of the most banal memories I’ve ever seen!”
“Hmm. It feels like a front, though, sir. An elaborate lie, the problem is piercing the veil might cause lasting damage.”
“You think it’s a front?” asked Adam looking at Reginald. “You question what you’re seeing.”
The man tilted his head one way and then the next while keeping Francis in his grip, almost like he was inspecting him in more ways than just physically. A blind psion. Just what do you see that I don’t?
“It’s hard to judge, sir. It feels authentic. Nothing is out of the ordinary. Everything points to the crew coming together at the request of their corporate benefactor. There was no way any of them could have known a Mortan was among them.”
Adam growled and leaned back in his chair. “Maybe we should go old school.”
The Bleeder smiled. “Would that be wise?”
“No, you’re right. Can’t beat it out of them. No, they need to trip up. Release him. Ease him back into the room.”
“Yes, boss, bringing him back now.”