{"id":501,"date":"2024-07-13T05:30:57","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T09:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/?p=501"},"modified":"2025-01-28T23:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T04:41:12","slug":"identity-theft-chapter-46","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/identity-theft-chapter-46\/","title":{"rendered":"The Changeling Game, Chapter 46"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\ntt {\nfont: .857em menlo, monaco, consolas, monospace;\nmargin: auto;\n}\nh2 {\ntext-align: center;\n}\nh2.chapterhead {\nmargin-bottom: 2em;\ntext-align: center;\n}\n  .nowrap {\n    text-indent: 0;\n    display: inline-block;\n}\n<\/style>\n<p><b>Title:<\/b> The Changeling Game <small>(Formerly <i>Identity Theft<\/i>)<\/small><br \/>\n<b>Author:<\/b> Ardath Rekha<br \/>\n<b>Chapter:<\/b> 46\/?<br \/>\n<b>Fandom:<\/b> TCOR AU<br \/>\n<b>Rating:<\/b> M<br \/>\n<b>Warnings:<\/b> Adult themes, controversial subject matter, harsh language, violence<br \/>\n<b>Category:<\/b> Gen<br \/>\n<b>Pairing:<\/b> None<br \/>\n<b>Summary:<\/b> Something has been removed from Jack\u2019s memories, but she has no idea what. Meanwhile, an afternoon with General Toal leads her to some surprising new information about Riddick, Kyra\u2026 and herself.<br \/>\n<b>Disclaimer:<\/b> The characters and events of <i>Pitch Black,<\/i> <i>The Chronicles of Riddick,<\/i> and <i>The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury<\/i> are not mine, but belong to Universal Studios.  I just <i>wish<\/i> I were in charge of their fates.  No money is being made off of this.  I\u2019m writing strictly for love of the story.<br \/>\n<b>Feedback:<\/b> Absolutely, the more the better!  Shred me, whip me, beat me, make me feel grammatical! I post \u201crough,\u201d so I can always use the help. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='6aac2c29cbb918069151014' value='6aac2c29cbb918069151014'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-6aac2c29cbb918069151014' value='Long post is long. Click to read the story.'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-6aac2c29cbb918069151014' value='Hide the story again.'><button id='bg-showmore-action-6aac2c29cbb918069151014' class='bg-showmore-plg-button bg-green-button  '   style=\" color:#D9ECFB;\">Long post is long. Click to read the story.<\/button><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-6aac2c29cbb918069151014' ><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"chapterhead\">46.<br \/>\n<u>Heirs to the Caldera<\/u><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The official story, which began circulating an hour before Jack and General Toal left for the old apartment, was that the second of the two Star Jumpers irreparably damaged in the spaceport explosion had also been compromised worse than anyone had realized. One of the reactor cores powering its sublight ion drive had slowly destabilized until it ruptured almost exactly seven Tangiers days later\u2026 a little under two of the planet\u2019s long days after a similar rupture had allegedly destroyed the other damaged Star Jumper, the ill-fated <i>Scarlet Matador<\/i>. Jack, who knew exactly what had really happened to the <i>Matador<\/i> and where to find it, rolled her eyes and saw Ewan doing the same thing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The unofficial story, which General Toal said was only being whispered by a handful of eyewitnesses, was that the ship had abruptly imploded some five hours after the Quintessa Corporation had tried to run an unexplained test\u2026 one that had begun at almost exactly the same moment as Jack\u2019s strange fit toward the end of the morning-day. The test had ended not long after it had begun with everyone involved fleeing the ship, but no warnings of an impending crisis had been issued until the implosion itself occurred hours later. What little of the massive vessel was left was disturbingly friable, even its protective hull plates disintegrating when touched.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThey tried to use its Isomorph Drive to open a bridge to U322A,\u201d Jack said when the General finished his update. The family had insisted on bed rest for her, but cabin fever was already building and making her antsy. Everyone crowding into the bedroom to listen in just added to the weird near-claustrophobia. Sebby, chittering in annoyance, had already retreated under the bed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou know this?\u201d the General asked. \u201cYou remember?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She shook her head. \u201cI don\u2019t remember much of anything after feeding Sebby.\u201d She actually <i>did<\/i> remember the abortive tickle-battle, and the conversation with Kyra that had followed, but it seemed like everyone was more comfortable thinking that had been lost to her, too. \u201cJust\u2026 we took away every other potential bridge they had, so\u2026\u201d She shrugged, wishing she could explain where her certainty came from. Usually she could, but there was a strange fog in parts of her mind that had never existed before.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYes,\u201d Ewan said. \u201cWhen we were going to the <i>Scarlet Matador<\/i>, you said that would be the only way for them to gain access to Elsewhere once everything else was gone. But why would they want to?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThe envoy said she wanted to understand what made this Level Five Incident so different from all the others,\u201d Jack mused. Sometimes, she felt like she knew, or <i>should<\/i> know, much more, but when she tried to chase the feeling down, it evaporated.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHopefully, having her attempt to re-establish a connection end in another disaster will deter her,\u201d the General said. \u201cPerhaps there is a way to make her believe that it\u2019s a problem with that universe, itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWon\u2019t that get any shipping route that uses U322A for a Jump suspended?\u201d Cedric asked, frowning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cLikely. But they can route around it. They have, in point of fact, done so several times in the past with other universes, and with Jumps they decided were too long. Better that than the realization that there might be a human mind behind so much of their ill fortune, or even two.\u201d The General\u2019s gaze on Jack, and on Kyra, was speculative.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou think <i>we<\/i> did <i>this?\u201d<\/i> Kyra asked him, looking shocked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWell, that\u2019s the interesting thing,\u201d he rumbled, his voice contemplative. \u201cNeither of you ever left this house. And <i>your<\/i> whole focus, during that period, was your adopted sister. I don\u2019t think <i>you<\/i> did anything\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">His gaze moved to Jack.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201c\u2026and you don\u2019t seem to remember anything that happened while you were under.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Under\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u2026beneath, below, under\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Yes,<\/i> a soft voice murmured somewhere far away. <i>You may know and tell that much\u2026 it will do no harm.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI think I was with the <i>Apeiros,<\/i>\u201d Jack answered slowly. \u201cWhatever was happening\u2026 they were afraid. Terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDo you think U322A, your Elsewhere, might be their home? Perhaps the bridge would have endangered it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She shook her head after a moment\u2019s careful thought. Navigating her memory, at least where this was concerned, felt like jumping from one steppingstone to another, but instead of water between the stones, there were vast, fathomless gulfs of strange emptiness. She\u2019d never experienced anything like it before in her life. It was unnerving.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">But, strangely, there were other things that she knew with iron certainty now, which had never been in her head before.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThey call us \u2018little larvae,\u2019\u201d she told everyone, \u201cbecause our five-dimensional shapes are so small\u2026 only two universes wide. They\u2019re much bigger\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u2026tiny but enormous\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI don\u2019t think <i>they<\/i> could think of Elsewhere as <i>their<\/i> world any more than\u2026\u201d She cast about in her head for a suitable comparison. \u201c\u2026than you could think that chair you\u2019re sitting in is <i>your<\/i> world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAnd yet, whatever it was the Quintessa Corporation tried to do this morning-day, bridging U1 and U322A perhaps\u2026 terrified them and incapacitated you.\u201d His eyes turned to Kyra. \u201cBut not you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra shook her head. \u201cTizzy told them they were forbidden to talk to me anymore unless I talked to them first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">General Toal looked fascinated. \u201cYou were able to <i>forbid<\/i> these beings to do something?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack shrugged. \u201cI told them they were hurting her. I guess they didn\u2019t want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSo they let her be\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI <i>think<\/i> so. But\u2026\u201d She looked over at Kyra. \u201cI think I remember you screaming that something was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYeah, because <i>you<\/i> were having a fit.\u201d Kyra shook her head. \u201cWhatever it was, I didn\u2019t feel any of it except what I could feel coming off of <i>you<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAnd what was that?\u201d Takama asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSomething was screaming for help and she was trying to go to it, in her head. And then she was <i>gone.<\/i>\u201d Kyra shuddered. \u201cI swear, it was like she wasn\u2019t even in her body anymore\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cCompletely unresponsive,\u201d Usadden murmured, and Jack saw <i>him<\/i> shudder, too.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cExcept,\u201d Ewan spoke up, \u201cthe brain-wave readings my portable scan got were off the <i>charts.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cPlease tell me I don\u2019t have to go get another CT scan,\u201d Jack groaned.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNo, that would be ill-advised indeed,\u201d General Toal said. \u201cWere her readings like that after the last\u2026 incident, Ewan Zdan?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Ewan shook his head. \u201cThey were normal\u2026 but those were readings I took afterwards, not during. She might have lit up the scan the same way if I\u2019d used it when she was moving the <i>Matador<\/i> out of our universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cPerhaps you should scan her again now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Ewan looked at Jack, a question in his eyes. She nodded, watching him get the portable scanner back out of his field kit. Kyra tensed a little as he came over to Jack\u2019s side, as though she expected both of them to fall under each other\u2019s thrall again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">After all, he had almost needed to be pried off of her earlier.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Even as the alerts had begun to go off, he had dropped everything he\u2019d been carrying onto the chair and raced over to her, landing beside her on the bed and pulling her into a hug so tight that she almost <i>hadn\u2019t<\/i> been able to breathe. Sebby had screeched and begun posturing threateningly\u2014snapping his pincers like rapid-fire castanets but, at least, not brandishing his stinger\u2014until Kyra, hurrying in after the others, managed to calm him down. Although intensely and inappropriately aware of Ewan\u2019s powerful torso pressed to hers, Jack had found herself even more aware that he was <i>shaking<\/i>. It had taken a long moment for Usadden to get through to him and convince him to let her go\u2026 and then convince <i>her<\/i> to let <i>him<\/i> go when her mixture of concern and desire made her clingy. Only then did Jack find out that, for the prior few hours, she had appeared to be comatose.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Now, though, Ewan was all business, running his scan the way he had undoubtedly done countless times when he had worked as a paramedic. \u201cMuch closer to normal. But\u2026\u201d He swallowed and shook his head. \u201cWhen I still worked for the UMA, I had been instructed that if I ever saw readings like this, I should refer the patient for Quantification.\u201d He shook his head again. \u201cThey didn\u2019t look like this last time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The General looked as if a suspicion had been confirmed for him. Ewan, giving Jack an apologetic look, put the scanner away and returned to the chair he\u2019d been sitting in. He was keeping his distance, but she could feel how much he didn\u2019t actually want to.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOkay,\u201d she sighed, sitting up. \u201cBrain is <i>normal<\/i>\u2026ish. No signs of physical injury, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Usadden nodded.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThen can I <i>please<\/i> get up? I have a lot I still need to do. Today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cPerhaps it should wait until things calm down\u2014\u201d Tafrara began.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNo, I think she\u2019s right,\u201d the General said. \u201cWhile all eyes are pointed at this new disaster, she may have an easier time insinuating herself into the systems she needs to access, in order to plausibly get the word out about Makarov. I will accompany her to the apartment and watch over her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">At Jack\u2019s request, he took her to a nearby tech shop to purchase a tablet she could use just for the purposes she had in mind, before driving her to the apartment building. The place was almost entirely empty and still; most of the tenants had moved out after the owners had been unresponsive and uncommunicative in the wake of the spaceport bombing. None of the shattered west and north windows had been repaired, although a very few had been boarded over on the lowest levels. Jack led General Toal up the filthy, stinking stairway, more conscious than ever of how nasty it was; if it bothered him, he showed no sign.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSo,\u201d Jack asked as she unpacked the tablet, sat cross-legged on the floor\u2014she refused to ever touch the couch again\u2014and began to configure it, \u201cwhy are you really here?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">He sat down in the chair they had left behind, steepling his fingers. \u201cYou are getting very good at reading people, Tizzy. I do, indeed, have an ulterior motive for wishing to speak with you alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Maybe that should have scared her, but it didn\u2019t. She knew that, as a military general, he was undoubtedly a dangerous man in at least some way\u2026 but she\u2019d been associating with dangerous men for months, starting with Riddick and Johns. She just looked over at him and nodded encouragement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou have always had some esper ability, haven\u2019t you?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSeems like it. Nothing obvious, but\u2026\u201d She restarted the tablet to let some of her custom configurations take. \u201c\u2026I think there were signs when I was little. Strange stuff. Nothing too freaky, though. Nothing that couldn\u2019t be explained away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBut since the <i>Scarlet Matador<\/i>, and since your communions with the beings you call the <i>Apeiros<\/i>, it has grown considerably.\u201d It wasn\u2019t a question.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI guess,\u201d Jack said, busy armor-plating the tablet against incursions with the protective systems her father had liked best. \u201cIt\u2019s\u2026 hard to tell. Like Ewan said the other night, I don\u2019t know where my limits are until I crash into them\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Oh, oops. Nobody but Kyra knew she\u2019d heard that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">General Toal only laughed softly. \u201cIn truth, you <i>would<\/i> make an extraordinary recruit. An Operative who can stand among her targets, listening to their whispered secrets, without them ever knowing\u2026\u201d His expression grew serious. \u201cThat <i>is<\/i> what I needed to speak to you about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou gonna try to recruit us?\u201d The tablet was almost ready. Jack glanced over at the General. \u201cKyra might be interested if it means rescuing girls from the shit <i>she<\/i> was put through, but\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNo, I am not,\u201d he said, surprising her. \u201cI have worked with Operatives before. Officially, slavery is illegal within the Federacy\u2026 except where <i>they<\/i> are concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Well, <i>that<\/i> wasn\u2019t a chilling statement or anything\u2026 \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYour own abilities would terrify most people, child. You can spy on any discussion without people knowing you\u2019re standing among them. You can come and go from a locked and impregnable fortress as you please, regardless of its security systems. You have made bodies disappear from a morgue, hidden valuables vanish from a high-security vault, and a twenty-thousand-ton Star Jumper travel from one universe to another with a touch of your hand. And may, possibly, have imploded another Star Jumper in your <i>sleep.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack opened her mouth to protest\u2026 but\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Holy fuck.<\/i> She really had done all that. Phrased that way, she sounded scary as <i>shit.<\/i> And that wasn\u2019t even touching on what Kyra could do, killing people without any sign she was anywhere near them\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhat government would ever allow such power to go unchecked?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">His rhetorical question sent an icy wind blowing through her. \u201cWhat\u2026 would they do?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cEspers are taken to a secure facility for training and conditioning. I don\u2019t know exactly what happens there. They will not speak of it. But every Operative I have met is mentally and emotionally <i>incapable<\/i> of exercising their powers except under orders. Their ability to <i>improvise<\/i>, as you two do so well, has been taken from them, something that has cost more than a few of them their lives when situations went pear-shaped, the chain of command broke down, and there was no one left with the authority to tell them how to use their abilities to save themselves or others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThat\u2019s\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNot a fate I could ever wish for you, no. I serve the Federacy to serve humanity, and this is one of the great conflicts between those two callings. I will not tell them about you or Kyra.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cTh\u2026thank you. What\u2026 is that all they would do? Psychological conditioning?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The General shrugged. \u201cYou would have a tracker implanted in you\u2026 one with an explosive device inside, just in case you found a way to break through that conditioning and tried to escape. I know of only one Operative-in-training who has ever managed to successfully remove it and flee captivity. <i>You<\/i> have met him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It took a moment to find her voice. \u201cRiddick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThey point to him, his kill count and the various crimes he has committed\u2014or allegedly committed\u2014in the last decade, whenever anyone objects to the way espers are handled. Did you ever see him use his abilities?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI don\u2019t think so\u2026\u201d But there had always been something preternatural about him, about his speed and timing and the way he hadn\u2019t even had to look behind him, most times, to know who or what was coming. He wasn\u2019t invulnerable\u2014he\u2019d very nearly <i>died<\/i> on the crash planet\u2014but\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>She had watched him take a knife and cut his own neck open to remove the explosive tracker that Chillingsworth had ordered implanted in him, and had found herself thinking that it wasn\u2019t the first one he\u2019d removed that way\u2026<\/i>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cEspers were much rarer even a generation ago,\u201d the General told her, \u201cbefore the Furyan Diaspora. Many of the orphans of that\u2026 disaster\u2026 have turned out to be quite powerful. It\u2019s something about their world itself, it seems.  The powers have even appeared among the children of the relief troops who were stationed at the Caldera Base on Furya in the aftermath\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack\u2019s breath caught. Her father\u2019s last tour of duty in the Corps of Engineers, the year before he met her mother, had been on Furya. He had shown her pictures of the Caldera, and the base that sat beside it, and had told her it was the strangest world he\u2019d ever visited. But it was also the world he\u2019d chosen to return to when he re-enlisted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Was that where all of this came from?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">General Toal was watching her with interest. He\u2019d figured her out, knew she had to be the daughter of some member of the Service who had been stationed on Furya\u2026 where she had been headed, herself, before everything went wrong. What would she have found there, she wondered, if she had made it?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Except\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2026 don\u2019t think Kyra has any ties to Furya\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNo. The sublight colony ship she was on never passed that way. But the files on her are extensive. Did you know she was born on late twenty-first century Earth?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack nodded.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBefore her mother joined her father\u2019s church and gave up such things, she was a performer of some renown. Minerva Kirshbaum-Wittier, better known to her world as Minnie Sulis. A stage magician whose act included mind reading, levitation, and teleportation. Most such acts are elaborate trickery of course, but the records indicate that many of her signature \u2018tricks\u2019 could be neither replicated nor debunked. When she converted to the Church of the New Christy Pilgrims, though, she quit the stage and claimed that she had turned her back on the devil.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSo she was probably an esper the whole time,\u201d Jack mused.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOne who became convinced what she was doing was witchcraft, it seems. But yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou\u2026 need to tell Kyra all of this, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The General nodded. \u201cI will, yes. It\u2019s important that both of you protect yourselves from discovery. Tomorrow evening, when I come to Ewan Zdan\u2019s send-off party, I\u2019m bringing each of you a very special device. A neurofeedback training unit. It will help you learn how to control your own minds, and the readings your brain scans produce, so that you can hopefully beat a Quantification test\u2014should you ever be subjected to one\u2014and pass as normal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">For a long moment, Jack was rendered speechless. He was giving them something incalculably precious\u2026 and incredibly dangerous to <i>him.<\/i> If anyone ever discovered that he had helped two espers hide from the Federacy, it would be the end of more than just his career.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThank you,\u201d she finally managed, wishing she could say something that would convey how much she knew he was risking, how much generosity he was showing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou\u2019re welcome, Tizzy. Now\u2026 another reason I came here today is to help you deal with these terrible files you have found. I understand why you don\u2019t want anyone else to have to see them,\u201d he said as he walked over to sit down beside her on the floor, crisscrossing his legs with the limberness of a man a third his age, \u201cbut I have served as a judge on a great number of courts martial, and have reviewed evidence of the worst war crimes human beings can perpetrate. Please allow me to help you with this. I am far more inured to the trauma that even pictures of such things can cause than you should ever have to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack felt relief suddenly untying the knots in her spine. The idea of looking at those images again, of sifting through them for examples that could be sent on, that would show enough to provoke outrage without being too graphic to ever be published, had been on the very edge of bearable. To look again at the misery and agony in the faces of those women and girls\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019d\u2026 really appreciate that. Last time I looked at this stuff, I ended up puking up everything I\u2019d eaten for the last <i>month<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019m truly sorry that you had to see such things at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra, she thought, had lived <i>through<\/i> such things, which was immeasurably worse. Sometimes she had to remind herself that, for every man who was capable of such egregious brutality, for every Red Roger, or Duke Pritchard, or Javor Makarov\u2026 or even a William Johns\u2026 there were men like General Toal, like Cedric, Gavin, Ewan, and all the men of <i>ait Meziane<\/i>\u2026 like Riddick. Men who, although perhaps fearsome in their own ways, had too much honor to ever engage in such hideous, sadistic acts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Men who possibly needed protection of their own from the schemes of monsters like Pritchard and Makarov.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThere\u2019ll be stuff we need to delete, too,\u201d she told the General. \u201cAside from following Kyra and me around to try to get to Riddick, he was helping Makarov track Toml\u2014 Gavin Brahim. I don\u2019t think we want <i>everything<\/i> he recorded about that where people can nose into it\u2026 and I don\u2019t want any of the pictures he took of Kyra and me getting out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAgreed. We will curate this collection carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack logged them in and they got to work. It wasn\u2019t long before she let him take over almost entirely, looking away as he examined the different image collections that Pritchard had assembled and chose examples from each collection to include in their fictional pervert\u2019s stash.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHmm,\u201d he said at one point. \u201cI recognize three of the women so far. Former fugitives now serving prison terms\u2026 I think their sentences may end up being vacated on the strength of this evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThat\u2019s\u2026 good, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">General Toal sighed. \u201cPossibly. Unfortunately, I doubt they will receive much compensation or assistance, aside from being released and having the relevant crimes expunged from their records. Few in their positions do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIs there anything you can do to help them?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">He shook his head, looking somber and a little regretful. \u201cI suspect that this release of information is as much as I can personally do for them. Any overt intervention on my part could draw too much attention to what I might know about Pritchard and Makarov, myself\u2026 and how I might have learned it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Shit. \u201cYeah\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Maybe, she thought, someday there would be something <i>she<\/i> could do.  Her father had told her about working with various NGOs, when he was stationed on different worlds, which had provided targeted aid to groups in need. Maybe she could join, or if need be create, one that would help victims of these kinds of crimes\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDear God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhat?\u201d Jack looked over at General Toal. \u201cSomething bad?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The General was frowning, advancing through a series of pictures. Bracing herself, Jack leaned over to look.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Nothing remotely pornographic was on the screen anymore. Instead, a surveillance camera showed a man dressed in traditional Amazigh attire, a <i>tagelmust<\/i> covering his head and obscuring most of his face, exiting a swanky-looking restaurant, the image taken from behind him. It vanished and was replaced by a new shot, from a different angle\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack recognized this frame. The surveillance camera it originated from had been covering the entrance to the pilots\u2019 lounge. The same man was emerging from the lounge, partly turned as though waving goodbye to whomever had brought him as a guest. She remembered watching him leave the lounge when she\u2019d reviewed the footage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Glancing at her, his expression suddenly a little wary, the General closed the folder without advancing through further pictures. \u201cI don\u2019t understand why they would be so interested in collecting stills of the people they murdered that day,\u201d he said. \u201cI may wish to examine this more closely\u2026 but I think its presence would cloud the investigation we wish to see pursued.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">As she watched, he took a chip out of his pocket, connected it to the tablet, and transferred three folders to it\u2014none of them from the \u201cBad Kitties\u201d folder\u2014before deleting them from Pritchard\u2019s account.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack had the strange feeling that some kind of sleight-of-hand had just occurred, but at the same time, she didn\u2019t feel any ill intent coming off of the General\u2026 more a sense that he had just done something to protect someone else. Maybe it was, as she\u2019d pondered earlier, someone who would be harmed by the scrutiny that even drawing the two mercs\u2019 interest could generate. One of the other folders, she realized, was the one that contained the surveillance pictures of her and Kyra.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>He already knows who we are, and he\u2019s risking a shit-ton to hide us from his own bosses\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Whatever else he was hiding, whoever else he might be protecting, she\u2019d let it slide. It probably wasn\u2019t any of her business.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThere is,\u201d he said slowly, pocketing the chip again, \u201cone more thing I need to discuss with you while we\u2019re here. If you and Kyra haven\u2019t already begun to plan your exit strategy off this world, now is the time to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhy?\u201d Jack already had her exit in place, but his words sent a chill through her anyway.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBecause it\u2019s only a matter of time before a formal investigation of the repeated calamities at the spaceport is initiated by the Federacy,\u201d he told her. \u201cSuch investigations always include at least two esper Operatives. One of the things <i>they<\/i> will be looking for\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">He locked eyes with her, and she could feel him willing her to understand how serious the matter was.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201c\u2026is evidence of someone like you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: The Changeling Game (Formerly Identity Theft) Author: Ardath Rekha Chapter: 46\/? Fandom: TCOR AU Rating: M Warnings: Adult themes, controversial subject matter, harsh language, violence Cate","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"\u201cThe Changeling Game\u201d 46: \u201cHeirs to the Caldera\u201d","bgseo_description":"Something has been removed from Jack\u2019s memories, but she has no idea what. Meanwhile, an afternoon with General Toal leads her to some surprising new information about Riddick, Kyra\u2026 and herself.","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fan-fiction","category-the-changeling-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1178,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/1178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}