Escape from Metal
Chapter 23: Remembrance and Recompense

Several hours after Jake and his party had returned from the crash site.

The tension back at the base had risen. Although Akilina had not thrown Jake into the pit or shot him when they went to check on the crashed ship. She kept a steely eye on him, after all she originally suspected he was a machine spy and now he rescued an actual machine. She wasn’t too proud to admit that she could have been wrong. Jake could have been a human being.

Would she have thrown him down the pit, probably. After he almost killed himself trying to save them however, well that changed things she had not seen something quite so stupid and brave in a long time. If he was really a machine it would have made the most sense to just let the machines kill them in the testing grounds, but he didn’t.

“Dan.” Akilina said with a roar as she walked into Dan’s room.

Dan flinched a bit.

“You don’t have to scare me like that every time you come to talk to me Akilina.”

“Well, it would be as much fun, and I need to know something important.”

“Why do I get the feeling you are going to ask me the same thing you have been asking me the last couple of days.”

“Oh, shut up it is important…”

“Here we go again.” Dan said as he sighed.

“… what has Jake been doing all this time and are we keeping an eye on that new girl?”

“Well, we solved both your problems last week remember. Jake isn’t allowed to leave the base based on your machine suspicions and the woman is still unconscious. So, Jake volunteered to watch her until she wakes up. Now can you please stop bother me, go help the new recruits or something.” Dan said as he gently shoved Akilina out of his room.

Jake wasn’t sure where his mind had gone after he realized it was Gwen. The scene where they found her was a massacre. Everyone there had been beaten to a pulp, torn and mauled and the blood was absolutely everywhere.

When they got back to base rumors had started to spread among the ranks that they had brought back a psychopath driven to insanity who had been living in a ruined building living off scraps of other humans. Others said that Jake and his party brought a murderous machine intent on killing all of them.

It made it difficult to convince them to let her in the base let alone give her medical attention. That was the initial plan anyway but when Jake saw her arm, he decided that he would personally look after her.

Dan asked him to stay in the base so he figured he might as well make himself useful.

Jake didn’t know if it was guilt from what he let happen to her friend, if it was empath for the state she was in or if it was something else.

Whatever it was it didn’t matter now. He had agreed to look after her until she woke up or until the others got restless. They probably put her in a cage like the other woman or throw her down the pit like they were planning to do with him.

He couldn’t exactly blame them. With him it was a different story. They didn’t have any proof that he was actually a machine infiltrator. If you had asked Jake, he would probably tell you he was too much of a coward to be any kind of infiltrator never mind an efficient machine.

With Gwen however her entire arm was made of metal and had the telltale design and features of the machines. She must have had some kind of artificial layer of skin covering her arm. Obviously, it got ripped off in the crash or on her murderous rampage.

Whatever the case maybe it was not helping Jake defend her. The only reason Dan let Jake bring her back and let Jake look after her with minimal security is that he vouched for her and said he knew her. Jake was astonished by the amount of trust Dan put in him.

Jake didn’t think that was the only reason though. Sure, he may have been on their elite squad or whatever they called it, but they barely knew him. Hell, Jake didn’t even know himself that well. The war consumed so much of his life it snuffed out most of what he was.

Like the places they had fought in he too became ravaged by war. He guessed after so many new bodies and who knows how many hundreds of years plus the trauma of the war. He’d just forget or didn’t want to remember.

The only real reason he could think that they would trust him with an obvious danger like Gwen was because he saved Akilina and the other men back at the trials. He reckoned almost dying did make for quite a convincing case.

Despite all this Akilina was none too happy about this ‘machine’ being in their base. She would stomp around. With a sulking and angry expression on her face.

After nearly killing him at the crash site Dan forbade her from going into the room where Gwen was being kept. So, instead of going to Jake and complaining or screaming at him whichever she felt like at the time. She went to Dan every day.

This was the least of their worries though. Their scouts have started picking up an increased activity in the human and machine hunters. Several of their furthest outpost had been attacked one or two completely destroyed.

The machines were up to something. With the outposts being so far, they could not reinforce them quick enough to provide any meaningful support. So, Dan recalled the outermost outposts.

This would undoubtable save a lot of people and make it easier to manage the remaining closer outposts, but the problem was many of those were used to make food with greenhouses like the one they had here.

Now… well now their food would not last forever nor would they.

On top of that Jake started to notice the last few days the temperature was starting to drop. First it was only a degree then another and eventually 5. On a temperature regulated planet that was not good. Sometimes the temperature seemed to pick back up again but something was definitely off.

“Hey Jake.” Lee said as he knocked on the already open door. “How is she doing.”

Lee was a pretty big bulky guy by most people’s standards but surprisingly that big gruff man knew how to use a gentle tone when he needed to.

“Oh, hi Lee. She’s doing fine… I think hard to tell because of, well you know why but I’m sure she’ll wake up soon.”

There was a strangely comforting silence between them as Lee took a seat in one the rooms chairs.

“Akilina up to her usual routine again today?” Jake asked.

“You know her always mad at someone. Mostly the machines. So, she has to vent to someone… poor Dan.” He said as he imitated her angry facial expression.

The next thing Jake knew his head almost went through the roof as Gwen picked him up by the collar. He eyes had a wild gaze in them. He’d seen it before. Many times, in the war men that had gone almost completely mad or couldn’t get their brains out of survival mode.

They were like rabid animals. Everything became an enemy and very few things could snap them out of it save for knocking them out cold and if Gwen really is some kind of machine that wouldn’t be an option. Superfuerat diem

The way she was holding him was very close to chocking him. Lee instinctually sprang up with his sidearm in hand.

Jake could barely talk but he waved for Lee to sit down. Lee reluctantly listened and sat back down, holstering his weapon.

“G-Gwen it… it’s me Jake. Remember?” Jake said as her grip tightened on him. She was completely in a different world.

Jake knew if he tried to get out of her hold of anything of the like she would definitely kill him. He wasn’t Jake to her. He was one of those people she killed at the crash site.

“Gwen… please try remembering. Remember how we were chained together.”

Nothing and it looked like her mind was trying to figure out how to kill him he had to act was otherwise the others in the base would kill her.

“Gwen… remember Aisha. Remember how I ran away when she was in trouble?”

Something in Gwen’s eyes shifted and, in a moment, she let Jake go and collapsed on the ground. She was out cold again.

After this Dan posted two security guards outside Gwen’s room and had Jake carry his side arm with him.

If Jake was being honest, he was surprised that Dan let Gwen stay in the base. Especially after she just lifted a full-grown man like it was nothing.

After what had happened Akilina made sure to stay close to Gwen’s room. She was itching to do something about Gwen. She was constantly tapping the holster of her side arm. Jake was surprised that she hadn’t already shot Gwen.

Several hours later Gwen started waking up again, much to everyone’s panic.

Tensions rose as Gwen opened her eyes. The guards outside her room had primed their coilguns. Dan had Jake stand out of Gwen’s reach, he didn’t want Jake to almost get thrown through the roof a second time.

Akilina was most anxious out of everyone or excited, it was hard to tell which one, but she was definitely going to shoot first and ask questions later this time.

Dan thought of trying to get someone else to talk to Gwen but seeing how strong she was he didn’t want to risk it and trusted Jake to deal with her perhaps for the last time if something went wrong again.

“What… where am I?” Gwen said as she slowly started to open her eyes.

Jake slowly got off his chair. “Gwen, do you remember me?”

“Yeah, I do…Jake.”

She never spoke with any emotion or changed her tone or anything but from the glimpse of her eyes and the slightest twitch she had in the corner of her mouth. Jake could see. She remembered she definitely remembered and was probably thinking about the same thing he was.

“Look Gwen, I know we have to talk but for the moment that has to wait. I just need you to tell me you won’t try break out of here or anything. Then the others outside can be more at ease.”

“The others?”

“Oh, that’s right. We are at the rebel base right now, but I’ll explain all that later but for now you sure you won’t try getting out of here?”

Gwen only gave the slightest nod.

“Alright, I’ll be back later for now rest up.”

Jake went outside of Gwen’s room and slowly closed Gwen’s door.

“What did she say Jake?” Dan asked in his usual calm demeanor.

“Not too much if I am being honest but she seems to back in here normal state of mind. She said she would not try to leave her room or the base, but I would still keep those guards there.”

“Okay, thanks Jake. If you will excuse me, I have some other matters I have to attend to.”

“Dan, before you go… any idea where Akilina went?” Jake asked as he shouted to Dan as he left the room.

“Greenhouse probably, she likes the air.” Dan shouted back.

Jake went into the greenhouse he was hoping he could talk to her it was obvious something was bothering her. Not ideal having two of the most dangerous women he knew both have an issue with him.

The greenhouse was a vivid and fresh experience in comparison to the stale and dull outside of this place. The emerald green was a something a person here could really use as a break from the monotonous silver steel. Of course, the real thing people came here for when they could was the fresh air. Almost had that ocean or rainforest reinvigoration to it.

Jake pushed back one of the plastic flaps that hung at the entrance to the greenhouse. There in the middle of the room Akilina stood the angriest woman in the world. Probably the most stubborn too.

“Dan said I might replace you here. It’s really quite something here, reminds me of the stories they used to tell me as a kid about the jungle or ocean worlds. Paradises for the rich or you know deeply in debt.”

Akilina sighed. “No one says stuff like that unless they want something, so what do you want Jake?”

“Well, if I’m being honest, I’m not sure but right now it looked like something I was doing was bothering you, So I came to talk about it. Unless that’s not your thing then I have another question.”

“You’re really not good at this are you?” Akilina said as she turned to face him.

“At what.”

“Talking.”

“Well, yeah I’m not great at it.”

“What’s your other question then?”

Jake took a seat on one of the hydroponics systems ledges.

“Remember that story you told me about the birds. The one you used to try and scare me, where did you hear about it? Ever since you told me that story I’ve been wondering.”

There was a pause. Akilina didn’t say anything instead she just stared past Jake. She seemed unphased. If she was in the military like he, was it made sense with all the horrors they had seen but behind that he could see the smallest twitch in her eye. Something in her stirred.

“I…didn’t hear about it. I was there. I mentioned I was in the military before but unlike you I was not there because they dragged me out of my home and forced me to fight on some far away planet. I enlisted in the navy when I was still a teenager. I started out in the lower ranks but by the time the outer colony wars had started I’d been promoted to admiral.”

“One of my first tasks was to secure one of the major silk producing planets and major exporters of exotic animals. Tensions were rising on the planet as more and more of the outer colonies started rebelling. I was sent there in hopes that I could convince them to not rebel.”

Akilina sighed. Jake could see this wasn’t easy for her to talk about.

“At first, we sent a delegation with me included to smooth things over with them. Their leader who only went by the name Jarvis was a frivolous man who liked to clothe himself in some of the finest robes they produced. He and the royal houses were not too different in that regard. Their natural way of living did not seem too different. That’s exactly what started the war. Jarvis and his fellow outer colonies were tired of serving their overlords. After all, why couldn’t they just keep everything they made for themselves. Even so after a few days of debates that came to nothing. We returned to the armada I commanded that was orbiting the planet. Echo seven”

“I sent word to the houses that had commissioned our expedition of what had happened of the negotiations, hours later we received new orders. We were to drop high yield napalm bombs and burn everything on the planet to a crisp. The houses were petty like that I guess even though they wanted the planets products they’d much rather no one get it than another rebellion happen.”

“That’s exactly what we did. We burnt everything.”

“I watched from orbit as the planet turned into one giant ball of fire and with it burned the last of these birds. Any ships trying to flee were blasted to dust, including Jarvis and his precious robes.”

When Akilina talked about Jarvis, Jake could hear the bite in her words but that didn’t surprise him she didn’t really seem to like anyone.

“Echo seven… echo seven.” Jake softly whispered to himself. “You know that name sounds really familiar.”

“Well, it should we were one of the best orbital support fleets. We didn’t just talk to rich people and burn their planets down.”

Memories flashed in Jakes mind. He heard his fellow soldiers calling for airstrikes. He remembered how they rained hell down from above on the enemy and on them sometimes. He remembered how they provided air cover for more dropships to land.

“It was you… you were the one commanding them.”

“What are you talking about Jake?” Akilina asked.

“On the last planet I was on before the machines took me, there was a fleet stationed above the planet. They were commanded by a ruthless and cunning admiral. Being grunts we were never allowed to know what their name was only their codename. A1.”

Aklinas eyes widened in surprise.

“Now, I know it was you. The fleet name and the way you command. It matches perfectly. I guess up there you didn’t care about blowing grunts into oblivion. Did you?”

“What did you say…” Akilina said gritting her teeth.

“I get it, orders are orders… Akilina. We grunts did try our best before you called the mechanized division. I somehow managed to survive and blow up or at least disabled the enemy’s flagship.”

“That was you?” Akilina said with rage filled eyes.

“Do you have any idea what you did, you idiot.” Akilina shouted.

“We sent marines to capture the ship and we… we almost did if it hadn’t been for your interference.”

“It’s not my fault you high and might real soldiers didn’t bother to tell us anything. I was only doing what I thought was best and I almost died trying. You lose thousands of grunts each day, what’s the issue with a few marines?” Jake said clenching his fists at his sides.

“Do you know what happened to the fragments of the enemy flagship. They flew straight into my ships bridge, destroyed the hull and sucked me into space. I should have died but instead I woke up in machine hell.”

“You idiot!” Akilina screamed as she pulled out her sidearm and charged it up.

Time seemed to be fluid when you were almost always dying, for Jake it once again slowed as she aimed her sidearm at him. Jake’s pupils contracted and the look of panic drained from his face. A smile surfaced instead.

“Finally, I’m back. You know I’ve wanted to have a rematch with you for a while. The other guy pretends to like you but that’s just because he’s afraid you’ll try to kill him again. Me well. You just annoy me.”

“Enough!” Akilina said as she fired.

Jack stepped to the side narrowly avoiding her shot.

“Testy now, aren’t we?”

Akilina fired two more shots horizontally spaced at Jack.

Instead of trying to dodge again like she thought he would Jack ran forward and slide on his knees underneath the two bolts of energy above him.

“If only you had that kind of accuracy when it mattered, say when death robots were chasing you. Sad that even someone like Jake had to save you.”

Jack noticed that one of his hair strands had gotten singed by the energy blasts. He gently put of the smoking end of the hair strand.

“Now that wasn’t very nice, was it?” This time Jack sounded serious his joker like attitude had vanished.

With that Akilina lost any control she had left and started overcharging her sidearm for a kill shot.

“Now things are getting interesting.” Jack whispered to himself.

“Dodge this you asshole.” Akilina yelled.

A massive bolt of energy rushed forwards, frying all the electronics in the room but before Akilina could process what had happened Jack had disappeared. Had she overcharged the shot so much that he vaporized?

She then felt his presence behind her. Somehow, he had dodged the shot and gotten behind her.

Jack put her in a choke hold before she could react.

“You know what really annoys everyone here about you.” Jack said as he dragged out ‘really’. “You think you’ve got some better reason to be angry than the rest of us. Like you lost something we didn’t, we all lost our lives. We all wish the people we loved were still alive. The fact that you won’t realize that pisses me off.”

Akilina threw Jack over her head as he hit the floor with a thud. Jack quickly recovered and got back up onto his feet. Akilina had dropped her sidearm when he put her in a choke hold. She didn’t seem to care though as she started taking swings at Jack.

Jack dodged each blow quite gracefully much to Akilina’s frustration. She would never admit it, but he could see a slight tear forming in one of her eyes. They seemed to be locked in this dance for quite some time.

“Akilina what are you doing?” Dan yelled while two other rebels who started restraining her. “Throw her in the brig I’ll have a chat with her.”

“Jake I’ll have talk to you later right now we have a problem.” Dan said as he rushed out the room signally Jake to follow after him. “And someone check on the hydroponics.”

“Sorry to disappoint pops but there’s no Jake here only Jack.”

“Dammit not again.” Dan said.

Just as suddenly as he came, he was gone. As the emotionless deadeyed face of Jack disappeared and back came Jake with his still panicked expression returning.

While Akilina and Jack were causing a ruckus in the hydroponics, Gwen had woken up fully. Well, for the most part. She seemed to be in a zombie like state when she stood up. She was awake but she didn’t respond to anyone talking to her. Nor any visual stimulants like a flashlight.

Initially they decided it would be best to wait in hopes that Gwen would snap out of it or go back to bed. Unfortunately, neither of those things happened. The worst scenario they were expecting was her going on a rampage, the second was that she just walked out, and someone tried to stop her which would lead back to the first in all likelihood.

To not trigger her manic rage state, they didn’t try to arrest her or stun her but rather contain her in the room. However, when they came to check on her again, they saw that she was no longer in her room.

Panicked they started looking for her in the base, but no one could replace her. They checked with the guards and people outside no one saw her leaving. Even the perimeter guards didn’t see anything.

In a desperate attempt to replace her they looked in the already barren room for any clues as to where she might have gone but still could not replace anything but after a few minutes of searching the room Dan heard a very faint mumbling. He moved closer to the window as it got slightly louder and peered outside the window.

There she was standing outside the base on the ledge of the windowsill, mumbling to herself. The base had been built in such a way that windows were receding behind the wall above them so that any eyes above could not see the windows thus creating a fairly sizeable ledge for someone to stand on.

Having explained the situation to Jake, who had now resumed his normal no homicidal self. He prepared himself to stand on the ledge, overlooking the abyssal pit. Perhaps Akilina would see him fall in the pit just not by her hand.

As Jake prepared to climb through the window, he could hear Gwen very occasionally mumble to herself for a few seconds. She didn’t seem to be listening to anything or looking at anything. As she just stood looking at nothing in front of her.

Jake now stood on the ledge and tugged on the makeshift safety line they had tied around his waist, it seemed stable enough. Hopefully it would hold.

Jake wasn’t sure why they asked him to talk to her. He barely knew her, and she probably wanted to kill him, would not be the first woman to try today. If he was being honest her raw strength made him a little scared of her and he had no idea how to talk someone down from what was presumably a suicide.

Like her though he had a monster in him that tried to kill people without permission. Without permission it laid claim to him as its harbinger as destruction. So, if her could help her remove even the tiniest of what she was fighting, he would.If not, how could he face his own monster.

“Hey Gwen.” Jake said trying his best to hide his anxiety and to not sound if as he was shouting above the wind in the pit.

“I can see you are going through a rough time. I know you have been through hell and more.”

Jakes eyes drifted to the floor and his voice softened. “I know you wanted to save your friend. I’m… I’m sorry you couldn’t and I… I’m sorry I let your friend die. If I had just stayed there instead of running like a coward, she might still be here. I know you just wanted to save people and in spite of your best efforts, everything worked against you. To stop you.”

Jake looked up expecting to see murderous eyes meet his, but she hadn’t moved a millimeter. Could she even hear him and was she even aware of anything around her. Jake decided to inch closer to her. She didn’t respond. He moved slightly closer. Nothing, he was only a couple meters from her now.

“Look I understand I should have done things differently and I have had a lot of time to think. If you want to kick my ass or throw my down this hole, I won’t blame you but please just don’t jump down with me.”

She didn’t twitch. Jake didn’t want to do this, but he had no choice. He reached behind his back a retrieved her bow from its holster. She didn’t know about it, but they had found it under the seat of the friend that had died in the crash. Since she never asked for it, he assumed she thought the slavers still had it.

“Gwen, look.” He said as he held it out towards her.

Finally, she moved her head a bit barely for a second, but she did. She was listening to him. It’s then when her heard what she said. “How can I be redeemed for the billions I have killed.’”

“Gwen what are you talking about?”

“I was the heir to one of the most prominent houses before I was taken. Before the war started plans were drawn to invade all the outer planets that would most likely rebel…”

Gwen stopped speaking for a few seconds.

“It’s okay you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“The initial plan predicted that billions would die, and this number would increase futher if the war continued longer than what was originally estimated. We all celebrate at the notion that they would continue to give us what we wanted once we forced them to bend the knee. We took many like you and told them to die for our vanity. I just can’t bear…”

“Gwen, look at me.” Gwen slowly turned her head to face him. Her cold dead eyes looked straight through Jake.

“I’m one of those billions you sent to die, and I might be angry, or revenge driven but is that really going to change anything? Nor is anything going to change if you throw yourself down that pit. I’d lose my second friend on this hellscape for nothing. With how much time has passed I think it safe to say I’m the only one of those grunts left. So, I speak for all of them when I say that I forgive you and the houses. I’ll never forget but I do forgive, not just the houses. You too.”

Jake wasn’t sure what to make of the situation. Had he said too much, too little or was what he said not going to have an impact on what she said either way. A dozen seconds or so passed before she said anything.

“Do you want to shoot me?” Gwen asked with a deadpan stare.

“What are you talking about?” Jake choked. Her question caught him completely off guard.

“You said you speak for the billions we sent to die and I speak for the houses responsible. I’m sure most of those soldiers would have liked to destroy the houses.”

“So, I’ll ask again. Do you want to shoot me?”

Jake huffed before he spoke. It’s the first time he had felt genuine anger in a long time.

“You know sometimes you are really foolish and stupid for someone who was educated by the houses. I’m standing meters from death, literally hanging by a thread. To try and save someone… no to save someone who has just as much right to want me dead as I do, and you think I want to shoot you?”

Gwen was surprised by Jake’s sudden minor outburst. She had never seen him angry before. Scared and confused sure but never angry. She wished she could feel emotion so powerful again.

“We both represent each other’s opposite parties, no? We’ll you saved my life from the hunter, and I saved yours from Akilina and the others. Let’s call It even.”

“I see.” Gwen said facing towards the pit again. She then sat on the edge of the ledge.

“You’re not going to jump off right?” Jake said in his usual nervous tone.

“Not anymore.”

“In that case sitting on the edge... mind if I sit too?”

She didn’t respond.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

For a while they just sat there in silence, not sharing a word between each other. Only the whistling wind made a sound and the occasional rustle at the window as the others checked what they were doing. Perhaps Gwen finally had peace over what they had done or perhaps she was just thinking of the horrors the houses had committed. Either way it was quiet, peaceful and probably the first relaxing thing they had done since they had been taken.

“Can I tell you something?” Gwen asked.

“Yeah of course you can.”

“I’m not most ashamed about what I was part of with the houses, my biggest shame lies on this planet.”

“What could you possibly have done that’s worse than that?” Jake said chuckling.

“I…I.” Gwen stuttered as her grip on the ledge tightened. “I gave my sister to the rebellion.”

“Well, that’s not too bad is it, they are good people.”

“No, you don’t understand I was supposed to look after her and I couldn’t. Instead of trying to replace something to help me. I just gave her away like someone’s trash. I can never undo that.”

“Well, you know what they say best day to start over is today. C’mon I’ll help you replace her. There are only so many rebels here she can’t be that difficult to replace.” Jake said as he got up from the ledge and held his hand out to Gwen.

Gwen took his hand as he held her up.

“I won’t lie the cybernetic hand is pretty cool but there are a couple people here who really hate the machines. So, you should probably cover it up. Here” Jake said as he tossed a white glove to her. “Dan thought you would like it.”

“Hey, Jake is Gwen okay now?” Lee yelled out of the window.

“Yeah, she is fine now.”

“Okay good there’s a situation. We are going to need you to come to the briefing room, both of you.”