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Dr. Cheung's at a funeral all day, so Linya decides to go up to London and see if Miles is out of his Mood.
Security has decided to be deeply unhelpful today. She is currently showing them various forms of ID and repeating in a slow, patient voice that she has been here before, there is not more than one of her, and she promises she is not there to assassinate her husband or whatever fool thing has them skittish today. Perhaps she shouldn't drop in while the captain's missing; it seems to make them worse. But she got in before while he was missing...
isthisart
unmarred
"Yes. Ivan, and you. That's it so far. But I might like your wife better if I didn't have to pretend to be you to talk to her. Maybe I'll make the experiment."
thisvorlunatic
"...I feel like I should point out that 'tied to a chair' is probably not her optimal conversational circumstance."
unmarred
"Hm. Now think of something horrifying, I'm putting you back and the guards shouldn't see you looking like you had fun."
thisvorlunatic
...Miles blinks at him.
All right, he can see the strategic value, certainly... and he doesn't lack for horrifying things to think about. Mark's childhood, for example.
All right, he can see the strategic value, certainly... and he doesn't lack for horrifying things to think about. Mark's childhood, for example.
unmarred
"That's better."
Mark fetches the guards, and has Miles hauled back to his cell.
The guards don't bother motioning for Linya; they just stun her and haul her away.
Mark fetches the guards, and has Miles hauled back to his cell.
The guards don't bother motioning for Linya; they just stun her and haul her away.
thisvorlunatic
"Hey!" yelps Miles, but he restrains himself from actually trying to jump them. It wouldn't do any bloody good.
unmarred
So.
Linya wakes up tied to a chair, alone in the office with Mark. He is pacing. He doesn't pace very much like Miles, when he's not putting on the role.
Linya wakes up tied to a chair, alone in the office with Mark. He is pacing. He doesn't pace very much like Miles, when he's not putting on the role.
unmarred
"You know, that's just what your husband said. He also said tied to a chair is not your optimal conversational context. Care to comment?"
isthisart
"It really isn't. Neither is 'recently stunned'. But I'll make do, if what you want to do is talk as opposed to bringing me somewhere I can buy you a ticket to Tau Ceti and then call the police."
unmarred
"Yeah, sorry about that. I think the guards are more afraid of you than I am. You're engineered but you've had no combat training; I could take you. What's a ticket to Tau Ceti supposed to do for me?"
isthisart
"You might be able to take me; I very much doubt you could outrun me," she points out. "Neither could they. I don't know what you want to do, but Tau Ceti is less here than here. I'll send you all the way to Beta or something if you'd rather. With a pocketful of cash if you like."
unmarred
"And you can't outrun a stunner beam. Game to me," Mark points out. "Anyway, that's a very nice offer, but if I wanted to run I could just run. All the way to Beta Colony if I felt like it. I hear I've got a grandmother there."
unmarred
"I haven't heard much about her, but from what I've heard, she'd take me in."
He studies Linyabel thoughtfully.
"I wonder if you'd understand better than Miles, what it means to be afraid. I suspect not."
He studies Linyabel thoughtfully.
"I wonder if you'd understand better than Miles, what it means to be afraid. I suspect not."
isthisart
"I am currently very much afraid that at some point my value as a live captive will run out and I will never get to go home and finish working on the baby and help Dr. Cheung's research and make sufficiently certain that Miles is my Miles to the point where I'm willing to act like it more than conversationally and ever play the piano again and so on. This is probably not what you have in mind."
unmarred
"It isn't," he agrees. "I'm afraid of different things, different ways. It's like... how do I translate...? It's like having a little invisible goblin sitting on my shoulder with a nerve disruptor," he gestures to the approximate hypothetical location of the goblin, "and every time I think about doing something that I know would make Galen angry..." He shrugs. "It doesn't matter if it would be almost impossible for him to find me after I pissed him off. The goblin's still there. A fear so strong it has separated from its source and gained a life of its own."
isthisart
"Neither would I. I have looked at Miles's genome. I have a loose inkling of what must have happened to you."
unmarred
"Oh, lots of surgery," he says dismissively. "Surgery's not so bad. I thought it was a bit much when they replaced my leg bones with synthetics, but I wasn't about to complain. There's things worse than surgery."