I waited for the announcement again to signal the door opening.
Third time to the same voice, same tone, just a different shitty day. The slamming of the sliding doors grating against the cell of a cage greeted me.
They may have taken my freedom in exchange to give me sleep.
Out in space, sleep was luxury. I never knew if space pirates would pounce on my war cruiser, or our parked location may be in line for a collision course with a speeding spaceship or the odd asteroid passing through.
Arabaki would wake me up for any abnormality, big or insignificantly small, spotted on the sensors, disrupting any semblance of deep sleep.
I learnt to sleep in any place, any time and in any position, even in my pilot seat on the war cruiser.
The routine in the Ultramax either comprised chatting with fellow prisoners, pacing around or just keeping to the allocated cell. No work, nothing. Other than time spent with Zhiva and Garan, the mind numbing lack of facilities drove me to boredom.
Eat, sleep, watch your back, occasionally get into a fight and that's as much as all of us could do since I arrived.
Except for Garan, he seemed a little busy even when no fights happened. I still wondered how he smuggled in the contraband.
"You want WHAT?" I heard Garan's voice echoing down the cells amidst the sounds of the prisoners' footsteps trudging towards the hall.
Garan sounded irritated, but whatever went on wasn't my business. At least, I know he is awake and would soon make his way to the cell to check on Trey like the last two times.
I got up and hopped off the top bunk with a thud of a landing and glanced at Trey.
He seemed wretched with colourful swollen bruises, covering his entire body, one huge black eye and a swollen jaw. He's lucky the Hamazan didn't break his neck.
"How bad do I look?" Trey looked at me while still laying on his bed.
"As bad as you feel."
He winced when his hands rubbed his sore jawline. "Owww… the game really hurts."
The severe trashing he got from the Hamazan failed to make him see through the Iktomins' brainwashing illusion, even if they couldn't connect to his implants.
"What game?" Garan asked from the entrance of our cell.
My target had arrived.
I went to sit by the side on Trey's bunk bed with my arms folded, careful to keep the small droid clamped onto the inner side of my finger, waiting for the right time to plant it somewhere on his clothing.
The droid is small enough to camouflage, with any metallic or electronic equipment held in his pockets which are always bulging with a syringe or some other mystery device.
An idea brewed in my head during lockdown to plant the droid onto Garth to figure out where he went. To get the supplies he needed for this locked sector of the Ultramax, he either need to move out of the Sector or there's a dirty guard willing to smuggle in exchange for something.
I don't trust what Zhiva told me. The only way to confirm the news was to send out the droid on a mission to gather visual evidence or record anything said as insurance.
Better prepared for the unexpected than actually caught by surprise, even if I can do almost nothing in this shithole.
"Hurrrrrrrrrhhhhmmmm," Trey yawned loudly. "Nah, just talking about the environment. None of you care, since you are all NPCs."
Garan tilted his head and looked at me with his jaw gaping open.
"What the hell is an NPC?" He asked.
"I think his brain got hit real hard," I replied.
"Hey, I am…," Trey trailed off. "Never mind, I still need you guys."
For once, his intelligence showed itself. Garan grabbed my sleeve and pulled me out of the cell while the other prisoners quickly dodged his rash exit.
"He might have a serious brain injury," Garan whispered in a hush tone. "Beyond what we can do here."
A risk of agreeing with Garan may cause him to withdraw all medical help for Trey in the future. I deliberated on my options. The best course of action is to tell him that Trey had been speaking like that in the brig of the battle fortress, yet keep him interested in Trey.
Or else I lose the best excuse to plant the droid on Garan.
"Iktomin brainwashing," I replied.
"Yeah, because he was mumbling about Hearth or was it Dearth—"
"Earth. That's his home planet."
"And some milky thing…," Garan added.
"Milky Way galaxy."
"So that's how his species refer to the Great Swirl?"
I shrugged. Damn if I knew. Trey insisted firmly that he was from another galaxy.
"Whatever, and ever since I treated him. He is talking about a game where you eat some pill and get instant 100% health or nonsense… is his wiring okay?" Garan tapped on his temple. "And mission quest crap. I thought it was the dimmer speaking."
Easy to assume that Garan never spoken to a live Iktomin experiment, but I needed confirmation.
"Ever met an Iktomin-backed entertainer in person?"
"Zhiva said he is one of those… but when we raided their ships, those species, like him, are half dead in a coma by then," Garan replied. "Merciful and efficient to shoot them dead."
Yeah, same as those wretched Iktomin ships which the Kamuy attacked.
"The Iktomins disguise the surviving lot as any of spacefaring species to carry out their orders," I said, even though I wasn't sure.
"Yeah, but oddly, we have never caught one. He has been around to know our common tongue. Can't his tiny brain process that?"
"Non-spacefaring species, what do you think? If they share our cognitive abilities to advance into spacefarers, they would be us here," I countered.
And even if Trey tried to betray me, I could kill him with relative ease.
Garan frowned for a bit. "Did you check his cybernetic implants and relays?"
I added a program for insurance in Trey's relays using the droid in the battle fortress' brig before they brought us to the Ultramax. The program code allowed me to monitor the working status of his cybernetic implants regularly.
I would have noticed something amiss or astray in his current cybernetic relays or implants.
"Functioning, but his relays only feed the illusion that everything here is a game to him."
Garan rubbed his chin slowly in deep thought.
As I guessed correctly, he showed interest, albeit at Trey's expense. To Garan, Trey would be a new toy to play and experiment with, given his penchant for anything novel.
"Let's say we try to deprogram him…," Garan muttered, still deep in thought.
"His psychological status."
"Yeah, but you told Zhiva you wanted to use him against the Iktomins."
I wanted to use Trey's cybernetic implants but not drive him insane. Trey kept to a strand of sanity, pulling himself together by repeatedly convincing himself it was a game.
I didn't know what would happen if he found out that he wasn't in a virtual environment.
All Trey did was sleep, eat, drink, and piss. Ignorance is bliss for him, still unaware of the other hidden dangers lurking in this prison, besides getting trashed.
Trey is the one least likely to betray me in the Ultramax, making him a valuable asset if I wanted to use him.
"Don't worry, we can have a bit of fun," Garan said with a wry grin, and pulled out a small squarish medical scanner from his pocket.
I recognised his usual equipment when he visited Trey to check on his progress, but feigned ignorance. Perfect to plant the droid on it, since Garan needed the medical scanner.
"What's that for?" I asked.
"A medical scanner," Garan replied. "Don't you…"
He trailed off, perhaps suspecting I was lying.
"I never needed to seek medical help," I added quickly. "Mind if I have a look?"
Garan looked at me from head to toe and held the medical scanner out to me. "I guess, since you're a cyborg."
He accepted the reason, but I hesitated for a bit, wondering what price he may quote as an excuse for 'payment.'
"Don't worry, it's just looking. Besides, you are far more experienced with cybernetic implants. Maybe you can show me a thing or two."
Never pass up on an opportunity because one hardly comes by. The gaps in the medical scanner's structure would be perfect to hide the droid inside.
I took it from his hands and pretended to examine it.