New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

Urle woke up screaming.

“Calm down!” he heard someone saying.  “Fuckin calm down ya!”

Restraints held him, but his body was pulling so hard against them that he’d nearly ripped them from the bed.

He . . . wasn’t dead.  At least he didn’t think so.  He checked his sensors and saw that there were no alarms for his intracranial pressure.

“Wh-what happened?” he asked.

“You wake unexpected,” Madspark said, sounding sullen and angry.  “Ops done, no bad.  You patched up to walk and the chems be out you shortly.  I want you gone fast whence you can walk.”

Urle felt it was odd for the man to be angry with him – if he woke up, that meant Madspark had done something wrong.

He did not reply, though the man was watching him carefully.  His internal alarms were still going off, and the sudden awakening of his organic mind was making it hard to comprehend what they were saying.

FOREIGN DATA DETECTED

FOREIGN DATA RUN EXECUTED – SECURITY COMPROMISED

EXTERNAL DATA BREACH ATTEMPTED

EXTERNAL DATA ACCESS INHIBITED

INTERNAL DATA STORAGE SECURE

HOSTILE ACTIVITY DETECTED

ACTIVATING PROGRAM ‘WETMEATWAKEUP’

TIME TO GO BACK TO WORK CHAMP

What?

He tried to fathom the meaning.  He’d found ghost data . . . of death.  His own death.  Or someone else’s?  Could it have been-

“What you experience?” Madspark said, seeming concerned suddenly, leaning in with some kind of device.

It sent alarm thrills through him, and he reached up, shoving the man’s hand back.  What he’d just seen and felt was a blur to him, and despite having just lived it, he could hardly remember it.  The ghost data was being purged, a good security measure at most times, but he actually didn’t want that now.

“I saw . . . someone’s memory,” he said.  “They were dying.”

“Who do the killin?” Madspark asked.

Urle paused.

“I didn’t say they were murdered.”

The man grimaced, then lunged.

Urle raised both arms, grabbing for Madspark’s hand, stopping him just before-

He had the same shock spike.  Urle recognized it, his scanners identifying it as the exact weapon that had killed the man in the memory.

The ghost memories flashed, and he almost lost control of the man’s arm.

He was stronger than Madspark, his parts better, but his system was not running at full capacity, and he couldn’t control himself as well as he normally might.  The man had considerable weight on him as well, using it to press him back onto the bed, and the knife ever closer to his face.

The point was approaching his eye, and Urle felt panic well up inside him, just like in the memory, his mouth opened but he could only make a strangled gargle, fighting as hard as he was-

And then Madspark flew back.  Surprise widened his eyes as he was thrown, crashing into a table and flipping over onto the floor.

Kell stared at Urle, his face as stoic as always.

“Are you all right?” he asked calmly.

“N-no,” Urle panted.  “The store owner, he- he’s trying to kill-“

The man was back up and lunged at Kell now, who turned to meet him.

Just in time for Madspark to drive the shock spike into his skull.

Madspark did not laugh or seem pleased with his work, but his eyes went to Urle, already moving onto his next task with computer efficiency, and Urle knew that he was not up to fighting the man again.  He was even more fatigued, and despite what the man had said he knew that the chems were not clearing up.  If anything the man had drugged him more.

Then Kell reached up, serenely, grasping the spike by the handle, and pulling it out of his head.

Madspark’s eyes jerked back to him, and alarm flashed over his face.

Moving even faster than the aug, Kell’s hands flew up, grasping onto each side of Madspark’s head.

“Agh!” the man bit out, grabbing Kell’s hands, trying to pull them free, his arm servos straining until smoke began to pour from them.

But Kell seemed to not even notice.  He gave a sharp, upward jerk, and the man’s head visibly jumped up, his spine breaking and his neck stretching horribly.

Kell frowned, looking slightly troubled.  Then he jerked again and the man’s entire head ripped off his neck.

Blood and oil splattered across the wall, and Urle stared in shock as Madspark’s body fell to the floor, twitching.

Kell still held the head calmly, watching the body.  He deliberately placed his foot onto the chest of the man, and pressed it down.  Metal, flesh, and bone yielded like butter, his entire chest caving in.

Kell dropped the head and turned back to Urle.

“Are you all right?” he repeated.

---

< Ep 7 Part 26 | Ep 7 Part 28 >