A past that never is

I knocked on the door of Reactors room.

“What do you want?” A grumpy voice sounded from within. I opened the door and stepped inside.

“It’s time for you to start training, Reactor. I’m Shifter, the other operator.” I said.

“Fine, whatever.” She muttered and came stomping out the door and up to the main deck after me. After plugging her in I sat down at the monitors.

“Alright, enjoy the ride. First of you have to learn operations programs first.” I told her. She grunted in response. Then came the combat programs, karate, judo, ju-jitsu, kick boxing etc etc.

“It’s time for a break. Come on let’s go get some lunch.” I said, as I unplugged her.

“I’m not hungry, I want to keep going.” She said. I shook my head and grinned.

“Yeah, well because I had to be up early this morning to train you I had to skip breakfast and now I’m starving. So I say we eat.” I told her. AK was already there, drinking some coffee and looking like he had just woken up. I got a bowl of food for myself and put it on the table and then went to get some coffee, when I came back to the table I found Reactor eating my food, I looked at AK, who just shrugged. I got another bowl of food for myself and sat down.

“I think there might be something wrong with one of the chairs, it’s not working properly.” I said to AK.

“I know. It’s the power supply on it.” He said. In case of the main power failing in each of the chairs had its own attached power cell, it would give the chair enough power to keep the person using alive for at least a week, if we left them in the Matrix that long.

“Will we have to replace the cell?” I asked him.

“I don’t know. I’ll look over it with you in a while.”

“Replacing them is such a bitch.” I groaned.

“Tell me about it. I don’t think we will though, it just looks like a fluc- ”

“Where’s my coffee?” Reactor interrupted us. Without even looking at her I pointed at the machine against the wall.

“Shouldn’t be to diff-”

“I want some coffee.” She interrupted again.

“Then go and get some, it’s right over there.” I said.

“You expect me to serve myself?” She asked surprised. AK and I both turned to look at her.

“If you want some badly enough then yes, I do.” I said.

“But...but don’t you realise who I am?! Get me coffee now!” She cried.

“How about you stand up and get some yourself.” I suggested sarcastically.

“You two are operators, right?” She asked haughtily.

“Yes, we are.” I replied.

“Then you are also servants. Get me my fucking coffee now! Before I complain to the captain about the way you are treating me.” She said. Roland came in just in time to catch the end of her tirade.

“What’s going on here?” He asked. AK and I were to busy staring at the spoiled child to answer him.

“These two refuse to serve me my coffee. I have already asked them four times and they refuse to get me any. I demand that you fire these two servants at once!” She snapped.

“AK and Shifter are our operators, they are not servants. Everyone on this ship is here because they choose to be, not because they’re servants.” Roland said, he was visibly raging at her implication about me and AK.

“You mean to say that you have no servants here? I’m expected to do things for myself here?” Reactor asked.

“Believe it or not, yes. You are going to have to get your own hands dirty. If you want coffee you’ll have to get it yourself.”

“You never told me this! Do you think I would have come here if I’d known this?” With that she stood up and ran from the room.

“Such a nice personality. Is Locke still with Niobe? Because if he’s not then he and the princess would make a lovely couple.” I said.

(A few days later)

“Are you ready to continue training yet?” I asked politely of Reactor. She turned to glare at me.

“We can even go and get breakfast before we start.” I continued cheerfully.

“I don’t want to.”

“You’re going to have to do it eventually. Or else we leave you in Zion next time we dock there.”

“Okay. If it will make you shut up.” She snapped. Don’t you do anything but speak angrily to people? I wondered. But I said nothing out loud. Once more we went down to the mess hall, Maggie was there already eating her breakfast. Reactor sat down across from Maggie. Oh, yeah like I’m going to fall for that again, I thought. I glanced at Maggie, who rolled her eyes. I sat down and started eating, Reactor stared at me. I grinned across at her.

“Where’s mine?” She asked. I pointed behind her and swallowed.

“Over there.” I replied. Roland came in to get some coffee and after saying a quick morning to both Maggie and Reactor he left again.

“Oh, he is so cute!” Reactor squealed. I scraped the last food out of my bowl.

“Who?” I asked, distractedly.

“The captain.” She answered dreamily. The spoon stopped halfway to my mouth.

“Yeah, I know that already.” I said. Maggie laughed quietly next to me.

“Is he with anyone?”

“Nevermind, what they don’t can’t hurt them.” She stood up and hurried out the door. The spoon was still frozen mid-air as I turned slowly to face Maggie.

“Did she just say what I think she said?” I didn’t wait for an answer before I was up and out the door after her.

“Reactor!” I called after the running figure.

“What?” She called back over her shoulder, as she climbed the ladder. I came out on the main deck; AK was working on the chair, which had after all needed a new power cell.

“You asked the wrong person that question.” I told her. She finally stopped and turned to me.

“What question?” She asked.

“About the captain being with someone.” I answered. AK looked up from what he was doing, to listen to what we were saying.

“You mean he’s with you?”

“Unless it was actually AK’s bed I woke up in this morning and I didn’t notice the difference.” I answered. She stared at me for a moment, and then she started laughing.

“Why would he be with someone like you? You’re just an operator. He deserves someone like me.” She said. At least I’m not a snotty little brat like you. I thought. She looked at AK and laughed again.

“Have you been with him to? What about the rest, have you been with everyone on this ship?”

“No and even if I was that would still be none of your business.” I snapped back at her. She stopped laughing and narrowed her eyes at me.

“Yeah, I bet you have. Hell you’ve probably even enjoyed it all.” She said. AK stepped forward.

“That’s enough. What’s this about anyway?” He said. Reactor gestured at me.

“Her, she stole the captain from me.” She said.

“Wouldn’t you have had to have him for someone to steal him off you?”

“Shut up! You bitch!” She screamed at me.

“You stole him from me! All you are is a lying whore. Hell you’d probably enjoy doing it with those agents or any one of the machines that are here.” At that I froze, my hands clenched into fists. I was about to belt here, but I managed to pull back just in time.

“You’re not worth it.” I strode away from her.

“I’ll fix that for you, AK. You get the little snob over there.” He stepped away from the chair. He may not have known what the machines did to me, but he knew something wasn’t right. Roland came up the ladder.

“What is going on up here, you can be heard screaming all over the ship?” Roland asked. I ignored his question, but Reactor did not.

“That’s the problem. All she does is argue with me and insult me. Not only is she being extremely rude to me, but now she’s stealing from me.” She said.

“Actually I think she was anything but rude.” AK said. Roland sighed and looked in my direction.

“AK, what the hell is going on?” Roland turned to AK.

“Reactor seems to think that Shifter stole you from her, captain.” He answered. Roland stared at him then from Reactor to me.

“Do you have anything to add to this conversation?” He asked me. I didn’t answer, I felt so angry that I felt if I did reply I would say the wrong thing. I just kept banging away at the chair with the hammer, trying to pry the cell loose.

“Is that all that happened?” Roland asked.

“Ahh...no sir.” AK was now beginning to look like the proverbial deer in front of the headlamps of an oncoming car.

“What else?” Roland asked impatiently.

“Reactor suggested that Shifter had been with everyone else on the ship and that she would probably enjoy being with an agent or the machines as well.” Roland froze and slowly turned his eyes on Reactor.

“You did what?” He asked, in a deceptively calm voice.

“Yes, well she probably would like it. She probably even likes it rough. Think about it Shifter, their cold metal limbs touching her all over her body, ripping your clothes off and then forcing their way inside of you.” She smiled over at me. I dropped the hammer on the floor before I threw it at her, then I walked over to the ladder and without a word I climbed down. I didn’t even notice where I was going until I ended up in the gunnery room.

“Shifter, you in here?” Rolands voice asked from the doorway. I stayed silent, hoping he’d go away again. I heard him walk across the floor, and then a loud bang as he walked into something.

“Dammit!” He muttered.

“I’m over here.” I raised my arm over the back of the chair. He came over and sat in the chair next to mine; he just sat silently for a while.

“We’ll be dropping her off when we dock in Zion next week when we dock. She had no right to say that stuff to you, I’m sorry.” He said eventually.

“She didn’t know.” I said.

“That doesn’t make it right. She doesn’t get along with anyone, she doesn’t even try.” He said quietly.

“Are you crying?” I reached up with one hand and wiped my eyes, my hand came away wet with tears. I laughed humourlessly.

“Now that’s something I haven’t seen since I was about four.” I said.

“You haven’t cried since you were four?” He asked curiously.

“Nope, machines made sure of that. If I did something they didn’t like then they’d punish me for it, I learned fairly fast that they didn’t like crying.” I replied. He was silent again for a moment.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered.

“What for? It’s not your fault.” I said.

“Maybe what she did was not such a bad thing then.”

“How can insulting me like that not be ‘a bad thing’?”

“No, I mean it might be good for you to grieve. Have you ever done that, just grieve for your own past?” he asked. I didn’t answer; he reached out and touched my shoulder I moved to pull away from him. But then I looked into his eyes and saw that he was sincere. Oh great. Now look what you’ve done. I thought, as I felt more tears run from my eyes. He pulled me against him and I sobbed into his broad chest.