The Auditor

Act 2, Scene 3

A Moreauverse Novella

“When I was on the street I saw plenty of him, human and not. Frustrated, angry, trapped in their situation but, beneath the bluster and violence they were, at their core, good people. I saw fewer of them once I went into media, unfortunately. Those sharks truly tended to be just exactly what they were, no matter how well they tried to hide the sharp teeth and scaly hide."

Back in the stockade they drew aside a couple more people, seemingly at random but who were, in fact, those chosen by Baron. They carefully reiterated what they wanted disseminated and then the actual interview which any interrogator would learn about. Two of the previous interviewees had been drawn aside and dragged before the local head of security, Baron being one of them. When next they saw him the raccoon was walking with a limp, one eye swollen shut and the lip on that side of his face split. Johan was furious when he saw the burns in the unfortunate raccoon's pelt.

He accosted the raccoon as his shift was turning out. “Who did that to you?" He asked, not bothering to mask his fury while one of the 'thug' squad looked on from several meters away. Baron's good eye widened, flicking to the guard and back. “Chief of security?"

“'N Pyg. Said nothing." Baron hissed, his words slurred past his swollen muzzle. Before Johan could ask more he shuffled on, one of the other workers shoving a shoulder under his arm to help him into the passageway to their work area.

“May I feed them to that reducer thing of theirs?" Salen asked as they returned to the interview room to await their next subject.

“A good plan. If we can spare the time I'll join you." Johan growled as he circled back to his customary chair. “Go find that shepherd that propositioned us this morning." Salen nodded and slipped out.

“Segregation progress?"

“Complete, awaiting review and final edits." the ghost replied immediately. “Certain segregation methods will have a sub twenty-five percent efficiency. Separating retained cast and those to be cut problematic. Considerable human assets in command area sympathetic, to be retained if possible, but may be too tightly ingrained with cut cast. Likewise, security elements in area designated as 'the core' difficult to segregate due to limited areas in which to segregate them."

“Rakshasa's, perhaps? Let them know a group is preparing a revolt, staging in that area?"

“Actor and supporting cast will need to be removed from area. No secure barriers to prevent segregated cast from leaving that area."

“Any mobile machinery big enough to block the accessway?"

The ghost was silent for a protracted period of time before replying. “Such machinery is within accessible adjacent area, self-mobile. Retained cast must be cleared from target areas."

“Are you able to make contact?"

“Yes, private comms stations are available in residences of actor Rakshasa and cast not designated for removal from script."

“Prepare segregation script for all maintained cast, designated upon completion of act three. Allow… four hours for retained cast to evacuate the area, if possible. Do not implement blockade until no other option is presented to ensure evacuation."

“Compiling, one hour seventeen minutes."

“Try to open all available pathways for retained cast to access staging area of act four."

“Inserted. Local command routines may interfere, penetrate?"

“Upon opening of act four drop all obfuscation measures, assume necessary control to roll act four script. Weapons free."

“Acknowledge: Weapons free, act four?"

“Acknowledged." Johan said inwardly with an outward nod.

“Acknowledged." Salen offered from wherever he was at the moment, having listened in on the entire exchange. “En route with the shepherd, and vixen."

“A vixen?"

“With a story." Salen assured him.

“Bring her in first."

“Move up timetable on alternate act four: assumption of command. Insert authorization codes. Begin preparation for boring tube purge."

“Alternate script, act four, in queue. Assumption of script probability?"

“Unknown, but it will be awkward and will very likely deviate considerably from known expectations. Adlib as needed. Maintain segregation options across primary and tertiary scripts."

“Tertiary flow ready, standing by." One thing the ghost could do was adapt rapidly on the fly, but it could not adlib at all. It would have to stop and consider all of its available pathways and probability flows before it acted, which had caused them to stumble over their lines in the past. Never disastrously so because one thing they could do as sentient biologic beings was adlib in ways no computer had ever managed. So he had to tell it to prepare its probability patterns early so it could adapt when the script went to pieces.

Which was often when the director was also an actor in a live, evolving script.

The door opened and Johan looked up to see Salen towering over a vixen who, had she not been cowering, would have stood to his shoulder. Her tail was tucked forward all the way to her unclad breasts and she looked to be on the verge of panic. Knowing how he looked with the scars and the stoic, hard expression she had seen on his face a few hours earlier, he tried to soften his voice, at least.

“Come, lass. The Associate tells me you have a story to share." He did not rise as he waved a hand toward one of the chairs opposite him at the table. “You are safe, here, and nothing you say can be witnessed by any ears but our own, and no recording devices." The ghost had, of course, once more rerouted the local audio pickups to the rather busy men's locker room of the residences used by the core's security staff.

At Salen's gentle urging she cautiously moved into the room, her feline-slitted eyes darting around the room, pupils widening and narrowing in bursts. Once she reached the chairs she curled into one, knees to chest and clutching her voluminous though ragged tail.

“What story will you share with us, lass?"

“Rape. Torture. Murder." She whispered so quietly the ghost had to sharpen Johan's hearing to catch them. “This one has been raped, and beaten, repeatedly. This one was a geologist, sent to monitor the output of the mining machinery. When I got here they stripped us, have never allowed us clothes." Her voice shook but it sounded hollow, weary; broken. “And used this one. Made us a creature, creatures, for mating and nothing more. They did to many of us. Jeyev…" She coughed and her body closed up tighter, ears back, the scent of fear musk so sharp in the air it would have made Johan's nose wrinkle if the nanowires under his scars had been flexible enough.

“The commander… ?" Johan prompted gently after a few moments listening to her rapid, hitched breathing.

“Used this one!" She yelped, as if forcing it from her breast by sheer will. “Used and used and beat and used. This one was his fanciest. The hottest, the tightest, the best muzzle." Her voice rose into a shrill, quavering ululation that made Salen's ears back and Johan wince, trying to parse words through the rapid chuttering. “Struck us, cut us where fur hides. Makes us unclean. Casts us aside as insignificant!" She broke down, burying her face in her hands so that only her narrow muzzle emerged. “Said he would wear us! Have his servant carve our fur from our muscle and make a coat of us!"

“Servant?"

“The servile one, the unctuous. The one who eats us with his eyes and smiles with many teeth! The one who disappears us of fur and only meat is ever seen again. And bones, left to be found. Never skin, only muscle or organ. Bones. Never fur. He takes what makes us what us are, leaves naught but meat, without name. The servant of the blade." Johan was abruptly reminded of one of the murder reports; a human neatly stabbed from behind and left to be found.

“Do you know that one's name?" Species was a given, Jeyev would never work with a moreau.

She shook her head vigorously. “No, this one does not. This one knows his smell. It is everywhere above, here some as well. Comes and leaves. Always look away, never see." She faltered, looking past her fingers with desperation in her eyes. “Is it true, does master mean to remove us from this hell?"

“You must be ready, at a moment's notice."

“This one is. Always. Nothing here, just self."

“Good. Lass, my Associate will take you somewhere safe, go with him. Associate, make sure she is given food, some clothes as well. Advise anyone who asks that she is under explicit, immediate protection of myself, as are all who have been made sex workers, unless they freely choose that path."

Salen nodded as he stepped forward and carefully helped the distraught vixen from the chair. She clung to him heavily as he helped her to the door. “Rescind all of the local security chief's authorization codes. Rescind all security clearance for cast deemed inimical to Moreau safety."

“Codes reset, internal computational error. Command nodes may reinstate; maintain?"

“As much as is feasible without detection until act four, then terminate authorization access to all cast slated for removal from script. Initiate cascading error within facility computer, reset authorities to baseline, maintain. Do not disrupt operation of facility safety systems and maintain evacuation corridors."

“Initiating." The lights flickered, dimmed, went out for a couple of heartbeats before brightening again. “Fault correction systems initiated at command nodes. Re-establishment of prior state furthering cascade."

“Allow retained cast to successfully regain authorization levels, or elevate where effective."

The door opened and Salen helped the vixen out of the room, waving an arm for the shadowed shape just beyond the door to enter. The shepherd, still clad only in her fur, sidled in nervously, her eyes darting around, ears back and tail tucked though not so profoundly as the vixen's. She kept her muzzle down, looking toward him only through the dark lines of her brows.

“Please, take a seat." Johan said with some warmth in his otherwise stoic voice, waving at the chair vacated by the vixen. The shepherd looked at it as if expecting there to be a spring loaded trap. “I am not here to cause you further harm or distress, lass. I have given orders for all prostitution to be terminated, immediately."

She sidled around the chair and sank into it, her ears flicking up briefly before backing again. “No blowjob for you, then." She quipped, her nervousness and unchosen occupation lending her boldness. That did not prompt her to raise her head or meet his eyes, however.

“Indeed." Johan responded flatly, though with a warm edge of humor. “What is your name?"

“Uhh... I was given the name 'Lara', GeneMark LA812/H803." Facility bred rather than gestated in a tank, then, a pure lineage of relatively adjacent series Shepherds. Controlled breeding was vastly cheaper but it took a great deal of control for desired micro-traits away from the breeding agency. And they had to be trained the long, tedious way; raised into an occupation from a pup instead of turned out of an artificial womb as a physical adult with all of the training programmed in.

At least she had been around long enough to have adopted a proper appreciation of self; she used 'I' instead of 'this one,' unit, or asset. Whatever facility had produced her had allowed realization of the individual.

“When you were transferred here, what was the occupation you were trained to practice?"

“Reactor operation, maintenance, and repair. Specifically the block 4 Tarus series for this assignment." It was a nice, safe, efficient hydrogen fusion reactor, no antimatter, using magnetic and gravitational induction to maintain the environment necessary for fusion.

“Did you?"

“For a bit over a year, yes, while the previous command ran the place." Her words were mushy, not slurred exactly, just poorly pronounced as if she had a speech impediment. Judging by the odd hollowness of her muzzle, he surmised.

“Then what happened?"

“New command. New… job assignments after the standard suite of entertainments were cut off or destroyed. The labor, and humans, needed… different outlets." Her broad, emaciated shoulders rose and fell. “There were prossies before but, well, they were willing. They were never directly tasked to do that, they wanted to."

“Who was their pimp?"

The dog cocked her head, ears twitching. “Was none, I don't think. The tiger, maybe, from the club. I think he just provided muscle, though, when people got rough with them. And kept his own in hand."

“What changed? I understand the chief of security runs you now."

“Uh huh." She bobbed her ducked head and sighed. “Takes everything, too. No pay… not for anyone. Not for the workers, any of them. Certainly not for us. We only got our holes to barter with, and its fucking low value trade, now. He… Veral, the security head… he finds new ones to replace them that get broken too much to earn him money."

“And what happens to them, the ones who break?"

Her eyes looked up at him through her brows and she half growled a soft, pained sound. “Reducer." She paused, leaning forward slightly as if preparing to tell a secret. “Alive." Johan winced. Having no clue how the apparatus worked he had no idea how swift, or lingering, such an execution would be. Either way it could not be merciful.

“Who removed you from your job as a reactor tech and forced you into sex work?"

“Veral. I mean, when the old command was in control, I did… trade, some. For favors, for fun, here and there. Some of the humans, some of the labor. We had time then, duty shifts were eight or ten hours. Now they're too long, twelve to sixteen, sometimes a full day. Everyone's exhausted, scared, broke. Not much time or desire for getting a tail up. It's only the humans, now, and none of the good ones. Only Veral's supporters."

“Not anymore, I have rescinded his authority and trading sex is now forbidden."

She blinked, fully raising her head to fix him with a surprised brown eyed stare, ears erect. “You what?" She realized herself almost immediately and turned her muzzle away, ears flattening back.

“Removed his authority to the lowest possible level. Now, miss Lara, look at me." She glanced at him from the corner of her eye, ears flattening fully into the thick, unkempt pelt of her head. “Miss Lara, I am not angry and I mean no harm or punishment. Please, raise your head and look at me." Slowly she complied until he was looking square at her heavy, broad, brown and tan Shepherd face.

And that's when he realized what was off about her muzzle. “Open your muzzle, please." She blinked, trying to tuck her muzzle but the intensity of his gaze arrested her in place. Grudgingly she let her lower jaw drop and curled back her lips to reveal… gums.

There was not a single tooth in the hapless Shepherd's muzzle. Johan was aghast and his eyes showed his shock, her muzzle snapping shut with a wet smack rather than the sharp crack of teeth. “Who did that to you?" He asked, keeping his fury in check. In all of the years he had been liberating mistreated moreaus or those slated for destruction he had never seen any whose teeth had been removed on such a scale. One or two here and there but never all.

Her head ducked and she collapsed in on herself defensively, clutching her arms over herself. “I don't know. I was bagged and taken somewhere, my eyes were always covered. They did not drug me or use painkillers. I was told it was because I used teeth on… someone."

“You bit someone? And they did that?" Johan asked, letting some of his ire bleed into his voice.

She shook her head. “No, did not bite. Never, ever, bit anyone. He… was using my muzzle roughly and cut himself on my teeth."

“He whom?"

“The…" She trailed off, trying to fold even more in upon herself.

“Who, Lara?"

“Commander."

“Jeyev?"

Her head jerkily bobbed. “Said I was to be punished, and everyone to know. When he was done with me he took a raccoon, Simar 12. He broke her, utterly, because he had not healed from the tiny nick of my teeth. She… disappeared, probably to the reducer. Then Gina, the fox. She has his fancy, has lasted weeks, but will not much longer. Her mind is… failing. Then someone else."

Johan jerked to his feet so suddenly the chair tipped and fell behind him. Lara twitched and clutched her arms over her head. “Forgive, forgive!" She yowled piteously, spilling from the chair to prostrate herself on the floor in a terrified sprawl.

Checking himself Johan moved around the table and, awkwardly due to the leg brace, knelt beside her. “Stand up for me, Lara." He said, forcing gentleness into his voice despite his boiling fury. At the same moment he stabbed a thought at the presence at the back of his mind. “Salen, find Baron and tell him to get his people, and those humans they trust, to gather in the billets and then join me. Initiate segregation scripts, prep the stage for act four. Initiate bore tube purges and evacuation of on duty mining personnel." The last was intended for the ghost that simply sent a 'sense' of affirmation.

Salen met them at the landing, handing Johan one of the thruster packs with a look of askance at the presence of the terrified looking Shepherd. She knew how to operate the pack, barely, and Salen had to more tow than guide her across the two kilometer volume of the void. “Someone showed me a holo image." Salen called out, for the benefit of the Shepherd rather than using their internal link via the ghost though that would have been easier given the wind of their passage. “Of this space, before the commander shut it down."

Johan drifted closer, as much as the vanes of the packs would allow. “What did it look like?"

“There was a star in the center; diffusers venting waste heat from the plasma transfer contained within a gravitational sheer field, or so they told me. Created sunlight for large grow beds around the landing, back there. A hundred hectares or so of green on the wall of the chamber."

“It was beautiful." The Shepherd called out, her voice quavering as she clutched the control module of her pack tightly to her breast, using it only when Salen used his to match their velocities. “A park, water fountains, gardens. Places to relax after a long day. Places to be private. Everyone went there, many even lived there, beyond the grav plating. Even the humans." She turned slightly to point back where they had come from. “It's all still there, dead now, the water reclaimed. New commander had the diffusers disconnected, vents the waste heat into space, now."

“As if that won't create a bloody huge IR plume for any survey probe to locate." Salen commented as he angled up to slightly overshoot their target. He cut his thrusters and let the gravity plating of the landing platform catch the Shepherd as he released her. She landed, stumbling, and collided with the wall with a grunt as Salen continued upward to land against the wall above her where gravity was minimal. He floated down to land deftly beside her.

“My apologies." He said as he helped her regain her footing. She was rubbing her shoulder that had taken the brunt of her awkward landing.

“It's okay. I've had worse bruising from the humans getting under my tail." She said as she unfastened the pack and Johan stumbled to a similarly awkward though less bone rattling landing. Salen caught him with an outstretched arm, jarring all three but they kept their feet. Shucking their packs they tossed them at the 'expended' rack, with little care if they caught a hook or fell, and made their way to the lift downward.

A guard stood at the doors, lounging idly, some sort of tablet in their hand from which they were reading judging by the static light on their face. It was Ionas, the guard they had encountered on their first trip down. Hearing Johan's footsteps, the crack of his cane, and the claws of two unshod feet he looked up, pocketing the tablet. He made no move for his weapons, one slung and the other holstered.

“Auditor, Associate, miss Lara." He bobbed his head in greetings. “Taking her up, sir?"

“Aye. Officer, this station is soon to be evacuated. If you wish to join the exodus make your way to the freighter bay at the nadir dock." Johan said as he approached, not slowing. “Take no one, unless they are already heading in that direction. Already heading there, do you understand? Others will have orders to stage in other locations and you must allow them to rendezvous there, is that clear?"

“Sir?" The man blanched, resting his hand on the butt of his sidearm but not releasing the clasp. “I don't understand, sir."

“You were here when Jeyev took over, I know, right? What was your role in that?"

Ionas blinked, “I, uh, I, ah, well," he stammered at a loss under Johan's rapid barrage as the limping human and his two non-human shadows approached. “Kept the hell out of the way, kept the… them out of the way." He nodded toward Salen and Lara, indicating 'moreaus' rather than either of them specifically.

“And you're fancy on a raccoon, right? Pir, Purr?"

“Either works, sir, yes, sir, I still don't understand?"

“Mutiny, officer. Your responsibility now is the same is it was during the last one." Johan drew up within arm's reach, meeting the man's eyes. “Now go, get it done. Take any you find, except those who have other orders." He pointed back toward the adit and the landing before the void.

“Affirmative, sir." Gathering his wits Ionas trotted away without looking back. Johan cycled the elevator call button and the door shrieked open obediently, the car was on their level thanks to the ghost which was taking a more active role. They stepped in even as the doors protestingly squealed shut. Acceleration was stronger than it had been previously, forcing them to grab the hand rails to keep from jolting to the ceiling. Lara actually sank to the floor, wrapping her tail about her legs and bracing her arms up against the handrails as she gawked at captors, or escorts, with awe and no little fear.

“You mean to wrest control away from him?" She asked over the shrill noise of the lift's rapid descent.

“I do, Lara. Even if I was merely what he expected I probably would have within the first half cycle. But I am not what he expects. I am more." He turned his gaze down at her. “I am wroth incarnate, stoked to a fury."

Normally the lift took more than twenty minutes to transit the nearly thirty kilometer shaft to the cap but this time it took ten, gravity reasserting itself with crushing force. It eased as the car slowed until, when it stopped, they were back to what passed for normal. The door grudgingly opened once more.

The Leftenant was standing just beyond with four other guards that Johan had seen only in passing. “Auditor?" She asked as they emerged from the lift. “Why are you bringing a prostitute to the command cap?"

“I need to speak with Jeyev. Immediately." He replied as he stepped past her. “About this prostitute, and others as well. Will you escort us?" The ghost had not alerted him to possible threats among them so he expected that they were not a part of Jeyev's circle of supporters.

“Yes, sir." She fell into step beside him, Salen on his opposite side with one arm gently cupping Lara's arm. The Shepherd was quailing at the sight of so many guards and he had to coax her to follow. Another guard stepped up and slipped an arm around her, below her shoulders, to help as well. That did not seem to comfort the dog at all but she did not resist.

The atrium was empty for the most part as they crossed it, the guards patrolling the upper balconies pausing to look down and attempting to use their comms before giving surprised looks at the devices. “LT!" One of them called down, waving their communicator. “Comms just crashed. Computer's going haywire."

“Remain at your posts." The Leftenant called back without slowing as Johan had not, his cane clicking rapidly in counterpoint to the sound of his boot heels. “They're working on the issue in command, we should have comms back up shortly."

The guard waved a salute and resumed their patrol.

The elevator ride down in the somewhat crowded elevator was made in silence but for the subtle whine of the Shepherd as her alarm continued to mount.

The outer airlock to the command deck was open as they approached and it cycled as soon as the last guard passed. The two men in the booth, both loyal to Jeyev, watched the procession with some curiosity as they trooped toward the inner door below the leering skull of a hapless canine moreau slain to 'send a message'. When the inner airlock door cycled they both panicked, stabbing at the control panel and into their communicators, but to no avail. The airlock door cycled while the one that would allow them out of the security booth refused to open.

They entered the command deck into a bedlam of voices as the stations, now crowded with their attendant personnel, attempted to regain the rapidly cascading failure of the facility's primary computer core. Jeyev, however, stood in his long wolf-pelt coat at the far end of the floor gazing up at the main viewscreen.

Displayed in its center was a huge ship, its lines smooth and clean at the distance from the imager capturing it. The shape was vaguely ovoid, narrower at one end, like an enormous clamshell or scallop. It was ventrally and longitudinally symmetrical save for the wider aft end where shrouds hid the massive thrusters from the imager's view. Someone hastened up to his side and spoke before hastening away, drawing Jeyev's attention away from the distant ship on the display and around toward the rear of the command floor.

“Auditor!" He said, voice amiable but hard. He waved an arm behind him toward the screen, coat swirling about his legs. “That is not an Opal class command vessel." He pointed out. “It's a coxswain super heavy, not -"

“Mister Jeyev, you are relieved." Johan cut him off as he marched to stand at the base of the dais. The commander - former commander - blinked and raised an eyebrow as he turned to face Johan squarely.

“On what grounds? On whose authority?"

“On the authority of the Convergent Molecular Industries Board of Directors. On the authority of Yucatan Alliance law." Johan took a step forward, leaning both hands on his cane. “Embezzlement. Misappropriation of company resources. Misuse of company resources. Damage to company assets. Destruction and desecration of company assets." He waved a hand back at the shepherd all but cowering behind him, Salen gently holding her upright, her tail tucked up between her still unclad legs to press against her stomach. “This laborer, assigned as a reactor technician, was forced into prostitution and had her teeth removed on your orders. You will identify the individual who conducted that act." His words rose into an orator's theater voice, carrying through the entire command floor that had very swiftly silenced. “For those acts you are relieved of command. Others will be similarly relieved for investigation by a proper tribunal appointed by the Directors. For the acts of mutiny and murder you will be placed under arrest pursuant to the arrival of Alliance justice."

“I - see." Jeyev said slowly, not seeming terribly distressed at the proclamation. Indeed, he seemed to have been expecting it.

“As for that ship." Johan nodded toward the viewscreen a moment before the display flickered away to be replaced by another. “That is indeed, mister Jeyev, a coxswain. The Asset Manager, to be exact. And you would be surprised how spacious they are, more than enough for a palace under its cargo shields. Do you imagine that such a visible, well-known target as the Boardroom would actually be transporting the Board, do you?"

Jeyev took a long breath, casting his gaze to the floor for a few moments, before raising his head again. “Mister Larent, transfer command to the Auditor."

“Commander." Someone said earnestly as they pointed at the screen that had shifted from the image of the super heavy freighter still approaching the edges of the asteroid field. It now displayed a clearer, though still somewhat grainy and littered with tailing debris, image of five ships emerging from the outward ripple of distortion wake caused by jumping in. They were far closer than the freighter and turning to present their bows to the imager.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

“Initiate, act four!"