Kazimir stared up at the ceiling with restrained fury.
Four weeks. Four godsdamned weeks in solitary confinement, with nothing to give himself to but silence. This wasn't his first time doing a stint in solitary, but he'd never ended up in solitary after a failure this big, either.
This time, there was no hope of him returning home. It didn't matter how many apologies Lode tried to offer before he was caught again. Lode was a figurehead. A politician. Lode had privelige Kazimir would never have, and it wasn't like Kazimir had the power to be whatever he wanted like Ozirma, who just fucking up and left.
Yeah, good luck tracking that one down. Ozirma was long gone, and even if the prison had the technology to detain them, they didn't have the technology to catch them again. Kazimir didn't know how that even happened in the first place. Ozirma probably let themselves get caught. That sounded right. Ozirma would live for eons, anyway. What was a few decades in prison?
It wasn't like Kazimir, who now had the rest of his life to rot.
So much for seeing his family again. And you know what his "therapist" said?
This is probably the best thing that could ever happen to you, and your family.
Fuck them. Fuck that.
"Danger to society" his ass. They were the ones that were a danger to society, making a metal cage for people to live and die in like unsuccessful lab rats or something. Not that they got any enrichment, like rats did.
Instead, he just had this stupid, empty room.
Kazimir hit the back of his head on the floor for the hundredth time, trying to imagine Lode, in front of him. If he could just... wrangle his hands around that puny man's throat... maybe he could...
A light came on above his cell door, and a beep sounded. A too-friendly, shrill sound that felt like it belonged in a restaurant instead of a death capsule. Kazimir shot up to his feet feeling the weight of the cuffs around his hands and feet ground him. Before the door even opened, the cuffs automatically tightened, and snapped his wrists together like magnets. The familiar sting of the power-suppressing-whatever-the-hell-it-was-called medication pierced into his veins, and as always, it was cold.
It felt like ice was in his veins, tempering the itch his body had to fuel itself. To feed and to host off of the electrical currents practically humming inside the walls.
Kazimir's glare fixed on the person in the doorway.
Another nameless, faceless guard. But this one was even colder than the last.
Because it was a robot.
"You've fulfilled your obligations for solitary confinement, Kazimir Petrov," it chimed in a soulless drone. "Step forward and you will be relocated to your new holding cell."
Stepping forward, however, was not an option or an offer. His feet were dragged at the ankles by a magnetic force, and the robot's armored arm clamped down on the cuffs at his wrists, dragging him out into the hall.
For some reason, he was starting to miss the open disdain of the humanoid guards. At least they'd entertain conversation sometimes.
This just felt like he was even more helpless than usual. And he hated every second of it.
The walk out of solitary was long. The death grip the robot had on his cuffs didn't wane for a second as they wound down long halls, travelled down several floors in the elevator, and finally made it back to a singular holding cell, one that was walled off from any others.
For a split second, Kazimir thought he was being taken from one solitary room to another, like it was some kind of joke. And then he saw his cellmate, sitting on one of two metal beds, dressed in the same signature yellow that everyone else was cursed to wear.
Corden Grand.
The guy who just so happened to be conveniently missing when their botched escape plan went into action.
Well. Not completely botched.
It was only botched for Kazimir.
For a split second, the force field that served as the fourth wall of the cell flickered out of existence. The robot threw Kazimir forward - not pushed. Threw. And Kazimir flew across the room with a grunt as his back hit the wall and he slid to the floor.
By the time he looked back up, the force field was already back up with its telltale shimmer, and Corden Grand was looking down at him with his telltale smirk.
"Oh, hello, new roommate."
Kazimir glowered at him.
"Or, should I say old roommate? We were basically sharing a cell beforehand, anyway. And all your actual roommates have up and vanished... interesting you didn't join them."
"Maybe you should join all those guards I killed," Kazimir snarled, feeling the magnets on his cuffs finally relent, allowing him to pull his hands apart. He planted his palms on the floor, pushing himself up. "Where were you anyway? When everything went to shit?"
"Being smart about all of this." Corden shrugged nonchalantly. "Something your plan clearly lacked."
Kazimir got to his feet, closing the small distance between them to stand over Corden, looking down at him with a barely restrained violence arching his fingers.
God, if only Corden was Lode. He wouldn't hesitate to wring the living hell out of him. But Kazimir knew well enough that if he attacked his cellmate so soon out of solitary that he'd be sent right back to that death chamber, and even he had to admit to himself that he didn't want that.
He was desperate to have someone else there. Someone besides himself.
Why did it have to be this shithead, though?
Kazimir was ready to hurl another meaningless insult, but it felt like all of the wind had been knocked out of him. There wasn't any point. None of this made any damn sense.
His life was over, and it wasn't worth it anymore. Fighting, like this.
Before any words left Kazimir's mouth, Corden's eyes went wide and he hissed out, "Shut up, don't move." The stark contrast of these words, or perhaps just before Kazimir could process a retort, the heavy thunk of a robot guard broke his train of thought. Kaz turned to the noise, but Corden grabbed his arm and squeezed once, quickly, before planting his hands in his own lap.
The guard stopped in front of their cell and turned its head, looking in. After a few moments, it turned back forward and thunked away.
Kazimir wasn't sure what compelled Corden to panic, but the urgency in his voice had been enough to give Kazimir pause. He hesitated to move until the robot was entirely out of view.
"What was...?" he asked, lowering his voice.
"Things have changed since you were... probably in solitary, I assume? In case you haven't noticed."
"Yeah," Kazimir said lowly. "Haven't seen a person in flesh since..."
Well, Corden was the first.
"You," Kazimir finished, staring down at him.
"Do you remember when-- no, I don't even remember what I told you. Doubtful you would have even listened." Corden sighed and rubbed his temple.
"Can I move now?" Kazimir asked, since he didn't want to admit he couldn't remember if Corden had told him anything important either.
"Yes, yes. Move about the space as you wish."
Kazimir huffed, shaking out his hands as we walked across the small space, glancing out of their cell to see where that robot guard had gone off to. It looked like it travelled on a pretty set course at a slow pace. It would be a few minutes before it circled back.
"So have you been there this whole time?" Kazimir asked, looking at Corden over his shoulder.
"Ah yes, I enjoyed the part where I said 'talk to me when you wish'," Corden muttered, his eyes closed.
"Hey, I've been alone for a fuckin' month," Kazimir said sharply. "I'm tired of hearing my own voice echo back at me."
"That makes two of us," Corden replied.
Kazimir glared at Corden again, tightening his fists.
"You want to keep up that tone with me?" he challenged.
"Well, this is the only tone children respond to, I've noticed."
Something inside Kazimir snapped.
He crossed the small distance before he could think, and his fist went flying into Corden's face. The momentum sent Corden flying off his bed and he landed onto the cell floor with a loud groan.
Kazimir stared at Corden, feeling his heart race and all of the anger in him dissipate the moment Corden's hands went up to his face, clearly in pain. Kazimir didn't know what it was, but there was a pang of guilt that bit into his gut. It was unfamiliar.
Was this... regret?
Kazimir didn't have time to ponder that thought, though, because then he was seeing red.
Literally, their cell lit up. The room was red.
Kazimir looked down at his scuffed fist, at Corden, then at the shield behind them keeping them from leaving. An alarm started beeping with a continuous, mellow ding, and heavy metallic footfalls came their way - this time quickly - and a tall, armored android marched their way with haste.
"Violence against a cellmate is prohibited," the robot began to sing-song in an uncanny feminine voice. "Prisoner 1667 awaiting disciplinary action."
"The fuck...?" Kazimir asked, looking down at Corden. But the man offered no explanation.
Just a smug, knowing look.
Kazimir didn't get to turn back around. Instead, he was grabbed by the shoulders, and ripped through the air, off his feet. The robot's grip on him dug so deep into Kazimir's skin, he could feel it break, and then the robot decided to thrash him about in the air like a ragdoll.
See, normally a regular person couldn't do this.
Kazimir was a big guy. It was hard to lift him up in the air. But apparently, for this android, the action was effortless.
Kazimir flew through the air again, faster than the last time, and he hit the back wall of the cell with a loud thud. His head hit the wall squarely, and as he slid back to the floor, he was seeing stars.
Multiple, blurry images of the android were seen wobbling out of view while seven Cordens slowly merged into one, now sitting up on the floor with a hand over his nose.
Kazimir's ears were ringing.
"You knew that would happen," he said, barely able to hear his own voice.
Corden grimaced, still covering his nose. "Ahhh, ouch, that hurt so bad..." He then lifted his hand, revealing a small smile.
Kazimir narrowed his eyes.
"Fuck you," he said, feeling used, and hating that he'd been set up.
Again.
Corden pouted. "How was little old me going to teach you a lesson? You obviously don't learn from words."
"Maybe if you'd been fuckin--" Kazimir started, but gave up midway through, because Corden wasn't the type to learn from words either, it seemed. Or fists. Maybe Corden wasn't the type to learn at all.
Kazimir groaned, rubbing his face as he rolled onto his back, too tired to bother getting off the ground this time. All of this... it was going to bruise. Badly.
"What, android got your tongue?" Corden said smoothly.
"I take it back," Kazimir said flatly. "I'll take solitary."
"You could take solitary back, but then, how would you get out of this rotten place?" Corden leaned back, eyes looking to the ceiling. "These new bots running the place... how many times do you think they'd let you pollute solitary, hmm?"
Kazimir slowly drug his hands down his face, stopping as the tips of his fingers pulled at the skin under his eyes.
"You insult me, and now you mock me with my failure," he said, pulling his hands away and sitting up, propping himself with one arm. "I already tried and got caught."
"You say insult and mock, I say communicate." Corden sighed and pulled himself up to an upright position, eyes now locked on Kazimir. "Tell me, prisoner: Which hurt more, the insults, or the punches to your gut?" And before Kaz could respond, Corden continued. "And, include one more possibility here: the sting of your failure. Which out of those three will keep you in this place?"
"You keep saying this like it's possible to get out," Kazimir hissed, sitting up straighter now. "The only reason Lode and Ozirma fucking got out was because Lode was actually Vice Admiral Nova and Ozirma's a fuckin' ghost. Or might as well be."
He spat their names with every ounce of spite he could muster.
Corden continued staring at Kazimir, like what he had just said was as importance as the weather. "Listen, Kazimir. I'm not saying it's possible. I'm saying it's necessary." He sighed and rubbed his face. "Like it or not, we're both here because of the same reason: we both failed. And now we must learn from our failures and make sure we succeed this time."
Kazimir stared at Corden long and hard.
Corden continued. "Blame who you want. Blame the bratty boy admiral. Blame the ghost. Blame this rotten hunk of metal. Blame me for all I care. I want to focus on a solution."
There was... a lot that Corden was saying, but Kazimir was still taking it in.
Corden mentioned the robots. Kazimir had noticed that there were more of them lately, and he'd been seeing less and less humanoid guards - but he hadn't thought much of it. There had been android for a while, and he didn't know what made them different from guards that had flesh. If anything, they were easier for him to take down with all of their circuitry, if only his powers weren't constantly being suppressed.
But Corden spoke of it like it was a bad sign: one that would damn them to this dungeon forever.
"...How long is your sentence?" Kazimir asked slowly.
"My actual sentence? About six and a half centuries, but that's neither here nor there." Corden's eyes wandered over to the laser entrance of the cell.
Wait a minute. Centuries? Damn. Kazimir forgot Corden was... whatever kind of enhanced behind he was.
"My actual sentence ends whenever lockdown's lifted," Corden explained slowly, carefully, as if each word was being painfully extracted from him.
Kazimir narrowed his eyes. Three solid seconds passed before it hit him: Corden was planning to escape, and he was trying to recruit Kazimir to help him. And if Corden was trying to recruit Kazimir, it probably was because he needed him. Kazimir knew that Corden was smart, and calculating, and though he wasn't very kind, he knew how to plan an escape.
Right? He wouldn't be asking if he didn't have a plan.
Kazimir got to his feet.
"What happens after lockdown?" he asked lowly.
"Well... either we escape. Or we don't." Corden carefully said.
"We," Kazimir repeated. "So you want to be a team."
Corden focused his vision back on Kaz. He inhaled and breathed out slowly. "Yes. A team."
Kazimir nodded slowly, taking a seat back down on his bed.
"And you have a plan," he said.
Corden angled his head. "We'll get to that."
Kazimir glanced out of their cell. Right, right. They shouldn't talk about it openly, but if they were on lockdown -- when would they? And how? Corden seemed to have ideas, just not ones he was sharing.
"Okay," he said, looking down at the floor. A short pause passed.
"Sorry for punching you," he said quickly. "I was mad."
Corden Grand had found himself with a bruised face and in solitary confinement when all h*** went down upon the Pheligan Falcon. It began when Gena opened his cell far earlier than they had planned. And, there was nothing worse than a plan gone wrong. Especially a plan made by Corden.
Gena seemed openly panicked that was only thinly veiled by some speck of professionalism. Corden knew better than to ask questions in that moment, because she needed to share, and it seemed like he was the only one she could confide in.
"They escaped," was all she could offer before she closed the cell door back behind her, and Corden was left alone to his thoughts.
He had requested to be put in this confinement so he had less eyes on him, and, in turn, Gena could let him poke around in the security systems every so often, to figure out how to get this situation under control.
But, that day, shortly after Gena left, the entire chessboard had been flipped on its head. Two prisoners, whose names he gleaned much later on in his confinement as Ozirma and that pesky little brat, Lode, had escaped that day in a haphazard plan that only worked because of dumb luck. Because of that, the entire structure was placed on lockdown, and the androids officially took over. In the weeks that passed, Corden only had a chance to see Gena once in a passing exchange. Thankfully, his "sentence" in solitary ended, and he was able to more fully assess the situation, with Gena's assistance.
Which was shit.
Lockdown was still not lifted, but security had strengthened on all fronts, and by emotionless robots that Corden couldn't persuade or manipulate. Thankfully, his assailant hadn't reached the prison yet, as the lockdown shut off all imports and exports from the base. But, Corden's freedom had been extremely restricted, and his knowledge restricted even further.
The only human contact he had was with the occasional guard that brought the food when the droids were on different rounds. Funnily enough, they hadn't shipped in enough units to effectively run the entire ship, so there was still a skeleton crew of workers manning the place.
One time, the guard was Gena. And, unfortunately, she was in perhaps an even worse situation than Corden was, if that was to be believed. Corden had little interest in attempting to solve both their problems, so he asked her only for a small favor. A certain cellmate.
------
"Sorry for punching you. I was mad."
Corden drilled into Kaz's expression for a bit. "Don't expect an apology in return," he finally said flatly. "Besides, your punches were nothing compared to the droids." And before Kaz could respond, he added, "You took one, you know I am not being... snarky."
Kazimir rolled his eyes and pursed his lips.
"Yeah," he muttered. "No thanks to you."
"You should thank me, actually," Corden said. While it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, he was being honest. Sharing a cell with none other than Kazimir Petrov would have ended quickly if the brute wasn't wrangled in. Words would do nothing, so Corden had to sacrifice a bit of his pretty face, which had just healed from a particularly brutal round of "inspections" from the local staff.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Kazimir said lowly. He ran his hands through his hair. "You're smarter than me. Whatever."
"You discredit yourself too much. I had to teach you, but you had to learn." Corden shifted his eyes to the laser barrier between them and... well, he would say freedom, but in reality, it was just another obstacle.
"I already know what you think of me," Kazimir said, looking out the barrier with him.
"I think lowly of everyone. Don't take it personally." Corden sighed. "Besides, you think I would coordinate you being in my cell if I didn't want you around?"
Kazimir slowly turned his eyes back to Corden, now narrowed and searching.
"Why me?" he asked.
"I find that my allies are shrinking around me. And the number of prisoners aboard this relic of a ship." Corden returned Kaz's stare. "I want to see if I can make use out of you, yet."
Truthfully, he only had one precarious friend aboard, and he was not sure if her position on this ship was likely to stay. He couldn't rely on her, and it never hurt to have someone in his back pocket. Kazimir wasn't his first pick of a duo, but his reputation did precede him.
Kazimir huffed, watching Corden with a piercing stare even as he turned his head to the cell's barrier.
"And if you can't make use of me?" he asked.
"Then we're both dead." Corden swiped off some dust off of his cot of a bed. "Fun times in the end times."
"So that's what you meant," Kazimir said. "By your sentence 'ending' when lockdown lifts."
"I'm glad you figured out that difficult puzzle. Which one will you decipher next?" He sighed, rubbing his temple. "I swear, if these drones don't take me out..." he blew out in a whisper.
"If you want to be a team," Kazimir said. "It'd be a lot fucking easier if you just said what you meant and meant what you said instead of giving me puzzle pieces."
Corden dipped his head. "You're right... I need to think."
Kazimir nodded, and thankfully gave Corden space to do so by shutting up.
Instead of thoughts, or coming up with a solid plan, or anything, Corden only felt the buzzing of a long lost friend in his mind: anxiousness. For so long, longer than most of his fellow species had been alive, Corden had battled this foe, and he thought he finally quelled it. But, all he had was the fad of control. And when that ended, what was left?
Finally, he cleared his throat. "Tomorrow." Somehow that was the only thing that he could get out.
Kazimir looked up at him expectantly.
"Tomorrow, Kaz. I'll... try to explain, tomorrow." For now, let the demons rest, Corden thought bitterly.
Kazimir nodded, but his stare remained. A long lull passed.
"You good?" Kazimir asked eventually.
Corden laid down his bed, shuffling himself into a facade of a comfortable position. "Good night, Kazimir," he said finally.
Kazimir looked up at the lights that still illuminated their cell, then back down at Corden.
"Goodnight," Kazimir relented, lying down as well.
Another long silence passed, and it would have been restful, had it not been interrupted once more.
"Does the light turn off on its own or something?" Kazimir muttered.
As if it heard Kazimir complain, the lights shut off with a slight hum, drowning them in darkness.
