Doctor Who: Amy, Captured Ch. 10

Sander sat at one end of the large bank of seats that lined one wall, anger radiating off of him in waves. Mara felt that getting too close to him would make her skin blister.

'That bastard-' He began, before changing tack. 'Cohen, is my older brother. The one who should have inherited Hackett Industries from my father. We grew up in New Warsaw together; the guy was like my hero or something.'

'Then why the punching?' Mara asked, frowning. She'd never seen Sander this angry about something not related to the Doctor. The look didn't suit him.

'When I was thirteen, he disappeared,' Sander gave Mara a pointed look. 'Without a trace. One day he was there, the next he was gone. We all thought he was dead.' His expression had grown dour and it was clear that this was a painful memory for him. Still, something in what he was saying didn't make sense, and Mara was always one for rubbing salt into a wound.

'Okay. So why the punching?' She said emphatically.

Sander closed his eyes and buried his head in his hands, 'Think about it: Twenty years gone, absolutely no contact with his family in any way. If he had died, then it's a tragedy, but I get to keep my memories of my great older brother; the guy who always had my back. But he's alive, Mara. Which means he was running. If he was on the Oviroa all this time, that's even worse. Means he left us of his own accord.'

'That might not be it, though,' Amy said, getting drawn into the conversation despite herself. 'There might be some other reason why he left.'

Sander shook his head, 'No, he was running away; he never wanted the responsibility of running father's company. He just skipped town and... and left it to me... To Elsa and I.'

'Wait a minute,' Mara said, looking troubled. 'You knew Elsa when you were thirteen?'

'I was together with Elsa when I was thirteen. I know it's unlikely, but that's how it worked. I just got lucky.'

'Huh,' Mara said softly, pouting slightly. It didn't seem as if she was even aware of how... disappointed she looked, but Sander saw it clear as day. It was troubling.

'Anyway, that's the story,' Sander said darkly as Cohen re-entered the room, followed by a younger man who was grinning widely.

'I didn't know you were going to punch him, man,' The young man laughed. 'That was awesome!'

Sander nodded, 'It felt awesome. You'd be the voice on the radio, then?'

'Tsugi Nakatsukasa, at your service,' He bowed, but it was hard to tell whether he was being serious or not. 'The last in a long line of technicians working for this guy,' Tsugi jerked his thumb at Cohen.

'That's enough, Tsugi...' Cohen murmured.

'So, what the fuck, Cohen?' Sander leaned forward over the table in front of them as Cohen took a seat opposite. 'You disappear for years and now you're on the crew of the Oviroa? What's that all about?'

'Okay, first of all, no more punching, little brother. I don't endorse the punching,' Cohen said bitterly. 'Second, I'm not on the crew of the Oviroa. I am the Oviroa.'

'Well, that's very cryptic and all...' Mara began.

'He's been running this ship since the beginning,' Sander growled, staring daggers at Cohen. 'That's why he ran away from our family.'

'Yes,' Cohen nodded. 'I developed the Oviroa concept, started the legend. Mainly to see what would happen. All the crazy shit I've been able to do since then has... Well, that's just been gravy.'

'You selfish motherfucker,' Mara wound up, cracking her own knuckles.

'No, no, I've got this one, Mara. Thanks for having my back though,' Sander stood and took a deep breath, his fingers gripping the edge of the table tightly. 'You selfish motherfucker! Do you have any idea what you've done?' He snarled.

'I've been having fun, Sandy.'

Sander gasped, raised his fist. It shook, hovering in midair as Cohen flinched. Sander's teeth ground together as every muscle in his body tensed, ready to strike.

'You fucked everything up so badly that nobody in our family ever recovered, Cohen!' Sander sat back down, eyes still filled with an unhealthy amount of bloodlust. Mara's hand reached out to grip his under the table. He squeezed back tightly.

'Sounds a little dramatic to me, Sandy-'

'Hand to Christ, if you call me Sandy one more time I'll tear your spine out through the back of your neck,' Sander said in a single, explosive breath. 'We all thought you were dead, Cohen. Mom never recovered, and she was the only thing holding Dad back. You knew that before you left, and you did it anyway. He got worse when you left, and you know what happened when I took over from him.'

Cohen was silent for a moment, 'I did hear about that, yes.'

'I'm not stupid enough to claim complete justification for my actions, Cohen. I know that I did what I did, nobody else. But when you left, I didn't have the best of teachers, you know?' Sander said, seeming to have calmed down a little. 'How could you just leave us like that?'

'Dad was a psychopath, Sander, you know it as well as I do,' Cohen snapped. 'There's no way I was going to stick around and become the company's little puppet ruler. I know what that would've done to me.'

'So why didn't you take me with you?' Sander bellowed. 'Why did you leave me behind? I was thirteen, for fuck's sake! I needed my big brother there, and you bailed on me...'

Sander's anger failed him, and he simply stared emptily at the tabletop, shoulders shaking with what could have been rage, or sobs. Mara rose quickly, putting her arm around him and hugging him to her chest. She shot a dark, venomous gaze at Cohen.

'So let me get this straight: You didn't want to take control of Hackett Industries, so you ran away and left it to your little brother? Is that actually your justification for all this? You ran away because you were an irresponsible half-man who didn't want to grow the fuck up!'

'Who is this girl?' Cohen tilted his head to one side and gave an oily smile. 'I sort of like the look of her.'

'Sander, please don't tell me all the Hackett men are like this,' Mara said.

'There aren't any more Hackett men. Cohen and I, we're the last two.'

Cohen perked up, 'What do you mean?'

Sander closed his eyes, as he seemed to do when delivering unpleasant news, 'Vesperia fell. In the initial riots, Elsa died. Shortly thereafter, Mom was killed. Our sisters were killed. Every Hackett on the surface of the planet was killed... Except for me.' Sander trailed off into sullen silence. He felt his heart beating wildly; it had been a long time since he had been forced to relive all this, and he knew that Cohen would be judging him for it.

'What happened there, Sander?' Cohen said in a kinder voice than Sander was used to. 'All anyone knows is that the security drones inexplicably failed, and the citizens revolted. I'd just heard that you had died in the fighting, but here you are. What really happened to you?'

Sander felt the story pour out of him, like it was someone else using his tongue to relate the tale. The five of them sat, Amy, Cohen and Tsugi in complete silence as Sander relived his past. Everything came out; the Doctor, the thirteen year plot for revenge, capturing Amy... Even Theros. Once he had started, Sander found it hard to stop; he and Mara developed a bit of a dialogue, she adding bits and pieces of information wherever his recall failed him.

At the end, Cohen spent several moments in silence, as if marshalling his thoughts, 'I'm sorry, Sander. For everything. When I heard about Vesperia, I thought for sure they had killed you. If I'd known you were still alive, I'd... Everyone else is dead, huh? Then I don't want to waste any more time fighting. You're still family, Sander.'

'I know that,' Sander sighed. 'You're still my big brother, even if you are a completely self-absorbed asshole. I can't say that I forgive you yet, but I've been the last surviving Hackett for too fucking long. Besides, I think I can only sustain perpetual anger for one person at a time, and the Doctor has you beat there, Coco.'

Cohen grinned, 'Thanks, Sander. But if you call me Coco again, I will have you thrown off of my ship.'

'Hey, wait a minute...' Mara mused. 'I think we're forgetting something. This is the motherfucking Oviroa!'

'Yeah...' Sander said with a growing smile. 'My brother is the captain of the Oviroa...'

'Hell yeah I am,' Cohen crowed. 'You have to admit, this was a great idea, abandonment or no.'

'So, what? You've just been cruising around for twenty years, picking up people and-' Sander's gaze had been magnetically attracted to a corner of the room as he was talking. 'I'm sorry... Is that a full body medical scanner? In the dining area?'

Tsugi closed his eyes, 'This is the Oviroa. You'd be surprised how often people need medical attention here. Like, immediately. Usually it's just alcohol poisoning... Or, like, syphilis but when they pass out it's hard to tell without the scanner.'

There was a moment of speculative silence as everybody in the room got increasingly disgusted. While Tsugi was oblivious, everyone else immediately regretted that Sander had asked the question at all. It was like the whole ship had suddenly become coated with a thin, invisible layer of human filth. Amy made a conscious effort to come into contact with the least amount of surfaces as possible. Mara made a tiny "eww..." sound.

'I think I should take this opportunity to mention that the disinfection routines are entirely automated and also very frequent,' Cohen said dryly.

'Not frequent enough,' Mara squeaked. 'There is no possible way that they will ever, ever be frequent enough.'

'My ship be clean, Mara!' Cohen narrowed his eyes.

'Listen, I really doubt that,' Sander shrugged. 'But I don't care; what I want to know is this: What actually goes on here? No two people tell the same story.'

Cohen furrowed his brow, 'What do you want to do, brother? It really depends on the guest. Usually we get plastered and see where the ship takes us. Of course-' He slid closer to Mara. 'If there's women, that's where things get interesting. Except for Tsugi, since he's, well... He's something. I don't feel entirely safe saying gay, because-'

'Stop right there, Cohen,' Tsugi broke in. 'Let me be a mystery, alright? It's more fun that way.'

'And slide your stupid ass away from Mara,' Sander said, a steely note entering his voice.

'Yeah. I'd much rather be next to Tsugi, anyway...' Mara said, grinning wickedly.

'What's up, Sander? Is she yours, or something?' Cohen said.

'Well-' Sander began, and stopped as Mara laid a hand on his shoulder. Her eyes flashed intelligently, as though she was sizing Cohen up.

'Why, yes,' She began in a sultry voice. 'I am Sander's. Right, lover boy?' She poked him in the ribs with her elbow.

'Uh, yeah...' Sander said uncertainly, knowing that this was going to cost him later, but also not minding terribly.

'You can have Amy for a while, if you want...' Mara continued with her silvery voice. Amy's hands clenched into fists under the table.

Cohen leaned back in his chair and sighed, 'Yeah, I've been meaning to ask... Sander, do you know what you're doing?' He held up a hand as Sander began to reply, 'Don't answer that; of course you know what you're doing. But are you prepared for what comes next? If this Doctor fellah is half as scary as you think he is, then he's never going to stop looking for this girl. You barely got out of your last encounter with him unscathed, what do you think he's going to do to you this time?'

Sander frowned, but Mara piped up first, 'He didn't get out unscathed. His shoulder's all fucked up, and he almost died out there.' She said acidly.

'I'm sorry to hear that. Really, I am,' Cohen's eyes were full of concern. 'But this time you've crossed a line, Sander. The Doctor's going to put you through hell for this.'

Sander stood suddenly, the words tumbling out of him. It was like this conversation had lit a powder keg in his mind, and now it was going off.

'I've already been through hell!' He shouted, hands slamming down onto the table. 'None of you even know the half of it!' His eyes blazed as he crossed over to the medical scanner and stood behind the large, semitransparent blue screen. It lit up at his approach, overlaying a series of displays over the outline of his body. Immediately, several parts of Sander began flashing red to the beat of warning alarms.

'Let's itemize it all, shall we?' He growled, possessed by his anger. He pointed at his left eye, where the scanner was flashing particularly brightly, 'Left eye, practically burned out of my skull! Got hit with a laser cutter while trying to steal transportation offworld. This one's a mechanical replacement. Shoulder wound, that one almost killed me. A lot of the bone's missing, so I had it redone with metal plating and nanofiber musculature. Fun.'

He raised his right hand, where a section from his fingertips to halfway down his forearm blinked red, 'Right hand, wrist and arm; bones crushed beyond repair. It's really just a robotic framework under the flesh. Same with my left leg up to the knee. I did fall into enemy hands for a while, and though they didn't kill me right away, they weren't kind. That's also why all the ribs on my left side are metal struts. That's the truth, since you all seem so concerned about me,' He spat the final few words, looking away. 'I'm really just a fucking patchwork person.'

Frosty silence descended on the Oviroa, as the rest of the group stared wide eyed at Sander, who stared back, rapidly losing confidence and energy and becoming simply exhausted. Mara spoke first.

'Oh my god...' She said softly. 'You must be in so much pain...'

Sander chuckled bitterly, 'Ha! You're thinking of public cyborg implantation work; mine's privatised. Even deposed, there are plenty of places I could run to. The fact that I'm still alive is the product of the Sierra Medical Complex.'

'I did hear a rumour that you made it there from Vesperia. Apparently you were pretty beat up and died on the operating table,' Cohen said. 'But if you were on Sierra... Why go for robotics? You could have had genetic artificing, or a clone graft. You could have been good as new, but you went for the inferior option?'

'Right!' Sander nodded weakly. 'That's my point. I've been through hell. My eye, my arm, my leg... Every little twinge, every painful maintenance op or nanomachine injection... They're all reminders. My eye doesn't see so well, and my hand's not a military model, so the grip's been capped. Every time I'm inconvenienced by my mech parts I remember Vesperia. I remember that... That I couldn't protect the people I care about,' Sander's gaze shifted pointedly to Mara. 'I will never let that happen again. I've killed people to survive. It didn't suit me. But I'll kill the Doctor if I have to. Again and again, until he's out of spare lives.'

'This is all getting a little too heavy for me,' Cohen said in a strangled tone of voice. 'Sander, you're here now. It's a family fuckin' reunion. You're safe here. So is... ' Mara stared back at Cohen with a strained look. 'Uh, anyway, I say that we do the Oviroa thing. Everybody gets one, why should you guys be any different?'

Sander closed his eyes. He hadn't meant to bring the room down, but when his thoughts went down that path he had been like a boulder rolling downhill, and the whole sorry tale had come tumbling out. Now he just felt bad; in himself and for potentially spoiling Mara's one chance at the Oviroa. Although he felt like going home as fast as the shuttle would carry him, for Mara he would bottle it all up and try to be cheerful. He knew that he was only a few drinks away from true happiness anyway.

'Alright. We are in a special place,' He said with a grin he hoped looked genuine. 'Let's fuckin' do it!'

'There's my boy!' Mara said kindly. Her eyes lingered on him just a second too long, and Sander looked away.

'So, wait...' Cohen looked from Sander to Mara. 'Was she serious before? Do I get a whack at Amy?'

'Oh, this is going to be harder than I thought...' Sander sighed.

********************************

Sander sat on the stairs, listening to the sounds of the ship and trying his hardest to drain a bottle of mystery booze as quickly as possible. The sound of footsteps made him stare at the end of the corridor expectantly. He had gotten used to the sound of those particular footsteps.

He smiled gently, 'Mara...'

She rounded the corner, and when she caught sight of him she looked for all the world like a mother who has just discovered her child sporting a skinned knee; put-upon, but undeniably sympathetic. She crossed the room and laid her hands on his shoulders, lowering herself onto his lap so that her legs wrapped around his waist. Her forehead rested against his.

'Sander,' She whined. 'Why didn't you tell me how fucked up you were? I wouldn't have cared...'

'Oh, like you'd ever want to be with a weird cyborg like me,' Sander said. 'I didn't want to freak you out too much on Nirvana, and afterward... Well, it's in the past.'

'You really got put through the ringer, huh?' Mara said, stroking one hand through his hair.

'Yes. Looking back, I can't believe I didn't just drop dead before I even got into orbit,' Sander sighed. 'You know what the worst part was? When my drones went down, all the private research facilities on the planet opened up. All my employees died and a lot of weapons that were still in development were stolen. That's how the guys who caught me were able to pulp my bones without hurting the flesh; we were making this sonic device, sort of a fully weaponized sonic screwdriver ...'

'This isn't exactly the sexiest flirting I've ever heard, Sander...' Mara purred. It was important to her to take his mind off of the past. She kissed him, 'You know, this hasn't been the way I'd envisioned my trip to the Oviroa would go... And that's all because you were there. You and your damned issues,' She smiled. 'There has to be a way for you to make it up to me.'

'I think I could do that,' Sander said, spellbound. He hadn't noticed it right away, but seated like this Mara's skirt was spread wide, and certain parts of him were rubbing against certain parts of her that he was very interested in. 'Thankfully I didn't have to have any surgery on that part of my anatomy.'

Mara laughed, shook her head, 'See, there you go again! Pulped bones, implantation surgery... These aren't romantic phrases, Sander. We just had that lovely moment on Nirvana, I'm practically throwing myself at you and you can't stop talking about your bloody mech eye!' Mara hooked a finger into the front of her blouse, pulling it down to reveal a little more cleavage, 'You can see this all right, can't you?'

'I had a zoom function installed...' Sander admitted with an animal grin. Mara laughed hysterically, throwing back her head. Sander leaned in closer. 'Where's everyone else? I don't want to be interrupted.'

'Oh, Tsugi's sleeping off what will probably be a truly epic hangover. And I gave Amy to Cohen for a while. Figured he'd be distracted if I gave him a new toy; besides, he said that was a part of the Oviroa's rules. Fair trade: if you're a guest, you've got to provide something... information, supplies, even women. Cohen really likes to party, I guess.'

'Well, I suppose he'll be alright then. As for Amy... I almost went off the rails there, didn't I? Thirteen years in planning, and I lose my cool now?' Sander shook his head. 'No. We've both come too far.'

'That's the spirit, Hackett. Now come here... Don't make me force you,' Mara showed far too many gleaming white teeth. 'Although it almost seemed like you'd enjoyed that, last time we tried it.'