Nights and Days in Hive Acropolis Ch. 10

Author's note: The big weekend is over, but there are still 4 more chapters of this story left. At this point, I should let readers know that there are no further major explicit sex scenes. Instead, we get... romantic drama! And I should also drop advance warnings about non-ero themes that some could find distressing including: separation; judgemental attitudes/shaming towards orientation/BDSM lifestyle; (un)reasonable authority figures; threat of medical intervention.

--

Vaia hears whistles as she blows a kiss after Sash's departing air-car. She blushes. She's never had attention like that before in public.

She makes her way back to her clan's territory, fingers going every now and then to the collar that is the tangible reminder of everything that has happened to change her life.

Her other hand rests on the butt of her pistol, though, and her eyes are alert. She's still alone in the hive right now, even if it's a relatively safe and familiar district.

Soon enough though, she's surrounded by familiar people in familiar Van Saar suits just like hers.

She's home.

***

For a little while, everything is fine.

A few people ask Vaia where she's been, and she gets a penalty -- the first she can remember getting in years! -- to her account in the House's internal currency system for missing her rota slot for various chores. But no one's responsible for her at the moment. She's guiding her own ongoing engineering education. So she isn't in any trouble, and the rest of the clan seem pleased that she had a great time and seems so happy.

She settles easily back into the routines of her life in her clan. It's so much easier to overlook all the little things that usually bother her now. Besides, she has her secret. Every now and then, she can't help but touch her collar and smile a private little smile.

Joak and Manu want details, of course. She is evasive, but agrees that she'll tell them eventually. For now, she just assures them that she had an amazing time. Joak actually speaks up, saying she's never looked more beautiful.

At night, in her tiny room, Vaia doesn't disappear into her head-set as she usually would have. Instead, she raids her tiny stash of obscura for just a little sniff, and lies on her bed indulging her memories of her and Rebeck. And Sash. And her dreams of all that they'd do in the future.

***

After a couple of days, however, Vaia gets an odd request to visit the head of the clan, Manfred. Outside of combat, House Van Saar doesn't tend to run on direct orders, but this message is the next step down from one.

Perplexed, she goes to his office at the appointed time. She wonders if he's finally going to tell her something of what the clan's plan for her is.

Manfred has always been a presence in her life. Often one of the adults in charge of her. Clan boss for most of her life. Leader of the gang expedition she was part of to the Underhive. Over time, she has grown sure that he is, in fact, her genetic father, though he has never said as much to her. It's still strange to her, that she finds herself taller than him now! She's always trusted him.

What's bothered her about him for a few years now though is that, even though she has finally admitted to herself that she's rightly regarded as very sharp among her peers, and has been getting the chance to develop an extensive technical education, Manfred still hasn't told her what career the House has in store for her. The Governor himself is a Van Saar right now! Especially with her recent experience visiting a Spire, Vaia has found herself wondering just how far life might take her.

The lack of clarity about her future is one of the things that has left her feeling aimless and unmotivated, wallowing in her fics and head-set fantasies rather than applying herself.

When she finds him, Manfred looks up from his desk with a very severe expression. He doesn't smile, at all.

"Vaia. Sit down." He gestures to the chair across from him.

This isn't good, she thinks to herself as she sits.

"What happened to you?" he asks.

"What do you mean?" she replies, confused.

"Vaia, this will all go much easier if you can just be honest with me. You know very well what I mean."

Vaia's eyes narrow. "No, I don't think I do know what you mean. I went out, as I am permitted to now. I met some wonderful new friends. I was away for longer than planned, but I'm allowed to enjoy myself once in a while, aren't I? Wasn't that the point?"

Manfred's frown darkens and he takes a heavy breath. "Yes. That was part of the purpose. Vaia. Some of us are very concerned about you."

"There's no reason to worry. I told you, I had a great time. That's all there is to it. I'm going to meet up with them again.... If it will satisfy you, I suppose I could arrange for them to come and meet you. They're lovely people."

Manfred leans forward, resting his hands on his desk. "I'm sorry, Vaia, but I know that isn't true. The women you went off with... They have a reputation."

Vaia isn't panicked or embarrassed. She's just getting angry. "Who the fuck squealed on me? Joak or Manu?"

Manfred sighs and rubs at his forehead. "You know I don't like it when you talk like that, Vaia. 'Squealing'? Really? It's not like that. We're just very concerned about what might have happened to you."

"What happened? This is so typical. I get a bit of freedom. I don't use it just how you'd like, so you'll take it away now? My new friends... They're the same age as me, you know? But they've been free to live their own lives in the hive for ages now. For at least 10 years! While I've been stuck here. Sure they've got reputations. But the reputations that matter got them amazing jobs working for the Representative. They live in a Spire!"

Manfred can't look at her at the moment. "Please don't be like this, Vaia. I'd really like you to work with me right now. Their... lair in a Spire just gives them something they can use to lure young women in. And a secure place where they can... take advantage of them."

Vaia huffs. "So this is what you do now? Dig up gossip? Fine. Let me tell you what happened." She has to steel herself a little for this, but she's so angry that the words just flow out of her. "We flew to their place. We had great sex. We ate imported food, and drank Calastian booze. We went grav-sailing! We did some sparring. We watched Gangs. We had more great sex. We went to the trike races! I met a Squat for the first time. We flew home. We had even. More. Great. Sex. Is there anything else you'd like to know, 'boss'?"

Manfred looks up. "I didn't want to have to do this, Vaia." He calls out. Two other Van Saars, big guys, come through the door behind her. They grab Vaia by the shoulders and arms.

She doesn't have her gun. Why would she, in her own home? If she had, she thinks she might even have used it. She's furious!

"What the fuck is this!" She knows them. She can't believe they'd treat her like this!

"I'm sorry, Vaia. It's clear that these people have some kind of hold over you. You're not yourself right now. Maybe you're scared of what they said they'd do to you if you talked. Or maybe you're in denial about what happened. We're going to sort this out, Vaia. It will be much easier if you co-operate."

"Get fucked."

Manfred signals. The men holding her lift her out of the chair and start to make her walk towards the door. She refuses to move her feet, forcing them to carry her.

Like that, with Manfred following, she is taken out of the office.

As they carry her through the halls, Vaia yells at them loudly, for anyone passing to hear. It goes against the grain to act like this, but she tells herself that she's not the one making a scene. They are, by treating her like this.

"This is such bullshit! You pretend things are different here. You like to think that, don't you? There are rules that we all agree to follow, right? Not like the other Houses. Civilised. But the moment something happens that you don't approve of? Brute force. You're making these guys be your goons, boss. Is this a Goliath clan now?"

"Shut up, Vaia," Manfred hisses.

"You know I'm right. You all know I'm right!"

Quite a number of other clan members stop and stare at the scene as it passes them. At least this'll get the word out, she thinks. There's got to be people who will be in her corner, right?

She's taken to the clinic.

Doctor Frank is waiting there. She's never liked him. He has cold eyes.

"Vaia," says Frank. "You're going to be examined now."

"No. You can't. I don't agree to this."

Manfred starts pacing. She's never seen him like this. She can't tell whether he's angry, or pleading with her. Both?

"Vaia, we aren't going to do anything... intrusive. Please just lie down, and let Doctor Frank take a look at you."

"I refuse."

"You'll be held down if necessary. Please, Vaia?"

Frank gives Manfred a cold stare. If it was just up to that guy... Vaia doesn't want to think about it.

She's so angry. The thought comes to her. Only her mistress should be able to take liberties like this with her! She wants to scream Rebeck's name. She wants her to burst in and rescue her. Steal her away.

One of the guys holding her speaks up quietly. "Er, boss, we'd rather not..."

"Thank you," Vaia whispers to him. Though she'd have preferred it if he'd found his conscience much earlier!

Manfred is silent for a moment. He sighs. "You men can go. Doctor Frank?"

Maybe there's a moment for Vaia to act, but she's too slow. Maybe if she'd had some more unarmed combat tuition from Rebeck. But before she can do anything, the doctor is there with a syringe, and she's being injected.

"It's just a sedative, Vaia," she hears Manfred say, but his words seem to be coming from the end of a long, dark tunnel. "We have to help you! You'll thank us for this, I promise you will..."

No, is her last coherent thought.

***

Her dreams are full of devils. The foundations of her life have been cut out from under her. She's been betrayed. Nothing makes sense. Her neurons are a riot.

***

When she regains consciousness, she's strapped to a table.

She looks around as best she can. She sees Manfred sitting in a chair. He looks fraught. He notices she's awake.

"Vaia!"

She tries to speak. Her mouth is very dry. "Why am I tied up?" she manages to croak out, trying to put as much outrage into it as possible.

At least she's clothed, she thinks. Not her suit. Some kind of medical gown.

Manfred stands up, and moves out of her field of vision. She hears running water. When he comes over, she lets him help her drink.

"Vaia, it was for your own safety. While you were out, after a while you started to kick and flail around in your sleep."

She stares at him.

"I want to let you go, just promise me you won't do anything stupid."

"You know what they say about promises made under duress."

"Vaia, please. We don't want to hurt you. That's the opposite of what we want. You've got to understand that."

Vaia knows that she is physically and emotionally drained. She can't keep being 100% defiant. She's got to pick her battles.

"Yeah, okay. I'm not going to flip out. You know I dodged my unarmed credit anyway, right?"

Somehow, she hears Manfred make a little laugh. It reminds her of times when their relationship was easy. "Yes."

He undoes the straps. Vaia sits up and starts to rub the places where the straps were. It doesn't hurt at all. It's just instinctual.

Doctor Frank comes in. "Ah. The sleeper awakes," he says, apropos of nothing. He's so creepy, thinks Vaia.

Frank stands at Manfred's side and lets the clan head take the lead.

"Vaia, Doctor Frank examined you. You can stop deceiving us now. We found bruises, scratches and other marks all over your back and... rear. And some more on the rest of your body. Also your face, concealed with cosmetics."

He reaches his hand towards her, as if tenderly, but she flinches back, and he withdraws his hand as if stung.

Vaia can feel her temperature rising. They know. Or they think they know. Sexual privacy is really important among Van Saars! And it's not at all an easy thing to assure, in somewhere as densely populated as a hive. Embarrassment is not sufficient to describe the way she feels. She's mortified. But she's also incandescent with outrage.

She's amazed at how calm her voice is when she speaks.

"You really are clueless, aren't you? You don't hesitate to pry into my life now, but all this time you've had no idea what I'm into, have you?"

Manfred stands there. He's avoiding looking right at her again. "What are you talking about, Vaia?"

"I'm a grown woman. I may have been kept away from the world, but I've had a long time to figure out my own desires. Didn't Joak and Manu explain properly? We all knew the kind of place we were going to. We knew the kind of women who might hit on me, and the things they'd probably be into. And that's just what happened. I got just what I was looking for, and it was even better than I could have hoped. Now, are you done laying waste to what this House was meant to stand for?"

She's breathing hard.

Manfred turns away and starts to pace around the small room they are in within the clinic.

Doctor Frank speaks. "Vaia, you are not, by any means, the only Van Saar woman to have experimented with those kinds of desires. When it's possible, as you know, they get the chance to go on exchange to House Escher. Some of them even choose to stay. If it had been possible in your youth, that might have given you the chance to work out those kinds of feelings in a more healthy way."

Vaia doesn't say anything. She doesn't want to give him the satisfaction of a reply.

Manfred turns towards her again, appealingly. "Vaia, it's not easy for me to accept that you could possibly want... to be hurt. But what they did to you... It was extreme!"

Under other circumstances, Vaia's rational mind notes, she might have agreed. But not at the moment. No fucking chance.

"I'm not a fragile doll, boss. The clan built me tough. I fought in the Underhive when I was just a juve, didn't I? I could be doing it still right now, if the clan didn't have other uses for me. This is a hive! We deal with bolt wounds, plasma burns, radiation exposure. And you're losing your shit over a few slaps."

"It's more than that though, isn't it Vaia?" Though plainly uncomfortable, Manfred is insistent. "You weren't examined... internally. But if you were, are you going to tell us that we wouldn't find damage there too?"

Vaia grits her teeth.

"My sex life is none of your fucking business!"

Manfred turns away again. Is he crying?

Frank is unperturbed. "We also found traces of obscura in your bloodstream."

Vaia is laughing. "You've got to be kidding! That doesn't even have anything to do with what I was doing while I was away. I've been using obscura for years."

Manfred snaps around. "Vaia, no! Say it isn't true! Obscura is very dangerous. It's not as though there are many drugs that are illegal on Necromunda... It's banned for good reason."

She scoffs. "You are so out of touch. It's not just me. A lot of us feel really cooped up. On clan territory. In their rooms. In the hive. Obscura. Head-sets. They're really good escapes. It's not just the girls, either. Without that stuff now and then... Well, I'm not sure what I would have done."

Manfred is pacing again. He's muttering to himself. "It can't be true. It can't be true." When he stops, he now looks to Frank. "Doctor, is it possible that her kidnappers... did something to her? That they're making her say these things? Act like someone else?"

Frank nods sagely. "It's not my field of expertise, but I believe I know of ways in which that might be done. Identification with one's captors is common-place, I understand. If that were reinforced with drugs and some kind of punishment-reward dynamic... You could be right, sir. I do find this all very concerning."

Vaia is speechless. She can't believe her ears. She can see that Manfred is lapping it up. He'd rather believe any kind of crazy theory than accept anything that she was saying!

She is drawing up the strength to launch herself on a furious tirade, when the door opens and Brega marches in.

***

There is no female counterpart to Manfred. No clan matriarch. But if there were, it would be Brega.

Vaia has never got along with her, but she's relieved to see anyone else right now.

"Manfred, what on Necromunda is going on? There's a stir all over the territory! What have you been doing to this poor girl?"

"Brega, you don't understand. Let me explain..."

Manfred attempts to continue, but Brega isn't having any of it.

"I'm sure I will hear it all later. Much later, I hope. Right now, I'm taking Vaia with me. I'm sure the poor thing has had quite enough of being poked and prodded, haven't you, girl?"

Any other time, Vaia knows, she would be resentfully snapping back that she's not a 'girl' any longer. Right now she just says, "Yes, Brega."

"Madam Brega--" Frank begins.

"Be quiet, 'doctor'," she says dismissively. "Know your place. You're a medic, nothing more. You patch up the wounded, when there are any. You know very well I won't stand for your pretensions."

Vaia doubts the man is chastened, but it seems he too picks and chooses his fights. Frank gives both Brega and Manfred a curt nod, though no courtesy at all to his patient, and leaves the room.

Before Manfred can talk, Brega turns to him. "Don't say a word. No, she won't be allowed to leave the compound. But I'm taking her out of here right now."

Without a word, Manfred slumps in defeat, dropping back into the chair.

"I take it you can walk by yourself, Vaia?"

"Yes, Brega."

"Then let's go."

They leave the clinic. Vaia's walking for herself this time, she thinks to herself, but she's still a prisoner. She can't bring herself to perform any kind of protest though. Maybe Brega is really on her side?

As they go down the halls, they pass various people who almost all stop what they're doing and look at Vaia. She can only imagine what gossip they've heard by now. At one point she sees Manu, and begins to call out, but he won't look at her, almost running away through the nearest door.

In due course, she finds that she's been led to what were, historically, the women's quarters. A small section of the clan compound that was once set aside for the exclusive use of the clan's womenfolk. While with the increasing level of equality being practised, that's no longer technically its function, it remains an area where the men rarely venture. Brega's territory.

Vaia collapses into an armchair in the common room. Brega starts preparing some algal tea.

There's no one else around right now. Most people are working at this time. Vaia's mind is abuzz. She hates this. She doesn't know what she's going to do. She likes solvable problems, however challenging. Being assigned a task. Or else being free to enjoy herself. To explore her own thoughts, wants and interests. But big, complicated life situations that touch her personally? She hates them. The emotional element, the personal aspect, makes them too hard to resolve. They tend to make her shut down.

She recalls the sheer emotional effort and determination it took her to resolve herself to get permission to venture out. To locate the kind of club she wanted to go to. To find the courage to explain to Joak, and Manu, and ask them to go there with her. Now all of that has led to this mess. She doesn't know what to do about it. She doesn't feel capable of even figuring out where to start. This is so far beyond anything she's had to deal with before.

She takes the tea from Brega gratefully. She wouldn't have expected it, but maybe she's an ally now?