Cerebral Exchange :: Chapter 9 :: FUTILE

The room erupted into existence with a blinding, white light. Doremy hissed, the glare of it shaking her awake like a sack of bricks to the face. She squirmed under it, raising her hands up defensively to shield her eyes.

Only, she didn't. Squinting down, she found herself locked to a comfortably padded chair by her wrists and ankles. Testing them, they were as firmly in place as she expected. Slowly, prior events drifted back into her mind, contributing to the throbbing headache that was painfully forming. The break-in, the sarcastic drone, the horrible tape. She noted that at least the latter had now been removed from her body. She couldn't fully remember how she got here, but she could remember the capsule she was fitted into filling up with the taste of lavender - the calling card of a HexCorp sedative.

Adjusting to the brightness, she began to look around her immediate environment. Everything here was clinically white - the lighting, the walls, the floor, the ceiling. Even the furnishings, of which there were only a few. Just her chair and another directly opposite, presumably for her interrogator.

"Hello? Is there anyone listening? You can come and question me now. Get this over and done with."

Silence was all that returned. Doremy huffed, drumming her fingers on the armrests she was bound to, wondering when they might finally get bored of making her wait.

She estimated about an hour had passed when the panelling on the wall before her slid open and a figure strode in. She righted her drooping head to look up at her visitor and realised immediately who it was. A HexCorp Hive Mxtress. It was the jacket that gave it away - the only thing they wore to distinguish themselves from the common drones. That and their personalities, though Doremy was beginning to learn that those weren't as rare as she had previously thought.

"Good morning, Doremy. I do hope my dear Deliverator wasn't too rough with you and that you had a pleasant trip here. You are going to be such a valuable source of information, after all."

Doremy grunted and cracked her neck to the side. She'd had an absolutely horrible time, actually, and knew exactly where this Hive Mxtress could stick it. She looked up at them smugly, opened her mouth… and no words came out.

She croaked, what!? She tried again, nothing. Her lips were moving, frantically in fact, but no sounds were emerging. Hey eyes widened and she stared up at the Hive Mxtress who, from their posture, appeared to be taking great amusement in this.

"Oh dear, I was informed that you had a bit of vocabulary on you, so I decided for efficiency's sake to switch it off. I hope you don't mind. We also made some other adjustments, just to make sure this meeting goes as smoothly as possible."

She was panting, panicking. Staring at the Hive Mxtress as they took the seat opposite. The feeling of having something so natural to her completely taken away, it left her shaking. "What… what else have you done…?" If she focused on actually being cordial, she found she could still speak, barely. But the fact that just thinking one foul word would invalidate an entire sentence, it left her more on edge than she'd ever felt before.

"Limiting your speech is the only bespoke mental change we decided to complete. Otherwise, you've now been augmented with the full suite of HexCorp compliance programming, which is standard for this type of questioning event, cutie."

The Hive Mxtress crossed their legs, the rubber squeaking as it rested into place, and observed the captive. The way they were panicking, untrained for this situation, this was clearly a novice. Something wasn't right. A rookie like this should never have managed to pull off a data heist this big.

"Doremy, I'm going to ask you a question now. How did you get your mitts on our property? Will you be a good girl and tell me?"

"I… I can't tell you. I won't tell you! You can't make me!" There was fear in her eyes. She knew perfectly well that they could.

The snap that came next jolted her whole body. "HexCorp Drone #8533 Activate. Answer the question."

There was a moment of silence, before HexDrone #8533 righted its body and sat to attention. Its pink eyes looked directly ahead, its previous aggrieved expressions disappearing and it began to speak. “HexDrone #8533 activated. HexDrone #8533 acquired HexDrone #3141 as a gift. HexDrone #8533 did not attempt to acquire HexCorp property before this exchange.”

“So it was just… given to you? By who?”

“HexDrone #8533 could not specifically identify the benefactor. HexDrone #8533 could identify that it was a HexCorp Hive Mxtress. HexDrone #8533 could also ascertain that due to perceived personality difference that it was not its Hive Mxtress.” It continued to sit perfectly still, its mind going blank the moment its current order was completed.

The Hive Mxtress, in contrast, was very animated, having pushed off Their chair and started to pace throughout the room. “What nonsense! But it does make sense, unfortunately. Who else would be able to just steal and deliver our property like that? HexCorp Drone #8533 Deactivate.”

A sharp gasp heaved her body as Doremy came back to, growing limp within the restraints as reality smashed back into place. Immediately she threw herself into cursing her Hive Mxtress, and the ensuing silence was the cherry on top of how powerless she truly was. “Doremy, thank you for your time. This information has been most useful - it appears we have a rival department gunning for my throne. Corporate politics, I thought we had long since grown out of this silliness. In any case, the R&D Department is going to need all the drones we can get. I’m sure you’ll be a most productive part of our wonderful Hive.”

Before she could say anything in response, her Hive Mxtress was storming out of the interrogation room, any thoughts of poor Doremy already out of Their mind. She barely had time to compose herself though as four drones marched into Their place. She was exhausted from the experience, sinking as low into the chair as the restraints would allow. “Please…” She begged the emotionless automatons. She already knew what they were going to say,

“HexCorp Drone #8533 Activate.”