Virtual Torture
 

Flynn walked into the war room where Captain Sheridan was sitting alone, thinking quietly. He walked up to him, “Captain, I just heard on the grapevine that Night Watch are in control of the station.”

“Night Watch have been given full control of station security.”

“What?” Flynn reached across to his arm, and gripped his armband tightly.

He was about to rip it off, when Sheridan stopped him. “We could use you against them.”

“How?”

“We’ve started a plan to arrest the Night Watch security teams. But we know that a lot of them will be in hiding.”

“So you want me to flush some out?”

“That’s the general idea.”

“Captain, how are you gonna control the station? There’s no way that there’ll be enough people left to effectively police B5.”

“Don’t worry about that. All you have to do is catch a few moles.”

“I’ll get right on it, sir.”

--- ---

“Alright,” Meridian Genge shouted at the five people in the room with her, “we just got word that our main team were ambushed at the docking bay, and they’re in custody right now. We’re going in to get them out.”

Behind her, Flynn hit his link. “Now!” he shouted into it.

Genge twisted around. Flynn had a PPG aimed at her and she heard it charge. Suddenly, a security team burst into the room and took down the Night Watchers. They didn’t even know what had happened.

Genge had been tackled to the floor, and she was having handcuffs slapped on her. Flynn looked down, “You’re under arrest for conspiracy to commit a jailbreak.”

“We trusted you,” she said.

Flynn stood silently as Genge was lifted to her feet. He returned the PPG to its holster.

“We’ll get you for this,” she shouted as she was trailed away, “we’ll get your for this you son of a bitch!”
 

Flynn sat up from his bed. He mouth was dry, so he went to get a glass of water.

* * *

“Where’s the energy pod?” a man asked. The three people with him in the room also looked at the man in the doorway.

“Here it is,” the man in the door replied, pulling a box out of his satchel.

“How did you get it through customs?” a woman asked.

“Please,” the man said. “I’ve been working on this station for two and a half years.”

Meridian Genge stepped out of the shadows, and took the energy pod from her associate. She slipped it into a hole into the lower part of a chair.

“How do we know this Virtual Reality Cybernet will work? For all we know, it’ll fry the bastard’s brain cells before he feels any pain.”

“Don’t worry about it, Bill. We’re going to test it on someone first.”

“Who?”

“We’ll use the guy who turned us in…”

“Sean Flynn,” Genge added.

“…As a guinea pig. If it works out fine on him then we’ll go for Zack Allan.”

* * *

Flynn grabbed his new green and black security uniform as he took a last bite of his toast, and quickly ran out the door. He was almost late for the situation update Garibaldi had planned to give the remaining security staff, and the Narns.

Flynn ran into the tube just as the doors closed. He zipped his uniform up the middle and hooked the button at the top.

He came out onto the Zocalo and hurriedly marched to Security Central. He was half way down the Zocalo when he suddenly stopped and looked around. The place was empty. There wasn’t a stall to be seen anywhere, and apart from that he hadn’t seen anyone there. He hadn’t even seen a single person since he left his quarters.

“Hello!” he shouted. The sound of his voice echoed through the entire place, sending chills up Flynn’s back.

“Hurry up!” Flynn knew the voice belonged to Zack. He twisted around to see Allan notioning Flynn to get over to him. “C’mon, we gotta get off this place before it blows!”

Flynn went to follow his friend when three PPG shots suddenly rung through Allan’s chest.

“ZACK!!!” As he shouted the words, a blinding beam of blue-white light engulfed Flynn’s body. He immediately fell to the ground as the beam dissipated.

“My, my, my,” a woman’s voice called out. Flynn looked up from his position on the ground to see someone walk up to him.

“Genge?”

“Welcome to hell, Sean.” She lifted Flynn’s head, and swiftly punched him. Her wedding ring cut into Flynn’s cheek and blood began pouring out.

He slowly, and painfully, stood up. “What do you want from me?”

“Nothing.”

Another beam of light surrounded Flynn and he felt as though he was being cooked. The pain was immense, and he fought back the urge to scream with what little strength he had left.

A man suddenly appeared from nowhere at joined Genge as she stood over Flynn. “The second chair was ready so I decided to come in. Having fun?”

“I’m just waiting on a simple scream from him.”

“Let me help you.” The man swiftly kicked Flynn, then lifted him. “Do as the lady asks.”

“Go… to… hell.”

The man punched Flynn in the face, and the blood from the security officer’s cheek joined the blood-flow from his lip into one stream flowing down his face.

A baseball bat then appeared in a whirlpool of white light.

“Jesus,” Flynn said. “A VR Cybernet.”

“Well done,” the other man said. He swung the bat into Flynn’s ribs, and as anticipated he fell to the ground.

“This is working even better than I had hoped,” Genge said. “I didn’t know objects could appear from nowhere.”

“No many people do,” the man replied. “We can just wish them up.”

“Interesting.” A PPG appeared in Genge’s hand, and she aimed it down at Flynn. “Will this kill him?”

“No, everything in here is virtual. But he will feel it.”

“Good.” She discarded her first PPG, the one she used to take out Allan, and shot Flynn five times.

Flynn’s body racked around the ground of the fake Zocalo, and he grunted in pain. He wouldn’t give Genge the satisfaction of a scream.

“So stubborn.”
 

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