All of Us -- Chapter 45

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

“Okay, people, let’s quiet down here,” Max yelled to the other transgenics who were assembled in the control room later that morning. “Let’s take a look at the facts again before we discuss any possible punishment for Rob. As was confirmed by audio transmission and Rob’s own confession courtesy of Mia, Rob and Jeff were out on a job when they came across a group of Familiars. They started to leave, but they were attacked by the Familiars and instead of helping fight them off, Rob deliberately abandoned Jeff so that he could make a clean getaway. As a direct result of Rob’s actions, Jeff was captured by Ames White and beaten for the next few days until a successful rescue mission was completed. Rob’s motive for leaving Jeff behind was an apparent out-of-control alpha male complex. The only question right now is what we should do with Rob. Okay, does anybody have ideas that they want to share with everybody?” She pointed to one of the hands that went up. “Trent.”

“Let’s just keep doing what we’ve been doing for the past several days,” he suggested with a shrug. “Let’s just leave him chained up in the basement here for awhile. I’m sure that he’s learned his lesson by now.”

Becky stared at him. “What planet are you on, Trent? Rob committed the ultimate no-no for a soldier: he deliberately left one of his own behind in enemy territory. I know that he and Jeff weren’t in the same unit, but that doesn’t matter. They were on the same side and Rob knew exactly what he was doing when he left Jeff behind. Jeff could have easily been killed by White and the only reason why he didn’t was the fact that White wanted to play around with him. Do you understand?”

“Becky, calm down,” Zack said.

“Sorry,” Becky said.

“Becky is right,” Max said. “Rob crossed the line. Trent, you were in Rob’s unit back at Manticore so you should know him as well as anybody here does. Do you honestly think that Rob really has learned his lesson or is this just a whole lot of wishful thinking on your part?”

“It’s wishful thinking,” Trent admitted. “Honestly, I doubt that Rob’s learned his lesson. Rob was a great soldier and a good commanding officer, but he wouldn’t accept help or suggestions from anybody other than his superiors. If one of us would try to speak up and offer a suggestion when he’d be briefing us before going in on a mission, Rob would shut him or her up before the other person could get the first or second word out. He wouldn’t even take a suggestion from Jeff on the rare occasions that they worked together back at Manticore. Rob always believed that he was in the right about everything. I don’t think that anything could change that.”

“So let’s beat some sense into him,” Riley said. “How many times do I have to suggest it?”

“That won’t do any good,” Jeff disagreed. “You know Rob. He’ll just laugh it off.” He shook his head. “The problem with Rob is that he has no fear whatsoever. I don’t mean no fear as in he’ll go and do something crazy for no reason at all, I mean he’s not afraid of anybody or anything because of his abilities. If he gets thrown in a prison, he’ll escape. If he gets beaten up, he’ll heal. If someone tries to threaten him, he’ll laugh in their face and scare them so badly they won’t be able to sleep for days. Pretty much nothing will work on Rob. As far as I know, there’s nothing that scares Rob or at least scare enough sense into him that will make him realize that what he did crossed the line in a big way.”

“There’s one thing that scares Rob,” Trent said. “Psy Ops.”

“Are you joking?” one of the other transgenics asked. “You want us to recreate that hell hole?”

“I don’t know,” Trent said. “All that I know is that it’s the only thing that Rob is definitely scared off and it’s the only form of punishment that will get through to him.”

Max shook her head. “This is insane. That place was the worst thing imaginable. I try to forget my stays in there every day and I still struggle with it sometimes. The torture that they put us through in Psy Ops alone was unspeakable. Even if we do recreate it to some extent to punish Rob, we don’t have the time.”

“Maybe not for the long stay in there that Manticore would have given Rob if they were in the best mood of their lives,” Alec said. “Unfortunately, I don’t think that we have a choice here. If there was one impression that Manticore left on us, it was a lack of fear of conventional forms of punishment. How can you be afraid of being locked up in a jail cell for an indeterminate period of time when the Manticore alternative is to have one or more of the Psy Ops soldiers go through your brain until there’s nothing left except Jell-O or any of the lovely tricks that the ordinary soldiers or lab techs would play on us while we were to out of it on psychoactives to do anything about it? We have to re-create Psy Ops to some extent for Rob, Max. Like I said, I don’t think that we have a choice.”

Max was quiet for a few moments while she thought about what Alec had said. “You’re right.” She sighed. “I hate the idea, but it’s our only viable option. Okay, people. Let’s vote on this idea. Simple majority wins. How many of you agree with Alec’s proposition?” She waited while most of the transgenics raised their hands and quietly counted them. “Including myself, that’s all but three of us. It’s settled then. The only question now is how we’re going to do this.”

“I guess we can just send some people into Rob’s cell,” Riley suggested. “We don’t have the setup that they had back at Manticore for something like this. And you’re right about us not having the luxury of time to put Rob through what he would have gone through back at Manticore even if we wanted to do that in the first place. I guess the question is how long do we give Rob with this?”

“I don’t know,” Max said. “I guess that’s something to figure out. Okay, Zack, Alec, and I, since the three of us spent a whole lot of time in Psy Ops within six months of Manticore burning to a crisp, plus Mia will finalize the details on this. Mia, can you also pick another Psy Ops soldier or two to join us?”

“Sure,” Mia agreed. “No problem.”

“Great,” Max said. “Okay, everybody, I guess the meeting’s over. We’ll let you know if we need any of you later.” She watched most of the transgenics leave the room and turned to Zack. “I don’t know how I feel about this. This is so wrong, but we don’t have a choice.”

“It’s not easy to decide what’s right and what’s not right,” Zack said.

“It’s like the decision you made when you ran,” Alec agreed. “Well, its how I came to feel about it. You were right to get out of Manticore when you were kids. They should have done any of those things to us. On the other hand, they put the rest of us through that much more hell, which you couldn’t have known about. It’s not a win-win situation for everybody.”

Max nodded. “I know.” She sighed and straightened up a little. “Let’s figure this bitch out.”

TBC