When he finally opened his eyes, the overhead lights threw painful halos that pierced straight through to his skull. He hissed quietly, squeezing them closed again, the world lurching unsteadily with every small movement of his head.
Awake… he was awake again. That meant… he must have been sleeping.
But why…?
He searched his memory for the gap, finding only a soft static in the space his echo normally filled. Panic lit through him, and he jerked himself upright, the universe turning itself upside down with the movement, his gastra heaving, the cold jolt of vertigo grabbing hold of his mind. His echo — where was, where….?
A gloved hand pawed unsteadily at the back of the neck — his hand, his neck, his fingers fumbling for the port, still hidden, nerves prickling like needles beneath his chitin as a claw dipped inside, catching the edge of something, his vision going white as he caught it, an involuntary shudder wracking his form —
There was something there, jammed into him. Something that must be interfering with his AI.
He grit his teeth and dug into it, writhing upon the cot as his vision flashed green and then red, coron sputtering, antennae wringing, the rust-copper taste of blood in his mouth, the smell of rot in his nose–
Something cracked beneath his claw and he became nothing but a bundle of nerves — raw and open and burning, all at once too much, too much, too big and too bright and too loud and burning—
And like the flick of a switch, the feather-whisper snuff of a candle, it was over leaving him shaking, gulping for air, his face pressed down into an unfamiliar pillow that reeked of the fear-sweat tang of a hundred others before him.
It was a long while before he was able to steady his breath.
It was a long while before he was able to bring his hand in front of his wavering, spotted vision, to see what it was that he had removed.
A probe of some kind — snapped in half now, the design shining and foreign and spattered with his blood.
//…t….rans…itter…// crackled a voice in the back of his mind, so familiar he could have wept to hear it again. //..upp…et…//
Kajj grit his teeth and chucked the thing away, head it hit with a clatter somewhere too far for his eyes to follow. Alright. Alright, then. What did he know…? What could he remember…? His memory was still a static-slurred hole, but some images were returning. Blue jumpsuits, and whizzing pipes. A broken promise to Keir…
Shit.
She was going to be panicking by now, surely. She could… she could take care of herself. As long as she stayed away, stayed safe… She was fine, wasn’t she? She had to be fine. Had to be…
She was fine, so.
Was he…?
Slowly, mindful of his swaying equilibrium, Kajj raised himself up onto his elbows, taking stock of his surroundings. He was in… some kind of cell, a cold one, with dark steel walls and… only one door. He forced himself to focus on it, narrowing his eyes as he tried to steady his vision enough to see. There was… a figure outside the door, staring in at him, blurred by disorientation and frosted glass.
A speaker crackled to life overhead, the figure apparently aware of his attention.
“Hello roach,” the speaker hissed, and Kajj’s antennae flattened back at the painful sharpness of the sound. “I see you found our jammer. No matter. Lucky for us, no one will ever find you…”