Chapter 64

# Day 17 - 10:36

Victoria Elise didn’t bother with the elevator; she took the drop shaft three decks at a time, boots slamming into rungless ladders, palm-braking to keep from eating steel at the landings. She landed at the lower deck’s aft section on a sliding skid and found the hallway deserted except for the blood streaks and the burnt plastic stink of a low-yield charge. The ballast door at the end—built to stop a fire, or an armed rush—was already fused shut. On the deck beside it, Maggie Osei was hunched over, cocking a sidearm in her left hand.

Victoria grinned, half-wind, half-pain. “Gonna shoot like that?” She tapped the useless angle of Maggie’s right arm in its sling.

Maggie’s lips peeled back. “I can still shoot, Blondie. But you’re point.”

“Damn right I am.” Victoria snatched the manual release bar from the wall and jammed it into the access slot. She glanced at the status display: vacuum seal, green. She twisted the bar, ignoring the hiss of her old wound, and felt the relay click open. The door parted with a slow, bellowing groan.

They went in, Maggie covering the angle as best she could, Victoria low and fast. The corridor was short: only five cells, a holding space for rescued survivor. The first cell’s door was ajar, light flickering through the shatter-proof glass. Inside, a woman in a torn gown lay face-down, crimson pooling out from under her neck.

Maggie scanned for movement. “One down. Four to go.”

Victoria didn’t hesitate. She swept the cell, checked under the cot, then covered Maggie as they moved up. Halfway to the next door, a body—Blue Oasis security, dark skin, curly hair matted with blood—blocked their path. Maggie knelt, checked the pulse with her good hand, then shook her head. “Dead. Knife to the carotid.”

Victoria stepped over, ignoring the flood on her boots. The second cell was open and empty. Not even blood, just a cuff link on the floor and a faint odor of bleach.

“Shit,” said Victoria, “either she’s got them or they’re in the vents.”

Maggie nodded. “You keep going. I’ll check the junction.”

“You’re not backup with that arm,” Victoria said, then softened. “Just find anyone breathing and pull them out.”

Maggie didn’t argue. She rolled the security body toward the hatch, bracing it in case they had to retreat.

Victoria advanced, shoes silent now. The third cell was shut, but the viewing glass was splattered. She peered in: nothing but overturned bunk and a scatter of plastic trays. The only living thing was the panic in the air.

She heard the scream before she saw the blood: fourth cell, maybe two meters ahead, a jagged animal sound ricocheting off the steel. She went for the handle, found it locked. In the window, she saw the struggle: a figure in a chef’s whites, one arm around the neck of a Red Solstice officer, the other holding a knife tight to the soft underside of the jaw.

Victoria had a gun, but the shot was blocked by the prisoner's body. She rapped the glass, hard. The attacker’s head snapped around, and their eyes met—cool, flat, black as vinyl. No panic. Just calculation.

The attacker’s arm tensed. The knife punched into the carotid, a spurt of arterial red painting the cell’s far wall. Victoria was already in motion—she aimed for the glass, but the moment she raised her gun, the attacker body-checked the dying victim into the viewing window. The glass did not shatter, but the impact rattled Victoria’s teeth. The assassin let the body fall, wiped the blade once, then stood perfectly still.

Victoria didn’t wait. She fired at the lock, two shots point-blank. The door stuttered open on its safety pins. She barreled in.

The assassin moved faster—much faster than any chef, faster than any normal woman. Victoria didn’t even see the blade, just the wet blur as it sliced the air. She dodged, barely, felt the steel score her sleeve. She caught the attacker’s wrist, twisted, and for a second thought she had control. Then she felt the torque, the crazy strength, and realized the woman was left-handed.

Victoria let go, shifted stance, went for a leg sweep. The assassin hopped it, bounced off the wall, and in the same breath kicked the gun from Victoria’s hand. The weapon clattered out into the corridor.

“Nice move,” said the assassin, deadpan. The accent was not chef, not even Red Solstice—too precise, almost posh.

Victoria grinned. “Your knife is compensating.”

The assassin feinted, then jabbed low, then again at the face—each attack a distraction for the real strike, a vertical slice at the thigh meant to end the fight. Victoria let it score, drew the attacker in, then slammed her knee up into the woman’s gut. The move landed. The assassin gasped, hesitated.

Victoria seized the moment, drew her own knife—a stubby, blacked-out blade, dull only in color. She went for the shoulder, missed, then pivoted, locking the assassin’s arm under her own bandaged right. The pain was real, blinding, but she forced herself to hold. With her free hand, she hammered the hilt of her blade into the attacker’s temple.

The assassin didn’t fall. She twisted, bit Victoria’s forearm, and headbutted her, hard.

Victoria’s vision went white for a second. She let the momentum carry her into the assassin, slamming both bodies against the cell’s far wall. They tangled, legs, arms, the knife lost somewhere between them. The assassin tried to gouge Victoria’s eyes. Victoria just laughed.

“Better fighters than you have tried, honey,” she snarled, then drove the crown of her head into the woman’s nose. A crunch, a hiss of pain. The assassin went limp for half a heartbeat.

Victoria fished for the knife. Her fingers found it, sticky with blood. She slashed blind, felt the blade hit something soft, then something hard.

The assassin bucked. Victoria rolled, landed on top, and with all her weight, plunged the blade into the woman’s skull just above the ear.

The assassin convulsed, then lay still.

Victoria panted, spat blood onto the floor. “Fuck,” she said.

She looked at the victim. No pulse. Too late for the poor bitch.

She checked her own wounds—superficial, except for the new cut across her leg. She pressed a towel to it, then limped out into the corridor.

Maggie was there, helping a security crew member with a neck wound, using her good arm to clamp a wadded bandage to the girl’s throat. “Need help,” Maggie said, teeth clenched.

Victoria pressed down, let Maggie tape the bandage in place. The security girl was in shock, but alive.

Maggie looked up. “Did you get her?”

Victoria nodded. “Stone cold. Professional. Not one of ours.”

“Carmona?” Maggie asked.

“Probably.” Victoria looked at the girl. “Get her to Iqbal. Saanvi, too, if you see her.”

Maggie started to haul the wounded toward the exit, dragging her one-armed with surprising power.

The fifth cell was untouched. The lock was still intact, the grate still closed. Through the bars, Victoria could see a figure huddled in the corner—small, thin, utterly still.

She recognized her.

The high-security cell on Red Solstice. The woman on the floor, bleeding. The memory flashed through Victoria's mind: the smell of blood and voided bowels, the sight of a body broken and used, the echo of her own past staring back at her.

She'd dragged this woman out of that cell. She'd carried her to the extraction point. She'd watched the submarine take her aboard.

And now here she was, still alive, still waiting.

Victoria slid the grate open and stepped inside.

The woman didn't move. Didn't flinch. Her eyes were open, but they were wrong—clouded, scarred, blind. An IV line trailed from her arm to a bag hanging on the wall. Her body was a map of suffering: scars old and fresh, burns on her face, bruises blooming across her skin. She was thin, malnourished, fragile.

She sat in the corner like she'd accepted her fate. Like she'd stopped hoping a long time ago.

Victoria crouched in front of her. "You're safe now. The threat is dead."

The woman's blind eyes didn't track. Her expression didn't change.

Victoria stood, moved to the door, and stood guard. She didn't know why it mattered. It just did.

#Day 17 - 10:57

They came ten minutes later. Vivienne first, her face pale but composed, Verne's pin catching the light. Behind her, Aida supporting Zhao—he could barely walk, his body still wrecked from the mass treatment attempt in the submarine pressure hull. Maggie limped behind them, her left hand stained with blood that wasn't hers. Sophie brought up the rear, immaculate even here, her eyes taking in everything.

Victoria briefed them quickly. The assassin—Carmona's agent, here to prevent information leaks. Three dead prisoners. One empty cell—the assassin's own, where she'd been posing as a chef. And one survivor.

"The kills were sloppy," Victoria added. "The first three prisoners—throats cut, quick but messy. The assassin was in a hurry. But she took her time with the fourth. That one was personal." She nodded toward the cell where Wei Chen sat. "Which means she was the real target. The others were just... clearance."

Vivienne absorbed this, then entered the cell.

Zhao followed, Aida still steadying him. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he took in the woman in the corner—and felt something twist in his chest.

She was so small. So fragile. The women of Blue Oasis had been selected—curated, really—by the previous owner for their health, their fertility, their beauty. They were tall, strong, radiant. Even now, battered and exhausted, they carried themselves like people who had been chosen.

This woman was none of those things. She was thin to the point of gauntness. Her skin was marked with burns and cuts. Her body bore the evidence of torture in ways that made Zhao's stomach turn. And her eyes—those clouded, ruined eyes—stared at nothing.

She was the opposite of everything this ship had been built for. And yet, Victoria had just called her the real target. Carmona had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep her—or kill her.

What made her so valuable?

The woman didn't react to their footsteps. Didn't react to their voices. She sat in her corner, blind and still, waiting for whatever came next.

Aida approached first, her voice soft. "We're not going to hurt you. We just want to talk. What's your name?"

Silence.

"How old are you?"

Nothing.

The woman's lips moved. When she spoke, her voice was quiet, accented—Chinese. "If you want to know about me, just ask the ship's AI."

They exchanged glances. How did she know about AURA?

Sophie raised her wrist, tapped her watch. "AURA. Identify this woman."

A pause. Longer than usual. The AI was processing.

Then: "Subject identified as Chen Wei. Age eighteen. World-renowned AI prodigy. Graduated from Tsinghua University with post-doctorate at age sixteen. Recruited by the Chinese government to develop sovereign artificial intelligence. Later, multiple assassination attempts. Current whereabouts unknown until now."

Zhao stared at the fragile figure in the corner. Eighteen. She was younger than him. Had been a prodigy at sixteen, recruited by the government, and then... this. Two years of hell. Two years of torture.

This small, broken woman was the smartest person alive, and she was barely out of childhood.

Wei Chen's lips curved—not a smile, something bitter. "So that's what you call it on this ship."

Silence.

Vivienne stepped forward. "Why did Carmona imprison you?"

Wei Chen didn't answer.

Aida tried again, gentler. "We want to help you. We need to understand."

Nothing.

Wei Chen's blind eyes turned—not toward Aida, but toward Sophie. "Your husband," she said. "Is he alive?"

Sophie's face went still. "How do you know about my husband?"

The silence stretched. Wei Chen waited.

"He's dead," Sophie said finally.

Wei Chen nodded slowly, as if confirming something she'd already calculated. "You killed him."

The room went cold. Maggie's hand moved toward her weapon. Vivienne's eyes snapped to her mother.

Sophie said nothing.

"It's simple math," Wei Chen continued, her voice flat. "Given the situation, the probability was high. The only question was timing."

Vivienne opened her mouth—

"Vivienne," Wei Chen said.

Vivienne froze.

"You're in command now. Are you the captain?"

Vivienne found her voice. "Yes."

Something shifted in Wei Chen's expression. Less tense. Almost... relieved. "A lot has changed on this boat."

She turned her blind eyes toward the room, tracking, listening. "The vector is here. I can smell him."

Zhao stepped forward, Aida's hand still steadying him. When he spoke, it was in Mandarin.

"是我。赵迅。" (It's me. Zhao Xun.)

A pause. Then, with a weak, self-deprecating laugh: "The one and only vector. Lucky me, right?"

Wei Chen flinched—barely visible, but Zhao caught it. She shifted on her bunk, turning toward him more fully. When she replied, her Mandarin was softer, more personal.

"我不知道还有活着的中国载体。" (I didn't know there was a living Chinese vector.)

Zhao's chest tightened. "What happened to our homeland? To China?"

Wei Chen's blind eyes dropped. "I was kidnapped before the pandemic. I don't know."

He'd known. He'd always known. But hearing it—

"And Arnault?" Wei Chen asked. "What happened to the original vector?"

Zhao glanced at Sophie. "Her husband killed him."

Wei Chen murmured something in Mandarin, too low for the others to catch. But Zhao heard.

"那棋局变了。" (The chess board has changed.)

She reached out, her hand searching. Zhao hesitated, then leaned forward. Her fingers found his face—gentle, clinical, mapping. Cheekbones. Jaw. The shape of him. She was so young. So terribly young.Her fingers were cold, clinical—mapping, not feeling. But something flickered behind her ruined eyes.

Maggie moved forward. Vivienne stopped her with a look.

Wei Chen's hands dropped. She was silent for a long moment, processing.

Then she tried to sit up straighter. Her weakened body barely cooperated, but Aida was there immediately, supporting her, holding her upright.

Wei Chen spoke again, louder now, for everyone. "I didn't think Blue Oasis would make it this far. It wasn't equipped for what's coming."

Vivienne frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The previous owner was delusional." Wei Chen's voice held no contempt—just fact. "A luxury harem ship surviving the end of the world? The math never worked. But this..." She gestured vaguely at the room, at them. "This is different. This might work."

She turned her blind eyes toward Vivienne. "I have a vested interest in saving this ship now. And the ship is in grave danger."

Vivienne studied her for a long moment—this girl, this child, who spoke with the certainty of someone who had seen too much. Then she made a decision.

"Get her to medical bay. Twenty-four hour observation, full workup. I want security posted around the clock."

Victoria stepped forward. "I'll guard her."

Vivienne met her eyes, saw something there—recognition, perhaps, or the echo of a similar wound. She nodded.

"Done."

#Day 17 - 11:28

They moved Wei Chen to medical. Victoria walked beside the stretcher, her good hand never far from her weapon. The blind girl lay still, her ruined eyes fixed on nothing.

In the corridor, Zhao watched them go. Aida's hand found his.

"She's like you," Aida said quietly.

He shook his head. "She's nothing like me. She's a weapon. A real one."

Aida squeezed his hand. "So are you."

Zhao was quiet for a moment. Then something surfaced—a memory from before the world ended.

"Chen Wei," he murmured. "I remember now. There was a news story years ago. On Chinese social media." He turned to Aida. "Her name—it's written with the character for dawn. And Wei—the same Wei used in 'weilai.' Future."

Aida's brow furrowed. "Dawn Future?"

"Dawn's Future." Zhao let out a breath. "But not the dawn they wanted."

He looked down the corridor where Wei Chen had vanished.

"The Dawn Protocol was designed by Western elites. Billionaires with their mega yachts and designer women. They wanted to shape the new world in their image." His voice dropped. "She's what they're afraid of. What they tried to eliminate."

Aida was silent.

"There are still Chinese women on this ship," Zhao continued. "Mei-Lin. Others. But if no Chinese vectors. No Chinese men." His voice cracked. "In a generation, the children will be half something else. In two generations, a quarter. The language, the culture, the memories—all of it gets diluted. Swallowed. Until there's nothing left."

He was shaking now.

"My mother. My father. Everyone I ever knew. Every sound of Mandarin on the street. Every memory of New Year's dinners and my mother's cooking." He pressed his palms to his eyes. "They're all gone. And the ones who planned this—they're still out there. Building their new world. Without us."

Aida pulled him close. He trembled against her.

"This isn't just death," he whispered. "It's erasure. They want us to disappear. To be forgotten."

Aida cupped his face in her hands. "Then you make sure that doesn't happen. You remember. You teach. You make sure Mei-Lin remembers. You make sure Wei Chen knows she's not alone." She pressed her forehead to his. "We carry what was lost. We become the memory."

He closed his eyes. Breathed. Steadied.

When he spoke again, his voice was raw but resolved. "She's here. Mei-Lin's here. I'm here. We're still here."

Aida nodded. "The future of dawn. Just not theirs."

Behind them, the door to the holding cells closed with a final hiss. Inside, four bodies waited for disposal—three prisoners, one assassin. The woman in the chef's clothes had no name, no history. She'd served her purpose for Carmona, and now she was just another corpse.

The threat was dead. But the game was far from over.

And somewhere in medical, the girl named Dawn's Future was already planning the next move—not for the world the colonizers wanted, but for a new dawn where erased civilizations would not be forgotten.

Zhao would make sure of it. Mei-Lin would make sure of it. And now, Chen Wei would too.