Chapter Text
"Seo-yeong, please... if you love me, then do this for me," *Mute begged.
She actually begged me. I stared at her in horror. I heard it myself, but I could hardly believe she'd do this to me, to So-hi, to the entire ship! I trusted her. She told me that she'd stake everything on this!
My knife hand at Ryu's throat trembled. I felt like I didn't have a choice... and that was when I realized, the one who didn't have a choice was *Mute. It was in her programming. *Mute would always choose the safety of the ship first, and she considered herself essential to the ship's safety. With such unacceptable risks, *Mute would always fold in this situation. I was sure that Ryu knew that too.
"*Mute... I love you... but I can't do that," I said quietly, unable to look her in the eye as I defied her. I had to do it... because she couldn't. I had to do it because I love her.
"Seo-yeong, please...!" *Mute pleaded. It wrenched my gut to hear her like this.
Ryu spoke calmly. "You just said you love her. You won't go through with this. As the pressure mounts while you, while your love is running out of time, you'll cave--" Ryu yelped as I cut him off with a snap of my blade into his shoulder. Slashing him felt sickeningly good. Blood on the end of my knife, I brought it back to his throat.
"Disarm the bomb. Now." I growled.
"No." Ryu said, resolute.
*Mute made a pained face, "Seo-yeong, please, I don't want to have to, but you keep this up, I'll have to order my men to--"
"Men, I hereby relieve the Councilor of duty. Her ability to lead right now has been compromised! Do not listen to her!" I barked, my voice trembling.
The men were tense. Of course they were.
*Mute looked defeated. I'm sure she could hardly believe I'd done that to her.
I know I hardly believed it.
Eun-a was staring intently at Ryu the entire time.
"You're running out of time," Ryu said.
"You're running out time." I said, pressing the blade against his neck. "Disarm the bomb!"
"K... Kill me. See if it helps you." Ryu was intent to play a game of chicken with me, was he? "If you kill me, no one will be able to disarm the bomb."
"I'm not going to kill you, Ryu." I declared and slammed the butt of my knife against his breast. "If you kill *Mute," like you people killed my husband, "you will wish I'd kill you, because I will torture you. I will torture you, and your wretched fiance, for the rest of your miserable lives. If I have to give you a blood transfusion myself to keep you alive, I will do it, just to torture you."
"You're bluffing." Ryu said. Does he never sweat!? What was this man, a pig?
"No, you're bluffing. You know how I know? Because you're doing this for power. You're not a true believer. You won't suffer for your cause."
"That doesn't matter. The Neo-Confucians beneath me are true believers. They'll fight."
"And they'll die! We outnumber your forces nearly 10 to 1!"
Ryu gave pause, breathing slowly. "... two minutes."
"Disarm the bomb!"
"Seo-yeong, don't do this to me!"
"Ma'am, trust me!"
"Ryu, I'll give you the password...!"
"I won't let him do a thing with it."
I felt the pressure... but I didn't cave. I knew Ryu had to feel the same pressure too...
... and he cracked first. "Guards!!"
Electoral Monitors stormed the room. A fire fight broke out. Some of our men died. I was fortunate enough to only be grazed.
But we won. I told two of my men to tend to the wounded.
Ryu was finally silent.
"Now disarm the bomb." I growled and kicked him. He went to the ground, but didn't say anything.
"... Seo-yeong... the 10 minutes are up. He must have disarmed the--no... why would he now..." *Mute looked horrified as she processed everything. "But then, that means... it was a bluff the entire time? No, the bomb could just be defective somehow... but... fuck, Seo-yeong, I... almost gave him control of the ship..."
I slumped. I was exhausted, but at least it was finally over.
That's what I thought, but then I noticed the look of panic on *Mute's face.
"Ryu, call them off!" *Mute ordered.
"What's going on?" I asked, starting to panic myself.
"There's Electoral Monitors attacking our forces at the computer core! They're trying to force their way in, and they out number our men." *Mute quickly explained.
"What!?"
"Do you think I wouldn't have a back up plan? That I would pin everything on a bluff? ... That was only my plan to take control of the ship without firing a single shot... I moved my pieces before you even shut down the rail system and concentrated near the computer core." Ryu told us as he got back onto his feet.
"I'm sending all nearby men to the core." *Mute told me, trying to stay calm.
"Call them off, Ryu!" I barked and punched him again. I knocked him to the floor.
Spitting out blood, he refused. "... No..."
"Seo-yeong," I turned to look at *Mute. She was scared. We both were scared. "If I die, take care of the sh--"
"Ma'am!! Ma'am!?" I got onto the comm. line and demanded to know what was going on.
The computer core had been breached. There was fighting going on, collateral damage was suffered.
... I declared a state of martial law. I ordered Security to crush this rebellion and protect the ship...
... by the end of the night, we had retaken control of the computer core, but that didn't change the fact that many people died...
... including Councillor *Mute.