My father reaches out to me. I'm enjoying his company and it feels comforting. I feel at peace as he strokes my hair like he did when I was a little girl. Then I feel odd. I feel like I AM a little girl again! But it's alright coz I'm happy again. It's like being a grown-up young woman is kind of not real now, like I'm back to my happy time with my daddy. I feel happy in a way I haven't felt for years. My dad cuddles me and calls me his little treasure. It's like I haven't felt like this for years. It's weird... like it's not really happening...
........

I wake up. I'm sad again and disappointed, it was all a dream. Might have fuckin' known it was too good to be true! I'm back in this fucking prison cell again. Back to being an abused young woman, still just a girl, really. Still a prisoner of the Suno Province's puppet government of Prosperity on Skjir's World. We still fucking call this world by its proper name, no matter how many times those Prosperitan imperialist bastards tried to call it by other names! They tried to force us into submission first by calling it some banal shit like 'Prospero-Small' or 'Prosper World'! How ridiculous and tacky can ya get, man?! For fuck's sake! Finally, they had to concede to us calling it by it's proper name of Skjir's World. They tried to rename the continents, too, but that didn't work, either. They learned that they could buy some of us off by giving us the right to give our own home the name we choose. Much as I love to see all the fucking old signs disappear, I half wish it went back to the bad old days coz, in the end, all this reform did was divide us into the 'soft rebels' and the rest of us who they called 'extremists' or 'terrorists' because we were never going to accept Prosperity staying here! No, those bastards found yet another way to divide us and rule us, by giving us our homeworld and its lands the names we gave them and, in return, our fucking sell-out rulers tip their hats to their imperial masters and sell off all the riches to them and leave us in poverty. I still feel sick with anger when I think of that!

Ach, I'm rambling to myself now. I'm trying not to think of what's happening in a few hours, but I might as well face up to the fact that I'm going to die! I don't want to die, but I'm not sorry for what I did. No point in regretting anythin', anyways, but I know that killing that bastard had to be done. I knew the risks, and everything, but I did what I had to do. I've no family now of any kind, so no-one left to mourn me. I'm a clone, anyways, so there's more than one like me, hahahahaha.
But I'm still a person and an individual, and one who's been sentenced to death. And I'm still scared... I'm scared and I'm trying to act like I don't care. In a way it's true that I don't care. I'm resigned to what's going to happen, now but yeah, I admit it, I'm scared of those last seconds of fear or agony when I die...
I wish my father was still here... well, what I knew as a father, anyways. He was such a kind man! And, like so many other kind men, the bastards destroyed him! He let the people of the colonised worlds have some hope and have some knowledge of what so many of them knew already. The brutality behind all that gloss and shit. He told of how children were dying in space ships destined for prison colonies and how others had been stolen from their parents when their parents had been arrested by the military government at the time. As if those bastards really gave up their power! They still run the show behind those snivelling politicians!
Aye, they killed so many people for speaking out about the lies and the torture and the abuse. So we all went underground coz we knew we'd be shipped off to some fucking place and turned into slave children. That's where I met so many people, too many to name, but many of them are out there attacking Prosperitan ships and colonies. That gorgeous young girl Djex is with that lot now, I think. Such a crazy bitch but such a beautiful human being! I hope she's safe. She probably knows about me being sentenced to death and I hope she remembers me well. She said she loved me when we were young girls, only a few years ago and experimenting with feelings and stuff, and she seemed to mean it, as well. And I loved her too and I still love her now. Her mother's still here. She went crazy after getting raped by those bastards from the Droptroopers regiment, but she's better than she was and I think she'll be ok, given time. I heard most of those fuckers didn't end up so well! Got 'murdered' in their beds. Djex is suspect number one, but there's a lot of people out there who hate them enough to do that! The scum in the red caps as they're sometimes known. Stay safe, Djex, my love. Don't get caught like I did! Please... PLEASE don't get caught!
I keep getting flashbacks of the 'interrogation', and all those horrible shock devices stuck to my nipples and my cunt. The pain! No pain quite like it... I'm shaking from remembering it... stop shaking, dammit! Having my name repeated so many times that it became just a sound.
'Tiírna Skjaervenraat Morghúl! Tiírna... you're a murderess and a terrorist. We know who you are. We know what you did, so just confess, and we'll make it all stop.' I lost count how many times I heard that sentence or sentences like it. I almost started to hate my own name, it was shouted at me, so many fuckin' times! But I'm still proud. I'm still a Hruk girl from Skjir's World and they never took that from me, and now they never will in my last hours alive!
I don't even know why they wanted me to confess. I mean, it was all seen on security cams everywhere, anyway! Maybe to break me and make me feel guilty or something, I dunno. I held out as long as I could. They didn't remove all of my implants coz they didn't find them all so I managed to dull some of the pain, but even the numbing devices couldn't mask all of the pain! And the rapes were horrible even when ya can numb your own body. I'm sore from it now... but I don't think they'll be doing any more of that again. It was after they'd raped me the last time that I finally couldn't take any more and said I'd admit to the act of killing that bastard, Moden Flens Qwellor. That was the end for me. I knew I was a dead woman, and I knew they'd have their farcical trial and condemn me in a couple of days. And, sure enough, that's exactly what happened. Everyone knows how the law works out here and things have become more brutal since the Hruk Na-Gaa have stepped up their activities. Aye, I hear Djex is with them now and I hope and pray, with whatever faith I have left, that she's safe! I heard faint whispers in my head chip. The one they couldn't remove, the one we use to talk to each other without speaking. I thought I heard a voice, but I might just have been hallucinating from all the torture and the mind games these bastards played. I'm not totally broken but, by the gods, I could never be the same again... not after what they've done to me. It'd be nice to live some more years, but the damage to me has been done... all over again. Just like the damage done by those fuckin' workhouses they put young girls through, only possibly even worse, and not that I've the worst time here. But anyway, at least it's over now. I don't really wanna die, but... I'm ready for it, I think...

I lie down and try to rest. I'm supposed to get one last drink of my choice and one last meal before they take me out to be put to death in front of the whole town, as a warning to anyone else who might think of acts of rebellion here. They've started public executions again for the first time in years. They always get the 'hard men' to deal with things in such times of crisis. Last time there was such a one as this, Prosperity went to war for years with the Peace Federation. That war went on so long, that most people forgot who'd started it and what it was all about, by the end of it all. Fuckin' crazy! Some of us remembered or knew of the Peace Fed's attack on some mining colony which had come too close to their space sector, and which Prosperity had used as a covert spy station, but that didn't mean much. Both governments were in crisis so both needed a good old war to keep their citizens distracted from the real enemy and keep them scared of people just like themselves on the other side of the planetary system they lived in. And what a fucking bloody war it was! A whole sector of this galaxy is still in a post-apocalyptic state. Some worlds and space stations are still no-go areas, infested with hideous mutations and rogue killer drones or so radioactive that the air you breathe poisons you in seconds. Fuck those bastards in power! Qwellor was one of those fuckers, and that was why he was singled out to die.
I had my own additional reasons, too. I'll never forget how he raped me when I was only 13 years old, and his fucking greasy hands all over me. I was fucking 13! I was mature for my age, ya see, so he took a sick liking to me, even though he knew damn well that I was still a child! That was the first time I was raped and the first time I was damaged in such a way. I'll never forget it and for that alone I'll never be sorry for killing him! I've had some nightmares from the kind of instinctive guilt ya get from taking a man's life, aye. But don't expect me to say I'm sorry! That fucking bastard had to die and that's what happened. He was still preying on young girls and he was still using child slavery to manufacture his weapons for the government, and the gods alone know what else! Him an' many other bastards like him! He made his own fate and he had to die for what he did just like I have to die for what I did to him. And, yeah, I accept my fate and I don't regret a thing! Not a fucking thing!

I feel so tired... too much thinking. I'm starting to doze...
I see my father again, waving to me, like he's going to see me in some afterlife. I'm not sure if I believe in that stuff now, but it's comforting. I feel at ease....
..........
They wake me up to give me that last meal and drink and I enjoy it. It reminds me of better times. Times before the dark days of my father dying and of the war, of the terror of the Yonatist gangs and the Faith Militias roaming round killing at will, of all the rapes and all the torture. All of that shit is overshadowed by this one last bit of food and drink and I savour it all, in the last hour that I have to live...
I finish my small feast and sit down to let it settle in my stomach. I can't help but feel that it's a fucking waste of food giving it to me only an hour or two before they put me to death, like, but hey, I'm not gonna argue. It was nice and made me feel a little better and I need to feel as good as I can in this last hour of my life.
I need to stay strong!
I look outside. I'm glad to see that it's a lovely day out there and that's one thing I'm happy about.
I lie down. I hear that faint voice again, but I'm definitely not asleep! What the fuck is it? It sounds like... Djex? Is it you, Djex? Am I so broken by them that I'm hearing a girl I've not seen in months? This isn't fair, man, this is torture! Whatever or whoever this is in my head, stop giving me false hope! Fuck off! This ain't fuckin' fair!
I still hear it but it's faint. It fades again to nothing...
I doze off again, I think. I keep drifting in and out of sleep, trying to escape from this inescapable nightmare. I'm not sure how long it is but I can't have long to wait now. The last hour of your life is the most precious so I want to record my thoughts and let them go out so my old friends can hear them in the minds network that us cyborgs have. I think that faint voice might be Djex but I hope she's not coming to try and rescue me! I couldn't stand the thought of her being caught like I was and going through all of this shit. I call out in my head to the network of cyberminds,
'Djex, if that's you... please don't come here! They'll kill you like they're going to kill me. Please! It's too late. Just remember that I love you and I always did!'
I hear a faint sound, but it disappears and then I hear the sound of boots outside and I know what that means.
It's time.
Time to go on my last ever walk.
Time to go to my death.
I hear the guards unlock the door with the key and with the tech lock, and the door opens. They walk in and I have to stand up to 'greet' my escorts before they take me to my public execution. They stand there in the shitty green uniforms of the Prosperitan military and declare my name, along with the priest of Morgoss, the god of salvation who's here, too.
'Tiírna Skjaervenraat Morghúl, this is your last call. Are you ready to meet your creators?' calls out the priest.
'Please just spare me the kref-shit! I'm ready. Let's just go.'
'As you wish, child' he says and places that fucking oil onto the backs of my hands they use to 'cleanse your soul' before you die. The chief guard puts the cuffs and chains around my wrists and my ankles and I'm taken out of the cell into the corridor. I can still fucking hear that faint sound! Djex, if that is you, then do not come! Please!
It feels like time is kinda slowing down. I feel like I'm made of the heaviest metal known in the galaxy and I'm starting to feel breathless. I'm feeling incredibly scared, like I'm going to panic and I feel like I might be sick. I feel alone and I'm suddenly more aware than ever that I'm about to die and I feel terrified! I wish my dad was here with me now!
I have to keep calm... have to be calm! Calm! Be calm for what little family I have left and for those who still remember me. We walk on in what feels like slow motion, like I'm made of lead weights. Be calm! Be like water instead of like lead weights. Be cool and be calm, like a calm see. Like the sea we used to look out at when I was a little girl. Be like the cool, calm sea.
My breathing slows down and becomes less erratic and it makes me feel better as I continue to walk on. I look straight ahead as we go out into the broad daylight. It's a lovely, sunny day outside. A lovely to spend my last few moments alive. It's a good day to die. Yes, it IS a good day to die...
A big crowd of people have gathered in the square to see my last moments. Not a sound to be heard! All of them seem to be on my side, and for that I'm grateful! I've seen angry mobs before, screaming abuse at condemned prisoners and I'm glad that my last few minutes of life are with people on my side and not a hostile mob trying to my death any worse than it's going to be anyway. I'm taken along the pathway up towards the place where they're gonna take my head off my shoulders. So fuckin' gentle, considering how they're gonna slice my head clean off with a high-frequency blade! Ha.
Someone calls out, 'may the gods all be with you, Tiírna!' and I look towards the voice in the crowd. Some others murmur in agreement and start to rouse. Voices get louder until I hear the old slogan and war cry:-
'Hruk Na-magh djariog! Hruk Na-magh djariog!'
That old saying which they could never stop us from chanting- 'oppressed folk never forget!'

The soldiers raise their guns in the air and one of them fires off a shot. That instantly silences the crowd in the town square, and any potential commotion is halted and I continue my walk to my inevitable doom.
That voice comes back in my head and this time it's much clearer. It is Djex! She's here, or on her way here in a spacecraft.
'For fuck's sake, girl,' I cry out in my head to her cybermind receptor 'What are you doing? Don't be stupid, Djex, they'll kill you too!' I pray she doesn't get caught!
'I'm here for you, Tirna', she says without speaking verbally. These cybermind implants are useful in times of secrecy and a need to keep your mouth shut and they never did manage to crack the code, which is why they hate us so much!
'Stay there and don't get caught, Djex. I'm ready to die... really! But I'm glad you're here. I missed you so much!'
'I missed you too', she says. And then she says, 'I always loved you and so did Azzogh. He's safe and well, so please know that and be at peace.'
That makes me feel better. I continue on in my half trance toward the place of my doom.
Already there are the heads of today's previous two condemned prisoners, placed on spikes for all to see, and next to them, there's the spike they got for me. It kind of hits me that in a matter of minutes, my severed head will be on that thing, and I suddenly feel faint again... a feeling of panic comes to me. My breathing's getting fast... calm down, dammit... Calm the fuck down! Breathe... breathe... breathe while you still can.
They push me to the floor of the execution platform to where I have to lean forward. I'm scared but I feel kinda numb. This is it... this is finally it. I see my father, and Djex, and Azzogh and everyone in my life. All flashing through my mind... and in the corner of my eye, I see the executioner brandish the high-frequency blade and I hear the buzz as he turns it on. I'm scared! I'm terrified but Djex is with me, my father is with me and I feel the people in the square are with me. Everything happens so slowly. Time slows down and it feels like an age, and then suddenly I cry out without realising what I'm saying,
'Hruk Na-magh djariog!'
And then I feel the blade coming down towards me...
My neck! My neck hurts! Can't feel my body.... white light
.....Daddy.... that you?
......Daddy... I'm coming home ....
....daddy.... da-d-d-y......
.............................
..................................................
.................................................................


The crowd who had come to see Tiírna Skjaervenraat Morghúl publicy executed looked on. They were hardened to such brutality but still they were sickened! They looked on at the grotesque spectacle of her severed head being placed on the vacant spike left for her. They looked on at the Prosperitan guards with hatred. The looked on, and they remembered all the other victims of this occupation of their land. They looked on with vengeance in their eyes. They all thought the words and those with cybermind implants said it internally but so each of them could hear it,
'HRUK NA-MAGH DJARIOG!'
'Oppressed folk never forget!'
And a new mantra was chanted after today's event:-
'Remember Tiírna!'
Djex saw this spectacle, too. She saw it in her internal eye where messages could be seen as well as heard. She saw this and she froze for some minutes, almost like she was dead, too... like she was dead on the inside. How many minutes she sat there, motionless, she couldn't say, but it felt like quite a while. And then she burst into tears. She cried more than she'd cried in a long time... in years! Djex made herself almost ill with crying and with grief and with a sense that she had failed her friend and childhood lover. This murder would probably be the biggest mistake that Prosperity made in a hundred years or more, that was for certain! Djex's hatred grew, as would Azzogh's, and the people who saw this would remember this infamous day and they would hate Prosperity forever, as well. Nothing could undo this, now... nothing!
'Remember Tiírna!' as they'd say for many years to come. The sleeping beast of rebellion had been awoken.