by T. J. Quinn
That night, they were all summoned at the center of the camp to be questioned about Khajal’s disappearance. General Foster, the man in charge of their combat unit, wasn’t very pleased with the disappearance of one of his best warriors.
So, he asked, countless times, if any of the cyborgs knew anything about Khajal, but he got the same answer from every one of the cyborgs in front of him: no.
Before he escaped, Jarcor had been able to modify a circuitry in all cyborgs, to allow them to lie blatantly to the humans. They had never discovered the modification, and Rafaroy was sure they never would. They were too arrogant to admit any possible failure on their programming.
After an hour of getting nothing, the man finally gave up and sent them away.
Rafaroy sighed, tired, stretching his strained muscles, eager for a good bath and a good meal, but knowing he wasn’t getting either. Food at the camp was disgusting, and they were only entitled to a quick shower with cold water they took from a river nearby.
Elena looked out the window of her coffee shop and frowned. She hadn't seen Savannah in a few days now, and she was starting to get worried. Though she wasn’t a close friend, they usually exchanged a few words every day. She was always pleasant and had been a regular customer at the café ever since she started working at the factory. Elena had gotten used to her daily visit.
“What’s the matter?” Johanna asked her, lifting her head from the cups she was putting on the washer.
“Have you seen Savannah lately? You know, the blonde girl that works at the uniforms’ factory?” she asked her employee.
Johanna frowned as well. “Now that you mention it, no, I don’t think I have.”
“Could it be possible she has fallen ill? In a normal situation, I would assume she had started going to another café…” she started saying.
“But there isn’t another one for miles around,” Johana finished her sentence.
“Exactly. Do you know where Savannah lives?”
“Yes, I do. She owns a small cabin, up on Riverside Road. She has been living there for some time now.”
Elena looked around, making sure everything was under control. “Please, look after things for me. I believe I’ll go there and make sure she is alright,” she told her employee.
“Sure thing. Things are slow at this time of the day.”
She nodded and taking off her apron, she left the café and headed down the street, to where Johana had told her the other girl lived.
It only took her a few minutes to reach the house, and after knocking at the door for a while with no answer, she decided to walk around it, hoping to see anything. The small house had French windows in the living room and what she saw through them wasn’t encouraging. The wooden floor was covered with dust as if no one had walked on it in a few days.
Worried, Elena tried the door, and as she expected, the door was unlocked, and she was able to enter the house.
“Savannah. Are you here?” she called out, as she entered the house. But there was no answer. She quickly walked around the house, but the girl wasn’t anywhere to be found. On the kitchen sink, she found dirty dishes covered with mold, which assured her the girl hadn't been at the house in days.
Worried, she left the house and headed to the factory where she used to work. Mark Johnson, the factory’s manager was a regular customer at her café as well, and she knew him well. She was sure he would see her.
And he did. When Elena explained the reason for her visit, the man frowned. “Yes, I’ve noticed her absence, and I’ve tried to call her several times, but got no answer.”
“I’ve just come from her house, and it’s clear she hasn’t been there in days. Something must have happened to her. When was she seen for the last time?” she asked, more worried than ever.
“Let me ask her coworkers. They might know something.”
Elena followed the man into the factory and heard him ask the people working there if anyone knew anything about Savannah.
“Last time I saw her, she told me she was planning to spend her day off in the woods, enjoying the nature,” Sally, one of the girls said. “I haven’t seen her since.”
They thanked the girl.
“I’ll report her disappearance to Captain Summers. He’ll know what to do,” Elena said frowning.
“You know what this might mean,” Mark warned her.
“Yes, I know. But it can also mean Savannah got hurt up there in the mountains and hasn’t been able to come down,” Elena stated.
“They won’t waste their time looking for her. You know that.” Mark stated. “They have other priorities.”
“I can’t stay still and do nothing.”
“Don’t you even think about going looking for her on your own. If the Taucets are in the area, you would only become one of their victims.” There was real concern on the man’s tone, and Elena knew he was telling her the truth.
It was well known the Taucets captured all the women they could and used them as their slaves.
“No, of course not, I don’t have time for that.” She rubbed her forehead, trying to appease her headache. “I can’t simply do nothing. I’ll inform Captain Summers, and it will be his call either to do something or not.”
“Let me know what he tells you.”
“I will.”
She left the factory and headed to the soldiers’ camp, at the edge of town. They had been there ever since the war started. But as Mark predicted, the captain assured her there was nothing he could do for Savannah.
“We’ve received reports of the presence of Taucets in the area, so it’s not silly to assume she has been captured by them.”
“Isn't it dangerous for us to stay here if the Taucets are in the area?” she asked him, not very pleased with the man’s indolence.
“They wouldn’t dare to attack a whole village. Just stay out of the woods, and you should be fine.”
Elena returned to the café and told Johanna what had happened. Like her, the other woman was furious with the soldier’s inaction.
“I wish I could go looking for her on my own, but I’m afraid he’s right about something,” she told Johanna.
“That she was most likely captured by the Taucets?” her friend asked, with a sad tone.
“Yes, and it breaks my heart to think what she must be going through.”
“I know, I feel the same way, but there isn’t much we can do.”
“There is something. We have to be hyper-alert for any suspicious activity. The Taucets are in the area, and though Captain Summers assures they have never attacked a whole town, we need to be careful,” she added, with a frown.
“What’s going on, Elena?” her little sister Alanna entered the restaurant and overheard Elena’s last words.
She turned to look at her sister, a younger version of herself, with her light brown curls and her green eyes, in a heart-shaped face. There seem to be Taucets in the area, Alanna. I don’t want you to wander around town for a while,” she explained to the twelve-year-old girl.
“You mean the blue aliens? They’re here?” there was awe in her sister’s tone, and Elena frowned.
“Yes, Alanna, the ones we’re at war with, remember?” she pointed out, in a scolding tone.
“Why would they want to come here? There’s nothing here that might interest them.” The little girl said, with a puzzled tone.
Elena exchanged a hard look with Johanna, and the woman shook her head. They couldn’t explain to the girl the aliens were after slaves, she was too young for that.
“Let’s just hope they go away,” she replied, ending the subject. “How was school?”
“The same as always, nothing happens here, you know that,” the younger girl grumbled.
“Do you have homework?”
“Yes. I’ll grab a bite and go upstairs to work on it.”
Elena kissed the top of the girl’s head. “Thank you, I’ll check on you a little later.”
“Sure.”
Elena
watched her disappear into the kitchen and sighed. She was the only family she had in the world. She did all she could to protect Alanna and give her the best life possible, and she had been doing ever since her parents died in a car accident a couple of years ago.
Life returned to normal, in the following few days. Although Elena still missed Savannah’s visits to the café, she was more convinced than ever she had been taken by the aliens.
CHAPTER TWO
Rafaroy received the message while they were in full combat with the Taucets. It distracted him for a few moments, and that distraction got him a wound on his arm, but he didn’t mind. The news couldn’t be better. Khajal had escaped.
The humans had announced he had died in combat and that they had disposed of the body as they always did, whenever one of them died: retrieving all the cybernetic parts and cremating the rest, before throwing the ashes to the garbage. Such treatment was indignant to the men that fought every day of their lives to free their planet from the Taucets’ plague.
But this time, they were just lying, the way they had lied when Jarcor had finally managed to escape.
According to the news Rafaroy received, Khajal had escaped and was now living in a Taucets’ colony, in the Rocky Mountains. Apparently, the blue bastards were planning to attack a small village, and Khajal wanted them stopped. They would have to find a way to send that information to the humans without revealing their source, but they felt bound to protect the innocent people from the village they mentioned in the message.
“Did you hear it, Raf? Khajal is fine.” The cheerful words of his friend Zandar came across their secret channel.
“Yes, I did, the best news in a long time,” he agreed.
“There’s hope for us, my friend, more than ever.”
“I know, I know…”
“Have you thought about a way to warn the humans about the impending attack?” his friend asked.
“Not yet, but I will don’t worry. If you get any ideas, please share.”
“Will do.”
By the end of the day, Rafaroy hadn't been able to come up with a convincing story, but fortunately, Ibracor had the perfect story.
“Commander Jones, we managed to intercept a few messages from the Taucets related to an attack to a small town in the Rocky Mountains,” he informed his superior officer, and though they received the report with concern, their reaction was not the one they had been expecting.
Instead of sending more soldiers to the small village, they ordered those in the village to retreat, setting a trap for the Taucets. They wanted the Taucets to attack the village and capture as many slaves as they wanted, so the Earth forces could follow them and find the location of at least, one of the Taucets colonies.
The cyborgs protested loudly, but they were blatantly ignored.
“Sometimes, we’re forced to make small sacrifices for the sake of a greater good, and this is certainly one of those times,” General Foster said in an ice-cold tone. “All the Taucets are looking for, by attacking this village, are slaves, so let’s give them the slaves, and in exchange, we’ll be able to follow them to at least one of their colonies and destroy it.”
There were still a few protests from the cyborgs before the General answered them by sending a wave of pain rushing down their bodies, using his main control to discipline them.
“Your opinions were not requested and mean nothing to us. You’re here to do your job, and nothing else,” General Foster reminded the warriors icily before he dismissed the men and returned to his quarters.
“I swear I’ll see him dead, preferably crossed by my weapon,” Zandar muttered as they returned to their quarters.
“Those are useless wishes, and you know it, Zandar. I’ll be the one having that pleasure,” Rafaroy ranted, through gritted teeth.
His friend let out a loud laugh that called the guards attention, and Rafaroy threw his elbow onto Zandar’s stomach.
That morning had started, as usual, Elena had sent Alanna to school, after reminding her, what to do and where to go in case of an attack. Then she had headed to the café like she did every morning. The past two days they had had fewer customers since the small contingent of soldiers watching over the town had been called to help a nearby village.
Elena had been very nervous about their absence and had devised a plan to get Alanna to safety in case they were attacked.
She told her sister she should escape and hide in an ancient mine, just outside town and stay there until she was sure it was safe to come out. She would try to meet her there as soon as possible. She also told her how to get to the nearest village in case she wasn’t able to join her sister.
Alanna had looked a bit scared, but Elena wanted to prepare the girl. She didn’t want her to fall into the Taucets’ claws. “You’re overreacting, Elena,” she had protested, but she hadn't paid attention. She needed her safe, that was all that mattered.
There was an awkward silence in town, and she felt a chill going down her spine as she opened the back door to her café. Johanna was already there, baking the pies she was famous for and Elena joined her in the kitchen, preparing a few other things she sold at the café.
She had just opened the doors for her first customer when the hell exploded outside. They were under attack.
Running, she left the café through the back door, heading to the school as fast as she could, but she quickly realized they were surrounded by armed Taucets.
She was about to reach the school when a group of them appeared in front of her, with their vicious weapons pointing at her, forcing her and all the other people on the streets to walk back to the center of town.
The Taucets took over the small town and its inhabitants so easily it was shameful. They had no means to protect themselves, and the enemy had taken full advantage of that.
They quickly gathered the people in the middle of the main street, separating women from men and children.
The desperate cries of the children were heartbreaking but there was nothing any of them could do.
Elena had tried to see Alanna in the group of kids being taken to the Mayor’s house, but it was impossible to spot her sister in the middle of the chaos. She was mad at herself for not believing her instincts but now it was too late to do anything about it, she was a prisoner of the Taucets, and if the stories people told about them were true, she would soon become a slave, along with all the women captured with her.
Tears of desperation ran down her cheeks when she was forced to board one of the Taucets’ vessels. She knew that she would never see her sister again and she couldn’t bear the idea. Like her, all mothers and sisters around her were going through the same agony, and though they had asked endlessly about the children, the aliens hadn't given them a straight answer.
Bretdon
The Cyborgs Reborn Series,
Book 3
T.J. Quinn
GTQ LLC
Orlando, Florida
Copyright © 2017 by T.J. Quinn
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
GTQ LLC
PO Box 540375
Orlando, FL 32854
www.gtq.com
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Bretdon/T.J. Quinn -- 1st ed.
ISBN
Chapter One
Bretdon dodged the attack of the group of Taucets in front of him and returned fire. Though the cyborgs had attacked the alien colony by surprise, the Taucets had been able to fight back with more power than expected and several of his men had been hurt. Not seriously, but enough to make them slower and less attentive.
Def
eating the Taucets in front of him, he proceeded forward. The order was to get rid of every Taucet in the colony, male or female and take the human slaves to a camp prepared to receive them. He had always thought they were exchanging a one kind of slavery for another one, but his opinion was never asked for and he had learned to keep it for himself.
At some point, the fight took him outside and he could to see Khajal, a fellow cyborg leaving the colony through the destroyed walls of the settlement. A smile cracked his hard face when he realized what that meant. Khajal wasn’t dead, and he had managed to escape the human’s yoke.
This was good news for all cyborgs. It meant Jarcor’s codes still worked and he could still hold hope of escaping, like Khajal and many others before him, had done.
By the end of the day, the Taucet colony had been taken. The human slaves found in it were taken to Camp Freedom and a few men were ordered to stay at the colony to destroy it completely. He was one of them.
They searched the whole premises in search for other prisoners or hidden Taucets but the place was empty.
Or so he thought.
He was making his last tour around the place, when he spotted a small group of Taucets running out of the settlement, from a hole on the ground they hadn't noticed before.
He considered warning his men, but there were only three Taucets, he was sure he could get them before they went too far.
He ran after them but it didn’t take him long to realize the Taucets were a lot faster than him and that was quite a something since a cyborg was able to run as fast as forty miles per hour. He sent out warnings to his men he was in pursuit of a group of Taucets, but he wasn’t sure the message went through since he was quite far away from the colony by then.
Despite their speed, the Taucets didn’t have much resilience and one by one, Bretdon took them down. By the time he got rid of the last one, it was around four am in the morning.
He was a considerable distance from the colony and from any military base. Going back to the colony would be a waste of time since his men had orders to destroy the place the minute they were sure it was empty. According to his maps, the nearest military base was two days away from his current position.
