Tales of Reign

by M E Wise

  “Ah. Scanning are we!” His surname Molnar, is now legible. “We already have a great deal of knowledge about you creature. Your body has given us so much to think on and so much to admire and pity; for days now.” He turns away from me and is lost in the light. A wall sized video screen comes on that he faces. The blue background fills the room with its color. In the corner it reads connecting. Molnar’s outline is dramatically slender and accented by the display. For a moment it reminds me of one of my Lo’Don’s coming into my room like an alarm clock.

  In one screen on the monitor is myself. The sight is unnerving! I have surgical pins jutting from odd angles all over my person. My left arm is visibly broken. My face is gaunt and my torso, head and wrists are patch-worked with electrodes, medical monitoring devices and tubes connecting to needles to more tubes. All of these fed into their greater counterparts of machines around the lab. I finally see Dae in the blue haze, even now she is bewildering and enchanting. Her pained gaze is wrought with fear and trauma. The two guards have Special Unit Red on their insignias. Are they the same two from earlier in the detention area? My memory is fuzzy. Their armor is a series of plates scaled overlapping under mesh littered with patches. They seem more tactical than for absorbing punishment. It’s hard to stay focused.

  A finely furnished room appears on the oversized monitor. A man, absurdly large because of the screen is saluted as he moves into view. He is well dressed in casual clothing. His hair carefully parted. Bearing an attitude that his importance is a common knowledge. As he looks directly at me, I feel as if I have seen him before but I cannot place how or where. History? My past?

  “Secretary of Forces on deck!” Sounds out a guard. They quickly stand at parade rest. “Thank you for joining us Mr. Secretary,” says Molnar. “As you can see we have our detainee present and to our reluctant surprise, awake and fit.”

  “As you were.” Is all the quiet man on screen says.

  “Such deeds and responsibilities truly warrant the most esteemed of audiences!” Molnar says with a pitch in his voice as he turns to me and rolls his eyes. “And you now have my undue attention Mr. Creature.” My restraints rotate me into a more upright position; slightly relieving the pounding in my head and face at the angle I was before. They have my arms outstretched, my legs bound and my head strapped in tightly. I am at their complete mercy physically.

  “I must admit; your physiology is fantastic. It is like two entirely separate adaptations have gleamed one solitary being. One alien and one familiar. One a potential invader and the other some sick suit of meat worn like a wolf’s clothing! Your bones; more like bamboo than ours. Difficult to break but doable. Your healing is off the charts but killable. Your brain has only minor differences save one gland we assume allows for that mental trick you played earlier. Your blood; it is different. Your appearance; slightly less disgusting than the average Halfer. We know quite a bit.” Boasted Molnar. “I however do not know who or what made you; but you are not natural.”

  “We do have a clue though.” He points to the monitor and a series of surveillance videos play in an embedded corner of the screen. “You see there; some 25 years ago. We had a birth on the moon. A very celebrated set of parents were going to have the first child born off Earth on the moon.” He says strolling closer to the screen. “I believe you may know of this Mr. Secretary! A poor witness to the horrible truth we keep in our restless nights since.” The Secretary does not give an ounce of response.

  “The father of this child was a scientist of sorts. He was very aware of the difficulties a birth in space could cause a normal healthy scenario; much less one with any unforeseen…” he pauses dramatically, “-or foreseen complications. Yet he and his wife carried on like the proud people they were.” He again turns to me with a slight spin. “People had been having strange birth defects for years, since the dawn of man actually but none so pronounced and strangely synonymous with our recent foray into space as residents, pioneers and migrants.”

  “We had no answer for it. Children were being born mutated or altered. And the suspicious masses believed it to be related to man delving into unearthly realms. We all did.”

  He took time to again fix his tunic. “Even the less inclined to superstition found themselves at odds with science and myth. Until this.” The video continued to play. A frantic private room with a medical staff shifted between different cameras and angles in various states of panic. I knew what I was seeing. It was my birth. They may know too but they haven’t revealed it yet. My mother strained and writhed against the labor, my father by her side. They were obviously a strong pair. I was the thing that changed that, broke the link. There it happened, I breached into the world and my father wept, my mother died. I was incubated and moments after their videos all flash white! Save one.

  One remote camera just out of focus in a tiny hallway leading up a set of stairs to the very room I was born caught a lone figure from behind ascending upward. The figure was most definitely Lo’Mor’h! Although the video was hazy it was quite evident to not be human nor anyone of their staff. “And there it is-was-wasn’t!” Screamed Molnar.

  “Nearly everyone in that room became paralyzed for several moments. Violated without any memory of what happened! Without a single question we had the answer to all the misery inflicted on parents for over a generation or longer! In six seconds of film! Six seconds!” He pitched angrily. “Our children weren’t deformed, diseased or even unlucky-they were invaders!” He approached quickly and I braced to be assaulted. He constrained himself at the last second. Again he adjusts his tunic and briefly runs a hand down his face in thought. The Secretary watched on. Everyone in this room knew this reality. Every one of them angry and still hesitantly seeking answers however they could achieve them. Save Dr. O’Shea, I feel her agonizing over the moment and helpless.

  “What are your belief’s creature?” He leaned in stiffly. “I asked you-what are your belief’s monster?” He grimaced with the breath he bellowed.

  I pursed my lips to answer, they trembled. As I began to form a word he struck me in the mouth hard! He drew back his hand in pain and wrenched his fingers. “You have none! None!” He scowled confidently. “Our people; human beings have a wild range of belief. Dreams, goals and religions that drive and protect and guide them. They could not know the truth of these things. This six seconds!” His voice broke. He nodded his head quickly to his minion and the shock poured over me. It was violent and constant! I gnashed my teeth and my senses flared in and out of frequency. My ears rang, eyes shook, until vision was impossible and my nose seared of heating flesh. I felt every pore seize!

  Alarms on the machines I am entangled with cried out with me. After an agonized few minutes the energy stopped. It wasn’t mercy, only a step closer to the next before they were ready-moments from death too soon. They finally had a source to reckon with. A being to manifest years of defeated wait into. Molnar was satisfying years of warped hatred and felt like he was humankind’s savior.

  “Why?” he asked calmly. “If you have some humanity, you are a traitor by blood. If you are more enemy than human, you are a weapon of genocide. If you have no answers.” He stopped.

  “I am Reign.” That is all that came out. It was all I could say.

  At first Molnar looked stunned. He looked at me and cocked his head. Then quickly looked around the room. He began laughing hysterically! The guards soon joined him. The Secretary shifted forward slightly as well. And like an animal in a cage, beaten starved and longing for escape I felt a power in me. That need to flee!

  “I need PEACE!” With my pain and little control of my sharing I ripped into their minds quickly and got what I wanted. Molnar immediately bled from his nose and stood silent. The two guards collapsed instantly. The ensign who electrocuted me like a game fell over his device. Molnar’s eyes rolled back in his head after one last look of hatred, his brain suffering multiple aneurisms. He fell lifeless to the floor. The others would survive to a later day. The Secretary
stood fast from his seat and the video stream stopped. Dr. O’Shea squealed and covered her ears and backed against a wall for support.

  “Help me.” I pleaded; heavily weakened from both my own assault and theirs.

  Without little resistance she hurriedly released my restraints and I fell to the floor. “Can you walk!” She asks lifting me by placing herself under my arm and side. I wobble to stand and we begin moving toward the exit.

  “Where should we go?” She asks completely void of emotion. Without question she is helping.

  “Where are we?” I ask.

  “We are just outside the special detention ward. Where they held you.” She said as we moved, lunging forward quickly.

  “The other Halfer, Itou. Is he still…” I asked and gasped.

  “He is still there. To him then?” I am so grateful for her help. I hope to get the chance to prove it.

  “Yes. We will free him too.” I could nearly stand now, though incredibly weakened. My arm and head throbbed without relief. She noticed the arm and pointed to an emergency medical kit on the wall. She broke it open and looked me in the eye grabbing my arm. I looked directly in her eyes as she quickly reset the bone. It was bearable. She splinted it with ease and we continued on.

  This special ward apparently kept a minimal staff, no doubt as a result of their difficult secrets and questionable methods. There were no new guards. Six cells were shown on a map on the wall. Two blinked with occupants. We proceeded down the corridor unabated.

  “Holy shit!” Shouted Ben then hushing himself. “Bro you going to break me out?”

  I nodded. He glowed with elation! “How does this work?” I asked them both.

  “Over there!” Pointed Ben. “There is a panel for controls built into that wall.” I stood, palms against the clear door of Ben’s cell as Dr. O’Shea went to the panel that folded out into a small podium.

  Gorgon also stood attentive in his cell nonchalantly as he approached the glass. He had removed his top revealing many scars and body tattoos. One on his neck was a deep red and displayed a C and D together forming a circle. A mark of the Crimson Dust, the mark they called the Stain. “They’ll send me.” He said with a grin. “They’ll send me and many more like me, to find you and bring back whatever we can. However, that transpires.”

  We ignored him and released Ben. He then took over helping me stand steady so that Dr. O’Shea could look ahead. “What now?” He said. “We leave this room first. No plans in front of him.” I said motioning toward the beast in the cell behind us.

  “Wise words freaks!” He taunted. “You run on now! Head back to familiar territory, be careful not to leave a trail of crumbs.” He began pounding the glass harder and harder! “They’ll send me! They’ll send me! They’ll send me!” He chanted loudly and laughed hard. “They’ll send me freaks!” His laughter trailed behind us as we left the special unit.

  “I have a ship that can get us out of here.” I said thinking they probably took the Hermes77 for impound. “We just need to get to it.”

  “That’s a bad idea bro. They have had it for days now. It will be bugged and digitally signed to every military and corporate shill in the milky way. I have another way out in the probe and small craft hanger!” Ben winked with a smile.

  “How?” Dr. O’Shea asks as we hurry along.

  Ben wanders quickly over to an access tunnel labeled Jefferies 212. “Inside quick. There will be a group of these tunnels with only maintenance drones all the way there. Otherwise known as lover’s lane.” Ben waved his eyebrows at Dr. O’Shea. “I will absolutely negotiate us a craft. Don’t worry!” He said to her queer look.

  “You aim to steal a government shuttle or net us a ride?” Dr. O’Shea said questioningly.

  “And that ma’am is why you are beautiful and brilliant!” Ben joked.

  “What is in this small hangar?” I ask.

  “Commandeered craft and all of the small crew or probe vessels.” Answered Ben. “Is that cool boss?”

  “Very.” I grinned with bloodstained teeth.

  We moved quietly and undetected through the entrails of the Orbital Guard Flagship. This Stonewall was a small city inside. And like any city, there were and are alleys and places for the rats to make themselves home. I’ve read many a story with such history and just like many human histories, this is repeated today.

  “How are your wounds?” Dr. O’Shea asked quietly as Ben scouted ahead. “I’ve been better Doctor.” I answer as she looks to my arm gingerly. “Dae. It’s Dae.” She gave me permission to use her name and that somehow felt like a bigger relief than leaving this cursed ship. “Thank you Dae.” We lumbered on.

  Reign Chapter 10

  The Root That Travels

  Ships as large as this Planetary Carrier were common in Earth history. Humans had a gross tendency to indulge for effect. Building in deep space allowed for the maximum space to continue this practice. Allowing for grandiose designs of Freudian proportions to come alive and demonstrate presence, power and control, was exactly the idea. Documentaries shown ships like the Flagship Frontier was built to be seen from the ground, ever present and ever vigilant in orbit. The Stonewall was bigger. Avoiding detection in the maintenance tubes was like navigating a dark city. You were well hidden and aside from the constant spinning of yellow and red lights and the occasional whirring scrub-bot there were never any threats of detection. Some arrogant oversight given the nature of the vessel.

  I can feel the pains slowly waning away. My mind however was working aggressively overtime traversing the gauntlet I have just endured over and over again. Could I had done anything differently? What was the first thing to go wrong? Was I just a sacrificial lamb for some other underlying plan? Or worse. Was I some freak; outside the realm of any embrace? So many factors were unsupported by the insane things I have experienced. Ben, Dae and myself have banded together though and that is what matters. A desperate few is better than myself becoming a corpse or fleeing on my own.

  Once in the hangar we finally met some technicians and a hodgepodge group of pilots, soldiers and enlisted people. From our vantage point I counted barely a dozen sparsely scattered over several levels of spacecraft ranging from the first level of minor drones, a second level of varied military light crew vessels and a third of merchant, supply and impounded vessels. There sat Hermes. For us to escape I would need to incorporate Hermes, not only because I will need that ship to get out of Sol space but because it has the biggest surprise they are not expecting.

  “I need to get to my ship first.” I said sharply staring through a slotted grate.

  Both Dae and Ben look dumbfounded. “That ship may be special to you friend but it won’t help us get out of here!” Whispered Ben wide-eyed. Dae nods in agreement.

  “It will help and then some. You have to trust me.” I spoke softly as we crouched hidden behind maintenance bay doors overlooking the first level. “If I can just make it near the vessel I can make it work!”

  “By remote?” Questioned Ben. As we watched, a couple of technicians boarded Hermes. “There goes that idea bro!” Announces Ben with a quip. “You are in no shape to avoid or confront them.”

  “What about that thing you did back there!” Dae mimed a psychic expression. “Can’t you do that again?”

  “What thing?” Ben looked at us both oddly. “It’s not that simple.” I said curtly. On further observation vessels would leave their landing and hover from levels below upward or ride lifts upward and into airlocks to be released into the void outside. The supply and impound level was the last to be passed on the way up, the first level being military which we were on. “It’s possible to access my ship as we pass.” They left their investigation for another time.

  “It’s doable as long as the risk is low enough. I can’t help but feel like some sideshow kindred spirit here Reign;” Ben paused searching around, “and you did bust me out of detention, but I won’t die here today.” His hand reaches out in a fist. I stare at it blankly. �
�You bump it stooge!” I raise my bruised and taped hand into a fist. He glances grossly at it. “N’mind then.” He looks across the bay and lights up. “There’s our baby now!” Ben points at us to stay put and he takes off like it was all just another day at work.

  Dae and I look at each other as if to acknowledge what we have just went through. “What will you do now? I will not keep you.” I say to her as she stares passed me. “I am grateful…” She interrupts me with a glance.

  “I’m coming with you. No matter where that is. What happened back there has changed everything I know and made anything before impossible to go back too. I am as much a part of this now by choice and beyond-I don’t have a choice. But I’m making one now.” She said without a doubt in her words. I could feel her conviction as she took my arm and pulled me in the direction Ben had left in. A rush of relief came to me. These two could be trusted and my spirits are lifted with the support. If only everyone I met were so kind.