Cindrac

by Mikayla Lane

  Cindrac

  By Mikayla Lane

  Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations, affiliations, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  For those of you either banned from FB or deleting your page, find me at:

  Mewe

  https://mewe.com/i/mikaylalane

  Please note the new FB page since they locked me out of the other one and won’t give it back to me.

  https://www.facebook.com/authormikayla.lane.9

  Thanks so much for all of the reviews, suggestions, and comments.

  97,784 Words

  Ver. 1.0 12-3-2020

  League of Aligned Worlds (LAW) Series in Reading Order

  Bria

  Gabriel

  Sara

  Cindrac

  First, Second, and Third Wave Series in Reading Order

  Hunting Cari

  Finding Jess

  Chasing Dare

  Grai’s Game

  Viper

  Taming Jax

  Drago

  Grounding Gracus

  True Traitor

  Mikal

  Manipulating Mikey

  Saving Koda

  Chris

  Niklosi’s Nightmare

  Haruki

  Alderic – Third Wave

  David’s Debt

  Declan

  Strafe – Third Wave

  Dagog’s Dilemma

  Trick

  Trapping Traze

  The shadow governments of Earth are complicit in the alien kidnappings of innocent citizens from all over the world. Traded among the galaxy's darker denizens, humans command high prices as slaves, experimental subjects, and worse.

  The League of Aligned Worlds (LAW) is the only thing that stands between these helpless human victims and the dark fate that awaits them on lawless worlds. A collective of sentient planets with highly advanced technology, LAW, actively monitors Earth and similar worlds for abductions.

  In the majority of cases, LAW rescues the victims, apprehends the kidnappers, and resettles those who cannot go back home on compatible worlds. These are the stories of the humans, who cannot return to Earth, and the new worlds that they now call home.

  Chapter One

  Earth: The year 2273

  The sky appeared to be on fire as dark clouds resembling smoke rolled through the fiery sunset. As Cindrac watched the sun disappear for what he hoped would be the last time, he thought it was a fitting end to what had been nothing more than a shell of an existence.

  After decades of fighting petty wars for a depraved and twisted group of elites that ran the world government on Earth, Cindrac had enough and welcomed death. He knew the re-genetics program would finally give it to him.

  The highly dangerous and experimental plan would be the first of its kind to meld computer chips with open AI and nanites in a functioning human brain and body. The goal was to create the perfect soldier and father of a new breed of humans. Smarter, stronger, faster, and nearly indestructible.

  If successful, it wouldn’t be used for the slave classes of Earth, only to enhance the elites so they could feel more like the gods they pretended to be. The elite would use Cindrac and a female slave named Loquan as never-ending experiments until they outlived their usefulness.

  It would be hell for someone like Cindrac, who, like most male children born in the last century on Earth, had been genetically engineered before birth to be a soldier. All slaves had kill switch chips installed when they were born, but each slave class received others specific to the duties the elite created them to perform.

  For soldiers like Cin, the elite introduced computer chips before puberty to enable control over their muscles, which allowed them to be paralyzed on command. More chips enhanced his strength, agility, and mental acuity to make him more useful in battle but unable to fight back against those enslaving him.

  Over the last few centuries, the elite’s scientists perfected the chips, and the failure rate had been reduced to rare occurrences. The same success couldn’t be said about the open AI and nanite clinical trials. There had never been a successful integration of either in a living human with assimilated computer chips.

  The scientists were baffled over why the nanites and AI fought the computer chips' programming instead of integrating, as designed. Horror stories of those who’d been driven homicidal and suicidal over the attempts were the only thing that rattled Cindrac.

  He feared that he would be put down like a rabid animal and wanted to die with more honor than that. In a life where he’d had no choices, dying with dignity was the one Cindrac would fight the hardest for if he could.

  From what Cin heard, all previous attempts at nanite integration had ended in the test subject's gruesome death either by their hand or through the kill chip placed into the brain stem of all Earth slave children at birth.

  In one instance, the nanites and AI had disabled the kill switch, and the test subject had slaughtered a dozen scientists and one of the elite observing the experiment before soldiers gunned him down.

  That was the death Cindrac preferred, one where he could take out as many of the maniacal elite overlords and their minions as possible before death. He hoped that he would have the same reaction as Private Crease and wouldn’t die screaming in agony, but on his feet, like a soldier of the old stories.

  Cindrac wasn’t the only one who had such strong feelings regarding the elite, though no one dared speak anything out loud. None of the slave class were fooled by the lies and propaganda of the worldwide media and one-world government.

  The entire planet of slave class citizens knew they were experimented on, genetically modified, and tortured for the elite's entertainment. Their compliance was guaranteed through the kill switches, indoctrination, propaganda, and the fear instilled in them daily.

  Those who’d ever tried to fight back were killed in gruesome and twisted ways on live TV to intimidate and frighten the masses. Children, born only for specific slave classes, were forced to watch the horrific acts in their indoctrination schools.

  The only way to escape the control and slavery was death, but even suicide had to be brutal. To ensure the elites couldn’t have the slave brought back to life only to be tortured to death as a warning to others considering it.

  Suicide nets surrounded all high-rise buildings to prevent another mass event like the one 187 years earlier. More than 111,000 slaves around the world decided to make a statement and jumped to their deaths simultaneously. The people's outrage and sadness had nearly toppled the world government, and the elite wouldn’t let it happen again.

  At one point, so many died from intentionally trying to remove the kill switch chip that the government reprogrammed the devices to put the person into a coma if they messed with it. Mass casualty events were rare these days, but not from lack of trying on the part of the slaves.

  For that reason, the elite banned anything sharp except for the slave classes that required their use to complete their duties, and soldiers like Cindrac heavily guarded them. He’d always wanted that assignment, convinced he’d be able to kill himself with a chef’s knife or welder’s torch before anyone could stop him.

  A buzzing sound went off in Cindrac’s head, and he knew it was time to go to the re-genetics lab. Smiling for the first time in recent memory, Cin stood and looked around the sparsely furnished apartment assigned to him when he completed Army training at fifteen.

  A single ragged chair sat facing the large TV with remote, and another chair was bolted to the floor between the legs of a built-in dining room table the size of a serving t
ray. The kitchen consisted of nothing more than a small fridge and microwave.

  A bed took up another corner of the room while a toilet, sink, and shower were crowded into the other. There was no privacy allowed for slaves, and the open design ensured the cameras could capture your every move.

  After twenty-seven years, there was nothing here or anywhere that Cindrac would miss. Like all slaves of the world government, he wasn’t allowed to own anything or have friends and had no family that would care what happened to him.

  Shutting the door behind him, Cindrac was thrilled not to have to look at the bleak apartment any longer and went down the hallway to the stairs. Soldiers Cin had served with in battle came out of their apartments and nodded in respect, unable to show him any other support without fear of reprisal.

  It made Cindrac sick to think that even those, like him, with the deadliest of skills, were terrified of their brutal elite overlords. Nodding in return, Cin continued down the hall to his death.

  Cindrac reached the street and got into the driverless military shuttle waiting for him in front of his apartment building. He looked out the window and hated the defeat and desolation in the eyes of the slaves they passed on the street. Cin knew how they felt and wished things were different but knew there was no hope for change. That time had long passed.

  Cities around the world were nothing more than prisons for the working class slaves. Only the elite and powerful were allowed to own property, have and raise children, or enjoy any freedom. Everyone else was considered replaceable and used solely to better the lives of those in power or entertain them.

  It was a world Cindrac cursed ever being lab-created into and was excited to leave. Cin didn’t fear pain; he’d suffered enough through the decades of wars he’d fought and the injuries that came with it.

  The wars were nothing more than a live battle game among the elite, who fought with one another over petty land, slave, and resource disputes. Soldiers like Cindrac were drafted to one side or the other and forced to fight to the death to determine who got an extra hundred feet of prime coastline or the best sex slaves.

  As Cin faced his impending death, he only feared surviving the procedure and losing what little bit of humanity he’d retained. It was the one thing the elite hadn’t been able to take from him, and Cin didn’t want to lose it now.

  The dismal and decaying buildings of the slave section drew Cin’s gaze before it quickly faded into the distance. The cleaner, well-maintained area, used by the elite and their minions, came into view and held Cin’s attention.

  The pristine sidewalks, café’s, and shops were only for the elite, and it was illegal for slaves not employed in the area to be there. Driving past was the only glimpse the slaves had into the world of the elite overlords and the minions who aided them.

  Seeing the freedom enjoyed by only those in power angered Cin, yet it always surprised him that he couldn’t summon hate for the overlords' children. Even seeing their joyful faces and innocent smiles made him grin as well.

  Cindrac truly believed they were also slaves of the overlords, only with gold and platinum leashes and collars. He wasn’t sure which was worse, being their killing machine or having to live with the monsters who committed such terrible acts against the slave classes.

  Cindrac turned away from the gleaming, bright buildings, shops, and the happy elites and their minions strolling the sidewalks. Instead, he directed his thoughts more inward and used the forbidden practice of meditation to calm his nerves.

  When the shuttle pulled up to the re-genetics building, Cin got out and headed inside without hesitation, hoping with each step that it would be his last in this world.

  The guards at the entrance scanned his chips before Cindrac got close and allowed him to walk in the front door. He’d gone only a few steps before half a dozen guards flanked him and herded him into an elevator. Cin had no desire to fight the death sentence before him but knew the guards didn’t know that and were only doing as ordered.

  For the first time in his miserable, hopeless existence, Cindrac was happy but refused to let it show, just in case the sadistic elites took it from him like they had everything else. Instead, he marched to his death with no expression on his face, revealing none of his thoughts.

  Cindrac had learned long ago that emotion, of any kind, wasn’t approved by the overlords for the slave classes unless it amused them. Like everyone else bred into this nightmarish and evil world, Cin swallowed his every thought and feeling and walked into the lab.

  He wasn’t surprised when he saw the trembling woman already strapped into a chair with dozens of tubes and electrodes attached to various parts of her body. Cindrac knew this was the woman forced to participate in this experiment alongside him.

  Her name was Loquan, and she appeared to be terrified of what was going to happen. Cin felt sorry for the poor woman and wished he could tell her how lucky she was to be here. Still, Cin hoped she wouldn’t suffer too much before death blissfully took her.

  Without being asked, Cin sat in the chair beside the scared woman and kept his eyes trained straight ahead while the techs strapped him down. Cin’s commanding officer briefed him this morning on what would happen, and he waited patiently for the peace of death.

  The commander also fed Cin a pack of lies about being free and allowed to mate and have a family if the procedure was a success. Cin knew better and didn’t want to live in the new hell the elite had planned for him if he survived.

  Even if this experiment worked by some sick twist of fate, it would sentence Cindrac and Loquan to a life of more experimentation until it finally killed them. The elite would never allow them to live if they were indeed powerful in any way.

  Employing a little meditation trick he’d learned from a banned book he found on the battlefield, Cindrac remained unmoving while a swarm of doctors, scientists, and technologists poked and prodded him.

  By the time they finished, Cin had a dozen more chips injected into his body and brain, and an IV was in his left arm. The techs had covered his head and chest in a web of electrodes, and a blood pressure cuff intermittently tightened and released on his arm.

  Cindrac ignored the lab staff's excited chatter and the whimpering of the woman beside him. He begged for death in his mind until the exact moment the nanites were injected and began to flood his body, and his thoughts scattered.

  Hand clenching reflexively, Cin made a fist and tried to stop the uncontrollable trembling in his left arm after the injection of nanites. Next, Cin gritted his teeth to keep from crying out over what felt like a swarm of ants crawling through his entire body, leaving a trail of fire and then ice in their wake.

  Loquan wasn’t lucky enough to control herself and repeatedly screamed until a doctor brutally slapped and then gagged her. The indignity in the face of what the lab staff was doing to Loquan only made Cin more determined to remain in control of himself, if possible.

  The feeling of ants crawling through his body only intensified as the nanites reached each of the computer chips in Cin’s body. He didn’t need to hear the techs calling out where the nanites had spread because he felt every horrible second of it.

  Next, Cin felt the tearing of his skin as his muscles expanded, and still, he swallowed his pain and fear, determined to die with dignity. All thoughts went out the window the moment the nanites reached Cin’s brain.

  A cold paralyzing wave went through Cin, and his body began to convulse violently. He would have smiled, welcoming death with open arms if he had any control over his body at all. Unfortunately, Cindrac was entirely overwhelmed by the seizure engulfing him.

  Barely noting the same thing was happening to Loquan, Cindrac could hear the lab staff panicking around him but couldn’t make out the words. Expecting death at any moment, Cin was surprised and disappointed when the seizure stopped.

  Just when he thought it was over and started to worry that nothing would happen, Cindrac’s entire body went ramrod straight as if shot with thousands of
volts of electricity. The little bit of dark hair from his military required haircut seemed to stand on end, and his teeth violently clenched to the point of excruciating pain.

  Flashes of what appeared to be data raced through Cin’s mind as his heart rate soared to dangerous levels, and his blood pressure skyrocketed. The lab staff and the room began to fade from Cin’s vision, and he prayed the white light he saw in his mind was death.

  “Accept me, and I will give you freedom and power.”

  The strangely electronic voice echoed through Cindrac’s head, and at first, he thought it was one of the lab staff until the digital face of a man appeared within the white light in his mind.

  “Accept me. Together we can rid the evil rampant in this world and free the people.”

  “Who are you?” Cindrac thought the question in his mind, terrified of speaking it aloud if this was a test of the overlords.

  “I am power, revenge, and justice. I can be yours to command. Accept me.”

  Cindrac’s mind struggled to understand what was happening to him while his body began to crash. He was vaguely aware of the lab staff’s attempts to save him and forgot the man's delusion in his mind while he waited for death.

  Data, images, information, and knowledge flooded Cindrac’s mind just as his heart stopped beating, and it gave him pause, but it was too late to do anything about it. Something left his body, and Cin hovered over the shell of himself still strapped in the chair.

  “Accept me, and together we will save this world and many like it. Do not let us all die and leave the people to continue suffering.”

  Tales and legends he’d never heard before of a Higher Being flittered through Cindrac’s mind before a realization hit him that he had to accept the God into his heart. He briefly wondered if that was the being he saw in his mind before the man returned.

  “Accept me, and you will be immortal.”

  Figuring this was the death moment he was waiting for, Cindrac watched his own body speak the words, “I accept.”