by Aaron Hubble
Calier approached a door labeled: Homa Auditorium. This made sense. If this was a teaching hospital, then they would have large rooms where students could observe surgeons and doctors evaluating and performing operations on unique cases. Calier stood under the passive scan and watched the screen in front of him flash green and display a picture of his face and credentials.
There was a soft click of a lock retracting into the cylinder and the door slid open. Calier smiled and made a note to buy the tech team in Alam dinner when he returned. The ID chip had worked flawlessly so far.
Calier stepped into the dim room and waited a moment for his eyes to adjust.
The auditorium was filled with hundreds of upright silver cylinders standing in neat rows. Cautiously, he scanned the room before moving. It was silent save for the humming of equipment. The room made his skin crawl. Something felt off. It felt like a tomb. Calier walked slowly toward one of the cylinders, and peered through the small window.
The face of a woman, eyes closed, looked back at him. Calier stumbled backwards, his heart hammering in his chest. Taking a deep breath, he stepped back to the cylinder and studied the face of the woman. His worst fears were revealed. The woman was Am’Segid. Deep amber streaks of color ran through her brown hair. A quick check of several more cylinders confirmed all were occupied by Am’Segid women.
Why?
Calier hung his head. What more could the humans take away from them? Rage boiled inside him. He wanted to hurt somebody and let them feel the pain he’d been going through the last three months.
The sound of shuffling feet came from several rows over. Calier held his breath, but didn’t hear any other sound. He was sure it had been there.
Moving slowly, Calier peeked around a cylinder and looked down the first row.
Nothing. Just more of those awful containers filled with women. The second row was the same. Perhaps his paranoid, exhaustion-numbed mind was hearing noises that didn’t exist. He crept quietly toward the third row.
The hairs on the back of his neck rose and he heard the rustle of clothing behind him. Without thinking Calier ducked his head as a crackling noise passed his ear. He rolled to the side and came up in a defensive posture, facing in the direction of the noise. A man stood before him. He wasn’t tall and was just a little on the heavy side. In his hand he held a small black device crackling with blue electricity. By the looks of the weapon, it would not have done pleasant things to him.
They squared off. Calier stayed low, ready to move. The man lunged awkwardly, jabbing the device at his midsection. Calier feinted to the left, and spun out of the way. He caught the man’s arm, twisted it up behind his back, and pushed the man to the floor landing heavily on top of him. The black device clattered to the tile floor, and skidded to a stop next to Calier. He scooped it up with his free hand and pressed it against the human’s neck.
The man groaned and then spoke, his words muffled by the floor pressed against his face. “Okay, okay. I give up. I know I shouldn’t be in here. What do you want me to do now?”
Calier heard the translation in his ear piece. In the rush of adrenaline, he forgot to respond in the human language. The words tumbled out of his mouth in a rush of Aerean standard.
“Me? I don’t know what to do now,” Calier said.
The man turned his head so his words could be heard more clearly. “You’re…one of them, a native.”
Calier nodded after hearing the translation, readying himself to sprint out of this building and find a place to hide in the city until he could make his way out.
“Can you help me?” the man said.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Aereas - Human base in Homa former Am’Segid great city
This had to be a trick.
He searched his brain for the word he needed and made his lips and tongue form the strange sounds. “Why?”
“You know my language,” the man said surprised.
He nodded again and repeated himself. “Why?”
“I need to leave the city. I can’t be a part of this anymore. What we’re doing to your people isn’t right. It’s terrible. Will you help me escape?”
Calier kept his knee in the man’s back. “Why?” he said again.
“They’ll do bad things to me if I don’t keep helping them hurt your people, do you understand?”
He nodded again, but still didn’t believe him. This could be a ruse, a way to find out where Alam was located. He’d been so careful; no one had even looked suspiciously at him.
Calier searched for more words. “What…um…what is this?”
The man groaned underneath him. “If you let me up, I’ll explain it to you.”
Indecision gripped Calier. He would be taking a terrible risk letting the man go, but he really didn’t have much of a choice. He couldn’t hold him down forever. Lifting his knee from the man’s back, Calier released his arm and slowly stood. His nerves on edge, he backed away and readied to spring if the man did anything.
With a groan, the man rolled over and rubbed his upper arm before pushing himself to his feet. Calier watched him closely. He didn’t look like one of the soldiers.
“Thanks,” he said.
Calier gestured in the air, generally indicating the room they were in.
“Right. This is the extraction lab. Where my people put your women in these stasis units and harvest an enzyme.”
Calier waited for the translation and then pulled the translation unit from his pocket. He reset the device to not only translate the human words in his earpiece but also playback his Aerean words in the human language so he could communicate with the man. “Where does the enzyme come from?”
“From the women. They’re pregnant.” He pointed to his midsection and made a gesture indicating a pregnant belly.
Calier stood up straight. Had he heard this man correctly? All these women were pregnant? It couldn’t be.
“Pregnant?” he murmured.
The man nodded. “It’s a human/native hybrid. All the women here are pregnant and then the babies will be terminated before they’re born.”
Calier narrowed his eyes and shook his head. The anger returned. The women were just cattle, bred and used for some sick and twisted purpose. These people were monsters. All the women needed to be released from these cages. He stalked toward the man and watched him take several steps backward before he bumped into a stasis unit.
“Open them,” he said grasping the front of the man’s shirt. The man closed his eyes and turned his head to the side.
“I can’t, it takes too long,” the man whispered. “We would be captured and the women would either die or be put back into the units, but we can save one woman. I’m in the process of waking her right now.” He opened his eyes and looked at Calier. In them Calier saw desperation mixed with determination. “Help me save her? She’ll die in a few hours if we don’t,” he pleaded.
Calier struggled internally. He wanted all the women, but understood what this man was saying; it was impossible to get hundreds if not thousands of women out. The frustration overwhelmed him, and he felt helpless, but they could get one if what this man said was true.
That was the big question, wasn’t it?
Could he trust this man? So many things could go wrong. The logical part of his mind said to leave right now, but this man knew he was in the city, which might lead to a manhunt he was unlikely to escape. Without him, Calier couldn’t even get one woman out. He didn’t know anything about the stasis units. He needed his help.
A quiet beeping toned from one of the other rows. The man’s nervous eyes darted to the side and then back to Calier.
“That’s the woman’s unit. I can take her out now.”
Calier searched the man’s eyes, trying to pick up a hint of deceit, but could not. There was every reason not to trust this human. Millions of dead Am’Segid testified to that fact from their unmarked graves. His mind flashed to Evie. Even though he’d tried to dislike her, she’d quickly won
him over with her smile and warmth. Perhaps not all humans were monsters.
Most likely this man was lying, but Calier’s choices were very limited. Making the decision he hoped he wouldn’t regret, Calier let go of the man’s shirt and gestured in the direction of the sound. He stepped gingerly around him and moved deeper into the room. Calier followed and stopped in front of a cylinder. The man worked through several holo-screens until there was a click and a hissing sound from the tube. The front of the cylinder moved, and the man grabbed the now exposed edge and swung the door open.
Calier gasped. “Berit,” he whispered.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Aereas - Human base in Homa former Am’Segid great city
Calier felt like he’d just passed out of reality and walked through the mist into a world of dreams. Could this really be Berit? He stepped past the human and touched her face. His fingers traced the scar that ran down the side of her face and brushed a few strands of golden hair from her temple.
It was her. It was Berit. The woman he’d found bleeding in Gadol City the day of the initial invasion, the one who’d become like a daughter to him and made the endless march across the plains and through Sho’el bearable, she was here. Right in front of him.
After having her ripped from him in the forest and despairing if he would ever see her again, some twist of luck or fortune had brought him here, at this time, to find her.
No it wasn’t luck, it was blessing.
“Do you know her?” the human asked.
Calier just nodded as he continued to stare in wonder at Berit. A moment later he heard the sound of something being wheeled toward him and saw the human pushing a gurney. They pulled Berit out of the jelly-like substance holding her in place.
Calier wrapped her in a blanket he’d found on the gurney and wiped the excess jelly away from her face and hair. The human stepped next to him.
“Cullen,” he said.
Calier stopped and looked at him. “Cullen?”
“My name is Cullen.”
Calier understood. He pointed to himself. “Calier.”
He nodded and gave him a quick smile and then went back to work.
Calier did a quick evaluation. Berit was extremely pale and thin except for her small round belly. He pressed his fingers to her throat and found a pulse. It was weak and slow, but it was there.
Looking up, he saw the man studying them. The human stared at the woman, an odd expression on his face. It made Calier wonder why he’d chosen to wake Berit. But there was no time for questions.
“How do we get out of here?” Calier asked.
Cullen was silent for a long moment and Calier wondered if he’d been heard. Then he shook his head and looked away from Berit.
“Right. We can take her out by the service ramp. There should be a transport vehicle there we can steal and use to get out of the city. I might have someone who can help us get through the gate without drawing attention.”
Calier nodded. He bent low and placed a soft kiss on Berit’s forehead before covering her face with the blanket. “Tell them she’s dead?”
The man looked a bit confused at first and then caught on. “Yes, good idea. If anyone asks this is a woman who died, and we’re taking her out.” He moved around to the back of the gurney and began to push it out of the row and toward the door. The doctor still slept, tucked under the desk.
They wheeled the gurney through the door and into the hallway, still empty, and Calier let himself take a breath. They walked for about five minutes in silence, he following behind the human and the gurney, until Cullen passed through a large open doorway and into a spacious room lined with crates and supplies. A small electric vehicle was parked next to the loading ramp.
Another human was unloading the vehicle. Calier tensed and heard Cullen utter some words quietly. The ear piece didn’t translate the words, but he guessed they were probably curses.
Apparently some things were universal no matter how many light years separated races.
The man stopped working and walked toward them. He wore the same type of uniform as Calier, and a sidearm was strapped to his hip. Calier felt exposed, like the whole human army could see through his thin disguise.
“Can I help you?” the man asked.
“We were told to bring this…ah…body to you for transport.” Cullen said.
“I don’t have any orders for transporting a body. When did this happen?” the dock worker consulted a handheld device.
“Just recently, the order may not have come through yet,” Cullen said.
The man looked up from his screen. “I can’t do anything with a body until there’s an order. So wherever you brought this stiff from, you should take it back.”
Calier looked at Cullen and saw he was at a loss and didn’t know what to say or do next. The moment of silence was broken by a soft moan and slight movement from beneath the blanket. The man’s eyes went wide and he took a step back.
“Wait…I thought you said this was a dead body?” the man gaped.
Calier could see Cullen wasn’t ready to take action, so he stepped forward quickly and thrust an open hand into the man’s chin, rattling his teeth together. The man staggered backward and Calier advanced again, trying to land a kick to the man’s midsection. He wasn’t fast enough and the human was able to catch his leg and fling him to the side.
Calier was no fighter. Without the element of surprise, he was no match for someone bigger and probably better trained than he was. Several weeks of physical training with Ammaya had helped, but he was now in over his head.
He crashed to the floor, his head bouncing off the concrete. The world around him wavered, his vision blurring. Pain rumbled through his head like a summer storm. He skidded to a stop against a pile of boxes, upsetting the stack. Several tumbled to the floor.
Calier pushed himself off the concrete. He put hands to his head trying to stop the raging pain. Opening his eyes, he saw the human who’d thrown him speaking into a communication device.
“Security to service ramp! Security—”
His words were cut off as Cullen launched himself onto the dock worker. The men wrestled across the floor in a desperate struggle. At first Cullen held his own, but the other human began to gain the advantage. His larger size and clearly better fighting skill began to assert itself.
Calier shook his head, trying to catch a clear thought. He staggered toward the pair, unsure of what he would do. Maybe the two of them could subdue the man. His hand brushed his pocket and he felt the stun weapon Cullen had dropped. The stunner in his hand helped clear the remaining fog from his mind and he hurried forward. When an opening appeared, Calier thrust the weapon against the man’s neck and pressed the trigger.
The stunner crackled and the man jerked several times before he went limp and lay still on top of Cullen. Calier rolled the human off Cullen and helped his unlikely ally to his feet.
“Thanks,” Cullen said.
Calier nodded.
Cullen ran his hands through his hair. “We need to get out of here quickly. Security must be close and the woman is starting to wake up. She needs a special regimen of drugs before she completely wakes up or her body could go into shock and her organs could shut down.”
“You have the drugs?” Calier asked.
“Yes.” Cullen pulled a small black case from his pocket.
Calier gestured toward the vehicle.
They wheeled the gurney down the ramp, hoisted Berit onto the flat bed of the transport vehicle and strapped her down. Cullen jumped into the driver’s seat. Calier hesitated, and then moved to the driver’s side, gave the man a shove and gestured toward the passenger seat. He’d been in Homa numerous times and knew the city even if it had been changed a bit from the bombing. Calier wanted control of the vehicle because he still didn’t trust the man. He was a human.
At first the man glared at him. “You know the city?”
Calier nodded. “I’ve been here before the bombing. I kn
ow my way around.”
Cullen slid over and Calier swung into the driver’s seat. He examined the controls and realized he didn’t know how to drive the vehicle.
The man gestured toward a lever while fumbling with the black case holding the drugs Berit needed. “Forward and reverse. Pedal on the right is the accelerator and the left is the brake.”
The electric motor whirred to life, and the vehicle jerked when he pressed the accelerator. Cullen almost dropped the syringe in his hand. They moved quickly away from the hospital and into the darkened streets.
From the corner of his eye he saw the human insert the needle into Berit’s arm. She remained motionless.
When he was done, Cullen turned back around. “She’ll need the blue one in three hours.”
Calier nodded and stared out the forward window. The city was deserted and deathly quiet. A reminder of what had been done to his home world. He gripped the steering wheel and tried to avoid the debris and broken pavement stretching out in front of him.
Cullen touched his ear and then spoke into the air.
“Jane, can you tap into the security channels and see if they’re after us. We’re fleeing through the city.”
Calier didn’t know who he was talking to, but he seemed to be trying to get help from someone.
“They know already? How are they following us?”
Cullen slammed his hand into the dash, startling Calier.
“I forgot the chip,” Cullen said. “Of course they would know it was me. I’m not where I’m supposed to be at this time of night.
Calier shot him a confused look.
“I have a chip implanted behind my ear. It has my information and gives me access to different places,” Cullen explained. “They can track us through that chip. There is virtually no place where we can hide.”
