MBryO: The Escape

by Townsend, Dodie

  Pushing her thoughts aside, she hastily removed the branches off him. The jet-packs were cumbersome and useless unless she could scavenge some fuel. So she left them where they were for now, once more grabbing Pax under the arms and dragging him up the path. The temperature rose with the sun, and drops of perspiration were trickling down her brow and the middle of her back by the time she deposited him inside the overhang.

  The makeshift screen of branches and twigs covering the opening shut out the sun at least, and provided some protection from the heat. Laying her head on his chest she listened to the beat of his heart. It was strong and steady. As was his pulse. She lifted an eyelid and checked the dilation of his pupils. Everything seemed normal as far as she could tell.

  Whatever strange malaise had overtaken him, didn’t appear to be life threatening. It had to be some sort of sensory overload, as far as she could tell. All she could do was sit back and wait for him to wake up.

  Inhaling deeply, she rose to her feet and made one more trip down the path to the boulder. She rifled through the useless jet-packs, taking anything from the saddlebags that she thought might be of use. She walked back uphill with two canteens of water, a handful of foil wrapped Mre’s, which were the military’s version of ready-to-eat meals, a heat reflective blanket, a couple of flares, a metal box of old-fashioned sulfur sticks and, of course, their blasters.

  Once more under the ledge, she placed her precious cache in the corner of the shallow cave. Then turning she pulled more branches across the opening, giving them some protection from the elements. Weak sunlight filtered through the criss-crossed limbs and twigs, dancing on the rocky floor of the ledge.

  Unscrewing the top off one of the canteens she swallowed a couple of sips of the tepid fluid. While it wasn’t exactly refreshing, it served its purpose. If she rationed the water they might be able to last until Elias returned for them.

  Kneeling down beside Pax she ripped off a piece of his shirt. She dipped the cloth in the mouth of the canteen and dampened his lips with it. Unconscious and in this intense heat, it would be very easy for Pax to become dehydrated. She repeated the process over and over, until his lips opened slightly, just enough to allow the water to drizzle past his tongue, causing him to swallow reflexively.

  She smiled in relief.

  She took another sip of the brackish water herself, and then put the lid back on the canteen. Completely worn out from the events of the past twenty-four hours, she lay down beside Pax on the stone floor. Her body curled naturally into his side. She listened to the even tempo of his breathing.

  It sounded normal.

  Relieved, Melara closed her eyes and within seconds, she slipped into a deep sleep.

  From his spot on the ledge above, a wolf-like creature with the glinting black wings of a dark angel lifted his sensitive nose to the dry air. He sensed nothing unusual in the dry, warm air. There appeared to be no threat to him or the humans taking shelter down below. Sighing in pleasure, he settled down to bask in the welcome warmth of the strong sunshine.

  He thought of himself as ‘He Who is Nameless’. He was extremely cunning and sentient, sensing not only the emotions of others, but able to read their thoughts with his psy-talent.

  ‘Nameless’ was just a laboratory experiment gone wrong. One of many, he thought sadly! From the beginning he had known that he was a failure in his father’s eyes; unworthy of love or affection, unworthy of even his own name.

  To his father’s disgust, Nameless walked on four legs, instead of two.

  In the beginning, his father’s objective had been to create a hybrid being, part humanoid, and part animal. The creature would possess the mental capacity to reason and the bone structure to walk upright. Those were the genetic strands Maxim had focused on when he began to manipulate the strands of Nameless’ DNA.

  Unfortunately, Maxim had made a mistake and Nameless’ genetic mutation resulted in the powerful feathered wings that sprang from his sinewy shoulder bones, instead.

  He had often wondered why his father did not destroy him at birth, since he detested him so. But MBryO was a victim of his own vanity, unable to admit, even to himself that he had failed.

  Disappointed in his winged wolf-like creation, Maxim had yanked him from his incubator and threw the newborn against the laboratory wall in disgust.

  A laboratory assistant had picked the mewling up, toweled the liquid green gel from his silky fur and carried him to the room where Maxim’s other rejects were kept.

  As he grew, his father had locked him inside one metal cage or another, each one graduating in size, until he had reached adulthood. The succeeding three years had been intensely lonely, since he was kept separate from the others who were psy-talented like him, but who walked on two legs instead of four.

  But no longer! There was no cage to keep him in submission, no electric prod to keep his seething temper in check. For the first time in his life, he was free!

  And he intended to do everything in his power to remain that way.

  His thoughts turned briefly to the psy-talented man-child with the pale hair and blue eyes who had released him from the pen he hated so violently. They had connected on some elemental level, communicating briefly, before the boy had jumped inside the metal bird and flew away.

  He sensed a similar connection with the other male, sleeping so deeply, in the shelter down below. The psy-talent of the man was inherently different, yet more naturally developed, than that of the man-child.

  Nameless sensed the man’s ability could be limitless, if he chose to exert it. The strange night vision, with the red shadows, for instance.

  He still remembered the exhilaration that had filled his spirit when he jumped off the rooftop to the freedom beyond. For the first time since his creation, he was able to use his wings to soar across the sky. From tip to tip, the feathery black wings were as wide as a man was tall.

  He had spiraled gently to the ground, drifting downward on the whisper of wind currents. He had savored the feel of the grass beneath paws and between toes that were accustomed to only metal and concrete.

  Once in the darkness of the woods, he had prowled through the dense underbrush. His mind alert, cunningly looking for an escape route through the foliage, seeking the freedom he had craved so desperately all his life. Never again, he vowed would he allow his father to put him in a cage!

  And then, as he crawled through the bushes and the brambles, his psy-talent had encountered the other one. He, too, was carefully making his way through the darkness of the woods, leading the female behind him.

  Rolling to his back, Nameless licked his front paws, cleaning the dust from between his toes, wallowing in the dirt that clung to the rocky overhang. Rumbling softly, he shifted back to his belly and stretched out, feeling the wind on his nose and the sun warming his fur.

  He did not understand why the man felt the need to help the female. She was all but useless to him, being non-sentient and without psy-talent of any kind.

  Still the man had been a lifeline during the trek through the forest. Eerily, their psy-talents had merged.

  Latching onto the infra-red psy-feelers rising from the human, Nameless had been able to see the dark forest through the other one’s eyes. He had been able to anticipate the man’s every move. Together they had destroyed the enemy waiting to capture them at the pavilion.

  The metal flying contraptions they had strapped into were amusing. They reminded him of his cage back in MBryO. But the metal wings had been useful and the humans had gotten safely away from MBryO with them.

  Once clear of the forest, he could have made his way across the horizon on his own. But the link between him and the man had been so vital, so alive! He had been alone, lonely, for all his life. He was reluctant to break that connection with another sentient being right away.

  He decided to follow the two humans for a bit, just in case they could be useful in escaping the minion’s his father was sure to send for them.

  Nameless had be
en aware the instant the human had lost consciousness. He had even considered abandoning the duo. Weakness in any form meant failure and ultimately death. Survival would fall upon the strong.

  Nameless had been willing to follow the other one as long as the man would increase his chances of staying out of Maxim’s clutches. Deciding to cut his losses and set out on his own, Nameless had angled his wings to turn aside when the female came to the aid of the other one.

  He sensed intelligence in the female, but she was neither mutant, nor clone.

  She was not sentient, possessing no psy-talent whatsoever. But she had glided through the air to slide her arms around the other one and propel him to this ridge. She had managed to stay just ahead of the dangerous MBryO drones, Terran Guards and the strange inhabitants of the city on the horizon.

  He respected her desire to live; it equaled his own!

  Hiding in the rocks up above, Nameless had watched as, tirelessly, she collected a pile of branches and limbs. Then using the ledge as a natural foundation, she constructed the lean-to. Nameless had admired her fortitude as, breathing heavily, she tugged the limp body of the other one up the path and into the safety of the nest she had built.

  Gently, Nameless’ psy-talent had probed the minds of those on the ledge below. The man’s mind was shrouded in darkness. If not for the sound of his blood pumping through his veins, Nameless would have thought him dead.

  He felt the relief of the female when she decided, as he had, that the other one would live. The man’s psy-talent had over-extended itself and needed rest to heal itself!

  Worn out from the events of the previous two days, the female had curled up beside the man and fell into a deep sleep.

  No so, Nameless!

  He had spent too many hours caged inside the confines of a metal pen. He intended to doze in the rays of the warm sunlight and savor the taste of his freedom for as long as possible.

  And, as long as it brought no threat to him, he would pay his debt to the humans on the ledge down below, by standing guard over them.

  His liquid black eyes looked out toward the edge of the brown desert lying off in the distance. It looked deserted and peaceful. Turning his head, he looked back toward the city skyline in front of him, searching for any sign that his father had discovered their whereabouts.

  So far there had been no sign of Terran guards or MBryO drone ships. But Nameless knew that his father was a dangerous man. He would allow nothing to stand in the way of building an army of sentient soldiers, much like the renowned Xenaclon warriors of the past.

  Maxim would not give up until he found, and made an example of those, arrogant enough to invade the sanctity of MBryO UNIX and liberate his children.

  Nameless admired the ingenuity of the female. She had created a warm nest for the two of them. For now, it would prove successful in hiding them from their enemies.

  But he knew they couldn’t stay there forever. The humans would need to find a more permanent hiding place if they were to stay out of his father’s clutches.

  So until the man awakened, Nameless would stay on the ledge.

  Just in case!

  Chapter Eleven

  His dark eyes narrowed inscrutably, as Elias watched the bleeping red dot on the screen. His mental shields were up, to keep from alarming the psy-talented menagerie buckled in the sleep beds behind him. Whether it was a reaction from the excitement of escaping Maxim Bryant, or sheer boredom from the extended trip, they were all nestled in the arms of Morpheus.

  A glance at the mirror above his head assured him that he was the only one on board still awake. Even Joshua had found a place back to bed down.

  Elias didn’t envy him his spot, though. The only cot available had been the one beside Bear. And the snores coming from that hairy mutant eclipsed even the irritatingly canned voice messages coming from the ship’s avatar.

  It should have taken them no more than two days to reach Nyla 6. But they were already a day behind due to the fact that the space-hopper was so heavily overloaded. She was moving slow and the helm was unwieldy, making them sitting ducks for any space pirate looking for an easy score. But, right now, pirates were the least of their problems.

  They had detected the presence of a fleet of MBryO drone ships as soon as they entered the little known Pyguliian Galaxy. A drone ship had spotted them and gave chase. It hadn’t been close enough to fire on them, but had succeeded in running them toward one of the many satellites in the small planetary system.

  Right now, they were hiding behind a small moon, caught in the gravitational pull of an uninhabited planet about the size of Terra.

  The hexagon shaped drone ship was one of the DOD’s most elite aircraft. Top-of-the-line, and armed with a cloaking device, the sleek stealthflyer had followed them inside the galaxy and was going planet to planet, systematically searching for them. Elias knew it was just a matter of time before he found them.

  To make matters worse, the red bleeps on the sonar screen assured him that the drone ship had alerted the rest of the armada to their location. An entire squadron of drone ships was hovering just outside the approximate location where they would emerge from the cloudy nebula, effectively blocking their exit.

  Elias shut down the space-hopper’s engines allowing the natural gravitational pull of the planet to keep them trapped in position behind the small moon.

  Melara had discovered the small uninhabited planetary system during her first flight from MBryO. When their spaceship had come under fire from MBryO drone ships, Melara had flown inside the dust ridden galaxy to hide.

  The nebula wasn’t located on any star chart or documented in any computer bank. And the consistency of its thick gaseous atmosphere was perfect if a ship needed to hide from an armada of drone ships.

  Since hiding inside the cloudy veil had worked the first time, Melara had programmed the route into the space ship’s onboard computer for the return trip.

  Unfortunately, the squadron of drone ships must have been scouring the system for the cloned escapees. The armada had simply backtracked to the place where they had lost the shuttle, hoping to pick up their trail again. Now the whole squadron was alerted to their presence inside the nebula, and had camped out, blocking their escape.

  “As I see it, you only have two options.”

  Ignoring the mirror above his head, Elias swung his captain’s chair around to look at the owner of the frail, feminine voice.

  Once, she had been deemed the most beautiful girl in the Xenaclon nation, with her peach colored complexion, long golden hair that flowed over her shoulders, and crystalline blue eyes. Now, Freezhia was just a pale shadow of the person she had been in her youth. She was like a faded picture that had been photo-copied too many times. Dull and washed out.

  But at this moment in time, she was awake and alert, strapped protectively into the medi-bed. Not trusting himself to disguise his relief, Elias swung back around to face the console.

  “It’s good to see you, Freezhia,” his voice sounded thick with emotion. “I was worried you weren’t going to ever wake up.”

  “I almost didn’t! Thank you, Elias the Strong, for all you’ve done over the years, to watch over and protect my children and myself.”

  “It has been my greatest duty…and my greatest defeat, my liege! If not for me…you would not have been captured that day on Ophilliam Beha!”

  “You did everything you could, my friend.” Her tone was laden with sadness. “How were we to know that we would be betrayed by our very own? My brother…”

  “Is dead!” Elias assured her roughly.

  His lips tightened at the memory of just how violent a death it had been. One delivered by his own hands. After the death of their parents, Fredrico and Freezhia, twins, had ruled the Xenaclon nation fairly and justly. Until, Fredrico had sold them out to their enemies. He had foolishly thought that turning his sister over to the Terran Guard and delivering the Xenaclon army into a trap would ensure his own immunity from interstellar justi
ce.

  He had been wrong! A traitor to his people and branded a war criminal by the Terran government, Fredrico had deserved the justice meted out to him.

  Elias allowed her a few minutes to digest the woeful news of her beloved twin’s demise.

  “The last thing I remember…was being wheeled into the laboratory for another of Maxim’s extraction processes,” her voice trailed away without finishing her sentence.

  “Don’t think about it,” he said gruffly, the sight of her lying lifeless and prostrate upon Maxim’s laboratory table still fresh in his own mind. He knew that it would have been the last procedure Freezhia’s frail body would have endured.

  “Why don’t you tell me what those options are, instead, my liege?”

  “Call me Freezhia, Elias! I am queen of nothing. Nor do I ever wish to be again.” There was a trace of amusement in her tone.

  Elias could accept that. Mentally shrugging, he admitted that she had never been ‘queen’ in his thoughts anyway. From the first time he had seen her, parading through their village atop her favorite mount and leading the line of battle scarred warriors behind her, he had only thought of her as ‘beloved’.

  “Umm…well we could always sneak back out the way we came in,” she stated the obvious. “Hopefully, your flying skills will prove capable of avoiding the drone ship that tailed us in here. Then we could back track our flight path and find an alternate route around the nebula, altogether.”

  “What’s the other option?” Elias asked, not because his warrior’s mind hadn’t already determined their available options, but just to keep her talking. For the moment he let himself bask in the sound of her voice, frail though it was.

  Setting her free of her captor had been his goal for so long, that just being here with her was the like heady purple wine they used to drink in the dining halls of Xenaclon.

  “We can use the nebula’s gravitational pull to make our way to the edge of the dust cloud; then use our rockets thrusters to sneak through the drone ships. With the element of surprise on our side, maybe we can float past them before realize it is us.”