by H. T. Kofruk
“They’re trying to send the station into the wormhole” said Terry who was watching with sweat pouring down his temple.
“What? How is that possible?” said Bongani.
“The wormhole will stay open a fraction of a second longer after the station stops powering it. The explosion from the fusion generator explosion will push the station at a ludicrous speed that may just push it through the wormhole before it closes. If we’re lucky, the station might take out a few enemy ships on the other side.”
“Why would they do that?”
“The young prince wants to send a message to his brother.”
The point where the three giant laser beams were converging was red hot and melting. The three ships were surrounded by at least fifty enemy fighters though they had deployed their own drones.
“Take out the fighters!” barked Bongani.
The crew came alive again and pulse cannons and missiles were aimed to aid the three ships in their beautiful manoeuvre. The two tigerships abruptly stopped their laser beams and peeled away from the dragonship, each taking a swarm of enemy fighters with them.
The dragonship itself was barely ten thousand feet away from the station when it opened its missile shaft and released the three missiles before turning around and diving at a frightful speed towards the planet’s surface. The combined effort of the three ships had left a large hole in the bottom centre of the station towards which three missiles, almost surely nuclear, moved swiftly with random movements to confuse the defence.
Only one of the missiles entered the hole, but that was more than enough. The flash of the fission explosion was immense; the following fusion explosion was at least ten times larger, a painful light entered the retina of the crew of the Dark Echo even though most of it was filtered out. Just as Terry had pointed out, the explosion jerked the whole station forward into the giant green hole in space-time. Both sources of green and white light soon disappeared and the sky above Onut gave off the orange hue of dusk.
It took a moment for the crewmembers to grasp what had happened. Everyone looked at everyone else with bewilderment and excitement in their eyes.
“The remaining enemy vessels have surrendered, captain” said the communications officer.
This triggered a roar of elation on the bridge with crewmembers hugging each other and jumping up and down. Bongani turned to see David smiling and mock-wiping sweat from his forehead. Terry, on the other hand, had a much more serious expression.
The head of Admiral Hernandez appeared. Instead of congratulating everyone, he simply asked what the situation on board each ship was like. The heads of each of the captains appeared as they reported the damages taken by their vessels. When it came to the turn of the prince’s dragonship, the head of the Mongolian army general appeared instead.
“Prince Han Fann sends his apologies for not reporting in person, admiral” he said. “He is too distraught after the battle and has left straight for his quarters.”
Despite being a complete breach of protocol, the admiral just nodded his head. The reports were concluded and further orders were given, namely the deployment of a battalion of Ewani warriors back on their home planet.
When things had calmed down, Bongani went to talk quietly with Terry. Both were exhausted from the battle and would have loved nothing more than to drink and pass out for a day.
“That must have been tough for the princeling” said Bongani.
“You can’t even imagine. He’s got to live with the guilt of having killed thousands of his own countrymen, just to send a message to his bastard brother. He’s going to have it tough for a while.”
“I thought he was a pampered little wanker. That was some flying he did there.”
Chapter 24: Assault
‘Humanity’s greatest strength is its memory; humanity’s greatest weakness is its propensity to forget’ – Sally Tan-Sato, political activist, year 2669
Heera’s head hung limp to one side. She couldn’t move her eyelids so her stinging eyes were giving out profuse amounts of tears. She could see the blurry outline of Haseeb in his blue checkered sweater and cotton trousers walking around in the white lab. The outline of Bin’ja’s massive body was lying on a steel table. She could barely make out the rising and falling of his chest.
The blur that was Haseeb approached. “I’m sorry about all this, Heera” he said.
She tried to move her lips and then her eyelids to express her fury. Nothing worked. She had to show him how wrong this was, how she would never be with him, how his twisted notion of togetherness would make her kill him. A gurgling sound erupted from her throat. The accumulated saliva came dribbling from the corner of her mouth, pushed out by her feeble expression of rage.
“Oh come, Heera. You’re dribbling” he said as he dabbed her mouth with a cloth. He then took his fingers and moved her eyelids for her so that they would no longer be dry and stinging. When they were lifted, she could clearly see his face and the body of Bin’ja behind him. His face seemed similar but for something in his eyes. The way he looked at her gave the impression that he was in some way contorted by some inexplicable pain. Bin’ja was breathing deeply but was burned badly by the electric jolt, his recently healed skin once again afflicted with scars.
She wanted to lash out and punch Haseeb. She managed to convey this thought through her eyes.
Haseeb put on a hurt expression. “Why are you angry with me, Heera? For immobilizing you? From all you’ve told me about the war going on, I’m probably saving your life.”
Heera rolled her eyes. This made Haseeb visibly agitated and angry. He rushed over and grabbed her by the chin.
“Do you think I’m being ironic and unfair?” he said as he brought his face within an inch from Heera’s. She could smell the processed nutrition in his breath. “Why don’t I just kill you here if you’re going to throw yourself away like that? Do you think I saved your life once already just to see you throw it away?”
Heera’s eyes were blurring again. He suddenly released her face and tenderly wiped the tears that were forming in her eyes before turning around.
She couldn’t believe her eyes when she finally looked at the rest of the room beyond Bin’ja. This part of the ship had been off limits to her and though she had been curious to why, she had decided to respect the privacy of her host. Now she knew why he kept this room private.
The lab was well lit. Most of the furniture and equipment was white. The floors and tables were immaculately clean. In many ways, it resembled the many labs in which Heera had worked but for the four glass cylinders at the far end.
The one to the right was surely a male given the size. Though the Hummer was still probably alive, he was completely immobile and probably little more than a vegetable. The hair on his body had been meticulously shaved off and shackles bound his wrists and ankles. The oxygen mask had been adapted to the breathing hole below his chin and he floated in a vat of transparent blue liquid that gave him a ghostly look. To his right was a female, an adolescent and an elder.
She had no idea what Haseeb was doing to these sentient beings and didn’t really want to find out. But then a horrible though swept through her mind; what if he wanted to keep her in the same condition?
Haseeb smiled obscenely. “Don’t worry, my darling. I would never do that to you, nor to your friend here. He’s not really my type.”
A nauseous image floated in her head and she blinked it away. It was only then she realized that she could blink! Whatever drug Haseeb had used on her, the effects were wearing off probably faster than he had planned. She quickly ceased to blink and let tears accumulate in her eyes. She had never been thankful for the ability to blink and it almost drove her mad to have to keep herself from using it. Her eyes stung and she imagined them turning red as the blood vessels became inflamed.
“When you came to this world, it was the first time that I prayed to the Lord Vishnu for answering my prayers” said Haseeb. “I’m not a religious man. I’m a man
of science, rationality and reason. But eight years alone with only aliens as company can drive any man to look back at his faith.”
He turned and walked towards the four unanimated Hummers in the cylindrical vats. He caressed the reinforced glass of the female Hummer. Heera could see the distinctly feminine body shape, the lone teat hanging from her abdomen and the lack of male genitalia. “She was my favourite among the females. There is no reason that two sentient beings, both perceptive of the pleasures of sex, cannot engage in sexual activities even if it can never end in procreation. Sex between humans seldom ends in a new born baby anyhow.”
He walked to the side towards the large male. Heera didn’t want to learn of his exploits in inter-species sex but she could see that he was going to continue anyway. “Rosey here is an anomaly among the Hummers. As I have explained, the Hummer females later morph into males. Their anatomy changes significantly in a very complex manner and they grow male genitalia. Male hormone levels rise by two thousand per cent in the space of two months. This ‘second puberty’ is a drastic and viciously rapid process that five per cent of the males never get through. Most of the failed transitions end in death. One in every ten, however, lead to other, more interesting results.
“Rosey almost died after his morphing period. He never fully developed male genitalia and his testosterone increased to only half of the normal levels. That gave him the big male physique but in many ways, he was still a female, especially mentally. Such individuals, if they survive, become a sort of ‘omega male’, you could say a submissive jester. They often become victims of rape and murder. I saved him and made him my own.”
Heera could feel her fingers. She gently nudged them to provoke the nerves. She dared not look as if she was concentrating on anything and kept her sore eyes open without blinking.
“Do you know what I imagined as I watched you heal in that vat of regenerative liquid?” continued Haseeb. Heera cried out in her mind that she had absolutely no desire to know. “I thought about touching you, scars and burns and all. But for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to do so.”
Thanks a lot you pscycho.
“I stared at you day after day, watching your skin heal and regain its beautiful paleness.”
She knew that Haseeb had seen her naked body for months on end, but she had assumed it was like showing her body to a medical doctor. She had seen many bodies during her own career and though she sometimes did fantasize about a patient’s body, she immediately considered it unprofessional and indecent. She had since learned to look at bodies with a trained detachment. Upon realizing that she was the first female body that Haseeb had seen in years, and that he had looked at her with an incongruous lust that bordered on obsession, she shuddered both physically and mentally.
Haseeb must have noticed since he looked at her and then walked towards her. He stroked her face with the back of his hand and continued down the neck to her collar bone. She could tell that he wanted to descend further but was conflicted for some reason. Was she some kind of prize for his abstinence?
She could feel the strands of string around her wrist and her ankle. She was quite sure she was drugged with jakarotanium, a compound made primarily of the secretions of a type of carnivorous seaweed common to the vast oceans of planet Nekkaisei. Feeling in her limbs was slowly coming back but she would remain weak for at least a couple hours. The good news was that the knots on her wrist were quite loose. Haseeb had obviously not learned how to tie the best knots as she had in officer training.
Haseeb released her once more. His eyes had lost their manic disposition and had regained the calm, scholarly look. She found, however, that they now additionally housed a look of confidence and domination. After the rather traumatizing incident where he had electrocuted Bin’ja and Heera, the two elusive variables in his perfect plan were firmly under his control.
He turned and headed for the strong steel table on which Bin’ja was lying. His breathing had slowed since Heera last noticed him and she worried whether the electric shock had done lasting damage to him. Haseeb put on a white coat made of bio-rubber that quickly tightened around his body and limbs. He voice-activated a locked cabinet that opened to display an array of sophisticated medical tools. After pondering a few moments before the cabinet, he chose one of the three laser saws that also happened to be the largest.
Heera was horrified by what he was attempting to do; he was about to put on a sick show just for her. There couldn’t be any other rational reason behind opening up Bin’ja than to completely break Heera and ensure her subservience to him. She could feel that her throat and vocal chords would be responsive if she decided to end the pretence of paralysis. But then he would tie her up even tighter, perhaps even putting her in a semi-vegetative state like the four Hummers in their giant test tubes. It was now clear to her that the only way to go free was to kill Haseeb and take his ship by force.
But could she sacrifice Bin’ja for that? He had saved her life not only by shoving her into an escape pod, but also by touching her mind so it wouldn’t fall into oblivion when she was recovering. If he could live, wasn’t it worth becoming an object of sexual pleasure for a mad scientist? She literally had only seconds to make the decision.
When the holograph of Weirdo appeared, she almost felt like going to kiss him. He was banging on the hatch of the ship accompanied by two other males almost as large as him.
“His curiosity will be the end of me” said Haseeb aloud.
More true than you think.
He put down the laser saw and walked irritably to the door and down the stairs to the hatch. As soon as his footsteps were no longer audible, Heera struggled with the strings. Her vision was still blurry and her head felt like a large rock. She was much weaker than she thought so merely the effort of keeping her head up was making her sweat profusely.
She discovered that she was sitting on a metallic chair and her two ankles were tied to the two front legs. If she struggled too much with her legs, she would probably topple over backwards. A moan exited her mouth as she tried to get the strings on her wrist to slide over her hands. Though the knots were not well done, the strings were thin and tough, probably made from strands of fibre-plastic. Through the general numbness of her body, she could feel the acute pain from the strings digging into her still relatively new skin. She almost fainted from the effort but after a good thirty seconds of struggle, her right hand finally came through.
She was so tired that she felt like lying on the floor to sleep. Drowsiness beckoned her towards sweet slumber but she knew the horrors hidden beyond. She forced herself to concentrate and bent forward to untie her ankles. Her lack of coordination and sense of balance had her crashing to her right side. Her head started to spin and she was afraid she was going to pass out.
When the world stopped spinning, she looked at the holograph of Haseeb and Weirdo talking. The holograph didn’t relay any sound and even if it did, she probably wouldn’t have understood most of the humming sounds. After making sure that he was still in conversation, she focused her attention on her right ankle. She couldn’t slip her foot out of this one which would force her to untie the knot using her numb fingers. Clumsily, she started to pick at the knot with her fingernails. After a few seconds, she only managed to make the knot tighter.
She started to despair. Haseeb was still talking to Weirdo with frustrated gestures. She looked around desperately for a sharp tool. The laser saw was on a table not twenty feet from her. In her condition, the twenty feet might as well have been twenty miles. Gasping for breath, she dragged herself on the floor, the new skin on her face feeling the dust. It took her two whole minutes to reach the table. She lifted her arm to grab the tool’s plastic strap that was protruding from the table edge.
When she grabbed and pulled it down, a frightful clatter erupted. She was almost sure that Haseeb had heard it but looked towards the holograph to see him still chatting. She turned on the laser saw and a red beam shot out from one end of the blade to th
e other. Careful not to injure herself, she gently pushed the saw on one of the chair legs. A burning smell filled her nostrils as the saw cut like a knife through butter. One more leg to go.
Grabbing the edge of the table, she pulled herself up. She was taking a risk by doing this; if the table was not fixed to the floor, it could have come toppling down on her. Thankfully it didn’t and she was soon panting from exhaustion but upright with only one leg attached to the chair. After wiping sweat from her forehead and eyes, she picked up the laser saw again.
“What are you doing?” said Haseeb standing at the door.
She almost collapsed from the fright. The mad planetologist looked at her with a pained expression.
“Put down the saw, Heera” he said calmly but with a hint of melancholy in his voice.
“No” she gasped.
“Please put it down. I don’t want to hurt you”
“Let us go!”
A million thoughts went through her head. She was holding a weapon but was pathetically weak and uncoordinated with one leg still attached to a cumbersome chair. If he decided to run for a weapon she would have no way to stop him. But instead, he approached her. She could at least be thankful for that.
She struggled to slow her breathing. She could feel the stress and fear of the situation making her nerves splinter. But she had to calm herself since she would only have one realistic chance to kill this son of a bitch. If she missed and he got the upper hand, she might as well say goodbye to leaving this planet forever. She tried to remember her martial arts training and forced herself to breath deeper and slower.
Haseeb’s expression didn’t change; it showed both the sadness of being betrayed and the confidence of being dominant. When he was in range, she swung the saw at his leg, meaning to only wound him and slow him down. She was hopelessly weak and slow and he dodged easily. He lifted his hand and delivered a slap with the back of his hand that landed squarely on her temple, sending her sprawling on the floor.
