Patrick fought to open his eyes as he regained consciousness. It felt as if someone had placed great weights on his eyelids, or perhaps sealed them shut with industrial-strength adhesive. Straining, he eventually managed to open them. Patrick’s head was spinning and he felt a bit nauseated. After blinking a lot and forcing himself to concentrate, he began to slowly come round. He tried to move his hands but couldn’t, his arms were tied to something above him and he had thick cuffs on his wrists. The human looked to his right and saw Saleek. The lyan looked to be in bad shape, his face was bruised and cut and his head had dropped so that his chin was virtually touching his chest. The poor alien was unconscious and had his arms tied to a chain suspended from the ceiling above him, just like Patrick had. The human frantically glanced around the room as some of the grogginess faded from his mind and he realised that they were both in serious trouble. The room they were in was fairly small and appeared to be constructed entirely of metal. Filthy stains streaked the walls and the whole place seemed to be encrusted with dirt and grime. There didn’t appear to be anything in the room except for a couple of aging, battered plastic chairs in the corner. Set into the corner of the far wall was a door that had probably once been solid but was now being devoured by rust. Thin beams of artificial light lanced through tiny holes in the door’s material. People laughing, objects clinking and something banging could be heard – there were definitely people on the other side of the door.
Probably our captors, Patrick thought grimly.
He tried to free his hands and strained with all the might he could muster in his present condition. It was no use. The chains shackling him to the ceiling barely moved, there was no chance he could break them even if he was at full strength.
It’s too bad the chains aren’t in the same condition as the rest of this room, or even the door...
Patrick turned to his right to look at Saleek.
‘Psst! Hey, Saleek! Saleek, wake up!’ he called out desperately.
There was no response at all from the spiky lyan, his head still hanging low and his breathing shallow.
‘Damn it!’ exclaimed the human in frustration.
With no other options presenting themselves, Patrick tried again and again to break free of his restraints, or at least loosen them. Grunting due to the force of exertion, he tried on and off for about twenty minutes before stopping. The human’s head dropped and he panted rapidly to get his breath back. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead and dropped onto the dirty metal floor as his whole torso heaved to suck in big breaths. It was no good. His restraints were unmoving and his only ally completely unresponsive, still unconscious. He was in big trouble – they both were.
Suddenly the rusty door to the room was opened, the ancient hinges making an ear-splitting creaking sound as they moved. A fairly tall, strong-looking figure with blue skin and a surly expression on his features walked into the room, closing the door shut again once he was inside. He turned and regarded Patrick with what might have been a condescending sneer, or maybe a sadistic smile. Either way it made Patrick shiver as his blood ran cold.
‘Ah, our other guest is now awake. What is your name?’ asked Korrol as he eyed up Patrick.
Patrick looked at Korrol then looked away and said nothing.
‘I must say,’ continued Korrol as he started to pace slowly around the room, circling Patrick repeatedly, ‘you were unconscious for quite some time there. To be honest, I was beginning to worry that I’d completely broken your face and smashed in your vocal cords. That wouldn’t have been any good at all, since you need those intact to answer the questions I am about to ask you.’
Patrick watched Korrol as the Oomlock circled him but continued to stay silent. Korrol stopped briefly, staring hard at the tired and bruised human, before starting to circle him again.
‘Make no mistake, you are my prisoner here. Believe me, no one is coming for you. In fact, the only reason you are still alive is because you have information that I need. So it is in your best interests to start talking – and quickly.’
‘And if you don’t like the answers I give?’ asked Patrick, steeling himself for what was almost certainly coming, judging by the bruises and cuts on Saleek’s head and body.
‘I think you can work that one out for yourself – just take a look at your spiky little friend over there,’ replied Korrol, gesturing to a still-unconscious Saleek whose body was only upright because he was chained to the ceiling.
Patrick glanced at Saleek and swallowed hard, his muscles tensing as fear began to grip him.
‘Now then,’ said Korrol as he stopped pacing around the room and looked hard at Patrick. ‘Question one: what kind of creature are you? I’ve never seen your species before. You do vaguely resemble my kind, in a pale and odd-looking sort of way.’
Patrick forced himself to meet his captor’s gaze and concentrated hard to ensure he did not waver nor let his lower lip tremble, lest he reveal that he was terrified and give the Oomlock the upper hand in the interrogation.
‘I’m a human,’ he stated simply.
‘A hoo-mann?’ repeated Korrol, looking a little confused. ‘That’s such a weird name you can’t possibly have made that one up. Which planet are you from?’
‘I’m from a small planet called New Earth.’
Korrol’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Patrick.
‘Never heard of it. Where is it?’
Patrick swallowed and replied, ‘It’s on the edge of the populated galaxy, part of the outer colonies.’
Korrol paused for a while, as if trying to determine how plausible Patrick’s story was.
Eventually, he continued, ‘I’ve still never heard of it but then again, I’ve never been to the outer colonies before. Backwater hellholes, that’s what most people call the little planets out there. I guess you might be telling the truth...’
‘I am telling the truth,’ insisted Patrick, perhaps slightly too loudly for his own good.
Korrol looked at him, wrinkled his nose and twisted his lips into a kind of sneer, before stepping forwards and backhanding the restrained human hard in the face. Patrick felt like one of those ancient bobble-head toys as his head rocked back and forth with great speed, his neck barely managing to keep his head attached to his body. Patrick’s vision went a little cloudy before slowly returning to normal. The human recognised the metallic-tinged taste of blood in his mouth and spat it out onto the floor, much to the disgust of the oomlock who felt it necessary to inform him of his displeasure by booting him in the ribs. Patrick coughed, spluttered and wheezed. He instinctively tried to grab the sides of his body with his hands to protect himself but the metal restraints kept his hands above his head.
‘I will decide if you are telling the truth or not, hoo-man,’ Korrol boomed as he tightened the straps on his gloved hands and started to pace around the room once more, circling Patrick like a shark that had injured its prey and just tasted its blood.
‘Answer me this: how did you end up here in the Antorii System?’
Patrick gritted his teeth as pain continued to course through his torso like he was being stabbed in the ribs repeatedly with tiny blades.
‘I came...on Saleek’s...ship...’ the human panted as he grimaced.
‘But you came from the Nexus system, if I remember correctly. At least, that was what was detailed in the communications we took from your semloid friends. How did you end up in the Nexus system? It’s the centre of the galaxy; about as far from the outer colonies as you can get. Why did you make such a huge journey?’
‘I came...to Nexus One...looking for...work...’
This earned Patrick another backhand. Dark blood trickled from his nostrils and his cheeks were starting to turn a rather unattractive shade of purple as his skin began to bruise.
‘There are hundreds of planets between the outer colonies and the Nexus system, each with jobs available on them. No one makes such a massive journey across the galaxy for that reason. Now, tell me the truth!’
Patrick glanced to his right and saw that Saleek was still unconscious.
I guess I might as well tell this guy the truth. It’s not like Saleek will ever find out. Hell, I’m not even sure it matters anymore. We might not even get out of this place alive. What have I got to lose?
Patrick looked at Korrol and said, ‘OK, I’ll tell you the real reason I came to the Nexus system. About a year ago, back on my home planet, I was very naive and I got mixed up with some bad people. I mean, I didn’t know they were bad at first. There was this one person, a girl, who I really liked and we really hit it off. We dated and things were going great. Then, one day, she asked me to carry her bags when we went on a little trip. It was such a simple request that I never even questioned it. To cut a long story short, we went through a security checkpoint at an airport and I got pulled aside and searched. They found tons of drugs in one of the bags – the girl’s drugs. I protested that they weren’t mine but the security staff didn’t believe me. I was arrested, tried and thrown in prison. I got beaten to within an inch of my life several times in that place. You see, the guys that owned the drugs – the really bad guys – they were pissed at me for losing hundreds of thousands of credits’ worth of their drugs. They had friends inside the prison and they let them know what happened, hence the beatings. Since the guards didn’t seem to care or even try and protect me, I knew I had to get out of there or I’d wind up dead within a few more weeks. So, I worked together with my cellmate and we worked out a plan to escape. We did so but he wound up getting caught – I was the only one who managed to escape. Since the police were looking for me to put me back in prison and these bad guys were looking for me to get some revenge for losing their drugs, I thought the only solution was to skip the planet. I wanted to get as far away from them as possible, so I bought a one-way ticket to Nexus One.’
Korrol stopped pacing directly in front of Patrick, bent forwards slightly and looked at him, his gaze burning into the human’s eyes, as if trying to determine if this was another lie. Patrick remained surprisingly stoic as he stared back at his captor, unblinking and unflinching. Truth be told, he even surprised himself with this impressive show of strength and determination. After a few moments, Korrol straightened up and started pacing once more.
‘Well, that certainly does make more sense than your other story,’ he muttered as he walked. ‘So it looks like I have two fugitives from the law in this room at the moment.’
Patrick looked at Saleek in mild shock, before reminding himself of the things the lyan told him he did when he was younger in order to survive. Puzzled by his own reaction, Patrick shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe the thought that Saleek might have a criminal record would shock him so much.
‘So tell me,’ continued Korrol. ‘How do you know Saleek?’
Patrick took a deep breath and half-lied, ‘We met on Nexus One. We spent time together and we got talking about things. Eventually he asked me to help him with some jobs and I agreed.’
‘And I take it transporting this valuable artefact is one of those jobs?’
Patrick silently nodded an affirmative.
‘That brings me to my next question. That damn AI of yours has erected an energy shield around your ship, making it impossible for us to get inside. How do we deactivate it so we can board the ship and take what we came for?’
Patrick suddenly realised why he was still alive, and more specifically he realised the information that his captor needed so badly – he couldn’t get past Zeeree’s defences, so he needed a way to bypass them entirely!
That also explains why Saleek is unconscious and so badly beaten. This guy must have asked Saleek the same thing and Saleek probably told the guy where to go, so he got angry and beat him to within an inch of his life, thought Patrick.
Then, he quietly mumbled ‘Oh shit...’ as he realised that the same thing was likely going to happen to him when he didn’t give his captor the answer he wanted.
‘Well?’ prompted Korrol, narrowing his eyes as he stared at the chained human.
Patrick’s mind raced, desperately trying to come up with an answer that would not result in him taking a beating. He didn’t know how to deactivate Zeeree and even if he did, he wasn’t sure if he was willing to sell her and Saleek out for his own freedom. In a crazy sort of way, he was starting to get quite fond of them both and almost think of them as his friends.
After losing patience with his seemingly tongue-tied prisoner, Korrol sighed angrily, approached Patrick from the left-hand side and grabbed the poor human’s throat with his gloved fingers. He began to squeeze – not hard enough to crush the human’s windpipe but certainly enough to cut off the air flow to his lungs. Patrick gasped as he tried to get enough oxygen into his body and his muscles tensed as he tried to get free but he could barely even move his tired arms. Korrol then suddenly released his grip. Patrick’s head dropped slightly and he panted to try and get his breath back, making pained wheezing sounds as he did so.
‘Feel like talking now?’ demanded Korrol, becoming tired of his prisoner’s silence.
He unconsciously clenched and unclenched his fists in aggravation. His eyes became almost slits as he regarded the gasping human with a venomous glare. Patrick strained to raise his head and meet his captor’s gaze with steely determination.
Having regained his breath, Patrick said, ‘I don’t know how to deactivate Zeeree. I don’t know how to do anything on that ship apart from use the food dispenser.’
Without hesitating in the slightest, Korrol stepped forwards and punched the human squarely in the face. Once again, Patrick’s head snapped backwards with frightening speed under the force of the blow. Somehow, he barely managed to keep from passing out from the beating he was receiving. He locked eyes with Korrol again.
‘I’m telling you the truth!’ protested Patrick.
‘You seriously expect me to believe that?’ said Korrol heatedly. ‘You know the AI’s name! You’re friends with Saleek and you flew to this planet together! Of course you know how to operate that ship! How could you get by without knowing?’
‘But it’s true...’ said Patrick, instantly regretting opening his mouth one more time.
Korrol had clearly had enough. Showing remarkable strength, he delivered a body blow to the chained human’s gut and Patrick would have doubled over violently in pain had his restraints not held him stubbornly upright. A fraction of a second later he launched another strike to the side of Patrick’s head and the human’s vision faded to black as he passed out from the pain.
After realising that he would not be getting any more information out of Patrick for the time being, Korrol howled a frustrated scream which echoed off the grimy metal walls of the small room. He stormed out of the room and slammed the rusty door shut with all his might, stomping loudly as he walked away.
Chapter 13
The Hidden Treasure of Darfor Page 21