“Who are you to tell me anything?” The voice sounded distant, remote; the slave was slipping away, shaking uncontrollably, tears streaked his face like a flood.
“I’m the one who is giving you orders, but if you wish I can send for Ren himself. I doubt he’ll be pleased with your malfeasance; it smacks of rebellion and you know what he thinks of anarchists.”
“Fine, have it your way. But you can’t hide behind him forever. One day it will be just me, you and a sealed vacuum.”
“I look forward to it,” said the voice, like a knife grating over stone. “Now are you going to get out of my way or do I have to move you myself?”
“Of course, pet.”
The slave felt a pair of strong arms lift him under the armpits and drag him to his feet. He vomited, swayed, vomited some more. Then he was moving again, passing through some doors, down a silver, worm-like corridor, and then into a small, dimly-lit room.
“Who are you?” he asked, shivering violently. “What do you want?”
“Shh, quiet,” said the voice. It sounded familiar somehow, like a half-remembered dream. “We can’t afford to get caught. Not now. Not with all that’s at stake.”
“Who… who are you?” the slave asked.
“A friend.”
The room they were in faded away to reveal a deep, intense blackness, interspersed with bright, glimmering pixels of light, several large red dots puncturing the tapestry like traffic lights at a junction.
“Is this space?” the slave asked.
“No, just a resemblance of it. This is a space between worlds, somewhere between existence and death.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You wouldn’t. Ren has stolen that from you, like he has many things. We are somewhere between the transporter room and the control room, but I’ve interrupted the transportation process, paused it so to speak.”
“Who… who are you?” the slave asked again.
“Don’t you remember?”
“No, I…”
“That’s because Ren has used the mind fog on you. Through a mixture of extreme pain and psychic manipulation he’s befuddled your thought processes, taken your mind, twisted it. Let’s see if this helps…”
The slave felt two hands grasp his forehead. They began to squeeze his head, crushing down into his skull, piercing his brain, shattering it. Something popped, he heard what sounded like glass shattering, and then the next thing he knew he was slumped on the floor looking up at a purple gas giant, a tall, grey figure standing next to it. Ros…
“What happened?” asked Jack. “What am I doing here? Where is everybody else?”
“What’s the last thing you recall?”
“You! I remember you torturing me, hitting me, again and again. I thought I was going to die.”
“Sorry about that,” said Ros, cheeks turning slate grey. “I had to act the part, otherwise I would’ve been found out.”
“Found out about what?”
“The resistance, of course. Not all Asvari are like him, only a minority in fact. We are trying to find a way to undermine him and his dark regime. That’s why I brought you here.”
“Why did you then?”
“We needed the spaceship, OUR spaceship.”
“But Ros…”
“Yes, I know the danger, but it was the only way to take him on, the only way we would have a chance of stopping him. Without it he’s too powerful, too much in control.”
“But Ros, he has the spaceship too now and you know what he plans to do with it.”
“Yes, to enslave Earth. Utterly and forever.”
“So that’s the reckoning, then?” asked Jack.
“No, it was never supposed to be that extreme or that harsh. It was only supposed to be a limited show of force, a quick military victory that would underline our superiority in terms of technology and space. But now…”
“It’s more.”
“There may be no way out if we can’t wrest back the spaceship from him.”
“But how do we do that?” asked Jack.
“You don’t.”
“What?”
“I do,” said Ros.
“What are you talking about?”
“He’s not our king, though he sometimes thinks he is. Ultimately, he gets his power from the council of elders. If I can persuade them to sanction him, it may be enough to get him to stop, or they may even strip him of his powers.”
“Then why haven’t you done that before?”
“I wanted to…”
“But?”
“The consequences are too hazardous. One of my friends tried that route and he got spaced for his efforts.”
“Spaced?”
“Death by vacuum. It’s what we used to do to our criminals a long time ago, only now we are doing it to anyone we disagree with.”
“So, what’s not to stop them doing that to you?”
“Nothing.”
“Well then we’re screwed. Earth is going to get invaded and enslaved and then the Scourge are going to pop by in a year or two and finish you lot off too.”
“But the spaceship…”
“Will only hold the Scourge off for so long. Trust me, Ros. We’ve fought them all over the galaxy. Even with the technology it possesses it’s not enough to defeat the Scourge. You’ve never seen a dreadnut horde. They are like a tide of living death. Nothing can stop them.”
“Oh…”
“Can you not talk to the elders about this? Would the threat of the Scourge not change their minds?”
“That’s what my friend tried to do. They spaced him all the same. Him and the rest of his birth pod.”
“His birth pod? What’s that?”
“His brothers and sisters in a way. We are all genetically-engineered in a test-tube, there’s sixteen per tube. Then we’re born.”
“But what about your parents?”
“Since there are no males and females in our society we don’t have any.”
“No males and females? I don’t understand.”
“With my race there is only one sex, or at least there is now, eons ago there may have been two, but I’m not sure, no one is.”
“You mean you’re…”
“Asexual. At least to use human terminology.”
“But… how do you live?”
“The same way you do, oddly enough. We eat, sleep, do our work.”
“But what about love?” asked Jack, pushing a thought of Vyleria from his mind. “Don’t you get… lonely?”
“Sometimes. But that’s what friends are for, work too, and since we are a race of explorers there’s plenty of things for us to be getting on with.”
“But when I was dating Vyleria you were always giving me advice and stuff. How would you know what to say if you don’t know about love?”
“My race is highly telepathic. After having read the minds of so many humans during my time on your planet I am a bit of a master when it comes to giving out personal advice. If it wasn’t for my passion for interstellar research and all things space-related I could probably be a very effective agony aunt.”
“And you’re all like this?”
Ros nodded. “Each individual is possessed with all manner of psychic abilities from astral projection to telekinesis. This is how we have been able to overpower you, Ren especially. He is the most powerful telekinetic our people have produced in over two hundred years. You didn’t stand a chance. Even if you had your space pistol he would have been able to deflect that too. He’s been challenged fifteen times in mind combat and won every single duel.”
“He’s that strong?”
“Unfortunately for us, yes.”
“What are we going to do then? We can’t allow Earth to fall.”
“We are going to have to, there’s nothing else we can do, unless…”
“What is it, Ros?”
“I’ve got an idea. I can’t believe I didn’t think about it earlier, it’s genius.”
“Well are you going
to enlighten me any time soon or do I have to wait till the sun goes supernova?”
“Okay, listen carefully, there is too much at stake for this to go wrong.”
“But what if the attack starts before then?” asked Jack after hearing the extent of Ros’ plan. “You could get your victory, but half of Earth still gets wiped out.”
“What else can I do?”
“Get me on board one of those flying saucers,” said Jack.
“But you don’t stand a chance, the Asvari space marines are second to none.”
“Trust me. I’ve fought dreadnuts and lava people all over the galaxy, a few Asvari marines aren’t going to be much trouble. All I need is my people free, enough space pistols to go around and a few extra goodies, can you manage that?”
“Sure, but…”
“Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself.”
“Okay fine, just don’t get caught in Ren’s quarters.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be extra careful.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Chapter Twenty-Three: Break-in
Jack walked down the corridor as quickly as he could. He passed an Asvari guard, his black bug-like eyes sticking out of his head.
“Where are you going?” he demanded.
“Nowhere,” said Jack, head bowed. “I have to deliver this to Ren, from Ros.” He waved a datapad in the Asvari’s face. “It concerns the Reckoning.” Jack could feel the Asvari crawling through his mind like an eel, slivering about his synapses for information. This mind seal had better work, Ros…
“Everything seems to be in order… slave,” said the guard, eyes stabbing into his forehead. “Go on your way. Quickly.”
Jack rounded the corridor like a hammerhead skirting a coral reef. So close now. He could almost taste the freedom.
He stopped just before the control room and turned towards a door immediately on his left. He tried to open it. It wouldn’t budge. He looked at the illuminated panel next to the door. It was covered with a series of shapes: squares, circles, triangles, octagons, hexagons, as well as a great many others he didn’t know the names of. If the Asvari are here much longer, the locks and codes won’t be the only things that will change around here.
He looked at Ros’ data pad and tapped away at an octagon, then a square followed by a circle, then two others that looked a little bit like stars.
The door hissed open like a snake emerging from a cave.
Jack stepped into darkness. The dim red lights flickered on near-instantaneously, giving it the appearance of twilight.
The room was blank, bare and non-descript. Stalactites hung from the roof like grim chandeliers. It was like he was in some cavern, not someone’s bedroom. What was Ros hoping he’d find?
He looked at a low stone platform that he at once took to be Ren’s bed, together with some even rockier pillows. There was a round hole etched into the wall, through which shone an amulet of stars. Space…
Jack turned around and walked towards a stone dais next to Ren’s bed. There was something shimmering in the starlight. It was small and round, with a hole through the middle.
Jack tried to put the bracelet on his wrist, but it was too small. He looked at it in the palm of his hand. It looked to be made of some strange metal, not gold, not silver. There were a series of stars lining the outside, it was these that had reflected the light. Diamonds, he thought. There was some strange language etched into the underside of the bracelet. It looked like a cross between hieroglyphics and Chinese, with a bit of graffiti thrown in too. What did it say?
What are you doing in here, dog? These are my private quarters.
Jack spun around just in time to see Ren’s brutish face, before the first mind wave struck. He was flung across the room like a human basketball, bouncing off one wall, then another, as his bones crunched and snapped like dry twigs.
He was in agony, tears.
I said…
“It’s my fault.” Jack looked-up to see Ros standing in the doorway. He looked cold, mean, like he was every bit Ren’s brother. “I told him to look for you. The armoury request,” he said, pointing at the data pad in Jack’s twitching hand, “needs your signature immediately.”
But why did the dog come in here? This room is prohibited to everybody, especially slaves.
“I don’t know, perhaps he thought you were in here. He was just following orders.”
Are you protecting him?
“Of course not,” said Ros. “I’ll punish him later. Thoroughly.”
Punish him now.
“What?”
You heard me. A dog should fear its master; it should tremble at the mere sound of his voice.
“But…”
Unless you’d like me to do it? Jack felt invisible fingers grappling at his throat. I rather like playing with this one.
“No, I can correct his behaviour just fine,” said Ros. “All dogs are the same after all.”
Jack was suddenly lifted to his feet again. His bones howled in agony. Blood dripped from his right leg like a waterfall. He felt faint, light-headed. Then something hard and heavy struck his left cheek, then his right; something cannoned into his chest, then his stomach. He was being beaten to death.
You call that torture? He’s barely even screaming.
“No, I call that discipline. I need this dog to be able to do his tasks. If he’s all broken, we may as well space him.”
When we take Earth, we can do. We can space as many as we want.
“But we haven’t conquered Earth yet; it may take some time. I need him. He could yet prove useful.”
Very well. You can have your dog. In one piece at least, but until then he can burn.
Every cell in Jack’s body erupted with pain as a tide of flames scorched his body, sizzling his mind, his soul, even his dreams.
Less than half a second into his torture Jack blacked out.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Invasion
Jack awoke to a tingling sensation in his arms and legs. He sprang to his haunches immediately, looking down as his right fibula re-attached itself to his leg, blood and tissue magically forming around the bone. A layer of white skin followed soon after, together with a few scraggily brown hairs.
“You’re lucky.”
Jack turned around and glared at Ros. “I don’t feel lucky,” he said, as his arm twisted itself out of a knot, the dried blood sucked-up by an invisible hoover. “The pain…”
“Was a momentary shower in a world of sunshine.”
“Err, I guess…”
“You’re lucky I convinced Ren to heal you, a couple of the space SEALS have not been so lucky, a few of his own soldiers too.”
“Then why did you?”
“Because believe it or not I need you, Jack. We all do.”
“Me?”
“Well not you specifically, but the human race. You have something that the Asvari have lost and that we could do to recover.”
“Which is?”
“Curiosity, wonder, empathy… community.”
“But we started this conflict, didn’t we?”
“Yes, but it was our own fault for meddling in a pre-light speed, barely nuclear world. We should’ve had more sense than to dabble with a bunch of barely evolved apes.”
“Hey!”
“You know what I’m saying – your wars, your violence, your greed, your capitalism – they debase you utterly and completely.”
“Ros, you’ve just given a million reasons to wipe us off the planet.”
“Yes, but then so could you.”
“What?”
“Without this spaceship and its advanced weaponry, it would be much harder for us to complete the conquest. We would probably beat you eventually, but at great cost to ourselves. Millions of lives would be lost. And that would be a huge mistake. Sometimes it’s much harder to forgive a hostile act and make peace than it is to declare vengeance and go to war. Ultimately, the only seeds death sows is more death. It’s
shame Ren can’t see that.”
“Yes, it is,” said Jack, shaking his head.
“Or not question how it was you got into his private quarters in the first place.”
“He was too busy frying me and slamming me round his room like a human basketball to notice.”
“Which was lucky, otherwise…”
“We’d be screwed,” said Jack.
“Fortune favours the fearless.”
“Exactly. Now what do you want to know about Ren’s quarters? I couldn’t see much of note.”
“You’ve already told me.”
“What? How?”
“I took several mental images from your brain whilst you were unconscious. They were quite illuminating.”
“But there was nothing there…”
“That’s what you think. I may have just enough to convince the council.”
“Does that mean you won’t have to fight him?”
“I’m afraid not,” he said, shaking his head. “Nothing can prevent that now, nothing.”
“But you’ll be okay, won’t you?”
“Sure, don’t worry about it. I’ll get the ship to give me a hand and besides, Ren should be too distracted with the invasion of Earth to focus on me completely.”
“And what happens if you lose?”
“I die.”
“But Ros…”
“That’s enough Jack. This is my choice and mine alone. There’s no other way.”
“Are you sure?”
Ros shook his head. “None.”
“Ros, there’s another problem with your plan.”
“And that is?”
“Me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You saw what Ren just did to me in there, he tossed me about like a child’s toy. The first Asvari soldier I attack is going to play me like a space fiddle. I don’t stand a chance.”
“You’re right. Here, use this,” said Ros, running a hand over Jack’s forehead.
“What’s that,” said Jack, raising a hand to his head. “Wait, what did you do?”
“Notice anything different?”
“Yeah, my brain started to tingle as soon as you touched my forehead, it’s still doing it.”
“That should subside. I’ve given you a temporary mental seal.”
Jack Strong: Dark Matter Page 10