She was right. It was worse to watch.
Peter couldn't even close his eyes or turn away. Every time he did, one of Jane's men cuffed him or gave him a tap with a rifle butt. It seemed to go on forever until Peter lost it. Tears slowly leaked from his eyes at their screams of pain and suffering-- mainly frustration at being so helpless and unable to do anything. Silently, Peter made a vow that he would kill Jane slowly with his bare hands, and make sure she suffered a painful slow death.
Afterwards, they were lead to rooms in another building to sleep. Peter winced at the sight of the whip marks on Monica's legs. Oscar’s wound was staining her bandages, but he was beyond crying. He was in a black, murderous rage. Marcus seemed to be OK except for a few welts.
As they were walked to their rooms, Peter had to say it, “Stupid question, but everyone OK?”
Oscar looked around and said clearly, “Well we're alive, if that's what you are asking,” the pain killers having worn off.
“Yes, we're alive, Peter. That's a plus,” Monica added.
“I’m sorry about all this. I swear I'm going to make her pay dearly.
“Just keep us alive, Peter,” Monica sighed tiredly as they arrived at their tents, “I really don’t think she is going to let us live after she gets what she wants.”
Juan said, “These two tents are yours. Figure out your own sleeping arrangements. I don't care who's with whom. Wakeup’s at seven.”
The two men sat in chairs in front of the tents and watched them stumble inside. Monica and Peter taking one, Marcus and Oscar the other. Not expecting be able to sleep much due to injuries, and anger from their ordeal, but to their considerable surprise, they all fell into an exhausted sleep almost immediately.
Morning came way too soon for them. They were rousted from their air mattresses, their clothes were returned to them, and they were taken to the food tent once again, except this time it was full of Jane's people.
“Feed yourselves, but don't get cute and try to escape in the crowd. Everyone knows who you are and will stop you.” Juan told them with his usual expressionless face.
They got in line, and cued up painfully stiff with healing wounds for food, all except for the uninjured Peter. He studied the faces of Jane's allies and cohorts, looking for evil, but much to his surprise, they all looked pretty much like what they all were; a bunch of scientists, and academia’s. Compared to Juan, who looked kind of thuggish, they all looked like normal people. How could they follow such a person as Jane? Didn't they know what kind of person she was?
Oscar wasn’t looking very well; very pale, her bandage soaked with blood.
After they returned to their spot Juan had picked for them, Peter turned to him and asked, “Don’t you have a Medi-bot up here, Juan? Oscars not looking so good.”
“No, like I give a shit. The only Medi-bot on the Artifact is at Yuen’s outpost. It will just have to heal the old-fashioned way, for now. I'll give it a fresh bandage after breakfast.”
With an ashen face Oscar snarled, “I’m a woman, asshole! Stop calling me IT, you fucker!” She said almost crying. For once, Oscar dropped her bad-ass Marine act.
Juan gave his usual indifferent shrug.
They were taken back to the shower tent where Juan cleaned and bandaged Oscar’s wound with fresh inner and outer butterfly bandages to hold the cut together. His armed companion covered them with his weapon during this procedure, and continued to guard them while they used the bathrooms.
They then were lead to electric vehicles like the ones Yuen and Yen had used to bring them from the space port. Juan turned them over to the new guards, and they were soon whizzing along to what could only be the control room of the giant Artifact.
The vague percussion of weapons fire had pressed upon their senses as they were leaving. Monica raised one lovely but questioning eyebrow at Peter. He raised a hand to her with crossed fingers.
Oscar and Marcus just sat with defeated, miserable looks on their faces as if they were perceiving nothing.
In a very short time they were brought to an archway decorated ornately in the script of the artifact’s builders. It was punctuated with alien figures performing cryptic tasks. Another cart was parked at the entrance.
“In here,” a guard grunted as he got off the cart and pointed to the doorway.
They all trooped inside to see Jane wearing skintight black shorts, a tan floppy safari hat and a colorful vest with pockets standing on a scissor lift, data pads in hand, examining dials, levers and switches-- on a raised ten- foot- tall black console in the middle of the room. All the machinery and controls, if that’s what they were, along the walls of the chamber were dark.
Some dials were now illuminated, at least the ones Jane was now examining. Some buttons and switches on the inclined control panel had pieces of tape hastily applied with something scrawled on them in script. Jane scowled in thought. She turned one dial and a deep alarming warble filled the air. Jane muttered, “shit!” and put the dial back where it was, and the warbling stopped. Hearing their feet scrunching on the grit of a million years of accumulated dirt, she turned to face them with maniacal joy on her face.
“Oh, goody! You're here! This is Christmas morning and my birthday all rolled into one!” She pointed to a remote camera drone on a stand. “As soon as we plug into the data pad and connect to your precious Shirley, she can control that to look around where she needs.”
Jane handed down Peter’s com and a data pad. “Get cracking, Captain Farlon!
“Everyone else get a good night’s sleep?”
She was answered only by silence and sullen looks.
“No? Pity—I guess I'll have to work you harder next time,” she said ginning her usual crazy grin and barked her cruel laugh.
Peter hooked up all the cables, plugged in Jane’s data pad, dialed up Shirley’s frequency, and was rewarded by her familiar voice.
“Hello, Peter. How’s everyone doing?” Shirley voice said with some concern, from the drone’s tiny speaker
“The worse for wear, but alive,” Peter snarled.
“Yuen’s men are engaging Jane’s forces as we speak. Hear that, you evil hose-beast? We're coming for you! Yuen has promised to excrete some bodily fluid on you and throw your corpse to a Wazzool for me,” Shirley said sweetly.
Jane frowned at that. “Yeah, well...” she said. “We will see about that, won't we? I get control of this place, maybe I'll come toast your brain with powerful magnets-- slowly, or make you watch while I torture your friends to death while I piss on your control board.”
“Why does everyone think my brain is magnetic? It’s a crystal matrix folks. Look, Doctor. Come on, let’s stop this nonsense. I hate to sound cliché, but you can't win or get away with this. You have pissed off too many people, and they are all out for your hide... give up now. If you release my friends, Yuen has promised a simple brain wipe for you instead of eternal torture,” Shirley cajoled.
Jane put a finger to her cheek, demurely cocked he head and appeared to think about it, “Hmm, let me think about it—nope-- no thank you. I think I'll take my chances on my own personal planet that flies, world domination and getting filthy rich. Now piss off and get to work before I start practicing my carving skills on your friends,” Jane said with a grin for everyone.
“Alright, your funeral... I mean horrible death that no one will shed a tear over,” Shirley hissed. The drone that Shirley was now controlling rose off the stand.
“Oh, boohoo! Get to work, crystal brain!” Jane intoned while twirling her hand over her head.
The Shirley-controlled drone began to flit and dart among the controls. “Hmm… interesting,” she mused as the drone examined the hieroglyphs on the panel,” Oh! Interesting--
Well, Jane, it looks like you and all those other scientists you stole data from were right; this is one big hyperspace engine, able to move itself and pull a planet with it. See that big green lever right there?” The drone voiced pointing with a tiny claw, “pul
l that and it'll fire up possibly the largest fusion engines ever made, though it probably takes a few hours to get a good fusion reaction going. Those dials are to set the co-ordinates. Then it’s just a matter of the artifacts computer crunching the numbers, adjusting, and giving the order to seek the destination.”
Jane walked over and pulled the lever. A large whine emanated from somewhere and there was a bang and a vibration of the whole building, “Humph! Somehow, I thought it would be more complicated.” A slight booming was heard, and suddenly hidden speakers came to life, emitting a loud strange, discordant voice, speaking in an incomprehensible language.
“What’s it saying?” Jane asked.
“Hmm… It’s probably asking for instructions or giving status information. I would have to study it for a while. Spoken word is a lot harder to figure out, but I would probably guess the degraded natives down-planet are speaking a version of it. I can take a guess right now what its saying.”
“So? Spill!” Jane demanded, sounding eager.
“It’s saying that you are so fucked, asshole!” Shirley snickered.
“What do you mean?” Jane asked, her eyes narrowing as she looked around suspiciously with her hands going to her guns.
Without warning an unseen force suddenly slammed the heads together of the un-named guards who were standing nearby. Blood spurted from their mouths and ears. They managed one strangled, “gurk” before dropping to a boneless pile. Jane heard and dropped her data pad-- her hands darting to her weapons, but the drone was quicker than Jane. It accelerated to top speed and slammed into her forehead-- knocking her off her feet as well as sending her hat flying-- leaving her lying unconscious on the floor of the scissor lift.
Suddenly and unexpectedly their ordeal was over, they were free. Somehow Peter had thought their release would be more well-- epic, but life was seldom as spectacular as the Holovids portrayed, he guessed. The fact that they were free from the Floxshit crazy Bloody Jane left him wobble-legged. Peter didn’t really know what he felt for Monica yet, but seeing her and his now friends tortured and raped before his eyes last night had changed things somehow, in an undefined way. He just knew he felt protective of Monica and never wanted to see her, or the others harmed again.
Where the guards lay crumpled, two figures slowly shimmered into view revealing camo suits with bulky protrusions showing beneath the material. Peeling back the face coverings, a
grinning face of John, and a blank-faced Bob-Six stood revealed, dressed in Karl's parting gift, the exoskeletons.
“Say, did you know these things have a camouflage mode, making us damn near invisible? Nifty, huh?'” John said his grin almost splitting his face in two. “We arrived late last night with Yuen, and hid out waiting to attack at dawn, not that that means anything here. We saw them load you up and drive you out of their camp this morning, and followed. Yuen’s forces attacked Jane's base just as you left, and we ran after you in these things. They are not quite as fast as those electric carts, but close enough. Consider yourselves now officially rescued!” he laughed, throwing back the rest of his camo hood.
Monica ran to John and threw herself into his arms. Oscar hobbled over to Bob-Six and embraced him as well. Bob-Six, expressionless as always, appeared embarrassed, but pleased.
Peter strode purposefully to the scissor lift, grabbed Jane by the hair, and pulled her roughly to the ground.
“This is for Oscar, bitch!” he said as he pulled her knife from her scabbard and plunged it into her thigh. She must have been completely unconscious, as she made no sound which muted his satisfaction.
“Peter, no!” yelled Monica. She turned and ran to him as he prepared to stab her again.
She grabbed his arm to stop him. “We need her alive! A quick death is too good for her... She needs to be tried and punished, don't you think? Besides, we need to take her to the battle and show her to her men, so they see that we have captured her. They will lay down their weapons then, don't you think?
The drone controlled by Shirley was now listing badly sideways, spitting sparks as it flew towards them buzzing and wobbling, the casing crushed in front.
“I know how to use the Artifact now, and what it does. I mean I knew from the translation what it does, but I couldn’t be sure until I looked at the controls,” Shirley said with concern in her voice, “but this is a tremendously powerful tool, and I'm not turning it over to the Ferntuckians just yet, maybe never. Oh, by the way Monica is right, don't kill shithead for now. We need her.”
Peter drew a tremendous, shuddering breath and his shoulders slumped.
“Shit! Alright,” he sighed, secretly relieved. He had been seriously thinking about peeling the skin off Jane’s body—slowly---as much as it would have sickened him.
John stripped the weapons from their former captors, passing one to Marcus. Ignoring the bodies of Jane’s men, they loaded Jane’s listless form aboard the electric cart, after securing her feet with zip-ties found in the console dash and headed for the raging battle. Within twenty minutes they reached the battleground. Expecting a raging battle, they were surprised to see only two bodies, but shots were being fired in every direction with little effect.
“Somehow, I expected more carnage,” Peter commented.
“From a bunch of scientists?” snorted John. “It's a wonder they don't shoot their own feet off! May I make an announcement to this bunch of clowns?”
“Be my guest!” Peter grinned back. “After all, you rescued us.”
John rummaged around in the storage trunk of the electric cart and retrieved a megaphone. He waved at Yuen and Yen safely ensconced behind a rock some distance from them, and jumped on top of the cart hood, raised the megaphone to his lips-- but then slowly lowered it again.
“Oh, yeah! Almost forgot!” John jumped down, put on some rubber gloves, uncapped a small canister he pulled from his pocket and carefully sprayed the unconscious Jane. He tucked the empty can into her shorts, and then stripped the gloves off and nonchalantly tossed them back on Jane. After getting back in place on top of the cart hood, he raised the megaphone back to his mouth again.
“Attention, scientists associated with Jane! Lay down your weapons and you won't be killed—uh-- at least not all of you. We have captured Jane. It’s over-- give up! It’s pointless to keep fighting! We have robots we can send in to kick your ass also, so lay down your weapons! Don't be bigger idiots than you have been already!” John dropped his megaphone to his side and walked back to the group.
“Well, what now? What’s up with the spray?' Peter asked.
“We wait. The spray is insurance,” John cryptically called over his shoulder as he walked off again, “Oh, Flox shit! I'm bad at this stuff! I'm a chef, not a negotiator! Be right back.” He stood back up on the cart hood again with the megaphone.
“YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO DECIDE! WE ARE NOT GOING TO DICK AROUND ALL DAY!”
In a matter of minutes someone’s none-too-clean t-shirt was waved about on a stick, while behind it, the rest of Jane’s combatants stepped out throwing their weapons down.
“Sheesh, that was easy! “John said hopping off the hood and starting back to his comrades. Yuen and Yen moved out in their own electric carts from the shelter of rocks across the vale. Mongo the combat robot was sitting on a large box on the tailgate, holding on to the roll bar.
As he passed the cart—Jane-- quick as a snake, lashed out and pulled John’s gun from its holster.
“Ah, shit! Who forgot to zip-tie her hands?” he bellowed with anger.
“Whoever it was, thanks, idiots! Appreciate it!" Jane said with glee. She quickly pulled her knife out of her thigh with a wince and cut the zip-ties from her feet.
"Now that this band of cowards has abandoned me, guess it’s time to kick the dust of this rock from my feet. Your ship seems ideal, Peter."
She sniffed herself. “What did you spray on me? Urine? Pee-yew! Was it Shirley’s idea to pee on me? Whatever! I haven't lost yet!” She hobbled over to John,
wincing as she grabbed him, and held him close with his gun pressed to his temple.
“Who fucking stabbed me? You bitches!” Jane moaned deep in her throat, looking pained. “I suppose I would have done the same or worse. Guess you were getting me back for stabbing the freak?” she said smirking at them, and then threw her head back and laughed her short, barking laugh. “Well, I’ll make you all pay for that, while I fucking torture you twice as hard,” Jane proclaimed cruelly, leering at them.
“Without your bullies, that's going to be a lot harder than you know. You have to sleep sometime. We will all put our hearts and souls into stopping you. Why not admit you're hosed and move on?” Peter said with a sinking heart and lump in his throat. There was no way he was going to let this monster control their lives again.
“I still have few loyal idiots left I can round up, I think,” Jane said smirking at them.
The approaching Yen and Yuen seemed to assess what was happening from afar and stopped their cart. They were doing something with catches on the box that Mongo had been sitting on. Something grey boiled out of the box and moved toward them, fast.
Noticing their eyes looking past her, Jane twitched the gun she was holding and said, “I'm not falling for that old trick. What do you think I am? Stupid?” She didn’t see the thousands of Molats coming, but then her screaming pierced their ears as thousands of creatures like kangaroo rats with razor sharp teeth leapt on her-- and started eating her-- one small bit at a time.
John quickly jumped clear, brushing a few Molats off him as he did so. Their jaws were only the size of a mouse, but there were thousands of pairs of teeth. Jane was being quickly nibbled to death. They all stepped back in fear and surprise, not sure if they would be next. Yen and Yuen pulled up near them in a spray of gravel.
“Step back! They are in a feeding frenzy. They will only be interested in Jane, but you can't be too careful. I had John spray her with concentrated essence of Wazzool, their favorite prey, Shirley promised to pee on Jane and it gave me this idea. I thought this poetic justice.” Yuen said, grinning evilly, “I use it for trapping the little monsters, I planned if Jane got out of control like she just did to use it on her. Err, well, truth be told; I was going to feed her to the Molats anyway. No messy trial. No chance for her to escape.
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