by Maia Starr
Finally, at night, K4T walked into my room. I sat on a chair with my arms crossed.
“Did you eat, Lauren? I am sorry I was not able to attend to you today as usual. It has been a very busy day at the base. But I had another bring you food. I see that you did not touch it. Are you not well?” he said as he came to the table and sat down with me.
“I am not sick, but I am not well. I am very angry,” I said.
“Angry? What could you possibly be angry about? You have a roof over your head. You are treated well. You are fed, and the time we shared together last night seemed to please you greatly,” he said.
“What about the dust storm? Is that still going on?” I asked laying a trap for him.
“I will need to check. But as far as I know, it was still happening this morning. All of our vehicles are grounded until it is over. It is not safe; I have told you before,” he said.
“You lie to me, K4T. I already know that there has not been a dust storm in over a year. I know that vehicles have been leaving and coming back to the base after going to the city of C2. There is no dust storm keeping us from going to C2. Why did you lie to me? Why are you keeping me here?”
He was silent. “How do you know of this?”
“I simply asked another cyborg. They have no reason to lie to me because they do not know your agenda, whatever that may be. I can't believe you! You lied to me. I laid with you! I feel so stupid. Why did you lie to me about the storm? When are you going to take me to C2?” I asked.
He stood up abruptly. He pounded his metal hand on the table. The tray fell to the ground with a loud crash. “I will take you when I want to take you! You have been treated well, human. You have been treated so well that it has escaped your attention that you are my prisoner. You belong to me now. I took you from the Kynon that you left so willingly. You are mine. you will stay in this room for as long as I want you to. Now you have made me angry. When I return later this evening, you will give yourself to me just as you have before. That is what you will do from now on; that is now your way of life. If I feel that you deserve to see the human females that are at C2, I will take you there, only if you have been an obedient human.” He started to walk toward the door.
“How dare you speak to me like that! You are a liar! I hate you! I am not your prisoner. I belong to no one but myself. You tricked me!”
“It is not my fault that the human mind is so easy to trick. I did nothing that anyone else wouldn't do. The females at C2 are also prisoner of the leader K8L. He holds them prisoner for his own liking, and you will be my prisoner. You are lucky he has not found out that I have you. When he does, I am sure that he will want to take you and there will be nothing I can do about it because he is my leader. For now, you should be grateful for the good treatment you are receiving from me. Now I will have no more argument from you! I will return late tonight!” he shouted and then slammed the door as he left.
I sat down. My mouth was wide open. I was in complete shock. I had been tricked. Jion was right; they were deceiving me. I was stupid enough to go with the cyborgs on my own. I didn't even put up a fight. This made it so that I didn't look like I was being taken prisoner. These cyborgs, they were half machine, and they were able to process like a computer. They had easily outsmarted me and were thinking ahead. If they had taken me by force, then I would know that I was a prisoner, but because they made it look like it was my choice, I had no idea. I thought that I was simply a guest and that I would eventually be taken to see the other human females. I had been very wrong. I was a smart lawyer, and yet I had not detected the lying, but they weren't exactly humans; they were cyborgs.
The emotion grew inside of me, and I burst into tears. This was all wrong. I shouldn't be here. I should be at my home in Los Angeles. Instead, I was a prisoner of these cyborgs. I cried for an hour. I didn't know what I could do.
Later that night I began to grow very tense as I knew that K4T would be coming back to my room at some point. I didn't want to be with him. He was going to force himself on me. I needed to find a way to protect myself, but there wasn't exactly a lot to work with in the room other than the tray of food. But he was apartment Sheen; I didn't think hitting him with a tray would do anything. Then suddenly there was a loud noise in the hallway. I grabbed the tray and backed into the corner of the room. I was going to fight no matter what. Then I heard another scuffle, muffled sounds. What the hell is going on out there? Then the door opened. I held my breath.
The door swung open, and I could not believe what I saw. I wasn't expecting him to be standing there, but he was. After all that I had done, he was there.
“Are you all right, Lauren? Are you hurt?” Jion said as he closed the door and walked over to me. There was real concern in his voice.
I was so shocked that I couldn't answer him.
Chapter Eight
Ambassador Jion Lek
I was on my way to C2 when something on my map alerted me. There was a base, and I knew that there were cyborg vehicles nearby. This was in between the wreckage that I landed in with Lauren and C2. The cyborg that took her would absolutely have to pass this area in order to get to C2. Something told me that they possibly stopped at this base. What if she was at the base and I ignored it and went to C2 instead? I wouldn't forgive myself. So I decided to land my speeder behind a rock cliff.
I quietly made my way in the darkness to the outside of the base. I squatted down behind the wall and listened. I stayed there for an hour before I heard what I needed to hear. Two cyborgs came outside, and they were speaking about the human female locked as a prisoner inside the tall building. I knew that it had to be Lauren. If it wasn't then, I would be saving another human, and at least Captain Alicron Qinov couldn't be mad at me for that. They walked away, and I knew that I had to make a plan. I needed to quietly sneak over to that building and get inside of it. I needed to find the room that she would be in.
Then I stood up and ran to another cover. I squatted down. What the hell was I doing here? This was absolutely crazy, but I couldn't turn away. I couldn't stop thinking about Lauren. I had to try; I had to do it for her. I had to do it for the desire I felt inside of me that wasn't going away anytime soon.
I took a deep breath and continued on my mission. I ran into yet another wall that was a couple of feet tall. I put my back against it and slid alongside it slowly, going toward the buildings. I was glad that there were a lot of areas like this and I realized it was because of needing cover for battle. This base had been attacked before, and this was the result. It was working in my favor.
I slid along further to the end of the wall. I was about to run toward another low-lying wall when I heard a noise. I looked up. There was a cyborg standing right there. I quietly pulled my knife from my boot. I walked around to the side of it.
“A Kynon,” he said.
He grabbed his chest, about to speak into a radio. But I quickly shoved the knife into his neck. He fell to the ground. I grabbed the Cyborg and dragged him behind the cover and laid him down. I covered him with as much sand as I could. This wasn't going to be easy. I hoped that there weren't more along my path. I was lucky that I got to this one before he was able to alert his fellow cyborgs.
I stayed put and looked around waiting. Using my patience and stealth was the only way I was going to be successful in this mission. I moved along to another low-lying wall that was closer to a tall building.
I looked up at the tall building, and I saw a light in one of the windows. Then Lauren appeared at the window. She was crying. I wanted to call out to her, but I knew that I couldn't. I couldn't alert the cyborgs that I was there. Not to mention that Captain Alicron Qinov could be right. She could still want to stay with the cyborgs, and she would alert them to my presence.
No, I had to sneak into her room and then take her by force if she didn't want to go with me willingly. But I hoped that she did. It would hurt my heart to hear her protest after what I went through just to get to her.
She mo
ved away from the window. Over the next hour, I quietly made my way from one cover to another, hiding as necessary. Doing this and being very patient, I finally made it inside the building. I knew exactly what floor that she was on. As soon as I got to the top, there was a cyborg guarding the hallway. He wasn't too alert, and I knew they weren't expecting any sort of attack. I pulled my knife and stabbed, straight to the side of the neck. The cyborg fell immediately. I dragged him to the corner and hid him. Then I walked down to the last room, the room that I had seen her in. I opened the door. She was standing in the corner, shaking and scared. She had a tray in her hands as though she was expecting to fight. What the hell had they done to her? Rage-filled me as I saw her in this terrible state. I wanted to comfort her but there was no time; I needed to get us out of there.
“Are you all right, Lauren? Are you hurt?” I closed the door. She didn’t say anything.
She just looked at me as though shocked. I'm sure that it was shocking.
“Lauren, I need to know if you are hurt. Speak to me. I am here to rescue you,” I said.
Suddenly her eyes narrowed at me. “Don’t you mean that you are here to get me to keep me as a sex slave? I know what you are up to,” she said.
This was not good. It was just as Captain Alicron Qinov had said, she was not going to want to go with me willingly. I looked around. I didn't have a lot of time before someone would discover the cyborg that I killed in the hallway. “Lauren, it is not like that. There is not enough time to explain. What have they done to you? Are you hurt? Can you walk?”
“I am not hurt. Why are you here, Jion?”
“I already told you. I am here to rescue you from the cyborgs. They are not what you think they are, Lauren. You have to come with me now. I cannot leave you here with them. You have to trust me,” I put my hand out to her.
“I don't trust anyone but myself. I don't have any reason to think that you are not lying. I am a prisoner here; if I go with you, I will just be your prisoner. What is the difference? I am a prisoner no matter where I go,” she said.
She was not entirely wrong. We had abducted the human females to take them to Xeion in order to make them our mates. But it wasn't as if we were going to lock them up in a room and keep them there. It was hard to explain, especially when time was of the essence.
“I am not going to explain to you now. Now you are coming with me whether you want to or not,” I grabbed the tray away from her and put it on the table. Then I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder.
“What are you doing?”
“Be quiet, or we will never get out of here alive,” I said as I walked to the door. I quietly opened it and looked out. The hallway was empty. To my surprise, Lauren was not saying anything. She was not screaming to alert the cyborgs that I was taking her. Something must have happened. But I couldn't ask her now; I had to focus on the mission. I had to get us back to my speeder and do it quickly. I wouldn't be able to hide like I had, running from one cover to another using patience. This was going to be difficult.
“Stay quiet. I will get us out of here,” I whispered to her as I ran down the hallway. I came to the stairwell. I looked down.
“I can run,” she said.
“Yes, you can run away. I am not putting you down for that to happen. Just stay quiet,” I whispered to her.
I ran down the stairs carrying her. I stopped when I heard the sound of cyborgs. We stayed still. If she was going to warn the cyborgs, this would be her chance. I felt her body tense as I held her on my shoulder and had my arm over her thighs. Something told me that she wanted to get out of there. Then the voices faded as though they were walking away. I continued running to the bottom of the stairs and out the door. I didn't bother to look around; I just shot right out of the door and ran directly toward the back of the base. I ran as fast as I could. Finally, we made it to my speeder; I was relieved.
“Get in and put on your belt. We are getting out of here as fast as we can,” I said as I climbed in, pushing her inside. She followed my orders. I closed the door and got into the seat, pulling my belt on. I turned on the speeder.
Whirer! Whirer! Suddenly a loud siren pierced the air and a few lights on tall poles lit up.
“Shit!” I screamed as I revved the engine.
“They know!” she said.
I punched the speeder into action. We flew hard and fast. I set coordinates for Cantu. Then the alert sounds in the speeder came on.
“What does that mean?” Lauren asked.
“It means we are being followed. The cyborg ships are a couple of miles behind us. They are on my tail,” I said.
“What do we do? Are they going to shoot us down? How do we get out of here? Where are we going? Is this part of your plan? How do we fight them?” she yelled questions at me over and over, frantically moving in her seat. I couldn't deal with this right now.
“Will you be quiet? I can't fly this ship with you being distracting. Let me focus. I need to lose them. If we make it to the trading village, we can hide there; from what I hear, there are thousands of different species there. It is a very high-density place. But I need to get there, and I need to concentrate,” I said.
“Sorry, I am just nervous. I have never been chased in a ship before,” she said.
Then the alarm went off again. I looked at the radar; there were other speeders coming from the left. They were going to intersect with the cyborg speeders. I knew the signature immediately.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Kynon speeders coming out of the west,” I said.
She smiled. “That is good, right? Those are your team. Your crew or whatever, they can fight the cyborgs off. They are going to save us,” she said.
“Actually, it is not good for us. Not good for me. They are after me as well,” I said.
“What? What do you mean? I don't understand. Those are your people. They are on your side. Before you were looking for them; now you are running from them?”
“It is a long story. I will have to tell you later. Right now we need to get away from the cyborgs, and from the Kynon. Right now we are being hunted by both of them,” I said knowing just how dangerous this was. I wasn't being hunted by just one group; I was being hunted by two. And both of them wanted to hurt Lauren. I didn't know what Captain Alicron Qinov would do to Lauren because he saw her as a betrayer. I didn't know what the cyborgs wanted with her because she seemed happy to leave the cyborg base. I needed to get us to that trading village.
Boom!
Lauren screamed. I held on to the steering and moved the speeder from left to right. There were bombs and laser-blasts going off on both sides of us.
“Who is it? Which ones are shooting at us?” she asked.
“Both the cyborgs and the Kynon. But they are not shooting at us; they are shooting at each other. They have gained on us, and now they are fighting each other, a dogfight,” I said, seeing the field of vision behind the speeder. Kynon Speeders and cyborgs were passing each other and shooting at each other. The blasts going off on either side of us were stray laser-blasts that missed their target.
“Oh my God! We are going to die!” she yelled.
“Maybe not. This is good. This confusion will cover up our tracks. None of them will be able to follow us. Hold on; I'm taking us up,” I said.
“What?”
Before she could finish her question, I hit the lever and pushed the speeder straight up into the air, into the clouds. It was night. The battle was going on below, just above the surface. I put us up above the clouds and then headed straight for the trading village. There were no ships showing up on the radar except the ones that I had already seen, and they were quickly falling behind, engaged in battle. This was good; my plan was working. I punched the speeder into high speed, and we headed to the coordinates of Cantu.
“Are we safe?”
“For now. They are no longer following us. I have lost them; that battle will keep both of them busy.”
“I don't
understand, Jion. Why are your own kind chasing you?”
“Because they didn't want me to go get you,” I restrained my anger.
“What? That is absurd. The whole point of the Kynon taking human females from Earth was to take us back to your planet. Why would they suddenly not want to find a human? That makes no sense at all. You are lying to me. I have had enough lying from both you and the damn cyborgs. I am sick of it. I want nothing but the truth from now on!” she yelled at me. I could tell that this was a very passionate subject for her.
“I am not lying to you Lauren. In fact, I have never lied to you, yet you think that I have. It is a long story: one that I will tell you when we have reached some sort of safety. For now, you have to let me concentrate. I don't know when another cyborg ship will show up, or the Kynon. Now sit there and be quiet while I take us to safety. Do you think you can be grateful to me for just an hour?” I shouted back at her.