“I thought you said you were our best hope of getting through them,” Blake said.
“Bit of pompousness on my part again, I’m afraid,” Wilster said with a shaky voice. “I am so sorry.”
“Blake, we will try to open the other end of the testing zone for you,” Retinda’s voice suddenly said. “However, we are going to have to carry on without you. We reunited you with your companion, and you’ll be on your own in there.”
“Wait a minute,” Blake said. “You have to confirm that we’ll get out of here. What if it shuts us in without an escape like it did Michelle. This place acts an awful lot like a prison.”
“Like I said,” Retinda replied, “we will open the other end for you. Once we have that done, we’re moving on.”
“But we’ll be without a guide,” Blake protested. “How are we supposed to find you?”
After a moment of silence, the speaker popped back on, “Not our problem,” Darvin’s voice said.
“Well, that clinches that,” Blake said.
“Let’s get to work then,” Michelle said.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Despite Halera’s new found power, Perry had talked her into using the maintenance shafts again in order to traverse the ship. He knew she wanted to get to the large room where her people were being held, and between the two of them, they remembered the way through the winding ducts. They emerged into the chamber at the same high level that Perry had entered into it before.
Coming to this room served several purposes that they needed. They knew the panels on the walls were controlled by the head device, which would allow them to defend themselves and reach the ground. Additionally, this room was one of the first ones he and his companions had passed through when they arrived, so he knew it was close to an exit.
Two Kursas patrolled the central platform in the large room, oblivious to the escaped prisoners watching them.
“Do you think you can use that thing to hold them on their own panels?” Perry asked.
“Maybe,” Halera replied. “It would probably be easier to just kill them.”
“These are foot soldiers,” Perry said. “They don’t make the decisions here. They just follow orders.”
“They would kill us,” Halera said.
“Because they were ordered to do so,” Perry said. “However, we have no such orders, and until they are a threat to us, there is no need to take a life. Believe me, there was a time in my life when I would be right there with you on making them suffer, but I’ve traveled a bit since then.”
“I will try,” Halera sighed. “But do not hold it against me if I manage to kill them by accident. This is still new to me.”
“Go ahead,” Perry encouraged.
Halera looked to an empty panel on one of the walls, and it lowered to the central platform, much to the surprise of the Kursas soldiers. The soldier approached it cautiously.
“I’ve seen these work before,” Halera said. “I’m trying to figure out how to capture.”
The panel suddenly moved to directly in front of the soldier, the metal morphed into arms and wrapped around him, forcing him to drop his weapon. The second soldier, who had been watching the first investigate, raised his weapon and looked around the room as the panel returned to its original position on the wall, the Kursas struggling in its grip.
“I did it!” Halera exclaimed, a bit too loudly. Perry glanced at the floor, and the remaining soldier trained his weapon on them.
“Don’t celebrate yet,” Perry warned. “You’ve one to go.”
As the Kursas was talking into a communicator of some kind, Halera lowered a second panel to him. He fired his weapon at it, but it continued its descent. He fired a few shots toward Halera and Perry before the panel wrapped its arms around him and he dropped his weapon. Like his partner, the detention panel carried the Kursas back to a position on the wall.
“Well done,” Perry said. “Now can we get down from here?”
Halera looked to a panel near their perch and manipulated it to where its surface was horizontal and level with them. They stepped onto it, and Halera lowered them to the floor. They walked to a control room just off the main floor of the chamber.
Perry looked over the foreign language that presented itself across the buttons and switches that littered the controls, and he could make nothing of it. Halera walked in behind him and looked as well.
“I’m not sure what I was hoping to find,” Perry said. “I figure one of these releases everyone, but I couldn’t begin to guess which one. Do you think you can get everyone off the walls?”
“Eventually,” Halera said. “I may run out of time before they figure out what’s going on down here.”
A light flashed blue on the control panel, and they heard the mechanical sound of one of the holding panels moving. They ran out to the central platform and watched as one of the panels with a prisoner moved to the center of the room, turning itself horizontal. The person on it screamed for help and struggled pointlessly.
“What’s going on?” Halera asked.
“I don’t know,” Perry said. “Whatever that blue light means set this off, I suppose.”
As the panel centered itself in the room, a large cylinder lowered itself from the ceiling directly over the panel. Red and blue lines pulsed across the length of it.
“I don’t think I like the look of this,” Perry said. He looked to Halera who was holding the malleable metal device to her head, intently staring at the situation over them.
“It isn’t doing anything,” Halera said. “I can’t stop it.”
The sound of sparking electricity echoed across the chamber, and the panel above them lit up, and the power surged through it. The prisoner screamed in pain before the large cylinder slammed down on top of him with a loud clank. After a silent moment, the cylinder and panel separated and returned to their original positions. The panel was flat and empty which no trace of the prisoner.
“What happened?” Halera barely squeaked out.
“Biochemical resource gathering,” a Kursas voice rang out. “Not that it should matter to you.”
Perry turned to find a Kursas approaching them with a small contingent of guards. One of them fired a shot and knocked the malleable metal device from Halera’s hand with pinpoint accuracy.
“I’m glad we’re done with that little problem,” the Kursas said.
“I thought the Highmark was the only one who knew our language,” Perry questioned.
“It is not for you to know or not know who is aware of your tongue,” the Kursas said. “We are not all so uneducated. We respect our leadership. However, since she is not here at present, I am forced to deal with you.”
“I guess you’re the second in command, then?” Perry asked.
“Your questioning is irrelevant just as your lives are except to power our ship,” the Kursas said.
“I thought these were hostages,” Perry said.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” the Kursas said. “The Kursas do not take prisoners. Our ships run on biofuel which is acquired through the acquisition of living things. Large mammalian life such as yours provides a very nutrient-rich fuel.”
“So that’s our fate eventually as well?” Perry asked.
“At present, our orders are to keep you and your companion alive,” the Kursas said, “and we follow our orders. I assure you that you will not escape again, however. We have grossly underestimated your intelligence, and I look forward to the technology we will acquire from your people once your ship arrives.”
“It won’t be so easy for you to take,” Perry warned.
“Once we’ve acquired what we came for from this planet, your resistance will be irrelevant,” the Kursas warned. “Now, I believe you’re aware that we can inflict as much pain as we want on you without killing you, so I would suggest that if you want your final moments to be comfortable, you will come with us peacefully.”
Perry nodded, and he and Halera went followed the Kursas contingent wit
hout resistance. However, he began to notice that they were not returning to the cell block. While the halls tended to all look the same, he got the feeling they were being led somewhere entirely new. This suspicion was confirmed when they entered a massive room filled with smaller ships and an open, exterior door.
The ships were box-like in their design with curved wings that extended from the front to the back of the craft. Under each wing along the side was what looked like half a tube which appeared to be its manner of propulsion. Each ship looked like the interior would be about six and a half feet high, about the same wide, and fifteen feet long, and while the back of the ship was flat, the front was angled with a window that wrapped around the front from side to the other broken only at the corners.
“Are we going somewhere?” Perry asked.
“You will learn soon enough,” the Kursas stated.
He said something in the Kursas language to the contingent with them, and the group led them to one of the crafts. The flat rear opened like a ramp to permit them entry into the seating area of the transport. Inside, there were seats on each side to accommodate a total of ten passengers. The interior allowed a little space behind the seats, whose backs were split from top to bottom, to allow for the tails of the Kursas.
Perry and Halera were seated in the middle seat on each side and left to stare at each other in fear and worry as the rear door closed, and the ship shot out of the open bay door. Perry looked to the front window and saw the pair of Kursas pilots seated at a control panel that wrapped along the line of the window, which afforded a decent view of the surface of Zago.
They were not heading to space but to some destination on the planet. As the Kursas had told them, he would know soon enough.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The puzzle in the room where Blake and Michelle had found themselves was not too complicated, but it did require both of them to complete. Neither of them were too keen on walking down to the sunken floor surrounded by saw blades, so they began by walking around the outside of the room. The floors were basic wooden paneling and appeared to be unfinished and very old. The walls were paneled and were once painted a shade of green though now they were all faded and peeling.
The only item of interest on any of the walls was at the far end of the walkway surrounding the central floor which was only accessible by walking all the around the floor as it was mounted on a wall that extended to the edge of the sunken area.
“So honestly, what do you think the purpose of these rooms was?” Michelle asked as they walked around the room.
“Why do you think I would know?” Blake asked in return.
“Because you’ve seen more than I have, and I figured you would have an idea,” Michelle replied.
“I think Wilster has it wrong when it comes to the purpose of these rooms,” Blake said. “I wouldn’t think that testing would threaten the lives of the participants unless the participants were either unwilling or disposable.”
“Prisoners?” Michelle guessed.
“Most likely,” Blake nodded. “But more than that, I think this was some kind of entertainment that never got off the ground.”
“That’s sick,” Michelle said.
“This is a different society,” Blake said. “Who are we to say what their values are? Perhaps their version of the death penalty is to give their recipients a fighting chance.”
“A fighting chance?” Michelle asked in horror. “You think they let you out when you get through with a few of these? We’re going to be stuck here.”
“I find that unlikely,” Blake assured her. “There was a way in. There must be a way out. Maybe they were rewarded with a reduced sentence or even freedom.”
They reached the panel and looked it over. There was only a large green button in the center, but the sides of the panel looked to be on rails.
“I’d wager that touching this button starts this test,” Blake started and then gave Michelle a sideways glance, “or game.”
“I really don’t want to touch it,” Michelle said.
“Nor do I,” Blake agreed. He pulled his scanner out of his pocket and held it over the panel.
“Here’s what this looks like,” Blake explained. “We press this button and we get instantly separated. One of us is trapped here to read whatever comes up when this panel moves while the other has to go down there to do something with that floor full of very large buttons, while presumably avoiding the saws.”
“So obviously, down there is not somewhere either of us wants to go,” Michelle said.
“Precisely,” Blake said. “What we need to figure out is where the exit is and how to unlock it without dealing with this nonsense.”
Blake walked back around the outside of the room staring at his scanner. Michelle could only watch as he attempted to work out this scenario without putting them in mortal danger. She had already been in enough danger in this adventure. This side track had wasted a lot of time, and she was concerned about Perry.
“I have an idea,” Blake said. Michelle looked at him expecting him to continue, but he only continued to stare thoughtfully at the scanner.
“Well?” Michelle said.
“I don’t know if it will work. It might backfire horribly.”
“How certain are you?”
“Well, about the same as any other, I suppose. Fifty-fifty.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“It’s what I have.”
“Well, fifty-fifty from you is about as good as ninety-ten from most people, and I don’t see that we have a choice.”
“There’s that too, yeah,” Blake nodded. He looked over to the panel and gestured for her to follow him to it. He glanced at the floor and planted his feet in the center of the floor tile directly in front of it. The tile was only about eighteen inches square, but Blake waved her toward him.
“What am I supposed to do?” Michelle asked, not sure what he was asking of her.
“We need to share this tile, so we’ll have to stand rather close together,” Blake said.
“Rather close is a bit of an understatement,” Michelle said. “I’ve made out with guys without standing that close.”
“Sorry,” Blake apologized.
“It’s fine,” Michelle said. She stepped onto the tile and wrapped her arms around his waist to get as close as possible. She placed one foot between his feet and the other so that one of his feet fell between hers. She glanced at him, and he looked about as uncomfortable with a situation as one could be. All the same, he wrapped one hand around her back to keep her close as well while he manipulated the scanner with his other hand.
“So is there a Mrs. Blake back home?” Michelle asked.
“Hopefully,” Blake said. “I really don’t know where we stand at the moment. My story is a bit of a mess, but she wasn’t the root cause.”
“So the 26th century still has its problems then,” Michelle said.
“No matter how far technology goes, the human equation remains,” Blake said. “We can progress through the centuries and take care of so many problems, but at the end of it all, we still have to get along with each other.”
“Simple as that?” Michelle asked.
“If only,” Blake said. “Let’s hope this works so we can both get out of here in one piece.”
Blake pressed the button on the panel and a cage dropped from the ceiling surrounding them both and trapping them where they stood with only inches to spare on each side. It was open to the panel allowing them to see it rise on its rails revealing a screen that lit up with a number of lights that matched the number of button switches on the sunken floor.
Electricity sparked across the ceiling and lit up the screen on the wall overlooking the sunken area, showing an overview of the floor. The saws roared to life but did not move. A panel of the fence surrounding the center area dropped and everything seemed to wait for the designated victim to venture down to the pit to play out the game.
Moments later, the saws stopped
, the panel that had lowered raised back up, the screens went black, the wall panel dropped back down on its rails and the cage that had trapped them raised back into the ceiling. For what felt like an eternity, the room was completely silent and neither of them moved.
Suddenly, a light on the far wall flashed red, and a door slid open. Blake breathed a sigh of relief.
“Let’s go,” he said and dragged her by the hand toward the door.
“What happened?” Michelle asked.
“Let’s get through the door first, and I’ll explain,” Blake said. He walked quickly, and she struggled to keep up with him, but it felt like every step barely brought them closer to the destination. The fear that the door would close at any moment shot through her, and she hoped this was the opening they needed.
They reached the door without incident, and no sooner had they stepped through it than the door slid shut behind them. Blake let her go and breathed a sigh of relief.
“This was my thought,” Blake said, “The room was built for two people. We know this because it wouldn’t even let you enter it until there was two of us. After I scanned the room, I found there were multiple panels that attempted to detect whether there were two people in the room. One of these panels was right next to the start button, but it was only big enough for one person. My hope was that if the system thought it didn’t have enough people, it might force us into something else, or maybe even let us go. Since the start button area barely had enough room for one person, let alone two, I thought the last thing anyone would think someone would do is try and force both people into that space.”
“Well, it worked,” Michelle said. “We’re out of there anyway.”
“Let’s see where we are now,” Blake said and looked around the room. It looked similar to the holding chamber where he had been reunited with Michelle, but instead of a room with seating, this was more of a roomy hallway. Gray, metal walls and grated flooring were all the room afforded for a view, and at the end of the area was a single door. Blake walked to the door and found no handle or panel to access.
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