“Alas, my hands are tied. As you know I cannot leave Terra at this time.” The colorless gaze looked out the glass panels at the gardens below. The DOD project site was just barely visible and construction workers were scurrying about. “The DOD has invested much time and money in the expansion. They would not look too kindly on my absence right now!”
Elias felt the tendrils of psy-talent curling around the edges of his mental blockade. He knew MBryO questioned his motives. The man trusted no one, especially when it came to his private projects.
And the escapees certainly fell in that category. Effortlessly Elias refused entry to his thoughts and once again the tendrils of psy-talent retreated. But this time, Elias could feel Maxim’s frustration at his inability to penetrate his defenses.
“That is why I should go,” Elias assured him. “I have no family to hinder me. I answer to no one, except you, of course!”
“See to it then!” Maxim acceded with cold disdain. He stood up in obvious dismissal. “Keep me apprised! I want daily reports on each search grid. Include every detail, no
matter how insignificant. My children are brilliant but they cannot elude me forever! I will find them and I assure you, they will be disciplined.”
“And when you find the Terran traitor that helped them to escape…bring her to me! I want to deal with her myself!”
His words rang in Elias’ ears as he left the suite.
Maxim’s pseudo-gentle tones echoes through the telecom on his secretary’s desk. “Have a shuttlecraft ready and waiting for Mr. Abram inside the hour.”
The expressionless automaton’s “Yes sir,” echoed in Elias’ ears as she buzzed the doors securely shut behind him.
Tense, he retraced his route to the elevator. He didn’t relax his guard until he was safely in his own office two stories below.
MBryO’s psy-talent was very powerful. He was capable of reading the thoughts of every humanoid within the building…except for Elias! Elias knew that made him a target for MBryO’s sadistic pleasure.
Maxim Bryant was getting too close to discovering his secret. He was beginning to call in favors to get the information he wanted. It was time for Elias to leave Terra.
Elias entered his private bathroom and grabbed the change of clothing he kept there for the nights he slept on the couch in his office. Gone was the MBryO uniform of white tunic and britches when he emerged and it their place was a navy jump suit stuffed into black knee boots and a belted leather jerkin.
Working quickly, he grabbed his attaché case and began pushing various documents inside, including the original dossier on Nyla 6. He would need the precise coordinates of the dwarf planet if he was going to track down the runaways.
Grimly determined, he reached into the bottom drawer of his desk and removed a lethal looking laser pistol. Shoving it behind his back, he adjusted the leather jerkin to fit comfortably over it. Attaché case in hand, he crossed to the doorway.
Hand on the light switch, he turned to look over the only true home he’d ever had. He had invested the last six years of his life here.
Alone in the world and brilliant at his job, his work had become the focus of his life. He knew what he was about to do next, would make returning out of the question. With a sigh of regret he flicked off the switch and left the room for the last time.
He’d known that it had been time to move on for some time now. He wasn’t really the type to put down roots for very long. Truth to tell, he had just been waiting for the right opportunity to escape.
Only he knew, that he had no intention of ever returning to the waiting evil that was MBryO UNIX. And if that meant he must forever say goodbye to his home planet of Terra…then so be it!
There was bound to be another galaxy out there that would welcome a man with his psy-talented abilities.
The private laboratories on the second and third floors down below erupted into a frenzied whirl of activity.
“This is it! He is leaving! This is our only chance to escape. We must hurry!”
The faint quivery tendrils of psy-talent reverberated through the minds of the community of ‘lab rats’ held captive underground.
“Are you sure about this, Gayla?” queried the seven foot tall, freckled faced creature with the nose of a hound dog, the long red mane of a lion and the thick chest of a gorilla. Clad only in tattered knee britches from the waist down, his gentle gray eyes looked sadly down at the lab assistant lying beside his bare feet.
Dogg had all but ripped his neck from his shoulders when he unlocked the door to feed the prisoners their morning meal. This cruel human had been particularly vicious in his treatment of what he called ‘the freaks’ so deserved his fate.
But Dogg was a very empathic creature and killing did not come easily to him.
“We must find the others before father does,” returned the two foot tall elfin figure at the Dogg’s humanoid feet. Her sweetly beautiful face was an older, smaller replica of her sister Sasha’s.
There were six metal cages on each floor of what the captives referred to as the ‘dungeon’. The cage doors remained locked unless MBryO’s goons hauled one of them to the laboratories to perform their research experiments.
The elfin creature called ‘Gayla’ felt multiple psy-talents tugging at the edges of her senses, begging for release.
“Quiet!” growled Dogg telepathically. “Too many voices and our father will hear us. He will not be happy!”
“You must be careful, my children!”
Gayla recognized the frail voice as that of the ‘Old One’. Locked away in a metal cage in the bottom dungeon, MBryO made sure she was kept separate from the rest of the unfortunate ‘lab rats’.
“Use your power ‘Old One’. Help us to sneak aboard the spaceship that waits on the rooftop. When we find Melara and my brothers and sister, I promise to return for you,” Gayla told her.
“You will be too late I fear! My strength is waning,” the old female’s voice trembled through Gayla’s mind. “But I will do what I can to help you now!”
“My children,” she addressed the other captives still locked inside their cubicles, “we must focus our energy as one. Together we are stronger than our captors.”
“What would you have us to do, ‘Old One’?” Gayla asked.
“Those of us that remain will create a distraction. There will be much confusion above. While the humans are scurrying to leave the building you and Dogg must take the elevator to the roof. If you hurry you will be able to sneak aboard the space hopper!”
“So be it!” Dogg stated trustingly. The ‘Old One’ was their mother. It was her Xenaclon DNA that ran through all of their veins. She would defend her children to her dying breath, which he sensed was very near. She could not endure many more of Maxim Bryant’s so called ‘procedures’ to extract the strands of her DNA.
Reaching down, he gently lifted the small elfin woman on his smooth bare shoulders. She resembled a Terran porcelain doll with her short legs dangling either side of his thick neck. Her exquisitely petite hands grasped the red lion’s mane of his hair.
Pushing the cage door open he stepped over the dead body of the lab tech. He felt the gathering force of psy-talent behind him as he reached the elevator doors. The strands teased the corners of his mind before extending beyond them to the floors above.
“Focus Gayla, do not distract them,” he cautioned as he felt his sister’s empathetic psy-talent intertwine around the strands of the others. Mentally backing off, she hooked her fingers more tightly into the coarse red locks of his hair.
The elevator doors closed at the same time as the fire alarm exploded through the building. Thick smoke filled the hallways. Panicked screams echoed through the hallways.
Havoc ensued as the sprinkling system turned on automatically. The occupants of the building were drenched within seconds. Afraid of being trapped inside, a mass exodus of humanity flocked to the stairwells as workers raced to the exits of MBryO UNIX.
Sadly,
no one privy to the existence of the captives down below, came to unlock the cages of the ‘lab rats’! They were expendable, disposable…even to the evil human father who had genetically created them.
At present, Maxim was using his psy-talent to battle the uncontrollable fire that was pouring from a freshly installed air turbine down in the construction zone. The DOD had spent a fortune upgrading the new system. For some unexplainable reason the massive turbine had malfunctioned and was throwing smoke into the air vents inside the building.
His attention diverted, MBryO never sensed the combined telekinetic energy emanating from the laboratories below. Nor was he conscious of Dogg and Gayla stepping out of the elevator and onto the rooftop of the building.
For the first time ever, the two odd-looking creatures saw the outside world.
Dogg’s psy-senses spiraled into sensory overload. His mind screamed ‘freedom’! He wanted to howl in delight, as did the empathetic psy-talented creatures sharing his elation, but still trapped down below.
“Not yet,” the ‘Old One’ cautioned tiredly. Though still joined with the others, her energy reserves were seriously depleted.
“You and Gayla must stowaway inside the ship. Elias Abrams is an old friend. Do not underestimate him. He is a dangerous humanoid, but not a cruel one. I have felt his distaste for the atrocities carried out against us…for many years now. I know…he has secrets of his own. You will be able to trust him,” she warned solemnly. “But, be careful!”
Hovering on the landing zone the space-hopper’s engines were warmed up and ready to go. A dark hole yawned invitingly in the side of the ship.
Unaware of the situation taking place inside the building Elias was unhooking the cables that anchored the ship to the landing pad. With his back turned he did not see Dogg, with Gayla straddling his shoulders; race across the rooftop to the hovering spaceship and climb inside.
Hopping aboard the super-modern intergalactic space-hopper, Elias settled comfortably in the streamlined cockpit. Relief flooded him when the spacecraft lifted off the rooftop of MBryO UNIX and cleared the atmosphere. Once and for all, he lowered the firewall that kept his psy-senses camouflaged.
And, that was the first inkling he had that he was not alone inside the space-hopper.
Alarmed, he punched the autopilot and started to his feet. Only to be stopped by a warm speckled hand on his shoulder.
“Relax Elias Abrams!” Gayla told him cheerfully in her childishly elfin voice. “There is no reason to be alarmed. We have mutual goals in mind. Like you, Dogg and I only wish to escape this evil place. It is our intent to locate and join our sister and brothers! As long as you cooperate with us, no harm will come to you.”
Turning slowly, Elias’ gaze met those of the beautiful doll-like creature sitting on the shoulders of a huge red furry creature. His psy-senses assured him that there was nothing dangerous or sinister in either of the stow-a-ways. The simple childlike humanoid was captivating. His senses told him she was incapable of artifice or manipulation. She was… sweetness and joy.
Not so the monster that held the elf-girl so naturally on his bare shoulders. Elias knew that one wrong move on his part and the half-canine, half-humanoid creature would not hesitate to use his massive psy-strength to tear him limb from limb.
Unfortunately, some of MBryO’s experiments had gone sadly awry. The mutation of animal DNA and human DNA had been expressly forbidden in the Xenaclon Laws. Mentally deranged, MBryO considered himself above the law.
Elias made himself settle back down in the cockpit. This was not the time to do anything foolish. Both he and his strange looking passengers were united in one goal…and that was to leave MBryO UNIX as quickly as possible.
There would time for discussion as soon as they were out of any danger of being detected. His decision made, Elias guided the space-hopper out of Terran airspace.
A routine seemed to naturally fall into place on Nyla 6.
Joshua and William were spent all of their waking hours in the upper docking bay, focusing their attention fixing the wrecked shuttle. They were in the garage from daylight until dark. They halted only long enough to eat and sleep. The damage to the ship was extensive and they knew that it could take days, or even weeks, to fix.
While her brothers were busy in the docking bay, Sasha worked with the big felines. The female feline’s name was Calista and she was queen of her pack. Calista had followed them from the crash site and took up residence inside the bunker, sleeping in Sasha’s quarters at night.
Sasha and the big animal seemed to be hardwired on the same telepathic frequency. It was nothing to see the cat-like creature lazily following a step or two behind the delicate young girl. Pax wondered if the beautiful girl could communicate with other animals in the same way.
She taught Sasha much about Nyla 6 and its occupants. Calista’s ancestors had been brought to the planet on the same ship as Pax Vitar’s. Originally tame creatures, the tabby cats had roamed free across the planet, adapting to their surroundings, forming wild packs.
According to Calista, as the years progressed, their ability to communicate telepathically simply evolved. But evolved from what, Sasha wondered? She spent much of her time in the library vids, researching the history of the planet.
She found one interesting tidbit of information in the original assessment of the planet. The mantle of Nyla 6 was made up of large deposits of Myconeum. Myconeum was a superior long lasting power source. Terra used it to run just about everything, from their homes, to their vehicle, to their spacecraft.
It was also suspected that Myconeum enhanced psy-talent, which would explain why her and her brothers’ psy-ability seemed to be growing stronger every day. It would also explain Pax’s unusual telepathic ability, as well as the free-roaming felines on the planet.
Her fine features puckered and deep in thought, Sasha laid the planet’s initial assessment aside to show the others later on.
Ian had found his own niche working with the ‘bots and drones. With the ‘bots on active duty once more, everything in the bunker was spotless and running like a well oiled machine. He had even discovered the lab where the original Nyla 6 settlers had developed the service ‘bots and was at present in the middle of a ‘secret’ construction project of his own.
Pax marveled at the youngster’s affinity for all things robotic and suspected Ian’s ‘secret’ project was the building of his own mechanical prototype. He enjoyed the young boy’s enthusiasm for his work.
Pax wondered if the thought ever crossed Ian’s young mind that MBryO had done the same in cloning himself and his siblings. If so, the boy had obviously pushed the idea aside. It was one thing to build a machine and quite another to build a human being.
Pax divided his time among the four young telepaths. After being without human contact for so long, he was starved for companionship and he wanted to soak up as much of it as he possibly could. He also derived a variety of information from conversations with his intelligent visitors. The world had changed immensely since his forefathers had been abandoned on Nyla 6.
Much of the history on the library vids at the bunker was outdated. Pax knew nothing of the so-called ‘Xenaclon Wars’ until Joshua filled him in. After the Xenaclons had been annihilated, humanity had declared a galaxy wide moratorium on all cloning. Never again, would the world allow the creation of an army of super strength soldiers who would stop at nothing to destroy mankind.
Pax suspected that the one called MBryO was creating a cloned army of his own. Only this army would be superior to the Xenaclons in that it would be psy-talented.
The only one who did not appear to be thriving on Nyla 6 was Melara.
Unlike the others she was not telepathic. She couldn’t read minds, unless that mind pervaded her own. Her Terran Guard training screamed ‘danger’! And as the days progressed, the signal only got stronger.
Melara couldn’t afford to let down her defenses. She might not be psy-talented but her instincts told her t
he situation would reach crisis very soon.
MBryO and his drone ships were still out there. She had helped her four young charges escape. She was no doubt high on Maxim Bryant’s most wanted list. Unless she was mistaken, there was a tall bounty on her head.
She didn’t want to think about the consequences, should she be unlucky enough to be caught.
Hidden away on Nyla 6, they were safe for now. The situation was subject to change at any moment, however.
And, since she didn’t want to be taken by surprise if things went south, she busied herself analyzing the bunker’s security protocols. She beefed up any weaknesses, she found. She also plotted an escape route out of the bunker and through the rainforest to the mountains she could see on the horizon.
Nyla 6 was light years off the main space route. Anyone entering the Lyiada Galaxy would do so for a reason. Right now, Melara suspected there was dozens of Terran drone ships searching every rock or galaxy between here and Terra. The drones would eventually find them and take them back to MBryO UNIX. Unless, she come up with a plan to evade being recaptured.
The forested terrain made landing on the small planet difficult, but not impossible. The rainforest would either become their biggest asset or their downfall. It would provide perfect cover for an attack, if it came to one. But it would also provide cover for anyone seeking to attack the bunker.
Without actually discussing it, she and Pax began taking turns watching the valley below. They established guard duty from the cliff overhang where he had gotten his first look at the shuttle craft a few weeks before. It was the best lookout spot on the mountain. It gave a clear view of the starlit sky overhead, the bright orange moons that had rotated to the south side of the planet now, and the forest’s green canopy below.
Less than four weeks after Pax had watched the shuttle containing the five humanoids enter the atmosphere of Nyla 6; the sound of another space craft broke the sound barrier above the small dwarf planet.
MBryO: The Escape Page 6