“That is good,” Janus said.
“The farther we are from MBryO, the better we will like it!” Where the telekinetic strands of Janus’ thought patterns began, Jenasus’ ended. As if they shared each other’s thoughts and could finish each other’s sentences.
“Why don’t you rest for a while,” William added. “Sleep will make the time pass faster.”
“I am too excited to sleep,” Jenasus told him. “Do you think we are really free?”
Elias’ fingers worked frantically on the dials in front of him.
Melara had already plotted a course that would place them on the far side of Terra’s silvery moon. The ship was a bit overloaded and sluggish, but he thought they could make the destination, if a little slower than they had originally anticipated. Once they were out of Terran air space, they would use the sun’s gravity and the ship’s thrusters to sling-shot into hyperspace.
He had lowered the barriers to his telepathic ability when he boarded the ship. His senses were on high alert. Even as his fingers worked frantically to get them as far away from MBryO as he could, he kept one ear open for the ongoing conversations taking place behind him.
From his position in the cockpit, he intercepted William’s promise to the young girl with the unusual complexion. He looked up at the mirror on the control panel above.
The three young clones were seated in the second row of sleepers, the odd looking brother and sister holding hands. As he watched, William reached for the little girl’s hand next to him. With her odd coloring she stood out among her dozen or so pale companions.
“I make you a promise, Jenasus. You will never again return to MBryO!”
Elias sincerely hoped that William could keep his promise to the little girl.
At that moment the ship’s avatar announced their destination in a computer modulated voice, reverberating around the dimly lit cabin.
“Our present course has taken us just outside the orbit of Terra’s International Space Station. We are currently in the process of circling around behind the moon; nearing the entrance to the hyperspace launch portal. Beginning countdown now… ten, nine, eight…”
Elias spared a glance for the figure strapped into the sleeper directly behind him. The medi-bed computer flashed and beeped as it made adjustments to the unconscious figure enclosed within it. She hadn’t so much as stirred since he had carried her from Maxim’s laboratory. He only hoped they could keep her alive until they reached the bunker.
“Switching to the portal coordinates as Captain Sivanza previously directed,” the avatar instructed them. “The ship’s navigational system is overriding the ship’s thrusters, adjusting to new flight path.”
Elias flipped the switch that placed them in the sling-shot. The overloaded ship shuddered, once…twice…then slipped into hyperdrive. Silver streaks marked their passage as the space-hopper made a beeline across the heavens for the safety of Nyla 6.
Pax led the way through the dense underbrush, using tree trunks and bushes for cover. He found himself longing for the lushness of the tree canopy back on Nyla 6. Examining the tree line above, he could find no viable escape route up there. Terran’s obviously preferred to travel on the ground, rather than through the treetops.
By memory, Pax was making his way to the picnic area where their landing party had stash their gear earlier that evening. He circumvented the main access route, staying away from the concrete paths leading to and from the area.
He took his time, preferring to do some reconnoitering before taking the chance of being caught out in the open by MBryO’s security guards. The last thing he wanted was to be a sitting duck for a blaster happy Terran cadet. Or, find himself a prisoner in one of Maxim Bryant’s laboratory cells.
His psy-talent was in hyperdrive. He admitted to himself that the situation was extremely dangerous.
The space-hopper had left without them.
A glance at Melara’s wrist told him that neither one of them was wearing the flat communications bracelet that Elias had given issued at the beginning of the mission. From here on out, they were on their own!
All they had to do now was survive until Elias could return for them. Their next rendezvous point was more than fifty miles away, in the middle of the Mohave Desert.
It didn’t take a genius to know their situation was critical. Automatically adapting to his needs, his psy-talent slid into hyperdrive, enabling him to see his surroundings in a strange type of shadowy x-ray vision. It was like looking at red shadows on a dark vid screen.
He watched as the shadow of a mouse scurried through the leaves, seeking the protection of its burrow. A twig snapped just up ahead and off to their right. A winged shadow was walking its own path through the dark woods.
Was it an animal of some sort? Yes, definitely! But was it the four-legged kind or did it walk upright on two?
He sent feelers to probe the darkness, looking for sentient thought processes. His attempts to penetrate the mental wall met with failure, making him wonder what kind of entity could possess such strong psy-talent.
Was it cloned like Sasha and the boys? Or was it the result of one of Maxim’s mutation experiments? Since the creature had wings, Pax decided it had to be the latter.
Nyla 6 was never shrouded in darkness, as Terra was each night. He always had Wasit’s golden light to see by. So, Pax sensed more than heard Melara moving stealthily behind him. She seemed content to let him set their pace. Her instincts were as alert as his, and she was blaster-ready, keeping watch over their back trail.
When they came to the edge of the picnic area, Pax drew up, his eyes searching the property for signs that Maxim Bryant had set a trap for them. His psy-talent was at a critical level, the heat signatures of the shadows reflecting a distorted, dull, red aura.
Only once before, could he remember reaching this level of sensory overload. And on that unfortunate occasion, he had come face to face with a eughi while exploring one of the Myconeum caves that pitted Nyla 6.
That particular cave had a freshwater stream flowing through it. Pax had wanted to trace the stream to its natural source on the off-chance the reservoir inside the bunker ever run dry.
Unfortunately the eughi had chosen the darkened cave to take its monthly nap.
Pax remembered how enraged the big monster had been at having its nap disturbed that day. His vision had experienced something similar then as well, causing him to see the creature as a distorted red shadow.
He had high-tailed it out of there, just inches away from the monster’s lethal, razor sharp claws. He hadn’t so much as breathed until he reached the safety of the zip-basket, and successfully camouflaged in the canopy above.
The eughi had been enraged, rearing up on its back legs and swiping at the bottom of the carrier. It had eventually given up, the hair on the back of its neck raised in futile anger, and lumbered back toward the cave entrance.
After the furor was over, his psy-talent had crashed, leaving him face down in the zip-basket for several hours, his system weak, disoriented and psy-drained. Luckily he had hit the switch out of habit and the tram had returned him automatically to the bunker. He could still remember waking up much later and making his way inside the starbase, literally ‘in the dark’ so to speak. It had taken him days to recover his psy-ability after that. His psy-senses had shut down.
He had a feeling when he and Melara were safely away from MBryO UNIX; the same sort of shut-down would happen again. They were going to need a safe place to hunker down when his psy-talent eventually burned out.
He set those thoughts aside and concentrated on the dark woods, sending psy-feelers into the dark forest. With his senses heightened, he rode the tongues of psy-energy through the night, winding, surfing the waves of psy-current. The probes encountered at least three sentient presences, not counting the strange winged entity that had stalked a parallel path alongside them through the forest.
He could distinguish two red heat signatures hidden inside the perim
eter, near the garbage receptacles where they had stashed the jet packs. Another guard was camped out inside the edge of the woods directly across from them, his blaster braced against a thick tree trunk.
It happened so fast, that Pax almost didn’t catch sight of the winged mutant before it lunged into the air, pouncing on the lone guard. He felt, rather than heard, the man’s muffled grunt as the creature knocked him to the ground, landing on top of his chest. Canine-like incisors ripped the man’s horrified scream from his throat.
One instant the distorted red shadow was there and, in the next it was slowly growing colder, before eventually fading away completely.
Pax didn’t know what the winged creature was, but it obviously had the same goal in mind as he and Melara. And, that goal was to escape MBryO, at any cost.
Motioning to Melara’s distorted heat signature to come up beside him, he gestured to the two figures waiting to ambush them from the picnic tables. Hiding behind the columns that held up either end of the pavilion, the cadets were prepared to cut them to ribbons the minute they emerged from the woods.
Melara, blissfully unaware of the psy-changes to his sight and the sentient presence of the winged creature in the woods with them, nodded, initiating a flanking position to his right. Silently, she began to circle around the tree line, finding a position behind the two guards.
Pax waited until she was in position, and then stepped into the glare of one of the floodlights, hopping to draw the cadets’ attention away from her. He approached the covered picnic area slowly, pretending ignorance of the guard’s presence.
It was like taking candy from a baby.
He stepped onto the pavilion. The guard nearest him rose up, blaster ready. Pax’s hand slapped the weapon nozzle toward the ground, deflecting the round, which ricochet off one of the metal picnic tables. Spinning backwards in a spiraling blow, he kicked the guard in the head knocking him out cold.
Simultaneously, Melara’s heat signature emerged from the forest directly behind the other guard. Pax caught sight of the glint of silver metal as she flung the stiletto she normally carried in the top of her boot at the man. With a dull thud, it landed between his shoulder blades.
With a muffled grunt, the guard slumped to his knees, his blaster clattering loudly to the concrete.
With long strides, Pax walked past the crumpled form to the garbage cans. Pushing the covers to the ground he removed two of the jet packs, handing one to Melara. In seconds they were strapped into the devices and preparing to lift off.
“Melara,” Pax said silently. His vision was beginning to fade. He knew it was just a matter of time before his senses crashed, leaving his body useless.
He reached through the handlebars and tightened the straps around her narrow waist.
“Elias will be coming back for us. In case I fall behind, I want you to promise me you will get to the rendezvous point as fast as you can. Avoid contact with any humanoids. Find a place to hide and wait for help.”
Puzzled at the urgency in his silent message, Melara searched his face.
She was a battle seasoned veteran of the Terran Guard and native to the planet. She could survive here a lot better than Pax could. But, she was also a female. And, she couldn’t help but be pleased at his concern for her safety.
Nodding, she grasped the jet pack’s trigger and rose into the air, a stream of exhaust trailing behind her. Pax wasted no time following her ascent, shaking his head to ward off the darkness that threatened to overtake him.
On the way up, he glanced back at the ground in time to see a shadowy wolf-like creature lunge into the air behind them, spreading its feathery wings to catch the wind.
“Pax,” Melara queried at his side.
She sensed that something was off kilter, but she didn’t know what. Caught up in the miasma of sensory overload, he couldn’t find the words to explain the creeping fog that was threatening to overtake him. Her beautiful face faded in and out for the last time as his psy-talet crashed inward upon him. His hands went slack upon the handles of the jet pack, causing it to stall mid-air.
Alarmed, Melara realized that Pax had lost consciousness. Reacting quickly, Melara dove toward him as he started to free fall through the air. Grabbing him by the shirt collar, she maneuvered her own bulky jet pack around behind him. Wrapping her arms around him, she placed her own handlebars beneath his arms for support. Grasping the trigger on her handlebars, she began to push them both through the night sky. They had to get to the next rendezvous point as soon as possible.
Off in the distance the lights of Los Angelos twinkled invitingly. The city skyline at night was breathtaking. But she didn’t have time to appreciate it right now. By now, every Terran Guardsman in the city would be on the lookout for them.
Elias wouldn’t be able to return for them for several days. Anything could happen in that time. Melara knew she was going to have to find them a safe place to hide and wait it out.
Chapter Ten
Melara avoided the city skyline, preferring to look for sanctuary in the rocky desert that lay just outside of town. A line of rolling hills beckoned to the east, the sky a kaleidoscope of color as sunrise threatened to expose them. Holding Pax’s unconscious form in front of her, she considered her options. Then she angled the handlebars in the direction of the hillside.
As she neared the foothills, Melara’s jet-pack began to spit and splutter, gradually running out of fuel. Her eyes frantically scanned the ground below for a place to set down.
She chose a spot mid-way up a boulder strewn peak and lowered Pax’s weight as close to the rocky surface as she could. When she let go of his jet pack, he tumbled to the ground in a heap.
Once on the ground herself, she slid out of the jet pack and scurried over to kneel beside Pax’s crumpled body. Her fingers fumbled with the clasps around his chest and waist, releasing him from the cumbersome jet pack.
A quick examination of his lithe form assured her he hadn’t been shot or injured during the firefight on the rooftop back at MBryO. She could only assume he was unconscious, in a coma of some kind.
She probed his skull, in case he had somehow hit his head, finding herself enjoying the feel of his thick black mane of hair trickling through her fingers. But there were no lumps or abrasions on his scalp.
She sighed in frustration, realizing she had no idea why Pax was out like a light.
The sun would be up soon.
She had to find cover before the Terran Guard or DOD tracked them down. There was a huge boulder a few yards away. Worn by time and erosion, it extended several feet above her head, reminding her of the notoriously immovable Terran Guard stationed outside the gates to the Barriosi. Many people had attempted to coax a guardsman into abandoning his post, or even cracking a small smile, but all of those attempts had been fruitless. The Guard prided themselves on their dedication to duty.
The boulder blocked the entrance to a path which skirted upwards to the cliff tops above. Her eyes caught sight of a ledge jutting out below one of the cliffs about half-way up the rocky outcropping.
She wanted to get a closer look at that ledge, but she couldn’t just leave Pax lying out in the open this way. MBryO drone ships were, no doubt, scouring the area for any sign of them.
She crouched down at the top of his head, lifting him so that his silky black hair, loosened during their flight, spread across her chest. Grabbing him under his shoulders, she tugged him across the ground and behind the boulder.
Flying through the air behind him, propelled by the jet pack, she had not realized how heavy and compact his body was. She was breathless by the time she had moved him and both jet packs into the shade of the big rock.
A dead tree branch was lying a few feet away. As a precaution against prying eyes, she dragged it as close to the rock as she could. Walking a few yards away she looked back the scene. Unless you knew he was there, Pax was virtually invisible to the naked eye.
Satisfied, she turned to climb the path up to the ledg
e she had spotted. Pre-dawn had given way to a vivid sunrise, highlighting the rocky outcropping in bright reds, oranges and golds.
She scaled the path easily, arriving at the ledge in no time. It wound back underneath the cliff overhang about fifteen feet, creating a natural hollow. With a little work and some ingenuity, Melara thought she could engineer a snug little cave using some of the brown twigs and branches strewn across the rocks,
It took about an hour of scouting the rocks before she had enough of the heavy branches. Then she laid them just so across the entrance of the ledge, to create the best shelter from the blistering sunlight and the dry hot wind blowing across the desert to their west. Eventually she was satisfied that they had a secure place to hide until Elias returned for them.
Now, for the hard part!
Turning she descended the path to the place where she had left Pax. Nervously, she scanned the horizon, looking for signs of Terran drones. Without benefit of the night lights, she could barely discern the city skyline to the north. Between them and the city was a suburb of houses, looking like an afterthought and built helter-skelter across the desert. The village was completely surrounded by a high metal fence.
Long ago the area had been the Latino section of old Los Angelos known as the barrio. Now it was known as the ‘Barriosi’.
Deep in thought, she looked down at the unconscious man half-hidden in the rocks and branches. Not for the first time she compared his swarthy complexion, dark eyes and black hair to the exiled race of people behind that government protected fence.
The Barriosi had allied themselves with the Xenaclons during the war. Some of the Xenaclons and Barriosi had even married, creating a hybrid race of people. Could Pax’s ancestors have been part of that hybrid race of people? Was that why he possessed such a strong psy-talent?
MBryO: The Escape Page 12