by Zoey Indiana
"That won't work right now." Prickling ice ran up her spine. There was no way the major could know about her abilities. "Yes, you know what I'm referring to."
Tas'Ki tapped her temple with a finger. She pulled a small device out of her drawer and set it on the desk.
"This little device controls an implant I have. You don't need to know exactly where it's located, only that it prevents you from reading my mind."
Freya tried not to panic as she reanalyzed Tas'Ki's words. She knew about Freya's mind reading ability, and she had a device blocking Freya from reading her mind. Reaching out with her thoughts, she tried to throw the emergency release on the pneumatic door which didn't work either. She was trapped.
"That lock has a bio-scanner on the door, telekinesis can't unlock or open it." She paused for a moment. "Well, you could, but you would have to move each part of the locking mechanism and is just as likely to jam the door as unlock it."
Refusing to take the major's word, she recognized the mechanics of the door. It was similar to the one she'd hidden behind when O'Paka was attacked. Her telekinesis raced along the mechanism that triggered the door to open and close. When she'd done this last time, the sensors were easy to intercept. This time, the door had several additional wires, sensors, fail safes, and decoys. Major Tas'Ki was right, if she attempted opening this door, she could jam it.
Freya grabbed her knife and jumped from the chair. It had been a trap, and she'd walked right into it. Ready to fight for her life, she got into a fighting stance. Her decisions over the last few days came back to haunt her. The decision to save Bash cost the lives of almost everyone in her squad, and now ARI was out for revenge against her.
"That's not necessary, I think you misunderstand me."
"Feel free to explain whatever you feel necessary, I'll stay right here." She didn't disarm.
Tas'Ki touched her finger to her tab a few times then looked up again. "Nova sent me an encrypted message yesterday revealing who you were and what your purpose was. My orders from the Resistance are to help you in any way possible."
Freya almost dropped her knife in shock. "I don't believe you." Refusing to give anything away, she tightened her grip.
"She mentioned you would need proof. I'm supposed to show you this." Tas'Ki tapped on the tab then spun it around for Freya to see. It was the video her mother made while still pregnant with her. Surroundings vanished as she watched her mother on the screen.
"My beautiful daughter, if you are seeing this, it means I failed. I was contacted by Nova to help right the injustices of the Sovereign. I lived my entire life blind to the horrors that were covered up in the name of science. Once I was enlightened, I made the decision to keep my government job to gain information for the cause. I'm here now because I want you to know I love you. No matter what happens to me or where you end up in life, I love you. I know you will find your own way in this life and I would be proud of you regardless of what you choose. Just remember, if I die for the resistance, I made the decision knowing what could happen. I love you and wish you the best life possible. Goodbye my little miracle."
Wetness covered her cheeks and pain pierced her temple as the video ended. Tas'Ki pulled the tab back and leaned back in her chair. This was the same video Nova showed her when Freya first approached the Resistance. Even though she'd only been seventeen years old at the time, she knew what was happening was wrong. Since birth, ARI assigned her to their special soldier development program. They performed experiments, both surgical and chemical, to transform her into a super soldier. The first fifteen years of her life she'd been known as specimen F158-39-425. On autopilot, she dug her nails into her own leg. Activating pain receptors overrode her emotions by initiating a fight-or-flight response. Years of conditioning taught her emotions were the biggest and deadliest distraction. She'd survived everything they'd put her through, she refused to let a tiny chip in her Amygdala kill her now.
"What do we do now?"
"Now we figure out who created the rogue camp and why they are pretending to be Resistance members."
Safe House: Bash
Four long days had passed since Freya left him here alone at the safe house. He'd read and reorganized every book in the house. Also he figured out how to utilize every feature on the control panel by the front door. Before she left, Freya had showed him the basics, but he quickly figured out the rest. Understanding the replicator had been even easier. Today he had nothing to do and couldn't reread the books since he remembered every word he read thanks to an eidetic memory. It had been one of the many new words he'd discovered as he read the twenty-pound dictionary lying on the bottom of the bookshelf.
He'd never realized how much he didn't know. The teachers at the camp had taught him the literacy and basic principles but refused to let him have more education. They refused him access to the same resources the women were expected to make their way through despite their practical training. While women were able to petition for specific trades or jobs, Bash had been forced into a different direction.
The day of his fourteenth birthday. Deja had led him from the cabin he'd grown up in to a room in her home. That day was forever burned into his memory. All four walls were red like a rose. A large ornate bed with red and black linens dominated the empty room. The floor was black concrete. Looking around, he saw nothing else in the except a door. On the other side of the door was a small hygiene unit consisting of a toilet, sink, and a standing shower. He'd turned back to Deja, and her glittering eyes made him freeze.
"You're old enough to breed, so this is your new home. Anything you need will be brought to you."
Those words beat him down every time he recalled them. The realization that he was twenty-eight and still didn't have any idea how most things worked frustrated him.
He remembered some things Freya had said before she left. Something deep down wanted to believe her, but at the same time he still worried she was playing him. The last thing she'd said before leaving was to trust her because she had a plan, but everything he knew was being threatened.
Everything the council leaders at the camp had done was meant to keep him safe. They kept him away from the dangerous technology which would corrupt his cells, away from the outside world that would turn him into a test subject, and away from women who would try to possess him. Why would they chip him? He couldn't believe some things she'd mentioned.
Frustration welled in him until he threw the pillow against the wall. He didn't know who to trust, and it was driving him insane. Should he trust the truths he'd known his entire life or trust the woman he'd just met? Just thinking about her made his body come alive. In the days before she left, they'd spent a lot of time talking and getting to know each other's bodies. His soul cried out for her return, but his mind kept throwing possible scenarios out.
What if she'd left him here on purpose? It could be a trap so ARI could capture him. But wouldn't they have captured him days ago? He didn't know where the ARI base was located but he didn't think it would take long for them to capture him. What if something had happened to Freya, and she never returned? She wanted to see if her cover was still intact. Maybe she'd been captured and wouldn't return.
He couldn't stand this any longer. He had to return to the Resistance camp and try to make them see he could handle his own life. Explain what happened and they would reward him with more freedom. With his mind made up, he gathered up a few supplies and stuffed them into a pack. He grabbed the handheld for the perimeter so he would be able to get back in if things didn't go well at the camp.
It was a long walk, and he made a few wrong turns, but eventually he found the camp just before dusk. He skirted the perimeter of small boxes on the ground until he was near the leader's collection of houses. Alarms blared the moment he crossed over and he was surrounded by women with weapons. Cautiously he raised his hands in surrender.
"I've returned to speak to De'Nara." He spoke confidently to the group.
"Summon the leaders." Var'i
called out. "Sar'Bastian, you are under arrest." That wasn't right. They were supposed to escort him to the council, not arrest him.
"Seize him!"
Several women descended on him and he was locked into arm restraints before he understood what was happening. Even though he didn't resist, several women kept hands on him as he was led to the council chamber. Coming here was turning out to be a bad idea.
"Sar'Bastian, where have you been?" Deja's voice, not De'Nara.
"Surviving after the border patrol was attacked." He didn't want to give more information than he needed to. "I have shown proof I can survive as an individual as was required. When I stood before the leaders and requested to live freely in the camp, I was given one requirement and I've met it."
"De'Nara does not speak for all the leaders." The smirk on Deja's face made his stomach sink. "You stood before De'Nara, not all of us. This was never voted on nor approved, so the offer is void."
"Where is she?" He straightened his spine as a bad feeling seeped through him.
"Dead." Deja took a few steps closer. "She died while trying to locate you after the border team fell. A few survivors made it back to alert us. We sent another patrol to locate you."
"How did she die?" While he hadn't known her well, she'd been one of the few women in the camp that hadn't pursued him.
"She was killed when the patrol was attacked by the survivors of the ARI team." What she said didn't make sense, Freya told him there had only been two survivors, one of which had been too wounded to fight. "After our patrol finished off the ARI team, your coordinates disappeared. The survivors spread out but were unable to locate you."
"My coordinates?" So Deja had known about his chip and never told him.
"My dear Sar'Bastian, how did you manage to disable your chip?" Deja stood right in front of him and ran her hands up his chest like she always did. She must be really angry, it was the only time she used his full name instead of the nickname he preferred.
Before he could come up with an excuse, he felt something against his neck then heard a click. Deja stepped back, "you went too far this time, proving you can't be trusted. I tried so hard to keep you happy, but that was never enough for you." She shook her head. "Now I have to resort to this. I want you to remember that your actions caused this."
Bash reached up to touch the device around his neck and felt a jolt of electricity that knocked the breath out of him. "What did you do? What is this?"
"It's a slave collar." Deja grinned as she explained. "It's used on prisoners by ARI to keep them confined and docile. I picked it up a few months ago from a contact inside Is'Ora Prison. If you get within three meters of the perimeter it will deliver a constant electric shock until you move away from it. It will do the same if you try to remove it. As you experienced, it's quite powerful, and that's just the low setting."
Bash couldn't believe what he heard. She'd put a slave collar on him? He couldn't begin to describe the injustice of this, not to mention demeaning. He'd read some terrifying things about these devices, including some which could be used to gain full control over a person's actions.
"What else does it do?"
"There is a remote that allows your keeper to deliver a shock on command when you don't obey. The strength can be adjusted. On the highest level it will render you unconscious."
"This isn't right. I didn't do—" electricity shot through his body and he dropped to the ground unable to hold back the convulsions.
"This isn't about you. This is about the good of the society and humankind. Until you learn that, this is necessary."
Bash struggled to breathe after he regained control of his body. It took him a moment to catch his breath then he stood back up. Deja walked over to Lux and handed her the small device.
"Lux will act as your keeper. I'll even let her stay at your cabin with you. After all, we want you comfortable, right?"
Chapter 7
Safe House: Freya
For the second time in her life, cold fear shot up her spine. The safe house was empty. She quickly took off her pack and stashed it in a corner. Silently, she ran through the inside of the house, then the outside perimeter of the house. Everything looked normal except for the fact she couldn't locate Bash. She pulled her handheld out and checked the house. The cloaking feature had been turned off from the control panel inside the house then re-enabled from the house's handheld. She hadn't even gone over the cloaking controls when she'd given him a rundown on how to control features inside the house. He'd learned faster than she'd predicted.
She'd stressed the importance of not leaving the house. Realizing that she'd never given him any real reason to trust her, he may have returned to the camp. When he didn't suddenly show, she looked for clues. Hell, even an old-fashioned note would have worked. She didn't want to think he'd gone back to the camp after everything they talked about, but it was the only idea that made any sense.
Using the replicator to create a few necessities, she set up the security measures and perimeter. She had a general idea of where the camp was located. When she'd found Lux and Bash earlier, they'd been close to the camp. Many scenarios went through her mind while she retraced the path. Just the thought that someone from the camp harming him made her chest ache. It was baffling how one person could cause her to feel so many emotions. If any of those women had hurt him, she would kill them all.
Once she arrived at the clearing where she'd found Bash last time, she used her handheld to scan for electrical signals. They were so faint; she couldn't detect the direction. She walked in a large circle around the clearing until the signal strengthened. A quick calculation of angles from the clearing, then she was headed towards what she hoped was the camp.
It took another forty-five minutes before she located the cloaking barrier. The tech was even older than the safe house. It was amazing no one had stumbled onto them before. After setting her device to the right program, it took about fifteen seconds for it to uncloak the barrier. She turned on her personal cloaking device to prevent the barrier from detecting her or triggering any alarms. Cautiously, she stepped over the border and entered the Resistance camp. Even though she was invisible to the eye, she still had to be cautious because she could interact with her surroundings. If she didn't move fast enough, someone could bump into her and give her away.
Freya silently wished she hadn't completely fried Bash's tracking chip. At this moment it would've been very helpful in locating him. Even the handheld from the safe house was useless because it only interacted with the safe house. It didn't have tracking or locating abilities. She reached up to a small body camera the base major had given her so she could record exactly what she found at the camp. The idea there was an entire camp claiming to be part of the Resistance completely baffled her. It had taken her quite a while to trust the major in what she was saying, but after the video and their long conversation afterwards, she sounded pretty legitimate. Combined with the message she'd gotten from Nova before leaving Bash, it was hard to deny.
Even though she was cloaked, it was still in her best interest to stay out of highly populated areas. The outside of the camp had quite a lot of vegetation, but as she moved closer to the noise of people, structures were scattered everywhere. Freya was amazed as she took in the surrounding sight. It was a full bustling village. There appeared to be a council or meeting building just as Bash had said. She also found what appeared to be a small clinic, a market, and many houses. How could there be an entire camp so close to Lay'ata Base without anyone being aware? Another question came to mind, how could there be an entire splinter faction of the Resistance she'd never heard of?
After circling around various areas of the camp Freya found a cabin positioned a little further out than the rest. She decided to look there first because he'd said they wanted to keep him from the tech in the camp. Finding an out of the way spot, she squatted down and opened her mind, listening for the telltale static of Bash's thoughts. Relief washed over her as she heard the static
. It was the familiar chaotic thoughts near Bash that set alarms off in her mind.
Hiro Resistance Camp: Bash
Bash silently cursed himself at the situation he'd gotten himself into. He should've listened to Freya and trusted her but he hadn't. Instead he decided to go off and make his own destiny and ended up sitting here enslaved. While he hadn't been back at the camp for very long, he was ready to leave. He just didn't know how to make it happen. When he tried the obvious and walked to the perimeter when nobody was watching him, it hadn't gone well. His body flinched at the memory of the pain that stupid idea caused. Deja hadn't been joking with what the collar could do. He barely had a moment of peace since he'd been escorted back to his cabin. Various women from the camp came to check on him. Most of them made advances he turned down; freedom seemed impossible with the slave collar.
There was a pang in his chest when he thought about Freya. He wanted nothing more than to be back at the safe house with her. This whole endeavor had been a really stupid idea, and he couldn't believe he'd done it. The few days with Freya had been amazing. She didn't demand anything from him and her touch was soft and kind. If he managed to escape this nightmare, he swore that he would spend the rest of his life with Freya. He would spend his days learning more about technology, while nights would be filled with making sweet love to her.
What he wouldn't give to go back in time and stop himself from starting this moronic move. Bash groaned out loud when Lux appeared in the doorway. Even though he was free to move about the camp, he preferred to stay within the cabin. He got a little more peace, though it didn't stop Deja or Lux from coming to see him. There was nowhere in the camp he could escape from them.
"Bash, are you still mad at me?" He couldn't believe how Lux thought it was no big deal that she'd pointed a blaster at him and threatened to shoot him. After Deja sent him back to his cabin with Lux, she apologized for her overreaction claiming she had been so worried about him she wasn't thinking straight. She'd also claimed she would've never actually shot him but something deep in his gut told him she was lying.