“You are indeed a mighty warrior.”
“I am a warrior at your service, then, stranger. It is the way of this place.”
Grant understood well enough how this place called Violent’s Prison operated. He was now in charge of the Inner Square and, as a result, the entire prison. He had not set out to conquer the leader of this square, the man named Titan. He had only wanted to enlist the man’s services and those of his lesser warriors in the cause against the Minith. Nevertheless, the fight had been pressed and he had escaped as the victor. Now, he held the allegiances he desired. And he was not unwilling to use them in the success of his plan.
“I’m honored, Titan. I… No, not I, but the world. We need your services.” Grant waved at the men assembled in the chamber. “Indeed, we need all of your services.”
Mouse smiled and stepped forward from the back of the room where he and Sue had retreated.
“Men, you are not going to believe what this man has in store for us,” he joked. “It is difficult to believe. But apparently the Leadership Council has approved it.”
“What do you need from us, Stranger?” one of the guards asked.
Grant saw no need to withhold anything from them.
“My name is Grant Justice. And we are going to drive the aliens from the planet.”
“Do not play with us, Stranger.” Titan’s words were hushed but clear. He closed the distance between them. “I will quickly take up my weapon against you once again if you joke with us. I have no patience for pranks.”
Grant wondered how the Minith had hurt this man so horribly to make him act in such a manner. He put a hand on the larger man’s shoulder.
“No joke, Titan. I’ve come here to recruit warriors.” Grant paused. Searched the faces around him. “Are you with me?”
Titan snaked Grant into his embrace, lifted him from the ground and hugged. Grant gasped for air as the crowd cheered and whooped.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Grant did not greet Tane. He merely flopped into the rearmost seat of the carrier and checked his weapons. The wooden staff was added to the pulse weapon, shurikens and boot knife that Tane had delivered.
Tane lifted off from the cleared area and waved hesitantly to the men outside. One of the Violents lift a dirtied hand in return, the glint of a knife’s blade held in the hand was recognizable. The climb took him above the prison’s walls and out of sight. He pointed the vehicle to Bst’n and programmed an automatic flight.
“What happened, Tane?” Grant asked, ignoring the social nicety of introducing his two companions. The edge in Grant’s voice would have concerned any other Peace-loving man, but Tane knew the other man well enough now to dismiss his inadvertent violent tendencies.
Tane checked the flight plan for accuracy before turning to face his three passengers. He glanced warily toward the black man and the white woman with him before telling Grant what little he knew. Avery had displayed her own slightly violent tendencies earlier by refusing to leave Bst’n until Tane had her message memorized word for word. The message included directions inside the Minith Mother ship, directions designed to assist Grant in finding her should he choose to do so. He repeated the words now and watched as Grant turned them over in his mind. Tane wondered if Grant was aware that he could be read so easily when he was planning violence.
“What are we going to do, Grant?”
“We’re gonna get her back, scientist,” the large black man answered and Tane felt an involuntary shiver pass through his body. Other than Grant, he had no experience with Violents and the proximity of these two convicted Violents was disturbing. The fact that one of the convicts was a woman did little to soothe his fear but he did his best to swallow it away.
“He’s right, Tane,” Grant agreed. “We’ve got to get to her before they can hurt her. She knows too much.” Tane knew there was more to it than that for Grant. It was not only an operational necessity to rescue Avery; it was an emotional one as well. He suspected the two had deep feelings for each other. Grant was starved for emotional input after his period of suspended animation and he had rescued Avery. Those were two strong reasons for the immediate attachment, but Tane wondered if their feelings for each other would stand up through time. He dismissed the thought and concentrated on their situation.
“If you go to the ship and try to get her out,” Tane argued, “will not the Minith know that we are able to resist them, and are perhaps planning to do so?”
“Yes, Tane,” Grant answered. He spoke as if explaining a simple arithmetic problem to a child who should already know the answer. “But if we do nothing, they will also know that we are able – and planning – to resist them. They will also know where our headquarters is located and that we plan to somehow use the men and women of Violent’s Prison. In other words, Tane, they will be able to crush us before we ever get started.”
Tane nodded and felt almost ashamed. He, one of the brightest men on the planet, should have known that. He also knew he should have done everything in his power, regardless of how violent it may have seemed at the time, to have prevented Avery’s return to the Minith when he had the chance.
“So what can we do now?”
“We do the only thing we can do, Tane. We turn this thing around and head for the Mother Ship. We get her back. Now.”
Tane did not speak. He did not argue. He simply turned around, faced the controls, and changed their course.
Thirty seconds later, one scientist, two Violents and one six hundred year old soldier were headed for the home base of the Minith.
* * *
“Take her to the Zone. We shall hear what she has to tell us.”
“Yes, Zal. It shall be done.” The guard left to follow out his orders.
Zal smiled. The answers were at hand. This human would tell him what he suspected – that these tame creatures were straining at their bonds like oxen to a plow. The yoke of slavery gets more uncomfortable the longer it is worn and these humans had chafed under that yoke for over a decade. It was time they fought back.
It is time to show them what slavery really is, Zal decided. Only when slaves rebel against their masters can they begin to learn that lesson.
He strode to the Zone, eager to watch the demonstration that waited.
Will she resist? The thought stirred his body. A pleasurable sensation. Moreover, if she does resist, how long will she be able to keep her silence?
“Let us hope she is a strong female,” he muttered to himself as he entered the Zone.
* * *
The Mothership loomed in the distance. Even from the height of the speeding carrier vehicle, the barren earth that surrounded the ship seemed to extend forever, a blackened circle of earthly protection for the aliens. Although the sight was not new to Grant, the implications of the burned earth still affected him.
The flight had taken a few hours and Grant had spent the time planning the assault and briefing the others on their responsibilities. From the information Avery had relayed through Tane, and his own knowledge of the ship’s layout, Grant had a good idea of where they would have taken her.
The ‘Zone’, as Avery had called it, was where the aliens tortured their human captives. Every human slave who entered the ship was taken there first to have his or her secondary lids removed by the Minith. Their blindness made them more trustworthy but Grant wondered how these people could ever be considered untrustworthy when they practiced no violence whatsoever. And see where it got them, Grant thought.
“Entering Minith detection range, Grant,” Tane informed the man. Grant looked to Mouse who nodded and checked his weapons a final time. Their plan was simple and straightforward. Get in, get Avery and get out.
“We’re ready, Tane. Go for it!”
Tane stopped circling beyond the range of the alien’s listening devices and pointed the vehicle’s nose toward the ship. They approached the alien ship without any indication that its owne
rs were aware of their presence.
“Okay, Tane, drop it here!” Grant and Mouse opened the carrier’s door and waited for the vehicle to descend. Grant jumped before the craft touched down and sprinted for one of the ship’s doorways, twenty feet away. Mouse was right on his heels, his length of chain already swinging. Tane and Sue waited in the carrier.
Grant reached the door and turned the handle. His prayers were answered and the frame swung inward, opening into the interior of the ship for their convenience. He rushed in and turned left at the first corridor, as Avery had instructed. Mouse was right behind. The corridor ahead was clear but Grant knew it would not stay that way for long. These aliens were well trained and had to have heard their landing. He sprinted for the nearest corridor and turned right.
They passed three other corridors before making a final left turn. As they made the turn down the final hallway, Grant spotted two Minith guards in front of a doorway. Grant knew that the door opened into the Zone. The two aliens looked in their direction. Their attention, but not their weapons, drawn by the sound of the approaching humans. Grant took advantage of their initial confusion and hit each with a short blast from the pulse weapon. The two guards crumpled in the hallway. Their bright purple blood splashed freely across the width of the ship’s corridor.
Grant and Mouse hurdled the bodies and the spreading pools of purple and stopped in front of the doorway.
“This is it, Mouse. Ready?” The other man grinned and hefted his chain. “On three. One.. .two.. .thr—“
Before Grant reached three, Mouse was through the doorway and into the room on the other side. Grant wasted no time in following and leveled his weapon as he did so. The warm metal barrel sought targets and quickly found several. He took out two of the aliens before others scattered for cover.
From the corner of his right eye Grant saw Mouse take on one of the Minith with his chain and then, as if in a dream where everything moved in slow motion, he saw Avery. She was strapped to a long metallic table in the center of the room. Wires hung from several places on her body but she appeared unharmed.
With one eye, Grant saw her smile weakly. The other eye saw Mouse drop the Minith with a well-placed swing of the lethal metal chain.
Grant rushed to the table but was grabbed around the ankle by one of the aliens who had ducked for cover only seconds before. Grant fell but got a shot off as he was falling. The hold on his foot was relinquished but two more aliens charged into the room. He took the lead alien out with a shot to the head and, before he could swing the barrel to the second, Mouse attacked with his chain. The second Minith went down. The situation under control for the moment, Grant turned to Avery once again. Undid the straps and wires.
She was weak from whatever the Minith had done to her but she seemed whole; even smiled when Grant asked her how she was. She did not answer so, taking a chance that she had no broken bones or internal damage, Grant picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. He turned toward the door, stepped over one of the dead Minith and nearly slipped in the alien’s blood as he did so.
“Mouse, let’s go!” he shouted to large black maniac who was pummeling another of the aliens without mercy.
Grant was glad the other man’s anger was not turned upon him and stepped over another of the aliens.
The Minith moaned.
Grant calculated. Kill the alien or make haste? They needed to get back to the carrier as quickly as possible and he had no time to check how much charge was left in the pulse weapon. He elected to forego another shot at the injured Minith. He was down for now and there could be more in the hallways.
He turned to the door, and Avery groaned. She couldn’t be comfortable over his shoulder but it couldn’t be helped. Mouse gave his latest victim another lash then followed Grant into the corridor.
They met one other alien before reaching the waiting carrier but Grant’s weapon eliminated the danger. Seconds later, Grant had Avery stashed in the back of the carrier and they were speeding away from the alien ship as fast as the machine would take them.
* * *
Zal came to minutes later.
Several guards had arrived since the humans had left and two were trying to assist their leader. He stared up into their Minith faces and slowly remembered where he was. His first rational thought was a personal denial that two humans had actually entered his ship and nearly killed him, but the pain in his left side brought the reality of the situation close enough to spit upon. Two humans had entered the Zone and nearly killed him! And they had killed several of his soldiers!
“The female?” he whispered to the assembled guards.
“Gone, sir.”
Zal pushed himself slowly from the ground. His head pounded. He recalled the sound of the metal chain as it blurred through the air toward his head. A flash of pain and then… darkness. He raised his hand and felt the gash. The bleeding had stopped and the wound had already begun to close up. He was greatly relieved that he was in no danger of losing his command because of the injury.
With his body taken care of, his first thought was that he had been correct in his previous assumption. The humans were beginning to resist!
The idea of a rebellion on this weak world was like a drug in Zal’s system and the power of the drug flowed like lightning through his veins. Now he could fight these humans more as equals and less like the sheep they were. Once he described this act of rebellion to his superiors, they would not prevent him from making the appropriate decisions. Rebellion was never allowed on a world ruled by the Minith. That was the most important rule by which his race lived.
Zal considered his next moves carefully and noted with some satisfaction that he could have great fun with these humans. Free reign to prevent open rebellion was every Minith Minister’s fantasy and he was about to live it. It was this thought that caused Zal to reconsider his decision to inform his superiors of the humans’ actions. He could handle this without their interference and, when he informed them of how he had handled the situation, they would certainly be pleased with his resourcefulness and leadership abilities. Zal could almost taste the sweetness of that moment.
As an afterthought, and certainly without serious consideration that it would ever come to pass, Zal recalled the second most important rule by which the Minith lived: If a world cannot be dominated, it must be destroyed. He waved off the thought.
“Bring me Lieutenant Treel.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
They landed outside of the hospital. The flight from the Minith ship was without incident. They were not followed and Grant suspected that the Minith leadership had been unable to counter their assault with any coordinated effort of their own. Still, the flight had been tense, especially for Tane who, in between checks to the rear for sign of being followed, babbled incessantly. The words he muttered were an attempt to allay the fear he felt in his stomach, Grant knew. It was a common occurrence among new soldiers or those not used to fighting for their lives. Grant suspected that many more of these present-day humans with their lidded eyes would be following in Tane’s example soon.
“Will they be able to locate us, Grant?”
Grant shook his head at Mouse’s question but was not wholly sure that he was right. He did not know what sophisticated equipment the Minith might possess and the ability to track a specific vehicle that had undoubtedly been recorded on the alien sensors was probably not beyond them.
“Tane, make sure this vehicle is taken away from populated areas and destroyed,” he said, indicating the craft. Tane looked at him quizzically but a mask of understanding quickly replaced his confusion and he nodded.
“It will be done at once.”
The five humans left the carrier and entered the hospital. Grant carried Avery, who was sleeping. He followed Tane who led them to the secure portion of the building that had been used for his experiments with Grant. Mouse and Sue followed quietly, their eyes taking in everything they passed. G
rant felt they were holding up well for two people who had been freed from Violent’s Prison only hours before. They, like everyone else on the planet, had believed that no one ever left the prison alive. Their presence here was a first, and they showed very little sign of undue stress or pressure from the fact. It made Grant realize what a unique place the prison was and what effect being sentenced there could have on a person. They showed flexibility, endurance and a marked ability for survival. Mouse’s actions inside the Minith ship validated Grant’s decision to use the men and women of Violent’s Prison. Three hundred more men like Mouse and they would have a fighting chance against the aliens. There were thousands of prisoners. Finding a few hundred who might like a chance to fight the aliens should not be too difficult, Grant decided. He wondered how Titan was coming in his assignment to develop the inmates of the prison into fighting units.
Grant followed Tane into a small room exactly like his own and placed Avery gently on the bed. Grant’s thoughts left the Minith and the inmates of Violent’s Prison as he recalled the night he had spent with Avery in his own room just down the hall. He reached out to touch her face and brushed an errant strand of hair from her cheek. She was more beautiful than any woman he had ever known and prayed she would be all right.
Tane must have understood his feelings for he placed a hand on Grant’s shoulder. “She is fine, Grant. All she needs is some rest.” Grant nodded and allowed himself to be steered from the room.
Mouse and Sue were waiting in the corridor, questions written clearly across their faces. Grant recognized the look of subordinates waiting for their leader to tell them what came next and, for the first time in his life, regretted his decision to become a soldier. The burden was more than what he cared to hold right now, but like the professional he was, he did not shy away from his responsibilities. He knew that action followed decision and quickly decided that they had to get back to the prison.