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EPISODE SIX
by Dan Wallace
Areon
rose to his knees as he struggled against the lingering effects of the gas.
His surroundings still spun slowly around him and he reached up to touch
the lump on the back of his head, wincing as he did so. The bleeding had
long since stopped but the injury felt fresh so he doubted that he had been
out for more than a few hours.
As his vision began to
focus, he realized that he was encased in a tall, translucent cylinder,
capped at the top and bottom with a complex housing that included what he
believed to be a type of biomedical sensor array as well as other
components that he was unfamiliar with.
Four other identical
devices joined his to form a ring. Three of them imprisoned his teammates
while the fourth held a woman with a distinctive geometric tattoo over her
left eye and cheek. She had dark brown hair that shimmered with violet
highlights and she appeared to be as battered and bruised as the rest of
them. She seemed almost not to notice her injuries though and had a defiant
look of someone who had been through similar situations before.
The cylinders which
sealed them all off from each other were on a raised platform near the
center of a converted warehouse or shipping facility. Old hydraulic lifts
dangled from the ceiling and several wall and floor panels had been
removed, the components within having been scavenged.
Electrical conduit and
piping connected the five imprisoning tubes and converged at a heavily
built seat that faced away from them. The whole affair looked haphazard and
thrown together with whatever parts were available. Components designed for
varying uses had been reworked to fit together in a jumbled mess. The
assembly work itself though was professional and even showed amazing
ingenuity.
Wargen Rast was near
the seat, examining connections and plugging additional leads into the
armrests. After a few minutes, he apparently realized that most of his
captives had begun to stir and he turned his attention to them. He clasped
his gauntleted hands behind his back and strode around the ring of
cylinders, inspecting each one briefly. Finally, he stopped in front of the
tattooed woman.
“I suppose you’re all
wondering just who this sweet young thing is.”
Areon snorted as he
rose to his feet. “Actually, I was wonderin’ how long it’d take me to crack
this thing open an’ get my hands around your throat.”
Rast inclined his head
in Areon’s direction but remained calmly rooted in his spot. “Not a good
idea, although, I’m almost tempted to let you try. Unfortunately, you’ve
already had your last chance.
“I’m pleased Lyssa was
able to join the rest of you here though. See, she’s a bounty hunter whom
I’ve…run into from time to time. As a Corusian, she has the ability to
manipulate the air around her and that gave her an advantage in some of our
dealings. In the end though, even that failed her when I turned the tables
and went after her instead.”
While Rast
congratulated himself on his victory, Devin wearily began to revive and
felt about his prison. The thick, plasticine wall seemed like an
insignificant barrier to him and he pressed his palms against it. Heat
surged up from inside him and radiated out through his fingertips.
Almost immediately, an
intense electrical jolt traveled a reverse path and sent him flying back
against the wall behind him. His body twitched for a few seconds and then
was motionless.
“What? The fool!” Rast
spun around, startled by the crackling sounds on the far side of the ring.
He raced around and ran
a quick medical scan through onboard equipment in his battlesuit. After a
moment, he sighed with relief. “Good. The moron’s still alive.
“So the rest of you
don’t get any stupid ideas, these cylinders can absorb any kind of energy.
Heat, physical force, charged particles, whatever you can throw at them,
they’ll simply absorb it and send it back to you as an amplified electrical
pulse.
“Wynd here’s lucky he
didn’t kill himself.”
Cory suddenly realized
that she had not taken a breath since Devin had collapsed. She closed her
eyes for a moment and breathed in, trying to calm herself. “Why do you
care? The IA won’t pay a ransom for us. What good are we to you?”
Rast moved to Cory’s
side. “I’m surprised you haven’t put this all together yet.
“You were nearly
through medical school when you signed up for this Guard Program. Look
around you. You must recognize some of this equipment.
“It’s all designed to
extract specific portions of your DNA and recombine them with mine. In the
end, I’ll have a slightly altered form of your enhanced abilities and the
Alliance Guard will be nothing more than a faded dream.”
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"Distant Storms" is ©
and ™ Dan Wallace 2001
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