Possessing Providence(2)
“It’s good to hear that, but still—sign at the bottom of the paper.” He waved a silver pen in front of her nose.
She took the pen and read a few lines about keeping secrets, being prosecuted…blah, blah, blah….she scribbled her name at the bottom, wanting to get this job done and out of there as soon as possible.
“Right. There you go, show me the way and I’ll get this mess sorted.”
The guard had clean-cut, good looks, but what kept Prov from admiring the pretty boy was the cool gleam in his grey-blue eyes. He turned, heading into the sparse, open room. She took note of three doors—each painted a different bright colour: fire engine red, cobalt blue and the third a Kermit the Frog green. What was this place, a fun house? She grinned at her wayward thoughts of little Oompa Loompahs appearing at any moment.
The guard walked toward a second blue door, opening it. She saw it led down a long corridor and quickly followed. The radio on the guard’s belt sounded suddenly.
“Two-six, report. Has the electrician arrived yet?”
The guard unclipped his two-way radio and answered. “Affirmative, taking her to the circuit room now.”
“Good, we need to have this done quickly. The back-up batteries are starting to run out.”
“Understood.” The guard glanced down at her. “We will pay you extra if you can get everything working quickly again.”
“Quickly all depends on what the heck you did to short out a whole factory.”
They passed several other blue doors. “This is the blue section of the manufacturing plant. You’ll find an electrical schematic in the power room.”
“Good, it’ll make finding the problem easier.”
Unhooking a key from his belt, he opened a door and stepped aside. “I’ll wait here.”
She peered inside. No little men in funny suits. She snorted. It looked like a standard power room of a modern factory. She set her tool box down, opened the first power cabinet and got to work.
* * * *
Lights swam before Zelron’s vision. Slowly, he began to awaken. He struggled to move his limbs, but found them strapped down, again.
Human males moved around him on the table and lights flickered…they’d drugged his food, again, but what could he do, not eat? Pride would not allow him to self-terminate his life, but despair was starting to weigh him down, and more and more his thoughts turned in an unhealthy direction. What did he really have to live for, other than fighting?
Anger rolled through the pit of his stomach and he struggled to calm the violent rage, wanting to break free and kill every human he could lay his hands on.
Humans. Earth. How long was it since he joined his fellow Kelon warriors in the battle to protect the little blue planet? At the time, he understood Earth was a crucial part of the war between the Alliance and the Federation—the enemy.
Zelron, a hardened career warrior, lived to fight, to kill the enemy. It was all he had—no family, no female would ever take him. No matter the battle, he fought savagely, not caring if he lived or died.
His commander knew. The reckless abandonment of self-preservation made a warrior more deadly. When assigning him a Kelon Fire Skimmer, out on the front line, they had not paired him with any other.
It was a wise decision, considering he took out fifteen small, Xerson fighter ships before his Skimmer was targeted by a larger warship, which destroyed his engines and weapons system. So near the planet’s atmosphere, the final hit sent him hurtling towards the planet below.
Death had not come, although the impact rendered him unconscious. He wished, by the great god Elron, he’d gone to meet his forefathers. Dying in battle would have been honourable, instead of being found and nursed back to health, but a captive of cruel humans; humans he was sent to defend.
“It’s not working with the drugs in his system. Every time we extract samples, we can’t separate the drug compound from his blood. We need him awake, alert and drug free. Damn these lights…the back-up battery is failing. Someone find out when the power will be restored. Now!”
Zelron recognized the voice of his regular tormentor. The human called himself Dr. Martin.
“I got word the electrician has arrived and is working on the problem, but you know what happens when the subject is drug free. Remember how he broke the last set of table restraints?” Martin’s partner, Dr. Forrester, said. “We need something to keep him compliant without the use of drugs, some kind of leverage.”
“He has nothing. Even the promise of sending him back home hasn’t swayed him to cooperate. It’s been nine months and still he attacks us every chance he gets. He’s so fucked up, I doubt his own kind would want him back, if they knew we had him, but the compound in his blood is too valuable to ignore. All tests have proved positive but, like I said, we need to get it without drugging him.”