MBryO: The Escape (6 page)

“So be it!” Dogg stated trustingly. The ‘Old One’ was their mother. It was her Xenaclon DNA that ran through all of their veins. She would defend her children to her dying breath, which he sensed was very near. She could not endure many more of Maxim Bryant’s so called ‘procedures’ to extract the strands of her DNA.

Reaching down, he gently lifted the small elfin woman on his smooth bare shoulders. She resembled a Terran porcelain doll with her short legs dangling either side of his thick neck. Her exquisitely petite hands grasped the red lion’s mane of his hair.

Pushing the cage door open he stepped over the dead body of the lab tech. He felt the gathering force of psy-talent behind him as he reached the elevator doors. The strands teased the corners of his mind before extending beyond them to the floors above.

“Focus Gayla, do not distract them,” he cautioned as he felt his sister’s empathetic psy-talent intertwine around the strands of the others. Mentally backing off, she hooked her fingers more tightly into the coarse red locks of his hair.

The elevator doors closed at the same time as the fire alarm exploded through the building. Thick smoke filled the hallways. Panicked screams echoed through the hallways.

Havoc ensued as the sprinkling system turned on automatically. The occupants of the building were drenched within seconds. Afraid of being trapped inside, a mass exodus of humanity flocked to the stairwells as workers raced to the exits of MBryO UNIX.

Sadly, no one privy to the existence of the captives down below, came to unlock the cages of the ‘lab rats’! They were expendable, disposable…even to the evil human father who had genetically created them.

At present, Maxim was using his psy-talent to battle the uncontrollable fire that was pouring from a freshly installed air turbine down in the construction zone. The DOD had spent a fortune upgrading the new system. For some unexplainable reason the massive turbine had malfunctioned and was throwing smoke into the air vents inside the building.

His attention diverted, MBryO never sensed the combined telekinetic energy emanating from the laboratories below. Nor was he conscious of Dogg and Gayla stepping out of the elevator and onto the rooftop of the building.

For the first time ever, the two odd-looking creatures saw the outside world.

Dogg’s psy-senses spiraled into sensory overload. His mind screamed ‘freedom’! He wanted to howl in delight, as did the empathetic psy-talented creatures sharing his elation, but still trapped down below.

“Not yet,” the ‘Old One’ cautioned tiredly. Though still joined with the others, her energy reserves were seriously depleted.

“You and Gayla must stowaway inside the ship. Elias Abrams is an old friend. Do not underestimate him. He is a dangerous humanoid, but not a cruel one. I have felt his distaste for the atrocities carried out against us…for many years now. I know…he has secrets of his own. You will be able to trust him,” she warned solemnly. “But, be careful!”

Hovering on the landing zone the space-hopper’s engines were warmed up and ready to go. A dark hole yawned invitingly in the side of the ship.

Unaware of the situation taking place inside the building Elias was unhooking the cables that anchored the ship to the landing pad. With his back turned he did not see Dogg, with Gayla straddling his shoulders; race across the rooftop to the hovering spaceship and climb inside.

Hopping aboard the super-modern intergalactic space-hopper, Elias settled comfortably in the streamlined cockpit. Relief flooded him when the spacecraft lifted off the rooftop of MBryO UNIX and cleared the atmosphere. Once and for all, he lowered the firewall that kept his psy-senses camouflaged.

And, that was the first inkling he had that he was not alone inside the space-hopper.

Alarmed, he punched the autopilot and started to his feet. Only to be stopped by a warm speckled hand on his shoulder.

“Relax Elias Abrams!” Gayla told him cheerfully in her childishly elfin voice. “There is no reason to be alarmed. We have mutual goals in mind. Like you, Dogg and I only wish to escape this evil place. It is our intent to locate and join our sister and brothers! As long as you cooperate with us, no harm will come to you.”

Turning slowly, Elias’ gaze met those of the beautiful doll-like creature sitting on the shoulders of a huge red furry creature. His psy-senses assured him that there was nothing dangerous or sinister in either of the stow-a-ways. The simple childlike humanoid was captivating. His senses told him she was incapable of artifice or manipulation. She was… sweetness and joy.

Not so the monster that held the elf-girl so naturally on his bare shoulders. Elias knew that one wrong move on his part and the half-canine, half-humanoid creature would not hesitate to use his massive psy-strength to tear him limb from limb.

Unfortunately, some of MBryO’s experiments had gone sadly awry. The mutation of animal DNA and human DNA had been expressly forbidden in the Xenaclon Laws. Mentally deranged, MBryO considered himself above the law.

Elias made himself settle back down in the cockpit. This was not the time to do anything foolish. Both he and his strange looking passengers were united in one goal…and that was to leave MBryO UNIX as quickly as possible.

There would time for discussion as soon as they were out of any danger of being detected. His decision made, Elias guided the space-hopper out of Terran airspace.

A routine seemed to naturally fall into place on Nyla 6.

Joshua and William were spent all of their waking hours in the upper docking bay, focusing their attention fixing the wrecked shuttle. They were in the garage from daylight until dark. They halted only long enough to eat and sleep. The damage to the ship was extensive and they knew that it could take days, or even weeks, to fix.

While her brothers were busy in the docking bay, Sasha worked with the big felines. The female feline’s name was Calista and she was queen of her pack. Calista had followed them from the crash site and took up residence inside the bunker, sleeping in Sasha’s quarters at night.

Sasha and the big animal seemed to be hardwired on the same telepathic frequency. It was nothing to see the cat-like creature lazily following a step or two behind the delicate young girl. Pax wondered if the beautiful girl could communicate with other animals in the same way.

She taught Sasha much about Nyla 6 and its occupants. Calista’s ancestors had been brought to the planet on the same ship as Pax Vitar’s. Originally tame creatures, the tabby cats had roamed free across the planet, adapting to their surroundings, forming wild packs.

According to Calista, as the years progressed, their ability to communicate telepathically simply evolved. But evolved from what, Sasha wondered? She spent much of her time in the library vids, researching the history of the planet.

She found one interesting tidbit of information in the original assessment of the planet. The mantle of Nyla 6 was made up of large deposits of Myconeum. Myconeum was a superior long lasting power source. Terra used it to run just about everything, from their homes, to their vehicle, to their spacecraft.

It was also suspected that Myconeum enhanced psy-talent, which would explain why her and her brothers’ psy-ability seemed to be growing stronger every day. It would also explain Pax’s unusual telepathic ability, as well as the free-roaming felines on the planet.

Her fine features puckered and deep in thought, Sasha laid the planet’s initial assessment aside to show the others later on.

Ian had found his own niche working with the ‘bots and drones. With the ‘bots on active duty once more, everything in the bunker was spotless and running like a well oiled machine. He had even discovered the lab where the original Nyla 6 settlers had developed the service ‘bots and was at present in the middle of a ‘secret’ construction project of his own.

Pax marveled at the youngster’s affinity for all things robotic and suspected Ian’s ‘secret’ project was the building of his own mechanical prototype. He enjoyed the young boy’s enthusiasm for his work.

Pax wondered if the thought ever crossed Ian’s young mind that MBryO had done the same in cloning himself and his siblings. If so, the boy had obviously pushed the idea aside. It was one thing to build a machine and quite another to build a human being.

Pax divided his time among the four young telepaths. After being without human contact for so long, he was starved for companionship and he wanted to soak up as much of it as he possibly could. He also derived a variety of information from conversations with his intelligent visitors. The world had changed immensely since his forefathers had been abandoned on Nyla 6.

Much of the history on the library vids at the bunker was outdated. Pax knew nothing of the so-called ‘Xenaclon Wars’ until Joshua filled him in. After the Xenaclons had been annihilated, humanity had declared a galaxy wide moratorium on all cloning. Never again, would the world allow the creation of an army of super strength soldiers who would stop at nothing to destroy mankind.

Pax suspected that the one called MBryO was creating a cloned army of his own. Only this army would be superior to the Xenaclons in that it would be psy-talented.

The only one who did not appear to be thriving on Nyla 6 was Melara.

Unlike the others she was not telepathic. She couldn’t read minds, unless that mind pervaded her own. Her Terran Guard training screamed ‘danger’! And as the days progressed, the signal only got stronger.

Melara couldn’t afford to let down her defenses. She might not be psy-talented but her instincts told her the situation would reach crisis very soon.

MBryO and his drone ships were still out there. She had helped her four young charges escape. She was no doubt high on Maxim Bryant’s most wanted list. Unless she was mistaken, there was a tall bounty on her head.

She didn’t want to think about the consequences, should she be unlucky enough to be caught.

Hidden away on Nyla 6, they were safe for now. The situation was subject to change at any moment, however.

And, since she didn’t want to be taken by surprise if things went south, she busied herself analyzing the bunker’s security protocols. She beefed up any weaknesses, she found. She also plotted an escape route out of the bunker and through the rainforest to the mountains she could see on the horizon.

Nyla 6 was light years off the main space route. Anyone entering the Lyiada Galaxy would do so for a reason. Right now, Melara suspected there was dozens of Terran drone ships searching every rock or galaxy between here and Terra. The drones would eventually find them and take them back to MBryO UNIX. Unless, she come up with a plan to evade being recaptured.

The forested terrain made landing on the small planet difficult, but not impossible. The rainforest would either become their biggest asset or their downfall. It would provide perfect cover for an attack, if it came to one. But it would also provide cover for anyone seeking to attack the bunker.

Without actually discussing it, she and Pax began taking turns watching the valley below. They established guard duty from the cliff overhang where he had gotten his first look at the shuttle craft a few weeks before. It was the best lookout spot on the mountain. It gave a clear view of the starlit sky overhead, the bright orange moons that had rotated to the south side of the planet now, and the forest’s green canopy below.

Less than four weeks after Pax had watched the shuttle containing the five humanoids enter the atmosphere of Nyla 6; the sound of another space craft broke the sound barrier above the small dwarf planet.

But this ship’s entry was a different. There were no signs of distress, and it was obviously in no danger of crashing!

Instead, its powerful engines headed straight for the upper landing bay. It was as if someone had programmed the bunker’s coordinates into the GPS system and the autopilot knew exactly where it was going.

Alarmed, Pax jumped to his feet, blaster ready. His heart in his throat, he lunged up the rocky path to the elevator leading inside the bunker.

“Incoming! Terran spaceship!” he shouted, hoping someone inside would receive the warning, but he was too far away for his telepathic abilities to be effective.

Joshua and William would still be in the docking bay working on the wreckage. He could only hope he could reach them before they were taken by surprise at the unexpected arrival of the space-hopper.

Neither of the two young men felt comfortable carrying a weapon, preferring to use their psy-talent to combat any perceived danger. Pax suspected the dislike had been hardwired into their DNA as a control factor. Centuries previously, humans had outlawed the cloning process after the ‘Xenaclon Wars’.

Nations and galaxies began envisioning armies of disposable soldiers. Some even developed prototypes or whole races of ‘universal soldiers’ called the ‘Xenaclons’. The creators of the Xenaclon imbued them with super strength. They manipulated their genetic codes to create a league of soulless, conscienceless killers. The clones were hardwired with the determination to complete their mission at all costs, no matter who or what got in their way. They were created to succeed, even if it meant sacrificing their own lives in the process.

And then the Xenaclons turned on their creators. Banding together, they plotted to take over the world. What followed was a three year blood bath in which millions of lives, both human and cloned, were lost.