Chariot 3: Conception

V-Nus was pushed inside his cell by one of the three military police officers that escorted him. “You couldn`t possibly comprehend the dimension of your blunder.” His words sounded less than meaningless to the guards.

The door slammed on his face while the other two guards carrying a foldable stretcher with Shoffer`s unconscious body dropped him on his bed without bothering to take the primitive equipment back with them.

“Shon…Shon.” The voice called his name. “Shon! Do you read me?”

“What?” Shoffer opened his eyes and immediately raised his aching body from the bed. “I can`t read you but I can hear you.” The Captain sounded confused.

“Are you awake?” V-Nus enquired.

“Yes. Did you call me? What happened? Ought! That hurts.” The Captain grumbled.

“I didn`t say anything. You were unconscious. That repugnant skinny thing stunned you!

“Shon, we need to move quickly. We do not have much longer.” The familiar voice resounded in his mind.

“Sissy? Is that you?” Shoffer could not believe.

“Your voice sounds so…delicate…” Although confused, in his mind, the Captain had many other words to better describe how she sounded, but he preferred to keep them for himself. “How?”

“Yes…Shon.” She patiently replied. “There is no time for explanations. Soon, the subjects in the outside will dismantle the ship.” She referred to the army of scientists which Lieutenant Colonel Exon had under his command.

“How is that possible?” Shoffer enquired, wondering if the Grey weapon had messed up with his mind.

“Captain, I`m afraid you don`t sound…” V-Nus paused… “like yourself? The device must have affected your mind!” V-Nus replied, hearing only his Captain`s side of the conversation.

“I think so.” Shoffer replied, astonished.

“Shon! You must move! You are not crazy! I am talking to you.” Sissy`s loud voice blasted in his mind, losing all its momentarily unusual delicacy.

“Affirmative, affirmative. There is no need to burst my brain.” Shoffer tried to calm her down while V-Nus could not possibly understand what was taking place in the adjacent cell.

“Captain, I am positive…that Grey fried your head.” V-Nus persisted, arguing the nonsense of the conversation was a result of the millennially advanced Taser that Ebe had used against him.

“Can you at least broadcast your communication to all of us. V-Nus is about to start thinking I am gone crazy.”

“Too late! I already reached that conclusion, Captain.”

“My apologies. I am still adapting to these controls. Can you all hear me now? Sissy finally spoke to the crew.

“Controls? Sissy, is that you?” As usual, V-Nus could not keep it quiet but at least he was now communicating through his BCI.

“Listen carefully to what I have to say. There is no time for questions. No time for discussion…and V-Nus, there is no time for any witticism. If you ever want to go back home, you need to stop talking and start listening, and doing exactly what I say!” Captain Shoffer was rather shocked with the attitude of his ship but in certain way, excited with the different, somehow sexier tone in her fast paced voice.

“Fine Sissy. You have our attention.” V-Nus and Captain Shoffer both spoke at the same time.

“And ours.” In the other side of the hangar, Flumen and Cai Yiu Hun could also hear the sound of hope. Her determined, at the same time domineering, voice sounded almost angelical to the two Nibirians, especially to Cai Yiu who just recovered his consciousness.

Flumen had his head down with his eyes fixed on the handcuffs that were chained against a second pair, attached to his feet. He wondered why among them all, he was the only one with such a restraining measure. While seating on his chair, he raised his head and tried not to call attention while looking directly at the two soldiers that guarded the door at the adjacent room where Cai Yiu was being held.

Without taking their eyes off him, the two sentinels stared right back at Flumen who lowered his head back to give an annoyed look to his heavily chained feet.

Beyond the metallic door behind the two guards who firmly held the fully loaded M1 carbines on their hands and an additional Colt pistol on their belts, Cai Yiu Hun lied on a cold hospital bed with his hands firmly tight up against the side rails.

He had just opened his eyes, his vision was still blurry and his bruised head pounding like never. Cai Yiu had not felt that dizzy before, not even when he got kicked on the temple by an enraged Siqannu during one of his hunting trips.

“You must all return to the ship immediately or it will be too late.” At the pace Sissy`s words were pronounced with an almost desperate tone, Ebe and a group of engineers assembled a variety of cutting metal tools, slowly transporting them down close to the hull of Chariot 3.

“Sissy, V-Nus, and I are locked into cells. There is no chance for us to escape.” Shoffer sounded hopeless as he brought up the cold truth.

“But we can…maybe.” Flumen hesitated.

“Flumen, where are you?” Cai Yiu enquired, interrupting the conversation while trying to understand what was taking place.

“I am just outside the room where you are captive, seating on a chair. Hurry up, we need to move.” Flumen rushed his friend.

“Is there anyone guarding my door?” Cai Yiu Hun enquired.

“Yes. Just two armed guards. You can do it.” Flumen thought that unstrapping himself and going through the guarded door did not seem like anything his Nibirian friend could not achieve.

“Fine Flumen, but you need to distract them!” Cai Yiu rolled his eyes while thinking of a way to escape from his bed.

“Distract them. How did you expect me to do such a thing? I cannot even move! I have my hands and feet chained!” Extremely annoyed, Flumen got up his chair as he grumbled out loud and tried to walk towards the room where Cai Yiu was captive. Half a step ahead, the Nibirian scholar clumsily tripped on his chain and fell on his face.

“That works.” Cai Yiu replied before taking a deep breath while staring at his left shoulder and watching his gisra deliberately slide over his arm as it elongated from its holster on a lively movement. The blade cut the first leather made strap on a single struck landing right on the palm of his freed hand.

Cai Yiu then closed his fist giving his gisra the appropriate grip it deserved. The blade moved towards his right hand while it reshaped into the size of a dagger, making a metallic groaning sound until it hit the second strap, cutting it like a meaningless sheet of paper. As soon as the task was complete, the gisra immediately reached the shape of a sword and in a single movement finally set its wielder free by cutting both the straps that held his feet.

Still holding his breath, Cai Yiu Hun jumped off the bed wielding his sword against the door.

On the other side of the door, for their fortune, the two guards stepped ahead to help Flumen get back on his feet.

“They come from so far away with such an advanced technology and yet, this one is so dumb!” The guard laughed out loud along with his partner as they stepped ahead and crouched to help the clumsy prisoner.

Behind them, Cai Yiu`s blade trespassed the door frame making two movements: one downwards through its lock and another upwards through its hinges.

The two men froze for an instant while they both stared right into Flumen`s eyes “Did you hear that?”

Proud of himself, Flumen gave them a guilty smile. “My apologies.”

With a single kick, the door was thrown over the wall across the waiting room.

The men who had stopped laughing and were now whiter than they had ever been, watched the scene reflected on Flumen`s satisfied eyes.

One of them quickly stood up trying to contain the unavoidable shivering of his body while the other simply turned around to face his enemy on a crouched position.

“Nothing to fear.” Said Flumen. “He shall not hurt you...”

Cai Yiu Hun finally made himself visible as he slowly walked out the room and slowly raised his gisra, offensively wielded on his hands.

“…I think.” Flumen added after seeing the expression on the face of the determined warrior.

The two soldiers trembled as they raised their carbines in preparation to unleash a deadly shoot.

The two weapons were consecutively fired by each of the guards.

Cai Yiu Hun jumped, dodging the first bullet and then lowered his body escaping from the second one which passed close to his head. He rotated his body to the left while his gisra followed an upwards circular motion towards his enemies.

The guards did not feel a thing except by the metallic sound that Cai Yiu Hun`s blade produced as it moved slicing the air.

The guards felt their carbines set apart, half of it on each of their hands, and before they could drop them to reach the colts on their belts, Cai Yiu Hun felt the cold touch of his blade wrapping around his fist. The merciful punch that followed was enough to drop both guards on the floor, completely unconscious but still alive.