Conduit - M J Marlow (best short books to read txt) 📗

silent.” The lizard pointed to the cage and I knew he wanted me to go into it. I remained where I was and he yanked me over by the chain and slapped me. He pointed to the cage and I shook my head. He slapped me again and I was seeing stars. I went to the cage and the door hissed shut, sealing me inside. The cage was lifted up onto the hook, suspending me off the floor. “This is a pleasant place to begin our invasion,” the leader smiled. “Chain these hooded ones and let them return to their tasks. These ones,” he nodded at Henri and the others, “will entertain us with tales of their world.” I listened as the others were forced to tell their captors what they knew of the world. They were collared and given simple duties to perform. He kept Hannah chained to his throne like a pet. I wished I could scream, but my voice was under the control of the collar he had placed on me. The princes assured me I would be free soon and I stopped fighting. The hall was cleared and only two of the invaders remained as guards. I curled up and tried to sleep but I was shivering from the cold. I jumped as something warm covered me and I looked up to see Chandri hovering outside the cage. He laid his hand over my mouth and I nodded. He hid as a guard came to check on me. It frowned as the fur in the cage and pulled it away; but I held on and he hissed at me. Chandri dropped down on him and dragged the guard away. He let me out of the cage and broke the manacle. He was removing the collar when he was forced to hide. “Going somewhere, pretty?” I turned to see the leader coming in from the rooms he had taken over. I backed away as he came at me and he pinned me against the side of the throne. I drove my fists into his eyes and he backed off, hissing. I saw Chandri’s look of astonishment as he took the leader down. I heard a hiss and turned to see the other guard coming. I pulled on the chain and tripped him. Chandri broke his neck and dragged him off. He bit his finger and rubbed it on the collar and the wiring turned to dust. He frowned at the wound in my throat. “Is there anything we can do to free the others?” I asked as I followed him out. “We can’t leave them mind-chained, Chandri.” “We have never had to consider it, my lady,” he said simply. “We need to take one infected human and one uninfected human to our analyzer to see what it is that chains them.” He heard someone coming and frowned as he saw the twins. “These would be our uninfected humans?” “Aliens!” Jonas exclaimed as he looked at Chandri. “I would never have thought it in a million years.” He nodded towards the fallen ones. “I assume they are the bad ones.” “If you mean the ones who want to enslave our world,” I asked; “then yes. They are the bad ones.” I laid my hand on Chandri’s arm. “Every other human is infected, Chandri. I will take the twins with me.” They followed me out of the monastery and we went towards the castle on a run. Bindri, Everd and Dovid were waiting there for us. They each grabbed one of the twins and me and rose into the air. The twins stiffened for a moment and Everd was pulled down but then they quit being frightened and I could feel their joy and amazement. We landed in the courtyard of the castle and we followed the princes to an archway. We passed through and found ourselves walking along a tunnel under the lake into a space ship. We came into the medical cabin and I saw five rows of cubicles. Five of these rows had male Sylenni children inside of them and I wondered who they were. “They are our children,” Dovid told me. “We have had to keep them in stasis to keep our impact on your world as little as possible.” “Please go in, human,” Bindri said to the twins. “The machine will analyze you.” I saw them balk. “It will allow us to find an antidote for the others.” Jonas, ever the more fearless, nodded and stepped inside. The cylinder closed and the controls kicked in without my doing anything. I watched as Jonas’ body was scanned. Ashad joined me and he saw the twins. He was not happy at having humans in the ship but he nodded when I explained why. Chandri arrived with an unconscious monk in his arms. Jonas stepped out and the monk was placed in the cylinder. Once the readings were compared, Bindri went to work on the antidote. We left him to it and followed Everd through the ship. “Why are you still here,” Jason asked Everd as we stopped in the engine room, “if you have this ship?” “It’s broken,” Everd told him simply, “and the materials we need to repair it do not exist on your world. So we remain here keeping your world safe so that we are safe.” Everd smiled as he caught Chandri’s thoughts. “We hope that the parts we need may be salvaged from the enemy vessel.” He smiled. “We will go home then and fight to free our world from the Vyrashtu.” He saw the twins’ confusion. “They are the alien race who subjugated our home worlds and convinced many of our people that their rule should be accepted. We must end this atrocity before their poison spreads further.” “I can see why,” Jonas frowned. “Do they turn your kind into zombies, too?” “No,” Everd shook his head. “The venom they implanted in those of our warriors who serve them is first a paralytic, and then a poison to us. The Vyrashtu keep us as livestock and pets.” “They eat you?” “They eat us,” Everd nodded. The more I thought of it the angrier it made me. “They see us as ‘birds’, boy. Not unlike your chickens and turkeys?” “But our chickens and turkeys don’t travel in space and speak intelligently,” Jason replied. He thought over what he had seen. “That lizard did something to Dulcie’s voice with that wire.” “It is a simple enough device,” Chandri said as he joined us. “It modulates vocalizations to a specific program.” He looked the twins over. “Your curiosity nearly ended your life, boys.” He turned to me. “Show me their vessel, Dulcie.” He nodded as I sent theimages into his mind. “A scout vessel. Only 250 crew.” He was pleased. “They should be no problem to round up then.” He stroked my hair. “It is fortunate their communications panel was destroyed when it was. They were unable to send out a distress call, and the Vyrashtu do not send rescue vessels.” “So all we have to do is take out these 250,” Jason smiled, “and we’re home free!” He looked at Chandri and me and saw our frowns. “But he just said…” “We have no way of knowing if this vessel was flying solo, young one,” Chandri broke in. “Only the crew can tell us that and their minds are stubborn and null.” He looked at me in surprise. “Not to you, lady bird?” He shook his head in amazement. “Why am I not surprised?” He ignored Jason now. “Do they know this?” “How could they?” I asked him. “Their minds don’t acknowledge the touch of another. It is that complete denial that is part of their shield.” “They must never learn of this,” Chandri replied, “or they will not rest until you are in a cage on your way to the Vyrashtu Emperor. He will have you torn apart to find out how you are capable of this.” He looked over at Jason, smiling briefly. “No, Jason, they are not very ‘nice’ at all.” “I have checked the perimeter scanners and found the point they breached,” Ashad said as he came along. He looked at the twins. “We’re letting the apes in here now?” “Excuse me?” I looked at the haughty male. “That was uncalled for. These ‘apes’ as you call them have proven quite useful to you; and to this world.” I had my hands on my hips, and I was glaring up at him. “And they are my family!” “My apologies, young ones,” Ashad bowed his head. “I appear to have forgotten my manners.” He thought it over. “The base could use these boys. We could send the results and the anti-toxin with them.” “You’re that eager to stick your neck out, Everd?” Chandri saw Everd’s frown. “Very well.” He nodded his permission. “Ashad will guide you. As long as these duplicates do not mind flying.” “Are you kidding?” “I take it that means yes,” Chandri smiled. “You are very strange boys.” He looked at Everd. “Try not to get each other killed. You will be going to the valley where the Dyhazri were brought down. They will be in force there.” “We will go in at night,” Everd nodded, his anxiety levels rising to be gone. I watched them go and worried about the twins. They had just been plunged into an interstellar conflict. Would they rise to the occasion? Or would this be the one situation that they could not handle? I returned to the chamber where the children were learning and growing. I laid my hand on the cylinder holding one of the older ones and I touched his mind. He shared what he was learning with me quite happily. When I left I knew we were now connected. What they were learning was now open to me and I was happy. I left the ship and found my way to the tower. I laid down in the nest and dozed off, my eyes shooting open as something snaked around my head and covered my mouth. I looked into the angry eyes of what I had to assume was a Vyrashtu. His face was almost human, but he had tentacles in his gray body. “You are not as docile as you should be, little one,” he said as he wrapped his tentacles around my wrists and ankles before I could attack. “There is something different about you and we will find out what that is.” He placed something on my head and my mind went numb. I could not call for help. “Now you are in my control. I will not be as easy to take out as a Dyhazri warrior.” He put me in netting and strung me on the back of his harness. Then he slithered down the side of the tower and out of the castle to the lake. We sank into the water and swam across the lake to the mountains. I saw the cave as we swam in and we were pulled along a stream into the other valley. He joined his men and they ran for their vessel. I saw Ashad, Everd and the twins landing on the roof of the base as my captor turned to enter the ship. He carried me to a cabin and I saw an enclosure inside like the one in the base. “This will be your place,” he told me, “until the cruiser arrives.” He dumped me on the deck and I struggled to sit up, my limbs cold from the icy water we had come through. I raised my hands to the thing he’d put on my head and it would not move. When I touched it, pain flared through my mind and along my arms as punishment. I refused to let it stop me. I was on my knees, almost sobbing from the pain when I finally got the hateful thing off. I threw