Chapter 6
Lieutenant Vnor Gin
I was lead through the cyborg city. I was looking around, taking in everything that I could. I was absorbing information. I had never seen anything like it in all of my travels. It was a ruined city, with lots of buildings in shambles. That was good. There were plenty of places to hide. It was growing darker; the sun was setting. The cover of darkness would be good.
“Hurry, blue scum,” the cyborg that held my chains said. I quickened my pace, not wanting to give him any reason to give me a blow. I would need to be in good condition for what I had planned.
I wondered where they were taking Bridget. I knew that K6R wanted her in his chambers. Was that inside the white building that we had stopped in front of? When he said he wanted her for himself, I couldn't help but feel extreme anger. How dare he take what was mine. But was it more than that? Was it possible that I was feeling some sort of jealousy for the first time in a long time? No, that wasn't possible. I had no feelings for these damn humans. It was just a mission. My feelings of anger and jealousy were simply because she was our goods and I needed to get her back to Captain Alicron Qinov. It was my mission. That was the only reason that I felt such rage when the cyborg claimed her.
“You will stay here until your execution,” the cyborg said as he led me inside of a long warehouse-like building.
“That is unfortunate for me. You are ruining my trip to the village,” I said.
“You were trying to get to Cantu? That will never happen. It is almost a hundred miles to the north. You never would have made it on foot. You should count yourself lucky we found you and are going to put you out of your misery,” he said.
This was good. I did not even know there was a village anywhere on the planet. But I was tricking him into giving me information. Now I knew that there was a village. Now I knew the name of the village. And now I knew that it was one hundred miles to the north. I would need transportation. This machine was dumb, bleeding information to me that was vital.
We entered the building. Prison bars lined the hallway. I was pushed into a dark cell. But he did not take the chains off of me. Shit. He closed the door of bars and locked it. Then he left. I could hear him leaving the building. I was surprised that there weren't any cyborgs on guard. Not even at the entrance.
Well, I had to figure out how to get myself out of there and how to get Bridget back. I looked around the cell looking at the way it was constructed. I had to do this before they sent for me to be executed. I was lucky in that they did not take my tool belt or boots. Obviously, they did not know that it was everything to a Kynon soldier. It was where we kept our resources. But to the untrained eye, it just looked like boots and a belt. I was about to open a compartment on my belt to take the chains off of me when I heard a voice.
“You are a Kynon.”
I looked around. Suddenly a figure appeared in the darkness in the cell next to mine.
“I am. Who are you?”
“A friend of the Kynon. I am a Lana,” he said.
I knew of the Lana. I knew it was a race of alien that had been an ally to the Kynon in the past, but I had never worked directly with one.
“What are you called, Lana?” I asked.
“I am called Nippara. And you, friend?”
“I am Lieutenant Vnor Gin,” I said.
“I am glad that you are here. Though it is unfortunate for you. But if I am to be in prison with anyone, it should be an ally,” he said.
“Yes, it is unfortunate. The entire obstacle of crash landing on this planet is unfortunate. Tell me how you came to be in this prison,” I asked.
“I was on a short mission from a trading village near here, to an outpost carrying goods. Just your regular merchant mission. I was shot down by the machines. They took my speeder, and my cargo. They put me in chains and brought me here. But it is not shocking; this is what they do to anyone that ventures out of the cities. Sometimes they even go in and take within the boundaries of villages and cities. They are machines. They do not think the way we do.”
“They took my cargo as well. A human. I must get her back. Then I have to escape from this place. I have a crew on this planet that I am looking for. As well as the other humans. There were twelve in all,” I said.
“Humans? I have heard of these humans,” he said.
“What? What do you mean you have heard of humans?” I asked intrigued.
“It has been rumored that two human females were captured by K8L.”
“Is that so? And who is this K8L?”
“He is the brother of K6R, another cyborg. He has a city hundreds of miles from here called C2. The brothers do not get along. They are constantly at war with each other, a cyborg civil war,” he said.
“And C2? How many cyborgs? Would I be able to get in there to release these human females that are my cargo?”
“You would need a team. I would advise that you go to the trading village to hire a group. Only then you might have a chance. A very small chance as C2 has triple the number of cyborgs that are here, but it’s not impossible. But why even think of that when you are imprisoned here?”
“Because I plan to get out of here. But I am waiting,” I said.
“Waiting for what?”
“I am waiting for the cover of darkness. I am waiting to know more about this place. I cannot get out of here if I don’t have a plan for after I leave this building. I will just be caught again.”
“You need information. What do you need to know? I have been here for a while now as a prisoner, and I have been here before many years ago during the Battle of Igint,” he said.
Good. This Lana could be useful. Even though I did not know him, I knew that the Lana lived by a code. It was a code of honor, just like the Kynon. If this Lana made a pact with me, he would see it through. It was their way.
“For starters, I would need to get from this building safely to the living quarters of K6R. That is where he's keeping my human. I would also need weapons, but quiet ones, so as not to rouse too many cyborgs. Then I would need a speeder to transport me and the human to this trading village of Cantu where we could disappear into the crowds. That is what I need,” I said.
“I can help you with all of that if you get me out of here too. We have a better chance at success if we work together. I know how to get from here to K6R’s living quarters, and I know where the speeder port is and can wire one to steal.”
“I like the sound of this plan.”
“But how do you plan to get out of these bars? I have tried for days to remove them by force. The machines only come in once in the morning to leave food and water, and that is all. They do not unlock the bars, only slide it under. So how can we get out?”
“Do we have a pact? You honor this pact to help me rescue the human and get a speeder to Cantu?” I asked.
He held up his hand in the Lana salute. “I honor this pact. I will get you to your human, to a speeder, and get us all to Cantu, or die trying. It is better than dying at the hands of the machines without fighting.”
“Good. Then I will get us out of here. But we must wait until darker and the middle of the night when the city has grown quiet. There will be fewer machines to deal with.”
“Yes, it is quieter in the middle of the night around here.”
I opened a compartment on my belt and pulled out a tool. I stuck it in the cuffs on my wrists and wiggled it around. The chains fell off. Then I did the same to the ones on my feet.
“I need to get me one of those belts,” Nippara said.
I laughed. “Now we wait. When the time comes, I will open the locks on our cells and to your chains.”
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”