Chapter No.16

Death, always cruel, Pity's foe in chief,
Mother who brought forth grief,
Merciless judgment and without appeal!
Since thou alone hast made my heart to feel
This sadness and unweal,
My tongue upbraideth thee without relief.

- Dante Alighieri -

"There are two Cyborg vessels in orbit around the planet," Ninja reported.

"Raise COM to the X-4001, Delphi."

"Yes, Martin."

"Brian here. What's the word?"

"The word is: take those two Cyborg ships out."

"Yes, Commander."

Marty watched the X-4001 accelerate ahead. He turned to Brigit. "Any luck raising the Admiral?"

"No. I am not detecting their transponder signals. We should be reading them even this far away."

"Damn her, anyway! I warned her about going on a landing mission." He turned to Ninja. "Organize your landing party. We're going down with full force."

"Yes, Martin."

"Inform Brian to prepare a landing party for battle, Delphi."

"Yes, Martin."

After five minutes: "Brian aknowedges and says he has destroyed the two Cyborg vessels, Martin."

"Take over, Honey. Don't hesitate to destroy any approaching ships."

"Yes, Martin."

Marty and Ninja assembled a Drak female unit and armed them. Andy and Tiana were assigned to a fighter for ground support.

"You will take out all of these positions with plasma bombs," Marty told Andy and Tiana while pointing to a map. "Blow three holes in the fence at the these locations. We'll land here at the North wall. Brian's troops will land at the East wall. Set your energy weapons to maximum. Any questions?"

Seeing none, he told them to mount up.

The trip down was swift and chaotic. They had to avoid enemy energy beam fire, but much of it was silenced by the fighters. Brian's troops were on the ground first and immediately took enemy fire. Marty's troops had less to contend with. Ninja and Moto led their Drak fighters into the battle, blasting Cyborg defenders into heaps of burning hulks.

While Brian's marines mopped up, Marty and Ninja began a search, building by building. What they found were hundreds of humans but no Angie, Lia or Tyler.

"What happended to the Dragons?" Marty asked, not knowing if any of them knew what he was referring to.

"Do you mean those ugly scaly creatures with four arms?" a man, with a baldhead, asked.

He looked to be around fifty, one of the oldest human captives Marty had seen so far.

"Yes."

"They came and took them away."

"You didn't happen to see a Hispanic woman wearing a uniform did you?"

"Angelina?"

Marty's heart rate went ballistic. "Yes, where is she?"

"They took her, along with a Chinese woman and a Brit."

"Shit!"

"Get these people ready to go," Marty ordered. "We have to get the hell out of here as soon as possible."

"Yes, Martin," Ninja said.

Marty turned back to the man. "I'm Commander Martin Sinclair from Space Command. Do you have any idea what the Cyborgs were doing here?"

"I'm Ben Crawford," the man said, shaking Marty's hand. "I'm a mechanical engineer." He turned to a middle age woman with a good figure and black hair tinged with streaks of gray. "Come here, Paula." He gestured to Marty. "This is Commander Sinclair, Paula."

"Paula Wright, Commander," she said, shaking his hand. "I'm a physician."

"We have a theory about what's going on here, Commander," Ben said, looking around to make sure nobody was listening. "We've kept it to ourselves. It's not very pretty."

"We knew that the Cyborgs were executing Dragon aliens. Do you mean that they were also killing humans?"

"We believe so," Ben said. "And, we think we know how they're doing it." He pointed at a gray metal building. "And, that's where they've been doing it."

"Let's go check it out," Marty said.

Marty followed Ben and Paula to a locked metal door, but there was no way to open it.

"Stand back," Marty said before raising his energy weapon.

A single blast caused the door to pop open.

The inside was weird. Several pits populated an expansive metal floor. Each pit had a railing around the opening and a horizontal curved chute attached to the edge of the pit by a hinge. Each metallic pit was conical shaped and had cutting blades over a flat plate at the bottom where the point would normally be.

"What the hell are these?" Marty said, scratching his head.

Ben looked at Paula and then back at Marty. "The individual who came up with these devices is a diabolical genius. These are very clever machines to torture people to death."

Marty gave him a blank look.

Ben walked over to a panel of buttons. He pressed a button and the blades started spinning. They quickly reached full speed, making an omnous whirling noise. "They strip the subject naked and make them lay in the chute there. When this button is pressed, the chute tilts up to deliver the poor soul into the pit. The first thing that the individual will do is try to brace himself or herself from going down into the blades, but the sides are smooth and the individual will sweat making the decent inevitable, especially when their muscles tire from the strain of tying to brace their body up from the blades. I can't even imagine what that frantic panic stricken struggle would be like."

"Yes," Paula said. "Can you imagine the terror that the victim will experience when their feet get into the blades? The blades are made from surgical steel or something similar and can easily slice through bone. The main problem is that the blades are only a few centimeters above the flat plate, and the result is that the individual is painfully sliced apart one small section at a time. That spectacle would be unbelievably horrible. Blood and pieces of flesh flying around as the person is sliced up and ground into a purée."

"That's absolutely ridiculous," Marty said. "Why in the hell do they execute people in such a terrible way?"

"They must think it's entertaining," Ben said.

Marty looked around at the other pits. "I notice that these pits are different sizes. This one over here is small. Why is that?"

"Obviously, they are for children," Paula said. "One size does not fit all, it seems."

Marty's face screwed up into a scowl. "That does it! These rotten bastards are toast." He turned to Ben and Paula. "Let's get the hell out of here."

When Marty got back up to the command deck of the X-5001, he stood in front of the crew. His image was also transmitted to the X-4001.  "As second in command of the fleet and in the absence of Admiral Sarasota, I am declaring all out war on the Cyborgs. We will engage them where we can and destroy as many of their bases as we can. Brian, I want you to get ready to deploy your doomsday weapon. When we find their home system, you will use it." He sat down. "Take us out of orbit, Delphi. When we are at a safe distance, please fire a torpedo at the Cyborg base. Put us on course to the nearest possible star that can harbor a habitable planet."

"Yes, Martin."

***

"We have entered normal space, Martin."

"Reduce our velocity to 5000 kps, Delphi."

"Yes, Martin."

"This star is a G0 orange dwarf," Karl said. "It has a 0.7 luminosity and a 0.6 metallicity."

"There is a planet at 0.8 AU, but its albedo is high, suggesting water or ice," George said.

"The average bolomeric temperature of the second planet is 270 K," Masai said.

"That sounds cold," Marty said.

"It's below zero," George said. "We're looking at a snowball planet."

The magnifed image on the main screen looked like a completely frozen world.

"If that planet is in the habitable zone, why is it completely frozen?" Marty asked.

"Earth was once like that," Lucia said. "Eight hundred to six hundred thirty million years ago, a merged continent blocked the oceanic thermal flows, freezing the entire planet."

"That's only a theory," George said. "But, it could be what's happening here."

"Take us to the second planet, Delphi."

"Yes, Martin."

"We have to check it out," Marty said. "I'm getting a funny feeling about this."

"I've detected a thermal source in the Southern hemisphere," George said.

"That source is issuing carbon dioxide and water vapor," Anna said. "That is consistent with the burning of fossile fuels."

"That doesn't sound like high technology," Marty said. "In any event, inform me of any new data. I'll be in my quarters."

***

Marty heard his request signal. "Come in."

He knew he was in for it when Onuki and Ferris walked in. He pointed to a couch. "Sit."

"We are here to make sure you are adjusting to Angelina's absence."

"If you're asking me if I'm all right, I'm not, but, I will not allow it to interfere with my duty."

"We accept that, but we wish to examine you," Onuki said.

"I don't think this is a good time," Marty said.

"We will be the judge of that."

Shit!

***

"Take over, Honey."

"I will, Martin."

"Okay, Ninja, Uma, and Masai, let's go."

The landing party rode an elevator to the equipment deck in silence. They quickly put on bio suits and full armor. Ninja and Uma took weapons. They didn't require oxygen, but heat was absolutely necessary.

Marty plunged the Lander into the planet's atmosphere and leveled off at a thousand meters above a vast frozen wasteland passing below, filled with jaggged ice crevices and glacers. The heat source lay in a frozen plain, and it was on the face of a huge mound.

"Stay alert," Marty warned. "This could be a Cyborg trick."

Masai used a scanner to survey the immediate location. "There is heat escaping from that crevice," she said, pointing.

When Marty approached the crack in the mound's wall, he could see light. He looked in before slipping through.

"Holy hell! Look at all the people."

"It appears that the people are all females," Uma said.

"What the hell are they doing on this frozen planet?"

A brave woman approached. She had a short piece of cloth wrpped around her waist, and she had her long blond hair drapped over breasts.

"Are you going to kill us?"

Marty removed his helmet. "No. We're here to rescue you."

Another woman approached and all she had for clothing was her long red hair. "Those metal beings said that they were going cut us up into little pieces."

Marty exchanged glances with Ninja before turning to the woman. "Not on my watch. When were these metal beings here last?"

"The sun has come and gone five times. They took many who were with child but left us."

"Do you have any idea where they went?"

"Yes, it is a nearby star. I can point it out."

Marty and Ninja exchanged glances again."

"Have you ever been there?"

"Yes. We came from there five risings and settings."

"That's our next destination," Marty said. "Let's get these people ready to transport."

"Many of them are naked," Uma said. "They will freeze."

"I'll get Delphi to move the Lander closer," Marty replied.

"Yes, sir."