Chapter No.20

There's a better place,
Where our Father waits,
And every tear he'll wipe away.
Darkness will be gone.
The weak will be strong.
There will come a day.
Hang on to your faith.
There will come a day.

- Faith Hill -

"Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me; for my soul trusteth in Thee: yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be over-past."

The two female Cyborgs looked at Angie with curious eyes. They had no idea what she was saying.

Angie looked around. "Where's Major Domo?"

"We know of no one with that designation," a female Cyborg said.

"I was referring to your Commander; why doesn't he watch me suffer?"

"He has ordered us to punish you during the hours of light, and he is too busy to watch."

"Yeah, okay, but before you start, I have a question."

"We will answer your question because you are cooperative."

"You cut off my hand and foot, but they are still attached. How is this possible?"

"We employ a device that we obtained from a biological species that we processed. It stimulates stem cells to regenerate. We can restore any tissue to its perfect state."

"Oh, how I wish that I could take that back home."

"Come," a female said. "We must punish you."

Angie followed the two females into a chamber that contained several strange metal plates embedded into the floor.

"Remove your covering."

Angie removed her robe and handed it to one of the females.

"Stand on this," the other females ordered Angie, pointing at a smooth metallic square plate.

"We want you to stay on the plate," a female ordered. "Hold your arms up while we torment you."

Angie saw that both females held pain sticks in heir hands. She decided to make it easy be sticking her bottom out for them. She was rewarded with a pain stick being touched to her buttocks.

"Ow! That hurts!"

"It was designed to do that." She touched the stick to her abdomen, causing Angie to bend over.

"Ow!"

When the other female touched her stick to Angie's back, Angie jumped.

"Yeow!"

"Please stay on the plate," a female said, before she touched Angie on the ribs.

Angie screamed.  "I'm trying! I'm trying!"

***

Angie collapsed on a metal bench in the cell. "I know how they were able to cut my hand and foot off and regenerate them. They have an alien device that stimulates stem cells."

"That would be a marvelous technology," Lia said. "If only we could get it back."

"I would love to get us back," Angie said.

"You look terrible. What did they do to you?"

"They stuck me with pain sticks all afternoon. It wasn't too bad until they did it to my tits."

"God, don't tell me that," Lia said, holding her hands on her chest. "That hurts just thinking about it."

"I'm sure that you can imagine what they do to males," Angie said.

Tyler covered his ears. "Please, I don't want to know."

"Neither of you need worry," Angie said. "I made that agreement with the Commander, and he is abiding by it, so far."

Tyler's eyed misted. "You are a saint, madam, but I feel just awful about having you suffer in my place."

"I am honored to suffer for both of you," Angie said. "You do not deserve to be tormented for my mistake."

"We will never forget what you have done for us," Lia said as she knelt and kissed Angie's foot.

Angie kissed both of them, and they cried.

***

"What are you going to do to me today?" Angie asked as she removed her robe.

"We want you to sit in this," a female Cyborg said, pointing to a metal chair with a full back and arm rests.

"That doesn't look very comfortable," Angie said.

"That is not its purpose."

"That's for sure," Angie said before she carefully sat down in the chair.

"We want you to try and stay in the chair," a female said. "The pain will not harm you."

"I'll try."

When one of the females pressed a button, Angie felt an intense jabbing pain in her buttocks. "Ow!"

Several more jabs caused Angie to rise out of the chair. "Damn it, that hurts!"

"You are being punished," a female said. "Please try to remain seated."

"I'm sorry," Angie said, grimacing. "I didn't mean to complain."

A stabbing pain hit her in the back. "Yeow! That hurts!"

Her body was assaulted with pain. Despite the intensity, Angie remained seated, but she still complained.

"Stop it! Please stop it! That hurts! I can't stand it! Please have mercy!"

By this time, sweat was running down Angie's face and chest as she strained to rise out of the chair, but it only added to the intense pain. All she could do was scream and bawl.

***

"Could you please give me a break today?" Angie pleaded. "I need a rest from pain."

"We are sorry, but we must punish you."

"Don't you ever get tired of torturing people?"

"We do not tire."

"Aren't you the fortunate ones," Angie quipped.

"We want you to climb on this," a female Cyborg said, pointing to a metal saddle-shaped object with a fourteen inch high conical tubular object sticking out of the top. The phallic-shaped object dominated the top of the saddle, allowing no possible way to avoid it.

Angie looked at it and then at the female. "How am I supposed to . . . I would have to . . . that's going to . . . you want me to stick it up my . . ."

The female folded her metal fingers around the shaft of the conical tube. "You must get on this so that we may punish you."

"I don't think I'm going to like this," Angie said before she obeyed, carefully allowing the artificial phallus to slide into her body.

The female attached manacles to Angie's wrists and pulled her arms up so that she was astride the saddle with her feet off the floor and her legs spread at an angle. Angie watched the female push some buttons. Nothing happened at first, but she soon felt a burning sensation from within.

"What are you doing?"

"I am heating the inserted device."

"Oh, please don't. I beg you. Please don't. You'll burn my . . . Please don't."

One of the female Cyborgs looked into Angie's eyes. "Please allow us to punish you. If we do not, we will be punished."

"I apologize," Angie cried. "Please continue."

The female pushed more buttons, and Angie was soon screaming in agony.

***

The two female Cyborgs led Angie to a large chamber that she had not seen before. They stared at her without saying anything.

Angie finally reacted to this unusual behavior. "What?"

"We have given our report on your punishment to our commander. We told him how well you have behaved and how eager and cooperative you have been."

Angie tilted her head. "And?"

"We have been given permission to relax your punishments but not stop them."

"What exactly does that mean?" Angie asked.

"We are not certain. This has never happened before." The two females appeared confused. "We wish to try something new. We have decided to allow you to punish yourself."

Angie propped her hands on her hips. "What are you trying to say? You want me to hurt myself?"

"Yes. We will only watch."

"I'm not a masochist. You are much better at this than I am."

"Thank you, but we think that you are disciplined enough to punish yourself."

Angie sighed. "I'll try, but I can't guarantee that I'll satisfy you."

One of the females handed a pain stick to Angie. She looked at it to see that there was a button to push to activate it. She looked at the two females and then removed her robe. She touched the stick to her abdomen and pushed the button, holding it for several seconds, screaming and dancing around.

The two Cyborg females were astonished by their subject's discipline and courage. They began to gain an admiration for her.

***

Angie looked at the saddle-shaped device with the phallus. "How am I supposed to punish myself with this?"

"This device is different from the one we punished you with," a female said. See that the penetration device has a slight curvature."

"Yes, I see that," Angie said, running her hand over its smooth surface.

"When you move this lever, the penetration device pumps up and down." she demonstrated it.

"Cool!" Angie said wide eyed.

"And, when you move this lever the penetration device increases its diameter."

Angie's eyes widened even more. "Wow!"

Angie eagerly climbed onto the device and began her ride up and down like a drugstore cowboy riding a mechanical bull. What the two Cyborg females heard from her were moans and yelps instead of screams.

***

Angie cringed when she saw what looked like a booth-sized furnace with roaring flames licking around the outside of the opening. She could feel the heat from across the room.

"I saw something like this on one of your bases. It was being used to punish people who violated rules."

"That is correct," a female said. "But, they were forced into the fire. You will have to force yourself."

Angie shook her head. "I don't know if I can. That's going to be excruciatingly painful. I'm standing fifty feet away and I'm already sweating like hell from the heat."

"Please try."

Angie sighed and then removed her robe before she cautiously approached the opening, feeling the heat increase exponentially. The flames mesmerized her. She wondered what it would be like to burn in an everlasting fire, but as she neared the heat became unbearable. She built up her courage and jumped in.

The two females were completely astounded by this human female's bravery. They watched her dance around madly in the flames yelling and screaming. They had never seen anything like this.

***

"I want to know something," Angie said to the two female Cyborgs. "How many people have you punished?"

"We do not keep count, but, I calculate that it has been 10092 human subjects. There were 7031 females, 5087 of which were ripe, and 3061 males. "

"What do you mean by ripe?"

"They had units in their wombs."

"Where are they now?"

"They have all been terminated."

"Did you terminate them?"

"Yes, after we punished them."

"Did you punish the pregnant females?"

"Yes."

"Did you enjoy punishing them?"

That caused a pause.

"We are incapable of joy. We do as we are ordered. It is our function."

"Don't you get some kind of satisfaction from seeing me scream and yell when you punish me?"

"Your vocalizations are an indication that we are fulfilling our orders. We are not satisfied with hurting you. You have been the most compliant subject that we have ever punished. We are sorry that we must hurt you."

"You have said the right thing," Angie said. "I forgive you for what you have done to me, even if you terminate my life. If it is in my fate to survive this tribulation, I will spare you from harm. I realize that you do not expect that to happen, but if it does, I will honor my promise to you."

"We will never forget you," one of the females said. "But, we must still punish you."

"We will allow you to chose which method that you will employ to punish yourself," the other female said.

Angie smiled. "I kind of liked the saddle thing with the moving penetrator sticking up."

The two Cyborg female exchanged looks.

***

Lia and Tyler sat in their metal prison with hands over their ears. They were tired of listening to Angie scream and yell in agony for hours on end. They couldn't imagine how horrible it was to be tormented for that long every day. Judging by the loudness and temper of Angie's vocal protests, the pain was excruciating. They knew that she was suffering for them. She had taken it on herself to be tortured in their place, and they were amazed. She was truly brave to endure such awful torments to save them from pain. No matter what happened, neither Tyler nor Lia would ever forget her merciful gift to them.

"I can not endure hearing her cry out in pain anymore," Lia said. "I feel awful about allowing her to suffer in our place. I just want this to end."

"Unfortunately, we can not stop it," Tyler said. "These bastards torture those whom they eventually kill. It is a crime so reprehensible, it is beyond reason."

"What good does it do to say that?" Lia said. "Who are we to exact revenge?"

"This is not an issue of revenge, but of justice."

***

Angie, Lia and Tyler sat in the cell waiting for their next tribulation. They knew it just a matter of time until the Cyborg Commander tired of them and had them executed.

"It's been a few days since that bastard tortured me," Angie said. "He's probably going to kill us."

"I don't want to be put in that chopper gadget," Lia said. "It will be a slow painful way to die."

"I can imagine," Angie said. "Being cut up feet first will take time."

"If those blades are sharp enough, they should easily cut through bone," Tyler said. "Once it cuts through an artery, you won't last long."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Lia said. "The blades are only a few centimeters away from a flat plate. Each chop will only slice a thin section of your body. It will require a lot of thin slices to get to your legs. I think that it will take several minutes to get to an artery, and even then the blades are thin and sharp enough to surgically cut through arteries well enough to prevent excessive bleeding."

"What you are inferring is a slow painful death," Tyler said.

"Yes," Lia said. "It will be a slow process."

"In any case, you'll be cut into pieces and eventually chopped up into a juicy purée," Angie said.

"I wonder what they do with that purée?" Tyler asked.

"I think they flush it through a drain that opens in the bottom," Lia said. "They collect it in drums and feed it to animals."

"I hate the thought of ending up in some animal's stomach," Tyler said. "It's such an ignominious end."

"What difference does it make," Angie said. "All traces of us will be lost. We will leave nothing."

"I wonder why they execute people using such a cruel and inhuman method," Tyler said. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Perhaps they get their kicks out of watching it," Angie said. "Execution by slow torture and being drawn and quartered has been done on Earth."

"Yes," Tyler said. "We humans should not complain about being executed by such methods."

When the cell door opened they all turned to look at the Cyborg Commander.

"Come with me. We have judged you enemy collaborators and will now terminate your lives."

"Please don't kill us," Lia cried. "We didn't do anything."

"The decision to destroy you is final."

"You are making a big mistake," Angie said. "When my second in command finds out what you've done, he will annihilate your entire species."

"Your hollow threats will not save you, Earth woman. We have executed many of your species."

"I was not aware of that," Tyler said. "What were they executed for?"

"The same as you: collaboration with the enemy."

The three humans were led to an execution chamber and shown the device that Lia had described. The cutting blades were already churning, making a loud whirling sound.

"Who will go first?" the Cyborg commander asked.

"I will," Angie said, looking at several Cyborgs who had gathered to witness the grisly spectacle.

"You don't have to do that," Lia said. "Let me go first."

"I would prefer to get it over with," Angie said. "I don't want to watch you two go through this."

Angie removed her robe and was told to lay in a curved slide, which she did without any resistance. When a female Cyborg pressed a button, the slide angled up causing Angie to slide down into the conical pit. She braced herself with her arms and legs against the side of the pit, but the metal was smooth and slippery. She knew that it was only a matter of time.

She began to sweat from her desperate efforts to avoid the cutting blades. Her muscles eventually began to tremble from the constant strain of trying to keep her body up from the whiling blades just below her. The cutting blades were rotating so fast she could feel the wind that they made on her feet and legs.

She cried out when she slipped down closer to the churning blades. The cone was narrower near the bottom, making it harder to brace against the side. Her feet were only inches away from the blades, and she knew that if her feet were cut, she would soon slip down to a slow painful end.

She screamed and cried when her toes slipped to a hairsbreadth of being chopped. For a moment she thought about just giving up, but her instincts for survival would not allow it.

She was frantic now. Her chest heaved and trembled from rapid breathing and she was sweating profusely. "Please no, God. Please, no!" She emitted guttural cries of terror. "No! No!"

Lia turned to Tyler. "I'll never last as long as she has."

"I know I won't," he said.

"Yes, you are putting up an excellent battle, Earth woman," the Cyborg Commander said. "I am enjoying your struggle."

Angie looked up at him. "I hope you rot in hell, you dirty bastard."

"You waste your breath. I will enjoy seeing you chopped up into tiny pieces, Earth woman."

Angie was now reduced to a desperate bundle of shaking and sweating flesh as she struggled to avoid sliding down more, clawing and scraping to get a grip on the slippery metal. Her frantic struggle went ballistic when she saw blood specks splattering on the side of the cone. She could feel the blades slicing her toes and she panicked. Her screams sharply echoed around the chamber when she saw blood splattering her legs, and she doubled her effort to slow her inexorable slide into the blades. Her muscles shook violently and she cried out in pain. She knew that she was seconds from having her feet sliced up. She looked up to see her Cyborg executioner watching her struggle with a satisfied look on his ugly face. She knew that she was loosing her battle and it made her mad.

Lia and Tyler turned away from the grisly scene. They had no stomach for the horror that was seconds away. Angie's horrific screams made them want to retch.

A loud sound reverberated around the chamber. Lia and Tyler looked back up when they heard energy weapon discharges and saw Cyborgs falling and being blown apart.

Marty leaned into the pit and extended his hand. Angie looked at it, but hesitated.

"Give me your hand," Marty yelled. "Come on, do it."

Angie had a look of terror on her sweating face. "I'll slip into the blades. They're already cutting off my toes."

"No you won't. I'll pull you up before you do. Trust me."

She released her hand, and he grabbed it and yanked her up. She fell into his arms and cried.

"Put a wound patch on her foot," Marty ordered a medic. "Put some clothes on her."

"Yes, sir."

"Her robe is over there," Lia said, pointing to the chute that was attached to the conical pit.

"Please don't kill the two females," Angie yelled in a horse voice. "You must not harm them. Lia and Tyler go with them and find the alien device. You know what I mean."

Marty was dumbfounded. "Why are you concerned about those who tried to kill you?"

"You don't understand," Angie cried. "This is more important than all of us. You must preserve these two females and retrieve the device. That's an order."

"Yes, Admiral. What about the male Cyborg?"

"I don't give a damn about him."

"Go with them," Marty ordered Moto and Mata. "Take those two female Cyborgs along and what ever you do don't harm them."

"We understand, Commander," Moto said.

Marty went over to the Cyborg Commander who was wounded. "You dumb bastard. Your stupidity caused the destruction of your home world." He pulled out a hand weapon. "I don't normally shoot wounded combatants, but I'll make an exception in your case."

He fired the weapon. The energy beam hit the Cyborg in the chest, and a glowing red fire soon crept over the Cyborg's entire body. He screamed as his body was slowly burned from the inside out.

"When we go out of orbit, I want a nova device fired into this planet."

"Yes, Martin," Ninja said.

***

Angie lay on an examination table in Medical while Onuki and Ferris inspected her left foot. Honey and the two new female Cyborgs were fiddling with the tissue regenerator.

"She has lost three of her toes," Onuki said. "She will have to be fitted with a prosthesis if this device fails to function."

The original two female Cyborgs entered the examination room. The new Cyborg females were surprised to see that they were dressed in Space Command uniforms.

"Honey will make it function," one of the original females said. "She has a greater brain function than all of the creatures on this vessel combined, including the computer that operates it."

"The energy requirements are complex," Honey said. "But, these two new female Cyborgs will assist me in the final adjustment."

Honey moved a switch and the machine came to life with strange displays. "Ah, I think we have it." After making several changes to the programming, the device went into action. A blue light illuminated Angie's damaged foot.

"The device is using a scan to determine the genetic code in the tissues of her foot," Honey said.

"That would require an electron scan," Ferris said.

"Yes," Honey said. "There is a strong magnetic field that shapes the electron beam."

The scan information soon began to display on a screen. Sharp images of DNA structure were displayed in 3-dimensions, rotating to show their structure in complete detail.

"The device is devising the proper frequency and pulse shape to stimulate the stem cells in her foot," Honey said.

A pulsed field of luminescent blue illuminated Angie's foot. Onuki and Ferris looked at this process, completely amazed by what was occurring.

***

The two new female Cyborgs lay on examination tables while Honey and her kids disassembled them. Honey had removed all of their metal parts and she, Arby and Wendy were preparing to dissect them.

When they saw Angie walk into the examination room, the two females reacted with alarm.

"Are you going to punish us for what we did to you?" one of the females asked.

"Absolutely not," Angie said, smiling at them. "I told you that I promised not to harm you. I am here to watch Honey and her kids dissect you. Unlike you, I think that I will enjoy seeing you cut up, but you needn't concern yourselves. The process will not cause you pain or harm you."

Honey made a long incision down the one of the female's torso, exposing her intestines and other organs. A trickle of blood ran down her side and into the pan. Arby began to cut the top of the female's cranium so that he could obtain access to her brain.

"You are fortunate," Angie told them. "You don't have hands and feet. We can't chop off your fingers and toes, but we are able to pull your intestines out instead."

"I will appreciate it if you will put them back when you are done," the female said.

"Sure we will," Angie said, smiling. "But, in the meantime, we will enjoy playing around with your insides. You have nothing to fear. Honey will make adjustments to your systems that will render you much more efficient."

Wendy popped the female's eyes out of its socket, stretching the muscles.

"Nice eye," Angie said. "Are you going to remove her face?" she asked Wendy.

"Yes. I like to do that. It's fun."

Angie laughed. She looked over at the other female. "May I play with her?"

"Sure," Honey said. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to examine her tongue."

"Give her a pinchers," Honey ordered Arby. "She can use it to stretch her tongue out."

Angie smiled at the Cyborg. "Open up, sweetie."

When Angie grabbed the tip of her tongue and pulled, the female Cyborg moaned.

Angie reacted to that by stretching her tongue tighter. "Am I hurting you?"

She got another moan, so she pulled her tongue even tighter.

"This is fun."

***

Marty smiled when he watched Angie slowly walk to her command station, using a cane to steady herself. "Welcome back, Admiral."

She shook her head. "For a moment there I didn't think I would make it."

"How are your feet?"

"The alien tissue regenerator grew my toes back. They should be back to normal in a few days."

"That's great. I'm glad I came when I did."

"I owe you my life," Angie said. "I was seconds from becoming a purée."

"I am fortunate that you did not let me go first, ma'am," Lia said with tears streaming down her face. "I could not have resisted being chopped up as long as you did. I will never forget what a valiant effort you put up. You are one very brave woman."

"I second that," Tyler said. "Your bravery saved our lives. We owe you our eternal gratitude and love."

"I am happy that I was able to save your lives," Angie said. "I could not have watched you two being chopped up."

Marty looked at Angie and smiled. "Lia told me that you spared her and Tyler from being tortured by allowing them to torture you every day for weeks."

"I considered it my duty," Angie said. "It was my fault that we were captured."

"What did they do to you?"

"You don't really want to know what they did to me. I was tortured so many times I don't remember them all."

Marty grimaced. "I can't even imagine going through that."

"I thought about you. You would not have survived it. They stretched my tits out so far I thought they were going to tear my nipples off. I don't think I have to tell you what they would have stretched out on you."

"Jesus! I don't want to even think about that."

Angie laughed. "I didn't think that you would."

"In any event, those bastards won't be bothering anyone soon," Marty said. "Brian and I destroyed a dozen Cyborg bases and he fired a doomsday weapon into their home system. We probably fried billions of Cyborgs, but they asked for it."

"It had to come to that," Angie said. "As much as I hated that Cyborg Commander for torturing me and trying to grind me up, I really didn't want to exterminate an entire species. This all was a unfortunate misunderstanding."

"That is often the cause of conflict," Tyler said.

"What do you want to do with the two female Cyborgs?" Marty asked her.

"Treat them with kindness," Angie said. "I have no hatred for them, even though they tortured me unmercifully. I forgive them."

"You are merciful," Ferris said. "May Allah bless you and all your offspring."

Angie stood, holding onto Marty's shoulder to balance. "Speaking of offspring, I want to invite all of you to a wedding. Martin and I are tying the knot as soon as we return." She ran a hand over her bald head. "Hopefully, some of my hair will grow back before the ceremony. We love all of you and would love to go on new missions, but Martin and I will begin new careers as instructors at the new Space Academy. Our days of going out there are done."

The crew stood and clapped.

Never in the affairs of humans have two people had so much impact on history. Their amazing escapades will forever be known by those who study history as the Great Alien Adventures. It will henceforth be required reading for all Space Academy cadets. Anyone going out there where no man (or woman) has gone before will take away a lesson on how to properly conduct exploration and make contact with extraterrestrial intelligent aliens. Their achievements will become the foundation of a much larger union of planets in both the Milky Way and Andromeda.

The remaining Cyborgs fought a civil war and the victors declared their intentions to be peaceful. They also agreed to work at achieving advancements in technology for the betterment of biological species. This was in reparation for all of the individuals that they had tortured and killed.

Even more important, was the discovery of the alien device that could restore human tissue. From this point forward, people with missing limbs, those with spinal injuries, the blind, the dumb and any degenerate disease such as Alzheimer's could now be restored to a full life.

Our two heroes didn't care about the accolades. They were just glad to be still alive in a universe full of life and death.

Unfortunately, they were in for a big surprise.

The end of book 3, but this will continue in the next book in the series.