Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (73 page)

Liam did not say anything, only gripped the corpse tighter to his body. Tim stood up as Sabrina walked up, concern upon her face.

“Is he going to be alright?” she whispered, indicating Liam with a hand.

“I don’t know, he might be too far gone. Leah was his world. This was the one thing Steve and I feared could happen,” Tim whispered back as he looked down.

Sabrina looked down at Liam and the corpse he held. She stood there for a few moments, a frown forming on her face as she tilted her head slightly, as if something had caught her attention.

“Sabrina? What is it?” Tim asked as he looked from his daughter to Liam and back again.

Sabrina moved closer to Liam, knelt down and slowly reached out towards the corpse.

“Liam, did Leah always have this?” Sabrina asked, pointing at something blocked from Tim’s view by Sabrina’s body.

Liam lifted his head and shifted the body to see what Sabrina was pointing at. He only stared for several moments before a light seemed to come back into his eyes.

Tim moved to see what the pair were looking at. Sabrina had shifted part of Leah’s uniform to display a section of the chest beneath. Tattooed upon her breast was a small rose. Tim did not understand the meaning but it seemed Liam did as he spoke softly.

“She’s alive…Leah is alive.”

Liam looked up, hope back in his eyes as he looked to Tim, seeing the confusion upon his face he spoke.

“Alyssa had a rose tattoo, Leah did not,” Liam explained.

“But why is she wearing Leah’s uniform?” Tim asked.

“I believe I know,” Shizta said as he approached.

All three looked to Shizta for an explaination.

“Before I was captured, I spoke with Leah and Alyssa while they were being held. We spoke of a plan to rescue them and get them to freedom. During this conversation the relationship between you and Leah came up and of the possibility of her being used against you. We had agreed that this information should be kept secret. It wasn’t until later that I learned that Overlord Viero had one of his warriors in place to record our conversation. I had thought he had not heard that part of the conversation but I later learned that not to be the case.

I had scheduled a follow up meeting with the pair but my capture prevented this. I can only assume they must have figured I had been captured. I am not sure why they would have switched uniforms although I do know Alyssa knew of your relations with Leah. Perhaps she switched uniforms on the chance the overlord learned of the relationship.”

“But if this is Alyssa then where is Leah? Could she still be in the holding cell?” Sabrina asked.

              “Which way?” Liam asked of Shizta as he jumped to his feet.

              “Follow me,” Shizta said as he turned and headed off, not bothering to see if Liam was following.

              Tim and Sabrina followed the pair as they ran through the building in the direction of where the holding cells were located. They encountered no Shenkar on the way there which did not surprise Tim and from what he gathered most had been outside fighting. The Shenkar that had been inside had rushed to defend the interior when Liam had entered and now were all dead.

              Any hope of finding Leah died upon arriving at the holding cell. The cell was empty with no sign of Leah to be seen.

              “I was afraid of this,” Shizta said, his voice full of disappointment.

              “Care to explain?” Liam asked as he turned to face Shizta.

              “Before you had arrived I saw Viero whisper something to the inquisitor. After which the inquisitor quickly left and I have not seen him since. Can you find out if any ships have left the facility?”

              Steve keyed his comm unit and quickly spoke to someone on the other end. He seemed to listen intently for a few moments before his mouth drew into a thin line and disappointment shown upon his face. He thanked whoever he spoke with then turned to the trio.

              “A gunship left about ten minutes ago, we were unable to stop it before it jumped system. Destination is unknown but from what we know the direction it was headed in was not the direction of the Shenkar homeworld. That doesn’t necessarily mean it is not headed there, just that it exit on a different route.”

              “I am willing to bet Leah was on that gunship. Viero knew there was a good chance his forces were going to lose the battle. If he wanted to keep his head then he would need to give the Shelecore something in return to offset the loss of this facility,” Shizta explained.

              “If this inquisitor took Leah to the Shenkar homeworld we will be hard pressed to get her back,” Tim said as he looked to Liam.

              “I do not believe he would have taken her there...at least not right away. You see, the inquisitors are part of the upper echelon and they work directly for the Akron scientists. It is widely known they have a secret facility somewhere within the Shenkar Federation where they conduct their experiments. Unfortunately I do not know of its location nor do I even have a clue where to start,” Shizta explained.

              “I will not let her go! I will burn all of Shenkar space to get her back if necessary,” Liam said, his face a mask of determination.

              Tim also could not help notice that Liam looked very tired and he had some wounds that did not look completely healed. This is very unusual for Liam as he of all the Templars seemed to heal the quickest.

              “Then you can count me in,” Steve said from beside him.

              “As well as my father and I,” Sabrina said, indicating Tim with a nod of her head.

              “I also will help you in any way I can,” Shitza said.

              “As will we,” came a voice from behind them.

              Turning around they saw that Admiral Kelvin and Granshianka entering the room. All four Templars snapped to attention as Kelvin approached.

              “At ease,” he stated.

              Liam looked slightly uncomfortable as he looked at the admiral. Kelvin did not miss this and smiled a reassuring smile.

              “Do not worry, you didn’t kill anyone so you are not in that much trouble. As for General Leonid, you do not have to worry about him. He has already agreed to let the situation go. In fact, he and most of the Praetorian Guard, will be remaining behind to help defend the Lykaans from retaliation that will most certainly come once the Shelecore learns he just lost this facility.”

              Liam seemed to ease slightly at hearing this but still looked a bit off.

              “So where do we start then?” Steve asked.

              “Cryta might have some contacts within his group that can point us in the right direction,” Shizta offered.

              “Okay then, we will start there and we will not stop till we get her back,” Admiral Kelvin said.

              The group all stood silently for a few moments before Liam spoke, his voice quiet.

              “Thank you all for helping. I am sorry if I might have hurt anyone. I do not offer excuses but when I let my anger take over it becomes very hard to control my anger which in turn makes it hard to control my abilities.”

              “We understand Liam and we will all help you do what you need to do to learn to control it. You are our friend and we will always be there for you until the end. We will find her, I know we will,” Tim said as he reached up and gripped Liam’s shoulder slightly.

              Liam nodded and returned the gesture, a faint smile upon his lips.

Epilogue

              Leah slowly came back to consciousness, her vision blurry but she was able to make out shapes moving around her immediate area. She tried to lift her head but she was unable to shift it, a strap ran across her forehead preventing from doing so. She blinked her eyes several times in an attempt to clear the blurriness. A voice spoke from somewhere to her left and just out of her visual range.

              “High one, the subject appears to be awake.”

              The blurred image of someone approached to stand beside her. The person place a hand on her face to hold open her eye as a blinding light was shown into it. She could feel the tears running down the sides of her face from the light.

              After checking both eyes the light extinguished, leaving spots in her blurry vision.

              “The subject appears to be alert, however, the damage to her eyes still seems to be present. Her nanites are not repairing the damage as quickly as the first time.”

              “Could this be due to the nanites we extracted from the subject? Perhaps we removed too many.”

              “Perhaps, let’s hold off on the next procedure for the next day until we can determine if the subject’s body will regenerate her lost nanites. Until then I want you to continue with your experiments to modify the functional nanites we have extracted. I think we should be able to reproduce the results that chief scientist Scyren first produced aboard the
Tryliene
.”

              “Understood, I will report any new findings immediately.”

              Leah could hear someone moving off but the figure that had examined her remained behind, standing beside where she was strapped down. After a few minutes of silence she attempted to speak. Her mouth was dry and she found her tongue sluggish in her mouth. At first what she attempted to say came out as gibberish but she soon gained control of her tongue enough to ask the question she had been trying too.

              “Where am I?” she asked, her voice sounding weak.

              “You are our guest at the Akron science facility.”

              “Guest or prisoner?” she retorted without thinking, her voice a bit firmer.

              “However you wish to look at it is your choice,” the figure said although Leah thought she could hear a hint of amusement in his voice.

              “Can I leave on my own accord?”

              “No.”

              “Then I am a prisoner,” Leah stated, her voice growing stronger the more she spoke.

              She also noticed that her vision was clearing quicker now and the subject she was speaking with was definitely a Shenkar although he still had slight blurriness to him. She could also feel her strength returning.

              “You are quite likely the most interesting specimen I have ever encountered. I have seen the footage of your people’s abilities which I have to say is quite remarkable. We have already learned quite a bit from your healing abilities and have been able to extract several functional nanites from your body.”

              Leah did not like the sound of that…what were they doing with her nanites? She had a couple guesses and none of them were pleasant. The thing that bothered her was how they had managed to extract them. The nanites within her body had automated defenses that would automatically shield her body from invasive attacks such as a needle penetrating her skin. Her face must have betrayed her thoughts because the Shenkar scientist spoke.

              “In case you are wondering how we circumvented your body’s defenses, I can tell you that. We found if we apply low level attacks to your body consistently then eventually the shield that surrounds your body will weaken to a point where we can penetrate your skin to remove the nanites. Keeping the nanites active was another interesting problem we had to circumvent but I will not bother to go into details with that.”

              “Why are you doing this to me?” Leah asked.

              The Shenkar was quiet for several long moments, as if he was weighing how to word his thoughts.

              “You humans have proven to be quite the formidable foe. I do know that not all of you humans have these abilities and it seems to all reside in a select few which is truly interesting. To be honest I have great respect for you and your abilities and I know you might not believe me but I do not enjoy what I do. However, the fact of the matter is, you humans are a real threat to the Shenkar way of life and we need to find a way to combat your abilities. For this we will create our own version of soldier that can match the abilities of you humans. Once we have our own warriors then we will be able to match your attacks and defeat your forces. Then the Shelecore can decide whether you will join the federation or choose to have your race exterminated. Personally I hope he does not choose to exterminate you as I think your people could be an excellent addition to the federation but that is not my choice to make.”