Part 3 - Part 08

The man grabbed my hand and forced it to the ground. He looked at me and did the same with his own hand. What was he trying to tell me? Feel the ground?

A moment later he stood up. I tried to stand up but he pushed me down. I then realized he was trying to tell me to stay there.

He went to his ship and when he came back he had a gadget in his hands with several wires sticking out of it like horns. I had no idea what it was. He took a spool of wire out of his pocket and connected

it to the gadget. He then drew a diagram on the dry ground with the two robots and my ship. Behind my ship he drew a small circle and pointed at the gadget. In other words, we needed to place the gadget behind my ship. What it was supposed to do, I don’t know.

After that he pointed at the sun and placed one hand over his eyes. By that I assumed we needed to do this after dark. Why after dark? I was pretty sure the robots could see in the dark but then it occurred to me that someone else, perhaps a human, was watching my ship from the distance. That too didn’t make any sense because they could use night vision goggles to see what was going on.

I figured the man knew what he was doing so I stopped wondering and decided to watch the sunset like it was my last.

Hours later I began to feel severe pain in my abdomen, especially when I tried to stand up. The man gave me the gadget and pointed in the direction of my ship. I figured he wanted me to take it there covertly.

Before disappointing him I decided to drink the last vial of firewater and face the consequences later.

While he tried to unwind the wire I popped the contents of the vial into my mouth and swallowed it. I felt its effects in seconds and got on my feet without hesitation.

Just before I took my first step down the hill, I saw the man pull something out of his pocket, point it in the direction of the facilities and pulse it on and off a few times. I immediately realized what he was doing. He was messing with their surveillance equipment causing faults to occur. The robots must have had cameras trained on my ship and were monitoring it from the facilities. The pulsing from the man’s gadget was causing disruptions making it look like the equipment was malfunctioning. He was indeed clever I thought and wondered if he was the same man Ukasnek had encountered. Maybe he was.

I slowly and quietly went down, placed the gadget behind my ship and was back in less than one minute.

The moment I returned the man pushed a button on the remote at the end of the wire, grabbed my hand, flashed his gadget again and we both ran towards my ship. When we arrived the robots ignored us completely. I assume the gadget with the horns interfered with their detection circuits.

I looked at the man with a smile on my face but he didn’t smile back. He looked like he was panicking trying to get me to open my ship. He flashed his little gadget while I looked for my badge. Lucky for us I found where I’d dropped it.

Moments later we were inside my ship and the hatch was closed. We climbed our way up and managed to get to the seats. The ship was resting at an angle and we had to fight gravity to get to them. I sat in my seat and he sat in Daf’s seat. We spent the night resting undetected.

Everything was powered down and my ship looked dead when we woke up. He woke up first.

I had no idea how much my ship was damaged and if it could fly again but I went through the sequence of powering it up.

The moment the engines were up and running I pushed the joystick forward and we quickly flew up into space, away from the facilities.

The moment we moved we were fired upon by the energy cannons stationed at the top of the facilities. We weren’t hit.

When we entered outer space I leveled off the ship and turned off the engines, letting it drift.

Moments later I went and got some water and a jar of meat which I was going to share with the man but he grabbed the spoon and ate the contents of the entire jar. I gave him a second jar and got one for myself. While he was busy eating I refilled my firewater vials and placed them in my left breast pocket. I then went and got a towel and tied it around my wounded abdomen.

We were both exhausted but he kept asking questions. I had no idea what he was asking. I powered up Daf’s viewer and he began to look at it. He began to push various buttons and brought up information like he knew what he was doing. I then realized that he was familiar with the Ostikon language and was able to read everything. He understood the symbols.

While he was busy reading I turned on our long range sensors and began to scan for ships in case we had been followed. There was nothing out there. I guess they weren’t interested in us since we no longer posed a threat to them, I thought.

Just as I was about to doze off the man slapped my face.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I yelled in Macedonian. I then realized that he was trying to stop me from falling asleep. He knew that the robot would try and gain control of me if I fell asleep.

I reached for the back of my neck and felt the wound where the chip had been inserted. It was painful to the touch. The man shook his head meaning don’t touch it and made a motion of an explosion with his hands. I assumed the chip couldn’t be removed without causing an explosion which would kill me.

He continued to access my ship’s computer faster and faster.

After I ran diagnostics I found many things wrong with the ship. I activated the repair robots and they took care of the problems.

By what he was trying to tell me I figured the man had found a way to effectively maximize the ship’s weapons with less risk to the ship. He used his hand to demonstrate how we could simultaneously fire two cannons at the same time without blowing up the ship. He must have checked the logs and seen that I’d done that before. He showed me by using the fingers on his hand. He indicated that we should fire the two outermost cannons when we needed to fire them simultaneously. He explained why this was but I couldn’t understand him.

By the number of things he learned about my ship in a short time, I figured this guy was a genius or very knowledgeable of ships. At times, from the expression on his face, he was very impressed with what he read about my ship. I just wished we could communicate, I could learn a lot from him.

I began to feel pain in my abdomen and decided to lay down on my chair to rest. I didn’t feel like taking any more firewater. I had no idea what damage it could do. But at this point I figured it wouldn’t matter anyway because I was going die from my gut wound before I died from the firewater. It was only a matter of time. But, it would be a shame if I died before I finished the job of destroying the robot.

Moments later I was in heaven. I felt great and no pain until the man began to slap me again. I had fallen asleep and he was trying to wake me up… but it was too late. I had become a spectator in my own body. The robot had taken it over.

I could hear myself speak in a language I didn’t know. I angrily said something to the man which terrified him. He looked away. I groaned, sat up and looked down at my gut. The mud that had dried began to break and fly off. The man ran over to the cabinets, opened a jar of food and gave it to me. I tipped it over and sucked out the food like an animal. He got me another jar and I did the same. I could hear my own heart pound like a sledgehammer against my chest, pounding faster and faster. I could feel my body burning. The man brought me bags of water and I sucked them dry without spilling a drop. The man brought me more food and I ate that too. Where was I putting all this food? My stomach wasn’t that big?

I watched myself grow but it wasn’t me growing, it was someone else. I drank more water. My heart continued to race, running like the engine of a race car. I watched my muscles grow and my sweat washing the mud off my gut. The burn began to disappear and slowly shrink from the size of a saucer to a coin and disappear.

The man watched me from the distance as my heart slowed down and I began to feel great again.

The man looked at me strangely not knowing what I was going to do next. He had a worried look on his face.

I asked myself, “If the man knew that I was going to turn into a super soldier why did he help me?”

I had no idea but, for some reason, I trusted him.

I began to speak to him again but it wasn’t me talking. I still couldn’t understand what I was saying but as an observer I could see that the man was worried, especially after I began to laugh at him. Why was the robot laughing at him and could robots really laugh or even understand what laughing was?

After thinking about this for a moment I realized that I knew nothing of the robot, this man, their relationship or any of it.

After I stopped laughing I pulled out my pistol and aimed it at the man’s head. He cowered but kept looking at me with fear in his yes.

I yelled, “NO!” from the inside and stopped myself cold. I surprised myself. Or I should say I startled the robot which was in control of me, if that was even possible. Could robots be startled?

I looked at the man and he made the constipated look at me again. He was asking me to resist the robot.

After looking into my eyes the man took his seat, punched something into the navigation computer, reached back and pointed at the autopilot button. I pushed it and off we went.

I knew the man was in a hurry to do something but I had no idea what.

By now my robots were finished doing the repairs to my ship and docked themselves before we arrived at the facilities. When we were in range I powered up all the cannons and torpedo and set them to maximum power. I then stopped the ship in midair.

I looked at the man and he looked back at me. I showed him the cannons with my fingers and pointed at the outer two fingers. He shook his head no and pointed at my middle finger. I laughed but I don’t think he knew why I laughed.

Before firing I took a quick scan to confirm that there were no ships around. There were none but I got a massive reading, off the scale massive, from the facilities. I fired the cannon and looked at the sensor before the flash disappeared. It was a direct hit but had no effect. In fact it looked like the facilities had absorbed the energy from my cannon and added it to its own shield. I replayed the shot several times, even in slow motion, and watched the electrostatic field, looking like a dome above the facilities, suck up the light energy like a vacuum cleaner sucking dust. In other words the energy fired from my cannon made the facility’s force field even stronger. This was indeed a clever move.

I looked at the man and saw disappointment but no surprise on his face.

He punched some more numbers into my navigation computer and, without looking at me, pointed to my panel. I punched the autopilot and in a minute or so we landed in the grove where his ship was hidden.

After we landed the man got out of his seat, grabbed his chin with his right hand and began to pace back and forth in the confined space inside my ship.

While looking at him, I looked at myself and was surprised to the point of being startled by the size of my arms and legs. I looked like the incredible hulk in Bruce Banner’s clothes. My camouflage uniform was ruined.

Suddenly the man stopped pacing and said something which took my attention away from me. He opened the hatch on my ship and signaled for me to stay. He ran outside and disappeared.

About twenty minutes later he reappeared, hurriedly climbed into my ship and showed me something. It looked like a model ship

sitting on a foot long cross with a string to wear around a neck. He turned on all my viewers and waved it all over the place inside my ship. Nothing happened. He then put it against the wall and nothing happened. He gave it to me to look at and put it around my neck. It was heavy but looked nice; a bit large but nice.

Just as I finished admiring it he took it back, shoved it in front of my face and twisted the ship on top of the cross clockwise. Suddenly the viewers became distorted and stopped working. He straightened the ship on the cross and moments later the viewers came back again. He did it again and then asked me to do it. After I did it he took the device close to the wall of my ship and the moment he turned it on the device jumped, hit the metallic wall and became stuck to it.

At that moment I realized that it was an electromagnet like the one he’d used earlier to disorientate the robots guarding my ship. It didn’t take me long to realize that this magnet was meant for the lead robot but how was he planning to bring it close to it?

After he put it around my neck the man went on pacing again. I assumed he wanted me to bring it to the robot, turn it on and attach it to it. But how?! I figured he was pacing trying to think of how to get me close to the robot without the device being detected.

Suddenly he stopped pacing and came over. He said something but I couldn’t understand what he’d said. He then entered some coordinates into my navigation computer and went and closed the hatch. After he sat down he pointed to my panel and I punched the autopilot.

Moments later we landed inside the grove opposite the big facility. We both got off the ship and I closed the ship’s hatch. We walked down to the last line of trees and sat down. We could see all the activities from here. The facility looked like a big factory operating as usual except the top part of the ramp was surrounded by dozens of super soldiers. The place looked impregnable.

After a few minutes of watching, the man took my energy pistol and put it on the ground. He then motioned something to me. He wanted me to do something but I couldn’t understand what. Finally he lay

down on the ground in a sleeping position and motioned for me to go to sleep. When I was lying down he glued something behind my ear and indicated that I shouldn’t remove it.

I was very tired and it didn’t take long for me to fall asleep.

I was in heaven again and beckoned to go and visit the king. The way was pointed by green arrows. When I arrived the king touched me on my head and made me kneel before him.

At that very moment I heard what sounded like energy fire in the distance. Then, suddenly, I felt an unpleasant and painful sensation behind my ear. It woke me up. I remembered the cross. I had to take the cross off my neck and place it around the robot’s neck. After I did that I turned it on and felt great pain in my head.

Every super soldier, including the lead robot, was going bonkers running around, falling on the ground and swinging their arms all over the place. I tried to run down the ramp to avoid being trampled but didn’t get too far before I was pushed off the ramp by a blast. I landed in the field three levels down. I landed on top of another super soldier who broke my fall. I was all right but he was bleeding from his head.

As I looked at him I saw a beautiful young woman rise from behind a super soldier sprawled on the ground a few metres away.

The young woman looked at me and began to sing a beautiful song which lasted a couple of minutes. When she was done I said to her, “That’s a beautiful song, what do you call it?”

“Thank you for saving me,” she said and there, before my eyes, she disappeared. I went over to look for her but she wasn’t there. The super soldier she was standing over was dead. I pulled his breathing device off and looked at his face but I saw a woman’s face.

I looked around; there were many wounded soldiers everywhere. I looked up and saw a gaping hole where the top of the ramp was. I could no longer feel the presence of the robot in me. The king was dead I figured and my mission was over… at last.

When I looked back I saw the super soldier who had broken my fall looking at me. He looked like a lost child. I felt sorry for him. I didn’t know what to do. I ripped the bottom of my shirt and made a band aid with it and wrapped it around his head. He kept looking at me.

Others who had wounds came over and began to congregate around me. In no time I was surrounded by about a dozen of them. My friend who had been with me on my ship ran over to see how I was doing. The super soldiers surrounded me and wouldn’t let him come near me.

I made my way over to see what he wanted. The soldiers let him through. After I showed him what to do, so that we could patch up the wounded faster, he left and ran inside the building. Moments later he came out with nine men who looked like him. They brought medical supplies with them. Unfortunately the super soldiers wouldn’t allow them to touch them and all came to me to fix their wounds.

In time all of the wounded soldiers were looked after. I was surrounded by them and they went everywhere I went.

I didn’t know what to do with them. So, one by one, I lined them up in a semicircle and sat them down. There were eleven of them.

I was beginning to worry. What was I going to do with them? They were people just like me but whose memories had been wiped out and they didn’t know who they were or what to do on their own.

I took a deep breath and looked around and up the ramp. Just beyond us, closer to the ramp there were many torn up dead bodies. They were the bodies of the super soldiers that had run to assist the lead robot before it blew up. Their bodies absorbed the blast and saved my life and the lives of the others.

There was also the question as to why the robot blew up? Why did it blow up much later and not when I placed the cross on it? Did the cross have a time delay device on it or had my friend activated the

explosion from the distance with a remote control. These were valid questions, I thought, but without the aid of language I couldn’t ask them.

I looked up at the ramp. The captives were still there looking down at us. They were guarded by the robots that refused to let them move.

How was I going to free them?

More importantly these people needed food, water and bathroom breaks. Now that the process was disrupted everything came to a halt.

I waved at my friend. He came over looked at me and raised his arms up high. He seemed frustrated with the whole situation. I pointed at my mouth and then pointed at the soldiers and the captives above. He knew what I was asking. He said something to the nine other men who stood there looking confused and then ran off into the building.

Suddenly there was a lot of activity, people and super soldiers began to appear from everywhere. Ships began to appear from the sky and landed in the distance. Two of them I recognized as the galaxy trader destroyers. Trucks began to appear from the valley bringing food. It was chaos and I was in the middle of it. Armed super soldiers kept coming out of the big structure and lined up in long rows beside me.

My friend was doing his best to keep order but he had no effect on the super soldiers who tended to follow me. I couldn’t leave the place without them following me and I couldn’t communicate with them to tell them not to follow me.

The new arrivals who arrived in the ships began to appear on the horizon but the robots wouldn’t let them come near us.

So, after a forty minute debate between my friend and the other nine men we finally had a resolution. What it was, I didn’t know but I trusted my friend.

After several of the little men disappeared inside the building a couple returned with two gadgets. One looked like a crown and the other one was a talking box.

My friend motioned for me to put the crown on my head but I refused. It reminded me of the machine that had wiped out the memories of the super soldiers.

Failing that the two men began to play with the talking box. Each time they played something they looked at me. What were they trying to do? I couldn’t understand until I realized what they were doing. They were playing segments of the various languages spoken in their world.

About two hours later when I was about ready to smash this thing to pieces I heard the Macedonian words, “Do you speak Macedonian?” coming out of it.

“YES!” I yelled out in Macedonian.

They immediately took the devices back and several hours later came out with what I later found out to be a universal translator adjusted to speak their language and mine.

My friend said something and the machine translated what he said in Macedonian. It wasn’t perfect but I understood what he was saying.

The first thing I said was, “The translation isn’t very good but if you explain things slowly and in many words I’m sure I’ll understand you.”

My friend laughed out loud, gave me a big hug and said, “I am Enai. I’m from a far away planet called Ailar and these are my associates and countrymen.”

“I am Otsiron, my friends on Ostikon call me Otsi, and I’m from the planet earth,” I replied.

Enai then grabbed the crown and said, “This thing here I’m asking you to put on is a device with which you can communicate with the soldiers and perhaps with the robots. The things stuck in the back of their necks have been programmed to understand commands coming from this device. You will need to put this thing on your head to try it out and see if it works.”

He paused for a moment and then said, “This is a device used by my associates to remotely speak to the soldiers and diagnose their problems. I know it’s a medical device but that’s all we have for now. If it works it will give you the ability to bring some order to this chaos. Please trust me it’s safe, I’ve used it myself in the past.”

“If you know how to use it then why don’t you put it on and bring order yourself?” I asked.

“Believe me my friend, I would in an instant if I could, but I can’t. None of us can. We all have chips in the back of our necks which prohibit us from taking control of the super soldiers. We can only do medical exams. If we could talk to the soldiers we would have ended this madness a long time ago.”

“So, if you have the chip in the back of your neck… How did you get away from the robot’s grasp and why didn’t it kill you?”

“The robot is not authorized to kill us through the chip. Plus, like you, I had the will to resist it.”

“I see,” I said and then asked. “Why are the super soldiers coming to me and not to you, your associates, or the robots”?

“That my friend, I don’t know. It appears that after the lead robot was destroyed they became attached to you. Why, I don’t know but you have no choice about this. Without you they will go mad or die of loneliness.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” I asked.

“My dear friend, please trust me on this. Without their memories they exist in darkness. Their human mind is a blank. The only

beacon of light is your soothing voice which gives them comfort and pleasure. They will obey you and do anything you ask of them,” he said.

He then looked at me with pleading eyes and said, “You came here to save us. I know that. Everyone knows that. So please save us. These are our people who have fallen victim to this madness. They didn’t want this. They weren’t given any choice. They were turned into something they didn’t want. They don’t deserve this,” and then he looked down.

“But it could be worse. They could fall into evil hands,” he said.

“Okay, okay, I’ll do it,” I said, and thought to myself. “Here’s another situation where I’m forced to become involved that doesn’t concern me.”

I took the device and placed it on my head and… nothing.

Enai then pointed to a button on the crown that sat to the side of my right eye and asked me to push it. I pushed it and heard it click but nothing happened.

“The button activates the transmitter, he said. “Say something in your language.”

I said several things and nothing happened.

Enai looked at the other men and they began to yell at each other. They went on yelling at each other not realizing that the universal translator was on and translating everything they said. Both Enai and I could hear them swearing at each other in the most foul language.

Enai looked at me kind of sideways and, after smiling for a while, began to laugh.

“This is how we solve problems here, no wonder we’re in such a big mess,” he said.

“Does the device use power and is it powered on?” I asked.

“Of course it uses power. It has a special transmitter which they assured me they had modified to reach long distances. But I don’t know if it’s powered up, it should be, we may be incompetent but not that incompetent.”

“Will I feel or see anything when the device is operational?”

“Of course you will. You’ll feel a slight current trickle through your head and see the command lines in front of your eyes. Then all you have to do is say the specified command number and the computer in the device will execute it and send out instructions in the language the soldiers understand. In time you’ll learn all the commands and speak them yourself. Eventually you’ll be able to communicate with them by thought.”

After Enai said that he came over and examined the device. He then yelled, “STOP! You idiots forgot to turn the power on.”

Enai then turned to me and said, “Are you ready for this?”

When I said yes he turned on the power switch and a bunch of symbols appeared before my eyes.

“I can’t read this. It’s all symbols which I don’t recognize.”

They all began to look at one another. One of them said, “We don’t have a written form of your language.”

“This is useless,” I said and in frustration took off the crown and gave it to Enai.

He turned off the universal translator, yelled a few choice words, turned it back on and began to pace.

“How difficult is your language?” he asked me.

“It consists of thirty one phonetic letters.”

“What are letters?” he asked.

“They’re something like your symbols but with a single unique sound.”

“Our symbols are phonetic too and have a single sound,” he said, looked at his associates and said. “We shouldn’t have any difficulty converting them. You just have to tell us which letter goes with each sound.”

One of the men brought something to write on and I sketched out the capital letters of the Macedonian alphabet one by one. Each time I sketched one I told them what it sounded like and one of the men sketched out the corresponding symbol. We also did the same with the numbers zero to nine. When we were done they took the crown and went back inside the building.

I looked around and saw people delivering food and water to the captives above, on top of the ramp. The line of super soldiers was growing but the super soldiers wouldn’t accept the food or water handed to them. I could see more loaded vehicles appearing in the distance. The captives standing still were looking at me. I felt uncomfortable. I looked like the hulk with a naked gut and the only one wearing tight camouflage clothing. I looked pathetic.

Enai looked at me looking at myself, laughed and said, “If that was your only problem, we could fix it in no time.”

“You mean you can reverse my bulkiness?” I asked.

“No, no, not that, your gross look will reverse itself in time if you stop taking hormones, I mean we can fix your torn clothes…” he said and laughed again.

In the meantime I decided to ask Enai why the robot blew up long after the magnet was turned on and not just then.

“I’m sorry about that. The robot didn’t blow up from the magnet. I’d placed explosives in the device which I remotely activated from the distance.”

“Why are you sorry? The explosion did the job.”

“Oh, I’m not sorry about that, I’m sorry I had to hurt you. I could have killed you. You see I only had seconds before the robot was able to recover from the disruption of the magnet and if I didn’t blow it up, we’d be in big trouble now,” he explained.

“And here I trusted you with my life…” I said and smiled.

“And so you did. I thank you for that,” he replied.

“One more question, Enai, you tossed me a hot gas gun when I was in front of the robot, what was that for?”

“Oh, yeah, you did exactly what I expected you to do with it; disable the shield. But I wasn’t able to fire at the lead robot. In retrospect, even if I did, it wouldn’t have mattered because the robot had another shield, an internal shield, about which I wasn’t aware,” he replied.

Moments later a couple of Enai’s countrymen ran outside with the tablet in their hands and showed me what they had written on it in Macedonian letters and asked me to read it and tell them if it made any sense. It read, “Good morning” in Macedonian.

I was so happy I yelled the words out loud and laughed with excitement.

“Soon you’ll be a king in tattered clothing…” said Enai and laughed.

The men ran back inside the building. Moments later they came back carrying the crown.

After Enai crowned me with it he turned the power on. I felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck and saw Macedonian letters appear in front of my eyes in strings like sentences. The technicians, however, had forgotten or didn’t know how to separate the words with blank spaces. But, it didn’t matter, I could still read them.

Enai must have seen me flinch when the power came on and said, “The proximity of the transmitter to the chip in the back of your neck caused you the pain when the device came on. It happened to me every time I turned the crown on. You’ll get used to it.”

I looked at the string of words in front of my eyes, pushed the activation button and said “Attention” in Macedonian. A split second later I heard an echo. It was my own voice speaking back to me in a different language. It was annoying.

Finally victory is mine

I looked at Enai with a puzzled look.

“Did you hear yourself speaking?” he asked.

“Yes I did and it was loud and annoying,” I replied.

“We’ll fix that later,” he said, pointed with his finger at the super soldiers and said. “Look. They heard you.”

I looked at the super soldiers. Those who were sitting suddenly stood up.”

“Did the robots hear me?” I asked.

“Everyone who has a chip in the back of their neck heard you, including the robots, myself and my associates.”

“Well, how do I disable the robots?” I asked.

“You can’t disable them,” he said, “all you can do is order them to stand down. Find the command for the robots and order them to put their weapons down.”

“I can’t find the command,” I said.

“Look, there are three levels of communications at your disposal; all, group, or individual. My associates and I can only communicate to individuals but you have the ability to communicate on all three levels, so look for group and robots and select the command for weapons down.”

After fumbling for a while I found something to that effect and was about to go up the ramp to test it when I noticed a whole column of armed super soldiers following me.

I stopped walking and asked Enai why they were armed.

“This was their state of readiness when the robot blew up and they will remain this way until you order them to disarm. The robot had armed them to defend the place in case you staged a ground attack on the facilities.”

“Thank you for the explanation,” I said and began to look for a command to tell the soldiers to stop following me. But again I was having difficulty.

When Enai saw me getting frustrated he said, “Tell them in your own words and see what happens. They are human beings just like you and me and should understand basic things. The only difference between you and them is that they have no memory of their existence.”

I pushed the button and said, “Attention! Soldiers, please stay. Don’t follow me.”

Nothing happened.

I looked at Enai and raised my arms up.

“I thought you wanted to disarm them,” he said.

Frustrated by the whole thing I began to walk away.

“Look,” said Enai. “They’re not following you. The command worked.”

We walked down the field and then up the ramp. Everyone was quiet and all eyes were on us.

I pushed the button and said, “Attention, robots, disarm!”

Nothing happened.

“Not again!” I yelled.

Enai looked at me and said, “These are robots, not human beings, you will have to find the exact appropriate commands for them.”

At that moment one of his associates came over and quietly said something to Enai. Enai then turned to me and asked me what I wanted to do with the robots.

“I want them disarmed and disabled and if not disabled then I want them back in their docking devices so they don’t harm anyone.”

“Give me a moment,” he said and spoke to his associate.

He then turned to me and said, “My associates will find the appropriate commands for you and will be back in a moment.”

While we waited I asked, “What are we going to do with all these people?”

“One thing at a time, my friend, one thing at a time... I’m sure a solution will present itself. All we have to do is be patient and keep trying. We need to do right by these people… They are good people, all locals, you know…”

Just as he was about to tell me more his associate came back and handed me a tablet with Macedonian letters written on it.

“Push the button and read it!” said Enai.

“This isn’t Macedonian!” I said. “I don’t understand what it says.”

“I know that, it’s in a language the robots understand, just push the button and read.”

I pushed the button and read the entire string. I heard the associate clapping.

“Very good, it was clear and understandable,” said Enai and pointed at the robots in front of us.

The robots suddenly dropped their energy spears and one by one descended down the ramp and disappeared into the building’s lowest

floor. There were great cheers from the captives and the crowds of newly arrived people suddenly rushed to look for their relatives.

“What do we do next?” I asked Enai.

Enai looked at his associates and they all put their hands up in confusion.

“From the look of my associates there are so many things to do they just don’t know where to start,” he said and laughed.

After I scratched my head and smiled he looked at me and said, “Look, we have been slaves our entire lives and were told what to do. Don’t expect us to become leaders at a moment’s notice.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be disrespectful.”

At the same moment one of Enai’s associates ran at me and grabbed the tablet from my hand. A super soldier standing beside me pulled his energy gun out and was about to shoot him. I raised my arm and the soldier lowered his weapon. But, instead of thanking me for saving his life the man ran away.

“I just saved your life the least you could do is say thank you.”

Enai looked at me and said, “I saved your life, did you say thank you to me?”

I looked at him, smiled and said, “I don’t recall you saving my life?”

“Not once but three times. The first time was when I shot the brain scrambler power unit, the second time was when you were shot and fell off the ramp and I caught you with my ship and the third time was when I gave you food and water in your ship. If I hadn’t fed you and given you water, you would have burned up from the chemicals injected in your body.”

“You mean the hormones?” I asked.

“Yes, the hormones… if that’s what you call them on your planet,” he replied.

“Thank you my friend,” I said. “Now let me have a look at this brave soldier who came to my rescue to save me from your big bad associate. Do you think he’ll object if I remove his helmet and breathing device?”

“I don’t know? Try it and see.”

I went closer. The soldier didn’t move. I looked into his eyes but I couldn’t see anything through the dark visor. I unbuttoned the chin strap and heard a pop. The breathing device snapped off and swung around and hit him on the cheek. I pushed his helmet up and off his head. It fell behind him.

“He is a she. The soldier is a young woman,” I said to Enai.

“How can you tell, unless you look down there?” Enai asked.

“Those are the most beautiful green eyes I’ve even seen. She has a very smooth face and looks like a girl I once met on another planet in your galaxy.”

“What’s her name?”

“I’m trying to remember. She’s the daughter of a captain. The captain of the second destroyer… Ah, I remember her name now, Ireva and the captain’s name is Orihci.”

“I know them! They’re from another part of this planet. Did you by any chance meet Ukasnek, Captain Orihci’s partner?”

“Yes I did. He was the one who sent me here and told me about a strange man he met in the grove.”

“That was me…”

Then, suddenly we were interrupted by a crowd of people yelling and wanting to know where their relatives were.

I looked at Enai and he looked at me and said, “Tell them something…”

I grabbed the super soldier by the hand and dragged her with me. She was still armed.

Enai looked at me strangely.

I said, “For insurance…”

“Ah,” he said.

I then said, “Gather your associates here and send one of them to guide these people inside the facilities so they can look for their relatives.”

After he pointed to one of them and sent him away I asked Enai if they had a strong communicator in the facilities and if they could communicate with other people on this planet.

“We have the best communications equipment money can buy and we can talk to the entire galaxy from here.”

“Pick a couple of your best people and send them to make an announcement to the world. Have them tell everyone that the war is over and that people can start returning to their homes.”

“These two are the best for that,” said Enai, and sent them to do the job. Then he asked what I wanted to do next.

“I want the transport and other large ships including the two destroyers to remain here. Anyone who needs transportation can use the shuttles and then bring them back.

I want food and water delivered to the super soldiers. Tell the staff and helpers to remain here and work until we decide what to do with the soldiers.”

Just as Enai was about to say something I interrupted him and said, “Kindly ask the staff and helpers to voluntarily help us look after the super soldiers. Tell them they have the choice to stay or go. If they stay the understanding will be that they are doing it of their own free will. But also remind them that these soldiers are their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives...”

After I said that, Enai sent two more of his associates out, one to monitor the ships and the other to see the supervisors of the farmers and speak to the servers.

After that Enai asked, “What else?”

“I want to disarm the soldiers but not out here.”

“Why not?”

“There are thousands of them. If they drop their rifles on the ground whose is going to pick them up?” I asked.

Enai began to laugh uncontrollably and would crack up laughing again every time he looked at me.

In the meantime I couldn’t resist looking at the super soldier’s green eyes which stared back at me innocently and with curiosity.”

“Stop that!” I heard Enai say. I looked at him. He was talking to me.

“Don’t be cruel to her. She’s a human being you know… Someone’s daughter… She could be Captain Orihci’s daughter you know. She has feelings...”

“You lost someone, didn’t you?” I asked.

He didn’t answer.

“That’s why you left this place and are fighting so hard to free it. Did you lose your daughter?”

“Yes…” he replied with a sad look on his face.

“Is she still alive?”

“Yes, but I don’t know where she is.”

“I’m very sorry,” I said. “Let’s get all these soldiers inside, disarm them and get them back in their old routine until we decide what to do.”

Without looking at the commands that popped up in front of my eyes I said, “Attention all soldiers, please go inside the facilities, put your rifles away and go back to your stations.”

The moment I said that, the soldiers began to move. They made their way inside the facilities through the ground level doors.

It was difficult speaking and listening to my own voice yelling in my head so I said to Enai, “It’s time to silence the voice in my head.”

He summoned another of his associates and told him to help me. The man took my left index finger and placed it on a button on the left side of the crown and told me to look at a super soldier. I looked at several of them and each time I focused on them I saw a green circle with symbols inside it. I recognized the symbols, they were numbers. The man then asked me to look at a soldier in the distance and tell him or her to sit down. I did that and it worked, the soldier stopped walking and sat down.

“Now look at your right arm and remember the number you see in green and say ‘voice off’…”

After I did that my number and circle around it turned red.

After I did that he said, “Now ask the soldier sitting down to stand up and go inside.”

This time I didn’t hear myself speak as I watched the soldier stand up and follow the others inside.

“From the smile on your face I gather it worked,” Enai said and asked. “What about her?” pointing at the female super soldier standing beside me.

“She stays with me… I promise you I won’t abuse her.”

“She may be a killing machine but she’s as innocent as a child,” he said.

“I wonder if she understands what we’re saying,” I asked.

“Of course she does, she understands my language. From her looks I can assure you she is a local girl from this planet... Whatever I hear she hears.”

“Why doesn’t she speak to us then?” I asked.

At this point I could see that Enai was getting frustrated with me and didn’t want to talk about it.

“Because she can’t speak!” he yelled.

“Why not?!” I yelled back frustrated with his hesitation to tell me.

“Because that part of her brain was also destroyed.”

“Can she have sex?” I asked.

He looked shocked by the question but answered it anyway.

“Yes, but she has no desire or feeling.”

“Don’t tell me… that too was ripped out of her! You bastards… YOU F…N BASTARDS!” I yelled out loud.

After I composed myself I asked, “Can she have babies?”

“Yes she can,” he replied very tersely with hesitation.

“Can the soldiers be taught things besides being soldiers?”

“I guess they can, why not. I guess their memories are still working… They can learn new things… I guess.”

I grabbed my female super soldier by her waist belt and pulled her close to me and said to her, I don’t like your long number so I’m going to call you Nine, that will be your name. When I call your name you come to me.”

“What are you doing?” Enai asked.

“Watch,” I said, walked away and then said. “Nine come to me.”

Nothing happened.

“You know she can’t understand your language,” Enai said.

“Didn’t the gadget translate?”

“No, not from that distance!”

I walked a little closer and said the same thing. To our surprise she came over very close to me.

“Mother of God, it worked! There is hope for them after all!” said Enai with excitement and a tone of sadness in his voice.

“Watch this,” I said.

“Nine, I’m going to kiss you now.”

Enai gave me a dirty look but I ignored him and kissed her on the lips. They were warm and I could feel her warm breath on my face.

There was absolutely no emotion on her part.