QUENCH

I

"Who is she Geda?"

"Don't know, talk to Kervas, he found 'er, picked 'er up in the desert not far from the mineral deposits."

"And she's still alive?"

"Barely."

"He go through 'er yet?"

"Said he began to thinking she'd expired, said 'er face was almost bleeding from sun blisters, but then he saw these..."

"Whoa!"

"Said she let out a wheeze so sudden it 'most scared the life out of him, said her eyes open and expressed her suffering, he felt pity for her so he brought water to her and brought 'er to town in his cargo transport. We had 'er in the back room three nights now. "

"Sleeping all this time?"

"If she ain't dead yet. This morning Kervas told me he thought she won't make it to sunset, but he says that everyday. We got Ralph to come by and check 'er out last night."

"Really, what did he say?"

"He came in reluctant, but when he saw her he became eager to take 'er blood. Told us not to worry and promised we'd hear from him soon."

"He took her blood and didn't come back. He must think she's dead then."

"Well, not yet. Why are you smiling like that? Is it because she's Lorian?"

"Only Ralph saw her?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Let's go through 'er stuff, check for platinum."

" 'Go through her stuff', Who knows where she's from or who's looking for her. Are you stupid? She's a Lorian. And with the guns she was carrying, she might be a Drake."

" Geda this is a Tan jurisdiction, we own the planet, I don't see why we can't keep her valuables and drag her back under the sun where we found her, whose going to come here? And we'll just tell Ralph she died and we put 'er in the ground somewhere."

" I am against it."

"Against what?" She's already dead, Kervas will back me."

"You talk nonsense sometimes. Stop playing with that 'fore you shoot yourself."

" Heavy, these things are, they must be authentic. Kervas said she had the two of them holstered to her?"

"Yeah. I heard stories about the Drakes and what they can do, never met one before but I don't doubt she's one a them. Put that down."

"I find it hard to digest that a Drake would wander into the Moraine and collapse in the sand so easily when they claim themselves to be genetically better than the rest of us. I'll find out, wait here."

"Put that back on the table."

"Listen to me, with what we can sell from her we wont have to worry about making profits from the inn for a while, Geda, the girl is already dead, I'm just going to speed the process, that's all."

"No."

"Don't stop me Geda."

"Spyder…"

II

I heard them. A man and woman with strong accents. They laid me out on something soft in a stuffy room kept dark without windows or light. Their voices floated through the darkness as if from a dream on the other side of my nightmare. I checked for my short dagger on the inside of my belt and palmed it before turning onto my side facing where I heard their voices and where I assumed the door would be when it opened. My body was drenched in torment. The muscles under my chapped skin were too sore and tired to allow me to stand without extreme effort. My uselessness appalled me and made me bitter towards my captors. I would cut his throat then hers and get something to drink. The immediate silence outside distracted my hallucinatory rage and I tensed myself preparing for the inevitable conflict.

The door crashed opened and I glimpsed a tall shadow framed by sunlight before closing my eyes. The male voice approached, his heels slowly clicking off the wooden floor, as he came right above my head. He announced jokingly that I looked dead. She said something I didn't hear from the other room where food smells were coming from. I laid patient and coiled anticipating his action. A stench of stove oil and smoked meat descended upon me. He began to tell her how scruffy the desert made me. I felt the eagerness of his eyes on my sick face as he spoke. The aroma of peppers and sweet dough became intense enough to rumble my stomach. The smells were too much for me and I knew it was over when he gasped at the sounds of my hunger. I opened my eyes and clumsily moved to strike. Even so I was still a lot faster than the wild eyed, hairy man in the grease stained blue apron above me.

He flinched from surprise as I pulled him down by his collar moving the glass blade up to his bearded neck with my other hand. He was holding my gun.

"Place it on my leg," I demanded, applying pressure with the dagger. He dropped it without hesitation and the weight slapped against my flesh.

"Two big steps back, slowly, " My throat burned from dryness. I coughed watching him still half bent, in shock backing towards the door. I grabbed up the pistol with my free hand and attempted to sit up.

"Water, tell your woman to get me water," I said. He yelled to her without turning from me but she was already moving when I told him.

"You're not the man in desert," I said, studying him, "Where am I?" The corners of his mouth began to tremble but it was the woman came forth and spoke.

"You're in Quench. My husband, Kervas, bought you here from the Moraine. I'm Geda, this is his brother Spyder, he didn't mean you any harm." She bought the water in a large wooden cup and knelt by me. The room was still dark, but I made out the subtle pattern of wrinkles that placed her age well above the man's. Her apron, unlike his, gave her a motherly look that I trusted. They both were cooks or something. I made her drink the water and waited a minute to be safe before taking the cup from her. I gulped it feeling the cool wetness gush through my insides and was ready to ask for more when I heard a door swing in the front somewhere. They were too focused on me to notice. I told the woman and she looked at Spyder who still stood inanimate at the doorway.

I heard footsteps enter the other room. A man's voice called for her. It was Kervas she told me, I held the gun firmly at her head and allowed her to call him in. A bearded, barrel shaped man with big eyes and white bushy eyebrows rushed in.

"She's alive!" He said extremely relieved and oblivious to the situation. He was dressed in miner's clothing. There was something else. His tone concerning my recovery wasn't relief but anxiety at something that was happening elsewhere. He saw the gun.

"What's going on? Geda are you…?" He began. She cut him off explaining what his brother had attempted to do. He glared at the dirty, smaller man and told him to leave the room.

"No, he stays in here Mr. Kervas, what's happening outside? I asked. He studied me with worried eyes then turned to speak to his wife who also had begun to notice that something, other than me, was wrong.

"It's Ralph, he found something in her blood sample that has the Neers going. He told them everything we told him about 'er and now half their enforcement is coming here to take 'er and probably lock us away for keeping her. We must to do something fast." He explained.

"We cant give her up, can we, they'll kill 'er for sure," She pleaded looking at me.

"I know, but we can't keep 'er either, we already saved her once. There is nothing else we can do," He said trying not to look at me.

"Who are the 'Neers'?" I said weakly, lowering the gun. They both looked at me and Kervas spoke.

"In the middle of town there is a building called the Lab that was built recently for all sorts of crazy experiments. Medical engineers, we call Neers, live there with military officers from the capital who guard them and their technology. They are well armed. So if the Neers want you they'll have you, anyway they can." He explained, shaking his head. I already guessed at what Ralph discovered and I knew the engineers would kill these people to get me.

"Give me to them, I know what they want," I sighed, "They can't have it if they kill me, but they will harm you to get me. I'm going to have to trust you." I began moving to sit on the edge of the bed closer to the woman. "I want you to take all my things and hide them." I paused, "I'm too exhausted right now to confront them and to protect you but I won't let them keep me for long. Will you do this?" I asked. Geda looked at Kervas who slowly nodded placing his hand on her shoulder. Spyder cleared his throat from the corner.

"Geda hide these quickly, Kervas you should take me outside so they wouldn't tear into your place to get me." I removed my gun belts and handed them to her with the gun. She went to get the other pistol and informed me she would bury them on the far end of her pome garden along the back fence. Her small hands and legs moved quickly as she threw everything into an old canvas bag. She came back with more water for me before Kervas and, surprisingly, Spyder helped me towards the front porch of the small inn. The climate outside was just as dry and cool as the desert. Quench consisted of other bleached white sandstone buildings that stood firmly in the loose sandy earth. A pinkish building, the one Kervas spoke of, stood shining brilliantly in the distance way above everything else in the small town. Spyder went back to the kitchen and Kervas told me more about his town and the Neers. Soon a group of men clad in metallic breastplates arrived in a set of transport vehicles. Kervas wished me luck and swiftly went inside locking the doors behind him. They jogged to the porch, well armed with rifles, and without word immediately cuffed and tranquilized me before dragging me off.

III

I felt her hands on me before I saw the blurry outline of her face. I grabbed her wrist intent on snapping them but I stopped myself when I noticed her youthfulness. I only pushed her away into the pale background before rising from the strange bed. My head was numb as if I was asleep for days. My surroundings were remarkably different from the old room but it was my condition that mesmerized me. I noticed my wounds from the desert were gone. The girl was groaning sitting against the square wall I threw her against. My eyes left her to wander around the sealed room. I couldn't see any doors or points of entry just four chalky white walls slightly stained with a variety of colors mostly what looked like blood. The ceiling was a transparent plastic that radiated a milky florescent light. I moved to the bed's edge slapping my bare feet upon the chilled porcelain floor. My captors had replaced all my clothes with a long white gown and, to my absolute shock, shaved my hair off. The girl smiled mischievously as she watched me rub my head. She was also wearing a silky gown. There was a kind of hardness about her attitude that she expressed silently as she glared at me. A thick curly entanglement of dark hair capped her pale, slender figure.

"You are…?" I asked.

"Luca," She replied still nursing one of her wrists. When I asked her about our situation, she told me we were in medical prison cell where people about to be experimented on were kept. I, according to her, was bought in last night but she was there much longer than that. I stood up and noted the artificial coolness of the room. Running my fingers across the walls, I began to pace the perimeter. The only furniture were two chrome beds, both leg-less, attached to opposite walls. A matching oversized water sink, with a huge knob of soap in it, also jutted out from one wall next to a bed. A small chrome toilet was on the opposite wall next to the other bed. The other two walls had no attachments. The floor became colder in front one of these walls. I turned to discover the wall itself was cooler than the other walls and less dirty. I stepped back and studied it. It was more polished as well. This was very interesting. I turned to her smiling.

"I could've told you that wall was the door," She said. She was a confident little thing who seemed to know a lot more than she told me. I swiftly crossed the boxy room and knelt in front of her. She flinched below me as I came closer. I asked her about the experiments.

"You should know, it's because of you I'm in here waiting to be butchered," she paused to swallow, "I heard them say you have that longevity gene which slows your growth. Lorians are the only ones who get it and these jealous idiots want to put it in our blood as well."

"Impossible, they tried before. The Werm gene is restricted to our physiology"

"Yeah I know, but they don't care, didn't I just say I am waiting to die." She said with obvious hatred direct at me for causing her problems. I began wondering why they choose such a rude little girl when I noticed something strange about her facial features.

"Where are you from? You're not Tan." I brushed her hair aside, lifting her face to the light. She shuffled back trying to move my arm away but I held her chin up firmly.

"It's why I'm here, I'm mixed, I'm already half Lorian, that's why they think that your stuff will work with mine."

"Remarkable. How did they manage to create you? With genetics?" I asked.

"No, it was my parents. Do you mind, you're hurting me." She tapped my arm.

"Oh." I retracted my hand from her chin and sat down beside her. She began a fragmented narration about her parents. Her father, a genetics engineer, abandoned his career after meeting her mother who was a Lorian prisoner sent to his lab for research. They fled from the central city to a secluded building on the outskirts of a small rustic town called Farwell. Using his savings they wedded and lived as farmers. A year later the girl was born. They raised and taught her themselves for several years until their discovery. Her parents fled again this time into the undeveloped wilderness of Lorian territory that bordered her father's homeland. Her mother the only resourceful link to Lorians there soon died from illness and left her family no choice but to retreat across the border. Fearing their inevitable capture would place his daughter in a research prison like her mother was in, her father attempted to contact his wife's relatives. He figured Luca, now a decade old, would be safer kept away from his race.

As she spoke I still couldn't believe I was sitting next to the only known interracial birth on this planet after five centuries of living together. This was good sign for peace in the future but the girl I imagined only got a lot anxiety of living between two races that hated each other. Her dilemma made me reflect on our history. Long ago my ancestors, who called themselves Lorians, left an overpopulated Earth and traveled across the spiral arms of the Milky Way towards a similar planet in a binary star system known as Canberra. Another evolved group, called Tans, followed our departure a thousand years later and by the means of more advanced technology arrived five hundreds years before we did. The Lorians, after three millennia of space travel, found this new race of humans living here who disliked them immediately and forced them to live on the least desirable side of the vast strip of land that wrapped around the ocean planet. They were immediate revolts and wars concerning whom had rights to planet. The Tans succeeded because of their technology but we still existed because of our spirit and the establishment of Drakes. Before the military, Drakes were the beloved protectors of the Lorians. Tans and us fought because of our differences but underneath we were all still human beings.

Without the expected emotion, Luca ended her tale with her father unable to find her Lorian relatives before their capture. Immediately valued for her unique mixture, she was bought here for research four years ago. Her father, according to what she last heard, was imprisoned. I was curious about her mother but she had some unconscious desire to tell me more about her father.

"I'm sorry about your wrist." I said breaking the uneasy silence that followed.

"Yeah you should be, I was more scared of you, you know."

"Oh, I see." I turned my attention to the wall-door.

"When will you live to?" she disrupted my thought.

"The way I live, I suppose until someone kills me," I sighed, "If not I'll get about four centuries."

"How old are you now?" She asked. I told her to guess.

"You look like thirty, but I would say seventy." She smiled.

"Close. I turned eighty nine this year." I said. Her eyes widened. Underneath her attitude she had personality.

"How long have you been in here?" I asked, a new thought occurring to me.

"They dragged me down here about two days ago."

"Down? From where?" I was curious. She explained that she was kept upstairs in an apartment. The engineers treated her well. She even had personal instructors who taught her a variety of subjects there until yesterday when the guards bought her in here with me. Over time she learned a lot about the building and its technology which led her to explain how they used a type radiation exposure to heal my skin. This was why I was bald. How nice of them to fix me up before dismantling me. An idea occurred to me when she told me the ceiling light would shut off for five or so hours to regulate sleep. I studied the room some more giving careful attention to the sink and the soap before returning to my bed. I made her tell me some more of what she knew about the facility and the engineer guards.

My plans for escape was well formulated. The only uncertainty was the girl and I couldn't tell her my plan because I strongly suspected our room was monitored from the other side of the wall-door. It also occurred to me that I might have to leave her or even kill her if it came to that. I did like her and only hoped this decision wouldn't stall me. I grew up a lot like she did in my own society. Having no choices about my fate, I spent the second decade of my life mastering the art of violence and manipulating it to my advantage. This girl also knew violence but only suffered from it. Even so, she maintained an edge I admired.

IV

I remembered watching the new woman sleep. She slipped so calmly into slumber unaffected by what was to befall us soon. I wished I found sleep as easily as she did. She was beautiful, even bald, and very tall for a woman. I drifted off with my thoughts and my eyes on her. I didn't even know her name yet but with her here I wasn't worried about my fate anymore. She was the first person I ever met who treated me like I existed. I must've slept for awhile because it was pitch dark when I awoke again. I thought I heard water running at first but I realized it was the sound of cloth tearing which alarmed me. Water was dripping on the floor. I sat up and whispered to the woman. Through the dark silence I sensed a huge force moving over me. I swung my arms upwards as wet slimy fingers wrapped around my neck. I screamed, calling for the woman. Then something wet splashed against my chest. Salty droplets touched my lips. Blood? Was I bleeding? I screamed out again, now struggling and kicking but he was too strong. He threw me onto the floor and his knee dug into my spine pinning me down. My hands were freed momentarily as something lashed around my eyes right before the lights faded on for an instant before my sight was taken away. I was screaming and kicking now. He tightly bound my wrists and quickly pulled me up, head first, by the loose ends of my blindfold, before slamming me repeatedly against the wall. I felt the coldness from the hard surface penetrate my wet gown. Whatever this was it would be a really embarrassing way to die. He started banging the wall next to my head with his other fist. This was getting really odd. I was still screaming when I barely heard the new sounds in the room. He kept slamming me up and the blind fold slipped down a little but I only saw light. I soon realized the wall was vibrating. I felt it with my face. It was sliding from left to right. He suddenly stopped. I was so scared I could barely control my breathing. Then the brute threw me down like garbage. Something hard hit my head and the room went dark again but I figured I would only be for me.

V

I overlooked the fact that the wall-door could've also have opened horizontally and not vertically. Their advance from the other side would be more rapid because of this. Luca paid for my oversight. When the wall starting moving I had to dispose of her quickly. Her head clunked against the sink's edge accidentally, but I couldn't help her. They barged in, all six guards, and was on top of me faster than expected. But this was still better for me. They were armor-less, as the girl said before, and each had a assortment of open holsters which housed the crude weapons that Tan enforcers carried. Nevertheless, I had a ripe pick as my hands moved on their own independent from my body, which endured the repeated electric prickles from their glove- stunners. My soapy wet naked body created sufficient difficulty for them to grab me with the rubber that protected their hands from the electricity. The wetness of my skin kept me from being stung into unconsciousness. Their repeated attempts showed they failed to realize this as my hands worked the strange guns against their owners. To my shock the gun I fired first was loaded with tranquilizers not bullets. The second gun I managed to grab did have bullets. I blasted my way out and up to the top from bottom of their pile-on attack and laid them out as quickly as the guns would allow creating a heap of limp bodies under the square entrance. Four of them were sleeping, one died and another laid breathing roughly from his stomach wound. He would live. Wet and naked I stood above him pointing the real gun to his head.

"I have no reason to kill you, but I'll easily do so if you don't tell me how we can exit from here and speak fast." I demanded. He hesitated, coughing up blood, but soon gave me sketchy directions. I had no choice. I tranquilized him and turned to the girl who was stirring.

I untied her and explained what was happening and that we hadn't much time. She nodded when I apologized for attacking her in order to get their attention. I grabbed four real pistols from the sleeping guards and something that resembled a remote bomb. Silently we approached the darker environment of what I had suspected to be a viewing room for the cells in this section.

In this room the wall across from our cell entrance was itself a projection screen that hosted nine surveillance squares. Each square showed either empty hallways or dim cells packed with other unfortunates. One hallway was crowding rapidly with guards wearing the same rubber-like suits. I saw something else that related to what the guard said. I went back to the cell and undressed two of the taller guards before throwing their pale bodies back with the others. I also grabbed three more of what I was now sure to be remote bombs. It was an extreme thing for a guard to carry. I dressed and stuffed my new arsenal into the holsters of the rubber suit. His boots were big. I tossed the second suit and boots to Luca, who was eyeing the screens, and told her to do the same. At the end of the oblong viewing room was tall silver door, which went up the full length of the wall and touched the ceiling. I noticed it when I heard a faint patter of boot falls from the other side. We looked at each other. If I was alone I might shoot my way out of this alive but the girl was here. I tossed two unarmed remotes separately into dark corners of the room. After this I turned, aiming a tranquilizer gun at Luca who gasped in surprise as I put her to sleep. I would have to comeback for her. I holstered the gun and placed the suit helmet on. Then I realized that knocking the girl out was a bad idea. Another, more reasonable, way of getting us both out occurred to me slower than I expected. Cursing myself I quickly retreated to the cell. I circled the pile of men before attaching and arming a remote on the wall opposite of the entrance. I ran back to the viewing room and crouched by the girl affixing her own helmet. A dull dusty boom emanated from the cell as white powder from the damaged wall filled the room like fog. I dragged her back into the smoky cell and threw her face down on the pile of men. Voices became clear over the electronic hissing of the silver door opening. I jumped on top of Luca. Smoke and dust swirled above. I drew one of my guns before they entered and coughed not looking back at them but firing wildly into the newly carved hole that replaced the wall.

"Follow them! Quickly before they get out!" I grunted. About six men circled the pile and climbed through the jagged hole into what was probably a hall or other cell. I detached my last remote from the tiny disposable detonator it came with, knelt and threw it in after them. The detonator itself was a curious little device, a wedge of plastic smaller than two finger widths with a big red button and tiny antenna. I pulled out the other two unused detonators for the remotes in the viewing room. I buried my head as the other side of the hole flashed and thundered muting their screams. They were three guards still in the viewing room behind me when both remotes went off disintegrating everything.

I grabbed Luca and searched the pile beneath us for more remotes. I only found one more before I caught a crimson stained character attempting to reenter the cell through the charred hole. He saw me and raised his arm as if to fire forgetting it was reduced to a burgundy stump at the elbow. He tried the other, cursing under his sobs, this time getting his rifle up. I drew, firing bullets this time and exited with the limp girl in my arms. I did not look back to absorb the grotesque images in the messy scene that replaced our tranquil white box.

We soon emerged into a dimly lit rotunda area outside the demolished viewing room. Alarms were blaring full scale. I saw what the guard told me and dragged Luca to it. The green doors of the elevator were sealed. I pressed the small black button and waited. I placed an ear against the door. There was clunky movement on the inside. Like huge metal shifting. I wanted to use my last remote but I had a better idea. The guard said it would be a small sized lift that ran along the back wall of the building. It was also the only one in what turned out, by far, to be the most advanced building in the dusty town of Quench. I dragged the girl to the wall adjacent to the door and stood up taking out two pistols.

I was being entertained by curls of smoke sneaking out of the old viewing room when the doors opened and three bulky figures came out. I was ready to shoot but they were in full metallic armor and, not seeing us, they jogged right past like fire fighters towards the inferno that was replacing the viewing room. I quickly crept into the lift allowing the doors to close. I studied the small steel and plastic chamber and shot out the controls. In the ceiling, a few feet above my head, was a maintenance hatch. I pushed it open and climbed into a dark cylindrical shaft lined with dust coated cords. I set the last remote bomb after carefully checking the wall for weak points. On the other side I was hoping to find the back of the building. I jumped down into the elevator and was just about to arm it when I realized I had a new problem. It was the girl again. It was an effort for me to climb the hatch alone and with her unconscious it would be impossible. I shook her up but she didn't wake. Then a practical solution came to me. I unzipped the rubber guard suit she was wearing over her damp gown. I pulled off the gown and ripped it into long strips like I did to mine earlier in the cell using my eyetooth. I re-zipped her then knotted the ends together looping one end around her torso under her armpits. It was long enough. I crouched in the elevator letting remote explode. We were both up and in the smoky shaft in less than two minutes. The problem now was the hole. It was not what I expected. This section of the wall was a four finger thick sand-based stone that didn't blow out they way I thought it would. It was almost as wide as my shoulders. I pounded the edges out a little with the pistol butt and stuck my head out into the moonlit night. My helmet fell off and dropped about ten feet before hitting the paved lot below. The back, a small docking yard for what looked like medical wastes and supplies, was unoccupied thanks to all the commotion at the front of the building. I quickly resumed my work on the hole, sacrificing the smooth grip of the little beast until I was able squeeze the girl out. I gently lowered her by the gown harness before I, myself, climbed out. The yard, littered with broken plastic containers and my discarded helmet, seemed to be enclosed by a frail barbwire fence that provided no resistance. I carried her over and piggy- backed her through a few back yards and quiet streets.

After some time we approached a deserted area on the outskirts of town close to the Moraine. I put her down on a clear patch in between weed bushes behind a roofless abandoned shelter. Squatting in the cool sand I untied her shredded harness. It had been almost thirty minutes since I put her to sleep. She was lucky to only suffer a small bruise from the sink. Zipping down my suit I proceeded to tally my own wounds. My left shoulder was badly scraped and my arm below it had dry smudges of blood from an open cut. I bandaged it with strips from her gown and nursed a few other, less severe, wounds before zipping up. I walked off for a while allowing my anxiety to vent into the night sky. I would keep the girl and take her across the desert to Kykeon, the Lorian central city, with me. Strength flowed through me again as I stared into the darkness of the desert. I ascended a small hill and looked back on Quench; a tiny cluster of lights floating inside the vast darkness of the Moraine. The immense shadow of the Lab rose above them. I would destroy it tomorrow before leaving. Some time went by before I returned to the girl. It was early still and I laid awake beside her watching the silver moons of Canberra roll silently across the horizon.