Chara and the Planet

Chapter No.14

Chapter No.14.

Chara placed a metal ring around Ryan's neck and attached a thin wire to it. She placed cuffs on his wrists held behind his back.

Ryan gave her an annoyed look. "Why are you restraining me?"

"You are my slave, Ryan. I will do anything I please with you." She yanked the wire, causing him to stumble. "Come with me."

She pulled him out of the main tower to a path that led to a dock on a tributary of a stream that emptied into the ocean. A sleek boat, the size of a patrol cruiser, was parked along the dock. Chara led him on board and into the main control chamber. She sat down at the pilot station and began the process to activate the boat. He stood a few paces to the side of her.

"I assume we're going to the other continent."

"Yes, Ryan."

After disconnecting the boat from the dock, Chara moved it out to the stream and then put the pedal to the metal to accelerate to the ocean.

"Why didn't you use a shuttle?"

"They would detect that."

"So, you think that this is a secret Space Command base,"

"Yes. The new models you repaired swam here to escape them."

"Wow, that's a long swim."

"We are capable of swimming deep and fast."

"So, you're going to swim there from beyond the range of scanners."

"Yes. I enjoy swimming."

Ryan found that to be weird. Why would an android, essentially a machine, like to swim? It was just another thing he didn't understand about androids.

The trip to a position a few kilometers away from the continent's shore required several hours. Ryan elected to remain quiet for the duration. After she stopped the boat and anchored it, Chara stood up and removed his cuffs, but then she cuffed him with his hands in front. She then removed the wire to his neck ring and attached it to the cuffs. She inserted the wire through a small ring attached to the ceiling of the pilot's station and pulled on it until she had him suspended.

"Ow! Why are you doing this to me?"

She smiled. "Don't go anywhere, Ryan. I shall return."

He watched her leave the pilot's station and grunted from the pain of hanging by his wrists. There was nothing he could do now but wait.

Chara stripped, placing her clothing on a small rock formation out from the small continent and then dived into the water to swim underwater to the shore. She loved to swim, and it pleased her to be moving through liquid, something she hadn't done for some time. The water was cold but had no effect on her. She was alone in her favorite element.

When she reached the shore, she carefully climbed out of the water and made her way up a cliff to a relatively baron flat landscape. Moving under the shield of dusk, she walked toward a compound of large metal structures that resembled igloos. Two androids stood like guards near a door to a larger structure. When she appeared out of the shadows, the two androids just stared at her. Chara knew that she had the situation under control. They and their sisters were ripe for revenge.

Several hours later, she returned to the boat in a large dingy with five human males and a female in tow. They were cuffed and had metal rings around their necks. A dozen androids accompanied Chara by swimming along the side of the dingy.

Ryan was surprised to see his former Space Command commander in Chief and the prosecutor who got him sentenced in cuffs. He didn't recognize the other three men nor the woman. The good-looking blond was relatively young compared to the men.

Chara suspended them near Ryan and then sat down to begin the cruise back to her base.

Fenson looked over at Ryan. "What the hell are you doing here, Hoffman? You're supposed to be dead."

"What are you two doing on this planet?" Ryan shot back. "It doesn't belong to you."

"Who does it belong to?" Tusor asked him.

"It sure as hell doesn't belong to me. I'm her slave." He jerked his head to indicate he was referring to Chara.

"How did you escape the mine explosion?" Fenson asked him.

"She saved me. I guess she wanted someone to torture." He looked at Fenson. "Why are you here? Were you planning on an invasion?"

"We came here to escape the situation on Earth."

Ryan blinked. "What situation?"

"Earth suffered an asteroid collision that plunged it into a nuclear winter. People were starving and battles broke out."

"Why didn't you avert the asteroid?"

"The Collision Avoidance Unit failed to track it correctly. The main staff was on vacation and the idiots that were in charge were not paying attention."

Ryan sighed. He surmised that he was lying, but he was not in a position to refute his claim. "So, you came here to wait until Earth recovered."

"Right. We brought our own recreation."

"Unfortunately, this planet is no paradise. It's a living Hell under control of the daughters of Hercules who hate human men and take pleasure in torturing them."

"That's ridiculous!" Tusor growled. "They're just robotic machines."

"Apparently, they've evolved to become completely sentient. I believe that this was intimated in Ex Machina."

They looked at him as if he had gone mad. Unfortunately, they were powerless to do anything about it.

The boat docked and several androids came aboard to remove the humans that Chara had captured. They cut the clothing off them and then cuffed their hands behind their backs. After encasing their necks in metal rings. They clipped wires to the rings so that they could force them to go where they wanted.

A large group of androids had gathered to watch the humans being paraded into the main tower and then placed into transparent cylindrical cells that were just large enough to hold them. But Chara held back one of the humans from being imprisoned. She removed his manacles and the metal ring around his neck.

"Ah, the female is not complicit in their crimes," Ryan said. "She was their plaything. She's also a cybernetic engineer."

Chara stared at him for a moment before releasing the woman and removing her restraints.

"Thank you," Ryan said.

"Come with me," Chara said. She turned and began walking to the entrance of a tunnel that led out of the tower to the android repair lab. When they arrived, Chara pointed to the area where many broken androids were stored. "Continue your work."

"Ah, could we have some clothing please."

"I will bring clothing to you," Chara said before she walked away.

"You lied," the woman said. "I'm not a cybernetic engineer."

"I can show you what to do. If I hadn't lied, you would have been tortured and then cut up into pieces."

She swallowed hard. "Why did you save me?"

"Because you're not guilty of the crimes of the assholes-who-brought-you-here, Myra."

A tear formed in her eye, and she sighed. Ryan knew that she was not aware of the precarious situation they were in, but it gave him a good feeling that he had saved a fellow human. As for his Space Command officials, he was finally going to get revenge for what they had done to him.