The Dangers of Saving a Life

Chapter 18: Max

Hock note: Axion assigned Captain Max and her squad of robots to arrest Professor Aidan, Milo Skart, and the infant Cale Vals. She failed. Not only did she fail, but when she returned from her assignment, she expected Professor Aidan to change the world. She believed dark energy would usher in a new day for humanity.  

"Release me."

Captain Max slammed her shoulders into two nurses blocking her exit, but they held their ground. A short and stocky man in a white coat approached her from beyond the nurses. This was the one who had ordered the arrest of Professor Aidan. 

"I'm Dr. Chocka Zdravnik," he said without expression, at least the part of his face that was not covered by bushy hair.

"I said release me."

"Hmmm."

Her head grew hot. "Now."

Instead, Dr. Chocka pointed to a brown leather examination table behind her. "Would you lie down, please?"

It was clear to Max that this was an order, not a request. Max was a prisoner. But the place was nothing like a prison cell. The large and spacious office featured warm tones and soft colors, cream-colored walls, dark mahogany furniture, and an old-fashioned hardwood floor.

Although she was no longer protected by her Higgs suit, Max still wore Axion's military uniform. It made her feel strong, like pushing nurses. She attempted to force her way beyond them, but their mechanical strength far surpassed her human muscle. Still, she was defiant. "I'm not lying down. You will release me."

"Hmmm." Chocka crossed his arms. "Do you understand why you were arrested?"

Yellow lights and white molded heads didn't intimidate her, and neither did their little pistons and rods they pretended were muscles and limbs. They were still machines, stun guns dangling from their ridiculous belts.

"You were arrested after leaving Atraville College. Do you understand why?"

"Release me." She spat out the words. "Now."

"You might feel some pressure."

A third nurse aimed a large black cannon at her, moving it up and down, covering her body with a bluish-white light.

"What are you doing?"

"You succumbed to dark energy. It is a most serious crime."

Max's body grew so heavy that she could no longer stand. She sank down to the floor.

"I can't move."

Max was not a petite woman, but the nurses effortlessly lifted her magnified mass and laid her out flat on the examination table.

"You allowed the boy and the infant to go free," Chocka said, wagging his bushy head. This time she could clearly make out an expression of disapproval through all that hair. "Such vile criminals. And you didn't arrest Professor Aidan, harboring fugitives, dealing in dark energy, corrupting young college kids. You were sent to Atraville College to arrest these people and you just let them go? Chocka is very disappointed. Axion is not happy."

Once the nurses securely clamped her arms and legs to receptacles in the table, Chocka approached with a two-pronged fork. When he brought the fork to her head, it beeped. A translucent screen in the handle flashed red.

"Your neurons are showing some dilation."

Dr. Chocka wagged his head again and pressed his thumb into the base of the fork, adjusting the device, and focusing the detector down to a defined area. Then he brought the detector back up to her forehead with more beeps. As he pressed the twin forks of the detector closer to her forehead, he furrowed his brow with concern.

"Your dilation is most serious. That's how he did it, you know."

He passed the beeping detector around her forehead in a slow circular motion.

"Do you understand what dark energy can do to you?"

Chocka placed the fork on a floating shelf behind her and retrieved the silver wand with the flared tip.

"He dilated your neuronic receptors, disrupting your reception of the axionic impulses. That means he changed your brain and modified your thinking. That's what dark energy does to you. You no longer obey Axion."

Chocka wagged his head while he carefully positioned the wand so that one end of it nearly touched her forehead. "This is targeted gravity. It might hurt."

Max felt razor blades slice her brain, but she did not utter a sound. She held her expression. She refused to give in to him. She resisted until the darkness overtook her.

"You're very lucky."

When she awoke moments later, her brain buzzed as if insects swarmed inside her head. Chocka sat by the table holding the shiny wand up to her forehead. Nurses stood on each side of her, their spinning yellow lights focused on her.

"You're very lucky your levels were below the Terfyn limit. Chocka is a specialist in dark energy. It is such a serious condition, but Chocka can fix you."

She felt the razor blades before she passed out again. When she awoke, her head buzzed to the point she could barely think. All she knew was that she was angry.

"He's a monster." She didn't quite know what she was saying. Her headache was horrendous. She talked just to relieve the pain. "He's a demon. He's a vile terrorist. He must be put to death."

She couldn't tell if the bushy face was happy, sad, angry, or amused as he probed her forehead with the twin fork detector, moving it around in a slow and circular motion. "Who is that you say?"

"Professor Aidan Scelestus. He's breaking Axion's law right under its nose."

"Yes, that is quite terrible." Chocka wagged his bushy head with disapproval.

Max thought her brain might burst through her skull. "And the baby too."

Chocka stopped immediately. He stared down at her for a long moment, eyes popping from his furry head. "And the baby?"

"Yes."

Chocka's eyes widened further. "And who else?"

"All of them. The professor, the boy, and the infant. They've broken Axion's law. I want them dead."

Chocka nodded to the nurses. They promptly unfastened her arms and legs from the examination table.

"You are quite cured now. Go do your duty to Axion."