Prominence

Part 6 - The Battle of Plorus Begins

Del walked briskly through the cargo bay of the Prominence. On the far side was a small secure area closed off from the rest of the bay. Two of his commando's stood guard either side of the secure bulkhead. They were heavily armed and far too well trained to be standing on guard duty, but he dared not trust anyone else with the task.

As he approached they each snapped a salute almost in perfect unison and then both stood to attention. He returned the salute then placed his security chip against the access panel and it turned green. The door clicked loudly and he edged it open and squeezed through. The only other people who knew the contents of the chamber or had access to it was the Rear Admiral and his executive officer. Even his trusted guards outside were not privy to what they were guarding.

Del closed and locked the door behind him as he entered. Alpha stood motionless in the centre of the chamber. The chamber itself was devoid of furniture with the exception of a large tray filled with a special sol-gel that sat in one corner. The sol-gel contained water and all of the trace elements and minerals that Alpha would need to survive beyond what his normal photosynthetic skin could provide. An hour a day standing in the tray during his "night" cycle and he would remain fit and healthy.

Del flashed his security chip against the door controls and the lock engaged with a heavy clunk. Alpha turned slowly to face him. Del was still very wary of the Orlak and was yet to be convinced that the box attached to Alpha's brain was actually controlling him as much as he was letting on.

The Orlak were highly intelligent and what better way to infiltrate the enemy than to feign compliance and convince the enemy you were a mindless slave. As he stepped towards Alpha he visibly rested his hand on his heavy duty plasma pistol. Specially designed for commando style close combat it had a very short effective range, but enough firepower to vaporise a hole half a meter in diameter in whatever or whoever it hit.

"You do not need a weapon. I am peaceful," said Alpha.

"I will be the judge of that thanks." replied Del curtly.

"Your scientists tested me and I passed," insisted Alpha.

Del studied the Orlak intensely for a moment hoping to catch any sign of a recognizable emotion. If Alpha was showing some emotion it was not visible to him. He was looking for anything that might betray any uncontrolled thoughts. If the Orlak was going to be vulnerable to letting slip any raw emotions it would have been from memories of the obedience tests.

Del had watched all of the recordings of the testing earlier. Being a veteran he had seen some horribly graphic things on the battlefield, but he had not seen anything so cruel as those tests. He had a new fearful respect for the Primariate after seeing them. The final test was the most horrible with the live torture of another Orlak right in front of Alpha, who was free to stop them at any time. All he had to do was choose to disobey. It was gut wrenching to see him stand by emotionless and motionless as his fellow Orlak was slowly and methodically tortured to death.

"I have a different test for you Alpha. I will test you with questions. Let's start with what your real name is?"

"Orlak do not have names as Vaslus do, we have sounds. When I make my sound other Orlak know who I am."

"What sound do you make? Can you make it for me now?"

"My sound changes each time I make it. It is not consistent. The Vaslus cannot understand my sound."

"But the Orlak can understand our language. How did you learn that?"

"Vaslus sounds are simple. The eldest ones tells us that we must know our enemy to defeat them."

"Do the eldest ones tell you why we are your enemy?"

"Yes. It is because you are unholy."

Del was about to probe further about the concept of what the Orlak meant by unholy when the lights in the chamber suddenly went from a normal comfortable level to a good double or triple their original intensity. Del threw his hands over his eyes and pushed himself back against the wall with his weapon drawn.