Dark Universe & Forbidden Love (42 page)

“Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!” The blaring
alarm sounded in the entire prison block.

Jason
woke up in pain, his cheeks hurting like hell, his face swollen like a rotten
tomato, his eye filled with red veins. He sat on the edge of the bed and saw
other prisoners dressing up themselves in a hurry. He quickly put on his
uniform. Then all bars opened. All prisoners stepped out of their cells and
stood still. Hundreds of drones flew out of the center tower, scanning the
prisoners in that area. After some 30 seconds, all drones returned to the center
tower.

“Roll
out!”

All
prisoners headed to the ground floor and then went to the dining hall. More
than 2000 prisoners were eating on different levels of the dining hall. About
half of the prisoners were first class species and there was no segregation between
first and second class species. Jason only saw several Humans and that was
about it. He joined the flow and reached the food serving bench. He noticed the
amount of food was different from one to another. When it was his turn, the
robot first scanned his face and gave him more than what other prisoners got.

“New
guy, huh?” A Glycan behind Jason said jealously.

Jason
was wondering how he knew that, but he didn’t ask. He quickly found a table and
sat down.

“Enjoy
your first meal. Fresh fish.” An Estian said as he walked by Jason.

Several
nearby prisoners checked Jason’s plate. One of them was a skinny Human. He
moved to Jason’s table and said, “Hey, yo just got here, right?”

“Yea,
yesterday.” Jason said coldly.

“I know.
You see, the first breakfast of every new guy is always big and heavy. I
remember my first one. Oh, by the way, I am Luee.” The skinny guy said as he
kept peeking at Jason’s plate.

Jason
saw Luee’s plate had only one third of what he had, so he gave Luee a piece of
bread.

“Thanks,
man. Thanks.” Luee said quickly and gobbled it.

“So
there is some rule about the food?” Jason asked.

“Well,
we only eat twice a day. Breakfast and supper. How much food you get depends on
how much work you have done. You know this is also a mining facility, right?”
Luee said hastily as he gulped down his food.

“I read
it somewhere.”

“You
will know when you have your supper today.”

Jason
looked around and thought about what Luee just said. That might explain why he
couldn’t find a fat guy here.

“What’s
your name?” Luee asked.

“Jason.”

“You
from Earth or colony?”

“I was
on Eva-1.”

“You are
fucking kidding. That belongs to Guardian Fleet. You are saying you are a
member of Guardian Fleet?” Luee sneered.

“Technically,
no. I was a trainee, so I am not a member of Guardian Fleet.” Jason said
seriously.

“Shit.
Prove it.”

Jason
suddenly lost steam. He knew he was no longer a trainee. He casted his eyes
down and gobbled his food.

“Man, I
gotta tell you. Those fellows hate you for now.” Luee said quietly.

“Why is that?”

“You
see, whenever a new shipment came in, they bet on whether it will make it or
not. You made it. I heard Hwoei lost a lot of money on you.”

“That
might explain why he gave me a very warm welcome.” Jason said in disgust.

“I know
what you mean.” Luee said in sympathy.

“How
long have you been here?”

“Nine
years.”

Jason
wanted to ask something, but the alarm sounded again. He quickly finished
everything on his plate and followed others to the working site.

It only
took about five seconds for the guards to decide Jason’s job. They threw him in
the rock breaking team. The only tool Jason got was a sledgehammer and what he
did all day was hitting rocks with it. Jason soon learned that there were gems
in those asteroids and some of them were extremely valuable. Flying drones were
monitoring every prisoner and collecting what they got from rocks. For those
prisoners who found gems, they would have a better supper. Jason wasn’t lucky
on his first day. When he was having his supper, he begun to understand Luee’s
words.

It was the second day since
Glycan fleets gathered at the outer layer defense line. Klaycon didn’t
understand what Kalan was waiting for. He wanted to fight and be a hero
himself, not just Kalan’s son or Klizan’s grandson. However, his father still
treated him as a kid and kept him out of the loop.

Right
now he was having lunch with his friends Zier, Nissen and Carila on the flag
vessel of Seventh fleet.

“I got
some news, after that Estian incident, thousands of police surrounded the
palace.” Nissen said happily as he was chewing.

“Maybe
they are there to protect the royal family. The police force don’t have the
firepower to take down the palace.” Zier said like an expert.

“At
least nobody is coming out of the palace. What do you think, Klaycon?” Carila
said happily.

“Ah. I
don’t know.” Klaycon simply didn’t know what Carila was asking.

“Man,
you look lost.” Nissen said.

“Let me
guess, you are thinking how to save Klizan, right?” Zier said confidently.

“So you
also thought about it.” Klaycon said slowly.

“Do you
have any plan?” Zier asked.

“What
about you?”

“If we
can get in while your father was attacking the palace, we might have a chance.
Otherwise four guys like us couldn’t really stand a fight.” Zier said.

“If you
wait until that time, that will be too late. If you don’t take the risk, you
will always end up lagging behind. We either make our names or we die.” Klaycon
said firmly.

“Man, I
am totally in.” Nissen said excitedly.

“What
about you, Carila?” Klaycon asked.

“Well,
you seem helpless without me.” Carila said confidently.

Even
though Klaycon and his friends decided to rescue General Klizan, they had no
idea where to start. In order to gather some intel, Klaycon bugged his father
and learned that Kalan sent out five teams to Sylareon on the very first day
they reached the assembly point. They were still trying to locate Klizan.
Nissen, Zier and Carila also tried to pull some intel, but Nissen and Carila
still couldn’t get in touch with their families. Zier managed to contact his
father Zserie and learned that Klizan might be kept at the underground city
beneath palace. This didn’t really mean anything. The palace had a history of
millions of years and so did the city right beneath it. Generation after
generation the city had expanded well beyond the surface structures. It had
everything including but not limited to water factories, power plants,
greenhouses, livestock farms, prisons and even a cremator. It could stand any
type of attack as long as the planet was still there. On off the chance they
didn’t get lost in it, there was no way they could find Klizan.

Klaycon
found another solution and they were now hiding in a cargo vessel that
delivered dairy products to the palace on the daily basis.

“If I
know this is your plan before hand, at least I can put on more clothes.” Zier
wheezed.

“Yea,
well, I didn’t know it until I saw the vessel.” Klaycon said.

“So you
don’t know where it is heading?” Carila asked in surprise.

“If you
mean the exact landing spot, no.” Klaycon said uneasily.

“Then
what is your plan?” Carila asked.

“Some
soldiers will come aboard to check the vessel. We kill them and put on their
clothes.” Klaycon said calmly.

The
cargo vessel landed on the verge of the palace before the first light of the
dawn. The gate slowly lifted and five Glycan soldiers walked in leisurely
checking around.

Hiding
behind a big barrel, Klaycon motioned Zier and Carila to move to the two
soldiers near the gate. He and Nissen were approaching the other three. Both
Zier and Carila jumped from behind the containers and shot the two soldiers
dead. Hearing the gunshot, the other three soldiers swiftly aimed their rifles
at Zier and Carila, but before they could pull the triggers, Klaycon and Nissen
attacked them from both sides. They killed two and seriously wounded one.

Klaycon
and his friends quickly put on those soldiers’ uniforms. As Zier was rubbing
blood off the uniform, he noticed a piece of skull with number 1342 on it. Zier
pointed it out to others and they realised that those dead soldiers were not
real Glycans. They left the vessel and went into the palace.

Klaycon and his friends were
quickly approaching the center area where royal members resided at. Guards were
everywhere and they saw dozens of robots transporting luggage and boxes.

“They
are leaving.” Zier murmured.

“Let’s
follow them. Maybe our families are there.” Nissen said quietly.

“No.
Let’s see where those robots come from.” Klaycon said firmly.

Just
after Klaycon and his friends stepped into a hall, he saw Lreque walking them.
Klaycon quickly lowered his head, but when he glanced over at the guards
following Lreque, he noticed that several of them had tiny blood spots on their
shoes. Then he peeked at Lreque. His hands were shaking and his forehead was
covered with sweat. Klaycon suddenly realized something was wrong. He winked at
the other three and they followed those guards in the distance to the
underground city.

After
going down numerous levels, Klaycon and his friends reached a recently-built
area. It was more like a maze. There were only several robots patrolling the
area. Lreque stopped in front of a wall, removed a wedge and inserted his
crystal in the slot. The wall melt away and Lreque walked in, followed closely
by those guards. Then the wall restored its original shape.

“Damn,
what is that?” Nissen marveled.

“Look
like memory liquid metal.” Zier said.

“There
is no way we get through that door.” Carila said.

“We
don’t need to.” Klaycon said as he pointed at the vent above their heads.

When the
patrolling robots were out of sight, they removed the vent cover and got into
the ventilation shaft. Klaycon had no idea where those shafts led to. He simply
followed the distant voice he could barely hear and kept crawling. On their
way, there were dozens of motion sensors and they carefully disabled them.
After about 10 minutes, Klaycon reached a vent where the distance voice came
from. He could hear two Glycans talking, but he couldn’t see them.

“Did the
king know?”

“Yea,
Lreque just reported it.”

“They
are in the room across the hall right now.”

“I told
you Kalan would attack. You see what I mean now?”

Klaycon
believed this was the conversation between two officers. Now he knew Lreque and
Liutein were in a room across the hall. He kept crawling for about 10 meters
and reached another vent. This time he heard a familiar voice.

“Kalan
really think they could just send a dozen soldiers and save Klizan. They really
think I will hide him in my palace.”

“It will
take them forever to find him. But my king, do you think the captain was
telling the truth?”

“That
they are here to kill Klizan?”

“That
will be crazy.”

“But
they did manage to catch you. There might be others. Sweep the palace.”

“Right
away!”

Klaycon
immediately realised one of them was Liutein. Judging by the tread of their
footsteps, Klaycon could tell that they were getting closer and closer. Then he
saw Liutein right below him through the vent.

Just
after Liutein passed below the vent, he suddenly stopped. He took a deep sniff
and asked, “You smell that?”

“Smell
what?” Lreque said in confusion.

Liutein
looked up at the ceiling and focused on the vent. He gave a brittle smile, his
clothes transforming into an armor suit, a dagger popping out of his right
fist. Then he jumped upwards thrusting the dagger at the vent. The dagger
busted through the cover and just missed Klaycon’s chest.

Klaycon
motioned his friends to back off, but he didn’t move.

“Klaycon,
what are you waiting for?” Zier said in a low tone as he crawled backwards.

Klaycon
took a deep breath and said, “Throw me a tracer. Now!”

Just at
this moment, another strike came through the cover and cut Klaycon’s arm.

“Here.”
Zier hurled a button like trace to Klaycon. Klaycon caught it and swallowed it.

“Don’t
come out. Stay quiet!” Klaycon said hastily. Then he kicked the vent open, jumped
out and landed two meters away from Liutein.

“I know
I smell something.” Liutein said with an evil grin.

Klaycon
looked around. Except Liutein and Lreque, six guards were surrounding him,
rifles in hands.

“You
don’t stand a chance!” Lreque said coldly.

“How
about one on one?” Klaycon asked angrily.

“Why
not?” Liutein said happily.

Klaycon
threw away his rifle, his uniform transforming into an armor suit. Then he
dashed towards Liutein swinging a dagger to his head. Liutein dodged down,
grasped Klaycon’s arm and threw him over his shoulder. Klaycon slumped hard on
the ground. When he just stood up, Liutein kicked him on the belly and then
punched him on the head. Klaycon fell on his knees.

“So this
is the champion in the selection. I am very disappointed. I heard Klizan like
you very much.” Liutein said as he ready to strike Klaycon.

“I hope
you are right.” Klaycon sneered.

Liutein
smiled and bunched Klaycon on his head. The heavy blow sent Klaycon into coma.