ToxicHaven (10 page)

“I think we’ve defeated the enemy,” he said, a certain amount of pride evident in his voice. “We can land when I figure out how to do that. Let me activate my memory chip. Ah, okay. That’s easy enough.”

Haven was awed by how fast he’d learned to maneuver the ship as he set it down quietly beside the three fighters on the ground. The hatch opened and they climbed out, Pierre visibly shaken.

People slowly appeared from their hiding places, hesitant at first, until recognition set in. They were astonished to see Pierre and their three visitors. Daniella flew into Pierre’s arms and babbled in French.

Pierre, regaining his calm composure, patted her on the back and through his wife’s tears of joy and babbling, managed to say, “Apparently everyone was questioned repeatedly and handled quite roughly. When they threatened to start killing people, one by one, if they didn’t tell them where you were, Danielle told them you’d escaped to the mountains, to the dark forest, in the hope the creatures there would annihilate the drones at least. But they only sent some of the drones to the forest, as we saw from the ship, leaving some behind to intimidate everyone. They’ve all been terrified.”

“I can imagine. Did you hear?” she asked the men who nodded. “We can now make plans to set everything straight. We need pilots for the other three ships and we need to contact the resistance on other planets. Between all of us, we can defeat upper management and stop the poisoning of the settlers and senseless killing of innocent people.”

The villagers thronged about them excitedly and Pierre was already busy on his com calling a meeting of the elders. Haven turned to her two men and hugged each, kissing them on both cheeks, then on the lips. There had been very little time for romance, less time for love, but she finally saw the beginning of a new era, a new dawning for all settlers and planets. For the first time in many years, she dared to dream about a future, a bright future, with two handsome men by her side.

Chapter Eight

Almost two years later…

The war was over! Before Haven returned to Anat, there was an important task she needed to do, one that had plagued her more and more recently. Her mother was pregnant when Haven was taken to be trained. She could have a brother or sister on Brinta. She hadn’t shared her longing for family with Isan and Josias, or her mission to find her sibling, if there was one. The place to start looking was Brinta. Visiting her hometown could give her the answers.

She told her copilot there was a last task she needed to complete. He protested, saying he wanted to go home. Since she didn’t need assistance, she sent him home with one of the other pilots.

Isan and Josias contacted her on the com system. “Haven, what the hell are you up to?” Josias asked.

“There’s something I need to do.”

“Like what?” Isan spoke.

“I’ll tell you all about it when I return. I won’t be gone long.”

“We don’t like secrets, woman. Where are you right now?”

“Somewhere in the universe,” she said, laughing a bit, trying to joke, but it wasn’t a joke and they were not happy.

“We can track you,” Josias said.

“Please don’t. I won’t be in any danger. I promise. I’ll see you in a few days.”

“I love you, Haven Drew,” Josias said.

“And I love you both.”

“I love you, too, even if I’m mad as hell at you,” Isan added.

She signed off and concentrated on her flight. It wouldn’t take her long to get to Brinta and her hometown, Ixilam. The name of the town was branded in her memory.

After landing near Ixilam, she got out of the flyer and headed into the town. Silhouetted against the green sky were its spiked buildings, their windows reflecting the twin suns’ rays. She’d forgotten about the green sky. It was so long ago. Her memories were but flashes. Where should she start? The street where her parents’ house used to be? The neighbors?

Her thoughts drifted to their last mission, their final victory. After the final attack, two of her torturers had survived the carnage that followed. Discreetly, she’d made enquiries and discovered they’d been captured and were being held in a high security cell with several other prisoners.

It felt good to give orders instead of being ordered. She had commanded the two brought before her, blindfolded. The hatred in her heart had grown into a festering sore. The only way to ease it and rid herself of the memories, was to do to them what they’d done to her. She’d studied them briefly as they stood a few meters away, their heads hanging. Did they even regret their deeds? How many others had they tortured besides her? What kind of punishment could she mete out? Those were the questions roiling through her mind in those few seconds. Castrate them, a little voice told her. Chop their nuts off.

She’d glanced at the medical instruments, found a scalpel and yanked their pants down.

“My God, you wouldn’t!” the bald one had screamed several times as she ran the blade along his flaccid penis.

“Wouldn’t I?”

She nodded at one of the guards who’d brought them in and said, “Strap him to the chair.” Her patience was tried while the struggling man kicked and squirmed uselessly as two hefty guards secured him as ordered. When they backed away, Haven approached.

She actually cut a fine line along its length. Tiny droplets of blood had appeared and trickled to the floor. He’d squirmed, tried to get away from her, but the guard stepped in and made him sit still. With his head, waist, wrists and ankles tightly secured, he couldn’t move. She’d continued to cut, not quite deep enough to pierce the skin, until a network of fine bleeding lines covered his cock. His loose sack rested on the chair. It got the same treatment. The man’s screams reverberated through the room, but she was deaf to them.

She changed her mind about cutting off his balls. Instead, she sliced his shirt from top to bottom. Sparse grey hair dotted a milky white chest. This time she did cut deep as she carved
Judas
in big capital letters across his chest. She nodded to the guards who undid the buckled straps and yanked the man to his feet.

When they’d forced the other one to the chair, he’d begged. “Please, I recognize your voice. We were wrong. I didn’t mean to do what we did. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

He’d squirmed and tried to wrestle away from the guards, but they were stronger. She gave him the same treatment but added the word
, rapist
.

All this time, her heart had screamed for revenge, to kill the bastards who’d manhandled her. Most of them were already dead, killed during the attacks. Only these two had lived. Had it made her feel better after she told the guards to take the men back to their cell? All thoughts of killing them had vanished. The torture she’d imagined for them was a lot more extreme, but she couldn’t go through with it.

It had taught her something. Though the thoughts and plans were there, she wasn’t made of the same material. Her makeup wasn’t one of intense cruelty, of murder. It was bad enough the deaths of the people she’d been forced to kill while she was incarcerated playing on her mind. She’d decided not to add another two murders to the count. Sure enough, they were bastards. But hadn’t she stooped to their level? Even just by marking them? Resolutely, she’d decided. Life imprisonment was sufficient punishment.

“We’re here,” her copilot said, startling her out of her thoughts.

Excitement bubbled within her as she left the ship. Infused with energy, she headed for Ixilam, her feet flying toward the first row of houses.

Though Brinta’s population was much bigger than Anat’s, its cities larger, it still wasn’t anything like Earth. Ixilam was rural. Her parents had farmland there, even if her father had worked in the city as a scientist.

My pony will be long gone, she thought dismally. She had to ask directions several times, but after walking for about half an hour she found Namak Street. It had changed quite a bit from what she remembered. There were a lot more houses now.

Walking down the street, she looked at the numbers. Theirs had been number 79. Her parents had drummed her address into her from when she was old enough to talk. Her heartbeat sped up as she neared the home from her childhood. Tall shrubs and trees hid it from view. She opened the gate and walked toward the house, her heart hammering against her ribs. Tears burnt, but she refused to cry.

Midway up the path, she stopped. There would be strangers living in the house now. They wouldn’t appreciate her invading their space.

Haven was about to turn and leave again, when the front door opened.

“Can I help you?” a female voice said—a voice she remembered, a voice that caused her heart to almost stop at first, then to swivel and run towards its owner.

It couldn’t be. But it was. “Mother?” she said in a quivering voice laced with emotion. Before her stood her mother. Older, but still beautiful and almost as Haven remembered her. “Mother?” she said again, in a soft voice.

Her mother stared at her, her face chalk white. “It couldn’t be. Haven? Haven, is that really you?” Haven noticed her sway, grasp at her forehead and quickly stepped forward. She was the same height as her mother. Wrapping both arms around her, she supported her for a few moments, but soon both of them sagged to the ground.

“It’s me, Mom. They told me you and Dad were dead. You were pregnant when they took me, so I came back to look for a sibling.”

Tears streamed down her mother’s cheeks as she looked at Haven. “I can’t believe it. After all this time! The officials who took you told us to forget about you. Later, we were contacted and told you’d died while undergoing experiments.”

“None of that will happen ever again. We’ve eradicated management of the Drakhar Mine and the government.”

“You were involved in that?”

Her mother’s voice was still shaky and she kept studying Haven as if she were an alien.

“Sweetheart, we were so proud when you were chosen for the special program. We never realized—”

Haven placed a finger against her mother’s lips. “Sh, I know. They were bastards. I’ve got so much to tell you. Dad?”

“Oh, geez, your father. He’s out back.”

“The baby?”

“I lost the baby. I have to go and get your father. He—”

“We’ll both go.” Haven helped her mother to her feet. Arms around each other’s waists, they walked through the house she remembered as if it were yesterday. Not too much had changed from when she was little. The kitchen was still as cozy as ever.

Her father was on his knees tending one of his vegetable patches when they approached. He looked up and froze. The small spade dropped from his hand. He paled then jumped to his feet and embraced them both.

When Haven managed to disengage herself, she looked at him. He hadn’t changed a whole lot, either. Some years older, but he was still the handsome strong man she remembered. But she’d never seen her father cry. Until then.

She stayed with them for two days before returning to Anat. They’d hardly slept. Her father stayed home from work and they’d talked deep into the night. Before she headed back to her flyer, her parents told her they’d move to wherever she and her husbands decided to live.

It was a tearful, reluctant goodbye, but all the same, Haven’s heart sang.

* * * *

“Where are we going?” Haven asked her two husbands. “Why did I need to be blindfolded?” After two years, they’d finally brought about the downfall of the Drakhar mine and the governing officials. It had taken months of planning, dozens of attacks and, of course, had resulted in the loss of lives, but mainly the enemy’s. During the last battle, the planets had banded together in a final effort and it had proven fruitful.

A new resource for the settlers to use as fertilizer was found and Pierre and his scientists had produced enough serum for the settlers of all the colonies to be inoculated against the effects of the toxic slag. They’d also distributed tons of the liquid that detoxified the remaining slag dumps on the various planets. The farmers had destroyed their crops and started from scratch after they received deliveries of food that was clear of poison, taken from the storage facilities of the head office of the Drakhar mine.

The prison was empty of prisoners, the building transformed into an office building and directed by management that could be completely trusted, that set as a priority the welfare of the settlers. New laws were set in place. Marijuana would still be grown, but utilized the same as on Anat, for oil, paper and medicinal use. It would no longer be the main crops grown. Groups of people were flown to each planet to help the settlers develop their new worlds. Earth had become a number one priority. Surviving humanity were to be relocated and treated.

Now that their war was behind them, they could all finally settle down.

Haven, Isan and Josias, had decided to settle on Anat. Haven welcomed the chance to help develop the planet and its resources, as did Josias and Isan. The three of them liked the idea of growing with its tiny settlements. That their names were to be forever engraved in stone on a large statue erected in their honor, irked her. She’d never dreamed of being famous, or written into history. But what could she say when the settlers had surprised them with the statue? It was one of liberty, a tall, metal statue made from the molten metal of the defeated drones, standing as tall as a building. It depicted a fighter with three figures standing on its nose, their arms held up in victory. A large metal plate on the base told the story of their victory, their fight for freedom for all. Below it was a list of all the fighters who had lost their lives.

“Okay, we’re here,” Josias said and removed her blindfold.

Blinking for a moment against the bright light, she looked and gasped. Facing her was a house. It was beautiful. Built from the same mudsmith bricks as the other homes in the village, it stood apart because the walls were whitewashed and the roof made from bronze metal tile. The yard was landscaped. Green lawns grew lush and flowerbeds sported an array of flowers, some alien, some old Earth flowers that she’d only seen pictures of. Where they’d found the seeds or plants, she didn’t ask. She looked at each of their proud faces. “You did this?”