Chapter 5
The Wreckage
At Nina’s base, at the engineering lab, the man was walking with some metal frame attached to his body. The workers there were saying that it was intended to be look like an exoskeleton of the Hercules beetle, but rather it looked like a fur ball. One of the guards was called in to try out the suit. Scientists gathered and watched him toddling with huge metal frames. Jessica Rottman, one of the head researchers in the team, was standing next to him. She was wearing glasses, dressed in a white lab coat, carrying a check board on her arm. She was with her partner, Krieg Parker, a tall young man with a nerdy look, wearing slightly bigger glasses than Jessica. Also, there was Dr. Potts, a short, bald, middle aged man.
The subject, however, seemed to be having a hard time. His left arm seemed to be too loosened and twisted in joint and his right arm didn’t move well at all. Exhausted, his whole body was covered with sweat.
“This is awesome…” said Krieg, with a half opened mouth.
“Mmm… Mmm…” said Jessica, observing sharply, also satisfied with herself. Dr. Potts looked interchangeably at the barometer and the subject and complained.
“Look at the movement between left and right joint, it’s off balanced! The motor is heating up too fast! This is useless!” he annulled, rubbing his bare head with frustration.
“Now, now don’t worry Dr. Potts, this is quite a progress,” said Jessica, with her foxy gaze, writing something on the check board.
“Well, I’m guessing we are far away from putting this in the combat area,” mumbled Dr. Potts.
“Man, you are depressing me! We are going to get this done within a month!” shouted Krieg, his cheek became reddish.
“Yes, it is such a pain to renew the deadline every time,” said Jessica, bitterly.
Dr. Potts shook his head and looked at the struggling subject. He sensed something poking on his shoulder. He moved around, seeing nothing, rubbed his head and turned around. All of a sudden, he felt his chin stretching itself, revealing his teeth. Completely shocked, he jumped, screamed and threw the check board in the air.
The laughter of the girl came out from the air. Nina deactivated her microwave cloaking device and she appeared in front of Dr. Potts who was on the floor. She removed the head gear from her head and gave a Potts hand to help him up.
“Hello, admiral,” said Jessica, delightfully.
“Nina! I have a heart condition!” Potts bellowed as he stood up. Dr. Potts was also the friend to Nina’s grandfather, Simard Polchinski, and took a good care of Nina at her youth.
“Oh, Dr. Potts, you made this for me. You should get used to it,” said Nina, softly touching his shoulder, giggling. The cloaking devices were attached at her shoulders, waist and legs. They emitted electromagnetic radiation which was absorbed in her body when activated. She had the special headgear to identify the object. Potts opened his mouth but the words didn’t come out. He twitched his mouth like an ignorant school boy.
“Well, I was just going over to the medical room. Veron is doing some strange work nowadays… I shouldn’t tell you this, so please don’t talk to Captain Stein; else, he will be all over me again,” said Nina. Krieg and Jessica were curious, moved toward her closely.
“Is this about that strange attack at the southern sea?” asked Jessica. Nina nodded.
“Our marines, who were patrolling in the area, found someone hovering in the sea with a little salvage tube. She was one of the sex slaves being captive by the traffickers was on the vessel, until, well… the ship got attacked,” said Nina.
“Pirates?” said Krieg.
“Those damn pirates,” Dr. Potts grumbled on the side.
“I do not know whether it is pirates, we have to ask that girl,” replied Nina.
“So, did you bring her to the base?” asked Jessica.
“Yes we did. I’m unsure about what actually happened there. The ship didn’t sink, had no sign of robbery, it was just floating on the sea. Our marine quickly left the vessels as Veron’s search squad arrived. We haven’t figured out the details yet, but I’m pretty sure that most, if not all, crews are dead,” said Nina. Dr. Potts were writing intensely on his chalkboard and gestured at the man with the suit to walk faster.
“Yes, it is quite strange, normally the slaves are well guarded,” said Jessica.
“Yeah, I mean it got big ass missiles, torpedo launchers along with the bunch of mercenaries,” said Krieg.
“Is she the only survivor?” asked Jessica to Nina.
“Yes, I’m pretty sure. I think Veron’s squad are pretty shocked themselves too, they didn’t report the news yet…” said Nina, glimpsing at Dr. Potts focusing on the data sheet.
“When we took her, she was in a very bad state. She got various wound and bruises, her eyes half opened like a dead shell, quivering her blue lips. And when marines got her to the boat, and warmed her up with the blanket, they looked at the ship from the distance. It seemed vacant, among the mist it just stopped there like the bloated corpse floating on the sea. BOO!” Nina suddenly screamed at Potts, he startled, fell down on the floor again, grabbing his heart, cursing and swearing.
“We love you, Potts,” Nina giggled, walked up to the medical room, which was located right next to the lab due to the recurring accident. She approached the physician with a sharp penetrating look. Right next to them, a bony, skeletal girl was sitting behind the one way mirror. She had severe bruises on her face and arms.
“How are things going, Dr. Berman?” said Nina, to the physician with a sharp look. He cleared his throat, giving Nina the medical report and pictures of her injuries. Nina glimpsed at it, frowning a little.
“Her name is Becky, 18 years old, severely abused even before she was taken by traffickers. Her old wounds, we presume, were made by her own father or a close family members, bones disjointed on her shoulder which healed by itself. There were freshly made wounds and ruptures on her face and body. There also was some minor internal bleeding on colon and small intestine. And we assume they used a bat to break her Achilles tendon in order to prevent her from running,” said Berman plainly. “I do think they make her drink containing some feces. She seemed to suffer from severe dehydration. But other than that, her blood is clean from any diseases, although we are still checking for HIV,” said Dr. Berman,
“Uh huh,” said Nina in disgust and silently stared at Becky’s shallow, boney face.
“She just woke up yesterday, sleeping for three days straight. She now ate some soup and gained some energy to talk, although she is still, well… unstable.” said Berman.
“Good work doctor,” said Nina and entered the room.
“Hello Becky,” said Nina.
“Hi,” Becky smiled weakly. She had a feeble, fragile look. Her cheek was pink, and eyes were alive.
“Such a strong girl, you survived. Are you feeling better?” smiled Nina.
“A little better…” she replied quietly.
“It’s pretty safe here. All these men will protect you. You can stay here as long as you wish,” said Nina with a soothing voice. Becky nodded in silence. She was shaking a little but breathed in and out peacefully.
“You look young… But they called you… admiral,” said Becky, gazing at Nina.
“Well, yes. This place has been my home for quite some time,” said Nina.
“You seem… nice,” said Becky.
Nina silenced for a while, looking at her big eyes blinking slowly.
“Could you tell me about yourself?” said Nina.
Becky cleared a throat, mixed with some gurgling noise. She had a blue purplish bruise on her neck. With a quiet but clear voice, she spoke.
“I had a dream of becoming a singer. I sang and sang in street although my parents opposed to it. My father drank and gambled; day after day it was becoming harder and harder to live… I was hungry. Seemed like world turn the back against us. And one day, the guy came up to me in the street and asked me that he’ll give me some money if
I sang at the bar,” Becky coughed a little, feeling a discomfort on her neck. She grabbed the water bottle on the table. She sipped the water and continued.
“He took me to the place… it was a strange place, I’ve heard people crying, screaming on the other room. I was afraid, so I asked him whether this is the right place. He gazed at me as if he were to comfort me. His deep eye was sunken, seemed to be sad. I knew he was sad. He nodded and smiled, but I knew at that moment I made a mistake, the next moment I was grabbed by two men and the guy turned around and walked away,” said Becky, shuddering a little.
“Do you remember the place?” said Nina.
She shook her head, trembling intensely, the water flowed out from the bottle and spilled on the table. Nina quickly grabbed the bottle and set it up.
“The next thing I remember was blackness. They took me to the ship and locked me on the cell… I was with a lot of other women. They were scared; I was scared too so we talked to each other, trying to make each other feel better. But the day after, man took me, tied me to some chair, ripped off my shirt and injected something in my heart. The pain grasped me; blood flowed to every limb like a fire, burning. As if something is scratching my bone fiercely, cold, piercing my body inside. When I woke up, I was in a cell with a red mark on my breast. Soon I realized I was the only one on the ship. I looked around and the other people were… torn into pieces on the floor. It was too horrible… too horrible…” Becky started sobbing.
“Torn?” said Nina.
Becky made a shrieking sound, covered her head and dropped the bottle on the floor.
“I see…” mumbled Nina.
The girl was crying, Nina stood up and gestured at the mirror for the nurse to come in.
“Calm down. Becky, it’s alright, it’s all over,” said Nina. She pressed the button, and the nurse came in.
“Treat her well,” said Nina.
“Yes, admiral,” said the nurse, embracing Becky with the blanket she brought. Nina got out the room, her face pale. Dr. Berman was waiting for her.
“I thought Veron reduced the number of human experiment on bio weaponry,” said Berman.
“All the soldiers are dead along with the slaves. This is an accident, not anticipated in any way. She said they are torn out, I do not know whether she is telling the truth or she was in too much distress at the time.” said Nina, taking out her lollipop from her pocket and licking it.
“The news report came out while you are in there; they reported that it was some shooting spree of by pirates. If they clean the scene now, we will never found out what actually happened there,” said Berman.
“Bullshit… By the way, what was that drug they injected inside her? Doesn’t sound like cocaine,” asked Nina.
“It is called a gamma hydroxybutyrate acid, a knock-out drug. It is the same drug which is used in Romeo and Juliet. I think one of them put into her; presumably because she was resisting a lot.” said Berman.
“Or… Necrophilia,” Nina objected. Berman frowned, disgusted.
“Yes, and I shouldn’t say Romeo and Juliet,” said Berman.
“Well, we can probably see him as some pervert Romeo. The fact is that she is extremely lucky to be alive. Take care of her well, doctor,” said Nina.
“Of course, admiral,” Berman nodded.