Part 25

'Eat.'

He could smell the food but he had no desire to open his mouth and accept it. Harper knew what was coming, and he didn't care as he felt his head being yanked back and the spoon containing the food being forced into his mouth. A couple of harsh slaps to the face followed, and Harper reluctantly went through the motions of eating, taking his time before swallowing. After five rounds of this the uber grew quickly bored and threw the rest of the food across the floor in frustration, finally leaving Harper in peace as he stormed out of the room.

Moments later the door opened again and Harper didn't react, as he heard footsteps approach. No words were said as Harper felt the strain on his arms suddenly relax and he was lowered to the ground, with no strength or willpower left, Harper just let himself collapse to the floor ignoring the agony in his arms as feeling rapidly returned. He was easily moved onto his back without a fight, and through half opened eyes Harper recognised Hertzler looking down on him, probably checking he was still alive.

There were still no words said as Hertzler removed the heavy bindings around Harper's wrists and ankles, he was practically free but with no energy to move it meant very little. Without a struggle Harper was lifted up and slung over the ubers shoulder, and for the first time in days he left the room that had been his prison.

Wearily Harper tried not to let the nausea he suddenly felt overwhelm him as the uber transported him to another room, where he was un-ceremonially dumped on the carpeted floor. He didn't move, but was aware he wasn't alone as he heard voices and then realised someone was trying to get his attention with fingers clicking in his face, Harper tried to bat them away but he was too exhausted to do anything but move his head from side to side.

'Seamus?' Harper focused for the first time and realised it was Asa speaking to him. 'What have they done to you?'

'Your fault,' Harper weakly answered, he wasn't in the mood to be social but he saw the reaction it received from Asa, and he knew he had hurt him and deep down this pleased him.

Asa was then dragged away and Harper noticed the chains for the first time that secured the leader, as two Nietzschean soldiers contained him. Hertzler came back into view and dragged Harper up to a standing position, it took Harper a moment to get his bearings and balance before he could stand unaided.

'Asa wasn't co-operating, he wanted to check you were still alive and ok,' Hertzler explained. 'He tells us you are owned by Edenia, and now we own Edenia by default that means, Seamus Harper, that the Drago-Kasov own you now.'

'Go to hell,' Harper murmured, but Hertzler only laughed.

'I expect no less from a member of the Harper family line,' Hertzler spoke with fondness. 'And am I right in thinking you would be the last in that line, correct?'

'You made sure of that, seeing as you killed all the others,' Harper sneered.

'Asa tells me that you have no idea where the control room is, and that's what the drugs were for, so you couldn't remember the route,' Hertzler began and Harper was already bored, his mind wandering as the uber continued to talk. 'We will find that control room, and as soon as we do your orders are to lower the shields, understand?'

Harper weakly smiled; showing defiance even though he was weak. He was starting to sway slightly where he stood and an Uber soldier stepped closer to ensure Harper remained standing while Hertzler addressed him. 'I can't remember what to do,' Harper shrugged with arrogance.

Hertzler moved quickly and grabbed the back of Harper's head, getting a firm grip on his hair as he caused Harper to tense up with the sudden pain. 'The time for games is over, Seamus Harper, you will do as we say or,' he spoke before Harper interrupted.

'Or what? You'll go get the next guy who knows the tech here, oh wait, that would only be me,' Harper beamed, despite the pain he was in with Hertzler's hold remaining firm.

'Don't get too confident, kludge,' Hertzler sneered into Harper's face, and then proceeding to push him roughly back, causing Harper to lose his balance and stumble to the floor in a heap. As Harper attempted to recover and pick himself up, Hertzler crouched down and easily applied enough pressure on Harper's chest to keep him flat out on the floor. 'Time for your medicine, kludge,' Hertzler announced, as he brought a bottle of the strong smelling liquid into view.

Harper simply smirked and failed to struggle as he was forced to inhale a dose of the liquid, and almost instantly his nose began to bleed in reaction. Still smiling, Harper felt his eyelids grow heavy and unable to stop the overwhelming need to sleep, he drifted unconscious.

Hertzler checked Harper, and then grabbed his shirt and shook him a couple of times. 'Why is he sleeping?' he demanded loudly.

'Seems to happen lately when he gets a dose,' Asa spoke up calmly, almost pleased. 'If he's not given the drug regularly he falls unconscious with the next dose,' he added with a smile.

'I need him awake!' Hertzler yelled. 'You!' he pointed to one of his guards. 'Wake him up; I don't care how you do it!'

The soldier gestured to a couple of others and they proceeded to pick the unconscious human up and took him out of the room.

'Where are they taking him?' Asa asked with concern.

'I don't care, so long as they bring him back awake! Your ridiculous drug has to go, it serves no purpose,' Hertzler yelled.

'Oh but it does,' Asa responded knowingly but straightened up as Hertzler approached.

'He will not get any more, I need him awake and I have better means of control!' Hertzler seethed with anger.

'He needs that medicine, going without will kill him, you just have to make sure he receives it regularly,' Asa explained firmly. 'Trust me, you don't want to see what happens if he doesn't take it!'

'I'm not his nurse, and neither are my soldiers, we will find alternative means of making sure he kicks the habit, he's already come close once,' Hertzler explained. 'You, soldier, get the best medics on the case immediately, if they want to survive another day they work on finding a means to make sure the kludge is no longer reliant on that pathetic drug!'

Asa watched as Hertzler began to calm down, before speaking. 'If you can guarantee me that Harper will not be killed or mistreated, I will tell you where the control room is.'

'You seem to think you're still in a position to make demands,' Hertzler snapped with impatience.

'You showed me Harper was still alive, and you really want to know where the control room is,' Asa simply said. 'So far none of my men have spoken, have they?'

'I'm beginning to think this control room doesn't exist,' Hertzler stated.

'It exists, but only two of my guards know the complete route and access procedures,' Asa said. 'And one of those guards is dead. I could save you time asking every single guard, all of whom are very loyal and would take time to break, or you could just grant me my simple request and I'll tell you all you want to know.'

'Why?' Hertzler asked. 'Why are you so hell bent on protecting Harper, a kludge, why do you even care what we do to him?'

'He's family,' Asa simply said.

'Family?' Hertzler questioned.

'That's all I'm prepared to say.'

'I want to know more,' Hertzler demanded.

'To tell you more would serve you no purpose, but you wanted to know why I care, well I look after my own, it's the Edenian way, and in turn they show me the respect my position demands,' Asa stated firmly.

'The kludge has betrayed you left, right and center, fool, he's brought this city to its knees by his own hand and you still feel you need to look out for him, because he's supposedly family?' Hertzler questioned with amusement.

'I have acted accordingly each and every time he's stepped out of line, rest assured I am fully aware of his wrongs, and he has been punished but fact remains, I will always look after my own first and foremost,' Asa simply stared at Hertzler. 'I don't expect you to understand, but he might be all I have left because of your people, because of this war and seeing as he's also the one, I need to start taking stock of what I have and what's best for Edenia.'

'You are no longer anything to do with Edenia, old man, we own Edenia now, it's ours and you are only a prisoner now,' Hertzler informed him. 'Harper is ours also, and we are going to work hard to remove his so called pathetic 'one' status here, he's just a kludge and he needs to remember his place in society.'

Asa just smiled. 'You are powerless in Edenia until you have control and I don't see you making good progress there; you don't even know where the control room is,' Asa mocked. 'You need me if you want the will of the Edenian people, and you need Seamus if you want control, yet you seem to think beating co-operation out of us, and forcing us to comply is the best method of persuasion.'

'Don't test me old man,' Hertzler warned. 'Don't you dare try and outsmart me; you're nothing to this city anymore. The Drago-Kasov pride has taken more planets as slaves than you've had hot meals, so don't try and tell us our tactics are poor, do you hear me?'

'I hear you, I just don't believe you,' Asa offered confidently.

'Take him back to his cell, let him starve until I tell you otherwise, I'm sick of his voice,' Hertzler stated loudly, and turned his back as Asa was roughly escorted from the room.

'So now what do we do with him?'

'I dunno, boss wants him awake so get some cold water, maybe that will wake him up,' the Neitzshean soldier suggested, they had just spent the past ten minutes trying to get the unconscious dead weight of the human back into the restraints and hanging in the center of the room.

Harper hung limply in a deep sleep caused by the drugs that had finally allowed his sleep deprived body to relax, and fall into an unconscious state. The soldier returned with two buckets of cold water. He placed them down, and then looked at the other soldier.

'He seems pretty much out of it,' he observed.

'You know something, Lars, when I served my duty on Earth I heard about this kludge, he was something of an urban underground hero come legend in the Boston camp, he escaped Earth and somehow hooked up with the Commonwealth, made a name for himself but now look at his sorry excuse of a life,' the uber solider recounted.

Lars looked at him, and then to Harper. 'He's nothing but a scrap, how'd he manage to survive and then escape Earth?'

'And then find himself one of the leading engineers of that new Commonwealth set up, serving with the infamous fossil Dylan Hunt,' the soldier seemed impressed in a disgusted way.

'Well all I know is he's our prisoner now and we have a job to do, Tark, so let's wake the kludge before we start thinking he's a hero or legend,' Lars remarked.

Tark smiled and then picked up one of the cold water buckets, and without another word he proceeded to throw the contents over the prone human. The water splashed loudly against Harper's form, and his body jerked involuntarily with the rapid change in temperature, a small groan was heard but all too quickly it became obvious that Harper hadn't been woken up.

'Try the other bucket,' Tark suggested. 'Then maybe just throw the bucket at him,' he added as Lars picked up the final bucket and like before he didn't say a word as he threw the contents over Harper.

This time Harper's body flinched and shivered, his head then rolled as if stirring. Lars and Tark waited before Lars went over to Harper and lightly slapped his face, before his light slaps became harder.

'Stop,' Tark then intervened. 'This kludge will not be easy to wake; he's too under the influence.'

'Don't be afraid.'

Both Tark and Lars drew their weapons at the sudden appearance of the strange female who walked from the shadows.

'Who are you? What are you doing here? How did you get past security?' Lars demanded.

'Please, I'm here to help, my name is Trance and I'm a friend of Harper,' Trance announced and smiled, showing no threat but her warrior appearance kept the two guards alert to her threat.

'You shouldn't be here,' Tark spoke up, but both men were in awe of her beauty as she moved to Harper's side.

'We both want the same thing,' Trance simply spoke. 'Harper awake.'

'Yeah, but,' Lars hesitated as he watched the female place her hand on the human's forehead. 'You can't stay, get away from him!' Lars stressed and armed his weapon, and Tark quickly followed.

Trance closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as she concentrated. 'Seamus, wake up, hurry,' she spoke softly.

There was a light groan, and on instinct he leaned into Trance's touch. 'Trance?' Harper murmured only half awake, his eyes still closed. 'I'm dreaming, going mad, you can't be here,' he added with a slur.

'I'm really here, Seamus, open your eyes,' Trance encouraged but then snapped her attention towards the doors. 'Be strong, I will be back, I promise,' Trance urgently spoke. 'Look after him, please,' she pleaded before she stepped back into the shadows.

Lars immediately moved to where Trance had been standing and found no one there, as he glanced at Tark with confusion. At that moment a team of four medical staff entered the room, they looked menacing with their equipment and uniforms and Tark quickly recovered to greet the lead guy.

'I am Tark, son of-'

'Spare me, I just want to get this kludge awake and aware,' the doctor dismissed angrily and with arrogance. 'My name is Doctor Uriah, you may of heard of me in which case you know you do not want to exchange pointless pleasantries, if you haven't heard of me then you really need to take a more active interest in this camp.'

Tark and Lars exchanged frowns as Doctor Uriah's team efficiently set up their equipment around their subject, who still hung unconscious from the ceiling.

'Cold water had no effect?' Doctor Uriah prompted the two guards to answer.

Lars cleared his throat before speaking. 'He twitched, moaned, head roll but no actual awake moments,' Lars answered then under his breath added. 'And does he look awake, I thought you were a doctor,' he murmured quietly, as Tark smirked and tried to disguise it as a cough.

'I see,' Uriah turned his attention back to the wet looking Harper, oblivious to the mocking. 'Is he fitted with a control bug?'

'Yes, standard controller should work,' Tark responded to Uriah's back as the doctor quickly checked Harper's reflexes or lack of them. 'I guess you think just because we're guards we're dumb asses who don't know the procedures for prisoners,' he added under his breath, and this time Lars had to disguise his smirk with a cough.

'Excellent, Joseph, controller please,' Uriah ordered and a controller was put into his hand seconds later. Uriah checked the settings and then activated the small box and immediately Harper's body tensed and went rigid, as the shock cursed through his sleeping body, before the doctor released his control and Harper's body went limp again. 'Joseph, I need a blocker, the Stansy strain, do you know why I chose this?' Uriah asked his young assistant.

'The subject already has a powerful dependent drug inside him, adding to that will only further stimulate his body, the Stansy strain is designed to block and can not enhance a dependency,' Joseph answered diligently.

'Very good, very good,' Uriah commended and took the injector Joseph had prepared whilst answering the question, whilst Lars and Tark simply frowned unimpressed by the side show in medical knowledge. The injector was pressed firmly into the upper thigh of Harper's left leg where his pants had ripped, and Harper's breathing changed a few seconds later.

'Is he waking up?' Lars asked, seeing the human stir once again.

Uriah turned with some amusement, looking at the two guards as if they were pets rather than ruthless soldiers; even Joseph seemed to find some amusement to their being there.

'The electric shock woke up the body, the blocker has caused the drug currently controlling his body to find what can only be described as a brick wall, combined we should find this kludge will be waking up,' Uriah answered.

'I thought so, just testing,' Lars smiled mockingly, but the doctor was already ignoring him as he turned back to the patient.

Right on cue, Harper blinked his eyes a few times and then moaned as he slowly looked up and saw his bound wrists above him, and the chain holding him up from the ceiling.

'Kludge,' Uriah spoke firmly and Harper looked at him wearily, still trying to clear the fog in his head. 'Tell me what you know about the last time you were treated, what did they do?'

'Huh?' Harper spoke in almost a slur showing his confusion having just woken up, and instantly yelled out as his body went into spasm with an electric charge cursing through him.

'Think,' Uriah encouraged.

'Nice bedside manner,' Tark remarked quietly.

Harper recovered his senses, totally secured and at the mercy of the ubers who surrounded him and now very aware of his predicament as he took in the room around him. 'I got a few injections,' Harper began uneasily, still shaking the fog in his head. 'They had me on drips; I didn't ask details, I wasn't really with it. Who the hell are you?' Harper asked and felt another charge of electricity shock him as he tensed up painfully.

'I see,' Uriah frowned casually, as Harper panted and recovered. 'Looks like I might need to experiment, unfortunately all records and accounts on what we previously supplied are outside the shield you raised, so it's your fault we have to start from scratch,' he frowned and then smiled. 'Actually it should be fun, I'd rather experiment on willing subjects than just treat them, no fun in that, Joseph, go and request a sample of the drug this mudfoot is addicted to, I will need it to test his reactions.'

Joseph quickly left the room, and Uriah gestured to his two other helpers to prepare all his medicines and equipment on a table they had hastily set up in the room. 'This could be a long night boys and girls,' he then warned before turning to the two soldiers. 'I want you here; I need your help to discipline the kludge.'

'He's secured, sir, he won't cause you any problems,' Lars offered and then lowered his voice. 'It's not the kludge I'm worried about needing securing,' he frowned looking at Tark.

'That's not my concern,' Uriah didn't look up from his preparations. 'I simply believe sometimes the human body appears to react more when in pain, and weak, and I don't think he's quite in enough of either element yet.'

'Of course you're from the psycho wing obviously, we couldn't have requested the normal doctor could we?' Tark sighed under his breath.

'What was that guard? Speak up!' Uriah ordered with agitation.

'I said we would gladly like to assist, sir,' Tark enthusiastically stepped forward, covering his tracks.

'In good time,' Uriah gestured for Tark to step back. 'Can we lower the kludge so he is on his knees, a more suitable working environment, I do not wish neck strain on myself,' Uriah then requested and Lars rolled his eyes as he moved to the controls and lowered the chain.

Harper felt some relief in his wrists and shoulders as his legs made contact with the ground, and he assumed the kneeling position. His arms were still painfully positioned above his head, as the chain attached to the ceiling secured him. The uber doctor now looked down on Harper as he slowly walked a full circle around him, he then grabbed his head and began to roughly examine his hair, ears and mouth giving no reasons as to why.

Joseph re-entered the room carrying two of the bottles of the drug Harper was beginning to crave again, he could feel the desire deep inside and the longing to just fall back into a deep sleep once again. His body felt drained and exhausted, he could probably just lie down and sleep for a month if the situation allowed. As it was, he couldn't sleep now, his body was running on automatic as it waited for it's next dose to relax, he felt both hyper and withdrawn, lacklustre and bright and the confusion it caused within him was becoming too much of a conflict for him to totally ignore, as it played on his senses and mind.

Doctor Uriah retrieved a tray from one of the tables, on it lay several long pins, with points that looked lethal. He took one from the tray and showed it to the room. 'Whilst I was on Earth I was introduced to a procedure the ancient Humans referred to as acupuncture, it was therapeutic but at the same time sadistic by its nature,' Uriah grinned. 'I took this art and modified the technique to serve as both a torture and healing device, and in human's especially the pain threshold can became insanely intolerable that their mind can become distracted by the pain that they forget they are ill.'

'He's not serious, tell me he's not serious,' Tark frowned to his friend Lars.

'He's just a kludge, Tark, get a grip, this is what we do remember?' Lars warned lightly and Tark growled quietly to indicate he got the point.

'The distraction could cause the body to forget its dependency on the drug as it deals with the pain it is in,' Joseph figured.

'It's a working theory, so following the training I have given you, lets work on our first live subject with this technique,' Uriah announced and his three assistants eagerly took positions around Harper.

Harper had vaguely caught the words of Uriah, and in normal circumstances might have been beginning to panic but he realised there was little he could do, he couldn't fight, and he couldn't stop the inevitable. His mind churned with the anxiety of need, and the mistakes he had made, they could torture his body but he was already torturing himself inside because of his weaknesses. He felt the first sharp pain of a pin being inserted just below his shoulder blade, he involuntarily flinched but he welcomed the pain, he wanted the distraction the doctor had described, and with that thought Harper knew he was on the road to giving up, and for the first time he was walking that road gladly.

TBC