Chapter 8: The Todtri
AN: Well, I'm sure you're glad I updated so soon. I know, I'm cruel for torturing the characters, but hopefully, but you'll forgive me after this. (Maybe.) Also, I just thought I'd start writing this again to sooth some of the pain in my life right now. (Remember that girl I told you about, Gillian? The one that looks a lot like Joanna that I'm into? Well, I found out she's with someone else. And my parents are being complete motherfers, and I failed my driver's test, so I'm really under a lot of strain.) Anyway, enjoy!
Jonathan kept pacing. It was a habit of his when he was stressed.
"Jonathan," Carrington said. "You've just got to let her go. You're not going to do yourself or her any good."
"You're not the one who abandoned her." Jonathan said, bitterly.
"You didn't either." Carrington said, trying to be as gentle as he could. "You did everything in your power to stop it."
"And what were you doing when Joanna was captured?" Jonathan sneered.
Carrington told the simple truth. "I was eating pie."
Jonathan continued to pace. A lurid thought crossed his mind. He could infiltrate the Interplex facility, retrieve Joanna and then come right back out. He knew the layout of the place. He could… he had to.
Jonathan left Carrington's office and went to the armory. He would probably need his magnum. He decided to keep the ASP as an afterthought. He would also need probably a submachine gun and an assault rifle. He knew the force was large, so he would need a couple of extra magazines. And some protection, too. He started to load an ammunition crate with what he needed when he arrived at the armory after changing out of his uniform, so that if he was caught, he couldn't be traced to the Institute. That was, of course if he was captured and if he could break out before they identified him. There were a lot of ifs in this case. He chose his DY357 Magnum, with twelve extra rounds, the ASP, with a reserve magazine loaded with Glasers, an RC-P120 and an AR34, both with an extra magazine. Under his leather jacket, he also carried a flak jacket and picked out a shield, just in case. He also took a couple of mines, in case there was something he needed to blow open.
Now, all he needed was to get back out there. He needed a small craft, which could fit Joanna inside as well.
What he was looking for was in the hangars. A small hovercar. It hadn't the shielding or armaments that the BMW had, but it was fast so he could get in, retrieve Joanna and get out. He started it and started out for whatever awaited him. This time, it was his life, Joanna's and their child's lives on the line.
Joanna awoke in to find herself on a gurney in a laboratory setting. She knew by the frost that had collected on the corners of the ceiling, the color scheme of the place and the design of the consoles that she was back in the Interplex establishment.
"Sleep well, Mrs. Dark?" A familiar voice asked.
Joanna turned and saw De Vries, flanked by Vlodnikov and one of his elite guards.
"Well, I suppose you're not as dangerous as you were without your gun and your cowboy husband." De Vries said as he pulled up a chair. "Now, I must inquire as to why you two were here."
"You won't get the answer out of me." Joanna said.
"I thought you'd say that." De Vries punched a small button and a containment unit came up. There was a small figure inside, suspended in some sort of fluid with an umbilical cord attached to an external hose.
"This is your child, Mrs. Dark." De Vries said. He stood up and began walking about the tank as he spoke. "It has been surgically removed from you and is now being supported artificially. The doctors say it is very healthy and is developing nicely, but they also tell me that they have tied into the vital systems and the development rate. Its life is in our hands. We can control its thoughts, heart rate, and even it's age." He placed his hand on the tank now, as if to touch the child within to comfort it. "We can accelerate the growth period until it is a toddler, a teenager, middle-aged, or even ancient. Or…" He allowed himself a wicked smile as he removed his hand. "We can cut the life support and it will die. But why do that and have to contend with the body? Why not do what we can and revert the fetus beyond the primary stage of development. Once it's beyond there, there's no going back. It dies and all that is left is a pile of goo."
He turned to Joanna and started to make demands. "Now, if you do not tell me why you two were here and what your plans were, I shall do what I explained, and then your life will be next. I shall give you the hour to think about it."
"You couldn't have come up with the technology by yourself." Joanna was suspicious. "Where did you get it?"
"That was because of our efforts." A hissing voice said. A figure in a large dark suit came in. It was constructed out of a form of plastic. "We are known as the Todtri. Our Skedar brothers have already failed by falling in with your peace. That is why we have been in partnership. Soon, our alliance will have taken over this area of space and then we will go onto the other quadrants, using what is left of your race as ground troops, expendable against heavy artillery."
"You mean to conquer us and use what's left as a cannon fodder?" Joanna said that, as if the idea was laughable.
"If you comply," The Todtri said. "You will be spared, as will your offspring. You will be used in the assault forces, where you have a chance to live. If you refuse cooperation, you will both be executed when we take control. Do not live in hope, there is none. It is your time to die, and there will be no last-minute escape."
"How do I know you're not just one of the Interplex thugs with a voice modulator?" Joanna asked.
The Todtri's huge hand moved up and removed the plastic mask. Joanna had only seen one thing equal or less scary in her life and that was when they had encountered a mangled Skedar at the bottom of a chasm, and only then it had made her sick. This was worse, much worse. Words couldn't describe how frightening this was. In her peripheral vision, she saw De Vries run to the bathroom, the elite guard was long gone, and Vlodnikov had begun to tremble. She actually screamed and lost consciousness a few seconds later.
After Joanna had fainted, The Todtri replaced its mask and left, chuckling as it had made all the pathetic humans quake with fear. This thought made it laugh as it returned to the room where De Vries had met him and where the human had delivered the pathetic excuses he called reports.
Joanna awoke after a few minutes, still trembling after what had transpired. She knew she had to do something, so she got up from the gurney. She searched around the lab for a few minutes until she found a small box no larger than an ammo crate that contained all of the equipment salvaged from the wrecked BMW. She went through all of it. The book gun was still there, but the laptop gun, the crossbow and the tranquilizer had been removed. Everything else was still there. She got out the data uplink and started to try and hack into one of the terminals. It would take the better part of an hour to try and get through everything, so she left it there and used her door decoder to open the door to the lab. She was rewarded by a prompt hiss and the hydraulics opened the door.
Once outside, she spotted a lone guard. She used the silenced book gun on him. He fell without a sound. Joanna searched him for anything that could be useful. She found a keycard on him, a CMP150 with a spare magazine and an old Desert Eagle. It was considerably heavier than her Falcon 2, but it packed a punch, with superior stopping power than the MagSeg 4. She smiled grimly as she nestled the big gun in her hand.
Through the next door was the power station, controlling all electrical systems inside the complex. Joanna placed the EMP bomb near the main relay and set to a remote detonation in the event things turned ugly.
She crept through the passageways until she found De Vries' office. She used the decoder once more and stepped inside.
She found nothing but a brochure on the table from the Townsend Art Museum in Los Angeles. Joanna frowned, but pocketed it.
Jonathan arrived at the Interplex helipad. He got out of the hovercar and drew the AR34. No guards were in sight. He proceeded inwards, but never noticed a trip wire that he stepped on.
The alarm began to blare and several guards rushed him.
Jonathan used the assault rifle's high rate of fire to dispatch them, but found that he was empty. One thing about the AR34 was that it had a high rate of fire, but was very inaccurate at long range, despite the firing range tests being weighted towards accuracy training.
The guards came at him; this time wearing reinforced body armor and armed with shotguns.
Jonathan had used up the rounds for his AR34. He threw the empty gun away and picked up one of the shotguns. A stray round from a .38 revolver diminished his shield slightly, but a full shot shell in the chest caused the man to fall.
Joanna came out of De Vries' office.
She drew the Desert Eagle and saw Jonathan. They both raised their guns in a sign of peace.
"Joanna." Jonathan was very relieved to see that she was still alive. "Come on, let's get the hell out of here."
"Wait!" Joanna said. "We have to go back to the labs."
"They're probably very well guarded." Jonathan said. "It would be suicide."
"They removed our child from me." Joanna said as Jonathan went white. "They're going to kill it if we leave it behind."
"NOW you tell me." Jonathan said and ran in the direction of the labs.
The guards were few and far between on the way there. They made their way into the labs and Joanna activated a small hover unit on the containment unit containing her child. Jonathan too it as Joanna retrieved her data uplink once it was done.
Bad idea. The computer detected the presence of it and sounded the alarm again.
The lab doors closed fast and refused to budge.
"Stand back." Jonathan said and slapped a mine onto the door.
He shot the mine and blew the door open.
The guards were on their way. Joanna tossed Jonathan a pair of night vision glasses and blew the EMP bomb.
All the lights went out and both of them went out into the corridor.
They encountered tough opposition from the guards, all who were armed with CMP150s equipped with flashlights below the barrel.
Jonathan's shield failed just when they got to the helipad. Both his RC-P120 and the shotgun he acquired were empty. All he had was the DY357 and the ASP.
Joanna put the containment unit in the back seat, when a high caliber shot rang off the car.
Jonathan turned and fired. De Vries, Vlodnikov and one of the guards were there.
Jonathan fired two shots from the ASP, both hitting the guard with such force that he was blasted back off his feet.
"Well done, cowboy!" De Vries said. "But not good enough."
The name cowboy struck a nerve in Jonathan. Only one other person had called him that, but it was two years ago, before he was assigned to Area 51…
"That's right." De Vries said as he fired another shot at Jonathan who had taken cover. "He was a De Vries. My father!"
Jonathan emptied both magazines. One caught Vlodnikov in the leg, another catching De Vries in the shoulder.
He took the wheel and left.
"Jonathan!" Joanna flung her self into his arms.
"It's all right Jo." Jonathan said. "It's allright now. We'll get the Institute to take car of our child and I'll help you forget this ordeal tonight over dinner."
Joanna smiled. Jonathan hadn't changed one bit.
End of Chapter.
Hope you like it. The next few chapters will be a large flashback to help provide more clarity to the story. Review please!! Danke!