The Lightbreakers of Orpheus [14]
A serialised Sci-fi novelette
[14]
“No, sir,” the officer replied without flinching, but a vague sense of nervousness in his voice gave him out. The man he replied to, stood unmoved for whole five minutes, observing the city view from the glass wall of his office. Tall white buildings. Tiny patches of greenery in between. Order. Perfect symmetry. No sign of the despicable red sand of Orpheus. The dome held it back. The gaze of the man’s intact blue eye wandered further beyond the boundaries of this Rebel city. Red sands, woods, gardens, tiny chaotic settlements. People living on the leftovers of the Rebels. Parasites.
“How many units must I send to succeed?” the man grunted, turning toward the officer.
“I… cannot give a precise number, Supreme Leader Jerome, sir, but…”
The Supreme Leader paced toward the officer, who took a clumsy step back automatically. The Supreme Leader was a gruesome tech wonder among this place filled with state-of-the-art technology. Half of his slender body was replaced with biomechanics. He was a half-android, his mechanical eye scanned the officer before him, while his mechanical hand curled into a tight fist along with his human hand.
“I need precision. I need perfection. Nothing less. The whole unit is defective. Send it to the decomposing center. They’re useless.”
“But sir… a whole unit of Lightbreakers?”
“Do you want to join them?” Supreme Leader Jerome snapped with his healthy eye bulging.
“No, sir.”
“Send a new unit. Program them to find the girl. Kill the rest,” the Supreme Leader ordered.
“Yessir!” The officer spat out, saluted, and marched away much quicker than the protocol demanded.
***
“Yes, sir!” Mark replied eagerly with a smile all over his youthful face. In a few months time, he had recovered his health and his vision, and with nothing better to occupy him with, Derek let him join the crew of Gravediggers. Mark was a ball of raw masculine energy. He was happy to do any kind of physical work. Even the dirtiest jobs didn’t kill his enthusiasm. Nor did the most horrific sights the Gravediggers encountered daily.
Derek watched Mark run off, and load huge chunks of decomposing corpses into a cryo container.
“That should’ve been your job,” Derek told Anouk, standing beside him, and observing Mark’s masculine silhouette bending down to pick up the corpse. “Anouk? Stop staring.” Derek shook his head; his stepdaughter was clearly checking out Mark’s ass.
“I’m not, okay?! And he doesn’t mind doing it. You know how the really rotten stuff makes me gag, dad.”
“Alright, alright. Just…don’t stare.”
After a while Derek, gathered his crew, and called it a day. They boarded the old Gravedigger ship Vulture05. The vessel was held together by Derek’s genius mechanical skills, and pure miracle. After the Lightbreakers destroyed Derek’s house, the Vulture had become his temporary home. He gave his crew a lift to their homes.
“Anything else you want me to do, sir?” Mark said smiling. He wasn’t exhausted at all. Derek, smiled back; he had grown quite fond of the boy. Mark was a perfect soldier, and a perfect Gravedigger, heck, he even helped Sophie around the kitchen! Something Derek whole-heartedly hated. He had never seen a man washing dishes, mopping floors, and pealing vegetables all the while smiling gleefully. Mark loved work, and he had energy to spare. The only thing troubling Derek – Anouk was quite fond of Mark too. Derek and Sophie made sure the two were never left alone on their own.
“No, son. Just hit the showers, and I’ll see you at dinner,” Derek replied. He sat thinking in silence after Mark skipped to the showers whistling. If he ever had a son, he’d want him to be like Mark. Sadly, too late for that. He and Sophie were in their fifties. Derek sighed, and went to check upon the engine.
***
“Oh, sorry, I thought…” Mark stood by the open door of the showers with his mouth ajar. Anouk was smiling, her moist skin wrapped in a towel.
“You were lucky I was almost done, otherwise, you’d see me naked,” Anouk giggled.
Mark felt his cheeks burning, and other strange sensations activating certain parts of his body. It happened whenever he was around Anouk, and he didn’t understand what was it.
“Why didn’t you lock the door?” he asked plainly.
“Well, maybe I wanted you to see me naked…” Anouk loved teasing and watching poor Mark blush and stutter afterward. For months she had been trying to kiss him, but her parents were always around to spoil the moment.
“Why?”
“Okay, I just forgot to lock the door, silly! Anybody could’ve walked in. But I guess, I was lucky it’s you.”
“Um… why?” Mark swallowed hard as Anouk stepped closer and wrapped her arms around him. Mark’s heart pounded like a motor gone mad. Anouk kissed his lips without a word; she had to use this chance while none of the parents were around!
Mark felt a mad rush taking over him. He pressed his lips to hers harder, locking Anouk in a tight embrace. The sensation was nothing like he’d ever felt before, the adrenaline pumping through his veins. It was a drug, he wanted more. At first Anouk gave into the moment, but when he pushed her into the shower aggressively, she objected.
“Wait…Mark…I don’t… stop!” she tried to push him back, but he didn’t react, kissing and forcing Anouk to the floor.
“No! Stop, Mark! Please, no! You’re hurting me! Stop!” She fought back full strength, but it was nothing to Mark’s pumped muscles. He ripped the towel off her, then tried to take his own uniform off frantically.
“No! Help! Dad! Help!” Anouk screamed, while Mark attempted to force himself into her.
Wham! Derek rammed him. Mark hit the shower tiles from the force of the impact, and sat stunned, and confused. He didn’t understand a thing. He was clueless of what had happened to him, and why. He gave into the rush of the chemicals, like the Lightbreakers always did. They got their daily dose of nutrients and chemicals from the feed. Then the rush came. All he had to do was give into the aggressiveness, and kill.
He watched Derek wrapping Anouk in a towel, and picking her off the floor. She was crying. Her lip was bleeding. Did he do that? Derek yelled something at him. Mark couldn’t comprehend a word. He sat on the floor long after the two were gone.