Science Fiction Thriller

Chapter Eight, Part Three The Time It Takes to Die

Mad Science

Dickhead, she recalled had knocked Colby from her arms when she was captured. The brute grunted and lurched awkwardly as she rammed her hip into his groin. He wrenched her arms back painfully.

On her other side, Praedo helped to drag Yianelle through the yawning opening, into a brightly lit laboratory. In the struggle, her robe came open as they battled her onto a bare metal table which put her very much in mind of mad scientist’s worktables in old twenty-first century vids. The men wrestled her into restraints affixed to a medical table which was tilted nearly vertical.

Once she was strapped down as he stepped away, Praedo flicked the robe across her exposed torso. A man wearing a pristine white lab coat over the same grey jumpsuit worn by the guards leaned toward her with a hypodermic auto-injector. She recognized him from when she was captured.

The posh one called you Dr. Mangle… or Nagel, she recalled.

When he leaned toward her with the injector, his lab coat fell open, revealing his name patch. Yianelle saw it read “M-N-A-G-E-L.” She struggled against the restraints as he came toward her, injector at the ready.

She flailed her head about, screeching furious profanities until her throat felt burning and scoured. The goons wrestled her head into another restraint so she couldn’t move it. Yianelle bucked every part of her body as much as she could, hoping against hope to break the restraint bars holding her.

Mnagel spoke in a calm voice, at once condescending and monotone. “Now my dear, this will put you at your ease,” he said as he pressed the needle into a vein at the crook of her elbow.

Yianelle kept bucking and struggling against the restraints, even after a couple of minutes. The doctor leaned over her, a mild expression of curiosity on his face. Suddenly, one of the restraints on her wrist broke free. She delivered a roundhouse punch to the doctor’s temple.

He stumbled back and almost fell, a look of outraged shock on his face. When Dickhead raised his hand to strike her, she noticed his wrist was bandaged. The doctor stopped him from striking her. “We need her unharmed,” he commanded.

As Mnagel spoke, Praedo tried to catch her flailing arm. Before he could do so, her arm went limp, swaying about drunkenly. Yianelle’s profanities faded to a slurred singsong. Praedo effortlessly caught her arm waving aimlessly in the air.

As he restrained it again, Yianelle slurred woozy profanity laced descriptions of his probably less than stellar prowess with the ladies at him. She turned her head and looked at Dickhead. She very distinctly told him, “You’re not Dickhead. I felt it fighting… tiny dick… hee-hee-teehee — Yer name’s fucking Dickless.”

She giggled disturbingly. Dickless’s face screwed up and turned red with rage. Yianelle hiccoughed as she giggled.

Mnagel loomed close to her face and she abruptly wept inconsolably. Her eyes slid desperately sideways toward Praedo. She begged him, “Please… please don’t let Dr. Mangle mangle me.”

Abruptly she giggled again, then fell silent. Her face went slack and waxen looking. Even Dickless seemed to find the expression on her face disconcerting.

Mnagel checked her vitals. He turned to Dickless, who was nearest the comms panel. With a self-important air, he told him, “Inform his lordship the patient is ready.” Glaring at the doctor’s commanding presumption, Dickless nevertheless tromped over to the panel out of Yianelle’s sight and spoke into it.

The doctor set about scanning Yianelle while they waited for “his lordship.” He veered in and out of her line of sight. Yianelle had no sense of time passing in her drugged state. But, a new face swam into view. In the back of her mind, she was startled. For a heartbeat, she thought the man was Leo. She even murmured Leo’s name.

But, the man was much older than Leo. His face lacked the laugh-lines and his hair was silvery and severely styled back from his temples. When he peered very closely at her, she thought his sardonic frown was twisted with cruelty.

Yianelle spoke, calling him, Not Leo. Slurring blearily, she incoherently begged the man. She wanted to plead with him to stop the doctor from mangling her. But, she couldn’t adequately form the words. Tears poured down the sides of her otherwise flaccid expression.

Doctor Mnagel fawned over the man, a look of consternation on his furrowed brow, as he looked up from his scanner. He looked worried as he informed the man, “Your Lordship, I…” He stammered, then rushed on. “I cannot locate the DNA steganography signature.”

“Yes…” Not Leo drawled dismissively, pulling one of Yianelle’s eyes wider open and peering closely at her vibrant green irises. “No matter,” he continued as he lifted her hair, searching the roots. A rather strange smirk played across his lips, but did not touch his eyes, as he ran his fingers to the ends, tugging through curling tangles as he mused softly, “Natural redhead.”

At the same time, the doctor sputtered mildly, “No matter? But… but, my lord…”

Not Leo flashed an acerbic sneer at Mnagel, “It matters not. I’ve received intelligence that it was the cat carrying the steganography signature.”

Dickless growled under his breath, “That fucking cat.”

Not Leo spun toward him, “Yes… ‘that fucking cat’ you knocked from her arms — the cat which is out of our reach now.”

Yianelle couldn’t see him, but she thought he sounded almost fearful when Dickless responded, “How was I to know. You said bring the woman.”

“Forethought and initiative failed you — per usual, Pravus,” his lordship rejoined crisply. “His eyes fell on Praedo and he added, “I should have sent you, Callidus.”

Yianelle saw Praedo, just in her periphery, respond with a respectful nod. She turned her eyes toward the direction she’d heard Dickless’ voice come from. In a tune like the old playground taunts, she sang in his general direction, “Dickless with the tiny dick is fucking stupid too.”

His lordship barked a sudden laugh. It was a cruel sound. Then, he looked Yianelle in the eyes. Something in his eyes made her pine for Ecart. He asked her a series of questions — questions about Leo, about Paul, about Anna… even about Eric. She didn’t want to answer. But, she could not stem the slurring answers tripping from her lips.

When Not Leo left, he told the doctor, “Do your research on her. But, leave her undamaged. She may still bring Colonel Ecart to heel.”

She didn’t know how long Mnagel had poked and prodded her. It was all like some distorted dream… faces swim in and out of view, feeling pulling and pushing, but no pain. Yianelle wanted to scream when he came at her with a scalpel. All she could do was weep.

At some point, she must have slept from the drug. When she was next aware, Yianelle found herself back in the cell. Looking around, she noticed it had been tidied. The clothing Dickless tore off of her was gone. They even took my underwear, she thought when she noted it was gone from the valve handle.

Chapter nine starting soon.

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