Star couldn't help crying out as he lifted her bruised body up off the floor. Everything hurt and him touching her was making it worse. Her head was pounding and the sudden lift made the world spin. She passed out again as he carried her down the stairs not waking up until he'd lay her down in the medbay.
"We're going to get the kids now and just stick with me for a few more minutes. Ok?"
"Not going anywhere." She replied with a weak laugh. She hated seeing his face all twisted with worry and pain like that. After 20 years she'd hoped they'd never have to suffer like this again. Now, here they were. Fighting for their lives and the lives of their children yet again. She glanced over at the computer as Killian finished scanning her. As she'd suspected she had several bruised ribs, two of them with hairline fractures, a concussion and plenty of bruises on the front of her body from the blast to keep her good and stiff for a few days. She squeezed his hand gently in return. "I'm ok. Get the kids. Find Mikey and Claire."
The extra datapad she kept in the ship started going off and she had Killian grab it for her. Kato's face appeared. He was in some sort of market place and he looked worried. "Kato?" She asked, frowning at him.
"Star! What happened to your face? Never mind...listen..." Kato shook his head, trying to keep the doctor part of him taking over. "Your family isn't the only one that got targeted. There several other family's whose children have gone missing. Its on the news. They are targeting the families of men who were in the war against the Gillicks. We were hoping you could come pick us up." Star glanced at Killian. "We still have to pick up our own kids. Mikey isn't answering his pad."
"Neither is Joseph." Kato added worriedly. "Anna's checking the clinic just incase he's in with a patient."
"Send us your cooridinates. We'll pick you guys up after we get our kids." Star hung up, closing her eyes as her head continued to pound. "This week can't get any worse. Ugh, I need some painkillers."
***********************************
Mikey rested his head on his hand, his eyes and ears far from focused on the professor and his dull lecture on the history of technology. Claire had been gone for over a week. Sold into slavery!? It was horrible! His own big sister. And here he was trying to get back to life like normal. He should be doing something! Not sitting here!
"Mr. Laurlean! Are you paying attention!?" The professor suddenly called out from his spot at the podium.
Mikey glared as he looked up at the annoying man. "How can anyone pay attention to you? You sound like a drone and you go on as if you still had another 100 years to just talk!" He declared in sudden annoyance, getting up and grabbing his things. A wave of laughter followed him out he door. Hearing his arrogant professor stuttering as he left was very satisfying.
Mikey pulled out his phone and began texting his siblings. Mom and Dad may have given up on finding Claire, but I haven't. Let's get together and figure out how to find her. Even if it means going to the slave market our..."
Someone bumped into him from behind and he accidentally pressed send before he'd finished. "Hey." Mikey looked to his side grouchily.
"Oh, sorry." Another human apologized. "Should've watched where I was going. Hey, you're one of them Laurlean kids, aren't you?"
"What of it?" Mike asked in a suspicious tone.
"I've been looking for someone in your family! I have information that you'll most definitely want. If you're willing to pay for it that is." The man made an annoying looking half-smile.
"Yeah? What information is that?"
"Oh...the location of your sister." He shrugged.
Mikey suddenly grabbed the man's shirt and shoved him against a building, muscles rippling.
"Whoa! Easy now!" The man laughed. "We're in public ya know. I'm not looking for trouble. I just want to sell the information to you."
"You want to SELL me information that could save my sister's life!? You're a sick bastard! How about I beat it out of you." Mikey growled, tensing as a gun pressed against his side.
The man he held sighed and shook his head. "Like father, like son. Give it a few years and you'll be a beast just like him. Now...before you start getting all hot-headed and kill yourself, how about we take a walk to somewhere more...private. Move."
Mikey's datapad began to ring as they walked towards the edge of the campus and to the parking lot. "Dump the bag." The man ordered, pressing the gun harder against Mikey's kidney, causing him to wince. He pulled his backpack off his shoulder and dumped it next to a trashcan. "Where we going?" He growled as the man pushed him towards a nearby delivery truck.
"What? Didn't I tell you? To see your sister of course. My benefactor is very excited to meet your family." The man looked around before opening the back of the truck and gesturing for Mike to get inside. With little other choice he obeyed and the doors trapped him in the cold dark.
***************************************************************
"You have a fever and an ache in your bones. Sometimes they tremble for no reason. Is that right so far?" Dr. Joseph asked his patient as the chip sat before him on the examination table. The chip nodded, looking weary and ill.
"Well, we all know those are the classic signs of the bone shakes but I'd like to run some tests before we make a final diagnosis." Joseph wrote something on his data-pad. "Alright, wait here for a few minutes. A nurse will be in to take some blood work and run you through some other tests."
"Thankyou, Sir." The chip nodded. Joseph smiled lightly and nodded his head before heading back out to the main desk.
"Dr. Joe?" A nurse stopped him. "There's an Inspector Larkin in the back office here to see you. Something about a surprise inspection on the clinic."
Joe groaned. "Crap. I hate surprise inspections. Why can't they ever come early in the morning when its not so busy." He passed his datapad to her and continued to the back office.
"Dr. Jones." The inspector stood, offering a hand. Unexpectedly, he was a fellow human.
Joe shook his hand. "Inspector Larkin. I was going to say your name sounded...human. What's a human Inspector doing working on Quillen, a chippequoti homeworld?"
"Well, ever since your family moved here with the Laurleans there have been more openings for other humans to do the same. The government thought that having a human inspect a human business would be better."
Joe shrugged. "Well, I'm only half human." He chuckled. "Um, so, shall we start. I still have alot of patients to see."
"Of course, Doctor. Let's start at the bottom and work our way up."
"Get the morgue out of the way first? Brilliant idea." Joseph chuckled.
He led the inspector downstairs the basement walking slowly to give the man time to look over everything. Joe unlocked the morgue door and pushed it open, going inside with Larkin following behind. As Joe examined the room for anything that might be out of place he felt an arm wrap around his throat and a needle puncture his arm. He struggled for a minute before everything turned black. Larkin watched the young man's body drop to the floor and shook his head. "So gullible. Didn't even ask me for my identification." Larkin lifted Joe up, dropping him onto a rolling examination table and covered him with a white sheet. Next he stripped off his jacket and put on the mortician's white coat. No one looked a man, wheeling a dead body, in the eyes. This was true even of the nurses and especially the patients as he pushed his prize through the halls and towards the door to a mortician's van waiting outside. He lowered his head upon seeing Anna Jones at the front desk demanding that the nurse tell her where her son was. "He went downstairs with an inspector a few minutes ago, but only authorized personal are allowed in the morgue. You'll have to wait here." The nurse replied calmly.
All the while Larkin was walking her son right past her and out the door. Urgency put a quickened step in his pace. She wasn't supposed to be here. There was still a small chance she could ruin this perfectly executed kidnapping.
************************************************
A DAY LATER:
Mikey puked into the corner of the van again. Automotive travel had always made him motion sick. Being throw about in the back of a dark van was making that worse. Add to that the smell of his own sick and he was a hopeless mess. The van finally jerked to a stop and a moment later the back of the van flew open. He stood on shaky legs, prepared to fight. A knockout dart ended that plan where he stood. He fell to his knees, slowly blacking out. Behind his captures he glimpsed a small spacecraft. They were taking him off-planet!? And that was the last thought before the dart did its work.
When next he woke he found himself sitting in yet another vehicle. There was an uncomfortably tight collar around his neck. He reached up to touch it when it shocked him. He yelped, fully awake now and looked around at his captures. All of them...human. "What the hell is this!?" He demanded, receiving another shock for his outburst.
The human across from him held the remote. "You'll not talk unless spoken too. You will do nothing without our master's command."
"Who's your...ah!" Mikey yelped as the collar shocked him again. He grit his teeth, glaring angrily at the man and breathing heavily as nausea boiled up in his stomach again.
A few minutes later they rolled up to a gorgeous elaborate mansion with grounds and gardens that extended as far as the eye could see. His captures pulled him out of the van and towards the mansion. This place was enormous. Fellow humans with shock collars like him worked the grounds, tending to the gardens or various animals around the area. They all had the same sullen, hopeless looks. Hadn't the man said they were taking him to his sister? Mikey looked around anxiously for her.
He didn't have much of a chance too, however, as he was taken before a gillick, sitting a chair that looked suspiciously like a throne. The gillick smiled cruelly as Mikey was tossed before him and the loyal servant handed him the remote. "Another one of the beast's half-breeds." He chuckled. "Oh, this is turning out to be a very, very good month." The gillick stood. "I'm Kafus the 2nd. Your father brutally murdered my father...and he deserves everything that's coming to him."
"Are you the one attacking our family!?" Mikey spit at his feet.
"Ha! So full of fire. You would make a good fighter in the underground games." Kafus II chuckled. "But to answer your question, no. I am just the fortunate beneficiary of the spoils of that person's war against your family and many others. I paid a handsome price to collect you and your sister. And soon, the rest of your siblings will be mine as well. I look forward to the day where you and your half-blood siblings will stand before your parents, completely broken and loyal to me and slay them where they stand. The ultimate revenge."
Mikey's heart was pounding. Where was Claire!? Had they broken her already!? No...she hadn't been gone more than a week. But still...where was she?
