A couple of days later, the pipeline arrived with a robotic digger. With that efficient little machine, Steele laid the pipeline for our power system in two days. Connecting everything took another day, plus testing.
While he was doing that, I packed soap in a basket to trade at the Store in town. It was a pleasantly warm early fall morning as we prepared to ride the sky cycle into town. We had a blue sky and sunshine. The ride into Gretchen was exhilarating. I held on to Steele as we raced across the landscape.
We might have gotten there faster had we flown, but I know it wouldn’t have been as much fun.
Steele had been stationed in Gretchen long enough that he knew where all of the businesses were located. It had been sucha long time since I had been to town that I wondered if the storekeeper would remember me.
Steele parked the sky cycle in front of the Store as it was simply named. I could see the storekeeper, Lucy Thomas, through the window. We got off the bike, and Steele unloaded the basket of soap from the storage compartment. He carried it into the Store as we walked inside together.
“Hi, can I help you?” Lucy asked as we came to the counter.
“I’m Zaya White. We traded for some of my homemade soap last year. I have a new batch that I hoped we might trade again.” I looked at her expectantly.
“Well, it just so happens that I’m running low on soap. Let’s see what you have.”
Steele set the basket on the counter in front of her.
Lucy glanced up at him and smiled. “You’re one of the cyborg protectors working with Ranger Hawk.”
“That’s right. Ranger Hawk is our lieutenant. Zaya is my mate.”
Lucy nodded and gave me a friendly smile. “I do remember you. I just couldn’t think of your name. It’s nice to see you again.” Then she picked out a block of bar soap and brought it to her nose to smell the lavender fragrance. “Nice. I can use all of this and give you forty credits.”
“That sounds fair to me. What do forty credits buy?”
“You could buy a dress or set of bath towels, a new garden rake and hoe. Or I can keep your credits on file until next time. That’s up to you.”
“That sounds good. Maybe we’ll just look around,” I said, looking to Steele for his input. However, Steele was staring into space, and I immediately knew that he was receiving communication from his internal computer.
“Zaya, do you have the laser pistol I gave you?”
I nodded, reaching into my pocket to feel that it was still there. “Why?”
“Three shuttles of Mesaarkans’ have landed at the edge of town. The team is on their way, and I have to help them. Please just stay here, okay? If any Saarks come through that door, shoot them. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Steele activated his nanite armor as he sprinted from the Store. The microscopic robots within him spread out, forming a durable, flexible exoskeleton over his body. His eyes glowed briefly as the HUD in his visor synced with his cybernetic systems. I think I was more frightened that something would happen to Steele than I was of confronting Mesaarkans again. I doubted I would have trouble pulling the trigger if that happened.
Steele
I hated to leave Zaya, but I needed to get my ion rifle and get people off the street. The only reason Mesaarkans would land would be to take prisoners. I pulled my rifle from a sling on the sky cycle and shouted, “Everyone off the street! Get inside!”
Townspeople scrambled to seek cover, filling the air with the sounds of running footsteps and doors slamming shut.
Meanwhile, I was getting input from my teammates as they landed in various parts of the village. Already, they were confronting teams of heavily armed Mesaarkans. At the same time, I heard weapons fire from both Mesaarkans and then my fellow team members.
Scanning the area, I located the position of one shuttle and sprinted in that direction.
Processing all the data I was receiving, I learned that each Mesaarkan shuttle had landed in strategic locations at the town’s edges. Altogether, we had thirty Saarks on the ground. They had started going house to house, rousting people outat gunpoint, apparently trying to collect them together for transport.
A team of five reptilians had half a dozen people collected and were tying them together. I ran at them, firing, and took three of them down. The other two stopped what they were doing to fire back at me, which gave their captives time to run away. I took down the other two, but the last one fired at the same time as I did. The blast from that shot hit me and sent me flying. Landing hard on my back, I got the wind knocked out of me for a few seconds, but my injuries were minimal.
As soon as I was back on my feet, I ran to check the reptilians that I had downed to see if any were still alive. None were, so I scanned my surroundings to locate the other team. We needed at least one alive to question and find out what their mission was. I could pretty well guess why they were rounding up humans.
They didn’t need slaves. Mesaarkan technology was on par with Federation technology. They used bots for menial tasks and automated machinery for agriculture. They wanted humans to use as objects of their perverted desires, as Gar’hako had used Zaya. They were trafficking humans in other parts of the West.
I suspected they were preying on humans in this sparsely populated territory because there were fewer protectors to stop them.
As I surveyed the area, I discovered another group of Mesaarkans heading toward the businesses and the Store where my mate was hiding. I dashed back in that direction at cyborg speed, rounding the corner in time to see them fire at the front door. I fired at them, turning their attention onto me. As they fired back, I leaped into an alley, which was four buildings away.
