X-Calibur: The Return by Robert Jackson-Lawrence

Author:Robert Jackson-Lawrence
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: RJL Books
Published: 2014-08-15T16:00:00+00:00

*****

As the days became weeks and none of the factory workers were dragged from their cots, the others slowly warmed to Adam 359 and Orlac 552. Unfortunately, they had heard nothing from Eve 221 and were becoming increasingly impatient with their circumstances. They began to feel like they had in the mine, trapped and forgotten, living out their days in the service of the Mori.

The slaves in the factories lived longer than those in the mines, though only just. It wasn't that there wasn't enough food for them all, or that the air was toxic. There was just none of the companionship they had witnessed on the asteroid. The young preyed on the old, taking their food and water and leaving them too weak to work until they collapsed and were sent for recycling.

“This is hopeless,” Adam 359 whispered one evening. “These people would rather hurt each other than stand up against the Mori.”

“They just don't know any other way,” Orlac 552 replied.

“I know,” Adam 359 said. “It's just, where do we start?”

“I didn't say I had all the answers,” Orlac 552 said with a chuckle. “I only said I understood the problem.” Adam 359 laughed with him, making those around them eye them with confusion.

They tried to tell the stories they learned in the mine, of Earth and Ma'Han. They stopped short of telling how they had visited each of the planets, but tried to instil the sense of wonder they had felt upon hearing the stories for the first time. While a few listened intently, eager to hear more, most just dismissed them as lies and folly. They all knew they had been made by the Mori, organic machines to do their bidding. To think anything else was heresy, and the Mori masters would put an end to it.

“We need to act,” Adam 359 said once the laughter had subsided. “There are thousands of slaves in this factory alone, and how many guards have you seen? Forty, fifty maybe? If we could rally these people together, we could strike a blow that would be felt throughout the hive. The other slaves would have to stand with us.”

Orlac 552 thought over what Adam 359 said. His blood still boiled at the thought of his home world, of the images Merlin had shown them and the dead rock it had become. He wanted to make the Mori pay for what they'd done, and he was growing to believe that helping Adam 359 would be the best way forward.

“Okay,” Orlac 552 said after a moment. “Where do we start?”

Adam 359 looked around at the humans and Dorgans, resting after a hard day's work. Most huddled together, in fear of a small band of slaves who dominated them through fear and intimidation. The small group of bullies always ate first, taking food from those who dared to reach the cooking pots before them, making it clear that if anyone else gave them food they would suffer similar reprisals.

“Most of these people are too scared of the other slaves to make a stand against the Mori,” Adam 359 observed.

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