In a Galaxy, far, far away, there was a peaceful planet called Devia. On this planet lived a young man called Carl and his family.

This planet was invaded and overwhelmed in a surprisingly quick time by an army of sinister humanoid warriors. Leaving a devastated landscape and the civilisation in ruins, our young man is herded by the soldiers, with thousands of others, into an enormous transport ship. Men and women were segregated for an unknown, but ominous purpose.

With all other members of the family missing, believed killed, Carl and his mother have little time left together. On the urgings of his mother, he assumes the appearance of a girl in a vain attempt to remain with her.

The invaders seem to believe it...

but then the nightmare begins!

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The Legal Stuff: The Rats of Hell © 2009, 2010 Tanya Allan
 
This work is the property of the author, and the author retains full copyright, in relation to printed material, whether on paper or electronically. Any adaptation of the whole or part of the material for broadcast by radio, TV, or for stage plays or film, is the right of the author unless negotiated through legal contract. Permission is granted for it to be copied and read by individuals, and for no other purpose. Any commercial use by anyone other than the author is strictly prohibited, and may only be posted to free sites with the express permission of the author.
 
This work is fictitious, and any similarities to any persons, alive or dead, are purely coincidental. Mention is made of persons in public life only for the purposes of realism, and for that reason alone. Certain licence is taken in respect of medical procedures, terms and conditions, and the author does not claim to be the fount of all knowledge.
 
The author accepts the right of the individual to hold his/her (or whatever) own political, religious and social views, and there is no intention to deliberately offend anyone. If you wish to take offence, that is your problem.
 
This is only a story, and it contains adult material, which includes sex and intimate descriptive details pertaining to genitalia. If this is likely to offend, then don’t read it.
 
Please enjoy.
Tanya
 
 

 
 
 
Prologue
 
 
The first time he spoke, I didn't understand what he said for various reasons. Looking back, I know now why I didn’t understand; for a start, his accent was weird and quite pronounced. With everything else that my senses encountered, I suppose I must have just stared blankly at him. He looked annoyed for a brief moment but then repeated himself, clearly in a hurry.

"Welcome to hell, young lady, now git your naked ass outa there, before the fires roast your pretty hide!" The voice came from above me, but the sights that confronted me gave me little inclination to look up, or to pay much attention to what he said.

I was numb with shock, for I sincerely believed that I had died and was now in hell.

The stranger’s words had little impact over the horrific environment in which I now found myself.

There was so much horror around me that my senses threatened to shut down. As I recalled, somewhat confusedly, the events that led me to this point, it was a reasonable assumption that I was indeed dead. All the factors seemed to point to that assumption.

I was stark naked in a pit, quite a dark pit, lying on top of a pile of dead human bodies; bodies that had been alive a short time before, some of whom I probably knew. It was very hot, but the rank stench of death, rotting flesh and excrement was overwhelming. Blood was everywhere, covering everything I could see, including me. The blood had dried, so caked my entire body, feeling hard and unpleasant. Some, I feared, was probably my own, from my aching abdominal area. It was everywhere; in my long hair, in my eyes, all over my skin. Some had yet to dry, so it made everything slippery, yet was beginning to feel tacky as it too started to congeal. The poor light, coming from the opening above, gave this world a surreal appearance - grotesque and macabre.

Open, sightless eyes, clawing hands and mouths fixed into soundless screams seemed to meet my eyes wherever I looked, together with the liberal helpings of human blood. However, the fact I seemed to be the only one that was in anyway animate was the only indication that this might not be hell, after all. My vague recollections of heaven and hell were hazy at best, so at this point were confused and patchy in the extreme, but if it was the hell of which I had been told then there must be others in torment, not just me!

If this wasn’t hell, where was it?

Why did the strange voice call it hell?
 
 
I retched, a dry and futile operation, but then I screamed. It was pathetic, I know, but my mind was so overwhelmed by my surroundings, including the grotesquely distorted limbs, the staring dead eyes and the fresh memories of what had just happened, it was all too much to deal with at once.

“Quiet girl! Just give me your hand if you want to live,” the gruff voice almost shouted, his impatience and desperation obvious in his intonation.

Dimly, I once more gazed upwards towards this voice. A bearded face filled the rectangular opening that was the only source of light in this place. A gnarled and calloused hand stretched down towards me. I vaguely looked about me for the girl to whom he was addressing; however, on being the only living soul that I could see, I simply assumed he mistook me for a girl. My long hair had sometimes caused that back home. I raised one arm above my head so, grasping my hand, he lifted me clear of the macabre heap and out through the hatch, lowering me none too gently onto the warm metallic deck. He heaved a large metal plate over the hole and then roughly pulled me to my feet and pushed me towards a dark tunnel.

"The fire will start any second, so I hope you can run," he said, turning and running down the dark passage. Having no choice, I followed, my bare feet making faintly damp slapping sounds on the metallic floor. The pain in my belly hurt tremendously, so I pushed a hand against my lower abdomen as I ran. Within moments, I heard a loud roaring sound, followed by a blast of very hot air that tore down the passage that I’d just travelled, almost knocking me off my feet.

Strong arms caught me, pulling me through a gap in the side of the tunnel, as a rush of incredibly hot air sped down the passage in which we’d both been running. With one hand firmly holding me by my upper left arm, my companion dragged me along a myriad of passages until at last he permitted me to collapse onto a pile of rags.
 
 
After a few minutes, I caught my breath and looked around. The man lit a crude lamp which appeared to burn oil. It gave a dim but reassuring glow in the darkness. We were in a room, of sorts, but lacking anything I had come to understand as essential.

“There's some water in the container in the corner, behind you. Wash yourself and the put something on. I haven't been this close to a live female for a hell of a long time.”

This time, his words sunk in. I was about to correct him when I stared down at myself. Even in this dim light, I could see why he thought me female. My small but firm breasts were the first give away, but what was now between my legs clinched it. Or rather, what wasn't there any more!

I was indeed a girl.

This was all wrong, for I’m not a girl. I’m a boy - was a boy. With a supreme effort of will, I searched my memory for anything sane to grasp. My name! For some strange reason it eluded me for a moment, but then, with a sense of triumph, I remembered.

My name is Carl.

I'm sixteen and my whole life seems to have just ended. I remembered the rest. My brain reacted, bringing on a faint. I fell back onto the rags, in total denial of the horrible reality in which I found myself.
 
 
Chapter 1
 
 
“We’re all on full alert as from twenty hours,” my father announced at suppertime. “Full invasion alert.”

“Oh dear Lord, are you sure they’ll come?” my mother said, her pale face looking more tired and drawn than ever.

“Of course they’ll come, but we’ll kick their red asses when they do!” my older brother Sean said, as he rapidly finished his plate of food.

“Sean, language!” my mother said automatically, yet her heart wasn’t in it. All the family had gathered around the table, and all, except mother and I, were dressed in the green Devian Defence Corps uniform. I was the youngest of five children, four boys and one girl. Sean was next to me, being eighteen, and then there was David at twenty and Marcus, the eldest at twenty five. Mandy was twenty-two, yet even she was in uniform. They were all part of the Northern Battery, in which my father was a Major. Mandy’s boyfriend was a Lieutenant in the Battery, so he sat with us at this crucial time.

“How do they know if they really will come?” my mother asked.

“The trading post on Finnegan’s Six reported a fleet approaching the eighth portal. We’re the only system this side of the portal,” Dad said, looking glum.

“It might not be them,” I said, voicing the hope we all felt.

Dad looked at me. “Carl, no one has a military fleet anymore, except them.”

“Mister Souter says that intergalactic invasion is impossible due to the logistics involved,” I said, quoting my history teacher.

“How does Mister Souter explain the twelve planets already taken?” he asked, dryly.

I kept quiet; frustrated at the fact I was too young to join the Defence Corps. I only had a year to wait, but the way events were happening, I might never get the chance to join up.

“How ready are we?” mother asked.

Dad looked glummer still. “We’re ready, but heaven knows whether we’ll ever be able to beat them off. The Batteries are more powerful than ever, all citizens between seventeen and fifty-five are in service to the Corps, so if we’re not ready, we’re dead!”

The threat of invasion was first raised a few years ago when news of an invasion across the rim on Hylios One. Hylios was a relatively newly colonised planet, with a strictly agrarian economy, but with enormous potential for mineral extraction further down the line.

The invaders were believed to be human, but their origin was unknown. They appeared human, but as witnesses and vid-pics showed, they seemed completely inhuman in that they neither showed pain or emotion. Their dark Bat-like craft dropped silently from a night sky, with thousands upon thousands infantry soldiers overwhelming any resistance. Each invading soldier was clad in a distinctive crimson armoured suit.
 
 
Hylios had no formal defence force, so the crude resistance of the few, armed farmers was inconsequential. Yet, surprisingly few of the defenders lost their lives, as the weapons that the invaders used against them only incapacitated rather than killed.

Now, after eleven more planet communities had been laid waste, we all understood why. The crimson troopers drove their captives, like cattle, into the bellies of vast transport ships, which departed to God knows where. It was rumoured that they turned the human cargoes into the mindless robotic soldiers for the next campaign. This was started by a trader who’d narrowly escaped during the fourth invasion, claiming that he’d seen a former colleague wearing the crimson armour, but whose personality had vanished. Males, it seemed, became soldiers, while females, even those with military experience, were separated and taken somewhere else. No one knew where or why, only that none were ever seen again.

These invaders were never heard to speak, as their captives were simply herded into the ships with the used of crude pain-inflicting prods. Once captured, no one had ever escaped, but it was only through the gallantry of some Marines on Gorran V, the ninth planet to fall, that we discovered that the enemy soldiers were indeed mind-wiped human males from the previously conquered planets. The whole purpose of invasion was to farm humans, to put us to use. Rumours over the fate of the women and girls were rife, ranging from being used as food for some mysterious alien race, to being used as breeders to produce yet another generation of red-clad soldiers. No one had any hard evidence either way, until quite recently, that is.

The Gorran V Marines managed to shoot down a small but advanced spaceship in which the real enemy was revealed for the first and only time. This find added fuel to the fear and feeling of dread that was sweeping the known galaxy, for this being was definitely not human.

Alien life had yet to be discovered with any degree of intelligence, yet this life form had already made itself known to mankind, long before the stars were anything other than ornaments in the night sky.

The alien was eight foot tall, a biped humanoid, with certain features that were deeply imbedded in human psyche. The red skin was acceptable, but the horns and twin toed feet that gave an impression of cloven hooves were features that caused the religious fanatics to blame those who sought expansion for bringing the wrath of Satan upon mankind. At least the tail was missing, but it was still sufficient to bring on the names of Devils or Demons.

The creature in the wrecked ship was found to be dead, but even in death its very presence caused fear to fly to all colonised worlds, including ours.

The meal ended and our family had a communal hug, just in case we’d never meet again. As it happened, it was to be our last meal and my family would never get together again, like this anyway.

They didn’t come that night.
 
 
They came at about two hour on the following day, after the batteries had been on alert for over twenty-four hours. Their silent ships fell from the night sky in massive waves. Our four enormous batteries picked off vast numbers of the ships, but there were just too many of them. Our government had invested heavily in these hi-tech centres with the most sophisticated weapon systems that were designed to prevent craft from entering the atmosphere or ever landing on the surface.

We had firepower capable of annihilating hundreds of ships attempting to invade our cherished planet. The thousands of enemy vessels simply flooded our skies, and despite the hundreds of ships destroyed, these were a fraction of those that actually successfully landed on the surface.

The enemy ships disgorged armoured infantry brigades and armoured vehicles, but as our government were convinced that nothing could get past the batteries, further investment was denied to those who wanted to recruit and train fighting soldiers. As it happened, the batteries were overwhelmed in a few short minutes.
 
 
Mother and I had taken refuge in the large communal shelter on the east of town. We could hear the incessant booming of the sonic cannons based in the Battery. I felt a fraud, as there were only women, old people and young children in the shelter. I was desperate to go and help fight the enemy.

Suddenly, silence reigned. The Battery ceased firing. I looked at my mother as the realisation of defeat began to sink in. Panic started to spread amongst the others in the shelter. It had taken the enemy only twenty minutes to destroy what had taken us more than two years to build.

“Quickly, dress in these clothes!” Mother said, holding out Mandy’s old cast-offs.

“What? No way, Mum!

“Listen, Carl, do you want to die?”

“Of course not!”

“Then do as I say. The men will be sent to be mind-wiped and used as soldiers. If you are taken as a boy, then you will probably die as a soldier, or at best, you will lose your personality and individuality and experience a living death. This way, you have a chance.”

“Of what? They’ll find me and kill me anyway!”

“Not necessarily, there is always a chance you could escape.”

“Where will I go, Mum?”

“Then stay with me, just to please me,” she said, breaking down. “I’ve lost everyone else, I don’t want to lose you!”

Numbly, I stripped off and dressed in the unfamiliar girl’s clothes. She rolled up my old socks, placing them in my empty bra.

“Your long hair and pretty face will pass muster, let me just put some make up on you.”

I let her do this, believing it would make no difference, I was dead anyway.
 
 
The enemy soldiers found the shelter after another hour. The red-armoured soldiers simply made us walk towards the vast ships that had landed after the soldiers’ landing craft. Stun rods assisted those who displayed any reluctance to comply. I noted that one ship was resting where my friend Cindy’s farm had once sat. I wondered whether Cindy was dead or alive. Smoke and debris littered the landscape. It was like an alien land, no longer my familiar home. No landmarks were visible and a large pall of smoke hung over where the enormous Battery once stood to the north. Burning hulks of destroyed enemy vessels lay all over the place, I counted over fifty in sight alone, yet the enemy were here in vast numbers, so I wondered how they managed to sustain such terrible losses.

The human stream swelled as bedraggled Corpsmen and women joined us. I eagerly searched the faces for my family, as were most others, but mainly in vain. After a mile, the enemy formed a V, splitting the stream into two lesser streams. Males were sent to the right, while females were forced to the left. Husbands and wives were torn apart by uncaring soldiers, while male children were forcibly separated from their mothers without a word being spoken. Babies were simply removed from their mothers, and no one saw where they were taken.

I found myself in the left hand stream; my mother had a tight grip on my hand. Other boys had attempted to do what I was doing, but were seen and forced into the other stream. I expected to be seized and removed any moment. I kept looking for a way of escape, but noticed that those who attempted to slip out of the line were inevitably shot by the strange weapons held by the red-clad soldiers. These weapons were soundless, simply paralysing the victim. The soldiers then neutralised the paralysis and manacled the potential escaper, returning them to their original stream of pathetic humanity.

Looking back to where we had just come, the stream stretched back as far as the eye could see. I reasoned that there were probably collections such as these near each city or centre of civilisation on the planet. No wonder they could afford to lose men, for I was looking at streams of their cannon fodder for the future.
 
 
Suddenly, my feet were on a metal ramp, as we reached the rear of the vast ship. It was so large I could see neither the top, nor the far end. I saw no opportunity to escape, so simply followed the stream like a sheep. The stream slowed and split into six smaller streams. My mother was forced to relinquish her hold of me, as we were separated.

“I love you, always!” she wailed as we were forced down different passages.

My impersonation was going to be discovered; of this I was positive. Every turn and every door we came to, I waited for the strong hands that would seize me and remove me to where I belonged. In a perverse way, I looked forward to it, as this deception was making me fear reprisals. Yet the soldiers behind their mirrored visors made no movement towards me, seemingly only interested in guiding the human stream to its destination.

I then found myself in a long, narrow chamber with recesses in the walls. A soldier pushed me into nearest recess. I watched as each recess was filled with young women of roughly my age. When all recesses were filled, I experienced a pressing sensation pushing me back against the rear of the recess. The light extinguished and a roaring noise filled the air, mingled with the terrified screams of the girls along side me. After a while, I realised that I too was screaming.

I dimly became aware of a hissing noise and a strange smell.

Gas!

I tried holding my breath, but I must have passed out. There followed a period of confusion. Partially conscious for a while and hallucinating occasionally, time ceased to have a meaning for me. All my friends and relatives came to me, but then turned into snarling monsters. It was with some relief, therefore, that eventually the light came on and the pressure slowly released. None of us could move or even speak. I tried, but my body failed to respond to even the simplest tasks. I could blink, breath, swallow and smell but couldn’t even move my eyes.
 
 
One by one we were released. The first human who wasn’t a soldier released me. He was male, aged about fifty and completely bald, dressed in a white coverall, but his very dark skin indicated he wasn’t from our world originally. His expression was blank and he wore heavy tinted glasses, which were almost goggles, as he forced my right hand into a clamp-like device. I felt a sharp pain, so reasoned I’d been injected or had a sample taken. This was the moment I’d be discovered, so I steeled myself for the bullet.

With no change in expression, the man watched a screen. A series of digits and letters flowed past, and then he stripped me of all my borrowed clothes and pushed me through a small hatch onto a conveyor. I was still unable to move, but as I fell onto the belt, I could see a marking stencilled onto my forearm. I lay on my back, shivering but unable to cover my nakedness. I couldn’t move my head or eyes, so had no idea whether I was alone on this belt.

I must have left the ship, for I briefly saw unfamiliar stars in a sky, but then was inside another structure. The conveyor delivered me onto an automated gurney, which wheeled automatically through a tunnel of wires and up to a panel. I was in a small techno-cavern and started to feel claustrophobic. It was as if I’d been swallowed by a malicious machine. I watched in horror as an auto-syringe protruded from the panel and plunged into my forearm. I was powerless to resist, and wondered what they could possibly do to me, and why. That was the last moment I recalled before awakening amongst a pile of bodies.
 
 
Chapter 2
 
 
I came round to find I was covered by a rather suspect blanket. I was still naked and still female. The man was seated on the floor in the opposite corner, watching me.

“I, I, I’m a, a, a, a girl!” I stammered.

“Yup.”

“Huh?”

“You scared me, girl. Don’t do that again!”

“I scared you?” I asked, incredulously.

I looked under the blanket, finding to my dismay that someone had cleaned me up. I looked at him.

“You, you washed me?”

“Someone had to, as you were stinking the place out. I thought you was dead for a moment.”

“What happened to me?”

He shrugged, as I looked at him in some detail. He had a shaggy head, but his hair was receding at the front. His hair was grey, as was his beard and moustache, but with dark flecks in both. His clothing was military, but faded and worn.

“Are you a soldier?” I asked.

He laughed, eating from a small dark block of something.

“I haven’t been a soldier for a very long time. I was once for about five minutes. They came and they conquered, we never had a chance.”

“Which planet?”

“Xiona.”

“Fifth,” I said.

“How many now?”

“I think we were the thirteenth.”

“What planet?”

“Devia.”

He shook his head, as I looked about me. I still hurt in my belly, like a dull permanent ache.

“Where are we?”

He laughed again, but there was no humour in it.

“Deep beneath the fires of hell.”

“Hell?”

“It was called Hylios once, I call it hell.”

“Hylios? The first one to fall?”

“So they say,” he said, standing up. He started approaching me, so I pulled the dirty blanket up to my chin.

“Don’t panic, if I wanted you, I could have had you when you passed out. Besides, you’re too damn skinny for me.”

He rooted around in a locker that was against one wall. Turning, he threw me some items of camouflage uniform.

“Try these for size, if they don’t fit, don’t panic, I know where we can get some more.”

I struggled into the pants and shirt. They were both rather large, but with a length of cord, at least the pants didn’t fall down. As I did so, my new gender was very evident to me. I felt light headed and fearful. I so wanted this to be a bad dream, so I could wake up at home and with my family around me.

“Boots may be harder, as you have small feet. We’ll go take a look, because we’ll be needing food and more water,” the man said.

“Thanks.”

“So, little girl, what’s your name?”

I hesitated, the harsh reality of my situation was beginning to sink in, like a horrible dream.

“Carl.”

“That’s a boy’s name on my planet.”

“And on mine,” I said, bitterly.

“Okay, that explains your confusion, now tell me your story.”

I did. It didn’t take long.

“Okay, you were in the female sector, so they didn’t see you as a male, even when you were stark naked.”

“How come? That technician was right next to me when they took my clothes.”

He shrugged. “They don’t get to think like you and I.”

“So? They did tests, didn’t that tell them anything?”

“It told them you didn’t have the right equipment, so the Medic-tech machine did its best.”

“Medic-tech?”

“Automated medical unit. There aren’t any doctors here.”

“Why did I end up in the pit?”

“You weren’t fertile. It’s the last test. They’d have given you everything you need to be female, in theory, but you aren’t producing ova, so they dumped you.”

“But I wasn’t dead!”

“That’s not a problem to them. As a female, you weren’t fit to fight, so, as you can’t have their babies, they dumped you. In fifteen seconds, you’d have been toast if I hadn’t heard you screaming.”

“I don’t remember screaming.”

“Take my word for it, you were.”

“I’m not even a female,” I said bitterly.

“You are now, kid.”

“Not a proper one.”

“Look, believe me, you’ll find you are. It’s just they want instant fertility, they have sufficient raw materials not to worry about waiting for things to develop.”

“I can’t be a fertile girl, I’m a boy!”

He looked at me. “Nope, you ain’t, not any more, as I said.”

“But, I can’t be a girl!” I felt tears spring to my eyes.”

“It beats the hell out of being dead, or worse.”

“Worse?”

“Yeah, if you’d have stayed a male, you’d be wearing a red suit and joining the next invasion.”

“They make anyone do as they want?” I asked.

“Yup.”

“Then their technology is way ahead?”

“Absolutely, but they don’t use it for good. That’s why they burn everything surplus to requirement that they can use. Like you,” he reminded me.

“Thanks. But, who are they?”

“They're the Devils. Who knows what their real name is. I guess they’re an old race whose time is running out. They’ve been around a long time. They were first seen on old Earth, way back when. There are old writings depicting them as Satan or demons. They’ve always been seen as evil, trying to impregnate women with their seed to perpetuate their race.”

“You mean old Earth was real?”

“Sure. Been there once, when I was about nineteen, working on a freighter in the first quadrant. Not a lot left, just a burned out, barren wasteland. Hard to believe it spawned mankind, but it was our cradle. That’s what comes from bad housekeeping! Anyway, it seems that the devils were watching, always trying ways to have offspring through human females.”

“Did they?”

“Sure, lots, but most are sterile. One or two weren’t, so they followed them up and kept going. Each generation has more devil and less man. The problem is, the pure-bloods are now very old and few in number. What we’re seeing is a last ditch desperate measure to perpetuate their species.”

“You mean these invasions are just to get us to have their babies?”

“Yup, I guess.”

“They killed all my family and friends, changed me to a girl, but then dumped me because I couldn’t have babies, like instantly?”

“Yup.”

“The bastards!”

He grinned. “You got it in one.”

“But the soldiers? The ones with no feelings, who are they?”

“Your brothers, friends, or people like them. I would have been one too, but I was wounded so they dumped me in a similar place to where you were. I got out before the fires too.”

“Are there others?” I asked.

“You mean like us?”

I nodded.

“Not that I’ve found. There was a kid, a girl, like you. But she curled up in a ball and refused to eat, drink or speak. She died after five days. You ain’t gonna do anything dumb like that, are you?”

I thought of this unknown girl, dying of pure terror and misery.

“Kid?”

I looked up and shook my head. “No, I’m not. On one condition.”

“Yeah?”

“Teach me how to kill these monsters?”

“You ain’t got it, have you?”

“Got what?”

“We ain’t predators, we’re vermin.”

“Vermin?”

“Like rats. We’re beneath their feet, under their floorboards and behind the skirting. They can’t see us, so we could gnaw at their wires and cause whatever mayhem we can, but once they know we’re here, then we’ll be in danger.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

“Survive, don’t draw attention to ourselves and find their weakness.”

“You said there weren’t many of them, the devils. How many exactly?”

“I don’t rightly know. I’ve only seen three. There are quite a few mix-breeds, but three real ones for sure.”

“Where’s their home planet?”

“That I do know, for they don’t have one. Their sun went nova, I guess, because they’ve been floating the Galaxy looking for a race their DNA is most closely compatible with.”

“How do you know this?”

“Just after I got here, I was exploring the tunnels and passages, just trying to find others. I stumbled on an archive room. Now I don’t read their scribble, but they have a time-line chart. It started with an exploding sun, and now we’re at the point where they’re desperately trying to breed to produce fertile offspring. They figure that with all the millions of human females, one has to be capable of carrying a half-breed full term that’s fertile. They have enough human scientists working with their advanced technology, so they’ll get lucky real soon.”

“But why invade and destroy everything? Surely they could have tried to negotiate?” I asked.

“Look kid, I don’t have any answers, but my guess is that they tried that, and man, being the nervous and violent type, ran them out of town. If you turned up looking like Satan himself, who the hell is going to trust you enough to agree to have your babies?”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“They’re a much more advanced race, capable of solving all man’s problems, but they’re not interested. They want to solve their own problems at our expense, or even extinction.”

“It’s such a terrible waste.”

“It sure is.”
 
 
I thought about my brothers and father, all being forced to become mindless soldiers. Then I thought about Mandy, even now probably being impregnated in the hope that she could produce a fertile thing. Then I thought about me. All my plans, hopes and aspirations, flushed with my genitals down some unknown drain. I suddenly had a thought.

“Could the machine make me male again?”

“They’re good, but I don’t think they’re that good. They probably have the science and technology, but they wouldn’t even think about it.”

“Surely if it made me female, the technology exists to make me male?”

“Why should it? They need breeders, not men. If there was a sudden lack of males, they might look into making males from females, if there was good tactical reasons for it.”

“But if we reprogrammed the machine, surely we could find a way to get me back to normal?”

“Can you reprogram it, given that we could ever get to it, that is?”

“Me? No. But someone could.”

“Who? Me? I can’t. One of them? Why should they? Just accept it, Carl, the girl is here to stay.”

I just looked at him, trying not to cry.

“There are benefits, though.”

“Like what?”

“You’re still alive, you ain’t a soldier and you ain’t pregnant with a monster inside you.”

Again I just looked at him.

“Suit yourself, but things could be a lot worse in the fire pit.”

“Then we have to find their weakness,” I said, determined to fight.

“Right. Look, I can’t call you Carl, it don’t seem right.”

“I guess not,” I said, feeling despondent.

“How about Carla?”

I shrugged, as this whole situation was surreal and simply awful.

“Okay. Come on, Carla, let’s go eat.”

“Um, can we get me some shoes or boots first, my feet are killing me?”

“Sure, we’ll pop down to the mall and see what’s on offer,” he said grinning.

“What do I call you?”

“My name’s Seth.”

“Hi Seth.”

He smiled again, looking at me strangely.

“What?”

“Are you sure you haven’t always been a girl?”

“Yup, why?”

“You’re a damn pretty one.”

His words upset me. I didn’t want to be a girl, pretty or otherwise. I think he sensed this.

“Hey, just be thankful you’re alive. The fact you’re cute means very little here, but you never know, we might get out of here and you’ll find life as a beautiful girl ain’t that bad.”

I smiled for the first time. It wasn’t much of one, but I did feel slightly better.

He led me back out into the passage system.

“Seth!” I almost shouted, for it was pitch black.

“I’m here. The one good thing is that all the floors are clear of rubbish. If we come to a hazard, then I’ll let you know. You’ll find your eyesight will adjust soon enough.”

“Oh yeah?” I said, unconvinced.

He chuckled in the darkness. “This is a ventilation and access system. The devils built their complex with robots and human mind-wipes. They left these passages to facilitate repairs and ventilation of the chambers above. You occasionally see robots, but rarely humans.”

“I’m amazed you can see anything,” I said, feeling my way with my hands on the side of the tunnel.

Still laughing, he led me in a confusing trail through the tunnels. It was like a maze. It was also very dark, with occasional shafts of dim light seeping in through grilles and hatch covers.

“How long did it take you to find your way about?” I asked.

“A long time, but then I’ve had loads of time. This place is big, and when I say big, I mean really big!”

He squeezed into a narrow space and through a loosened grille. I followed on my hands and knees for what seemed about a mile. It couldn’t have been, but my knees felt as if it was. Finally, he stopped, turned and whispered, “Shh, no sound now.”

There was a sudden draught and I was alone in the darkness. I scurried forward to feel a hole in the floor of the tube. I looked down into a dim chamber. I could just see that Seth was looking up and beaconing for me to jump down. I did, he caught me and we moved quickly to a door.

Seth placed an ear to the door and waited, then he opened it a crack, peering out to whatever was beyond. Satisfied we were alone he opened the door fully and moved through, with me close to his heels. We ran down a corridor. This had dim lights every twenty yards.
 
 
He suddenly stopped by a door and opened it. I noticed that there were no locks on any of these doors, which all looked the same to me. We went through it, to find ourselves in another long, very large and very dark room. Of all my new surroundings, the almost total darkness was the most disconcerting. No wonder it had taken Seth so long to find his way around. He activated a flashlight and shone it around.

The ceiling was at least twenty feet high, and the whole place was filled with racks and shelves. On the shelves, I realised with growing alarm, were cast-off clothes and equipment from all the captured people.

“Welcome to the super-store,” he whispered.

“Why do they bother keeping everything?”

He shrugged as we walked down an aisle.

“I guess as they have no planet of their own, they recycle everything. Nothing seems to be thrown away.”

“Except people,” I added.

“True, but the furnace is part of the power grid.”

“That’s sick,” I said.

“Here, boots,” he replied, pointing.

There were hundreds of pairs of shoes and boots. It took a while, as they weren’t placed in any size order. Many of the numbers and letters were strange to me, as they written in scripts that were not Anglic. While I was trying on a pair, Seth went up another aisle, leaving me in the darkness.

I stood in my new boots. They felt fine, but I would have liked some socks, though. I tried not to think of the boot’s previous owner. Seth must have been a mind reader, for when he returned, he threw me a pair of socks. I slipped the boots off, put on the socks and was about to put the boots back on when he stopped me.

“Here, these may fit you better,” he said, passing me a bundle.

There were some women’s underwear and a set of black military overalls. I stripped off the old uniform that he had originally given me, and put on the underwear. It was so weird filling a bra with my own flesh, but I didn’t have time to dwell on the sensations. I thought that was just as well.

The black overalls were the right size and, judging by their cut, probably originally designed for a female. They even had a cool blazing grenade emblem on the shoulder and two small stars on the collar.

I stood up, after tying my new boots up tight.

“Wow! You look great,” he said, his teeth showing white in the gloom.

“Thanks.”

“Those belonged to an officer.”

“Oh?”

“The stars, I guess they makes you a Lieutenant in the Gorran Space Marines.”

“Should I take them off?”

“Why? There aren’t any Marines left to get upset.”

“Oh.” That made me feel depressed again. “Are there any heavy weapons here?”

“Lots, but what’s the point?”

“We could fight.”

“Just the two of us? For how long do you reckon we could keep it up?”

“Oh.”

“I carry one of these,” he said, showing me a small pistol. “Just in case I get caught, then I can at least try to escape.

“Should I have one?”

“Can you use it?”

“You could teach me.”

He grinned and moved off. I followed.
 
 
The racks of weapons would make any soldier salivate. There were enough of every conceivable size, shape and calibre to arm an entire army, and yet these were just sitting here. It didn’t make sense.

Seth could probably read my mind.

“They don't use lethal force. What's the point? Their objective is to capture as many of us as possible,” he asked.

“Oh.” I hadn't thought about it like that.

He passed me a small pistol.

“This is a recoilless, Grummer-Eight pistol. High-energy bolts discharge the bullets, so there’s no casing, no explosive, just a bullet and no noise. There are twenty in a clip, and sufficient energy to fire five clips without a re-charge. Here are two spare clips,” he said, handing me the weapon and clips.

“How do you charge it?” I asked, turning the gun over in my hands.

“Any energy source, heat, light or electricity. Even the heat from your body will give it a slow trickle charge.”

“How far will the bullet go?”

“Don’t worry about that; just know that it will kill anything within ten paces of you. That’s the most likely range in which you’ll have to use it. The bullet will still be lethal up to ten times that, so be careful”

He then handed me a belt with a holster attached, I noticed that he wore a similar one. More importantly, he passed me a similar flashlight to his.

“Remember, use it sparingly. You must learn to adjust to the darkness without help.”

I strapped the belt around my waist and saw he had already moved down to another aisle. I hurriedly caught up with him, putting the pistol into the holster.

“What are you looking for?”

“Anything.”

“Like?”

He turned and looked at me, his expression was quite hard, but softened.

“Sorry, kid, I’m not used to being with anyone else. For some reason, these guys don’t like light, that’s why everything is so dark, so if I can find some night-vision glasses for us, that would be good.”

We searched up and down the aisles, eventually finding exactly what he wanted. They came attached to lightweight helmets as adjustable visors. One setting had night vision, another UV, other Infra-red and a final setting on heat sources.

“These are brilliant!” I enthused.

“They may be, but when in use they also give off heat and power sources that can be traced by the soldiers’ sensors. We mustn’t get too reliant on such stuff.”

There were also some concentrated rations, which he loaded into a backpack and slung over his shoulder.

“Need a knife?” he asked.

“I don’t know, will I?”

He threw me a sheath with a rubber-handled combat knife inside. The blade was a good eight inches long. I attached it to my new belt, feeling more like a warrior every moment.

“Okay, let’s go eat!”

“What’s wrong with the rations?”

“They’re fine for emergencies, but why use that when we can eat for free from their food supply system?”

I meekly followed him back through the maze of ventilation tunnels. This time I was very grateful for the boots, as the metal edges to the joins were unfinished and ripped unprotected flesh. I made a mental note to acquire some gloves on my next visit to the store.

I smelled the food before we actually arrived. It was an unpleasant smell, sort of sour and sharp. Seth slithered out of a small duct cover into the bowels of a large mechanised supply system. Belts and tubes surrounded us, while condensation moisture dripped from various parts above us.

“The food is a composite of vegetable and animal matter that's processed into a highly nutritional mush. It tastes like shit but the humans here exist quite healthily on it.”

“How do you know?”

He pointed to a larger pipe that disappeared through the end wall.

“Follow that and it comes out in the main refractory. If you want to see, then take a look.”

I followed him through a hatch in the floor and we crawled along for about a hundred feet. He pushed up a grille and I followed into a tiny space behind a wall. The tube went into a cylinder, from which about twenty smaller tubes came out and went to output vents in the wall. The smell was overpowering, and the chugging noise of the system was almost deafening. I noticed another tube entering the cylinder from above. It was made of clear plastic or glass and I watched as drops of a clear liquid dribbled slowly into the cylinder.

“What’s in there?” I asked, pointing at the clear tube.

Seth shrugged. “I’ve no idea, but I guess it must be some form of drug that maintains the mind control.”

“How do you know?”

“I don’t. But I found this place first, ate a bit of the food and felt dizzy and weird. I stopped, concluding that that was how they kept control of the poor bastards out there. I lost all feeling in my fingers and toes for several days. The food in the other place is fine, it doesn’t affect me.”

I had thought the mind control was some form of surgical or mechanical process. It never dawned on me that they’d use drugs. Seth, who was waving me over to a small hatch, interrupted my thoughts.

I looked out.
 
 
I’m not sure what I expected, but to see line upon line of completely bald, naked men, all wearing blank expressions and very little else, was quite disconcerting. They moved in complete silence in the semi-darkness, collecting their bowls of food and then sitting at the next available seat. Without regard to anyone, they spooned the food until it was gone, stood and departed, depositing the bowl in a slot in the wall. The lighting was very dim, as if they couldn’t afford the lighting bill.

“They’re all naked!”

“Those are the soldiers. They only wear the armour when in battle. The ambient temperature is around seventy five degrees, so what's the point of clothes? This way, there’re no laundry bills.”

“Why are they bald?” I asked.

Seth ran a hand through his tangled mess of hair.

“Ease and hygiene. No haircuts, no razors, no time spent dealing with hair or beards.”

“Do you think they’d come back to normal if we cut the drug supply?”

“Possibly. I haven’t been able to find out. I should think the levels are monitored automatically, so if we tried anything, someone or something would come a looking.”

“Is there an antidote?”

“Look, Carla, I’ve been through all this in my mind, and I have to say, there are no answers, yet.”

I was staring at the clear tube and the point where it disappeared upwards through a small hole.

“What’s above us?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never been there.”

“I’d like to find out. Could we go there?”

“We could try, but let’s eat first.”

I wasn’t hungry, as my abdomen still ached and I’d seen sights to take away my appetite for months. I reluctantly followed him back along the crawl space to the main processing room. He was loosening a tube as I clambered out of the hole.

He had a bowl, similar to the ones the naked soldiers had been using. He filled it with the grey/green mush.

“Here,” he said, passing me the bowl and a spoon. The contents of the bowl looked revolting and smelled even worse. I must have turned my nose up.

“Don’t get fussy on me, it’s this or nothing.”

I spooned a dozen spoonfuls in, trying hard not to gag. I swallowed and handed the bowl back when I really couldn’t take any more. It was like very salty porridge, but with an after-taste that I couldn’t identify.

He finished the bowl and poured another one, which he dispatched equally quickly.

“How often do you come here?”

“Every day, as when I tried taking a larger quantity back to my lair, it went off quite quickly.”

“Is this all there is?”

“Yup, ’fraid so, kid.”

“I’m not a kid,” I said, realising I sounded petulant.

“You are to me. Look, I appreciate that this is all hard for you. I didn’t have anyone, so learned by nearly starving to death. Just accept the fact that I know my way around, okay?”

I nodded. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Look, you got guts. I can’t imagine what it must be like to wake up having gone through what you’ve been through. But try to focus on staying alive and what’s in the future. The past is gone, we can’t alter or change it, but the future isn’t written yet, okay?”

I nodded again, feeling the tears well up behind my eyes. Suddenly everything I’d lost was coming back to haunt me.

“Good, now, take this canteen and fill up from that faucet over there.”

I did as he instructed, filling the litre water-bottle from a tap in the corner.
 
 
I swear the route back to his lair was a different one to the one we took earlier. I was still completely lost, as Seth rarely used his flashlight, but I wore the helmet with night-vision. Once in the relative safety of the lair, as I came to call it, he taught me how to load, unload and strip the gun he’d given me.

“You have to be able to do it in the dark, so practise stripping and reassembling it with your eyes closed.”

I shut my eyes and practised, very badly. I realised that the temperature here was constant too, just like in the mess-hall, not too cold, neither too hot. I had not experienced being uncomfortable as far as the temperature was concerned at all.

“Seth?”

“What?”

“Can we go to see where that tube went?”

“I don’t think you’re ready yet.”

“Ready for what?”

“Exploring new areas.”

“It’s all new to me.”

He was silent for quite a while. Then I heard an unfamiliar sound. It took me ages to realise what it was, as I couldn’t see him in the gloom. He was crying.

I moved over to where he was seated, with his head on his arms, crying quite quietly. I sat down beside him, putting a hand on his arm.

“Seth?”

He looked up at me, his eyes puffy and red rimmed.

“Do you know what it’s like being so alone?” he asked.

I shook my head, saying nothing. What could I say?

“I thought I’d go mad, many times. I worked out a routine; collect water, collect food, get supplies every tenth day and only go to places I knew were safe. I’ve been a prisoner for years, yet mostly it’s up here!” he said tapping the side of his head.

I still said nothing, but kept my hand on his arm.

“I prayed for someone, anyone to come and share my loneliness, but no one came, until you. Oh, there was that other girl, but she died. I told you that, didn’t I?”

I nodded again.

“Now you’re here asking questions, I find I’m more afraid of upsetting what’s familiar to me than actually doing anything to get out or help those poor bastards. You’ve made me realise that there’s more to life than just me, and you’ve just been to hell and back.”

“I’m still there,” I said, feeling my own tears start to roll down my cheek.

He lifted a shaking finger to stroke my cheek.

“Yeah, but neither of us is alone, any more!” he said, opening his arms and giving me a hug. We wept together.
 
 

*          *          *
 
End of Part 1
 
 
To Be Continued...