Chapter 3

Chairman Jake Hedron and his Empath wife were at the city hospital.

"How soon will he be awake?" Jake asked the doctor in the emergency room.

Because of his status as head of security, Jake Hedron wasn't confined to the waiting room, but could go anywhere he felt he needed to. Yesterday, Lisa had found a wrecked military flier in the mountains near the shuttle launch platform. A man in a uniform was pinned inside, so Lisa had melted half the vehicle so she could pull him free. Then she had teleported to the hospital emergency room, bringing the unconscious soldier with her.

"He's conscious now," the doctor said. "He's somewhat sedated to control the pain, but he can probably answer questions."

"Thanks, Doc," Jake said, gripping his shoulder as he slid past and into the Convalescence Room.

Entering the room, he found the young lad sitting up and carefully sipping some tepid water through a straw.

He introduced himself, "Hello, I'm Chairman Hedron," and sat down. "I have a few questions, if you don't mind some conversation."

"Name's Barley," the young man said, his voice sounding a little raspy. "Lieutenant, Confederate Army."

The Chairman grinned. "Name, rank and number, huh?" He laughed. "Those days are gone, son. We're trying to salvage what's left of humanity, now. So why don't you tell me what the Confederacy wants with us? We're too far away and too small to be any threat to them."

"I'll talk if you talk," Barley replied, his voice stronger now. "Where's Sally?"

"Who's Sally?" Jake asked. "You were the only one we found in the wreckage."

"She was with me!" Barley cried, becoming more upset now. "I rescued her from her bondsman!"

Jake thought for a moment. The boy's simple statement said a lot about current living conditions outside their mountain retreat. Women were evidently bonded, now – second-class citizens that were treated as property and probably traded as well; slaves.

"She was ejected before we hit," he whimpered, almost crying now. "You find her – tell me that she's alright. Then I'll tell you anything you want to know."

Jake stood up and turned toward the door. "Tabatha?" he called out.

A pretty, blue-eyed redhead came through the door. Barley looked at her nervously, wondering what they were planning to do to him. She sat down in the chair just vacated by her husband.

"Hello," she said, smiling, "I'm Tabatha. I'm in charge of Internal Security."

She looked up at her husband. "I'll take it from here. Bye." She blew him a kiss.

"You two bonded?" Barley asked.

"Bonded?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah," Barley explained. "You belong to him. Right?"

"Yes, of course," Tabatha said, smiling more naturally, now. "Now you know more about us than we do about you. You could have a profession in 'Security'."

"I do," Barley admitted. "At least, I did, until I found out about you people."

"Why did you leave?" she asked. "Were you running?"

"No! Well, yeah, maybe," Barley admitted. "I was going to come here anyway. But ... I killed a man – Sally's bondsman. It was a fair fight – he had a white knife, but he was a..."

He sighed, not really knowing how to explain.

"A bondsman?" Tabatha asked. "Was he a Slaver?"

Barley looked at the blue-eyed brunette more intensely. He nodded tersely, again feeling the adrenaline rush as he remembered the short, fierce fight.

"There are no slaves here," Tabatha said quietly, but with conviction.

"What will happen to me?" Barley asked, hoping he could trust what she said.

"You can exchange information about the Confederacy and why they seem to be interested in us, and we will allow you to stay. If you become a contributing member of our society, that is," she told him.

"What if I don't want to?" he asked, already knowing he would tell her anything she wanted to know.

"Then," she sighed, "as soon as you're healthy enough to travel, you go out the front gate. If you try to return to your government, you'll probably be killed. We'll let you travel in any direction except Southeast. You could go to Montreal. They're not as aggressive at the Confederacy."

"You can track me?" he asked.

She nodded, not explaining how.

"From your space station, I suppose," he said, surprising her completely.

He grinned as her mouth fell open. "We put transmitters on the supplies you stole from us. Two of them are in orbit right over our heads."

"Is that why your people are interested in us?" she asked, recovering quickly.

He nodded. "We just wanted to catch the thieves and get our supplies back. We didn't know about you before that."

"What are you going to do about us?" she wanted to know. She used first tense because Barley was still including himself as part of 'we', the Confederacy, and not 'them'.

He shook his head. "Not 'til Sally's here! Go find Sally. Then I'll talk."

"Fair enough," she said, rising and holding out her hand to confirm their agreement with a handshake. Sitting up straighter, Barley shook her hand, then snarled as he felt her mind expand into his. "Witch!" he screamed. "Get your demon mind out of my head!"

Pulling her forward, still gripping her hand, he swung at her with his free hand, clipping her jaw just below her right eye. Then there were several orderlies pushing him back and holding him down. He heard the hiss of a needle gun and went to sleep.

"You okay, Cat?" Jake asked anxiously, unable to keep from touching the rapidly healing cut on her face.

She nodded, then took a deep breath. "They have helmet technology – from that casino, Atlantis. They have a good-sized army, and have control of all the missiles silos all over the country. They know about us and about the force field around the front gate. They also know about the spaceship.

"This boy wanted to incorporate us into their Confederacy," she continued. "But their leaders don't think we'd cooperate and plan to force us to give them our technology and our ship."

"Force us?" Jake asked. "How?"

"He wasn't sure," she said, "Probably try to nuke their way through the front gate and attack us in force. This boy's a Security Officer in Knoxville. He knows how many soldiers the Confederacy can rally against us. Even with every man here armed to the teeth..."

Tabatha shivered. "They could take us in a day – a few hours, probably. We have no defense against their energy weapons except my time shield at the front gate. They could nuke their way right through the mountain – maybe collapse the whole thing down on top of us!"

"Does he know when they're coming?" Jake asked.

Tabatha shook her head. "He defected to warn us, but he brought a girl with him. I'm going out to see if I can find her."