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Tales From the Maid Wars: Episode Five

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Tales From the Maid Wars Episode Five
Secret of the FMP

“Did you manage to arrange everything?” Helen asked as Morris came into her office.

The older man nodded. “I’ve managed to set up an interview. He’ll be waiting for you at a little pub called “The Eagle”, here’s the address, in fifteen minutes.”

“Good…” Helen said, standing up. “The admiral can’t really complain if I decide to take a late lunch break, can he? You’ll cover for me?” Morris nodded as she walked out of the office towards the lifts.

Since his arrival on planet, Admiral Rolland had been keeping Helen nearby, where he could keep an eye on her. Ostensibly, she was here to assist him in his job of coordinating the local security forces. More likely, the admiral no longer trusted Helen.

Privately, Helen fumed at this. She was a high ranking intelligence operative with years of field experience, and yet he was treating her like she was some rookie, fresh out of the naval academy. It wasn’t like the Admiral Helen had known and worked with for so long.

And with Admiral Rolland keeping such a close watch on her, Helen had had little opportunity to continue her investigation into the abductions. For whatever reason, Rolland had made it quite clear doing so would be bad for her future as a MASA officer, so she’d had to get creative in her inquiries. She’d delegated most of the remaining interviews to Morris. To help him, Helen had recruited Officer Brown. The younger woman had been thrilled at being selected by a senior MASA officer for a ‘special assignment’ and had eagerly thrown herself into the case. Unfortunately, she couldn’t delegate everything…

***

“I know this guy; he won’t talk with Koat Security…” Morris had told Helen the day before in her office. “He’s a part-time smuggler, runs shipments of Nurid Ale in between legit runs…” and he had been flying a civilian atmospheric cargo hauler in the area near St. Joanne’s the night of the abductions and claimed to have seen a strange craft in the sky.

“But he’ll talk to a MASA agent?” Helen asked skeptically.

Morris shrugged. “Well, he wasn’t happy with it, I had to slip him a hefty bribe, but Nurid Ale is only illegal on Koat…mainly because it’s never been exported off-world, so I guess he figures you either wouldn’t care or wouldn’t know about it either way.”

“Fine...” Helen said, wondering how she could slip away from Admiral Rolland long enough to meet with him…    

***

“Complete waste of time!” Helen said, exasperatedly, coming back into her office.

“I take it things didn’t go well?” Morris asked, glumly.

Helen nodded, sitting down. “The bastard was so baked out of his mind that night, the craft’s autopilot is probably the only reason he didn’t crash and burn! No wonder he was seeing things that night! He couldn’t keep his story straight for five minutes.” She sighed. “I was so sure this was going to be the lead that would crack this case.”

“Well, Amanda…I mean officer Brown checked in while you were gone. She swung by the Owen’s residence and spoke with their daughter. Nothing really new, but apparently the girl was awake, or near enough, she saw her roommate get out of bed and walk out of the room, ‘like she was sleepwalking’ just like the others, and she can confirm there was nothing in the room, no body that might have caused it. Whatever caused that weird effect came from outside the building.”

“Well…that’s something, at least…” Helen was interrupted by a knock at the door. It opened and an officer stuck his head in.

“Lieutenant Pierce!” he said crisply. “Admiral Rolland wants to see you in his office at once. It’s urgent.”

Helen glanced at Morris. “Guess I’d better go see what he wants…” she stood from the desk. “You stay here and keep an eye on things while I’m gone.”

“Alright…” Helen stepped out into the hallway. The large office Admiral Rolland had commandeered for himself was only a few doors down the hallway…the better to keep an eye on Helen, she suspected. Sitting at a desk to the side of the door was Jane Fawn, Rolland’s secretary. Helen hadn’t been entirely surprised to see he’d brought her along with him.

“Oh, hello Helen!” The other woman said cheerfully, looking up. “Go right in.”  

“Ah…Lieutenant Pierce, good to see you.” Admiral Rolland said when Helen entered. With him, standing behind the desk was Chief Werner. Standing at attention beside it was Officer Brown. She smiled as Helen stepped in front of the desk and saluted. “Please be seated….” He said, returning the salute.

“Now, what I’m about to tell you is of the utmost importance.” He continued, looking serious. “Last night, we received an anonymous message…from one of the assassins.” Helen raised an eye brow in surprise. “According to the message, she wishes to turn herself in, and she’s willing to betray her fellow conspirators, in exchange for leniency.”

“That is good news.” Helen said voice neutral. Though she’d only met with them briefly, and she’d been blindfolded the entire time, Helen thought she’d gotten a good feel for the AMAZONs during her brief captivity, and none of them seemed like the kind of women who would turn themselves in easy, much less sell out their comrades for a pardon. It was too good to be true. So what was the real game here?  

“Before she turns herself in, she wants to meet with us…” Rolland looked at Helen. “She’s requested to see you specifically. Alone.”

“I see…” Helen smiled. “That explains it…” she thought. “They need to meet with me.” Had they possibly found some new evidence about the missing students? Some new lead they needed Helen to look into?

“She sent us a set of coordinates for you to meet her at. Officer Brown will drive you up there.” Rolland nodded to the younger woman. “I know this will be rather dangerous. This is our first break; we can’t afford to risk it by sending anyone but you two. Officer Brown has volunteered…”

“As do I.” Helen interrupted. “It is my duty as a MASA officer to do what is necessary for the service, even at great risk to my life.”

“That’s just what I expected, Lieutenant Pierce.” The admiral said, smiling. “You two will leave within the hour…”

***

“Well, I think this must be it, ma’am…” Officer Brown said, pulling the squad car to a halt. Helen looked around. They had come to a stop where the road ended at a large clearing. For the couple hours, the two of them had been bouncing their way down a narrow, country road through a lush forest that was closer to a dirt path than anything the MASA officer would call a road. It had been at least half an hour since they had passed a building or any sign of human habitation.

“The AMAZONS certainly picked an isolated, out of the way place to meet…” she thought to herself. Helen glanced over at Officer Brown. The young woman had parked the car and was watching Helen, enviously.

“I’ll stay here with the car.” The younger woman said, cheerfully. “You go on ahead.”

“Alright…” Helen replied. She looked down. Buckled at her side was a standard issue MASA officer's sidearm; the venerable Bruciarsi B-80 incineration pistol, one of a long line of pistols derived from the Martian heat rays that had devastated Earth in the Great Invasion so long ago. She checked to make sure the power pack was properly fitted and fully charged. Not that she would need it. “If I’m not back in an hour, call for the cavalry…” Helen told Officer Brown, jokingly, as she opened the door and stepped out.

Hesitantly, the young woman walked forward, into the clearing. Helen heard what sounded to her like chirping birdcalls, filling the otherwise quiet of the forest. From what Officer Brown had told her, though, they weren’t birds, but some form of small, brightly colored flying lizard that was native to this world.

When Helen had reached the center of the clearing, she suddenly noticed a small wooden cabin that had been hidden from sight by a stand of trees. It was a simple structure, made of wooden boards, and glass pane windows.  The place looked abandoned, half fallen apart. “That must be it…” she thought to herself. Slowly, she approached the cabin, constantly glancing around for any sign of danger.

“Hello?” Helen called out hesitantly, when she reached the front door. Even the door was just a simple, unpowered wood panel, with an old fashioned mechanical knob on it. There was no answer. Helen had a bad feeling. She drew her pistol, but kept it down at her side as she reached for the door knob. For a moment, Helen thought it was locked, but the mechanism was just rusted and jammed. With a grunt, Helen forced the knob to turn and pushed.  

The door swung inward, rusty hinges shrieking loudly in the quiet stillness of the country. “Hello?” Helen called out again, “Is anyone there?” Raising the pistol, Helen stepped through the door, looking around for anyone. The inside of the cabin was just as run down as the outside. The main room had been stripped of everything, save for a few broken chairs. About half the windows were busted, leaving the floor covered in dried leaves and dust. One of the walls was broken, Helen could see, what she guessed was a bedroom through the hole. Its door was half-knocked off, hanging limply from one hinge.  

There were two others doors, leading to what Helen guessed were the kitchen and another bedroom. Were the AMAZONS in one of those rooms, maybe? The young woman started across the room towards the other side of the cabin. The floorboards creaked loudly under her feet. She’d reached the center of the room, as far as possible from the windows or doors, when everything seemed to explode around her…

The remaining window panes shattered as a number of small, fast moving objects shot through them. Helen threw herself to the ground, jumping out of the way of the projectiles as they shot past her. To her shock, a second later, they came to a halt, in midair. As they slowed, never quite coming to a halt, Helen saw the half a dozen objects were small disks, made of some blue-grey metal. They hung in the air, bobbing to and fro, in small ant-gravity fields.

One of the strange drones turned towards Helen and she noticed the twin sensor nodes on its front. Immediately, the six disks sped forward, towards Helen, moving quicker than the young woman thought possible. The drones discharged a stream of what looked like blue ribbon from their rear ends as they flew directly at her. She threw herself to one side, just barely avoiding the streamers. The disks rapid movement kicked up a storm of dust and dead leaves as they flew by, close to the floor.

Helen rolled, coming to her feet, raising her pistol. There was a crack of super-heated air as the pistol shot a beam of thermal energy at the lead drone. Her aim was a degree off. On the far end of the room, a small round hole was instantaneously burnt through the wooden structure, the edges black and smoking. Helen stumbled backwards, firing again as the drones turned again and once more shot straight towards her. One disk tumbled as it hit the turbulence left by the super-heated air of a near miss, but corrected itself inches short of the floor. Another was hit dead on. Helen cried out joyfully as she saw it shudder a moment, but to her horror the drone shrugged off the heat ray and kept coming.

Once more, Helen was forced to throw herself to one side to avoid the drones as they zoomed towards her. This time, though, the drones were ready for her dodge. One of the streamers caught Helen’s left arm. Even as the material brushed ever so slightly against her arm, the young woman felt the blue ribbon instantly cling to her skin with impossible strength and she was yanked forward by the sudden pressure on her arm. The young woman stumbled forward, struggling to stay on her feet.

The drone that had caught Helen turned tightly, and began circling around the young woman. The strange, sticky ribbon quickly wrapped around her torso, far tighter then Helen thought possible, pinning her arm to her side. Pointing her pistol with her free hand, Helen shot the drone at close range. This time, the heat ray had an effect. The drone tumbled through the air, smoking, before it slammed into the floor, breaking the wooden boards as it shattered.

Helen struggled to free her arm from the sticky ribbon, but they didn’t seem to loosen in the slightest. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Helen struggled, she actually felt the strange material begin to tighten, clamping over her like a second skin. The other drones circled Helen, staying out of effective range of her weapon, while they waited for an opening. In the lull, the young woman heard the crackle of weapons fire from outside the cabin and realized Amanda Brown was also under attack.

Raising the pistol, Helen snapped off a couple shots, which the drones nimbly dodged, but doing so created an opening. The young woman sprang forward, sprinting for the door. Almost immediately, the drones were after her, the blue tape trailing after them. Helen fired blindly over her shoulder, keeping them back, for the moment. Suddenly, Helen pulled the trigger and nothing happened. She cursed, the pistol’s battery pack had been drained, and with one arm restrained, there was no way for Helen to reload.

The drones seemed to have realized that as well. Anti-gravity generators whining loudly, they surged forward. Scant inches from the backdoor, they caught up to Helen. She cried out in surprise as one of them swung low around her legs, the blue tape catching just below her knees. Instantly, her legs became tangled up and she fell to the ground. Helplessly, Helen beat at the oncoming drones with her free arm. It was quickly caught by more of the sticky tape and soon wrapped up like the other.

Helen squirmed as she was lifted into the air by two of the drones. The others began to circle their frightened captive, methodically mummifying her. She thrashed about, trying to shake loose but her efforts were futile as they webbing of blue tape reached up to her neck…

“Halt capture process!” An authoritative voice cut through the noise of the drones. “I want to speak with her before you finish wrapping her up…”    

Helen struggled to twist around to see who was talking. Her eyes widened in shock. “Admiral!” she cried out in surprise. Standing at the door to the cabin was Admiral Rolland!

The older man nodded, a cruel grin crossing his face as he looked down at his agent, lying on the ground, wrapped up into a helpless package. “It’s quite a shame…” he said, shaking his head. “You were always one of my best agents, but you had to go poking your nose into matters that didn’t concern you. I tried to tell you to stop looking for the missing girls, but you had to go behind my back…such a shame.”

“What do you mean?” Helen gasped in amazement. “You’re behind this?”

He shook his head. “Well, not exactly. The missing students and teachers are currently the ‘guests’ of the ‘Benefactors’. Those mad women in AMAZON, shocking as it sounds, are more right then you’d think, not that it makes them any less insane, to think they stand a chance against the bots and their technology.”

“But why?” Helen asked, reeling with confusion. In spite of what the AMAZONS had told her, and her own suspicions, she had never thought to hear them conferred by her commanding officer, in such a situation.

“The Bot’s have quite a weakness for particularly pretty humanoid females. They’re mad for them. And though I can’t imagine what a mechanical being would want with one, I can certainly appreciate the fruit of their labor…” Grinning, Admiral Rolland tugged sharply on a cord held in his hand.

A second later, another figure shuffled into view. Helen saw she was dressed in what could only be described as a ‘French Maid’s’ dress. Her arms were pulled behind her back and she was tightly bound with bands of the same blue material currently wrapping Helen. Another strip was pulled tight across her mouth and nose. A small, thin metal collar was locked around the young woman’s throat. Attached to it was a thin leash, the other end of which was held in Rolland’s hand.

At first, between the outfit and the bonds, Helen didn’t recognize the young woman. A second later, she gasped. It was Jane Fawn, Rolland’s secretary! The Admiral nodded. “A little ‘gift’ from the Benefactors…” he told her. “They gave me her as a reward for some services I’ve done for them over the years. She used to be an elementary school math teacher on Thonda II named Sally Warner. What a waste, a beauty like her teaching snot nosed brats arithmetic!  Luckily, the bots found her and “recruited” her and they gave her to me.”

Admiral Rolland stepped forward, tugging sharply on the leash in his hand. Submissively, Jane shuffled after her master, keeping her head bowed. The Admiral leaned close to Helen. “To tell you the truth, though, I’ve grown a tad bored with her lately, I’m thinking of trading her in for a new pet soon, I figure the bots will owe me that after I’m done cleaning up this mess…” he smiled, evilly at Helen, who silently fumed in anger. “In fact, maybe they’ll let me have you…once they’re done with you of course…”

“You don’t mean…” Helen gasped in disbelief.

“I’m afraid, so, Lieutenant Pierce…” he replied. “You’re in far too deep for us to let you go now, so I’m afraid you and Miss Brown are just going to have to disappear, no doubt another victim of those madwomen at AMAZON. But don’t worry, we will do everything in our power to see that they’re caught and brought to justice for what they did to the two of you…shame, you were a valuable agent, but hopefully you’ll make a better maid…”

“Bastard!” Helen shouted, lunging forward. Even the drones were surprised for a moment, and Helen was able to throw herself a few inches closer to the Admiral before they pulled her down again. “Goddamn Bastard, I’ll kill you!” The Admiral waved a hand, and the drones went to work, continuing to wrap Helen up, muffling her angry shouts beneath several layers of the blue tape. To her relief, the material allowed enough air through to prevent suffocation.

“The bots will have to do something about that temper of yours, Miss Pierce…” Admiral Rolland said, tauntingly. On the ground at his feet, Helen continued to squirm, in futile rage, against her bonds, groaning through the tape gagging her. “I’m sure it was part of what made you such a good agent, but I’m afraid it’s no good for your future life as a maid. Fortunately, the Benefactors have ways to deal with less than cooperative girls…”

The Admiral nodded to Jane, who shuffled forward. Reaching up, he brushed aside the younger woman’s bangs. Helen whimpered in surprise and horror, underneath the hair, hidden from sight, was a microchip, of some sorts, implanted in the girl’s forehead.

“The Benefactors have some wonderful technology…as you’ll soon find out…” Rolland continued, turning back to Helen. Jane, meanwhile, shuffled back to her original place, behind her master. “This is just one method of mind control they’ve developed. They have another rather amazing form…they call it the ‘cupid effect ray’ that can dominate a person remotely, without any outward sign, though unfortunately, the effects are only temporary…”

Helen gasped, eyes widening in shock. That was it! That was the secret behind the abductions, why there was no sign of a break-in. The victims were remotely enthralled by this…Cupid Ray…and compelled to walk outside where they could easily be picked up by the bots.

Admiral Rolland noticed Helen’s surprise. “Ah, I see you hadn’t figured out everything, yet. I suppose there’s plenty you still don’t know yet, that you’re dying to find out. Well, I might as well tell you, before these bots take you away. A final gift for your years of service to MASA...”

He paused a moment, inhaled before beginning. “You see, for some time, the mechanical beings of the planet Treah have had their eye on this world, since it had begun developing its large tourist industry. With thousands of people coming and going every year, who would notice if a few dozen or a few hundred women went missing? There was considerable jockeying among the Robolord hierarchy for this position, the head of this facility would have first pick of all the maids recruited off this world, both to fill his own harem of maids and to gift to other, important senior Units to improve his influence and power in the hierarchy.”

“The Robolord who eventually won the appointment was Arex 4391, as you know. He was a newer model, junior to many who had lobbied for the job, ambitious with a lot to prove. Unfortunately, the project ran into unforeseen problems which led to delays, which led to discontent among his superiors on Treah. They had invested a lot of resources into this project, and felt they weren’t seeing the results that investment demanded, and his rivals saw an opportunity. They began to push that he be removed from his position and replaced by a more experienced Robolord, naturally enough nominating themselves.”

Helen listened in stunned silence, as Rolland continued.

“As calls for his recall gained volume, Arex 4391 became desperate and reckless. He needed to do something big, something that would prove his abilities to his superiors and silence all detractors, and so he turned his attentions to St. Joanne’s Girls Academy.”

Rolland sighed. “I’m sure, with time and proper planning, the abductions from St. Joanne’s could have been carried out with a minimum of fuss…most of the students could have been picked up while on break, or during a school trip, spread out enough that no one noticed, but he didn’t have time and decided to kidnap them all in one night…even then, they probably could have covered it up, quietly shipped the girls off-world to begin their new lives as playthings to the bots and the bots could get to work running operations here in peace…” Rolland grimaced. “Except, unknown to them, there was a small group of AMAZONS on world.”

The older man shrugged. “My fault really. I usually pass on any reports of AMAZON activities that come to MASA’s attentions, but in this case we missed it. This was a small squad, six women who arrived on world separately. Their mission was to simply spy on the Benefactor facility here, observe them in preparation for a larger strike, but after the blatant mass abduction of a dozen and a half students, the AMAZONS also got a little reckless and launched an attack on the facility hoping to rescue the girls before they vanished into Bot space.” He shook his head.

“By all accounts, their attack never should have worked and they should have been quickly captured  and added to Arex 4391’s haul of maids, but for one reason or another, there were problems with the facility’s security procedures and, well, I’m sure you’re aware of what happened next. Normally, the bots would keep this covered up, but the nature of the attack and the death of the Robolord meant they couldn’t. They girls were quickly moved to a remove facility…not far from here, as a matter of fact. The Bots swept the place with the Neutrino Bomb, in case the Security Investigators should happen to discover DNA samples in the Benefactor Base which matched that of one of the girls recently abducted from a nearby girl’s academy, and they settled in to wait for the AMAZONs to be captured and the heat to die down before they ship the girls off-world…along with you, I’m afraid.”

Rolland nodded to the drones, turned and headed for the door, Jane shuffling along after him. Helen moaned into her gag in despair as the drones whirred back into life, lifting the helplessly squirming woman into the air. With blurring speed, the disks spun around Helen, until she was completely mummified from head to toe in several layers of sticky blue tape. The young woman whimpered as she felt the coils of tape slowly tighten, hugging every curve of her body without a millimeter of give.

In the pitch black darkness of her tight cocoon, Helen felt herself being grabbed with a pair of huge metal pinches. She was lifted into the air and pulled out of the cabin through one of the broken windows. Outside, hovering just above the cabin was some sort of large anti-gravity craft or bot. Helen could hear the soft whirring of its thrusters, the hum of the anti-gravity generator. They were far quieter than what she would expect from a craft of this size. Either this was the craft which had carried out the abductions, or one just like it.

As the mechanical arm tucked Helen up under the bulk of the large bot, she heard a muffled groan, coming from nearby. “Amanda Brown!” Helen thought to herself, with horror. Apparently, she had been captured and mummified in the same was as Helen.

Suddenly, the floating bot, shot forward. Helen cried out into her gag as the sudden acceleration took her by surprise. Even through the multiple layers of Blue tape wrapping her, Helen could feel the wind whipping by around her at incredible speed. Unseen, she could hear the tree branches whipping by, scant feet below her. Helen whimpered in fear as the bot stayed low, hugging the tree branches to stay undetected.

After a few terrifying minutes, that never-the-less felt like hours to the two terrified captives, helpless in their bonds, the bot came to a halt with the same abruptness it had begun it. As it slowly descended, Helen heard a loud clank, as an airlock opened underneath them. Helen whimpered fearfully as the doors slammed shut with worrying finality behind them.

A moment later, the bot halted once more. The tentacle holding Helen suddenly moved again, lowering its captive to the ground. A second later, Helen felt Amanda being set down beside her. Helen heard the bot’s thrusters boost it upwards again, slowly fading from hearing. For a few minutes, the two young women lay on the floor, squirming in vain against the tight coils of tape that wrapped them completely from head to toe. Helen moaned through her gag. Her nose itched, and despite all she could do, there was no way to scratch it.

Just then, Helen heard what sounded like a trio of bots approaching. The young woman felt one of them reach down and grab her, lifting the young woman up. She didn’t see what happened next, but a moment later, the cocoon of blue tape suddenly relaxed, losing its stickiness. Helen sighed in relief as the coils slid off her.

The young woman blinked in the sudden light as her blindfold fell away. After a moment, her eyes adjusted enough to let her see her captors. They were obviously Benefactors, one of the models of ‘Handlers’ that were usually seen around floating various Benefactor facilities, performing functions with their multiple arms.

The one standing over Helen reached down with one metal hand and quickly pulled away the rest of her tape cocoon. The young woman groaned as her sore limbs were released from their tight confinement. Her relief, and freedom, was brief. Ignoring Helen’s frightened protests; the bot grabbed the young woman’s arms and twisted them roughly behind her back.

Meanwhile, a second bot of the same kind as the first stepped forward, raising its own hands. From the tips of its two pincers, more tape of the kind that had been used to wrap Helen shot forward. Within minutes, the two bots had effectively bound Helen’s arms securely behind her back, wrapped her legs at the ankles and the knees and gagged her. Her new bonds, though not to the extreme before, were no less effective at rendering the former agent completely helpless.

The first bot reached up and slid one large pincer around Helen’s neck. When it released its grip, the young woman was surprised to find a thick collar, of some unknown material was locked around her neck. A thin leash of the same material as her bonds extended from the collar, held in her captor’s metal pincers.

Groaning softly through her gag, Helen explored her new restraints. Her arms, she found, were stringently bound, with not even the slightest give in them. Blue tape wrapped them up from her hands all the way up to her elbows, while several bands of the horrid stuff circled Helen’s chest, above and below her breasts, keeping her arms pinned tight against her back. Her legs, on the other hand, were left a small amount of movement, enough that she could slowly shuffle, inch by inch.

While Helen was squirming against her bonds in dismay, the bot holding her leash looking in with, what was obvious even to Helen was cruel enjoyment, the other two turned to the second squirming bundle of blue tape. From inside, Helen could hear muffled squeals as the bots picked it up and set the prisoner on her feet. As the two bots peeled away the layers of blue tape, Amanda slowly emerged from the cocoon. The young officer’s face was sweaty and flustered from her captivity. She looked at Helen, eyes wide with terror. “Lieutenant Pierce! Hel-mmmppphhh!!!” her cries were cut off as she was quickly bound and gagged the same way as Helen.

The lead bot reached up and attached a collar to Amanda. “You females will follow me…” it commanded in a sharp, electronic voice. It punctuated its command by yanking sharply on the two leashes held in its pincer, jerking the two helpless women forward suddenly. Helen groaned into her gag as she shuffled forward, trying to keep from being pulled over. Nearby, Amanda squealed into her gag as she nearly lost her balance, only barely regaining it before the bot tugged on their leashes again. “Come!” It ordered and turned, stomping forward. Helen and Amanda exchanged worried glances. The two of them shuffled forward, as fast as their bonds would allow, struggling to keep up with their captor…

The bot led his two captives through an open hatch into a long, dimly lit hallway. The floor, walls and ceiling were of dull metal. At the far end was another hatch. As the bot floated up to the hatch, the two women shuffling along behind him, the hatch slid open with a soft hiss. From inside the room, on the other side of the hatch, Helen heard a chorus of muffled groans. As she was dragged through at the end of her leash, the young woman’s eyes widened in horror.

Helen found herself in a long, narrow room. Lining the walls on either side of her were dozens of small alcoves. Inside each was a single captive female. All of them were young and pretty and they all looked at the two of them with expressions of terror and misery. Like the two officers, the prisoners were securely bound and gagged with straps of the same blue tape. Their bonds were fitted to the sides of the alcoves, holding them in place. Beneath their bonds, the captives were dressed in a variety of outfits, from business wear, to casual clothes. Quite a few were in skimpy swim wear. The bots had been busy, since their arrival on world, snatching girls off the beaches.

As Helen and Amanda were dragged, dumbfounded down the line of captives, it seemed to almost go on forever; they passed a number of girls and young women wearing pajamas. Almost immediately, Helen recognized the girls. She moaned through her gag, miserably. She’d finally found out where the missing girls from St. Joanne’s had been taken! They sobbed, watching the two officers shuffle past them, two more helpless captives held by the bots.

The handler bot came to a halt, in front of an empty alcove. Grabbing Helen with one of its free arms, it gently but firmly forced her to back up into the alcove. Moving quickly, it secured in inside with more Blue tape straps.

While Amanda was imprisoned in the next empty alcove, Helen glanced across the narrow corridor to the girl opposite her. It was one of the students; Helen recognized her face from the files. Though she was much younger, Helen had no trouble seeing the resemblance the girl bore to her uncle, Morris. The girl was looking back at Helen, a look of misery and defeat on her face.

Helen averted her gaze. She and all of the other women held captive here, must have been hoping since their capture that someone from MASA might show up to recognize them from this nightmare…and now, the first woman they see in a MASA uniform was just another helpless captive like the rest of them. She hung her head, tears welling up…

KRACKOOM!!! Along with the rest of the captives, Helen cried into her gag in surprise as the entire room shook with a blast. Two of the handlers were thrown together with a crash and fell to the floor, struggling to untangle their multiple limbs from each other. Off in the distance, Helen heard the muffled sound of alarms wailing, metal feet pounding as the bots rushed to the source of the explosion.

All around, the captive women were moaning loudly through their gags, struggling against their bonds. Helen did her best to block out the chaos around her, listening intently. Faintly, but still distinct, she could hear smaller explosions, echoing through the hallways of the base, steadily getting closer.

The hatch to the prison block opened and half a dozen bots entered. Though they were obviously of Benefactor design, these had little in common with the humanoid design of the Robolords or the boxy functionality of the Handlers and other utility bots. These brutes were obviously military in design, their thick, bulky chassis were low, the armor plating slanted to shrug off enemy fire. On its back was a large clamp; by this point, Helen had little doubts that it was to be used for anything other than securing helpless female captives.

Two of the military bots took up position guarding the door. The rest started going down the line, assisted by the Handlers who had finally manages to pick themselves up. At each alcove, the bots unstrapped the captive girl from inside. The hapless girl was quickly grabbed and cocooned once more in the Blue Tape. Within minutes that floor of the prison block was piled high with squirming bundles of tape, faint moans coming from inside revealing the poor captives trapped inside.

If Helen hadn’t figured out what was going on, another explosion echoed through the base, while bots hurried by outside, fleeing in the opposite direction with loud a clatter of metal feet. She’d been in enough firefights in her career as a MASA officer and agent to recognize a fighting withdrawal. The bots were fighting someone, fighting and losing, and now they were trying to evacuate their prize captives…

The bots had reached the girls in the alcoves next to Helen and Morris’ niece. Helen listened as the frightened girl nearby was roughly pulled from her cage and quickly wrapped from head to toe. Helen closed her eyes, dreading the thought of once more being cocooned in the horrid stuff once more, unable to wriggle even a finger, blind and deaf, helpless…

Suddenly, the prison door opened and Helen saw a trio of women wearing the green uniform of AMAZON ground forces rushed into the room. The bots guarded the door raised their pincers and short streams of blue tape at the enemy women. One of the women was hit and quickly fell to the ground, wrapped up. The other two raised their weapons.

For a moment nothing happened, then the two bots began to shake, before collapsing in a shower of sparks. Helen recalled seeing the security footage of the attack on the Benefactors mansion. The other guard bots turned, raising their weapon. Even as they did, one of them was hit, dropping one of the squirming bundles it was carrying and slumping over, shut down. The surviving Handlers dropped their own captives and fled, wailing in a high electronic voice.

Several more AMAZONs ran into the room, firing their strange weapons. In the ensuing ‘firefight’, two more of the AMAZONS were wrapped up, but the remaining bots were quickly eliminated. The women turned to check on their comrades and the captive girls. “Don’t worry…” one of the soldiers said, reaching down and scratching the nose of one of the girls lying on the floor. “We’re going to get you out of this in just a moment…”  

Relief flooded through Helen as she realized rescue was at hand. Suddenly it became too much for her and the young woman fainted…

***

“ugh…” Helen moan softly as she regained consciousness. Almost immediately, the intelligence agent realized she was lying in a strange bed. With that, all the memories of the previous day came rushing back; Admiral Rolland’s betrayal, the Benefactor’s secret agenda, her and officer Brown’s capture and rescue…

Helen opened her eyes. It was immediately apparent she was in a barracks of some sort. The large space was filled with a dozen or so metal-frame bunks. One wall was lined with large storage lockers. Looking around, Helen noticed several of the bunks, apart from hers were occupied by several sleeping women. She recognized a couple of them as prisoners from the Benefactor base.
 
Though there were no obvious security cameras, there must have been one, because a moment later the door to the room slid open with a soft hiss and a young woman wearing an AMAZON uniform stepped through.

As she walked across the room towards Helen’s bunk, Helen recognized her from the MASA files, the former MASA Sergeant Knotts. She smiled, spotting Helen. “Lieutenant Pierce…” she said, smiling. “Good to see you up. You passed out at the Benefactor base, one too many sudden shocks. The docs said you just needed some rest, so they gave you something to help you sleep.”

The other woman sat down on the side of the bed, sinking into the memory foam mattress. “In case you haven’t figured it out, you’re in the Sherwood Forest Nebula. We had to pull out fast, the Fremps were already scrambling forces to counterattack when we teleported out. For the last week, we’ve had a strike force standing by, ready to jump onto Koat IV, but we didn’t know where to send them.” She smiled at Helen, “Until you came in, that is. The last time we…err…met, while you were still unconscious, we injected a sub-cutaneous tracking device in you. It lay dormant for a few days before activating.”

She grinned. “Let’s just say it’s in a hard to reach spot and leave it at that. It’s designed to break down naturally after a while and leave your body. We knew, if you kept searching for the missing girls, eventually the Fremps would have no choice but to capture you before you traced the abductions back to them, and once they did they would most likely stash you away with the rest of the girls they’d grabbed.”  

“Well…” Helen replied, “I’m glad I could serve as your bait.” She thought for a moment. “What happened to Officer Morris?” If Rolland had tried to get her and Officer Brown out of the way to keep them from continuing their investigation, she was certain he was in danger as well!

“Don’t worry.” Knotts reassured Helen. “He got suspicious after finding out where you two had gone and left Security Headquarters. Luckily, we found him before the men Rolland send after him. He’s here right now, with his niece and Miss Brown.” She smiled. “The two women have already volunteered to join AMAZON. Miss Brown was quite eager, as a matter of fact.”  

Helen sighed with relief. “So…what happens now?”

Knotts shrugged. “Right now, we wait a couple days. All of the girls are doing fine right now, but a good number of them will need counseling after what they’ve gone through. We’ll also try to arrange to return them to their families, in a way that will ensure MASA and the Fremps won’t be able to just disappear them again.”

“Can’t you try and expose the ‘Benefactors’?” Helen asked. “You’ve got plenty of witnesses who can attest to what they’ve done, and you must have captured plenty of Benefactor tech that corroborates their stories?”

Knotts shook her head. “Most of the more advanced stuff is built to self-destruct in the event of capture. In about an hour, all we’re going to have is a couple hundred tons of scrap metal. And if we tried to produce witnesses you can bet the Fremps or MASA would quickly produce a dozen psychologists who would declare them to be either insane, lying or under the effects of mind control. That’s assuming they don’t just make sure they disappeared back into Fremp captivity.”

“Well, what can we do?” Helen asked, bitterly.

“We? You want to join us too?”

Helen nodded. “You already said it, I can’t go back to MASA, I’d just be handed over to the bots again. There’s nothing left for me here. I might as well join AMAZON and do whatever I can to stop them.”

“Well, in that case, welcome aboard, recruit.” Knotts extended a hand. “And as for what can we do, we do the only thing we can do: We fight back!”
The thrilling conclusion to the story, as Helen discovers the truth behind the disappearances and the assassination...

Episode One Assassination on Koat IV
Episode Two House of the Benefactors
Episode Three The Continuing Search
Episode Four Captive of the Amazons
Episode Five Secret of the FMP
© 2013 - 2024 Achast
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A well-done story that honestly seems almost publishable!