Chapter 513
Chapter 513
Owen lost count of the days he had been trapped aboard the bio-ship. He knew it had been several days since Jake escaped from the living vessel, but the exact number eluded him.
His Enhanced Intelligence worked like a built-in processor, helping him calculate things like that. However, the skill had been malfunctioning during the past several days. The reason for that was the captain of the bio-ship messing with his mind.
After Jake escaped from the living vessel, Owen was brought back to his cell, where he was left alone for a couple of hours. He didn’t know what was happening outside the bio-ship, or in the other parts of the vessel, for that matter. He assumed the synthetic creatures kept trying to catch Jake, so Owen hoped he would be able to give them the slip.
When a couple of hours passed without anything happening around him at all, he assumed Jake had managed to escape. It was a relief. At least one of them had managed to do it.
Sure enough, Owen didn’t just obediently await his fate. No, after his limbs regrew, he kept trying to break out of his cell, cycling through every ability he had one by one. He also made use of the power claws Mick had developed for him.
However, no matter what he did or how hard he tried, he just couldn’t break out. The force field, as well as the regular walls of his cell, didn’t budge at all, completely absorbing his fierce attacks.
Since the brain chip was active all the time, Mick likely could still see through his eyes, so his friend was aware of his predicament. But there was nothing Mick could do to help him out. He had been locked out of the bio-ship’s systems, and apparently, he still hadn’t been able to take control of them again.
Another hour passed before several synths came to his cell. They clearly wanted to take him somewhere, but Owen wasn’t planning to play by their rules. As soon as the force field disappeared, he killed the synths and then attempted to escape.
However, without Mick opening doors for him, he didn’t get far. He wasn’t even able to get out of the chamber where the cells were located. When another group of synths showed up, he took them out as well. And the next several groups, too.
But eventually, his luck ran out. He was caught and locked in one of the cells again. After that, he was left alone for a few more hours. Eventually, he was visited again. Only this time, it wasn’t a group of synths that came after him, but the captain of the ship himself.
That creature was disgusting-looking. More than anything, it resembled a larva, only it was the size of a huge grizzly bear. It didn’t have any limbs or appendages. Apparently, it couldn’t even move on its own, because it used what looked like a streamlined metal chair to move around. The chair hovered three feet above the floor, and the creature had to control it telepathically, as the chair didn’t have any visible controls.
Unlike the synthetic creatures he and Jake had fought earlier, this one was clearly intelligent. The creature was called a Grafter. Or at least that was what the Whisperers called creatures like it, as Owen would learn later. There were other creatures like that one, but not on that bio-ship. There was only one Grafter on the living vessel, while the rest of the creatures were synths controlled by the ship’s captain.
The hover chair stopped on the other side of the force field of his cell and rotated until the Grafter faced Owen. He almost immediately felt someone intruding into his thoughts. He quickly realized that the Grafter was trying to take control of his mind and reduce him to another obedient puppet like those synthetic creatures.
Owen resisted the mind control as hard as he could and eventually was able to push the Grafter’s presence out of his mind. Unfortunately, the disgusting creature wasn’t going to give up that easily. It left, leaving him alone. But not for long. A couple of hours later, it returned for another attempt to telepathically subjugate him.
It became a routine. For the next several days, the Grafter visited him, entering his mind and trying to bring him under its control. Every time, Owen was eventually able to push the Grafter out of his mind. However, he kept growing weaker. He knew that sooner or later, he would break and the Grafter would take control of him.
And one day, it finally happened. As the Grafter’s mind entered Owen’s, he felt incapable of resisting the alien influence. He tried as hard as he could, but this time he couldn’t push the Grafter out of his mind. The alien entity took him under full control.
Then the larva-like being deactivated the force field and instructed Owen to step out of his cell. His body did as it was told, even though Owen’s mind tried to resist. He knew that the Grafter could control his actions only while it maintained its mental grip on his mind. As soon as it released or even lessened that grip, Owen would regain control of his body, and the moment that happened, he was going to take full advantage of it.
However, the Grafter wasn’t planning to lessen its grip on his mind just yet. The creature made Owen move down the corridor, following closely behind him. For the next several minutes, he was led through one corridor after another until they finally left the living vessel.
Owen found himself in some kind of huge hangar. It had to be the Grafters’ base. There were many bio-ships similar to the one they had arrived in. Lots and lots of synthetic creatures of all kinds milled around the area.
However, he wasn’t given an opportunity to take a good look around. His captor made him head deeper into the base until he was locked away in another cell.
The next several days turned into a nightmare for him. There were plenty of other Grafters in the base, and they took turns studying and experimenting on him with their machinery. The brain chip and the two pieces of tech Mick had implanted were discovered and extracted from his body. After that, the Grafters implanted tech of their own design, fusing his body with several weapons and devices.
While there were plenty of various synthetic creatures at the base, it had only a handful of Grafters. Apparently, this species didn’t have many members. They captured other beings of all kinds and turned them into either working drones or combat units.
And that was exactly what they had done with him. They had turned him into their obedient soldier, equipping and arming him with various types of tech and weaponry. The brain chip they had implanted into his head made him basically their slave. While his mind still belonged to him, his body did everything the alien brain chip told him to.
After the Grafters were done with him, they began to prepare one of their living vessels for another journey. This bio-ship was larger and more powerful than the one he and Jake had been brought to. All kinds of synthetic combat creatures were brought aboard. Some of them were the types he and Jake had fought a few days before, while others were entirely different.
Owen was among the combat units that entered the bio-ship. This time, he wasn’t locked in a cell. There was no longer a need for that. With the alien brain chip, he was now the Grafters’ obedient marionette.
Only one of those alien larva-like creatures boarded the bio-ship, though. It was the same being that had broken Owen’s will before. The rest of the Grafters remained at the base. Once everything was ready and every combat unit had boarded the bio-ship, it finally departed.
Owen knew exactly where the living vessel was headed. Its destination was Dead City, and its goal was to make another attempt to capture Jake so that he could be turned into an obedient combat unit like him.
Owen wished he could warn Jake somehow. But of course, he couldn’t. He knew that once Jake was located, all the synthetic creatures would be sent against him. And sure enough, Owen would be forced to fight him as well.
He had no desire to fight him. While they hadn’t known each other for long, he already thought of Jake as a friend. However, the Grafters didn’t care what he thought or what he wanted. When Jake was located, he would be forced to attack his friend alongside the other synths.
The weaponry the Grafters had fused into his body was powerful and deadly. And the other synths aboard the bio-ship were far more dangerous than the ones he and Jake had fought before. His friend was in big trouble.
Owen had no desire to go against him. But he knew that when the signal from the brain chip ordered him to do so, his body would obey whether he wanted it to or not. He would be absolutely powerless to resist.
He couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t escape. Couldn’t warn his friend. Resisting the brain chip was impossible. The only thing he could do was simply hope that Jake would be ready when they came for him.