Krekilesh was displeased. He had been asked to capture more of the heretics so that some who might take the spawn of a godling could be found. They would be used as spies once again. It seemed that the lessons of the most recent failures had not sunken in. He had pleaded that the gods not waste their young on such an endeavor. That it was certain to end in failure, especially now that the heretics knew how to find the infant godlings.

As usual, his words fell to the earth, unheard and cast aside as dead scales might be. Perhaps his long service to the gods was at an end. Perhaps his skills were no longer needed, and he should just find a mate to carry eggs for. He knew that was not the case, though. He would carry on, for he knew that one day his loyalty would be rewarded. This was merely a test of his faith, and he would not waver.

Uthlanga – Former Human Colony – Contested Territory

Dan woke up to a dry throat and a resounding headache. Grimacing, he opened his eyes only to be met by a harsh, bright light. He quickly shut them again and instead just tried to sit up, only to have his motion arrested by straps across his chest and arms. He quickly found his wrists and legs had also been bound, and a pit began to form in his stomach.

He opened his eyes again, blinking rapidly to allow his eyes to get used to the harsh light, and found that he was in a fairly bare room that looked to be made of concrete. He looked around as best as he could and found that whoever had him bound here had hooked him up to an IV bag of some sort. Everything looked slightly cobbled together and haphazard. Everything except the clearly alien device that seemed to be monitoring his vitals.

Dan sighed, just over a week after landing on planet, and he’d been captured by the enemy. He seemed to have a propensity for being captured by the enemy. Perhaps this time, he could do something besides rot away in a cell. He doubted it, but it was worth trying. First, he had to try and glean information about where he was and the goals of his captors.

The Slugs weren’t well known for capturing humans alive. Their standard operating procedure seemed to be genocide. Which struck Dan as odd given the variety of species that seemed to serve under them. Realistically there wasn’t much about this war that did make sense, and there wasn’t much point in thinking about it right now.

Switching his train of thought, Dan looked at the device that seemed to be monitoring him. The shell seemed to be some variety of plastic which was familiar enough. There weren’t any visible wires, but he could feel that there were some sort of sensors attached to his chest and head, which probably meant some sort of wireless pairing. That also probably meant it had informed his captors he was awake, but he’d worry about that when they actually came to check on him.

The truly strange part of the machine was the display which was clearly some sort of organic interface that looked like it had grown perfectly into place from inside the plastic shell. The rim of it, as well as the buttons near it seemed, fleshy. He didn’t have a better way to describe it other than that. The leathery gray skin looked unpleasant and likely wasn’t any more desirable to touch.

All of that lined up with what he’d been briefed on in his brief time with the Avalon Fleet so far. The Slugs seemed to prefer genetically engineered biotechnology. They also seemed to have some ability to interface with many of their devices that bypassed normal controls. In many ways, it was similar in function to the cranial implants that some humans received to better interface with computer systems.

Dan wondered if he hurt a device a Slug was connected to and if they would feel pain through the device. That is, if the devices they deployed were even capable of feeling pain. That hadn’t been covered under his briefing, but he assumed that they probably didn’t. There wasn’t much sense in having a device feel pain, at least not in a traditional sense. It wouldn’t hurt to try it at some point though, if he could find an opportunity.

This, of course, brought him to his biggest bind at the moment, him being bound to what looked like a normal human medical bed. He wouldn’t be surprised if the aliens scavenged it from a hospital on the planet or something. It certainly looked like it had seen better days. But it was functional, and the bedding at least seemed clean. Though if someone didn’t let him up and give him access to a toilet soon, that might not stay true.

Dan’s musings on his surroundings were abruptly interrupted by steady tapping sounds from the floor. Confused, Dan tried to get a better look at where they were coming from, but his inability to sit up kept him from seeing what it might be. Eventually, the tapping sounds stopped, and what must have been a trap door creaked open, and two aliens crawled out.

Dan shuddered at their appearance. They weren’t exactly spiders, but they certainly looked like three-foot tall spiders. Only they had four legs and two arms that doubled as legs if necessary. He’d also been briefed on these aliens. They primarily took up technical roles, but more than a few of them were used as infiltrator units. Even now, units made of this species were sometimes able to slip through the frontlines undetected and wreak havoc.

One of the spiders was unmistakably holding a gun and was keeping it trained on Dan, who found that rather amusing. He didn’t know what they thought he was capable of while he was tied up like this. He turned his attention to the other spider who was interacting with the monitoring device. It made some low clicking sounds and then turned to Dan.

The spider began to make a series of high-pitched chittering sounds that Dan assumed was its version of speaking, not that he could understand it. Moments after it finished, the monitoring device began to spew out words in fluent, natural-sounding standard, which took Dan by surprise, causing him to miss the first few words. “..captured by the holy crusade of purging light and you will submit to will of a newborn god. If you are compatible you will be sent back to your people as an emissary of the will of the gods and work in their name.”

Dan didn’t bother to respond. He didn’t really see the point in talking to the aliens that were about to torture him and then implant him with a mind-controlling parasite. He wondered why they didn’t just implant the parasite immediately? Perhaps there was a higher chance of success if they broke him down enough?

Dan’s thoughts were interrupted by more alien speech followed by the machine translation. “You will submit in time tainted one. You will aid in the salvation-destruction of your species one way or another. The device behind me should be finished administering tranquilizer soon.”

Dan didn’t have time to properly process what the spider said when he suddenly started to feel very tired.

***

Light filtered into Dan’s eyes. His head felt like it was in a fog and was pounding. He wasn’t lying down this time. His arms and legs were outstretched and bound to something. He could feel some sort of cloth covering his eyes, and when he opened his eyes, a little bit of light filtered through. As he started to collect himself, he heard a tone emit to his left, followed by a strange grinding noise in front of him.

A nearby machine translated the strange noises into human speech, “Greetings human, you are the first we have captured in some time. The failures of our latest coversions weighs heavily upon me and my commander. We have been loathe to attempt more of them since. However the gods have spoken and yet more of their young are eager to join the fight as spies and saboteurs. So you have been selected, but first you must be broken.”

Dan remained silent even after the alien finished speaking. The alien’s choice of topic was unsurprising, he had already been told this much already. He was not thrilled at the prospect of being trapped in his own mind as another being controlled him and read through his memories. At least for now, he needed to stall to prevent that fate. He would just have to remain silent until he could somehow either find a way to escape or, failing that, take his own life.

He hoped it would not come to that, but it would be foolish to completely rule out that option. This was war after all, and the sacrifice of one could save the lives of many. He thought of his homeworld and all the people there who just wanted to live out their lives in peace. They wouldn’t have the opportunity if The Avalon Fleet folded. And so he wouldn’t give in either. He would keep what he knew from these creatures.

“Silence, typical of your kind it would seem.” The stranging grinding and chittering continued on as the machine-translated the alien’s speech. “It is no matter, you will speak in time. You might find out methods unusual though human. We have found that rather than pain it is far easier to break your kind with continuous discomfort. I will leave now. I will return eventually and perhaps then you will be willing to talk.”

There were the sounds of footsteps and the click of some sort of latch. Then there was a continuous low drone interrupted by sudden bursts of high-pitched tones at random intervals and frequency. The smell of sewage leaked into the room, and Dan began to understand what the alien had meant by mild discomfort being more effective than pain.

It was a strange way to torture someone, but between the irregular sounds, the smell, and the almost total light deprivation would almost certainly begin to wear on a person. Being bound upright with tight restraints that chafed the skin added to the uncomfortable situation. If you combined all of that with the sheer boredom from just being left to hang around, then he could see how it would be effective.

He imagined that they would clear the smell and stop the sound whenever the alien came back to ask questions to train him to view the presence of his torturer with relief. The big question is why they needed to ‘break him’ before introducing one of the slugs? There was definitely something strange that he was not aware of going on here.

Dan pondered the question for a long time without coming to an answer. He let his mind drift, and true to his predictions the smell would dissipate shortly before his interrogator’s return, followed by the sounds stopping. He continued to stay silent for many visits.

Hunger and thirst gnawed at him. He knew they were keeping him just barely alive with a continuous feed of fluids and nutrients through intravenous tubes, but it did nothing to quiet his stomach. He found himself longing for the times when his body passed out from exhaustion. That and the occasional visits from his captors to check on his state of mind were his only source of relief.

He held strong though. The thought of being enslaved to one of the Slugs kept him from breaking. If he could just survive this interrogation long enough, then something would happen to be the catalyst for his escape. Or perhaps his death. That was the hope he clung to. It was a desperate hope, but it was better than none at all.