Frozen in Time
Round Four, Part 1Once all three resistance fighters were out of the duct, Jack replaced the metal grate that had covered the opening of the dark channel. Then he carefully hid any signs that might give away that the trio had ever been there.
He looked around, they had managed to escape to the large, hundred acre park that sat in the centre of the domed city.
Though the park was officially named City Central Park, it was called simply, 'central park'. A sign at the entrance to the large arboretum, explained what the real central park had once been, and where.
Jack smiled. He knew exactly where they were.
Luckily, ending up in the large expanse of greenery was part of a back up plan he had devised with the commander for one of those 'just in case' scenarios. He looked to Beverly; it was obvious that she was exhausted. The captain would need to rest, and Wade, well, he would need to take some time to recuperate too, they had all been through an ordeal. Jack scoped the angle of the rising sun, determined the direction they needed to follow and then turned to his companions, "Come on, I know where we can hole up and rest."
Beverly studied Jack's large, golden eyes, and then nodded knowingly, Jack's thoughts were made clear to her. "Okay, lead the way."
Wade looked between the two, knowing that were he back in the resistance's hidden city, he too would have understood their silent conversation; being away from the bunker so long, he had lost his newfound ability. He jumped up, stifled a yawn and put his arm around the woman to help her walk.
Jack looked back at the two behind him, and spoke to Wade.
"There is a secret cave to the east, beneath a large rock at the base of a sculpture of first Charles Spender. A sympathiser to the revolution had hidden emergency supplies in there. After we've rejuvenated, Beverly and I will be able to figure out a way to get back into the department of defence's computer." Jack smiled at his young lover and then turned back, his eyes intent on the dark path they must follow. From behind, he heard Wade say,
"And we have to find Fox and Alex..."
~zZz~
"When will your er....'friends' get here Charles." Asked Mulder, noting that a half an hour had already passed since the Lieutenant Commander had first made the cryptic call.
"It's Chaz." Morrison peeked out the main door again, making sure that Alderton and Lermontov were not yet returning. It was four in the morning, but in the domed city, there was no such thing as set time.
Everything and everybody, worked and played twenty four-seven.
"Pardon?" Mulder stepped up behind the tall blond and tried to peek over his shoulder, reassuring himself that the minister was not stalking down the hall.
"My name is Chaz or Morrison or just plain Lieutenant Commander if you prefer." Morrison shut the door and turned to face Mulder. "I was named, like many other first family son's, after Charles Spender." His vivid blue eyes turned arctic-icy. "I'm not that fond of my name sake."
"All right." Mulder murmured, stepping back and away from the Lieutenant.
"Shhhh....." Hissed Morrison. "What's that?" He whispered.
"I don't hear...." Started Mulder, then he stopped. There was a soft knock on the balcony door.
"It's them." Morrison said. He walked over to the glass doors, peeked out the curtains, and once certain as to who was out there, he keyed in the numbers and turned off the alarm then he unlocked the door and held it open for his two comrades.
"Sorry it took us so long, but there's a major pow-wow taking place in the meeting room down stairs." Said one man, whose blond hair reminded Mulder of his long gone friend Langley. "Every big-wig from miles around is here, it sounds like they are making plans to annihilate the resistance once and for all."
"I know...I know..." Said the other, anonymous man. "You don't want to hear about it, but I'm telling you Chaz, something big is brewing."
The second man, had red hair and freckles, and Mulder silently dubbed him Scully. Fox stifled the longing he still felt for his former partner, and instead, replaced his pain for the dead with heartache for the living.
Alex...that's all that mattered at this point, just Alex.
"Listen Mango," The Lieutenant Commander said to the red-headed man, "I don't have a lot of time, and my story is too long to explain, so just let me say this... suddenly I'm starting to see things very clearly. And I know now that my allegiance to the Consortium and to the first families was misguided. I want to help the resistance, in any way I can. But first, we have to find..." the Lieutenant looked over to Mulder, "a friend. A very important friend. But we can't do that with these on." He pulled down the collar of his black turtleneck and showed the two men the discipline collar he wore. "Can you get them off?"
'Langley' snapped his fingers, "No problem Chaz. But you know, once I bypass the code, you and the *Face* over there,"
Mulder scowled at the blond man, he did not appreciate being called 'face'.
"...will be outlaws, there's no going back."
"I know, I know. I have to do this." Charles swallowed hard. He would be giving up all he knew, his career, his family and all the luxuries in life that went with them. But the last week with General Alderton had taught him just how meaningless all these things were.
Life was meaningless without the freedom to decide one's own fate.
"Right then." Nodded 'Langley', "Let me start working." He led the Lieutenant to a chair and started hacking into the small computer, which held the secret release code for the collar.
"So who's this friend you're searching for?"
The red head that Mulder had named Scully turned and asked him.
Unsure of how much to say, he turned to Morrison who gave a small nod of his head.
Mulder stated, "Were looking for Alex Krycek."
"*THE* Alex Krycek?" Mango said. Surprised. There had been some talk that the original leader had lived, but Mango chalked that up that rumour as false. He figured that it was originating from the resistance city in order to boost the moral of those very few who fought from inside the City of Domes.
"The one and only." Sighed Charles. "Can't you hurry it up Helix?" He grouched to the blond man.
"I'm trying, but the code is protected with a fire wall, I need to get around it."
Mango went over to a computer that sat in a corner of the room and started pushing buttons on the screen. With in seconds, a piece of paper was coming out of the slim line printer. He picked it up and handed the page to Morrison.
"This him?" Mango asked.
Morrison's eyes skimmed over the set of six pictures on the twelve by twelve-inch piece of paper. His heart sank and worry, for what was happening to the most beautiful man he had ever seen settled over him like a wet blanked.
"Shit. It's him." Chaz mumbled, he looked away from the page and held out the paper to Mulder.
"What?" Mulder asked. The anxiety in his voice evident to all those in the room.
Fox grabbed the paper and looked at the pictures. He was shocked at what he saw.
In the first two pictures, Alex was sitting inside a small cage, his knees pulled up to just below his chin and his arms were wrapped around his shins. Mulder thought that his lover looked cold, his lips had a slight bluish tinge to them and there was a small smear of dirt on his left cheekbone. Fox was suddenly reminded of the time that Alex sat on a pile bagged cow shit wearing handcuffs and declaring that he was saving humanity from terrorists.
Mulder sighed, and went back to studying the photos.
Alex's eyes, looked just to the right of the photographer and Fox could see that his lover was unaware of his picture being taken. Other wise he would have given the camera one of his usual looks of disdain rather then the look of loneliness and longing that was on his face at that moment. Mulder thought that in the instant the picture had been taken, Alex had never look more beautiful.
Vulnerability was not an emotion the Russian wore often.
The other two pictures showed Alex on the auction block, wearing nothing but a long cotton tunic. There was a ball gag in his mouth and his hands were glued to his sides by some sort of metal bracelets. Mulder could tell what his lover was thinking just by the look in his eyes. The Russian was furious. The fifth picture was of Alex with his tunic up, baring his ample maleness. Mulder's cheeks reddened with rage, the man auctioning off Alex was holding his genitals, Alex was looking away, but the shame was still evident in his sharp cheekbones. And finally, the sixth picture showed Alex being led away by a blond man who was shorter and smaller in stature than his Russian lover. Mulder could not tell who the man in the picture was because it was taken from behind. Fox looked up from the page and said angrily to Mango, "Where were these taken? What has happened to Alex?"
"Hey don't shoot the messenger, Face...." Mango held up his hands as if to ward off the taller brunette whose name he did not even know should he attack. "They were taken at the black market slave auction down in the vice dome."
The blond broke the coding on the Lieutenants collar and threw an angry look to the red head. "You promised me you weren't going to go there anymore." He accused the man.
"I promise, I was only looking." He made a face that could only be described as 'puppy dog', and silently begged the blond for forgiveness.
Mulder realized that these two were lovers. Morrison stood and Mulder replaced him in the chair. The man named Helix, scowled at Mango and said, "We'll talk about this later." The he bent his head and went to work on Mulder's collar.
"Tell me about the auction Mango." Morrison took the paper from Mulder and looked over the photos again. Suddenly, he was ashamed to be part of the rich, first family's.
"It was a usual night of auctioning off slaves. Most of them went to the brothels to seed the establishments with new blood, a few went to private dealers. The very last person of the night was Krycek. Or, well, I thought he looked like Krycek I didn't know he was the real thing. The crowd was crazy for him, seeing as he's so pretty...."
Both Mulder and Helix hmmphed and scowled in unison at that comment.
Mango glanced their way, but ignored them. "....but when the slave master showed the crowd that he was a natural born, they went wild, the bidding went higher than I've ever seen it before."
"Who ended up buying Alex?" Morrison interrupted Mango, before Mulder got any angrier.
Mango swallowed hard than said, soft. "Charles Spender."
"Junior or Senior?" Charles said fearfully.
"Junior of course... it is a man that was bought." Replied Mango in an exaggerated tone.
"Fuck... fuck and fuck!" raged Morrison.
"What's the matter?" Fox asked, just as his collar fell away. He looked between Mango and Morrison, but it was Helix who answered him.
"Charles Spender the fifth is known in some circles as the 'torturer'."
"What...?" Mulder asked softly.
Morrison finished for Helix. Better, that Fox should hear it coming from him. "Junior, as we in the first family circles call him, is notorious for being hard on his latest... er... male companions," the Lieutenant had almost said, 'toys' but he knew that no matter the context, Mulder would not understand the adjective.
"Jesus Christ. He looks so small and young from behind."
"He is young, but not that small. It doesn't matter, once your under another's control, they are free to do anything they want to you." Chaz unconsciously rubbed at the painful welts at the small of his back. "Junior starts out all nice and sweet, making his slave think that they have the upper hand, but it's just and act. He has a cruel streak in him that make Alderton and Lermontov appear nice."
Mango added a very unhelpful, "Yeah, some of his slaves have even died."
Helix slapped at the back of his lover's head. "Shut up you shithead, this is Krycek's lover you idiot, and your *not* helping by talking like that."
"Ouch." Said Mango, he scowled at his lover, but wisely, kept his mouth shut.
"Well, at least we know where to find him. How long has Junior had him?" Morrison picked up a small duffle bag and tossed it to Mulder, the he grabbed his own. It was time they got going.'
"Not long," Helix said, "the slave auction was only three days ago."
Mulder was relieved, the kid wouldn't have had enough time to hurt Alex too much in such a short time; or at least he hoped not.
"Well, lets get the hell out of here, then we can make a plan for retrieving Alex."
The Lieutenant Commander opened the balcony doors and indicated that the others should go through it. He hesitated for a few seconds at the threshold, knowing that once he left this room, all that he knew would be lost to him.
"Fuck it." Morrison muttered, then he stepped out into the recycled air of the dome.
~zZz~
Spender Junior crawled out of his large bed and pulled the soft blankets with him. He stared, eyes fixed on Alex's prone form. The grin that played at the edges of his full mouth fell somewhere between innocent and lascivious.
"What?" sighed Alex. As if he couldn't guess what was on the much younger man's mind.
"Last I heard, you only had one and a quarter arms. What happened?"
Alex glanced down at his arm and frowned, then he cleared his face. "I don't know." He replied honestly. "I was forced down by one of your *esteemed*..." Alex sneered when he said the word esteemed, "....ancestors and shot up full of tranks. That's all I remember until I was revived by a bunch of soldiers and scientists."
Charles grinned and to Alex, it looked like his 'owner' had a secret.
"Listen," Alex said, trying to sound bored. "Are you going to stand there all morning staring at me, or do you mind if I get up and go piss?"
Spender Junior gestured and Alex stood. He looked around, searching for the tunic he had worn, he didn't actually have any clothes but he could not see it.
"Uhhhmmm, am I supposed to walk around naked all day or can I get dressed." Alex's voice had taken on a very sarcastic tone.
"Over there, top drawer." Charles dropped the blankets to the floor and pointed to a three-drawer chest. "that's yours."
Alex padded over and pulled out a pair of black boxer shorts from the top drawer. He put them on and the fabric, which had started out loose, immediately shrunk so that it was form fitting over his ass and genitals. He looked down, the underwear were so form fitting that it looked like the cotton-like fibres were painted on. At first, he doubted their comfort, but after a few experimental moves, Alex gave his silent approval. In the second drawer, was a Tee shirt, matching in colour and made of the exact same material.
"Mmmm...mmmm." Murmured Spender Junior after Alex had put on the Tee shirt.
Alex heard him and frowned as he turned his back on the young man and padded bare foot toward the large bathroom. ~zZz~
Charles watched Alex leave, as soon as his slave was out of sight, he got onto the video communicator.
"Chambers." The face of a middle aged man with curly greying hair popped up on the screen.
"Tyler, it's Charles. I bought a new man yesterday. Can you pop by today and check him over. He came with a clean bill of health, but still, I'd fell better if you gave him the once over."
Chambers leered, he was usually very fond of the men that Spender Junior had brought home to play with. Generally, the new toys stayed with Charles anywhere from one week to almost five weeks. But no matter how good looking the new slave was, Spender always, always tired of them and once he did, the man would be sent to Spender's very profitable, very exclusive brothel in the trendy west dome district. That is if the love slave survived the young man's particular predilections. Chambers knew that if he really liked what he saw today, then he'd be able to visit the new guy at the brothel, all he had to do was wait and save his money. Actually, black market credits were quite easily come by; there was always a rich society man who would want another facelift off the record and would pay dearly for the doctor's discretion.
"Have the necessary precautions been taken?" Chambers asked, his penis just beginning to swell with thoughts of a delicious young man to fuck.
Junior nodded. "When he was out of it, before I took him home, the auction security implanted the alarm and the back up device. Alex doesn't even know what he's got inside of him yet...."
It was at that point in the conversation that the two men were interrupted by loud howls of pain.
Chambers liked the name Alex.
He smiled, "I'm see he realizes it now."
"I'd better go Tyler, see you in a couple of hours."
The doctor nodded. "Chambers out." he said, then the screens went black.
~zZz~
Alex emerged from the bathroom. He could hear Spender Junior talking to someone, and a plan formulated with in seconds.
With the 'kid' distracted, Alex made a break for his freedom. He spun silently and on the tips of his bare toes, ran to the front door. He grabbed the handle pulled open the door and stepped through. The instant that his second foot followed him out he was hit by a wall of pain that was so severe, that he had only felt something like it once before in his life; when he'd lost his arm. And the memories of that time were so painful of an experience that he'd never forget what it had felt like; no matter how many centuries passed him by.
Alex dropped to his knees immediately, the intense ache that pulsed inside his head blinded his vision and a few seconds later, an excruciating hot jolt of throbbing, stinging pulses radiated through his entire body temporarily turning his muscles to mush.
Alex's bid for freedom was over even before it began.
~zZz~
Alex's eyes fluttered open and focused in on a face that he did not recognise.
"Sit up Alex." Instructed Dr. Chambers.
Alex did so, but with help from the older man. He sat silently, his energy too drained for him to even ask who the doctor was or why he was examining him. The doctor instructed Alex to breath deeply, which he did, but with great effort.
Chamber's nodded put away his palm sized stethoscope and lay a comforting hand across Alex's forehead.
"The obedience implant really takes a lot out of a person."
He pulled his hand away. This slave had spunk, the doctor knew that barring intentional death, he would be spending much of his extra credits on taking his pleasure from him.
"In case your wondering what an obedience implant is, it's a microchip that's been inserted into your wrist." The doctor picked up Alex's left hand and turned it over.
Just beneath the skin, Alex could make out a small dark object, about the size of an American quarter. "If you leave this apartment with out Charles permission, the device immediately reacts. And if you are out with your master, and you are more than one meter from his side, a tiny bomb, placed just behind your left nipple," Chambers gently brushed his other hand over Alex's copper coloured nipple.
Alex feebly pushed the older man's hand away. "Don't." he managed.
The doctor laughed softly. "Oh Alex, won't be saying *that* word to your master."
Chambers knew very well how rough the younger Spender liked to play. "Any way, as I was saying, there is a tiny device in your chest, and if you try to run away while in public, it will go off, killing you and like those closest around you instantly."
The older man shrugged and stood up, he had a bulge in his pants from being so near, and touching Alex. The doctor was surprised. This slave was older than the usual ones that Charles was so fond of, but then again, this one was a natural born, the man's foreskin was enough of a draw, but then to be so beautiful on top of it all, no wonder Charles couldn't resist. "Do me a favour emerald-eyes," The Doctor cupped Alex's chin and prevented him from pulling his head away, "try to stay alive, I'd like to fuck you eventually."
Alex scowled up the doctor and then managed to pull his face away. "Piss off you old perve." He hissed softly.
"Oh... you've got spunk, emerald-eyes, I'm positive you'll live through the games Junior likes to play." With that, the doctor left the room.
Alex flopped back onto the bed. His head still throbbed and his muscles still ached from the experience. He wondered to himself if he'd even be able to get away from his captor. "Perhaps", he thought to himself, "it would be better to tough it out then take my chances at the brothel that the doctor was blabbing on about. They'd remove they would implants there, wouldn't they?"
As he thought of ways to try and escape, Alex's eyes shuttered close.
~zZz~
"Wake up Lover boy..." Charles stood over the sleeping Alex, running a long ostrich feather over his face.
Alex came awake. He rubbed his eyes and sighed, his body still felt like shit, but at least his headache was gone. "I'm not a boy, I'm a man." He said, his voice was matter of fact, not hostile at all.
Alex wondered if the drugs that the cancer man had put into him were somehow affecting his looks. When he was at the army barracks, he noticed that all of his and Fox's wrinkles had disappeared and that his skin, over his entire body was no longer lined. Maybe his features were still regressing. Well, he could deal with that, after all, he wasn't that fond of being 36 three centuries ago.
"Well you look young enough to be considered a boy, but still, I suppose you're right." Spender Junior placed the feather on the table and picked up a different device, one that reminded Alex of a policeman's nightstick, only slightly shorter. He turned it on, and a pale pink beam of laser light came out of the end.
"What's that, your light sabre?" Alex asked sarcastically, for the stick looked just like something Luke Skywalker would yield in a battle.
Junior gave his slave a puzzled look, he didn't understand what he was talking about. "No, it's my pleasure baton....you see, giving you pain, gives me pleasure..." With that, he ran the beam of light over Alex's tender abdomen and a red, painful welt immediately formed.
Alex yelped, the laser stung like the tentacles of a poisonous jellyfish. He tried to cover up the wound and to protect himself at the same time, but Charles flicked the baton at Alex and the burning light ran up his bare chest and across his neck. Alex yelled again and rolled to his side, it was then that he saw the younger man's erection forming in his tight fitting leather shorts. Junior struck him again and again, the pink light leaving its traces of pain on Alex's delicate flesh.
Now, Alex knew what the doctor meant about surviving Junior's games.
He hoped with everything in his heart that his beloved Mulder was not suffering through the same experiences that he was.
~zZz~
Aqualegia's next!
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