New Gaioterra Republic

By Dream Janus

Disclaimer: All rights are protected and the story cannot be reproduced without permission.

This story is a work of fiction and contains scenes of gay sex between consenting individuals. If you find this offensive, are under the age of 18, it is illegal wherever you are to read this, stop reading now. Leave this site. If harsh language offends you, please exit this page immediately. You have been warned. This work of fiction is property of myself and may not be copied or used in any way without my express consent.

Much thanks and appreciation goes to Rubilacxe and Tight141 my editors as well as my second and third set of eyes.

Note from Dream Janus: I now have a presence in Yahoo groups.

On Yahoo, it is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dream_janus_stories/

If you want, I can be emailed at dreamjanus@yahoo.com.

Chapter Three - Reboot Three

Over the next week, Josh began to look at Terry with a mixture of hero worship and what he came to consider as love. He adored the time that he was be wrapped in Terry's arms as they slept, the warmth and muscles. Josh felt the concern Terry showed toward him as they spent time on the Bridge and investigating the massive ship's corridors.

Both boys spent the time during their investigations talking, sometimes about their old lives, other times how things had changed and what they wanted to see in the future. They alternated who held whom every so often as they slept. Terry would go to sleep holding Josh and they would wake-up with Josh holding Terry just as tightly. Jay even became aware of it and encouraged Bobby to sleep in his own room that had not been successful at that point.

One day about half way through the week, Terry and Josh decided to investigate the core sections of the ship. By now both of them had the English/Gaioterran translation interface uploaded into their brains and could read the signs in the more secure locations of Talis. Terry had even told Talis to open the more secure sections to Josh and himself.

They walked down a long hallway and found a door marked Agro-Organics, a bit further along they saw another marked Bio-Weaponry, a third marked Bio-Armory and even further down a fourth door read Bio-Transformative Augmentation. Neither Terry nor Josh knew what any of the doors meant and Talis was unexpectantly silent about them and only said, "Have a look."

When Terry and Josh opened the door to Agro-Organics, they found the room was several acres long and a half-acre across. The room's temperature was several degrees higher than the hallway, with ninety percent humidity and the room had an artificial light source that altered their vision from the common light of the rest of the ship into a magenta based light. It took both teens a few moments for their eyes to adjust. What neither knew was that after that initial adjustment their eyes would adjust to the magenta light instantly from then on. The floor of the room consisted of rows after rows of what appeared to be an assortment of different plants. Some of the rows contained plants that were almost too small to see, while others held massive pods larger than either Terry or Josh.

As they walked between the rows of plants, they met non-aware androids tending to the plants. Terry watched as one of the androids cut a melon-sized pod from its stalk. The pod then opened on its own and revealed three large chunks of a red glowing material similar to a softball-sized ruby. "That looks like the material in the database known as Tammelick (Tam-ell-ick). It is harder than diamond and used in several of Talis' systems," Terry explained.

"Very good, Captain," Talis responded. "It is indeed Tammelick. Everything in this room is grown to replace my lesser organic parts."

They spent another few minutes in that room watching the androids water, feed and harvest the different organic parts. Josh had gotten down on his knees to watch the harvesting of the smallest plants. He found out that each of them produced thousands of unprogramed organic Nanites in water-drop-sized containers. When done watching the harvesting of the smallest plants, Terry extended his hand to help Josh stand. When he was standing, their combined hands remained together. Terry squeezed Josh's hand tenderly and with unspoken feeling.

The Bio-Weaponry room was even larger than the Agro-Organics room, as were the pods inside. The temperature in the room was even hotter, but it was less humid than the first room. The light was again a different color as it was turquoise. The pods inside the room were all much larger and more oddly shaped than the first room. Terry immediately noticed that the androids clustered around a massive pod that was taller than the androids.

The androids were attempting remove the pod from the stem underneath when the pod tilted widely and then split open. The contents of the pod revealed a gun of some kind. It had three long barrels mounted in a oval shaped box. The androids rushed around attempting to right the pods and its contents.

"That is a shattler gun," Talis began to explain. "Once they make sure that it is fully developed and not damaged by tipping the pod, that gun will be placed on the forward weapons platform of the battle ship Glipp which I have been repairing slowly since the others died."

"What is a shattler gun?" Josh asked curiously.

"A Shattler gun is similar to an earth-based anti-aircraft gun, with a like purpose, but instead of shells it uses focused energy and does not require reloading," Talis began to explain. "With it having three barrels, it is able to fire up to two of them at the same time as the third takes .00375 seconds to recharge."

Another pod nearby split open and revealed a drone similar to the security drones with which Terry was familiar. There were only two differences—this one had a single massive weapon in the front and it was leaking blackish green fluids. A single android walked up to it and withdrew something that looked like a knife to both Terry and Josh. The android pointed the knife at the mess in front of it. A white light from the knife emerged and struck the pod weapon and the fluids draining from them. In that instant, the whole plant disappeared.

"I have been attempting to cross a photonic cannon and security drone," Talis began to explain. "The results have been disheartening at best."

Both Terry and Josh decided that it was time for them to continue to the next room. In the Bio-Armory room, the light again was different and this time is was bright pink. The temperature was cooler than the Bio-Weaponry room, but even more humid than the Agro-Organics. The room was the same size as the Agro-Organics room and had pods the size of basketballs all the way up to the size of a large refrigerator.

Nothing seemed to be going on in this room other than the androids were watering the pods. Suddenly the largest row of pods began to vibrate as each pod began splitting open. The insides revealed several yellow, red, green, orange and blue copies of what best be described as suits of armor.

"These suits of armor are intended for the crew that is not part of your bloodline to provide greater protection than their skin provides," Talis explained.

Terry and Josh left that room quickly allowing the androids total access to clear out the new suits of armor. At no time had the boys ever broken their connection of holding hands.

The Bio-Transformative Augmentation room was another surprise altogether. It was three stories tall, four times larger across and ten times longer than the other rooms. The light was a dull blue and the temperature felt normal to both Terry and Josh. The doorway they entered was on the second level of the room and they had to walk down a flight of hovering disks to the ground floor. Some of the pods were the size of a grapefruit while others were larger than cars and finally others were larger than normal sized houses.

Once Terry and Josh reached the lower floor, they found that some of pods responded by wiggling as they walked by them, almost as if the pods were attracted to them and wanted their attention. Josh was intrigued by the smaller basketball sized pods while the larger vehicle sized pods drew Terry's attention.

One of the androids approached Josh carrying two of the basketball pods apparently with the intention of allowing Josh a closer look at them. Just as the android reached Josh, Terry felt something was about to happen and tensed up. [Talis, you better not harm him!]

[I will not harm him,] Talis projected, [though he will be going through an experience that may scare him]

Just as Terry was about to countermand whatever Talis had planned, both of the pods grabbed Josh at the same time. Each pod sent out heavy vines that wrapped around Josh's arms. In the time it took both Josh and Terry to scream, the pods dug deeply into Josh's skin. A brief second later Josh realized he was not in pain, but he still reacted by pulling his arms back violently.

"EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" Terry roared looked toward the ceiling.

Terry raced to Josh and attempted to help him remove the vine like tendrils from his arms. The pods burst open and revealed not only much larger tendrils but also green bracer-like devices. They flew quickly toward Josh and rotated until they latched onto each of his arms, the remaining tendrils slowly being absorbed into his arms.

"Josh is unharmed other than a brief scare and a bit of an emotional shock," Talis began to explain. "He has now merged with two personal, offensive arsenal weapons."

Josh straightened up and then smiled weakly, "They are ultraviolet, light-powered, personal weapon lockers." He then flicked both of his wrists, the left hand grew a .45 magnum gun from the bracer and placed it in his hand, the right developed a laser turret on his wrist. "I can now defend and protect you like you need to be," Josh said softly as he looked deeply into Terry's worried eyes.

"The units are totally integrated into his body now and will only appear when he desires the weaponry," Talis further explained. "They have a micro-power source that is recharged by any level of ultraviolet light. My decks' lighting is enough to recharge the power cells indefinitely."

Another android walked up to Terry and suddenly pushed him into a larger vehicle sized pod at the same time Talis said softly, "My apologies, Captain."

Terry fell inside the pod and landed roughly. Quickly surrounded by vines of different sizes and shapes, within seconds he found himself inside a something that completely encased his body. A quick flicker and his eyes opened to being able to see inside the pod itself. Terry began to stand; he heard the fabric of his clothes ripping as he stood.

Once Terry was standing again and was in the light of the room, he found that he was no longer seeing things normally but was seeing digital readouts for altitude and a digital reference of a body. He then realized that he stood several feet taller than Josh and noticed that Josh had the look of fear in his eyes.

"Talis, what have you done now?" Terry said but his voice boomed louder than expected and it was several octaves lower than normal.

"You now are inside a Gaioterran all-terrain battle suit," Talis began explaining. "You and it are merged. While the majority of it will reside in your private shuttle bay, you and it are permanently linked."

Talis then continued to explain, "The battle suit would be best described as part tank, part jet fighter, part body armor—a total weapon."

Josh saw what appeared to be a cross between a robot, tank and jet plane emerge from the pod. Its coloration was plant green but slowly darkened to a near black color. It had two arms and legs, torso and a head, but also had a tank turret on its chest and plane fins on each leg. When he realized that Terry was inside it, he only slightly relaxed.

"Get me out of here!" Terry demanded.

[Release,] Talis sent to Terry.

"Release," Terry said loudly and then everything went black.

In that instant, the chest and head of the machine raised and extended backward. The lower torso extended and lowered toward the ground. The vine-covered body of Terry lowered toward the ground. Once it was near the ground, the vines split down the center and released Terry.

When Terry was released, he was able to see and hear normally again. He was released out of the battle armor, but quickly grew angry—angry with Talis for doing this to him and angry that both his shirt and shorts now had several holes in them.

"I fucking order you to never ever do that to me or anyone else ever again!" Terry screamed. He then ripped his tattered clothing from his body with an even louder, "FUCK!"

"I do again apologize but it was necessary so that you are also protected," Talis said with only a slight amount of regret in its voice. "It was never my intention of hurting or frightening you."

"But you FUCKING DID, you're supposed to be super intelligent, do you have any common sense?" Terry yelled.

"Please allow me to explain the capabilities of the suit," Talis said softly. He then began explaining, "The battle suit has Protonic cannon, two micro-shattler guns, two inner-stellar drives, a micro-dimensional drive and redundant light and Protonic power generators."

There was a pause and then Talis continued, "It can reach you anywhere on the planet within 1.7 minutes and lay down cover fire as it reaches your location. Your heads-up display is integrated into its tactical and sensor displays and with limb interfaces, it responds to your limb and head movements with only a .001 millisecond delay. The jet formation is similar to the United States F-22 fighter jet, but smaller, faster and without the need to remain in the atmosphere."

"I can understand all of that," Terry said with a sigh, "just don't ever do that to anyone else ever again. It is traumatic not to mention hard on clothes!" He then thought for a moment and added, "Make sure that whoever you do future augmentations on are told and warned before the process is even done and allow them to take off their clothes before any augmentation that would make them walk to their room naked like I am now." Terry paused and then added, "My mother may be in the hallway when they have to walk back to their room. By the way where is she now that I am doing just that?"

"I understand and will amend future situations when dealing with bonding others to battle armors and other devices," Talis acknowledged."I will make sure your mother is otherwise occupied as you walk back to your room."

Terry remained livid but gently led Josh out of the Bio-Transformative Augmentation room and up toward the Captain's suite. Terry wanted to get a new set of clothes but Josh had other ideas. As they walked, Josh noticed that Terry's back now had four oddly shaped but in his eyes beautiful skin discolorations. Too perfectly placed to have been natural, Josh figured that just as with his weapon lockers, Terry also had body modifications to allow access to the battle armor, though he was sure Terry would be livid when he found out about them. But for some reason though, they drew Josh like a moth to a flame to Terry's back.

When the teens arrived at the Captain's suite, it was also time for lunch. Terry planned to dress quickly and join the others in the Mess Hall, but Josh had other ideas. Josh looked at the marks on Terry's back and started tracing around them, which was very sensitive to Terry. He brushed his hands lightly against Terry's neck and then lightly kissed his earlobe. Terry shook as the tension from being augmented in such a rough way left his body instantly.

Terry turned to Josh and looked deeply in his eyes saying nothing, kissed him deeply and Josh released his body to the light touch of Terry's hands. Terry could have molded Josh into any shape at that time as Josh was completely under Terry's control. Terry moved Josh to the bed tenderly removing his clothes as they went, and then picked up Josh and laid him softly on the bed covers. He lay down next to Josh and they kissed again even more deeply. Josh sighed deeply as this is what he was hoping would happen.

Terry asked Josh what he was thinking, "Penny for your thoughts," repeating a line his mother often used.

"My thoughts are gonna cost you more than that, handsome," Josh replied.

"Well, how `bout this," Terry said and he reached down and ran his hand through Josh's legs and rubbed his bubble butt.

"That's a portion of the down payment," Josh giggled.

Terry then whispered, "Oh how's this then?"

Terry then let his middle finger slip down the crevice of Josh's tight butt grazing the tight pucker; his touch was feather light but insistent. Josh's eyes rolled back and he moaned. Terry then rubbed again and Josh began to squirm.

Josh felt the heat of Terry's fingers sliding across his prickling skin. He felt Terry brush the skin between the tight orbs of his ass lightly grazing the pucker in the middle sending shivers' through him as the anticipation of his tender contact began to fulfill his dreams.

"Bang, Bang, Bang," echoed the door that Josh had locked on his way in, as someone was knocking. "Terry? Josh? What are you guys doing in there? Can I come in?" Bobby's voice whined echoing through the door.

Terry and Josh sat up quickly shocked by the events that had just transpired realizing that they had gone so far but still not finished what they started here today. There hormone pumped bodies aching for release. They both knew that it was not going to happen, at least that day.

The following week again found Terry and Josh investigating Talis during their time away from the Bridge and other duties. This time they actually made it all the way to the Core. The innermost hallway had a total of three doors as well as the elevator access that the teens used in their arrival. The closest door was marked in Gaioterran as Engineering, the second on the opposite wall was marked Waste Reclamation and the door at the far end of the hall was simply marked Core.

Engineering was a long room that circled the majority of the Core of Talis. It had a clear wall on the inner side of the room. The clear wall revealed the center of the Talis itself, the Core. A small but bright artificial sun was in the center of the room. Every visible surface was reflective but had a pale pink and purple hue.

"The sun is used to power every system by a combination of several different means," Talis began to explain. "The simplest is solar energy that is stored for some electrical and heating needs. Seventeen different types of radiation are absorbed, stored and converted into usable energy. Protonic and Fusion reactions are also stored and used to create needed energy."

"How much power is lost?" Terry asked.

"A variable of three to seven percent over the life of the star is lost," Talis responded.

"So it is ninety three to ninety seven percent efficient?" Josh asked in shock.

"Correct," Talis agreed.

"Each artificial star has a life expectancy of one billion Earth years," Talis began to explain, "and can be ejected safely when its time is at an end. There is enough energy stored in my batteries to continue at this rate of use for another five hundred earth years without a star in the Core—more than enough time to create or locate a replacement."

Talis then changed the subject and began to explain engineering to the boys, but soon found that they only desired an overview of what each area did and was capable of doing if the need arose.

Waste Reclamation took only a quarter of the inner diameter of the Core's inner hallway and was rather boring to the boys as there were no noticeable moving parts or anything to hold a teen's attention.

"Waste from everywhere in my systems are converted from a solid into energy here," Talis explained. "Nothing is wasted and everything is reclaimed for its energy."

"Even our shit?" Josh asked with his face turning sour.

"Yes, all biological wastes are converted into clean energy and used again," Talis answered with humor obvious in its voice, "and only a .05 percent loss of energy."

"That is so gross!" Josh exclaimed.

"Not really," Terry began to explain. "You cannot taste the difference between coal energy and solar energy, can you?"

"Well, no," Josh responded.

"Then you can't taste the difference between them and shit energy that makes your butt-wipe paper," Terry responded with a smirk.

"OH, that is just plain nasty," Josh responded with a giggle.

The boys left the room laughing and walked to the room marked Core.

The Core was actually a small room with a bank of machines against the clear wall facing the artificial sun. Every component that the boys understood was in the green range and appeared to be in normal levels with everything being at proper levels.

"This room is simply a back-up observation area for the sun, making sure that everything is within accepted levels. If and when the sun needs ejecting, it can be done from this location manually or verbally from the Bridge," Talis explained.

Entranced by the scene of the small sun before them, the boys drew closer together. They each touched the clear glass-like membrane that made up the wall and then quickly backed up. Neither had ever felt anything like it. It was nothing like glass and even had a unique textured feel. They were surprised and a bit scared by their discovery.

As they neared the clear wall again, Josh asked Talis what the clear surface was. It looked like glass but they should expect to be burned to death the instant they got that close to a sun. The radiation alone could just burn them in the spot where they stood.

Talis answered, "The material is Halogenist. It is a plant fiber similar to an onion that turns clear when heated and opaque when cooled. Unlike an onion, it has no odor and also protects from heat and radiation."

The light felt warm, it was pushing the teens to together. Josh reached into Terry's shirt and gently brushed his chest and nipples with one hand reach up the back brushing the marks on Terry's back, Terry responded with a low moan. Josh pulled Terry's shirt off with a fast movement, tongued Terry's nipple while rubbing the marks on his back, hearing and feeling the reaction he expected.

Terry then pulled Josh into a tongue-wrestling kiss to which Josh again submitted himself to Terry and they leaned against the clear wall. He quickly became aggressive and Josh quickly found himself standing naked in front of the man he loved. Terry pushed him against the clear wall and dove between his legs. He then quickly tongued Josh's tender balls and rapidly inflating cock.

Josh reached down and pulling Terry to his feet. Once Terry was standing, Josh jumped into his arms, wrapping his legs around Terry with a tight leg lock holding on for what promised to be a fun ride, all the while attempting to get Terry's pants down.

"Whoooooop, Whoooooop," echoed an alarm. "Code Blue, Code Blue Emergency!" the android voice of Ethan echoed in the room, "Captain to the Bridge."

Terry and Josh dressed rushed to the closets and dressed quickly. Neither one was actually concerned about being naked in front of the boys or the androids, they were making sure not to embarrass Sally.

Terry and Josh raced from the elevator a fraction of a minute later and ran onto the Bridge.

"Talis, this is Apollo," announced a stressed voice across the sound system of the Bridge. "My crew and I are hot. We have three rescues. Two are critical and the third is ultra-critical, near to the point of loss of life signs."

"Apollo, this is Terry. Teleport the ultra-critical to Medical Center immediately," Terry ordered. "Teleport them all if they will not survive the trip."

"Yes, Sir," Apollo answered.

"Protect and save them at all costs, Talis," Terry then ordered. He never realized that order would be the start of everything that later happened.

"As you command," Talis responded. "I now have two of the three rescues."

"Direct teleport me there," Terry demanded. An instant later, he appeared in a small alcove just inside the massive Medical Center.

The floor around one of the healing tubes was covered in blood. The monitors above it barely registered that there was anything living inside. There were seven different machines each with dozens of instruments on dozens of arms working at the same time on the boy in the bed. There was absolute silence as the machines worked—not even the expected mechanical noise humans expect from a machine.

Terry walked slowly closer to the tube and what he saw caused him to feel sick, rage, and panic plus hatred all at the same time. The small head of a boy no older than nine was the first thing that he saw. Both eyes had been blackened and the remainder of the face was covered in large deep gashes and cuts. The boy's blond hair was tainted red with his own blood.

Cuts, stabs wounds, burn marks all over his body and a massive tear in his abdomen covered the slight form of the boy. Some of the burns were from cigarettes while others were from other objects held to the skin until it blistered. The tear in the boy's abdomen was obviously done by a dull knife ripping into his flesh and had exposed his internal organs. A large portion of intestine was hanging outside his tiny body. What Terry could not tell was that the boy also was torn internally after being anally raped repeatedly.

At that moment, another door opened and an android rescuer named Thomas rushed in cradling a much smaller form. Within moments, that body was placed into a nearby healing tube and the door sealed shut. Thomas brushed his dark, auburn hair out of his face in a human manner and stood by silently waiting to give his report.

"Report," Terry said softly.

"These three are named Travis, Jonathon and Pete," Thomas said pointing first at the boy he brought in personally and finished with the boy having all the damage, "ages 5, 3 and 9."

"Father and male family members had them in a small forest taking them out to dispose of them," Thomas said with disgust. "They were apparently found by their mother experimenting on each other and it appears that the parents took the admonishments of the Human's Old Testament as an excuse to torture and probably..."

The report was cut short when the lighting around the healing tube changed to a dark blue and an alarm sounded.

"Code blue...Code blue. All organics stand away from the healing tubes," Talis' voice echoed through the room. Thomas made sure he remained a distance away from the healing robots and the healing tube.

Terry jumped back and away from the tubes, making sure that the machines had plenty of space to work. All seven of the machines touched the boy with an electrode, shocking the small body. Terry began sobbing uncontrollably as he crumbled onto the floor. He did not hear the ship wide call, "Josh, please report to the Medical Center immediately."

The robotic arms continued to work on Pete's body with the occasional shock to keep his body and mind alive. Finally they stabilized the body long enough to have a personal defibrillator attached to his forehead and chest. As they worked the need to shock the boy's body increased until it was occurring every couple of minutes to restore his heartbeat.

Josh rushed into the room and found Terry crumbled on the floor. He looked quickly at the stunned Thomas and shook his head. For all of their human-like behaviors, the androids did not know how to respond to a human that was contrary to what was expected. Josh saw that as a flaw in their creation. Just as he planned on bringing it up to Terry, he decided not to worry about it. Josh shook his head and wrapped his arms around Terry shoulders.

Just as Josh was comforting Terry, Talis spoke, "I must save this child." With that, a hatch opened up behind the healing tube where Pete was. The tube then slid into the space opened up by the hatch and disappeared into the wall. "He will be saved."

Josh had just enough time to think that Talis might be having a mental breakdown when he felt Terry stiffen and then stand. "I will bring justice to these children! I will bring VENGEANCE! I will rain destruction on THEM!"

Terry then stalked out of the Medical Center heading toward the Bridge. A shocked Josh followed him. "I want a real-time view of the location that the boys were found in and the parents located. If they are not home, I want that location as well," Terry ordered.

"I further want the location of any and all male family members and their homes," Terry continued.

"The information will be available to you upon reaching the Bridge, Captain," Talis responded with a soft voice.

When they reached the Bridge, Terry was beyond livid and quickly reclined in his command chair. "Direct download all the information to me now."

In that next instance, all the information downloaded into Terry's mind at speeds faster than any computer on Earth. His eyes fluttered quickly for several seconds as his mind accepted the information, sorted through it and began sending out orders.

[Launch seventeen drones keyed to these locations and looking for these individuals,] Terry projected toward Talis. The command was followed the present location of every male member of the boys' family and their residences.

[Cloak them and they are to verify through Thomas that the targets are in fact guilty of harming those boys,] Terry continued. [Terminate those that are guilty—make it hurt and attempt to draw no extra attention.]

[As you command, Captain,] Talis responded, teleporting the required drones down to Earth.

Within seconds, the drones acquired their targets. Dwayne Hickman, the father of the three boys was the first target acquired. He was sitting at his house drinking his fifteenth beer of the afternoon while cleaning his hunting knife. The drone analyzed the blood remains on the knife and found it to be a perfect match for Pete's blood. The drone targeted the man's genitals, head and heart.

The drone fired a low setting laser at Dwayne's crotch literally roasting his testicles in their own fluids. By the time the man reacted and reached to protect them, the drone moved and prepared to fire again, instructed to cause the most amount of pain in the least amount of time.

The drone then fired a precise beam acting as a scalpel, filleting Dwayne's skin from his face in seconds. Dwayne's scream was punctuated by the wet sounds of his skin falling into his lap. The skin from his nose fell into his beer can with a loud plop. Within that same second the drone severed Dwayne's throat, cutting off further screams.

The drone then became visible and moved so that it was directly in front of Dwayne. "You die for your crimes against your children," echoed a robotic voice from the drone. The abject horror on his face was lost to the drone. It then pulled back and fired, it hit Dwayne's chest, burning though his heart, out his back and into the chair, he was sitting in. Dwayne's heart was gone before his body and brain realized, allowing him several moments of the agony as his life ebbed away.

Targeted while in town shopping with his wife was Steven Hickman, one of Pete's uncles. The drone fired a concentrated beam directly into his heart. June, his wife, thought Steven was having a heart attack until she saw the burn marks on the back of his shirt. Her screams echoed in the grocery store for several minutes as she held the man who had burned Pete's body.

Matthew Hickman was targeted while watching child pornography on his home computer. The drone fired a micro-missile instead of a laser, targeting Matthew in such a way that the missile took out his head and the computer. Nothing was left of Matthew's massive digital collection of child pornography. Pete's rapist had been executed.

Over the next half hour, seven more drones terminated Pete's extended family members that knew of or participated in the abuse and rape of Pete and his brothers. All drones returned to Talis without incident.

When the final drone was accounted for, Terry asked Talis, "How is the boy?"

"I must save the child," was the only response that Talis gave.

No matter what Terry tried over the next fifteen minutes, the reply was always, "I must save the child."