Venus Ascending Pt. 12

Lisa was looking at the camera defiant, determined not to give them the satisfaction of a show. John knew that look and she was telling him not to sacrifice himself for her, but how could he not; he loved her. John was muttering something about being there as quickly as he could, when he heard the whistling of the bull whip again. This time there was nothing absorb the blow and as the whip wrapped around Lisa's taut belly, her skin was ripped open and blood began to trickle out of the wound.

Lisa's determination faded in the face of savage pain. She screamed a bloodcurdling screech as unholy pain ripped through her. John screamed at the tablet, "NO, MY GOD NO!" With his worst nightmares coming true John dropped the tablet began running to the Medieval room as fast as he could. The only person he had ever cared about was being tortured for something he had done and he had to stop it.

As he bolted through his office door, he ran headfirst into Wes. They both went down in a tangle of arms and legs, but John was back on his feet in less than a second and running. He heard Wes yelling after him and Ken, George and Mark all tried to stop him on his way out. They all wanted to know what was going on but John just kept screaming, "Lisa!" He kept on running, knowing he was running to his death, but if there was a remote possibility of saving Lisa he had to do it.

John thanked God none of the isolation seals were in place, but still there were enough hatches, ladders, and people to impede his progress. As he reached the doors to the Medieval room two hulking guards grabbed him, frisk him, stripped off his clothes and carried them into the room. As they hauled him into the room he breathed a sigh of relief that there were no other marks on Lisa, other than the demonstrations. They carried John to the front of the club and tied him to a chair on stage.

John looked over at Lisa and could see the tracks of her tears and her looks were telling him that she was sorry for being captured. Despite the sorrow in her eyes John could also see the love and she was telling him no matter what happened she loved him. Her eyes were telling him that her time with him was worth anything she had to pay. John felt his eyes fill with tears as he looked at her. He had promised to keep her safe and never let harm come to her, but now she was going to pay the price for his beliefs.

John looked over the smug looking thug that seemed to be in charge. He was a tough mean looking bastard and he kept playing with his bull whip, snapping it in the air. John's voice was full of desperation as he said, "Okay I'm here, let her go and we can figure something out."

He gave a cruel laugh as he responded, "First, you're not here to negotiate; you're here to die along with your girlfriend. You two have created lots of problems for everyone and we can't allow that to go on. So the only question that remains is how long we have to torture you and your girlfriend before you call your engineering buddies and call off this pitiful rebellion. If you do as I ask, I promise that we won't torture your girlfriend ... too much and we will let her die quickly. Otherwise, it could be days before she dies and even her mother wouldn't recognize her when we are done."

John's mouth was very dry as he looked at Lisa's face. She was shaking her head no, so he would not to give in to the thugs. Her eyes were trying to tell him not to do it, not to give in to the thugs and make her death worth something. However, John saw something else in her eyes, it was gratitude. She was trying to tell him that she was grateful that she had finally known love and what it was like to truly love someone.

John was frantically trying to think of some way out of this. He had to find some way to save Lisa from suffering for his decisions. John tried to see if there's a way to get out of the chair which he was tied. The zip ties had him immobile, but there was a little wiggle room. He tried talking to the head thug, but he was only interested in two things, torturing Lisa and having John make the phone call to the engineering department.

With the whip in his hand he walked over in front of Lisa and said, "Let me give you something to think about!" Before John could say anything he uncoiled the whip and flicked the tip leaving a bright red mark on her left breast. With mechanical precision he rapidly left flaming red marks all over both of her breasts. In face of the excruciating and unrelenting pain Lisa gave up all pretense of stoicism and shrieked with each new crack of the whip. John was screaming right along with her for the thug to stop and leave his Lisa alone.

John was screaming, "STOP ... STOP ... STOP ... NO I'LL DOO WHATEVER YOU WANT! STOP ... STOP ... STOP! JUST STOP!"

Finally the thug with the whip stopped and stepped back appraising his macabre artistry. He turned his head to look at John and said, "I'm glad you're being a little more reasonable, but I'm not done yet!" He flicked the whip to her right hip popping the string to her thong and leaving a small red cut in her skin. He quickly recovered and did the same thing to her left hip, severing the string to her thong and ripping it from her body.

Both Lisa and John's eyes were staring in each other wide open in horror of what was happening. Lisa was squirming and swinging from the spreader bar trying to get away from remorseless whip. She was screaming with all the pain coursing through her body and her eyes were begging John to somehow end this.

John was fighting his bonds with the zip ties cutting into his skin. Blood from his cuts are making the zip ties slide a little easier as he fought the bonds. As he screamed at the thug to stop torturing Lisa, his hands were making some progress towards freedom. The terror on Lisa's face egged him on and he flipped the chair onto its side trying to get away. The bouncers set his chair back upright and cackled at his attempts to get away.

The thug with the whip walked over to Lisa and began running his hands up her legs, over her belly and tweaking her nipples. He looked over at John and said, "Now I can see why you will do anything for her, she is exquisite. She is quite petite, proportionally perfect, but not enough meat on her bones for my taste. However I do concede she is an extremely beautiful woman. You know it's too bad you are giving in so soon, I could really enjoy making her scream."

John looked at the man with the whip and realized this man was a complete sadist as well as a psychopath. He had no feelings, no remorse and he really got off on hearing Lisa scream. John knew there was no negotiating and no talking. The only thing this man understood was force. With renewed determination he began pulling and tugging ripping the skin from his hands trying to get free so he could save Lisa.

The thug with the whip looked over at John and shrugged his shoulders before letting fly with five quick strikes with the whip. These were not the precision strikes from before, but they wrapped around her body, ripping her soft delicate skin leaving bloodied trails as they went. Lisa was breathless with the excruciating pain as the thug stepped back to marvel in his gruesome talent.

He looked over at John with a cruel smile and said, "A man has to love his work, and I am an artist with the whip if I do say so myself."

John felt one of his hands and slip through the zip tie. He stomped on the instep of the nearest bouncer and freed his arm long enough to punch the other guy in the face. He lurched towards the guy with the whip, but only got one step before the bouncers recovered and took him to the floor. When she saw John coming to save her Lisa also got into the action as she swung her foot hard into the lead thug's crotch. Unfortunately, he also recovered quickly and viciously punched Lisa in the belly knocking the breath out of her. His entire cool demeanor evaporated as he angrily began punching Lisa hitting her with vicious punch after vicious punch.

John started screaming again for him to stop when suddenly the lights went out and the hiss of air stopped. John tried to take advantage of the sudden darkness to get away from the bouncers, but they held fast. Suddenly he heard some scraping noises and the two thugs went limp. There were noises all around him, but he couldn't see anything. John started crawling to where he thought Lisa would be when he heard a whisper, "Boss, put this on."

John knew that voice, the "Sewer Rats" had come to the rescue. They knew their way in and out of every place in Venus and they had come to save John and Lisa. John put on what they had given him and it was some infrared goggles then his bonds loosened and slipped away. He could see the shapes of four Rats tying up the two bouncers, and two more were wrestling with the lead thug.

John couldn't tell which of the "Sewer Rats" was beside him, but he grabbed his hand and said, "I owe you mine and Lisa's life! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, now go to the left side of the stage and lower Lisa into my arms."

John ran over and grabbed Lisa's legs whispering, "It's me baby. We're going to get you down now."

Lisa didn't respond, and as she was lowered into his arms his hands kept slipping and he realized she was wet. He grabbed on and held her tightly, but as her chest reached his, he felt a knife sticking out of her chest. "NO GOD NO!" He screamed. He cradled her in his arms as a couple of the "Sewer Rats" unbound her hands. John started shouting orders, "Marcus, Bud, Dominic or whoever is in here the son of a bitch stabbed her and we have to get her to the hospital quickly. Get me some light so I can find a way out of here and get her to the hospital."

John heard voices over the push to talk phone system and the sliver of light cracked open as a door started to open. John ripped off the goggles as he began sprinting towards the light. He looked down and her whole right side was covered with blood knife sticking out of her chest. Marcus, the sewer rat, met him in the doorway and said, "Follow me I know a quicker way."

Both of them ran as hard and as fast as they could and it was times like these that John was thankful for the low gravity on the space station. Between the panic, the adrenaline and low gravity they made incredible time. John tried praying during the run, determined to try everything to save Lisa. As they burst through the doors to the hospital John started screaming, "HELP ME ... HELP ME ... PLEASE SAVE HER!"

People flooded into the entry area and tried to grab Lisa out of his arms, but he held fast and was soon ushered into some treatment rooms. Towards the end John was just being guided by people pulling his arms because his eyes were full of tears and blood. John didn't know how it happened but somehow his arms were empty. He saw Lisa on a treatment table surrounded by doctors and nurses busily trying to treat all of her wounds. Just before he collapsed on the floor, he saw her chest rising and falling and knew she was still alive, at least for now.

John was almost catatonic with his worst fear coming true. All his planning had gone for not, and his love might be dead or at least had been badly hurt. Four of the sewer rats surrounded him and pulled him into the hall, shaking him and asking him what he wanted them to do with the guys from the club. Their words seemed to penetrate and he was yanked from his depression. John looked at them all as if he had never seen them before then shook his head.

As depression lifted rage took its place. John balled his hands into fists and slammed them into the wall before he said, "Kill them, kill them all!" All the "Sewer Rats" backed up giving John his space before Marcus whispered, "Boss, we can't do that. They can, but we can't kill people like that."

John knew he had lost his mind. Seeing Lisa laying bloodied and beaten on the treatment table surrounded by doctors definitely unhinged him. For a couple seconds he tried to gather his wits then his shoulders slumped as he said, "Put them in the service bay airlock. They should be secure there and shouldn't be a get out. As a matter of fact, override the safeties and open the enter airlock so all we can flush them into space one push of the button."

All the "Sewer Rats" left except for Marcus who put his hands on John's shoulders, looked into his eyes and said, "She'll be okay. Well take care of the thugs and oh by the way, the one with the whip was the butcher we saw in the snuff films."

John's mind was starting to work again and he said, "Marcus give copies of all your snuff film and other information to all the other engineering managers. Tell them we need to broadcast this information to earth as our reason for the revolution. If the other managers agree go grab every person in the security force that you can find and the Council, then lock them all up with the others in the service bay airlock."

Marcus started to leave, but John grabbed him by the arm and hissed, "Have a double guard put on the door and make sure that with one push of a button they can all be flushed out into space."

Marcus nodded his head grimly and jogged off to do his boss's bidding while John waited for news about Lisa. John sat, then paced, then sat again, then paced again and finally went back to find out what was going on. Dr. Fitzpatrick met him at the door and ask if he was a relative and only when John confirmed that he was her husband did he talked to him. He walked John over to some chairs along the wall where they both sat and talked.

Dr. Fitzpatrick led off as he dryly said, "She had a brutal working over, with at least four broken ribs, a crushed eye socket and of course many contusions. The knife wound was the most serious and it did nick some major vessels, accounting for all the blood. She has lost a lot of blood and just a minute later and we might not have been able to save her. With this much blood loss there could be different kinds of complications. So we definitely want to keep her overnight and maybe tomorrow as well. In addition, we going to keep her sedated for at least 24 hours."

The doctor looked almost embarrassed as he ask, "What's with the whip marks? They were not life-threatening, but they were very painful and she will have scars. We have seen a lot of these kind marks lately and I hope you didn't have anything to do with them."

John figured they may have more need for medical services, so he told the doctor about the engineering revolt. He told them about the snuff films, huge number of disappearances then added. "All we want to do is establish some basic law of humanity, so people can't be randomly killed, tortured, beaten or raped."

The Doctor straightened his spine little bit and in a soft voice said, "We have seen more trauma than they do in combat zones. We have seen unbelievable torture and man's inhumanity to man. It seems to be getting worse every week and what happened to Lisa is representative of what we have seen. We were all hoping that something like this would happen, so most of us are in."

The doctor promised to round up several of the doctors and nurses. They could work at the hospital or if they needed them to come to the engineering floor.

John and the doctor shook hands then the doctor left to go tend to his other patients. Lisa had been moved out of the treatment area and into a more permanent room. John went to see Lisa and as he stood over her bed looked at her with a mixture of love, anger that the council and remorse at what happened. He leaned down and kissed her softly and told her that he loved her. John caressed her face and gently layered kisses all over her face before the nurses kicked him out. He requested that a couch or cushy chair be put in her room so he could sit with her at night.

Chapter 34

John walked back to the engineering section slowly, contemplating his next move. When he entered the conference room everyone gasp and screamed. It was then that he realized he hadn't changed his shirt and it was still soaked in a mixture of his and Lisa's blood. John thought about changing clothes to make everyone more comfortable, but he decided against it. They needed to know what they were up against and the seriousness of the situation. His bloody clothes were a testament to just how ruthless they needed to be.

John looked at everyone and said, "They have shown their true colors and now it's no holds barred. I had really hoped that this transition could've been civilized, but deep in my heart I knew it would come to this. I want the Council off Venus ... Now! Use the escape pods and get them off of this facility along with any of their henchmen."

John's fury and anger was evident to everyone as he continued, "Has everyone looked at the tape the "Sewer Rats" put together? If you haven't seen it, look at it. I want to know where we are on the manifesto and Declaration of Independence. In the manifesto I want a litany of the council's crimes against humanity, everything we know about needs to be included. I want it to go out by the end of the day and the sooner the better. Ken you and your group are in charge of this, so get this finished. What else is going on?"

George spoke up and said, "They went for Ken's, Scott's and my families as well, but the "Sewer Rats" stopped all three and saved our families. We have 15 of their thugs in the service bay airlock and while you are taking care of Lisa we put the Council in with their thugs. Scott's son is guarding them and has his hand on the airlock open button ready to flush them into space at a second's notice."

"We've completed all the communication isolation protocols and we are seeing activity from two ground stations trying to take back control of the station. So far we have blocked their attempts to get back into the system, but we don't know how long we can keep them out. We may have to use one of your more permanent solutions. Internally, we have only isolated all the administration, counsel and security force areas, but we're ready for more if we have to. We also intercepted some chatter about a potential shuttle launch to send troops to retake Venus."

As George finished the silence stretched on for a minute before John ask, "How is everybody holding up?"

Scott spoke up, "The engineering staff is doing well, scared, but committed. Most of the culinary and entertainment staff has seemed to take a wait-and-see attitude. We have had a few cases of sabotage, but they were minor, amateurish and easy to fix. However, most feel like they're not going to commit to either side. The tourists have gotten a little antsy but so far nothing we can't handle."

John stood still thinking for a second then looked around the room gauging everyone's resolve before he continued. "Okay, it's critical that we start getting the public on her side, so the video, our manifesto, our Declaration of Independence need to start going out to the public rapidly. I think a running list of all the unknown dead that we know about it will start the ball rolling. In the meantime we take out their launch center and one of their control rooms as a demonstration. So I need a team from flight to configure two of the waste pods as meteors. When you're ready set it in motion and give them a thirty minute notice of destruction to evacuate personnel."

John looked around the room and spoke to the group, "We need to begin negotiations, the UN, the United Arab Emirates and maybe bring in the US as a mediator. Not many of us have this kind of negotiating skills, so I was wondering if we have any people from strategic sourcing and legal that might be willing to work with our cause?"

A couple of people raised her hands and said that they thought they knew some people and would try to bring them to the engineering section. At that moment, Peggy one of the pool administrative staff, burst into the room looking stricken and ready to burst into tears. In a panic starting to stutter she blurted out, "Jo Jo John they need you at the hospital ... Their losing her."