Embarkment 2577 (32 page)

When my tormentors left I curled up and
touched my stinging face. Why was pain so hard to get used to?

Up until now I hadn’t allowed myself to
think of the Bell and the people residing on her. Nostalgia and longing would
render me even more useless, but they were in a much bigger danger than I.
Maybe I could figure out a way to warn them.

My kidnapping wasn’t a mistake. They had
come for
me
, and found me. Only one person would gain from me being out
of the way, and only one person hated me enough to not only arrange for my
disappearance but also demand a chance to deal with me themselves: Eve.

The would-be rapist had been too certain
Adam wouldn’t come for me. Eve might already be on the Bell, equipped to
dispose of Adam in favour of Cain. All my friends might already be dead.

I went to the door and knocked. Surely
they had a guard posted outside? “Hey, can I see your captain?”

No answer. “C’mon, just for a minute.”

Still nothing. “I need to use the
restroom. I won’t try anything, I promise.”

This time, the voice of my guard drifted
through the door. “Pee in a corner.”

Good point: the way this room smelled
any change would be an improvement.

“I’m hungry.”

No answer came, and I gave up. By now,
Jia’Lyn would have figured out how to build a radio from the junk scattered
over the floor. She would have warned the Bell and saved the day.
Crap
.

I circled the room until I came too
close to the red bugs and disturbed a group of them. They buzzed up in a big
cloud and I retreated to the farthest corner of the room.

“Please let me see your captain, I only
need a minute.”

This time, the answer was immediate. “Be
quiet.”

Every hour took me further away from the
Bell. As much as I feared Eve and even Cain, I needed to be there. An encounter
might cost my life, but compared to everyone else’s, that was a cheap price to
pay.

Eventually, a hatch opened in the door
and a bowl with grayish porridge slid in. “Eat.”

It didn’t look good, but I was too
hungry not to eat. By now I could hardly even feel the room’s stench anymore.

Many hours later, their captain came to
see me. I sat on the floor and he poked me a little with his foot.

“I hear you’ve been asking to see me.”

“Yes, but I didn’t expect you to come
all the way here.”

He chuckled.

“Your employer is called Eve, isn’t she?
She’s crazy, you know that, right?”

He stared at me for a long moment.
“Maybe. She might pay us, or kill us all.”

“Before she gets to that, she’ll kill
all my friends. Let me send a message to them and warn them.”

He made a dismissive gesture and walked
towards the door.

“There’s over a thousand people on the
ship. I’ll make it worth your trouble. I have nothing here, you know that, but
you would be paid.”

At least he paused and listened.

“Seriously, I’ll stay here with you. You
can deliver me to her if you really want to, but please let me warn them.”

Keeping me fixed with his eyes, studying
my reactions, the giant towering over me whipped out a long tongue and licked
his chin.
Creepy
.

“Captain Jones is a personal friend.
He’ll reward you, and you’ll earn the gratitude of the Confederacy.”

“No. It’s too dangerous.”

The answer sounded final, and he headed
for the door once more. It opened into the corridor, and the temptation was too
big to resist. If I moved I might get
somewhere
. They might shoot me,
but compared to being handed to Eve like a neatly wrapped gift, being dead
might not be too bad.

I stuck two fingers into my boot, found
the little knife, and squeezed the handle. The alien was almost by the door
already and I bounced to my feet. If I didn’t hurry, the opportunity would
close and I might not get another chance. I ran for it, skidding around him.

Their captain grabbed for me and I
stabbed at his hand, fumbling for balance. I heard him roar with anger and
pain, and then I was in the corridor.

“Shoot her.”

I had no plan, no idea of where I was
going, but I had to do
something
to be able to live with myself for
whatever time I might have left.

Dashing past the guard, I ran for my
life. A shot missed me, singing the wall right in front of me. No more stun
settings; this time they were out to kill me.

Right then, the ship rocked and I almost
fell. Alarms blared and an artificial voice reported, “Shields are down,
Captain.”

Chaos. What was that? The door to the
bridge, I couldn’t go
there.
Shouldn’t there be a lift or something?

Adrenaline helped me regain my balance a
split second before my captors, and I got a few more steps in before they
fired. At the same time, the air shimmered around me, and being teleported away
spared me the worst impact of the energy beam.

*****

When the world took on solid form again,
I stared at a familiar room. Last time I saw the inside of John’s transporter
room I thought Adam died in an explosion. Not a good memory. It was the last
place I expected to be, but safe. My legs were spongy. Maybe it would be
alright to sit down for a second.

I heard a voice say, “She’s here, but
someone shot her.”

Both the voice and the room faded into
darkness so quickly I didn’t understand what happened.

The next time I opened my eyes, someone
carried me. Only one person would do that, and the broad shoulder my head
rested against confirmed the conclusion. “Adam…”

If he was there, if he came for me,
Eve’s plans for him were thwarted.

A well-known sardonic voice answered,
“Almost. You’ll have to make do with me.”

John. The mistake made my cheeks heat. I
wanted to tell him to put me down, I didn’t want to be carried by anyone but
Adam under any circumstances, but I was short of breath and doubted my legs
would carry me. It must be the aftereffects of being shot so many times in just
a few days. Even at stun it surely messed up the nervous system.

A door to the side slid open and he put
me down in a reclining chair. Anya swaggered in behind us. “Alex, dearest,
we’ve been so worried.”

“What happened?”

I reached for her hands and she squeezed
mine. “We’ve been searching for days, tracking their warp signature. I finally
got a lock on you, but couldn’t teleport you out with their shields up.”

John stood to the side with his powerful
arms crossed over his chest. “I didn’t want to attack them, but when you ran I
had to.”

Anya filled in. “You brought a blaster
shot with you. Fried half the control room.”

“But…”

“You’re pale. Get some rest.”

“Won’t they come after us?”

John chuckled. “They won’t be going
anywhere for a while.”

A shower would be good, but I was so
tired. Thinking was hard, but there was something important I needed to
remember. “The Bell… Adam.”

“The Bell had to answer a distress
call.”

This wasn’t right. The man who once
swore he’d rather steal a shuttle and run away with me than have us separated
wouldn’t just stay behind when my life was at stake. “Eve. It’s Eve. We have to
warn them.”

They exchanged a glance and John lifted
an eyebrow. “Well, as little faith as I have in the Confederacy, it’s a big
ship filled with them. They’ll be fine.” The corners of his mouth twitched, “As
long as they don’t venture too close to any black holes, of course.”

Anya smiled. “He’s right, sweetheart.
You need to rest.”

What weren’t they telling me?

John flashed a smile, grabbed a blanket
and swept it around me with surprising gentleness. He rested his hand on my
head for a moment before straightening up, trying to regain his normal
attitude. “She’s right. Getting shot fucks you up. I need a drink.”

I’d already done so much sitting I
shouldn’t need rest, but maybe he was right. I was too weak.

When they left, I nodded off for a bit. Showering,
changing clothes, and grabbing a bite to eat helped a little, but I still only
felt marginally better. John and Anya were probably on the bridge, and I headed
out into the long hallways.

I arrived just in time to hear the end
of a radio conversation. John waved me closer and handed me a bottle. Liquor
might not be exactly what I needed, but why the hell not… He sounded impatient.
“We’ve been trying to reach you for days. Do I need to come save you fools
again?”

A female voice on the other side answered
after just a second’s hesitation. “We’re fine. Now.”

Anya lifted her long dark hair over one
shoulder and reached forward with a frown on her beautiful face. “What do you
mean you’re fine
now
?”

The anonymous voice answered, “We ran
into some trouble, ma’am, but it’s been taken care of. I’m sure the Captain
will brief you when you get here.”

It was clear the woman operating the
radio wouldn’t say anything more. Maybe Eve stood next to her with a gun to her
head. Maybe it was Eve talking, mimicking someone else’s voice to keep us
occupied.

I sipped John’s booze and coughed as it
burned its way to my stomach. We’d know soon enough, and for now, there wasn’t
anything to do but wait.

“How do you drink this?”

He shrugged. “Give it a couple of years,
you’ll get used to it.”

The way to the Bell seemed endless. Anya
retreated to the computer to charge her mobile emitter and John disappeared
into the bowels of the ship. I wanted to talk to my husband, but the workings
of the radio were a mystery to me.

When I couldn’t take the solitude
anymore, I went to look for John. I found him deep down in the ship and heard
him curse through the door. Did I really want to put myself through this?
Sitting all alone wasn’t appealing, so probably…

My father-in-law lay on his back under
some equipment I couldn’t recognize. I saw a muscular but sweaty and dirty arm
hit the machine with a wrench. “What are you doing?”

He peeked out and flashed a smile. “Hey,
Alex. Unexpected pleasure. This old hog won’t start.”

“What does it do?”

He scooted out, sat on the floor and
watched me. “You don’t care what it does.”

True. I should say something, give some
explanation to why I was there, but I had nothing.

“He wanted to come for you. Adam, I
mean. He would have been court marshaled. I didn’t think you wanted that.”

I sighed and sat on the floor next to
him. I was tired to the bone, and my legs refused to keep standing.

“What happened?”

“I overheard the teleporter crew
reporting they couldn’t find you. Adam found a trace of the ship’s warp drive,
and Jones was about to go save you.”

“Well, that’s awfully thoughtful of
him.”

“Yeah, someone snatching a person in his
crew right under his nose… Then, there was this distress call from a colony,
and he said as lovable as you are, three thousand people had priority over one.
I might have made the same call.”

It still didn’t explain why
he
came for me, and not Adam. “I see.”

“Jones ordered Adam to the bridge, and
he didn’t go. Things were getting pretty nasty.” He chuckled. “I shouted I would
show their useless asses how to run a rescue operation and stormed out of there
so he wouldn’t have a chance to do anything dumb. Luckily, I had Anya’s mobile
emitter in my pocket.”

“Luckily.” Yeah, he hadn’t planned
that
at all…

He patted my arm with a hand that was
big, dirty, and looked just like Adam’s. Just like Adam’s, but human. I wanted
to rest my head on his shoulder and close my eyes, but that would hardly be
appropriate. I resisted it for almost ten seconds. Why was I so tired?

“Alex, you awake?”

“Sure…”

“Do you ever wonder what it would be
like to leave?”

What a strange question. Leave what? The
Bell? Adam? Both? Did he
have
to sound so much like my husband? Except
for John’s perpetual stubble they could be identical twins, one human and one artificial.
“Yes. But I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

John laughed. “Of course it’s not, but I
still sometimes want to do it just to see if I can. They’re almost hypnotizing,
aren’t they?”

That was a much more clear-sighted
observation than I could have reached on my own. Both Adam and Anya were
irresistible, larger than life, and neither John nor I could have walked away
even if we wanted to. I couldn’t resist Adam any more than the ship could
resist its engines, or a planet could break free from its sun and choose to go
somewhere else.

“Yes… Yes, they are. Do you ever wonder,
I mean, you and I will grow old and they’ll be exactly the same.”