Forced Handfasting (16 page)

              He walked up to the station that he preferred to use while in the control room. A young soldier named, Hoff, sat at a desk studying a screen that glowed green.

              “Hoff, would you please contact the Flox for me, I need to speak with Hecz,” he asked.

              “Yes, my lord.” Hoff automatically began to fulfill his lord’s request.

              Jahan reached for an empty chair to pull it up to the station in order to wait for the call to make the connection. It took several minutes of patience until Hecz’s image appeared on the screen before him.

              “Commander Hecz,” Jahan nodded in respect for his newest friend and ally.

              “Jahan! It is good to hear from you. I was about to contact you with the decision my people have made regarding your request.”

              Jahan smiled sadly at Hecz’s words. “I am afraid I am contacting you for a different matter.” He paused not because he didn’t know what to say, but because the words became lodged in his throat.

              “Do you no longer need our assistance?” Hecz asked with a look of concern on his face.

              “Yes, I do, but it is for a different reason now. After finally having the opportunity to survey my world, I have come to the conclusion that it is beyond repair.”

              Hecz leaned closer to his side of the screen. “What do you mean?”

              “The leader of this war has succeeded in poisoning the soil along with destroying every building and home. From this, I gather it would take an extremely long time for the ground to recover if it ever does. My people would starve to death long before any food source would be able to grow.”

             
              “So, what are you suggesting, Lord Jahan?” Hecz was paying close attention to Jahan as well as the others in the background.

              “I would like to buy or borrow a ship large enough to carry my people off Uxslore. We need to search for a new home world.” He swallowed down the emotion that was fighting to surface. It was going to take a lot out of him when he had to abandon the world that his great-grandfather had established, but there was no way they could remain on Uxslore. He would have to accomplish the task of finding a new home for the survivors much in the same way his great-grandfather had to.

              “Ummm…I see, and understand the problem you are facing.” Hecz paused. “I am willing to answer your call for help.”

              Jahan felt the weight being lifted off him. A smile spread across his face. His people now had hope. “Commander Hecz, you don’t know what this means to me, and my people.”

              “Jahan, I can understand fully. Once, the Flox were nearly destroyed to the brink of extinction. You took it upon yourself to come to our aid not so long ago, so I will return the favor to my ally. I will send my largest ship to Uxslore, fully stock, to carry your people to their new world. In the computer’s logs, you will find viable worlds that are suitable for your needs, but remember, some of them may already be inhabited.”

              “Warning noted, Commander. Thank you,” Jahan replied.

              “It will take my ship about a solar week to reach Uxslore after it is fully stocked which will take about two days. I will contact you when the ship leaves if that is acceptable to you,” Hecz said.

              Jahan nodded. “That is perfect, Commander. Much gratitude I give to you.”

              “It is nothing between friends.” Hecz nodded in response. “Until next time, good day.”

              The screen went blank. Jahan looked up to find that the entire room had turned their attention to his station. Each and every person stood opened mouth in awe as he surveyed the room. He couldn’t help but smile at his faithful crew as they looked to him for answers.

              “I can assume that you all heard the conversation between the Flox leader and myself.” Replies of acknowledgement filtered around the room then hushed again. “I will start to make the preparations for our imminent departure. It’s going to take about a solar week before the ship arrives; there is a lot that needs to be done before we leave. First, I want all scouts, and troops pulled back within the safety of the mountain. No one is to leave the mountain until the ship lands. Is that clear?”

              Jahan waited for everyone in the room to acknowledge his authority. He didn’t want to risk losing anyone. “I will hold a meeting tomorrow at sundown to inform every one of the transport that we will be making. The time and place will be announced so make sure you are there. Good evening.” He stood up to leave the command center. His muscles were tired and sore, and he couldn’t wait to let the hot water of the relief room’s shower to run over his body. The dirt, and grime of the day needed to be washed away too before he took Sam in his arms. It had been several days since he last felt her tiny body move beneath his, but he was going to change that tonight.

              On his way back to his quarters, he caught sight of Bankee playing with a few of the other children. He walked over to where she was sitting, and squatted down next to her. “Hi, sweetheart.” He kissed his new daughter on top of the head. “What are you up to?”

              “We are just playing rock roll,” she replied.

              “What is rock roll?” A bunch of small, rounded rocks lay scattered within a circle drawn in the dirt floor.

              “Oh, we just take the rocks, and shoot them with our fingers. The object is to knock all the other rocks out of the circle before someone else does. My rocks are the ones with the blue dot on them.” She pointed to a cluster of the blue dotted rocks in question. “Want to give it a try?” Bankee asked, and held out a rock to him.

              “Sure,” he replied, and took the offered make-shift toy. “Like this?” he asked as he pluck the stone in the direction of the other rocks in a circle. He, and the group of kids watched as his rock rolled across the dirt, and struck the close-knit area of stones. With a small crack, the cluster of rocks broke apart and scattered outside the ring.

              “Aweeee,” one boy whined as the rocks knocked out of play by his lord.

              “Yeah!” another cheered.

              “Wow! You knocked them all out! You’re good!” Bankee shrieked in excited, her eyes wide, and a smile plastered across her face.

              “Thank-you,” he said as he pretended to bow in recognition of their favors. It warmed his heart to see, and hear these young people laughing and playing. With the horrors of the past week and the coming weeks, to watch them play as if nothing was happening lifted his spirits. “I need to get going. Do you know where Sam is?”

              Bankee looked up at him with a confused look. “I haven’t seen her since this morning. She left me, and Daneel with the older girls a long time ago.”

              “Where is Daneel now?”

              “He’s still with the older girls. I asked if I could come play rock, and roll, and they said it was ok.”

              For some strange reason alarm bells were going off in his head. “Ok, I’ll go find her, you stay here, and play.” He patted the top of her head as he stood up to leave. He didn’t want to let Bankee know he was quickly becoming concerned. It wasn’t like Sam to disappear for so long, especially since she had taken on the care of a child. From everything she had ever told him, children were the foremost concern of hers, so why would she leave Bankee alone for so long. Whatever the reason he needed to find out where the hell she was.

              First, he searched their quarters. She could be sick or needed help. But no such luck, their quarters were empty. A quick search of the dining room and play area revealed the same conclusion. As he walked the corridors, he asked everyone he passed if they had seen Sam. Each reply came with a heart-stopping “No.” He needed to go find Marco. Hopefully, Keena would know where his wife was.

              He found Marco in his quarters with Daneel and a worried look on his face. “Where’s Keena?”

              “I don’t know. I just returned to our quarters and found Lolly waiting here with Daneel. She said that Keena left him with her hours ago.”

              “I don’t know where Sam is either.” His heart was starting to pound harder with each passing minute. “We need to go find them, and find out what the hell they are up to.”

              “Ok, but I need to get one of the women to watch, Daneel.” The brothers left the room in a rush.

              What was Sam up to? Was she attempting to escape, and return to her world? Had she lied to him about her feeling for him? His anger was rapidly rising. Why would she betray him like this, and involve Keena?

             
You are a fool, Jahan! There is something not right here, but it’s not because Sam is betraying you.
His conscious was yelling to him to think clearly.
Why would your first thoughts of Sam missing be because she is running away? Did she not tell you she loves you? Get a grip! Something is wrong, terribly wrong!

             
After dropping off Daneel, they made their way through the mountain, checking with each, and every person they came across in the corridors. The replies were all the same, if someone had seen the pair of females it was hours ago. Their last place to check was the garage, but Jahan didn’t have a clue to why they would go there.

              The garage was still busy at this time of the evening. All ships had returned to the safety of the mountain, and the doors to the opening were firmly closed. The normal crack left in the doors wasn’t there per his instructions from earlier.

              “My lord!” a mechanic came running across the open expanse of the garage.

              Jahan turned at the sound of his name being called. “What is it?”

              Nero, his head mechanic rushed up to him and Marco out of breath. “My…my lord! We have a big problem. I sent two of my men out after them, but they haven’t returned either!”

              That cold, sinking feeling coursed through his tense body. “Sent after who? Speak man!”

              “Lady Sam, and Lady Keena!”

              Marco gripped his upper arm in a tight squeeze. “What? Where did they go?”

              “The guard at the door said they were looking for two small boys who had disappeared from the play area, but when he went to look for the boys, the ladies had exited out onto the mountain. By the time he realized they had tricked him, they were riding off on a roamer cycle.”

              “By the gods! What were they thinking?” Jahan cried then took off in the direction of the parked roamer cycles.

Chapter 15

            
 
“Keena, I think we should turn back now,” Samantha shouted into her driver’s right ear. The roamer cycle sped through the rocks of the mountain. Sam held on for dear life as Keena narrowly missed a fat boulder that blocked part of the road. “Keena! We need to turn back!”

              Keena ignored her demands. She wrapped her arms tighter around the other woman’s waist in order to prevent herself from falling off the swerving cycle.
This was definitely a very bad idea!
Why was Keena not listening to her?

              “Where are we going?” she shouted into Keena’s ear. When no answer came forth, she screamed at the top of her lungs into Keena’s ear. “Keena, stop the damn cycle! NOW!” She added in a pinch on Keena’s stomach.

              The cycle slid to a stop. “Ouch! That hurt!”

              “Good! It was supposed to hurt! Now, where the hell are you taking us?” she jumped off the back of the cycle as soon as it had stopped.

              “I’ll tell you when we get there,” Keena said while not looking at her.

              “NO! I won’t go any further until you tell me what you are up to. When I said, I wanted to get some fresh air I didn’t mean for us to go joy riding! You are going to get us killed!”

              Keena’s head snapped in her direction. “You wouldn’t understand!”

              “Try me,” she replied dryly.

              Keena watched her for some time before talking. “I need to find out if my parents are still alive! I haven’t seen them in over a year, and I haven’t heard from them since all this crap started! I…I have to find them.” Her voice wavered.

              “What? Are you kidding me? Are you risking our lives on a wild goose chase? Believe me, Keena, I know what it’s like to lose your parents, but do you know what it’s like to be ripped away from everything you ever knew?” she paused. “By the look on your face, no you don’t. I’m sorry you lost your parents, but I’ve lost a lot more than that. I lost my entire life for crying out loud. Yes, your parents may still be alive but shouldn’t we leave that to Jahan, and Marco?”

“I’ve asked Marco to go search for my parents but he insists they are dead. I have to find out for sure.”

“Keena, this way too dangerous to be out here on our own. Why don’t we go back, and I’ll ask Jahan to go look for them?” She took a step forward. She knew how the younger woman felt about the loss of her parents. Her parents were alive, and well back on Earth, or least they were when she had been kidnapped. But there was no love lost between her and her parents. All too often she had been reminded of the inconvenience she was to them since they originally didn’t want children. They only had her to save face to their friends.

“He’s not going to do anything either.”

“How do you know that? He went out today looking for survivors!”

The color drained from Keena’s face. “He…he did? Marco didn’t tell me.” Her voice lowered to almost a whisper.

“Yes, and I wanted to go with him but he snuck out without me. I understand why now. It’s way too dangerous to be out here.” She lifted her hands and gestured to the surrounding area. Off in the distance she could see something burning but could smell the blackened air as the wind blew it in their direction. “We need to go back.”

“Ok, you’re right.”

Relieved that Keena finally agreed to head back, Sam slipped back onto the seat of the roamer cycle. Keena started the cycle up just as quickly as she had when they first found it sitting behind a rock formation. Sam looked around nervously, scanning the land for any signs of impending danger. Movement off to their left drew her attention causing her to suck in a sharp breath.

“Oh shit! Get us out of here, Keena!”

The movement she had seen was moving closer to them at an incredibly fast speed. Keena looked over her shoulder and saw the same thing she did. She didn’t waste anymore time when she realized they were in danger.

The roamer cycle took off with a sudden jolt. Keena leaned forward closer to the handlebars in order to break some of the wind resistances they were facing. Sam did the same thing but kept her head turned in order to keep an eye on their pursuers.

“Faster, Keena! You have to go faster! They’re gaining on us!”

The speck that was once a murky moving blob was now clearing forming into three small, black ships. Several roamer cycles raced alongside the ships that flew only feet up off the ground. Her intuition told her that their pursuers were not friendlies who wanted to offer them their help. Rather, it was Rahman’s men hell-bent on catching them.

Keena pushed the cycle as hard as she dared, but it wasn’t helping. Each time she looked back, the army behind them was considerably closer, almost to the point that she could see faces.

The roamer cycle swerved to the right nearly knocking Sam off the back. She had to clutch Keen’s shirt in order to stop herself from falling off. Her heart pounded not only in her chest, but she could hear it pounding in her ears. If they didn’t get someplace safe to hide they would be caught, and God help them then.

The sound of the cycles closing in on them filled the air around them. She chance another look back at the exact moment their roamer cycle hit a big stone.  The next thing she knew she was sailing through the air, looking down at the cycle toppled over on its side.

She landed with a back-breaking thud on the hard ground, knocking all air out of her lungs. Her body rolled and tumbled for several more feet before coming to an abrupt stop against a mound of protruding rocks. Her vision faded in, and out as she struggled to draw air into her lungs. Her body hurt beyond belief, and when she went to sit up, she screamed out in pain.

“Kee…Keena…Keena!” she tried to call out, but she didn’t have enough air. All she could do was turn her head to search for her friend and sister-in-law. The mass of enemy vehicles came to a stop not far where they had crashed. Her vision was fading fast, but she was finally able to spot Keena.

The younger woman had landed not far from her, but Sam could tell by the open-eyed blank stare on Keena’s face that she was dead. A cry ripped from deep down inside her.

“NO!” she sobbed.

The crunch of gravel on the opposite of her head didn’t deviate her attention from Keena. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t get her body to cooperate enough for her to inch closer to her dead friend.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”

A deep, mocking voice spoke down to her. No matter what it said though, she refused to pull her attention away from Keena.

“Go away,” she sobbed. “Leave us alone!”

A man in a dark gray uniform stepped into her line of vision, blocking her view of Keena. “I don’t think so, human! You have saved us a lot of trouble.” He fingered a strand of her hair that had fallen over her face.

“Don’t…don’t…”

“Don’t what, human? You are obviously in no position to make any demands. Take them to the ship! This one is still alive, so make sure she stays that way!”

Sam’s fight with the impending unconsciousness finally ended when another man walked up to her, and jabbed her in the neck with something. It burned like fire, but the blackness was a welcoming sight. Her eyes closed, and her body went limp.

She was lying on some soft when she next came to. Her head throbbed like a bitch, and her entire body protested with any move she made. She attempted to raise her hand to her face but soon found out that it was strapped down. One eye successfully cracked open only to find that all of her limbs were securely strapped to the bed she was lying in. When she tried to open the other eye, she finally realized that it had a bandage over it, but why?

She searched her memory for anything that would remind her of what may have happened to her, but she came up empty handed. She pulled on the restraints, but it was useless, she was stuck.

“Hello?” she croaked out. Her throat was dry and parched. She would love to have some nice cool water right about now. “Hello?”

Nothing. It was way too quiet in whatever hospital she was in. Where was…where was… What the hell was wrong with her? Wait a minute! She looked around the room with her one eye. Nothing was familiar to her; nothing looked…human! Shit!

Everything came flooding back; Jahan, the auction, the Handfasting, the…the chase, Keena! The image of Keena’s lifeless eye flashed before her.

“No,” she sobbed.

“Well, I see you are awake,” a male voice said.

Sam looked at the unknown male who was walking over to her bed. “Who are you?” she asked through her tears.

“You don’t recognize me?” the man laughed down at her.

“I have no idea who the fuck you are, and I don’t care! Where is Jahan?” she screamed at the man.

“Hopefully, Jahan is on his way here. I sent him a short message to tell him where you are. I would say he should be showing up shortly. By the way, I am Cion.

“I don’t know who you are, and don’t care to know. I just want to go home!”

“I don’t think that will be happening anytime soon. You should be receiving another visitor sometime today.” Cion left her room without saying goodbye.

Sam drew in a long deep breath. Where the hell was she? She didn’t know this Cion or whomever this visitor was supposed to be. All she wanted was to see Jahan, and the only way that was going to happen was if he know where she was, and she had a feeling he didn’t. Cion, or whatever his name was, gave off the impression of not being very trustworthy.

A man dressed all in white walked up to her bed with something in his hand. His emotionless expression had her wondering what he was about to do until she saw the syringe full of a yellow liquid.

“What is that?”

The man inserted the tip of the needle into the IV cord that ran directly into one of her veins. He pushed the stopper down until all the contents were dispersed into her arm. A warm tingling sensation fell over her, and she immediately grew drowsy.

“Wha…,” she tried to ask but failed. Whatever had been in that syringe was knocking her on her ass. She no longer had control over her body, not that she had much anyway since she woke up. Her one good eye closed, and the only sound she heard was the sound of her own beating heart.

******

Jahan was frantic. The men he had sent out in search of Sam, and Keena had returned over an hour ago with no news of their disappearance. Marco was pacing back, and forth in the command center while holding his young son who was crying for his mother. They were losing hope fast that the pair would be found unharmed. It wasn’t until a call requested from an unknown source chimed into the center that their hopes rose.

“My lord, there is a call trying to come through but I don’t know who it’s from.”

“Put it up on the big screen,” he said.

A fuzzy picture appeared on the screen used for public calls. It took just a second for the picture to clear, and when it did Jahan was knocked off his feet.

Rahman stood in the middle of the screen with an evil grin spread across his ugly face. Next to him, in a bed, lay the unconscious form of his wife. “Jahan, I am happy to see you again! How are things treating you?” Rahman chuckled. “Not so good from what I can tell right about now.” He gestured to the prone figure next to him.

“You son of a bitch!”

“Now, now no name calling. Your little wife might not like that kind of talk.” Rahman wagged a finger in front of the camera.

“Where is Keena?” Marco raced to the front of the screen and screamed.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. I am afraid Keena did not survive the crash she caused.”

“You lie!” Marco retorted back.

“Do you really think I am that cold to lie about the death of a woman? Marco, you wound me.” He pretended to be hurt by placing his hand over his hearts.

“You killed Keena! You will pay for that mistake you…,” Marco shouted as he reached for the screen.

Jahan and Vito had to hold him back.

“Marco, I did not cause the death of your wife. Your wife was trying to run from my men, and preceded to hit a hefty boulder she did not see. If it is any consolation, she didn’t suffer any. My medic tells me when she was thrown from her roamer cycle she broke her neck, killing her instantly when she hit the ground. As for your wife, Jahan, she is a bit banged up and has a broken leg but my medics are caring for her, and as you can see she is not in any pain.” He gestured to Samantha’s sleeping form.

“What do you want, Rahman?” Jahan could only imagine what his archenemy was going to request.

“Ah, Jahan, what else would I want, but you of course?” Rahman laughed uncontrollably.

“Where, and when?” Jahan responded without emotion. He needed to get his ex-councilman to think he wasn’t overly affected by the capture of his wife.

“Ummm…I’m not so sure yet. I think I might want to keep your little human for a while before I decide to dispose of the both of you.”

The screen went black. Jahan lunged towards the screen as if he could go through it, and seize Rahman by the throat. There was no telling where the son of a bitch was hiding his wife, but he was going to find out.