Kidnapped (30 page)

One glance at her made it clear to him it wasn't going to happen, so he put a finger on a switch, setting the weapon to stun, and added in a mild voice, "You don't have to kill anyone, just keep yourself safe."

She didn't answer, and when he left the bridge, he hoped she wouldn't come to the conclusion it would be better just to shoot him, too, when he got back. If keeping her safe meant doing things that made her see him for the monster he really was, then so be it.

Everything in the ship had been thrown around and turned upside down during his manoeuvres, including the people, but he didn't find many on board. A couple of guards, too off-balance to be able to defend themselves, were soon dead and disposed of through an airlock. He was aware one wasn't supposed to use the airlocks at this speed, but he just shrugged the thought away. If they held, they held, and he had no intention of leaving corpses spread all over the ship for her to find.

He didn't encounter any more people until he got downstairs to the one holding cell the little vessel had. It was a luxury cruiser and not a prison ship, but there was one. The guard heard him coming, and had a little time to collect himself while Travis went through the rooms above, but it didn't do him any good. He was dead before he could even aim at the man coming through the door. Travis thought dryly, "they're right, I really am a butcher," and then forgot all about it as he peeked into the cell.

*****

Back on the Redeemer, William wondered how his unlikely friends were doing. He had asked people in his vast network to keep him informed if anyone saw them or heard anything about them, but this far no news had reached him. He didn't doubt Travis was well able to take care of both himself and Patricia, but the circumstances weren't the best, and he saw no reasons not to look out for them, just in case. In another world, in another time, they might have been lifelong friends.

He had indeed decided to make Garth leave the ship. He couldn't let the man off at the same place as Patricia and Travis, so he set a course to a planet just days away from them, where Garth had to depart, and the crew took a fond farewell of their former mate.

No one was happy about this. Even Isabela was upset with him, but they respected his decision, and it was all he could ask for. He had provided for Garth the best he could, given him money and anything he might need from the ship, and now he just hoped their paths wouldn't cross again. Missions were calling and now, with Veronica incapacitated, was the time to strike. He could spend no more time brooding over people who left his life.

*****

In Garth's mind this new wrong, being forced off the ship that had been his home for so long, was also Travis's fault, and he vowed to get justice. To him, every evil, every atrocity the Alliance had ever committed, was because of Travis. He could remember a time when his hatred was more general and unfocused, but it seemed like another life. He didn't care how it happened; he just wanted to see the couple suffer and die.

The idea that getting rid of them would also rid him of his nightmares and bad memories was appealing, and he eventually resorted to the only way out he could think of. He called for the Alliance, reasoning my enemy's enemy must be my friend.

Veronica's ship had been in the vicinity, transporting her to another hospital vessel, but when this prize turned up it was impossible for her to resist. A member of William's crew, outcast but still surely dear to them, tattling on Travis and Patricia...

Garth hadn't counted on being imprisoned for his troubles. He was so sure of her gratitude that if anything, he hoped for a reward. Still, being a prisoner of the Alliance seemed like a small price to pay to get rid of the objects of his hatred. The cell was comfortable, and maybe he'd be able to escape. He had been caught and fled before.

Not until the floor abruptly disappeared under him did he start to think that actively seeking out the place where Travis would be might not have been his best idea ever. Something was clearly wrong.

Chapter Thirty

Travis stood looking in through the window, watching the large former rebel with an unpleasant smile tugging at his lips. The chain of events was clear to him, and in a way Garth hadn't just betrayed
him
, which was to be expected; he had betrayed William's trust too. The fact that they wouldn't have gotten this ship if it hadn't been for him was irrelevant.

When he opened the door, Garth rushed towards him like an angry bull. When they had fought before it had been one-sided, and Travis hadn't even attempted to defend himself. He had just let the big man beat him. This time, things were different, and he had a grudge to settle for Garth trying to murder his wife. The other man got a couple of good hits in, but was soon flat on his back on the floor, growling, "Why can't you just die already!"

Travis just shook his head, answering calmly, "Because it's not my turn to go today."

When Travis returned to the bridge, knocked on the door, and said, "Babe, it's me, you can open up," he half expected Patricia to shoot him. Maybe his last words to Garth had been a lie, and maybe it
was
his time to die, just by his wife's hand instead of the former rebel's. If that was the case, he supposed things could be worse. She had in a way given him life, and it seemed fair she might be the one to take it away.

After a long wait, the door opened, he stepped through it, steeling himself for being dead, and found himself still alive.

She was still sitting in the very same chair, slowly withdrawing her hand from the console after opening the door. Her other hand was still clutching the weapon he'd given her in an almost absent-minded way.

She looked at him in a funny way, and he realized he had bruises forming on his face and blood trickling down from a cut on his forehead. He hadn't thought of cleaning himself up, he had just been in a hurry to get back to her. When she neither moved nor spoke, he tried, "If you're going to shoot me, now's a good time."

His voice broke the spell and she almost flew up from the chair, throwing her arms around him. He could feel her shake, and mumbled soothingly, "It's okay, Sweetheart, everything's okay, it's over now," as he ran his hand over her hair.

Holding his wife, rocking her gently from side to side, Travis closed his eyes and hoped the words he'd said were true.

They stood there for a long time, but eventually, he pulled her with him to a chair, so she could sit on his lap, and he sometimes forgot there was still a lost girl from a faraway planet under the strong surface she'd developed. He said quietly, "I'm sorry you had to see all that, sweetie," but she just shook her head.

Patricia had been shocked at all the people he killed, and at the carelessness he did it with. All the rumors were true, and people's fears were well founded in reality. Travis murdered people in cold blood without blinking. It was so different from the person she knew she tended to forget about it, or pretend it was someone else, but what kind of person was
she
if she just stood by and let it happen?

As she sat there waiting for him, wondering what to do, she started worrying instead. It was much too easy to imagine a scenario where he was gone, and the thought of losing him terrified her more than his ruthlessness did.

When she finally trusted her voice to carry, she answered, "It's not your fault. You just do what you have to do to keep us alive, and you do what you have been taught. I was so worried for you, are you alright?" Still sniffling a little, she added quickly, "Don't lie to me, I hate when you lie to me."

Travis frowned, trying to make heads or tails of what his wife just said. He often wondered what complicated thought processes everything really went through in a woman's mind, and if any man could understand it. He shrugged it off, and was about to answer what he always did, that she shouldn't worry, but decided it needed more words if she was to believe him. Even if it was true this time.

"I'm just a little bruised. I ran into someone with a personal grudge. It's nothing to worry about, really, it's not. How are you?"

She held him harder. "I'm okay, now that you're here."

He was relieved she didn't ask what he'd done with the people he'd encountered on the ship. Maybe there were some things better kept secret after all.

*****

It took a while to clean their new home up. Everything had fallen over when they were literally upside-down, and Travis did most of that work. He didn't want her to accidentally encounter something that might upset her.

Many ships pursued them during the first few days, but he outmanoeuvred them easily. If he shot a few of them down he never told her, and she never asked. The baby was moving around inside her now, seemingly not at all happy with the new environment, and it made her feel constantly ill.

This time he couldn't do anything about it, which made him feel useless and afraid, but he hid it well, and emanated nothing but calm around her. Thus, the days passed by and turned into weeks, and they were getting closer and closer to Earth.

When the ship came out of hyperspace, Travis went to get Patricia. She hadn't been feeling good at all, and he had ordered her to get some rest. It was difficult to make her lie down. She was stubborn, and he finally told her he would lock her inside the room if she didn't go willingly. That made her glare and stick her tongue out at him, but she had obeyed.

He supposed it was normal for pregnant women to feel sick, but the knowledge that she shouldn't be in space was constantly worrying him, as was the extra physical stress on her and the baby.

None of this showed on his face when he entered the room that had once belonged to the Supreme Commander, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. He just smiled, and brushed a lock of hair away from her eyes, and Patricia smiled, too, when his gentle touch woke her up. He said softly, "Hi, Sweetheart, how are you doing?"

"Much better now when you're here." She didn't look angry anymore, and her answer sounded truthful He ran his hand over her belly. It was still difficult to understand a little person was growing in there. "We're almost in your system. I thought you might like to see it since you missed it on the way out."

The reason she'd missed it was, of course, that he'd rendered her unconscious and thrown her in a cell, but that didn't seem relevant anymore.

She sat up, looking both happy and relieved. "We're almost home? Don't joke about this, I don't think I could take it, are we really home?"

"Almost. Your system and the one next to it are fairly close together, and now we're somewhere in between."

He didn't feel as sure about this as she did. He had never even been on a planet for an extended period of time, and now they were going to live on one. Interpersonal relations weren't his strong side, and he knew there would be people everywhere, and he'd find it difficult to fit in.

Patricia had been careful to tell him he must not kill people, not even hurt them, and he couldn't understand how he'd be able to protect her like that.

Everything he had ever known had changed, and it was still changing, but it was the same change he had forced upon her earlier, and he wasn't going to miss his old life. He would miss space; the beauty, serenity, and danger, and a part of him would always long to go back out there, but the things he was gaining were so much more precious and important.

Patricia shook him back to reality through squeezing his shoulder gently. She was frowning. "Are you okay?"

He wrapped his arm around her, and answered honestly, "Yes. I don't think I've ever been better."

It was true in a way. He was preparing to start a brand new life together with the one person he loved. He was getting a family, and even though it was a big change, enormous even for someone with his background, it was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He turned the question around, "Are
you
okay?"

She nodded and leaned her head against his shoulder. "I'm blessed."

Meeting his eyes, she elaborated, "I've been on an adventure everyone else on my planet can only dream of, if they even have the imagination to do that. I've survived and I'm coming home with a man I love, who would do anything for me, and our new life is just around the corner. It sounds so good it scares me."

Flashing a smile, she added, "You are wonderful."

Travis shook his head a little and chuckled, "You have me confused with someone else. Or, maybe you're just a little crazy."

She hit him playfully over the shoulder, and he pretended hurt. "Hey, what are you doing? Is that a way to treat the father of your child?"

Her giggle was sweet music to his ears. He wished he could make her do it more often. Maybe, maybe soon.

On the bridge, the holographic screens showed the outskirts of Earth's solar system, and Patricia looked disappointed. It was ice and rocks just like everywhere else, but he guessed she'd somehow expected hers to be different. He flashed her a smile and started to check things with the computer, his fingers darting over the controls. It didn't take many seconds before he had her attention and she asked curiously, "What are you doing?"