Kidnapped (5 page)

She obeyed, but kept an eye on the floor, astounded by the way the planet grew in front of her eyes. When they entered the atmosphere, she was happy he had brought her to the bridge. The force of the planet's gravity affected the artificial gravity on board, and the strains on the ship as it sunk down through the atmosphere made her queasy. Being able to actually see what was happening made it easier to handle.

He steered skilfully, and landed just outside a big industrial complex. Patricia mumbled, "Whoa," and when she looked up to meet his eyes, she was surprised to see him wink at her. Maybe even someone as cold as he could enjoy being able to impress.

She wanted to touch it. This shell kept them safe and had travelled unimaginable distances, but Travis caught her arm when she reached out, explaining distractedly, "If we hadn't had shields we'd be sitting in there waiting for the hull to cool for a couple of hours. It's still hot though, you can touch when we get back."

After taking a few steps away, she turned to look at the ship, and found it much larger than she expected. Hearing it could hold two thousand soldiers and almost as many prisoners was one thing, but seeing it another. It was huge. A part of her wanted to believe she really was in some peculiar place back on Earth, maybe in a mental asylum after losing her mind, but seeing the large craft tower over alien bluish trees made it all too real.

He didn't wait for her to answer. He was heading away, looking around, reminding her of a predator, and she followed him quietly for a few steps. Then, she couldn't keep it inside any longer; she was bubbling with emotions. "You know, this is my first alien planet. This is so cool. It doesn't look like back home at all."

She half expected him to snap at her to be quiet, but he didn't. Instead, he turned to look at her and smiled warmly, "I know, I'm sorry your first one couldn't be a prettier and more exciting one."

It was difficult to resist tucking her hand into his, like a little girl wanting to be protected. To her, the planet they were on seemed plenty exciting, maybe too exciting. The vegetation, or what she assumed to be vegetation, looked quite different from anything she'd seen before, the colors were different, another planet was clearly visible in the sky... it even smelled different.

"You're not going to run away, are you?"

His words ripped her back to reality, and she stared at him, surprised to find the thought abhorrent. "Oh, god no, where would I go? I'm sort of dependent on you."

Travis shrugged. "Alright, you can go have a look around, just don't go far. Stay close to the ship and be very careful."

Patricia nodded dutifully. A large part of her was terrified, and she had no thoughts of wandering away. The world around them was even more frightening than she had found
him
at first. Maybe her fear showed on her face; Travis surprised her with putting his hand on her shoulder and giving it a little squeeze. Since the first day, he had not touched her.

He pulled out the data pad that once showed her world disappear behind her, turned around, and started to walk down the road with long, determined strides, leaving her more alone than she had even been. She looked around, uncertain of what to do.

There were buildings nearby, most of them old and scruffy looking, but she saw something bright blue close to the wall of one of them, and she decided to go see what it was. It might be an alien flower or something, and as the first representative of her species, exploring seemed like an important duty. She mumbled, to herself since Travis already was too far away to hear it, "I wish I had a camera."

Sauntering over to the building only took a couple of minutes, and when she bent down over the pretty plant, she saw movement at the corner of her eye. She turned her head to look, and saw a man running down the road. She frowned, and then the world turned hot and white before it got black.

*****

Travis had spent a lot of time thinking about his prisoner, and decided arresting her had been a mistake. Even when disregarding both her own and her planet's ineptness with technology it seemed unlikely someone this enthusiastic and naive would have anything to do with terrorists.

He knew the alien ship William had stolen had teleport capabilities, and as improbable as he had found it at first, he had puzzled out a possible scenario. Maybe she had gone off the road in her vehicle when the rebel appeared right in front of her, and that the cursed thief had been next to her vehicle trying to help her. It seemed much more likely than the alternatives. There shouldn't be a reason for him to care either way, and it troubled him that he did. Maybe he should have put her back in the cell. He had meant to when he went to her room, but he instead he had invited her along.

Forcing Patricia out of his mind, he moved on instinct. He was sure his intel was correct and that William and crew were here, but they would be closer to the centre of the complex. They sure wouldn't sit around and wait while his ship was landing, anyway. Not having a teleporter was a disadvantage for him.

He stopped and frowned; something wasn't right. It might have been a noise, or some other little detail that seemed out of place. He never knew
how
he knew, he just did. Turning around to look back at the ship, he saw Patricia bend down over the plant, and then a person came running out of the house, running right for him, saw him and changed direction, and he was about to start running, too, but he got distracted by a movement at the corner of his eye, and in the next moment all the buildings exploded.

He saw the young woman being thrown back by the pressure, flying through the air miraculously just out of reach of the flames, but landing hard, and he did start running, but not in the direction of the culprit: he headed for the girl.

Travis had seen where she fell, but still couldn't find her at first. The houses all around were on fire and thick smoke filled the air, making him cough and his eyes water. Everything was covered in a thick layer of gray dust, and debris cluttered the ground. He finally spotted something a little more colorful than everything else, and realized it would have to be a part of her jacket.

Patricia lay very still, and was almost entirely covered with stones, gravel, and a sheet of metal from the building. On top of it all, pinning her to the ground, was a thick beam of steel. He didn't think he'd be able to move it at first, but the adrenaline gave him surprising strength, and the artificial metal hand helped. He could crash rocks with it if need be.

It took him a couple of minutes to get all the rubble away from her, and he held his breath when he turned her over. She looked pitifully small, pale, and bruised, but she was still breathing. He surprised himself with running his hand over her cheek, mumbling, "Everything's gonna be alright," before he lifted her up. He was perfectly oblivious of all the destruction around them, and equally oblivious of his enemies watching him curiously, wondering why he was wasting time on this instead of going after them.

*****

William, the feared and pursued rebel leader, lay sprawled ungracefully on his stomach next to his wife of many years, Isabela, and they were both peeking through high-powered electronic binoculars that let them see what was happening as well as if they'd been standing right next to it. They had been hiding on the roof of a large building to the side, safely unseen by Travis, and watched everything while waiting for their explosives expert Vasiliy to return after planting the bomb. William wondered about the young woman in Travis's company, and when she wandered over toward the building, he muttered through his teeth, "No, get away from there."

A memory hit him, and he lowered his binoculars and glanced over at his companion. "I know that girl. She was on S7355P3. She had an accident because of me."

Isabela looked in that direction and answered calmly, "I remember. And you said Travis saw you. He probably snatched her up. It's strange he lets her wander around like that, though. I would have expected him to lock her up and forget about her."

Her husband said quietly, but with an intense inner fire, "She's going to die when the building blows. We have to do something."

Now it was her turn to lower her binoculars and meet his gaze, and he knew the cute little wrinkle on her forehead meant she was worried. "Bill, there's no time."

He started to object, "But it's my fault she's here..." and then the buildings exploded. Both ducked instinctively, even though they were too far away to be threatened by either debris or shockwave.

When William looked again, he saw Vasiliy run erratically away from them. Beside him, Isabela whispered, "No, you idiot, you're going the wrong way."

William clenched his jaw, willing his friend to change direction. "Vasiliy, we're over here. Come on, hurry up!"

To their surprise, Travis ignored their friend and headed for the girl. They looked at each other and asked simultaneously, "What the hell is he doing?"

Chapter Five

Taking the Alliance's nonchalant view of life into account, it was surprising how well equipped these ships were. He assumed, without putting much emotion into it, that they were protecting their investments. It was still cheaper to heal the already trained personnel than to have new children conditioned into perfect adult workers.

He put Patricia into the medical scanner and closed the lid, hoping she wouldn't wake up while trapped in the steel tube; that would cause panic for anyone. Rummaging around amongst multicolored vials on a counter, he was talking to himself, "No. No. Useless. Deadly. Can't give her that.
Definitely
not that. Aaaah, there you are."

The scanner started to hum as it ran its program, and he didn't realize he was holding his breath until he exhaled when a console told him internal damages were minimal. When the upper half opened, Patricia was still unconscious. He had been worried about a head injury, or internal bleedings he'd have neither equipment nor knowledge to heal, but the machine's statement eased his worst fears.

She moaned a little when he moved her from the scanner to the high medical table, but she didn't wake up, not even when he began cleaning her off and treating her wounds, and injected her with antibiotics.

The nanogel could close superficial wounds and scratches within minutes, and he didn't think she would get any scars. There was a deep and long cut on one of her legs, but that stopped bleeding too as he started treating it, and it seemed to be healing just fine, so he decided not to worry about it.

He had cleaned her arms, and was drying the dust and dirt carefully from her face when she started moving, coming back to the world of the living. Her head moved from side to side, and she mumbled, "What happened?"

Travis tossed the cloth he'd been using to the side, answering calmly, "You'll be fine."

He shocked them both with running his hand over her hair and placing a soft kiss on her forehead before fleeing to the bridge. Something was wrong with him, very wrong, and he didn't know how to handle it.

*****

Patricia was confused. She didn't know exactly where she was, or how she had gotten there, but the room was filled with strange machinery and very brightly lit, and seemed even more inhospitable than the rest of the ship. She remembered being outside a building, seeing someone run, and then there had been a blinding light. When she sat up, she found she was a little dizzy, but not too bad.

Here and there were patches of a gelatinous material attached to her skin and she peeled one off, curiously rolling it between her fingers, trying to figure out what it was. The skin under it looked like it always had, and she couldn't figure out what the material did at first, but then she found a long patch placed on her calf. Under it, a wound was still healing. She stared, amazed, as the skin came together before her eyes. And with that speed, how big might it have been to start with?

From looking at herself and the room, she drew the conclusion that she had indeed been in an accident, and this must be some kind of medical care center. She slid off the table and almost fell to the floor as her legs refused to carry her. The truth rushed in on her; the building had exploded, and she had been thrown through the air.

She let herself sink down on the floor, thinking she would just rest her legs for a few moments before doing anything.

She sat there for several minutes, leaning her head against a metal cabinet and keeping her eyes closed. She wished Travis would come and pick her up and carry her somewhere more comfortable, and then she almost hit herself for even thinking a thing like that. This just wouldn't do. She needed to get up.

Opening her eyes reluctantly, she took a good look at herself. Her clothes were dirty, but her skin surprisingly clean. Had he really gone through the trouble to clean her off? And why did she think about it? She reminded herself firmly that Travis had kidnapped her, and the only reason she cared about him was because he was the only other living being within mindboggling distances. She didn't have any other input, hadn't had contact with another living person for much too long a time.

Shrugging it off, she got to her feet and went to look for her room. She needed something clean to wear, and to brush the dust out of her hair.