The Encounter (32 page)

              He swung his legs over her shoulders. She stood up. She took his hands to balance him while he got to his feet on her shoulders. He turned loose and stood up pausing to recover his balance. He could just get his hands inside the crack in the ceiling. She took him by the ankles and pressed him over her head. That did it. He got a handhold and pulled himself up.

              He looked down. "The walls are close enough to use your feet and back to climb up."

              "Move a little higher."

              "If you can jump this high, grab my arm. I'll pull you up."

              "The weight might pull you out. Move up out of the way. I can make it."

              He climbed up several feet, and then stopped. She studied the opening for a moment, bent her knees and sprang upward. Her head, shoulders and upper body entered the crack. She stretched out her arms and hands and caught herself. She brought up her knees and feet and pressed her back against the wall.

              She looked up. "If it gets too narrow I'll pass you my gun."

              "Okay." He started upward.

              The remaining crewman had become somewhat cautious. It was on pain of
certain
death that finally got him to precede the Commander back through the hole. They crawled into the cavern and stood. They saw the opening on the other side of the pool and made their way along the wall the same as Margaret and Lawrence had.

              The angle of assent had changed. Lawrence looked up. There was light and an opening above him. He looked down. "There's light. About fifty feet and we're outta here."

              Margaret moved and dislodged a small rock. It bounced down the hole.

              The Bounty Hunters had missed the opening in the ceiling. They were both several feet beyond it when the rock landed behind them. They stopped, looked, and then walked back. The scout ship Commander found the rock and then looked up. A chorus of sounds, that wouldn't have needed a translation, left his mouth. He grabbed the other man and hoisted him into the air.

              Lawrence pulled himself out through the hole in the side of the mountain. He stood and took a deep breath. He pulled the goggles down around his neck. The sun was beginning to warm him.

              He looked back at Margaret as she pulled herself out. "We gotta find some cover. There's no tellin' how many are out here."

              She moved up beside him. She rubbed her arms. She pulled the goggles down, reached into her shirt pocket and took out the device. The light was still flickering. She pressed it again and got the same static return.

"A bullet damaged this, she said, “but I think it’s receiving something." She spoke into it in a language that to him was little more than gibberish. Still the only response was static.

              "Okay... so?"

              "So... I’m sure there’s another ship. It's locked in on the signal this is transmitting and the static is the response" She looked back behind them. "They're coming."

              He drew his gun and glanced around. "Which way?"

              "From below..."

              He started back toward the hole. She took his arm. "Forget it. If we can avoid these guys long enough, I'm sure it's close."

              She pulled him with her and they both started for the woods.

              The two Bounty Hunters pulled themselves out of the ground. The scout ship Commander took a communicator off his belt, gave orders to his ship and waited for directions. It was personal now. He'd have them, dead or alive.

              Lawrence and Margaret moved quickly through the woods looking for some place they could defend. She slowed, then stopped and began watching the treetops.

              He tried to catch his breath. He looked at her, then up at the trees. "What? What is it?"

              She held up her hand for him to be quiet. The Bounty Hunter's ship moved in above them. Even cloaked it moved the treetops.

              A voice came out of the trees in her native tongue. What was said was brief and to the point. She looked at Lawrence. "We surrender now or the ship has orders to kill us both. He gave us about thirty seconds to decide."

              Lawrence looked up, then back to her. "I guess this is it."

              She stepped close and put her hand in his. Whatever was going to happen would happen to both of them.

              He squeezed her hand with his left and drew his gun with his right hand. "Can I give 'em our answer?"

              She nodded. He extended the gun to arms length and fired in the direction of the voice.

              The bullet came surprisingly close to its mark. So be it, thought the Commander. He raised his communicator and gave the ship an order to deliver a non-lethal stun. He wanted to see if they would fight. In his own way he admired their willingness to die.

              Lawrence’s eyes recorded a momentary flash of light, then his electrical system shorted out. The world went black and he felt nothing.

              She wasn't so lucky. The stun left her helpless on the ground next to him, but conscious. The ship Commander, and the man with him, approached and looked down at them. She couldn't move or speak. The Commander knelt beside her. He reached out and rubbed his hands over areas of her body squeezing her here and there. Inside she was screaming with rage. Outside nothing moved.

              He stood back up. He spoke to the man beside him, then into his communicator. It was a language she didn't know. The crewman picked up Lawrence while the Commander lifted her. They both moved off into the woods.

                                                       ***

              Lawrence and Margaret were placed in a holding area. She lay beside him. She was wide-awake but still nothing worked. The Commander stood watching the two of them.

He spoke to her in her native tongue. “Just so you know, we have to deliver you alive. The Human male on the other hand, we don’t. I brought him along so you could watch him being harvested. Afterward we’ll remove your egg sacks. Something extra, payment for the men we lost.”  

              The entire ship shuddered. A message came across the ship’s communications system. She didn't understand it but he did. He hurried away amid curses in both his and her language. Margaret lay there trying to get anything to move, a finger, a toe, anything.

                                                        ***

The Assault Ship decloaked and settled in above the Cloaked Vergon vessel preventing it from taking off. The energy link had led the Assault Ship directly to them. Both ships had their shields up but the light mercenary Scout Ship stood no chance against the heavier weapons of the Assault Ship.

The bridge of the Vergon vessel appeared in a heads-up display formed in the air in front of the command chair of the Assault Ship. Members of the Vergon bridge crew were at their stations.

The ship’s Commander stepped into the view. “We have the Chancellor’s daughter. If you try to board us she will be executed.”

Margaret’s brother studied the image of the man in front of him. There was no doubt in his mind that he would do just that. “I’m under orders from the Chancellor himself to prevent your leaving with her even at the cost of her life.”

The Commander also watched his counter part and detected no hesitation in his willingness to do what he said he would do. “Well Captain, that leaves us very little middle ground.”

“The solution is simple, you release her and you can leave.”

“Not so simple, if we return without her, or without compensation for her, we will forfeit our lives.”

Both men pondered about the thoughts of the other.

                                                       ***   

About an hour passed and no one had returned. Margaret’s arms and legs began to tingle. In a few minutes motor control began to return and she shifted around so she could see Lawrence. It was coming back quickly now. She turned her head and raised her hands. With all the strength she could muster, she sat up. She coughed and cleared her throat.

              Three crewmen approached the holding cell. One stood back, armed, while the energy field was released. The other two took her by the arms and half dragged and half carried her from the cell. Her strength was returning. She dug in and jerked away. The two men tried to regain control but she fought them off.

In her own language, “I don’t know if you can understand me, but I’m not going anywhere without him.”

The two of them argued about something for a moment. They must have been really pressed for time because they gave in, picked up Lawrence and carried him along.

              The external hatch was open with the Commander standing next to it. The little procession stopped. The crewmen placed Lawrence on the deck and all three approached their Commander. Margaret knelt to check on him. His breathing was strong and steady. He was okay just unconscious.

Words were going back and forth at the hatch. Finally the Commander raised his hand and put a stop to it. He walked to Margaret. She stood to meet him. He looked up and down her, and then reached for her. She caught his hand.

They were eye to eye for a moment, and then he pulled his hand back. “The human was not part of the negotiation”, he said. “Consider him a gift, from one predator to another.”

The Commander stepped around her and left. Two of the crewmen picked up Lawrence and escorted her from the ship. The Commander’s face was etched in her memory. There would be another time.

              She knelt beside Lawrence on the ground, watched the Scout Ship lift off and quickly rise out of sight. Everything had happened so fast she never stopped to wonder why it happened.

Looking up she knew why. The Assault Ship, high above her, slowly descended. The air around her began to move. She knelt and covered Lawrence to protect him from debris being tossed up from the forest floor.

The ship settled to a landing. A moment later the hatch opened. A familiar voice came from inside. She stood. Her brother and several others emerged from the ship. An ocean of relief coursed through her body. Thoughts of her little brother, painful memories that she had suppressed, flooded back. With tears running down her face, she ran to her brother and jumped into his arms. He held her and let her cry it out. When he felt her relax he hugged her and let her down.

              Lawrence was an unexpected turn of events for this member of her family. Once they were all safe aboard the ship she set about telling the story.

                                                        ***

The scout ship Commander pleaded his case before the Vergon Leader. He presented the ransom, and then waited for his fate to be sealed. To his surprise the Leader dismissed him and ordered the ship to depart. Payment had been enough to preserve himself and his crew and the asshole with the contract could stew in his own juice.

At the edge of Earth’s solar system a vortex opened. A pulsating energy field formed around the Vergon vessel. The ship entered the vortex and it closed leaving no trace of anything.

CHAPTER NINTEEN

              Your hearing is always the last of your senses to leave and the first to return. Lawrence became aware of a slight humming in his ears. He was rapidly reaching consciousness. His hands and feet were numb. There was a tingling in his knees and elbows. He tried to move. The muscles in his back and stomach were sore and there was tenderness at the base of his skull. He relaxed and opened his eyes.

              He lay on a bed in a pale blue room covered with a sheet. He tried to look around, but his neck was stiff. There were symbol groupings on the walls similar to those on Maggie’s ship. Maggie... He tried to sit up. Everything hurt and nothing worked very well. He got himself up on his elbows, and then pushed himself to a sitting position with his hands. The sheet covering him slipped to his legs. He looked down. He was naked. He swung his feet off the bed and sat on the edge. He checked himself over. Everything seemed to be there.

              He had to find her but the simple act of sitting up had taken just about everything out of him and the room didn't seem to have a door. He tried to collect his thoughts. An opening appeared in the wall. He turned at the waist to see. Margaret stood there. She smiled and carried his original clothing from her ship, over her arm.

              He gathered the sheet around him and looked at her for a moment. "You know, I've always wanted to ask somebody this... Where the
hell
am I and what the
hell
happened?"