Wanderer's Escape (27 page)

After twenty minutes or so Jess reluctantly left them to it.  He needed sleep and they had the mining operation well in hand.  He would take over when he woke up, giving them a chance to rest.

“How's it going?” asked Elizabeth when she saw him stretching and blinking.

“
Fine.  Good.”  He yawned.  “Sorry.  They are both handling it very well.  I'm going to get some rest, leave them to it.  They'll be stuck in the medical bay for a good few hours yet so the other cabin's free if you need to sleep.”

“
Sounds good.  I don't sleep much these days but I'll grab three or four hours.”

Jess went to his cabin.  He expected to fall asleep immediately but instead found himself worrying.  Memories of Matt's betrayal flashed across his mind mixed with concerns over Elizabeth.  If she was going to try something this would be the time he realised.  Sal and Ali were stuck where they were and he'd be asleep.

Feeling disgusted with himself he locked the door to the medical bay and sealed his own door, adding alarms to each.  Elizabeth had done nothing to warrant his suspicions, but he couldn't help himself.  Memories of waking in a cell after Matt had drugged him kept returning, despite the monitoring his implants now ran to warn him.  Locking the doors helped but didn't erase the worries.  He finally fell into a restless sleep.

Chapter Twenty Three

Jess woke to a blow on his head and a deep voice shouting at him.  Another blow was accompanied by more shouting to get on his feet.  He rolled over to get up only to get a kick to the stomach.  Winded and dizzy he collapsed back to the floor.  Suddenly hands grabbed him, dragged him and helped him to stand.

He gasped his thanks to the other prisoners, warily watching the guard to see if the beating would continue.  Not this time, he'd seen another prisoner who hadn't stood up yet.  A boot to her side made her roll over.  Jess stared
– it was Ali.  His brain was sluggish from the blow it had taken but the sight of Ali being assaulted poured molten fire through his veins.  Screaming at the guard he rushed forwards, tackling the man just as he was about to deliver another kick.  Dragging him to the floor.

The rest of the prisoners scattered to the edges of the cell, crouching down with hands on their heads.  Desperately trying to avoid the punishment they knew was coming.  Three other guards ran over and grabbed Jess, dragging him off then laying into him with the heavy clubs they carried.  Then two of them held Jess, partly restraining him but mostly holding him upright.  The beating didn't hurt as much as he knew it should have, he wondered if his skull had been cracked.

The guard he'd attacked stepped in close, drew his gun and pointed it at Jess's head.  Then, shaking his head, he lowered it, pointing it at where Ali still lay on the floor.

“
No!  No, don't!” Jess screamed out.  “Please... shoot me, don't shoot her!”

The guard grinned at Jess then pulled the trigger.  Once, twice, three times.  Each shot stuck Ali in the chest, making her body writhe.  Jess felt as if each shot had hit him instead.  Ali's wounds hurt him far more than his own beating.  Then the guard fired once more, into her head.  Jess screamed as the shot rang out...

He jerked upright, scream still echoing around his cabin.  The bedclothes were in a tangled mess around him, dripping with sweat.  His heart was pounding and his breathing ragged.  Desperately he reached out for the ship, checking the status of Sal and Ali.  Both were still safely in the medical bay, busy controlling the mining operation.  Elizabeth was in the living room watching a vid. 

Checking the time he saw he'd been asleep a little over five hours.  Knowing he wouldn't get to sleep again he left his cabin and used the shower, washing off the nights sweat and then putting on clean clothes before heading into the living room.  Despite the time and the shower he still carried a huge knot inside his chest, the dream had been so real and far too close to his fears.

“You look terrible,” Elizabeth said.  “What happened?”

“
Bad dream,” he muttered, heading for the food dispenser to get a strong coffee.  “Really bad dream.”

“
Want to talk about it?”

He got his drink then sat on the sofa beside her.  Uncertain whether to share his fears or dismiss them.  He realised he couldn't keep quiet, that he needed to talk.  In a quiet voice he started to recount his dream, his voice growing strained and cracking several times towards the end.  When he finished Elizabeth pulled him into a hug.  That was the final straw, he burst into tears.  The horror of the dream overwhelming him.

She held him until the tears subsided then he pulled back, feeling embarrassed at having let himself go.  She smiled at him gently.

“
It's easy to forget how young you are,” she said.  “You carry off being captain so well.  You really care for Ali don't you?”

Jess just nodded, surprised by her words.

“Can't say I blame you.  If I was, I don't know, much younger you'd have some competition.  Fine looking girl.”  She studied him for a moment.  “You don't seem shocked?”

“
Why would I be?”

“
Really?  There's a lot a people out there who'd disapprove of two women together.”

Jess shrugged. 
“It wasn't unusual amongst the prisoners.  So long as no one is getting hurt what does it matter?”

“
Blimey.  Imagine that.  Anyways, you're safe.  She's way too young for me.  Tell me, was there ever anyone for you before?  Anyone you got close to?”

“
No. Ali is the first person I've met who I've felt this way about.  I think I might be in love with her.  When she's around she makes me feel so... well... really...”

Elizabeth laughed. 
“Don't worry.  Far better people than us have stumbled over describing love.  I'm guessing the two of you haven't... err... spent the night together.”

Jess flushed and shook his head, not trusting himself to speak.

“And by now I'm sure you've been through the vids we intercepted and watched some of the pornographic ones, the ones with sex in?”

Now Jess felt like his face was on fire.  He froze, not knowing what to say or do.

“Good for you.  I'd be damn worried about a teenager who didn't.  I'll put odds on the fact she has too.  Take a bit of advice – when the time comes forget all that, it's all fake.  Just go with your feelings, take it as slow as you can, enjoy yourselves and remember that like anything worth doing it takes a lot of practice to get really good.  The practice is damn good fun though!”

Now Jess was nearly choking, certain his skin would catch fire if it got any hotter.  Laughing again Elizabeth stood.

“Normally I'd tell you to take your time.  Take it real slow, be completely sure.  We might not have that long though.  If it feels right, to both of you mind, then grab your chance with both hands.  Otherwise if something happens you'll regret it the rest of your life.  I do.” 

The last two words were so soft he hardly heard them.  She walked off leaving Jess wishing the floor would swallow him with half his mind while the other half was feverishly thinking about the advice he'd been given.  He wouldn't realise for several hours what a great job she'd done of distracting him from his nightmares.

Evening saw them working on the sixth asteroid, this one much larger than those before.  The speed of the mining had greatly increased.  Jess estimated they'd be finished stocking up on the supplies they needed within a couple more days, three at the outside.

As they finish eating he told them he had news – the first two robots were fully refurbished.  He downplayed the event to avoid another embarrassing failure.  When the two robots walked into the room the other three were amazed.  Gone were the bulky combat robots, in their place were gleaming sleek machines with no obvious weapons.  However they were actually far more dangerous than before, not less.  Hidden under their smooth skins was a powerful shield generator capable of protecting both the robot and one person.  Lethal weaponry emerged from their sleek bodies at a moments notice.  They were fast and agile and, as they were controlled through the ship, unusually flexible in what they could do.  Despite appearing to be unarmed they carried with them a sense of danger far beyond their previous incarnation.

“
They scare the pants off me,” Elizabeth said.  “I think we need something more than them though.  Body armour for a start, a lot of it.  When we take on the station we're gonna need help from the first batch of prisoners to get the others out.  They'll know the layout, know where to look.  We can't send them back in without protection.  We'll need basic medical packs too – to deal with any wounded in the complex and the less badly injured once we get them clear.”

“
And guns?  Do we arm the prisoners?” asked Jess.

“
Definitely not!  We want an evacuation, not a battle.  Give them guns and some of them will go looking for revenge.  We need the guards to feel safe too, at least safe from the prisoners.  If they start getting shot at it'll be a bloodbath.”

“
Right.  Sorry.”

“
Don't be daft.  How could you know?  This is what I'm here for, planning the stuff you don't know, can't know.  We will need to buy guns actually – the only place to get this stuff is from an arms dealer.  They'll get suspicious if we just buy armour and medkits, and the one thing they're happier to sell than arms is information.”

“
Makes sense,” said Sal.  “We need to be careful though.  We can't have a repeat of the trouble getting the robots.”

“
No, but it's different this time.  We'll take Robby Robot and his pal over there along.  Those shields can protect us from a lot of damage, get us well clear of trouble.  And we'll have the equipment loaded into a sealed off section of the ship, use the sensors to scan it and one of the robots to check through it all.”

“
Only two of us can go then,” Ali said.  “Which two?”

“
Definitely me,” replied Elizabeth.  “None of you could carry it off.  And I think Jess.  He can be my son, though it pains me to say I'm that old.  Out on his first business trip with me, learning the ropes.  That way they won't be suspicious if he makes any mistakes.”

“
Are you sure?  What if something happens?”

“
I'll be fine,” Jess said.  “The robots can shield us long enough to get clear, and you two can have plenty of combat drones nearby.  I'm pretty sure the ship can make some that are really small too – small enough to fit a couple into each robots bodywork.  That'll give a really nasty surprise if anyone tries any dirty tricks.”

Ali and Sal asked more questions before agreeing with the plan, relieved that they would have a direct influence on keeping Jess and Elizabeth safe if things went wrong.

Jess had another piece of news.  The remodelling of the ship was advancing well and crew quarters had been completed.  They now each had a reasonably sized bedroom complete with an en-suite.  The big news though was that each included a deep bath, something Ali had talked about wistfully a couple of days before.  The news was met with smiles all round.

Later Jess and Ali sat together on a sofa talking, Ali snuggled against him.  Sal was in the flight deck supervising the mining and Elizabeth had gone to her cabin to soak in the bath.

Their conversation reached a pause and Ali pulled back a little, studying his face.

“You know the idea of a bath sounds heavenly.  I think I might go have a soak too.”

Jess gulped as an image of Ali lying naked in a hot bath came to him.  Quickly pushing the image away he searched for something to say.

“I've never had a bath.  Well, not a proper one.  We were sometimes forced into a freezing cold pool of water if there was one handy.  Or we got hosed down with cold water if we were getting too smelly and dirty for the guards to put up with.  Never a warm bath though.”

“
Really?  You must try it sometime.  There's only one problem I find.”  She spoke tentatively, chewing her bottom lip.

“
What?” asked Jess.  “Did I mess up the design?”

“
No, no.  It's just... well... I can never seem to reach my back to wash it.  Would you mind helping me?”

Jess's jaw dropped, his heart hammered and his breathing was ragged.  She laughed at his reaction.

“Umm... yes, of course.”

He was grinning madly now, but so was she.  He felt a little confidence return.

“You might have to teach me how though.” he said.

“
I'm sure I can do that, I'll wash your back first.  If you like.”

Unable to contain himself Jess pulled Ali to him and kissed her, a kiss she returned hungrily.  Moments later they were running down the corridor towards her cabin, hand in hand.  Jess already had the bath filling with hot, soapy water and it was full by the time they reached it.

Jess paused by the bath, uncertain whether to start undressing.  For a moment Ali looked awkward too, then with a sparkle in her eye she shoved him into the large bath – clothes and all.  Laughing she jumped in after him.