Kidnapped (9 page)

When they returned to the docking bay, Travis made a mental note to teach Patricia how to open the door to the ship. He handed her the box of goodies from the candy store, and pushed the carts with meals into a storage freezer, thinking he could deal with them later.

They were soon walking side by side through the ship, and about half way to the bridge, he surprised them both with stopping and pulling her into his arms, kissing her hungrily. The intensity of these feelings frightened him. He had spent his entire life without feeling and without being allowed to want anything for himself, and now the need for her was overwhelming. He knew they should be leaving, they didn't have the time for this, but when he finally managed to pull back he still stared into her eyes for a long moment, mumbling, "I've been wanting to do that all day."

She smiled and held her arms loosely around his neck, teasing him, "Is that all you want to do?"

Shaking his head, he wondered how he would ever be able to live without her again, and decided to worry about it later. "No, but we have to get going."

When they eventually entered hyperspace, on a course meant to almost intersect with the Redeemer, Patricia climbed up in his lap, and he had all the trouble in the world not to start tearing at her clothes. He forced the urge down, held her carefully with his partly mechanical limb and ran his own hand over her hair. Feeling her relax in his arms was rewarding.

After a few minutes in silence, Patricia asked, "Don't you ever pay for anything?"

He chuckled softly, "No. No, I don't. It's not the way of the Alliance, and even if you want me to, I can't start now. Everyone would remember it, and talk about it."

She didn't say anything more, but he felt her sigh. He wanted to say something to comfort her, but nothing came to mind. He had never received comfort and didn't know how to give it. Her next question made it worse. "How many people have you killed?"

He answered honestly and hoped for the best. "I have no idea. Many."

*****

Patricia took a deep breath. The answer ‘many' wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear when asking a lover how many people had died at his hands. It was ironic that the only thing comforting her was clinging to the very man who sometimes still frightened her.

There weren't many questions left to ask, at least not if she didn't count the ones best unsaid, like, "what's going to happen to us." There was one thing she really wanted to know, something she had wondered since she first saw him, and after watching space fly by outside the bridge windows for a few moments she did venture, "What happened to your face?"

Travis didn't answer at first, and she bit her lip, wondering if she'd gone too far with that one. He didn't seem to have a problem talking about most of the sordid details of his life, but maybe this was too personal. After a couple of seconds, he said evenly, "I was following William's men into a building, much like the one that landed on you the other day. It was a communications station. They forward and encrypt transmissions between ships and Central. Vasiliy, that's William's explosives expert, had set charges to blow it up."

He paused for a second, "I surprised them. They had no idea I was coming. I was a little too slow, and when Vasiliy saw me, he set off the charge and teleported out of there. It should have killed me, but it didn't. Veronica allowed the medics to heal my side, but she wanted me to keep the face as a reminder to be faster the next time."

He had scars everywhere, but none as visible, and now it all started to make sense to her. He'd had a more hard and painful life than she could imagine. She shuddered a little, thinking his was a cruel world indeed, and moved around enough to be able to look at him.

A part of his face was so handsome to her, especially now when life had returned to his eyes. The other part of it was a ruined alien landscape made up of scars where shrapnel had cut it open, combined with rough, dark, and burned tissue. She said softly, "I'm so sorry."

He shrugged and made a little grimace, "It's not your fault. I don't know how you stand looking at it."

There were many things still to be said, but only one she really wanted, and she glanced into his eyes, mumbling, "Take me to bed."

*****

The next morning, Travis managed to sneak out of bed without waking Patricia. As much as he appreciated her company, there were things she might be happier not knowing, and the transmission waiting from Central was definitely one of them. He stood in the darkness on the bridge, watching the transmission with his arms crossed over his chest, unaware of the frown on his face.

"Travis, I hope for your sake you have some good news about your prisoner and the rebels. I have work for you to do. Head to Central at once, or I'll have your computer do it for you."

The beautiful woman bent forward and poked a finger towards the camera, but the rest of her words were lost on him. He knew the gist of it: if you fail me I will punish, blah, blah, blah.

"Are we taking the prisoner to the Supreme Commander?"

The computer's voice shook him back to reality, and he sank down in his chair, hurriedly pulling up star maps and information about the Redeemer. "She's not a prisoner. You can report we're returning to Central, we'll just be taking a detour."

He no longer had any urge to pursue the Redeemer; the burning need to catch William had been the Alliance's and not his own. His prime objective had changed, and he wouldn't be doing any more killing for the Alliance, but he still set out after the other ship with a quiet determination. Time had grown short and he needed to talk to William.

Chapter Ten

A couple of weeks later, Travis stood on the bridge, looking out at a jungle hot enough that moisture steamed up from large purple leaves. It had only been a few minutes since they landed, and the vegetation already wanted to reclaim the clearing the ship had made. Vines were reaching out for them, and  he would have to use the ship's weapons to cut them off if they were ever to get out of there.

He hadn't told Patricia why they were there, or about the immediate threat to her future. Keeping up appearances hadn't been difficult; he had a lifetime of training.

The door behind him opened with a soft swoosh, but he didn't turn around. It could only be one other person, and she would come to him. He smiled when he felt Patricia wrap her arms around him from behind, but it faded when she peeked around him at the alien vision outside, saying dreamily, "It's so beautiful."

Sighing softly, he supposed it was in a way, but the thick forest was also filled with deadly traps just waiting to snap shut around a young woman, and he knew he wouldn't be able to say no if she wanted to go with him. She hadn't been on more than one planet besides her own, and that one had ended with her almost being blown up, so he was certain she'd want to go. Maybe they could take a short sight-seeing trip to satisfy her curiosity before he went to do what he had to. He could use some reconnaissance. That might not be too bad.

Putting his hand on top of hers, he gave them a little squeeze and asked, "You want to go, don't you."

She was pressing her face against his back, and he could feel her nod. "Mmhm."

He sighed again, and turned around to look at her. He wanted to tell her to stay on the ship, but her will was his law, and he couldn't make himself utter those words. Instead, he heard his mouth say, "You'll do exactly what I tell you to, right? No touching anything?"

She nodded obediently and he raised an eyebrow. As angelic as she looked, he didn't believe her.

A few minutes later, they made their way out of the ship hand in hand. He felt the wall of heat and humidity when the door opened, but didn't care about it. Patricia, on the other hand, swayed a little, and he saw little beads of sweat form on her forehead. "Are you okay? Would you like to go back inside?"

He hoped she'd say yes; bringing her into an alien jungle filled with strange animals and insects might not be the best idea he ever had. She shook her head a little, "Naah, I'm fine. This is exciting and I'm not gonna miss it." 

Around them, vines were already reaching towards the ship, and she asked, "Are those going to be a problem?"

Travis shrugged, "Not really, I'll just shoot them off when we leave and whatever's left on the ship will be destroyed when we exit the atmosphere."

He wanted to make it sound easy, and he must have succeeded. She dropped the topic and her head was spinning around as she tried to see everything at once. Peculiar creatures hung from the trees, and something resembling an enormous butterfly flew past them, holding a smaller animal in its many legs.

Some of the trees seemed to move their way as they walked by them, and Patricia squeezed his hand, whispering, "Are they just curious, or do they want a morning snack?"

Smirking, he answered, "Probably a little of both. Don't worry about it."

After some fifteen minutes in the forest, they saw a mauve flower chow down on some amphibious creature, and she asked casually, "This is rather dangerous, isn't it?"

Travis grinned when he glanced into her eyes and answered, "Very."

Even when he was not supposed to enjoy anything, he had always liked exploring new planets. Back then, danger had triggered fear, which was better than feeling nothing. Now, he could appreciate the beauty, and the joy of discovering something together.

When they reached a steep hill, he knew he would have to go to the top to get a bearing on the rebels, and it was much too hot for her to go climbing. "I'm gonna go up there and check something out. I want you to stay right here. Don't touch anything, and be very careful, okay?"

She nodded obediently and this time he believed her. She had seen enough of the forest to understand the danger. Kissing her softly, he doubted he was doing the right thing, but he didn't see any other way. "I'll be right back."

He knew there were large animals on the planet, and that there was a primitive humanoid people developing there, but when he scanned the area from the ship, he hadn't found anything larger than a small dog close by. Leaving her alone seemed safe.

*****

Patricia watched her lover disappear quickly in between the trees. He was moving fast when he didn't have to worry about her comfort, and she was all alone within seconds. She stood there, shifting her weight from foot to foot for quite some time, wondering how long it had been, and if he shouldn't be returning soon.

The jungle wasn't just pretty, it was deadly too. She'd seen that with her own two eyes, and somehow, being alone in it was quite different from being there together with him. After a couple of minutes she was starting to get a strange feeling, as if someone was watching her, and she told herself it was rubbish. Her imagination was clearly running away with her. Still, she took a couple of steps forward, away from the little grassy spot where she'd been standing, putting her feet back on the path they'd travelled, and when she turned around and looked back, a bulky shape made her yelp with surprise.

There were three of them surrounding her, and she wondered how she could not have seen or heard them. They were big and hairy, walking almost upright, with long arms hanging all the way down to the ground. Each hand and foot had three fingers and a thumb, and their faces reminded her of a bunny's. They had small noses, whiskers, and protruding teeth that would be perfect for gnawing. Waving her hand nervously in the air, she said, "Hi there," not knowing why she did it, but hoping they'd answer and not just want to eat her.

*****

Travis didn't have even half his concentration on what he was doing, but he had already reached the top of the hill, gotten the reading he wanted, and headed back down when he heard Patricia's scream. He started running, and when he reached the place where he'd left her, one large creature was holding her up in the air from behind and she was kicking another one in the chest with admirable ferocity, hollering, "Let me go you big ape!"

Very little surprised him, and he didn't have time to stop and stare to try to make heads or tails of what was going on. He acted on instinct and shot two of the three attackers before they could understand what was happening. After that, there was one left. One big, hairy, and ugly something holding his woman captive.

Travis's eyes narrowed. He didn't particularly want to shoot the man, or whatever it was, not when he was still holding Patricia, but odds were the brute would take off, and it would take him time to catch up and find her again. Precious time when anything could happen. His imagination painted out much too vivid pictures of the possibilities, and he had some problems fighting down a wave of dark rage welling up inside.

None of this showed on his face. He said quietly, "Don't move, Babe," and she stopped fighting immediately. It surprised him how much she trusted him.

Leaning his head a little to the side and aiming carefully, he stared at the creature holding her. He hoped neither she nor the beast would move, pulled the trigger, and felt relieved when the energy beam passed right beside her face, killing the attacker.