KRAKEN (5 page)

Authors: Vivian Vixen

The car is trundling along through the dark streets of the city as we rush headlong for the spaceport. We’re jostled and bounced by the harshly pocked road, but Julius is holding me in his arms, so I feel safe.

“I don’t understand this,” I say. “Perhaps I shouldn’t ask, but I have to.”

“What is it?” His voice is gentle.

“You know. You know what it is.”

“You want to understand why I came here for you.”

“Of course I do. I’ve known you for years, watched you for months. You can have anything you want.”

His strong arms squeeze me warmly. “Apparently.” He’s grinning.

“But why do you want me?”

“You’re beautiful. Painfully beautiful.” He says this looking into my eyes. But then he looks away. “And you’re fiercely smart. I’ve never met anyone who could snatch up information so easily, and talk about it so interestingly. When I’m with you I don’t ever want to be apart.”

I think about this a moment. “Then why did it take you so long to come back?”

His face crumbles. I’ve hit on something he doesn’t want to talk about. “I couldn’t.”

“Because I’m a prostitute.”

His eyes shoot down and he locks a grim gaze with me. “Yes.”

I nod. “But you’re here now.”

He’s biting his lip again. Something I’ve never seen him do on television. “I thought I’d forget about you. I did a lot of crazy, stupid shit to try to get over you. But…”

The car bounces hard on a particularly bad pothole. Julius is jostled out of his seat, but he holds me aloft.

“Hey,” he shouts at the driver, “Watch the fucking road more carefully or we’ll leave you here!”

I put a hand to his cheek to draw his attention directly to me. “Don’t say that.”

“What?”

“Don’t threaten someone with this place. You don’t understand. You can’t. But just don’t do it.”

Julius looks up at the driver. “I didn’t mean that last part,” he says. “But if you hit another hole like that I’ll launch you headfirst into the sun!”

I laugh. “Much better.”

He smiles and gives me a quick kiss. “Where was I?”

“You were explaining how I’m more amazing than blowing up a planet for the Fourth of July.”

“Right. So, I did this crazy shit, but nothing changed. So I decided to forget about my reputation. I decided that it didn’t matter.”

“At all?”

“Not as much as saving you from this place.”

“Saving me? Or yourself?”

He winks.

The car pulls onto the spaceport tarmac. In front of us are two cars leading, and behind there are two more. The spacecraft is just a kilometer out, almost fueled, cooled, and ready to go.

There’s a whistling sound, then one of the cars in front of us is lifted up by the blooming flower of a yellow explosion. Our driver jerks the wheel to the right as we line up with the other three cars.

A set of shields are being raised on the windows as Julius pulls me to the floor. “Stay down.”

I hear the crack of gunfire faintly through the armor. I don’t hear any whistle before the next explosion which sends our car spinning. My heart is pounding. “What’s happening, Julius?”

“Maybe my reputation was more important than I thought?”

“You’re telling jokes right now?”

Another explosion hits nearby and the armor over one of the windows is shredded and glass rains over us.

“No good! We’re going to run for the ship.”

My chest tightens and I’m cold with fear. I grab his arm, “Are you out of your fucking mind!?”

He grabs the handle and tries to open the door, but it will just barely budge. “Sit back,” he commands as he leverages his back against the seat to kick the door out.

It nearly snaps off its hinges as Julius knocks it open. The spaceport floodlights burn my eyes and set the shattered glass to sparkling.

He grabs my hand and helps me out of the car. “Stay close to me.”

“Aren’t you what they’re shooting at,” I ask, alarmed. All the same, I stay close. Three body guards are lying on the ground, blood pooling around their bullet-torn torsos. I hear a roaring engine behind us.

Julius shouts to the remaining guards. “We’re breaking for the ship! Stay on me!”

I look back to see a strange, tank-like vehicle rushing towards us. Every few seconds a rocket comes tearing out of it, a trail of gas following behind, and explodes near us. Before we’ve covered half the distance we’re down to just two guards. “Fuck this,” one of them shouts and makes an about-face.

Julius shakes his head, but keeps running.

I look behind us quickly to see where the guard had gone. Instead of running away from the fight, he ran towards the tank. Glancing back every few moments I watch him leap onto the charging metal body and fire three shots. The tank jerks to the side and rolls, crushing the brave man.

We reach the ship, but all the mechanics and maintenance workers had split when they heard the explosions. Julius turns to the last guard. “Watch her, and keep anyone else off us while I get these pumps detached.”

I crouch under the ship near a piece of the landing gear. I see someone emerge from the tank and begin running at us. The guard fires off a shot as bullets sing overhead, cracking against the fuselage.

My fear, apparently afraid of itself, flees. “Julius, tell me how to help you, we need to get out of here, now!”

He throws me a momentary glance. It couldn’t have lasted more than a half a second, but there’s surprise, concern, and passionate love in that glance. “Pull back on the flanges,” he shouts as he continues working. “Don’t worry about closing them. The ship will do an emergency seal once we initiate takeoff.”

I set my fingers to work on the nearest hose, pulling back on the little arms and letting it clang to the ground. A bullet whizzes past my ear. I don’t even flinch.

I detach another four hoses before looking behind me. The assailant is right on us. I can see him clearly. He’s wearing the synthetic onesie of a factory worker. He has a full, unkempt beard and an oil-caked face. In his hands is a mean-looking, clunky pistol.

He pauses, grimaces, and takes aim. The trigger is squeezed and the guard crumples to the ground.

“Julius,” I scream. “We’re all alone out here!”

“Get in the fucking ship!”

I run up the gangway without a thought. Julius is detaching the last hose and meets the assailant at the entrance. I hear a grunt, and then the sound of the pistol clattering to the ground. There’s the thud of fist on flesh and Julius stumbles backwards, up into the ship. He’s stunned, but has enough in him to shout, “Computer! Emergency takeoff, code A-13!”

The ship shudders unsettlingly and I hear the sound of nozzles snapping into perfect seals along the body. The assailant jumps inside the ship as the thrusters churn the fuel.

Julius braces himself against the floor and throws a hard kick to the man’s stomach. Julius pushes up onto his feet and takes hold of the man by the shoulders, pulling back and launching a solid jab to the assailant’s jaw. But that’s a hardened man. The punch has almost no effect. The assailant steps around, turning them both so that Julius has his back to the outside, and then cocks his head and smashes Julius in the face.

The thrusters blare and we begin to lift off the ground. The assailant shoves Julius back and I watch as he tumbles down the sloped gangway and falls onto the tarmac. We’re lifting slowly. He could still pull himself on, but he’s groaning on the ground, not entirely conscious.

The assailant turns to me. “I’m getting off this planet one way or the other! You can join me,” he growls, “Or you can jump off now and join your friend. But there’s a lot of hungry folks in the city tonight, and I let them know there’d be fresh meat at the port.”

My mouth is dry. My stomach burns. My throat feels raw. “I don’t know.”

“Make up your mind, or the ship will make it for you.”

I consider waiting until we’re high enough and then jumping out and letting the fall resolve my worries. I consider the beaches that this disgusting man would probably enjoy with me. I think about Julius on the ground and trying to help him. I think about the hordes I can already see through the window—they’re converging on the spaceport. I think about beaches. I think about Earth. I think about his tight vest buttoned across his broad chest, and the beautiful smile and soft eyes perched atop it all.

Tears are burning in my eyes. I’m making my decision as I stall. I need to get off this planet. No matter what. But it’s better if I don’t decide—if I don’t say anything. I watch the floodlights under us, the shrinking square of the spaceport.

“Computer,” says the man. “Close us up. Takes us to orbit.”

The ship shuts itself and there’s the hiss of pressurizing.

“My name’s Lab,” the man says, thrusting out a hand.

I stare at it. Then at him. He looks like an old man at first, but I quickly realize that he couldn’t be more than thirty-five. His eyes are sunken into his head. He has an intelligent look in them. They’re bright green, and not greyed at all. He wasn’t born on Io.

He looks down at his empty hand. “Don’t blame you.” He takes his hand back and walks off towards the nose of the ship. “Do what you want. Don’t bother me. Or do. I’m going to freshen up, then I’ll be in the cockpit.”

Epilogue

When we reach orbit I hear the shower turn on. He’s in the bathroom for a good long while and I listen as I lean against the wall, numb. I hear the scratch of a razor blade and the bristles of a brush.

When he steps out, almost an hour later, I find my breath catching in my chest. I’ve never seen an Ionian man without a beard. He’s striking. His eyes are still eerily darkened by their setting behind his brows, but despite the gauntness of his face I can see the dignified form it holds. His towel-wrapped body is large and sculpted. I’ve only ever seen bodies like this on off-world men.

“You’re not from Io,” I say, quietly, “Are you?”

His head tilts down. “No. But I’ve been there a long, long time.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Lab.”

“You told me that. I mean, why were you on Io?”

His head snaps up. He’s erased his sadness with anger. “You ask too many questions.”

“I just…”

He takes a menacing step closer to me. “You are Ionian, though, aren’t you?”

I shrink into myself. I thought I had washed it off, hidden away my filth.

“I can tell by your eyes. Only Ionians have that color of grey.”

“Oh.”

Whatever kindness had seemed to appear on his freshly shaven face is gone. There’s hunger in him now. “You’re very pretty.” He takes another, large step towards me. “We’re going to be on this ship a long while.” One of his hands slides across his thigh to where a bulge is forming against the towel.

Another step. His thickening cock is right near my face. He takes a hand to touch my cheek but I bite at him, snarling.

He pulls back. “Fiesty, eh!” He gets on one knee next to me. He’s staring, but I look straight ahead, refusing to meet his gaze. “I killed ten men before dinner today. I can handle a bitch like you.”

He grabs my collar and shoves me against the wall, moving in to kiss me.

“CAL!” The ship seems to speak. I recognize the voice.

Lab backs off of me, glancing around nervously.

“This is Julius. I’m okay. Stay safe. I’m coming for you.”

THE END of PART ONE

~~~

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