by Leslie Chase
They glared at each other, and in the low light his eyes flashed red. She almost wished that he would try something. Then his smile came back and he straightened up, his hands opening. Some of the tension left the room as he breathed out and relaxed, though it took a visible effort for him to do so.
"We have some human food, in the corner there," he said, and Laura could tell he was forcing himself to look away. "Also, some clothing if you want to change out of the spacesuit. It can't be comfortable to wear for a long time, and I expect it to be a few days before I can send you home. There's a bathroom through that door, with fresh water. Well, as close as we can get here, anyway."
He bowed and took a step backward, out of the room. "Unless you have any other questions for me, Ms. St. George, I will let you rest. Should you need anything, hammering on the door will get my attention. Otherwise, I'll check on you in a few hours to make sure you're okay."
She glared at him, confused by his courtesy, and turned away without speaking. Without another word, he heaved the door shut again, and then she was alone.
With a great sigh, she threw herself down on the mattress. It felt good to be out of sight of her captors. Realistically, there wasn't much she could have done or said that would have given her away, but the less time she spent pretending to be Adele the less likely she was to find some way to mess it up.
Just my luck. The first man on Mars who grabs my interest... and it's an alien who kidnaps me. That is not how I wanted to be swept off my feet. She sighed again. I have the worst taste in men.
She ignored the fact that he didn't think he was kidnapping her. That was just another complication, and didn't really make any difference. She just wished that she'd met this Rorax under different circumstances.
After a while, Laura had to move. Lying still conserved energy, and she didn't want to waste any, but her mind was too full of thoughts to just rest. Going to the corner to see what kind of food the dragons thought was fit for humans, she was surprised to find packaged rations labeled in English. Not particularly good quality ones, but they would give her all the nutrients she'd need.
She supposed it shouldn't be a shock. These pirates attacked human settlements and shipping — they'd have plenty of chances to steal such things. In any case, there were enough of them here to see her through at least a couple of weeks. That ought to be more than enough.
One less thing to worry about, she thought. Adele would have managed to arrange her ransom by then, or something would have gone wrong. Either way, she was glad that she wouldn't be here long enough to eat all those ration packs. Back on Earth during the wars, she'd eaten more than enough of them.
That was part of why she'd taken this job. Earthside, her work had been more dangerous and a lot worse paid — corporate security wasn't a glamorous job, but it had paid the bills, barely. Traveling to a new colony on another world had sounded like a pretty sweet deal in comparison, and bodyguarding a single client should have been easy work. Looks like you were as good at judging that as you are at picking guys, Laura.
Thinking of Adele made Laura wonder how her client was doing. She glanced at the thick door. It ought to block any sound, and the same noise that would alert anyone to her trying to escape would give her warning if someone was coming in. She had a little privacy in which to try and contact Adele.
She wasn't sure if she'd be able to get through. Whatever it was about the aliens' technology that blocked radio signals didn't stop the quantum communicator, but they'd never tried using it over such a great distance. This was the furthest Laura had been from her client since she'd arrived on Mars, after all. One of the engineers who'd set it up had said it would work from anywhere, but things were often different in the real world.
There's no point in worrying about it, it'll either work or it won't. I'm just putting off finding out.
At least, being experimental tech, it wasn't part of her suit proper. The radio was useless without her helmet, but the quantum communicator had its own mic and speakers. Unclipping it from the suit, Laura looked at it dubiously. The device was no bigger than a mobile phone, and she had trouble believing that it would reach so far. Muttering a little prayer under her breath, Laura switched it on and hoped that her doubts weren't justified.
Silence greeted her. After a second's wait, Laura spoke into the microphone. "If you're there, Adele, say something."
Again nothing. Laura shut her eyes and counted to three. It's not like she'd be waiting at the comm, she told herself. Adele has plenty to keep her busy if she's trying to find a way out for me. I shouldn't expect her to answer straight away.
That didn't make her feel any less abandoned and alone as she repeated her greeting into the communicator, over and over. A glance at the battery display worried her — it was at 50% and falling. The quantum communicator had a lot of advantages over a regular radio, but battery life wasn't one of them.
Still, there wasn't much point in not using it, Laura thought, and continued to broadcast. The battery had dropped another 10% before she got a response.
"Laura? Is that you?" Adele's voice was scratchy and full of static, but Laura could make out what she was saying. Sighing with relief, she made an effort to speak quietly. No sense in tempting fate, especially when she didn't know how keen the ears of her captors were.
"It's me," she confirmed. "Are you okay?"
Adele laughed at that. "Typical Laura. You get dragged off by alien pirates and it's me you're worried about! Yes, yes, I'm fine, that's not important. Tell me how well you're doing."
There was a note of command in that which made Laura smile. It was so like Adele to try to take charge, even now. Laura didn't mind, she knew that it was how the other woman covered her fears.
"I'm alright," Laura said. "They've not hurt me, but I'm not quite sure what's going on. Their leader called someone else, another alien, to show me off. This is a little bigger than the three that you saw. Have you gotten their ransom demands yet?"
"Not that I've heard," Adele said, sounding annoyed. "But they wouldn't exactly contact me about my own ransom, would they? And I've not been back at Olympus long. The Lucky Star wasn't going anywhere, and the aliens wrecked the radio mast so we couldn't call for help. We had to hike back! I'm almost sorry I didn't go with the aliens."
Laura managed a little laugh at that. While she wouldn't mind the long walk, she could only imagine how much Adele was complaining about it. Adele was fit enough to cope, but she was used to doing all her exercise in the corporate gym in the colony. Walking across miles of uneven terrain wasn't at all her thing.
At least I've been spared listening to her, she thought. That's a tiny silver lining to this mess, I suppose.
"I'm sure you'll recover," Laura said. "See what you can find out about the ransom, anyway. They may be arranging a safe way to hand me over before they make contact, that would make sense. Try not to make it too obvious you're back, though, just in case something clues the pirates in that they've taken the wrong girl."
"I'm not stupid, Laura," Adele said, and Laura could imagine her rolling her eyes. "I've let Yates handle all the reports, and we won't let anyone know I'm safe until I'm, you know, actually safe. Don't worry."
"Sorry. I'm just a little invested in this going smoothly, that's all." Laura sighed and leaned back. "Listen, this contact is pretty weak and I don't know how long we'll be able to talk. Can you get a bearing on where the signal's coming from? I'm probably going to need a ride if I can get out of here on my own."
I really hope it doesn't come to that. Escaping the base and hoping a LakeTech ship was near enough to rescue her would be a pretty dangerous plan, but Laura knew that she needed to do something. If she couldn't come up with anything better, that would at least be a plan.
The best result would be for LakeTech to pay her ransom, but she didn't want to pin her hopes on that. As a bodyguard, she was by definition expendable.
"Okay, I'll do my best." Adele didn't sound too confident. "Let's ho
pe that you don't have to rely on my technical expertise, hey? Broadcast when you can and we'll try and track you down."
"I'll have to conserve power, the battery's already running low. But I'll try and keep in touch. In the meantime, you keep yourself safe, okay? I'm going to be pissed if you get snatched by someone else after all the trouble I've gone to keeping you safe."
Adele laughed. "Okay. And you promise to keep your head down and not pick any fights with the aliens, alright? I don't want to find out that you've gotten yourself hurt trying to protect me like this."
"Deal," Laura said with a smile, hoping that she'd be able to keep up her end of the bargain. It wasn't going to be easy.
6
Rorax
When Rorax returned to the entry hall, leaving his prisoner locked in her improvised cell, he could hear his two companions before he saw them. They were bantering as usual, and from the look of it Tamak was annoying Grorg enough to keep his attention. He was telling some implausible tale of the old days, something so outrageous that it made Grorg roar with laughter. Rorax watched from the doorway, smiling at the sight.
He was tempted to join them, but resisted the urge. There was other work to do, work that he couldn't risk them knowing about. Once he was sure that the others weren't going to miss him, he slipped deeper into the caves.
It was unpleasant to see the marks time and the elements had left on the place. Unlike the Imperial Palace where they'd all awoken, this hunting lodge hadn't had any automatic repair systems. By the time Rorax and his companions had arrived, the lodge had been dead for centuries and very little of it could be brought back into operation. They'd had to kludge together repairs to keep the air in, and their portable airmaker was struggling. Without a proper repair job, this place wouldn't be habitable for more than a few days before it failed again.
That must have been as long as it lasted back when everything went to hell. He shuddered a little at the thought. It must have been terrible for those dragons who managed to survive the initial rebel bombardment. Being stuck in the last pockets of air on the planet as they used up the oxygen, slowly waiting to die.
When they'd arrived at Ashkenna's lodge, he'd been afraid that they'd find her body here. But his cousin must have left when the air ran out, trying to find somewhere that was still capable of supporting life. Her body would be out there somewhere, and he hoped that he'd never have to find it. He wanted to remember her as he'd las seen her, alive and happy, not as a corpse like the one the humans had been stealing off with.
That could even have been her, though he didn't think so. She should have been able to range further than that, but he couldn't be sure. Rorax knew that he'd likely never be sure what had happened to her.
That thought left him in a dark mood as he made his way into the back of the lodge, into the trophy room. It was the place least likely for the other dragons to visit — when they'd first explored the lodge, all three of them had silently agreed to keep away from it. The stuffed animal trophies had looked perfectly fine the last time he'd visited, before the Fall. Now, after a thousand years of neglect, the grim reminders of mortality loomed over him in the dim light. Vacuum had torn at the skin and hides of the trophies, and the long-dead stare of animals from a dozen worlds seemed to watch him with haunting rage as he quietly walked among them. None of the three dragons would admit that it bothered them, no one had been keen to return.
Which made it a perfect place to keep his secrets.
A bear's head stared down at him as he approached the far wall, better preserved than most of the specimens. Rorax looked up into its glassy eyes, feeling the weight of its ancient death. The creature was one of the Earth-born animals that had made up much of the hunting here, and somehow he felt a kinship with it. It seemed like a suitable sentinel to watch over him.
Opening one of the crystals on his belt, he unclipped the hidden communicator within. A dragon warrior had to travel light, or lose whatever he carried to the shift. But a few small objects could be brought along by the nanotech implants that would pull those crystals into his body when he changed, and this communicator was one thing that he couldn't risk leaving behind. If any of the others discovered it, his mission would end in disaster.
It was a small unit, with only one setting — it could call the Imperial Palace and nowhere else. He'd been told that it was secure, that no one could even detect its signals when it was in use. That had better be true, he thought. But I don't have a choice, I have to make this call.
It didn't take long to get an answer. The crystal blurred and a face appeared in it, stern eyes looking at him.
"What news do you have?" Emperor Verikan asked without waiting on the formalities. Rorax approved: this wasn't a time to stand on ceremony.
"Your Majesty, stage one is complete," he said, keeping his voice low and listening for any approaching footsteps. "I've taken a valuable hostage and made contact with the pirates. Korgan is interested in the deal, but cautious. It might be a few days before we can move forward."
Verikan nodded. "If he wasn't careful, we wouldn't need to be doing this. Your brother isn't going to make it easy to get access to him. The hostage is uninjured?"
"Yes, sir," Rorax said, feeling a strange reluctance to talk about her. Frowning, he pushed down the confused mix of feelings and continued his report. "Neither she nor any of the other humans were hurt. Not seriously, anyway."
"Good." The emperor smiled slightly. "They need to learn not to pick over the bones of our people, but I don't wish Ms. St. George or her people ill. Being bait in this ruse is punishment enough for their disrespect, I think."
Rorax nodded, oddly relieved by that. He hadn't been sure what would happen to Adele after the mission was over, and until now he hadn't realized that the question troubled him. Hopefully she would take the lesson to heart and would stop looting the tombs of the Dragon Empire.
The fact that that mattered to him only added to his confusion. She was supposed to just be a tool in this plan, a convenient bargaining chip to get him close enough to Korgan that he could stop the pirate kingdom his brother was building. But now he realized that the thought of harm coming to her bothered him in a way he couldn't place.
"I should go, sir," he said, trying to cover his feelings. "The others may miss my presence and I should make sure that we're ready to move as soon as Korgan contacts me again. I will contact you again once I know the pirate base's location."
Verikan raised an eyebrow and smiled, as though he could see straight through Rorax's mask. "Is there something you're not telling me about the human, Rorax?"
"No sir!" Rorax knew, as soon as he said it, that his response was too heated to be believable. He glanced at the door in case anyone had heard his outburst. "I mean, of course not. She's not quite what I expected, that's all."
The emperor laughed gently, shaking his head. "Be careful, Rorax. These human women can be intoxicating. There's nothing wrong with that, but don't let it distract you from your mission — for her safety as well as yours."
Before Rorax had a chance to deny anything, Verikan broke the connection, leaving him staring into the crystal and fuming to himself. It's at times like these I can understand my brother's desire to get away from the empire, he thought as he slammed the communicator back into its hiding place on his belt.
Returning to the front hall of the lodge, Rorax found his companions still trading old war stories. Tamak lay on a pile of salvaged bedding, laughing as Grorg described his battle with some human knight long ago.
"He didn't even miss a beat," the older dragon said. "There he was, horse roasted out from under him, lance broken on my scales, my claws at his throat — and he said 'double or nothing? The kings got another daughter, you know.'"
Tamak laughed louder, applauding the man's quick thinking. "What did you say?"
"Nothing right away," Grorg said with a grin. "I fell over laughing. Nearly crushed him."
"I remember that one," Rorax said, stepping into
the light. "As I recall, you let him have his princess."
Grorg nodded. "Only grabbed her to make sure I got a good fight, and I wasn't going to kill a man who made me laugh like that. There were plenty of princesses to go around, back then."
His face darkened back into a scowl, and Rorax sighed as some of the humor faded from the room. Before they'd had to retreat into the long sleep, the dragons had been free to raid Earth at will. Now, those days were gone. The humans were more numerous, and they had advanced to the point where they could cross the gulf of space between Earth and Mars with ease. There was no going back to the days Grorg looked back on so fondly.
But some people weren't willing to see that and would fight to hold onto the old ways even though their time had passed. The pirates wanted to go back to that time, and if he was going to get close to them he had to convince them that he did too.
"Perhaps those days will come again," he said, trying to sound as though he meant it. "Certainly, with the ransom we get from the humans for the return of our hostage, we can start to think bigger."
"And next time we can steal ourselves a female each," Grorg said, nodding. "I need a mate too."
"We all do," Tamak added. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves, right? First, we meet up with Korgan, join up with his pirate army. Then we'll be set to go on to bigger and better things."
Grorg's smile turned into a hungry snarl as his thoughts turned to the future, and Rorax's blood chilled. The future his companions were looking forward to was one of constant fighting and taking whatever they wanted. As a dragon warrior, he admitted to himself that he could see the appeal. But he wanted to be part of something greater, not just a pirate warlord fighting for any scrap of treasure he could get his hands on.