by Rob Buckman
“Make up your mind!” The girl snarled as he reversed directions.
“I did, we go downstream now.”
“Then why go upstream in the first place?” She panted.
“Footprints on the bank and on the bottom. It will look as if we’ve gone upstream to anyone chasing us, plus if we did go upstream, we’d leave a trail of muddy water for them to follow. This way, we take the muddy water with us.”
“Oh, I see,” she sniffed, “that means we can stop for a rest.” She sighed.
“Like bloody hell we can!” Mike snorted. “We keep going for another ten, maybe fifteen minutes.” He gave her arm a hard tug, jerking her after him.
“Oh God! I’m exhausted now… and stop pulling me!”
“Then keep up and I won’t have to! We keep going.” Mike felt exhausted as well, but wasn’t about to say so. The water deepened until they were wading then swimming, but that was good, it would wash away any scent trail they might leave.
Another stream converged with this one, entering over the bedrock in a small waterfall. That gave him an idea, thanks to Conner.
“There. He pointed. “Head for the waterfall.”
“Why?”
“For Christ sake, stop asking so many damn questions and do it!” He snapped, spitting dirty water. It tasted like sulphur and weed, definitely not drinkable.
“There is no need to get huffy about it, I only asked.” She said, squirting dirty water out of her mouth and coughing. “Yuck! This water taste like… crap!”
As Mike expected, after ducking under the waterfall they surfaced inside a small cave. Centuries of erosion had cut away the softer material in a series of steps, and with some difficulty climbed out of the water. At last, they managed to climb up to a relatively dry spot on a ledge some ten feet up. For a moment, Mike just sat there, listening to the sound of the waterfall, thankful to have found a relatively safe hiding place. Now it was just a question of waiting.
“Now you can rest.” He almost had to shout to get over the sound of the water.
“I should hope so,” she sniffed, “wouldn’t it have been easier to just contact your ship and have the Captain come and pick us up?”
“Not right now, it’ll be daylight soon and the hunt will be on. Any ship seen flying around here will be fired at, and my ship has taken enough damage as it is.”
“So, what do we do now, sit here and freeze to death?"
“It’ll warm up soon.” He could hear her teeth chattering in the darkness.
“What will your Captain do now?”
“I’m the Captain at the moment.”
“An Ensign?” She asked unbelievably.
“Yes, an Ensign, the Captain, Leftenant Kelso was killed on the way in.”
“Well, Ensign, what are you planning to do now?” She spoke in a sort of snippy tone, and didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm.
“Stay here right now and get some rest.”
“Then what?”
“Wait for the hunt to die down and make our way to the LZ.”
“LZ?”
“Landing zone.”
“Then why didn’t you say so, Ensign!”
“I did… oh, never mind, just try to get some rest. We might be here for a while.” She sniffed and looked around the cave with distaste, wrinkling her nose.
“If I have to, but it seems to me we’d be better off trying to make it to your ship.”
“In broad daylight? Right, that’s a really smart move, I don’t think…”
“Yes, I can see that you don’t think by the way you disregarded my safety and jumped through a window, a closed window, I might add.”
In the dim light, Mike could see her carefully running her fingers through her hair, looking for bits of broken glass and trying to get it back into some semblance of order. Mike just growled softly and said nothing; women like this were outside his range of experience. He’d been with a few, girl friends, ladies of the evening mainly, but this one seemed to bring out the worst in him. Leaning back, he closed his eyes for a moment. In the end, the girl lay down and closed her eye, at least trying to rest. Being a little more accustom to this than her, Mike didn’t really feel cold, so he stripped off his combat jacket and wrapped it around her. He also gave her two energy bars from his pack, and lying back, he munched on one himself. The narrow ledge barely accommodated them, with one lying and one sitting, not that he got the chance to lie down. The girl immediately took up as much room as she could. She hadn’t thanked him for the food bar, nor the jacket, so he just resigned himself to his small space and made the best of it.
“My name is Mike, Mike Gray by the way.”
“Yes, you told me. Mine is Lady Ann, you can call me your Ladyship. By the way, how big is the rescue ship?”
“It's just a combat assault shuttle.”
“And the ship in orbit?”
“The only ship in orbit is probably Sirrien.”
“All they sent was an assault shuttle… good god! Whose brilliant idea was that?”
“The Admiralty I guess.” That was met with silence, as if she was personally offended by the information.
“A shuttle!” Mike definitely heard a groan as she said it, wondering what she expected a bloody battleship.
The light beyond the waterfall brightened slowly, not that it improved the light level in the cave by much. Gradually the temperature went up, and after a while, the girl’s teeth stopped chattering. At last, she fell asleep, accompanied by a soft snore that made Mike smile. She wasn’t exactly beautiful, as Jimmy Bettencourt said, she had a mousey brown hair and a face so plain it probably would stop a charging buffalo in its tracks from sheer surprise. She was about 18 or 19, the same apparent age as himself, about 5’-9 or 10” and around 165 pounds, he guessed, but her mouth took some getting used to. No wonder Jimmy said she was a handful. Her heart shaped face in repose made her seem younger and prettier in the dim light, with none of the cynical look in her cow brown eyes. Mike checked his weapon, stripping the waterproof seal off a fresh power pack and loaded it into the butt.
He’d have to stay on guard, just in case someone got curious and stuck his nose under the waterfall and didn’t want to get caught with a drained power pack. By noon, there was obvious movement on the other side, but none of it came close. In here, the communication equipment was useless; not that he dare use it. By now, they must be on high alert for any comm traffic. Hopefully, Chief Conner and Jimmy Bettencourt got the rest of the group to the relative safety of the shuttle. Where that was, he hadn’t a clue. Going to the LZ they’d used last night was out of the question, then he got to thinking. Jimmy said that someone had come in from the Capital in-system. That meant they’d have to use a long-range shuttle. The question was, where was it, and could they steal it? The day dragged on, and desperate for sleep, Mike finally woke the girl up. It took some doing, but at last, she opened one eye.
“What?” She asked sleepily.
“Your turn to stand watch, I have to get a little sleep before I drop.”
“Oh?” Her tone sounded huffy, as if standing watch was something other people did. “I thought all you macho Navy type could keep going on less than one hours sleep and chew rocks for food.”
“Look!” he snapped, “I’ve been on my feet for three days straight lady, so don’t give me any of your snotty bullshit, and start pulling your weight around here. And by the way, that is Marines you are refereeing to.”
“There is no need to shout.”
“Yes there is, you can’t hear me over the sound of the water if I didn’t, now move over so I can lie down.” He was just about out of patents with this girl, King’s messenger or not. Reluctantly, she did, and only grudgingly released his jacket when he held his hand out for it.
“Wake me up if anything unusual happens.”
“Like what?”
“Like someone coming in here?” He hissed. “Christ woman, use your brain for something besides keeping your ears apart!” She jus
t glared at him.
“And don’t give me any more grief, your Ladyship! I’m not in the mood for it.” That shut her up, at least for now.
Rolling his jacket into a ball Mike used it as a pillow and lying down on the narrow ledge he tried to get comfortable before closing his eyes. He didn’t remember the transition between sleep and awake. One moment he was relaxing and listening to the sound of the waterfall, the next, nothing, until sometime later when the girl shook him. He still felt groggy, and his shoulder hurt where he’d lay on it. The level of the light in the cave was dropping fast, so it had to be near sundown.
“It's getting dark.”
“Yes, it is, isn’t it.” He said, yawning. “Wake me again in about three hours.” He said, and rolled over to face the wall.
“What?”
“Can’t do anything for a few hours yet.” He muttered, his voice trailing off. The girl looking at his in amazement, only the soft snoring sound stopped her from coming back with a snotty remark.
* * * * * *
The thin man with the monocle walked back and forth across the room, occasionally stopping to listen to an incoming transmission. So far, the search parties had found nothing, and as the time dragged by the angrier, he became. Occasionally he picked up one of the sheets of paper he’d grabbed and looked at it before throwing it back on the table, a grim look on his soft face. They indicated that something was going to happen, something major, but without the missing pages, he couldn’t tell what.
“No luck so far, your Majesty.” A nasal sounding voice issued from the radio.
“Tell that idiot I want those two found and brought back alive.” He snapped over his shoulder.
Images of the girl’s naked body held down over a table flashed through his mind. He was going to enjoy beating the truth out of her, listening to her screams as she begged for mercy. He smiled to himself, thinking of his pleasure as he watched her being raped, over and over until she was begging to tell him what he wanted to know. The silver cylinder with the bright red digital numbers on the end intrigued him. It spoke of hidden secrets, and that meant power, power he could use. Of course, talking wouldn’t save her. Once she’d told him everything she knew, he’d let his bodyguard have her. It would be a nice diversion in itself, watching them fuck her to death. If they didn’t, he could always ship her off to a military whorehouse somewhere. He always liked to keep his soldiers happy. One of the surviving blond haired men interrupted his fantasy to relay the message. He slapped the man across the face as punishment, not because of the lack of news but for interrupting his daydream.
“They have to be somewhere close, they can’t just have vanished.” He snapped as the blond haired man bowed, and took a step back. He would no more think of attacking the Prince or taking offense for the slap than a dog would stand on its hind legs and kick a man in the shin.
“Yes, your Majesty,” he murmured, “you are correct, they had to be here somewhere.”
“Anything more from the life pod crash site?”
“No, Sir, the explosion reported yesterday was defiantly the pod blowing up, and there is nothing left of it.” The comm tech reported.
“Why blow the pod up, that’s what I’d like to know.” It also begged the question of where the ship was that these people arrived in. They didn’t just drop out of thin air. He’d already had two Captains demoted and punished for failing to detect and prevent the Royal Naval shuttle entering this system, but it still left the question of what they were doing here unanswered.
“It could be the ship that supposedly crashed the other day.”
“Yes, it could very well be. Have the Captain of the search vessel arrested immediately and shot for incompetence.” He commented off-handily.
“Yes, your Majesty, at once.” One of the blond men nodded, bowed, and left the room to carry out the order. Another man turned and left the room, heading for the toilet, glad to be out of there.
The Prince was defiantly not in a good mood. Even what was left of his bodyguard looked nervous. He wasn’t above shooting them if he felt in the mood. The girl and her rescuer had to be somewhere close, but so far the trackers couldn’t find any sign of them.
CHAPTER FIVE: Escape and Evasion
Grabbing his jacket, Mike slipped off the ledge into the pool guessing rightly she got bored just sitting around and decided to go for a walk. Of all the dumb things she might have done, this was the worst. There was no telling who might still be out there looking for them, doubting the skinny man from the room would give up easily. He exited the cave by diving under the waterfall and as a precaution swam underwater to the side, surfacing amongst some waterweeds. The pearly light from the gas giant didn’t really give sufficient light for him to see well, and he cursed softly for not retrieving his helmet. The shifting pools of shadow could be anything or nothing, and without night vision equipment it was hard to tell, even with his ability to see in the dark. Climbing out he moved into the shadow of the shrubs and just knelt to listen. His grandfather taught him to use his ears if his eyes failed him, and it was good advice. Off to the left, he could just hear something over the soft sound of the falling water. Carefully, he moved closer, and as he did, he could hear the sound of a man laughing, then a muffled yell. The underbrush was dense here, and he ended up on his hands and knee crawling through the mud to get under.
He didn’t have the time to find a way around and he was glad he didn’t. Through a screen of leaves, he looked into a small clearing, the light from the gas giant shining down like a spotlight. He groaned softly and shook his head. The girl hung by her tied hands from an overhead tree limb, and a rough looking man was just finishing stripping off her jumpsuit. Pulling a wicked looking knife, he made short work of her bra. He did pull her panties off instead of cutting them away, laughing as she struggled to hold them with her thighs. She screamed around the gag as his hands slid up and down her legs, or tried to around the gag. Her kicks were useless, and the man just laughed, until she managed to catch him across the cheek with a flailing foot. The man swore and stepped back, rubbing his cheek.
“Let see what a few stoke of a switch will do to your temper bitch!” He snarled. He walked over to a bush and cut a four-foot long switch and quickly stripped the bark.. Walking back, he flexed it in his hand, then whipped it through the air, making it ‘whooshed’ as he swung it.
“Yes, this should do nicely,” he chuckled, “this will bring the bitch to heel!”
Saying that he brought the switch around hard and fast, catching the girl across her bottom. Her body arched in response, lifting one leg as she tried to scream around the gag, but little sound came out. Mike in the mean time frantically cut his way through the tough screen of branches, and thankfully his large bowie knife made short work of it and he finally stood up.
“You want to try that on someone who can defend themselves, asshole!” The men whipped around, a surprise look on his face.
“Where the hell did you come from boy!”
“Not your concern dog's breath.” For a moment, the man started going for his sidearm, until he saw the knife in Mike’s hand.
“So, you think you can take me with the toad stabber do you, boy?”
“I can try.”
The man threw the switch away and pulled his knife again. His was longer than Mike’s, double-edged and about three feet long. In some places, it would be called a short sword.
“So, you must be the other Earthier they’re looking for.” The man walked towards him, waving the knife back and forth. “They didn’t say anything about not injuring you, so a few cuts won’t hurt your price any.” Mike dropped into a crouch, feeling loose.
The uncertainty he felt since Leftenant Kelso died dropped away. Here he didn’t have to make any decisions about anything except staying alive and using his training. He just hoped he could get it over with before the pain started. He kept his emotions in check, thinking of this as nothing more than a sparring match. If he could hold that thought,
it shouldn’t induce a pain attack.
“Have at it, shit head.”
Knife fighting was still an art taught on his world, as they settled many disagreements that way, or with a sword. The man simply swiped at him in a simple slash and cut maneuver and Mike parried the blade away at first, looking for the man style. It wasn’t anything to speak of, just crude and simple. The man thought he faced a boy and nothing more, figuring to overpower him with brute strength and nothing else. He found out to his cost that mistake when Mike countered his slash with one of his own, cutting the man’s left forearm down to the bone. That’s where he had the advantage. The ‘Bowie’ was heavy enough to cause a deep bleeding cut with its own weight and impact force alone. The man swore and stumbled back, first looking at his injured arm, then holding it against his chest. That put him at a disadvantage as it upset his balance. Mike didn’t give him time to get set. When you have the advantage, use it, had been drilled into him again and again, and he did. The man countered clumsily, a look of panic on his face as blood from his arm soaked the front of his jacket. He knew blood loss would soon take its toll and after a series of quick slashed, he jumped back and dropped his knife, going for his sidearm at last. Mike saw it coming, and flipping the knife over in his hand, he threw it, going for his side arms at the same time. His instructor back home would have had a few things to say about that, but under the circumstances, he didn’t have a choice. The sound of a blaster discharging would certainly bring anyone else nearby running. Mike’s knife buried itself in the man’s throat, the sidearm forgot as he clutched the hilt and fell to the ground. The sound of his gagging as he choked to death wasn’t pretty, and his heels drumming on the wet soggy ground made no sound at all. The moment he dropped, Mike ran across the clearing and retrieved his knife, using it to cut the girl free and removed the gag, pain throbbing at the back of his head.