by M. Garnet
She was confused, trying to orient herself to her location. It would be closer to go to be big contact tree than to her cave, but she couldn't be sure when he would come with his parcel. The pain was making her dizzy and decisions were not clear.
Chapter Twelve
Magda was very nervous. It had been several days since the Mistress had returned. She had walked out to watch the honor guard meet the twins and the lady.
There he was, so very tall that he was easy to see, all in black, the soft floating cape with the hood pulled up to hide his face. Magda had a feeling that his strange eyes that changed color were not missing anything as he moved so close to the Mistress.
A couple of times she had taken extra water from the cart and sat it out, but it had never been taken, so he hadn't returned to her work cube.
Then one rainy afternoon she had a strange feeling as the interior lights came on to dispel the storm gloom. She was at the cart, the males making room for her as she reached for water. Her eyes glanced across the offerings and saw the clear containers of a couple of plates with cut up pieces of various cheeses and meats. There were even some spreadable varieties of each. Protein.
She picked up both small containers and as she turned the cart lady stopped her. "Here, some eating tools and some crackers."
Magda thanked the cart lady who was showing a smile. Magda was surprised, as most of the cart personnel were cranky and eager to get on with their assignments. The least Magda could do was…"Thank you."
There were a couple of men who turned and watched her as she returned across the open work floor to the side with the cubes for the specialists. There was definite admiration on their faces.
She sat the two spreads down on a clean end of the bench and opened a cold water bottle. She placed the other waters in her cold storage and hesitated. Should she place the second food in here for later or leave it out?
She was down on her knees with the cold door open when he softly dropped down beside her. His height was brought to her awareness as she sat at his feet, frozen before the cold coming from her small open door.
Magda felt a shock run through her body as he did the unexpected. He reached down, then with one hand he was closing the cold door and with the other he was taking her arm to help her stand.
"You got me protein. How very generous." His whispering voice was close to her as he pulled her up and helped her to her stool.
"I know you won't hurt me." Now it was Magda whispering.
"Of course not, little one. I can tell that too many males have already hurt you, not only your body, but in your heart. I can't undo what others have already done, but I can put a protection from an Assassin Order on you that will put fear into anyone who might think of hurting you in the future." He still spoke in that strange whisper, but leaned back in the small cube and began to eat from the open container.
Magda watched this beautiful man make promises to her that no one had ever made before to her. She wouldn't believe his promises, still while he sat in front of her, slowly eating, she could live in a small dream for a short time.
Bogdan pushed the food platter toward her and opened the second one for himself. "You need protein also. You work long hours at your magnifying screen."
With a shaking hand, she took a piece of cheese, but before she put it in her mouth, she had to ask. "You have watched me?"
He nodded affirmatively as he took a cracker and spread meat on it then topped it with cheese. They ate for a short time silently.
He broke the silence. "What is your given name? I looked at your records, and it has the name of your planet assigned to you with some numbers. Ater Sixty-Three yet I believe you have a better name."
She looked down at the piece of meat she was folding around a chunk of cheese. She didn't know why she hadn't told the interrogators here her home name. The slavers didn't know it either. She looked up at him and in the dim light his eyes were just green, a lovely green like cut glass.
"As a child my dad called me Magda. When I talk to myself that is the name, I use."
"Magda, yes, it suits you. It is close to mine. My name is Bogdan. See we have many of the same letters. You are a fighter as I am."
"You don't know me. I am not a fighter. I am here hiding." She ducked her head and began to eat the meat and cheese that now had her thumbprint pushed into it.
"Hmmm, I see a hard life in your eyes, yet you survived."
She refused to look up as he handed her a cracker with soft cheese on it. "No one wants to hear about or relive a hard life."
"Why are you not looking at me?" He asked as he handed her another cracker with cheese. He was feeding her.
How easy it was for her to talk to this male killer. She had not talked to anyone for years. She answered him honestly but still in a whisper, "You are too beautiful."
He reached out with one finger under her chin and tilted her head up. "There are all kinds of beauty. You are beautiful, and you try to hide it with your loose clothes and short sloppy haircut. My beauty is like the beauty of the Deriv Snake. It is the attraction of the killer. Yours is the attraction of deep beauty inside. Sometime you are going to let it out and what a blossoming."
She was looking and listening, but finally closed her eyes. She would replay each word later, yet would not believe. All the years of hurt by those she really wanted love from as a ten-year-old child, she had curled up to hide from the blows of her brothers, could not be brushed away with the soft words of this killer.
For Bogdan, this conversation had a different meaning that he too would have to examine later. He had taken his release on numerous females, giving in return what pleasures they shared. Yet he had never had a female friend. Sharing a meal with this strange little fighter, he almost felt a friendship. He wondered what the rules were about attachments.
Chapter Thirteen
Baloko sat in his office, a large room that held files and desks for his assistants as well as numerous floating and permanent screens. He hated this room, and he hated all the rooms in the military section, because they were deep inside the granite cave without windows.
He was amazed, after being in the confines of the Federated Spaceships, but there were always outlook areas, even in the work cabins and he was always in the front. The maze in that front cabin of any ship was open projections, floating screens as well as permanent units.
In this room, in this area he sometimes felt claustrophobic. When he was angry, the closed in feeling of the dark polished rock walls seemed to reflect his wretched mood. There were units that turned a wall into a reflection of one of the outside.
He had been in a wretched mood for the entire time the woman had been up in the forest. He needed to get this business with these two slackers done because he was going topside after the woman and bring her down.
He remembered what she had said about the life and males of her world. "A hunter on my world wants to breed strong sons. They will pick what they choose as a lusty female and chase her into the forest." Joo continued to walk backwards in the forest. "When they catch them they tie them to a tree and have their way with them until they are sure they have put enough seed into her to make a good son."
He thought of himself as a loyal male, an honest one, but he did have unusual urges. When it came to his love life, he had to choose carefully. He had rare tastes in sexual release, and he only wanted to enter into a night of sport with a female of similar taste, a sub.
Baloko had known when his Uncle had first introduced him to the lifestyle that he was a Dom. He knew the universe accepted all types if you were careful not to step over the line. That is why he had gone after the slavers. They had gone over the line, taken by force what was not given. A Dom took what a sub turned over.
A Dom was no stronger than their sub and a sub was no weaker than their Dom. Those that didn't believe or understand could not relate to the experience. Those that did live it got so much more from the two lives joining that they could not go back to regu
lar relationships. It was hard to understand love and pain as a pair, yet if we examined all our lives, it seemed that love hurt on a regular basis.
But now a different and just as dangerous part of his personality was present. A very angry General Sachim, in charge of protecting the royal family, was wasting time in his uncomfortable office.
The female Group Leader knocked on the open door and waited for an invitation. She was all military, standing straight and waiting as if a solid door was between her and the room she wanted to enter.
Baloko looked up with a frown. "Do you have the two men with you?"
"Yes, sir."
"Come forward."
The Group Leader approached the desk.
"Relax Group Leader and talk to me. Why would these two men separate themselves to talk?" Baloko kept his voice low so that only the Leader would hear. "Can you get me any recordings that might have picked up their voices?"
"Give me a few minutes. The two will stand at attention in the hall. It will do them good to wait." The Group Leader left without a smile.
Baloko took the time to review the history of the two. There wasn't much that showed on the screen. They both had arrived within the cave only days apart. The records claimed that they were honorably released from terms fulfilled in service to Federated Military. That type of record is what got them high up in the training for the royal elite.
Yet it bothered Baloko that the report was so brief. There usually was a lot of info from the different projects in the military. The military was wordy whether it was good or bad on the reports. With his experience, these had been faked.
He hit his communicator direct to Bleak. "Bleak, I have a very special request."
In a short time the Group Leader was back with several small flat chips. Baloko popped them in a translator, and the two of them listened. After trying two or three of the chips, he was frustrated as they spoke so low that only a few small words were picked up on one recorder.
"If you retrieve an image copy I can read their lips." The voice was a whisper from just inside the door by the wall.
The Group Leader whirled and almost pulled a weapon. Baloko watched in surprise, as first he had not noticed the entry of the assassin and how fast the Group Leader made a good decision. She did not draw a weapon, but still she was uncomfortable.
Baloko nodded at his officer. Bleak had answered his request as he felt the training of the Assassin could help him with this problem. "Bring up an image on this floating screen."
The officer was efficient as the numbers flew fast. Baloko had an idea she wanted out of this office with the black figure by the door. Then he recognized dates and times. At last, the officer did some fast movements that confused the eye until the entire floor came up.
The screen was able to tighten down onto the two men even though they were moving. It showed them moving and looking around as they spoke to each other. They didn't talk a lot, but it was obvious, now that you were looking at them, that they were talking to each other. They didn't want anyone else to hear what was being said.
The Group Leader moved away as she felt the large body of the assassin move close to the desk. He watched the screen for a few minutes and then the routine was broken up.
The assassin looked at Baloko as he moved his back again against the wall. "Perhaps it would be advisable if you and I talked privately, General."
Baloko looked down for only a quick second. "Group Leader, why don't you take the two men to lock up? Let's give them something to think about while I get some assistance from a well-equipped authority."
The officer did a military upright posture and left. She didn't look at the large black authority leaning again by the exit.
Baloko pushed a button that closed and locked the sliding metal door to his office. Unlike his officer, he didn't fear the large black killer. He believed in the honor of the Assassin Society.
"Assassin, share with me what you saw."
The dark killer spoke only in a whisper. "It was strange to have one of the twins speak to me inside my mind. Not very pleasant."
The voice never got above a rare whisper, but Baloko heard him clearly. "They are spies."
Baloko sighed deeply. "We have got to stop these people from getting this deep into the city cavern."
Bogdan nodded in agreement. "The Mistress is a rare female. She was not born on this world and is aware of the weakness of this location. She has the power to change things, and she is just not sure what to change."
Baloko looked up to stare into the face of this killer who was here to protect the slave to the twins.
"She needs help. Perhaps from others who were not born on this world who finds it easier to see the problems?"
The tall male rose away from the wall. "Perhaps we should meet to talk about this after you deal with the spies. I have learned to gain a great deal of respect for the Mistress."
Baloko let a tight smile show as he thought about his own issues. "I have a personal issue to handle. I will let the spies rot in the metal box. The Group Leader will see that they are uncomfortable as she will be unhappy for the problem caused within her group. Then when you have time available that is safe for the Mistress, we need to talk and maybe involve the Advisor Dee."
"Agreed. You know I can open your special door, but you will feel better if you open it."
Baloko didn't hesitate. He believed the Assassin could open whatever he decided. After the black shadow had left, Baloko returned to his own apartment. He had to get to the woman topside first.
He dressed in clothes that would withstand the harsh weather and took only bare weapons plus a long loop of rope. He also took something that he was a little ashamed of, a body heat seeking handheld vis.
He was going to find this woman and tie her to a tree.
Hours later with water running down the neckline of his waterproof clothes, he was beginning to think about the warm apartment the twins had assigned to him.
He had taken time to eat the cold food and drink the last of the warm liquid in his pack, but now he was using the heat seeking device and glad that he had brought it with him.
As Baloko moved deeper into the forest in what this world would call a light rain, he became aware of a couple of large animals moving in one direction. He had already pulled out a weapon in case one of them decided they got too close.
Baloko had just about decided to change direction to get away from the large animals, thinking that Joo was too smart to be anywhere in the vicinity of these animals when he had another thought. If she was hiding from this rain and the animals could smell her, he could follow them and find her hiding place.
Baloko realized that if she were in a cave he would not find her heat signal. A couple of big cats might want to find someone that is hidden inside a cave. He didn't make the change of direction after all.
By the time he saw the crumpled figure backed under the bushes by a large tree, the wind was whipping the rain so hard his view was limited. He was not certain as to the identity of the dark figure until he saw a small hand on a short knife as it lay on the ground. It had fallen in one last desperate effort of protection.
He dropped two flares to keep the animals away, and then knelt down to pull her into his arms. He took very little time examining her injury. It was obvious that she had been hurt deeply in her thigh. Loss of blood and the weather had brought down her temperature. She was in a very serious condition.
He immediately put in a call for emergency medical pick up and waited. He opened his coat and pulled her inside to give her as much of his body heat as possible.
Baloko knew that the emergency crew got there in a short time, rappelling down bringing a sealed medical pod. He insisted he accompany Joo, even though she was unconscious, into the medical unit inside the main cave.
He had a feeling his rank would impress the workers enough to get a little faster action for Joo.
"We think we should keep her under for the healing process for a couple of
days. Her body tone is excellent, and that is a big help. Unfortunately, she lost a lot of body fluids so we will need to rebuild them. To do that, we will need to use artificial meds since we have no family members of hers to match." The head medical technician was reading from a scanner as he spoke.
"The leg will heal without any damage, we can reconstruct the one muscle that got torn and even once the restoration is done we can eliminate any scars. While she is under we can build up her vitamins and minerals. She will be fine, General Sachim. We are moving her to a private room, and I personally will be checking on her progress."
Baloko looked at the small figure under the germ-free, transparent free-floating screen. The leg being treated was wrapped in flesh-colored bandages, but the only other items on her were a thin gown.
Strange, Baloko had a feeling of possession and wanted to cover her from the eyes of others. He knew the screen kept her at a comfortable temperature, and someone had cleaned and tied up her hair under a matching cap.
His monitor was notifying him that Advisor Dee Con and the twins needed him. He hated to leave her, but he understood that Joo would be secure until he could return. One did not refuse a summons from the twins.
Chapter Fourteen
There was trouble, deep trouble. It was something that the twins could not blow up or make disappear in a puff of light. They couldn't bring out their new army with weapons that no one else had even imagined. It involved slaves, and they owned one. One so important they were willing to take on the entire Federation to protect her, and it looked like they might have to in order to get the problem solved.
The first hint of a serious problem hit Dee's desk early. Politics was not something new to him. He had fought in that ugly arena beside the father of the twin's before they were born. Mostly it involved the fact that this planet was rich in the filaments that powered space jump ships better than any other element known to beings that traveled the grouped Federation. The strange natural elements known as the Threads of Targent grew in a natural mineral form deep within the harsh mountainous rocks of this harsh world.