Carbon Life

by HR Ringer

  “Can’t tell, Luv… can’t move… … enough to… … feel my wrists. How ’bout you?”

  “Same.” Xiùlán allowed her torso to fold down at the hips so she could get her head down. There were voices outside the door, guttural sounding… typical batarian males. Sounded like an argument, but she couldn’t make out what was being said. She had no doubt that whatever they were ‘discussing’ involved Traynor and herself. The fact they hadn’t clamped a slave collar around her neck was some comfort… meant they weren’t prepared for visitors.

  “Sammy… I’m going to try to get my arms up in front of me.” Xiùlán started by rolling onto her side, then onto her back as she raised her hips and legs from the floor. With her wrists bound together, the effort to slide her arms past her hips nearly brought her to tears; after a massive effort that left her partially winded, she had her wrists behind her thighs. She rested for several minutes, listening to the argument outside move away from the door. After catching her breath, she curled her back, brought her weight up towards her neck then quickly rocked forward; she was now sitting on her butt. Leaning forward enabled her to slip her arms past her feet. “Did it, Ài,” [愛 - Love] she whispered.

  Xiùlán looked closely at her wrists in the dim light. ‘Yúchǔn de húndàn![愚蠢的混蛋！- stupid bastards!] Used wire to tie me? At least they left my omni-tool…’ Reaching down to her feet, she was overjoyed to discover the idiots had also overlooked the folding knife secreted inside her right boot; this she managed to tease out with the forefingers of each hand. Opening the blade was a simple matter of ‘pulling’ the finger stud towards the handle, thus swinging the spring loaded blade out and locking it in place.

  Slicing through the wire with numb fingers took a few minutes, but once her wrists were free, she was able to massage the feeling back into her hands and fingers. Activating the omni-tool’s light allowed her to see her lover, on her side facing away.

  “Sà mǐ!” she hissed. “Can you move over next to me? I can get your hands free.”

  Traynor coughed. “I’ll try.” She struggled back to a sitting position, then scooted her butt backwards towards Xiùlán’s voice. Bumping against the bars, she coughed and spat again. “Sure could use some water… medigel would be nice, too.”

  Xiùlán didn’t respond as she used the knife to cut through the wires binding Sam’s wrists. “These idiots weren’t prepared for us to drop in on them – they must have been setting up a transfer station for people captured in raids elsewhere.”

  Sam slowly brought her arms around in front of herself. “Thanks! Feels good to be able to move my hands.” She paused, then whispered, “Still got my omni-tool as well, Luv.”

  “Good! Now let’s see about getting our asses outta this shithole, get you some help.”

  Sam gasped as she turned to look at her lover. “My god, Linn!… blood… all over… your face! And… your hair! It’s… gone!”

  Xiùlán reached for the back of her head. Her ebony mane, so long it brushed the top curve of her butt, wasn’t there! She had worn it tied into a bun behind her head so she could wear a helmet; the bun was gone, chopped off raggedly at the back of her neck! “Gāisǐ de húndàn cǎn!” [該死的混蛋慘！- Fucking miserable bastard!] “Someone’s going to pay for that!” Using her hand to carefully feel for the source of the blood, she discovered a gash over her left eye, above the hairline. The hair on top of her head was matted with dried blood; inspecting her fingers confirmed blood was still seeping from the wound. “Huh… never really felt that! Must be the source of my headache. Guess I’ll need to see a medic as well.”

  Xiùlán activated the mini-cutter in her omni-tool and began slicing away the bars above and below the latch plate holding the lock assembly. Once the plate assembly was free, she pushed the cage door open, crawled out of the metal box and stood up, glad to finally be able to stand up straight.

  Traynor had managed to get her door open as well; she took a bit more time to stand up, favoring her side as she did so. “Fuckin’ ribs hurt like all bloody ‘ell, Linn! Don’t know how… much help I can be. Can’t even take a deep breath.” She coughed, spat and exclaimed, “Shit!” She turned towards Xiùlán just as her lover gently wrapped her arms around her, kissed her softly on the mouth and whispered, “I love you Samantha.”

  Sam returned the kiss before pulling back slightly. “I love you… as well, Yuán Xiùlán. Now let’s… get out of here.”

  Xiùlán released Sam and turned towards the door. It appeared to be a Systems Alliance standard inside hatch, segmented to retract into the surrounding bulkhead with a centrally located haptic lock interface, which was currently glowing a dim red.

  Normally, Xiùlán would have allowed Traynor to hack the lock, but she didn’t expect Sam to do anything she herself could do almost as well. Omni-tool up and activated, Xiùlán ran through the unlocking protocols built into the ‘tool’ – the haptic interface quickly changed to green. Xiùlán hastily reconfigured her omni-tool for combat; it would only take a thought and a flick of her wrist to have either of three ceramic blades at her disposal. Along with her boot knife, she was armed in as deadly a fashion as possible.

  “Watch my six, Luv. I’ll take care of anything in front of us.”

  “Be careful, Linn,” Traynor coughed. “Fuckin’ bastards… took our… shield generators; our ceramic… plates won’t stop…” she gulped as she attempted to stifle yet another cough, “… a bullet fired up close.”

  Xiùlán simply nodded as she opened the hatch; the light in the passageway beyond was dim enough that her eyes adjusted quickly. Taking a hasty look in both directions, she decided uphill was the way they needed to proceed, as the hatch on the downhill end was locked. Hazarding another swift look revealed no cameras in the ceiling, so she entered the passage and quickly headed towards the uphill hatch, confident that Sammy was right on her heels.

  She placed her left shoulder against the bulkhead and crouched to the side of the hatch, which was unlocked. Feeling Sam’s hand on her waist, she listened for anyone on the other side of the hatch; everything was quiet, so she opened the hatch and inspected the area. There were containers and equipment scattered haphazardly around a large chamber; discerning no movement, she moved through the opening and ran to a large container about two to three meters away. Crouching behind it, she felt Sam bump into her back as she caught up.

  Breathing hard, Sam tried to stifle her coughing as she struggled to catch her breath. “Can’t keep… this up… for long… Luv.”

  “I know. You stay here, let me scout around – see if I can find us some water.”

  “A Med-kit… one… or two… heavy pistols… would be… nice,” Sam gasped out in as snarky a tone as she could manage.

  Looking back the way they had come, Xiùlán noticed the hatch had reclosed and locked behind them. She grabbed Sam’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before taking off, moving silently from container to container.

  She had worked her way around to the far side of the chamber, where she encountered a pair of batarians moving small containers. Neither one survived their introduction to the unfriendly human – one was left pinned to a large container with a white-hot ceramic blade shoved through his throat and spine, the other was left lying on his stomach on the cavern floor, staring blindly up at the ceiling. Unfortunately for Xiùlán, neither was wearing a sidearm, but she did find a container filled with water – this she took straight back across the chamber to Sammy, only taking a drink herself after Sam had drunk her fill.

  “Thanks, Linn! That’s a… real help.”

  “Come on… we can move straight across to the next exit. The only two batarians in here are not going to be interested in us… or anything else, ever.”

  Xiùlán helped Traynor to her feet, then walked with her as the pair moved across the underground chamber to where Xiùlán had ended the batarian’s lives. “My god, Linn! I never… heard a thing!” She stared at the Chinese woman beside he
r, dried blood on her face, hair raggedly cut off at the back of her head, with a newfound respect along with a touch of awe. “I’m no… longer sure… you… even need me… along, Luv.”

  Yuán turned to look at her lover, surprise evident in her eyes as she whispered, breath brushing softly against Sam's temple and hair, “Why in hell would you even think that, wǒ qīn'ài de sà mǐ?” [我親愛的薩米？- my dear Sammi?] Traynor nearly burst into tears at the look of utter devotion that came across Xiùlán’s countenance. “There will come a time when you will be taking care of me, my love.” Xiùlán brushed Sam’s cheek with her lips as she continued in a husky whisper, “Wǒ ài nǐ, [我愛你, - I love you] Samantha Traynor! I have loved you ever since we met. No power in this galaxy will ever change that, Míngbáile ma?” [明白了嗎？- Do you understand?]

  Samantha, her eyes full of unshed tears, simply nodded her head.

  “Good! Now, we have to find our gear. You ready to go?” Traynor nodded again.

  Xiùlán rose and pulled Sam up with her. She led the way around the last large container in their path and up to the hatch that appeared to be the exit. The haptic lock was glowing green, so Xiùlán waved her hand in front of it. To their horror, the chamber beyond had at least six batarians clustered together. One appeared to be arguing with two others about something, but they all looked up at the sound of the door opening.

  Xiùlán stood there, omni-blade alight, dried blood still on her face, and growled menacingly at the closest batarian, “Nǐmen sì gè yǎnjīng yīnjīng tóu! Nǐ huì xiān sǐ!” [你們四個眼睛陰莖頭！你會先死！– You four eyes penis head! You'll die first!]

  They stood frozen in place as their translators glitched on a language rarely heard off planet Earth. Even having no idea what the human with the blood covered face had just said, the one that appeared to be in charge suddenly came to his senses and reached for his pistol – it was the last thing he ever did, as the handle of a knife appeared between his upper eyes, the blade buried in the frontal lobe of his brain. The rest hadn’t moved a muscle, now transfixed at the sight of their leader collapsing to the ground like a sack of stropharia.

  Xiùlán wasted no time in covering the distance between them. Ignoring the pistol in the hand of their dead leader, she stomped in the middle of his face as she yanked her knife out of his skull and flung it at the next closest target; this one had the misfortune of catching the blade in his throat as Xiùlán swung her omni-blade at pirate number three, slicing that unfortunate soul nearly in half at the waist. She felt an impact on her chest plate as she heard the report from the gun fired at her by pirate number four; she fell backwards as a minute sliver of metal screamed through the air above her at hypersonic speed, drilling him in the chest.

  Traynor had trotted into the chamber and retrieved the gun the first pirate had attempted to use. She fired once again, drilling number five between his lower eyes. Before she could kill number six, he was on top of Xiùlán, attempting to stab her with his knife. She rolled away from him as he struck at her legs on the ground. As he stood back up, Xiùlán was up and on him like a wild panther. She reached his chest with her fist and drew her forearm across him right-to-left, dragging her omni-sword across his torso to slice him in half. He remained standing with a surprised look on his face as a bullet whizzed past Xiùlán’s ear, hitting the sliced batarian in the head for a kill-shot.

  She looked around to find Traynor in a combat crouch, pistol in both hands and seemingly aiming for her head. She rapidly ducked as Sam pulled the trigger, dropping the seventh pirate coming up behind her. She hurriedly looked around the chamber for more enemies; finding no one left standing, she retrieved her boot knife from the throat of her second victim, then moved among the rest, gathering weapons, Medigel and water rations.

  The last one Traynor had shot was still alive, and it turned out he had something extra in his backpack – a rope of ebony strands, one end bearing a ragged cut. This was the bastard that had cut off her hair. Xiùlán crouched beside him, made sure the dying batarian was aware of her… knew who she was before she started speaking.

  “You goddamned four-eyed offspring of a vorcha fucked varren – yeah, I’m speaking Galactic so you can understand me,” Xiùlán hissed through clenched teeth. “I bet you thought you’d found a real prize when you cut off my hair. But unlike you, I’m still alive, and my hair will grow back. Too bad you won’t be around to see it.” She stood back up, contemplated him for several heartbeats before twitching her right hand, causing her omni-tool to render its third blade. She balled up her fist and with a guttural curse struck him in the middle of the chest, putting as much of her weight and muscle behind the blow as she could; this action ‘fired’ the white-hot ceramic blade over the top of her wrist and hand, through his body, his spine and into the ground beneath him. She neatly coiled the length of her cut hair around the portion of the blade sticking out of his chest as a warning to the next bastard that thought chopping off a woman’s hair was a good idea.

  Looking around again, she saw Traynor still kneeling where she’d stopped, trying to get her breathing under control. Xiùlán started walking towards her and quickly pulled to a halt – there was a pain in her left calf that hadn’t been there before. She tried to look at her leg and couldn’t see anything, but there was definitely something wrong, bad enough that she began limping as she walked up to Sam and asked, “You doing okay?”

  “No worse… than before. Why the ‘ell… are you limping?” Sam’s voice carried concern.

  “Don’t know. Take a look?” Xiùlán turned around so Sam could inspect the back of her leg.

  “Looks like… some blood here.” Traynor gently touched her lover’s calf, about twenty centimeters down from the knee – Yuán jumped as if she’d been shot.

  “On your… knees, Luv… facing away.” Traynor waited until Xiùlán had complied. She definitely had a bit of blood on her leg, and the leg of her under-armor was sliced vertically.

  “What the…?” Sam spotted it – something shiny within the cut. “I need… you to lean… forward. Hands on… the ground.” Xiùlán did as instructed. “Relax… your lower legs… put all your… weight on… your knees. This is gonna… hurt like bloody ‘ell.”

  Traynor positioned two fingers of her left hand in a ‘vee’ on either side of the blood- stained metal. Xiùlán gasped as Sam pressed her fingers hard into the skin and spread them slightly apart, opening the wound; this had the effect of raising the steel sliver up so Sam could grasp it between thumb and forefinger of her right hand. Without warning her, Sam gripped the piece of steel tightly and yanked it straight up and out of Yuán’s leg, causing her lover to holler and curse long and loud in Chinese.

  Sam held up the piece of steel – the tip of a broken knife blade, about 3 to 4 centimeters long, undoubtedly from the fellow attempting to stab Xiùlán as she rolled around on the ground dodging him. The wound was bleeding freely now, so Sam placed the palm of her hand across the slice and pressed down, provoking more outcries of unhappiness from Xiùlán. “We need some… way to… clean and… bandage this,” Traynor observed, before going into a paroxysm of coughing, causing her to bend over from the effort to breathe. She straightened up, grabbed one of the Medigel containers Xiùlán had retrieved and applied a liberal amount to the slice in her leg.

  Xiùlán turned, bringing up her right knee. She took a sip of water, then gave the container to Sam and said, “Stop talking – start drinking. I’m going to try to stand.” So saying, Yuán slowly got to her feet, right leg first. She gingerly placed a bit of weight on her left leg. “Not too bad. I’ll search the other end. Stay put.” Grabbing one of the recovered pistols, she limped her way to a small anteroom beside the exit. After making sure she was alone, she looked high and low, finally finding a first aid kit and some more water. She returned to Traynor with her booty.

  Sam was happy to have more water; she re-cleaned the wound in Xiùlán’s leg, applied more Medigel, then cover
ed and bound it to keep it clean. “How’s that feel?”

  “Better than I’d hoped after seeing that bit of knife you pulled out of there.” She lifted her leg in order to flex her foot around, testing what she could do. “Damn good thing it went in vertically – slipped into the muscle in line with the muscle fibers. Pure dumb luck…”

  Traynor wasn’t done. “Let me… look at… that head wound.” Xiùlán again went to her knees, this time facing Sam as Traynor, using Xiùlán's shoulders for handholds, laboriously stood back up. Sam grimaced at the matted hair as she placed a hand on Xiùlán’s cheek. Shining a light on the cut in her scalp, she coughed, “Must have… happened in the… Mako.” Sam cleaned around the wound with gauze from the kit, then covered the gash with Medigel. “Doc’s gonna… need to fix this… as well, Luv.” Traynor bent over beside Xiùlán, coughed and spit out more blood.

  Xiùlán turned; saying, “Let me take a look at your ribcage, Sammy,” she quickly unfastened the latches holding Sam’s chest plate to the back plate on her left side. Sam groaned in pain as she slowly raised her arm so Xiùlán could pull her under-armor shirt and undershirt up from her waist. “Shit! Remember the bruise on my chest from Joesiar’s sniper shot on Luna base?” Xiùlán’s tone suggested disbelief. “This one puts mine to shame. Hang tough, let me just touch you… here?”

  “Eeeyouch! That absolutely… hurts like… mmmmpppphhh!” Sam didn’t finish, as the next spot Xiùlán touched caused her to sob from the intense pain.

  “Looks like two fractured ribs, Sammy. Don’t think either is completely broken. I’m going to apply some Medigel to the area – it’ll help, but we need to get you to a doctor, sooner rather than later.” Yuán applied a liberal coating of Medigel to the bruised area, then pulled Sam’s undershirt and under-armor shirt back down and refastened all the hook’ n’ loop fasteners before standing, kissing Sammy apologetically and saying, “Sorry I hurt you.”