The Crime of Protection

by Gloria Martin

Chapter 3

  Exonyie was preparing himself to talk to the crew and set up some ground rules for the rest of the mission. The men were probably all questioning his reason for putting the prisoner in room 200. If the prisoner had been male, in any form, he would have locked him up in the hold and threw away the key. But the prisoner happened to be female, and Exonyie knew that the men were getting frustrated being so far away from home, or any type of civilization, for that long. Being the only female on a ship of men could not only cause a world of trouble for him, but could cause a world of harm for her. Exonyie was sworn to protect her and bring her back to Zethron healthy and alive. He would do whatever it took to make sure that those orders were followed.

  He could hear animated voices and laughter wafting from the bridge. Exonyie let out a sigh of relief, releasing all of the tension that he had been holding inside for the past few months. Hearing his men laughing and joking totally lightened his mood. Exonyie walked in with a grin on his face.

  “Hello everyone,” he said as he strolled into the room. All of the laughter and joking subsided as all eyes followed him walk towards the front of the room. “Don’t stop what you were doing on my account. I’m just as excited as you are. We are finally at the tail end of this mission and only have to bring the prisoner home safe and sound, and then we can all take a much needed vacation.” An uproar of cheers filled the room.

  Krug, a new recruit who had just joined his crew on this mission said, “Commander, the men and I have a request.”

  Exonyie smiled. “I will answer all questions and listen to all requests after you hear to what I have to say.” All men turned and gave him their full attention. Exonyie felt the mood in the room change, from that of joy and laughter to seriousness. “When I entered this room, I heard sounds of joy and celebration. You all have no idea how happy I was to hear those sounds after being so miserable for so long. We‘ve finally caught the fugitive and now we just had to bring her home. The hard part of the mission was over, so I thought, but when I brought the captive into room 200, I noticed the look that appeared on Zen’s face –” Zen’s face appeared red in embarrasment. “Which is normal, but it emphasized the reason that I put her in that room in the first place. We have all been away from Zethron – any planet for that matter – for quite awhile. As males we all have needs and as many of you have noticed, our captive is the only female on this ship and the only female that we have seen for months. Keeping her next to my quarters will not only allow me to keep her safe, but it will allow me to keep an eye on her.”

  “Keep her safe from what commander?” Krug asked him. The rest of the room nodded in assent.

  “From ourselves,” Exonyie said.

  “I don’t mean any disrespect, but isn’t she a criminal? Weren’t we sent on a mission to capture this fugitive? We shouldn’t be put in the same catagory as her.”

  Exonyie felt his temper start to rise. Was this recruit trying to justify rape or other type of immoral behavior? “Krug, we are still bound by the laws of Zethron out here in space. We are not above the law when we go out and serve it. I have made up my mind. No one is allowed to talk to the prisoner or approach her without direct orders from me. Anyone who does will be punished severly. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes, commander,” said the crew.

  “Great. I’m glad that we’re all on the same page. I will leave you to your celebrations and will attend to the prisoner. Cy-alert me if you need me for any reason,” Exonyie said, then left the room.

  ***

  “Stop scratching!” Exonyie yelled at her.

  “I itch!” Avi yelled back. Exonyie jumped in astonishment. Avi had been on this ship for three days and she hadn’t uttered a single word, but he was staring to get on her nerves. He was always around. He was there when she woke up, when she ate and when she slept. He was the first thing she saw in the morning and the last thing that she saw at night; and she couldn‘t deal with his consistant chatter. He would talk for hours. She had started to refer to him as annoy-borg. She started to snicker as she thought about it.

  “She speaks,” Exonyie said with a chuckle.

  “When there is something important to speak about, and I’m telling you that I itch.”

  “Why do you itch?” he asked the prisoner curiously.

  “Because I haven’t had a shower in three days. I’m dirty, stinky and itchy,” she snapped.

  Exonyie sat back in his chair and ran his fingers though his hair. Avi had noticed that he did this when he was thinking. “That’s very negligent of me. My mission is to get you safely back to Zethron, in good health. Keeping up with your personal hygiene is essential to making sure that you are in good heath. After I make my rounds, I’ll take you to the showers and you can get all cleaned up. Would that make you feel better?” Exonyie offered.

  “I am fully capable of taking a shower by myself thank you. I don’t need your help or your surpervision,” Avi snarled.

  “Ms. Mitchell, you misunderstand my intentions,” the cyborg began.

  “No. I think that you have made your intentions very clear. Now, let me be clear. There is no way that that I would ever have sex with anyone of your kind. I find you repulsive and frankly disgusting, with all of the cybernetic implants attached to your face,” Avi finished, contempt evident in her voice.

  “Thank you for your honesty, captive. I am glad I know where we stand. However, having sexual relations with a human—a species well beneath me—was never my intention. As your captor and commander of this ship, it is my responsibility to guarantee your safety. If you think that you can take a shower safely, without my men bothering you, then by all means, be my guest,” Exonyie said angrily. Avi was very proud of herself. Her plan was starting to work. She had annoyed the cyborg until he let her out of his sight and now she would be able to wander around the ship to see where all of the emergency escape pods were stored. Once she figured out how many cyborgs guarded that part of the ship, she could work out a strategy to disarm them and steal a pod.

  “I have managed to keep myself from being taking captive for almost a year, I think I can protect myself during a simple shower.”

  “Fine. I will go grab you a bar of soap and some towels. Then I will escort you to the showers myself on my way to the bridge. Don’t argue with me,” he said as Avi was about to protest. The cyborg walked over to a cabinet and took out two towels, a bar of soap and some spray. “This is for your clothes. We do not have any extra clothes that will fit you at the moment and I know that you have been sweating in these. At least this spray will mask the smell until we get you back on Zethron where you will be given clothes that fit you,” he said as he led her out of the room and into the hallway.

  This was the first time Avi had left her room since she had been brought here. The cyborg brought her into a long hallway and locked the door behind him. He put his hand out in a gesture which instructed her to stay back as he looked around to make sure that they were alone. This gave Avi ample time to observe her surroundings and to count the rooms in the hallway, on the way to the shower. There were four major doors that they passed and she needed to know what was behind every one.

  The cyborg stopped at the last door on the right and opened it. It led into a communal shower area, which was apparently empty. The cyborg walked around the room just to make sure.

  “You can clearly tell that no one is in here,” she barked. The cyborg glared at her.

  “I’m going to give you a code word. Do not talk to anyone unless they give you this code word first. Understood?”

  “This is crazy. I’m going to take my shower now,” Avi announced as she started to make her way towards a secluded shower in the back.

  “Dammit! Can you just trust my judgement in this?” the cyborg growled.

  Avi spun around and saw a flash of concern on his face, which was gone just as quickly as it appeared. The look shocked her because she had been taught that cyborgs didn’t have feelings, especially when it came to hum
ans and their well-being. But, she was sure of what she had seen and it intrigued her.

  “For the time being, yes,” she replied.

  “Good,” he said as he provided her with the safeword.

  Chapter 4

  Krug watched as Exonyie led the captive into the communal showers. He had known that his commander couldn’t push off his desires forever. He had to give it to him, this was a great tactic: get the captor naked, help her clean off and then have his way with her. Nobody would ever expect Exonyie to touch her, but Krug knew and when his commander walked out with her, he was going to catch him red handed and then tell the rest of the crew about it. His commander thought that he was above everyone else, but he was a cyborg, just like the rest of the men on the ship—with the same needs. Krug wanted to prove that to the rest of the men who seemed to worship Exonyie, like Astoroth and Zen.

  Krug braced himself against the door adjacent to the showers and waited. He figured that the commander would be in there for a while. However, the door opened within minutes of them entering and the commander walked out into the hall, alone. This meant that the captive was in there, also alone, and showering. Krug could just picture the warm water running off of her naked body and it almost put him into a panic. He could hardly contain himself; forget the other plan, now he could get want he really wanted. He could get this woman back for keeping him away from his home and his wife for almost a year. His wife was pregnant when he left Zethron, and she had gone into labor just a month after he had left. Unfortunately, both her and the baby had caught a disease in the communal hospital in which she had birthed the child, and they had both passed within hours. He never had a chance to meet his new baby girl or even say goodbye to his wife. Her parents buried her according to their family traditions and he didn’t get to be a part of any of that. All of this could have been averted if he had been home on time. This mission was originally supposed to go no longer than 30 days and Krug, with the rest of the men, had flown thousands of parsecs over almost a year to find this fugitive. All that exhausting loneliness and bereavement was all her fault and he was going to make her pay for it. Sexual intercourse between a cyborg and a human was forbidden on Zethron because of the amount of harm that can be induced upon a human during the act. But Krug wanted to make sure that the woman felt the full effect of what he could do. What did it matter? Who was going to care what happened to a murderer anyway?

  ***

  Avi let the warm water run over her face and into her mouth. It had been so long that she had fresh water, that she couldn’t get enough of it. The first day, she had gulped down every cup that the cyborg brought her, until she felt like she was going to burst. She picked up the bar of soap and smelled it. Yes, it was actual soap! It was interesting that a cyborg woud have soap that contained human ingredients. Did cyborgs even shower? That was a dumb question. He had handed her a bar of soap and the ship had a communal shower area, so they must actually shower. Avi couldn’t fathom that cyborgs needed to concern themselves with the most human-like of chores, such as taking a shower or maintaining standards of personal hygiene. It kind of shocked her, but there were quite a few things that shocked her recently, especially today. Her mother had taught her and her brother about the harsh reality that they lived in. One morning, her mother had brought both children to the breadhouse, but her mother only had enough money to feed two of them. When they were standing in line, there was an elderly man who didn’t have enough money for even a loaf of bread. When his ticket number was called, the man walked up to the counter and presented his coin. The cyborg behind the counter laughed in his face. The man begged for mercy, he had worked hard all day, but his supervisor only paid by the pound and the man physically couldn’t do anymore work. The cyborg yelled at him to leave and when he refused, they had another one toss him out on the ground. Avi and her brother both had been taught to respect their elders. Avi asked her mother if they could give her coin to the man so that he could eat. Her mercy was the only mercy that the man received that day.

  So when Exonyie had showed genuine concern for her welfare, she was astonished. He didn’t seem to be like any of the other cyborgs that she had come across in her life; he made sure that she ate, he gave her a real bed to sleep on and he protected her from those who would do her harm. No one, save for her mother and brother, had showed any concern for her welfare before and it touched her in a way that she never thought it would.

  As Avi was contemplating her next part of her escape plan, the door to the communal shower opened. Thinking that it was Exonyie, Avi opened the door and called out.

  “Did you forget something?”

  “Yes, I did,” came the reply from a cyborg that she had never seen before. Avi was so startled by the man’s presence that she slipped on the tiles and hit her head against the floor of the shower. Then there was only darkness.

  ***

  Exonyie found his way onto the bridge. He needed to get an update from Astoroth. He had no idea how far they were from home and he wanted to make sure that they were taking the fatest route possible, but also make certain that they wouldn’t come into contact with space pirates. He had been in one of these battles before and it was not pretty. He didn’t want to ever go through that again, if he could help it.

  “Tell me where we are, Astoroth.”

  “Captain, we are about 5 million light years away from Zethron.”

  Exonyie sighed. They were so far away from Zethron. It was going to take them at least a week, if not more, to get back to their planet.

  “There isn’t a faster route that we can take?” he asked tireledly.

  “Commander, I have checked every route that we could possibly utilize. This is the fastest and safest route back to Zethron.”

  “Carry on, Captain,” Exonyie said as he got up and checked on the rest of his crew. He decided that he would go and check on Zen and Krug at their posts. He wanted to keep their morale up for the voyage home, and he was especially concerned that they did not do anything foolish when hey were so close to the end.

  “Hey, Commander. What brings you down here?” Zen asked Exonyie as he walked into the emergency pod compartment of the ship.

  “I just wanted to check up on you and Krug, see how you two are doing. You must be tired.”

  “Thank you, but Astoroth already sent Burg and Navi to relieve us earlier. I ate and took a nap.” Exonyie looked around the room.

  “Where’s Krug?”

  “I don’t know. He should be back by now,” Zen informed the commander.

  “Back by now? Zen, where did he go?

  “He took a bathroom break about a half hour ago. I thought it was odd that he walked down the hall to use the bathroom, but I just thought that he wanted some privacy. When he didn’t come back I started wondering, but I can’t leave my post. I figured that he would wander back here eventually; it’s not the first time that he’s left his post for a given amount of time. He usually comes back though,” Zen explained.

  Suddenly, all Exonyie could think about was the safety of his prisoner and how he had left her in the shower alone and defenseless. She didn’t have the strength to defend herself against a cyborg of that caliber and he had been naïve enough to trust the integrity of his men. “Zen, I need you to call the bridge and let them know that Krug has gone AWOL and that he has left his post. Anyone who sees him, needs to seize him and throw him in the hold,” Exonyie commanded as he left Zen standing there, calling the bridge from his eyeswath.

  ***

  Krug stood over the wet, naked body of the unconscious woman, lying in the shower. Humans were so fickle and weak. Krug—or any cyborg for that matter—wouldn’t have blacked out over a simple head injury like that. This was one of the prime reasons that the cyborg race was obviously superior to humans. For one, cyborgs were a lot stronger than humans; their bodies could withstand more and their eyeswaths helped them communicate with their kind instantly across great distances of space. Humans were a weak race. Their bodies
were easily breakable, and they couldn’t even communicate with their kind without the use of technology.

  Krug felt his manhood harden as he stared down at the lifeless body below him. His hand reached out to touch her firm breast, but then shot back as he reminded himself that this was not the place to do what he wanted to do to her. Anyone could walk into the shower area and catch him in the act. He couldn’t compromise his job and his life just to fulfill his desires. No, he would take her back to his room and clean her up and then he would have her. Krug laughed out loud as he thought about the suffering and humilation that he would cause this woman. It would never make up for the pain and loss that the felt for his wife and daughter, but it was a start.

  He bent down over her wet body and picked her up in his arms. The woman weighed practically nothing and she felt like a doll in his hands, something that he could bend and break at his will. It made him feel powerful, and he liked that feeling. All of a sudden the door to the room burst open and Exonyie flew at him. Krug dropped the girl and ran towards the back door. He ran into the hallway and headed straight towards the emergency pods. He needed to get off this ship as fast as possible. When he got to the pod compartment he ran smack into Zen.

  “Hey man,” Zen began.

  “The commander’s looking for you. You’re in big trouble. You know that you’re not supposed to leave me here by myself,” Zen chastised his comrade.

  “Look. I’m sorry, but I need your help—I need to get out of here. You know how to drive one of these things right?” Krug asked him.

  “Oh, no. You’re not going to drag me into your plot. I know what you’re up to, and I’ve had enough of it. I’m not someone that you can push around!” Zen exclaimed.

  “Okay, Okay. I’ll do it myself. I don’t want to get you in trouble,” Krug muttered as he backed up towards the pod.