Unwrapping Miss Milky Way

by Candace Sams

  “I ought to put a hole in you right now.” he said in a low, menacing tone. “I swear…if anyone puts their hands on these women, I will find you. I don’t care if I have to crawl out of a grave. There won’t be a crevice in any part of the any hereafter where you can hide!”

  Caul actually bowed his head. “I-I’m not altogether proud of my actions, Captain. But a man does what he needs to, to protect his family. I have a wife and daughters waiting for me on Dagor Prime System. My oldest girl is about the age of this young woman standing by your side.” He slowly nodded. “I will honor your demand. For now, I have to bring you all back with me or I’ll be killed. But later, I’ll have these Ussarians behind me shoot Miss Galaxy and the girl. I’ll say they tried to escape when they believed they’d be raped, as they will be if I let them live. I’ll console Goron with the offer of added diamonds from my new mines. He’ll soon forget these females.”

  “Why would these mindless thugs honor your command to shoot quickly and clean?” Datron asked as he nodded toward the Ussarians standing beside Caul.

  “Thugs indeed!” Caul replied.

  The Ussarians in Caul’s company growled and jammed the muzzles of their weapons harder into Datron’s body.

  “Captain, in a fit of rage over some perceived slight, Goron had these men castrated. The act was particularly vicious. It was done in front of their comrades, and in such a way the damage cannot be medically reversed, even by the use of the latest nanotechnology. Suffice it to say, they have no love of their current commander, believe me!” Caul finished.

  The Ussarians uttered another low growl in confirmation.

  Datron realized the ambassador wasn’t as helpless or as stupid as assumed.

  Caul knew his days were numbered. The Ussarian admiral would have little use for a minor bureaucrat now that his part in the scheme was at an end. Using rare diamonds as bribes held no weight since owning the Lucent Stones could yield untold riches and power. In fact, Caul probably had a secondary plan to get out of this mess given the statement he’d just made, and the obvious loyalty of the four Ussarians in his company.

  “Please, put your weapons down,” Caul insisted. “As I’ve said, I cannot help you. But I can see to it your friends die quickly. And you will have saved hundreds of lives on those hospital ships. I have no reason to lie. Goron would have found you sooner or later and killed you at his discretion. I’m simply trying to end this confrontation as humanely as I can, given the circumstances.”

  Datron turned and gazed down into Charlie’s face. When she put her hand on the muzzle of his photon rifle and pushed it down, he held it out to the Ussarians.

  He had to assume there really might be hospital vessels out there and innocent passengers could be at risk. This last-ditch effort to fight had only been a prolonging tactic. They were still outgunned. If any part of what Caul said was true, this would be a better way for his crew to die.

  He gritted his teeth while the brutes took away their last means of defense, and gathered rope from the back of the hovercraft to bind them again. “Why did you stow away, Charlie? I’m responsible for the failure of this mission. That means I’ve sacrificed my crew. But you…you could have been safe, back on Oceanus.”

  She smiled up at him then softly let her secret go. “You don’t understand. I wanted to be a member of the crew. I wanted to be with the man I love. Besides, you can’t be held responsible for anyone’s death. I assume the others made the choice to be here just like I did. In my case… I’m sick. I’m dying anyway. There is no safe place for me.”

  She turned away and joined the others. Datron stood there, stunned into silence.

  ****

  All the way back to the Hyperion, Charlie kept her gaze elsewhere. She felt Datron staring a hole through her but there was nothing left to say. Certainly now wasn’t the time for longer explanations since any emotional information might be used by the Ussarians. Datron’s concern for his crew was something on which Goron counted. How much worse would it be if the Ussarian leader knew his enemy’s lover was now under his control?

  She did manage a brief glimpse at Electra, Clitus, and Gilla. All of them were gazing at her too—as if she’d just let one horrific cat out of a bag. Their faces displayed a blending of pity, and censure. That was when she realized Electra probably wasn’t the only person who’d gotten a hold of her medical information during that damned background check. Of course, if the contract had been a normal check of an interplanetary shuttle, like those she’d worked on before, no such check would have ever been necessary. No one working on such craft with her would have been privy to her medical history. But she hadn’t known about the mission and they probably hadn’t known she was so ill when Datron contracted her.

  It was all a moot point. It seemed Datron had been kept in the dark about her illness. Her bluntness now, was like pouring salt into an open wound. Hence the feeling of his dark penetrating eyes piercing her body.

  No matter how she tried, she simply couldn’t look at him. She could have gone to her grave quickly, with him and the others joining her. Datron needn’t have ever known. But her point in revealing her secret was to rid him of remorse on her behalf. Instead, her remark had only added to his misery and sense of failure. His shock, so palpable, hung in the air like fog.

  Electra’s hands, like everyone else’s, had been tied in front of her body. And when the older woman put both her palms on Datron’s knee, Charlie saw his palms cover the other woman’s. A signal of support. Even now, at what was surely the end of their lives, the doomed crew of the Hyperion remained close.

  Better that she died quickly. She wasn’t sure she could endure torture. But it’d be far worse to see the others tortured and be forced to witness. That was why Datron had fought so hard. The man was probably thinking now he’d have to watch her being raped, despite Caul’s promise. Part of her wished she’d kept her big mouth shut concerning her impending death, but at least she’d go to her grave with a free conscience. And he’d go to his knowing the full truth. And truth, as she’d been taught, was always right.

  ****

  As soon the hovercraft landed, Goron addressed Datron as they were being unloaded from it.

  “You may assume your challenge fight is over and thus the protection afforded your friends,” he growled. Then he jerked his head in the new captive’s direction. He pushed Datron aside to get to her. “Who, by Crakon’s balls, is this?”

  Charlie simply stared up at him. She felt no fear or repulsion, just a sense of life gone wrong—life wasted in the form of this Ussarian and his compatriots.

  “Leave her alone,” Datron warned. “Just shoot us and have done with it. You blundering, knuckle-dragging failure of evolution!”

  Goron took the time to hit Datron hard in the face. As a result, Datron spat out blood and tried to charge his nemesis, but the guards held him back by his bindings.

  Charlie stepped forward knowing Datron would keep insulting the oaf if it took Goron’s attention off her and the others.

  “My name is…Ima,” she coyly offered.

  Charlie finally dared a quick glance in Datron’s direction. He glared at her. She had another plan and meant to act on it after asking herself what was the worst that could happen.

  “That does not sound like an Earth name. And you look like an Earther,” Goron groused as his gaze wandered over her. Then he lunged for her and picked her up by the collar of her gray jumpsuit. “Tell me the truth, woman. Who are you and how did your presence go undetected?”

  “I told you,” she replied while struggling to get out of Goron’s hold. “My name is Ima… Ima Bitch!”

  Though her hands were tied, and Goron held her facing him like a dangling puppy, she shot her left, booted foot forward and kicked him squarely in the groin.

  Goron promptly dropped her and backed away—yowling. His hands protected his crotch.

  She scrambled up from the red sand. Gilla, Clitus, and Electra were laughing hysterically. Charli
e tried to suppress her own mirth.

  If a smile and a minor strike back at the enemy was the last thing she could render, then she was blessed. But when she glanced at Datron he once again glared at her as if she’d just committed a mortal sin.

  “Stop looking at me like that!” she muttered. “He’s gonna kill me anyway.”

  Still cupping his wounded jewels in one palm, Goron launched himself toward her with his free hand outstretched. She lunged backward when it became apparent the Ussarian leader wanted to break her neck. But two tied, massive fists caught him fully in the face—sending him flying some distance away, landing on his butt in the grime.

  “I’ll kill you if you touch her again!” Datron promised as he pulled the remainder of dangling ropes from his bleeding wrists.

  Charlie, like everyone else, was amazed to see the Ussarians back away.

  The warning hadn’t been yelled. Datron hadn’t even raised his voice. In fact, the words had been quietly spoken but with an undercurrent of pure, raw energy. There was heat in the winged man’s eyes that could only be ignored if one truly didn’t value their life. The uttered threat even had Goron hesitating. Everyone became quiet and still.

  Goron picked himself up, out of the sand, and let his gaze slide from the captives’ faces to those of his men, and finally to Ambassador Caul.

  Charlie assumed Goron felt the shame of humiliation yet again and strived to get control back in his own hands.

  He lifted one beefy hand and pointed at her. “How did you go undetected?” he demanded once more.

  “I stowed away on the Hyperion. I hid in the air ducts because there’re no sensors there.” She paused to lick her dry lips and only barely glance at Datron. “Uh… I was also able to alter the ship’s bio scanner. My presence went undetected. That’s why Captain Mann and his crew didn’t know anything about me. And…” she let her voice trail away.

  “And?” Goron angrily prompted.

  “I’m the one who blew up Caul’s ship.”

  “You blew up Caul’s transport? You?” Goron asked in disbelief as he looked her up and down.

  She’d seen that look before. People discounted her because of her size if not her sex.

  “The ambassador’s vessel is fueled by Iryndium. Neither it nor its fumes are flammable unless mixed with sufficient oxygen and then exposed to a flame.”

  “What flame?” Goron demanded.

  Charlie shrugged. “I opened the fuel valve letting the fumes filter into the cabin. Then I turned up the percentage of oxygen and lit an emergency flare I found in an old tool chest.” She kept talking for as long as she could. “All I had to do was calculate the time it would take the enhanced oxygen and Iryndium mix to fill the cabin. I think I guessed pretty well,” she finished.

  Goron quizzically tilted his head. “You are a chemist, then?”

  “No. I was hired to fix some components on the Hyperion. I-I stowed away because she’s considered an antique, and I wanted to ride in an old interstellar transport. But I couldn’t get clearance. I thought it would be a simple matter of hiding in the air duct for a test flight.” She lifted one shoulder in pretended consternation. “My bad.”

  “If you are not working as an enforcer, then why destroy Caul’s ship?” Goron insisted.

  “I was under the assumption it was now your ship,” Charlie responded as if she was talking to an idiot. “And I was trying to get these enforcers free by using the explosion as a diversion.”

  Goron glared at her. “Then you are an enforcer—”

  “No…I’m not. I just fix stuff. Now I’m a criminal for stowing away. Captain Mann has already said so.”

  Goron tilted his head and blinked several times. “If you are not an enforcer, and you know that Mann would have you arrested for stowing away, why did you try to aid him and his crew?”

  “Because he wasn’t going to rape me like you will. Helping him seemed the better choice,” she claimed, hoping he’d buy her self-serving defense.

  He glanced at the captives behind Charlie then considered her for a long moment. “Your friends look as though they want you to shut your little mouth, stowaway. They appear to be angry with you.”

  She chanced a glance backward and shrugged. “‘Course they are. I’m not a member of their crew. I don’t particularly want to die with ’em. Between that Valkyrian arresting me and you and your men probably raping me, I’m in one hell of a fix! And all I wanted was a quick pleasure trip around Oceanus’ orbit. How the hell did I know I’d end up here?”

  Goron walked slowly in a complete circle around her.

  She stayed absolutely still.

  “Either you are an exceptionally good liar, little fixer. Or you will do whatever it takes to survive.” He moved closer. “Why did the Valkyrian threaten me when I touched you?”

  “You know Valkyrians,” she said as she rolled her eyes. “They think they’re God’s gift to women. He’s throwing out his chest and acting like my protector when he means to lock me up for the next three years.” She snorted. “With a protector like that, who needs enemies?”

  Goron narrowed his eyes. “I do not know your game, woman. But you are resourceful. I think, perhaps, you would be useful to me. It would be folly to let such skills as you have exhibited go to waste. You are both intelligent and attractive. Ussarian woman are neither.”

  “Resourcefulness is how I got here,” Charlie quipped as she saucily tilted her head to one side.

  Goron actually smiled. Then he turned to his men.

  “Rayos, bring me one of the stones.” He glanced at Charlie then stooped to stare into her eyes. “Because it will amuse me, find a bluish-green gem to match her eyes.”

  Charlie pasted on a clueless look and said nothing as he continued to stare at her. When he lifted a long strand of her hair that had long since come loose from her bun, it took everything she had not to kick him in the nuts again.

  She was trying to buy a little time. What she’d do with it she hadn’t a clue but it was better to divert Goron than have him order everyone tortured or killed.

  “Come. Walk with me. We will talk, little destroyer of ships.”

  She didn’t dare glance at her friends. As long as she held Goron’s attention, she had to pretend to be mesmerized.

  Her question as to how to use the Lucent Stones would soon be answered. There was no doubt in her mind she’d be exposed to one very soon.

  ****

  Datron watched them walk away, as silently stupefied and as awed as his crew. Somehow, Charlie had turned the situation to her advantage—at least until Goron used one of the stones on her.

  He knew what was coming and struggled with the new length of rope now restraining his arms and hands. Electra, Clitus, and Gilla were doing the same, but a calm voice stilled their mutual efforts.

  “For the second time this night, the woman has given you and your crew time,” Caul said. “Goron finds her an interesting enigma. That means she’ll live long enough to secure a place on his vessel and in his bed. I’ll do what I can for your friends, Captain. But you must not undermine the girl’s efforts by trying to escape again. Remember, your fate is sealed. Your crews’ quick end might still be negotiated if the girl pleases him.”

  “You promised to see her killed quickly,” Datron growled.

  “She’s made her choice,” Caul defended. “See to it you don’t waste her efforts.”

  Datron stood there while Caul and his four henchmen walked away. He trained his gaze on Charlie’s figure as she disappeared into the Chiron night. Bonfires still illuminated the area, but if she walked too far away and he couldn’t see her, he knew he’d go insane.

  “Watch and wait,” Electra mollified after Goron’s minions pushed them toward their original restraining posts and tied them again. “I hate to agree with Caul on anything, but however she’s done it, Charlie has bought us time. We’re still outnumbered, and unfortunately, we didn’t kill any of our captors. I personally blame the damned dust, sinc
e I count myself an excellent shot. At any rate, that we’re not dead yet is a major miracle.”

  “She’s with him,” Datron gasped as raw anxiety began to claim his sense.

  “But she’s alive. Keep the faith,” Electra advised. “Charlie has some type of powerful force on her side. Goron may be much larger and stronger, but if he tries to match wits with that girl, he’ll find himself outclassed.”

  Long after being tied to the same post where he originally began this nightmare, all Datron could think about was her. Nothing else mattered but Charlie. However long she had, however long the Creator of all things meant for them to exist, he wanted to spend every moment with her.

  His heart sank when Rayos approached the two distant figures barely visible in the haze of the red Chiron night.

  If the stone Rayos fetched was used, he’d see her dead himself. She wouldn’t want to be an Ussarian’s slave. And the thought of actually having to destroy his beloved little meteor finally broke him. He lowered his head to hide tears of utter grief and frustration. He’d failed in every way—the mission, his crew, his king, and now his beloved.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Charlie watched as a subordinate handed a blue-green gemstone to Goron.

  She remained silent until she and the Ussarian leader were alone again, knowing her friends must be watching from a distance and wondering what she was up to.

  So far, she’d only listened to Goron speak in glowing terms about himself. Why he bothered trying to impress her made no sense as she’d be under his control soon. But the fool talked and she listened as if every syllable was important. All the while, she ran escape plots through her mind. Most of these embraced the scenario of putting a rock over Goron’s round head.

  Perhaps she could use his vanity, greed and suspicion as a weapon. It could be one last chance to save her friends if not herself.

  Goron held the lovely stone up, considered its shimmer, and then presented it to Charlie.

  She swallowed hard and tried not to stare at approximately ten carats of stone in his palm.

  “I believe Rayos chose well. This gem does match the color of your eyes.”