by Henry Vogel
Tossing the pants aside, the man leered. “See, Hopkins, I told you she was a natural blonde.”
Lilla kicked at the man before her, drawing a laugh from him and Hopkins. As the bastard dropped his own pants, I shot him in the back. The man arched his back and fell to the floor and Lilla and Hopkins looked my way. Hopkins’ eyes bugged out at the sight of me. Lilla, bless her, stomped hard on Hopkins’ foot.
Hopkins bellowed in pain and his grip loosened on Lilla. Instantly, she slid through his arms to the floor. Hopkins had just enough time to raise one hand in supplication before I blew a big hole through his head.
I barely registered the sound of the door closing itself behind me as I ran to Lilla. She sat on the floor, hugging herself and crying with deep, wracking sobs. I dropped to my knees and gathered her into my arms, stroking her hair as she released all of her terror. After a few minutes, she settled down enough for me to help her get dressed again. Not once did she look at the two dead men behind her.
“I prayed you’d come, Nancy, and you did!” Lilla flashed a brief smile at me before hugging me again. “Maybe the Captain really does watch over us.”
“I’m just glad I got here in time, honey.” I held her out at arm’s length and looked her over. “Are you hurt?”
“Not on the outside.” She gave me another quick smile. “And not on the inside so much. Not since you came.”
“I wish I could just sit here and comfort you until you didn’t hurt anywhere, Lilla, but I can’t do that.”
“I know Nancy. Just tell me what to do. I’ll be okay.”
“That’s my brave girl.” Still keeping an arm around her shoulder, I surveyed the room. “I need to get some more data pads and wristbands. Then we need to do something with these two bodies.”
Lilla shuddered at that. “Why can’t we just leave them here?”
“We could, but if we can get rid of the bodies it might put a little of the fear of God into Smith and his men.”
“Fear of who?”
“God. For right now, just think of Him as my Captain.”
I climbed over piled junk to reach the cabinets which held the data pads and wristbands. As before, I found rows of charged data pads and a box full of wristbands. Previously, I found and took two gold wristbands from the box. Now, I grabbed all of the colors I could find and, hoping to find more gold wristbands, checked the two cabinets I’d left alone the time before.
The first cabinet had some more wristbands, all red, and a lot of miscellaneous electronic and mechanical parts. The second cabinet held first aid kits and, hidden behind a pile of parts on the bottom shelf, a laser pistol, and a dozen power packs—all fully charged. Added to the two blasters the dead men had carried, Lilla and I were going to be very heavily armed.
I climbed back over the junk around the cabinet. The girl was staring at the bodies as if psyching herself up to help me drag them out of the office.
“Lilla, is there a float pallet nearby? If there is, I can take care of the bodies by myself.”
“What?” She shook herself and forced her gaze away from the corpses. “Um, yeah. I think I can get one for you.”
“Will you be okay going off on your own to get it?” I caught Lilla’s gaze in mine. “I’ll be happy to go with you if that’s what you want.”
“No, I’ll be fine, Nancy. Besides, it’s about time for shift change so there won’t be anyone around to ask me questions.”
I handed Lilla one of the blasters. “This has better stopping power than your laser. If any of Smith’s men come toward you, shoot them.”
She nodded and slipped out the door. I busied myself dragging the bodies out of the office. I decided to give Lilla another minute before I went looking for her. Right after I made that decision, she came into view pushing a float pallet.
Despite my insistence that I could manage, Lilla helped me load the dead men onto the pallet. “Is anyone working the floor right now, Lilla?”
“Nope. It’s shift change, like I thought.”
“What about robots?”
“They escort the workers back to the dormitory and then bring the new shift in.”
“Then I know exactly what to do with these bodies.”
Two minutes later, Lilla and I hefted the dead men onto the conveyor belt. Within seconds, both corpses tumbled into the smelter.
“Now what?” Lilla asked.
“Now we both get some sleep and wait for Sko to return. Follow me.”
I led Lilla out of D Section and back to the robot recharging room. Not willing to take the chance of letting Sko slip past me, I laid down right in front of the elevator door. Seconds later, I was sound asleep.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Nomads
I gradually became aware of something moving next to me, as well as the murmur of voices. I lay on my left side with my head cradled in the crook of my arm. Someone was nestled up to me and my right arm was flung over a slender form. I cracked one eye open and found myself looking at the top of a head full of blonde hair. I almost gave into the temptation to close my eye and drift off again, but I heard the voice murmur again and forced myself to wake up.
“Lilla? Who are you talking to?”
“Hm?” she responded, something obviously distracting her attention.
I knocked playfully on the girl’s head. “Ship to Lilla. Come in Lilla.”
“Oh, Nancy, you’re awake. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to crowd you.” Lilla stiffened and tried to roll away from me, but I tightened my arm and held her in place.
“You’re not crowding me, Lilla, though I’m pretty sure you weren’t snuggled up this close when I fell asleep.”
“I felt…That is, I…” The girl trailed off, unsure of what to say.
“Were you scared or lonely or just cold?”
“Yes,” she answered in a small voice. “I know I’m too old for that, but-”
“Stop right there, young lady. You can never be too old to draw comfort from another person.” I gave her a little squeeze. “Are you feeling better or do you want to stay where you are for a bit longer?”
I felt the girl’s body relax. “I want to stay here for a little longer. I feel safe next to you.”
“That’s fine.” I propped my head up on my hand. “You know, when I woke up I could have sworn I heard you talking to someone.”
“That was me asking one of those data pad things to show me maps of the ship.”
“What?” Lilla jumped in my arm, obviously startled by my exclamation. “Shhh. Relax, Lilla. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
The girl settled a bit though remained tense. “You’re not mad at me?”
“Are you kidding? I’m thrilled. I want you to show me how you got the pad to work by voice command.”
“Well, I woke up a while ago. I knew you needed your sleep, so I stayed still and quiet so I wouldn’t wake you up. But that got boring, so I started playing around with one of the data pads. You know, it all starts to make sense once you play around with it for a while.”
Even without a technological background, Lilla was no different than kids across the galaxy. Hand them an interesting gadget, show them just enough to get them started using it, and the next thing you know they’ve figured out how to do things the gadget’s designers didn’t even know the gadget could do. At my request, she taught me everything she’d figured out—which was a lot.
Eventually, I could call up the ship’s maps without going through the work order screen and learned how to enable voice commands. Feeling my excitement building, I held the pad before me and said, “Display the bridge.”
The screen blinked and a new map displayed, with a highlighted area that had to be the Ark 2’s command center. Now for the big test. “Display the route from my location to the bridge.”
The map automatically zoomed out and out and out, eventually overlaying a green line connecting what must be our location with the bridge.
“That looks like a long way, Nancy,” Li
lla said, looking at the map with me.
“Yeah, it sure does.” It was time to try a new command. “Display the total distance of the route from my location to the bridge.”
Even when I was prepared for the answer, I gasped when it appeared.
Lilla looked at me with concern and asked, “Is fifty-three, uh, what’s the word?”
“Kilometers.”
“Is fifty-three kilometers a long way?”
I nodded. “It’s more than half the length of the ship. God only knows what Arktu can throw at us along such a long journey.”
“But we’re going to go there and…do whatever it is you do to stop Arktu, right?”
“Absolutely, Lilla, though I can’t go until Sko gets back.”
“Of course not!” Lilla appeared shocked I even felt the need to say that. “I can go, too, right? I don’t want to stay in D Section.”
“I’ll tell you what, if I can’t find a way to get you to Sko’s village then you can come with us. How’s that sound?”
“Okay, I guess.”
Any reply I had fled from my mind as I heard the elevator machinery come to life. Lilla, who’d never heard the sound before, spun and looked at the closed elevator door in alarm.
“That’s just the machine that took Sko up to the inner ship, Lilla. It probably means Sko is on his way back down here now.”
The girl visibly relaxed and grinned. “Are you going to give him a big kiss?”
“We’ll see what happens when Sko gets down here.” I shook my head in mock disapproval at the question. “Meanwhile, let’s play it safe and get out of sight until we’re sure it really is Sko in the elevator.”
Remembering where Sko and I hid when we first came down here, I led Lilla to the same robot. After I assured her the robot couldn’t move even if it wanted to, we slid around the edge of the robot and took up a position on the robot’s treads.
Five minutes later, the elevator ground to a halt. Light spilled into the room as the doors slid open. Along with the light came the sound of hushed conversations. Then three men, all armed with bows, stepped out of the elevator. Once they gave the ‘all clear’ signal, more men piled out of the elevator. Soon, a good twenty of them milled about in the room—and none of them were Sko.
Lilla tapped my shoulder as I stared at the men who’d come in the elevator. Turning to her, I met a wide-eyed, concerned stare barely visible in the dim light.
With exaggerated care, she mouthed, “Where’s Sko?”
I shrugged, put a finger to my lips, and turned back to watching the men. They kept a nervous eye on all the robots surrounding them, no doubt remembering run-ins they’d had with culling patrols. The men couldn’t know I’d reversed the robot charging mechanism and discharged the robots’ batteries, though I found myself wishing they did. Too many eyes were roaming the robot alcoves for me to feel comfortable about our hiding place.
“The villager said the door was across from the moving room,” the obvious leader announced. “Quit milling around like a gaggle of women and check it out.”
With reluctance, the men tore their eyes from the robots and headed for the door. The leader tapped something on the touchpad and the door slid open. In the light from the hallway, I recognized a red wristband—the same color as the one I’d given Sko. The sight swept away any doubt I’d had as to the identity of the ‘villager’ the leader mentioned.
The leader signaled the men through the door, but another man spoke up first. “Marn, should we leave a guard?”
Marn, the leader, paused and looked back at the elevator, considering the question. I bent all of my non-existent mental powers toward convincing Marn that no guard was required.
After a few interminable heartbeats, Marn shook his head. “No, the moving room isn’t going anywhere and we’ll need every man to take back our children.”
Quietly sighing with relief, I watched the last of the men exit the room. Seconds later, the door slid quietly shut.
“Who were those men, Nancy?” Lilla asked. “I don’t think they’re part of Sko’s village.”
“Nomads. Sko and I found a tribe of them outside the elevator the first time we tried to return to the village.” I motioned for Lilla to follow me out of our hiding place. “I didn’t think they’d wait this long, otherwise I’d never have sent Sko and the other kids to the village.”
“D-do you think they killed Sko?”
Lilla’s lip trembled as she asked the question. I gave her shoulder a squeeze. “I don’t know, Lilla.” God, I pray not. I led her into the elevator. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Lilla followed me without hesitation, though not without thought. “Will we find more nomads when we get off the elevator?”
I patted my blaster as I keyed the elevator to ascend. “If we do, I’m ready for them.”
Patting her own blaster, Lilla flashed a predatory smile. “You and me both, Nancy.”
The ride up only took a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, the elevator slowed. Drawing our blasters, Lilla and I took up positions next to the door. I put myself in the most direct line of fire, with Lilla to the side where she’d only be revealed after the door opened a few feet.
The elevator stopped and the door slid open with a quiet hiss. The smells of nature wafted in on the breeze as I blinked into bright, mid-afternoon simulated sunlight. I didn’t see a single person, but Lilla waved for my attention and pointed out and to the left. I leaned out of the elevator and looked where she was pointing.
A young man, probably no older than Lilla, faced the rocks not more than four meters away. His pants were loose around his waist and I heard the unmistakable sound of water splashing against rock. I motioned for Lilla to follow me, noting her thus-far successful attempts to smother a case of the giggles.
The stream of water cut off abruptly when I placed the blaster against the back of the boy’s neck. “Put your hands up, son.”
He did as instructed and, without a hand holding them up, his pants dropped down around his ankles. That was too much for Lilla, who burst into a fit of giggles. The boy looked over his shoulder, his face reddening.
“Behave,” I admonished Lilla. To the boy, I added, “Pull up your pants, son.”
While the boy covered himself, I looked over my shoulder. “Lilla, take a quick look around and see if you can find evidence of a camp. Stay in clear sight of me, though, and come right back to me if you see anything.”
Lilla nodded and set off to do my bidding. By then, the boy was done with his pants and gauging the distance to his bow.
“Don’t even think of going for the bow. I don’t want to shoot you, but I will if I have to.” The boy showed uncommonly good sense and stopped eying his weapon. “What’s your name?”
“Raal.”
“My name is Nancy and the giggle box is Lilla. Believe me when I say I really don’t want to hurt you. I just want to find my friend and move on out of here.”
“Is your friend a big villager?”
“Yes. Is he okay? Where can I find him?”
About then, Lilla dashed back to me. “I found Sko. He’s tied to a tree over that way.”
“Were there any other guards?” I asked, unable to hide my relief.
“There’s a bunch of women, some old men, and boys even younger than this guy,” Lilla jerked a thumb at Raal.
“Good job, Lilla.” Motioning to the boy, I said, “Lead the way, Raal. And don’t shout or think about running away. I can blow your leg off with this weapon before you get three feet.”
“I know. Marn tested one after we took it off of the villager. It knocked down the tree Marn shot at.”
I nodded for the boy to start walking and he did, keeping his hands up. “Lilla, get his bow.”
A moment later, we walked into the nomad camp and, when they spotted us, brought everything to a standstill. Sko smiled happily, especially when I sent Lilla over to cut him free. Meanwhile, an older woman stalked up to Raal and
slapped him soundly on the face.
“Stupid boy! You let a woman capture you?”
“She’s got one of those blast things like the villager had,” Raal told her. “And she came out of the door in the rock. It didn’t make any sound and Marn told me not to worry about watching it since he’d be in control wherever they went.”
I snorted a harsh laugh at that. I couldn’t help myself.
The woman turned her glare on me. “What do you find so funny, village bitch?”
“My, aren’t you the charming one?” Being somewhat of a professional in the glaring business, I glared at the woman the way I glared at fresh recruits. “What I find funny is the idea that Marn and his men are going to be in control of anything down there. If you’re very lucky, they’ll quickly figure out they can’t control anything down there and run back up here with their tails between their legs. If you’re not so lucky, they’re already dead.”
A fluttering of talk burst out behind the woman. She spun and turned her glare on the others in the camp. “What makes you think this villager knows anything? Shut up and trust Marn to get our children and bring them and our men back to us—just like he always does.”
I joined Lilla and Sko at the edge of the camp. “I honestly hope Marn does that because no child deserves to be down there. Meanwhile, I’ve got business of my own to attend to. Don’t try following us. My friend knows this area and we’ve all got the blasting weapons.”
With that, Sko, Lilla, and I turned and headed into the woods.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lilla Is a Very Smart Girl
“I didn’t see the children we saved from the acid bath anywhere in the camp, Sko.” I tried to sound calm as I broached the subject, but I didn’t even fool myself. “Did you get them safely to your village?”
“Yes, my Captain.” Sko’s large hand enveloped mine as we walked. “The nomads caught me on my way back.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s one thing less to worry about, though now I’ve got to put Marn and his nomad warriors on my worry list in place of those kids.”
“Why are you worried about him?” Lilla asked.