The Space Merchants

by Wendie Nordgren

  "Chirp." I sat. Thunderdrop stood on his eight legs in front of me on the floor. He lifted one of his legs and moved it like a kick, while he moved forward and back on his other seven legs. Then, he lifted both of his front legs and moved forward and back with his other six and from side to side. I clenched my lips between my teeth so as not to laugh. I forced a serious expression onto my face.

  "I see. You learned to fight last night, right, baby?"

  "Chirp! Chirp!"

  "I am very impressed with you, Thunderdrop! You are such a smart boy. Do you want to show Yukihyo, Phillip, and Hiroshi how you can fight tonight?"

  "Chirp!"

  "They are going to be very proud of you, too. May I have a hug from my sweet boy?" Thunderdrop crawled up my chest and wrapped himself around my throat to give me his spider hug. I ran my fingers down what I considered his back. "I love you, too."

  The next morning after breakfast, Hiroshi and Yukihyo left to take deliveries out to another one of the mines. Tora had been refueled under Phillip's supervision.

  "I'm gonna go out and see how things are going at the doctors' office. Be back later," Phillip said.

  "Okay, bye." Thunderdrop followed me to each of our quarters as I cleaned the bathrooms. Afterwards, we were going to watch a movie, when my vid-screen started beeping. I tapped it. It was Phillip.

  "Hey, let's have lunch at the restaurant by the hotel!" Then, he blinked out.

  "Thanks for waiting on my answer." I changed into soft grey pants, a long-sleeved blue top, my boots, and my blaster.

  Thunderdrop and I closed Tora on our way out. We parked in front of the restaurant and went inside. I didn't see Phillip.

  "I guess we should just wait for him," I told Thunderdrop. Other than a couple of men at other tables and the waiter, the place was empty.

  "Are you ready to order ma'am?" the waiter asked.

  "No, thank you. I'm waiting for Phillip. May I have some tea, though?"

  He smiled, "I will return in a moment." A man got up from his seat. Before the waiter made it to the kitchen, the man hit the waiter over the head with a short solid pipe. The waiter went down. I jumped up with my hand going for my blaster and my heart racing.

  "Chitter chitter chitter hiss!" A net went over Thunderdrop. I turned, ready to fire. I squeezed the trigger and stunned the man who had thrown the net enough to drop him, but before I could aim again, another man pushed my arm up and knocked my blaster out of my hand. One of the men grabbed the net trapping Thunderdrop and dropped it in a crate. I kicked and screamed, but a man had grabbed me from behind. I threw my head back, but it bounced off of his chest. I felt a sharp sting in my arm and heard Thunderdrop hissing and chittering to get out of the crate. The room began to blur, and I started to fall. A man threw me over his shoulder, and stepped over the waiter. Blood grew into a large puddle around the waiter's head. Unable to move I watched the floor as the man walked through the kitchen. I could see my hands hanging down toward the floor, but I couldn't move them. As footsteps sounded on the floor, everything went black.

  Slowly, I began to return to consciousness. Hard cold ground bit into my right side. My head pounded in time with my pulse. Knives stabbed from inside of my skull through my eyes. My throat was dry. I didn't hear a sound. I opened my eyes and saw nothing. Fear washed over me. Was I blind? I tried to sit up, but my hands were bound in front of me. I tried to force them apart and discovered my wrists were tied.

  "You've got to be kidding me. Am I gonna get attacked on Scipio next?" I rasped. I pushed my elbows into the ground and managed to sit up. My head spun with the effort. A blanket pulled under me as I shifted my weight. I could feel it under my feet. My feet were cold and bare. My ankles were also bound. I felt the bindings on my ankles. It felt like some kind of thin metal wire. My captures had looped it around my ankles several times. My head had finally stopped spinning. I stared out at the darkness. I started scooting back using my feet and my butt. My lower back came up against a wall. Turning to the side, I touched it with my bound hands. My fingers felt smoothed out rock. I wasn't on a ship.

  "I must be underground. The miners hid me somewhere." I lifted my wrists to my face. I couldn't tell if I still wore my chip and identification bracelet through all of the wire. With it still on, Yukihyo could track me. Thunderdrop had been caught like some animal. Fury replaced any fear that had begun to take hold of me. I felt ashamed of myself for not protecting him. The little guy depended on me. Had the miners hurt him? I remembered the waiter and the pool of blood spreading out from his head. I had to get out of here and get help. Had Phillip shown up? Was he helping the waiter and freeing Thunderdrop? I needed a plan. I needed to get free.

  I twisted so that I could feel around the wire binding my ankles. Eventually, I felt where it had been secured. I began trying to work it open with my fingers. The end was sharp, and I was cutting my fingers. I felt around under me and found a hard object under the blanket. I moved the blanket aside and found a thin flat rock chip. I used it to work open the end of the wire. The wire separated by a tiny fraction, but enough to give me hope. I kept at it. The end finally pulled free, and I began pulling the wire from around my ankles. I freed my legs. Circulation in my feet improved.

  Now, how did I free my hands? I lifted my toes and pressed my heels into the ground. I put my bound wrists out and used my toes to feel where the wire had been tied. I turned a bit and put my wrists in between my feet. I used my feet and twisted the bindings so the tied part was pointing away from me. I got on my knees and faced the wall. The wall wasn't completely smooth. I felt around with the sides of my pinky fingers and found a rock sticking out enough to be useful. I used it to separate the wires. Over and over I scratched the wires against the rock. My hands and wrists stung feeling scratched and raw. It loosened a bit. I moved my hands, so that I could push against the rock from the other side. The wire released. I couldn't unwind it all, but I slid my wrists back and forth enough to be able to pull one of my hands free. I tore the coil of wire off of my wrist.

  My bracelet was pushed as far up my wrist as it would go and under my sleeve. They hadn't seen it. I pulled it down and shook out my hand. Thinking better of it, I picked the wire coils back up. I uncoiled one and looped it around my waist. I looped the other one around my hand. I stepped off of the blanket and threw it over my arm. I put my hands on the wall and followed it around the room to a corner. Carefully, I felt my way along it and came to another corner. On the next wall, I felt a door. Moving my hands all around its edges, I found a panel next to it. Running my fingers over it, I found a button and pushed it. The door slid open. I peeked out, but saw only more darkness and heard nothing. I stepped out of the room and into what I thought must be a tunnel. The barest hint of light came from my left. With my hand on the wall, I crept forward. The rocks under my feet caused me to wince.

  I stepped to the other side of the tunnel and peeked out again. A few dim emergency lights lit a cavernous space. Ledges formed of hewn rock lined the walls. It looked like the miners had gotten everything they wanted from the area and had moved on. A metal platform in the distance caught my attention. I tip-toed over to it, trying to avoid the rocks. Some of the metal under the platform looked sharp. Crouching down under it, I touched a corner of it. I used it to tear the blanket into strips. After I finished I sat under the platform, wrapping and tying the strips around my feet. Not only would the blanket protect my feet from the rocks, but it would also keep the miners from tracking my bloody foot prints. They had been stupid to leave the blanket. I opened up the wire in my hand and looped it around both of my hands, leaving a long bit of wire between. I crept forward close and low to the wall. It was a long silent walk to the end of the cavern. I made the only noise. My throat burned with thirst. Nervously, I approached the exit. My heart pounded in my chest.

  I cautiously looked around the edge and out into another vast cavern sparsely lit with the same emergency lights.

  "I guess they don't want to waste power
down here," I thought. The lights barely illuminated the spaces around them, leaving most of the vast space in the same darkness as that which I now left. I continued moving slowly forward. No sound reached my ears. Where underground was I? My leg muscles told me that I had walked more than two miles. My feet begged me to stop, but my determination to save Thunderdrop drove me forward. I kept to the wall and the shadows, moving as fast as I could manage. The occasional sharp stone jabbed through the scraps of blanket binding my feet. The still emptiness and lack of sound had begun to give me the creeps. At the exit of this cavern, right outside was a huge metal beam, piercing the ground both below and above my head. It was huge, and spreading my arms wide didn't cover even half of one of its sides. Corridors stretched off in two directions. They were wide enough for a large land transport to pass through with room on the sides. I walked around the metal beam. No lift was inside, but an emergency ladder led up to a small platform and then seemed to continue. I looped the second wire around my waist with the other one. I began climbing the rungs. The blood on my wrists had dried and begun to itch. I made it up to the platform and knelt on it to rest. After I caught my breath, I tried to look up to see how far it was, but it was too dark. I coughed, so thirsty. I resumed the climb, and at the next platform there was an exit, but it led away into wide tunnels like the one I had just left. My arms ached. I heard a noise and froze. From somewhere above, the lift moved. I could feel the vibration through the rungs in the ladder. I hurried back down to the platform I had just left and the exit. With my heart racing, I made it out into the vacant corridor before it came close enough for anyone to see me. Who but my captures would be coming all the way down here? If they caught me again, I wouldn't get another chance to escape. The miners must be coming back for me. After the lift had passed, I hurried back onto the ladder and climbed as quickly as I could. It would take them some time to make it through the caverns and back to the room where I had been tied. One of my feet slipped, and I banged my shin hard on a rung before I righted myself. Then, my palms started to sweat. I continued with more care. After I had passed two more platforms, I began to hear sounds. There was another opening in the metal at the next platform. Now, I could hear many different men and terror consumed me. I pushed it away. Silently, I peered out. A vice like grip jerked me from my hiding place by my hair. It pulled my head back hard, and then I felt a knife against my throat.

  "Stay back or I'll kill her!" said the man who gripped me by the hair. Suddenly, my terror vanished, replaced with a calm serenity. With my hair pulled back as it was, I was forced to gaze upward. I saw Yukihyo's wild, but deathly serious expression. Then, the knife was gone from my throat. I heard the man behind me scream, and then I was moving forward. My hair still pulled as though firmly grasped, but Hiroshi lifted me up into his arms and carried me away. I felt Hiroshi's hand in my hair, and then the pressure disappeared. I heard something hit the ground. Hiroshi tried to prevent my seeing the severed arm, but failed. I buried my face in Hiroshi's shoulder. Sickening sucking noises came from behind us. I saw Malta's enforcers rushing forward. Hiroshi placed me into Phillip's arms, turned, and ran back toward Yukihyo and the lift. They entered it with an enforcer, and the door closed. A bloody mess remained of the man who had threatened me, and the hilt of the knife that had been at my throat protruded from his right eye socket. Phillip turned as soon as he had me and took me to the back of our large land transport. Thunderdrop chittered from Phillip's head and blinked down at me. Other miners rushed about, and I saw Mr. Gregory and Arthur Jr. at the back of our transport with angry serious faces and blaster rifles harnessed on their backs. Phillip laid me down on the floor of the partially loaded cargo hold. He smiled down at me.

  "Everything's okay, Cupcake. You're safe. I've got you." Thunderdrop had jumped down from Phillip, and I could feel him standing on my hair. Phillip tore my sleeve away and sprayed something cold on my arm. A sharp prick followed the spray. My back felt wet, as did parts of my hair, but everything began to fade away before I could think about it.

  A warm cushioned surface was underneath me, and I was covered in a crisp white sheet and a couple of white blankets. Opening my eyes up a little more, I saw Thunderdrop resting on my chest and blinking at me.

  In a whispery voice, I said, "Poor baby. Are you okay? I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from those evil men putting you in a box."

  "Chirp chirp." A hand ran through my hair, and Yukihyo appeared. He leaned over me and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

  "I'm sorry that it took me so long to find you. It seems you were well on the way to rescuing yourself when I arrived."

  "I wouldn't have made it past the man with the knife," I said.

  "I'm sorry you had to see that," he said.

  "Is the waiter alive?" I asked. Yukihyo pointed, and I looked. The waiter slept in a bed to the side of mine. Phillip came to my side with a scanner. Yukihyo held his hand down for Thunderdrop to climb.

  Phillip smiled at me and asked, "How are you feeling?"

  "I'm thirsty and my head hurts." Phillip lifted the bed up a little and handed Yukihyo a bottle with a straw. He let me have a few sips. "What happened?" Someone stepped toward my bed while Phillip moved my blankets and checked my bandaged wrists. It was a Malta enforcer.

  "Mrs. Lee, I apologize for the traumatic experience you have endured. There is no need for you to worry. We have everything under control. I found Rick in the restaurant unconscious and bleeding and rushed to this office for help. Dr. Svenson and Dr. Anders came to assist. Dr. Svenson freed your Arachnean spider, and I put out a missing person's alert on you. Dr. Svenson notified your husband who sped back from several miles away and tracked your location. However, the depth at which you were held hostage made that difficult."

  "When you managed to climb toward the surface, I was able to get a weak lock on you and find you," Yukihyo said. He gave me more water.

  "Who is Dr. Svenson?" I asked. Phillip tapped me on the nose.

  "That's my last name, Cupcake."

  "Oh, I thought it was Lee," I said.

  The enforcer continued, "When Rick regained consciousness, he identified the four men who attacked the three of you. Three of those men are in custody. They will be punished for attacking both you and Rick, and your beloved pet, for falsely imprisoning both you and your pet, for drugging and abducting you, and for hacking into a private communication system, stealing a message from Dr. Svenson to someone else, and using it to lure you from the safety of your home."

  Shocked, I said, "It wasn't Phillip, who called to meet for lunch?" The enforcer shook his head. Phillip covered my arms up and went down to the end of the bed. He pulled the warm blankets away from my feet and ankles. I couldn't see them over the lump the blankets had made. "Why did they grab me?" I asked.

  "My patient needs her rest. Perhaps this conversation can continue at another time," Phillip said. Yukihyo gave me more water. He tapped the bed, and Thunderdrop crawled back to sit on my chest and stare at me.

  "Phillip, is Thunderdrop okay? Did you scan him?" Yukihyo answered for him.

  "He was not hurt. Thunderdrop was very angry though."

  "Chirp."

  "They took my blaster and my new boots! Did you find them?" I asked.

  "I've got your blaster," Phillip said.

  Phillip made me stay the night at the doctor's office. Yukihyo remained with me. Hiroshi was on Tora. He was making the miners come to the ship to pick up their deliveries. Ms. Laura, Silvie, and Annette came to see me, and they also lavished attention on Rick. Mr. Gregory checked on me. Rick's boss brought food over to the doctor's office for everyone and offered sincere apologies about what had happened. He had been at his hotel at the time. The enforcer came back and spoke to Yukihyo. The three surviving miners had been treated by Dr. Anders for injuries they sustained from Hiroshi and my husband during their capture. They were in custody and awaiting transfer to the Galaxic Militia. Physical evidence in the form of my blood on the walls had been gathered from
the Istria mine confirming my imprisonment and collaborating Rick's statement. Because Yukihyo acted in defense of my life against an armed assailant, he had been within his rights as my husband and would not have to pay any restitution.

  Phillip finally said that we could all go home. He was satisfied that the abrasions and contusions on my feet, hands, and wrists were healed and that I had no signs of infection. Hiroshi walked into the room. Rick had been released earlier. He spoke with Phillip for a moment and then came to me and kissed my forehead. "Is my little sister feeling better?"

  "Yes, can we go home now?"

  "Yes, I have the transport outside," Hiroshi said. Yukihyo wrapped me up in the hospital's blankets and picked me up. Thunderdrop went around my neck and refused to go to anyone else. Hiroshi opened doors for us. Phillip followed our procession. Yukihyo held me in the back seat. Hiroshi climbed into the passenger seat, and Phillip drove us home.

  "Thank you all for rescuing me," I said. "I'm beginning to think Malta is bad luck. The Parvacs followed us from here, too," I said. Hiroshi grunted.

  Yukihyo carried me from the transport all the way to my quarters. Even though I had woken up clean in the hospital, I begged for a shower. Thunderdrop refused to leave my neck, and other than a few trips to the restroom, Yukihyo hadn't left my side either. Therefore, it was no surprise to me that the three of us ended up in the shower together.

  "Will you go to Yukihyo while I wash my hair? I don't want to get shampoo in your pretty spider eyes." Thunderdrop moved from my neck, to my naked shoulder, and up to Yukihyo's hair. I put my head under the spray and enjoyed the feel of it pounding into my sore scalp. I moved out from under the water and wiped my eyes. Yukihyo washed my hair for me twice with my comforting Arachnean shampoo. Once we were all rinsed off, my spider returned to my neck. Yukihyo helped me dry off. My arms were still sore from my climb. "Have you been fed?"

  "Chitter."

  Yukihyo said, "I'll take care of him." He sat me down at my vanity and handed me undies and a gown. I put them on and then got into my bed. The light flashed above my door. Phillip came in and put a pain patch behind my ear. He dried my hair with a towel while Yukihyo took Thunderdrop to feed him.