Embarkment 2577 Read online

  The upcoming weeks and months were so blissfully calm they were almost boring, probably because he put extra effort into protecting me from the world. I was grateful; I needed downtime.

  I still expected something to happen. Surely the ship would be overrun by space monkeys, or maybe the entire crew would revert into iguanas. Adam laughed. “You’ve watched too much TV.”

  Chapter Seven

  After four months of peace and quiet I wasn’t exactly myself again, but probably as close to it as I would get. Adam went back to his regular schedule, and I worked on my history projects, trying to convey as much as I could remember of the early 21st century. I still suffered dark moments, however, and one day John chuckled, “I’d tell you to start drinking, I mean, that’s what I did, but there’s nothing to drink on this boat.”

  I never figured out if he was serious or not. Either way, he made me feel better. If Cheryl could have such an impact on someone like him, I didn’t have to be ashamed for being so affected by Eve, Cain, or anything else that happened.

  One day, Adam came home with a hologram of a bug. It hovered prettily in the air, looking like a golden dragonfly. “When’s the last time you saw one of these?”

  “Never. Insects on Earth don’t come in metal.”

  “Use your imagination. It’s almost the same, isn’t it?”

  “Well, yes, but…”

  “We’re surveying a planet. It’s the most like Earth I’ve ever seen.”

  I waited. Normally these things didn’t have anything to do with me, and if he told me, there would have to be a point.

  He pressed the hologram projector into my hand. “It’s a great place, pretty much like home, and the Captain is giving all non-essential personnel shore leave. I think you should go. You’d love it.”

  Might be fun, but not alone. “Will you come with me?”

  He kissed my cheek. “Unfortunately, I’m essential personnel. Ask John.”

  “Well… When is this happening?”

  “Right now. That’s why I came home to tell you.”

  We had been in space for a long time. What would it feel like to have solid ground under my feet and sunlight on my face? A breeze in my hair…

  Adam went back to work and I looked at the hologram. If there were dragonflies, there might be butterflies, maybe even birds. Seeing a bird would be sweet.

  I ran down the hall to Anya’s quarters to plead with John to come with me. If Adam couldn’t go she probably couldn’t either, but he was a stray passenger like me.

  John looked hung over, but still flashed a smile so much like Adam it confused me. “No… Too much exposure to the elements is unhealthy.”

  It was a hilarious comment coming from someone who wouldn’t blink if faced with a group of heavily armed mercenaries.

  He turned his charm on. “I’m going to a poker game, come with me and be my lucky charm. Together we’ll play the pants off everyone.”

  “Maybe tomorrow. Today, I want fresh air.”

  “Suit yourself, you don’t know what you’re missing.”

  “Likewise. It might be absolutely awesome.”

  He chuckled. “Have a good time, sweetheart. Hey, wait… Let me see your shoes.”

  My shoes? That was a new one.

  “Those are actually good. Give me the right one.”

  Men had asked me for many things during the years, but this was the first time someone wanted my shoe. I shrugged and handed him the sturdy walking boot. He pulled his off as well, fiddling with something attached to the side.

  “There you go. There’s the holder…”

  “What are you doing?”

  He passed me something that looked like a thin sheet of metal. “Hold it away from you and press the sides.”

  I obeyed and a thin blade of energy hummed to life. “Wow. What is that?”

  “Laser-knife. One never knows. Put it in the holder and you won’t even know it’s there. It’s not the best weapon in the world, but at least you have something if you get into trouble.”

  “Thank you.” Unexpected and sweet. Adam would never tell me to go if he thought anything could go wrong, but I liked John’s way of thinking.

  *****

  Adam was right. The planet was a lot like Earth as I remembered it. Had he already been down here? Probably. There were rolling hills clad with deep forests, oceans and lakes, only one sun, and only one moon. A vacation paradise.

  The air smelled so fresh, completely different from the recycled atmosphere on the ship. A wind played in the treetops. I bent my head back as far as I could, and far up in the sky a group of bright red bird-like beings soared on the breeze. They looked free.

  Maybe one day we could be settlers in a place like this. Adam wouldn’t get tired of life on a starship any time soon, but maybe one day… Maybe we could at least go on a vacation together.

  I had a pretty good sense of direction, and if I got lost they could always find me from the ship. I wandered along, looking at huge and untouched trees. A thick carpet of leaves covered the ground. It was soft and made me want to bounce. If I hadn’t been so lazy I would have wanted to go jogging.

  Every aspect of life holds some danger. One can fall and die in the shower, or have a stroke when sleeping soundly in bed. I imagined unknown man-eating plants, dangerous insects, and larger animals that might find a human woman an excellent snack between lunch and dinner. Maybe I should have brought something bigger than a knife…

  Nothing happened, and I relaxed. The wildlife was fearless, and a quick little creature that looked almost like a squirrel followed me on my way. Then, there was a blazing pain, and darkness.

  When I woke up, my head pounded and my eyelids were heavy. Opening my eyes wasn’t worth the trouble; I stared right at a pile of dirty laundry. Stinking dirty laundry. The smell made me gag and I rolled over on the other side to get away. That side presented a pile of garbage with a fat red insect crawling on mold. Just how dirty might the floor under my head be?

  I sat up, and stared at a room filled with filth. “Oh my God, I’ve been abducted by a garbage truck.”

  No wonder I was queasy. I struggled to my feet and almost fell over when my legs turned out to have the stability of sponge cake. Damn. Why did things like this keep happening to me?

  I made my way towards the door, crisscrossing the trash, hoping beyond hope I’d ended up in some mysterious space deep inside the Bell’s bowels. The door was filled with mysterious markings and would not open. Great.

  No one would miss me until late in the evening, and I might be well on my way to the other side of the galaxy before anyone realized I was gone. The thought made me despondent, and the putrid smell made my nose drip.

  This could be a long wait. I picked the least filthy spot in the room, kicked some dirty rags out of the way, and sat down.

  Why did I have to wander off on my own? What possessed me to think I would be able to leave the ship without Adam by my side?

  Time passed, and I watched the red insects. At least they didn’t seem interested in me. Garbage was probably much yummier than girls. Eventually, the door opened and a tall shadow fell over me. The old version of me would have panicked at the sight, but the new me wasn’t all that impressed.

  The face was fairly humanoid, but the nose looked like a tiny snout, and the mouth reminded me of a wasp’s with strong mandibles closing from the sides. He had broad shoulders, two arms, two legs, and long black hair. Except for being gigantic, not too awfully scary.

  He kicked me in the side with a foot dressed in a thick, brown leather boot, and yelled, “Captain, the prisoner is awake!”

  “Oww, don’t do that.”

  “Get up hooman.”

  A chance to leave the room? He didn’t have to say that twice. Hopefully, the rest of the ship would be at least a little less stinky. If I survived this, I’d need to shower for a week.

  Their leader sat in a big metal chair in the middle of the bridge, and was just as ugly as my guard.
I needed to be brave, to behave becoming of the Bell’s crew and act with dignity.

  He bellowed, barely understandably with very long vowels, “Hooomaaan, Confederaaacyyy Hoomaan, you will bring us great wealth.”

  Really? If that was the point of this exercise, shouldn’t they snatch someone a little more important than me? I probably shouldn’t point that out; their knowing my insignificance might shorten my life span.

  “All hoomans are cowards, especially Confederacy hoomans. Neither you nor your pitiful friends will be allowed to live.”

  Big words. “What are you talking about? I’ve never seen you before, I never did anything to you.”

  My guard held his gun up to my face. I stared down the muzzle, and it was a big gun. One could probably hide a train or two inside.

  I steeled myself for being dead, again. Hopefully, I’d be brave enough to meet it with grace.

  Their captain laughed. “You’re worth a lot to our employer.”

  “That makes no sense at all.”

  One of them stepped up to the captain and whispered something. It seemed to be very funny. “No, take her away. Maybe you can have her later, when we’ve been paid.”

  Have me? Oh no, no way. I’d rather die than have one of them touch me. I probably would die, or at least throw up if one came too close. They were smelly, hairy, and generally disgusting. I was used to living with an android who was always clean and never ever smelled.

  “Go on. Back to lockup.”

  Into the same dirty room again. I spent an hour or so sitting on the floor feeling sorry for myself. Once I snapped out of that, I searched the room from ceiling to floor. The investigation gave a multitude of nasty smells, more dirty clothes, and a tiny vent that was welded shut. Even if I could get it open, it would be too small for me to crawl through.

  When the guard returned to escort me back to the bridge, I was relieved not to have to make any more futile efforts to save myself.

  The captain seemed delighted to see me. “I want to make you an offer. I’m willing to let you buy your life for, say, the command codes to the shields of your ship.”

  The what and the what?

  “It’s just a ship, hooman, not worth dying for. Trust me. Your future is not bright with our employer.”

  Did he really have an employer, or did he make it up to scare me? It didn’t matter; even if I’d known what a command code was, I wouldn’t give the Bell up. “I’m sorry, but you have the wrong person. I don’t have command codes to anything.”

  My head still pounded and my eyes itched, probably from all the garbage in the room. I couldn’t think, but it didn’t matter. We were in space, and there was no way out of this. I just wanted to live so badly. I wanted to see my husband and friends one more time, so I could tell them I loved them. If I didn’t come back, both Adam and John would blame themselves for not going with me.

  The large alien laughed so hard he almost sounded asthmatic when trying to draw breaths. Once he settled down, he roared, “It’s a sad thing to see someone so young and pretty go to her death.”

  He didn’t sound sorry at all. Intense pain bloomed up in my back, and then the world fell dark again.

  Chapter Eight

  “Uuuuh…” The groaning really annoyed me. Whoever did it should shut up. Oh, it was me. I thought I had a headache before being shot a second time. Funny how wrong one can be.

  Now would be a good time to get up on my feet and sweet-talk the guards into letting me out. I should find my way to a shuttle, overcome the impossible foreign instrumentation, and fly away to safety. Or, why not outsmart them all, steal the ship and return home in triumph. Great ideas, but I wasn’t a heroine. I could barely move.

  It didn’t take long before everything became worse. I could hardly tell the aliens apart, but the one entering the room had to be the one who whispered to their leader. Shit.

  He approached with a couple of long steps and I scooted backwards until I hit a pile of laundry. The alien grabbed both my wrists in one of his large hands and trailed his free fingers over my shoulder towards my breasts. Not this again. Any poking, prodding, or squeezing would send me into a fit of hysteria. This guy was at least made of flesh and blood, and he wheezed when I kicked him.

  “Feisty. You’ll learn. They always do.”

  The room spun around me. Why was it so dark? It took several seconds for me to understand he hit me, and I struggled to stay conscious.

  His hand was the size of an average frying pan, and he smacked it over my chest. “You will be my slave.”

  Not happening. I yelled, “Let go of me you big, ugly… gorilla! My husband will kill you!”

  The answer wasn’t what I expected: he laughed. “Your husband the android? I wouldn’t count on it.”

  What was that supposed to mean? And, if he knew about Adam, they really must have been looking for me. All hope of mistaken identity went down the drain.

  No time to brood. I hit him as hard as I could, and he didn’t even blink. My hands searched the floor around me, even his belt, but I couldn’t find anything useful. I still had John’s knife in my boot, but I couldn’t reach it with this colossal person weighing me down.

  Something warm trickled over my face. He put a long yellowed nail against my cheek and chuckled deep down his throat. At first I didn’t understand what he did, but when I realized he painted my face with my own blood, I couldn’t keep the screams in any longer.

  When the door slid open, I expected more horrors. It was the man who escorted me to the captain earlier. He kicked the attacker off me. “You simpleminded idiot, the Captain told you to wait.”

  The guard sounded like he explained a complicated concept to a child. “We need her undamaged for now, the employer wants to destroy her herself. Just look at what you did!”

  I pulled my knees up and hugged my legs to hide how much I shook.

  He tossed me a grayish rag. “Here. Clean yourself up.”

  When my tormentors left I curled up and touched my stinging face. Why was pain so hard to get used to?

  Up until now I hadn’t allowed myself to think of the Bell and the people residing on her. Nostalgia and longing would render me even more useless, but they were in a much bigger danger than I. Maybe I could figure out a way to warn them.

  My kidnapping wasn’t a mistake. They had come for me, and found me. Only one person would gain from me being out of the way, and only one person hated me enough to not only arrange for my disappearance but also demand a chance to deal with me themselves: Eve.

  The would-be rapist had been too certain Adam wouldn’t come for me. Eve might already be on the Bell, equipped to dispose of Adam in favour of Cain. All my friends might already be dead.

  I went to the door and knocked. Surely they had a guard posted outside? “Hey, can I see your captain?”

  No answer. “C’mon, just for a minute.”

  Still nothing. “I need to use the restroom. I won’t try anything, I promise.”

  This time, the voice of my guard drifted through the door. “Pee in a corner.”

  Good point: the way this room smelled any change would be an improvement.

  “I’m hungry.”

  No answer came, and I gave up. By now, Jia’Lyn would have figured out how to build a radio from the junk scattered over the floor. She would have warned the Bell and saved the day. Crap.

  I circled the room until I came too close to the red bugs and disturbed a group of them. They buzzed up in a big cloud and I retreated to the farthest corner of the room.

  “Please let me see your captain, I only need a minute.”

  This time, the answer was immediate. “Be quiet.”

  Every hour took me further away from the Bell. As much as I feared Eve and even Cain, I needed to be there. An encounter might cost my life, but compared to everyone else’s, that was a cheap price to pay.

  Eventually, a hatch opened in the door and a bowl with grayish porridge slid in. “Eat.”

  It didn
’t look good, but I was too hungry not to eat. By now I could hardly even feel the room’s stench anymore.

  Many hours later, their captain came to see me. I sat on the floor and he poked me a little with his foot.

  “I hear you’ve been asking to see me.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t expect you to come all the way here.”

  He chuckled.

  “Your employer is called Eve, isn’t she? She’s crazy, you know that, right?”

  He stared at me for a long moment. “Maybe. She might pay us, or kill us all.”

  “Before she gets to that, she’ll kill all my friends. Let me send a message to them and warn them.”

  He made a dismissive gesture and walked towards the door.

  “There’s over a thousand people on the ship. I’ll make it worth your trouble. I have nothing here, you know that, but you would be paid.”

  At least he paused and listened.

  “Seriously, I’ll stay here with you. You can deliver me to her if you really want to, but please let me warn them.”

  Keeping me fixed with his eyes, studying my reactions, the giant towering over me whipped out a long tongue and licked his chin. Creepy.

  “Captain Jones is a personal friend. He’ll reward you, and you’ll earn the gratitude of the Confederacy.”

  “No. It’s too dangerous.”

  The answer sounded final, and he headed for the door once more. It opened into the corridor, and the temptation was too big to resist. If I moved I might get somewhere. They might shoot me, but compared to being handed to Eve like a neatly wrapped gift, being dead might not be too bad.

  I stuck two fingers into my boot, found the little knife, and squeezed the handle. The alien was almost by the door already and I bounced to my feet. If I didn’t hurry, the opportunity would close and I might not get another chance. I ran for it, skidding around him.

  Their captain grabbed for me and I stabbed at his hand, fumbling for balance. I heard him roar with anger and pain, and then I was in the corridor.

  “Shoot her.”

  I had no plan, no idea of where I was going, but I had to do something to be able to live with myself for whatever time I might have left.