Chapter 12: Chapter 12; Hostages

Lerra and I waited in the cockpit for a little over an hour before we started to get worried, and a little bored there are only so many games of starlon you can play especially when it’s not strip, it got to two hours before either of us did anything though we were chomping on the bit at an hours and a half. We waited, the ship was moving with the asteroid more or less, even with the anchors gone the inertia was still enough to keep us moving with it thought we were drifting away, slowly.

As soon as the clock ticked the new hour I couldn’t stand it anymore and went back to my room to get my gun. I had told Lerra that I would be back in just a second but I was gone for too long, because when I came back she was gone leaving me a note in her handwriting on the navigators console, she told me that she had been called to the engine room. Usually that wouldn’t have made me nervous but with all that was going on I panicked and began to pace in the cockpit. Maybe I should have called the engine room with the intercom but I didn’t think, just as I hadn’t though back on the Iowa, I just acted, I guess it’s a character flaw of mine. I readied my gun, checking to see if the chamber was primed and the clip was fully loaded and rushed out of the cockpit and went looking for her.

I rushed through the hallway looking for her and called out for her like a fool and holding my gun just like a new recruit in basic. “Lerra!” I yelled. “Lerra where are you?”

For such a dysfunctional machine Arthur was so silent at times I was almost sure his feet had anti-gravitational pads, it didn’t help that I was as paranoid as I was, I forgot he was there and almost jumped out of my skin when he walked up behind me and tapped on my shoulder. “Ma’am?” He said softly in his balanced and even tone.

I spun on my heals and pumped a bullet into the chamber before I realized who it was and only just stopped myself from putting a shell in his chest when I realized it was Arthur and not someone else. I was so relieved that I actually dropped my guard for a moment. It turned out to be a good thing that I didn’t put a shell in his chest actually, but that part comes later. “Arthur you scared the crap out of me.”

“I am sorry ma’am but you were looking for Lerra and I have also been looking for her. She is not in her room or any of the common areas.”

“That I know,” I snapped, having Lerra disappear like she had made me snippy and far from nice, not that I’m not usually both of those things as you well know, “now tell me something I don’t know.”

“Such as, I am well versed in many subjects?” All but sarcasm it seemed.

I groaned and shook my head, Arthur was not programed for understanding things like arbitrary statements, it wasn’t his fault it was his programmers. “Never mind, just tell me if you’ve check the med bay yet?”

“I have just returned from the medical bay, I found it empty.”

I hadn’t wanted to hear that but at least I wouldn’t waste my time checking a place where there would be no chance of finding Lerra. “Alright then where haven’t you checked yet Tin Man?”

“The cargo bay.” I should have been worried that there was no pause for him it go through him memory but then again he was a machine so even if he did I might not have noticed but it didn’t matter because I wanted to find Lerra and that one thought consumed my entire mind everything was focused on just that.

“Lead the way Tin Man.” I told him taking a ready hold of my shotgun, my finger flicking over the trigger for reassurance. Over the past few weeks I had memorized the layout of the ship and all the corridors but something felt wrong about them now as I fallowed Arthur, my grip on my gun was so tight I actually had to look at it for a moment to check if I hadn’t punched thought the metal with my fingers. As we went down the stairs each of our steps sounded like a thunder clap, and when he unlocked the door to the cargo bay that latch sounded like a bullet when it snapped back. I had to say something to keep my wits about me, I was the one with the gun. “It’s a bit weird to lose someone in such a small ship isn’t it?”

“This ship is not all that small, your room for example is eleven feet long by eleven feet wide, giving it a square…”

“I get it.” I snapped before he got really going a one hundred and twenty one square foot room wasn’t all that small so the ship wasn’t all that small but right then it felt like a grain of sand with Lerra missing. I guess it wasn’t the best idea to try and make small talk with an android to try and calm down but it was my fault for trying in the first place. “The ship is bigger than I thought.”

We walked past the locked stacks of our cargo and I couldn’t see how Lerra could be down there, there was nowhere for her to hide if she was but Arthur just kept walking as if he knew exactly where she was, and that should have told me something was wrong but I was so nervous I could barely pay attention to anything other than the sound of my blood rushing through my ears. Sadly he had not dropped the subject of the size of the ship and kept on talking about it thought I really didn’t want to hear about it. “Beyond the ship’s living areas Lerra also knows more about its hidden inner ducts and vents than anyone who has been part of its crew. If anyone could have the ability to get lost in this ship it would be her.”

“Let’s hope you’re wrong because I’m not good in tight spaces right now.”

“You are claustrophobic?”

“No, there’s just no room for my gun in those vents.”

We walked past the middle cargo stack and I heard a pistol cock, an old style explosive propelled round click, not the whir of a rail gun’s electro magnets starting to spin. I knew it was that old style of gun when it pressed against the back of my head and felt how small the barrel was, it was no bigger than my finger but in no way less deadly than my shotgun. “He’s not wrong,” Dr. Peacock told me, “well not exactly.”

Arthur turned around and looked at me with his hand out stretched. “Ma’am I am sorry but I must take your gun from you.”

It didn’t take me more than a second after the gun was pressed up against my head to figure out that whoever had me also had Lerra and that meant that Arthur would do any and everything to try and rescue her and that even meant he would turn on me instead of taking me to where ever she was, but then again he might not have known where she was only that she was held by them. “It’s not your fault Arthur.” I told him relinquishing my shotgun. “This bastard forced you.”

“Name calling, how quaint.” Peacock told me, and I bet he had an annoying sneer on his damn face when he did because I could hear it in his voice. “I am sorry that James was right about you, you think fast on your feet but you have all the manors of an unwilling patient. Now if you would be so kind as to get down on your knees.”

With the all to subtitle push of the gun into the back of my head I figured out that it wasn’t a request and I slowly went down on my knees using my hand to steady myself, but I was trying to reach for the knife I had hidden in my boot but Doctor Peacock had noticed my movements and pushed the gun against my head again. “Ah, ah, let’s have none of that shall we. Give me that knife.” I took the knife out of its sheath and extended my arm before dropping it to the floor where I would just be able to reach it if they didn’t move it. “You see how easy things are when you cooperate.” He condescended as he through a rope to Arthur. “Now Arthur if you would be so nice as to tight up this feisty young lady.”

“Ma’am?” He asked and I thrust my hands out in front of me and let him tight me up like a dead bore, at the wrists and the ankles, and he had to do a good job of it. In no time I was tied up like a prize pig on the farm, all ready to be put on a spite and barbequed.

I glared up at Doctor Peacock as Arthur finished his work, I wanted my vision to burn a hole in his head but I didn’t have that kind of power, I don’t think any race does. It was the only thing I could do tied up and laying on my stomach looking up at him. “Where the hell did you take Lerra?” I growled about as convincingly as a wet kitten tied up as I was and helpless with him holding the gun.

“Safe for now,” he told me in that same smug arrogant tone of voice, “but her condition is at a pivotal point and may change at any moment depending on your actions over the next few hours, surgery of this kind can be very, tentative.”

“If you touch her I will personally shove my gun up your ass and use it to blow your noses off your face.”

“Perhaps I should have gaged you?” He joked, he actually joked.

“What are you going to do about James, are you going to kill him?”

“James, well his condition is much more stable than Lerra in fact he can even say hello. Come on don’t be rude to our guest say hello.”

James stepped out from behind some crates of our cargo across the room. “I’m right here Alex.”

If I was free I would have beat him to death right then and there, he had betrayed us and left Larra in the hands of that mad man, killing him then would have been justifiable right, never mind I never got to kill him anyway. “What the hell are you doing with him, did you plan this thing with him or did you just sell us out when we caught on!”

He stomped his foot as he bore down on me and growled out his answer. “I’m a pilot not a damn soldier, I left that life when I left the Alliance and you want to drag me back, it’s not going to happen bitch.”

“That didn’t answer my question.” I growled.

“Don’t be so hard on him Miss Perez.” Doctor Peacock told me with that same damned pretentious attitude. “This was never his plan he just found out about us thanks to you and I made him an offer.”

“You’re not a soldier, you’re a damn sellout.” I snapped far from afraid of both of them, even with their guns. “You’re like all pilots, as soon as you see trouble it’s wheels up and engines at full in the other damn direction.”

“Don’t you dare preach to me you damn murdering bitch,” he spat, “I did my time in the Alliance, I stood on the front lines with my men watched them fight and die, I’ve been on both ends of the damn gun. All that got me was a lot of good friends dead and buried, a son who doesn’t even know me, and a wife who wants all I own in this universe!”

“You had a loyal crew,” I fired back, “you had a mission to be proud of!”

“What do you know of missions, loyalty, you killed your crew so you don’t get so damn preachy to me about a crew and a cause, you killed yours!”

“I did what I thought was right!”

Before I could turn my head he took out his gun and whipped it across my face hard enough to put me out, though not right away thankfully. “And so am I.” James said, and his voice became muffled as he spoke.

I heard one last damn snide remake from Doctor Peacock before I went completely dark and I wish I could have taken him with me and left him there. “That was ruthless James, quite ruthless.”

I came to about an hour later I think, I really didn’t look at my watch with Lerra snapping her fingers in front of my face while she untied my arms from behind my back, it also didn’t help that she was straddling me at the time and my head was splitting like a quart of fire wood. “Hey lover… Alex, babe… it’s time to wake up Alex. We need to storm the ship and save the day not get more beauty sleep…” she patted my checks as my eyes began to slide closed, “you don’t need any beauty sleep honey, trust me.”

“Would you please stop talking so loud?” I complained and not at all playfully like she had been, my head felt like a fusion engine about to blow and it couldn’t contain the explosion. “I have the mother, father, grandmother, and god mother of all headaches right now.”

“Being pistol whipped will do that to a person, and besides if you can bitch about it at least it means you ain’t dead.” Lerra said at a thankfully quieter tone.

“I think I’d prefer to be dead.” I grumbled.

“Don’t you dare even joke about that!” She snapped jerking hard on the ropes on my wrist.

“Ouch, I’ll remember that.” I groaned, my vision was clearing but it was still like trying to see through the training pool at night without my goggles off. “Let’s just focus on me being pistol whipped alright, I thought I remembered them saying that you were tied up.” My speech wasn’t so badly slurred anymore so my head must have been clearing a bit.

“I was,” she said almost as smugly as that damn doctor, “thankfully they let Arthur tie the ropes and didn’t check up on his work. I expanded my arm while he was tying me and once they were gone I was able to wiggle my arm out enough to cut through the ropes luckily they were braded wire.” She pushed her cybernetic arm in front on my face and flipped out the welding torch I had seen her using the first time we met. It was impressing since it had come out of her arm but still a bit scary since that arm had been near to some tender tissue over the past few nights, I had never really noticed it the first time since I was more focused on her and I watched as she folded it back into her arm, the electrode folded back into her hand, and then sank into her wrist before it closed up all the way. Since she had put it so close to my face I was able to smell burned tree bark and resin on it along with the metal but she spoke up again before I could question her about it. “A built in arc welder has its advantages.” She pulled on my ropes again but they refused to give even a little. “They must have used stronger ropes on you.”

“Can’t you just burn them off?” I grumbled.

“Your arm isn’t flame resistant.”

“From what I smelled neither is yours.” I snapped.

“Hey,” she snapped slapping my shoulder a little harder than playfully, “why don’t you try to welding without seeing what you’re doing and then you can talk.”

“Just get me out of this and I promise not to bad mouth you anymore.”

“Swear to kiss my burns better and I’ll think about it.”

“Get me out of these ropes and I’ll kiss anything you want.”

“Right away.” I swear I could hear her smiling at me. I tried to turn my head but my head hurt too much whenever I moved it more than a few inches. “What are you doing?” Lerra snapped at me.

“My knife,” I said after my head stopped hurting so much that it felt like it was going to burst whenever I moved it, “I dropped it around here.”

“I’m guessing they took it, they are professionals. Never mind thought cause I brought one of my own. Rock, paper, scissors.” She said and I heard her hand fold and then blades rev up to speed behind my back. “Hold still.”

“Not much trouble there.” I groaned as she began to slice though the ropes with whatever blade she was using, I only felt her finger running up my back. I spread my arms as she went through the ropes until I was free. “Thanks but do you think could you get off my back.”

“It so comfortable, but I guess.” She joked getting off my back.

I rolled over and began to rub my wrist to get the feeling back were the rope had cut into my skin. “Now we need to get the hell out of here.” Lerra stood up with her arms crossed over her chest and glared at me like I had just said something complete unthinkable. “What?”

“I’m not leaving without Arthur,” she said flatly, “and an explanation.”

I rolled my eyes, Arthur I could understand but an explanation was asking for the moon and we were clean out of money and rocket fuel. “Lerra I love you but let’s think rationally about this for a moment, we have no guns and are most likely outnumbered but none the less we are out gunned. Oh yeah we have no idea where we are and if the enemy has reinforcements coming. We need to run, and run fast.”

“You forget this ship is almost as much a part of me as this arm.” Lerra snapped shoving her cybernetic arm into the air between us.

“Alright,” I conceded, I could have reminded her how she had offered to leave this ship with me, but if I had left it would be by choice and she would have chosen to fallow me, someone was taking her home form her now so I understood her anger all to well. “Then you have until I get to the shuttle and get it ready and linked up to my H.N.I. to get Arthur and your explanation.”

“How about you fallow me as far as the bridge?”

“If I don’t I guess you’re just going to use your pheromones on me to make me come with you?”

“You’re learning.” She snickered.

“Lead the way,” I said waving her in front of me and she just looked at me, “you’re the one with the built in weapons Lerra.”

She had to concede to that point and started walking. “Fallow me.”