Stowaway

by Robert E Colfax

  He caught both her arms, thankfully above her wrists, holding them together behind her back. She lashed out with an energetic kick to his groin. While he gasped, his grip didn’t loosen. He’s Helgan, not human. They’re put together differently. Offhand, she didn’t know where he kept his gonads, but they weren’t hanging out inviting a kick. He used his greater bulk to force her face down in the dirt. His partner came around the car and zip-tied her arms, which seemed kind of old-school. It only took him another thirty seconds to bind her ankles the same way.

  Once she was bound, one of them, she lost tract of which one was which, slung her over a shoulder and carted her inside their ship. She was unceremoniously dumped in a small room and left to her own devices. She struggled briefly before deciding the pain in her wrist was too much and she wasn’t going to be able to break the ties. She pushed herself as best she could into a sitting position propped against a wall. They were bound to untie her at some point, even if it wasn’t until after they lifted off. She might have a chance of some sort later on. She waited in the dark, listening for opportunity to knock.

  ***

  Lexi drove them to within a mile of the barn, leaving the car with Liz, who would drive it home for her and sell it. After another round of hugging she and Ron started walking up the road. Once Liz was out of sight, they broke into a jog. The two approached the barn using the trees and shrubs for cover. The newcomers’ ship was in the overgrown field nearby. Its footprint was easily twice that of Urania, although the ship itself was much flatter. Two aliens, there was no mistaking them for human, loitered outside of the barn. Each was no more than five and a half feet tall. They had round, hairless heads with tiny noses, floppy ears, large eyes and nearly lipless slashes for mouths. Their bellies were of a size that would have made Santa Claus green with envy.

  Ron said, his voice low, “I recognize them. These guys are Helgan bounty-hunters. Really bad news. Similar business to ours, but tends to be more violent. They’re probably after the Rose. Not sure why they would be here just now unless they saw us turn around and head back, or picked up an energy signature from today’s use of the Rose, or both. I’d expect a crew of six to nine on a ship that size. Have you taken a rubric on this? Their language is called Henimin.”

  “No, I haven’t got to those covering who’s who yet. I couldn’t tell you the difference between a Helgan and a Vankovian, but I know both languages. Maybe I’ll work on identifying aliens tomorrow. Northern dialect or southern?”

  “Hell if I know.” He looked across to the aliens, adding, “Follow me then.”

  Chapter 18

  Highlander

  “Swords?” Lexi exclaimed as a very round alien came forward and plunged a sword into the ground in front of them before turning and walking back to join his partner. “They expect us to fight with swords?” she exclaimed as Ron pulled it free. “Doesn’t anyone have freakin’ ray-guns?”

  “They have ray-guns ringing their ship. Each one is the size of a jet ski and needs to be powered by a fusion reactor,” Ron explained, otherwise ignoring her irrelevant outburst concerning weapon technology that didn’t exist. “They call this an Honor Challenge. It’s one of the things they’re known for. Since we apparently are both after the Rose of Light, that makes us honorable competitors. The Honor Challenge gives us the opportunity to prove both our worth and our right to compete with them for it. If they win, they’ve proven their right to take it. Of course, they can’t know we already have it, so worse case, from their point of view, they’re eliminating a competing team. If I win, and they’ll come at me one at a time since they only passed us a single sword, the rest of them will pack up and leave.”

  Ron didn’t look happy about this. “I’ll have to face them or they’ll take us like they took Mom. They have us trapped. That ship will have anti-personnel weapons, the jet skis, covering us as soon as we step out there. Whether I win or die, if I put up enough of a fight to impress them, they’ll let you go because you’re with me. Otherwise, if the first one takes me, I’m afraid you’ll be expected to go up against the second. Regardless of what happens here on the field of honor, they won’t return Mom. Urania is supposed to need two crew members, but if she really is sentient now, you should be OK by yourself. Frankly Mom and I rarely touch the controls anymore. We should have realized why that was so.”

  “You ever use a sword, buddy boy?” Lexi asked, her voice grim, looking at the sword while ignoring Ron’s last few statements. They weren’t important. No way was she going to let Ron die or leave Geena behind.

  “Well, no,” he admitted. “I don’t suppose you have?”

  “State champion with the rapier, two years running. Second place in the nationals. That isn’t a rapier, but it’s close enough. The last time I competed was a few years back, so I may be a little rusty. I’m not worried. I’m still good at riding a bike too.”

  He didn’t get the relevance of her last statement, but without comment, he handed the sword over, hilt first. The fact that he didn’t argue with her about it impressed her more than she would have expected. “You’re going to need to kill them,” he advised her. “An Honor Challenge is always a fight to the death. I’m sorry, but if you don’t, they’ll either kill or enslave us. If you win, the others will gather up their dead and leave. They’ll still take Geena with them. Sell her on their world’s slave market. She apparently didn’t fight them or only did so poorly. By their code, they’ve already won her. Lexi, you should know that these guys have a really nasty reputation as the best swordsmen in the Accord. I’ve never heard of anyone who survived an honor bout with them.”

  Lexi reached down and took the dagger from her boot. “Good. Then they won’t be expecting much from me, will they?” She handed the dagger to Ron adding, “You have the rescue mission. I’m not Helgan and I don’t think you are either. I don’t see any reason to play by their rules. Get Geena off of that ship. We’re not leaving without her. I’ll challenge them all if I have to.” She held the sword in front of her, both hands on the hilt, feeling its balance. It was almost a cross between a rapier and a saber, with a point clearly designed for thrusting, the keenly edged blade slightly curved for slashing. Yeah, I can use this. She stepped three paces toward the pair of Helgans. “There can be only one,” she intoned in northern Henimin.

  “What?” Ron asked.

  “Really, dude? That’s a classic. Honey, why are you still here? Why don’t you run along and do something useful like getting your mother out of their damn ship. Don’t worry about me, I’m really good at this.” At least I was. It has been a few years.

  Fencing practice and movies aside, a duel with swords is usually quick, unless both sides are perfectly matched, or showing off. Most opponents signal their intent to attack, either through an eye movement, a shift of body weight, or a tensing of muscles. Those same clues often signal the opponents target, be it your torso, your sword arm or somewhere else. The contest itself often comes down to a single strike. She looked at the two roly-poly, sword-bearing aliens. They didn’t look very dangerous. How hard could this be, right?

  From the Helgans’ perspective, they saw a tall human female so ghastly slim she must be sickly. It was a wonder to them that anything built like that could even balance on those long, scrawny limbs. The larger, stronger looking male had run off, back into the wooded area. But that was of no matter; he couldn’t pass them to get to his ship. They would collect him later, once honor was satisfied. He should bring a good price on Helga’s slave block.

  They watched as the female experimentally swung the Blade of Honor back and forth, almost as though she had never seen one before. Sadly, that was the case more often than not when confronting other species. It made honor challenges less interesting. All of their people hoped to run into someone challenging, someone who understood the nuances of the blade, someone who didn’t spill his, or her, guts within the first seconds of the challenge. This woman stood, not moving, ridiculously holding her honor blade in fro
nt of her with both her hands. Neither Helgan held high hopes that this would be the exciting challenge each craved.

  Lexi, meanwhile, was thinking that she really needed to study up on alien cultures. And why aren’t any of my partners wearing earbuds and mikes? I wonder if we have any on the ship. It would be nice to keep track of Ron and maybe get advice from Urania. Although oddly enough, Urania has no access to the rubrics. She operates the software that flows recorded knowledge into people’s heads but can’t read that knowledge herself. I wonder if something can be done about that. For a millennia-old, space-traveling, or rather, space-threading as they called it, civilization, these guys have missed a lot of obvious improvements. Ray-guns would be really cool, too. Hell, if I had my Magnum and Glock I could take these guys out now. Yeah, except probably not, since I’ve never fired a gun. Let’s add that to the bucket list. Oops, bad term considering I could die here. “To do” list works so much better.

  Chapter 19

  Honor Challenge

  Lexi knew she needed to delay this fight and somehow draw it out long enough for Ron to spring Geena. How long would that take? She called out to the Helgans, “Hey, guys, you’re sure you want to die today? Because people can make mistakes. We all do. For instance, I didn’t tell my partners I was going to permanently torture and cripple a man this afternoon. That was my mistake. But I’ve learned from it. So I understand mistakes.”

  At least they were listening to her, possibly thoughtfully, possibly just confused. “I don’t know your people, but I’m sure you can’t be special in that sense. Am I right? You couldn’t have known you’re interfering in an Aeolus Investigations’s operation. Let’s just be friends. Give me back my woman, and you can go. We won’t stop you. You have the chance to learn from your mistake.” Her voice hardened. “On the other hand, stand and fight and I will slaughter your entire crew and sell your pitiful starship for scrap. Do we understand each other?”

  The aliens turned to talk to each other. Now the sickly creature was making foolish threats. They were Helgans! The two Helgans were far enough away and kept their voices low enough so that Lexi couldn’t overhear them. She hoped they were discussing their surrender. That thought went bye-bye when both their bellies started flopping up and down. While she couldn’t be sure, she guessed they were laughing at her. Show no fear. Keep them off balance and guessing. Take control of the situation. She assumed that must be her wise inner voice talking to her again. Right. All good advice. Argumentative added, Maybe I shouldn’t have insulted their ship. Lexi realized she didn’t even know for sure if they would come at her one at a time or both at once. She stepped forward, pointed her sword at the one on her left and said, her voice firm and commanding, “You. Now.”

  She wouldn’t have thought it by their looks, but quickly discovered Helgans are remarkably fast on their feet. The one she designated lunged for her. This isn’t the kind of competition I’m used to where, other than bruises, no one gets hurt. This is real. He means to kill me. I have to kill this man. Can I do that? Can I take a life? Do I even have a choice?

  No choice. Gotta do it. Charging a skilled adversary like he was doing was just foolish, even if your people were the best swordsmen in the Accord. Of course, he had no clue as to her skill level. She fully intended to decapitate him with her first stroke but he was much faster and far more agile than she anticipated. He ducked. Slicing diagonally up through his jaw and out through the top of his head was gorier and far more disgusting than she imagined cutting off his head at the neck, as she intended, would have been. It was just as final though. In competitions, even the nationals, killing your opponent was considered a major no-no. She feared that fact might be affecting her performance now. Get over it, girl! Do what you have to do! This was their idea, not yours.

  She squatted and wiped the gunky greenish stuff off of her blade on the dead man’s jacket, keeping her eyes steady on Helgan Two. Resuming her ready position, she pointed her sword at Two, who seemed to be giving her a moment. She used the opportunity to throw another quote at him. Couldn’t hurt, right? “I know that happened pretty fast, bubba. You just lost your partner. You’ve gotta ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?” Sadly, she felt as though Harry Callahan’s famous line may have lost something translated into Henimin, northern dialect, but it was all that came readily to mind. “I am your father, Luke” really didn’t fit the situation.

  Apparently he did feel lucky, although he was more cautious than his dead partner, approaching slowly. Maybe he just didn’t get her movie reference. He was the slightly taller of the two. Must have been a full five-six. Damn, still no sign of Ron and Geena. Is Ron making them coffee over there?

  She needed to stall, giving Ron time to rescue Geena. She and the Helgan circled each other warily. She lunged forward and ineptly sliced at him, a blow he parried fairly easily. Presumably, as a Helgan bounty-hunter challenging her to a duel to the death, he had training, although she soon questioned the quality of his lessons. His sword flashed at her head. She recognized his feint as such, with his shorter reach, he would not come anywhere near her head. Nevertheless, she raised her own blade to block, stumbling on a lose rock as she did so, turning her momentum into a series of back springs. That took her beyond his reach, but she dropped her sword in the process. She doubted he would imagine she meant to do that. I’m pretty sure I meant to do that. He was only momentarily surprised, recovering quickly and chasing her down. She wanted him overconfident, thinking she was a clumsy oaf, that the death of his partner had been bad luck rather than her own skill.

  She looped around while she backed away from him as he hacked and thrust at her, thinking this guy really doesn’t have much in the way of technique. Still backing, she ducked and picked up her sword as his blade slashed the air over her shoulders. Then she tripped over his buddy’s carcass. As she went over backwards, sunlight flashed off of her nice, shiny blade directly into the Helgan’s eyes, momentarily blinding him. She was pretty pleased with how well that unorthodox move worked. He stood there blinking, eyes watering while Lexi did four more quick back springs, landing on her feet, with her sword held at ready. Guys, hurry up, I can only stall this guy for so long before he figures out that no one is this clumsy. I can’t use the sun in the eyes trick to distract him again.

  She stood still and let him come to her. As he got close, she gave him a taste of her grim smile and said, “You made the wrong choice, bubba. I’m just playing with you. Any family you want me to ship your ears to?” She didn’t have any particular reason for saying that, but thought it sounded tough. He did pause his attack momentarily, looking puzzled while processing her odd question. Maybe he’s wondering who bubba is? Maybe he speaks southern Henimin? He does have really large ears. If I ever write a screenplay, I’ll have to work that line in somewhere. Then she let lose with an evil laugh. At least she hoped it was an evil laugh. She wasn’t completely sure he might not find just a hint of hysterical in it, but then again, would a Helgan be able to tell the difference? Maybe I should practice evil laughs, too. That would go over well with Ron and Geena, wouldn’t it?.

  He stepped in to attack. He was fast enough, nearly catching her a few times. But he truly lacked skill. Give her three months and she could teach Ron enough so that he could handle these guys. And it took years to get really good. She took up fencing while in middle school. She remembered that her dad looked puzzled when she broached the topic, but signed the checks. How did these goons get such a nasty rep for being deadly? Were they the only species in space who used swords? Did everybody else just panic to see a three-foot length of razor-sharp metal shooting toward their guts? On second thought, why did anyone in space use swords?

  Chapter 20

  Finding Geena

  Ron approached the grounded Helgan starship as quickly and as stealthily as he could, using the woods for cover. He knew he was making a lot of noise, but hopefully the Helgans didn’t run software to pick out noises made by a clu
msy, two-hundred-seventy-pound stalker approaching through overgrown terrain. He had his eye on a freshly broken tree the rear of the ship, snapped off along with dozens of others when it came down. Doubts about what he was doing assailed him. I have no training for this. How am I going to sneak onto the ship and rescue Mom from the clutches of people armed with swords, guns, and who knows what else when I only have a little knife with a six-inch blade?

  As he neared the trunk of the tree, he saw that the hatch was standing wide open. He admitted to himself that not closing Urania’s hatch when he boarded was a careless oversight. One that allowed Lexi to come aboard and stowaway. He couldn’t complain about the way that turned out. In fact, he was more than delighted having her on board. However, it was surprising the Helgans apparently made the same mistake. Overconfidence? Stupidity? Carelessness? Desire for fresh air? It didn’t matter. They left him a way in. Maybe they’re not even armed while on their ship. Why would they be?