by Jane Hinchey
CHAPTER SIX
As promised, Alrik and three of his men were waiting for us when we arrived at the training room after breakfast the next morning. It was the first time I'd seen him since the moment we'd shared the day before. I'd avoided him at the evening meal, but I was pretty sure it was him who'd left another set of clean clothes on the foot of my bed, along with workout shorts and a tank.
“You remembered.” The smile that crept across my face was involuntary.
“Of course.” He didn't smile back. I wondered if he was angry with me. “This is my rescue team. Cauder, Dask, and Takeel.” The three men bore the same colouring as Alrik and all were equally tall, dark, and handsome. Clearly, it was a species thing.
“Thank you for coming,” I said. The men shuffled their feet, coughing and looking away. They'd probably never done anything like this before. I turned to the women behind me, who were looking warily at the warriors. “Ladies. Let's warm up, just like yesterday. We'll go through the stomping and kicking exercises again with each other, and then I'm letting you loose on these gentlemen. Please try not to hurt them, okay? They're our hosts.”
The women giggled and the men relaxed, smiles softening their rugged faces.
Alrik and his men moved to one side, talking quietly among themselves while I took the women through warm-up stretches, reminding them of what they'd learnt the day before.
“Okay, ladies. Play time! Alrik!” Boldly, I beckoned him over. I knew I was playing with fire, but couldn't resist. “Let's give them a demonstration.”
A wide smile split his face, his white teeth glinting. “My pleasure.”
He moved behind me, wrapping one arm around my waist, the other around my neck, pulling me flush against his body. Without hesitation, I slammed my heel down on his boot with all my force. He grunted, his grip loosening a fraction—not as much as if he'd been human, but enough for me to wriggle out of his hold. Then his fingers wrapped around my wrist in an iron grip. My own momentum, and the sudden halt as he jerked me back toward him, gave me the opening I needed to level a kick at his knee. He saw it coming and twisted to avoid it, and my foot landed a solid blow to his calf instead. It was enough to distract him; I slipped my wrist out of his hold and bolted.
I felt him behind me and pumped my legs faster, knowing that, with his advanced speed, I had no chance of outrunning him. But I was small and fit and smart. I had a good chance of outmanoeuvring him instead. One of his hands tangled in my hair and I knew he was about to yank me to a painful halt. Reaching up with both hands, I grabbed his wrist, easing the pull on my hair, controlling his grip. I rolled my forward momentum into a somersault and felt him roll forward too, over my back, my grip on his wrist controlling him and throwing him over my head. His fingers opened, releasing my hair as I released his wrist, and he hit the ground on his back, the air whooshing from his lungs.
I didn't hang around to see what would happen next. I took off again. The whole point was to teach the women to get away, after all. To run.
It took him all of a minute to catch up to me. One minute I was sprinting across the sparring mats, the next my leg was pulled out from under me, his fingers clamped firmly around one ankle, and I crashed to the floor. I flipped over onto my back and kicked at his face with my free foot.
His other hand grabbed that foot, but now both of his hands were full. I sat up and grabbed his hair, preparing to smash his face into the floor. It wouldn't have hurt, given we were on a sparring mat, but before I could follow through, he'd somehow launched himself into a somersault over top of me, pulling me with him, throwing me onto the mat with a whoomp beside him. A second later, he was straddling me with his hands wrapped around my neck. Gently. He was smiling, his face relaxed, his eyes twinkling. And although he'd beaten me, I smiled back. It had been fun. Chests heaving, we watched each other, the air thickening between us.
Someone coughed and a couple of chuckles reached my ears. Alrik sprung to his feet, holding out a hand and pulling me to stand next to him. The women cheered.
“Okay, guys, your turn. Just practice the stomping and kicking, okay?”
Leaning back against the wall, I caught my breath while watching the others. Alrik approached, holding out a bottle.
“Thanks.” I tipped my head back and swigged. It tasted like water, but not.
“You are fast.”
“I know,” I said with a grin.
“Your tactics would easily work on slower species.”
“They'd work on you if I had a couple of weapons thrown into the mix.”
“I've no doubt you are right.”
There was a lot of giggling and chuckling going on between the warriors and women. It made me happy to see everyone having a good time. What a change from two days ago.
Alrik suddenly straightened and put his hand to his ear.
“Understood.” His eyes met mine before he turned to his men. “Wrap it up. We are approaching Planet Luvendania. Men, to your stations. Ladies, if you would like to freshen up, we expect to transport you to your planet shortly.”
Toshiko and Rayna hugged each other in glee, their relief at being home palpable. I was going to miss the scaly-skinned duo.
“Sierra.” Toshiko and Rayna stopped me before I left. “Thank you for all you have done for us while we were here. If it wasn't for you, we'd have spent the journey locked in a cell with horrible food. Instead, we ate well and we benefited from your wisdom in self-defence. We thank you.”
“Oh, well.” I could feel a blush heating my cheeks. “Too bad you won't be here tomorrow. I was going to show you how to break a guy's nose.”
“You're not practicing that on me!” Dask declared, a hand going up to protect his face.
Laughing, Toshiko and Rayna wrapped me in a hug. A tight one. Tears threatened, but I blinked them away. Slowly, the embrace ended and the two Tarsiss women clasped hands, following Alrik and Dask from the room.
I took a minute to compose myself and made my way to the entertainment room. Alrik had mentioned we'd be able to see Planet Luvendania from there. He was right; the room was equipped with lounges, arm chairs, giant screens, and some sort of game board that looked a little like chess. And it had three massive viewing windows. Through them, I could see a planet that glowed a stunning green colour.
The other women were at the windows, looking in wonder. I joined them, taking in a world that I'd never even known existed, spread out in splendour in front of me.
“Who's next, do you think?” I asked no one in particular.
“I think it will be Planet Sairi,” Servalan spoke next to me.
“That's where you're from?”
“Yes. Myself and Taya. I can feel the pull from our planet ... we are close now. I'm sorry, Earthling, but you have a longer wait. Earth is the farthest out. You will likely be the last to get home.”
Despite myself, the thought made me sad. Soon I would have to say goodbye to these amazing women who were becoming my friends, and given I was from a faraway galaxy that was apparently lagging in the technology game, it was likely I'd never hear from them again. My eyes grew misty again at the thought.
Moving away from the window, I sank down into an oversized armchair. I had a magnificent view of the planet below. Leaning my head back against the chair, I watched. Not that anything happened; a planet didn't tend to be very active from this distance, but still I sat and gazed at it, the green iridescence taking my breath away.
As the ship moved away from the planet, hyper-slung into another galaxy, the breathtaking rush of lights and colours lulled me. For the first time in days, I allowed myself to relax and just exist—allowed all the new things that I had never imagined possible to just be, without wondering how or why. In this moment, I was at peace.
That peace was shattered when some of the crew arrived, their loud voices piercing the silence. One of them was the soldier who'd stared at me in the dining room with such dislike. His eyes zeroed in on me now and I tensed.
“What is that stench?” he demanded, before laughing and pointing at me. “Found it. Human trash.”
There were some chuckles. One of the others spoke up in my defence, though.
“Come on, Marat. Leave it.”
“I wish we'd left her on that Bellatania ship, blown her to smithereens along with it.”
The crew settled around a table, drinking and talking, ignoring me for the most part, but I could feel the barbed glances Marat kept sending my way and knew he would keep needling me. Normally I didn't shy away from such situations; my training had taught me how to handle myself. But this time? This time I was out of my depth. If I confronted him, it could turn physical, and his species was, no matter how much I disliked the thought, superior to me in strength and speed. This time, common sense had to prevail, and common sense told me to get out, now. I smiled to myself. Sarge would be proud.
I waited until he was distracted, then slid from my seat and left the room unnoticed. Dropping by our quarters, I grabbed my gym gear and headed to the cleaning unit, where I changed and left my day clothes neatly folded on the floor. I figured all the quarters had their own units and the only people using this one were the rescued women, so no one was likely to touch my stuff.
In the training room, I was almost finished stretching when Alrik walked in, dressed in nothing but black shorts, his chest and feet bare.
“Thought I'd find you here.”
“Oh?”
“Would you be interested in learning some of our techniques? To defend yourself? Your ways are effective, but I can show you more.”
“Like how to land you on your arse?”
“It is possible. Not guaranteed.”
“Bring it on!”
* * *
“Argh ...” I landed on the mat with a groan, but rolled to my feet again within seconds. Alrik grabbed my wrist before I had chance to react and tossed me through the air again, and once more I landed with a groan. He was throwing me around like I weighed nothing. I flipped back onto my feet, beckoning him with my hands. He charged. I sidestepped. Not fast enough. His hand wrapped around the back of my neck and flipped me onto the mat. Again.
“Stay focussed.”
Back on my feet, I cartwheeled toward him, foot narrowly missing his chest.
“No.”
I threw a punch. He evaded.
“No.”
Another flip, swinging my leg around to trip him. He shook his head.
“No.”
I aimed a punch at his face. He ducked and countered, his fist stopping an inch from my nose.
“No.”
I was getting pissed off. He blocked every move I made, landed me on my arse at every opportunity. I flipped again, cartwheeling toward him. Mid-cartwheel, he caught my ankle and flung me back to the mat.
“Crap,” I wheezed.
“Wake up!” He stomped toward me, each crash of his foot missing my head as I rolled away. “Come on. You said you wanted to train. TRAIN.”
“Maybe I changed my mind. Let's just get drinks.” I puffed, bent double with my hands on my knees, drawing air into my lungs. His feet appeared within my line of vision and I attacked, rushing forward, head-butting him in the stomach and pushing him back a foot or two. My victory didn't last long. He looped an arm around my waist and I was airborne once more before slamming into the mat.
“Come on. Find my weakness.”
I cartwheeled and spun, this time not concentrating on connecting with him, but keeping him guessing my tactics. I was small and fast and I needed to use it to my advantage. I tucked into a ball, rolling between his legs and popping up behind him. As he swung around, I simultaneously karate-chopped him across the throat and kicked him in the back of the knees. Off-balance, he went to the mat with a crash, gasping for breath.
I stood over him, stunned, for a minute. I'd taken him down! Realising my success, I jumped up and down and squealed with glee.
He looked up, gave me a wry grin. “Good job.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The following morning, as promised, I showed the remaining women how to break an attacker’s nose. I pulled Talia forward to demonstrate.
“It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, just demonstrate the moves.” I moved Talia into position and stood facing her.
“If you are face-to-face with your attacker, like this, then with the heel of your palm, you strike up under his nose with all your strength, like so.” I touched the heel of my palm to Talia's nose. “Keep your arm straight and put all of your strength into it. Again, the whole aim is to get him to loosen his hold on you so you can get away.”
“What if he is behind you?”
“Excellent question.” Turning so Talia was behind me, I demonstrated with my elbow. “If your attacker is behind you, use your elbow and aim for his nose—so up, out to the side, and back, like this. Right, into pairs again and let's practice. We'll train with the punching bags again to get you using all of your strength. Remember, don’t be gentle!”
We were five minutes into it when a group of soldiers arrived, dressed in black shorts and nothing else, here to train. Marat was amongst them. We ignored each other. I kept the women focussed on their moves while the men were put through their paces by Bax, lifting weights, running laps, finally sparring on the big mats.
At the end of our session, the women wandered over to watch on the sidelines as the warriors sparred two at a time on one of the padded mats. I followed along, recognizing some of the moves Alrik had taught me the day before. My muscles still ached from that tussle!
Things were winding down when Marat turned and looked me directly in the eye.
“Dare you, human.” He wasn't as openly hostile as he'd been the last few times we’d met, possibly because his boss was present, but I could see it in his eyes.
“Dare me?”
“Think you can take me down?”
“Actually, no, I don't.”
“Ah, a coward then. Show off in front of the women, don't have the guts to take on the real thing.”
“I'm no coward.”
“Prove it. You even have the advantage; I am fatigued from sparring with my brothers. An easy mark.” His sneer tipped me over the edge, and even though the voice in my head was telling me to walk away, my pride urged otherwise. I was tired of his needling and putting me down, his unending barrage of discriminatory remarks.
“Okay.” The crowd around us erupted in applause, excitement rippling through the air.
Bax stepped forward, placing a hand on Marat's shoulder. “Marat, I do not believe this is wise.”
“She accepted. No one forced her too. It would be dishonourable for her to back out now.”
Bax didn't look convinced, but he stepped back off the mat. I stepped on, taking a deep breath. This was crazy. What had I been thinking, letting my silly pride serve me up to this bully like a piece of meat on a platter? He was going to rip me to shreds, we both knew it. But even my sense of self-preservation wasn't enough to make me change my mind. I could only hope I'd get a few good hits in.
We crouched, circling each other. Marat moved first, his fist swinging at my head. I ducked, felt the air whoosh over my hair. He followed with a leg sweep. I rolled, avoiding that, too. Now that I’d evaded his first two moves, I could feel the air change, charged with his anger, his desire to hurt me. I could practically see the cogs moving in his mind as he planned his next move, but rather than waiting to see what he would do, I lunged straight at him, full-on, body to body. He had nowhere to go. I leapt into him, wrapping my legs in tight around his waist, hands clamping down on his shoulders as I head-butted him in the face. Crunch! As we fell, I disentangled myself from him, rolling to the side and crouching on my toes, one hand balancing on the mat. The top of my head smarted where I'd connected with him, but Marat was worse off with blood streaming from his nose. The crowd cheered. He growled, rolling back onto his feet.
He moved before my eyes could register it, a fist connecting with my cheek, sen
ding me flying. As I struggled to pick myself up, he hefted me over his head and threw me into the wall. The blow knocked the breath from my lungs, and worse, I heard bones snap. I wasn’t immediately aware of the pain, but when it came, it was excruciating. I lay crumpled at the base of the wall, trying to draw a breath, but little air was coming in. Had he punctured a lung? My mouth and throat felt strange, and I coughed, the movement alone drawing a groan from me. Something wet trickled down my neck, I suspected it was blood. Shit. He'd really messed me up. Must have done a lot of internal damage if I was coughing up blood.
He'd broken me.
There was activity and raised voices all around me, but I couldn't make out what anyone was saying. The high-pitched voices of the women indicated their distress, the lower pitch of the warriors maybe showing concern. I couldn't tell, and really, what did it matter? It was my own stupid fault for taking the bait. I knew Marat hated me. Why on Earth would I step onto a sparring mat with him? Stupid, stupid girl.
The edges of my vision were beginning to blur, the lack of oxygen making me dizzy. I thought I heard Alrik's voice, angry, telling me off. For once, I agreed with him. I blinked a couple of times, and his face swam into view. Yup, angry. Really pissed. He was in my face, yelling something, but strangely, I couldn't hear. They were moving me, the burning pain making me scream without sound, without breath. There was just the gurgling of blood in my throat, choking me. No air. Alrik's fingers were at my throat, but I couldn't feel him. I was fading, the room growing darker and darker. I had the sense we were moving now, could feel the air rushing past, the sounds of sliding doors, but it was too late. No air.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“That was not a smart thing to do.”
My eyes fluttered open at the sound of Alrik's voice. I drew in a ragged breath. My ribs and chest hurt, but I could breathe.
“Not my finest hour,” I agreed, turning my head to find him sitting next to the bed. I was in the medical bay again.
Echo stepped into view, shaking her head but smiling. “Welcome back. We nearly lost you this time. Little human, you must stop getting yourself into these situations.” She ran her scanner over my body, nodding her head in satisfaction at the readings.
