by Lisa Lace
Eventually, the door opened. I heard the scraping and jumped up, legs stiff and body sore, but adrenaline pumping through my body.
The guard shoved the woman into my cell, and she fell to the floor coughing. They had sent me one of the sick ones, of course. It didn’t matter to me. I was taking the opportunity to get out of here right now. I ran at the guard, taking my chances, not thinking, only attacking. I tackled him and managed to get in a few punches on his head. I was wild, and all I wanted was to get away. When he lay still, I raced down the hallway as fast as I could, looking for the elevators. I tried to remember the path I took when they moved me here.
A moment later, my whole body stopped moving, and I fell to the ground in agony. I looked up to see the guard standing over me. He grabbed my arm and dragged me back down the hall, making no effort to be gentle. The stun was wearing off by the time he got me back to the cell, and I started to yell.
“No! I won’t go back in there!” I could scream, but my body was still immobilized.
“Yes, you will. You’ll stay there until you stop making a scene and go fuck that woman.”
“How can you do this? You people are monsters!”
He stared back at me, probably used to madmen shrieking at him. “Stop fighting and make things easy for yourself,” he said, dropping me onto the floor in the blackness and shutting the door.
As soon as I could move, I sat up, went to the corner, and tried unsuccessfully to think of something else. Anything other than this awful place. My mind filled with pain from the electric jolt. There was nothing but the pain and the sound of coughing.
I hoped she wouldn’t infect me. In theory, the coughing would probably only make me sick. It killed the off-worlders.
I felt the woman’s body wrap around my back. “I need it badly,” she said.
“You’re going to have to wait.” I pushed her away, making her crash onto the floor again. She coughed for a long time. As soon as she caught her breath, she was back, thrusting her hips at me. Her hands reached around, trying to undo my pants.
I couldn’t push her away forever. I was afraid to sleep because she would try to have sex with me when I was helpless. And I knew my body would respond. The woman was insatiable and seemed more desperate than me.
Finally, I thought of a way to get her to leave me alone. I could give her what she wanted.
When she came at me the next time, I grabbed her and pulled her into my lap. She wrapped her legs around me, moaning, and I felt that she was naked already. I dropped my hand down and found her clit. She gasped and began thrusting her hips at me while I touched her.
I sat down on the floor while she was on my lap. She bounced up and down against my hand as I stimulated her, making a high-pitched wailing that grated on my nerves. It was potentially the least sexy thing I could imagine. A noise cut through my haze of pain and my focus on getting her to leave me alone. It was the door opening again. Why was the guard back already?
Then I heard something I thought I’d never hear again. Sophie’s voice.
“Khellen?”
At that moment, the woman came, screaming, and I pushed her off my lap, getting to my feet, filled with anger and fear for Sophie’s health.
“Khellen?” she called again, sounding as if she hoped it wasn’t me.
I moved stiffly towards her, the pain from the stun still throbbing in my limbs. I knew I must look terrible. I hadn’t eaten or slept much since I arrived. “What are you doing here?” I asked, glaring at her as terror filled me. The woman was coughing again like she would never stop.
“I came to get you,” she replied timidly. I suppose she hadn’t expected this reaction from me. There was something about this place that was getting to me and making my personality unrecognizable. But what was stronger than my need to escape was my desire to protect Sophie. If she caught the lung disease, she might die. “Well, you can go right back out. I don’t want you to get me. And as you can see, I’m busy.” I pointed to the woman spasmodically coughing on the floor. If she had come this far to rescue me, she wouldn’t leave without a good reason. Thinking that I didn’t care about her was the best way to keep her safe right now.
“Khellen, I won’t leave you here.”
My heart clenched. Even after everything she saw, she still wanted to help me leave. “You misunderstand me, Mrs. Lynch, allow me to be clearer.” I moved towards her, trying not to stumble on legs still weak from the stun. “Get out.”
I grabbed her shoulders and pushed as hard as I could. She landed roughly in the hallway, and I shut the door before she could get up and come in again. I only hoped it had been in time. No one was sure how the disease spread. It could be an airborne virus or from skin-to-skin contact.
The woman on the floor had stopped coughing and was lying quietly. I hoped she was sleeping. My legs gave out, and I sat down in a heap. I hoped the stun hadn’t done any permanent damage to my nervous system. I noticed something glowing on the floor as I sat down, and I reached out to pick it up. It must be Sophie’s. It looked like a security device. How had she gotten it? It explained how she penetrated so far into the compound.
I felt horrible. My body was racked with pain and I needed sleep badly. My emotions were in turmoil from seeing Sophie again. My overriding concern, however, was getting Sophie out of there before she contracted a fatal cough. What should I do?
Since Sophie had gotten in, she knew how to get out. We had her electronics. But what if I inadvertently infected her? Last time I had sent her away, she had gone without a backward glance. Perhaps she had done the same thing this time.
“I’m still here, Khellen.” Her whisper was audible through the barrier.
I didn’t understand why she hadn’t run away when I rejected her. She had gone quickly enough the first time. Why was she staying now? If we managed to get out of here alive, I hoped there would be adequate time to figure out Sophie’s motives.
“I’m not leaving you,” came her voice.
I ignored her, trying to decide the best action plan. I didn’t have much time before the guard came to check on me.
Then I had an idea. If Sophie’s electronic device was a multipurpose tool, it might have a scanner. A scanner set to the highest level might kill any virus or bacteria. It would give us both a chance to get out of here alive and together. I got slowly to my feet and opened the door with the device.
Sophie didn’t say anything but stood looking at me silently. I handed her the piece of electronics. “We have to do one thing before we can leave. I’ll scan you first.”
She picked up the device and inspected it carefully. “You have it set to the most powerful level. Do you think it’s safe?”
“There’s a contagious disease spreading through the facility. Off-worlders have been dying from it, and the woman in there is showing symptoms. We need to decontaminate ourselves, or you might catch it.”
Her eyes got round, but she didn’t argue with me.
After we had scanned each other, she led us at a frantic pace in a different direction. We heard someone coming and hid in a closet until the footsteps passed by us. We continued down the corridor that ended at the cargo elevator. She used the access override to unlock it, and in less than a minute we were at ground level. When the door opened up, we crept out. We hadn’t gone five steps before we heard a shout behind us.
“What are you doing there?”
“Run!” Sophie said, grabbing my hand and dragging me behind her. We made our way to the loading dock, stopping at an open bay door. Two workers were off-loading supplies from the cargo hovercraft floating outside.
“Where are you going!” the female worker shouted. “Stop! You’re not supposed to be here!” She ran towards us, pointing a blaster in our direction. We dropped to the floor, crouching behind some pallets of medical supplies.
When the worker edged around the pallet, Sophie grabbed the woman’s arm — the one holding the blaster — and twisted it. She pulled the woman down and hit
her. Sophie grabbed a piece of twine from the debris on the floor and flipped the woman on her stomach, quickly tying her hands behind her.
I gave Sophie a surprised look. “We have to do whatever it takes to get out of here,” she said.
The male worker had held back during all the action, and I saw that he didn’t have a weapon.
“He doesn’t have a weapon,” I whispered. “Let’s make a break for it.”
We took off, heading straight for the large bay door. The man tried to stop us, but I punched him in the stomach and pushed him out of our way. As if suddenly remembering something, he raised his arm and pointed something at the door. It started to rumble shut.
“Come on, Khellen.” Sophie was yanking my hand, but my stiff body couldn’t move as fast as it needed to. The door dropped quickly - it was already a third of the way closed. “Khellen, you have to run faster!” Her tugging on my arm made it ache even more. I felt my body begin to shut down.
“This is all that’s in me,” I said.
“Find more!” She was screaming at me, and I wanted to run, but I felt a secondary paralysis from the stun, and I couldn’t do anything about it.
The door was halfway down, and we were too far away. I stumbled and would have fallen if Sophie hadn’t pulled me forward. We were almost there, but the door was nearly shut.
With Sophie helping me, maybe we could make it. After a few more feet we would be in the clear. When I was almost to freedom, my body seized and I fell to the floor, unable to bring my hands up and prevent my head from hitting the floor.
The last thing I remembered was my skull smashing into the stone.
Chapter Fifteen
SOPHIE
A few feet from the bay door, Khellen collapsed to the floor as if he had lost control of his limbs. It looked like he lost consciousness when his head smashed into the ground. The door was almost closed, but I hadn’t come this far to give up now.
I scrambled and slid under the door, reaching the other side while still holding onto Khellen. I don’t know where I found the strength. I reached under his arms and pulled as hard as I could. Khellen came sliding out just as the door slammed closed behind us.
They would be coming after us. We needed to get away. But Khellen was unconscious and probably hurt. I eyed the cargo hovercraft. I could fly, but I had never piloted a vehicle this large before.
I was going to have to learn quickly.
I wasn’t sure how I could get him into the ship. He was much heavier than me, and now his body was dead weight. I walked around the craft and found a floating lift used to move cargo into the building. It was designed so anyone could operate it with minimal training, so it didn’t take long for me to figure out how to lower it, drag him onto the lift, and move him into the hovercraft.
After I had boarded the ship myself, I hustled to the control panel and pressed the button to close the door. Then I studied the array of buttons, lights, and sliders. When I recognized the ignition controls, I reached out and managed to start the engines. Maneuvering carefully off the loading dock, I realized flying this ship wasn’t much different from ships I’d piloted before, except for the size. I did crash into something, but it was small, and I hoped it was irrelevant. I took a deep breath, plotted a course, and got us moving.
When I checked the sensors, there was no one behind us. I headed away from Holding Center 241 and didn’t look back.
After an hour moving at the highest speed I dared, I set the hovercraft to a more normal velocity and put it on autopilot. I called Khellen’s mother on an encrypted channel.
“Fiona,” I said, as soon as she answered. “I think we need to get off this planet as soon as possible. Do you think you can get us two tickets on the next ship out of here? It doesn’t matter where we go.”
“Sophie, what happened? Do you have him? Are you all right?” She looked flustered.
“We’re both alive, but we’re going right back to prison unless we fly out of here.”
“I’ll do what I have to do. I’ll get them somehow and call you right back.”
“Don’t forget to encrypt the line.”
She nodded and the screen went black.
I climbed over boxes and containers until I reached Khellen, who looked pale and was breathing shallowly. Was there anything I could do?
I tried to remember my first aid training but couldn’t think of anything, and my training on humans might kill an alien. I thought there might be a first aid kit in the vehicle, so I combed through cabinets and compartments until I found one. I brought it back to Khellen and activated it. A male VR assistant’s voice started telling me what to do.
“Please scan the patient.” When I finished the scan, the computer gave me further instructions. “Use the decontamination unit to neutralize the pathological viruses.”
I guess using a random piece of electronic equipment as a sterilization device wasn’t a safe medical procedure. I poked through the kit for the decontamination unit and ran a full procedure on Khellen. Next, I attached the unit to the ceiling and cleaned myself twice.
Khellen had terrified me when he told me about the disease. It explained why he treated me roughly when I found him. The woman in his cell— I didn’t want to think about him mating with her — had been coughing, and he wanted to protect me.
When I finished, the computer recommended decontaminating the vehicle as well. After another scan, it declared we were virus-free. I blew out my breath in relief.
“Use the coagulator to stop the bleeding at the site of the wound on the patient’s head,” the man’s voice said.
I did as he instructed and made Khellen as comfortable as I could, getting him onto one of the floating stretchers instead of leaving him lying draped across crates. I covered him with a blanket and kissed him briefly on the forehead.
He might never forgive me for how I had betrayed him, but I had made partial amends by rescuing him. If I could safely get him to a place where the government couldn’t reach him, I could live my life with a clear conscience.
I hoped he would forgive me, but I didn’t expect him to. Especially after seeing the anger in his eyes when he pushed me out of his cell. I had left him to be taken to the prison and abandoned him because I was scared, all to further an ideal.
I straightened my shoulders and pulled myself together. This was not the time for a pity party. I picked at the compound, which had lifted more each day since Fiona applied it to the marriage certificate. The exposed bit of corner was big enough now to grab with my fingers. I pulled on it experimentally, feeling immediate pain with the glue-like substance tugging on the delicate skin of my forearm. I wasn’t going to get it off this way.
I wished I had an opportunity for a doctor to remove it, but I doubted there would have been time for that and to free Khellen. There was no way to know for sure, and I might drive myself crazy with fruitless thoughts.
A tone signaled a communication from Fiona. “Sophie, I’m on an encrypted line, and I’m transmitting the tickets now. I’ve arranged for medical transport for Khellen directly to the shuttle.”
“What about…”
She ignored me and continued with her monolog, answering my question before I got a chance to get it out. “Don’t worry about the Warden’s men. They won’t bother you. If they ask you anything, give them the code included with the tickets. He’s been kind enough to assist us.”
Fiona had convinced the Warden to help us, no doubt. I briefly wondered what she had promised and if she would regret it. But I had no time now to ponder what favors Fiona had offered to save us. Besides, she had feelings for Seamus, so our situation may have given her an excuse to do what she wanted. I tore my thoughts away from Fiona’s love life and focused on her instructions again.
“When you get to the spaceport, a medical transport team will meet you. They will bring Khellen to the shuttle and into a private cabin. Using this route will avoid any problems with him not having identification. They will have the required
information to get him checked through. The documents say you will be allowed to stay with him in the private cabin because you are his wife. I suggest you remain there for the entire trip.”
“Where are we going?” I asked. Anxiety was making my stomach feel tense. I rubbed it, and with a start remembered that I had a child growing inside me.
“The flight will take you to Shveitz. It’s a neutral planet that takes in political refugees. Once you arrive, you’re going to be on your own, Sophie.”
I nodded at her. “Thank you, Fiona. We’ll be in contact as soon as we can.”
Fiona teared up. “Please take care of him.”
“I will.” Of all the promises I had given in the past month, this was the one I felt deep within my soul. I would take care of Khellen and bring him to a safe place, no matter the cost to me. If he decided to kick me out of his life, I could live with it. But until he was safe, I would protect him.
She said good-bye, and I cut the connection.
Everything went according to plan. The medical team met us and accepted Khellen as a patient. After checking Fiona’s documents, they fast-tracked us onto the shuttle and into a room just for us. The technicians checked us over once we were inside. They didn’t have to decontaminate us again. As part of their onboarding procedure, the physicians scanned us with their equipment and found nothing irregular.
They were slightly concerned with Khellen’s head injury but determined he could travel as long as he had it checked when we arrived on Shveitz. They administered a tranquilizer to put him in a light coma for the duration of the trip. I slept most of the time and Khellen rested quietly under his sedation. His color and injury improved as his body healed.
The medical technicians said the coma would wear off about three hours before landing. When we got closer to the planet, I booked us a hotel in the central city and arranged for medical transport for Khellen, in case he had problems regaining consciousness.
