by Tia LaBeau
“I’ll give you a moment. I’ll pull you along towards the market.”
I give him the finger. It’s not like I can just drop out of the motherfreaking sky.
17
Bastian
I know she’s angry with me, but how was I supposed to know that I was going to fall for her? Okay, I guess that’s no excuse. I ride next to her. If she had been anybody else, it would have been wrong for me to turn her over to the Governor still. Had he been right? Was it she that killed his son instead of her sister?
I plan to ask Freda this when we land. Right now, at this very moment, I only hope only that I keep her from running away. I take us down through the air towards the markets and sit us down in front of a door that I know makes clothing that will fit Freda well, but she hops off of Lipim and runs.
I jump off my Xinzi as soon as it hits the ground and take off running. Good thing I’m in shape, otherwise I don’t think I could keep running after her. Her little feet get her wherever she’s trying to go very quickly.
I slide to a stop in the dirt when she reaches the dead end of a small clay alleyway. I hold my hands out in front of me. “Okay, let’s just stop it.”
“Stop what?
I’ve never seen her so angry, but as happy as she can be, I guess she can be just as mad.
“How could you?
“I was desperate okay,” I say. I’m crouching a bit, bracing myself in case Freda decides to tackle me. I know this alley. I have a storage area just here. There is a door. I could snatch Freda inside the storage area and keep her there until she changes her mind. I guess that wouldn’t be good. “Listen, I didn’t know you okay, and I know that’s no excuse. I’m aware now,” I say.
“Oh, are you? Why?” Freda asks.
“I am. I’ve changed.”
“Have you?”
“I’ve changed the way I feel about you, and it’s because of you that I’d never do a thing like I did with that transport ship again. I get it. Before humans were expendable if it came down to the safety of Haveners. Now I don’t feel that way anymore.”
Freda puts her hands on her hips. “I can’t believe you were in cahoots with the Governor this whole entire time.”
“Me either, but it was only a means to an end. I only wanted that ship. Now he knows that I know what he’s been doing here as far as the Haveners go. He’s getting them off the streets so that he doesn’t have to use all the funds the Teron government gave him for the purpose of the Exodus. I don’t know what he needs those funds for. It can’t be to increase his living status. His living status is already opulent. He could have bought a ship and gave it to me, but he’d have rather I pirated a ship and gave him you. But I will not give him you. And if I have to, I’ll risk going to the death to save you and your sister.”
Freda raises an eyebrow at me. “And just how do you intend to do that?” she asks.
“Come,” I say. I ease over to the door. “I have a storage here. Come inside, and we will figure it out together.”
Freda smirks. “And if I don’t agree to go inside there with you?”
“I’ll send you with a veemer. You can use it to go wherever you’d like.”
“You have a veemer?”
“Four of them,” I say.
“How far is the travel station from here?”
“Not far. If you don’t want the veemer, I will drop you off at the travel station myself.”
Freda sighs and throws her hands up in the air. “Fine!” She storms towards the door, shoves past me, and even steps on my foot as she stomps inside.
I close the door behind us. All I want to do is gather her in my arms and apologize to her. I guess I knew that she was going to explode when she found out I had captured her for the Governor. I was planning to tell her truth after I got off of the comms with the Governor.
I knew the Governor would hate what I had to say once I changed my mind. My plan was to tell him anyhow, and then convene with my crew to decide how to keep Freda safe from him while still carrying out the plan to get the people free from the lock up and on the transport to Teros.
I’m not sure what my plans were for after I moved to Teros for good. I figured maybe I’d pirate more, sell stuff, and give the credits to those who were wayward, suffering from the lack of infrastructure available on Mars and such. The infrastructure which the Governor had promised, infrastructure for which he was paid for, is yet to be seen.
Freda plops down on the dusty floor of the storage. There’s stuff everywhere. Random pieces from ships and vehicles I’ve taken from others, clothing, treasures of all sorts, jewels, currency, and a bunch more I’m too upset to remember.
“Listen, Freda,” I say, squatting down on the floor. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I made a mistake. Can you forgive me? I want you.”
“I know what it feels like to want, but we can’t always have what we want now can we?” she asks.
I look down at my feet. “Please. I made this one mistake. I can’t promise you that I won’t make others, but I promise I will never betray you. I promise that I will never hurt another human.”
Freda fiddles with her hands. Her nails are painted the same color of my skin.
“You’re on thin ice, bucko. I’m likely to die soon, so what does it really even matter? If you hang with me, you’re likely to die too.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take if you’re willing to stick with me,” I say.
“What’s your big plan?”
“I need some time to figure it out. We shouldn’t go back to the palace just now. It’s too hot. We can go somewhere else. Somewhere nicer, so that I can get my bearings.”
“What about my sister?”
“We’ll figure this all out. I promise.”
I extend my hand. Freda takes it, and I pull her off of the floor. She smacks me on the arm.
“Ow,” I say.
“That’s for fucking me, knowing that you were going to turn me over to the Governor. You might as well have been fucking a corpse.”
“I knew I wasn’t going to turn you over to the Governor the moment I saw you on the transport ship,” I say. I’m being very honest with her now.
Freda’s eyes soften. “No, you didn’t.”
“I told myself after I saw you in the flesh that I was kidnapping you for the Governor, but I think I was really kidnapping you for myself.”
“Doesn’t that sound just a little bit creepy to you?” Freda asks.
I smirk. “I admit that it does. I’m sorry.”
“You’re lucky you’re good in the sack. You’ve got a lot of making up to do if it’s even possible.”
“I’ll do whatever you want.”
Freda grins. Immediately, I almost regret declaring such a thing, but it’s only for a tick. I’d do anything for Freda Chou now. Even if it means I have to let her go.
18
Freda
Bastian and I get back on the bikes, and when we do, he says, “Wait, I forgot. Come.”
“Where are we going?” I ask, looking around. The Governor’s goons could be anywhere.
“Please. It will only take a moment,” Bastian says. I wish I could really hate him, but I can’t. Maybe it will take a bit of time for the hate to rise in my loins.
Half full of hate, I follow him into a small shop. There are clothes everywhere. There’s stuff from Protos, stuff from Teros. Imports make the worlds go round.
“Pick anything you like,” Bastian says. He leans up against a display of stuff.
“Shopping? Now?” I ask. “Are you kidding me?”
“You’re wearing only a tunic and boots. You need more clothing, especially if we’re going to fight the Governor.”
“We?” I ask. It’s hard not to look around a little. A Havener lady pops up from behind a stack of clothing propped up on a table. She has long black hair and dark red skin. Her green eyes are a beautiful almond shape. She’s wearing a long white tunic with short squishy boots. She’s also wearing a white scarf aro
und her neck. “Can I help you?” she asks.
“Give her anything she likes, I’ll pay,” Bastian says.
The lady kneels immediately. I mean seriously. She kneels? My mouth falls open.
“Pirate King,” she says. “Anything else I can do for you, I will do. I would be happy to do anything.”
Bastian raises his hand out. “No. There’s no need to bow to me,” he says.
“No need. I’d do anything to please you.”
Bastian says. “Please. No need for any of that. Your English is very good.”
“I’ve been practicing for my migration to Teros. If I make it there, that is,” the Havener woman says bowing her head. “As you may know they’re arresting Haveners left right, even those who have done nothing. There will be innocents left to live out their lives here.”
“I know,” Bastian says. “Freda, gather some things so that we may go.”
I search around and start grabbing stuff like pants, some shirts, another pair of squishy boots, this time bright green ones, a jacket, a scarf, some undergear. I throw everything into a pile on the floor and then gather up as much as I can in my arms. Some of the stuff falls out of my arms onto the floor.
Bastian helps me get it to the counter where the lady takes the payment of Havener dubla. That’s the currency on Havenu. It’s not on a card or in paper form. It’s gold coins.
The lady waves Bastian’s hands away, and she folds up the stuff and shoves it into bags made of fabric. “Pirate King, your dubla is no good here. Besides, you gave me too much dubla.”
“You will take this dubla. Use it to purchase supplies if it ever becomes necessary which I hope it does not,” Bastian says.
“Yes, hopefully. I will lie low and try not to draw attention to myself. I think soon everyone here in the market strip will stop coming to work. We’re too vulnerable here.”
Bastian shakes his head and then slams his hand down on the table.
I wince as if it was my own hand. He slammed his hand down so hard that I’m almost convinced that I felt it. “Are you okay?” I ask. My determination to be cold and pissed slips through my fingers like sand.
“I’m fine. Let us go.” Bastian turns around and heads towards the door before turning back and coming to get the bags.
I could have carried them myself. I guess I’d have to say that he’s quite the gentleman. Besides the fact that he kidnapped me, locked me up in a dungeon, and was about to sell me out to the Governor. I grit my teeth and stomp out of the clothing shop. I’m still mad as Venus.
We climb back on the bikes. Bastian stares me down. “Can I trust you to follow me to our next destination?”
“Still trying to rule me, eh?” I ask.
“No. Definitely not, but I don’t want to leave you out here alone. If you run from me, you’ll be alone.”
“I can take care of myself, you know?”
“I bet you can,” Bastian says with a worried look on his face. “Tell me something, did you kill the Governor’s son?”
I scratch my head. “Are you serious? You’re asking me this right now?”
“Yes, I am.”
I turn away. “Yes, I did. I don’t know how the Governor knows, but he does.”
“Come, let’s away,” Bastian says.
I expect him to say more, but instead, Bastian zips up into the sky, and now that I know how to operate the stupid bike, I follow him. We ride the bikes through the pink Havenu sky. Thank goodness the wind storm has passed.
Not long after takeoff, Bastian drops back down again into a village. There are small houses here. They have a more rural feel. He rides towards a small cottage made of clay. “Here. We’ll stop here,” he says.
I park the bike, get off and follow Bastian inside. The cottage is very small. There is a tuft on the floor and a table over in the corner. There are a couple of pottery settings on the table. I look out of one of the windows up at the sky. I see only one of the suns now because the other one is hiding behind some clouds.
“Is this place yours, Pirate King?” I ask.
“You mock me,” Bastian says. He turns away from me and begins pacing the room.
“Now are you going to tell me what happened between you and the Governor’s son?”
“He tried to rape me,” I say matter of factly. No point in beating around the bush.
“He what!” Bastian rushes over to me. He grabs me and takes me into his arms.
I’m not going to lie. It feels nice to be held. “I killed him in self-defense. Cleo took the fall for me because she thought that the Governor wasn’t going to let things go along fairly.”
“Rig the system as he seems to always do?” Bastian asks me. He rubs my back. “If Zeid Furmi were still alive, I’d kill him myself.”
“I appreciate it. However, the fact that I’m being comforted by a guy who was only just about to turn me over to the one person in the whole two systems who wants to kill me, well.”
Bastian releases me and grabs me by the chin. He looks deeply into my eyes. “It was wrong of me. There is no excuse. I’m sorry.”
“I know,” I say. I sure am tired of picking the wrong guy, and I don’t want to get hurt again, but I look into his eyes. I can tell he’s sincere.
“I won’t hurt you,” he says as if he has read my mind.
“How do you know?”
“I know I will never do so intentionally.”
“I don’t want to hear it. I want a solemn swear that you will scrutinize everything you do before you do it and I want you to swear that you will make absolutely no more mistakes pertaining to me ever again in your life.”
Bastian frowns. “Is that what you do in your own life?”
“Hey, you,” I say, wagging a finger in Bastian’s face. “Don’t turn this around on me,” I say, smiling. I know it is impossible for Bastian or anyone else for that matter, to be able to stick to such a promise even if they tried.
It’s odd. Here we are about to think through what we ought to do to defeat the Governor. Thinking things through before I do them has never really been my strong suit. We’ll see if it makes a difference.
I go over to the tuft on the floor and plop down on it. The tuft feels soft, and so does the linens. Bastian walks over and sits down on the floor next to me. He’s sexy in his all white. The red dirt has stuck to his boots, though, but the dirt isn’t much present on his clothes.
“I’ll be back,” Bastian says, getting up.
“Where are you going?” I ask. “To call the Governor. Turn me in?”
“To get the bags. I forgot them in the storage compartment of Xinzi.
“Oh,” I say. I roll over on my stomach, spread my legs open on the bed, and close them over again like I’m making a snow angel. The tuft really is so soft, and the linens really are so comfortable. I could crawl under the blanket now. Once Bastian’s out of the door, I get underneath the covers.
I remember that I’m not wearing any undergear. Wasn’t that naughty of me to ride a bike with just a tunic on and no undergear? Oh well, this could be my last day in the universe. One should always be undergearless on their last day of life.
Bastian returns and sits the bags on the floor. “Thanks for the gear,” I say.
Bastian nods his head. “It is my pleasure. It’s my fault you don’t have your things with you.”
“I didn’t have much with me anyway. Only my bag that had one pair of undergear in it. I thought I was going to get the chance to pick up some stuff when I got to my sister in the—,” I stop myself.
“It’s okay. I know where your sister is. The Governor informed me of your sister’s whereabouts before we pirated your transport ship.”
“Oh,” I say. “Well, yeah. It’s no big.”
I’m so comfortable on this tuft. Life is one big risk. I suppose there are times when you can think things through and have a better chance at getting what you want, but romance wise, I’d say that’s a lot more difficult. Like if someone makes a mistake,
but they’re sincerely sorry how do you know whether you should trust them again?
People make mistakes. Sometimes people only feel remorseful when they get caught, but in Bastian’s case, believe he was already sorry for what he did before I listened in on that conversation between him and the Governor. What if they seem to mean it when they say that they’ll try not to hurt you again? I mean the past is prologue, right? Or maybe it’s not.
I guess you follow your heart if you think it’s worth it, but you’ve got to be willing to pay the cost if the shit doesn’t work out.
19
Freda
I watch Bastian, stare actually, trying to see if I can see into his soul. I can’t. I can see into his eyes, though, and that’s all I have, the way he stares at me.
I motion for Bastian to come to me. He points to himself.
I nod my head. He takes off his squishy boots and climbs onto the tuft with me. “So you forgive me?”
“Whoa whoa, buddy, let’s not get too carried away,” I say.
“Here,” Bastian says, reaching out to me. He places his hands on my head. I feel him in me, inside of my brain. I feel how he feels for me. It is warm and certainly sincere.
“That’s convenient,” I say. “I wish I could initiate such a thing between us.”
“Me too,” he says. “I feel as if I have an unfair advantage.”
I shrug. “So is the way of the universe. Now eat me out since you’ve promised to be my love slave.”
“Eat you out?” Bastian asks.
I tip my head down. “You know, go downtown. Down there. Go fishing, bub.”
“What?”
I throw back the covers, pull up my tunic, and spread my legs and point. Then I make lapping motions with my tongue.
“Oh,” he says with a grin.
He’s down there before I can laugh. He kisses me right on my pussy like it’s my mouth.
“That feels good, but jeez, you could do much better,” I say.
I look down and see his black tongue sweeping across my clit as he stares up at me with the most mischievous look in his eyes. I pat him on the head and smirk.
