Baby, it's Cold in Space: Eight Science Fiction Romances

by Margo Bond Collins

  “—said the spider to the fly?” she finished.

  “Jody! No… no.” She heard Ewan behind her.

  “Don’t Ewan. Stop,” Jody warned.

  Something snakelike whipped out from Carl’s mouth. It snapped in Ewan’s face, sending him reeling backwards into the wall.

  “You jackass,” she growled. “He couldn’t have hurt you. Gilamen… think you’re indestructible. But you’re just another lab experiment. Just another escaped maze rat. You’re not that special.”

  “Neither are you, little ninja. How many pokes at your DNA have you taken? Lab days. It’s like a high school reunion.” Carl examined his thick fingernails with casual smugness. “And I’m not indestructible but I am untouchable. The venom itself isn’t bad in small doses. At least you’re wise enough to know not to try anything with me, Commander.”

  “Shut up, Carl.”

  He laughed a reply. “Of course, Commander. Now, come along.”

  As she walked through the door she arms grabbed around her shoulders, jerking her backwards. One beefy arm mashed her chest, the other twisted her hands together with an iron grip.

  “She’s all yours, Alice. Do a good job of neutralizing her. But keep her alive. Sometimes you get a little too rough with your food. I need Mr. Schoolboy Crush to have a reason to play nice.”

  Alice’s hot breath came across her neck.

  Jody spat. “Carl, you’re a real gem, you know that?”

  “I’m aware of my finer qualities,” Carl replied.

  “Yummy, yummy, my honey hammer is burning for you.” Alice oozed prehistoric sweet nothings and spittle on her collar.

  “Well, if it’s burning, keep it to yourself.” Jody snapped.

  “Don’t underestimate her, Alice…” Carl warned.

  “Am I your final exam for these jerks?” She curled her lip in disgust at the slather on her ear, pushing herself forward up into Carl’s face.

  “Well, you’re no good for me, I don’t even like your species. I have to get someone else to do the job for me.” Carl’s tenor lilted his snide reply.

  Alice dragged her backwards towards the ramp.

  “Oh snow… he loves the snow.” Carl called after her. “He’s part Howler. You know…doggy style…” Carl laughed and stepped back further into the vessel.

  Jody tested Alice’s arm lock but his grip was rock solid. A ripping sound signaled the end of her EVA as his free hand groped it open. He shoved his hand down between her legs, shredding the rest of the front. But his hammy fingers met up against her body armor just as he squeezed them between her thighs.

  “Have a good time getting through that, if you get that far.” Her EVA boots dragged tracks in the snow. Revulsion roiled in her belly as Alice rubbed her backside up and down across his groin, emitting grunting yips, like an excited dog.

  Dog. She tried to remember the slang and what species Carl was referring to. Stars, another lab rat in Carl’s arsenal. Howlers mutated sled dogs. Alice’s breed transmogrified under the moon or under certain conditions like sexual arousal. “You’re a Howler. Müterfragga.”

  Carl’s lips widened, still walking backwards, seeming to enjoy the display. “I’ll just watch, shall I?”

  Jody rolled her eyes at Carl’s receding form.

  Only the moon and the ship’s red running lights lit the blackness. Jody tried to look around for any advantage.

  She had very little time. It was going to get really ugly, really fast. The faster the better. Quickness was her only advantage. The countdown began. Adrenaline pumped, waking her senses. The numbness took over, instincts blocked fear. The freezing cold whipped her hair in her face.

  Bone and sinew, his massive hand slid over her breasts, up her collar bone, grabbing her neck.

  Jody’s muscles tightened against the force that twisted her jaw.

  The warm wet tongue slid from her collarbone, over her jugular where it stopped. No. No. No. The hot drool dripped down her neck.

  Twisting her fingers behind her only brought a tighter grip. As a reminder, Alice tugged, arching her back at an awkward angle.

  “I’m not a contortionist, Puppyboy.”

  “Oh yeah?” The vise across her body loosened. He spun her, holding her waistline then pushing her like a rag doll to arm’s length. A thick backhand caught her at the temple. “Not a puppy…”

  Using the momentum, she spun around, staggering away from him, turning, spotting the ground. Dizzying pain throbbed through her skull reverberating down her spine.

  He knew exactly where to hit her for maximum damage. Bells rung in her head. Bright spots blinded. She held her head, squinting up at him, eight feet away now.

  “Ooh, you don’t fall. I like it. More fun. Come back, we’re just starting…” Alice rubbed his groin, and howled to the moon. Ecstasy grew in his horrible distorted visage. “Imma gonna get you little girl… big bad wolf gonna get youuuuu…. Owwoooo” Bones crunched as his jaw elongated.

  She couldn’t trust her eyes.

  Moon crazy beasts.

  Jody launched herself at his groin, running the few steps before jumping, two feet forward, straight into his crotch. In that split second, howling turned from glory to pain.

  Hairy hands and arms clamped thin air.

  She lay precariously beneath him in the snow and added a one legged forward kick up into his jaw. She rolled away as the giant fell forward, gripping his gray camo covered crotch. Snow clouds billowed up around the heft.

  The wind kicked up, covering gray streaks of clouds over the moon. What she’d been waiting for. Jody jumped to her feet and moved in for the kill.

  But ice cools pain; she’d forgotten that.

  Alice rolled on his back and laughed. “Snoaawwww” His misshapen jaw mangled the word.

  It was too late to withdraw. Her foot was already halfway to his head.

  Instead of skull, the boot met with hand. He pulled her tiny boot and roared. Alice’s terrifying grin glazed victoriously over her. “Miiiinnee.”

  She couldn’t stop the momentum of his pull, instead, she rode it. Every bruised and battered sparring lesson had prepared her for this. Her body bent forward. Both fists met his eyes, gouging. Jody anchored her handstand into his skull. Her closed clenched fingers squelched into the soft tissue of his eyes.

  His arms flailed. A sound, like a leaky balloon, echoed across the snow.

  She somersaulted over his head and landed on her feet.

  Jody twisted a look over her shoulder. The once-pure snow around Alice’s head had turned into a sticky red slush. She had to finish him. Even blind he could kill her, especially with Carl’s help. Sliding knees first she grabbed his head between her thighs and snapped his neck.

  A sickening crunch.

  A heaving sigh.

  Panting.

  The adrenaline surge had stolen her oxygen. Furtive looks around gave her no choice, she had to finish Carl. Carl, anybody but that merc, and she was confident she’d win in straight up hand-to-hand. But gilamen are hard to kill and she hadn’t managed to kill Carl.

  Yet.

  There was no way to get away. Standing, she looked down again at Alice and was sad. Yeah, he was a dirty piece of meat but he was set up. Carl knew what she could do. He was probably locked in his cabin right now and…

  A hiss. A sting at the jugular, just above her armor. The corners of her vision began to close in as everything went black.

  ***

  There was a smear of blood on the floor. Next to it were bloodstained boots.

  In front of Ewan stood the man Jody called Carl.

  Ewan’s eyes travelled up.

  Was the man’s skin naturally gray or it been painted that to match his camo? The classic V torso, arms akimbo, made him a fearful sight as the man stared down at Ewan, who felt like a five-year-old looking up and waiting for the punishment.

  “Wait, what happened? Who are you?” Ewan asked.

  “Carl. But who I am isn’t important. Neither are y
ou.” He sneered the last words and smiled with wicked white teeth. “Your drone is all that’s important.”

  “I knew it! Well, Jody knew it…” Ewan growled. He turned his face down and away as he struggled against the bindings. His ears rung with a high-pitched whine.

  “She’s smarter than you think, that one. A little fireball of a death machine. I have her trussed up in the cargo bay. The last time I met her she managed to fry the containment field on a holding cell. This time she got Alice. That Howler was one of my best half-men.” Carl clucked his tongue. “He had just the right amount of brawn and brains to be useful. Yet she cut him down like a nerd through a cheesy poof.”

  Ewan pursed his lips and spat, “First of all, not all nerds eat cheesy poofs. And secondly, what are you talking about? How did I get in here?” Jody’s a killer? And why couldn’t he remember anything?

  “I’m sorry. Had to sting you. The memory loss is temporary. But really, you needn’t have tried to come to her rescue. I repeat for the sake of clarity. She’s a trained assassin.”

  “A what?” Ewan blinked.

  “Doctor.” Carl shook his head. “She took down a thug almost three times her weight. She snapped his neck like a twig. She’s a package of death rolled into a cute little blonde pixie package. I’ve never seen anyone move like that. And trust me, I’ve seen enough to know to be very careful around Benson.

  “Granted, Alice had it coming. I warned him. But he liked his food to be fresh and lively.” Carl shook his head and walked to a painting on the wall of a naked dark skinned boy holding a strategically placed pink flower. “Go figure, she took him by surprise the second he let his guard down. Didn’t even need her hands.”

  Ewan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Jody? Jody? Half-pint to nothing? Suspicion and fear rose. He’d been alone with her! Saved her. He liked her. Really liked her.

  “I’ve had to use my venom on her, just to make sure she doesn’t kill me.” Carl looked at his fingernails. “I may keep her around for a while for kicks.”

  “You filthy…” Ewan snarled.

  “No, no, no. Nothing that crass. She’s a valuable little piece of death and now she owes me two mercenary thugs. Listen.” Carl shook his head. “You stop thinking about her and start thinking about your drone.”

  “Six?”

  “I’m here to retrieve it for private interests. They’re planning something super-secret, no idea and I don’t care. But they want your Six.” He went on, voice growing more smug with each word. His tongue caressed the harshness of his words. “You really thought that this project was given to you because you’re special? Please… are you that naive? No. It got the drone out in the open away from you. What you are going to do is get the machine to return to the ship. If you don’t and I have to do it, I will leave you here… in the ice… to explain to your Cordoba rescuers just how you lost your drone, your ship, and everything else. I’m sure there’s a bunch of lichens for you to analyze in a dark cellar somewhere...”

  Each word curled around Ewan’s spine, choking it. His hands shook. “But…”

  “Do you want to live?” Carl said.

  Ewan clenched his teeth and hoped. No. He prayed. He prayed to whatever deity his forefathers worshipped that his friend Six could outsmart this arrogant mercenary. But how? No. No. There was no way out of this. None.

  “You and I are going to make that call from the transport. Now stand up…”

  ***

  The sound of a hoppercraft landing made Ewan sick to his stomach. Six hadn’t challenged him when he said to return. They’d behaved like a perfect drone. And that worried him. Six was far too smart to not be monitoring the site. Was far too clever to not be prepared. But was far too naive to know what to do in this situation.

  Pulse rifle in hand, Carl returned to the holding cell and motioned for Ewan to step out of the cell, “I don’t need it but I want the drone to make sure to comply. It will obey if you’re in danger, won’t it?”

  “Yes.” Ewan nodded, holding back righteous rage. Fists clenched at his side, he followed Carl. Six. He couldn’t let Carl take them. But Carl’s advantage gave him no choice.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. I can maim you, though. You see, they want you, too. I’ll bet you’re going to build hundreds of those drones for them. Of course, if you don’t cooperate, they’ll probably send you to a mining colony to live out what’s left of your days breathing in Fillonian gasses until you eventually die. Painfully. Or just outright kill you. You never know. They’re above the law and I’m just beyond its reach.”

  Ewan bunched his fingers together, holding them across his chest, under his armpits.

  “Come on now, let’s go… down the ramp.” Carl motioned Ewan out of the outer room, into the silvery gray corridor.

  Ewan shuffled his feet along the deck plates, head down. The first rays of dawn shimmered on the bloodstained snow.

  “Doctor. Doctor?” The drone was hobbling towards the bottom edge of the ramp. In the dim light, he saw Six pass the prone and bloody body of Alice. Its head jolted up, scanning. “Doctor Stewarts! Where are you?”

  “Six, I’m here.” Ewan couldn’t look Six in their eyes. They might be meshes of synthetic cording but they were still eyes to him. And they would look at him with accusation before long if he didn’t think of a way out right now. The pulse rifle was a cold point between his shoulder blades.

  “Forward, down. Come on now…” Carl’s pulse rifle dug into Ewan’s spine.

  “Who is that?” The silvery finger pointed down at the bloody corpse of Alice. “And what is going on?”

  “Six, don’t come closer.” Ewan looked up. He put his hands flat up and forward.

  “Let me help you out,” Carl said. “Stay right there, little drone. I will blow your creator’s head clean off. So, if you want him to stay alive, you will shut down all functions, now.”

  “Doctor Stewarts, you will need—“

  “—to give you the order. Yes. Shut down, Six.” Ewan said firmly.

  “Complying.” Six responded. The lights in the drone’s eyes went out.

  “Excellent. Now, go drag it back up the ramp, please. And we’ll put it in the cargo bay near the little killer. Come on… chop, chop. I was just thinking… I may just keep you as ransom. It’ll certainly make up for Commander Benson killing my assistant.”

  “That thing had it coming, I’m sure. Jody isn’t like that.” Ewan said.

  “Oh you don’t know a lot about her. She’s one of those people that call themselves freedom fighters but,” Carl laughed, “they’re just pirates with a cause. As if ending slavery will somehow help the universe.”

  “Sounds like a pretty good cause to me…” And, it surprised him, but it really did.

  Chapter Nine

  EWAN PULLED SIX’S FORM UP THE RAMP.

  Carl’s bony finger pointed aft as they moved through the ship’s corridor towards the cargo bay. The door slid open revealing a much smaller cargo area than Ebudae’s.

  At first glance it was empty. But his eye turned to the far left corner. Jody. Unconscious.

  She lay face down, trussed with her legs and hands bound together behind her. On her exposed cheek he saw the sickly color of purplish black from her temple down across her cheek and jawbone. Blood stained the knees of her EVA. Blood covered her bound hands.

  How broken was she?

  Ewan placed Six upright next to her patting the drone’s head with a fatherly tenderness. “Now Six… take care of yourself and Jody.” He knew Six would hear him and would obey.

  “Hands off! What the stars are you doing?” Carl demanded.

  “Sorry, sorry. Force of habit,” Ewan said.

  Carl squinted suspiciously. “Time for you to go back in your box, Doc.”

  ***

  Six was busily loosening Jody’s bindings. Jody’s skin prickled as blood flowed back into her limbs. She lay there for a moment, grateful to feel the painful signs of life in her toes and
fingers. A raging headache beat at the inside of her temple from Carl’s poison. Her hands were still raw from trying to untie her binds before Six showed up. Wriggling her brow made her wince where the brunt of Alice’s hand hit her.

  Six put a hand up to their metallic mouth to signal quiet. The drone moved, taking small silent steps, to the comspeaker. Six placed a hand on the box. Jody watched as Six’s eyes and mouth blinked in precision. They turned. “Now we may speak freely.”

  She looked from side to side. “Good work, Six, but how did you get here?”

  Six explained how Doctor Stewarts had summoned them via the comlink and how Carl had threatened Ewan to get Six to shut down.” “Then,” Six continued, whispering. “He signaled for me to turn myself to shut down. It was clever because—“

  “You can’t do that. You can’t shut down by yourself. I remember that. Ewan told me that you have to be manually shut down.”

  “Precisely. So what he did was signal for me to hibernate instead. And when Carl made him put me in here, Doctor Stewarts told me to take care of you.”

  “I got that, I was pretending to be asleep.” It was all she could do not to break her charade and tell him she was alive, to ease his mind. Jody smiled at how Ewan, under pressure, outwitted Carl to buy them more time.

  For now.

  “He nearly got himself killed.” Jody bowed her head. “He tried to interfere when Carl took me out of the cell and handed me over to Alice.”

  “Yes, I believe that the doctor has feelings for you.”

  “We can’t leave him with Carl. Carl’s a gilaman.”

  “A gilaman cannot kill me,” Six said. “When I have freed you, I ask only that you free me,” Six said into her ear.

  Jody looked at Six, puzzled.

  “You must promise me this, to free me. I want you to get Doctor Stewarts and me out of here, beyond Cordoba.” Six’s voice was still low. “I have a plan.”

  “How do you know all of this?”

  “I have been the one surveying the planet, and disseminating the information to Doctor Stewarts. Holding certain things back from Cordoba. I know about the Freedom Road way station in the northern polar cap. I thought that was why they were here. I knew someone would come.”