“What took so long?” Jack asked her, curious. She seemed a little out of breath.
Aria shrugged her shoulder, nonchalant. “Was one more left, in sick bay. Had to take care of problem.” Jack shivered, though he wasn't about to admonish her for what she'd done. He would have done exactly the same thing in her position, considering what the commandos had done.
Getting to work, Aria first took a section of bandage and wetted it with some of the liquid disinfectant. Using the damp bandage, she wiped off his wound, cleaning the dried and wet blood and burned powder from around the hole. When she finished with that she picked up a filled syringe of a numbing agent.
“Is going to hurt a moment,” Aria said, somewhat apologetically. Before Jack could respond she jabbed the needle directly into his wound and depressed the plunger. Jack's body tensed up and he threw his head back, screaming between his clenched teeth as fire shot up and down his leg from the point of injection, but he kept himself still. As Aria withdrew the needle, the fire cooled down and his leg gradually went numb. “May not want to watch. Humans so timid.”
“Hey, you, listen...,” Jack started to protest, but he saw a little sparkle in her eye, and realized she was trying to lighten the situation with humor. His protest faded away into a chuckle. “Right, right. Just don't screw up the wound any more than it already is. You Ailians are only good at killing things, after all.”
Widening her thin black lips in a smile, Aria picked up a scalpel from the surgery kit and started cutting into the wound. Despite her warning, Jack watched in fascination, amazed that the numbing substance could work so well. As he saw the scalpel cutting into his flesh, he felt a slight tugging sensation but no pain at all even as fresh blood began to flow. When the wound had been opened up enough, Aria set the scalpel aside and retrieved a set of strong tweezers and a spreader. Using the spreader to keep the incision open, she went in with the tweezers and probed around for the bullet.
“Po'krai...,” she muttered to herself, searching around for several minutes. Just as Jack was starting to worry about when the anesthetic was going to wear off, he felt a solid tug and Aria clamped down on something. Aria pulled hard and yanked out, a small, bloody lump of titanium-jacketed lead held in the tweezers.
“Man...,” Jack breathed, reaching down and taking the bullet between two fingers. He examined it closely. “It's lucky this wasn't a hollowpoint. That could have done some serious damage.”
“Yes,” Aria agreed. “You very lucky.” She snatched up another small wad of bandages to soak up the blood that had gathered in and around the wound. After cleaning it again, she sprayed a substance inside and along the incision that was designed to clot Jack's blood, and then she wrapped his thigh tightly with bandages to patch it up. Sitting back, she looked satisfied with her work, her tail waving back and forth slowly behind her. “Is good job for only an Ailian killer, yes?”
Jack smiled at her. “Yeah, you make a pretty good doctor when you put your mind to it.”
Smiling back, Aria picked up the bundle of clothing that she had set aside earlier. “Here. Fresh clothes. Look about your size, I think.”
“Thanks,” Jack said. He took the clothes from her, a full set of pants and a jacket in the same unmarked black fatigues that the commandos had been wearing. A few small patches of blood seemed to have been hastily wiped off of the clothing, and Jack looked up at Aria, arching an eyebrow. “I think I have a pretty good idea of where you got these.”
“Is not important,” Aria assured him. “Besides, person who they belong to not need them, yes?”
“Right...” Jack pulled off his old jacket and tossed it into a pile with the pants he'd been wearing. He put on the “borrowed” set of clothing. While a little bit big, they fit him well enough. “Now, what about you?”
Aria looked a little confused. “Me?”
“Yeah,” Jack said, surprised. “You mean you can't feel that? Your shoulder and your leg?”
Her eyes widening a little, Aria looked at and felt her shoulder and her leg. She seemed shocked to feel the bullet wound in her shoulder, and the bloodied lacerations caused by the fragments in her leg. She shook her head. “Ah...Is hard to explain. Something happen when we get in good fight. Not feel pain for hours afterward. Not even realize I hurt...”
“Well, lie down,” Jack said, getting up on his knees, a little wobbly. “My turn to play doctor.”
******
Later, Aria and Jack sat opposite one another in the other sleeping tent, having left behind the bloodstains in the first. Aria had the top portion of her flight suit unzipped and pulled down for comfort, though she had bandages wrapped around much of her torso. Jack was thankful for the lack of distraction; he had enough to concentrate on right now. They had a fairly important decision before them, or rather between them. For they each sat on one side of the radio set they'd carried out of the commando ship.
“Well...what now?” Jack asked for probably the fifth or sixth time.
Aria had learned to be patient with her human companion, though she was growing tired of his indecision. “Is simple,” she said, for probably the fifth or sixth time. “Use radio. Call for help.”
“Sure. But who do we call?”
Shrugging, Aria looked at Jack helplessly. “Is your radio. Is your choice.” She nudged it towards him with one foot. “You use it to call humans. Get rescue from your own people. Is best, I think.”
Jack blinked at her. “I can't do that,” he protested. “If I call for help, they'll probably send a military detachment, considering how close we are to Ascendancy territory. That'd put you in danger.”
Snorting a laugh, Aria shook her head. “I know how to hide. Can wait for humans to leave with you. Come back and call my people when gone.”
Rubbing his chin, Jack considered that for a moment. “So, you've given up on making me your prisoner, then? Won't that make your people rather mad with you?”
The Ailian shrugged again, her ears flattening just a little. “Have committed treason once already on this planet.” She smiled meekly, her white teeth peeking out from between her lips. “Could do it again...Different way, but...punishment is the same. Besides, you earn your freedom, yes?”
Touched though he was, Jack shook his head. “I can't let you do that. I'm not going to let you just throw your life away like that.”
“Why?”
That question threw Jack for a moment. The single word made it seem like such a simple inquiry, but it was loaded with all sorts of other implications. And she was looking at him so earnestly when she asked it, her head tilted to one side and her tail twitching to the other. Her yellow and gold-flecked eyes were fixing him with a piercing gaze. Jack cleared his throat, meeting her eyes with his own.
“Well, because...well...,” he muttered. The human struggled with what to say for several long moments. It shouldn't have been that hard, but in his mind it was complicated. It's just difficult to say.
“Yes?” Aria leaned forward a little.
Giving up, Jack changed direction. “Look, I don't know what, if any transmissions those commandos might have made before you killed them all. I mean, they obviously knew we were here if they set up a trap for us. For all I know they could have radioed back to their commanders already.” He rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly very nervous. While he'd meant this as a cover for what he'd been unable to say, he was surprised to discover that the fear was very real. “I'd just rather not go back to the UN if I'm going to be facing the blame for that commando team's destruction. I mean, you might have done it, but there'll be an awful lot of explaining for me to do if they're all dead and I'm alive. You see?”
Leaning back again, Aria reluctantly nodded her head. “Is make sense...” Jack thought he saw a hint of something in her expression, was it...? “Then what you think we do?”
“I think you should call your people now,” Jack said. He pushed the radio back towards her with his foot. “We have to be rescued by someone, and it mi
ght as well be the Ascendancy.”
Aria's eyes widened. “You are sure?” She held up a hand, forestalling his immediate reply. “Think. Ascendancy comes to rescue us, you will be prisoner of war. Put in prison, most likely, or made slave. Will be interrogated, locked up, or used.”
“Don't think I haven't been considering that the whole time I've been with you,” Jack said. A sharp wind blew through the campsite, battering the walls of the heavy tent. The rumbling caused by the rippling canvas material sounded almost like thunder. “To be honest, I don't have a whole lot waiting for me back home. My job is definitely down the tubes, and I don't have a family of my own. I've never been close to my relatives, even my parents. I'm basically a screw-up back on Earth.”
“I see...”
“So I'd almost rather be a prisoner than to go back to the scrutiny and failure I'd face back home,” Jack continued. He felt pathetic even saying that, though it was definitely true. The cargo run he'd been making had basically been his last chance to pull himself out of the gutter, and he'd blown it. “So...Go ahead. Make the call.”
Aria stared at him, crossing her arms over her chest. She regarded him with a mixture of pity and new found curiosity, and something else that strangely looked like respect. Perhaps because she recognized in him the same willingness to face an undesirable outcome that she had. Nodding slowly, Aria reached down and examined the radio, finding the power switch and turning it on. She looked back up at him once more.
“You are sure?”
“I'm sure. Besides...” He offered a weak smile. “If I don't go with you, who's going to speak on your behalf at your trial?”
She blinked at him. “You do that for me?”
“'Course I would,” Jack said. He found himself surprised that she would even question that. “I owe you a lot. I'd have been dead at least five times if it wasn't for you. I could at least try.”
“Not sure they let you anyway,” Aria chuckled. “But...Very well.” Fiddling with the various knobs on the contraption, Aria started tuning the radio to the proper frequency. She adjusted the signal booster to give it as much range as possible. Jack would have suggested using the radio inside the commando ship, but he was fairly certain that would be fruitless. The sound of frying electronics inside the ship upon the activation of the doomsday mechanism had sounded pretty final, and he was sure that most of the ship's systems were deactivated.
When she had the radio tuned just the way she needed it, Aria picked up the microphone and began speaking in Ailian.
******
Aria spent several hours trying to reach someone on the radio. While Jack had his doubts, she seemed certain that she was getting through to someone. By her reckoning, they weren't far at all from the edge of Ascendancy space, if they weren't even within it. Aria insisted that a listening post, patrol fleet, or some other sort of Ailian military presence would certainly be in range of the radio they were using. Skeptical though he was, Jack was too tired to argue the point, though Aria did agree that if they didn't get any response in a few days they would go into the Cha'la'fa's wreck to see if the radio in there still worked. They both agreed to leave the commandos' radio on overnight, in any case, just in the event that someone responded while they were asleep.
When they finally did settle down for the night, though, they were both in good spirits despite their weariness. The tent they occupied now was much warmer than their usual sleeping arrangements had been, owing to the heaters that the commandos had brought with them. Aria's need to disrobe completely to sleep was less a matter of what she was used to than a need to keep from overheating now, what with her coat of fur. Jack found the warmth very agreeable, as it was just as uncomfortable for him to sleep in clothing, as it might be for any human. Not having to worry about freezing for lack of clothes allowed him to rest a little freer than he had before, although he did still wear his pants. It helped that by now he was used to sharing the tent with someone who slept in the nude, so the awkwardness factor was dialed way back.
Though they didn't really need to, they lay close together just as they had been doing all along. While they were both very tired, sleep seemed to be difficult to come by tonight. They wound up just lying side by side, chatting. The surreal nature of having a casual conversation with someone who should have been an enemy was mostly past, but they still felt a little of it though they didn't give voice to it. Instead they talked about what had just happened.
“I have to say, it was kind of creepy the way you killed all of those commandos,” Jack said to Aria. He had his hands folded behind his head and his eyes closed. He felt his heart rate start to increase as he recalled the sight of the dead bodies while Aria had carried him out of the ship. “I've seen you fight, of course, but one person, even an Ailian, against all those guys seems unreal...And the way you went after the guy in the room with me.”
“Yes...,” Aria hissed softly. “Battle rage.”
“Battle rage?”
“Yes,” she said again. “Is something that happens to us. If we get hurt badly, if we are in intense fight, or if we see something that make us very, very angry. Lose control a little. See enemy, only want them dead. Nothing else.”
“I saw that,” Jack acknowledged. He opened his eyes, turning his head to look at Aria. “You beat that guy until he was unrecognizable. I wouldn't want to have to go up against you in a real fight. I'd be a goner.”
Aria rolled onto her side towards Jack, propping her head up on one arm. Her tail draped over her hip, the tip twitching unconcernedly. “You do better than you believe, I think...I see you fight before. You not trained like me, but have ability.”
“You're being too kind.” Jack laughed, then he sobered. “I thought they were going to kill me for sure. I could have dealt with that, but I knew they were going to kill you, too. I felt helpless, but I shouldn't have worried about you.”
She smiled a little. “Is alright. I like you worry about me...” She touched her hand to his arm, rubbing her furred fingers along his skin. He shivered at the light, tickling sensation. Those thoughts about what he had wanted to say before sprung to the front of his mind again, but again he hesitated in voicing them.
“They tried to make me give you up, you know,” Jack said, just to have something else to say. “That's why they shot me. They wanted to know where you were so they could get you. They finally offered me a ride home if I told them where to find you.”
Aria sat up a little more, looking at him in surprise. “They did?”
Jack nodded. “Yeah. But I wasn't about to tell them that. I couldn't have lived with myself if I betrayed a friend for my own gain.”
Sitting up fully, Aria looked away. The part of her face that Jack could see seemed to have an oddly distressed expression on it. “You...do that for me?”
“I did.” He sat up as well, reaching a hand up and laying it on her shoulder. “Aria, I told you before, I owe my life to you. If I gave you up to save my own skin, what kind of person would I be?”
As she turned her head to face him again, Jack thought he saw moisture rimming her golden eyes. Then she smiled warmly, and her eyes cleared. “I not know what to say. I glad you do that.” She put a hand to his face, stroking his chin, then she leaned her head in close and rubbed her cheek along his. “You are good friend to me.”
Jack felt a pang of guilt, remembering the time he ran and left her in a fight with wild animals. “You've been a better one to me.” He took a deep breath, holding it for a moment. “Aria, I-”
Aria made a soft shushing noise between her teeth, placing a finger against his lips to silence him. “No more talk...” Pressing a hand to his bare chest, she pushed him back gently but firmly. Jack allowed himself to be sent backwards onto the padded floor of the tent, looking up at Aria as she hovered over him, propped up with one arm on either side of his shoulders. Gradually she lowered herself down until her breasts pressed against his chest, her muzzle nuzzling the top of his head. Jack squirmed just a litt
le, his pants suddenly becoming uncomfortably tight as he felt her tautly muscled lower belly against his groin.
“If you're planning what I think you're planning...,” Jack whispered, scarcely able to manage anything louder, “...it's going to be a bit difficult for me. My legs aren't working so well right now.”
Aria raised her head, looking down at his face. She brushed a hand through his sandy blonde hair, her tail waving serenely behind her. “Is good. I want to do everything anyway...You lie still, and I take care of you...”
With that, Aria lowered herself to him again, then slowly slid herself down his body. Jack bit his lip as she rubbed down along him, her naked form making its way lower. As her firm, furred breasts came over his waist, her hands found the clasp of his pants. Her fingers deftly maneuvered the button out of position, and he heard the quiet rasping sound of the zipper being lowered. With difficulty, owing to the weakened state of his injured leg, he lifted his hips and allowed her to pull the garment down and off of him. His member stood up proudly once it was freed from its confines, jumping slightly in time with his heartbeat.
“La a'lai zan'a...,” Aria breathed, her voice husky with desire and arousal. She placed his pants to one side, then laid her hands on his thighs and settled on her belly, careful not to place to much pressure on his injury. Jack looked down at the top of her head as she lightly touched her nose to him. She inhaled deeply, taking in his scent, and as the smell of him flooded her nostrils she felt her head spin slightly as though she were intoxicated.
Jack took in a sharp breath as her slightly rough, feline tongue dragged its way up along his length. She curled it around him, bathing his flesh in its warm moisture. Her eyes flicked up to look at the intensely pleasured, almost pained expression on his face. He looked back down at her, breathing hard. Aria flashed her sharp teeth at him briefly, and then she lowered her mouth and sucked him inside. Jack's right hand balled into a fist and struck the floor of the tent. The inside of her muzzle was incredibly hot.
Transmission Lost Page 17
