by Rebecca Pond
She had to slide on her butt in order to make her way out of the shaft. Brylon had to reverse his path because he was too large to turn around in the narrow vent. The pace was slow, but eventually the light coming in from the access panel came into view. She heard the voice before she saw who it was, and then cringed at the realization of who it was.
“Is she alright?” She heard the voice of the commander.
Brylon was still backing up out of the vent, “Yeah, but she’s injured.”
“Do I need to call for Zane?” Zeb asked as his body became clear of the vent.
Brylon’s body made it out through the panel next and said, “No Zeb, I will bring her to the infirmary myself. It looks like she has a broken wrist.” He helped her out of the vent shaft and into the small room. He waited next to the access panel as Emma scooted the rest of the way to the opening then swung her legs out. She stopped short when she saw the look on the commander’s face. She knew she was in real trouble now.
“Do you have any idea of the amount of danger that you put my men and yourself into?” He was all up in her face, and she could see the anger that was brewing in his eyes. “That was a very stupid move on your part. Brylon will deal with you when he has you back in his quarters.” She watched as he folded his arms across his chest and stared at her with an angry expression on his face. She felt like a child in foster care again that was being chastised by the social worker for having made yet another attempt to run away. She hadn’t a clue what to say to this man, because frankly, his demeanor scared the crap out of her.
“Let’s go Emma. Zane needs to check your wrist.” She heard Brylon speak to her as he reached for her uninjured arm to help pull her the rest of the way out of the shaft. Three of them walked back to the elevator while the other two crew members stayed behind to screw the access panel back into position. They waited in silence for the elevator to arrive and didn’t say a word once inside the elevator. Emma was feeling uncomfortable in the small confines of the elevator with the two gigantic men, as the tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Every now and then she would see out the corner of her eye one or the other of the men glaring down at her.
The elevator finally came to a stop and the doors slid open, but only Brylon and Emma exited. Zeb remained inside as he said, “Report to me later Brylon, after she sees the doctor and is secured in your quarters. We will need to discuss this.”
Brylon stopped and looked back at his commander, disappointment showed on his face, “Yes sir, Commander.” Emma’s heart sped up after hearing the commander’s comment. What the hell was Brylon going to do to her? She looked up at him and saw that he was staring at her with a look she wasn’t very sure about. She wanted to say something but was abruptly cut off.
“I would advise you not to say a word right now, Emma. You have caused enough trouble for one day,” Brylon said, as he led her down the hallway to the infirmary. This was the first time in her life that she was actually regretful, for something she had done. When she had come up with her plan, she never realized that she would have been putting others’ lives at risk. She never intended for anyone to get hurt, and thankfully the only person hurt was her.
They entered the infirmary and Brylon called out, “Zane?” No reply came at first. “Zane, are you here?”
Zane came out of one of the rooms, “I see you have found your little fugitive.” He walked over to where Brylon and his mate stood. “Where did you find her?” He stopped in front of Emma and stared down at her, looking her over.
“She was in the air system quite close to one of the turbines. She has succeeded in injuring herself,” he nodded his head towards her wrist that she was holding close to her body. “Could you please take a look at her wrist and see if she managed to break it.”
Zane could tell, not only by the look on Brylon face, but also by the tone of his voice, that he was extremely frustrated with his little Earth female. Zane had heard that Brylon was having a difficult time with Emma and took pity on him. Brylon was such a good hearted Theron warrior, but he was often misunderstood. It was hard for Zane to see his friend in this state of mind.
“Brylon, bring her over here and I will run a scan on her wrist.” Zane walked towards one of the rooms again while Brylon took hold of Emma’s upper arm and guided her to the nearest bed. “Sit,” was the only word he said and was surprised to see that she obeyed without argument.
Zane returned carrying a small device that reminded Emma of a portable glucose meter. She grimaced in pain when Zane gently took her wrist in his large cool hand. He passed the scanner over her injured wrist while she looked on with amazement as a red warm light passed back and forth quickly over the affected area. The scanner beeped when it was finished.
“Well Emma,” Zane looked at her, “You broke your wrist in a couple of places. You should know that you are very lucky to have escaped with only a broken wrist. If you had fallen into one of the turbines, we would be picking up the pieces of your body.” He scolded her as he reached for a tube of medicine of some sort. “I hope you have learned something from the trouble that you have caused and fully understand the consequences of your actions.” He opened the tube and squeezed out a bluish cream onto her wrist.
At first she didn’t want to say anything. She didn’t want to be in any more trouble than she was already in, but when she felt a warming sensation coming from the blue cream, she had to ask, “What are you putting on my wrist? It’s getting really warm.”
“This is a healing cream made from a variety of extracts from plants that are found on Theron. It is great for healing broken bones. See, it simply is able to penetrate the skin and help the bones fuse back together.” Zane continued to apply the cream liberally on all sides of her wrist, “I am going to wrap the wrist so that the cream can fully do its job. You should feel that the cream will continue to warm until it feels as if you have your hand over a fire. It usually takes about twelve to twenty-four hours for the cream to heal a break like this one, and you will know that it is healed when the burning sensation subsides completely. When that happens, you can remove the wrapping. Do you understand, Emma?” Zane finished wrapping up her wrist with a white gauzy bandage.
“She will listen this time or there will be severe consequences,” Brylon said with a blank stare.
Emma turned her head in the direction of the sound of Brylon’s voice. The sight of the expression his face caused her heart to sink for some reason. Why did it bother her so much, to see his face like this? He was the one who had taken her from her life on earth. Why shouldn’t she have taken the risk of trying to escape from him?
She looked into the eyes of both men and said, “Can you really blame me for trying to return to my home?” as she raised her chin in an attitude of defiance.
Zane watched as Brylon and Emma were in a deadlock. Brylon sure had his hands full with this little fireball. He interrupted the two by saying, “I am all done, Brylon. She will probably experience a bit of discomfort for a while, but I don’t foresee any complications with her making a full recovery. You can bring her back if she has any further complaints or if the heat from the cream hasn’t stopped within twenty-four hours.” He slapped his friend on the back, “I will see you later, Brylon. I have another patient.” He looked at Emma and shook his head, and then walked into the next room.”
Emma was overcome with nervousness being alone with Brylon. She slipped down off of the bed and followed him out of the infirmary without saying a word. The entire way back to their quarters neither one spoke to one other. She was anticipating that she would be dealt a severe punishment.
When they were back in their quarters, Emma went to sit on the sofa while Brylon headed into the bedroom. A few moments later she heard the sound of the water running in the shower. She leaned back against the cushions and let out a long ragged sigh, as she closed her eyes. Could she have done anything to make the situation worse? It was a really stupid move on her part by going into the air system
, knowing damn good and well that she would never be able to get off the ship.
“I have to go back to work now. Do you think that you can behave yourself from now on?” The sound of Brylon’s voice startled her, causing her to jump. “Emma, did you hear me?” He came around to the front of the sofa so that he could look her in the eyes. He stood there waiting for her answer, with his arms folded over his massive chest as his well-muscled legs were shoulder width apart and tense. His copper eyes stared at her in an unrelenting way, as if they were trying to reach into the depths of her mind.
She raised her gaze slowly to meet his eyes. He seemed to be waiting impatiently for an answer to his question.
“I will not do anything, and yes, I can behave,” she said in a low tone of voice and added, “when I want too.” The last little bit of information seemed to have sparked another reaction out of him that she didn’t expect.
Sadness seemed to project from his eyes in reaction to her words just for an instant. However, his expression hardened just before he said softly, “Emma, I really wish you would give me a chance to prove to you how much I care for you. I want nothing more than for us to have a good life together.” That was the last thing he said before he turned and left their quarters, with the door sliding silently shut behind him.
She sat forward on the sofa, staring at the door as she heard the lock engage, securing her into the room and once again she was left all alone. Her bottom lip began to quiver as her emotions started to overcome her. A sob escaped from deep within her chest, and before she realized it, she was a sobbing mess. The tears poured forth as if someone had fully opened the valve on a faucet. She cried for her current state of affairs. She cried because she was kidnapped by aliens. She even cried for the miserable life she had been dealt so far, and she cried for all the years that she held her emotions locked deep inside of her. She cried because she just didn’t know what she was going to do anymore.
She had no idea how long she lay there crying. Was it minutes, hours, she had no clue. Finally, she had to answer the call of nature. She made her way into the only bathroom, relieved herself then decided to take a shower. She was filthy from crawling through the air vents for so long and wanted only to feel clean again. She also hoped that the warm water would help to sooth the burning she was feeling underneath the bandage on her wrist.
Stepping into the shower of warm water, she let the water cascade over her face and down her body. The water came from all directions in the shower and had a relaxing effect on every muscle in her body. She had to admit, it was a bit challenging trying to wash her hair with only one good hand, but she eventually managed to get her hair and the rest of her body clean. Once out the shower she dressed, thankfully due to Brylon, into her own pajamas. They were the ones she had bought in Disney World. It seemed a bit funny for a grown woman to be wearing Cinderella on her clothes, but, hell, the castle was one of her favorite things there. Was it wrong to believe in fairy godmothers and handsome young princes to come to her rescue? Dressed now and feeling completely exhausted, she climbed into the huge bed that she was to share with Brylon during her stay on board this ship. She sunk into the softness of the mattress that was soothing to her weary body and quickly found that she was asleep and dreaming of the huge man that wanted nothing more than to provide her with a good life.
Chapter 7
The next few days were busy for Brylon and he didn’t have much time to spend with Emma. He basically went to their quarters to eat, to sleep, and to check on his mate, but it didn’t matter much anyway, because when he was there, he was greeted with nothing but silence. He was extremely frustrated with the way it was between him and Emma, but there really wasn’t much he could do to change it at the moment. He didn’t even have the time to take Emma to Zane to have her translation disks implanted into her ears. Now, she now would have to wait until Zane returned from the planet when he completed his current mission with his mate.
No matter what he did, he just couldn’t get through to her. Nothing he tried had worked. He knew he was neglecting her, so he tried to make it up in other ways. He would go back to their quarters for every meal, and cook her something whether she ate it or not. She refused to eat when he was there, but when he returned, some of the food would always be gone from the plate. At night, when he returned from working all day he would find her asleep in their bed, curled up under the covers. A few times he had pulled her over to him when he felt her shiver in reaction to the cold temperature of the room.
Things were definitely not going the way that Brylon pictured they would. He understood that Emma was having an extremely hard time adjusting, but he never thought that she would totally shut him out. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with him and she made it very obvious she wished to have no contact with him. He had asked Zeb and Zane several times for suggestions on how to help her open up to him, but still nothing worked. Emma was hiding something inside her, and he was determined to find out what it was. After he had spent those few minutes in her home alone he had started to form an idea of what kind of life she came from. Didn’t she have parents to love and care for her? Were they dead? Did she have any siblings? Why was she living all alone? Question upon question had invaded his mind and each one of them demanded an answer. But, for the moment, she had no intention of answering them.
He had worked all morning without stopping for lunch and was now feeling very hungry. The question he found himself asking himself was; did he want to go back to his quarters and grab a quick bite to eat there? Or, should he just run down to the food court in the shopping area and bring something back to her? Either way he decided, he would still need to take the transport tubes. He figured that he could make his decision on the way.
“Hey Yuka, I am going to grab a bite to eat. I will be back in about an hour,” he called out to one of the warriors that happened to be working with him in the engine room.
A bald head poked out from underneath a nearby work station, “Sure thing, Boss.”
Yuka was one of his best workers. He had known him from his cadet days and had brought him on board the mother ship when they were assigned the current mission of searching for mates. Zeb trusted Brylon’s decisions when it came to recruiting the men he wanted for his crew. Among all of his staff, there were a very few that he let work on the engines and Yuka was one of them. It was actually pretty funny when he thought about it, because Yuka was one of the largest and roundest warriors on board the ship. Despite his size, this guy could squeeze his large frame into some of the tiniest places. One time his size had gotten the best of him and he had gotten stuck in a tight spot and had to be cut out. It was an experience Yuka didn’t like to relive very often, but it did make a great token of conversation.
When he made it to the transportation tubes, he decided that he would just go down to the dining area in the mall and get his food. He needed a change of pace and the mall would be a good place to sit and take his mind off things for a while.
He stepped out of the tube and saw that the dining area was almost empty. A few warriors sat scattered around the tables or reclined on the sofas that lined the walls. He decided to order his favorite meal of bhakta with larma and mah. The sandwich was over a foot long in length, and was more than enough to fill up his empty stomach. Taking his tray to an empty table in the middle of the dining area, he looked around to see if there was anyone he knew that he might want to sit next to. He had just taken the first bite of his sandwich, when he felt a hard slap across his back that caused him to choke. As he coughed and gasped for air, he turned around to see who the hell had hit him.
“What…What…What the hell Ceran?”
Ceran came around him and proceed to sit his large frame down in the chair across from him, “Sorry man, I didn’t realize you had food in that big mouth of yours.”
Ceran’s smile was a welcome sight. He didn’t realize how much he needed to be cheered up. He laughed at Ceran’s remark and wiped his mouth with a napkin while glaring a
t the fool across from him.
“How are things going with you and your female,” Ceran asked before taking a huge bite of his own food.
Brylon swallowed the bite he just took and then shook his head, “Not good. Not good at all. I just can’t seem to do anything to help her adjust. At times she is as cold as ice, then when I piss her off it’s like all the fires of hell have broken loose. There’s never a happy medium.”
Ceran nodded his head in agreement, “Same here, but not as bad. Laura is a great female and even has medical training. Did you know that she is a doctor on her planet? I just think that the way we went about taking the females was all wrong.”
“I thought about that too, but we can’t take it back, it’s already been done. None of them can be returned to their homes now. The first reason is because the council would never allow it, and the second reason is because I won’t allow it. Do you have any ideas on how to win these females over?” Brylon took another bite of his meal while looking with interest at the younger warrior.
“I was thinking about getting Laura some kind of gift, but I don’t know what to give her. What about you?”
“What would you buy a woman from earth? I mean I have no clue to what Emma likes and doesn’t like. The only thing I am sure of, is the obvious fact that she doesn’t like me,” he chuckled.
“I don’t know enough about them either, but there has to be something here that would knock their socks off! Are you finished eating?” Ceran chewed and swallowed the last bit of his food.
“Just about done, what do you have in mind?” Brylon cleaned up his mess, piling it on a tray, while waiting for Ceran to tell him his idea.
“Let’s go look in a few of the stores and see if we can find something they might like,” Ceran said as he got up and dumped his tray in the nearby waste recycling bin.
