by James McEwan
Freya was not expecting to see anyone awake after two in the morning ship’s time. “Ah yeah, it was good, thank you.”
He moved closer, she could smell his sweat and bad breath, “I didn’t get a chance to finish what I was saying earlier.”
“I’m sorry to have cut you off earlier and I’m sorry to have to do it again.” She was getting uncomfortable with how close he was getting. She shifted her feet into a combat stance.
“I was trying to say that you have a real pretty smile, and I thought maybe since we are all alone,” he tried to close the gap between them.
She quickly stepped back, “I know where you are going with this, and I’m happily married.” She held up her left hand to show off the ring.
“Oh, that doesn’t matter to me. You know it can get very lonely up here in the black.” He tried to put a hand on her shoulder.
Sidestepping his hand she said, “I’m sorry, buy a sex doll! Now get out my way. I’m going back to my quarters.”
Before she could get past him, he pulled out a nasty looking long knife, “Come now don’t be that way honey, just you wait, I will give you the time of your life.”
“That looks really sharp. You should put it away before you hurt yourself.” She slipped the towel off her neck and slowly twisted it up behind her back. He was too busy staring at her chest to notice what she was doing, his mistake.
“Oh honey, I have used this blade on much prettier girls than you. Now you just hold still while I cut your bra off, so I can see those tits of yours.” He stuck the knife towards her shoulder strap.
She tried to give him one last chance to do the right thing, “What is it with men, just because you see a pretty woman you think you can just take her? I mean what about my feelings?”
He laughed, “Your feelings,” he reached down with his free hand and grabbed his crotch, “Don’t worry, sweetheart, there is enough down here for you to feel.”
Rolling her eyes she said, “Oh now I get it! You use so much of your blood volume to get that thing hard, it drains it from your brain. Poor little thing, it must be all shriveled up from lack of oxygen. No wonder you are too stupid to see that I’m not scared of you!”
That made him more enraged and stupid, but she was right, he was used to girls that would freeze up with fear when they saw the size of his knife. When Freya sidestepped the knife and snapped the towel in his eyes, temporarily blinding him, he was greatly surprised.
Freya knew this guy was almost three times her weight. So fighting him in close quarters was not her best option. She tried to get past him and make a run for it, but he was not stunned for long. He reached out, snagging her hair as she ran by. Even though it hurt like Hell, she twisted around to face him as he was bringing the knife down on her. She looped the towel around his wrist and yanked his hand into the metal wall.
He screamed, “You bitch, you’ll pay for that!” She slammed his hand into the wall again, this time knocking the knife free. It fell to the ground with a loud clank. He still had her hair with one hand so he lifted her off her feet. Freya did the only thing she could. She ran up the front of him and wrapped her legs around his neck. Once she had a hold of his neck, she squeezed with everything she had.
He let go of her hair to use both hands, attempting to pry her legs off his neck. He dropped her to the floor. The blow stunned Freya for a second. It was long enough for him to roll her over and grab hold of her sports bra strap. He pulled hard. Freya felt as if he was trying to pull it straight through her shoulders, and she thought he might actually do it when the strap finally broke. His other hand grappled for her throat. His massive bulk was far too much for her to move under, she was pinned.
“It’s okay. I like it when they fight. It makes it so much sweeter.” He leaned down and licked her face. She still had her arms free so she cupped her hands and boxed his ears. He let go of her throat to grab his ears. His face was close to hers, she lifted her head with all her strength. The top of her forehead smashed into the bridge of his nose.
Blood burst from the broken nose and he fell forward enough for her to get a leg free. Freya brought her knee up into his groin as hard as she could muster. He screamed and rolled off her and onto the floor. Freya rolled over and got up on her hands and knees. The would-be rapist grabbed her leg and pulled. She slid back towards him. With her free leg, she kicked and kicked at his head until he let go.
Freya jumped to her feet, but the running and ensuing fight had drained her, she stumbled. The man grabbed the knife off the floor and somehow made it back to his feet. He raised the knife to throw it. There was a flash of light followed by a loud bang. Freya looked up to see Thad standing in the hallway, smoking pistol in hand. She turned round to see her attacker’s body lying in a heap, a large hole in his forehead, and most of the back of his head missing.
“Thanks” she turned back to Thad.
“No problem, but next time Freya, duck when I say duck.” He wrapped his arms protectively around her.
“When did you say duck?” she asked, happy to be in his arms.
“Just before I fired, you were in the way which made the shot a really tricky one.”
“I never heard you, but thank God, you can shoot.” She buried her head into his chest.
They heard the sounds of boots running on the hard steel floor. The captain and a part of the crew came running. “I got an alarm there was weapons fire. What in seven Hells, is going on here?” The captain gasped, out of breath from the run. Then he saw the dead crewmember, “Holy shit! You shot him!”
“Yes Sir, he was trying to rape my wife. He had a knife in his hand and was about to put it in her back. I had no choice,” Thad said, as he slid the pistol back into his holster.
“Well, we will never know his side of it, will we? Look, maybe he did and maybe he didn’t, but I can’t have passengers running around shooting crew. The fact is you people are just too damn dangerous to have around.” A vane in the side of his neck was bulging as he talked.
“Captain,” Thad tried to calm him down, but the captain was having none of it.
“Do you know what the penalty is for transporting armed criminals?” Thad opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the captain, “At the very least, I would lose my pilot's license and my ship. Worst case I would do jail time myself, and depending on which government stopped me, it could mean death for me and my crew.”
Freya spoke, “What are you saying?”
“Just before I came down here I got a request to divert to the next checkpoint for inspection. They happen to be looking for some dangerous people. People who left on a cargo ship from Nome in the last few days.”
“But Captain, you don’t have anything to worry about, we aren’t dangerous,” Freya cocked her head, faking a wide-eyed innocent look.
He pointed to the body of his dead crewman, “I would beg to differ. Look, he was no angel, so it mostly likely was self-defense. Nevertheless, I would rather not have to explain a dead crewman and you folks too. So I don’t care if you are the ones they are looking for or not. I’m dumping him in space now and you folks are getting off at the next planet, whether they have a spaceport or not.”
Freya started to protest, but Thad squeezed her tight enough for her to get the message, “I understand captain and I’m sorry about the crewman, but he did have it coming.”
He led Freya back to their quarters where Fiona was still asleep and Eve was busy communicating with the copy of herself she had left at home. Freya came in and plopped down on the bed next to Fiona, who rolled over. “Thad, how did you know to come and find me?”
“I couldn’t sleep and when I noticed you weren’t here, I figured you went for a run. You like to do that when you can’t sleep. I came looking for you to keep you company. I’m just glad I couldn’t sleep tonight.” He smiled at her.
“Yeah, me too, but I think I can now. I’m beat.” She took off the torn bra and put on a clean tee shirt. “Good night” she lay down next to h
er sister and was asleep in a manner of minutes.
What he did not tell her was the reason he couldn’t sleep. The nightmares had started again. He was remembering more and more about his past. The faces of the people he killed were haunting his dreams.
They were awakened by the sound of breaking thrusters firing and the ship vibrating as it slowed to enter a planetary orbit. An armed crewman knocked on their door, “Captain says it’s time to go.” Without protesting, Thad and his group followed him to the shuttle bay.
The captain was waiting by the shuttle-loading ramp, “The closest planet is Ne Pallas. It has a simple, primitive, none space-faring population. Therefore, I’m not going to waste a trip down to the surface. You can ride down in one of the escape pods. Now get off my ship!”
“Captain, you can’t just maroon us on some backward, hick planet, which has no space traffic,” Fiona protested.
“Yes, yes I can. I could have you all shot or thrown out an airlock. Be thankful I’m a nice guy.”
She wanted to protest more, but Thad pinched her arm and she stopped.
They were loaded into an escape pod and the last thing the caption said to them was, “I’m going to keep your cargo containers. Call it compensation for my crewman.”
The hatch slammed closed and they were shot into space. Freya was pissed, “Now what?”
Fiona put her finger right under Thad’s nose, “You should have killed that asshole, and taken his ship.”
Thad took her finger and gently brought it down, “Then we would have been no better than Red and his crew.” The statement hit hard and deep, as both twins sat down and were quiet for the rest of the descent.
The captain and a few of his crew went straight to the cargo bay to open the containers. They wanted to see what kind of loot they had acquired. “Crack it open!” The captain said. A large crewman opened the container and to everyone's surprise, sand poured out.
Angrily the captain said, “What the Hell is this?”
“Looks like sand Sir, tons of sand,” replied the crewman.
“I can see that you idiot, that son-of-a-bitch!”
“Captain?” the crewman asked.
“He knew that we don’t carry passengers unless they are escorting cargo. So he filled two containers with sand so they could ride along!” They stood there, looking at the mess they now had to clean up.
Luckily, for Thad and the girls the pod the captain had chosen to maroon them in was in good condition. The landing system was online and working like a charm. The pod set down on the surface with nothing more than a slight bump. “Well, thank God, for small miracles,” Fiona said.
Eve was not usually quiet so much of the time. Thad took notice, “Eve is everything ok?”
“No, not really, this place has no communications, no power sources, and no tech of any kind that I can pick up. But then again, my scanners are limited,’ she said.
“Well so much for our great campaign, finished before it got started and all because my extremely hot sister had to go for a run at two in the morning,” Fiona said with a hint of anger in her voice.
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t ask for that gorilla to come after me. I sure as Hell didn’t ask to be stuck on this ass-backwards shit hole of a planet,” she fired back.
Thad could see tempers were flaring and a catfight was about to ensue. He did the only thing a man could do in this kind of a situation, he yelled, “Fire!”
That stopped the twins cold. They turned to face him and in unison said, “What?”
Thad pointed over their heads to a plume of white smoke in the distance, “Well, smoke anyway and where there is smoke there is fire, and where there is fire...,” he did not get to finish.
“There are people,” the twins said.
“Grab the gear and let’s get moving,” Thad picked up his backpack.
They grabbed their gear and with backpacks strapped to them, they set off to find the source of the smoke. They walked for a few miles before they came to the edge of a dense forest. It was Eve who spoke, “I’m not sure I like the look of that,” she pointed to the forest, “Too many places for predators to hide.”
Thad placed his arm around Eve, “Well, look on the bright side, there are damn few things in the galaxy that are more dangerous than me, and I’m on your side.”
“This is somehow supposed to make me feel better?” Eve shot back.
“Come on. It will be an adventure,” he retorted.
Eve was still reluctant to walk into the forest, but she had little choice, and she did trust that Thad knew what he was doing. The forest was thick, but they found a path leading them through it. They had been walking for about an hour when Eve grabbed Thad by the arm, “Thaddeus dear, I hate to say I told you so, but I’m picking up heartbeats in the trees, lots of them.”
Thad placed his hand on hers, “I know, they have been closing in for a while now.”
Fiona asked, “Okay lover, what do we do now?”
Before he could answer, an arrow shot out of the tree line and landed at Thad’s feet. Thad opened his mouth to talk, but at the sight of the emerging natives, with their bows drawn and spears at the ready, caused him to close his mouth with a snap. The four of them took positions back to back. “We do nothing, put your hands up,” Thad ordered.
They raised their hands to show they were empty, as the natives closed in on them. The natives were not human as such. They looked oddly human in the face, but they had four arms and their bare feet looked more like hands than feet, and they moved a bit like apes. In fact, they seemed to move through the trees with great ease. Their leader waddled up to Thad and placed the tip of his stone spear beneath his chin. He sniffed at him and eyed him very closely. Thad said, “Hi there, I am Thad and these are my mates.” The native looked at him.
Freya said, over her shoulder, “I don’t think they speak our language, hon.”
Much to their surprise, the leader spoke, “I do speak your filthy tongue.”
“Good this makes things a little easier. Look we mean you no harm,” Thad was saying when he was cut off by the native pushing the spear tip closer to his neck.
“Shut up skywalker!” The native gestured menacingly. “Your people bring nothing but death and disease to my people. You come in your shiny metal flying machines and promise good things for the Untor, but take what you want and leave death and destruction.”
“Listen to me.” Thad tried to push the spearhead down. “We don’t want anything. We did not mean to come here. We were marooned here by some people who did not like us much.”
The native jabbed his spear at Thad’s face. He was not trying to kill him, just cut his cheek to make a point. “I don’t care why you are here. You have come to our forest and you must go before the Chahtoka. He will decide your fate.” He was about to say more when he noticed that the cut on Thad’s cheek was not bleeding. His eyes got very wide as he watched the wound heal completely in a matter of seconds.
The Untors erupted into chatter in their own native tongue. Thad and the girls watched as the people spoke back and forth, really fast. Finally, the leader roared, and the rest went quiet, “What kind of demon are you that wounds don’t stay wounds?”
“I am not a demon,” Thad replied.
That earned him another cut on the face and again they stood and watched as it healed, “See your cut heals itself. You are not like any other skywalker we have ever seen. You must be a demon!” The leader said with fear in his voice.
“It is true I am unlike any skywalker you have ever seen, but I promise you, I’m no demon and we do not mean your people any harm.” Thad urged.
“Chahtoka will understand what you are and what to do with you,” the leader said, as he pushed Thad forward. They walked, with their hands in the air and spears in their backs. Thad worried about spooking these people any more than they already were, everyone kept quiet.
After a bit of a walk, they came to a large tree easily forty feet around at the base. The
re was what looked like a wooden elevator waiting for them. They were instructed to step on the platform, which they reluctantly did. The leader stood with them. He gave a short whistle and the platform rose into the sky, high into the canopy of the trees. Thad whispered to the twins, “I think we just found the home of the Wookiees.”
Freya did not look amused, “What?”
“Never mind,” he said.
They reached the top where they were met by more guards with spears. From there they were escorted through a village high in the trees, to a large hut where they were forced to their knees. The leader went inside. After a few minutes, an elder Untor came out of the hut followed by more guards. Thad looked around and could see they had drawn quite a crowd. There were male and female Untor, as well as children, all trying to get a look at the sky walkers.
The older Untor carried a staff with numerous trinkets hanging from it. By the look of it, this was their staff of leadership or symbol of power. The old Untor was tall and his gray braided hair was hanging about his face. He stood in front of Thad. “My name is Un-Tark and I am the Chahtoka for the Tribe of the Tree, Untor, leader of its people and Lord of the forest.” His English was surprisingly good, for a native. “I understand you have come to my forest claiming you come in peace and not by your own choice. I’m also told that you are a demon skywalker, one who cannot stay injured.”
Un-Tark paused, so Thad could answer, “Yes Chahtoka, we did not come to your forest by choice, and we mean you no harm. I’m not a demon. Just a man with some enhancements,” Thad held his hands up in supplication.
“Oh, how hollow your words are. If you only knew how many have come before you and have said the same. We cannot take chances. Our law was made to protect us from the sky walkers, so all sky walkers that come to our forest must be put to death! It is the law.” Un-Tark said.
“I understand, Great Chahtoka, your law is made to protect you, but to kill all who enter will do you no good. It will only bring down the Untor in the end. I have seen it many times. The skywalkers are many and very powerful. If you kill the wrong skywalker they will retaliate and destroy all of your people.”
