His Woodland Maiden

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “Did she say the words?” Rick insisted.

  Alexis shook her head in denial. “No. I accessed some files. They’re still jumbled, but I’ll sort them out soon.”

  “Then we don’t know for sure,” Rick said. Though Alexis was rarely wrong. “Where is she?”

  “Dev is with her,” Alexis answered. “Someone embedded an Ingeniarian tracking device on her, but I was able to disable it. She’s resting right now. I know you want to see her, but I think it’s more important for you to tell us exactly what happened today at the pavilion. Why are the Ingeniarians after her and what do they want?”

  “Some bionic spaceholes chased us into the VR adventure tunnel. We fought. They lost. End of story.” He again tried to step past them and was denied. “That’s all there is to tell. If we had to stop and explain every time one of us got into a little on-world brawl, we’d never get off this ship.”

  Lochlann placed a hand on Rick’s chest and firmly pushed him back into the commons toward the chairs.

  “Blast it, Loch,” Rick swore in frustration. “What did you expect me to do? She needed help. We’re helping her. I didn’t see you getting all up in arms when Alexis followed me onto this ship while the evil scientists were after her. Or when Raisa was attacked on Torgan and Jackson brought her on board. Or when Josselyn was trapped in a stone prison for a hundred years by the Federation Military. Or Violette kidnapped Dev. Or—”

  “Sacred cats, Rick, that’s different and you know it,” Lochlann countered. “This is the woman who kidnapped you and almost killed you. How did you end up with her again? Did she see you and come after you? Try to finish what she’d started in the Lin Yao Mines?”

  Rick gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “I saw her and I followed her. I was curious.”

  “What is wrong with you? Don’t you remember what happened the last time you followed her? You almost died. We were all sure you’d been killed by chandoo dealers before we found you in those purple jade mines. We didn’t know if we were rescuing you or going to avenge you. We had to fly all over the high skies tracking your kidnapped ass down. Why would you go after her again? You see that fea, you run the other way. If you listen to any of my orders, let that one be it.”

  Rick wished he had an answer for that. The truth was, he hadn’t stopped to think. He saw her. He followed her. It was that simple.

  “She didn’t kill me,” Rick said. “She hit me over the head and took me prisoner to keep the other guys from killing me.”

  “Do you know how insane that sounds?” Alexis asked.

  Lochlann took a deep breath as if trying to calm himself. “Are you finally willing to talk about what happened? You get a little weird every time that incident is mentioned, and you were upset when Lucien and Viktor let her escape. We all thought you wanted to torture her for revenge. I for one was relieved she was off this ship for good. I don’t like her being back on board.”

  Rick frowned. “Nothing happened. It was fine. It was fate. I told you before you can’t fight fate. If not for that, we would never have gone to Lintian, which set off a chain of events that brought you two together. It brought Violette to Dev, and Raisa to Jackson. And maybe it brought Harper to me.

  “Rick, do you expect us to believe that this is fate between you and Harper? Is she how you break your curse?” Alexis asked.

  Love? Forever? Those words triggered something deep inside him, a fear and loss that he did not want to look at. “I’m not trying to break a curse. I’m trying to do right by someone who needs our help.”

  “What did happen when she kidnapped you?” Alexis asked.

  “Nothing. I said it was fine. It just was a thing that happened,” he dismissed.

  “Fine?” Lochlann looked as if he was near his breaking point. “You were taken by a drug queenpin and tied up in a dark mine on a remote planet, and you call that fine?”

  “I don’t remember it all, okay?” Rick shouted, frustrated that the captain was right. “I feel nothing when I think about it. I was in a prison hold, they fed me, I was slapped around a little, and… nothing. It’s like this emotional fog. Why do you think I wanted us to take her after you found me in the mines? I want to remember what happened.”

  “Do you think they did something to you to make you forget?” Lochlann tilted his head, studying Rick as if he could see what was beneath the man’s skull.

  “This isn’t about you, is it? You’re worried about her, aren’t you?” Alexis touched Lochlann’s arm so that she could step closer to observe the pilot. Her eyes slowly changed from blue to purple.

  “No, I…” Rick shook his head in denial.

  “I’ve only seen that expression in your eyes a few times. When you thought Lochlann had hurt me. When Raisa was in danger, and we were hiding from the Federation. When we thought we lost Violette on the Zibi fueling dock after we took her back to visit Rifflen to take care of that paperwork. When that random woman on Werten appeared with a blackened eye and a beef-head of a partner.” Alexis’ smile was tight, and he could see she was trying to be sympathetic. “I worry in this case you’re blinded by the fact she’s a female. Not all women need to be saved simply because they are women. This woman does not need our help. Her being here poses a threat.”

  “What if I care about her?” Rick wasn’t sure why he said it.

  “She said she was betrothed to a prince,” Lochlann countered.

  “Bucky? No.” Rick shook his head, not believing it. “She wouldn’t marry a bionic comet-sucker like that.”

  “And you know this because you became close to her when she was dealing drugs?” Lochlann asked.

  “If she was engaged, I think it’s safe to say she called the wedding off when she pulled his bio-tubes and disabled his arms,” Rick asserted. “She saved me from a potentially lethal blow. Now I want to help her.”

  “Rick, I’m almost positive that woman is HIA,” Alexis insisted. “When I touched the side stitch power source, I could access the Pleasure Droid Corporation mainframe again. All of it. That thing reactivated the link and I—”

  “Are you positive they’re not coming after you?” Lochlann interrupted in concern.

  “I promise, I’m sure. With the power source gone, I’m disconnected. I wasn’t there long enough for them to track me.” Alexis lifted her hand and rubbed it. Her pinky was purple and swollen, and Rick wondered at it, but the nanoids inside her would heal it soon enough. Continuing on where she left off before the interruption, she said, “I went down data paths that were so deeply hidden, I’d never known they existed before now. All it took was a commander buying a droid unit for companionship and—”

  “So what if she is?” Rick dismissed. “We don’t have any trouble with the HIA.”

  Lochlann arched a brow at the absurdity of that comment. He didn’t need to say more.

  Everyone who came across the HIA had a problem. The organization didn’t like when you knew who they were. Most of the stories about them were probably myths made up to scare people… or not. Rumors surfaced that their clandestine operations took out planetary governments or high-profile aliens who didn’t fit a certain agenda. The problem was, no one knew whose agenda was being served. Most aliens didn’t want to know.

  “All I meant was you said it yourself she had a tracker thing on her. She was running from an Ingeniarian hit squad. I didn’t bring her onto the ship. She came to us.” Rick kept his gaze steadily on the captain and his wife. That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t have brought her on the ship if he’d had the chance.

  “She’s here now and—oh,” Alexis stiffened as her eyes widened, “oh, space balls!”

  Alexis took off running down the corridor. The men didn’t hesitate as they followed. Her feet slid as she tried to take a corner too quickly.

  “Alexis, what is it?” Lochlann called after her.

  “I didn’t see it. There was so much information,” she said. They approached Dev standing outside one of the prison hold doors. “Dev, open it.”<
br />
  Dev instantly obeyed the plea.

  Rick pushed Lochlann as he followed Alexis into the room.

  Harper lay on the bed, her face pale and her limp hand reaching toward the door as if she’d tried to get help. Blood dripped from the cot, pooling on the floor and staining Harper’s clothing. Her blue-tinged lips were parted, and her eyes peeked through the narrowed slits of her lids.

  “What happened?” Rick demanded. “What did you do to her?”

  Alexis tried to peel back Harper’s bloody shirt. “When it’s removed, the side stitch releases a compound that thins humanoid blood. With the wound left from the anchors holding it in, the person bleeds out unless—”

  Rick didn’t wait to check her wounds as he nudged Alexis aside and lifted Harper into his arms. He carried her out of the prisoner hold and ran toward the medical booth. It wasn’t the newest model, and it had been modified more than once, but it should be able to heal her as long as he made it before…

  He couldn’t think it. She had to live.

  The medical booth took up most of the small room. The bed was tilted at an angle so a patient could rest in a half-reclining, half-standing position while the booth worked.

  Rick placed Harper inside the unit, knocking her head in his haste. Green lasers lit her body in a scan before he managed to arrange her limbs. His hands shook as he pulled the lid down to trap her inside. He glanced to the control console to find Lochlann had started the unit.

  Rick stepped back, staring at her pale features. The gap between where Harper rested and the booth lid allowed him to watch. He breathed heavily, more out of fear than the exertion. His back hit the metal wall, and he slid to the floor.

  Harper’s chest didn’t move. She hadn’t moaned when he held her. Her eyes remained closed. Fear unfurled inside him, whispering that he was too late, that she was dead.

  “Grab the decontaminator and some clothes,” Lochlann ordered. Rick didn’t see who he talked to but heard the familiar gait of Dev’s footsteps answering the command.

  The medical booth buzzed a loud, ugly sound of warning. The lasers shut off, stopping their work. The noise pried his eyes from Harper’s face. He’d never heard it do that before, and he surged to his feet to look at the console’s dashboard.

  “Deceased,” the console read.

  “Shut your black hole, you stupid piece of space junk!” Rick slammed his fist hard on the unit. The screen blipped, and he pressed a button for the emergency protocol.

  The lasers turned back on for a few seconds before the buzzer again sounded.

  “Deceased.”

  “No.” Rick slammed his fist harder, this time kicking it. He pressed a button for wound care.

  The buzzer sounded a third time.

  “Deceased.”

  “Rick,” Lochlann tried to reason, his voice calm.

  “No.” Pain filled him, tinged with anger and panic. “Not again, Sprout. Not again.”

  Alexis came into the room. She shoved Rick off the console. He hit the wall, only to push himself back toward the controls. He stopped when he saw Alexis rapidly pushing buttons, mumbling to herself, “Relevant to the situation. Alpha. Zero. Reset. Heart. Override. Override. Fry. Shock.”

  A bright flash illuminated within the unit. A horrible sound came from within, half injured animal, half high-pitched scream.

  Alexis poked her finger at the panel and again mumbled, “Shock.”

  Rick stared at the booth, afraid to move. Another bright flash came at the command. This time the cry coming from Harper sounded more human.

  He glanced at the panel. The console screen blinked with alien symbols.

  Suddenly the lasers came on, and the unit started to work.

  Dazed, and almost too afraid to look, he stumbled past Alexis toward the booth. Harper still appeared pale but her chest was lifting in breath.

  “What did you do?” Lochlann asked.

  “I’m not exactly sure,” she answered, the words shaky. “I heard the death buzzer, and my brain just gave me an answer to try.”

  Rick reached into the booth to touch Harper’s cheek.

  “Don’t. Let the machine do its work,” Alexis ordered. “She’s alive but fragile.” Then softer, as if talking to Lochlann and not him, she added, “That setting wasn’t for a human.”

  Rick withdrew his hand. He watched the lasers concentrate their energy on Harper’s wounded side. The fact she wore clothing didn’t matter. A couple of the lasers moved to her shoulder where the killer clown had knifed her.

  His heart pounded and felt like the organ had lodged in his throat. He turned to thank Alexis for whatever she had done, but her forehead was pressed against Lochlann’s chest, and her shoulders were trembling.

  Rick opened his mouth to ask if she was all right, but Lochlann met his gaze over Alexis’ head. The captain’s look stopped him.

  Dev appeared in the doorway holding a change of Rick’s clothes and the handheld decontaminator. He paused to look at the woman in the booth.

  Rick noticed his bloodstained shirt from where he’d carried Harper. He ran a hand over his arm. The blood had dried, plastering the small hairs down and making the skin feel tight.

  “I’m fine,” Rick dismissed Dev.

  “Don’t let her wake up to see you looking like that.” Dev placed the clothes on the floor and left. “You don’t want to scare her.”

  The man had a point.

  Rick grabbed the decontaminator to clean himself up.

  A small, choked laugh sounded, and he glanced up at Alexis. Her eyes were moist as she stared at the clothes. “Yeah, that outfit won’t scare her. She’ll think she’s on a circus ship.”

  Rick finally noticed exactly what Dev had picked out for him to wear. The orange-tinted tunic shirt and mismatched deep purple pants had been in his drawer next to each other but were not anything he’d worn for a very long time, and never together.

  Lochlann snorted as if trying to hold back his amusement. It might have been the nervous energy or the relief that Harper was mending, Rick wasn’t sure, but he too began to laugh at Dev’s fashion choice. He slid against the wall to take a seat on the floor. When he again looked at Harper, her eyes were opened, staring at him. The laughter died in his throat. Her eyes closed once more.

  Rick dropped the decontaminator and stood back up to go to her. He watched her face, willing her eyes to open again and feeling guilty that when she had looked at him, he’d been laughing while she was in so much pain.

  7

  “Who or what is Sprout?” Alexis asked.

  Harper couldn’t open her eyes or speak, but she was warm and that was enough for now. Her body rested at an angle, not standing, but not lying flat either. Her weak limbs felt as if they were locked in place. Nerve endings tingled along her side, but at least it no longer hurt.

  “When I ran in here, you said, ‘not again, Sprout,’” Alexis stated.

  Harper listened to her surroundings, trying to figure out what was happening. She recognized the voices and remembered coming onto the ship.

  “She’s just a girl I knew once,” Rick answered.

  Harper’s body rocked as if the gravity field wasn’t as strong as it should have been when a ship flew in deep space. It did not inspire confidence in the old spacecraft.

  “Another girlfriend?” Alexis sounded amused. “I guess I should have known.”

  “It’s not like that. I knew her when I was a boy. I was reminded of her recently, but I don’t remember much about her,” Rick said.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about your childhood.” Alexis’s programming appeared to be very thorough. Harper didn’t have many run-ins with pleasure droids, but she could see why people could trick themselves into believing they were real women and not just a bunch of wires and cogs.

  Movement sounded and Rick’s voice appeared closer than before. “I never met Sprout’s parents, but I seem to recall they were scientists at a humanoid facility. Or, at least t
hat’s what she told me. She used to sneak out into the forest near our encampment to play. I remember she had a bunch of wild stories and talked about crazy adventures.”

  Harper felt the warmth moving from her side over the rest of her body. A beep sounded.

  “What is it?” Rick seemed panicked.

  “I don’t know,” Alexis answered. “It looks normal, but this panel is all alien symbols, and please don’t make me try to translate them.”

  “Are you all right?” Rick asked. “Earlier, you appeared upset. What was that about?”

  “It’s nothing. I saw some things I didn’t want to see. Sometimes the bad leaks in and I’d rather just forget it.”

  Harper used the droid’s voice to track where she was in the room. She stood apart from Rick.

  “What kind of crazy adventures?” Alexis asked.

  “Sprout always wanted us to go off into space to do things. Swim Lophibian slime pits. Rescue people imprisoned in stone. Save a prince. Help a princess. Stop planets from exploding. Stuff like that. Oh, and to seek pleasure where I could because life is hard enough.”

  “She wanted you to be with women?” Alexis asked.

  “There are more pleasures to be had besides sex,” Rick answered. Then with a small laugh, he added, “Or so I’ve been told. I think I gave that one my own interpretation.”

  “You did one of those things when you saved Violette’s sister from that Earth settlement turned prison on Florencia’s Fifth Moon,” Alexis said. “Could be Sprout is out there swimming in slime.”

  “No.” Rick’s tone was flat. “She’s dead.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. How?”

  “Shot in the neck. She bled out in my arms. But it was so long ago,” he dismissed. “None of that matters now.”

  “Maybe that’s why you’re a pirate,” Alexis offered. “You’re honoring her memory by having adventures. That could be why you’re so protective of women, too. That couldn’t have been an easy experience.”

  “I’m a pirate because I was born to transients and then orphaned,” Rick answered. “Like I said, doesn’t matter, anyway. The past is done. No need to live there. No need to talk about it.”