[05] Elite: Reclamation (47 page)

Octavia laughed. ‘So much spirit. You will serve me well.’

‘I won’t serve you. I am destined to be a Senator! You dare abduct me within range of my people?’

‘Your people can not help you,’ Octavia replied. ‘Your young friend saw to that.’

Hassan was wrenched into her line of sight. He was also secured by two guards. Kahina glared at him, jostling against her restraints furiously once more.

‘You …. utter ‘stard. Why?’

‘Don’t be too hard on him,’ Octavia said, drawing her attention. ‘It was your life or his. Not a difficult choice to make.’

‘My fleet will hunt you down,’ Kahina said.

Octavia shook her head, ‘They are not the power in this sector … I am.’

Kahina struggled again.

‘What do you want of me?’

‘Just do as she says,’ Hassan said. ‘It’s a ransom demand, they’ll pay and you’ll be back with your people before …’

‘Ransomed?’ Octavia asked, smoothly interrupting. ‘Whatever gave you that idea?’ She smiled cruelly, stepping across between the pair of them.

Kahina saw alarm grow on Hassan’s face.

What have you done, Hassan?

‘You said you were going to ransom her back to the Imperials,’ he said, his voice tight and high.

‘Oh, you’re far too trusting, little boy,’ Octavia sneered. ‘Money and power I have more than I could ever use. Time, that’s the one thing that eludes me. The one thing our lovely Imperial beauty here can give me.’

‘Time?’ Kahina demanded. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I am taking your body, girl.’

‘What?’ Kahina jolted back in horror.

‘This pod that Dalk so kindly furnished me with – it can save and restore a mind. Your Imperial scientists are so clever, so many secrets. I am old, my body is tired and worn. Yours is young and fresh. Your mind will be emptied. I will transfer my own self into …’

Kahina gasped in terror, tussling against the two men. Their grip on her arms became so fierce she cried out. Octavia continued, regardless.

‘… yours. It will be mine until such time as it is worn out and old. Then, perhaps I will return it to you.’

‘No!’ Kahina screamed and twisted wildly, kicking her legs and wrenching her torso in a desperate attempt to free herself.

‘Subdue her,’ Octavia said, gesturing to the Doctor. He moved forward gingerly, grabbing Kahina’s arm and trying to hold it steady. Kahina continued to writhe desperately, cursing and howling profanities.

‘This wasn’t the deal, you said you’d let her go!’ Hassan said, pulling forwards. His own guards pulled him back.

The sleeve of Kahina’s dress was yanked up and a patch was placed on her arm. A faint hiss sounded from it. Kahina jerked spasmodically and then went limp, her voice slurring.

Octavia turned on Hassan, he saw her hand go to the hilt of her sword. ‘I’ve spared your life boy, given you a way out. Be glad I’m not disembowelling you on the spot. It’s what you deserve.’

Hassan watched as the Doctor backed away from Kahina and her pair of guards. He turned to the pod, waving his hands over it. Holofac displays shimmered and changed. The top cracked open, the lid lifting and folding back. Hassan could just see the interior, brightly lit and filled with a faint mist which slowly rolled out, spreading in all directions in the zero-G. He remembered how he’d first found Kahina in the hold of his ship.

‘It is ready, Domina,’ the Doctor announced.   

Octavia nodded and gestured to the guards. ‘Secure her.’

Hassan stared helplessly as Kahina’s limp body was dragged forward, faint mutterings of protest still just audible. Somehow she managed to raise her head and look at him.

‘Please Hassan, don’t let … don’t leave me …’ Her tone was heavy with fading hope and desperation, her face bereft and disconsolate as the drug continued to take hold.

He held her gaze for a moment. Shame and a crushing sense of worthlessness saturated his thoughts.

I’ve killed her … worse, a living death, her mind put aside and her body stolen … you’re such a shit, Hassan.

He saw her face crumple into despair. He couldn’t bear to look and turned his head aside.

 ‘Too cowardly to face the results of your actions, little boy?’ Octavia sneered. ‘Go, you useless flux-stain. At least this girl has the courage to face her end with grace and dignity.’ She signalled to the guards. ‘Get him off my ship.’

***

Hassan was forced back into the cargo bay of the
Retribution
. The guards shoved him forwards and then closed the airlock behind him. The old Adder, the
Black Monk
, stood before him. He could take it, run for the Frontier, get as far from here as possible. Run until dozens of light years were behind him. Run where no one could find him, run to where not a single soul had heard of this accursed system and the name of the daughter of an Imperial Senator.

Kahina’s desperate visage flashed across his mind. He staggered forward and fell against the landing struts of the Adder, his mag-boots snapping and clicking underfoot. Would he ever be able to shift that image from his consciousness? She was an innocent, he’d handed her over to save his own skin. He’d said he wasn’t a pirate, just the one heist he’d promised himself, but now he’d pedalled flesh, worse than a slave trader, no conscience, no morals.

Is that who I really am?

Hide and start again – somewhere else. Far from here … it was the only choice. There was nothing he could do against Octavia. How could he face down someone with the power she had? Even Luko had abandoned Kahina, was this any different? Lone wolf, every man for himself. That was the way of the void; the way of the Frontier.

Her desperate face, haunting me for the rest of my life?

He punched out at the landing strut in sheer frustration, his tortured mind locked in regret, shame, remorse and burning anger. He punched again and again, until his knuckles ripped and tore. Small droplets of blood splashed outwards, drifting slowly away. The landing strut clanked dully with the impact. Some wires were dislodged from above him and hung down impotently, a faint red glow flickering from above. He lowered himself down to the floor, head in hands and sobs coming to him unbidden.

‘... Kahina … I’m …’

He shuddered into hysterics, unable to continue.

Wires?

The pain in his hand lanced through his thoughts, bringing a measure of sanity back to him.

He looked up, staring at the wires hanging down above his head. They were unfamiliar. There shouldn’t be anything there. Frowning, he clambered back to his feet to get a better look.

Something had been lodged into the undercarriage compartment, a device. Faint red lights flickered from it.

Hassan’s eyes widened as he recognised it.

A bomb! And some kind of homing device! The bitch is going to kill me anyway!

***

Octavia watched as Kahina was wrestled forward and hoisted into the pod. The girl still struggled, despite the heavy dose of sedative that had been administered to her. She had spirit; that was plain to see. In some ways it was a shame her mind had to go to waste, but her body was all that really mattered.

Octavia ran her eyes hungrily up and down the girl’s lithe form, enjoying how the simple dress she wore flattered her physique and curves. To be young again; firm skin, muscle tone, to be fit and healthy, without the need for drugs, stimulants or prosthetics. She would look after this body and when the time eventually came, another would be procured. With this technology she could continue to expand her grasp on systems, utilise the wisdom and experience of multiple life-times. The possibilities were endless.

‘His ship is away.’

Octavia looked up at her second in command. He held a portable holofac projector in his hand. The image of the old Adder could be seen receding on it.

‘So the coward runs,’ she replied, with a shake of her head. ‘Trigger the bomb. Destroy him.’

The man nodded, gesturing to the holofac display. Octavia resumed her study of Kahina. The Doctor had strapped her in place within the pod, placing a small tab on her forehead. Now unable to move, the girl’s face was locked in a frozen tableau of terror.

It will soon pass girl, this isn’t death … you might even call it merciful.

Octavia smiled to herself as the pod closed.

The deck lurched underneath her, jolting with sufficient force to dislodge her mag-boots. She was thrown through the air, colliding painfully with the roof of the medi-lab. The lights flickered and failed, smothering her in whirling darkness. She collided with another part of the room, a burst of pain in her arm and shoulder. The ship was spinning as if at random. Dazed, she tried to grab onto something, anything, to halt her trajectory and save herself from further injury.

Emergency lights flashed on, bathing the room in a subdued red illumination. She managed to get hold of a table, bolted to the floor, but from her perspective hanging from the wall. Inertia threw her this way and that as she tried to avoid being sent spinning once more.

She caught sight of her second in command, his body rotating sickeningly in the air, his arms and legs flaccid, blood spurting intermittently in a bright streaming arc from a wound in his head. The holofac transmitter spun past as well, bouncing off the walls and floating away. The Doctor’s body was nearby, also floating aimlessly, cannoning into the walls without restraint. Only the girl seemed unaffected, safely secured in her pod.

What … what happened?

The door to the medi-lab snapped open and she made out a figure standing in the entrance, mag-boots firmly locked on the floor, standing at right angles to her frame of reference. Light flickered from damaged circuitry in the background, briefly illuminating his features.

The boy! But his ship was supposed to be …

Her realisation was cut shot. Hassan raised a gun towards her and pulled the trigger. She saw the muzzle flash, the dull thump of bullets streaking across towards her ...

Pain, screaming.

Vengeance.

***

Hassan holstered his gun and checked his mag-boots. So far, so good. Disconnecting the bomb and leaving it next to the internal engine access ways from the cargo bay before launching his Adder on autopilot had clearly been something Octavia hadn’t anticipated.

On seeing his Adder gone she’d triggered the bomb, succeeding only in blowing out one of her own drives and sending her ship in a brain-jarring uncontrolled spin through space. Unprepared, dozens of the crew were injured or incapacitated.

Shooting Octavia was just the icing on the cake. He could hardly believe it; one of his plans had worked.

He made his way across to the pod, struggling through the debris floating around in the room, moving this way and that as the ship’s erratic movements took their toll. He reached the pod, hastily calling up the holofac displays and gesturing for the ‘open’ sequence. The top rolled back, revealing Kahina’s imprisoned form. He pulled back the securing harnesses.

‘Are you ok?’ he asked.

Her face was a mask of disbelief and fear, then she recognised him. Her features softened for a moment before anger returned.

‘You … ‘stard!’ her voice was slurred, but intelligible. She raised an arm and tried to slap his face. He caught it easily.

‘Not now. Let’s get you out of here.’

He pulled her up, her body soft and limp in his grasp, clamping her alongside him as the ship continued to whirl around them. Debris in the room continued to fly in random directions. The Doctor’s body rotated past. Hassan pushed it away and they reached the doorway. She trailed behind him awkwardly, her feet unsecured by mag-boots.

‘What happened?’ Kahina gasped.

‘Bomb,’ Hassan answered.

‘Bomb?’

‘Just hold on to me,’ Hassan said, hoisting her onto his shoulders. ‘As tight as you can.’

She managed to wrap her arms and legs around him and he stomped down the dimly lit corridor, bracing himself against the walls to ward off the uncertain movements of the ship.

A jolt threw them to one side and the sickening motion slowed. Somebody on the bridge was trying to get the ship under control. Time was running out. Hassan hastened onwards, arriving at a bulkhead door. He spun it open and stumbled through. Inside was a small enclosed area with a series of hatches. He felt Kahina move her head to see better, felt her body heat on his neck.

‘Where?’ Her voice was clearer now, more alert.

‘Escape pod,’ Hassan answered, ‘Grab onto something whilst I prep it.’

Kahina let go of him and pushed herself towards the wall, grabbing an exposed handle and bracing herself against it. Hassan opened one of the pods and looked inside briefly.

Two man pods. Thank Randomius for that.

He activated the on-board avionics and listened while they hummed into readiness. Holofac displays flickered and stabilised. The pod was ready to fly.

‘Here,’ he called, stretching out towards Kahina.

She shook her head.

‘No. I don’t trust …’

‘We don’t have time for this.’

‘You sold me out.’

‘Yeah. Bad call. You can shoot me later … but I’m trying to rescue you …’ he raised his voice, ‘so get in the damn pod!’

Voices sounded from the corridor behind them. Urgent cries of anger. Orders were barked. Kahina looked around in alarm and fear.

‘Or you can stay here and get your mind wiped. Your choice, lady!’

Kahina launched herself across to him. He caught her in mid-air and pushed her into the pod.

‘Buckle in. The acceleration is supposed to be pretty bad.’

‘There! The escape pods!’ Voices sounded from the corridor they’d just left. Octavia’s guards.

The guards were close now, shadows flickered around the entrance to the pod control room. Hassan threw himself feet first into the pod and pulled the hatchway closed behind him. He hit the small couch inside with a thump, grabbing frantically at the securing straps floating around him.