The Commander's Slave (9 page)

With the immediate danger out of the
way, she knelt and examined the young man. Part of his face was
burnt red and raw. She felt for a pulse and was relieved to find
one.

Although she hadn’t entered it, she
roughly knew from the tour where sickbay was situated. Placing her
hands under his arms, she hoisted the man up and began dragging him
towards the back of the ship. Thankfully, sickbay was down one
level, but she was still panting and sweating when she entered with
her rescued soldier.

Zehnda was all-professional now,
giving her one quick glance before directing her to a nearby bunk.
But Asha wasn’t strong enough to lift the unconscious man onto the
bunk, so she left him on the floor next to it. Zehnda rushed
around, examining four others who had gotten there before she
did.

Finally, the doctor had time to give
her patient a quick scan.

“
Well done,” he said. “You
caught him just as he was entering shock. I’ll give him something
that should settle his system.”

“
Where are the other
doctors?” she asked.

He grabbed a second to give her a
quick grin. “What other doctors?”

“
Assistants?”

“
Not many medical personnel
survived the attack on our home world,” he explained.

Asha made a quick decision. “Then give
me a medical kit. I’ll see who else is injured and bring them back
here.”

Zehnda didn’t demur. He returned with
a compact case. “Do you know how to use the equipment.”

“
I ... think
so.”

“
Then I’m not going to turn
down an offer of help. Get going.”

She hesitated. “Ah,
doctor?”

“
Yes?”

“
Do you have a spare pair
of shoes anywhere?”

* * * *

The attack on the
Strike
stopped Asha
from thinking. Caught in extreme circumstances beyond her control,
all she could was react. And, she found, the less she thought, the
more her hands knew what to do.

Almost as though she was standing
outside herself, she watched as she reset a dislocated shoulder,
bandaged wounds and emergency-bound broken limbs. Around her, the
battle continued to rage, but she found a center of quiet and used
it, calmly extinguishing fires and estimating doses of painkillers.
Thankfully, the kit she had been supplied with had been designed
with non-medical personnel in mind: tranquilizers and medication
were already divided into individual treatments and all she had to
do was load and shoot the hypo-spray.

Right at the end, when she could tell that the pace was
less frantic--the fact that the
Strike
was still in
one piece augured well--she came across Tomben.

She had not forgotten about him from
the time she was sold to the Seti and shivered as she remembered
the familiar way he had run his hand down her naked body. But right
now, he was in pain just outside one of the engine rooms, cradling
an arm that was clearly broken in two places, and suffering
third-degree burns.

He tried to summon a leer as he saw
her approach, but Asha could see his face twist as he adjusted his
position.

“
Stay still,” she
commanded, kneeling down next to him.

“
Just get me some
painkillers,” he rasped, “then I can get back to killing more of
those Lasc Prein scum.”

Asha’s fingers faltered at the clasp
of the medical kit. So they had been attacked by the Lasc Prein
again? Still, whatever else she thought of Tomben, she couldn’t
fault his loyalty. Her fingers stilled as she thought of
something.

“
Listen Tomben,” she said
in an urgent tone, “you don’t like me, and to be honest, I’m not
too keen about you. But you know your commander likes me ... very
much.”

Tomben turned away in disgust, but
Asha stopped him and forced him to look at her.

“
For all you know, the Lasc
Prein were able to sneak up on you because the commander was
distracted by me. Have you thought of that? Maybe you wouldn’t be
here in pain if he had been thinking clearly.”

Tomben’s eyes narrowed. “So
what?”

“
So you don’t need that
kind of distraction, do you? One woman with all those enemies out
there waiting to vaporize you into your component atoms.” Tomben’s
face twisted in pain again so Asha hurried. “I have a deal for you.
You tell me where the emergency escape pods are located, and I’ll
give you a painkiller.”

“
How do I know you won’t
overdose me instead?” he demanded.

Asha hesitated. There was food for
thought. After all, would the galaxy really miss someone like
Tomben?

“
I give you my word,” she
said.

He looked at her for a few seconds,
then jerked his head. “It’s in the engine room behind me. Go to the
end and turn left. There are three pods.”

“
Thanks.” She added a
powerful sedative to the painkiller and gave Tomben a double dose
before he could say anything else. Then, with a quick look around,
she slipped through the open door of the engine room.

Chapter
Six

Later, even though he knew it was
nothing he could have foreseen, Tangus would blame his distracted
mood for the way the scout ship had sneaked up on them.

The first strike sent him half out of the command chair as
the blow reverberated through the
Strike’s
hull.

Ven, his young helmsman/navigator,
frantically checked his instruments before turning to his commander
in alarm.

“
Sir, the ship. It’s Lasc
Prein!”

Tangus swore a short sharp epithet.
After all the careful planning they had done--

“
Daurent, jam that ship’s
transmissions. I don’t want any ‘friends’ dropping by.”

“
Yes,
commander.”

Another blast shook the ship as Tangus opened
ship wide communications.

“
Battlestations,” he barked. “This is not a drill. Enemy
sighted and engaged. I repeat,
battle stations.”

A third hit.

“
And, Daurent, when you
have time, lock on that ship. What can you tell me about
it?”

Second after second ticked away, and Tangus continued
swearing. In his old battleship, there was enough room on the
bridge for one person per function--one for communications, one for
weapons, one to handle helm, the other navigation. He even had the
luxury of Security and Sensors officers. But in the renamed
Strike
, the bridge was cramped, and his officers had to carry out
multiple roles. With predictable results.

“
Scout ship, commander,”
Daurent reported after an eternity. “Just the one. Standard
armaments.”

“
Target the shields around
the propulsion systems. Ven, get us into an evasive
maneuver.”

“
Which one, commander?” The
helmsman/navigator’s fingers flew over the boards in preparation
for a defensive move.

“
There’s only us, Ven. Find
one.”

“
Ah--”

“
Commander, one of the
engineering ports has taken damage. Artificial gravity’s at eighty
percent.”

“
Get us out of here, Ven.” Tangus kept his voice calm, and
his young officer responded, sending the
Strike
into a
deep dive. “Daurent, ready the rear cannons and fire.”

More seconds. “Direct hit on their
bridge shields, commander. They’re still holding.”

What followed was an interstellar game
of cat and mouse, the roles alternating with each tactical move,
but Tangus wasn’t satisfied. For every minute they engaged with the
Lasc Prein scout, the risk of their discovery by another unfriendly
increased.

“
Ven, I need some piloting
magic. We need an edge on that ship, fast. What can you give
me?”

The helmsman conferred quickly with
his star charts. “We’re close to a solar system ringed by an
asteroid field. I can make an initial run in that direction
….”

A smaller explosion rocked the
ship.

“
Trouble in Engine Room
Two,” Daurent said. “Systems offline. We’re down to seventy-five
percent propulsion.”

“
Whatever you’re thinking
of, do it now.”

“
Yes,
commander.”

“
Daurent, get our weapons
ready.”

“
Yes,
commander.”

And Ven rose to the challenge with, even Tangus had to
admit, a skilful exercise in piloting. The young pilot led
the
Strike
into the asteroid field, at the same
time starting a shallow curving trajectory, finally exploiting a
larger body--and a tractor beam--to execute one of the tightest
turns he had ever experienced. They came up under the unsuspecting
scout ship, and Daurent needed no prompting to empty all batteries
into the forward cannons.

On the forward view screens, the first
strikes hit the scout’s shields and scattered into sparks, but
Daurent kept up the barrage. A noiseless explosion of white light
blinded the bridge crew temporarily, and when they regained their
sight, the scout ship was gone.

“
Destroyed,” Daurent
reported with a grin.

Tangus let out a breath he hadn’t
realized he’d been holding and relaxed in his chair.

“
Good work, helm. Damage
report?”

“
We’ve lost shields on the
left-side and sustained damage in two propulsion units. One escape
pod prematurely ejected. Minor hull breach on Level Two. Some
internal fires, all under control. Repair crews have been
dispatched. Doctor Zehnda reports twelve injured, none critical.
”

Good. Nobody had died. The Creator
knew he had already lost enough people to the Lasc
Prein.

“
How far to the next
jump?”

“
Three hours at our current
speed.”

“
Probability of tracking us
... home?”

“
Slim,” Daurent concluded
after some thinking. “There are two jumps near this system. If we
shut down our damaged engine, we can make it to one without leaving
a trail.”

“
How much will that add to
our travel time?”

“
No more than forty
minutes.”

“
And once we’re past the
first jump?”

“
It’s a complicated route
that takes us close to popular space lanes, then back out again. I
think we’ll be okay, commander.”

“
Do a quick scan for
salvage, then get us out of here.”

With the current danger over, Tangus
wondered how Asha was. If she had any sense, she would have taken
refuge in her chamber and stayed there.

“
I’m going to see Dr.
Zehnda and check in with the wounded,” he told his
second-in-command. “Let me know if we meet any more
surprises.”

“
Yes, sir.”

Tangus left the cramped bridge and
headed for sickbay, his lips tightening as he took stock of the
internal damage his flagship had sustained.

Still, it could have been worse. Six months ago, the
Strike
would have broken apart under the stresses it had just been
subjected to. But thanks to hard work from his crew, and several
judicious purchases at various trading posts, they had fashioned a
serviceable, if small, military vessel.

In sickbay, chaos had settled into
calm purposefulness. Tangus entered and saw five soldiers sitting
on the floor against the wall. All three bunk beds were occupied.
Zehnda was looking at some information on one of his
monitors.

“
How’s my crew,
doctor?”

“
No fatalities, commander,
I’m happy to report, although,” he took a look around, “I could
have hoped for more expansive medical quarters.”

“
So could I. How serious
are the injuries?”

“
Some second- and
third-degree burns. A few broken limbs. I sent the concussion and
superficial injury patients back to their quarters, but ....” He
hesitated.

“
Something bothering you,
Doctor?”

“
Well, Asha was helping me
….”

“
Asha?” Tangus’ voice was
sharp. “What the hell was she doing out of her
quarters?”

“
That’s something you’re
going to have to ask her,” Zehnda replied evenly. “She came to
sickbay with a patient and exhibited some competence in medical
care. Upon her request, I supplied her with an emergency medical
kit, and she began treating and bringing back more patients. Except
for Tomben.”

“
What about
Tomben?”

“
He had obviously been
treated by Asha but was found unconscious near engineering. He’s in
that bunk over there.” Zehnda indicated the far sickbay
bed.

“
And where’s
Asha?”

“
That’s just the point. I
haven’t seen her yet.”

Tangus’ blood ran cold. Tomben was a
good soldier, fierce, loyal. Because he was dependable and
fearless, Tangus had been prepared to overlook Tomben’s more lewd
behavior on shore leave. But the thought of Tomben alone with Asha
....