It felt like we’d been running for hours. Realistically I know it couldn’t have been, even with adrenaline pumping through my system, there’s no way I could have maintained that run for such a long time without collapsing. Nevertheless, it felt like forever.
The whole way was a blur of sensations; my heart pounding in my chest, blood rushing in my ears, breath ragged. The crunch of the genetically adapted pine needles underfoot and their resinous scent filling my lungs. The flashes of sunlight through the canopy of the trees as I repeatedly glanced back to check for our pursuers. I’d never been so overloaded with sensation in my life. Not in the most dangerous salvaging contract I’d ever handled.
At some point I stopped noticing any sign of pursuit and slowed to try to catch my breath, following Jophixa’s sure, quick steps around a rocky outcropping. I guessed she was hoping to break line of sight and possibly shake our tail, I hoped it’d work. The issue was that in the few scant moments between the time she stepped out of sight, and the time I followed her, I lost her.
I stopped dead when I realized she was nowhere to be seen.
I was right on the edge of calling out for her, when I remembered we were trying to shake an unknown number of cops that wanted to take me in for “questioning” that could end up with me never leaving. So I clenched my teeth and desperately looked around for signs of where she disappeared to.
Just as I had about given up spotting her from where I was and thought maybe she’d moved farther into the woods, I felt a sudden sharp pull on my ankles.
You would think that with my adrenaline so high and my nerves on red alert, my reflexes might have kicked in faster than they did, but nope. You have been paying attention to the way all this started haven’t you? What actually happened was that I was completely unable to correct my balance, or even get my hands up in front of me to break my fall as I went down. And for the first time in weeks, the ground came up to greet me with a kiss that sent me into darkness.
----------------------------------------
“Aacen!” the soft, urgent voice came to me as I struggled to wake up, alongside a cool hand lightly slapping my cheek, “Thomas! Wake up already! Damnit! You weren’t supposed to hit your damned head!”
Letting out a low grown, I caught her hand, and tried to force my eyes open.
Then immediately closed them again, scrunching them up hard and bringing my hands up to rub them before opening them again. Nope, I wasn’t imagining things. “Jo,” I asked, confusion clear in my voice “Why are you naked?” I paused for a moment then added, “And why are you sitting on me?”
Her ears dropped flat down against her neck as she glanced down at how she was straddling my stomach, and hurriedly rolled off. “I was getting ready to use the hot spring!” she answered angrily, “Don’t tell me your people bathe with your clothes on…”
“Um…” I said, brilliantly. It was the concussion, it must have been. “Not when bathing alone, or with someone…” I cleared my throat. “Well, you know… Otherwise there’s special clothing involved.”
She scowled at me, “You mean to tell me that with all those stories of your sex crazed Benastian lover,” she put some emphasis on that last word, “That you are prudish about nudity? With all the banter you do with Stacy, I would not have thought anything shocked you, let alone simple nudity.”
I blushed, “It’s um…” damnit, this was not an appropriate time for this conversation. “Jo, the situation is a bit more complicated,” I looked around, suddenly paranoid that our talking was about to give away our location to the cops pursuing us. “Wait, where the hell are we?”
Her scowl deepened at my question. “A cave. I saw the opening when I rounded the outcropping and took a chance to see if it was large enough for us both to fit.” She sat down on a rock about 2 meters away from me, still not bothered at all by the fact she wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing, even considering she was covered in scrapes from our mad dash through the forest. “It’s why I had to pull you in the way I did, I didn’t want to alert them to where we were. I’m sorry you hit your head.”
“If we lose them,” I replied, rubbing my face where it hit the ground, surprisingly finding no trace of blood, “it’s all good. I’d rather be knocked out and not locked up, than still out there trying to outrun them.”
A curt nod, then “What was that you were saying about the situation being complicated?” she pressed.
Damn, I thought, She wasn’t gonna let this go. “I…wonder why we haven’t heard from Stacy yet!” I exclaimed, trying to sit up, but feeling just a bit woozy. I might have gotten conked a bit harder than I thought. “It can’t be anything in the rocks, not with the comms going through an ansible.”
“Thomas stop-”
Whatever she was about to say was cut off by an echoed cry of “THOMAS!” followed by me getting bowled over in a flying tackle by my kid sister.
Thankfully this time I managed not to get my head bashed against anything.
----------------------------------------
“So during our daily hikes in the woods,” Jesse explained, “we brought supplies out here and stashed them in this cave. Boudya didn’t trust our chances at not having been traced, so wanted to make sure we didn’t get caught with our pants down.” She glanced at Jophixa, who was now wearing a spare t-shirt of Jesse’s, which she had stashed here.
“Bad timing.” Jophixa said, and I translated, shrugging, “they picked the exact moment I was headed to the hotspring for a soak to bust down our door.”
Both Boudya and Jesse lifted mirrored eyebrows that said they didn’t believe a word of it. Tindron was being appreciatively quiet in the conversation.
I had quickly introduced Jo and the others after I’d pushed Jesse off of me, and made sure Jo wasn’t going to do something typically security like and try and bash her head in - which she thankfully hadn’t been. I guess the fact Jesse shouted my name before glomping me had helped prevent that.
“We can explain our side of that in a minute.” I said, “Right now I need to get back to figuring out why my communications with Stacy don’t seem to be working. I haven’t heard from her since we fled from the resort, and that’s really unlike her. We need to figure out how she’s gonna get our asses out of here.”
“Who’s Sta-” Boudya started to ask, but I didn’t hear the rest
“Stacy!” I exclaimed, getting to my feed suddenly. Jesse’s eyes went wide, and Boudya and Tindron looked at me strangely, “What’s been going on? You’re never this quiet! I’ve been worried they got to you and the others!”
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The three of them were now looking at Jo, who was giving them what seemed to be the universal “one moment” gesture while watching me closely.
“One of the cops was dirty? Paid off to kill me?” I gasped out, dumbfounded. “I understand why Barstol wanted me dead, he couldn’t have had the connections to pay off a cop here to kill me, could he?”
Jophixa interrupted me at that point, “Thomas, I know you get carried away with those conversations once they get going, but you’re leaving me out of half of it!” she said crossly. “Could you ask your friends if they happen to have a comms unit Stacy could patch into?”
“Oh, right. One moment Stacy. Jo wants in on this conversation.” I looked over at Boudya, “I don’t suppose any of the things you stashed here happened to be a portable comms unit? Our ride out of here is back in contact,” I tapped my temple, “and Jo is rightfully anxious to be in on both sides of the conversation.”
Boudya reached into a pouch at her hip and pulled out a portable mid-range comms unit. “Only this, and 2 others like it.” she explained, “I’d picked up 4 long range units like you asked, but they were too big to cart out here without looking suspicious so they are held in a numbered shipping crate at the Starport.”
“Go ahead and power it up.” I told her, then touched my temple to indicate I’d be talking to Stacy. At least, I hoped they’d interpret it that way. “Stacy, I know you can pinpoint my position. There’s an active mid-range comms unit here, try tapping into it so Jophixa can hear you too.” Mentally I sent,
I rolled my eyes, but also sighed in relief. It was good to hear her banter again. “She’s going to patch in, until she’s encrypted the signal though, it’s best…”
The communicator crackled a moment and then Stacy’s voice said “Don’t listen to sugar kisses over there, he tends to be a nervous nancy all the time. The encryption is already taken care of, and unlike SysSec and SysGov encryption, it’ll take them more than a few hours to crack, especially without the help of someone like me.” a pause, then “I’m Stacy! I’m the one that just pulled Thomas’s wonderful human ass out of the fire - along with commander Jophixa’s - and will work out a way to get you three out too! I’ve heard a lot about you by the way, Boudya!”
Once again, Boudya and Jesse were both staring at me, and said in unison in equal amounts of shock, “Sugar-kisses?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Stacy beat me to it. “Oh, I’m just having fun with him, that’s all! Don’t worry about lil old me if you’re planning to rekindle the old spark, Boudya. Gonna take quite a few design iterations before I’m a threat to anyone’s relationship. Besides, Benastians have that whole non-monogamy thing going on, don’t they? We can share!”
If anything that just made the two of them look even more shocked. Jophixa looked like she was torn between annoyance and laughter at my expense, and Tindron was openly grinning like someone who was going to have fun teasing me, his mate, or both of us for years to come about this situation.
“Stacy, could you please tone it down?” I pleaded, “Don’t we have a more important task at hand than me having to explain to my sister, as well as Boudya, why there is an AI flirting outrageously with me?”
That got Tindron’s attention. “Wait, Stacy is an Artificial Intelligence?”
“Well A.I. could stand for Absolutely Irresistible, but since the deliciously sexy party pooper over there spilled the beans,” She paused as if giving a bow, “Yes, yes I am. An honour to meet me. Smiley emoji”
“You’re speaking emoji now?”
“Hey, it’s not like this comms unit has a holo screen on it.” she retorted. “Anyway, weren’t you saying something about planning an exfiltration? Like I said, I got you and the Commander cleared. As far as the local government and law enforcement know, if the cops don’t back off until we pick you up, a fleet of Giobhioni warships will be on their way within days, and be at the border of their space days after. They were quite upset about that.”
It was Jo’s turn to be shocked now. “They think -what-?” she demanded, “How the hell did they get that idea”
“Cause I hacked their governmental comms network, got the Prefect and SysSec commander on the line in a party chat and well…” her voice changed slightly, her tone sounding more like Jo when she was in commander mode, “Ambassador Stasti Ai’fix informed them that their officers had attempted to invade sovereign Giobhioni territory - your shuttle - causing its security protocol to initiate self destruct sequence. They also attacked a most honoured Giobhioni Commander - and her cabin boy. The one she had rescued from certain death on a desolate planetoid outside of any transport lanes. A man who had bargained for passage by contracting himself to you as a cabin boy for 5.7 Commonwealth standard years. I also explained that by our laws, such a contract meant that he served you, but also that he was under your protection, and to abandon him or break the contract would be a huge violation of your honour. I also told them that the people of the Giobhioni Republic worshiped your deeds and example as a warrior of honour so highly, that they would go to war rather than see it tarnished.”
We all just stared at the communicator in stunned silence for a moment, until both Jo and I buried our faces in our palms, Tindron started grinning, Boudya broke out in cackles while repeating the words “cabin boy” over and over. Jesse just shook her head, staring at me.
“Alright, alright,” I said, interrupting their laughter, “We need to figure out how we’re getting you three,” I waved at Boudya, Tindron and Jesse, “On board The Elegance without SysSec finding out, so we don’t have to fight our way out of here. I’d rather not have to put the Giobhioni at odds with the Commonwealth.”
“What’s the possibility of your ship landing right up against the rockface?” Boudya asked, “can we get the hatch close enough we could get aboard with little risk of being seen?”
“The landing part might be accomplished,” Stacy answered, “but it would require weapons fire to clear away some trees. We can get the hatch relatively close, but I’m not sure it’ll be close enough to block any surveillance. I’ve detected a few observation drones in the air, keeping their distance, but obviously following me. They may plan to hold by letting Commander Jophixa and Thomas leave, but they are watching us very closely to make sure the rest of you don’t.”
“And the shuttle that was blown up…”
“The mini-fac hasn’t had enough time to replace it yet.”
“Kinda makes me wish ship cloaking was a real thing outside of fiction.” I stopped and looked at Jophixa, “That isn’t something the Giobhioni had, was it?”
She twitched her head in that way her people used for a negative response, “Sorry. Command was hopeful some experiments that were in progress at the time of stasis would yield results, but the best we could ever do was hide deep inside rocks to mask our installations.”
Stacy translated for her, then added, “I’ll put that on my research agenda Boss. I’m sure I’ll figure it out in a few weeks, maybe a year, tops. It’s too bad this wasn't one of Thomas’ old flat vids, we could just double them up on a stretcher with Thomas and you. But there’s no way we’re fooling anyone on that idea with the Benastians in your group.”
We all just looked at each other for a moment, when suddenly Tindron coughed, “Aren’t we forgetting a crucial detail this marvelous young lady just informed us about a few minutes ago?” he asked.
I frowned at him, “What, you mean the whole thing about me being Jo’s ‘Cabin boy’?”
“There are two engineers, an AI, and a security expert here, and you all just completely forgot about the little detail where Stacy broke SysSec’s encryption and invaded their comms network in order to conference call the Prefect and Security Commander…” he shook his head, “Why am I the one realizing the solution to our problem.”
Boudya blinked, then let out a long sigh, “He’s right,” She said, “and I’m going to be hearing about this for at least a week. I’m going to be giving so much…nevermind.” She looked at the communications unit, “Stacy, having cracked their encryption, and assuming they haven’t locked it down again already, how hard would it be for you to just hijack the sensor feeds from those security drones?”
There was a short pause, “If I had an ass to spank, I’d say you owed me a good hard one for not seeing that Honey-Bear!” another short pause, “they’ve tried to lock it down again, but now that I understand Terran encryption paradigms, it wasn’t all that difficult to break through again. I’ve patched into the drone sensor feeds and am working on the counterfeit signals now. In a few minutes I can override the feeds and send back footage of only Thomas and Commander Jophixa boarding the Elegance, while I send one of the more distant drones following a ghost signal of the three of you running off further into the mountains. And the bonus of it all is, the drone sensor feeds help verify that they don’t still have any personnel out here snooping!”
I shook my head at myself, “Stacy, sweety, I’m as equally dumbassed in this case as you.” I told her. “If you deserve a spanking, it would mean I do too…”
“OH!” she said, before I could continue, “Now there’s an idea! Tratsa can administer yours! Or maybe Boudya wants to, I shouldn’t assume! You two have some catching up to do after all! Maybe they’ll want to gang up on you! That’d be fun to watch! Promise me you won’t disable the feeds to your room this time?”
“I’m not hearing this!” I heard Jesse groan, and looked over to see her sticking her fingers in her ears, “Stacy, I do not want to know about my brother’s sex life!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Boudya, a maliciously mischievous twinkle in her eye that told me I was in for some “I told you so” payback, with some “What the fuck did you get me into!” dessert. And Jophixa? Her ears had once again disappeared, flattened down and plastered against her neck.
I found myself raising an eyebrow at her. What the hell is she so embarrassed about? I thought to myself, It’s me getting raked over the fire over here!