Kidnapped (12 page)

He glanced into her eyes, thinking he must never forget just how beautiful they were. "I wish it was possible."

It was difficult to smile, but he forced himself to, "How about this? I'll tell you all about it when I come pick you up."

Looking at her, he knew that she knew he was lying.

*****

Time had never passed as quickly as it did on the way to the rendezvous with the Redeemer, and Patricia was crying again when they left the ship. She had read the files on the little rebel crew, and she knew the names of all the people who stood there waiting for them. She knew what they had done to deserve the wrath of the Alliance, how old they were, what they liked to eat, even what the color of their eyes were, but she didn't care.

They had packed a little bag for her with her few belongings and Travis handed it to her, dried a tear away from her cheek with his own hand and kissed her before pushing her towards the slightly alien Madison, who stood just a few steps away. "Go on, Sweetheart, it will be okay."

Patricia didn't believe him. She still took a couple of steps towards Madison. The woman's skin and eyes had a hint of purple. Panic stabbed at her heart, and she dropped the bag right down and turned back. Throwing her arms around Travis, she whispered, "I love you so much. You'd better take care of yourself, and do come get me, you hear."

He held her tight and she wished the moment would never end, but he eventually broke free from her and urged her to go to Madison. She heard someone mutter, "This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Weirdest day ever." The voice seemed to come from another planet.

When she turned around, she saw Madison had picked up the little bag. The bluish woman hurried to meet her, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her over to the side. Patricia followed, feeling much too numb to object.

*****

Travis eyed the little group, wondering how he could trust the most precious person in the world to them. He sighed. He didn't have any other choice. There was no one else to turn to.

Hearing Patricia plead to Madison, "Please don't hurt him," made him grimace. He hadn't wanted her to know they would; she would worry, but she had figured it out anyway. William had pointed out the only way he could possibly survive losing a prisoner from his own ship was if someone stole her, and besides, one of the Redeemer's crew had a personal grudge and wouldn't accept having the girl on board if he didn't get something out of it. Travis didn't care all that much about whether he survived this visit to Central or not, but he did care about that second part. He couldn't remember killing Garth's family, but if the files said he had, it was probably true.

Madison made a grimace, and he heard her answer, "If you want to see him again, they will have to hurt him. But that doesn't mean you have to watch."

He was relieved to see the woman press something on her communicator and teleport them both away. As soon as Patricia wasn't there anymore he turned his attention to William and Garth, the latter a mountain of a man that towered over him. The large man stood opening and closing his fists and Travis surprised them with smiling as he said, "You're looking forward to this, aren't you. Come on. Don't hold back."

He anticipated physical pain. Anything that could take his attention away from the void in his soul must be a good thing.

*****

 At first, Patricia didn't understand what was happening. She was on the ground, looking back at Travis, and then she stood in a very peculiar room with white pipes hanging down from the ceiling. She was so surprised that for a moment she forgot to be heartbroken, and she exclaimed, "What happened?"

Her companion smiled, "We teleported. The computer, well... eh, it's complicated. What's important is that you were there, and now you're here. Come on, I've prepared a room. Don't worry, we'll take good care of you."

Patricia didn't want to follow this person, but she didn't have much of a choice. Drying her eyes with the back of her hand, she walked into a bright corridor that seemed much too merry for the occasion. Her eyes were unused to all this light and cheery colors, and she whispered, "I want to go home."

The woman by her side flashed a smile, "That's where we're taking you."

The words, "That's not what I meant," fell to the floor unheard. The definition of 'home' had changed, and odds were she'd never see it again.

*****

On the surface, Garth didn't hold back. He'd had an image in his mind of a man in black murdering his wife and children for years, and even if he'd had a moment's doubt when he saw his enemy together with the girl, that was easy to push aside.

He did find it strange at first that the infamous Alliance Commander didn't lift a finger to defend himself, and then he forgot to think at all, until William and Aaren were pulling him back. His Captain was yelling at him, "That's enough Garth, stand down!"

Wriggling free from them, he ran forward and planted one more good kick in Travis's ribs. The man on the ground didn't move, and this time when William and Aaren pulled him away he shook them off and went willingly.

*****

Travis didn't know how much time passed; it could have been minutes or days. He felt a cool hand check for his pulse, and heard a woman's voice say, "He's still alive." It all seemed very distant. He could barely breathe, even less see or hear, but his mind was still much too clear.

He stayed on the ground when the others left, and it took him a long time to work his way back into the ship. The pain of broken bones and other injuries was still easy to handle compared to the echoing emptiness in the corridors and his heart.

If he'd had any idea of how hollow his life would seem without her, he would probably never have let her out of the cell in the first place. Maybe it would have been better if he'd never even seen the planet she came from.

Chapter Thirteen

On the Redeemer, Madison decided to give Patricia some space. She didn't have any warm feelings for Travis. Men under his command had slaughtered the population of her planet and she had only escaped through pure luck, but when William first told them about the girl and the plan, her heart had gone out to Patricia. Their ordeal wasn't the same, but it was easy for her to imagine the fear and confusion of being ripped away into space.

At first, she hadn't believed the story that the unlikely couple were lovers, but now she wasn't so sure anymore. There was no doubt the girl's grief was real, and he had seemed honestly attached to her.

She sat in the transporter room waiting for the others, and when Vasiliy teleported them up, William looked at her with a question in his eyes. She shrugged and nodded down the hall, "I have the girl locked up in a room down there, just like you asked."

Her Captain pulled a hand over his face before drawing a deep breath and asking quietly, "Is it possible?"

He didn't have to elaborate on that. Everyone except for Vasiliy, who hadn't been on the planet, knew what he was talking about.

At first, no one spoke, and then Isabela answered thoughtfully, "I suppose so, but I think it's more likely the girl has somehow taken the place of the Alliance in Travis's programming."

She looked at the others, and Madison found herself staring with a blank, uncomprehending expression. Isabela elaborated, "Come on. Garth, you almost killed him and he didn't lift one finger to defend himself. Is there any other way that man would do that?"

Garth still looked almost high from finally getting revenge on his long hated enemy. He was leaning one shoulder against the wall, and asked, "But that would be a good thing, right?"

The silence was almost tangible, and then Madison sighed deeply, "It could be. As long as she's safe. Imagine what a person like him would do if anything happened to the object of his obsession."

Vasiliy grimaced and Madison thought he was getting the idea of what they were discussing. He muttered, "I'll just stay out of her way. It's been bad enough to have Travis on my tail for the principle of the thing. Imagine it being personal..."

William seemed to make up his mind. "I'm gonna have to go talk to her. Madison, she knows you now, would you come with me?"

She nodded, and Isabela said quietly, "I'll go get some tea or something."

*****

Patricia stood looking out the window, with her back straight and her arms hanging loosely down her sides, but with silent tears still finding their way down her cheeks. She didn't even turn around when she heard the door open. It wasn't that she didn't want to go back to Earth, assuming these people would really take her; she was dying to go home. She had just imagined a much happier ending, and everything about this seemed wrong.

She'd had love affairs before, had broken up with people and been broken up with, but she couldn't remember it ever feeling like this. Maybe it was because he hadn't been just a man. He'd been the only refuge she had in this alien environment, and without him, she was deeply lonely and unhappy. She suspected these feelings would haunt her all the way home, if she made it that far.

Madison exchanged a glance with William, walked up to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, saying kindly, "Sweetie, we need to talk."

The alien turned her around and led her to a chair, and Patricia didn't object. She  obeyed, as if all traces of free will had vanished. William looked at her and she could see pity in his eyes. She didn't like that, but she felt too numb to try to change it.

He smiled warmly, reached out to take her hand that lay limp in her lap, and said in a friendly voice, "I'm William Reynolds. You can call me Bill or Billy or whatever you want."

She felt a shadow of a smile fly over her face and she answered quietly, "I know who you are. I've read the files on all of you."

She counted the little crew on her fingers, "William, Madison, Isabela, Vasiliy, Aaren and Garth, and even the ship has a file, how weird is that."

William exchanged a surprised glance with Madison and echoed, "You've read our files."

She shrugged; she didn't see how it was a big deal. She'd spent so many hours with the computer, studying up on everything, and this was just a little part of all she'd learned. By now she even knew how the translation software in her brain worked; her suspicions of her mind changing names and words into something more familiar to her had been true. For a brief period of time she had wondered what Travis's name might really be, but she had shrugged it off. Now, she wished she'd spent more energy on finding out.

Madison sought confirmation. "Travis let you read confidential Alliance material?"

Patricia shrugged again. The situation might seem bizarre to them, but it was normal to her.

The purple woman asked curiously, "So, what do you think?" and Patricia gave her a numb glance of, "what do I think about what," before she got it. "Oh, well, you seem like nice people I guess. I don't know. I didn't give it much thought at the time."

Behind them, Isabela entered the room quietly, bringing tea. Patricia saw her from the corner of her eye, saw the other woman pause, and she wondered if they all thought she was a monster for loving Travis. Isabela's voice shook her out of this. "Guys, you know what, this just sucks."

She nearly shoved one of the teacups into Patricia's unwilling hands, exclaiming, "Bill, couldn't you dumbass men have come up with a better plan than this? You've ripped this poor girl away from the only stability she's known for months, and then you almost had him beaten to death!"

She snapped her mouth shut, and then muttered, more to herself than to them, "I can't believe this. I'm actually voting for leaving someone with Travis."

Patricia winced when she heard the words "beaten to death," and Isabela added in a softer voice, "I'm sorry honey, I didn't mean to say that."

William sighed deeply, puffing his cheeks up when he exhaled. He looked at his wife and sighed again, before he answered in his usual calm voice, "I agree with you, not one thing about this feels right. But no, us dumbass men, as different as we are, couldn't come up with a better plan."

He ran a hand thoughtfully over his chin, thinking aloud now, "There's no way he
can't
go there, there's no way he can bring
her
there, the only remaining option is he goes, and she doesn't. Better to leave her here with us than alone on some desolate planet, don't you think?"

Raising his face, he looked into Isabela's eyes, and his voice was decisive when he continued, "Maybe, and only maybe, there might be another way in the long run. Maybe we could give them a chance to get away, but that would take a lot of time and planning, and quite frankly, up until today I haven't thought it would be worth the trouble."

Patricia had no idea of what they were talking about anymore. She stared down at her mug and pretended to be somewhere else. She felt Madison watch her and was grateful for her gentle interruption, "Guys, with all these maybes, maybe we can talk about this later?"