Chapter 8

Chapter Seven

Near AC-Sol Jump gate

Alpha Centauri

“Take it easy!  We’re not going to hurt you!” Jeremiah shouted at the crazed woman.  Blood poured from his mouth.  He was certain at least one tooth had been knocked loose.  His lip was quickly swelling, but he was more concerned about the tool the woman had snatched up during the scuffle.  

“Alec, can I get some help please?” he shouted.

Suddenly the woman made a very strange face, twitched a bit, and then her body went stiff just before collapsing.  Alec was standing behind her with some kind of shock prod in his hands.

“What the hell?”

“It’s just a taser,” Alec replied, slightly confused.  Then he got it.  “Oh, you mean her?  Yeah, what the hell?”

Jeremiah cocked his head at him in mock annoyance.

“Looks like she got you pretty good, J.  You should go tend to that.”

Jeremiah put a hand to his mouth and wiped a large amount of blood from his lip and chin.

“Yeah, yeah okay,” he said, still catching his breathe.  He glanced down at the woman unconscious on the floor between them.  “Do me a favor, get her back in that cold box while I take care of this.  Then we can figure out how to fix that thing and refreeze her, get this job over with.”

Alec said nothing, just set the shock prod down and began moving towards the woman.  Jeremiah turned and headed for his cabin.

He pulled out a tube of sealant from the med-kit over his bunk and headed for the mirror.    His lip was still swollen and blue, but the bleeding had slowed a bit.  He licked his thumb and wiped away what he could.  It stung, but not as much as the sealant did on his fresh wound.  Had it not been for his genetic enhancements, it would probably have been much worse.  Far more blood loss and extensive bruises, the woman had a powerful kick that was for certain.   

The photograph of his wife caught his attention.  This was all so crazy.  He had been hauling for nearly fifteen years, since the end of the war, and never once had anything like this happened.  Sure, he had seen things.  He had taken jobs that he had regretted.  But this, this was something new entirely.  He was moving a human being.  Was all of this really worth it?  What was the point if he was just going to end up in a maximum security prison for slave running?  This was a huge pay off though.   He really had no choice. He had to deliver.  He needed the money.  And what kind of people was he dealing with that would transport a person so secretively from Sol?  What if he crossed them and failed to finish the job?  Then what?  Simon would be the least of his debts at that point.  No, he was certain.   This needed to happen.  The woman had to be delivered.  It was his only way out.  He tossed the med kit on to his bunk and headed out of his cabin.

As he walked through the galley he glanced to his right, towards the cockpit and… What.  The.  Hell.  

Sitting at the table, hands bound to its leg, head lying on the top still unconscious was the woman from the cold box.  And sitting across from her was Alec.

“What the hell, Alec?” Jeremiah shouted, furious confusion filling his voice.  

Alec shot up from his seat.

“J,” the boy paused, and then said defiantly, “I’m not putting her back.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Jeremiah screamed.  “This is insane! This woman could kill us when she wakes up.  She clearly has combat training.  Do you?  Can you defend against something like that?”  Jeremiah went off.  His rant went on. “We have a job to do, Alec.  Did I make a mistake bringing you on board?” And so on.  Towards the end he began to realize how harsh he was sounded and began to curb his words.  He took a deep breath and threw his hands up in submission.

To Alec’s credit, he stood there and took the abuse.  Now Jeremiah really felt bad, yelling at the kid the way his father had certainly done a thousand times over.

“I’m not putting her back.” He restated with strength.  Each word emphasized.  

“Then what are we going to do with her?  She’s clearly dangerous.”

“We don’t know that.  She was probably just terrified.  Thought we were the ones who put her in that thing in the first place.  Who knows, have you ever been frozen?”

Alec had a point there.  The woman most likely was acting instinctively.  And no, Jeremiah had never been frozen, so he really had no clue what was going through this woman’s mind.  He began to pace, trying to think of what to do.  That condor would be showing up any moment, and as long as this woman was an issue, Alec wouldn’t be fixing the engines.

“Fine.  Can you wake her up?” Jeremiah asked.

Alec nodded, walked around the small table, gently lifted the woman’s head and slapped her right across the face.

“Whoa! Alec, what are you doing?” Jeremiah screamed as he grabbed him and pulled him away before he could slap again.

“What?  How else would you wake her up?” He said innocently.

“Alec, I swear…”

The woman groaned then quickly sat up as her senses came back to her.  Jeremiah and Alec both took a step back.  

“Hey, are you okay?” Jeremiah asked.

The woman looked around her quickly, “Who are you?  What do you want?” She demanded.  She began pulling at her restraints.

“Calm down, we’re not going to hurt you.”

“Then why am I tied up?”

“Because you kicked the crap out of me back there”

“You attacked me!”

“I did not-“

“You attacked me, then you froze me, now you’ve thawed me out, I’m not some pretty little sex slave for you to just-“

“Hey!  I may be a lot of things but I am no slaver!”

“You’re a coward!”

Jeremiah turned to Alec, “This was a mistake.  Where’s that shock prod”

“Everybody just wait!  Calm down!” Alec jumped in.  He walked over to the woman.  

“My name is Alec.  I’m an engineer.  This is Jeremiah, you’re on his ship.  You’re safe.  We are not going to hurt you.”

The woman scowled at Alec, and then at Jeremiah, but after a short while, she sat back against the bulkhead and sighed.

“Why am I on your ship if you aren’t working with that cyborg? Are you CSA?” She asked.

Jeremiah stepped forward.

“Do you have a name?”

She hesitated, “Ariella.  Ariella Darzi.”

“Well, Ms. Darzi,” Jeremiah began with mock formality, “I am an independent Runner.  Transport.  Sometimes, I run things without asking too many questions.  Like in your case.  I was offered a job.  Bring a crate to a location in the Pictoris region and not ask question.”

She sat for a moment looking him over, still visibly distressed.

“Independent,” she scoffed.  “Then what is with your CSA Military patch, you lying sack of crap.”

Jeremiah glanced at his jackets left shoulder.

“Yeah, I used to be in the service.  It’s where I learned to fly.” he paused then faced her.  “My government abandoned me, and my family. I have no love for them.”

“Then why wear the patch?” she asked.

Honestly, he hadn’t thought about it that much.  Aside from the occasional scoffs and awkward stares at it, he supposed it was just another link to a past he can’t let go of.

“Sometimes it helps when making deals,” he lied.  The tension was growing again, and Jeremiah guessed Ariella felt the same because she suddenly spoke again.

“You tasered me,” she said, turning to Alec, meeting his eyes with a cold stare.

“Huh?  Oh, right.  Sorry about that.  Didn’t really see what else I could do.  You were kind of going crazy.”

“Fair enough,” she replied, then turned back to Jeremiah.  Another awkward silence followed.

“Why were you in the cold box?” Jeremiah finally asked, now reaching for the bottle of booze he had shared with Alec earlier.  He poured himself a glass and leaned up against one of the bulkheads waiting for Ariella to answer.

“I have no idea.  I was just walking through the Market on Sedna and the nest thing I know I’m waking up naked and freezing with you and him staring at me,” she said stabbing her chin at Alec.

Jeremiah could tell she was lying.  He wasn’t sure how he knew, but something about the way she had attacked him, she wasn’t some helpless abductee.  He looked her over then began to recognize something about her.  She looked familiar.  And that shoulder wound.

“Hey, wait a minute.  You’re that woman that ran in to me in the market yesterday.  Yeah.  You’re lying. Why was security chasing you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Was all she said.

“Right. Well, then you’re going back in the ice box.”

“Now wait a minute, J,” Alec said stepping towards the middle of the two. “You said it yourself, we’re not slavers.  And I don’t recall you ever taking a slave trafficking gig.”

“This cargo,” Jeremiah said, pointing to Ariella, “Is worth a lot of money.  I need that money.  I have obligations.”

“But this isn’t right.  Why are we taking her, to a middle of nowhere dead zone like Pictoris?”

Now that, he had to admit, was a curious question.  As far as he knew, there was nothing out there. No stations, no colonies.  He had just assumed there would be a standard drop off point and the credits would magically appear in his accounts.  Just like every other job.  

“That is a good question.  Perhaps one that would be answered, if this woman here, would tell us who the hell she is.”  He huffed with frustration but could tell this woman wouldn’t tell him anything.

“I’m going to send a message to Thomas.  Alec, how long until you can get the drives back up?”

“Depends on what you intend to do with her,” he said.

“She can stay where she is until I hear back from Thomas.  Maybe he can get some more information on the buyer for us.”

“Alright,” Alec said and turned to Ariella. “Do you need anything?”

The question seemed to surprise her.

“Uh, yeah, I could use some water.  And pain killers.  Cryo is hell on the body.”

“You speak from experience?” Jeremiah cut in. He winced a bit at the glare he received.  He imagined that look had cut down a few men in the woman’s past.

Jeremiah tossed himself in the to pilots chair.  This job certainly wasn’t going as planned.  What kind of a person was worth so much money, and to who?  This is why he never asked questions.  Questions like these got people in his line of work killed.  On the other hand, had he asked more questions, he might not be in this predicament.  Damn it all…  He swiped open the coms network and began recording a message to Thomas.

“Thomas, buddy, we’ve got a problem.  A ship attacked up when we left port.  No idea who it was, could have been Simon, but I wouldn’t have thought he’d be stupid enough to open fire so close to a station in Sol.  Either way, we took some damage and our warp drive is off line.  Alec is working on it, but… Well, here it is.  The cargo got knocked open.  There was a woman inside, Thomas.  Look, I’m not in to human trafficking.  That’s a high crime and not my style.  I need you to find out what you can about this buyer, and if possible, the carg…the woman.  Her name is Ariella.”  He uploaded an image of her from the galley’s security feed, packaged the message with a trifold encryption and send it on its way.