Xora 2 - "Dangerous Game"

by Brandy Dewinter

 

Chapter 5 - "Huntress"

I had noticed a couple of buildings when we first arrived, though I had not had the chance to study them in any detail of course. The first order of business, even before helping the still-staked-out woman, was reconnaissance. There were surprisingly few men about. We had followed one man back from the swamp and I found another lazily pretending to be on guard. There were also three buildings. One was apparently a bunk house - dark and empty. Another shack was a sort of common building, with kitchen equipment, tables, and some shadowed easy chairs. The man from the swamp had immediately gone there to shower, using a water supply that seemed to serve only that building. The third was an open maintenance shed full of rusting machinery and tools that looked nearly as worn.

The outside guard was hanging around outside the maintenance shed, leaning back in a chair and periodically looking down the path I had taken the previous night. He could see the woman, though, so I had to do something to him before I could free her.

"Remember that hard club you made of my fist?" I asked my hidden partner.

In response, my fist thickened and hardened once again. Ti did her soundless trick with my boots and the only noise that broke the jungle murmur was the dull thud of the man’s head collapsing. I didn’t think this one was going to get up again, with or without his teeth.

With the outside threat taken care of, I hurried to the now-silent woman in the clearing. When I approached, she roused and started a faint, weak, high-pitched keening.

"Shhh," I hissed, trying to quiet her.

"Stay away," she moaned. "Don’t hurt me any more."

"I won’t hurt you," I promised in a whisper. "I’m here to help you."

"No you’re not," she claimed, tossing her head around, wide eyes trying to make out my shadowed form. "You’re just like all the others."

Like the others? I was nothing like the brutes who had attacked her. I couldn’t attack her like that.

"Not now, you couldn’t," Titania whispered to me.

*Huh?* I grunted in surprise. Then I realized what she was saying.

Right now, I was a woman, too, in any way that mattered. I could offer solace without threat in a way that no man could. Though I never would have assaulted her, nor any other defenseless woman, now the form I wore could convince this poor victim of that in a way that words from a man could never do.

And right then, I was just as happy not to be one of the gender that had done this to her.

"Listen, Kannda," I said, remembering her name. I spoke softly, but with a real voice instead of a whisper, letting my clear contralto add to my claims. Still, it was hard to just say it out loud. "I’m a, um, well, I’m a woman, like you. I won’t hurt you."

"A woman," she said, trying to get her bruised and swollen eyes to focus.

"Yes," I confirmed. "My name is Xora, and I’m from the Federation."

"Xora?" she whispered, sagging back to the ground.

"Yes, Lieutanant Commander Xora," I repeated. Like my rank made any difference to her.

I moved slowly to her side, slashing quickly through the ropes holding her with my handy symbiont blade. One of Kannda’s knees was bending the wrong way, but what really worried me was the swollen bulge of her stomach. I touched it gently, thought not gently enough.

"Ahhh," she moaned. "Don’t do that."

"What’s wrong?" I asked.

"I don’t know, except, one of the men just beat me and beat me, instead of even raping me. I felt such pain inside, and it hasn’t stopped."

I tried to lift her from the ground, "I have to get you to help."

"Noooo," she screamed, too weak for real volume but still terribly loud in the darkness. I froze, worried that the sound would bring the guards, but the cry of a nocturnal animal sounded almost in echo of her scream and I realized the noise she had made didn’t seem that out of place.

"Don’t move me," she gasped. "Something is wrong inside. I can’t stand it."

"I can’t just leave you here," I said.

Kannda just repeated weakly, "Don’t move me."

*If I had my communicator, I could just beam us up to the runabout and use the autodoc,* I thought. *She wouldn’t even feel like she had been moved."

"You and your tools," Titania said with a sneer. "Can’t you do anything without your mechanisms?"

"That’s the way we are," I answered. Then I realized that the "we" might be redefined from humans and the Federation, to Titania and me.

*What about you?* I asked. *Can you help her?*

"I can only bond with one person," she said impatiently.

*I know that,* I said with my own impatience, *but what about, um, extruding a pill or something. With a pain killer at least.*

"Oh," she said in surprise. "I never thought of that. That’s like a tool of a sort, too, isn’t it?"

*Yes,* I said. *Or maybe you can inject her with something.*

Titania mused to herself for a moment, "Ah, yes, I can synthesize some endorphins. Um, hold onto her leg, with your palm flat against the big muscle."

I did as she directed, whispering to Kannda, "I’m going to give you something for the pain. Then I’ll go get help."

"Just let me die in peace," Kannda replied, her voice trailing off as whatever Titania pumped into her leg started to make itself felt.

"I’m not going to let you die," I promised. Then I stood and turned toward the one occupied building. "That guy in there is going to help me, whether he wants to or not."

Kannda didn’t answer, nor did Titania. My symbiont sensed my resolve and even as we slipped silently toward the building, the hard knot formed over my left fist again.

Just as we got close the door opened, spilling light on us. My response was so reaction-quick I didn’t even realize what I was doing until it was all over. My club-fist buried itself just below his belt and he wrapped himself into such a tight ball I almost couldn’t get it back.

"Who’s there?" I heard from inside the shack.

The voice belonged to Inspector Darius.

*Oh, no,* I said silently. *He’s one of these animals.*

*Are you sure?" asked Titania.

*What other explanation is there?*

"Well, maybe he’s here as part of his investigation," she offered, though the obvious presence of the raped victim made any innocent version of events hard to believe.

I ignored her unlikely suggestion, trying to decide what to do. We had faded into the shadows, Titania doing her matchless job of making our appearance blend into obscurity while we waited for the Inspector to come out of the hut. And waited.

My racing heart made my sense of time suspect, but I expected it had only been a few seconds when the voice called out again, "Who’s there? Help!"

I froze in the darkness, waiting for the aid summoned by the corrupt Inspector to appear. Cowardly, too, it seemed.

And waited.

Darius called again. This time his words changed the situation completely. "Help, I’m being held prisoner!"

I still waited for a few long moments, suspecting a trap, but the only sound was another call from Darius, this one making it seem he had nothing to hide. "I’m Inspector Darius of the Council Investigation Administration. If you are a citizen of Teton, it is your duty to come to my aid!"

*What do you think?* I asked my partner.

"His voice stress analysis shows lots of worry, but no evidence of lying on his basic claims."

Taking a deep breath, and looking at my club-fist as though it were some magical defensive amulet, I stepped from the shadows into the common building. Inside, sitting on one of the easy chairs though not comfortably, was Darius, bound and blindfolded. He was about to call again when I said, "I’m not a citizen of Teton."

"Xora?" he asked in surprise.

"Yes," I said tersely. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, actually," he answered. "Now, untie me so we can get out of here."

I moved to his side and began to slice away his bonds with a sharp edge that had replaced my club-fist. As soon as he could, Darius pulled off his blindfold to verify that it truly was me.

"We can’t leave, yet," I said, forestalling whatever he wanted to say.

"Why not?"

"There’s a woman out there who has been badly hurt. She’s been raped God knows how many times, and she has some sort of internal injuries that make it too painful to move her manually. I need to find my combadge so that I can transport her to my vessels autodoc."

"I’m afraid we won’t be able to do that," Darius said, standing and stretching his massive limbs. "Sstton took it with him. He was bragging about how he would use it to trap you. We’ll have to make our way back to my headquarters without it. I can probably manage to carry this woman that far."

"Right now, you couldn’t even touch her," I said grimly. "Nor can any other man. Not unless you wanted to send her into hysterics. And I told you, she’s hurt too badly to be moved like that."

"Well, we can’t wait here for Sstton to get back with all his men."

I ignored him. Waiting for Sstton might be just what I wanted to do. A quick search of the hut, complete with Ti’s senses, confirmed that my combadge was not conveniently left behind. I should have expected that. Darius made his own search and ended up with some sort of large-bore firearm that he snick-clacked with a satisfied, though humorless grin.

"I’m going back out to check on Kannda," I said. He followed behind, moving with surprising stealth for such a big man. The guard on the porch was still wrapped up tightly. I wasn’t sure if he was conscious, but just to be safe, I tossed Darius the rope I had saved from my own bonds and pointed silently at the man. He nodded while I moved back to Kannda.

When Darius joined us a moment later, he found her cradled in my arms.

"I thought you said she couldn’t be moved," he said.

"It won’t hurt her now," I said quietly. "Nothing will."

Freed of her bonds, and of the pain, Kannda had apparently tried to curl up into a fetal ball of her own. Her motion had caused whatever internal injury she had suffered to complete its work. There was blood and worse everywhere.

"I promised her I wouldn’t let her die," I cried softly, captive now to grief where Sstton’s ropes had never held me.

Titania and Darius spoke together, Darius a half beat behind like a sort of deep echo, "It wasn’t your fault."

"I know that!" I snapped. "But I will kill that filthy son of a snake."

I hadn’t realized that I had spoken the last of that thought out loud until Darius said with a quiet, stone-cold voice, "Not if I see him first."

Darius laid his weapon on the ground and gently slid his arms under the girl’s broken body. I didn’t resist as he lifted her and carried her back into the common building. There wasn’t a blanket around, so he took his own jacket and covered her while I watched in silence.

After a moment when we were each in our private thoughts we looked up and said in unplanned unison, "You go back for help and I’ll . . . "

"I’m not going back," he said grimly. "You go. I’ll tell you who to talk to, and you’ll get plenty of help."

"I don’t even know the way," I said. "You go for the help, I’ve got business with Sstton."

"Actually, this is still a planetary criminal matter," Darius pointed out. "You have no jurisdiction."

"He stole Federation property from me," I said, thinking quickly.

"I’ll get it back for you," promised Darius.

"Thank you, but I don’t need your help. You’ll just slow me down."

"Ha! I can run you into the ground," he said with a snort. "I’m the best woodsman in this district. And I used to hunt these ranges before Sstton gathered them up into his mining claims."

"Need I remind you, that *I* am the one who freed *you*?" I asked, with a tone that even I didn’t like to hear in my voice. I was about to argue further, when Titania whispered in my ear, "Maybe you should work together. With the poor girl gone, there’s no particular rush to get help."

"Very well," I said, talking to Ti, or Darius, or maybe just myself. "You can come along, but if you slow me down, I’ll leave you behind."

He snorted once again, looking at the high, spiked heels on my boots and my tiny, constrained waist. But he didn’t say anything. He just turned and headed off down the little trail. I followed, looking back one last time at the dead body of the raped woman. In calmer times, I might have spent the time to do more for her, even send for help. But my heart and mind didn’t have room for acts of common decency just then. They were too full of rage and of murder.

Darius set a good pace, one that I would have had trouble sustaining without Ti’s help, even if I had been in a lot better shape than my old body had ever possessed. She silently assured me that she had my body chemistry well under control, and I trotted along behind Darius without a word. That is, until we got to the place where I had diverged into the swamp.

"They went this way," I said to Darius’ retreating back.

"No one goes into the swamp," Darius said. "You must have gotten confused."

"Have it your way," I said, then headed back down into the muck.

I heard him cursing behind me, then the sound of his big body pushing through the thick undergrowth. "Damnit, Xora, quit wasting time."

"Shut up, you big idiot," I snarled. "I came this way earlier.

If you were half the hunter you claim, you’d notice all the tracks."

He didn’t say anything, but he did look down to see the imprint of a lot of boots. By the time he had made his mind up about my claim, we were back at the slough. The bulk of the tracks stayed on our side of the water, so we turned to follow them. In the end, though, they led back out of the swamp and up into the mountains.

"I told you we should have come this way," said Darius.

"You were free to go where you wished," I pointed out.

He was panting heavily, dripping with sweat and worse things from our time in the swamp. But of course the big moose would never ask for a break. Well, I wasn’t going to be the one to stop first, especially since with Ti’s help, I didn’t need to.

"You’re welcome," she said inside my head.

I’m sorry, Ti, but I’m still upset. I truly do appreciate you, I replied.

"Even though I’ve made you into a woman?" she pushed.

*Right now, yes,* I admitted. Right then, I found myself hating men, hating even the man that I had been.

Then it came to me that I was walking along with a man, a very big, strong, powerful man. There was something solid about Darius that made me trust him, despite his gender. But right then I don’t think I’d have turned my back on any other men. Though even this one did have some very old-fashioned ideas about the proper role of men and women.

As though it were in response to my thought, Darius said, "Let’s take a break and wash up a bit."

"If you need one," I said magnanimously.

"It’s not me that I’m worried about," he said gruffly. I lifted a single arched brow at him in silent statement, my eyes moving obviously to his sweaty shirt and then to my own nearly pristine attire. However, that did remind me of the residue that clung to me despite Ti’s best efforts, so without another word I waded into the small stream that had been the apparent genesis of Darius’ comment and washed myself clean.

"You idiot," he said as soon as I got into the water. "Take your boots off first. You’ll ruin them."

After all the mud and sludge we had traipsed through on our way, I didn’t even dignify that with a response. Instead, I stepped from the water looking as though I had just had the benefit of a day in a beauty parlor. His eyes glinted in the dim light of the dawn that was just declaring itself, and I put a little bit of hip dip into my step as I moved past him.

"You go ahead and take a break. I’ll scout on ahead and come back for you."

"Don’t trouble yourself," he sneered. "If you want to go tire yourself out needlessly, then have at it. I’ll meet you somewhere on the path to that saddle over where the sun is just appearing. It’s the only way out of this valley and I’m sure that Sstton figures you’ve gone there."

I just nodded, and trotted off in the direction he had indicated.

"You don’t need to go out of your way to make him mad," Titania observed.

"Oh, he’s just so sure of his own strength, that he can’t accept I have skills, too."

"YOU have skills?" Titania said.

That did cause me to stop for a bit. Thankfully we were out of sight by then. "I’m sorry, Ti. I’m doing it again, aren’t I?"

She just chuckled in my ear. "Yes, but I don’t really mind. I just wanted you to calm down a little, before I had to enforce it chemically."

Then, before I could say anything more, she said, "He certainly *is* a big, strong man, though. Isn’t he?"

"Hmm? Oh, well, yes. I guess so," I said. "It’s too bad he knows it, though."

"Is it?" she asked. "I think he’s been very careful of his strength. And since he doesn’t know about me, his concern for you is justified, too."

I didn’t want to admit to the truth of what she had said, so I turned to trot once again toward the high pass. As I crossed a ridge line, I had to crouch down quickly when I saw the hunting party ahead of us. Darius had been right. After abandoning the swamp, Sstton had led his men directly toward the saddle in the mountain. They were camped a klick or so from the ridge on which I was perched. After a few minutes I realized they were settling in rather than getting ready to move out with the dawn. Creeping closer, I paused where I could hear Sstton’s harsh voice, arguing with the one I had mentally tagged as the head tracker.

"I’m telling you, she had to come this way," Sstton was saying. "All of the prey always end up coming this way."

"And I’m telling you that neither the dogs nor any of the trackers have found any trace of her since the slough. She drowned. Or she got bitten by a waterwhip, or she’s feeding a grunter. This is a waste of time."

"Your time is mine to waste!" shouted Sstton.

The head tracker tried to be calm, "Yes, boss, it is. And you pay well, even aside from the fringe benefits when we catch one of the girls. But the men are tired. The dogs are tired. The trail is cold. Let’s take a break, have some food, and then we can spread out. Even if she’s still alive, she can’t have gotten this far yet."

Sstton glared at the man for another long moment, then nodded abruptly. He went to a nearby boulder to sit, accepting a cup of some sort of hot beverage with no sign of gratitude.

Titania’s tone was decidedly unhelpful, "So, Miss Federation Field Agent, are you just going to go storming in there and whack them all with your club?"

*Shut up.* So all right. I wasn’t much better.

"I wonder how far Darius has come," Titania said casually.

*All right. I get the message,* I said, slipping quietly back down the trail.

 

(continued in part 2)

 

 

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© 1999 by Brandy Dewinter. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, compilation design) may printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without express written consent of the copyright holder.