Page 27 of Captured
Chapter Fourteen
Juliet
I follow in Rakir’s footsteps as we race toward the end of the trail. He didn’t say where we’re going, but I know. We’re going back to my pod.
Somehow, the distress signal must have been activated.
As we trek on in the damp, moist forest, I frown. Something isn’t right here. I disabled the distress signal and the locator when I went dark to hide my presence from the Drakian ship. There’s no way the Human Alliance should be there to rescue me.
Unless they’re tracking me without my knowledge.
But that seems so ludicrous. Why would they track me? I’m no one, on a mission to nowhere. A mission I was sent on as punishment for speaking my mind against the asshole who’s cheating on my sister.
We finally arrive to a high, rocky peak. The forest ended some distance behind us and we walk on naked rocks up to the edge of a dizzying cliff. Rakir motions for me to crouch beside him. I obey in silence, a foreboding feeling settling deep in my gut.
There it is, midway through a steep slope in the mountainside. My pod lays there like the carcass of some monstrous metal beast, its side crushed, its belly exposed. A slow, deep shiver runs up my spine, chilling me to the core. As I shoot a glance to Rakir, I see a glum expression on his face. This is where he found me, barely clinging to life, my side torn open.
He’s once again covered in black scales, that strange armor he seems to be able to summon at will. As I look at him, I’m surprised to realize it doesn’t scare me anymore. I don’t even think of it as monstrous, but find it rather beautiful. The way the smooth scales shimmer lightly, black as onyx, perfect.
But I don’t have time to dwell on my shift in feelings toward the Drakian.
Rakir points to the dense cover of greenery some distance downhill from my pod. Movement agitates the forest, like something large crashing through the trees. It’s not long before a military cruiser emerges down the hill from my pod where the trees give way to the rocks.
I frown again. It’s a Human Alliance vehicle, but there’s no identifier on it.
This is all wrong.
And it goes even more wrong from there. My eyes widen as men clad in combat uniforms jump from the vehicle, high capacity phasers in hand. They call my name as they walk, spreading in a standard search pattern. It doesn’t seem possible that the Human Alliance would send this large team just to retrieve a single pilot. I’m simply not that valuable.
My unease only grows as time passes.
They can’t find Rakir with me. They would kill him on the spot, no matter what I said. His best chance is for me to meet them and give them some sort of story about me crash landing on this uncharted planet. I know he’s going to be fine once he sends a distress signal to his own people.
My first impulse is to stand, but Rakir stops me with a single gesture. I meet his eyes and he shakes his head slowly in negation. A sense of doom washes over me as I turn my attention back to the pod.
The soldiers are placing cylindrical objects on the ground around the crashed remains, moving in fast, efficient motions. Some others are still calling my name, but as I concentrate, I can see their faces.
Blank, cold. The faces of killers.
The sense of doom increases until I think I’m going to burst. The soldiers move away from the pod, and the blood drains from my face when a flash of heat and light blankets the forest.
“Shitballs.” Blood rushes back to my face and floods my brain. “They just destroyed my pod with a photon blast bomb. Nothing’s left, not even a trace.”
My mind races in circles as the terrible heat from the bomb licks my face. Thoughts rush through, but I can’t seem to hold on to any of them.
“Why would they do that?” They found me. They came to rescue me. Why would they destroy any trace that I was even here?
Rakir squeezes my arm and I turn to him. His face is grim and full of some dark knowledge. Never more did I wish I could speak to him.
“Bad.” Rakir shakes his head again, then points to the men, then to him, then to me. “For you. For me.”
Yes. I understand what he means. These soldiers can’t be any good for either of us if they destroyed my pod like that. They’re not here to rescue me after all.
They’re here to kill me. But why? I’m a nobody. Who could want to kill me so bad they sent killers to the remote asshole of the Galaxy? The question burns me all the way to my soul.
And how could they know about Rakir? But I didn’t even send a signal to base about him, as preoccupied as I was to redeem my career.
There are too many questions. Too much unknown. And not nearly enough time for me to figure it all out.
