Chapter Three
Ruby
I got up, swaying a little. That had been strong stuff. Not as strong as the martinis I’d drunk on a Friday night after a long week at work though. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Another world.
But everything was going well after a shaky start. At one point, I suspected Killian and his uncle might come to blows, but now they appeared amicable enough. It would be nice to stop moving for a while, spend some time with Killian. Forget about the outside world.
I just wished there was more food.
Hey, call me shallow, but I like food.
I winced as I took a step. My poor feet could have done with some of that fast-healing cream, but somehow I doubted they had any here. I tried not to show it as I moved closer to Killian. I didn’t want to be a whiner.
But Joe, the lovely man, must have seen something. He spoke to the guy who’d gotten the bag for Killian. He disappeared, then came back a minute later with some material and rope.
“Sit down,” Joe said, pointing to the seat I’d just vacated. “We don’t have any spare boots, but this will do for now. Until we get something better.” He wrapped a piece of soft leather around one foot, tying it around my ankle as a makeshift shoe, and then repeated the process with my other foot.
“Thank you.” I wriggled my toes, then stood up. While it still hurt, I could walk okay.
“Let’s go then.”
Joe led the way out of the cavern and into a tunnel. Not the one we’d come down, though; this one was at right angles and narrower, so we had to walk in single file, with a low ceiling that was no problem to me, but Kill had to duck his head. I followed close behind him.
Up ahead, a low hum drifted on the warm air, growing louder as we walked, until it was a constant clamor assaulting my ears. And the air grew heavy with a thick, almost greasy stench that threatened to clog my nostrils. Finally, Joe held up his hand and we stopped. He beckoned us forward to where the tunnel widened enough for us to stand side by side. We were on a ledge above a wide-open space, a huge drop below us which didn’t seem to faze the men, but I edged closer to Kill and slipped my hand in his. He looked at me, and I didn’t quite understand his expression. Then I peered down into the space below. For a minute, nothing made sense. I was gazing at total chaos. Then slowly, my brain made order from that chaos. Smoke hung heavy on the air, and the floor crawled with people. Not even people—children, who moved constantly, shoveling, scraping, dragging equipment, harnessed like mules. They wore rags and shackles around their ankles. It was so horrendous that for a moment I couldn’t speak.
“The shackles are new,” Killian said.
“Since a few of us escaped, they made them mandatory for all ages.”
“Nice to see you’re making things better.”
Joe ignored the comment. “This is the smelting room,” he said. “Most of the children start here when they’re four or so.”
I swallowed. “Did you start here?” I asked Killian.
He nodded. “As soon as I was big enough to pick up a shovel. I remember I was excited. It meant extra rations, and I was always hungry.”
I squeezed his hand. “I bet you were such a cute little boy.”
“He was a monster,” Joe said. “Always getting into trouble, getting a whipping.”
Kill ignored the comment. “Anyway, the excitement lasted all of about five minutes.” He nodded down to the floor below. “Welcome to hell. That first day, I cried. But never again.”
My eyes pricked for him.
“This is the reality of slavery,” Joe said. “Children born to it, who’ll die to it, never knowing anything different. Unless we do something to change things.”
I had nothing to say. My mouth was dry and my heart ached.
He turned away and we followed him in silence. On the walk back, my indignation grew, swelling like a live thing inside me, threatening to burst out like some sort of alien offspring. Consuming me.
By the time we reached the cave, I was about to explode. “We have to do something.”
Killian turned to me, and amusement flashed in his one good eye. “About what?”
“About those poor children. We have to save them.”
“They’re not your responsibility. Your job was to get Yolanda Pendleton back to her father. So this can never happen on Earth.”
“But we can’t just leave them.”
“And you can’t save the whole world.”
I thought about that statement for a moment. “Why not?”
“Because…” He ran his metal fingers through his hair. “Damned if I know.”
“Well,” Joe said. “I’ll leave the two of you to think about it. I’ll be back when I have some news.”
I watched him go. I wanted to talk about saving the world, but a wave of exhaustion washed over me. I swayed and Killian caught me, picked me up and carried me deeper into the cave. He lowered me to the warm, soft sand, and I burrowed in, making a little hole for myself. Kill came down beside me. Wrapping me in his arms, he kissed me, came over me, filled me, and made slow passionate love to me. I was asleep as the orgasm rippled through my body.
It wasn’t so bad. In fact, those days in the cave with Killian were some of the happiest of my life. Like a time-out.
On the practical side, we’d set up a latrine of sorts behind a boulder. We washed downstream so the water upstream would stay clean for drinking and cooking. We were warm, we had food of a sort, drink, and each other. We made love constantly, until we were sore and too tired to move, and then we’d make love again. I never, never, got enough. He could make me want him with just a glint in his eye. We did it lying down, him on top, me on top, side by side, standing, from behind, in the water. I spent probably hours with his cock in my mouth, his tongue in my pussy. I still wouldn’t let him touch my ass, but that was the sum total of my limitations.
We’d finished the bottle of alcohol Joe had given us, but on the third morning we woke to find a bag next to us with more food, another bottle, and a pair of boots that were almost a perfect fit. I was falling in love with Joe. I mentioned this to Killian and he growled.
“Why don’t you like him?” I asked at one point.
Killian was silent for a moment. “He thought he had the right to act like my father, tell me what to do.”
“Well, he was your uncle. There must be something else.”
“He also thought he could tell Kara what to do. It was his fault Kara ended up in the brothel. He said it was the one way out for a woman. Better than the mines. He pushed her into it. She could have stayed under the radar. She was beautiful, but that’s easy to hide in the mines. Joe told her to clean up, get the attention of the guards… I didn’t want her to go, and he told me I was being selfish, holding her back. That being a whore was a better life.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I never spoke to him again after she died.”
So much pain. I wanted to hold him, keep him safe, tell him everything would be all right. But I was in no way sure that was the truth. After a week, we hadn’t heard anything.
“We’ll make sure it never happens to anyone again,” I said.
He smiled. “Ruby Robbins, savior of the universe. Is that how you see yourself?”
I thought about my answer. Who I was, who I wanted to be, and what I wanted to do. “Maybe it isn’t who I am right now, but it’s who I want to be.” I rested my hand on his bare chest. “With you beside me, I feel like I can do anything.”
He shook his head. “You are seriously scary. But I feel the same. I never came back here because I was scared, and I never felt like I could do anything. But maybe together we can change the world.”
I think I was falling in love.
But honestly, as saviors of the universe went, I was pretty crappy. I decided I needed to address a few of my weaker points. So when we weren’t making love, Killian was teaching me to fight.
With mixed results.
The laser pistol still terrified me, but I could manage to hit most things I aimed at, if they were close enough. Hand to hand, my small stature was always going to be a disadvantage. Kill said I had to play to my weaknesses. Pretend to be puny—hey, there was no pretending about it—lull them into a false sense of security, get close, and bash them where it hurt. A direct hit to the throat or the groin could disable a man, and then all I had to do was run as fast as I could.
But I’d discovered with a blade I bordered on brilliant. I could hit a target every time, and Killian had given me his knife as a present.
Sometimes I felt like I could be happy here forever. Other times, I thought I would go crazy without access to ice cream and pizza.
We talked masses. I told him about Earth and he told me about the universe. Not so much about Groth, which I knew he had no happy memories of, but the rest of the universe he had traveled with Zak. They’d flown the Helldiver beyond the edges of civilization, just to see what was there. They’d fucked and brawled and partied across the occupied planets. Worked when they had to—anything they could take on when they needed the money. Had fun. That could be my life, too. In between the serious stuff of saving the universe. If we ever got out of here.
“But maybe there are more important things than fun,” he said.
“I hope you can have fun again.”
“So do I.” He leered at me and then made a grab for my ass. And we had some fun. Afterward, we fell asleep on the warm sand.
Something nudged me in the side. I blinked open my eyes and peered upward. Joe stood, hands on hips, staring down at us. At me, actually. I was naked and wrapped around Killian. He was still asleep, and I poked him in the stomach. As he opened his eyes, his lips curved into a smile.
“We have company,” I said.
He peered over my shoulder. “What the fuck?”
“Do you two ever stop?” Joe asked, his tone conversational.
“You been watching us?”
“Only when it couldn’t be avoided.”
We’d been here just under two weeks now, and a new stash of food had appeared every couple of days, but this was the first time he’d shown his face. I pulled free and scrambled to my feet and found my pants. I pulled them on, followed by Killian’s shirt, which I tied under my breasts, only turning back when I was covered.
“Nice nipple rings,” Joe said.
“Thank you.”
Kill growled. He was still down on the sand, completely naked, but sitting up, running his metal hand through his long hair. God, he was gorgeous.
“Stop looking at him like that,” Joe said. “You’re giving me a boner.”
With a huge sigh, I had one last peek, then turned away and found Killian’s pants. I tossed them to him. He got up, put them on, and took the bottle Joe held out to him. He swallowed deeply and then passed it to me. I took a ladylike sip—but who was I kidding?—then a long pull, felt it burn down my throat and set my belly on fire.
“I take it you have news?” Killian said.
“I do. And it’s not good.”
Crap.
I’d so wanted good news. My heart sank.
“Tell us.”
“We just got this in today. All ships were grounded for over a week after your little escapade. And tell me one thing before I go any further—why the hell didn’t you mention you were in cahoots with Zakary Mer?”
Kill shrugged. “It didn’t seem relevant.”
“How the hell could it not be relevant?”
“He wasn’t even here.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Things have been going crazy on the planet. That’s why it’s taken so long to get any information. They’re certainly not announcing it, but your friend is currently residing in the dungeons beneath the imperial palace.”
“Shit.” Killian turned away for a moment, no doubt getting himself under control. “You’re sure?”
“The whole palace is talking about it. Well, the slaves at least. The imperial family hasn’t mentioned him, and there’s been no official statement, but it’s definitely him. Even though he disappeared twelve years ago…” He trailed off and studied Killian through narrowed eyes. “He vanished at exactly the same time you jumped to your death.”
“We met as he was about to be tossed into the mines by his loving uncle. We bonded under a shared desire not to die, killed his uncle, and stole his ship.”
“That’s how you got away. I’d always wondered.”
“Now, all you have to do is wait for your own imperial coup, and maybe you’ll get off this shithole as well.”
Kill paced the floor a few times. I knew him well enough by now to recognize he was seriously rattled. But then, I also knew that he loved Zak like a brother—the one person he’d allowed close in all the years since his sister had died. Mainly, I suspected, because he’d believed Zak was invincible.
Finally, he came back. “Is he all right?”
“From the information we have, it seems he’s alive. But he’s been undergoing a somewhat rigorous questioning. They want to know who helped him get away all those years ago. Whether there’s a traitor in the palace. Though traitor is hardly the right word. Apparently, he isn’t saying anything except telling them to fuck themselves.”
I was trying to process this. If Zak had been captured, then he wasn’t halfway back to Earth by now with Rekowski and Yolanda. We’d been relying on Zak to come back and rescue us eventually. That clearly wasn’t going to happen now. And where were Rekowski and his horrible fiancée?
“That’s not all,” Joe said, and I had an idea I was about to find out. “There’s another prisoner in the dungeons. Only no one knows who this one is.”
“Any idea what he looks like?” I asked, sickness crawling in my stomach, threatening to creep up my throat.
“Dark red hair, green eyes.”
I swallowed the bile. “Is he all right?” I might not actually like Rekowski, but I hated the thought of him being tortured, maybe worse.
“He’s been questioned, but all he’ll say is he’s on vacation from Earth and visiting his girlfriend. He’s not in good shape, but he’s not dead. Yet.”
Yolanda. The bitch. “Yet?”
“Rumor has it your buddy Zakary Mer and the Earth guy are scheduled for execution.”
“When?”
“Not sure, but sooner rather than later. Right now, the whole planet is crawling with Federation troops and intelligence agents. The consensus is that the palace doesn’t want to make waves until they’re gone.”
“Why is the Federation there?” Killian asked.
“According to our contacts, there was supposed to be some big high-powered Federation leader visiting. No one knows who—it was all pretty hush-hush. After the trouble you stirred up, he canceled, but his forward crew was already on the planet. They are pulling out as we speak.”
So, not good. “Then they could be about to execute Zak and Rekowski,” I said. “We have to get back there and now. We have to save them.”
“Not possible,” Joe replied. “For a start, we have no way of getting to the planet.”
Was he stupid? It had to be possible. I looked to Killian; he was staring at the ceiling, his metal eye flicking. He was trying to come up with a solution, and from the frustration on his face, he was failing.
But failure was not an option.
“Anything is possible,” I said and hoped it was true.
Anger flashed in Joe’s eyes. “Do you not think we wouldn’t have gotten everyone off this shithole before now if there’d been a way?”
I didn’t care. I was finding a way. “The person who gave you this information—how did he get here?”
“On the supply ship.”
“Then we go back on the supply ship.”
“No chance. It’s heavily guarded.”
Beside me, Killian seemed to give himself a shake and come back to us. I glanced at his face, saw his resolve, and some of the tension eased from me. I’d been scared, deep down, that maybe he would let them die. Look after himself. And me. But that wasn’t enough.
“How many guards?” Killian asked.
Joe frowned. “You can’t seriously be—”
“How many fucking guards?” he snarled.
“Five. All armed. Plus the crew of two. We can’t take them. It’s too dangerous.”
Killian took a step toward him. “We are taking that ship. We would like your help, but if not, we will do it without you.”
“You’ll die.”
“Then we’ll die. But at least we won’t have to live on this godforsaken rock with a load of sniveling cowards who might as well have kept their chains.” He whirled around and stalked away, came to a halt, and punched the rock wall.
Ouch.
But I wanted to cheer.
My hero.
Together we could do anything.
Or we could die.
I didn’t want to die. But I also didn’t want to live knowing people I cared about had been murdered, and I’d stood around and done nothing. I forced my gaze from Killian back to Joe.
He stood with his head back, hands in his pockets, body stiff with tension. As though he felt my gaze, he lowered his head and looked at me. His eyes were filled with an expression I couldn’t quite analyze, but then he gave a quick nod. “We’ll help.”
I moved closer and rested my hand on his arm. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. I think we’ll fail, but Killian’s right. If we don’t take the risk, then we’re like those children. We’ll die on this place. At least we have a chance, even if it’s a small one.”
“We’ll do it. Killian is brilliant. A measly five guards”—I gave an extravagant shrug—“he could take that many with one hand tied behind his back. Two hands probably.”