Chapter 16

Ontarii had never felt more helpless in his life. The captain walked away from him with her robots behind her like there was nothing to be concerned with. She didn’t understand how little help her robots would be against the Hareema.

And here he was, trapped in the airlock, unable to do anything to protect the fragile human female. The need to protect her surged inside of him and thoughts of ripping the door off the airlock in order to go after her rolled over him. If only he were that strong.

Captain Brooklyn was not the first Earthling female he’d encountered, but she was the only one that had ever attracted him. Sylvia, the regent’s mate, was a human, but he’d never given her a second thought, nor had he considered any other human female in anything other than a dispassionate, objective manner.

But he couldn’t be dispassionate about the captain. Since the first moment he’d met her, she’d set his blood on fire. At first he’d blamed the reaction on the situation, on the anger he’d felt at her refusal to follow his orders, but then he’d come to respect her backbone. It was only one of the qualities he admired in the woman.

There were several more, but her fantastic little body hit the top of the list as well. She had curves in places Zantharian females did not, igniting a lust in him so deep that he’d kissed her, unable to restrain himself. It rankled, the fact that he’d been in a life-or-death situation and had succumbed to heady desire. He simply couldn’t help himself.

Now he couldn’t help her, thanks to her being highly defensive and untrusting. She was smart to take the actions she had, but it burned his pride nevertheless.

She turned the corner and was out of sight and Ontarii wanted to howl his frustration to the stars.

He took a deep breath and set about inspecting every inch of the airlock, looking for a way out of his trap instead.

There was no way out except for the door that was securely locked behind him, and the hatch that, if opened, would kill him quicker than a gnarshark’s bite.

Ontarii felt along the seams of the window, wondering if there was a way to claw it open and reach through it to the control panel on the other side. The window was firmly in place. He knocked against it exploratorily. The material it was made of was hard, which meant that it wouldn’t break easily like glass.

Taking a deep breath, Ontarii slammed his elbow into the window’s surface as hard as he could. The window was unhurt, but his elbow was on fire.

He banged against the window, again and again, until blood began to flow from his battered skin. When his elbow could take no more punishment, he switched arms.

Ontarii beat against the window, over and over. When his second elbow was a bloody mess, he resorted to his fists.

She’s been gone for twenty minutes at least. She could be dead by now.

The thought filled him with a mixture of terror and rage, driving him to increase the power and speed of his blows. Still the window remained undamaged.

He was almost mindless with physical agony, but his mental duress was far worse. Ontarii was relentless, lost in his drive to escape and rescue the human female.

Visions of the captain meeting a horrible end kept flashing before his eyes. He groaned, both fists broken up, the window streaked with blood but without even a tiny crack in its surface. He was getting nowhere, and each second he stood here trapped was a second the Hareema could use to torture the human, or worse.

Suddenly a noise broke through the haze of his impotent fury. Using his palm to wipe at the smear of blood on the airlock window, Ontarii peered out into the corridor.

A figure was coming toward him, hard to distinguish through the marks left by his blood.

Captain Brooklyn stood before him, eyes wide, and a small cut on her left cheek. Her hand was shaking when she reached for the airlock button.

"Wait," Ontarii said, his voice hoarse, panic kicking him in the chest. "Don't!"

He held his breath, waiting for the sound of the external hatch to open. It didn't come.

Instead, the door lock clicked off and the human opened the door in front of him.

Quickly stepping through, he stared down at the female in front of him. He wanted to say so many things. Why did you lock me up in there? What did you find? And most pressingly, Are you okay? Who hurt you?

He settled on a simple "Thank you”.
The captain nodded her head. "No problem."

"What changed your mind?" he asked, barely keeping his anger locked in.

"Changed my mind?" She turned from him, her eyes scanning the corridor.

"Yeah," he said, a tendril of confusion climbing his insides. "You were ready to eject me out of the airlock a few minutes ago."

"I need you," she said with a shrug. "They're after me."

Her words, coupled with her strange behavior, sent a chill down his back. Still, the relief at seeing her relatively unharmed overwhelmed his disquiet. Ontarii settled his hands on her shoulders. "Who's after you?"

"The FIDOs," she said, biting her lip. "They turned on me. One minute they were calmly marching at my back. The next, they had me surrounded."

The FIDOs? Her robot companions had turned on her? "How did you escape?"

"I managed to short one out by smacking its display screen, then squeezed by them and ran. I don't know if I'll be so lucky next time."

Ontarii's eyes narrowed. "Why didn't they use their lasers on you?"

"Lasers?" The captain's eyes were wild. "I don't know. It all happened so fast, maybe they couldn't get a shot off in time."

"That doesn't make sense. What about the sound? Did you find the source?"

"Sound?" Suddenly the female's face screwed up and she let out a wail. "Why are you interrogating me? Can't you see that I've just been through a hellish experience?"

Tears streamed down her face, leaving him even more confused. Something wasn’t right, but he wasn’t yet ready to push her.

"I'm sorry. Forgive me." He pulled her close to him. "I just want to help you."

"Then stop asking questions and help me deactivate the FIDOs!" She was beyond panicked, which didn’t sit well with him. Maybe it was due to her own protection unit turning on her. That would cause anyone to dive into anxiety.

She shook subtly in his arms, sending his protective instincts into overdrive. "I'll help. Lead the way."

The captain straightened, her trembling seeming to disappear in an instant. "Follow me," she said, heading down the hall and into the crew's mess. Containers and rations were strewn all over the floor, but there was no sign of the dead crewman, Smith.

Ontarii thought she would head for the bridge, but instead she made her way towards the cargo bay. He knew he'd have to be ready for a confrontation with the robots and their wicked lasers, so he charged up his bio-weapon, holding the electrical power at the ready.

Hitting the robot with a sufficient charge would disable it, which was good, and yet he was only one man. Scientists on Zanthar had already pulled apart one of the human's FIDOs to find out what made it tick. His only worry would be hitting all the robots before one could blast him with a laser.

He might be able to squeeze out two discharges, but then he'd need a moment to recharge. That moment might mean the difference between life and death for him and the human captain.

Captain Brooklyn had managed to escape the robot posse once. He still wasn't sure about her story. If they'd gone into attack mode, why hadn't at least one of them fired on her?

"These lasers," he said in a low voice as they made their way forward. "What are their capabilities? I mean, they have split-second targeting and firing abilities, right?"

The captain didn't turn back to answer him, just shrugged her shoulders.

"You don't know?" Now that he didn't buy. His irritation was rising at her behavior. "Why didn't they fire at you during your infamous escape?"

The human female whirled around to confront him. "How should I know? I told you that they must have malfunctioned. How could I guess what they would do or not do? Maybe their lasers weren't functional. Maybe the malfunction was such that it didn't activate the lasers. Maybe—"

"Maybe they aren't robots at all." A light went on in Ontarii's mind. When Hareema imitated Zantharians, they could give the illusion of an electrical charge, but it was just that. An illusion. They were incapable of generating the energy themselves. It was likely the same with the FIDOs' lasers.

"What?" The captain was angry, her impatience as apparent as her beautiful golden eyes.

"Go with me on this. What if the FIDOs aren't FIDOs? What if they're really Hareema agents in disguise?" It would be a very clever ruse for the enemy to impersonate the robots while the unsuspecting crew goes around distrusting each other.”

"So what if they are?" It was obvious the human wasn't following his line of reasoning, which was disconcerting. Despite his harsh words in the airlock, the captain was anything but incapable. She was clever and quick-thinking.

Maybe she's in shock. This situation would test anyone. She's only just discovered that humans aren't the only intelligent life in the universe, and now she's been thrust in a war between the Hareema and the Zantharians, unsure of whom to trust.

"It would be a good way to sneak around the ship without raising suspicions, and if the Hareema are imitating the FIDOs, then their laser weapons wouldn't work. That could explain why they didn't use them on you."

"Sounds plausible." She moved forward into the cargo bay.

He stopped and studied her as trepidation rolled over him. Had the Hareema gotten to her? Surely not.

"This is where I left them," Captain Brooklyn mumbled, crouching behind a stack of storage containers.

Ontarii joined her, scanning the cargo bay for the enemy. There was nothing to see.

"Could they have left, headed back toward the bridge?" The cargo bay was empty of life.

"They could have walked through the wall and swam through space for all I know," she said, her flippant tone setting his teeth on edge.

"What's with you?" He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her around to face him. "Where's this attitude coming from? You practically order me to help you, then bite my head off whenever I ask you a question. What's gotten into you?"

"Don't touch me," she said, pulling away from his grasp. "I might need your help, but that doesn't mean you get to paw at me with your filthy fish hands."

"Fish hands? Listen here, you—" Ontarii froze, his words drying up. The FIDOs were creeping through the cargo bay, their shoulder weapons revealed, red lights winking in readiness.

"No, you listen to me," the captain said, not realizing the robots were on the scene.

Ontarii slapped a hand over her mouth, but it was too late.

The blue displays that comprised the FIDOs' faces turned red, and they turned in Captain Brooklyn's direction.

"Intruder alert," they said in unison.

Ontarii pulled the human female behind him, then risked raising his hand around the storage container. He released a blast of bioelectricity and it hit the closest one, causing smoke to rise from the display. The robot tumbled to the floor, deactivated.

The remaining FIDOs wasted no time retaliating. The two behind the fallen one let their lasers blast.

Ontarii grabbed the human and rolled sideways, right before the containers in front of them melted enough to allow the laser beams to pass through.

Well, there goes that theory.

They ran to hide behind a neighboring stack of storage containers. The FIDOs were definitely not Hareema.

Ontarii released another blast of bioelectricity. It hit another FIDO and dropped it.

"I need a chance to recharge," he said, dragging the captain with him as they retreated behind another bank of storage containers. "You've got to create a diversion."

"What do you mean?" The captain's face was unbelieving. "I can't go out there. I'll be burned to bits by their lasers."

"You don't have to stay out there. You just need to run past them, make them turn in your direction, then dive behind those containers." Ontarii pointed to a bank of containers on the other side of the bay. "That should buy me enough time to sneak behind them, recharge, and blast them both."

"Please don't make me," she said, her eyes filling with tears.

Ontarii frowned. Nothing this woman had done since he'd met her would have made him expect her to break down, especially not when their lives were on the line.

"I'm sorry," he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Then he shoved her, hard, pushing her in the direction of the containers. "Now go. RUN!"

The human captain ran forward, putting on a burst of speed that distracted the two FIDOs.

Ontarii took his chance, creeping down behind the robots and taking shelter behind a support beam. He watched as the human dove behind a stack of containers, narrowly avoiding the robots' lasers.

It felt like hours before his energy recharged to sufficient levels, but finally he was ready to fight again. It was his last chance to take out the FIDOs though. If he only got one, the other would be able to laser him before he could hit it. He had to take a risk and try to blast them both at once.

Taking a deep breath, Ontarii extended both hands in front of him and released as much of the energy as he could. Twin blasts arced from his palms and into the enemy robots. Both displays shorted out, and the robots fell to the floor, out of service.

"You got them!" The human ran toward him, grinning at the smoking robot bodies in front of them.

Ontarii walked up to one of the FIDOs and gave it a kick. The display screen face stayed blank. “They’re down for now, but I’m not sure how long it will last.”

“How can we turn them off for good?”

Ontarii’s eyes widened as he looked down at his companion. The human female looked up at him, her lovely eyes questioning.

Why would she be asking me how to turn off the FIDOs? Surely she would know more about it than me?

Wanting to give Brooklyn the benefit of the doubt, Ontarii thought that perhaps the captain didn’t concern herself with all the functions on her ship. That’s what her crew was for, but that kind of assumption didn’t jive with what he already knew about the woman.

Doubt swept through him, and he brushed his fingers over his lips as he watched her. Something had been off since she’d marched him to the airlock. She’d turned on him then, so how could he trust her now, despite her smile and beautiful golden eyes?

“I believe the main controls are on the bridge,” he said, concentrating on recharging his energy weapon. Unfortunately, the last double blast had completely depleted him. He wasn’t sure how long it would take to build up a sufficient charge again.

The last time he’d been so empty, it had been almost an hour before he’d been strong enough to send out a satisfactory zap.

“Of course,” Captain Brooklyn mumbled to herself, then turned, starting toward the corridor that would take her to the bridge.

Ontarii frowned, but followed behind the woman. She’d made a big deal out of confirming his identity, but he’d now lost the opportunity to confirm hers. Not only could he not zap her to determine if she were human, but if they did confront any others before he recovered his charge, he’d be unable to test them as well.

They walked to the bridge in silence, Ontarii’s thoughts reverberating through his head like the echoes of their footsteps in the corridor. Everything hinged on him making smart choices, and so far he’d made several missteps. Costly missteps that had gotten his men killed.

Now he had to put his trust in a human female who’d almost sent him to die in the void of space. A human female that he alternately wanted to strangle and hold tenderly.

Could he trust her?

Or would he end up like his men?

Ontarii shook his head and took a deep breath. Only time would tell whether he’d live or die, and whether his planet would suffer the same fate.