Chapter 12
Lieutenant Vnor Gin
I know that it was possible that this could happen; I just didn't think that it would happen this soon. After seeing the red alien in the tavern, I knew that he would eventually report to someone that wanted to know information about a Kynon and a human. I thought we had more time. I didn't know if this cyborg invasion was because of us, or it was a usual raid. But I did know that Bridget was in danger. I had to get to her. Out of nowhere, I was knocked out as I pulled her along trying to get to the port docks where Nippara waited for us with a ship. We were so close to leaving. I felt the crash against my head. Everything went quiet and I heard a loud piercing sound. I fell to the floor as everything went black. I put my hands out feeling the ground, the cold cement of the market. I didn't know what was happening around me.
When I finally was able to stand up and get my vision back, I could not see Bridget anywhere. I turned in circles looking for her. Then I heard her call my name. I followed the sound of her voice. I turned to see her being carried by a cyborg. I quickly ran toward her. But there was so much case chaos in the way. I was jumping over turned-over market tables. I was jumping over fallen merchants and wounded aliens. I tried to keep my eyes on her. There was so much to get around, and the cyborgs kept turning corners.
Then I saw something that made my blood boil; I saw K6R. He was standing in front of Bridget. Damn it. He had found her. I had tried to protect her, and now I had led her to him by taking her with me to the transmission station. I should have left her in the room or taken her to the ship first. But then something caught me by surprise; suddenly I saw K6R stab a knife into the cyborgs neck. The cyborg went down instantly, carrying Bridget with him. Then I saw him do it to the other cyborg as well. I guessed that was how you took down a cyborg. I realized that there were two groups of cyborgs here: there were the ones belonging to K6R, and I could only assume the others belonged to his brother. It was a full-on cyborg civil battle. Then I felt a cold hand on my arm.
“The Kynon. This is the Kynon we are looking for,” he said. I squatted down and pulled a long knife out of the compartment of my boot. I quickly push the knife into its neck. It went down instantly.
“Well that is handy,” I said to myself. I looked in the direction of Bridget. She was no longer in sight, and I could not see K6R. I ran in the direction that I had last seen her. Over the chaos and screams of the battle, I could vaguely hear her voice calling for me. Keep talking, Bridget; keep shouting, I thought. Funny, the many times I had told her to be quiet, and now I wanted the opposite, it could save her life.
Then I found her. K6R Was carrying her over his shoulder headed for a speeder. I could not let him put her on that ship or I would lose her forever. Somewhere deep inside of me, I got an enormous amount of strength, and I ran faster than I ever had, jumping over obstacles. Within seconds I was next to her. I pushed the knife deep into his neck. He fell to the ground.
“Vnor. Oh my God. Help me,” she cried to me. I pried his dead chrome hands off of her. I pulled her to me and carried her. I could hear chaos behind me as cyborgs begin to notice that their leader was dead. This was not good. I had just made a huge mistake, but I didn't have a choice.
“Just hold on, Bridget. We are almost there,” I whispered to her as I cradled her in my arms. It was faster this way than having her run with me. I ran fast, burying myself deep into the alleys. I was running toward the port and to dock number twenty-nine.
“Here! Lieutenant!” I heard Nippara say. I looked up and saw him in the doorway of a medium-sized speeder ship. He was waving me in.
“Get it started! We are coming!” I shouted to him. He disappeared inside, and as soon as we started to climb the ramp, the speeder came alive. I put Bridget down on her feet and turned to close the door. “Go! Go!”
I shouted and as soon as I did, the speeder began to lift up into the air. I moved over to Bridget.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?” I asked pulling her into my arms. She broke down and cried, convulsing against my chest.
“I thought that was it. I thought he was going to take me. I would rather die than be with him. I was so scared, Vnor. I didn't think you would get to me,” she said.
“It's alright, Bridget. I got to you. You are safe now. You are with me. We are getting out of here,” I said as I looked out the windshield. The ship was moving out of the village.
“I'm about to punch it!” Nippara said.
“Come, sit down,” I said grabbing her and sitting her on a bench. I sat down next to her. She still had not moved her face from my chest. She was crying hard. She was shaking. I wished that I could take the hurt from her. I wished that I could take the experience away from her. I didn't want her to be frightened. I didn't want her thinking that cyborg was going to do things to her.
Why did I care so much for her? Why did it break me inside to see her in so much pain and right? I was falling for this human female; there was no other explanation for the feelings that I was experiencing. The way I moved through the market in order to save her was more than just because of the fact that she was the human cargo that I was supposed to bring back to Xeion. It was much more than that; I did it with my heart. I put my hand on her chin and pushed her from me, tilting her head up to me. Her brown eyes were filled with tears.
She gasped. “You are bleeding,” she said putting her hand on my temple.
“I am? I didn't know,” I said looking at her hand and seeing blood on it. “I am all right. It doesn't hurt,” I said. “I am concerned about you. Are you sure that you are not hurt? You are in shock and not feeling.” I looked at her body up and down, examining all of her limbs. Those cyborgs were strong and could crush her arm without her even realizing it.
“I think that I am all right. You are the one that is bleeding. We have to stop the bleeding,” she said.
“There are medical supplies in the back cabinet!” Nippara shouted at us.
“I will get it,” she said as she stopped crying. I didn't want her to wait on me and nurse me, but it seemed to distract her from her pain, and that was good. So I let her do it. She stood up and held on to the walls slowly walking towards the back as they ship moved very fast. I looked out the windshield to see that we were over the desert.
“Nippara. What’s the report? Do we have company?” I shouted.
“Looks clear. No one is showing up on the radar,” he said.
“Fly as low as you can for as far as you can. Stay off the radar,” I said.
“Copy that, Lieutenant,” he said.
“Here, let me see,” Bridget said as she came back and sat next to me. She had a box of medical supplies.
“I am fine, really. Probably just needs to be cleaned up a little,” I said.
“Will you leave it to me for once? Just sit there and let me do what I need to do,” she said.
“Yes, human,” I said playfully. She smiled. She took out a bandage and some ointment and began to clean the blood away. Then she held the bandage against my head. “Here, hold it,” she said as she grabbed my hand and put it against the bandage. Having her hold my hand brought a rush of heat into my body. I looked into her brown eyes.
“I need you to press in order to stop the bleeding. Then I can bandage it properly. But the pressure needs to be applied for a couple of minutes, maybe even ten,” she said.
“How do you know all this?”
“I told you, on Earth, I am a scientist. I am not exactly a medical doctor, but this is science. I know a little of the human body, and the Kynon does not seem to be that different, even if you are blue and very tall,” she smiled.
“You are very smart. You have shown me that over and over again. I am lucky that I got stuck with you, human, if I had to be stuck with a human,” I said putting my other hand on her arm and rubbing it up and down. She looked at it and then looked at me.
“You are? Sometimes I think you hate me,” she said.
“No. I could never hate you. I would not have done what I did just now in order to save you from that cyborg if I hated you. It is quite the opposite,” I said.
A big smile came across her face. “I am glad to hear that, alien.”
“I wouldn't have stopped, you know,” I said.
“What do you mean?” she said looking through the supplies in the box.
“If he had taken you. I wouldn't have stopped until I had you back. I would have chased him all over this damn planet,” I said.
She stopped fumbling around the medical supplies and looked up at me. There was hope in her large brown eyes: maybe more than that. It was possible that she was looking at me with love, but it had been about a year since I had seen that look in a female's eyes. I didn't think that I recognized it anymore.
“Really?” she said.
“Yes, in all honesty,” I said.
“Well, of course. I am the cargo, and you are responsible for getting me back to your planet,” she said as she pulled her eyes away from mine and looked through the box of supplies again. I grabbed her hand with my one free hand and stopped her from fumbling.
“No, that is not what I mean. It is not because you are the cargo; it is because you have captured my heart, human. I don't know how you did it. Even though I have protested against it and tried to stop it. It happened anyway,” I said.
“I think you must have really hit your head hard. Let me see if that is still bleeding. Are you feeling light-headed?” she said in a teasing way as she pulled my hand away from the blow on my head. She was being playful.
“I mean what I say, Bridget. I think that it is possible that—”
“Lieutenant! There is something on the ground. Come look!” Nippara shouted breaking our conversation.