Adrift (2 page)

He cast off such morbid thoughts and made his way to the bridge, intent on offering his services to the captain.
After all, it was his duty to help in whatever way he could.

Norik climbed the metal stairs up to the bridge and paused at the door.
It was the kind that needed to be opened manually.
Instead of being in the usual locked position, it was slightly ajar.
He stilled and extended his senses.
They weren't as sensitive as a full Lyrissian's could be but he had just that small advantage over Humans.
He could hear whimpering and smell blood.

Jasmine had made it onto the bridge just a few minutes earlier.
She had not expected to find the scene that now confronted her.
The old captain she had made friends with just yesterday was sagged back in his chair as if he had been thrown there like a doll.
She crept forward and gasped.
The nasty burn to his chest and neck wasn't enough to turn her stomach.
It was the smell of cooked flesh that threatened to introduce her breakfast to the deck plating.
She averted her gaze to find the man at helm sprawled across his console.
Either it was the angle she was looking at him or his head was missing.

Jasmine put a hand to her stomach in a vain attempt to keep everything down.
She turned to leave but was stopped when someone, or thing, tackled her to the floor.
Her weapon and light skittered well out of reach.
She tried to scream but the air had been knocked from her lungs.
Jasmine twisted and clawed at the deck plating as the person who had landed on her tried to pick her up.
Apparently he had a friend, one who delighted in stomping at her fingers.
Not wanting anything broken, she suddenly let go, which sent her and her attacker wildly backwards a few feet.
Both men grappled with her as she threw her arms and legs wildly around in an attempt to break free.
They soon had her trapped, with her back pressed against the front of one man and his large and extremely strong arms wrapped around her.
She kicked back with her heels hoping to connect with shins but the warning squeeze he gave her soon put a stop to it.

"You finished?"
the finger stomper drawled.
He moved closer and shined a light into her eyes, making, her blink and see spots when he flashed it away.

"No," she gasped defiantly.
"Get him to put me down so I can gouge your eyes out!"

He backhanded her with his torch hand and asked again, "You finished now?"

Now Jasmine saw stars dancing hand-in-hand with the spots.
All blinked in time to the throbbing on the side of her head.
"Yes," she whimpered meekly.

"Good," said Stompy.
He held a data tablet up next to her face and blinded her again.
"Looks like we got what we came for," he told his accomplice.

Jasmine's ears pricked up at that.
Her heart that had been racing, found a higher gear to pump in.
They had been after her and they had killed the bridge crew to get her, which meant two things.
These men were murderers and that the man she had been investigating and run from, had found her.

All she could do was whimper as they talked about what they, and a third accomplice would do with the passengers.

Norik had no idea how many people were on the bridge, but it couldn't be many considering its compact size.
He also didn't know if he would find friend or foe inside.
He erred on the side of extreme caution that it was foe and then cursed himself for having no weapon.

Norik eased the door open and took in the locations of the dark forms compared with his memory of the bridge when the lights had been on.
He crouched low, skirted around the edge and groped around for anything that he could use to help him gain the upper hand, all while he waited for his eyes to adjust, freezing when he happened across what appeared to be a body on the floor.
A quick feel revealed there was no body, only a head.
His eyebrow raised as the situation just elevated itself from engine problems to what his Second-in-Command would call
shit-hitting-the-fan
.

The head wasn't a weapon, but it could come in handy.
He listened to the low conversation at the front of the bridge.
One man was doing most of the talking and a second grunted occasionally, the third was the one doing the whimpering.
That one sounded female.
That made his blood boil.
Especially when he realized the talkative one was reveling in telling her what he wanted to do to her.
His anger made him act before he had fully formulated a plan.

"Hey!
Catch!"
Norik called out and threw the disembodied head at them.

Jasmine's head jerked up when she heard someone call out.
She watched as the dark form of Stompy stopped his perverted tirade and turned in time to be hit by something in the chest.
He screamed and Squeezey loosened his grip on her, so she used the distraction to her advantage.
She kicked, pinched and threw her head back, hard.
He was too tall for her to get him in the nose the way she'd hoped, but she'd still done enough damage to make the man let go and she dropped to the deck, rolling away behind a console.
She tried to regain her feet but slipped on something slick and sticky, which she deduced, put her in front of the helm console and the headless body.

Meanwhile Norik had moved quickly, so quickly that Stompy had no idea what hit him.
Because of his antics flinging away the head, the force of the blow was deflected.
He was mildly stunned but still capable of fighting.
Norik knew he needed to take them down one at a time.
He might have the strength of one and a half Human men, but the other guy looked like he had eaten at least that many for breakfast.

Norik decided that the one he was now fighting wasn't the hired help.
He fought like he talked, wildly and with no care about what he said or where he landed a punch.
It made him unpredictable and dangerous.

Norik didn't notice the knife, not until the man slashed him across the face with it.
It was a bit hard not to notice it then.
He continued to slash and jab at Norik.
The damn thing was long and bloody sharp.
So sharp that it could probably take his head off if he weren't careful.

"Patrick!"
the man with the knife screamed.
"Patrick, kill him!
Kill him now!"

Norik ducked another swing from the blade and got in a couples of punches before the man could dance back to be replaced by the bigger guy.

Oh shit
, he thought.

Jasmine had eluded Squeezey by crawling around to the other side of the console and doubling back.
If she wanted to survive this, then she needed her weapon.
This new guy obviously wasn't their third man.
Someone new had joined the party.
She just wished she knew who it was and what everyone looked like.
Stun was not a setting she wanted to use here, she wanted disintegrate.
These fuckers are gonna fry
, she told herself.

Just when she thought she could see in the dark a stupid torch would blind her.
After the third time it happened she was about ready to yell at them to stop shining the torch in her eyes, when she remembered
her
torch was strapped to
her
weapon.
Whoever was fighting in among the consoles was kicking them around.
All she had to do was follow the light.
She could have wept at the relief that filled her when she spied a circle of light on the ceiling, unfortunately it was on the other side of the fighting.
Damn men
, she grumbled,
always getting in the way
.

There was a break in the fighting as the two bad guys tag-teamed their opponent.
Jasmine quickly scurried across the bridge while they were all distracted.
She reached the beam of light and pounced on it, only to come up with the torch that Stompy had used to subdue her earlier.
She made a strangled noise of frustration and vowed to beat Stompy to death with his own torch, unfortunately the noise drew the attention of Stompy and he lunged for her.

Jasmine thrust her legs up and managed to kick Stompy aside.
Although she sorely wanted to make the man pay, she was a realist and quickly skittered away on all fours.
Not paying attention to where she was going she bumped into someone and knocked them off balance.
They came down on top of her.
She had no way of knowing if it was Squeezey or her possible rescuer, as she'd not seen what either of them looked like.

Norik threw himself to one side as the big man hurtled toward him.
The man had him on size and brute strength, but seemed to lack intelligence.
Norik threw himself to the opposite side when the man tried the same move again.
This was going to get old fast.

Norik toppled backward and landed awkwardly on his elbows.
He shook his head and looked up just in time to see the smaller guy come at him again, with the knife.
Whoever he had fallen over caused him more problems.
Instead of trying to untangle themselves they shined a torch into his face.
His second eyelids closed to protect his eyes from the sudden bright light, but not before it reset his vision in the darkness.
He heard the knife as it sliced through the air and then felt it as he tried to roll away.
It cut through his shoulder, between the joint.
The excruciating pain followed a few seconds after, like the speed of sound following that of light.
The obscenely long knife practically had him pinned to the deck.
Then his attacker twisted it.
Norik writhed under the blinding pain but refused to cry out.

Jasmine shined the light into the face of the person she had brought down on top of her.
It was the mystery man she bunked with.
She decided he was on her side and belatedly realized that she had just disadvantaged him.
Stompy stabbed him and viciously inflicted more pain upon the poor man.
Enraged that she had caused injury to the very man who had risked himself to save her, she swung the torch still in her hand.
It connected with Stompy's jaw with such a force that it spun him away from Norik.
Her victory was short-lived though as the familiar arms of Squeezey enveloped her once more.

"No!"
she screamed.

Her yell and wild thrashing broke through Norik's veil of pain.
Whoever had left the knife in him had given up torturing him but the girl was still in danger.
He knew he would regret his actions later, but he had no weapon save for the one that pinned him in place.
He reached over with his left hand, gripped the hilt and pulled.
Blood that had been staunched by the blade now flowed freely from his wound.
He ignored the pain as best he could and forced himself to his feet.

Jasmine thrashed against the man who seemed to have arms of tritanium, but it did her no good.
He held fast.
She caught sight of Norik as he lurched to his feet.
He brandished a knife that looked more like a sword, at her and Squeezey.
She desperately hoped he knew what he was doing.

"Put the woman down," Norik said as calmly as he could muster.
He used the name that the other man had called him by, and wondered where he had run off to.
"Patrick, put the woman down."

Patrick, or Squeezey, seemed to seriously consider the request.
Jasmine for her part stopped struggling, surprised at the commanding voice that came from Norik.
If she had been in Squeezey's position she might well have done as ordered.
She almost gasped when she felt herself slowly lowered to the deck.
Her legs failed her though and she crumpled down into a sitting position before him.

It looked as if Patrick would no longer pose a problem.
The man's role had obviously been to follow orders, any orders, and act as muscle.
Norik was somewhat stunned that the ruse had worked but then he found most people, including those well trained by the Corps, would follow an order.

"Use the plasma blaster, Patrick!"
the other man screamed out from somewhere behind Norik.
"Kill him!"

Patrick blindly did as ordered and pulled a plasma blaster out from its holster hidden at the small of his back.
It had to be the one that had been used on the transport's captain and now it was being lowered at Norik, its next victim.

Norik was situated between two consoles, unable to throw himself to either side.
The other man was presumably at his back.
It left him with only one option.
To go forward, toward the man with a weapon trained on him at almost pointblank range.
Norik charged, knife angled low.