Page 21 of Redeeming Captivity (Human Pets of Talin #7)
Chapter 21
Lena
Tarquin was unconscious. There were only two steps left before the rock-walker would be right on him. She’d been so happy when Jafinium was impaled by one of the machines and carried off, but what if the same thing happened to Tarquin? He was already severely wounded, another injury might kill him.
She focused on the shiny metal legs, readying herself to push or pull him out of the way. If the leg didn’t hit dead center, she had a chance of getting him clear if she used all her strength at once.
Ignoring the way her head throbbed and pain lanced through her back every time she moved, she dug the toe of one boot into the ground, ready to act.
Except the rock-walker stopped short of them and started to lower.
Relief made her dizzy, forcing her back on her knees as the door to the vehicle slid open and Dieseum jumped out. He stood there for a moment taking the two of them in before stepping closer.
“I’m not sure how it’s possible, but both of you look even worse than when I went to chase this thing down,” he said, leaning over to get a closer look at Tarquin’s belly.
He reached out and Lena slapped his hands away. “No!”
She expected him to knock her back with an angry rattle, but instead he started purring.
“Let me feel around the dagger,” he said. “I should be able to tell if we can remove it. Otherwise I’m going to have to figure out some way to strap him to the roof of the rock-walker because he has to sit up to travel inside it.”
Pulling her hands back, she moved to the other side of Tarquin, giving Dieseum tacit approval. She didn’t have much of a choice but to trust him right now. He was the only one who could help them escape.
“I would send you up in one of the remaining ships, but you’d be blasted to particles the moment you didn’t follow everyone else into Ossiso space. Following means capture for you and death for him. Getting you to that pickup location is your only chance. I hope whoever is coming to get you realizes how dangerous this situation is and stays on the far side of the planet.”
Lena had no idea, but if Tarquin trusted them, she was ready to trust them. Dieseum carefully felt around Tarquin’s abdomen. She didn’t know how he could feel anything through the hard keratin plating, but he finally sounded a soothing rumble, probably from relief.
Getting up, he retrieved something from inside the rock-walker then resumed his spot. He had a vial of pale yellow liquid and several packets of something.
“I don’t think anything vital was fully pierced,” he said, handing her the vial. “I’m going to pull the dagger out. There’s going to be blood, but I need you to stay strong. I’m going to hold the wound open and you need to pour that into it. Can you do that?”
She nodded and pointed to the empty container of sterilization water. He sounded a surprised rattle.
“You used that already? Good, that will make the remodeling serum work better,” he said. He put a hand on the dagger. “Ready?”
She nodded her head and twisted the cap to the vial. She expected him to wrench the dagger out, but he didn’t. Easing it out slowly, he seemed to be watching the flow of blood carefully.
“This is good,” he murmured. “Very good.”
Once the dagger was free, he tossed it aside and quickly put a palm on either side of the wound and pressed it open. There wasn’t as much blood as she expected, and it was easy to pour the liquid inside. When the vial was empty, he pressed the wound together with more force than he’d used to hold it open.
“His plates are only minimally damaged, so they’ll lock together and help hold the cut closed,” he explained. “But that won’t hold up to the way we’re going to need to move him.”
He opened up the packets he brought to reveal large copper-colored bandages. They were big enough not only to cover the wound but stretch from one side of Tarquin’s belly to the other, wrapping almost all the way around to his back. He overlapped a second bandage but placed it higher, then a third bandage lower than the first one. By the time he was done, Tarquin’s abdomen was covered in copper bandages.
The sight made Lena feel better, even though she knew this was nothing but a hasty field dressing that might be covering up serious, irreparable damage.
Sitting back on his heels, Dieseum surveyed his work. “I’m shocked he didn’t wake up during all that.”
Lena looked around then held up the vial that had contained the blue painkiller.
“That explains it,” Dieseum said with an amused rumble. “That’s a big enough dose to send any Talin under.”
Now that Tarquin was stable, Lena started shoving things back into her bag. They needed to get out of here before anyone saw them. They’d gotten lucky so far, but that couldn’t last.
Dieseum’s hand on her shoulder made her go still and look up at him. She didn’t like that he was touching her but just managed to keep from doing something unpleasant, like spitting to get his hand off her.
He was helping. You didn’t spit on those helping you.
“Lena, I need to ask you a question,” he said. She nodded her head and he continued. “Are you sure you want to go with Tarquin? I know Jafinium treated you badly, but I could get you somewhere safe. I have friends in Delorta space; I could get you to a place where no Talin would ever find you. You’d be free. I’d also make sure Tarquin made it to the pickup site.”
Her first instinct was to reject his offer. She refused to be parted from Tarquin. But another part of her wanted away from the Talin Empire. Freedom sounded nice. Even with Tarquin’s protection, she felt vulnerable.
Look at what happened on this base. It had ended up being her and Tarquin against almost everyone! She shuddered at the thought of the many times they almost died. If she wanted to stay with Tarquin, it meant staying in the empire. Never knowing what it was like to be free.
Could she be free without him? He’d treated her as an equal. In the eyes of the empire she was nothing but a pet, but to Tarquin she was a partner.
Most importantly, she wasn’t willing to give him up.
She grabbed hold of Tarquin’s hand to show that she was staying with him.
“Good choice,” Dieseum said. “I’m glad you’re staying with Tarquin, but I wanted to make sure you had choices.”
Lena was confused on how this male ended up tangled up with someone like Jafinium. He was far too honorable and kind to want the same things Jafinium wanted. Was he a spy? Except, if he was a spy, why didn’t he send information in to stop all of this before it started?
So many questions and no time to get answers.
“We need to get the two of you out of here,” Dieseum said. He worked his arms under Tarquin then lifted him up with a grunt. “Holian couldn’t have sent someone smaller? If I ever do this again, I'm going to specify the size of the inspector envoy.”
He carried Tarquin to the rock-walker then gently set him in the single seat. Lena picked up her pack and followed. After Dieseum strapped Tarquin in, he took the pack from Lena and tucked it into a storage compartment at the back of the vehicle.
Turning to Lena, he pointed at Tarquin. “Normally I’d say you could ride on his lap, but that’s not a good idea right now. You’ve got two choices, sit between his legs or ride in the storage compartment with the pack.”
Lena didn’t hesitate to climb in and curl herself up between Tarquin’s legs. Dieseum made an approving sound, then leaned in to tap at the controls of the machine. He grumbled then grabbed Tarquin’s Ident. After more tapping and consulting the Ident’s display, he finally put it back on Tarquin’s belt.
“See this?” he said, pointing to a spot on the control panel. “After I’m out of the way, press it. The rock-walker will take you to the pickup site. Be prepared, it’s going to be a rough journey, even in this thing. Tarquin will be fine, the chair will accommodate his shifting body, but you’ll need to keep yourself braced.”
She nodded her head. “Grateful,” she said, hoping he understood the depth of meaning behind that single word.
“Thank me by making it out of here,” Dieseum said, then moved back.
She hit the button and the door slid shut and motors whined into motion. She sank back down and leaned her back against the control console. From her position she couldn’t see the display and the rock-walker didn’t have any windows. She could only trust it knew where to go.
Now that she had no choice but to be still and wait, everything hurt. The last few days were full of running and fighting without enough time in between to really recover.
Then the rock-walker hit the first rough patch and she understood what Dieseum meant by needing to brace herself. The chair cradling Tarquin rolled and moved to keep him level, but she was tossed around. She might be squeezed in but there was still enough room to be tumbled back and forth between the hard metal walls on either side of her.
It took some maneuvering, but she got herself turned sideways so she could brace her feet on one wall and her back on the other. Now all she had to do was to keep Tarquin’s feet from getting her in the face when the chair pitched back to accommodate the rock-walker’s movements.
It didn’t occur to her for at least a mark that she wasn’t panicking at all, despite being crammed into a small space. It probably had more to do with being focused on escaping rather than that she was cured.
Of course, now that she was aware of it, the small space inside the rock-walker seemed to be getting smaller.
Was there less oxygen in here? Was it getting hotter?
Sweat dripped down her back, and she started breathing faster. The rock-walker started climbing up something and shifted Tarquin’s chair down so his foot nudged her shoulder. Looking up at the sleeping Talin reminded her that she didn’t have the luxury of panicking. She needed to keep it together; he wouldn’t survive without her.
Reaching out, she rested a hand on the top of his foot. It was enough to help steady her. She still felt overheated and twitchy, but she wasn’t on the edge of going absolutely feral in the small space.
She thought about their time together. All his gentle touches and reassuring words. The way he talked and rumbled constantly, filling the air with his words and purrs. She couldn't rumble, but maybe she could talk to him?
“S-s-safe.” She stumbled over that simple word, making frustration surge inside of her. What was wrong with her that she couldn’t make more than one or two words come out of her mouth, even when she was alone with the only Talin she trusted in the entire universe?
Determined, she tried again. “Safe s-s-soon.”
Triumph made her smile and her success made her push for more words.
“P-p-protect you. Protect you always.” It was almost like she had to reach down her own throat and drag each word out. They didn’t get easier but that only made her more committed to giving Tarquin her words.
“Trust you. Love you. Won’t ever leave you. Not abandon you. Safe. Secure. Adored.”
The more she spoke, the more she longed to climb onto Tarquin’s lap and curl up against his chest.
“Hurt now. Not hurt soon. No more hurt.”
She didn’t want to hurt anymore either. Living in fear, hunger, and cold was exhausting, but being in pain like she was feeling now wasn’t any more fun.
“Pain, but free,” she murmured thoughtfully. She might be covered in bruises, but she wouldn’t trade them for her cage. She’d rather suffer broken bones than return to that life. Jafinium had tried, but he only wounded her. He hadn't managed to break her. Her problem with speaking was like a limp. It impeded her but didn’t stop her.
“Stronger than the pain.” Yes, that was the most important part. She was stronger than her experiences on Wulnum. She would be strong for Tarquin.
She kept up her stilted monologue until the rock-walker finally stopped moving. She held her breath as it lowered to the ground. After so many marks riding inside, it shouldn’t be hard to wait the few submarks for the vehicle to finish parking, but they were some of the longest submarks of her life.
Finally the door hissed and slid open, flooding the cab with fresh air.
She had to slither out and dropped unceremoniously to the rocky ground. She lay there for a moment, looking up at the starry night sky and pulling in cold air.
It was only when she moved that she felt a new pain. She’d wrenched her shoulder getting out of the rock-walker, and now her left arm didn’t want to lift up. She could bend it at the elbow but trying to engage her shoulder sent shooting pain down her back and up her neck.
Great , she thought, annoyed with herself. As if everything else wasn’t enough, now I’ve managed to hurt myself!
The sound of a bot made her look around wildly. Off in the distance she could just see several bots moving low over the ground, scanning the area under them. They were moving slow so they could do detailed analysis. This was bad. There was no way they could hide from that kind of scan, not with the rock-walker right there.
That gave her an idea.
Climbing back into the machine, she looked around until she found the controls for Tarquin’s seat. She wasn’t sure which button did what, but after a few false starts, she figured out how to extend the seat out the door, then had it lower as far as it would go. By the time she was done, the chair was almost on the ground. She unstrapped Tarquin then tried to gently roll him off the chair. She managed to keep his head from hitting the ground, but only barely. She had to use her entire body to lean him against a nearby boulder. The move made her shoulder scream with pain and forced her to rest for several submarks.
Actually, most of her body was screaming in pain, her shoulder was simply the loudest!
Once Tarquin was clear of the chair, she retracted it back into the rock-walker. It took some experimenting, but she was pretty sure she got it programmed to head to the canyon. Before jumping down, she pulled her pack from the storage compartment and tossed it down next to Tarquin.
At first she thought she’d done something wrong, but then the door slid shut and the leg motors spooled up with a whine. Soon the long, telescoping legs were lifting it high in the air and it was walking away.
Now if the observation bots flew over, she could cover herself and Tarquin with one of the emergency blankets and have at least a slight hope of staying hidden.
It wasn’t much, but she’d take any chance she could get.