Chapter Three: A Rocky Start

Time Unknown. Date Unknown. Location Unknown. Planet Puget, Outer Colonies. Prologue to the Dark Side of the World

I woke up groggy in my seat, head pounding against my skull. Slowly I remembered where I was, what had happened, and the panic and fear started to bubble up. But I quickly pushed both aside; neither of those were going to help me get through this. If anything, the feelings made it all worse, so I tried my best to shut them down and think.

I reached out with an arm only to find it wouldn't go where I wanted it to. Neither would my feet. Both were tied solidly to the hard chair I was in, my hands behind my back, my boots trussed up firmly to each leg of the chair. So moving wasn't an option. Next I tried to speak, but I found there was tape over my mouth. That was out, too.

Glancing down at myself, I saw that all my weapons and gear were gone, right down to my web belt and canteen. That meant no knives and no guns - not that I'd expected them to leave me armed. Even my helmet and gloves were gone, along with the extra ammo I kept in the pants pockets of my fatigues. Someone had already searched me thoroughly while I'd been knocked out.

The thought made me more than a little uneasy, but there wasn't anything I could do about it now. I was still fully dressed in my battledress uniform and it seemed only my equipment had been taken, so I took comfort in the fact that nothing else had occurred.

Looking around, the real thing that bothered me most right now was that I didn't see anyone else in the room. I knew it was highly unlikely that any of my security detail had survived, but I figured there'd been a sliver of a chance for Staff Sergeant Lynch at least...and maybe Cal. I found it odd that they hadn't been captured along with me, and the only reason I could think they hadn't was if they were dead.

That made a harsh sob well up inside me, but again I had to muscle it out. If I broke now before we even began, it wasn't going to do me any favors in trying to survive.

"So you're finally awake. That's good."

The voice startled me, coming out of a dark corner somewhere behind me. I strained to turn and look, but being tied to the chair only got me so far. Until the speaker came into view, I wasn't going to be able to identify him. But I knew it was a man.

I wanted to reply but my mouth was taped shut, so I sat there, waiting.

"What? Nothing to say? Maybe I should fix that."

Finally I saw him, and I was surprised by how young he looked. He seemed to be about my age, maybe mid-thirties - and certainly not a day over forty. The fact that he was rougishly handsome somehow made it worse.

In the past I'd been beaten by a guy with good looks and the attitude to match. I'd even come close to falling in love with him, misguided as I was in my late teens. I guess that made me suspicious of too-perfect faces now.

He stood in front of me staring for a while before he bent down to my level, just a few feet away. His dark blue eyes met my green ones as he spoke. "You're probably wondering a lot of things right now, aren't you? Where you are, how you got here, if your men survived...what we want."

In one swift motion he ripped the tape off my mouth, and I winced.

"There. That's better. So...we're at a crossroads now, Colonel. You want information, and I want information. A little quid pro quo, right? That's all this needs to be if you're cooperative. An exchange."

I snorted, then coughed to clear my throat before speaking. My voice was gravelly from being knocked around in the fight earlier. "It's never that simple."

"Oh, but it can be. Let's start with the basics, shall we? What are you doing on this planet?"

I deliberately misinterpreted the question and smirked. "I was ordered to come here. So I went."

His fist was swift, and my jaw was hurting and ears ringing before I even knew what had happened. Some of my dried blood from earlier was on his hand now, I noticed. The rest still decorated my chin and the collar of my T-shirt, underneath my fatigue jacket.

"Would you like to try that again?" he asked innocuously.

"No," I replied.

He lifted his fist a second time but didn't go for the blow. Yet. "What is the UNSC doing on this planet?"

"That's our own damn business," I ground out.

Again the hit was blindingly fast. This time my head spun with it, as if I needed more cause to be disoriented. But the thought made me smile - if he kept going like this, I wouldn't remember a damn thing he wanted to know anyway.

That put him on edge. "What's so fucking funny?"

"I was just...thinking. You're trying to beat info out of me, but the more you do it, the more...out of it I get. Seems like a...bad way to go about it, don't you think? Keep it up and I won't have anything to tell you."

He ignored me and went on. "Actually, it is our business. You know why? Because it's our planet. So I'm going to ask again, what - "

I heard a door open from somewhere off to the side and someone else came in. It was a woman this time, dressed in those snow-camo fatigues the six men who'd captured me had worn - not the all brown-and-black ensemble this idiot was done up in. She spared a glance at me and then at him before approaching.

"Has she said anything yet?"

"No. I'm trying, but she's - "

The woman gave him a look that stopped him mid-sentence. "Really? She's a full bird colonel, wise-ass, and she's only been conscious for all of five minutes. You think she would have already revealed everything to you?" She shook her head. "Try harder. And I don't mean with your fist. Put that away for now. It's a little early for that yet."

As quick as she entered the room she was gone. At least that saved me some pain, for the moment, but I didn't know what else she or her lackeys might have in mind going forward. And I wasn't exactly itching to find out.

The man stood there seething for a minute, running a hair through his bushy, dirty-blond hair, then looked back at me. He got up real close this time - so close I could smell his none-too-appealing scent of sweat and cigarettes.

"Do you have another question you'd like to ask?" I said, unnerved by his proximity, but trying not to let it show.

He grinned, revealing surprisingly white teeth. "As a matter of fact, I do. But I'm sure you won't answer it."

"Well. You must've been the neon crayon in the box."

He chuckled, but not with much humor. "I've been told I have a sharp mind when I want to use it. Not often, but sometimes." He walked around me this time, once, then gripped both sides of the chair I was in, leaning in even closer now. "What's a full bird colonel doing outside the lines on patrol?"

It took me a moment to respond, but when I did, I made sure not to let my voice falter. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

I wasn't hit this time, but the chair sure was. He moved fluidly to one side and smashed it with his boot, sending me crashing to the ground on the right. Still tied to the chair, there was nothing I could do but go down with it - and I growled low in my throat at the impact. It'd hurt worse than being punched in the face, that was for sure.

"Daria said to leave you be. But I don't think that's the answer, and she's no longer here," he said, crouching over me now. Before I could say anything or react, he grabbed a hold of my face in one hand, forcing me to look at him. "You know, I don't have to hit you to get a real response from you," he spat. "Oh, no. There's other ways we can do business here. Other ways for us to manage this exchange." Then he grinned darkly at me. "And you know what, you're not at all bad-looking for a jarhead. Pretty, even."

I jerked my chin away fast, insofar as I could given my position. "Get. Your hands. Off me."

At that he laughed and stood. "All right. I will. For now. But what happens after an hour, or two hours, or three hours go by with your non-answers, I can't promise I'll be as much of a gentleman."

He moved in to put my chair upright again, with me still in it. Then he picked the tape up off the floor and replaced it over my mouth. "I think that's all I wanted to say to you for now. I'll be back a little later for more. I'm hoping things get real interesting with you."

When he left I let out a long sigh of relief through my nose. I hadn't noticed in the moment, but I was sweating now, even though it was cold in the room. I knew that I couldn't stall with him for very long once he came back - and if I were alone in here, there was no reason to. What I needed to do, as soon as I possibly could, was very clear.

I needed to escape.