Operation: Recovery
Chapter 4: Catch, Release, and Catch Again
I came to in a small, round, metallic room dimly lit by a red light on the wall behind me. I tried to move but found I couldn't. It took me a minute to figure out why; my arms were bound above me, and I was hanging from something on the ceiling by whatever was restraining me. Looking down I saw that my feet were just scraping the floor and seeing my feet made me realize that I'd been stripped of my boots and socks before also noticing that my shirt and jacket were missing as well. I vaguely became aware of someone talking. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on listening to them.
"…just find out what he knows, all right?"
"What if he doesn't want to talk boss? Can we cut him up?"
"No, you can't. Here, just use this. Inject it into his arm or wherever you can get a clean injection. I'll be back in a few hours to see what you've learned."
"What do we do when we've gotten everything we can outta him?"
"Throw him in the cell with the other one. Look, just keep your eye on him and don't rough him up too bad." I heard a door close and opened my eyes. Two big thugs were standing in front of me, one of them was carrying a hypodermic needle and the other had a wooden club.
"I don't suppose you can just let me go, can you?" I asked.
"Look at that!" The thug with the needle said, smiling. "He can still tell jokes!"
"Yeah, but they're not real good jokes are they?" The other thug said, turning to needle-thug.
"How about this Mr. Fox?" Needle-thug said, still smiling. "You tell us everything you overheard in that alley, and we'll think about letting you go?"
"What if I didn't hear anything?" I asked.
"Another joke!" Needle-thug said, laughing.
"Yeah, and it sucked just like the other one." Club-thug said, frowning. "How about this? If he tells another bad joke I get to hit him?"
"The boss said no roughing him up," Needle-thug said, turning to club-thug.
"No he didn't! He said don't beat him up too bad and I don't think breaking his leg's too bad of a beating," Club-thug said, turning to needle-thug.
"All right, we'll do it your way," Needle-thug said with a shrug before he turned back to me. "How about it Mr. Fox? You tell us what we want to hear, or Joshua here gets to beat on you a little." No pilot wants a broken leg, and I'm no exception. Eight times out of ten, it means no flying for a few months while the other two tenths are split between being able to fly in a year and the end of your career. I wasn't about to hand over what I knew though, so I had to try and stall while I hoped a decent plan came to mind.
"How do I know you're not just going to break my legs if I tell you?" I asked.
"Good point," Needle-thug said.
"Not what we wanted to hear though!" Joshua shouted, swinging his wooden club at my right shin as hard as he could. I shouted out as pain shot up my leg. Needle-thug rolled up my pant leg.
"Lucky for you that'll leave a nasty bruise and nothing else," He said, staring up at me. "Now, let's try that again. What did you over hear in the alley?" My mind raced, trying to come up with any way to get myself out of the situation I was stuck in but again nothing came to mind and despite the consequence, I lied.
"I didn't hear anything." I said. Needle-thug rolled his eyes and took a step back, giving Joshua all the space he needed to try and bust my leg. I tensed my legs, hoping it might help lessen the blow. I couldn't help crying out again as his club connected with the same spot as his first swing. This went on for what seemed like hours during which somehow my leg managed to stay in one piece despite Joshua's multiple attempts to snap it in half. My vision swimming from the pain, needle-thug looked me in the eye.
"You know, you're not helping yourself out. The sooner you talk, the sooner we'll stop beating you and the sooner you can go. So, how about it?"
"Forget it, he's not going to talk."
"That's too bad for him. We've got ways to make pilots squeal like stuck pigs." I was only half aware of a pricking sensation in my arm before losing track of everything.
The next thing I remember is being thrown into a cell a lot like the one I'd just been in: small, dimly lit by a red light, and made of metal. I faded in and out of consciousness for some time before snapping wide awake in the middle of the cell on my back. I sat up quickly, looking around the cell.
"Take it easy, you just came off of some pretty nasty stuff." Someone behind me said. I looked behind me and could just make out a woman sitting with her back against the wall.
"How—"I started to ask before the room spun and I had to stop myself from falling down. I took a deep breath before finishing my question, "How long was I out?"
"I'm not sure." The woman said, brushing a piece of her curly, dark red hair, a shade or two darker than the rest of her fur, out of her face. "If I had to take a guess I'd say at least an hour, maybe two." I waited another moment before continuing looking around. I was still missing my shirt, boots and socks and just now noticed my dog tags were still hanging around my neck. I slowly looked around the room before my attention was drawn back to my cell-mate.
"I wouldn't waste your time." She said. "I've gone over this cell inch by inch looking for anything I could use to get out but no good." My gaze slowly drifted down from her face as I noticed her unbuttoned shirt and a bit of black lace sticking out against a patch of white fur that ran from her muzzle down. "Enjoying the view?" She asked. Guiltily I quickly looked away. My cell-mate laughed. "It's all right, guess it's my fault for forgetting to button back up." She quickly did this, before looking curiously at my dog-tags and asking, "Are you in the military?" I nodded.
"Captain Matthew Rayes." I said. "I just go by Matt."
"A captain huh?" She said, raising an eyebrow. "Wow, you outrank me, Lieutenant Christina Eve, but Eve's fine. What division're you from Matt?"
"The 5th." I said.
"That's… Anti-Piracy isn't it?" She asked. I nodded.
"How about you?" I asked.
"The 17th." She said. I couldn't hide my surprise at hearing that. Eve looked at me, obviously confused by my reaction.
"That's Katinan Air Defense." I said. "What're you doing on Fichina?"
"That's a long story." She said, resting her head against the wall. I pushed myself across the floor and sat up next to Eve.
"I think we've got time." I said. She looked at me and smiled again.
"All right, but I warned you." She said.
As it turned out, Eve served with none other than Katina's Bulldog Unit, who, along with the rest of the 17th division, had received some attention from the press for a job well done several years back for defending Katina from Andross (along with the help of Star Fox). Eve, a native of Katina, had joined the C.A.F. shortly after that in hopes of being a pilot for any of the five units in the 17th. She'd gotten lucky and had been serving ever since. Less than a week ago she'd been out patrolling when her squad had come across a frigate that looked like it had crashed. Curious, her squad had flown over it when its guns suddenly sprung to life and opened fire on her squad. She tried her best to get away from the flak but a shot pierced her left wing, then another shot got her engine. Her ship spiraled out of control and crashed into the ground a few feet away from the frigate. She'd lost consciousness the moment her arwing hit the ground, but she half came to sometime later as someone pried the canopy off her ship. At first she'd thought someone from her squad had landed and she was getting rescued but when the glass came off she didn't recognize the person on the other side of her cockpit. He turned around before shouting (at least, Eve thought he was shouting, the crash had knocked out her hearing) and, a moment later, reached into the arwing and pulled her out before slinging her over his shoulder. With what little strength she had she looked around, hoping to see a medical transport or even just another arwing, but there wasn't anything else around other then the frigate and the pile of scrap that was her arwing. It dawned on her as the brute carried her closer and closer to the frigate that the people who'd just shot her down were taking her in. She didn't like that idea so she tried to break free of her captor's grip. With as weak as her punches were, it took the brute carrying her another minute before he even noticed. Using his free hand, her captor waved over another thug. The two of them conversed for a short period of time before the new thug pulled something out of his pocket and took a step closer to Eve. A few seconds later, the world went dark. She'd spent the next two days strapped to a medical gurney as her captors fixed her up before finally they threw her in this cell.
"…The weird thing is, they've fed me decently enough and they let me shower and everything you'd expect not to be able to do when you're a prisoner. There's got to be more to what's going on here, but I just can't figure it out," she finished.
Nothing seemed to be adding up: you had a group of bandits interested in the contents of a group of ships that'd been digging up stuff from Titania, a group who obviously didn't want anyone to know what they were doing but at the same time weren't killing the people who'd gotten too close to possibly find out anything. After sitting in silence for a few minutes I decided I wasn't going to get anything done by sitting around, waiting for the leader of the thugs to come back, so I stood up and started looking around the cell. Eve watched me for a moment before saying, with a shake of her head,
"You're wasting your time. I told you, there's no way out, I've looked." I ignored her and continued my search. Finding nothing of any help on the walls or the floor I looked up and was surprised to see a circular grate leading into an air vent in the middle of the room. I wasn't tall enough to reach it by myself, but it gave me an idea.
"How about this," I said, turning to Eve, "if I can get us out of here, you let me buy you a drink or two?"
"If you can get us out of here, I'll buy." She said, standing up. "Not that it matters, but how are we escaping?" I couldn't hide my grin as I pointed up to the air vent.
"If you climb on my shoulders and pry it loose we can crawl up into it and out of this cell. I'm guessing the guys who run this ship don't keep every door locked so, so long as we can get out of this room, we can make our way out into the rest of the ship and from there outside." Eve looked from me to the grate before turning back to me.
"Alright, if we make it out of here it's a date," She said.
I squatted down to let Eve climb on my back before standing up under the vent. After a minute of tugging on the grate, Eve stopped.
"It's no good. It's bolted in there," she said, shaking her head.
"Hang on," I said.
"Why?" she said.
"No, I literally mean, hang on," I said. Eve nodded, sticking her hands up through the slits in the vent and hanging on. I kneeled, leaving her to hang on. We waited a minute, hoping the vent would give way under Eve's weight but nothing happened. Eve growled, obviously annoyed by being so close to freedom but being stopped by a simple piece of metal. She brought her legs up into her chest before shaking and bouncing. Odd as the sight may have been, it did the trick, and Eve, along with the metal grate, came crashing to the floor. Eve slowly stood back up, groaning and rubbing her back.
"You okay?" I asked her.
"I'll be fine," she said. "Let's just hurry up and get out of here." I nodded.
"You're going to have to let me stand on your shoulders this time," I said.
"Why?" She asked.
"It'd be a lot easier for me to lift you up into there than for you to lift me up," I said. Eve thought about it for a moment before, with a nod, she bent down and let me stand on her shoulders. I told Eve to stop as my hands reached the edge of the vent, and I quickly climbed up. I turned around before lowering my arms down to Eve. She had to jump, but she managed to grab them and I pulled her up into the vent.
"Thanks," she said. I nodded before I turned around and began to crawl as quietly as I could through the cold, dark, cramped space that was our means of escape.
It's extremely difficult to be quiet when every move you make causes a loud, jarring, boom. So, after a few moments of trying to move silently I decided it might be better if I just moved quickly. Less than a minute later I received a shock as I went to put my hand out and it passed through the air where more vent should have been. I gasped and backpedaled a few steps, almost backing right into Eve.
"What is it?" she asked. I ignored her for a moment, slowly moving forward before, once again, the vent ended. I stuck my head out into the space, staring down. Below me, I could just see another circular grate leading down into another room with the same dim red light as in the previous room.
"Bingo," I said, swinging my legs out from behind me. Sitting on the edge of the vent, I kicked down as hard as I could on the grate. After just a few kicks it fell away and I slid down after it.
The room I landed in wasn't at all what I'd been expecting. I'd thought the cell we'd been in would be linked to another cell by the vents. It was actually linked to a barracks, roughly the same size as the ones on board the Savannah, but with only half as many beds. In the extra space between the beds large metal lockers were set up and it was to one of these that I walked over to and began rummaging through. I turned around for a moment as Eve landed.
"Do we really have time to go digging through their stuff?" she asked, standing up.
"I just need a minute," I said, moving to a different locker.
"What are you looking for?" she asked, a little irritated. Pointing down to my bare feet I said,
"We won't be able to go very far out in the snow if I don't have something on my feet." Eve continued to stare at me and I added, "A shirt'd be nice too." I only half saw Eve roll her eyes before asking,
"What size are you looking for?"
With Eve's help I quickly found a pair of boots (as well as a shirt) and we were ready to make our escape. We made our way across the barracks and to the door which I quickly opened. Cautiously, I poked my head out of the door and, not seeing anyone, stepped out into the hall and waved for Eve to follow me. I wasn't at all surprised to find the hall lit by the same dim red lights I'd seen in every other room in the ship, but something did surprise me. Scattered throughout the hall were metallic crates half as tall as I was. I ducked behind one for a moment and was even further surprised by a label on each of the boxes: "non-perishables".
"Why would they leave this stuff lying out in the middle of a hall?" I thought out loud.
"Does it really matter?" Eve asked. I shrugged, adding the boxes to my increasing list of unanswered questions about the ship and its crew. Eve and I made our way to the end of hall and up a staircase to a passage that split to the left and to the right.
"Which way should we go?" I asked.
"Right," Eve said, pointing to signs on the wall across from us. Sure enough, a sign with "access port" pointed right. We continued down the hall before we came to a staircase that went down, then another split. We turned right again following another sign on the wall and passed in front of the ship's infirmary. I turned around as the door began to slide open. I quickly looked at Eve and her panicked expression told me she was thinking the same thing: run. Not bothering to be quiet, we bolted for the end of the hall before diving around the corner. Standing with my back flattened against the wall, I couldn't resist the urge to peek around the corner to see if whoever was coming out of the infirmary was following us. I watched as a woman in a white lab coat stepped into the hall and looked from her left to her right before, with a yawn, she started walking in the opposite direction of where Eve and I were hiding. I waited until she was completely out of sight before I took up my position in front of Eve and we continued sneaking through the ship.
Eve and I stuck to the right side of the hall as we made our way up another two flights of stairs, down a hall, and back down two flights of stairs before turning right into a short hallway that ended with an open door leading outside. Neither Eve nor I cared if anyone could hear us, so we ran to the door and stepped out into the free air.
I had to shield my eyes, even in the dull gray of the early morning. A gust of cold air hit me, carrying flurries with it, and I suddenly wished I'd tried to find a thicker shirt. I glanced over at Eve and couldn't help but smile. She had her eyes closed (maybe because she was seeing real sunlight for the first time in a week), her ears were down, and had her arms stretched above her head. Her smile said it all though; I don't think I've ever seen anyone so happy just to be outside. I quickly looked around and was only slightly surprised to find that the ship we'd been captive in was docked in the same area as The Savannah.
"Hey Eve," I said, turning back to her.
"Hm?" She said, turning and looking at me. For the first time I got a good look at her and I was at a loss for words. Between her beautiful smile and her brilliant hazel eyes she was the most attractive woman I'd ever seen and I knew I was head over heels in love. I suddenly wanted to tell her how I felt, but something felt wrong; something kept nagging at the back of my mind. I looked up from her light brown eyes and saw someone standing a few feet behind her, a blaster drawn and suddenly, time slowed down. It wasn't the thought that Eve was about to get shot and I would probably get shot immediately after that stopped everything, it was something much stronger; standing behind Eve, blaster drawn, an expression that could kill was none other than Major Jackson, commander of my unit and the last person I'd expected to see. It was this, the thought that the guy who'd stuck his nose up Brigadier General Grimmsley's ass on more than one occasion and had personally saved all of our lives within the past week that delivered an unbelievably strong shock to my system. I watched as he pulled the trigger and, with time still at a near standstill, I pushed Eve out of the way. I watched as she looked at me, utterly horrified by my seemingly random act of violence before turning my attention to trying to get out of the way of the oncoming supercharged bolt of plasma. With nothing better coming to mind then "throw yourself to the ground" I tried to do just that. Even with time moving as slow as it was though I couldn't dodge the blast completely and it hit me in the left arm, just above my elbow. Jackson's expression changed from one of murderous intent to one of anger. What seemed like half an hour later, I finally hit the ground, and time sped back up. I tried to lift my left arm, but every nerve in it felt dead so I half sat up and got a good look at it. There was a gaping hole in my jacket, and smoke rose from my charred fur. I couldn't tell whether or not the shot had gone deep enough to cause any major damage but as Major Jackson came marching over to me, I suddenly didn't care.
"You just couldn't stay in your cell could you, Matt?" he said to me, stepping on my chest. "I was going to let you out right after roll call but no, you had to try and play hero. I can't just let you go now Matt, you know too much for sure. Even if you didn't see me last night, this," he said, spreading his arms," this is too much!"
"Matt!" Eve shouted, sitting up. Jackson pointed his blaster at her, and she stopped moving.
"…and then there's her," he said. "I hope you're happy Matt, she had it pretty nice in there. A shower whenever she wanted it, food three times a day, a bathroom but now, she's going to lose all of that." He flipped a switched on his blaster before, without even hesitating a moment, he fired twice, hitting Eve in the chest with both shots. She fell over and I could see her face, frozen in a mixture of confusion and terror.
"Eve!" I shouted, trying to get up, only to have Jackson stomp on my chest.
"Don't worry, she'll be fine," Jackson said, half-smiling. "At least, she'll be alive. That counts for something doesn't it? You, on the other hand, are about to get a tour of my lovely little ship. I'm guessing you've seen most of it already, but now you'll get to see the one room only a few lucky people have had a chance to see." I cast a glance over at Eve. "Don't worry about her," Jackson said, drawing my attention back, "I'll send someone out to pick her up. Now! If you'd be so kind as to get up, we can begin the tour!"