COUNTERPOINT
CHAPTER 2: THE PILOT
PART 9
By Mayavan Thevendra
For Kimiko, the hour after her captors had left her room was an exercise in frustration. Though her head had cleared a little, and the pain had subsided, her body remained thoroughly numb, and what occasional movement she could muster was weak, and spastic. Apparently this was the side effect of the "Terlazine" injection, given to her by the junkers to flush the radiation from her system. This being the case, it was unlikely that sheer willpower alone would be enough to overcome her paralysis; and yet, that was all she had. She thought briefly of crying out for help, desperately imagining that there might be some friendly soul nearby who was willing to aid her, but common sense quickly put an end to such an idea. Things seemed bleak indeed; she was more or less completely immobile, and at any moment the door could open, for her to be carted off to some slave auction in the darkest depths of Confederate space. Once in the hands of the market traders, her chances of escape would be virtually nil even if she were able to move; slaves were incredibly valuable on the backwater worlds, and no precaution was too strict, or too brutal to ensure they couldn't escape. She had to get away now or else all was lost, but there was simply no way to do it.
Suddenly, what little hope there was disappeared from sight; with a clunk, the door unlocked and began to swing open. Kimiko closed her eyes. Footsteps approached her bed, surely she was done for; feigning sleep would not deter them, but she could think of nothing else. A body stood paused next to her, waiting, watching; she had to act now, but how? What could she do?
"Oh God. Satomi. Satomi, wake up, damn it!"
Kimiko's eyes flicked open, and searched the darkness to her side. A murky figure leaned forward, and groped around the wall behind her head. After a few seconds, the searching hand found the switch for the small wall-lamp, and a face smeared with blood and grease appeared in the pale light.
"Holy shit!" wheezed Kimiko.
For the very first time, but certainly not the last, Kimiko was decidedly glad to find herself in the company of Valerie Mailer. She looked very much worse for wear with a torn, stained jumpsuit and her long hair matted into clumps; a far cry indeed from the pristine and insuperable cadet who had been the scourge of the Guiding Hand.
"Christ, Mailer, what the hell are you doing here?"
"Saving your ass, Satomi," said Valerie, glancing quickly back towards the doorway, "Now come on!"
"I can't, I can't frickin' move! They gave me a shot of something, I can't even feel my damn legs!"
"Oh God, it must have been that Terlazine I saw them carrying"
"Yeah," gasped Kimiko, gritting her teeth, "They said it'll take a day to wear off, I can't…"
"Don't worry, I know what Terlazine does. You're gonna be able to move, but you'll need some help to do it."
Carefully and quietly, Valerie slid Kimiko's legs down onto the floor, and placed her arms around Kimiko's waist.
"You wouldn't have been able to move by yourself, just lying there," Said Valerie, "not with the Terlazine sitting in your muscle tissue, but if you're moved around by someone else, it should get forced out, and the effects should wear off. Can you feel anything yet?"
Kimiko shook her head.
"No, not a damn thing."
"Okay, I'm gonna have to drag you out."
"Wait! You can't!" said Kimiko "if they find I'm gone, they'll tear this whole fuckin' place apart looking for us."
"No, they won't. They've all gone, they left about half an hour ago, and I heard them say they wouldn't get back for another three or four hours. I think there's only one of them left around, and I saw him sleeping. We've got to go now, we won't get another chance!"
"All right. All right, let's go." Panted Kimiko.
Gripping Kimiko's waist as tightly as she could, Valerie hoisted her down off the bed, and began to drag her across the room to the doorway.
"How did you open the door?" Whispered Kimiko.
"Those idiots left the key on a table, just outside," said Valerie, peering out into the hallway. "Just over there."
"Do you know where we are?"
"Yeah. I think it's an old stellar watch-station, from the Guild War days. They've fixed it up a little, and re-energised the power core, and I think they've built some kind of makeshift hangar onto the hull where they keep their ships, and all of the junk that they tow in. Come on, over here."
As Valerie hauled her along the rusty flooring, Kimiko began to feel sensation returning to her feet; at first nothing more than a slight tingle, after a few paces, she found that she was able to wiggle her toes inside her boots.
"Hey, I think my legs are coming back."
"Good, keep trying to move." Said Valerie.
The corridors of the station were of the same cut as Kimiko's improvised prison cell; dim, cold and littered with junk. The surging hum of the station's power core grew louder and deeper as they made their way on through the walkway; soon they arrived at a T-junction, where Valerie turned left, and brought the two of them along an unlit, narrow corridor. Reaching the end, she quickly found a low bar handle, and wrenched open a small, lightweight door. The space beyond was pitch black.
"Hang on," said Valerie, "I left a flashlight next to the door."
With one hand still supporting Kimiko, she reached around to the side of the doorway, and with a soft click, a wide, dim yellow beam was cast over the room; it was yet another small storage space, but filled with wooden crates rather than metallic junk, as well as what looked like wrapping material. Very carefully, Valerie laid Kimiko down on top of a thin sheet of plastic binding, and went back to close the door.
"Oh God" murmured Kimiko.
"What?"
"I think, I think I'm getting a fever or something. I feel warm."
"No, it's okay," replied Valerie, " there's a few power cables near the back of the room. Their casings have started to burn away, so they're giving off a little heat; you've just got to make sure you don't touch them."
Valerie walked back and knelt down beside Kimiko, and picked up her limp right hand.
"Can you feel this?"
Kimiko furrowed her brow, and thought for a moment.
"I think so. I can feel something."
"Okay, look, I'm going to have to do some 'physio on you. Think I remember how to…"
"All right, but just - don't break anything, okay, Mailer? Remember, I can't feel any pain right now."
"Now there's a shame."
With slightly hesitant hands, Valerie began to bend, and extend Kimiko's arms and legs, gradually forcing the last traces of Terlazine from Kimiko's muscles.
"I swear, Satomi. You owe me so big for this." Said Valerie, as she broke into a sweat, a rare occurrence to say the least.
"Yeah?" smirked Kimiko, " Whaddya want, a medal? How the hell did you get away, anyway? Did they bring you in from our shuttle or what?"
"Yeah, they did. But lucky for me, they didn't count everybody until they'd offloaded them all into their hangar, and I came to before then. I think I was like the seventh or eighth to be brought out, and while they went back to their ship to get you, I ran and hid."
"How come you could move after the injection?" asked Kimiko.
"They hadn't given them yet. They did that after they'd laid everybody out onto the hangar floor, and then they dragged all of you off right afterwards. I saw when they brought you out, you were screaming and thrashing like a little kid, I think it was because of the oxygen overexposure in the cockpit, or, or something like that; it's the same reason why I woke up first. Anyway, they stuck you in that other room, so I figured I'd be able to get to you more easily than the others. I snuck around a little; there's dozens of little rooms like this one, most of which they never even go into, so I picked this one, and I've been hiding here for the past two days. When I saw that most of the junkers had gone off somewhere, I guessed it was the best time to come and get you."
"Jesus. It really has been two days" Replied Kimiko, quietly.
"Yeah, God I'm so hungry. I managed to steal some of their water, but that's all I've had."
"It's weird, but I don't feel all that hungry." Said Kimiko.
"That'll be the Terlazine. God, I can't believe anyone actually still uses that stuff." Scowled Valerie.
"Hey, wait a minute. If you haven't had the injection, then, then aren't you…"
"Still radiated. Yep." Said Valerie with a weak smile.
"Christ, Mailer!"
"No, it's okay, I'm pretty sure none of us got that big a dose. I'll be all right for another few days. But we've got bigger things to worry about right now."
"Yeah, guess you could say that. Do the others know that you're around?"
Valerie stopped working on Kimiko's leg, and brought her hands up to her face, a tinge of despair suddenly crossing her eyes.
"Oh God, I don't think they've even woken up yet. Damn it, Satomi, what the hell are we going to do? Even if there's some way we can get out of here, how are we going to take the others? We can't carry them all!"
"Come on, take it easy," said Kimiko, "let's take this one step at a time. Have you been down to the hangar again, since?"
"No, I-I've been too scared."
"Well, what about those junkers? Where did they go?"
"They went off to do a job, I think. Some big ship that they just found, they needed most of their shuttles to bring it in, I think there's one left in the hangar."
"What about the other junker, the one who didn't go with them."
"He's in the canteen. It's about, I don't know, thirty metres past the room where they put you, in the other direction. I saw him sleeping in there, I'm sure he was sleeping."
"Mailer, if we can get everyone into that shuttle in the hangar, then we can make it."
"But what if he wakes up?" said Valerie, pointing in the direction of the canteen. "he'll, he'll…"
"We've gotta try, we can't stay here!"
"Damn it, Satomi, what the hell makes you think you know what you're doing? If they catch us, we're dead! We've, we've got to be able to reason with them, we're Confederates, for God's sake! We've got rights!"
"What, have you lost your fucking nut, Mailer?" hissed Kimiko, "They're junkers! You know what they're gonna do to us, don't you? They're gonna sell us! You must've heard them, we can't bargain with them, or reason with them!"
"How would you know?" replied Valerie, a tear welling in her eye, "How would you know what they're like?"
"I know junkers." Replied Kimiko sternly. "They're scum. They're all scum, every one of them! Come on, Mailer, don't bug out on me now; you busted me out of there, and now you want us to walk right back up to them and say 'we're sorry, let's make a deal'? Mailer, come on. We've got to go. We've got to go now."
Valerie sat still, and then eventually nodded, her chest visibly heaving with fright.
"You're right. You're right. I'm okay." She said, her voice wavering, "Okay. I'm, I'm going to go and see if I can wake the others. I think they left the key outside their room too. Can you move yet?"
Kimiko strained, and clenched her teeth; suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, her right arm shot up, scarcely missing Valerie's chin. With some difficulty, Kimiko managed to rock from side to side, and eventually rolled onto her hip.
"I-I think I can move my legs. Are they moving?"
Valerie looked down to see Kimiko's left leg sweeping slowly back and forth along the ground.
"One of them is. Keep trying. The more mobile you are when we go, the better."
"Okay. Look, you'd better get going. I'll be all right. Just be careful, and remember, we're all getting out, right?" said Kimiko, only slightly worried that Valerie might do something foolish, such as trying to bargain with the junker in the canteen.
"Yeah, don't worry Satomi! God! I said I was okay!"
Valerie quietly and slowly opened the door, and peered away into the weak light of the corridor, twenty feet away, before slipping out.
"Be right back." She said, before closing the door once again.
Kimiko had a runny nose from the cold of her room, and she was still shivering, but the faint heat emanating from the rear of the room was a godsend. Kicking and punching the air, and slithering about on the ground, she made sound progress; both sensation and control were returning slowly, but certainly. She reckoned on waiting for a minute, and then trying to stand up. Definitely in a minute, but no more. Time was of the essence.