Chapter Eight: Hunger Strike

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Tossing in her nest of cushions and clothes, Hoshi winced when her stomach growled. Two days had passed -- two days of no food and very little water. The hunger pangs were unbearable and she couldn't sleep.

Thankfully the sun was already rising and the arrogant asshole was already gone. They weren't talking any more for she spent most of her time searching for the ration packs, much to his amusement. Actually she wasn't talking to him. He instructed her to do things, like gather wood for the fire or clean the fish or plants he had gathered. She would just glare at him and walk away.

At least the bastard let her have water.

The morning was already starting to warm up. The weather extremes on this planet were annoyingly opposite, as though the planet was mocking her. At night it was frigid, as though it was barely able to sustain life. During the day, it was warm and pleasant, almost a paradise.

The call of nature spurred her into action and she crawled through the hatch and stretched the morning kinks out of her shoulders. The facilities on the shuttle were heavily damaged and she had to resort to "squatting in the bushes."

At least he had informed her where the crude "facilities" were. It hadn't been an act of chivalry. The bastard had said he didn't want to be stepping in her waste.

With each day that passed she hated him more.

Her stomach growled again, reminding her of her next immediate need. Zipping up her jumpsuit, she limped into the clearing and was caught by surprise.

Her nemesis was sitting next to a smoldering fire, his hair wet, his chest, feet and legs bare. His blue skivvies did little to hide his endowments. And he was eating a ration pack!

She wanted to tell him to cover himself, but she didn't really care that he was half-naked in front of her. She eyed the spoon in his hand, the way his lips covered the metallic surface, scooping the food off the instrument.

His cerulean eyes locked with her sable ones and he scooped some more recycled eggs onto his spoon and, with great exaggeration, shoved them into his mouth and moaned, clearly enjoying his repast.

He was goading her and she was starving! She walked over to the makeshift table he used for cleaning his fish and grabbed the phase pistol.

"Give it to me!" she threatened, pointing the weapon at him and walking toward him.

Malcolm smirked, taking another bite of food and setting the packet on the ground. He noticed her eyes lingering on the food and made his move. He kicked his legs out, sweeping them toward her injured ankle.

She fell, landing on her backside with a surprised yelp.

Crawling over her, Malcolm straddled her waist and pinned her to the ground, easily disarming her.

"You bastard!" she spat, her eyes blazing. "I hate you!"

He pinned her arms above her head and leaned over her, his eyes lingering on the heavy rise and fall of her chest. Inhaling, he leaned even closer, the heat of his breath caressing her ear.

"The next time you pull a weapon on me you better know how to use it," Malcolm murmured. He released her arms and grabbed the phase pistol, holding it under her nose. "You see that. You had the safety on." He disengaged the safety and pointed the weapon at the fire, discharging it into the fire."

She jumped underneath him as the embers of the fire stirred. She could feel his hard heat against her stomach and tried twisting away from him. "Bastard! Let me go!"

Malcolm grabbed for her arms again, pinning them above her head. "Make me," he taunted. He laughed as she twisted and turned beneath him, trying her damnedest to unseat him. He was surprised she had lasted this long without losing it.

She spat at him and cursed him in what he assumed were various languages. But he continued to hold her down, waiting for her to exhaust herself and waiting for her to listen to him.

"I hate you!" she screamed, wrenching one of her hands out of his grasp. She grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled with all her might.

Malcolm shouted in pain, shifting above her. Somehow he dislodged her hand from his head, her fist still clutching some of his hair. "I hate you too!"

She thrust against him again, thrashing her head from side to side.

With effort Malcolm pinned her wrists with one hand and put his other hand over her mouth. "When are you going to stop fighting me and learn that I'm your best chance of surviving?"

He moved his hand away and waited for her reply.

"Go to hell," she sobbed. "What are you going to teach me? How to starve? What an arrogant, selfish bastard you are?"

Rolling away quickly, Malcolm stood and offered her his hand. "You have nobody but yourself to blame for our predicament."

Hoshi pushed his hand away and crawled as quickly as she could toward the discarded ration pack.

He watched as she huddled over the discarded food and he felt a pang of guilt. She threw the spoon to the side and with trembling fingers scooped the remaining eggs out of the pouch and into her mouth. There wasn't much left and she turned the packet inside out and started licking the crumbs off the sides. At least she was learning to economize. Gone was the stylish royal princess, and in her place was a desperate woman sorely in need of not only a meal but also a bath.

She glared at him when she was finished, saying nothing. Silent tears fell down her cheeks.

Kneeling in front of her, he pried the empty ration pack from her fingers. "Are you ready?"

There was no answer as she continued to glare at him.

"Are you ready to start learning how to survive?" he asked softly.

She nodded her head slowly, capitulating to the inevitable. He was right. She had nobody to blame but herself for their circumstances. There was no telling how long they would be here.

He could still see some stubbornness in her eyes and he smirked. "I didn't hear your answer."

"Yes!" she hissed, hating him with every fiber of her being.

"Yes, what?" Malcolm questioned in an attempt to establish the boundaries he needed to set for her.

"Yes, Commander Reed," she breathed through clenched teeth.

--

She followed him down the rocky path, thankful for the boots she'd found in the cargo hold a few days ago. "Where are we going?" she asked between huffs, trying to focus on his back and not his backside.

"We're going down to the river."

Rolling her eyes at his abrupt response, Hoshi stumbled. Her ankle throbbed, but she ignored it. "Why are we going to the river?"

"Your first fishing lesson," he replied succinctly. "It's a good thing the phase pistol wasn't on kill. You would have never found the packs and I doubt you've ever caught or killed anything in your life."

"It wasn't like I was going to pull the trigger," Hoshi scoffed.

Malcolm stopped suddenly, turned and looked up at her. "You pulled the trigger. You just happened to be lucky that the safety was on. The next time you pull a phase pistol on me, you better make sure it's on kill. If you ever stun me, you better make sure you start running before I wake up."

Don't tempt me, she thought maliciously.

Pushing some brush out of the way, Malcolm stepped onto the bank of the river.

The view was breathtaking. Across the shallows, a deep pool receded into a steep cliff. It looked as though the cliff was a smooth as glass, shaped that way from the trickle of water that covered it. Malcolm walked into the shallows up to his knees and held his hand up for her to stop where she was.

"Watch and learn," he stated and held his phase pistol up. "This is how you take the safety off. This is stun and this is kill." Malcolm switched the setting quickly and stood as still as he could.

"What are you going to do? Stun the fish?" Hoshi laughed as she asked the question.

Malcolm stared into the water, waiting for a fish to swim into range.

Hoshi snorted with laughter. "It hardly seems sporting."

"It's not about sport," Malcolm chastised. "It's about eating."

She rolled her eyes.

Seeing her mocking demeanor, Malcolm spoke softly. "Even if you had access to the ration packs, they would only last a month. Then what would you eat?"

You, she thought with a demure smile on her lips, but thought it better not to antagonize him. A swirling movement in the dark pool caught her eye and she gasped. "There's something moving in the pool!"

"It's the fish," he answered quickly, still searching the shallows for his prey.

"Why don't you swim into the pool instead of waiting for them to swim into the shallows?"

Malcolm grimaced, stubbing his toe on a pebble and stirring the water. Damn! It would take some time, waiting for the little buggers to come to him. He wasn't about to tell her of his fear of drowning. "Because it's easier this way," he answered sharply.

"How long do you normally have to wait for the fish to come to you instead of you going after them?"

He didn't answer.

Hoshi sighed, watching the pool turn various colors as the school of fish shimmered in the water. "Are you going to teach me how to clean the fish next?" she asked, her stomach already growling with hunger and queasiness at the mention of her next task. She wasn't really for blood and guts.

"Yes," Malcolm replied through clenched teeth, getting more irritable as the seconds turned into minutes. If he didn't know better, he would swear the fish were mocking him by not swimming into the shallows.

"So far I'm not impressed," Hoshi said under her breath. I've actually been more entertained watching my nails dry.

"It takes a little time for the fish to swim into the shallows and –"

"Oh for Pete's sake," she called out, and jumped into the water and strode past him.

Before he could grab her, she waded past him and swam into the shimmering pool, disturbing its calm surface. He was startled as the fish swam around his legs, some of them even jumping onto the shore to get away from the disturbance of their environment. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Collecting the stunned fish, he threw them onto the shore. Maybe she wasn't useless after all. Her impatience had saved him several hours of waiting for the fish to swim into the shallows.

He watched as she climbed onto the shore and started wringing her hair out. She had been so impatient that she hadn't even bothered to take her boots off. He hooked the fish on a string and slung them over his shoulder. "You might want to get out of your clothes. It'll get cold tonight and they need to dry."

Hoshi looked at his retreating back and smiled. "You're welcome!" she shouted after him. She started to unzip her jumpsuit, glancing at the bushes to make sure he'd left. She was long overdue for a bath.

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TBC