If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
• SSV HONG KONG · DIS SYSTEM, HADES GAMMA CLUSTER •
· SATURDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2180 ·
The SSV Hong Kong was a standard, frigate-class vessel attached to the Systems Alliance Fifth Fleet based in Arcturus; it had a small compliment of Naval personnel to fly and fight her, and a squad consisting of two Marine fire teams led by a squad leader for ground missions. As the ship was so small, Sam and Xiùlán had bunked in the storage area behind the crew quarters on a pair of field cots.
To characterize Yuán Xiùlán as unhappy would have been understating her mood; the woman, despite a reputation for not letting her emotions dictate her actions, was having a great deal of difficulty keeping those emotions in check. She was attempting to concentrate on her stance as she assumed the various positions of Neigong, a form of Tai Chi she utilized for her daily morning exercises. She was nearing the end of her routine with eyes closed as she crossed her arms in front of herself, then brought them up and stretched towards the overhead; after pausing momentarily, Xiùlán leaned forward, gracefully bending at the waist with her arms crossed to wrap her hands around her ankles, left for right, right for left. She again paused momentarily before returning to an upright posture while crossing her forearms in front of her, thumbs touching middle fingers, hands palm up at opposite elbows; taking a deep, cleansing breath, she exhaled slowly through her mouth.
The exercises had calmed her immensely, but she continued to mentally chastise herself concerning yesterdays' operation.
She and Samantha Traynor had returned from their first ground mission … one that was supposed to be simple reconnaissance with a 'no outside discovery' requirement. The recon portion had gone well; it was the 'no contact' portion that had been an abysmal failure—from her perspective, anyway—their presence had been discovered and they'd been attacked by a suspected Cerberus squad as they were making their way back to their rendezvous coordinates. Their M35 driver, Marine Sergeant Tobias Perkins, had successfully dodged the one rocket fired at them by the unknown group of people. Xiùlán had fired the M35's mass accelerator cannon before a second rocket could be launched; the explosive heavy-metal round completely destroyed the rocket launcher and obliterated all the people around it.
She cursed their bad luck aloud in her native Chinese. "Xuèxīng tā mā de húndàn!" [血腥他媽的混蛋！ – [Bloody fucking bastard(s)!]
Traynor jerked her head around at her lover's exclamation. "There was no way to anticipate that second group of people, Luv," Traynor commented quietly. "They must have been attempting to retrieve the Grizzly before it slid off the edge and fell into the crater. If it really was Cerberus, it's unlikely they will report seeing an Alliance team down there"
"No excuse, Sammy!" Xiùlán shook her head and closed her eyes, reverting to Mandarin again as she quietly cursed, then replied in a voice edged in steel. "We should have foreseen that second team … I should have planned on them having more people on the ground. I was careless."
Traynor was having none of it. "We were careless, Luv, not you." Samantha caressed her lover's arms from behind. "We're in this together, remember? Besides, we were able to retrieve a few pieces for the scientists to examine. The comm techs reported they heard no chatter concerning our presence on Jartar, and their ship totally failed to detect the Hong Kong." Sam pressed her body against Xiùlán's, enjoying the warmth as she planted little kisses on her neck. "It sounds as if our presence wasn't reported; no one else saw the Mako on the planet, and the elimination of the one patrol that did see us will be attributed to batarian mercs protecting their turf."
"So, what should we do?" Xiùlán had calmed down as Sam continued caressing her arms and kissing her neck. "I'd like to poke around in that crater some more, see if there's anything else buried where that … ship? … or whatever it was … was sitting before the batarians retrieved it." Xiùlán turned within Sam's arms and looked intently at her. "We have time, and the XO told me the mystery ship retrieved the two grizzlies we saw, along with their crews." She gave Sam a quick kiss of her own. "What about the one that fell from the crater's edge … they grab that one as well?"
"He didn't say," came Sam's reply. "What he did say was those pieces we dug up are quite interesting! The smallest one has a slight compound curve; what's surprising is the density of the material." Traynor brought up her omnitool and entered a code; she read off a couple of numbers from the resulting display. "The smaller of the three pieces retrieved is about 19.5 by 33 centimeters, but it weighs 56 kilograms in Earth normal gravity."
Xiùlán was incredulous. "How can that be? That's denser than any metal I know of." She paused as she pondered what she'd just learned before continuing. "Now I definitely want to poke around down there some more. We'll need to bring a few more tools for digging."
"Sounds good," Sam replied, thankful she had turned Xiùlán's anger at their discovery by a possible Cerberus team into a willingness to investigate the site a second time. "Let's get some breakfast, then see if the captain is willing to loan us the M35 and Sergeant Perkins for another mission groundside."
The Hong Kong had dropped the Mako in the crater near the edge opposite of yesterdays' retrieval coordinates, but only after scanning the tiny planet several times at low altitude in stealth mode. The sensor recon team on board had detected nothing on the surface but a barren wasteland, devoid of life or anything organics may have manufactured. There was also a total absence of any other vessels in the system, which made everyone breathe a little easier. Sergeant Perkins was once again their driver, and he quickly had the M35 in the depression left behind by the so-called Leviathan.
They were starting at the end furthest from their initial entry point, exploring in the opposite direction from before. Tobias slowly maneuvered the Mako in a zigzag route designed to cover as much of the area as possible.
Xiùlán was once again using the GPR to look beneath the powdery surface; she watched the monitor as Traynor split her attention between the GPR monitor and the viewfinder for the 155 mm cannon. She continued to search the upper reaches of the crater walls, as well as watching the horizon of the crater itself, particularly ahead of and behind their travel direction. Tobias was listening to the ship's recon crew at regular intervals as they continued to search for other traffic in the system.
Traynor spoke with Tobias occasionally in order to break the monotony of staring at display screens. She learned the command staff on the Hong Kong was convinced the ship they'd discovered was a Cerberus light cruiser. It made sense to the captain, as it was suspected the Illusive Man was actively looking for any technology that would allow humankind to dominate all the other races in the galaxy.
They had searched the depression and four meters out past both edges for several hours on each of the next three days; their efforts had been rewarded with the discovery of three more loose parts, all similar to those discovered on their first day, in that they were small, extremely dense—thus heavy—and in appearance were the deepest black any of them had ever seen. Xiùlán was about ready to call a halt to their efforts when Tobias abruptly stopped the M35.
"Retract the GPR sled, Ms Yuán, quickly! There's trouble inbound—XO says an unknown ship just dropped out of FTL at the edge of the system and it's headed our way!"
Traynor wanted to know, "Is the Hong Kong coming in to pick us up?"
"Not yet. They're going to hideout near the sun, attempt to remain undetected until we can determine who it is and what they want."
Traynor replied, "Not very likely they're simply here to discharge heat—we're at the far end of the system from Antaeus and the mass relay there. Slavers? Pirates?"
"We'll know soon enough," replied the sergeant. Perkins had started a high-speed run for the side of the crater that would soon be shadowed by planetary sundown.
Traynor was searching everywhere around them with the cannon's rangefinder … after several 360 degree sweeps, she spotted something. "Sergeant, take a look!"
Perkins spared a glance at the repeater monitor in front of him as he jigged the tank to the right and applied a touch of ventral thrusters to smooth their passage over a rather severe ravine in the crater floor. "Looks like a batarian ship … smaller than a frigate … probably a corvette. Rangefinder puts it 3.8 Klicks behind us, moving to the north."
Xiùlán asked, "What do we do, Sergeant? If they see us, they'll most likely want to start a fight. Not too many pirate gangs have their own Mako … it'd be worth the effort to steal it from us, particularly since we're not really set up to fight back."
Perkins explained they would hide for a bit; by now they had had nearly reached the crater wall, an area with an almost uncountable number of heavy boulders and debris, collected by the planet's weak gravity from when the crater was originally created. The sergeant picked a heavily shadowed spot that allowed them a view of the entire length of the crater behind them; the broken landscape provided a bit of camouflage for the M35, its turret the only portion visible above the boulders surrounding them. Planetary sundown had arrived and Jartar had progressed far enough in its orbit that reflected light from the surface of Nearrum was not a factor; Jartar's surface was now truly dark during its 2.8 hour night.
"Set the rangefinder to its widest field of view, Ms Yuán," Tobias instructed. "The less we need to rotate the turret, the better. I'm passively scanning for other vehicles on the surface, but I cannot imagine them wasting the time and energy of dropping a ground crew here unless they detected us during that one flyby. There's nothing on this planet worth fighting for."
They settled in for the wait as they watched the countdown chrono tick away minutes until sunrise.
The mystery ship, though still in the system, had traveled to Gremar, the fourth planet orbiting Dis, just beyond the sparse asteroid belt orbiting the sun.
The Hong Kong had retrieved the ground team and the Mako without incident after delaying for several hours to be sure the other vessel had moved away.
The captain had the ship's machinist perform some simple tests on the smallest of the several artifacts retrieved by Yuán and Traynor; the results, while disappointing, were interesting all the same. Even with the hottest plasma cutter, the metal could not be cut, and applying heat had no effect.
On close examination, it was determined the material wasn't actually black … it simply did not reflect white light from any angle, although it would glow a faint purple when exposed to strong ultraviolet light.
The machinist working with the piece developed a severe headache within two hours of being exposed to it, confirming Xiùlán's suspicion the pieces were giving off some sort of anti-organic radiation, even though every test device on the ship showed negative results.
Xiùlán had looked at them, all sitting together in a cargo container on the hanger deck; she quickly realized the longer she stared at them inside the container, the more agitated she became. She had to really exert her will power to move away from the container and have it sealed; afterwards, she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Once the container was sealed, Yuán had Traynor modify a personal body shield so the generated field would conform exactly to the container's dimensions; they then positioned the container as close to the cargo ramp opening as possible. Traynor felt the location still wasn't far enough away from the crew quarters one level above, but hoped the active kinetic shielding would keep all of them safe from the artifacts' influence until they could offload the container upon their return home.
It was time for Sam and Xiùlán to take a look at Klensal.
• KLENSAL · DIS SYSTEM, HADES GAMMA · THURSDAY MORNING, 08 MARCH 2180 •
The third planet from its sun, Klensal was just over half the size of planet Earth. It possessed a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide and ethane, and a mean surface temperature of -35 degrees—certainly not a garden planet by any definition of the term.
Xiùlán and Samantha had made planetfall in the Hong Kong's M35 Mako shortly after local sunrise, insuring they would have several hours of light at a relatively low-angle, which should facilitate locating some of the foreign objects the ship's sensors had detected from orbit. The M35's operator, Sergeant Tobias Perkins, had expressed satisfaction that this planet's gravity was only 14 per cent less than Earth's, observing that it would be less of a chore for him to keep the Mako 'glued' to the surface.
The area in which they'd landed held a number of crashed probes, which Xiùlán hoped to inspect, possibly even retrieve. They intended to stay away from the numerous mining bases; though long abandoned, many were still being used as temporary meeting places for pirates and slavers; everyone agreed encountering anyone on this planet would probably not be in their best interests.
They had traveled several dozen kilometers from their drop site; having seen no signs of anyone and having heard nothing from the Hong Kong in orbit above them, they were totally surprised when they crested a hill and discovered an abandoned mining site that was anything but—armed guards kept lookout from atop several watchtowers, and there were even heavy cannons in turrets strategically placed so all approach avenues were covered. Two such turrets immediately zeroed in on the Mako and fired, forcing Tobias to blindly reverse off the ridgetop to dodge the rocket fire.
Xiùlán was frantically calling for backup from the Hong Kong when the M35 was heaved skyward by a powerful explosion; the heavy tank landed partially on its side and gun turret when it fell back to the surface. Must have tripped a mine, was Xiùlán's fleeting thought as she lost consciousness.
• LOCATION UNKNOWN •
Darkness. Cold. Pain. Lying on her stomach, one cheek pressed against a damp and gritty metal surface, Xiùlán attempted to move and instantly regretted it. Something's not right. She couldn't feel her hands, but could sense her arms were somehow bound behind her. She struggled to open her eyes; it felt as if her eyelashes were coated with something sticky … blood? After struggling for several seconds, she finally managed to pull one eyelid open. Wherever she was, there was virtually no light. Abandoned mine? How long? Her memory had gaps she struggled to fill in. Mako … on top of a ridge … cannon-fire! … backwards flight … explosion! Mako … tumbling! Shit! Traynor! Perkins! Where in blue blazes were they!?'
"Xiùlán?" A whisper, somewhere close. She tried to raise her head, tried to turn to see. Maybe if I can get my legs up … She groaned in pain as she raised her face from the floor and used her lower back, hips and thighs to sluggishly drag her torso up and over her legs, ending with knees at her chest, lower legs against the floor. After resting a few seconds, she slowly straightened up and looked around. She was inside some sort of metal cage, a cube of maybe one-and-a-half meters. There were several of these in a row—Traynor was in the one to her left.
"Sà mi! Ni shòushāngle? Ni néng tīngdào wo ma? Ni hái hao ma?" [薩米！你受傷了？ 你能聽到我嗎？ 你還好嗎？– Sami! You are hurt? Can you hear me? Are you okay?] Even whispering, her words sounded as if she were shouting in the oppressive silence.
Traynor coughed once—it sounded wet, as if she were coughing mucus from a severe chest cold. "Galactic, Luv …" came the breathy reply.
Mentally chastising herself, Xiùlán concentrated on what she was saying. "Are you hurt? How bad?"
Another moist cough, then, "Think I cracked a rib … hard to breathe … keep coughing up blood … arm hurts like … all bloody 'ell … same side. Must have … bounced off the inside of the Mako." She coughed again, this time spitting a mouthful of blood. After a few moments, she simply asked, "You?"
"Not sure … can't feel my hands. Need to get them free somehow—get the circulation back. Head aches like I'm recovering from shore leave. Where in hell are we?"
"Underground … mine," Traynor snarked. "Not so abandoned … as we thought. Looks like slavers have us, Luv … fuckin' batarians. Overheard the bastards … talking." She coughed again; Xiùlán heard her spit to clear her mouth. "They're planning … to move us off-world … soon as the Hong Kong …" Sam was forced to pause as she was overcome by a fit of coughing. "gives up searching … for us."
"Sergeant Perkins?"
"Knife to the throat … left 'im in the Mako to bleed out." She coughed and spat again. "He was banged up right bad … I guess women … even injured ones … bring more profit than men." Traynor's breathing sounded labored, and she was coughing more frequently.
"Ó, gou shi, Sà mi!" [哦，狗屎，薩米！– Oh Shit, Sami!] "We're going to have to get ourselves out of this—can't count on help from the Hong Kong." She was trying to think of a plan, despite the pounding in her head. "I need my hands free. You still have your omnitool?"
"Can't tell, Luv … can't move cough enough to cough feel my wrists. How 'bout you?"
"Same." Xiùlán allowed her torso to fold down at the hips so she could get her head down. There were voices outside the door, guttural sounding … typical batarian males. Sounded like an argument, but she couldn't make out what was being said. She had no doubt that whatever they were discussing involved Traynor and herself. The fact they hadn't clamped a slave collar around her neck was some comfort … meant they weren't prepared for visitors.
"Sammy … I'm going to try to get my arms up in front of me." Xiùlán started by rolling onto her side, then onto her back as she raised her hips and legs from the metal floor of the cage. With her wrists bound together, the struggle to slide her arms past her hips nearly brought her to tears; after a massive effort that left her partially winded, she had her wrists behind her thighs. She rested for several minutes, listening to the argument outside move away from the door. After catching her breath, she curled her back to bring her weight up towards her neck, then quickly rocked forward; she was now sitting on her butt. Leaning forward enabled her to slip her arms past her feet. "Did it, Ài," [愛 – Love] she whispered.
Xiùlán looked closely at her wrists in the dim light. Yúchun de húndàn! [愚蠢的混蛋！- stupid bastard(s)!] Used wire to tie me? At least they left my omnitool. Reaching down to her feet, she was overjoyed to discover the idiots had also overlooked the folding knife secreted inside her right boot; this she managed to tease out with the forefingers of each hand. Opening the blade was a simple matter of pulling the finger stud towards the handle, thus swinging the spring loaded blade out and locking it in place.
Slicing through the wire with numb fingers took a few minutes, but once her wrists were free, she was able to massage the feeling back into her hands and fingers. Activating the omnitool's light allowed her to see her lover, on her side facing away.
"Sà mi!" she hissed. "Can you move over next to me? I can get your hands free."
Traynor coughed. "I'll try." She struggled back to a sitting position, then scooted her butt backwards towards Xiùlán's voice. Bumping against the bars, she coughed and spat again. "Sure could use some water … medigel would be nice, too."
Xiùlán didn't respond as she used the knife to cut through the wires binding Sam's wrists. "These idiots weren't prepared for us to drop in on them—they must have been setting up a transfer station for people captured in raids elsewhere."
Sam slowly brought her arms around in front of herself. "Thanks! Feels good to be able to move my hands." She paused, then whispered, "I still have my omnitool, Luv."
"Good! Now let's see about getting our asses outta this shithole, get you some help."
Sam gasped as she turned to look at her lover. "My god, Linn! There's blood … all over … your face! And … your hair! … it's … gone!"
Xiùlán reached for the back of her head. Her ebony mane, so long it brushed the top curve of her butt, was no longer there! She had worn it tied into a bun behind her head so she could wear a helmet; the bun was gone, chopped off raggedly at the back of her neck! "Tā mā de gōngjī xīpán! [他媽的公雞吸盤！ – Fucking cock sucker(s)!] Someone's going to pay for that!" Using her hand to carefully feel for the source of the blood, she discovered a gash over her left eye, above the hairline. The hair on top of her head was matted with dried blood; inspecting her fingers confirmed blood was still seeping from the wound. "Huh … never really felt that! Must be the source of my headache. Guess I'll need to see a medic as well."
Xiùlán activated the mini-cutter in her omnitool and began slicing away the bars above and below the latch plate holding the cage's lock assembly. Once the plate was free, she pushed the cage door open, crawled out of the metal box and stood up, glad to finally be able to straighten her body.
Traynor had managed to get her door open as well; she took a bit more time to stand up, favoring her side as she did so. "Fuckin' ribs hurt like all bloody 'ell, Linn! Don't know how … much help I can be. Can't even take a deep breath." She coughed, spat and exclaimed, "Shit!" She turned towards Xiùlán just as her lover gently wrapped her arms around her, kissed her softly on the mouth and whispered, "I love you, Samantha."
Sam returned the kiss before pulling back slightly. "I love you … as well, Yuán Xiùlán. Now let's … get out of here."
Xiùlán released Sam and turned towards the door. It appeared to be a Systems Alliance standard inside hatch, segmented to retract into the surrounding bulkhead with a centrally located haptic lock interface, which was currently glowing a dim red.
Normally, Xiùlán would have allowed Traynor to hack the lock, but she didn't expect Sam to do anything she herself could do nearly as well. Omnitool up and activated, Xiùlán ran through the unlocking protocols built into the mini-computer—the haptic interface quickly changed to green. Xiùlán hastily reconfigured the omnitool for combat; it would only take a thought and a flick of her wrist to have either of three ceramic blades at her disposal. Along with her boot knife, she was armed in as deadly a fashion as possible.
"Watch my six, Luv. I'll take care of anything in front of us."
"Be careful, Linn," Traynor coughed. "Fuckin' bastards … took our … shield generators; our ceramic … plates won't stop …" she gulped as she attempted to stifle yet another cough, "a bullet fired from up close."
Xiùlán simply nodded as she opened the hatch; the light in the passageway beyond was dim enough that her eyes adjusted quickly. Taking a hasty look in both directions, she decided uphill was the way they needed to proceed, as the hatch on the downhill end was locked. Hazarding another swift look revealed no cameras in the ceiling, so she entered the passage and quickly headed towards the uphill hatch, confident that Sammy was right on her heels.
She placed her left shoulder against the bulkhead and crouched to the side of the hatch, which was unlocked. Feeling Sam's hand on her hip, she listened for anyone on the other side of the hatch; everything was quiet, so she opened the hatch and inspected the area beyond; she could see numerous containers and a fair amount of equipment scattered haphazardly around a large chamber. Discerning no movement, she slunk through the opening and trotted to a large container about two to three meters away. Crouching behind it, she felt Sam bump into her back as she caught up.
Breathing hard, Sam tried to stifle her coughing as she struggled to catch her breath. "Can't keep … this up … for long … Luv."
"I know. You stay here, let me scout around—see if I can find us some water."
"A Med-kit … one … or two … heavy pistols … would be … nice," Sam gasped out in as snarky a tone as she could manage.
Looking back the way they had come, Xiùlán noticed the hatch had re-closed and locked behind them. She grabbed Sam's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before taking off, moving silently from container to container.
She had worked her way around to the far side of the chamber, where she encountered a pair of batarians moving small containers. Neither one survived their introduction to the unfriendly human—she left one pinned to a large container, a white-hot ceramic blade shoved through his throat and spine; the other was left lying on his belly on the cavern floor, broken neck allowing him to stare blindly up at the ceiling. Unfortunately for Xiùlán, neither was wearing a sidearm, but she did find a container filled with water—this she took straight back across the chamber to Sammy, only taking a drink herself after Sam had drunk her fill.
"Thanks, Linn! That's a … real help."
"Come on … we can move straight across to the next exit. The only two batarians in here are not going to be interested in us … or anything else, ever."
Xiùlán helped Traynor to her feet, then walked with her as the pair moved across the underground chamber to where Xiùlán had ended the batarian's lives. "My god, Linn! I never … heard a thing!" She stared at the Chinese woman beside her, dried blood on her face, hair raggedly cut off at the back of her head, with a newfound respect along with a touch of awe. "I'm no … longer sure … you … even need me … along, Luv."
Yuán turned to look at her lover, surprise evident in her eyes as she whispered, breath brushing softly against Sam's temple and hair, "Why in hell would you even think that, wo qīn'ài de Sà mi?" [我親愛的薩米？– my dear Sammi?] Traynor nearly burst into tears at the look of utter devotion that came across Xiùlán's countenance. "There will come a time when you will be taking care of me, my love." Xiùlán brushed Sam's cheek with her lips as she continued in a husky whisper, "Wo ài ni, [我愛你, - I love you] Samantha Traynor! I have loved you ever since we met. No power in this galaxy will ever change that, Míngbáile ma?" [明白了嗎？ – Do you understand?]
Samantha, her eyes awash in unshed tears, simply nodded her head.
"Good! Now, we have to find our gear. You ready to go?" Traynor nodded again.
Xiùlán rose and pulled Sam up with her. She led the way around the last large container in their path and up to the hatch that appeared to be the exit. The haptic lock was glowing green, so Xiùlán waved her hand in front of it. To their horror, the chamber beyond had at least six batarians clustered together. One appeared to be arguing with two others about something, but they all looked up at the sound of the door opening.
Xiùlán stood there, omni-blade alight, dried blood still on her face, and growled menacingly at the closest batarian, "Ni sì gè yanjīng de yīnjīng tóu! Ni huì xiān si!" [你四個眼睛的陰莖頭！ 你會先死！ – Your four-eyed penis head! You will die first!]
They stood frozen in place as their translators glitched on a language rarely—if ever—heard off planet Earth. Even having no idea what the human with the blood covered face had just said, the one that appeared to be in charge suddenly came to his senses and reached for his pistol—it was the last thing he ever did, as the handle of a knife appeared between his upper eyes, the blade buried in the frontal lobe of his brain. The rest hadn't moved a muscle, now transfixed at the sight of their leader collapsing to the ground like a sack of animal dung.
Xiùlán wasted no time in covering the distance between them. Ignoring the pistol in the hand of their dead leader, she stomped in the middle of his face as she yanked her knife out of his skull and flung it at the next closest target; this one had the misfortune of catching the blade in his throat as Xiùlán swung her omni-blade at pirate number three, slicing that unfortunate soul nearly in half at the waist. She felt an impact on her chest plate as she heard the report from the gun fired at her by pirate number four; she fell backwards as a minute sliver of metal screamed through the air above her at hypersonic speed, drilling him in the chest.
Traynor had trotted into the chamber and retrieved the gun the first pirate had attempted to use. She fired once again, drilling number five between his lower eyes. Before she could kill number six, he was on top of Xiùlán, attempting to stab her with his own knife. She rolled away from him as he struck at her legs on the ground. As he stood back up, Xiùlán was up and on him like a wild animal. She reached his chest with her fist and drew her forearm across him right-to-left, dragging her omni-sword across his torso to slice him in half. He remained standing with a surprised look on his face as a bullet whizzed past Xiùlán's ear, hitting the sliced batarian in the head for a kill-shot.
She looked around to find Traynor in a combat crouch, pistol in both hands and seemingly aiming for her head. She rapidly ducked as Sam pulled the trigger, dropping the seventh pirate coming up behind her. She hurriedly looked around the chamber for more enemies; finding no one left standing, she retrieved her boot knife from the throat of her second victim, then moved among the rest, gathering weapons, Medigel and water rations.
The last one Traynor had shot was still alive, and it turned out he had something extra in his backpack – a rope of ebony strands, one end bearing a ragged cut. This was the bastard that had cut off her hair. Xiùlán crouched beside him, made sure the dying batarian was aware of her … knew who she was before she started speaking.
"You goddamned four-eyed offspring of a vorcha fucked varren—yeah, I'm speaking Galactic so you can understand me," Xiùlán hissed through clenched teeth. "I bet you thought you'd found a real prize when you cut off my hair. But unlike you, I'm still alive, and my hair will grow back. Too bad you won't be around to see it." She stood back up, contemplated him for several heartbeats before twitching her right hand, causing her omnitool to render its third blade. She balled up her fist and with a guttural curse, struck him in the middle of the chest, putting as much of her weight and muscle behind the blow as she could; this action 'fired' the white-hot ceramic blade over the top of her wrist and hand, through his body, his spine and into the ground beneath him. She neatly coiled the length of her cut hair around the portion of the blade sticking out of his chest as a warning to the next bastard that thought chopping off a woman's hair was a good idea.
Looking around again, she saw Traynor still kneeling where she'd stopped, trying to get her breathing back under control. Xiùlán started walking towards her and quickly pulled to a halt—there was a pain in her left calf that hadn't been there before. She tried to look at her leg and couldn't see anything, but there was definitely something wrong, bad enough that she began limping as she walked up to Sam and asked, "You doing okay?"
"No worse … than before. Why in 'ell are you limping?" Sam's voice carried concern.
"Don't know. Take a look?" Xiùlán turned around so Sam could inspect the back of her leg.
"Looks like … some blood here." Traynor gently touched her lover's calf, about 20 Cm down from her knee, causing Yuán to jump as if she'd been shot.
"On your … knees, Luv … facing away." Traynor waited until Xiùlán had complied. She definitely had a bit of blood on her leg, and her under-armor pant leg was sliced vertically.
"What the? …" Sam spotted it—something shiny within the cut. "I need … you to lean … forward. Hands on … the ground." Xiùlán did as instructed. "Relax … your lower legs … put all your … weight on … your knees. This is gonna … hurt like bloody 'ell."
Traynor positioned two fingers of her left hand in a 'vee' on either side of the blood-stained metal. Xiùlán gasped as Sam pressed her fingers hard into the skin and spread them slightly apart, opening the wound; this had the effect of raising the steel sliver up so Sam could grasp it between thumb and forefinger of her right hand. Without warning her, Sam gripped the piece of steel tightly and yanked it straight up and out of Yuán's leg, causing her lover to holler and curse long and loud in Chinese.
Sam held up the piece of steel—the tip of a broken knife blade, about 3 to 4 Cm long, undoubtedly from the fellow attempting to stab Xiùlán as she rolled around on the ground dodging him. The wound was bleeding freely now, so Sam placed the palm of her hand across the slice and pressed down, provoking more outcries of unhappiness from Xiùlán. "We need some … way to … clean and … bandage this," Traynor observed, before going into a paroxysm of coughing, causing her to bend over from the effort to breathe. She straightened up, grabbed one of the Medigel containers Xiùlán had retrieved and applied a liberal amount to the slice in her leg.
Xiùlán turned, bringing up her right knee. She took a sip of water, then gave the container to Sam and said, "Less talking, more drinking. I'm going to try to stand." So saying, Yuán slowly got to her feet, right leg first. She gingerly placed a bit of weight on her left leg. "Not too bad. I'll search the other end. Stay put." Grabbing one of the recovered pistols, she limped her way to a small anteroom beside the exit. After making sure she was alone, she looked high and low, finally discovering a first-aid kit and some more water. She returned to Traynor with her booty.
Sam was happy to have more water; she re-cleaned the wound in Xiùlán's leg, applied more Medigel, then covered and bound it to keep it clean. "How's that feel?"
"Better than I'd hoped after seeing that bit of knife you pulled out of there." She lifted her leg in order to flex her foot around, testing what she could do. "Damn good thing it went in vertically—slipped into the muscle in line with the muscle fibers. Pure dumb luck …"
Traynor wasn't done. "Let me … look at … that head wound." Xiùlán again went to her knees, this time facing Sam as Traynor, using Xiùlán's shoulders for handholds, laboriously regained her feet. Sam grimaced at the matted hair as she placed a hand on Xiùlán's cheek. Shining a light on the cut in her scalp, she coughed, "Must have … happened in the … Mako." Sam cleaned around the wound with gauze from the kit, then covered the gash with Medigel. "Doc's gonna … need to fix this … as well, Luv." Traynor bent over beside Xiùlán, coughed and spat out some more blood.
Xiùlán turned; saying, "Let me take a look at your ribcage, Sammy," she quickly unfastened the latches holding Sam's chest plate to the back plate on her left side. Sam groaned in pain as she slowly raised her arm so Xiùlán could pull her under-armor shirt and undershirt up from her waist. "Shit! Remember the bruise on my chest from Joesiar's sniper shot on Luna base?" Xiùlán's tone suggested disbelief. "This one puts mine to shame. Hang tough, let me just touch you … here?"
"Eeeyouch! That absolutely … hurts like … mmmmpppphhh!" Sam didn't finish, as the next spot Xiùlán touched caused her to weep from the intense pain.
"Looks like two fractured ribs, Sammy. Don't think either is completely broken. I'm going to apply some Medigel to the area … it'll help, but we need to get you to a doctor, sooner rather than later." Yuán gently applied a liberal coating of Medigel to the bruised area, then pulled Sam's undershirt and under-armor shirt back down and refastened all the hook' n' loop fasteners. Standing, she kissed Sammy apologetically and said, "Sorry I hurt you."
After refastening the latches for her ceramic plates, she removed Sam's gauntlet and took a look at her arm. "Pretty bad bruise on your outer forearm, wrist to elbow. Mako must have bounced you around worse than it did me!" As she applied some Medigel she said, "We're still one level down from getting out … didn't find our helmets or other gear anywhere down here." Frowning, she pulled Traynor's sleeve down and replaced her gauntlet. "I seriously doubt the batarians we killed are the only ones in this facility."
Traynor was feeling some relief from her pain already. "Thanks, Luv. Feels better. Still hurts to … breathe, but not as much."
"Okay," Yuán said. "Heavy pistols are better in these close quarters. I did find one shotgun, but it's an old BSA model 10 Executioner—inaccurate, doesn't deal a lot of damage unless you're really close, slow firing rate." Yuán's smile was grim. "Don't think you want to use a shotgun in your condition, anyway. Let's get to it."
Xiùlán led the way to the hatch. Hearing no sounds from the other side, they opened it and moved into the passage.
The tunnel between the chambers was a steep climb; Xiùlán knew Sam would go down if she attempted to climb the 25 meters to the upper hatch. She turned to her lover and said, "I'll need to carry you … you'll never make it otherwise."
Sam looked at the upper hatch as the effort to take even a shallow breath continued to increase. "Okay. How?"
Xiùlán knelt in front of Sam and placed her right shoulder in the juncture of Sammy's thigh with her hip. "Lean over my back." As Traynor leaned over, Xiùlán wrapped her right arm around the back of Sam's thighs right below her butt; straightening her own legs lifted Sam's feet clear of the tunnel's corrugated tubing. "You okay?"
Sam grunted, "Go!"
Xiùlán's wounded calf was screaming in pain as she reached the upper end of the tunnel; she gently set Traynor down on her feet. Traynor immediately bent over in an attempt to catch her breath without coughing up more blood.
Wheezing, "I hope … we're nearly … out. About … at the … end of my … rope!"
Xiùlán nodded in agreement. They needed to return to the Hong Kong, soon. Listening carefully at the segmented hatch, she could hear nothing other than the shrill whine of environmental fans over the low moan of pumps keeping ground water from slowly flooding the lower levels. Looking back at Traynor, she nodded as she raised her pistol in her left hand and waved her right hand in front of the lock.
The hatch opened onto the main entry chamber from the surface; it was strewn with a haphazard assortment of shipping containers, the majority of which were grouped to the left of the hatch. Xiùlán felt a comforting hand at the small of her back.
Neither seeing nor hearing any obvious signs of anyone in the chamber, Xiùlán moved, going to her left in order to gain the cover of the containers. The hand on her back stayed with her, indicating Traynor was right on her heels.
Yuán turned to her lover and whispered, "You stay put, but be ready, same as last time. I'm going to look around, see what I can find."
"Comms sys … be nice. Let … HK know … we're alive … need … help … can't breathe CO2 … and ethane outside."
Xiùlán could see Samantha was noticeably pale. "You've lost a lot of blood, Love. Besides what you're coughing up, you're probably bleeding into your chest cavity … it's why you can't take a deep breath." Yuán looked around the chamber and pulled out her stolen pistol. "Don't move unless you have to. We're getting out of here alive, and we're going together." She placed her hand gently on Sam's face, said "Wo ài ni, Sà mi," and slipped away.
Traynor had her stolen gun out and ready as she tried to visually follow Yuán's progress around the edge of the chamber. Her lover had disappeared at the far end near the airlock inner hatch. She thought she heard something thump and thud against something solid, but after waiting for more, she decided her ears were playing tricks on her. She was feeling really light-headed as she leaned back against the container. Hurry, Luv! came the thought. I am so tired, so damned bloody tired—just wanna rest … Sam unknowingly slid down to a squatting position as her knees gave up the battle with gravity; she ended up with her back still against the container, arms relaxed, pistol forgotten in her right hand. Just need to sleep.
A few minutes later Xiùlán came back around the container to find Sam collapsed, her back against the container. My god! Sammy!? She was leaning towards her right, hand out on the ground loosely grasping the pistol. "Sammy!? Come on, Love, talk to me!" Xiùlán placed fingertips alongside Sam's neck, frantically searching for a pulse. "SAMMY!" Xiùlán was now truly scared for Samantha, almost to the point of blind panic. She grabbed Traynor's collar with both hands and pulled her away from the container; doing so caused Sam's head to loll back, as if she were a broken doll. Yuán placed a hand behind Sam's head to support it as she started to sob. Thinking, 'How the fuck can this be happening!?' she started pleading in Chinese, "Lái ba, Sà mi! Xing lái! Gěi wo dian dōngxī! Méiyou ni, wo de shēnghuó wúfa jìxù!" [來吧，薩米！ 醒來！ 給我點東西！ 沒有你，我的生活無法繼續！– Come on, Sami! Wake up! Give me something! Without you, my life cannot continue!]
Xiùlán hugged her unresponsive lover around the shoulders as she screamed towards the ceiling at the top of her lungs, "Sergeant Ross! SERGEANT! I need your help over here!" Xiùlán looked at Sam's face, ashen in the harsh light illuminating this chamber. She kissed Sam and whispered, "Women yào huí jiā, Sà mi." [我們要回家，薩米。– We are going home, Sammy.] Suddenly realizing she was speaking Mandarin, she thought, Dammit, Xiùlán! You have got to focus! Speaking Galactic, she pleaded through her tears, "Please, wake up, Sami! Tell me you can hear me." Her voice was hitching badly as she struggled to speak, "Come on, please! I cannot spend the rest of my life without you … I cannot!" Kissing her again, she looked closely for a response, anything. Was that? …
Sam's eyelids fluttered just a bit as she whispered, "Xiùlán? Wha? …"
She didn't finish as Xiùlán whispered a prayer of thanks to her ancestors, hugging her tight as Marine Sergeant Ross came around the container's end, accompanied by two other marines carrying a litter. "Easy, my love. Marines from the Hong Kong are here! You're going home … we're going home!"
A/N: Xiùlán had never really expressed her feelings concerning the murder of Heather Gonzales; when confronted with the possibility of losing Samantha, she realizes just how dear this person has become to her. Coming face-to-face with Sam's mortality, having to accept the very real possibility of Samantha dying in her arms shakes her to her core; it's something she'll not be able to easily overcome moving forward.
My sincere thanks to Desert Sunrise, always a vast repository of knowledge. DS's invaluable assistance in writing this chapter is very much appreciated.