Wanderer

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Nova woke, choking and gasping. She was lying on something hard. She rolled onto her side as she continued to cough, clearing something cloying from her lungs. Each cough drove spikes of pain through her head, making her wince, but she couldn’t stop.

The pain and the coughing made thinking impossible. It wasn’t until both subsided a few minutes later that she began to consider her situation. She was still alive, obviously, which was probably a good thing. She managed to move, pushing herself up into a sitting position.

That was a good sign, wasn’t it? She’d chosen to sit. She could move. That didn’t seem to fit with how the Limited had been. They had only moved when there was a specific purpose. Other than that they stayed stock still.

So she wasn’t dead and didn’t seem to have joined the ranks of the Limited, not yet at least. She’d been gassed which was strange. Why not just shut her in a cell until they needed her?

She started to take in her surroundings. It seemed like she was still in the room where she had been gassed. Blade and the other slave were in the room too. Blade was showing signs of stirring. The other slave was laying on her side, coughing quietly.

Blade startled Nova by suddenly forcing himself to his feet. He was soon standing in the same ready position he’d been in before being gassed. Once again there was no unnecessary movement, no fidgeting. He stood like a machine waiting to be turned on.

The other slave curled up into a ball, still laying on her side and coughing. Nova was relieved. The slave wasn’t acting like she’d been turned into one of the Limited, so whatever the reason for drugging the three of them she seemed to have escaped the horror of being converted. For the moment at least.

Nova shuffled across the floor to the other slave. Once close enough she helped the slave to sit and started to rub her back and hold her up during the coughing fits. The wracking coughs slowly subsided. Eventually the slave was able to sit without support.

“Thanks,” she croaked. “I’m Jane.”

“I’m Nova. How do you feel? Do you feel… different at all?”

“I feel pretty rough but I think it’s just that gas. Foul stuff.”

“Good. That’s good.”

“Why? What do you think might have happened?”

“When they hit us with the gas I wondered if we’d wake up like Blade and the others. Or if we’d ever really wake up, they don’t seem to have much awareness of their situation.”

Jane shivered. “I hadn’t thought of that. No, I don’t think they’ve done anything to me.”

“So why are we here? Why did they gas us?”

Neither of them had any suggestions. They sat in silence, contemplating their fate.

Several minutes later the door clanged open. Before they could react Blade stepped forward, grabbing a wrist in each hand and dragged Nova and Jane to their feet. Other Limited stepped into the room carrying handcuffs. Nova and Jane were quickly secured, feet so tightly bound that walking was almost impossible. Their hands were secured just as tightly in front of their body.

Without warning Blade swept Nova up, throwing her over his shoulder and striding from the room. To start with Nova was too shocked to struggle. Then she realised struggling free would involve a heavy fall onto her head. The time would come to try and escape, but this wasn’t it.

Blade set a fast pace and Nova was bounced around with every step. Together with viewing everything upside down she couldn’t work out which direction they had taken. Before long they entered a large room. Blade dropped Nova back onto her feet just as suddenly as he’d first swept her up.

Nova swayed for a moment as the blood drained back out of her head, then she glanced around. They were in a small hangar bay. The other slave, Jane, was just being carried in by another of the Limited. A shuttle sat in the middle of the bay, its rear door open.

“Get into the shuttle,” Blade said.

Nova considered refusing for a moment but dismissed it as pointless. She could hardly walk, her hands were shackled and she had nothing to use as a weapon. If she tried to fight then she’d be at Blade’s mercy. If she was lucky he’d just sweep her up again and dump her into the shuttle. If not…

“Get into the shuttle,” he repeated.

Nova started to shuffle forwards, but something was nagging at her. Something about what Blade had said, or more about how he had said it. He’d said exactly the same thing with exactly the same inflections. No deviation, no hint of annoyance at repeating the command.

She risked glancing back, taking a look at Blade’s eyes. They were still glazed and distant. Something clicked in her mind. The command hadn’t come from Blade. She was starting to think nothing came from him anymore.

Could he be one of the Tainted? She stumbled as the thought hit her, struggling to keep walking, but then she dismissed the idea. Anyone in the state Blade was in would be easy to spot. The Taint wouldn’t be such a threat if it could be identified so easily.

So, not the Taint and nothing else she’d ever heard of. Was this something new, or just something she didn’t know of?

Her thoughts were cut short as she entered the shuttle and found more of the Limited waiting. One of them pushed her down into a seat and secured her in place, then left her alone.

Nova tried to hide her interest as she looked around. The shuttle was spartan and utilitarian, yet it was a massive improvement over any conditions she’d ever travelled in, even if she was shackled into her seat. Just having a seat was amazing.

The shuttle didn’t have windows, not where she was sitting in the back at least, but it did have view screens showing the view out the front. Initially it just showed the hangar, then the doors opened and she was staring out at the blackness of space between them. The shuttle rocked slightly, then boosted through the doors. Now the screen showed nothing but space.

She was pressed back into her seat as the shuttle accelerated. For several minutes she saw nothing but stars on the screen, then the shuttle banked and something shiny and metallic appeared on the screen. It started off small but quickly grew to fill the screen, and it didn’t stop there. More and more detail came into view until finally the shuttle started to slow, heading towards a docking bay.

The shuttle flew in and was soon settled safely on the deck. Blade and the other three Limited moved towards the back of the shuttle. Nova could hear them but couldn’t twist around far enough to see what was happening. A door at the front opened and two more Limited stepped through. The pilots, Nova guessed, though they wore the same blank expression Blade did. Had they really managed to pilot the shuttle here?

The rear door opened with a hiss. Nova heard Blade welcoming someone aboard. All the Limited moved back into her sight, leading a nine strong party of men and women wearing civilian clothing. They looked soft to Nova. Their bodies hadn’t been toughened by endless manual labour, their clothing was clean and free from repairs.

Blade led several of the party forward, speaking as he came.

“Here they are, as promised. Two slaves as an example of what we have on board.”

“May we examine them?” asked one of the men, his voice cultured. “Could you have them stand up?”

“Certainly.”

Blade freed Nova from the seat, then removed the shackles. Nova knew now would be the moment to run, if only there was anywhere to run to. Another of the Limited did the same for Jane.

The civilian leaned forward, examining Nova’s body and then lifting his eyes to meet hers. She fought down the urge to spit in his face. Being an Imperial slave had always been bad enough, but then at least she had belonged to the Empire, not to one person. Was she really going to be sold to this man? To become his property?

Yet he had kind eyes. Such kind eyes. Eyes she could lose herself in. Eyes she was losing herself in. She couldn’t look away and she seemed to be pouring more and more of herself through into him.

She was vaguely aware of the others around her, but only with great effort. A woman was examining Jane. No, staring at her. Jane was making no effort to move. Another woman was staring into Blade’s eyes.

Nova’s stomach lurched. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. She realised everyone else from the shuttle was being given the same treatment. Not one of them had made any attempt to move, let alone break the contact.

Something changed. Where before she had been losing herself in the man’s eyes, now the flow had reversed. Something dark and stifling was coming back over the link. Nova struggled desperately to break it, but she could manage no more than a couple of shudders. With great difficulty she used the side of her eye to see that the others from the shuttle were having similar reactions. Some lasted longer than others, but all fell still eventually.

Anger swelled inside Nova. This wasn’t it. She wasn’t going down like this. She had no doubt now that the attackers were Tainted, and that meant she would be too if she gave in.

Nova fought down her fear and threw everything she had at the link. Hate and loathing fuelled her efforts. She struggled desperately to break the connection, to look away, to push back. Even just to blink.

Nothing worked. She kept on fighting, kept on refusing to give in, but her strength was fading fast. Soon, very soon even, she wouldn’t be able to fight anymore. She would lose the battle and the darkness would come slamming in, and from that moment on she would be one of the Tainted.