Part 2 (2/2)
”Yesno, not really.” Rina sounded confused. ”She just stopped and refused to move. When I tried to grab her she did...something. It didn't really hurt, but”
”Where are you?”
”On the gangway from the sub-one deck.”
”On my way. Stay there.” He raised his voice. ”Califa, you hurt her and I'll sell you to the lowest bidder.”
He snapped off the comlink. It was a bluff, but the Arellian didn't know he'd sell himself before another human being, such was his distaste for the whole system of enslavement. He just hoped the threat would hold her long enough for him to get there.
He grabbed his hand communicator, motioned to Roxton to follow him, and headed off the bridge at a run. Once clear of the bridge, he activated the small device.
”Nelcar! Meet me on the sub-one deck gangway. Bring somethingwe may have to sedate an Arellian.”
”Yes, sir.”
The snappy reply was a holdover from the young man's days serving as medical officer aboard a Clarion transport, about the same time theEvening Star had been built on the industrious planet. But Nelcar and his s.h.i.+p had fallen to the Coalition just as his home world had, and the b.l.o.o.d.y process had cost Nelcar an eye, making him worse than useless to his conquerors. They had given him the choice of immediate execution or slave labor, and sent him off to die a slow death in a labor camp.
It was there Dax had found him, and despite the campmaster's incredulity, had paid enough for the man to look the other way as he led the gaunt, half-blind young man out of Hades. He'd never regretted it.
Except when Nelcar's deference brought back memories Dax would rather keep buried. And buried deep.
When they reached the gangway, Dax slowed to a walk. The woman he knew only as Califa was leaning against the bulkhead, nonthreateningly, submissively slavelike, yet radiating a stubborn determination that reminded him of the fire he'd seen in her in the prison. For a reason he didn't understand, since it was clear it meant nothing but trouble for him, he was glad to see it again.
Rina stood to one side, watching the Arellian warily. ”It's not my fault, Dax, really, we were just walking”
”She speaks the truth,” Califa agreed. ”She did nothing but try to follow your orders.”
Dax eyed her, one dark brow raised. ”But?”
”I can go no further.”
His eyes narrowed. ”Why?”
She crossed her arms across her chest, saying nothing. Dax noticed a faint sheen of sweat on her brow and upper lip, as if she were under great strain. Yet she would not speak. He smothered an exasperated sigh; females, he thought.
”You began willingly enough,” he pointed out.
”I can go no further,” she repeated.
Dax's temper, always on a tight rein, snapped. ”I should just dump you right back where I found you!”
”You cannot do that without risk to yourself.”
”It might be worth it to get you out of my way.”
”I can go no further.”
Dax swore. Nelcar joined them then, a boyish-looking young man on whom the eye patch he wore jarred. ”Will you be needing this, sir?” he asked, gesturing with the medicator he'd prepared to Dax's order.
”So it seems,” Dax said with a grimace. ”Looks like we'll have to carry her”
”No!”
For the first time, Dax saw real fear in Califa's eyes. Even when she had seemed beaten, defeated, there had been no fear. To see it now struck a deep, hidden chord in him. A woman afraid stirred up hideous thoughts, images that haunted his dreams far too often.
He forced his voice to steadiness. ”Give me another choice.”
”You don't understand”
”Believe me, woman, I've been downwind, and youneed a good soaking.”
She lowered her eyes. Had he embarra.s.sed her? It didn't seem possible, not the woman who had virtually forced him into helping her make her escape. Or had that woman been born only of desperation? Was this, the compliant slave, all that was really left?
”I know,” she said, so low only he was close enough to hear it, ”but I”
”can go no further. So you've said. Why?” he asked again, this time in the voice of the commander, a voice he used rarely but to great effect.
Califa looked around a bit wildly, then turned her gaze back to him. ”I...I'll tell you. But only you.”
Roxton protested immediately. ”Don't do it, Cap'n. We don't know who she is, or why she was in that stinking place. Could be she's a murderer, or worse.”
”Puts her right on the level of the Coalition's best, then, doesn't it?” Dax remarked. ”I think I'll be safe enough.”
”Dax, no,” Rina put in. ”She did something, pushed right here”she gestured at her neck”and I couldn't move.”
Dax's brows shot up once more. ”The Daxelian clamp hold? This becomes even more interesting.” He looked at the others. ”Go.” When they protested, he added, ”I'll yell if I need help.”
”By then it may be too late,” Roxton grumbled. ”Then you'll own the s.h.i.+p at last, won't you, my friend?”
When they realized he was serious, they reluctantly left. Dax turned back to Califa. She was back in nearly the same position she'd been in when he'd arrived, but he got the impression that this time she was leaning against the wall for its support, not as a statement of her unconcern. She closed her eyes, and Dax could have sworn she suppressed a shudder. Was he so frightening, then? Or was it merely helplessness that made her shake? He had a feeling it was an emotion foreign to her. Had they all felt so helpless, his mother, his sister, all the women he'd known, when the end had come?
He recoiled from that line of thought as a muckrat dodges the kick aimed at its head. Don't think of those women, think of this one, he ordered himself. You can do nothing for them, so deal with this one; she is the problem now. How long had she been a slave? What had she been before? Who was the woman he'd seen only glimpses of, tough, reckless, and brave to the point of foolhardiness?
”Well?” he said, folding his arms across his chest in an action that mimicked her own.
”I... can't go any further.” She held up a hand at the look he gave her at the repet.i.tion yet again of that phrase. ”Because of this,” she said, gesturing at her throat, at the strip of his cloak that wound around it.
Dax's brows furrowed in puzzlement. In response she tugged the cloth free to reveal the collar.
”The yellow light is glowing,” he said, certain it hadn't been that way before.
Califa laughed, a short, harsh sound. ”I know.”
His gaze went back to her face. ”Which means?”
”It's activated when I reach my limit.”
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