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The man gritted his teeth again, looking at the woman, and took a deep breath, before collecting the medical supplies and returning to the kitchen, deciding on distracting himself from what he had done.
Hours passed, as Serena lay on his bed, recovering, until she slowly came to her senses again. She felt different, and at first didn’t understand what happened while she was knocked out, but then felt the soft fur that emanated a thick, heavy scent, and the warmth of a thin blanket thrown over her. She gave herself a bit of time before moving, but as soon as she tried to push herself up, she felt her body protesting with a sharp pain that hit her in the gut. A quiet groan escaped her mouth, as she gave in and lay back down, understanding that even if she does get up, she won’t be able to go anywhere in her current state.
Instead, she turned her head, still feeling the faint aching at the base of her skull, and looked around.
The cavern she was in was dimly lit by torches, which flickered and danced in the obvious airflow, which occurred inside due to the imperceptible cracks in the walls. The smoke must have been filtering out the same way – through the same cracks up in the ceiling, making it impossible to suffocate when inside. Serena heard the trickle of water somewhere near, but couldn’t see where it was, because it seemed to be hidden from her sight by a set of stones.
The woman tried hard to see any way of exiting the cavern, but didn’t see a single arch or pathway that could have been leading out. Closing her eyes and feeling herself helpless, she forced through the pain in her arm to reach up and feel her ear for the communication earpiece, but found it missing.
Through her scrambled thoughts she remembered the stranger who kept her chained up and understood that he must have taken the device from her when he captured her.
Serena tried to take a deeper breath, and felt her ribs aching, denying her of air. Closing her eyes, the woman thought if she could even do anything when her tormentor will return. She tried to feel around for any sort of weapon she could use, but the only thing she found caused her to frown. The woman couldn’t sit up to see what lay beside her, but she could feel the object being formed like a small brick – smooth sides and rounded edges, big enough for her to grab it. She couldn’t know if it was fragile or not, but decided that it was enough to at least withstand one hit she could land to her captor’s face. She felt a little better, knowing that she had a chance to at least try and fight back.
She must have drifted into sleep, because she came to her senses only when she felt someone sitting next to her on the bed and touching her neck, checking the pulse. The woman gripped the brick in her fingers, hoping she will have enough strength to make the blow hard enough to knock her captor out.
Serena slowly opened her eyes, seeing the man leaning in, and noticed his eyes widen in surprise. Without a single moment to waste she jerked her hand up, landing a perfect hit onto his temple, crashing the object in her hand exactly onto the point she wanted. The man flew off the bed, and Serena fell with him, hitting him again and feeling her strength already failing her. As she hit him for the third time, she heard him whisper:
“I yield…”
She didn’t hear what he said next, falling on top of him and her consciousness slipping away once more.
The man lay there for a few seconds, before gently embracing the woman with one arm.
“You’ve grown up strong, my little Scorpi.” he sighed, feeling proud and happy that the woman he found was, in fact, his ward in the distant past.
He waited for any sort of reply, but the woman remained silent, and he carefully raised her face, noting that she had passed out again.
“I’m so proud of you, Serena.” the man sighed and rolled her over to the side to get her back to bed.
When he was picking her up, he heard something fall and looked at what the woman had used to knock him down, surprised to see the resin-encased Scorpifly on the floor. Smirking at the fact Serena used this trinket to defend herself, he laid the woman down and sat next to her, picking up the preserved bug and looking at the thing with a smile on his lips.
“You really are a Scorpi, Serena…” the man chuckled, touching the woman’s shoulder. “You sting like hell.”
He stayed with her, until she finally opened her eyes again. Seeing the man there, she closed her eyes for a few moments, forcing down the painful feeling of defeat.
“Hi, Scorpi.” the man said quietly, watching her face. “Please don’t sting me again.”
Serena looked up at him and saw the deep gash on his temple – the one she left when landing her blow to his head. The man raised the bug for her to see and Serena frowned, recognizing the critter.
“The Golden Veluthian Scorpifly…” the man smiled. “Your present, Serena.”
The woman saw the blood stain on the resin encasing and looked at the man, trying hard to recognise him.
“I thought you were dead, Scorpi…” the man put the bug down next to her head. “I thought, you were killed during the Bima-Liss attack.”
“I survived.” Serena felt her voice being coarse and raspy.
The man reached out and touched her face, smiling:
“I’m so happy you did.”
Serena finally caught on to the dark eyes and the soft gaze, realizing that the man before her was the same man who taught her about balance, climbing and fighting when she was a child.
“Woofy?” she caught herself on calling him by the name she gave him a very long time ago, but correcting herself almost instantly. “Wolfin?”
She forced through her weakness and pain, pushing herself up. The man watched her struggling, but didn’t move to help, still weary of her being able to pull another trick.
“You remember me.” he said, seeing her lean over the rock behind her, wincing.
Serena lowered her gaze and studied the man attentively:
“I remember you being more scrawny.” she noted, looking up at his face again.
Wolfin cackled, admitting that he really did look differently all those years ago.
“It’s been a long time, Serena. A lot has changed.” he said. “You grew up strong, and you still sting like hell, my little Scorpi.”
Serena glanced at the preserved bug which was still stained by Wolfin’s blood.
“Though, now your sting is way more hefty.” the man chuckled, standing up and heading towards the kitchen area. “You need sustenance. Do you think you’ll be able to eat something and keep it down?”
The woman glanced around, thinking about her bag and wandering what the man did with her stuff while he kept her chained up.
“My bag…” she felt something cracking into place and bared her teeth, trying hard not to groan from the sharp shot of pain that run through her body.
A few long moments passed, when the pain subsided, and she opened her eyes to see Wolfin watching her with a hint of concern on his face. He saw her muscles relaxing and handed her the bag he found on her. The woman took it, still feeling her body weak and strained, and looked inside, not hoping to see anything there, but finding the flask and the few sustenance bars she had with her when she went to scout out the renegade mercenary crew before she was noticed and chased down into the canyons. Taking the flask, Serena froze for a moment and glanced at Wolfin, as if thinking about something, before taking out something else – something he didn’t see when he searched her bag.
She noticed his brows twitch in surprise, as she got the emergency syringe ready and gave herself a shot into the neck, feeling the painkillers immediately helping her with the pain.
“Any more surprises in there?” Wolfin tilted his head.
Serena took a big sip from her flask, feeling the sting of alcohol reaching her throat, and took a moment to answer:
“Just a stash of capsules with painkillers and some anti-venom for emergencies.” the woman gritted her teeth, forcing herself to sit up and hang the feet down onto the floor.
“Too soon for you to be standing, Scorpi.” the man said, sounding very unhappy to see her moving at all.
“I’ll be the judge of that.” Serena slowly rose, feeling every bit of her body objecting to such abuse, but ignoring it.
She felt sweat immediately forming on her forehead, and knees trembling under her weight, but tried to make a step nonetheless, grasping at the rocky wall next to her. The tightness in her chest grew into a suffocating sensation and the woman bared her teeth, making another step.
“You were always so stubborn.” Wolfin sighed, watching her make a few steps and slipping down.
He stepped to her, catching her before she could fall, and helped her back to the bed.
“I’m fine…” gasping, Serena breathed out, trying to push him away.
“You’re not fine, Serena. You’re injured, soldier! Stay in bed!” the man ordered. “Or I’ll chain you up again until your body heals, got it?”
Chapter 4. SS Lyssandra
“Scanning inconclusive.” the AI reported for the hundredth time. “I’m sorry, I cannot find Captain Serena.”
Ever since the sandstorm started, they were unable to find any signs of Serena anywhere within the vicinity. Hunter felt helpless and enraged to be stuck on a ship without any knowledge about what happened to the woman.
The man forced down the urge to kick something and jumped to his feet, grasping his hair.
“Damn it!” he growled.
“You are sleep deprived, Hunter. You should get some rest.” Lyssa said. “I’ll continue searching.”
“How can I sleep, when I don’t even know if Serena is alive or not?!”
“You should trust her more. She’s a strong and capable woman.”
“I know that! And I also know that something must have happened! Otherwise she would have checked in already.”
“You should get some rest, Hunter. The stress you are experiencing is affecting your ability to reason.”
“I’ll go have something to eat, if that will make you shut up about it.” Hunter headed out of the bridge.
“Sleep would be preferable, but you hadn’t eaten in two days, so that is also a valid form of recuperation.” the AI replied.
“Any news from the Growler?”
“Negative.”
“Let me know when they check in.”
“Of course.”
Hunter sighed heavily, understanding that the situation they were in was a harsh one. The sandstorm prevented them from finding Serena in the first few days when she disappeared, and the lack of communication ever since made it even more unbearable.
As soon as the sandstorm began dying down, Cipher offered to get to one of their informants to see if Serena contacted them. The SS Growler left the very same day, heading to the town, leaving Hunter on the location they’ve set up as a rendezvous point before Serena left for her reconnaissance mission to search for any traces of the Red Lanyards – the renegade mercenary gang that terrorised the area.
Hunter cursed himself for letting her go on her own and staying on the ship to scan and monitor for any mentions of the gang mentioned through the local net of audio frequencies. Over the days he had found nothing of the sort, scanning through radio communications – when it was possible – between cities and the few trading caravans that carried goods between them. But as soon as the storm hit, all communications seized.
The man walked into the dining area and stopped in front of the processor, wondering if he was hungry or not. Lyssa offered him a tray with some thick soup, a couple of pieces of freshly baked bread and a cup of herbal tea.
“Thank you, Lyssa.” Hunter took the tray and sat down at the table in the empty and lonely room.
“Always ready to help, Hunter.” the AI said.
The man ate without appetite, lost in his troubling thoughts about Serena. He didn’t know what else to do – other than the constant scanning and hailing, there was nothing he could really do. If he were to leave the rendezvous point, Serena might come back with no one to greet her.
He kept trying to calm himself that the reason they have lost communication was due to the heavy sandstorms that continued to whirl around. Perhaps, Serena was staying somewhere to wait out the storms?
“Hunter.” Lyssa’s voice sounded, making the man jump to his feet.
“Serena?”
“No. SS Growler is approaching. Hailing failed due to the interferences in the atmosphere.”
Hunter gritted his teeth, forcing down his anger at the whole situation.
“How close are they?” he ruffled his hair, trying to calm down again.
“Landing in fifteen seconds.”
“Why didn’t you notify me earlier?”
“I couldn’t detect a clear signal through the storm.”
“Great. Just great!” Hunter headed towards the cargo bay, where, as he thought, his friends would want to enter Lyssa to debrief.
He saw Cipher and Pher approaching the bay door just as he stepped up, opening it. The wind roared – though, not as hard as the previous days – and threw red sand inside the cargo bay. Cipher and Pher hurried up into the ship, patting themselves from the sand.
“Any news?” Cipher coughed, spitting to the floor from all the sand that he caught while running from his ship to Serena’s.
“None.” Hunter grimaced. “You?”
“Our informant hadn’t heard anything yet. But he promised to keep his eyes peeled.”
Hunter couldn’t contain his anger anymore and kicked a box with provisions:
“Fuck!”
“Look, we’ve done what we can for the moment. Right now the best thing is to sit out the storm. Perhaps, as soon as it calms, Serena would be able to send word.” Pher slapped his friend on the shoulder. “Let’s have a drink and rest a while?”
“A drink…” Hunter growled. “A fucking drink…”
He turned and walked off, heading towards the dining area and thinking how much alcohol would be able to knock him out – just for him to stop thinking about Serena’s disappearance.
Chapter 5. Truth
Serena felt herself better with each passing day, though the worry she felt for her friends was greater than her sense of self-preservation. She found out that Wolfin smashed the earpiece she had when he found her, so there was no way to contact her ship or her friends, unless they will find the remnants of her hover bike. She did understand that her hover bike could have been buried by the sandstorm. Or grabbed by wandering scrappers for spare parts, as she didn’t dare hope that it was intact after the terrible crash she experienced.
Finally, the aching in her body began to feel bearable and Serena got out of bed, still irritated at Wolfin for having her stay for so long.
“Where do you think you’re going?” the man saw her heading to the exit.
“I need to contact my friends.” Serena approached the boulder Wolfin used to close the passage and grasped at the edges, straining to try and move it away.
Though, recovered from most of her injuries, she was nowhere as strong as the man, so she failed to even make the rock budge. She froze, breathing heavily and feeling herself trapped, and heard Wolfin approaching.
“It’s still night out there. Too dangerous for you to be stumbling in search of your friends.” he said. “Let’s eat. If you’re so keen on finding them, I’ll help you first thing in the morning. But you have to do something for me.”
Serena pressed her forehead to the rock and sighed:
