Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

The following day Margot was positively buzzing with excited anticipation about the impending consummation of her blossoming romance with Rylinn when he returned that evening. She even found herself popping outside to the landing area repeatedly to see if he'd arrived like an anxious schoolgirl looking for her suitor's car.

Floxxia had already made it clear to her how interspecies relationships worked while she was applying the runes to her blank canvas of flesh, and it was something Margot had found both fascinating as well as arousing in a way.

"No, it's like I told you. You can't get pregnant," the woman had explained, repeating herself at the human's disbelief. "It's an Infala thing. Only bonded mates can reproduce if they are from different races."

"Seriously?"

"Why do you seem so surprised by this? If not for this system, the worlds would be overrun by unintended offspring, and not all planets have the resources to care for them."

"I get it, but it's just so, I don't know…convenient."

"Convenient?"

"I'm talking about sex having no repercussions, Floxxia. Not worrying about a morning-after pill is a huge thing."

"What's a morning-after pill?"

"Never mind. My point is, this is fascinating."

Margot's mind wandered back to the interesting trysts she'd turned down in her college years solely for lack of a condom. Of course, there were also STIs to worry about, and given that these were aliens, the question of whether her naughty bits would catch fire and fall off was a very real concern.

Floxxia put her mind at ease on that point as well.

"Your kind still has those?" she asked, her shock apparent. "My Gods, what a primitive world you must come from."

"Gee, thanks."

"I do not mean any disrespect, but it is simply unheard of in the Dotharian realms. All diseases of that nature were eradicated centuries ago. And any time a new world was brought into the Dotharian fold its citizens were all immediately purged of any such contagions."

"So, no unwanted pregnancies, and no STIs," the human replied in near shock.

"As I already told you. No to both. Now, hold still and stop talking. You do not want a distracted Skrizzit, especially not with the power of the pigment you're getting. One wrong line and it could be a whole world of problems."

Margot zipped her lips tight, heeding the woman's admonition. Whatever else might happen to her, at least this was somewhat within her control, and she would not screw it up. And at the end, her self-control paid off with Floxxia declaring the runes not only complete, but also flawless.

"Use them in good health," she told Margot as she left to return to her holding area.

And now that the runes were healed into her skin, for the most part, and enhancing certain very pleasant sensations, much to her delight, Margot was finally coming around to the whole Dotharian rune situation. At least until the enormous blue man running things around these parts came storming across the compound just as she stepped out into the fresh air to greet Rylinn's arriving ship.

Gromm's already prominent veins were absolutely bulging out of his neck and temples, his pulse thundering as if he was about to blow a gasket. And judging by the look in his eyes, he very well might have.

Margot had been watching the ship setting down, a happy smile spreading across her lips as Rylinn stepped out, matching it with his own as he strode toward her.

"Where is that fucking woman?" the blue hulk shouted loud enough to make every last head in the camp turn.

Rylinn's attention quickly redirected from Margot, the rage and force of Gromm's unexpected bellow stopping him short. His gaze flicked back to Margot just as Gromm spotted her.

"There you are!" he growled, his feet stomping loudly as he stormed towards her. "You fucking bitch! You took my pigment!"

Margot did her best to look tough, but this towering monster of a man was huge and could snap her like a twig.

"I don't know what you mean?" she replied, her voice quavering in spite of her best efforts to put on a strong face.

Rylinn snapped out of his shock and hurried over.

"What's the matter, Gromm?"

"I'll tell you what's the matter. This little whore has my pigment, that's what's the matter."

"I don't understand. Didn't you instruct the Skrizzit to give her the runes?"

"Not with my personal supply!" he shouted, the myriad runes on his arms pulsing with angry light. "Do you have any idea the value of the pigment that stupid prisoner put into her? Not only did it take me years to source, but it cost me a gods damned fortune! And now it's gone, stuck in some worthless woman's body. A fucking waste! And all because this fool didn't have runes."

"It's not her fault, Gromm. She crashed with the Raxxians. She's not from here, you know that. The compartment she crashed in was a Raxxian holding cell. It was just luck that she and the others wound up free."

Gromm's anger faded but only slightly. "Others?"

"Yeah. You know about them, right? The ones she was being held with?"

"I've been a bit too busy to sit around talking with some woman," he hissed.

Rylinn wasn't picking a fight, but neither was he backing down. At least, not entirely.

"Well, if you had, you'd already know all of this."

A curious look flashed across Gromm's face as multiple ideas took root. He stared at Margot hard and long, then turned to one of his men.

"Others, eh? Zarlik, take a small team and go find this woman's crash site. If there are others, find them and bring them back."

"Yes, Captain!" the man replied, turning to run off to his ship.

"Wait!"

"Sir?"

Gromm flashed an angry glance Margot's way. "You're taking her with you. She knows where her ship crashed."

Rylinn was not happy with that. Not one bit.

"Gromm, be reasonable."

"This is me being reasonable."

"Then at least send me with."

"You have other work to do if you expect to be paid. Earn your keep, tracker!"

Rylinn's face paled slightly at the threat of losing his big payday. Much as he was enjoying his time with Margot, he wasn't about to jeopardize that.

She caught his eye, noting his discomfort. "It's okay. I'll be back soon."

She had more to say but was grabbed by the arm and whisked away to the waiting ship. There were six men aboard including the pilot and copilot, all of them battle-worn and steely-eyed. Packs of gear were hanging from the bulkhead along with an assortment of strange looking weapons. This wasn't your ordinary rescue team, apparently.

The door shut, and the ship lifted off at once, flying low and scanning the ground for life signs as they did. Of course, Margot was now aware that this place was tough on the scanning devices, so she doubted they'd find anything. At least, not until they landed and moved on foot.

One of the men, a fellow called Tikks, kept staring at her with an obviously lustful gaze. He turned toward the cockpit. "Any signs?"

"Nothing yet."

"Keep looking. We'll get a good price if we find them alive."

Margot's adrenaline spiked, along with her anger. "Hang on. This is a rescue mission."

Tikks laughed. An ugly sound matching his brutish fa?ade. "Where'd you get that idea? Gromm'll sell whoever he finds to the highest bidder."

"No, that's not right."

"Who cares about right? We only care about currency. And as for you…" he said, rising menacingly and moving toward her.

"Back off. I'm warning you."

"Warning me? Oh, girlie, you and me, we're going to get to know each other real good and there's nothing you can do about it."

Margot jumped back, running to the back of the small ship. The other men, she noted, were just laughing, cheering their friend on. And Rylinn was not with them. She would have to handle this on her own. But how?

She spun, looking for something, anything, that might?—

"Back the fuck off!" she shouted, yanking one of the strangely shaped alien weapons from the rack and pointing it vaguely at Tikks.

She had no idea how the damn thing worked, but she hoped the threat would be enough to stop the man's advances. But he just laughed even more.

"Dumb bitch. It's not even armed."

"Like this?" she shot back, randomly pressing buttons on the strange weapon, not having a clue what they actually did.

A blast rang out, a massive pulse of energy firing out of one end. Margot dropped the burning hot weapon in a flash.

"You fucking idiot! You overloaded the?—"

The ship lurched and dove, a strong wind blowing through it.

"She shot Kokrain!" someone shouted.

Even in all the panic, she had the presence of mind to realize she'd somehow accidentally killed the pilot, ruining the controls in the process by the sound of the copilot's frantic shouting. And now they were going to crash, and it was all her fault.

The ship bucked and spun, throwing her against the hull. She managed to grab onto a strap system used for stowing gear. Luckily, this one was empty, and she was able to loop her arms into it, holding on for dear life as they plummeted out of the sky.

At the very last second an automated blast fired, keeping the ship from shattering into the ground, but only just. They hit hard, the craft breaking with a sickening metal crunch from the impact.

Margot felt like her arms had nearly been ripped from their sockets, and for all she knew that might have been the case. But all that mattered right now was the most basic of instincts.

Fight or flight.

Given the situation, the choice was clear.

Margot lunged out the gaping hole in the ship's side, ignoring the sharp metal as it sliced her skin, and took off in a sprint into the woods as fast as her newly rune-enhanced legs would take her, running until her legs screamed in agony then pushing even harder. Failure was not an option. If they caught her, they'd kill her. But not before they did far worse things than that. This pain she could overcome. A team of angry men whose comrade she'd just killed she could not.

And so, she ran and ran, lost and alone, leaving a team of dazed, bloody, and very angry men in her wake, hoping desperately that they wouldn't find her.

Time would tell.