Fic: Returned to Life, Part Fourteen

[jeriendhal]

“Ohh...”

“Rachael,” Lance hissed beside her, “Rachael, are you all right?”

She swallowed, pushing back the bile that threatened to rise up from her throat. “I feel sick.” Rachael opened her eyes. She was on her her knees in the middle of a gun metal grey, cylindrical chamber, the only exit appearing to be a heavy airlock door. Underneath her she could feel the slight vibration of humming engines. We’re on a ship, she concluded. To one side of her was Lance and on the other, looking as sick as she felt, was Leeza, both alive, both bound as she was, hands cuffed behind their backs.

Lance smiled wanly. “You’ve got stunner shock, that’s all. You’ll be aps, no time.”

“Tell that... to my stomach. What happened... to you two?”

“Uh, the lizards blew the inner airlock door. I think we managed to fry the armor of one of them before the next one chucked a flash-bang grenade and then hit us with stunner rifles. Lucky for us they were in the mood to take prisoners.”

Leeza let a out a moan. “Frell, I haven’t felt this awful since Mavra Chan gut stabbed me.” She blinked and focused on Rachael. “You’re alive, thank God. Where’s Teri?”

“I don’t know,” Rachael said. She swallowed again, feeling her stomach settle down a bit. “He was behind me in the vent duct when I got shot.”

“They found you in Engineering anyway? Damn.”

“No, no, we weren’t in Engineering. We were above the medical bay.”

Leeza groaned. “I thought I told you two to stay put!”

“I thought... We heard them find the stasis chamber with the little dead Ferin. I thought if they were all in one room together, maybe we could ambush them, and maybe hold out until Captain Brushtail returned.”

“Oh, fragg. That was stupid, girl,” Lance snapped. “If they caught the kid, that means the Gene Mage has got what he’s been hunting for all this time.”

Racheal hung her head down. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s my fault that they found us at all.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Rachael,” Leeza said. “You were trying to do the right thing at least.”

“No, you don’t understand. One of the Galapados said something about “tracking the girl’s signal.’ I think he meant me.”

Lance and Leeza traded a look over Rachael’s head. “Weren’t you saying something about the Gene Mage’s lab being pretty lightly defended, Coz?” Lance asked.

“Yeah. Oh, nova!” Leeza exclaimed. “It’s perfect. We just happen to pick up a stray Galapados transmission that leads us to the lab, where we just happen to find one of the Three Children sitting in a stasis tube, waiting for us. We couldn’t have taken her with us any faster if she’d been wrapped in a bow.”

“But why not just ambush all of you when you hit the lab?” Rachael asked.

“They couldn’t be certain Terinu was with us, or how strongly the defenses around him were,” Leeza said. “If the Gene Mage could insert a tracker in you that we couldn’t pick up on a medical scan, it could have been much harder to splice in a recorder bug.”

“He’s probably listening to us right now,” Lance said, grimacing.

“So that’s all I am?” Rachael asked. “A Trojan Horse to trip you all up?

“I”m sorry Rachael, but it looks that way,” Leeza said.

She leaned forward, until her head rested on the cool metal of the deck. “It would have been better if you’d just left me there. I could have stayed dead, a martyr to the cause, instead of waking up and screwing everything up.”

“Don’t talk like that!” Lance said.

They all felt a muffled clank, and Leeza said, “We’ve docked.” Then the airlock door opened and a large Galapados, wearing an elaborate tunic, entered the chamber.

“Gisko!” Lance exclaimed.

“We meet again, Lt. Freeman,” the Galapados said. The lizard warrior smiled with sharp teeth. “I fear this time it isn’t you who have caused me grief, however.” He strode over to Rachael and picked her up by the neck of her blouse, dragging her to her feet, until she stood on tiptoe. “You, however, cost me the life of one of my warriors, cut down in ambush. What do you have to say for yourself?”