Sabledrake Magazine
February, 2003
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CTF 2187: Past and Future Intertwined
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Rings
Copyright © 2003 by L. D. Korn
Drenched in sweat and still struggling, Gillian reached out against her attacker.
Whoever was carrying her had a firm grip and would not budge despite her best efforts at resistance. And without her glasses, she couldn’t make out very much. They were now rounding the corner and turning down a hallway on Level 3. Gillian tried to anchor herself where the two walls met forming a corner. Her nails scraped the alloy walls accomplishing nothing.
“I love you,” he whispered. “Just wait,”
He loved her?! That wasn’t good enough.
She didn’t stop. She wasn’t going to wait for anything. Another corner was quickly approaching. With his hand held firmly over her mouth, Gillian could only think about yelling out. This time she used both hands to grab a hold of the metal walls forming the next corner.
For one brief second she managed to slow her kidnapper. The ring on her left hand was pulled off by the corner. Lance had just given it to her. She never saw where it landed.
A small grunt from her captor signified she had caught him off guard. But the delay was brief. Her grip, like the last attempt, did not qualify her for a reprieve from the situation.
Gillian looked ahead and saw the aerial tramway. She knew from level 3, the trams on this side of the station only went to the lower levels. It was the only way in or out at that point. But that didn’t make sense to her. And where was Lance?
“I love you. Don’t make me tell you again. Just wait,” the giant whispered.
He wasn’t hurting her. That she could tell. But Gillian was contained. She couldn’t wrestle free, yet she experienced no physical discomfort. With a solid grip, Gillian was slung over her captor’s back.
She heard him accessing the tramway. At last, with no palm covering her mouth, a breath of fresh filtered air processed within the station took up residence inside her lungs. And then another followed. Now she could yell out for Lance…or anyone for that matter. Gillian opened her mouth…and the hand returned as she was carried into the shaft.
Inside Gillian could hear the hum of the magnetic drive slowly increase. They were going down.
With her right leg she brought up her heel as hard as she could. The impact arrived between the wishbone stance of her assailant. She was let go.
As the giant curled into a ball on the floor of the lift Gillian searched the control panel for the stop button. The panel was locked. She couldn’t access the controls without his card key. Gillian’s attention shifted to the ball of flesh and bone writhing on the floor behind her… and she didn’t earn her high rating as a surveyor for Extract Coring by being in the crap-taking business.
“You,” she said. And, without her glasses, she brought the force of her heel into his chest with full force just as she had against his seams only moments before. “Where is that key, asshole?”
With a groan from her kick the attacker planted his left arm on the floor as if to begin getting up. Gillian rotated her stance preparing for another kick. Her foot came forward towards his face…and his other hand firmly caught it. As the momentum shifted, Gillian again found herself on the other side of the attack.
As Gillian was shoved to the floor and pinned down with an over-sized boot a voice came out. “I love you. Do you mean this key card?” He flaunted it dangling from above her contorted position. His face, whoever he was, was still out of view. The shaft was slowing down. The female computerized voice filled the air: “Airlock: Level 6”.
Like an old rag, Gillian was picked up off the floor and tossed over the shoulder of her aggressor again. All she saw was their exit from the shaft. She didn’t even think to reach out for the hatchway that time. The walls were smooth here. She had never been down this far in the station. They rounded another corner and then he stopped.
Gillian could hear him inserting his key card into the port.
“Access approved,” a male computerized voice confirmed.
As they entered the room, Gillian was swung around on his shoulders while he closed the hatch with his key card. Before her were three airlocks, all side by side. The rings of Neptune hovered in the distance, perpendicular to the view out of the window.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I love you. Just wait,”
She didn’t wait. With her right hand, she planted her nails into his ear. His grunt signified an amount of pain was delivered to momentarily distract him. This time, instead of fighting her, he took the pain. Gillian heard the familiar sound of the key card and another control port meeting.
“Access approved. Warning: interior hatch must be secured first,”
Then, his hand found its way to the back of her neck. Gillian’s nails left rows of angry flesh alongside his face, which she still could not see. Face first, she landed on the deck of airlock 2. Stunned by the impact for only a second, it was enough time for her to offer no resistance. The interior hatch closed behind her.
Gillian got up and repeatedly slapped both of her hands on the eight-inch thick glass. “No!” she cried out. He had already turned and walked back to the main panel. She saw only his back and still could not make out who it was. A speaker came on just above her.
“I love you. But now I can hear you, Miss League,” he said in a crackled voice.
“Why…are you doing this?” she asked in a crying tone.
“Because nothing upsets us more than the death of a very pretty girl,”
It was colder outside than she thought.
**