Chapter 9:
Jenny’s eyes fluttered open as consciousness came back. She had no idea where she was. Her body was resting on a cold stone floor, and everything was dim and dark. Horror rushed into her. Had it finally happened? Had that long and sweet dream that she had been having finally broken? Had she awoken back in the tiny space that had been allocated to her family there in the Below?
Her hands flew out, and her fingers touched the floor. She levered herself up slowly. Her eyes scanned her surroundings and despair hit her hard as the events that had recently unfolded came back to her. Ben stood nearby, one hand holding a protein bar that he had obviously stolen while in the hospital and the other one holding a refresher bottle that he was drinking from greedily.
She spoke. “What is happening?”
Ben gave her a smile; it was razor-sharp and filled with malice. “I thought I already told you what I want. Maybe I gave you a harder knock on the head than I intended to. Have you already forgotten?”
She shook her head and as she did, a small lance of pain flew through her temples. She put her fingertips to it and rubbed lightly. Immediately the pain went away. That startled her a bit, but she ignored it. There were other things that she had to consider right now; a headache was the least of her worries.
She asked, “Do you really think they will ransom for me, Ben?”
He said, “Yes. I do. They think of you as a healer, and they thought enough of you to first rescue you from a slave ship and take you to their home planet, didn’t they?”
Yes. They had. She sighed. “It isn’t what you think, Ben. Their race is not like ours. Theirs is a very rational and logical race, but they also have a huge depth of compassion.”
He sneered at her. “Let’s see if they have enough compassion for you to hand over that stack of credits that I know they are hoarding.”
She asked, “How could I not have known that this is who you are?”
Ben looked at her. His eyes glittered in the dimness. “I don’t know Jenny. You grew up in the Below. You know how things are. It’s everyone for themselves. You get whatever you can take, and you keep what you have. That is, if you want to live.”
She did want to live but not if it meant killing someone else or causing them to suffer. She looked down at her hands. “Ben, did you ever love me?”
He snorted. “There’s no such thing as love, you little idiot. I kept you safe because you had value. I had thought that I could pawn you at some point. Especially after your parents were gone and you had no family to speak up for you. I still don’t know how you managed to get yourself captured and put on that ship. But I will say that you did it mere hours before I was to go to the pawn shop and have you taken.”
Hatred started in her chest. “I loved you. At least I thought I did. But then again, what did I know of love?”
She closed her eyes. The image of her little hut on the hill came back to her, soothing her. She could picture every object on her shelves and the small bed that she slept in at night. She could hear the sound of the waves crashing on the shore and feel the sunlight on her face.
With those things came something else. A strong and sure determination that she had never known she could or would ever possess. She was going to live. She was going to fight if she had to. She was going to live if there was any way, any way at all, that she could get out of whatever this place was that Ben had brought her to and get back to the hospital; she would take that way.
She did not want to go just back to the hospital though. She wanted to go home. She wanted to go home, and she wanted to see Marik, the one that she truly did love.
That was what all those emotions and feelings that she constantly felt near him were. They were all precursors of the love that she had been unwilling to admit. They were the sure signs of her affection for him, and she had thrust them away carelessly and ignored them out of fear and commitment to this horrible man who had never cared for her at all.
Well, so be it.
Knowing that he had no love for her and never had simplified things in a way that made it possible for her to think more clearly. She had no doubt that Ben would use her to get the ransom and then kill her. If he did not kill her, that he would find some other use for her, and she was sure whatever that use was, it would not be pleasant.
Home.
She had to get out of there and away from him. She had to find Marik and tell him how she felt. She had to go home.
This planet was not her home. She came back here to try to help, and she had done that. It was not enough, but it would never be enough. She could live several lifetimes and never be able to do enough for this planet.
Ben tossed her the refresher bottle. A scant swallow remained in the bottom. She set it aside, not willing to put her lips on the same object that his lips had touched. He ignored the fact that she did not drink from it.
He said, “You know, this planet that they took you to. There are some here, those who lived above and have flight training, who want to take that ship and go find that planet. If we have large enough numbers, we could.”
Shock raced all across her system. Was he insane? One look at his face told her that he was not so much insane as he was power-hungry. He was no better than the Federation’s top officers, those who disregarded life because it was of far less value to them than wealth and power.
She said, “They are warriors there. They will kill you before the ship even lands.”
His eyebrow lifted. “I have had spies in and out of that hospital for weeks now. I have heard all of the stories of that planet. It sounds as if there are few creatures on it that we would have to fight and plenty of resources. A man could be king there.”
King? What was the king?
