A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 44

"Come on!" she called out, "Over here!"

The fugitive put on a burst of speed and amazed Randi as she flew toward her. Randi pointed down as she yelled, "Down in here, all the way down -- hurry!"

Randi didn't stop to think about anything too much, other than this woman was amazingly beautiful -- and another thought which came to her was a little disconcerting as she knelt there with thick smoke beginning to billow up around her. The woman had seemed to just flow down through the hatch like smoke herself. But there was no time to think about much of anything now as Randi scooted her legs into the hatchway and clambered down, stopping only long enough to close the hatch and dog it as the outline of her tank became invisible in the qualms of thick, stinging phosphorus smoke.

She was coughing a little by the time that she stepped past the woman, "That was close," she said as they heard and felt a few impacts against the outer hull, "I hope they give up and move on," she said over her shoulder, "I've got way too much shit up there for them to break off."

She turned on the thermal imaging as she slewed the turret sideways and saw that the cloud of creatures had moved away a little back down the slope to where there was no smoke.

She heard words then, "That is the third time in four days," the woman's voice came to her, "the second time, they took me out over the water -- hundreds of them - and it was all that I could do to defend myself. It took long over a day. As I slew the last four, I was over land again. I have fought many enemies at once before, but I do not know the ways of this place very well yet and I am not strong yet either."

Randi thought that from the way that it had sounded, this woman had been chased out over one of the larger lakes in the area. She thought about it a little as she turned and stepped around the woman, looking for something in the ammunition rack.

"What is it that you search for?" he heard from the woman.

Randi pointed to the small monitor, "Take a look. They're moving away a little, but I think they'll turn around and come back. I just want to find a beehive round. They're supposed to be good for this kind of thing. I'm sure that we put a few in here."

Finding one of the four that she had aboard, she hefted it and stepped to the gun, hitting the 'OPEN' button. As she breech whined open and down to receive the round, she stuffed it gently inside and hit the 'CLOSE' button and the breech began to close.

"Excuse me," she said quietly as she gently pushed her companion aside a little, and she centered the reticule over the now-returning bunch of demons as her guest looked over her shoulder. As she made minor adjustments, she hoped that this would work and in spite of herself she looked a little carefully for a moment.

As hard as she stared, she couldn't see even one demon there who looked even close to Billy.

She slapped the button to fire the gun.

There was an exclamation of surprise from the woman as the gun slid back in recoil and the canister shot roared out of the barrel on its way. A millisecond later, a secondary charge ignited and released the hundreds of fleshettes -- small steel darts which flew downrange toward the cloud of demons, whining as they went. Neither of the occupants of the Sheridan heard it, but the sound was the reason for the name of the round.

Randi hit the button to open the breech again and a little acrid cordite smoke filtered back toward them from it. She found the switches marked "NBC VENTIL." and turned them on. She hadn't really understood what they were for, but she knew from her reading that the system pressurized the interior of the hull slightly. She loaded another round and closed the breech.

"You-you have slain most of them!" the woman exclaimed, "What was that?"

It was true. The ground was littered with the torn bodies of the dead and the dying. The rest were regrouping, but they began to head off in another direction.

"That was a beehive canister," Randi said, "It's for when you're looking at a lot of things coming at you -- like people or ... demons. It rips them up with little arrows. I've never used one before, but I sure like it now," Randi chuckled as she looked for bodies which were moving and she began to shoot them with short bursts from the coaxial machine gun.

When nothing moved anymore, she slowly turned from the imager and realized that she hadn't been able to understand what this woman had said in her first exclamation, but she had understood everything since they'd come down inside -- and the more that she thought about it, the more certain she became that she had actually not really heard anything. She reached for her pistol, but found that it was gone. A hell of a time to lose it, she chided herself.

When she looked up slowly, she saw the woman smiling at her as she held out Randi's shooter, "You lost this as you carried the thing that you placed in there."

Randi stared as she took the weapon. The woman's lips hadn't moved and she could see the fangs in that smile -- though oddly enough, it looked to be a very friendly and thankful smile to her, all the same.

Randi turned her head and stood looking at the screen again as she slid her pistol back into its holster, knowing that if she was right in her surmisal, she'd done exactly the wrong thing to offer this vampire a little safety. In doing it, she'd been a trusting fool again and it was now very likely going to cost her about the last of what she had -- besides this wonderful toy that she'd bolted together with her friend Copper, she thought that her unremarkable life was down to about its last minute or so.

Rudhi stood waiting for her companion to say something. She'd have minded a lot more, but this was the first moment that she'd really had to look at this girl who lived in the most amazing contraption to her.

The young woman had bright red hair, tied back as it was a little crudely. It was surprising to her, but everything about her was a little rough, just like her hair had been tied, and yet -- she seemed so lovely this way. Rudhi admired that face and the body beneath it. The girl wore heavy fur-lined boots and her pants were tucked into the tops of them, slightly dirty and torn in a few places. She wore something which looked like a wide leather strap around her bare right upper arm and it was adorned with a few bits of bright metal which caught the dim red lighting in here. Her other upper arm carried a few thin leather thongs and she could see several thin silver bracelets on one wrist.

Her breasts were neither large nor small, and to Rudhi's eyes, they looked as though they were perfect on her, held and completely covered inside a short bodice of rough leather and laced together up the middle with a thin pair of straps over her shoulders. Looking a little lower, she saw that the pants had no waistband and were worn very low on her hips.

She smiled a little; she could even see the outline of her cleft in the material and the top of her pubic hair was peeking at her over the top of her pants -- right there next to a small marking of some sort in her skin just above where her thigh met her body. There was also another thin thong of leather around the girl's slender waist and she wore a stud through her skin over her navel. Other than another marking in the skin of her upper left arm, the rest of what she saw were smudges of thick and dark jelly -- some sort of lubricant for this machine, she surmised.

Rudhi had lain with females before. Where she was from, there were too few available partners of any sort as their days came to an end. To her, it had always only been another source of pleasure to be had, though in her heart, she preferred males to mate with by a fair margin. The thought reminded her of her two males, now long dead and gone, she guessed.

She felt a little of this one's sadness and hopelessness as she considered her end and when that came to Rudhi, she was a little upset by it.

"Why are you so ... sad now?" she asked in her mind, "You have done me a great kindness here, and I was hopeful to have made a friend in you maybe, but now I feel that you think that you will die now, or soon. I think that there is a mistake here, and I wish to know why."

The green eyes which flashed a little as that face turned to regard her almost took Rudhi's breath away. She'd seen only a few humans from this close up and though the girl who had pleased her a few nights ago was nice to look at, she was nothing in comparison to the beauty who stood before her now.

"It took me a while," Randi said slowly, "I was just too busy, I guess, but I've just noticed that you can speak to me and make no sound. I've also just seen your teeth. I'm an idiot, I guess, but I've just saved a vampire. I don't know all that much about them, but I guess that you'll want to kill me now. I hope it doesn't bother you too much, but I'm not real happy about that."

Rudhi shook her head, "I only speak this way so that I can make myself understood by you. Neither of us knows the speech of the other. I hear your thoughts as you speak, but the sounds that you make? Well they sound good to me, but I understand nothing of it. If I were to speak to you, it would be the same for you. Like this, we can talk.

I am no blood-drinker -- though I have done it when I have had the need, but I have no bloodthirst. A few days ago, I killed a few humans, but that was because I had not eaten anything in so very long. I could have eaten other creatures, I suppose, but those ones were there and it was an easy way to fill my belly in my weakness. None of them suffered.

Look, it is daytime. What you think cannot be here now. And those things are dead, no matter what they might tell you, while I am not. I am only something else, brought here long ago and left forgotten. I have only just awakened a few days ago, and now I wander here and seek to find a way to live, knowing little if anything of this place."

She looked sad then, "You have been kind to me, and I think that you do not like what I am. I am sorry for this, but I have no desire or need to harm you," she tilted her head, "Why would I, after what you have done? I can defeat the demons easily, but I have not recovered my strength or abilities yet as I try to remember -- and every time that they overtake me, I am not prepared."

She looked around for a moment, "Please show me the way out of your home and I will leave you. A face like that should never look as sad as I see now."

Randi had been taking her first good look at the other one as she'd spoken. What she saw astounded her in many ways. If she was lost here -- or as lost as what this woman was telling her, she didn't want to think about going around dressed as scantily as what she was looking at.

Randi wasn't very attracted to anyone at the moment, and she really hadn't been since the last time that she'd been raped and had crawled off to hide herself away again. She didn't know what had happened to her friend Copper, and she'd have been amazed to learn of her relationship and love with a demon of all things -- and a female one at that.

Randi had never had the slightest inclination to be attracted to women, though she had to give this creature her due. If there ever was a female that Randi would have looked at and seen beauty in the purest sense, then she was looking at it now. She still wasn't attracted to anyone, but she found that she could stand to look at this girl and like it.

"So you're not going to kill me or suck my blood out of me or anything like that?" she asked a little cautiously.

"No," she heard the thought in her mind, "Why would I kill someone who I hope for as a friend to me? I have no one here. I hoped that I could learn from you. I would do anything that I could for you for what you did for me."

She sighed heavily, "I do not even know your name, but I tell you that I ache to know someone. I was a high one where I am from, long ago. I was proud there, but I was taken far from there by blood-drinkers and kept asleep. They are gone now and I cannot go back, and even if I could, everyone there is dead now," she pointed to her breast, "I feel this. There is no one left, and I am alone here, far from my home."

Randi didn't know why, but she believed what she heard. "I'm trying to understand why you're telling me that I'm safe when you just got done telling me that you killed and ... ate some people? Why did you do that? And how can I be safe?"

Rudhi thought that she could understand it, so she just said gently, "Try to think that I am not from here -- anywhere on this world. I come from another place. What we were there long ago hunted others for food -- and I say to you that what we were when I was taken from my home was a little different, but our beginnings remain with us.

I awoke after ... I do not know how long it was that I slept, but I remember the city there, full of life and humans, though I was not permitted to speak to one or even go close enough to look, really. When I awoke a few days ago, the city was ruined and there was no one there. So much time must have passed. I had to eat, and so I ate some small creatures, but there were not many, and then I found some humans. I am not what you are, but you are the same as me in some ways.

What you began as also ate meat. I can see this by your teeth, several of the front ones, anyway. She sniffed a little and looked at a knapsack in the corner, "What is in there, please?"

Randi shrugged, "Just some ale and a little ... meat on some bread." Randi's eyes opened a little, "I think I see what you're saying. We still eat meat, though we don't just push a cow over and start to gnaw on it."

"What do you do to it then?" Rudhi asked with a slightly challenging smile.

"We -- we uh, ... we kill it and butcher it to cook over some fire later," she looked up then, "Please don't tell me that you cooked up those people ..."

Rudhi shook her head, "No. In only minutes, I found that humans are a little too close to me to do that, but I had hunger, so I ate." She looked at the knapsack again.

"Alright," Randi said, "Around here, when we try to meet somebody for the first time, we hold out our right hands and hold onto the other one's hand for a moment, "She held out her hand, "My name's Randi Farber. What's yours?"

Rudhi looked at the hand for a moment before she grasped it, "I am Rudhi Natheah."

Randi learned what she'd set out to know. Rudhi's hand was very warm to the touch. When she let go, she grinned, "If you're hungry now, well, I'll share my lunch with you -- seeing as how we're the same in at least a couple of ways."

Rudhi nodded with a hopeful smile, so thankful not to have lost the chance to know someone. Randi opened her knapsack and shared her sandwiches and ale as they sat together. Rudhi was surprised at how good they tasted and she said so before she looked over and smiled as she watched Randi laugh a little.

"So really, your name is Rudy?"

"Yes," Rudhi nodded, "why do you smile like that?"

"Nothing really, "the redhead grinned, "I just like our names, Rudy and Randi."

"Where were you going in your home here?" Rudhi asked.

"This isn't my home," Randi replied, "This is just my new wagon, I guess. I prepare meats like what you're eating. Taking it all to market and getting back home with the small money that I get from selling it has always been trouble for me, but it's what I can do well."

Rudhi asked why it was so difficult and after listening to Randi tell of some of her experiences, Rudhi grew a little angry as she thought about it.

"I have only been here a little while, and I know you for less than that, but I will help you if I can. No one will steal from you again or hurt you. When do you go to this market next?"

"I was going to go tomorrow," Randi said, "If you want to come along, well, I could use some help loading and unloading everything in here." She didn't know about the rest, but Randi found herself liking Rudhi now and help was always welcome.

"We're gonna have to find you something else to wear, though. Dressed like that, we'll have all the men hanging around, but their women sure won't be happy and they're the ones who buy the most for their families."

"What is wrong with how I am dressed?" Rudhi asked, "This is proper where I am-"

Her eyes opened a little wider, "Ah, you try to tell me something. Alright. Is this better?"

Randi almost dropped the jug of ale. Except for the piercings and her eager to please smile, Rudhi was naked.

"No," Randi laughed shaking her head as she admired what she saw, "I mean that you need to be wearing more, not less, Rudy. I've got some clothes at my place that ought to fit you. We're not far from being the same size, I think. Why do you have those little rings there? And what are the leather uh, strings there for?"

Rufhi looked down at herself, guessing that things were done a little differently here and remembering that the humans that she'd met in the caravan had been wearing a lot more than she'd been, now that she thought about it.

"The rings are to show something," she said, "I did not think it too unusual -- you have something here too," she pointed to the stud in Randi's abdomen, "Where I am from, it shows that I am of noble blood. What does this show here?"

Randy shrugged, "Nothing, I guess. I just wanted it."

"You are wearing more than I am," Rudhi said, "but you do not cover yourself that much more, Randi."

"Very true," the redhead nodded, "But this is the way that I like to be when I'm alone or with one of my friends. In town, I wear a lot more than this. People are funny there. I just like my body and it feels good to me to be like this when I'm alone. Sometimes I don't wear this much, but only if I'm alone."

"Where I was," Rudhi smiled, "this was the way that females went. I am the same as you, I think. When I am alone, I feel best with little on me, so long as I am not cold -- like I was outside." She looked up, "I should put the other things back?"

Randi laughed, "If you want to, Rudhi. I don't mind looking at you like this -- or that other way, since there's not all that much difference. But you didn't tell me about the other rings and everything. Here, I guess that it means that ... well, I don't rightly know what it means."

The dark haired woman looked down at herself a little uncomfortably, since it was becoming obvious to her that things were very different here. "Among us, these say that I was to rule one day, "she sighed, wondering if she ought to feel shame or something, "and also it shows that I like a little pleasure if they are tugged very gently. They feel nice if they move a little." She waved her hand and the thongs were gone from her nipple rings.

"Well I think that they looked kind of nice," Randi said, "so if you want to wear them, I sure won't mind."

The rings and thongs were back in a moment and Randi nodded, "Yeah, I do like that better on you, but they scare the heck out of me in a way."

Rudhi tilted her head, "Why?"

It caused Randi to laugh quite a lot, but when she settled down, she smiled a little ruefully, "Because I know myself pretty well, I guess. I think that I actually love seeing those on you and it's pretty different for me to admit it to myself, never mind to another person. But I could never wear anything like that. I know I'd just get them caught in everything and hurt myself."

"Ah," Rudhi smiled, getting it, "I get them caught as well sometimes, but if I must be a little careful ..."

Randi grinned when she saw that the thongs were now tied together, from one nipple to the other. "I'm glad that I met you," she nodded decisively, "Come on, Rudy," she said as she moved forward. She took the fleece from the driver's seat and laid it carefully on a gearcase nearby. "Can you please sit here for a while as I drive? You'll need to watch your head, but the fleece here will keep your butt clean from the grease on this thing here."