Survivor

"Won't they be expecting us?"

"Two survivors from a rescue ship? I doubt it. I don't think they'll be looking for us anywhere near their base, but we'll keep hidden anyway."

"You're the military man." She smiled weakly. "One more thing." I looked at her expectantly; she was blushing. "I need to go to the bathroom." She said quietly.

Her embarrassment served to remind me once more of Em's lack of experience in this sort of situation. Trying not to laugh I swept my around the hollow we were in.

"Any bush you like." I said. She looked around and then scuttled off. "And keep low." I added, finally permitting myself a smile.

Throughout the night one or other of us kept a constant watch on the building, making notes if we saw anything. I also wrote out a coded message that would bring my former colleagues to this planetoid if I could find a powerful enough transmitter, but I guessed the pirates had one in their command centre, if we could find it.

By daybreak we had both come to the conclusion that we needed a better viewpoint.

"If we keep watching throughout the day, we might see something else." I mused. "And then we'll move tonight, try and get around to the other side."

"All right, but I'm finding this observation stuff difficult. It makes me sleepy." As Emalotte spoke, there was a rumbling sound and the ground beneath us shook. "What is that?" She asked nervously.

"That, my dear girl, is a ship taking off." I smiled. Obviously she hadn't spent as much time as me around spaceports.

"From underneath us?"

"Not exactly." I pointed. "Watch over there, I think." As she turned her head a ship roared into the air and disappeared spacewards. "There must be a port down there somewhere."

"Could we get in that way?" Emmy asked.

"Let's go have a look-see shall we?"

"Won't it be guarded?"

"Maybe. There's only one way to find out. Come on."

We took everything we could out of the two packs and left them behind; we needed to travel light from now on.

Emalotte and I peered out from the bushes that were our cover.

"See? They're not expecting anyone to try this." I whispered.

"But there are guards." Emmy whispered back.

"Bored, disinterested guards; easily evaded. Believe me, I know."

"What about electronic surveillance?"

"Deeper inside the base maybe, but out here on the port edge they just get mucked up by the arrivals and departures. They're relying on their hiding place not being found. We are already inside their best defence." I flashed her a grin.

"I don't know about that: A couple of hundred armed pirates seems to be a pretty good defence to me."

"Not to a professional." My grin widened.

"Okay." She sighed. "Show this amateur what to do."

Even from a distance I had seen several holes in the pirates protective web. I picked the one that I thought would be easiest for Em and then asked her to keep quiet and follow me. She gave me an anxious nod and we headed toward a spot near the edge of one side of the vast cavern the pirates were using for a port. I had chosen it because of the landslip; there was more cover and less likelihood of an unusually attentive sentry investigating any noise. It only took a few minutes and then we were inside the perimeter. I led Emmy towards a walkway that seemed to connect to the rest of the base.

"What are you doing?" She hissed urgently, grabbing my arm.

"I want to get into their control room, up there," I pointed up towards the command centre near the cave roof, "and the best way, as any wasp who has got into a beehive knows, is to act like you belong."

"Oh. Right."

"So if you could act a bit less, well, cute, and a bit more mean and piratey, I'd be grateful." I groaned inwardly as I said the word 'cute', knowing she'd make something of it.

"I can do mean." Em said and grimaced comically.

"Good." I replied, trying not to laugh. "Come on then, mean pirate." I turned and led her onto the walkway, thinking that I'd got away with it.

"So, you think I'm cute then?" Emmy asked as she fell in step behind me.

I rolled my eyes.

"I just meant that we need to blend in."

"Not answering the question." She sang.

"All right." I sighed. "Yes, I think you are cute and possibly very pretty, but can we concentrate and pretend I didn't say that."

"Sure." A pause. "At least you can pretend if you like. I'm going to remember it. Now shush, I have to practice being mean and nasty."

"Oh I don't think you do." I muttered, not quite under my breath.

"What was that?" Emalotte asked.

"Nothing."

I strode along the pathway towards the main part of the pirate base, Emalotte trotted along behind: She was humming.

"EM!" I snapped.

"What?"

"The humming."

"Oh! Sorry. Gnarly warrior doesn't come naturally to me; perhaps I can be a jolly pirate." She grinned.

"Just act like you're supposed to be here." I sighed. She was irrepressible.

"Suggestions on how?"

"Maybe you could carry your gun on your back, as opposed to clutching it at the ready." I said. "Just be casual Em."

"I can do casual. Casual it is."

"Good. Come on. We need to find the way to the command centre." We both slung over weapons over our shoulders and pressed on deeper into the enemy stronghold.

The two of us had made our way unobtrusively well into the maze of corridors at the heart of the pirate base, closing in on the control room. Here there were more and more people but perversely Emmy was getting more confident. Then a guy stopped her. I turned and my hand went toward my pistol.

"Hey beautiful," he said, "how come I haven't seen you around before?"

"Can I tell you a secret?" She asked, beckoning him closer.

"Sure thing baby." He leant towards her.

"I've been avoiding you." She gave him a sweet smile.

"Hahaha, good one." He laughed and then walked off.

Em caught me up still grinning. I grinned back.

"He's right. That was a good one." I told her.

"I was sure he knew for a minute." She looked worried for a moment.

"Naw, just a crumby chat-up line." I tousled her hair reassuringly.

"It would have worked a few days ago." She smiled and then set her shoulders. "Hey! Come on, I can see the route we have to take." She marched off determinedly and I had to scurry along to catch her up.

She led me through a series of corridors, following a series of signs, until we were on our own again and climbing a long staircase.

"Em, there may be a sentry outside the command centre. If there is can you cause a distraction so that I can dispose of him?" I said as we climbed.

"Probably. What do you mean by 'dispose of'?"

"What do you think?"

"Maybe the guard will be a woman?"

"A pirate is a pirate; none of them are very nice people."

"What I meant, numbskull, is that a girl might be harder for me to distract."

"Oh I dunno. Just start chatting about your outfits, you all seem to be able to do that." I laughed.

"That's a bit of an old-fashioned view." Emalotte snorted.

"What can I say? I'm an old-fashioned guy." I told her.

"Well, old at least." She giggled.

"You cheeky cow!"

By now we were close to what appeared to be the top of the stairs so I let Emmy get a little way ahead. I peered around the corner and saw that she was talking to the sentry and had managed to get him turned around so that he had his back to me. 'Good girl', I thought as I came up behind him. With one quick movement I snapped his neck and slowly let the body to the floor. Em had a distressed look on her face.

"How can you do that?" She asked plaintively.

"Practice." I said somewhat callously as I searched the corpse for a pass card that I noticed was needed to open the command centre door.

"That's not what I meant." Em snapped back.

"I know what you meant. That's why you do the distracting and I do the disposal." I wasn't angry with her, she hadn't been exposed to the harsh realities I had, but I was upset that she had learnt how easily killing still came to me. I found the card and passed it to her. "Now, I want you to open the door and then stay behind me while I deal with whatever is in there. When I say 'clear' I want you to go to the radio transmitter and send this message." I handed her the piece of paper I had prepared earlier. "Add your co-ordinates for the planetoid where it says." She nodded, looking a little worried now. I gave her a reassuring smile.

"What are you going to be doing while I'm on the radio?"

"I'm going to seriously screw up everything in this room."

"Won't that alert them that we're here?"

"Just a bit, so we'll have to be quick and clever."

"Multi-tasking eh? I'll do my best."

"You're doing fine sweetie." I patted her on the shoulder. "Now, ready?" She nodded.

I cocked my pistol and held it ready before giving her the okay. She swiped the card and pushed the door open. Walking in, I saw three guys working at various workstations around the control room. I picked them off in rapid succession. As I was about to announce 'clear' for Em I heard the loud boom of her shotgun behind me. I span around to see her staring ashen-faced at the body of the guy I hadn't seen; the guy she'd just killed to save me. I knew she needed comforting at that moment, but we just didn't have the time.

"EM! Emmy! Snap out of it. Find the radio." I ordered.

"Yeah, the radio." She muttered, dazed and confused at what she and the shotgun had wrought. She walked over to one of the consoles, delicately stepping over one of the dead pirates, and went to work. I did the same. I crosswired consoles, tripped inhibitors, and turned off failsafes. Finally I connected the whole mess to the door control; when the door was opened everything would go 'fzzzt!' hopefully.

Emmy came over as I was finishing off. She quickly saw what I was doing.

"How do we get out then?" She asked, not unreasonably.

"Ventilation system." I said, standing up and pointing. She looked up to where I'd indicated.

"I can't reach that high." She said.

"I'll boost you up there. Easy." I grinned. Em looked dubious. "Come on, chop chop. Time is a-wasting." I leant back against the wall and cupped my hands together for Emmy. I lifted her up to the air duct opening.

"How do I open it?" She asked.

"There should be a clip holding it shut. Just open the clip." I told her. After a short pause she pulled herself up into the ventilation shaft.

"Which way do I go?" She asked now.

"If we go left it should take us back down towards the ground level."

"Why do we want to go there?"

"I want to see if we can do some more damage to their operation." I said as I hoisted myself up after her.

"It's damned dark." Came her muffled voice.

"So just feel your way along." I told her as I crawled along behind. The ventilation shaft was barely big enough to contain me, but Emmy appeared to be scooting along it.

"Are you looking at my bum?" She suddenly asked out of nowhere.

"I can't see that far ahead." I snapped.

"I don't mind if you are." She told me.

"At this precise moment I have other things on my mind Emalotte." She was flirting with me! I was sure of it. I had put us in tremendous danger and she was flirting! I was incredulous.

"This shaft is beginning to slope downwards now." Em informed me, concern now in her voice.

"That means we're going the right way." I replied reassuringly.

"It's getting a lot steeper, I'm starting to slip." Now there was a definite hint of panic in her tone.

"Brace yourself against the sides." I increased the speed of my crawl to try and catch up with her.

"I can't." She cried out. There was the sound of her bashing against the sides of the air duct uncontrollably as she finally lost traction.

I swore under my breath and attempted to dive down the shaft after her, but my shoulders were too broad and I had to return to a rapid scrabble down the duct, all the time cursing myself for not getting us back out of the pirate lair straightaway and for not realising Emmy's slender frame would slip through the ventilation shaft so easily. I could see a light ahead of me and hear some sort of commotion. Apparently Em had crashed out of the air duct and into an occupied room. Once more I tried to hurry up. As I reached the point Emmy had exited the ventilation system I peered out carefully. The room, a kitchen of some sort, was empty now, but there was a lot of noise coming from the next room. Carefully I dropped out of the air duct and made my way towards the door. Although I was desperate to aid Emmy I knew that just blindly chasing after her was not a good idea.

My mind clicked into 'assault' mode and I raised my rifle to my shoulder. Cautiously I peered into the next room. What I saw made my blood boil; five pirates were grappling with Emalotte. They appeared to be molesting her. Without another thought I strode into the room and fired off five rapid shots. Each one hit it's target and the would-be rapists fell to the floor dead. Emmy looked up at me and cried out.

"Behind you!"

Before she'd finished the first word I was spinning around. There was a sixth pirate who was swinging a heft piece of wood in my direction. I blocked it with the rifle and then smacked the butt into the side of their head, stunning them. As they staggered backwards I shot them. It was only then that I saw that this pirate was a woman; but as I had earlier explained to Em, male or female, there was no such thing as a good space pirate.

I turned on my heel and crouched down at Emmy's side, noticing that her flight suit was undone and the shirt underneath was torn open to expose her perky breasts.

"Are you okay?" I asked, deeply concerned to have let this happen.

"It wasn't the most fun I've ever had," she said with a weak smile, "but I knew if I held them off long enough you'd arrive." Em seemed unaware that her bosom was on view and that I couldn't take my eyes off the rhythmic rise and fall of her naked chest. At least that's what I thought until she spoke again. "Done looking yet?" She asked.

I jerked my gaze up to her smiling face and blushed.

"Sorry." I mumbled as I stood up and turned away.

"I didn't say the attention wasn't appreciated."

"Nonetheless I'm still sorry. And I think that we should get moving, someone must have heard the ruckus in here."

"Spoilsport." She said and poked out her tongue. "All right, where to next?" She asked, sitting up and tying her shirt so that she was covered up. I helped her to her feet and she did up her flight suit.

"Where are your weapons?" I asked.

"Shotgun broke when I tried to use it as a brake; they took my pistol." I nodded and handed her my handgun. "You didn't say where we're attacking next. The armoury maybe?"

"No. I think we've stirred up enough trouble for now. It's time to get out of here."

"Really? Before you sounded like you were going to destroy this whole place and everyone in it."

"That was before I decided that I'd put you in more than enough danger for one mission."

"Doesn't sound like the earlier you." Em was pushing me.

"All right, if you must know." I folded.

"I must."

"Seeing you in that situation made me realise that if anything happened to you I wouldn't be able to stand it. Okay? Happy now I've said it? We need to go."

"Oh. All right then. As ever, I am in your hands."

We went out of the door and looked around to gauge our position. As it was, we were back dockside of the base. Emmy pointed across at an old ship.

"Isn't that a colonist vessel?"

"I think you're right." I said, looking. "Come on, I reckon we can go and hide out inside it."

"Maybe the pirates still use it." She suggested.

"I can't think what for." I replied, striding out towards the ship.

As it turned out I was right. The pirates had captured the ship, eliminating the crew in the process, used the terraforming equipment on the planetoid, and then just left it alone even to leaving the prospective colonists in their suspended animation booths.

"Why are they keeping them alive?" Emmy asked.

"I really don't know." I replied thoughtfully. The sight of the still active booths had given me an idea. I looked around for the controls and when I spotted them, went over for a closer look.

"Are we going to wake them?" Em asked, watching me.

"Quite the reverse."

"What?"

"I was thinking you could hide out in one of the unoccupied booths while I keep an eye on things out there." I gave her a tight smile, almost sure she wouldn't agree.

"But if something happens to you I'll be trapped in there forever." She wailed.

"I've thought of that. I reckon I can rig the activation sequence so that a button needs to be pressed every so often or the sequence starts and you wake up. How's that sound?" I asked.

"Okay I suppose." She said grudgingly.

"Em, with you in here I'll know you're safe. I can do what I need to do much easier on my own."

"That's just it; you'll be on your own. I don't like the idea."

Now I understood. Emalotte was worried about me. It was a new concept for me.

"Em, it's what I do." I said soothingly. "I'm a survivor, remember? And just for once there's a chance I can make it so that I'm not the only one alive at the end." I smiled. "But thanks for caring." I kissed her gently on the forehead. "Now lets get this sorted." I said and bent to adapt the controls to my satisfaction.

It took me an hour before I was sure the controls would work how I wanted. Still a little reluctant, Emmy took her place in one of the empty booths. As I went to close the cabinet she spoke.

"Can I whisper something?" Thinking it would be a 'good luck' message I leant in close to her face. She grasped my head, turned it toward her and kissed me full on the lips. "That's so that you won't forget I'm here." She grinned. "Now shut me in, and keep yourself in one piece." Shocked and more than a little stunned I closed the booth and started the process.

After an hour or so Emmy was in suspended animation. I started the activation sequence and pressed in my inhibitor switch. From now on I would have to press that switch within ten hours or Emmy and the colonists would be woken from their hibernation. I curled up at the foot of Em's booth and fell asleep; my first proper rest since I had awoken in our wrecked spacecraft.

I awoke some hours later feeling much refreshed apart from the aches and pains I'd come to associate with age. I felt hungry, so I reset the inhibitor and left the colony ship to scout around the pirate spaceport.

In comparison to just a few hours earlier the port seemed almost deserted. A lot of the ships had gone, presumably to find a new hidey-hole after hearing Em's transmission, but there were still several craft docked and more pirates than was comfortable. Any I could eliminate now would be a help to the assault teams of the Space Legion when, or if, they arrived. For the next couple of hours I crept about the base, stealing a few morsels of food, disposing of a few incautious pirates and locating the arsenal. This was still under guard so I left it alone for now, leaving any attempt on it until a more apt time. I found myself a vantage point and settled in to observe what was happening currently, and to try and see if there was any pattern to the pirate's movements around the dock. I stayed there for almost four hours until I considered I had enough information for now so I returned to the colony ship and Emmy. I pressed the inhibitor and then for a second time made myself comfortable in front of her booth and fell asleep.

Some instinct or other woke me. It wasn't any sort of noise, just a feeling, but I was instantly awake. I gathered my thoughts and then my weapons; all the while I was increasingly sure that something was about to happen. During a quick look around my gaze feel on the suspended animation booths. I felt compelled to place my hand on Emmy's and planted a soft kiss about where her face would be.