Terra-33 Ep. 06

"You've been avoiding me," he rumbled. When she stayed silent, he continued. "I just can't seem to figure out why. I'm a nice guy, right?"

"Super nice," Trix deadpanned. "That's why you're bruising my arm."

He sniffed and let go, gripping her shoulder instead. The pressure he exerted made her look at him finally. His eyes were hard and Trix could see the predator in them. When he had come over to chat them up back in the Burg, she had sensed it. Since then, she'd kept her distance and always been around Remi or Ida. Their recent activities had distracted her from that completely though and now she needed to find a way to escape. He stroked his beard, apparently content to stare at her and wait for her to speak again.

"What do you want?" she asked with as much coldness as she could muster.

"Plenty of things. World peace, bunnies, unlimited credits."

"What do you want with me?"

He smiled his shark smile, teeth bright against his black mustache and beard. "I'm sure you can figure that out... For now, I just want to talk. Get to know you a bit, that kind of thing."

"I don't have time for that, sorry! Got to get lots of sleep so we can take our patrol shift this morning," Trix responded, trying to stand again. His hand on her shoulder was enough to keep her from going too far. Sighing, she sank back onto the stool.

"I've got that covered, don't worry. You guys deserve a night off after the job you did this afternoon. I was really impressed by your effectiveness, Remi's too. Hell, the whole lot of you are my best technical team already."

"That makes sense, we're good at what we do," she agreed slowly, unsure about Thor's new conversational path.

"How long have you known each other? Must be a pretty tight unit to work so well together..."

"Long enough," Trix replied guardedly.

She was getting more and more uncomfortable with the situation, even if he hadn't really said anything overtly threatening. Just keeping her seated was enough to put her on edge. The way he looked at her right after both of those times had given her a lot of insight too. The hard gleam in his eyes had been brighter, gleeful while he exercised his physical power over her. It looked like he'd just been doing push ups too, his muscles bulging on his chest and shoulders.

"I did some looking into Remi, with the comm-link to Trajectory HQ. They've got full access to the New Bernburg network, did you know that? Pretty fancy stuff, really good search features."

Trix shrugged in a sarcastic way, her eyebrows asking him why she should care. Thor glared at her for a second and looked like he would try to touch her again, but kept his arm on the table, where he had dropped it after forcing her down the second time.

"Turns out, he's wanted by the local dicks for questioning. Something about a construct going missing and being the last person to have contact with it. The investigators didn't post a reward so it looks like nobody is all that concerned about it. I would hate for T-Up to find out though, they might want to hand him over," he said the last while looking at her neck, his voice low and menacing. The back of his hand brushed her hair over her shoulder, making Trix shudder a little. She didn't want to show any weakness, but his physical looming was getting to her. She hated being in weak positions like this, without weapons or advantage.

"I bet you can keep that to yourself," she said, defiance in her voice if not her body.

"Oh, sure. I can do that, no problem," his hand gripped the back of her neck, pulling her face close to his. "I don't work for free though. Keeping things from my employer... I don't know how well that sits with me without proper -" he interrupted himself by running his bottom teeth and the tip of his tongue up her neck. "Compensation," he finished, breathing the word into her ear.

"Fuck you, Thor," Trix said, inflecting the name like an insult. "You wouldn't know what to do with a girl anyway, you look like a real cock man. I bet that you could show me a thing or -"

Pain exploded in her head.

Trix's vision swam, her tray fuzzing into two separate images as she looked down at the table in front of her. She still felt Thor's hand on her neck, pressing against the skin firmly but not enough to hurt. She thought that he had jerked her head back into the wall behind them but couldn't be sure right now, still reeling from the shock of agony.

"I can show you a thing or two, bitch," he growled. "Just wait. I'll let you know when I want to talk about our little arrangement."

With that, he stood abruptly and released her. Trix breathed a huge lungful in and tried to settle her vision on him. Pissed now that the pain was fading, she shot to her feet and speared a finger at him.

"Better be careful, motherfucker! I'll be waiting, and I really like guns and sharp things," Trix snarled at his scowling face. Her hand had found the knife on her tray, not a combat weapon but enough to slice and stab.

"You've got a big mouth for such a skinny slut," he said, making a move like he would step toward her. Trix dropped into a combat crouch and fisted the knife in an icepick grip. He stopped short and turned from her.

"Can you believe she thinks she could take me?" he asked loudly, looking around at the few mercenaries still eating. Until now, he had kept his voice low and Trix hadn't noticed anyone staring. "I've got more important things to do than scuffle with a scrawny, blue-haired merc with something to prove."

There were a few laughs but no one spoke up. Thor turned and walked down the ramp. As he left, Trix realized he hadn't gotten food before or after accosting her. He must have been watching her, waiting for a time to catch her without her companions. Her angry eyes snapped from person to person, causing them each to look away with the force of her emotions. The knife went up her suit's sleeve without a conscious thought. Trix followed him out into the night, the metal canopy falling away to cool night sky as she went down the ramp. She stayed at a safe distance, keeping his back in her vision. When he went into the command section without as much as a look over his shoulder, her rage came screaming up again.

"Fucker!" she shouted, slamming the meat of her fist into the side of the metal support to her left. Immediately she knew it was a mistake, the pain in her hand even worse than her recent head trauma. Trix fell to a crouch, cradling her hand to her breasts, careful not to cut her other forearm with the hidden knife. Shit, shit, shit, what am I going to do?

"Hey," a female voice said quietly behind her.

Trix spun, the awkward movement causing her to drop one knee to the grass.

"I'm Carol," a slender blonde woman said, standing a few feet back from her.

"The medic?" She had met the two doctors briefly when they'd tested the hotdogs.

"That's right," Carol said, extending her hand. "Let me help you up."

Trix put her right hand out, hoping she wouldn't need to use the knife up her sleeve. Just one interaction with Thor alone had her back in paranoia mode, suspecting even this innocent-looking doctor of collusion. Carol helped her to her feet, her eyes taking in Trix's disheveled state. She knew that she probably looked like crap, having suffered a few painful injuries to her body as well as her pride.

"Beatrix Unterbrink, correct?"

"Why do you know my name?"

"I pulled your file from UEC," the woman responded, maddeningly calm.

"Why?" Trix pressed, annoyed at the half-answer.

"I suspected something like this was going to happen."

"Like what?"

"You ask a lot of questions, you know?" Carol responded with exasperation. "Come on, we can't talk here for long."

"Depends on where we're going," Trix said slowly.

"The bird, I need to scan your hand to see if you've broken anything."

"I'm fine," Trix said. "But ok, I will go with you. I need to stop at my pod first though."

Instead of responding, the medic turned and pulled her toward the landed plane. After a few steps, she dropped Trix's hand and led the way. The huge bird loomed swiftly, grounded fairly close to the command vehicle and APCs. Trix looked over her shoulder one last time as they stepped onto a deployed staircase. Thor was nowhere to be seen, nor were any other humans. She heard an engine revving in the night and was glad that at least they wouldn't have to go on patrol. The night itself was hard and dark, almost a physical presence assembling on the edges of the mercenary camp where the light was faintest. Trix shivered and turned back to the open door of the ship and the concerned face of Carol the medic who was extending her hand again from the top of the staircase.

"Coming."