Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Ronan nervously paced from one side of the dining hall to the other, pausing from time to time to glance at the wide windows that lined the left wall. Dusk was now well advanced and there was still no sign of Lilly. They had argued the night before about her staying with him, when he had finally lost patience with her stubbornness he had grabbed her and kissed her senseless, then pressed her against the corridor wall and begun to push up her robe. She had pushed him away and then fled. When he had tried to follow he had been stopped by one of the guards and told he was wanted in the dome. By the time he was finished it had been late and he’d been unable to go out into the garden. He had gone looking for her that morning but had seen no sign of her. When he’d asked the guards about her they had seemed unconcerned, and he’d finally been told that she had left the dome at first light with several servos and had not been seen since. Ronan had cursed himself for a fool; in his anger and lust, he had chased Lilly away. Lily had said she would rather live in the wilderness than be forced to be a pleasure slave, he had also doubted the fact she hadn’t wanted to couple with him. While she returned his kisses, she fled from his advances. Perhaps what she had told him had been the truth that to her people coupling without marriage was a taboo. “Your pet is likely fine; it has been on this cursed planet for two cycles before we arrived. Come you are being foolish” Rugger stated leaning back against the table, obviously annoyed. “Rugger is right, if the creature was fool enough to go into the wastelands rather than be with you, and got eaten then you are well rid of it. Come let us go to the dome, there are credits to be made.” Cahir added. “You shall not say such things to me. Lilly is my friend, and she has been helping us.” Ronan snapped in annoyance. “Aye that is true she has shown us all the dead spots on security cameras and said she managed to send off that message for us. Besides I like her, she is quiet and asks for nothing.” Eacha added. “I think your fears are for naught look.” Eacha jerked his head towards the entrance door and there was Lilly’s dark-clad figure. After speaking to the guard on the door she began to make her way slowly towards Ronan and his men, her gait oddly stiff. Ronan hurried to her, not caring what the others thought. He placed his hands on her shoulders and bent to try and see her face, only to see nothing but her eyes through her veil. “Where have you been, I was worried. I was afraid you had run from me, that I’d frightened you.” Ronan asked. Lilly was touched by Ronan’s concern, perhaps she had misjudged him, and perhaps he’d meant what he’d said about wanting to be with her. It didn’t matter though, his desire for her and her desire for him had frightened her and given her the courage to go into the wastelands to the abandoned city to the ruined spaceport to salvage and bring back a navigation console and a communication console. Lilly had never felt for any man what she felt for Ronan, never been as tempted as she had with Ronan. When she was with him he wasn’t an alien, he was simply a handsome and desirable man. But she couldn’t give into her wants, she couldn’t trust either them or him, all that had kept her safe and alive these past years was being cautious and staying hidden. Ronan had to leave before she gave into her desires and did something foolish, like sleep with him. Driven by fear of herself she had made the decision to build Ronan and his men a transmitter so they could try and signal their home world, it was a million to one shot that it would work but she had to do something. The only place that held the parts she needed was the ruined city deep in the wastelands. It had taken her two hours to walk to the city, and five hours to remove the consoles from an abandoned ship with the help of several of her droids; then three hours to haul them back to her cottage. “No, nothing like that I have something for you at my cottage. Bring your men.” Lilly replied, fighting back a wave of exhaustion. She was hot, thirsty and hungry having not eaten since yesterday. All she wanted to do was take a shower, a long cold drink, and crawl into bed, but there wasn’t time. If the tech was discovered in her hidden cottage not only would it be seized but she would be punished, perhaps even sold to another dome. Ronan felt Lilly lean forward then her knees buckled and he caught her about the waist as she toppled forward. “Lilly, you are ill. Let me take you to the med center.” “No, no I’m just tired and thirsty. I was in the wastelands all day,” Lilly replied, feeling Ronan’s strong hands about her waist as he helped her to a bench and sat her gently. “Stay I shall bring you food and drink.” Ronan held a staying hand before Lilly before hurrying to the kitchen. Lilly heard a snort and looked over to see Rugger give her a scowl. She sighed mentally no matter what she did she couldn’t get the big alien to like her, it would normally mean she’d avoid the person but since he was one of Ronan’s closest friends that was impossible. Lilly heard a heavy footfall and looked up to see Ronan approaching with a laden tray. He set it on the table behind her then handed her a tall glass. “I brought you fruit juice, and I have bread and fruit for you.” Lilly gave Lilly a smile. Lilly gratefully took the glass and forced herself to slowly drink the contents afraid her empty stomach would cramp otherwise. The orange juice was delicious and coated her parched throat bringing instant relief, when the glass was empty she placed it back on the table and reached for a piece of fruit only to have Ronan hand her one. Lily gave Ronan a nod of thanks as she took it then leaned closer to him. “Thank you again. I will leave now, when you are sure you aren’t being watched follow me.” Lily grabbed a piece of bread from the tray hiding it inside the long sleeves of her robe as she rose. “Wait you are ill, let me help you,” Ronan said moving to help Lily only for her to lift a staying hand. “No, you will bring too much attention; bring your men to my hut.” Lilly replied softly. Ronan cursed softly as Lily staggered away and then out the door of the dining hall, the fool female was going to get herself killed. He shouldn’t care, he should only be worrying about his men and escaping from this prison of debauchery and vice but he did care. Ronan leaned next to Rugger under the pretext of taking food from the tray. “Get the others to come to the garden, meet me at the fountain in five minutes.” Ronan saw Rugger nod and then he rose to stride from the dining hall, when he saw Lily again he didn’t know if he should kiss her or shake sense into it or both. First, he would kiss her and then he would shake her and then kiss her again and if his men didn’t like it they could jump into a black hole. * * * * Lilly had to fight her desire to flee once Ronan and his men were all inside her work room and the door was closed and locked. The room had always seemed so big before but now filled with four hulking males it seemed tiny. Lilly tugged off her hood then removed her mask, while she was afraid to reveal her face to Ronan’s men it was too hard to talk with the hood and mask in place. Cahir let out a whistle while he took a slow walk around Lilly. “I can see your fascination with the female.” “What is this place, who brought all these machines here?” Eacha demanded examining several damaged servos units on one of her work benches. “I did, this is my home, this place at one time was a maintenance building for the dome, but it had been deserted for many solar cycles when I found it,” Lilly replied. “You brought these machines here? But why, how, I’m not even sure what you are,” Rugger stated looking Lily up and down. “Lily is from one of the out worlds and is from a founder race. Her people called her world Earth or Terra and she is an engineer and scholar, now watch your tongue.” Ronan replied hotly. “What would you show us?” Lily almost considered telling Rugger to go to hell but she doubted the translator chip could translate her sentiments. “I find the machines in the trash dump outside the city and bring them here to fix, it passes the time and this place needs more servos to maintain it. I also fix the solar panels. Now what I wanted to show you, there is an abandoned city a few hours walk from here, I made a radiation and biological contaminant sensor from parts I found and used it to test the city. The city is clear now, but I think it was hit with some kind of radiation or biological weapon and then bombed based on the damage.” Lily turned to four vid screens she’d set up and then flipped on the vid players she’d attached. When she’d gone foraging today she’d attached the equivalents of GoPro’s to her servo helpers and to herself so she could record the city. “I recorded this today so you could see the city; this is the spaceport outside the city, as you can see there were several ships on the landing field when the attack happened.” Lily stepped to one side so the men could see the screens. “The place is massive. Do you recognize the ships?” Ronan asked and his men shook their heads. “No, but they look old, very old, from the amount of vegetation covering some of them and the buildings. Whatever destroyed the city was at least two hundred standard solar cycles ago,” Cahir replied studying the videos. “What I wouldn’t give to go there and examine those ships.” “Is this what you wanted to show us?” Ronan inquired and Lily shook her head. “No this is.” Lily stepped up to her second work table and pulled off the piece of tarp she’d used to cover the consoles she and the servos had dragged back. “That’s a navigation unit and the other looks like a communication unite.” Eacha stepped before the units touching them in awe. “But how?” “I took them from one of the ships that had damage to the hull. It will take me a day or two but I should be able to repair them and then patch them into the power grid and then the satellite uplink. I thought you’d be able to send another message to your people and this time you’d know where you were so you could add your coordinates.” Lily replied. “I don’t know how to work the navigation unit but if one of you could explain it to me and then help me activate it I could be sure to send out the correct coordinates.” “How is it possible that you a mere scutt could do any of this?” Rugger shook his head as he looked about the machine-filled room. “She is not a scutt; she is an engineer and a scientist,” Ronan replied. “Thank you on my home world my father was an engineer and my mother a scientist, I was studying to build robots or what you would call servos when I was taken. In addition, my first master was a Hyperion who made his living scavenging and salvaging ruined and derelict spaceships and selling parts from them. When he discovered I was good with machines he had a chip implanted in my brain that increases my memory and learning capabilities.” Lilly had found the chip more annoying than helpful till she’d mastered the use of it. She’d been born with a photographic memory so the chip was in some ways redundant. However it had helped her learn and understand the new technology faster, as it had apparently had come with the intergalactic version of hyperspace engine repair and advanced robot repair for dummies loaded on it. Her master had been lazy and only too happy to let her get her hands dirty ripping apart and repairing engines and robots for him to sell. “If you were so valuable then why did he sell you?” Cahir demanded examining the communication unit. “He didn’t he lost me in a game of chance, he had a gambling problem. Now do you want my help or not? If you can explain this to me I can fix it, also if you could watch the videos and tell me what the machines do I could fix them in time.” Lilly replied. “You are saying you could fix one of those ships?” Eacha asked looking at the ancient ships on the vid. “Yes, in time. I’m good with machines I have been all my life, I just need to understand what the parts do.” Lilly replied. “Even if what you say is true we still couldn’t get there, or have you forgotten the shock collars?” Rugger commented snidely. “No I haven’t forgotten them, but I know how to bypass them, you go under the wall,” Lily stated. “Under the wall, how is that possible?” Ronan asked. “There is an old service tunnel that runs from behind my hut under the wall. The far end is blocked with debris but with enough servos, I should be able to clear it. Then you simply follow the tunnel under the wall and out into the wastelands.” Lilly saw Ronan exchange looks with his friends. “You would do this for us, why?” Ronan queried. “Because I like you because you have been kind to me. All I ask is that you take Lars with you when you go and get him some help.” Lilly thought of her crippled lizard man friend and frowned, his life had been even harder than hers. “You think we believe you? That you will do this for no gain?” Rugger gave her a suspicious look. “On my world, I was taught to help others in need and expect nothing back. I know none of you belong here. I also know Ronan is more than just your ship’s captain.” Lilly replied. “What did you tell her?” Rugger gave Ronan a hard look. “Nothing I have told her nothing except that I like her, which is not a lie.” Ronan snapped. “And you should watch your tongue.” “That tells me that you are more than his captain or his friend. Ronan is someone of importance and needs to go home. There is also the fact that you so desperately wanted to contact your people and expect someone to come rescue you, also tells me that Ronan is more than the captain of a scout ship.” Lilly was tired of being timid of being afraid, of hiding her intelligence to survive. “She is clever your female,” Eacha said with a smile. “Aye and beautiful I’m guessing you mean to take her with us then?” Cahir added. “I’m not his female.” Lilly protested. “Why would you take me with you?” “You are my female and of course, I will take you with me. Now about these ships.” Ronan gestured to the video screen. “Do they look familiar to any of you?” Eacha and Cahir turned to study the screen as odd hieroglyphic-like writing appeared on the side of one of them. “It looks Spican, what I remember from my history they had many colonized many of the out worlds before the Great War started and they were destroyed by the Vega,” Eacha said tapping the video screen as more of the writing was displayed. “Aye, he’s right they are Spican ships, which means they have been sitting there for a good three hundred standard cycles. I don’t think an entire army of mechanics could repair them.” Cahir shook his head. “There is a bigger ship inside an underground hanger that is still in good repair. I didn’t have time to go there today as it took me so long to remove the units. I could go there tomorrow and record it, perhaps it can be salvaged.” Lilly said. “Even if you could it would take a good forty or fifty days to check it out and make repairs. Then there fuel cells to be filled, and the oxygen converter to be tested. No, it is a good plan but impossible.” Eacha said. “What if it was fixed just well enough to fly but went up manned only by servos, they don’t need to breathe. They could fly it towards your home world and deliver a message.” Lilly suggested. “By the moons that might work.” Ronan agreed. His wrist unit began to flash and he cursed, he was wanted in the dome. “We must go; all of you return to the dome and be sure you are not seen. Come to my chamber after you are relieved of service.” Ronan ordered. He could sense Rugger wanted to say something but he was in no mood for more of his friends unkind comments. “Thank you for what you have done for us, Lilly,” Eacha said as he headed for the door. “Aye, thank you indeed, I did not know females could be so brave or clever,” Cahir added as he grabbed the door and slipped outside. Rugger looked like he wanted to say something instead he scowled and then followed Eacha out the door closing it firmly behind him. The moment the door was closed Ronan stepped up to Lilly and pulled her into his arms covering his mouth with hers in a long hard kiss. After a minute Lilly broke the embrace to step back panting for breath. “Argue all you like Lilly MacTaggert of Earth but you are my woman and I will do all I can to protect you. I wish I could tell you all my truth but it would be dangerous for you, for us both.” Ronan brushed Lilly’s flame-gold hair back from her face. “Know this I would tell you all if I could, it burns that I can’t tell you who I am, but know that you have come to mean everything to me. You are all that makes this place bearable.” “I care for you too, more than I should, more than is good for me.” Lilly placed her hand over Ronan’s large one as he cupped her face. “Go before you are missed, we will talk more in the morning.” “Aye that we will. Thank you for what you did for us.” Ronan brushed a kiss against Lilly’s cheek and then hurried to the door. “Be sure you lock this after me, I will see you at breakfast.” Then Ronan slipped out the door and hurried away into the fading light. Lilly locked the door after Ronan and cursed herself for a fool, she was in love with Ronan and it couldn’t be helped, all she could do was pray he didn’t destroy her when he left.