Several hours later, Tamar awoke to a smell she'd never known. A part of her knew it though, even if the part of her that was human didn't. It brought her up to a sitting position in the bed before she knew that she'd even moved. The pain in her arm made stars spin across her vision, but she ignored it. What was that smell? She'd never smelled anything like it before. A part of her knew it was meat, cooked meat.
Her stomach grumbled, reminding her how she'd not put anything in it in over two days. Then she remembered where she was and who she was with. Her hands began to roam all over her body, looking for any new wounds while she took metal stock of herself as well. Then she let herself fall back onto the bed and, for the first time, she noticed something new. She'd never been anywhere near something as soft as what she was lying on.
Looking around, she saw an expanse of blue fabric had been laid over her, and under her a pale pink material covered the old mattress. Her head almost sank from view into the pillow that had been placed under it. Where had all these things come from?
"Oh look, sunshine's awake." Tamar hadn't noticed when her captor had walked into the room, so she glared up at him not giving him the courtesy .
"Your shoulder and arm are almost healed. You were right. Once I removed most of your infected tissue and disinfected the area, your body handled the rest very nicely." Malachi saw Tamar's eye flick towards the room he'd just left, and had a pretty good idea why.
"It's fried spam, not exactly gourmet fare, but under the circumstances it was the best I could find." He told her while walking back into the other room and out of sight.
What is he doing? Tamar screamed at herself. "He didn't do a thing to me, nothing. And now he's cooking something for me. Why? Her mind couldn't come up with a satisfactory answer to that question before she noticed Malachi walking towards the bed, holding a tray in both hands.
He sat the tray on the bed next to her on the bed writing easy reach, then held a bottle near her for inspection.
"What is that?" Tamar asked, nodding her head to gesture at the bottle.
"It's water. I sanitized it, so it's safe for you to drink." He pushed it towards her, then pulled it back. "Oh wait a second, I forgot something." He dropped the bottle out of sight. When it reappeared, it had a strange plastic tube sticking out of it.
Tamar had never seen anything like it. So when he offered it back to her, she made no move to drink from it. After a few awkward moments, Malachi tried to explain.
"It's a straw. I thought it'd make it easier for you to drink if you didn't have to sit up so far."
"What's a straw?" She asked, looking at him askance.
"You've never seen a straw?"
"No I haven't, okay! Where I grew up, I had to lap my water out of a bowl that was welded to the floor. I have no idea what that stupid thing is."
Malachi stopped dead in his tracks. His mind had a hard time processing what he'd just heard. Sure, this young woman looked so much like a cat some people might think she was enough feline to be considered one. But to treat her like an animal, that was heartless.
So he took the bottle and laid it on the floor, picked it up, made sure Tamar was watching as he dropped another straw into it, then made it look as if he put it in his mouth, then made an exaggerated sucking motion and sound.
"That's how you use them. All you have to do is suck the water out of the bottle." He handed Tamar her bottle and watched as she threw the straw across the room and proceeded to pour more water on herself and the bed than into her mouth.
"I don't need or want your help. Thank you very much." She reached down and began shoveling hand fulls of hot spam into her mouth. Every few hand fulls she would take a drink of water, all the while keeping her eyes locked on Malachi's.
"Well, I'm glad I found as much spam as I did. Someone was hungry." Malachi quipped, standing to his feet. He walked to the far side of the room and squatted down with his back against the wall. Once he was down far enough so that his knees formed a perfect ninety-degree angle, he stopped his descent and stayed that way, staring out into the distance.
Seeing him staring off into god knows where made Tamar surmise that he was staring at her. So with her injured arm, she reached over her body, grabbed the last few pieces of meat left on the tray, and stuffed them into her mouth. Fire burned up and down her arm whenever she moved it, but she'd be damned if she'd let him know that. So when the last of the meat was finished, and the bottle of water empty, she rolled away from him and settled into the soft puffy pillow.
He's after something, I know it. No one is this nice without a reason, and no, it's not just information he's after. She would not let her guard down, she couldn't. Her training wouldn't allow it.
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"How is she doing?"
"Sir, she is healing at a rate I've never seen before. In a few hours, she'll be strong enough to be back on her own."
"What, I'm not leaving her alone. Do you think those guys that are after her will just give up because a man dressed in a bad Halloween costume kicked their butts once?"
"Sir, this is not a costume, and you know it. What you have on you is the most advanced body armor in history. Besides, I told you to kill them, then we wouldn't be worrying about them right now." His on board scolded him.
"They aren't the one's who I'm worried about. If the organization that created her is willing to send one team after her, what's stopping them from sending dozens, or hundreds, to get her back? No, I'm not going to let that happen. She deserves the chance to figure out her own path without having someone else choose it for her."
"You need to get a grip, sir. We are not here to rescue one little girl. This entire planet needs saving. You need to think bigger." For a computer intelligence, it was surprisingly animated at times.
"The saving of something even as big as a planet starts with saving one single person. She needs someone to show her more than what she's been shown. Once we get her some place safe, she can do whatever she wants." Malachi didn't know why, but he would not leave this girl here by herself.
"Fine, I have to obey your orders, sir, but that doesn't mean I have to keep my mouth shut when you're doing something stupid."
"Oh be quiet, you don't even have a mouth, anyway." Malachi noticed she was asleep again, so he walked to the window, stopped for a second, then stepped out into the open air.
This part of being bonded to this suit he didn't mind so badly. The rush of wind, the feeling of weightlessness, the raw power at his command sometimes made him forget he couldn't take it off.
"Where are we going?" His on board asked.
"She needs something to wear other than those rags she's got on now. Plus, she's going to need some food because once we start moving, I don't think we'll be able to stop. Whatever these Rougarians are, they seem to have the planet blanketed with surveillance. If they pick us up, we're going to have to move fast and stopping to look for food will not be a priority."
"I still think we should just leave her to fend for herself. She seems very capable of surviving on her own."
"No, she's not."
"And how do you know that? When did you become an expert on women?"
"I'm not, and I don't know. All I know is she needs someone. I feel it in the marrow of my bones. She needs someone that will give her the chance to find her own path. From what I gather, she's been controlled by others her entire life."
"And why do you care? You don't even know her." Even though its voice was mostly electronic, Malachi could still detect a hint of exasperation.
"Because God didn't create anyone to be controlled. An animal she is not, no matter how much of their DNA she has inside her."
"Your God did not create that creature, science did, and mad science at that."
"Incorrect my electronic assistant. There is nothing that has been made but that God created it. Science may be able to combine DNA, but only God can create a soul."
"You are archaic in your thinking, you know that? Who even believes in that myth anymore?"
"I do, and it's no myth. That's all you need to know." Malachi fell silent moments before he hit the ground. For the rest of his foray, he remained that way.
What was he doing? That one thought kept going through his head. He'd disobeyed orders and would catch hell from the Captain for it. Yet from the moment he'd seen the girl, he'd noticed something about her. Beyond the hair, fur, and fangs, he saw something in her, something bright and shining beneath all the darkness that had been placed on her. Not that he didn't find that be alluring as well.
As he was climbing back into the room he'd left her in, he realized he didn't know her name and had never mentioned his.
Well, he thought. No one has ever accused me of being good with woman.
He was thankful that she was where he had left her and piled what he'd found in the small kitchenette where his erstwhile companion couldn't see it. He then settled a huge comforter over the bed and retreated to the far side of the room and laid on the hard floor just in from the broken window.
Whatever this thing was that was attached to him, the more he had it on, the less and less rest he required. So instead of drifting off to sleep, he kept an ear out for any movement inside the room, and another for his threat warning alarm. He should have known what would go off first.
"GRRRRR!" A shriek split the stillness, pulling Malachi's attention to the bed.
"What is this thing? Get it off!" Malachi watched as his companion wrestled with the thick blanket as if it were some enemy she was trying to slay.
"It's called a comforter, but a lot of people just call them thick blankets." She still fought like a demon, tearing huge chunks from the fabric.
"Calm down, it's not going to hurt you." he came to his feet and strode over to the bed.
"Get a grip, girl. Do you have any idea how many stores I had to look through to find one of those that wasn't moldy?"
Tamar came to a stop with a massive hunk of soft white insulation and fabric between her teeth and looked up at him.
"What is this thing?" She managed, after clearing her mouth.
"It was an extra blanket. With as much energy as your body is spending healing that wound, I figured you didn't need to spend anymore than you had to on keeping warm. Even with all the fur you have on."
At that, her left hand shot out, only to be caught an inch from Malachi's face.
"I. Do. Not. Have. Fur." The hatred smoldered in every word. "I have hair, not fur. Animals have fur, I have hair." She yanked hard, trying to free her hand. Yet it wouldn't budge from his grip.
"I stand corrected." Malachi waited until she pulled again, held it for a second, then let go.
Tamar was thrown back into the cushions with a thud, where she lay glaring up at him.
"My name is Malachi, by the way. With everything that's been going on yesterday and today, I didn't have a chance to introduce myself."
"What day is it?" Tamar sat bolt up
"It's Wednesday, why?"
"How long was I out?" She didn't want to know the answer.
"Almost seventeen hours. Whatever was in those dog bites really did a number on you, so I just let you rest. Seems like you needed it." Tamar stared at him in disbelief. She'd never slept for that many hours, yet here she was sleeping for almost an entire day with someone she didn't know, and didn't trust.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked. Her voice lacked its normal venom. It gave Malachi pause.
"What?"
"Taking care of me like this?"
"Because you need it." He answered lightly as he walked away from the bed and into the other room.
"That's not what I mean, and you know it." She shouted after him.
"Oh, I know what you mean." He walked back around the corner with two bottles of water in his hands. "You're wondering if I have any nefarious plans for you? Like whether I'm going to attack you while your guard's down and have my way with you." Tamar's eyes grew wide as he approached. That was exactly what had been going through her head. Ever since they'd met, even.
"No, all I need is information about whatever happened to this planet. I've been out of the area for a few years and need to know what's been going on, that's all."
"Then why do all of," she grabbed an edge from the comforter and shook it at him. "This, why try to be so nice to me when all you wanted me to do is answer some of your questions?"
"Would you have answered them if I hadn't? And when did it become a bad thing to treat someone with the dignity they deserve?" He answered.
Tamar took a few minutes to mull his answer over. She still didn't trust him, she trusted no one. But she could answer his questions. All of a sudden, he was on his feet, his head pointed towards the ground.
"What is it?" She asked, realizing something was wrong.
"We've got a lot of company. I can't tell if they know we're here, or if they're just doing a random sweep. But I don't think they're human."
"Rougarians!" Tamar's voice was quiet as she could keep it, but she still nearly screamed the word. "How many are there? She didn't even ask how he knew they were there. That question could wait for later.
"Sixteen. They're moving around the base of this building right now. None seem to be coming in, but not all of them are here yet."
"Why are they searching this area, anyway? I picked this area for my escape for the very reason that they don't patrol around here."
"Could be the fact that a couple of days ago, I killed four of them about six miles from here." Malachi made the comment as if it was no big deal. He thought nothing of it until he turned to see Tamar staring at him in stark incredulity.
"You killed how many of them?" She knew he could do some amazing things, but kill Saltek. She'd seen only two killed in the five years since they arrived, and that had taken more lives in trade than she cared to remember.
"Four, my commanding officer wanted some samples taken so myself and one other officer landed and took some samples. He should be back on the ship by now. I was about to join him when I spotted you and decided to investigate."
"How did you do it? Where are you really from? What ship are you taking about?" The more he spoke, the more questions Tamar had. He was from a ship. She assumed it wasn't ocean going, so that left only space. But earth had never launched a large space fairing vessel, at least not that she knew of.
She was still rolling all her new questions over and over in her head when Malachi stood.
"Luck I guess. I don't think they were ready for someone who could fight back." he sat back down on the edge of the bed. "But for right now, I want you to rest. So we're going to sit tight and hope they pass us by."
"And if they don't just pass us by?" Tamar asked.
"How do you feel about flying?"
"On a plane is fine. But if you think I'm going to let you throw me out of this building, you've got another thing coming."
"Oh, calm down. I wasn't going to throw you out. I was going to jump with you on my back. Either that or you carried in my arms again. You know, like I carried you up here?"
"Dream on, pal, you will not be carrying me again."
"I thought not, then the back it is."
"Are you kidding me?" Tamar roared defiantly, eyes flashing. I am not going to be clinging to your back either.
"I could just drop you out the window and catch you before you went splat. How does that sound? Make no mistake, the only way you're seeing the ground again is with me. Now get some more sleep. I'll keep an eye on our guests."
Tamar shook her head and rolled away from him. As her anger cooled, she realized she may have miscalculated. He was right. He was the only way she was going to get down from where she was. Twisting her head around, she took a peek at him. He was standing not three feet from the end of the bed, head down, not moving, as if he were listening for something.
"What are you doing now?" She mumbled, half asleep.
"If you must know, I'm setting up some electronic countermeasures, so if they target this building, they won't pick us up on any of their scans. So get some sleep, even with this it's only a matter of time before they send troops into everyone of these building to do a physical check."
Tamar just pulled the pillow over her head and toned him out. She didn't want to hear about Rougarians, or being chased. All she wanted to do was sleep and forget everything else.
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