Seth sat back on his haunches, keeping the gun trained on Bragan. All the fight seemed to have drained out of him, and he simply laid there in his pressure suit.
“Are there any other survivors left beside you?” Seth finally asked.
“Oh, no, I’m the only one,” Bragan said. “It’s really quite amusing when you think about it.” He started giggling softly to himself again.
“What’s amusing about it?” Seth asked, feeling nauseous. The poor man was out of his mind, but he was the only witness they had.
“That I had to stay behind, of course,” Bragan said. His giggles grew louder, punctuated by snorts of escaping air. Then he started laughing out loud, uncontrollably.
The sound was magnified as it passed through the com system, adding strength to the man’s cackles.
“Why is that amusing?” Seth said. Bragan was laughing so hard now he could hardly speak.
“W-w-why, b-b-b-because,” Bragan sputtered out between fits of dark mirth. “I’m the o-o-one who took out the implants, of course. I’m the surgeon. But when all the slaves were free, there was no one left to take out my implant and I had to s-s-s-stay…”
The man continued to lay on the ground, giggling at his little joke while Seth stared in horrified fascination. Bragan had helped his fellow slaves revolt, only to find himself trapped on the asteroid base. After a few seconds, the quality of his noise changed, and Seth realized he was sobbing. Bragan cried for a few minutes more, then lay still.
“They said they’d come back for me,” he finally whispered. “But you got here first.
It’s all over, now.”
Calvin, who Seth had all but forgotten about, chose that moment to launch himself at Bragan’s prone figure.
“Who did it?” Calvin screamed. “Who did this? Which slaves? Where did they go?
I’ll kill the bastards!” He grasped Bragan’s pressure suit and began banging his head against the ground.
“Jess…” the man gasped under his onslaught, pawing feebly at Calvin. “It was Jess and Logan. They were the leaders.”
“Calvin, get control of yourself,” Seth said with disgust, then wrenched the braggart off Bragan’s prone body. “He can’t give us any information if he’s dead. Come on. Let’s get him back to the ship.”
“Oh, no you don’t!” Bragan shouted hysterically. He started crawling frantically through the dust toward the dome. “I can’t go on a ship. I can leave the base. My implant will go off! I can’t go … I can’t … please don’t make me go, please!”
“Get on your feet,” Seth said. “We’re not going to leave the base yet. I’m just going to lock you up on my ship so we can explore.” Bragan didn’t seem to hear him. The man just kept scrabbling away from them, whimpering and crying.
“We should just kill him,” Calvin muttered, casting a resentful look at Seth. Seth glared back, not bothering to answer. He continued to coax Bragan, who ignored him.
Finally, seeing no other, Seth came up behind the gibbering man and hit him on the head with the blunt end of his blaster. Hoping he hadn’t caused any permanent harm, he boosted his limp body up and threw it over his shoulder. Then he headed back to the ship, Calvin following him and muttering angrily.
Calla watched the man anxiously. Seth had bound and gagged him, tying him securely to one of the bulkheads in the main room. She and Sarai listened to the entire exchange between the men and Bragan on the com before they brought him in, and at the sound of Jess’ name her heart had all but stopped beating. This man, still unconscious, might have information for her. She needed to find a way to get it out of him. Seth and Calvin had left to go exploring again. It would be at least an hour before they came back.
It might be her only chance.
“Children, why don’t you go into the bedroom,” Calla said, smiling at them as if having a bound and bloodied man in the main living quarters was a normal thing.
“Your mother and I are going to take care of this man and make him feel better.”
Sarai looked at her anxiously, concerned that she was disobeying Seth. They were supposed to ignore the man, to not speak or come close to him. Seth had given them a gun, and told them to shoot to kill if Bragan did anything threatening.
“I know what I’m doing,” Calla said, looking reassuringly toward Sarai. The two of them had developed a strange, secret bond over the past week. Hopefully she would be willing to play along, Calla thought. “Just trust me.”
After a second, Sarai nodded her head. “Yes, I’ll trust you Devora. What should we do?”
Calla was startled at Sarai’s quick acquiescence, then realized she shouldn’t be. Sarai always did as she was told… sometimes Calla wondered if the woman had a mind of her own at all.
“Bring me some warm water,” Calla said, moving quickly toward the man. “I’ll wash his face, and maybe that will wake him up. If he isn’t seriously injured, that is,”
she muttered under her breath. You couldn’t tell with a head wound. Sarai brought the water and a soft cloth. Calla handed her the gun, telling her to sit just out of the man’s reach. “Shoot him if he tries anything, you understand?” Calla said. “And if he grabs me somehow, shoot anyway. It’s very important to protect the children. Can you do that?”
“Protect the children,” Sarai echoed back to her, lifting the weapon experimentally.
She turned the blaster over in her hands several times, and a strange little smile came across her face. “Yes, I can do that.”
“Good,” Calla said, then knelt down beside the man. Dipping her cloth in the water, she brought it to his face, wiping gently at the blood. The worst of it was in his hair, but with one little washcloth she wasn’t going to be able to get him truly clean. This would be to revive him, make him comfortable. Then maybe he’d tell her about Jess.
He didn’t show any signs of life, and after several minutes she started to get worried. Then he made a small, moaning noise and his eyelids fluttered open. He looked up at her in confusion.
“Don’t worry, we aren’t going to hurt you,” she said, trying to smile in a reassuring manner as she removed his gag. “I was just cleaning you up, trying to make you a feel a little better. How are you doing?”
“My head hurts,” he whispered. “Where am I?”
“On our ship,” Calla replied. “Seth and Calvin brought you here so they could explore.”
“A ship?” he started struggling against his restraints. “I can’t go anywhere on a ship.
I still have my slave implant. I’ll die if I leave the asteroid’s electrical field.”
Calla laid a calming hand on him.
“We’re not going anywhere right now,” she said quickly, keeping her voice low and soothing. “You’re just here as a precaution. There’s no plan to take off any time soon, so you don’t have to worry about that right now.” The man peered up at her, trying to judge whether she was speaking the truth. Something in her expression must have reassured him, because he stopped struggling.
“I’m very thirsty,” he said softly. “Would you be willing to give me something to drink?”
“Of course,” Calla said. “I’ll be right back.”
She brought him a glass of water, and tilted it against his lips so he could drink.
After a few seconds, she pulled it away, but he reached for more.
“It’s so good,” he said finally, licking his lips. “I can’t remember the last time I had fresh water like that. Years, maybe. You look like someone I’ve seen before.”
“How long have you been here?” Calla asked quietly, even as she searched her mind, trying to remember if she’d seen him before. Had he ever come through the hostel?