Love Is Blind

Author: Drackarn

Original post: https://sandciderandspaceships.blogspot.com/2013/11/love-is-blind.html

Entry for the YC115 Pod and Planet Fiction Contest, not elegible for prizes.

Hakeem sealed the clear transparent tank and opened a valve on one of the many tubes that were fixed to the containers lid. A quiet hiss broke the steady hum from the starships engines that filled the room. An opaque gas filled the glass camber that was located directly below the bleeding rooms. This particular starship was used for one purpose, to harvest humans, particularly their blood.

This was Hakeem's first expedition in total charge of the bleeding process. For nearly five years he had worked his way up the crew ranks. In fact he was only one step away from the bridge. Whilst at 23 years of age Hakeem would have been considered too young for such responsibilities in most of the major factions of New Eden, the Blood Raiders didn't have a long life expectancy. The militant wing of the notorious Sani Sabik cult existed to capture victims and collect their bodies, but mainly their blood, to further their research. Unsurprisingly this gave them a fearsome reputation and marked them as shoot-on-sight to all law enforcement agencies. Along with Sansha's Nation, stories of the Blood Raiders were told to young children to scare them. Bounties were placed on most of their ships which in turn attracted the capsuleers. Life with the Blood Raiders was usually short and brutal.

He opened a second valve and the gas in the chamber cleared. It was now fully sterilised and ready to be filled. It wouldn't be long now. An hour ago they had intercepted a Gallente hauler. After disabling it with the cruisers energy neutralisers they had latched onto the hapless ship and sent boarding parties over. Hakeem had heard the call for the second and third squads to move out. That was a good sign to him. If one team had taken the ship it would have meant only a small crew was present. If all three squads were needed then there must be many more. Hakeem could be very busy, very soon. Perhaps it was a refugee transport. With the two rooms above his head they could bleed 20 people at a time. A hundred bleedings would take him over a day. This particular mission required male and female blood to be extracted separately. If there was a big difference in proportions it would take even longer as he had set aside one room for the men and another for the women.

Half an hour later he was informed over the communicator that the bleeders were ready. He was bitterly disappointed to hear there were only three live and one corpse recovered from the other ship. Apparently the crew had set a trap killing squad one in a single fire in the galley. Squad two were flushed into space when a mining charge hidden in an airlock was triggered. This crew of four had put up more of a fight than any of their last targets.

Hakeem entered the first bleeding room and realised why. An older man and a boy were restrained against the wall in the bleeding alcoves. Their resemblance was obvious. Father and son. Nothing is more dangerous than a parent protecting its offspring. Hakeem lanced at the corpse storage tubes. Empty. Therefore the dead crew member and the other live one captured must both be female. He picked up a thin tube with a large gauge needle in the end and approached the father who was pleading for him to stop.

Twenty minutes later Hakeem checked on the father. His skin was grey and ashen, he was almost gone. The man tried to speak but was too weak. Hakeem could see in his eyes that he knew all was lost. He was slipping away slowly. His son next to him was clearly dead already having been bled out several minutes ago. Hakeem waited a while longer until the father was fully drained before he shut of the machines. He then proceeded through a small airlock to the second room. The first thing he saw was the woman in one of the corpse tubes. The mother he assumed given her apparent age, meaning... he turned to the wall and gasped. There, suspended against the wall was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. No, not a woman, a girl. She was Gallente, late-teens and was sobbing heavily. He was mesmerised. She had jet black hair that cascaded down over her shoulders. Her skin was slightly tanned and in stark contrast to the white strappy top that she wore. He was frozen, rooted to the spot. The comms unit crackled into life and broke the spell.

"Hakeem we've detected a frigate in the next belt, given the poor harvest here we are moving to intercept. Be ready for more."

Hakeem blinked and slowly picked up the tube with the needle attached and walked up to her. She was restrained against the wall in one of the 'bleeding alcoves'. He placed his hand against her arm ready to insert the needle that would drain the blood from her body. The skin was soft, flawless and she smelt incredible. He paused, his head moved closer to her hair taking in her scent. Suddenly a pair of lips brushed his temple. The kiss was light, loving. "Please." the girl whispered. Hakeem froze, his heart raced.

"I can see you are a good man." she whispered "You don't want to do this."

He paused, conflicted, confused. Hakeem had never had a girlfriend and limited experience with the opposite sex. His heart pounded, his palms were clammy. Could this be love at first sight?

He turned to face her, she stretched her head against the restraints and kissed him lightly on the lips. He didn't respond, he was frozen.

"Please." she whispered again "Save me." She kissing him again this time he responded back. He felt her tongue push pass his lips as the warp engines engaged.

-o0o-

"Hakeem standby we're bringing four males to you."

"Acknowledged. Please set them up in Room 1. I'll be up there shortly."

Hakeem placed the communicator back on his belt and looked through the tiny crack in the door. He saw the troopers march by leading the prisoners. He and the girl were hidden in a small storage room near to the ships main airlock. As the sounds of the boots faded he grabbed her hand and ran to the open airlock. There was a very short tube where the docking arm had latched on the other ship. They stepped into the frigate and Hakeem smiled. The ship was Amarrian, an Executioner. Whilst the Blood Raider ships were slightly different, he still could fly this as the controls would be very similar.

He dragged the girl to the small bridge and jumped into the cockpit. The systems were still operational and the ships capacitor had recharged to 46%. Once the Raiders had captured the crew the energy neutralisers had been turned off.

"Hakeem. They are ready."

Hakeem picked up his communicator.

"Acknowledged. I'm down in the collection room sterilising fresh containers. Leave them there and I'll be up shortly." There was silence, no acknowledgement for several seconds.

"I sent a man down to see if you were there before I made this call. You were not there. What is your exact location, and where is the body of the girl we brought in?"

Hakeem dropped the communicator. With a flick of a switch he closed the airlock remotely and fired the engines. The docking arm between the two ships was ripped apart as the small frigate moved away from the cruiser. He knew that would have de-pressurised that one corridor on his old ship and activated just about every alarm on board. The small frigate slipped into warp before the Raiders could respond to the unbelievable turn of events.

-o0o-

An hour later Hakeem entered the galley, it was heavily damaged by the fire the crew had set off earlier. The girl was preparing them some food. She smiled at him as he entered.

For a moment he worried what he'd done. He'd abandoned his faction, stolen a ship and was now on the run. He knew he was relatively safe. Since warping off from the Blood Raider cruiser he had bounced between planets until he was sure that he had lost them. Then he had headed for the nearest high-sec stargate. Thankfully their hunting grounds were near to the low-sec border, more targets could be found this close to Empire space. As soon as they had left low-sec he knew he'd gotten away with it.

"Are we safe?" she asked as she seductively licked some sauce from her fingers.

"Yes. We're on autopilot. The ship will fly itself and even dock in the station like you asked." he replied. His heart quickened as he'd recalled what she'd said to him. "Once we're in high-sec, set the autopilot. I need to give you your special reward and don't want to be disturbed!"

She leaned against the counter top, leaving the food unfinished. She beckoned him over to her with one finger whilst she bit her bottom lip. Hakeem wanted to run to her, his desire was burning, but he tried to act cool. He slowly sauntered over and stood in front of her.

"I want you." she whispered and took his head in her hands. The kiss was warm, wet, and passionate.

All thoughts of his treason against the Raiders melted away as his new lover ground her body into him. This is what he wanted, this is what he needed.

The sudden pain made his vision go blurred. It was unbelievable and all consuming. He staggered back, breaking the passionate embrace, confused. He looked at the girl, her look of need, wanting and passion was gone. Replaced with a visage of hate, anger and sorrow. His vision panned down her body. At her side she held a large carving knife, it was dripping with bright red blood. It slowly dripped which formed a small pool on the scorched floor. Time appeared to slow down. He looked down at himself and saw where the bright red blood on the knife had come from him. A gaping wound pumped rivers of blood from his left side. The wound was large, she had twisted the knife hard after stabbing him deep. He slumped to his knees trying to stem the flow of blood with his hands.

"Why?" he gasped.

The girl shot him a look which appeared to say "You really need to ask?"

To his amazement, a short laugh left his lips. Of course he didn't need to ask. His shipmates had killed her mother and he'd personally bled her father and brother to death. The irony was not lost on him, as she pushed herself up and sat on the worktop and watched him slowly bleed to death.