companionway towards the bridge.
“Me? But… what am I going to do with her?” Rosh asked, baffled as to how to proceed.
Kragor grunted, glaring at him until he came over and helped him secure the door. Jenna giggled and headed aft to her cabin, intent on inventorying their new weapons. Already the large ballista sat on the stern castle, waiting for Kragor to secure it to the hull. The other ballista in the other hold was scheduled to make its way to the forecastle at the first opportunity as well. Dexter was through running unarmed, he figured he would deal with the Federation when he had to, until then, the Voidhawk was no longer toothless.
Chapter 5: Missing Pieces
“Damn it, girl, I’m not your foe!” Rosh roared, pushing the young woman coming at him away from furiously.
She spun away, then continued spinning and launched herself at him anew. Rosh bled from dozens of scratches on his arms already. The large man caught her and crushed her to him, immobilizing her arms so that he only had to deal with her snapping mouth. He dropped to the floor and fell on top of her, further trapping her so that she could not rock her head towards him in an attempt to bite out his throat.
“You gonna settle down and realize you can’t hurt me?” Rosh asked her as she continued to squirm beneath him. Her growl and renewed wiggling was her reply.
“She’s not right,” Bekka said from the doorway to the hold.
Rosh glanced up, then grunted as she managed to drive her knee between his legs. His crossed eyes caused Bekka and Jenna to laugh at his expense.
“What do you mean, she ain’t right?” Rosh demanded, fighting against the painful feeling from his groin to his chest that tried to rob him of air.
“There’s magic about her. Strong,” Bekka said, adding the last as she studied her from afar.
“That why she’s so strong?”
Bekka nodded. “I think, until it’s gone, that’s why she’s mad too.”
Jenna’s grin faded as she listened to Bekka’s observation. She glanced at the dark haired young woman critically, then stepped away. “Rosh, leave her locked up for now, I think I know something about her.”
Rosh grunted and managed to keep her subdued while he climbed to his feet. In a move that was filled with strength and empty of gentility, he launched her across the cargo hold and dashed to the door that the women had only just vacated. He slammed it shut behind him and had barely barred it shut when she crashed into it from the other side, clawing and hammering against the solid wood.
He looked at Bekka and Jenna and grinned. “She’s fast.”
Bekka smirked while Jenna just rolled her eyes. The elf turned away and headed towards the aft stairs. “Hurry up, I have an idea,” she called behind her.
Rosh glanced at Bekka, who only shrugged, and they both followed the arms mistress to the deck of the ship. On the deck she went to Keshira, who was manning the rigging sufficiently on her own while the Voidhawk sailed through space at cruising speeds.
“Keshira, do you still have the items from Duballin that Dexter gave you for safekeeping?” Jenna asked her.
Keshira paused and nodded. She had changed into fresh clothing to replace those tattered in the intense fighting with the elven wasp. She reached into a pocket and pulled forth the pouch and the ring that the elven captain had worn.
Bekka’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the ring. She nodded after a moment. “I sense the same magic about the ring that is merged with the girl.”
“What’s that mean?” Rosh asked, staring threateningly at the ring.
“I need to study them both more to know,” she said, reaching out and taking it from Keshira.
“Well get to it,” Rosh urged. “Captain ain’t going to be letting her take up air and space much more if she ain’t getting friendly with us.”
“I think you’re the only one that wants her friendly, Rosh,” Bekka said with a wink.
Rosh had the decency to adopt an offended look on his face as he muttered, “That ain’t what I was meaning.”
Laughing, Bekka walked away toward her quarters where she could study the ring in private.
Rosh found Jenna looking at him, an amused expression on her face. He scowled and walked off, heading towards the stern castle and the ballista mounted upon it. Jenna laughed as well, glad for the break from her thoughts, then went about her own business.
* * * *
“Rosh!”
Rosh came awake instantly, rolling out of his bunk and reaching for his sword. He saw Dexter standing in the doorway as he girded it about his waist. “Captain?”
“She’s making a ruckus and tearing up my cargo bay, you figure out what to do with her yet?” Dexter asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder towards the cargo bay where, faintly, the sound of thudding and scratching could be made out.
“Well, um… sort of,” Rosh said, looking down that way. “Bekka’s got this ring-”
“I’m not for caring what she’s got,” Dexter said. “She’s busy with flying this ship longer than she ought to be. I thought you wanted to learn how to fly this thing?”
Rosh nodded. “Yeah, I do, just waiting on you to tell me when.”
“You start doing that, you won’t be having time for stuff like that either,” Dexter said. “So you need to figure out right quick what you’re going to do with her… or I’ll figure it out.”
There was a solid thud accompanied by the sound of wood cracking behind the smaller human. They both looked down the hallway to the door where, a moment later, the door to the cargo hold exploded outward. The broken fragments of wood ricocheted off of the far wall, but were otherwise hardly worth noticing compared to the shape of the girl that picked herself up from where she herself had bounced off the wall. Blood ran from her fingers and lips, adding to the macabre vision that stared upwards at the ceiling, then turned to face them.
“Looks like she figured it out all on her own,” Dexter muttered, reaching for his pistol.
She walked towards them rapidly, an eerie silence emerging from her. Dexter cocked the hammer and took aim just as she turned and scrambled up the stairs to the deck three at a time. He stared after her, confused, and lowered the hammer.
“Rosh?” he asked, at a loss to explain the strange girl’s behavior.
“I’m on it,” Rosh said, already slipping past the smaller man and hurrying up the stairs after her.
Dexter stared at the ruined remains of the door then shook his head and followed them up the stairs.
On the main deck Rosh was running towards her while Keshira watched impassively from the side. The girl was charging towards the forecastle, where Jenna was only now turning her attention at Rosh’s bellowed warnings. She saw the girl coming at her and cursed, then reached for her own pistol.
On the top step she faltered, crashing to the deck under the weight of Rosh. Jenna kept her pistol trained on them, but held her fire while Rosh tried to restrain the demonic girl.
She thrashed under him and managed to backhand him across the face. Rosh felt his jaw rocked by the stinging impact and felt a wetness as well, but he put it from his mind as he tried to control the girl.
“That’s it!” Dexter demanded, coming up on them. “Put her over the side, Rosh!”
Rosh grunted as a knee speared into his stomach. He rolled her over and managed to grab hold of her arms. Another knee strike, this one against his thigh, made him growl with anger. He lifted her up in a smooth motion and turned to the port side of the Voidhawk, ready to hurl her into the void.
“Wait!”
Rosh barely heard Bekka’s plea, coming up the stairs from the bridge as she was. He slowed his steps towards the edge and focused instead on dodging his captives repeated strikes with her feet. He made it to the
