Prisoner

The shot never came.

Instead, there was a loud click. No bullet penetrated the back of his helmet. As far as Seth knew, he was still alive.

Everyone held their breath in the silence that followed the sound of the hammer ramming an empty chamber. The big Freelancer looked at his gun for a moment then said, “Get him on the ship...” He said it over the open frequency, so Seth heard it in his helmet radio. Before, the Freelancer had been speaking so that everyone could hear, regardless of radio frequency.

The woman that had captured him delivered a sharp rap to one of his shoulders with the butt of her gun. “Move,” she barked.

Seth did as he was told and followed the Freelancer team to their ship. As he walked, he marveled at the fact that he was still alive. Well, he was still alive for the moment.

All of the enemy soldiers filed slowly up the ramp and into their ship. He and his captor were the last aboard.

The inside of the ship was like a long, wide hallway. The soldiers boarded by way of a sloping ramp that could lift up and lock into place for space travel. The hallway was lined with rows of padded seats. There were straps that came over the shoulders and buckled across the chest and attached to the seat again between the legs when you sat down. Another Freelancer sat down beside him.

Her chest plate was sloped as well. The Freelancer that had captured Seth moved among the other members of her team, checking their wounds. Everyone began removing their helmets, even his captor took off her helmet and shook out her hair.

The Freelancer next to him removed her headgear and shook out her hair, as well. “Phew, its good to be rid of helmet at last! We've been on nonstop missions for almost 4 months.” She turned to him and continued, “You know you can take off your helmet too, right?”

“Uh... I'd rather not...” Seth replied uneasily.

She smiled disarmingly. Her accent was almost identical to that of the Freelancer that had almost shot Seth. “I won't bite.” The Freelancer was really quite pretty . She continued to try to reassure Seth. “My name is Maria. I'm sure you're going to be safe. Gloria seemed pretty attached to you.”

“Who?” Seth had a decent idea who Gloria was. He'd only asked to confirm his suspicions.

“Gloria is the one that took you prisoner.” She continued to smile in her friendly way. “Whats your name?”

Seth hesitated before replying. “Seth.” He did not give her his full name.

“I used to know a guy named Seth. He was a total prick. I think you're a nice person, though.” Maria turned as one of the men on the ship said something said something especially profane. “Balthazar! Be careful how you talk about Gloria when shes so close. She could have heard you.”

Gloria turned as Maria said this. “Actually, I did hear him. Look forward to being castrated in your sleep, a*****e.”

When she turned, Seth got his first good look at the woman that had taken him prisoner.

Gloria had fiery hair. It was redder than normal red and streaked with lighter red highlights. It looked as if her head was on fire. Her blue eyes held a light that Seth couldn't quite describe. There was mischief in her face.

The man that had spoken badly about Gloria paled slightly, then began blustering. “Nicholai would never let you do that, you crazy b***h. Besides, you don't have the balls.” Again, his accent was like Maria's and the psychotic Freelancer that had a really big gun.

The leader, the one who had held the gun to Seth's head and executed his comrades, was apparently named Nicholai. That name didn't seem like it could belong to a psycho... “Actually, I don't like you, so she can do whatever the Hell she wants to you. And don't say she doesn't have balls. Next to me, she has the most balls on this team. She'll do whatever she wants when she wants to do it. Suck it up.”

Nicholai's face was scarred to Hell. There was a long curving knife scar that started just under the right corner of his mouth and ended at the top of his right ear. Another scar looked like a gunshot wound in his left cheek. The last scar was a shrapnel graze across his forehead coming down across his left eyebrow narrowly missing his eye. He had dark black hair that came down to about the base of his neck and deep blue eyes.

Another man on the ship spoke up. “Gloria, please, forgive my brother. He has no brain and therefore cannot think before acting. You can castrate him next time.”

His small speech was met with sniggers from the rest of the Freelancers.

Gloria replied heatedly with, “You say that every time! Stop letting him off easy just 'cause hes related to you. One of these days, I'm just going to have to kill him to make up for all of the missed castrations.”

“Not if I kill him first.” That was Nicholai.

“You wouldn't kill me,” Balthazar interjected.

“Wanna bet?” There was a malicious grin on the Freelancer team leader's face.

The banter continued back and forth. Balthazar even joined in a couple of times. Seth just sat back with Maria. She seemed nice. Maybe Freelancers weren't as bad as the rumors made them out to be.