Amateur Author

‘You can open your eyes now,’ Jaydon said as he gently pushed the young woman away. She was still holding on tightly to him.

She peaked around with only a single eye opened. When she noticed her surroundings had radically changed – apparently for the better at that – she opened both bright green eyes. ‘Where are we?’, she stammered.

‘Aboard my ship,’ he answered, and as soon as he had freed himself from her grasp, he hurried toward the cockpit knowing they were not out of the proverbial woods yet.

The woman just stood there, glaring around her. Still a bit anxious and scared, still not remembering anything about herself. She could only remember one thing with absolute certainty; in the vicinity of the man that had just rescued her she felt safe. Therefore, she waited no longer and ran after him.

She ran through a tube. The metal grid floor hurt her bare feet, but she ignored the ache. At the end of the tunnel was a small room, rectangle shaped with two chairs in front of a window, separated by a meter high rectangle shaped box filled with flashing lights and readouts. She positioned herself behind him.

‘Those things are huge!’ she panted, pointing at several Vanguard cruisers moving in to cut off their escape route.

‘Don’t worry,’ Jaydon grinned confidently. ‘I know what I am doing. Have I ever let you down?’

‘No,’ she admitted, ‘But I haven’t known you that long yet, have I?’

As the cruisers moved closer together to block the trade ship’s path, Jaydon accelerated, and banked the Concordon slightly. ‘Hang on to something, this is going to be a close call,’ he said with his teeth clenched together. His knuckles turned white, and if his steering column hadn’t been made of sturdy material he would have squished it.

The woman grabbed the back of his chair, and ducked behind it. She couldn’t bare to look out the cockpit, and closed her eyes just to be safe. Who could blame her? The cruisers had moved so closely together, only an idiot would dare to try and fly through the remaining opening.

Being in a foolish mood – and being able to count on a vast amount of experience with this type of manoeuvring – Jaydon banked his ship a little more, and headed directly towards the small gap. With a enthusiastic battlecry he shot into the breach and came out the other end. He recalled a previously programmed heading – one of the things he had taken care of when he was waiting for an opportunity to get his ship outside – activated his jump engines and enjoyed the bright dancing colours characteristic of a subspace fillament jump.

As the colours started to form a tunnel, characteristic of the before mentioned subspace fillament, Jaydon said ‘You can open your eyes now. We made it.’ As he looked back, the woman’s posture amused him. He grinned.

‘Are you sure?’ she asked, eyes still firmly shut.

‘Very sure. By the time they regroup, we’ll be long gone. We won’t see them again for a little while.’

Now she dared to open her eyes, and Jaydon swirled his chair around.

‘For a little while?’ she asked with a nervous trimmer in her voice.

‘Well, they did seem very bent on getting you, both the Vanguard as well as those people in the black robes. I doubt they will give up so easily.’

She let herself fall to the floor and sat down. Her posture revealed a certain grace. Jaydon had already noticed she had a sort of natural grace in everything she did; the way she walked, moved, her facial expressions, even the way she showed her fear. She carried herself in a way he had rarely seen and he thought it made her wildly attractive.

‘I don’t know what to do any more,’ she sobbed. ‘In fact, I can’t even remember if I ever knew what to do.’

‘Maybe if you calm down a bit,’ Jaydon suggested. ‘You’ve been under a lot of stress this past half hour or so. Try to relax. Clear your mind a bit.’

‘My mind is totally clear,’ she cried out. ‘That’s the problem!’ The way she snapped at him upset her even more. She hadn’t meant to do that. Not knowing what to do, she started to cry.

Jaydon, now feeling a little awkward, sat down next to her and took her in his arms. Still crying, she put her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulders. The feeling of safety returned, but it didn’t heal the respiration and frustration she felt, caused by not remembering anything about herself. Up until a few moments before bumping into the man who so bravely rescued her, her mind was totally empty. She knew things like how to read, how to eat, and other such common knowledge, but no personal details of any kind seemed to be present in her mind.

Jaydon helped her on her feet, and guided her into the common area of his ship. There he sat her down on a comfortable chair and quickly handed her a clean cloth from a drawer so she could dry her tears. He fetched a glass of water for her, poured a drink for himself, sat down across the table and waited untill she had calmed down a little. After he had two sips of his Beluvian whiskey, she had calmed down sufficiently to verbally express herself again.

‘Why don’t you start at the very beginning,’ he suggested helpfully.

She swallowed a sip of water audibly and nodded. ‘Okay,’ she responded. ‘I woke up in some sort of tube. It was like a coffin, but with glass and all these… controls on it. I pounded on the glass because I wanted to get out, and it opened all by itself. I got out and realised I was completely naked. I looked around the room, which wasn’t really a room, more like some sort of storage area, and I found a travel bag with this robe in it. I put it on, exited through the only door the room had and walked around, trying to figure out where I was. Then I bumped into you.’

‘And that’s all you remember? Not even your name or something?’ Jaydon probed.

‘Nothing at all,’ she confirmed, and felt the tears welling up again. She forced them back and dabbed the moisture from the corners of her eyes with her finger tips. She sniffed. Then she realised something. ‘I don’t even know your name.’

Jaydon smiled. ‘I guess we never got around to that. My name is Jaydon. Jaydon Octar.’

She smiled back at him. He convinced himself her smile was brighter then a thousand stars. What was wrong with him? He never was this poetic, not even in his own mind.

‘Well, nice to meet you Jaydon Octar,’ she smiled thankfully. ‘And thank you very much for rescuing me, even though neither of us know who I am.’

‘My pleasure,’ he grinned. He felt a strange sensation in his stomach every time he glared into her bright green eyes.

‘What do you do for a living?’ she inquired curiously as she flipped her hair back.

He felt as if he had turned liquid and had flowed off his chair.

‘Are you some sort of mercenary or soldier?’ she guessed when he failed to provide an answer, but merely grinned at her, looking a bit silly actually.

He pulled himself together. ‘I’m a trader,’ he stammered a bit bashfully. ‘And cargo runner. A freelancer.’

‘A trader?’ she cried out. ‘I know very little about trading, but I suppose the profession must be more dangerous then I thought. You couldn’t have pulled an escape like that off without any experience, I know that much!’

He grinned again. ‘I specialize in especially difficult cargo’s,’ he admitted with some pride. ‘All legal, I might add, but difficult. Disputed space, war zones, hazardous regions of space, that sort of thing. But not stuff like smuggling. At least not from the point of view of the central galactic government.’

‘Well, trader Jaydon Octar, I owe you my life,’ she stated. She got up, bent over the table and kissed him gently on the cheek.

If he would have died then and there, he wouldn’t have cared. The very recently kissed cheek turned reddish, as did it’s counterpart on the other side of his face. He too got up and stammered: ‘I guess you would want to get out of that robe, considering some of the other people wearing the same thing were after you a few minutes ago.’

‘I forgot to bring a fresh set of clothes, I’m afraid,’ she replied with a whiff of humour.

He was glad she felt comfortable enough to joke a little. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I think some of my clothes might fit you. You’re only a few centimetres shorter then me, so I suspect they will fit sufficiently. You won’t look very elegant in them, but at least you’ll be dressed.’ His own words bounced around his head, making him realise what phrasing he had used, so he quickly added: ‘… but you would look elegant in pretty much anything,’ as he handed her the clothes. He had selected a grey t-shirt, black leather pants he had several pairs of, and a smock – also black leather. He didn’t have any shoes for her in her size, so she had to make due with some of his. At least his thick woollen socks would add a half a shoe size to her feet.

She briefly inspected the clothes by holding them in front of her. As she held the pants in front of her loins, he realised having to wear leather pants without having any underwear on wasn’t very comfortable. He dashed into his bedroom, which was one of the adjacent rooms. He came back out holding a pair of boxer shorts.

‘I hope you don’t mind, it’s the best I have. But at least it will be more comfortable until we get you some decent underwear,’ he stated.

Again that thankful smile, and again he felt as if he was simply melting away.

‘You’re very considerate,’ she replied.

He just stood there. She glared back at him, but he didn’t seem to realize she was waiting for him to leave.

‘Where would you like me to change?’ she asked, having given up on non-verbal communication for the moment.

He stared at here for a few more seconds, then realized he was staring, sequentially realizing she needed some privacy to change her clothes, and finally bumbled out an excuse. As he walked towards the corridor leading to the bridge – the place he had promised he would be – he bumped into a few things and looked rather clumsy doing it.

It amused her to see him being the opposite of what he was when he saved their lives, and she thought it was kind of endearing.

As he turned the corner, he immediately reappeared, not being gone long enough for her to start undressing. ‘What do I call you?’ he inquired.

‘But I told you; I don’t…’

‘You don’t know your name, I know. But I still need to call you something, don’t I? I can’t address you as `hey` or `you there`. You should think of a name. A temporary one, until we find out your real one,’ he suggested.

She thought about it for a moment.

‘You don’t have to decide right here and now,’ he quickly stated. ‘Put some thought into it. I’ll be on the bridge if you need me.’

Then he disappeared around the corner. She waited a few moments until she was certain she wouldn’t stick his head out again. Not that she didn’t trust him, but because she had noticed he hadn’t been thinking very clearly at the moment. She knew instinctively that it had something to do with her, but she wasn’t sure what to think of it. She wasn’t even sure what she felt at that moment, she just knew she had never felt such a thing in her life before. All she was sure of was that this feeling was directly linked to his presence. As she disrobed, literally, she couldn’t get her rescuer out of her mind. She even noticed her preoccupation caused some physical discomfort. After she had put on the boxer shorts, she pulled the t-shirt over her head. The cloth grated her nipples, which were in a hardened state and a lot more sensitive as usual, although `as usual` was quite a stretch considering the condition of her memory. Every movement her upper body made put her breasts in contact with her shirt and it felt very pleasant, bordering on a very distracting sensation. As she pulled on the tight fitting leather pants she had been supplied with, her crutch joined in and started giving of certain impulses too. ‘Ooowww,’ she giggled. ‘What the hell is going on?’

She knew that the timing of this new experience was definitely off, and she hoped it would go away on its own if she ignored it. She also hoped it would return at a more convenient time, so she could explore it in-depth. She was glad the vest concealed her protruding nipples very nicely. For reasons unknown to her, she felt somewhat ashamed of very natural bodily functions, and very definitely because she suspected these functions were pointed towards Jaydon somehow. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she had never worn clothes like this before and felt the robe had been more familiar for some reason.

After putting on the shoes, which were definitely a few sizes to large for her feet, she stepped towards the cockpit, tripped because of the generous amount of space between her feet and the shoes, grabbed a bulge on her way down, prevented falling flat on her face, got up, and walked much more carefully towards the before mentioned destination.