Captor-Hostage Bonding Time

Getting information out of Pim isn't much easier than getting information from Siri.

Captor-Hostage Bonding Time

　

    If he'd eaten lunch, he probably would have thrown it up on the way down. He felt as if they barely missed the jagged protrusions ringing the impalements through each floor as they plummeted. It seemed to last minutes. Pim looked perfectly unaffected, poised gracefully like a cat, ready to meet the floor on all fours. If there was a floor. If they ever stopped falling.

    Chris felt himself being tugged through open space. Pim took hold of his arms and placed them around her white armored shoulders. "Hold on," she said. The wind in his ears didn't affect his hearing her; her voices echoed loud enough to be in his mi"

    BOOM.

    The jar of the impact should've been enough to throw him from her shoulders to his death, or at least slam his head into the back of Pim's helmet and crack his skull. But the force of the landing shuddered through his body much gentler than the cracks branching out through the floor said it should have.

    Pim stood up. Chris clutched her for balance as he surveyed their crash site. He had a nice view from her back"she was tall, easily eight feet. This room was bigger than his last one. But as far as lighting went, he couldn't see a damn thing.

    Siri's voice greeted them inside the dark chamber.

    "Pim, I realize that I have upset you, as I can tell by scanning your stress levels, but damaging the inside of the ship too severely is not in the interests of anyone on board."

    "Don't be a p***y," she replied derisively. "You can take it. Besides, there's probably some kind of floor repair kit in a janitor closet somewhere, if you really need it."

    "You have broken through five stories of extensive construction work. I will require more than said repair kit."

    "You'll live, cleverbot."

    "Hey," Chris interrupted, "I realize I'm just the captive right now, but would it kill either of you to tell me where I'm going?"

    Pim grunted, twisting her head to look at him. Light from the room above reflected off her blank mask of a face in little white flecks. "I'm getting you a suit."

    He raised his eyebrows at her and leaned forward. "Hmm! Well, not that I wouldn't love to have a new outfit, as you kinda played scratching post with this one, but there's a time and a place--" 

   "Not clothes, dumbass." Pim faced forward and started walking away from the light. He slipped a bit and grabbed her shoulders to keep from falling. "A cassis. If you're gonna help me, you're going to need one. Otherwise I'd be happy to defenestrate you and see what the next fellow says."

   "Defenestrate. I'm guessing that word is bad news to me."

    "There's nothing to break your fall in space."

    "So, assuming we're actually in space, that word is bad news to me."

    It was getting dark very quickly. He hoped his captor knew where she was going. He spoke again after a short pause. "If it's alright, I'd like to ask some questions about our...situation."

    He felt Pim change direction, like she was walking around something. That was a good sign. Maybe she did know where she was going. "Sure. Just depends on the type of question."

   Okay. Maybe he could figure out a little more of what was going on now. "Alright. First off, what's a cassis? Siri said you found one. She seems kind of upset by it."

   Her voice came haltingly, as if she was unsure how to explain at first. "A cassis is...well, what I'm wearing. It's alien technology. Once you find one that's compatible with you, it molds to your body. Becomes your other half. You won't be able to have another one. The cassis are all connected to each other. It makes for easy communication. Someone else wearing a cassis can tell your vitals, if you're in combat or out of combat, and if they're in close vicinity with you, they don't have to communicate verbally with you. All this is as long as you're wearing one too, of course."

   "So you don't actually look like something out of X-files?"

    Faint snickering. "No. I'm wearing what I just explained to you."

    He thought for a moment as they continued further. He was only able to see the faint outline of her shoulder and one half of her head now. "Okay, how about this. If I'm in space, on an alien spacecraft, which is carrying alien technology, and is manned by an alien captain and his robot, why does everyone speak English?"

    "Siri knows several thousand languages from hundreds of planets. But I'm not speaking english. My cassis transmits thoughts into your brain and I guess you interperet them as your language. But you shouldn't be able to understand me unless you have a cassis too."

     "Well, obviously I don't."

      Pim stopped. "That makes no sense. Unless you understand Swedish."

     "You speak Swedish?"

      "No, I speak Japanese. Of course I speak Swedish, dumbass."

      "So you're from Earth too."

      She started walking again. "We'll get back to this. This is important. And weird."

      They kept going in silence for a while. Everything was shrouded in darkness. Chris felt like he was being walked to his execution. There was nothing. No sensation but the gentle jostling of Pim's long strides and the feel of her plated armor shoulder under his palm. He couldn't even hear her talons clicking across the floor. It was unnerving.

      When it got too quiet, he piped up again. "So can I still ask questions?"

      "Shut up."

      "I'll take that as a 'not now.'"

      "No, shut up, Hamington." She stopped moving. "Do you hear that?"

       He listened. Still the same deathly quiet. "Is this the part where I say 'I don't hear anything' and then you say 'exactly' and then we get jumped?"

       He felt her take him by the collar and lift him off her back. "Yep. It's that time."

       He barely had time to say, "Ooh, just like in the movies!" before she pelted him over her shoulder and his rump hit the ground. Then the corridor filled with light and deafening noise as a new player entered the game.

Author's Note

I'm not using word to write right now, so any help in pointing out mistakes would be great :) That also includes plot points, embarrassing dialogue, etc. Wouldn't it be great if Microsoft Word fixed your plot holes for you? Damn. I'd spend money on that.