She Bleeds for Us: The Galactic Consortium 3

Chapter 5

Jake slowed the truck as he watched the woman. It was odd to even see a human out here. They had unloaded a shipment at a small village a few miles south of the Libyan border and were heading back west. This part of their route was long stretches of desert, villages widely scattered and humans rare.

The woman was ebony black, dressed in a long, gold colored dress. She wore it Sari-styled with a long piece of fabric across her front, a bundle across her chest.

She marched down the sand dune, heading straight for the road. Jake slowed further. Didn't she see them?

"What's up?" Abioya asked, looking up from the book he'd been reading.

"We there already?" Chatura asked sleepily from his bunk.

"No, there's a woman," Jake said.

"Out here?" Abioya leaned forward to see.

The woman had reached the road and stopped in the middle.

Jake halted the truck. He scanned the horizon. "They did warn us of armed insurgents along the border," he offered hesitantly.

"Its one woman," Abioya scoffed.

"Unless it's an ambush," Jake said.

But Abioya had already opened the door and was climbing down. The woman came to him. Jake took one last look across the horizon. It was empty. He leaned out to check on Abioya.

The woman was talking rapidly, gesturing at the bundle across her front. She seemed upset.

Abioya was holding his hand up in supplication. He glanced up at Jake. "Can you bring my collar?"

"A language you don't know?" Jake joked. They'd given up wearing their translator collars in the truck. Jake's Consortium was improving faster than he would have thought possible, and when he did get stuck Abioya's English was good enough to help him out.

He found a couple of translator collars in the glove compartment and climbed down to join Abioya. Chatura had gotten up and was sitting in the copilot's seat.

The bundle at the woman's chest was a baby. It took Jake in with wide, passive eyes.

"Not fair," the woman was ranting as Jake's translator collar kicked in. "Oumouth gets visits monthly." Oumouth was the village they had just left. "But Alu Fishar? Our children are to die?"

Jake had no idea where Alu Fishar was, but he caught the implication of the last bit. "Your child is sick?"

She nodded, her eyes wide, her face set stubbornly. "You can cure him. But you don't come to our village."

"We can't heal him," Abioya said. The woman glared at him, but Jake could see tears at the corner of her eyes. "Not personally," Abioya added before she could protest. "We aren't healers. But we can contact them."

Jake wasn't sure that was allowed, but looking at the woman, who couldn't have been more than twenty and the tiny infant she carried, he couldn't voice it. He merely nodded to Abioya and climbed back up to the truck's cabin.

"Throw me down some water," Abioya called after him.

Chatura had heard and was already returning with the bottles when Jake swung himself into the cab. Chatura climbed down as Jake messaged their quartermaster.

"Got a situation, boss," he said. "A woman stopped us on the road. Got a sick child."

"Not our mission," the quartermaster said. Before Jake could protest he added, "I'll patch you through to Relief."

Moments later he was talking to someone new. They identified themselves as Bamako Station Relief, but that meant nothing to Jake. The holographic head checked something off screen and told them to hold on and relief would be on the way.

When Jake climbed back down, Abioya had gotten one of the emergency packs from the side of the truck and erected a low shelter to keep the sun off the woman and her baby.

The woman kept telling Abioya the child's symptoms while Abioya kept trying to tell her he wasn't a healer. Chatura was holding the child now. It was older than Jake would have guessed, a couple years maybe. But it was thin and sunken. Chatura was holding a bottle of water, coaxing the child to take sips.

"They said to wait. Bamako station is sending relief," Jake told them. Then he cursed to himself. He should have asked more questions, found out exactly what sort of relief was being sent and how long it would be.

But he hadn't. So they sat in the shade of the shelter and watched the desert. About forty five minutes later they heard a noise and looked up to see an orbital hopper descending on their position. It set down a few meters away from the truck.

Sand blew around them, disturbed by the hopper's engines. It hadn't even fully hit the ground when the door popped open and woman leaped out. She came across the desert at them at an easy jog. She was lightly dressed in tan slacks and a tight shirt. She was easily as dark as the woman that waited with them, her hair in cornrows with a single braid down one side of her face.

Not her, Jake corrected in his head, zie. He'd seen a few kurgara on base, knew they didn't identify as woman.

"Devaki, at your service," the kurgara said as zie reached their shelter. Zie gave a quick bow. Zie pulled a small pack off hir back and gestured for Chatura to bring the child forward.

The woman talked, telling Devaki the child's symptoms. The hopper had fully settled now and three people in military uniforms were approaching them. Jake and Abioya rose and went to them.

The man at the center had some sort of insignia on his uniform, but Jake knew nothing of their ranks. He was, however, clearly the officer. The two flanking him, one man and one woman, held back.

"This region is dangerous," the officer said, scanning the horizon. "We've had reports of armed insurgents just north of here."

"We couldn't leave a woman in distress with a sick child," Abioya snapped back. Jake was impressed. The officer intimidated him.

"Wouldn't expect you too," the officer replied, taking both of them off balance. "But still, it's dangerous. Brought you a little something. In case this happens again."

The female soldier stepped forward. She had three small boxes and passed them over to Abioya. They looked like oversized cellphones, with a place on the back where they could be strapped to a belt.

"Kinetic force shields," the woman explained. She showed them how to attach the device to their belts and how to activate them. "It will stop projectiles coming at a dangerous speed. Not completely, mind. Just enough so it's not dangerous. A knife coming at slow speed..." she shrugged.

"We don't recommend engaging insurgents," the officer interrupted. "Call us if you see anything. This is just so they don't shoot you before we can get there. Understand?"

Jake and Abioya both nodded their understanding. The kurgara, Devaki, appeared. Zie was holding the child, the woman was at hir side. "It's nothing serious but she should return with us for a few days," Devaki told the man. The man nodded and they all headed back towards the hopper with a final farewell.

Chatura had the shelter torn down and was stowing it away. They handed him one of the kinetic shields. "I don't know whether to be excited or scared," he said as he turned the device over in his hands. "It's like being in a movie or something."

They climbed back into their truck and Jake took the driver's seat, intent on making up time. He wasn't exactly scared, but he would be glad to put this stretch behind them.