The Betrayal Chapter 36 snippet

Feeling her eyelids flutter open, Jennifer found herself staring at the mattress she was on. The screaming pain in her body had reduced itself to a dull roar as the events from last night filled her mind. Oh God, she thought, the beating that the man had given her! Never ending, she felt herself shudder at the memory of the pain he had filled her body with.

And yet I didn’t break, she thought as she moved on the bed, eliciting a yelp of pain involuntarily.

She ran a hand over her battered and swollen face, hating what she felt. Sighing in sadness, she closed her swollen eyes and found herself thinking of Kate. If she was still alive, Jennifer mused, then all of this was worth it. However, if she had died, then all of this was in vain because there was no one who was remotely capable of rescuing her.

While she lay there, a feeling started to work its way up her legs. Like a tingling, but slightly different, it slowly made it’s way up her spine. Upon reaching her head, she felt her mind start to expand. Racing outwards in a flight that was faster then even h-space was capable of, she found herself floating over an unknown machinery complex.

What the hell is happening here? She asked herself as she could see someone firing a machine gun at another person.

With a gasp, she saw her field of view change and before her stood Kate. The bullets struck off the railing around her as she started to sprint across an elevated walkway. Seeing them closing in on her from behind, Jennifer wanted to shout a warning. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing would come out, as the tears started to run down her cheeks!
Duck, Kate, duck! She screamed in her head as she saw Kate launch herself forwards onto the ground as the bullets chewed overhead.

Watching from her overhead viewpoint, Jennifer watched Kate roll back to her feet and race across into more machinery. The image faded and she felt her body start to relax from the tension that had filled it. Just what the hell was going on her, she asked herself as she opened her eyes to the cell around her. Yes, Kate was still alive, but how had she ended up watching her fight?

At least I know she’s still alive, she thought with a groan as she rolled onto her back.

Staring at the ceiling, she found her mind racing over what she had just experienced. There was no way to normally explain what had just happen, she told herself with a sigh. How had she gone from being in this cell on Earth to being on the planet Haven, a hundred parsecs away? Something was happening here to defied reason, and she had no real way to investigate it while in a holding cell.

All she knew for certain was the fact that Kate was still alive, and that was all that mattered. As long as she stayed alive, there was hope, and where there was hope, there always the ability to change your course. Licking her lips, she closed her eyes again to think about what was happening.

Before she knew it, she was asleep again.

###

Brooks sat at the OC, her eyes trailing out across the space dock at the damaged hull of the Roanoke. Feeling a stab of guilt for not being there to oversee her repairs, she pushed it back down into the back of her mind. She looked back up at Freedman, the small crystalline device on the table making her smile slightly.

“I didn’t think anyone outside Intelligence had those things,” she said, nodding towards the sensor scrambler on the table. If there was anyone, she mused, being rude enough to try to listen in on their conversation, they weren’t going to be able to hear a word of it!

“It helps to have contacts,” he said with a shrug.

“I imagine so,” she said with both eyebrows raised.

“Any word from your Skipper?” Freedman asked as he ate a piece of his sushi.

“Not a peep,” she said with a sigh. “No one’s heard from her since she left.”

“You don’t think she’s dead, do you?”

“Not a chance,” she said as she chewed on her manicotti. “Not with Kate…you’d have to see her to understand why I say that. There’s just about nothing that I think could take her down.”

“Stubborn?”

“No,” she said as she set her fork down and placed her chin in her hands to think. As her eyes glazed over, she started to see things about Kate that she hadn’t put together before. “It’s something different, Thomas. I can’t really describe it…”

“Take your time,” he said. “You’ll be able to describe it.”

“There’s something about her,” she said. “A warrior side that goes far beyond anything I have ever seen. And, yes, I know she was on Necko, but it seems to go beyond that…”