Chapter 1

Gillyanna was surprised to find herself waking up. In all truth she wished she didn't, she hurt all over. As she made her way out of the cell, she remembered that the ship had been under attack. Some how the ship had either crashed landed somewhere or maybe it was just floating in space and who ever had attacked thought that all were killed.

Gillyanna worked her way down the corridor to the main part of the ship and after checking was not surprised that all the other prisoners were dead. There was no power to anything in the cell area and there was no way but to open the doors to find out if she was going to die in space or somewhere else. Finding plenty of mettle to pry the doors open with and some how the strength, she opened the door. Gillyanna was happy to find that she could still breath.

Once out into the main corridor Gillyanna worked her way to the bridge of the ship. The ship should have had 15 crewmen and as she got closer to her destination she found several bodies. After getting the bridge doors open she found some more of the crew. Giving her a total of ten. The others would have been in other parts of the ship. As she checked those that were there Gillyanna was totally surprised to find one man alive. He seemed to have had a broken arm but Gillyanna was unable to find anything else wrong.

Gillyanna's first thought was to kill the man before he could wake and hurt her. He was of the same race that had caused all this trouble. But Gillyanna was better than that, she wasn't a murderer and just couldn't kill in cold blood. So with that thought in mind she went back to the prison section, got manacles as well as a portable med scanner that still worked, then came back and shackled the man's feet together around the base of a chair and his good hand to another. When she used the scanner on him, it told her that, yes, the arm was broken but could be set. It also showed that the man had hit his head but wasn't that bad. Gillyanna set the arm and splinted it.

Satisfied that the man wasn't going to die, Gillyanna went about checking the ship. It took only moments to realize that she had to get the bodies out of the ship or there was going to be other troubles. It took near two hours to get all the bodies out of the ship and far enough away so that anything that came would be outside the shields, if she could get them up. After that she was able to get some power to the bridge and what she found was very bad. The ship had crashed on an unexplored planet. The ships engineering section was all but destroyed as well as the engines themselves and the main engine core had been jettisoned. The power she had was from an auxiliary unit that would need to be charged. The planet had an oxygen atmosphere that she knew would cause no trouble because the ship had several hull breaches.

Through out all of this Gillyanna was finding it harder and harder to stay conscious as the pain in her body and head began to demand that she try to do something about them. She didn't stop, however, because she was worried that if she did, she would not be about to start moving or working again.

It was about this time that the man started to wake. Gillyanna was ready just in case with a pistol. The man took a moment to come round to fully understand that he was restrained as well as hurt and that there was one of the ships prisoners holding a pistol at him.

"What the hell happened? What's going on? Take these things off of me now!" the man kicked his feet and pulled at the hand locked to the other chair.

"I don't think so. To let you know, the ship crashed. You have a broken arm, which I set, and you have a small concussion. All the others, both crew and prisoners were killed in the crash."

"Then why am I in shackles?" he demanded, pulling at the one holding his good arm.

"Because I've had it up to my eyes with you and your people raping me. And I wasn't going to give you that chance. Now you just lie there and behave. I have work to do to get the sensors working better."

Gillyanna turned and started to walk away when she was hit with a wave of intense dizziness and pain and had to grab the doorframe for support.

"Wait! You can't just leave me here like this," the man yelled in panic as he could tell the woman in trouble and was at the end of her strength, "You're not up to doing anything more. You just turned white as a sheet. Have you even checked yourself with the med scanner?"

"I'll be fine ... I just need ... to get my wind back," Gillyanna replied as she tried to get her body to move but it just wouldn't.

"Look, you just can't leave me like this. What happens if something happens to you, then we're both dead?" quickly he changed the tone in his voice. "You could have killed me when I was out. You didn't. For what ever your reasons were, you didn't kill me out right, you even set my arm. That tells me that you're not a common criminal. I promise I won't hurt you. Let me help you. You need me to survive just like I need you. Please you helped me, now let me help you."

Gillyanna was having a hard time thinking but knew that the man was right. She was dieing and it was only a matter of time. She couldn't leave him to die shackled to a chair. She had to give him a chance to live, even if it meant something more than her death. So as she slid down the doorframe she took the key from her breast pocket. As she reached the floor and with what energy she had left she slid the key to the man and said, "Please ... just don't ... hurt me." In a small whisper then blacked out.

Dorel took the key with his bad arm and found that it wasn't too bad and got himself loose. Once free he turned to find the woman was out cold. He knew she was one of the prisoners and that he should treat her as such but realized that she could have killed him if she wanted but had let him live. He took the woman up into his arms and went back to the small med bay. Once he got power going to it he was able to get the Auto-med scanners working. He was surprised; the woman had massive internal injuries and a major concussion. He set the unit to repair then left to check the rest of the ship.

Dorel was impressed by what he found. The woman had dragged all the bodies outside, had retrieved all the edible food and placed it in one location, and had restored power to the main sensors on the bridge. The communications systems were completely fried and there was nothing he could do at the moment to fix them, at least until he could get a portable antenna set up. After finding out what was up with the rest of the ship and making a few more repairs, he got the computer working and found the manifest for the prison section and decided to see just what kind of a being he was going to have to deal with.

He found her name to be Gillyanna. She was convicted of murder. But as he read on he found he didn't like what he saw. The trial has short and seemed to be missing several things. Gillyanna had claimed self-defense as the victim had attacked and raped her. But none of that seemed to have been brought up. He also noted that she was of a race called humans. That was a surprise because humans weren't known to be in that sector of space yet. Nor had they contacted anyone from any of the human planets to see if they wanted to take her after the trial.

Most humans didn't know about the small need of the males of his race. There was a chemical that they needed to remain sane and they only way to get it to release into the body was to mate.

Now he knew what she meant. She had been the only female on this run to the prisons and several of the crew had used her. Some thought he was silly not to but he just couldn't bring himself to use a prisoner like that. Besides he wasn't in need of that, yet, but knew it was just a mater of time. After that Dorel closed the file and went back to work trying to get more of the systems working.

Gillyanna woke. She couldn't move. She felt that her worse nightmare was going to come true all over again. As she tried to free herself, she heard a noise and then could see the man come into view. He smiled at her and that made her even more afraid. "Please let me go. I helped you. Please don't hurt me! Please!"

"It's alright. I won't hurt you. You've been in the Auto-med for two days. You were lucky I woke when I did another few hours and I don't think the unit could have saved you. Why didn't you use it when you first knew you were in trouble?" Dorel tried to keep his voice calm and soothing.

"Please let me up! Please, I'll tell you everything but just let me up!" Gillyanna cried.

"I can't just yet. I've only been able to get 80% power to the unit and it's taking a little longer to fix you up. Though it's all most done. So you might as well tell me why you didn't use it?"

"I ... I couldn't get it to work. I tried to get power to it but I just couldn't get it started."

"That's not surprising. I had to reroute the power past two melted junctions. Look, you rest and in about three hours I'll let you out of the unit."

With that he pushed a button and Gillyanna fell asleep.

Gillyanna was surprised that when she woke that she was able to move. In fact had started to sit up when the man came over. "Here let me help you. You might be a bit dizzy yet."

Gillyanna pulled away from him, "Don't come near me! I don't want you to touch me."

"It's all right, I'm just trying to help you. I was able to get the computer to work for a while and found your file. I also know what some of the crew were doing. I don't know if anyone told you about my race, at least the males. We have a metabolic disorder that causes us to need sex. It's the only way to get a certain chemical in our bodies to release into our systems so that our brains don't turn to mush. It's not something we tell a lot of people about." He paused and sighed, "But I think my people need to start."

"Then you believe that I'm innocent? If you could figure that out why couldn't any one else? I wasn't even supposed to be on your planet. I was going to Demming Prime. The ship I was on had engine troubles and went there. I should have stayed on the ship. But they made everyone get off so that the repairs could be done." Gillyanna continued for a moment more her voice going to a mire whisper as she repeated, "The ship I was on had engine troubles and went there. I should have stayed on the ship."

"I know." He tried to sound reassuring and to get her out of being so scared. "Look there's nothing I can do right now. I'll give you a choice you can stay here with me and see if we get rescued or you can take some of the food and supplies and try to make it on your own."

"That sounds like two very good choices. Death by the planet or death by starvation after my food runs out." Gillyanna said with disdain.

"What?" he looked very confused.

"I'm human, I can't eat but maybe a fifth of what we have here. I don't know anything about hunting and/or what might be good or safe for me to eat out there. Then again if I stay, the rescue party is going to slap me back in shackles. You should have let me die once you had the key to free yourself." Gillyanna put her head in her hands and began to cry.

Dorel didn't know what to do so he left the room and headed for the bridge to give her time to pull herself together. It wasn't long until Dorel heard Gillyanna going through the supplies and then came onto the bridge eating some kind of nutrition bar.

Gillyanna was surprised to find a lot more of the bridge working. She sat in one of the chairs for a station that didn't work and finished eating, then spoke, "I see you got a lot more working. But then this is your ship and it's totally different than what I'm used to working with. Is there anything I can do?"

"Not at the moment. I got the computer to work but I have it powered down for now. Sensors are working up to 100 Km's but really can't do more than that because of the magnetic fields about the planet. I got the shields up to 25% but I'm only running them at 15%. Communications are almost a lost cause. I found some com-badges that should work up to 10 Km's but they have limited power and the charger is damaged. I know that a distress marker was launched after the attack started. If it wasn't destroyed then we have a chance. I was thinking that I could get the comms working but I need to get the signal high enough to work."

"Do we have a portable unit that we can set up some where?"

"We lucked out there we have two. Unfortunately there is only one place that I can think of to go. There's a mountain to the south of us. But it would take me over a week just to get there. Add another week to get high enough and to get the unit set up. I would also have to leave you here. I know I could do it but I don't think you could and I..."

"I understand." She interrupted. "I would get us both killed even trying. What about power? I don't think the batteries are going to last that long?"

"Well I have bad news and good news. The bad is that I've had to shut down all the power other than what is in here and the adjoining compartment. I had to divert a lot of power to the med unit, but now that you're out I can put it back. However it will only last for about 20 days."

"Damn." Gillyanna swore as she tried to think of ways to make it last longer.

"Now the good news. I found wind and solar generators. The wind has been trying to pick up and there should be enough light to get a good charge."

"Well, why don't I start working on that? We might as well take advantage of the winds. We might be able to make up a second wind generator to get more power." Gillyanna said and started to get up to go look over the units.

"First, you just got out of the med-unit and you haven't eaten in days other than that ration bar. Besides it will be dark before we can get done and I've been getting some strange life form readings from the sensors but I can't get them to lock to anything specific."

"Well with the shields even at 10% nothing could get into the ship. At 15% I don't think I'm going to worry. Now for the big question; what about the waist recycler?"

He gave a grin, "Up and running at 100%. We do have plenty of water by the way; I found a stream and tested the water. I didn't think to test it for you specifically but the analyzer said good for all races."

"That's good to know. I think I'm going to get a little more to eat and bed down. If you can stay up for a while, wake me in say 6 hours and I'll pull a full 12 so that you can get some rest." She stood and started to walk to the back.

"I think I can live with that. By the way Gillyanna, I'm Dorel."

Gillyanna looked at him then chuckled, "That's something that never even crossed my mind to ask, sorry."

"Under the circumstance I can understand. Go get some sleep." he finished and watched her leave.

After getting something else to eat she found several blankets and bed pads and was able to fall asleep quite quickly.

Over the course of the next two weeks Gillyanna and Dorel worked to get the ship as habitable as possible. They were even able to get the sensors working enough to double the range. The shields were now working at 25% and could be pushed up to 35% if needed. Also Dorel had been hunting and with some trial and error was able to come up with some food that Gillyanna could eat.

About the end of the second week Gillyanna woke feeling like something was very wrong. And she was right. As her eyes opened there was a thing next to her head. It was somewhat hairy with a sticky tentacle around her neck. Gillyanna screamed before the thing could get a tight hold as she tried to get the thing off of her. Dorel came running in to this sight and jumped into action. He grabbed the thing and pulled it from Gillyanna as she worked the tentacle off. Once she was free, Dorel threw the thing to the floor then drew his pistol and fired. It had been trying to get to some place at the back of a wall but as the laser pulse hit it, it vaporized.

"Gill, are you alright?" Dorel came to Gillyanna's bedside.

After coughing a few times, "Ya, I think so. What the hell was that thing and how the hell did it get in? I thought the shields were still working."

"They are. It might have been in here since we got power back. Yuck that was nasty," he said as he wiped his hands on the legs of his coveralls.