By David C. Daoust
Sims could not help but feel sorry for the man, Craiden,(he’d picked up his name on the evacuation of the Barracks Ship) not only had he and his soldiers been the ones to lock the man up on the Red Faction’s ship in the first place, they were also the ones to free him. Of course, it was mostly just to keep the civilians out of the way as they prepared for their raid. Now they were given orders to hold Craiden in custody, which meant locking him up again. What a wild ride for the strange man.
“What right do you have to take this man into custody?” Dakota suddenly spoke up in his defense.
“Orders,” The soldier that had seized Craiden answered simply as Sims took her by the arm once again.
“Major Sims,” Dakota said strongly, pulling away from his grip, “I demand you release this man!”
“Orders,” Sims said back simply and somewhat smugly now that he knew Dakota was higher on Suzanne’s shit list than he was.
“Major Sims!” Dakota said again.
“Dakota Sun!” Sims shot back, bitingly, as he took her arm once again.
The strange look on her face was enough to let him know that Dakota had just worked out that what she had assumed was a rank, was in fact just his first name. Needless to say the woman fell silent, as the soldiers bound Craiden once again.
“Now wait a second,” the gravelly rough voice of Vincent suddenly spoke up, “Who are you people? You can’t just take someone into custody…”
“What should we do with the bot?” one of the soldiers asked Sims, pretty much ignoring its protest.
“What do I care,” Sims answered, “it’s weak as a kitten, can’t even pull a trigger.”
Sims was cranky.
Suzanne was a bitch.
Her bitchiness permeated pretty much everything she had said to him. The quip about ‘Alpha Team’ was just to razz him, he was sure of it. His team was Alpha, always had been. Then, being told she was going to ‘leave the doctor in his hands’, meant he was the good doctors security detail. Her permanent security detail, which meant a huge pay cut. It was one thing pulling her off that hostile ship, but now… he would be a glorified lab assistant. Only he wouldn’t have anything to do but stand there and be a bodyguard. He was a trained soldier… Sims couldn’t do much more than stew about it though.
“It’s alright Vincent,” Craiden told the small girl-bot with the rough voice, “With any luck there’ll be place for me to lie down. It’s been a long day.”
Craiden was taken in the opposite direction. The other soldiers stopped Vincent from following. The bot didn’t have much choice but to follow Dr. Sun… or just mill about the hangar, Sims didn’t care. Maybe the bot would ruin Suzanne’s day somehow… It’d probably be his fault though. At which point the mistreated soldier gestured for the bot to follow him as he escorted Dakota to her new chambers.
