Hijacked by Lolita Lopez
Chapter Eight
Trembling slightly from adrenaline, Camila entered her cabin with Misko hot on her heels. She still couldn’t quite believe she had pulled that off without anyone getting hurt. Captain Jantus and the rest of the crew were safe in their emergency shuttle, hurtling through space toward a friendly zone. The children were unharmed—though, perhaps, very shaken—and reunited with their mothers. The cyborgs were safe on her ship and had a real chance to escape the emperor, but they would need to significantly alter their course.
And she had a pretty good idea of exactly where that course should lead.
“Where were you hiding this?” Misko asked as he followed her into the cabin.
“In here,” she said and opened the hidden safe room.
He seemed impressed with the size and security of it. “It’s not on the blueprints.”
“Would you put your safest place on the ship on blueprints anyone could access?” she questioned as he returned the Vaporizer to its case.
“No.” He closed the case and stepped out of the safe room. The wall slid into place behind him, concealing it once again. “I assume you got the weapon from your father.”
She nodded. “It’s one of the prototypes, but it works.”
“I have no doubt.” Leaning back against the wall that had just closed, he studied her for a moment. She shifted uncomfortably under his hard stare. Finally, he asked, “Why did you put the crew in the shuttle?”
“It was them or you,” she answered with a shrug. “I decided they were safer on a shuttle flying as far away from us as possible, and you and your group are safer here, flying as far away from Kirs as possible.”
“True,” he agreed, “but now we have the added problem of your crew revealing we have hijacked this ship.”
She didn’t try to argue that point. “They definitely will.”
“And they’ll report that we’ve taken you hostage,” he continued.
“Yes.” She dreaded the moment her father learned of her fate and sent mercenaries after her. They wouldn’t be as easily dealt with as the crew.
He closed his eyes and sighed. When he began to rub his head and grimace, she ached for him. The stress radiating from him left her feeling anxious and worried. With another heavy sigh, he confessed, “I don’t know what to do.”
Desperate to help him, she crossed the distance between them and placed her hands on his hips. When he didn’t stiffen at her touch, she smiled. They were making progress, after all. “I know what to do.”
He tilted his head. “What is that?”
“Have you heard of a hacker and anarchist called Renegade?”
His brow furrowed. “Of course. He’s the leader of Civil Disobedience, a terror organization.”
She rolled her eyes at that moniker. “Is it really terrorism if they’re fighting against the emperor?”
He considered that and said, “No, I suppose it’s not. How do you know him?”
“I know her because Renegade is my sister.” Camila finally revealed a secret she had never breathed to another soul, not even Willa. “She ran away when she was seventeen. She and my dad had a terrible fight right after our mother’s funeral. Not long after that, I started receiving strange coded messages. Eventually, I worked out that it was Sara, and after a while, I figured out what she was doing. We’ve kept in contact, and she’s always made it clear that I have a place to run to if I ever need help.”
Misko seemed staggered by her revelation. With an expression of utter relief, he said, “As skilled as she is at hacking, she can fix my brother.”
Camila frowned. “What’s wrong with your brother?”
“We don’t know. He was injured during our escape, and he’s unresponsive. We have him in the captain’s quarters off the bridge. He desperately needs to be diagnosed by a cybernetic tech.”
“I’m sure Sara will help if she can,” Camila qualified, not wanting to give him false hope. “The sooner we plot a new course the better.”
“Right,” he said softly, almost as if he had other ideas. He hesitantly reached out and stroked her hair. The rough pads of his fingers, scarred and callused from years of war, caught on the strands, but she didn’t mind. She leaned into his touch as his fingers moved across her cheek and down toward her jaw. They finished their journey at her mouth, trailing over her lower lip before he lowered his hand. “We should get to the bridge.”
Hating that the moment had ended but knowing it was imperative they set their course, she grasped his hand. He looked down at her fingers intwined with his but made no move to shake free. Hand in hand, they left her cabin and made their way across the ship. They were almost to the bridge when they heard a pained moan. They exchanged worried glances and ran toward the sound.
“Oh!” Camila exclaimed as soon as she saw the woman on her hands and knees in the corridor, rocking back and forth in agony.
“The baby,” Misko said and rushed to help the woman. “Gretta!”
“I’m sorry,” the woman said through gritted teeth. “I thought it was just back pain. I came up to relieve Kent so he could help with the crew's attack, and the pain got worse and worse.” She groaned again, the agonized sound causing Camila’s stomach to fall. “I think the baby is coming now.”
“Camila!” Misko said her name sharply. “Get over here and get her pants off.”
Startled by the instruction, she said, “What?”
“Her pants,” he repeated firmly. “Get them off so we can deliver the baby.”
She swallowed nervously and did what she was told. She quickly removed Gretta’s shoes and then dragged the woman’s pants and underwear down her legs. “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I know this is really forward of me.”
“Hon,” Gretta growled, her head down as she rocked on all fours, “you’re about to get up close and personal with my birth canal. I think we’re beyond the point of apology.”
Camila gulped as Gretta rocked back on her knees. Bloody fluid ran down her thighs, and Camila recoiled on instinct. When Gretta grunted through a painful contraction, Camila’s eyes widened at the sight of the woman’s body pulsing and opening. There was a sudden gush of fluid, and Camila yelped in shock.
“That was her amniotic sac rupturing,” Misko said calmly. “It’s perfectly normal.”
Camila gagged silently as the mess started to soak into her pants. From an academic point, she understood childbirth was messy, but this was so far beyond anything she had ever imagined. Gretta rocked back again and growled, and Camila worried she was about to experience something even worse than being splashed with amniotic fluid.
“Oh, my stars!” she exclaimed suddenly. “I can see the head!” There, just barely visible, was a tiny baby’s head. When the head retracted, Gretta whimpered in pain, and Camila glanced at Misko in desperation. “Why isn’t it coming?”
“The child will slide forward and back with each contraction until it crowns completely,” he explained. “You need to be ready to guide the child out and into your hands. If there are problems, you may have to help it.”
“Help it?” she squeaked. Before Misko could clarify what that meant, Gretta growled loudly and pushed while he counted through the contraction. The baby’s head became more visible with each consecutive contraction until finally the moment of crowning occurred.
Suddenly, Camila understood what he meant by helping. She wasn’t sure where the instinct came from, but she gently applied pressure just below Gretta’s birth canal. When Gretta growled through another contraction, Camila kept her hand there, pressing gently and ignoring the fluids and stars only knew what else that were running over her skin. The baby’s head began to move through the canal, and Gretta made a terrible sound, half-scream and half-grunt, as her baby’s head slipped free.
Camila supported the head and glanced at Misko in complete shock. He nodded at her to keep going and went back to keeping Gretta calm as he held her up. Carefully, she held the baby’s head and neck as the little body rotated with another contraction. Gently, so as not to harm Gretta, she applied light traction, and the baby was finally born.
Cradling the slippery, wet baby in her arms, Camila could hardly believe what had just happened. She had a brief moment of disgust as she took in the white chunky goo and blood coating the tiny little thing, but it was quickly consumed by the absolute miracle of the baby taking its first breath. That shuddery inhale and the piercing wail shocked her to the core. This was a baby, a real live baby less than a minute old, turning a rosy pink in her arms.
Overwhelmed by the incredible moment, Camila cried, “It’s a girl! You have a beautiful, healthy baby girl!”
Gretta had turned onto her back with Misko’s help, and Camila carefully handed the baby over to her mother. Holding her baby to her chest, Gretta sobbed, and whether it was from pain or relief or happiness, she couldn’t tell. Camila marveled at the sight before her, still in disbelief that she had helped bring a baby into the world.
“Here,” a deep voice said from behind her.
Camila jumped at the unexpected voice and the first aid kit thrust at her. She grabbed the kit and glanced up at the cyborg who had been rude to her right after her capture. She opened the kit and retrieved the scissors inside.
“Get the tape, too,” the cyborg behind her instructed. “When the cord stops pulsing, apply the tape in two places and cut between them.”
“Right,” she said, watching the cord attached to the baby pulse slowly and finally stop. She tore two strips of medical tape and applied one a hand’s width down from the baby’s belly and the other three fingers down from that. Her hands trembled slightly as she cut the cord, freeing the baby from its tether.
The rest of the delivery happened in a blur. The placenta followed, and Misko instructed her to check the strange looking organ for any obvious signs that pieces were missing. The idea that she might have to go looking for those missing pieces made her stomach turn, and she begged the universe not to put Gretta or her through that. Thankfully, the placenta was whole, and Branko whisked it away.
“What can I do to help?” the female cyborg asked as soon as she appeared in the corridor.
“Go to my cabin,” Camila said as she attempted to clean up Gretta. “Get whatever clothing you think Gretta will need from my closet. There are soft blankets and shirts in the drawers. I think we can use those as baby clothing.”
“On it.”
“Wait,” Camila called out, stopping her before she could disappear down the corridor. “Let the other women know that there is clean clothing in there if they need it for themselves or their children.”
After the female cyborg rushed off to complete her task, Camila sat back on her heels. She was covered in all manner of grossness and had touched places on another woman she had never imagined needing to touch. She had been forced to go beyond her comfort zone, to do something usually left to trained medical personnel. She had taken part in an incredibly special moment, and she would never forget it.
I caught a baby.
A baby that the emperor had wanted to kill. An innocent, sweet little baby that would spend the rest of her life being hunted by the emperor’s death squads.
Camila finally understood exactly why Sara chose her path in life. For the first time, she felt the strongest urge to do something. To act. To be brave. To be selfless. Whatever the risk, whatever the cost, she was going to fight for this baby and all the other cyborg children like her.
