The vampire hungered: the kind of hunger that gnawed at the pit of his stomach; the kind of hunger that a vampire got when he'd gone too long without a feed. It had been three days since he had fed, and there wasn't much hope that he would feed for awhile. He was a prisoner of the Federation. He was being held in a large fenced-in yard; there were several guards, but they would be no problem. Their little sidearms couldn't harm a vampire that much; all he had to do was fly out of the yard ™ if it were night. But the light from the Sardos power converter reminded him that it was day. Daytime was when a vampire's power was at its lowest. He could pass as a human during the day, but he couldn't fly, or pass through walls without getting exhausted. Therefore he was forced to wait here, for night to come.
"That is, if there is night on this goddess forsaken planet," he muttered to himself.
Suddenly he felt the unmistakable presence of one of his kind approaching. He looked around. It was Servalan! She was standing at the yard's gate, holding a Federation-issued, non-commissioned officer's blaster. She shot the guard at the gate. Then she came inside the cell, and shot the remaining guards. Finally, she turned towards the vampire.
The vampire's canines fully extended and he growled at her. She unconsciously backed up a couple of steps. "It would be a waste of ammunition to shoot you. They'll probably execute you once they find that their friends are dead."
"How do you know that I won't kill you?" He made his voice smooth, silky.
"It's daylight, you don't have the strength. I'll leave you to your fate." There was a smug satisfaction in Servalan's voice. With that said, she took her pilots and left.
That left only one other prisoner alive. The vampire turned to her; she was a blond woman, not past twenty years old. She wore a once-blue uniform: now her clothes were ripped, her face and body bruised. She looked up at him, her clear blue eyes terrified. He had seen that look before too many times, and he knew what had caused it. The guards had used her for their pleasure.
"I won't hurt you," he whispered to her. She backed up into the fence. He looked into her eyes and felt her will bend towards his. He could feel the pounding of her heart. He kissed her lips, then worked his way to her throat. When he bit down, he could feel her emotions as if they were his. He took enough to satisfy his thirst, but not enough to kill her ™ he made it a practice not to kill those he fed from. When he was finished feeding, he stripped the uniform off a dead guard, and made her put it on, then handed her a gun, and looked into her eyes again. "You must get out of here, run away, hide. Whatever you do, don't go back to where you have been living before. Do you understand me?" The woman nodded. "Then go."
The vampire watched her leave. He looked around the yard for a guard near his size, found one, slipped the uniform off the body, and put it on. He was getting ready to leave when Vila showed up. He too wore a Federation uniform. The vampire grabbed Vila's shoulder. "Vila."
"Don't try anything smart. I've been kind enough for one day." Vila raised his gun towards him. "Where's Servalan?"
"She's gone."
"How come you're not dead?"
"Look, she came, she blasted off with her sidearm, grabbed her two pilots, then she went. Maybe she had other things on her mind, maybe she didn't see me. I don't know, I don't care all that much. Let's get undercover before we're seen."
"All right."
They left the yard, running until they were over a hill and into a wooded area. Then they sat down beneath a tree.
"Before we go any further, I want you to know, I didn't steal this uniform off of a dead guard, I was issued it," Vila pointed out.
"So?"
"They were going to make me a starship captain, just as long as you know. All you got for your cleverness was an execution order on your head."
"Yes, Vila, I take your point. You're obviously far cleverer than I." He took a map sketched onto a piece of paper out of his pocket. "This is where we are going."
"What? Where are we going?" Vila asked.
"To destroy a computer."
"Why?"
"It knows too much about me."