by Maia Tanith
And what I’ve just seen here has fanned that spark into a raging inferno.
I’m ready for this mission. Not just for revenge on Lila, and revenge on the Galgog who collared me.
But for revenge for Delia, for what’s been done to her.
And I know exactly what I’m going to do now.
“This isn’t just a slave ship,” I start. Then I pause. How to explain this to a human? Even one who’s been through so much, she won’t understand the horrors that have been inflicted on my planet, my home, due to the Emperor.
And to think, to think he’s aware of this, behind all of this.
Perhaps the very reason this slave trade exists.
“This ship is linked to the comms systems of every single military or government-owned ship in the galaxy. It’s networked in with them. It’s one of them.”
Delia looks at me blankly.
I sigh and rub my temple. “This is clearly a slave ship. The logs confirm it was on its way to Earth to pick up a cargo before we...uh...intercepted it. Slavery operates in the shadows. It is an open secret that the games use slaves from slavers as well as criminals. But even if the laws against slavery aren’t exactly enforced, it has always been technically illegal—or at least, it used to be. This ship though, is connected to, and in communication with, every single government owned ship in the galaxy. It is a government owned ship.
Which means, it’s our very own Emperor who is running the illegal slave trade. And profiting from it.”
She gasps. “That’s—that’s—”
I nod. “Sickening. Yes, it is.”
I certainly felt sickened by it.
And betrayed.
It was time that I took action against those who had betrayed me.
It was time to exact some overdue, and very much deserved, revenge, against the lot of them. Against Lila.
Against the Galgog.
And against the government.
Yes, against the government most of all.
The rebellion has just gotten a new gunrunner. An expert gunrunner, who now knows the location of every damn government ship in the galaxy.
“What are you going to do?” Delia asks. She is worrying at her thumbnail with her teeth. I’m not sure why—she’ll never turn those dainty fingernails of her into useful claws, no matter how much she sharpens them.
It goes against the grain to tell her my plans. I’ve never told anyone my plans, at least not all of them. The less that people know, the more difficult it is for them to betray me. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way.
I don’t want to lie to her either.
“I’ll go after the weapons ship. Take it to the Galgog. Get this collar off me.” I scratched at it absentmindedly. The thought of it itched worse than the reality, but the back of my neck was still getting increasingly red and sore. I’d really like to wrap the collar around that damn Galgog’s neck and see how he liked it.
“And then?”
I hesitate. “And then I bring you back to Earth.” I may have left out a few intermediary steps, but I’ll get around to telling her about them some time.
Eventually.
When I need to.
She nods. “Do you think he will actually take the collar off you?”
“Not without a little extra persuasion.” My voice is grim. If he could get away with it, he would never take it off me. I’d be his to command until the day I died.
I’d rather die quickly and cleanly than be forced to pollute my soul by working for someone like him.
I may be a freebooter and skirt the edges of the law on occasion, but I am my own man.
Delia wanders off to explore the living quarters while I transfer the majority of the fuel to my commandeered spaceship and set a course towards the ship that is carrying the weapons. It’s currently stationary on a small planet in a nearby solar system. No doubt being used in exactly the same kind of honeytrap that Lila caught me in.
I would lay money on it that Lila is somewhere nearby, probably working her bartender gig again. It certainly worked well on me. I fell for it, hook, line and sinker.
She must have slept with half the pirates in the universe by now.
Sleep with them, trap them, send them to the games.
I wonder how many deaths she has on her conscience.
If they weigh on her conscience at all.
To her way of thinking, I’m nothing more than a dirty pirate. Thoroughly deserving of my fate in the pits.
The stars wheel by as we reach hyperspeed and then make the jump to the next solar system over. It uses huge amounts of fuel to travel this way, but with the extra fuel that I took from the Stargetter, we have plenty.
I wasn’t totally ruthless. I left them with some fuel.
Just enough to get them to Earth and strand them there.
It seems fitting.
Delia
I expected to be upset that I’m not going straight back to Earth.
Funnily, I’m not upset at all. I’m glad that Azr has a real chance to get that collar off him. If it means stealing a shipful of weapons to do it, then I’ll be glad to do so.
Especially when the weapons belong to a government that allows slave ships to prey on Earth. That doesn’t only allow it—that encourages it and funds it.
Auditing Pushman’s Portaloos pales in comparison to stopping a real, live alien smuggling ring.
And, if I am to be honest, nothing from home could compete with here. What I did for a living back home is nothing in comparison to the good I can do here.
My forgotten date with Greg that I’d been looking forward to? That couldn’t compare to an adventure with Azr. Greg would never have hijacked the slave ship for me. Not even if it was full of real live humans. Hijacking is against the law. And that would be enough for him to stand back and let someone else deal with it.
I am beginning to realize that protecting humanity is more important than following the law.
And that courage is more important than stability.
Azr’s face is grim as he sets a new course.
I’m not stupid. I know he hasn’t told me the whole story. He has a plan up his sleeve.
I’m sure he’ll let me know when the time is right.
I’m okay with that.
I don’t need to know everything.
All I need to know is that he will do the right thing. Or at least something that, when you weigh the evidence on both sides, is closer to being right than to being wrong. And I’m pretty confident that he will do just that. After all, he rescued me when he didn’t have to, even when I was being a complete pain to him.
He may be a pirate and do bad things sometimes, but he’s a good person.
That’s something else that I am learning.
The world isn’t like one of my spreadsheets, where everything is either black or white. Life is shades of grey. Lots of shades. Way more than fifty.
The crew quarters are unremarkable. In one of the bunks I find a tatty magazine with stains on the cover.
Bleuch. Alien porn.
I pick it up gingerly between my thumb and forefinger and chuck it down a disposal chute.
Then I strip all the soft furnishings from everywhere and toss them in a heap in the corner. I’m not risking getting fleas or bedbugs or the alien equivalent from those disgusting creatures.
When everything is clean enough to satisfy me, I join Azr in the control room. “Where are we heading to?”
“Tuga. It’s a ratty little spaceport not far from here.”
I nod, although the name is meaningless to me. “Is this where the load of weapons is?”
“Sure is. Locked up inside the ship. Fortune Favors, it’s called.”
Ironic, really, the name they pick for a spaceship full of things that can blow your body into a million pieces. I sigh. “Another spaceport. Are we going to be visiting another dirty spaceport bar while we’re there?”
Azr lets his lips curl up into a slight smile. “Maybe. I
could do with a stiff drink.”
I roll my eyes at him. “And the plan for stealing this ship? I assume you have a plan that’s not just getting shitfaced at the bar?”
“Indeed I do. This is where you’re going to come in useful.”
I grimace. I have promised to help, and I won’t go back on that. I’m still allowed to be nervous. “I’m not doing anything illegal.”
“Got it. Nothing illegal except hijacking a government owned ship, taking out her crew and stranding them on a dark planet, then stealing another government owned ship full of highly dangerous and expensive weaponry.”
I pause. “Well, when you put it that way...Just don’t ask me to do anything that will hurt people.”
“I’m not that kind of guy, Delia.” His voice is soft and hard at the same time.
I look at him in the pilot’s seat. His short hair, and the beginnings of a five o’clock shadow on his chin. He’s the most handsome man I’ve ever met, even when he was covered in dirt and bruises in the pit in the Games. He’s been through more than I’ll ever understand, and he’s done plenty of things I don’t condone. Yet, he has a good heart. “I know you’re not. It’s the reason I offered to help you.”
We touch down at the spaceport in the dead of night. It looks, to me, much like the last one we stopped at. I’m beginning to get used to the noise of ships departing and landing, the huge silver hulking shapes that look nothing like the airplanes of Earth.
Our ship, even to my untrained eye, is obviously one of the newest ones there. Evidently the Emperor can spare cash on his own fleet of slavers.
By contrast, the privately-owned ships are smaller and unkempt, like the owners never have the money they need to do proper maintenance.
We touch down softly, and slowly shudder to a stop in an unoccupied corner. There would be space for twenty ships our size, but the spaceport is only home to six of them tonight.
A small ship next to us has a team of Kargans working on her exterior. A large panel has been pulled off, exposing a myriad of wiring underneath. A Kargan male, covered in black smudges of what looks like engine oil, stands atop a wheeled machine, inspecting the hole, touching wires here and there with a glowing blue tool that flashes different colored lights.
Next over is Fortune Favors. The ship with the weapons on board, according to Azr.
He is looking at it with covetous eyes. “See the paneling towards the back? That’s where I snuck in last time.”
I’m standing up the front of the control room, peering through the window at the port in front of us as the engines gradually wind down into silence.
“I bet there is an alarm there now. It’s not going to be as easy as last time to get in.” He taps his chin. “They still haven’t stationed extra security around here. Either they’ve delayed their delivery, or they’re trying to trap another smuggling network first. It’s late. Do you want to sleep before we do this? Rest a bit first? I don’t know when you’ll next get a chance to take a break.”
I’m touched at the thought. “If this all goes to plan, we won’t be here long,” I say firmly. “We’re getting this done quick smart so we can get you back to the lizard mobster and get that horrible thing off your neck. We can both rest later.”
In truth, my heart is beating so fast I don’t think I could calm down enough to sleep anyway. The amount of adrenalin running through me could keep me up for twenty-four hours straight. To be honest, even with the short stints of extreme hunger and fatigue I’ve had since I’ve been taken from Earth, I’m feeling stronger and fitter than ever before. Perhaps all this running around and getting into dangerous situations has been good for me.
I laugh off the thought. It’s more likely some effect of the constant space travel, entering and leaving atmospheres, impacting my body at some biological level I don’t understand.
Azr and I discuss the plan only briefly before deciding that now is the time to do it.
“The less time we’re here, the less danger of being caught,” Azr says grimly. “And the less chance I have of running into Lila.” He rubs his neck, and I can see it’s red and inflamed. The collar is irritating his skin. It looks painful, but I know he won’t complain. I can’t wait to get the damned things off him.
“She’s the one who arrested you, wasn’t she?” I don’t think I’ve heard him say her name before.
“Betrayed me, more like,” he says, with a fierceness that takes me by surprise.
I flinch, despite myself. He’s still hurting from her betrayal, that much is clear.
It shouldn’t bother me. But it does.
“I hope we don’t run into her,” I say. I mean it too. I think I’d like to punch her on the nose.
I won’t say it out loud either, but I don’t want Azr to see her again and forget all about me, about taking me home.
He’s said before he forgot himself when he was with Lila.
I don’t want him to do that again.
Azr doesn’t reply.
I don’t push it.
My task is to cause a distraction for Azr.
Simple.
Distract the spaceport so that he can sneak about the Fortune Favors ship, enter some kind of secret code into her operating system which allows him to control her from our ship, then sneak back onto our ship.
If there’s anyone left on board, he will stun them, tie them up, and we’ll sneak them out and leave them in a safe place away from the action.
I’ll meet him back on our ship, we will depart, Fortune Favors will follow us, we’ll deliver the weapons to the Galgog, Azr will be freed, and then—then he’ll take me home.
No need to think about that part yet.
The distraction will be simple enough, Azr explained. Set off a rocket on the far side of the spaceport. Where the water tanks for drinking water is. He’s pointed out a series of huge tanks on the far side to where we are. The ships refill their drinking water there.
The rocket will go off, make a bunch of noise, people will go to investigate.
I’ll head calmly back over to our ship and meet Azr back here. Easy peasy.
Even the rocket is easy to launch. It’s a handheld device used for strandings, to alert people to where you are. It should go off like a firecracker and send a shower of sparks over us. With any luck it will look like an electrical fuse has blown and will generate a lot of interest.
I’ve never let off a firecracker before. Even as a kid I was scared of them. But this is no time for being a wimp. I have a job to do.
I march out of the ship and head towards the water tanks. A human on her own will attract stares, Azr tells me. In general though this space port is a safe place, so I’m not to worry. Humans aren’t commonly seen here, but there are enough strange looking aliens that I don’t stick out too much. Mercifully I don’t see any hyena men. I might feel a degree of pity for them, for what’s happened to their planet, but I don’t want to run into one now.
I get to the water tanks and slip between them. They’re stationed in rows, humongous columns that must be ten storeys high, with rows and rows. There must be over a hundred of the huge structures here. Hoses connect the tanks, and more hoses reach to the ground and snake across the earth towards the port. Next to each tank is a small wooden shack, big enough to fit a generator perhaps, with a ladder leading straight up the side of the tank. I don’t envy anyone who has to climb up there for maintenance.
These ships must have large water tanks. Or else Kargans like to keep hydrated.
I look around to make sure I’m alone. Then I lift the rocket high above my head and pull the tab on the bottom to fire it. The tab comes off in my hand.
Shit.
Maybe it takes a second or two to fire. I stand there like an idiot, my hand stretched above me, for a good twenty seconds. Nothing. I lower my hand and look at the rocket. Just my luck, It must be defective. I sigh. Stupid thing. How else am I going to cause a distraction?
There is nothing around me but hard dirt g
round, and the huge spherical metal tanks.
I throw the rocket as hard as I can against the tank and turn back the way I’d come. My one job to help Azr, and I’ve failed. If I hurry back, we can organize another distraction.
A quiet fizzing catches my ear.
I turn.
The rocket is on its side, hissing. The hissing grows into a high-pitched wail.
BANG.
Something bright shoots out the end of the rocket. Then another, and another, and another. They are shooting out so fast that I lose count. They hit into one of the containers, and bounce off, shooting in all directions now with sparks and loud bangs. At least it’s making a noise, even if it’s not exactly what we planned.
I back away slowly, relieved that it has worked. There will be people turning up to check it out in no time.
I slip between two tanks and a small sign on one of the tanks catches my eye.
A little orange flame.
The universal, galaxitorial, sign meaning “Danger, flammable.”
I swallow. These aren’t water tanks.
They are tanks full of fuel.
Hundreds, thousands, of gallons of fuel.
And I’ve just let off a firecracker in the middle of them.
The second the thought hits my mind there’s a low Boom, and I’m thrown onto the ground. Stunned, I lay there for a second. My ears are ringing, a high-pitched wail that drowns out every other sound. I can feel heat behind me, but my body doesn’t seem to want to obey when I try to stand.
I struggle to my feet, the world spinning around me like I’ve just gotten off a roller coaster.
There is something on fire behind me. Not a tank, but the small shack next to it.
If that’s enough to send me flying, I don’t want to think about what the tanks will do.
I spin around, frantic. A fire extinguisher would be great about right now.