The Slave Planet

by Seven Steps

  A beefy hand raised in objection. “No thank you, Grand Empress. Actually, as the head of the household, it’s you I’m here to see.”

  “Oh? Is everything alright?”

  “Your daughter was seen engaging in illegal activities with her slave near the reservoir last night.”

  The air left Marie’s lungs.

  No, not again.

  She bought her hand to the bean shaped golden locket that hung from her thin neck, a gift from Magistrate Embrya, one of the seven leaders in the Universal Council to whom Marie was currently an ambassador.

  “It couldn’t have been my daughter. Nadira’s a good girl. She does not engage in illegal activities, let alone with slaves.”

  “We both know that’s not true.”

  Steeling herself, Marie pressed on.

  “She’s changed.”

  Bragnia’s mouth went tight. “Not likely.”

  “Officer Bragnia, I can assure you that—”

  “Infraction issued,” she said into her glove. She waited for the small screen within the glove to flash blue before she looked back up at Marie, her mouth turned down bitterly.

  “The infraction has been issued. A piece of advice: get your daughter under control, instead of buying her way out of everything.”

  “Why you—”

  “Good day, and may your mother be well.” Bragnia walked back across the long stretch of bluish green origgrow - self-sustaining grass. She’d deliberately missed the landing pad on the graveled road and parked her hovercraft on the origgrow, crushing the grass under heavy wheels. With a rev of her ship’s engine, she was gone, leaving in her wake a trail of boot prints and her pungent smell.

  Her heart pumping hard, Marie whipped around and stomped back into the house. Eyes turning to daggers, she shut the door behind her.

  “Nadira!”

  Marching to the opposite side of the room, Marie stepped onto the circular elevation plate, waited as it smoothly ascended to the second level of the house, and stepped off. In three determined strides, she arrived at her daughters arched, gem encrusted doorway.

  Nadira appeared in front of her room door, hurriedly zipping her jumpsuit.

  “Yes, mother?” Nadira asked, batting eyes that were a perfect match to her mother’s. Nearly eighteen, she filled out her jumpsuit in a way that Marie’s slim frame never could. Marie took in the red in her daughter’s caramel cheeks, her wrinkled, white jumpsuit.

  Nadira’s eyes flitted around the hallway, looking everywhere but at her mother.

  Something’s up, Marie thought.

  “What were you doing?”

  “Nothing, mother. Why do you ask?”

  She’s hiding something. I’ll bet it’s a six and a half foot, blonde something.

  Pushing past her daughter, Marie opened the door in time to find Kiln, with one booted foot dangling out the window, jumpsuit unzipped to his waist.

  The evidence of her daughter’s deceit knocked the wind from her.

  Running between Kiln and her mother, Nadira held up her hands.

  “Mother, it’s nothing. He was just cleaning.”

  Kiln’s wide blue eyes darted between the window and the Grand Empress, unsure if he should stay or flee.

  A lethal edge sharpened Marie’s voice. “Come in here, Kiln.”

  Pulling his foot back into the room, he stood to his full height, his hands behind his back.

  “In my own home!” Marie roared, her voice powered by the anger that bubbled in her belly. “You two were together in broad daylight, doing only Mother Goddess Venus knows what, while Bragnia banged on my door and accused you? While I defended you?”

  “Mother, it’s not what you think.”

  “That was you by the reservoir last night, wasn’t it?”

  Her daughter’s silence sent Marie’s anger into orbit.

  “Wasn’t it!”

  “Mother-”

  “No, not one more lie from you.” Marie waved her daughter to silence. “All you do is lie to me.” She gave her only child a frosty look, turned to Kiln. “You. Were you with my daughter at the reservoir last night?”

  Kiln’s eyes flitted between Nadira and Marie.

  “Tell me the truth, Kiln, or so help me I will ship you back to the Slave Market faster than you can blink.”

  The slave looked at Nadira and waited for her direction.

  “Answer me!”

  His master waved him to speak.

  “Yes, Grand Empress. We were at the reservoir last night.

  “And in this room, what were you doing?”

  There was no apology or embarrassment in his voice when he said, “We were being affectionate, Grand Empress.”

  “So you ignored my commands to stay away from my child?” Marie demanded. “I made it abundantly clear to stick to your duties and not to touch her, haven’t I?”

  Confidence in his words kept his voice even and sure. “No one can keep me from her.”

  “Not even me, Kiln?” Marie squared her shoulders, stood to her full height against the giant. “Not even the Grand Empress of this house?”

  Kiln didn’t back down against Marie’s glare. He met it, absorbed it, sent it back.

  “The Mother Goddess herself couldn’t keep me from her.”

  Marie’s body trembled with rage. The urge to hit him with something blunt and heavy rose in her mind before she dismissed it, instead saying the words that would shatter her daughter’s heart.

  “You are dismissed from my house, Kiln. You are to return to the Slave Market at once.”

  Kiln’s jaw tightened.

  Nadira threw herself upon her mother. “No, you can’t send Kiln away!”

  “I warned you what would happen a year ago. You knew the consequences. Maxwell!” Marie stepped away from her daughter, ignoring her pleas.

  “Here, Grand Empress.” Maxwell, who’d been listening from the doorway, now stepped forward.

  “Prepare Kiln’s things. He’s leaving immediately.”

  “Yes, Grand Empress.”

  Tears sprang from Nadira’s eyes. “Mother, please don’t do this!”

  “Let’s go.” Maxwell roughly took Kiln’s arm.

  The giant paused at Nadira’s side. He tenderly wiped the tears from her cheek with his thumb.

  “It’ll be okay,” he whispered to her. “Everything will be okay.”

  Hot anger squeezed the air from Marie’s lungs.

  “Maxwell, get him out of here!” She thundered.

  Grabbing Kiln’s other arm, Maxwell pulled him out the door and onto the elevation plate.

  Marie slammed the door behind them.

  That boy will be the death of everyone in this house.

  She turned back to her daughter. The hatred in Nadira’s eyes startled her, but only for a moment. “I have done everything for you, and still, after all I’ve done, you decide that you want to go down to the reservoir, a public place, with him? You ungrateful, spoiled, selfish child!”

  “He has a name,” Nadira said, her eyes raising from the ground to challenge her mother.

  Marie stared her down.

  I will not have both of them challenge me in one day. Not in my own home!

  “I know his name. I was there when you learned it. Of all of the...” Marie sputtered, her fury stealing her words, “I am trying to keep you safe, keep you protected, and what do you do? You throw it in my face as if it’s okay, as if it’s not illegal, as if we won’t all be executed because you can’t control yourself.”

  “Mother, I love Kiln. And I’m not the only woman in the world who thinks that way. There are others like us. Women who love their slaves, women who don’t care about these stupid slave laws!”

  “What women? How do you know these women?”

  “We meet up by the reservoir sometimes, just to talk.”

  “Like you used to talk with Kiera?”

  Nadira sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes widening at the mention of her dead friend.

&nbs
p; “Is that what you want?” Marie asked. “Someone else to die? Is that what you want, Nadira?”

  “Of course not. I just want to be myself for once. I can’t always be this perfect child that you think I am. I want to sit with Kiln and hold him and not worry about who might see us.”

  “Nadira, they will execute him. Do you understand? They will kill the both of you. Is that the future you see for yourself? The future I encouraged you to pursue?”

  Nadira looked down at her hands.

  “I love him. I’m sorry. I tried not to, but I can’t help it.”

  “Don’t you say that in this house,” Marie hissed. “What if someone hears you?”

  Running to the window, Marie stuck her head out, looked right, then left, and closed it with a dull smack. She turned to her daughter, shoved the envelope into her hands.

  “What is this?”

  “It’s your application to High Council. Open it.”

  “Mother, I can’t-”

  “You promised me last year that you would go if I got Kiln back. I held up my side of the bargain, now you hold up yours.”

  Nadira rolled her eyes, then tore open the envelope.

  “It says that my application has been accepted. I’m to start the day after tomorrow.”

  “Thank the Mother Goddess. Now, you will go to High Council, you will serve your planet, and you will never speak of this again.”

  “Yes, mother.” Nadira’s voice was hollow.

  A tear dripped down Marie’s cheek. She sniffed, wiped the tear away. Her anger subsided, morphing into stifling disappointment in her only daughter’s deception. “There is one more thing. Nadira, I have tried my best with you. I have tried and I have tried and... I think that it’s time that you think about other living arrangements.”

  “What?”

  “You can no longer stay here.”

  “You’re kicking me out?”

  “It’s for the best.”

  “But I’m your daughter!”

  “Nadira, if someone decides to look into your behavior, to prosecute you while you live here, I’ll be liable. They’ll say that I allowed it, encouraged it. They’ll kill Max, and banish me. I can’t let that happen.”

  “But you’re not doing anything wrong.”

  Marie’s mouth squeezed into a tight line. She took a deep breath and smoothed her jumpsuit, one hand going to the necklace around her neck. “I’m sorry Nadira. It’s time for you to be responsible for your own actions. Perhaps then you can control them.”

  “Mother, please don’t make me leave.” She threw herself at her mother, wrapping her arms around her neck, crying wildly.

  “I’m sorry. It’s for the best.” She stepped out of her daughter’s embrace.

  “If you don’t want me here, then fine!” Nadira’s eyes turned hot with anger. “But I’m not staying anywhere near you.”

  “You don’t mean that.”

  “Oh, I do mother. Find me a home in the Residential.”

  Marie gasped.

  “Absolutely not, Nadira. The Residential is for stuck up politicians who only care about their next vote. I won’t have those women polluting you any more than you already are. You’ll stay with me here in the Outer Ring. You can commute to High Council with Eva.”

  “If you want me out, fine. But the only place I’ll go is the Residential. Otherwise you’ll have to have Enforcers drag me out.”

  “Nadira, you are a new Councilwoman with a penchant for getting yourself into trouble. They’ll find out about your weaknesses and use them against you.”

  “That’s your problem. Not mine. You’re the one who wants me gone, remember?”

  “Nadira, I understand your upset, but this is madness. You are not moving to the Residential.”

  “Then I’m not moving at all.”

  Marie frowned.

  “Okay then, if that’s what you want, I’ll purchase a home for you in the Residential.”

  She watched her daughters face widen in surprise.

  “I’ll send Kiln to pack your things.”

  And with that, she left the room and didn’t look back.

  Chapter 4

  It was early afternoon when Marie, Nadira, Kiln and Maxwell climbed into Marie’s hovercraft, and began the short journey to the Residential in Habitat Alpha.

  Nadira silently watched with feigned indifference as she was flown away from the only home she’d ever known. Her possessions bumped and slid within the bottom compartment of the hovercraft.

  I’m sure they’re all ruined by now, she thought. Just like the rest of my life.

  Nadira slid a finger down the glass, marking with an imaginary line all of the places that held a special memory.

  The shop in the Square that fed her collection of old, tattered Earth books.

  The small Servant Education Center where Kiln tutored boys twice a week.

  The Reservoir, with its water basins stacked in odd angles, one on top of the other. Some nights, her and Kiln would go there just to listen to the metal balls clang and clatter within the pools, agitating and churning the icy water as they went.

  They flew past the Recycling and Refuse Center, swung left, and passed several midsized homes before entering the Residential.

  Scores of women and slaves walked along stone sidewalks below them.

  Traffic turned heavy, and they slowed as they passed Habitat Alpha’s main library, a beautiful building with lush gardens full of colorful flowers, blue origgrow, and gleaming white, floating pods. Women sat within the egg shaped, cushioned pods, enveloped in warm softness as they read from the screens that hovered over their heads. As they drank from cups filled with steaming beverages, the screen read their eye movements, turning the pages without a touch, marking where they left off, and suggesting other books that they might enjoy.

  Excitement took root and blossomed in Nadira’s belly as they flew deeper into the city. She didn’t come into the Residential often, but when she did it was always something special. The thought of living here started to seem less like a punishment and more like an opportunity with each passing moment.

  Maybe I’ll be able to do something great here. Something that no one can take away from me. I’ll be a member of High Council after all.

  She looked at Kiln, whose eyes never left the bustle below.

  A bill. I’ll draft a bill for Kiln.

  A plan took shape in her mind, grew, expanded.

  With both hands, she rubbed her stomach to release the new, nervous energy.

  Kiln tore his eyes away from the people below to look up at her, a question in his eyes.

  She bit her lip to keep from telling him her new plan, and turned back to the window.

  “The house should be just past the Square,” Marie said. “It’s number seven.”

  To the left, the Square - the Habitats primary shopping center - was alive, with both women and men leisurely moving between the shops. The women with their extravagant hairstyles, and gaudy clothing. The men in their plain, grey jumpsuits.

  The original colonizers instituted the jumpsuit uniform thousands of years earlier. Although the rule was never changed, it was embraced, and honed with eye catching colors, varied fits, and unique designs. It was every Venian woman’s duty to take the drab garment, and add an individual flourish, making their clothes as different as the fingerprints of their well manicured hands.

  They were stuck behind a line of hovercraft for nearly a half an hour before advancing forward, turning down a street, and landing on the roof of a house at the edge of a cul-de-sac.

  Nadira was the first to step out.

  The air was thick with a floral scent, a desperate attempt to hide the sharp smell of too many hydro-tanks from too many hovercrafts.

  Unlike the houses loosely sprawled across the Outer Ring, the Residential was laid out in tight cul-de-sacs, each holding five houses, then releasing into a smooth, stone sidewalk that split, either left or right, leading to another cul-de-sac.

>   The house boasted the tiniest lawn that Nadira had ever laid eyes upon, possessing only one bush, a small patch of origgrow, and a few flowers.

  Marie stepped behind her daughter and looked out over the neighborhood from the roof’s landing pad.

  “Here we are, dear. Go ahead.”

  Nadira took a small step towards the stairs, then turned to her mother.

  “Mother?”

  “Yes?”

  Mother I’m sorry, she thought. Please don’t make me live out here alone. Please let me come home. Please!

  “Something you wanted to say, Naddie?”

  Nadira bit her cheek, forcing herself to remember why she was here in the first place. Steeling herself, she forced her wobbly legs to move a step forward. Then another. She kept her mother’s words in her mind,

  “You can no longer stay here.”

  The deep feeling of betrayal fueled her, fed her as she made a promise to herself that she swore she would never break.

  I will not go back to the Ring.

  She descended the flight of stone steps that led from the roof to the front door. Barely registering the golden number seven that was bolted above the arch, she placed her pointer finger on the circular, cool glass next to the doorknob. The door clicked and swung slightly open.

  Darkness greeted her.

  “Lights on,” Nadira said.

  Lights snapped on, revealing a comfortable looking white sofa, a glass table, raised on the ends and dipped in the middle as if it were shrugging its shoulders in confusion, and a comm built into the far wall. Her boots slid over the white fluffy carpet.

  So much white. Haven’t these women heard of colors?

  Two large windows were built into either side of the wall comm, their screens slid closed, shutting light out of the room.

  “Oh Nadira, it’s gorgeous!”

  Plain, Nadira thought with a frown. It held none of the bright hues and textured surfaces of her mother’s home.

  And none of the warmth.

  She found Kiln standing by the door, using a remote to fly a drone into the room. Small, winged, and metal, it dropped a box marked, books, in bold, black print onto the carpet near the shrugging table.

  His eyes glided to hers, his lips squeezing into a small smile that somehow comforted her.