"You're going to need to see this."
I turned to find Jess holding out an image. On it were three girls, all dressed in ship garb. The one I didn’t know was obviously Leanne. Now I had someone to look for. I nodded, and she left.
At ten kilometers distance, I sighed, took a big breath in, and started searching the target ship. I found Leanne very quickly, lying on a pallet in a small room packed with pallets. She wasn’t alone. I fixed the location firmly in my mind, and went searching for the junction box. It was where Jess had said, as was the black box unit.
"About to jump, back shortly."
"Go," said Jenna.
The chip I’d selected came out easily, and appeared in my hand. I dropped it onto the console without looking at it. My sight immediately moved through the ship, presumably as it lost speed, and my intent wasn’t fixed enough to hold there. The lights went out, and suddenly I had a hard time seeing where I was looking. Instead, I shifted it back to the spot next to Leanne. She was standing now, in almost darkness, but was the only one. I wondered if the others were asleep, but didn’t have the time now to look.
I jumped myself, appearing behind Leanne.
"I'm…"
She twirled, and hit me.
Thirty One
"Don’t move," said a voice.
I was looking directly into my own gun.
"Leanne, I'm here to rescue you."
"How do you know my name?"
"Jenna and Jess sent me."
"Sent you? How?"
"We don’t have time for questions. Take my hand, and let's get out of here."
The gun wobbled about a bit, still pointing at my head. I moved it from her hand to my holster. Behind her outstretched hand, her face changed to disbelief.
"How did you do that?"
"No time. How long was I out?"
"Less than a minute."
"The gravity could fail any second now. We have to go."
"Go where?"
"Jenna's ship is close by."
"Jen is here?"
I sighed, pulled the gun, and shot her.
"Don’t leave us here," said a voice.
"Please?" said another.
I looked around. There were fourteen other people here, although only three were awake.
"No time," I muttered to myself.
No time to even think, so I just acted. I shot each of those still asleep, as fast as I could, so they wouldn’t wake up any time soon.
"Pull everyone to the middle of the room," I instructed the three still awake. "I need them all touching each other." I went over and grabbed the nearest by the arm, and pulled. "Faster. The gravity is about to fail."
"How do you know?"
"Because I sabotaged the ship. Faster!"
In thirty seconds, we had all of them in the middle. I could feel it as we steadily lost our feeling of weight. Steps started becoming longer, and we had seconds now before we started bouncing around the room uncontrollably. Or at least, that was my fear.
There were no shields active now, so I couldn’t use them to power the jump. Power was out throughout the ship, so there was nothing for me to use. I searched around until I found the generators themselves. The power was there, just not getting to the rest of the ship. I drew upon it.
I made sure everyone was touching, removed their collars one by one, formed the intent to move all the people connected by touch to me and each other, decided to move us all to the common room on the new ship, checked it quickly to make sure there was enough empty floor space, and jumped.
I quickly disengaged myself from the mass of people, walked over to the room com panel, and pressed the button.
"I'm back. New ship common room. Fifteen people. Jess, I need help. Some of them need medical attention, and I had to stun most of them to control the jump."
"Why did it take so long?" asked Jenna.
"Leanne hit me."
"Should have seen that coming," laughed Jess.
"Oops," said Jenna. "What about Leanne? How is she?"
"I had to stun her to shut her up."
"Should have seen that coming too."
Jess was still laughing.
"Did they make us at all?" I asked.
"Not as far as I can see," answered Jenna. "We never went closer than seven kilometers from them, and you were fast enough I didn’t need to make any course change. It was just as well I slowed us down a bit to give you the extra time, but I don’t think it was noticeable. Why fifteen?"
"There were fifteen slaves in the room. I couldn’t leave them all behind."
Not when someone pleaded with you. I could easily have left them there, but then, I really think I’d have had nightmares about it for the rest of my life.
"I guess not. Bed them down where you are." There was a pause. "Thorn, does that ship have a shuttle?"
Looking took only a few seconds.
"Yes. Several. Why?"
"Can you move one to one of our shuttle bays?"
I saw where she was going. We'd be needing to explain how fifteen slaves escaped. An extra shuttle would do it.
I drew a lot of energy, since we were now well over ten kilometers away, grabbed a hold of the closest one, and moved it. My vision faded for a moment, and I had to push against the nearest wall to hold me up. Drawing even more energy from my source pool made me feel better immediately.
Jess arrived shortly after, and together with the other three, who were standing there looking at me with dumb-founded expressions on their faces, we moved everyone either to a bed, or to the medical facilities. Leanne we moved to her own stateroom. Moving fifteen naked people should have been awkward, but I really didn’t notice. My brain was sluggish, and sleep was what I needed.
The last thing I wanted was to be there when Leanne woke up. Jess could see it in my face, so she let me go. What I needed was food and drink, before a long sleep.
The first throb in a temple started as I drifted off.
Thirty Two
I woke a few hours later to an established migraine, took a tablet, and went back to sleep. By the time I woke again, we were nearly to the station.
My head was clear, but the rest of me needed a shower. The necessary done, I was finishing up a meal in my kitchen, when Leanne's voice made me jump so hard, my knees bashed the underside of the table, and my drink crashed to the floor.
She laughed, and sat down opposite me.
"I'm told I owe you an apology. Two now."
Her grin was infectious. She was wearing the same ship outfit the other girls wore.
"Not really. You had no way of knowing who I was."
"All the same, I reacted far more violently than I usually do. I'm sorry I hit you. And thank you for the rescue."
"You're welcome."
"Jess told me a whole heap of things about you. If I hadn't seen what you did with the gun, I wouldn’t have believed a word of it."
"Belief is not necessary."
"Plenty would disagree with you."
"If you don’t mind, it's too soon after getting up for this sort of discussion."
The cleaner bots having cleaned up the mess, I rose and brought back another drink.
Leanne was watching me closely. So I paid more attention to her.
"No."
"No what?"
"No, you’re not getting thank you for saving me sex."
I face-palmed.
"Why do you all think I expect that?"
She laughed.
"Sorry, just messing with you. Jess told me to."
I shook my head, and said nothing.
"Just your luck to rescue three girls in a row, who all like girls."
Well, and so a few things were suddenly explained.
"You could try the others you know. Well, the girls anyway."
"No thanks. I have no plans for seeing any of them again."
"They do want to thank you."
"I'll think about it."
"I want to thank you."
"You just did."
"No, I mean with a proper reward. And yes, I know you want to go home, and as the one who has the most time on her hands on this ship, I'll dedicate myself to finding it, but I mean a proper reward above that. Just give me time to work something out."
"You don’t need to."
"Want. Not need. Want. They've been raping me for weeks. All of us in fact. Several of the group are going to need serious therapy when they get somewhere safe."
"I'm sorry it took us so long to find you."
"I understand. It was always going to be a waiting game. Jen and Jess were always going to escape somehow. I never doubted it. They have skill sets I don’t have, so for me it was always about enduring until someone showed up. I'm really glad you did. I'm just sorry I made it harder for you."
"We've done that. Forget it. How are the others going to get to safety?"
"We have our story already, how the power cut out, and we stole a shuttle to escape. Jen took us aboard as you went past, and the station has already been notified escaped slaves are on their way. She told me to ask you to look at the docking bay before we dock, just in case the reception isn’t what we want. What did she mean by that?"
"I have magical sight, which can see at a distance."
"Jess said something like that. Can you give me a demo?"
I led her to my bridge, and bid her watch the screen Jess had used. An image of Jenna in her captain's chair appeared. I let it fade immediately.
"Oops. I didn’t know she'd be there. I was going to show you an empty bridge. Don’t tell her I did that please."
She laughed.
"I won't. So is there any limit to what you can see?"
"Range seems to be about fifteen kilometers at the moment, but it depends on what sort of power I can borrow."
"So you looked at me before the rescue?"
"Yes. I had to know where you were, so I could jump in close."
"So you saw me naked."
I blushed. She laughed harder.
"Only sort of. I was concentrating on a very fast rescue. I really didn't get a chance to look properly. And don’t worry, I won't be doing any looking here on the ship. The others would kill me."
"Hey, no need to be so defensive. I'm not Jen or Jess. They're both very private people. Being naked for them is humiliation taken to the nth degree. I'm not them. I was always more of a party animal, and while I prefer girls, I've never been shy about being seen. So if you want to peek at me in the shower, go right ahead."
My jaw dropped open for a moment.
"Don’t kid."
"I'm not. I get a kick out of being seen. It was a major factor in helping me cope. I didn’t feel humiliated being naked, and being looked at gave me a thrill, not put me in fear of them. Being raped wasn't pleasant, but I didn't fight them, so they didn’t hurt me. I just pretended to be a blow up doll."
My mouth was open. I closed it.
"I'll make sure if I'm not showering alone, I do it in another stateroom. The others will toss you out an airlock if you view them."
"I know. They were very serious about it."
"Well if you feel the need to look, look at me. You can look all you like, just don’t touch."
I blushed again. And resolved not to. Look or touch. I changed the subject.
"How do the others get to safety? What happens after you all get your ID's."
"We don’t know yet. The main problem is funds. If we had some, they'd all take a passenger ship back to their home worlds. We don’t. And while Jen is sympathetic, she doesn’t want to be a taxi service for people she didn’t invite on board."
"Ouch."
"Not your fault. If I hadn't forced you to stun me, I’d have talked you into taking everyone as well."
"How much will they need?"
Leanne gave me a set of numbers, since she'd already researched costs for tickets. I rounded the number up to a nice whole number, and set about making fourteen cards with double it on each. Leanne sat there waiting for me to finish, astonishment on her face.
I passed her the fourteen cards.
"Give each of them one of these. Hopefully it's enough to get them home."
"How can you afford to do this?"
"Easy come, easy go."
"Do I even want to know?"
"Probably not. But once we hit the station, I'll top back up again fairly quickly."
"Can I watch?"
The grin was back on her face.
Thirty Three
The reception committee was larger than expected, but showed no signs of danger. There were no guns evident, or cages on wheels nearby.
As the only one without a bounty on me, I greeted the immigration officials when the hatch opened. I repeated the cover story, and was quite prepared to show them the shuttle they escaped in. I wasn’t asked to.
Leanne and the others had their identity verified, gave statements to be passed on to law enforcement about their slave taking captors, and were welcomed back to civilized society with new ID cards.
Leanne announced she was staying with the ship as crew, and the others would be taking passage back to their home worlds. None of the officers asked about how they would fund this. I gathered this was none of their business, or at least, something best not made official. Refugees with no funds could start asking for handouts after all.
Officialdom done, we all trooped back aboard, and closed the hatch.
Jess was waiting for us, holding two gun belts. Leanne and I buckled them on. While technically Leanne might be a target here, she was less likely to be than Jenna or Jess, at least for now. The guns were just for show, in case anyone thought we might be an easy take down.
One by one, the others hugged me. They were dressed in identical ship suits, which I assumed Jenna had in store somewhere. It was awkward, but they were genuine in thanks for their rescue. They all had contact details for Leanne, and promised to keep in touch. I guess captivity, and living naked with a group of strangers for a long period, creates a bond which lasts after the group breaks up. If it was me, I'm not sure I’d want to keep in touch. But Leanne wasn’t me.
We left as a group, taking the fast route to the passenger departure lounges, where each of them bought a ticket home. We stayed with them, until the last one boarded a ship, most of the day later.
On the way back to the ship, I spotted a man abusing a station worker. I quietly pointed him out to Leanne, and took his wallet, moving it into the ever present backpack I always wore on station.
Back aboard, with the hatch closed, I took it out, and showed it to her. It had five cards inside, and I handed all five to Leanne without checking their value.
"Here. You'll need some funds yourself."
She waved them past her pad, which had been with her things Jenna and Jess had replaced in her room, and her eyes widened at the amounts.
"I can't take all this."
"Sure you can. You're owed. I figure this is the way the cosmos provides for some people after treating them really badly."
"The cosmos has you robbing the rich to give to the poor?"
"When you put it that way, geez I hope not. For now, I rob the rich to support me, and now you. Let's not make this anymore than it needs to be. I'm not a crusader. I'm just using the only skills I have to get by."
"Will you escort me to the bank?"
"Surely, I will."
She took my arm, and we walked that way across the station to the banking section. I waited outside while she went in. She was grinning when she came out.
"Let's go shopping."
I'd never been shopping with a girl before. In one store, I sat in a chair outside the changing room, as she went in, and came out in different outfits, looked at herself in a full length mirror, and asked how she looked. While my impression of Jenna and Jess was they preferred ship wear, or at least clothes which didn’t emphasize their female attributes too much, Leanne on the other hand was totally girlie. She went for dresses, skirts and tops,
and looked sensational in all of them.
At one point, she pulled her dress off on her way back in, before she was even in the door, revealing nothing on underneath. I wasn’t the only one to get an eye full, and when she came out next, it was with a big grin on her face.
I guess if she was showing, I was watching. A short time later, the door twitched open, and I had a vision of breasts for a few seconds. Teasing minx. I had to tell myself forcefully not to get excited about it. She was a tease, nothing more. Enjoy the show, but nothing.
Eventually she chose a set of outfits, paid for them, and had them delivered to the ship. As I followed along behind her, I sighed. At least that was over.
Or not, as she turned into another store, dedicated to female underwear. My foot paused in midair on the threshold, and I froze up right there. She must have noticed I hadn't followed her in, as she came back, and quite literally pulled me in.
By the time she led me out again, I’d seen her parade a dozen sets of lingerie in front of me, some of which left nothing to the imagination. By this time I was really glad I was wearing tight pants, which fortunately didn’t bulge much, since there was no stretch in the fabric. Otherwise I’d have been really embarrassed. As a tease, this was brilliant. But since it was actually a wind up, all she ended up doing was frustrating the hell out of me.
I think she saw this in my face towards the end, as she selected, paid, and arranged delivery quickly, after having drawn things out before.
She bought a number of things in various stores, replacing things she too had found were missing, all being delivered to the ship. This included a new pad, which presumably hadn't been taken because it was so old.
Finally, she led me into a restaurant. We were seated before she said anything.
"Did you enjoy the show?"
Her expression was wicked.
"Sure. But I prefer a tease I know is going somewhere."
"I saw that on your face. So you would have wanted it to go somewhere?"
I sighed, and nodded.
"I'll take that as a compliment. Sorry though, but I needed to know something about you."
"What?"
"The three of us were talking earlier, and the girls told me you hadn't made a pass at either of them. Usually that means a guy is gay." I actually shuddered. "I guess not, and from the look of your pants at one point, I could see you're not. Had to know. Sorry."
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