Emmarie smiled at her.
“We’re going to take them to the infirmary for scanning and then to Leona for integration,” Raiden replied.
Willoughbee turned her dark, inset eyes from him to inspect Emmarie and Logan. “In which colony did you find them?”
Pikon and Raiden shared a look before the Captain cleared his throat. “Well, Willoughbee, truth is…they were on a Merloni ship.”
“In cryosleep,” Pikon added.
Willoughbee’s eyes widened and shot another look at Emmarie and Logan. “Are you telling me they’re Earthlings?”
Raiden nodded.
“The Slip Gate is still in operation?” she asked in a heavily shocked voice.
He nodded again.
Willoughbee covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head.
“It’s very annoying being called an Earthling all the time,” Logan replied mildly, though his hands were fisted at his side.
“I apologize,” Willoughbee replied as she tried to gather her wits. “It’s just…we thought we’d never see new Earth— er, humans here again.” She turned to Raiden. “We’ll have to let the Durians know.”
“So we can have another pointless meeting?”
She compressed her lips but didn’t say anything.
“Where, exactly, is here?” Logan asked her.
Willoughbee turned away from them and walked toward a very large monitor. She pushed a few buttons and the screen changed to show a galaxy. Another button had the image zooming in, and Emmarie saw a large sun with an asteroid belt dividing three planets away from several others. Another sun, smaller then the first, lay far in the distance to the last planet.
“Logan,” Willoughbee murmured. “Emmarie. This is the Amarante System, much like your Sol System from whence you came. The sun here is a yellow dwarf with a luminosity class three with another red dwarf star about six hundred million kilometers apart from the last planet. The position of the planets and their compositions make this system unique because five different races have evolved.” She pointed to the planet closest to the sun. “This is Kex, a hot desertlike planet made up of a warrior-type class.” Another image appeared. Big, brutish beings covered in armor with a horn jutting out of their foreheads.
Emmarie blinked.
“Kexians are basically guns for hire,” Raiden murmured.
“Who hires them?” she asked.
The image clicked back to the planets and she pointed to the large second planet.
“This one,” Willoughbee answered. “Unaria, and the primary source of being a pain in our asses. Unaria is a capitalist world, I suppose would be the correct term. Their world is nothing but ore and so supplies almost all of the other worlds. They keep the Merloni,” she pointed to the last planet outside of the asteroid belt, “in business. Unarians use human slaves for the mines, women to breed the human slaves, and of course, the beautiful women for chatelaines. ”
She shot a brief glance at Emmarie.
“And we’re on the inside of this asteroid field?” Logan asked. “That’s enough to keep out the bad guys?”
“Not entirely.” Willoughbee replied. “We call the asteroid belt the Outlaw Rings. It’s extremely dense and flying through them is taking your life in your own hands. However, the Kexian sentinels are brash enough to try to get through the belt to get to us.”
“So we’re sitting ducks?”
“Have you ever heard the expression the enemy of my enemy is my friend?” Raiden asked.
“Of course,” Logan muttered.
Raiden tapped the biggest planet on the screen, on the right side of the asteroid belt lay two planets, one very small and one easily three times bigger than Kex and Unaria combined. “The farthest planet is Zond, but the inhabitants are timid. We rarely see or hear from them. The big planet is Dura, and they’ve been in conflict with Unaria over ore and processing rights for eons.”
“Durians have developed new technology over the years to reduce their dependence on ore,” Willoughbee added. “Much of their technology is all around us. Dura allowed us to colonize Arden, one of their moons, and gave us access to our own protection shield, as well as providing much of our equipment.”
“So, you’re what? Durian subjects?” Logan asked, crossing his arms as he studied the chart.
“No,” Raiden answered. “Of course not. Humans haven’t any rights.” He shot Willoughbee a raised eyebrow look. “The only question I have on my mind is why the Merloni crashed. Their hub is a security that a ship wouldn’t come out of a tunnel and hit an asteroid.”
“Which is, of course, exactly what they did,” Pikon quipped.
“So how did they rebuild it?” Raiden asked, almost to himself. “The hub was destroyed, so how the fuck did another Slip Gate get rebuilt without us knowing about it?”
“What was destroyed must not have been the hub,” Willoughbee replied.
“If it wasn’t the hub, then those people died for nothing!” Raiden growled, raking a hand through his hair. “For thirty years we thought it was gone. But how long has it been bringing people through that we knew nothing about?”
“Speculation gets us nowhere,” Willoughbee told him. “Clearly we face the imminent advancement on slavery. We need to bring the Senate together.”
“We need to find that new hub,” Raiden countered. “Destroy every bit of Slip Gate technology so the Merloni would never be able to abduct another human from Earth.”
“That would mean we could never get home,” Emmarie murmured.
Everyone in the room turned to look at her. She saw the pity in Willoughbee’s gaze and the concern in Pikon’s. But what held her captive was the stark truth shining brightly from Raiden’s dark eyes.
“I could learn how to fly one of their ships,” Logan said. “I’m a linguist—”
“You’d never survive the trip home,” Raiden said matter-of-fact.
“We survived it here!”
“Logan,” Willoughbee’s deep timbre voice rumbled. “The only way for a human to travel through the Gate is by being encased in cryo-animation. Our bodies are not made to withstand the internal pressures.”
“And you’ll never find a Merloni to fly you home,” Raiden told him.
The two men stared at each other. Logan’s fists were clenched by his side and Raiden had an air of arrogance around him.
Willoughbee cleared her throat. “Pikon, why don’t you turn in the manifest on what you acquired and escort our new guests to the infirmary. I’m sure they’re tired after their long, um, trip and would like to check in with Leona to settle in quickly.”
Those were, perhaps, the wrong words to use. Logan growled deep in his throat and stormed out of the room. Pikon handed over a sheet to Willoughbee before chasing after Logan, leaving Raiden to escort Emmarie out.
“You’ll have to forgive him,” she said quietly to Willoughbee.
“Of course,” Willoughbee said with a nod. “I know this can’t be easy. But we’ll do everything possible to help you adjust.”
She gave a faint smile before turning to leave the room.
“He’s lost his life,” Emmarie said, wanting to fill the silence. “Everything.”
“So have you,” Raiden said softly.
“Yes, but I don’t think as much as he. I don’t have a family who will miss me.”
She gave him a small, sad smile before turning away and following after Willoughbee. She heard Raiden sigh and grab her arm.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I don’t mean to sound like a jackass every time you’re around.”
“I just bring out the best in you?”
His eyes fell to her lips, and for a moment she very much wanted to lean in to steal a kiss. When he glanced back into her eyes she noticed his had lost the hard, brittle edge. “I think,” he replied, “that you would bring out the very best in me, if I gave you the chance.”
He laced their fingers together and steered her around. Instead of going back into the ha
ngar, they continued through the hallway until it ended at a set of doors. When he opened them, she saw a room decorated all in white, with several beds and monitors standing by. Several people were in the room, wearing white, and Emmarie realized Raiden had taken her to the infirmary.
“Hello, Pell,” greeted an older man. He wore loose fitting white clothes that reminded her of scrubs. A white cap rested on his head. The man smiled at her.
“Doctor Payne,” Raiden greeted. “This is a new settler. Her name is Emmarie Tice.”
Doctor Payne held out his hand and she took it, liking the twinkle in his eye. “Don’t let the name scare you, I’m very gentle. I believe that your friend has already gone back for his medical scan, so if you’d like to wait a moment?”
“Of course,” she answered with a shy smile. Though she didn’t have anything against doctors, they did intimidate her a little. She wasn’t overly fond of needles.
“I’m assuming that you’ve had all your immunizations?” the doctor asked.
“I think so. I know I’ve had my tetanus shot.”
The doctor blinked. “Oh. Well, that’s a new one. I’ll just run a panel and see where we stand, is that okay with you?”
Emmarie nodded just as Logan walked from the back room. He glanced at her briefly before his eyes shifted at a point over her head. He walked by her without saying one word. The silent treatment confused her and made her a little depressed. He was, after all, the only one who understood what she was feeling.
She was able to get the scan done quickly, without removing any clothing. All she did was walk behind a huge wall that flashed a few lights and she was done. Then, he took a small lancet and pricked her finger, taking the drop of blood that welled to the surface. He applied a small bandage and she walked back out to stand next to Raiden.
The doctor smiled at her. “If anything comes up, we’ll contact you. Pell told me you’re heading to Leona’s now.”
“Yes, I suppose.”
Raiden put his hand in her lower back and escorted her from the infirmary, back into the long corridor.
“You’ll probably have to come back for some shots,” he told her. “I bet you’ve not been inoculated against any of the diseases we have here.”
“Yes, that would be fair to state.”
He flashed her an amused smile. “Come on, time to see Sparta.”
He took her hand and led her away from the direction that the hangar lay. Again, people walked by and greeted Raiden cheerfully, and Emmarie was slowly learning that he was kept in a high regard of respect. People were friendly toward him but they were also slightly in awe of him and she wondered what he’d done to deserve that type of admiration.
He opened another door and she realized they had left the building, and that they stood under a type of natural rock overhang. She saw several vehicles resembling cars, only they reminded Emmarie of electric ones, small with no doors and simple operating peddles. Raiden led them to where Pike and Logan waited next to one and climbed into the backseat. Pikon got behind the wheel and Logan slid in next to him, leaving the seat next to Raiden for Emmarie.
They drove out of the base and in a matter of seconds, Emmarie got her first glimpse of Arden. There were lots of blues, greens, and browns, and it reminded her of Earth. Only, it was very obviously not Earth by the feel of the air, the shapes of the rocks, and the texture of the dirt. It was all different, like substituting tofu for meat. Not exactly pleasant to the taste but something you could live with.
“Relax,” Raiden murmured into her ear. His breath tickled, causing a shiver to run down her neck. “You’ll be safe here. We’ll get you a hot bath, new clothes, some food. We’ll fix you right up.”
“With Leona?”
He nodded. “She owns a saloon, a very popular one. Her mother used to help new people acclimate.”
The ride lasted for twenty minutes and bumped along as it made its way into what was obviously Sparta.
“Shouldn’t we be walking in the shadows or hiding more?” Emmarie asked.
“No one on Arden is going to turn you in,” Raiden informed her. “Everyone you see has either been a slave or lost someone to the slavers.”
“And which are you, Captain?” she asked, turning to face him. The sun was high in the sky and she had to squint against the brightness. Out from the shadows she had originally seen him in, Pell Raiden was even more of a force of nature. His eyes sparkled like onyx dipped in rainwater, his hair glossy and thick. His chin had a bit of stubble on it, which only added to his rugged appeal.
But the question closed him up, froze the candor she had seen warming his eyes. “I was never a slave,” he answered with a flat voice before turning away, leaving her to wonder who it was he had lost.
Chapter Seven
Sparta was an interesting blend of several generations, a town caught somewhere in between the American Old West and modern suburbia. The people were a blend of nationalities, some with dark skin, some with white, though most were a blending of the two. The clothes were crossed between early twentieth century fashion and sensible Spartan living, with dresses no higher than knees and pants tucked into combat boots.
Raiden and Pikon drew up short in front of a wooden building, two stories tall without one window on the front side. It wasn’t painted, only stained with age, with a door under a sign that read Leona’s Saloon.
“A saloon?” Logan said. “Are you kidding me?”
Pikon opened the door for them and Raiden ushered them inside. There was a piano player banging away at they keys on a stage, circular tables littered in front, a long bar along the back end with bar stools. A staircase could be seen through the dim lighting.
“Get the hell out of my place, Pikon Brant!” came an angry shout from the bar. Emmarie looked and saw a beautiful black woman glaring at them, hands fisted on her hips. Her hair was cut ruthlessly short, the curling ends resting against her scalp. Her large black eyes were narrowed angrily at Pike.
“Leona,” Pikon spoke in a voice gentle enough to tame a bucking horse. “You can’t stay mad at me forever.”
“Don’t tell me what I can’t do, Pike!” she snapped back at him.
The piano player stopped playing, and the patrons in the bar watched them in rapt fascination.
“What did you do to her?” Emmarie asked.
“She thinks I cheated on her,” Pikon replied.
“I don’t think, I know!”
“Did you cheat?” Emmarie asked again.
“No!” Pikon answered, aghast. “How could I ever cheat on the love of my life?” He turned up the volume. “Hear that, Leona? The love of my life!”
Leona’s lips thinned out.
“Why do you think he cheated?” Emmarie asked her.
Leona turned her dark, angry eyes on her. “I saw him coming out of Lusty Lisa’s. There’s only one reason why a man visits that place!”
“You have to trust me, Leona!” Pikon growled. “I would trust you if I saw you coming out of Lusty Lisa’s!”
“’Cause you know I don’t do girls!” she growled in return.
“Oh for God’s sake!” Logan muttered.
Emmarie elbowed him in the arm. “They’re in love.”
“Great,” he mocked. “We’ve had the worst fucking day of our lives and they’re in love.”
Leona turned narrowed eyes on him, having heard his impertinent remark. She walked over to stand in front of Logan, eyeing him up and down. She raised her open hand in front of his face and then closed her fingers together, pantomiming shutting him up. She shot a quick look at Raiden. “Not sure if I like the new rescues.”
“They’re not quite rescues, Leona,” he replied. He glanced around, noting the still interested gaze in some of the patron’s eyes. “But perhaps we can move this into a more private setting?”
Leona pursed her lips but seemingly caught his meaning because she waved over one of the drink servers to replace her behind the bar. “This way,” she motioned with her
index finger and the four of them followed her into a side office that housed a desk, some papers, a round tub, and various tubes. The smell of fermented alcohol was strong in the air.
Emmarie wrinkled her nose.
“My God, is this moonshine?” Logan asked, incredulity raising the pitch.
“Excuse me?” Leona asked, a hand going on her hip as she studied the man in front of her.
“Bath-time gin, Prohibition era,” Logan replied, moving closer to study the homemade distillery. “Or the drink of choice to anyone presently living in the hills of Kentucky.”
Leona blinked, and then turned her gaze onto Emmarie, taking her time as she looked her up and down. “Pell,” she finally said. “Where did you pick these two up from?”
“Crashed upon an asteroid. Guests of the Merloni.”
Leona’s eyes widen. “Earthlings? Fresh Earthlings? You’ve got to be joking!” She walked around them, eyes wide with disbelief.
“Technically, isn’t everyone here an Earthling?” Logan asked.
“Not hardly,” she answered absently. “Human, yes, but most of us were born in this system. Dear God, the Slip Gate is working again?”
Raiden gave one nod of his head for confirmation. Leona closed her eyes, her lips moving, but no sound came out. Emmarie thought she was praying.
“Why does everybody think this Slip Gate was destroyed?”
Leona opened her eyes, frowning. “About thirty years ago a raiding party snuck into Merloni space and planted bombs all along the outer hull of the hub. It got blown up along with the humans.”
“Are we the first abductees in thirty years?” Emmarie asked
“I never thought I’d see Earthlings again…I want to say yes, but now I don’t know.”
“What we do know is that you’re living proof that those six people died in vain,” Raiden replied in a weary voice.
The way he said it, Emmarie knew instinctively that he had some connection to what had happened back then. A lost, almost sorrowful look had come into his eyes, making Emmarie’s heart ache.
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