by Maia Starr
“I am Commander Yun; what are you called, slave?” he asked as he stepped forward.
“I am called Silver Brooks,” I said shakily.
“Silver; that names fits you well, because you do shine, slave. Do you know why I am here?” he asked, moving closer to me.
“No.”
“I think you can guess,” he said as he put his hand on my shoulder. I gasped in fear as he moved his head lower to my neck.
“No! Leave me alone!” I shouted.
“Quiet! You will do what I say, slave!” he shouted.
“No; don’t touch me!” I shouted as I struggled in his strong arms. I looked around for a way to escape, but there was none.
The commander picked me up and threw me onto the bed.
“No! No!” I shouted with tears streaming down my face.
“Get off of her!” a voice shouted as the commander was grabbed and thrown across the room.
Chapter 2
SERGEANT KORIN HAFAH
I was going to do whatever necessary to get what I had wanted ever since my training as a warrior began: I wanted to be a general. So far I had made it to the position of sergeant, but I was not done rising in the ranks. I had only just begun, and I was committed with a heart of steel to doing whatever it took to get the power of a general. For now, being stationed on the moon base of Tyla Wen was sufficient, but I planned to make it back to our planet of Kaethon where I would become a general.
The moon base was just an entry-level point where I could prove myself. I had done that and rose through the ranks on the base, and last year was made a sergeant. The rise in the ranks was not happening fast enough for me, so I took matters into my own hands.
I was going to play the game, and fortunately the female Kalazaron found me irresistible, as they should. I took that noted appeal of mine and used it for my advantage and to help me rise in the ranks. I set my eyes on Lukah Bresh, the eldest daughter of Master Bresh. The master was the highest in command of the political hierarchy of the Kalazaron. If I married his daughter, then I would become a Bresh and therefore have more pull in my quest to become general. It was true that Lukah did not interest me in outside of the fact that she was the master’s daughter. I found her to be very spoiled, boring, and somewhat annoying, but she was pleasant to look at and that was good enough for me. Besides, male Kalazaron were allowed to take on lovers; it was the Kalazaron way.
So, I became betrothed to Lukah a few months before when I was last on Kaethon, after months of courting her. Now, she had managed to tell her father that she wanted me closer, on Kaethon with her. Therefore, I was being transferred from the moon base of Tyla Wen to the training base in the capital city of Konthos. I smiled a greedy grin when I received the order. I had done it. It was already going my way.
I put the order down on my desk and set out to make the preparations for my departure. It was the perfect timing too, as I was already scheduled to leave to Kaethon for a short visit in order to attend the Vycon, the political gathering regalia. This was a combination of social mingling and politics, and I was to escort my betrothed, Lukah Bresh. I was ready to depart from the moon base and head back to Kaethon in a single pod when I heard, “Sergeant, we’ve captured a ship in our pull beam. It looks to be an Earth ship,” the guard said.
“Is it armed?” I said, furious that I was scheduled to leave to Kaethon soon and now I would have to deal with this mess.
“No, Sergeant, it is not armed. It is being searched right now on the inside as it seems to be a cargo ship of sorts,” the guard said.
“Let’s go,” I said as I followed him out toward the bay port where ships were brought it. Why this ship had wandered into our air space would need to be found out. It would be a full investigation, and if it were an Earth ship with humans aboard, they would be taken as slaves. It would be a lot of work, and now my trip to Kaethon would be delayed.
I walked into the bay with that anger on my face. I did not care for humans, but as a sergeant, it was my duty to deal with this.
“Sergeant Hafah, these are the humans that were on the ship,” my guard said as he pointed out the mostly male human crew and one, very filthy female. They did not look dangerous to me, however as a warrior society we took all matters as acts of war. It could be possible that they looked this way in order to deceive us. They could have an entire ship full of explosives for all we knew, and these humans could be willing to sacrifice their lives in order to deliver them to this moon base.
“What were you humans doing in our airspace? It is forbidden,” I said, feeling the anger boil within me that I had to deal with this now, and that it would be hard to know if whatever they said would be truth.
“I am the captain of the ship,” a skinny, male human said. He was older than any human I had seen before. As I had an exchange with the captain on why he was in our airspace and what the ship was carrying, I had my warriors inspect the ship for explosives. The ship was scanned with a projection tool that would quickly give us a blueprint of the ship. The complete skeleton of it and its cargo would be displayed before me in minutes. It was the only way to know, as I did not trust the humans. They were full of lies and deceit and were not as intelligent as we were. I saw no use for them other than the manual labor program I had designed just for them on Tyla Wen moon base.
“Good. For now, put the males in the cages. I will question them later and then they will be transferred to the slave work systems. Put the female in a room quarter.”
“Yes, Sergeant,” the guard said as I took a good look at the female for the first time.
She was very filthy, and I had never seen one that looked as dirty as she did before. How any self-respecting, male Kalazaron could want to touch a female human was beyond my thought. They were nowhere near as beautiful as the females of our own kind. Our own kind was elegant and clean, or at least they were in the circles I ran in.
I looked at her red, knotted hair that was almost sticky. Her pale skin was nothing compared to the blue tint of ours, and it was smeared with black dirt. Her rags were big on her, like rough sacks of cloth, and they too had dirt on them. No, she was nothing compared to the human females I had seen before and I would not know what to do with her, as who would want such a filthy, unkempt slave in their home? I thought I might have to put her into the manual labor camp with the human males. I walked away with a grunt of disgust as I pulled my eyes from her.
I went about my duties, making sure all the preparations were still underway for my departure the following day. The Vycon was in three days and I wanted to be there before it started. This would give me sufficient time to deal with the Earth ship. I quickly went to the first step of protocol in these situations: I communicated with Master Bresh.
“Master Bresh, we have pulled in an Earth ship that was in our air space. It was carrying a cargo of silver from the mining planet of Merton Loy. There were four human males and one human female aboard the ship. Their captain stated they are simply a cargo ship transferring the silver back to Earth. All signs of their unarmed ship point to that notion, but I have locked them up for furthering questioning, upon your approval.”
“Good. Good work, Sergeant Korin Hafah. Have the silver delivered here to Konthos as soon as is possible. What is your plans for the human slaves?”
“Master, with your permission I would like to put the human males to work in the slave work system here on Tyla Wen. We need more hands in the sanitation systems, and they work out well for this. As for the human female, I do not know what to do with her. This one is unsightly, and in my opinion, not of good enough appearance and strength to be in any respectful home of a Kalazaron.”
“That is intriguing. I leave her in your care. You are her owner until further notice, when I have a moment to deal with it myself. With the Vycon just days away, I do not have time for it. She is yours for now, Sergeant Korin Hafah.”
My teeth ground together at his words. Why the hell was he giving her to me? I did not want her or the
responsibility. I already had enough on my plate with this Earth ship business, the duties as sergeant on the moon base, and leaving my second in command in charge while I went to Konthos.
“Yes, Master; as you wish.”
“Report back to me after the questioning sessions, though I suspect there will be no new knowledge as the silver cargo seems to make the notion of it being only a cargo ship true. However, continue on with protocol.”
The communication ended. I was furious! This was not my responsibility as a sergeant. Why could I not just leave this human female in the prison and be done with it until Master Bresh made up his mind? If it were up to me, I would put her in the work camp and be done with it. I grabbed a chair and threw it across the communication room. Everyone stopped and looked at me, though it did not shock them. I had a temper, and right now I knew who to take that out on.
I walked into the human female slave’s room quarters. She was sleeping, the lazy, filthy thing!
“Wake up, slave.” She quickly got up and sat on the bed crouching. Good, she was scared of me. That would make things easier.
“I am Sergeant Korin Hafah, and you will tell me what you are called and why you are on that ship. Tell me everything about the ship and where it was going,” I said as I stood there with rage in my heart and mind. I did not want her as a responsibility and I was blaming her for it.
While she explained herself, I listened knowing that this was exactly what the male prisoners had told the guards upon their questioning. I really did not care what she had to say. I was only there to let off some steam that was building up inside of me and as I terrorized her, it was helping.
When she was done speaking, I was not satisfied with her fear level. I wanted to break her for her presence in my life. This was all her fault! What a stupid human to climb aboard a ship so close to its departure only to fall asleep. What kind of lack of intelligence did that take? She was filthy and dumb. As I looked at her up and down, my rage grew hotter and I could no longer hold my tongue on her disgusting appearance.
“Why are you so filthy? We have caught ships full of human females before and they do not look as you do.”
Her eyes grew wide as she spoke and gave some dense explanation that I really didn’t care to here. She was who she was, and there was nothing that was going to change that. I continued to question her, only half listening to what she had to say as I really did not care. I only wanted to punish her by yelling at her and making fearful.
As I walked toward the door, she began to ask questions in return. “The male humans, are you going to kill them?”
“No. I have better uses for them alive,” I said as I tried to leave but she kept talking.
“And what about me?”
“Enough! I did not permit you to ask me questions, human female slave. I am done with you, and you will speak no more!” I shouted at her as I turned to her and gave her a look that let her know I was not to be trifled with. We were not friends; as far as I could see she was my enemy. I opened the door and walked out.
After letting that out and seeing to my duties, I returned to my quarters to finish preparations for my departure. I would feel better once I slept on this way of living. It was only for a short time, and I would have to deal with it. I could not go against Master Bresh’s commands, or even question them for he was the key to my rising in the ranks to general. I had done so much for so long in order to get where I was, and I was not going to let some filthy human stand in the way of that.
The next day, all was set in place and I was feeling better about my departure to Konthos. I would dump the female human with my Kalazaron servants in my home and not speak to her again until the master summoned her. That was a good enough plan. The male humans had already been sent to camp and were put the work. The Earth ship was flown to the military training grounds to unload the cargo and then to the ship graveyard where it would be taken apart, studied, and parts reused. All was going well and in an orderly fashion, as I liked it to be. I did not like surprises, or unscheduled events, and the Earth ship was one unscheduled event that really pissed me off. Now I would be leaving to Konthos in a double pod instead of a single pod as I had to take the human female slave with me, but that was easily arranged.
“I am ready for departure. See that the human female slave is sent to the launch site for departure in half an hour,” I said over the communication line to a guard.
“Yes, Sergeant.”
I closed communication and just then, the buzzing of my door went off. I opened it to find a guard on the other side. “Sergeant, I am to report to you that Commander Yun is with the female human captive as we speak.”
“What?! Why?” I roared as I pushed him out of the way and ran toward the slave quarters.
“I do not know, Sergeant! But I saw fit to report to you as he did not have orders to see her,” the guard said.
“No one stopped him?! He is not in command of this base! I am!” I shouted.
“Yes, we did. He took down three guards at her door, so I came for you as soon as it escalated,” he shouted back.
I opened the door to the human female’s room and saw Commander Yun on top of a small body, pawing at it like a wild beast, as she shouted, “No! No!”
“Get off of her!” I grabbed the commander and threw him across the room.
He slammed against the wall and sunk to the floor but quickly got to his feet as he grunted at me. “Sergeant, this human is mine!” he shouted.
“On whose orders? Master Bresh has given her to me as my responsibility! Touch her and die, Commander!” I shouted as I got in his face.
His chest pushed against mine and I knew that I was not willing to die for this human slave, but I was willing to die for my pride. How dare Commander Yun come onto my base and make up his own rules. He always did, and he should have been tried for it, but his skills at commanding the fleet were impeccable. With him in charge of the fleet, the Kalazaron had doubled its bounty and slaves captured in space. This was because his acts were ruthless, and it was the warrior way to be so. That was only against other kinds, not against our own Kalazaron, which is what he was doing right in this moment.
We pushed against each other in a sort of warrior strength contest, then he pushed me hard. I pushed him back and then, bam! I punched him across the face. He punched my stomach. The human female screamed. The guards watched, as this was a one-on-one fight, as it should be. This was the Kalazaron way.
We punched and kicked each other all over the room in a brutal fight. I was glad for it, as I needed the release of anger. I kicked my knee into his ribs and he doubled over and then I said, “Fine, take her if you are willing to answer to Master Bresh for the fact that you disobeyed his very specific command about this particular slave. You will be relieved of command and I shall find it a relief to be rid of you. You will be exiled to Belvenreed,” I smirked.
He sneered in response and then resigned as he backed away from me. He stepped around me toward the door and looked at the human slave once more before he left. It was then that I turned my attention to the slave for the first time since I had moved into the room and was shocked by what I saw.
There, lying on the bed in a pile of white muslin, was the most beautiful human female I had ever laid eyes on. I suddenly saw why the commander was in here willing to risk it all just to lay with this human. But how? This could not be the same dirty human female from before. If it were not for her red hair and green eyes, I would think that she had been switched on me.
As I looked at her, she pulled herself into the corner of the bed shaking. Her red hair was shiny and in elegant, small combs. Her face was pale with small dots; her skin looked like smooth glass, with pink, shiny lips. Her slender form was small and her bare legs, pulled up underneath her like a scared animal, were pale and lean. Her breasts heaved up and down in her panicked state and I could see a shapely figure in the fitted muslin that was not evident before in the rags that she had worn.
“D
o not be frightened. I will not hurt you like Commander Yun. Who did this to you? The clothes and….” I could put her transformation into words.
She was quiet and said nothing.
“I said I would not harm you. Now answer my question, slave,” I shouted.
She shook in a startled way and said, “I was told by two females that I was to have a visitor and they took me and washed and dressed me and then brought me back to my room. Then that beast came in.”
Anger came across my face as I realized that the commander had gone behind my back to make those orders happen. He had gone as far as to make the prisoner suitable for him to mount. It was unacceptable behavior, but nothing that shocked me from the commander.
“Come with me. We are departing to Kaethon in minutes,” I said to the guards and to her.