by Regine Abel
Good thing we were ready to set our escape plan in motion. I wouldn’t be around long enough to be bred like an animal. Nana exchanged a wary glance with me and squeezed my hand. I straightened my shoulders and left the hold to fetch our breakfast. As expected, the captives were gone when I returned. Not seeing them off was the coward’s way out, but it was too hard.
We were entering Xelix Prime’s atmosphere and would dock inside the spaceport shortly. In less than an hour, we would unload our cargo, including the girls. The time was almost upon us. I placed the food trays on a small table and Maheva joined me for our last meal on this ship.
“Were you able to hack into the spaceport’s systems?” Maheva asked as soon as we sat down.
“Yes. I have our escape route, but it won’t be easy. We’ve docked during rush hour. Sneaking out of the spaceport undetected is going to be a pain in the… uh challenging.”
I gave her a sheepish look. She smiled and patted my hand. Me and my potty mouth...
“But not impossible.” Maheva ate a mouthful of scrambled eggs then gestured for me to tuck into my food. “I’m more concerned with our outfits and markings.”
My eyes zeroed in on the spotted pattern along the side of her arms. Long hair hid the markings around our neck and back. However, the pathetic sleeveless sacs that served as our slave dresses did nothing to cover the markings on our arms and legs.
“There’s a staff locker room right outside the docking bay. We just need to reach it. I’m sure we’ll find something there.” I prayed to the Goddess that the schematics weren’t outdated.
“What about Lord…”
Maheva was interrupted by the door opening. I almost pissed myself when I saw Gruuk’s tall frame in the doorway. He couldn’t have heard us.
Could he?
His pitch-black eyes skimmed over me before resting on Nana. He rolled his fetish celesium medallion between his fingers. This was a good sign, and I breathed a little easier. If he flicked a fingernail against the edge of the medallion, we were in serious trouble.
Gruuk’s deep rumbling voice echoed in the room. “Maheva, two guests will be boarding shortly. Bradok will operate on them. You will assist him.”
Noooooo!
Our plans were shattering before us. My heart staggered in my chest at the thought that we wouldn’t escape this hell. How could this happen? Why now? In the seven years since my only escape attempt, it was the first time Maheva and I would be the sole prisoners on board, with no slaves left to use against us. There would never be another opportunity like this. My distress must have shown because Gruuk turned to me. The age wrinkles by his eyes deepened as he narrowed them on me. I quickly schooled my features.
“Something wrong, Pet?”
“No, master. Nothing’s wrong.” I cast my eyes down. Gruuk didn’t demand submission, but he was too perceptive. One look into my eyes and he’d know I was up to something.
I peeked up to see his eyes scanning the room before resting on me again. He stopped rolling the medallion between his fingers. I could feel his gaze heavy on me, but I was hypnotized by his thumb slowly circling the face of the medallion. After a few seconds that felt like forever, he started rolling the medallion again. I almost cried with relief. He turned back to Maheva.
“You will leave a scar on each of them,” Gruuk said. “Bradok will indicate where. Otherwise, heal them fully. Be in the sick bay in twenty minutes.”
“Yes, Master,” Maheva said, her tone subdued.
Gruuk tossed the medallion in the air and caught it in his palm before walking out. When the door closed, I exhaled a shuddering breath. Tears welled in my eyes. What the hell was wrong with me? I almost gave us away.
Maheva’s hand came to rest on my arm as if seeking support. I pulled her into a fierce embrace and buried my face in the curly strands of her soft hair. We had been so close! She gripped a handful of my hair and held me tightly against her. After a few moments, she took a deep breath then held me at arm’s length. Her eyes bored into mine.
“Nothing’s changed, Amalia. You will wait fifteen minutes after I’ve gone to the sick bay then make your escape.”
I recoiled, horrified. “I’m not leaving without you! How can you even suggest…?”
“Amalia,” she interrupted, placing two fingers on my lips, “I know you’re scared child, but this is your best chance at a new beginning. I won’t have you condemned to the life I’ve had.”
“You can’t expect me to leave you here!” I said, waving at the room.
“I don’t just expect it, Amalia; I demand it.” Maheva’s tone felt forbidding. “Did you not hear Doruk earlier?”
I winced and lowered my eyes.
“What do you think will happen to you once we pick up the Korlethean?” She gently shook my shoulders to make me look at her. “I know what will happen because I’ve lived it more than once. I won’t be the reason this happens to you too.”
Silent tears trickled down my face. “I don’t want to leave you. What if I’m caught again?”
“You won’t be. You’ve been preparing this escape long enough. You’re not the clueless juvenile you were seven years ago. Just stay away from the authorities until you know for sure who you can trust.”
When I was fifteen, I sought asylum with the authorities on Belevar, but they handed me straight to Gruuk instead. I should’ve known he had bought their loyalty ages ago. And here, on Xelix Prime, even though slavery was forbidden, Gruuk had smuggled countless slaves over the years without a hitch. This meant he bought off security personnel here too. I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
“And make sure you contact Lord Praghan as soon as possible,” Maheva said.
“Lord Praghan is dead, Nana.” I wiped my tears with the back of my hand. “While getting the spaceport’s schematics last night, I queried him to figure out how to reach him. He and his family died in an accident a few months ago.”
Maheva’s shoulders slumped. “Then you go to the Fastening. You get yourself a mate, a strong warrior who will keep you safe and show you the ways of your new people.”
“But…”
“No, Amalia!” Maheva interrupted. “There’s no more time for discussions. You’ve never been off this ship more than a few hours for specific missions. You don’t know how to live in the real world. You need someone to care for you until you learn how to spread your wings. Don’t forget; Gruuk will hunt you down. We’re three days ahead of our scheduled arrival on Xelix Prime. Had we been on time, you would have missed this month’s Fastening by two days. It’s a sign of the Goddess that we arrived one day before it. You’re meant to attend.”
“But picking a complete stranger in a line up as my life mate…”
“Better a stranger you choose than one imposed on you,” she said patiently. “I’ve been a slave sixty-one years, forced to breed with strangers. I’ve had four daughters, all gone; your mother dead, the twins sold off and my youngest lost. You’re all I have left, and this isn’t the life for you.”
I stared at my Nana’s beautiful face. I was a younger version of her with the same copper skin and defiant flecks of green in our light brown eyes. I had seen that face every day of my life. My one constant. My rock. I didn’t know how I would manage without her.
I pulled her into another crushing embrace, fighting tears that threatened to choke me. She caressed my hair, whispering soothing words in my ear, but she trembled with repressed emotions.
“I’ll come back for you. I swear it, Nana. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll come back for you.”
* * *
As expected, exiting the ship was easy. The unknown, the immense foreign world that lay ahead cowed me. But above all, I was terrified of parting with the one being who had loved me unconditionally throughout the years, despite the horrible things I’d done at my master’s bidding.
I crawled out of the life pod launch tube. Crouching in the shadows, I leaned against the airlock hatch. My heart hammered; I could
n’t recall ever being this scared. The slaves had already been hauled away from prying eyes. However, worrying over their fate was a distraction I couldn’t afford. On the other side of the ship, Gruuk’s crew unloaded the last containers of his legitimate trades with Xelix Prime.
Peering over the edge of the hatch, I took stock of the massive docking bay. It was clean and well organized, with lots of people fiddling about and ships of all sizes neatly parked. Gruuk’s shady activities required that he dock in the more secluded area of the hangar. There was only one other ship near ours, a fancy little star skiff sitting empty. In stark contrast, the central area where the other ships were docked was completely open and mostly bare. Its grey walls looked almost white under the bright ceiling and wall-mounted lights. Despite the large number of people and Xelixian dock workers over there, the sound of chatter was a faint hum accentuated by the clinking of machinery, the hiss of released hatches and the light buzzing of hover-carriers. The sounds were fairly muted though by the distance. Our secluded corner was overly quiet. I would need to be extra cautious.
I ducked and flattened myself against the hull when Zaluk crossed my line of sight. He stopped by the lift set into the wall by the side of the star skiff. There, he picked up a hover-carrier before returning to The Revenant. The smell of exhaust, though not overwhelming, pricked my nose and I fought the urge to sneeze. Leaning against the hull, I craned my neck to look past the lift. There was a maintenance shaft and beyond it, the secondary ramp door which led down to the staff room and secondary exit. Those were my destination. Plenty of metal crates and shadowy nooks behind the skiff offered the cover I needed to reach the door.
A dock worker heading for the maintenance shaft caught my attention. He paused at a series of crates near the skiff. Sneaking unnoticed with so many people around would be almost impossible, but I had another trick up my sleeve. My Korlethean father had given me a mutated version of his foresight ability. Unlike him, I could only see events in the near future, meaning the next five to twenty minutes. My actions in the time leading up to such events could influence their outcome. Like him, I couldn’t see my future directly, but I had found a workaround.
Using the dock worker as my focus, I opened my mind. Soon, vivid snapshots of possible near-future outcomes flooded in.
The worker entered the shaft when a loud clank startled him. He turned around to see an insulation pipe bouncing on the ground. The noise also drew Zaluk’s attention. He shouted in shock while looking toward the back of the skiff. Alerted, Doruk came running while Zaluk gestured for the worker to mind his business. The worker turned back toward the maintenance shaft when he heard a strangled cry and Doruk’s evil chuckle.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for you to mess up, pet. I get to have you first.”
I cast aside that vision and swallowed hard. Even though this hadn’t happened, Doruk’s voice made my stomach knot in fear. There was a reason Doruk was Gruuk’s right hand. He was ruthless, relentless and heartless. I looked up and saw another dock worker doing maintenance work on a suspended catwalk. A few feet in front of him, a pipe dangled off the edge. In a few minutes, something would make it fall. So trying to sneak behind the skiff wasn’t an option with the pipe giving me away. What if I waited until after it fell to move toward the skiff?
The worker entered the shaft when a loud clank startled him. He turned around to see an insulation pipe bouncing on the ground. The noise also attracted Zaluk’s attention. Seeing a fallen pipe, he turned back to his task. The worker noticed something beyond the pipe.
“Hey! What are you doing hiding back there?”
Alerted, Doruk came to investigate and saw something that first startled him before a predatory grin etched on his face. He ran toward the back of the ship.
Okay. Waiting wouldn’t work either. This time, I chose to lock onto Doruk to see what would happen if I tried to go around The Revenant, and sneak past the crates right next to the crew.
Doruk yelled at one of the crewmembers who’d mishandled the merchandise when a loud clank startled him and the two males beside him. They craned their necks to see what the commotion was about. Doruk suddenly turned his head back to look over his shoulder. For a while, his eyes scanned the shadows and the crates piled up near the wall. He shrugged, dismissing whatever he thought he had seen and resumed admonishing his crewmember.
There it was! My safe path away from the ship. I couldn’t see who alarmed those males after the pipe fell in each scenario. But as I knew where I would be when each of those events took place, it was safe to assume it was me. I just had to cycle as quickly as possible through the various options until I found the safest one. And right now, I needed to move because that pipe was seconds from falling.
Hugging the hull, I tiptoed to the other side of the ship where Doruk berated his crewmate. Right on cue, the loud clang followed by yelps of surprise gave me the small window I needed. I rushed behind the fuel pumps and stopped, knowing Doruk was looking in my general direction.
Assessing new scenarios, I followed the safest paths, crawling or crouch running from one cover to the next, avoiding cameras, dock workers, and crewmates. I tried to ignore the burning ache in my leg muscles from the squatting position. Having reached the wall, I cycled back to the opposite side of the docking bay. I couldn’t go through the main crew exit without getting caught. But the secondary ramp should be closed. I planned on hacking it open and setting the surveillance cameras on a loop to hide my passage. Then, I would leave through the staff door right before the main exit.
I was a few feet from the secondary ramp’s door when a chiming sound indicated the lift by the maintenance shaft had arrived. I dove behind a workbench, landing painfully on my hip with a thud. The cold metal of the floor bit at my bare legs. I quickly resumed my crouching position for fear that my already strained muscles would cramp from the cold. The doors opened. My heart hammered in my chest. I didn’t have a chance to see who came out, so I couldn’t lock onto them to glimpse their future. Footsteps came in my direction, so I crawled further back into the shadows. My stomach knotted, this new person might ruin my escape.
I willed myself to calm down. Locking onto Doruk, I cycled through several scenarios, but every one ended in my recapture. The worker was back with a hover-carrier and moved a few of the crates I hid behind onto the lift. Even with him transporting containers back and forth, there was no way for me to sneak past him without detection. If I backtracked to The Revenant, there would be no cover left for me to reach the secondary ramp once the worker left. I needed to do something now before all the crates disappeared.
As panic set in, I shook with fear while the voice in my head shouted in a loop that I should never have tried to escape. Scanning the floors and walls, I noticed a control panel a few feet away. I scrambled toward it to see what systems it would give me access to.
Please, please let this work…
It was a closed circuit.
FUCK!
That meant I could only control the lift, lights, doors and catwalk. I would need to shut down too many lights to hide my escape. It would be a dead giveaway. By now, there was only one crate left and soon I would be exposed. Terrified, I did the only thing I could think of. I disabled the safety mechanisms and emergency brakes on the lift, then ordered it to free fall. The lift chimed, but its doors didn’t close as the carriage plummeted to the lower level. The poor worker shouted in horror, running to the lift’s gaping doorway. In his haste, he abandoned the last crate on the hover-carrier, which gave me just enough cover to make a mad dash for the ramp.
As soon as the secondary ramp’s door closed behind me, the decking plates trembled and the muffled sounds of twisting metal informed me the lift must have hit the bottom. An alarm went off, and I raced down the ramp to one of the three staff recreational lounges. According to the schedule I had seen when hacking into the spaceport’s systems, this lounge would remain closed until mid-afternoon tomorrow. But my little stunt meant that so
meone would notice my disappearance. In my panic, I had forgotten to hack the cameras. Looking around the room, I saw a control panel on the wall and ran to it. I slapped my hand on it and connected to the network. Information flooded my mind like a ghost of an image at the edge of my vision; an instant understanding as if it had been infused into my brain. I deleted the seconds showing me dash down the ramp, then disengaged from the system.
I ran past the dining tables and the small kitchenette to the back of the lounge. It opened to the staff locker room. There I once again hacked into the network through the light panels and looked for any locker with an active lock. Out of over a hundred lockers, I got a dozen hits.
Shit…
That was too damn many. I didn’t have time for this crap. But I needed local clothes. Like, real bad… There was no way I’d make it out of there with this bag on my back, my copper skin and Veredian markings shouting to the whole world, ‘Hey, look at me! I’m different!’
Time slipped between my shaking fingers as I struggled with the wretched lockers. Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself. It was so hard to focus with that damn alarm that wouldn’t shut up. Sifting through the lockers as fast as possible, I didn’t find much of interest. Dread was starting to set in that maybe it had been too few active lockers after all. Then, to my undying relief, one contained a long, hooded, black cloak. Many Xelixians wore them on the busier side of the docking bay. It would cover my features and allow me to blend in with the crowd. The cloak was a little big, probably made for a male. However, at six foot three, I was taller than the average female of most species, and the length almost seemed right.
I tightly pulled the hood to hide my face and opened the door to the bustling corridor leading to the shuttle platform. Thank the Goddess, everyone ignored me. I was another faceless hooded person going about my business. I forced myself to walk at a normal, easy pace to avoid drawing attention. Based on my earlier inquiries, the spaceport provided a free shuttle to the busy city center. It would drop me less than a mile from the Fastening Hall, in the heart of Capital District. Losing myself, and potential followers, in the swarm of people sounded like a solid plan.