“The Skaines will rue the day they crossed you,” Rivka stated.
“I hope they do, although they don’t see the error of their ways, so they’ll have to grumble from within the confines of a prison. We may not defeat this generation, but we’re going to put a hurt on it.”
“Hear, hear!” Rivka cheered. “Gotta run. We’ve broken orbit and need to square some things with the commissioner before we Gate to Corran. Rivka out.”
Grainger took a deep breath before standing. “There are days where I love my job more than the other days. Today is one of those days. If you’ll allow it, I’d like to be a part of the Skaine take-down, which I have to assume is going to happen soon.”
“Coordinate with Zai’den to join the Tac Team. If you’ve never seen a Yollin enforcement squad make an arrest, you’re in for a treat.”
“Violent?” Grainger wondered.
“You have no idea. The Skaines picked a bad day to set up shop on Yoll.”
Slave Pits, Corran
“Has it been two weeks yet, Waffle Face?” Seequa Holmes shouted through the bars. “If I could reach your neck, I’d squeeze it until your ugly-ass head popped off!”
Her sole jailor kept his distance, only dropping off food when she was asleep. She had tried to fake it, but they knew. She wondered if they had inserted a monitor into her body. Too many conspiracy theories ran through her mind. She had nothing but time to think about the ways she’d been mistreated, which enraged her.
No one would buy a slave who was untamed, which was exactly what she wanted. She had never contemplated what they would do with a slave that couldn’t be sold.
“Come here!” she called in a friendly voice, crooking a finger toward the face in the distance. “Just a few words...”
The Corranite didn’t move.
“I so want you to die,” she mumbled as she sat down on the twin bed, the only piece of furniture in her cage.
A light appeared as a door opened next to the guard. Two more Corranites were silhouetted as they passed through and disappeared when the door closed, extinguishing the supplemental light. The guard talked to the newcomers briefly. The door opened again, and one Corranite left.
She thought it had been the guard. Seequa found herself standing at the bars, staring into the darkness at the far end of the area where the incorrigible slaves were held. There were a couple other aliens she couldn’t identify and was incapable of talking with. She was the most alone she’d ever been in her life.
All because of that asshole Callius Markmal. Her lip quivered, and she clenched her fists so tightly that her fingernails started to cut into her palms. The beast within her growled as she worked herself into a furor, but it quickly passed. She was weak from lack of food. They were systematically starving her into compliance.
She grabbed the bars and tried to shake them, but they didn’t budge or rattle.
“Never!” she screamed.
The two Corranites approached. “You don’t wish to be freed?” one asked.
“What?” she asked, the being’s words not registering.
The second Corranite unlocked the cage and opened the door. “You’re free to go, but I must warn you not to break the law. Otherwise, no one will be able to save you.”
“Where’s my stuff?” she asked.
“This is all you have.” The alien pointed at her dirty prison garb. She didn’t even have shoes. She had no identification. She had no money. She had nothing but the clothes on her back.
“You pieces of shit! You take everything I own and dump me on the street and then tell me not to commit a fucking crime on this shithole third world when I don’t even know where I am? Is there a Federation Embassy?”
“There is not. Corran, where you are, is not a member of the Federation.”
“You pack of fucks!” She thought about remaining in the cage, but she’d had enough of that. She was street-smart; she’d figure it out, but from the outside, not the inside. “Can you let my lawyer know?”
“Know what?”
“That you suck hairy bistok balls.” She finally let go of the bars and flexed her hands. Set took a tentative step, and then another. When she was outside the cage, she studied her captors. Or maybe they were her liberators.
“In the city proper, such verbal attacks will get you thrown in a real prison. This place is a palace by comparison,” the Corranite explained, gesturing toward the doorway.
“I know, fuckstick—don’t let the door hit me in the ass on the way out. You fucking people suck. Your whole race sucks. I bet when I get outside, I’m going to find that your fucking planet sucks.” She flipped them the double bird as she stormed toward the door. As much as she wanted to wring her guard’s neck, she didn’t want to spend another minute in a cage.
She stumbled through the darkness until she found the door, then yanked it open and walked into the light of the main floor, where other slaves were getting outfitted with basic necessities. She looked at the various booths, seeing all manner of things she could use in her current state of penury.
But the cage…
With her head held high, she started to climb toward the exit. “Fuck all y’all.”
Chapter Sixteen
“The Corranites said I can’t bring anyone else. I have to go alone.”
“I am not good with that, Magistrate,” Red complained.
“If this was a Federation planet, we’d play the trump card and bull our way through, but we don’t have that luxury here. At one end of the spectrum, we get to take down major crime syndicates, and then there are times like this where one life is worth the risk. I’m putting my barrister hat on, and I’m going to defend Miss Holmes with all that I have. I won’t rest until I bring her out of there.”
The bodyguards shifted uncomfortably. Even though Rivka had given them the order that they were to remain behind, they had geared up and were ready to go. They wrestled with the frustration of not being able to do their job.
“Can I go with you?” Tyler asked standing to show that he was unarmed.
“No one. Not even Floyd!” Rivka tried to defuse the tension. The wombat always loved being the center of attention. “Your job is to make everyone happy.”
Wheee! Floyd shuffled around to get her head scratched by each person in succession, finishing with Rivka.
“Stay in touch,” Jay said softly. She lifted Floyd into her arms, grunting from the effort. “Who’s been giving her treats?”
No one would meet Jay’s gaze.
Wheee!
“No! You’re getting fat.”
Rivka used the distraction to leave, and the whole crew watched her. Hamlet appeared and tried to use Red’s leg as a scratching post.
The hatch to the bridge remained secured. The Magistrate hesitated as she walked past and reached into her pocket to ensure she had a couple of Ankh’s hacking devices. They provided her a certain amount of comfort. “I want my bridge back,” she told the closed door.
Rivka left the ship without another word. She didn’t bother to close the hatch, knowing that her crew would take care of it.
At the aerovan, a single being waited.
Palatius Lore.
“So, we meet again,” Rivka stated.
“Your trip has been wasted. It was a case of mistaken identity, and Seequa Holmes has been released.
“When? Where is she?”
“Yesterday, and I have no idea.”
“Who would know?”
“I’m sure Miss Holmes would know.”
“How can I get in touch with her?” Rivka’s mind raced as she interrogated the Corranite near her ship on the tarmac of the spaceport.
“I don’t know. She doesn’t have a Corran-based communication link.”
“She doesn’t have anything, does she?” The realization hit Rivka. In her study of Corranite law, she found that it was a strictly regulated society where the rules could be easily broken by the unsuspecting. Mens rea, or intent, was not a requisite fa
ctor in the determination of one’s guilt. “You set her up to break the law, and in that case, the Federation would have no recourse where if she was sold illegally, that would be a blight on Corran.”
“But she was not sold illegally,” Palatius countered.
“No, she was not. Has the governor-general put you at my disposal?”
“Unfortunately.” Palatius didn’t lie. It would have been too easy to disprove.
“Then we shall use the transportation the government has graciously provided to find Miss Holmes. Please, we need to hurry. I think we should start at the main trade hall.”
The Magistrate couldn’t read the emotions on the Corranite’s face but suspected he was fuming. She decided to blow a little methane into the fire.
“And if we see any Skaines, I’d like to stop and talk to them.”
“They are protected as guests on Corran,” he shot back.
“As am I, Palatius.” Rivka smiled pleasantly. “Shall we?”
He gave instructions to the aerovan and it took off, heading for Amberly’s city center.
The Royal City of Khn’Chik on Yoll
Grainger disappeared behind the hulking forms of the armed and armored Yollin tac team.
They approached from the building’s blind side, and two teammates peeled off to cover the rear exit. They were armed with big pistols shaped to fit the larger Yollin hands and stun batons, and they expected the Skaines to be armed, maybe with railguns or plasma rifles.
The tac team had surprise on their side. Four drones hovered overhead, using infrared, ultraviolet, and millimeter wave scans to track the suspects’ locations within the building. The Skaines appeared to be relaxed and unsuspecting.
But they were Skaines, a distrustful bunch with small, skinny blue bodies and oversized heads. Many considered them to be evil. Others thought their base culture was incompatible with most societies. Different, not evil.
Regardless, they caused the Federation a significant amount of pain and anguish since their proclivities diametrically opposed good order and discipline. They thrived on the chaos of crime.
In their circles, they had a hierarchy that made sense, an honor code to which they adhered but did not apply to aliens. Or Skaines they didn’t like.
Grainger followed the team to the front door. Their heavy carapaces seemed thicker than those of normal Yollins. A pistol in one hand and a stun baton in the other, the breach leader prepared to blast the door. A quick hand-scan showed it to be barred.
The Yollin laughed at the effort as he placed shaped demolitions that would rip out the entire doorframe. The bar would fall uselessly to the floor. They checked the locations of the Skaines inside and searched at close range for any spring traps, weapons that would activate automatically.
The active scans didn’t find weapons, but they discovered that the floor was tied into the power circuit.
“Ready?” the breach leader asked. The team clacked their mandibles, keeping their hands on their weapons. They tensed as they prepared to follow the explosive blast through the door. “Cut the power.”
The lights went out, and the floor ceased pulsing. The explosion ripped out the doorframe, and the first Yollin was so close behind it that he stepped on it before it hit the floor. The team fanned into the room, racing for the Skaines.
The suspects were almost as quick to take action as the tac team.
Almost. A railgun barked, and a hypervelocity round burst through an interior wall on its way through the exterior wall to somewhere beyond. The Yollins returned fire, silencing the weapon. A harsh voice shouted, followed by the thud of a body hitting the floor. Grainger remained near the entry, securing it against escape while waiting for the action to end.
“One target on the roof,” a team member reported. Two Yollins had already gone upstairs, and they now turned their attention upward before clearing the floor. A pair raced from the ground floor to backstop them. Grainger checked the feed on his datapad. One Skaine was down, one was detained, and one was holed up in a panic room. The last had made it to the roof and was under observation by a drone.
The Skaine spotted it, calmly took aim, and downed the craft. The tac team ran onto the roof before the suspect could reorient and hit him with the stun clubs—, probably more times than was necessary since he dropped the plasma rifle after the first baton engaged.
One team member picked up the unconscious Skaine and slung him over his shoulder, the other quickly secured his hands and feet before picking up the plasma rifle and joining his partner as they returned downstairs.
“Two captured, one dead, and one holed up in a panic room that is secured by warship-grade materials. We don’t have anything to breach it,” the leader reported.
A voice replied over the general comm. “Use the railgun to kill him before he destroys any evidence, and we’ll burn it open at our leisure.”
Using the various scan systems available to him, the breach leader found a gap between the plates. He marked the spot on the wall with his fingernail. He pointed and held the scanner at eye level. The team member with the Skaine railgun aimed at the point on the wall and waited. The leader adjusted his aim. “Steady,” he said. “Fire.”
The single hypervelocity tungsten flechette thundered from the rail and through the wall. When the dust cleared, the leader nodded. “Suspect is neutralized.”
He tapped the wall where the door was, and the team collected near the entry point. Grainger joined them. The breach leader pointed to the two Skaines in custody. “They’re all yours, Magistrate.”
“Nice work, Skipper. Secure all electronics for study.” Grainger turned back to the suspects. One was still unconscious, but he would wake up. “Well, my little friends, let’s see what you can tell me about the trafficking business...”
The support facility was exactly as Rivka remembered it. The slow bustle of activity greeted her, and a distinct lack of urgency marked the movements of those dressed in slave attire. Rivka stopped the first person she saw. “Have you seen a dark-skinned human woman?”
“What’s that?” the four-eyed alien asked before moving on. Palatius laughed. Rivka ignored him.
I’m at the main trade hall, she relayed to the crew. Seequa is running free somewhere around the city. She was released yesterday, and we have to find her before she inadvertently commits a crime.
As you’ve already told us once, Ankh replied. I’m working on it, but the Corranites have a robust security system. It could be a while before Erasmus and I are able to penetrate it. Have you considered looking around?
Rivka tried to look pleasant to the outside world, but her cheeks flexed as she gritted her teeth. Find me Seequa Holmes. Rivka out.
The Magistrate walked across the floor asking everyone she met, touching them as she went. “...dark-skinned human...”
She strolled by a number of them, and one mind flashed an image of the human. Rivka jumped backward, trying to find who it was. She wrestled briefly with a towering creature, but it wasn’t him. She moved past and through a mob. “You saw the human?”
The small alien was trying to hide in the shadows of the others. Rivka hadn’t touched her at all, which led to the confusion. The alien radiated empathy. The Magistrate knelt and crouched to be eye to eye. “I feel you,” she told the small creature, bowing her head.
“I feel you,” the alien replied.
“The human. I must find her.”
“She left by that door wearing nothing but her prison garb. No shoes. No goods.” A small hand pointed toward one of the exits.
“Thank you. May you find the peace you seek,” Rivka said, feeling it was the right thing to say.
“Not here, but I will find it,” the alien replied.
Rivka stood and strode briskly for the exit. Palatius called for her to slow down, but she shouted back at him to hurry up. She bolted through the door, immediately stopping to get her bearings. “Where would you go from here?” Rivka asked aloud, trying to put herself in Seequa�
��s place.
The Magistrate looked at the single walkway that went to a nearby transit nexus. Without money or ID, she wouldn’t be able to take private transportation.
“Do your public buses cost anything?”
“No,” Palatius replied.
“Do you need identification to ride?” Rivka quickly clarified, glaring at her escort.
“Yes,” the Corranite answered.
Rivka wanted to pound him into last week but restrained herself. “Malicious compliance, huh? If that’s how you want to play it, fine. Let me tell you a secret: I know for a fact that you were in on the attempted coup. You were the one who gave the shooters access, and you’re planning to do it again but better.”
The Corranite remained frozen, the expression on his fibrous face not changing.
“All I want is the woman, and then I’m leaving. The longer this takes, the longer I’ll be here, and if anything happens to her, I will debrief directly with the governor-general. That’s not a threat; that’s our standard operating procedure when a human life is in jeopardy. So, you can help me, or to be blunt, fuck you.”
He took a step forward and Reaper appeared in her hand. She aimed at the center mass of the creature looming over her.
“Is that a weapon?” Palatius asked.
“You took away my bodyguards, but you can’t remove my ability to protect myself. Being unarmed is an invitation to be a victim. I’m nobody’s victim. You will die, Palatius Lore, but do you want it to be today?”
Chapter Seventeen
The Bad Company’s Conflict Resolution Command Ship War Axe
“Run, you bastards! You’ll just die with your tanks empty!” Colonel Terry Henry Walton howled from the command deck of the destroyer War Axe.
“What’s gotten into him?” Captain Micky San Marino asked from the comfort of his chair, which dominated the bridge. The crew worked their positions as professionals. Helm and Systems managed the intricacies of the ship during a combat operation, but they were back-stopped by the team within the Combat Operations Center. It was buried deep within the ship and protected by layers of bulkheads and redundancies.
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