Being a shuttle pilot going from space orbit to ground repeated for loads of passengers or freight is not the most exciting job among the stars. I reminded myself that it was crucial to getting our people out of slavery. The big Sargan shuttle was not all that complicated to fly once I learned where the controls were. We worked in ten-hour shifts round the clock once the ground teams subdued the Deng Ya security. I brought up about six hundred people on my shift alone.
They had estimated five thousand people originally, but by the fourth day we had brought up more than six thousand. At that point, they were predicting at least another three thousand were still trickling in. With seventy to eighty percent of the rescues being Uatu, Command decided to keep shuttling them up as long as they kept coming.
Every chance I got, I went back to the loading ramp, hoping to find my mother or some of my siblings among them. I saw some people who looked familiar, but no one I knew well. We had no way of knowing who we might find. Even if we didn’t find them, that didn’t confirm they died in the attack. They could be on other worlds we never checked.
Had we not heard from the Consortium, Command had all but decided this would be our last run in the Sargus Empire trying to find our stolen people. Now that we were to be paid, we had discussed among ourselves forfeiting our back pay in favor of making another search and rescue run for our people. At least four other worlds were holding Uatu people as slaves.
As the day progressed, no one wanted to say the operation was going better than expected, but I felt sure that most of us were thinking it. There were still a few hundred people at each site when the first Sargan battle cruiser blinked into the system. No one was significantly alarmed until three more blinked in along with a battle carrier full of single pilot fighters.
As soon as that happened, the additional four Dreads moved in to defend us.
That’s when things started to get interesting.
I still had at least three more runs to get the rescues and Commander Maktu’s ground team. It looked like some of the fighters were making a run at the Kurellis landing bay to board it and take over the ship. One actually slipped in, but the security team surrounded the fighter and took him, prisoner, as soon as he climbed out.
The Dreads formed a blockade between the Kurellis and the Sargan battlecruisers to protect the shuttles. We knew Kurellis was the prize they were after, but we expected they would attack the shuttles to keep them from rescuing our people.
The Sargans went after the Dreads first to get them out of the way so they could seize the Kurellis. Eight Dreadnaughts were no small threat to four battlecruisers and a carrier. The Farseek Brigade had been fighting them for years, and their tactics were often predictable.
After I took the last load of rescues up, I went back to pick up Commander Maktu’s team. There were still another fifty people at Landing Four and mine was the last shuttle ground side. We didn’t have seating for everyone, but we loaded them all and took off. It took a little more power to get it off the ground, but I made it work.
The battle was edging closer to the passenger freighter, so I flew suborbital over the other site and found at least another fifty people there. I didn’t land because I already had my shuttle packed.
“Kurellis, we need another shuttle at Landing Four,” I commed. “There are at least fifty people down there, and I am already loaded heavy.”
“Lieutenant, we’re getting the same message from the other sites. Dump your load and go back for them.”
“Will do,” I responded. It was going to be risky from the visuals I was getting, although I barely had time to look. I left Maktu and his fighters in the landing bay along with the passengers and headed back to the other landing site.
But once I made orbit, there was a group of fighters moving in on the Kurellis making a new concerted effort to break into the landing bay so they could get control of the ship. Dread One moved in on them and started taking them out, leaving no clear path for me to land on the Kurellis.
I knew Maktu’s fighters could defend against invaders. So, I took an orbit around Deng Yar Five in the hope that we could slide into the landing bay next time around. But that didn’t happen.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Dreads were taking heavy fire from the battlecruisers and the swarms of fighters firing on them. From the chatter, their damage teams were struggling to put out fires and reroute power to essential functions while keeping the weapons operating at maximum efficiency.
They took out three battlecruisers and many fighters, but Dread One took heavy damage. Dread Four disabled the battle carrier with the aid of Dread Seven and came to run interference for Dread One which was swarmed by fighters while fending off a heavily armed cruiser.
Fire shot out into space from various sections of Dread One fed by the oxygen from within. They would have closed off the compartments with the hull breaches, and the fires would go out as soon as the oxygen ran out. Dread Four was able to help fend off the fighters to keep them from landing on to the Kurellis, but I was still cut off from the landing bay by the skirmish.
A battlecruiser fired at Dread Four as it was coming around to get a better shot at it. The blast was deflected off the Dread and slammed into my shuttle. It took out one of my engines and sent us spiraling toward the planet. I managed to use the maneuvering thrusters to stabilize the spin, but I couldn’t stop our deteriorating orbit. The single-engine still working might be enough to slow our descent. With luck, maybe I could keep us from crashing.
“Dread Four, this Trematu. We’ve been hit, and we’re going down,” I called over the com.
The shuttle AI kept telling me we couldn’t do what I was trying to do so we could make a rough landing rather than crash, so I turned it off. I switched to manual, using the one engine still working and the braking thrusters to slow our descent enough so we could set down on land rather than in the ocean.
Alarms started blaring, and I switched them off. I didn’t need them to tell me we were descending too fast and the hull was heating up. The AI would have wanted to deploy the emergency parachutes to slow our descent, and I wanted to wait until a lower altitude before doing so to make sure they would open correctly. It was a long descent, and the passengers were getting nervous.
I couldn’t blame them. This was a rough ride, and we were going in too fast despite my efforts. I commanded them all to put on the seat harnesses. I was glad this was not a run with standing room only. People would have been hurt.
Land came into sight, and I held my finger over the spot on the touchpad then deployed the chutes when we reached the airspace above the shoreline. The Sargan shuttle jerked as the shutes caught in the atmosphere slowing our descent. My heart was no longer in my throat. We weren’t going to crash. The landing would be rough, but we’d be okay. We hit the ground skidding over the rocky terrain, taking out a few trees and bushes along the way until we skidded to a stop.
I commed Dread Four with our coordinates and asked them to send a shuttle for us. That’s when they told me that Kurellis had to blink out, headed for Farseek. My heart sank. That meant I might not see Zoey for a month or more.
Dread Four finished off the battlecruiser and sent a shuttle for us.
Chapter Ten
Zoey
This time around, our job checking in Uatu people was made simpler by the records we gleaned from the Redid Rauner. We could tell them almost immediately if any of their family members had already been rescued. Although lack of information didn’t necessarily mean their loved one was dead, it wasn’t encouraging.
Before analyzing the records from the Pican ship, we didn’t have reliable information of where and how many Uatu people were taken from Farseek alive. Sadly, it meant that at least half the population was killed in the raids. Even if they were taken alive, there was no guarantee that they were still alive. But there were more worlds where a thousand or more had landed.
Many of the Brigade members wanted to keep going, not wanting to leave anyone enslaved by
the Sargus Empire. After seeing the thousands of faces coming in through the landing bay, I felt the same way. My friends and I and nearly a hundred other female humanoids had been minutes away from being sold as slaves when Commander Maktu walked into that auction house.
Harper, Scarlet, Nora, and I were just like these people. Except, we were luckier because we were never enslaved.
I was glad for the task of logging the people in as they arrived. It was especially exciting to find family members to reunite or tell them that their loved one had returned to Farseek on the last trip.
I didn’t start to get nervous until I learned that Argen was overdue and the fighting had intensified. I couldn’t even think that he might not come back, or I would have a panic attack. Instead, I kept telling myself he was coming back. I looked up to check the entryway with every person I checked in.
Argen was an hour overdue, and we had no news. I knew there was too much going on to bother them to account for his whereabouts. I kept hoping that I would look up and find he was standing beside my table looking down at me with that sexy smirk of his.
That didn’t happen. I kept remembering when we were back in our quarters that morning, holding each other tight before we went to our separate duties. I desperately wished he would get back.
Then I felt the ship shift. Oh my God! We were blinking out an Argen wasn’t back. How could they leave him?
I looked around wondering if anyone else realized what was happening. Momentarily, I saw Commander Maktu approaching, and I got worried.
“What happened? Where’s Argen?” I blurted as he came to my table. I jumped up suddenly unable to sit still.
“His shuttle got knocked out of orbit, and made a forced landing on Deng Yar,” he said.
“No!” I sobbed.
“Zoey, I have every reason to believe that Argen landed safely, but it was too dangerous for us to wait for another shuttle to bring them up.
“Dread One took a real beating. I didn’t hear whether the damage was superficial or minor enough so they could still blink out,” Maktu said. “The last I heard they blew one cruiser apart and disabled two of them. I’m guessing before they jump they will probably disable them all.
“I promise you, they will not leave him behind,” Command Maktu told me.
“Then will we rendezvous with them and regroup?”
Commander Maktu sighed, and I knew he didn’t want to tell me the rest. “It doesn’t look like we will regroup until we get to Farseek. With all the damage to Dread One, they’ll probably be at least two weeks in repair before they will go very far. It could be even longer before we even know the outcome.”
“But you don’t know for sure that Argen is all right,” I murmured shakily. “And it could be weeks, even months before we know?”
I was really trying hard not to cry. We hadn’t been separated for more than half a day since we mated. Now I didn’t know if he was alive or not and wouldn’t know for weeks. I started hyperventilating trying not to freak out.
Commander Maktu gently gripped my upper arms. “Calm down, Zoey,” he said gently. “We just have to have to believe they’ll make it. Those dreads can take a lot before they’re completely disabled. They’re the best starships money can buy, made by the Consortium.”
“Did we lose anyone or was anyone seriously hurt?”
“Not that I heard,” he assured me. “I heard Argen commed after they landed, but we blinked out before I learned more.”
“You’re really scaring me, Commander,” I admitted unevenly.
He let go of my arms. “You have every right to be. What we do is fucking dangerous. But we’ve been doing it a long time, and we’re good at it.”
“I know,” I said.
“Can you finish here, or do I need to have someone take over?”
“I will finish,” I assured him.
“I didn’t want to tell you before you finished, but I realized that you would know Argen wasn’t back and worry.”
“I am worried, but these people are tired, and they need to get assigned their quarters so they can rest. Taking care of them will keep me busy so I’m not just obsessing about Argen,” I told him.
I believed he would be rescued along with his passengers, but it could be months before I would see him again. We were at least three months away from Farseek. It was going to be a long, lonely trip.
The final count of our rescues was ten-thousand-one hundred souls. Some of them had to double up in the cabins, and some were already paired off. We could have squeezed in a few hundred more if necessary. I’m glad we didn’t have to.
I was completely drained by the time I returned alone to my quarters. I pulled off my clothes and fell into bed alone. I wished for Argen’s arms around me as I fell asleep and dreamed that they were.
After the long hours, we put in the previous day, we didn’t have to report for duty until after second meal. We were to eat second meal with our team, and Commander Maktu would give report afterward.
Chapter Eleven
Zoe
“I have a lot to report today,” Commander Maktu began. “Foremost, we got a partial message from Dread Three. All of the Sargan ships were destroyed or disabled, and all eight Dreadnaughts escaped. However, Dreadnaught One took heavy damage, and they’re hiding out in a lifeless system to make repairs. We were not able to get further information from them because they were going dark to protect Dread One while they make repairs. No casualties have been reported.”
My heart sank at that revelation. That meant we couldn’t get confirmation that the people from Argen’s last shuttle run had been recovered. I refused to believe he hadn’t, feeling sure I would know if something had happened to him. I was missing him even though it hadn’t been a full day since we got separated.
“The Consortium contacted us this morning. They have made a formal demand to the Sargus Empire to return all or our people to Farseek. They have also demanded that the Sargans refrain from opposing our retrieval of our people.”
He paused to let that sink in. That revelation was huge! The Farseekans believed the Consortium betrayed them in the beginning by allowing their homeworld to be destroyed while the Farseek Brigade fought for them. The Brigade had shunned them, not the other way around.
Farseek may have been one of their less profitable worlds, but they had one of the best fighting forces, and the Consortium depended on their agricultural products as Farseek depended on Consortium technology.
Murmurs of surprise when through our assembly, most of which were members of Maktu’s ground fighting team. The rest were the shuttle pilots and us four Earther females.
“The Sargus Empire lodged a counter complaint that we had killed their people and stole a brand new colonial ship. However, the Consortium defended our actions since the Sargans broke the peace treaty when they attacked Farseek unprovoked. While it’s unlikely that we can extract reparations from the Empire, we are keeping the Kurellis and will be allowed to return collect more of our people.
“The Consortium is also sending ships to help gather our people from the many worlds where they have been taken. The Sargans are to provide us a complete accounting of all the people they took.”
Everyone started to cheer at that announcement, and Commander Maktu actually smiled. He just waited while the room got boisterously loud. Everything they had done for the past two years had been validated by the Consortium that they thought had betrayed them.
Maktu waited while everyone quieted before he spoke again. “The other news I have comes long before we expected to hear from anyone.” He paused, and everyone was quiet waiting to hear what the news. “The Consortium has been in contact with the United Galactic Alliance of Worlds---which now includes Earth.”
My friends and I all gasped and my eyes filled with tears as I shook my head. I think that might have been the last thing I expected to hear.
“Earth joined the Alliance after the Drayids cut a swath of destruction in about a dozen of their maj
or cities. The Alliance notified Earth that unknown numbers of their people had been taken---and we have received information on how to connect with the Earth networks.”
The others: Harper, Scarlet, and Nora, were just as shocked as I, and I wondered why Commander Maktu didn’t tell us privately instead of in front of everyone. Then I thought perhaps he didn’t want to treat us differently than the rest of his team. From her reaction, I didn’t think he had even told his solmatu Harper the news beforehand.
I sniffed a little then wiped away my tears and gave the other three a weak smile. Though it came as a surprise, I knew we had already made our choices. As far as we were concerned, we were married to our men. Solmatu was a lifetime commitment.
“What does this mean for us?” Maktu asked rhetorically. “It means we are taking these people back to Farseek, then we are going back to retrieve more people from the Sargus Empire. The Dreads will be going with us, but we shouldn’t face any more opposition from the Sargans.
“Although we have not formed an official treaty with the Alliance, they have taken a hard line against the Sargans’ humanoid trafficking. They have banned the Pican’s from Alliance space, and they will be apprehended and imprisoned if they are caught. The Alliance is also demanding their people be returned, including those taken from Earth. The Sargus Empire complained that giving up their slaves would gut their economy.
“Both the Consortium and Alliance basically said they don’t care. Also, at least three worlds in their territories are undergoing revolutions in response to our support team’s ‘Seeds of Freedom’ story that we flooded their networks with. Their governments are expected to fall any time.
“Finally, our efforts have paid off. In three months we will arrive back at Farseek for the first time in almost three years. The Dreads will be returning as well for shore leave and to regroup. We’ve only got three shuttles to move all our rescues from Kurellis to Farseek. It’s going to take days to get all our passengers ground side. We have commed ahead to see if there will be additional shuttles available to help from any passenger freighters that will be there about the same time we arrive. We are waiting to hear back.”
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