by Petra Landon
Phase One successfully accomplished, mused a pleased Zoran as he strode into the Juntafeyore. He hoped that the Star Captain had been able to verify Sila’s presence in the slaver’s hold.
t
“I saw her” the Ur’quay Captain stated. “She is in the hold.”
The announcement had the seven Hadari’Kor lounging around the table straighten in their seats, their eyes on the two Captains who faced the seated mercenaries. Their real mission would commence now. The little byplay on the station had been just that — a minor skirmish to gather information to formulate a plan. Now, they had their target. The Terran they were here to break out was being held on the station in the slaver hold.
Belur, in charge of planting and detonating the two smoke-bombs at the auction platform earlier, was the first to speak up. “To go by the establishment’s display screen, the next auction is scheduled to start in eight hours.”
“The quicker we get her out, the better” Jolar warned. “The Star Captain has confirmed her presence, but we don’t know how frequently they move the prisoners. The hold is extensive and if we wait too long, there’s a chance they’ll move her by the time we go in. Then, we’ll have to spend precious minutes locating her again.”
Zoran turned his attention to a crude paper drawing spread out on the table around which his mercs lounged. It was a blueprint of the lowest ring of the Trade Sphere the slavers were restricted to, including a rough outline of the inside of the slaver hold. The Hadari’Kor Captain had called in every favor on the station and supplemented it with some expensive bribes to acquire the information.
“The hold is ten large, interconnected chambers” he explained. “The first chamber lies behind the curtained doorway from the auction platform that is guarded around the clock, while the last chamber exits into an elevator that goes straight up to the docking ports.”
“That’s how they bring in the captives” Jolar remarked thoughtfully, his eyes on his friend and Captain.
“Yes, the ships dock at a set of predetermined ports connected to the docking elevator, and the prisoners are brought straight down into the hold to be placed in one of the chambers until they’re auctioned off.” Zoran had often wondered about it. There was a reason the slavers were restricted to the lowest ring of the station. The Hadari’Kor were not the only ones with strong objections to the sale of sentient beings as commodity. Parading captives with shock collars through the station would not go down well with many of the other patrons of the Trade Sphere.
“I found Sseela in the fifth chamber from the doorway with the guard. The cages in the first chamber were empty” the Star Captain remarked precisely in his laconic manner.
Zoran looked thoughtful. “Emptied out by the auction held right before you went in” he murmured.
“That would be my guess” the Ur’quay Captain acknowledged.
“It suggests that if they do move … uh … Sila”, Martuf, the Hadari’Kor who had assembled the smoke-bomb, said with a quick glance at the Ur’quay male, “the chances are she’ll be in a chamber closer to the platform to get her ready for auction.”
Zh’hir gave a short nod. “We will need to search the chambers from the door to the fifth one.”
Jolar looked his Captain in the eye. “Going in from the docking elevator makes the most sense, Zoran.”
Zoran turned to the big Ur’quay who stood beside him, making it clear that it was the Star Captain’s decision.
The Ur’quay warrior cocked his head at an angle. “I agree. It would also allow us a quick getaway once we have her.”
Jolar made some quick notes. “We’ll need the details on the docking elevator and the shock collar frequency that the slavers use for our jammer to subvert. What else?”
“The station’s auto sensors.” Zoran sighed. He knew from experience that the exit sensors could be a pain to circumvent.
Like most stations, Keeyor 9 was equipped with sophisticated auto sensors that logged and regulated every single entry and exit from the Trade Sphere. Most space-farers were equipped with identity chip implants. The chip could be programmed with all the information required by auto sensors on space stations, planetary defense systems and territorial border controls, allowing seamless travel in space. Keeyor 9 did not allow anyone without an embedded chip and proper tags onto the station.
Zoran could still recall his shock at the ownership bracelet Saakshi, a Ketaari prisoner, had been forced to wear on the station. The bracelet had been programmed to set off the auto exit sensors in the event she ever tried to leave the Trade Sphere.
“Was Sila wearing a bracelet on her hand?” he asked the Star Captain.
Zh’hir prompted his memory, attempting to recall the details of her comatose body in the cage. He had to work hard to shove back the rage roiling through him every time he thought of her held encaged like an animal.
“I do not remember seeing one” he said.
“The shock collar could double as an ownership bracelet” offered Hakan, the merc who had provided a spectacle for the slavers’ clientele with his clinical beatdown of the two Ketaari.
“Ownership bracelet” the Star Captain repeated, unable to hide the outrage in his voice this time.
“It’s what slavers put on their prisoners to tag them” Jolar explained soberly. “We must nullify it before we take Sila off the station or it will set the exit alarms off.”
“Can we not fight our way through if it comes to that?” Martuf suggested. The station had guards but not of the caliber that could win against a determined Hadari’Kor raiding party.
“We’ll have no weapons on us. Remember, the entry sensors allow no weapons onto the station. That leaves us at a disadvantage if the station personnel confront us for setting off an alarm” Zoran reminded his mercs.
“We could use a suppressor device on the collar” Jolar said quietly to his friend.
Like you did with Saakshi was the implied suggestion left hanging in the air. A suppressor could prevent the embedded tags on any device from being read or accessed by an auto sensor. There was a thriving black market for the technology which was helpful when the goal was to override a particular set of tags with others.
Zoran shook his head regretfully. “That will only work if she has regular ID tags to take over. Her people don’t travel much, so I doubt she has an embedded chip.” It was a good suggestion though — the idea was for the suppressor to nullify the information from the collar the slavers had forced onto her and allow her to masquerade as a regular patron to the station’s sensors. But if she didn’t have an ID chip to fall back on, the station’s exit sensors could read no valid tags from her, triggering alarms nonetheless.
“She might have one, Zoran. If they slapped the shock collar in the hold, it meant that she was brought in through the station’s entry sensors first. That implies an ID chip. Unless, they put the collar on in the ship itself before disembarking …” Jolar’s voice trailed off. There was no way to be certain. And it was too risky to attempt to take her through the exit sensors without valid tags.
“We had an ID chip implanted in her when I brought her to Keeyor 9 the first time” the Star Captain, who had been following the back and forth silently, announced.
Barring Zoran, every eye in the room skewed to the Ur’quay male. There was silence as the mercenaries waited for their Captain to respond to this astonishing bit of news. Zoran arched his eyebrow at the warrior beside him. The Ur’quay Captain could easily have chosen to reveal this information to him in private. That he had done so publicly was a vote of confidence in Zoran’s word that any information shared during the course of this mission with the Hadari’Kor would be held close to their chests.
“Just a basic one, enough to get through the station’s sensors and onto a Transport to her world” the Star Captain explained.
“Then, a suppressor should certainly get the job done” Jolar piped up.
He turned to the Ur’quay Captain to explain. “It’s a device tha
t can suppress tags with its proximity. We could use it to hide all the slaver tags embedded in the collar. That way, the station’s sensors will read her implanted ID tags by default and she will be in the clear.”
Zh’hir pondered the matter, to turn to his Hadari’Kor counterpart. “The sensors log the details of every exit, right?”
“Yes.”
“That means they’ll eventually figure out that you helped her get off the station. Would that not inconvenience you in the future?”
Zoran shrugged. There were other stations to spend his precious recreation hours on. He had no intention of returning to Keeyor 9 anyway. Too risky a place to bring Saakshi with him and he intended her to be the motivating factor on future decisions about where he spent his hours when he wasn’t on a job.
Reassured by the answer, the Star Captain turned his attention to the next hurdle. “What about the cage itself?”
“Hmm … that’s going to be the tricky part” Zoran acceded. “We must somehow wrest the control from the guard without his knowledge.”
The Ur’quay warrior contemplated him, head cocked to ruminate over what they knew. “If we take out the power to the slaver hold, we won’t need the controls from the guard. And if we time it right, we’d need to take it out for just a split second.”
The mercenaries around the table glanced at him with approval. It was a good suggestion.
“It could work” Jolar murmured.
“We’d need to understand the station’s power systems in detail. That could take some time” Hakan reminded them.
“Unless …” Zoran paused, thinking it through. “Unless we took out the station’s main power in its entirety.”
“Would that be easy to accomplish?” the Star Captain asked curiously. He’d assumed a station this popular would have tight security.
“This isn’t a well-guarded station, by any means, Zh’hir. They don’t expect anyone to attempt to shut it down. For a short window, we should be able to do that easily enough” Zoran said confidently.
“But only the one time. Once we show that it can be done, they’ll tighten security to ensure it doesn’t happen again” Belur countered.
“If there’s no power, we lose the docking elevator and we cannot use it to get her out that way into the ship” Jolar pointed out.
The two Captains ran through the scenarios in their heads. Eventually, they seemed to reach the same conclusion. There was only one way to do this, given their constraints.
“What do you think, Star Captain?” Zoran allowed his Ur’quay counterpart to make the call.
“We go in from the front of the slaver hold, through the door by the auction platform. Take out the station’s power, and use jammers for the shock collar, just in case. Grab Sseela and get out the same way before the power is turned back on.” The Star Captain laid out the plan succinctly in his precise way.
Zoran seconded him. “The timing has to be very precise. No margin for error.”
Vetuk, the Hadari’Kor in disguise whose role had been to stage the fight with Hakan, sounded a warning. “Captain, the slaver hold is on the lowest ring of the station and the docking ports are accessed through the uppermost one. If we don’t have the elevator, it will be impossible to get the girl onto the Juntafeyore before power is restored.”
“If power is restored, we could just slap on a suppressor and get her through the exit sensors before the slavers figure it out. It’ll take them some time to discover that she’s missing” Belur suggested.
“If the slavers suspect that she’s on our ship, they’d be justified in asking the station to stop us from leaving” Jolar interjected. “We’d have to fight our way out if the station refuses to release the Juntafeyore.”
“We could make a quick getaway before the slavers can raise a fuss” one of the mercs suggested. “It’s going to be pandemonium.”
Zoran shook his head. “Once the station loses power, all bets are off” he explained. “They’ll get emergency power back on quickly but docking ports and other services will take time. We won’t be allowed to make a quick getaway unless we plan to blast our way through.”
“If it came to that, we could, but I’d rather do that as a last resort” he reiterated. “No point making enemies of station personnel unless we have to.”
“Could we hide her on the station for a few days?” the Star Captain inquired. He knew that the Captain and his Hadari’Kor were very familiar with Keeyor 9.
Zoran glanced at Jolar. They both knew this particular station well, having spent time on it.
Jolar nodded. “We can make it work.”
“It would give us a few days to figure out her tags and get the shock collar off her” Zoran said slowly. “With the right tags, she could just waltz right out under their noses.”
“What if the slavers recognize her?” Martuf pointed out.
“We can claim her as part of the crew. All we need to do is sanitize her tags. Then, it is our word against the slavers. They’d have no way to prove that she escaped their hold.”
“Where do we hide her on the station, Captain?” Hakan asked.
“I’ll take care of it.” Zoran assured them confidently.
“Once she is free, we must get rid of anything that could be used to identify or track her” the Star Captain interjected. “The slavers will not waste any time to go after her.”
“I’ll brief Dr. Uish” Zoran said. “He’ll be on the station with his equipment set up, ready to attend to her and remove all implants and tracking devices. That should take care of it.”
Uish was the medic on the Juntafeyore.
“This should work” the Star Captain declared calmly after a thoughtful pause.
The Hadari’Kor Captain turned to his deputy. “Jolar?”
“It’ll do” Jolar seconded the Ur’quay Captain.
“Alright, let’s iron out the details.”
“We’ll work on a way to sabotage main power, Zoran.” Jolar’s glance encompassed the mercenaries around the table.
“I’ll get us a chamber on the station to stash Sila in” Zoran essayed.
He turned to his Ur’quay counterpart.
The Star Captain’s exotic eyes met his gaze. “You’re in charge, Zoran. Your starship, your mercs and your backyard. I have confidence in you.”
The mercenary smiled. “It’s a good plan, Zh’hir” he remarked.
“Yes, it is.”
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Zoran strode into Trader Pik’s during the last hour of the slow shift. He’d counted on Pik’s presence during the changeover to the busy evening shifts. There was an audible gasp from one of the server girls as he approached the semi-circular bar. It was the Budheya server who had attempted to help Saakshi with the Ketaari commander the first day the officer had come to the alehouse. In Pik’s drinking Terilian ale while he stole glances at the Budheya girl he’d been enamored with, Zoran had reacted to the fear on her face, setting into motion a series of events culminating in Saakshi fleeing this station as a fugitive from the Imperial Forces.
“Is Pik in the back?” he asked the server girl.
“Yess” she stammered.
“Could you let him know that Zoran Hadari-Begur-Kor would like a few moments of his time, please?”
“Of course” she responded more calmly with a quick glance at the second server unabashedly listening in on the conversation.
“Saakshi?” she inquired in a low voice as she turned away from him.
“I have her. She’s safe.”
She gave a little nod to acknowledge him and walked away towards the little room in the back that doubled as Pik’s office and stock room.
Moments later, the short, bald and stocky Keeyori trader strode out to greet the mercenary.
“Zoran Hadari-Begur-Kor. Well met! What can I do for you?”
“A few minutes of your time in private” Zoran said blandly. “I have a business proposition for you.”
“Of course, of course” Pik-u-Aak agr
eed heartily. “Always good doing business with you, Captain. Come!”
Zoran accompanied the trader into his tiny, airless office. Pik invited him to avail of one of the two seats in the room. Zoran waved his hand to indicate that he preferred to stand, and leant against the wall to face the trader. Pik seated himself in one of the chairs.
“So Captain, did you get her off the Ketaari Transport in time?” Pik inquired with avid curiosity, his eyes bright in his plump face.
“Yes.”
“Aha, so the Ketaari Unta-Golar could not take her back to the Empire.”
“No” Zoran said briefly.
“You were good to her in your way, Pik. And you sent her to me when she needed assistance. I’d be very willing to compensate you for the loss of a server girl” Zoran offered.
Pik waved away the offer with a gesture. “The Imperial Forces have already been asked to compensate me for revoking her prison contract on such short notice.”
“Now, I shall have the pleasure of asking them some awkward questions on how they let their prisoner escape” the Keeyori trader added gleefully.
Zoran arched an inquiring eyebrow.
“The Ketaari are in sore need of taking down a peg or too. Too arrogant by half! They took over all their territory by stealing Budheya technology. What’s to feel so superior about, I ask?” Pik retorted. “No Captain, no compensation is necessary. Now, what can I do for you?”
“I need a chamber on the station for a few days.”
Pik straightened in his seat, his eyes gleaming with curiosity.
“A chamber that you do not want associated with your name, Captain” he said shrewdly.
“Or that of any Hadari’Kor. I’m willing to compensate you for putting it under your name. You reserve accommodations for your server girls all the time. No eyebrows will be raised if you request a temporary one for a few days.”
