“So the question is leave now and maybe have them come after us,” Jess said. “Or speak to them and know where we stand. And if they come after us then we have to kill them.”
Jess felt his insides clench at the suggestion, but he tried to keep his face calm. Terrible as the idea was, he knew it might be necessary. The fact that he could think in those terms was in itself terrifying. He’d had enough dealings with the criminal side of life in the past few weeks to have formed a dim view of them, though, and he suspected the Shadow Beam’s crew would be no different.
“I say we take a chance and talk to them,” Sal said. “If that means we end up fighting them then… well… they most probably knew we’d be carrying prisoners. Like you said, they’d probably drug and torture those prisoners if it suited their ends. So if it comes down to their lives or the prisoners, we take theirs.”
“I agree,” Ali said. “I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.”
“I’m not keen on it,” Jess said. “But it seems to be the best option.”
“Damn it,” Elizabeth spat. “I don’t like either option. I’m no fan of pirates, you know I’ll happily pull the trigger there, but we just don’t know what the crew of the Shadow Beam consists of. We’re assuming the worst, but they might be cover. Maybe one or two of them could be shady and the rest could be honest merchants.”
“I’m sure there were innocent people on many of the ship’s I’ve destroyed,” Jess said quietly. “Definitely prisoners on some of the Imperial ships I destroyed. I’ve struggled with knowing that, knowing I killed those people, but I’m starting to realise it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t put them on the ships. I wasn’t the one who ordered those ships to attack us. All I did was deal with the situation as best I could. It wasn’t my fault.”
“And that makes it all right?” asked Elizabeth in a cool voice. “That means you can sleep at night, that you don’t worry about it anymore?”
Jess tasted bile and his chest felt tight. It took several seconds before he could reply.
“No, of course not. But it helps prevent the thought of their deaths driving me crazy.”
“Good!” Elizabeth smiled warmly at him. “For a moment there you had me worried. I’ve seen people who used those arguments to turn off their feelings, to shirk all responsibility to those they’d killed. They were some of the worst monsters I’ve seen. Good men and women who turned into heartless killers. In many ways they were worse than the pirates.
“All right. The rest of you are certain so I’ll go along with talking to our employers when we reach Daspal. Who knows, it might even work out.”
Jess could tell from her tone how unlikely she thought that was. He still felt it was worth the effort, though.
* * *
“If that’s decided then we should get on with freeing the prisoners,” Sal said.
“All right. What’s the plan?” Elizabeth asked.
“Well… we could… I hadn’t thought about it. First thing is to get into the containers.”
“That should be easy,” Jess replied thoughtfully. “But what do we do with them then? The cargo hold is packed. There’s a couple of small areas of the ship I kept sectioned off in case we needed spare space, but not enough to house very many people. Maybe thirty or forty comfortably, eighty or so for a short period.”
“How about if we packed them in like they’ll be packed into the transports?” Sal asked.
Jess pulled a face. “We could probably get around one hundred and fifty, but why would we want to?”
“Bear with me. That means we could empty one or two transports. Could the Wanderer then destroy the transports we’ve emptied? Store the materials.”
“Yes, it could but why…” Jess suddenly realised what she was thinking and grinned back. “The transports themselves take up more room than we need for those people. They’re as basic as can be, but they are still designed to be strong enough to survive vacuum to at least a basic level. The heater and life support, such as they are, all take up space too.
“Removing a transport would leave enough space for three or four times as many people as it had contained, so long as we packed them in. We’d need to create several levels as the transports are stacked on top of each other. In fact, the room’s ceilings could be lower than the height of the transports so we can squeeze even more people in. Maybe five times as many people in the same space as the transport took.”
“I don’t understand,” Ali said. “Aren’t you just swapping one cramped prison for another?”
“Only for a while,” Jess replied. “Emptying one transport gives us enough space to empty another three. Emptying those three leaves space for another nine. Eventually we’ll have emptied every transport and have over half the cargo bay free. We can turn that into usable space for the prisoners. I don’t want them to know the ship’s ability to re-form, so we can’t reclaim the half they will have been waiting in.”
Ali nodded to show she understood, though she still seemed to be working through all the combinations in her head.
“Actually, we can,” Sal said. “As we move people out into the new area the section they were in will be empty. We can re-form it while no one can see, then put different prisoners in there.”
Jess nodded enthusiastically. That would definitely work.
“Have you considered just how you’ll get them to move around?” Elizabeth asked. “Will they just do as they’re told with no guards keeping them in line?”
The smile slid from Jess’s face. “I don’t know,” he said. “Some probably will, but others will refuse.”
“So you’re going to need a way to force them. You could use the control collars.”
“No! Never!” Jess replied vehemently. “I’ll never do that.”
“OK! OK! No control collars. How else do we get them moving though? Use the robots to intimidate them?”
Jess pulled a sour face.
“I think we have to,” he said. “I can use the Wanderer’s internal fields to guide them, to keep them moving, but that gives away far too much about the ship’s abilities. If we build narrow corridors to guide the prisoners then the robots can be used to herd them along.”
“Can you shoot some of them, if you need to?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes,” Jess replied firmly. “Matt taught me only too well that not all prisoners will react well to being freed.”
Elizabeth studied him for a few moments. Apparently she found what she was looking for because she nodded.
“All right. It would be easier if we can find children first. They take up less room so we can clear more transports in one go.”
“The Wanderer can drill a tiny hole through each of the transports and get a camera in so we know what we’re dealing with,” Jess said.
“Good. Best get on with it, then. We’ve got a lot of work to do and not that much time.”
Jess had to agree with that. In only twenty-nine hours they’d be at Daspal. By then they not only had to have freed the prisoners, they also needed to ensure everyone was at least basically comfortable and then they needed to get enough rest to prepare for whatever happened when they arrived.
Chapter 29
Todd sat on the floor of the tiny prisoner transport, leaning against the wall. Molly lay in his arms. He used her warmth to drive out both the chill and his worries about their situation. They’d been loaded onto the transports in such a hurry Todd wasn’t surprised there were only two of them in a transport that would normally hold six or eight. Somewhere else he was sure the missing prisoners were squeezed into an already overloaded transport.
When the guards had suddenly appeared and ordered all the prisoners to move, and move quickly, Todd’s only thought had been to stay close to Molly, to keep hold of her. She’d clung to him in return, and somehow the two of them had avoided being separated.
In a strange way the transport was almost luxurious. Todd couldn’t remember ever having so much free space w
ithout having work to do. Yes, there was only the dim orange glow of an emergency lantern for light, and with only the two of them the transport was even colder than normal, but it still felt slightly surreal.
Molly shifted slightly in her sleep, murmuring something Todd couldn’t make out. He smiled down at her, the sight lifting his spirit as it always did. Molly was short, only a little over five feet tall, and skinny of course; all prisoners were borderline undernourished. There was something about her that had appealed to Todd from the first time they met. A strength, a determination, a fire even, which was lacking in most other prisoners.
He didn’t ask what it was she saw in him, he was just glad she did. Their time together would probably be too brief for such worries. They’d already had nine days, most of which had actually been spent doing nothing. They, and the other slaves, were in a large holding area from what Todd had seen when they arrived. Once inside he had quickly noticed Molly, and before long managed to get talking to her. They hadn’t been apart since.
The lack of work was novel, and entirely welcome to Todd. Molly wasn’t the first girl he’d fallen for, but she was the first he could truly spend time getting to know. They’d swapped stories, telling each other of the best and worst places they’d been held. Molly had spent long periods in just a few locations. Todd had been moved around much more, giving him plenty of tales to tell.
Their relationship had developed very quickly, as all those between prisoners did. Time seemed to fly past, days vanishing on a wave of banter and laughter, stories and intimacy. It was a stark contrast to many of their fellow prisoners who just sat slumped, waiting for the moment they were summoned to work again.
Looking down at the sleeping Molly, Todd’s mind started to explore the possibilities of their situation. Privacy was a completely alien concept to Todd, but he started to consider how much better sex could be without people nearby pretending not to notice what you were doing.
He was just considering waking Molly up, to share his insights, when a loud clang rang out around the capsule. The door started to open, blindingly bright light flooding in around the edges. Molly woke with a start and clung to Todd.
Talk about terrible timing, he thought to himself. Anger stirred in his chest but it soon passed. He knew where that path led, and he had no desire to be made an example of by the guards. The door finished opening. Todd could just make out several figures standing outside.
Squinting his eyes he saw something wrong about them. They weren’t wearing guards uniforms. Molly must have noticed the same. She clung to Todd even more tightly. The figures entered the transport and stood over Todd and Molly. A lifetime of experience kept Todd sitting on the floor. If they wanted him to stand they’d soon tell him.
“She’ll do,” one of them, a man, said. “Bring her carefully. I don’t want her covered in bruises.” He looked down at Molly again. “Yet,” he added with a leer.
Anger flowed through Todd again, much more powerfully than before. The thought of the man hurting Molly was too much.
“No!” he shouted, struggling to stand up. An action made difficult by Molly’s death grip on him.
Before Todd managed to straighten up one of the other men stepped forward and smashed something heavy onto Todd’s head. He slumped to the floor, head ringing and eyesight blurry. His arms and legs felt as if they were made of stone.
He felt Molly’s hands being pried away, her arms loosening, but could do nothing to stop it. He couldn’t even make a sound. Then Molly was pulled clear, kicking and fighting, and carried away by two of the men.
“What about him, boss?”
“Leave him. No one will listen if he talks, and an empty transport might raise questions.” Todd recognised the man as the first to have spoken, the one who picked out Molly. The rest of them walked out of the transport and the door slammed shut again, leaving Todd alone. He stayed where he was, nearly blind in the gloomy light. Slowly the leaden weight in his arms and legs faded, but the weight in his heart just got heavier as he imagined all the things Molly might be going through. Tears soon flowed down his cheeks.
* * *
Sovon stood and stared at the transport door for some time after it closed. Memories of his own time posing as a prisoner returned strongly. Shaking them off, he turned towards where two of his men held the woman. She was still struggling, futile though it was.
“Keep away from me!” she spat as he stepped closer. “Don’t touch me!”
“Dew sun echo twenty-nine achton mirror fifteen hundred and twelve,” he said.
The woman immediately stopped struggling, and instead started to smile.
“Was starting to think I was in trouble,” she said in a completely different voice. Now she sounded self controlled and relaxed. “I’m Tia.”
“Sovon,” replied Sovon, giving his cover name. He knew Tia wouldn’t be her real name, either. Real names were a luxury people like them couldn’t afford.
“Safe?” she asked, cocking her head slightly towards his men.
“Yes. Fellow travellers.”
She nodded, relaxing more. The codewords told her these, too, were Imperial agents, though their role was simply to support Sovon.
“Come with me to my cabin and you can get cleaned up. There’s already a rumour I bought a female companion on board at our last stop, and that she’s been in my cabin the whole time. You can slot straight into that role.”
“Convenient. Don’t go getting any ideas, though. I’ve had to fuck that vermin in there as part of my cover. Right now all I want is a very long shower and an even longer drink. Even then it’s going to take weeks to get the stink of him off.”
“Tell me about it,” Sovon said, turning and leading the way. His thoughts flashed back to his time undercover, to his time spent screwing prisoners… and inevitably to the shock of Sal turning up at Free Rock.
“You’ve been deep cover amongst the vermin, then?” she asked.
Sovon cursed himself. Discussing details of past missions was taboo at the best of times, and absolutely forbidden when undercover. He had to knuckle down and get himself under control. A slip like that could blow the entire operation, not to mention leading him to a long and painful death.
“Maybe,” he said, with a nonchalant shrug. It was the standard reply, one that should be used wherever possible.
Tia chuckled and nodded.
They walked on in silence. Two of the men moved ahead, scouting the corridors and confirming they were empty. It was late night ship time so no one should be wandering around. They took a roundabout route to avoid any restless souls just getting up or heading to bed.
Finally, they reached Sovon’s cabin. He opened the door and gestured for Tia to enter, which she did. He nodded to the men who turned away, then entered his cabin before sealing the door. Tia remained quiet as Sovon moved through the cabin, checking several almost invisible indicators which confirmed the room was sealed and free of listening devices.
“The room is clean,” he said finally. “Bathroom is through there. There’s a selection of clothes. Something should fit you. The tool to remove the collar is in there, too.”
“Thanks. I’ll take that drink first though.”
“Of course. Scotch?”
“Please. Lots!”
Sovon smiled at that. As he fixed her drink he asked the question that had been bothering him since the prisoner transports were first loaded.
“What happened? Why did you activate your emergency beacon?”
“Damned if I know. I’d been undercover for a few months, establishing my background, then I got transferred to Solcant. I can’t tell you why, you know that.”
Sovon nodded. She couldn’t tell him, but he knew what the most common reasons would be. One was to sniff out any hint of rebellion amongst the slaves, unlikely as that was when they were so closely guarded and wore control collars. Another common reason was to identify any dangerous corruption amongst the guards, anything that might lead to a revolt o
r to people’s freedom being bought by relatives.
Then there was the reason he’d been underground; to get close to someone who had once been powerful and extract information from them, whether it was a politician’s secret accomplices, the home base of a pirate or where a major criminal had hidden their ill-gotten gains.
Sovon had completed his mission successfully and was working his way towards extraction when he had hooked up with the slave called Sal. Most places dealing with a significant number of slaves had a few guards who were really Imperial agents. They watched out for the signs used when an undercover agent was ready to be extracted.
For Sovon, his extraction had been arranged by dragging him away from Sal, along with a small group of other slaves. He had been freed, the others had all been killed and their bodies destroyed to maintain his cover. No hint could be allowed that such deep cover agents existed amongst the prisoners.
“Everything was going well,” Tia continued. “My cover was well established, I’d struck up a relationship with that slave you rescued me from. Ugh. The things we do.” She shook her head. “Anyway, everything was going well. At some point our group would be split up and I’d be moved on, all according to plan. Then, suddenly, all hell broke loose. Guards were herding us out in huge numbers, sending us towards the transports.
“I knew something was wrong straight away. Whatever the slaves were being sent towards it couldn’t be good, and none of the guards recognised my signals that I needed to be pulled out of the group. I even used the emergency gesture, and you know how risky that is. It’s so blatant others might realise something is up. Nothing, though.
“I activated the beacon just before we reached the transports. Damn near dislocated my shoulders to do it, too. They don’t make it easy. Anyway, I activated it and thought it had worked when they chucked me into a transport alone other than the piece of shit who was still hanging onto me.
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