Phoenix in Flames

by Jaleta Clegg

  Small huts huddled next to the cliffs. He dragged me over to one and shoved me inside. It was barely warmer than outside. The hut contained a stained mattress and a broken chair. A metal loop gleamed on the far wall. A length of chain snaked across the floor.

  "Welcome to your new home," Matthias said. He shoved me onto the mattress.

  I sprawled across it. He grabbed my ankle and chained it to the loop in the wall. Then he left.

  I slowly sat up. The hut had no door. I shivered. I fumbled my shipsuit closed. The chain on my leg rattled with every move. It was only a few feet long. I could make it to the middle of the hut if I stretched.

  The lock on the chain was not one I could have picked with anything less than a screwdriver. It was huge and complicated. The loop in the wall was securely bolted in. Matthias had been thorough.

  I wouldn't have made it far even if I had managed to escape the chain. The doorway of the hut showed me a long view of emptiness. I barely saw the top of the ship over a hump of naked stone. I could see three other ships set down in the same general area. I doubted I was going to get help from any of them.

  I sighed and tucked my bare feet under me.

  I waited through the rest of the day. Matthias didn't come back. There was a bucket in one corner, just barely in reach. It was obviously the best I was going to get in bathroom facilities. A rusty pipe stuck through another wall. Water dripped into a basin. If I stretched the other way I could reach the water. The overflow ran out under the wall. The whole hut smelled of mold and wet plascrete.

  I watched the light outside fade from harsh yellow to orange to burnt red to deep violet. The wind died down as the sun set, leaving the air quiet and clear. The stars slowly appeared in the sky overhead. I stared up at them, wishing I were flying between them. A large moon rose, pouring silver light across the rocks. A flock of flying creatures fluttered across the sky, glowing in the moonlight. I huddled on the mattress and shivered.

  I slept poorly. I was miserably cold and hungry. I was almost happy when the light faded into pale blue with the dawn. The wind began to blow. Dust swirled around the rocks outside.

  Matthias came about midmorning. I was dozing, finally halfway warm. The sun was baking the hut. By afternoon, I would probably be too hot, unless the wind kept blowing. Matthias didn't seem to care. He checked the chain and the cuffs and grunted. He dropped a pile of ration bars on the mattress before he left.

  I sat on the stained mattress and watched out the hole where a door should have been. A ship lifted off from beyond the hill, soaring away into the sky. I wanted on that ship, even if it was a smuggler's ship. It meant I might possibly get free again.

  Two other ships lifted later that afternoon. I wondered if I'd been left alone on this world. Not that it mattered. I couldn't have gotten out of the hut without gnawing my own leg off. I could barely see the top of the last ship. Someone was still here. They didn't come to check on me.

  I shivered my way through another night. The fluttering creatures danced overhead in the moonlight. It was beautiful, but I was beyond caring about beauty. I wanted out.

  Another day passed. And another night. And another day and night. The next morning, more ships landed.

  I counted the ration bars Matthias had left for me. If I ate two a day I had enough for six more days. I wondered if it meant anything and decided I didn't really care.

  I moved to the end of my chain and sat in the middle of the floor. The days were hot. The nights stayed cold. I saw no animals during the day and only the flyers at night.

  I put my chin on my knees and felt sorry for myself. If I'd had a screwdriver or a blaster, I could have gotten free. Since I had nothing, I had no way out of that hut. And no way offworld if I did get free. I'd have to wait. I was sure Matthias would come back eventually. As soon as he did, I would be ready.

  I entertained myself with thoughts of violence for another four days. More ships landed. A few took off again. No one came near the huts until the fourth day. A whole group of people carried boxes up to the huts. None of them came near my hut or even glanced at me. They put the boxes in the huts then left.

  I spent two more days staring out the door of the hut. I slept whenever I could. It was easier. I was out of food.

  Matthias startled me awake the next morning. He grabbed my chain and rattled it. I jumped awake.

  "Did you miss me?" he asked.

  I snarled and lunged at him. He backhanded me across the face. I fell across the mattress. He calmly unlocked the cuff on my leg. He grabbed my arms and dragged me off the mattress.

  "You aren't going to be my problem much longer," he told me. "You're going to make me rich and someone else miserable."

  He pulled me out of the hut. I winced as I stepped on rocks. He dragged me down the path towards the ships. I felt hope stirring. Maybe he was taking me somewhere offworld. Maybe I'd have a chance to run.

  He kept going, past the ships. I limped beside him. He didn't give me a choice. I wasn't in any shape to fight him.

  The trail wound past the landing field and down into a nearby hollow. At least a hundred people gathered around a platform set up to one side. There were piles of weapons everywhere I looked, including some big enough to mount on a ship.

  Matthias dragged me closer. We stopped to one side. He kept his hand clamped around my arm. We waited while a woman on the platform sold several hundred Patrol regulation blast rifles. I wanted one so bad I could taste it. With a weapon I'd have half a chance. Matthias jerked my arm.

  "Don't think it, Dace," he warned. "You even try to touch one of those and I will beat you. I don't think they'll care what you look like. Enough of them want your blood any way they can get it."

  The woman finished selling her merchandise and stepped off the platform. Money changed hands at a table set off to one side. The boxes of rifles were carried away, back towards the ships.

  "Our turn." Matthias dragged me onto the platform. He pulled me to a stop in the middle, shoving me until I faced the crowd.

  They shifted restlessly, waiting.

  "Is this a joke?" one of them said.

  "The slave market is next month," someone else shouted.

  "I guarantee you'll be interested," Matthias answered. He pushed me again.

  "She doesn't look like a weapon to me," the first man called. A few people in the crowd chuckled. "She doesn't look like much of a slave, either."

  Matthias grabbed my hair and jerked my head up. "Take a good look at her face," he told the crowd.

  "Looks like you used her for practice already," the man said.

  "I'll give you five credits to get her off the stage," someone else suggested. "So we can get back to the weapons. It's what we came here for. Not some half dead slave."

  Matthias tightened his grip on my hair. He shook me.

  "She's a spacer," someone else said. "They're always trouble. They never do what you say. You always have to watch them. Get her out of here."

  "Get on with it, Matthias," the woman who sold the rifles said. "You've got one minute to convince me I didn't make a mistake letting you up there." She folded her arms.

  "She isn't just any spacer," Matthias said. He shoved me to my knees. "Her name is Dace."

  The crowd went still. They just stared at me. I studied the knotholes in the boards that made the platform.

  "She's a Patrol agent," the first man said. "What kind of an idiot are you, bringing her here?"

  "She's got too many connections," someone else objected.

  "Not any more," Matthias answered. "I picked her up over two weeks ago. There hasn't been a rumor about anyone looking for her. They want her gone as badly as you do. How much is revenge worth to you?"

  The crowd shifted. The sun beat down. The wind gusted around us.

  "I'll give you five credits to get her out of here," the man offered again.

  "I'll give you six for her, but only if you shoot her first," someone else called.

  "A hundred credits
." The voice was flat and cold. The crowd shifted to look. A man at the back stepped forward. "I've been authorized to purchase her. One hundred credits."

  Matthias relaxed his hand. "Good. I have a bid for a hundred credits. Anyone else want to bid? She did cost most of you millions, not to mention the number of people she's responsible for killing."

  He shouldn't have said that. I still felt guilty, even though I knew most of them would have killed me first if I'd given them the chance. I twisted around, kicking at his ankles. I swung my cuffed hands, hoping to connect with somewhere tender. He stepped out of range and kicked me. I landed on my face on the platform. He grabbed the neck of my shipsuit and dragged me up to my feet.

  "Two hundred," someone shouted.

  "Three hundred," the cold man countered. He was impeccably dressed in a gray business suit.

  "How do we know she's who you say she is?" a woman asked.

  "Full identity confirmation before you pay," Matthias said. "I have three hundred. Anyone want to go for four?"

  "Three fifty," the woman offered.

  The cold man gave her a hostile look. "One thousand," he said. He brushed dust from his suit with a look of distaste.

  The crowd shifted, muttering. Matthias jerked me around so they could see my face better. He twisted his hand in the collar of my shipsuit, keeping me on my toes.

  "Two thousand," someone shouted.

  "Three," the cold man said.

  The bidding grew more frenzied. With every leap in price, my heart sank. When the bidding hit fifty thousand I knew I was never going to survive this. If they wanted me badly enough to pay that much, they were never going to let me escape.

  The cold man kept jumping the price. It hit a hundred thousand, more than my ship was worth. Matthias grinned and kept calling encouragement to them to bid higher. I looked up at the cloudless sky and wished I could fly away.

  Half the crowd were talking on their coms by the time the cold man pushed the bidding up to three hundred thousand. There was another spurt of bidding.

  "Five hundred thousand," the cold man said.

  There was frantic talking on com units. Three others bid nervously, pushing it to five hundred twenty four thousand. The cold man pushed it higher. There were a few more quick bids. The final number was five hundred seventy three thousand credits. The cold man said the number as if it meant nothing. Someone wanted me enough to pay a fortune.

  "I have a bid of five hundred seventy three thousand," Matthias said smugly. "Anyone else? No? Going once, going twice. This is your chance for revenge," he waited a long moment. "Sold then, for five hundred seventy three thousand credits. Come meet your new owner," he said to me.

  He dragged me off the platform and to the table on the side. The woman took the platform again and began auctioning off a repeating plasma burst generator, standard on Patrol hunter ships.

  "Full identity scan," the cold man said.

  "As agreed," Matthias said. "I have the papers here."

  "I will perform my own scans," the man said. He grabbed my hand and spread it on a portable scan screen. The screen glowed red. The man let go of my hand. He reached to my head and yanked free a small handful of hair. "This should be sufficient for a full DNA profile. This should only take a few moments."

  "This is Dace," Matthias protested. "I'd swear on my mother's honor."

  "Your mother has no honor." The cold man fed my hair into a small machine he'd pulled from his pocket. "And for the amount of money I am paying you, I have to be absolutely sure. If you are deceiving me, you will not live to regret it."

  Matthias didn't show his anger. I felt it as his hand twisted my collar tighter. We stood in the dusty wind, while the man ran my hair through his machine. He finally looked satisfied. He tucked his scanner into his pocket. He pulled out a credit chip and ran it through the machine on the table.

  "Fully authorized for five hundred seventy three thousand," he said as he handed it to Matthias.

  "It's been a pleasure doing business with you," Matthias said. He let go of my collar.

  I tried to run. The cold man signaled behind me. I was picked up by a thug three times my size. He tucked me under his arm and carried me like a package.

  The cold man walked in front of him, never looking back. We went directly to a ship.

  "Clean her," the cold man ordered as the door slid shut behind us.

  The thug dragged me to a bathroom and dumped me on the floor. He unsnapped the cuffs from my wrists. He left, shutting and locking the door.

  I searched frantically through every cabinet in the room. I found nothing. The room was stripped bare.

  The door slid open. The thug looked in. "You have two minutes or I will come in and bathe you."

  I didn't doubt he would. He was big and mean and definitely not stupid.

  "Time's running." He stood in the doorway, watching me.

  He wasn't going to shut the door again. I gave in. I stripped off the filthy clothes, leaving them on the floor. He watched as I stepped into the shower.

  "Two cycles," he told me.

  I did as I was told. I wasn't surprised my clothes were gone when I finished. He handed me a short tunic. It was white and sleeveless. I held it and felt my anger grow. Someone had done research on me. It was exactly like a slave's tunic from Vallius.

  "Put it on," the thug ordered.

  "No," I said.

  "Then you get to go naked." He took the tunic away and left me standing in the bathroom.

  I lasted maybe five minutes. I stepped out of the bathroom. The cabin held three men playing cards. They leered. I went back in the bathroom. I tried hiding in the shower. The override was locked. I couldn't have run it if I wanted to.

  I sat in there through liftoff. I stayed until after we made jump. The cold man came in after that. He stared dispassionately down at me.

  "You will do as you are told," he said.

  He grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the shower. The thug was waiting in the cabin. The cold man shoved me at the thug. He grabbed my arms and held me still. The cold man wrapped a piece of cloth around my neck.

  I realized what it was and went berserk. The thug held me while I screamed impotently at the cold man. He pulled out a short stick and twisted the controls. Pain ripped through me. I fell to the floor and gibbered while the collar sent waves of pain screaming through every nerve. When it finally quit, I was wearing the white tunic.

  I lay still, panting hard. I gave up completely. I couldn't fight again, not against this. I cried silently, huddled on the floor. The man chained me to the wall and left me alone.

  Chapter 30

  The night was fairly bright. The silver light of Fedrithus' moon washed across the endless sand. The shadows next to the Patrol barracks were dark, though, deep black that worked well for hiding them. Paltronis eased a cramp out of her leg. She'd been here, waiting for the last half hour. Two members of the brute squad, the two who could think coherently, stood next to her, motionless as the shadow itself.

  The side door of the building housing the armory eased open. Sikura glanced out briefly, waving the all clear. For some reason, the armory was located on the opposite end of the hallway from the infirmary. She had never really understood the Patrol's logic, what there was of it. Perhaps if the infirmary were located closest to the items most likely to cause injuries, it would make everyone safer. She didn't really care. Having it down the hall from Sikura made it easier to steal. Having a complete fool for a commanding officer also helped. The armory lock was complicated. She wasn't planning on picking it. Remove two screws and the whole doorknob would fall off. She'd loosened them that afternoon during mandatory rest time.

  She moved forward, confident that Herrison and Manson, the brute squad, would be right behind her. She ghosted across the open space and up to the door. Sikura had disabled the alarm and left it ajar. She pulled it open and slipped inside. Manson and Herrison came in behind her.

  They walked quickly down the dark h
all. Sikura waited near the door to the armory.

  "Linnea will join us later," he whispered. "She's making sure no one has a clue where we really went. The whole smoke screen of leave passes was brilliant. Fenniwik won't even think to look for us for at least three days."

  She didn't answer. The passes had taken her an hour of pretending to be sincerely concerned. Fenniwik had bought her whole story. Half the personnel on the base were currently somewhere in town on leave. The five of them were also supposed to be on leave. She used her screwdriver, removing the doorknob and bypassing the lock.

  "Take whatever you can," she said as she entered the armory.

  She moved over to a rack of blasters and began filling her pack. She took all of the spare power packs she could fit into a second pack. She pulled the top closed and checked the others. Herriman carried three packs bulging with explosives. He had four rifles slung over his shoulder. Manson had skipped the pack completely. He had at least a dozen rifles. His belt was stuffed with power packs. She nodded and moved for the door.

  Sikura slid it shut, waving them to be silent. They heard footsteps in the hall. Fenniwik insisted on a nightly patrol of the entire compound. Paltronis swore under her breath. She'd watched the guard walk through the building less than an hour earlier. He shouldn't have been back here. He should have been sound asleep at his post.

  He hummed as he walked past. They waited in tense silence as his footsteps faded away.

  "He didn't notice the door," Herriman grumbled. "Idiot."

  "Good for us he is one," Paltronis said. "Let's move."

  "And hope everyone awake at the port is blind," Sikura said, eying their weapons. "Are you planning on starting a war?"

  "It's already started," Paltronis said.

  "Then I feel sorry for whoever ends up fighting you," Sikura said.

  They moved into the hall, quiet and dark now that the guard had finished his rounds. The only one who made any noise was Sikura. Herriman and Manson were silent, despite the heavy load of weapons they carried. Paltronis wondered to herself if they'd raided an armory before. And then decided she didn't really want to know.