Stolen by the Alien Raider: A Novel of the Silent Empire

by Chase, Leslie

  For a moment I let myself think about it. I'd always wanted to see Paris, and now I could have a palace there. Wealth to put the richest billionaire to shame, enough to provide for all my family and friends. The world at my feet. It was a beautiful fantasy, but the reality would be different. And much, much less pleasant.

  I tried to imagine the leaders of the world reacting to a Princess claiming to own Earth and shuddered. Would America quietly accept me? Would Russia, or China? No, no chance. War, chaos, death would follow. Probably futile — even without the Lament itself, I didn't doubt that Xeraxis's fleet would be able to conquer one planet.

  "What happens if the Earth doesn't accept our rule?" I asked.

  "They will," Lament said with absolute certainty and a touch of glee. Well, she was a warship after all. "Eventually. My lord Xeraxis has plenty of experience pacifying reluctant planets."

  So much that he's stuck here on a broken ship, not a planet to his name. I couldn't say that out loud, though, not to Lament. I really didn't want to find out what the ship I was on would do if I pissed her off, and referring to her damage would be a good way to do that.

  Something about that made me think. Something about Lament seemed keener than loyalty to her lord could explain. It was personal for her. Maybe that's just how AIs work? It's not like I've spoken to many, after all. But I couldn't ignore my instinct, and I bit my lip, trying to remember what Kadran had told me about the battle damage.

  "That's why you're so keen on this, isn't it?" I asked, sounding out the idea forming in my mind and shuddering. "You need a fresh planet to mine for resources and workers. You don't care about me, you care about being repaired."

  Lament's silence was icy, and I knew I'd touched a nerve. Turning to the window, I looked down at the planet below. "There's no planet full of slaves to strip-mine here, right? You're going to take Earth apart."

  "Not the bits you like," she said, as though that ought to be all that mattered to me. "Be reasonable — it's only a planet, and you'll have everything you could dream of. Any luxury, any treasure, anything at all. If you're concerned about your family and friends, don't be. My lord is no monster, he will keep safe everyone you care about."

  Sure. As long as I sell out billions of others to work in the mines for you, I thought. "No deal. No fucking way. I didn't want to be sold as a slave, and I won't sell anyone else into slavery. Not happening."

  "We will treat them well," Lament said in the tone of someone speaking to a child, as though I simply didn't know better. "Sooner or later, someone will conquer your planet. Better that it's you than someone else, yes?"

  My jaw tightened and I tried to keep my anger in check. It wasn't easy.

  "That's what the ASP are working to stop, isn't it? People like you coming in and taking whatever the hell you want from us."

  "And they will fail eventually," Lament assured me, her voice hardening. "If I were at full power, they couldn't stop me even now. We wouldn't need this legal workaround, we'd just swat them aside like the flies they are. You have this chance because I'm weak — don't throw it away."

  My reflection looked back at me from the window and I sighed at the sight. I looked like a princess in the fancy robe that was all I'd been given to wear, with the background of the fabulous room behind me.

  "No." I remembered Kadran's eyes, the tales he'd told me of growing up an Imperial slave. And my experience of Xeraxis didn't make me think he'd be any kinder than Kadran's princess had been.

  Thinking of Kadran made tears well in my eyes, and I wondered what had happened to him. Hopefully he'd gotten away safely and wasn't planning anything stupid like a rescue. He'd already suffered enough for me, and I was about to throw my life away.

  He'll be okay, I promised myself. I'm sure he's far away by now, rescuing other slaves and being a hero. I just wish we'd been able to say goodbye. But at least I'm going to go out doing something he'd approve of.

  What would happen to me when the Prince and his warship accepted that I wasn't going to say yes didn't bear thinking about. It wouldn't be pleasant, that much I was sure of.

  "I won't do it. Earth doesn't belong to me whatever your Imperial law says, and even if it did I wouldn't let you have it." I turned my back on the window and looked into the room, wishing I could glare at Lament as I spoke.

  Hopefully she was getting the message.

  "I'm genuinely sorry to hear that," Lament said after a moment. "You have Imperial blood, and I would much rather see you happy."

  "If you want me happy, send me home," I said. "Send me home and leave it at that."

  "You know that I won't," she replied. "Your loyalty to your homeworld is inspiring, if misplaced. My loyalty to my prince is no less strong."

  A shimmering hologram appeared in the center of the room and I frowned, stepping closer to see what she was trying to show me.

  "I wish there was another way to proceed," Lament said as I looked into the hologram of an empty corridor. "You leave me no choice, however."

  I shivered. Somehow it was worse that she still sounded friendly and almost cheerful. "What are you going to do to me?"

  "To you, my lady?" she sounded both shocked and amused at the idea. "Oh Divine Empress, nothing of course. I would never countenance harm to someone of the Imperial blood. But I'm afraid that we have other methods of persuasion available."

  As if on cue, a door slid open in the hologram and out stepped Kadran. For a moment I didn't register anything else. It was him, alive, healthy. My body relaxed a fraction at the sight of him, letting go of tension I'd been hiding from myself.

  Kadran was alive and in one piece. It was an effort not to try and hug the hologram, as useless and futile as that would be.

  But he wasn't alone. Behind him walked another alien, the one I'd called Red when we were all aboard the Red King's Revenge. A slaver, and an armed one at that — he had gun drawn and pointed at Kadran's head, shoving my love forward. Kadran was bound, his arms cuffed behind him.

  I shuddered at the sight, and Lament spoke again. "It was unwise of your companion to put his trust in this Athazar. He, at least, knows better than to oppose the will of my prince."

  Athazar. I glared at the red-skinned alien, promising myself I'd find a way to repay him for this. I didn't know how, or when I'd get the chance, but if he'd betrayed Kadran I would never forgive him.

  "I would much rather not subject you to any distress, my lady," Lament continued, her cheerful voice making everything worse. "If you would just do what's in all of our best interests, then we'd have no need to threaten your alien companion. As it is though..."

  She trailed off and my imagination started to fill in the horrors they might unleash on Kadran to get my cooperation. Whatever I could think of, I knew that they could do worse — the Empire had millennia of experience, after all.

  In the hologram I watched guards seize Kadran, dragging him away from Athazar. Another man stepped up, and I recognized Lord-Commander Bergot, his right hand a bulky glove crackling with energy. The satisfaction with which he punched Kadran in the stomach was palpable, and Kadran doubled over in agony.

  Bergot raised his fist high, his guards holding Kadran motionless by the arms.

  "Stop it!" I shouted, tears welling in my eyes. "Fine, you win, I'll marry Xeraxis if that's what it takes."

  "I knew you could be reasonable," Lament said, sounding almost sympathetic. In the hologram, Bergot lowered his hand reluctantly. "Your alien will come to no harm as long as you stay that way."

  "Let him go," I demanded, trying to sound strong. Trying not to show just how badly it hurt me to see Kadran like this. I knew that I wasn't fooling anyone, but I had to try.

  "Certainly. After the ceremony, when you and Xeraxis are bound by marriage vows, he will be free to go wherever he wants." Lament sounded unconcerned with my pain. "Or you could keep him, if you prefer. Xeraxis will not be jealous if you want a plaything."

  I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from screaming
at her. Did she really understand us so badly? The idea of Kadran as a pet, a slave, was the worst fate I could imagine for him.

  But at least they were willing to let him go. Or promise to, anyway — trusting them didn't come easily. Lament gave me no other choice, though, and I didn't see what they would gain by harming him if I gave in.

  I sobbed, watching the image fade away with tears on my cheeks. Had I just sold Earth out to save Kadran? Maybe, but I didn't know what else I could do. Letting him suffer for me was unthinkable.

  At least this way I won some time. Maybe I could find another option before the wedding? It didn't seem likely, but it was the only hope I had left.

  I'm sorry, I wanted to tell him. Sorry that you got dragged into this, sorry that you've been hurt, sorry that I can't run to you and hold you. I can keep you safe, though, and I will. I promise you that.

  21

  Kadran

  The cells of the Lament were no better than I expected, but no worse either. The guards shoved me into a small dark space barely large enough to hold me, black metal walls looming around me. It was supposed to be intimidating, I knew, but I'd grown up in worse conditions.

  "I'm sorry, Kadran," Athazar said from behind them, not sounding sorry at all. "You simply have nothing to offer me, not compared to an Imperial Prince's reward. I have to look out for myself, you understand."

  I turned and lunged at him with a roar, teeth bared and aimed at his throat. The cell doorway crackled as I slammed into the forcefield, energy coursing through me with agonizing intensity and dropping me to the floor of the cell.

  The guards laughed and Athazar just looked down at me shaking his head. "You should know better, friend," he said.

  "I will find you, and I will rip your head off," I promised him, meeting his gaze squarely. "And then we'll see who has the last laugh, friend."

  Athazar shook his head again, touching a button on his belt. The restraints binding my arms opened and clattered to the deck. Slavers' tools, they were fitted with a stunner that would have incapacitated me even without the forcefield. More of the lessons Athazar had learned from our time belonging to Princess Tlaxanna.

  "I'll want those back," he told the guard commander, a formidably large human. That one would bear watching — he wasn't just big and well trained, he looked like he'd been augmented. A cyborg could be dangerous in a fight.

  Save that thought for when you have a chance to fight anyone, I told myself. Trapped in this cell I was better off conserving my strength.

  I was close to Amy, I could feel it. But stuck in here, how could I be any use to her?

  The guards left with Athazar, abandoning me to my thoughts. The only furniture in the cell was a bed, more of a shelf on the wall really. I'd spent more time in a place like this than I liked to think about, back in my days as a slave to the Princess, and I knew how impossible they were to escape. Simplicity was the key there. The forcefield on the doorway was generated outside the cell, so a prisoner couldn't reach the controls. Unlike a physical door, there was no way to attack the lock or the hinges.

  I was stuck here until someone decided to let me out.

  My anger threatened to boil over and I punched the wall. It achieved nothing, not even a dent — the cells were designed to take abuse.

  Damaging my fists won't help Amy. That was my only purpose here, after all, and I needed to be ready to take my chance when it came. If it came.

  Sitting on the cold, hard metal surface of the bunk, I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. On the words of my teachers in the Ikarna Temple. Breath is life. As long as you can draw air, you can draw hope. As long as you have hope, you are not lost.

  Hope was hard to come by when I'd been delivered back into the hands of the Empire, but I held onto what I could and sank into my meditation. Breath in. Hold. Breath out.

  * * *

  Time lost its meaning for me. It could have been minutes, hours, even a day or more, but eventually, something changed. I could feel someone else's presence, watching me. My eyes opened as I let out my next breath, and there he was. My captor, standing in front of me. Watching.

  Prince Xeraxis was easy to recognize from the statues around his ship, but I'd have known him as an Imperial Prince without that. His clothing made it obvious, the deceptively simple outfit made of rare fabrics that would have bankrupted my homeworld to produce. It was cut perfectly for him, hung with discrete reminders of his status.

  Jeweled pins along his collar marked his conquests, and the captain's insignia on his chest showed him to be master of the ship in which we travelled. A faint smile crossed his haughty face as he saw me take in who he was.

  "I hope I find you refreshed," he said without a trace of irony. "It was not my intent to disturb your meditations."

  That was politer than anything I'd expected to hear from a prince, especially when I was his prisoner. It didn't make me like him any more, but I had expected him to gloat. That he had more dignity than that was a small mercy.

  "Where is Amy?" I asked, trying to keep the peaceful feeling wrapped around me like a cloak. I was still locked behind a forcefield, after all, safely held away from the human. Anger wouldn't achieve much, not now.

  "Princess Amy is quite safe and comfortable, I assure you," he said. "And I must thank you for bringing her to me. For that I am in your debt, and I assure you that I pay all my debts."

  Princess? I blinked, surprised but not shocked. Things fell into place. That explained what we'd been scanning for, traces of the Imperial bloodline. That was a prize that made a single prisoner worth a fortune to Drezz.

  Anger battered against my cloak of calm. "Then release me, and her."

  He smiled an ice-cold expression that came nowhere near his eyes. "My gratitude does not mean I am stupid, Kadran, nor will it mean that I give up on my plans. Rather, I shall pay you the fee I agreed to pay Captain Drezz for his services, and I shall set you free once Amy and I are safely married."

  Those words drove a spike of ice into my heart and I felt my hands ball into fists at my side. The Temple teachings could only do so much to control the wave of anger I felt.

  "And what will you do with Amy then?" I asked, trying to focus past the rage.

  "Keep her in luxury and safety as befits my wife," he answered with a shrug. "I am not a monster, and I mean her no harm."

  But you don't care how much you hurt her, either, I thought, looking into those cold eyes. This was the kind of man who saw people as things, as objects to be possessed or obstacles to be destroyed. Xeraxis wouldn't care for Amy for her own sake, only as a tool that would allow him to continue his plans.

  At best, she'd be a jewel in his collection of exquisite ornaments.

  "Let her go. If you hold her to be your equal, a member of the Imperial Family, then you can't keep her by force."

  "Naive," he said, hand flicking out in a gesture of contempt. "My fellow Princes and Princesses have divided my holdings between them while I have languished here. Do you think I owe her any more loyalty than they showed me? No, I will take her world and use its resources to repair my flagship. She will be happy enough as my bride — mudborn as she is, I can show her luxury she could not dream of."

  I took a step forward before I could stop myself, and the forcefield flickered inches from my face. A promise of pain if I tried to cross the threshold and attack the prince. That insult for anyone born on a planet was common amongst the Imperials, but it still enraged me to have it applied to Amy.

  "If you're not here to listen to my pleas," I ground out between gritted teeth, "then why did you come down here? I can't believe it was to offer me your thanks in person."

  He laughed as though that was the best joke he'd heard in years. "Of course not. I came to invite you to the wedding. Your presence will be a reminder to our darling Amy that she shouldn't try anything stupid, because you'll suffer for it if she does. And you, if you know what's good for you both, will help encourage her to do the right thing."

>   I glared at him through the crackling electric field. Words wouldn't come, and the peace I'd found in meditation had fled completely now.

  Xeraxis stepped closer, meeting my gaze without fear. He had courage, I'd give him that — at least when he was safely behind a forcefield.

  "If you do not help, and she does do something foolish, you will regret it," he said quietly. "Oh, not because of the harm I'll do to you. I know that isn't the kind of threat that matters to a warrior such as yourself, Kadran. But if Amy does not marry me as planned, then she is no use to me at all. In that case, I will simply have to get another bride brought from Earth... and Amy will join you in the torture pits. You can be together there and watch each other suffer. Am I clear?"

  There was not a hint of doubt in my mind that he meant it. Amy wasn't the only person of an Imperial bloodline on Earth — even the quick scan I'd managed when snatching her had shown us a dozen or more. Xeraxis could afford to move on and go to another candidate if he had to.

  And he wasn't bluffing about the torture pits, either. One look into those cold eyes told me that. He might not be the sadist Tlaxanna had been, but he wouldn't shy away from using pain to punish his foes.

  Seeing Amy married to this monster would he horrible. But the alternative that he offered would be even worse, and I couldn't allow her to suffer like that. I would not.

  "Very well," I said, breaking eye contact with him. Let him think me defeated rather than defiant, I had nothing to gain from antagonizing him. "For her sake, I will do as you say."

  "Good." Xeraxis smiled again, still with as much warmth as a glacier. "I thought that you'd be reasonable. And do not worry, once we are done I shall send you on your way with enough wealth to help you forget about this entire regrettable incident."

  You really don't understand that some people can't be bought, I thought, but I kept quiet and nodded. Nothing would be gained by making him doubt me, not now.

  "You will need something to wear," he continued after a moment's silence. "Those rags will simply not do. My tailor will make the arrangements."