An Assassin for the Slave

by M. Garnet

  He knew the Prime would be housed in the largest and most secure rooms in this huge fort. The entire fortification took in miles of land that included various living quarters, practice fields, and offices.

  He reached the Prime's location and waited to be announced by the guards at the massive metal door. He took a stance of pause, shutting down his body but keeping his mind alert. He could stay in a position of his choosing without movement for as long as required, but this time it was short as the door was opened, and he was invited to enter.

  For all the wealth the Prime had, the Prime worked in Spartan surroundings. The polished black floor had no rugs anywhere to break up the reflections from the windows. The one long slab of clear composite that made up his desk was covered with neat stacks of reports. Above it floated several screens of different types, some could be seen and some that had privacy backs.

  The Prime sat in a large buoyant chair that allowed him to move fast in any direction. Bogdan knew that the back of the chair would protect any projected particle supposing it was not large enough to take down a building from piercing it.

  The only other furniture was two large chairs in front of the desk. They were straight-backed and without arms and not meant for comfort. Rarely was anyone invited to sit in most meetings, so Bogdan took a stance of respect.

  The Prime brought his deadly eyes up to his man. The Prime didn't play games by wasting time delaying with one of his best assassins.

  "I have an assignment for you. It is important, so I needed to talk with you about it. Please have a seat."

  If it weren't for his years of rigorous training, Bogdan would have shown surprise. He kept control of his face and body as he sat stiffly in one of the chairs. As always he kept his arms available for any threat.

  The Prime sat back and looked at his top killer. "This contract is for protection and it is for one Federation year."

  There was silence as Bogdan thought about the words. At his level, he didn't do protection assignments. His training said wait. The wait was not long.

  "You must understand this isn't an insult to your standing in our society. This assignment is of a nature that there are very few people that I can trust with it."

  Bogdan nodded only once to assure his senior that he heard every word clearly. Now here was the real shocker.

  "The contract covers the protection of a member of the family of the Twinned Dissnue of the planet Gigas Vnee."

  The Twinned Dissnue were a pair of identical twins, identical in every way, in every molecule so that they thought alike and worked alike and moved alike. Such an unusual pair was only born once in every few centuries. It was told that if a catalyst could be found to join the two they would become more powerful than the machines used to produce answers for space travel.

  Whether they became that powerful had not been certified, but the twins of Gigas Vnee had become very unusual and with the rare commodity that their planet produced, the threads for deep space travel, they influenced their part of the active universe.

  Bogdan now understood this would not be a soft baby-sitting stay; it would be knee deep in all the intrigues of death dealing that lay within the stronghold of the Twinned Dissnue.

  "When do I leave?" Bogdan stood knowing the discussion with the Prime was about over.

  "There is a deep space ship coming through in a few hours. It would please me to have you on it."

  With a nod Bogdan was gone, already thinking of what to take with him for a year stay of protection. Only one set of each of his weapons and back up clothing.

  Halfway down the hall he grabbed a serving girl, tossing her tray to one side. The girl said nothing, knowing one didn't deny the higher ranked assassins, especially one coming from the Prime's company.

  He made it through the door and had her against the inside of the wood before he had her skirt up. By this time, she recognized who had her and smiled secretly but kept still, doing what he required. It took him only moments to loosen his pants and strip hers to push between her legs and enter her.

  She was barely moist, and his large size created some difficulty but the female servant knew she would be bragging to her friends this evening. Assassin Bogdan understood this was a top assignment, so he readied himself in all ways and he needed her for release.

  His release was soon found, and he stepped back letting the servant slide down to relax against the wood. He glanced around the room and found a small gold cup sitting on a table close by his body. He picked it up and handed it to her as he pushed her out of the room.

  His body relaxed, his next effort was on packing the small black leather bag he could carry with him in the pod on the deep space ship.

  For the servant, she leaned against the wall outside his door. The cup was worth more than she made in a month, but the best was the feeling she had when she had found release around the big assassin. Yes, she would be the center of attention tonight when she met with her friends and showed them the gold cup.

  * * * *

  Baloko was looking at his friend and former commander knowing that he was in trouble up to his hips. He was looking at a male that was not quite his friend. This man had changed. Still the Commander had walked up and put his arms around Baloko.

  After Baloko looked between the two twins, he was thankful when the Commander had taken him aside.

  "Welcome my old friend. I see you have fifteen pods. Let's leave them here for a time while you bring me up-to-date with the information on what brings you here with friends. Come up to my room."

  Baloko looked around the landing cavern. Security was tight with many more guards than he had seen on the one time before that he had visited with Bleak to see Bleak's home world. But the security was not the only change.

  There was a change in Bleak. Bleak had always been a strong Commander. He was a man to take control and handle a patrol ship in any situation. To be truthful they had gotten into some pretty tight places and the Commander had made the right decisions.

  But now Bleak seemed able to still get out of tight situations yet there was something different about him. There was a new coldness about him as he was looking out the front of a fighter ship into the depths of black space. It also seemed that a lot of the time Baloko was not just talking to his friend but to others. It was strange, but Baloko didn't have many choices. He was committed to his decision to come to this planet.

  "Tell me your story Baloko, while we have a good strong drink. You look like you need one." Bleak had the two of them settled in his old quarters, in one of the seating units with eats and drinks on the square low table between them.

  Baloko gratefully took a long gulp of the strong drink and sat back against the soft cushions.

  "First, I must apologize because I may have brought trouble to your doorstep."

  Bleak waved his hand as he looked at his Sub Commander, and he too leaned back; but there was something about the twin that made Baloko think the twin never relaxed anymore. Bleak waited for Baloko's story.

  "They didn't promote me to Commander status as you recommended. Believe it or not I think it was politics. I think because you recommended it, they chose to ignore it. I lost my temper and was told to take a leave.

  I went on a drunken gallivant and fell in with some other disgruntled officers who were no longer in the service. I won't waste your time describing how we filled our time with nonsense. Just let it be said that somewhere in there we got tired of gaming and sex and drinking." Baloko held up his glass for more liquor and a simple smile. He waited while Bleak filled his glass and topped off his own before Baloko continued.

  "One night a retired officer approached us to help him retrieve his daughter who had been kidnapped by a bunch of illegal slavers. We were bored and ready. It was stupid of us, but we needed to feel brave and useful so as theatre idiots we devised a plan to rescue the girl."

  Baloko sat his drink down and put his head down into his hands.

  Bleak watched with puzzlement. "I don't feel
you failed."

  Baloko looked up wiping the wetness from his face. "No, we succeeded all too well. But three of our kind died in the exchange. Good men who just wanted to help an old soldier and one little girl. Instead, I ended up freeing fifteen slaves and having a family of the slavers chasing after me in a payback as we killed several of their kind."

  Now, Bleak and Leant understood the fifteen sealed pods still being held in the landing bay. As the two twins spoke to each other in a way that others did not understand.

  There is only one slave allowed on our sacred storm planet.

  Agreed.

  But we do not believe in slavery.

  Agreed.

  We will offer sanctuary to the women in the pods.

  Agreed.

  Well, we will have another political or clandestine situation that we will be forced to handle.

  Loralei is seeking to talk to us about her protection. We will listen.

  Agreed.

  "Baloko, you are not to worry. If I had been with you in those drinking holes, I would have joined you. So I can't refuse you help now."

  Baloko shook his head in a negative manner.

  "Baloko listen, we have ways of handling outside problems. There are so many problems, what is one more. We will release the girls and give them offers of service here in the home or if they want to leave we will make arrangements. As for you, you are the best military man I ever served in my time in the military. My family needs someone to head up our military right here. You need to resign your position and take up with us. It will take a while for you to learn the situation here, but I, we, couldn't think of a male more suitable for the position."

  Now Baloko was on his feet. He was pacing, trying to work off the pain that had hit his heart. How could something that started out so dreadful turn out so good? There had to be a catch. Shit, what was he thinking about? He had come to his friend for help, and the man had thrown him not a life raft but the whole damn boat.

  "Commander, I don't even know why I am hesitating. It will take me but minutes to send out a message resigning my commission. I don't care if I lose my retirement funds. I will have pay coming from you and believe me you won't have a better military person in this whole system than me." Baloko stood at attention and saluted.

  Bleak looked at his old friend, sharing everything as usual with his brother who was working with some incoming messages from some tyrant who wanted their support from an uprising on his planet. Between the two twins, they notified the workers in the landing bay to release the women from the pods.

  The notice to release the women turned out to be a big mistake that no one thought out and had not shared with Baloko.

  Chapter Three

  Joo came awake in a panic. The big guy told them he had to hide them where no one would find them and the next thing she knew all of the women were being transferred from the shuttle to some ship and told to lie down inside these coffins.

  Joo's first thought as the lid rose and she came awake was to run. She needed cover and distraction. She had no concern for the other women but if they got away that was okay. Still, if they all ran together this would make a diversion that might help.

  She jumped out, ignoring the dizziness as her feet hit what felt like rock even though she could see shuttles and short range ships all around the area. She screamed as loud as she could. Her screaming caused several others to scream. Panic was contagious, so she began to push the girls and shove anyone that she came in contact. All of this caused most of the other women to do the same thing.

  "Run, hurry, hide," She yelled the words over and over and was pleased to hear several others repeat the statements. She saw that the back was open, and there were several side openings as well as what looked like lifts that took people and items up.

  Grabbing the hands of a couple of women she headed for a side opening that headed upward on a slant. She could see what appeared to be natural daylight coming down the opening.

  She was surprised and pleased to see the confusion among the people within the landing area. Many just couldn't make up their minds what to do about the screaming women. Some tried to raise their hands as if to pacify one or two, but they were dressed in uniforms.

  She yelled again, "We are being arrested. Run." That did it for several more. Some of these women had already been arrested and sold to the slavers by some legal force. Any one that got close to any woman got a hysteric, scratching female to deal with in their faces.

  She only glanced back a couple of times, needing to look ahead to run and dodge, but she did see a couple of ladies kneeling and crying and begging for help.

  By the time Joo came out on a wide protected cliff that continued upward, she had five women still with her. They were hearty and still able to travel. They seemed confused and willing to follow her, but she knew she wanted to split them up to make it harder for the trackers.

  It didn't take them long to reach the top of the cliff. Even Joo was impressed with the ocean as far as the eye could see, but best of all to her back were the giant trees, their roots sunk into the ground to fight the storms that fed them instead of tearing them apart.

  "We need to split up. It will be better to hide if there is only one. I am going straight into the forest even though there are probably animals. You guys make your own way. Good luck." Joo had put in a word about animals to discourage anyone from directly following her.

  She started straight into the forest and when she could find the right tree she stopped for a moment to look back. The four women were talking, but one finally threw up her hands and started walking away. The others looked at her, and they went in the other direction, staying only at the edge of the forest but within only a few steps another broke away and slowly stepped towards the underbrush.

  Joo nodded. Good, there was going to be enough mixed up trails to help her hide. Her own world and her background probably were the only things that gave her some solid living experiences that might give her a chance of existing on this wild planet. But, unfortunately, she had to be alone.

  Here she was in her small twisting cave listening to a storm pass overhead and thinking about her next meal. The forest provided a lot of food if one was not too fussy and had a strong stomach. She had lived on worse.

  She needed information, so she waited for the rain to let up to less wind and taking her sharpened pole and the shale knife she made she started out. She had her feet wrapped in tanned fur from a couple of small animals that were easy to catch and made good meals. She had found roots that, after a careful sample turned out to be edible.

  Also, after watching birds and animals she found plants and berries that she could add to her diet. She figured she might stay lean, but she could live healthy for as long as she needed.

  Joo was a reality person. She didn't intend to live her life in a cave. She needed to study the people on this planet, especially those in that large cave with the landing area for shuttles and small spacecraft. There was always a chance of getting on one of those crafts as a stowaway.

  But there was something that was different about that place. There were people there that were different. Joo had instincts that kept her alive in jungles and deep forests like this one. These innate instincts protected her from animals and in some cases from beings that could harm her.

  Being captured by the slavers was one of the more stupid things that had happened to her, and she would beat her head against the stone she slept on if it would help.

  She had seen the small shuttle on the edge of her hamlet. She had heard the screams and cries for help. All her training said she should run back into the forest that was behind her. But then she heard the voice of her grandmother, her last living relative.

  She rushed into the back door seeing her voda lying on the floor. Unfortunately, before she could turn she was hit and everything went black until she woke chained with a group. It went downhill from there until a small battle broke out.

  The chained group had been handl
ed roughly and put on an old shuttle that wasn't able to go far. Repairs were needed, so the slavers set down at the edge of a frontier town.

  The slaves were put into open cells, and the slavers got the bad news of the repairs. So for weeks the women were fed little and left unclean. The small utilities were overused, and the smells in the cells were unbearable. Still, the slavers didn't want any of the women to die so about once a week they brought in large hoses and sprayed everyone and everything down.

  Even though Joo wanted to be clean, the harsh water hoses hurt and knocked the women off their feet. Still, when it was done the cells were clean again for a time.

  There were many men and women who stopped and some made lewd remarks. Joo watched everyone, but there was one young girl who cried a lot, and there was an older man who started to stop and call to her and talked in a whisper only to her.

  Here was something that might help. Joo's instincts kicked in because the girl had been a city girl who cried and hid her face whenever any man approached, especially the slavers. If this girl could stand and talk to an older man then he had to know her, and it might help.

  Joo took a good look at the man as he passed, and he had the bearing of a military person, probably retired. The girl might be his daughter.

  She had enough talk from the slavers to understand that they could not sell anyone on this world. They needed to get their ship repaired, and they needed to get the women to a nearby spaceport that allowed the sale of slaves.

  At last, the old ship was repaired. The slavers came and hooked the women together on one long chain connected at the neck of each. Of course, Joo tried the strength of the neck collar and the chains but found no weakness.