by D. J. Holmes
“Disgusting,” Sarah said quietly.
“What do you know?” Ranack spat. “It was the only way someone like me could make a living. You wouldn’t understand. You landed on your feet. Look at you, you are now captaining an Elder frigate. No one else has been handed what you have.”
Sarah didn’t bother contradicting him. In her limited travels, she had come across a number of different people making a decent living on black colonies. Not everyone who had fled the Elders had resorted to thievery and murder.
“Your feelings for me, were they all just to trick me into joining you?” Sarah asked. She didn’t really want to know, but she wanted Alexandra to have as much data as possible to work from when she turned to asking about Earth.
“Not entirely,” Ranack said. “I wasn’t lying when I said I haven’t seen another human for many years. Not since I got free from my slave collar. I did like you. You were foolish and a hopeless idealist, but you are beautiful. A part of me wanted to go with you. To help you find our homeworld. But I know how the universe works. Stealing the Elders’ gold was a far more realistic plan, and I knew you wouldn’t join us if you thought we were pirates.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Alexandra said.
Sarah was surprised. It doesn’t matter though, she told herself. He still betrayed me. “Do you have enough of a baseline now?” she asked the artificial intelligence. “I’ve about had enough.”
“Yes, I think we’re ready,” Alexandra responded.
“How many other humans were there on Kashal?” Sarah asked.
“Maybe as many as a hundred,” Ranack answered after a moment. “There weren’t many of us, but I believe we fetched a good price. That is why my mother was used for breeding.”
“So you have never been to Earth. What do you know of our homeworld? Is it even called Earth?” Sarah followed up.
“No, I have never been there,” Ranack answered. “I was telling you the truth when I said I don’t know where it is. It is called Earth, at least that is what my mother called it. It has another name though. Larangoth. After I got free I tried to find out more about it. I could never find out where it is though. There is no known Elder colony called Earth or Larangoth.”
“What does Larangoth mean?” Sarah asked.
“It means the Enslaved Ones,” Ranack said. “After I found that out, I gave up trying to find Earth. I told you that Earth is a Tier One colony. It has been so for more than a millennium and a half. There is no hope for our people. I don’t know why the Elders keep them enslaved, but they do, and they have done for a long time.”
“Is that all true?” Sarah asked Alexandra, afraid of the answer.
“Yes,” Alexandra said. “There is no sign he is lying and Larangoth does mean enslaved ones, in the Elder language.”
“Are there any planets in your database with that name?” Sarah asked.
“There are none,” Alexandra responded.
“What could have caused the Elders to keep a colony enslaved as a Tier One colony for so long?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know,” Alexandra answered. “From the records I have on Tier One colonies that are within the sectors I have patrolled, most Tier One’s are allowed to progress within three to five hundred years. The longest was fifteen hundred years. And that was a very primitive species that took centuries to educate enough to be able to use the technologies made available to a Tier One colony.”
“More mysteries,” Sarah thought back.
“Indeed,” Alexandra said.
“So, you know nothing more?” Divar asked, unaware that Sarah’s silence was because of her conversation with Alexandra.
“No,” Ranack answered. “Like I said. Once I found out the meaning of Larangoth, I gave up. I have been a slave for most of my life. I have no desire to return to a slave world.”
“Then you are no use to us after all,” Sarah said. “Maybe you have some useful information from your childhood that you can’t remember. I can use the interface helmet to dig it out of you.”
“No, no,” Ranack said. “I have told you all I know. You said you wouldn’t.”
“That was before I found out just what a scumbag you really are,” Sarah said. “Open the eye slits,” she thought to Alexandra.
As Ranack’s eyes appeared, they looked bloodshot. Sarah grinned on the inside. He clearly wasn’t enjoying his interrogation. “Show him the star map,” Sarah said.
Beside her, a holo projector powered up. It showed a map of the Orion arm of the galaxy. “I am going to Kashal,” she said. “It’s three months journey away. We need places where we can purchase anti-matter. Tell us the locations of black colonies along the route and I will keep my promise and let you go.”
“Will you give me your word?” Ranack said.
“Yes, I give you my word,” Sarah replied. “Not that yours means anything to you.”
“No, but I know yours does,” Ranack said. “There are six black colonies I know of. Some of them are rough though.”
“That’s fine,” Sarah said. “We can handle ourselves. Just tell me.”
As Ranack listed worlds that the Elders didn’t know about, Sarah turned and looked at the map of space. Quickly, a route to Kashal formed. At least you will prove useful for something, she thought. I may yet see my homeworld.
“Wipe his memory,” Sarah ordered as soon as Ranack had finished. “Take everything from the last month. I don’t want him remembering anything about me.” She wasn’t going to stoop to Ranack’s level and kill a helpless captive. However, she wasn’t going to let him go with the knowledge of her plans he had. If Angrave or Klixar caught up with him, he would be no use to them.
“Wait, wait,” Ranack screamed as his eye slits closed. His pleas turned to screams as Alexandra began to play electric charges across his skull. Sarah ignored the sounds and walked out of the interrogation room. Ranack would be alright in an hour or so.
“So, we are going to Kashal?” Divar asked as he followed her out of the room.
“Yes,” Sarah answered. “It’s my last chance to find out about Earth. Someone there has to know where my homeworld is. Angrave won’t know we are going there, so we should be safe. Plus, Angrave may not know about many of the black colonies Ranack has given us. He and Klixar won’t be able to track us.”
“What about anti-matter? Divar asked. “Should we ask the colony below us if they can sell us any?”
“Yes,” Sarah said as they walked back towards the bridge. “We have more than enough gold. If they seem hesitant, make them an offer they can’t refuse.”
“And Ranack?” Divar followed up.
“Once he comes to, put him in a shuttle and drop him off on the planet,” Sarah said. “I don’t want to see him again.”
“With pleasure,” Divar said.
As they continued walking to the bridge, Sarah tried not to let her hopes grow too much. After all the setbacks she had been through, she knew it was too much to expect Kashal to give her all the answers she wanted. Even so, it was hard. It was very likely she would meet more people from her species at Kashal. Ranack couldn’t be what all her species was like, he just couldn’t.
Chapter 27
Four months later, Sarah was sitting on Destiny’s bridge watching the planet of Berius. The information Alexandra had hacked from Ankara had led them here. It turned out what Sarah had always thought of as Kashal, was actually the planet of Berius. Kashal was Berius’s capital city and it was there that the planet’s main slave markets were located. According to Alexandra’s information, Berius served as the center of all slave trade in the outer edge of the Orion arm. At least the part of the Orion arm controlled by the Elders. More than forty percent of it still remained unexplored. Sarah hoped the fact humans were sold at Berius meant Earth was nearby. They were now more than six months’ direct flight from the Tyrilla storm. If Earth happened to be on the other side of the Storm, or even beyond it, it could be years before she got home.
Beriu
s was a Tier Two colony. Having been brought into the Elder Empire over two thousand years ago, it had only progressed one step up the Elder’s line of advancement. Sarah guessed it might have something to do with the willingness of the planet’s leaders to permit such a large-scale slave trade. Destiny had been sitting watching the planet in stealth for the last two days. They had counted a total of thirteen freighters entering the system in that time. There were a further twenty-two in orbit. Not all of them were likely to be slavers, yet it looked like many of them were. Rather than being met by large unloading cargo shuttles, most were met by smaller shuttles as they settled into orbit, suggesting their cargo wasn’t bulk goods.
“Well, I guess there is nothing for it,” Sarah said. “We may as well get on with it.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to follow you in?” Alexandra asked, not for the first time.
“No,” Divar answered. “We’re going to have to do this ourselves. Taking Destiny into the system is far too risky.”
“Let’s not go over this again,” Sarah thought. “It has already been settled. There are four Elder frigates in orbit, never mind the warships the Beriusians have. They may be primitive, but someone is bound to detect you sooner or later. We don’t know how long we’ll be.”
“Very well,” Alexandra said in a resigned tone. “It will be lonely without you. At this distance, we won’t be able to communicate at all.”
“I guess loneliness is a new experience you are going to have to get used to,” Sarah thought. Over the last months Alexandra had really begun to develop her own character. A part of that was a growing desire to seek out new experiences.
“I’m beginning to realize not all change is good,” Alexandra replied.
“Let’s go,” Divar said, drawing Sarah out of her silent conversation. He was getting good at guessing when Sarah and Alexandra were talking behind his back.
“Yes,” Sarah said with a nod as she stood.
After leaving the bridge, they quickly made their way through Destiny to one of the ship’s docking hatches. As the hatch opened, Sarah took a deep breath, she knew what was coming. They had visited Berius just over a week ago and it had quickly become apparent they couldn’t just fly into the system. After watching for a day, they had found an ideal target. A slaver freighter had been leaving the system. They had followed it through subspace for three days and then forced it to surrender under threat of destruction. Sarah had dumped the crew on an uninhabited planet. After seeing the conditions of the freighter and reading the files Alexandra had pulled off its main computer, she had been tempted to just space them there and then. As it was, they would all probably die of old age before anyone visited the system she had left them on.
As she walked onto the freighter she held her breath for as long as she could. It was no use. Eventually she had to open her mouth. Even though Alexandra had sent cleaning drones onto the freighter, the stench was just as bad as she remembered it. “This is unbearable,” she said.
“I know,” Divar replied. “Alexandra said she focused her cleaning efforts on the bridge. Let’s hope it is better in there.”
After stepping into the bridge Sarah felt a weird sensation as air was sucked past her. Then, just as quickly she felt it rushing past her in the other direction. As she tasted fresh air she let out a sigh of relief.
“I took the liberty of transferring some of Destiny’s air onto the freighter,” Alexandra said over the freighter’s COM system. “As long as you stay on the bridge you shouldn’t have to deal with the stench of the slaver vessel.”
“Thank goodness,” Divar said. “I think I owe you one.”
“I will remember that,” Alexandra said in an amused tone.
“I’m sure you will,” Divar chuckled.
“I’ll have to owe you as well,” Sarah said as she made her way to the freighter’s pilot seat. “You can detach us from Destiny’s hull,” she added as she ordered the freighter’s interface helmet to descend.
“You’re free to maneuver,” Alexandra said a moment later.
Sarah brought up the freighter’s sensors. After becoming used to Destiny’s sensors, looking towards Berius with the freighter’s was like looking through a thick fog. She engaged the freighter’s engines and set course for Berius. It would take them five hours to reach the planet. Even so, Sarah switched on the freighter’s identification signal. She didn’t want either the Elder frigates or the Beriusians warships to grow suspicious of them. A freighter that wasn’t afraid to reveal its identity so soon wasn’t likely to be up to anything suspicious. She also didn’t want anyone to think too hard about the fact that the freighter was a Hawler class freighter. According to Alexandra, there were over a billion of them registered within the Elder Empire. Even so, it was probably strange to see two of the freighters show up at Berius within the same week. Thanks to Alexandra, the freighter was renamed and registered to an Elder colony closer to the core of the galaxy. On paper at least, Wealthy would look different to the ship she had been just a week ago. Yet if anyone looked closely at their sensor data, they might realize they were looking at the same ship.
That was a risk both she and Divar knew they were taking when they had decided to employ this strategy. As a result, Sarah stayed plugged into the interface helmet all the way to Berius as she kept a wary eye on the warships orbiting the colony. Their other option had been to fly to a less well guarded system and sneak onto the surface. There they could have hired a passenger vessel to Berius. Yet there had been no way to predict just how long it would have taken to find a ship going to Berius. Worse, it would have left them with no escape route if things went wrong. At least with Wealthy in orbit they would have somewhere to run to if they got into trouble on the surface. While Sarah wasn’t expecting to run into any pirates on the planet, there would be plenty of slavers. From what she had read in Wealthy’s logs, they could be just as bad.
When they were an hour out from Berius, Planetary Control contacted them requesting a full inventory and flight history. Sarah sent the files and waited nervously. Like their registration information, Alexandra had faked Wealthy’s other details. Supposedly they were traders from a planet further within the Orion Arm, closer to the galaxy’s core. They were transporting Tier Three technology that just ten years ago had been approved for trade with Tier Two colonies. Many such items likely hadn’t reached Berius yet, and their inventory was designed to make the Planetary Controllers lick their lips.
Just over half an hour later approval came through. Wealthy was assigned a parking spot in orbit and sent details of the inflated transit fee they were expected to pay. The fee was in part determined by a freighter’s cargo and Planetary Control was trying to milk Wealthy for all she was worth. On top of that, they were informed about the import duty they would have to pay on any wares they sold. If Sarah had been a real trader, she would have skipped Berius all together. Such import taxes would seriously eat into profit margins. A quick check of the other duty rates Planetary Control had sent her confirmed her suspicions. It was far cheaper to import slaves. Berius’ planetary government was complicit in making the planet a center for slave trade. As it was, the charges were irreverent. They still had more than enough gold left over from what they had liberated from Ranack’s flotilla of ships. The charges were a drop in the ocean.
“Time to hold our breaths again,” Divar said once Sarah slotted Wealthy into her assigned orbit.
“I’m afraid so,” Sarah replied. They had to take Wealthy’s shuttle to the surface and the only way to the shuttle bay was through the stench of the rest of the ship.
*
After landing and passing through customs Sarah and Divar walked through Kashal, Berius’s capital. As Sarah looked around, something felt off. Focusing her attention on the people they were walking past she still couldn’t quite figure it out. “It feels different,” she said to Divar who was just in front of her.
“It’s the Beriusians,” Divar said, half turning his head.
“There are so many of them.”
Taking a second look, Sarah realized he was right. She had grown accustomed to traveling through pirate bases and black colonies. There, hundreds of different species mingled together freely. On Berius, there was five or more Beriusians for every person from another species she saw. The natives were also keeping to themselves and giving most of the other species a wide berth. The lack of diversity was a little unnerving.
“I guess they don’t like foreigners too much,” Sarah said.
“I don’t blame them,” Divar responded. “Most of the aliens who come here probably do so for the slave trade.”
“I guess you’re right,” Sarah said as she began eying all the non Beriusians with a little more caution. “So where should we go first?” she asked. Sarah barely remembered her time on Berius. All she had really known of the planet had been what her first owner had told her. Her owner had referred to buying her at the slave markets of Kashal. This was what had led Sarah to think Kashal was the planet she had been bought from. In reality, there were more than six different slave markets within the city of Kashal.
