Out of Orbit- The Complete Series Boxset

by Chele Cooke

  He leaned his head back against the brick, a sad resolution settling onto his face.

  “You won’t be sold, George,” he murmured. “They will make sure of that.”

  “They can really do that?”

  He nodded.

  “Words in the right guard’s ear, offering the right price. The guards will listen to them. You’ll be worth far more within this block than they could make on your sale.”

  Georgianna sighed, closing her eyes. While the fear of being sold to Maarqyn had haunted her every thought since the block door had slid closed behind her, the knowledge that she would never leave the compound proved far more depressing.

  Her life would be one long wait for orders. She would never see her friends or family. After both losing their partners, her father, Lyle, and her brother, Halden, would lose a daughter and sister. Her nephew, Braedon, only five years old, would lose his only aunt. She would never see him grow up. She would never know if Nyah and Alec made good use of their freedom. She would be well and truly buryd alive. Not quite living, not yet dead.

  “Dhiren,” Georgianna began. “How did you… I mean, why did you agree to work for them?”

  A soft sigh left his lips and he leaned forwards, resting his arms across his knees. He glanced at Georgianna before turning his attention back onto his boots.

  “I didn’t have much of a choice.”

  “But you’re… You could have defended yourself,” she argued. “You don’t need their protection like…”

  “Like me” almost slipped from her lips, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it. Dhiren tilted his head to the side and carefully stretched out his jaw, a click sounding from one of the joints.

  “I did from the Adveni,” he admitted. “When I was captured, I knew that it would only be so long before I was given the rope. Vajra approached me. He said he would keep me from being executed if I worked for them.”

  He gave a dismissive shrug.

  He was older than her, perhaps by five or six years. She had often wondered about him, curious about what he’d done to get put into the compound, but she had never dared ask. He’d never been anything but kind and cheerful to her, but the opinions of the other inmates had often weighed on her mind.

  She’d heard stories when she used to come into the compound on her medic visits, but it was only when she arrived as an inmate herself that the other inmates really began to talk. They told her everything she wanted to know. There were different stories, but the one she heard most often was that the brothers had been captured after the massacre of an Adveni transport almost six years before. Ta-Dao, the elder brother, and Vajra, the younger, had been informed that they would never leave the compound unless they were being put into the ground.

  Funnily, there were no common rumours about Dhiren’s incarceration. Every person who spoke about it gave a different story, varying from the questionable to the downright insane. His story, according to most, was far more exciting than the brothers because he never talked about it. Georgianna wondered if anyone had bothered to ask him.

  “What… What did you do?”

  Dhiren’s eyes narrowed and he tugged at each of his sleeves in turn, covering up a little more skin. She wondered whether she had stepped too far. If she was wrong about people being afraid to ask him about his crime, he might not look at her the same way again. He didn’t speak to many of the other inmates and from what Georgianna had seen, he didn’t even speak to the brothers unless he had to. He watched her for a few moments, a calculating expression on his square face.

  “Murder. Three Adveni.”

  In an instant, the cautious look in his eyes was gone and he smiled proudly, almost childishly—a teenager boasting of his first hunting kill.

  “That they caught me for,” he added under his breath.

  She turned further towards him, ready to hear more of the story.

  “I didn’t want to work for them,” Dhiren said instead. “I only do it because I have to.”

  Georgianna sighed, nodding in agreement. She could understand why Dhiren would believe that working for the brothers was the lesser of two evils. For her, it was protection in the block. For Dhiren, it was his life.

  “There’s a rumour going round, you know?”

  Georgianna waved for him to continue.

  “They say that you helped two dreta escape,” he said, secretive amusement in his voice.

  She glared at him. He was mocking her.

  “That is hardly a rumour. Plus, why would I be interested in my own capture? I already know why they put me in here.”

  “The rumour is that the owner is looking to buy you,” he answered. “Some big shot.”

  Georgianna froze.

  “True then?”

  “He said that I would replace his loss,” she explained. “Though, I guess I don’t have to worry about that now.”

  “No,” he agreed. “Now you can see the bright side.”

  Personally, at that moment, she wasn’t sure which fate she would prefer. Maarqyn sent shivers of fear down to her very bones, but staying in the compound didn’t sound like an appealing alternative the way Dhiren described it. She didn’t want to be a slave to a pair of ruthless brothers any more than she wanted to be a slave to an Adveni. She stared at the wall, thumbing the note clutched in her hand, feeling Keiran’s promise to save her from all of it slipping further away.

  The sound of metal scraping against stone made Dhiren lift his head. His soft humming that had permeated the air stopped abruptly and his hands stilled against his knees. For the briefest of moments there was utter silence apart from the whine of the door. Barters between inmates froze mid-transaction. Games and conversations that filled the time in the block paused. The moment the door fell silent, the cells erupted back into a flurry of activity. Footsteps thundered along the walkways as the boom of heavy military boots came marching through the door.

  “Count,” Dhiren whispered as an identical bark came from below.

  Getting to his feet, he turned and held out his hand. She hesitated, but took it and allowed him to pull her to her feet. The note was still clutched in her other hand, but it was too late to hide it. She tucked it into the waistband of her trousers under the ruse of straightening her shirt and followed him from her cell.

  They hurried along the walkway, Dhiren’s hand leaving hers as they stepped onto the spiral staircase at the end of the cells. Grasping the handrail to steady her steps, other inmates bustling behind her, Georgianna let her gaze sweep over the inmates and guards collecting below.

  Lyndbury Compound stood away from the city, built just after the Adveni’s arrival on Os-Veruh. Two inmate blocks were filled with prisoners and a third was for those who were destined to become dreta—slaves to Adveni owners. Georgianna had seen the conditions within the compound many times since she volunteered to enter as a medic, but nothing had prepared her for the way it had felt when the block door slammed closed on her as an inmate. The guards entered the block for count and when they forced the inmates out onto a yard for exercise, but cared little for the cruelty that went on between prisoners within the block walls once the doors had closed.

  The guards had assumed their positions, spread evenly along the centre of the wide corridor between two rows of cells. One of the guards, a tall, wiry woman, was looking into the conspicuous space surrounding Hallun’s broken body. At the barred fronts of the cells, prisoners lined up, shoulder to shoulder, facing the guards and waiting for the parade to begin.

  Count was completed twice a day, once just after sunrise, the other just after sunset. Every day after the morning count, five inmates would be taken out of the block to collect rations for the day. When they returned, the rations were handed over to the brothers to organise distribution. If an inmate had angered the brothers, it didn’t always mean a beating between counts, it could mean that they didn’t eat and suffered the slow decay of starvation instead.

  Spotting Vajra and Ta-Dao in their usual position
at the centre of the opposite line, Georgianna grasped Dhiren’s arm and steered him along the back of the line closest to them. She didn’t want to be anywhere near them, even though she knew her time was now running out. When he found a wide-enough gap, he slipped in to face forwards with the rest. She stepped in next to him, her shoulder against his arm, fingers brushing the backs of his knuckles.

  There were two lines of guards, a dozen sentries, while a thirteenth carried out the count. Georgianna stared at the sand-mix concrete in front of her feet as the last inmates slid into line, some shoving shoulders in order to make room. It was the same parade every day, the names of inmates read out in alphabetical order, the shout of prisoners responding when their name was called, and the incriminating silence when a body lay in wait for collection.

  The guard taking count that morning ambled slowly across the block, waiting to make sure that everyone was in place before he began. He was a shrewd-looking Adveni, with mouse-brown hair cropped close to his wide head. His uniform was too tight in places, bulges of flesh appearing at the neck and waist as he moved. Every inmate fell silent when he drew out a tsentyl, having decided that they were all present. He began reading down the list on a tsentyl in a monotonous tone.

  Georgianna’s gaze drifted as the guard made his way through the list of names. There was a similar line of inmates facing her from in front of the cells opposite. When she came to Ta-Dao and Vajra, she quickly looked away. Vajra had his gaze fixed upon her. Despite Ta-Dao coming to make the deal the night before, it had been Vajra who had shown interest in her since she had been in the compound.

  Avoiding Vajra’s expectant smirk as he leaned to the side and whispered to his brother, Georgianna found herself looking at the familiar face of the guard, Edtroka.

  She’d once been on friendly terms with him, or at least, as friendly as a compound guard would ever be with a Veniche. However, whatever semblance of friendship she had managed to build with him had promptly been destroyed upon her incarceration. He’d refused to listen to her pleas that he protect her from a sale to Maarqyn. Now, no doubt, he would have no objections to the brothers’ plan of keeping her within the compound. Since she had stepped into the block as an inmate, Edtroka had refused to so much as look at her, no matter how hard she tried to catch him at a good moment.

  He stood ten feet down the line, looking at nothing in particular. His large, tanned hands were clasped behind his back, his uniform perfectly pressed and not a short dark hair out of place. From what Georgianna could see, he was the same guard she had met on her first trips into the compound: cold and dedicated, a guard who didn’t care for her one drop.

  She didn’t know what kept her looking at him for so long. She knew that he would pay her no attention, but it felt oddly comforting to see a face she had known before she was captured. She had known a few of the inmates through her trips into the compound, but it wasn’t the same. Edtroka had no reason to be nice to her yet in the past he had been.

  When Edtroka’s head turned suddenly, Georgianna’s eyes widened. Dhiren’s elbow shot into her side as the guard’s bark travelled out through the block again.

  “Lennox!”

  Georgianna quickly turned to the guard taking count, blinking a few times as she shook herself out of her shock. She could see Ta-Dao chuckling behind the guard, and her throat felt as tight as if the brothers were trying to squeeze the very life out of her.

  “Ye…” she squeaked before clearing her throat. “Yes.”

  The guard gave her a look of unadulterated loathing at her apparent incompetence at even answering to her own name and Georgianna quickly lowered her head. Edtroka’s dark gaze was still on her, a twitch at the corner of his lip.

  She couldn’t look away and the guard made no effort to do so. A cold fear flooded her stomach, rising into her chest. Suddenly, she was all too aware of the note tucked into her clothing, the sharp corners pressing against her skin. Had Keiran attempted something? Had he been caught and was Edtroka the one who had questioned him? Did he know that they’d been planning her escape? Someone had told an Adveni about Nyah and Alec’s escape from Maarqyn. Had they told them of this attempt too?

  There was a moment of silence as the guard came to the end of the list. The inmates watched and waited to see whether they would be questioned or given instructions and the guards kept their positions along the lines. The guard who had taken count looked over them, pausing at Hallun’s body, and then nodded.

  Hesitantly, inmates began shuffling out of line. Most of the guards made their way back towards the door, while two near the far end stepped forwards, heaving Hallun up into their arms and manoeuvring their way towards the door, his body hanging limply between them.

  Dhiren turned to her, touching the back of her shoulder. It was time. She had been present at count and the brothers would be expecting her. Georgianna gave him the smallest of nods.

  “I guess I should go and see them.”

  “Probably a good idea. You’ll learn soon enough that they aren’t patient.”

  Georgianna paused, looking over at him.

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Uhh…” Dhiren hummed. “Two years? I was brought in just as people were moving south. I made my deal within the month.”

  Georgianna glanced towards the cells opposite them. Vajra had his arms crossed over his chest, his fingers drumming on his arm as he glared at her, waiting.

  “There’s no way out of it?” she whispered.

  He let out a huff of amusement, or perhaps bitterness, and turned away from her.

  “Death?”

  “That’s reassuring.”

  Dhiren stared past her towards the doorway with a deep and thoughtful frown. Georgianna glanced over her shoulder, following his gaze. Edtroka was handing over a crate of food to one of the inmates. Dhiren’s frown was gone as fast as it came, and he shrugged, a bitter smile returning to his lips.

  “Well, if there’s another way, I haven’t found it.”

  “Lennox!”

  Georgianna jumped as her name rang out again. All around her, inmates froze. Usually, after count, the guards filed out and left the prisoners to their own devices. They didn’t call out prisoners’ names. The inmates who were to collect the food knew to go to the door. The only time the guards questioned them was to discover what had happened to a deceased inmate, and even then they didn’t always bother to ask. Sometimes, like today, they simply heaved up the body and carried it out.

  Did they know that Georgianna had been involved in Hallun’s death? She knew that they had methods of watching the prisoners within the block. She looked for the voice. Most of the guards had left, a few still stood by the door while the food was handed over. When she spied Edtroka, however, he had stepped away from the door and was staring at her expectantly.

  Dhiren didn’t say anything. Instead, he simply patted her twice on the shoulder, squeezing the joint ever so briefly. With the smallest of smiles, he released her and walked away.

  Across the block, Ta-Dao and Vajra muttered to each other under their breath, curiosity and annoyance twisting their features. Georgianna stepped towards Edtroka.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “Come with me,” he ordered. “You’re leaving.”

  She didn’t have time to question him or protest. He reached out, clamping a tight grasp on her upper arm, and marched her down between the cells, through the heavy red door and out of the cell block.

  Edtroka kept a tight hold on her elbow and led her away from the guards on the other side of the door. Inmates from the different cell blocks were collecting food rations, stacking the crates on top of one another to make as few trips as possible. Georgianna didn’t try to free her arm from the Adveni guard’s grasp. She walked beside him, watching the side of his face for any indication of what was happening.

  A unit of the Adveni elite military, the Tsevstakre, had caught her with two broken cinystalq slave collars. They had arrested and held Veniche
people for much less. There wasn’t a chance that she would be freed. She knew that, and yet sparks of hope flickered through her.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  He didn’t answer.

  “Please, Edtr… Guard Grystch. What’s… Am I being sold?”

  He continued to ignore her as they turned into another wide corridor, weaving their way through the compound. She felt lost. While she remembered certain areas of the prison like the layout of her own home, there were others that were unfamiliar.

  As they made another turn, Georgianna spotted a door at the end of the corridor that she remembered well. The heavy double doors with windows fixed into the tops led out to the drysta yard, the place where the Adveni bought their slaves. Before being captured, Georgianna had avoided the drysta yard whenever possible. She hated to see the Ven sold off like cattle, to watch Adveni bidding on them the same way Veniche people bid on the pelts of a hunting kill.

  When the Adveni arrived on Os-Veruh, just over a decade earlier, a war had broken out between the invading Adveni and the Veniche who had always occupied the volatile planet. The Adveni, who had fled in search of a new home when a meteor threatened to destroy the planet, had now returned, determined to reclaim their homeland. All too quickly, the Adveni proved their dominance in war and technology against the Veniche, and their laws were put in place before they claimed that the war had been won. Prisoner compounds were erected to hold Veniche criminals, drysta yards put in place for those who would be sold. While most of the fighting had died out except for small bands of resistance fighters like the Belsa, the cruelty of the Adveni towards the Veniche only became more prominent.

  Her breath was coming faster as they neared those doors. All thoughts of being freed vanished and a cold dread settled in her stomach. She wasn’t ready. She couldn’t stand on that podium and watch as the Adveni scrutinised everything about her body to determine her worth. She wasn’t prepared to see Maarqyn’s thrilled smirk from the crowd.

  They passed the door for the drysta block, the separate prison cells for those who would be going onto the yard. Georgianna glanced at it, losing her footing and stumbling into Edtroka. He stopped next to a dull, grey door further on. Glaring at her with his eyes narrowed in warning, he released her elbow and unlocked the door. Georgianna wrapped both arms around her stomach.