We prepared for our landing on Venus, so Ylisaya, Tony, and I were all in our stations on the bridge, although I was the only one required to be there. The pigs were safely in the ten cages and a makeshift harness pen, which enveloped them in a soft net in all directions. The lives of the pigs was now in my hands since Ylisaya and Tony could nothing more to protect them while landing. Our three passengers remained in their quarters, safely sealed in their pods. We were now close enough to see the mega-structures of Venus, the docking ring that encompasses the planet, and the two jungle rings of cyber-continents at the perfect latitudes of the planet’s atmosphere to create two tropical paradise zones magnetically floating over the planet’s hot and dense surface. We requested permission to land, but we were denied. A call came in through the communication array. Tony and I knew it was the spymaster. Tony reluctantly activated the communication array, and the hologram of Rykannis Ayrada'an, the Rylkonian Spymaster appeared in the gunner’s console, and he didn’t look happy.
“Greetings Phantom, do you know why I’m calling?”, Rykannis said, sarcastically.
“Thank you spymaster, is this related to the dread pirate?”, Tony asked.
“Very close… I’ve been summoned by the First Council. I’m perfectly fine talking to my peers in the Third Council, and I can be respectful to the Second Council. I’d just like to point out how unusual it sounds that a Spymaster is surprised by a meeting of the top one percent of the Protectorate’s citizens, not the normal ninety percent, not even the middle nine percent of stakeholders. Does that make sense to you?,” Rykannis said.
“Maybe it’s just about my application to First-Class?”, Tony replied.
“Your promotion isn’t my problem! You were hired to catch a dread pirate and prevent a war. Now if you found him and you caught him, then I know you read my report. So when I said and wrote the only prison that can hold him is the Pits of Charon and the only way to capture him is to the cryonic-freeze him, if confronted he might not give you an option to capture him. Do you remember when I said all that?”, Rykannis asked.
“I remember, what’s your point?”, Tony asked.
Rykannis sent two news publications. The headline of the first article was, “Dread Pirate Escapes! U.D.E. Increasing Security!” The second headline was, “Pirate Fleet Leader Returns.”
“My point is, if you want to get promoted, you better make sure I don’t get fired. Because a third class citizen might not matter to a second class citizen who’s fine with being the middle nine, and I can’t speak for the First Council, but that doesn’t sound like someone who belongs in the top one percent. I don’t need speculation. I just want to know why the Dread Pirate isn’t frozen or dead, when I explicitly stated that his escape skills are unmatched?” Rykannis demanded.
“I made the reservation, but I was detected by a U.D.E. agent, and I didn’t want to walk into a U.D.E. trap just because I showed up for a cryonic freezer reservation, Mars was no longer safe, and I was uncertain if the risk of holding out for freezing him was going to be worth losing my crew or my ship. We encountered a space pirate ambush, that was when the Dread pirate escaped. But now we know the U.D.E. has a spy in the space pirates.”, Tony said but he was lying, we left early because our clients paid extra.
“Earthborn Pirates are no match for a Gunship, not without a plan. My concern is you, not a bunch of shit born fascists killing each other. What happened?”, Rykannis asked.
“What we thought was a merchant freighter in an adjacent shipping lane was attacked, we attempted to search for survivors, and that was the last time we had the dread pirate. Should I fill out a report?”, Tony asked.
“Don’t bother filling out a report. Let’s hope your actions are good enough for the First Council. If you have business on Venus resolve it, and don’t waste time looking for a passenger contract. The Council needs you to be focused. So get your ship, the asses of your crew, and your ugly combat cyborg face to Freya station. If I still have a job, I’ll explain what happens next there. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.”, Rykannis said as he disconnected and we were granted permission to land.
I docked the Something Clever at the “New Arrivals” registration and immigration center, and Ylisaya and I departed without any weapons. Tony took the ship and went on to complete the deliveries and bring the passengers to the “Cooperative Officers and Representatives” privilege pass through. The immigration facility was filled with over fifty women and a few of them brought their daughters. The facility was similar to the habitation domes on Mars and Deimos, and attendants wandered the facility tending to the arrivals. An attendant approached Ylisaya and myself, and she handed each of us a ticket. Ylisaya was given ticket number forty-seven and I had number forty-eight. The attendant directed us to a long table with women traveling by themselves. The table on the opposite side of the facility was occupied by women traveling with children. In the center of our table a number was counting upwards and was at twenty-two, when we sat down.
“Do you think the animal delivery or the Cooperative employee arrival is this slow?”, Ylisaya asked me with just above the sound of a whisper.
“Slow? We’re stuck on Venus until Freya station passes this planet. This facility isn’t going to hit full capacity until Freya drops off a bunch of immigrants, visitors, and tourists. Tony’s the only one whose gonna find paying work until then.”, I replied to Ylisaya.
“Why did you use his name instead of the calling him the Captain?”, Ylisaya asked.
“I only say Captain when were on the ship, but while we’re on this planet, Tony’s pronouns are it, that, this, anything robotic, or Tony’s moniker, the Phantom. But, I just tell that annoy the other Huntresses because I just hate this planet’s laws.”, I said.
“Pronouns?”, Ylisaya asked.
“It’s one of the Cooperative’s laws. Any other planet, moon, space-station, or space ship, Tony just doesn’t care. But on this planet, we follow their laws.”, I said.
“Do we need different pronouns?”, Ylisaya asked.
“Female pronouns are safe here, but male pronouns might confuse little girls, and make them curious about the rest of their species. The Cooperative takes the education of their future generations…um…very seriously.”, I said.
Ylisaya looked in the direction of the table with women and children and then turned towards me.
“One of those children is a boy in a dress.”, Ylisaya whispered.
Some of the other women seemed curious about what Ylisaya was saying to me.
“I invoke the right to privacy.”, I declared to the table and women and children around us focused their attention in any direction except anywhere near me.
“Did you do any research about the Cooperative? This planet’s population is ninety-nine percent women, the laws are more complex than anything we know in the Protectorate, and you seriously expect to stay here until you can become a Protectorate Third-Class Citizen?”, I said hypothetically to Ylisaya.
“No, why? Surhey was working all the time, this is Nyrella’s first time on Venus so she didn’t know anything, and Meiyo said I would be fine.”, Ylisaya said.
“I apologize for the rudeness, but we need to link minds.”, I said to Ylisaya, as I initiated a cyber-link.
“Well, I made a deal with Tony. The propaganda is done, so now it’s my turn. There are three kinds of laws. The types are rights, limits, and progression. In short, rights are what you’re allowed to do, limits are what you’re not allowed to do, and progression is the point of a planet that’s a safe place for women. On this planet, a man is not allowed to claim to be a woman, not allowed to pretend, and not allowed to sell his genetic material, so another male can be born or cloned. The enforcers of this world’s laws are the Huntresses, not us. So the way I see it, you can declare yourself to be an enemy of smugglers, then the women with far more privileges than a slave and employ those smugglers can make your life here miserable. Or you enjoy all this planet has to offer a young woman who is about to earn her freedom, if she can just be quiet until we’re actually in.”, I sent my thoughts to Ylisaya and she acknowledged.
“So when you speak to the immigration agent, you can ask for asylum and they will make you a refugee, but you must stay quiet about being a chosen one, criticizing the Cooperative, or being a former slave of an applicant of a Protectorate First Class Citizenship. This world has a tendency to reward women for bad behavior, and then threaten to take away privileges, if possible. You don’t know who will sell you out to enemies of the Phantom.”, I sent my instructions to Ylisaya through our cyber-link.
An attendant approached Ylisaya and me, and seemed disappointed.
“If you two are going to use telepathy, please don’t do that here. That teaches children to keep secrets.”, the attendant said to Ylisaya and me.
Ylisaya and I nodded and agreed with the woman, and I imagined Ylisaya began thinking about how she would explain her situation. An alarm went off and bright flashing red lights matched the buzzing pulses that echoed through the facility. An airlock door continued beeping when the alarm turned from red to yellow. The door’s lights changed to green when the yellow alarm ended. Out of the airlock door walked ten women. Six of the women were shackled around their ankles, wrists, and necks with chains in front and behind them, connected to another woman.
Kellenra, the Rylkonian woman at the front of the chain was not shackled, but she held the chain in her hand and pulled the chain behind her. Whenever the shackled women slowed down she pulled the chain, and it seemed as though she had pulled them enough times so each pull let the shackled women know her unhappiness with their behavior. She wore finely polished power armor that also showed the signs of many battles, and on her hip she wore a hand-gun that hung from an ammo belt. Her long platinum hair was pulled back under a thin band. The band that held her hair was also a method of hiding deflector shields, and could be activated with a thought just as quickly as her power armor. Her emerald eyes only looked forwards with a unrelenting focus.
Janodine, the Rylkonian woman at the back of the chain also held the chain and carefully watched the movements of the women in shackles. While she didn’t pull against the chain, her grip also stopped the shackled women from resisting or manipulating the chain against either herself or Kellenra at the front. Her dark hair fell over her high collar in waves as her silver eyes remained fixed on the line of shackled women. She carried a spool of synthetic coiled cable on her back, over her engineering suit. I had only seen this weapon once before, and I wasn’t familiar with it’s use. The compartments on her belt probably carried equally mysterious tools and contraptions.
Vickessah, the Rylkonian women on the side near the tables with children wore a medical scanner over her eyes, which allowed her scan any patient or enemy’s vital signs. Her golden hair rolled over the scanner and behind the scanner I could barely see her ruby eyes. On her back she carried a tank filled with bio-gel. She followed at the same pace as the other women and through her medical scanner I could see she was watching six life signs. She pulled a sheet of plastyn from her science uniform, although I was uncertain why it looked so much like Surhey’s when we first met, as if one copied the other.
Mykayla, the last women was not a Rylkonian but a Lahnthano woman. She walked on the side near us, and I recognized her just before I hid. Mykayla’s armor was a patchwork of repair panels, held together by a webbed mesh of crossing cords. Around her hips, she wore the bottom half of a flight suit, rolled up to the top of each thigh. The top half of the flight suit was tied around her waist, just below an ammo belt that held two handguns in the front that ran along the creases of each hip. Across her chest she wore another ammo belt, running from one shoulder to the opposite hip. While she kept the shape of a woman, her bronze toned flesh was also covered in scars, burns, and gunshot wounds visible through the gaps in her armor. Around her shoulders she wore a gray cloak that she pushed to the back as she rested her hand on her hips while she walked. Her hands had distal talons one at the end of each finger, and while I did not see, I presumed her toes were the same. Her purple eyes were altered to have the vision of an apex predator through vertical cat like pupils. Her copper hair was tightly braided on each side, but some of her hair fell over her face hiding another scar. Her triangular ears twitched towards the direction of each sound, and perhaps even sounds beyond what my own cybernetic ears could hear. Down her back between her shoulders she carried a cannon like weapon that was folded up. While Kellenra and Janodine held the chain that shackled the six other women, Mykayla could probably aim and shoot faster than Kellenra needed.
As the six chained women prisoners and their four jailers walked through the immigration facility, they moved near Ylisaya and Myself. Except they also moved near the boy disguised as a girl. The boy looked to be no older than eight earth years, and illegally smuggling a boy onto Venus, would risk the wrath of the Huntresses. The boy turned to the women watching over him, with his eyes soaked in tears.
“Huntresses! I’m scared.”, the boy seemed to plead with the woman.
The woman tried to calm and hide the boy from the ten women, but I knew it was too late. I saw Mykayla’s ear twitch at the sound of whispering. I was impressed to see Ylisaya remain quiet, as I wondered if she noticed that I hid behind her. I also wasn’t interested in being discovered by the four Huntresses. One of the facility’s attendants ran towards them.
“Unshackle those women!”, the attendant yelled.
“As you wish.”, Kellenra said, as she raised her hand and made a gesture towards her team.
Janodine and Mykayla revealed remotes from their ammo belts which deactivated the shackles, and the women cried as they embraced each other. The attendant ran up to the six now unshackled women and examined their faces.
“We have completed our contract. We expect to be paid.”, Kellenra said to the attendant.
“One of the conditions of your contract was to protect the Cooperative’s citizens, not shackle them like animals! You better hope they all get a clean medical scan!”, the attendant protested.
“Don’t bother, they’ll all fail. Four of them don’t even have parental licenses.”, Vickessah said, in a cold and unfeeling tone, as she handed a sheet of plastyne to the attendant.
The attendant examined the information on the sheet for only a moment and turned her focus back toward the unshackled women.
“You’re safe now, the Cooperative will restore you as free women.”, said the attendant.
“What about my baby? She’s good, please let me keep her.”, cried one woman.
“You’re daughter will be immediately extracted, rescued, and safely adopted by parents who can give her the life that a citizen of Venus deserves.”, the attendant said, as she gestured for one of her subordinates.
A woman wearing the uniform of a genetic researcher walked up, and attempted to examine the women. Even though she was just doing her job, they seemed to be more afraid of her than they were afraid of the four huntresses. The women seemed to resist the genetic researcher, and the attendant decided to intervene.
“Follow the medic to med-bay or the Huntresses will put the shackles back on you!”, the attendant yelled, and then watched the women reluctantly follow the genetic researcher until they were beyond her vision.
“You four better have a good explanation, go to my office, and I’ll give you ten minutes to get your stories straight. Now go!”, the attendant said as she watched the four Huntresses depart the facility in the opposite direction of their arrival. Janodine rolled up the chain and carried it on her shoulder.
“I’m so sorry for this dramatic display of Cooperative functions, please be patient while my staff addresses each of your individual needs to enter the Venus Cooperative.”, the attendant announced to the visitors, refugees, and families waiting in the facility, and then departed to follow the Huntresses.
I looked towards Ylisaya and she was completely focused on me, as I imagined that she was still processing what she just witnessed.
“Let me guess. You have a lot of questions.” I said to Ylisaya.
“I know I’m not supposed to ask. But honestly, I don’t even know where to start, because I don’t feel safe anymore.”, Ylisaya said, and she was right.
I took a moment to collect my thoughts. I moved closer to Ylisaya to a distance where I only needed to whisper, and managed not to offend the employees of the Cooperative.
Stolen story; please report.
“I’m only able to provide a theory, based on cause and effect. The cause is parental licenses. The Cooperative only allows their citizens to obtain a prenatal license if they achieve the financial, medical, and psychological requirements. On this planet it works. But when Cooperative citizens get permits to work off world, they tend to make use of the opportunities that being off planet can offer, and sometimes they don’t want to come back. First the Cooperative will ask them to come back, but when that doesn’t work the Cooperative has to get them back or they get deported, that’s part of the job for Huntresses. Cause and effect. Six deportations? My guess is Mercury, Earth, and Freya Station are close enough for one ship, to catch all of those deportees.”, I whispered to Ylisaya.
“But to bring them back in chains? It seemed excessive.”, Ylisaya asked.
“Sometimes people, like the men they fall for, try to protect them, sometimes they hire mercenaries, sometimes they hire ambitious pirates, or worst case scenario they get mixed up with slavers. Huntresses have to be ready to deal with those kinds of threats, to keep their citizens safe. Sometimes protect them from themselves. We keep stun ammo for good reasons.”, I whispered to Ylisaya.
“Isn’t Meiyo a Huntress? Would she do something like that?”, Ylisaya asked.
“Meiyo? Maybe. Remember the pirates? Meiyo went looking for survivors, to bring them here. I was once a Huntress, but neither Tony nor I are Cooperative citizens. We’re both fine with Protectorate Citizenship.”, I whispered to Ylisaya.
“Who are those four Huntresses?”, Ylisaya asked.
“Kellenra, Janodine, Vickessah, and Mykayla. They’re the crew of the Mermaid, another ambush class gunship, and Mykalya is Tony’s ex. Their ship belongs to Captain Rythizon, and he’s one of the Protectorate second class citizens assigned to their holdings on this planet, as the Protectorate’s overseer.”, I whispered to Ylisaya.
“Wow Mykayla is…exactly the same size and shape as Meiyo. What happens to any of their babies that are boys?,” Ylisaya asked.
“I think we’re about to find out.”, I whispered to Ylisaya as I noticed Janodine and Mykayla return from the administrative office, and Janodine no longer had the chain with her.
I gestured towards Janodine and Mykayla who were focused on the boy waiting at the table on the opposite side of the facility. As Ylisaya watched the two Huntresses approach, I slowly adjusted my seat to hide behind Ylisaya. Janodine and Mykayla both reached behind their necks and each collected their long hair into one hand. They pressed their hair to the back of their necks and their hair stayed, held in place by an unseen force. Mykayla and Janodine then reached under their armor, revealed a deflector band, and placed the band under their chin around the neck, like a high collar. Both activated their deflector shields and the bands around their necks projected deflector shields around their heads. Mykayla was no longer hiding the scar, over her eye and revealed that parts of her skull had been repaired and replaced with cybernetics. The woman watching over the boy whispered something to him and he attempted to hide behind her.
Mykayla and Janodine exchanged glances with each other and I could see their eyes quickly shifting side to side, which meant they were cyber-linked. Janodine pulled against the chords of the spool on her back, which also hid her hands from the woman and the boy. Mykayla and Janodine moved into a perfect attack angle as the woman looked around.
“Are we close?”, Janodine asked Mykayla.
But I knew if Janodine was asking, she wanted to be heard because a cyberlink is more efficient and would allow her to communicate without alerting non-cyborgs.
“They used a lot of perfume trying to hide the scent, but he’s here.”, Mykayla said, and revealed a pair fangs each time she spoke.
“Run!”, the woman said to the boy, and he attempted to flee.
Janodine threw a coils of cords with each hand. One cord flew at the woman and another flew at the boy. The cords snared their targets, as the woman tried to struggle against the cords, but she fell to the ground. The boy only moved five steps before the coil wrapped around his ankles and he stumbled like an animal. Mykayla reached over her shoulder and gripped the folded cannon. In one motion she flipped the cannon over her shoulder and the momentum of the spin unfolded the weapon onto her shoulder, ready to aim and shoot. The boy reached with both hands to try to remove the coils from his legs, and Janodine threw another snare around both of his hands. Mykayla aimed at the boy and then shifted her aim back towards the woman. The woman looked up at Mykayla and into the barrel of Mykayla’s shoulder fired cannon. Mykayla smiled, and revealed the pair of fangs again.
“Don’t move, you’re under arrest.”, Mykayla said.
Mykayla flicked her wrist and the spin of momentum folded the cannon back into its collapsed shape as Mykayla returned the weapon onto her back.
“What the hell are you doing Huntress?”, The facility’s chief attendant yelled.
The attendant returned followed by Vickessah and Kellenra. Vickessah walked up to the boy and scanned him.
“This child is no girl!”, Vickessah said as she picked up the boy from the chords wrapped around his hands and presented him to the chief attendant.
“Mykayla your claws are sharp. Would you like to do the honors?”, Kellenra said to Mykayla, as Kellenra lifted the woman off the ground.
Vickessah lifted the coil wrapped around the boy’s hands and turned him to face Mykayla. Mykayla raised her open hand, with the palm facing upwards. Mykayla’s fingers of both hands encased themselves in energy and turned into talons of red energy blades. With one downward swipe of her raised claw, Mykayla sliced through the boy’s dress and with a swipe across the boy’s chest from her other hand she ripped the dress off of the boy without injuring him. The boy twisted as he tried to hide his body and his shame, but the attendant looked at him with disgust and contempt. The attendant turned towards the woman who traveled with him.
“You better have a good explainination for trying to smuggle a boy into a place that’s only safe for women!”, the attendant said to the woman.
“Huntresses, lock him up in one of the interview rooms and put some prisoner cloths this … thing, so we can see him for the lying, worthless, monster he is. The factory always needs more slaves.”, the attendant said while facing the boy, and then she turned to the woman who travelled with him.
“Bring her to my office.”, the attendant said.
The attendant was followed by Janodine, Kellenra, and Vickessah as they arrested the woman and the boy, but Mykayla stayed behind. Mykayla followed her nose, as if she detected a familiar scent. She deactivated her deflector shields and the invisible mechanism that held her hair back. The band rolled back into Mykayla’s collar, as she focused on finding the familiar scent. Mykayla turned around, looking over her shoulder and she slowly spun on her feet. Mykayla walked up to our table, sat down next to Ylisaya, and looked directly at me.
“Hello Jhessyreen. It’s been a while.”, Mykayla said, but did not yet notice Ylisaya.
“Mykayla. I’d agree, except I don’t care.”, I replied.
“Do you think it’s possible to be even more immature? I’ve forgiven the whole mutiny, trying to sell me into slavery, and stealing my husband. I think I’ve earned a second chance.”, Mykayla said, but I didn’t believe her.
“There’s two problems with your perspective. First, you divorced Tony, which means you’re not married anymore. And then, your second chance doesn’t automatically involve me, my ship, nor anyone in our crew. You wanna see Tony? Post a paying job, and wait for a bid. I’m not interested in whatever you’re doing. Just don’t pretend that I was ever your friend, because I’m not a pirate!”, I said to Mykayla.
“Now who’s the one making assumptions? I like being a Huntress, it gives me a lot more privilege. Like right now, I can ignore your right to privacy, and demand to know what’s your business on Venus?”, Mykayla asked, and as a Huntress she has that authority.
“Very well Huntress. The Something Clever is dropping off passengers, cargo deliveries, and waiting for our next contract. And since all of our passengers were female, I think you need to respect their individual right to privacy, and let immigration do their job.”, I said.
“Let’s see then. Would that be four passengers? Three of which were registered at the Cooperative embassy, and one of whom is also a Huntress and reported one refugee who escaped a Martian war zone. We both know Huntresses have to report all their activities, I know she’s here.”, Mykayla said.
“Leave her alone. I’m right here. So what do you want?”, Ylisaya demanded.
Mykayla glanced at Ylisaya’s face, then down to her feet, and and then back towards me.
“My suspicion is what can a refugee offer a mercenary and bounty hunter? It seems I’m not the only woman getting replaced by a younger and prettier girl.”, Mykayla said.
“We didn’t have enough crew for that many passengers. Our other clients paid enough, it was worth it to make her part of our crew. She earned her place on the Something Clever, and she didn’t try to be a space pirate.”, I said to Mykayla.
“Yes…and she’s earned the right to be in a safe place for women, and she doesn’t need to fear space pirates any more.”, Mykayla said.
“I’m not afraid of space pirates.”, Ylisaya said.
“Now you sound like a Huntress. That’s fine, I know the smell of fear. You ever face space pirates in battle?”, Mykayla asked.
Mykayla moved closer to Ylisaya and pressed her hip against Ylisaya’s body, and wrapped her clawed hand behind Ylisaya.
“My mistake, that’s not fear I smell…That’s guilt…Yes, you have fought and killed space pirates, and you attacked their families…not letting anything get in your way…just like a Huntress.”, Mykayla whispered into Ylisaya’s ear.
Ylisaya knocked away Mykayla’s clawed hand, and then pushed away Mykayla, but whatever force Ylisaya exerted pushed her back just as far as she pushed Mykayla away.
“Stop touching me.”, Ylisaya yelled at Mykayla.
Mykayla lifted up a number ticket and examined it, but nobody noticed Mykayla steal it from Ylisaya.
“Forty-seven.”, Mykayla said as she handed the ticket back to Ylisaya.
Ylisaya snatched the ticket back from Mykayla’s clawed hand, examined it, and the glared back to Mykayla. Mykayla slid part of the armor covering her wrist and revealed an electronic device. Mykayla pressed a few buttons and the waiting number indicator changed from twenty three into forty seven. Mykayla smiled at Ylisaya, as Ylisaya was approached by an attendant who directed her to follow. Ylisaya stood up and seemed relieved to just get away from Mykayla, which I understood.
“Enjoy the safe place, refugee.”, Mykayla said to Ylisaya, and then turned towards me.
“What game are you playing, Mykayla?”, I demanded.
“Just doing my job.”, Mykayla replied.
“Immigration isn’t a Huntress’s job! What’s really going on?”, I asked.
I wasn’t sure if I just blinked or if I was distracted, but somehow Mykayla vanished from right in front of me. At first I, suspected Mykayla activated her cloaking device, but the distortion effect would have been visible. Before I realized anything was differentI discovered Mykayla was behind me, and I could feel her body pressing against me, holding me against the table. Mykayla’s arm was wrapped around my shoulder, and her clawed hand gripped my chin.
“You once said I would be a prettier slave than a space pirate. Let me show you a world where women do not rely on their looks.”, Mykayla said, as I could feel the tip of one of her talons sliding across my face.
I activated my deflector shields and the deflectors instantly forced Mykayla to release her grip. I swung my legs to one side and jumped to the opposite of the table. I rolled over my side as I landed and caught a glimpse of Mykayla chasing after me. Mykayla had me trapped underneath her. Mykayla raised her arm and she activated her claw’s energy blades. With inhuman speed Mykayla slashed at me, and overloaded my front deflector shield. Mykayla pressed her hips down against my ribs and I could feel her leg muscles keep her balance. I felt Mykayla’s hand grip my wrist and force my arm to the ground beside me. I tried to strike back with my other free hand, and I felt Mykayla’s foot step on my arm. I felt Mykayla’s face move in close to my ear.
“I developed my own special mode…I call it Torture Mode!”, Mykayla whispered, as I felt the tips of her fangs sliding across my ear.
Mykayla leaned back and raised her arm for a power strike, and the energy blades of her talons changed from red to a dim yellow, that glowed with unstable fury. As she shifted her weight, I freed my arm that was trapped under her foot. I shielded my face, but no strike landed on me. I opened an eye and saw that Mykayla’s eyes look at me, then to my trapped hand. A force I couldn’t see pulled Mykayla back, and I could see Kellenra throwing Mykayla away from me. Before Mykayla could land, I saw a metallic coil wrapped around Mykayla’s legs, and then I saw Janodine, as she threw another coil that wrapped around Mykayla’s arms. Mykayla fell to the ground and rolled onto her side so she could look around.
“That’s enough, Mykayla!”, Kellenra yelled.
Janodine walked up to Mykayla, picked her up, flipped Mykayla onto her shoulders and turned towards Kellenra. Kellenra looked toward me and then turned back to Janodine and Mykayla.
“Take her back to the Mermaid, I’ll deal with her after I find out how mad the Cooperative is.”, Kellenra said to Janodine.
Janodine departed in the direction of the Mermaid carrying Mykayla across her shoulders like a captured animal.
“You ever think about counseling because this happens every time you see any crew from the Something Clever?”, Janodine asked Mykayla.
“I don’t need counseling, my future was stolen from me.”, Mykayla replied as Janodine carried her away.
Kellenra offered to help me stand and I allowed her to help me.
“Sorry, we haven’t quite learned how to control her, at least not yet. How do you control yours?”, Kellenra asked.
“I just let my captain choose the destination. Once I bring the ship there, I can just wait for the next destination. Chaos, destruction, and deception applied with precision are what we sell. That’s also why I can’t be a huntress, that has a high chance of conflicting contracts.”, I replied.
“But you’re in a lot of danger too. Shouldn’t your compensation and citizenship match the risks?”, Kellenra asked.
“Risks? I’m on a planet that claims to be a safe place for women, and one of it’s enforcers just tried to rip my face off. I’ll just remain a third-class citizen, stay happy with my salary, and never ever have to worry about profit.”, I replied to Kellenra.
“Are you gonna file against Mykayla, because I still need her. As unpredictable as she is, she’s one of the few Cannoneers who’ll accept work from the Cooperative.”, Kellenra said as she rubbed her face with her hand.
“Should I expect the Cooperative to seriously take a case against a Huntress? If the Cooperative has a problem with me, my ship has better places to go.”, I said to Kellenra.
“Well, I have a problem you might solve. The girl you brought is sick, we can’t figure her out. She implied this has happened before.”, Kellenra said to me.
I followed Kellenra as she led me to Ylisaya. Vickessah was scanning Ylisaya in an interview room, and the Chief attendant stood in the far corner of the room.
“She’s perfectly healthy and her brain is normal for now, as long as the brain activity doesn’t accelerate again it should heal. Whatever caused the anomaly isn’t anything I can find.”, Vickessah said to the chief attendant.
The chief attendant turned towards Kellenra and me, and I suspected she was suspicious of Ylisaya.
“Normally women seeking refuge on Venus have some trauma. Normally Rylkonian woman who are part of a crew only come to Venus for vacation. Normally gunships only follow wealthy merchant freighters to Venus, and at least one of the crew are Huntresses, normally. So Jhessyreen, can you imagine why I don’t think I’m dealing with a normal immigration? Was this girl part of your crew?”, the attendant asked me.
“Yes, but is she being denied refuge?”, I replied and asked the attendant.
“How could we deny refuge to someone if she didn’t ask?”, the attendant replied.
“Can I have some privacy with her?”, I asked the attendant.
The attendant glanced at Kellenra and Vickessah, then nodded with a gesture for them to follow her. Once I was certain that I was alone with Ylisaya I decided to ask her.
“Why aren’t you requesting political asylum?”, I asked Ylisaya.
“I don’t feel safe on this planet, and I need Tony’s help.”, Ylisaya said.
“Help with what?”, I asked Ylisaya.
“I had another vision.”, Ylisaya replied.
“We need to cyber-link, and now.”, I said, and initiated a cyber-link to Ylisaya.
“Well if you tell anyone other than our crew, they might sell us out, for the reward money. It would be an easy payday. For now I’ll avoid using my scanner vision until you can develop the skills to control these visions. I’ll teach you what I do, let’s try that first, for now.”, I sensed Tony’s thoughts and realized Ylisaya was already linked to his mind.
“You’re already aware? You know what’s happening to Ylisaya?”, I sent my thoughts through the cyber-link.
“This was a possibility. I’ve also changed my skepticism about her being a chosen one, but I will reserve judgement until I hear the prophecy.”, Tony sent his thoughts through the link.
“What am I supposed to do?”, Ylisaya sent her question through the link.
“Cryonic freezing will suspend most brain activity, but that’s expensive, and when you wake up, nothing about this situation changes. The first vision happened right before I fired the fusion cannons, and Jhessyreen was also there, but she was unaffected. So maybe getting a specialization might make a difference, or might make you not have these visions at all. This is unusual that my scanner vision has become visible to another, so this is all kinds of unfamiliar for me.”, Tony sent his thoughts through the cyber-link.
“So what was the vision?”, I sent my question through the cyber-link.
“I saw a woman kill herself, then I saw a Huntress kill her, and then I saw the Huntress tell Tony kill to her.”, Ylisaya sent her thoughts to me.
“This Huntress is my new client, Calista. I’ll introduce her tonight. I scanned her when I took the contract, and that’s when I detected Ylisaya had an identical vision.”, Tony sent his thoughts through the cyber-link.
“Can I see this vision?”, I sent my question through the cyber-link.
“I think that’s a bad idea, I need you to fly the ship, so I can’t risk putting you in the same situation with Ylisaya, when I use scanner vision to aim the fusion cannons.”, Tony sent his thoughts through the cyber-link.
“That makes sense. So how do we get into the Cooperative, if none of us are refugees, and we can’t afford to be tourists?”, I sent my question through the cyberlink.
“You can ask to be re-instated as a Huntress, and then you can go anywhere you want on Venus.”, Tony sent his thoughts to me.
“That’s gonna infuriate Mykayla. So I’ll do it.”, I sent my thoughts though the link.
“Please don’t antagonize my ex, she’s still traumatized from when you almost sold her into slavery, and she was still just a normal human. Can you imagine how much she cried, begged me to take her back, and apologized for divorcing me in that tiny cell? She actually wanted me to break us out and help her take back the ship. I looked in her eyes, and told her the crew employment contracts were part of the divorce decree, the ship needs a crew, the captain is supposed to pay them, and I’m not about to harm my friends for the woman who tried to turn them into pirates. You want to be a captain, this mutiny is a lesson in crew loyalty. You want to stay a free woman, then sell them the ship. She wasn’t ready to be a captain, and probably still isn’t.”, Tony sent his thoughts.
“I thought you said you didn’t want her back…and not anymore.”, I sent my thoughts through the cyber-link.
“That was after she tried to offer sex in exchange for rescuing her.”, Tony sent his thoughts through the cyber-link.
“So the crew owns the ship?”, Ylisaya’s question reached me through the cyber-link.
“We did, now the ship owns itself or as the Earth born say, herself.”, I replied through the cyber-link.
“The ship is the business, the point of everything we do. As a captain, I am an employee of the ship, though that doesn’t really change the job. But now, nobody can divorce the ship away from us.”, Tony’s thoughts moved through the cyber-link.
“So only the crew mutinied, but you didn’t?”, Ylisaya sent her question to Tony through the Cyber-link.
“The divorce required I give up the ship, the crew, all my wealth, and all my earnings. In my opinion that’s like being a slave. I asked if I can just stay as the ship’s gunner for free and keep my job. But when the crew mutinied, I couldn’t just take back what I had to give up in the divorce decree, so Mykayla and I were locked up together. But I let the crew know if she sells the ship, she also sells my job, so the ship keeps a free gunner. The point of the mutiny was to avoid becoming pirates, but starting a mutiny, kidnapping, and stealing a ship sounds a lot like pirates. Mykayla’s freedom is a small price compared to not becoming pirates.”, Tony replied through the cyber-link.
“That’s how I remember the mutiny.”, I sent my thoughts through the cyber-link.
“That kind of explains your stance against keeping a slave. So your ex became a huntress, and the crew just moved on?”, Ylisaya’s question reached us through the cyber-link.
“Well not all of us. We all have on our records a full on mutiny, it’s tough finding a different ship that can look passed that. Now being a huntress, that kind of experience is something they like to hear.”, I sent my reply through the cyber-link.
“So what about the Red Cloak you gave to Meiyo?”, Ylisaya’s question reached Tony through the cyber-link.
“When Mykayla told me she decided to become a Cannoneer, I placed the order for the Red Cloak as a gift, and it took a while to finish. Then divorced, then mutiny, then sold the ship, and the Red Cloak was just extra since that time. This conversation is better saved for the ship, we need to get into the planet.”, Tony’s thoughts moved through the cyber-link, and he disconnected.
I activated my favorite mode, which I called “Vacation Mode.”