November 14th
“But, like, why did you call us here? And why isn’t the pretty lady or the fox here?” Malgorth asked as he sat down in one of the passenger seats in the cockpit. Harry sat in the navigator’s seat while I sat in the pilot’s seat.
I stood up and faced them. “Gentlemen, it’s time we find out where we’re going. After we refueled on the resort world, we’ve been drifting towards the next gateway without covering two important questions. One, where are we going to refuel? Because if it’s some Qarri outpost, I don’t think we’ll survive another encounter with them. Two, where is Malgorth getting off? You said you wanted to leave once you had the money. You may not be rich, but we’re headed somewhere so backwater you’d cry. So I’m warning you to try to get off as soon as you can.”
Malgorth shrugged. “I suppose you’re right. I’ll head off on the next stop. To be honest, I really just wanted to get far away from any Sorloks.”
Harry smirked and replied, “That’s pretty racist of you. You should apologize for that.”
Malgorth chuckled. “Sorry, dude. I meant that I wanted to get far away from the gangsters that threatened to sell me into slavery. I’m fine with normal Sorloks, just not the gangsters that their planet produces by the handful.”
“Whatever,” I said as I pulled up a map on the screen. Two star systems were shown nearby with inhabited planets. “Ship, please elaborate on these planets.”
“Certainly, captain,” the ship replied. The screen zoomed in on the system on the left, eventually showing the planet. Most of the surface was covered in boreal forests. “Borea is a planet well-known for its wilderness resorts. Filled with pristine wildlife, it’s advised that you land near the visitor’s center if you wish to refuel and trade.”
I pointed at a patch of unforested land. “What about that portion? It looks rather brown.”
“The governing body, the Borean Corporation, has blocked me from retrieving any data.”
Harry pondered aloud. “A corporation ruling a planet. Surely, that can’t be the founder’s own government since a company would clear cut that forest like no tomorrow.”
The ship showed the other system’s planet by the side and its name. Mandern. “The Borean Corporation was created by a Mandernian trillionaire. Oruk, after making his fortune by owning a majority of shares in the resort planet you came from, bought all the forested land on Borea. He changed the name of his company from Utopia Resorts to the Borean Corporation just to announce to everyone that he owned the planet.”
I thought for a bit before asking, “Is there a native sapient lifeform on that planet? I’d assume they wouldn’t be too happy with someone buying their homes.”
The ship tried to look something up, only for alarms to blare. “Error! The information you are seeking is classified! Any attempt to read the information is a Class A felony!” I scowled as I felt there was something ominous about it. Whether their version of Manifest Destiny or something else, I didn’t like where it was going. Whatever the case was, we needed to…
“Let’s go to Mandern. I’m heading off there,” Malgorth said as he quickly inserted those coordinates into the ship.
We waited as the ship flew for the next few minutes before landing on the planet. It landed in a parking lot close to a monorail line. Unlike the other planets we landed on, this one had a smog-filled sky and other obvious signs of industrialization. I knew every planet needed industry to maintain a decent quality of life, but I felt there was more they could’ve done to minimize pollution. Or at least keep it out of an area where outworlders would land.
“Okay, I need to grab myself a new gun to replace the one that Qarri soldier broke,” I said as I got out of my chair and walked into the hallway. Scarlett walked out of her room with a gas mask designed for a head like hers. Gruma exited her room as well without any breathing protection. I mentally debated it but shrugged. The ship’s RNU could probably treat smog damage.
Once all of us were gathered at the airlock, it opened up to reveal the hazy sky. Several aliens walked towards the monorail station, so we followed them to it. Once on the train, Scarlett took off her gas mask and said, “That has to be the worst quality air I’ve ever seen. And I’ve been to LA.”
“Not to mention that I haven’t seen any greenery,” Gruma added as she looked lost. “Everything is covered in that coarse and rocky black stuff.” It then dawned on me that it must’ve been torture for her. She suffered a horrendous case of culture shock with all the technology and lack of nature. Scarlett was from 21st century America, so it was easier for her to adjust. Meanwhile, Gruma was from a planet in the Iron Age. Scarlett and Harry knew the concepts before abduction, but Gruma didn’t.
After a few minutes, the monorail stopped. We waited for the line to clear up before exiting there as well. As we walked out the doors, we noticed how there was no natural sunlight. Bright lights flooded the underground complex, bathing everything in a yellowish glow.
It took a while for the lights to stop hurting my eyes. Once it was over, I walked down the stairs beside my group as we descended to the closest level. My SAD translated the signs, confirming that we were at a shopping complex. Several aliens walked by. The plurality of them were about human height. They had a centaur-like body shape, having four legs and two arms. Coarse fur covered their entire bodies. They had three eyes, one in the front and two on the sides. They were odd creatures; unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Not that I saw aliens back on Earth.
I looked at Harry and said, “Since you know more about spaceships than any of us, you should look for anything that could help us fight while in the ship. We don’t want a repeat of the battle at that gateway. The less enemies that board our ship, the better.”
“Got it. I’ll take Gruma with me,” he replied before walking to a nearby elevator with his girlfriend. Once they were out of earshot, I looked at Malgorth.
“Aren’t you going to look for some real estate agency or something?” I asked as I leaned against a column.
Malgorth looked at me and Scarlett before answering, “To be honest, I don’t know, man. I have enough money to peacefully retire, but I don’t trust myself. I realized that I have a gambling addiction and an alcohol one. My species as a whole is prone to it. I don’t know if I can trust myself alone.” It then dawned upon me that we left him alone the entire day we were on the beach planet.
“Malgorth, you didn’t drink anything, did you?” I asked. He seemed like such a nonentity that I forgot he existed.
He looked at the ground ashamed and said, “I almost died that day you had the trip on that planet. I decided to drink all the alcohol since no one was there to watch me. I couldn’t remember the details other than waking up in the medical bay. My BAC was at lethal levels. If the RNU didn’t sense me, I would’ve died that day.”
“Dang,” Scarlett replied as she stroked her chin. “If you wanted me to avoid drinking, you succeeded.”
“Yeah, but the bigger problem is my lack of impulse control,” he said before transferring most of his credits over to us. I looked where he was looking to see a casino. Scarlett and I sighed in unison as he ran into it.
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I looked at her and shrugged. “On the bright side, we have most of his money. There’s enough here for us to settle down somewhere and live our lives in space.”
“We’ll be lonely here,” she said as she looked me in the eyes. “Quentin, you were never rich, but you still miss your home, right? And don’t lie! I saw the face you had in the simulation when you met your parents again!”
“You’re right,” I said as we walked down another flight of stairs. “I will have to get a job once back. I’ll also have to live in less luxury than we’re experiencing on that ship, but it’ll be worth it. Those you care for are far more important than all the riches of the galaxy.”
“I concur,” she replied as she took us into a nearby store. “The part I most look forward to is not becoming the heiress to the company again, but rather my family’s love. I spent most of my life without it, which made these last couple of months the best time of my life!” After a short pause she motioned towards the interior and said, “Anyways, how do you like all these weapons?” The fact that she was a Southerner became apparent.
The store looked like a gun nut’s paradise. Aside from the several futuristic blasters, the assortment of modern Earth-like firearms was intriguing. Rifles, shotguns, pistols, and several kinds of guns I never even knew existed filled the room. There were laser melee weapons here, but our Americanness made the guns more interesting.
We split up to roam down the aisles. I didn’t know much about guns. I knew to point them and shoot, but I didn’t know what the specs meant. I walked to the section with assault rifles and picked one up meant for a species of my build. Afterwards, I looked at the ammunition and whistled. While the gun was a decent price, the ammunition was dirt cheap. Enough to fill up an arsenal for practically nothing. Granted, it was also in a world with more advanced firearms. These guns were more a collector’s item than weapons.
After taking those items to the counter, I walked back to the melee weapons. I knew exactly what I wanted. I grabbed a legally distinct laser sword and energy shield. When I got back to the counter, I could see Scarlett placing two guns, several crates of bullets, and a laser sword on the counter. After a short break, she set two sets of ballistic armor on there. She winked and waved at me before looking back at the cashier.
The cashier, a strange alien I haven’t seen before, looked at me and asked, “Is he with you?”
She crossed her arms. “He is. We’ll be paying together.” She quickly put my stuff on the counter to get them rung up. “As you can see, I’m quite the enthusiast for antique weapons.”
“That’s great, ma’am,” the cashier offhandedly said as he messed with a strange register. “That’ll be two thousand credits.”
Scarlett transferred the credits before attempting to grab one of the guns. Before she could touch one, the cashier pulled them away. He shook his head and explained, “I’m sorry, but due to our weapon control laws, all weapons are shipped to your spaceship. Once you pick them up, you’re expected to immediately leave the planet.”
“Oh, sorry,” she replied before looking away, her ears drooping. To break the tension, I grabbed her hand and walked out of the store.
I walked us over to a bench before sitting down. As she watched the crowd walking, I ran over to a nearby stand and decided to experiment a bit. I bought two “ice cream” cones with double scoop. The scoops were of some kind of red and blue color, which seemed a bit concerning, but I didn’t care. There were no desserts on the ship, so it was time we enjoyed some sweets. I walked back to the bench and handed one cone over to Scarlett before sitting down next to her.
“Enjoy,” I said before licking the dessert. The taste wasn’t what I expected, but it was still weird. It seemed to be flavored like some kind of hearty meat. While I did enjoy meat, the kind used here did not mix well with the dessert. In fact, it was probably as blasphemous as pineapples on pizza. I started gagging, eliciting a hmm from my girlfriend.
Scarlett licked her dessert again before asking, “You don’t like it?” I nodded my head as I tried to spit out the taste. She quickly took my ice cream and licked it as well. “Strange. I love this flavor. It’s like the right combination of savory and sweet.”
I glared at her. “So you’re the kind of person who would put pineapples on pizza?”
She paused and shook her head. “No, gross! I don’t even like pineapples, but I feel like tomato sauce on fruit is disgusting.”
I shrugged. “Who knows? Since you grew up, perhaps your taste buds changed as well. I used to hate broccoli when I was ten.”
“So did I, but I think my dislike of pineapples remains the same. I’d prefer if my food didn’t eat me,” she said with a smirk before licking both “ice cream” cones.
After half an hour of chatting, we got up to look at the signs again. It was then that we saw the most disgusting thing in the entire galaxy. Even in another corner of the galaxy, there was a slave market. Scarlett growled at the sign. “Why? Why does everyone have to use slaves? Robots are far more effective at doing menial tasks!”
I looked at her and said, “To be honest, I feel like what they did to you was just to satiate some kind of sadism but disguised as a profitable venture.”
She glared at me before shaking her head and sighing. She finished one of the scoops on her original cone before running in the direction of the market. I followed closely behind her.
After going down a few more flights of stairs, we reached a massive auditorium with several aliens in the seats. We got seated in sections made for species similar to us as we watched a Qarri Braindead being sold to a tiny alien. I leaned to her and whispered, “They sell an awful lot of Qarri Braindead. Is that their way of disposing of dissidents or something?”
“Yes,” she whispered back. “They are a fascistic state where the state controls everything. All citizens are indoctrinated at an early age to despise and look down on all other species. In their eyes, the only use we have is as slaves. Experiments, servants, or disposable laborers. Those who rebel against the Purity Party’s regime are lobotomized and given a brain implant that forces them to follow orders. Most of their ground forces are composed of Qarri Braindead, with only fanatical Qarri as officers.”
“I wish we could do something about it, but the Qarri would kill us in retaliation of anything we do. If we wish to stop something, we’d have to aim at the source,” I pondered aloud. There were a few stares sent out direction, but it was nothing out of the ordinary. Though I could swear one of the aliens called us “bleeding hearts.”
We then watched as another alien was dragged onto the stage. It was a strange bipedal feline-like creature. It was chest height to us, or at least I assumed from the distance we were from it. The auctioneer announced, “This here is a Rarling. We rescued it from its savage life to make its life meaningful to its betters. The price is starting at—” The announcer never finished his sentence. A shot went through his head. The announcer’s head hit his podium as blue blood oozed out.
Scarlett and I ducked and looked for where it came from. It soon became clear it was from one of those centaur-like aliens we saw earlier. It didn’t take too long for it to click on my head. The centaur-like aliens were the dominant species of this planet. The one who shot the announcer was some kind of abolitionist who wished to end slavery by force. It would be a difficult goal, but this was not the Qarri. This was a war we could win.
Several aliens fled the scene, with a few trampling over us to get out. We could hear more gunshots as several potential slaveowners were killed. While I had no love for those willing to own other people, there was still a feeling in me that it was overkill. Especially considering that many here didn’t own any. Then again, most slaves were bought by those already owning more since slavery tended to centralize production in the hands of a few. I didn’t know why I turned it into an economics issue in my head while it was first and foremost a moral one.
Once the gunshots ended, we heard footsteps walking down the aisles. As if he was part of a group instead of a lone wolf. When they got close to us, I said, “We’re on your side.”
“Fascinating. You’re not on the list,” the centaur-like alien said as he pointed his gun at us.
“Of course we aren’t on the list! We’re primitive aliens just trying to get home!” Scarlett shouted as she stood up with her hands in the air. I also got up with my hands in the air.
“What were you doing in a slave market if you had no interest in buying slaves?” another alien asked. This one was a female Rarling with a poorly handled gun. I looked around to see several more centaur-like aliens and Rarlings patrolling around with guns. Many wore uniforms with the emblem of a fist crushing chains.
Scarlett dusted herself off and noticed that she dropped her ice cream on the floor. I heard her sigh before she explained, “We were trying to develop a strategy to fight the slavers. I was once enslaved and turned into the freak you see before you.” She pointed at herself. “Hearing my backstory, you should know I have no love for the practice.”
The female Rarling looked at Scarlett and then me. She chuckled, “I thought he was the experiment considering how ugly he is.”
I facepalmed. “Why do aliens keep thinking I’m ugly?” I looked at my mutant girlfriend and asked, “I’m not that ugly, am I?”
She laughed out loud at the question. Once she calmed down, she shook her head. “Quentin, have you looked at us in a mirror? You’re still human, and a decent looking one at that.”
The female Rarling looked back at the centaur-like alien closest to her and asked, “Didn’t we see another of these ‘humans’ in their captivity?”
“Harry?” Scarlett and I asked in unison. My blood ran cold as I shivered at the thought. He would be a highly priced slave, so there was a great chance we wouldn’t get him back.
The female Rarling thought for a while before asking, “Did your friend have red skin and a pair of wings? And did he talk a lot about gambling debts?”