1838: the year the British Empire abolished slavery. 1865: the year the USA abolished slavery after fighting a bloody civil war over it. 1888: the year Brazil abolished slavery, the last Western country to do so. Slavery lingered in some parts of the world for a while as a legal institution. Even now, there were several people enslaved on Earth. Though illegal in every Earth nation, it still pervaded. Yet here in the galactic scene, there was widespread slavery. All because some aliens would rather not get off their butts to work on something and pay someone a wage. At least most greedy Earth businesses pay wages, even if nowhere near enough to survive.
The slave market consisted of a massive auditorium style room with hundreds of rows and three floors. Aliens of all kinds sat down in seats designed for them. Each floor had a section designed for a certain body shape. I sat down at the section for medium-sized bipeds. I had no intention of buying slaves. Rather, I was using this opportunity to spy on the operation to see how to disrupt it. Of course, I couldn’t go in guns blazing and shoot all the slavers. I had a moral compass, but I’m not stupid! All that achieves is placing a target on my back for the galaxy to hunt me down. The only victory I’d achieve is a moral one, which may be doubted due to me killing several people outside of a war.
On the stage below, I saw an avian alien squawking into the microphone. “Peoples of the galaxy, we have some interesting specimens today! Most of the time, the slaves we buy come in package deals! However, we have special slaves now, created by none other than the Qarri Genetics Division! Thank you for sponsoring this business threatened by the Tellos Republic!” the avian squawked. I was both horrified and relieved. Though there was a megacorporation that was involved in the slave trade, there was also a country fighting against it. But knowing this galaxy, it could be a bunch of Soviet-style communists.
“First up is a Qarri Braindead. Once a political prisoner, all free thought was eliminated from him because of his unique psychology. Now he is a completely submissive servant who physically cannot rebel! You have superior physiology and no rebelliousness! Bidding starts at five hundred credits!” the avian squawked. I flinched as I saw a massive silhouette approach. Once the light reached the figure, I realized why the slave was that expensive. The Qarri was over ten feet tall. He was massive, with most of his size being muscle. He had no nose, and his body was covered in scaly gray skin. That’s correct, not scales or skin, but a combination. He had a generally humanoid shape, but there were enough differences to note that he was an entirely alien species.
“Six hundred credits!” an alien shouted while slamming the button on his chair. I was careful not to touch the button. I didn’t want to accidentally purchase another sapient being. “Seven hundred credits!” another alien shouted. It seemed that this alien was a very popular item. I also knew that a hundred credits were seemingly the standard increment for bidding. A few more bids were made in quick succession.
“Going once! Going twice! Sold to Buyer AZK402 for three thousand credits! Step right up and retrieve your slave!” the avian squawked as a tiny bug alien walked up and took a remote from the slave’s handler. The bug alien then used the remote to make the slave move. Frankly, it was upsetting that it’s that easy to control the slave, and very creepy. Seeing a biological lifeform act like a robot made my blood run cold. It was something no one should ever witness and it made me worried about all the slaves. But considering that Zalex was able to defy his captors, it was fair to say that the Qarri slave was specially designed to act that way. What other horrible things could this company do? Wait, Qarri Genetics Division. Was their government in on it?
“Next up is something far less impressive and more of an experiment. You see, it’s a Human,” the avian squawked, earning several boos. I was horrified. I tried to get a straight face, but I could tell that my emotions were showing. Not that anyone was paying attention to me anyways. The avian shouted, “Quiet down! I know this is a disappointment, but I need to get her out of my stock! The Qarri Genetics Division tried to make her look less hideous, but she still retains most of her Human ugliness! We call her a Vulpine for reasons that will soon be visible!”
I looked to the right of the stage and saw an interesting creature dragged onto it. The creature looked like an anthropomorphic red fox. However, it was clear that her form was far more reminiscent of a human woman than the animal. She stood at a human height, had plantigrade legs, and hand-paws with normal length fingers. Long red hair flowed down to her waist as she was dragged onto the stage. She only wore a loincloth and bra, which she was understandably embarrassed by. She looked bone thin. I knew I had to free her, but there was only one way I knew how to do it without getting in trouble with the law. I just hoped she could forgive me.
“The bidding will start at one hundred credits!” the avian squawked. The room was quiet. No one wanted her. I pressed the button on my chair.
“One hundred and one credits!” I shouted, earning stares from everyone in attendance. No one tried to surpass my bid. I felt a cold sweat as I knew what I was doing was only enabling the operation to continue. Even though I fully intended to legally free her when I won the auction, there was still the guilt of giving these disgusting people money to continue their operations.
“Going once! Going twice! Sold to the Human for one hundred and one credits!” the avian squawked as all eyes turned towards me. As I walked down to the stage, I could feel their stares. I swear, some of them were even smirking as if what I did was something amusing. I could hear that some of the aliens were gossiping, but I couldn’t discern what they were saying.
I reached the stage and walked up to the former human. I noticed that she was five feet nine inches tall not including her ears, matching my height. Strange, considering that cartoons seemed to instill in me the idea that anthropomorphic foxes were short creatures. Then again, most of those were meant to be foxes, not former humans. “I’ll get you out of this,” I whispered to the creature, unsure if she understood what I was saying.
“Thank you,” she hoarsely replied as she looked at me. I heard a slight Southern accent, which shocked me. Her voice was also completely natural as my SAD didn’t have to translate what she was saying. She looked at me and I noticed that she had bright blue eyes instead of the bright green that I expected. Then again, her being a former human, I should’ve expected brown eyes instead of either blue or green.
“Taking interest in your slave? I expected nothing less from a Human! Now scram with your new slave before you become one yourself!” the avian squawked and threw the key at me. The vulpine and I quickly walked out of the slave market. It took her a bit longer to walk out due to her legs being chained together. Once we were out of the auditorium, I led her into an alley before using the thrown key to unlock her chains. I tossed the chains into a nearby trash can.
“I hereby free you of your chains! You will be a slave no longer!” I announced as she rubbed her wrists. I could see her looking at me before a smirk crossed her lips, or at least what would be her lips if she was human.
“But am I truly free? I may have no physical chains, but I’m still legally a slave. Until you fill out paperwork with Qasan Station authorities, you can’t say that I’m free. Besides, we both know that we need to return to Earth. I have to follow you. Therefore, I won’t be free until I’m at Earth!” she said with less anger than the statements should infer.
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“I’m sorry! I panicked and didn’t know what to do!” I shouted as I pulled out my map and tried to locate an office.
“I’m just messing with you! I’m fine right now. We’ll walk to one of the offices and get through this process together,” she said as she started walking towards the monorail. Her ears were pinned to her head as her tail fled between her legs. I had to ask her something.
“Do you want to get some clothes? You need to preserve your dignity,” I asked as I walked by her side. I noticed that the aliens in the station were starting to stare at us. I felt uncomfortable and confused at why we were attracting attention.
We reached the monorail and boarded it. I got us seats, allowing her to have a window seat while I took the aisle seat. I looked ahead and asked, “What’s your name? Do you remember it?”
“Of course I remember my name! My name is Scarlett Campbell, heiress of the Campbell estate,” she said before correcting, “former heiress. Once I’m human again, I’ll get my inheritance back.”
“Scarlett. Ironic how fitting the name would become,” I said, earning a chuckle from her. I looked at her and saw that she was smiling.
“You could say that. I think I was a redhead before being abducted, but my memory isn’t perfect,” she said with a hint of sorrow. I frowned at her statement.
“You don’t remember what you looked like?” I asked as I looked at myself. If this universe was cruel, it may be worthwhile to remember what I look like. I probably wouldn’t be turned animalistic, but getting turned into a cyborg was a real risk. Or at least more of a risk than what happened to her. Replacing biological parts with mechanical ones seemed easier than modifying said biological parts.
“I was abducted when I was ten. I was immediately experimented on and turned into whatever I am now. They fed me well until I was eighteen. I guess they wanted me to finish growing before treating me like a slave. If you didn’t buy me, they would’ve disposed of me,” Scarlett said as she sobbed. Tears didn’t form, but I think it had to do with dehydration. I pulled some water out of my backpack and handed it to her. She immediately opened up the bottle and guzzled it down. She wiped her mouth and closed the empty bottle. “Thank you,” she said with a stronger voice. It was still hoarse, but now it was at normal speaking levels. She then tapped my shoulder and said, “This is our stop.”
We got off the monorail and walked towards a large building that was right outside of the station. We entered the building and walked up to the receptionist in the front. They, I couldn't tell if they were male or female, looked at us with interest, especially Scarlett. “What brings a human, and whatever she is, here?” they asked. The receptionist was some kind of quadrupedal mammal that didn’t resemble any found on Earth.
“I’m here to free her from servitude,” I said as I looked at the receptionist. Their face was, to put it bluntly, hideous. It looked deformed as its two eyes were arranged vertically instead of horizontally.
“I see. Unfortunately, the two of you will need to fill out your names and information on these clipboards. Don’t worry, we have a database to translate whatever you write,” they said as they grabbed two clipboards with their mouth and placed it on the counter. I hesitantly picked them up as Scarlett looked disgusted. I walked to a nearby table and placed the clipboards down. I sat down at the side closer to the wall, allowing Scarlet to sit down across from me.
“What did she say? I didn’t catch it,” she asked as she started fiddling with the pen. The receptionist was female? Perhaps it was the higher pitch of it that made Scarlett come to that conclusion.
“I forgot you don’t have any kind of universal translator. She said that before I could free you, I needed to fill out these forms for us. It’s probably so they have official records of our existence,” I said as started filling out the information on me.
“I guess it makes sense. I hope my handwriting isn’t too bad. The last time I wrote something with a pen was fourteen years ago,” she said as she started writing her name. “Dang. It’s as bad as I thought,” she murmured as she continued writing.
Overall, it took an hour to fill out all their paperwork. Especially helping Scarlett with the section on species. In the end, we agreed to put “Vulpine Human” as species since we had no idea what she was. We turned in our paperwork on the counter. “I don’t see why we had to put our parents on the board. It’s not as if they even know our parents,” I said as we waited for the receptionist to return with the next form.
“I don’t know either,” Scarlett said as she crossed her arms and tapped her foot. Due to her current lack of shoes, her taps were quiet. I tapped on the counter with my fingers as I waited for the form. It was then that I thought about something. I pulled out one of the two extra SADs I carried with me.
“Put this on. It will act as a universal translator. It has other functions, but I’ll explain later,” I explained as I handed it to her.
“Thank you. I always wanted a SAD,” Scarlett said as she strapped the device onto her left wrist. She opened the device and said, “My name is Scarlett Rose Campbell.” Her SAD analyzed her biometrics, eliciting my interest. I needed to find out her abilities and those of Gruma. Now I felt bad for not telling Gruma how to use the device. I would need to do it when I got back to her.
“User biometrics analyzed. You are an interesting case. You seem to be the only known subvariant of your kind. Other than baseline, the only subvariants of humans known are the psychers and cyborgs,” her SAD said. I walked over to her and looked at the screen. I could see her ‘abilities’ along with a notification:
Error! No psionic abilities unlocked! Please unlock them to access abilities. (Condition) Malnourished: You are currently malnourished. Please rehabilitate yourself to eating decent amounts of food again.
“It seems we're on the same page,” I said as the receptionist returned with a new clipboard. I cautiously took it and started filling it out. With a brief glance to the foxwoman next to me, I added, "You aren't too badly malnourished. You look like you'll be healthy soon if we get a good regiment going." It was then that I also noticed that she was kind of pretty. I shook my head. Those were thoughts that concerned me. I was normal, right?
“Thanks, I guess. However, it won't help me much against the Qarri. The guards who kept me captive could've lifted cars with their bare hands in they wanted to,” Scarlett said as she turned off her device.
“Don’t be too down on yourself. You know how massive Qarri are. There’s no shame in being weaker than someone born and trained to be stronger than anyone else. We are physically incapable of beating them in a fistfight, but there are other ways to win,” I said as I finished the form and turned it in.
“Maybe if I had a blaster, I could fight. I bet my new fox senses help with aiming a gun,” Scarlett said as she started pacing. We were left in silence for a few minutes before the receptionist returned with a slip of paper. She handed it to me and pointed at it with her nose.
I picked up the paper and smiled. I read aloud, “By the authority of the Qasan Station Council, Scarlett Rose Campbell is officially a free person of the galaxy. Unless sold into slavery, she is no longer bound to Quentin Alexander Smith and is free to do as she pleases.”
“Oh my gosh! Thank you!” Scarlett cried as tears started forming in her eyes. Her mouth formed a smile as she looked at me. Without warning, she hugged me tightly before eventually letting go. “I’m sorry, but I’m finally free! The last time I was free, I was a human child! Now I can finally travel home as… a fox? Now that I think about it, it doesn’t solve my problem,” she cried with joy that faded near the end. I was about to say something when my SAD beeped. I opened it up and saw Gruma’s face on the other side. I guess she found out how to use it as a communicator.
“Quentin, come quickly!” she shouted as she gestured at nowhere in particular.
“What’s the problem?” I asked as I leaned against the counter.
“It’s Zalex! He’s gone! And so is our spaceship!” she shouted as she moved her communicator to show an empty parking space. It took a second to click in my mind that it was where we parked.
“That thief! Stay right there, I’ll get there as fast as I can!” I shouted before turning off the communicator.
“What happened?” Scarlett asked as she walked up to me. I pushed myself off the counter and started running.
“Someone I believed was a friend stole our spaceship!”