Tay was in the mood to just start shooting, but that wasn’t her job. Thankfully, she had an Admiral for that. Before she did something stupid, she took her unconcious patient back to the ship. The child needed better care than a shuttle, in fact, he needed a full medbay and an army. She could give him both.

Roaden heard that the Chief was back on board, but so far she hadn’t turned up. He was finding the new responsibilities tiresome, although he had truly enjoyed putting Bork on reception. Making every officer with a theory, every quartermaster with a complaint and every grunt with an issue go through him was becoming the team's favorite sport. It was a pleasure to watch Borks unyielding literalism in the face of everything. Unless you could explain, very carefully and completely what you needed him for, nothing got done. Word was spreading fast and the Intel Engineering section was quickly becoming known for its efficiency. Other officers had been heard looking to either steal Bork, or find their own. He suspected that Bork’s people had a huge future in the service industry.

He went back to their latest project, an Intec cruiser that he had cut into parts. Even the Admiral's ship was too small for this kind of work. Earth was currently dragging out one of the old, mothballed Carrier models. Captain Williams and the Chief planned to turn it into a single, centralised hub for her department, breaking down multiple enemy ships at once and recruiting a few hundred engineers to do it. Roaden felt like he was sitting on the pointy end of a pyramid, while people were still building it underneath him. Tay was better at this stuff than him. He still found that funny, because she hadn’t a clue about this side of the military. He had served for years and no-one, for any reason, ever got a Carrier handed to them just because it was a good idea. Except Tay, backed by a battle-admiral and Intel. He had been there when she suggested it, another idle thought from a good engineer. Now it was a major construction job and a power base for the Captains. Almost incidentally, it might actually work.

Tay stood over the doctor as he finished her work. ‘Captain, he is fully healed, but I can’t speak for how he will react when he wakes up. Could I ask you to stay with him? At least you would look familiar. Just press this when you’re ready. I’ll be monitoring him from the console.’

Tay nodded, watching the small body breathing slowly. At least they had removed the disgusting brand from his shoulder and healed the injuries of a betrayed childhood. ‘Thank you, Doctor. I’ll stay. Could you ask Dr. Reten to stand by, I believe we will need him.’ The Doctor replied. ‘I have already alerted him.’

Tay knew nothing about children, but it didn’t feel right leaving this to someone else. Her rage had died down, melted into something older and stronger. Now all she felt was pity, pity that some small part of humanity had been abandoned to old fears and old terrors. She would lift them out of it, or they would die. Sometimes humanity would rather burn than change. She could only bring them the choice. She pressed the button.

Alex woke up in hell. His parents had told him that that was where he would go when he died, and here he was. It smelled awful, sharp and cold. But he was in a bed. A bed that made noises. Did hell have beds? He was a bit hazy about the whole thing. When they had sold him, he had lived in a worse hell than this. It didn’t have a bed, for a start. He realised that nothing hurt anymore, not the cuts, not the breaks. He had felt the blade go in, seen the satisfaction on his owners face. Nothing. Perhaps his father had lied to him again, perhaps things got better when you died. Finally he risked looking around, waiting for a blow to remind him to keep his eyes on the floor. There was a slave sitting beside his bed. He didn’t recognise her, but she looked healthy and well fed. A bedroom slave? He had heard of such things, but he had never been allowed to mix with the house-slaves.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Tay watched, the child had small, sharp eyes that glanced quickly, never stopping. His hands, unconsciously, checked for the wound. A small, wounded creature looking for safety. She spoke gently, ‘Child, do you have a name?’

Alex froze. It was forbidden to use the old-tongue indoors. Only on the fields was it ignored. A trick? It risked another beating, but he didn’t care. He was already dead, they could do no more. He hoped. ‘I am Alex.’

That seemed to be it. Perhaps she needed Bork up here. ‘Alex, look at your shoulder.’

He felt the clean flesh, unmarked. Ordinary. He remembered the day, the day his father had branded him for sale. The betrayal and sorrow. The beating when he tried to stop them branding his sister. A child, with a child's strength. The rage that had carried him right into death itself, and now the mark was gone. The strange slave continued, ‘There are no slaves here. I am here to bring war upon those that stole your freedom, that stole your life. But I need your story, everything that you can tell me about them..’

‘ You lie. You are a slave like me.’ Tay sighed again. This was what she was afraid of. ‘Sergeant, could you come in for a moment’. The Sergeant had been waiting outside, not exactly sure of his purpose. He was in full battle-suit, except for his helmet. He was due to deploy to the surface in a few hours and Intel had him hanging around in a medbay. ‘Yes, Captain?’

She had summoned a demon. Hell had demons, he remembered that. It was huge and green, wearing knives and strange weapons. Then the slave girl spoke to it. ‘Sergeant, explain to our guest what your current mission is. Keep it simple, please.’

It spoke like an owner, it had the face of an owner. He had always believed they were demons. Then it looked at him and spoke, ‘Son, my job is to go down to your home, rescue anyone held against their will and kill or detain anyone or anything that tries to stop me. I am what is called a Marine, and there are many hundreds of us. And we will be doing that today.’

Tay nodded and the Sergeant returned to his post. ‘You see, Alex. You are just the first we have rescued. We will take you all, give you what you are owed. Justice, a home and a people. But you can help, you can tell me who to save, who is worth talking too. Will you help me?’

Alex was no fool. She was sending demons to his home. This hell was getting better every moment. He began, listing the slavers, the foremen that had broken his bones, the father that branded and sold him. His mother that had taken the cash. The slaves that betrayed each other, that would exchange his pain for a few sweets. He listed them all. A lifetime of misery and a sharp memory, all handed to Tay.

She rose, ‘Thank you Alex, I will bring you justice. For now, the Marine will stay here. If you remember more, speak to him.’

She stopped at the door, ‘Sergeant, go and sit with the boy. He will need to talk, and right now, I think he needs to talk to you. Despite his size, he is apparently fifteen years old.’ The Sergeant nodded, ‘So pretty much as mature as the average Marine. I’ll call you with anything new. Good luck, Captain.’

Tay dropped into her department. It had taken ten minutes to explain that she didn’t need an appointment with herself. Eventually, she had persuaded Bork to make the appointment and then she had approved it. Such wonders were being worked. She went to meet herself, in her office, despite Bork's conviction that she was unavailable. She must be, because she had told him she was. Time to talk to the XCC again.

Roaden, Olly and Oskar were at the door in moments, with Bork stuck working out his quantum Captain. ‘ Chief, Are you back? Did the Carrier arrive? There’s a million messages for you, Would you like a cup of tea?’

She held up her hands, ‘No, deal with them and I’d love a cup of tea. I need to speak to Roaden, the rest of you go back to work.’ she paused, aware the atmosphere had fallen when she said she wasn’t coming home. ‘I’ll be back tonight, one way or another. I’ll ask the Admiral about the carrier. You’re doing great, just keep it up for another few hours.’

Roaden sat down, ‘I heard from the Marines. What do you need?’ Tay had a slight smile on her face, ‘You mean you wouldn’t help them until they told you? Or did you threaten them with Bork?’ Roaden shrugged, ‘Both. It sounds dirty down there. I prepped a shuttle for you. Looks civilian, but it’s tooled up. All the other ones are unavailable, since I had Olly pull the CPU’s for an update. Sorry Chief,’ he said, without the slightest hint of sorrow.

Ten minutes later, and half a cup of tea in hand, Tay began her descent to the planet.