Void Traveler – Argetha System

I was expecting many things when I got back to the ship, but somehow I just wasn’t prepared for what I found.

Dru did as I asked him, and had the three Brekthals stored in one of the extra cabins. There isn’t an overabundance of space on the Traveler, but we do keep a couple cabins free, for passengers that may want to pay their way from one system to another, or if the cargo has ‘special’ requirements that need a guard.

In the spare cabin were three Brekthal women, probably my age, almost wearing clothes that looked like they were out of some old time slave harem. They were kneeling side by side, with perfect submissive postures. And there were even slave collars on their necks. Wonderful. We had escaped slaves trying to slip on board my boat. Now, the question was, do I hide them, or kick them off the ship, or turn them in to their owners? The slave trade is an unfortunate fact of life. We have some on Sanctuary, mostly when people get into debt with someone and can’t pay, but there are others who are shipped in from outside. I’m under no illusions that they’re all paying off debts.

Anyways, it isn’t something I can change, even if I were inclined to try. Daddy was a supervillain, and Mom was a superhero, so I’m well versed on the idea of freedom and am not at all inclined to follow orders, especially as a slave. Well, ok, Daddy did keep Mom and some of the others as sex slaves, but for the most part they agreed willingly, and even Aunt Talis got freed when the war was over and chose to remain with Dad. That’s a far cry from slapping a collar on someone and leaving them as property for the rest of their lives. But that’s not the kind of thing you can solve on your own, and as most places aren’t willing to change it, then I just live my life.

And yes, I profit from it, too, when someone crosses me or mine. I don’t care for the practice, but if someone’s set out to make my life hell, then I got no issue making their lives hell in return. Those Aprico goons deserve whatever happens to them, in my opinion. It was just good luck that they met us instead of some normal freighter, or another ‘independent’ who didn’t have Eri and Nariko to rely on.

I looked down at the three women, and sighed. “All right, we’ll get to your sob stories in a second. Right now, I want three pieces of information. One, your names. Two, your owner’s name. Three, why you were trying to sneak onto my ship. Say anything that isn’t an answer to those three things, and I’ll hand you over to station security and let them send you back to your owners. Now, speak.”

The one in the middle, who appeared to be the leader of this group, said, “I am Sukonmih Chylnede, this is Sazke Strauz, and that is Zune Ilno.” She indicated the slaves to her right and left. “Our… owner is Plas Druimt.” She spat out the word owner like it was a vile curse word. “And we were trying to escape, and get back to Brektha, where our families are.”

I knew Plas Druimt. He was a Rithenalese man, with looks like a terrier and a temperament like a wolf. He was a small time criminal, mostly keeping slaves and running an illegal brothel out of the back of his strip club, the Pogint. I didn’t frequent his club, because we were never really on Talos Station that long. I’d been in there once, and it was what you’d expect from a strip club on a station at the edge of an empire: seedy as hell. The crowd was mostly locals, with spacers passing through now and then.

So, I wasn’t too concerned with pissing off Plas by taking his property elsewhere. Still, there were unanswered questions. “And why, out of all the ships on the station, were you trying to sneak onto mine?”

“One of your crew was in Pogint, and got talkative while he was in the VIP room. He told Zune where you were headed next.”

I looked over to Zune. She looked like the youngest of the three. “So, you got one of my men to talk while you were riding him, hmm? Which one was it?”

“He- He said his name was Boris.” Zune looked terrified to be speaking to me. The three had probably made Sukonmih the leader, either because she was oldest, or she was the most confident.

“Dru, call Boris, tell him shore leave is canceled, and that I’ll deal with him later.” Looking back to the girls, I said, “Now, assuming I feel like annoying someone like Druimt, tell me how you’d be paying for your passage to Brektha?”

The other two girls looked shattered at the mention of paying. They clearly had nothing, being slaves. But Sukonmih took a breath, and said, “My father is Sinmiau Chylnede, a Senator in the Brekthal planetary government. I am sure he would reward your crew for bringing us home.”

Hoh. That was an interesting little tidbit. “And how did a Senator’s daughter wind up a slave?”

“We were on a relief mission to keep awareness of the situation in Argetha fresh in people’s minds. Argetha IV is mostly cleaned, and is starting to recover, but the other planets in the system are still in bad shape. We were over Argetha VI when pirates attacked us.”

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“I see. Then here’s what I’m willing to do. I’ll take you and your friends to Brektha, but I can’t promise my crew a nebulous possible reward based on the words of someone who claims to be a Senator’s daughter. So, you two,” I pointed to Sazke and Zune, “will be ‘comforting’ the crew in this cabin and the one next to it until we get to Brektha. And you, Sukonmih, will be in my cabin. If your father still wants to give us any reward when we get to Brektha, that’s up to him. Now, do we have an agreement, or am I kicking you off my ship?”

The girls looked at eachother, kindof despairingly, but not exactly surprised. They had probably known that this was going to be how they paid their way off the station. And working at Pogint, they definitely were used to such treatment by now. Sukonmih looked up at me with a resigned expression, and nodded. “We have an agreement.”

“Great. Dru, get those collars off them. And deactivate any tracers. The passive ones won’t make it through the hull, but the active ones can be a pain. Have Doc check for implants as well. Zune can have this cabin, Sazke will be next door. And send Sukonmih to my cabin. Make sure they get fed before they start their new duties. The crew is to have free access to these rooms when not on duty, except for Boris. Boris doesn’t get any.”

Dru made that weird, insectoid laugh Kheldenans did, and turned to start implementing my orders. As soon as everything was loaded up, and our upgrades finished, we’d be out of here.

(Later)

Four hours later, our cargo was loaded, or upgrades finished, and all crew safely back aboard. As we detached from the docking bay, I noticed that two system patrol corvettes were nearby, probably trying to scan us for illegal goods. Unfortunately for them, Sanctuary ships come standard with scan-blocking material woven into the hull. It is super-science, naturally, and while I doubt it would work against the Asguard, against a system patrol craft for the Rithenal Empire? Piece of cake. And it didn’t even give them cause to try and board us, because it was common knowledge that you just couldn’t scan Sanctuary ships. Dad always said that the best way to hide something was in plain sight.

We followed the standard exit vector for ships heading towards Brektha. The gate to the Corun system was about six hours away with our current course and speed. If you didn’t need to, you didn’t stress your engines or burn fuel going full speed. That was asking for bad things to happen. It also got people looking at you like you had something to hide. That always caused more problems down the line. So it was an efficiency course.

Once we were clear of the station, and it was obvious the patrol craft were going to leave us alone, we went into watches. I left Steven in charge of the bridge while I went to get a shower and a few hours of rack time. It wasn’t until I stepped into my cabin and found Sukonmih waiting there that I’d remembered I had a bedwarmer for this trip.

Excellent.

I looked over to Sukonmih, and said, “I’m going to freshen up. Be ready to earn your passage when I get out.” With a smile on my face, I walked into my private bathroom. Honestly, this was one of the best things about being Captain. As I peeled off my clothes, I looked at myself in the mirror. Pale skin, brown eyes, and bright red hair that fell down my back when I didn’t have it pulled back. People always said I looked like Mom, but with Dad’s eyes. I wasn’t as heavy up top as she was, but then they had grown a bit once she had kids. I was what someone might call ‘gym fit’, and curvy. All in all, I considered myself a catch.

I left the mirror and stepped into the sonic shower. Water was a premium commodity in space. I had a bathtub that I could fill, when I wanted to, and it even had Jacuzzi jets, but I usually used the sonic for day to day stuff. And I wanted to taste my new toy. I may only be nineteen, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t experimented. I was looking forward to seeing the difference between Sukonmih’s tongue and Eri’s. Eri was only half-Brekthal, after all, and she had more human-looking qualities than full Brekthals. And here I’m babbling.

Refreshed after the shower, I stepped out of the restroom completely naked, and looked to see where my pet had gone. I found her, naked, lying on my bed, on top of the covers. A very seductive pose, and if I hadn’t been taught by Aunt Talis to recognize Brekthal body language, I would have believed she was eager for it as well. Instead, I saw that broken resignation you usually find in whores who haven’t learned to put on a more convincing act.

As I stalked over to the bed, I said, “So, my pretty, have you ever tasted a woman before?”

An eye twitch! Oh, she didn’t like this topic. “I have. But I prefer men.” In other words, she was straight, and had only been with women because she had no choice in the matter. Probably as a punishment for back-talking, or acting like she was better than a slave. Those women would have gotten off on ‘breaking’ a straight girl, and wouldn’t have been kind. Well, there was a long trip ahead of us. Maybe a bit of comfort would bring the girl around. Wouldn’t be bad to have someone to ‘visit’ the next time I was in the Brektha system.

I laid back on the bed, and smiled. “Well, then, show me how good you are.”