The Misfits:

Thankfully, there wasn’t any more drama the following morning. However, Alice may have been giving the other three the occasional intense stare.

They ended up in the community hall, having breakfast with everyone else. They had decided they had better make an appearance and at least start to get the whole group used to their presence. And, maybe, used to taking orders from them.

After the breakfast clean-up, the Misfits wandered over to the carts parked outside and sat on one of them. A party of willing slaves went off for the daily crocigator fishing. Another group who came with the boat returned to it to do regular maintenance.

“I never realised how labour-intensive running a big ship like that was,” said Drayden.

“Oh, you have no idea,” said Cassy.

From their perch on the cart, they could see the remainder milling around, not doing much of anything. However, some managed to indulge in socialisation between themselves.

“Look at them, it's like Ester and Evereena getting used to living in a free society,” said Cassy.

“Except worse, since there are so many of them,” said Bronsen.

"What did you two do while waiting for us to reappear?" said Cassy, speaking to Drayden and Alice.

"Had a relaxing time. The slaves had no orders about us, so they ignored us. And when the Order Lock expired, they just kept doing that. We spent our time walking around and relaxing at the pagoda overlooking the central lake." said Drayden.

"Oh bloody hell. We had to work our arses off, firstly dealing with the slaves, then getting the boat sea-worthy, then sailing, with more drama with the slaves," said Bronsen.

"Oh dear." said Alice, "But, you know, I needed a break after having all three of your System ability scores dumped into my abilities."

"Yeah, I can tell you it did nothing for her temper!" said Drayden.

He got a hot glare from Alice. She opened her mouth to express her feelings back when she was interrupted.

"There's another ship approaching!"

"What!" said the Misfits.

Reggie ran up.

"There's a small sailing ship heading straight for us. It'll be over the bar at the mouth of the creek and tying up at the jetty within an hour."

"Oh shit," said Bronsen.

"There must be some high-ranking slaves on board," said Drayden.

"And if they get anywhere near our slaves, there will be a complete disaster," said Alice.

"Yeah, there's no way we can fight off a hundred slaves that have all been ordered to kill us," said Cassy.

A brief four-way glance.

"So, we agree that we have to kill the ranking slaves on that boat. And we have to do it, like, right now?" said Bronsen.

The other three nodded. Then they started running at their full speed towards the jetty.

They zapped through the settlement, much to the surprise of the slaves there, down the track and up to the jetty.

Meanwhile, the small yacht had sailed sedately into the bay's shallow waters.

The Misfits used the cover of their boat to hide behind, sticking out their heads on one side to watch the visitors. They could also see some of their slaves still fishing for crocigators while others were working on the boat.

"Hell, as soon as some higher-ranked slave pokes their head out and tries to order our slaves to do anything, they will know that something is wrong!" said Drayden.

"Look, someone's appeared!" said Alice.

One of the hatches on the top of the yacht opened, and a head appeared out of it.

"A green collar!" said Alice.

The Green pointed up to the boat - the Misfits couldn't see who he was pointing to as they were behind the boat - and said:

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Toss us a mooring rope!"

The Misfits held their breath and waited to see what would happen.

"Well, get to it!"

Apparently, nothing happened.

The Green:

Why aren't they instantly carrying out my order?

They are standing around, looking at me but not doing anything else.

...

Shit! The pathetic Blues must have fought and killed each other.

Stupid pieces of shit. I don't know why the Emporer doesn't order the Blues not to kill each other; it happens so often.

I'll have to go through the lot and re-activate them all.

Wait, something's wrong. There are the slaves on the boat and the slaves from the island. Does that mean that all four Blues are dead?

Something's screwy here. I need to find out what.

He called up his second in command, a Blue, to take a look, then started issuing orders to him and the rest of the crew to dock the yacht and prepare for a stay.

Bronsen:

"If those two get any closer, we will have a disaster. So, we swim out, use our grappling hooks to get aboard, then kill the Blue and Green, then rush as fast as possible through the insides of the boat and see if there are any other ranking slaves. Is that a plan?"

"Yes, that's OK by me. Since Cassy and I have had experience fighting off crocigators, how about you and Alice concentrate on getting onto the yacht and killing them while we guard against the sea life? Then we also get onto the yacht," said Drayden.

"OK, Let's go!" said Bronsen.

All four jumped off the jetty and into the water. This, of course, instantly attracted the attention of all the predators swimming nearby.

Bronsen, as he furiously swam at a pace that would have put an Olympian swimmer to shame and made them want to give up swimming and take up knitting instead, still had time to look around underwater.

Two smallish crocigators to the left. Oh, Cassy just killed one. And there's that octopussy thing to the right, which Drayden is currently slicing up.

He briefly paused his swimming to punch a snappy shark at this point, then resumed.

The Green:

What in the Ringworld are those four slaves doing, swimming out to us?

What! Did one of them just kill a crocigator?

At least, when they get to us, I can reclaim them as slaves and ask them what the Voice is going on around here.

Far quicker than he would have thought possible, the two slaves swimming in front of the other two arrived at the yacht's hull. They immediately used some sort of hook -

It's black. Are those hooks bonded tools? I've never seen anything like them before.

And the one in front of me is a female! How does a female get to be so fast - Oh, she doesn't have a collar -

The grappling hook disappeared at this point, closely followed by a sword appearing right through his chest.

Ding! You have died by Misfit.

The Misfits? I thought they had died.

Ding! Yes, but they were reincarnated. You, however, will be moving on.

Oh.

Bronsen:

He reached up with his grappling hook, hoisting himself up so fast he flew up and over onto the deck roof, then he swapped to his sword and thrust it straight through the Blue.

A quick check to his side

Yep, the Green is dead.

And then both dived through the hatch. Bronsen went to the bow, and Alice went to the stern.

There's only one deck space.

He heard some thumps as Cassy and Drayden hoisted themselves onto the top of the deck, and then they dropped inside. However, Bronsen didn't look behind. Instead, he was looking ahead.

Two Greys, looking at me with blank faces, a bulkhead, another cabin behind it, four more slaves, a bulkhead, and an empty cabin.

This looked fractionally more upmarket than the previous cabin, so Bronsen guessed it must have been the Blue's or the Green's.

He moved forward again, through the next bulkhead, only to find a storage area at the ship's bow.

He relaxed and turned around just in time to hear Alice call out.

"No more coloured collars up here!"

So he called back the same.

After some more leisurely checking, they at last relaxed. There were ten slaves in all, who were now all gathered in the central cabin.

"Hi there. As you can see, we have just killed your masters. Do you have any problems with that?" said Bronsen.

"I don't suppose so. But we need to dock the yacht, so if we can get to our stations?" said one slave.

"Sure."

It looks like it's Order Lock time.

The Misfits tried their best to keep out of the way of the slaves as they worked the yacht up the jetty and tied up. They hopped out and had a little meeting.

"OK, we did it. Anyone has any problems with it?" said Bronsen.

"Well, not for now." said Drayden, "And if no one else has, let's postpone that question till tonight?"

Everyone agreed.

They watched as the slaves securely moored the yacht, then began to gather in the sails and get ready for a stay. After they had finished and were assembled in the main cabin, Bronsen poked his head through the hatch and said:

"Would you like to come up with us to the main community mess hall and meet the other slaves?"

There was silence, until one slave said.

"We've been ordered to dock the yacht and prepare for a stay. So we must stay here until they order us to do something else."

"You did see us kill your masters, right?" said Bronsen.

"Yes, but we still have our orders."

Bronsen rolled his eyes.

"Sure, sure. Do you have enough food to last a week?"

"Oh, plenty."

"Fine. Do you mind if we look through the yacht?"

"We don't have any orders against it."

"Bloody hell! First, you slaves are all screaming at me and attacking me in waves, and now you totally ignore me!"

That was Alice, screaming out some of her accumulated stress.

Drayden on one side and Bronsen on the other gave her a sandwich hug. And Cassy patted her on the back.

The slaves, as usual, didn't have a clue about what to make of that.

For the search, Bronsen decided to start at the stern, and they made their way methodically towards the bow.

The only thing of importance that they found was a big chest full of slave collars. Maybe almost a thousand.

Bronsen scratched his chin. He spoke to his friends.

"If you have no better ideas, how about we leave these slaves to their own devices but take the box of collars with us?"

Nobody objected, so that is what they did.

Bronsen looked behind as they left.

They are showing no curiosity whatsoever as we leave.

We had better check up on them every day.