Rose Rico never believed the rumors that the government was secretly selling human beings to the Alphas in exchange for advanced alien technology. The idea that human sex slaves were a luxury item throughout the galaxy was just too ridiculous to take seriously - until Rose found herself, along with hundreds of other human captives, bound for the far reaches of space, and compelled to cater to the depraved desires of her new alien masters. As a rule, pleasure slaves don't live very long, especially the stubborn ones. But Rose refuses to give up. Someday, somehow, she'll win back her freedom - or die trying!

Originally published by Pocket Books (2003) as part of the Slave Trade trilogy including Slave Masters (2004) and Slaves Unchained (2005). www.susanwright.info

Chapter 20

The chase begins

            Rose gave G'kaan credit - he took her straight to the gravity pocket where S'jen was supposed to be patrolling with her squadron. But the Fury wasn't there. Rose was in the command center when the other two captains bitterly complained to G'kaan that S'jen had run out on them with no warning. Apparently it wasn't the first time she had done something like that.

G'kaan was so mad he looked like he could chew titanium. Rose got the feeling he'd been chasing after S'jen for a while now. From a few comments the crew let slip, G'kaan and S'jen were once an item but things had now soured. It sounded like a pretty dysfunctional relationship as far as relationships went. But then again, who was she to say? She went through men like candy, and the last one had sold her into space slavery. She still intended to pay Bolt back for that one.

            So instead of hooking up with Ash, Rose was on her own again as they headed back into the Domain. That definitely wasn't what she had bargained for when they left Qin.

            The Resolve was a bit larger than the Purpose, with most of the space taken up by the engines and laser generators. Rose had a narrow berth where she spent most of her time hanging out. She avoided the crew lounge, preferring to be alone. It was heavenly not being responsible for a bunch of needy people. Watching the stars go by on the window-sized viewer, she could almost imagine she was back home lying on her bed and looking out at the night sky over Tijuana.

            But she quickly got tired of her enforced vacation and began exploring the ship. Early on, she convinced G'kaan to teach her how to plot gravity slips. He didn't think it would be too difficult for her, unlike Gandre Li. And once she got an overview, she realized it was just a matter of learning to put all the pieces, or variables, together. She worked diligently on that every day, determined to be able to get around space on her own. Being stuck in that pocket had been worst part of taking over the Purpose. If Gandre Li hadn't come along, Rose shuddered to think where she would be right now.

When G'kaan realized Rose was ignorant of many things in the Domain, he gave her a dataport and speaking texts about the galacti-political structure and Sol's place in it. Her implant translated the words for her. Rose still found a lot of it incomprehensible. She ended up throwing the dataport against the wall a few times until G'kaan agreed to meet with her every day to explain things. He also got her a good interactive dictionary program and encyclopedia to load onto her dataport.

Then the Resolve entered the Domain. Rose wasn't happy about it, but there wasn't much she could do.

            She continued plowing through the information, growing more comfortable with her dataport as an all-purpose computer/communicator/information unit. She also got better at reading gravity signatures and calculating vectors for slips.

Then one day she found a citation from an Alpha scientist team that had a list of weaknesses that proved Solians had an "inferior genome." That was too much for Rose. She couldn't wait for her daily session with G'kaan. She stormed up to the command center with the dataport in hand.

            "This is crazy!" she told G'kaan, shaking the dataport at him. "Solians don't sleep a lot because we're an inferior species! We have a shorter sun cycle than other aliens. That doesn't mean we're some kind of morons!"

            G'kaan looked over his shoulder, while M'ke smiled gently at her from the Comm. L'pash was seated at Ops. The exotic Qin rolled her eyes when she thought Rose wasn't looking.

            "I saw that," Rose told her. "You have a problem with Solians?"

            "Only Solians who interrupt the captain when he's in command," L'pash replied sweetly.

The white hour-glass blaze between her eyes was disconcerting. "What do I care?" Rose demanded. "G'kaan asked me to look at this stupid propaganda. If you don't want my help, then take me back to Qin."

L'pash looked like she wished she could do that. Rose was ready to slam the dataport into the floor to prove her point.

But G'kaan told her, "Don't take it personally, Rose. The Domain talks nonsense about Qin, too. We need your insight to sort out what's true."

Her eye was caught by the imager where an elongated wedge-shaped ship floated in space. "Who's that?"

"That is the battleship Conviction," G'kaan explained. "We're in the lee of the gravity slip so they can't see us. We're accessing the image through a remote relay."

"What are they doing here?" she asked.

"They docked with a courier and now they're on a direct course for the slip we're behind."

L'pash ignored Rose, looking at G'kaan. "Since the spacepost has broken up, that battleship isn't going to stay in the area for long."

"They could be heading to Qin now," G'kaan agreed.

"If we follow them through the slip," M'ke said thoughtfully, "the captain will see our flare. If they turn to investigate, we can't outrun them."

Rose could see the determination on G'kaan's face. "But you have to follow it, don't you?"

L'pash frowned at her, shaking her head slightly.

"Where's the courier, M'ke?" G'kaan asked.

"The engines are still idle. It appears to be waiting for the battleship to leave the pocket." M'ke checked his scanner. "I've identified the courier - it's the Solace."

            "The Solace?" Rose couldn't believe it. "Are you sure?"

            M'ke nodded. "Yes."

            "That's Gandre Li's ship."

            "Gandre Li? Who is that?" G'kaan asked stiffly.

            Rose knew very well that Gandre Li expected the Solians to keep quiet about her part in their escape from the Domain. But Rose didn't care about that. "She's the Beta who helped us. The Purpose could still be drifting in that pocket if it wasn't for her." Rose gestured to the imager. "Let's contact her and find out why she's here."

            G'kaan shook his head. "We can't. That would alert the battleship."

            Rose tilted her head at the imager. "They're going through the slip, aren't they? Call her after they're gone."

            "And if you're wrong," L'pash said flatly. "That courier will summon the patrolship and we'll be attacked."

            "What patrolship?" Rose looked at the three of them. "From now on, you should tell me what's going on. I don't like surprises."

            "Who are you to-" L'pash started hotly.

            "That's enough," G'kaan interrupted. To Rose, he said, "I will inform you in the future when we go on alert."

            "Good. If you want my help, I've got to be on top of things. We almost missed this chance."

            L'pash was fuming, but Rose didn't care. The Qin obviously had a thing for her captain, but he didn't seem to return her interest. What was it with this big black Qin? Did he mix it up with every woman in his life? Is that why things had gone bad between him and S'jen?

            "Can we trust this Beta-Captain?" G'kaan asked seriously.

            "I'm telling you," Rose insisted, "it'll be fine. Let me contact Gandre Li and I'll find out what that battleship is doing."

* * *

            G'kaan had met a lot of slaves in his time, but Rose was different. She didn't fit the Solian stereotypes, and he was fast on the way to realizing that he didn't know much about Solians at all.

            Rose was emotional, sure, but she was also decisive and strong. In spite of himself, it was exciting watching her respond to L'pash's none-too-subtle jabs. There was no telling what Rose would do. She had surprised him many times since they had left Armada Central. She was upset when they found out that S'jen had disappeared again, but she had a core of care-free optimism that couldn't be shaken no matter what happened.

            He hadn't told her they were going into the pocket that held Spacepost T-3 because he assumed she would be afraid. They had to pull a tricky maneuver, slipping through on the patrolship's exhaust shadow, then shutting down the systems to avoid scanner detection. First thing they saw was a courier approaching the slip at top speed, and a message was broadcast from the patrolship that the battleship Conviction was on its way in. Not a good situation. They had barely managed to thruster into the lee of the slip before the Conviction arrived.

So he hadn't told Rose, but here she was recommending the radical move of contacting a Domain courier! He was starting to understand how Rose could hijack a cargo ship with a bunch of misfit Solians and actually escape the Domain.

            "Why did a Beta help you?" G'kaan asked.

            "Ash convinced her. Gandre Li apparently has a soft spot for Solians."

            G'kaan wondered if Rose was savvy enough to understand a Beta's motivations.

"The battleship Conviction is entering the slip," M'ke announced.

The turbulence grew, shaking the Resolve harder the closer the battleship got. Rose hung onto the back of his chair as they braced themselves.

In the imager, the Conviction appeared to be on a collision course with their warship. Rose leaned forward, her eyes eager. Most people instinctively recoiled at the sight of a huge ship plowing slowly towards them. Not Rose.

An instant before the ships crashed, the imager flashed as the Conviction was gravitationally slipped away. There was a substantial flare on the navigation scanners.

"Wow! That was wild!" Rose exclaimed, laughing.

"Did they send a message to the courier?" G'kaan asked.

"Negative." M'ke consulted his scanner. "The Solace is firing engines."

"She's leaving," Rose said urgently. "You have to let me call her."

G'kaan consulted his navigation scanners. "What's her course, M'ke?"

M'ke examined his scanner. "The Solace appears to be heading to the Seerat slip. The debris of the spacepost is drifting in the opposite direction."

G'kaan started to nod. The courier was not following the battleship. They could contact the courier from behind the slip through their remote relay-

L'pash exclaimed, "You're not considering it!"

He frowned at his Ops officer. She was worried for their safety, but also her jealousy grew every time she saw Rose. G'kaan couldn't hide his fascination with the Solian, and he couldn't explain it to L'pash. Not after he had made those first questioning moves towards her. Now he couldn't respond to her the same way, and it apparently bothered her a lot.

Besides, he was considering it. Normally he would never take a chance and break cover. But he had to know if that battleship was heading to Qin. If it was on some aimless cruise of the Sirius sector it would turn to investigate every slip flare. But if it was heading to Qin...

"Do it, Rose. M'ke, send audio only."

L'pash drew in her breath. He almost thought she would challenge his order. But that wasn't her way. Instead, she glared down at her terminal.

"Recording," M'ke said.

Rose grinned. "Hi, Gandre Li, it's Rose. Remember me and Ash?"

            G'kaan nodded to M'ke to send it. "Why did you mention Ash?"

            "She liked Ash better than me." Rose shrugged. "Actually, we sort of hated each other. I kidnapped her."

            "Now you tell me!" G'kaan exclaimed. M'ke lifted one hand, indicating he had already sent the message.

            "Don't get in a twist," Rose chided. "Gandre Li's not the shoot-first kind of gal. She was real decent to us."

            G'kaan wanted to strangle her, anything to wipe that grin off her face. She was almost laughing at him, clearly not bothered by his reaction. L'pash had a resigned yet righteous expression on her face.

            "We're getting a visual from the Solace," M'ke said.

            "Put it on," G'kaan told him.

            An imposing Bariss appeared in the imager. Her voice was flat. "I don't talk to people I can't see."

            Rose gestured to herself. "Let her see me."

            L'pash's fingers tightened on her terminal, but G'kaan nodded to M'ke to do it.

            Rose grinned into the viewer. "Hey there, Gandre Li!"

            "You!" Clearly Gandre Li knew Rose. But the Beta-Captain was not pleased to see her. She glanced down at her terminal. "Where's your ship? Come out from behind the slip so I can see you."

            "Fine by me," Rose told her. "But I'm not the captain here."

            G'kaan had committed himself to this course when he sent Rose's message. He stepped in front of the viewer. "I think we'll stay right here."

            "You... you're not one of them?"

            "Yes, though I wouldn't announce it, if I were you."

            "Great! This is just what I need!" Gandre Li exclaimed. But she was careful not to identify him over an open channel even when there was no ship in range.

            Rose laughed. "We made it there, like you said we would. Thanks."

            Gandre Li's lips curled back. "Some thanks! What are you doing here? Are you some kind of evil spirit? Are you purposely trying to destroy me?"

            "Just tell us what that battleship is doing," Rose told her. "And we'll be gone before you know it."

            Gandre Li shook her head at someone off-screen, then looked back at Rose. "The Conviction is on patrol."

            Rose was watching her intently. "I bet if I ask Trace I'll get a different answer."

            Gandre Li's chest rose. "Don't you dare mention her name!"

"Or we could go find that patrolship," Rose suggested. "Do a little convincing like last time..."

"Don't be stupid, Rose," Gandre Li ordered. "If anyone finds out who you are, you're in big trouble."

"I don't have anything to lose," Rose reminded her. "Tell me what that battleship is doing."

G'kaan ground his teeth together. This was no friendly chat. If Rose didn't play this right, they were going to suffer for it.

"Where's Ash?" Gandre Li demanded. "I'd rather deal with hir."

Rose sounded serious for the first time. "Ash is in trouble, Gandre Li. If that battleship is headed for Qin, s/he's in bigger trouble. That's why I'm asking."

"Then Ash is in big trouble." Gandre Li reached out and closed the channel. The imager went black.

Rose turned with a lift of one brow. "They're heading to Qin."

L'Pash stood up, leaning over to G'kaan. "You don't believe that Beta, do you?"

            "She was telling the truth," G'kaan said. "She didn't want to, but she did."

            "Gandre Li always does in the end," Rose agreed.

            G'kaan sat back down at the helm. "We'll go through the slip when they're out of scanner range. They'll see the flare, but if they're intent on getting to Qin, they won't turn back to investigate."

            "Next time don't wait so long to call me in," Rose warned.

            G'kaan knew it infuriated L'pash, but he couldn't take his eyes off Rose. She was so alive she was elemental. And she had been right. The battleship was going to Qin, and he had to stop it.