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 21

S'jen spins her web

            Ash lay on her narrow bunk staring at the ceiling, trapped on a Qin warship by a mad woman. Now s/he knew why natives always went catatonic. Ash used to think they lacked something so they couldn't handle the demands of slavery. But it was completely the opposite. They knew more than crèche Solians; they knew what it was like to be truly alive.

            Ash had come alive on the Purpose. S/he had cared about people who understood hir, and s/he had been able to help them. They had looked to hir for advice and guidance, including Rose. Miraculous Rose who had saved them - she had relied on Ash.

            Ash had commanded a ship and made life or death decisions. S/he felt hirself expanding as s/he learned everything s/he could from the astonishing viewer databases. There was so much to explore!

            But now s/he was a slave again; constrained, locked up, forbidden to do anything but what hir master allowed. Hir new master was S'jen. Ash didn't have to serve S'jen sexually, but in every other way s/he had to do as S'jen ordered. Ash couldn't leave her berth unless S'jen called for hir. S/he was locked into another cube, albeit one with opaque walls. The complete isolation made it worse.

            For the first few days Ash had railed at S'jen and refused to cooperate. But S'jen simply ignored hir, leaving hir locked in the berth for "breach of contract." Ash soon realized that it wasn't about the collar anymore. S/he would have to cooperate in hopes that s/he would be released unharmed outside of the Domain.

            So Ash disgorged massive amounts of information about Rikev. S/he hadn't realized how much s/he knew until s/he was forced to dredge up every detail of hir year in his service. It wouldn't have been so bad if s/he had been free to wander around the ship when s/he wanted to. But the confinement was maddening. After hir initial refusal to cooperate, S'jen didn't trust hir. S'jen claimed that Ash could try to damage her ship to take over, like the slaves had done on the Purpose. Nothing Ash said convinced her otherwise. S/he only wished s/he was that resourceful.

            The comm beeped. "S'jen to Ash, report to my day cabin."

            The lock on hir door clicked. "I'm coming," Ash wearily replied.

            There was a small Creh tech waiting outside impatiently, obviously summoned from more important duties to escort the "dangerous" Solian to his captain. As Ash dragged hirself through the short corridors to S'jen's cabin, s/he tried to remember how s/he used to detach hirself from everything. How s/he longed to return to that equanimity that had served hir for so long. Now s/he dreaded everything.

S/he also wanted to be with hir friends. That pain was the price of allowing hirself to get close to other Solians. It always ended in heartbreak. Why had s/he dared to hope this time it would be different?

            When s/he knocked on the door to the day cabin, S'jen called for hir to enter. Ash stepped inside the bleak white room. S'jen was concentrating on her dataport. S/he seated hirself in the chair next to her, adjusting the cartridge belt on hir khaki flightsuit. At least s/he had that dignity instead of the slave tunic.

            S'jen looked up. "This isn't working."

            Ash felt a surge of fear at the ominous sound of that. Maybe s/he was being paranoid. "I'm doing the best I can. Like I told you in the beginning, I wasn't paying much attention. I was trying to ignore everything that was happening."

            S'jen held up her dataport. "This is the latest analysis of your information. None of my queries could be answered. None of your information meshes - you're either lying deliberately or your memory is inadequate to the task."

            "I'm not lying," Ash assured her. "But it's hard to keep track. Do you know how many high level Alphas I've served? There must have been hundreds. I get them confused."

            S'jen tapped her finger against the dataport. "I'm willing to accept that these discrepancies are unintentional."

             Ash almost thanked her, but S'jen didn't get sarcasm.

            "But your performance is not good enough," S'jen told hir. "It must be enhanced."

            "Enhanced?" Ash's brows went up. "I don't think so."

            "Your agreement was to give me the information I needed. The only way I can get that information is to question you while you're under a serneo-inhibiter."

            Ash stood up. "No way. You're not doing that to me again."

            "Where are you going?" S'jen asked mildly.

            "Back to my berth where I'll stay until you return to Qin. I'm sorry I couldn't help you."

            "Don't you want that collar removed?"

            "Not enough to take your drugs," Ash retorted.

            "You let the Clan Council confirm your testimony using a serneo-inhibiter."

            Ash shuddered at the memory. S/he had never experienced such a lack of inhibition before. S/he had babbled about the attack and hir feelings, remembering the smallest details, until someone asked hir stop. S/he had spent too many years locked up tight to be able to let everything go. The experience had been devastating, but it had ensured the safety of the Solians. Of Rose.

Ash held onto the back of the chair, ready to walk out. "I don't trust you. I'd rather figure out how to remove the collar myself."

            "I could throw you out an airlock if you refuse." S'jen's expression hadn't changed. She didn't seem particularly worried that Ash wouldn't do as she ordered.

            Ash stared down at her. "Your Clan Council granted us amnesty. If I disappear, don't you think they'll come asking you questions?"

            S'jen shrugged. "I violated their strategy, disobeyed direct orders and attacked the Domain. They gave me a medal. I don't think they care about the disappearance of one Solian."

            Ash clung to the thought of Rose - she wouldn't let S'jen get away with it. But then again, Ash hardly knew Rose. S/he could feel the sweat trickling down hir back. "I won't do it! If you're going to kill me, then go ahead!"

            Ash turned and stalked to the door. At that moment, s/he didn't care. The door slid open and s/he stepped out. S'jen hadn't moved.

            Before Ash could take a step, someone grabbed hir arm. S/he felt the sting of the injector at the same time it hissed. Instantly there was a foul taste in hir mouth, like oily metal.

* * *

            Ash returned to normal lying on hir bunk. S/he was staring at the ceiling. S/he had vague memories of a long session with S'jen. The taste in hir mouth still lingered. S/he was terribly thirsty, but s/he didn't move.

It had been nothing like the first time, when Rose and Mote had stood by hir side protecting hir. Then s/he had some distance and control. S/he had been aware the entire time, and it had been mercifully brief, only enough to convince everyone s/he was telling the truth. But this time s/he had been so deep in the past that hir memories felt real. Every thought, every feeling was dragged up and revealed. Terrible things Rikev had done to hir were replayed in hir mind, spilling out of hir mouth... the pain of being penetrated while hir flesh was beaten raw. The smell of hir own sweat and urine, unable to control hirself when s/he was choked unconscious. The times s/he would have rather died than endure another moment.

Ash also  remembered chance incidents, overhearing Rikev's Beta-assistants giving reports, and observing him at work while he kept hir waiting for his lust to reach the level he desired. The dread that filled hir during those times came back, making hir heart beat faster as s/he recounted each horrific moment.

The interrogation went on and on and on as S'jen snatched up bits of information to suit her purpose. It was worse than slavery, it was total invasion.

Now Ash didn't feel anything. S/he hoped s/he never felt anything again.

* * *

            S'jen knew it was worth it. Her decision to leave her squadron at this critical time had been correct. She credited her father with that. She couldn't understand why he had still not appeared to her in spite of her praying and blood sacrifices. Then one night she realized, her father couldn't reappear until she was on the right path. That's when she knew she had to return to the Domain.

            S'jen could feel it almost within her grasp - and now that Ash was talking under the inhibiter, S'jen was finally getting concrete information she could use. She regretted not using the serneo-inhibiter sooner, but Ash had to be given the opportunity to voluntarily disgorge what s/he knew. S'jen was confident that no one would argue with her methods which enabled her to protect Qin.

            As for Ash, s/he would get over it. Since the first session under the serneo-inhibiter, Ash had refused to leave hir berth. So S'jen started doing the sessions there. She made sure Ash received enough water and nutrition, going so far as to administer it intravenously during their next few sessions.

            Now that the inaccuracies from Ash's testimony were removed, a pattern was emerging. Combined with S'jen's enormous database on Domain procedures and decision-making patterns, it would tell her what she needed to know about the Alpha commander of the sector. S'jen input the data from her last session with Ash, along with the other five sessions done under the inhibitor. She ordered the ship's computer to cross-correlate the information with her extensive database.

            Her hunch had been confirmed yesterday when the data indicated that Rikev would insist on leading the charge into Qin. His status depended on it after she had attacked his spacepost. They had already received reports that a new slip course was being followed by the ore freighters which were now going into the Archernar sector for processing. Rikev would do anything to keep his rank as First Alpha in the Sirius sector, and being part of the Domain's invasion force would only strengthen him.

            The computer beeped to indicate it had correlated the new data. S'jen entered her first query. "What is the most likely point of departure for a Domain battleship that has been sent to attack Qin?"

            Yesterday the computer had displayed a map with Procyon, Sirius and Archernar sectors highlighted. Today, Sirius and Archernar were lit.

            "That narrows it down," S'jen murmured. Perhaps it would be enough. Ash had overheard a lot of administrative detail that was a priceless addition to her database.

            "Supply the most likely course Rikev Alpha would take if he commanded a Fleet battleship sent to attack Qin."

            There was a long wait but S'jen didn't move. This was the penultimate question that she had been asking since Ash came on board. Usually the computer responded, "Inadequate data to determine."

            Suddenly the black screen lit up as the computer displayed a graphic representation of a slip plot. S'jen drew in her breath. That was it.

            The computer offered six optional starting points from within Sirius and Archernar, but all converged shortly after leaving the Domain and took a route never used by Domain freighters. It avoided the outer systems where mining was taking place, then curved in deeper inside Qin territory where the advance Fleet forces were located. There he could get the most up-to-date information about Qin before launching his attack.

            Apparently Rikev would be determined to avoid detection by the Qin warships patrolling the border closest to the Domain. A bold commander would have plowed directly through the warships to wreck havoc as quickly as possible. But that risked allowing a patrolship to escape to warn the rest of Qin. Rikev was the type of man who extracted maximum revenge.

S'jen understood that. Perhaps that's why her instincts had proven correct. In her passage toward the Domain, she had taken an out-of-the-way route. It had placed her in the perfect position. It would take two days to reach the Nck-Burymeed pocket just outside Qin territory that Rikev's battleship was projected to pass through.

S'jen hit the comm. "Course change, crew!"

* * *

            When they passed through the slip into the Nck-Burymeed pocket, S'jen immediately asked, "Anything on long range scanners?"

            "Nothing," C'vid replied. That meant there was no useful natural or artificial galactic phenomenon nearby like comets, asteroids, particles or debris fields.

Suddenly the voice of her father sounded urgently in her ear - "Be quick, my daughter!"

Her pulse raced at this confirmation of her choice. She was doing the right thing. Time was running out for Qin. They were as ready as they would ever be.

S'jen powered the engines. As the Fury got underway, she called up a sketchy schematic of the pocket on the imager.

            "We're here at the midway slip." She used the standard designations for each slip depending on its relation to the galactic core. "The innermost slip is where any battleship going to Qin is projected to enter. The outermost slip leads to Qin."

"Are we going to the incoming slip?" C'vid asked.

Time was screaming at S'jen. Their scanners could only reach a tenth of the distance into the pocket. "We can't risk it. Rikev may have already entered. I'm setting course for the outgoing slip. That's where we should put the mines."

C'vid and B'hom had prepped the new shield-penetrating mines that the R&D team at Armada Central had given them. They were ready and waiting to be deployed through the cargo door in the self-contained chucker.

            "We'll have to plant them on the other side," B'hom warned. "That way they won't see them until it's too late."

            That was how the mines were intended to be used, but it wouldn't work this time. "If the battleship is already in the pocket, they'll record the grav disturbance of our passage through the slip. That would alert them. Our only way to win this is by surprise."

            "But their scanners will see the mines once they get into close range," C'vid insisted. "Crikey, our scanners would pick them up. The stealth system on them isn't very good."

            They considered that unassailable point. Then S'jen saw a possibility.

            "They won't see the mines if the battleship comes at the slip from a ninety degree angle," S'jen said thoughtfully. "The EM static of the lee would interfere. And we could be hiding in the lee waiting to pounce."

            "The mines would have to be nearly on top of the slip," B'hom pointed out doubtfully. "If we have to wait too long, they'll drift past it."

"We can reposition them remotely if we need to," S'jen said.
            B'hom pointed to the schematic. "But it's practically a straight run from slip to slip. How can we get the battleship to approach from the side?"

S'jen nodded slowly. "We need a decoy. Something to draw them out to the side."

            C'vid considered the other items the R&D team had given them. "How about that emergency beacon?"

            Every ship had an emergency beacon that carried a heavily shielded autogenerating copy of the logs. It usually survived the destruction of a ship, and sometimes the cause could be determined from the last download. The R&D team had gotten hold of a real Domain beacon and created replicas of it.

            "Won't that alert them that something's wrong?" B'hom asked.

            "Not if there's no debris," S'jen assured him. "A beacon floating by itself in space... what's to worry about that? It will look like it malfunctioned and ejected."

            "And it's a patrolship beacon," C'vid said. "They would definitely divert to pick it up. They might think it had information about Qin on it since we're so close to home!"

            "It will work." S'jen entered as slight course change to take them to coordinates at a ninety degree angle to the outermost slip.

            Nobody spoke as S'jen set up and ran several lengthy simulations of the ambush using their mines and a close-range laser attack. Each of the simulations ended in the annihilation of the Fury. The Domain's battleship was hardly scratched. If there were two battleships, the fight was over exponentially quicker.

But S'jen heard her father's voice urging her to hurry. She was sure they could succeed if only they were quick enough.

Finally, after an interminable time, they dropped off the emergency beacon some distance away from the slip.

            Then the Fury continued on to the slip. S'jen deployed the chucker with the mines as close to the actual slip point as they could. Each mine was an arm-length across and had its own tiny thrusters to position itself in place. Once it was in place, the systems shut down into stealth mode. They were set to automatically explode on impact.

            Once the mines were planted, the crew launched one of the new remote relays developed by the Qin. It would allow them to hide in the lee of the slip while still being able to see a ship coming.

            "What if we missed them?" C'vid asked as the Fury pulled into the lee of the slip.

            "They could have already passed through," B'hom agreed.

            "No, they're coming," S'jen told them, shutting down the engines. She could feel it in her bones, hear it in her father's victorious voice, telling her she had done it. It swelled to fill her head with his resonant words of praise for her faith and courage.

            S'jen placed the restart sequence on automatic. It would only take a few minutes to make her ship mobile. Meanwhile, nothing could see them in the lee of the gravity turbulence on either side of the slip. It disrupted the entire EM band in a tiny point of space, creating a blank spot.

            As the wait began, S'jen didn't need to perform a sacrifice this time. She felt surrounded by her ancestors, as if they were jostling for a view of her impending victory. Rikev Alpha was coming, and it was her destiny to exact revenge for every Qin who had been enslaved. It felt like she fell into a trance while generations of ancestors crowded in close, protecting and guiding her.

            "I'm reading something through the remotes," C'vid warned. "It looks big."

            B'hom's eyes were round. "It can't be..."

S'jen wasn't surprised that their timing was so close. The ancestors were in control. "It appears to be a battleship," S'jen said, reading relay through the navigational scanners.

            "Confirmed," C'vid agreed. "Subspace field stress is elevated across the board. I can't determine their course."

            "The battleship will go to the beacon," S'jen predicted confidently.

            B'hom was shaking his head, looking concerned. "How can we engage a battleship? We've never beaten one in any of our simulations."

            "But it's going into Qin!" C'vid exclaimed. "We have to do something. Or it'll tear our planets apart."

            B'hom blinked at the battleship in the imager. "Maybe if we damage it enough, that will give our other warships a chance."

            They looked subdued but determined. S'jen hit the alert, calling the other crewmembers to their battle stations.

            "The ancestors are with us," S'jen assured them. "We shall be victorious."