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 22

Kwort's big moment

            Kwort almost had to cancel their plans for revenge. They had agreed to make an attempt on the next shift change, but late in second shift both he and Horc were called down to the cargo bay to help bring in an emergency beacon. Their scanners had picked up the beacon from a patrolship not far from the mouth of a slip.

            It was the most excitement Kwort had seen in a decnight, since Rikev Alpha came on board. Rekest handled the grappler while Horc operated the bay doors. Kwort got a great view out the doors as the cylindrical beacon was grappled inside. He wished the Delta common room had a portal so he could watch the stars even while they were on conditional alert. He missed that.

            Rekest handled the grappler expertly, and she soon handed the cylinder over to the Gamma Ops officer. He took it without a word and disappeared into the nether regions of the battleship where the real work was done.

            Kwort and Horc returned to his berth to wait for shift change. There they had stowed their specially-rigged tool bag. Inside the bag was the accelerator with a spooled length of monofilament connected to an industrial-strength output node. Horc had rigged the accelerator to send out a jolt of plasma-charged energy.  Kwort was sure that one hard jolt would be enough to convince Kitarin and Murroom that he could have killed them. He argued with Horc about how high to set the voltage. He wanted it near maximum, but Horc convinced him to start lower.

            They had tried three times already but they hadn't been able to spring the trap for various reasons. Even though it was getting routine, the wait until their shift was nerve-wracking. It was almost too much for Horc. He kept pacing back and forth, wringing his hands.

Kwort finally tackled him and brought him down to the bed. He gave the ridges on the back of his head a playful rub. "Cheer up! This is the start of a new life on board."

            "I wish they would leave us alone," Horc agreed. "But what if something goes wrong?"

            "Nothing has yet," Kwort assured him. "Besides, even if it does, how much worse could it be?"

            "But we're on conditional alert. Maybe we should wait until after we're through with the campaign in Qin."

            "Now is the perfect time, when we know exactly where they'll be leaving engineering. Once we're off conditional it'll be harder to ambush them."

            Horc nodded. They had gone through this many times, but Kwort had learned that his friend needed reassurances to screw up his courage. They untangled themselves and stood up, straightening their flightsuits.

            Kwort put his hands on Horc's shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Can you do it, Horc?"

            Horc nodded again, this time more convincingly. He slung the tool bag over his shoulder. "Let's go."

            "Remember, if something isn't right, we can always try again tomorrow."

            They left the common room early. Rekest was still in her berth preparing for their shift. That was part of their plan. The first time they had to abort was because Rekest had joined them on their way out.

            When they reached the level four main entrance, there was no one in sight. Kwort waited there while Horc unobtrusively dropped the tiny magnetic link. It latched onto the catwalk leading to the broad utilities column adjacent to the main well. That's where the power, fluid and atmospheric conduits were run. It was one of the usual working sites for the lower ranked Deltas. It also led to the engine rooms and the aft of the ship. Kitarin and Murroom had appeared there yesterday, forcing them to abort again. Horc had cut the monofilament and ran to get away.

            Horc circled the catwalk, unobtrusively playing out the monofilament from the tool bag. The lenses wouldn't be able to pick up the fine wire, and Horc had practiced over and over in their berth to make sure he could unspool the monofilament without giving it away. Now he was quite good at it.

Kwort kept an eye on the utilities column. If Murroom and Kitarin showed up with their first tech, they would again have to abort. There were too many contingencies in his plan, but Kwort had been hard-pressed to come up with this one. They had to make it work.

            Horc reached the portside platform. It was separate from the metal catwalk because it supported the ladder running from the top of the well down to level one. Horc could stand there and not be affected by the shock. Kwort was standing on the platform at the main entrance.

            Horc reached into the tool bag to check the accelerator before giving Kwort the slight signal for all-go.

            Just then, Kwort heard Kitarin's distinctive raspy voice. If they were climbing the ladder to the main entrance, Horc would be cut off without any backup. Kwort crouched down a bit, prepared to shout at Horc to run. He could drop down a level and hide in one of the access tubes.

            Horc stepped away from the edge, trying to hide. But he held firmly onto the tool bag. Kwort knew Horc was scared, but he wouldn't let them down.

            Kwort felt a leap of hope when Kitarin's head appeared in the doorway to the utilities column. As she climbed up, she was talking to Murroom below her. They looked different when they weren't attacking him. As Kitarin stepped onto the walkway, her expression was anxious. When Murroom joined her, she kept leaning towards him as she rapidly spoke. He was shaking his head, keeping it down, as if upset about something.

            For a moment, Kwort wished he had tried harder to talk to them. It had turned into war too quickly. They had their own troubles. Why couldn't Deltas stick together?

            Then Kitarin looked up, and her doughy complexion flushed. She snarled, "Look who's waiting for us!"

            Murroom pointed in the other direction at Horc. "The other one's over there."

            Kwort realized they might split up to go after both of them. "How stupid are you?"

            Murroom and Kitarin stared at him in surprise. He hadn't dared talk back for decnights, no matter what damage they were inflicting on him.

            "The punk's got some spirit today," Kitarin growled.

            "Let's show him what that gets him," Murroom agreed.

            They almost shouldered each other aside trying to get around the catwalk.

            This was his golden moment. Kwort had longed for this since the first time he woke up in the bio-bed smashed from their fists.

            "Don't you ever hurt us again," Kwort declared. He didn't care if he was logged saying it as Kitarin and Murroom approached him menacingly. They probably planned to muscle him back through the entrance and down the ramp to a blind spot in the network. They knew every one.

            But they were playing on his terms now.

            Horc moved slightly before he hit the switch, alerting Kwort. He turned to go down the ramp so his back would be towards them. The logs would show him leaving.

            Suddenly, Kitarin and Murroom were jolted into the air. Kitarin let out a strangled shriek as Murroom made a terrible groaning sound. Their arms and legs were twisting and writhing as they slammed into the panels of the wall.

            It was as satisfying as Kwort had hoped for. But his first jubilance was abruptly cut off when he saw the blue arch jump from the railing of the catwalk and connect with the ladder in the umbilical column.

            It wasn't supposed to do that! The voltage shouldn't have been high enough. But a nauseating smell was rising from Kitarin and Murroom as their skin smoked slightly. They were lying in unmoving heaps on the catwalk.

Sparks began to fly from the doorway to the utilities column. Kwort instinctively rolled down the ramp as an energy arc shot out and leaped to the other catwalk.

Horc had run out, grabbing onto the rail to see what was happening inside the utilities column. Kwort opened his mouth to yell, to warn Horc.

The plasma discharge hit his hands. Horc was flung back into the panels, writhing in the air like Kitarin and Murroom.

"No!" Kwort screamed.

The utilities column erupted in a firestorm. It billowed out, filling the main engineering well.

Kwort scrambled back down the ramp as fire blasted out behind him. He slapped at the burning spots on his jumpsuit while tongues of flame leaped from the main well.

The general alarm sounded, adding its demanding siren to the terrible hiss of fire and exploding conduits. The hatch of the lifepod behind him popped open. Kwort jumped inside, but put his hand over the hold button.

Mixed in the racket were urgent beeps announcing the ship was preparing to enter a grav slip. Not now! Kwort thought.

Smoke was rapidly filling the corridor, but he kept hoping that Horc would appear. The plasma shock couldn't have been that bad-

An explosion threw him to the floor. The door to the lifepod snapped closed. Kwort braced himself as the lifepod was ejected from the battleship.

For a moment there was awful black silence; then the systems of the tiny lifepod kicked on. The filters began whirring to clear the air. Lights flickered weakly.

Kwort was dizzy and he was breathing too fast. Wrong! Very wrong! was all he could think. It wasn't supposed to happen that way.

He managed to get to the side portal. He had never seen the battleship from outside before. It was truly magnificent. The sweep of its elongated wedge-shaped form was pure symmetry. Yet it was more than beautiful. With its dark hull punctuated by only a few portals, it looked stealthy and deadly.

The starboard side facing him wasn't damaged, but there was no other reason for the hatch of the lifepod to close unless there had been a hull breach in his area. Maybe the pod had malfunctioned.

The Conviction was coasting very slowly on slip-approach speed. The battleship was leaving him behind.

Suddenly bursts of light went off directly in front of the battleship. The shields lit up like an iridescent halo as the energy taxed the ship's systems.

The Conviction swerved, thrown off course by the bombardment. Then the battleship shook hard as if hitting the gravity turbulence in the lee of the slip. Kwort had felt that from the inside once when they had been going too fast to make the slip. The Gamma Helm officer who had been responsible had been reprimanded in front of the entire crew. It had looked humiliating, but it was probably nothing compared to what the Alpha-Captain would do to Kwort.

As the ship curved away from him, the port side came into view. A small blackened patch on the hull blossomed as a large eruption took out the mid-port section of the battleship.

Kwort slammed himself against the portal, wanting to rush forward and stop the explosion. The shields flashed brighter on the forward section then faded out. It looked like shields had gone down from the power relays, which mean the primary systems were in trouble. The way the Conviction drifted canted to one side indicated that engines were also off-line.

It was his fault! That explosion had been in engineering. Who would think that a mini-accelerator could do that much damage? The plasma arc must have ruptured both of the main power conduits, and once the atmospheric tube was compromised by the fire, there was plenty of liquid chemicals on tap to fuel the explosion.

            How could Horc live through that?
            Suddenly an egg-shaped spaceship darted across the forward section of the battleship. It was hardly half the size of the battleship, but it moved aggressively. Brilliant red lasers shot out and struck the unshielded hull of the Conviction.

            Kwort gaped at the sight. He must be imagining it... but no, the ship swung around the Conviction and raked lasers down the damaged port side.

            Belatedly the Conviction's lasers came alive, shooting longer purplish beams at their elusive attacker. They missed, slanting out uselessly into space.

            The attacker came around again and spiraled toward the aft of the battleship. The Fleet crew was alerted now, and lasers fired as they closed. The attacker concentrated its lasers on the aft weapons array on the Conviction.

            Kwort cheered as one of the purple lines connected with the attacking ship. The laser glanced off the shields of the smaller ship, knocking it out of its flight path. But the egg-ship deftly rolled, getting off another salvo. The aft weapons array on the Conviction exploded in a blinding red burst.

            Kwort's mouth was hanging open long after the multi-colored sparks were sucked away by vacuum. That little ship was mangling his beautiful battleship, and it was his fault.

            The attacker came into range one last time, attempting to finish off the forward weapons array. But this time the Fleet crew beat the ship at its own game. A purple laser hit the smaller ship and it spun away spewing atmosphere.

            Kwort clung to the portal, watching as both ships drifted slowly away from each other trailing debris. Two more lifepods popped off the battleship.

            "Horc!" he cried out.

            It was all his fault...