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 7

The Qin launch a fortuitous attack

            S'jen was at the helm of the Fury, waiting inside the lee of the gravity slip where the scanner-baffling eddies concealed the ship. They were slightly over sixteen standard hours away from Spacepost T-3. The spacepost floated in a popular pocket where four gravity slips conjoined.

The Fury couldn't get any closer to the spacepost until they had some cover. Though the multiple-slip pocket was busy, not many ships were arriving through their slip. One huge spaceliner did exit through their slip, and S'jen had waited without moving during the long collision approach until the liner passed harmlessly through the slip. The turbulence in the eddies almost tore the comm unit from their hull.

But they held firm, waiting for a ship to emerge from the slip. Time was quickly wasting from the lead she had on G'kaan, but S'jen didn't bother thinking much about G'kaan. She knew how the fine fur around his eyes would puff out when he was angry, and the way his mouth compressed into a straight line.

It didn't matter if G'kaan followed her or not. Her own resolve had grown as each slip brought them closer to the spacepost. She would strike at their very heart! If the Domain wasn't stopped, Qin would be destroyed. But her crew was ready to do whatever it took to prevent that.

            "Increased turbulence in the eddies!" C'vid announced, finally breaking the tension.

            "Initiate converter," S'jen ordered. "Prepare for maximum speed."

            C'vid added, "From the tertiary waves, I'd say it's a big one."

            "That's what we're looking for," B'hom agreed.

            S'jen issued commands to the helm, preparing her warship to leap out as the other ship emerged. According to simulations they had run repeatedly on their way to the spacepost, they had to hit microsecond accuracy to be able to successfully jump into the exhaust shadow of a large spaceship before its converters were initiated.

            "Here she comes," C'vid warned.

            S'jen tapped the terminal, her calm voice cutting through their rising excitement. "Sequence initiated."

            The gravity eddies rippled wider, causing fluctuations in the grav systems on the Fury. S'jen had been expecting that, and they were strapped to their seats for the duration.

            With the timing of their jump controlled by the computer, S'jen could glance up at the tactical imager. An eye-bending three-dimensional distortion of a ship appeared as it popped out of the gravity slip.

            The Fury shot forward, leaping into the space directly between the expulsion ports as the ship coasted into the pocket at the standard leisurely speed. The bulky cylindrical transport lit off plasma engines immediately and got underway fast, apparently a habit picked up from avoiding raiders hiding in the lee.

But the Fury wasn't attacking the transport. Instead, they matched acceleration in the shadow of the larger ship. Scanners fed information directly to the helm as the Fury stayed in the wake of the large transport. Their warship was about one-third the size of the transport.

"We're taking dangerous levels of radiation in spite of the shield enhancements," C'vid said quietly.

"Tell the crew," S'jen replied. As per Fleet code, if their radiation exposure got too high, corpsmen could chose to don radiation suits for extra protection. S'jen found the bulky thing got in her way, so she wouldn't suit up. C'vid and B'hom didn't make a move for their suits either. The Crehs would suit up, though. They were a genetic off-shoot of the Qin caused by mutations. The Creh had traveled in space for eons before shielding reached its current sophistication, so they were especially sensitive to the need for safety.

"No scanner probes," C'vid said more hopefully.

S'jen nodded. "Apparently they don't expect any trouble near the spacepost."

"We haven't seen a single patrolship since we entered the slip," B'hom agreed. "How close do you think we'll get without being detected?"

"Our simulations anticipated a much higher level of security." S'jen was busy checking their position near the large transport. The imager revealed a close-up view of the fuel cells and exhaust system in the aft. They wouldn't be in scanner range of the spacepost for many hours.

"We'll get right on top of the spacepost, you wait and see," C'vid promised, patting her scanner jammers. The jammers were another recent advance by the Qin scientists based on developments in gravitational theory and slip mechanics. They were proving themselves ready for this challenge.

For the first time since she had received her vision, S'jen smiled. "We will destroy our enemy."

* * *

            Ash stumbled, bent over and clutching hir side. The Delta guard held hir up by one arm. Raf was Sinnian, and she had always been kind in a distant sort of way. Raf wasn't overly interested in the slaves, but that was good. Ash had seen a lot of trouble with Delta guards in hir time. Most Deltas didn't earn enough bonuses to get regular sex services so they saw the slaves as a free pool they could dip from as long as they didn't stir up trouble.

            But Raf had never bothered Ash, though she had been curious at first along with the others when Rikev had acquired a herme. Now her hand was firm, and Raf didn't look at Ash even though she must know the pain s/he was in. So Raf felt bad on some level, perhaps regretting to see such waste.

            Ash wrapped hir other arm around hir stomach, holding onto hir side where s/he was sure several ribs were broken. S/he had other problems, but none as big as where Raf was taking hir - to the waste reclamation unit of Spacepost T-3

            As they left the outer chamber of Rikev's rooms, Ash whispered, "Wait." S/he put hir good hand against the doorjamb, trying to breathe. "I can't walk... so fast."

            "I'm not in a rush," Raf replied in her low, quiet voice. The deep V-ridge over her eyes looked forbidding, but the softness of her sepia flesh and the round curves of her body seemed comforting. Then again, Ash had always been drawn to maternal-looking females.

            Ash looked out at the spacepost and down as far as s/he could see. S/he might as well treasure these last few experiences. It was ending so fast, s/he could hardly catch up.

            Ash had always known that getting away from Rikev alive would take an inordinate amount of luck. S/he had hoped to hook up with a visiting Alpha who would convince Rikev to trade slaves before Rikev exercised his usual custom with castoffs. But it hadn't worked out that way.

            Ash sighed as s/he pushed away from the door at Raf's gentle prodding. Things could have gone on for much longer, except for that one mistake... it was hir own fault. S/he had moaned when Rikev accidentally stepped on hir fingers. It had not been that bad after a series of more stringent inflictions of pain.

            But Ash had been caught off guard. As a tiny bone in hir finger cracked, a gasp of surprise burst from hir lips.

            Rikev was startled too. He instantly lifted his boot, releasing hir finger.

            Ash had laid there, frozen, knowing hir mistake. S/he almost hoped Rikev would press his boot back down on hir hand.

            Instead, he had turned away, and s/he didn't dare to look. When he finally returned, the fury in his expression told hir everything. He had picked hir up and threw hir against the wall. S/he hit a chair on hir way down, and that's what had broken hir ribs.

            During the beating that followed, Ash knew s/he had destroyed hir only zone of safety. In his instinctive reaction, Rikev had revealed that he cared about hir. That was intolerable for him. The only reason Ash had lasted so long was hir ability to completely detach hirself from what was happening. That way Rikev could act like he was not dealing with a live, sentient being even as he reveled in his excesses.

            Now that he had revealed his sympathy for hir, he had to take it out on Ash.

            And here s/he was, slowly toddling down the walkway toward the lift that would take hir and Raf to the waste processing section at the bottom of the spacepost. There to end hir unfortunate life in the reclamation unit.

            Ash wanted to take it slowly, to delay inevitable. Even as hir feet dragged, s/he knew there was nothing s/he could do to stop it. It was the perfect ending as far as Rikev Alpha was concerned. He was leaving for Qin this evening in his battleship and had already decided to take a new slave he had acquired. So this was it for hir-

            The spacepost shuddered, making Ash stagger. People on the various levels stopped and for a moment the sound grew stilled in the vast atrium, renowned for its echoing clamor of voices and machinery. The question on everyone's lips hung in the air - what could make a spacepost shake like that?

            Then Ash was knocked from hir feet as the floor dropped. The lights went out, and sirens began to blare.

            The floor kept dipping and jumping beneath hir, but the emergency lights flickered on. Ash was panicked, trying to grab hold of something, but afraid to get close to the railing. It was a long drop down the atrium to the bottom of the spacepost.

S/he kept thinking - hull breech!  This was why spacefarers wore personal flightsuits and cartridge belts. Except for slaves.

            The intense jolting finally stopped though the shuddering continued, as if the entire spacepost was vibrating apart.

            People were screaming and rushing onto the open levels. The emergency lights cast a sickly orange glow over everything. With painful effort, Ash got to hir knees then hir feet. Raf was down on the floor holding her head.

Without looking back, Ash limped toward the nearest ladder well. Hir chest was on fire as s/he swung over the lip of the doorway and started down. The pain was so bad s/he almost blacked out. But the grav plates were working in the well, helping to support hir weight.

The spacepost began shaking hard again, almost jerking the rungs from hir frightened fingers. S/he wasn't sure if s/he was more scared by damage to the spacepost or the fact that Raf would come after hir.

            But other people were filling the ladder well, some obviously making a break for their ships docked in the upper landing disc, while others were going down to the lower disc. Some hardly touched the rungs in their downward dive.

            Ash dropped two levels then had to leave because the well got too crowded. On the open level, that the entire quarter section across from hir - from top to bottom - was covered in a buzzing blue forcefield. That meant there was a serious hull breech over there.

S/he slipped into the stream of people leaving a food kiosk to crowd into waiting lifepods. Usually the round doors were closed and hardly noticeable. Now, they stood open, gaping holes for everyone to scramble into.

            Ash tried to push inside, while several hands shoved hir back out. But the forcefield over the other side of the spacepost flashed and suddenly went down. The change in pressure set off louder alarms and a decompression explosion billowed into the center of the spacepost.

            Ash was propelled into the pod as the round door slid shut behind hir. S/he could hardly breathe because of the vise formed by her broken ribs in hir chest. But s/he had a ringside seat at the portal, hir face pressed against the glass as too many inhabitants scuffled for space in the pod.

            The spacepost fell away from the lifepod. Other pods were popping off the hull all around them.

            As their pod drifted above the curve of the hull, the processing unit came into view. It ran up one side of the cylindrical spacepost. A stream of sparkling debris flowed from the long side closest to hir.

            Others gasped or cried out as they watched through the small round ports down the side of the lifepod. The processing cylinder looked as if it had been ripped up its length from the landing disc at the bottom all the way to the top.

            "Look at Diligence!" someone called.

            The battleship was burning, its stern torn away and drifting in clumps of wreckage. A final explosion blew up the remains, taking its docking arm with it. Ash felt a leap of hope - maybe Rivek Alpha had already transferred onboard the Diligence.

Another explosion blew out the upper part of the processing cylinder. The plume of debris and leaking atmosphere quickly grew.

            "It's a Kund attack!" a woman screamed. "I knew we weren't safe on the frontier!"

            "We're going to die-" another shrieked.

            "Shut up!" an Alpha ordered, her status obvious in her sibilant tones. "There aren't any Kund ships. Space would be swarming with them if it was Kind. We're too far away from the front."

            Ash couldn't see the Alpha, but with the instincts of a born survivor, s/he marked her as one to watch out for.

            One of the Betas noticed that a slave had a prime spot at the port, and she pushed Ash away. Ash scrambled down the pod, unable to find a place to lodge hirself until s/he neared the waste unit. A few Solians were huddled outside the door. Someone was inside having trouble with their intestinal processes and making an awful racket doing it.

            It looked like this was the right spot. S/he wedged herself into a nook next to a pretty Solian with long silky black hair. She was sobbing almost silently, hiding her face so no one would see. Ash left her alone.

            Not to make light of a terrible disaster that had probably killed thousands and destroyed the ore processing plant along with at least a dozen ships - but all things considered, Ash smiled knowing she was in a far better place now.

* * *

Ash settled in for the long haul. Every day was the long haul for hir, so s/he knew what s/he was doing. Agony was relative, even when they discovered the grav projector in the lifepod was faulty. It felt like they were being rocked back and forth while the stars stayed still, causing an unbearable conflict of sensory input.

But in spite of the pain from hir beaten body and the nausea induced by the rocking, Ash's spirits were buoyed by the unexpected reprieve. Not only was s/he alive, now s/he had a real chance. Rikev had used a device s/he had never seen before that had wiped everything on hir collar. He had intended that when hir collar was discovered in the reclamation unit, there would be nothing in its database to tie it to him.

The result was that hir history was gone in one magnetic burst. Hir crèche, hir former masters, hir training - all gone. So no one could connect hir to Rikev except for the few Deltas who would who s/he was. If s/he could keep a low profile, s/he might be able to slip into the general slave population.

S/he carefully surveyed the people in the lifepod but there was no one s/he recognized. There were three Alphas in the pod, a handful of Betas and Deltas, and lots of Gammas from the administrative offices who had been eating in the food kiosk. Their bio-systems reacted to the rocking in a variety of shocking ways that were offensive in some degree or another. The smell alone was almost enough to knock Ash over with every breath. The other Solians were also unhappy. It was not the first time s/he cursed their species' sensitive nose.

There were two dozen people crammed in a space meant for sixteen. The crowding made the gravity fluctuations even more unbearable. As the wait drew out, the grumbling grew into concern and eventually neared panic.

Finally one small tugship lumbered out from the spacepost to start picking up pods. Hundreds of pods twinkled their rescue lights, drifting in the cloud of debris hanging around the blackened and pitted spacepost. Clearly it was going to take days for all of them to be rescued.

The senior ranks quickly became demoralized, with the Alphas and Betas the loudest in their agony. The amazing physical superiority of the Alphas apparently didn't include the ability to handle fluctuating gravity. Within hours they were broken down from the physical stress, their faces covered with sweat and their eyes blackened with busted blood vessels.

The Gammas were equally as distressed, maybe even more so because they were jammed into half the space they should have had since the Alphas and Betas refused to relinquish any of their seats. The few Deltas and the Solian slaves were on the floor and they hardly made a sound. They knew the others would be glad to take their frustration out on them if they only gave them a reason.

            After a while, no one could look outside for more than a few seconds. Except for Ash, whose broken ribs were causing too much pain to bear the kicking feet. S/he parked hirself in front of the port closest to the waste unit. S/he got used to the rocking by flowing with it, knowing it would get better at some point. That was the best way to get through anything, in hir humble opinion.

If s/he concentrated hard enough, it felt like the stars were rocking while the pod stood still. It centered hir. Time seemed to slow to a stop, making hir feel eternal. S/he realized that there was a core inside of hirself that was so protected that it couldn't be touched. It was that part of hirself that longed to survive in spite of everything that happened to hir. Even when it was horrible, it was glorious to be alive.

* * *

Ash eventually passed out, probably from lack of oxygen because s/he couldn't breathe very well. S/he was out for a long time according to the other slaves in the lifepod. They could tell s/he had been beaten so they let hir sleep.

One of the slaves belonged to an Alpha in the lifepod, so he spent a fair amount of time servicing his master and trying to ease his discomfort. The other two slaves took turns cleaning the waste unit after someone used it. Ash pitched in as soon as s/he could stand up again.

They were lucky that stress usually put Alphas off their cycle. The scary-sounding Alpha female looked like she almost went into lust, and she would have used one of them in front of the entire pod. But thankfully the gravity flux was enough to unhinge that possibility. Since no one had a scanner, none of the Betas risked messing with Ash or the other slaves. If they belonged to an Alpha, the Beta would be in deep trouble.

So Ash felt fortunate, and that gave hir patience in dealing with Jot, the black-haired Solian girl. She periodically cried in a hopeless, crushing way. Ash was sympathetic until s/he realized Jot wasn't scared for her own safety; she was devastated by the possibility that her master was dead. Slowly Ash got the particulars from Jot, whose master was a Beta foreman in the ore fuel processing plant. Since the cylinder now featured a charred and gaping trench from top to bottom, Ash wasn't able to give Jot much comfort that her Beta had survived.

Ash couldn't understand such devotion. When Jot pulled her knees up to her chest so she could hide her face to cry, Ash finally couldn't take it anymore.

S/he slid down next to Jot, nudging her none too gently. "Why are you so upset?" s/he whispered. "Was he that good to you?"

Sniffling, Jot lifted her head, looking through the dark strands of hair. "What do you mean?"

"Did he treat you well?" Ash hadn't experienced much of that hirself, but she assumed it could happen. Maybe a defenseless girl like Jot brought out the tenderness in an Alpha.

"Well... he enjoyed me," Jot replied haltingly. "What if he's dead?"

Ash gave her a curious look. "I think you should forget about him and start worrying about yourself."

Jot glanced fearfully at the other occupants of the pod. "They wouldn't dare touch me," she whispered. "My master would be furious."

Ash's estimate of her age shifted down a few years. "How many masters have you had?"

"Three."

"How was the first one?"

Jot looked confused. "She enjoyed me, too. But then she got tired of me and traded me. Then he traded me to my master now."

"So why bother crying?" Ash retorted. "One master is as good as another."

"Oh!" Jot lifted her face, staring at Ash. "How dare you! You're not a good slave."

"Well at least you got something right." Ash shook hir head. Maybe some people were born to be ignorant.

Jot was called away to the waste unit by the Gamma who had just finished inside. Ash wasn't sorry, though s/he was fascinated by such gullibility. Jot must have swallowed the crèche lessons whole without any reflection on who she was or why she was chosen to serve. Maybe that was Ash's trouble. S/he always wondered why.

Ash stood up and looked out the port. Finally a tugship was approaching their area. S/he didn't say anything, not wanting to get everyone's hopes up. But it soon became clear that they would be picked up later that day as the tug's rotation carried it closer.

Ash kept quiet. If they found out their pain was about to end, it would feel even worse. Then things might get really hairy. S/he knew about things like that.

The spacepost hung in front of Ash's eyes. S/he didn't know what would happen to hir when s/he returned. Would it be death or life?

* * *

Their pod was eventually captured and towed back to its proper dock. As the airlock opened, they were greeted by a harried Gamma team with a dataport and eye scanner. Ash waited in the rear with the other three slaves while the Gammas pushed to get ahead of each other.

Most of them were told to report to the upper or lower landing disc for evacuation. Apparently the spacepost was maintaining environmental integrity by a narrow safety margin. Those who didn't have a flightsuit were issued one with air cartridges. Except for the slaves. It was clear from the Gamma's behavior that slaves didn't rate the most basic protection.

Ash thought about those damaged ships that were tethered to the few intact docking arms of the landing discs and wondered how everyone would get off the spacepost. The officious Gammas refused to answer questions as they gave everyone their assignment. The Alphas and Betas, the only ones who could find out what was going on, were long gone by the time Ash emerged.

Ash let Jot go in front of hir. The Gamma read Jot's collar with his dataport scanner. "Beta Foreman Bartyl is missing, presumed dead." He turned to two of the Deltas who had been in their pod. "This slave will go to the lower disc for transport. Then you can report to the repair detail."

Jot was shaking her head, her fist to her mouth. "No! It can't be true-"

The Gamma smacked her smartly on the side of her head. "Get moving. We've got other pods to clear."

Ash stepped up and let the Gamma read hir collar. "This one's clear," the Gamma said, suspicious. He shook the dataport. "I've never seen that before. Who do you belong to?"

Ash had prepared hirself. "I was being taken back to the general population for transport. Jolene Alpha borrowed me for a couple of days."

The Gamma smirked to his buddy, "I heard she skimmed. So this one is from Sol itself, the mother-lode of sex slaves."

The other Gamma was grim and overworked. "I think Jolene's in the upper disc."

"Hey, we got our orders. If the Alpha don't have her mark on him... er, her." The Gamma shook his head, unsure what Ash was. "Whatever. This one isn't marked. It's going to the lower disc for transport to Regional Headquarters, just like the other one."

He ran the scanner across hir collar, making a record of the general order for unattached Solians to be transported to Regional Headquarters. Then he turned to the Delta who was standing next to Jot. Her face was shiny with tears. "You can take this one too."

Ash restrained a smile. Now it was official.

As they approached the open level, the devastation of the spacepost became apparent. The orange lighting made it darker than usual, with lots of loud fizzing and popping as if the spacepost was falling apart around them. Ash hurried after the Deltas, who seemed disoriented and frightened after days of deprivation in their pod. If Ash wanted to, s/he could have easily slipped away. But they were taking hir exactly where s/he needed to go - to a ship that would get hir far away from Rikev Alpha.

None of the lifts were working. As they circled around to a ladder well, Ash could see people milling in the debris on some of the levels. Forcefields blocked off large swaths of the section closest to the processing plant.

The weird sounds coming from the spacepost prompted Ash to drop down the ladder as fast as s/he could. Thankfully hir ribs weren't as painful as they had been a few days ago so s/he didn't slow them down.

The Deltas were very jumpy. But at least Jot had finally been stunned into silence. She was moving fast, as if imminent disaster was about to strike. Ash figured that if Jot survived this experience, she might actually learn something.

They reached the landing disc at the bottom quicker than Ash expected. When the Deltas had a hard time finding the dock for the transport ship, they joined up with another pair who were taking a handful of Solians to the same destination.

Ash liked having a bigger group to hide in. There were lots of people down in the landing disc, rushing to find a way off the creaking spacepost. S/he dreaded that someone would recognize hir.

Instead, one of the slaves caught Ash's eye. She was being very aggressive and talked back to the Deltas, driving them almost to distraction as they tried to find the correct docking port. Invective flowed out of the dark haired girl in an astonishing stream. Ash had never seen anything like it and wondered if the girl had become unhinged by a long stay in a lifepod. But it became clear that she and the others were being transferred directly from the general population cubes on the spacepost.

One of the Deltas suddenly stopped and prodded the slaves to the side, "Get out of the way, meat."

The slave's dark eyes flashed, as she snapped back, "That's Rose, asshole!"

The Delta ignored her as he eyed a group of Alphas who were approaching the slave convoy. Ash took one look and dived in between Rose and Jot. Between Rose's vibrant, dramatic behavior and Jot's dark submissive beauty, Ash hoped a humble herme would simply disappear from sight.

Rikev appeared, walking among a handful of concerned Alphas. Ash glimpsed his face, glowering as if ready to rip someone's limbs off. Ash knew that look. S/he had seen it when he threw hir into the wall. It was doubly shocking because he was typically expressionless.

It was a good thing s/he had taken precautions to place herself between Rose and Jot. S/he couldn't breathe as Rikev strolled by barely an arm's length away. She didn't move in case s/he caught his eye.

Rose supplied all the distraction Ash needed. Her pouting red lips curled in disdain, as her dark eyes swept up and down the Alphas. Rose stared right at Rikev - a man who didn't even like other Alphas to look him in the eye.

It was almost too much. Ash could tell Rikev's attention wavered toward Rose, but whereas many Alphas would enjoy breaking a defiant woman, that was boring to Rikev. He liked breaking the hard subtle ones, not the ones that spewed bravado like it was carbon dioxide.

Rikev passed on, hardly glancing at them. Clearly Rikev was one Alpha who had more to think about than lust. The other Alphas followed close behind, and then their impromptu convoy was allowed to proceed to the transport.

Ash tried to hide hir grin with hir hand. It felt funny and wrong, but she couldn't stop. Not even when Jot began to cry again as they filed through the airlock into the transport. Or when Rose snapped at Ash, "Are you an idiot or something? What are you giggling about?"

"You have no idea," Ash replied.

"Nothing makes sense around here," Rose snorted, stalking ahead of Ash.

As they boarded the small cargo transport, Ash had to agree that nothing made sense. They were forced to enter a cargo container that held blankets and a hastily assembled waste unit. It was twice as large as the lifepod Ash had been in, but was uncomfortably similar, with only one viewport in the door near the front.

Ash filed into the container with Rose, Jot and seven other slaves. The container was sealed shut behind hir, and s/he was safe. Or was s/he...? Ash slowly looked around at the other slaves, who were similarly confused. They were usually transported in the clear cubes to keep them from hurting each other. Ash noticed that three of the males and one of the females were fairly large and strong. She glanced at Jot, who was looking really worried now, and at Rose, who appeared to be getting even madder.

"Shit!" Rose exclaimed. "Now what? We're stuck in this shoebox?"

            Ash eased away from Rose. Why was she so angry? Hadn't enough already happened? If Ash was any judge of situations, now was the time for hir to withdraw to a quiet corner while the others jockeyed for position. S/he grabbed Jot and pulled her along. Maybe it was a charitable impulse. Maybe it was because s/he wished someone had taken care of hir when s/he was young and innocent. But really, Ash had never been that way.