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 18

Rikev Alpha crushes his enemies

            Rikev finished his cycle of lust with a nagging sense of dissatisfaction. He had expected to use Trace. Not that Trace's character profile particularly suited him, but he would have gotten a great deal of pleasure thinking about Beta-Captain Gandre Li while he was tormenting her slave.

            His own Solian whimpered quietly in one corner. It was times like these he regretted throwing Ash away. He intended to get another herme as soon as possible. Ash had been the perfect slave in temperament, and physically s/he had offered every sort of variation that was possible with Solians.

            Rikev cleaned himself as he always did after his lust. Then there were a series of procedures he did to in order to make his body function optimally: the somanic detoxifyer, cellular wash, and a gel coating that shielded against harmful radiation particles that inevitably penetrated anyone living in space. He intended to survive even longer than Heloga Alpha, and he wasn't going to let errant particles stop him any more than he would let the uncivilized Qin derail his line's rise to the Regents level.

            When he was done, he checked the bio-scanner that was plugged into the terminal. It had faithfully logged the lifesigns of every humanoid on the ship, including Gandre Li's slave, from the first day he had arrived onboard. The Solian's lifesigns had been normal when he called Gandre Li to the lounge.

            Now, several hours later, the slave's temperature had returned to nearly normal again. As he expected.

            He had dropped a remote amplifier while he was in Gandre Li's cabin. The internal power source would last for a day or two; long enough to get something incriminating on the captain.

            Rikev activated the interface from his portable terminal. But there was no record of activity. When he accessed real-time data, the screen remained blank. No readings of any kind in the band of EM frequencies that carried soundwaves.

            It could be a faulty bug, but Rikev doubted that. This Beta-Captain was too devious. She must have an Alpha-grade baffler in her cabin to be able to block his surveillance.

            He had intended to finish with her quickly. Instead her resistance offered something to entertain him on the tedious journey from Starbase C-4 back to his spacepost. The problem of Gandre Li's defiance was not life-threatening, it was merely a pleasant diversion.

But Heloga's antagonism was another thing. That's why he had made it his primary concern to get ore production back on schedule. After what he had seen at Starbase C-4, he was sure he would succeed before the end of the quarter. Jolene Alpha may be irritating with her emotional outbursts, but she was highly organized and merciless with her subordinates. Rikev had arrived soon after the long extracting rods from Spacepost T-3 had been towed in. Watching Jolene drive the spacers into assembling the rods in the processor reminded him of why she had been chosen to be his second in command.

            Rikev had cut short his stay at the starbase after finding that Jolene had everything she needed, including an open supply line back to Regional Headquarters with Pring in charge of fulfilling her requests.

Now they were pressing on to his spacepost. There would be a thorough damage report waiting for him when he arrived. He intended to repair the spacepost and get it operational quickly. He hadn't said much to Heloga about that because in her foul mood she would have summarily denied any funding for repairs. But once she saw the ore pouring in on schedule, she would trust him again.

            Rikev did not intend to run the processing out of Archernar for long. He preferred being the Senior Alpha in the sector, and in Archernar that spot was filled by the commander at the main sector station in Hofsta. No, Sirius was his sector. And to return to Sirius, he needed to get the Spacepost T-3 operational.

            Rikev had worked long and hard to achieve the level of Senior Alpha. He refused to let himself be down-ranked. He had his line to think of, and a responsibility to his genome.

            These serious issues kept him busy with information to analyze and simulations to run. But in his idle moments, when he wanted a diversion from his work, he investigated Beta-Captain Gandre Li. He left more amplifier bugs in her command center and galley, and even outside her door, hoping to catch a stray word or two. The crew offered tantalizing snippets of information that were analyzed by the pattern detection software. Nothing concrete had emerged except for several vague references to a transport they had encountered not long ago.

            Rikev called for Gandre Li's slave when his next cycle began, and duly recorded the surge in temperature that prevented the Solian from servicing him again. Once could be a coincidence. Twice was evidence.

            He almost killed the slave that day, he went too far in shutting off her air. But a sharp blow to her fleshy chest got her breathing again, though she spent an inordinate amount of time coughing and wheezing after that. He had to be more careful - slaves would be difficult to obtain on the damaged spacepost. He couldn't afford to waste the one he had because he was irritated by a no-account Beta.

            He was willing to wait as long as it took; including tapping his InSec sources to find out exactly how sensitive Gandre Li's duties were. But that was for his long-term list. She would not get away with defying him a third time. Once he had settled his immediate problems, he would destroy the sly Bariss at his own leisure.

* * *

            After the Solace passed through the final slip and entered the gravity pocket that held Spacepost T-3, Rikev linked his viewer to the main imager in the command center. They were too far away to scan the spacepost. The Beta-Captain must have seen his tap, but she made no comment.

            He continued working on his production analysis as the day wore on. He didn't stop until the readouts of the damage report on the spacepost appeared on his terminal. He was particularly interested in the repair estimates.

            Suddenly he was interrupted by beeping, announcing an incoming call from Gandre Li. He allowed it.

            "I've got the spacepost on long range scanners." The captain sounded worried. "Something's wrong, Senior Alpha."

            Rikev quickly checked through the dozens of instrument readings until he noticed the motion indicator. The screen had scrolling symbols indicating the spacepost was moving. There was nothing unusual about that. Spaceposts were always subject to the particle currents in gravity pockets.

            But this movement was different. He enhanced the motion sequencer, breaking the spacepost down into bars that showed stress ratios. The color gradations revealed a clear pattern; a spiral stress fracture sprang into sharp relief running up the cylindrical hull of the spacepost.

            The two landing discs at either end of the main column of the spacepost were twisting in opposite directions. The movement couldn't be seen by the naked eye. Only scanners could detect the inevitable.

            Rikev went straight down to the command center where he could get more data. The Beta-Captain tried to hide her animosity behind a cordial facade. The two Gamma crewmembers were seated in the other seats, leaving Rikev no way to directly access the terminals. Likely she had planned it that way, knowing he would come to command during their approach to his spacepost.

            The Gamma from Droi was seated at the comm. "The spacepost is being evacuated," he announced flatly.

            Gandre Li was at the Helm. "We should reach the spacepost in three hours. But I'm not seeing many lifepods."

            Rikev wasn't surprised. Most of the spacepost was already evacuated. Those lifepods held the skeleton survey crew who had been left behind after the last of the processing plant was salvaged.

            "The Deference has detached their umbilical from the spacepost," the Gamma reported. "They are leaving dock. So is the cargo ship, the Patience. No other ships are in dock."

            Rikev had specifically ordered the Deference to stay near the spacepost to protect it from further attacks. The patrolship was capable of firing forty missiles. Missiles weren't as deadly as laser fire, but patrolships could severely damage a rouge raider.

            "Send a message to the Deference," Rikev ordered. "Tell them my time of arrival."

            "By your command, Alpha." The Gamma concentrated on his scanner, sending the message. Rikev approved of his emotionless demeanor. This wasn't the substandard service he had come to expect from Gandre Li.

            "Enhance the stress bands on the imager," he ordered. "Then magnify."

            The spacepost instantly sprang into closer relief with each curve outlined in delicate colored bars. The resolution on the main imager was better than the viewer up in the lounge. Now secondary fractures were clear as they split away from the main spiral crack.

            It was a long, tense moment. Rikev was ready to skewer the first person who spoke. But none of them commented on the obvious.

            His spacepost was doomed. He stood in front of the image as they raced closer, but there was nothing he could do. The technicians had removed the extraction rods from the processing plant, which must have weakened the structural integrity of the damaged hull. The column couldn't support the two heavy landing discs on either end. Every moment that passed meant a few more molecules were separating as the tension hit the breaking point.

            He watched as his life tore itself apart at the seams. Now it was certain that he would be down-ranked. Alphas who lost their command all suffered the same fate. It would have repercussions throughout his line and lives would be lost because of this.

            It was excruciatingly slow, giving Rikev plenty of time to re-prioritize his plans. His original intent had been to keep his senior rank by repairing the spacepost. The Qin had been a secondary concern, something he had intended to deal with in due time.

But as the spacepost twisted against itself, he knew that the ore processing would have to remain at that filthy starbase in Archernar for many standard years to come.

            His predecessor, Commander Kristolas, had worked for over a standard decade to build the spacepost. It had taken the gregarious and brilliant Alpha even longer to first get approval and credit allocations from Regional Headquarters to build it. Rikev had been assigned as Kristolas's Second Commander, and he arrived as the spacepost was opened. Kristolas intended to rule the kingdom he had built for a long time, but his bio-limit caught up with him. The Commander was a fine figure of an Alpha when Rikev met him, but he quickly disintegrated into a living wreck. Over the course of two standard years, his skin turned to dust as his body desiccated around him. His mind stayed sharp and frantic at the obvious signs of the approaching end, and he fought it every step of the way.

            Kristolas's loss became Rikev's gain. He ran the spacepost, covering for Kristolas and allowing the old man to concentrate on "rejuvenation" treatments until the end. When Heloga realized that Rikev had been managing the new ore processing plant instead of Kristolas, she had approved his appointment as commander. Since Spacepost T-3 was the largest of the four Domain facilities in Sirius, that made him Senior Alpha in the frontier sector. He was the first of his line to reach this level. There were twenty-seven thousand sectors in the Domain, but he had intended for his to stand out from the rest.

            Rikev wouldn't allow that to slip away from him.

            The Solace was very close to the spacepost when it finally happened. Rikev could have stepped over to the portal and watched with his own eyes, but he stayed exactly where he had faced up to his fate.

            "There she goes," Gandre Li murmured.

            The landing discs were visibly moving now, turning inward and curling around the central column as it collapsed. It was perfectly silent, but Rikev knew the metal was screaming as it deformed under the pressure.

            The column bent in half and the discs dipped towards each other, gaining speed until they smashed together. They ground against each other, busting open the hull and splintering bulkheads off into space. The structural supports of the central column contorted and ripped in half. Jagged edges trailed conduits and a sparkling tumble of debris poured from inside the spacepost.

            "Pulling back," Gandre Li announced, issuing commands through the helm.

            The two halves of the spacepost were still tangled together, spinning as they sailed away. There was nothing to stop them. They would drift on for decades before they finally left the gravity pocket.

            Rikev knew the others were studiously avoiding looking at him.

            "Prepare to send a message to the Deference," he ordered. He would order the patrolship to go fetch the battleship Conviction. The spacepost was nothing to him now.

* * *

            Rikev went about his business without wasting a moment in regrets. The situation was clear. Since there was no possibility of reclaiming his rightful place on Spacepost T-3, his future was grim. If he was lucky, he would be assigned to run the ore processing from Archernar, operating under the station commander. But Jolene Alpha was proving herself so capable that it was likely she would continue as overseer.

            Rikev was not willing to waste his prime as Kristolas had done, lobbying for a new spacepost for the Sirius sector, and then waiting a standard decade for the thing to be built. Rikev wanted to move up now, not later. Besides Heloga would never reassign a commander who had lost a spacepost.

            So he only had the briefest meeting with the structural analysts on board the cargoship Patience. He needed no one to tell him the spacepost was destroyed. He brought his Gamma aide to the Patience and gave the captain orders to return to Regional Headquarters with the news and the most valuable equipment they could salvage from the spacepost. Horl Gamma would not be received well by Heloga when she found out that the spacepost was not merely damaged, it was utterly destroyed. It reflected badly on a Regional Commander to lose one of her assets. Heloga would authorize salvage for everything on the spacepost right down to its hull, but that no longer mattered to Rikev.

Then he re-boarded the Solace and insisted that Gandre Li take him to the Sirius-Reticulum gravity slip where the patrolship had gone in search of the Conviction. The bright binary stars of Sirius, that his sector was named after, burned in the imager directly ahead.

            The Qin had become Rikev's prime objective. He had assessed the situation from every angle when it was a low priority on his list. Now it appeared that a resounding military victory was his only chance to redeem himself. He needed to prove his worth not only to Heloga but to the Domain. Destroying their enemy the Qin and opening vast opportunities for ore mining was the best way to accomplish that. He could conquer Qin and claim it as the new frontier for the Domain. They would need a commander who understood the complexities of the region.

            While the Solace raced toward the slip where the Deference had disappeared, Rikev began an in-depth analysis of Qin. Everything from the solar systems within Qin territory to archives of their entertainment. Rikev began a methodical and thorough examination of his prey.

            He knew Alpha-Captain Luddolf of the Conviction from the battleship's many layovers at the spacepost. The only way to make an impression on that urbane man was to give him what he wanted. Rikev intended to have the information the Alpha-Captain needed to destroy the Qin, and he would log every moment of their campaign to prove his worth. He would be in charge in everything if not in name.

            He paused in his studies only when the patrolship Deference finally returned through the slip and sent word that the Conviction was on the way. Rikev ordered the Deference to continue with its patrol duties in the pocket, concentrating on the derelict spacepost. Though why waste a patrolship guarding something that had already been destroyed?

By the time the Conviction emerged from the gravity slip and docked with the Solace, Rikev was eager to start his campaign. Accommodations would be more rudimentary on the battleship, but the company would be preferable. Luddolf was an Alpha.

Beta-Captain Gandre Li was waiting by the airlock, her smile fixed in place. Rikev wasn't fooled. He refused to return her salutation, staring at her for a long moment instead. He never warned his victims. They should know better than to defy him.

Gandre Li had defied him twice. After he was through crushing the Qin and had returned to the Domain, he would destroy her. First he intended to acquire her slave, and he wanted Gandre Li to know who was responsible. That would be the fitting return for her unpleasant hospitality.