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 19

The perfect plan

On board the Conviction, Kwort was waiting in the galley when Horc returned from the medical bay. His third finger was bandaged in a bot-healer, holding it stiffly straight while the bones knit together.

"So it is broken," Kwort greeted him glumly.

"I was lucky. That capaciter could have smashed my arm."

"Lucky!" Kwort lowered his voice. "Those two have to be stopped before they kill one of us!"

Horc glanced at Kwort's swollen lip. It had been cut and bruised by a hard elbow from Kitarin. She had ambushed him at his favorite portal. "Nothing seems to stop them."

"If only we could think of something," Kwort said, for what must have been the hundredth time.

It was easy for Kitarin and Murroom being on second shift right before them. But if Kwort and Horc tried to set any booby-traps, it would be discovered by the first shift technicians. They wouldn't take kindly to hatches that opened up beneath them or panels that were wedged shut.

So they had to be smarter than Kitarin and Murroom. Kwort had no doubt they were smarter. Still, they hadn't come up with anything feasible.

Instead he and Horc had suffered a series of humiliating accidents. They couldn't accuse Murroom or Kitarin, not after Rekest's threat. Kwort had to assume the lugs knew the surveillance network, and there would be no evidence to back him up. So the bio-tech had taken to calling them the "Deneb disaster team," while other crewmembers snickered at their "self-inflicted" wounds.

Kwort leaned across the table. "We're going at this the wrong way. We need a different kind of plan-"

The sustained siren interrupted him, alerting the crew that the Conviction was about to dock. The two Gammas in the galley seemed as surprised as well.

"But we just went through a slip," Kwort protested, puzzled.

"It could be another ship," Horc suggested.

The Conviction hadn't seen any action during their long patrol of the pockets surrounding Spacepost T-3 in the outer Sirius sector. They had been stuck on the ship after the engineers had reported that the structure was growing increasingly unstable. All leaves were canceled for the spacepost.

So any activity was interesting. "Let's check it out," Kwort said.

Horc hesitated, but he usually decided to go along with Kwort. "How? We can't let the officers see us."

"I'll take care of that."

The main airlock was between engineering and the cargo holds. Kwort had noticed that the level two data network tube ended in an open access port that looked over the corridor along that side of the cargo bays.

Horc followed him without a word. Kwort knew they had to move fast in order to get through the cargo level first. Murroom and Kitarin were on duty, but the magnetic injectors for the grav impellers were scheduled to be bot-cleaned today, so the technicians should be in the engine room.

They climbed up one level then made their way quietly down the walkway to the data network tube. Kwort crawled into the narrow tube as voices echoed in from the cargo bay. Horc stayed back, huddled against Kwort's feet. Maybe he didn't want to look, but Kwort was pleased by the opportunity. The real action on the ship seemed to happen far away from them, and rumors among the Deltas weren't very enlightening.

Alpha-Captain Luddolf came into sight, walking briskly. His officers hurried along behind. Kwort had seen the Alpha-Captain from a distance a few times when he passed through engineering. He was a neat, compact man, very precise in his movements. As far as Alphas went, Luddolf was so dark as to be almost brown. His flightsuit had gold shoulder epaulets, yellow diagonal seams on the legs, and other fancy embellishments that Kwort had never seen before on a Fleet uniform. It certainly caught the eye.

"Check this out, Horc," he whispered.

Horc moaned softly in trepidation but he raised his head in time to see the Alpha-Captain turn down the corridor leading to the airlock. "Must be someone important. That was the First Officer, along with two of the Ops officers."

"Quite the entourage. He must be trying to make an impression. Otherwise why come down here where his pretty suit might get dirty?"

"Shh!" Horc urged.

"They can't hear," Kwort said dismissively.

"We should go. I didn't think the captain would come down here."

"Hush!" Kwort hissed.

The sound of footsteps and voices carried through the corridors of the cargo bays. Alpha-Captain Luddolf reappeared walking beside a taller Alpha with golden skin. His flightsuit was tailored to hug his well-proportioned body, but it was severe brown with none of the bright flourishes that adorned Luddolf's uniform.

Kwort drew back at the sight, unexpectedly feeling as scared as Horc. When the strange Alpha glanced toward engineering, Kwort almost panicked thinking they had been seen. Kwort held his breath, feeling Horc do the same.

Then the golden Alpha said, "I'd prefer to go to command first. I can give you the optimum course to approach Qin territory."

"Certainly, Rikev Alpha," Luddolf graciously agreed. Kwort was used to seeing their captain bark out orders without looking at the first techs. Now he smiled and inclined his head toward the new Alpha, gesturing to the front of the ship.

"One of your officers can take the Solian to my quarters," the golden Alpha ordered.

Luddolf made a brief gesture and one of the officers took hold of the arm of a plump Solian. Kwort's eyes went wide at the sight of such a juicy woman. Supposedly Luddolf also had a Solian slave, but nobody ever saw her.

They turned and left the cargo bays with the officers scurrying along behind them.

When the sounds faded out entirely, Horc let out a shaky, "Whew! Why do I listen to you?"

Kwort refused to be utterly humbled by the upper ranks. "Because I'm fun to be around?"

"Ba ha!" Horc said, as he backed out of the tube. "See how I'm laughing?"

Kwort didn't intend to pay attention to his grumbling. But suddenly he felt itchy and tense. He wanted nothing more than to get out of engineering. What if Kitarin or Murroom saw them here and took advantage of the situation? It bothered him that Horc kept getting hurt by them.

But they got out of engineering safely. He was just starting to breathe easier when they reached the common room, but the conditional alert sounded. Kwort eyed the orange lights near the ceiling. Usually a conditional alert was a prelude to battle alert, and it severely restricted the off-duty Deltas in their movements around the ship. During battle alert, everyone was on-duty and assigned to a specific station in engineering. Sometimes they weren't sure whether the alerts were real or a drill.

"I bet this one is real," Kwort told Horc. "That Alpha said something about going to Qin."

"They were the ones who destroyed the spacepost," Horc agreed. "I wonder how far away Qin is?"

"Who knows," Kwort grumbled. He was still heady from that brief look into the inner workings of the ship. He wished he could be one of those Gamma Officers, but he would never be able to run the ship. Still, he could climb the ranks to become a first tech. Maybe even a senior tech onboard a ship or space station.

As they waited in the common room with the other off-duty Deltas, the beeps sounded, alerting them they were going through a gravity slip. Kwort braced himself, realizing they were back-tracking. It was times like these he wished he knew what was really going on.

Finally First Technician Rekest returned with news. "Okay Delts, settle down. We're heading into hostile territory, so we'll be on conditional alert for the duration. That means you can expect a couple decnights of lockdown."

The Deltas eyed each other. That meant they were confined to a narrow route from duty stations to the common room and berths.

"The galley is also off-limits. It's been requisitioned by our Alpha passenger."

Groans rose, but Rekest cut them off with a glare. "You will show the utmost respect for the distinguished Alpha onboard!" When there was silence, she finished, "You've got plenty of room. Rod will set up two transposers in here. The rest of you are dismissed."

Kwort went with Horc into his berth. They didn't have long until the shift change.

Horc sighed in relief. "At least Murroom and Kitarin won't be able to get us alone during a conditional. We have to go to engineering with Rekest every day, and they won't try any funny stuff with her around."

"It's a sad thing when being in mortal danger improves your life." Kwort flung himself down on the bed. "I was thinking, what if we do something to them at shift change? That's our best chance."

"We can't do anything while we're on conditional," Horc protested.

"You really think that will stop them?"

Horc slumped down on the short bench next to the storage shelves. He absently picked up the round polyduranium accelerator they had salvaged from the spacepost and jiggled it in his hand.

"Be careful with that," Kwort cautioned. The plated bands around the middle and the ends were notched with restraining bolts, and it would likely survive a fuel explosion. He used the accelerator as a power source for charging the things they had gotten on the spacepost, including the personal communicators he and Horc now carried. That one visit to the spacepost had given him more luxuries than he had ever owned. He glanced up at the colorful tapestry he had hung on the wall. If only he could stop Kitarin and Murroom, he would be perfectly happy.

"Hey wait a second," Kwort said softly. "That accelerator puts out quite a punch, doesn't it?"

"This?" Horc lifted it in one hand. "The best on the market. Four toroids of self-injecting plasma in a dispersion field. You could almost power a lifepod with it."

Kwort sat up eagerly. "What if we used it to send a shockwave through the catwalk?"

"What for?" Horc asked in confusion.

"To knock out Kitarin and Murroom. What else?"

"That could kill them," Horc protested.

"We'll modulate the wave. It'll shock them hard enough to fry every hair on their body. Let everyone laugh at them for a change."

"What about the logs?" Horc asked. "There are eyes all over the fourth level, and that's the entrance we have to use during a conditional alert."

"The logs won't catch anything." Kwort grabbed a flimsy and a stylus. With quick strokes, he sketched out the catwalk that encircled the core of engineering. There were three entrances on level four: the main entrance from the crew quarters, and two at the aft leading to the engine room, generators and fuel cells.

"You can drop a magnetic node on this side of the catwalk and run a monofilament to the accelerator. You could stand there and hold it in a bag or something. I'll stay over here in the entrance drawing them to this part of the catwalk. You start the accelerator and poof! Smoked hair!"

            "I don't know... it sounds dangerous."

            "You'll see," Kwort assured him. "It's exactly what we need. I'll show you how it'll work on our next shift. This will stop them."