Lehar turns his back to the view screen and frowns at me. We both know that I’m playing for time until all my fighter drones are programmed and ready to launch. It shouldn’t take but a couple more microns. I begin scanning through the assortment of wanted advertisements that were blasted over the communi-channel in the last lunar. He’s looking for my new brooder. I recognize the number on her bounty.
It sickens me to hear the small white alien refer to Carissa by a slave number. I suddenly realize how convenient it is to refer to a person by designation rather than name.
I would have done the same a lunar ago. It’s amazing what love can do to a perfectly reasonable warrior. Frustrated, I turn to the inglorious bastard. He’s still going on and on about the condition of their property. The next words out of his mouth seal his fate with me.
“If the slave has been used as a brooder, any and all young she produces as a result of that contact will, by law, belong to the Pax Alliance. Do not think to stall us until she has completed the regeneration cycle.”
I realize Carissa is correct. People without a soul find sanitized ways to discuss property and civil rights, which enables them to talk about gross injustice in a polite manner, thereby allowing them to avoid repercussions for their behavior. Growling, I have to force myself not to shift into my fighting form. Captain Emf'phet seems startled at the sound that emanates from my throat. It stops him in his tracks.
“I have a response for your absurd request.” There is half a micron of silence while he waits for my answer. Shooting a quick glance at Lehar, he nods, eager for a good fight. Turning back to the view screen, I see that the startled Pax captain is now glaring me.
“My answer is no. She will not be returned to you. I found her in the black, far from a habitable planet, running out of oxygen and food. She would be dead if not for our ship. Since she was found in a nearly derelict vessel in the black of space, you have no legal claim on the brooder. It is unfortunate for you that you couldn’t manage to secure one small human female. That she out-smarted you speaks to your weakness and incompetence.”
Appearing none too happy, he knows that I’m correct in my interpretation of the law. She was one step away from being space junk when we found her. It used to be that one could not claim a vessel with living beings on board. Several species made a strong argument that taking ships destined to be delicts before the crew expired was an act of compassion. The Intergalactic Council agreed that shadowing a ship with no hope of making port before the occupants died was a barbaric practice. They quickly enacted laws to allow the culling of such vessels with the thought that a life of slavery was better than death. The captain’s annoyed voice draws me back to the task at hand.
“I’m authorized to increase the bounty by half in exchange for the slave being returned unharmed.”
Taking a step closer to the view screen, I jerk my chin up defiantly. “You dare make demands of Tarion of the Hielsrane? It’s clear you have no idea who you’re speaking to.”
“Indeed, I do know of your exploits. I calculated the exact number of fighters needed to complete this mission successfully. It seems I overestimated the firepower. If you engage in a battle with me, you will lose.”
He’s right. The battle will be unbalanced because so many of my ships stayed behind to take shore leave. “It is you who will not survive. None who move against me have lived to speak of it. Surely you have heard this, for it is known far and wide.”
“The tales are fit to strike fear into the mind of weak-minded beings. As you can see, I do not fear doing battle with my enemies.”
“Raise your chain of command on the communi-channel and alert them that when you do not return, it is because Tarion of the Hielsrane has laid waste to your vessels.”
“You risk much for one lone slave, Tarion of the Hielsrane.”
“Let them also know we will appeal to the Intergalactic Council to cease all trade with the Pax Alliance. Though it’s true that many of our member worlds have slaves, we keep them with dignity. I have seen the markings left on the brooder’s body by your people. Your version of slavery is based on ownership, abuse and greed. Our slaves are protected, trained to care properly for themselves, and treated humanely.”
“Slavery and bondage are practiced widely in the verse. Only a prideful fool attempts to dictate how a being uses his own property.”
The note of disdain in his voice drives me to threaten him with what the Pax surely fear most. I can see the fury leap on his face as my arrow hits its mark. “We will appeal to the Intergalactic Council to cease all trade with the Pax Alliance. As your people are but visitors to our sector of space, you have no right to make demands or start hostilities with a member world.”
“Think carefully about what you say, Captain. The Pax Alliance will not permit you to sour our trade with the planets of the Galactic Alliance, nor will we allow you to keep property that rightly belongs to us.”
At that moment, Carissa walks back onto the bridge and slips into an empty seat near the communications array. My chest constricts. The feeling I once thought was an exotic illness is in fact love. It can be nothing else. The Pax will have to go through me to get
