Slave Trade Read online

  Grainger stood and put on his Magistrates’ jacket, then nodded and turned to the door. He stopped to say something quietly over his shoulder. “I’ve heard that depriving someone of their life, even if they aren’t dead, can be equated to capital murder.” He opened the door and walked out.

  Rivka accessed her datapad and tapped briefly. I’m on my way. She sent the message and stuffed the pad into the inside pocket of her jacket, then adjusted the Magistrate pin on her collar and headed out.

  Chapter Two

  Rivka stalked across the hangar deck, passing the All Guns Blazing delivery guy on his way out. She started to shake her head. Before reaching the ship, she saw Red waving at her from the open hatch.

  “All present and accounted for, Magistrate,” he declared.

  “Don’t tell me you ordered food.” She hurried up the ramp, and once inside, mashed the big red button to seal the ship.

  “Okay. I won’t tell you.” Red shrugged and lumbered down the short passageway, turned at the open hatch to the bridge, and entered the ship’s main space. It was a combination of recreation room, workout room, meeting room, and dining area. “Can’t go on a mission with an empty stomach, Magistrate.”

  The smell of pizza reminded her how hungry she was even though she didn’t think it had been that long since she last ate.

  Red pointed at one of the boxes.

  “Moonstokle?”

  “Yes. I refuse to touch it,” he said, making a show of pulling two boxes out from underneath the Magistrate’s pie.

  Jay strolled in, still in her pajamas. She yawned, unable to cover her mouth since her arms were filled with wombat.

  Yeah, Floyd cheered when she saw that everyone was back. Lindy scratched behind her ears, and Rivka stopped reaching for a slice and paid attention to Floyd for a few moments.

  “What’s everyone doing?”

  “We’re getting ready to fly. Judging by the Magistrate’s expression, there are asses somewhere that need kicking.” Red stuffed an entire slice into his mouth so he wouldn’t be asked to explain further. Lindy helped herself, elbowing Red out of the way.

  “I love pizza for breakfast.” Jay set Floyd on the deck and worked her way into the fray. “What time is it?”

  “Chaz, can you ask Ankh to come out here, please?” Rivka interrupted. She turned to Jay. “It’s lunchtime.”

  Ankh’s door flew open and he stormed out, as much as a meter-tall alien with an oversized head could storm.

  “I don’t have time for this,” he declared, crossing his arms and glaring up at Rivka.

  “I respect your time, Ankh. I’ll make this quick.” She put her slice down, picking off two pieces of the alien version of pineapple and eating them. “There are slave traders operating on the planet Corran in the Corrhen Cluster. Slaving is legal on Corran since they aren’t a Federation signatory, but there’s a lot of illegal trading going on by persons who are subject to Federation laws. We’re going to find those who are selling people, and we’re going to stop them.”

  Lindy stopped chewing and stared at the mural on the bulkhead. There was a section with a sun shining on a verdant planet with people enjoying themselves. Five, plus a cat and a wombat. Red ate another slice, but without the show this time. Jay stopped mid-reach.

  “There are people who sell other people?”

  “There are races where it’s okay to do that, but Corran is close to joining the Federation. Maybe we’ll get lucky and help them close down their meat markets.”

  Ankh started tapping his foot, and Rivka stared at it until he stopped.

  “I hear they have Crenellian slaves,” Rivka taunted.

  “We make lousy slaves,” he replied. “But I agree that this practice needs to end. Let Erasmus and me know when we’re close. I assume you don’t have a plan?”

  Rivka’s mouth opened and closed and she stammered, but they weren’t words.

  “The usual.” Ankh returned to his room and closed the door.

  “It chaps my ass that I owe him money,” Red whispered to Lindy. “But he’s not wrong.”

  Rivka stepped forward until she was chest to chest with Vered. Carefully he reached around her and snagged another slice of pizza. He took a slow bite, his eyes fixed on hers.

  “Are we that bad?” Rivka finally asked. “Don’t answer that. We always have a loose plan that gets refined as we gather more information and build our case. And then we formulate a clear take-down strategy on the perps before delivering Justice.”

  “That’s how I see it,” Red said through a mouthful of hot pizza. “You left out the explosions, the blood, and the running, but everything else is right.”

  Jay recovered sufficiently to share a slice with Floyd. Rivka turned to Lindy, looking for support.

  Lindy obliged her. “Your job cannot be relegated to a diagram of steps from start to finish. You deal with more unknowns than an engineer like Ankh. He can’t write a program without knowing the steps it must follow. He cannot address variables if he doesn’t know their parameters. I think we have a challenging job, but you give us the best chance of success. I haven’t been on all the missions, but Red and Jay have. You’ve never failed, Magistrate. That’s the team I like being on.”

  “I agree,” Jay mumbled, swallowing before she continued. “It’s like my old home. Say we arrive on a space station and don’t know where to go for a meal. We ask around until we find a restaurant, but they don’t serve anything good. We find a different restaurant, but they serve spoiled food. The Magistrate shuts them down, but we keep going because we’re still hungry. We haven’t achieved what we went there for. We find someone getting mugged, and of course, we stop that. Then we finally find the good restaurant, but they’re closed until dinner, so we have to cool our heels—and we’re not good at waiting.”

  “So we break in and make our own dinner,” Red finished for her.

  “We don’t break in,” Rivka corrected. Red raised one eyebrow. “Often.”

  “Slave trade. Sounds like I’m going to need a shower after just talking about it.” Lindy’s lip curled.

  The ship lifted off and carefully maneuvered into open space. “Magistrate, may I have the coordinates where we’re going?” Chaz asked.

  “Back to the Corrhen Cluster, Chaz. Planet Corran.”

  “Do you want to arrive close to the planet?”

  “I don’t think so. Let’s shoot for the edge of the heliosphere and get the lay of the land. I need to do a great deal of research before we storm the castle walls.

  “We’ll Gate momentarily to the edge of the heliosphere. No one will know we’ve arrived until you want to make your presence known.”

  “I like the way you think, Chaz. Consolidate the information I asked you to pull and prepare to Gate on my order.”

  “Standing by, Magistrate.”

  I help! Floyd cried, scratching at the table.

  “Why are you so upset, little girl?” Jay wondered, stroking the wombat’s fur to calm her.

  My friends are angry and sad, Floyd explained.

  “Just for now, Floyd,” Red said as he continued to eat. Lindy closed the lid on the second box to cut him off. He smirked at her. “We’re going to save a lot of people from the fate of being owned by someone else.”

  It’s all I know, Floyd said slowly.

  Jay hugged the furry beast. “You’re free, Floyd.”

  I’m loved, the wombat corrected. I can’t be free. I would die. I grew up with slaves on a planet far away. Terry saved me. Saved all of us.

  “Yes, he did,” Rivka agreed. “You’re our friend, Floyd. If you need anything, we will move mountains to make sure you get it.”

  “Unless you keep eating my pizza,” Red grumbled.

  “Give her your fucking pizza, you monster!” Rivka pounded the table for emphasis. Without hesitation, Red put the slice in front of Floyd’s face. She took it gently before gobbling it down.

  “Maybe you should give her yours. It’s not fit to eat,”
Red said softly without looking at the Magistrate.

  Rivka started to laugh. “At least we know you have a soul.”

  “I know. I’m a big softie. Slavers. I need to keep up my strength. If I know anything about Magistrate Rivka Anoa and her missions, the bad guys are going to be begging for buttermilk before this is all over.”

  Rivka pointed at Red and then Lindy. “Did you guys get married?”

  Red coughed until Lindy pounded on his back.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “You act like you’re married. You know, you’re doing all the talking, and Lindy can’t get a word in edgewise.”

  Red turned to Lindy, and she nodded.

  “So you are married?” Rivka clarified.

  “No,” Lindy replied when Red threw his hands up in surrender. “We have reservations for next week, so if we don’t make it back, the station administrator will scratch us off the list. We’ll just keep the honeymoon going for that much longer.”

  “That’s my girl,” Red said proudly.

  She stabbed a finger into his chest. “That’s my big husky hunk of man candy.”

  “You two were made for each other,” Rivka mumbled as she grabbed two slices and headed for the bridge. “Chaz! We got work to do.”

  We got work to do! Floyd cried happily.

  “Yes, we do, little girl. We’ll see if you can come, but if you can’t, don’t be sad. We’re making the universe a safer place for people like you,” Jay explained.

  Hamlet picked that moment to make his appearance. He vaulted onto the table where the food was, draping himself across the middle and grooming his face.

  “Get down!” Red reached down to swat the cat, earning himself a long streak of parallel scratches. “Who put the cat in the Pod-doc?”

  “Maybe he’s naturally faster than you?” Jay asked. She reached up and scratched his chin and he stretched lazily, exposing his soft belly fur. She scratched him quickly until he curled around her hand and tried to bite a finger. She pulled her hand away so quickly that his jaws snapped shut on air, his claws exposed on all four paws.

  “Amazeballs,” Red remarked. Lindy looked at the empty place where Jay’s hand used to be. Hamlet started licking himself as if nothing had happened.

  The Corranite reached through the bars and yanked the human woman to her feet. The bruise on her cheek extended to her now swollen-shut eye. He wasn’t pleased. She blinked at him with her good eye and ripped at his arm with her bare hands.

  “You’ll go for a good price as soon as your face returns to normal.” He grunted and pulled her head closer to his. She snorted and spat, and the Corranite laughed heartily. “Is that all you have?”

  Her look of triumph turned to fear as he called on every fiber of his being to bring up a great ball of phlegm. She fought against his grip, but he was too strong. When he unloaded on her, it was like getting hit in the face by an egg from a fifty-kilo Grasshawk. She gagged and puked.

  Yellow bile dripped from her lips, a testament to the time that had passed since she’d last eaten. She scrubbed the disgusting stuff from her face and flung it on his leg.

  “I’m going to get a rag and ice. You’re going to clean up and then put ice on that bruise. Next time, I may not be so kind.” He released her head and pushed her away, not hard enough to knock her down but hard enough to remind her who was in charge.

  She glared at him from one eye. He walked away without further posturing.

  The woman sighed heavily once he was gone and scrubbed at her face to remove his filth. Ice to draw a higher price? She didn’t think so. “Seequa, what have you gotten yourself into?” the woman asked.

  An exclusive party with rich guys, but she was with her friends.

  Her so-called friends. None of them seemed to be in the cages. She remembered dancing under a rainbow strobe, and the next thing she knew, she woke up in a slave pen.

  “I didn’t do a damn thing. Those fuckers can stand the fuck by. I’m getting out of here, and then I’m coming for them. Kidnap me, will you! FUCK ALL Y’ALL!” she bellowed. “Ice my eye? How about you don’t hit me, motherfucker?”

  Her knuckles turned white as she clenched her fists in anticipation of the Corranite’s return.

  Peacekeeper sat serenely at the heliosphere’s edge, little more than a hole in space. Corran was three planets away, second from the system’s star. Three tiny moons orbited in fast ellipses, their pull on the planet’s surface minimal. Traffic control worked around the moons to keep unsuspecting ships from powering down at a geosynchronous location, only to find themselves in the path of a mindless and merciless chunk of rock. Orbits well beyond the planet’s gravity were safe, and it required the utmost coordination to keep ships from competing with each other for the few open flight windows.

  There seemed to be more ships than opportunities to reach the planet’s surface. Flight control struggled to maintain order.

  “That’s a real shit show down there,” Red offered. Chaz was piping the feed to the rec room as well as the bridge.

  Rivka half-listened. She was neck-deep in reading legal treatises, and her eyes were bloodshot from perusing the mountain of words.

  “How do you think we’ll get to the planet?” Lindy asked.

  “Hitch a ride?” Red put one finger on the back of his hand as he made it fly through the air and land on the table. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “We might get shot for pulling rank to get a slot in an open window.”

  “We might get shot anyway. Our luck isn’t good when it comes to not getting shot at.”

  “Maybe it’s a gift?” Lindy smiled and tilted her head. Red stared. “What?”

  “Sometimes I need to remind myself not to take my best friend for granted. I look at every mission...”

  “Case!” Rivka yelled through the bridge’s open hatch.

  “...as if we’re going into combat. Even on the station, I can’t relax and think of a time when people won’t shoot at the Magistrate. They’re afraid of her, as well they should be. And I think of my partner and how we can tactically deploy to do our jobs, but I also feel compelled to protect you. I know that’s not what you want or need, and I love not having to worry about that. I also love that you have my back. And what started this whole thing was, I love seeing you smile.”

  “My shmoopie bodyguard!” Rivka shouted.

  Red scowled. Lindy smiled, showing the tip of her tongue between her teeth. He relented and smiled back.

  “I’m in the right place doing what I was meant to do. We’re going to locate some slavers, and then we’re going to ruin their day. Hopefully, they will give us a good reason and the Magistrate leaves something for us.” Lindy hesitated, and her eyes started to glisten. She blinked quickly. “I love you, Vered.”

  “It’s a shmoopfest!” Rivka was standing in the hatch and slowly clapping.

  “What the hell? Don’t you have homework or something?” Red was torn between looking at Rivka and trying to make time with his partner.

  “I’m done with what I need to do. We need to talk about how we’re going to peel this onion. Can you get Ankh, please?”

  Red ran a hand down Lindy’s arm and it somehow found its way to her backside, which he cupped appreciatively.

  “Our wedding vows should probably include ‘I promise to grab your butt every day,’ because it’s going to happen, isn’t it?”

  “Probably,” Red said before letting go and taking the few steps to the stateroom that Ankh had designated as his workshop. “Come on, big man. Team meeting.”

  Ankh strolled out, holding his hands over his ears. His night-vision goggles had become a permanent fixture on his forehead, and they faced Red like an extra set of eyes. “Next time warn me before you show up at my door and do your impression of a dying bistok.”

  Red cupped his hands around his mouth and started bellowing, and Lindy jabbed him in the ribs. “What the god-awful noise is that?”

  “A dying bistok?
” Red looked for support from the crew. Only contorted faces looked back at him.

  “I hope I never hear that sound again,” Jay stated.

  “Seconded,” Rivka declared.

  “Fine.” Red worked his way into the small kitchen area, tapped the food processor screen, and waited until a bar popped out.

  “Didn’t you just eat?” Lindy asked.

  “That was a couple hundred light years ago,” Red replied before taking a bite.

  “Point to Red.” Rivka motioned with one finger in the air, marking a single digit in her bodyguard’s favor. Her face turned solemn as she started to brief her team. “The slave trade is highly regulated on Corran. Each sentient being who is to be sold has to undergo medical and psychological evaluations. To the untrained eye, it appears to be a cooperative and mutually beneficial system.”

  “Unless you’re the slave,” Jay said softly.

  “Exactly. They rarely disqualify a being from the auction block, but when it happens, they simply go to a different block and are sold as defective merchandise. So, no change for the victims. We are here to find those who are bringing illegal captives to Corran. Once they are introduced into the system, our access to information becomes nonexistent. Corran is not a Federation signatory. They don’t even owe us the courtesy of allowing us to land, but Reynolds is in negotiations for them to accommodate this request. They know that if they join the Federation, their slave trade will instantly become illegal. There can be no casual phaseout of such a practice.”

  “Accessing their systems will not be a problem,” Ankh said in his small voice. “How far are we willing to push?”

  “Not being seen is better than pulling every byte from their storage systems. They cannot know it was us digging behind the curtain.”

  “So we can’t push too hard, but I expect to find every byte and bit of data you need without leaving a trace. I can do it from here. I prefer not to leave the ship.”

  “We’ll drop your devices wherever you need us to,” Red said, giving the Crenellian a thumbs-up. Ankh’s face remained unreadable as he looked up at the oversized human.