Episode 8

With the ship back on the path mapped out for it again there wasn't much for me to do but watch the radars and sit back in the secondary seat of the cockpit. My hands were pinned to the arms of the chair for now, but I could still be useful and keep an eye on some of the systems.

We were on an impressive, but older ship. In its time it had been one of the fastest cargo runners known to those in space and it was clear that Icaan knew how to fly her. His brother had good taste, but it was clearly in need of some maintenance.

I tried not to do anything that my captor might find irritating like drumming my fingers, or hum, but after a while the silence started to bother me. When I was on my own ship alone silence was something I sort of accepted. It didn't feel strange because I didn't expect anything different, but while sitting next to someone it was bizarre.

Briefly wondering if Icaan felt similar I considered something I might be able to get away with saying or asking. He'd asked me for silence but I was pretty sure it had only been so I wouldn't argue with him further. Was there a subject we could talk about without arguing.

"Is the market you're heading to the one I think it is?" I asked a moment later. He whipped his head around my way as if he might tell me off, but I held his gaze and tried to look calm and unchallenging.

"It's the main one, if that's what you mean. On Nisacara."

"I've heard lots about it. Does it really cover the entire planet?"

"Mostly. Although the planet isn't as large as some we inhabit so it's not quite so impressive. And it's broken up into sectors with high speed shuttles in between them. You want one kind of item, you go to one area and you have lots of choices."

"And if you want a human slave you go to another," I replied, before wanting to mentally smack myself. I just couldn't keep the snark at home.

"Yup, and that's broken down into several different areas too. Men, Women, kids, families, other aliens that we've enslaved."

"Wow..." I replied, blown away by how big this sounded. "And you've been there before?"

"Many times. I take it you haven't?"

"No. I heard it was pretty unsafe for a woman alone."

"Yeah, you heard right. You can hire a guard to escort you. or several, but you need to have a decent budget or you're just as likely to be sold by the slaver masquerading as a guard and have him pocket the credits for both."

"Right, so it's as lawless as I was warned about."

"Entirely. How else do you think I'll get enough credits for you? You're not an official slave and I'll need someone to handle your paperwork. That requires an awful lot of set up. They'll pay well enough for you, though."

I sighed again, unable to help myself. Once again we'd got back to the topic of my slavery. Was that where all our conversations would lead."

"You should find that once you're a slave you'll actually get to see some of these places though."

"I will?"

"Yeah. You're not stupid. You know how to cooperate when there's a benefit to you and most slave owners aren't tyrants. If you want some freedoms you can earn them."

I forced back the retort pointing out that I'd had freedoms, but he'd had a point. If I'd wanted to go certain places I hadn't been able to. Not alone. But I wouldn't be entirely free under his example either. It would just be trading one set of freedoms for another, and only if I was lucky enough to be bought by someone who could be reasoned with.

Even I knew that there was a subset of even the kindest alien race that were complete asshats. Every family had one and every species. It seemed to be just how the universe worked.

"Do you have somewhere you'd like to go if money wasn't an issue?" I asked, thinking it was a good question to hopefully get him talking about something happier.

"Yes, there's a small planet off the main quadrant. It's run by a small company as some kind of holiday resort, but they're not owned by someone intent on squeezing every last credit of profit out of the planet. Most of it is still wild. A little dangerous for non Frentin, but because of that it's quieter than most places and you can sign a waiver and go off into the wilderness."

"Get some alone time in nature."

"Yeah, that. And more. There's proper wildlife. And you can live off the land. There's slightly tamer versions for those who want half the experience. Some well marked trails for those who want to see good views and not risk getting lost, and crates of supplies at regular intervals."

"Literally a holiday where you can be as alone and self sufficient as you want to and no more or less. That sounds amazing. I bet it costs a fortune though."

"Not a fortune, but more than a simple resort holiday because they've not got the economy of scale like the places that pack in villas across every mile of coastline and around every natural attraction they can make or create demand for."

"I'll have to take your word for it. I've never been on any kind of holiday," I replied, only realizing how bleak and not happy that sounded once I said it. I'd never minded, but I'd had strange reactions to mentioning it in the past. And even now Icaan stared at me for a moment.

"No holidays? Not ever?"

"Nope. I was an orphan. Grew up in a girls home that was basically little more than a business that hired out young girls as slave labor. When I was old enough to get out of there, I collected what meager wages I was meant to have earned for all my years hard work and then I left. I worked as a market runner for a couple of years and slept rough to save up for my first ship."

"Market runner can be a tough gig."

"Aye. People expect a lot and want to pay very little, but it was a job and I quickly worked out who to respond to when they made a request for my services."

"Good. Should help you make sure your buyer is someone who'll actually take care of you," he replied, nodding as if that assuaged some of his guilt as well.

"You know, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't remind me every five seconds that you intend to sell me. I was trying to talk about nicer subjects."

He whipped his head to look at me again, his eyebrows coming together.

"I get it. You're not used to company. Especially amicable company, but you seem to be preoccupied with making money. There's more to life you know."

"Sounds like you've spent most of your life just trying to make money too," he shot back, clearly more than a little angry. "And I thought I told you I wanted you silent."

"You did, but then I asked you a question about something else and you genuinely appeared to appreciate talking about something different. Forgive me for not wanting to give up on my life or spend the next nine days silently contemplating how best to murder you."

I growled, knowing I shouldn't have snapped but sick of everything. Thanks to the current situation I felt constantly on edge and it was clear my Frentin captive didn't have any clue how fortunate he was. He clearly had far more money than I'd ever had. He'd been given his first ship, and despite having a single mistake put him on a tougher course, he was smuggling women.

And I was no fool, people didn't smuggle anything that wasn't worth smuggling. He was going to get some decent credits for me if he got me to market. It was enough to make me feel sick.