After a couple of weeks gap (I had a holiday !) here's the next part of the Space Opera saga of Alex Deroma.
I've based it very loosely on a prompt in the Worldbuilding Community - Worldbuilding Prompt #573 - Open Door with the idea that by using the prompts, it pushes me to take the story in new directions I hadn't planned for or expected. It's fun !
If you recall the story so far, Alex is the commander of an expeditionary force pushing deep into Slaver space. They destroyed the Nexus Gate that was their objective, but Alex's flagship was destroyed and she has crash-landed on a slave world with two companions. She's taken a decision to free the slaves, which is considerably beyond the scope of her original orders.
Now, on with the story.... be warned, this episode should probably come with a trigger warning. I've tried to keep the gore from being too graphic but I bear no responsibility with what goes on inside your own heads !
Alex kicked the scaly head of the Slaver corpse in savage frustration. Then she turned to the circle of slaves that had gathered. They were small, furry creatures. Very cute, very passive.
"You !" she pointed at one of the nearer ones, "why don't you want to join us after we kill your masters, to free other slaves ? Don't you all want to be free ? We've killed the Slavers in seven villages, and less than a dozen of you have joined us. Why ?"
The slave looked down at the ground. He shuffled his feet a bit, then answered uncertainly. "Not made to be free, master... mistress....," he hastily corrected himself, fear springing into his face. "Slave is all we know. Be good slaves. Made as good slaves."
Shifting to a different approach, Alex asked some new questions, hoping for something she could use. "So what do you call yourselves ? Where did you come from ? What was your culture like before you were enslaved ?"
One of the older slaves stepped forward. "We are the Kerber. Do not know where we are from, have always been slaves. What is culture ?"
*Image Created by AI in Wombo.art
Grimacing in frustration, Alex shouldered her weapon and started heading towards the large hut at the centre of the settlement. These villages were all the same; a large central hut which was the Slaver quarters, surrounded by a regular grid of identical smaller, cruder slave huts.
Behind her, she could hear Viard, the comms officer, talking to (or more accurately, at) the ASP officer, Garrad.
"These dumb furry drones are a lost cause. They're just slaves and don't want to be free. Why won't she just let us hit the nearest big town, find a communication centre and try to raise the fleet to come get us off this shit-hole of a world."
Alex was starting to worry about Viard. He'd been a quiet, withdrawn officer on the ship. Efficient enough, but showing no desire to bond with the team. Stuck down here, he was becoming sullen, slow to obey orders and quick to complain. She didn't know what was wrong with him, but he needed to buck his ideas up, this wasn't the time or place to be carrying dead weight.
The door to the Slaver quarters was open. She stepped through, her rifle held ready to fire at a moment's notice, Viard and Garrad close behind.
Inside, the building was clearly laid out in an identical manner to the other Slaver buildings they'd seen. A central living area with quarters radiating off it for the individual Slavers.
Like the others, this one was tidy inside. But there was one big difference. It was the first settlement they'd hit at dusk rather than dawn, although with the endless rain this nameless world gave them, it was hard to tell the two grey twilights apart. The difference was that it was the Slavers' dinner time.
In the centre of the living area was a low steel table with a raised rim around the outer edge. Beneath it was a cooking fire. On top of it, partially cooked, carved open and part eaten was one of the Kerber. A juvenile. Still alive.
Alex turned and was violently sick. She'd seen death a thousand times, but for the Slavers to eat the children of their slaves alive was worse than anything she could have dreamed of.
It took a minute for her nausea to fade away, being replaced by a cold anger. The Slavers would pay for this, all of them.
One look at the child told her that he was beyond saving. This was beyond growing an arm or leg back in a med-bay, the damage was just too great. She knelt down beside the child and stroked his soft fuzzy-haired forehead to try to give some comfort as she quietly drew her monomolecular combat blade and slid it through his spinal cord. He died instantly.
Busy with this small act of mercy, she didn't see Viard pick up a Slaver communicator from a table at the edge of the room and slip it surreptitiously into his pocket.
To be continued.....
Previous parts of Alex's Saga;
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Mira and the slaves first appeared in Worldbuilding Prompt #546 - The Hovels of Margal VI
The First Saga, the Tale of Fedric - Final Part - with links to all the previous parts.
