Chapter Fifteen — Part 5

The poor girl, who was being used as a tester on the side, had become addicted to the drugs. She pled in her native language to be killed rather than go on without a fix. She couldn’t be older than fourteen. Tiffany locked the children in the cargo bay, and then joined her husband for the next assault. They had to tie the girl down for fear she’d commit suicide.

Looking through the forward port, I could see everything my parents were doing. They tranquilized the farm hands and carried them unconscious from the temple grounds. Kotian took out a fist-sized bag of seeds, loaded his dart gun and launched them out over the field. Within a decade the opium field would be covered in fruit trees, the opium poppies would go wild and become useless.

With Tiffany’s help, they dragged the guards’ bodies beyond the temple walls. The two held a lively discussion as they worked. They were very good at arguing in a loving way. One of the guards who had escaped their initial assault fired a round into Kotian’s back, and sent him spinning to the ground. Tiffany shot the man with six darts before he fell, then turned her attention to Kotian.

Kotian forced himself upright, rubbing his back. Tiffany helped him to stand, checking him over. His armor had absorbed the blow. After dumping the last guard well outside the temple grounds, Kotian and Tiffany disappeared into the temple for several minutes more. They came back onto the ship, Kotian limping and Tiffany laughing. I was quick to help them out of their armor, and tried to treat their wounds. Kotian had a bruise the size of a small pancake on his back, and Tiffany had a smaller version on her leg. Neither of them would let me help them, so I pouted and stared through the port.

A bright purple shield came on line; a shield that would keep humans away for at least twenty years before it malfunctioned. Nobody could get through that shield, even from underground. The locals couldn’t see it, and wouldn’t bump into it. It was a type of field that made people nervous. Its energy would also keep people from remembering the temple when they weren’t looking straight at it.

“Let’s get space-bound. I want words with the merchant.” I said, heading for the bridge.

I ordered Persimmon into lunar orbit, and made contact. The trader’s eyes were a fit of anger. When he saw me sitting at the command chair, he scowled and looked away.

“What I am doing is perfectly legal. You’re nothing more than a criminal, standing in the way of commerce.”

“Why thank you.” I smiled, wishing I’d stayed an angel a while longer. “Coming from an obvious pig such as yourself, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Kotian interrupted our childish discourse. “I don’t want to see you trading slaves on Earth again. If I should happen to catch you with slaves in Earth system, I’ll defy my Captain’s orders and put a hole straight through your fat little skull.” Kotian left the bridge, angry.

“I got the slaves safely back where they belong. I won’t do the same for you. Your ship’s defenses, weapons, and engines have been crippled. When you’ve managed make repairs, you’d best crawl back to Lenitian space and stay there. The galaxy’s not a safe place for you to play.” I cut communications and broke orbit, heading for the edge of Earth system.

We’d be in Otherspace for a few days at least, because the kids we’d collected from Roan’s home needed special care. After treating the drug testers and concubine for addiction disorders, we sent them through Otherspace to their proper homes. It took only a few days of my time to heal them in Otherspace, then I was back to my original mission of trying to keep Humanity and the Scandivats from destroying each other. I turned my attention to Captain Reed, who had helped without complaint.

“Is there a way we can make contact with your people so that we might begin peaceful negotiations?”

Captain Reed let a high-pitched whistle emit from his throat before speaking in my language. “No. It would be bad to try. They don’t take kindly to outsiders. They don’t even take kindly to me.”

“Do your people live in a totalitarian state?” Tiffany said, curious.

I listened to Captain Reed’s words. I hadn’t thought to ask him about his people, and knew that he might be the key to solving the Scandivat part of the puzzle. “We call ourselves the Scandivat, which means collective. The Scandivats exist as one thinking being. I’m one of the few who are born with enough intelligence to be considered separate from the whole.