Chapter Eighteen — Part 1

Mamma held my head in her lap until I fell asleep. She must have left me once I conked out, because when I woke up she was gone. We were drifting aimlessly in Otherspace. I didn’t bother to get dressed — life on a ship could be so tedious. I walked around the ship, looking for my parents, and found them both working on damage done during our escape. The ship looked like it had seen better days.

“What’s our status?” I asked through swollen lips.

“Sixty hours in Otherspace, and we’re almost done with repairs.” Kotian said. He looked at my face and ribs, my legs and back — still badly bruised from the beating Wastik had given me. “I think you should be in bed. You’re lucky there weren’t any internal injuries.”

“When I get hold of that man, I’ll teach him the right way to treat a woman,” Tiffany said, shaking her fist to accent her emotions.

“Oh Mama, you worry too much.” I said, thankful that she did. “Have the Elves begun evacuation of Isastan?”

“Yes dear. By order of King Lotus, all loyal Elves and fairies will be stationed in orbit around Earth. When told about Prince Wastik’s involvement with the genocidal attack on the Scandivat Collective, most of Prince Wastik’s allies have turned against him. Those few who didn’t were quick to fly to the collective — a paltry dozen ships. The Elves will act as the final defense against the Earth’s conquest.”

“Final defense? Who else could possibly rise to defend the primitives on Earth?”

“You have quite a following. The Galactic Unified Guard and the Galactic Antislavery Coalition will be at the edge of the system to act as the primary buffer, regimented inward, all the way to Jupiter’s orbit in four structured fronts. If it comes to war, they’ll buy us at least three weeks,” Kotian said, his hands moving in description.

“I take it I’ve been out of it for awhile,” I said, holding my head.

“Three days and four nights in Realspace time, and you need to take it easy. You’re still healing.” Kotian said.

My ribs still ached, and I had to admit that the pain of moving made me feel a little woozy. I sat down, letting my breath out. “I’m really not made for this kind of life.”

“We know dear.” Tiffany said, her hands buried in an access hatch. “We found something that might cheer you up a little. A diversion from your harder tasks.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” Kotian smiled. “Having beaten you so badly, Wastik wasted no time in trying to add insult to your injuries. He sent an encrypted trans-teselar transmission to Lenitia’s most cutthroat slave runner. It seems that the Scandivat Collective is going to purchase human slaves for integration into their colony.”

I smiled. “And it would be a real thorn in his side if Captain Bit threw him a little party.”

“Yeah. There should be no more than two cruisers present, and we figured it might give you a chance to thwart some of his plans.”

“I’ll do more than that.” I thought, rubbing my ribs. “When’s this great ordeal supposed to happen?”

“We’re on course for interception now. We’ll be meeting them just two days out of the Lenitian Central System. We’ll be vulnerable to their law enforcement, so we’ll have to move in quick and scramble back out.” Tiffany said, secured an access panel, and patted Persimmon affectionately. “There you go, big girl, all fixed up. You ready for a little action?”

The Persimmon chirped an affirmative, and I felt a little of my strength come back.

“Let’s go get ‘em.” I giggled mischievously.

Persimmon hummed into Otherspace, and I set my mind to performing one of my secondary tasks: abolishing slavery from the galactic community.

The Persimmon broke out of Otherspace with weapons locked and tethers firing. Prince Wastik’s ship fell prey first, struck by four steel cables. The tethers locked solid, and the Scandivat ship was caught by the power of the lines. I cheered as Kotian aimed the other end of the tethers and fired them into the Lenitian ship, thus pinning both ships together.

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