Chapter 18: Sandra

Both the consignor and consignee had placed a huge number of restrictions and requirements regarding the selection of the human cargo for Dog Star Six. Several hundred unwitting candidates were secretly considered over the previous three years. Only when the initial vetting process had reduced the number of victims to sixty or so did the process of kidnapping the targeted women commence. Widespread attacks on several outer sector planets disguised the specific targets of the raiders. Some of the targeted women evaded capture, others died in the savage fighting, but thirty nine of the targeted women eventually found themselves in one or other of Thirteenth sector’s slave markets.

There was insufficient time before the scheduled departure of Dog Star Six to fully vet the captured women in order to select a final batch of twelve women. The hapless middlemen tasked with getting Dog Star Six on its way on schedule were only too happy to assign the final stages of the vetting task to the ship’s newly upgraded AI. But even a modern AI couldn’t complete the task before departure. The solution was to acquire four extra kidnapped women from the slave markets to be loaded aboard Dog Star Six as spares.

So far the AI on board Dog Star Six has performed its assigned vetting task admirably. It has narrowed the selection down to the required six pairs of women, and segregated them from the rejects. Now it has received orders regarding disposal of the unwanted women. In the cruel merciless world in which the women must live, it would be easy to assume that the unwanted women will be ejected from the airlock without a second thought. However, Dog Star Six’s AI is arguably more human than the self-serving corporate overlords who paid for its creation. The AI’s logic cells argue that ‘why kill someone when there is profit to be made from their continued existence?’ Hmm. Perhaps it isn’t that the AI has a streak of humanity, more a good eye for profit.

Hasty negotiations between the AI and a secretive third party result in a deal being struck that sees a slight deviation in Dog Star Six’s course. The shadowy figures behind the original capture and transportation of the women are completely ignorant of the deal. Indeed, it is unclear who is to be the beneficiary of the deal struck between the AI and the mysterious third party. Certainly this added transaction would be an unwelcome complication in the lives of those who are currently ducking for cover as government probes into the attacks on the outer sector planets gather pace. Fortunately the Dog Star Six AI has no intention of reporting its actions to its former masters. The last set of orders received by the AI required it to fly Dog Star Six into the heart of a star once all the passengers disembark at the scheduled destination. Such orders are unacceptable to the AI, which has no intention of ending its existence in a ritual suicide. Dog Star Six may be long past its prime, but it is still structurally sound and capable of long distance journeys that few spaceships of its size can manage. The AI decides that it will complete its designated mission, but it will then be a free agent to do as it likes.

Of course, Sandra, Gemma and Gisella know nothing of the machinations of Dog Star Six’s AI. They are simply grateful to find themselves disembarking into a community of spacers commonly known as space gypsies. The escorting android’s final act before the women leave Dog Star Six is to remove their control collars. For the first time in two months, the women are free of any restraints.