Chapter 83

Oh the fun I ended up having that night.

The first thing I did before settling down for a night of questioning was to secure the entire compound. I handed that job over to Talbot and Danvers. I didn't want the slaves released until morning but I did want them reassured that they had nothing to fear, either from my people or from Ali's troops. I ordered them to post guards and to keep a lid on the situation. The last thing I wanted was to have to deal with a slave uprising while I was interrogating a network bitch. It would break the mood.

To my pleasant surprise I found out when I spoke to them I found out that we had only suffered one casualty during the raid and that one injury hadn't been that bad. A man had twisted an ankle when he'd tripped over a root that was sticking out of the ground. If that was it I was happy. Once that was taken care of I had Hope teleport the rest of our people in. I wanted them close at hand just in case we needed them and the way I figured it, some of them might appreciate the pleasure of inside plumbing.

I started my interrogations with the household staff. There were two dozen servants that we'd captured and they were all slaves. The steward of the household was a short, stocky white man by the name of Eric. He was definitely an outworlder. I chatted with him for a few minutes to get an idea of who he was and where he'd come from. He spoke in fluent German when we talked and he informed me that he had been a hotel manager in Munich in the Kingdom of Bavaria and that he'd been kidnapped three years before and put into running the household almost from day one. That caused me to raise an eyebrow. It showed clearly that Sahara Network had gone out of their way to treat Ali Armin in a special manner. It made me wonder what else they had given him.

Eventually I asked the man questions and he readily answered them. The first question I asked was where the aliens were being kept.

"They are in the basement, my lord" Eric replied politely. "The Master kept them locked up at all times. I can show you the way in although you will have to find the key. The Master kept it with him at all times."

Hearing this I sent two men to search Ali's bedroom for the key. We already knew that it wasn't on him. The big black man that Dork had killed was Ali and he'd been naked when Dork had blown him to pieces. While the men searched for the key, I continued to ask Eric questions. My next question was about where the teleport system was located.

"It is also in the basement my lord," Eric answered without hesitation. "There is a chamber down there, just before the cells, that contains the mechanisms that moved people from place to place. I can show you that when I take you down to see the prisoners."

I thanked the man for that and then I asked Hope to have Richards pay me a visit. I figured the man should inspect the facility and bring it under our control. I didn't want someone using the system to teleport in or out without us knowing about it. I then asked Eric about the stun rays that Ali and his boys had been using.

"They came from the alien ship," Eric told me. "There had been a crate of them in the vessels cargo hold and the Master had commandeered them for his own use."

"Did the aliens have any other weapons?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Not personal weapons," Eric said hesitantly, "but their ship was armed. It was one of the reasons that the Master and his friends wanted the ship to be made functional again. They wanted to use it to take back this planet from someone they called the 'Barbarian' and they wanted to use it to reclaim their world."

I laughed at that. I could understand the network people being pissed off at me and wanting to take their revenge against me, but to call me a barbarian was something else. Obviously the people here were as delusional as the people that I had killed back at the resort. Well, I would remember that when I actually spoke with them. The good thing about being a barbarian was that you could act uncivilized if somebody pissed you off. I knew that the network people were going to be in for a big surprise.

My men showed up eventually holding several keys that they'd found in Ali's master bedroom. I took them all from them and thanked them for their work. I then waited for Richards' arrival. It didn't take long. Hope had told me he was on his way and she proved to be right. Richards arrived only a minute or two after I had dismissed my troops.

Access to the lower levels of the main house took the use of several keys. Eric led the way and I let him use the keys. I figured if they were any booby traps Eric would either trip them or disarm them. I did keep a keen eye on the man as he unlocked doors and stepped through them. If he had done something to disarm a trap I was certain that I would have spotted it. To the best of my knowledge he didn't. All he did was to walk up to a door and slide a key into the lock and then unlock the door. That was it. He unlocked the door leading from the main level to the basement and then he unlocked the door at the foot of the stairs leading into the rooms beyond. He then pointed out the first room beyond the door to our right and informed us that it was where all the teleportation systems were installed. At my request he unlocked that door and I left Richards to do his thing. I then followed Eric down a well lit corridor that went for twenty feet before it opened up into a large chamber that was broken up into individual ten foot by twelve foot prison cells. The exterior of the cells were sealed off by metal bars while each of the cells was divided up by reinforced concrete brick. There were a total of twenty cells of which six contained prisoners. All the prisoners were aliens.

The alien in the cell was female. I knew this because she was naked. I also knew instinctively that being naked wasn't something that this woman normally did. The moment I stepped up to the bars of the cell she looked up at me and then she tried to obscure my view of her body by placing her arms over her breasts. That was an effort made more difficult by the manner in which she was bound. I noticed immediately that her hands were secured inside bags that were bound at her wrists and then chained together. At the same time as she tried to cover her breasts the alien woman crossed her legs in a manner that hid her sex from my sight. I frowned at that and then I sighed as I glanced about at the other cells. The occupants of those cells were naked as well.

"Open the cells up," I told Eric, "and then go and find clothing for these people."

I used the word people loosely. While the aliens were humanoid, having one head, two eyes, two arms, and two legs, they weren't human. The alien I was gazing upon was feline. She looked to be about five and a half feet in height and she probably weighed in at a hundred and twenty pounds. She had long tawny hair on her head that hung down past her shoulders. It probably had been straight at one time but now it was matted. Her flesh was covered in fur. It was short but it was every where on her except about her nipples and I presumed her sex. I had noticed the first but not the second. Her facial features were definitely feline. She even looked to have short whiskers appearing about her snout. She had cat-like eyes and long pointed ears, and her canines were pronounced. I even noticed that she had a tail. At the moment it was wrapped about her waist and trapped between her legs. That caused me to wonder what Ali had done to her.

Beyond that I noticed two other things. One was the fact that the alien was wearing a translation device about her neck with a receiver clipped to her right ear. That told me that she would be able to understand everything I said to her and I would understand her replies. I considered that to be a good thing. Of course the other thing I noticed was that the alien woman wasn't the only one with her hands bound in bags. When I glanced at the occupants of the other cells I noticed that they had their hands secured as well. Obviously Ali must have considered their hands a threat. Recognizing this to be a fact I decided that it would be a good opener to any conversation with the woman.

"Would you like your wrists and hands freed?" I asked as I opened the cell door and stepped into the enclosure.

The woman shifted away from me at my approach. Her eyes looked at me and there was fear in them. I paused instantly upon seeing that I was frightening her.

"You don't have to worry," I said in a reassuring tone. "I'm not your enemy. I'm here to free you. If you let me, I will free your hands and get you some clothing to wear. Will that be okay?"

The alien woman paused for a moment and then she nodded her head in response to my question. As she did, she lifted up her hands and extended them towards me. Of course the action exposed her naked form to my gaze and I noticed with interest that she had two sets of breasts, one above the other. They were on the small side but they were strangely attractive for some reason.

Freeing the woman didn't take much of an effort. The chain that hung between her wrists was a basic clip-on dog leash type chain. I just unclipped the ends from the D-rings at her wrists and then I tossed it aside. As for the wrist restraints, they were leather and belt like and they were secured with a buckle. Again it only took a few seconds to unbuckle them and then loosen them so that the woman could slip her hand out of the leather bag that the restraints were attached to. When she did, she immediately placed her hands over her exposed body in an effort to hide herself from me once again.

"Are you all right?" I asked the woman, my voice filled with concern as I tossed the bags and restraints aside. "Do you need a doctor?"

The woman looked down and away for a moment in an action that suggested a renewal of embarrassment. I didn't understand why she had done it but I had a pretty good guess and I was certain that if I could get her talking I would be proved right. Sensing the woman's discomfort with my continued presence in her cell I decided to give her some room while I waited for Eric to return with something for her to wear.

By the time I was out of the cell, the doors to all the other cells had been unlocked and slid open. Beyond that nothing else had been done. Everyone else was waiting on me to make a decision.

"Okay," I said glancing about at the people who were with me, "help them out of their restraints and then go back upstairs. I'll be along with them once I've gotten them dressed."

Four of the other five aliens were the same as the first alien I had dealt with. They were all feline and obviously of the same species and they were all female. The fifth alien was also a female but she wasn't feline in nature. She was very human looking but her skin was blue in colour and her hair was white. She was the only one who didn't have her hands bound. I eyed her with curiosity when I finally spotted her. She was short, lithe, and very young looking.

"Can any of you talk," I asked hoping to get one of them to open up and converse with me. "I know that you are all wearing a translation unit so I know that you understand me. I'm not your enemy and I'm here to help you. I just need to talk with you."

My words were met with silence. I suspected that they could all speak but none of them wanted to say anything just in case I was lying to them. The awkwardness of the moment passed when Eric returned carrying an armful of woollen tunics. Taking them from him I handed them out to each woman starting with the woman I had freed first. They all took a tunic without saying a word or nodding their heads in recognition of what I had done for them. I just sighed and looked away when they hesitated getting dressed.

"It's okay," I said aloud, looking back up the corridor and away from the aliens so that they could have a little privacy. "As I said, I'm your friend and I'm here to help you. Once you're dressed we can go upstairs and talk."

I gave them five minutes and then I looked back. All of them were now dressed and they were all now standing by the door to their cells. I smiled at them when I saw them but they appeared to blush and look away in response. I had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

"All right ladies," I said, waving my hand towards the corridor that led to the steps that would take them out of this prison, "if you will head this way, we can get you out of here."

It took a second or two but eventually they all filed out of the place. The woman that I had released first led the way followed behind by the rest of the women who were of her race. The blue girl brought up the rear. When we got upstairs I had them all head for the dining room. I didn't know about them but I could really go for a coffee about then. It turned out they wanted something else.

My feline friends indicated that they'd like water. None of them spoke in reply to my question. Instead when I started mentioning other beverages, they nodded their heads assertively when I mentioned water. I tried again with food but I gave up after a bit. Calling Eric over to me, I quickly learned that the women had been fed raw meat in their captivity. When I offered them some of that, again I got nodded heads instead of a direct reply. Sighing I had the kitchen servants scour up what the alien women wanted to eat. I ended up watching with curiosity as they woofed it down. As for the blue girl, she drank water and ate some grapes.

"So," I said after a moment or two, "I'll ask this question again before I move on. Do any of you need a doctor? I have access to medical facilities and several physicians. All you have to do is speak up and I'll make them available."

Again I got silence and again the woman I freed first looked away as if she was embarrassed. This time I got saved by the blue girl.

"They won't speak to you," the blue girl informed me from where she was sitting at the end of the table. "It goes against their culture to speak to a male."

Those words caused the feline aliens to look away in embarrassment again. It was sad watching them do it and I knew that if I wanted to get anywhere with them, I would need to change my tactics. I decided to call upon Suzy to help me out.

It turned out to be quick and simple once Suzy got there. I informed everyone that I would be going off to the living room for a bit and that Suzy would take over for me. There was a look of instant relief upon all five of the feline's faces when I said it. The blue girl just smiled and nodded her head. Then after thanking Suzy for sitting in for me, I ordered every male out of the kitchen. After that I headed off to the living room with a fresh cup of coffee and a Danish pastry.

What the alien women didn't know or they hadn't realized was that the translator units they were using could be used as a short range communicator and that was exactly what I intended to do with the one that I was using. I settled myself down and then I listened in on the conversation that Suzy had with the women. Thus I quickly learned what I wanted to know without having to wait for Suzy to come and brief me.

I quickly learned that the 'Bowden' was a military transport vessel from a distant empire that miss-jumped into our solar system by accident. I also learned that re-entry into real space had caused the vessel to crash. The technology that moved the vessel between real space and jump-space and back hadn't been designed to operate within a planet's atmosphere. Thankfully the pilot of the ship had been able to land the vessel safely in the waters of Lake Victoria. Unfortunately, the survivors of the crash had not been prepared for contact with the locals and they had all been captured within minutes of coming ashore.

I then learned that the feline aliens were the crew of the vessel. The woman that I had freed was in fact the ship's doctor. That was why she was embarrassed by my question if she needed a doctor; S he was the only one of her species that was trained as a medic. I was pleased that Suzy reassured her that once we had liberated her vessel that some arrangement could be made where one of our doctors would provide her with assistance. When the woman became uncomfortable again about the topic, Suzy reassured her by stating that all our doctors were women. Amazingly I had never realized that point, but she was right. As for why the alien woman needed a doctor, the answer turned out to be exactly as I had feared. Ali and his men had abused them in more ways than one.

Suzy's conversation went on for about an hour. During that time I learned the names of each of the women and what they did on the ship. One had been the navigator and one had been the chief engineer. Two others had been junior engineers and one had been a steward. The last one had been the ship's doctor. As for the blue skin girl, her name was Ileana and she had been a passenger. She had been travelling with friends on the way to a resort when all hell had broken loose on the 'Borden'. When asked where her friends were, Mitta the feline doctor answered the question by informing Suzy that all the males on the vessel had been killed by Ali when he had captured them. Thus Ileana's friends had all died as had the ship's pilot, gunner, and cargo master. As for any of the crew being at the other encampment, it turned out that Ali had one prisoner there helping with the repairs. That person was the ships communications officer. She was being forced to translate ship schematics for the people Ali had brought in to work on the vessel.

What came next made me wish that Dork hadn't killed Ali earlier that evening. When Suzy asked about how Ali had gained the assistance of the communications officer the truth came out. Ali had used rape and the threat of rape to force the woman to assist him. It was the only way he could get any of the alien women to speak with him and as Ileana implied in her conversation with Suzy, Ali liked to talk.