Chapter 15: Martha

Kukur Nurop found himself covered with bruises from a severe beating and completely naked in the lizard scat composter. His hands tied to his back, it took him quite some effort to get his head over the lid, only to receive a shovel load of more of the revolting greenish lizard poop into his face. He yelled and cursed on the top of his lungs and his racket alerted an Oghr overseer. “What have we here? Trying to escape by hiding in the shit box? Couldn’t handle the stench eh?”

I am Kukur Nurop, you dimwit. I have your skin flailed off your rotten bones. Get me out, now!”

The Oghr laughed. “That’s a good one. Might as well leave you there. There is only one way out of the composter as shovel ready fertilizer.”

Another overseer put his hand on the big Oghr’s shoulder.”He looks to fat for being a poop scooper. He will bring good coin from the Togar.”

They had other slaves get him out when they saw the memory tape around his wrists.

Two hours later, an Oghr overseer was added to the composter and another found himself in a slave pen. Kukur, now clean again sat in his favorite room. This time the shutters bolted a blaster within his reach and half a dozen armed guards close by.

The Slave merchant wondered if he should warn his customer and go to the Local Lord to complain.

He decided against it, all the safeguards he had surrounded him with were not enough to keep that big man and his camouflaged partner away from him.

--””—

Charles, the robot scanned the small room they had rented. Not that either of them had much in terms of luggage; the machine wanted to make sure they did not leave anything behind that could expose their mission.

Sam slipped into the loose-fitting dust cloak. “Let’s go. The Unth will not wait for us.”

The robot raised the hood of his dust cloak, it completely obscured his head, held in place by a pair of large dark dust goggles.”Was it wise to leave the Slave merchant alive?”

“I was tempted to kill that bastard, no question. However, as long as this rotten place is beyond the reach of Union fleet justice, I rather have him think twice about buying and selling Union citizens.”

They both left the local Inn and were on their way to the landing field.

That the robot was no longer just a machine as clearly evident by the way he asked questions, non-sentient robots were not curious.

“I have dedicated considerable processing capacity and yet I am unable to compute a probable answer of higher than sixty percent, as to the identity of the party that made the winning bid to purchase Martha Masters.”

Sam. For the longest time ceased to see Charles as a machine, but considered the robot a real friend. “I wish I could dedicate processing ability to problems.”

“Yet, it is evident in your structured approach to the next phase of our quest, that you found an answer to this question.”

Sam grinned under his dust mask.”What answers did you come up with?”

“Due to the freely distributed personal information, the customer was aware of the professional expertise and occupations. Martha Masters is a well-known biologist with an expert reputation regarding energy manipulating lifeforms. If co-relating this to the listed qualities slave buyers apply to their bidding and buying decisions, Martha’s qualities rate not very high.”

“Ah, but not all buyers look for slaves with physical attributes. One of the bidders was an agent for the Kermac. They are not far behind the Union when it comes to technology and robotics. The Kermac have an unlimited supply of Platos for all the manual labor tasks and they do have sophisticated robots.”

Charles computed this information while following Sam to the Canyon entrance, where the canyon walls tapered out into a sun glaring former river delta. Now used as the spaceport of Alcor’s Cove.

“What reason motivates the Kermac to purchase slaves? Are they not restricted from Freespace?”

Sam made a sudden jumping step, evading a rather fresh pile of lizard poop in the last moment. A move is locally known as Alvor’s Two-Step. “Civilians are not restricted, Charles. Kermac, even before the outbreak of the latest war, always frequent these slave markets to purchase Union citizens with special skill sets or knowledge. Some of these slaves might be used by their MOI to create spies.”

“This computes, but if Martha Masters was purchased by Kermac, will she not be beyond our reach? The Union is at war with the Kermac, can we still follow her, and how will we know where she was brought?”

“While there are ways to cross into Kermac space and extract Union citizens, as it has been done before. We are not after Kermac, Martha was not purchased by them.”

Charles wanted to ask more, but its sensors, unhindered by the obscuring fabric detected four individuals following them. While the robots sentient personality still developed and learned the quite confusing motivations of other sentient beings. The very sophisticated SII logarithm package, isolated the four out of the bustling crowd moving within the confines of the Canyon mouth. “I have isolated four individuals out of the 168 beings present within proximity. Energy signatures are of active weaponry conclusive. We are being followed.”

“One of them is a rather tall Chistel Teep and there is a Basil too. I noticed them too, but you say there are four?”

“The other two are closer to the North wall. I identified them as Vdca.”

Sam acknowledged without looking in that direction. “While all four are certainly after us, I am not6 sure they are of the same group.”

“The Chistel carries a genuine Kermac Line Blaster, the Basil has a Nero Ripper set to maximum output,” Charles warned.

--””—

Paul staggered down the landing ramp of the ancient Poodle. He still felt stiff and cramped from being unconscious and in the same position for the entire journey. The pain medication of the Auto-Doc added to this numb state.

The first thing he noticed was the bitter cold wind of Kalimant. After spending a considerable time underneath the hot sun and the desert conditions of Alvor’s Cove he was especially unprepared. Kalimant was quite different from Alvor’s in many ways. Instead of a glaring bright sun in a cloudless sky, a pale disc shone weakly through dense clouds of a gray sky. Paul was certain gravitation was a few points higher than on Alvor’s as well. He felt the difference as an added load to his muscles right away.

The Poodle. So he had learned landed on the Togar side of the planet. The world was split right down the middle into Togar and Karthanian controlled sides.

The Union scientist never paid much attention to conditions outside Unbion Space, but he recalled that the Karthanians and the Togar populated a region of space that was already in the Coreward sector of the M-0 galaxy. If he remembered his Union school lessons correctly both species were not signatory to the Freespace treaty and their respective expansions were at the fringes of Freespace.

He felt utterly forlorn and helpless. What was he to do here? The Togar ate humans, he was human and in a Togar world. There were Togar cats everywhere.

Of all monstrosities and fear-inducing creatures, a four-armed Shiss hissed at him in apparent anger, most likely ready to eat him. He made a few steps back, almost collided with a Togar and defensively raised his hands. At this point, he was ready to simply turn around and ask the Poodle operator to take him back to Alvor’s. Maybe the Slave merchant would reward him for returning and exposing the identity of that cursed Marine.

The Shiss reached out, as fast as a striking Watersnake on Green Hell and pulled him away from the Togar, one wearing a red sash.

Only now did Paul make out words in the hissing sounds of the Shiss voice.”You fool, you almost touched a Lalhestes. She is already agitated and ready to disembowel you.”

Paul shrieked as he saw the needle-sharp claws od the Togress swipe the air where his head had been a heartbeat ago.

The Shiss said something to the Togress and the female feline growled and said. “This time, Shiss ... but remember this is Togar space.”

Then she moved on.

Paul feared the worst. He knew enough about the Shiss to know they were enemies to the Union.

The Shiss was one of the four Mega Civilizations, collectively known as the Big Four, that was about all he knew about these vicious four-armed lizards. Big and strong enough to oppose the Nul and imposing enough to make an entire group of Togar back up and leave. No doubt the Shiss was hungry and decided him to be a light snack.

The Shiss was at least seven feet tall, had four muscular arms with a leathery flight membrane attached to the lower pair. Paul doubted the wings to be big enough to give the Lizards true flight capabilities. All four arms ended in three-fingered hands with an opposing thumb like appendix. The claws were not retractable like the needle-sharp hooks he saw the Togress extent, but were twice as long and looked just as sharp. There was a long tail between the sizeable hind legs needed for upright locomotion and balance.

The Shiss before him had a horrifying face with a maw full of teeth, the fangs of a Carnivore, not a single molar between these dagger-shaped flesh rippers. Piercing, cold lizard eyes incapable of reflecting mercy.

Paul sank to his knees.”Please don’t eat me. I have Iridium.”

“I just saved your life, human. You can’t be Terran, but you are Union right?”

Paul, still on his knees.”I studied on Earth, but heavens no, I am not a Terran. I am 17th generation Ribenna Colonist, but I am a Union Citizen.”

The Shiss sighed and it sounded quite human. “That you aren’t Terran is quite obvious. I suggest you get as fast as possible to the Karthanian side. This isn’t Alvor’s Cove if you behave and don’t anger anyone you won’t be eaten.”

“You are not going to?”

“Of course not, I am as Union as you are. Thanks to a courageous RAvE man, I escaped Alvor’s and so it seems did you.”

“You are Union?”

“Yes.”

“Then I demand you assist me! I am Dr. Paul Masters Science Corps.”

--””--

Martha Masters had been separated from Paul and the other three survivors of the Zengh-He.

It all happened so suddenly, the violent destruction of the Explorer ship and their last-second escape in the emergency bridge module escape pod. Little good it did them. The module was captured by a pirate and the survivors of the Zengh-He brought to Alvor’s Cove.

She forgot how long they had languished in the filthy slave pens. At first, she was very surprised to find that the slavers knew so much about them. Names, position, and expertise, but then one of the few survivors a Klack biologist who shared their slave pen, revealed the ugly truth. Her husband, the man she once loved had given the slave merchant detailed information on all of them.

He sold out in the hope to save himself.

Martha had no chance to confront Paul about this betrayal, as they all were herded into the sales coral.

The Klack was sold first, he and several others were purchased by Karthanians. Someone told her that Klack were highly prized laborers and he would end up on a Smelter Moon. Then it was her turn, two hooded human-shaped beings were bidding on her and she too was sold for sixty full weights. In her short term among slaves, she knew this was a steep price, the Klack sold for twelve.

That was the last time she saw Paul