Page 2 of Narzek
The population was decimated in the attack and abduction of the survivors. So far, the Farseek Brigade had only brought back around twenty thousand people. Some of those were not from Farseek but were asylum seekers who had also been enslaved by the Sargus Empire.
Thousands had died in the bombings, but they didn’t account for a million missing people. Some of the slaves rescued were abducted from worlds in the United Galactic Alliance of Worlds, located in the sector opposite the Consortium. They formed an alliance to bring down the Sargan Empire and attempt to recover the people abducted from their worlds. It was a slow process even with military from both federations going from world to world.
The Farseek Warrior Brigade retrieved data from a Pican slave ship that listed worlds where they had delivered people abducted from Farseek. During their time as self-declared mercenaries, the Farseek Warriors had just scratched the surface.
This is why the brigade split their ten-dreadnaught defense force between defending their star system and retrieving their stolen people. There was a remote string of star systems on the edge of Sargan space where thousands of Farseekans were enslaved.
Although news of the removal of the Sargan Emperor had reached most of the Empire, many worlds still had not freed their slaves nor reported their origins. Each federation in the Alliance could spare only so many military ships for the job. The Farseekans were not content to just go back to their world and wait for others to do the job.
For them, it was personal. Narzek was only one of many that transferred from Farseek star system defense to the slave retrieval force. Many had family still unaccounted. So, five Farseek Brigade Dreadnaughts took flight back to the Sargus sectors to look for their loved ones and end slavery on the planets where they found them.
Chapter Two
Narzek boarded the shuttle to Dreadnaught Ten, nodding to fellow warriors as he ambled up the center aisle to the next empty seat. The ten-rotation layover on Farseek made him and the others anxious to get back to the mission they had begun over a year ago. His stay on his homeworld was bittersweet. They had made it back to Farseek without their loved ones.
It wasn’t hopeless because they had records from the slave ships and the distribution centers that many of their missing family members were taken alive. Even though the Consortium and the Alliance took out the Emperor Arbentine Sargus and his whole regime, the worlds under that regime didn’t automatically adhere to the declaration that outlawed slavery throughout the empire.
The law would have to be enforced, but they didn’t have enough enforcers to administer the edict on every world in the former empire. Both the Consortium and the Alliance encompassed hundreds of planets, and neither had ever eradicated humanoid and sentient beings trafficking by slavers.
In ten short minutes, the shuttle eased into the landing bay on Dread Ten. The forces on each dreadnaught were divided into teams of ground fighters and starship operations. The dreadnaughts were as heavily armed as most battlecruisers but more compacted and fewer staff. Each of the dreadnaughts carried 150—200 personnel. Only the best of the best warriors made it into the Farseek Brigade. Their small force could do things that larger star fleets would not attempt. Besides, they had some of the best tech available.
Narzek was the new team leader for a team of nine warriors who had transferred in as he had. They had thirty rotations to train and function as a team before they reached the first in a string of systems where many of their people were sent. All five dreadnaughts were spaced out on the same course, so they didn’t all get to a star system at the same time.
The designated scout would arrive first for reconnaissance. By the time the others came, they would know where the most prominent groups of Farseekans were held. On the more densely populated worlds like Berrapo, they needed all the ground teams from all the dreads on the ground to search for their people and any other people enslaved by Sargans.
Narzek was glad to have the lead in time to prepare his team for that mission. They were all good men and women, seasoned warriors; they just needed time to learn their functions in the unit. It was almost dull how everyone performed as they should, but they kept training to fill the time until they went ground-side to start their rescue operation.
TheKurellis, a huge passenger ship they stole from the Sargans at Tegliar Station, came with them to carry the rescues back to Farseek or where ever they might wish to go along the way. Its maximum capacity was ten thousand and maybe a few hundred more if they doubled up.
The nights alone in his quarters were the hardest for Narzek. That’s when his imagination haunted him of all the horrible things that could have happened to his mother, brother, and sisters. They had all heard the horror stories.
The worst part was the whole Farseek Brigade was off fighting in the Sargus Empire when Sargans attacked Farseek. The plan made and executed by Evzen Guryan, Governor of Halor and member of the Consortium High Council, was born of pure greed. That he was caught and punished for his treachery, was of little comfort to those whose families were missing over two years.
Guryon had been stripped of his vast holdings and all of his political power. Where he had once lived in a palatial mansion, he now occupied a tiny prison cell, sentenced to life in prison. That wasn’t enough as far as Narzek and many other warriors were concerned. Even if it were allowed by law, torturing him every day for the rest of his life would not be enough for the thousands killed and a million people unaccounted for.
When he couldn’t sleep, Narzek would go to the gym and perform a meditative exercise similar to tai chi. During one such session, it came to him that his negative feelings about Evzen Guryon and his missing family were detrimental to him, not the people responsible for his anguish. They were stealing his energy and focusing his mind on those negative feelings. That negativity was sapping his fervor for the task ahead.
Whether he found his family or not, he was doing what he could to find them. If he never located them, he still had his memories of spending a happy childhood with them until he went to warrior training at sixteen. Barring the odds, he could possibly find them. He could not change the past, there was no use dwelling on it.
Going back would put Narzek and half of the Farseek Brigade back in the warzone. The military forces still loyal to the Emperor refused to surrender and declared war on the Consortium and the Alliance. He might not find any of his lost family, and he could die trying.
Cayla’s body ached at the end of every day when she finally climbed into her bunk. What she wouldn’t give for a shower and a clean nightgown to wear to bed. She might as well wish for a miracle to get her off this miserable planet so she could go home. But if she ever found her way back to Earth, she could face charges for desertion and AWOL. She almost laughed as she wondered if being abducted by alien slavers off the face of the Earth would get them to drop the charges.
They slept on bare mattresses in their clothes as that was all they had to wear. Cayla might have worn her underwear only to bed except it had worn out months ago. They were each given one blanket that most of them used for pillows because it was always hot in the barracks.
She didn’t have trouble sleeping anymore. Her exhausting workload left her too tired to lament over the past or worry about the future. She fell asleep within minutes of closing her eyes, and this night was no different.
It seemed like minutes after she had fallen asleep that a ruckus teased her awareness at the edge of a dream. Suddenly, the bright overhead lights came on to moans and groans of the women who had been sleeping. How could it be morning already? Then came the voice of explanation.
“Ladies, please listen. I am Lieutenant Commander Narzek Pardantu of the Farseek Brigade,” he said from the front of the room. He paused as a few women shouted their approval. “Slavery has been abolished in the Sargan Empire, and we have come to free you and take you home to Farseek. Please dress and gather any belongings, and we will take you to the shuttle up to the passenger ship.”
“Farseek?” Cayla muttered. She pulled on her boots and jumped down from her bunk, walking over to the man who had spoken. He was quite a bit taller than her 5’7” and clad in some kind of body armor with his headgear retracted to reveal a handsome face and a bit of bristly platinum hair.
“Commander Pardantu, I’m not from Farseek. I’m from Earth. I’d kind of like to go home,” Cayla told him.
He sniffed and looked at her with a slight frown. She almost expected a curt retort. It probably sounded ungrateful to the man who had just announced he was freeing them from slavery.
The commander blinked a couple times and shook his head then said just one word, “solmatu.”
