Page 47 of Jewel of the Alien Bandit
“I left them,” I disagreed.
“Did you?”
“I wanted nothing more than to disappear and have my own freedom.” I watched as Pri-Re and HodKar stepped forward, their fists at their foreheads in reverence.
“Lord Zorn,” Pri-Re addressed and her fist jutted out and back to her side. “True freedom is when we are released from this realm into the next. Anything else is but an illusion. But life, My Zorn, can be fought for. And there is no life under the control of someone that does not see the lives beneath them.”
HodKar stomped the ground to mimic her statement while adding, “Lord Zorn, see us.”
Genbi repeated the phrase, “See us.” He stood stomping his feet.
Joining in, Pri-Re stomped and said the same in a reverent chant, “See us.”
A few warriors on patrol stopped at the doorway, listening to the commotion. Their feet stomped as they clanged their weapons against their armor plates.
“See us,” they shouted while one tapped their visor in place to display the scene across the ship. The video surveillance popped up on Genbi’s command station, and one by one crew members stopped what they were doing and stomped their feet, echoing the phrase until it was all I could hear.
This is the choice I made to save my mate, to give her the option to choose her fate. With the forces of Lord Zorn at my disposal, she wouldn’t need the Krelin fleet. There was a reason why King Sylve did business with Lord Zorn, and did not seek to control it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Luan
THUNDEROUS VIBRATIONS QUAKEDthrough the haul of the ship in a rhythmic pulse that could be felt to the very bones. I was done being a captive, and I risked depleting my loh to burn through the locking mechanism of the door with what was left of my radiation. I tugged and pulled to slide the door out of the way manually before I saw a screen with Vareo’s face in the hall and a few guards stomping their feet in front of me. Making myself small, I squeezed against the wall hoping they wouldn’t see me, but they were too enamored with the viewing screen to have noticed my presence.
“See us,” I could finally make out what they were saying before they stopped, and waited in silence. Not even I could pull my eyes away from Vareo’s stern face, but the screen panned out to see Lord Zorn beside him with his head bowed. I blinked my confusion.
“With your help, we will stop King Sylve, and give the Krelin’s pause before they have a chance to defend themselves,” Vareo spoke confidently to the crew, and I wondered what he was talking about. This was a slaver’s ship, not a war vessel… Doing anything more than dropping me off at my planet would put everyone in danger.
Too distracted with watching Vareo I didn’t notice when the two guards patrolling the halls had came upon me. Their brutish hands grabbed my arms and lifted me from the ground as I struggled, but unable to stop them with so little energy after using it to break my way out of the locked room.
“Let go of me!”
The taller one grunted, while the woman scoffed.
“You’ll go swear your fealty to Lord Zorn or he’ll have an uprising from some of the dumber crew members seeking to gain power themselves. I do not wish to have another Zorn, and I’ll hardly get another chance to freely harm the Necia who traded me here to begin with.”
“I’ll die before I swear fealty to anyone other than my people, least of all a vile trafficker.” I pulled my arm from one of the brutes only to have him clamp down harder. The other let go without much fuss as I rubbed my arm. She didn’t leave my side though, and the taller guard did not release me.
“You will not speak of Lord Zorn with such filth on your tongue,” he gritted while hefting me forward.
“Aren’t you a slave, why do you follow so blindly?”
It was the female who answered, “Aren’t we all slaves? Even you, princess of your own planet, must fulfill your duty to your people even against what you may want for yourself. Even those paid for their services in credit, are they not slaves to how much that credit will purchase them? How much time must they sacrifice to the will of others to have food, and a place to sleep? Do they work less than us?”
I pursed my lips, unable to reason with someone as resolute as that, but I had to ask, “Are you freely working here? Can you leave whenever you choose?”
“We do not seek death, pale one,” the deep grumble of the taller guard replied.
I shook my head, stilled by the knowledge the only exit most slaves had was death. This was no freedom.
The female chuckled at the seriousness of her partner. “It is easy to believe that the threat of death brings loyalty through fear, but that is not what he is saying. He means, there are more ways to die than our bodies, and we’ve earned our rights to seek ‘employment’ elsewhere, but we’d be trading our lives for the illusion of freedom.”
“Have they all brainwashed you?” I asked while stumbling over my own weak legs.
“You should be asking if you’re the one that’s brainwashed by your society, believing that many of your own people have a choice in the way they survive their lives on your planet. Do your females like being broodmares in a mating game each season to bolster their birthrates and protect the continuation of your species?
“Do your miners choose to spend day in day out to gather resources for the people? Do your animals choose to push heavy rocks and smash them on command to reach your Glorbin Flower? Yes,” she watched my shocked expression, “I have read your planet’s file as soon as you boarded this vessel. We, slaves, are not banned from knowledge.”
