《Tales of the Void Traveler (A Frozen Soul story) (Completed)》 Prologue - Captains Log Twenty years ago, Earth was attacked. That whole ¡®is there anyone out there?¡¯ question got answered in spades when an alien fleet popped up in Low-Earth orbit, and blasted the hell out of government centers all around the world. The death toll was catastrophic. That was the start of the Great War. A lot of heroes stood against the aliens, to try and force them off the planet. Militaries all around the world mobilized. In the end, though, it wasn¡¯t the hero groups or the military that turned the tide. It was a ragtag group of renegades called the Vendetta, and it was started by a supervillain named Iceblade. The Vendetta took the fight to the aliens in space, and eventually into enemy territory. They were always outnumbered, but they fought with a ferocity that left entire star systems destroyed in their wake. The Kratuans, the first aliens who invaded, were pushed to the brink of extinction as a species. The entire galaxy knew the Vendetta¡¯s name. And then the war ended. Peace came, and the need for the Vendetta was no more. Reformed into the Venatori, the Hunters, they set off into the blackness of space, and laid claim to a system just beyond Sol System, which they named Sanctuary. Unique in the known galaxy, Sanctuary invited people of all races to live there, provided they played by the rules. Sanctuary quickly became an economic and research hub, encouraging trade with other systems, and providing a place where anything thing in the galaxy could be found, for a price. Within twenty years, everyone in the galaxy knew that if something was shady or rare, you went to Sanctuary to find it, or to find someone who knew how to get it. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Those rules I spoke of? Well, they were more guidelines. As long as you didn¡¯t kill anyone, the Hunters turned a blind eye, for the most part. Don¡¯t go causing trouble in front of them, natch, but otherwise, unless there were bodies, then they left well enough alone. Those who didn¡¯t get the message were dealt with brutally, and publicly. The same applied to the government and corporate forces, too, but if you started using lethal weapons, then they always had them ready to pull out. Sure, there were other rules, but that was the big one. So long as you lived in Sanctuary sytem, and followed the rules, you could be sure of having a basic minimum of food and shelter, and everyone enjoyed free basic medical care. Of course, ¡®basic¡¯ just covered the basics. You lost an arm, you¡¯d get a basic cyberarm or cloned replacement. You wanted fancy stuff? You had to pay. Same with the elective mods or plastic surgery. Repairing damage was one thing. Making yourself look pretty was something you had to pay for. So what about me? Well, I¡¯m Melinda Mollen, and I¡¯m the Captain of the Void Traveler, a sweet little ¡®freighter¡¯ (okay, smuggler) that I run with the help of some of my siblings. Oh, and my daddy was a supervillain back in the day. Maybe you¡¯ve heard of him? Chapter 1 - Botched Ambush Void Traveler, Argetha System, Interplanetary Space ¡°Cap¡¯n, the shields aren¡¯t going to take much more of this!¡± Destiny Mollen, sometimes called Technica, mainly known as my chief engineer and cousin, knew everything about the Void Traveler, since she was a Technopath, and talking to machines is what she did. ¡°Keep her together, Destiny! We¡¯re almost through!¡± Like I said, I¡¯m Melinda Mollen, Captain of the Traveler, and sometimes they call me Frosty. Why the nicknames? Well, when you come from a family of supers, that¡¯s the kind of thing that happens. I inherited dad¡¯s ice powers, and Destiny inherited Aunt Crystal¡¯s ability to talk with machines. Of course, we¡¯re not alone on the Traveler. She¡¯s a small ship, but not that small. Still, out of a crew of twenty, eight of us are related. There¡¯s me, Destiny, and six of my half-siblings. Yeah, seven of us, all from one dad, and four different women. That isn¡¯t even all of us. I literally have twenty siblings or half-siblings, though twelve of them are from Aunt Talis and Aunt Triel, because Brakthals have litters of 3-6 at a time. Yeah, cat-people are like that. A jolt of blaster fire coming too close to the hull reminds me not to space out in the middle of running for our lives. Still, Nariko is behind the controls, and he knows his job. After the war, Aunt Talis found she was a damn good pilot, and taught him all she knows. His litter-mate, Eri, is sitting at weapons, shooting back at the bastards trying to blow us out of the sky. You¡¯ll not find a better gunner anywhere in free space, in my opinion. ¡°Eri, how long on pulse torpedoes?¡± ¡°Twenty seconds!¡± ¡°Damage Control, what about those rear tubes?¡± Isami¡¯s voice came through the speakers. Aunt Hitomi¡¯s daughter had powers, like the rest of us, but oddly enough she didn¡¯t get Ice, like her mother, but metalbending powers. Makes sealing hull breaches a lot easier, I¡¯ll tell you that much. ¡°Sorry, Captain, I unblocked the tubes, but the magnetic controls are fried. You power up the rear tubes, and we¡¯re all dead.¡± ¡°Damn. All right, get on the rest of our damage then. We¡¯ll fix the rear tubes when we get to port.¡± I turned, and looked to the sensor console, where my brother (actual brother, not half) was sitting. He had freaky blood powers, which was a laugh, since neither of our parents had blood powers. ¡°Stephen! Tell me we¡¯re out of range of their warp jammers!¡± ¡°Sorry, Sis. The jammers look to be lower-powered models, but they¡¯re small enough that they were able to load them up on that frigate and make it mobile, instead of a static drop. The corvettes are trying to keep us in range of her.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s fucking wonderful. Range to the frigate?¡± ¡°Two hundred thousand kilometers, and opening. Slowly.¡± ¡°What is the range of that jammer?¡± ¡°One light-second, so just about 300K kilos. We¡¯ll be space dust before we get that far out.¡± I looked over to Lilyana over at the Navigation console. ¡°Lily, can you magic us up a nebula or something to hide us?¡± ¡°THAT¡¯S NOT HOW IT WORKS!¡± That got me a scowl from Lily. She hates the generalizations about magic almost as much as she does the name Lily. She¡¯s a mage, like her mother Aunt Mary. And she likes to be called by her ¡®mage name¡¯, Shadowsoul. Still, after a moment, she said, in a softer voice, ¡°And no. Nothing to hide in out here.¡± ¡°Fine. Here¡¯s the play. Eri, heat up those forward tubes, I want them ready to fire. Destiny, I need you to get ready to throw all the available power to the forward shields when I give the command. Nariko, flapjack on three. Eri, the target¡¯s the frigate. Fire a full spread as soon as she comes to bear.¡± ¡°As soon as the torpedoes are clear, flapjack again, and stabilize the rear shields, and go to flank speed. Get ready on the hyperdrive, just in case. That jamming goes down, even for an instant, I want to be a light-hour away before anyone realizes we¡¯re gone. Questions? No? Good. Let¡¯s do this. Three¡­ Two¡­ ONE!¡± The stars spun on the display as Nariko pulled a Flapjack. Basically, we flipped the ship end over end, so the bow was facing the bad guys, though we were upside down compared to the ecliptic. Not that it mattered that much in space. Shields became double front, and four pulse torpedoes fired from the forward launch bays, even as the guys on the blasters did their best to give the corvettes something else to think about. Another flapjack, and we were back how we were. With less than a light-second, the frigate had no chance to evade the torpedoes so long as Eri¡¯s shooting from the hip was on target. The fact that the torpedoes tried to push eachother away due to their magnetic bottles was both blessing and curse when trying to fire without proper calculations. But Eri was the best for a reason. Two torpedoes hadn¡¯t had a chance to spread too far, and antimatter explosions took out the frigate. The other two? That was luck, really, but they had spread just far enough that they got caught by the pull of the corvettes¡¯ mass, and hit one each on the little ships. One exploded (probably because it hit the reactor), but the other was left dead in space. I knew it was dead in space, because it no longer had an engine (antimatter is nasty like that). I could have said nothing. They were trying to kill us, after all. But daddy may have been a supervillain, but one thing he told me was that, before the war, he never killed anyone he didn¡¯t have to, unless he was sending a message. ¡°Belay jump.¡± I looked to Kyle, Aunt Jennifer¡¯s son, and fire-wielder, at the communications console. ¡°Kyle, see if those bastards want to surrender. Might as well find out who is trying to kill us this time.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. While Kyle got on that, Stephen (or Sanguine, as he¡¯s called when we need our ¡®other¡¯ names) looked up from his console. ¡°Scanners say they are Vulfun ships. I¡¯m getting an Aprico Corp. transponder from the survivor.¡± ¡°Well that explains why they didn¡¯t know better. The Vulfuns are from closer to the Core. Anyone from the Orion Arm knows that human ships have pulse torpedoes.¡± Seriously, after the war, and a bit of help we gave the Asguard with their machine problems, the whole arm knew that if you faced a human ship, you needed good shields, and you wanted to group together in as tight a formation as possible, so you only lost the one ship, rather than all of them, like what happened here. Kyle looked up, ¡°They¡¯re accepting the surrender, Captain. And they¡¯re asking us to hurry. Seems they¡¯re leaking atmosphere.¡± ¡°Well, that would tend to put most people in a more talkative mood, yes. All right, Nariko, dock us with them. Eri, have the gunners stay on weaps, just in case someone decides to be an idiot. Kyle, let them know why they shouldn¡¯t be idiots before we dock, and then get your team geared up and ready to receive guests.¡± Yeah, mostly he ran the comms, but he was really our chief of security, for when we needed to kick ass face to face. With a grin, the battle junky got up, and headed for the door. I hoped for their sake no one tried to resist. That would be a fatal move on their part. Hopefully, we¡¯d get some answers. While pirates were definitely a thing, having a corporation use a warp jammer on you straight out a jump point and opening fire without warning is rather unexpected. Following that up with demands for our surrender was just annoying. Especially since we hadn¡¯t hit the Aprico Corporation¡¯s ships before. Of course, I had an idea about what this might be about. Aprico was the largest weapons company in the Core. Aliens still hadn¡¯t figured out how super-scientists from Earth did half the things they did during the war. (Later) It took us ten minutes to dock with the ship, which I found was named the Trakmer Duyd, and another minute to subdue the three idiots who thought they could try and rush aboard and get hostages, or some other craziness. Two died easy, blaster bolts to the face. The third (and biggest of the trio) got burned to a crisp where all the other Vulfuns could see. The fox-like aliens were not big on the smell of burnt Vulfun. Five minutes after that, five of the six remaining Vulfuns sat in the secure room we used as a brig for the few times we had prisoners. Not their captain, though. No, he was in a different room, an empty storage room, actually, with me, so we could have a ¡®chat¡¯. I had taken the time to apply a bit of the special ¡®perfume¡¯ Doc Krex came up with using Eri¡¯s pheromones. Drove men wild, and seemed to work across species boundaries. Cheating? Of course, Daddy always said, ¡°If you¡¯re not Cheating, you¡¯re not Trying.¡± So I sat across the table from the fox-man who was looking quite ¡®distressed¡¯ and getting moreso the longer I was near him. ¡°Now, Captain Auwrits, perhaps you can tell me why you were attacking my ship without provocation?¡± The man looked distinctly uncomfortable now. Good. Bastards shot up my ship! ¡°Orders. We were to fly to the Argetha system, and capture a Human vessel to bring back for the lab boys to study.¡± ¡°And what in particular were you hoping to gain?¡± ¡°Those torpedoes of yours. People have been offering billions of Galactic Credits for one ever since they were used in that war of yours. But only Human ships have them, and no one is willing to sell human ships to nonhumans.¡± That wasn¡¯t quite true. I know we had sold the technology to the Asguard to help with their war against the machines, but otherwise yeah, it was true. Pulse torpedoes were one of humanity¡¯s biggest trump cards in this new galactic landscape we found ourselves in. Oh sure, there were a couple greedy bastards that tried to sell the tech to other empires, but Daddy visited them personally, with the Solari Federation¡¯s blessing, and made sure they never tried that (or anything else) again. It only took three black market arms dealers and one corrupt CEO for the message to go around that selling them would be met with extreme prejudice. ¡°Well, Captain, I hope you enjoyed your demonstration of our pulse torpedoes. Now, because I¡¯m not a corp drone, I¡¯m going to be nice, and deliver your ship to the scrapyard at Argetha IV. That will more than cover the cost of my repairs from your little sneak attack. How is that nice, you¡¯re asking? Because you will not be on it when the ship is torn to scrap. Instead, I¡¯m going to sell you and your men as slaves to a guy I know who needs expendable workers. You¡¯re going to get to clean up radioactive waste from the old space stations down on the surface for the rest of your life. Aren¡¯t you happy?¡± The captain was no longer listening by this point. He was thinking entirely with his other head. There¡¯s a reason why we had to make an antidote for Eri¡¯s pheromones. Otherwise the boys would be bending her over a table every time she got the least bit excited. One shipwide orgy was enough for a while, thanks. I did mention I¡¯m related to half the crew, right? That got really awkward for a few days. ¡°H-happy. Yesss. Happy!¡± ¡°Good boy.¡± Dramatis Personae (Not a chapter) Not a chapter, but rather this is going to be where I store info on important characters in the story. This will be edited and updated as needed. I just thought it would be better to have it out in its own post rather than buried in a chapter. Crew of the Void Traveler: Melinda Mollen ¨C AKA Frosty. Human Female. Captain of the Void Traveler. Daughter of Iceblade and Green Knight (Jesse Mollen). Has ice-type powers. Typically uses a gun in combat. Stephen Mollen ¨C AKA Sanguine. Human Male. First Officer of the Void Traveler. Son of Iceblade and Green Knight (Jesse Mollen). Has blood control powers, as well as regenerative and healing abilities. Nariko Mollen ¨C AKA Hotshot. Human/Brekthal Male. Pilot of the Void Traveler. Son of Iceblade and Talis Grendit. Minor electrical abilities. Naturally gifted pilot. Able to pilot any craft like a professional, but is said to have godlike abilities with starships. Eri Mollen ¨C AKA Sexkitten. Human/Brekthal Female. Daughter of Iceblade and Talis Grendit. Weapons Officer of the Void Traveler. Constantly emits pheromones that cause males to become infatuated with her. The crew takes an antidote daily mixed in with their vitamin supplements to become immune to the effect. Destiny Mollen ¨C AKA Technica. Human Female. Daughter of Web Mistress (Crystal Mollen), father unknown. Chief Engineer of the Void Traveler. Technopathic abilities. Isami Mollen ¨C AKA Metallica. Human Female. Daughter of Iceblade and Yukihime (Hitomi Mollen). Damage Control Officer for the Void Traveler. Metalbending abilities. Lilyana Mollen ¨C AKA Shadowsoul. Human Female. Daughter of Iceblade and Incantrix (Mary Mollen). Navigator of the Void Traveler. Sorceress specializing in shadow and darkness type magics. Kyle Carter ¨C AKA Scorch. Human Male. Son of Iceblade and Pyra (Jennifer Carter). Chief of Security/Communications Officer of the Void Traveler. Fire control abilities. Cluebba Krex ¨C Silexian Female. Daughter of Hatta and Toma Krex. Chief Medical Officer of the Void Traveler. Degrees in Medicine and Exobiology. Dru¡¯quir Struohshirta ¨C AKA Dru. Kheldena Male. Crewman on the Void Traveler. Boris Valentinovich ¨C AKA Moose. Human Male. Former Russian Navy, now Crewman on the Void Traveler. Adam Troughley ¨C Human Male. ¡®Comfort Officer¡¯ on the Void Traveler. Nita Perez ¨C Human Female. ¡®Comfort Officer¡¯ on the Void Traveler, working to get back to Earth. Kialee Senza ¨C Pluefi. ¡®Comfort Officer¡¯ on the Void Traveler. Multigender shapechanger. Miszo Gandar ¨C AKA Wildcat. Brekthal Female. Former Sergeant in Brekthal Royal Marines. Security Officer. Cyndi Beth Green ¨C Human Female. Cook/Quartermaster on the Void Traveler. Also runs the still with help from engineering hands. Chirik Roughmane ¨C AKA Dogface. Dothraki Male. Engineer on the Void Traveler. Died assaulting a pirate base. Natasha Romanov ¨C AKA Squirrel. Human Female. Former Russian Navy. Works as a gunner for the Void Traveler. Argetha System Synefar Trehir ¨C Brekthal Male. Slave Trader/Entrepreneur. Runs a business cleaning up toxic sites in Argetha system left over from the station wrecks, using slave labor. Also sells any salvageable parts or materials he can. Maaxe Tarun ¨C Brekthal Male. Station Administrator for New Talos Station, a position he held on the original Talos Station. Survivor of Iceblade¡¯s attack on the system, and was held prisoner on Earth until the war ended. Sepraa Knops ¨C Brekthal Male. Member of the Red Claw Syndicate in Argetha. Hired the Traveler to carry a shipment of drugs to Brektha. Sukonmih Chylnede ¨C Brekthal Female. Escaped slave. Paying her way to Brektha in order to try and get back to her family. Sazke Strauz ¨C Brekthal Female. Escaped slave. Paying her way to Brektha in order to try and get back to her family. Zune Ilno ¨C Brekthal Female. Escaped slave. Paying her way to Brektha in order to try and get back to her family. Plas Druimt ¨C Rithenalese Male. Runs a ¡®gentleman¡¯s club¡¯ that¡¯s a front for an illegal brothel. Owner of Sukonmih, Sazke, and Zune. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Brektha System Sinmiau Chylnede ¨C Brekthal Male. Senator for Brekthal¡¯s planetary government. Father of Sukonmih. Clarence Stillwell ¨C Human Male. Ambassador for Sanctuary to the Brekthal government. Vo My ¨C Human Female. Ambassador for Earth to the Brekthal government. Grall Grendit ¨C Brekthal Male. King of Brektha. Grandfather of Nariko and Eri. Mehra Grendit ¨C Brekthal Female. Queen of Brektha. Grandmother of Nariko and Eri. Mukro Grendit ¨C Brekthal Male. Prince. Son of Prince Cor Grendit. Grandson of Grall. Longstanding rivalry with Melinda. Cor Grendit ¨C Brekthal Male. Prince. Son of King Grall Grendit. Primary business includes consumer electronics/devices. Mamnix Vabats ¨C Brekthal Male. CEO of Starlight Industries, the largest shipbuilder in Brekthal space. Xena Awuh ¨C Brekthal Female. Admiral in Brekthal Navy. Former Captain of royal flagship. Now senior commander for Brekthal ¡®Home Fleet¡¯. Scecshukizs Sosharjesz ¨C Ketharan Male. Ambassador to Rithenal Empire from Ketharan Star Empire. Also goes by the name Orzu. Gioda Mathara ¨C Rithenalese Female. Daughter of Captain Kitha Mathara (AKA Captain Fuckpuppy). Searching for the fate of her mother, and to try and bring her home. Sanctuary Mirikon Mollen ¨C AKA: Iceblade, Demon of Argetha, Butcher of Rithena, Mistwalker, Destroyer of Worlds. Human Male. ¡®Former¡¯ supervillain, leader of the Vendetta during the war, now Prime Consul for Life of Sanctuary. Father to over twenty children (that he knows of). Famous for his ice-type powers, swordsmanship, and utter ruthlessness. Acknowledged as the worst mass murderer in recent galactic history. Crystal Mollen ¨C AKA: Web Mistress. Sister of Iceblade, mother of Technica. Technopathic powers. Jesse Mollen ¨C AKA: Green Knight. Former superhero, now slavewife of Iceblade. Mother of Melinda and Stephen. Mystic Armor powers. Mary Mollen ¨C AKA: Incantrix. Former Superhero, now slavewife of Iceblade. Mother of Lilyana. Magician. Hitomi Mollen ¨C AKA: Yukihime. Former superhero, now slavewife of Iceblade. Mother of Isami. Ice-type powers. Talis Mollen ¨C AKA: Sexkitten (I). Brekthal Female. Fourth Princess of Brekthal Royal Family. Mother of Nariko, Eri, Kazumi, and Neses Mollen. Lilith Reynolds ¨C AKA: Electra. Former Superhero, sometimes mistress of Iceblade. Jennifer Carter ¨C AKA: Pyra. Former superhero, sometimes mistress of Iceblade. Mother of Kyle. Melissa Redfield ¨C AKA: Lady Victory. Former superhero, sometimes mistress of Iceblade. Kitha Mathara ¨C AKA: Captain Fuckpuppy. Rithenalese Female. Former Imperial Navy Captain of the super-dreadnaught Y¡¯gthar in the 6th Imperial Battle Fleet. Now enslaved to Iceblade. Mother of Gioda Mathara. Ikthal VII Wally Fallon ¨C Human Male. Owner of Wally¡¯s Wonderful World of Weapons. Known for having a wide variety of highly dangerous and often quite illegal ¡®toys¡¯ in stock. Rithena III Carter Burke ¨C Human Male. Works for the Yutani Corporation at their facility in Weyland City. In charge of questionable experiments. Rithena Prime Venta Grendit ¨C Brekthal Female. Crown Princess of Brektha, and Ambassador to the Imperial Court. Vira Borgun ¨C Rithenalese Female. Empress of the Rithenalese Empire. Entara Borgun ¨C Rithenalese Female. Grand Duchess of Rithena Prime. Doxan Bouldershoulder ¨C Gondan Male. High Chancellor of the Imperial Senate. Vale Masters ¨C Human Male. Sanctuary Ambassador to the Imperial Court. Wraith Group Captain Roberto Almeida ¨C Human Male. Captain of the VS Vengeance. Formerly from Brazil. Mutant with Macroscopic Vision powers, and is a skilled ship handler. Captain Riya Solis ¨C Human Female. Survivor of Kratuan attack on Topeka. Captain of the Fool¡¯s Gambit. Captain Mark Tanner ¨C AKA: Lucky Dice. Human Male. Supervillain with supernatural luck-based powers. Captain of the Chimera. Captain Tinkerbell ¨C AKA: Tink. Android Female. Gifted at information sortilege and pattern recognition. Captain of the Black Sparrow. Captain Ka Sang Jun ¨C Human Male. South Korean gamer, skilled with shooters and submarine warfare simulations. Captain of the Assassin. Captain Hino Emi ¨C Human Female. ¡®Catgirl¡¯ mutant with enhanced reflexes and senses. Captain of the Dragonflame. Tsket System Captain Eostid Afl ¨C Gothan Male. Captain of the D¡¯rca Bayflan, a corvette in the Aprico fleet. Captured by the Void Traveler along with his ship and six other corvettes in the Tsket System. Chapter 2 - Getting a Gig New Talos Station ¨C Argetha System This wasn¡¯t the first time the Traveler had been to Argetha. But honestly, we kept under the radar for the most part. After all, there were people in this system who hated my father with a passion, and for many, perfectly justified reasons. Starting with the reason why this is the ¡®New¡¯ Talos station, instead of the original one. It didn¡¯t pay to borrow trouble, and telling people your daddy is a mass murderer is likely to start some trouble if you say it in front of relatives of the victims. But I didn¡¯t have a choice, really. We¡¯d towed a disabled Aprico Corp corvette into the station, to be sold as salvage. That, and the fact that our little battle was picked up by scanners in the system, so everyone knew we¡¯d blown two more out of the water. So it wasn¡¯t any surprise when I saw the Station Administrator at our docking port with four security guards. Still, it would be interesting to see how he played this. ¡°Eri, Kyle, escort our ¡®guests¡¯ to Synefar and see what you can get for them. Stephen, take Destiny, and see what you can get for the wreck. Then work on repairs. You see any upgrades, let me know before you spend our entire budget.¡± While they went to see about that, I stepped up to the administrator with Nariko, Isami, and Lilyana at my back, to keep his attention on me. ¡°Administrator Tarun, what a surprise. I didn¡¯t expect to meet you here.¡± The Administrator did not appear pleased to see me smiling. ¡°Care to explain why you are hauling an Aprico Corporation vessel into my station, Captain Mollen?¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s easy. I intend to sell the ship for salvage, and the remaining crew as workers to go clean up the surface, or whatever else their new ¡®employers¡¯ might want them to do.¡± ¡°And what gives you the right to do that in Brekthal space?¡± ¡°Well, they attacked me first.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I cannot allow you to steal Aprico Corp property on my watch, nor allow an obvious slave trade under my nose.¡± I sighed. That was how it was going to be, hmm? ¡°You could do that, sure. But I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve run my ship¡¯s registry by now, and you¡¯ve found that we¡¯re registered out of Sanctuary. You know who runs Sanctuary, right? Well let me tell you something else. Aprico Corp attacked a Sanctuary ship, carrying Sanctuary citizens, some of whom are close personal relations to that Man. Now, you can either go on with what you were about to do, in which case I¡¯ll have to tell that Man that not only were we attacked by Aprico Corp in a bid to steal our weapons tech, but that the very same Brekthal who got to watch him at work before was working against us, possibly even in league with Aprico.¡± I paused, to let that sink in, and was pleased to see the man¡¯s ears flatten in that way Brekthals get when they¡¯re frightened. ¡°Or, you can let us do what we came to do, and when I send in my report, I¡¯ll be sure to mention that this looks to be Aprico working alone. Now, can we go, or do I need to call my Father to come see you again? He might not be as nice as when he came here twenty years ago, you know.¡± I¡¯m fairly certain the Administrator was about to piss himself. If the looks on the guards and Nariko¡¯s faces were any indication, he was giving off a heavy fear scent, but not enough for my human nose to pick up on it. ¡°You- you¡¯re the Butcher¡¯s child?¡± Actually giving a name clued in the guards, who I didn¡¯t credit with an overabundance of intelligence, into who we were, and they started looking edgy. ¡°One of them. As are the three behind me. Dad likes his women, you see, so I¡¯ve got about twenty siblings that I know about. Nice happy family. And someone who attacks a member of the Family attacks the WHOLE family. So, why don¡¯t we take steps to quiet this down before it gets out of hand? And the rest of the station doesn¡¯t need to know who we are, either. That will just make people jumpy.¡± The administrator considered his options. After a while, he came to the (quite correct) choice that the best option would be to turn a blind eye. ¡°Very well, I will approve your salvage claim. I do hope it is a very long time before I have to see you again.¡± And with that, he turned and did his very best not to run away. I didn¡¯t laugh. We got this reaction a lot in Rithenal space. Dad burned fear of him into their souls during the war. Elsewhere, this wouldn¡¯t have gone anywhere near as easily. Looking to the others, I said, ¡°Well, let¡¯s go find us some cargo, guys.¡± (Later) Qale¡¯s Bar is something of a legend in spacer circles. It was the first business to set up shop on the old Talos station way back in the day, and continued running on the surface once the station went down. When New Talos Station was put in place, it was the first business to open its doors again. For something like three hundred years, Qale¡¯s has been the primary watering hole of spacers in this system. Which makes it a prime spot for small-time freighters like ourselves. The big companies and criminal syndicates have their own dedicated freighters. But smaller companies and independent merchants (on either side of the law) can¡¯t afford that, so they hire out independent contractors like the Traveler. And Qale¡¯s is one of the best places in Argetha to make that happen. Walking into the bar, I took a moment to check the ¡®Job Board¡¯ near the entrance. Like the name suggests, it was a simple holoboard with two parts, a list of ships on station, their next intended destinations, and how much room they had in their holds, and a list of jobs looking for people to take them on, and how much they paid. It was dirt simple, but it worked. The Traveler was headed further into Rithenal space, eventually making stops at both Braktha and Rithena Prime, so I looked for gigs heading that way. I also spotted a freighter scheduled to leave back towards Earth and on to Sanctuary, the Profit Margin, and contacted the Captain. Sure, I had codes for the repeater drones, but I didn¡¯t want to break my cover entirely. Repeater drones were strictly for Government/Military use, after all. Comms in the modern age were pretty advanced, but no one had broken the FTL barrier on anything smaller than a super-dreadnaught. It was a power issue, mainly. Anyways, the repeater drones sat out at the jump points and waited until a message got to them, and then jumped to the other side, and sent the message, before jumping back. They were expensive as hell, but they allowed a message to get from one end of an empire to the other in days instead of months or years. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Sure, you could get better time with a courier ship taking each system in hyperdrive and then jumping at the jump points. And you could get halfway across the galaxy in a couple days doing that. You¡¯d also reduce the life of your ship from something measured in decades to a year, maybe less. That kind of wear would start to burn through systems faster than you could repair or replace them. Which is why that kind of thing was only reserved for wartime messages. Anyways, I struck a deal with the Captain, and he agreed to take a pair of message chips back with him, and see they got to who I needed them to get to. The pay was decent, and when I told him it was a warning about Aprico targeting Human vessels for their weapons tech, he was all too keen to help get the word out. The next ship might not be as lucky (or good) as we were, after all, and the next ship might be his. Once the Captain of the Profit Margin left, I opened my comm, and started sifting through reports. The salvage of the ruined corvette easily paid for our repairs, and then some. I approved an upgrade to our shields and engines with the rest of that money. Once installed, it would give us an extra 10% to our shield strength, and increase our sublight speed to a maximum of .3 c. That was starfighter fast. I saw that our prisoners had been safely dropped off with their new owners, and that we¡¯d been paid quite well for them. That was why I sent Eri on that gig. Synefar Trehir, the slave trader we knew here, was many things, but most important for us at the moment was that he was a big pervert, and Eri always got his motor running. We didn¡¯t call her ¡®Sexkitten¡¯ for nothing, though her mom always blushed when she heard the name. As I was checking that the crate we¡¯d been carrying for Argetha had been delivered to the guy who was taking it from the station to its final destination, a Brekthal man sat down next to me. The others were spread out around the bar, mostly networking and chatting up spacer friends. Me, I kept checking my reports. If the man wanted something, he¡¯d speak up. Aaand he spoke up. ¡°Captain Mollen, if I might have a moment of your time?¡± Turning to look the man over. Average height and weight for a Brakthal. His fur was a nice brown color, with white stripes. And the green eyes were also pretty. ¡°I got a couple minutes. So, who might you be, and what can I do for you?¡± No sense being impolite to a guy potentially offering a gig. Or a free drink. I was just a hair over 19, but when your daddy has four wives and at least three mistresses that I know of, and none of them have tried to kill him because of that, then you¡¯re bound to learn a few things. Don¡¯t get me wrong, Dad never tried sleeping with any of his kids. He¡¯d personally killed a couple people who were into that shit. But he made sure we knew the facts of life early on, without the religious bull a lot of people still try and shove down people¡¯s throats. The man¡¯s voice broke my train of thought (mercifully). ¡°I am Sepraa Knops. You do not know me, but you may have heard of my associates?¡± He extended his claws momentarily to show that the claws on his right hand had been painted red. Ooh, that was interesting. ¡°And what does the Red Claw Syndicate want with me? I¡¯m not aware of having crossed you lot before, so I assume this is a matter of transport?¡± Syndicates liked to throw their weight around, but the Red Claws liked to think of themselves as ¡®businessmen¡¯, and were one of the better syndicates to run cargo for, so long as you didn¡¯t cross them. We¡¯d hauled a few loads for them before, but never out of Agretha. They were expanding, it seemed, or we¡¯d just been in the right place at the right time. Knops smiled. ¡°No, I assure you that this is simply a business meeting. I have a cargo of four crates, mass and size standard for this type, containing processed plant extracts to be delivered to Khalen Station in orbit of Braktha. Payment is 60K, half now, half on delivery.¡± My eyes narrowed at that. Four crates of drugs, standard size and mass, meant over four thousand kilograms. That was a hefty street price, and sixty thousand Galactic Credits was roughly equivalent to what it would cost to buy a small freighter. Not one like the Traveler, but still a nice one. Which meant that there could be trouble. ¡°Chance of other interested parties?¡± In other words, how likely are we to get ambushed by other syndicates or cops? Knops nodded slightly. I probably passed a test of his, both by asking the question and by not immediately turning it down. ¡°Supposed to be minimal, but this is an expanding market, and competitors are looking to break in.¡± ¡°Hazard pay of 40K plus paying for repairs if we meet with these competitors and get your cargo to the other side, payable on delivery.¡± ¡°Acceptable. I will include those instructions in the contract information. Have we an agreement?¡± ¡°We do. We¡¯re docked at bay 47, and will be sticking around for a few hours to do some minor upgrades to the shields and engines. Should be headed out-system by 30 hours, station time.¡± With that, we shook hands, and he brought up a contract pad, adding the bit we talked about, and gave it to me to look over. It was the standard criminal business doublespeak for what happens when things go bad, but it looked good, from my point of view. I added my digital signature, and we both got a copy of the contract. Not long after Knops left, I got a call from the ship. It was one of the junior crewmen, a Kheldenan with an unpronounceable name, so we called him Dru. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°Captain, we¡¯ve caught three Brekthal females attempting to stow away on board. I believe they are slaves.¡± ¡°Hold them out of sight, I¡¯m on my way there.¡± Well, well. I wonder what we caught in our net this time? Chapter 3 - Stowaways Void Traveler ¨C Argetha System I was expecting many things when I got back to the ship, but somehow I just wasn¡¯t prepared for what I found. Dru did as I asked him, and had the three Brekthals stored in one of the extra cabins. There isn¡¯t an overabundance of space on the Traveler, but we do keep a couple cabins free, for passengers that may want to pay their way from one system to another, or if the cargo has ¡®special¡¯ requirements that need a guard. In the spare cabin were three Brekthal women, probably my age, almost wearing clothes that looked like they were out of some old time slave harem. They were kneeling side by side, with perfect submissive postures. And there were even slave collars on their necks. Wonderful. We had escaped slaves trying to slip on board my boat. Now, the question was, do I hide them, or kick them off the ship, or turn them in to their owners? The slave trade is an unfortunate fact of life. We have some on Sanctuary, mostly when people get into debt with someone and can¡¯t pay, but there are others who are shipped in from outside. I¡¯m under no illusions that they¡¯re all paying off debts. Anyways, it isn¡¯t something I can change, even if I were inclined to try. Daddy was a supervillain, and Mom was a superhero, so I¡¯m well versed on the idea of freedom and am not at all inclined to follow orders, especially as a slave. Well, ok, Daddy did keep Mom and some of the others as sex slaves, but for the most part they agreed willingly, and even Aunt Talis got freed when the war was over and chose to remain with Dad. That¡¯s a far cry from slapping a collar on someone and leaving them as property for the rest of their lives. But that¡¯s not the kind of thing you can solve on your own, and as most places aren¡¯t willing to change it, then I just live my life. And yes, I profit from it, too, when someone crosses me or mine. I don¡¯t care for the practice, but if someone¡¯s set out to make my life hell, then I got no issue making their lives hell in return. Those Aprico goons deserve whatever happens to them, in my opinion. It was just good luck that they met us instead of some normal freighter, or another ¡®independent¡¯ who didn¡¯t have Eri and Nariko to rely on. I looked down at the three women, and sighed. ¡°All right, we¡¯ll get to your sob stories in a second. Right now, I want three pieces of information. One, your names. Two, your owner¡¯s name. Three, why you were trying to sneak onto my ship. Say anything that isn¡¯t an answer to those three things, and I¡¯ll hand you over to station security and let them send you back to your owners. Now, speak.¡± The one in the middle, who appeared to be the leader of this group, said, ¡°I am Sukonmih Chylnede, this is Sazke Strauz, and that is Zune Ilno.¡± She indicated the slaves to her right and left. ¡°Our¡­ owner is Plas Druimt.¡± She spat out the word owner like it was a vile curse word. ¡°And we were trying to escape, and get back to Brektha, where our families are.¡± I knew Plas Druimt. He was a Rithenalese man, with looks like a terrier and a temperament like a wolf. He was a small time criminal, mostly keeping slaves and running an illegal brothel out of the back of his strip club, the Pogint. I didn¡¯t frequent his club, because we were never really on Talos Station that long. I¡¯d been in there once, and it was what you¡¯d expect from a strip club on a station at the edge of an empire: seedy as hell. The crowd was mostly locals, with spacers passing through now and then. So, I wasn¡¯t too concerned with pissing off Plas by taking his property elsewhere. Still, there were unanswered questions. ¡°And why, out of all the ships on the station, were you trying to sneak onto mine?¡± ¡°One of your crew was in Pogint, and got talkative while he was in the VIP room. He told Zune where you were headed next.¡± I looked over to Zune. She looked like the youngest of the three. ¡°So, you got one of my men to talk while you were riding him, hmm? Which one was it?¡± ¡°He- He said his name was Boris.¡± Zune looked terrified to be speaking to me. The three had probably made Sukonmih the leader, either because she was oldest, or she was the most confident. ¡°Dru, call Boris, tell him shore leave is canceled, and that I¡¯ll deal with him later.¡± Looking back to the girls, I said, ¡°Now, assuming I feel like annoying someone like Druimt, tell me how you¡¯d be paying for your passage to Brektha?¡± The other two girls looked shattered at the mention of paying. They clearly had nothing, being slaves. But Sukonmih took a breath, and said, ¡°My father is Sinmiau Chylnede, a Senator in the Brekthal planetary government. I am sure he would reward your crew for bringing us home.¡± Hoh. That was an interesting little tidbit. ¡°And how did a Senator¡¯s daughter wind up a slave?¡± ¡°We were on a relief mission to keep awareness of the situation in Argetha fresh in people¡¯s minds. Argetha IV is mostly cleaned, and is starting to recover, but the other planets in the system are still in bad shape. We were over Argetha VI when pirates attacked us.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°I see. Then here¡¯s what I¡¯m willing to do. I¡¯ll take you and your friends to Brektha, but I can¡¯t promise my crew a nebulous possible reward based on the words of someone who claims to be a Senator¡¯s daughter. So, you two,¡± I pointed to Sazke and Zune, ¡°will be ¡®comforting¡¯ the crew in this cabin and the one next to it until we get to Brektha. And you, Sukonmih, will be in my cabin. If your father still wants to give us any reward when we get to Brektha, that¡¯s up to him. Now, do we have an agreement, or am I kicking you off my ship?¡± The girls looked at eachother, kindof despairingly, but not exactly surprised. They had probably known that this was going to be how they paid their way off the station. And working at Pogint, they definitely were used to such treatment by now. Sukonmih looked up at me with a resigned expression, and nodded. ¡°We have an agreement.¡± ¡°Great. Dru, get those collars off them. And deactivate any tracers. The passive ones won¡¯t make it through the hull, but the active ones can be a pain. Have Doc check for implants as well. Zune can have this cabin, Sazke will be next door. And send Sukonmih to my cabin. Make sure they get fed before they start their new duties. The crew is to have free access to these rooms when not on duty, except for Boris. Boris doesn¡¯t get any.¡± Dru made that weird, insectoid laugh Kheldenans did, and turned to start implementing my orders. As soon as everything was loaded up, and our upgrades finished, we¡¯d be out of here. (Later) Four hours later, our cargo was loaded, or upgrades finished, and all crew safely back aboard. As we detached from the docking bay, I noticed that two system patrol corvettes were nearby, probably trying to scan us for illegal goods. Unfortunately for them, Sanctuary ships come standard with scan-blocking material woven into the hull. It is super-science, naturally, and while I doubt it would work against the Asguard, against a system patrol craft for the Rithenal Empire? Piece of cake. And it didn¡¯t even give them cause to try and board us, because it was common knowledge that you just couldn¡¯t scan Sanctuary ships. Dad always said that the best way to hide something was in plain sight. We followed the standard exit vector for ships heading towards Brektha. The gate to the Corun system was about six hours away with our current course and speed. If you didn¡¯t need to, you didn¡¯t stress your engines or burn fuel going full speed. That was asking for bad things to happen. It also got people looking at you like you had something to hide. That always caused more problems down the line. So it was an efficiency course. Once we were clear of the station, and it was obvious the patrol craft were going to leave us alone, we went into watches. I left Steven in charge of the bridge while I went to get a shower and a few hours of rack time. It wasn¡¯t until I stepped into my cabin and found Sukonmih waiting there that I¡¯d remembered I had a bedwarmer for this trip. Excellent. I looked over to Sukonmih, and said, ¡°I¡¯m going to freshen up. Be ready to earn your passage when I get out.¡± With a smile on my face, I walked into my private bathroom. Honestly, this was one of the best things about being Captain. As I peeled off my clothes, I looked at myself in the mirror. Pale skin, brown eyes, and bright red hair that fell down my back when I didn¡¯t have it pulled back. People always said I looked like Mom, but with Dad¡¯s eyes. I wasn¡¯t as heavy up top as she was, but then they had grown a bit once she had kids. I was what someone might call ¡®gym fit¡¯, and curvy. All in all, I considered myself a catch. I left the mirror and stepped into the sonic shower. Water was a premium commodity in space. I had a bathtub that I could fill, when I wanted to, and it even had Jacuzzi jets, but I usually used the sonic for day to day stuff. And I wanted to taste my new toy. I may only be nineteen, but that doesn¡¯t mean I haven¡¯t experimented. I was looking forward to seeing the difference between Sukonmih¡¯s tongue and Eri¡¯s. Eri was only half-Brekthal, after all, and she had more human-looking qualities than full Brekthals. And here I¡¯m babbling. Refreshed after the shower, I stepped out of the restroom completely naked, and looked to see where my pet had gone. I found her, naked, lying on my bed, on top of the covers. A very seductive pose, and if I hadn¡¯t been taught by Aunt Talis to recognize Brekthal body language, I would have believed she was eager for it as well. Instead, I saw that broken resignation you usually find in whores who haven¡¯t learned to put on a more convincing act. As I stalked over to the bed, I said, ¡°So, my pretty, have you ever tasted a woman before?¡± An eye twitch! Oh, she didn¡¯t like this topic. ¡°I have. But I prefer men.¡± In other words, she was straight, and had only been with women because she had no choice in the matter. Probably as a punishment for back-talking, or acting like she was better than a slave. Those women would have gotten off on ¡®breaking¡¯ a straight girl, and wouldn¡¯t have been kind. Well, there was a long trip ahead of us. Maybe a bit of comfort would bring the girl around. Wouldn¡¯t be bad to have someone to ¡®visit¡¯ the next time I was in the Brektha system. I laid back on the bed, and smiled. ¡°Well, then, show me how good you are.¡± Not a chapter Removing chapters to put this on Kindle Unlimited. 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