Slaves Unchained

Rose Rico checked the flashing red display to be sure their automated distress signal was running. She was at the helm of the Relevance, the powerful Fleet patrolship that her crew had hijacked from Archernar shipyard two decnights before. They had long ago crossed the border of the Domain, leaving the Procyon sector far behind.

Another Fleet patrolship was holding steady up ahead, sitting stubbornly on the mouth of the gravity slip leading into the Sol system. This slip was one of three ever-shifting doorways to Earth, the homeworld of pleasure slaves. The patrolship Fortitude clearly wasn't going to budge even for a sister Fleet ship flashing its distress signal.

Rose grinned at her crew on the sleek command deck. They were biting their nails at the sight of their ship bearing down on the Fortitude. The Relevance was a match in hardware, but the former pleasure slaves were panicked about going up against a trained Fleet crew.

"I don't know about this, Rose," Chad warned. The big Solian was at the auxiliary helm, backing her up in case she needed to concentrate on weapons. The systems on the patrolship were much more complex than the systems on the old freighter she used to command. Yet she could tell that everything was running smoothly by the hum of machinery in the air and the subtle vibrations of the deck plating. Her old freighter had usually felt loose at the seams, with hitches in the helm response and sudden episodes of deceleration. She felt much more secure in the powerful Relevance.

"We talked this out in conclave," Rose reminded them, as she secured her curly dark hair into a messy coil. "This is the only way to get in close enough to capture the Fortitude."

Stub's usually sunny expression was worried. "I don't know...the Qin are more than three hours behind us. That's awfully far away."

Rose rolled her eyes. She had picked Stub as her regular bed partner for his sense of fun. The negative attitude didn't suit him. "Three hours or three minutes, who cares We crush them or we die."

"That's not exactly reassuring," Chad pointed out. "What if they've heard about Archernar shipyard With the damage you did, it's bound to get talked about. There's already been too much buzz about the Qin battleship inside the Domain."

"We're way ahead of the rumors." Rose gestured to the gleaming silver-and-black displays of the terminals and the strong curves of the double-thick bulkheads. "Look at our ship! It's brand-new with the best of everything. Who could get here faster than us "