NASTRAGULL: Pirates (10 page)

There was an eerie silence in the room for a long moment, and then the pirates begin to boo Hughes, demanding that the girls be sold separately and at a lower starting bid. Again Hughes looked at his Captain for his consent, and again he gave it. A spirited round of bidding began, and in the end Hughes was offered much more than he had originally requested. When the bidding was over, the new owners demanded that their slaves be released immediately and handed over to them. The poor girls were removed from the block, and the ship's chief physician injected them with a stimulant that would enable them to walk after so long in the stocks. Once the Doc made sure that the girls could walk, they were handed down to their respective owners, kicking and screaming as different hands passed them on over the heads of the crowd. The pirates thought it was a hilarious spectacle, clapping their hands and chanting as the slave girls screamed and fought for their freedom.

One of the beautiful slave girls was passed over a three-eyed pirate, who took the opportunity to pull her down to the ground and tear off her clothes. The poor girl gave out a horrifying scream—which cut off in mid-shriek as she watched the triocular pirate fall in two lengthwise halves, sliced in two from crown to groin by a single sweep of a monomolecular blade. The body fell in a bloody mess onto the floor, and a monstrous pirate kicked it aside and stepped forward to tower over the Oman girl. He was over nine feet tall, with four arms and a black exoskeleton. In his hand was a giant ax, with a long shaft and a blade twice the breadth of an Oman's head. Everyone in the room fell silent.

The huge pirate stared at Zuzack on the podium and snorted out, "Thief...My price, no damage!"

Zuzack just nodded his head. The crowd returned to the normal shouting and screaming, ignoring the body parts on the floor. The young slave girl attempted to cover herself up with her torn tunic. Seeing that it was inadequate, the large alien with the axe handed her his own mantle. She looked at him in disbelief, wrapped herself in the fine cloth, and fainted.

The fourth block up for auction yielded ten young Marengo boys, all in the same age group as the girls, all with the same background and training. They were quickly sold off to pirates both male and female, and received the same brutish treatment as the girls had. They fought for their lives, but were quickly subdued by their new owners.

Hughes sidled up to Zuzack and whispered, "I think most of the crew has spent what they have. Shall we give them more drugs and booze and wait with the last lots, or shall we continue?"

Zuzack looked pleased and replied, "Let's finish it up."

The fifth block was moved into position. Hughes took a deep breath and then he shouted out, "Now, for the next lot: five officer cadets from the Nastasturus Federation!"

As the slave block containing Alec and his friends was pushed into position, he did everything he could to look as miserable and submissive as possible, refusing to meet any pirate's stare. His friends, however, elected to be defiant. They sat up as straight as they could, presented cold, proud faces to the crowd, radiating disdain for the pirates as Elite citizens of Nastasturus.

Andrew managed to whisper to Alec through his clenched teeth, "You're a disgrace to Nastasturus, us and your family."

There was relative silence in the hangar until someone yelled, "What status?"

Hughes answered, "Elite! They are all Elite citizens."

That meant huge ransoms, very likely. A grumble ran through the crowd, as pirates cursed because they'd already spent most of their loot on the previous items auctioned off. Another pirate shouted, "There was supposed to be six of the males. I saw six of them at the fight!"

Several pirates muttered and nodded their heads in agreement. Zuzack said mildly, "He is in the infirmary, and he is mine. That's final." There were some mumbles among the pirates, but no one dared to complain out loud or make any challenges against their Captain.

Hughes began with Andrew, and he was sold to Zuzack almost immediately. No one dared to seriously go against the Captain when he was bidding. The next prisoner up for bid was Alec. Hughes glanced at a clipboard comp and then grabbed Alec by the hair, forcing his head back.

"Here we have a fine young officer cadet, similar to the last, but this one has darker hair—and look!" Hughes pulled open Alec's eyelids and a hovering probe focused in, revealing a dark blue eye on a huge monitor behind him. There was silence for a moment, and then, from the back of the crowd, someone shouted, "He's a Silver Guard! A freak!"

The very term "Silver Guard" sent a murmur through the crowd. Scowling, Zuzack stepped up to Alec, grabbed hold of his head, and stared into Alec's eyes. Then he glanced at Hughes and muttered, "Are they real, or are they faked...clones?"

"They are real, my Captain," Hughes affirmed. "I had Doc take a look at him, and she concurs."             

Zuzack looked down on the thin female alien who served as his chief medical officer, and she nodded in consent. "They are real, and I would like to buy him, so I can remove the eyes and study them."

Zuzack snorted and gestured to Hughes to continue. In the background shouted someone, "He's evil! Cursed! Toss the bastard out an airlock!"

Another voice shouted out, "It's gotta be a fake! There haven't been any dark blue eyes in any Oman species since they removed the DNA from the base stock after the First Universal War—and that was ten thousand years ago!"
              Doc glared out over the crowd and replied calmly, "You are all wrong. There is no curse attached to the Silver Guard trait. And dark blue eyes may be very rare in Omans, but they do occur. In fact, they're becoming increasingly common, especially in Omans from the two Federations. Your own superstition is only proof of your lack of intellig—"

She was cut off short as an empty flask hit her forehead dead on, and she went down in a heap. Most of the pirates laughed. Someone shouted, "Bad karma, bad luck! Toss it out and away!"

Zuzack shook his head in disgust, gesturing to a couple of fellow officers to help the bruised Doc to her feet. He approached the edge of the podium, raised his arms high, and shouted, "Nonsense to all of you! That Silver Guard shit is all a bunch of hocus-pocus. You don't want to bid, then don't. Hughes! Sell the slave off."

An ugly mutter ran through the crowd as many of the pirates openly expressed their dismay. They looked on with hateful, frightened expressions at Alec as the bidding got underway. Many of the older pirates, though, knew better than to let superstition get in the way of commerce. They  appraised him with interest, and started checking on their available funds.

Hughes began the bidding at fifty thousand credits. There was some minor commotion and then Alexa shouted out loud, "I'll take him!" Everyone turned and stared at her.

"Fifty-five thousand," Doc called irritably, dabbing at a cut on her forehead with a bloody rag.

Alexa returned, "Seventy-five thousand!"

The Doc looked angrily at Alexa, and shouted back very firmly, "One hundred thousand."

The crowd followed this development with eager anticipation, anxiously awaiting the outcome. After a long moment with no answering bid from Alexa, Doc walked over Hughes to claim her price.

Alexa shouted desperately, "One hundred and fifty thousand credits!"

Nina smacked her own forehead with the heel of her hand, rolling her eyes. Doc swung around, shot a hateful glare at Alexa, and pointed two fingers in the air. She screamed, "Two hundred thousand!" Looking pleased, she smiled poisonously at Alexa before turning her
attention back to Alec. Alexa glanced at her computer pad and shrugged, so Doc turned towards Hughes, who was just about to close the deal.

Zuzack looked at Alexa, and for a split second he looked sad, almost fatherly. With a clear voice he bid, "One quarter million!"

Doc's expression twisted into a mixture of surprise and hatred. She locked eyes with Zuzack's in disbelief, and opened her mouth as if to say something she might have regretted. Zuzack just gave her an evil smile, a smile that told Doc the bidding was over—or else. So she bowed her head submissively and forced a dry smile, admitting that she had lost. The crowd cheered on their Captain as the winner, and the bidding proceeded on the other three male cadets.

The sixth and final slave block up for bid that day held six young women about the same age as Alec and his friends—the female cadets from the Nastasturus Federation squad. The crowd went wild, and the bidding was extraordinarily spirited. After they were sold off, Zuzack addressed his crew.

"Fellow pirates! Now for what you have all waited for most. Let's finish a hard, long tour in space with an even harder and longer party!" He gestured in the air with both his large, hairy arms and two hangar doors swung open, revealing another large area already prepared for a victory celebration with plenty of tables, chairs, benches, food and drink for all. Hundreds of slaves and service androids stood in serried ranks along the walls, ready to serve and guard. There was a rush as the pirates ran for the best seats in the house.

Alexa wasn't among them. She looked down at her boots, feeling hopeless and miserable, then looked up as Nina placed her arm around her to give her some comfort. Nina pointed at Zuzack and complained, "Look at him. That bastard only bought him to piss you off."

Another female pirate with short red hair and very pale skin, dressed in a red skirt and vest, joined them. "I bet he had it all planned with Doc, so they could get the price up," she snarled.

Nina looked at her in surprise. "Think so, Tara? But why did the Captain buy him, if that was the case?"

Tara looked at Alexa and sneered. "Because he and everyone onboard knows that this little tramp has been down the VIP section every time she's had a chance. She likes to stand in the shadows, staring at the Silver Guard slave. Don't you, love?" She smiled cattily at Alexa, who blushed deeply. Tara purred, "C'mon, Alexa! You can still buy him, but I don't think it'll be worth your while. Just ask the Cap'n. He knows you'll pay anything for the boy. But be careful, or he will surely claim your soul—and more if he can."

Alexa looked up with teary and excited eyes. "You think I can still buy him?"

Tara glanced at Nina meaningfully, and both of them shook their heads in bewilderment. "What's so special about him?" Nina demanded.

Alexa shrugged. "It's hard to say...do you remember me telling you about the strange dreams I've had? Somehow, it's him. He's the one I told you about in my dreams, the one riding the great warbeast."

"Romantic fool," Tara sneered, rolling her eyes. Nina did the same.

"Screw you both," Alexa muttered, pushing herself between them and heading towards Zuzack. From behind her Nina shouted, "Be careful, or you'll end up the Captain's own private odalisque!"

Chapter
5

Alexa ignored Nina and pressed on through the crowd. All around her, pirates were still bartering among themselves, ignoring the raucous party in the adjacent hangar. Business was business, after all.

When she finally got up to the podium, Alexa walked up to Hughes and asked, "Where's the Captain?"

"He's where I'm heading, over at the officers lounge. You think we're gonna eat with
that
scum?" He nodded towards the hangar where most of the pirates were celebrating with food, drinks and their slaves. It looked more like the beginning of an orgy than anything else.

By then, most of the pirates had stopped bartering and had joined the party, where a few of them had started gambling. Some of the young men and women from Marengo were put up on top of the tables and sold again, while some were made to dance to music that bellowed from the loudspeakers scattered across the hangar. Several of the slaves had been put into boxes or tables with only their heads sticking up through a hole; male or female, they were forced to perform oral sex on pirates of many different species and genders, while their owners charged their customers a stiff fee.

A few—again, male and female alike—were tied to tables or strapped into pillory devices for the pirates to abuse as they would, sexually or otherwise. Their agonized screams and whimpers regularly punctuated the buzz of conversation, background music, and loud song-competitions as drunken pirates did their damnedest to wring some enjoyment from the occasion. It wasn't longer before some of the pirates came together in small groups to bet on how long their slaves could endure the torture.

More drinks and food were served up, and many of the pirates, true to form, were soon passed out in their own filth and mess. As they got deeper and deeper in their cups, scuffles and several genuine fights broke out, and some pirates were injured before they died down, because no one was there to bother maintaining order. At one point, a group of pirates started tossing knives at one of the pilloried slaves, a young Marengan boy, betting on who could get a knife closest to him without killing him. That ended when one woman planted her knife in the center of the young man's chest. "Oops," she said disingenuously. This pissed off the owner, who turned bright red and smacked the female pirate upside the head. Their personal fight soon turned into a brawl—and it wasn't long before their fellows were betting on the outcome.