NASTRAGULL: Pirates (36 page)

Alec looked baffled as he wiped the young girl's face with a handkerchief. "You, an expert? Now, what could such a young person be expert at?"

"We will obey and pleasure you, master. Anything the master wishes from us, we will learn and do."

"They are perfectly bred, and will please you in anything," said a soft voice proudly, "from household labor, to amusing entertainment, to whatever sexual technique you prefer—no matter how...eccentric."

Alec turned around, prepared to jam his fist into whatever face had produced that angelic voice. The only problem was that he found himself staring into a wide red-and-black mottled torso. He had to step back and crane his neck to see into the face that that belly belonged to. It was a non-omanoid easily three times his own size, and he or she was looking down at him with some of the nicest, friendliest eyes he had ever seen.

"No thanks, not interested, perhaps another time." Alec looked straight ahead as he ducked under the being's long legs.

He saw the trader and Lady Fuzza standing some distance away, next to a slave block holding ten prisoners, all women. Alec joined them and said, "Milady, we have been over this section already, and I doubt we missed anything." 

The Lady glanced at her handheld computer pad and noted that the trader had just shifted the group from another section. "Not these. They just arrived."

Alec noticed the trader slide a debit card into her sleeve. Alec frowned, and looked over Fuzza's shoulder at the computer pad; then he looked at the slaves. He strolled along the length of the block, and not one of the slaves dared to look back at him. "What are their qualifications?" he asked finally.

"They are all qualified spacers, and several of them are pilots," answered the trader proudly.

Alec walked around the block to inspect the five women on the opposite side. He thought,
Damn, these women look familiar...where have I seen before?
It was with a jolt that he suddenly recognized one, and his mouth went dry. It was that redhead, the friend of the incredible pirate woman who had seduced and betrayed him. What was her name…? Terra? Tara! That was it. Now her hair was a drab brown, but he was certain it was her.

Tara avoided Alec's eyes until Alec said loudly, "Zuzack?"

Tara and the others with her looked up at Alec, horror writ large on all their faces, and then quickly looked down in a futile attempt to cover their mistake. They started to whisper among themselves.

"Trader, I will take them all!" Alec said in a loud voice.

The trader looked up and her face shone in a bright smile, revealing a mouth filled with flat grinding molars. Ironically, she hailed from a species of obligate vegetarians. But then, so did bulls, and look how dangerous they could be...

Her grin failed when Alec added, "And I'll take anyone else who came from this original lot."

"But, but, that's almost two hundred people," The trader stuttered.

"You heard him!" bellowed Lady Fuzza. Alec cast her a  quick glance, somewhat surprised by her sudden yell. Then he grinned mirthlessly and stepped up to the cowed Tara. He grabbed Tara under her cheek with a firm grip and forced her to look at him. "Little girl, I
know
you recognize me. I'm the boy who got away. Now, where are Zuzack and his young whore? The one you hung around with, the one with the long black hair? And what about her friend, the one with the tattoo or burn mark on her head? Where are they? Answer! You know who I'm talking about."

"Please don't hurt me," Tara whimpered, looking at Alec in horror.

The trader had overheard some of the conversation; now she approached Alec and whispered into his ear, "We have ways of making them comply, but not here, sir. The auction will start soon and we don't want to demoralize the other products." She straightened and turned towards Tara. "Now answer your new master, or I'll have you sent down to the preparation room. No merchandise traded through me ever embarrasses me, you got that, product?"

Alec's thoughts were a confused, infuriated jumble. Had someone already beaten him to the pirates and wiped them out already? Grimly, he snatched the computer pad away from the trader. She protested, saying something about how only traders had the right and permission to review the manifests—but she stopped talking when she saw Alec's expression.

He looked at Tara, who immediately choked out, "She is not with us. Zu-Zuzack is selling her to the Gormé..."

Snarling, the trader immediately jabbed Tara in the neck with a small metallic device, causing her to pass out. Angrily, Alec grabbed hold of the trader's neck, as Pier and Wolf grabbed her arms and immobilized her. He heard a commotion behind them as station security personnel came running.

"No damage to the goods, eh?" Alec whispered threatening. "And here I'd already bought them. I'd say that leaves you open to criminal charges of damaging another person's property. She'd best not be hurt." He signaled for Pier and Wolf to let her go.

The security guards arrived, demanding to know what was happening. The trader rubbed her bruised neck and stiffly told them that there had been a misunderstanding, as she slid a few debit tickets into their hands. The guards settled down, but warned all of them to take it easy, and then offered to send for a medical andy for Tara. Fuzza declined, and after the guards went on their way, she injected Tara with a small pen-hypo. Tara awoke immediately, looking quite startled.

Alec turned toward the slave trader. "Listen up. These girls are my property now, and if you touch them again or harm them in any way, my friends behind you will tear your flesh off your bones. Understood?"

The trader nodded sharply, glancing at Pier and Wolf; and for the first time, Alec realized that they had concealed weapons, tiny blasters holstered unobtrusively under their arms. They were not unobtrusive at the moment. Alec gave Pier a questioning glance, but the security officer just looked at him with the innocent expression of a five-year-old. Wolf, on the other hand, didn't look innocent at all; he was grinning from ear to ear.

Alec snorted, and gestured to his followers to move out. Behind him were almost twenty slave blocks filled with hardbitten women from all over the inhabited galaxies; and none of the onlookers on the balconies above, or any of those lined up outside the main entrance, knew that they were all former pirates. Someone in the crowd whispered, "Look! There's the young prince," and soon people were passing along rumors at a rapid pace.

"My, my, he must have quite the appetite for the female species."

"They say he's from an old wealthy family from the Herrier system."

"Hah! He's obviously not a Herrier. My source tells me he is a pirate."

"I was told he's the bastard son of the Emperor of Marengo himself."

"He's a fuel trader. Made his fortune on fuel, he did."

"He must have inherited a fortune."

"Oh no, he's just a lucky gambler, this I know for a fact. My connections at the Star-Dice tell me he's worth..."

Captains Behl and Zlo were inspecting several crates of newly-arrived cargo when the hangar-bay doors slid aside to admit a long line of hovering slave blocks, escorted by the
K-13
's security personnel and several inspectors from New Frontier.

Captain Zlo stared for a long moment before blurting, "We are not slavers!" He made no effort to hide his concern and disgust.

"They are not slaves," Alec replied mildly, as he joined Behl and Zlo.

"Then what in hell are they? Lost tourists?"

"Not...exactly." Alec casually studied a clipcomp for a moment, then looked up. "They're pirates. Well, former pirates."

"P-p-p...
what
?"

Alec motioned to Behl, and whispered, "He's here."

"Right now?" asked Behl.

Alec nodded. "At the very least, he
has
been here. He may still be. Anyway, this is part of his crew. They're all women. I don't know what happened yet, but we
will
find out."

Behl grabbed Alec's arm and said, his voice trembling— not from fear, but from hope—"Alec! I must check the auctions to see if I can find some of my former crew and get them back; perhaps some of them can join us?"

"Of course. Take some of the ship's security personnel with you, and take as long as you need. Do you have enough money?"

"After what you gave me, yes, I have more than enough."

"No, sir. Save your money, and charge any purchases to the ship. And now," he said, grinning, "before you take off, there's someone I want you to meet."

Alec gestured to Wolf, who approached carrying a young woman over his shoulder like a sack of meal. "Meet Tara," he said, as Wolf set her carefully on her feet. Her arms and legs were bound, so all she could do was stand there, glaring at them. "Tara was employed by a mutual acquaintance, sir. I'm not sure you ever met her, but she was one of Zuzack's crew."

Behl could only stare in disbelief; Zlo's eyes seemed about to pop out. Alec continued, "When you gentlemen have pulled your chins up off the floor, perhaps you can join me in the conference room. Wolf, put her back." When she was gone, he gestured towards the elevator behind them.

Behl followed, but Zlo stepped up to the nearest slave  block. His attention had been stolen by a huge Saurian woman who took up half a block by herself. She was missing both of her legs. When she noticed Behl's attention, she emitted a short cry, then tried for what she thought was a sexy, seductive smile. A giant tongue flicked out and passed over most of her face, making a very strange and un-sexy sound. Zlo was fascinated for a moment, as he might have been by a hovertrain wreck, but then he remembered two things: first, why he had left his wife, and second, that he had a meeting to attend.

Zlo hurried into the conference room, an image of the giant lizard woman flirting with him still in his mind. He shook his head in an effort to make it vanish. He noticed that Alec was now standing over the young woman he had called Tara; she had been unbound, and was sitting in one of the conference room chairs, hiding her face in her hands. Alec hit his hand hard on top of the long table. The bang made the young woman jump in her seat. "Now tell us everything!" he demanded.

Tara looked up with teary eyes.

"And don't you leave anything out," whispered Behl in a threatening voice. "Or my friend behind you will take care of you." Tara pulled her head away from Behl's grip and looked at Wolf, who smiled, displaying a mouthful of brown and broken teeth. Tara started to cry. Lady Fuzza handed her a handkerchief and said in a motherly tone, "Child, please help us, and no harm will come to you. You might just get your freedom back." She gave both Alec and Behl a look of disgust.

Tara trembled and looked thankfully at Lady Fuzza as she dried her tears, and then the words poured out of her like an avalanche. She told them everything that had happened after "Alexa's slave had escaped," revealing how they had been caught up in the failed mutiny and auctioned off as slaves. Ten or twenty of them had already been sold, she said; and from that Alec learned that Nina had been purchased by a frog-like monster. But when Alec asked about Alexa, Tara shook her head. "I don't know, honestly. But Alexa and Nina were on the same block, I think, so you might be able to trace Alexa through Nina." Tara sobbed. "What's going to happen now? Are we going to jail, or are we going to be executed?" She'd barely finished her sentence before she started to cry again, harder than before.

Alec charged out of the room like a tornado, followed by Behl and Captain Zlo. Behl stopped at the door and growled to Wolf, "Keep an eye on her!" Wolf nodded, and eyed the tableau. Lady Fuzza had embraced Tara hard, and now both of them were weeping.

As he stalked out of the hangar, Alec snapped, "Find me that trader, Captain Behl!"

"Aye aye sir, will do." Behl tapped a few keys on his wristcomp, muttered something under his breath, and then said aloud, "She's right outside, actually. Apparently you have a few more documents to sign."

Alec found a very impatient trader waiting next to an empty slave block; it was clear that she was having difficulty hiding her frustration as she tried to finalize the transaction while Alec grilled her about the entity who had bought Nina. When she had a moment to think, she admitted that she did know the creature, and told Alec who it was and how to find it.

Alec smiled tightly at the trader and handed her a 10,000-credit card. "Thank you for the information," he said. She smiled back as she slid the card into her sleeve. 

"You should let me go with you," she said. "I can help you with the trade, and they are very dangerous people. You have paid me more than enough, and I would like to make up for my earlier behavior."

Alec nodded sharply in consent, and she looked pleased. "And remember, sir," she cautioned, "whatever you say,
never
use the words 'pirate' or 'Gormé'."

"I understand," Alec replied with some frustration. "And you are sure we have plenty of time to find them before they leave the station?"

"Oh yes, sir," the trader said smoothly. "The special cargo is all locked up. I will find and negotiate with Lady Padda, the woman who has your friend. We go back a long time, her and I, and I don't foresee any problems."