Terra Stone: Mistaken Identity Chapter 2

 

Terra Stone

In

Mistaken Identity

Chapter 2

 

            Rafe McNally was sitting that the Constable’s workstation when the tired man returned from the detention area of the brig. There was something off about the two slavers and their chain of beauties. Granted Romata III was nearly a third of the way across the galaxy from the central worlds of the Union. While publicly discouraged and frowned upon on many of the central worlds, slavery was still practiced in exclusive and private locations in those worlds. The rest of the planets and systems that made up the Union were more tolerant and acceptant of the institution of slavery. It had become a way to do away with penal facilities and the burdens they caused. Those found guilty of crimes were usually given one of two sentences, death or enslavement. Some of the sentences dictated a set length of the enslavement. And once the slave was sold, then the buyers were not bound by the limited time they owned a slave. In fact, it was never enforced once a slave was sold away from the jurisdiction when ordered the enslavement. This loophole was discovered and exploited by the slave traders.

          “Master Gunner, what can I do for you?” inquired the Constable.

          “I’m supposed to be meeting Agent Stone from Sector 5 here. She was bringing in a prisoner.”

          “She should have been up here. She left the detention area before me. Did she leave and you missed her?” the puzzled jailer answered.

          “No, she would not have left before meeting me. She was going to give me some information on someone that had been assigned to an operation with her.” Rising from the chair behind the workstation. “The only ones I saw were two slavers and their chain of slaves who were leaving as I got here.”

 

          “Quintan told us one more screw up and he’d ship us to the mines of Naharp VI.” Complained Tabor as they herded the slaves through the streets. A coffle of naked slaves being moved was not an unusual sight in the streets so other then to gaze at the naked bodies of the soon to be sold slaves. None gave the two men a second thought. At the end of the neck chain, Terra who now had fully regained her senses was far from pleased at her situation. Pulling against the cuff locked about her wrists finding, as she knew she would, that there was nothing she could do to free herself. Even if she could slip the restraints, there was still the matter of the isolation hood fitted snuggly about her head with its wadding stuffed in her mouth effectively silencing her leaving her blind and mute.

          With her hands free she might unfasten the hood, but that would take time, and given that she would still be naked, wearing a slave collar, and chained in a neck coffle to nine slaves. Anyone seeing her would think her a slave girl too she would swiftly find herself helplessly secure in the chains of a slave awaiting punishment. So she blindly followed the others on the chain being urged on by the bite of a leather strap applied to the back of her thighs by one of the two slavers.

          “As long as we deliver 10 female slaves to Sutter’s World, Quinan Sutter should have nothing to be complaining about,” snorted Cyrus.

          “Cy, there may be ten slaves to be delivered but one is not the one we were supposed to deliver. They will discover that she is not the same slave on the papers soon as she reaches intake. That Quintan might forgive and overlook. But that you stunned a Union Intelligence Agent then we used her to make up the shortage will outrage him and bring his wraith down upon us both.”

          “I already thought of that,” Laughed Cyrus, “Soon as we turn them over. We collect our pay and quit. We’ll be in orbit before theses sluts are awake in the receiving pens.” As they rounded the corner with the slaves, Tabor led the first girl in line into the entrance hatch of hanger 17. Terra would have been infuriated if she knew that Tabor and Cyrus were clients of the hacker she had arrested earlier. Their docking papers which were presented to the Port Brig listed their ship as being docked in hanger 5. Which left more than enough time place all these slaves into cryo-sleep chambers for their trip to market. Even should the authorities be looking for them it would take time to search for their ship in all the hangers.

 

Both McNally and the Constable checked the time readout on the wall for what seemed like the dozenth time. Nearly twenty minutes had passed and there still had been no sign or word from Terra Stone. Both knew that there was an important piece to the puzzle that they were missing.

“You said, Master Gunner, that you checked those slavers out and their papers were in order.” As they were talking one of the other security officers had begun the end of shift inventory of all weapons and equipment prior to the next shift taking over. They both stopped and turned when the officer muttered about someone pulling a stun stick back in the rack before recharging it. “You said that you counted and checked off ten slaves on the shipping documents.”

“Yes, I did and the last slave in the chain was a little wobbly and seemed to respond as if she knew my voice!” Mac finished his thought.

“They were only supposed to have nine slaves. The tenth one had her enslavement order amended so that she was not being sold off world.” The Constable looking over to the open weapons rack and seeing a Union pistol hanging to one side. Turning to press a button on the console. “This is a level one security alert! All personnel on shift are held over and call the barracks for anyone who is available. A 100% accountability will be done of all prisoners and slaves. Security details will proceed to the space docks and search the hanger for two slavers known as Cyrus and Tabor. They are to be arrested and any slaves in their possession to be seized and brought back to the Brig”

 

While McNally and the local garrison sprang into action in hanger 17, Terra and the others had been halted and told to kneel outside a small freighter. The chain that had connected all the slaves together by their steel collars was removed. One at a time Tabor took the slaves starting with the girl who had been first in the line onto the ship. As she was removed from the line of kneeling slaves, each girl had her hood removed before being taken up the ramp. Inside she would be placed in a cryo-sleep tube for her trip to the market pens. It wasn’t a long journey to Sutter’s World and cryo-sleep chambers were rarely used anymore. But the slavers had discovered that sedated slaves are much easier to transport as there is no chance that they will cause problems and will require neither food nor water during the trip. The downside which Cyrus had always complained about was they could not be taken from their cells and enjoyed along the way.

Inside the ship the slave would be released from her cuffs and ordered to lay on her back on a long sliding flat metal plate. Once on the plate she would be secured to it by means of metal clips placed over her wrists, ankles, waist, and neck which locked her in place when inserted into slots designed for them on the plate. The original system did not use these restraints, but the slaving industry had decided that taking the extra precaution of securing their merchandise inside the tube would be prudent to ensure that the occupant remained secure and restrained if something happened to cause the revival system to activate prematurely.  The chamber would be flooded with oxygen waking the occupant. If left unrestrained they might cause damage to themselves or the chamber, which was not acceptable.

Finally, it was Terra’s turn to be taken on the ship. She was blinded by the lights of the hanger and slightly disoriented when the hood was unfastened and pulled over her head. The wadding of the gag was not removed right away as Tabor squatted down in front of her.

“You are a problem.” He told her. “That idiot had to go and stun you by accident. We had enough problems to begin with. We were behind schedule to deliver a consignment of ten slaves to the market for resale. As you heard, we were one slave short of the consigned amount. I might have been able to smooth that over with the man we work for, but not if I had to explain that we were short and were late because we stop a Union officer. “He paused while shaking his head in frustration. Looking back into the eyes of the helpless woman. “So it was either slit your throat and dump you down the same garbage chute that we did your uniform or use you to make up for the shortage.

“I know that you have been looking about while I am talking to you and considering your options.” The slaver continued, “Trust me, you have none. We both know that you are trained in hand-to-hand fighting. And without your hands locked securely behind you in slave cuffs, you might even be able to subdue one or both of us to attempt an escape.” Terra had to admit that very thing had been racing through her mind. Then her eyes went wide, and a muted cry of outrage came from her as the slaver with one hand pinched one of her nipples hard while his other hand slid up her inner thigh. “But a girl would not get very far as she is naked. Not only that but she has a slave collar identifying her as Property of the Sutters Slave House, slave #9876309. A collar that once on can only be remove at slave house. So anyone that she would run to for help would only see an escaping slave and she would be quickly restrained and return.”

Terra hated to admit it but this man had a point with that. She would be seen as a slave. Not only that she would likely have something shoved in her mouth to gag her if she failed to stop tell the lie as they would likely see it, that she was a Union Officer that had been abducted. That the collar locked on her could only be opened at the slave house was something she hadn’t known. It could have been a lie to keep her in line. But it also made sense that the means to remove a collar was not with the transporting slavers. It also stood to reason that the collar contained a tracking system even if she did get away from them. They would know exactly where to find her. Then she would be on a very short leash and punished for her disobedience.

“Now I am going to remove the gag, and you will be a good slave girl. Then we are going to walk up that ramp and into the hold where you will obey my instructions as you get ready to take your nap.” She nodded her understanding and acceptance of what she was told. Breathing in deeply as the wadding of the gag was pulled from her mouth. “Good slave, I rather do this the easy wat than to have to fight and carry you into the ship or have to drug and carry you. I am sure that by now your friend back there has figured out what happened to you. Come girl.” Taking her by the arm and lifting her to her feet as she is taken aboard.

In the cargo hold of the ship she had not fought with the slaver and had obeyed his instructions. Terra was very unsure and scared at what was going to happen to her. Would she get out of this or was this to be her new life from now on as she climbed upon the metal table and laid back. As the last of the metal clips locked her in place.

“When you wake slave girl, you will be in the receiving pens of the Sutter Slave house. They will discover that you do not fit the information on the paperwork for slave 9786309. When that happens, there is a slim chance for you. They may ask who you are and might believe your story. But who knows if they will release you from the collar, or update the file before sending you to the block.”

With that the table slid into the tube and the air took on a strange, pleasant scent. Terra’s eyes were heavy as the tube was lifted and placed in a shipping rack with nine other tubes just like hers. She was deep asleep when the slaver left the hold and the ship prepared for lift off.