The Darterra Sagas Book 2 Marooned Chapter 1 Into the Unknown

 

The Darterra Sagas

Marooned

Chapter 1

Into the Unknown

 

Crash Site of the Starship Yakali Kole

Location Unknown

 

          The bridge of the small ship was filled with smoke and the smell of electricity as exposed wiring snapped and sparked. Rafe McNally groaned as the world slowly had started to come back in focus. His body ached from where it had thrown upon impact against the restraint of the seat which had kept him from flying forward into the ship’s controls. He was alive that was a plus as compared to the alternative. A softer moan came from the seat beside him, looking over to see Terra slumped against the restraining straps of her own chair. The thin shear fabric of the slave tunic she wore did little to hide the lines and beauty of her body. This had all felt like a bad dream for the most part, and Rafe was certain that Terra would feel the same. After all in the last month she had been abducted, enslaved, and sold as a slave with the approval of her own people who has authorized her to be bought and kept as a slave. The steel collar locked about her throat denoting her status as a slave left little doubt of that.

          “Rafe?” she said weakly.

          “Yes, Terra. We made it down and are alive.” Releasing the safety straps that held them in place in their chairs. His fingers began to run over the controls that were not fried and still responding. “I am not sure where we are, But I want you to go back to the hold and check on the other.” Pausing then looking directly at her, “I am not sure how long we will have power so get them out of the chambers. So make sure that they are alright. Then secure them with rope or chains.”

          “Rafe!” Terra started to protest.

          “Terra, we don’t know where we are. Or what is out there. Last thing we want is those girls back there running around loose drawing attention to us till we know what sort of crap we crashed in.” Seeing the look on her face. “We have four slaves back there that we know nothing about. They might be docile as sheep. But they may not be given the fact that the ship was tampered with and Nina who was to be our contact was hidden as another slave in the hold. Nina I am not worried about. It’s the other four and our little JG. She’s too green and only here as another loose end that needed to be tied up. So, if Nina is awake leave her loose to move around but I don’t want the other five wondering around.”

          “Yes, Master.” She replied icily. Terra understood his reasoning and it was sound, she couldn’t argue with that. It was just that she wasn’t happy about still being a slave now that it appeared that the whole mission was a set up from the start. Nor was she pleased at having to keep six other women as slaves as well by binding or chaining them. Unbuckling the safety restraint strap of her chair she stood and started for the door smoothing down and adjusting the thin light tunic that barely concealed her. She doubted that the others had recovered from the sedatives in the containers air supply. But was not sure she and Rafe had been unconscious either.

 

 

Cargo Hold of Yakali Kole

Location Unknown

 

          The cargo hold was as much of a mess as the rest of the ship. Anything that had not been strapped down was scattered all over the hold. The chambers all seemed to be intact, except one, a steel beam had shattered the viewing dome over the head. It was her chamber. If she had still been inside she would have a crushed skull right now and be dead. Damn him! She thought to herself. By waking her up like he had, Rafe had saved her life once more. In some cultures, owing someone a life debt as she owed him call for her to become his servant for the rest of her life. Unconsciously, she reached up and touched the slave collar locked on her neck. He had saved her more times then she cared to remember, was what was happening now with her being his slave fate fixing the books? She shook it off as she had to see to the others.

          Moving to Nina’s chamber first she followed the instruction beside the panel to start the opening process. Terra was not too familiar with this technology, not to mention her only firsthand experiences with it, she had been the one inside the chamber. Finaly ready, she broke the seal on the chamber lifting the cover. Nina was laying strapped down in a peaceful slumber. She was naked except for a slave collar on her neck. Nina was a blonde-haired blue eyes beauty. Terra only hoped that when she had been compromised, that she had not had to endure too much abuse before being placed in the transport chamber. Unstrapping her from the table first, Terra helped ease her out of the chamber on the floor, fearing that if she came to while still on the table she might roll off and injure herself.

          Looking about she managed to locate several sets of cuffs and some rope. She also located several scarves and some more slave tunics like the one she wore. Thinking that it was better than nothing she grabbed two of them. One she dropped in Nina’s lap as she slumps against the side of her chamber. The other she took with her to the next chamber, Marla. The girl’s Hispanic heritage was very evident in her beauty and facial features. As much as Terra hated to admit it, Rafe was right about the need to secure her like the others. At the slave house, Marla had not understood why they were not just given clothing and were allowed to leave. That they were being sedated and placed in transport chambers didn’t make once the new collars were locked on them, Terra had been expected to be collected and escorted as slaves from the House. When that hadn’t happened, she was heartbroken at not being led on a lease naked through the streets back to wherever he would be taking them. She had only surmised that there was something bigger in play and she would find out when the time was right as she had.

          After having unstrapped her from the table, she sat Marla up on the side of the table, supporting her as she pulled the slave tunic down over her head before easing her to the floor. Rolling her on to her stomach, she pulled the girls’ wrists behind her securing them in one of the sets of cuffs. Crossing the girls’ ankles she bound them with one of the scarves.

          “Terra?” came a groggy voice from behind her. Turning she saw that Nina was starting to come around.

          “Take it easy, Nina.” Moving back to her and kneeling by her side.

          “Where am I and how did I get here?” she asked shaking her head trying to rid herself of the sedative’s effects. “The last thing I remember was a cloth being placed over my mouth and nose after being informed that new information had come to light and I was not longer needed in my current position, however there was another opening that I was perfect to fill in the organization.” Then looking down and finding herself naked. Looking at Terra wearing a slave collar and a light diaphanous short gown that showed as much as it barely covered. Her hand went to her own neck finding the slave collar she wore, then to her left buttock finding a S brand marking her as a slave as well.

          “The how you got here is easy. Sort of, we found you in a transport chamber hidden in a smuggler’s hold on the ship” Terra smiled, helping her to her feet. “The where is a little harder. The ship was sabotaged, and we dropped out of the slip stream crash landing. Master” she decided it best to start referring to him as that for the time being at least, “is on what is left of the bridge trying to keep power to the chambers and determine where we are.”

          “Master?” Nina asked looking at the garment that Terra had just handed her that looked very much like that she was wearing. Deciding that something was better than nothing, Nina pulled it on and adjusted it to cover as much of her as possible.

          “Rafe McNally,” Terra started then paused to quickly gather her thoughts. “He is my Master as of now. He bought me and that bound and sleeping JG over there from a Slaver on Sutter’s World along with four other slaves still in transport tubes. So, we and now you belong to him till we can get out of this mess and home.”

          “That may not be so easy, since it looks like my cover was blown, and this whole mission compromised. Someone went to a great deal of trouble to make sure that we were never going to be able to tell on them. I was getting closed to something. I think the plan to host a retreat and bring in slaves for entertainment spooked them. Terra, this goes beyond the Cristo Corporation, it has senior Union officials and officers involved”

          “So, if they wanted you silenced, why enslave you instead of just killing you? It seems they went to a lot of trouble to ensure you were able to tell anyone what you had learned.” Terra wondered aloud.

          “Had they killed me and reported that there had been a tragic accident. Inquiries might have been made when there was no body to return to Earth. Enslaving me would be easier to explain away. I wondered into the wrong area when one of their two mercenary raiders, Baroness or Dito, to make a raid that I would have been listed as taken in.” She stopped when Terra started giggling. “What?”

          “Well, Master called in some markers and cast a net around Sutter’s World trying to get me back. The blockade caught several smugglers. He traded Baroness and Dito as slaves in exchange for me and Marla over there. So right now, they are not doing nothing but serving and pleasing their current Master.” She smiled at what she saw as irony and karma. Two women she had almost felt sorry that got just what they deserved. The bringing herself back to the moment. “I need your help to get the other four slaves out of their chambers and secured before they wake up.” Both rose to their feet, though Nina was still a bit wobbly moving to the other chambers.

          “Please, tell me that Rafe didn’t select these four.” Nina said as she looked into the chambers of the still sedated and restrained slaves.

          “No, we were being led out on leashes, but I heard him tell Lord Quintan the slaver that he wanted to buy four more slave girls. He just said that he wanted 4 high quality slaves and that he trusted the slaver to pick out four decent ones to match the two he already had. Why?”

          “Well,” Nine laughed as she walked to the first chamber, “The slaver got the last laugh in this case for the trouble we caused him.” Moving to the first chamber. “This one may be the one of all the whole lot that come close to what was ordered. She’s human, the only one of them all, nice figure, brunette, but doesn’t look much older than your little friend tied up over there.” Then working the chamber controls to unlock the cover so that they can take the girl from the chamber.

          “She is young.” Terra agreed. The girl looked so young and innocent. Yet she wore the collar and brand like she did. What had happened to send this girl down the path of the hard life of a slave. Then again what had any of them done to deserve this life except for maybe the two pirate queens now slave back on Sutter’s World. They, she felt deserved to what they had done to countless others. Without another word they unstrapped the girl from the table and lifted her to the floor. There she was rolled to her belly and her head turned to the side, her hands were pulled behind her and locked in cuffs. While Terra secured the girls’ wrists, Nina has started searching the wreckage around them and returned with four set of leg shackles just as Terra was about to bind the girls’ ankles.

          “She might be fine bound like you did the other,” motioning to the bound Marla over to the side, “but I think we should take extra care with the other three and might as well secure her the same.” Nina locked one open ankle cuff about the girls’ left ankle then drawing it up she looped the chain between her cuffed wrists then brought the right ankle up and secured it in the other cuff. Rising up leaving the girl in an effective hogtie has she heard it called. They then moved to the next chamber.

          “This one is from Psitau 3 which is in the Latorian Empire.” She said indication the beautiful green skinned humanoid female strapped down and sedated within the chamber. Terra looked into the chamber at the girl noting her red hair that contrasted with her green skin. “Psitau 3 was a peaceful planet that was conquered by the Latorians in the name of peaceful expansion as they called it over 150 years ago. The people of Psitau 3 were not outright enslaved but treated as worker drones forced to produce resources and wealth for the Empire. Over time the Latorians started harvesting those that they found of interest for slaves.”

          “So, we have one that has been basically lived as a slave her whole life. While I feel for her, how does she cause us problems.? Terra asked.

          “You will in a moment. But first lets get her out of this and secured.” The chamber unlocked and lid raised, they unstrapped the green girl and lifted her to the floor. There she was placed on her belly with head to the side and restrained in the same manor as the human girl before her. Then moving to the next chamber.

          “This that a Thetanuian?” Terra asked pointing to the pale skinned female inside this chamber. She had heard of them, but they were very much isolationist preferring to stay to themselves and looking down on other cultures as not being civilized enough to be worthy of their attention. The girl in the chamber was strikingly beautiful with raven black hair and the one feature that made her stand out while sleeping, her ears which shaped different, they were elf like she supposed the word was.

          “Yes, that is what I am guessing from the descriptions that I have heard. And I am sure she was worth a hefty sum of money to the Slaver, so why sell her so cheap unless she was a problem to him in some way.” They both thought about that as Nina worked the controls before opening the chamber. As they raised the lid of the chamber, the occupant began to stir. “She’s coming around faster than the others. Grab her quick!” They wasted no time lifting the groggy Thetanuian from the table and placing her on her stomach like the other three slave women before her. While Terra restrained the woman’s wrists behind her back, Nina had grabbed a sedative from a med kit on the wall and gave the prone slave another injection in her buttocks. Dropping the injector on the deck, Nina grabbed one ankle while Terra took the other pulling them up and bending them back where Nina locked the ankle cuff of the shackle around the one she held. Then passed the shackle chain around the chain of the wrists cuff, handing it to Terra, who locked it on the ankle she held.

          “That was close,” Terra let out a sigh of relief.

          “Too close, I have heard stories that they can be incredibly strong. I am not sure that we would be up to subduing her again.” Snorted Nina. “One more to do.” She groaned as she stood and moved to the controls of the final tube. Terra rose to her feet and joined her and gasped as she looks into the tube.

          “Is that an Latorian?” Terra asked as she pointed to the sedated red skinned female secured within the chamber.

          “It is,” Nina shook her head. “But that is not the worse of it. That is no average Latorian female slave. If I am right that is Olaca, daughter of Lord Kraxton, who vanished three weeks ago.”

          “Oh Shite!” Terra exclaimed. “Quintan really shafted us.!”

          “I am not sure if it was only him or if Cristo had something to do with this.” Looking down into the chamber. “But we had better get her out of this and secured like the others quickly.”

 

Bridge of the Yakali Kole

Location Unknown

 

          “Are you serious!” Rafe taken back by what Terra and Nina by what they had informed him of shortly after returning to the shambles of the bridge.

          “I wish that I was, Master. Lord Quintan gave you exactly what you asked for four beautiful female slaves of high quality. He just dumped all the high-risk slaves in his pens on you at the same time” sighed Terra, leaning on a dead control panel. After the last few days, she didn’t think about the fact that she was basically naked in front of him.

          “It might be as simple as that, Rafe,” Nina interjected shifting uncomfortable in what should have been the communications officers chair if they had one. She was constantly tugging at and adjusting the thin skimpy slave tunic she wore which matched the one Terra wore so brazenly. Then seeing the look from the others, “Sorry, Master. This is going to take some getting used to.”

          “What do you mean?” pressed Rafe.

          “The human girl, while she still may have a sinister past as well, is what she seems, just a pretty slave. The Psitau girl was likely a slave already. The question is was she a slave outside the Empire that happened to be in Quintan’s pens or was she the slave of the former Latorian Lady who is now a the slave chained up next to her. Either way it will be a headache for us as we will have to watch them both constantly as they will be at each other soon as our backs are turned.”

          “Do you think that her abduction and enslavement was planned? Or was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time?” He leaned back enjoying the view of the two girls as he posed that question to anyone to answer.

          “Well as we have all just seen the Cristo Corp is dirty as mud. Having Lord Kraxton’s daughter taken in a slave raid or just abducted would definitely infuriate the Empire and destabilize the sector. Terra told me that you traded the two pirate queens for her and the other girl.” Nina said folding her arms before her and keeping her legs crossed to hide herself best that she could.

          “Yes, they flew blindly into the blockade we had set up around Sutter’s World. I knew Terra was there already. But the blockade was to ensure that she wasn’t on a ship leaving while at the same time disrupting the flow of incoming ship to the ports. Specifically, smugglers bring in fresh slave for Quintan’s pens and market. Dito and Baroness flew right into it. And they both, while being questioned about his operations decided that they would rather take their chances being traded to him like slaves than to face all those that wanted their heads.”

          “There is nothing solid, but the rumor is that Baroness took her, and it was a contract job. But if it was the slaver, or Cristo, or someone else nobody knows or if they do they are not talking.” Then bites her lower lip and from Terra to him. “So, when are you going to take these collars off us and give us some real clothes.” It wasn’t a question.

          “I was wondering when that would come up.” Rafe laughed. Then stopped smiling and gave her a cold hard stare. He shot Terra a look and her expression reflected that she was expecting this news. “If this was a S&R mission still then maybe. But Terra and the Rojas girl were legally enslaved and sold to me, therefore they are my slaves. So are the other four slaves in the hold. I paid for all six of them. I did it with my own money.” That got Terra’s attention. She knew that she had been sold as a slave. But she had assumed that the money to purchase them had come from the Union at first or Cristo like the ship had. That he was just her Master till they got where they were going. But she really was his slave. Then he went on after that had sunk in. “I was to sell them all to you on Omega Prime for exactly what I paid for them transferring ownership to you. But we are not going to make it to Omega Prime as this ship is dead. And you are not waiting there as you are a slave on this ship that was given, not assigned, not loaned, but titled to it and everything on it for my part in all this. So that makes you my slave as well.” He gave them both a hard look. “Kneel before your Master, slaves.”

          Both had heard his command voice when barking at recruits or those fresh from training that didn’t know how to find their own ass with both hands. That was a command. And in light of the information, he had just given them, they were both slaves and belonged to him. Quickly, and without much grace or polish they dropped to their knees on the deck before him as slave before their owner.

          “So now that we have that clear, that you are slaves and belong to me. That the ship is broken and we are not going to get it off the ground again without a supply ship and repair crew.” He looked at both of them. Under different circumstances he might really enjoy having them both as slaves before him. And perhaps later on he would be able to enjoy owning them both. They were after all both extremely beautiful and exciting women. But for now, the mission was staying alive. “That you both know. As well as who supplied this ship as a gift for me. What you don’t know is that the navigation computer system was tampered with. The entire time we were the slip stream thinking were enroute to Omega Prime we were traveling faster than light in another direction. If the charts and reading are correct, we are light years past Grissom’s Belt. Near as I can tell we are likely in the McAuliffe Sector, and this is the planet Darterra.”

          “Master,” Terra said in disbelief. “That Sector is mostly uncharted and unsettled. It suspected of being home to several bands of pirates and smuggler.”

          “Yes, my lovely slaves. And for that reason, I am keeping you as slaves for them time being.  If you are taken from me, then they will only see you as slaves and nothing more. If they suspect you are agents and officers of the Union, then you will wish that you were only slaves. Terra will be the high slave, and Nina will be her second. Keep the others in line, and most important watch each other’s back and take care of the Rojas girl. Fore, we have no idea of what lays on the other side of that bulkhead. We are on our own.”

 

 I hope that you have enjoyed Chapter 1 of Marooned. I got the artwork as close as I could while dividing my attention between creating it and writing the story. I had a different vision for the crash site. And wanted to have Nina, Marla, Druilla, and Olaca inside the tubes. But the program was not playing nice so I had to settle for a great image just not the one I wanted. 

Tomorrow you will get your first views of the slave girls in an art post.