Aninya met her at the door.

“Milady, I am so sorry, milady forgive me, I can explain, I am so sorry...”

Radhya waved her silence.

“In the morning guards will come and take you to the public square. You will be flogged ten times. I could only get it reduced that much.”

Aninya raised hands to her horrified face.

“Milady, you can’t permit...”

Radhya whirled on her angrily, sparks flashing like lightning in her eyes.

“My whole plan is in jeopardy because of your rash action. Jabin could legally have me drummed from the aristocracy because I have allowed you to run wild. Technically, he could require your death. That fat slug reduced your punishment from fifty lashes to ten because he thought to copulate with me tonight. You do not realize what your life costs me Aninya. I had to sit through his ‘entertainments.’ Watch out Aninya.”

Aninya backed away from the fire in Radhya’s eyes.

She continued, “Padr and I haven’t eaten in three and a half days, and I want to eat. Then I’m going to sleep, and you can explain yourself in the morning.”

Radhya stormed to her room.

“The name Lady Death suits her when she’s like this,” Padr smiled to Aninya.

Stricken, Aninya stood.

“Try to understand how much she’s been through these last three or four days. She hated the incident with Barone on the ship. She hates this place and buying slaves. We were imprisoned together in our skivvies and believe me, that wasn’t easy. Then she spent all night watching an orgy, starving with food in front of her and fending off Lord Jabin while people were dying in front of us. I think her nerves are shredded. Fetch a meal; I’ll take it in to her.”

Radhya answered the tap on her door ready to storm at Aninya again. When she saw Padr, she opened the door wider and let him in. Sitting at the desk, she gestured him to the bunk.

“She just forgets you know,” he spoke to her softly.

“I know, but the horrors of Jabin’s entertainments, and the feel of his slimy hands, oh Padr, I can’t even endure the memory of it.”

Radhya burst into uncontrollable tears, sobbing into her arms on the desk. Padr rose and put his arms around her. He could feel the black horror and terror rise up in her.

“Yes, you can and you will,” he stated emphatically. “You won’t let people like that get the better of you. You’re stronger than that. Trust me I know. If you need anything I can give you, I’m here.”

Turning, she burrowed into his strong shoulder. He sent her a flash of emerald presence. She returned a wash of clear blue gratitude and love. Smiling gratefully at him, she wiped the tears from her dirt-streaked face. Padr left her, went to the tiny washroom and returned with a damp cloth. He wiped her dusty face and hands gently. She sent him a giddy burst of lust, and giggled.

“You’d best be careful. I said I’d give you time, but I’m only human,” he warned with a smile.

They demolished the long-delayed meal. Padr left with the tray, and Radhya rolled into her bunk. She wrapped mental tendrils of green, gold and violet around herself and was thus able to sleep soundly without nightmares.

* * *

Radhya was already in the shower scrubbing until her skin was raw, when the banging came at her door. Slipping on a robe, but still dripping she answered, opening the door as Max raised his fist to pound again.

“Radhya, the guards come in an hour. If you wish to talk with Aninya...” he trailed off.

“Be right there,” she answered him.

Max gazed at her with a sharply furrowed brow. She could feel his anxiety.

Patting him on the hand, she said, “Don’t worry. I think I have this figured out. Just be ready with your projects.”

Max nodded and left. Radhya came behind him, dressed and fortified for the day. In the foremost seat, Aninya shook and trembled, her eyes red and swollen.

“Tell me,” commanded Radhya.

“We went to the auction,” began Aninya in a tremulous voice, “and we did what you asked, bought all the slaves you had designated. Then Rory was paying for them, and Dave was herding them to get something to eat, and there was a man, a reeking filthy man, holding this little girl by the hair. And she looked just like my daughter. She had the biggest, saddest, brown eyes, and he said as how she was a virgin, and he was asking the vendor how much she would be worth tomorrow when she was not a virgin. I lost my mind. I just grabbed her, and I ran all the way to the Arrow. The guards chased me, but they couldn’t catch me. I’ve never run so fast in all my life, but I just had to save her. Stane turned the turret guns on them to keep them away. He did not fire, just threatened. They let Rory and Dave and your new slaves in to talk sense to me, but I wouldn’t listen. I know you, Lady, you love children. You wouldn’t let that happen to an innocent child. Please, Lady, you can’t give her back!”

“No Aninya,” sighed Radhya wearily, “she won’t go back, I’ve already paid five times her asking price for her, but now that man has the means to buy four little girls instead of one, and Jabin has profited as well.”

“Oh my Lady,” cried Aninya stricken. “We were so worried when you didn’t come. It was all my fault.”

“Yes,” interrupted Radhya, “it was. Now I’m going to put this on you.”

She showed Aninya a large bottle of brown liquid.

“This will raise welts lasting about twelve hours. That is, so they think that I beat you. It is to save my life; yours and I can’t count how many other slaves in the future. It will hurt, but that cannot be helped now. So strip.”

Radhya applied the liquid in streaks across Aninya’s face and brow. She made long weals across her breasts down her side to the hips. She crisscrossed her legs with stripes, but her upper back and arms were untouched. When she was finished the cook looked like raw meat.

Troopers hammered on the hatch. Radhya threw a sheet to Aninya to cover herself. Clothes would have been far too painful. The troopers took her and marched her away. Radhya followed with Padr, Max, Will, and Rory in tow. The early morning sun had scarcely peeked above the horizon when they arrived at the public square of the largest sunrise auction. The morning was a bearable temperature.

Jabin squatted on his throne, a raised platform, high above the crowd. He wore a jeweled robe of silver and royal purple. Like a red crow, Barone perched at his shoulder, looking shocked to see Radhya there, though he nodded to her graciously.

At Jabin’s signal, the guards took Aninya to two poles stationed before the platform. Tying her to the uprights, they stripped off her sheet. The gathering crowds gasped in horror at the sight of Aninya’s tortured flesh, even as accustomed to Lord Jabin’s taste as they were. Crowing and smiling in delighted surprise, he clapped his hands and bowed his head toward Radhya. He signaled to begin. The heavy leather lash, braided with pieces of sharp bone, whistled down and tore into Aninya’s back. The heart-stopping wet rip of tearing flesh contended with her screams in the heating morning air. Again and again, it struck. Radhya stood impassive, eyes fixed on the grisly scene, face still. Finally, after an eternity, the tenth and last time struck. Aninya hung limply from the posts; the whipper lowered his arm. The guards who brought Aninya regrouped around Jabin’s platform.

Radhya nodded to Will and Rory, and they cut Aninya down and laid her bleeding body on the sheet. Not a centimeter of skin remained that was unabraded on her body. They carried her back to the Arrow face down. Radhya turned to follow when a slave from Jabin restrained her with a hand on her arm. She stiffened and turned on him furiously. He instantly removed his hand.

“My Lord Jabin requires a word with you,” he stammered.

Turning, Radhya glared at the obese sadist on the throne. Then she marched to his platform and up the steps to stand right in front of him.

“You require more milord?”

“Oh no, my small requirements are satisfied. I just have a few unanswered questions.”

“Which are milord?”

“Last night you seemed to have no appetite for the entertainment, yet you come to watch your own slave beaten? Then, too, obviously, your cook received some attention from you, judging by the marks, probably last night?”

“What is your question milord?”

“Do you or do you not enjoy watching the pain of others? I hear that you positively gloated over our friend Barone’s pain and yet last night I could have sworn you were as disgusted as the others of your unique genetic heritage.”

“Well milord, I don’t know about what heritage you speak, but it, first of all, depends on whose pain. Some are more enjoyable than others are, then I am surprised that you can’t tell boredom from disgust. I personally prefer a more hands-on approach. As for my cook, I prefer to do my own disciplining when necessary. I know certain people accuse me of being soft, but they do not know me. Now is that it? I have business to attend to,” Radhya said turning to go.

“Wait!” Jabin grunted, one fat finger slid beside his nose. “I have heard this claimed of you before, but I am confused about you; I’m not sure what I believe. Perhaps you can give me one of these fine slaves to entertain us tonight. You might be more interested.”

“Certainly,” replied Radhya turning back to Jabin. “I will sell you one for one million macros.”

“Surely you jest. If you enjoy, why not contribute, and that price is outrageous for a slave.”

“I wish to return to work. I only went to your pitiful entertainments at your insistence. That being the case, I feel no obligation to supply fodder for it. As to the price, you’re right. I think a million five far more reasonable considering the costs I have accumulated training them. This dark one has proven his value by almost defeating seven of your guards all by himself. He would have prevailed had it not been for their tazers, which we are prohibited to carry on your planet. That ability increases his value to me. The other is an engineer of some considerable skill. It cost me to finish his training.”

Radhya waited, looking at the would-be Caesar.

“I am almost tempted to meet your price,” Jabin smiled.

“Fine, let’s go to the accountants. Do you want the dark haired one or the brown haired one? I won’t sell both and have to return to Arrow unprotected.”

Radhya moved several steps towards the accounting booth.

“None, I want none of your merchandise, not at your exorbitant price. I didn’t realize how much you are like your brother. You, however,” he continued in a hard voice, “will eat and drink tonight to the full.”

“Milord, my obligation was last night alone.”

“I decided to change that since you neither ate nor drank, nor anything else.”

Jabin put a greasy paw on Radhya’s arm, caressing her shoulder. She pulled away and clattered down the steps. The trio was out of the square and heading for Arrow as quickly as allowed for any shred of dignity.

At the Arrow, Radhya hissed and spat like an angry cat. Most of the slaves ducked from her presence, but Padr grabbed her by the shoulders and spoke in an anguished voice.

“Radhya what are you going to do? If you go tonight and you eat and drink I don’t think even the bond will be able to resist those aphrodisiacs. Jabin means to ravish you tonight.”

Radhya quieted in his hands. Deep in thought, her face puzzled, her selifla felt a deep calm come over her.

“Contact Rory. Tell him to request permission from the tower to leave immediately.”

Rory called right back. “Permission is refused. Lord Jabin expects you tonight. What are your orders milady?”

“We run!” she said.

She spoke to her wrist comp, telling the slaves below to prepare for a hard ride. Rory and Stane prepared the ship to run for home while Radhya told Dave to supervise the slaves below in the hold.

“Will,” she called, “how is Aninya? We need to go. Can she travel yet?”

“Another five minutes,” called Will from Radhya’s cabin.

“Max get below; get ready to use your projects. We’ll probably escape or not based on your work. I hope you’ve been very inventive.”

“Radhya,” questioned Max, “Jabin has a lot of firepower on his two moons, but if we escape that, what is to stop Jabin from setting the proctors on you?”

“The proctors won’t hear his complaint. I’m being held by force, and they frown on such things. What else could he say, that I turned down his invitation to his orgy? I wouldn’t stay for his blood show? I had no agreement to have sex with him. Yeeelk! And my faithful Max, I have full confidence in your ability to blow his ships away.”

Max hastened below to his workroom as Aninya emerged from Radhya’s cabin whole and smiling bemusedly. She strapped down. Will and Padr strapped in on either side of Radhya. Dave gave the ‘all secure’ from the hold.

“Rory, burn plutonium,” Radhya commanded over the intercom.

The little ship leapt skyward, blasting past the tower without warning. A large ship preparing to lift flashed warning lights at them. Rory piped the swearing from the large ship into the passenger compartment. While the tower repeatedly demanded they return, Arrow hurtled on in silence. They shot out of the stratosphere into true space, and Rory oriented the vessel toward their objective.

The nearer moon spewed six small, fast, patrol craft. On the screen, they could see another six blips blasting from the further moon.

“Evasion!” snapped Radhya.

Arrow bucked and twisted, slipping this way and that, fully making use of all three dimensions, evading the patrol craft. Rory made her dance like a ballerina, but they were unable to clear the solar system’s gravity- well. She slipped around the planet in a polar orbit. Repeatedly, they approached the launch window for their own system, and were herded back to Jabin’s World. The patrol craft shot lasers across their bow, blinding them temporarily. They jumped, danced, and hid behind the planets and satellites. There was no way to break from the orbit without sailing off into uncharted space Radhya decided.

“There are too many to evade. Attack!” she instructed.

Arrow pivoted away from two pursuers. She ducked behind the nearer moon. Max released the bio-organisms of one of Radhya’s defenses. Repelled by their own ship, the microbes swarmed the two patrol vessels, up the exhaust ports to the engines. The ships lost power, sailing straight ahead, unable to turn or stop.

Swinging around, using the gravity of the moon, Max lay a line of leach mines down in the path of their escape. Four patrol craft cut them off, and again they dove back around the planet. Four enormous explosions were disappearing on their next orbit. One ship came close enough to grapple. Bending orbit to the further moon, Max brought out his enhanced lasers. He shot out the navigation array and comm systems.

Two more patrols tried a kamikaze attack. They did not know of the Arrow’s special alloy grown solely on Sparky’s World. The first hit a wing, and it sheared off the cockpit and bridge spilling crew into the void. The second tried to duck underneath and failed, crumpling the nose into the tail of the ship, and then exploding away to crash on the planet.

Max pulled out one of his electronic inventions. The Arrow now pursued two ships around the further moon. They fled at their best speed, firing shots behind them. The Arrow accelerated and shot past them, beaming an EM pulse at the enemy. Instantly all their electronic systems became scrap metal. With the controls fried, they sailed straight on unable to change trajectories.

Arrow dashed for clear space, sweeping a laser ahead in case any more mines remained. They had to detonate one. Suddenly their forward momentum abruptly halted. The little ship jerked backward in the grip of a tractor beam.

The patrol vessel was hiding behind the nearer moon. Bracing with the mass of the moon, the attacking ship hauled Arrow back. Rory backed off the engines, then hit them full speed, with no effect. The Arrow began to whine. Max did some quick maneuvering on his X10. A powerful ray of light rode back down the tractor beam, and the patrol craft exploded into billions of tiny shards of metal.

“Incoming!” called Stane.

The screen showed several heavy cruisers heaving themselves from scattered positions on the surface. Telemetry read that they were large, slow, but extremely well armed. Against six or seven the Arrow did not have a chance. Rory kicked in more speed and made for the launch window.

“Punch it!” yelled Radhya.

The Arrow took off, racing for the edge of the gravity- well. She reached it ahead of the cruisers who were just clearing the atmosphere. The rebels disappeared into the overlight space. Arrow made her best speed through the void and slipped into Pleasant’s orbit three days later.