After a simple supper in the slave’s galley, Radhya met with her new slaves. Geo, Rory, and Stane joined them. A blaze of crimson and lavender shone through the bare outlining the golden setting sun. Singha purred and twisted her way between and around Radhya’s feet as she paced before the seated slaves at the table. Her footsteps echoed hollowly on the planks, back and forth, back and forth. She had a frown on her face, and the corners of her mouth were tight.

“I want to outline, briefly, the plan,” Radhya began. “Even if you are slaves I am giving you a choice in this because it is too important to our whole society to have even one unwilling participant.” She looked hard at Padr. “I don’t believe there should be slavery, and I want to eliminate it. However, that is easier said than done, and it has to be done correctly. By our calculations, correctly done, it will take at least a hundred years. That is going about it in the manner most beneficial for slaves.”

Padr snorted, disgust in his voice.“That is one way to escape responsibility; put it so far in the future we’ll never see it.”

“Padr did you ever study history?” she asked. “Ancient history?”

“Of course,” he answered curtly.

“Remember the civil war of the United States of America on ancient Earth?”

“I do vaguely,” he replied cautiously.

“Three hundred years later and the people descended from slaves were still fighting oppression and prejudice. I want to avoid that. Now in our society, what is the difference between slaves and freedmen?”

Will answered, “Freedmen become slaves for breaking the laws or not paying their bills, but slaves never become freedmen for keeping the laws.”

Radhya burst into her brilliant smile, “Very clever Will. However, that was not what I was looking for. Slaves live in terrible conditions; they are not fed, not given medical treatment, not even given clothes in most cases. When they are old, they are abandoned or killed. Often they are tortured for the amusement of their owners. They can be killed for no reason. They have no rights at all. We plan to start this process of eliminating slavery with a bill of rights for slaves.”

Her new slaves stared at her in open-mouth amazement.

Radhya continued, pacing faster, “That’s just the first step. When the differences between slave and freedmen have been reduced to nil, then the slaves will be freed totally. All level of society need this. The aristocracy is in trouble. Birth rates are so low, except for those who have been illegally ‘helped,’ that in a hundred years it will be near to vanishing away. A hundred years ago, there were ten thousand in the aristocracy. Now we number slightly more than three thousand. The royals need infusions of new genetic material. Working more slowly like this gives our society a chance to adjust, reducing prejudice by helping slaves and royals. But first, we narrow the distance.”

“Yes we have to begin to narrow the distance,” Rory put in.

Geo was nodding his head, and Stane looked eagerly at the new ones. Will sat up straight, astonishment plastered on his face, while the others sat in thoughtful silence.

“This is amazing,” Will muttered.

“How do you plan to get a bill of rights for slaves?” Max asked, “Every member of the aristocracy who speaks against this sorry institution ends up dead, except Padr of course. And it was a near thing with him,” he added.

“I plan to force it if I have too. I have a secret weapon, and I will use it. Publicly, I totally uphold slavery. Behind the scenes, we work against it. Some of the royals are suspicious of me. That is why they were so dead set against my buying Padr. They don’t want the two of us working together. We, and I mean all of us here together in this room, have to work hard to allay those suspicions.

In two years and six months, the status review of the aristocracy will be held. I want it held here. Every royal in the Commonwealth must attend. In two years, they will be picking the venue. In six months, my track holds its first races. I need it to be so spectacular that it becomes a must see, like Junction. Then, when my application is sent in to host the status review, I am sure to be invited to hold it here. Eighty percent of the aristocracy is racing mad anyway, so I just have to lure the rest with scenery and other attractions. Actually, luring is your job Padr. After three days, the “any other business” question is asked. I will have the ballroom engineered to close up like a prison. Of course, it must be entirely invisible to the most apprehensive of guests. In addition, it must be able to withstand even bombardment from space, should things go that far. That’s your part, Max. Moreover, Will, your part will be to take care of them and make sure no one dies. A death would blow the whole plan out of the water. I also need you to devise a method to knock out all the bodyguards at once.”

She stopped, faced them and smiled. “I plan to kidnap the entire aristocracy. Anyone want out?”

Jemelina gasped and put her hands to her face. At Radhya’s nod, Stane broke an ampoule beneath her nose. As the plastic capsule snapped, yellow vapor hissed into the air. Immediately she slumped unconscious to the floor. Dave dove to her side and gathered her up in his arms.

“I hoped to have the housekeeper on our side,” mourned Radhya.

“What’s wrong with her?” interrupted Dave anxiously.

“It is just a mild sedative and dismemorizor. When she wakes, probably tomorrow, she won’t remember anything past our landing this morning. Don’t worry; there is no damage, she’ll be fine. Now is anyone else opposed to the plan?”

Will ran his hand back and forth over the rough table, staring at it. Max grinned broadly. Padr sat on the corner looking at her with a sour expression. Dave was very concerned with his unconscious wife. No one answered.

“Now, Padr and Will, anything you need in the line of botanicals or medications, let me know. Even if it doesn’t exist, I can probably create it for you. I am a geneticist of some experience. I have been working in the field since I was ten. Max and anyone else who needs other materials see Geo. Anytime I am unavailable, see Geo. He is my quartermaster and right-hand man. Kaarl, my assets must be well hidden and very obscure until the review in two years. I hope to break into the two hundreds by then.”

The slaves looked astonished. “Oh yes, I am a very wealthy woman. But I can’t get most of what I want for money.”

The sudden sorrow and pain on Radhya’s face struck them like a blow.

“Okay,” broke in Max with a strange look on his face. “I am more than willing to work with your plan, after all, what more can they do to me except kill me. Still, I don’t feel very safe with Padr. I think he is trouble. I want to hear his story. How did he become a slave? How do we know that he isn’t a spy?”

“NO!” Padr stated emphatically.

“I think you owe it to the rest of us,” commented Geo. “We are all trusting you with our lives, especially Lady Kirbyson. I myself rescued her from certain death four times now, and I don’t think she should be put in danger for you, so tell.”

He shook his head and stubbornly stared at the floor. Dave tenderly lay his wife down and approached Padr menacingly. Will approached from the other side, a large sliver in his hand. Dave grabbed his arm, extending the hand. Will prepared to shove the wood under Padr’s fingernail.

“Stop!” exclaimed Radhya. “I will not be as bad as the people I am fighting against. Padr, I know most of your story already, but the others would feel much more comfortable and thus be able to work more efficiently if you could set their minds at rest.”

Dave and Will halted immediately. Embarrassed they seated themselves, the sliver discarded in a corner. Padr gazed beseechingly at Radhya. She, however, seated herself across from him and looked straight into his face. Lowering his eyes to the floor, he began to speak.

“I had an older brother who was going to inherit everything, so I set out just to enjoy myself. After University, and Junction, by the way, was my Ph.D. in landscaping, I got heavily into show jumping. One year I beat Prince Phlip so many times it became a joke between us, so at the end of the season, I sent him a colt. It was a full brother to the jumper I was riding. When my birthday rolled around, he sent me a female slave. He and I had discussed many times, at length, what the perfect female was, and anyway, he sent her to me. She was as tall as I am, blonde, slender as a whip, huge brown eyes with lacy white around the pupil, and legs that never quit. I, ah, fell in love with her and I wanted her for a spouse. My parents and brother said a concubine yes, mate no. I fought with all I had to get her manumitted, but no matter what I tried, it didn’t work, so I began to work in the political field to abolish slavery. If there were no more slaves, then I could have her. Meanwhile, she got pregnant, and we had a son.

She told me if I didn’t ‘marry’ her and legitimize our son she would kill him. Of course, I didn’t believe her. I tried, creator as my witness, I tried. When he was six months old, she brought him to my room. She asked me again to marry her, and when I said it was impossible, she broke his neck in front of me. He died in my arms. She just stood there and watched, no emotions at all. Then she ran screaming from the room, telling everyone I was angry and had murdered her son.”

Bowing his head, Padr stopped speaking for a minute; wiping tears from his eyes. Drawing deep, steadying breaths, he continued.

“He was so little. My family was upset, of course, as children are rare among the aristocracy, but it was the word of a slave against mine, so nothing was done. I should have dismissed her then, but she said she was sorry. She begged me to be merciful, and she was so beautiful.”

Padr had to stop for some more deep breaths before continuing. “I never mentioned freeing her after that, and she grew very angry. She nagged at me nonstop. Finally, about six months after she murdered our son, I left her at home while I was on a jumping circuit. Usually, we traveled together. Anyway, the night I was due home she set firebombs around the house. As I walked in the yard, it exploded. By the time I reached the front door, it was already burning. I couldn’t get in. My father and my mother died in that conflagration, and four hundred and twenty slaves, including my concubine. Fortunately, my older brother was unexpectedly off planet attending to business. Before she died, she sent a letter of confession to the proctors. She sealed my name to it, my signature that she took off one of the love letters I wrote to her while I was away. My brother wouldn’t listen to me. He even refused to buy me as a slave from Jabin’s World. I think he was hoping I would be tortured to death in the arena. So that’s why I am here. How do I go about ever trusting anyone again, especially a woman?”

“Oh Padr, we‘ll figure it out,” sighed Radhya, reaching across the table to cover his hand with her own. “That’s the part of your life we could never access. Your brother must have buried it very deep. I’ll bet that if you could get the records of that slave girl, she came from Barone via Jabin. Geo see if you can trace her. I know in my bones she was an altered and conditioned plant set to destroy you. What you may not know is that you were part of an experiment before you were born. The aristocracy seems bent on destroying everyone who had anything to do with that study. Your story follows the pattern of the other royals who were made slaves and died. Except, so far, the ending.”

“If that is how the other royals were brought down, using slaves, then why do you seek to free the slaves?” asked Will.

Radhya‘s eyes swerved left and her face twisted into a fleeting look of terror. She controlled herself and answered, “It is not the slaves’ fault that they are used like that. They are conditioned, programmed by certain aristocrats. I don’t know why yet, except that it had to do with my grandfather and his experiments, but I’ll find out.”

“Why do you want to free the slaves?” asked Max softly.

“That is a tale for another time,” Radhya told him firmly. “I’ll only say that atonement is a long and weary road. Now let’s sketch in our individual parts in the plan.”