Gently, Haze set his female upon the ground: Vi, his most precious charge. He ran a hand through her hair, wishing never to be away from her.

“What’s next?” Vi asked as she pulled back to glance at the people gathered around.

The Vargys slave that Haze had noticed earlier, came forward. “I’m grateful for the connection, Master,” she said, bowing slightly. “What shall be our path forward now?”

“I’m no Master to you, Sister. You can call me Haze. These men are going to get everyone off this planet.” Haze hesitated. “But you might not know… The Vargys planet is not available to you now. Do you have another place to go?”

“Originally, I was headed to Balanger, the planet with all the old Vargys ruins. With everything that’s happened to Vargys, perhaps I could continue there. Truly, those Suhlik are villains to create such a plague upon our people.”

“Wait. What’s this about the Suhlik?”

“Didn’t you hear? My last Master told me. I think he enjoyed telling me while he had his fun. The Suhlik created the plague and released it on our planet. They wanted a testing ground for taking out unruly planets without having a force present. I think the plague was a bit slow for their taste, though.”

Shock rushed through Haze, followed quickly by strong disbelief. “It’s not remotely possible. We would have heard of it. The doctors would have figured out if the Suhlik caused the plague on Vargys.”

The Vargys girl shrugged her shoulder. “Apparently, there’s a lot of profit in it, for The Underground. The man was very excited to deal with the Suhlik and put himself in a position to benefit from it. He never made it back from his meeting with them. Then his belongings were sold, me along with them. I think the Lady Boss, she won the bid. Perhaps, she can tell you more.”

Haze let it pass. He would tell Seban and the captain. They would get to the bottom of it. For now, he only grieved for the girl in her rags. “Little Sister, what’s your name?”

“I was… am… Saetyria. Saetyria Louves.”

“The old colony you mentioned, it’s a safe zone now. We could take you there, if you wanted.”

“Thank you. It would be so nice to live amongst my own kind again.”

A large noise broke out above their clearing. Haze looked over to see a big air bus making a heavy landing.

The merchant came over. “Haze, our transport is here.”

“Sorry about your countryman, Yarda. I guess they called him Twenty-Five here,” Haze said.

“Truly, I did not know him well enough, although I’d met him briefly when dealing with Lady Vardon. I’d hoped we could free him.” He shook his head. “We’ll bring him home, try to find his family and his name, give him Last Rites. It was a true service of you to try and rescue him. His family is in your debt, and I shall stand for it, should you ever need it.”

Haze nodded his head. “And I remain in your debt, for your help rescuing Vi, should you ever need anything.”

The merchant smiled. “We have your parts, as arranged.”

“Thanks, Brother. It is appreciated.”

The shopkeeper inclined his head. “It is an honor to be called your Brother.”

“What’s next?” Haze asked, looking to the former slaves.

“We’ll fly out to our little cabin; get everyone processed and find out where they want to go. Some of us will need to stay here to quell unrest and see what inroads we can make into the businesses on other systems. At least at first, we must function as though it is business as usual.”

A tall yellow-skinned woman came forward to stand before Vi.

“Little One, I am told there is a home for me. It is small and a well-guarded secret. I will need to…” She cocked her head in thought. “…approach channels to open the way for me, but…” She inclined her head and touched her forehead, closing her eyes in deepest thought. “I have a home now.”

A single tear elegantly rolled down her cheek until she opened her eyes again with a smile.

Vi reached forward and pulled the woman into a hug. “I”m so happy for you,” Vi said as she pulled back.

The woman nodded. “Thank you, Eighty-Three,” she said, touching Vi’s forehead with a fingertip.

“Vi. You can call me, Vi. What will you call yourself?”

The woman closed her eyes. “I thought Yuula before, when I thought I was the last of my people, in honor of our race. But now…” She shook her head. “I will reclaim my name once it comes to me, for I am sure it will chase through my dreams from my mother’s heart. It only waited for my freedom to make its return.”

Haze reached out to touch Vi’s hand. “I’m sorry. We should get back to our shuttle. It’s a bit of a hike from here.”

“Some day, I hope I will learn of it,” Vi said to the yellow-skinned woman. She glanced back at Haze with a soft smile on her face.

Haze reached out to grasp her hand. “Yarda, we’ll take our leave now.”

Yarda folded two hands together to nod over his hands while spreading two away from his body in farewell. He led the freed people away, toward the airbus.

* * *

Once Haze, Vi, and Saetyria reached the shuttle, he couldn’t help but marvel at the parts arranged near the entrance. Their work here was done.

They had done it, and freed others from a terrible life, while they were at it.

In truth, Haze hadn’t been sure any of the slaves would come. They had no reason to trust more men, especially men with guns. He figured it had everything to do with Vi. She had gotten through to them.

He lugged the parts inside as Vi showed Saetyria one of the awkward, fold-out beds in the back, so she could rest.

Haze made the checks, and the shuttle lifted into the air and broke atmosphere.

For a time, Haze and Vi sat beside each other, not saying anything, then he reached over to touch her hand.

Haze glanced over. “Want to talk about it?”

She smiled at him, a tight, guarded thing. “Not really. I’m so glad you were able to get them out. What an absolutely horrible place.”

He squeezed her hand.

“I’ll be honest,” Vi said, looking up. “I want to go to the gym and beat something up. What do you think? Once things settle down, you got time to teach me some moves?”

“You will be a force of nature for the Mahdfel.” He glanced at her, sideways. “You already are a force of nature, woman.”

Vi grinned at that. “Great, it’s settled then.”

“I almost forgot.” Haze dug into his bag and pulled out her drawing pad. “I stopped by the room, before. I found this and thought you’d want it back.”

Vi’s hand grazed gently over the cover. “I hoped so much you would grab this for me.” She opened it and flipped slowly through the pages. Then she bent to his bag and pulled out a pencil and started to sketch. It looked like long random lines, but Haze was no judge of how those things worked.

Haze reached over to swipe the comm, calling over to the Xeo on the encrypted line. “Team, come in.”

“Haze?” It was Xain. “I’ll put you through.”

There was a click. “Go ahead,” Xain said.

“Haze reporting in. We are two plus one. Ready the party. E.T.A.…” His eyes scanned the dash. “…About two hours.”

He heard a few whoops over the comms and a high-pitched squeal of joy. He chuckled at that last, leaning back from the comm’s feedback screech, and glanced over at Vi. She had stopped with her doodles and a smile crossed her face.

Already, the random lines were becoming something else.

Haze tore his eyes away. “Our plus one is a Vargys girl,” he said into the comm. “Can we have the doctor standing by?”

“On it, Haze,” Seban said. “Any injuries I should be prepared for?”

Haze glanced over at Vi, unspoken dread in his heart. They had been lucky with the slaves. Men lost, but most of the slaves had survived and were on their way to a new life. But that didn’t mean there weren’t injuries.

Vi shook her head no, then she leaned forward to speak into the comms. “We’re okay, Seban. I think a shower, clean bed, and a good night’s rest would be a very welcome thing.”

The captain’s voice came over the comm. “Understood. We’re glad to have you all back safe.”

“Cap’n, we have the parts. They even had some of those Evan fusers Oz mentioned.”

“Great, see you soon, Brother.”

“Haze out.”

Haze input the updated coordinates to the ship that Xain had sent over while they chatted.

After a moment, Vi glanced over. “To be honest, I’m so tired. Do you mind if I sleep?”

“Of course not.” But he felt a bit sad. The girl wasn’t looking him in the eye. Hopefully, she really was just tired.

As she went behind the curtain, he glanced down at her sketchpad. He saw thick black lines, and through the lines a whirling dervish of movement. Somehow, even in black-and-white, she’d managed to convey a splash of light as though from a burst of something. The entire thing was chaotic and beautiful, but the lines were what captured him the most. He saw the faint outline of fingers around one.

It was the bars of a cage and the movement beyond and the light show… a firefight. The whirling movement. It reminded him of something, of how he felt when he was lost to the battle.

It was exotic and beautiful and sad.

He studied it to try and read some clues, but it felt like he’d been dropped into something he shouldn’t have glimpsed. Or perhaps, it was why she’d left it for him. To say what she couldn’t say?

His throat closed up as he thought of all he had almost lost, and all that he had gained back, in one day.

Trying to clear his head, he went to the side compartment to load his quarry: the parts that had brought about this whole mess; the parts that would return the Xeo to her old self.