Free Dire Steps by Henry V. O'Neil Page A

where things are now—­slaves outside the mines?”
    â€œWhat are you suggesting? That servitude in exchange for survival is only acceptable if it supports the war?” Horace took the girl’s hand, raised it, and turned her in a slow twirl. “Honestly, now. Would you send this to the mines?”
    â€œI wouldn’t send her anywhere. I’d take part of the planet’s abundant profits and use them to help her. Not exploit her.”
    â€œI’m afraid our guest doesn’t find you attractive, Emma. You may go now.” The smooth skin of the girl’s forehead wrinkled for just a moment, and fear entered her eyes. She switched immediately to a look of decadent cunning that Olech’s political instincts told him was well rehearsed. Rising on tiptoe, she kissed Horace on the cheek while one of her palms glided deftly across his crotch. The older man watched her until the door slid shut.
    â€œI was going to offer her to you. I guarantee it would have changed your opinion.”
    â€œI’m marrying your sister tomorrow.”
    â€œI suppose that’s a good excuse.” Horace picked up his goblet and walked to the side windows. “I’ll tell poor Emma you were tired from the trip. The Step has that effect, sometimes.”
    â€œOne of many.” Olech joined him, looking down as the yacht approached the capital city of Fortuna Aeternam. “Tell me something, Horace. Do you dream in the Step?”
    O lech’s shuttle lifted off from Horace’s yacht just as the sun was setting over the city. He studied the clouds from a portal near his desk, watching them go from a rosy pink to a blood red and feeling relief when the vista turned black. Leeger entered his office a few moments later, secured the hatch, and sat down.
    â€œNo extra devices from our visit, inside or outside,” he reported, noting Olech’s grave countenance.
    â€œIt’s even worse than our ­people have been telling us. The slaves aren’t just in the mines anymore. They’ve got slaves of every kind. Thousands of men and women dying all over the galaxy, and for this?”
    â€œIt’s not surprising that they’re crossing the line—­how do you punish someone for violating a secret agreement?”
    â€œHorace finally laid his cards on the table. The Celestian leadership believes the Sims would make an excellent slave race, a labor force on the conquered planets.”
    â€œI’d call that ambitious, considering we can’t communicate with the Sims and that they die if they spend too much time around us.”
    â€œHorace feels that’s a plus. He believes there’s a way to isolate captive Sims where they can be forced to work—­tasks like mining, fuel extraction—­by controlling their food supply. Rations delivered by robotics, no contact with humans at all.”
    â€œFor that to work, they’d have to find a means of communication or a go-­between.” Leeger frowned. “I believe we might have discovered why so many alliance members wanted to hear Captain Nabulit’s story about the alien.”
    â€œFits, doesn’t it? The only entity that can communicate with both humans and Sims. So if they’re going to enslave the Sims, they’ll need another alien just like the one Jan encountered.”
    â€œDoes Horace know we’re not winning the war?”
    â€œThat’s the problem: the war’s been going on for so long, at such a remove, that some ­people have concluded we’ve got the Sims stopped. Add in the notion that our technology will eventually give us a way to subdue them completely, and you can see why Horace and his friends have decided to focus on what happens after that.”
    â€œThat would explain why they’re so unhappy with your giving those planets to the Auxiliary.”
    â€œI gave them to the veterans, as the first colonies on new worlds to be