Free Slave World by Johnny Stone Page B

programming and anti-tamper shit before she was discharged. The Federation can’t have civilians running around with a tac-nuke inside them, can they?”
    “You really think so?”
    “Sure, no sweat man. I can-”
    “She’s dangerous though.”
    “Not after I’m finished with her, she won’t be.”
    Darkness…
     
    Bright lights assaulted me, forcing my eyes closed even though I was lying on my stomach. I couldn’t feel my body.
    “There, all done. She should be good to go after this.”
    “You better be sure, if we let her up and she gets loose again…?
    “Just relax, Quin, I’m an expert, remember?”
    “Nobody touches her, understand?”
    “Sure thing, boss, not much of a looker anyway.”
    “We make planet fall on Regilain in twenty hours. Kelly got the jump drive working again.”
    Darkness…
     
    My eyes cracked in a haze of blurry light and pain. I felt sluggish and disoriented. I tried to focus on something to get my bearings, but my brain didn’t seem to work right. Wait, what am I doing in the med-bay?
    “Get up,” Deep Voice barked impatiently. My body protested but I sat up regardless, flipping my feet off the edge of the auto doc. It felt like my brain was sloshing around inside my skull. I stumbled, dizzy, almost falling before I caught the wall, propping myself up on feeble knees. What the hell’s going on? Things just didn’t make sense; my internal clock said I’d been out for over twelve hours, but there was a discrepancy in it, a break in the time somehow. Impossible, that wasn’t supposed to happen unless…? I reached back, probing at the sensitive bald patch near the base of my skull.
    “What’s your name?” I looked up at Deep Voice, wobbling numbly. It was one of the voices from my dreams.
    He was a bull of a black man with shimmering ebony skin blacker than night. A red glowing cyber-eye set beside a bright hazel one stared mercilessly back at me. The sleeves of his blue stasis suit had been ripped off exposing overly powerful tattooed arms that reminded me of two cobras poised to strike. Some of the tats moved with a life of their own just under his skin. One of them looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it in my foggy memory.
    “Winters, Margo L. Cpt., United Planetary Federation, 34898212,” I mumbled automatically, giving only the information deemed appropriate under the rules of war.
    What happened, am I a prisoner? Why am I naked? I’m an officer and entitled to customary privileges. I blinked, trying to clear my vision, demurely covering my nudity in a rare display of abashment.
    “I demand you return my clothing under article 52 of intergalactic law pertaining to the treatment-”
    “Shut up! See, Quin, I told you she was prior Fleet.” A tall, lanky white guy with glasses and long black hair pulled back in a ponytail spoke from beside Deep Voice.
    Glasses? That’s odd; no one wore antiques like that any longer. He held something in his hand, something small and nondescript. It looked like nothing more than a small computer pad. I couldn’t take my eyes off it though, or Glasses, as the first tickling of jumbled complacency and unnatural surrender began to snake its way through my bewildered mind.
    There were six others in the cabin with the same smug expression as Glasses and Deep Voice, four men and two women. All of them were armed to the teeth with weapons looted from the cargo bay.
    “Come here,” Deep Voice growled and I shuffled a little closer, lowering my head, cowed by the intimidating ferocity in his voice. My mind started to clear, remembering where I was, and what had happened.
    The meteor’s…
    The ship’s damaged; Mark’s gone…
    I’d sent John to check on the cargo…they’d gotten free! This is the cargo I’d been hauling for Carlos. I recognized some of their tats now; they were members of Sesik Cartel, the most vile and degenerate group in the entire Outer Rim. I wouldn’t even work for these guys. They also happened to be