Into the Black

It was kindof weird for me, knowing that I now owned several slaves. But I was in a weird situation all around, and I couldn’t afford to just blab my secret to anyone I couldn’t count on trusting. Any permanent members of the crew needed to be the sort that I could trust, since we’d be doing all kinds of craziness together.

With that in mind, I made my way to a reception room where my three purchases were brought in to meet me (and have their control codes handed over properly). I also had the two with the Stepford systems ‘reset’ to their original personality.

Shearah Liaberos

Knelfi Female

Level 10

Titles: Savant, Slave, Stepford

The first was my space-elf. She was pretty, in a kind of girl-next-door way. Wouldn’t be on any centerfolds, but I didn’t doubt for a moment that there were plenty of young men who had broken hearts over her. She seemed pretty upset, too, but then, that wasn’t surprising, given the situation.

Carissa Mercer

Human Female

Level 80

Titles: Professional, Healer, Slave, Companion

Second was a tall, one might say ‘statuesque’ woman, with sensual curves in just the right places. She wasn’t ‘centerfold hot’, but had that more elegant kind of beauty to her, even when she was dressed in a functional set of coveralls, with boots. She was also more calm than the other two, having apparently long ago accepted her lot in life.

Cali Mayo

Human Female

Level 5

Titles: Foolish, Slave, Stepford, Defiant One, Companion, Guardian, Masochist

And here was our Nomad. Unlike Carissa’s glamorous beauty, Cali’s player had clearly gone for ‘centerfold’ type beauty. She was dressed in a skinsuit that left very little to the imagination, and what I saw definitely put her in contention for the pages of Penthouse, or at least Hustler. She also looked RIGHTEOUSLY pissed, and was trying to pull at her collar, which amused me.

I looked them all over, and then nodded. “All right, ladies, as you all know, I’m the one who bought you three in the auction. My name’s Mirikon, and I’m the Captain of a small freighter known as the Starlight Raven. But I need a crew, so that’s where you girls come in. You can call me Captain, or Master. Either works. Now, Shearah!” I paused to look at the Knelfi.

Said Knelfi looked to be biting back what she really wanted to say, and settled for, “Yes, Master?” She almost managed to keep the contempt out of her voice.

“How’d you come to be a slave?”

Shearah sighed, and said, “Well, I was the mechanic for a freighter doing cargo runs between the Empire and the Federation, mostly smuggling work. Unfortunately, we got boarded on a routine inspection, and when the bastards found out I wasn’t a slave, they hauled me off the ship and had me implanted with a chip to make sure I didn’t run away.”

I nodded. “Well, you’ll be my mechanic on my freighter now. We’re going to be doing runs inside the Empire for now, but will branch out later. Be good, and keep my ship flying, and you’ll be rewarded. Act up, or try to sabotage the Raven, and I turn the Stepford routines back on.” She just nodded, apparently understanding that this was as good a deal as she was ever going to get in her situation.

Next, I turned to Carissa. “You were billed as a pleasure slave and healer. Tell me more about your abilities.”

The woman smiled at me, and said in a sultry voice, “Certainly, Master. Would you mean my abilities in pleasure, or as a healer?”

I chuckled at her words. Hell, with a voice like that, I’d pay her to read the phone book to me. “Both, actually, as well as any other skills you might have.”

She nodded, and then said, in a businesslike voice, “Well, I am trained and registered as both a Companion and Healer. In short, I am well versed in pleasing both men and women, and beyond having healing powers, I also have medical training, enough to make me a field medic. I would not wish to perform complex surgery, especially without proper tools, but I should be able to keep someone alive until we could get to a trained surgeon. Before I was enslaved, I worked as an office manager, so I can also offer clerical services.”

“Why were you enslaved?”

“Unfortunately, I discovered that my boss was embezzling money from the company. When I tried to report him, I was captured by one of the local syndicates, and sold to a training center. That was fifteen years ago, now.”

“And you’ve been primarily a pleasure slave and healer since then? How did you come to be so high level in that case?”

“Ah, you didn’t know? While combat is the quickest way to gain experience, certain titles represent different jobs. You get a low level of constant experience when engaging in activities related to that job.”

“I see. And do all titles have this experience gain?”

“No, not all titles do. Usually only ones involving professions, like my Professional, Healer, and Companion titles. You are a Captain, yes? And given that you now own the three of us from the same auction, you should qualify for ‘Slaver’ as well. Both of these titles will give you experience when you’re performing actions related to them. Not much, but perhaps enough to passively get a level or two each month? That slows down as you gain levels, obviously. I’ve been level 80 for the last eight months, for instance.”

“I see. That is excellent news, Carissa. You’re going to be my clerk, as well as the ship’s doctor. When we get back to the ship, I’ll hook you in with the Raven so you and she can get acquainted.” Finally I turned to look at Cali. “And now for you, my pretty Nomad. What damn fool contract did you sign to get yourself enslaved?”

The sullen sexpot muttered something, and looked defiant. I pressed a control on my bracer, which activated the pain circuits in her collar. Just a short, three-second burst, but the horny slut was already torn between screaming and moaning because of it. They really did mess her up badly, it seems.

She bit back a curse, and said, “I didn’t know what it was! I woke up directly from chargen in what looked like a cargo bay. Barely got my eyes uncrossed when a guy was pressing a pad in my hand for me to sign. I was supposed to start as part of crew of colonists heading out to this new world they found, but pirates took the ship. I didn’t know until after I signed that I’d agreed to voluntary enslavement. Bastards.”

I chuckled at that. “Should have remembered the Eighth Rule of Acquisition: Small print leads to large risk. So that would be how you got the ‘Foolish’ title, then. And, what, you’ve spent the last few weeks getting trained as both a Companion and a Guardian?”

Cali gritted her teeth, and nodded. “Yes. I’m trained and have both those titles. Let me guess, you want me as your guard?”

I grinned, and said, “Yep. Among other things. We’ll talk about your full duties later on, when we’re back on the ship. For now, we’ll get you girls kitted out, since I see two of you don’t have skinsuits, and I’ll feel better if you all have some weapons and armor, at least. And Cali? When you get a chance, google the One Hundred and Thirteenth Rule of Acquisition. It’ll serve you well.” I chuckled at my joke, but decided to let her figure it out on her own.

With that, we left the slave market, and took a tram to Section 9, so we could kit the girls out. Fortunately, the five of us were alone in the compartment, so I took the time to look over at Sheila, and said, “So, about our next trip?”

To the Princess’s credit, she hadn’t broken character until now, which spoke better of her than most pampered royal types. Probably understood that the whole ‘not making waves’ thing would be key in us getting out of here before her brother’s people caught up to us. I didn’t doubt he’d send someone, if he could, but it ought to take some time for them to get here, if they don’t want to draw attention with in-system jumps like mine.

She regarded me, and said, “Yes, as I was saying earlier, I need to get to a fleet base. The closest one is in Alpha Centauri, guarding the Gateway there. Admiral Nimitz is an old friend of mine. I know he’ll help stop my brother.”

I did some quick calculations, and said, “The Earth to Alpha Centauri run is 4.22 lightyears. If we redline the drives, that’s a trip of a bit more than three days. I’d rather not do that for a variety of reasons, so let’s say we’ll get there in four to five days. There’s a damn good chance that your brother is going to have people try to kill us between here and there, if he can scramble his rebel Navy to intercept in time, so we’re talking hazard pay. And before you start, I’m letting you keep the weapons and armor, as well as the free ride here, because I’m a great guy, but I got a ship to maintain and bellies to fill. Make it 150K for the trip.”

“That’s insane! Normal passage, on a luxury liner, from Earth to Alpha Centauri is only 50K!”

“Yes, but luxury liner passengers probably aren’t being hunted by a man who would be Emperor, are they?”

“Ugh. 80K. You’re still trying to take advantage of me here!”

“120. You’ll have trouble finding anyone else trustworthy on this station to get you there on short notice, and with discretion.”

“Split the difference? 100K.”

“Agreed. The Starlight Raven will get you where you need to go.”

Princess in Peril

Princess Sheila needs you to get her to the Imperial Fleet Base at Alpha Centauri, so she can meet with Admiral Nimitz and hopefully end the civil war before it begins. Prince Travis will undoubtedly try to stop you.

Difficulty

B

Task

Deliver the Princess to Fleet Base Bagthara.

Payment

100000 Credits

Seeing the increase in difficulty from my last cargo haul, I decided that kitting the girls out was going to be a definite priority. After getting their kit together (and supplies for the team and the ship), I was happy to have only spent five grand, and my Negotiation bumped up to 8/100 with all the haggling, so that wasn’t a bad thing.

Checking the time in my HUD, I saw that we didn’t have much time until we needed to meet HaveGunsWillTravel in the bar. It wasn’t just that I was looking forward to having a second actual player on my crew (and one actually there by choice!), but I could also use the bar as a good place to pick up extra cargo. My first (edited) streams should have been put up by now, and it wouldn’t be long before Nomads started realizing that I could have more than one face. I’d rather be out of the system before Lord Kickass reviews the footage and sees what an idiot he’s made of himself. Who knows, the kid might actually have friends.

Having to keep a major secret like my race was difficult given I was a streamer and all, but with the editing permissions in place, I’d figured out a simple way to get around it. A bit of special effects to hide the cut material of my changes, and I could bill it as a Mental type Psy power, maybe hint that it was a unique power I got at during chargen.

After all, the Two Hundred and Twelfth Rule of Acquisition said, ‘A good lie is easier to believe than the truth.’ So long as I kept it up, and hid the truth from anyone who couldn’t be absolutely trusted, something like a ‘unique power for being a top Beta tester’ would be simple enough. Since it didn’t (directly) affect combat, I could even play it off as being not OP.

I just had to remember the Sixtieth Rule of Acquisition: ‘Keep your lies consistent.’ And maybe I ought to lay off the Star Trek references for a while. That’s what I get for binging DS9 while taking breaks from the game in my ‘Home’ space, I guess.