Part Three added on 21 Dec 2001
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: NC17
Part Three: Change of Plans.
Some Notes For Part 3:
1: The Notan-hive, Notans are bees, easy as that lol.
2: Dark Alliance is kinda stolen from Star Wars movies, isn't it. Some book I once read mentioned a species that had some of them experimented on during a war. And many years later those who had been experimented on arose from the shadows to take revenge upon those who had made them what they were.
3: Challenge-Contest. If the owner of a slave pulls out of the bidding for whatever reason there may be, the last bidder (highest bidder) is able to challenge the slave-owner for the rights of the slave. If the contest is won, the slave is transferred to the highest bidder but he or she still has to pay the sum that was his or her last bid.
4: Carving-ritual. A slave can be carved by it's owner, by making one round circle, and removing a piece of the flesh out of that circle. The mark is usually on one's upper arms but there are cases known when it's on one's lower arms. A marked slave cannot be sold or contested for.
"Ma'Tok we're receiving a coded transmission from our contact-person," Morai reported from his position behind a console.
"What does it read?"
"He demands we hand over the prisoners at the Tiama Space Station, he says we will even receive some extra cash for each prisoner."
"I doubt what he offers for each slave is as much as we can get on Raleigh," Jaylin answered rubbing her chin.
Raleigh was a planet that had about the widest assortment of species present in the sector of space they were traveling through. Jaylin loved the planet because she could get anything she needed there. Whatever you needed, a new spaceship, new equipment or crewmembers, Raleigh had it. They could probably get a good price for the slaves they had managed to gather from Cessau II. Jaylin knew they needed the money too, as she had lost 3 of her crew to the Sassin guards, who were well-trained but still no match for the superior weapons her crew wielded.
"Tell him: no deal, we lost 3 of our fine crew, and still need compensation for that, besides some off those prisoners are of very good quality and will make some nice cash, I'm not giving that away for the meager amount of money he offers in return," Jaylin said, smirking.
A second later the viewscreen in a corner of the bridge blinked on. Jaylin could make out a figure sitting against a greenish background, completely covered by a black cloak or cape, which was moved over his head, denying her a view at his face. His voice was slightly slurred and deformed as he addressed her.
"You are making a foolish mistake."
Jaylin flinched just a little at the sharp tone on which he spoke, but years of experience made her narrow her eyes to small slits and fix him with an arrogant stare. "Is that so? Read the contract we signed Mr. In the sub-paragraph we agreed that I'm allowed to keep any prisoners I get my hands on, and do what I want with them and as I see fit, or am I wrong?"
The male stared at something off screen, which Jaylin assumed was the dreaded contract. Sometimes she really wished she didn't have to do deals with shady figures like him, but the payment was too good to turn even such an assignment down. Besides the Mercenary Headquarters had recommended her services, as she was one of the persons who almost always got the deal done. And when the HQ recommended you, you don't say no, another unspoken rule of the Mercenaries.
"No, you're not wrong. It was a slip of incompetence of a servant of mine," the figure in black spoke, his voice booming slightly.
Jaylin noticed with a shock that his split tongue snaked outside for a second as he licked his lips. Her hands clenched on the leaning of her commanding chair, she just hadn't expected to do a deal with somebody who was a member of the Dark Alliance no doubt.
The Dark Alliance were normal Asaytans, to the untrained eye. But in reality, they were a brotherhood of changelings among the Asaytans. They stood out most noticeably by their split tongue and green glowing eyes. Rumors went they were the last of a dying race of special Asaytans, born of impure blood.
A long time ago, a war had torn apart the Asaytan community, and several who were born of inferior blood were experimented on. The experiments included the most horrible tortures and the victims were exposed to advanced cell-manipulating techniques to modify what they were capable off.
The results had been kept secret for decades, until the Dark Alliance revealed themselves a few years ago. The Asaytans that were a member of the DA possessed a strenght unheard of, as well as telepathic abilities. They were able to instill fear upon a person by a mere look of their eyes. The DA was a forbidden gathering, but nevertheless rumors spoke of the fact that their presence reached far, and some said they had already entered the most inner reaches of the Asaytan Government.
Jaylin snorted. "Your servants are none of my concern, I'm holding myself strictly to the contract."
"You will hand over your prisoners, or else," the figure threatened his hand slamming on the table in front of him, producing a deafening sound.
"I will not succumb to your idle ways of pressurizing me. They are but hollow threats, you know as well as I do, you cannot claim the rights on the prisoners I have captured, now if you will excuse me I got more pressing matters to attend to," Jaylin said with ice in her voice. She had more then enough of this jerk, Dark Alliance Member or not, contract was contract.
"I am not finished with this," the figure hissed as he moved his cape up for a second, giving Jaylin a quick view at his hard green eyes. "We will meet again soon, I promise, Anu M'uti," and with that the screen blinked and turned off again.
Jaylin's eyes widened slightly at the last words the dark-clad figure had uttered. Hollow threats or not, the last person who had heard those words mumbled to him, died a few days later with a sharp blade through his heart. Anu M'uti meant something like: Dead to those who thwart us, and Jaylin realized she had thwarted this guy.
"Ma'Tok?" Kanou, the helmsman asked, waiting for his orders.
"Set a course to Raleigh, as fast as you can. I have no idea why he's so interested in the prisoners we have captured on Cessau II, but I don't like this one bit," Jaylin said standing up and walking towards her second in command.
"What about the threat?" Morai questioned.
"I have no idea. My gut instinct told me when we accepted this assignment, that something wasn't right, and it seems to me my gut was fairly accurate. I'd say we stumbled into a Notan-hive and it's only a matter of time before we get stung," Jaylin looked at the turned off viewscreen with barely disguised disgust. "I hate people like that Morai, people who think they are superior to others, people who think they can do anything and get away with it."
Morai put his hand on Jaylin's own and smiled slightly at her. "We've been through worse, maybe he's just angry for now, let him cool off a little."
Jaylin shook her head slightly and closed her eyes for a second. Sighing she walked towards the automatic sliding doors that gave access to the rest of the ship. "Yeah, after we sell those slaves we're just going to lay low for a little while, just in case those threats aren't as idle as we believe they are."
Morai nodded and moved towards the commanding chair, whenever Jaylin wasn't on the bridge, he was the Captain so to speak. "Go and rest Ma'Tok, you took quite a beating during the whole operation, don't think I haven't noticed," he smirked.
"Yes mother," she mocked him, saluting as she left the bridge.
Passing through the hallways Jaylin thought about the conversation she had with Nissa before going to the bridge. The female captive had a name, Lae'la, Jaylin shook her head at the name. Nissa was very capable when it came to getting people to trust her and open up with her, but she sucked at making up names.
Nissa had even tried to make Jaylin change her mind concerning selling Lae'la, but Jaylin would have none of it. Lae'la was a slave, and would make some nice money, easy as that. They were in the prison for a reason, and sold as a slave they were usually better of then spending the rest of their miserable lives rotting away in a small cell, at least that was how Jaylin thought about it. She did realize that something was different about the Mossarian female, but was determined not to make an exception.
Jaylin had ordered Nissa to give Lae'la some decent clothes, and stuff her with food, so she didn't look malnourished when she was up for the bids. For a second she contemplated to visit Lae'la and see how she was doing, but she decided not too, not wanting to form any kind of attachment to the captive, because she would be out of Jaylin's life soon enough.
She went to her office to read over some statements and arrange the funerals of the crewmembers who had died during their siege of the prison complex. 3 Lives wasted, she felt saddened, yet Jaylin realized she hadn't known any of them that good. There were 56 people aboard her vessel which she had named the Marauder, and most of them were in temporary service. Still she cared for every single one of them, and her heart always ached when she lost somebody.
Morai, Nissa and Asper, were her closest friends. Asper was on Raleigh right now, as she had gotten herself injured during their last battle, and Jaylin had ordered her friend and security officer to take a few weeks of forced leave. Off course Asper had protested, she was very dedicated to her job, and hated it when she got injured and couldn't go with Jaylin on an assignment.
Moving her hands behind her head, Jaylin stared at a non-existing point on her office wall. She and Asper had met a long time ago, during a battle. They had been on opposing sides, but when Asper had gotten her ass injured, Jaylin couldn't take advantage of that, and had instead taken care of Asper for months while she recovered. Asper was a woman of honor, and knowing she was saved by the person who was supposed to be her enemy, she had sworn her loyalty to Jaylin, and put her live in Jaylin's hands.
That had happened 4 years ago, since then she and Asper had grown very close. Asper was also the only person who could get away with calling Jaylin by her name and not her rank. Jaylin smirked as she closed her eyes and thought about the welcome she would get when they arrived at their homebase on Raleigh. Asper had been pissed as hell when she heard Jaylin was going on such a dangerous mission while actually being undermanned. Jaylin and Asper had gone over the details of the assignment numerous times, and calculated they needed at least 75 people to effectively take care of the Sassin forces that owned the prison.
A few days before the operation would take place, Asper was shot during an ambush, and was considered very lucky to be alive. Jaylin had also lost about 20 of her crew, some of which were highly trained in combat and imperative for the succeeding of their next mission. Instead of calling off her mission, Jaylin had insisted on going to Cessau II anyways. They had gone over every possible detail and what could go wrong for weeks now, and Jaylin was positive she would be able to succeed.
When they had arrived at the prison complex Jaylin was initially shocked and taken back by the shear number of opposing forces. But her facial expression had turned to glee when she discovered 90% of the Sassin guards were unarmed, or merely possessed knifes and ancient swords. The prison was an old one, and in terrible shape, as a matter of fact Jaylin was surprised it hadn't fallen apart yet. It was obvious that most of the prisoners send there, were expected never to get out and see the daylight again.
All in all the battle had gone extremely well, even though they were outnumbered 2 to 1, Jaylin's crew had managed to kill most of the Sassin forces and capture the remaining ones to be sold off as slaves. There was only one thing that had confused her, namely why she was paid to take this prison down. As Jaylin had gone over the list of prisoners they had captured, she had found out most of them were unimportant or just aggressive criminals. Nobody probably profited from setting this prison free, and afterwards blowing it up, to be never used again. Yet that was what she had been paid for, and that was what she had done. She got the job done, got out, and got paid, no questions asked, that was just the normal way things proceeded.
Something had gnawed at her when they had blown up the prison, but she had no idea what, and had chalked it up to old-fashioned paranoia. After all it was weird that they had been ambushed by people she didn't know, just a few days before this mission. Asper had even warned her, pleaded her not to go because she had a weird feeling about all of this. Jaylin had ignored her, but thinking back about the person who had given them the assignment, the person who had appeared on the viewscreen moments before, made a chill travel down her spine.
Sighing, Jaylin looked in the small mirror that adorned one of the walls of her small but cozy office. She stared at her small form and the raven-black that framed her lightly tanned face. Sometimes she wished she had the beautiful brown hair most of her family and race had. Her black hair and matching brown eyes had always made her stand out from the rest of the crowd, and made her feel kind of like an outcast.
Jaylin couldn't figure out why she had black hair and brown eyes as opposed to brown hair and blue eyes the rest of her family was blessed with. Nobody else had black hair, hadn't had black hair in generations, so why had she? Sighing, Jaylin reached towards the small mirror and touched her mirror-image, stroking her cheeks and wishing she could somehow change her appearance. As satisfied she was with her work, and how she was able to accomplish even the most difficult task, as unhappy as she was with her lack of attractiveness.
The few males she had dated had almost always wanted to have a quick roll in the sack, and then move on. Jaylin didn't mind that, and she had her share of one-night stands, but as she got older she found herself actively looking for something more solid. Strangely, she had found the willingness to share a more solid relation coming from an unexpected corner.
A very unexpected corner, Jaylin sighed at the thought and caressed her mirror image once more. Somehow she attracted the most unusual persons, and her female lover with whom she had shared happiness for 6 months, was no exception. Clenching her fists to tight balls she tossed the mirror away, satisfied at hearing the sounds of shattering glass filling the air a split second later.
Seconds later she heard soft bleeping, and sighing once more she tapped the small device hanging on her hip which was used to communicate.
"Ma'Tok, ETA for Raleigh is 35 minutes," the heard Morai's voice report.
"Okay thank you Morai, I'll be on the bridge in a few."
As much as Jaylin hated the memories Raleigh unwittingly brought to the surface and made her lapse in a depressive state every time she arrived on the planet, it was still the only place she called home besides for her vessel the Marauder. She looked forward to a few days of relaxing and catching up with Asper. Stretching out like a cat, Jaylin wrote a few more lines in her official report of the mission they had accomplished. As the whole assignment had been brought to her attention by the Mercenary HQ, she was expected to write a report. Even though she hated writing up administrative stuff, she knew it was necessary to keep up her good reputation as Mercenary.
About 20 minutes later the Marauder and the second ship that had accompanied them for this mission, slowly descended on the black and white landing-strip next to the Raleigh spaceport.
Jaylin stood next to the cargo bay doors which served as exit whenever they landed on a planet. She looked at the prisoners who would be sold as slaves, they stood in 2 rows chained to each other by hands and feet. Her eyes were especially drawn towards the end of the row where she recognized the female she had captured earlier that day, Lae'la.
At first she thought she had been wrong in her initial assumption, but when she stared for a few more seconds, she was positive this was the same female covered in dirt and filth, she had carried out of the prison just a few hours ago. Oh my... Blinking her eyes a few more times, she could do nothing else but stare.
The woman's hair had apparently been returned to its original color, which was a soft and silky looking white. It made Jaylin's hands ache to touch it, and she was surprised at the feeling. Even though she had met a member of the Mossarian species before, she just hadn't been prepared at finding out how beautiful the female was. Her slightly pointed ears gave her an exotic look and her liquid blue eyes just made her want to drown in them and never return to the surface again.
Jaylin found herself surprised the most about the blue lines that ran from the female's forehead to her chin, and then sloped downwards, dissapearing in the white-gray dress that she was wearing. The one male Mossarian she had once met had possessed those lines as well, but as he was old the lines had faded and had been a darkish blue almost black color, and Jaylin had wrongfully assumed they were etched on his skin. Now she knew that the lines were in fact a treat all the Mossarians seemed to have.
If Jaylin had to describe her captive with one word, she wouldn't be able to find one but: beautiful, or breathtaking, and she felt her heart skip a beat as she locked her eyes with the female for a second. But she kept telling herself Lae'la, as the prisoner was now named, was a slave, and would be sold at Raleigh.
Nissa stood at the end of the row checking if the prisoners were clean, and inspecting if none of them were injured or ill. A sick or wounded slave was a waste of money and time. She too looked at Lae'la, her eyes taking in the tall figure and the strangely white skin that was probably due to her lenghty imprisonment and not having sunlight touch her skin for years.
Jaylin walked over to Nissa just as they heard a small thump, clueing her in they had touched ground. Everytime she checked out the prisoners her gaze was irreversibly drawn to Lae'la and she sighed. Her jaw set she opened the door and watched as 4 of her guards guided the prisoners out of the Marauder's cargobay.
"You seem reluctant about the Mossarian, Ma'Tok," Nissa observed, but her eyes followed the long line of slaves walking out.
Sighing Jaylin turned towards her servant. "I thought this discussion was closed, she will make us a lot of money."
"At what costs though?"
"That is just...irrelevant."
"Is it? Then tell me my dear friend, why can't you keep her eyes of her? She fascinates you, doesn't she?" Nissa said smiling slightly.
"She's different, that's all," Jaylin said moving her hands to the sky in exasperation. "I can't believe you keep bothering me about this."
"As you wish Ma'Tok, but somehow I believe we haven't heard the last of this," Nissa said bowing her head slightly and walking towards the doors which gave access to the rest of the ship.
Jaylin growled. She knew Nissa was right, something was gnawing at her, and it had to do with the mysterious female. Still that didn't mean she was supposed to listen to her servant. "I will not make an exception," she mumbled to herself and walked out of the cargobay towards the Raleigh spaceport.
As she arrived at the market-place which was a few 100 yards away from the Raleigh Spaceport, she saw her guards had already set up the slaves in a row, and started bidding. Jaylin smiled pleasingly at the competence of her crew, some of them knew her so well, they could carry out her orders, even if she never voiced them.
She looked around at the small crowd that had gathered around the spot where her slaves were set up. It was an old habit of hers, to check the surroundings for something that might be out of the ordinary, or something suspicious. One could never be too careful, as even though this was her home, she also knew that Raleigh was the smelting pot of the quadrant, and an ideal brooding place for murderers, bounty hunters, mercenaries such as herself, and even pirates. Her gaze drifted over the crowd and she recognized several species, and even some people she knew. Suddenly her attention was drawn towards the platform on which the slaves stood as she noticed that the Mossarian female was up for the bids.
As the bidding went higher and higher, Jaylin couldn't help but look at the female's face, and for a second their eyes locked. Jaylin's eyes widened slightly as she read Lae'la's distress in her eyes, but then the female averted her eyes and stared at the ground again.
Lae'la shuddered slightly, she had felt as if she was on fire for a second her eyes had locked with her capturer. She had thought to be safe, when she was rescued from the dark prison that had been her home for so long. The moment the word slave felt she knew she had drawn the wrong conclusion, and she had barely been able to keep herself from throttling the dark haired female who had spoke so casually over the new direction her life would take.
Slave, Lae'la's muscles flexed at the word. She wanted to curse, wanted to call out and beg for her freedom, but somehow her body wouldn't respond to her inner wishes. It was as if she was numbed, unable to do anything but stand here and wait for the fate that awaited her.
Why? An inner voice asked, and Lae'la couldn't answer the question. There were so many questions unasked, so many things she wanted to do now that she was out of the darkness. Why was she captured in the first place and locked up? Why was she rescued only to be sold as a slave? Her eyes watered slightly and she looked at the place the female who had been addressed as Ma'Tok had stood moments before, but she was no longer there.
Jaylin stood next to the platform, unseen by anybody as she observed a particular male of the Nsenki species. Something about the guy made a warning light go off in her head, and as he kept outbidding others, in an attempt to buy the Mossarian female, Jaylin just knew something wasn't right about this.
Sniffing the air she bared her fangs for a second and let out a low growl. She smelled a rat. Her eyes scanned the marketplace for a few seconds until they stopped at a spot that was covered in the shadows just across the platform. Jaylin's eyes narrowed to small slits as she watched the spot for moments waiting for something to happen, and not surprised when she saw a hand move out of the shadows, and then quickly return in it's hiding place again.
"Stop," she yelled towards one of her more experienced crewmembers who were still continuing the bidding. "She will be taken off the bidding for a amount of time I deem necessary."
There were a few protests from the crowd, but when she fixed a few of them with her icy stare, they were quiet soon enough. All but one, somehow she wasn't surprised to see the Nsenki male move forward and challenging her with an angry stare.
"She is notta marked, she mmmine," he said hissing through his teeth.
Jaylin bared her teeth again and her nostrils flared in barely concealed anger. She had always hated the Nsenki species. They were a tall reptilian race, with a small tail that was still very strong and capable of breaking a person's legs with one mighty sweep. The males had a green-scaled skin, the females were usually blue colored, although there were exceptions known in which the females had also green skin. Most of the Nsenki were warriors, although their race was split in two, the lower class and the higher class. The lower class were generally workers, some farmers, but some were also were fighters.
Because of their amazing strenght and thick skin plating, they were very wanted as soldiers, and they worked for anybody who could pay them. But other then the Asaytan Mercenaries, Nsenki's were not to be trusted. Hiring a few of them to complete a job for you, and finding yourself with knife in your back a few hours later wasn't that unusual. Still if you could hold them under your thumb, they made excellent warriors, especially in 1 on 1 combat, as their ability to fight with long ranged weapons paled in comparison to many other species.
"Uhm, she's my property," Jaylin said through clenched teeth and not giving an inch as she stared at the Nsenki male. "If I want to stop the bidding on her, I don't think there's a single thing you can do..."
"I willl challenge younna," the male said hissing again and smacking his tail on the ground a few times as a way to impress his opponent.
"You want to challenge me for her ownership? She's my slave, you have no right..."
"Younna Mercenary, I challenge, you willll accept or be disgraced," the male mumbled a wide grin on his green scaled face.
"Whatever, you can't challenge me if she's marked, can you?" Jaylin said although inwardly she couldn't believe she was actually going to do this. But as she looked across the crowd she saw the figure in the shadows was staring at her intently, tossing an angry glare her way. She just shrugged in response and was tempted to flip him the finger, but managed to control that temptation, albeit with trouble.
"Yessss," the male hissed, and grabbed the Mossarian female studying her arms and then pinning Jaylin with his small black eyes again. "She'sss not marked, you willlll accept my challenge now."
"Was not marked," Jaylin mumbled. Without wasting another word, she moved her hand downwards and removed a sharp edged blade from her green/black boots, and held it in front of her face. She smirked as she saw the Nsenki male take a step backwards as he saw her grab the knife.
"I'm sorry, but this is for your own good...I think," Jaylin whispered in the Mossarian's slightly pointed ears. Studying the knife for another second, Jaylin put her finger on top of the knife and sliced one of her fingers open slightly, wincing at the pain for only a split second. Then she dragged it across the Lae'la's right arm, carving a small round on her upper-arm.
"Find something to bite in, because this is going to hurt a little more," Jaylin whispered again. Closing her eyes for a second she jabbed the knife forward and carved away a small piece of flesh from within the circle she had drawn earlier. Blood welled up from the wound, and Jaylin tore off some of the white clothing Lae'la was wearing and made a makeshift bandage. She was very surprised to notice that the Mossarian had not uttered a word, had not even let out a slight sound of distress, even her eyes were dry as they had been before a piece of her flesh was removed out of her arm. "Are you okay," Jaylin mumbled. She got no answer, and frowned as she realized something was wrong, but it would have to wait.
"She's marked as mine now," Jaylin showed Lae'la's arm for everybody to see, "I can not and will not be challenged. Now that this matter is solved, I suggest we continue the bidding, there's still many other quality slaves that will be sold."
The Nsenki who had watched the whole marking ritual with barely contained anger narrowed his eyes slightly and looked from Lae'la to Jaylin. "My master willll not be pleased with thissa activity, you will regret this, I promise younna."
"Like I said...whatever. She's marked now, there's nothing you can do about it," Jaylin said looking at Lae'la's arm.
She realized that she could never sell the female again, and wondered why she had pulled through with the marking ritual. Nissa's words rung in her ears, and Jaylin knew her servant was right. The Mossarian fascinated her, and apparently she wasn't the only one who was fascinated with her. The only draw back about the marking ritual was that she could never sell Lae'la again, and she knew she lost a lot of money by doing this. Yet she believed this was the wisest of choices, the Dark Alliance wanted this female, and Jaylin was certain their intentions weren't any good.
The Nsenki male walked away and Jaylin once again stared at the shadows across the market place and smiled in that direction. "Oh yeah, tell your master...he can stick his split tongue up were the sun don't shine," Jaylin yelled, and she was sure it was loud enough for the guy in the shadows to hear. Piercing green eyes that stared her way, confirmed her assumptions and her smile broadened.
Even though she made another enemy, Jaylin felt like she had done something right this time. "But I better find Asper and lay low, because this doesn't look to promising," Jaylin mumbled. At least her life was never boring.
To be continued....