Book Sections - Chapter One
What I will be doing is posting book sections. I'll try to keep the links up to all the current versions, so you can read what I've written so far. BTW way not working title for the book as yet. Any good suggestions would be helpful.
Either comment in the journal or send me your comments in my email.
Warning to all, I do not write sequentially, so the book will be skipping around some.
Here is the first section. For my Beta readers from the Firefly board, this is very slightly revised from what you already read. Let me know if it is better or worse if you please.
Planetside - Chimera Space Date: 2417.08.07
It had been a good night. Rob had been winning at poker and was looking for one last hand to get the total up to what he needed for GEM’s parts. Of course it helped that he and Gelb were pretty damn good at cheating. So far the mark hadn’t even noticed anything odd. "Well, maybe he’s used to losing big," Rob thought.
Robert Mitchells was a pragmatist. If cheating was what it took to keep GEM running, then cheating he would do. Because GEM was all he had left and nothing would stop him from keeping her healthy. It didn’t hurt that his victim this evening was a rich, slave-owning, government flunky bastard. Hell, he’d have been willing to fleece this guy even if GEM hadn’t needed parts. He looked over at the poor girl who was waiting on his lordship and, for the thousandth time that night, wished there was something he could do to free her.
"You like my girl, do you? I could arrange for you to have her if you choose to return some of your winnings to me."
"No, thanks. I have other plans for the evening. Deal."
Gelb looked the girl over thoroughly as if the exchange had awakened some sort of academic interest. "So is this what you human males would consider an attractive mate? Why? She seems like little more than a tasty snack to me." He flashed his rather large teeth at her and licked his lips. The fact that his teeth were blood red made them look quite menacing. The slave girl cringed away as far as her chains would allow.
"Gelb, stop that. It isn’t considered polite to eat other people’s property."
"You take all the fun out of life, Rob. Did you know that?"
Rob shook his head. He’d never quite figured out why the big gunner had joined his crew. Usually Delebians were not inclined to mix much with other races. But Gelb ‘marched to the beat of a different drummer’ and did lots of things frowned on in polite Delebian society including cheating at cards. And he was the best damn gunner Rob had ever seen. Too bad he had to put up with his sense of humor. He’d have to talk to him about this one though. Frightening a poor little slave girl who had no way of defending herself and who probably had no idea that he was a strict vegetarian was pretty low, even for Gelb.
Rob picked up the cards his lordship had dealt. It took all the skill he had to hide his reaction. A Royal flush, how the hell did he get dealt that? Then it hit him. That sneaky, oversized otter had created such a good distraction, even he had fallen for it.
As the betting continued, his lordship seemed oddly unwilling to fold his cards. Damn that Gelb must have snuck him a good hand too, just to make sure to clean him out. Well Rob was certainly more than willing to cooperate in that venture.
"I seem to be low on funds. Perhaps if I throw in the girl that would be acceptable to call?"
Rob look at his lordship, startled. He certainly hadn’t been planning on playing for people. On the other hand, when he won her, he could free her. While he considered the matter, the girl posed very provocatively. He knew she wasn’t really interested in him, just doing that at her master’s orders, but damn she was attractive. Anger at her slavery fought arousal at her looks and for a second there, Rob thought arousal might win. It had been a long time, after all. But anger won and he decided that the lousy bastard who owned her wouldn’t get to use her as a play toy ever again. Rob accepted the bet and laid down his cards.
"ROYAL FLUSH! How the hell did you get a royal flush?" You could hear his lordship squawk probably five miles away. It was kind of funny.
"Hey, you dealt the cards, not me. Why don’t you sign the young lady’s papers over to me and we’ll get going seeing as how you don’t seem to have any other assets to continue the game with." Rob was busy shoveling his winnings into his pockets just in case his lordship got tetchy. Best to make sure he could leave with as much as possible if things went sour on him.
A few minutes later, he left with the girl in tow and Gelb running beside him making the squeeing noise that served as a laugh for Delebians. The poor thing was still cringing away from Gelb, obviously terrified. Well she’d just have to stick it out for a few minutes; Rob wasn’t stopping for anything short of the safety of the ship after the trick they’d just pulled on the planetary governor. In fact, he wasn’t stopping till the ship was out of orbit. He’d best make sure that happened as soon as possible too. Rob called the ship on his personal comm. "Hey kiddo, get the engines fired up and ready. We’re leaving this rock as soon as Gelb and I are on board."
"Yes sir, Captain, sir." Sara Conkwright hated being called kiddo, but couldn’t seem to break Rob of the habit. She was more than willing to beat the crap out of anyone else on board who tried it though as she had proven on one memorable occasion. She hit the code for the all-ship circuit. "Attention, Rob and Gelb are on their way back and, surprise, surprise, we’re in a hurry to leave. Secure everything for immediate liftoff. Kate, better get those engines warmed up."
Just as she finished the take off checklist, Rob called up to let her know they were on board and ready for takeoff. Sara hit the switch that started the liftoff sequence and they took off like a bat out of hell.
Rob sat in his office off the cargo bay with the slave girl he had just won waiting for the initial acceleration of liftoff to finish. When the ship was moving easy and normal gravity was restored, he pulled out her slave papers in order to sign over her freedom. She looked at him quizzically as he hadn’t yet said what he intended to do. He saw her look and decided to explain. "I’m planing to free you, girl. Don’t much care for slavery. But don’t worry; I’ll give you a stake to get you started right on the next planet we get to." As he was talking, he was searching the papers for the proper place to sign.
"But master…"
"Where the hell is the … oh shit." Rob finally reached the part of the papers which read: By Order of the United Planets Government; this person is not allowed to be freed under any circumstances.
Rob looked over at the girl who was staring at the floor. "You want to tell me why the government thinks you’re so dangerous, that you can’t ever be freed?"
"I’m sorry, master."
"Don’t call me that. My name is Rob."
"Yes, Rob. I didn’t do anything." There was a long pause while she tried to come up with the best way to explain. She didn’t know him enough to know how mad he would get by hearing the truth, but she suspected he didn’t really much care for the UP government, so she plunged ahead with the explanation. "It was my parents. My father was the planetary governor of Chimera. He was instrumental in the planet seceding during the war. When the UP soldiers took it back, they punished him and my mom by making me a slave for life before they hung them. I was only 12 when it happened." The look of suppressed fear on her face told Rob that she wasn’t too sure that he’d be real accepting of that explanation. Hell if he was a UP supporter, he’d probably be right mad at her for such a statement. So he guessed the fear was justified.
"Girl, I fought for the Rebellion, too. Could have been my sister in your shoes if I’d have been anyone important." He could see the tension ease in her body with those words. "I can’t keep calling you girl, what’s your name?"
"Call me whatever you like. Slaves don’t have names."
"What was the name your parents gave you?" His tone was patient, a lot more patient than Rob usually was if the truth be known.
"Ylana."
"Then that’s what you’ll be called on this ship. You see, Ylana, I got a problem here. I don’t think slavery is right, so what am I to do with you? I can’t sell you; that just wouldn’t be right and I surely don’t want to have a slave. God, my head hurts." Rob held his head in his hands, thinking hard. Ylana timidly got up and walked behind him and started giving him a back massage.
"Damn that feels good. Hey Ylana, you don’t have to do that, you know."
"Yes sir, I know. I thought it might help your headache."
"Thank you." Rob turned around to face her. "You know, here’s a plan. See what you think. As far as I‘m concerned, you’re free. OK the damn government doesn’t think so, but who cares what they think anyway. I’ll tell everyone on the ship, I freed you and offered you a job. That way you have a reason to stay and no one will know you are officially still my property. I promise I won’t ever sell you unless you ask me to. I guess that’s all the freedom I can give you. It really isn’t enough, but it’s the best I can do."
"But I don’t have any job skills, except as a prostitute. Is that what you want me to do?"
"No Ylana, you won’t have to have sex with anyone you don’t want to ever again. I think I can train you for a different job. You do know how to read and write, don’t you?"
"Yes sir, but it’s been a long time. I’m probably pretty rusty at it."
"Don’t see where there’s a rush. If you were really free, I’d give you some time to get your skills in place before I expected you to be able to support yourself. So that’s no different here really. Anyway, I’ve been doing the job of the supply officer because we didn’t have anyone else to do it and, to be honest, I really don’t much care for it. So would you like to keep the accounting records and buy supplies and such? I’d show you everything to do."
Ylana looked up at Rob, stunned. Her green eyes filled with tears. The chance to behave like a free woman and have a real, responsible, respectable job was more than she had ever imagined. And to chose not to have sex, that was almost totally unimaginable. She just stood there staring at him, unable to find the words to respond to his offer. Finally she just nodded, still too stunned to speak.
"Good, that’s settled then. Let me take you up to crew quarters and get you set up with a room. My engineer is about your size. I imagine I can persuade her to lend you some clothes until we get to the next stop. Then I’ll give you a pay advance so you can buy your own stuff."
"Sir you don’t have to pay me. You own me."
"Ylana, don’t you think the crew might find it odd if I didn’t pay you? I told you, you may officially still be a slave, but as far as I’m concerned you’re free on this ship. I really, truly meant that. Look, Ylana, I know this is a big adjustment for you. But you really can trust that no one will treat you like a slave here. Come on, let’s go get you set up and then I’ll introduce you to the rest of the crew."
Either comment in the journal or send me your comments in my email.
Warning to all, I do not write sequentially, so the book will be skipping around some.
Here is the first section. For my Beta readers from the Firefly board, this is very slightly revised from what you already read. Let me know if it is better or worse if you please.
Planetside - Chimera Space Date: 2417.08.07
It had been a good night. Rob had been winning at poker and was looking for one last hand to get the total up to what he needed for GEM’s parts. Of course it helped that he and Gelb were pretty damn good at cheating. So far the mark hadn’t even noticed anything odd. "Well, maybe he’s used to losing big," Rob thought.
Robert Mitchells was a pragmatist. If cheating was what it took to keep GEM running, then cheating he would do. Because GEM was all he had left and nothing would stop him from keeping her healthy. It didn’t hurt that his victim this evening was a rich, slave-owning, government flunky bastard. Hell, he’d have been willing to fleece this guy even if GEM hadn’t needed parts. He looked over at the poor girl who was waiting on his lordship and, for the thousandth time that night, wished there was something he could do to free her.
"You like my girl, do you? I could arrange for you to have her if you choose to return some of your winnings to me."
"No, thanks. I have other plans for the evening. Deal."
Gelb looked the girl over thoroughly as if the exchange had awakened some sort of academic interest. "So is this what you human males would consider an attractive mate? Why? She seems like little more than a tasty snack to me." He flashed his rather large teeth at her and licked his lips. The fact that his teeth were blood red made them look quite menacing. The slave girl cringed away as far as her chains would allow.
"Gelb, stop that. It isn’t considered polite to eat other people’s property."
"You take all the fun out of life, Rob. Did you know that?"
Rob shook his head. He’d never quite figured out why the big gunner had joined his crew. Usually Delebians were not inclined to mix much with other races. But Gelb ‘marched to the beat of a different drummer’ and did lots of things frowned on in polite Delebian society including cheating at cards. And he was the best damn gunner Rob had ever seen. Too bad he had to put up with his sense of humor. He’d have to talk to him about this one though. Frightening a poor little slave girl who had no way of defending herself and who probably had no idea that he was a strict vegetarian was pretty low, even for Gelb.
Rob picked up the cards his lordship had dealt. It took all the skill he had to hide his reaction. A Royal flush, how the hell did he get dealt that? Then it hit him. That sneaky, oversized otter had created such a good distraction, even he had fallen for it.
As the betting continued, his lordship seemed oddly unwilling to fold his cards. Damn that Gelb must have snuck him a good hand too, just to make sure to clean him out. Well Rob was certainly more than willing to cooperate in that venture.
"I seem to be low on funds. Perhaps if I throw in the girl that would be acceptable to call?"
Rob look at his lordship, startled. He certainly hadn’t been planning on playing for people. On the other hand, when he won her, he could free her. While he considered the matter, the girl posed very provocatively. He knew she wasn’t really interested in him, just doing that at her master’s orders, but damn she was attractive. Anger at her slavery fought arousal at her looks and for a second there, Rob thought arousal might win. It had been a long time, after all. But anger won and he decided that the lousy bastard who owned her wouldn’t get to use her as a play toy ever again. Rob accepted the bet and laid down his cards.
"ROYAL FLUSH! How the hell did you get a royal flush?" You could hear his lordship squawk probably five miles away. It was kind of funny.
"Hey, you dealt the cards, not me. Why don’t you sign the young lady’s papers over to me and we’ll get going seeing as how you don’t seem to have any other assets to continue the game with." Rob was busy shoveling his winnings into his pockets just in case his lordship got tetchy. Best to make sure he could leave with as much as possible if things went sour on him.
A few minutes later, he left with the girl in tow and Gelb running beside him making the squeeing noise that served as a laugh for Delebians. The poor thing was still cringing away from Gelb, obviously terrified. Well she’d just have to stick it out for a few minutes; Rob wasn’t stopping for anything short of the safety of the ship after the trick they’d just pulled on the planetary governor. In fact, he wasn’t stopping till the ship was out of orbit. He’d best make sure that happened as soon as possible too. Rob called the ship on his personal comm. "Hey kiddo, get the engines fired up and ready. We’re leaving this rock as soon as Gelb and I are on board."
"Yes sir, Captain, sir." Sara Conkwright hated being called kiddo, but couldn’t seem to break Rob of the habit. She was more than willing to beat the crap out of anyone else on board who tried it though as she had proven on one memorable occasion. She hit the code for the all-ship circuit. "Attention, Rob and Gelb are on their way back and, surprise, surprise, we’re in a hurry to leave. Secure everything for immediate liftoff. Kate, better get those engines warmed up."
Just as she finished the take off checklist, Rob called up to let her know they were on board and ready for takeoff. Sara hit the switch that started the liftoff sequence and they took off like a bat out of hell.
Rob sat in his office off the cargo bay with the slave girl he had just won waiting for the initial acceleration of liftoff to finish. When the ship was moving easy and normal gravity was restored, he pulled out her slave papers in order to sign over her freedom. She looked at him quizzically as he hadn’t yet said what he intended to do. He saw her look and decided to explain. "I’m planing to free you, girl. Don’t much care for slavery. But don’t worry; I’ll give you a stake to get you started right on the next planet we get to." As he was talking, he was searching the papers for the proper place to sign.
"But master…"
"Where the hell is the … oh shit." Rob finally reached the part of the papers which read: By Order of the United Planets Government; this person is not allowed to be freed under any circumstances.
Rob looked over at the girl who was staring at the floor. "You want to tell me why the government thinks you’re so dangerous, that you can’t ever be freed?"
"I’m sorry, master."
"Don’t call me that. My name is Rob."
"Yes, Rob. I didn’t do anything." There was a long pause while she tried to come up with the best way to explain. She didn’t know him enough to know how mad he would get by hearing the truth, but she suspected he didn’t really much care for the UP government, so she plunged ahead with the explanation. "It was my parents. My father was the planetary governor of Chimera. He was instrumental in the planet seceding during the war. When the UP soldiers took it back, they punished him and my mom by making me a slave for life before they hung them. I was only 12 when it happened." The look of suppressed fear on her face told Rob that she wasn’t too sure that he’d be real accepting of that explanation. Hell if he was a UP supporter, he’d probably be right mad at her for such a statement. So he guessed the fear was justified.
"Girl, I fought for the Rebellion, too. Could have been my sister in your shoes if I’d have been anyone important." He could see the tension ease in her body with those words. "I can’t keep calling you girl, what’s your name?"
"Call me whatever you like. Slaves don’t have names."
"What was the name your parents gave you?" His tone was patient, a lot more patient than Rob usually was if the truth be known.
"Ylana."
"Then that’s what you’ll be called on this ship. You see, Ylana, I got a problem here. I don’t think slavery is right, so what am I to do with you? I can’t sell you; that just wouldn’t be right and I surely don’t want to have a slave. God, my head hurts." Rob held his head in his hands, thinking hard. Ylana timidly got up and walked behind him and started giving him a back massage.
"Damn that feels good. Hey Ylana, you don’t have to do that, you know."
"Yes sir, I know. I thought it might help your headache."
"Thank you." Rob turned around to face her. "You know, here’s a plan. See what you think. As far as I‘m concerned, you’re free. OK the damn government doesn’t think so, but who cares what they think anyway. I’ll tell everyone on the ship, I freed you and offered you a job. That way you have a reason to stay and no one will know you are officially still my property. I promise I won’t ever sell you unless you ask me to. I guess that’s all the freedom I can give you. It really isn’t enough, but it’s the best I can do."
"But I don’t have any job skills, except as a prostitute. Is that what you want me to do?"
"No Ylana, you won’t have to have sex with anyone you don’t want to ever again. I think I can train you for a different job. You do know how to read and write, don’t you?"
"Yes sir, but it’s been a long time. I’m probably pretty rusty at it."
"Don’t see where there’s a rush. If you were really free, I’d give you some time to get your skills in place before I expected you to be able to support yourself. So that’s no different here really. Anyway, I’ve been doing the job of the supply officer because we didn’t have anyone else to do it and, to be honest, I really don’t much care for it. So would you like to keep the accounting records and buy supplies and such? I’d show you everything to do."
Ylana looked up at Rob, stunned. Her green eyes filled with tears. The chance to behave like a free woman and have a real, responsible, respectable job was more than she had ever imagined. And to chose not to have sex, that was almost totally unimaginable. She just stood there staring at him, unable to find the words to respond to his offer. Finally she just nodded, still too stunned to speak.
"Good, that’s settled then. Let me take you up to crew quarters and get you set up with a room. My engineer is about your size. I imagine I can persuade her to lend you some clothes until we get to the next stop. Then I’ll give you a pay advance so you can buy your own stuff."
"Sir you don’t have to pay me. You own me."
"Ylana, don’t you think the crew might find it odd if I didn’t pay you? I told you, you may officially still be a slave, but as far as I’m concerned you’re free on this ship. I really, truly meant that. Look, Ylana, I know this is a big adjustment for you. But you really can trust that no one will treat you like a slave here. Come on, let’s go get you set up and then I’ll introduce you to the rest of the crew."