Chapter 1

Tak’i

Tak’i struggled again against her bonds, the cuffs digging into her skin and drawing little drops of blood. She was in a small dark room chained to a wall sitting on a hard metal bed. She had been captured by the Roric Supremacy, a group of Kentari slavers and oppressors known for capturing ships and killing all the male crew. What was done with the rest was not hard to contemplate, the options where slavery or the meat markets. She knew that either could be her future and this sickening thought process made her struggle harder against her chains.

Tak’i looked down at herself and frowned at her state, her normally white enamel petals were filthy and she could feel the grunge on her sensitive under skin as well from where she had been handled so roughly during her capture. The red petals then ran from around her slender neck and down the center of her bust blended with the blood that had come out the gash above her eye, they ran down her back as well and between her thighs before shifting back to white.

The red petals arked underneath her bust and ran down her abdomen to disappear beneath her pants. Mi’Da has told her the dueling white and red made her beautiful especially where the red accented her cheekbones.

Her eyes burned at his memory, she had to get out of here and find him, if she didnt she knew they would butcher him and send him to the colony worlds, the though alone made her heart ache.

She ran her fingers over her tethers looking over the scratches looking for signs of infection, the long finger thick appendages extended from her scalp a meter and a half. They were covered in a blend of her red and white petals and ended in sharp red spikes 13cm in length, she was deadly with them.

The Apex used their tethers to communicate on her home world, an endless song of minds joined together in harmony, the song was muted this far from Apex space but her training taught her to survive without the song for long periods of time.

The Roric Supremacy had just raided one of the outlying systems in Apex space and Taki’i and her crew were sent to assess the damage done to the raided compounds on the planet Seisi. The 2 million inhabitants of the colony there were either slaughtered or captured, and in her rage of seeing so many dead she gave chase to the raiding party in her cruiser. She knew that to take so many the Kentari ship would be bulky and slow so it was only a matter of time until she caught them.

She had caught them alright, she picked up the fleet group moving through hyperspace and intending on crippling the ship holding her people, she called for reinforcements and dropped out of hyperspace right on top of them. She came in behind the freighter in the group and gave a full broadside of her plasma turrets to the freighters engine compartment. The engines of the freighter erupted in a ripple of flame and the metal hulk began to drift without propulsion. She ordered her nav officer to get the hell out of there but it was not to be.

The moment the freighter had been crippled boarding pods from the freighter’s support fleet began to slam into the hull of her cruiser. Seconds after giving the order to turn and run her first officer began reporting firefights on all decks. She had ordered to close all bulkheads and attempt escape anyway fit at this point it was futile. Less than half an hour later she was in the freighter with the people she had come to save, her crew executed for the damage she had done to the freighter. A new life in chains or as a meal, all she had left. They had towed her ship with them along with the freighter when they brought her to the exchange station where all of the others were put onto ships and sent to planets to be sold or to be butchered.

She could still feel the resonance of her ship somewhere to her right floating in space. She didn’t expect the feeling to last due to the fact that soon they could come for her and cut off her Tethers. It would be an agony she had never known. She would not break. She had to get home, the best option was to wait and to act when she could. Those Kentari demons would not take her spirit.

She heard the click of talons on metal and knew the time had come. She pointed a tether at the door and waited for the resonance. This one is lucky it is a captain, the ship won’t work without a captain. A shame it is not meant for the table, the arrogant Apex always tastes so good. She could sense the hunger from the beast, almost feeling him salivating at the prospect of devouring her. Her panic subsided a bit at the realization that at least she was a necessary part of her craft and that it would give her a chance at freedom if she could overcome her captors once she was rejoined with her ship.

The door to her cell made a thick metallic clank and she was temporarily blinded by the light from the hallway as the door slid open to reveal two Kentari walking into her room with two sets of manacles. “Stand.” barked the larger of the two as he moved to stand in front of her. She stood and waited until he was in front of her and lunged at him, raking her tethers across his neck and abdomen, the sharp tips of them digging into his body bring out chunks of flesh and spraying his blood across the wall behind her.

As she turned to the smaller of the two he struck her in the face with be butt of his rifle causing her to fall limp to the ground as his companion grasped at his neck, choking and gurgling until he too fell silent. The remaining guard sent a swift kick to her unconscious form hearing a satisfying crunch as he felt her ribs give beneath his talons. “We will heal you bitch, but you will remember the pain.” he growled as he lifted her limp form and carried her to the hall and on to the surgical table in the next section.

Tak’i awoke with a blinding headache, she writhed in agony on the steel table beneath her. She pulled her legs under herself and curled into the fetal position on her bed, trying to block out the light in the room and the pain that wracked her mind. “It seems that the Apex has awakened my love.” came a deep rumble from the Granite sitting next to what seemed to be his mate. “She seems terrified darling.” came a smooth hum. Tak’i cracked her eyes open and glanced around the room.

To her right where two Greanites sitting closely to two Curvers whom were cuddling close together as the rodent species normally does. To her left where two Cormerants who seemed to be doing their best to pretend that there was no one else in the room. She focused on the Greanite that had spoken first, a tell example of his species he was nearly 10ft tall with the blocky, rock like features of their race, his mate was similar but her facial features showed a bit of an oval shape indicating her gender and they both stared curiously at her.

The Comerants were similar to the Kentari only in that they both were obviously reptilian. The comerants had soft skin usually black and white in varying patterns and stood about 2 meters tall. They had wicked clawed hands and feet that looked like they could cleave flesh from bone and 2 rows of tiny but extremely sharp teeth. Comerant’s tails were wide at the base and pointed at the end and Tak’i heard a story that if you scared one bad enough the whole thing would fall off. But she did not put any credit to that story and imagining one of these graceful creatures tailless and trying to flee was laughable.

Her ability to communicate was drastically limited due to the absence of her tethers and she attempted to reply weakly though it only came out as whisper in the minds of those in the room with her, squinting from the light and the pain she nodded to them as she ran her hand over the bloody stumps where her tethers used to be. “I am Tak’i.” she managed to whisper.

“I am Malfite.” the male Granite said. “My wife and I were sold due to a pirate raid that robbed us of our cargo. We came to try and discuss our debt to the station master here but he decided that we would be worth more on the block than he expected us to make without a ship as it was sold to cover a portion of the cargo we lost. Gold laced solar panels don’t come cheap out here obviously so here we are.” he said grimacing at his and his mates predicament.” At least the ship covered most of the cost dear.” his mate chimed. “Had we been too far off to be sold he would have simply killed us. He said as much.” she added drearily as if death where preferable to their current situation.

Malfite was stronger than most Granites he had met and was a competent fighter all things considered. He mused of his current situation but he still had 8 fingers and 8 toes and he still had his Opal.

Both of them were muscular as far as their species went, from years of hard labor on their homework working in the starship factories. Malfite had short red hair and a bushy red beard and Opal’s hair was black and hung down to the middle of her back, she usually kept it in a tail but the guards had taken her wraps saying they could have been used as a weapon.

Opal had an athletic figure, long powerful legs and a tight butt that her mate seemed very appreciative of. Her breasts were proportional to her larger frame but were about a handful for her husband who had considerably large hands.

Malfite stood a few centimeters taller than Opal and was built mich wider almost double his wife.

The male of the Curvers began squeaking and chittering in their tongue, but she quickly shook her head and looked apologetic toward him even though the movement itself made her nauseous. The creature nodded his head in acceptance and waved his hands in forgiving dismissal. She directed her eyes in the direction of the Cormerants but her gaze was met with open hostility. “What could we lowly beings say to a great and mighty Apex? Can you not invade our minds and steal our secrets from us? Or did your little haircut render you as useless as the rest of your pathetic friends?” the male spat just before he returned to ignoring everyone else in the room.

Malfite glared at the male Cormorant and slowly began to crack one knuckle at a time. “There is no need to be disrespectful Torren, after all we are all in the same cell. Come to think of it, maybe if you thought with a little more humility we would not be in the situation we find ourselves in.’’ The female Cormorant calmly stated making eye contact with Torren. “I am Cortis and we have been sent here as is our way as being “hopeless” so says our government. Torren here thought that our status was not high enough and insulted one of our senators for not respecting his capability, so said senator decided to teach him his place and offered us to the Kentari as slaves.” said said in her sweet monotone voice while looking at the steel walls of the room and finally settling on Tak’i.

“I am sorry for your misfortune due to your mates ambition”. Tak’i whispered plainly looking at Torren. He scoffed in response. Tak’i eyed him and said “I was the commander of the Birch, a cruiser in the Apex home guard fleet. The Kentari raided one of our border worlds and despite orders against my decision attempted to cripple the freighter carrying my people so that they could be retrieved. My ship was captured, my crew were killed and now I am only alive due to the fact that I alone can command the A.I. For my ship.” Tak’i whispered coldly. Malfite grunted in recognition of her pain and the male Curver squeaked and bowed his respect. He then turned to Mafite and chittered making eye contact. “He says, and this is a loose translation, that his name is Tinkerer and that his wife’s name is Salvager.” Tak’i bowed her head to Tinkerer and Salvager then turned and did the same for Cortis. “We are all in the same position, perhaps we should work together to escape.” Tak’i said, looking around the room to her fellow cell mates.

Cortis then spoke up. “There is no escape for us. Our government sent us here, there is nowhere for us to go.” Torren grunted in reply and stared at the floor making a pained expression.

“These thoughts of escape are all well and good dears, however the first thing that we have to worry about getting out of this cell, then we have to get past an army of Kentari slavers, after which we will have to steal a ship. Please, also do not forget that we have all been embedded with the explosive fail safes so if anyone notices us trying to escape our group will all be killed. So why don’t we see about getting those wounds on your head taken care of Tak’i and then concern ourselves with trying to get ourselves killed later.” Opal stated sweetly in her gravely drawl.

Tak’i bowed to Opal removing the bandages wrapped tightly around the top of her head and adjusting herself to sit in front of her. Opal eyed the cuts on top of Tak’i’s head and began to whisper and move her hands over the scabbed remnants of Tak’i’s Tethers as they had been cut about 10cm from her skull. The scabs began to darken against Tak’i’s pale translucent skin before the circular ruminants of her tethers folded in on themselves and closed leaving only the healed knobs. Tak’i sighed in relief.

“Thank you Opal.” she said in a newfound clear voice, reverberating before and after every word in the minds of those around her. “You do realize the whole talking without a mouth thing is very unnerving.” Torren stated flatly looking at Opal. “Do you think they might notice that her wounds have been healed?” he said sharply. Malfite eyed him harshly at the tone of his voice, looked at his mate and stood moving menacingly toward Torren. “You may speak to your mate as if she where a pet, however if you take that tone of voice again with mine, I will slowly rip your limbs off.” Torren eyed Malfite fearfully and backed away from him raising his clawed hands defensively. “I meant no offense Malfite I was simply suggesting that it might draw attention from the slavers if she were healed.” Malfite did not look convinced or in any way placated. “So you say we cut them open again?” he growled. “Of course not why would you even suggest that?” Torren whined. “Then why did you open your mouth if not to insult my Opal for helping Tak’i?”

Cortis stood and moved between the two of them placing her clawed hand against Malfite’s chest gently and beckoned him to lower his head down to her height with her claw, all the while gently raking her the claws on her other hand across his chest. Malfite scowled and bent at the waist until he was head level with Cortis. She leaned in close to his mammoth form and whispered in his ear. “You won’t really take his death from me will you?” she asked in an almost pleading panicked voice, yet when she leaned back to look him in his eyes she had the same soft reassuring smile she had when she approached him. Her eyes searched his for an answer and after a moment was met with his roar of laughter. He turned and walked away from the both of them with a smile and sat next to his mate once more.

He leaned in close to his mate and whispered. “I do believe his mate is going to kill him in his sleep.” he whispered with a smile. Opal smiled back and patted her mate’s leg. “Everything works out in time dear.”

A dull thud resounded through the room and the floor jarred gently in the direction of the door. Malfite looked around the room noting that the others seemed startled as well.

“Attention all traders and staff, we have been struck by a rogue gravimetric pulse. This pulse has not caused any damage to the station and to our knowledge has not damaged any of your ships, however we will be sending enforcers to each of your stalls to guard them for the next 15 minutes while you check your vessels and insure the safety of your cargo. We hope to have everything sorted and be back on schedule within the hour. We apologize for any inconvenience this interruption causes. Thank you for your time.” The intercom clicked off and the group again looked around at each other, now uncomfortable in the knowledge that the pulse had neither been predicted or properly counteracted. “I was under the impression that all stations had automated systems that would compensate for these types of events. Especially this close to the rim, if they didnt a black hole would have wiped it out long ago.” Tak’i stated looking at the Curvers for an answer. Tinkerer stood to his whole meter of height and straightened his vest. He began to chitter making gestures with his hands and giving what seemed to be a very long winded technical description of some sort. It took nearly ten minutes for him to finish but when he did he looked at Tak’i expectantly. Malfite looked painfully at Tinkerer and then turned to Tak’i. “He says you are correct.” Malfite said simply and Tinkerer glared daggers at him, Salvager clasped his paw with hers and he nodded and visibly deflated, the two of them curling up together and seemingly ignoring the group.

A Kentari guard opened the slit in the cell door and announced to the group that they had 10 minutes before they went to the block. “You will go down the corridor and be chained to your podiums, go where you are told and do what you are told and you will not be punished. If you defy me while I take you there you will be tortured and then you will be taken to the block. Either way you go to the block.” After his little speech he slammed the slit shut again and the room became deathly silent.

Meanwhile in the control room of K-hub 8432 Gorrak was getting very frustrated with his astrometrics officer. “You say the pulse came from nowhere? How exactly does a pulse of that magnitude just appear from nothing. Before you answer I would like to remind you that if you tell me that you do not know one more time you will die.” Koupu sat at his station contemplating his next words very carefully. “The pulse originated from only 1000 km out from the station at a bearing of 030 at 48 degrees to our station, as far as I can tell that is why it was not compensated for, there was simply not enough time for the computer to register that it was occurring and to make the necessary corrections. As to what caused the pulse in the first place I need to do more research about similar events that have occurred in the archives.” Gorrak eyed the officer and nodded. “You may begin searching the archives. You have one hour to come up with something helpful.” Koupu turned and immediately began launching search inquiries into the nature and sources of gravimetric pulses.

The guard led Tak’i and her group down a long pristine white hallway that led into the main circular forum of the market district. The market district was divided into a hundred or so stalls in a circle selling anything from weapons and armored exosuits to slaves and exotic pets that you could not find on the core worlds. There where also stalls that sold rare ores only found in the outer rings of planets and belts that simply didn’t exist in the more central systems and they sold for a mint.

The circle was divided into two halves with heavily armed checkpoints at the two locations where the halves joined. On the left side of the ring from the entrance was the military wing, containing ship dealers, weapons dealers, both for ships and for infantry, Armored exosuit dealers were next to the infantry weapons dealers to assist in cross referencing suits and weapons for compatibility.

The right side of the circle contained the distributors of trade goods near the entrance, distributors of standard ores and rare ores where next then the slave pens, then the animal pens.

Tak’i was led to the block from the hallway, her wrists bound from leaving her cell where connected to a hook over her head. She could just touch the cold steel floor if she stood on the tips of her feet. The others of her group were all attached to the same bar that ran across the length of the raised platform. The Curvers were hanging from the bar a good meter off of the ground pitifully trying to make themselves comfortable in their manacles, the Granites were standing comfortably with their wrists attached to the near their chests. The Cormerants were of a similar height to Tak’i however their long foot talons easily supported them, keeping the pressure off of their wrists.

They all looked on to the crowd as it passed them milling about from stall to stall, checking wares and haggling over prices, a few of the dense sea of customers would stop in front of the podiums in front of each of the group reading about their skills and prices, some of them eyed the stock hungrily while others refused to look at them or looked at them with pity.

“He suggests that we view the weapon systems on the station to see if there is anything we would be interested in purchasing, commander.” Tak’i heard this loud and clear in her mind, there was no before or after echo as was the trademark of her species, but a clear and concise female voice almost mechanical in nature as well as monotone.

“I doubt these creatures will have anything of value in the weapons department considering what we saw outside, Avah.” This voice seemed adolescent if she had to guess and seemed to be attempting to imitate the clear monotone speech of his counterpart but not quite getting it right.

Tak’i began to search through the crowd anxiously trying to spot the pair speaking.

Do you hear that Avah? The male voice asked excitedly, breaking the monotone facade completely. That is the psychic resonance of an organic, commander, note the reverberation of the emotions before and after they occur, this indicates that the species have difficulty focusing clear concise tones and statements without intertwining memories and emotions into the broadcast. I would suggest we avoid large groups of them as the overlapping could very well become unintelligible. Avah replied in her monotone. Tak’i didn’t know if the special attention she was being paid by the two was a benefit or a hindrance and a cold knot had formed in the pit of her stomach at being referred to as a psychic organic. Did that mean that the pair were psychic inorganics?

It’s song has changed Avah, it is afraid now. I believe it can hear us. The male stated flatly reverting to his monotone. Where do you believe it is located Avah? It is possible that if we get closer it could communicate back to us. He stated hopefully. It would be advisable to have a crew member that can communicate with us directly and that also knows the political climate of this galaxy. My scan indicates that the creature is on the opposite side of the market in an are listed as a slave block. Apparently we are lucky as the creature seems to be for sale. Avah’s emotionless reply made the male very angry, as her emotionless responses always did when presented in very stressful situations. The two turned in the direction that Avah indicated and began walking, their Kentari envoy scrambling to join them once he noticed their departure from the weapons stall. “Is there something that I can help you find my friends?” he asked in his races common lispy drawl. “My commander has indicated to me that he wishes to purchase a particular commodity that we have not seen before. We are working our way toward it now.”

I am very sorry if I offended you by overhearing you and your companion, I am unable to focus enough to block you out. Please don’t be angry with me. The commander halted in his tracks attempting to find the source of the voice through the divider between the two halves of the station. I am not angry, I am curious. He stated flatly as he moved toward the security checkpoint. The two Kentari guards standing at the scanners eyed him warily as he approached. They could detect the metals and chip sets of the small bipedal android to his left, almost knee height to the giant, chest height to themselves, but their sensors could detect nothing from him, it was strange as normally if someone where in shielded armor they would appear as black on the scanner, in this case however it was as if there was nothing there at all. His only existence to their system was the light reflected off of his suit giving him form.

Their envoy, a Kentari by the name of Kelpic, walked up to the checkpoint noting the hesitation in the two enforcers. “Does there seem to be a problem with our guests’ acceptance into the next partition? I was told he would have access to the full trade sector, has the situation changed?” The enforcer nodded his head in respect to Kelpic. “No, our screens say that he has full access to the markets.” the enforcer glanced at his fellow guard and lowered his voice. “Our concern is that our guest is armed and heading into the area where the slaves are housed. That is against protocol and we all know it.” Kelpic nodded as the enforcer spoke and replied just as quietly. “I understand your concern, I would however like to inform you that he is unarmed, and that going into the next area will be fine.” he put on his most convincing smile and the enforcer nodded slowly. “Sorry for the wait sir, your party may pass.” he waved his hand over his console and the doors blocking the entrance to the right side partition opened.

As they began to walk through them Avah looked at the commander and initiated a private conversation. Your resonance indicates that this situation angers you greatly. What has upset you commander? He did not understand how she didn’t already know. Their people, when they were alive, had boasted a free society of communication and trade, however never in their historical texts had sentient organics been allowed to be sold. It had been tried and smugglers had been caught but his people had laid waste to the societies that had this mentality. A tree can not own a tree, sand can not own sand. This was not a difficult concept to grasp. Slavery. He stated flatly. I understand commander, since my death I am unable to calculate the emotional responses, please forgive me. She replied in her same monotone drawl.

He relaxed and focused on her smaller robotic avatar. I forget sometimes that you are only an echo, I will have to focus more on not being frustrated with your inefficiencies.

Tak’i was beginning to shake visibly at this turn in the conversation, Avah was apparently what her people called a Felkin, a very powerful consciousness able to keep itself from dispersing at the moment of death by attaching its will and its focus to a cause, her people had not had one of these dark creatures occur in over 8000 cycles of their home-world around its sun. This Avah however was acting odd for one of those normally raging killers. She did not seem to have emotion at all and seemed very much in obedience to her commander. She is directly ahead of us commander, the one in the middle with the little knobs on her head. She tried to control her shaking and began looking around the room frantically, her gold and teal eyes with black sclera not knowing what to look for.

A rare disturbance in the crowd of shoppers drew her attention to a gap that was forming off to her right, patrons of all species were moving around a trio moving toward her from the security station on her right. A pair of very expensive looking androids were following one of the very finely robed envoys of the station, usually only assigned to very powerful or very rich merchants or pirates.

The procession walked to the podiums in front of the stage that the slaves where presented on and began reading the information collected on the 7 of them during their interrogations as well as their prices and what was assumed to be their most basic needs for survival. The two androids moved back and forth in front of the stage talking among themselves but saying nothing to anyone, Tak’i could no longer hear them either as it seemed that they had found out a way to block her hearing their conversations. The could still feel the energy coming off of the larger android confirming for her that it was the one she was speaking with. As they walked back and forth in front of her she eyed them taking in every detail. The larger of the two androids appeared to be a well used but well maintained combat model, standard hydraulic hip, rear facing knee with drag plate, armored ankle with locking hooks currently retracted for keeping grip on deck plating or on ice, the whole legs portion of the machine seemed unnecessarily armor plated as though the intended speed of the design would be hindered by its bulk, the chest and arms portion of the android was also heavily armor plated and what looked like thick bladed weapons were laced along the forearms top and bottom.

One thing that caught her attention about the head was that it did not appear designed to move, there was what seemed to be a single lens in the center of the face, one on each side and one on the back of the head. The hands portion of what she now considered to be a front-line assault droid had five armored fingers with multiple sensors and what might have been a field medical kit, as she considered the craftsmanship and ease of movement along with what seemed to be runes embedded into the armor over every inch in beautiful detail, she realized that this single android would likely cost more than a jungle moon.

The smaller of the two androids moved in the same lifelike manner as the larger but when it stood still, there was no weight shifting like the larger, it stood as though perfectly balanced and had a standard forward facing knee as well as no armaments to speak of. While the larger appeared intimidating the smaller seemed as though it was designed for the opposite effect, sleek and unarmored it appeared as though if it fell it would break, though it did also have the same intricate scrollwork as the larger. The smaller of the two spoke to the slave merchant but did not turn to look at him, something that Tak’i knew was a grave insult in the eyes of the Kentari. “My commander wishes to know if I may speak to your wares about their abilities onboard spacecraft in regards to the roles they might potentially fill.’’ The merchant was enraged by the show of disrespect and bared his teeth taking a step toward the smaller android growling low in his throat, the spines on his head and neck raising and quivering. Kelpic moved quickly to the merchant grasping his shoulder tightly and whispering to him. Tak’i could not tell what was said but the merchant froze and his spines flattened against his skin which began to pale. Kelpic turned to the two androids and bowed his head in apology, a rare sight for a Kentari envoy.