A long time ago, far, far away from any charted galaxy…
Enjali Wing leaned over the intercom, trying to shout over the blaring alarms.
"Say again, Captain," she yelled. "We didn't copy."
The other pirates in the cargo bay of the Turncoat Star grabbed for handholds as the ship rocked and bucked.
The intercom crackled. "I said dump the payload! Do you copy? Dump the payload!"
Enjali looked uncertainly at the rest of the cargo bay crew: a grizzled old cyborg named Chandos Bhee, young Urki, and the Yish.
"The payload? But..."
The entire ship rocked and went dark. The alarms went silent.
In the sudden quiet, the Yish gurgled something unintelligible. Chandos translated:
"Engines out. Probably took a direct hit."
A moment later the lights blinked back on with a low hum as backup power took over. The dull thump of bulkhead doors slamming down echoed down the hallways of the ship.
The intercom hissed back to life.
"Cargo bay, do you copy? We are disabled, and are about to be boarded by Imperial marshalls. Dump the payload!"
Enjali pressed the intercom with one of her claws.
"Yes sir, copy, but sir..."
"I said space them!" the intercom roared. "I'm sending the first officer down there to make sure it happens."
With an electric snap, the intercom went dead.
Enjali exchanged a shocked look with Chandos and Urki, who actually had eyes.
The Yish, who had five legs, a gelatinous body, and nothing even approximating a face, made a burbling sound.
"She's right," said Urki. He was a new recruit from the Oquaro galaxy: slim, bright yellow, and a bit naive. "What's the point of dumping cargo when the marshalls are already on top of us?"
"It ain't our job to make sense of orders," replied Chandos.
Urki turned toward Enjali. She snarled at him. She had pointed teeth and a fiendish look to her, and could be quite terrifying when she wanted to be.
"Don't look at me, kid," she said. "The old man is right. We just do what we're told."
Urki gestured in frustration, his gill-wings lighting up bright violet. He was still a juvenile, and he tended to get excited easily.
"But we're not carrying intel or biologics or contraband."
"You knew what we were hauling when you signed up," Enjali snapped.
"I didn't know we'd be dumping them!"
Enjali softened her snarl and put a clawed hand on Urki's shoulder.
"Kid, this is really not the time to acquire a conscience," she said.
They were interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps clanking down the ladder from the upper decks. The hatch swung open. The first mate, a cyclopean mass of muscle, climbed down into the bay. He was followed by a half-dozen vaguely arachnid sentry droids. Dropping to the floor, the droids moved to either side, blasters at the ready. The first mate scanned the bay with his single eye.
"Well?" he asked. "What are you all standing around for?"
Chandos reached for the main console. "Just opening the hold now, sir."
"No, wait," Urki said.
The first mate's ugly green eye swiveled toward the semi-aquatic alien.
"We can't do this." Urki asked. "They're not contraband. They're people."
"Kid, shut up," Enjali hissed.
The first mate's eye wobbled dangerously. "They are contraband. And the captain's orders are to space them."
"I didn't sign on for this," Urki said. "I won't do it."
The first mate signaled to the droids.
The nearest one lifted its rifle and blasted Urki point blank in the chest.
The yellow alien slumped to the floor.
"Let me make this simpler," the first mate said to the rest of the cargo crew. "Either they get spaced, or you do. Are we clear?"
Enjali and Chandos looked at each other. The Yish gargled uncertainly.
"They won't all fit in the docking airlock. It'll take time to vacuum rinse them in groups," Chandos translated.
"We'll have to move them to the hangar and flush them out the main bay," the first mate said. "Wing, bring three cases of charges and a detonator."
"Aye, sir," she said, and started for the hold.
The hold was even louder than the rest of the ship. Enjali strode between the rows of containment cells, ignoring the shouts of the slaves echoing about the screech of the alarms.
The smell was harder to ignore. While Enjali had long since grown used to the stale reek, now the air was pungent with fear. The prisoners knew the ship was under attack, but they didn't know by who or why. Their terror fed into each other.
Enjali was almost to the munitions locker when she heard the woman's voice:
"Look at me."
Enjali's feet stopped, though she had intended to keep walking. In spite of herself, she glanced into the cramped cell.
A figure wrapped in dirty rags crouched on the dirty floor. After a moment of squinting into the unlit cell, Enjali was able to make out a face among the rags: female, humanoid, heavily scarred. Dusky skin blended in with the shadows at the back of the hold. Dark eyes glittered.
"Talk to me," the woman said. Her quiet voice was strangely compelling in among the noise of the hold.
"I haven't got time," Enjali said.
But she stayed where she was. The cacophony of the other prisoners and the alarms faded into the background. Even the rocking of the ship from the ongoing space battle seemed somehow muted.
"Tell me what is happening," the woman urged Enjali.
"The captain…" Enjali started, but caught herself. She shook her head, trying to clear it. "You don't want know."
"I do want to know," the woman said.
Enjali dug through her memory, trying to recall anything about this particular slave. Mostly Enjali remembered the ones who caused trouble, and this woman hadn't. For months she had simply rotted in her cell, vanishing into the shadows with the other quiet and despairing prisoners.
The scarred woman closed her eyes and cocked her head as if she were listening to something. "The marshals set an ambush. Your captain ordered you to dump the cargo before the ship is boarded." Her eyes snapped open, aghast. "But… we are the only cargo you are carrying."
At last Enjali was able to throw off the strange quiet that had come over her during the conversation. Her hearing returned to normal, and the chaos of the holding cells came crashing back down around her.
"I said you didn't want to know, didn't I?" she told the prisoner.
She hurried away from the cell. Enjali reached the munitions locker a few steps farther down the cellblock, and began scooping explosive cases into a large sack.
"Wing," the comlink rasped in her ear. "Status."
She squeezed the comlink. "Finishing up."
She slung the bag of explosives over her shoulder and stuffed the remote detonator in her vest.
The comlink hissed again. "I'm opening the cells now."
"Copy."
Enjali pulled a heavy blaster off of the wall. She headed back into the cell bay just as a loud metal clank announced the opening of the cell block. Enormous cranes in the ceiling of the bay winched the metal partitions separating the tiny containment cells upwards. The slaves blinked at each other in confusion.
"Alright, move," Enjali shouted at them.
She aimed her blaster upwards, at the metal partitions still hanging over the middle cellblock, and pulled the trigger. Sparks rained down on the cowering slaves.
"Move!" she repeated. "Cell bay doors, on your left. Single file. Move, or I'll blast a hole in you next."
As the slaves filed past, Enjali felt the strange, lulling calmness descending around her again. She looked up, unsurprised to find herself falling into step beside the woman. In the dim light of the open cargo bay, Enjali was able to get a better look at her. Only the jet black skin of her face and hands were visible: the rest of her was wrapped head-to-toe in loose-fitting, dirty robes. One half of her heart-shaped face was was covered with a thick web of knotted keloid scars, suggesting radiation or chemical burns.
Noticing the pirate's scrutiny, the scarred woman pulled a fold of fabric over the bottom her face, hiding everything except her coal-dark eyes.
"You don't want to do this," the woman said softly.
This time it was easier to resist the weird calm. It took effort, but Enjali was able to push it off into a corner of her mind and ignore it.
"No, I don't," she acknowledged. "But old one-eye says it's either you or me. And no offense, but I'd rather it was you."
Frustrated, the scarred woman fell silent.
Herded by the pirates and a handful of sentry droids, the slaves shuffled through the bay doors through the narrow corridors. They were taking too long, Enjali knew. The ship was still shaking from blaster fire, so the shields were still up. But with the engines disabled, they wouldn't last long.
The slaves filed into the large, empty hanger that usually held the pirate ship's four small pursuit fliers. The had left to join the space battle, and presumably would not be returning. The sentry droids backed the slaves up to the edge of the magnetically-shielded opening. Behind them a starless view of the Void filled the view, the black emptiness broken only by drifting wreckage from the recent battle.
The Yish gargled worriedly at the one-eyed first mate.
"What did it say?" he asked.
"The magnetic seal on the bay has safeties to prevent exactly this," said Chandos the cyborg.
"Well, somebody get over there and disable them."
Enjali and the cyborg looked at each other. The Yish burbled something, probably complaining that this was exactly the sort of job that they had kept young Urki around for. Chandos didn't bother translating.
Enjali said, "I don't know how to do that, but I can rig some of these explosives around the controls and the support struts. Even if it doesn't override the safeties, it'll breach the magnetic seal. Failing that, the explosion will kill most of them.
The one-eyed first mate nodded. "Do it."
Enjali handed two cases of explosives to Chandos and the Yish, who headed into the next corridor to set up the ambush. Grabbing the last case of explosives, she walked into the hangar and waded straight into the massed slaves gathered at the end of the hangar.
They parted around her like she was magnetically repellant.
Off to one side, Enjali spotted the scarred woman in the dirty rags, huddling in the stinking press of the other slaves. Enjali walked past her, over to the left side of the hangar bay opening. The Void yawned off to her right, the empty vacuum separated from her by the invisible barrier of the magnetic shielding. She knelt beside the control panel and began ripping out wires and attaching explosives.
The ship had stopped shuddering, which meant the battle outside was effectively over. Any minute now the marshals would board.
The slaves watched her work in grim silence. After a moment, the scarred woman pushed through to the edge of the silent crowd.
"Please," the woman said. "Don't leave us to die."
Baring her pointed teeth, Enjali gave the woman a ferocious sneer. She turned back to the control panel. She felt the dark eyes on her, and braced herself to fight off the strange pressure of the woman's voice. But this time the woman simply watched her.
Instead, one of the other slaves, a boy wrapped in the same style of head-to-toe robes, squirmed through the crowd to reach the scarred woman. He tugged on her sleeve. She put a hand on his shoulder.
The gesture gave Enjali a sharp pang of regret as she thought of young Urki, lying on the floor of the cargo bay with a hole in his chest.
The stupid, stupid kid.
Sighing, Enjali reached into the console and deactivated the explosives inside. She hoped the sentry droids weren't paying close attention. Leaning over the open case of explosives, she entered her code into the detonator and de-synced the rest of charges in the case.
She carried the case over to the other side of the shielded opening.
"Wing!" the first mate shouted across the hangar. "Time's up!"
Enjali quickly slapped the dud charges on the opposite support beam and jogged back to the first mate.
Chandos and the Yish had already finished placing the charges for the ambush, and had taken up defensive positions in the outside corridor. The first mate was having an urgent conversation over his comlink.
"The marshals are on their way," the first mate told her.
One after another, the arachnid sentry droids backed out into the corridor. The slaves stayed where they were, crowded at the back of the hangar.
Enjali punched the outside panel. The blast door slammed shut, leaving the prisoners to their fate.
The captain's voice squawked over the comlink. "Do not surrender. Do not let them take anyone alive. Repeat. Do not let Imperial marshalls take you alive."
The ship groaned and shuddered-not the shaking of blaster fire, but the feel of another ship bumping into it. A moment later, Enjali felt the dull percussion of explosives.
The Yish gurgled.
"Here they come," Chandos agreed.
Blasters echoed in the main corridor. Enjali squeezed into a corner behind a mass of exposed metal scaffolding along the corridor wall. Enjali pulled out the detonator and held it where the first mate could see it.
An amplified voice called out: "This is the Marshall of the Unity Empire. Surrender! And you will not be harmed!"
The first mate rolled his single green eye towards the cargo crew and hissed: "Anyone tries to surrender, I'll shoot you myself."
Enjali glanced furtively at Chandos. The cyborg merely grunted.
"This is your final warning!" the amplified voice boomed. "Surrender!"
"Wing," the first mate said. "Now."
Enjali squeezed the button on the detonator.
The hallway exploded. The explosion in the adjacent hangar bay-the one that was supposed to doom the slaves to a slow death by vacuum- was conspicuously absent, Enjali thought. But everyone in the corridor was preoccupied with ambushing the boarders, and no one else seemed to notice.
Smoke rolled in the corridor.
"Did we get them?" Chandos asked.
In answer, blaster fire erupted from the hallway. The first mate motioned the sentry droids forward into the smoky corridor. Enjali squeezed off a few shots, but it was difficult to see who she was shooting at.
One after the other, the sentry droids fell.
The blaster fire stopped.
"Surrender to the Unity Empire!" the voice announced again. "And you will not be harmed!"
"Yaaah!" the one-eyed mate yelled, and charged down the corridor. A moment later he ran into a wall of blaster fire, and toppled to the ground.
"Finally," Enjali muttered, and lowered her weapon.
She heard armored footsteps entering the corridor.
"Come out," the voice ordered.
Holding her blaster to the side, she stepped out from behind the scaffolding. At least a dozen stormtroopers pointed their weapons at her. Chandos was lying face-down on the ground. She couldn't see the Yish.
A human wearing the uniform of the Imperial Marshalls pushed his way through the stormtroopers and stepped forward. Enjali held up her arms.
"I surrender," she said.
Nicholaius Girard, Marshall of the Unity Empire, stepped the intermingled bodies of the pirates and stormtroopers. The tight corridors of the slaver ship were littered with corpses and smoking sentry droids. Girard's deputy marshalls had spread out into the rest of the ship with their contingents of stormtroopers, sweeping for survivors or cargo.
"Where is the bridge?" Girard asked.
A passing stormtrooper pointed a thumb at narrow spiral stairwell, currently blocked by the smoking body of a reptilian alien. The marshall pulled the corpse off the stairway, and climbed up to the open hatch.
In the cramped bridge of the ship, he found more of the same: several dead officers, a disabled comms droid, and an array of smoking consoles. In the captain's chair, a delicate-bodied Exorayyt was enveloped by mostly-transparent pressure suit. The suit normally prevented the alien captain's low-gravity exoskeleton from rupturing in the pressured environment of the ship, but now both the suit and the captain had been punctured with by several rounds of blaster fire. The life support fluid slowly dribbled out onto the floor. A trio of stormtroopers watched over the captain's slow death.
One of the commandos saluted. "Nothing much below decks. Only a handful of the crew surrendered."
"What was this ship carrying?"
"The hold was used for transporting slaves, but it has been completely emptied. We think the crew spaced the prisoners."
Shaking his head in disgust, the marshall stepped over to the captain's chair.
"This is a ship full of corpses," he said to the dying captain.
The fragile alien wheezed. "Good."
"Good?" the marshall said disbelievingly. "One thing to order your crew to their death. But ordering the mass murder of your prisoners to prevent them from being taken alive? That takes a deeply evil and disordered conscience. Even for you pirates."
"I know... what you do... to the living..."
"You were taking these slaves to be work in vacuum mines, where they would almost certainly die of radiation poisoning. Or worse." Girard's anger started to boil up. "They would have had a chance at life under the Unity Empire."
"Better to be dead..."
The captain trailed off. The suit began to deflate as the life support mechanisms shut down.
"How convenient for you, then," Girard said coldly.
Turning to the darkened command console, he examined the damage.
"Remove all the data and get it to the intel droids," he told the nearest stormtrooper. "Maybe there's something useful we can salvage out of this mess."
Another stormtrooper waved for his attention. "Message from below, marshall."
The stormtrooper handed him a comlink. As he listened to the report, Girard turned looked back at the deceased captain. The fragile body had collapsed into a shapeless sack of fluid and was slowly oozing out of the chair onto the floor.
"Well, now," he informed the deflated corpse. "Looks like some of you pirates have consciences after all."
Girard made his way back down to the main level. He clambered down a narrow access ladder to the cargo hold and main hangar.
One of his deputy marshalls waited for him at the door to the hangar. "There were charges rigged to blow out the magnetic shielding. They meant to space the slaves. But someone deactivated the charges."
Girard stepped into the hangar. Inside, he found a squad of stormtroopers guarding close to two hundred dirty, cowering slaves.
The marshall spread his arms magnanimously and walked towards the prisoners.
"New citizens of the Unity Empire," he addressed them. "Welcome."