RP: United Outer Colonies Pirates Cove

[OOC: Just wanted to note; this thread is being done here as I was instructed to do it here. I have already informed Kim]

one year before

Aboard the Privately Owned Miner - Sakeyune, 16 lightyears east of Ayano

A rush of heat blasted out from a side corridor, throwing a young eleven year old girl harshly against the wall. She fell onto the deck with a thud and laid there for awhile.

She could hear someone shouting her name; but she couldn't will her body to move, instead all she could do was listen as a set of footsteps receded into the background.

As her eyes fluttered open; she tasted something coppery in her mouth but banished it from her mind as she sat up and looked around. "Onii-chan?" the girl said and looked around, though she found it difficult to see out of her left eye.

Her ears were drawn to the sound of a room being depressurized nearby; she started to get up, her legs shaky and body fighting the will to move. Slowly she stumbled toward the door and looked through a small glass separator before her eyes fell upon a shuttle laying in the center of the bay.

She could see movement in the cockpit; with the banging of her fist against the door, she shouted her brother's name but after a full minute of him not turning toward her she realized that he couldn't hear her.

Then, their eyes locked. He had gone to the back of the shuttle and was staring out the door, she could tell he was talking to someone else as his head turned away and his lips began to move. She assumed he was talking to the shuttles onboard AI, a temporary AI at that which was only designed to handle basic shuttle operations.

Suddenly, the bay lit up red as the engines fired. The girl shouted her brother's name again; but it was for naught, as the shuttle disappeared beyond her ability to see it. Tears ran down her face as she slumped onto the deck.

The clattering of boots brought her back to her senses as she turned around and saw four people standing several feet away. They all carried what appeared to be assault weapons and were covered from head to toe in armor with their faces also masked.

One of them turned to his companions and said something; something she couldn't hear. Then the one who spoke walked casually up toward her.

"She's bloodied, but a good scrub down will make her a fine slave," he said. The girl scowled and bit down on the man's hand, which wasn't covered in armor. Her teeth sunk into the flesh with enough force to draw blood. With a ruthless yank, and a slap across the face with the butt of a gun, the girl was thrown onto the deck - now rendered unconscious.

"Son of a.. she bite me!" the man complained as blood dripped from his hand.

"Be thankful that's all she did," one of his companions said. "Take her back to the ship, seems we've no other prizes left. The bridge was destroyed so this ship is pretty much useless to us, the reactor was locked down and our techs can't break into it," he sighed and looked back out. "Though it seems one of our prizes did get away, no matter, we'll capture that one another day."

With that they tied the girl up and carried her off the ship.

Hour's ticked by, perhaps days, before the girl was suddenly woken up by a cold breeze that blew across her face. She stared up at a brown, somewhat rusted colored ceiling.

She pushed herself up and looked around. The room she was in was rather small and resembled the living quarters aboard an industrial sized factory. Her wrists were chained to the bed and she felt something around her neck. Placing her hand there, she realized it was a collar of some type.

Looking around some more; she found another bed and another set of chains lying on the ground. The realization already setting in; she knew she wasn't aboard her ship and she knew she wasn't in the hands of people who wouldn't harm her, based solely off her chained wrist.

Beyond the walls; she heard the sound of an engine whining and knew right there that she wasn't on a station but rather a ship; she was able to make that distinction by how the sound traveled through the metal.

She noticed, upon looking down, that she was still wearing the same clothing she had been wearing before waking up; it now smelled of copper though and was torn in various areas. The smell from it made her gag; she went for a small pocket and found that it was empty. "Eh? Where are they?!" she said in a panic as she searched the two pockets she had and found that what she was looking for wasn't there.

Her ears perked up when she heard the sound of a boot somewhere beyond the steel door. She got up slowly and backed up against the wall, the door then opened and a heavily armored man with a bandanna walked in. He didn't say a word and instead detached the chain from the bed, grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the cell; this was followed by her letting out a yelp of pain.

He pushed her down the hallway and up a flight of stairs. When they had gone up two flights the man pushed her out of the stairs and into another hallway. "Where are we going?" she asked him but he just glared at her and kept pushing her.

As they got close to a door; the sound of cheering and laughter could be heard beyond it. She was then pushed through the door and fell flat on her face, the laughter and cheering continued uninterrupted though some of those in the room seemed to laughing in her direction.

The man who had been pushing her along told her to get up; and she complied, when she did she saw exactly what was going on. A feast of some sort, with drunken pirates who were staggering about the room and falling asleep on their rears, or on their faces. Others were having a fight in a corner and some of the pirates were betting on who would win.

Toward another corner she saw a female who looked to be in her late teens filling up a mug of another pirate; when the girl spilled some of the booze, he struck her and started yelling and beating her. A sense of fear ran down the girls back as she now knew that she wasn't going to get away without at some sort of a bruising.

"Who's this?" she heard a man's voice from somewhere ahead of her. She turned to find a tall, dark, bearded and clean shaved man sitting in what looked to be a throne. He wore long black pants and a white torn up shirt. He had a cigarette in his mouth and smoked it.

"Our prize for that ship," said the man who stood behind her; he then pushed her down onto the ground and pressed the butt end of his gun against her back. She struggled, but found that she had no way of getting him off of her. "I dunno what we can do with her, I say we kill her and dump her on the nearest Yamatai world and pin it on the UOC," the man suggested. The girl noted that his voice was full of venom.

The man's boss, who sat in the throne, pushed his suggestion aside and said. "Forget it, it won't work. We'll turn her into a slave, as a kid, she'll be well taken care of by our fellow crewmen," he said and drew in some of the cigarette he smoked. "What's your name girl?" he asked her.

She felt the butt end of the gun as it was released from her back; she stood up and said. "L-Layven," and was promptly retreated to being forced back down onto the ground, this time with enough force that her nose started to bleed slightly.

"Stupid name," said the pirate boss as he rubbed his chin. "No matter, you'll learn quickly that slaves have no names here, just numbers," he grinned at her. "Also, don't think you can escape, out here in the vastness of space? That won't work. Not to mention, if you try and board an escape pod we'll blow it to pieces," he looked away from her and at the man who was beside her. "Take her back to her cell, make certain she gets at least something to eat," he ordered.

"What do you want me to do with these?" the man pulled out a pill bottle and showed it to his boss. His boss grabbed the bottle and looked it over, then laughed before throwing it into the air and drawing a pistol on his belt. He promptly shot the bottle, and its contents fell onto the ground either burned or intact but too far for Layven to grab.

The pirate boss placed his pistol back in its holster and then looked at Layven. "Well now, punishing you will be even more invigorating," he grinned and gestured to his fellow pirate. The man forced her up and attached a chain to the collar that was around her neck. He then yanked it hard and she fell onto the ground. He dragged her for several feet before she quickly got up and started following the man.

As they headed back to her cell, Layven thought about her brother and how he had gotten off the ship. She wondered where he was, what he was now doing, and how much time had actually passed since that day.

All she did that night was think about the past, lying on the bed, her wrists chained to it. She knew the possibility of her being able to get back to her brother was almost impossible, there was just no way it could be done. With that thought in her mind, she turned onto her side and tears came out of her eyes. She spent an hour crying, and eventually fell asleep.

When she was awoken the next morning; she found herself running through various places, being told what to do and meeting other slaves, some about her age, but the majority of them were much older. She had learned from them that the pirates won't hesitate to kill you if you spoke out of turn, or if you did something stupid.

Layven had also heard of a girl who had spilled booze, had been 'spaced' earlier in the day. When she asked, she learned it was the girl she had witnessed when she was in what the pirates referred to as the 'festival room'

"Just try to act natural and don't do anything stupid," one of her fellow slaves suggested to her and motioned toward the walls. "There are cameras all over, so it's impossible for us to get away with stuff," the slave sighed.

Though Layven did know one thing; though she knew that it was almost impossible, she had to try. She would try all her might to do whatever it took.

An unknown amount of weeks later, Layven witnessed a taste of what would happen if a slave tried to escape. She had been taking care of another pirate when another slave, an older boy who she had learned was in his upper teens, had broken way from his master.

He bolted through a door and into an escape pod and slammed it shot, but not before one of the pirates drew a pistol and fired but missed. The pod was shot out of the ship and flew away from it.

Layven looked out the porthole at the pod as it began to disappear, then she saw a flash as one of the ships recessed laser turrets came online and opened fire on the pod.

Several shots missed at first, until finally one salvo found it's mark - blowing the pod apart. Layven turned away from this sight, and heard the pirates in the room laugh and cheer.

"Good riddance! Though now we need another slave to replace that useless one!" one pirate shouted with laughter.

Layven was grossed out but kept her composure. Another pirate spoke up, all of the slaves were to be punished for that one slaves mistake. Layven hated this, she had only been punished once before and that was after she had arrived.

The ship had nearly a hundred slaves, but Layven knew at least five died every two or so weeks. It was rare for a slave to survive longer than a month as most lost it before hand.

The pirate boss she learned was named 'Markis' while her 'master' was named 'Louis'.

Louis didn't treat her very great, and she wasn't expecting it. She had been tasked with keeping his quarters clean, and by clean, he made certain that not even a speck of dust was left on anything he owned.

His quarters were posh, which surprised Layven considering that he had the look of a lowly pirate. The reality was that he was Markis's Leutinant, she had heard from another slave that Louis only get's 'child' slaves because he can control them better.

Layven's 'cell' had been moved to his room, she had a small little alcove inside the closest. She had a single bed, and only a small pitcher of water. Despite her being a slave though, he feed her at least enough to where she wouldn't go starving.

"Get to sleep slave," the lieutenant ordered her and closest the doors to her little alcove. She laid there on the bed, and waited until the light was out. She had a number, but it was only used by other pirates, Louis usually just referred to her as slave or by Lay.

As she lay there thinking; she wondered if her brother was ok. She was not able to tell what day it was, or how much time had passed, the pirates somehow wanted to make certain that they never knew how long they were there. But as Layven turned her bed over she recovered a piece of wood that she had managed to take from her old cell and placed another mark on it - this mark was her seventieth mark.

Nine months before present

Layven stared out the porthole, in the distance she noticed a nebula that gleamed brightly in space. She didn't know its name; in fact, most of the places they've been passing by lately she knew nothing of.

In the past three months since she had been turned into a slave; she'd learned much of what this place was. She was aboard a luxurious cruise liner that was made to be deceitful. The internal portions of the ship were glossed over and made to appear like any normal civilian liner, its weapons emplacements all recessed into strategically located areas.

The internals were also made to throw off security forces; there were only a few areas of the ship that actually bore the mark of piracy, such as those areas that the security forces didn't inspect. The bridge, engine room, recreational halls, and most of the sleeping quarters were kept very clean and the pirates themselves often took on the disguise of crew in order to further throw off suspicion. It was a neat little set up, Layven thought as served booze to one of the pirates.

She had learned most of what she needed to know to stay alive; she knew better than to back talk, or to try and resist, no matter how much she wanted to. Likewise, she knew better than to make a scene in certain areas of the ship.

Along with what she knew about its externals and some of its internals, she also recorded the location of everything she knew on board. Each deck had defensive turrets located on the ceilings; some were recessed and cleverly hidden - again to throw off the security forces. However, those located in areas where the inspection teams didn't go, had their turrets in plain few.

One such area was the slave holding pens, located aft of the ship just a few hundred feet from the engine room. The heat from the room was intentionally piped to the slave pens in order to make their lives as miserable as possible. The main doors leading down into the pen, which Layven was no longer allowed to go to, had four turrets, two aimed at the door and two aimed down the only hallway leading to it.

"Get me more booze slave!" shouted another pirate in the recreational room. Layven obeyed and quickly recovered some booze from a small chest located nearest the main doors. Since she had started earlier this morning, there were only two other slaves in the room - most were out cleaning the decks or otherwise indisposed. She had heard a rumor that they would be getting close to a UOC controlled planet and that there was a remote possibility that could be boarded for inspection.

From what Layven had seen already; the inspection teams would be fooled yet again. They are just too clever, thought Layven as she poured booze into the pirates mug. The pirate wrenched it away from her, causing some of its contents to splash onto her clothing. It smelled sickly to her senses, but then again, everything smelled bad in this place.

With a sigh she stood up and walked back over toward the chest and waited; as she waited to be called, she placed a hand around her neck.

A metallic collar had been fastened around her neck; the collar had a tiny explosive charge in it - which would kill her instantly if she tried to escape. She had learned awhile back that the slave she had witnessed being killed the escape pod wouldn't have survived long anyway, the collar was designed so that if it was away from a particular signature onboard the ship for to long, the onboard system would detect that and initiate a countdown. The countdown, from what she learned from another slave, was random for each person. It could be anywhere from just a few seconds to a few minutes, no one knew.

The collar had a gold shin to it, and was adorned with fake diamonds and rubies - it was made to look like a regular collar that some high-class women wore. "I wish I could get this off without risking it detonating," she whispered to herself. She had already heard of one slave trying to disarm it, only to be killed when it detected the intrusion. She was glad she wasn't there to witness it, due to her no longer having the ability to control her phobia.

With one final touch of the collar, another pirate yelled at her, she quickly ran over to the man and refilled his mug then was told to get him some food.

She headed over to a small bar that had various items on it; chicken legs, mash potatoes, corn, and a variety of other foods that she wished she could eat. Remembering what this pirate always had, she scoped up a few of the legs and potatoes and some corn - along with a small piece of fruit.

"Here," she handed the pirate his food. He took the chicken and started chewing on it, not bothering to close his mouth while doing so, this disgusted her, but she fought the urge to yell at him for it like she used to do with her brother.

Her day ended a few minutes later when two other slaves came in; because there weren't to many pirates to begin with, they weren't overly needed. "Get back to your alcove," shouted the guard as he detected her chain from a floor rung and literally dragged her back to her room, which was a small closest within another pirates quarters.

She stayed there, chained to a small latch on the wall. On the wall behind her 'bed' were marks that she had started doing from the first day she had been brought there. "Three months practically," she said silently to herself and added another mark, then quickly covered it up.

"Most of the other slaves here can't talk very well," she turned on her bed and sighed. "Most don't talk," she added. She also knew one other thing: slaves weren't permitted to bath; the stench in her alcove was a testament to that. She hadn't bathed in over three months now, and she was already feeling the effects of it.

Layven knew of a few slaves who snuck into the pirates bathing area, and were ruthlessly beaten and later killed when it was discovered what they had done.

There has got to be a way to contact the outside world, to somehow get a message off, but I don't know if I can break into their systems - they keep us under tight watch as it, thought Layven as she closed her eyes to get some sleep.

Four months before present

Layven rubbed the back of her neck; while at the time using her other hand to grip a hand-hold. Her clothing torn, her neck in pain, and her eye-sight in one eye was now gone, and the eye on question now covered in a black cloth though small bits of blood were present just below the cloth.

She had been through terror the past few months; having made a mistake that nearly costed her life. She had attempted to sent a transmission, but had neglected to think that the pirates had stop-gap measures in place. In the process of doing so, she had received a mild shock, but that was just minor compared to the punishment the pirates leader had her endure in an effort to teach her and current slaves a lesson.

Losing part of her eye-sight due a pirate who had gone overboard only added to the problems that she now experienced. She had been deprived food for several days, living only on water and small bits and pieces here and there. She cursed lightly to herself and took a seat on a small cot, she had lost her position but was still held in another area of the ship away from the slave pens.

As she closed her eyes; she allowed herself a sense of peace that she knew wouldn't last long, she had no intention of letting this stop her.

By the next morning; Layven was awake, the ship had stopped in a nearby asteriod field. Looking out the porthole, Layven saw shuttles moving between the ship and what appeared to be an asteriod base. She had heard some screaming and yelling from somewhere above her, carried easily by the ships various empty pipes.

"They are selling," said another slave. Layven turned toward the person who spoke and saw an older women, her face was dirty but she appeared to be in good health regardless. "We don't have to worry about that, we're the pirates pets... they won't sell us unless we prove to be a hindrance,"

"Even after what I did?" Layven asked curiously.

The lady laughed harshly. "You think you're the first person to try to escape, or send off a message? All of us have done it, you'd have to do something a little more serious to get these fools to throw you off," the lady looked off to her left. "Of course, summoning the UOC would be nice, their inspection teams are great but not perfect... they overlook some of the most obvious signs that these guys are hiding something," she shook her head disturbingly.

Lavyen turned back toward the activity outside. She studied the shuttles and where they went, and saw that they disappeared just below her field of view, when the last shuttle disappeared under her she heard the metallics pings of a door sliding shut. "Eh?" she blinked and looked down at the floor.

"They are getting ready to move... you didn't know we were located above the shuttle bay?" asked the lady, to which Layven shook her head. The lady let out a stressful sigh and stood up, the sound of bones creeking made Layven somewhat disgusted.

The room shuddered slightly as the linar's main engines fired up; they started heading away from the asteriod field. For a few hours, Layven had nothing to do - though the slave she had been talking to had since been taken to do her work. She was bored, had a few peices of food she had saved and started nibbling on it.

Looking around the room; she wondered if there was someway she could sneak out and started running her hand along the room. The room itself was drity, smelled somewhat bad and had only two cots. However, after ten minutes she soon found a depression in the wall and, checking to make sure no guards were nearby, dug her finger into the depression and tried to pull it. After a few minutes, all she had accomplished was ripping two nails off her fingers which she quickly wrapped in cloth.

She took another look and found something she could use as leverage, she thrust it into the depression and slowly, but surely, pulled the small square portion of the wall off. She looked inside, and found that that a grate was blocking the maining way. "This must've been put here when the pirates took this ship," she muttered to herself and perked her ears up once more to listen. When she was satisfied that no one was coming yet, she popped the four bolts on the grate off and then set it aside inside the vent.

A terrible smell wafted out of the vent, and she wondered what it came from. She quickly set her cot up to make it appear like she was sleeping, and then started down the vent to see where it went. For a few minutes, it just remained dark, but soon she found a vent cover and looked inside. "eww... garbage," she muttered lowly as she saw where the smell was coming from. Below her, trash bags filled with garbage ranging from the pirate's own needs to those of the slaves, were piled high.

She continued forward and soon ran into her first obstacle - another grate. This one looked to have been hastily put into place as on either side were 'bricks' that kept it in place. As she tried to move on brick, it made a loud sound that bounced off the sides of the vent and got the attention of one guard.

"What was that?" he said and walked over to a nearby went. "Huh... we got rats in here now?" he muttered and flashed a light down the vent, naturally Layven was out of sight thanks to being around a bend.

When the light disappeared; she let out a sigh of relief and retraced her steps back to her room. She put the grate back up, and replaced the hole in the wall with the panel she had removed. "I guess I'll have to find another way," she sighed depressingly and went back to her cot, removed some of her items, and laid down.

Present

Layven knelt down beside a control panel; crossing various wires and cutting a few of them. "That should do it," she muttered in a whisper to herself and then quickly put her ear to her surroundings. "Three hours... not a soul... what are they doing?" she pondered but didn't bother to think on it much more.

She stood up and looked about the console. She was located within the liner's auxiliary communications room, located on the ships starboard side and just below one of the backup communications arrays.

For three months; she had wandered near this area each time during her 'rounds' cleaning up the hallways and keeping them clean and each time she had witnessed a single pirate keeping his ears to the space around them.

Looking down at the keyboard, she pulled the seat up behind her, took one last look over her shoulder and started scanning the database.

!ACCESS DENIED!

Click to expand...

"Blast...." she muttered and cursed a few times when she couldn't get past the block. "Mmmmm...." Layven placed her hand upon her chin and thought; she looked off to her right and slid off the chair and back into the crevice that was beneath the control panel.

She looked around for a few before finding a single wire, she cut it.

!ACCESS GRANTED!

Click to expand...

When she saw this, her eye-brow raised a few inches. "Why is it always the red wire..." she said in disbelief and went back to scanning the database.

She didn't get far though, mostly since in cutting that one little wire she had also removed much of her access to the system, but she did find some audio logs. With one last look, she picked up a nearby headset and readjusted it though she made a mental note to undo her adjustments later.

After several minutes she let out a sigh and relaxed a bit. "There is just no way to access the deeper parts of this system... wish my brother was here, he'd know how to bypass this ships security blocks. He's done it before, but how, I remember him saying something about the sensor and communications dish but I don't understand," she tapped her chin in thought.

As she sat there thinking; she turned in her chair and looked at the vent that she had crawled through to get here. There was a tiny sound that was bouncing off the sides of the vent walls, and that’s when it hit her. "Wait, my brother bounced a signal out of the communications array and into the sensor array, I think he said something about how the older models of these ships had a fatal flaw where if a communications signal hit the sensor array it would momentarily short out various systems... including the ships internal firewalls," a bright light turned on in her head as she found that she could in fact send a message, nowhere near as far as she would've desired but it would be enough.

Setting up the routines needed; she heard her heart beating in her chest and knew that the area was very quiet, which is what allowed her to concentrate so much. With a press of the button, the signal was sent, and within seconds she knew it had worked as she found that the second monitor, which had displayed the red 'access denied' letters now fully disappeared and showed something that she now didn't understand.

There was a string of letters and numbers; none of which made any sense to her. "What are these," she blinked and cocked an eye-brow at. She didn't know what they were, but copied them down anyway in case she found some use for them. Unbeknownst to her, she had unintentionally found the ships communications codes.

Checking back through the system, she found that even with the access she now had, there was no way she could send a message - the communications system was sealed off and she discovered that it had 'just' happened.

She was about to check and see if perhaps the firewalls had come back up when she heard foot-steps, multiple ones, from somewhere down the hall. She cursed and shut the console down and then disappeared into the ventilation shaft.

As she hid there; she stared through the grate and saw two heavily armed pirate walk into the room.

"eeeeh.... hmm.. could've sworn I heard somethin in here," said the pirate closest to her. "Must've been ma imagination,"

"Yer always imagenine things, come on, we got slaves to execute," said his partner and soon the two left.

Layven let out a small sigh of relief and backtracked to the slave pen. She got there in time to see several of her fellow slaves being dragged out kicking and screaming, one was shot dead right there in the pen, causing the others to stop struggling.

Her own little cell used to have ten other people; now it had just three. The stench had settled a bit since the others had been removed, but it didn't do enough to quell her desire to get off the ship and perhaps get the attention of someone in the area.

Migrating over to her cot; she laid down upon it and snuggled up as best she could, praying that maybe she would discover something soon.

Next Day

The ship shuddered violently; inside, Layven and several slaves who were either asleep or daydreaming found themselves tossed into the ceiling.

Someone started screaming about his arm being broken, all around there was chaos as fires broke out in the slave pen, the cell doors were automatically opened and someone on the intercom shouted for them to douse the flames - or else the pen would be 'spaced'

No one argued, even Layven got up and grabbed a nearby fire-extinguisher and started work on the flames. The heat was intense, and she found herself struggling to keep her balance as the ship continued to take whatever beating it was being given.

Outside; the massive cruise liner banked hard to starboard to avoid a torpedo that had been fired at it. Two ships, both painted black and each had a skull and cross-bones painted on the underside, came up behind it and opened up its rear engine compartment. The ships shield flared several times, arguing that the attacking ships fire wasn't enough to breach the shields.

They peeled off and headed away as another ship, this one a bit larger than the two, fired off two massive beam cannons at the ships lateral shield grid - splashing harmlessly and doing nothing. The second salvo, however, hit hard and punched through the lower decks, slicing through the ships main transfer elevator and gutting one of the reactors.

Fire bellowed out as small little chain-reactions could be seen occurring on the deck that had been hit, finally cascading to the lower decks exploding outward in a blaze of fire and debris.

In the slave pen, Layven felt it before she heard it. The massive rumbling beneath her feet had given her some warning as she braced herself; holes punched through the deck as two slaves disappeared completely in one explosion.

Another slave managed to hold on to a pole; but then her eyes went wide as another explosion took her life. Layven found herself alone now, if anyone else was alive in that one pen they were either unconscious or trying to avoid dying.

When the rumbling ceased; Layven picked up the dropped extinguisher and went back to putting the fire, which had gotten progressively larger now - and after just a few short seconds she realized that her small little firefighting tool was useless and cast it aside.

She crawled through the debris and toward the pen door, which was jammed open due to the explosions. Because of the amount of damage the pen had suffered, most of the cells were gone, buried under debris and the fires that now raged would almost certainly remove any evidence that the area had been a slave pen.

Getting out into the hallway; she leaned up against the wall and started breathing heavily. She looked off to her left and then to her right, the emergency blast shutters had sealed the deck off and the explosions that raged the area under her in the lower decks still ticked off one by one.

As she was about to get up and look for a way out, the shutter to her left opened and two pirates ran in. "Come on kid, your no good to use dead and we still need bodies to feed us," said a harsh toned pirate. Layven grumbled, but did as she was told as she did want to live.

Following the group off the deck; she soon found herself several decks above, having taken another elevator that was left unharmed in the attack. When she looked out a nearby window, she found that they were now going away from the combat.

"I hate it when other pirates try to get in on our business," said one pirate. The other's agreed.

When they got to another slave-pen, Layven was thrown into it. "Stay here," said a pirate as the door sealed up. Though the room was dark, Layven's eyes had sense gotten used to the darkness. She saw that this room was a lot cleaner than the others; it was newly 'designed' to house slaves.

She didn't seem to care though right now, her arms were aching and the burns that were on her face had started to flare up now that she was in a very cold place.

With a soft cot as her place of sleep; she fell into a peaceful rest.

Over the course of the next week; the liner dogged other pirate ships trying to get in on their trade, during this time the slaves had been used to fix some of the damage, but the pirate's boss realized very quickly that it would be impossible for the slaves to fix all of the damage - especially the second reactor that had been gutted and the ships primary elevator, which had left some areas of the ship inaccessible.

While Layven was working in the recreational lounge, she had overheard some of the pirates mention how most of their slaves had died in the lower decks. One had talked about how one of the pens had been sliced through in the battle, saying how the poor sobs in there had died a quick and painless death.

She bit her lip, and continued to work despite her desire to do something about what that pirate had said. She refilled the booze of another pirate and stepped away as she gulped it down and then asked for another, when she didn't respond - mostly since had mind had become occupied - he grabbed the chain that was attached to a 'dog-collar' and yanked her onto the ground.

The bottle of booze crashed onto the floor, and the contents of which spilled out. "What a waste," said one pirate.

"Let her lick it all up," said another.

"Why? That's perfectly fine booze right there, can't let it go to waste," said one that was sitting at the counter.

"Yea, but we only have a few slaves left, this kiddie is lucky that she won't be given the honor of licking up this mess... at least until we get more slaves," said a pirate that was leaning up against a table. "Besides, we'll be in port soon, so we can choose our next targets then," he quickly added.

"What about the other pirates in this area? Seems likely they'll think of attacking us upon leaving," said the one near the counter.

"Nah, I doubt it. The boss plans on having us dock at a civilian port that is frequented by military patrols. As far as the patrols are concerned, we are a cruise liner that got hit by a pirate raiding party," said the pirate as he walked away from the table and stood near the window.

His fellow pirates looked at him; before another, which was relaxing on a gathering of pillows, had asked. "Wait, won't those military fools get curious since we never reported it? Won't they follow us?"

"Yee of so little faith, like our boss hasn't already thought of that. Once we dock, our transponder codes will be different, when we leave, we'll change them again. Even if they manage to get a hold of the one's that the station has, it won't do them any-good. They'd have to get a copy of the ships primary communications code before they would have a chance of tracking us.. and I highly doubt the boss will allow that to happen," said the pirate before he looked into his glass and grumbled. "Where the heck is my slave?!" he shouted.

Layven watched as another slave; this one a male, quickly ran over to the distressed pirate and refilled the drink. The pirate looked at the contents, but then became very mad when he saw something floating in his drink. He shoved the slave away and pulled out his pistol and fired, the round flew wild, and impacted the deck just a few inches above the slaves head.

The slave was quick, having gotten up and scurried out of the recreational room and supposedly back to the pen he had been assigned to. "Stinking rat..." said the pirate who had fired on him, he threw his glass on the ground and then walked out of the room.

So... if I can just get ahold of these communication's codes or whatever, that would allow the military of whoever we are currently in the sector of to track this ship. They seem to think that the codes are well hidden, I wonder if I can somehow get ahold of them... but where to look.. she thought and began to think up of a plan.

Retro-rockets fired as the ship came to a slow; the boss and his crew stared out of the bridge windows at the planet that lay before them.

"Koukotsu," said the boss as he stood up. "How are the slaves doing?" he turned toward his lieutenant.

"Most have been sedated and placed in areas of the ship where the station's repair crews won't find them. The few that were sedated are mainly children who wouldn't dare squealing on us. Besides, I've had their collars replaced with some that have a unique poison in them. Something rare that I found being sold at another base, I believe it's called 'Cyanide'," the pirate grinned and lifted up a vile of the liquid. "Very potent, kills quick to, I think it's best the poison be injected when their handlers are far away, that way there it won't be possible to easily link the two together," he pocketed the vile and turned back toward the windows.

The boss nodded and looked at the rest of his crew. "For once, we have to not act like pirates but just the crew of a cruise liner. Get together with your partners and act normal, no weapons, and no booze," he said and heard a few groans from some of them.

---

Layven mutted a curse as she walked out from behind a dressing wall. She had been picked by one of the pirates, out of only four children, to be accompanied to the station. She hadn't resisted when they replaced her collar with a new one, and she knew right away that something was different from the one she had been wearing before.

This collar was flatter and less obvious; but she also felt something cold against the back of her neck. She didn't try to figure out what it was. She had been given some clothing to wear, and was told to put it on or else she dies, what choice did she have?

She had been given a turtle neck shirt to wear; the turtle neck itself covered the collar almost entirely. Over that she wore a childish looking dress that came down below her knees; the collar of the dress was red while a light red bow ordained the front part of the dress where the collar came together. Beneath the dress she wore a pair of pants that covered not only the bruises, but also a recent wound she had received just a day before.

For once, she felt like a kid and not a slave, the clothing being clean and not torn up. She was also given a set of dress shoes to wear, though she hated to admit that she didn't know how to tie her own shoes, mostly since she had never had worn shoes that had laces on them.

Her handler, a female pirate who had the appearance of a rich person, treated her rather well. The lady tied her shoes, but gave her a scorning look after words. "Remember this ok?" she told Layven, who only nodded her head.

There was the sound of metallic clings as the ship came up alongside the station; the sound of docking clamps tapping the hull followed by a hissing sound of oxygen being pumped into boarding ramp. With the sound dissipating, the doors opened.

"Let's go," said Layven's handler, Layven gave a sigh as she followed the older lady. As they wondered into the main area of the station, and through customs, Layven wondered if there was any way to alert the station without her, or the others, being killed.

I have to get this note and disk to someone.... but who? she thought and then shook her head as she walked hand in hand through to the market square.