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I needed to reclaim my battleship, the Falcon, that I had left there. Although it was a Guldan ship, its size would have required me to dock at one of Guldar’s spaceports. That, in turn, would have meant going through customs and border patrol. I sent a message to my small crew to prepare for imminent departure; I wanted the ship restocked and refueled upon my arrival.
After completing the jump and following a half-hour flight, the massive silhouette of the Belevar space station showed up on screen. My father had all but owned that station, having greased many palms and funded multiple businesses that operated there. Even their law enforcement had been on his payroll.
After our father’s death, Varrek had made sure to uphold those relationships. And so did I, now. Thankfully, Belevar was an intergalactic space station. The locals didn’t give two shits about gender, race, or cultural beliefs. Here, as long as you had credits, they’d happily work with you. While appreciative of the relative safety I enjoyed on Belevar, pressing business awaited me halfway across the galaxy in the Eastern Quadrant.
I landed in the shuttle bay of my battleship, still docked at the Belevar station. My First Officer, Sarah, greeted me upon my arrival. She had nothing major to report, except to warn me of the unusually heavy Guldan presence on the station. My presence no longer raised eyebrows on Belevar. Most people here knew I was Gruuk’s daughter. They also knew better than to mess with me. They simply had no idea I was half Veredian. Even here, I wore my prosthetics.
As soon as Sarah completed her report, I ordered her to set a course for the Venus Hive pleasure barge located in the Eastern Quadrant. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow, but I merely smiled, leaving her curiosity unsated. Sarah didn’t belong to my very limited inner circle. As my current mission would take me into many hazardous places, I didn’t want to risk bringing my usual crew with me, mainly constituted of Veredian females. She, and the rest of my current crew, belonged to a trustworthy circle of Terran and Dantorian mercenaries I often did business with. While the Galactic Council had declared Veredians an endangered species, and therefore under its protection, we still needed to be careful; which meant remaining cooped up in safe places.
And I’m sick of it.
Sick of hiding and of being hidden. In a few weeks, I’d celebrate my fiftieth birthday. A third of my lifespan had been thrown away living in secret, for fear of being sold to collectors. But worse, to avoid the Guldans forcing my mother to be bred by as many Guldans as possible in the hope she would birth another like me.
Guldan hybrids were extremely rare as the females weren’t normally allowed to mate outside of our race, and females from other species couldn’t survive the pregnancy. Guldan babies came into the world fully horned. The viciously sharp tips shredded alien mothers from the inside out. But Guldan females had developed an inner shell that protected us. My mother had only survived birthing me because of her Veredian psi ability. She was a powerful healer. With a touch, she could mend any cut, wound, fractured bones, and even old scars.
I’d finally met her for the first time a few weeks ago. I missed her terribly. Part of me wanted to return to Xelix Prime where she now lived with my sister, my niece, and their mates before heading to the Eastern Quadrant. Mother hadn’t known of my existence. While she’d rejoiced at having me back, the rest of our family had reacted with mixed feelings at discovering she had actually loved my father. After all, he had built his wealth enslaving and force breeding Veredians. My youngest sister, Aleina, had taken it the hardest. She had eventually made her peace with it, but it had left a scar on her relationship with Mother.
Although it wasn’t my burden to bear, I felt a great deal of guilt about my father’s actions. And yet, I loved him. He’d been good to me and made so many sacrifices to protect my mother and her other children. Still, in spite of his efforts to treat his slaves with kindness, the pain and suffering hisbusinesscaused could never be denied or overlooked.
My family had embraced me with open arms, but I knew that every time they gazed upon my face, eerily similar to my mother’s, they also saw the black hair, black eyes, and black horns I’d inherited from my father. Retrieving my inheritance had only been one of my goals when I’d set out on this mission. While financially comfortable on my own, the tremendous wealth inherited from my father would go a long way to helping finance the construction of the new home world for the liberated Veredians. But more importantly, I was hoping to recover my brother’s clients list. With it, I could track down all the Veredian slaves that had been sold over the years; among them, Galicia and Gerana, the twin daughters my mother had given birth to from her third pregnancy.
I couldn’t undo the harm my father had done, but giving my mother her children back and helping to free all my other Veredian sisters was the least I could do. Based on what I’d found so far in Varrek’s files, he had been in the process of establishing a new base on Braxia. With the Galactic Council cracking down on slavery in the Western Quadrant, moving his business to the East had made sense. I didn’t know much about Braxia except that their males were scrumptiously massive and brutish looking. Sadly, by all accounts, they treated females even worse than Guldans.
Thankfully, my old Terran friend William worked as the right hand to Anton Aldriss, the powerful Braxian hybrid who owned the Hive Network: the largest and most luxurious chain of pleasure barges in the Eastern Quadrant. He had previously put his resources at our disposal to track down my brother. I hoped he would assist me again as he had strong connections on Braxia.
I looked forward to visiting Venus Hive again. Aside from Tuur—the new Veredian home world—and Xelix Prime, where our strongest allies lived, that pleasure barge was one of the few places I could fully be myself; no mask, no disguise. Just me. Ravena Mercy Vrok.
Settling down at my desk inside my personal quarters, I sent a video message to William to warn him of my impending arrival and request an audience with Anton. The journey to Venus Hive would take three weeks. With such a great distance, the message wouldn’t reach him for at least a couple of hours. That task done, I sent a brief message to my mother and sister to let them know of my successful trip to Guldar and to inform them of my current destination. I felt guilty being so cryptic. I’d waited my whole life to be reunited with them, and now I didn’t know how to handle it. I didn’t know how to belong.
Turning on my computer, I uploaded all of my brother’s files retrieved on Guldar. I had three weeks to plow through them. By the time I reached Venus Hive, he’d have no more secrets from me.
Venus Hive never ceased to amaze me. The space station had grown again since the last time I’d visited it. The word on the street claimed it could now accommodate close to eight million people. Divided into two sections—the Commons and the VIP Area—Venus Hive catered to every form of entertainment; from music concerts to dance shows, casinos to gladiator arenas, fashion and gastronomy, and of course, every possible shade of adult entertainment.
William greeted me at the docking bay. We were the same age, yet where my hair retained its shiny raven color, silver strands had already begun streaking his light brown locks. Tall and muscular, the former mercenary had maintained his formidable shape. Although the humans’ lifespan now averaged 120 years, they still greyed early in comparison to other species. Smile lines crinkled around William’s deep blue eyes as I approached him. He extended a hand in greeting, a Terran salutation protocol I usually disliked, but not with him; he didn’t suffer from sweaty, clammy palms. He took my hand in his firm grip, then leaned forward to place a friendly kiss on my cheek. His five o’clock shadow pricked my skin, but it wasn’t unpleasant.
“Hello, Mercy,” William said, gesturing towards the hovercar waiting for us.
I smiled. “Hello, Will. Thank you, once again, for answering my call. I’m starting to pile up the I.O.U.s as you Terrans like to say.”
William chuckled. “You certainly are. Maybe I should cash in now,” he said as I entered the vehicle.
The door closed, and I waited for him to circle around the other side to enter.
“Oh, and what type of payment do you have in mind?” I asked after he settled in and closed his door.
“HQ,” William told the car’s A.I. before turning to me as the vehicle started moving. “I haven’t decided yet, but I wouldn’t mind being introduced to one of your Veredian sisters. They’re all stunning. A healer or a mind-reader would be a very nice added bonus.”
I snorted. “Good luck with that. The Admiral is very protective of the Veredians. He’ll likely demand you move to Tuur if you want to mate one of the Sisters.”
“Ugh,” William said, wrinkling his nose. “Pretty as you all are, I’m not butting heads with the Tuurean leader.”
“Wise man,” I said, teasingly. “So then, what will it be?”
“You know, I’m not doing this for any kind of repayment. We’re friends. And I happen to support your actions. This slavery business needs to end. You’ll always have my help on that front.”
“Thank you,” I said with genuine gratitude. “It means a lot.”
His answer hadn’t surprised me. Still, it warmed my heart to know decency still existed out there. Especially from someone I considered a friend.
