Rise of Shadows (21 page)

Once the meal was finished the captain said, “Come, I will take you to our doctor.”

“
One doctor? A ship this size surely needs more staff than that,
” I sent.

“
Oh, I am sure there are others, but only one or two are usually allowed to treat the officers,
” sent Spectra.

“
Oh, the caste system,”
I sent.

“
Such a barbaric practice,”
sent Flame.

Before I could comment on that, we reached sickbay. It was not the typical modern sickbay with all the standard medical equipment and supplies; instead, it looked more like a prison cell. A tall human woman with no hair stood in the back of the room, wearing some very tattered and soiled clothing that did not do much for her modesty. She stood silently at attention with her head held high, and this seemed to displease the captain, but before he could react I introduced Flame, Spectra, and myself.

I could feel Flame fuming behind me as I talked, and I was worried that she would react soon. I sent, “
Spectra, what is going on here?”

“This is not good. We should go,”
she sent.

“
Not without her, we don’t,”
sent Flame.

I turned to the captain and said, “Sir, is this your doctor?”

“Well, she is the only one trained on board. Bring your wounded here, and we will see what she can do,” he said.

“It would be much better if she saw him before we risked taking him out of the hyberpod. She can come with us. I am sure it will not take long,” I said.

“I don’t know about that,” started the captain.

“Well,” I said, interrupting him, “Doctor, we have a patient who was experiencing convulsions, cold sweats, and whose skin is discolored. Do you think it would be safe to pull him out of the hyberpod and bring him here?”

I held her gaze hoping that she would play along, but she was taking a long time to respond. Finally, she did speak and said, “No, I do not. I should see him first.”

I turned to the captain and said, “It seems I was right. We need to bring her to him,” and then I sent, “
Be ready to teleport out. I have no desire to start a fight here.
”

Flame moved closer to the doctor and sent, “
I’ve got her. Just give the word
.
”

“Okay, well, if that is what it will take to help your fallen shipmate, then I guess we owe you that much,” said the captain.

He looked like he was about to say something else, but I cut him off and said, “Great, then we will be going. I will contact you as soon as we have news.” Then I sent, “
Now!”

Instantly we were all back on the Dust Dragon, and Flame had the doctor safely with her. “Phoenix, raise shields and put us in orbit around this ship,” I said.

“On it,” he said.

Spectra looked at me and said, “We can’t keep her without causing problems.”

“Flame, help her get cleaned up and give her some fresh clothes. Then take her to sickbay. We can figure out our next steps then.”

“Sure thing,” said Flame, and she guided the doctor off the bridge.

“Shadow, they are hailing us,” said Spectra.

“Put them through,” I said.

“Yes, Captain?” I asked. It was apparent by the look on his face that he had not expected me to reply.

“You left in such a hurry, we did not get a chance to warn you about her,” he said.

“Warn us?” I asked.

“Yeah, she has violent outbursts,” he said.

“
He is lying,”
sent Flame.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, from time to time she flies out of control and starts attacking people. That's why we wanted you to bring your man here so that we could keep an eye on her,” he said.

“Thanks for the warning. We will keep an eye on her, but for now I must see to my crew,” I said and closed the channel. “Spectra, come with me to sickbay,” I said.

As we walked down I asked, “How do you read this situation?”

“She is a slave and has not yet learned to cooperate with her new masters,” she said.

Wonderful!
I thought to myself. “That would explain her violent tendencies, I guess.”

“Yes, I suspect the captain can guess you are not pleased with what you saw, and he is nervous.”

“Nervous?” I asked.

“Slavery is illegal in this space, or at least it was when it was under Aleeryon control,” she said.

“Ah, he knows we are working with the Aleeryon Navy, so he is worried about our reaction,” I said.

We beat Flame and the doctor to sickbay, and while there I asked Spectra more about the slave trade. She told me that it was not very profitable because so many regions of space had outlawed it and promised protection to runaway slaves that it became very difficult to keep slaves. While we were talking, Flame and the doctor came in. Flame had given the doctor one of her spare robes, which had, as expected, adjusted correctly to fit her taller frame. She had tied it at the waist in an effort to dress it up a little. It was a big improvement over what she had been wearing before.

“Hello, Doctor. You can relax here. This ship is the property of Alpha Academy, and you are under our protection for the duration of your stay here,” I said.

She simply nodded and walked over to the hyberpod and then said, “He is badly malnourished and looks like he might have had a heart attack or two in the last few days. What happened to him?”

“We rescued him from a ghost ship,” said Spectra.

At this she gasped and said, “Wow.”

“Can you help him?” I asked.

“Yes, but let’s leave him to rest for a short while longer. His heart rate is still not stable, and I would like to see his breathing a bit more regular first,” she said, while making some adjustments to the pod. “Can you show me your medical supplies?”

“Sure,” said Flame and gave her the tour of sickbay.

“Flame, can you relieve Phoenix on the bridge and have him meet us in the mess hall? I want to make sure our guest gets a good meal while we wait on the patient,” I said.

“Okay,” said Flame and then sent back, “
You can't send her back, Shadow. I won’t stand for it.
”

Once we were all settled in the mess hall I said, “Sorry, we never got your name, Doctor?”

She looked up at me and hesitated a bit, seemingly lost in thought, but eventually replied, “Leslie, but most people just call me Doc, or Doctor.”

“Sure,” I said. I looked over her food choices and noticed that she had a wide variety of very healthy foods, and nothing that could be considered junk food.
She is in survivor mode, stocking up on the best nutrition while she can,
I thought to myself. “Doc, I should warn you that we know nothing about the man in the hyberpod.”

“Oh?” she said.

“As part of our defense of your vessel I boarded the battleship and discovered it had become a ghost ship. While on board I found him hiding under an energy shield while the ghosts pounded on the shield, trying to get at him.”

“So he could be an enemy then,” she mused.

“Yes, or he could be a friend,” I said.

“He has suffered greatly, so there is a good chance he will be in a panic when we revive him,” she said. “I saw that you have restraints on your medical beds. We should use them to keep him restrained, at least until the panic passes.”

“Won’t that cause him to panic more?” asked Phoenix.

“Yes, it could, but we need to keep him safe, especially from himself,” she said.

We continued to talk for a little while about various options for treating the patient and how long it might take before he was able to answer questions. She seemed to relax when talking about his case. I supposed it took her mind off her current situation. While we talked, I sent across our network, “
Spectra, how much do you think she costs?
”

“
Not much since she is not trained well,”
she sent.

“
Shadow, are you thinking of buying her?”
asked Flame.

“
It would be the least disruptive way to get her off that ship,”
I sent.

“
Bad plan,”
sent Phoenix. “
Word would get out that we are slave traders, and that would seriously hamper our mission.”

“
Shadow, this is Aleeryon space. Slavery is outlawed. If she is one, the fact that she is in this region makes her free,”
sent Flame.

“
And what would we do with her?”
asked Spectra.

“
Do with her? We need a doctor, she is a doctor; it seems clear to me,
” sent Flame.

“
And if she does not want to? Do we abandon our mission in order to take her somewhere?”
asked Spectra.

“
Whatever we have to do so that she does not go back there, I am happy with,”
sent Flame.

“
I think that we need to find out what she wants before we decide anything,
” I sent.

While we were talking, she finished her meal, and we headed back to sickbay. On the way there she asked me, “What do you plan to do with him?”

“That depends on him. I am hoping that he will be friendly and possibly help us out here, but he could just as easily turn on us, in which case we would be forced to kill him. A third option would be that he is friendly but cannot or will not help us, in which case we can drop him off somewhere and move on,” I said.

“Ah,” was all she said in response. She seemed lost in thought as we entered sickbay. Once inside she immediately checked the status of the patient and began making adjustments.

“Assuming that he turns out to be friendly, how long will he need medical care for?” I asked.

She stopped and looked at me for a bit, but did not answer. Instead she continued to fiddle with the settings on the hyberpod.

“Leslie, how did you end up on that ship?” I asked.

She looked up in fear and started to talk, but then cut herself off and looked back at the hyberpod. She just stood there standing still, trembling slightly.

“Leslie, you are safe here. This ship is Alpha Academy property and, as such, you can speak freely here. We will not repeat anything you do not want us to,” I said. I could feel my integration training from my time in the Imperial Navy starting to take over, and I did not like it. I wanted her to trust me and not to be tricked into spilling information. “
Flame, I may need some help down here, if you can,
” I sent. “
It would be good to have a female here to help her feel a little more comfortable.”

Leslie was quiet for a while, but eventually said, “He will need to stay in sickbay at least a couple of weeks. Depending on how much damage was done, I am not sure he will ever fully recover.”

I resisted the urge to ask her more about that and just waited. Eventually Flame came in, walked over to Leslie, and asked if she could help at all. Leslie had Flame get her various things from around the room, which she used to work a little on the magus. Eventually she stopped, looked at me, and said, “Sir, I have done what I can for him for now. He needs to sleep at least overnight before you attempt to remove him from the hyberpod.”

“I see, then would you mind staying on board until he is at least stable? We lack the training to help him,” I said.

“I cannot, I must return,” she said.

“Leslie, I know you don’t want to. Please let us help you,” said Flame.

With that Leslie broke down and sobbed heavily. Flame just held her while she cried. I do not know how long this lasted, but it seemed like an age had passed before she started to get control over herself. Then her story came out in stuttering, gasping breaths. She had a promising career in front of her as a doctor when her father fell on hard times and took a loan from the wrong kind of people. They eventually came to collect, and he could not pay, so they took all five of his daughters as payment and sold them into slavery. She did not know what had happened to the others, and she had no idea how long she had been a slave for because they kept her locked up in dark rooms, except when they wanted her for something.

Once she settled back down I said, “I need you. You are the only one that can help him,” I said. “If you are willing to work as a doctor on this ship for a while, I will secure your freedom; however, you should know that we are a war vessel and are out here to fight. It will be very dangerous, and I do not know how long it will be until we see a spaceport where we can drop you off.”

She just looked at me and mumbled a bit. I waited to give her time to digest everything and then said, “I can only do this if you ask me to. If you want to go back to your life on that ship, I cannot stop you.”

“Yes, he won’t make it without my help. Please let me stay,” she finally spat out.

“Good, Flame will show you to your private quarters, and I will go deal with your former boss,” I said.

“
Thank you, Shadow, I knew I could count on you,
” sent Flame.

I headed up to the bridge and had Spectra hail the freighter. When the captain came on I said, “Sir, it appears we have a small problem here. As you already know, we are working with the Aleeryon Navy to restore law and order to this region. This agreement obliges me to enforce certain laws out here.”

He sighed and said, “I am losing my doctor, aren’t I?”

“Yes, you are, and I assume you realize why?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Good, then we can part ways under good will and not speak of this again,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said and cut the channel.

“
You should report him,
” sent Flame.

“
To whom? This is not really Aleeryon space currently, and I doubt the Scorpion Gang will care. No, it is better to let him go. We have much bigger problems to deal with out here,
” I sent. The big question I was left with was: why did the captain show us this doctor who is obviously a slave? He must have known how it would turn out.

At some point I must have finally fallen asleep, but I could not guess how long I had been sleeping when I was awoken by Shea whispering, “Dusty, Dusty,” as she gently shook my shoulder.

“What?” I asked. There was no sign of the rising sun yet, so I knew it was not time to get up.