Edited The Curse of the Wiccan

Chapter 4- Gigar

On a planet ruled by slavers, billions were enslaved. Just over three fourths of the population were slaves. This was the planet Gia wanted to start with, as it was the planet she was once enslaved on. This raid would be personal for her.

Halido may have been one of the fairest slavers of all. He paid his slaves a fair wage, relatively fair, still nowhere close to the universal minimum wage established and paid by planets who belonged to the Order of Intergalactic Community, but it was something. But how could one really be fair to prosper off of the misfortune and maltreatment of others? Gia wanted to start with Halido, not because she didn't understand how fair he really was, because she couldn't stand for injustice.

To all the slaves, it seemed like just another day. But by the time breakfast came, guns were pointed directly at Halido's third eye. "You have no right to be here!" he shouted at Estella. Then Gia stepped from behind Estella's shadow, "you!" Halido spat, "get back into the ranks."

"I am a free woman," Gia said with rage filling her voice, "and I'm sure you don't understand how this is going to pass. Give me the keys!" Gia commanded.

"But," Halido whimpered.

"The keys," she asserted.

Halido sorted the keys out of his pocket and muttered, "Garfnard will hear about this."

"Is that a threat?" Estella intervened. "Slavery is an illegal act across all galaxies. And as such, these people are not your property, whether Garfnard thinks so or not."

"Gigar doesn't have a police force," Halido barked. "There is no one who can enforce the laws established by the Order," Halido grunted, spit flying out of his mouth and towards Estella's direction, which made her belligerently angry.

"Then maybe that is the issue. I'm certain there is a committee that would like to hear about these actions," Estella attempted to remain calm, so as to not show her true disdain for the slaver.

"Gigar is far too poor," Halido laughed, "that is why all the slavers end up here."

"Gia," Estella said calmly, "take the slaves to the ship."

Gia listened to Estella, and Estella blew Halido's brains into the air. Gia came back and said, "I didn't think we were killing anyone."

A thirst grew within Estella. She hadn't gotten this far by being soft. She wanted to kill as many slavers as she could, so they wouldn't multiple the way they had been. Halido would be an easy target. He was the first, and he didn't have a massive army protecting his slaves.

But Estella ran into an unforeseen problem— she had no jobs for the billions of slaves on Hertha. Sure, she could find something for all of Halido's slaves, but they were fifty-one, a very small portion of the population.

Estella only had so many stables, so many shifts, so many openings. "Right," Estella said to the copilot, "what are we going to do with all the former slaves?"

Gia started to speak, then stopped, "we have to find them jobs."

"Gia, my planet is tiny. I can only take in a couple hundred slaves. We already have an overpopulation issue," Estella informed, "there is no feasible way Hertha can exceed a billion in population. We simply don't have the resources."

"I didn't think this far ahead..." Gia paused, "but we can't let slavers rule certain planets."

"I agree," Estella said, starting the engines while Gia watched what she was doing, so her dreams of becoming a pilot could one day come true, "but we have to find the former slaves somewhere safe to live and a job to provide for themselves. I will not allow my planet to be overran," Estella stood firm.