Lunar Conspiracy

Kidnapped

Once all the treasures and supplies had been loaded onto Athena, Yggdrasil started sowing seeds.  Tava cocked her head, not quite sure how he expected to get them to grow on bare rock and minimal gravity.  Yggdrasil only smiled, as he always did, and waved a hand over each seed as he hurried them out of the caves.

Tava chanced a look back out of curiosity and her eyes widened at what she saw.  Blood red vines were growing, filling the corridors and tunnels with coils covered in wicked looking thorns.  Tava hurried along without quite so much prompting after that.

"Barrier vines," Yggdrasil explained.  "Harder than steel and able to thrive almost anywhere.  I highly doubt the Pirates will deign spend the resources and effort to dig them all out to resume use of this moon."

Tava smiled.  "Nice work Doc."

They all piled onto Athena and Jornea took them back to the planet.  Tava and Captain Anders split the haul evenly on their way back and they spent a couple hours selling off anything they didn't need before taking to the skies again.  Tava settled in the captains chair with a sigh, pleased at the turnout.

"Alright.  One ally in our fight, some credits to spend, and no one any worse for wear.  I think this has been a good turn.  Where shall we go next?"

Jornea tapped at her Navigation computer and flicked it up to the front shield so everyone could see.  Tava studied the systems surrounding them, judging each.  Unfortunately, she didn't know this sector of space well.

Jornea tapped at a planet.  "How about this one?"

Tava glanced at her.  "You picked that one at random, didn't you?"

"Of course not!  If I had chosen at random I might have picked a planet on the other side of the Universe.  This one is actually close by."

Tava frowned as Kartk sighed and chimed in.  "So you chose at random within a certain radius."

"Yep!"

Tava chuckled as Kartk growled, sitting back in her seat with a shrug.  "Whatever.  Let's go then."  Jornea grinned and set a course.

"Well, it's going to take us a couple days to get there, barring any bad luck.  May as well rest up and I'll call you if I need you."

Nodding, Tava decided the pilot's advice was sound.  "Call me if you need a break."  Jornea waved dismissively over her shoulder as Tava got up and headed for her quarters.

She managed to get several solid hours of sleep before something rocked the ship.  She leapt out of bed and scrambled for the bridge, the fog of sleep quickly clearing from her head.  When she got to the bridge, she found it empty with multiple alerts flashing across every stations panels.

She moved to Kartk's station, pulling up security feeds from around the ship.  Her mouth went dry when she caught sight of their starboard hatch being blasted open.  Kartk was already on his way there, sword drawn.  Jornea followed along behind him, her pistols drawn for support.

Tava pulled up another feed, looking for Kit and Yggdrasil.  Neither of them were in their usual haunts.  She had no idea where Yggdrasil would go in a crisis and Kit liked to use passage ways that weren't even on the blueprints, much less covered by security cameras.  Gritting her teeth, she turned to go help, grabbing her pistol off her belt and holding it at the ready.

She pelted down the corridors and skipped the lift, sliding down the emergency ladder instead.  Shoving out of the door, she leapt over the bulkhead and tripped over something.  Tava tucked her shoulder and rolled, already searching for what had happened.  As she suspected, she only had her pistol half raised in the right direction as she recognized the rifle aimed between her eyes.  She just wished the person holding it were Kartk.

The woman holding the rifle on Tava frowned, griping to her companion.  "Not a very big haul."

The man only shrugged.  "Given the life signs scan, what did you expect?"  He strode over and kicked the pistol from Tava's hand when she tried to raise it.  She bared her teeth when he took a grip on her chin.  He just chuckled mockingly.  "Calm down honey.  It's your lucky day.  You're not the type we're looking for."

With that, he struck Tava hard in the head, rendering her unconscious.

Tava slowly woke, blinking as she lifted a hand to her throbbing head.  Shoving to her feet and snatching up her pistol, she looked around.  It didn't make any sense.  If they had been Pirates, then why leave her alive?  Was everyone else alive?

She hurried to the closest security station and pressed her hand against the palm reader as she punched in her access code.  The station opened for her and complained again that Athena had been breached.  Tava flicked the warning away and delved into the camera feeds.  She didn't see anyone, nor did it appear anyone was docked at their starboard hatch anymore.

Tava frowned.  It was stupid to announce her position, but she needed to know if she was the only one left.  She opened up the com ship-wide and spoke into it.  "This is Tava.  If anyone can hear me, please respond."

She bit her lip when no one answered.  "Tava to the crew of the Athena.  If you can hear me, please respond."  Still nothing.  "Can anyone hear me?!"

A harsh clang made her jump, whipping her pistol up in the direction of the noise.  Another clang and her eyes fixed on the vent cover, where the noise had come from.  One final clang had the vent cover flying across the hall to crash to the floor.  Tava narrowed her eyes at the booted foot that was pulled back into the space behind the previously covered vent.

She breathed a sigh of relief when Kit slid out.  "We hear ya Tava."

Jornea's muffled voice echoed out of the vent, interspersed with grunts and clunks as she got turned around to crawl out herself.  "We're the only one's though.  They took Kartk and Doc."  She wiggled out of the small space and somersaulted across the floor rather than try to struggle for any dignified egress.

Tava shoved her pistol away.  "Took them, you two hid, and they left me?  Why?  It doesn't make any sense."

Jornea crossed her legs, remaining on the floor as she spread her hands.  "The Pirates figured they'd take the two that did the most damage to their moon operation?"

Kit shook his head, baring his teeth.  "I'm telling you, it wasn't Pirates.  Those were merc's.  And I'm guessing they were looking for slaves."

Jornea frowned.  "Kartk's already a slave."

Tava sighed, shaking her head as she strode off down the hall.  "Regardless, let's figure out which planet they're headed for and get our crew mates back."  Jornea and Kit hurried after her.

Back on the bridge, Jornea slid into her seat and pulled up the Nav computer, expanding it until it only showed the galaxies in close proximity to Athena.  Kit's ears flicked back and he reached over, tapping at one system, then a planet.  "This one.  Planet Amzon."  Information came up next to the planet's image, slowly scrolling by.

They watched as Kit flicked through to the culture information and the three of them skimmed it.  Tava grit her teeth as Jornea summed up the important points.  "Matriarchal.  Males considered little better than breeding stock and slaves.  Yearly 'hunt', composed of alien males released into an arena for the females to track down and capture.  Considered a rite of passage into womanhood and a way to gain status, depending on how many males can be captured."

Kit glanced between Tava and Jornea, utterly still.  "That's why they didn't take Tava.  She's a she.  And they might have taken me if I hadn't hidden."

Jornea dropped a hand on the Kitsunes head, stroking his fur soothingly as she glanced back at Tava.  "Not a winner for your revolution, but certainly a good place to start tracking down our missing mates.  Hopefully, we can just explain things and they'll release them.  Kartk, at the very least, since he's technically your property.  Doc, we may have to buy back."

Tava straightened.  "Set a heading then.  And Kit, you better stay hidden on Athena for this one."

Kit's ears flicked back and his tails lashed.  "No arguments here."