Stars & Ashes

Chapter 3: Slavery

The background hum of the engines ceased.

"We are entering the wormhole shortly, but be at ease, dear guests of the Nadil-Kuradi Empire, you will remember nothing."

Kia shot a startled look at Shanyi. "That doesn't sound good." She'd flown on the shuttle between Sestris and Shihon, but she'd expected to spend her life on her home world. Her ambitions weren't stellar, and her knowledge of space travel didn't extend beyond watching the latest holovid blockbuster.

"What's that noise?" Chetey squeaked.

They listened to a gentle hissing.

"It's coming from the air vents." Kia looked over at Shanyi, dismayed to see his eyes closed. She tried to call him but found her eyelids drooping, too heavy to stay open. They've gassed us, flashed through her mind as she fell into darkness.

Whatever chemical their captors had used to put them to sleep also affected her memory leaving her with little recall of events after they transited the wormhole. She never saw Shanyi or young Chetey again and retained a fuzzy image of prisoners being marched here and there on a gigantic space station before she passed out again on another bunk on another transport carrier. She didn't come back to herself with some understanding of her situation until the tannoy announced the ship's imminent arrival at their destination, Jahanamu.

Dehydrated, half-starved—she didn't remember when she'd last eaten—and weak-kneed, she stumbled behind the prisoner in front her as they exited the shuttle into a world of unwelcoming grayness. Gray walls, gray floors, even the soldiers' visorless faces carried a gray tint. She was too drained to take notice of much else: the maglev train down into the asteroid's living quarters; sitting at a table cramming soup and bread into her mouth, a voice telling her to slow down or else she'd throw it all up again—advice she ignored; entering a dormitory and being pushed down onto a bed where she passed out again.

The shriek of a siren jerked her awake, and she sat up, banging her head on the metal struts of the bunk above her. Jahanamu. She remembered a voice saying, "Welcome to Hell, your new home, otherwise known as Jahanamu."

"Showers through here, but get a move on, 'cause they turn them off after ten minutes." An older woman, small, lean and muscled, her head covered in gray stubble, bent down and looked her over.

Kia knuckled her eyes, trying to clear the fog from her brain.

"You'll be hung over for a while yet. That wormhole sedative takes a day or two to clear out of your system. C'mon, a shower, and clean clothes will make you feel more human. I'm Rehanya, and I'll show you the ropes today." She stuck out a hand.

Kia did the same, wincing as Rehanya squeezed her hand hard. On Emankora people greeted each other with folded hands and a bow, but from here on, she would have to get used to different customs. "I'm Kia."

As she walked ahead, Rehanya explained that the segregated bunk rooms and bathrooms were in this sector and pointed out a few rooms couples used if they wanted privacy. She showed Kia where to collect a fresh overall each morning, giving her one from a pile of chem-cleaned ones that stank of cleaning fluid and were ingrained with stains.

Such considerate enslavers, Kia thought but kept her opinions to herself.

"Don't use the bathrooms at night either. I'll get you a piss-pot later." Rehanya nodded at the lidded metal pot in her hand. "Rape isn't that common, at least not as much as it used to be when they had mixed dorms, but with twice as many men as women, you don't want to put yourself in unnecessary danger."

Kia wasn't shocked. She had enough life experience to have learned that life wasn't all honey and sweetness, but until the Emperor Teyrn turned his attention on her planet, she'd experienced no real hardship. She was sure making up for that gap in her education.