A Slave Aboard Starship Zen

Four years ago...

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I was walking through the training ship that I had been assigned to. I had spent the last three months being trained in engineering, and had been doing an excellent job, scoring top marks in all of my classes. My friends were all envious of me and my mother had sent me many communications to tell me how proud she was. I had grown in confidence immensely, after years of feeling like I wasn't worthy to be a part of The Space Service.

On this particular day though, I was anxious, my confidence had taken a sudden nosedive, and my legs were trembling as I walked. Today was my first day of gun training.

I arrived at the entrance to the weapons room, rubbing the sweat from my forehead. The door opened for me, and I stepped inside to see my mentor, Captain Kochanski. She was a middle-aged woman who was stern but always fair. She regarded me as one of her favorite students.

I smiled and stood to attention at the sight of her, she laughed.

"At ease, cadet... you really don't have to do that *every* time you see me."

"Yes, Sir," I said.

"Thank you for coming." She said, "I know you're uneasy around guns, but I'll try and make this as painless as possible for you."

Looking around the room, I saw all kinds of laser pistols and rifles, they almost made me sick to my stomach to look at them.

"Thank you, sir. I really would like to get out of here as soon as I can."

She picked up one of the pistols, handing it to me.

"Very well," she said. "Follow me."

She opened up a doorway, revealing a large shooting range within it. Deactivated drones were littered around the room, each of them had large targets on their chests and fake laser guns in their hands.

"With all due respect, sir..." I said, trying to keep my tone formal. "I don't really see the need for me to learn all this... I'm an engineer, n-not a soldier."

She looked at me with some sympathy before putting on her toughest Captain's face... it always managed to scare me.

"You are to be a *Space Service* engineer, cadet. Whether you like it or not, a situation one day may call for you to take up arms... and when that time comes, it's important that you are *ready.* Soldier or not, this is important stuff. Do you understand?"

I nodded.

"Yes, sir."

"Good." She said. "Now, let's begin."

She pressed a button on a console, and the robots sprung to life, moving towards me and shooting fake lasers. I stood still for a moment, clenching the gun in my hand... it was shaking.

Suddenly, a fake laser hit me, a large beeping sound was heard.

The Captain yelled. "You've just been shot, cadet! If this was real, you would be dead, or very badly injured!"

I trembled, trying to keep my grip on the gun, but I couldn't bring myself to fire.

I was hit again.

"Cadet, breathe in and out... IN AND OUT!"

I did as she said, it helped me stop shaking... but I was hit about four more times.

"Do you want to start again, cadet?" Asked the Captain kindly.

"I... I don't know if you should even bother," I said. "I'm not cut out for this..." I was hit four more times. "Maybe I should resign..."

The Captain deactivated the drones and looked me sternly in the eye.

"Cadet, you are the son of the bravest man I have ever fought alongside, you're the best engineer of your age that I have ever seen, and you've worked *so* hard to get here. Don't throw away your career because you can't hit some drones."

I looked at her, unsure of what to say.

"You're going to breath deeply for a few more minutes," she said. "And then we're going to start again, with you being less anxious."

I nodded.

For the next few minutes, I breathed, she looked at me comfortingly as I did so. Then, she activated the drones once more.

I held the pistol at the drones, my finger at the trigger.

"Now... FIRE!" She shouted.

I did as she said, firing on the drones. I managed to hit one, then the other, then the other... they all went down very quickly, without me getting hit once, as I dodged any laser fire they managed to send my way.

The test over, Kochanski deactivated the drones.

"Well done," she said. "You did incredibly there... almost as well as your father"

"After my second go," I reminded her.

"You were anxious, it's understandable given your history," she said. "But you overcame it, and you managed admirably afterwards."

"But... shooting drones is different from shooting people..."

"I know, but by the time you get into a real combat situation, you should have learned to manage your anxiety even better than you can now."

I nodded my assent.

"I hope so."

"I know so."

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Oh, if Captain Kochanski could see me now...

Back in the present...

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I was being held at gunpoint by two armed assholes behind me, my 'mistress' was holding my leash in front of me, being threatened with a gun by her former fuck-buddy. Our ship and crew had mysteriously vanished and we had no idea where they were, but it was possible that they had been caught or killed. This was not a good day.

"Kill the slave," the fuckbuddy said, readying his pistol. "He's not of any value to us."

I closed my eyes and waited for death. I guessed it was what I deserved.

Suddenly, I heard laser fire... but it wasn't going through my head.

I opened my eyes and turned around to see the two assholes dead on the ground, behind them was the octopus man who was guarding the bar earlier. I looked away from the bodies instinctively, uneasy at the sight of them.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" The fuckbuddy exclaimed, turning away from Molzoi for a brief second.

It was all it took for Molzoi to hit the fuckbuddy's gun, knocking it out of his hand.

With that, she punched the fuckbuddy in the face, furious and betrayed. She hit him again and again, dropping my leash as she did it. Suddenly, he punched her in the stomach, causing her to fall over onto the ground. He reached down for the gun, but before he could, the octopus-man pointed *his* gun at him.

"STOP!" Cried the octopus-man.

"Fuck off, Daranos," said the fuckbuddy. "You treacherous piece of shit... you killed my men, but I KNOW you don't have it in you to kill me... not after everything I've done for you."

'Daranos' lowered his gun, looking ashamed with himself.

"You're right..." he said.

The fuckbuddy grabbed his gun once more.

I decided to take some initiative, running towards the fuckbuddy and punching him in the face... it had no effect. He quickly pistol-whipped me, he was so strong that I was instantly sent to the ground, crying out in pain.

Suddenly, Molzoi pounced back up, grabbing the pistol out of his hands and aiming it at him.

"Seracles, you BASTARD!!" She shouted. "I trusted you... I LOVED you!"

He laughed, spitting some blood out of his mouth. "That was your mistake..."

She shot him in the head. He fell down on the ground, lifeless.

I looked away from his corpse, but saw the two corpses lying there behind me. I started shaking... I saw flashes of my dead crew-mates once again... and then I threw up.

Molzoi looked at me in disgust. "Urgh."

Daranos walked up to Molzoi, his head down in shame. "I'm so sorry for all of this, honey."

She slapped him.

"YOU KNEW HE WAS GOING TO TRY AND CAPTURE ME! WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?!"

"I... was scared, okay?" He replied, "The guy was my boss, and... and he had a lot of power... I would have died if I'd said anything to you... but I came to help you in the end, didn't I?!"

"And a fat lot of good you were!" She shot back. "You would have rather let him kill me than shoot him yourself!"

"I knew him too well to just... shoot him like that," Deranos said.

For a second, there was some understanding on Molzoi's face.

"... Thank you for helping me," she reluctantly replied, before grabbing my leash and pulling me forward. "Now if you'll excuse me, we have to go and find out what happened to our ship!"

She began to walk away, but Deranos called after her.

"HEY WAIT!" He ran up to her, she stopped. "The other employees at the bar knew that Seracles was going to double cross you... when they see he hasn't come back after some time, they'll get suspicious and come after you to claim the reward themselves. You're not safe in this town."

"I can take them," said Molzoi.

"No you can't," said Seracles. "There are a lot of bounty hunters on this planet... if the bar staff tell them that there's a valuable rebel bounty to pick up, they'll side with them in a second... you could have a small army coming after you in no time."

Molzoi looked around fearfully.

"Where should we go?" She asked.

"There's a cave on a cliff north of here... it's got supplies and some weapons I had ready for an... event like this." He replied, "You'll be safe and hidden there for a time... and if anyone else finds you, you'll have more than enough defenses. You have to hurry though!"

"But we can't just *hide*... our crew could be anywhere. I can't even make contact with them..."

"I can look at your communicator." I offered as I got up off the floor, my voice still trembling. "I might be able to boost its signal or see if there's anything wrong with it."

She looked at me, for the first time ever, she seemed to have some appreciation for me.

"You sure you can do it?" She asked.

"I am... it's basic stuff."

"What about you?" Molzoi asked Deranos.

"I'll have to stay behind... I'll try to hide Seracles' body, and then tell the others at the bar that he caught you and left the planet to claim his reward... the lie won't work for long, but it'll buy you some time. Now GO!"

Molzoi nodded in respect for Deranos. She picked up Seracles' gun, before running north.

"Okay Ayden, we need to get out of here NOW!"

I ran with her, struggling to keep up, but just about managing. We ran many deramiles, only stopping once or twice to catch our breaths.

Soon, we were upon a large rocky cliff, the entrance to a cave was visible mid-way up. It seemed that we had found the place that Deranos had told us about, but we would need to climb if we were going to hide in it.

"Can you manage this, slave?" Asked Molzoi, showing contempt for my physical abilities more than concern.

"I've never... climbed a cliff like this before..." I said, looking on nervously.

Molzoi sighed once again.

"Fine... I'll help you."

Soon, she was climbing the cliff-face, I was tied to her back by my leash, holding on tight.

She was climbing with ease, barely even impacted by the extra weight she was now carrying.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

"Yes." She replied. "Your pitiful frame is no problem for me!"

We managed to reach the cave fairly quickly, she let me off her back, and I slumped down on the floor. Panting out of tiredness, she rested on the ground.

The cave was stocked up with crates containing food and guns. Molzoi examined them.

"This will do."

She sat down on the cave floor with me, opening up a can containing some meaty substance. She began eating it, letting me have a few bites as well.

It tasted terrible, but at least it was something other than grey paste.

We ate in silence, both of us clearly traumatized after everything that had just happened.

To my shock, she started to cry.

"Please... don't look at me while I'm like this..." she said. "It's so embarrassing... "

I looked away.

"I won't..." I said. "I'll... just try and fix up that communicator for you."

She continued to cry as I worked on the communicator. It was... you guessed it, a very primitive design that had been modified messily. The modern day communictors we used on my old ship were capable of contacting people half-way across a galaxy... this one was barely capable of a few deramiles.

I readjusted some wires and used my nails to screw a few bits of circuitry in tighter than they had been previously. It wasn't much, but it would hopefully boost the signal enough for us to contact the crew.

Molzoi was still crying.

"Uh... Mistress?" I said, "I think that should do."

"Go on then... activate it," she said, struggling to get the words out.

I turned on the communicator, and was suddenly greeted with the sound of Boria's voice.

"Come in... come in... hello there?!"

"BORIA!" I exclaimed.

Boria sounded so relieved. "YES!" I heard her calling over to the other members of the crew that she had made contact.

Suddenly, Molzoi took the communicator, furious.

"WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GUYS GO?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. There was even more intensity there than usual.

"We had to get out of there," said Boria. "Men came to the ship with guns and the shields weren't going to hold long... we tried to communicate with you, Molzoi... it didn't work."

Molzoi was furious. "MY COMMUNICATOR WASN'T WORKING... which is YOUR fault, Boria. Ayden had to fix YOUR mistake AGAIN!"

"Hey, that's not-" I began.

Molzoi slapped me. "Quiet, slave."

"I'm sorry," said Boria.

Molzoi sighed bitterly. "Don't be sorry... just... come and pick us up."

"We can't... not yet, anyway," said Boria. "We've been chased around the system by a bunch of bounty hunter ships... the Supremacy has put us on their bounty database it seems. People from all over the planet are after us now. We're hiding out on some backwater moon, but we can't leave until we know they're gone."

Molzoi gave me the communicator, walking out of the cave furiously and yelling a series of expletives.

I picked up the communicator, talking to Boria.

"Hey, Boria..."

"What happened to Molzoi?"

"She's uh... gone now."

I heard Boria sigh.

"Tell her we can be there in a few days..."

"I will." I told her, "But I don't know if we'll be alive in a few days..."

I filled her in on our situation.

"Shit," she said. "I'm... I'm so sorry about all of this, Ayden..."

"It's not your fault, Boria." I said.

"Thank y-" Boria began.

Suddenly, the communicator clicked off.

"Hello?! HELLO?!" I yelled, staring down at it. "Oh, fuck..."

I went outside the cave, where Molzoi was waiting. She was sitting on the ground, tearing up as she dug her face into her hands.

"The communicator stopped working again," I said.

"Whatever," She replied. "It's not like it matters."

"We should... probably go back inside," I said.

"It doesn't matter. I hope I get caught out here and fucking die." She had just about given up hope at this point.

I put on a more firm tone.

"You have to come inside. Now. You're endangering me *too* by being out here!"

She looked up at me, anger in her eyes.

"...M-Mistress." I added hastily.

She sighed.

"You're right... fuck..." she said, getting up and wiping her tears. She put her hand on my shoulder. "But if you use that tone with me again, I'll shock you so fucking hard..."

We both walked back into the cave.

"I'm sorry." She admitted to me. "Seracles and I... well, I thought we had something special."

"Oh..."

"He said he loved me... wanted to start a new life with me on the ship.. and I *believed* him! Then he... he broke my fucking heart."

She burst into tears again. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry."

"And I KILLED him, and I feel horrible about it, even though I KNOW I shouldn't..."

"It's natural that you feel the way you do," I said.

She looked at me, her eyes moist and wide.

I looked back at her, trying to be strong for her, even though I was *very* upset myself.

She nodded. "You're right... it's natural.*Stupid*, but natural... it's all my stupid fucking brain's fault, isn't it?!"

"Uh... yeah..."

"Then I should stop focusing on it... and focus on other things," she said, walking towards the weapons stash.

Out of the stash, she pulled out three massive machine rifles, examining them closely before placing them on the floor.

She turned back to me.

"Those are too heavy for you to use," she said, taking out Seracles' pistol. "You'll have to use this when they come after us."

I took it, but my hand began shaking.

She looked at me incredulously. "What is it?" She asked.

"I... have trouble holding these things," I said, my trauma clear in my voice.

"You're going to have to get used to it quickly if you're going to be of any use in a fight!"

I tried to breath deeply like Kochanski had told me to all those years ago... but I was still shaking.

"I'll try to."

"You *have* to," she said sternly.

"Yes, Mistress."

I put the gun in my harness, ready to draw at a moments notice. But I still couldn't stop shaking. I didn't know if I would be able to do what was needed of me when the time came. In despair, I sat on the floor, she joined me and we stared at each other in silence.

Hours passed and I got tired, I let out a small yawn, which caught Molzoi's attention.

"You should sleep." She told me. "I'll keep watch."

"Don't you need sleep too?" I asked.

"No," she said. "Sleep would be impossible for me right now."

"I should stay up too," I said considerately. "In case you need help with anything."

"Slave, that was an order," she said sternly. "Sleep."

I looked at her reluctantly, but she kept staring at me sternly.

Obediently, I closed my eyes, and almost immediately fell asleep.

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Suddenly, I was back on my old ship, I had just had a hard day in the engine room.

Wiping sweat from my brow, I walked through the ship's hallways with a friend of mine, Ryden. He was a bad engineer, but a good friend. I looked to him with sympathy as he apologized for a mistake he had caused which had made my day so busy.

"I'm so sorry, Ayden," he said, "I didn't *know* that reversing the polarity of the central flow would disrupt the-"

"Don't worry about it," I said firmly. "It was an accident.. I get it. All that matters is that we've dealt with it now."

"Thanks, man," he said with a smile. "You're the best."

Suddenly, I heard a yell from behind.

"HEY!"

We both looked around to see Werna, she was a young security officer who I had spent my time at the academy with. I'll admit, I had a bit of a crush on her, I had been trying to work up the courage to ask her out for some time.

"H-hey," I said, turning to her with a nervous smile. Ryden looked back at her sheepishly.

"Hi, Ayden," she said, smiling at me."

"What's uh... what's up?" I said, trying to force some words out.

"Ryden, I've heard about your little fuck up in the engine room," she said sternly. Ryden looked away from her, his intimidation showing.

"You caused a lot of problems..." she turned to me, "especially for Ayden... he has better things to be doing than cleaning up *your* messes for you."

"Hey, it's fine," I said gently. "I dealt with everything, and I don't have any hard feelings towards him... everyone makes mistakes."

"And *he* makes more than anyone else," she said, some snark in her voice.

Ryden looked like he was about to cry. "I'm SORRY, okay?!"

Werna had some sympathy now, lowering her tone. "Just... try not to fuck up for at least another week, okay?"

"Okay!" Ryden said, exasperated.

Werna nodded.

"Good... now if you'll excuse me gentlemen, I have a gin and tonic with my name on it at the bar."

She grinned wryly at us and waved as she walked away.

"Uh... see you soon, Werna..." I said nervously.

Ryden shook his head. "Fucking Security... they think they run the place."

"She's just trying to give you some uh... constructive criticism," I said, struggling to defend her without offending him.

"Oh, come on," he said. "You're just defending her because you have a crush... I don't see why you do, to be honest."

I looked around, embarrassed.

"Quiet..." I whispered, my voice piercing.