The Atariah

2286 - The Katariah

Markus yawned and sat up in bed. He looked around the clean silver cabin and sighed. When he realized he had been woken by the sound of the ship's alarm, his eyes opened wide. He stood up quickly, his close-cropped brown hair ruffled, his green eyes wide open.

He pulled on a long grey shirt and a black jacket over that. He pulled on jeans and some black boots. Markus nodded, then fastened his golden necklace around his neck. A pendant hung from his necklace, a black eagle. Markus walked out of his cabin and ran to the bridge, opening the door and shouting, "What the fuck is going on, Tomas?"

Tomas walked up to Markus and said, "Sir, we've been spotted by an ESS Capitol ship. They're trying to contact us."

Markus swore under his breath. "Alright. Which one of the Capitol ships is it?"

"The ESS Asia." Tomas replied.

"Tomas, I want you to ready the shields and weapon systems, and get ready to jam their transmission systems. I'll talk to them." Markus ordered.

Tomas nodded and began to shout orders to the others. Markus sat in his Captain's chair and pressed a few buttons on the control panel to his right. A face appeared on the monitor in front of Markus. It was a woman, with long blonde hair and brown eyes.

The woman asked, "Is this the Captain of The Katariah?"

Markus nodded. "At your service, ma'am. What can I do for you?"

The woman said, "You can let us inspect your ship. The Asia needs to inspect all the ships she comes across. So if you could open your hangar doors, my men and I can inspect and be on our way."

Markus sighed. "You don't need to see anything in our ship. We're a simple salvage liner. We've got some weapons for defense and some cargo, but that's about it."

The woman insisted, "You have to open your hangar doors or we will be forced to blow your ship out of the water, as the old saying goes."

Markus sighed. "That's unnecessary, but come on over if you must."

The woman nodded. "Alright then. We'll be over in 5."

The monitor turned off and Markus stood and slammed his fist on the wall. "Shit! Alright, men, we need to hide all of our Karashian crystals! Everyone, drop what you're doing and hide anything we've stolen that is valuable! Let our cargo stay where it is, it's legal."

Everyone on the ship sprinted around, hiding everything that was stolen under the metal grates. In mere minutes, everything was hidden. Markus ran in to the hangar and opened the hangar door. In a few minutes, a small ship flew in to the hangar and the front door opened.

3 women and 4 men walked out, the men armored and the women wearing red uniforms. The woman in front walked up to Markus and shook his hand. "Hello, Captain. Please, show us around." She said.

Markus nodded and walked the group around his ship. As they walked, Markus prayed there would not be anything that was missed. Finally, they reached the bridge and Markus smiled. "This is the end of the tour, I suppose. Any questions?"

One of the women nodded. "Yes. Why didn't you show us your cargo hold?"

Markus replied, "Because I forgot until you reminded me. Why don't we head on down to the hold?"

He led them down to the cargo hold. "This is the hold. We have a lot of merchandise here. Food, gems, medicine. My favorite cargo, however, is at the back."

At the back of the hold, Markus opened a door and led the group inside. Behind the door was a series of 6 cages. Inside each cage was a woman who wore only a white bra and panties. Markus smiled.

"This is the cargo that makes me the most money. Each one is worth at least 400. At least."

The women looked at the slaves with distaste. "So, you sell slaves?" One of them asked.

"Yes. It's not illegal. So I do. Even owned a few for a while. But I never found one I liked. Anyway, are we done?"

The Captain woman said, "I suppose. Shall we go?"

Markus nodded. "Let's go to the hangar and get you back to your ship."

As they walked, Markus pushed a button on his communicator and said in to it, "Meet us at the hangar."

At the hangar, Markus shook the Captain's hand. "Thank you for coming."

"My pleasure." She said.

Markus nodded and snapped his fingers. All of the men around them pulled out pistols pointed at the group. The Captain asked, "What the hell is going on? Captain, tell your men to stand down."

Markus pulled out his black revolver and pointed it at them. "I'll have to pass. Cuff them."

Two men walked forward and handcuffed all of the men and women. Markus smiled. "So. This is how this is going to work. All of you are going to be slaves. And we're going to sell you for quite a profit. We'll strip down your ship for spare parts and sell it."

The Captain said, "I'll never bow to you. We'll never bow to you."

Markus sighed. "Let me amend my statement. All of you except the Captain will be sold. She will be my personal slave. Put them in the cargo hold. Tomas, get us out of this quadrant. I want us above Polaan by tomorrow morning."

Everyone nodded and rushed to do their jobs. Markus kissed the Captain and whispered, "Get ready, princess."

The slaves were carried off, and soon, the ship lurched and quickly gained speed. Markus swore, knowing they weren't moving fast enough. He sprinted to the bridge and screamed, "Divert all of our power to the engines and shields! Now!"

A few moments later, two men called, "Done, sir!"

Markus sat in his chair, checking the ship's systems. The engines would take about 45 seconds to warm up enough to go fast enough to escape the Asia. He murmured, "Shit. Shit. Shit. Come on. Fuck."

45 lifetimes later, the engines were warmed up. Markus pressed a few buttons and the ship screamed forward. But it wasn't fast enough. A cannon shot was fired from the Asia. The Katariah was alright, because of all the shield protection.

The Katariah then pulled way ahead of the Asia. In another 10 seconds, the ESS ship was far behind them. Markus sighed in relief. "We're clear!"

He plotted a course to Polaan, going through to Hamred and Lumru on the way to slow down their pursuers. Markus sat back in his chair, utterly exhausted. He took a second to collect himself, then dived back in to his work. For the next 8 hours, he drove The Katariah through 2 planets, then finally headed for Polaan.

Tomas, after all this time, said, "Sir, I'll take over. You got two hours of sleep for the first time in days earlier, and you need rest. I'll wake you when we get to Polaan."

Markus rubbed his eyes and yawned. "I'd argue, but I'm too damn tired." He said.

He walked back to his cabin, shut the door, then fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

TO BE CONTINUED...

(I know there wasn't much sex in this one, but I promise there will be in the next one.)