What Is a Slave Without a Master?

It was several hours later by the time the woman finally stumbled dizzily back through the dim and quiet ship. At some point during their celebration the ship had departed, the acceleration briefly interrupting the feverous coitus. However now in Supercruise and traveling dozens of times the speed of light, the gentle but distinct whistling sound was the only hint that ship was moving at all.

As she moved down the silent passageways every pod she passed lay still with its occupant peacefully frozen inside. She chuckled to herself; after the celebration she suspected that she wouldn't even need the ice to sleep for several days.

Her entire body was sore. Her jaw ached from pleasuring her Master. And every private or intimate area that Jade had been able to reach was red and tender from the woman's attention. She couldn't keep the smile off her lips as she thought back over it all. Her hand subconsciously drifted up and ran her fingers over the bite marks from the base of her neck across her shoulder: a parting gift from Jade.

But as she finally reached her own pod she let out a long low breath. Closing her eyes for several seconds as she tried to slow her thoughts. When she opened them again her gaze traced over her designation displayed on the readout.

She glanced around, whatever attendant was supposed to meet her here was in no hurry. And so ET4H2-5C reached inside her pod, opening her locker door. Inside was the toolbelt she had removed earlier, but gently pushing it aside she carefully unwrapped the bundle of her other possessions. Before her were also a few books, a spare uniform, her identification card, but not much besides.

Despite having the spare she was still grateful she had been allowed to use the Supervisor's facilities to wash herself and her clothes before returning to her pod. The idea of having to change her clothes here, or spending days marinating in sweat and sex juices sounded... unpleasant.

But it was one of her books and a pen that she slipped out of the small compartment. It was a copy of a heat transfer manual. Something that would raise no alarm at being in the hands of a technical slave. The secret being that the last third of the book had been ripped out, the pages replaced with simple blank paper. Upon which years' worth of notes and entries lay in tiny handwriting. ET4H2-5C enjoyed being a slave, but she still needed somewhere to express the thoughts that could never be spoken aloud. And this was that place: her diary.

And so in the gloom she allowed herself one final reminisce of Jade's fingers as she put to print her thoughts on the day's events. She was almost done when the clicking of magnetic boots sounded from down the corridor. ET4H2-5C hurriedly shoved the book back into her locker, assuming the attention position as the attendant approached.

He looked young, barely into his twenties as he surveyed the slave up and down. He confirmed her designation against his display before glancing up at her with an amused expression.

"There was a request for you earlier from Supervisor's Korpick's quarters," he pondered. "That why we're so late getting you stored away?"

"That's right Sir," she replied politely. Noting how the young man stood up straighter at being called Sir.

"So ah... what'd you two get up to?" he asked, a raunchy grin spreading across his face.

"I do whatever my Master requires," the slave replied truthfully.

"Oh come on..." he whined before casting a glance around the quiet ship. He leaned in closer to ET4H2-5C.

"There's a rumour that the Supervisor likes to... you know... fuck the slaves. Totally against regulations, but they say he does it anyway. So did he? Did he toss you around his cabin?"

"The Supervisor's business is his own, and it is not my place to share it." the slave replied carefully, trying not to blush.

The raunchy grin didn't falter.

"If you two didn't fuck... you would have just said that. I bet he made you do all kinds of kinky submissive shit," he teased, clearly hoping for a reaction.

"As you said Sir, that would be against regulation," the slave managed, offering a weak smile and seeing the attendant's amusement grow. The young man looked her up and down for a long moment, clearly enjoying her discomfort. But at last he mercifully gestured towards the pod.

"And we can't be breaking regulations now can we? So let's get you stored away."

"Thank you Sir," the slave replied in relief before relaxing her position and stepping inside. She pushed her body down into place, feeling herself bounce slightly against the plastic padding. The attendant leaned over her, taking hold of the straps and helping secure her in place. As he straightened the chest harness the slave fully expected a quick grope, but to his credit none came. The young man stood back up, taking hold of the glass door. And without another word he closed it, the seal engaging with a soft hiss. The slave's world was plunged into a total silence. No hum of electronics, or whistle of Supercruise. The only sound was her own breathing, and blood pumping behind her ears. She closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath, gathering all her thoughts about Jade and the Supervisor, ready to shove them deep into the back of her mind. She was an Engineering Technician, and quite a good one. The next time she woke, she would be wherever the Empire needed her next. That was what deserved her focus and attention.

A moment later her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle whistling noise. She felt a wave of cold washing over her and almost instantly ET4H2-5C felt her limbs grow heavy and her head swim. Her own body felt a hundred lightyears away as she began to slip into the cold embrace: the Megaship, the Supervisor, and Jade all fading away.

The first sound ET4H2-5C heard when she began to wake was the distant blaring of an alarm. But it took her foggy head several agonizing moments to truly grasp what that meant. She shook her head, trying to clear the cloud from her thoughts and the ice from her hair. Her stomach let out a frustrated growl and she winced. How many days had she been asleep? And when was the last time she ate? She raised a hand to her temple, noting she was still in zero gravity as she rubbed her head. She pressed the other against the inside of the glass door, wiping away the frost. But even with a patch on the inside clear, she still struggled to see out into the ship past the layer of condensation clinging to the other side of the glass. She heard the distant alarm again, and this time she wracked her brain to remember all the different variations. It had to blast out third time for her to confirm it, but when she did her heart nearly stopped in her chest.

That sequence meant that they had been interdicted. Dragged out of Supercruise and down to sublight speeds. And were now being fired upon.

ET4H2-5C began to panic, despite building battleships she had never been on a ship under attack before. Distant explosions rocked the vessel as she heard screams from the other slaves around her waking up. Her own voice joined them without even meaning to.

Her hands clawed at the harness holding her in her seat, but the buckles required steadier hands to open than she could manage. She lunged down, stretching out her arm as far as she could and desperately reaching for her locker. She had a strap-cutter tucked into her tool belt, but only if she could reach it...

A nearby series of explosions sent her wrapping her arms around her head as she was thrown violently from side to side, any thoughts of her tools gone. A cry of pain escaping her lips as she slammed into the walls of her pod. Her breathing was coming fast and shallow. She could feel herself begin to hyperventilate as her heart hammered away inside her.

What was happening? How could this be happening?

The Megaship wasn't a military vessel. It carried no cargo of value other than the slaves like her. Did their attackers know that? Was her fate to simply be killed when they discovered realized the ship contained nothing but thawing slaves, confused and terrified?

Or would she be stolen away as easily as one would steal a barrel of fuel? To be made to build warships for Pirates, or be trapped as nothing more than a black market sex slave.

ET4H2-5C felt her eyes sting as tears began to well up over them. Crying in zero gravity was a particularly unpleasant experience, as there was no way for the tears to fall. Instead they stayed pooling on her cheeks, a growing bubble of terror the slave desperately tried to wipe away. Only to be interrupted by another explosion slamming into the ship.

This one was so loud and close she clamped her hands over her ears in pain as she let out a terrified cry. This explosion was accompanied by a blinding flash from beside her, so bright it filled her vision even with her eyes pressed shut. And then her pod began to shake.

She opened her eyes, desperately trying to understand what was happening, and to her horror through the glass door she saw debris and wisps of the very air itself being sucked towards a point beside her.

She realized with a sinking feeling in her gut that there was a hole in the hull. And then her pod gave a sudden lurch, its anchors starting to fail under the suction.

Her hands once again grabbing hold of her harness, desperately trying to release it. She cursed herself for normally enjoying being restrained. She let out a terrified cry before her pod gave another sickening lurch and was suddenly whipped sideways.

The slave found herself pressed into the side of her pod as it spun. She forced her eyes open, trying to make sense of anything beyond the glass. And after a long moment she realized what she was looking at was stars passing overhead.

Stars.

She was outside the Megaship. Sucked out into space in nothing but a cryostasis pod. She let her limbs go limp as a serine calm came over her. She gazed out the window at the passing stars. Every time she spun she got a glimpse of the Megaship's outline. Red flashes of laser fire punctuating the darkness.

The slave found herself alone. Adrift in the darkness as her Megaship, her safety and security, her purpose, all dwindled into the distance.

She didn't know which would happen first: would she run out of air, or would the seals of the pod fail under the vacuum?

She knew she should be scared. Even more scared than she had been moments before, but for some reason she just... wasn't. There was nothing to be done. No way to help herself. Surely a single slave in the void would never be worth retrieving, especially with a battle going on. She should feel helpless, hopeless. But instead she just felt accepting.

As a slave it was not her place to ask why, pick her own direction, or decide her own fate. For years it had always been a Master who dictated how her life would go. Only this time it seemed that circumstance and poor fortune had appointed themselves as her twin Masters.

And so ET4H2-5C gazed out the window one last time. Taking in the stars, and the fading sights of the battle. But she eventually let her eyes drift shut and let the force of the spinning slowly lull her into a dizzy trance.

She didn't know how long she had laid there, hanging on the edge of consciousness. But as she finally felt the cold blackness begin to close in around her mind, she found herself bathed in a divine light. She gave a weak accepting nod, and her last thoughts were of the stars. Of the beauty of the cosmos and of the constellations that would mark her grave.