Page 1 of Narzek
Chapter One
Cayla Fox had been digging weeds for hours under the hot sun using a long-handled hoe with a pointed blade. She paused to take out a rag from her pocket to wipe the sweat from her brow before it started to drip into her eyes. The men and women working the other rows of the crop did the same periodically.
Cayla couldn’t fathom that a civilization that had interstellar space ships would use slaves to work their fields. Until she was abducted by aliens from Earth over a year ago, she never believed in aliens or that they actually came to Earth and kidnapped people. Yet here she was on an alien world called Berrapo, a slave working in a field under the hot midday sun.
Even though she could probably escape if she planned it out, there was nowhere to go. The slave masters’ drones would find her, and the masters would punish her with the pain stick. It was sort of like a cattle prod, but many times more painful. She had learned that lesson the hard way.
She’d had three days of freedom in the nearby forest before they found her. Those three days, she’d had very little food because she didn’t know what was edible and what was not on this strange planet. Her military survival training was of little use to her on Berrapo.
At least, here she got to spend time outdoors. On the slave ship, she’d spent the whole time in a dingy, smelly holding cell with eighty other women of various origins and species. The highlight of her days there was when the keeper brought the slop, they called food. It was a bland stew with many vegetables and mystery meat. It was edible though the portions were small.
Hardly a day went by that Cayla didn’t wonder what happened to her friend Luanne Field who was abducted with her. The two of them were soldiers, driving through the desert to their next assignment when their vehicle sputtered and died. They called for help, but they were accosted by aliens who looked human. The aliens stunned them with a small weapon.
When they next awoke, they were strapped to bunks inside a space ship. After they landed on Berrapo, they were separated. Luanne was sent to work in a factory in the city. It wasn’t much of a life for either of them.
They’d had dreams for the future after the army to find a nice guy and settle down to have families. That was not likely on Berrapo, where they worked twelve-hour days with one day off in ten. There was no time for socializing because, at the end of their days, they were too tired to do much more than eat their evening meal and go to bed.
Determination to find a way out kept the threat of hopelessness at bay for Cayla. She would plan better the next time she tried to escape. If she could just get to the spaceport where they came in, maybe she could stow away on a ship. But it was at least an hour away by transport. It could take weeks to walk it. What she didn’t know is that all of the slaves were microchipped with trackers. They would be able to find her anywhere on the planet.
Farseek
“Thanks for flying me here,” Lieutenant Commander Narzek Pardantu to his warrior friend Kragyn Vermaktu. “The new house is more beautiful than the old one. But my family may never get the chance to live there. I don’t know whether they are dead or alive.”
“I am glad we only ever saw the damage in the vids. That was bad enough. I was here when the Sargan’s came. One of the blasts knocked me out, and I regained consciousness strapped to a bunk on a slave ship. That’s probably. what happened to your parents and siblings,” said Kragyn.
“That’s what I hope, that’s why I’m going back out with Dreadnaught Ten.”
“You were lucky a lead spot for a ground team opened up,” said Kragyn.
“That’s because there were more officers like you that found their families alive and well. After fearing them dead for months, they want to spend their time with them.”
“I had decided to retire when my contract was up before the Sargan attack. Finding Reanne was the only good thing that came of the whole ordeal.” Kragyn said, shaking his head.
Narzek didn’t miss the shadow of painful memories that flickered in his eyes. “If I knew one way or another about my family, I would be staying too. Finding them is a longshot. I have to go out there and try.”
“As would I. I hope you find them.”
“Thanks. We should go back to the starport, so I don’t miss my shuttle.” Narzek took out his com-tablet and snapped a picture of the new house that replaced the one bombed to rubble in the Sargan attack on Farseek. “In case I do find them, I can show them they have a home to come back to.”
Kragyn nodded, and they started walking back to his personal flyer. It could be called a hybrid shifter. It had wheels so it could be driven on land, or it could hover a couple feet above the ground, and it had retractable wings to fly like a plane. The flyer could stop midair and land vertically. That was the most common use of the flyers because there were few roads between settlements on Farseek.
“I almost wish I could go back out there to help you find your family and more of our people,” Kragyn said after they lifted off.
“I appreciate that, but I would be staying if I were in your boots. Besides, Farseek needs experienced warriors right here to defend our world and train new warriors. Your mate and your family need you here.”
“And that is why I’m not coming with you.”
A few minutes later, they landed at the flyer lot at the newly rebuilt Farseek Spaceport. Both men climbed out, and Kragyn came around to embrace his friend, knowing it could be the last time they ever saw each other.
“Farewell, my friend,” said Kragyn, “I will ask the Maker to guide your journey to success.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you when I get back,” Narzek asserted. Even as he said it, somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it could be a one-way journey.
Narzek turned and pulled his duffle from the cargo compartment and slung the strap over his shoulder. He gave Kragyn a final nod in salute then strode to the entrance of the terminal without looking back.
The new spaceport was built on basically the same layout as the old one, but with some aesthetic improvement. There were only twenty shuttle pads since most of the ships coming to Farseek were freighters too large to land.
Before the Sargan attack, Farseek was a major supplier of food crops for the Transtellar Consortium of Worlds. Massive freighters came to transport those crops and distribute them among the other worlds, and to bring tech and other goods needed on Farseek. Only, that would not happen again anytime soon.
