CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JAI
Kade, my master and I were sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast when my master suddenly snapped his head up and muttered a vehement “Fuck!”
Kade immediately sat up straighter. “Are you all right, sir?”
“I’m a fucking idiot,” my master announced, while at the same time he started to tap rapidly at his comm.
“I forgot to tell Cole about the smuggler.” I could only assume the news meant something to Kade.
Cole was the man my master had run off to see yesterday, but I had no idea what he would have to do with a smuggler.
A moment later, my master’s call was answered, and an image popped up of a young human man and a blue woman.
Was this the Vangravian female that my master had been informed about yesterday?
The one who had requested political asylum?
It occurred to me that at the time, I’d assumed my master had run off to assist her, but it now occurred to me that perhaps that hadn’t been the case.
It was equally possible that he’d run off to arrest the woman, or to see that she was escorted off the planet.
Was that what this call was about? Arranging a smuggler to take the woman away?
“Sorry for the short notice,” my master said to the man, “but you’re about to have a visitor. I contacted that smuggler friend of Rohinavon’s.”
“How did you get his details?” the blue woman asked, and I supposed that confirmed that her name was Rohinavon.
My master hesitated for a moment, then said, “I hacked your comm. Yesterday, while I was at the sanctuary.” He didn’t seem the slightest bit sorry for the intrusion, and I held my breath, wondering whether there was more context to this situation, or if-
“You had no right!” the woman screeched.
She launched into a tirade about trust and loyalty, and I cringed.
So much for extra context. My master hastily stood up and headed for his bedroom, even as he kept trying to placate her.
Well, that told me a great deal more about my master.
After last night, I’d hoped that I’d been at least a little bit wrong about him.
He’d seemed so patient and reasonable, and I’d thought maybe, just maybe, there was another explanation as to how he would treat me that didn’t involve roomfuls of horny men and abandonment on the battle field.
But here he was, arranging deliveries from smugglers and hacking people’s comms without their permission.
It was hardly an indication of an upstanding moral character.
During my training, I’d sometimes tried to console myself with the idea that there could, in fact, be a plausible reason for my collection of skills that would do some good in the galaxy.
Saving children from a warlord, for example, where seduction might play a part in distracting the enemy to allow others to complete their part of the mission.
I’d only ever entertained that sort of idea as a way to try and stay sane, when the Eumadians were slowly and consistently slicing slivers of my personality away from me, and they seemed even more fanciful now, given what I’d just seen my master do.
I was just finishing my meal when my master came back, apparently having resolved whatever the issue with the smuggler was.
He sat down without a word and tucked into the remains of his breakfast, the eggs now likely cold, but he didn’t seem to mind.
That, at least, was a small point in his favour.
I’d been expecting him to make a fuss about the temperature, and then perhaps demand that Kade make some fresh.
But he’d barely taken two bites when his comm beeped again, and he glanced at it, then cursed. He swallowed hastily, then set down his fork, plastering a smile to his face. “Hey, Zeke,” he said, when he answered the call. “Good to hear from you. What’s happening?”
“Good news,” the other man said, and I observed that he was likely a few years older than my master, but he was also wearing a military uniform.
“I’ve spoken to Goroz, and he’s more than happy to send a team to help you out.
He can’t wait to get started. I’ve asked him to give everyone a thorough briefing about Alliance culture.
It’s one of those things that’s going to cause a few sticking points no matter how prepared we try to be, but if we can minimise the fallout, then all the better. ”
My master nodded. “And they realise this is going to be a decades-long project? They’re not going to get bored?”
The man on the image grinned. “When Ranzors commit to something, they see it through. And if it means they get to start a war at the end of it, then all the better – as far as they’re concerned, at least.”
My master gave a helpless sort of shrug. “Okay, well, good, I guess. Send me a list of the soldiers on the team and I'll send it through to HQ.”
“Right away. Call me if you have any questions. And give Cole a proper briefing on Ranzor culture, as well. If both sides are properly prepared to deal with any miscommunications, it should end up smoother in the end.”
“Thanks. I’ll be in touch.”
He ended the call, and against my better judgement, I said, “Ranzors?”
My master nodded. “What I’m about to tell you is classified information and you are not to discuss it with anyone other than myself, Kade, or Henderson.
But that Vangravian woman from yesterday?
She has a son and she wants to raise him as a free person, not as a slave to the Eumadians.
But if Vangal finds out, they’ll send bounty hunters to kill her.
So we’re enlisting the help of some of the Ranzors to protect her and the child until her son’s an adult. ”
I nodded and said nothing more, but inside, I was quaking. Ranzors? They had a reputation as being some of the fiercest and most deadly warriors in the galaxy, and no one ever wanted to risk getting on their bad side.
I really didn’t know what to make of that. The fact that my master wanted to protect the Vangravian woman was admirable. The fact that he was employing Ranzors to do it was lunacy.
Kade started clearing the dirty dishes from the table.
At the same time, my master’s comm beeped again.
He was a popular man this morning. He checked the caller, then glanced at me sharply.
“Jai, help Kade clean up the kitchen,” he said, sounding just a little disappointed that he had to remind me.
I ignored the twinge of guilt I felt and stood up, taking my empty plate and beginning to stack the dishwasher.
Once we’d finished, my master was still deep in conversation with whoever he was speaking to – presumably someone important, given that he kept addressing the woman as ma’am.
And by now, he was insisting that they needed to take the project with the Vangravian woman away from him, since it was going to take far too much time, on top of the work he already had to do.
He’d said that his aim was to protect one woman and her child, but as the conversation continued, it was becoming clear that it was going to involve a lot more than that.
Presumably, he’d given me the short version because he didn’t want me knowing all the various details.
I couldn’t even be offended by that. I hadn’t done anything to prove myself trustworthy in the last day or so, and if this project involved complicated politics with Vangal and the Ranzors, he was likely of the opinion that the less I knew, the better.
Once the kitchen was clean, Kade turned to me.
“I need to show you how to run the washing machine, but would you like me to show you how to clean the rest of the house? How to order groceries, what the usual routines are?” He looked sceptical as he asked the question, and I once again felt a trickle of regret.
Kade had started out so friendly yesterday, and I was doing everything in my power to hold him at a distance.
But if this played out anything like the way I expected it to, then Kade could not be a true friend to me anyway. He would follow his master’s lead, chew me up and spit me out when he was done with me. The longing for a friend was a far different reality from what was currently in front of me.
I thought about being difficult… but in the end, my master was going to order me to help Kade, whether I liked it or not.
Was it defeatist to make that choice before he could order me to do it?
Or was it just good sense in choosing my battles?
“Yes,” I said finally, though I made sure I didn’t sound enthusiastic about it.
We spent the next several hours working through the various chores around the house – laundry, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming the floors.
Meanwhile, my master made call after call, talking to various people in the military and checking up on the other dimari who had arrived in the same crate as me.
That last responsibility struck me as a little odd.
The new dimari were the responsibility of their own masters.
Why did my master need to get involved in how they were treating their slaves?
I kept half an ear on the conversation as we went about our work, trying to piece the information together.
There were half a dozen small details that caught my attention, largely connected to the idea that the new owners didn’t know much about how the dimari were trained.
Given that I’d been taught almost nothing about the Alliance, I supposed it wasn’t such an odd thing that the masters here might not know a great deal about the dimari, either.
Eventually, my master’s voice fell silent, and a few minutes later, Kade declared that we were finished with our housework.
We returned to the kitchen to find my master tapping a written message into his comm.
He stared intently at the screen until a reply popped up, then he sighed in what seemed to be relief.
“Okay, I’d like both of you to put on some suitable clothes. We’re going for a walk into town.”