Beyond the Rim

My whole body trembled with the realization I had escaped. I had endured slavery, and now I could hardly endure the sudden blow of freedom.

I turned to Muriel, whose eyes were wide, gazing at the stars dashing toward us.

“We’re free, Muriel. We can go wherever we want, do whatever we want!” I hugged her; her slight form quivered against mine.

“This is freedom?” she said breathlessly.

“Yes, it is,” I said.

She pointed at the stars ahead of us. “Aren’t they beautiful?”

“Very beautiful.”

“I’ve caught glimpses of stars before. But on the transports, I’m always bound in the slave quarters.”

Grimm looked back at Muriel, surprise on his face. “You were a slave?”

She nodded. “I was leased to Senator Zodiak.”

“Oh. It figures, knowing what I know about Zodiak.”

I didn’t see any reason to keep the secret; we were all in this together. “I was a slave, too. Well, technically I still am.”

Stace turned from the console. “All right, fine, Devlin. If it means that much to you. You’re free.” She snapped her finger, eyes sparkling.

“You owned him?” said Grimm, an edge to his voice.

“Yes, but I freed him. Doesn’t that balance it out? Look, I’m not like my dad, okay? I never forced him to do—anything.”

I let that slide. She had electroshocked me several times, practically forced me to sleep with her, but she’d also freed me; I wasn’t going to bring up past wrongs. We were headed toward a new life together, all of us. And Stace was the main reason we’d gotten off the planet.

“She was a good master,” I said. She had been, all things considered. Better than I’d been expecting, anyway.

Rock on the other hand—who knew where he’d ended up. As soon as we got Sari somewhere safe, I’d need to find him. Even if it cost me my own freedom, I’d find him.

I wondered what Muriel would do. She could come with me, but I didn’t want to expose her to danger. If I could leave her somewhere safe….Maybe on the planet that Stace had mentioned. Maybe Stace would stay there, too. Though somehow I doubted she’d stay confined to one planet if she could help it.

There were so many things to figure out. As a slave, I hadn’t had to make many decisions of my own. I was a little rusty in that regard.

“Stace,” I said. “What are you going to do after we get to the planet?”

“I don’t know. Anything I want!” She spun and knelt on the back of the chair to face me.

“I have to find Rock.”

“Rock? Oh, yeah, your friend. Well, maybe I’ll help you find him.”

“Really?” I didn’t know whether to be happy or apprehensive about that.

“Yeah, I know about a lot of places. That’s why I hate that Daddy confined me to the planet.”

“Speaking of which,” said Grimm, “It’s a little strange he hasn’t sent anyone after us.”

“He’s probably in a holoconference. Those go on for hours. When he finds out we’re gone, we’ll almost be there.”

“How long will it take?” said Summer, kneeling on the floor beside Sari.

“Well, 1248 is way on the other edge of the Rim, so it’ll probably take five days.”

“I don’t think we have that long.” Pain constricted her voice. “Can’t we stop somewhere closer?”

“Maybe, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be safe.”

“We might have to,” said Grimm.

We settled into a tense silence. Summer tended to Sari; I retrieved some water from the stash and tried to get her to swallow some. Her skin was gray, her breathing shallow.

I sat back down and wrapped my arm around Muriel, and she cuddled against me. “Please, don’t ever leave me,” she said.

“If I have to leave you, I’ll make sure you’re somewhere safe.”

“Can’t I just stay with you all the time?”

“I have to find Rock, and that could get dangerous. I don’t want you to become a slave again. Ever.” I took her hand and kissed it. She started at the touch, blue sapphire in the depths of her eyes. She kissed my cheek, then darted back as if afraid. Warmth spread across my skin where she’d kissed it. I lifted her chin, and kissed her lightly on the mouth, and then leaned into lips as soft as rose petals.

“I just thought of a better planet,” said Stace, though she was looking at me and Muriel, eyes narrowed.

“Where is it?” said Grimm.

“It’ll only take a day to get there. But it’s a Core world.”

Grimm looked at Summer. “Maybe we’ll have to.”

“Escaping wouldn’t be worth it if…” said Summer.

Grimm nodded.

Stace punched some buttons, turning on a new autopilot vector, prepped for streaming, then came over to me. She slid sideways onto my lap and draped her arm around my neck. “So, Devlin. If we get out of this alive, I think I’ll help you find your Rock. We’ll make a great team.”

“But maybe you should—”

“Sit around and wait for life to happen? You know that’s not me.” She kissed my forehead, then my cheek. “Besides, I can take care of myself. I won’t ever wither under pressure.” She glared at Muriel, who shrunk away from her.

Just then, Grimm said, “Look!” My heart dropped. On the viewscreen, a large red planet grew rapidly closer.

Zodiak Prime.

“No, no it can’t be!” I said. “Check the console!”

Stace dived toward the console, just as Grimm did. They fought a moment for supremacy then Grimm held her wrist. “The controls are lying to us! They say we’re still on autopilot! We’ve been going in a big circle.” He glared at Stace. “You did this.”

Horror dawned on her face. “No! I’d never—Even if I hated you all and wanted you dead, I’d never take us back to that planet. You’ve got to believe me.”

“I believe you,” I said.

“It’s Daddy. He’s found us out. He probably did from the beginning.”

“Can’t we fix it?” I said. “I mean, can we sabotage him somehow?”

“I don’t know. Maybe if we smash the whole thing.” She looked around, as if for something to use to destroy the console.

“I know something about pods,” said Grimm. “I let Stace fly because she was so eager to, but on our previous world, I was a flytech.”

“Good,” I said. “Then try.”

He slid into the pilot’s chair and stabbed some buttons with his finger. Then he said, “Get me a laser-wrench from the stash.”

Stace went and grabbed one, and he held the small device over the console, as if doing surgery on it, wrestling with Zodiak for control of our little lifeboat.

Behind me, Summer held Sari against her chest. “I’m not going back. I’m not going back,” she said over and over. I went over to her, touched her shoulder.

“We’ll get out of this yet,” I said.

She looked up, tears in her eyes. “We have to get out. For Sari.”

I looked in the stash for anything we could use as a weapon. If we landed on the planet, we could still fight. Maybe futilely, but I wasn’t going to be a slave again. They’d have to kill me first.

This pod didn’t seem to have any weapons aboard, but there were a few more lasertools. They could do some damage.

I gathered them, and handed one to Stace and Muriel and Summer.

Grimm worked on the console, but we kept going down. Down, down to the planet where I’d been confined for two months.

My chest constricted, as if someone were squeezing my lungs. I concentrated on breathing. Slow, deep breaths. I envisioned Zodiak’s face lasering in half.

“Set them on the highest setting,” I said. “The kind that’ll cut through tyranium.”

I led Stace, Muriel, and Summer to the back hatch.

“Now,” I said, “as soon as you see any kind of movement, start shooting.” I braced my boots on the floor as we began to drop toward the planet.

Grimm joined us with his laserwrench. “It’s no use, I can’t get control back,” he said. “We might as well fight.”

I gave him a grim smile and we stood side by side, me and Grimm and Stace, Muriel and Summer behind us.

The pod touched ground, and taxied to what I assumed was the hangar. I didn’t look back toward the window. I wasn’t going to keep my eyes off the door.

The pod stopped. The hatch slid upwards, revealing red ground, red-hazed sky.

I saw no one. Then, a man darted from the right side, fired toward us. The shot went wide, and I fired back, scoring a cut in the hull.

Another movement from the left. Ginj, the guard. I shot toward her and was rewarded with a shriek of pain.

Then, silence. No movement. I was tempted to crawl out to see what was going on, but this place was more defensible. Perhaps we could hold them off, and Grimm could wrest the controls from them while they were distracted.

“Grimm,” I said, aiming a thumb back toward the console. “Try again.”

He nodded.

I looked at Stace beside me. “We’ll get out of this yet.”

She grinned back at me, holding her laserbolt ready.

Pling! Something hit the deck, bouncing back across the floor.

“Watch out!” I said.

But it was too late.

The grenade exploded into white light. Pain pierced my mind.

Blackness.