Heart of the Nebula (33 page)

James said nothing. Soner shrugged and
slipped the gun into his belt.

“
Oh well—I don’t suppose
you’ll be needing it anymore. It would be a pity to let such a fine
piece of art go to waste.”

“
What do you want from us?”
Lars asked. Though he kept his expression cool, his voice was
tinged with fear.

“
That’s a very good
question,” said Soner. “By now, it must be abundantly clear that
you are in no position to negotiate. We have the power to take what
we want, and there is nothing you can do to stop us. Rest assured,
though, we have no intention of killing you. That would be far too
much trouble.”

“
So you plan to let us go?”
Sterling asked nervously.

“
Of course we do. It makes
no difference to us whether you take our obsolete, barely
functional ramjet fleet and abscond into the nebula. Naturally, we
won’t leave you with anything that could be valuable, but my men
should be taking care of that even as we speak.”

Damn you!
James wanted to scream.

“
Well,” said Lars, “if
you’re willing to let us go, then it shouldn’t be too difficult to
reach some kind of agreement.”

Soner’s mouth turned upward
in a sly, predatory grin. “Oh, we don’t intend to let
all
of you go. That would
be a waste. No, we intend to keep some of you behind.”

James’s blood ran cold. Chills shot from the
back of his neck to the ends of his toes.

“
What do you
mean?”

“
A simple trade,
Commander—one that you can easily afford. There are more than a
hundred young women in the cabin below us. We only want
twenty.”

Sterling gasped. James clenched his fists as
dread turned to rage.

“
You sick bastard! We’ll
never give in to your demands!”

“
Oh, yes you will,
Commander,” said Soner. “I could have you all slaughtered in an
instant if I wanted to. But I don’t think it will come to that,
especially since you no longer have a say in the matter. My men are
already among your crew, gathering volunteers.”

“
Volunteers?” Lars asked,
his cheeks pale.

“
That’s right. Though if
none are forthcoming, we may have to employ some means of
persuasion.”

James lunged forward and threw a fist at
Soner’s face, but before he could strike, one of the soldiers
grabbed his arm and elbowed him in the side. He struck the floor
hard, only to have the wind knocked out of him by a sharp kick to
the stomach. Stars swam across his vision as he doubled over in
pain.

Soner peered down at him. “There’s no reason
to be uncivilized, Commander. As soon as we have what we want,
we’ll let you board your ship and be gone.”

James gasped for breath as Sterling gingerly
helped him to his feet. The pain in his side kept him from standing
up straight, and the taste of vomit filled his mouth.

“
Please,” Lars begged,
“won’t you let us confer with the colonists so that we can come to
this decision together? It’s only fair.”

Soner shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s out
of the question.”

James stared at the bald little man with
undisguised hatred. “I’ll be damned if I let you get away with
this.”

“
Then I’ll save a place for
you in hell, Commander.”

* * * * *

The door to the cabin hissed open and a
squad of Nabattan soldiers stepped through, their dull black armor
giving them the appearance of monsters. Even though they wore their
visors up so that their eyes were visible, Kyla instantly knew that
something was wrong.

“
All right, I want
everybody up and on their feet,” said the first one, a golden
insignia on his shoulder plate setting him apart from the others.
“Let’s move!”

What’s going on?
Kyla wondered as she rose from her seat along with
the other colonists. She looked around for an alternate way out,
but the soldiers guarded the only exit, watching the colonists
closely.

As she followed the crowd out into the main
corridor, a low, metallic groan sounded through the bulkheads,
making the floor shudder slightly.

“
James?” Jessica asked, her
voice trembling. “Oh, God. Where’s James?”

“
Hush, dear,” Adam said,
putting a hand on her shoulder.

“
But James—our only
son!”

“
Quiet!” one of the
soldiers yelled. With tears in her eyes and terror written on her
face, Jessica complied.

Her question was a good one, though. If
anyone could save them from this mess, it would be James. But what
if he was dead? Was that why this was happening? A small child
whimpered somewhere off to her right, and a parent tried in vain to
console her. What if no one was coming for them?

Kyla glanced over her shoulder, but the
soldiers had blocked off the aisle leading to the bridge. Was it
just her, or were there more of them now? Some had unslung their
rifles, and were examining the colonists rather closely. Other
stood around joking with each other, the sound of their laughter
strangely malicious in her ears.

There was no doubt about it. They were on
their own.

The guards at the airlock had their assault
rifles out and pointed at the floor. Kyla’s heart beat faster, but
she did her best to swallow her growing anxiety. With nowhere to
run, her best bet was to blend in. Like everyone else, she walked
through and said nothing.

The corridors on the Nabattan station were
much dimmer than the transport ship, with dark gray walls and
industrial floor grating. The place was also full of soldiers—even
more than before. One of them took her by the arm and pulled her
away.

“
Wait—no!”

A sharp blow across the face stunned her
long enough for them to start patting her down. When she realized
that they weren’t going to drag her away from the others, she
submitted to the search. They could take what they wanted from her
so long as they didn’t take her away.

Once finished, they released her on the
other side without so much as a word and moved on to Jessica and
Adam. Kyla slunk away from the soldiers as quietly as she could,
into the next room.

She was in a large cargo hold, with caged
bulbs across the ceiling and grating on the floor. They’d come in
through a freight airlock, something she hadn’t noticed before. The
colonists who had come in before her huddled against the far wall,
confused and disoriented.

The Nabattans could
massacre us in here,
she thought to herself
as she joined the frightened crowd.
Or
they could throw open that airlock and suck us all out.
Her stomach felt sick, and cold sweat began to
form on the back of her neck.

It took a long time for the soldiers to
process everyone. With everyone against the far wall, the Nabattans
started to haul their bags off to an adjacent hold. The rest stood
guard with their rifles drawn.

“
What the hell are you
doing?” a young man shouted out from somewhere in the
crowd.

“
Silence!” shouted the
officer with the golden insignia, stepping through the airlock
flanked by half a dozen soldiers. “For every one of you who talks,
I shoot someone dead.” As if to emphasize the point, he pulled out
his pistol and pointed it at the nearest prisoner—an old woman who
shrieked and fell to the floor in terror.

The room became deathly silent.

“
All right, then,” said the
officer, eying them with contempt. “Listen up—here’s how it’s gonna
go down. If you comply with our demands, we let you board your
colony ship as planned. If you don’t—” he stepped forward and
plucked a baby out of its mothers arms, holding it at arm’s length
with one hand, “—then we kill you one by one, starting with this
little tyke right here.”

“
No!” the mother screamed,
running forward with arms outstretched to take back her baby. The
three nearest soldiers stepped forward and beat her with their
rifles until she fell to the floor, sobbing
uncontrollably.

Kyla glanced fearfully around the room,
gauging everyone’s reaction. A few men stepped forward, rage
written across their faces, but when the officer held his gun to
the baby’s head, they stopped and kept still.

“
Very good,” said the
officer, ignoring the struggles of the crying baby. “You learned
faster than the last group. Now, here’s what we want: twenty of
your young women stay behind with us.”

A nauseous feeling rose in Kyla’s stomach.
She swallowed hard and did her best to look invisible.

“
We can do this the easy
way or we can do this the hard way, folks. If twenty of you girls
step forward right now, we’ll let everyone else go, nice and easy.
If not, we’ll come through and take the ones we want. And if anyone
resists—” he said, holding up the screaming baby. He left the
threat unfinished.

For several moments, everyone stood utterly
still. The wailing of the baby filled the room, while the mother
sobbed quietly, still lying on the floor.

A single girl stepped forward from the rest
of the group, her face deathly pale. “I’ll go,” she said
softly.

The soldiers grinned as they looked her
over. She was a slim, twenty-something blond, wearing the simple
gray jumpsuit of the working class. From the lack of reaction from
the crowd, Kyla guessed she didn’t have any family who would miss
her.

Just like me.

“
I’ll go, too,” another
girl whispered. She was a gaunt brunette, plain and undernourished,
but not old or ugly. One of the soldiers said something under his
breath, and the rest of them snickered.

“
That’s two,” said the
officer, pointing the girls to the other side of the room. “Any
more?”

“
Take me,” said another
girl, stepping forward. This time, someone in the crowd cried out—a
grown man with a thick red beard.

“
No, Diane!” he cried,
falling to his knees. “Please—don’t go!”

“
Don’t stop me, Father,”
she said, barely able to restrain her own tears. “If I don’t go,
who will?”

Who will?
The words cut Kyla to the core. She glanced around
at all the families and realized that almost everyone had someone
who would miss them—someone like this father—who couldn’t bear to
see them go. And unlike all of these nice girls from good families,
Kyla knew full well what they were getting into. An endless cycle
of beatings and rape, punctuated by self-hatred and a sense of
utter worthlessness.

The girl bit her lip and kissed her father
on the forehead before turning and following the others. Her face
was pale, but she walked forward with a firm resignation in her
step, refusing to look back.

“
Very good,” said the
Nabattan officer. “Who’s next?”

For a long while, no one else came forward.
Kyla’s knees went weak, and her stomach began to churn. The girls
who had offered to sacrifice themselves watched from the other
side, as if through an impenetrable wall that separated them. Her
hands shook as she stared at them, and she suddenly found it
difficult to breathe.

I should be one of
them,
a voice in her head whispered.
I know how to handle myself, how to survive. No
one’s going to miss me when I’m gone.

Two more girls volunteered. The begging
pleas of their loved ones cut Kyla to her heart. Did they really
deserve their freedom any less than her? If she got away because of
their sacrifice, would she ever be able to stop hating herself?

“
I’ll go,” she heard
herself say. “Take me.”

Her first step forward was the most
difficult step she’d ever taken in her life. Behind her, Jessica
cried out, but more out of surprise than anything else. Adam held
her back, and Kyla continued the long walk to join the
condemned.

This is for you,
James,
she thought inwardly.
This is me paying you back for everything that I
owe you.
He was the one who’d given her a
second chance, after all. Now it was her turn to give that to
someone else. And as the soldiers escorted her to the cluster of
terrified girls on the far side of the room, she realized that
she’d finally stopped running.

* * * * *

“
Mistress?” Nina’s
inflectionless voice sounded in Sara’s ear. “Your heart rate has
been unusually elevated for the past twenty-two minutes. It is
starting to disturb me. Please respond.”

That was the last thing Sara could do,
however. The Nabattan pirates had already confiscated her wrist
console, and from the way they were herding her and the others at
gunpoint, she didn’t think they’d have any qualms about
shooting.

James,
she thought frantically.
Where is he?
Is he all right?
It wasn’t clear what the
Nabattans had done to him. He’d been on the bridge of the
transport, along with Sterling and Lars, but the Nabattans had led
her and the other colonists straight from the cabin into the
station cargo bay like so many cattle.

She shuddered as she thought about the girls
they’d left behind—twenty brave young women who had given
themselves in order to save the others. It wasn’t hard to imagine
what the Nabattans would do to them. The whole thing was horrible
and she wished she had the power to stop it, but the Nabattans held
all the power. There was nothing she could do. At least it looked
like everyone else was going to get away now. Their sacrifice had
not been in vain—thank the stars for that.