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To avoid scrutiny, vessels complied with the law by undergoing routine safety inspections. We could not risk getting caught without a safety-clearance tag, which would result in the impounding of a vessel. But, during inspection, it would be difficult to explain a luxurious suite on a cargo vessel disguised as a scrap hauler.
So, I put up with the second-rate accommodations. But today, it added insult to injury. Fury blazed in my gut.
So much had gone wrong.
We were leaving with the ship half empty. We didn’t have nearly the cargo we should have had, the number of ovwets I needed to finalize my plan.
Jessie had stolen my hologram projector. I wouldn’t miss looking like a hideous flat-faced, furless ovwet, or having to mimic the former ovwet leader’s milquetoast, do-gooder personality, but without the device, I couldn’t stay on New Terra. I’d barely managed to sneak out of the building without being seen.
What had she done with the device? It wasn’t on her when she’d been brought to the ship. Could she have passed it to Garrison? Belatedly, I realized he probably worked for the LOP. The pyot guard I’d directed to bring Jessie to the ship had allowed her to warn him, and he’d fled before he could be captured. The guard wouldn’t make that mistake again. He was dead now. However, that didn’t fix the problem.
The league had long suspected I controlled the cartel, but, without proof, they hadn’t been able to do anything. They couldn’t accuse a princess based on rumor. But if the league got ahold of my device, they would have the proof they needed. My men were searching for Garrison.
I would have to devise a new plan to secure more ovwets—and deal with the LOP. Because of Jessie, both would be more difficult now. I could not lose this market because of one ovwet!
My mother was withering away. As soon as she succumbed, I would be crowned queen. Then I could invade Araset and rule all of Nomoru. Finally, I’d take Cerulea. I didn’t need a partner anymore.
What I did need was the sale of more slaves to fund my growing army. My fighting force had to be invincible. Araset and Cerulea were members of the LOP. When I invaded them, I’d be taking on the entire League of Planets.
I’d come up with the idea of a space cruise as bait to capture a massive quantity of humans at one time. The few who questioned how they’d won a space cruise when New Terra didn’t have a space program accepted the lie it was a tech magnate’s secret pet project he was now ready to introduce to the world.
The space cruise had backfired. After the Star Cross passengers had been transferred to the cargo ship, the LOP raided the vessel and freed the captives. Worse, it caused the league to step up policing, and now there were worrisome rumblings among the LOP General Assembly of lifting the embargo. And Jessie, who’d been on the Star Cross, had made it her personal mission to thwart me.
The lucrative human market represented the largest share of cartel business. Humans garnered twice as much as any other species, and, up until now, acquiring them had been as easy as picking low-hanging fruit off a tree—not that I would ever dirty my hands picking fruit. Servants did that. However, the embargo had provided the perfect cover and facilitated the acquisition. Without contact with other planets, humans were blithely ignorant.
Once I’d supplanted the leader and replaced some of her aides with my own, harvesting had gotten even easier. I’d had population records redacted and erased missing person reports. Concerned family members who ran to Terran Security vanished, too. Its chief was one of my Copan aides.
A call from the bridge interrupted my reverie.
“What is it?” I snapped.
“Princess,” the captain spoke. “We need you on the bridge. We are being hailed…by the LOP.”
“Don’t answer. They’re guessing we’re here. They can’t see us.” All cartel vessels were equipped with Cerulean shimmer technology.
“Um, yes they can.”
“What do you mean they can?”
“In accordance with your orders, the shimmer was deactivated.”
“I did no such thing!” I gasped. As soon as we deposited the ovwets at the auction house, the captain and his first officer would be relieved of their duties and sent to the auction block. “Reactivate it, now!”
“The AI permanently deactivated it. And, um, the vessel is surrounded.”
“Surrounded?”
“By six warships.”
I ran to the bridge. Through the view window and on the rear monitors, I could see the ships. “Let me hear what they’re saying. One-way audio only. No visuals.” If we could see them, they could see us.
“This is Admiral Korvan of the League of Planets,” he said in perfect Ara-Cope. “We have you surrounded. We have reason to believe your vessel is engaged in alien species trafficking. Prepare yourselves to be boarded and searched. Our inspection team will dock at your aft bay.”
I sliced the air with my hand, and the captain severed the comm link. There was no way to hide four hundred ovwets or to explain my presence on this vessel. Everything I’d worked for was slipping through my grasp. My very freedom was at stake. If I’d had the device, I could have disguised myself as a human captive and escaped. Jessie stole the device. She caused this!
“They can’t board if we don’t let them,” I said desperately.
“They aren’t going away. They’ve got us surrounded. We can’t outrun them,” the captain said.
