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  “You’re welcome to try,” Sarah spat back. “You seem to be forgetting that you’re on an Elder warship. There’s no way you’re getting out of here without my say so.”

  “We’ll see,” Angrave said and then he let out an ear-piercing laugh.

  As if it was a signal, one of the pirates on the opposite end of the line flung something towards Sarah. Instinctively, she raised a hand and turned to protect herself from the projectile. As soon as she did, the pirates charged her, letting out battle cries as they ran.

  Realizing the foolishness of her action, Sarah bit back a curse as she swung around to face her enemies. Raising the Elder blaster, she held onto it with two hands. Instead of releasing a single blast, she held the trigger down to fire a continuous laser beam. She tracked it across four of the pirates. They all fell to the deck, holes brunt through their chests and heads. Releasing the trigger for a split second, she pivoted to aim at the next group of pirates. As one, they raised their hands and ground to a halt.

  “One more step and you’re joining them,” she said, sounding far calmer than she felt. Slowly, she tracked her blaster around until it was sighted squarely on Angrave’s chest. “Would you like to try that again?” she asked. A part of her was screaming at herself, wanting to pull the trigger. Angrave had tormented her for the last two years.

  “Are you ok?” Divar said from behind Sarah, forcing her to forget about killing Angrave. He had already descended the shuttle’s access ramp and had his blaster raised at the pirates. “It sounded like you needed some help, but I see you have everything under control.”

  “I’m ok,” Sarah replied. “Did you get the data?”

  “I did,” Divar answered.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Sarah said.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Divar responded. Slowly, both of them backed away from the pirates and then out of the hangar.

  “What now?” Divar asked as the access hatch closed behind them.

  Sarah held up a finger to Divar to ask him to wait. Alexandra had been speaking to her at the same moment. “Repeat that,” she thought.

  “We have just exited the Tyrilla Storm,” Alexandra informed her again.

  “We’ll return to the bridge immediately,” Sarah thought. “Divar has the navigational data.”

  “Come on,” Sarah said to Divar. “We’ll take the navigational data to the bridge and let Alexandra analyze it. We have passed out of the Tyrilla Storm, we can make the jump into subspace as soon as we figure out where we can get some fuel.”

  “What about the dead pirates?” Divar asked.

  “We’ll let Angrave worry about them,” Sarah answered as she turned to walk towards the bridge. “A couple of bodies might just encourage them not to try anything else.”

  Once they got to the bridge Divar uploaded the navigational data from Lady Luck’s shuttle to Alexandra’s memory banks. On the holographic display in the middle of the bridge Alexandra projected a 3D image of the space around them. Hundreds of white dots sparkled and Sarah instinctively knew each represented an inhabited world. There were six flashing red dots which she guessed were pirate bases or outposts that Lady Luck had visited.

  “How many sectors are we looking at?” Sarah asked out loud.

  “Six,” Alexandra answered. As she spoke, six cubes appeared on the holographic display encapsulating all the white dots. “Each sector is a cube with a length, width and height of one hundred light years. The sector capitals are highlighted in blue.”

  As Sarah studied the holographic projection a blue dot appeared approximately in the middle of each cube. She had never been to a Sector Capital. They were habitable planets the Elders had taken over and established a permanent presence on. As far as she knew, their activity was limited to a small enclave of Elders on the planet surface. An orbital shipyard, military installations and a war fleet were their main presence within the system. The fleet was there to threaten the rest of the worlds in the sector. “Show us sector one thousand and seventy-six,” she requested.

  The image shrank as more cubes with hundreds more white dots appeared around the first six. That image continued to shrink until there were at least eight hundred cubes visible. One of the cubes flashed with a yellow border. “This is sector one thousand and seventy-six,” Alexandra informed them.

  Even though Sarah knew space was massive and the Elder Empire spanned a significant portion of the galaxy, her mind struggled to take in what she was looking at. The image in front of her was looking at the galaxy from a side on position. There were six, sometimes seven cubes that spanned the height of the Milky Way. Lengthwise, there were more than thirty sectors between their current position and sector one thousand and seventy-six. The Elder Empire was truly massive, and she was just looking at a part of the Orion Arm. Just how many sectors are there? she wondered.

  Taking her thoughts as a question, Alexandra caused the image on the Holo projector to shrink even further as more and more of the galaxy came into view. “There are over six thousand seven hundred sectors,” she explained. “I only have full navigational data on a handful of them, but I have information on the boundaries of each sector and its Capital World.”

  Sarah was gob smacked. Six thousand seven hundred sectors, she thought. Even if there is just a handful of inhabited planets in each sector, that’s thousands and thousands of worlds. How am I going to find my homeworld in all that? I could be from anywhere.

  Worse, as she studied the display more closely, she realized that though the Elder Empire was massive, it didn’t span all of the galaxy. There was at least several hundred light years of space along the outer edge of the Orion Arm that didn’t fall into the Elder Empire. Similarly, along the other arms of the galaxy the Elder Empire didn’t appear to have complete control. “The Elder Empire doesn’t span all of the galaxy?” she asked.

  “No,” Alexandra answered. “According to my historical records, the Elders began to subdue the species surrounding their homeworld over four thousand years ago. Slowly at first, and then more quickly, they set up sectors where they kept a garrison of warships to oversee the alien species in each sector. The last sectors along the Orion Arm of the galaxy where set up one thousand five hundred years ago. Since then, no new sectors have been established.”

  As Alexandra explained, she re-focused the image on the holo projector to display sector 001. From there she projected the expansion of the Elder empire as it spread across the galaxy, encompassing all of the inner galaxy and stretching towards its outermost extremities. Then, the expansion stopped. Sarah guessed that around one third of the galaxy hadn’t been brought under Elder control. My homeworld could be out there somewhere, beyond the Elder Empire, Sarah thought. It could be anywhere.

  Yet it is out there, she thought as her determination grew. Somewhere out there, there is someone or some databank that knows where I am from. I will find it.

  “Just why did the Elders stop their expansion? Divar asked.

  “I have no data on that,” Alexandra answered.

  “Another mystery then,” Divar said.

  “Show us local space again, but keep sector one thousand and seventy-six in view,” Sarah requested, having little concern for Elder history.

  “These three seem like the best candidates,” Divar said as he pointed towards three of the red dots. They roughly formed a straight line from their current position to sector one thousand and seventy-six. “We can call in there to try to purchase some anti-matter for the ship’s reactors.”

  “Display the worlds where you picked up the bounty on the man who looks like me,” Sarah asked.

  A new set of blue dots appeared on the display, they were much closer than sector one thousand and seventy-six, though off at a ninety-degree angle from the direction of Divar’s home sector.

  “Who are you talking about?” Divar asked.

  “Alexandra has no information on my homeworld nor my race,” Sarah explained. “If I’m to get home I need to find out where
I’m from. The only other person from my species Alexandra has come across is this smuggler.” As she spoke she asked Alexandra to display the image of the smuggler. “I intend to take you home, but first we need to find this man. I need to speak to him.”

  Divar took a few moments to study the image and look at the map of local space. “I understand,” he finally said. “I’m eager to get home to see my family but we need to get you answers. We can go to this first pirate base like I said. Then we can head towards these worlds that Alexandra has visited. Look, there is one pirate base nearby. Perhaps we can visit it and someone there may know of the smuggler.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping,” Sarah said. “If there is a bounty on his head, he’s not likely to be spending much time on Elder controlled planets. Someone on one of these pirate bases may know how to contact him.”

  “Well Alexandra,” Divar said. “It looks like you have your first destination. You can take us to the Aral colony. Do you wish to give the order Captain?” he asked as he turned to face Sarah.

  “Yes,” Sarah replied as the significance of the moment sunk in. This was her first real step towards getting home. “Take us to Aral,” she ordered Alexandra.

  “Jumping into subspace now,” Alexandra informed them. “It should take us eight days to get there. By the time we do, we will only have enough anti-matter left for several more days of subspace flight.”

  “Then we’re just going to have to make sure we get all the anti-matter we need at Aral,” Sarah said. “We’ve got eight days to figure out just how were going to do that.”

  “Usually I’d say there’s no time like the present,” Divar said. “But it has been a long day and we’ve both been through a lot. To be honest, I’m still struggling to get my head around what’s going on. If there are living quarters suitable for us Alexandra, I think both of us might need to have some time to rest.”

  As she took a moment to examine her own body, Sarah realized just how fatigued she felt. Checking the time, she was shocked to see that she’d been awake for more than twenty hours. She had spent a long time waiting for the convoy to arrive. Since then, time had seemed to fly. Nevertheless, as her mind focused on how she felt, she had to struggle to fight back a yawn. “I think you’re right,” she said. “I guess I’ll take the Captain’s quarters, you can take any other quarters you want.”

  “I will guide you to them,” Alexandra said. “I have already instructed the nanites in the Captain’s and Tactical Officer’s quarters to produce sleeping stations I think will accommodate you.”

  The way Alexandra described it didn’t exactly make Sarah feel like she had a comfortable bed awaiting her, nevertheless, she knew she would be grateful for anything at this point. “Let’s get some sleep then,” she said. “We can figure out what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

  “Until tomorrow then Captain,” Divar said as he raised his hand, mimicking the short salute Draxler had requested all the pirates give him. He couldn’t help but grin.

  “There’s no need for that. We are just two slaves trying to get home,” Sarah said as she turned and walked out of the bridge, shaking her head. Secretly though, she couldn’t help but smile, it really was surreal. I am the Captain of my own ship.

  Divar followed along beside her. From the shape of her shoulders, he guessed what she was thinking.

  *

  An hour later Sarah tried to get comfortable in the bed Alexandra had created for her. Her problem wasn’t Alexander’s idea of what someone from her species would find comfortable. The bed more than met her needs. The problem was the image of Draxler that kept reappearing in her mind. At first, she had savored the memory. For two years the pirate had tormented her and forced her to carry out numerous atrocities. Atrocities she hated herself for. Yet, very quickly it had dawned on her that she had killed another sentient being of her own free will. She could no longer blame Draxler or anyone else for forcing her to do what she had done. She had killed Draxler willingly and in a fit of rage. Try as she might, she couldn’t get the image out of her mind.

  Chapter 9

  Sarah stood on the bridge of Destiny. She had chosen the name of the Elder frigate four days ago. All her life she had been forced to live at the beck and call of someone else. Now, she was her own master. Her destiny was in her own hands. Both Divar and Alexandra had agreed, her choice was a good one. She was the first non-Elder captain of an Elder warship. No Lesser species had commanded a more powerful ship in all of history. Though she didn’t know how she was going to get home, she was determined Destiny would be the ship that eventually got her there.

  When she had first realized she could use the ship to get home her hope had begun to grow. Now it was firmly fixed in her mind. Barely an hour went by when she didn’t think, with a great measure of confidence, that she would make it home. Having spent the last eight days having her mind enlightened by Alexandra about so much of the Elder’s understanding of maths, physics, chemistry, biology and the galaxy itself; she now knew they could be beaten. While she still didn’t understand half of what Alexandra tried to explain to her, what she did understand made her realize that the Elders were no better than any other sentient species. They were just the first ones to discover many of their technologies. They had used them to suppress every other species. She had been told time and time again, even by the pirates, that the Elders were the only ones who were wise enough to rule the galaxy and ensure peace. Though the pirates hated the Elders and wanted to make a profit at their expense, they still recognized that no other species could rule.

  Now, having seen first-hand the hundreds of different technologies that came together to make Destiny such a powerful warship, Sarah was confident Destiny was light years ahead of any other warship she would meet. With Destiny she would be able to get home. What’s more, she knew that with the secrets Alexandra contained, she wouldn’t just be able to return home, she would be able to bring science and learning and technologies that would greatly benefit her people. Her hope had morphed into a sense of duty. The great knowledge she now possessed had the potential to bring freedom to hundreds, even thousands of alien worlds that were crushed under the weight of the Elder’s rule. She didn’t know how yet, but she was sure she had to find a way to use Alexandra and the information she held to benefit her people.

  “We are in position,” Alexandra said out loud for Sarah and Divar to hear.

  Pulling herself away from her thoughts, Sarah looked to Divar and nodded. They were both sitting on the bridge watching the holographic projector display the sensor feed from the system they were in. Alexandra’s navigational data said the system was simply designated XW-1023. It had been explored and disregarded more than two millennia ago. According to the data Draxler took from Lady Luck, the system was known to pirates and other fugitives as the Aral system after a black colony established on a moon that orbited one of the gas giants in the system. A black colony was an unregistered colony set up in direct violation of Elder regulations. From the limited information they had on the colony, it was over three hundred years old. Initially Sarah had been surprised the Elders hadn’t discovered the colony. Now that they were in the system, she understood. Destiny was powered down and hiding at the edge of the system listening with her passive sensors. Normally inhabited worlds would be lighting up a ship’s sensors. It was just not possible to hide all the stray electromagnetic energy a thriving economy gave off. Or so Sarah had thought. According to Alexandra, there was no sign the moon called Aral was inhabited. It looked abandoned.

  “No sign of any other ships in the system?” Divar asked.

  “None that my sensors are picking up,” Alexandra answered.

  “Then there is nothing else to do but go talk to Angrave,” Sarah said, not bothering to hide the disgust in her voice. For the last eight days, she and Divar had ignored the pirates. They had brought enough foodstuff onto the shuttle from Lady Luck to last them for at least a month so she had not bothered to go visit them. Though some o
f them might have been useful, she wanted nothing to do with them. Alexandra had informed her that at least a couple of fights had broken out among the pirates, yet Angrave had stepped in and stopped them before they had led to any bloodshed. She guessed the pirate leader’s anger had been growing daily. He wouldn’t be responding too well to being locked up for so long. Sarah struggled to care. After everything he had put her through, being locked in a shuttle bay for over a week was nothing.

  Still, as she headed towards the shuttle bay with Divar at her side, she couldn’t help but feel a knot of fear tighten within her stomach. Though the slave collar was no longer around her neck and Angrave could do little to harm her, she still feared him. It was difficult to shake instincts developed over the last two years.

  When she came to rest in front of the access hatch to the shuttle bay, Sarah paused and took a deep breath. With an effort, she forced her fears into a small space in the back of her mind. She couldn’t afford to show Angrave any weakness.

  With the touch of a couple of buttons on the access hatch’s control panel, she opened a COM channel to the shuttle bay. “Angrave,” she began. “We’re going to open the access hatch in thirty seconds. I want you to come and stand in front of it. Don’t bring any weapons. The rest of your crew are to line up along the far wall of the shuttle bay.”