Page 39 of Xel: Broken Bond
Another moment passed in silence… and then I heard a faint rustle and a muted clang as whoever it was moved a couple of the tools out of their way. I took another step back, hoping I didn’t end up in a fight with the person – partly because I didn’t want to get hurt, and partly because I didn’t want to hurt them.
A bipedal figure rose from the shadows behind the crate and edged cautiously towards the door. “I’m not going to hurt you,” a light, high-pitched voice said. “I was just looking for a safeplace to spend the…” The person stopped in their tracks as they stepped out of the doorway and got a good look at me. Then they let out a shriek of rage. “You! No! What the hell are you doing here? Slavery isillegalhere. Who bought you? No, better yet, what hell-baked planet did that degenerate smuggler strand me on? This must be some colossal fucking joke!”
Most of my mind was scrambling to understand the implications of what they’d just said, while my ingrained observation skills were taking in all the details of the creature in front of me. I’d never seen anything like them. They were about a foot shorter than me – very much medium height, when compared to galactic norms. Their skin was blue all over, and their eyes were a very pale blue with a hint of violet. Their torso looked much like mine or my master’s, covered with a loose, sea-green shirt. But their hips were much wider, bulging out to about double the size of mine, covered in a sandy-coloured skirt that was torn around the lower hem. And their feet were bare and dirty.
I’d never seen anything like them, so I angled my comm in their direction and managed to activate a visual scan without letting go of my shovel. Whoever this was, they were plenty angry about… well,something, though I hadn’t quite figured out what yet.
A moment later, my comm beeped and a brief response flashed up on the display.Vangravian. Female.
I stared at the woman in shock. I’d never seen a female Vangravian before, not even in pictures or videos. As far as I was aware, they all lived on Vangal, the Vangravian homeworld, and nevereverleft the planet.
So what in the blazing heavens was one doing here?
“What planet am I on?” she demanded again, and I took another step back in the face of her fiery anger.
“Rendol 4,” I told her, while I continued trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
“But that’s inside Alliance space, right?” she said, sounding more confused than angry now. “You’re a part of the Denzogal Alliance?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” I said, feeling thoroughly confused myself.
“So… why areyouhere?”
I didn’t understand the question. “Why shouldn’t I be here?”
“Because slavery isillegalin the Alliance. No one is allowed tobuya dimari. That’s the whole reason I came here! But if they’re buying slaves like everyone else, then I’m…” She looked around at the walls of the barn, a growing panic on her face.
“My master didn’t buy me,” I said, mostly as a way to placate her. “My original master died, and I was transferred to his nephew. He chose to take me in and look after me.” But my previous masterhadbought me, and he’d lived on Rendol 4… Oh! Aiden had said something about my master breaking the law. And perhaps I understood what he meant now. My first master shouldn’t have bought me, since it was illegal to have a…
I cut the train of thought off, focusing back on the woman in front of me. “You’re a Vangravian female,” I said to her, as I schooled my expression into a scowl. It was more an attempt to control the situation than anything. “Why areyouhere? Females don’t leave the homeworld.”
“No, they don’t,” she said, glancing around again, and this time, I recognised it as an attempt to find an escape route. She was planning on making a run for it.
“There’s nowhere for you to go,” I told her. “You would do better to tell me why you’re here.”
She turned her attention back to me, folding her arms stubbornly. Though she had no weapon, she seemed blissfully unconcerned about the shovel in my hands. “You’re the lastperson in the galaxy I want to be talking to. I came here toavoidthe dimari, not to jump straight into another mess.”
She was smaller than me, and lighter, and though I had nothing in particular to base my opinion on, she seemed young. Too young to have developed such a brazen disregard for her own safety. “How old are you?” I asked her. She didn’t look much older than me – though perhaps females aged differently from males.
“Twenty-one,” she said, sounding unhappy about it. “Everyone on Vangal thinks I’m still too young and stupid to know what I want to do with my life, but…”
She glanced down at her hips, and a look of cold determination settled on her face. “I know perfectly well what I want. And what I need. So that’s why I came here.”
“And what do you need?” I prompted her, when she didn’t continue.
“I’m not talking to you,” she said flatly. “You’re a dimari. You have no power here, no control, no wealth. There’s nothingyoucan do to help me.”
“What about my master?” I asked. I was very much in two minds about getting him involved. On one hand, I didn’t want to cause trouble for him, and a Vangravian female who had apparently run away from Vangal was going to be a whole mountain of trouble. But on the other hand, he was very good at rescuing strays who needed help – and as he’d shown with me, his generosity wasn’t just limited to animals.
The woman thought about that for a moment. “What about your master?” she asked, sounding tentatively hopeful.
“This is the South Hon Animal Sanctuary,” I said, hoping to keep the explanation short. “We care for and rehome animals whose owners can’t look after them anymore. My master is a human. That’s one of the species in the Alliance. He has connections to other people who might be able to help you.” Theone real connection he had was Aiden, and I was making the bold assumption that given that he was in the military, Aiden would have connections to plenty more people. “I can call him for you, but before I do that, I want to know why you’re here.”
The woman scowled. “I’m seeking political asylum,” she replied. “I had a disagreement with the Vangravian Council, and if they find out where I’ve gone, they’ll send a bounty hunter to kill me.”
“Did you do anything illegal?” I asked. A ‘disagreement’ could mean a multitude of things.
She folded her arms again belligerently. “According to Vangravian law, yes. But if I did the same thing in Alliance space, then as far as I’ve been able to figure out, no, it wouldn’t have been illegal. You have different standards and expectations, and…” She sighed and shook her head. “I suppose I’m looking for someone who can understand that there’s a difference betweenillegalandimmoral.”