It was Devora, smiling brightly. Her head was tucked snugly against the man’s neck, his arm holding her gently around the shoulders. Both seemed to filled with happiness. Below, written clearly in the wavy, gimmicky font often used by public holo machines, was “Jess and Calla, Celebration of the Accession of his Imperial Majesty, Belpharian IV.”
The holo was less than two years old. It was as if he’d been kicked in the gut. She’d duped him, been lying to him all along. She was the slave, Calla, and she’d used him to escape and look for her husband, the one Jenner had sold.
Calvin cackled into the silence.
“Looks like there’s more going on here than I realized,” he said with evil glee. Ignoring the man, Seth snapped off the light with tight, controlled movements. He placed the holo-disk into his pouch, then started toward the ship. It was time to ask “Devora” a few questions.
Chapter 10
“Something’s wrong,” Sarai said quietly. She and Calla were sitting in the cockpit, watching the men approach across the barren landing field. “Look at how Calvin is walking, he’s almost bouncing. He’s happy about something.”
Calla followed Sarai’s pointing finger. Calvin was strutting like he’d discovered gold. Seth walked with strong, deliberate steps beside him. Whatever had Calvin going hadn’t excited him.
“I’ll call Seth on a private channel,” Calla said as the two women watched them approach. “Maybe he can tell us what’s going on.”
She toggled the com switch, then carefully entered the correct transmitter coordinates and hailed Seth as he had shown her. She and Sarai had listened in on Seth and Calvin when they’d first landed, but it had grown tedious after Bragan’s arrival. Calvin talked enough while he was on the ship; both women treasured their breaks from his noise.
“Seth, do you read me?” she asked. “It’s Devora.”
Seth didn’t reply at first. Then, just as she decided to give it another try, his voice crackled over the speaker.
“Really?” he said tightly. “Because it sounds like Calla.”
The bottom dropped out of her stomach, and her hand wavered over the com switch. Sarai gasped, then reached across to cut off the transmission.
“He found out,” Calla whispered. She looked up at Sarai with a lost look. “How did he find out?”
“I have no idea,” Sarai said in a quavering voice. “But you’re in trouble. He’s angry, and when men get angry they get violent. We’ve got to do something, it may be our last chance.”
“Seth isn’t violent,” Calla said, but her heart sank as she said it. A vision of him slamming his fist through the wall at the hostel raced through her mind. He’d been in battle hundreds of times. He had enforced the occupation with cold calculation, sentencing more than one man to death. He was more than capable of violence…
“What am I going to do, Sarai?” Calla whispered, looking to the woman hopelessly. “I’ll never be free now.”
Sarai’s face hardened.
“We should leave, like Bragan suggested,” she said after a brief pause. “We should just leave, and never come back. I don’t know how we’ll survive, but we will. I can work hard, and you know all about what it’s like outside the belt.”
Calla bit back a harsh laugh. “Sarai, all I know anything about is being a slave at a Discovery station hostel. Besides, we don’t have any money.”
“If we steal the ship we can sell it,” Sarai replied, somewhat shocked by her own audacity. “This is a valuable ship, and I’m sure we could get enough credits for it to start over somewhere. We could work together, and maybe the kids could go to school. It would be like a dream come true for both of us, and you know it.”
“What about Calvin and Seth?” Calla asked. “We can’t just leave them here. They’ll die.”
A dark look came over Sarai’s face.
“I don’t care if Calvin dies,” she said bitterly. “I hope he does die. He’s an evil bastard, and I want better for me and the kids. And I don’t care about Seth, either. He hasn’t done a damn thing for us.
You’re the only one who seems to care what Calvin does to me.”
It was true, Calla realized. Sarai tried to hide her bruises with her hair and clothing, but she had seen them. Calvin really was evil. But Seth …
“No, I don’t wish harm on Seth,” she said. “I don’t know why he hasn’t done anything about Calvin, but he doesn’t deserve to be left on this asteroid. He’s been good to me. And despite everything, I love him.”
“What’s love?” Sarai asked, gazing at her with haunted eyes. “I don’t see any promises from Seth. At least he was paying you to f**k him, but now he won’t have to. If you’re lucky he’ll keep you for a while.
If not, he’ll sell you or turn you back in. That’s all Calvin is doing, too. We’re in the same situation, Calla, whether you like it or not. We’re both slaves, and we both want to be free.”
“I still don’t like it,” Calla said stubbornly.
“Well, you better make up your mind quick, because they’re coming,” Sarai said. “You may never get another chance like this one. I know I won’t, and neither will my children.”
Sarai was right, Calla thought. She had known from the start that her relationship with Seth could only be temporary. If she wanted to survive as an escaped slave, she had to be ruthless.
“We could send help for them, couldn’t we?” she said thoughtfully.
“Yes, we could,” Sarai said. “Although I don’t know who we’d send.”
“We could send a message to the Saurellian command on Discovery station,” Calla replied. “Seth is Saurellian.”
Sarai looked startled.
“I didn’t realize they’d look so much like regular people,” she said finally. “I’ve heard they’re monsters.”
“Well, I’m a former slave, and I’m perfectly human,” Calla said. “You Pilgrims have some messed up notions of humanity.”
“It’s hard to know what to believe when you’ve only ever known one way to live,” Sarai said softly.
“Do you understand why I want something different for my children? I don’t want Mali to grow up to be like me, and I certainly don’t want Able to become like Calvin.”