Fighter In The Sands (sample)
Chapter 1
“You are on flight 401 from Miller’s Moon Station to Flat Sands city on Duncan IV. Please remember there is a travel advisory against any foreigners traveling to Duncan IV, so please be mindful and safe during your stay,” the announcement said as the ship began its descent to the planet below.
By now, Rachel was well aware of the travel advisory. She had heard it countless times on the news, from her travel agent, her parents, even the security guards who double checked her travel ticket. Just because a few people disappeared while visiting Duncan IV, didn’t mean that she would. She was not about to let some scare tactics change her travel plans. Besides she had heard enough good things about the planet to make it well worth the risk.
The cityscapes were supposed to be breathtaking, and the locals extra friendly towards foreigners. She had heard many stories about people getting lucky with the locals and how they were particularly gifted in the area of sex… not that she had planned the trip just for a chance to have sex, but if she met someone and everything worked out right she planned to put the local talent to use.
Rachel herself was a tall young woman with green eyes, and long brown hair that had enough curl to it to make styling it somewhere in-between interesting and impossible. She dressed in a way that accented her natural curves, even though the travel advisory suggested less revealing outfits. She was on her vacation now, and she wanted to be noticed.
The planet also offered recreational activities unlike those offered anywhere else, such as sand surfing and wind tubing.She had no interest in the wind tubing, but she wanted to try most of the other activities while she was vacationing there if she could. She was also fascinated by the stories she had read about how political decisions were reached via gladiatorial combat. She was very interested in seeing one of those fights.
When the shuttle landed, she exited, and immediately went down to the baggage claim area to retrieve her luggage which had come down on its own shuttle with the rest of the cargo. She had packed a few clothes in her carry on case just in case something happened to the rest of her luggage. Nonetheless, being reunited with her personal items was number one on her agenda, number two, get to the hotel and then she FINNALLY she could get started on her vacation!
The hallways of the airport were lined with pictures and paintings of the local landscape during a sunset or sunrise, as well as different cities. Some of the cities pictured were domed and seemed to be floating in the air, while others stood out majestically from the sand. There were also maps of Flat Sands, the city-state she had landed in, as well as pictures of the city-states resident Sand Fighters. There were no planetary maps, as the nature of the planet meant that everything moved around on a regular basis, including city locations. Travel between cities was accomplished by following navigational beacons.
As she had been moving thru the airport collecting everything, Rachel also noticed several armed soldiers wearing Terra Sphere Navy uniforms stationed thru out the building. She pushed down her worries and continued on her way.
She felt a strange sense of exhilaration as she stepped outside the airport, taking her first steps on an alien world. The ground felt different in a way she couldn’t quite describe. Maybe it was the texture of the ground, or the gravity could be slightly different from what she was use to.
The air smelled unusual, and felt very dry; the sun shone brightly overhead in a yellowish sky through large supports that arched over the city. If the panels stored within those supports were fully extended, the city would be completely enclosed in a huge dome. She understood that each city-state on Duncan IV had a different look and design to it, but they were all enclosed for two thirds of the year. It was hot, but not as hot as she had expected it to be.
A small electric cart pulled up in front of her, Taxi was written on the side of it in yellow and black. A crusty looking old man sat in the driver’s seat,
“Does the pretty lady need a lift?” he asked.
“Yes please,” she said, while piling her luggage into the back of the cart, “I’m staying at the Gold Hotel, please.”
“Certainly,” he answered. Flat Sands City was one of the larger city-states on Duncan IV, but even it only had a few hotels, and Gold Hotel had the better reputation between the two.
While the airport and most of its facilities looked like they were scarcely used, the taxi and the city streets didn’t. By contrast, the streets and other buildings were heavily used and looked virtually worn out.
“Is there any chance that I will be able to see a sand fight while I am here?” Rachel asked the driver.
“Only if you are staying year round,” he said while the taxi was driving past a construction crew that was working to repair the street, “You can’t have a fight during the low season.”
“Oh,” she said, disappointed, even though she already knew that was going to be the answer.
“You can watch some reruns of old fights at the old pub on East Street,” the crusty old man offered, “You are interested in the fights?”
“Yes, I have always been fascinated by them, I wonder if they are like the old gladiator fights of Rome,” she said.
“I don’t know anything about Rome, but we have three fighters, the best one is Town, but he hasn’t won much lately. Next best would be Ruin, but he is traveling to the other cities this year. Luke died last year… Oh right… there is also Pytor.”
“So people die in the fights?”
“Of course,it doesn’t happen all that often, but it does happen,” he said,“Our fighter is good, but, if he doesn’t start winning soon, our city will be really hurting.”
“Why is that?”
“The fights decide policy between the city states. Come to think of it, Town hasn’t lost any big policy fights, but he has lost plenty of fights for minor policy changes. Still, it is just a matter of time,” he said, “Here is your hotel.”
Rachel looked out at the hotel, with its continuing theme of armed soldiers on patrol, and a seldom used appearance. The hotel looked exactly like it did in the advertisements for it. “Thanks,” she said.
On her way in to check in, she past another group of armed guards, only these were not affiliated with the Navy, but with the Terra Sphere Ranger Corps, a group that was far from trusted because it had assumed a semi-autonomous role during the Twenty Years War and had refused to take sides. Their presence unnerved Rachel, so she hurried past them, avoiding any eye contact, and she hoped to avoid them in the future.
Chapter 2
Captain Elisabeth Bachman, with her armed escort, moved through the streets of the Duncan city state of Flat Sands with a definite purpose. She kept her eyes directly ahead, paying no attention to the looks she received from the locals, the same looks that every foreigner got while they stayed on the planet.
Her armed escort was more of a small army of Rangers along with some local law enforcement officers. There were times when a local planet refused to uphold its own, much less international, laws, and that made her role difficult. It was time to make an example of someone.
“This is the one,” one of her officers said, examining the number on an apartment door.
“Be certain,” Elisabeth said, “I don’t want this guy getting away again.”
A local Police Captain named Victor Rattoff confirmed the information, “Yes, Captain, this is definitely the one.”
“Good. Everyone, he more than likely knows we are here. See to it he does not get away.”
“Then what? He will be back on the street in a week,” one of her officers said.
“Bag him; send him to the ship. Then we search.”
“I am going to enjoy this plan of yours,” Rattoff said.
The door was the main entrance to a bed and breakfast. It took Elisabeth a moment to recognize it, but it was the same place she had busted Bugg the previous year, only this year he had given it a nice remodel so that it actually looked like a respectable business.
Bugg was a fat man with a large mustache and balding head who was sitting in his usual seat in the back corner of the room. A man as fat as Bugg no longer worked in the sands during the High season, and was therefore cut off from the generous income that work granted most citizenry, so he had taken to illegal business ventures to more than make up for the shortfall in his finances.
“Captain Bachman,” Bugg said, when she entered the room, “We are still more than a month away from the High season; you are early.”
“Yes, well, I’m sure you know the routine,” Elisabeth said, her eyes cold as steel as they stared the man down. “I am placing you under arrest, under suspicion of human trafficking, as outlined under Terra Sphere law.”
“Must we go through this pretence every year?” Bugg said.
“Take him to the ship,” Elisabeth ordered.
“You can’t do that,” Bugg said, his voice filled with the steel air of authority, “Sphere law requires that I be held and tried by local authorities to assure that I am judged by my peers.”
Elisabeth smiled sweetly. “Under the new Directive 21, as signed by Councilman Blake, a Sphere Officer can hold a suspect off planet when collusion is suspected between the suspect and the local authority until such time that collusion can be proven or disproven.“
“You bitch!” Bugg said as he tried to pull himself free of the guards who were holding him. “What do you think you are trying to prove? Someone else will just step in to fill my shoes; you aren’t going to change anything! I swear to you, I will have you in my personal stable this time next year!”
“And I know you would get out, even after a confession like that. You see, Bugg, I know you have the backing of some very highly placed people, but I think that if I can take you out of circulation for just one season then all of that financial and political backing will evaporate. You will be nothing but an example to those who want to fill your shoes,” Elisabeth said, then turned to her men, “Rip this place apart until you find them. All of them!”
“Yes Ma’am,” the remaining officers saidand then moved throughout the establishment.
They kicked down doors, and looked for secret doors and rooms.
One by one, her men contacted her with reports of success. Five girls were found, heavily drugged up, in the upper rooms, a few boys, girls and more women were being held in a hidden basement.
“Get them all to the ship,” Elisabeth said, disgusted. “Check the registry for Bugg’s other properties so we can check them, too.”
“You did good work, Captain,” Rattoff said as he walked a half dressed woman out of the bed and breakfast. The woman was clearly unaware of just about anything.
“I appreciate your support, Captain Rattoff, but don’t compliment me yet,” Elisabeth said, “Not until we see the number of lost when the High Season hits.”
“My support of your campaign earns me more local enemies than friends,” he said, “but it is worth it in the long run if it gets scum like Bugg off the streets. I’ll be able to keep a sharp eye out to see who replaces him, and exactly who backs them.”
“If anything should happen to you as a result of this,” Bachman said, “I will swear that I will execute Operation Sakura until I bring those responsible to justice.”
“It would almost be worth getting killed to be able to see that.”
Chapter 3
In her short time on Duncan IV, Rachel had already made fast friends with two other young women who had also chosen to vacation on the desert world. Their names were Jessica and Tiffany and eachwas from a different colony world. The moment they first met in the hotel lobby, the three girls became fast friends and started doing everything together.
“Come on, girls!” Rachel called out to her friends, as she ran down to the dock where the sand skimmer they had chartered was waiting for them. They were all wearing bikini swim suits to catch the attention of the locals, but also in hope that they would be able to catch some sun while they were spending the day out on the… okay not waves, maybe dunes.
The three girls climbed on, and man who was even more calloused looking than most of the natives piloted the boat out across the sand. He had a smile on his face each time he glanced back at the scantily clad girls in his care.
The boat’s engines didn’t kick up much sand as they propelled the small boat across the landscape; the hull was just skimming across the sand, making minimal contact with it, zipping along on hydrofoils.
“Look at it,” Jessica said, as the rust colored city ofFlat Sands, shrank into the distance, “it’s beautiful. Does anyone live out here?”
“No one can survive outside the cities for long during the High Season,” the Pilot said, proving that he was paying close attention to his passengers.
The landscape was amazing; flat multicolored sand that extended farther than the eye could see. “It’s the flattest thing I have ever seen,” Rachel marveled.
“Look at that,” Tiffany said, pointing at a lone rock outcropping, the only thing in view that interrupted the impossible flatness of the sandy sea.
“That is an incredibly rare sight,” the pilot said. “Most people go their entire lives and never see a rock on the surface like that. It must have been spit up from the core last season. Anyway, are you girls ready to do some skiing?”
“You bet,” Rachel and the other girls intoned.
“Do we really need the life preservers?” Tiffany asked resenting the orange lighter than air floatation devices they were expected to wear. “It’s not like we can drown without water.”
“Completely necessary,” the pilot said, “This sand isn’t as firm as it looks. It acts like… what is it you foreigners call it? Quicksand! It acts like quicksand. So we wear special shoes to walk on it, extra wide skis to ski on it, and something to keep you up long enough for me to rescue youif you fall. Be sure not to inhale or swallow any of the sand, and take a shower as soon as we get back to the city.”
“Oh, um, Okay,” the girl answered, still not really understanding how the sand wasn’t actually sand, despite what it looked like. It was more like dust or warm snow. While it was definitely a granular solid, in many ways it acted more like a liquid.
“Who is going first?” the pilot asked.
“Me!” Rachel shot her hand up, and stepped over to the skis, snapping her shoes into place.
The sand skimmer slowed, and Rachel slid out the back. The skis made contact with the sand, while Rachel held onto the towline.
“I’ll start off easy and then we will go faster,” the pilot called to her.
Rachel nodded exhilaration and anxiety having stolen her voice.
She held on tight to the towline, and focused on her balance, and before she knew it, they were zipping along at a pretty good speed. The wind whipped her long brown hair back behind her, and her friends cheered her on from the back of the boat.
She smiled with a laugh inspired by her new found confidence at the alien sport. It was much easier to keep her balance than she had feared, easier than with water skiing.
The boat started making a turn, and Rachel adjusted her skis to compensate, but she misjudged. The tip of the ski caught some of the sand, and she was thrown face first into the sand.
Sand was everywhere, in her hair, under her swim suit, in her mouth; everywhere. If not for her life preserver, she was sure her top would have been ten feet back in the sand. The fall jarred her, but it really didn’t hurt the way she expected it to. For one thing the sand didn’t feel like sand at all. Or rather it did, some of it did, but most of it had a texture closer to dust. In some ways it was like falling in snow.
“Are you okay?” Tiffany asked when the boat pulled up next to her.
“Yeah… I’m fine.”
“That fall looked cool!” Jessica said, “I never saw sand splash like that before.”
The boat’s pilot and Tiffany helped pull Rachel back aboard the boat, while Jessica grabbed the skis.
“My turn next,” Jessica said as the boat got under way again.
Jessica looked like she was having fun, skiing in the sand with her green bikini and orange life preserver. Rachel smiled at her friend, then focused on getting as much of the sand off her as she could, shaking her hair, and trying to shake sand out of her swim suit without giving the pilot a free peep show.
A bottle hit her leg, apparently tossed to her by the pilot. She gave him a questioning look.
“Ointment for sand burn,” he said, “It is just a safety precaution, butyou might want to use it.” He did not mention that it also acted as a pesticide for many of the parasites that lived in the sands.
“Thanks.”
******
Night clubs seemed to be the same no matter where you were in the universe. Rachel, Jessica and Tiffany arrived together and then flirted briefly with the door man before entering a building with the music so loud they could literally feel each note as it exited the speakers.
They flirted and danced their way across the dance floor to the back where the bar waited for them.
Local men offered to buy each of them drinks before they got within twenty feet of the bar. Drinks accepted, the girls allowed the passably attractive men to lead them to the dance floor, where they were lost in the mix of sound, lights, and movement.
“Can you believe how rough everybody’s skin is on this planet?” Tiffany asked when they later regrouped back at the bar.
“It took you this long to realize that?” Jessica said.
“Yeah, I don’t know why, but everyone on this planet has skin that is nothing but calluses,” Rachel said.
“I bet it really adds new layers of sensation in bed,” Jessica declared.
“You are incorrigible,” Rachel said.
“What?” Jessica said, “These guys have been practically begging for it from all of us ever since we landed on this planet.”
“That is true,” Tiffany said, “And some of them are so cute with their puppy dog eyes… but there is not enough skin cream in the world for me to take one of them to bed.”
Rachel laughed, “I’m with Tiff on that one.”
“Well, I have always liked it rough,” Jessica said, “This is our last night here, so I figure; why not give one of these guys the ride of their lives. Make this a vacation to remember.”
“I still have sand in places I haven’t discovered yet, so I will always remember this trip, even without a wild fling,” Rachel said.
“Tiff?” Jessica prompted.
“That was my plan when I first came here, but I kind of changed my mind once I saw the people here. Just not my type, you know?”
“Now, he is cute,” Rachel said, her gaze fixed on a man who just entered the club, accompanied by three others who were so fixed on the crowds that Rachel concluded they must be bodyguards. The man was beautiful. His light curly brown hair framed a face with soft, yet well defined features, despite his rough skin. Was he staring back at her?
The man’s arrival was noticed by a group of guys at the table next to them. They stood, with their glasses raised towards the man, “To Town, the world’s greatest fighter,” they shouted, trying to be heard across the room and over the loudly playing music.
When the men sat down again, one of them immediately exclaimed, “course it would help if the wuss would win a fight from time to time.”
“I think I’ve picked one out,” Jessica said, looking at a guy in the other corner of the room. “Don’t wait up for me, girls! I’ll meet you in the lobby before we leave for the space port!”
“Have fun,” Tiffany and Rachel both intoned.
“I guess we should go back and start packing,” Rachel said.
“Yeah,” Tiffany agreed.
The two girls made their way back to the exit, giving polite refusals to all the dance requests and other invitations they received along the way. Just before they reached the exit, something distracted Tiffany.
“On second thought,” Tiffany said, “I think Jess has the right idea. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Before Rachel could say anything else, Tiffany had attached herself to a handsome young man with blond hair and a cut off T-shirt.
Rachel rolled her eyes, and left the club.
Chapter 4
“Well?” Captain Elisabeth Bachman asked, “How did we do?”
“Our security teams found more than 150 men, women and children scattered across the different City city-states,” her officer reported. “Most of them were from Bugg’s operations, but we got several from other small time operators too.”
“We always knew that Bugg was just one operator of many.”
“We won’t know how many we missed until we start getting the missing persons reports next week.”
“If only we could leave a garrison on the planet to keep searching during the high season.”
“Why can’t we ma’am?”
“We did once, but it didn’t turn out well,” Bachman answered, “Never again. We will just have to leave Flat Sands in the capable hands of Captain Rattoff.”
“And the other cities?”
“We can only do what we can do.”
*****
“Our friend is missing,” a panicked Jessica tried to explain to one of the Navy security guards. “She was supposed to meet us before our flight, but she isn’t here.”
“Relax,” he said, “She is probably still back at your hotel. Go ahead and board your shuttle, and I’m sure she will be along.”
Out of breath from running, Tiffany joined Jessica in front of the security guard, “I just checked her hotel room. She’s not there, and all of her stuff is still in the room. I can’t find her anywhere, and our flight leaves in a few hours.”
“She could have booked a later flight, you know,” the guard said.
“There are no other flights!” Jessica insisted, “Please, you must do something.”
The guard sighed and twitched, forcing himself to do something he would really rather not do. The people from the Ranger Corps were not to be trusted, everyone knew that, and yet Councilman Blake had seen fit to appoint the overall security of this planet over to a Ranger captain. As much as he wanted to find reasons not to, he had no other choice now but to inform that Ranger woman of the situation.
*****
Captain Bachman knew the story all too well; it was the same story each time she was assigned to Duncan IV. Men and women snatched away just before their vacation on the world ended. The closer to the High Season that they disappeared, the less likely it was that anyone would ever see them again.
She, and Rattoff, listened to what the two girls had to say, took notes, and dispatched search teams. The problem was that old Bugg was far from being the only slaver on the planet, and without hard proof, she couldn’t search every single building on the planet just to look for a few missing tourists.
She knew that they would be lucky if Rachel ever saw the light of day again, but she still did her best to reassure Jessica and Tiffany that the situation would be looked into and that their friend would be returned home safe and sound. Bachman hoped she was not lying to the girls.
Jessica and Tiffany shared a frightened look with each other, “It could have been us.”
[Continued in the full version]
“You are on flight 401 from Miller’s Moon Station to Flat Sands city on Duncan IV. Please remember there is a travel advisory against any foreigners traveling to Duncan IV, so please be mindful and safe during your stay,” the announcement said as the ship began its descent to the planet below.
By now, Rachel was well aware of the travel advisory. She had heard it countless times on the news, from her travel agent, her parents, even the security guards who double checked her travel ticket. Just because a few people disappeared while visiting Duncan IV, didn’t mean that she would. She was not about to let some scare tactics change her travel plans. Besides she had heard enough good things about the planet to make it well worth the risk.
The cityscapes were supposed to be breathtaking, and the locals extra friendly towards foreigners. She had heard many stories about people getting lucky with the locals and how they were particularly gifted in the area of sex… not that she had planned the trip just for a chance to have sex, but if she met someone and everything worked out right she planned to put the local talent to use.
Rachel herself was a tall young woman with green eyes, and long brown hair that had enough curl to it to make styling it somewhere in-between interesting and impossible. She dressed in a way that accented her natural curves, even though the travel advisory suggested less revealing outfits. She was on her vacation now, and she wanted to be noticed.
The planet also offered recreational activities unlike those offered anywhere else, such as sand surfing and wind tubing.She had no interest in the wind tubing, but she wanted to try most of the other activities while she was vacationing there if she could. She was also fascinated by the stories she had read about how political decisions were reached via gladiatorial combat. She was very interested in seeing one of those fights.
When the shuttle landed, she exited, and immediately went down to the baggage claim area to retrieve her luggage which had come down on its own shuttle with the rest of the cargo. She had packed a few clothes in her carry on case just in case something happened to the rest of her luggage. Nonetheless, being reunited with her personal items was number one on her agenda, number two, get to the hotel and then she FINNALLY she could get started on her vacation!
The hallways of the airport were lined with pictures and paintings of the local landscape during a sunset or sunrise, as well as different cities. Some of the cities pictured were domed and seemed to be floating in the air, while others stood out majestically from the sand. There were also maps of Flat Sands, the city-state she had landed in, as well as pictures of the city-states resident Sand Fighters. There were no planetary maps, as the nature of the planet meant that everything moved around on a regular basis, including city locations. Travel between cities was accomplished by following navigational beacons.
As she had been moving thru the airport collecting everything, Rachel also noticed several armed soldiers wearing Terra Sphere Navy uniforms stationed thru out the building. She pushed down her worries and continued on her way.
She felt a strange sense of exhilaration as she stepped outside the airport, taking her first steps on an alien world. The ground felt different in a way she couldn’t quite describe. Maybe it was the texture of the ground, or the gravity could be slightly different from what she was use to.
The air smelled unusual, and felt very dry; the sun shone brightly overhead in a yellowish sky through large supports that arched over the city. If the panels stored within those supports were fully extended, the city would be completely enclosed in a huge dome. She understood that each city-state on Duncan IV had a different look and design to it, but they were all enclosed for two thirds of the year. It was hot, but not as hot as she had expected it to be.
A small electric cart pulled up in front of her, Taxi was written on the side of it in yellow and black. A crusty looking old man sat in the driver’s seat,
“Does the pretty lady need a lift?” he asked.
“Yes please,” she said, while piling her luggage into the back of the cart, “I’m staying at the Gold Hotel, please.”
“Certainly,” he answered. Flat Sands City was one of the larger city-states on Duncan IV, but even it only had a few hotels, and Gold Hotel had the better reputation between the two.
While the airport and most of its facilities looked like they were scarcely used, the taxi and the city streets didn’t. By contrast, the streets and other buildings were heavily used and looked virtually worn out.
“Is there any chance that I will be able to see a sand fight while I am here?” Rachel asked the driver.
“Only if you are staying year round,” he said while the taxi was driving past a construction crew that was working to repair the street, “You can’t have a fight during the low season.”
“Oh,” she said, disappointed, even though she already knew that was going to be the answer.
“You can watch some reruns of old fights at the old pub on East Street,” the crusty old man offered, “You are interested in the fights?”
“Yes, I have always been fascinated by them, I wonder if they are like the old gladiator fights of Rome,” she said.
“I don’t know anything about Rome, but we have three fighters, the best one is Town, but he hasn’t won much lately. Next best would be Ruin, but he is traveling to the other cities this year. Luke died last year… Oh right… there is also Pytor.”
“So people die in the fights?”
“Of course,it doesn’t happen all that often, but it does happen,” he said,“Our fighter is good, but, if he doesn’t start winning soon, our city will be really hurting.”
“Why is that?”
“The fights decide policy between the city states. Come to think of it, Town hasn’t lost any big policy fights, but he has lost plenty of fights for minor policy changes. Still, it is just a matter of time,” he said, “Here is your hotel.”
Rachel looked out at the hotel, with its continuing theme of armed soldiers on patrol, and a seldom used appearance. The hotel looked exactly like it did in the advertisements for it. “Thanks,” she said.
On her way in to check in, she past another group of armed guards, only these were not affiliated with the Navy, but with the Terra Sphere Ranger Corps, a group that was far from trusted because it had assumed a semi-autonomous role during the Twenty Years War and had refused to take sides. Their presence unnerved Rachel, so she hurried past them, avoiding any eye contact, and she hoped to avoid them in the future.
Chapter 2
Captain Elisabeth Bachman, with her armed escort, moved through the streets of the Duncan city state of Flat Sands with a definite purpose. She kept her eyes directly ahead, paying no attention to the looks she received from the locals, the same looks that every foreigner got while they stayed on the planet.
Her armed escort was more of a small army of Rangers along with some local law enforcement officers. There were times when a local planet refused to uphold its own, much less international, laws, and that made her role difficult. It was time to make an example of someone.
“This is the one,” one of her officers said, examining the number on an apartment door.
“Be certain,” Elisabeth said, “I don’t want this guy getting away again.”
A local Police Captain named Victor Rattoff confirmed the information, “Yes, Captain, this is definitely the one.”
“Good. Everyone, he more than likely knows we are here. See to it he does not get away.”
“Then what? He will be back on the street in a week,” one of her officers said.
“Bag him; send him to the ship. Then we search.”
“I am going to enjoy this plan of yours,” Rattoff said.
The door was the main entrance to a bed and breakfast. It took Elisabeth a moment to recognize it, but it was the same place she had busted Bugg the previous year, only this year he had given it a nice remodel so that it actually looked like a respectable business.
Bugg was a fat man with a large mustache and balding head who was sitting in his usual seat in the back corner of the room. A man as fat as Bugg no longer worked in the sands during the High season, and was therefore cut off from the generous income that work granted most citizenry, so he had taken to illegal business ventures to more than make up for the shortfall in his finances.
“Captain Bachman,” Bugg said, when she entered the room, “We are still more than a month away from the High season; you are early.”
“Yes, well, I’m sure you know the routine,” Elisabeth said, her eyes cold as steel as they stared the man down. “I am placing you under arrest, under suspicion of human trafficking, as outlined under Terra Sphere law.”
“Must we go through this pretence every year?” Bugg said.
“Take him to the ship,” Elisabeth ordered.
“You can’t do that,” Bugg said, his voice filled with the steel air of authority, “Sphere law requires that I be held and tried by local authorities to assure that I am judged by my peers.”
Elisabeth smiled sweetly. “Under the new Directive 21, as signed by Councilman Blake, a Sphere Officer can hold a suspect off planet when collusion is suspected between the suspect and the local authority until such time that collusion can be proven or disproven.“
“You bitch!” Bugg said as he tried to pull himself free of the guards who were holding him. “What do you think you are trying to prove? Someone else will just step in to fill my shoes; you aren’t going to change anything! I swear to you, I will have you in my personal stable this time next year!”
“And I know you would get out, even after a confession like that. You see, Bugg, I know you have the backing of some very highly placed people, but I think that if I can take you out of circulation for just one season then all of that financial and political backing will evaporate. You will be nothing but an example to those who want to fill your shoes,” Elisabeth said, then turned to her men, “Rip this place apart until you find them. All of them!”
“Yes Ma’am,” the remaining officers saidand then moved throughout the establishment.
They kicked down doors, and looked for secret doors and rooms.
One by one, her men contacted her with reports of success. Five girls were found, heavily drugged up, in the upper rooms, a few boys, girls and more women were being held in a hidden basement.
“Get them all to the ship,” Elisabeth said, disgusted. “Check the registry for Bugg’s other properties so we can check them, too.”
“You did good work, Captain,” Rattoff said as he walked a half dressed woman out of the bed and breakfast. The woman was clearly unaware of just about anything.
“I appreciate your support, Captain Rattoff, but don’t compliment me yet,” Elisabeth said, “Not until we see the number of lost when the High Season hits.”
“My support of your campaign earns me more local enemies than friends,” he said, “but it is worth it in the long run if it gets scum like Bugg off the streets. I’ll be able to keep a sharp eye out to see who replaces him, and exactly who backs them.”
“If anything should happen to you as a result of this,” Bachman said, “I will swear that I will execute Operation Sakura until I bring those responsible to justice.”
“It would almost be worth getting killed to be able to see that.”
Chapter 3
In her short time on Duncan IV, Rachel had already made fast friends with two other young women who had also chosen to vacation on the desert world. Their names were Jessica and Tiffany and eachwas from a different colony world. The moment they first met in the hotel lobby, the three girls became fast friends and started doing everything together.
“Come on, girls!” Rachel called out to her friends, as she ran down to the dock where the sand skimmer they had chartered was waiting for them. They were all wearing bikini swim suits to catch the attention of the locals, but also in hope that they would be able to catch some sun while they were spending the day out on the… okay not waves, maybe dunes.
The three girls climbed on, and man who was even more calloused looking than most of the natives piloted the boat out across the sand. He had a smile on his face each time he glanced back at the scantily clad girls in his care.
The boat’s engines didn’t kick up much sand as they propelled the small boat across the landscape; the hull was just skimming across the sand, making minimal contact with it, zipping along on hydrofoils.
“Look at it,” Jessica said, as the rust colored city ofFlat Sands, shrank into the distance, “it’s beautiful. Does anyone live out here?”
“No one can survive outside the cities for long during the High Season,” the Pilot said, proving that he was paying close attention to his passengers.
The landscape was amazing; flat multicolored sand that extended farther than the eye could see. “It’s the flattest thing I have ever seen,” Rachel marveled.
“Look at that,” Tiffany said, pointing at a lone rock outcropping, the only thing in view that interrupted the impossible flatness of the sandy sea.
“That is an incredibly rare sight,” the pilot said. “Most people go their entire lives and never see a rock on the surface like that. It must have been spit up from the core last season. Anyway, are you girls ready to do some skiing?”
“You bet,” Rachel and the other girls intoned.
“Do we really need the life preservers?” Tiffany asked resenting the orange lighter than air floatation devices they were expected to wear. “It’s not like we can drown without water.”
“Completely necessary,” the pilot said, “This sand isn’t as firm as it looks. It acts like… what is it you foreigners call it? Quicksand! It acts like quicksand. So we wear special shoes to walk on it, extra wide skis to ski on it, and something to keep you up long enough for me to rescue youif you fall. Be sure not to inhale or swallow any of the sand, and take a shower as soon as we get back to the city.”
“Oh, um, Okay,” the girl answered, still not really understanding how the sand wasn’t actually sand, despite what it looked like. It was more like dust or warm snow. While it was definitely a granular solid, in many ways it acted more like a liquid.
“Who is going first?” the pilot asked.
“Me!” Rachel shot her hand up, and stepped over to the skis, snapping her shoes into place.
The sand skimmer slowed, and Rachel slid out the back. The skis made contact with the sand, while Rachel held onto the towline.
“I’ll start off easy and then we will go faster,” the pilot called to her.
Rachel nodded exhilaration and anxiety having stolen her voice.
She held on tight to the towline, and focused on her balance, and before she knew it, they were zipping along at a pretty good speed. The wind whipped her long brown hair back behind her, and her friends cheered her on from the back of the boat.
She smiled with a laugh inspired by her new found confidence at the alien sport. It was much easier to keep her balance than she had feared, easier than with water skiing.
The boat started making a turn, and Rachel adjusted her skis to compensate, but she misjudged. The tip of the ski caught some of the sand, and she was thrown face first into the sand.
Sand was everywhere, in her hair, under her swim suit, in her mouth; everywhere. If not for her life preserver, she was sure her top would have been ten feet back in the sand. The fall jarred her, but it really didn’t hurt the way she expected it to. For one thing the sand didn’t feel like sand at all. Or rather it did, some of it did, but most of it had a texture closer to dust. In some ways it was like falling in snow.
“Are you okay?” Tiffany asked when the boat pulled up next to her.
“Yeah… I’m fine.”
“That fall looked cool!” Jessica said, “I never saw sand splash like that before.”
The boat’s pilot and Tiffany helped pull Rachel back aboard the boat, while Jessica grabbed the skis.
“My turn next,” Jessica said as the boat got under way again.
Jessica looked like she was having fun, skiing in the sand with her green bikini and orange life preserver. Rachel smiled at her friend, then focused on getting as much of the sand off her as she could, shaking her hair, and trying to shake sand out of her swim suit without giving the pilot a free peep show.
A bottle hit her leg, apparently tossed to her by the pilot. She gave him a questioning look.
“Ointment for sand burn,” he said, “It is just a safety precaution, butyou might want to use it.” He did not mention that it also acted as a pesticide for many of the parasites that lived in the sands.
“Thanks.”
******
Night clubs seemed to be the same no matter where you were in the universe. Rachel, Jessica and Tiffany arrived together and then flirted briefly with the door man before entering a building with the music so loud they could literally feel each note as it exited the speakers.
They flirted and danced their way across the dance floor to the back where the bar waited for them.
Local men offered to buy each of them drinks before they got within twenty feet of the bar. Drinks accepted, the girls allowed the passably attractive men to lead them to the dance floor, where they were lost in the mix of sound, lights, and movement.
“Can you believe how rough everybody’s skin is on this planet?” Tiffany asked when they later regrouped back at the bar.
“It took you this long to realize that?” Jessica said.
“Yeah, I don’t know why, but everyone on this planet has skin that is nothing but calluses,” Rachel said.
“I bet it really adds new layers of sensation in bed,” Jessica declared.
“You are incorrigible,” Rachel said.
“What?” Jessica said, “These guys have been practically begging for it from all of us ever since we landed on this planet.”
“That is true,” Tiffany said, “And some of them are so cute with their puppy dog eyes… but there is not enough skin cream in the world for me to take one of them to bed.”
Rachel laughed, “I’m with Tiff on that one.”
“Well, I have always liked it rough,” Jessica said, “This is our last night here, so I figure; why not give one of these guys the ride of their lives. Make this a vacation to remember.”
“I still have sand in places I haven’t discovered yet, so I will always remember this trip, even without a wild fling,” Rachel said.
“Tiff?” Jessica prompted.
“That was my plan when I first came here, but I kind of changed my mind once I saw the people here. Just not my type, you know?”
“Now, he is cute,” Rachel said, her gaze fixed on a man who just entered the club, accompanied by three others who were so fixed on the crowds that Rachel concluded they must be bodyguards. The man was beautiful. His light curly brown hair framed a face with soft, yet well defined features, despite his rough skin. Was he staring back at her?
The man’s arrival was noticed by a group of guys at the table next to them. They stood, with their glasses raised towards the man, “To Town, the world’s greatest fighter,” they shouted, trying to be heard across the room and over the loudly playing music.
When the men sat down again, one of them immediately exclaimed, “course it would help if the wuss would win a fight from time to time.”
“I think I’ve picked one out,” Jessica said, looking at a guy in the other corner of the room. “Don’t wait up for me, girls! I’ll meet you in the lobby before we leave for the space port!”
“Have fun,” Tiffany and Rachel both intoned.
“I guess we should go back and start packing,” Rachel said.
“Yeah,” Tiffany agreed.
The two girls made their way back to the exit, giving polite refusals to all the dance requests and other invitations they received along the way. Just before they reached the exit, something distracted Tiffany.
“On second thought,” Tiffany said, “I think Jess has the right idea. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Before Rachel could say anything else, Tiffany had attached herself to a handsome young man with blond hair and a cut off T-shirt.
Rachel rolled her eyes, and left the club.
Chapter 4
“Well?” Captain Elisabeth Bachman asked, “How did we do?”
“Our security teams found more than 150 men, women and children scattered across the different City city-states,” her officer reported. “Most of them were from Bugg’s operations, but we got several from other small time operators too.”
“We always knew that Bugg was just one operator of many.”
“We won’t know how many we missed until we start getting the missing persons reports next week.”
“If only we could leave a garrison on the planet to keep searching during the high season.”
“Why can’t we ma’am?”
“We did once, but it didn’t turn out well,” Bachman answered, “Never again. We will just have to leave Flat Sands in the capable hands of Captain Rattoff.”
“And the other cities?”
“We can only do what we can do.”
*****
“Our friend is missing,” a panicked Jessica tried to explain to one of the Navy security guards. “She was supposed to meet us before our flight, but she isn’t here.”
“Relax,” he said, “She is probably still back at your hotel. Go ahead and board your shuttle, and I’m sure she will be along.”
Out of breath from running, Tiffany joined Jessica in front of the security guard, “I just checked her hotel room. She’s not there, and all of her stuff is still in the room. I can’t find her anywhere, and our flight leaves in a few hours.”
“She could have booked a later flight, you know,” the guard said.
“There are no other flights!” Jessica insisted, “Please, you must do something.”
The guard sighed and twitched, forcing himself to do something he would really rather not do. The people from the Ranger Corps were not to be trusted, everyone knew that, and yet Councilman Blake had seen fit to appoint the overall security of this planet over to a Ranger captain. As much as he wanted to find reasons not to, he had no other choice now but to inform that Ranger woman of the situation.
*****
Captain Bachman knew the story all too well; it was the same story each time she was assigned to Duncan IV. Men and women snatched away just before their vacation on the world ended. The closer to the High Season that they disappeared, the less likely it was that anyone would ever see them again.
She, and Rattoff, listened to what the two girls had to say, took notes, and dispatched search teams. The problem was that old Bugg was far from being the only slaver on the planet, and without hard proof, she couldn’t search every single building on the planet just to look for a few missing tourists.
She knew that they would be lucky if Rachel ever saw the light of day again, but she still did her best to reassure Jessica and Tiffany that the situation would be looked into and that their friend would be returned home safe and sound. Bachman hoped she was not lying to the girls.
Jessica and Tiffany shared a frightened look with each other, “It could have been us.”
[Continued in the full version]