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The Marines insisted on sweeping the shuttle before allowing Colin to board, but they finally cleared it and allowed him to take the pilot chair, bringing up the shuttle’s drives and taking it into orbit. Earth glowed below the shuttle as he turned the ship towards the waiting battlecruiser, his first command that he hadn’t actually hijacked from its former commanding officer. The shuttle docked in the shuttlebay and he realised, with some surprise, that he had a reception committee.

“Welcome onboard, sir,” his new first officer said, once they were alone. “How does it feel to be back on a starship?”

“Wonderful,” Colin said, looking over at Penny. As one of the handful of others who fell into the same grey area, no one was entirely sure what to do with her, so he had offered her the post of first officer. It might have been dangerous, but he owed it to another survivor of Admiral Percival’s selfishness. “It’s like I’ve never been away.”

He settled into the Captain’s chair and felt, for the first time since Admiral Percival had betrayed him, years ago, that he was happy.

“Helm, bring up the drive field,” he ordered, calmly. “Set course for the Rim.”

* * *

A series of dull thumps echoed through the starship as it settled into orbit, waking Stacy Roosevelt from a fitful sleep. Naked and alone, her hands secured behind her in the private cell, she knew that she was trapped and helpless. The rebels who had liberated her from the prison cell at Cottbus — God alone knew what had happened to Lady Madeline Hohenzollern, as if she cared — had promptly put her in another one. There was apparently a warrant out for her arrest… and, when the ships had arrived from Earth to report that Admiral Wilhelm had been defeated, she had found herself being tried and sentenced. She had gone to sleep in her cell on Cottbus and woken up in a very different cell, being treated like a common prisoner.

The hatch hissed open as her restraints unlocked themselves from the wall. She struggled against them, as she had several times in the last few days — if they had been days — but it was futile. She tried to struggle to her feet, but it was so hard with her hands bound that she felt a brief moment of pleasure when she was able to stand upright. She glared towards the hatch, expecting some leering commoner or depraved guard to come to molest her, but there was nothing.

“You will depart your cells,” a cold voice said, so coldly she knew that a machine produced it, rather than anyone human. “You will depart your cells and fall into line.”

It wasn’t the sort of voice that anyone, even Stacy, would dare to challenge. She limped over to the hatch, feeling her legs trembling from disuse, and staggered out into the corridor. There were other cells, an entire line of them, housing their own naked captives. Some of them looked terrified, others looked defiant and a few even pleaded their innocence, but they were all bound. Male, female, even a pair of aliens, they were naked and at the mercy of their captors.

“You will walk through the door and into the holding area,” the voice ordered them. This time, the floor sparkled and stung anyone who dared to hesitate. Stacy found herself moving faster than she would have believed possible, following the bare buttocks of a tough-looking man, wondering just what was going to happen to her. She wasn’t even sure where she was. The holding area was just as dark and drab as the remainder of the vessel, with shelves of clothing and small bags of equipment, waiting for them

“You will now pay attention,” the voice intoned. Stacy felt her cuffs unlock and pulled her hands free gratefully. Now she could see them properly, she realised that she was wearing metal bracelets that had been bound to each other magnetically. “You have been condemned to a permanent sentence on the planet Cozen. You will be aware that Cozen is a penal world. You will also be aware that there will be no return from the surface.”

The voice paused to allow the prisoners to vent their frustrations, and then continued, as if it hadn’t even been listening. “You will dress yourselves in the outfits provided and inspect the contents of your bags,” it continued. “You are advised” — she heard the stress on that word — “to listen carefully to the following lecture. It covers what is known about the world that will be your home for the rest of your lives.”

Stacy tuned it out, knowing that someone in the group would help her. Someone always had helped her, even in the worst moments of her life, and she was sure that it would always continue. The voice coldly described horrors such as monstrous creatures and deadly insects, some of which could kill with a single bite. She barely heard it covering the monsters as she felt a hand settling on her behind, and then reaching around to fondle her most sensitive places. No one had touched her there without her permission.

She spun around, seeing a leering commoner, and slapped him across the face. It should have been enough to stop him in his tracks. Instead, he smacked her back, punching her right on the nose. She fell to the ground, screaming in pain; she’d never been hurt like that before. Her assailant, as naked as she was, leaned over her. She couldn’t take her eyes off his penis as he pressed her down, ignoring her protests. The thought of what would happen when he forced his way into her, or when he started to take her, consumed her. She tried to close her legs, but he pushed them open hard enough to hurt…

Something snapped in the air and her assailant fell back, rubbing his own rear.

“You will pay attention,” the voice said, and continued describing the horrors awaiting them. Stacy screamed at the voice, demanding medical treatment for what she was sure was a life-threatening injury, until something snapped again. Pain flared out over her back, forcing her back down and, somehow, she kept her mouth shut. Her assailant leered at her, his face a dark promise of what awaited her, but he made no other move. It wasn’t as if she had anywhere to go.

“This lecture is concluded,” the voice said finally. It didn’t even sound if it was enjoying a captive audience. “You will now board your transport capsules.”

The interior of the capsule was as dark and cold as the grave. Stacy had barely had time to dress, despite the blood seeping into her outfit, before the transport capsule moved and plummeted down towards the planet. Her new home. She would spend the rest of her life there, she saw now, servicing commoners with her body, for she had nothing else to offer them. She had nothing, but a title that meant nothing and a mind that knew nothing they needed. Her life was about to become hell.

Stacy screamed all the way down.

The End