The ship had a large, refrigerated section in the back for storing delicate ingredients. It was programmed to go straight to the Buy-All-Sell-All market on Prius Six, park, and wait for Jillian while she shopped. Once she returned with her purchases, she simply pressed the Home button and the shuttle called the Mother Ship, requesting a fold in space and took her directly back with her ingredients.
Jillian had been shopping this way for over a year now, and she was totally used to it. That didn’t mean she wasn’t still thrilled with her new, exciting life, however. It was amazing that she got to travel every week to the huge, exotic market which was as big as a small city. And Suzanne gave her free rein in hiring, menu creation, and picking new ingredients to work with—of which there were plenty to choose from at the Buy-All-Sell-All.
“Just stay out of the Dark Market at the far end,” Kind, Suzanne’s Light Twin husband had warned her. “That place isn’t safe for a female on her own. Seven Hells, it’s not safe for a warrior on his own! But other than that, you should be all right as long as you stay in the main part of the market.”
Jillian always heeded his advice scrupulously. Though she visited a few stalls near the edge of the Dark Market—the area cordoned off from the main part of the Buy-All-Sell-All by a web of pain threads—she was careful never to go through the archway into the forbidden and dangerous area.
In fact, the stall where she’d come to buy the thaelite brick, was right up against the edge of the Dark Market, but she hadn’t expected any trouble. In fact, she hadn’t expected anything at all out of the ordinary to happen to her that day…and now she had accidentally bought herself a bodyslave!
It had all started so innocently, too…
Jillian had risen early that morning—it was a Monday, her usual day to go to the Buy-All-Sell-All, since that was the only day of the week Pat-ar was closed. She’d gone to the huge, echoing Docking Bay of the Kindred Mother Ship and found her trusty little remote shuttle parked exactly where she’d left it the previous Monday.
Getting herself strapped in, she’d sent a quick remote message, asking that the Mother Ship fold space for her to Prius Six and had gotten confirmation—an affirmative message flashing on her viewscreen.
Jillian had been nervous at first, flying through the red gash in space that would take her instantly from one point in the universe to another, but she was used to it now. Her little shuttle went through the fold and came out in a close orbit to Prius Six, as always. And, just like always, the shuttle descended and set itself down in the parking area on the outskirts of the market.
Getting out her large expandable straw tote, Jillian had stepped out of her shuttle—which was print-locked to her hand—and headed into the vast marketplace.
The Buy-All-Sell-All was enormous, taking up an area as big as a good-sized city back on Earth. However, there was a fairly accessible, open-air tram which ran on a regular basis. Jillian had made this trip so often, now, that she knew exactly what to do. Entering the large front entrance, she hopped aboard the tram after paying her fee—a single slotted coin made of Prius Six copper-nalite. After paying her fare, she pressed her thumb to the print scanner, which would enable her to ride for the rest of the day.
The tram was really nothing more than an automatic hover-train that ran around the entire perimeter of the market. The track was laid out in a vast square and the train had so many cars that Jillian had never actually seen the engine. The cars themselves were open-air—meaning there were no sides at all—just a floor, a ceiling, and a lot of evenly-spaced metal poles to hold on to. People paid their fares and hopped aboard from either side of the train, climbing on and off at the various stops along the way.
Well, people was a relative term in this case. The Buy-All-Sell-All was home to vendors from many different planets and customers came from all over the galaxy. There was a Triblian to Jillia’s right who had to fold his long, giraffe-like neck on itself in order to fit in the tram. To her left, was a Gougan that only came up to her knees and was covered in long, green hair. Jillian thought this kind of alien looked a little like “Cousin It” from the old Adams Family TV show.
Further down, on the tram just ahead of hers, she saw a Trollox climb aboard. The tram groaned alarmingly under the huge creature’s weight and both of its heads cursed at the people who were scrambling to make way for it.