A Murder - A Maker

"It isn't your fault," she assured me, absent any of the vitriol in her demeanor for me earlier. I breathed raggedly and concentrated on the feeling of her hand in my hair as she seemed to address someone else.

"We probably should have anticipated it. She'll be good enough to take unskilled or off-guard people, but I can't see her winning a fight against any real fighter. Not unless she gets lucky. Too much instinct within for training to overcome."

"Mm." I recognized the captain's voice and my heart sank. I was crying, inadequate, and still positioned on hands and knees in welcome to my instructor's discipline - and even worse, I all too palpably yearned for more of her touch. Making a wretched sound, I collapsed onto my side and curled up in a ball. I can't tell if I heard a hint of amusement in his voice as he kept talking, or if it was my imagination.

"Keep training her, then, but shift to something more subtle. Using a hidden blade, hand to hand, anything that will-"

"I am better at this than you," she interrupted him with an audible scowl, fingers still combing gently through my hair.

He was quiet for a time, then conceded,

"True. I'll leave you to it."

I heard a door slide shut, then she said,

"He is right, though I'd already thought of it. For your own safety, you'd best not get in any real fights, girl, but we can give you a few tools to fall back upon. It's not like people are particularly cautious of subs." I turned my head as I listened, eyes opening to study her face. She smiled. "No more today. You've the rest of the day off, so you'd best get back to your quarters before someone else finds something for you to do. But first, you go there's one last thing I'd like to see."

Her hands found grips upon me, one tightening on my bicep and the other on the shoulder nearest the ground, and began to twist. My eyes shot open in alarm and I gasped as I realized what she intended, just before she rolled me onto my back and lightly pushed down. A surge of pain shot through me as the ground pushed my jumpsuit against bruised skin, and I let out a tortured groan of agony as my body twisted about, ineffectually trying to leverage some respite, but my eyes were caught on hers - intent and pleased as she drank in my pain.

My instructor didn't avail herself of me that day, though I ached for her to. I found some satisfaction of my own once back in my quarters, then crawled into bed and waited to heal.

***

Time passes quickly in the depths of space, provided you have company. I settled into a comfortable routine, regularly training with my instructor, sometimes attending the captain or other crew members, and at times helping with whatever odd tasks needed doing. The physical training imbued a certain confidence in me, as did my station in the ship - I was accepted, treated almost like a member of the ship, and if one with no real rights and with an expectation to obey any order given, that was still a closer thing to inclusion than I had ever experienced. A part of me would have been content to stay forever, while another bridled that my best treatment had been by a band of thieves, and that my siblings were invariably in worse situations and lacked any means of fighting their circumstances, as I had. But neither part of me was in any position to direct my fate, so we traveled on. In the meantime I learned to play chess, fighting my bearded friend on a holographic board.

In truth the rest of my journey with the nameless ship and its nameless crew was uneventful. I was not allowed off the ship at our first port of call, though in subsequent ones I helped the crew with a variety of tasks - for this, the captain gave me a thick, banded visor that hid my eyes, and I pilfered clothing from some of the more willing crewmembers to assemble a small wardrobe more practical than my servant's attire. Our circuit came near its end, and we passed through the asteroid belt to once more travel in the inner system.

We landed on Mars nearly a year and a half after my capture at the hands of the pirates. The stay was brief, merely long enough to deliver illicit biological samples to an agricultural firm aiming to improve their crop yields, though I was delayed for some time afterward in a local market. Sometimes, when around too many people, I lose time - caught up with hawkers intent on selling, interesting conversations, and the press of humanity.

When I made it back to the ship I found the captain lounging on the ramp leading up to the entryway, a rectangular storage crate a little longer than I am tall hovering in the air by his waist. He straightened as he noticed me, waiting until I neared to lift a hand in a gesture that brought me to a halt.

"It's time your path broke away from ours, girl," he said. "The crew is pained to lose such a fine acquisition, but you've had your time to learn what you can. Any longer and it would be permanent."

I blinked. The shock of his words was so profound that I scarcely noticed another member of the crew slipping past us on his way up the ramp. My minder, I distractedly noted - one always kept an eye on me from a distance on these excursions, saying it would be too easy for any profiteers to keep me from returning of my own accord, if they found out what I was. Fear settled in my gut.

"You're letting me go?" I asked. "But I don't know anyone here at all. I've done good work aboard, I know I have. Why... Now?"

He snorted. "You've done more than well enough. But you've got work of your own to do, and not the kind we're getting tangled in with. You wouldn't leave on your own, girl, so we're doing it for you. Our ears will be pricked. You manage to get your heart's desire out, and you manage to stay alive afterward, well." His grin turned briefly savage. "We'll come hunting for you again. When we find you... you'll stay ours. Anyway. This crate has your things, plus a few gifts to help you along. Good luck."

I swallowed, eyes stinging faintly as I looked over the captain, then beyond him to his ship. I wanted to say that he couldn't even tell which attendant I was, but I knew it wouldn't matter. Instead, I asked,

"Where do I go now?"

He studied me for a time, his characteristic glint of sardonic amusement still in his eyes. Tone somewhere between sincerity and mockery, he said,

"I shall give you this advice. You will need to learn to make your own path, if you do not want to be a footstool to someone for the rest of your life. But, were I you, I would look into making a trip to Phobos."

"Phobos?" I repeated incredulously, as he turned away and started back up the ramp. "There's nothing there." My protest had no effect. Soon the captain reached the true entrance to his vessel, and shortly afterward the ramp slid back up and out of sight. I stared up at the underbelly of the ship for some time, feeling numb, and then turned around to take in the expansive, foreign hangar I now stood alone within. One of my hands lifted to settle atop the crate bobbing gently nearby and I let out a trembling breath at the contact.

Phobos, I thought. Phobos, and Tremain Voss. For the first time in my life, I was free from any sort of masters and from any sort of direction.