As the crew were led slowly along a downward sloping corridor which was at least, fifteen feet wide, and seemed to span the length of the ship, Frank was amazed at the living conditions on board, and the sheer sophistication of the on-board systems, the walls were, a similar, but far superior quality of removable panelling that adorned their own ship, several state of the art access terminals broke up the panels every twenty yards or so, the floor had high quality, hard wearing carpet panels covering it seamlessly. The group were being flanked by a dozen heavily armed troops, as the corridor levelled out the right hand side of the corridor opened into a long semi-arched wall of glass which reached far above the groups head, on the other side of the glass was a gigantic, artificial, bio-environment, huge tree’s towered up towards the blue sky, Frank could make out the faint silhouettes of, what appeared to be several dozen children playing near a huge lake,
Susan slowed down slightly, so she could walk along beside Frank, “Incredible!” She whispered into Frank’s ear,
Frank looked over at her and nodded his head agreeably, “I think we’re in the wrong business!” He whispered jokingly,
“Quiet!” One of the guards on Franks right said angrily,
“Sorry!” Frank answered apologetically, “Where are we going?” He added cautiously,
The guard gave no response other than to glare over at Frank menacingly,
Frank leaned over to Susan, “What do you thinks happened to Malktik and the Professor?” Frank whispered, even quieter than before,
Susan shrugged, “I’m not sure.” She paused and walked looking straight ahead as the guard turned back towards them, “Engineering and the cargo bay were magnetically sealed when the plasma conduit blew, hopefully they’ve not been captured yet!” She whispered hopefully,
Frank shrugged, as he looked back over at the environment, as they passed the woodland, the environment opened up into a huge expanse of grass and hills, several small birds flew around the sky, and Frank noticed several smaller mammals scurrying around the undergrowth. Frank had noticed that several of the troops had some sort of electronic collar on, he squinted as the strong artificial sun light poured in from the window as he tried to determine what the collars were,
“Susan!” He whispered quietly,
Susan looked round coyly at the guards, before moving closer to Frank, “What?” She replied quietly,
“Look at those collars!” Frank whispered as he discreetly nodded in the direction of one of the troops beside Susan,
Susan looked over, at the collar, it was a thin black loop that went tightly round the troopers neck, two small green light flashed occasionally on the front, the troop looked over at Susan and smiled. Susan smiled nervously back and looked back over at Frank, “Not sure!” She whispered with a puzzled look on her face,
“Oi!” The guard on Franks right snapped, “I told you two to be quiet!” He said as he pushed his way past Frank and pushed Susan forward, “You stay in front!” He said as he returned to his previous position,
Susan snorted angrily as she stumbled trying to find her feet, Susan trotted forward slowly as she regained her balance and stopped beside Anna, “How you doing?” She whispered,
“Fine you?” Anna replied quietly,
“I’m okay I suppose.” Susan paused as she looked over at the trooper again, “Have you noticed those weird collars?” She added when she was satisfied the trooper wasn’t paying attention,
Anna looked over coyly, “Yes, any idea what they are?”
Susan shrugged her shoulders discreetly.

Frank could feel a strong, gentle breeze on his face, he had previously put this down to some kind of air conditioning, but the breeze was getting stronger, so he suspected there was an opening into the environment coming up, the lake Frank had noticed when the group had been led into the tunnel was now only a few hundred feet away, he was surprised to see that the people he had saw, were children, several dozen children of varying ages and species, they were all playing on the banks of the lake, some were running into the lake to swim, there were also several people sitting on the grass, the breeze was now getting stronger and Frank could see clearly an open door way in the side of the tunnel about twenty feet away,
One of the troops turned his head and looked at Frank, “Hey!” He said quietly,
Frank looked over to him, “Yeah?” He answered cautiously,
“You’re about to meet the boss, be nice to her and she might spare you!” He answered excitedly,
“The boss?” Frank replied curiously,
“Yeah! She knows all!” He said a little louder, “And…”
“Quiet!” The trooper on Franks right said commandingly,
“Sorry sir!” The other trooper answered apologetically,
As the group were led into to the habitat, the wind was blowing gently from the east, and the smell of exotic flowers and slightly damp grass was a very present change from the stale, sterile smell of metal bulkheads and recycled plastic panneling, Frank could now hear the sound of the children playing as strange alien birds soared gracefully over head, to the east stood the large forest the crew had been led past earlier, to the west was a small mountain range that reached deep into the clouds at the top of the dark blue sky, the faint sound of running water was audible above the lapping of the lake’s waves on the banks and the children screaming with delight as they chased the waves beck, before the waves turned and chased them back. The path the crew were being led along started to turn in towards the lake, Frank could see the path followed the curvature of the lake, and away in the distance he could see a small stream that seemed to start in the mountains and gently roll down into the lake.

“Stop!” The guard to Frank’s left yelled,
The party came to a sudden halt, Susan, who was a little distracted watching the children playing, walked into the back of Artok, Susan stumbled backwards, “Sorry!” She said as she regained her balance, Artok made no response other than to growl angrily,
Frank was unsure why they had been stopped, they had walked all the way round the lake and were standing at the far side of the environment, they stood beside a wall that appeared to be made up of solid rock that reached all the way to the top, about fifteen feet up the wall started several rows of windows that seemed to stretch round the distance of the habitat. It was impossible to make out exactly what was behind the windows, although the faint outline of people could be seen every now and then going past one of the windows,
Artok turned to the trooper that had stopped them, “Why have we come here?”
“You’re here to see the boss!” The trooper responded calmly, he stood a little more than six feet tall, he was of human appearance, although it was fairly obvious he wasn’t human, his eyes were slightly larger than normal, but were completely black and there was a line of small brown spots that started on his neck and ran in parallel, but seemingly random order up each side of the head, he was however, wearing one of the collars,
“So where is your boss?” Artok snarled angrily,
The trooper looked over at Artok, “What!” He snapped in a snide, arrogant tone,
“Where is your boss!” Artok repeated angrily, as his face started to turn pink,
The trooper walked over to Artok and stood almost face to face, “That is none of your concern Surt!” He snapped angrily,
Artok growled, “The hell it isn’t!”
Frank sighed, “Shut up Artok!” He said calmly,
“No!” Artok said angrily as he looked down on the troop while puffing out his chest aggressively, “I want to know if they’re going to kill us!”
“Understand this Surt!” He sneered angrily, “The boss wants you alive, but if she gives the word, I’ll personally make sure you have a slow, painful death!” The troop smiled menacingly,
Artok snarled and started to lunge forward, the trooper took a step to the side and pushed the but of his rifle into Artok’s stomach, Artok wheezed slightly as he continued to lunge forward menacingly, the trooper stumbled backwards in shock that Artok was still coming before one of the other troops, who was standing two feet to the side of Artok swung his rifle thumping Artok in the back of the head, Artok growled in pain as he fell quickly and loudly to his knees, the trooper Artok had been arguing with, stepped forward arrogantly and thrust forward with the but of his rifle again, this time making contact with Artok’s face, the trooper stepped forward and aimed the barrel of his gun at Artok,
“No, stop!” Frank yelled as he moved forward,
“See you in hell Surt!” The trooper sneered as his finger mover closer to the trigger, there was a loud buzzing and the trooper dropped his rifle as he fell to his knees yelling in pain and holding his neck,
As Frank moved forward towards Artok, he was pulled back firmly by the guard behind him,
Part of the wall, the group were standing beside, started to open slowly, the rock split in the middle and swung apart, behind it were two metal doors, which swung open revealing a dark lift, there were several darkened figures, “What did I tell you?” A deep, commanding female voice asked from the lift, “I told you I wanted them alive and untouched!” she added as she stepped gracefully from the lift. The woman stood almost seven feet tall, her dark green skin shone like emeralds in the bright, artificial light, she didn’t appear to be wearing any clothing, but she didn’t appear to have any external sex organs, so it probably wasn’t customary for her race to wear clothing. As Frank’s eye’s moved slowly up her body, he was almost hypnotised by her thin physique, her head was long and narrow, her small light green lips pouted out invitingly, and she had a small, thin nose that led perfectly to her large, deep blue eyes, her head, however, kept going beyond her temple, her head arched back gracefully as it extended beyond the back of her head the bone gently turned into a cylinder shape which grew gradually narrower towards the end, the bony extension stretched back almost a foot and a half, and at the end long, black hair flowed gracefully from the hollow and extended down almost to her hips, there were several metallic implants on her elongated skull, as well as a visible implant on her arm. She was flanked by two small strange looking creatures, which had long narrow heads and tiny bodies, they were in small floating chairs, obviously the planet they were from had a far lighter gravity than they were in now. There were also several troops in full tactical body and face armour, standing directly behind was the tall, vicious looking trooper that had executed his colleague earlier in the ship.
Frank looked over at the woman and smiled, “Hi, I’m…”
“You are Frank Hall!” She said as she gently walked over to the group, “One of the highest rated pilots available.” The woman smiled as she turned her head towards the rest of the crew, “And you are Anna Jefferies, a fine captain, Susan Gale, doctor, Veltar Artok, a former Patrol commander now working for Syn-Tek.”
Susan looked up at her, “What about Wilson?” She asked curiously,
“Alan Wilson.” She said calmly as she looked over to the creature who was floating to her right, “He is alive and well, he’s in our infirmary.”
I want to see him!” Susan said in a concerned voice,
“All in good time my dear, I’m fascinated by the Retinulians, I just want to run a few test’s on him to see what he’s had modified!” She said as she walked gracefully over to the trooper, who was still writhing in agony on the grass, “You’re probably wondering why you’re still alive.”
“It had crossed my mind!” Anna said sarcastically,
“Let me start by introducing myself!” She said looking up at Anna, “I’m Senqual, I’m the leader of the Central Alliance!” She paused and looked down at the trooper, “It’s such a shame!” She said in a sad voice as she leaned down and touched his face “He was doing so well!” As she stood up her expression changed to an aggressive look, the troop jarred and constricted before he stopped moving altogether. Senqual looked over at the guards,
Susan gasped as she moved forward to try and get to the trooper, the guards suddenly leapt into action and before she could get to the body they had started to drag the body away,
Senqual smiled, “Don’t bother! He’s dead!” She said in a deep reassuring voice,
“But why?” Susan said sadly as she stepped back towards Frank,
Senqual frowned angrily, “Because he didn’t listen to what I said!” Senqual paused as she calmed down, “Now how are you?” She asked as she bent down and put her hand on Artok, who was starting to regain conscious,
“Who are you?” Artok stammered as he struggled to his feet,
“I’m Senqual, I’m your new boss.” Senqual stood up and stepped back from Artok, “You see, I don’t believe in killing my prisoners, I find they’re more use to me alive!”
“You mean we’re going to be your slaves!” Frank stated angrily,
“By no means Frank!” Senqual replied looking over at Frank, “You will simply come and work for me!”
“And if we refuse!” Anna asked curiously,
Senqual made a quiet sniggering sound, “You say that like you’ve got a choice my dear!”
“So we’re slaves!” Frank added,
Senqual scowled at Frank, “Fine!” She said angrily, “If you want to be a slave, you can be a slave, but you’ll also be treated like a slave!”
Susan looked back at Frank and scowled at him, “And if we go along with you willingly?” She asked as she turned back to Senqual
“Well then.” Senqual said calmly, “You will be treated like a member of my crew. In exchange for sparing your lives, I expect two years loyal service.”
“And what’s to stop us from escaping?” Artok groaned as he clambered back to his feet,
“You won’t!” Senqual said confidently as she touched Artok’s face with her long thin fingers,
Artok sneered, “What makes you so sure?”
Senqual looked over to the trooper to Artok’s left, the trooper walked over quickly and stood to attention beside her, “This is a collar!” She said fondling the collar that was attached the trooper’s neck, “For two years you will wear one of these night and day, if you try to escape, the collar will send a strong electric pulse into your brain slowly cooking it. If you disobey me, you will die.”
“What happens after two years?” Frank asked curiously,
“You’re free to leave!” Senqual said happily,
“Really?” Susan asked in a suppressed voice,
“Yes dear! Really, just because you consider me a blood thirsty pirate doesn’t mean I can’t look after my people.” Senqual pushed the trooper away as the tall trooper that had been lurking closely behind her moved forward, “This is General Poltious.” Senqual paused as she looked at the General affectionately, “He’s been with me for ten years. He’s in charge of the troopers.”
The General walked forward and snarled menacingly at the crew, he was tall, although not nearly as tall as Senqual, but he still stood approximately six foot six, he was dressed in the same black body armour as the rest of the troops, the only difference was that he had four small metallic studs on the collar that peeked over the edge of the armour, “We’ve already met.” He said in the same deep, angry voice he had earlier,
“Most of our guests, decide to stay with us!” Senqual said proudly, “I’m sure you will too, it’s rare personnel of your quality simply float into our possession!” She said smiling at the crew, “Do you like our home?” She added,
“It’s incredible!” Anna said coyly, “How did you manage it?”
“This isn’t exactly a ship!” She said proudly, “We built this on a large asteroid, the thermals from the core power the ships internal systems, and we can extract ore from the core if we need it, but, we get most of our scrap and replacement parts from ships we, salvage” Senqual paused as she looked around the habitat, “There are one hundred decks, ranging from crew quarters to science and medical labs, the ship can only move slowly, so we tend to slip between asteroid fields, searching for ship’s who are trespassing on our territory.”
Frank looked confused, “The ship obviously can’t move quickly, how do you catch the ships?” Frank paused, “After all we would’ve escaped if we hadn’t encountered a severe engineering problem!”
Senqual scowled at Frank for interrupting her in full flow, “We have a squad of very well equipped fighters, your ship wouldn’t have got far, trust me!” Senqual sneered, “This is one of about a dozen habitats on board, this was specially built for the humans, who, as you can see have not only decided to stay, but have made a better life for themselves here than they ever would of, some have even had miniature humans with each other, I’ve always been fascinated with the small creatures your species produce, so playful, but you have an incredible taste for death and destruction.” Senqual smiled at the children, who were all now waving at her from the other side of the lake, “It’s not exactly my taste but you humans, and some of the other humanoid’s like it, there are other habitats which you’re more than welcome to explore. Initially you will be required to stay in shared bunks, but if you behave we will move you to your own quarters, so as you can tell, it pays to be co-operative.”
Artok, who had now recovered most of his senses stepped forward, “As nice as that sounds I would like to refuse!”
Susan gasped and put her hand on Artok’s shoulder, “Ignore him, he’s a little dazed from being unconscious!”
Artok growled as he removed her hand, “I work for Syn-Tek!”
Senqual’s expression changed and she now looked very angry, “I know who you are, and who you work for! In fact I know you better than you would like to know!” She sneered, “Now unless you would like the General here to flush you out an air lock, I suggest you be quiet and listen to me!”
“Please let me speak!” Artok persisted,
“Didn’t you hear your queen!” The General shouted angrily and he grabbed Artok by the throat with his large, thick hand, and lifted him two inches off the ground,
Senqual smiled, “General, I think we should let him speak!”
The General looked surprised as he released Artok, who took a deep gasp, and stepped back in line with Senqual,
“I work for Syn-Tek.” Artok started, “We represent a series of miners in the Seltar system.” Artok paused, “The cargo we have is very valuable!”
“I worked that out! It’s not very often that three patrol ships follow a small class three freighter into my space, tell me what’s in the cargo bay?” Senqual asked angrily,
“I can’t tell you that!” Artok paused, “I am willing to offer you….”
The General sneered, “You’re in no position to offer Surt!”
Senqual raised her hand in front of the General, “Let him speak, it could be interesting!”
Artok coughed nervously, “Well, in the smaller bays we made out of the living quarters there are five crates of weapons, ranging from small arms to larger pulse rifles, there are also two crates of plasma power rods.”
“I told you he was a liar!” Frank snapped angrily at Artok,
“I am willing to give you the crates!” Artok said calmly, ignoring Franks comments,
Senqual laughed, “I’m going to take them any way!” She said in a confused voice,
“I am also willing to offer you half a million credits on behalf of my company!” Artok said calmly as he folded his arms confidently,
“Half a million!” Senqual said in a mock impressed voice,
“Yes half a million!” Artok replied,
“I don’t need you’re money! How ever, I am interested in what’s in the bay now!” Senqual said coyly,
“Just take the cash and let us go!” Artok snapped nervously,
“And how will I know you’ll pay us?” Senqual asked curiously,
“I promise!” Artok said honestly,
“You promise?” The General said sarcastically, “A Surt’s word isn’t worth much!”
Artok growled, “It’s the best I can do, you just can’t have the merchandise in the cargo bay!”
“I’ll do you a deal!” Senqual said calmly as she walked up close to Artok, “We can’t get into the cargo bay right now because of the electronic lock.” Senqual paused, “Don’t worry, because we will get in soon, but it would be nice of you to tell us the pass code, then, if we don’t need the merchandise in the cargo bay, I’ll accept your offer, how about that?”
Artok strained his neck as he looked up at her, “Not acceptable, you can’t open the cargo bay!” Senqual shook her head in aggravation, “I can do what ever I feel like! Tell me the code!” “No!” Artok responded immediately, “Fine!” Senqual said as she raised her hand and summoned the guards over, “Take them to the brig, I’ll call for them later!” Senqual turned and walked back over to her life, the crew were pushed away back towards the tunnel at the far side of the habitat, Senqual turned as she was entering the lift, “I’m sure you’ll be very happy here!” she sneered as the doors slid shut.